Our little mover

Here's a little video of Ella "crawling". It's actually more of a scoot than anything here. I took this a few days ago, so she's made a little progress. I'll get more footage of the progress soon......

Let the madness begin!

So tomorrow, we drive to Seattle for the weekend. Wanna know why? Well, football season is about to start, of course! Every year the Cougs play in Seattle at Qwest Field at the beginning of the season, and we've made the trip over for the game just about every year. If you're not aware of the fact already, my brother Gabe is one of THE biggest WSU Cougar football fans - ever. It's always a fun time, and this year we're able to share the fun with Ella! We play Oklahoma State, and I'm not sure of the exact odds, but the Cougs are not favored to win.

We'll be staying with Uncle Gabe and Aunt Nancy in Bellevue, where we are looking forward to a delicious seafood boil after the game on Saturday. Yum!

Seth and I love this time of year - football is finally here again!!

I think she's got it.....

I'll post some video when I get a chance, but Ella's getting this crawling thing down. She gets a few paces in on her hands and knees and then usually goes down into the military crawl on her tummy. I have a feeling she'll be full on crawling all over the house in the next few days!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

We got together at The Swinging Doors yesterday afternoon to celebrate my Dad's birthday - which is today. We picked up Great Aunt Hazel on the way, and met Zac and Kristen, Mom and Dad at the restaurant. We had a great time!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA JIM! WE LOVE YOU!

Ella's parents finally get her a pool!

Zac & Kristen make the blog (2 days in a row)! :)

just a few of the trucks ready to be unloaded
Zac enjoying a beer
Kristen enjoying lifting Ella instead of a heavy box (that's Kristen's niece, Abby, looking on)
a shot of the view (the pic doesn't do it justice)

Here's a few shots from the move yesterday. Zac & Kristen had a ton of the work already done - they'd packed everything, cleaned and packed nearly everything - before the rest of us showed up to "help". We all caravaned from the old place to the new place out in Airway Heights. Did I mention 20 acres? It ended up being the perfect day/temp/time to move in. It was cool (after being over 100 only a few days ago), and there were storm clouds all around but sun breaking through. The house sits at the top of a little valley and the views are beautiful. After the trucks were unloaded, the only part of the house with anything in it really, was the garage.... so Z & K still have a lot to do, but they're in! Congratulations on your new place guys! Looking forward to visiting often!

Moving Day for Zac & Kristen

My brother Zac, and girlfriend Kristen are moving into their new house today. They sold their house down the street from us and are moving about 20 minutes away. Their new place is great! Brand new construction and on 20 acres! We are so happy for you guys - the waiting is finally over and you can get settled! We are really gonna miss having you right down the road though....

8 MONTHS OLD

Our little Ella is 8 whole months old today. I have a feeling she's teething.... she's a little feverish and pretty fussy, poor thing. Up to this point she's toothless, so it's probably time for some teeth to make their appearance. We'll keep you posted......

Where does the time go?

Ella is just about 8 months old - on Tuesday. She is trying so hard to get up and crawl....she's getting the getting up part down, but actually crawling is a big challenge. Seth and I are having fun watching her, and we're enjoying our time before she does, because we know how fast she'll be able to stir up trouble once she figures it out. We can't believe how fast our little baby is growing up! I've been taking a ton of pictures lately - trying not to miss a thing I guess! I feel like we're going to turn around and we'll be celebrating her 1st birthday! It will be here before we know it. Here's some pics.....

Successful Surgery

Seth's day under the knife went pretty well yesterday. Took him to the ENT building around 10:45 and had him home by 3:30, so not too bad considering what was done. My folks stayed with Ella - thanks Grandma and Grandpa! Seth got checked in and changed into that wonderful one size fits all hospital gown that we all know and love..... Then it was time to WAIT until the doctor was ready for him. The surgery took about an hour + 45 minutes, after which the doc came out to talk to me about how it all went. Seth did great in surgery. Apparently the growth of the clusteotoma had spread further than he'd anticipated, so they had to do quite a bit of removal. We feel lucky that there wasn't permanent damage done with how far this had reached.... we've heard it can cause nerve damage, permanent hearing loss and more. So they got Seth's ear drum repaired and inserted a piece of plastic to take the place of his ear bones (which had been eaten up by the clusteotoma). That plastic will have to be removed in a few months and the ear bones rebuilt. Yea, another surgery! Seth is so happy! :)

When I got back to see Seth after surgery, I felt so bad for him. A big bandage on his ear and guaze wrapped all the way around his head. I took a pic, but he hasn't cleared it for posting on the blog - and I'm not expecting that to happen anytime soon. Sorry everyone. Seth's recovering now at home and isn't in too much pain thank goodness. He'll head back for a check up in 2 weeks to see how things are healing up. It'll be a quiet weekend at home for us.

Not a fun way to spend a Friday

Seth checks in for an outpatient surgery tomorrow at the Ear Nose and Throat doctor. He's had pain and hearing loss in his left ear for a couple years now, and got it checked out the last time he had a flare up. The doctor diagnosed him with a clusteotoma (sp?)- which as far as I could understand, is a growth that's been building for some time. The doctor said that the growth could have started years ago and if left alone, could cause quite a few problems. So tomorrow, the docs will go in and remove the growth and bring his ear (and hopefully his hearing) back to normal. Not a fun thing to do on a Friday especially! Poor guy! We'll keep you posted on how it goes.

As promised.....

Here are some pictures from Ella and my trip to the west side of the state. We spent Thursday and Friday nights at my friend Lynn's place and got to spend time with her, her husband Tim and little boy, Isaac. He was born 5 weeks before Ella and it was the most time we'd been able to spend together since both kids were born - so it was really fun to catch up and get a chance to get to know each other's kids. Lynn got some of the best pictures - we will treasure these years from now! Thanks again guys for such a great time at your place..... good luck with your visitors this week. After our stay at Lynn's, we made our way to Bellevue and hung out with my brother Gabe and his girlfriend Nancy. Seafood and wine for dinner at their cute house - it was perfect (except for Ella's refusal to go to bed before dinner)! We'll be seeing Gabe and Nancy again in a few weeks when we head to Seattle for the first Coug football game at Qwest Stadium!

oh, so tired

Ella and I made it home this afternoon at about 4pm. We had a really good time visiting everyone on the west side - I'll update you all with a few photos later. Thanks Lynn, Tim, Isaac, Gabe and Nancy for the hospitality!