Ella-isms

Seeing as how I am consistently about 2-3 months behind on my blogging, I thought I'd take a break from playing catch-up and record some things Ella's been saying lately. This is such a fun stage as she learns new words and phrases almost daily! It's almost sad when she learns to say a word correctly...her version of words is always sooooo cute!

A conversation we had about a month ago:

Me: Ella, look! The sun is shining! Did you know who made the sunshine?
Ella: GOD!?!
Me: yes, that's right! Who made the sky?
Ella: God did it! Animals and birds?
Me: yup, He did that too. Who made the trees and the leaves?
Ella: (long pause) Daddy did that.

We were driving through a really nice neighborhood one night with some very large houses. Ella was in the back looking at a book. We assumed she wasn't even paying attention when she exclaimed, "ooooh, look! BIG castle!" Love her:)

Last one...for now:)

We had a really bad thunderstorm about a week ago. Ella kept looking at the sky lights and saying "Rain! Loud!" Then she paused and pointed up at it, "Loud noise?"
Me: That's thunder, Ella
Ella: Turn it off
Me: I cant turn it off. I just comes sometimes with the rain
Ella: Rain? Blender?
Me: No, Ella. It's THUNDER. Sounds like BLENder, but it's THUNder
Ella: Blender OFF!
Me: Well, Ella, it's THUNder and Mommy can't turn it off. It will go away when the rain stops
Ella: Thunder?
Me: Yup
Ella: Blender?
Me: Nope, thunder
Ella: Rain, blender LOUD. Make a smoothie?
Me: ???

Christmas Morning!!!

Gabriella turns 2: part 2!

Even though we have our big party early, we still get to celebrate Ella's actual day! These first three are of the EXACT moment she turned 2:)Birthday ice cream! When you're two, you get two cups, right?! (No, those weren't both for her!)

Our fifth day of Christmas

We had our first family Christmas celebration on December 23 (aka Gabriella's birthday!). We spent the day celebrating Ella (more to come on that) and the evening with mom's family. We had to "remind" Ella how exciting presents were to open at her birthday party this year. Since her birthday and Christmas are at the same time, it's been a whole year since we've done this! It's been fun...HOWEVER, now she doesn't have much patience once she lays eyes on those boxes/bags/wrapping paper! It's still as much about the actual opening as it is the gift inside. It doesn't even have to be about her. She enjoys watching (helping) everyone else too:)
Gabriella with (great) Aunt Lisa and MimiH and baby H:)
Passing out the presents
Noticing a theme this year? First Pooh, now Eeyore and Piglet!
Some of Harper's presents:)

Gabriella turns 2!

Let me take a break from the Christmas posts and share some fun things from Ella's second birthday. Since her birthday falls just two days before Christmas, we have decided (for now), that we will try to celebrate each year on the first weekend in December.

This year, we invited family and friends to join us for food and cake and fun! I'm thankful birthday parties are still very low maintenance at this age! Food, cake, presents, balloons...done! I'm not quite ready for the real birthday parties with games, activities, party favors, etc... I'm just not that creative!

The decorations: ("The Very Hungry Caterpillar", one of our favorite Eric Carl books!)
Ready for cake!
Friends:)
Opening presents:
Harper getting passed around:)
A family picture that actually turned out!