Such a cutie patootie!

Ella's Baptism

We finally had Ella baptised last Sunday. This was Ella's first time in church and it was actually the first time I had been in quite a while. As for out-of-towners, Erik's parents came up from South Carolina and my cousin Renee came from Nevada. We were so happy to have been able to share this special occasion with our family. My aunt and uncle offered to let Ella wear Renee's dress when she was baptised. It was such a nice gesture and it was special because it was handmade and was worn by my cousin over 23 years ago. Ella looked so cute all dressed up and she did really well. After the baptism we had lunch at our house. It made for a long day but it was worth it!

Ella's First Halloween

Here are some pictures of Ella in her Halloween costume. She made a super cute lamb!

Mommy's Under My Spell (and Daddy Too!)

We're counting down to Ella's first Halloween. We can't wait to dress her up in her lamb costume and bring her to a few houses in our neighborhood. This will be one of many "firsts" yet to come.

A few new developments...Ella is now waving with her hands when you say hi. It's so sweet. Ella's third word (besides hi and daddy) was officially mommy a few weeks back and boy did it melt my heart. She still mostly says da da and daddy but that's ok with us. Ella is also starting to scoot backwards and is making every effort to crawl but is not exactly there yet. On Friday she came down with a small cold (runny nose and congestion) but seems to be doing better now. I've kept the vaporizer running in her room so I'm sure that's helped. She had the flu shot and swine flu shot a few weeks ago and we have her 9 month checkup this week. We can't wait to see how much she's grown. I'll be sure to post her stats. She is barely squeezing into her 12 month clothes and it's definitely time to go shopping for some size 18 months.

We will be making an appointment very soon for her Christmas portrait. We want to get in before the holiday rush.

The Prettiest Flower

Mommy and Ella played dress up this morning! I just couldn't resist!!!

Our Little Pumpkin

Daddy, Ella, and I went for a hayride and pumpkin picking over the weekend. Ella was great and she really enjoyed herself. The weather was a bit brisk so we bundled her up. Here are some pictures from our outing. It's going to be so much fun getting Ella all dressed up for her first Halloween. We bought two costumes - we couldn't help ourselves. Once we figure out which one is a keeper we'll go ahead and return the other one. I know which one is my favorite but we'll have to wait and see.

Happy birthday cousin Madison

Last Sunday, we spent the day celebrating Madison's second birthday. Happy birthday Madison!


The girls playing. Madison is pushing Ella in the car.


Having a blast in Madison's car.