Monday, June 30, 2008

Sunset Beach

Last week Ella and I were lucky enough to be invited to the beach with my parents. Hooray, I love the beach! Well, beach vacations are very different with a baby. I usually just grab my chair and book and hit the sand as soon as I wake up in the morning and just sit out there all day long. Not so much when you have a baby with you. I waited till after Ella's morning nap everyday to get her all greased up with the sunscreen (I used SPF 70- probably going a bit overboard) and into her swim diaper and bathing suit. Then load up the beach bag with the necessecities and head out. This trip was even different from when we went a couple of months ago because now Ella will not go to sleep out there- she wants to make sure she doesn't miss anything. So I could only stay out there as long as she wasn't having a meltdown from exhaustion. Anyway, we put her in the ocean for the first time and she LOVED it!! Which really comes as no surprise as much as she like to splash in the bathtub. But even the salt didn't bother her. She couldn't quite figure out the sand, tried to eat it and realized maybe she shouldn't put it in her mouth, but enjoyed digging around in it all the same.
We also figured out that Ella enjoys cold water to drink. I have tried to give it to her before and she wanted nothing to do with it out of a sippy cup... but straight out of the water bottle she was all about it. It probably helped that it was getting the taste of the seawater out of her mouth. When we got back inside the empty bottle rolled out of my bag and she scooted right over to it, and I think was a bit irritated that there was no water in it for her to drink. But she did enjoy playing with it for a while.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Cat's dress

Ok, so Fox did post some pictures on line from the results show. Unfortunately there is not a close up of Cat's dress so you'll have to settle for a group shot. Love it!!

Friday, June 20, 2008

Why bother with crawling?

Ella's not so new favorite activity is standing up. She's always been a fan of it but lately it's all she wants to do. Obviously, she can't do it by herself. But if she's laying down and you hold her hands she will stiffen her body like a board and pull as hard as she can to get herself vertical. She's got some serious muscles in those legs of hers! Now she's also figured out that if she puts one foot in front of the other we pretty much have to go wherever she wants to. Here she is leading Bryan around the bonus room.

But don't be decieved... her legs are not all muscle. There is plenty of meat there too. Seriously, the girl's got some chunk! Chekc these puppies out.

Cute Shots

Here are just some cute photos of Ella I've taken over the last few days. Enjoy!
Teething is awesome.
I kind of think she's looking at me like, "I'm going over there Mommy, and you can't stop me!"
A new fave toy... pull the tail and it vibrates plus the wings are filled that crinkly paper. She loves it!

Hamming it up for the camera.

So You Think You Can Dance week 2

First and foremost... THANK YOU Shane Sparks for not completely bailing on SYTYCD. The group piece last night was fantastic and I hope to see much more this season!
Thank God we finally got rid of the "club rat" (so aptly named by my sister) Susie. What a joke of a dancer she was... I think it was self-evident when she drew the salsa out of the hat, her supposed strength. She biffed it big time. In fact, Alex Da Silva, the choreographer, even said she was a street salsa dancer, not a real one. Peace out, Susie, you won't be missed by me.
Oh Marquis, I think you got robbed last night. Are you the strongest of the bottom 3 boys? Perhaps not, but you did, however, kick everyone's butt in the "Dance for your life" section and I'm sorry that the judges thought you were all tricks. To me that was way better than Chris just running around the stage and contracting every now and then. Alas, I am not the decision maker.

And oh Cat Deeley, once again you did not dissapoint. I'm so sad that there are no pictures yet of the fabulous dress she wore last night! What I would give to have it hanging in my closet along with an excuse to wear it. Hopefully Fox will update the website soon and I can post a picture so all of you to feast your eyes on it.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Ella's friends

Ella and I have been going to Kernersville every Tuesday for the last 4 months to a Mommy & Me group that has been most fun. It's getting harder for me now that Ella's on the move but we've (I've) learned so much there from the other moms and the guest speakers. A few of Ella's buddies have "aged out" so we took some pictures this morning. We've got plans to keep getting together every couple of weeks since the girls are so close in age... hopefully we'll get that going soon!
Kira and Ella... Kira is 9 days older than Ella.Kira, Ella, and Camryn all very interested in the Baby Signs flash cards. Camryn's 5 weeks older than Ella and twice as big but such a cutie!!A better picture of Camryn... that's Irelyn in the back about to snatch the card out of Ella's mouth.Ella was not too happy about Irelyn taking her flash card and was in a big hurry to get it back.
One last picture of the girls... Kira, Ella, Camryn, and Irelyn.

Monday, June 16, 2008

More from the beach...

Okay, so I finally took the other disposable camera from our "girl's weekend" at the beach with the Brundage girls... again, let me curse the fact that I left the digital camera battery at home b/c disposable cameras are the worst. For some reason I don't ever remember pics being this bad when I used them in the past, but whatever, they're all I have so I guess I'll just get over it and embrace them, fuzzinness and all. Just to make myself fell better I'll call them "vintage" rather than "fuzzy"... maybe that will help.


Here's Ella chewing on her toes... I know this was a while ago but at the time it was pretty amusing to watch. She's not doing it so much these days.


Riley, Logan and Ella (starting at top) lounging around in their diapers after a long day on the beach. What a life!

Riley entertaining the little ones.... I'd bet $1000 she was keeping them busy so Carrie and I could pour another glass of wine.

Ella and Logan ready to hit the beach.

My apologies for posting such old pictures! They're just such cute girls I couldn't resist.