Is it seriously October already??? Where did the summer go? It has been a busy summer for us, but now we are in the slow time of fall, so I thought it was a good time for a blg update!

Let's back up to Labor Day weekend......Aunt Kelli came to visit and Ella was ecstatic to spend some time with her! We went up to visit my parents, and of course got suckered into doing yard work :)

Ella was a huge help, she picked apples.....


and helped pick corn from the garden. Brandon and my dad had the unfortunate job of ripping the stalks out the ground.


She was a pro at taking the corn we put in the grass and putting it into the bins.


Here she is taking a much needed rest.


The next day we had my parents and Brandon's parents over for a cook out. Ella was super cute and happy in her pig tails!


Hangin with mom


and aunt Kelli


This was her favorite place to be that day....in the back of the car. She is a strange kid! :)


It was a great weekend and so wonderful to see my sister!! I miss her way too much!!!!

Ella is 18 months......

Well, actually she is almost 20 months, but I of course am behind on my blog. Shocking, I know. Anyways....Ella is 18 months. She is talking so much and is very inquisitive. She has caught on to the talking thing incredbily fast and it is like having a parrott in the house. She repeats anything we say, so of course Brandon and I have to watch what our language! No catastrophies so far, but it is only a matter of time. She is developing quite the personality and is so funny, her favorite saying right now is "ah man". Too cute!

She is also really smart (I know, I sounds like a bragging mom, but she really is smart). She can count to 10, she knows all her basic colors, she knows and can name her family members (nana, papa, auntie, uncle and her cousins), knows and can name her body parts, and is a complete wiz at puzzles (just like her mom and grandma). She knows and can identify zoo animals, barnyard animals and pets and tell me what sounds they make :) We are working on shapes now, and so far she knows circle, star and heart. She still loves to read books. She is like a sponge, soaking in everything she can! I cannot believe how quickly she is learning.

She absolutely loves music and loves dancing. She loves to be outside whenever possible. She is a complete mama's girl, and she is very much MY daughter! She gets very excited when I ask if she wants to go shopping, and is obsessed with shoes!

She is still very small for her age, weighing only 22 pounds and standing only 31 inches tall. She is in the 25% for both of those catagories.

It has been quite hot most of the summer, so she enjoys running around in just her diaper!



She is quite the fashion plate and insists on picking out her clothes and shoes. This is one of her picks.....she is in love with this tutu!



She is still a ham for the camera, and loves to be the center of attention.





She is a copy cat.





She is a fish and loves to swim. Grandma Jan and Grandpa Dave have a swimming pool at their house and we have been there several times already this summer, but we also bought a pool for her at our house, she loves to splash around in it!







In the past month or so, she has started pushing her limits and testing Brandon and I. She listens pretty well, but she has had a time out already! Usually if we tell her she's being naughty, she repeats the word naughty over and over again until we can't help but smile at her!

Sorry to be the bragging mom, but I am so proud of how she is developing! More posts to come about all our summer fun so far, I promise!!

Bubbles Bubbles Everywhere

Ella loves to be outside. We bought her a few new toys to play with outside including a few balls, a pool, sidewalk chalk and bubbles. Turns out, the bubbles are her favorite (though she hasn't been in the pool yet....) She calls them "bubbies" and everytime we go outside she goes to the closet where we keep the bubbles and says "bubbies" over and over until I get them out.

She likes to chase them and pop them, and gets mad when they get away from her and pop on the ground.





She is actually quite good at blowing them herself too, though it took some practice and explaining that she did not have to touch her lips to the bubble wand.



She got to play "bubbies" with her godmother Steph, but she had to share the chasing with Steph's puppy Brauny, and she was not a fan of that one bit!







I am so happy that she enjoys being outside, now that the weather is nice that is pretty much all we do!!

A few weeks ago, Ella found it her duty to rid our yard of dandelions. She spent about 1/2 hour going back and forth between the yard and the front walk (where I was sitting) picking one dandelion at a time, adding them to one big pile.





She was so proud of herself, look at that smile!!

A day at the Children's Museum

A new Children's Museum opened up in town last fall, and now that Ella is walking and running I finally took her over to play and explore. She LOVED it! So, when aunt Kelli came to visit, we took her over there to play with Ella for the morning. Here are some pics from the museum.

























We have gone to the museum several times, and every time Ella has such a blast. It is nice to have a place to go where she can run around and still be safe. They have so many great "exhibits" that are fun, yet teach the kids about a lot of different things.

Another month!!

Another month has passed and I am still not up to date on my blog! It is unbelievable how busy I can get and how quickly a month flies by! Well, I will pick up where I last left off, which brings us to Easter.

We dyed eggs, Ella was more helpful this year than she was last year, but with her helpfulness came curiosity. She liked to hold onto the eggs.....



but also thought it would be fun to put her hand right into the dye. That was a mistake I did not make twice, she didn't get near that dye again!!







Ella was so excited when she saw her Easter basket on Easter morning



but then ignored it when she saw the "big" gift sitting next to her basket.



She did eventually get back to the basket, but when she only found clothes and books in there



it was back to the toys....



Here she is in her Easter dress, she loved wearing a dress and running around in her pretty pink shoes.



We had a great and fun Easter with both my parents and sister and Brandon's parents as well. I hosted again this year, and it gets easier each time I do it! Another update coming soon!! It won't be a month before I am on here again with a new post!

So it has been almost 3 months since my last post and I have a lot of ground to cover! We went to Iowa to visit my sister at the end of February. It was the first time we visited her and we had so much fun! Ella was soooooo excited to see aunt Kelli.





This was the face of the weekend, every 5 minutes she would make this face. Good thing it was so cute!!



Aunt Kelli's house has something our house does not.....stairs! Ella played on the stairs basically all weekend and she loved it!









Ella wasn't able to do the walking on the knees thing at Aunt Kelli's because she has carpet, so Ella started walking all the time instead. She hasn't looked back, it has been all walking since then!



She's so proud of herself.....



Aunt Kelli introduced her to the flying laundry basket, and of course everytime we see a laundry basket now she has to climb into it.





Just chillin on the stairs....



I have no idea what she is doing here, but she is to cute!



The weekend was so fun, and it was great to finally visit my sister in Iowa. It is a long drive, but totally worth it.