Cute Little Bow

It's just about impossible to get a picture of her wide-eyed and smiling because she hates the flash on my camera (I need a nice one!). But she looked cute in this little bow I found in her drawer.

Gobble Gobble

Thanksgiving was a very lazy day for our house. In fact, me and Ella Grace are still in our PJs:) We had a yummy afternoon dinner, watched the Home Alone marathon (my favorite Christmas movie), took naps, and now are watching some Adam Sandler movie. So what did we have for Thanksgiving?

- Honeybaked Ham turkey
- Gran's mac & cheese casserole
- Green beans
- Mashed Potatoes
- Rolls
...And I made pumpkin bread and apple crisp.

Ella Grace had some taters, green beans, roll, and elbow noodles. She loved her taters! They were all over her face and in her eyes...when I gave her a bath, I found some in her ears. Yum!




Otis had a be-lated birthday/turkey dinner. His 5th birthday was on the 18th but our life was a little too busy to celebrate it. Usually, he has scrambled eggs over kibble for his b-day dinner but this year he had turkey with the rest of us:)


We are thankful for each other and had a great day. I'm off to work at the crack of dawn tomorrow a.m. It's Black Friday time and we get to watch our site and what customers are buying! It's actually kind of fun:)

Helping with the Dishes

Helping me with the dishes....

Being silly

And as I write this blog post, she is in nothing but her diaper standing up with the support of her bumbo...by our coffee table with iron legs! We had a pretty bad nose dive earlier as she fell into that iron leg. I give up and just have to let her bump her noggin every now and then. She loves standing!

Victoria, B.C. - Enjoying the Town

Friday afternoon, we checked into our hotel, The Delta Victoria. It was very nice! Ella Grace even had turndown service. Check out her little bed:)

Seaplane landing

We had a waterfront room and enjoyed watching the boats and sea planes land in the marina. We walked around downtown and ate at Canoe Club. My fish & chips and pear cider beer were excellent. Brian's steak was amazing too. Then, we headed to The Keg for a few drinks and dessert. Ella enjoyed sitting in a restaurant high chair for the first time!

Saturday, Brian surprised me with a massage appointment. I enjoyed a deep tissue massage while he and Ella spent quality time watching UT football.

We then met my friend, Lauren, who lives there. We had an AMAZING breakfast at Mole and then she showed us around town. The people are so nice there and the town has such an European feel. We loved it! We ended our day with an appetizer and drinks at a restaurant on the water then headed back on the clipper late Saturday afternoon and had a nice ride back....no delays!

Under a huge sequoia tree from 1800 (I believe)

The famous Empress Hotel

Parliament House

Nice life!

Our hotel

Victoria, B.C. - Butchart Gardens

Deception Pass...would you want to drive on this?

For my birthday, Brian planned a little family trip to Victoria, B.C. We took off work last Friday and left on the 8 a.m. clipper. A co-worker of mine and his wife were on there with us and enjoyed holding and playing with Ella Grace. That was nice! Due to high winds, we had to take the weather route, which added another 2 hours to the trip. Other than feeling a little sea sick as we entered the Victoria waters, it was fun. They have food and drinks on the boat and most of the seats have tables so you can entertain yourself playing games, cards, whatever.

Anyway, once we entered the marina, we jumped on a shuttle and headed to the Butchart Gardens. We received a tour of the town on the way and learned all about it. The gardens were really pretty but I would love to go back in the summer or at night once the Christmas lights are up. It was neat watching them set-up everything for Christmas though. Some pictures below. The story behind the Gardens is really cool but I'm not going to share it. Read here if you want to learn more.

Sunken Gardens

Lookout Point - where the family would enjoy the sun and water

A few facts:

• In Victoria, many families who live on a lot of land and produce vegetables, fruit, raise chickens, etc, sell their products to the public. They have kiosks at the foot of their driveways, and set up the products each morning. While they're in the city at work, locals can stop by and purchase items, leaving the amount they owe in a box. If they need to make change, they can open the box and do so. At the end of the day, the farmer comes home, counts inventory, grabs his earnings, and sets up the kiosk all over the next morning. It's called the honour system there and is widely used. We actually used it in our hotel with the wet bar and snacks. When checking out, you just tell the hotel staff what you used and they charge you. Pretty cool!
• Marijuana isn't really legal there yet but not enforced. Everywhere we walked, people were smoking it in public. Haha!
• Gasoline is priced by the liter there. I looked at the price and thought "$1.04 that's cheap." Like I said, it's by the liter, which would be over $4/gallon here. Yikes! No wonder everyone walks there.

Anyone who knows me well knows I love ironwork. These were awesome! Ranging from $3-$8,000.

One of the main houses before it became a public attraction

Japanese Gardens

Happy 7 Months Doodle Bug

Cutest baby ever!

Please forgive me, my crazy job, a baby on the go, needy dog, and sick husband for being so behind on blogging. It's insane around here! We have much to update you on. I'm sure you just watched the videos...Ella Grace is crawling! She's also over 7 months now! What's new?

• Like I've mentioned twice now, she's started to crawl.
• She pulls herself up on anything and everything.
• She is getting the hang of waving "hi" and "bye."
• She's become really attached to her mom. She has her days at school where she cries when I leave. It's very sad but the teachers say she stops crying almost immediately after I've left.
• She loves playing and being silly with her dad.
  
• She LOVES to talk. She talks all the time!
• She wears size 3 Cruisers diapers now.
• She's tried 9 0f the 10 stage 1 Gerber baby foods. I won't let her have prunes. Sounds awful!
• She's also tried mashed bananas, pears, sweet potatoes, noodles, puffs, Cheerios, and apple juice. Starting this week, we'll be exposing her to all sorts of new finger foods. She loves everything! Even peas. I was hesitant to give them to her b/c I was traumatized by them as a kid and won't eat them.
• She's quite the giggle box.
• She's gives really wet, wide mouthed kisses. They come with an "ahhhhh" noise and she usually attacks the face or neck. We get an occasional bite - not cool!
• Speaking of biting, she has two, beautiful teeth. Time to start brushing!
• She's still sleeping from about 9p-7a.

I'm sure I'm missing some things but need to go to bed soon.

It's Official

Ella Grace has started crawling. See videos below.

Take 1:


Take 2:


She is also really good at pulling herself up and very proud of herself. She has mastered the downward dog yoga pose too :)

Lazy Sat. w/ Dad

Strawberry-Apple Puffs

Even though Ella Grace technically isn't a "crawler," I decided to let her try some finger foods this week - Strawberry-Apple puffs that melt in your mouth. Brian, Otis, and I like them too! Below are various reactions we got from her. They're a little too small for her to get them in her mouth on her own, but once they're in, she now likes to use her two front teeth to chew on them.

Her faces - in order.

These are kind of weird...

Possibly sour? No, Mom tried them and I know they're not sour.

Maybe it's the texture?...

Ok, these are alright...let's try another one. FYI...toofer spotlight - enlarge to see them. They're perty!

Nope, they're weird.

Laughing at me because I'm laughing at her.

I don't think I've shared, but Ella refuses to hold a bottle most of the time. We work with her, daycare works with her, and she literally refuses. Well, I handed her the bottle last night and made her figure it out. She did pretty well.