Uncle Paul and Auntie Lindsey

We had a great visit from Uncle Paul and Auntie Lindsey the past weekend. It was supposed to rain all weekend but for the most part the weather held out for us. Which was good because we did a lot of outdoor activities. One day we went to the pumpkin patch and another day we went to Burfoot Park and walked to the beach then of course we couldn't leave without playing on the slide and swings. One of the nights we listened to Halloween music and carved pumpkins. Uncle Paul carved Ella a kitty and Lindsey carved the big "M" 2010. Jake's is the one original pumpkin face. Creative huh!! The pictures below are out of order but we hope you enjoy!

Ella is very proud of Daddy's work.

Skipping rocks at the beach

Updates

The girls are doing well. Ella is really into saying all the nursery rhymes she has learned from a book we have been reading to her. Obviously her favorite is "Baa Baa Black sheep" She also can sing Mary had a little lamb, pumpkin eater, Little boy blue, Daisy, Daisy, and twinkle, twinkle little star. She can also say almost the entire Dr. Seus book of ABC's. She is quite the little sponge.

Lately she has been trying to scam us, every night Ella will ask to cuddle and sing songs before bedtime. The other night she said, "I have a little more milky, and I won't cry" and then just this afternoon she goes " I have some binky gel ( which is baby orajel" on my binky so I won't fuss. What a little stinker!!

On a side note, she has been doing excellent on the potty. She isn't afraid to tell you if she has to go and she doesn't mind using the big potty. So far we have gone in restaurant bathrooms, parks, library's, her school and the best one was at the Pumpkin Patch port o potty. Yup, that was a real treat!! NOT especially when I had poor baby Bridgette straped to me.

Bridgette is doing great too- we started rice cereal with her a couple weeks ago and she loves it. She is always grabbing at my food and stares at me when I drink water. Now if we could just get her to drink milk out of a sippy cup we'd being doing good.

She is also rolling over onto her tummy all by herself.

Ella fell in love with the kittens at the pumpkin patch! So did I!!
Us girls at the Pumpkin patch with Ella's class. I had my hands full that day.

Ella Singing Baa Baa Black Sheep

Ella was gracious enough to provide some song for our dining entertainment last night with Nana and Papa. Just remember to clap next time Papa!

More Potty Time

As some of you might know, Ella is getting potty trained. Actually, there hasn't been much training needed. She has taken right to using her little potty. I think the songs her potty chair sings helps. When she has to go potty, first she will announce it to everyone and then sit on her chair and say, "listen, I hear my song" For a reward Ella gets to put a special kitty, dog or truck sticker on her chart. So far as long as we don't leave the house she does great. The tricky part is going to be to get her to use the big toilet when we are out. For now we'll just take it one day at a time.

Fire Trucks!!!

We took Ella to the Fire Station open house this weekend. Though she was timid at first, it didn't take long for her to warm up. She wanted to "drive for just a second" for a lot of seconds. She did not want to leave. At one point, she suggested we set up her pack-and-play in the fire engine so she could stay there! She loved it. Enjoy the pics.

New Pics of Da' Girls

Potty Chair

Lately, Ella has been telling us when she wants a diaper change or letting us know when she pooped. So we went to Toys R Us and let her pick out her very own potty chair. Potty chairs these days come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, one that sing, and ones that make noises, extra. Ella picked that one that has a flusher, sings songs and has a holder for her very own toilet paper roll. When we opened up the box on Sunday she was so excited to try it out. At first she sat on it with just her clothes on and then she wanted everything off. I got her some juice and Jake began to read some new books I ordered from the Library. Of course they were all about going potty. She probably sat there 15-20 min and then the potty chair started SINGING!! She went potty!!! Yeah we danced and jumped up and down for her. Then she wanted to sit again and sure enough she went again!! By the third try of sitting on her potty chair she wanted some big girl underwear on. I put them on hoping she would stay dry for a bit this time but no such luck. About 5 min later she had wet her pants. Then I had a mess to clean up, not so much fun. Yesterday, she asked for potty time again but had no success and a couple of accidents. Today, she wanted potty time but nothing came out.

We are not ready to start really potty training her until we both can stay home for an entire weekend and concentrate on it but for now its fun getting her excited about being a big girl and using the potty!

The pictures below are flip flopped.