Where's Dolly?

We started playing hide-and-seek with Ella's toys. She's getting pretty good at finding them!

Merry Christmas!

We had such a wonderful Christmas!! We celebrated twice, first on Dec. 21st when Ally flew in from Denver, then again on Christmas day. Aunt Suzy drove down when Ally came into town and we had the large family Christmas celebration then.

Ella was so excited to see her Auntie Ally!

She was fascinated with her Grandpa Ron's beard, and kept trying to see if it was real :)

After a quick nap she got down to business and used her new present-opening skills to decimate some packages. 

We had a wonderful time and are so blessed to have such a loving family!

On Christmas day my parents came over to have lunch and Ella got to open a few more presents. By this time she was a pro and breezed through them. 

Merry Christmas!!!

Ella's First Trip to California

This week we flew to California to visit our west coast family! We had so much fun, though I wish we had been able to stay longer.

Our flight was delayed about an hour and a half, so it was well past Ella's bedtime by the time we boarded. Luckily, she had no trouble sleeping on the plane and spent most of the flight passed out :)

 

We made it! The view from Chad's parents' house is just as gorgeous as I remember!

The morning after we arrived we drove up to Fillmore to visit Chad's grandparents, Noel and Debbie. We had a wonderful time hanging out with them, and Ella fell in love with Great-Grandma Debbie and Great-Grandpa Noel!

 After a great 2-day visit we drove back down to Laguna Beach for an early Christmas celebration.

This was Ella's first introduction to present-opening and she took to it like a natural! She had so much fun tearing into the wrapping and finding surprises inside. 

On Saturday we went to Grandpa Don's 90th birthday party. It was so nice to see Grandpa Don, Grandma Sylvia, and the rest of the family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving this year we all went down to Port Aransas for Thanksgiving at the beach! Chad, Ella, my parents and my aunt Suzy all stayed at the beach house, and Chad's cousins and their parents also came up and rented a place. We had a really nice large Thanksgiving meal with turnkey and all the trimmings! Ella liked the sweet potatoes the best, until she got to try a tiny bite of pie :)

The next day we went down to the pier for a bit of fishing. It was pretty chilly, but Ella loved watching her dad and gpa catching fish. We did some tailgating so that she could stay out of the wind.

We were able to get some nice family pics together (minus Ally, we missed you Ally!)

Ella had so much fun hanging out with her grandparents at the beach!