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!

Ella

Well since my earlier post, "tomorrow" turned in to a few extra days. A few pictures of Ella...it's getting tough to capture a decent shot lately - she's on the move (but not yet walking on her own).

Have a great weekend - remember to wear YELLOW tomorrow! Good luck to all of our friends/family running in the Twin Cities Marathon & 10 Mile this weekend.

Reminder: LiveSTRONG Day

October 2nd is LiveSTRONG Day. WEAR YELLOW! Support the millions of cancer patients & survivors.

www.livestrong.org if you want more information, or want to order LiveSTRONG gear. Jay, Ella & I will be sporting our yellow & LiveSTRONG apparel. Hope you will too!

Oh Where, oh Where have we been?

busy?! Like everyone I suppose! I've got a few updates, but sadly, no fun pictures to share. Maybe tomorrow? Ella saw a dr. at Children's a few weeks ago (after the 15 mo. checkup) and he said it was "classic torticollis" Well, I'm SO glad our pediatrician waited until NOW to refer us to you. Oh well. So, we did a physical therapy session that same day, and then last week Wednesday. On Wednesday, the therapist was very impressed with Ella's neck movements and range/strength and thought we'd be done sooner rather than later with therapy. The original plan was to do bi-weekly therapy appointments until December, so that is encouraging news. We have stretches to work with Ella on at home, and mostly we have to encourage her to look to her left and then hold that pose. Somedays are easier than others to get Ella to sit for those! So, we head back to the therapist next week and we'll see what happens.

Ella's not walking on her own yet, but the toy baby stroller she has might start burning lines in the carpet! She's a maniac (maniac)....it's fun to watch. And I can tell that she's really proud of herself for accomplishing a walk behind the stroller from one side of the room to the other. :) So, it's probably only a matter of time. I keep trying to catch this on video, but it's always when I'm home by myself and usually Ella steers the stroller in a crazy direction - I just don't have enough arms!

She's got all kinds of fun new words in her vocabulary. Puppy and hot are the 2 latest additions. My favorite right now is "all gone" - she says it really cute, like a question.

Check back for pictures soon!

15 months!

Ella's 15 month well visit was this morning. She now weighs 24 pounds, 2 1/2 ounces (75th percentile) and is 32 1/2 inches tall (95th percentile). She had 2 shots, which went a LOT better than any of the previous trips, so that was good! The dr. is still concerned about Ella's neck - she thinks it is still torticollis and wants us to see another dr. to talk about other therapies we can do. Otherwise, the appointment went well. Happy Labor Day weekend! We're heading to the zoo. :)