When Ella is tired and nakey

What makes Ella laugh: Being tired and naked at the the same time 

I know, seriously, how funny is that combination?

But it's true!

 When it's time for her to go to bed and we pull off her diaper to put her into the bath, the smiles and laughter inevitably come out.

Featured in this video:

How she does this crazy hyperventilating thing when she is happy

This urge she gets to stuff her hands as far as she can into her mouth when she is happy

How much she loves to splash water

A display of her vocal chord range (imagine this in the middle of church-- awesome)

How being both tired and nakey and having a Adam for a dad results in fits of laughter

Pictures of a little family

Oh cute picture, why are you out of focus?

So let's say you sit down next to someone, like maybe at church or something, and you ask the person her name and she tells you but she doesn't ask for yours in response but you just figure that she forgot to ask but then later when the roll is coming around she sees that your hands are full with your baby girl and so she marks off your name for you, but the thing is, she didn't ask you your name, she already knew it.

 Even your last name! 

So obviously you have talked to this girl before and introduced yourself before this day but you can't remember when or where. 

And when you talk to her some more she seems to already know information about your life like where your husband works and stuff like that but you still can't remember anything about her? 

And then you can't help but think, "How does this nice girl remember so much about me and I can't even remember meeting her? I am a loser."

This happens to me ALL. THE. TIME.

I don't even know how I have any friends.

I have to be introduced to someone at least 3 times to be able to remember the person's face and then an additional 4 times after that to remember the name that goes with that face.

Please tell me I'm not the only person that has this much of a problem with remembering faces and names.

I'm sorry if I've ever done this to you.

I'm a little bit slow.

The End.

Milkshakes are good for you

You know how Adam and Ella and I are in love with ice cream?

Well, we've been experimenting with milkshakes lately.

We made some red velvet cupcakes and blended them with vanilla ice cream and it was pretty delicious.

But what was even yummier was grasshopper cookies in vanilla ice cream!

We also plan on making some yellow cupcakes and mixing them with ice cream.

The key is having a good ratio of cupcake to ice cream, you don't want to skimp on the cupcakes. 

Also, I think it makes a difference to use whipping cream instead of milk when blending the ice cream because it makes it all creamier than milk will, which is code for "yummier" when it comes to ice cream.

Anyway, I had to share in case you were looking for some inspiration for tonight's dessert.

This facial expression communicates Ella's thoughts on ice cream:

A belt with a bow

Look at what I made: 

This belt!

I needed a belt to jazz up this cute dress.

And Pintrerest, of course, came to the rescue with this tutorial.

It was super easy and fast.

So fast that I made a second, thicker one without a bow.

And the cool thing is that you can just pick any fabric you want to match whatever article of clothing you want to accessorize.

I want to make a thinner one to wear with jeans, but with D rings to fasten it, instead of a snap.

Oh the wonderfulness of DIY tutorials!

That time when Ella's uncle drove 2 hours just to come and babysit her

Alright, you see the red-headed boy in this picture?

That is Adam's brother, Seth.

He is seriously amazing for many reasons and here is just one reason why:

He is a 22 year-old college student who is always busy and never lacking in finding fun things to do or people to hang out with.

Last night he took the 2 hour drive between where he lives and where we live and gave up his Friday night (that's an important part so I had to put it in italics) to babysit Ella while Adam and I went on a date.

Then this morning he got up, packed his stuff and drove back home so that he could go to work.

Did you guys get that?

He drove all the way up here just to babysit Ella.

And it was completely his own idea.

He just told us that he was coming up to babysit Ella so we should plan a date.

Um, whoa, right?

How does anyone ever luck out enough to get a brother-in-law like that?

I mean, holy cow.

Ella thinks he is absolutely wonderful.

She gets the biggest grin on her face when she sees him.

So she was pretty thrilled to have him as a babysitter.

And going out on a date with Adam was wonderful!

We ate dinner at this cute cafe and had some frozen yogurt of goodness for dessert.

And we just walked and talked.

We talked about the future.

But instead of the usual how-are-we-going-to-make-this-all-work talk that our discussions about the future have been consisting of lately, it was one-day-we will-do-this-and-that-and-it-will-be-awesome talk.

It was like back in the carefree days when we were dating.

We talked about little things that don't even matter, stuff that we don't usually have time to talk about. 

When I went to the little girls' room at the restaurant I stopped in front of the mirror to check my hair and put on lipgloss, elated that I had an excuse to do that.  

We split a BBQ chicken pizza and a panini

We stopped at a tie store to get my little brother a tie to match his prom date's dress for next weekend.  

And we tried on hats.

Then we came home to this girl and her uncle:

Conclusion: Dates are awesome

And so is Seth.

Thank you, Seth!

Things I Love

The way her pointer finger hooks around her nose when she sucks on her thumb

Meeting this boy at the park with slurpees after work

When this little girl wakes up from her nap and I go in to get her and she excitedly kicks her feet and smiles when she sees me

The way she puckers her lips when she sleeps

How she holds onto the sides of her car seat and stroller as if she is on the wildest ride of her life

When she sucks on her bottom lip and is so content to just stare out the window while she runs errands with me

Paninis and multi-colored tables

 How she growls and dives for my spoon when it has ice cream on it

How at red lights this boy kisses me to make the light turn green

This laugh

Love, Ella

Heeey!

Do you see me eating peach slices from my sassy feeder that I love?

Well, now that I've been in my bumbo for approximately two seconds, I'm going to try and get out.

I want out right now!

Hmmm... that didn't seem to work.

I will try again.

Get me out!

You may think that multiple failed attempts at getting myself out of this thing would make me stop trying. 

But you would be wrong.

It ain't over 'till the fat baby sings.

(You may think that that last line doesn't make that much sense, and yeah, you are probably right, but it's what came to mind when I saw that picture and I couldn't resist.)

Love, Ella

Buckled Up

The girl with the cheeks that hang down and make the bottom of her face look like a square, ready to run some errands. 

Does this look like a seatbelt safety campaign?

I think so.

Which, of course, makes me think of the Embrace Life ad, which I think is just as beautiful now as when it first came out.

You know, just a post about geology because I know that's what you want to read about

And now for a random story that has nothing to do with anything: 

Back in the days when I was dating Adam, I took this geology class to avoid taking physics. 

I was pretty much dreading geology but it sounded a bajillion times better than physics. 

I took AP physics in high school and the hour I spent in that class every single day felt like I was in a torture chamber. 

In addition to the hour I spent each day in class, I had to spend my free hour in there working on my homework so that I could get help from my teacher because my brain refused to comprehend physics without outside help. 

And then I would go home and study physics all night long and wish myself to magically fall unconscious for the rest of the semester. 

When I scraped a B- in that class, I danced around for joy, tossed my physics book in the trash (well, actually I just returned it to my school because it wasn’t mine to keep, but I would have burned it if I could have) and promised to never make myself go through that torture again. 

Hence the geology class that I was now dreading. 

So it was a little bit crazy when a few weeks into the class I realized that it was 

MY FAVORITE CLASS OF THE ENTIRE SEMESTER!! 

I was shocked to find that I was really excited to attend that class and was sad that I didn’t get to attend the class every single day. 

Now don't go thinking that I had fallen in love with rocks, because unfortunately, I hadn't.

What I loved so much about that class was that the teacher was so in love with geology, he really thought it was the coolest thing in the world and he let us know it. 

He would start every class period with a question. If we were studying sedimentary rocks he would ask, 

“Sedimentary rocks! What’s not to love about sedimentary rocks?” 

And then he would continue to tell us what was so wonderful about them. 

When we got to the earthquake section of the class he asked, 

“Earthquakes! What’s not to love about earthquakes?” 

I remember looking around at my fellow students at that question, well, sometimes they kill lots of people and destroy homes and entire cities. 

I think the real question is, what is there to love about them?

 But then he would go on to tell us about how amazing they are and how they have shaped the earth.

And he was one of those teachers who throws random jokes into the middle of his lecture, but he would say them in the exact same tone as the rest of his lecture, so you had to really be listening to catch them and then when you heard them you would be the only one laughing because no one else heard it, but it was totally worth it because the joke was that funny.

I loved that class so much I made a batch of caramel brownies to share with the whole class because I have this thing where if I love something I feel a need to make it food.

Anyway, there is zero conclusion for this story, it was just on my mind, so I figured I might as well write it and throw it onto this blog with some pictures of this little girl who has kissable thighs.

Ella runnin' to the grocery store with me

Why is it that if people see a baby that isn't decked out in pink they automatically assume that it is a boy? 

 3 out of the 4 people that commented on how cute Ella was the other day called her a boy. 

And that happens all the time. 

I don't mind, especially since they are saying such sweet things about her, but it's interesting that that is the automatic response. 

I never correct them, I just let them continue to think that the baby with the purple polka-dot pants and flowered blanket is a boy.

And as a final note, this talk is just beautiful.

Little Girl With a Striped Romper

Ella pretty much loved watching the kids at the park.

She didn't even cry when one kid drenched her face with freezing cold water as they splashed by.

In other news:

Thanks to Kristin, I just discovered this blog, which I like and I found this post very interesting in response to Hilary Rosen's comment about Ann Romney being a stay-at-home mom and not really being aware of economic issues.

This girl has so many easy hair tutorials, I've been attempting a new one pretty much everyday. 

Usually my hair ends up looking nothing like hers, but at least it's different than usual.