Happy Happy Birthday Ella Dear!

Happy birthday to our sweet little Ella. She is now one!
It has been fun to reflect that last few days on a year ago and think where we were at that time and how our lives were about to change.
Her birthday was on Friday November 23. We got home late Thursday night from celebrating Thanksgiving in Kentucky.

Ella slept in a little which was very nice! She woke up and we had a pretty normal morning minus that fact that she thought her parents were completely crazy because we kept saying happy birthday. We took a walk to see the ducks since that is her favorite thing.
We decided we would open presents and celebrate starting at 3:42 pm since that was the time she was born. We had my family on Skype, Ella was undressed and her cupcake was waiting for her.

First attempt at eating the cupcake

Cupcake

We put her in her high chair, sang happy birthday and gave her the cupcake with a candle. She got scared, started crying and wanted to get out. We pulled her out and she put her head on moms shoulder. We tried to open presents but she didn't like that. She just sat on moms lap holding on for dear life.
The next day she finally ate a different cupcake after mom put it upside down so she couldn't see the frosting. She was probably the cleanest baby ever!

We were able to have some dear friends over on Saturday to help us celebrate and eat all the cupcakes.

Not liking the cupcake

See it is good!

Attempt #2 with a different cupcake

A few of Ella's likes:
*reading stories
*playing moms piano...she now has her own piano and she LOVES it!
*the ducks at the pond
*standing up and walking around
*dancing with dad
*saying hi to people and waving

Ella now weighs 20 pound 3 ounces (56%)
and she is 28 3/4 inches tall (32%).

We love our little pumpkin and are looking forward to what the next year bring with her. 

October Adventures

Kettering Ward Trunk or Treat

We enjoyed our wards trunk or treat and chili cook off this year. We dressed up as beekeepers with our little sunflower. We had the back of our car decorated as a beehive. We enjoyed eating dinner and mingling with all of our dear friends.

2nd annual Spook gingerbread houses

We continued on with our fun tradition of making gingerbread houses and decorating them. My mom makes gingerbread houses during Christmas time. I wanted to continue that tradition but we decided to do it during Halloween and make Spook Houses. So, this year I made 6 spook houses and put them all together. Darrin told me he doesn't like the part of the tradition when I make them and put them together because it puts me in a bad mood.....so I tried really hard to not be in a bad mood and I only burned myself 3 times with the melted sugar!
We invited some of our friends over to help decorate houses. We are once again grateful for all of our friends out here in Ohio!

Burnham's Spook House

Lyle's Spook House

Dalton's Spook House

Roth's Spook House

Hansen's Spook House

Jensen's Spook House

Our Pumpkin is 11 months old!

Our little pumpkin, Ella, is 11 months old today! WOW!!
In the last month her little personality has sure changed. She is no longer a baby, she is turning into a little girl.
She talks to mom all day long. We have some pretty good conversations.
Ella and I get to visit an 82 year old lady 3 days a week and eat lunch with her. Ella LOVES going to visit her friend and gets so excited when we walk up to the porch and ring the doorbell.
She crawls ALL over the place and is into everything. She loves to pull herself up and walk around the furniture. She loves to take walks to the pond to see the ducks. She gets so excited when she sees them. She could watch them for hours if I let her.

Ella also loves all 16 of moms piano students. She gets so jealous when they come over and mom lets them play the piano and not Ella. She loves the attention she gets from them!
Ella also loves:
*Reading stories
*Singing songs
*chasing dad around the house
*eating almost everything
*apple juice
*talking on the phone to grandma
*brushing her own hair-every morning Ella has to have a brush in her hand and help mom do her hair.
*Mom's car keys

We couldn't ask for a better little girl! We love her and are so grateful to be able to raise her!

Picking Apples

Since we have been living in Ohio, we have been able to experience some things that we don't get to do in Utah. This year we decided that we wanted to go to an Apple Orchard and pick some apples. Because of the hot summer with little rain that we had, there were several orchards that had no apples or were not offering "pick your own." We found one orchard about 45 minutes away from us that still had some left. We bundled up and drove out to Tuken Farms one Saturday morning to pick a few apples and take lots of pictures! I really only cared about the pictures.
The only apple that is orchard had left to pick was the "Gold Rush" apple. It is a yellow apple that is really sweet (a little tart) and the skin is really rough (almost like sandpaper). Ella enjoyed herself. She picked one apple and held onto it the entire time! She also LOVED sitting in the wagon with the apple basket or on the ground digging through the apples. They even had a petting zoo. We walked past the animals and Ella laughed and smiled at all of them.
We now have SEVERAL apples to bake with! So far we have made 2 apple pies and some apple fritters. I think we picked a few too many apples but it was sure fun!

Getting ready for the apple orchard

10 Months Old

Another month has come and gone and Ella is now 10 months old! WOW!!

She is crawling but would rather be up on her feet walking around. So, we spend most days holding hands walking around our apartment!
She loves when we sit in her rocking chair and read stories together. She loves to point to the pictures on each page.
She also loves to talk to me all day long! I love listening to her little voice!
We love our little pumpkin!

U.S. Air Force Half Marathon

One year ago we were asked by some friends to watch their little boy while they ran the Air Force Half Marathon. We showed up at the Air Force Base bright and early and watched their little boy for them while they ran the race. After the race the group that ran told us that we had one year to train and be ready for the next one. Darrin thought it would be fun and I quickly volunteered to watch all the kids again!
Well, that one year quickly passed and we found ourselves signed up for the U.S. Air Force Half Marathon.
Our training was off and on in the early spring and summer. We would go over to our fitness room and work out and I would dream about running! The middle of July we decided that we really needed to buckle down and start training if we wanted any chance of surviving this marathon.
Our first run outside was on a bright and early July morning. We ran down the street and back (about 2 miles) stopping to walk twice. I told Darrin there was no way I was going to be able to run 13 miles!
Well, that run turned into 2 short runs a week (between 3 and 5 miles) and one long run a week (between 8 and 10 miles). We were actually enjoying this....I never thought that would happen! We were able to spend 30 minutes to 2 hours together just the 3 of us! Ella was a trooper. She loves riding in her jogging stroller.
September 15 had finally arrived and we found ourselves back at the air base this time ready to run. We arrived bright and early to watch the B-2 plane fly over (one of Darrin's favorite planes).
The race started at 8:30 and I felt pretty good as we were running in and out of the thousands of other runners. The course takes you around the air base. We hit mile 6 and I told Darrin that I thought we could probably run the entire thing. I was feeling really good. Darrin agreed so we continued one step in front of the other. At mile 8 we were running on the highway and I tripped on a pot hole. I caught myself and we continued running with a few complaints of a hurt toe. Once mile 10 came around we were ready to be done but we knew we couldn't give up. I was grateful to have Darrin by my side the entire time encouraging me! I am pretty sure I would have stopped at mile 7 and walked the rest of the way! Mile 12 came and we could hear the crowd cheering and see the finish line. We ran under the wings of a C-17 plane as we came through the finish line holding hands of course! Our official time was 2 hours 20 minutes and 38 seconds. We are very proud of this accomplishment and are grateful to some friends who talked us into doing it!
We had a whole group of some of our dearest friends running with us!  We sure are lucky to have such a great group of friends out here in Ohio. We also had some dear friends volunteer to watch Ella and 2 other little children for us while we all ran! We are even talking about flying out next year to run it again.....hmm....I think we might be a little crazy....

Labor Day Adventures

We started out our Labor Day with the 3rd annual Kettering Ward fun run.
All weekend long it has been threatening to rain and never really did until this morning. So, we braved the downpour and ran a 5K!! It was our best 5K time yet! Darrin and I got "The Couples Award" for running together and finishing together (holding hands!) and I got 1st place in the Relief Society category. We then enjoyed a great breakfast with our ward family. We love being a part of the Kettering Ward!

After the race..we were drenched. 

After a nap we walked to the park across the street where they were doing their home for the holidays festival. We walked around the car show and the booths and enjoyed the nice afternoon as a family.