Texas Farm Girl

Monday night after Ethan's Eagle ceremony we drove to Normangee, Texas to see Brad's brother Steve. He lives on 50+ acres and has cows and lots of big boy toys. He and Brad spent the day digging a big hole with the excavator and moving the dirt with the dump truck.



Here she is with Uncle Steve

Meet the Geers

We're finally back from our trip and I have a little time to catch up on all the events.
On Friday March 20th we went to the arboretum.

All the flowers were in bloom and were so pretty


On Sunday, my aunt Barb drove down from Arkansas with my grandparent's to visit. It was great to see them and introduce them to Ella. She loved listening to great grandma geer sing to her.


Here she is with Great Grandma Geer and Great Aunt Barb

Here she is with Great Aunt Caroline

Great Grandpa Geer

Grandpa Geer

Here's a picture with Uncle Clayton's hand

Uncle Isaac

Uncle Clayton

And all four great grandparents on my side on the family


On Monday night, my brother Ethan received his Eagle Scout badge. Here's my 4th brother to get his Eagle. Here's a video of parts of the ceremony.


And here's Ella with 4 of her uncles

Meet the Aboul-Ela's

On Sunday we had a little Aboul-Ela family reunion at my grandparent's house in Denton. My mom's mom is Jean Aboul-Ela and that is who Ella is named after (we decided to put two l's instead of one so she wouldn't have to be correcting people all her life).

Here she is with her namesake, Great Grandma Aboul-Ela



Here she is with Great Grandpa Aboul-Ela




Great Aunt Nessy


Great Aunt Shareen


Great Uncle Sam

First Airplane Ride

On Friday Claire, Molly, Ella and I headed to the airport. Claire and Molly went back to Phoenix :( and Ella and I flew to Dallas. We got a late start from Sandpoint and Ella and I were one of the last people on the plane (at least we didn't have to wait). Someone was nice and gave up their aisle seat for us. I decided not to take her car seat since I thought it would be easier to use the front pack. Looking back I'm not sure that was the best decision because it was interesting trying to figure out what to do with her the first time I needed to use the restroom. Needless to say, I added a few more skills to my list of things I never knew I could do.

Ella was great on the plane, as soon as we took off she couldn't keep her eyes open and slept on almost every flight (we had 3 legs before we finally made it to Dallas).

While we survived, I think it would be a lot easier to travel with two adults. There was a lady on one of my flights who was traveling with a 3 year old and 18 month old by herself and that looked ALOT harder than a 5 week old so I guess I can't complain.

Here's Ella in her little airplane outfit



Here we are on the plane

Waking Up Is Hard To Do

My dad and I mixed this video of Ella trying to wake up. It usually takes her about 30 minutes of this to both wake up and go to sleep.

All Grown Up

Last Tuesday Ella turned 1 month. We went to the post office to get her passport and then Brad took us out for lunch. They had an indoor waterfall which kept her quiet the whole time.



On Saturday, Claire and Molly came to visit and help out. Ella had lunch with the girls when we met Claire's friend from high school for lunch on Monday.



After lunch we went to the grocery store and mom forgot to bring the pacifier, so we found the baby aisle and opened a package. I thought we should probably sterilize it so I decided to suck on it a little before giving it to her. It was a little small for my mouth. She was happy the rest of the time. After shopping we were ready to take her to her first brewery (Laughing Dog).



On Tuesday she helped us get second place at trivia night at Mick Duff's.



She smiled at both Brad and I the day before she turned 1 month and she's been doing it more and more (it's proportional to her amount of crying, I think she's designed that way so we don't get too frustrated). Molly and Claire are experts at getting her to smile.

Airplanes, Kittens and Mullets

Ella had a busy weekend. Brad's dad's cousin Dave and his wife Kathy came up from Coeur D'Alene to visit so we took them to Quest for a tour. Then we went over to our friends Mark and Marissa's house for dinner and she met her first kitten. Today we had a family over from church for lunch and they have a daughter who has agreed to watch Ella for us! That is an answer to prayer and one thing I can cross off my list.

The Klynstra's had us over for yummy honey chicken on Tuesday night


Ella's first visit to Quest (she slept through the whole thing)




She did a little work for dad in his office


Here's Ella holding an 8 day old kitten


My mom sent me some of my outfits from the 70's so she was sporting the fashionable yellow overalls on Saturday (the blanket was one my great-grandma made me)


And since we were on the subject of the 70's I had to get a picture of her mullet


She is all business in the front and party in the back