Happy 1st Birthday Ella

Happy Birthday to a wonderful little girl who has truly blessed our lives in the past year and given us more laughs and tears that we ever imagined. I can't believe that our daughter is 1. It is truly amazing how fast the first year will fly by. Here are some of her 1 year pictures.

Yum!

Ella likes to help us with laundry. Not necessary folding or washing or drying, but she does help shut the dryer door and pull laundry out of the basket. Tonight she decided to take one of her socks (already been washed and dried) and just went to town stretching it, biting it, throwing it, whatever she could possibly do. She just thought it was so fun! After we had folded the laundry and took it upstairs, Ella decided to try to take off her dirty socks and do the same thing. Needless to say, we stopped this from happening!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Fun!

Ella and Grandpa Hohensee playing this morning before church. My parents were down spend time with us and to watch Ella last night, so Charles and I could go out for our Anniversary. Today, we got the Christmas lights put up on the outside of the house. Thanks!!!

When Ella wakes up

Sometimes she just babbles, sometimes she whines, and this morning she was playing with the birdies. We have a birdie toy on the side of the crib and this morning when I went to check on Ella, there she was on her knees looking at the birdies. Tonight after we put her down for bed, I thought I heard the birdies singing and lo and behold, she was doing this again this evening. She must really like her birdies. Thanks Paige, aka Josh & Heather (last year's Christmas present)!

Visiting

Ella playing with her Great Grandma Hohensee the last time we were in Pocahontas. We try very hard to see as family as much as possible and we always enjoy the company!

Toy Box

Ella thought that it may be a good idea to get in one of the boxes that we keep some of her toys in. The only thing is that the box really isn't mean to have a child sit in it. Oh well...Ella wanted to be close to the action!

Playing in the leaves

Here is a Ella a few weeks ago playing in the leaves as we are trying to rake them up. She didn't know what to think at first, but soon had a lot of fun, especially when her Dao (our dog, Duste) joined her.

Halloween Treat Bowl

A little bit delayed, but here is Ella on Beggar's Night here in Des Moines with her treats (Cheerios). This is right before she decided to pick up the bowl and drink her Cheerios from it. Way to go Ella!

Happy 1st Birthday Ella!

Happy Birthday (11/20) to a wonderful little girl who has truly blessed our lives in the past year and given us more laughs and tears that we ever imagined. I can't believe that our daughter is 1. It is truly amazing how fast the first year will fly by. Here are some of her 1 year pictures.

Happy Anniversary

After 5 years of marriage, we are both very happy and have this picture to prove it! We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary last Friday. Nothing too spectacular, except a new ring for me and a really great vacation coming up to Colorado for a little snow skiing and really great tickets to a Denver Broncos football game.

My girls are just chillin'

Finally, after almost a year, Duste is pretty comfortable with Ella and likewise back. The other night, I set Ella in the chair with Duste (as you can see) and Duste didn't move. Maybe she was scared vs excited, but I was more than a little bit happy! And this morning, I got Ella up out of bed and gave her the binky (like I always do), she spit it out and said, "Dao" (aka, Dog/Duste) when Duste came upstairs. Ahhh, the things that entertain me!

The little Punkin is helping to carve punkins

Since Ella wasn't quite with us last year at this time, this is her first experience with carving pumpkins.


At first Ella was so excited to carve pumpkins, she was stomping her feet and smiling and giggling.






Then when I finally got one open, she had to look inside (no touching) and then as you can see, tried to pick it up.

Then, I thought maybe she would put her hands inside, but nope again, she just wanted me to do the dirty work and she'd touch the seeds. Later on, she decided to pick up a glob of seeds, tried eating them, threw them on the floor and tried to eat them again.

Here is the Peacock, but what about Bob?

My brother Brian and sister-in-law Sarah decided this year to be a peacock and SpongeBob Square Pants. I don't know if these were their #1 choices for costumes or not. They had just returned from Hawaii, so only had a week to get costumes. Too bad, huh? They just love Halloween and so the costumes they come up with are never surprising!