Ella Pearl--3 months

I can hardly believe our sweet baby girl is already three months old! I'd love it if time would slow down just a little bit. 

Here is another picture overload, but I just want to remember every little detail of this baby girl--she is heaven! 

She sleeps ALL night--really? What baby does that? Hey, I'll take it! 

She also gets chubbier every day--I LOVE IT! I just can't get enough of her chubby cheeks and beefy little thighs; Ohhhh I just want to squeeze her she's so cute!

I have also LOVED watching her grow and become more interactive; it's fun to see her little happy (sometimes sassy) personality emerge. Being a mom is better than I could have ever imagined. 

So, now for the overload: 

 

Either this baby is really social or really bored of her parents. Either way, she has surely made friends with the baby on the diaper box--maybe young love? 

We made a trip down to St. George during the second week of March, and Ella and I were able to stay and hang out with the fam during their entire spring break. It's always fun to be home, and as I've mentioned earlier, the babe gets spoiled rotten. 

While in St. George: 

Ella went to her first soccer game. If you know anything about my family you will know that this is just the beginning of a lifetime full of soccer games for this girl. 

Ella was a show off and held her bottle all by herself. Whatever it takes for this girl to be closer to her food--she's obsessed.

She entertained us all with her airplane arms while going down the stairs at my parents' house. She does it every single time--hey, at least we know the girl likes to have fun!

She met her great grandma Cottle for the first time. She nestled right into her; it was adorable. 

Ella fell even more in love with her Poppy. Seriously, she loves him.

She also got majorly spoiled by her uncles. They love her, and it's the cutest thing ever. 

 We realized that we don't need to buy Ella anymore toys--all we need to do is install a ceiling fan. She literally grinned at this thing and made cooing noises at it like it was an old friend. Haha, oh Ella. 

To sum up Ella's visits to St. George, I thought this picture of her sitting on her throne was fitting. This chick literally rules the roost. 

After a week in St. George, we were both so happy to be reunited with Daddy! 

One thing to mention here: Ella is a big time daddy's girl. Scotty has such a soothing nature and it literally just calms Ella right down. But she also has a lot of fun with him, too. Seeing these two interact with each other makes me love my Scott so much more (and I already thought I loved him millions!)

 I love my little family--these two are my happy. 

 Back at home, we had a day at the park with Aunt Amanda. While we were there, the sun was shining and Ella girl's hair looked red red red! I love it and hopes it stays that way!

We also thought we probably should get the BYU tradition flowing, so we took her on her first visit to campus. By the looks of it, I don't think she was immediately converted, but we still have plenty of time. :) 

Side note: since birth, Ella's right eye has occasionally been pretty droopy (why is my baby's eye droopy?!!) Oh well, she's still cute. 

 

 She also has a fixation with biting her lower lip. Haha, lots of things to explore, I guess!

Which brings me to my next point: Ella licks EVERYTHING!

Here she is licking her blanket, but that's not even where it ends! The other day when Scott was holding her, she started licking his CHEST. Literally, the girl has to try everything out (gross). 

 

 She's starting to discover herself a little more, too. One day I got her all dressed and was trying to get a good photo of her, but I could not get her to stop admiring her polka-dotted pants. She also loves looking at herself in the mirror (but hey, if I were that cute, I'd want to do it all day, too!) 

And sometimes we'll wake up in the morning to little baby coos from Ella's crib and walk over to find her just laying there with her little feet hanging over the edge of the crib--no crying, just simply hangin out. 

Oh, I don't know what I ever did without this little girl. I'm so thankful to Heavenly Father for sending her to our family--I think He knew that we needed her; she has changed our world. 

We love you, little bug!

 

Ella--2 months

I'm a little behind making an update on our little Ella (almost a month, oops!)

At her 2 month appointment, she was 10 lbs. 6 oz. and was 23.5 inches long--the little miss is slowly plumping up! 

I literally take like a million pictures of her every single day, so be prepared. 

One day, I was just snapping away pictures of Ella just after she ate (that's usually when she's the happiest, let's be honest), and I snapped this cute one. But then..

this happened.

Projectile vomit for the win! Oh I cannot WAIT to show this picture to teenage Ella, Ella's future husband, children, etc. 

  

During Ella's first cruise in the stroller, she had a look on her face like, "What on earth is going on?" Then she screamed. 

This little chick is a total morning person--like a 6:00 a.m. morning person. The above smiles are proof of that. It's such a sweet face to wake up to! 

We took a trip down to Las Vegas/St. George in the middle of February--always the best! It's crazy how much more work and time it takes to prepare and pack for a trip when you have a baby (our car is literally packed full now--only one extra little person, what the heck!), but Ella is a perfect little traveler, so she makes it a piece of cake! When she isn't giving a gummy smile, she is sleeping, like the whole way, so we can't complain!

Visiting family=Ella getting spoiled rotten! 

 Whether it's cousin Lucy making sure she looks pretty..

or getting snuggles from uncle Christian, this baby gets lots of love, and then she has to go home with her boring old parents... I think she goes through a bit of shock when she gets home!

Ever since she was born, Ella has had an extra long piece of hair above her ear. Sometimes it just awkwardly hangs there, but a lot of times it dries into a cute little curly-Q (like in the picture above), and I love it!!

She also is constantly cracking us up by all of her hilarious sleeping positions--especially the third (it's the typical one, haha!) 

Stop growing up so fast, Ella girl! We LOVE you!

Ella--1 Month

I can't believe that it's been an entire month with our Ella girl (okay, almost six weeks, slacker status on my part!)

We had a doctor's appointment when she was three weeks old, and at that point she was 7lbs 7oz and measuring 22 inches long-- she's in the 10th percentile in weight and the 90th percentile in height. So basically, she's a tall, lanky thing!

^^This picture was taken during a night in her first week at about 3 a.m. She was wide-eyed, and sleep was nowhere in sight. Luckily, we've got the whole sleep schedule figured out. She even slept for 5 1/2 a couple of nights ago--lucky parents!! 

These gummy smiles KILL ME. 

For some reason Ella would much rather wear her headbands over her eyes. She literally is constantly pulling them down, and the fact that they completely cover her eyes a lot of the time doesn't even phase her.. it's like a self-invented sleep mask. Diva baby. 

It's pretty easy to see in this picture that Ella has gone bald on the TOP of her head! She has tons of hair in the back and on the sides.. but who knows what happened to all of the hair on the top of the poor girl's head!? Let's just say she's rocking the old man hairstyle these days--comb-over soon??

She LOVES her swing,

 

 gets comfortable in the craziest of positions,

and makes us laugh all the time (man, those are some nice muscles, girlfriend!) 

We are in love with this little sweet pea!!