6 Months

Our little girl is 6 months old today! I cannot believe how quickly time has gone and that she has already been in our arms a whole half a year! I love her more everyday and I feel so lucky to be her mommy! A friend of mine did this about her son and I thought it was a cute idea so I'm stealing it! Here are a few of the things I know about Ella in the 6 months I've been her mommy:

• She loves music. At any given time when she's fussing, you can start singing Jesus Loves Me and she almost immediately stops...it's true, ask Kristen!
• She CONSTANTLY has her arms sticking straight out when you hold her. She doesn't like to cuddle and she looks like she's trying to fly!
• When she's excited, she does this thing when she breathes in and out really hard, like she's anticipating whatever you are going to do to get her to giggle.
• If she wakes up and we're trying to get her to sleep, she'll go more easily if we wind up her lamb or play her music worm...sometimes she's quiet until it stops and then we have to go in there and start it again.
• When she doesn't get her naps, she is CRANKY! It happened today...not a fun Ella.
• Also, when she's tired, she'll give you some smiles and giggles & then turn to crying in about 2.5 seconds...volatile, this little girl!
• She LOVES her brown blanky and cannot sleep without it. If we're out, I just give it to her, cover up her stroller so she's not distracted by whatever is going on, and she'll sleep.
• She likes to put anything she can into her mouth.
• She finds the tag on any toy and will suck on it until it's sopping wet.
• She loves to look at our fish.
• She loves to be outside and if she's fussy, she'll usually calm down if we walk her out there.
• She loves books...Her favorite is "Tails" and daddy's favorite is "My Daddy & I." She really seems to be listening when we read them to her!
• When she smiles, she melts her mommy & daddy's hearts and she is immediately forgiven for any past grievances!

Happy 6 Month Birthday, Ella! We're SO thankful for you!

P.S. 6 month pictures will follow...Kristen took some this weekend and they are AWESOME!

Scary...

The sky is FILLED with smoke right now and there are fires burning to the north and the south of us. It looks like a war-zone in the sky, ash is falling and the smell of smoke is thick. The pictures on the news are terrible. I know so many people in the Yorba Linda area and I just hope they are all ok and their homes make it! Fire is scary...whenever there's a big one, I find myself making a mental list of what I would take if there were fires by me...pictures ALWAYS top the list!

On another note, I said good-bye to Kristen this morning. We had such a fun time the last 2 days...Disneyland on Thursday and the beach for a while yesterday. It was SO much fun and it was great having her stay with us! I'll post some pictures and give you a rundown of our time sometime soon!

Trip Change

Ella & I were going to fly up to Seattle to visit Kristen this Thursday but there's been a change in plans (yes, this is the second time but it's really working out QUITE nicely!)! Because they are still in the middle of remodeling their home and not moved in as they thought, Kristen thought it would be better (and I agree) for her to come down here and me go up there with Ella in February! SO....I get to see Kristen Wednesday night and FINALLY get to introduce her to my little munchkin! AND, this means that I get to see her again in 3 months and possibly be the first overnight guest in their new and beautiful home! I can't wait!

In other news, I LOVE November! Last week, I worked Monday and had an in-service Tuesday (no kids) and it was my short week so I was done. This week, I worked today, off tomorrow (Veteran's Day), work Wednesday. Then, the next 2 weeks, I only work Monday & Tuesday and then there's Thanksgiving break! It's SO awesome. Then, only 3 weeks until Christmas Break! I love the holidays! Time is going by so quickly though and while I love work to go fast, I don't like how fast time seems to be going with my little girl! Too fast, she's getting too big!

Halloween

I'm finally getting this post up! For Halloween, we headed to Redlands so Ella could be a part of the cousin themed costumes...Cowpokes & Indians! Getting a group picture proved to be quite a challenge but this was the best Jani got! Nice work, Jani!

The VG Indians! Tessa was SO adorable with her little feather headband!

Tessa & Ella

The Cowpokes

And now the cutest little cowgirl in the Wild West...

After the photo shoot, we headed to Halloween Happening and got to hang out with Chris, Kelly & Cameron. It was SO fun to hang out with them since we don't get to very often! We walked around and then enjoyed dinner. We hit up the magic show but Ella was pretty much done by then so we headed home and put her to bed! The night wouldn't have been complete without some good rounds of Dominos with my parents! It was a fun time and I was so glad Eric was game for going out to Redlands for the festivities! Hopefully the cousin themed Halloweens will live on in the years to come!

Wicked

Last night, Eric & I went to see Wicked! Eric had his last football game & then a pizza party after so we were a bit crunched to get out the door. We got to our friends' house where Ella was staying and realized we had left the diaper bag at home!!! It had a fresh bottle, pj's, diapers, you know...EVERYTHING she would need! So, Eric jetted home and got back and we left (putting us 20 minutes behind schedule!). Of course there was traffic and we were SO anxious the whole way...Eric was a stress case. But, we made it there and in our seats with 2 minutes to spare! Whew! Thank the Lord! And, it was SOOOOO good! I can't believe we hadn't seen it until now! The talent and work those performers put in every night is so amazing. What was really cool about our night was our seats! We had heard of this educators discount for 45% off orchestra seating that expires today! Anyway, Saturday we decided to go Thursday night and I went online Sunday to get the tickets and they were sold out. I was SO sad! At the same time I checked Tues and Wed...all sold out! On Monday, I looked again and Wed & Thurs were still sold out but Tues had opened up with REALLY good seats! So, I thought they must open some up as the show nears. So, Tues night I looked again and sure enough, tickets were available for Thursday night...8th row, center! It was awesome and such a great deal! We would NEVER pay for that great of tickets but they were only $55! That's what you would pay for balcony seats! Anyway, that made the experience all the better...what an amazing show!

AND, to just brag about a friend for a minute...Alli (the one who was in Cry Baby and performed on Regis & Kelly), just got the role of Glinda in New York! I'm so excited for her and I REALLY want to go out to see her do it. Isn't that awesome?!? She's so famous! Anyway, if you haven't gotten a chance to see it, I (along with the rest of the world), highly recommend it!

Pumpkin Patch #2

This Saturday, we went to the Irvine Regional Park with our friends Keith & Carmen and their son, Lucas. Lucas is exactly 6 weeks older than Ella and they are already best buds! :) It was a warm day but we still had lots of fun going through the hay maze, the haunted house, riding the train, and taking LOTS of pictures! We got some good shots though and definitely started a tradition!

Ella & Mommy all ready to go in the new off-road stroller from Auntie Jill!

The good witch with her little cat!

SCARY!!! Carmen, Keith, Eric, Me

I LOVE this picture!

I think this is my favorite from the day! They are just such sweeties!

Thanks Witts for making such great memories with us!

This Week...

Ella tried rice cereal! She did NOT like it one little bit! We were going to wait until 6 months but decided to just try rice cereal now because sometimes she seems SO hungry. I think it was just a couple day growth spurt but we'll keep trying it every once in a while to get her used to the taste...she seems to be doing well with just milk so no need to really enforce it! It was fun though and made for some cute pictures! Here's the order of events...

Step 1: The pre-rice smile

Step 2: Baffled

Step 3: Ewwwww!

Step 4: NEVER AGAIN!!!! Where's my milk?

Earlier in the week, Cheryl & her mom stopped by to hang out for a while! It was so fun to catch up and we had some fun watching some old college videos! Man, we were dorks! But those were SUCH fun times! Anyway, here's a picture of our little girls about 3 1/2 months apart...

Aubrie & Ella