11 Months!!!

That month went by so fast! She is growing up to fast! She is such a joy! We started giving her some of our food this last week at dinner and what not and so far she has liked a lot of what we have offered! She keeps us on our toes and won't hold still for anything, not even a picture for her 11 month day! She still loves when her dad comes home and the second she hears the garage door go up she says hi and knows who is going to come in the door! She loves to go on walks with me in the morning, maybe it is because I give her animal crackers! Can't wait until next month when we can celebrate her birthday!

She wasn't giving smiles out for free today!

Books

Ella has really started to love books lately, she will actually sit for a minute and read with me! She has her favorites one you can tell since it is in shambles! We bought a couple new ones this week!

This is one we just bought and she loves it!

She goes right for her books in the morning and makes a big mess with them daily! She loves to flip back and forth through them!

I tried to get her picture before she moved but it didn't work, she had her legs crossed and she was looking through the book. I hope her love for book continues forever!

Homecoming BBQ

Last week Andrew's school had their annual "homecoming" festivities. Friday they had Interstate Barbecue like they always do for dinner! It was really good! We enjoyed some fun little games of ring toss and bean bag toss and just sat and enjoyed the weather and talking to fellow students!

Ella fell asleep on our way there and I couldn't resist getting her picture she was so tired! If she would just nap when she is supposed to she wouldn't be so tired! She always has her feet crossed in the car or in her highchair! Her boots finally fit as well!

She looks so big in this picture!

There was actually a lot of people there!

We had to go to Target after and saw this hat, it was close to impossible to get a picture of her in it!

Distractions always work!

Mid South Fair

Last week we wandered over to the Fair since it was right across the street! It was definitely different from fairs in Utah! The weather was absolutely perfect except it was a bit windy. We enjoyed the music from Switchfoot playing that night, we just listened to a few songs luckily it was the songs from A Walk to Remember so we knew them! We just wandered around and went and saw the petting zoo and enjoyed some fried food (ok the food wasn't all that great)! The cotton candy was though! I'm not sure we enjoyed all our money's worth cause Ella was tired and not really into it, luckily we parked for free not sure why they let us in and stopped the cars in front of and behind us, Andrew tried to put his money out the window but they told us to keep driving, oh well! Oh and if one more person calls her a boy I might scream! It hasn't happend until the last couple weeks! I walked away from a lady still talking to me the other day at Target cause she kept saying he after I had said she! You'd think pink shoes and ruffles on the bottom of our pants would be a clue! She won't keep a bow in! Some people we just ignore if they say he!

We took this picture of the Texas Longhorn for my dad.
Sad that these are the best pics we got it was windy and Ella really wanted nothing to do with any of the animals up close at least! This picture makes me look like I am torturing her!

5 Years!!!

Tuesday the 5th we celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary! Andrew planned the whole thing, he even got someone to watch Ella and didn't tell me til that morning! A big thanks to the Shurtz for watching her we really appreciate it. He had gotten take out and had gone and bought wood bowls to eat it out of since 5 year anniversary is "wood." He even made me "attempt" to use chop sticks since they are wood too! The weather was perfect to sit at a park and eat our dinner! Before we went to pick up Ella we went and enjoyed some dessert crepes together at the Crepe Maker. I hadn't been there in a since spring they tasted so good!

It's amazing in five years we went from this to this, and soon to be another!

Hair

Ella is starting to get more and more hair. We took these after her bath this morning! Her hair seems to have some curl to it we shall see if it lasts! If you make the first picture bigger and zoom in on it you can see her teeth!

She is eating her hands because this is what she does after I put lotion all over her she licks it off! It can't taste that good but she does it every day she eventually tries to get it off her arms too!

Couldn't resist taking one more once she was dressed!




These I took the other day because I loved how the sunlight was coming through the window onto her hair! It made it look really red!




This is her favorite spot to sit! Every picture I have taken lately she has been there!

60th Wedding Anniversary

On the 15th my grandparents celebrated their 60th Wedding Anniversary! Last weekend my mom's family had a party for them in their honor! Even though we weren't there I still wanted to post it so it can be in my blog book when I print it because it is such an amazing milestone! It looks like they had a great time! Wish we could of been there I miss my grandma's hugs and teasing my grandpa nonstop! Love you guys!

All my cousins and spouses and one of the four great grand kids! Those who weren't there was us, my brother Jared and his wife Celyn, and my niece Jocelyn who live in Texas, my cousin Brent and his wife Emily who live in London, and my cousin Jennifer who lives in Atlanta!

I am guessing they had peach pie since this is what my sister put on her blog! My grandma makes the best pies! I really want some!

10 Months!

Our Ella Bella turned 10 months old today! I cannot believe she will be 1 in only two short months! She is such a joy in our lives and makes us laugh everyday! She is very hard to get a picture of as well! Her new favorite thing is standing to everything! She especially loves the windows in our new house because they are less then a foot off the ground so she can look outside all day long and splutter to herself about it!

She thought it was pretty funny that I couldn't get her picture!

She loves her dad so much she lights up when he walks in the door at night and won't come back to me after he gets home!

She also will not stay out of the kitchen she prefers it over anything! She loves to go and check herself out in the oven! I trick her to get her to come back to her toys with my phone, works like a charm! She will eventually catch on when she continues to not get the phone when she comes back!

She must have just woke up from her nap when I took these she has major bed head!

Pampering Party

Wednesday night we had a surprise pampering party for two girls who are having babies in the next few weeks! It was a lot of fun, we didn't start until 8:30 so all kids were in bed and husbands were studying! We all came in our pajamas and enjoyed foot scrubs, nail painting, facials, good food, friends, and ten minute massages by one of the massage therapists in our group! There was a movie on in the background which no one watched! It was such a fun night and before we knew it, it was after midnight!

Ashley enjoying her massage, we surprised her really well!

Happenings

We have been busy lately doing lots of fun things and moving (not as much fun)! These are in no particular order...

She is cracking herself up. She had just thrown up all her dinner, wish I was that happy after I threw up! We decided she throws up when she has a tooth coming in.
The Saturday before Labor Day we drove down to Jackson, MS for the day. Andrew had seen this place on the Travel Channel as having the best Gyros so we went down and ate and found some outlets to browse. He loved his food, I had a chicken gyro and it was amazing! I would recommend it if you are ever in Jackson.

We went to the Zoo again with some friends! Ella is starting to notice the animals more and had plenty to splutter about as we walked around.

I made this chicken dish a few weeks ago. I took the picture for my mom to show her I eat my veggies :) It was really good, it had 9 or 10 different fresh vegetables in it and made enough Andrew took it for lunch for two days! We also made this yummy bread sticks to go with it!

Just a picture of Ella she prefers to sleep on top of her blankets.

A few weeks ago we went to Jones Orchard to pick peaches. It was so hot but we had some fun picking.

She really was only happy when we took this picture she just wanted out of the stroller!
The peaches were so good and we ended up with 7 quarts and 7 pints after they were canned!

Labor Day at the Lake

We spent Labor Day at Lake Sardis with some friends! We wading and played in the lake and sand and followed it up by grilling some yummy burgers! Most everyone went back to the lake after but we left so Ella could have a nap! It was perfect weather!

The wind was blowing

She was just thrilled to be there. She thought it was the ocean again, she eventually warmed up to it!