Man alive it's been a long blog hiatus!

I know, I know, it's been FOREVER since we blogged. I half expected blogspot to not let me log in or something. Life has been SO busy!!! We are finally getting settled a bit but here is what we have been up to since I posted last (on July 3).

July 4th - BBQ and time with family


July 15th - Celebrated our 4th anniversary.
July 17th - Went to sand in the city with the Berger's


July 24 - We celebrated our anniversary by going on an all day kayaking trip on the Columbia River.


July 29th - Signed papers for our house...
July 31 - Stayed home all weekend so we could actually pack since we were moving in a week!

(This is Ella thinking this box is a perfect step-stool so she can turn the lights on and off!)

August 2nd - GOT OUR KEYS to our new house!!!

Home Sweet Home!!!

August 3-7th - Worked our buns off to clean and get our house ready to move into
August 5th - Older houses must mean spiders have had longer to live & grow 'cause man alive we've got em and they are meat eaters!!!
August 7th - Moved into our house (with the help of many strong generous people - THANK YOU!)
August 9th - Inspection and key hand-over of the last place we'll rent for hopefully a very very long time! (to a certain someone, you know who you are,.....they didn't even notice the garage door!!!) :)
August 10th - Realized the stove won't work....what the heck??? How do you cook for a baby with no stove - her fave, pasta, is tough to do in the micro!
August 13th - After much trial and error it was figured out that the electrician wired the stove wrong so he came back & fixed the problem and all was well in stove land.
August 14th - Kitchen sink won't drain....dishwasher overflows dirty backflow water all over the kitchen floor....one-year-old Ella had a hay day dancing in the water while I madly scooped it from the flowing dishwasher into a bowl and ran to the bathtub to dump it out...where was the hidden camera when I needed it - that would have been $10,000 I think. Did dishes in the bathtub tonight.
August 15th - Jason snaked the drain....when water is dumped in one side of the kitchen sink it still comes up the other side and up the dishwasher....getting really sick of not being able to do dishes & tired of eating out!!!
August 17th (I think) - 2 plumbers and the best $150 we ever spent later....the drain finally works & kitchen feels functional!
August 21 & 22 - Tore down the play house in the back yard. It was a tough call but it was really bug infested and not really very cute. It took up a large chunk of the yard too - it'll be a bit before Ella could use it anyway so we're really glad we tore it down.

August 24 - Emptied 4 boxes today with Ella's help - finally have a second to breathe & blog a bit to catch you all up on what we've been up to.

Photos are limited - sorry we've been a bit busy!
Did I mention that Ella is getting new teeth in the midst of this craziness? She has a new molar & another tooth on one side so another 2 teeth are sure to be on the way on the other side. She has been really clingy & not so sure of this whole new house business! She has named her pacifier "bah-bee"....so it's probably time to get rid of the darn thing.

Time for bed - I have to go to work in the morning so I can have a break!

Water Baby

We took Ella to a park with a fountain play area last weekend. It was finally warm enough to bring out the swim suit and hit the water. She had no fear at all! She played in the biggest spraying fountain first thing. There were big rowdy boys running around and she wanted to be in the middle of them. We were worried she'd get run over, but thankfully no major injuries to report. She did trip and got her first skinned knee...the first of many to come. She shook it off though and was in the water again in no time. It's been a bit of a battle getting her to wear a hat while we're outside. She's so fair skinned that even with lots of sunblock it will be easy for her to burn, well we've finally figured out that if we put her hat on and act like goofballs while wearing it for a while she's fine to wear it after us.

She is such a water lover. She hasn't been in the pool yet but we know she'll love it! We haven't done swim lessons yet with her but it's on the must do list. Until then the park's water play will have to do. We can't wait to go play in the fountains again soon!

In dance pose...she was having such a great time!

Getting a face full of water

She found a leaf and didn't want to let it go

Playing amongst the big boys...I was trying to protect her a bit without hovering too much, tough to do!

Thirsty?

I just know I can grab this water if I try hard enough!

Oh me, oh my, that's a house I spy!

One of 2 bedrooms on the main level

Well we've been a bit absent from the blog scene, but for good reason...we've been quite busy. For one thing Jason got hired full-time at the firm he's been working at since February. We were ecstatic, he really loves it there! We've been looking at houses for months now, but with no guarantee of a permanent job we couldn't look seriously at them. Well with the news about Jason's job we were finally set free to search for a new home (new to us I mean!).

We thought it would take going through 100 houses to find the right one, but after seeing 15 we knew a real gem when we found it. We put in an offer 2 weeks ago, and we've been dealing with counter offers, inspections, sewer scoping, repair bids, addendums, more counter offers, and finally a bit of an agreement we think. They still have until June 30 to say they don't like the repair bids, and we still have to deal with an appraisal but if all goes well and according to plan we'll close on our new house Aug 1st.

So here are the stats: Built in 1926. 2600 sqft, 4 bedrooms, 1.5 bath, half the basement is finished, has a large (maybe 2 car) garage, it's on a dead end street, walking distance to a school with a park and playground, can walk to the library and downtown Milwaukie and the farmers market. It's got original hardwoods throughout. Will have a brand new roof, electricity service, and sewer line by the time it's ours! It's a very cute house with lots of character. We are still on pins and needles a bit just trying to ride the wave and hoping everything falls into place like we hope. They accepted the repairs that we asked them to do today, so that made it much more real and we felt like we could share with the world (hope we didn't jinx ourselves!).

So that's what we've been up to, house searching, talking to loan people, insurance people, title people, real estate people, give me a glass of wine people! :) We'll keep you updated on what transpires. Until then keep your fingers crossed for us please!

At the upstairs landing, looking into the half bath and one of the upper 2 bedrooms.
Gas fireplace with built ins surrounding it.

The half of the basement that is finished...complete with a wet bar...more to come on that later. :)

Dancing Ella

Anytime the music plays Ella busts a move.

Wahclella Falls

Inspecting the moss

We went on a hike in the gorge yesterday. It was such a pretty sunny day that we all wanted to be outdoors and get some fresh air. We got the fair skinned baby girl all lathered up in her SPF 60 sunblock and hiked Wahclella Falls near Bonneville Dam. It was a rather short hike, but perfect for Ella's liking (and the length of time she'll sit in a backpack). There were 2 waterfalls on the hike, it was really green and lush and pretty. It was a fun day & we're looking forward to more sunny spring time weather so we can get outside much more!

Waterfall #1...it was SO close to the trail

Wahclella Falls

Look at my two happy loves!

Beach Trip

We went with a group of our friends to Lincoln City yesterday. Dan and Lacey had a family friend that let us use their beach house and it was amazing! It was a huge 6 bedroom place that was just immaculate and beautiful! We went to a light house, ate at Moe's, Ella played like a mad woman on the beach, then we played games and hung out for the evening before heading back to P-town so Ella (and thus Jason and I) could sleep in our own beds. Ella was a trooper all day and seemed to really enjoy herself. She was quite the ham whenever she thought she had an audience. This was the first time she went to the beach and could actually touch the sand, and boy oh boy did she touch it..., and threw it, and laid in it, and dug like a dog in it, and buried her toes in it, and ran in it, and licked it, and basically made sand angels in it. She was one sandy dirty wet mess by the time it was all through but boy oh boy did she have fun. We made her keep her pacifier in her mouth most of the time so she wouldn't eat the rocks and sand, but you could see her smile even around her pacifier. She was happy to be free and running on the beach! What a great day at the coast, thanks to all of our crew for helping with our constantly moving little one!

One Year Appointment

That's a big apple for a little girl!

Last week Ella had her one year Dr. appointment. He said she's doing great, growing like a champ, sleeping and eating well etc. etc. Now it's time to phase out the bottles and use just sippy cups. We can also start phasing out the formula and start giving her milk....but that's a whole other subject for another day. Here are the girl's stats: weight:19lbs 10oz (25%), height: 30.5in (90%), head 44cm (25%). So she didn't quite hit the 20lb mark so that we can turn her car seat around but in another few weeks she'll probably have gained enough to turn it.

An apple a day keeps the Dr. away!