The making of the fondant cake begins. It was so much fun doing this!






The finished product with bath toys on top!

I'm sure most of you would like to see an update on Ella. I'm sorry for the neglected blogging. I guess life is just happening and sitting down at a computer these days is more of a chore than a pass time. We have kicked this fall off with our feet running. We are still taking time to enjoy ourselves. Thanks to Grammy we have a bike seat for Ella to ride on. We took a Sunday afternoon bike ride the other day and it was so cute to see her in front of Matt on the bike. We'll have to take pictures of her once we get a new camera.

We are getting adjusted to the new house and love it. We have most things in working order. We finally fixed the bathroom plumbing this week so the showers work smoothly now. The AC is working, but will get a large maintenance upgrade this winter when it's cooler and cheaper to hire. We love our new refrigerator especially because of all the effort it took to get it after the other one died on us. We've finished most of our organizing projects. We have yet to finish the garage (which is a HUGE undertaking) and the spare bedroom needs a bit of work too. We hope to have a garage sale once the weather cools off more and the rain stops. We've done some painting in the house and it looks great! I'm finally "nesting" in a house that I know I'll live in for a while. Needless to say there can always be something to do at the house!

Ella is doing great and learning new things everyday. I think she especially loves to do things that attract attention or makes you laugh at her. Her new thing is to twirl until she makes herself so dizzy and laughing so hard that she can't stand up. She has also learned to bring her hand to her mouth to make the Indian noise. Ella seems to have this thing right now for sitting hard on things. She backs her butt up against something and then grunts as she sits down! Where she is learning this? I have no idea. She will even sit on you if you are lying on the floor. She then will repeatedly stand and sit on top of whatever tickles her fancy until she feels as though she has "squashed" it enough.

We have also started teaching her to eat with a spoon by herself. It works best with oatmeal or mashed potatoes because they stick to the spoon so well. She is so independent that I know she will really enjoy getting the hang of this. Yesterday we had to take care of a few things around Fort Myers so she had to skip her 2nd nap of the day. Around 6:30 we were all eating and next thing we know she is fast asleep in her highchair with a spoonful of half eaten potatoes dangling from her hand. We let her sleep for 30 min before waking her up to have a bath and head to bed.

I love this age because of all the things she is learning. I finally feel I am able to communicate with her and know she understands me. It's nice to ask her "where is your cup?" and her actually go look for it. She is also getting the hang of understanding where her nose is. She tends to point to your nose and not hers when you ask "where is Ella's nose?" Today we worked on where the mouth was and she proceeded to bit me a few times in the process. I guess that's what I get for sticking my finger near the mouth of a teething toddler!

We are enjoying our ministry here at the church. We recently met one of our neighbors named Mary and she is 85 years old. She has been fun to get to know. We've helped her with things around her house and have brought youth over to do yard work for her recently. She decided one day that she would go to church with us and it seems she loves it and will be coming to our church from now on. I'm surprised that she was interested in a change at her age, but we are glad to have her. She's also started going to a Bible study for "older" people at the church and called to say that she found "soul mates" there after going! I'm glad since she has never married and therefore has no relatives that are still living! It seems it has gotten her out of the house more and meeting new people. She has made Ella a number of crochet things in her spare time! It's been fun having friendly neighbors around.

Well, as for a blog I should have posted a month ago... Ella's birthday was a success. She LOVED eating her cake and having so many people around her. She was showered with A LOT of gifts. So many that I think I may rewrap them and give them again for Christmas. I'm beginning to think kids get toys in excess and all they do is clutter my house! I'm sure in the next year she will start to actually play with some of these things. As of right now her favorite toy is a purse of mine that she packs around the house all day and the Tupperware cabinet full of all different sized containers and lids. I don't think she cares for the expensive toys just yet. I'm ok with that. She'll be there soon enough. But anyway, on with posting some much delayed photos of the ever-famous babe...Ella and all her adventures