Gobble-Gobble Till You Wobble-Wobble!

Happy Thanksgiving!! We have so much to be thankful for! We are very thankful for wonderful friends and family, like all of you! We had such a YUMMY Thanksgiving with our amazing friends Conner and Bri. They were nice enough to let us join in their splendid meal, along with Conner's Grandma and Aunt. We ate WAY to much, played games until we laughed so hard we cried. We thoroughly enjoyed each others company!! Ella has taken quite a liking to Conner and the two of them had a grand ol' time, along with everyone else. Happy Turkey day. Gobble, gobble! :)

Family Photo Shoot

Our great friends, Corey and Kim Nasfell, took our family pictures last week. They do the most amazing job!! If you are looking for a photographer, these are your guys!! Not only do they take great pictures, but they spend hours shooting with you and do a wonderful job editing them. They have a photoblog going up that I will tag to the right of my blog for more info. Thanks Corey and Kim they look fabulous!

For Ella's 2 year photo's we used the bubble machine on the beach and Ella couldn't have been more excited chasing all the bubbles around. I think it made for a happy photo shoot!! She was a ham and had such a ball getting her pictures taken.

Corey photoshoped this one and amped it up. I think its really fun and artsy. Crazy all the cool things you can do with photoshop.

My Baby's 2???

Wow 2 years have just flown by!! My lil' baby is no longer a baby! She turned 2 on Sunday the 16th. Happy Birthday Ella- Bean! We love you so much!

The last night we tucked in our one year old.

We woke Ella up to balloons and presents from Dan and I. She was super excited and was more then happy to start the terrible two's off with a bang!!

"Fairy" Cute!!

The Fairy Cute Party

We had a Fairy Party for Ella's 2nd Birthday, on Saturday with all her little fairy friends. When they first arrived, I turned each lil one into a fairy for the day. With a sprinkle of fairy dust, tutu, wings, wand and princess crown. It was so cute seeing all the lil' ones in their fairy attire. Once they all became fairies, it was time to "fly" I used a bubble machine and off they all went "flying" through the bubbles. After a little break and eating some yummy pizza, the fairy's were off to search for tiny, hidden fairy's in the "wooded forest." On the fairy hunt, they also found candy necklaces, rings and bracelets as well. I made each little fairy doll (I was feeling crafty:) and I think they turned out pretty cute.

tiny fairy dolls, for the hidden fairy hunt

After they found their treasures, we had cupcakes. Ella was in sugary heaven!! (unlike last year when she wouldn't touch the thing) She ate her whole cupcake! And looked darn cute eating it too!

The fairy cupcake cake.

mmmmmm!!

We ended our fun Pixie Party with tons o' presents. (lucky lil' 2 year old!) After opening her 1st present, it was all over. She was too distracted by her my little pony from Tanner, that she could only focus on playing with her new favorite toy. I think I ended up opening the rest of her presents, while she played with her my little pony.

It was a great time, fun was had by all. Happy Birthday Ella, your the cutest birthday fairy ever! We just adore you!

"Ganpa Aen" And "Ganma Owa"

That's what Ella calls them anyway! My parents came into town for Ella's Birthday and we had a great time. Ella loved having them visit. My dad made her the cutest tiny lil rocking horse, that quickly became Ella's new best friend. He also brought her a fuzzy gorilla that Ella has a love/hate relationship with. She was scared of him at first, then she gave him loves and hugs, followed by a scolding and several time outs!! (I think I might be putting Ella in too many time outs!) My mom went way over board on Ella's birthday presents (as many grandma's do) but Ella was in heaven! (thank you mom. your the best!) Whenever either of my parents left the room, Ella would say: "where Ganpa Aen go??" (She was a big fan of Grandpa and his mustache.) I wish we got to see family more, it was so nice to have them here.

A Yuma Kind Of Thanksgiving

After Ella's B-day Party, we headed to Yuma, Arizona, which is only 2 1/2 hours away and is right on the boarder of Cali and Arizona. My Sista just moved into a b-e-a-u-tiful home there. And now that she is a fancy surgeon, and has finally paid her dues, it's nice to see that she is being rewarded for all her hard work! My parents, Dan, Ella and I headed down for an early Thanksgiving, that ended up being at a restaurant, because we all did not want to put the work into it. We just wanted to visit and have a relaxing time. Plus I really do NOT need two Thanksgiving dinners with in a weeks time! It was a great little trip to hot, hot, hot Arizona.

Reseved for Lori LeGrand Visit

"Ella Drive"

Ella pleads with us after we pull into our driveway "Ella drive, Ella drive!" Dan has been letting her "drive" for a couple months now and it's kind of their little thing they do. Well the other day, I saw on Amberlynn's blog, that she posted how much her little girl loves to drive as well. So, it motivated me to document this little daddy daughter tradition. Thanks Amberlynn!

Off To School

Ella's "House"

I love the way Ella has Dan wrapped around her little finger. He would do just about anything for his lil' lady. Dan thinks of these fun little games to play with her. The other day, he made Ella-bean a really big fort, that she called a "house." She would crawl inside and say "Come in, Ella's House!" When we would crawl in, she would laugh hysterically! It was so much fun. She wanted to watch a movie later that day and asked daddy if he would make her a "house" to watch it in. She's never sat so still throughout a movie before.

Banana-Rama And The Two Cutest Criminals You Ever Saw!!

Happy Halloween!!! What a great Halloween we had!! Dan had the whole day to spook with us. We started our day off trick-or-treating with Ella's favorite lil' monster, Elmo! We went to Sea World's Spook-tackular. This was Ella 1st year really trick-or-treating and I can't believe how fast she caught on to it. (All that prepping seemed to pay off, see below post. AND candy helps!! :) She was smiling from ear to ear in her lil' Banana costume. (which by the way was a small baby costume from last year that I just cut two holes in the bottom) Ella, aka Chiquita Banana, looked hilariously adorable and got so many cute comments from people. She was in heaven. Good buddy Elmo. A banana suit. Tons-o-candy. Can every day be Halloween???

That night, Our buddies Bri and Conner ask us up to their house for Dinner and trick-or-treating. They said their neighborhood gets REALLY into decorating, and they weren't kidding!! It was DECKED out! They have a neighbor that works for Magic Mountain and Legoland. He handmaid his haunted house that was amazing!! He even made this crazy skeleton punch bowl that has a motion senor and moves when you move, then spits red punch at you. Can you say creepy cool??

I made these witch finger bread sticks to bring for dinner. They look a little too gross to eat. But, I promise they tasted better then they look. :)

Ella is a HUGE fan of trick-or-treating!! Every house she would see the decorations and say "Ooooh scary!" Right after she got her candy from one house, she would smile at us and say "another house!" This lil' criminal, would have kept us trick-or-treating ALL night! I think I had more fun watching her get so excited, then I did when I was a kid trick-or-treating. It was a very Happy Halloween!!