"Trick or Treat!!!"

Today was Halloween...Ella's 1st. We put on ehr littel costume and headed to Logan where we could go door to door in Jim and Gayle Whitteker's neighborhood (no trunk or treat for us!). We had a chili dinner and then went around the neighborhood. At each door Ell reached out and selected her own candy out of people's bowls. She seemed to have fun. I loved it and can't wait until next year when she can run from house to house and scream "Trick or Treat!!!" at teh top of her lungs herself. What fun!

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Our 4th Annual Pumpkin Carving Party!

Tonight was our pumpkin carving party. Ella had a great time and seemed fascinated by the carving. She sat next to Mike Forsberg the entire night and just observed him carving his pumpkin. Ella is really bringing out the fun in Halloween for me.

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A Halloween Cousins Party!

Tonight was the Halloween Party for all the cousins in Logan at Scott and Korby's house. It was so fun! Ella seemed a bit startled at first. Maybe she wasn't used to all the kids or the costumes, but she was very quiet. It took her a while to warm up, but by the end she was playing and having fun along with the other kids. She was so cute in her little Chicken costume. We were in charge of a craft adn we took along little kits for each child to make a little picture frame for the fridge for a picture of them in their costume. It was really cute! Here's Ella and Estee at teh party.

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8 months old?!!

Can Ella really be 8 months old already??? Tonight Matt and I looked through her baby pictures from her 1st month and I cried a bit. Partly because that time when she was in the NICU was so hard, but also because our little person isn't a baby anymore...she's a little girl. It is so fun to see her now, sitting up and playing and starting to say "Da-da" and "Ma-ma", but I am also sad that I can't cuddle her anymore. She's always on the move and wanting to explore. I have been so changed by her little life colliding with mine and her little spirit teaching me to be more loving, more patient, more happy.

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HAPPY Halloween!

So, I have never really like halloween....not even as a child. I liked the candy and all, but the scariness was always a little much when I was little and then I stopped trick-or-treating at some point in the early teen years, so what was so fun???

Then we had Ella and all of the sudden I am LOVING it! I have already purchased a million little decorative things for the house and yard and we have picked out pumpkins for the family. Today was our first Halloween Party at Jeff and Megan Nebeker's House and I had so much fun. The closer we get to actual Halloween night the more giddy I get.

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She's movin'...she's groovin'.....almost.

Little Ella-Bee is almost crawling. She gets up on hands and knees and rocks back and forth, but can't quite get the whole knee and arm movement thing yet. Seems like she'll be on the move soon.

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A CHOCOLATE lover is born!

Ella had the tiniest taste of chocolate tonight and WOW! She is in love! She grabbed the spoon and licked it clean. It was so cute! This is the aftermath...

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A little bowl of SIN!

Once in a while a product comes along that is so wonderful, so splendid....So right! I have found such a product and want to share it with the world! It's the new...

Betty Crocker "Warm Delights".

These delightful little bowls of sin come in 5 flavors:
Hot Fudge Brownie
Molten Chocolate Cake
Molten Caramel Cake
Fudgy Chocolate Chip Cookie
Cinnamon Swirl Cake (for the non-chocolate lover....Ban, are you listening?)

I tried Molten Caramel Cake. It comes in a microwave safe bowl. When you open it there is a pouch of caramel and what looks like a miniature cake mix in a bag. You add 1/4 c. water to the cake mix and stir it inbowl and then squeeze the caramel all over it and microwave it for 1 minute.

I know what you're thinking, "Microwaved cake mix??? It must come out as a dry, stiff little rubbery mess, like the brownie square on a Tyson fried chicken TV dinner!" NOT SO! It comes out of the microwave tasting like a little, fluffy dream. I can see this becoming a HUGE staple of my next pregnancy (along side the new fully loaded potato wedges at Arbys). This is especially a bonus for a wife who is married to a "Non-treat Man" (tragic, I know) so she can have a choco fix at the end of a meal without making an entire cakemix for herself (not that that is a malady in and of itself...because I have braved through it before and come away unscathed!)

These little miracles run under $2.00 each and I highly recommend them.

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Pros: Quick, Convenient and delicious! No clean up!

Cons: The cake could be a bit more dense for my taste. May be a bit high priced for serious treat lover habits.

For more information on Warm Delights visit the Betty Crocker Website: http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/prod_warmdelights.aspx

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Ohhh....The Naughtiness!

Ella is now 7 months old and it is like someone has flipped a switch and turned my sweet little cherub into a crazy monkey! She never wants to be held, she wants to touch and explore and monkey with EVERYTHING! I am thanking my lucky stars that she is not crawling yet, because I know that when that day comes I am going to be running after this kid constantly to make sure she doesn't mortally injure herself. What a little busy-body...Ready to explore the world!

Yesterday I am knitting a sweater (what a domestic Goddess!) and Ella is laying next to me on the bed. I lean over to pick up the knitting and when I sit back up she has located some extra yarn, unraveled it and wrapped it around each leg, her tummy and one arm. It was literally about 12 seconds.

Then the licking of the yarn began. It took me 5 minutes to unwrap her and try to resume knitting. She just kept going back for more.

Finally, a ray of hope on the horizon. Ella's attention is caught by a little friend on the television....ELMO! He saves the day as Ella sits transfixed by his image for at least 12 minutes and then the show ends and we are back in monkey town.

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