Beautiful Day!

Ahhh! Finally a day with sun and warm weather! Amazing how those two things put you in such a great mood, right?!?! Our little family of 4 paid a visit to the park to soak it all in. :)

Nothing but blue skies...

We posed...


Hello from Emerson... :)




We perched...



We played...



And we watched the ducks...
(couldn't think of a "p" word for this?! ha!)



Hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weather like we did!

14 Months and Fun in the Sun!

I truly think time passes more quickly the older I get and the older Ella gets! Seriously, it feels like I was just typing her 13 month post. Geez! The biggest change I have noticed this month is her vocabulary. This girl talks A LOT!!! I love that she is able to communicate with us and let us know what she needs or wants. Here are some of the *NEW* things she is saying and doing:

*When we are getting ready to leave she runs to the door and says, "Wanna go!". If we ask her if she wants to go to the park, Target, etc., she will immediately run to the garage door ready to go.
*I love how she runs up and hugs our legs or around our necks if we are sitting on floor and says, "Awww". She will even hug her toys and say this. Yes, not just dolls, but all of her toys. :)
*When she is ready to eat she lets us know by running to her highchair and says "Eee". We are guessing that means, "eat".
*If we ask her a question with the answer being yes, she will nod her head and smile.
*This cracks me up! During nap or at bedtime when we lay her in her crib she waves bye-bye and says
"Nigh, nigh".
*She still says "Wah sat?" (what's that?) and is now saying "Wah sis?" (what's this?)
*She has gotten much better at pronouncing her name, even though it sounds like "Enna". When do the l's come???
*Loves to say "Ouw" (ouch) all the time now! So funny!
*Ella knows the word "no", but tends to say it as she is doing the very thing she is not suppose to. Hmmm... :)

We met Ashley and Emma at the spray park today and it was a blast! My sisters and their kiddos came too so that was fun. Several people from our Sunday School class happened to be there at different times throughout the day too. We got there at about 12:15 and didn't leave until 4:30! It was such a gorgeous day and the kids were having so much fun we decided to stay a while. :) {And it was nice for the adults to just sit back and relax too!} We will definitely be making frequent trips there this summer.

Afternoon at the Park

The weather was absolutely gorgeous today, so Miss Ella and I went to the park for a stroll. This girl LOVES to be outside whenever possible. It instantly puts her in a good mood! :) She loved watching the other kids run around while she sat in the swing and felt the breeze on her face. As usual she was calling them all "baby"!

I also wanted to share an updated video of Ella walking. She is doing this more everyday and is so proud of herself! She grins from ear to ear the whole time. It it too cute! (..and a little scary too!) :)

Weekend Wrap-up

I don't know where the time went, but this weekend seemed to have flown by. We seemed to be busy the whole time, but still got to enjoy some family time together and just relax. Zach and I even got to go on a date! (Thank you Monie and Granddad for keeping Ella!) We went to dinner and to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Such an interesting movie. I would definitely recommend it, but make sure you block off 3 hours to see it. It's long, but very good!

On Saturday Ella and her daddy went to see our niece play basketball. No pictures were taken, but Zach said that she was mesmerized by the game and really enjoyed watching all the action! While they were gone I went and got Ella's "big girl" car seat. I thought that I had exactly what I wanted in mind, but when I got to the store everything changed. I had been researching and looking at all the different seats out there so I figured I would run in and run out with car seat in hand. After seeing all the different seats, reading more about them as well as "playing" with them while I was there, and listening/discussing with other parents doing the same thing, I finally left with a seat...almost 3 hours later!!! I am really happy with my decision and can't wait for Ella to use it. Here are some pictures of her checking it out:

"Comfy padding...check."

"Secure shoulder straps...check""No vision impairments...check."
"Sturdy build...check."

"Happy baby...check!" :)

As you can see, she got a little carried away with looking it over, so I had to put it up out of her reach. As I was putting it in the back room, I began to hear some banging around in the kitchen. When I returned I found Miss Ella rummaging through my lid drawer. I guess she felt that they all needed to come out of the drawer and have some free time on the floor. :) This all happened in a matter of seconds! The flip camera happened to be sitting on the counter so I grabbed it to catch her in action...(I wasn't able to edit for some reason, so it is long.)

We ended our weekend with a trip to the park. The weather was beautiful today, so it was a perfect day for being outside. We even ran into some of our friends, Ashley, Travis, and Emma!

Trying to sleep while we strolled around.
I love this picture of her sparkly shoes. :)

She wasn't too sure about this swing at first. (Aren't those cool!?!?)

Relaxing...
I can't believe Ella will be 10 months old on Tuesday!

Park, Pumpkin Patch, and New Things!

We had such a fabulous weekend! I live for Saturdays and Sundays so we can enjoy family time together. Our weekend started on Friday afternoon at Harry Meyers Park. Zach and I took Ella for a stroll around the park, to swing, and some hanging out time on a blanket. We put a few toys out for her to play with, but all she wanted to do was crawl to the edge of the blanket and feel the grass. I love watching her discover new things!

I just love these pictures of Ella and her daddy. They captured such sweet moments between the two of them.


On Saturday we planned a trip to the pumpkin patch at the nursery near our house. We were a little late making it out there this year, but we did get some pretty pumpkins and gourds! There were some HUGE "award winning" pumpkins that were about $50 a piece, so we decided to sit Ella on one and take a picture. :) Afterwards, we headed out for a full day of shopping. We are getting our family pictures taken in a few weeks at the Arboretum, so I have been looking for our outfits. Didn't end up buying anything yet, but got some good ideas.





As for the new things, Miss Ella cut another tooth this weekend. It is her top one on the right side, which makes her third tooth! I am pretty sure that she is about to cut a few more because her hands have not left her mouth, she is drooling SO much, and she is waking up almost every night between 3:00 and 4:00! I ended up sleeping with her in the guest bedroom for the remainder of the night all weekend so I could get some sleep too. :) Hope she doesn't get too used to that. I will say that it is so sweet to wake up to her smiling face in the morning though! We also tried the Gerber puff snacks this weekend and Ella did really well eating them. It is still so strange to me that she is ready for all of this!

Looking forward to our church Halloween "Trunk or Treat" on Wednesday night and costume pictures with the babies on Thursday. I'll post pics of those afterwards. Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Perfect Day for the Park

I am LOVING this fall weather! It was actually chilly this morning and we had to wear light jackets. It turned out to be a gorgeous day though. We took full advantage of this and headed to the park this morning for some fun. This was Ella's first time to go to a park and swing, and she loved it. Her giggles were so precious! Definitely one of my favorite sounds in the whole world.

Karsten and Ella ready for the park!




In the turtle shell...




What a perfect place for a nap after lots of swinging!