Once there was this Funny Boy and this Artsy Girl

Pumpkin-Ginger Pizookies

We found this recipe for Pumpkin-Ginger pizookies on Our Best Bites and they were wonderful!

It's ginger cookie dough (we baked ours in shallower, wider bowls than what the recipe calls for and baked them at 425 degrees so that they were crunchy on the outside and gooey in the middle) with pumpkin ice cream on top and homemade buttermilk caramel.

Pictures from Our Best Bites as well.

We also make this same thing with chocolate chip cookie dough and vanilla ice cream and call them cow pies.

A couple videos

Just Woke Up

Sorry about cutting off half of Ella's head in that video, I'm not sure what I was doing.

Dad Gets Home From Work

You may have noticed that once again the sheets have been pulled off the bed because a certain someone, who will remain unnamed, spit up all over them again.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Ever since I morning sickness struck I have not been able to eat chocolate chip cookies, which was awful because really good chocolate chip cookies are possibly my favorite dessert in this world, but just the thought of them made me feel sick. I have been saving this recipe through my whole pregnancy, just waiting for the thought of chocolate chip cookies to sound good again and that day finally came so I whipped up this Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie up and not only was it super easy to make but it was so yummy! I actually liked it best cooled the next morning (it made a fantastic breakfast and lunch), although having it warm with ice cream was definitely delicious too.

You can find the recipe from Our Best Bites here.

This pretty great invention

Okay, so maybe this is not the best invention EVER, but it's pretty great. So I bought this baby sling several months ago when it was on sale with the idea that I would use it when I went out and about; it never crossed my mind that it might be a good thing to use just around my home. Ella loves to held (especially right now with her cold that is making her little body hurt so much) and I could never put her down, even when she slept because she would immediately wake up when I put her down and start crying. It was a miracle if I was dressed for the day when Adam got home from work and it was tricky to find a chance to eat because putting together a sandwich with one hand is a little difficult. There are very few things you can do with just one hand, so I would get next to nothing done for the day (although, I made pretty good progress into the book The Help since reading can be done with one hand). That changed when Ella had spit up on every one of our sheets and I NEEDED to get the laundry done and you can't do the laundry with one hand. And suddenly I remembered the sling, so I whipped it out, just to see how she would like it-- she loved it! She fell right asleep, nestled in that sling, as I got the laundry and vacuuming done; yes, she even slept through me vacuuming, it was amazing! She doesn't love being in there for extended amounts of time but I can actually get a few things done during the day now like eat lunch and clean the messiest parts of the house before Adam gets home.

I got this sling from Sevenslings.com, they occasionally have sales on their slings. I got mine for free through a sale they had going on, I just had to pay shipping and handling, which was around $13.

One month old (last week)

She is already getting so much longer and plumper! I love her round belly and double chin!

In case you hadn't noticed, I love putting bows on her head! The trick to getting them to stick: I tried using honey but that didn't really work so well, so now I just glue them onto her head with Elmer's glue and it stays on great! It's water-soluble so we can just use water to get the bow off at the end of the day.

Her little neck is getting so strong!

Sometime I will try to post a video of the cute faces and noises she makes (if she will stop bursting into tears every time I pull out the video camera, although, even the faces she makes when she cries are heartbreakingly adorable).

Ella's Blessing Day

My family and Adam's family came out from Wisconsins, Oregon, Idaho and Nevada for her blessing! We were only missing my brother, on a mission in Brazil, and Adam's brother, on a mission in Costa Rica.

My mom made this dress and hairband for Ella's blessing based on a blessing dress I had seen on Pinterest that I loved.

I love how simple it is with little dainty, feminine details.

Ella and Santa Clause

Thanks to so many family members coming to visit last month and stocking up our fridge we had extra money in our grocery budget to go out for breakfast yesterday morning! Breakfast is probably my favorite meal to go out for; I'm kind of in love with eggs benedict and Belgian waffles.

Ella started getting fussy while we were there so we pulled her out of her car seat and all of a sudden all of the waitresses seemed to have an excuse to stop at or table so that they could look at Ella and tell us how tiny and adorable she was. A lady who does dishes in the back even came over, telling us that the waitresses insisted she stop her work to come by our table to see Ella.

(She fell asleep like this in Adam's arms)

Adam had the whole day off of work so he spent lots of time playing with The Baby of Cuteness.

He is all about rough and tumble play with Ella-- throwing her up in the air and bouncing her around-- I'm pretty sure she loves it.

(we had to take the sheets off the bed and throw them in the wash because Ella had a major spit up all over them right after breakfast)

We finished off the day with a trip to the mall to do some Christmas shopping. Santa Clause just so happened to be there as well and Ella told him everything that she wanted for Christmas.

And once again, the moment we pulled Ella out of her stroller, every person within a twenty-foot radius of us was immediately sucked in towards us, craning their necks to get a peek at Ella as she sat on Santa's lap and telling us how cute she was and telling us stories of their own children and grandchildren's experiences with Santa. I love people's reactions towards Ella! We think she's pretty dang cute so it's fun to see that complete strangers agree with us and just want to be near her.