Ella: 7 months old

7 months has come and gone... hard to believe... time flies!

We've been blest this past month with a visit from Nanny and Poppa (Mark's parents).

We also got to make a trip to Kansas City for Aunt Patti & Uncle Chopper's Wedding where we played with Natalie and Evie again.

We've had many milestones for both Ella & Mom. Mom had her 1st overnight away from Ella thanks to a visit from Nanny & Poppa. Mom & Dad spend the night at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park while the Grandparents manned the Fort. :)

Ella is easily sitting up on her own these days and maintaining good balance. She's also babbling away, but most importatly, she said her 1st word!! DADA!!

No crawling yet, but she sure is scooting around. And she also hit the weight limit on her infant car seat, so she's now riding in style in a new big girl car seat.

If you can't tell from the pictures, our Ella is a big eater! We are exploring new foods every day and getting ready to move to finger foods!

Patti Gets Married

Congrats Patti & Chopper!!!

My little sister got married this weekend! It was beautiful, perfect and a total blast. I'm so sad it's over! Really looking forward to Patti returning from her honeymoon in Bermuda so we can talk about it all!!

Here are the few pics I have from my camera. I hope to have more soon! Click on the slideshow to enlarge in another window.

New house paint

We had the exterior of the house painted this week and it looks great! We are so excited about the new green color!

Here is a picture from last year:

And here is the new house pic:

Georgetown Half Marathon

I did my first post-baby Half Marathon today and it felt pretty good. I have to say that I'm pretty proud of myself!!






Thanks to Bill, Bonnie, Rachel, Mark and Ella for the awesome cheering section.

Ella: 6 months old

Doc appt was great this morning! Ella is in the 97% for weight (19lbs 11oz), height (27.5inches) and head circumference (17.75in). He said that she is a perfectly proportioned, beautiful, BIG girl. Ha!

He gave us the go ahead to move to more veggies and fruits (she's already had green beans and sweet peas!) and eventually some finger foods in about a month. Wow!

Mark and I are anticipating a big purchase in the near future. Our car seat is only recommended for infants up to 22 lbs, which Ella is approching fast! Our little (I mean, BIG) girl is growing up fast!

Ella's 6 month pictures

Lindsay was back again today to take Ella's 6 month old pics. Look how much she has changed!!



See the pics Lindsay took at:
http://lindsaybphoto.blogspot.com/2008/07/ella-6-months.html

Trip to Phoenix

All these trips are fun, but EXHAUSTING! This weekend we visited Aunt Patti & Uncle Chopper in their hometown, Phoenix. We were there for Patti's bachelorette party.



What a coincidence!!! We ran into Uncle Eric at the Phoenix airport. Ella was so excited to meet her Uncle!

Patti's St. Louis Couples Shower

This week, Ella and I were in St. Louis for a few days with GG visting family and friends. In Smithton, we hung out by the pool with the Hogan family and were able to see Colleeen Walsh and her twin girls, Ella & Nora.





The big event of the weekend was Patti & Chopper's couples shower in St. Louis. Chopper was initiated into the craziness that is the Ruzicka family... and so was Ella!!!


GG shows off Ella to her brother Len and his 1st grandson, Alex.


Thanks to Chris & Diane for lettingus stay at their house! Ella had a blast with her 2nd cousins, Karly, Bridget and David.

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a great visit from Jennifer Bailey, one of my longtime friends, this past week. Ella really enjoyed getting to know her and hanging out with the girls.



Ella celebrated her 1st Fourth of July! The three of us ran in our 1st 5k race as a family, and did pretty well, if I do say so myself.





Then we enjoyed a fun day at the pool and fireworks at Valley Country Club with our neighbors. After I got used to the noise, I really enjoyed the pretty fireworks. I sat on Mackenzie Pedrie's lap for the show- it was great!



Hope everyone had a great 4th!

Ella: 5 months old

Time flies! Ella has started with solid foods... we have her trying cereal first and soon she will move to veggies and then fruits.

Ella is really enjoying the pool this summer and looking forward to celebrating her first 4th of July. She seems to be OK with watching fireworks... so far!

We expect that Ella will be sitting up on her own by the end of her 5th month. She's almost there and can balance against things with Mom's help. Dad and Mom are also helping Ella get used to bearig weight on her legs so she'll be ready when it's time to learn how to walk (oh no!).

We're really looking forward to a visit with the entire Ruzicka clan at the beginning of July and then a visit to Aunt Patti & Uncle Chopper's house in Scottsdale at the end of July.