More Merry Christmas Pictures....

Chase got a cool car!

Ella was at times more fascinated with bows....

Guess who Ella was looking at....

SANTA! She was a little hesitant to get close to Dancing Santa Claus

Grapes are delicious!

Ella agrees!

PEEK-A-BOO!

Christmas 2010

Can't get much of a cuter expression. She loves this BAA


Cousin Chase gettin' in on the gift opening Christmas Day

Mom, hold on, I can't open any more gifts. I have to talk to my peeps!

New hair bow...she seems a little concerned about that.

Ella's new chair. She thinks she's pretty cool...no, VERY cool in this chair of hers.

Ella's favs - Dadda & Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

Opening away....

Ella & me with her gifts from us (that's a lot of pronouns!)

Merry Christmas!!

More pics later....

Pictures

Ella chit chatting

Can you see the fear? I guess Ella doesn't really love Santa or Mrs. Claus this year!

Wanna talk on the phone?

So Ella's latest favorite thing to do is talk on the phone with either of our cell phones. She has mini conversations about who knows what! It's pretty adorable. Except when Ella successfully unlocks the phone & places prank calls! A few of you may have received one of those calls from Ella - what a little stinker!!

We survived the Blizzard 2010. I think Farmington ranked in one of the higher snow totals for the metro area. We have some serious drifts in the back of the house. On Saturday night I told Jay that I should get a picture in the drift because I couldn't believe how high it was! Then Sunday rolled around and it was like 0 degrees outside and I don't own any snow gear. Nevermind that picture. But, we (I) spent some time baking! Caramel corn, chewy molasses cookies and vanilla snowball truffles. It was great success!

I can't get my pictures to upload right now....UGH!!!

18 Month Stats

We survived Ella's 18 month well visit! She only had to get the flu shot, so that was excellent news! She gained a couple pounds and now weighs 26 lbs., 13 oz., which bumps her into the 75-90th percentile for weight and at 34" tall, she's still 97th percentile for height. We learned that Ella is more advanced in her social and verbal skills and is still a little behind in the gross motor skills. Typically 18 month olds have a 3-4 word vocab. Ella knows quite a few words, so after the appointment, we started a list (we are famous here at the Abbas household for lists...)! Anyway, our current list includes 37 words, which I can't even believe myself. Go her! I guess reading all those books (a million zillion times) is paying off! We're still dealing with Ella's neck/torticollis issue. This Friday we meet with the specialist to review now that she's had a few sessions of physical therapy. Our pediatrician is wondering if it's something else that's causing Ella to hold her head to the side on occasion (like an eye issue). But, we had the eye exam this summer and everything checked out normal, so I'm not sure. It's frustrating!! Ella seemed to be responding great to the therapy and then the past few weeks, it's like we're back to square one. Say a prayer for Ella please. We really want this matter resolved with the therapy!

Still no new teeth! Unreal.

Last night Ella had a sleepover at Grandpa and Grandma Abbas'. Sweet! Jay & I went out for dinner and watched Eclipse on a normal "unquiet" volume at home! Fabulous! We both took today off to accomplish some Christmas shopping, so we even got to sleep in a little bit, which has become a VERY rare occasion. Ella's new normal wake time has become anywhere from 5:45 a.m. to 6 a.m. Damn daylight savings!

'Tis the Season

Don't you just love the Holidays! I can't believe we're officially in the Christmas baking and shopping season and the big day is only a few weeks away. I'm so excited for this year's events to experience it with Ella (she should understand more this year, and maybe even be able to open a gift by herself!) I'm hoping to catch a few pictures this week of her curious self checking out our Christmas Tree. BUT, she's clever. She waits....waits until I'm maybe moving the car, or grabbing the mail or changing the laundry....when she knows that I'm not watching...then I'll catch her in the act! She's growing up so much! She'll be 18 months old on Thursday (sigh!) We have the 18 month dr. appointment on Friday, so I'll be sure to update her latest progress report. She's becoming quite the chatty Cathy. I love it. Sunday she helped us cheer on the Vikings....Her phrase "go 'king go" Did I mention she's teething? Yeah, it's been a fun runny poop filled week. Started last Tuesday with a record 8 poop diapers. Seriously, should have invested in Pampers when I had the chance! Anyway, the height of the madness was Wednesday and Thanksgiving Thursday last week. Every word "mom" "mom" and then she'd hang on my leg - wouldn't want anyone else to hold her - I couldn't leave the room without her having a melt down. Made for a few of my own melt downs, but we survived. And I still can't find any new teeth in the precious little mouth of hers!! Gotta be popping through soon!

28 Million

If you haven't heard, LiveSTRONG is having a sale - 28% off to be specific - on any items in their online shop (including the wristbands!) www.livestrong.org and click on 'Shop'

Why 28% off? There are 28 Million cancer survivors in this world of ours. 28 MILLION. I know some, and odds are you know some too. I just learned of a few more recent diagnoses, which always brings me back to LiveSTRONG. A great organization that is near & dear to our family.

Grab some LiveSTRONG gear to show your support of cancer survivors, or maybe even a few gifts!

p.s. The discount expires at midnight on November 30th

Another Birthday bites the....

Celebrated another birthday on Saturday. Had a busy weekend of fun (despite the SNOW on Saturday). Spent Friday with some family & friends (shopping) and Saturday it was a DATE with Jay and a night away in Minnetonka. It. was. lovely. This weekend I'm looking forward to a bday gift massage. Whoo hoo!

Also this past weekend, Ella got her first haircut! Just a bangs trim. (I like your bangs....if you are a Napoleon Dynamite fan like me!)

Do you love Ella's new look - she's been giving this one to us for a few weeks now. Cracks me up every time!

And finally, a few wagon pics I've been wanting to post (good thing we got those in!)

p.s. The cupcake was made by my fabulous sister. It was so delicious! Who knew she had some baking skills! Maybe a bakery will be in our future!!

Need an Apple Pie Recipe?

So a few weeks ago (after our trip to the apple orchard, which I still haven't posted pictures from....) I tried a new apple recipe, and it was so delicious, I thought I should share. Here's the pie I made:





Find the recipe here

Delicious!

Halloween 2010

Ella as a butterfly...pics from Friday night at the trick-or-treat event at the middle school.

Waiting in line (outside!)

CHEESE!!

Walking around waiting for the line to move....

Dadda, why is this taking so long?!?!

Butterfly, less the butterfly head (it was getting too warm)

Just about ready to head into the Gym to trick-or-treat

Ella's first trick-or-treat (notice the outfit is practically off - it was so hot in the gym!)

Got scared on the way out...

October 31, 2010

HiYAH!

She's Walking!

Okay, I'm a little behind on the blog. But Ella is walking! WHOO HOO!!! We were getting a bit nervous after 13 months, 14, months, 15 months came and went and Ella still wasn't taking steps on her own. But, happily, she's got it down now! She took her first 5 steps 2 Saturdays ago and then progressed from there. She is building up her confidence every day and she gets very proud of herself when she makes the journey from the kitchen to the living room!

Ella is going to be a butterfly for Halloween. We'll get some pictures posted soon! In the meantime, here are a few recent shots!

Playing in the leaves (she insisted on wearing the glasses!)

BOO!

Mini Pumpkin Pie

Hey, here's my latest baking adventure - mini pumpkin pies. They turned out really cute. I added faces to each for Halloween! Fun!





And here's Ella! These were taken the other morning when the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was starting. She gets all excited when the song comes on. :)

How Funky is your Chicken?

Remember Junior High (or maybe where you come from they called it Middle School)? Remember how carefree that time in our lives was? Okay, well maybe the use of "carefree" is debatable. But, really, most of us weren't required to have a job yet (aside from maybe babysitting or "chores" at home) so we just spent our days in school and then maybe sports/other activity practice in the afternoon/evenings. I'm sure in the midst of jr. high I didn't think it was all that fab, but looking back, it was probably a pretty fun time. Why am I even talking about this? Well, it's a really crazy round-a-bout, but here goes. Lately, I (and sometimes Jay) get random songs (i.e. songs from Ella's collection....Elmo's World, Barney, Sesame Street...) stuck in my head. Today, as I'm wandering through my work day, this is what pops in my head:

How Funky is your chicken? (how funky is your chicken?)
How loose is your goose? (our goose is totally loose)
So come on all you Spartans (so come on all you Spartans)
And Shake your caboose
And Shake your caboose

Worthington Junior High - Home of the Spartans. I might not have the exact words right, but this was one of the cheers at our football, basketball games in junior high. And today, I'm walking around chanting this cheer on repeat. I guess it's better than the Barney clean-up song....hope you don't get THAT one stuck in your head.

Goose Hunting - Morris

I can't believe it's Wednesday already! This past weekend we made a trip to Morris, MN for the goose hunting opener (for Jay - we were just along for the visit). We stayed with some of Jay's relatives, and Grandpa & Grandma Abbas came along too. We had a good time, although it was busy!! We met baby Brice (10 months old already!) Ella LOVES babies right now, so I think she thought this was so great! Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Ella (16 months) with Brice (10 months) They were so cute playing together.


Ella (16 months)

Brice & Ella at the Fall Festival in Sauk Rapids that we ventured to on Saturday. We were all a little unsure of what we would find at this "fall festival" which took place on someone's private farm, but it was actually kind of fun. They had chickens & goats that you could feed & horses & alpacas around with tons of vendors.

Today we had a fun family day! Jay took the day off from work & we headed out for some shopping. Ella made out like a bandit! She's got some cute new clothes that will hopefully fit until the holidays! Our new favorite store: 77 Kids by American Eagle. OMG! Cute stuff! I'll get some pictures soon!

And...Ella debuted some dancing this weekend, which I caught on video, but (of course) my camera battery is dead so I can't upload it. I'll get it up soon - we think it's pretty cute.

Go TWINS!