While daddy's away, the girls will play

Ella and I miss Tom while he's away with school but we have been keeping busy. We spend a lot of time at the pool, library, park, going for a run, playing at home, and taking crazy pictures of course...

Sunday Funday

Grandma JoJo came yesterday morning. We started with a fall clothes shopping trip to Target. Grandma JoJo bought Ella some fall clothes, books, underwear, socks, and couple toys. Thanks so much Grandma!! After that Grandma JoJo and Ella headed to the pool for swimming a picnic. Tom worked on homework while I got some cleaning done

Ella LOVES the Barbie with the dogs that grandma got her. She has played with them non stop. Ive always been amazed with her pretend skills. Barbie talks to the puppies, feeds them, comforts them, etc.

The park by our house has a concert every Sunday evening. Since the weather was beautiful and daddy was working on homework, Ella and I decided to head over there. She loved it. She tried to sing along to every classic rock song like she knew it, tapped her feet, danced, and clapped her hands.

Dancing to the music

Clapping to the music

Playing at the park and checking out the ducks

Bird Bath

We have family pictures tomorrow so I didnt want to wash Ella's hair tonight. I want to wash it in the AM so it has curl to it. She still needed to wash up so daddy gave her a bird bath

These are a few of Ella's favorite things

Fennel seed, which has a flavor like liquorice, is used as an after dinner mint in India. The Indian restaurant we go to very frequently has these little candy coated fennel seeds. Ella absolutely LOVES them and has to have them each time we are leaving this restaurant. I was shocked to hear her say several weeks ago as we were walking out "this is my favorite candy".

The cool thing about her saying this is my favorite _______ is that she uses it absolutely correctly and she doesn't overuse/overgeneralize it. She has only said it about three things (candy and the two listed below) and I know that these really are her favorite things


Two weeks ago, I put these pajamas on Ella and she yelled "these are my favorite jamas!" And every time Ive put her on since, she tells me theyre her favorite and she has to touch them and check them out.

We have this song on a little people cd so this version is a bit different than the one we listen to in the car. I know this is her favorite song as everytime she gets in my car she yells "I wanna hear sick, sick, sick!"

It Won't Be Like This For Long

I'm not making this up.
Tonight Ella and I were at the pool. As I watched her swim and smile, I looked into her eyes and I was deep in thought. I was thinking wow I created her, she's so amazing, I feel so blessed to have this joy in my life. I wonder what she'll be like in ten, twenty, thirty years. And I felt sad she one day won't need me like she does now.
I don't like country and I don't listen to country; however, at the moment I was thinking all this about Ella, I was drawn to the words of this country song playing over the speaker at the pool



And as I sat there listening, I broke down crying, happy that I have such a beautiful toddler and sad that it wont be like this for long

Adventures of Ella and Mommy

Tom had a community service project for school Saturday morning so Ella and I decided to head to Botkins for the afternoon to give Emma her bday gift. Ella also has been asking to see Grandma and Emma every.single.day since her bday.


On the way up to Grandma's, Ella and I stopped at Starbucks for breakfast.

Played barbies with Grandma

Picked Grandma's tomatoes

And had to eat one right away

Picked Grandma's flowers

Helped Emma open gifts

Hung out with Emma and Alex

Poor Tom has literally been working on homework every minute this weekend. Guess this is our new norm

Pizza Pizza!

Tonight I asked Ella to help me put together a pizza. We kept it very simple, wheat crust, fat free cheese (im on a diet), and sauce. I put the sauce and cheese in a bowl for her and went over the steps before we started. She went to town right away and followed the steps. I was pretty impressed with her skills!

Showing off her apron

Stealing some sauce

She put the cheese on like a pro

Stealing some cheese

Cheese and sauce face

watching pizza cook

When we were done she yelled "I did a good job". And yes she did, yes she did