October Pics

I'm doing really well staying on top of posting monthly pictures. Not.

Here are some from October. 

I think I posted this book last month, but it's still a favorite. 

She loves sneaking to the front door to get our shoes. When I go to get her she likes to speed up even faster and hurries to stick the shoe in her mouth.

My attempt at a mommy-daughter selfie. I obviously couldn't get it to focus on us.

We had General Conference and our neighbor's daughter brought over a "Conference Crown" for Ellie.

So sweet. 

This is still one of her favorite things to do. Stand at the window and watch for Jolie.

This is also still a fun game to play. She likes to grab the straw and put it in my mouth for me. She has since learned to suck water out of a straw so now she lets me suck for .2 seconds before she puts it in her own mouth and then gives it back to me for a few more milliseconds and continues this back and forth. My favorite is when she pulls it from me while I'm sucking and she gets splashed with water.

Pulling diapers out is a fun game too. And I don't mind it one bit. It keeps her occupied for awhile since it takes some time for her to reach up to get them and it's easy to clean up.

These pictures crack me up. I was going through them with James and we were laughing so hard. I got a new flash to help with some of my indoor pictures since it gets pretty cold around these parts and the clouds limit the amount of natural light that comes inside. Anyways, I was playing around with the settings and Ellie was putting on a show-obviously!

This side by side, below, is a reenactment of an article I found. They used to drape fabric over the parent so the picture ended up being just a portrait of the kid(s). They parent had to be there to keep them still since the shutter speed was so slow it ensured a less blurry picture. Makes me laugh. Why not just take a family picture?

Lastly, Fall sure is pretty in October.

11 months

Alright. Every month I say how I'm sad that Ellie is growing up and is getting closer to not being a baby anymore. Well, not this month. Nope, I'm not sad at all. I'm actually distraught!!!! Just kidding. But really, it's breaking my heart that in these short 11 months she's gone from a baby who sleeps 22 hours at only a day old to a baby who is so much more human like (you know what I mean?).  Just blows my mind.

Anyways. Ellie is 11 months old today. She is so stinking smart. Learns new things everyday. She had one rough week of sleep the past month but still sleeps great. In fact,  I think the rough week of sleep was from a tooth, but it's so hard to tell with her as she really shows no other signs other than I can visibly see a tooth surfacing. She loves to play. She is really enjoying books more and more. Getting chased around the house is such great fun for her. Playing "Where's Ellie?" behind blankets and shower curtains brings her much laughter as well.

She is pretty sneaky about finding things on the floor, but when I catch her she either hands it to me like "Here mom I was getting this for you" or puts it in her mouth real quick. Makes me laugh every time. I let her move around the house as she wants, but I'm never far behind getting her out of a room or removing things from her hand. The other day she made it down the hall into the back bedroom where the smoke detector was on the ground (needed a battery) but she was touching it and I walked in and it startled her. She did that "quick hide it" move you do when you know you aren't supposed to be doing something. That must be an innate reaction because it's not like she learned that from anywhere.

 I'm loving her eyes a lot lately. 

 This is her "grinding teeth" smile. Lately she's been doing some silly smiles and one is with her teeth clenched or grinding a little. She's just playing with those silly things growing in her mouth.

 This is her contagious smile.

This is her screeching in excitement! She's loud too. 

With everything going on in her mouth, sticking her tongue out is something new too.

 Does it resemble anyone to you? 

Just kidding! 

Church Outfit

Ellie doesn't normally wear dresses during the week, so when Sunday comes around I get excited to dress her up. This outfit is one of my new favorites. She looked so cute and wore it well! We got many compliments at church about how cute she was.
Speaking of church, Ellie has really developed such a terrific personality. She is always smiling and interacting with others around her. In fact, during sacrament I usually just give her her paci. Otherwise, she'd be talking and doing her babbling excited scream to everyone in her view. She is quite entertaining.
When we do see people either at church or out and about, she waves and points and babbles at them. They love it and are usually so impressed by her awareness. We love it! She makes life fun!
 She sure does melt our hearts.

These last two pictures. Sigh. Daddy is making her excited and she just wants to, so badly, take a step towards him. But she let go and crawled instead. She has only stood on her own less than a handful of times and only for 1-2 seconds. I'm sure it will be soon and that makes me sad. Standing leads to walking and walking means my baby is that much closer to not being a "baby" anymore. 

Halloween 2013

We did a lot this Halloween. 

First: I was determined to host a Halloween party which ended up being a lot of fun. Everyone came in a costume which always makes it more fun. Andrea and Brandon showed up first so I handed them the camera to make sure we got a picture in our costumes. 

Then I took some of Andrea's Family

Then Melissa, Tyler and Nathan showed up so we grabbed a quick picture of the kids and dads. Nathan wasn't so sure about James' net.
Nathan: 23months, Ellie: 10months, Phoebe: 15months

Inside we decorated a little for the party. We put a web around our ceiling. I put paper bats on the wall. And we had a few other regular decorations around the house as well.

I had out a few games for the older kids. Unfortunately, my neighbor (with 5 of the older kids) became ill and they were nice enough to not contaminate us (but I was told that there were a few tears shed by one of the kids knowing she couldn't come. Sad) . So only 2 kids played with them. But that's alright. I still need toilet paper and James and I actually like playing that Toss Across game.

This was the food area. The stuff I made ended up on the left and the things everyone else brought on the right.

 (pic stolen from Alyssa's facebook)

 (pics stolen from Andrea's facebook)

There were also a few other treats made too.

 James and I got some hand-me down toys from a guy at work which were perfect for the kids.

 The dads played with the kids outside. 

And the moms chatted inside. 

Lastly, I bought doughnuts to play a game. Everyone was full, but I didn't buy doughnuts for nothing so we all went outside. None of the girls ate their doughnut without it falling but James won for the boys (not surprised). He said he learned what not to do after we went. He's always thinking.

It was fun. Glad I did it! Thanks for coming everyone.

Second: There is a new outdoor mall that has had Grand Opening activities all week. One of which was "Classic Cars Trunk or Treat." It was kind of a joke. It started at 6 so I thought we should get there right at 6. But holy cow was it crowded. James and I couldn't even turn into the place without waiting forever so we made a detour. The line to stand in to go trunk-or-treating was so long it was insane! I was not expecting that many people, that's for sure. We went with Melissa and Tyler.

This is her "Hmm, what's that?" look.

I bought this Watermelon costume for Ellie before she was born. It was so cute on her. I sort of wish I just used it as her main costume (even though I loved our bees) but it's ok another kid can wear it in the future I suppose.

After all that trouble to get there we decided to get the kids pictures taken at this free green screen set up thing.

Notice anything with Ellie? Ya, she was wearing green!

Made for a good story!

Third: Halloween Day

She was not holding still for this picture so I tried to distract her with Elmo. That only made it worse haha. But cute because she thinks Tickle Me Elmo is funny! (I found him in his original box at the thrift store for $3).

We went to the neighborhood we went to last year. Our old ward does some fun things in the neighborhood and we wanted to see some old friends. It was a good decision. We had fun. 

Ellie's first door! She might be too little to Trick-or-Treat, but not too little to get candy for her momma.

This is an older neighborhood and a lot of the home owners are older. When James, Ellie and I went up to a door together people thought we were so cute. Haha.

Ellie didn't last too long. It was cold too. But we had fun. Excited for next year!

Funny Story: On Halloween day I was running errands and I had to go to Ulta. I had a question and one of the stylists came to help me. She was dressed up like the cat from Alice in Wonderland. Her mouth was painted really big and I was just about to say, "It's so hard to take you serious when you look like that," but before I got the words out Ellie started crying and her crying got loud. The lady had to talk to me with her hand over her mouth. And as we moved around the store she'd forget to put her hand back and Ellie would start crying again. I was trying to laugh because I kind of felt like crying for some reason. The lady felt so bad. As I walked away to pay, I could hear everyone laughing about it. It was funny, but sad that my baby was scared. 

Woah! Long post. Hope you had a good Halloween too!