Discovery Science Place

This weekend we took Ella Kate to the Discovery Science Place, our local children's museum and we had a great time! It wasn't crowded at all so she basically had free reign of the whole building.

She checked out the globe with Daddy

watched on intently as Daddy made the ball roll down the maze

Did a little grocery shopping

helped the sick animals and the Vet

And even practiced being a future CEO!

Family Pictures Sneak Peak

We had our family pictures taken a few weeks ago by our favorite photographer and friend Karin of Karin Davis Photography.  Let's just say thank god she has a two year old or I think by now she would have given up taking Ella's pictures!  Ella was not in the mood to stay still and pose for any of the pictures but rathered run around and make poor Karin chase her!

Here are just a few of our pictures from that day.  I don't want to post to many before my Christmas cards get out or it will ruin all of the fun!

 The dress Ella Kate wore for her pictures we ordered from Castles and Crowns one time when they were on Zulily.  When I got it in the mail I never thought it would fit her!  I can't believe how big she has gotten.

 Can't you tell Ella is so impressed to be held on to while we try to take a cute picture!  She is definitely at the stage where she doesn't want to be held back!

We tried really hard to get one of those cute pictures just showing our legs and having our dear child pose and smile real big.  See how great that worked out for us!  Again, don't hold this kid back or you get some very angry faces!

Thanks again Karin for putting up with us and our lovely 15 month old!  Thank god for your patience!

A visit from Santa Claus

Every year at Christmas Keith's grandfather, Papa Ron, dresses up as Santa for the kids at Aunt Lisa's school.  Since there are now 3 great grandkids and 3 grandkids that don't live in LA we decided to have him visit the kids so that we could get some pictures of them and Santa.  I was grateful that now I don't have to take my poor child to the mall to watch her get upset sitting on Santa's lap!  It was much more relaxing to have her screaming in a house of relatives!

True to her genes, Ella Kate was not impressed by Santa at all!  My mom says I have a very similar picture at the same age.

We thought we would try again and let Ella sit with her cousins and maybe she would be happier, but all that changed was now there were 2 crying babies!

Rowan really wasn't sure what to think of Santa when it was just him and Easton.  You can see in his face that he didn't know if he should smile, cry, or just sit there.  Even Easton was a little unsure!

We were able to get pictures of all the kids that were there with Santa and even a group picture of all of the grandkids and great grandkids together!  I am so glad we did this and I am sure Gigi and Papa are going to enjoy these pictures for a long time!

The Lime

We went to eat on Sunday night for a friend's birthday and Ella decided she wanted to taste one of the limes that was on the table. Knowing that she loves pickles (just as much or maybe more than her momma), we decided to let her go for it. Here is the progression...

Sad thing is, she continued to eat them even after this face was made!   She even tried to share them with her daddy.  Guess like mother like daughter, my kid loves a little sour in her life!

Happy Halloween!

So as usual I am a little late with the obligatory Halloween Post but since this is a record of our family life, I have backdated it to keep things in order.

I loved Ella's little outfit for Halloween, but she refused to let me get a good picture of her in it.  She is just not a fan of having her picture taken.  Guess she is too busy going going going all the time!  You just can not get that girl to stop for a minute unless its Nap or Bedtime.

Since our little lady loves to dance around like crazy, we decided to dress her as a dancer, but not just any dancer, we went full on 80's with oversized sweatshirt and legwarmers included!  Ella does this crazy thing with her feet that is reminiscent of flashdance so I felt it was 100% appropriate!

Doesn't she just look great!  She loved her little costume and made sure to dance plenty for us all night.  Unfortunately she would not pose for a picture of me and Ella looking down or her back was the best I could get.

I made Chicken Tortilla Soup and brought it over to our friend's Jill and Cody's house for Ella to do a little trick or treating and hand out some candy.  Jill and Cody have two little dogs and Ella had a blast chasing them around and feeding them her goldfish and dinner.

You can barely see her in the background, but that is Chloe eyeing Ella and waiting for her to drop more food on the ground.  I am pretty sure those poor dogs had gained 5 lbs by the time Ella was gone.

I can't help it but I just love that little tush!  Guess that's a good thing since usually this is the only side of her I get when taking pictures!

Can't wait to see what crazy costume we decide to put Ella in next year.  There has already been talk of bringing back Fred and Wilma now that Pebbles has made her arrival :)

Nona and Papa Visit

Nona and Papa came to visit the little miss a few weeks ago and I am just getting around to posting.  While they were here we tried to keep EK as busy as possible cause she likes to Go Go Go (which while they were here she learned to say!)

Saturday we took a little trip to the zoo which not surprising Ella loved.  Here Papa spoiled her and picked her up to see every exhibit which she just loved!

The lions were out sunning themselves and I had to get a picture of the King of the Jungle.  This was after he had been sunning his belly but that picture didn't come out good!

We let Ella run around a bit and she just loved it!  The Caldwell Zoo is great because it is so spread out that it never feels like there are lots of people there.  It was Boo at the Zoo the weekend we went and still we never had to fight people to see the exhibits which was just great when you have a 1 year old that wants to constantly go!

Ella and her Papa tried and to take a picture in front of the big spider web.  If you can't tell by EK's face, she was squirming to try and get free so she could go and run around.

 Sunday we spend most of our afternoon outside which Ella would love to do 100% of the time.  That kid just loves the outdoors.  She was having a blast with her Papa driving her around in the wagon. 

She also had a blast playing on her little playhouse.  Unfortunately she has not mastered the art of going down the slide just yet, but I did get some great action shots.  These just crack me up!

We had a great time with Nona and Papa in town and can't wait to go to LA for Thanksgiving to spend more time with them and the rest of the Underwood family!

Trip to Houston

Last weekend we decided to take a 4 day trip to Houston to let Ella Kate spend some time with the grandparents and also her cousins, Nanny, and Parrain.  It was a VERY busy weekend and we kept EK going almost non-stop the whole time.  Luckily she was in a great mood the whole time and loved everything we did!

On Friday afternoon we took Ella to the Houston Children's Museum.  If you are ever near Houston I highly recommend it.  They have a wonderful area for children from Birth to 35 months called the TotSpot and Ella loved it.  All of the activities in that area are for children in that age range and they can just run free and explor.

They even had an enlarged lite-brite which Ella loved.  Though really I think her daddy liked it just as much!

She was so proud of herself when she figured out how to stick the pegs in the hole!

After exploring the TotSpot for awhile, we decided to see what the rest of the museum had to offer.  All of the exhibits are great and I really hope to go back soon when my nephew is in town cause I know he would love it!

Even Parrain came and enjoyed the museum with us.  As usual he won extra Uncle points for braving the museum with us when he really didn't have to.  Thanks David!

Saturday of course was LSU football day, so after a busy morning of shopping with Granny, we headed out to Missourri City to play with the cousins and to see Nanny and Uncle Brad.

Two of my favorite little guys.  Easton was trying to stop Rowan from eating chalk.  Needless to say Rowan was not impressed at the intervention.

The Millers even made it out for some football and Jessica had a great time entertaining the older boys!  I will never get over that Easton and Gavin are only 3 weeks apart!  Their size looks more like 3 years!

Daddy with his little princess and his godson.  I am pretty sure shortly after this Ella had a breakdown cause daddy was holding someone besides just her.  We have really got to work on her manners :)

Saturday night the adults decided to go out to dinner.  It isn't very often that all 4 older boys are together in one place so of course I had to take advantage of the photo op.  We went to eat at a great restaurant in Sugar Land called Rouxpour.  We really enjoyed dinner and even more the company.  It was great getting out and enjoy a meal without having to chase kiddos around.

Of course EK had a great time being entertained my Granny.  She just loved climbing up and down the stairs and finally agreeing to just sit on the bottom step and relax with a huge bucket of spoons.  Of course the filled bucket only lasted a few minutes before Ella spilled it all over.

Granny even let her sit on the floor and enjoy some crushed ice.  This of course was to have her forget about the fact she had just ran into the table and bumped her head.  It's amazing how quick they forget!
Sunday afternoon Granny and Papi braved the crowds and took Ella to the zoo by themselves.  Unfortunately I wasn't feeling to hot so I stayed home and took a much needed nap!

They had not started Boo at the Zoo just yet at the Houston Zoo, but they were letting the kids decorate little pumpkins and EK got her hand stamped and got to pick a pumpkin for herself which she was very proud to show off!

They recently opened up the African exhibit at the zoo and Ella just loved it.  I am pretty sure she would sit and watch animals all day if she could and I can't wait to take her back to the zoo again.  Luckily I hear the zoo in Tyler is pretty good for the size of our town so I think we will be headed there next weekend.

As usual our trip was great and Ella Kate even behaved so well in the car (a first for her).  I find that trips are starting to get easier with her now that she is older and there are no bottles to bring and she can eat right off of our plates.  Luckily we have a few weeks off to recoup before our next big trip to LA for Thanksgiving!  Thanks again Granny and Papi for the fun!

Ella's First Playdate

Last weekend we agreed to watch a friend of our's daughter so they could finish moving into their new house.  Kloe is three weeks older than Ella Kate so we decided to brave having both girls and learn what it would be like if we ever had one year old twins.  Needless to say it is really true what they say, kids really do have more fun when they have someone to play with.

Ella Kate and Kloe played so well together the whole time!  Ella just loved showing Kloe all of her toys and I think Kloe enjoyed playing with them.

They even shared really well.  Well that is after Ella showed her dominance over her favorite toys and stole a few from Kloe.  Luckily that didn't last to long!

They even enjoyed snack time together!  If you notice Ella Kate is eyeing Kloe.  That little girl sure enjoys her food and always wants to make sure someone is not eating something that she wants!

I love this picture!  It looks like Ella is explaining to Kloe how to use the toy.  Needless to say the girls had a great time and we would be happy to have Kloe at our house anytime.  Good thing too cause they have just moved into our neighborhood which we are SO happy about!  I am sure these two girls will have many more playdates together!

 

New Swing and Camera

For my birthday, we decided to go ahead and get a new camera.  We decided on the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-HX9V and are very happy with it.  It has lots of great features and though I am still learning about it I am already beyond pleased with what it can do!

Ella had gotten a new swing a month or two ago and we hadn't gotten a chance to use it since it had been 100 degrees plus for the past 2 months.  We decided to get it set up this weekend and I figured it would be a great time to test out the action setting on my camera.
 

I am just amazed how clear the pictures come out even with the swing going so fast!  Can you tell she loves her swing or what!

She is such a ham!  Usually I can never even get a smile out of the kid, but I got plenty!

Just so happy to be swinging! 

We hope to get great use out of the swing and the camera this fall.  I already feel a trip to the pumpkin patch coming up and lots of time in this swing now that the temperatures are starting to drop!  No more 100's!!!!