The Biggest Sister

It's been ages since I blogged! You'd think I was sleep deprived or something. But, here I am, back at it, so let's start with Ella Bella.
Ella seems to be the one struggling the most with the upheaval of having a new baby. Not that she is resentful or anything. It's more just a lot of emotion is exploding out of her. The girl just seems to struggle with change more. I guess since Olivia is used to uncertainty with all her health stuff she handles it better. Now that things have settled down from the holidays we're hoping Ella can level out a bit. If not, we'll be implementing more date nights with her.
Aside from the emotional roller coaster we've been experiencing with Ella, she is doing awesome. She's so excited to be back to school. So much so, that when I offered a snow day today (our district started two hours late anyway because of the snow) she declined. She put on her snow suit and headed to school anyway. The structure, social aspect, and brain exercises are good for her. I guess when she's on break I should do better on structure. Ah well.
As for Ella being the biggest sister, she is a fan. The emotional mess is due to the change caused by the new family member, like I said, not the family member herself. Ella doesn't love helping when it comes to all the little things that are the most helpful. I.E. "Please go get a diaper." "Please find the burp cloth." etc. No. Her favorite ways to help are to hold Abby, feed her, change her diaper and clothes etc. Basically, she is settling into her role as mini mommy. It is mostly helpful except when she pouts because I don't wanna give Abby a bottle for the sake of my already busting bust.
In other Ella news:
Ella has lost another tooth. She was so excited and had to write the tooth fairy several stories and a letter. Her letter was adorable! The gist was that she loves, loves, loves the tooth fairy, and please, please, please write her back. She then proceeded to ask a bunch of questions. Favorite color (toothy white, naturally) favorite movie (Peter Pan, because Tinker Bell) name (Rilla, because mommy loves Anne of Green Gables) and so on. And of course, in the reply, Rilla told Ella to make sure and brush super good. So Ella has brushed her teeth for at least five minutes every night since.
Ella has also signed up for tumbling again. I had told the girls that once Abby was here and life was a little calmer (in the sense that we didn't have vacations and weddings to go to) they could do dance or something. Ella had wanted dance but has since decided that she wants to be bendy! She can already do the splits but I guess she wants to keep that up. Either way, I'm happy for to have an outlet.
And now for pictures, because that's really why you're reading this blog anyway.

We went to the Harvest Festival at American West Heritage Center in October. As per usual, my halloween lover loved it. We made candles, did a corn maze, rode ponies, and a train.

My little witch. She wanted to be something scare but pretty.

Our new favorite game. The girls got a huge kick out of it.

So smitten. She hated having school to interrupt snuggles but Christmas break helped.

Dressing baby sister.

I love this picture so much. I hope we're alway buddies.