Has it really been over a month???

So, it dawned on me tonight that I haven't blogged in over a month! There have been so many wonderful things that have happend in the past month that I honestly do not know where to start! Here are a few pictures that will get the list rolling :)


Ella was able to go to the Bi-Water Autumn Fest and Evan's Orchard several times to celebrate fall! She loved the pumpkins, the animals, and all of the fun Halloween festivities!


Ella painted her very own pumpkin. For some strange reason, she is drawn to the mini pumpkins so that is what she chose this year.



Ella was Minnie Mouse this year and a very cute one at that! She got to go Trick or Treating downtown and at home too! Her cousin Ava stopped by to show off her beautiful costume!




Ella has spent many hours outside enjoying the last few warm days of the year. She loves the outdoors and posed for a few pictures :)




This past weekend Kermie and I went Christmas shopping and decorated the house while Ella stayed with family. She was so excited to come home to Christmas! :)

Ella wanted her very own tree this year and actually had it narrowed down to a pink and purple tree. Although the purple tree was beautiful, we settled for a pink one to match her room. She is super proud of her tree and ornaments :)


One of the greatest things that happened at the end of October was Kermie's offical last day in the military. While he enjoyed his time in and I enjoyed the extra income :) , we were both relieved to know that he was finished. And, I know Ella will be grateful to have her daddy home!

Ella and potty training are working wonderfully together! She only wears a pull up at nap and bedtime. She is able to go out with panties on and she is consistent about telling me when she needs to potty! I'm so proud and so excited to not have to worry about diapers!! :)

Ella has also picked up some Spanish from Dora lately. The other day she decided she would count in Spanish... who knew???



We are all very excited about the holidays coming up! I will hopefully have a chance to post about all the fun times to come :)

Potty Success: Content May Be More Detailed Than You'd Like :)

Most of you know that Ella and I tried the whole potty training thing this summer while I was home, and that the process ended in one tired mommy and a potty-hating toddler! So, my goal was to try, yet again, on Fall Break to see if she was ready. We started yesterday with no big expectations in mind...... although Ella surprised us all!

Day One: She started off by pooping in her potty first! She was so proud of herself she could barely stand it and you'd think I had just won the lottery! We were both jumping around the house like a bunch of crazies! Throughout the course of the day she peed in her potty a total of 4 times and pooped the one time. We had no accidents, but she still wore a pull up during nap time and bed time. I was pretty impressed to say the least.

Day Two: We woke up and Ella hopped right on the potty and peed! She was excited to wear her panties again and loves dumping her potty into the "big girl" potty! By lunch time she had peed 2 times and only had one small accident which was quite hysterical! We were both in our bedroom and I was laying on my belly looking up something on the computer. Ella, of course, was on my back pretending I was a horse, when I heard her say "Ella need to potty!" At that moment, I noticed my back becoming warmer by the second.... she peed on top of me! So, we ran to the potty and she finished up there. My mom had promised Ella a potty present since she had had such a good day the day before, so we were venturous and went without a pull up on. We took Elmo potty with us in case we needed him, but Ella had no accidents while we were gone. I think she held it the entire time because we sat her on the potty several times both in the car (on Elmo) and in Ruby Tuesday's and Wal-mart, but NOTHING. This evening Ella told Kermie and I she had to poo poo so she hopped right on the potty and went. She was so excited to see it that she did it again, and again, and again! We pooped, wiped, and dumped three times until she said she was finished! Each time she would say, "Ella so proud!"

I am so excited that this go at training has been so successful! We are keeping our fingers crossed that it stays this way and she sticks to it when I go back to work next week! But for now.... WAY TO GO ELLA!

Happy Halloween!

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Our Baby Girl is Turning TWO!

We can't believe it... but yes it's true.... our baby girl is turning TWO!!

This year, Ella's birthday fell on a Monday (today), so we decided to have her party the Saturday before at her Nana and Pa's house. It's hard having a large family and small house, so we needed the extra space for sure! Ella had a lot of fun playing with friends and family at the party and other than a couple of trampoline blunders.... it was a blast!



As you can see, Ella had a Minnie Mouse party this year. A super nice lady off of Etsy.com made her dress. Ella loved the dress so much that the day we got it in the mail she said, "Beautiful dress Mommy!". She wore it around the house dancing and prancing and even let me take a few snap shots!

Ella enjoyed playing with all of her friends and family... although the thought of sharing "her" toys at Nana's house wasn't her favorite aspect of the day! But, what two year old likes to share?!?

So I've been joking with Kermie about having to buy a new house because all of the new toys do not fit in the existing one!! On the other hand, we finally got everything put away and organized Sunday night. We actually ended up getting rid of old toys by taking them to all of the babysitters' houses. I think they will enjoy having more choices and Ella may actually get to play with everything at our house. She is definitely in to pretending at the moment, so her kitchen and dress up gear were right up her alley!



I was so excited to have Amy Day make Ella's birthday cake this year. I knew I wanted to have one made instead of tackling that on our own this year, so when I ran across some of the pictures of cakes she had done I called her up immediately! I really think the cake turned out perfect. Ella was so excited about eating it; she chose cake over opening presents!!



I seriously thought Ella was going to cry during the Happy Birthday song! She normally loves this song and says "again!", but I think she was just a tad overwhelmed!!




Once the singing was over, she couldn't wait to blow out the candles again and again and again! This is actually something we do quite frequently at our house, but typically we just light a lighter, sing, and then she blows it out! She has birthdays all year long! haha



YUMMY!!



We were so excited for Lynise and Robert to come spend the weekend with us and I know for sure that Ella enjoyed it just as much! She has talked about Emmie all day long and wants her to come sleep in her bed again. Maybe one of these days they will move back (just a small hint!).

I know going to the doctor for a 2 year check up isn't the best way to spend your birthday, but that's what we ended up doing today. Dr. Q says Ella is growing wonderful and Ella did much better with her shots that the last time! Although she did tell the nurse to stop a few times! She has once again fallen below the average range for height at 33 inches and below average for weight at 24 pounds. The only thing that we can always count on being consistant is her large head..... she's 89th percentile! Ella's daddy saved the day by showing up at the doctor's office to rescue Ella from the pain. He brought her two roses and a balloon and took her to eat Chinese. What a sweet daddy and perfect way to top off her birthday!

Is there a pause button near by?

Well, things are now in full swing at the Donovan house! We've become our usual busy selves and I do not have near the amount of time I had in the summer to get on the computer (let alone blog). We are three weeks into the school year, the kids are great, graduate school has started, and Ella is getting closer to 2 each day that passes! My how the time flies and I have to say that 2 is quite fitting for Miss Ella (although mommy and daddy will be glad to see parts of this stage fade!). Kermie and I find ourselves laughing at her more these days than ever before! She is very comical and knows she's funny. We've heard her say on many occasions, "Ella's funny!". She is also very bossy as well and much too independent for her own good. She spends a majority of her time at home in time out or being told no, but the worst part is that I think she enjoys the attention.

One of her favorite things to do this summer was to color with her dry erase markers on the easel, but for some reason we've made a digression in our ability to do this the right way. She has had the markers removed from the easel due to the urge to give herself and other household items "tutus" or tatoos. Tonight she asked for the markers and said before we could answer, "Ella color with markers. No arms." She actually was successful with the markers, but when the paint came out she decided to eat it and give herself polkadots. Who would've thought?!?

Ella constantly has boo-boos because she is the most clumsy child I've ever seen. She walks with no regard to where she is heading and frequently runs into walls, doors, you name it. And, so the obsession with her boo-boos continues and we have all given her knees and fingers and head countless, demanded kissses.

She has done an excellent job with the transition back to the school routine: being drug out of bed at 6:30, put into a much less comfortable carseat, and drug to the house of the day! The first week was a little rough, but of course she now doesn't want to leave when I come for her in the afternoon! I rarely get home by 5 because she insists on staying wherever she is! I'm very thankful for this :) Here is a picture of Ella playing at her Granny's house this week. She loves to build! Maybe she'll take after her daddy and pa! :)

Church has become a "horrible" adventure for us on Sundays. There for a while she did WONDERFUL in the nursery, but then we hit that stage when she would scream and I just cannot do that! So, this past Sunday we got to church early (yeah...early!) and she decided to take over the entire isle. I thought letting her get some energy out would help, but that wasn't the case. She and I ended up in the foyer and I chased her around for the remainder of the service. I was completely embarrassed when she opened a door and ran into children's church screaming! I guess I could have held her down in a chair, but then she would have screamed. And, then I thought about going to the car, but then Kermie didn't have his cell phone.... what's a mom to do with a crazy 2 year old? By the end of the service I was 100% sure she would be in the nursery the next week with no questions asked!

One person that Ella absolutely adores is her cousin Ava. She asks for her all the time and enjoys spending Wednesdays with her for sure! I remember always being so close with my cousins when we were younger and I am SO excited that Ella is going to get to experience that too! Her and Ava are so sweet together... running around, squealing, dressing up, so on and so on! I cannot wait for slumber parties in the very near future :)

As I have already mentioned, Ella is quite the booger. On the other hand, she is also the most sweet and adorable thing I know too! She enjoys her play time so much, but I find it amazing that she loves her "down" time equally as much! It is so fun watching her play and use her imagination. She is learning so many new things during this age of exploration. And, just like her mommy, she loves to get in some r and r! There have been many days that she has not wanted to get out of bed or has stayed in her pjs and lounged the whole day through! Oh, the life of a two year old!

One of Ella's top two things to do, other than play cooking, is dressing up. She is such a girly girl. She loves lipstick, jewelry, shoes, clothes, purses, etc.! In fact, I can no longer do my makeup in front of her because it becomes a battle of who gets the blush brush! I find her in my closet pulling down shirts or shoes, in her closet rummaging through anything that she can find, and from time to time in the laundry basket when mommy leaves it on the floor! She'll wear just about anything you give her, but her daddy's underwear are a top fav these days :)

I'd have to say, and I'm sure her daddy would agree, that Ella has been a wonderful and incredible blessing these past two years. She is the most amazing little girl and we love watching her grow and change even on those days she throws herself to the floor and pouts! Come Septemeber 12th (since her bday is on a Monday), we will be celebrating the miracle of her life with friends and family once again! Like I've said before.... "I wish I could press pause!"

Bye-Bye Summer..... Hello School!!

As summer dwindles away and the school year begins, I have become a little sad and anxious all at the same time. I am sad not being able to spend every waking moment with Ella, but super excited about teaching my new fourth graders! I have to say that this summer has probably been the best summer of my life for many reasons!

One, I got to wake up every morning to my sweet Ella!

Two, we took our first family vacation to Florida!

Three, we had tons of fun playdates!

Four, we had our fun in the sun!

Five, I did not have to move classrooms or learn a new curriculum!

Six, I made it past the half way point in my graduate school work. These are my robot campers!

Seven, Kermie finished his last 2 weeks away with the military EVER!

Eight, Ella and I took more walks in one day than most weeks during the school year!

Nine, we saw Dora and went to the fair.

Ten, we had great memories with family.

What a wonderful summer! Now... let's have just as fun of a school year!