Fun-filled family festivities

Time to do a little catch up what has been going on in our lives. The past couple of weeks it seems we have been doing some great family bonding - we are so incredibly blessed to have the family that we do. Here are some pictures showing what we have been up to!Ella with Grandma Koning...playing outside one day while she was babysitting

Ella and Grandpa Koning at the cottage taking a little dip:)
Auntie Betsy, Macie, and Ella enjoying a leisurely boat ride

A couple of Fridays ago we got to babysit our niece Lily....it was a fun experience for me to get used to 2 little ones at once (before Brad got home from work). It had a few "interesting" moments b/c Ella gets majorly jealous of me paying attention to Lily and Lily kept crying when Ella got to close...Ella can be just a bit of a bully-stealing her toys, inadvertantly pinching her (without meaning to of course). Lets just say at one point I was walking around the house with a child in each arm trying to keep them both happy:) Despite being a bit tricky - it was awesome having Lily over - she is such a doll and I am so glad Ella gets to grow up with a cousin so close in age! In no time they'll be in about the same stage and be the best of friends!

Brad's Grandpa and Grandma go camping quite often to the beach so we went to go visit for dinner and a stroll by the beach. It was a wonderful afternoon visiting with them!

One afternoon my cousin and dear friend Angie came over with her 5 1/2 month old little boy Andrew for a play date. He is the cutest thing! Such a little stud muffin already. Ella was up to her old tricks of stealing toys but he was able to hold his own:) It is so nice to be able to share motherhood with Angie since we have been close since we were their age.

Last week my sister in laws and their kids met up with us for a playdate. We had such a great time! We went to a local kids playhouse where the kids had a blast! It was fun watching them explore and be their little creative selves. Ella was all over the place wanting to get into everything...one of the greatest joys of being a mother for me is watching Ella learn new things. It was also awesome seeing all the nieces and nephews playing together...we have been wanting to do a play date for so long so it was great that we managed to do it before the summer was over!

Finding joy in the little things

Dress up time!

Little miss cowgirl

Kolter

Reed-o

Kooper, Reed, Kennedy & Carley playing dress up:)

Later that night we also met up at the fair with my siblings, their kids, and my Mom and Dad - we do this annually and this year I was pumped b/c we got to show Ella the animals. Ella is just so in love with animals so we could not wait to go and see her reaction to the barns full of them. Unfortunatly she was really tired and barely made a peep the whole night....she just stared and took it all in....I am sure she enjoyed it despite her lack of enthusiasm:)

Maxwell Michael

This past Friday I had the pleasure of taking pictures of my dear friend Shawna's son, Maxwell. We went to the beach and then back to my house. He is so sweet - I had a wonderful time visiting with Shawna and Greg and capturing these precious moments of baby Max! (for some reason they uploaded on here a bit blurry so just ignore that)

It was so cute... on the way home Ella insisted on holding Max's hand. At first I thought she was hurting him, but they I realized she just wanted to love on him a bit:)

Me and Shawna - love you girl! It was awesome spending time with you and your little family!

The Downtown Watering Hole

Last week I decided to walk downtown with Ella for something to do since it was such a nice day. After walking past the shops we stopped off at the fountains next to my work. The fountains were put in a few months back and they have been such a hit! I always see and hear kids out there when I am working running through the fountains in their clothes or they come in their swim suits to play. I thought Ella would love to play in them too and she sure did! I had to keep her away from the spouts so they wouldn't get her in the eye but she loved getting wet and watching the other kids.

10 Months!

Last week Ella turned 10 months old. I say this every month, but I can hardly believe it! She has changed so much in the last several weeks, seeming more and more like a little kid instead of a baby. She is getting more blond and her hair is growing quite a bit lately; I can even get a little bow in it now! She is still getting around by crawling but stands up on her own more and more and the day she turned 10 months, she took her first step! She gets around the house so quickly and gets into everything! It has been fun watching her start to problem solve a bit and try to be tricky to get into what she wants. Her vocab now includes "mama" although she doesn't use it in context:) She is an absolute joy and the thing I (we) love most about her is her friendly personality and her happiness is simply contagious. Don't get me wrong, she is strong-willed and can be crabby, but those moments are easily forgotten when she turns on her charm:) Seeing her laughing and squealing at the simple things that take place around her makes us really appreciate life and realize how blessed we are to have her in our life. Here are just a couple of random pics that I have taken recently that I like of her.Here she is talking to the birds in the sky above our houseHere she is after taking her first steps...just chatting away (don't mind the full diaper;)I love her little piggies and I think it is so cute when she sits like this

Ella being the sweetheart that she is!

Our First Family Vacation

It has taken me forever to blog about this but better late than never! 2 weeks ago Brad and I decided to take the week off and spend some time together as a little family. We started out by going to his parents cottage for a long weekend.

Aunt Betsy with Ella and Lily in their matching dresses - so cute!

Brad and Ella always enjoy swimming in the lake - Ella is getting used to the idea of swimming - she looks so old to me when she is in the water kicking and splashing around:)

Ella chillin' on the dock after a big swim getting hydrated:)

Ella helping me snip beans - she liked chewing on them better:)

Taking a leisurely stroll along the beach with Daddy

On Tuesday we headed to Traverse City. We spent time downtown, walking along the shore, playing on the beach and in our hotel pool, and watching the duckies swim by.

On Wednesday we headed up north to Mackinac Island for a couple of days.

Ella loved the ferry boat going over to the island. She was pressed up against the glass most of the time squealing at the water splashing up when she wasn't flirting with the young boys seated behind us:)

On one of our many walks into town

Mission Point Resort where we stayed on the island. It was sort of an old building but it had a lot of character. Brad and I kept saying how it felt like we were on the Titanic when we walked around inside of it. I thought it would be a beachy type hotel but it was sort of dark and cozy - we loved it!There was a huge lawn in from of the hotel with adirondack chairs, a gazebo, flowers, and just a ton of space to do whatever you wanted. We played out there quite a while - Ella loved to just look around and watch the people and laugh at the seagulls.

Ella really began to stand up a lot on her own on our little vaca and here is a cute pic of her showing off her moves.

One morning we rode our bikes around the island. It was incredibly beautiful and peaceful. A few friends told us to take our own bikes and we were so glad that we did! Ella basically just slept the whole time we rode around so it was relaxing for us all.

Brad and I taking a break to enjoy the view

Mackinaw Bridge

One day it rained in the afternoon so at night it was all wet everywhere so we just wandered around with Ella in her pack. She liked the view from up high.

We also took a little dip in the outdoor pool. I had been certain that it was heated when we went out there...I was wrong. Needless to say, it was a short dip in the pool.

Taking a walk along the beachHere we are as a family before we left - had to get a picture of us with the horses. I think Ella's favorite moments were when we were in town and she got to see all the people (especially kids), horses, dogs, and bikes. She would just squeal and laugh - it was so fun to watch her take it all in. We didn't know how this vacation with Ella would go just because we have never been away from home for so long and her environment was constantly changing. We are happy to say that it could not have gone any better. She was content and happy, ate like a champ, and slept great- what more could we ask for? She even slept the whole 3 1/2 hours from Mackinaw City back to Big Star Lake which is unheard of for her. It was a great time away for us as a family!

We rounded off the week back at the cottage. Here is Lily and I on the beach - isn't she just adorable?

We were so pumped because Kylee, Brad's sister finally returned from Australia after being there 6 months. We had fun catching up with her and spending time together as a family. (Pictured here is Jake, Brad, Kylee, Lily, Betsy, Paul (and Macie) playing a little corn hole)