Mother

Happy Mother's Day, beautiful mother of mine!

Le Mode

I recently learned about Le Mode Accessories and I think they have such cute things and pretty good prices.

Here are some of my faves:

 

A scooter-collared shirt

A few things Ella loves:

Fruit smoothies (pictured above in a glass jar because now that I've mastered instagram and photo collages, I've moved on to the trendy habit of drinking out of glass jars).

So eating healthy foods is not my forte; I have to trick myself into eating them and blending up a whole bunch of frozen fruit into ice cream-like deliciousness is one of the best tricks I've got.  

I do frozen strawberries, bananas, orange juice and sometimes frozen raspberries too, so it's 100% fruit-- yeah, we're talking really healthy. 

I make one almost every single day and I think they are wonderful.

So does Ella.

She gets upset if I take too long between giving her spoon-fulls.

And she growls as she dives toward the spoon.

She also loves grabbing EVERYTHING within arms reach and stuffing it into her mouth.

Yesterday we were running errands and got hungry while on the far side of town so we stopped to grab something to eat and it was a party at our table, let me tell you. 

Napkins and food were flying all over the place. 

As soon as I clawed out some disintegrated napkin from Ella's mouth, she immediately had another handful of napkins to stuff into her mouth in one hand and some food she had somehow grabbed from off the table in the other.

It took both Adam and me to keep everything out of her mouth.

At the end of the meal, Adam voluntarily went and got some cleaning spray and a washcloth from the front counter to clean our table so that one of the employees wouldn't be forced to clean up Ella's nasty napkin spit-wads stuck to the table and the lettuce that was everywhere. 

Although, seriously, this girl loves paper, whether it's napkins or the church program, she is all about eating it. Which is funny, since she refuses to eat canned baby food because she thinks it's gross, but she'll eat paper? Um, okay.

And another thing I love is this blog. 

I love it so much. 

I think the author is hilarious.

Lazy Sunday Morning

You guys, I feel like I'm really trendy now that I do photo collages AND have instagram.

And I pretty much love instagram way more than I thought I would.

It adds to the atmosphere in these photos, don't you think?

It makes them feel especially cozy and lazy, which is exactly how yesterday morning was.

On a final note, Facebook informed me that I have "3 God wants you to know requests."

And every time I see that I think, What is that even supposed to mean?

Tourists who stop and ask if they can take pictures of Ella

Don't even worry, Ella and I were just sitting under the shade of a tree downtown and some tourists with their cameras and fanny packs were walking by and they stopped and asked if it would be okay for them to take pictures of Ella. 

I said yes.

I think they were from another country because they didn't speak much English. 

I got a kick out of the idea that they would go back home and show their friends the pictures they took in the U.S. and it would go something like this,

"Oh yes, that is a very old historic building. And that's another famous historic site. And that is a picture of an American baby."

They took lots of pictures of her with multiple cameras and at various angles.

And then they had me sit next to her so that they could get pictures of the two of us together.

Because, obviously, that's the sort of pictures you come to the U.S. to take.

I didn't even know what to think.

But they were so nice, I decided to just be flattered that they thought my baby was that cute.

Plus, Ella was wearing a cute hair clip that some wonderful girls that went to Romania with me gave me for my birthday a long time ago, so she was looking extra cute with that thing in her hair.

Also, check out this cool collage action going on!

Yeah!

I know they are like the most basic things in the world to make but I just figured it out so I'm pretty proud. 

And do you know what this means?

I can cram even more pictures into every single post than I already do!

Oh man, you guys don't even know what's coming!

I'll try to keep it under control.

But how do I get this collage to be the same width as the one above?

I don't even know.

Sucking on thumbs and saltwater and stuff like that

Just pictures and stuff.

When we go swimming, this girl spends the time trying to suck up as much water as she possibly can, and since it's saltwater pool I can only imagine how delicious that must taste. Gross.

Now that she can roll over both ways, when I put her down to nap she immediately flips over like onto her stomach like this, sticks her thumb into her mouth and puts herself to sleep. Except usually it's in her own bed, not ours, but sometimes she just puts herself to sleep before I even realize she's tired.  I know, what a rough life I have as a mother, my child voluntarily puts herself down for naps.

And she has this desperate need to hold onto whatever we are holding, which results in her having full control of the remote.

And she's just getting kind of huge, I mean holy cow, Girl, stop growing already!

And she likes her toys.

And just another sitting up picture because I think it's hilarious. 

That's all.

This place called Oregon that I'm kind of in love with

In a couple months we are heading to Oregon for the annual family reunion of wonderfulness and I am dying with excitement! I keep telling Ella about what we will do in Oregon to get her excited with me. I love Oregon so much, I can't even tell you! I guess you always have a place in your heart for where you grew up.

I love how green it is.

I love the huge twisted old trees.

I love love love the rain!

So much.

I love how the Oregon coast is so cold and windy and we don't even care, we strip down to our swimsuits anyway and hop into the water and don't even feel the cold.

(This is a obviously not the coast, but it is freezing cold as well. And those are my cousins)

And I love hunting for little crabs in the rocks at the coast.

I love how many bikers there are.

And the Birkenstocks and tie-dye.

And how every day calls for casual-wear and comfy clothes.

And I love how you don't feel a need to put on make-up before heading out the door.

And the eco-friendly everything.

And getting 5 cents for returning empty soda pop bottles at the grocery store.

And how cars stop for pedestrians.

And wild blackberries that grow on the side of the road and how you can pick them while you ride your bike home from work.

And how in the late summer the air outside is so heavy and sweet with the smell of those blackberries.

And fresh Oregon strawberries and blueberries and raspberries and cherries growing in your backyard.

Oh, and of course there is Tillamook, Oregon with it's ice cream and cheese and yogurt of deliciousness.

And how the coast is one hour away and the mountains are too.
And I love the sunsets.

And how much every single person seems to love ultimate frisbee.

And how walking around your neighborhood barefoot is okay.

And how when it barely snows, school is cancelled and the entire town shuts down because the town doesn't own any snow plows and no one knows how to drive in the snow.

(Adam and me just walking through town for some wedding pictures. Yeah, that is right in the middle of town-- how can it be so gorgeous?!)

And the deer that walk down the street as if they belong there just as much as anyone else.

And the farmer's market.

And how my old high school is right next door to a field full of cows.

I love it all so much!

And holy cow, I miss it.

But I'll back there in just a couple of months and it will be wonderful!

All of these pictures (except for the wedding picture) are taken by my parents whose favorite pastime is to take pictures of Oregon.

The wedding picture was taken by Leslie of Classic Images and Portraits.