Christmas Cookies

After some shopping on Friday, Ella and I decided to make our first batch of Christmas cookies. One of her favorite things to do is to get the rolling pin out and pretend she is making cookies, so I thought it was time to let her try it for real! She did really well (except for the flour everywhere) and our cookies turned out tasty! This is the best time of year! Notice the grin in the second picture. This is the smile I get when I tell her to say, "cheese".

Dress Up

Ella loves to pull everything out of her "accessories" drawer and put them all on. I went to check my email for a few minutes and came back to find this. Quite the fashion sense, don't you think?

The Fair

Each fall we enjoy taking Ella to the fair. She loves the rides...especially the race cars. We had to ride them 3 times! Check out her new bubble gun. She used the whole bottle of bubbles in minutes!

Fall Fun

This past weekend we spent a day at the pumpkin patch. Aidan and the grandparents came to join us. We went on a hayride, picked pumpkins and enjoyed apple cider. There are so many fun things to do in the fall! Wishing all of you a Happy Fall!

Afternoon at Biltmore

Last Sunday we had a fun afternoon at Biltmore. If you have not been there are so many things to do on the grounds! We went to the petting zoo, saw all kinds of neat things growing in the garden and played lots of yard games. There are also great hiking trails. There was a chill in the air and it really got us in the mood for fall!

Labor Day Weekend

We enjoyed a nice long weekend at the lake with Grammy and PopPop for Labor Day. Mimi and Grandaddy got to come and visit us too! We enjoyed fishing, riding the boat, swimming in Ella's kiddie pool and playing with the neighbor's puppy, Scooter. We had a great weekend spending time with our family and being lazy!

Gymnastics

So I have to tell you about our experience with gymnastics. Two weeks ago Ella had her first class. She was really excited but when we got there, things fell apart. She would scream and cry any time her teacher came near her, she refused to sit on her mat and she would not go in the order her teacher told the class to. All the moms were just looking at me as my child was refusing to do anything I wanted her to. I was brokenhearted because I had this vision in my mind of her loving it but it was not as I had hoped! The teacher encouraged me to keep bringing her that she would warm up. I bought her a leotard after the first class and brought it home for her to try on and we had another meltdown. I managed to get her to put it on but she cried the whole time saying, "I not like it, take off my 'unicard'". I got so tickled I couldn't even be upset! This was our first episode of the infamous terrible twos. The next week when we went back, she still refused to wear the "unicard" but she did have a better experience. Her teacher let her jump in the foam pit and she warmed up to her in there. We have been practicing our handstands and saying "presentation!" She seems to enjoy it at home so I am hoping she will warm up to it!!