Just a little practice...

I just came across these pictures the other day and thought they were so cute I had to post them. This was at my family's beach trip last summer, I was about 20 weeks pregnant with Ella and we had just found out she was a girl about a week before the trip. Bryan got a lesson in dealing with little girls from my cousins, Catherine and Claire. Not only did he fix their hair for them, he let them fix his hair too. So cute!! I know we'll be seeing repeats of this when (if) Ella gets hair.

Bath time

These photos aren't anything special but I figured it's bee a while since I've put any pictures of Ella's second favorite activity (second only to eating) up here so here are some fun ones from her bath the other night...

Weekend Fun

Somehow, between parties the last couple of weekends we've still had time for some family stuff too. Most of you know Little Miss Ella is a wiggle worm, always moving. It's a struggle to get her to sit still long enough to drink a bottle. Because of this we've not spent a lot of time reading to her. Lately thought she's started picking up her books and taking them to Bryan to read to her. Why is this? Bryan has never read an entire book in his life! I'm the resident book worm yet Ella would prefer to have her daddy read to her... I guess when she's stuck with me all day she'll do anything to spend some quiet time with him during the evenings. It so sweet to see her sitting there looking at all the pictures while he reads to her. I'm trying to get her to sit with me too, but I'm not holding my breath that will happen anytime soon.

Also Nana and Grandpa were in town working on their house in Sophia so Ella got lots of time outside to explore the new place.

Birthdays, birthdays, birthdays

Our last 2 weekends have been chock full of birthday bashes for Ella's friends. For some reason we're surrounded by fall babies!

On September 27 we headed to the Burch household for Addie's 1st birthday. Cupcakes for all! Stacy had set up a pumpkin painting station for the kiddoes, Ella is too young to enjoy it but she sure did like watching the bigger kids participate! She mostly pushed Addie's toy around the yard and danced when Baity would push the lion's nose to make it sing. My girl loves to shake her booty!

Ella dancing with the lion She's waving at somebody here.

Sweet Ellison Soto painting her pumpkin

Addie in all her birthday glory

Caroline Perez enjoying her cupcake

Precious Baity Barksdale. Those eyes kill me, they are so freaking blue!

Ella actually let us put a party hat on her and she kept it on forever. I can't believe it didn't drive her crazy.

Ellison wanted to share her cupcake with Bryan.
Cutie pie, Ella James Schwanke.
The cool cupcake pinata. I had never seen one of these before but the kids pull off the ribbons one by one to make the candy fall out-- a bit safer than having a bunch of toddlers swinging a bat around! [September 27, 2008]

The following weekend it was off to Caroline Perez's 2nd birthday party. What else but a "Backyardigans" theme for this precious little one! Complete with a mini bounce house and balls! This thing was the perfect size for little ones, in fact I told Bryan we should get one and put it up in the house since we can't get Ella to play in the pack 'n' play but we couldn't get her out of this one!

The birthday girl in the ball pit, and of course she's sporting a pink tutu!
Ella's first birthday party casualty... she sliced her finger open on Bryan's beer can. Don't get me started on how it happened, sometimes I wonder what dad's are thinking. Anyway, once she realized she had to sit still so we could keep a paper towel on it to stop the bleeding (I swear it was like Old Faithful) she was pretty cool about it.
Ella James and Ellison took their turn in the bouncy house/ball pit
Caroline about to blow out the candles on her giant cupcake. Ella and Addie enjoying the view from their daddy's shoulders
Ella James trying to figure out how the bubbles come out of the wand. Bryan was incredibly patient with her but she never got it. I tend to agree with her, it's much more fun to have someone else do it for you!
Caroline and Allie going after the pinata. For those of you who no nothing of the world of Noggin, this is Uniqua, a main character on the Backyardigans. I have no idea what kind of animal she's supposed to be and no idea where the writers came up with the name "Uniqua"
The girls were having some trouble so Caroline's daddy, Tony, came to the rescue to get the trap door open
Addie and Ellison wanted to make sure there was no candy left on the ground! [October 5, 2008]

The last party of the weekend was to celebrate Riley Brundage's 3rd birthday. What a sweet girl! We arrived a little late due to Ella taking an extra long morning nap Sunday. What a sight we arrived to. The entire backyard was taken up by a huge bouncy Princess castle. And kids running around everywhere. Ella was in hog heaven with so much activity to watch. Riley is so good to Ella and such a good big friend. When we got there it was like the bouncy castle and all her friends disappeared, Riley was so intent on playing with Ella! I swear, she is the sweetest! I will say however, never in my life have I wanted to discipline someone else's child so badly. Not Riley, of course. This other little girl, who had to be at least 6 or 7 kept opening Riley's gifts. Carrie, Riley's mom, was trying to read all the cards as Riely was opening, so her mom could write down who gave what, and I was picking up the discarded wrapping paper so they woulnd't have trash all over the back yard. But it was impossible to keep up because there were like 4 kids opening presents. After about 5 minutes most of the parents had pulled the kids out of the circle, except this one little girl. Who just kept tearing into all of the presents. not only did Riley miss out on opening a lot (which is super fun and important when you're three!) but Carrie's mom had a hard time keeping up with who brough which present because I kept finding cards in bags the other little girl had opened and we had no clue what went with what. I'm warning you all now... if any of your kids show up to Ella's 3rd birthday and start opening her presents (especially if they're old enough to know better) I will hurt you. Not your child, but you. Don't say I didn't warn you ;)
Riley talking to Ella

Ella enjoying some pizza crust.
The Birthday Girl about to blow out her candles
Little Miss Logan Brundage
Riley's super cool Butterfly Wings that light up and play music.

Okay, this conludes the longest post in Holcomb family history. With all the parties behind us it's time to start planning Ella's for the end of November. I cannot believe she's almost 1!!!

Ella's First Steps!!

Hooray for Ella, she took 8 steps yesterday all by herself. Last week we noticed she would let go of whatever she was holding on to and stand by herself, occassionally taking a step... but that step was more to balance herself than to get anywhere. Yesterday she threw that out the window and was "walking" to me, my mom, and, when he got home, Bryan. As long as she can't reach us she'll keep taking steps and reaching her arms at us. The most she took at one time yesterday was 8! I have no pictures yet but will definitely take some today to post later. We have some serious baby proofing to do to this house if she's going to be even more mobile than she is right now!

Play time with Keller

This past Friday Ella got a little play time with her cousin Keller. While it was great to see the Best family and have some time to hang out, it was due to a funeral, and that's never a good thing. However, Ella made the most of it and showed off for everyone there, clapping, waving, and babbling up a storm. Keller is 11 weeks younger than Ella and is lucky he made it out alive. Our little monkey kept trying to use him as a climbing toy, bless his heart! But he was trooper and put up with all her shenanigans.



I promise, Ella did not push Keller over here! He just can't quite sit up by himself and I couldn't snap the picture quickly enough.

Go Buckeyes?

I've been getting a lot of slack for having a million pictures of Ella in WFU gear and none in her OSU stuff... okay, okay, I give up. I tried to get some shots of her in my Ohio State hat last week, it didn't go so well. My baby, who has never complained about having a hat on her head, kept trying to pull it off. And when she wasn't pulling it off she was making an awful face and some weird snorting thing with her nose. I have NO IDEA where she picked that up but we need to put a stop to it because it is not cute. Here are the memories from the attempt to get Ella to cheer for the Buckeyes.