we've been busy

Ella is at such a fun age and keeps me laughing every day. I wish I was better at keeping up with pictures and writing down all the funny things she does every day. Too bad I'm busy chasing after instead.

We still love to go to the Treehouse Museum. We meet our friends there about once a week and it never gets old. Cowgirl Ella riding the horses. 

Jumping on the tramp. We were having some issues with static.

Ella loves wearing my shoes. She is always in my closet clomping around.

Toddler story time at the library.

Ella still loves her babies. We enjoy taking her baby on walks.

Ella got her first hair cut. Bye-bye mullet.

Playing with play dough with her baby. She insisted that I sit the baby up with her to play.

Hanging out with friends on her Mickey chair.

She loves cleaning and is a great little helper. She loves to get out the little hand vacuum while I vacuum with the big one.

We had a little get together with a few of our neighborhood friends and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Ella really enjoyed her s'more! She had marshmallow everywhere - her hands, legs, armpit, hair, you name it.

It was a little distressing to be so sticky.

Now that it is warm she absolutely loves playing outside. First thing in the morning she asks for her shoes and to go outside.

This day a spider scampered across the patio. Ella was so excited that she saw "Itsy." She started singing the song and then he disappeared. In this picture she is asking "where did he go?"

She loves playing with her water table. I love that it keeps her so occupied! She will stand and dump and pour water forever. And sometime I even get to sit and enjoy a book while she plays.

She also loves going "bye-bye" in her car.

And finally she still enjoys a little quiet time reading books. She still always wants us to read her Goodnight Moon and Goodnight Gorilla every night before bed. She has them memorized and has specific actions and things she says with each page. I have them memorized as well. Feel free to quiz me on anything on any page. I'm sure Ella and I have pointed to and discussed each thing. She points to the bushes, curtain rods, rugs, everything and asks me what they are.

In addition to keeping busy hanging out with a toddler all day every day I'm also busy with Young Womens. I work with the Beehives and I love it! It's definitely a demanding calling but I feel like I learn so much from the girls and love my time with them. I hope I can raise Ella so she can grow up with the kind of testimonies these girls have.

Danny also is busy with a calling. He's in scouts with the Webelos. The boys adore him!

I can honestly say that I am loving this stage of life. I feel amazingly blessed that I get to stay at home with such a fun little buddy. Being a mom is hard work, no question, the hardest job I've ever had. But I love it and am so grateful for the opportunity.

easter!

Have I mentioned that holidays are so much more fun with kids? It makes the little traditions so much better when you get to experience them through the eyes of a child. Everything is so fun and magic.

So to kick off the Easter weekend we dyed eggs. Ella had fun but it may have not been the best idea to turn a toddler loose with cups of dye. After cleaning up that mess we stuck to decorating eggs with stickers while Danny finished coloring the rest of the eggs.

Saturday morning we attended the annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt and breakfast. Ella had so much fun loading her basket with eggs. After she picked up the first one and found out there was candy in there she was on a mission. But instead of piling them in the basket, she'd find one, open it, try to eat the surprise inside and then move on to the next. Danny and I had to help her get to her dozen quota.

Easter morning we woke up and discovered that the bunny had paid us a visit! Ella was in heaven. Especially when she saw found the "beeps" in her basket. Ever since Aunt Jill introduced her to peeps Ella has been in love.

After playing with our Easter goodies we had both sets of grandparents come visit. It was a beautiful morning so we enjoyed cinnamon rolls in the backyard while Ella had her own personal egg hunt.

valentine's day 2012

We had a fun little, low-key Valentine's Day this year.

We started the day with some heart shaped pancakes. Ella thought they were pretty neat.

While Danny was at work Ella and I made sugar cookies to give to a couple of our neighbors. 

When Danny got home we exchanged gifts. Ella got a balloon and a dancing Mickey (thank you Target clearance).

Giving Daddy a thank you kiss.

Danny spoiled me with a beautiful pearl necklace and Kindle for our Hawaii trip.

We then went out on a "hot date" all three of us to Wingers. We decided to not try to get a babysitter and to go out as a family instead. We had fun and I loved spending the day with the ones I love.

Hawaii!!

We had such a great time on our first full family vacation. Thanks to my awesome parents we enjoyed a week in Kauai, Hawaii. It was great and I have many pictures to share.

Ella's first plane ride. I was SO nervous leading up to the trip thinking about how Ella would handle the travel. She's not one who likes to sit still so I wasn't sure how she'd do on a 6 hour flight. But she did amazing. Way better than I ever could have hoped for. In fact, we had many people around us on each flight compliment us on how well behaved she was. Huge blessing.

(Don't you love the lady's face behind us? Whoever she is, I am sorry.)

The first day we got there it was rainy so we explored the resort. Kauai actually had record breaking rains the week before we were there. They had major flooding, bridges were out, some parts of the island were without power, resorts on the other side had to be evacuated - it was crazy!

Ella loved the chickens that are all over the island. And the chickens are so used to people that they let her walk right up to them.

Ella wasn't a huge fan of the sand because it was "messy." Her first experience in the sand she sat with her feet and hands up so they wouldn't touch. And if she happened to get sand on her toes she would sit and pick off every last grain. 

 She didn't mind playing in the sand if she was sitting on a towel.

What she loved on our trip was the water! She is a water baby! She had a blast playing in the waves and letting them splash on her. Even when the waves would knock her over she'd just laugh and stand back up to play.

It was a full time job to keep her from drowning. She would run as fast as she could straight into the water and if we didn't stop her I'm pretty sure she'd go in over her head.

Taking a break from all the swimming. We were out early enough (still on Utah time) that we had most of the beach to ourselves.

Danny and I were so lucky to be there with my family. My dad (aka Gammpa) spent a ton of time with Ella. He was always willing to hang out with her in the room or to be the one to put her down for a nap, etc. so Danny and I had plenty of opportunities to go play.

We went snorkeling almost daily.

 Our whole group.

 My little family.

 Out to dinner.

 Ella hanging out with gammpa and gamma.

 Swimming in the pool at the resort. Ella, obviously, loved it.

A few things that I didn't manage to take a picture of were kayaking on the Wailua river. The way to the waterfall was flooded and we took Ella so we didn't make it too far. But it was fun anyway. 

We saw some awesome whales one day while laying out on the beach. There were two who were jumping and playing and so fun to watch.

We also gave paddle boarding a try. It was so fun but the day we tried it there were a lot of waves and breeze so it made it tricky. When you'd stand up the wind would push you out to sea. My mom, in fact, got so far out the guy had to go out and rescue her. I had some major spills but we had fun. Danny loved it.

It was so fun to get away and relax. Thanks mom and dad for a great trip!

january 2012

I'm a little late (as usual) with our monthly post. January has always been a long, boring month for me. But this year with a combination of a mild winter and an active toddler, it actually flew by. What a relief. That means we're that much closer to Spring!

At the beginning of the month we decided to take advantage of our one and only snow storm. It was perfect. We woke up on Saturday morning to sunny skies and beautiful fresh snow so we decided to take Ella sledding on our new sleds. She had so much fun playing in the snow! And I couldn't get enough of seeing her in her puffy little snow suit.

Us walking through the neighborhood to the park. We passed one of Danny's scouts and had him snap a quick family photo.

Ella LOVED sledding. She had the cutest little giggle the whole way down. I wish it would snow again. Every time we go in the garage she points to the sleds and says "wee" - she still remembers how much fun they are and wants to do it again!

She also loved scooping up the snow in her hands and then patting it until it disappeared.

We also spent time playing with friends at our house and the Tree House Museum. Ella has the cutest little friend, Reese, who is just a couple months younger than her. They are so funny to watch together. They talk to each other, give hugs and play. It's so cute how much they love each other. Ella even asks for Reese sometimes.

She has also gotten really into pretend playing. She loves to play with her "babies." It's so cute to watch her play. She hauls them around, feeds them and puts them down for "night, night."

Another thing she loves to do is cook. She gets so excited when I get out the ingredients and loves to sit up on the counter and help me pour everything in. We've been doing a lot of baking lately since it's a fun little thing to do on otherwise boring days.

One day while I was cooking dinner, Ella was playing with the pots and pans and I looked down and she was cooking her own dinner. She had poured her goldfish crackers in the pot, was stirring them and kept telling me they were "hot."

Other times I'll give her a couple of bowls of water and measuring cups and spoons and let her do her own baking. It keeps her entertained and serves a double purpose of washing the floor. =] I started by giving her soapy water so she could play with the bubbles but had to put an end to that when she insisted on eating all the bubbles.

Me and Ella in our aprons baking sugar cookies. Ella's adorable apron was made by sister! One day I'll learn how to be crafty too.

We've also discovered the joys of arts and crafts. Ella loves to "coo" (aka color) and has invented her own baby sign to explain what she wants to do.

Playing with play dough with Daddy.

Cutting the dough was serious business.

One day I was feeling ambitious and decided to have Ella paint with pudding. I just made instant vanilla pudding and added food coloring. Ella had lots of fun painting and tasting - and again took the whole thing very seriously.

She is so funny to watch. She's such a little person now! I can't even keep up with all the new things she says and does. It blows my mind how quickly she learns and what she picks up. I'm having so much fun with her at this age!