Phoenix-California-Florida

In May Ella and I went to Phoenix for a couple of weeks to work and see family. While there we got the chance to drive over to L.A. with my friend Molly for our friend Claire's baby shower. It was so fun hanging out again! From there Johanna left on the train to go back home to Idaho :(
Ella ate a HUGE bean burrito and I was worried the whole trip back about the bathroom stops we were going to have to make.


We were also able to spend some time with Brad's grandma who passed away just a couple of weeks after we left. We were thankful that we had the chance to see her one more time. Ella really enjoyed playing with the red balloons she had.


We will be heading to Iowa in August for her funeral.

Since returning from Phoenix we've enjoyed hanging out with Brad on the weekends. Here she is showing off her first chocolate Dunkin Donut.


Here she is dressed up for work


She only forgot her shoes and had to stop and pick her nose on the way


Before Johanna left we met a friend at the mall and had lunch and took a train ride around the mall


Since I don't have my nice camera any more and I'm not ready to spring for a new one, I followed in Johanna's footsteps and bought an old film camera. It came with some old film (which is not generally a good thing) so the first pictures turned out pretty grainy. I have also taken some black and white ones and just developed them myself last night. I need to go get them digitized now. I've come to the conclusion that this isn't saving any money and is definitely not saving any time. But I guess it's kind of fun.






My mom came for a couple weeks and it was so nice to have her here. She sure knows how to take care of everyone and she's fun to hang out with. She made me a pre-birthday cake and we celebrated a little early.

While she was in town I decided to get my hair chopped off. It feels so much better!


Now Brad's sister Elizabeth is here for a couple of months. We celebrated her birthday a couple days after she arrived.

The Girls

When we were in Arizona back in February, we used a Groupon I bought for a photographer. Since all the guys were gone we made it a girls session and I like the way they turned out.

Florida!!

I finally caught up to current times, where we're living in the warm sun of Florida. Even though living by the beach in perfect weather and sunshine sounds like paradise, for some reason it's taken us a little while to get used to it. We're staying in a furnished condo until the end of April and after that we have no idea where we'll live. It's one of the many things we still have to figure out.

Miss Johanna has come with us for the first couple months and has kept me from loosing my mind. She cooks, cleans, watches after Ella and puts up with my crazy grocery shopping habits. She's alot a very good photgrapher and has taken the only pictures we have of Florida so far.
This is my favorite:







It's so nice to be able to let her play outside!


She's learning new things daily and we love laughing and all the things she says. The other night when we were praying I asked her what she was thankful for and to help her out started with, "thank you Jesus for..." and she said "five, six, seven, eight".

She says "not to" which means I don't want to. She can also say "Why not?" in a very adult way even though she really doesn't know what it means. And just when you think you've reached your limit she says, "hey, hey, hey, guess what?" to get your attention and then says "love you" and gives you a big hug and kiss.

My friend Rachel and her family visited from Minnesota for the weekend and it was nice to see some people we knew! I think we might have more visitors now that we live close to Disney World :)

My Baby's 2!

OK, so that news is a little old. Ella's birthday was February 3rd and we celebrated the day before with some pizza and Uncle Mike and Uncle Hal. It's a tradition in my family to drink out of your silver cup on your birthday so here she is with her brand new cup from great grandma and grandpa.






Then the following Saturday we had a party at the Cedar Street Bridge. It was a great time and turned out to be sort of a going away party since we left for Florida a couple weeks later.
Miss Johanna was there to do her hair (since her mom is not gifted in the girly area)


My mom found aprons for the kids to wear while they decorated their cupcakes (like how I didn't feel like decorating them and called it an "activity")






My mom made this pretty dress for her



And here's proof that Brad made it (he and Ella were sick that day)



We had some videos of Ella's first 2 years playing and all the kids were doing the 101 Dalmations thing


At the end, we had some gelatto from the cafe downstairs

D.C.

In between Phoenix/Dallas/Tucson for the holidays and moving to Florida I went to Washington D.C. all by myself (for work). I stayed an extra day to see the sights with my cousin Jeffrey (and met his new wife, Jessica). I had a great time!
Here we are at Fogo de Chao, which is a great place to go if you are vegetarian




The WWII Memorial


Vietnam Memorial



Lincoln Memorial


While there, I called up my Idaho congressman and his office set me up with a tour of the Capitol and passes to see the House in session. We watched them debating the health care reform repeal vote which was passed a couple hours later. It was weird seeing people like Nancy Pelosi who you've seen on TV in person.