Home in Charlottesville

To begin our two week vacation we drove to Charlottesville to spend a few days with the Porters. Ella did amazing in the car!! Each of the 14hours that passed we were convinced that the next one would be terrible but she happily played with her toys until she was tired and then slept most of the time.

However when she got there she made up for her attention deficit by being completely doted on by all members of the Porter clan. As you can see she was read to, played with and focused on at all times which she just LOVED!! Ben and i were also able to get away for a couple of hours one day thanks to grandma Sheila!

Ella has definitly started teething as you can see by all of the drool that she left as a little present on grandma's shirt!

We were also able to spend one of our evenings with the Rehms (Chris, Sasha and sweet little Caleb). Ben and i have known them since high school and love anytime we can get with them. We spent the evening on the downtown mall at 'Friday's after 5' listening to great music, having a fun picnic and catching up on the last couple of months. I only wish we lived in the same city--maybe some day!

Ella enjoyed sharing her toys with Caleb and impressing him with her ability to sit up all by herself.

How cute is our little girl?!

Yummy Rice!

Last Monday we decided that Ella was ready to begin eating rice cereal. This was a huge milestone in her little life. Being used to a consistent flow of milk, she was a bit concerned that she had to wait for the next bite to arrive and would bang on her tray notifying me that it was not coming fast enough for her. (That's the little piglet in her--- afraid she may not get all that she wants!) But, I have to say she did very well for her first time and she has only gotten better with it since then.

Hair Cut

Over the last month or so Ella has begun to lose her beautiful dark hair that she was born with. Sadly, I think it is being replaced with my sandy blond color. However, she had this rat tail/mullet thing left that Ben and I decided needed to go. As you can see in this first picture that she was a bit offended that we didn't like it. If you have ever tried cutting baby's hair it presents quite a challenge. In the end after Ben and I both had a shot at cutting, we succeeded in a pretty decent first hair cut.

Aunt Gini

Two weekends ago Ella got to meet her Aunt Gini for the very first time in the long awaited introduction! (Gini has been away in Africa for the past year serving with Mercy Ships - helping explain "Mercy" as Ella's middle name). It was such a joy to watch them interact. And of course Grandma couldn't miss out on the party.




"Oh my goodness, it's my aunti Gini!!"

At any given moment Ella had the attention of at least one of them during their stay. I must say she went through withdrawal when they left because mommy couldn't sit and play with her all day long!



This picture says it all....

Berry Picking

The last couple of days have been gorgeous here, so we decided to skip out on the ever so exciting life of sitting/playing around the apartment and head to the country. This past fall we found this mom & pop orchard about 45min from Stl that is open all year round and when i called to see what was ripe the farmer told me they were going to open their blackberry patch on Wednesday. That convinced me. Missy, Evan (our neighbors) Ella and I headed out Wed. to spend the better part of the day feasting on fresh blackberries, getting our feet muddy, and breathing in some fresh air. There is just something so therapeutic about getting away from car alarms, power lines, traffic jams and city noise to be surrounded by wide open fields, blue skies and friendly, down to earth people. It was a much needed time.