Christmas 2011

I love Christmas! Everything about it! I love the lights, the music, the time with family, the food, everything. And having a fun little toddler to share it with makes it even better.

We spent Christmas Eve with my parents having our traditional Christmas Eve feast. We were lucky to have my uncle Gary join us this year. We then opened presents since everyone was going to be running around like crazy on Christmas Day. Ella loved her presents and we were ridiculously spoiled!

We then headed up to open our Christmas Eve jammies. Ella had to examine her polar bear toes. And of course she's got Minnie with her.

Christmas Eve photo in front of the tree. All Christmas season Ella loved playing with the presents. She didn't try to open them but she loved to carry the light ones around the house and use the others and chairs and climbing blocks.

Christmas morning! Santa came! We were busy getting the first reaction on the video camera so I didn't get too many pictures. It was great though. Ella came around the corner and saw all of these new toys, let out a little yell of delight, dropped her Minnie and sippy cup and run to check out the goods.

She loves her new Mickey Mouse couch.

Opening some of her other presents from mom and dad. Ella loves kicking balls and is actually really good so Danny got her her first real soccer ball. World cup here we come.

She also got some new babies with a stroller, high chair and crib. She is so cute with her babies. She loves them so much. She pushes them around the house in the stroller, puts them in the high chair and feeds them (while making the sound effects), lays them in there bed and covers them (face and all) with blankets.

After our fun Christmas morning as a family, we went to the Hafen's for breakfast and more presents. So fun. We then went to church with them which was a nice break to the day. It was nice to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas.

After church we went to my Grandma's house in Provo for her big Christmas day dinner. Then back up to Layton to see Danny's grandma. (See I told you we ran around like crazy all day.) It was fun and we love spending time with our families and seeing everyone!

december 2011

We had a great time celebrating the holidays last month.

Ella absolutely loved having the Christmas decorations set up. She quickly learned who Santa was and would walk up to her Santa ornament or Santa Christmas stocking and say "ho, ho, ho" in a really deep voice. She also loved having the lights on on the tree and mantle. When she'd wake up she'd walk over to each and point at them so I'd turn them on.

We decided to take Ella to see Santa. As you can see she wasn't quite as big of a fan of him in person. She prefers the inanimate object version of the big guy.

We also took the traditional trip to Temple Square to see the lights. This year we went with my family as part of my mom's birthday celebration.

I bundled Ella up with as many layers as I possibly could. The poor girl could barely move but I think she stayed fairly warm.

The whole Spiers clan.

My little family.

I give myself about a "C-" on taking pictures the rest of December (well except for Christmas day which will be a separate post). Ella does so many funny things each day that I really need to be better at getting pictures of.

One of her favorite things is to go into the pantry and pull out the cans. I have a picture of me at her age doing the exact thing. 

She is SO observant at this age. She sees us doing something just once and she imitates us. I had a cold for a couple of days and was constantly blowing my nose. So Ella would get a tissue, hold it up to her face, blow through her mouth and then throw the tissue in the garbage.

The next couple of pics are some randoms from my phone.

We hung out with some friends and took the kids to Boondocks. Ella had a blast. She loved running up to all the games and just pushing the green button. We could have gotten away without even buying any tickets!

This was taken after Christmas sitting in her new favorite spot...her Mickey Mouse couch. She is enjoying licking the frosting spoon and watching Mickey Mouse clubhouse...bedhead and all!

Another post Christmas pic. Her Grandma and Grandpa Hafen gave her a Cozy Coupe for Christmas. Here's her first car crash. Danny came upon the scene first and thought to grab the camera before rescuing poor Ella.

And finally a picture that would make Grandpa Spiers proud. Ella was "helping" me make her lunch and got excited about the peanut butter. She decided to not wait for the sandwich and just stick her face in for a taste. (I just noticed that in all of these pictures she is in her jammies with crazy hair - I promise I do get her dressed and comb her hair daily.)

A couple of other things that I just love and want to document:

• She is great at folding her arms for prayer. We read scriptures together as a family at breakfast and then have a family prayer before Danny leaves for work. Without fail, as soon as we're done reading Ella automatically folds her arms. And then at the end she says her cute version of "amen." Love it.
• She loves singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and attempts to do the little motions. 
• She loves her babies and is a good little mommy. She gives them their binkies and bottles and smothers them in blankets. Sometimes thought, she wants to be the baby and will put in a fake binky or suck on the toy bottle and walk around and do a pretend cry. 
• She's getting good at animal sounds and can identify and make the noises of dogs, cats, horses, elephants and anything that roars. 
• She still loves to "decide" by saying "ummm" while tapping her chin.
• She's a little tease and absolutely loves to make people laugh. There are times when we'll be sitting together and I'll give her a little look and we'll catch each other's eye and she'll just bust out laughing. This is one of my favorite things. She's my little buddy.
• She gives great hugs. Sometime if I'm sitting on the ground she'll come up behind me, put her arms around my back and hug tight and then start rubbing my back. 
• She's our little neat freak. She really doesn't like things to be messy (just like me) and is really good about putting her toys away in the right bins when we're done playing. In fact, in sacrament meeting she'll sometimes go to other families and pick up the toys off the floor and hand them to the moms. Just keeping things neat.

We're having a great time with our little toddler. She keeps us on our toes and laughing every day. I love being a mom and spending my days with her. It's not always easy and some days are exhausting but I wouldn't trade it for anything!

november 2011

Another month has flown by. I seriously can't believe we are already into December!

Ella is as cute as ever. She's in full blown toddler mode. She has such a huge personality in such a tiny little body. We had her 15 month check up and she is still at the bottom (under 5%) in weight but she shot up in height and is now in the 80%! I thought it seemed like she could suddenly reach a lot more.

I was a total slacker in taking pictures this month. Ella does so many cute things every day and has so many funny little mannerisms that I really need to be catching. She literally makes me laugh out loud on a daily basis. 

Ella has discovered a new love in life. The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She loves it! I know I mentioned it last month but the last few weeks she has become obsessed. As soon as the song comes on she dances around the house and points and laughs. I know she shouldn't be watching TV but she does. Don't judge.

So naturally her other love is Minnie Mouse. She loves Minnie. This doll was supposed to be a Christmas present but we couldn't wait to give it to her. She loves to carry Minnie around, share her sippy with her, feed her and hug kiss her. And by the way, according to Ella, Minnie eats through her nose.

Then when we were at Danny's parents she found Jill's old Minnie doll so now she likes to carry around two Minnies. What a lucky girl.

Another one of her favorite things is babies. I'm having so much fun with this age and her interest in all of the fun little girly toys. She loves playing with this dollhouse and her favorite is the tiny baby. She puts her in the stroller and pushes it around and in the little high chair and then makes eating noises for her. It's so fun.

She also has fun riding in this little car. We usually take at least one ride in it a day to the mailbox. She loves holding on to the steering wheel and waving at the cars as they pass.

This year for Thanksgiving we went to my Grandma Cook's house. I have many little cousins and Ella has never really been around that many kids at once. We put her at the kid table and she sat wide-eyed and watched the chaos around her.

She has become an extremely picky eater. She usually picks one thing at each meal that she'll eat. I think on Thanksgiving that lucky thing was peas. Not rolls, not potatoes and gravy, just peas. She does this every time we eat. Another example is I made a cheesy spinach pasta and she would only pick out and eat the spinach. Not the cheese or pasta. Strange child.

After dinner her and Grandpa Spiers (my dad) went outside to play a little soccer. Ella absolutely loves kicking and throwing balls.

A few more things:

• Ella loves to go through the pantry to decide what to eat. She puts her pointer finger up to her mouth and says "ummm" while looking at her choices. 
• She is learning more and more words. She currently says "mom" "dad" "hi" "hot" "gross" and "baby." You can tell she's my daughter since "gross" is one of her first words. And she knows what it means. She walks around the house picking up little specks of crumbs, says "gross" and then throws them in the garbage. 
• She still loves to clean. If I need to keep her busy while I make dinner or something, I just give her a wet washcloth and she goes crazy. She'll wipe down the floor, the cabinets, the couches, her toys, basically anything that is holding still. I love it.
• She loves to talk on the phone and will pretend anything is a phone. Once she gets one she walks around the house holding the phone with her shoulder and waving her arms, jabbering away, pausing for a minute and then laughing. I wonder where she learned that from.
• She also loves to give kisses. She kisses us, her toys, babies and anything else she sees that she thinks needs a kiss. She has even started making the "mwah" noise when she gives one.

She is such a fun girl to be around. We love her so much and are so happy she is in our little family. 

halloween 2011

I can't believe we are already celebrating holidays for the second time with Ella. We had so much fun with Ella last year and this year was even better experiencing all the festivities through her eyes.

Our adorable little duckie... 

 blowing kisses...

 waving to her adoring fans...

We wanted to do something fun and Halloweenish but not too scary so a few days before Halloween we went up to the Treehouse Museum Spooky Woods that was for kids 1-5. Ella had fun strutting her stuff as a duck with her squeaky boots and seeing all the other kids in costumes.

It was hilarious watching her walk in her costume. The big duck bum would waddle as she walked around.

On Halloween day we all got dressed up. Ella wasn't too sure about my whiskers. When I first drew them on she backed away from me and hid behind the door. Then every once in a while she'd look up at me and get a worried look on her face.  Even now when she sees this picture of us she sort of whines and then looks at me to make sure I don't look like that now.

Danny got dressed as a cowboy about 30 seconds before we walked out the door. He had a hat from his mission so he threw it on and called it a day. Next year I'm thinking I'll take a little more time on mom and dad's costumes.

Ella was a pro trick or treater in no time. We would walk up with her to the door and then knock and wait. When someone would answer and show her the bowl of candy she'd take her time deciding which one and then pick it out and put it in her bucket and wave good bye. It was adorable I really wish I had thought to bring a video camera.

We only went to a handful of houses and one of the last ones Ella decided she had enough and sat down on their porch and started to go through her bucket.

After trick or treating we went to our friend's house down the street for a little get together with some of our neighborhood friends with yummy food and fun games. Ella got to stay up way past her bedtime and loved every minute of it. I think it was all of the sugar in her system. She has never really been exposed to candy yet somehow she automatically knew that what was in those wrappers she wanted so she got to enjoy a packet of m&m's and a whole piece of licorce.

It was a fun holiday and we're looking forward to all of the others that are coming up! What a fun time of year!

october at the hafen's

October was a fun month at our house. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. Fall is such a beautiful time of year and we have tried to take full advantage of enjoying being able to go outside before winter sets in.

Of course we also spend plenty of time hanging out at home. Ella definitely keeps me on my toes and literally makes me laugh out loud every day. She is such a little person now. I see so many of my mannerisms and actions coming through in her.

She still hangs out with me in the bathroom while I get ready for the day. Apparently she has been paying attention to what I do and now knows what an eyelash curler is and how to use it...

Although letting her hang out in the bathroom while I get ready comes at a very high price. The following was done in approximately 10 minutes while I was in the shower.

...shoes and hair products everywhere. And she learned how to unscrew lids in that time and had opened some hair products and rubbed them on herself. Time for drawer locks in the bathroom.

She has also started to really love babies. She is so cute caring for them. Anytime she sees a baby or picture of a baby she runs and gives them a kiss. She carries her dolls around and rocks them and loves them. I think I'm going to tell Santa that somebody would loves some new babies.

Sharing her string cheese...

Her hair has gotten so long on top! It's fun that it can go into a ponytail or pigtails. She's pretty good about letting me do her hair as long as I'm quick. But these new hair do's give her some crazy bed head in the mornings. So funny.

She still loves shoes. This picture is from the beginning of the month when she was still fairly new at walking and wearing her new shoes. She still absolutely loves clothes and shoes and will bring them to me to put them on her all throughout the day.

And she has started to wear mine as well. I caught her over in the entryway wearing my shoes and she was so proud of herself.

We decided that in order for us both to survive the cold months we needed to have something fun we could go do. We loved Cherry Hill in the summer so we decided to get a membership to the Treehouse Museum. I'm so glad we did. She absolutely loves it there! She gets the biggest smile on her face the entire time and almost can't contain herself as she runs to the different exhibits because she is so excited.

We did a quick photo shoot for her late 1 year photos. It was nearly impossible to get a picture of her because she just wanted to run around and explore everywhere. But we managed to get some of good ones of our little bug. Here are a couple of my favorites.

I threw this one in because it shows her little personality. I always do the "come here" hand signal to her when she's running away and she knows what it means. Now when she's on the go, she turns back and does the sign to me so I'll come with her. This includes doing it at church while I'm sitting in my seat trying to get her to come back to me.

We had fun this October spending time at her Great Grandpa Day's pumpkin patch.

Picking out the perfect pumpkin...

Playing in the hay and going on hayrides...

Out in the pumpkin patch...

A couple of other little "ellaisms" that I don't want to forget...

• One of her favorite things to do is to stand in front of the open fridge or pantry and say "ummm" while she taps her chin. Big decisions trying to figure out what to eat.
• She LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I know she shouldn't even know what it is yet but when she's unhappy I can turn it on and she is immediately smiling and dancing. In fact, if I even start singing the theme song to her she gets happy. 
• She not only walks now she runs and laughs everywhere she goes. 
• She is really good at going to bed now and FINALLY sleeps through the night! Once she made the switch to whole milk she turned a new page.
• She loves to say "hi" to everyone we see at church, the store, pretty much everywhere we go. She is such a social little girl. 
• She understands basic commands. When she's getting undressed we say "hands up" and she knows to put her hands up to take off her shirt. Or when we're getting ready to leave I tell her to go get her shoes and she gets them and sits down to have them put on. 
• Something that is so tiny but so cute, when she has something in her hands when we are putting her in her car seat or getting her dressed, she pauses to switch hands. I don't know why but Danny and I both get a kick out of that.

I say it every month but I mean it - we love our little Ella bug and feel so lucky to be her parents. She is such a funny, happy, sweet little girl.