Cincinatti Zoo!

We took Ella to the zoo a few weeks ago, and other than it being a little too hot and crowded, we had a great time. The picture above is Ella feeding a giraffe, which she was very excited about.

Ella watching the gorillas groom each other and play around.

I just had to put this picture up. This is Ella's picture smile that I'm sure you will be seeing a lot more of. It is so funny when you tell her to smile and she gives you this--makes us laugh every time we see it.

We took a train ride around the zoo and got to see some other animals that we didn't get a chance to see while we were walking around. Ella loves trains and was having a great time on the ride.
Another classic Ella smile!

Ella and her cousins

Kris & Erinn were on vacation for a week without the boys, leaving Erinn's parents with the task of watching them while they were gone. Needless to say, David, Ella and I were over there a lot during that time to try to help out. Don't they all look so cute sitting there eating there snacks?

Another picture of snack time. They all looked content sitting in a half-circle sharing snacks.

Ella and Cooper chillin on the couch.

David, Ella and I had to go home, and when we turned around to say our last good-byes to the boys, this is what we saw. It was so cute that they were all there waving good-bye to us.

How many babies can you fit in a Barbie Jeep? Noah and Cooper were having fun trying to figure out how the jeep worked. Ella, on the other hand, was just along for the ride.

"Are you serious?"

That's what we asked the doctor when she said WE'RE HAVING TWINS!!! We've always wanted twins, so our excitement is barely contained. More to follow (fraternal or identical, risk factors, health of both babies, etc) after a followup sonogram in two weeks. Can you believe it?

Mountain Vacation

We took our first family vacation with Ella this summer to the Great Smokey Mountains of North Carolina. Above is a pictures of the beautiful rental home we rented for a week. We were blessed to be joined by two wonderful couples that shared our vacation with us. Jon & Bekah stayed with us for the first 4 nights and then the Parken Family came to join us for the last 3 nights. It was a great time to get to know our friends better and enjoy a relaxing vacation in the mountains. Below are some more pictures of the house.

The living area.

The amazing view from the back deck!

The back deck. We ate almost every meal we were home for outside on the deck. It was always beautiful and cool in the morning and evening!

Family picture at one of the waterfalls we hiked to.

Jon & Bekah at a different waterfall!

Another family picture at yet another waterfall. I believe we saw 4 waterfalls in all during our trip!

Family picture after a day filled with hiking and white-water tubing down the river. Ella had lots of fun sitting in the water throwing rocks.

David and Ella playing in the water. This was Ella's favorite thing to do on vacation. She loved sitting in the water throwing rocks. We probably have 20 pictures that look exactly like this one of different days and times she was doing this.

Ella and David in the hot tub. Ella was so used to going swimming everyday that when we got back to the house after a morning of not doing any swimming, she insisted she go in the hot tub. So of course we tried it out and she loved it.

One of the afternoons, David, Jon & Bekah all went on this Canopy/Zipline Tour. They had a lot of fun going down 13 zip-lines and learning about the area trees and wildlife. I unfortunately was not able to join then since I was and am pregnant. However, Ella and I had our own adventure swimming in the river and then going home for our afternoon nap.

The Merritts and Parkens after eating dinner at a great BBQ joint. We had so much fun seeing our good friends again and meeting there little boy. It was a very fun time and we hope we get to do it again soon.

Ella and Everett being super cute outside the BBQ place. They both just kept laughing at us while we were trying to take their picture.

Ella and Everett playing with the water at the community pool/waterpark we went to.

Ella's First Carnival

The base had a little carnival a few weeks ago, so we decided to see how Ella would like it. She had a lot of fun riding some rides and of course eating some carnival food. We took her on the carousel first and she seemed to like it. It was hard to get a good picture because she was to busy looking around at all the rides and people walking by.

Here's another picture of Ella on the carousel. It was a pretty long ride for her, I think she was losing interest by the end.

Next we took her on this truck ride. I was a little hesitant at first because she was going to have to seat by herself, but it turned out that she loved it. We actually let her ride 3 times because she didn't want to get off.

Another shot of Ella in the truck. She liked the green one the best!

Uncle "Geek"

Ella has peered into my brother's soul and loudly proclaimed his true name. She's still working on her pronunciation of several words, but I think we'll leave this one alone.

Easter Fun

Our friend Kristen came to visit for the weekend from PA and it was great to have her. Ella loved getting to spend some time with her, since we had not seen her in awhile. This picture was taken at John and Bekah's house where we celebrated with a traditional Passover dinner. It was such a great experience and the food was delicious!

This year we decided to do Ella's first Easter egg hunt in the backyard. This is Ella after she finished gathering up all the eggs. She did a great job finding them around the yard. I'm sure this will be a tradition we continue for awhile.


Ella got some pink bunny ears in her Easter basket. She really didn't like to keep them on, so these are the best pictures I could get of her wearing them. Doesn't she look so cute?

Here we are all dressed up for Easter. We had such a great weekend just appreciating being outside and hanging out with friends and family. It was so nice just relaxing and enjoying some quality family time.