Ella Goes to the Park

Ella loves to play outside and she loves people. This makes it no suprise that we spend lots of time at the park! There are a couple of near by parks and on special occasions we'll go find new parks to explore.

Ella especially likes mulch and rocks. She is finally getting the hang of the equipment now that she can climb some. She enjoys going down the slide with help from a grown up, but she is not so sure about the swings.

As a mom, I especially live that she is super independent at the park. I can be yards away and she will enjoy playing with Dad.

Dad is great at teaching us new games and new equipment!

Ella the Dancer

I'm not a particularly graceful duckling, so I never put much thought into the fact that my baby girl might want to be a dancer. Her opinions on lots of things (including this one) are likely to change, but for now I like to capture Ella's "dancer moments"

Ballet Positions in the Window
With a Partner
With a Partner the Right Side Up
Interpretive Dance on Video
Dancing with Props

New Table

At our house, we have a running list of things we want to buy at some point once we save some extra money to get them. This list grows and shrinks; it can be pretty fluid in fact. If you asked to see it, I would tell you that it is more of an ethereal list than a real one. On this list, especially since we bought our house, was a dining room table that could seat more than four and was big enough to play board games without having to hold your pieces on your lap!

One morning while browsing craigslist, I found a table that I thought would work pretty well, especially for the price. So, we set up an appointment to go see it. Upon inspection, we decided that would buy it and take it home!

One item down checked off our ethereal list.

Service and the Symphony

Our stake did a service project to help beautify a neighborhood elementary school near the stake center. Someone must have prayed really hard that it wouldn't be super hot (like it had been for weeks), and their prayers were answered. It was was rainy and cool. It was so cool that we had to pull out jackets! (They had all kinds of ice cream, shaved ice, and popsicles thinking it was going to be in the 90's, and we enjoyed the treats even though it was cool outside)

Ella and I ended up helping in a kindergarten class room. (They had lots of Ella sized things!) Ella even got to wear my helping hands vest for a while! We cut out lots of stuff that had been laminated for the teacher. Ella helped by throwing the scraps in the trash; she is a big helper!

As for Daniel, he worked really hard outside helping to beautify the front of the school! (He was even on TV!)

In the evening, Daniel and I went on a date to the symphony! I got dressed up and everything! We had a good time.

Visitors!

This last week we had some special visitors! Grandma and Grandpa Call!

We had lots of fun getting to play with Grandma and Grandpa everyday. We went out to eat yummy food one night, but we ate nilla wafers, water melon and other yummy treats all the other days!

Playing with Grandma: Grandma was sharing pictures on her phone!

Playing with Grandpa : Grandpa helped Ella play with her sorting blocks!

Ella Being a Helper!

Splash Pad and Other Adventures

It was the end of the summer, and we had yet to take Ella to a pool or splash pad. "It was too hot, it was too much work, what if we did all that and she didn't like it," we said to ourselves.

If it hadn't been for play group it would have stayed that way. I finally got Ella to the splash pad! She had lots of fun (which doesn't seem true from the few pictures I got. She is just sad because we had to leave!)

I was sure she wouldn't really like it so, needless to say, I was dragged around the splash pad wearing jeans! (I was smart enough to bring a towel and leave my phone out of my pockets!)

Ella's Cute Faces

Sometimes Ella makes really cute faces for the Camera. Often she makes cute faces when she sees herself in the camera. Here are a few of my recent random favorites.

Ella with her book
"Look, I've got a tongue!"
Playing "I'm gonna get you!"
"Sometimes I wake up happy!"
"I found Mom!"
"That baby is me!"

I don't have a great picture, but she is getting great at blowing Daddy kisses!