We have become bloggers!

I never thought I would start a blog! But I have to say, you all make it look so fun! I was starting to feel a little guilty that I wasn't documenting Ella's life like I should be. So better late then never, right? I'm new at all this computer jazzy stuff so bear with me, I'm hoping to get better as I go!
Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday season! Sooo cold in Utah! It's nice to be back in warm Cali.

Well we survived yet another Christmas season and all is well in this household. Dan finished his first set of finals for his first semester of law school and we are anxiously awaiting his scores. I can't believe he has all ready finished a semester! It feels like we just moved to sunny Cali! While Dan had to hit the books, Ella and I have really enjoyed the San Diego lifestyle. First things first, we had to get a sea world season pass, zoo and wild animal park pass, and of course a Disneyland season pass. Oh life is so rough! But we seem to be adapting quite nicely (the weather does help! =) I really felt like we were on vacation for the first 4 months we were here.

Reality is just now starting to hit after coming home for Christmas. Seeing our wonderful family and friends and missing our beautiful home we had to say goodbye to. And being the Christmas season and all, you seem to miss home more then ever! But Dan didn't drag us somewhere terrible, that's for sure. We have meet some great friends! Ella and I have joined a little play group. Dan loves school his campus is so beautiful! More like a resort then a school but he swears they really do study there. We moved into a great ward that has been so welcoming which is nice when your new. And the beach always helps too!

Ella is now 13 months, wow were did the time go? That was the fastest year of my life! She is so cute and has the sweetest personality. She has now become our full time entertainment. She does the funniest things. When ever music is playing she immediately dances to it. And she dances to the beat (we are definitely putting her in a dance class) she blows kisses to anyone who will give her the slightest attention and is always so quick to smile. And attention she loves! The more the merrier! (I wonder where she gets that from?) Books are her favorite things in the world right now don't even say the word unless your committed to reading 5 or more books to her! She is in love with all animals, especially little doggies. She calls all animals "be-be's" which is our kitty cat's name. We are just so in love with our little Ella bean.

I am loving being a stay home mom at the moment! Ella definitely keeps me busy. I will soon be going back to work and having to do the mommy juggle. I have just started looking at some salons out here. It is going to be hard starting over and building a clientele after working in the same salon for over 8 years! But I'm up for a new adventure. Hopefully I will just have to do the balancing act for 3 years until Dan is done with school then I can be full time mommy again!

Dan is learning how to surf in his limited spare time. He got himself a shiny new surf board and has his good friend Conner and his brothers Aaron and Mathew to show him the ropes! He is realizing the meaning of the first year of Law school is the hardest now that he has a semester behind him. But he is up for the challenge. he has a great group of friends from school that get together and study. We are so proud of our little smarty pants and are excited for the new year!

Helping daddy study for finals!

ELLA'S YUCKY NEW TOY

Well it happened! Ella has been mobile for like three months and is like a little bomb wherever she goes. But luckily she has taken no interest in the toilet and toilet paper. Until now! It is now her favorite toy. Gross, right? I found her the other day (of course when she wasn't making any noise...should have known better) just completely covered in t.p. nice! gotta love kids. =)

Christmas Back Home

It was sooo nice to spend Christmas back home! We celebrated Christmas with Dan's family! My parents went back to Ohio to celebrate Christmas with my brothers, since they were here in San Diego with the girls for Thanksgiving. I love Dan's family and we had a blast! Ella of course got a little too spoiled, seeing on how she is only 1 of 2 grand kids on Dan's side. But we had a ball! We even got a huge dose of snow while we were there. Making for a very white Christmas!! I loved that we could just come to Utah for a week, and get are fill of snow for the Holiday season. Then go back to sunny California. Just enough snow for the year! We did get a chance to see my mom and dad before they took off to Ohio and that was great! And I got to see my favorite girlfriends, up in Logan as well! Love you guys!!

Dan and I had a pretty tight schedule while we were back home visiting. We were so happy that we got to get together with so many of our friends and have yummy dinners and lots of catching up! I love the holiday season and was so grateful we spent it with the ones we love!

New Toys!!

Deck the Palms

Christmas in San Diego is a little different then back home in Salt Lake. They have a deck the palms contest at sea port village. A group of friends with their kiddos and I decided to check em' out! It was fun to see how creative they all were. After checking out all the palm trees, there was a parade of lights on the water with sailboats all decked out with Christmas lights! It was really cool to be in December watching sailboats go by. Christmas is a little different here in California!

13 month well child check-up

Festival of Lights

My friend Amberlynn and I thought it would be fun to get both of our families together and head up to see the festival of lights at the wild animal park. It was so festive!! With carolers and Christmas lights everywhere and the big jolly guy himself. We had a really fun time walking through the lights with our hot chocolate and seeing the animals after hours at night.

Santa came to the wild animal park and we were excited to see Ella sit on his lap. There is no love for this jolly fellow. Valerie felt the same as Ella! Maybe next year they will figure out he's really not so bad!

Lil' Miss Lori LeGrand

Lori, my good friend and co-worker of 9 years. Was in San Diego, with her family and we got together for part of the day. It was so great to see her and catch up! I always loved working with her. She was so fun! (lots of good memories) We were pregnant at the same time at my old salon and both hated being pregnant. It was nice to have another pregnant gal to vent to over the annoyances of pregnancy. Our babies are a month apart and played together before we move to SD. It was good to get Ella re-united with her little boy-friend Charlie! (What a cutie!) I sure miss lil' Lori LeGrand! :) I hope you come back and visit again soon!

Thanksgiving

My mom and dad came into town for Ella's birthday party, and I thought it would be a great idea if we celebrated Thanksgiving at the same time. Since Ella's Birthday is only a week before Thanksgiving, why not? My mom, Candice and I, prepared the usual feast in my little apartment kitchen before Ella's birthday party. It cooked while we had the party, and keep making the dinner after the party was over! That is a lot of work in one day for one meal! I love Thanksgiving food, but there is no wonder why people do it only once a year!! Candice and Brian came down form LA and My parents were here from Utah. Dan, I and Ella made up our Thanksgiving party! Thanks Mom for teaching me how to cook, you know I need all the help I can get! Love you guys!

Ella loved having Grandma Lola and Grandpa Allen, come and visit her for her Birthday and Thanksgiving! Come back soon and see us again! Thanks so much for Ella presents and the yummy meal!

Ella's 1st Brithday!!

My sweet baby girl is one years old!! I can't believe how fast it's gone by! We had a birthday princess party with lots of pink and lots of sparkles! We had pizza, salad, pink cupcakes and ice cream. Ella was very spoiled, by all who love her, for her special day! My Mom and Dad came from Utah to celebrate with Ella. She loves to see her Grandma and Grandpa! My sister and her hubby Bryan were there from LA, along with Dan's brother Mathew, my friend Brianne and her brother Christan, Some of my Cali girlfriends, Amberlyn and her Baby, Val, and Julie and her baby, Peterson (Ella's good buddies) And of course her Mommy and Daddy! We ate, sang songs, had a bubble machine, opened presents (thank you to everyone) and watched Ella "dive" into her cake! It was a super fun 'Birthday Princess Party'!

I thought Ella would totally "dive" into her cake! She doesn't mind getting dirty and she LOVES sweets, so why not, right? No such luck, She didn't like they way the frosting felt on her hands, and took one little bite and was like, get this stuff off me! What she did LOVE was all the attention she was getting from everyone watching her! Everyone was trying to encourage her to eat her cake. And all she wanted to do was to smile and laugh at everyone. She likes to be the spotlight. I wonder where she gets that from??

And She's Off!!

Ella-Bean's Cali Uncle's

Mathew and Aaron are Dan's brothers that live up in Oceanside. They're Ella's uncles that she loves to visit, who both are avid surfers, that live right on the beach! We go up to Oceanside a lot since we moved here, to hang out with Dan's brothers.They have been so great by helping us settle into the San Diego lifestyle. It is so nice to have some family close, when you move far from home. Plus you can't beat living right by the beach! Love you guys.

2nd Time is the Charm!

I bought this adorable coat for Ella, before she was born. To wear during the cold winter months in Utah. It was labeled 0-3 months, so naturally I thought it would fit her when she was tiny. I was so wrong!! And being a new mom and all, I had no clue. I realize now after she was born, that newborns don't wear bulky coats. They wear lots of really soft blankets. So I was sad it didn't fit, and She was never going to wear it. Until it finally did fit (when she was a year old! Who labels these things??) At the time, we ironically lived in sunny, San Diego, and probably would never use such a heavy coat! Well, I wanted to take some pictures in it at least. Lucky for me, I just found out that we are going to Utah for Christmas, and I'm very excited (for many reasons!) One being, that she gets to finally wear her cute little winter coat! I guess, 2nd time is the charm!

Mommy had a little lamb!

It's Ella's 1st Halloween! Yipee! I was so excited. I found this adorable costume, and I thought we could be 'Mary and a little lamb' or 'Bo peep and her lost sheep' either way I had to get it!! It took me a little longer to find my costume, but I finally found one that matched perfectly! I was super excited to show off my little lambie! Dan was stuck in school Halloween night, so he missed out on dressing up. He lucked out this year but next year....He won't be so lucky!! Happy Halloween my little Ella-Bean!

Ella met another little lamb, Valerie, at the ward Halloween party. They are the same age and had a great time together. This seems to be the start of a beautiful friendship! I also met Valerie's mommy, Amberlynn, her costume was "gum under your shoe!" It's fun to meet someone who has a little girl the same age as Ella. We are already planning play groups!

The lambs seemed to be very fond of this little monkey, Peterson. They wanted to hug and kiss him all night! Looks like Peterson, might have his hands full!

Brenchley's Visit!

My sweet, long time friend Mandy, came to Cali for a family vacation. Mandy and her hubby Mike, surprised their kids and told them they were going to Disneyland. Their three kids, Cameron, Devan and Anna, were trilled!! Dan, Ella and I, met them at Disneyland, and had the best time! I loved seeing how excited all of her kids got, going on pirates of the Caribbean for the 1st time! It was too cute! Thanks you guys, we had such a great time playing with you all. I love that we live in the place that people come to vacation with their families! I'm really enjoying it here!

Ella's, Daddy's, and Brian's, 1st Time to Disneyland!!

We decided to get a season pass to the happiest place on earth, now that we live so close to Disneyland and all! Ella will probably grow up always going to Disneyland. What a lucky little girl! My sister Candice, is finishing up her internship in LA, and I am so lucky to have her close! Now the only trick is to get her to stay here after she is done. And then, convince Brian to do the same! We all thought it would be fun to go to Disneyland together. Since neither of our hubby's have ever been!! (crazy huh) It was so fun! We had a blast! Cana was in charge of scoping out the place. She made a game plan for us to hit the rides when it would be the least crowded in the day. It totally worked! we never waited to long for anything! Thanks Cana your awesome! Even Dan, who was VERY skeptical of D-Land, had a great time and was quoted saying, "It has exceeded my expectations. I am pleasantly surprised" That is a good compliment coming from Dan, since he had never been there when he was a kid, and has no memories of it. Dan did LOVE to see how excited Ella got going through rides, like small world and Winnie the pooh. We though she would be to young to enjoy it, We were SO wrong she loved it!! I'm sure there will be many more Disneyland adventures to come!

Pool Days

Before we moved, We had a lot of pool parties at Dan's sister, Maryliegh's, apartment. We would joke, saying: that hanging by the pool was getting us prepared to move to San Diego. That was more true then we thought, since we moved into a complex that was really similar to Maryliegh's place. And hang out by the pool on a regular basis. Now we just need the rest of the family to come hang out with us, for a San Diego pool party. Ella would love if Anner would come swim with her and steal her floaty. She misses you!!

Squeaker

Looking through old pictures and I came across some of Ella's newborn pictures and I got a little emotional of my little newborn baby. Seems like yesterday I was bringing home my precious little bundle. When she was born, she was so tiny and made the sweetest little squeaks. Dan named her little squeaker. In fact Ella has had so many nicknames, I'm surprised she even knows what her real name is!

Cana and Brian's Wedding

My sister Candice got married, May 2007, in Montigo Bay, Jamaica. Most all of the family flew out. Including my Uncle Norm and my Aunt Myrna. It was so much fun to be in paradise with my family. And be a part of Candice and Brian's special day! This was a big trip for Dan and I, it was the first trip we took after having Ella. It was also Ella's very 1st vacation and 1st really long plane ride! I was sooo nervous of how she would be during the long traveling experience. She was amazing! I think I lost sleep the night before worrying about it. Ella was only 5 months old and was still getting over being a little bit colicky. It was such a wonderful vacation for everyone!! We stayed at an all exclusive resort, that had all our meals included. Our hotel had entertainment every night, that was fantastic! Ella, Dan and I took naps in the hammocks on the beach everyday we were there. I even got a massage on the beach! Thanks to my wonderful hubby, who let me get my spa treatment while he watched our little bean. Ella was the only grandchild that made the trip. So she got a lot of attention! My brother's wives didn't make the trip because it would have been hard to take all their kids with them. We missed them! It would have been so cute to have all the grand kids there too!

The Wedding day was perfect! Weather was sunny and gorgeous! My sister and I, had breakfast together as I did her hair and makeup for the big day! She was stunning! Brian didn't looks so bad himself! :) The wedding ceremony was held on the gazebo out on the pier over the ocean. And the reception was on the beach. It was fantastic way to get married! After the wedding was over, we all changed in to our swimming suits and partied on the beach. We went paddle boating, snorkeling, jet skiing, ate yummy beach side food and soaked up some sun. We all had a blast! Ella had a wonderful time on her 1st Vacation! I think the bar is set pretty high for our little princess now!!

Ella's Blessing Day