first snowfall

One October morning we woke up and saw that our yard was covered in a thin layer of snow.  Ella was elated!  She insisted on going out to play in it.  We got her all bundled up and she went out and made as many snow angels as she could.

The snow melted within a few hours, but she loved the time she was able to spend playing in it that morning.

fall fun

 We always hear about how fun Cornbelly's is so this year we took advantage of a great deal (thanks to Yolanda) and went to check it out. 

 We had lots of fun playing around.

 Ella loved every individual area so much that she didn't want to ever leave.

 Ella has quite an imagination.  I was listening to her use her best cowgirl accent as she offered to save people with her "lasaro" (a mix between lasso and Lazaro).

 

Sophie is so used to sharing the spotlight that she eats up any individual attention she gets!

It was very fitting that Ella's favorite area was the Princess Playland.  She got to pick out a dress and then went up on stage and danced her little heart out.  It was adorable to watch!  I think the only reason we could talk her into leaving was because they give the girls a treat when they returned their dresses.

 

We will definitely go back to Cornbelly's next year!

Preschool 2012

 I can't believe how grown up my Ella Bella is.  We are doing a little neighborhood preschool again this year with 4 other little girls in the area.  Ella was sad that we weren't able to do it with her preschool friends from last year, but has quickly become good friends with our new group.  She is very excited that her best friend, our next door neighbor Aimee, is in her class again this year.

 Ella loves school.  In fact, her favorite number is 5 because that's how old she will be when she gets to ride the bus to kindergarten.

We love our big girl so much!

Halloween 2012

 Back in the summer Ella was obsessed with fairy tales.  She was always asking me to read them to her or tell her them.  One day as I was telling her the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears we decided it would be fun if our family dressed up as those characters for Halloween.  We kept it really simple and had one of my old young women crochet bear hats and then dressed Ella up and curled her hair.  I asked her if she wanted blonde hair, but she quickly refused and told me that she likes her brown hair.  The idea sounded cuter than it ended up being.  No one seemed to have any idea who we were at the Trunk or Treat the weekend before Halloween.  This made it easy for me to change plans the night before Halloween when Ella told me she wanted to be Belle.

Ella fortunately had this beautiful Belle dress up from her birthday so she wore that.

 We found Ella's old costume from two years ago and it fit Sophie perfectly so she dressed up as a fairy.

 Usually it is really cold on Halloween here in Utah, but this year it snowed the week before and then got really warm again.  It was 70 degrees on Halloween! It was a fun holiday filled with way too much candy and lots of opportunities to get together with friends and family.

soccer girl

 This fall we decided to put Ella in a city soccer league because Yolanda, her aunt, was the coach.  We thought it would be fun for Ella to have this experience with Yolanda and Gabe.  She LOVED it.

 She played as well as we could have hoped a three year old would play.  She was emotional at times and didn't really understand the game for the most part, but she was an incredible goalie!  She really impressed us as goalie because she wasn't afraid of the ball and saved most of the balls that came her way.

 By the end of the season she was loving playing soccer and kept asking Gustavo to go outside and play with her.  One of the last games she did really well and was on cloud nine.  On the way home she kept talking about how much she loves her team and how much everyone loves her.  I love the egocentricity of 3 year olds.

  

We loved watching Ella get better over the course of the season and seeing how excited she was about it.  She refers to herself as a "soccer girl" and even asked us to call her that!

 Ella and Gabe have always been really close.  They love playing together and are such good friends.  During soccer they didn't interact much on the field, but they had fun on the side lines together.

Thanks Nena and Gabe for inviting Ella to come play on your team!

12 months

 Sophie must know how sad I am seeing her grow up so she's staying my little baby for as long as possible.  She isn't really showing any signs of walking, she only has 4 little teeth, and she is TINY!  When we went to her 12 month appointment we found out that she:

weighs:

her head is:

and is

I can't get over how cute my little Sophie is!

troublemaker

Our little Sophie is into everything!  She leaves a mess wherever she goes.

 I found Sophie in her closet one afternoon ripping clothes off of hangers.

 Sophie is a climber.  This is new for me because Ella has always been so cautious (just like her mom!)

 This happens EVERY time she's in the kitchen and I'm not holding her. Notice how extremely happy she is about what she's done.

I try to keep this game cupboard locked because there is so much potential for huge messes, but Sophie seems to have some kind of radar and knows every time I forget.  Within seconds she has taken out at least two games and made a huge mess.  I need to keep my eyes on this little monkey at all times!