Airplane!!

Airplane!!!

Where'd it go???

A night out for all of us!

On Saturday night, Michael and I were looking forward to a date night with Megan & Blake, but our babysitters (aka Granny & Grandpa) had plans of their own. They were going to a high school football game but generously offered to take Ella with them! We gladly accepted and they came to our house promptly at 6:00pm to pick up Ella. Ooohhh, that was weird for me, when she drove away from the house without me. But before I knew it, I was getting texts and pictures that Ella was having a FABULOUS time and was the hit of the party! She had fun with her cousins and enjoyed watching the cheerleaders and dancers! It didn't bother her at all to be there without me and it gave the rest of the family a great opportunity to bond with her! She warms up so much faster when I'm not there!!

Meanwhile, Michael and I were able to enjoy a fun night out! We can't describe how thankful we are to have such wonderful family that lives close and loves to spend time with Ella.

And we are so thankful for great friends that we always have fun with! A night out is always appreciated and enjoyed!

First haircut.

At 15 1/2 months, Ella had her first haircut! To some, you may not notice a difference since we just cleaned it up, but I have noticed a difference in how it lays and how it looks and it's been so much better! They trimmed the bottom about half an inch to even it out and gave her a few layers in the back to enhance the curl. Her hair has always been naturally longer in the front, and we kept that same style so now she has a cute little bob. I thought for sure she would need to sit in my lap and that she would not like someone else messing with her hair, but I was completely wrong! All she needed was a snack (no surprise there!), this cool Barbie car and she was perfectly happy and content all by herself!

Here she is before:

Time to "tame" her natural hair....

She looked adorable in her little gown and kept loosing her hands underneath all the fabric!

Time to begin cutting...

Add a little styling gel...
And...we're finished! Wow, that was SO EASY!!!

Still....all she cares about is her snack...

Say "CHEEEESE"

Ella loves to say "cheese" but I can only get her to say it when I have the camera out, and sometimes as soon as she sees me get the camera she says "cheeeese", "cheeese", "cheeese" over and over again! Here she was obviously saying it and totally showing off for the camera during her bath! Look at those faces!

a BIG milestone

A few weeks ago, a girl at work told me that she started potty training her daughter at 15 months!! I honestly thought it was crazy becuase I had never heard of starting that young. Ella would be 15 months in 2 weeks and there was no way she would be ready to even think about it...but then I started thinking, well, why not? So I asked her doctor about it right at 15 months and he said it wasn't too young to start but ONLY if she started showing signs. A week before that she had brought me a diaper and laid down for me to change her, so I have been paying close attention for more of those "signs" and I started reading about potty training. I decided to go ahead and order a potty so that I would have it on hand as soon as she was ready. When we were in Abilene last weekend she showed a huge sign when she was outside with my mom and immediately lifted her dress and touched her diaper after she had pooped. On Monday her potty came in the mail, but it has been sitting in the box, in her closet...waiting.

Well, today we are home, playing in the gameroom around 5:45pm and all of a sudden in the middle of playing she stands up, says "da" and touches near her diaper. So I immediately ask her if she needs to go potty and I see her start to make the "pushing face", so i jump up, run to her closet, pull the potty out of the box, rip off her diaper and put her on the potty. She sort of laughed and just sat there, so I ran off to get my camera (she looked so cute sitting on the potty!). By the time I got back she had stood up and was playing with something else. I sat her back down and said "Ella, go potty". She started pushing and as if she does it every day, she just pooped and peed on the potty and then stood up!!!!!!!! I was SO excited and we clapped and laughed and clapped some more! It was such an awesome moment! I immediatley called Mike and then my Mom. I am just so proud of her for letting me know that she needed to go! Sorry for all the details, but this needs to be documented in her book! :) Her first poop in the potty....1 year, 3 months, 6 days.

I'm not done yet...so then we went downstairs and had dinner. Immediately after dinner, we came up for bathtime and I put her naked little body back on the potty while I ran the bath water and she peed in the potty again! Such a proud mommy!

If any of you moms out there have potty training tips, please share!! I completely expect for potty training to be a process and I realize that it may take a while. But, I'm excited about starting the process. I've read that this is a great age to start because right now, she wants to please me and mimmick me, etc. Once they reach age 2, they don't care so much about pleasing Mommy so potty training can be harder....we'll see what happens!

One thing I do know is that I am so proud of my Ella Pearl!

You made me a happy mommy tonight (and every night)! I love you!

Elm Valley!

While Michael has been SO busy with tax season, Ella and I broke away for the weekend and headed to Elm Valley...just the two of us. She did great for me in the car and we had a great time full of lots of quality time with Mimi & Papa!

By the end of the weekend, Ella was watering my mom's plants all by herself and even trying to refill the watering can by herself with the waterhose. What fun!

Quality time with mommy is always nice too!

Torturing the cats...


And sitting pretty!

What a great weekend; we can't wait to go back!

While in Dallas...

Ella's first drive to Dallas...August 2009. I was dreading the drive, but she did great! We borrowed a DVD player which helped a little, but at this age her books and toys kept her more interested and luckily she slept too! We went for Steph's baby shower, which I posted about below, but while in Dallas, we tried to see as many friends as we could in a very short time. The already short trip, was a bit interrupted with a ruptured ear drum, but after a quick trip to a local Dallas clinic, Ella was back up and running. She handled it so well I had no clue she even had an ear infection! Poor thing, I felt so bad!

Our first visit was with my beloved friend, Carlotta. Ella enjoyed playing in this cool fountain by her apartment, and we all had a great visit.


Saturday was spent at the doctor and getting ready for the shower, but then on the way home on Sunday we stopped to visit with my dear friend Catherine and her little boy Cooper (11 months). We have been dying to get Ella and Cooper together and they played SO well together and were just adorable!

How cute are they taking turns pushing each other in the wagon!?!

Ella was pretty relaxed on the way home watching Finding Nemo. Honestly, she was asleep within 5 minutes and mommy watched Finding Nemo. Cute movie and definitely makes a 4.5 hour drive go by faster!!

Celebrating Steph.

My good friend Stephanie....I met her in my first tax class at the University of Texas at Austin in the year 2000! She was fun and outgoing and always talked about her friend "Perkins".

Who knew that just 2 1/2 years later, "Perkins" and I would be married...Steph of course, by our side.

3 years later (2006), here we are at Steph's wedding shower in Dallas...all the hostesses.

And the same hostesses another 3 years later at her BABY shower in Dallas, August 15, 2009!

Steph now lives in Chicago with her wonderful husband, Brian, and although we miss seeing her often, we are so happy for them and look forward to visiting Chicago again soon!

We had so much fun in Dallas hanging out with our college buddies! It just made us want to do it more often. It's so easy to get busy and get in a routine at home, but visits with old friends need to become a priority!

So much has changed and we have quite a few new additions to the group. It was so fun to watch our kids become friends and play hard together all weekend!

My first converse!

I took Ella shoe shopping today and we bought her first pair of converse! They are adorable on her and were a great find at Nordstrom Rack! She is wearing a size 6, up a whole size from the last time we went shoe shopping, only 3.5 months ago! She was completely busting out of her one pair of sandals and definitely needed some new shoes. Her pink crocs still fit, but probably not for long. Her and I had a great time together and she proved to be Mommy's perfect shopping partner! How fun for us!

She got to try them out tonight in Granny & Grandpa's backyard, and we all couldn't believe what a toddler she looked like in these big girl shoes!