Ella decided she wanted to be Belle for Halloween, which is fitting because her nickname around here is Ella Bella. Rilyn went through a lot of ideas, but settled on a bride!
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Archive for the 'Ella' Category
01
Nov
11
Belle and the bride
30
Oct
11
carving!
Every year around this time I wonder the same thing. Will this be the year no one cries when we carve pumpkins?
Nope, not this year.
As long as we force our son to touch the pulp, there will be tears! Now I know we could not force our son, but what would the fun be in that? 🙂
(We were at my parents Octaranch in College Station because James, Rilyn, and I went to the depressing Aggie game against Missouri earlier that day.)
Once again, we did the pumpkin gospel story to show the kids how when we trust in God, He takes out our yucky sin (pulp) and makes us a new creation (or rather in this case a new “face”). See this previous post for the Bible verses and what to say.
I would be as concerned as Ella if I saw my daddy cutting off his thumb with a knife!
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| don’t worry folks, James still has one good thumb left! 😉 |
You can see Asher’s concern right from the beginning and Rilyn’s joy as daddy cuts open her pumpkin. Rilyn has never had a problem digging in and grabbing out the pulp with her bare hands!
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Ella’s turn. Again, Asher wringing his hands in concern.
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This look is more for show. Look at me make gross noises and faces while I’m digging out the slime everybody! 😉
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| ewwwwwww |
It’s Asher’s turn.
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The pulp is coming to get you!!!
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| those seeds are scary!! |
Ella does not like to touch pulp. Here she is showing off her one seed she got with the spoon.
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Hiding behind daddy.
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Asher did love carving the pumpkin, probably because it didn’t involve pulp!
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Rilyn’s first pumpkin carving!
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| 2006 |
Ella’s first!
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| 2007 |
26
Oct
11
another use for pipe cleaners!
I have to give a shout out to James who did such a great job doing the girls’ hair for “Crazy Hair and Totally ’80s Day” at school yesterday! What a good daddy! (I have Bible study on Tuesday mornings at 6 a.m. so I couldn’t be there to “stylize”, but I did give him a quick tutorial on what I wanted the night before!) Yay for pipe cleaners!
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24
Oct
11
first gruesome Halloween party!
Leave it to my parents to introduce my kids to their first gruesome Halloween party! 😉 I think because my dad is a doctor, blood and guts are not that scary, but rather a reality. 😉 And you will see on my flashback Friday this week, that I didn’t mind the gore either growing up! Anyway, after Rilyn’s cheer competition on Saturday, my parents drove my kids back to Temple to take them to another doctor’s Halloween party that was “for the kids”. (Mom, I’m fine with what they saw, I just think it was funny that this party was marketed for young kids!)
Harmless enough…a “haunted house”
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I can hear my mom now, “stand in front of the gruesome corpse kids!” Asher isn’t so sure…
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In this graveyard, it looks like all my kids are ready to get outta there!
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And Asher is running from the spooky house! Hehe, this picture of him cracks me up!
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| ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! |
Now for some family fun! My dad drove the “train” around the property full of kids. Not sure why Asher is sitting with some random girl and not Ella. Rilyn is in the front with grandpa.
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Ella was the one who broke the spider pinata (chopped off his head!) therefore we now have a broken spider pinata in our house as a “trophy”. 🙂 I think she is posing with the party host.
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The kids had a lot of fun with a hayride and play equipment too. The week before Halloween is always one big party around here! Lots of sweets and fun! Stay tuned!
*Some pictures were left out to keep this post PG. (Seriously, there was a grim reaper with a rifle pointed at the kids!!)?!?!?!
22
Oct
11
Happy Saturday!
I was in charge of the “photo booth” at the Manor Elementary “Carnival” last night! It’s funny how some people really love photo booths with silly props and then others…well, they were forced to put something on by their parents. Happy Saturday everyone!
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11
Oct
11
pumpkin patch!
We went to the Elgin Christmas tree farm on Monday to have some fun with tractors, hay, and, of course PUMPKINS!!
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| awkward family shot with James death gripping Asher’s neck to get him to stay still! |
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The kids love the many mazes!
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| cornfield maze! |
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I think this was Asher and Caden’s favorite thing to do!
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| zoom |
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| who doesn’t love to fall into a pile of trucks?!? |
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Friends for life! (In age order)
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Hayride time!
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| hayride with your best friend! |
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| sweet sister kisses |
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To see some of my favorite pumpkin patch pictures, please visit my photography blog! (Yes, I take A LOT of photos everywhere I go!)
06
Oct
11
the sword
1 Timothy 4:12 “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”
(this video is unedited, my apologies to James, our family “videographer”!) 😉
*The only offensive weapon in the Christian’s armor is “the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:15) That power is nothing less than the omnipotence of God himself. Isaiah 55:11 reads, “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” The power of the word can never fail.
This year, we challenged our morning carpool to school to recite all 4 of their Bible verses that they memorized from the month of September. (Kindergarteners only have to recite 3.) The video above is Ella reciting her verses to the best of her ability.
We all use various techniques to help the kids memorize but the ones I use the most are hand motions and voices. What I mean by voices is that I will recite the verse to the kids in various types of character voices. I do “football player voice”(think deep and husky), “Disney princess voice”(think super high and sweet), “Valley Girl voice”(like totally!), “Cowboy voice”(y’all), “Baby voice”, “Opera singer voice”(yes, I sing it like an opera star), etc. The kids love it and they will join in with me!
Here is sweet little Ella memorizing The Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 when she was three years old. (Convicting for me to watch, because we have practically dismissed Asher as able to learn Scripture “this young.”)
Here is a link from last year of Rilyn memorizing Romans 12:2.
*Taken from Salvation Belongs to The Lord by John Frame
10
Sep
11
Ella’s first Aggie game!
When our kid’s are five years old, they are allowed to go to their first Aggie game. Ella went last Sunday evening with James, my dad, and my brother for her first game (v. SMU)! James said that Ella screamed and swung her 12th man towel the whole time! She really got into the 12th man spirit!
Here is Ella watching the Corps of Cadet march into Kyle Field before the game.
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| WHOOP |
On their way up to their seats they get a good view of Aggieland!
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| love all the maroon! |
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| swinging that towel! |
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| watching the Aggie band at half-time |
Yelling while we are on defense!
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| AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! |
After the game, (which we won 46-14) you are allowed to go on the field! Here is Ella with grandpa and uncle Jeff.
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| on the 50 yard line! |
And I couldn’t end this post without a sweet picture of Asher that I took at home. He didn’t get to watch the game on TV because it was a night game, but he had his game face on before the game!
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29
Aug
11
California vacation day 8
Sunday was my cousin’s wedding day! My kids did very well being the flower girls and ring bearer and were party animals at the reception! Seriously, they had a photo booth at the reception, and Rilyn was taking pictures with bridesmaids that we didn’t even know! The girls were in the center of dance circles and dancing with strangers. It was crazy to see how extroverted they were! Asher was spinning out of control on the dance floor and falling half the time. He loved it (and all the attention), and laughed the entire time!
*All professional photographs by Bluephoto
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| coming down the aisle |
I got to sit in the second row and had a pretty good view!
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| married! |
I love this shot I took of Ella sitting on great grandpa Erickson’s lap during the ceremony.
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I also love this one! He was so cute in his lime green bow tie and never fussed with it once!
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All dressed up!
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*Professional photography-The wedding party! I love this shot because we had just pulled up Asher’s pants and apparently we pulled them up too high! 🙂
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| He never smiled for the group shot BUT he didn’t cry either! |
*Professional-The reception. You can see James and Ella dancing in the bottom middle of the photograph.
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| beautiful! |
Asher dancing with the bride!
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| so sweet |
*Professional shot-the girls dancing with the groom!
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| swinging good time! |
*Professional-cute!
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The girls always wanted to dance near the bride!
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The busta’ man bustin’ a move!
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*Professional shot-spinning!
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Needless to say, nobody wanted to leave early, but we had to get up at 3:30 a.m. the next morning to catch our early flight from LAX (not a fan of that airport) to Austin. It was the best family vacation yet! And we just get more excited thinking about our kids getting older and being able to do more fun things together!!!!
28
Aug
11
california vacation day 7
Saturday was spent doing the rehearsal for my cousin’s wedding on Sunday evening. My kids were the flower girls and ring bearer! They had the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner at my grandpa’s house where we were staying for the week. My grandpa’s backyard is huge and beautiful. There is every kind of fruit tree, a pool, shuffle board court, fire pit, flowers and plants galore!
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| rehearsal time! |
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| Asher’s ring bearer shirt! |
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| this is my gorgeous cousin’s daughter. I think she looks a lot like my nephew Caden! |
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| couples shot! |
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| mom/daughter shot! |
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| cupcakes for dessert! |
the paquettes 