Happy Valentines Day!

Well we had an uneventful week. Didn't do anything new, we did enjoy the beautiful weather. We are so ready for spring time! Ella had mac and cheese for the first time and she really enjoyed it. She pretty much eats what we eat with a few exceptions. As you can see in one picture she really enjoys chocolate pudding. She is still not crawling on her hands and knees just army crawling. I guess whatever works! She wants to walk by herself real badly but is very wobbly so she needs assistance. I am able to put a ponytail in her hair now, that is if she will let me. But it looks super cute! Hope everyone has a lovely Valentines Day.

LOVE,
Crystal and Ella

Crabby baby

Ella has been ridiculously crabby lately and we hope its due to teething. I picked up some natual medicine to help but it's not doing the trick, so I guess we will just have to deal with it for now. We just pray it's a phase and that she will shortly be out of it. This week we lowered her bed so now she likes to stand up and hang onto the railing although she cannot pull herself up yet without help. She is still army crawling and moves quite quickly. She also is really starting to like TV so I have been trying to do other activities with her but at 9 months old there is not much I can do. She doesn't enjoy reading yet and we can't play with her toys all day. Another reason why I can't wait for spring time. She does enjoy shopping but that hurts mommy's checkbook, if only I could window shop. Also, as you can see her hair is getting long but she hates me doing anything with it. I did happen to get a ponytail in it and it wasn't perfect but it looked so cute. I hope everyone is doing well, we are 1 month closer to springtime.

Sickies

So we have been a little under the weather this past week. Ella got the flu on Tuesday and is still acting tired and not interested in eating. I got the flu on Thursday evening and am finally starting to feel a little better. Now, today Evan is home from work. So, this flu bug has really kicked our butt! Otherwise nothing is new with us, Ella has stopped growing considering the lack of food. Still no teeth! Our baby finally got a little cuddlier! I love it! Hope everyone else is doing better than us.

Scooter

Ella is officially crawling, well army crawling. So, at the gym yesterday she was scootin along and got in front of a door just as a little girl opened it and scraped her leg. She bled a little and cried just for a short while. The girls said she just watched them as they cleaned it out. What a tough little girl. One of many accidents to happen, I guess. We are all doing alright, sick of the cold weather. Can't wait for Spring to come. Ella is falling asleep all on her own now, and as you can she the more uncomfortable she looks the more comfortable she is. She is sleeping in that pic. with her head in the bed and her butt up. She obviously likes it, caught her in that position a couple times. She has learned "So Big" and she does it very well, as you can tell in one of the pics. Well hope all is well.

Home Alone

Evan has to go to Indianapolis this week again for work but Ella and I decided to stay home. He is only going to be gone 2 nights, so the girls think we can handle it. Well I Ella is becoming more and more independent. She eats so well on her own, as you can see in one pic, she is eating pancakes. In another pic, she is eating her first biscuit which was gone in like 10 minutes. She is even holding her own bottle, if you try to help her she will just give up and let you do it so you just have to give her the bottle and walk away. There are still no signs of teeth. She is getting around a little better. I wouldn't call it crawling, it's more like scooting/jumping. It's cute! She somehow can move better backwards which is why she is under the bed like that. The pic of her silly face, is of her trying Gerber baby mac and cheese. She obviously didn't like it! It sure gave me a good laugh, though. She doesn't really like books too well yet, unless she can eat it. So we watch tv and hopefully she learns through that way. Anyways, she is very attentive to it. She got a little car from Uncle Brett and Aunt Ashley for Christmas and she loves it. She already had one car accident and I am sure there will be many more to come. Doesn't she look big on it? Well hope all is well with everyone. Take Care!

Good to be home

We had a wonderful time being home with our family and friends over Christmas time and thank all of you who helped with Ella and spoiled her. Even though I love being home I have never been so happy to be back in Ohio. It is extremely hard on us being gone that long, especially Ella. She is starting to adjust to her old routine again. Although she is very crabby and irritable. She has another cold and may be teething. Grandma Donna thinks she is used to being spoiled and held so now is adjusting to not being held all the time. It's been a little rough. So back to work for me again, I don't mind my job but I don't want to go back either. Evan went back 1 day and is home today because he isn't feeling well. He has a lot of sinus pain with a cold, I guess we just can't handle the ND tundra anymore. Hope everyone's New Year has started out right. We miss you all!

Merry Christmas

I probably won't be writing until after the holidays as we going home on Friday. We are super excited and a little scared of the cold weather we are about to be in. Ella has had a cold, so feeling a little icky. Now, mommy is getting it just in time for the holidays. She is starting to rock more on her knees but still no crawling. We did get a new (2008)bigger SUV, a Ford Edge so when we went home we would have more room. Well anyways its not working so its in the shop, lets hope it's done in time to bring it home. Well I wish everyone a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year. I pray everyone makes it safetly to their destination.

In the pics: She is wearing her winter hat in the house because when we got back from Indianapolis our apartment was freezing since Evan had turned the temp. down. She just hung out like that for awhile. Super cute! And yes we got a picture of her 1st time with Santa. She hated him but we finally did get a smile out of her. Perfect!

Play date/ Business in Indy

Sorry no pics from the trip thus far, we forgot our digital camera. I won't miss any memories though, I bought a disposable camera. We arrived on Sunday afternoon, just in time for a Pacers BB game. Aren't I lucky :o) It was alright! Monday, Ella and I did some shopping and got settled into the room. Today its rainy and Ella seems like she might be getting sick. So, unfortunately we decided to stay in all day. It just gets long in a little room. Tonight we will go have drinks and dinner and the hotel, it's free. At least we'll get out a little. Tomorrow we plan to have a big day at the shopping mall. Anyways last week we had another play date with little Aiden. He is now smaller than Ella but moving quicker. He also has 2 little teeth poking out. I don't think Ella is far behind him. She is starting to get on her knees and rock. The babies weren't that interactive, it was kind of surprising. Maybe next time! So we are excited to come home. We are home for a week and than gone again for 2. It will be busy but I am looking forward to it. Let's just pray Ella doesn't get sick.

In the pics: Ella and Aiden are so cute! They even have matching hats. She just got a new big girl carseat, as you can see she likes it.

Thanksgiving/Cleveland

On Thanksgiving Day I had to work 7a-5p. Evan and Ella came over to the house to have turkey dinner with us. So it was nice knowing I was getting paid to eat and visit. You can see Katie really likes Ella, actually she likes babies in general. So we had a good weekend. It was nice to get away. We went to Clevland to go to a BB game and to do some touring of the city. We went to a science museum and a natural history museum. Ella was really good, and she definitely enjoyed the pool. Hopefully everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a long weekend. Can't wait to leave for the holidays. We leave Dec. 19th, counting down the days.

In the pics: The picture of the house is the house from "A Christmas Story" the movie. It was filmed there in Cleveland. We didn't go in it due to the long line, as you can see. Also, the pic of her in her in her swimming suit, she is doing her favorite beauty pagent wave. The one with her all bundled up was so cute because I had to hold her up. It was obviously a little harder to sit up all with 20 layers on. The last pic, is of her shot wounds. She had to get 4, but she did alright, I guess. She is now 19lbs 9 oz and 27 3/4 in. long. She is a big girl, at the 90th percentile for both weight and length.