Jaida and Ellis

For Valentine's Day Loni surprised me with a new digital camera (Ellis had just broken our old one) so ever since Thursday I have been taking pictures non-stop. So on Sunday we went over to Gary and Lanae's for dinner and Amber is staying with them this week while her husband is in training. Amber's daughter Jaida is 4 months older than Ellis but they have the best time together - especially now that Ellis is walking. So I decdied to test out my camera and get a couple pictures of them together. I did it in a Sepia tint and the pictures turned out so cute. This slideshow is just a compilation of the pictures. This one here is one of my favorite pictures out of the bunch! Enjoy!

Day at the Park!

So this past weekend was a beautiful, sunny weekend and on Saturday we decided to take advantage of the sun and go to the park with Ellis. Since she is walking now, it opens doors to a bunch of more things we can do with her and going to the park is one of them. Anyway, so we went down to Coulon Park (this beach park right on Lake Washington) and played with her for about a half hour. She LOVED the swings and walking around on her own, but she didn't really like the slide much. She is still a little wobbly on her feet, so we just stuck to things she could do with one of us. Loni took her down the slide and she really enjoyed that. Anyways...here are some pics of our day.

Little Baby Girl!

One final post - creatd on 2-12-2008. I don't know how I hadn't seen these since. haha. Anyway - I couldn't resist posting this pic of Ellis at 9 months!

So I know every mother thinks that their kids grow up so fast, but I really think Ellis is. She had her 10 month birthday yesterday and I just can't believe she will be 1 year old in two months. Where has the time gone? Anyway, in celebration of her "birthday", here are two videos and a picture of her. The picture was taken around 9 months and the videos about 2 weeks ago. The first video is of her waving 'Hi' and clapping her hands and the second is of her walking with her walker. I will take some video tonight of her actually walking, so I will post that as well, but I just wanted to give you all a little taste of the angel I have for a daughter!

Yes, We are Still Alive!

So, I know it has been a WHILE since I have posted, but I wanted to let the three people that look at our blog that we are still alive and here are some updates from the past couple months:
1. Christmas was great...we had fun at both of the grandparents houses and Ellis had fun with the wrapping paper. Next year will be great when she (hopefully) starts to understand what Christmas is about.
2. I started a new job at SAI Communications at the beginning of January. So far it has been a lot of fun and I am really enjoying it. They are on the network side of the wireless industry.
3. Ellis is growing like a weed. We measured her up to her cousin Jaida (who is four months older) and they measure just about the same height, but Ellis is chubbier. They are both so cute together, I just wish they could spend more time together.
4. During the month of January she started saying Uh-Oh, Da-da and La-La. She makes plenty of other noises as well, but those are the ones she really will say to you. She gives kisses and loves cell phones, remote controls and anything electronic. She also waves HI and LOVES her dollies. I will ask her "where are your dollies" and she will crawl over to one and give it a kiss. She is incredibly smart!
5. About a week ago - ELLIS STARTED WALKING!!! She was very cautious at first, but now she will walk all across the room and follow you. We have video of it, so when i get it uploaded, I will add it on the blog. She is SO cute...tomorrow she will be 10 months old.
6. About a week and a half ago, my grandma Opfar died so I took a quick trip to Utah. It was good to see that side of the family again, but sad to see her go, though she probably had a great reunion with her husband in the afterlife. I felt the trip really brought my dad and I closer.
7.Loni and I are doing well. It has been 3 1/2 years and we are still going strong. He is a great man and I enjoy him not only as my husband but also as my best friend. I love him very much.
8. We are going to Mexico in June. Loni's mom owns a time share and has been gracious enough to invite us (yes we are bringing Ellis and yes, we got her passport and it is ADORABLE)! I am so excited though I really need to get in shape for it (this baby weight is just not going away, darn it!).

That about sums up our life right now. I will post more in the next couple days with pics and videos, etc and anything new I might have forgotten in this post.

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to wish everyone out there a Very, Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a great day and remember the true meaning of Christmas!

Thanksgiving, Finally!

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So I know it has been a while, but I am finally getting around to posting about our Thanksgiving. For the big Turkey day, we packed up the Volvo and headed down to Utah for a week. The trip went really well and Ellis did wonderfully...she only protested a couple times and then realized all of her protesting was not going to get her out of her seat, so she finally gave in! We made it to Utah in great time...I think we averaged about 11 hours total for the trip. So our first stop was to visit some of Loni's childhood friends Dan and Kyla Stevens in Logan, UT. We stayed with them from Saturday to Tuesday and the entire time was filled with fun. We started out the week by going to Park City where we shopped outlets, Dan and Loni went to a play while Kyla and I babysat the kids in the van and then visited old Park City. The next day was Sunday so we enjoyed a nice church meeting at thier building then went to Sariah's house for a wonderful dinner. On Monday and Tuesday we did a lot of driving around and ended the day by going to the Logan Zoo...it was actually quite fun. Tuesday afternoon, Loni and I decided to head down to West Jordan to visit my uncle and his wife, so we bade farewell to Logan. That night, we had a nice dinner with my Uncle Bert and Aunt Vicki at Chilis...it was a lot of fun. The following day Loni and I decided to go to a place which had little elves and shops and we met up with Dan and Kyla and Marcus...it was a lot of fun but then Loni, Dan and Marcus all decided they wanted to got to the auto auction and, once again, leave Kyla and I to watch the kids. We (the girls) ended up spending 3 hours walking around Target...which I guess wasn't so bad with us. Thursday (Thanksgiving) we headed down to Pleasant Grove to go to the Opfar family reunion Thanksgiving Dinner. That was a lot of fun to see all the family I don't get to see too often. Friday we headed home and that made our vacation over! It was great to see Dan and Kyla and thier family. They really are some of our greatest friends and I always enjoy the time we spend together (except when the girls (Kyla and I)are left to watch the kids all the time). :) I really wished they lived closer to us. It was also great to see my Aunt Vicki and Uncle Bert...I really had fun catching and reminiscing with them. All in all it was a great trip!