Wildflower Seed Cookies

This year our stake did a service project to help out a local middle school. Daniel helped to pull weeds, load dirt, and lots of manual labor.

Ella and I helped to plant wildflower seeds. First we made seed balls by mixing clay, compost, wildflower seeds, and a little water. We had to tell the toddlers to roll them up like cookie dough. Ella insisted on calling them cookies the rest of the morning. After rolling the balls, we were told to throw them out onto the hill behind the school. Ella made a little friend and they spread the seed balls far and wide. Service a success.

Cat Sitting

Our friend from down the street went out of town and asked us to feed and check up on their cat. This was something akin to Ella's dream job.

She got to play with a cat and different toys everyday for almost a week!

Being a Big Girl

Ella is getting to be a big girl. (Not that big!)

She loves to help

She loves to baby her Pooh Bear 

Blows the Cutest Kisses

Swings on the Big Girl Swings
She can talk with so many clear words!

Daddy Dog and Ella Cat

Ella has dived right into the world of pretend play. She is obsessed with being a cat. She meows, crawls on all fours and even rubs against your leg to give you loves. She has decided to transform into a cat in all kinds of exotic places (The library lawn, the park, the hall in the church building), but she will meow any place, any time and to anyone.

She also loved when we introduced "parent pretends to be a pet" play. We really didn't intend for her to demand "Daddy Dog" pretty much every time she sees Daniel.

Daddy and Ella

Ella is growing more comfortable with Daddy all the time.

She will give him big hugs and snuggles.

Other times they play fun games or dance! Daddies know the most fun games, especially when all of Mom's activities are boring from playing them so often.

Family Home Evening.

So we've been trying to hold Family Home Evening on Mondays. In Ella's opinions, some of the evenings are hits and some of them are misses.She loved pointing to our "how to be a sunbeam" picture. She was less interested in playing "mother says."

One afternoon she decided to gather her animals and hold her own meeting. It looked like everyone was having a good time.

Ella's Birthday

Ella had a good birthday:

She got a Pooh Bear birthday cake
They sang Happy Birthday to her in nursery
She got lots of presents from Mom and Dad
She got a cool Mommy Fox and Baby Fox from her friend Emmy
She got "Suess" books from Grandma Larsen, and scripture scouts from Grandma and Grandpa Call.