I think you could say she's a fan.....

I mentioned that one of Ella's favorite things is the Little Einsteins, right? I've been wanting to put a little video of her dancing on the blog, and thought with this you could check out some of her moves, along with witnessing how excited she gets for her Einsteins. It's awesome to see her get so excited about something.... but at the same time I wish it wasn't something on tv. Oh well, I'm over it. Jenn & Don - I think this will bring back some memories of when Aayla was about this age!

Father's Day Pics

Kristen's folks, Tom & Ruth, are so sweet to our family. Whenever they have a get together at their house, they invite us....and I'm talking the 3 of us, along with my mom and dad, and Aunt Hazel. Everyone's included. So nice! They had a BBQ at their place yesterday for Father's Day and we all got together for some delicious food! BBQ Ribs.....OMG - so good! Here's a couple pictures.... Make sure not to miss the shot of Zac entertaining Ella by putting corks in his ears. OK, so it pretty much entertained all of us....

A very special Father's Day wish to Seth. Here's to the best Dad around! We love you very much!

Father's Day Weekend

Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there! Hope you had a fun weekend.

Things were busy at our house... lots of family visiting. Things started off on Thursday with a visit from Seth's Uncle Earl and Aunt Janelle from Rapid City, SD. They are on a multi-state trip in their RV for about 6 weeks, stopping in to visit family and friends along the way, and we were lucky enough to be on the itinerary! They were in Spokane until Saturday morning, and then headed on to the Tri-Cities for their next stop. It was so much fun visiting with you - thank you for stopping in to see us!!!

The newlyweds, Gabe & Nancy drove over to hang out this weekend too. They arrived on Friday afternoon, so headed to dinner at Bennidito's for pizza with Earl, Janelle and us. Then Saturday, Zac, Kristen, Mom and Dad headed up for a huge seafood boil at our place. Gabe and Nancy have started a tradition of doing a big seafood boil after the Cougars play in Seattle every fall, and since they'd received a HUGE new stock pot as a gift for their marriage....we had to test it out. YUM! It's always so nice to get all of us together. Oh, and our next door neighbors were having a yard sale, and sold us a couple of the Little Tikes play sets they had in their back yard - for a great price! Needless to say Ella was (and still is) extremely happy to have these new additions to the yard!

Ella's Current Faves

Here are a few of Ella's favorite things these days....

• Dancing.....it's always been a fave
• Music
• Little Einsteins
• Sid the Science Kid
• Animal Sounds
• Playing outside
• Shoes (hers, ours, anyone's)
• Driving her parents crazy at meal time
• Dolly
• Waving hello to everyone she sees - and just recently saying "hi" at the same time
• Other kids - she's mesmerized

Almost 18 months

Ella is just about 18 months old... I'll say it again - time flies! It probably should have happened a few months ago, but she got her first haircut this weekend. It was an at-home job, and I was so nervous about it. I just trimmed some bangs for her so it wasn't that involved and luckily it turned out ok. No tears, no blood and now Ella can see again! Funny how a little trim of the hair can make a baby look older all of a sudden.

BEFORE

AFTER (see how much happier she is!?)

Sonoma Recap

Our trip to Sonoma for Gabe & Nancy's wedding was amazing! What a beautiful town for a wedding. We all got to town on Thursday and had a bbq at the house we'd rented. It was the first time the 2 families had met. Everyone got along great - not that we were expecting any different. The wedding itself was Friday night and the bride and groom had picked the most gorgeous spot... the Sonoma Golf Course. I hadn't talked about the details of the wedding before, so I don't think I mentioned that Seth was the officiant for the ceremony. He was really honored to do it, and it was the coolest thing to watch him marry my little brother!! It was the best party - the ceremony, dinner and dancing! The next day we headed on a wine tour. Gabe and Nancy had arranged for a bus to take everyone who'd come to town for the wedding, AND had set up a nanny service for us so the kids could play at the house while the adults got to enjoy the wine without little ones. I've got to say it was really hard to pack up and leave the next day.

Ella was the best little girl ever! She was pretty much a champ on the plane.... we always worry about how that will go, as most parents do I think. The night of the wedding she was up WAY past her bedtime, but was a trooper entertaining everyone with her dancing. Our rental house had a pool and hot tub (HOORAY!) and Ella got her first chance to do a little swimming. She was a little tentative but let me take her in a little ways.

Here's some pics....

wine tasting - in front of the vineyard at Ledson

an action shot of Ella on the dance floor

The glamorous couple posing for pics, with Dad looking on

The ceremony

Seth and Ella by the pool

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Gabriel Storment