Ella loves to dance!

Ella looks like a homeless baby in this video so you know who was in charge of getting her ready that day :)

Ella's First Birthday!

We had an uneventful birthday for Ella.  Ella's birthday was last Monday, the day after we got home for our trip (although technically we got home on Ella's birthday).  We did not do anything but unpack.  Ella was really unsure about her room and crib.  In fact she hated it so much that she fell out of her crib twice that night.  Fortunately for us, Ella has not fallen out again and has now gotten used to her crib.  That same day was also mine and Liam's 5th anniversary.  Which we did not celebrate for the the second year in a row (unless you count our five night stay at the hospital).  Although we did not celebrate on the day we really feel blessed to be where we are in life.  Liam and I have a wonderful marriage and are still best friends five years later.  We also have Ella who brings joy and laughter (and some crying) into our home every day.  We are truly blessed!

Look at how much Ella has grown in the last year!  

Even though we didn't celebrate Ella's birthday on the actual day.  Ella is lucky enough to have family who love her and threw her two different birthday parties.  The first was with Liam's family.

The second was with my family.

Our trip home

We had a long trip home from Utah to Michigan.  It took us thirty hours of driving time all together.  Ella really did a great job considering her age.  She took quite a few naps which really made her mom and dad happy.  We stopped at a family reunion in the Big Horn Mountains on our way.  These are some pictures we took.

 In our first hotel we stayed at, Ella found the kleenex and decided to pull all of them out of the box.  She really had a good time.  Being the awesome mom that I am, I just let her do it.

A waterfall that we stopped at right before we got to the reunion.  I honestly have no idea what it was called, but it was pretty cool.  You can only see part of the fall in this picture.

 It was rainy and cold during most of the reunion, but we still decided to walk to the medicine wheel.  This is Liam and Tyler doing the karate kid pose.

 At the medicine wheel.  Nobody is really sure who made it or what its purpose was.

 We stopped somewhere after our walk to eat lunch.  We were all cold but still trying to be happy.  I think that Nathan is hilarious in this picture.

Making grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.

After two days spent with family in the Big Horns, we left to finish our trip home. We stopped at Mt. Rushmore on our way home.  Everyone told us that it was really small and lame.  But when we got there it looked pretty big to us.  We didn't think it was lame at all.

We finally made it home on a Sunday night at midnight.  We were all really exhausted and sick of the car.  We had a great summer with our family in Utah, but we are really glad to be home.

Pigtails, Fish, and Family

These are just three cute pictures from the summer.  I guess Liam and Tucker and the fish might be offended that I called them cute.  The first is at the cabin.  Liam and Tucker both caught a fish and ate them.  The second was the first day I gave Ella pig tails.  Uncle Nathan wanted some too.  The last picture is a nice family picture we took with everyone since we were all in Utah.

11 months old already!

I am yet again saying how fast time is flying by.  In just one short month Miss Ella will be 1 year old.  I can hardly believe it!  Ella is getting into even more things.  She now cruises on furniture and opens every cupboard in the house.  She still loves to play chase.  Ella has also learned to blow kisses this last week.  She understands more and more of what I say.  She is learning the word "No" but doesn't seem to be too upset when I don't let her play with some things.  Luckily for me she is easily redirected.  Aunt Kim took this cute pictures of Ella the other day.

 Ella's hair is now officially long enough for me to put it into piggy tails!  I think it is the cutest.

 Ella has the biggest brown eyes.  

This post is also a catch up post.  I have gotten behind on the blog, due to having a fun, relaxing summer with my family.  These next two pictures are from the 5k Liam and I did along with a lot of my family for Pleasant View's Founders Day.  We had a great time!

We also went to the zoo a few weeks ago for June's birthday.  It was Ella's first zoo trip.  I was really excited to take a bunch of pictures, but I of course forgot the camera.  Luckily for us, my sister Tara, remembered hers and we were able to get a few pictures to remember Ella's first trip to the zoo.  Ella really enjoyed it, even though she didn't watch a ton of animals.

 We took a few pictures, but unfortunately, Liam looked silly in all of them :)

Sunday

We took some videos and pictures a few weeks ago before church on Sunday.

10 months old

I am a little behind on the blog, but Ella turned 10 months old last week.  Ella is into everything now.  She follows me every where.  She can now pull herself up against things and can get back down.  She is also starting to cruise a little bit.  I'm sure it won't be long before she is walking with the support of the furniture.

 Ella loves to talk and to immitate what people say.  My little brothers taught her to say hi-yah and do a karate chop.  She also started saying doctor yesterday.

Ella is getting pretty smart.  She has learned that when she cries I will come get her out of her crib.  So she has started fake crying.  She sounds really upset, but when I look in to see what she is doing she looks completely fine and is playing with the cribs or her hands.  She is a pretty sneaky baby sometimes.  

One of Ella's favorite things to do is be chased by Liam.  She thinks it is so funny.  She crawls away but usually stops, sits down, and turns around to see where Liam is.  Then she squeals when she sees Liam right behind her.

 Ella wasn't so sure about sitting on the grass.  So she kept her leg up in the air.