Spring!

 
Well a little bit of spring arrived today direct from the FedEx person! I opened the box (from an unknown sender) only to find this beautiful branch with blooms and all! It came with a little kid golf set which tipped me off that the package must have been from my parents who were out in Salt Lake for a retirement party for my dad. Ella will get a kick out of the golf set when she gets home... plenty of room to tee off in the basement!

Miss Maya is still doing wonderfully. She is starting to "unfold." Her little body isn't so curled up anymore and this realization was my first connection to the fact that she is going to grow! I love the little culrled bodies of infants, the little hands that you can't pry open, the legs turned inward, tiny toes all in a ball. I am sure it reminds me of feeling her little body in my belly. The other profound realization that I have had is that Ella is a giant. After holding Maya and then right after holding Ella I realize that she is not a toddler anymore but a little girl. She says to me, "Hold me just like you hold Maya, Momma." Which of course I do, but in all the ackwardness in trying to curl her body into mine, it becomes clear that she is quite simply A BIG KID NOW! Recent things she has done that make me proud: 1) Telling Jared that she loves Maya just as much as me and Jared love her, 2) Being able to answer all of Jared's science/ animal questions with ease and then coming up with her own recollections (last night "yeah, that's like snakes who use their tongues to smell"), 3) cutting with scissors to perfection, and 4) coming home each night and the first thing she says is "KITTY!" (her pet name for Maya).

Maya -

 

Some old calendars

I think I have finally unpacked the last of the boxes for the office. It took a while to get through them all because we just recently had our new office desk installed. It looks great and has planty of room to store all my scrapbook items and files - plus it looks like a built in! So I found these old calendars that we have been saving because they have important milestones from Ella's life as an infant and one year old. Instead of saving the calendars (for some reason I am on this kick to purge!), I will list the Ella dates and events here:
2004
MARCH 16 - Ella begins to crawl
20 - Pulling up on furniture
APRIL 18 - First tooth
19 - Crawling
2005
(Jared's entries) August 9 - "Ella drank the milk from her bowl of Scooters - her own idea - she says "Ella big girl."
August 20 "Ella realizes she likes pepper straight and has to be cut off after 1/2 tsp.

I'm A Big Sister!

Make a postcard - it's easy!

I'm baaaacccckkkk!

Hello! It has been a while since I have posted...so much has been happening! We are all settled in our new home and proudly expecting our second baby who is due to arrive Jan. 12, 2008!!

I will post more soon, but in the meantime, you can catch some cute "ellaisms" on my husband's blog : http://laotzucycles.blogspot.com/
Now, be aware that this is a boy's blog, so there are some things there that aren't as cute and happy and fun as the happenings here at the bingles pages!

Here is a pic from Ella's 4th bday party!

The home is taking shape!

Summer Lovin!

It's been awhile since I've posted because we have gone through some big changes! Our house on Conestoga sold after being on the market for one day with one buyer. We moved out Memorial Day weekend, anticipating that we would close on June 1. Instead, our closing was delayed two weeks. On the bright side, we have had a smooth transition to our temporary home at grandma and gradnpa Lettmanns! Ella loves the lake, and as you can see, running through the sprinkler! Our new home will be ready July 27th, and we continue to be impressed with the quality of construction and location! We are getting ready to go on our cruise to Alaska! Ella has been talking about how we will be on this big boat and see lots of whales! It sure will be an adventure to remember!

Day One

y

I am going to start an Ella Picture of the Day (E-POD) in hopes that I will take more photos and share more happenings in the bird's life. I have my new camera now, so am hoping that this will motivate me to learn more about the different features.

Sanibel

  

Sanibel in January

Well, we are nearing the end of our week-long stay in Sanibel. It has been fun, even though Ella arrived with a double ear infection, a temp of 102, and fluid in one of her lungs. We quickly made our way to the island MD and got an Rx of amoxicillan, which Ella has finished 1/2 of thus far. My dad commented right away that Ella didn't look like herself-- that she was very pale and had dark circles under her eyes. Poor thing. You wouldn't know it by her attitude. The only thing was this cough that was relentless and kept her up at night. Over the past few days she has rounded the bend, and the cough has all but disappeared. It's one of those reminders that Jared and I always realize after we get frustrated w/ her when she's sick. I recently read something that said, "loving them is easy when they are good; it's loving them when they are challenging that is the test." I have been trying to think of the motto, "Don't take it personally", especially when Ella doesn't cooperate, or has the diva attitude, or slumps her shoulders down to the ground and mopes around like a sloth. It's rather cute, I must say.
Today we went to the beach -- we went last night for the sunset-- but today was the first time for the day. It was windy so we sat back in the dunes. Ella liked to pick up shells, wash them, and let them dry in the sun. She also got to pet 2 very nice dogs and some nice ladies who found a lot of neat shells gave her two small shells and one big shell. We finished the say in the pool-- where Ella continues to display her Jared genes -- VERY cautious and somewhat panicked a the notion of being out there on her own.
It was a good day.
Will post pics when we return.

Ella's Pic!

 
Here is a sample of some pics that Ella took the other night --- you can see more on the flickr site! I think that she has a great eye for composition! 

Me and my new friend!

 
Ella and I enjoyed making a snowperson! It was just before all the snow came down (about 6-8") on New Years eve. While rolling the snow to make the body, Ella kept saying, "this is so much fun momma!" I commented to Jared that it is sooo nice having her be my little buddy! By the way, she ate most of the carrot before we could put it on the swowperson's face :) 

January 1st SNOW!

  

Christmas Morning's Finest...

  

Merry Christmas!!

We had a great Christmas! We traveled up to Moorhead and spent time with Jared's family, then back home for santa and a fun Christmas day with the Lettmanns!! Ella sure got some nice toys--- TMX Elmo, Dora's cash register, Leapster, stroller, books, clothes, Leapster games, and a lot of new neat board games (Zingo, marble run, Cariboo, puzzles). It was fun to watch her imitate Elmo!! I am trying to learn how to load video into You Tube, so hopefully I'll have the Elmo moves up here soon!

Ella is now behind the camera!

Tonight Ella decided that she needed to line up all her bears against the wall. The big ones are mommy bear, daddy bear, pom pom, grandma, and Casey. The smaller ones are the babies who are snuggling. She then decided that we needed to go get the camera and take pictures! So she got the camera and took a whole bunch of pics of me and the bear line up. She tried to get Tia, but "mommy, she's so fast!" Here's one she did get of Tia's tail:

I don't know what the heck they are going to teach her in kindergarten. When we went to look at the pics on the computer she basically navigated the whole thing by using the mouse to point and click.

State Fair's Finest 06

Here I am at the fair and my parents (for some bizarre reason) decided to take tons of photos of me with my milk and pronto pup. I really don't see what the big deal is.

More party pics