Playin in the Grass!

She looks so inquisitive in this one, we love it!

We went to the park yesterday, it was such a beautiful sunny day that we wanted to get outside. Ella was in a grouchy mood but as soon as we got her outside and at the park she snapped out of her funk. She swung for a bit and then we let her free in the grass. She LOVED it! She crawled like mad to every leaf and daisy she could see...of course she tried to put them all in her mouth. We got some fun photos, our new favorites in fact!

Inspecting the grass

Speed crawling

Mini Hike

Last weekend we went for a little hike in West Linn. We found this nature preserve right in the city with a 1/2mile or so loop around it....perfect distance for a squirmy baby. We tried out Ella's hiking pack and she loved it! She was laughing and clapping at the birds and trees - that's our girl, loving the outdoors!

Pickles

Sydney the Birthday Girl and her Mom Jill

We went to Ella's cousin's (well my cousin too) 1st birthday party this weekend. It was a fun party and it's always fun to get Ella and Sydney together. It will be nice for them to be so close in age...they are just 4 1/2 weeks apart (should have been just about a week apart but Sydney couldn't wait to come out so she arrive a couple months early!). It was fun to see the cake eating, gift wrap tearing, new toy playing action - it'll be a blink of an eye and we'll be there doing the one year birthday thing too!

Cousins! Talking girl talk already.

I'm never eating peas or apple-sauce again, it's cake for me!

On another note Ella had her first dill pickle this weekend and she LOVED it. We had the camera out and ready for her post-pickle grimace but there was no frowny face to be had. She kept coming back for more and complained when I tried to take it away. Her pickle loving Aunt Merideth will be so proud!

Don't try to take that from me mom! Ella's hangin' on tight!

This is good stuff!

Love That Laugh!

Jason was on the phone and Ella thought he was just hilarious! We just love that laugh!!!

Laundry Attack

We were folding Ella's clean clothes in her room and she decided that she wanted to "help". She pulled the clothes out of the basket and spread them all over the room. She would pile them on top of herself and then throw them off and think it was hilarious. She had us cracking up! We'll take your "help" any day Ella!

Action shot, diving into the laundry pile!

On another happy note, Jason got a job! It's temporary for a month and then maybe longer if they have work for him to do, but he was quite happy to get any sort of architecture job he could...they are hard jobs to come by these days! It's at the architecture firm Mahlum in the Pearl District. He's really enjoying it there and we're crossing our fingers that they have lots of work so he can stay there a bit!

Playtime and a Tooth

We have tile floor in our kitchen. Ella chased plastic balls around the floor for at least 1/2 an hour this week...every time she'd get to one and try to grab it, it would roll away on the slick tile. She thought it was wonderfully entertaining and was laughing up a storm, as were we!

On another happy note our toothless wonder FINALLY got a tooth last week. We thought we might have to invest in baby dentures but thankfully her pearly whites have kicked into action. Doesn't do great things for her sleep (she took 1/2 an hour worth of naps most the week instead of 3 hours of naps a day!) but at least she won't be toothless all her life! :)

Playin at the Park

We took Ella to a near by park to play this afternoon. She's a big fan of the baby swings....she complains when they stop swinging. We slid down the slide and rocked on the springy horse things but the swings are by far her fave. The weather is getting a bit warmer and drier so it's easier to go out and play now.