Christmas Preparations

We have really enjoyed anticipating Christmas this year.  From decorating, to baking cookies, making a ridiculuous amount of caramel corn that didn't really turn out, watching our neighborhood boat show, drinking lots of hot cocoa, watching tons of Christmas movies, teaching Luke about the story of Jesus' birth, and buying and wrapping presents, we have had so much fun!  It has been so great to create our own family traditions this year and we look forward to making memories that we will cherish forever.  Now, just five days until the big day, we are looking forward to spending time with family and celebrating the birth of Jesus!

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family!!! We love you!

6 months and on the go!

Last week our dear sweet Ella turned 6 months old.  The night before she hit this milestone, she decided it was time to crawl!  That's right, we're in trouble now!  Well, Luke is anyway.  His world has been completely rocked as little sister can now get into anything she wants!  This has been challenging for him, but very very good for him.  Little Lukester is not the best sharer in the world, and now he has to practice this on a daily, hourly basis.  So...it's been fun for mama too! 

Ella is still our social butterfly, but she's recently been pretty attached to her mama.  She is now in the stage of stranger anxiety, but we are trying to make her more brave by passing her around as much as we can.  So far, it's not working out so good.  I guess I should cherish these days before she turns into a 12 year old who is embarrassed of me, right?

We started rice cereal with Ella last month and she has now graduated to green beans and sweet potatoes.  When she first had the rice cereal, it seemed she couldn't get enough of it.  She even managed to sleep through the night (miracle!) the first night she had it.  Now, she doesn't seem to like eating much at all unless she is nursing.  I spoke with the doctor about this at her 6 month check up and she thinks Ella might have acid reflux.  She does spit up very frequently, so we put her on medication.  Hopefully this will help ease her swallowing and stop the spitting up! 

Our little girl is so much happier now that she is mobile.  She was getting pretty frustrated there for a while.  At five months, she learned how to roll from her tummy to her back and to sit up on her own.  This allowed her to sit and play with toys independently.  Now that she can crawl, she can also go to the sitting position whenever she wants.  Yeah!

Beautiful little Ella is growing nicely.  She weighed 17 lbs, 9.5 oz. at her check up this week and was 27 3/4 inches.  She is not gaining weight as rapidly as she was at first, but her length/height continues to soar at the top of the charts!  She is going to be tall like her daddy and his family!  We joke that she will probably end up being a tall version of me, as she is my little mini-me.  When we compare my baby pictures with Ella, the resemblance is amazing!  The only difference is that crazy hair of hers.  I was a baldy like Luke! 

Right now little Ella is pretty sick.  Luke had a virus this week and had croup, which she now has as well.  It is no fun!  Hopefully she will get better really quick and back to her old happy self!

Thanks for checking in! We hope everyone is having a blessed Christmas season!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  We are so thankful for two beautiful, happy and healthy kids.  We are also thankful for all the support from our family and friends.  Looking forward to a great Christmas season!

Ella and Dylan~the two girl cousins

Eric and Luke~partners in crime :)

Luke with Aunt Laura

Kevin and his mom

Melissa and Brian

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Halloween

This Halloween we had a little tiger and ballerina in our house! Check them out!

October Celebrations

On Tuesday Ella will be 5 months old.  I simply can't believe it!  She is such a sweet little thing and makes us laugh and smile all day long!  She loves to play rough, with lots of kisses and tossing about.  Ella demands attention, but in a good way.  First, she'll use her big brown eyes to will you to talk and play with her.  Then she'll babble, blow raspberries, and coo at you.  If that doesn't do the trick she takes to making a high pitched squeal that says "play with me, talk to me, hello!"  She loves it when Luke talks to her, especially in the car.  He tells her where we're going and asks her if she's excited.  He always squints his eyes, gives her big smiles, and shakes his head back and forth when he talks to her with and exaggerated expressive voice.  It's priceless.

This month we had lots of celebrations, including my birthday, Uncle Dave's birthday, and still to come Nana's birthday and Halloween.  The most precious celebration to us, though, was when we dedicated Ella to God on October 18th.  We were so blessed to have tons of family and friends in attendance with us and there to support Ella.  She was dressed up like a little church lady :) and loved the attention.  She really liked Pastor Jeff and did pretty well throughout the prayer.  She's been a little funny about non-mama or dada people holding her, but hung in there the best she could!  We are so thankful to have family and friends who love and support our girl and we can't wait to see her grow up and learn about Jesus and His love for her. 

Here are some pictures of the dedication and birthdays.  Enjoy!

We didn't make her wear the coat to church as it was 100 degrees outside.

Manns, Brannans, and Ellisons

Uncle Dave, Briggs, Luke and Ella

Kevin gave Briggs a haircut

Eric and Luke

October birthdays!

Luke and Dylan

Ella...the cutest pumpkin!

Some new pictures!

Liam licking Ella's arm at Mom's Group....her eyes say it all!

Luke and Ali at the Children's Museum. We have an annual pass now so we'll be going back often!

Ali and Ella.  Go Dodgers!

Luke loved the balls and contraptions at the museum!

Playtime with Dada!

Mama loves this one!

PJ time!

Monroe, Dwight, Luke and Briggs at the zoo, checking out the turtles!

Auntie Nessa taking the boys to see the monkeys

That's a lot of kiddos for our little group!

Sweet as cherries!

Luke likes to drink the milk after he eats his cereal.  So cute!

Getting goofy with the Mr. Potato Head set

Ella fell asleep right in the middle of the floor. She is finding it comfy to sleep on her tummy!