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!
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3

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)

Ella at 4 Months

Ella at 4 Months

Sometimes I smile for Mommy.

Sometimes I smile for Daddy. (Mommy calls that flirting!)

Sometimes I even smile and make cute noises! (I can coo up a storm, and I even laugh sometimes!*)

I play on the floor (for more than 3 seconds!)

Even though my life is good, I sometimes make this face.

I can be silly with Daddy! (Or really, Daddy can be silly with me!)

I even wear "big girl" outfits. (And some little girl outfits too!)

*This has been a month of sounds for Ella, and since we can't take pictures of sounds you'll have to imagine the sounds from the pictures!

Ella's First Thanksgiving

This was Ella's first Thanksgiving. We drove up to Dallas and celebrated with Tasheena and James, her parents and brother. (Along with baby Owen!)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_oerMO0yfsbM1d5N0dUNmtrSGM/edit?usp=sharing

They made a really great meal and we had a really good time.
This was Ella's first sleepover party! ( At least her first stay over at a friend's house)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_oerMO0yfsbY3l6UzJOelAtYU0/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_oerMO0yfsbUi0wQmtpZTZzRXM/edit?usp=sharing


This was Ella's first time feeding the ducks!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_oerMO0yfsbTnFlNDE4WVJpRjQ/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_oerMO0yfsbRFNScXdhbldtTUU/edit?usp=sharing

This was also Ella's first car trip of more than a half hour. She did really well on the way there but not so well coming back.

I am Ella. Hear Me Coo!

"I am Ella.  Hear me Coo!  Bow before my cuteness!"

Elissa thought that was a pretty awesome quote from me, so we decided it should start off this next blog post.  As you probably gather from the beginning -- yes, Ella has started to coo.  It's really cute when she's practicing noises just for you.  I believe she's made a phone call to both grandmas to say "I love you" in cooing.

Because Elissa threw her vote in with the 'Both' crowd, I barely won on the lookalike contest.  However, in reality the vote "she looks like both of you" was by far the winner.  And honestly, she does have features from both of us.  We think she got eye features from me and her nose from mom.  Mommy says she's jealous of her long, luscious eyelashes.

Not too much else has been happening this week, but just so you don't feel like we made a lame post, here's some Ella pictures!

Ella ready to go out.

I do kind of wish she'd keep those hands out of her mouth... "ughhh, slobber ..."

Elissa wanted me to post this.  "I look away for a second, and . . . "

Play time.

In her swing.  Look how well she grips now!

Who Do I Look Like?

Baby Ella would like to know who you think she looks like!

Daddy is on the left, Ella is in the middle and Mommy is on the right.

You can vote on Facebook, or by email. We'll post the results on our next blog post! (We don't have comments enabled on our blog, so that won't work if you want us to know your vote!)

Ella's Gratitude Post

I figure with all the gratitude posts on social media, how can we not give Ella a chance to tell us all the things she's grateful for this Thanksgiving season!  Here's her top 10:

10.  She's grateful for her friends Crush, Nemo, Dori, and lil' Dude.  She's never seen the movie, but she loves to see them on the cover for floor time.

9.  Ella is glad she can say "I love you" by smiling since she can't talk yet.

8.  She's glad that even though she's been growing a lot, she can still wear a lot of her favorite outfits (she's also glad Mommy's buying her some new ones soon).

7.  Ella has been working really hard to hold up her head and roll over.  She's really grateful for the muscles she has to do it.

6.  Ella's glad to be able to grab things with her hands. (Though she doesn't like to grab a whole lot of things yet).

5.  She loves her stuffed friends, Rufus and Bear.

4.  Ella was really excited to get this fancy cross-stitch from Aunt Sandi.  (She is also grateful for all of her aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents).

3.  Ella is grateful for Mommy avoiding that 'evil' cow's milk which makes her tummy hurt.  Mommy even made sure to get everyone their own milk this last week.

2.  Ella's grateful that Daddy spends time with her.

1.  She loves Mommy who holds her, feeds her, and loves her every day. Mommy even picks out cute clothes for her.