Ella's First Zoo Trip

Now that it is cooling off a bit, we decided to take our little monkey girl to the zoo. She had a lot of fun. Her favorite part of course I think was just being outside. She is definitely an outdoor girl. She really liked the ducks. The petting zoo animals were pretty over-powering and just plain rude! I think she needs to be a little bigger to shove them around just as much as they were shoving her around...darn goats. Ella was also pretty mesmerized by their new aquarium. It was so much fun getting out and having a day with the family!

Taking an ice cream sandwich break.

Daddy made the goats leave her alone.

Birthday Preparations

I remember a much more practical me at one point (before Ella) saying, "I won't have a big birthday party for my kids for their first birthday. Just a small family thing...they won't remember it anyway." Awww..that was so cute and naive. How could I not realize what a freak I am about parties and theme kinds of things? Well, here it is. We are getting ready for Ella's "small family get together" aka Biggest Bash EVER!

Ella really enjoys Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so I am planning a Minnie Mouse theme. Stephanie was so kind again to take pictures for her invitations. Her daddy is even helping me with craft stuff for the favors. I can't wait for it all to come together. Of course I will post pictures.

Toy Box

Ever since Ella was able to pull herself up on her toy basket, it has been so exciting to see what she would pick out and play with. I loved watching her get her tiny hands in there and pull out something that seemed to dwarf her in size and make her grunting noises as she lifted it out with pure excitement. Well, those delicate days are over. Ella now climbs into her basket, empties it out completely and makes a MESS all the time. It is still quite amusing, just not so sweet as there is constantly a mess for me to pick up.

It is amazing that something this sweet and little can make such a giant mess in no time at all!

Playground with the Grandmas

Ella is the luckiest baby ever to have so many wonderful Grandmas around her. She is especially spoiled with love, tons of attention, and fun things to do all of the time. Here is another fun day with the Grandmas at the playground!

A Day At The Farm

We had to utilize Ella's cute cowgirl boots somehow so we took her to a farm. We went to Tomalchoff Farms where they had a Fall Festival for families.Sarah and Travis brought Carson and Felipe and Amber brought their precious baby Cristian. It was so much fun. Ella's favorite parts were the corn maze, the three little pigs houses, a "corn box" (like a sandbox with corn) and all of the animals. I can't wait

to go back next year! Thanks for the great pictures again Steph!

Carson says he's going to huff and puff and BLOW his house down!



This was her least favorite part. I think she was DONE at this point.



The farm is just down the street from Papa's work so of course we had to surprise him.
She loooves her Papa!

First Trip to the Pines

We haven't been camping yet but we did get to take a day trip up to Flagstaff in September. Jimmy was picking up his elk meat from the processor so we decided to tag along. Ella was fascinated by the pine cones, all of the fun dirt and huge trees. I knew she would be an outdoor girl!