December Delights

Our month of December has been full of fun!
The last day in November the city of Kettering lit the Mayors Holiday Tree along with several other trees around the park that is across the street from us. We bundled all up (thinking it would be cold) and headed out to watch the lighting ceremony. We had lots of fun counting down with the Mayor and watching the "millions of twinkling lights" turn on. 

The first of December started with a piano recital for all of Nicole's piano students. Each week she teaches wonderful little students how to play the piano. It has been so much fun to watch them come not knowing anything and within a few weeks they can play songs!

Christmas eve we went over to our wonderful friends house (Hansen's) and had a yummy dinner and a dance party with glow sticks. Ella and her friend Cole loved dancing to the music with glow sticks on. I think I say this every post but we really are so grateful for our wonderful Ohio family out here!

Our Christmas was one of the best ones we have had so far. We were able to enjoy a Christmas day as a little family. We enjoyed french toast for breakfast and then we loved watching Ella get so excited to open all the presents. She was given a stroller from her grandparents that we had set up for her to see. Once she saw that, she didn't really care about anything else until we showed her how to unwrap things. Later in the day we went to check out the Kettering City Christmas day celebration at Polen Farm. We sang carols, saw Santa Claus, and ate food. We missed being with all of our extended family but we loved having the time to do our own thing!

 We have also enjoyed reading stories, making yummy treats, snuggling with our little pumpkin, and play in the bath tub (Ella).

Our little ballerina

We wish you all a very happy 2013! We look forward to what this new year has in store for us (GRADUATION for one!!!!)

Happy Happy Birthday Ella Dear!

Happy birthday to our sweet little Ella. She is now one!
It has been fun to reflect that last few days on a year ago and think where we were at that time and how our lives were about to change.
Her birthday was on Friday November 23. We got home late Thursday night from celebrating Thanksgiving in Kentucky.

Ella slept in a little which was very nice! She woke up and we had a pretty normal morning minus that fact that she thought her parents were completely crazy because we kept saying happy birthday. We took a walk to see the ducks since that is her favorite thing.
We decided we would open presents and celebrate starting at 3:42 pm since that was the time she was born. We had my family on Skype, Ella was undressed and her cupcake was waiting for her.

First attempt at eating the cupcake

Cupcake

We put her in her high chair, sang happy birthday and gave her the cupcake with a candle. She got scared, started crying and wanted to get out. We pulled her out and she put her head on moms shoulder. We tried to open presents but she didn't like that. She just sat on moms lap holding on for dear life.
The next day she finally ate a different cupcake after mom put it upside down so she couldn't see the frosting. She was probably the cleanest baby ever!

We were able to have some dear friends over on Saturday to help us celebrate and eat all the cupcakes.

Not liking the cupcake

See it is good!

Attempt #2 with a different cupcake

A few of Ella's likes:
*reading stories
*playing moms piano...she now has her own piano and she LOVES it!
*the ducks at the pond
*standing up and walking around
*dancing with dad
*saying hi to people and waving

Ella now weighs 20 pound 3 ounces (56%)
and she is 28 3/4 inches tall (32%).

We love our little pumpkin and are looking forward to what the next year bring with her. 

October Adventures

Kettering Ward Trunk or Treat

We enjoyed our wards trunk or treat and chili cook off this year. We dressed up as beekeepers with our little sunflower. We had the back of our car decorated as a beehive. We enjoyed eating dinner and mingling with all of our dear friends.

2nd annual Spook gingerbread houses

We continued on with our fun tradition of making gingerbread houses and decorating them. My mom makes gingerbread houses during Christmas time. I wanted to continue that tradition but we decided to do it during Halloween and make Spook Houses. So, this year I made 6 spook houses and put them all together. Darrin told me he doesn't like the part of the tradition when I make them and put them together because it puts me in a bad mood.....so I tried really hard to not be in a bad mood and I only burned myself 3 times with the melted sugar!
We invited some of our friends over to help decorate houses. We are once again grateful for all of our friends out here in Ohio!

Burnham's Spook House

Lyle's Spook House

Dalton's Spook House

Roth's Spook House

Hansen's Spook House

Jensen's Spook House

Our Pumpkin is 11 months old!

Our little pumpkin, Ella, is 11 months old today! WOW!!
In the last month her little personality has sure changed. She is no longer a baby, she is turning into a little girl.
She talks to mom all day long. We have some pretty good conversations.
Ella and I get to visit an 82 year old lady 3 days a week and eat lunch with her. Ella LOVES going to visit her friend and gets so excited when we walk up to the porch and ring the doorbell.
She crawls ALL over the place and is into everything. She loves to pull herself up and walk around the furniture. She loves to take walks to the pond to see the ducks. She gets so excited when she sees them. She could watch them for hours if I let her.

Ella also loves all 16 of moms piano students. She gets so jealous when they come over and mom lets them play the piano and not Ella. She loves the attention she gets from them!
Ella also loves:
*Reading stories
*Singing songs
*chasing dad around the house
*eating almost everything
*apple juice
*talking on the phone to grandma
*brushing her own hair-every morning Ella has to have a brush in her hand and help mom do her hair.
*Mom's car keys

We couldn't ask for a better little girl! We love her and are so grateful to be able to raise her!

Picking Apples

Since we have been living in Ohio, we have been able to experience some things that we don't get to do in Utah. This year we decided that we wanted to go to an Apple Orchard and pick some apples. Because of the hot summer with little rain that we had, there were several orchards that had no apples or were not offering "pick your own." We found one orchard about 45 minutes away from us that still had some left. We bundled up and drove out to Tuken Farms one Saturday morning to pick a few apples and take lots of pictures! I really only cared about the pictures.
The only apple that is orchard had left to pick was the "Gold Rush" apple. It is a yellow apple that is really sweet (a little tart) and the skin is really rough (almost like sandpaper). Ella enjoyed herself. She picked one apple and held onto it the entire time! She also LOVED sitting in the wagon with the apple basket or on the ground digging through the apples. They even had a petting zoo. We walked past the animals and Ella laughed and smiled at all of them.
We now have SEVERAL apples to bake with! So far we have made 2 apple pies and some apple fritters. I think we picked a few too many apples but it was sure fun!

Getting ready for the apple orchard