Ella's 1st Birthday

We celebrated with all our friends in Seattle Ella's 1st Birthday! She got to eat her first cupcake, which she savored! She wasn't too interested in opening presents, so thank goodness her cousins Sadie and Cooper were there to help. But let's be honest, the parents had more fun celebrating surviving the 1st year!

Ella in December

We've had so much fun this December celebrating everything Christmas with Ella. We took her downtown the day after THanksgiving for the Christmas parade. We headed back downtown last weekend to take her on her first carousel ride. And we took her to the Christmas tree farm and to Triple XXX Rootbeer for burgers with all our friends. She sure is loving Christmas!

FIrst Steps!!!

Check out the dance moves at the end. Soul Train here she comes!

Giggles

Ella's got the giggles!

Ella and her car

This is from a few weeks ago, but it's so cute. Ella is booking it down the sidewalk. And see how tough she is? She just gets back up when she takes a dive!

Trick or treat

For Halloween Ella went trick or treating on our block. But instead of asking for candy, we collected food for the local canned foor drive. We had a stroller full! She had a good time meeting all the neighbors!

Fall in Seattle

Ella and I went to Greenlake today for a photo shoot. I think you'll enjoy these! Ella didn't mind sitting in the leaves, but the instant I laid her down she was none too happy.

Ella Walking! Well, with a little help.

Ella is starting to put it all together. Yesterday afternoon, after a big day of swimming, she decided she was ready to take a few steps. She stood up with her little car and holding onto the bar, took 4-5 steps before falling down. Next thing we knew she was doing laps around the living room. SHe needed a little help with steering, but other than that she was like the energizer bunny, going going going. Trying to get her to go to sleep that night was fun ! :-)

Ella's a Rockstar

Last night Ella had a marathon dance session. She was out of control! For those of you who don't get to see Ella very often, meet the real Ella. She is such a spaz on a day to day basis...I'm just waiting to get kicked out of Gymboree because she's too enthusiastic and she runs over another baby...seriously though it could happen.

Ella learns to play peekaboo

So, one day Ella just started playing peekaboo back to me! After months of doing it to her she began to show that she understood what I was doing. So, while we were camping at Deception Pass State Park she showed Damon how to really play peekaboo!

Camping at Deception Pass

This was Ella's 3rd camping trip, but the first that was just our family. We learned from our friends that a "baby jail" is important for taking a mobile baby camping. We went to Deception Pass State Park and had a blast. It rained over night the 1st night, but other than that it was gorgeous. We had a ton of fun and Ella did great!

The many faces of Ella...

...needs no explaination.

Ella meets her Florida family.

Damon's cousin Clint and his wife, Lisa, and their kids, Cailin and Ashlin, came to visit WA a few weeks ago. So Ella got to meet her cousins and I guess second cousins or something like that. Cailin and Ella became fast friends!! We even managed to get a picture of all the kids sitting together; from left to right Ashlin, Cailin, Ella, Cooper, Sadie.

Ella goes to Cali

Ella made another trip to California to visit all her friends and family. SHe spent half the time in Burbank, and half the time in Coalinga. She got to hang out with her cool cousin Evan. She also met her future husband, (hee hee) Mason Andersen.

Ella is Crawling!

Yikes...Hurry...baby proof!

Ella's 1st Hike

Damon and I were feeling adventerous the other day and we decided to go for a nice easy hike. It turned out to be a mile further than we thought and much steeper. But, Ella did great on her hike (in the baby bjorn) and we all enjoyed lunch at the top before heading down. I think Baguette may have been the most tired out of all of us!

Ella's Stands Up

I'm in for it huh?!? Ella has begun learning how to stand up. She's not quite crawling yet, but I guess she feels like she can move onto other skills at the same time. She is so proud of herself every time she gets up!

Ella's Song

SOme of you know that while I was pregnant we went to a ton of weddings. It seems that at these weddings, or other random parties, we always heard Rihanna's song "Umbrella". You know the one..."under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh". Well, after awhile that kinda became Ella's theme song in the womb. We would all point to my belly when it said her name. So, we thought it was important to take some video of her dancing to her song!

Ella's Learning To Crawl

Ella is taking "baby steps" towards crawling. SHe wants to so bad! This video shows where she's at right now. Usually a toy in front to entice her will get her to stretch a little farther. Although sometimes it looks like her leg is going to pop off!

Ella's 1st Swing

Ella is showing her cousing Evan all around Seattle this week while his parents are on an Alaskan cruise. Ella and Evan went to the park this afternoon and Evan taught Ella how to swing.

Ella's Eating Solid Food!

It took Ella a good week to get used to eating from a spoon, and it's still pretty entertaining. She has eaten rice cereal, sweet potato, avocado, banana, and acron squash. Here is a video from the acron squash incident of 2009. She definitely has fun when she eats! ALso attached are the pictures from the sweet potato incident of 2009.

Gymboree

I've started taking Ella to Gymboree for the past month and she absolutely loves it! Not sure if it's the activities, the colors, or the other babies, but she definitely is all smiles while she's there. She loves to see the bubbles, the balls spinning in the mirror, and she loves parachute time!

Walking with Daddy

Damon decided to walk with Ella the other day. So cute. Sorry it's sideways, but it's worth watching anyway.

Sitting Up

I feel like the developments are happening so fast that I can't keep up with it! Ella is now able to sit up by herself for a few minutes at a time. She still falls over eventually, so I have to be real close. But it's so fun to watch her play!

Almost Crawling?!?

Okay, well she probably has quite a ways to go to actually move anywhere...but to me it looks scary! As soon as that girls starts moving, she's never going to stop!

Ella's 1st Feeding

This morning we tried to start Ella on solids with some rice cereal. I don't think I blended the rice long enough, so it was a little too chunky. But, she did manage to get two bites swallowed. But she tried for about 5 minutes before getting too frustrated. All in all I think it was a succesful attempt. We'll try again tomorrow. I think solid foods is going to be a very fun adventure!!!

Memorial Day Picnic

On Memorial Day Damon and I took Baguette and Ella to Magnuson Park so Ella could watch the dogs run around the off leash area (yes Baguette was there too, but he doesn't actually run around dog parks). Then we had a picnic on the grass near the play area and Ella watched the other kids run around. It was a little windy for bubbles, but we tried anyway!

Ella's 1st Camping Trip

Over Memorial Day Damon and I, along with 4 friends and 4 dogs, took Ella camping. We went to Lake Wenatchee and thanks to Keri and Brad got a camping spot!!! Ella had a ROUGH first night, but thank goodness Marissa had ear plugs and everyone else is a heavy sleeper. She was great during the days, and did much better the second night. It was so much fun to explore the outdoors with them. And of course the stop in Leavenworth for beer and brats was a ton of fun too! Especially when Ella brought out the sunglasses.

Ella's Noises

We hope you enjoy our musical daughter!

Mexico #2

So, we have to share a few more Mexico pics with you. Although Ella wasn't sleeping through the night while we were there, she was cute as can be all day long and LOVED the heat. I think she really enjoys having bare feet! By the end of the week, everyone there (including guests) knew Ella by name and would come up to talk to us and her. Even one of the security supervisors, Leonardo, would come play with her every chance he got! It was awesome, and she loved the attention! And of course we had to throw in a picture of us during our 5th anniversary dinner. We planned a late dinner so taht Ella would already be sleeping. We put her to bed in her car seat/stroller and she slept through the whole dinner as planned!

Mexico

Ella had her first international trip last week. We took her to Cabo in Mexico and we all had so much fun. Here are a few pictures of: Ella sleeping in her UV protective tent, Damon and Ella as Ella puts her feet in the pool for the first time, Ella and I at a restaurant on the beach, and Ella being serenaded at a Mexican restaurant in Cabo.