summa time

Holy cow! It's October already? Seriously!? We had a great summer that I was terrible at documenting. So here's a random, out of order, recap with a few pictures...

We spent tons of time playing in the backyard. Sometimes with friends and sometimes with just us. Ella loves to be outside blowing bubbles, kicking the ball, playing with her water table, etc.

Ella helping me make her snack. We were going to have Nutella toast but Ella saw the box of Cheerios sitting there and had another idea. She cracks me up.

We also spent TONS of time going to various splash pads. I love splash pads! Ella can run and play to her hearts content and I can relax a little because I know she isn't going to drown.

She is such a water baby. She doesn't even care if she gets sprayed in the face. She just covers her eyes and presses on.

Another of our favorite activities was painting with water. This is something I always did with my Grandma Spiers and cousins growing up and it is so fun to see my own daughter loving to do this as well. So simple yet so fun. 

Danny and I went on our first overnight trip away from Ella to Newport Beach for a long weekend together in June. We had a great time getting away and getting to be just a couple without any parenting responsibilities. I missed my little bug like crazy but we had a great time. We hit the beach, slept in, went to Six Flags (whole other story), ate out and had so much fun together.

Danny came home from work one day with this little surprise for Ella. Well it came in a box and after 13 hours of assembly we  had this awesome playhouse. Or as Ella calls it, "the baby house." She loves to go play in there.

My busy little toddler taking her nap. I love sneaking in and watching her sleep. There is something so sweet and innocent about a sleeping toddler.

Enjoying a little stamping time. Ella absolutely loves art projects. She loves to color, watercolor, stamp, color with markers, etc. She is so careful when she's working and draws very precise, careful little circles all over the page. Her cute little tongue even pops out while she works in deep concentration.

She is already 100% girl. She loves to wear her "special" shoes, carry her purse and parade around the house. She loves everything to be beautiful like a princess. The other day I was getting ready for church and put on a skirt and Ella came in and said, "wow, mommy princess!" If that's not a self-esteem boost I don't know what is!

We took our little family to the Davis County Fair. Ella was in HEAVEN being able to ride the "baby horsies" (aka ponies). She talked about it for weeks after.

 And despite the way it looks in this picture, she also loved playing with the goats.

And finally there was a band playing at the farm so Ella felt it necessary to dance. It was so stinkin' cute.  Ella LOVES to dance. And we're not talking little bouncing knees dancing. No this girl has moves! She dances all day at home. She calls all of her dances the "special dance." I love it! 

Ella is a huge helper with yard work. Crazy girl loves to weed. She is really good at pulling weeds and for the most part is good at pulling only the weeds. 

Ella took on this redecorating project all on her own. As you can see she moved all of our dish towels, kitchen rugs and various miscellaneous toys into a giant pile in the kitchen. And she was very proud of her work.

 Modeling her shades at the splash pad.

We went to a Bees game with some friends and Ella entertained herself with cotton candy, dippin' dots and the playground. I'm pretty sure she didn't watch a minute of the game. Like mother like daughter right there.

Ella playing with her favorite person. Our cute neighbor girl Audree. Ella LOVES Audree and talks about her all the time. The first time I put a braid in Ella's hair she looked in the mirror and was so excited that she looked like Audree. Audree is 7 and is so cute to come over and play with Ella.  You can see Ella's admiration of her in this picture. Luckily Audree is a super cute and sweet girl so she's a good role model.

This is how Ella rolls in the car. Sunglasses (usually upside down), her drink and of course her B (blanket). Even if it's 100 degrees outside she has to have her B.

She loves to have her nails painted. And unfortunately has reached an age where she does not want mom's help. So I let her do them outside and it usually results in a very thick layer of paint all over her fingers. Oh well. At least she has fun doing it. 

Of course no summer would be complete without many trips to Cherry Hill. Unfortunately this year I didn't think to take very many pictures. Here she is with her little buddy Myla. By far her favorite thing was the "baby" slide in Pirate's Cover. Luckily Danny was a good sport and would take her down it over and over and over.

Here she is with her other buddies Reese and Jaynie enjoying an ice cream cone. I was without a car (more on that later) so we stuffed all three car seats in the back of my friend's car. It was a tight fit. 

And this is why I was without a car. On Mother's Day Danny woke up to make me breakfast in bed and realized we didn't have any eggs. So he made the split second decision to take Ella and run over to Smith's which is just a few blocks from our house. They were in pajamas and everything. A little while later I got a phone call from a random number and it was Danny calling from a police officer's phone letting me know he'd been in an accident. He had left in such a hurry he didn't even grab his phone. While he was going straight through a stop light a new teenage driver turned left in front of him. It was the other driver's fault and our poor Volvo was totaled. But most importantly no one was hurt. Hearing Ella had been in an accident scared me to death. I hopped out of bed and drove to the sight and saw Danny holding her on the side of the road looking scared to death. But she wasn't hurt at all. Thank goodness for good car seats.

So we had a rental car for about a week while we went car shopping but we didn't find anything so I was without a car until we found the one we wanted. We had been talking about upgrading to an SUV anyway so this was the final push we needed. We ended up with a Toyota Highlander and I love it. I told Danny that he got me a new car for Mother's Day. Can't top that. =]

So there's a brief little update of our summer. I'm kicking myself that I didn't do a better job keeping a record of it.