Trip to MN

It's been a while since I have written here in our blog. A lot of stuff has been going on, one of those is Ella and my trip to MN a week ago. We went to MN to go to Amelia's 4th b-day party at Chuck-E-Cheese. Amelia had specifically requested that Ella be at her birthday party, how could we say no. While in MN we spent most of our time with Alicia and Kaia. Ella and Kaia are so funny together, they like to play together, but they still fight for attention from us. Here is a picture of them trying to share the chair together.
Ella likes to visit Grandma and Grandpa's because they have Molly, the dog. She was pretty funny with her and always wanted to say hi to her. Every time we pulled into the garage she would start saying "Mo-mo", and I would ask her if she wanted to see Molly and she would nod her head yes. Here she is giving Molly a "hug".

Ella had fun at the birthday party. She didn't really want to go on the rides there, but she loved just being able to walk around and be a big girl. Here are some pictures from the party.

Amelia got her hair done!

Ella and Kaia on a ride.

Harley enjoying the cakeElla riding the magic bike

Ella really liked to play with this steering wheel

On the last day that we were there Alicia and I took the girls to the Children's museum. They had a lot of fun. It's nice to be able to let them just run a little without having to be right next to them the whole time. They had a Sesame Street exhibit when we went, it was cute. We have a picture of the girls sitting on the front stoop in the neighborhood.


There is a great part to the museum where it is set up like a small town; they have a grocery store, restaurant, post office, bus, doctor office, and a music store. In the music store you can make a little music video. Here is the video that Alicia made with the girls.

We had a lot of fun in MN, it's always a good time and Ella loves playing with her cousins. She is changing so much still. She is becoming such a big girl. She is starting to say words now. She has, "oh-oh", "Hi", and "Baby". In between those she is constantly babbling. We are still trying to get her on video saying one of her words.

Christmas' (the last two)

Well, this week is back to work and the old routine. It is actually welcomed though since we were so busy over the last few weeks. Christmas was good to us, even despite all the traveling we did. We spent four days in Missouri with my family over Christmas eve and Christmas day and enjoyed watching Ella trying new things. This year in Missouri we actually had a white Christmas, which doesn't happen very often. With the snow we spent more time outside and the kids loved it. There were a couple of 4-wheelers at my grandparents house and everyone took advantage of them. Here are pictures of us enjoying the great outdoors.

Ella and Kaia

Ella and I going for a ride

The kids going for a wagon ride

Besides playing outside everyone had a good time opening presents and spending time with family. Ella really got into the presents and enjoyed opening hers and trying to open other peoples as well. It was so fun to see Ella interact with her cousins and trying to play with the big kids!

Attempt at taking a cousin picture

Reading with Aunt Alicia (in our matching pj's)

After we returned from MO, we were home for a day and then headed off to Ohio to do Christmas with Marc's mom and the rest of his siblings. After driving through every type of precipitation possible to get to Ohio we made it, only to have Marc wake up the next day feeling sick. He wasn't feeling well for our entire trip and then I wasn't feeling good for the trip back home. It was nice to be there though and see everyone. Again Ella enjoyed the presents. Ella even got to spend a whole night with Grandma and Grandpa Keyes, and it sounds like she had fun.

Playing with Daddy's presents

Sharing daddy's candy

The last day we were in Ohio, Ella and I went with Rachael to see Great Grandma Brash. Ella was such a trooper all day with the traveling and did great at the nursing home. She liked seeing the resident dog, Bella. Here a few pictures from the visit.

Posing with Great grandma and Rachael

Watching Grandma