Walk a mile in Ella's.. boots?

Shoes.

For a long time Ella has refused to wear anything but soft soled shoes. 

It's not for lack of wanting.

Ella's closet

Or opportunity.

basket of shoes by the door

Or choices.

and boots

(Thankfully we have some awesome fashionista friends who like to hand shoes down to us!)

It was entirely from lack of cooperation. The soft soled shoes only thing was okay in the beginning.. They do make some cute ones. But I mean seriously.. have you taken a stroll down the little girl's aisle of shoes lately?? OH the cuteness.. The past 2 years I've tried to avoid that aisle at all costs. Turned the cart around if it was headed that direction, closed my eyes if I saw it approaching. Once in a weak moment I stood and gazed at an end display of Spring Easter shoes. I almost cried. Maybe I did. Ella would NEVER wear any of those shoes and I had no reason to hope she ever would. I was actually looking into patterns to make my own soft soled shoes for when she got older and didn't fit into the kids ones. 

And then one day she started bringing me shoes out of the maybe-someday-she'll-wear-these-but-I-doubt-it basket and wanting me to put them on. 

And she tried them on. And liked them. And wore them around the house. 

And I thought things couldn't possibly get better.

And then she discovered her mud-boots-that-I-thought-would-be-too-small-and-she-would-never-approve-of-because-the-one-day-I-tried-to-put-her-in-tall-boots-for-church-she-spent-the-entire-mass-barefoot. And she was in love with them. And obsessed about them. And wore them everywhere.

And I thought nothing could possibly be as cute as seeing this all day..

And then when I was taking the picture of Ella's closet to write this post we rediscovered Ella's pink cowboy boots. The ones she wore 2 years ago before her shoe relationship fizzled. I thought there was no way they would fit since.. you know.. she wore them 2 years ago. But apparently this girl's feet have barely grown since then. (They're about the same size as Hudson's..)

And then I discovered this jacket. And this dress. 

And you guys.. if Ella actually wears this I think I might die. Really I do.

If you don't hear from me for a few days, someone might want to check on me. 

I'll probably be in cuteness coma.

***Update***

After I had written this I went upstairs to put Hudson down for a nap and what did I walk back to see? While I was gone Daddy had seen the outfit I had out and assumed that was what I wanted her to wear (Well.. yeah.. I did. Buuut...) put it on her, AND painted her nails to match.

Lord, take me now. 

Yes, she has pigtail braids here. Yes, I can die a happy woman.

Dad of the year??

I decided I would be totally fine if we lived in Laura Ingalls time when people wore one dress for an entire week and this was it for Ella. Every single day. I could handle that.

This recent shoe/boot obsession/development is incredibly/obviously exciting to me. But I'm still a little skeptical that Ella will go totally wild and do something crazy like wear flip flops this summer. Don't worry though.. we've got 3 pairs just in case. :)