18 Months

Ella Bean,
I can't believe that you are 18 months old today! The last 18 months have gone by so fast and have been the most rewarding 18 months of my life. You have grown so much. It took you a while to start walking but once you got the hang of it, you just took off. You don't ever want to stop. You are still a pretty good eater. Your favorite foods by far, spaghetti, eggs, and just about anything with noodles. You love to sing and keep Mommy and Daddy entertained in the car singing to your Sesame Street CD. You are an extremely smart little cookie. You can say your ABC's and recognize all of your letters. You have so much fun in the bath tub every night going through the foam letters and telling me which ones are which. You know your numbers up to 10 and count anything that you can. You are very curious and are constantly asking "What's that?" Always eager to take in new things. You love your Mommy and Daddy and have even started to become more attached to Moxley. You call her "Boo" and love to throw the ball for her. You love to play with puzzles, books and your baby. You are still a huge Elmo fan and sing the entire Elmo's World song whenever it comes on the TV. You truly are a precious gift in the lives of all those who know you. I'm so lucky to be the one that you call Mommy! I love you so much baby girl.

-Mommy

Someone Started Walking!!

That's right!! After many months of trying Ella finally started walking! She just decided one day that she wanted my iphone bad enough that she was going to walk to me to get it. She hasn't stopped walking since. In fact the child that we tried so hard to get to walk for the last 6 months, the child who refused to even try, now get so frustrated if you try and hold her at all that she BITES! Needless to say she has spent a lot more time in time out since she started walking. Biting aside we are so proud of her and so thrilled that she finally got up off her knees and got moving on her feet. Congrats Beany!!

Spoke Too Soon

Well it looks as though my last post may have been a little premature. After doing the inspection on the new house and finding that it needed WAY more work then we could afford, we decided to back out of the deal and stay in our house. On one hand we are happy to be staying since we were having such a hard time with the thought of letting our current house go. On the other hand, I get almost sick to my stomach every day when I drive by the house that was suppose to be ours. It was just so perfect for our family. It met or exceeded all of our needs and I'm having a hard time believing that we will find another house that perfect for us and not have to leave our neighborhood. I'm trying to be optomistic in my thinking but it is hard. People who live in this neighborhood don't leave very often. Usually someone dies before a house comes up for sale. That or they are ridiculously priced and are more then Taylor and I are willing to pay for a home. I wish we were more willing to expand our search into new areas but right now we just aren't. We are so in love with everything about this neighborhood that we can't find it in us to let it go. Ah.... Oh well.... Something will eventually come up again. In the mean time, we are still in love with our tiny yet adorable little Murray house and are happy to have the home that we have.

The Time Has Come The Walrus Said...

Ah yes.. the time has come for us to leave our small yet adorable little cottage house and upgrade to something bigger. The offer on the new place has been accepted and now we just need to sell our house. Taylor and I are both having an extremely difficult time letting go of this house. It's the first time in the 7 years that we have been married that a place has truly felt like home to us. It's the only home that our baby girl has ever known and it's the place that she feels the most comfortable. I'm having a hard time letting that go.

On the positive side, the new house is almost 3 times bigger, on about a quarter of an acre, and most importantly, is still in our neighborhood that we refuse to leave. It has a mother in-law apartment in the basement so my grandmother will be moving in with us which is something that we have wanted for a while now. We are purchasing the home from the original owners who built the home in 1960. They raised their family in that home and Taylor and I look forward to raising our family there too. It's the best move for our family long term.

If anyone knows someone interested in buying our house send them my way. We would love the house to go to someone who will love and appreciate it as much as we have.

Camping

Taylor and I decided to get away for a few days with my Mom and Nolan and do a little camping. We headed up to Wasatch Mountain in Midway on Friday night and we had such a nice relaxing time. This was Ella's very first camping trip so I was not sure how it was going to go but, she did great. Thanks so much to Grandma and Grandpa for letting us come up and stay with them in the trailer. We had a ton of fun.

Ella and Daddy

Ella and Mommy

Playing with Grandpa

Playing in the trailer

Ella's very own camping chair that her grandpa bought for her.

Just relaxing

Ella and Grandma

Spring Pictures 2012

This year for mother's day Thomas and I took our beautiful little girls to get their pictures taken for my mom. I thought they turned out great. Have you ever seen two little girls more precious then this??

This little girl looks identical to her chubby daddy when he was a baby.

Ah... Loves

My Favorite One

Ella started getting cranky and the photographer caught this picture. So precious.

And here is where it went down hill. The hair pull.

Ella was so upset and could not believe that Melody would pull her hair!