Holiday Decorating

Derek had the whole Thanksgiving weekend off which was really fun. We were able to just relax and spend time together as a family - it was so nice! One of things we did was get our Christmas tree and decorate the house. In classic Ashley fashion, she helped decorate in her swim suit...one of her most beloved items of clothing no matter the season. Also another classic (at least in our family) was when I was video-ing Ashley and Ella putting ornaments on the tree to capture this wonderful family bonding time and within 10 seconds of me recording, Ella dropped one of the ornaments and it shattered all over the floor. After we recovered from that, we all had a lot of fun and the girls were so excited to have the house all ready for Santa. It's going to be hard to wait the 29 more day until he comes!

Poor Tired Child

Ella has done it again! Ella is not big on sleeping (which is unfortunate because I am), so I was really suprised when she fell asleep while eating lunch the other day. On a normal day there is a lot of random screaming, throwing of dishes off the high chair, and a number of other loud activities going on while eating lunch, which means I'm usually well informed of what's going on, even if I'm not in the room. I got Ella and Ashley all situated with their lunches and then ran upstairs to switch out some laundry. I was only up there a few minutes, but noticed it was entirely too quiet downstairs so I stopped what I was doing and went down to check on the girls. I was so surprised to see Ella sound asleep with a mouthful of food! I guess I used to routinely fall asleep, face first, in my dinner a lot when I was Ella's age, so maybe it's in my genes somewhere. Who knows, but I thought it was pretty funny!

Fashion Diva's

Ashley has been really getting into creating her own outfits lately. Usually, she will put on a fairly resonable outfit and then accessorize with anything sparkley. As you can tell, she is also very into belts. Ella has started getting into the action as well - she has just begun doing her own hair! Here are just a couple of the latest ensembles.

Santa Claus is Coming To Town...

We were at the mall the other day and there was Santa sitting out in front with some of his reindeer. He was an awesome Santa too! Since it was so early in the season, there was no line at all and Santa had lots of time to talk with Ashley about what she wanted for Christmas. Ella wasn't too sure about Santa, but allowed him to talk to her a little.

After visiting Santa we all rode on the carousel and Derek even got in on the fun -yeehaw!

Chirstmas is coming and we're excited!!!

~ Ella's First Haircut ~

Our good friend gave Ella her first haircut the other day. Ella's baby-mullet was getting a little out of control, so we had to trim it up a bit. We bribed her to sit still with a cookie and it worked like a charm! I can't believe she's old enough to get her first haircut already - she's getting too big too fast!

Trick or Treat

Derek was supposed to work all Halloween night, but he was able to sneak away for an hour so he got to come trick or treating with us. The girls had a lot of fun but Ashley definitely doesn't have the same trick or treating genes that Derek and I have. When we were kids we would race from house to house getting as much candy as we possibly could and only stop when our parents would tell us it was too late to keep knocking doors. Ashley on the other hand enjoys the first 10 doors, but then starts to fizzle and would rather go home and look at her candy. Maybe it's something you acquire with age? Either way we had a lot of fun and still have way too much candy in our house.

Happy Halloween!

It is a tradition in our family for Derek to pick a hard intricate picture to carve in his pumpkin and for me to choose one of the simplest designs possible - since I have no skill! Part of the tradition is for me to finish my pumpkin in 20 minutes and for Derek to spend an hour carving his, but then swearing that that is the last time he will do a time consuming pumpkin. We'll see if next year he keeps his promise. This year Ashley and I carved a puking pumpkin and Derek did a spider. Ella helped out by squishing the guts in her hands and then smearing it on everything within reach. You gotta love carving pumpkins!!!

All Tuckered Out

Today Ella fell asleep in the car while we were running errands. Usually she wakes up as soon as the car is turned off, but today I was able to carry her inside and lay her down in the family room with her still being asleep. She slept there on the floor while I brought in all the groceries and put them away - a little tender mercy! It was only 10:30 AM so I don't know why she was so tired, but it sure worked out nice for me. They always look so sweet when they're sleeping...and then they wake up!

You gotta love the eyes in this picture!

My new lens

For my birthday I asked for money for a new lens for my camera. It finally came last week and I've been having tons of fun playing with it. My poor girls are getting a little tired of me taking pictures of them though. Ashley was a good sport when I took these - Ella just put up with me.

Pucker Up...

Ella has officially made the transfer from giving little baby open mouth kisses to big old puckered kisses. She is ready and willing to lay one on anyone, so be ready!

It's about time!

Hello everyone! My mass emailing of pictures was getting a bit out of hand so this will be a much easier way of sharing our family's photos. Ashley and Ella are getting excited for Halloween - Ashley and I frequently talk about our favorite part of Halloween or what we think Halloween night might be like. We are very into the anticipation of holidays. Here are some of the pictures we took in our backyard of the girls in their costumes. It is almost impossible to get the two of them to sit still long enough to take a picture together...even when being bribed with candy! We're going to have to work on that!