I'm so excited!

This morning, I discovered something. It was very exciting to find. I have been anticipating finding one soon, but I didn't think it would be this soon. Every once in a while I go searching for one, but to no avail, I never find it. This morning I had the urge to go looking for it again, and I found one! I quickly ran upstairs to see if my mom could find it as well, and she did! *Side note- for those who don't know, we are temporarily living with my parents until we can get our own house.*

Okay, I'll quit playing around!

Ella now has a tooth! She has been teething for over a month now, and it finally came! It is her bottom left incisor. She hasn't even shown any signs of pain for at least two weeks! That's why I didn't expect it to come any time soon. Now it's time to get her a toothbrush and toothpaste!

Less Than a Year Until She's One!

Today, Ella is seven months old. Since when did my baby girl grow up to be that old! Where did the time go?! She's outgrown all her cute little newborn clothes, and most of her 0-3 month clothes. She actually still fits (barely) in a few clothes that small!

But, it's exciting to see her grow and develop and learn new things! she sits like a pro, she stands while holding on to things without my help, and she FINALLY has an interest in rolling over. She was a little behind on the rolling over, but she is right on or even ahead with all her other milestones and developments.

I love her more and more everyday. She is the sweetest baby and very even tempered (thank goodness). She has a silly sense of humor and she makes me laugh every day.

It is so cute watching her play with her daddy! She loves him so much! When he gets home from work, he's the only one she wants. Craig loves her more than anything, and is such a good daddy!

I am so thankful for my little family, and can't even imagine my life without them. Well, actually I can, and it wouldn't be pretty, and I definitely would not be happy. I am also truly thankful for the gospel in my life and knowing that we are a forever family.

Ella's first time eating prunes. She LOVES them!

Happy Half Birthday & Christmas!

Things have been so crazy around here, that I didn't even get a chance to post anything about Ella's half birthday! So, now you will get a combo post with that and Christmas updates!

Ella turned 6 months old on December 16th. I can't believe how fast time has flown! She is just growing up so fast! At her 6 month check-up, she weighed 15 lbs 2oz, and was 25 1/2 inches long. She can do so many new things, and the world is opening up very wide to her! I'll just pick out the major ones. She CAN roll over, but chooses not to! She has done it a couple times, so I know she can, but she is content with staying where she is for now.

Another thing she can do that has made my life a little easier is that she can hold up her own bottle. She's a pro with the small ones, and can hold the big ones up pretty well. She loves oatmeal, sweet potatoes, and this week we'll try either carrots, peas, or green beans. Yum!

Ella can now basically sit up all by herself. She's been doing the tripod thing for a couple months, but now she sit up without any support for several minutes! It's so nice to be able to plop her on the floor and play with her. She's able to do so much more!

Now on to Christmas! I was so excited for Christmas because it was Ella's first, and I couldn't wait to give her new toys to her! We got her a play mat she can play on either lying down or sitting up, a butterfly that rolls and plays songs, a little keyboard that we can hook to her crib and she can kick at it to make noise or she can sit and use her hands. She also got other fun toys from family members!

Craig and I also got each other some things. I have to say it's so nice having a husband that has a great taste in clothes and he can pick me out some really cute stuff! I hate clothes shopping, so I look forward to birthday's and Christmases!

It was nice to spend time with family and was a great Christmas this year!

We don't have the money to get professional pictures done, so I did it myself. I'm no photographer, but thanks to a free trial of photoshop and the "Photographing Your Family" board on Baby Center, I think they came out pretty well for my abilities (even with all the cut off limbs). We framed them to give to both our parents'. Craig's parents come home this Wednesday night, so we will give it to them the next day.

Craig wanted me to add this. While staying at his parents' house while they were on their mission, we also took care of their cat. I'm not really a cat person (even though I have one), and there are only a handful of cats that I actually like. Besides Marcy (our cat), Friskey was the favorite.

Unfortunately, her long life ended around Christmas. She was born when Craig was in junior high and she grew up with him. She was around 17 or 18 years old. She lived her whole life outside and she has endured many storms, summers, and even times of strays eating her food. She was such a sweet little cat. I only knew her for 2 or so years, but in that short amount of time, I grew to love her. When we discovered her body, I just burst into tears. All I could think of was that I'll never hear her loud raspy meow again, and she'll never try to sneak into the house while we feed her again. Goodbye Friskey. You are extremely missed, but we know that you are now able to live up to your name again!

Hello Again!

Wow. It's been a long time since I last posted! We have been very busy, though. We won't get any rest until New Year's day, unfortunately. There hasn't been many interesting things going on.

We went out of town for Thanksgiving this year. This was the first time both Craig and I have been away for Thanksgiving. We went to California with my family and had a blast at my brother's house. This was one of the best Thanksgivings I've had! Ella got to "play" with all of her cousins on my side and it was fun hanging out with everyone! It has been about two years since I have been able to visit my brother and his family at their house (they come here about 2-3 times a year), so it was nice being able to go back.

Since Thanksgiving, we have been extremely busy getting ourselves moved out of Craig's parents' house. They are coming home from their mission on Dec. 31. We are trying to get our stuff out of here by Saturday. It will happen, it will happen, it will happen... we are temporarily moving in with my parents until Craig can find a new job. One where we can afford to be able to afford to live somewhere on our own (Dumb student loans, car we had to buy because I totaled mine a week before we got married, and Craig's house he can't sell). Craig does have a job now, and we're very thankful for it.

Anyway, even though we are freaking a bit about, we are extremely excited to move out! There will be more room for us at my parents' house. Obviously not the most ideal situation, but at least we have somewhere to stay! We're hoping he'll be able to find a job in the next couple of months. If anybody knows of anything...

I guess this last part was a bit of a vent, but I needed to let it out. Thanks for reading if you made it this far!

Our Little 5 Month Old

Wow. I can't believe Ella is 5 months old! She actually turned 5 months yesterday, but in the middle of the night Saturday/Sunday I came down with a violent illness, so I was not up to posting anything yesterday. Okay, so it was just really bad stomach problems. Anyway, as I was saying, time has flown by so fast.

Ella is starting to sit up on her own now! It's so exciting! She does best when she's on my lap, but she's getting better on the floor.

She is also into everything she can reach and get her hands on. Especially the computer keyboard! Also, things that she can pick up go straight to her mouth and she makes a big slobbery mess (see her shirt in the pictures below).

One other thing that we both discovered is that she loves sweet potatoes! Hates rice cereal, though. In the next couple days I will re-introduce bananas to her. We took a break from solids when she got sick.

Ella LOVES books! Especially ones that also make noise. She just stares at the pictures and grabs at the pages with her hands, and gets so excited when she sees a book coming near her! It's so cute! I think we might have a little bookworm on our hands! ;-D

The one thing that she is still not doing yet is rolling over, either way. She has no interest in it. I guess she wants to focus on sitting up and working on her fine motor skills! I'm not worried about it, but she better be doing something in a month in time for her 6 month check up!

Here are two of her most recent pictures.

Look What I Did!

I love Baby Center. What can I say? I have learned many things from being on since I found out I was pregnant with Ella. Tonight, as I was reading the posts on one board (I can't remember which because I read like four or so), someone posted a video they did of their baby that had music accompanying it. I thought it was awesome, and I wanted to give it a try. Here is my creation!

Warning: It's kind of long. Just under 7 minutes. Also, there is music, so don't forget to turn your speakers up! It's much more interesting that way.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Halloween!

This year was a very fun Halloween! This is the first time we have had a kid to celebrate it with (even though she didn't know what the heck was going on). For weeks, we had been trying to figure out what we wanted to dress Ella up as. We decided on a bear, since her daddy calls her Ella Bear. She was so stinkin' adorable in the costume, even though it was too big. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera. But my sister took a few pictures of her and I will need to get them from her.

We went trick-or-treating with my sister, brother-in-law, their kids Matthew and Grace, and my mom. No, we didn't collect any candy for Ella, but we tagged along and it was fun! There were so many kids out that night like I have never seen in my life! It was awesome! Matthew dressed up as Dash from The Incredibles (he got frustrated when adults called him Mr. Incredible), and Grace dressed up as Snow White. Their costumes were SO cute, and I have to say that my sister made them and did a wonderful job!

After trick-or-treating, we when back to my sister's house and chilled and ate their leftover candy they were passing out. A few more people came by, and Matthew gave them candy. He had been doing this all night. So cute!

So that was Ella's first Halloween! I can't wait for next year!