One Year Old

I just thought I'd share a few things about Ella at one year old.

*She doesn't crawl and I'm not sure she will. If she's on her back, she flips over to her belly and uses her hands to push herself up into a sitting position. No balancing on knees for her.

*She loves to point at things and exclaim "oh!"

*She loves music and if there's a beat she'll bop up and down. If I say "Let's dance" she'll start bopping up and down even if there isn't music.

*She enjoys bathtime and swimming.

*She understands a lot of what we say and can point to different facial features as we name them.

Words she says:

Baby (bebe)

Up

Puppy (pup!)

Favorite foods:

Avocado

Blueberry

Banana

Corn on the cob

Peas

Favorite toys:

Baby doll

Stuffed animals or anything that has a face

Burp rags/clothing

Mom's jewelry

Cell phone

Books

Baby Love

Ella loves her baby doll, so it seemed fitting to include her in some of Ella's 1 year pictures. Enjoy!

Really?

Today's high: 115 degrees F

Sigh.

First Birthday

Ella had her first birthday last Saturday! We had a family party for her and she had a ball with her cousins. The menu: Shish Kabobs, grilled corn, fruit and cheese platter, veggie platter, cupcakes, cake, and ice cream. Ella had 10 cousins here under the age of 14, so she was in heaven as she got passed around. She adores other children and babies. We ate, had a water balloon toss, ran through the sprinklers, and played a water relay race. Then we had cake and ice cream. Ella kept trying to reach out and touch the candle, which made everyone gasp in unison several times. She loved her balloons and for several days after the party when we brought her out to the family room after waking up she would say "oh!" and point at the balloons until we went to touch them.

This is her "oh!" face. I love it.

But she didn't love her cupcake very much. She ate a good dinner, so she wasn't hungry to begin with and it was also way past her bed time by the time we got around to cake. So she sat and stared with the cupcake in front of her.

The next day the balloons kept her occupied for quite a while.

And we tried again with the cupcake.

This time she got the hang of it. But she only took a few bites then just played with the rest of it.

Happy first birthday, Eleanor!

We love you!

Night Flowers

Last night we went to my sister in law's house for a family bbq and to watch the fireworks display put on by a local church. We had a great view of the show from the back yard. I had my first attempt at shooting fireworks and was pretty pleased with the results. For any photo buffs out there, I put my shutter speed on bulb and shot these at f/9.0, ISO 400, 2-5 second shutter speed. Don't they look like flowers?

After the Honeymoon

Kayla and Blaine got married in May, so they have plenty of recent pictures together, but I asked to take them out for a shoot

anyway. Since they met last summer while working at Aspen Grove, we headed up there for some pictures.

It's a beautiful place!

Twins Turn One

Remember these guys? They're turned one a few weeks ago! We had fun wandering around the farm together.

Whenever Amy and I are together I usually forget to take a picture of us. Blair reminded us this time.

The Move

After I finished my oral coursework exam I had one afternoon to rest before starting the packing process. Then this past Tuesday morning we said goodbye to our old apartment and got in our truck for a long drive.

This is our basement apartment in Provo--I eventually got used to the weird floor plan and low ceilings.

This is Ella's first nursery; it opened into our bedroom. But she has her own room now!

Our massive moving truck. We got the big one because it was cheaper than the smaller one. By a couple hundred dollars. Weird. The thing was only filled halfway.

Here's my manly truck driver. He tamed the beast and even managed to back it up successfully a couple of times.

We towed our car so Ella sat between us during the drive. Thank goodness there were no airbags and no policies against child passengers.

The trip was exhausting. Ella took some good naps but it was a trick keeping her entertained. She kept trying to get Blair's attention while he was driving. Very cute but not so safe! In the end, the drive that usually takes 10 hours ended up lasting 13 for us. That's really not so bad considering we could only make it up to 35 or 40 mph when climbing hills/mountains and the beast maxed out at 65 mph on flat ground. Oh, didn't I mention where we went? If you read this far you'll get the answer: Gilbert, AZ. Yep, Arizona in July. We must be crazy.