In Honor of Fall

Since the first official cold front arrived today, we giggle with excitement at thoughts of a fall wardrobe. Leggings and sweaters and boots, oh my!

Mommy and me Uggs

Tia's Wedding Shower

Today we got to celebrate Tia as she prepares to walk down the aisle. Lots of friends and family, good food and some very delicious Lychee Martinis.

Charlotte and Miss E

Cynthia and E

The palm pots made to look like palm trees

The amazing loot

Iron umbrellas filled with gorgeous tropical flowers and roses

Yum yum yummy cake!

Sweet cousins helping Tia open presents. The story behind this is that when I got married Daniella helped Shaun and I open all our wedding gifts. So now, these adorable kids will always help open presents at showers and weddings!

Mimi with Ella

Dani just couldn't put E down. It was so cute.

The Bride-to-be with the flower girl

Funny Hawaiin pictures!

Ella was more interested in the flower lei than anything else

Take my picture Tia!!!

The new generation of "the girls"

"Oh Daniella!"

I love this picture. At first you think Ella may have choked on a pistachio she found on the floor, only to have Dani swoop in and save her with the Heimlich Maneuver. But no, that's not the case. Ella has been fake coughing all day long. She just happened to get caught at a very dramatic moment in Dani's arms.

Gorgeous gals...pretending to be brides with their pretty orchid bouquets

Seriously...can they get any cuter?!?!?

"Hey Dani!"

"Yes Ella?"

"WHAT?!?!"

"Hey Gabi!"

Tia with our cousin Michelle, Gabi's mom. Don't know why the pic came out like that but hey, looks kinda cool!

Eating flower petals

Boo Boo, Bath Time and Hi

Ouch! Miss E got a boo boo today. While practicing her plies, a slip of the foot and a face plant into a table gave this little a big lip!

No cut or blood thank goodness, just a swollen lip. Guess we should tell people she got into it with a shoe snatcher at Nordies today. Just look at that poor baby!

Trying to pull the camera closer...she wanted to make sure I documented for the police file.

"Why did this happen to me Maaaaa???"

But the tears lasted for ohhh...about 5 seconds, then it was back to happy Miss E.

"E" is for Ella

(albeit backwards, but it's still an E)

Just for Dada...the football hold. She told me she wanted to show Peyton the proper techniques. However she only had a mushroom to demonstrate with.

Tonight, when Shaun called to check on things, I held up the phone to Ella and told her to say "Hi". And you know what, she said Hi!!! We've been practicing saying Hi and Bye and she says it randomly. But this was no fluke, no randomness here. Everytime I told her to say "hi", she said it!

The Furball and the Rufflebutt

Why do all small children love Boo Radley? I just can't figure it out. Is it the furry fur? The fluffy tail? Cuz it sure ain't the sharp teeth and throaty growl.

Please let me pull on your soft white fur Boo....puuullleeeeaaaase????

I don't understand but Boo definitely does not like children.

Thankfully Boo doesn't bite. I'm guessing it's because her mouth is too small to get around anything other than a kibble. But she snaps. And Ella absolutely, without a doubt, loves to be snapped at.

Wake Up Dada!

Oh Dada...you work so hard and just want to come home and catch some zzzz's on the couch while a little Sunday foozball plays on the flat screen. Well, I have other plans for you!!

Finally, she crawls...

10 and 2

Look both ways...

Look left...

Look right...

And we're off!!

Before you call CPS on us, this was just in our driveway. We did NOT pull a Britney! Snicker, snicker...

Labor Day Plane Ride

Time for some late posts...here's the first.

In order to prepare Little Miss for the ginormous 8 hour flight to Hawai 5-0, we decided to go visit our friends, The Strehlows, in Houston. It was Hook 'Em Horns all the way!

Ella did great on the flight. Take off and landing were nothing to her. She just kept playing and standing and bouncing in my lap. The higher we got, the more of a chatterbox she became. The dadadada-s and mamamama-s turned into shrieks. They were happy shrieks, but still very loud in an enclosed space. She did not nap, however, like I had planned on. So as soon as we got into the comfort of a car seat, out like a light...

Then we got to our friend's house and Ella and Jack had to show their UT pride.

Go Longhorns!!

Playing and crawling around during lunch time

Afternoon laziness with yummies and juice

All this fun wore a cute little boy out!

Jess with the babies

Ella decided she wanted to check out Jack's hair

And we just had to. I'm sure these kids will kill us one day, but how could we resist?!?! Jess and I have known each other since HIGH SCHOOL!! It's only appropriate that our kids take a bath together!

The lowdown here...Jack stole Ella's toy (although technically, they are all Jack's toys) so she sucker punched him.

Hehehe...not really, but it sure looks like it! And he actually did take that toy right before she "punched" him.

I am happy to report that for now, Ella loves dogs. I was terrified of dogs until I was 8 years old and I hoped that with 8 dogs in this crazy family, Ella would not be afraid. Yeeeaaahhh, she loves them! Especially when they give doggy kisses...