Some things I've missed lately....

Things have quieted down around here in the last week or so......ahhhh. Even though I've posted a few times, there are a couple things that I've missed.

The weekend of 9/12, we headed to Seattle to visit Gabe & Nancy and watch the Cougs play in the annual game at Qwest Field. The game was not the best showing, but it was a really fun weekend. Nancy and Michelle made the most AMAZING peanut butter/chocolate cake ever, for my birthday! Thanks guys! In this pic: me, Michelle, Nancy and Jessica

a teensy bit of the Seattle downtown skyline after the game from the lot where we tailgated. My Mom and Dad came over to Seattle with Seth, Ella and I and they watched Ella for us "kids" while we headed to the game.

Ella doing some laps in Gabe and Nancy's yard

My birthday is 9/16. Seth and Ella took me to The Onion downtown for dinner. Ella was a challenge. I think her dinner consisted of pickle, cheese, oreo and ice cream. Anything to get her to sit down for at least a second so Seth and I could have a bite or 2. Challenge or not, it was fun to go out, and the dessert they serve you on your birthday makes it more than worth the trip.

Monster

A few words from Ella

Ella is talking up a storm, making it hard to jot down everything she is saying these days. But some of the things coming out of her mouth are pretty funny, so I have to make a note of them. More so we can look back and remember, but if you get a kick out of it too - great!

• "careful" We seem to tell Ella to be careful on a regular basis as she climbs and explores things. She's picked up this word and now tells herself to be careful when she's climbing somewhere she is a little nervous about.
• She does a little singing now. She tries to sing the ABC's with us and of course sings along with Barney's I love you song.
• Ella absolutely loves to say the ABC's (she does her best) and count. So far she doesn't get very far with either one, but she loves it when we do it and she can try to chime in. When she counts, she always skips 3 for some reason. 1....2.....we say 3.....then 4.
• Vacuum Ella has always gotten excited when we get the vacuum out. Now she likes to help me push it around - which isn't exactly helpful. She's now found an attachment to our vacuum that she gets out and pushes around when I'm vacuuming, saying vacuum every few seconds.
• Soon - Miss Ella has started to tell us soon when we ask her if she's ready to do something. Like if we ask if she's ready to get out of the bath she looks at us and says "soon, soon". It cracks us up. She started saying this when Grandma Margaret was here, so I blame this on her! :)
• Ella loves to talk on the phone. She's got a toy phone she uses to chat, but has been known to use a remote control, a flip mirror from my purse, or different toys too. She gets on and just blabs and blabs....who knows what she's saying!

We did it all!

It was a great weekend - packed with all sorts of family fun stuff! Tim & Margaret arrived on Thursday night, and the adults had a chance to catch up. Friday morning Tim and Seth did a few projects around our house (thanks guys!) and Grandma and Grandpa also had a chance to play with Ella. We headed out for lunch and then on to Green Bluff and the pumpkin patch. Seth, Ella and I love it up there, and had to share. Since it wasn't Sat/Sun we missed out on pumpkin donuts at Harvest House, but the girls did have some huckleberry ice cream to make up for it. Ella loved all the pumpkins!! I don't think she knew what to make of them.... After Green Bluff we headed over to Coeur d'Alene for a quick tour of downtown (and a little shopping too), and then we drove to Wolf Lodge Steak House for dinner. YUM!

Grandpa helping Ella find the perfect punkin

Grandma & Ella

Lake Coeur d'Alene

Ella testing the wheels on her new puppy backpack

Grandma & Grandpa with Ella Rose

Saturday Grammy Margaret offered to babysit while the rest of us went to Pullman for the Cougar game. It was the best game I've seen in a long time! The first half was the standard depressing display we've become too used to seeing, but the 2nd half was so exciting and the Cougs pulled out a win in OT! Yes! The crowd rushed the field... did I mention we were playing SMU? Not exactly a usual rush-the-field type of opponent, but wins are hard to come by these days for the Cougs, (not to mention the way we won), so everyone was beyond happy! Thanks for the delicious gyros, Gabe and for putting on a great tailgate for everyone!

Seth and Tim headed to St. John for golf on Sunday morning while the girls went shopping. Ella has very generous grandparents I have to say, on both sides. After this weekend, Ella has just a few more toys than before the McKinstry's arrived, and is going to be the best dressed 2 year old this winter! Sunday night we stayed in while the guys worked on one last project in the house and we all had China Garden for dinner. Monday rolled around and Seth had to get back to work, and Tim & Margaret had to get back to Rapid City.

checking out the new Little People Farm

Undies on the head....still not sure what those are for

men at work

on the "wee" (slide) with Grandpa

Thank you, Tim & Margaret, for such a fabulous time this weekend! We will see you for Christmas!

A Cougar Win. Such a Beautiful Thing!

Final Score (in OT): Cougs 30 - SMU 27

Guess who's coming for a visit?

Seth's folks, Tim and Margaret are coming to see us this weekend! They arrive tonight. We are very excited!!!!!!! Wishing safe travels for Grandma and Grandpa!

Its Mommy's Birthday!

Happy Birthday to the best wife and mommy around. Ella and I hope you have a great day.

Congratulations are in order!

To Zac & Kristen - we are so, so happy about your engagement!! My big brother Zac popped the question this weekend, and Kristen accepted and we are so excited. Congrats you guys - we love you very much!

Otto

Seth's work has great seats for the Spokane Indians' games and they're nice enough to share with the employees. Seth, Ella and I went to a game a week or 2 ago and it was a lot of fun! Ella was mesmerized by Otto, the team mascot. I think he's a dinosaur? Not really sure, but he's a big blue dino looking thing that Ella could not take her eyes off of. As we were leaving we took her over to get a picture, but the reality of being that close to Otto was overwhelming and she couldn't take it. From a distance, she was in love, but the tears came the closer we came to the big guy. We did go home with a baseball card with Otto on it, and for the next couple days Ella said Otto hundreds of times as she gazed at her card. It was hilarious. Here's a video of Ella just after we left the stadium.....so happy with her newest prized posession. Oh, and it's really dark....sorry about that!

Too many to count

Ella has become a parrot lately, and is repeating almost everything we say. This makes it pretty much impossible to keep up with a word tracker to post anymore. So, there likely won't be listing anymore.... did I just hear a huge sigh of relief? I might sneak in a couple things now and then that we've overheard that we want to capture and share with you though so stay tuned for those. If I can get to it today I've got a video I'll try to get uploaded.....A few of the things we've heard her saying lately:

• Ella's very polite. She has been saying please and thank you for quite a while, but now also says welcome. It seems that the welcome has replaced the thank you though, and if there's any attempt at correcting it, she just continues to say welcome. I figure it will all get straightened out sooner or later.
• She says Bless You if you, or if she, sneezes. Really cute.
• We've almost got her saying GO COUGS! She says go all the time and can say Cougs and Cougars, but for some reason putting them together is hard. (Aunt Nancy was caught trying to teach her to say Fight On this past weekend... NO, NO, Aunt Nancy.)
• She can identify and say everyone's name in the immediate family now - that is so fun! So she can look at pictures of Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts and Uncles and know who they are.

I know I must be forgetting some of the biggies, but it's so hard to remember everything she does these days. Ella suprises us and makes us laugh everyday!

Weekend in Pullman

Such a fun weekend! Gabe and Nancy arrived in Spokane on Thursday night so Gabe and Seth could head to Pullman bright and early for golf. Nancy, Ella and I hit Pig Out in the Park on Friday afternoon and then Nancy and I met up with the guys - and Clint & Michelle - in Pullman on Saturday morning for tailgating and then the game vs Stanford. No, we didn't win, but we all felt like the Cougs showed quite a bit more promise than last year....things can only get better. But really, I think we've all learned to have a good time win or lose when we get together for Coug games. If having a good time only hinged on Coug wins.... we'd be an unhappy bunch! ;) The weather was really fabulous. A couple of quick showers and a little chilly at night, but sunny for game time. Grammy and Ella had a wonderful time together - thanks Mom for babysitting!! And thanks to Zac, Kristen, Tom and Ruth for having them out to ruth's bday party. Sounds like you all had fun!

Ella and Nancy strolling in downtown Spokane

Katie, Seth, Gabe & Nancy

Mrs & Mr McKinstry

the guys toasting with "touchdowns"


to prove we were there - a shot of the game itself.....

Clint & Michelle

the newlyweds make such a good team.... Gabe slicing the pork tenderloin while Nancy fans away the bees. Beautiful.

It begins....

Football season is officially here, and we are heading to Pullman Saturday to watch the Cougs take on Stanford. OK, lets hear it everyone..... GO COUGS! That's right. We'll work on the volume level a little as the season progresses. We've got season tickets, so we'll have many pictures throughout the season. Stay tuned.