Snow and Smiles

This week wasn't too exciting, but Ella got her first look at real snow today!

Ella has been working hard trying to learn to get around and roll over onto her tummy. She has yet to be successful with the rolling over, but I see her like this alot. (Or This, Or this) Thought I haven't seen it, she must push off with her feet and scoot on her back. I find her in the most odd positions when I get her from her crib in the morning!

She does a lot of twisting a turning on the changing table. She gives cute faces to make all the wrestling worthwhile.

I'm excited because when Daddy comes home at night she has started to look and give him a big Ella smile!

Thanks for being such devoted readers. Because you are so great here is a free desktop background image! (Also know as a bonus Ella picture!)

Ella Plays Piano

So I've had a busy couple of weeks at work and haven't gotten to spend as much time as I'd like at home.  Apparently Elissa taught Ella to play piano with all the time I was gone :p .

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I did get to hang out for family home evening though :).

Dancing
Playing
Playing More

Silly Mommy! This is How That Works!

Lately Ella has been showing me how to "properly" use things around the house.

Books (for eating!) (More Book Food)
Tongues (For sticking out!)
Pacifiers (For playing)
Discs (Ella Sized and not just for throwing!)
High Chairs (for playing not eating!)
Mouths (for drools and smiles!)

Ella at 5 Months

Ella is growing up so fast.  Only a month or so ago, she was just born (oh, right, 5 months ... ).  Seriously though, this last month, Ella has grown and learned a lot of new things.  But don't take my word for it, just read what Ella has to say:

I love my jumper!

I play on the floor all by myself.

I make cute noises to get your attention.

I know when it's bedtime, even though I don't like it.

I am a big fan of grandparents!

I follow things with my eyes, a LOT.

I actually like my toys now.

I found my thumb, and my toes.

If you hold me up, I dance.

I always ask for sitting up/standing up time.

Remember how I rolled around like a clock before?  I achieved my goal of becoming a human alarm clock.  I'm set to 6:00 am.

Christmas 2013

This year we had a pretty quiet Christmas. Ella isn't big enough to be interested in opening presents or even really caring about other people opening gifts. Santa stopped by and brought cereal as well as some treats (homemade dairy free brownies for me, of course!)

We got some really fun things. Daniel got me a project (among other things). This may not sound good, but it reflects that he is a really good listener. If you lived at our house, on a regular basis, you would hear me say "Oh! come look at this cute project on pinterest; it uses chalkboard paint!" or "That would be so fun with chalkboard paint!" So Daniel saved up some of his present money to get me stuff to make chalkboard paint and buy supplies. He is such a good husband, that he is even willing to help me do the project (s).

After posting on facebook about how I had found the PERFECT gift, but I had missed the sale, the gift went back on sale! For anyone who was curious I ended up getting Daniel a craftsy.com class. They had several I thought he would like because he is crafty and skilled like that. I just had to pick one, and I think he is pretty excited!

Daniel bought us a taller Christmas tree and some LED Christmas lights on clearance the day after Christmas. We want to make sure everything was working so he set them all up.

Though she wasn't interested in Christmas stuff, Ella finally was seen putting a toy in her mouth (Captured in pictures, More pictures), and caught on tape making cute singing noises!

Christmas Around the Corner

Well, Christmas is right around the corner.  It's pretty crazy how fast this month has gone.  Here are some highlights from our week:

Our Christmas Sing-a-long & Treat Potluck is now the stuff of legends.  Or, at least, people seemed to enjoy coming over and we had some great times visiting, singing, and sampling various treats.

We upgrades our phones with Republic Wireless -- now we're saving money, AND have fancy phones.  If you are interested in republic wireless, use this link so you get a discount.

Ella has started some sleep training.  We didn't particularly want to, but it got to a point where either we were endangering her by holding her while we were extremely tired and could easily dose off and let her fall, or we could start helping her learn to sleep on her own.  She seems more well-rested, Elissa seems more well-rested.  We think it's been working, but it's not exactly easy.

And now for what you all clicked on our link for -- Ella!
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Getting Ready for Christmas

It seems Christmas time is a busy time every year and this year is no exception.  We've been trying to make sure to only spend our time on things that are worthwhile though -- our goal this year was to do something (or prepare for something) that would make other people's season better each day.

As members of our church choir, we've been practicing some Christmas pieces to help those of our congregation reflect on the life and mission  of Jesus Christ.  We have already shared 'One Small Babe' this last Sunday, and soon we'll do 'Oh, Come Emmanuel' .  Also this morning I got to sing 'The First Noel' as part of a men's quartet.  We feel like this fits right in with our goal of brightening others' season.  Ella even started trying to join in on the singing.  We didn't manage to get a video of her singing (and she's still practicing so she probably wouldn't want to be posted on the internet) so here's a cute picture of her anyway.

As we were thinking about how much we love singing Christmas music, we decided that we would like to invite people over to celebrate with singing and potluck Christmas goodies (by the way, if you're reading this, you know us personally, and you're in the area on the 21st, call us/email us for details and we'd love to have you come).  We've been decorating in preparation for that, as you can see by our nativity set on the mantle (sorry for the poor picture quality).

This year we decided we'd like to make some origami Christmas ornaments for a few friends.  I started out doing these ones that imitate one of the classic Christmas tree bulbs, but found that I had another option that was easier for me and arguably cooler ornaments.  I hope people like them!  Admittedly, on days where we didn't feel like we'd necessarily accomplished our goal to help other people's seasons be better, we counted me working on these origami ornaments.

Of course no Christmas season is complete without treats.  We shared some thumbprint cookies with people at our ward Christmas party and plan to make some pumpkin brownies and ginger molasses cookies as well.

(More Pictures):

Ella thought she might like to wear Mommy's glasses.

Ella and me hanging out (Pic 1, Pic 2, Pic 3).

Ella with her new friend "Miss Ruff". (She caught us taking a picture)