Friday Family Front Lawn Picnic

On Friday, it was a beautiful day! I had brought home some yummy homemade bread from my visiting teachee and wanted to make sandwiches for dinner. But, it sounded a little boring to me, so what makes sandwiches more exciting? Eating them outside! Since our back yard still looks like this, we had a little picnic in the front yard! It was so much fun. Elly was already in jammies for the night which was good because it was kind of chilly out. We did our best to take a family picture to record the occasion. Highlights from our fun family activity include:

Elly showing me her favorite thing about picnics:



Brandon showing me his newly discovered picnic-themed talent while saying "this is harder than you think":


I showed my favorite thing about picnics:


Every time the doggie barked, Elly would look over to find it and was disappointed when she couldn't see through the neighbor's fence:

Our Front Yard Picnic was a great success! I feel another tradition coming on!

When Daddy Tickles Elly...

It's a little scary and a lot of fun!

"I've got to grab the water before it's all gone!"

Elly always takes a bath in our kitchen sink. We used to do it in a little baby bath inside our big tub. That was hard on knees and backs. Plus, it's so much faster to fill the sink. Anyway, Elly LOVES the bath! Sometimes she cries when she sees the water going down the drain. But, sometimes, she just tries to catch it before it's all gone.

10 months and counting...

This little sweetie Bubbush is so amazing. It's my right as a parent to gush as much as I want about her on my own blog. You guys who are reading it can just deal with it. Not only is she talking up a storm and practicing standing up all by herself, she is the most beautiful little girl! She has these dark, dark brown eyes. Both Brandon and I have light brown/green eyes. Her eyelashes are so long that when she looks up they touch her eyebrows. After a hair loss scare in the 5 and 6 month stage, it's growing back in nicely. It's so soft and the it's loveliest shade of brown. And those cheeks...the are so kissable! They're actually getting smaller. I mean, the rest of her face is getting bigger and they aren't. Don't you think? How could I forget those two tiny little teeth? So far they are alone; I keep thinking that others are coming, but they're not yet.

The Bubbush's name has evolved a little lately. Other names she is called include: Bubbus (without the H), just Bus and when she's being really cranky- Fuss Bus. Since "doggie" is her word of choice now, she uses it as just a form of communication. When she's happy, she says "doggie" while shrieking in delight and rotating her little hands and feet at the same time. When she's upset it's "doggie" with eyebrows furrowed and arms and hands flailing. She has a little walker which she sits in and can only go backwards. She loves to stand up by herself. She uses one hand or sometimes two to stabalize herself on the ottoman in our great room or even up against the sliding glass door, so she can see out to the patio. When I hear the garage door opening and Brandon pulling in from work, I get her all ready to see him telling her "guess who's here...". She gets so excited before he even comes in the door and when she finally sees his face, she shrieks! She loves it. Her favorite baby food is still sweet potatoes, and this summer she especially liked it when we cut up fresh white peaches. She loves to turn the pages of magazines. The Ensign is her current favorite, I think it's because it's the one we have that has the most pictures. Thanks to our nighttime routine, Elly going to bed is the best part of our day. The whole thing takes less than 15 minutes. She is generally happy and loves reading her book. She turns the pages and the other night after we had finished reading Goodnight Moon to her, she turned around and read the whole thing back to us, turning the pages and pointing at the pictures with a little sing song intonation in her voice. It was so cute and we had to stifle laughs the whole time.

Elly is the absolute best thing ever. Even if you've had the worst day, you just can't be in a bad mood when you see that little two teeth grin looking up at you. These pictures came from a little photo shoot I had with her in our front yard the other day. She absolutely loves grass! She cries when I pick her up if she's not done playing with it yet.


In the middle of the shoot, Brandon came home from work and these ones of him kissing her are probably my favorite.

Her First Word!

It's official. Elly's first word was truly spoken about two weeks ago. She also "says" Daddy and Uh Oh. She "signs" all gone. But, this is the word that she says the most. Enjoy!

Where's Elly?

Well, what do you guys think?

Saturday is a special day...

Our whole family looks forward to Saturday. Usually, we get to spend the whole day together. There are a few traditions that we've already started kind of by accident. First, we try to get Elly to sleep past the crack of dawn (which is really just 6:30, it just seems early to me). We fail. Then we all lie down in our king size bed and try to get her to go back to sleep. We fail. Then, Brandon gets up and does the lawn work. Later, we get dressed and usually go out to lunch somewhere, run an errand or two and then pick up a pizza from our favorite take and bake place called Trader's. That night, we grill the pizza for dinner. Yes, that's right...grill the pizza. It's wicked good, you should try it. Then, we pretty much just hang out. It's an awesome day.

This picture is from a few weeks ago when our lunch out was at another Visalia favorite, Colima mexican food. Elly is rarely cuddly. This day, she just wanted to give Daddy some love. The light was cool, so I took advantage.