The Schulers

Tommy's 1st Birthday! (Part 1)

2010-01-27T22:17:00.001-08:00

Our sweet little Thomas turned one yesterday (January 26th)! We are planning to celebrate with family in Stockton this coming weekend, but we couldn't let the day go by without some festivities! Ellie Mae and I (Jen) made cupcakes for "Brother Bear," and the four of us had a mini-party with a couple of gifts, singing and cupcakes after dinner. Tommy was marginally interested in his presents, which Ellie (ever the helpful big sister) opened for him, and seemed curious, but relatively unexcited, about his cupcakes...until Daddy put a little taste in his mouth! It was all over after that -- our little one has discovered sugar!

Our birthday boy at lunch -- still clean!

He absolutely loves Ellie!

Hmmm...that looks strange...

Maybe I'll try touching it...

Ooh, it's kind of fun to squish this cupcake!

Oh, I can eat it, too -- the jury's still out...

This is FANTASTIC! I think I love cupcakes!

They're so delicious they make me laugh!

Back to business guys - there is a lot of the good stuff on my hands and I need to get it to my mouth...

Let's not waste the parts stuck to the wrapper!

That was so much fun! Being one is great!

Ellie Mae saying, "Cheese!"

And settling into a real smile! :)

Fall Update!

2009-10-31T01:04:00.000-07:00

Wow! This is a long overdue update, which accounts for the length. If you are not related or an "Auntie," I apologize for posting so many pictures -- hard to choose! The first set is from our 2nd annual trip to a really fun pumpkin patch. The second set is from trick-or-treating night (yes, we do not trick-or-treat on Halloween - Hume's traditional night is the Wednesday of Halloween week to correspond with one of our conferences). The others are an assortment of fall events. The kids are growing so quickly (Ellie is already in preschool!) and are so much fun, individually and together! We are thoroughly enjoying the busy pace of life with little ones, which accounts for lots of pictures with little time to post to the blog! :) I still need to add photos from our September trip to Washington, but alas, another day and another post...

Pumpkin Patch

This one above is my new favorite of Thomas!

Ellie loves her baby brother!

Thomas playing with the flowers...

Thomas grabbing the flower (nothing gentle about this!) for a closer look...

Thomas eating the flower!

Our pretty girl! :)

Ellie and Ellie Mae having a blast on the suspension bridge!

Ellie Mae's favorite part of the pumpkin patch for two years running - the train!

Papa and Tommy

Love that baby laughter!

Ellie adored the miniature tractor!

Big stuff!

This year's kiddo crew: Thomas, Ellie Mae, Ellie, Jaron, Peter and Elyse

Chillin' in the pumpkins...

Trick-or-Treat Night!

Princess Ellie Mae (her costume is very similar to last year's, but she loves to dress up as a princess and dance to her Barbie ballet movies, so we figured she wouldn't want to be anything else for trick-or-treating!)

Our little lion!

Tommy loves to be with his Papa! He recently said his first word -- he looked right at Joel and said, "Papa"! Joel is pretty much his favorite these days! :)

Getting ready to trick-or-treat: Kai (as a butterfly princess -- her extremely talented parents actually made her entire costume!), Hannah (as a fairy princess), Ellie (as a kitty princess!) and Ellie Mae (as a princess). Definitely a theme...

The girls heading out with Ellie Mae in her princess heels (she switched to tennis shoes at the first house when she looked up the 17 stairs to the front door!).

For the second year in a row, we took the girls in the same car to the different neighborhoods and let them sit in the very back together...they *love* this tradition! They seem to feel so big!

Very intent knockers! They definitely got the hang of the whole trick-or-treating thing this year -- knock loudly on a door and someone magically appears to give you candy -- good deal!

The girls at one of our stops...

Tommy's version of trick-or-treating: stay in the warm car with Daddy and "drive" with gusto!

First Day of Preschool

The first day tradition for preschool is for the school bus to come to each neighborhood to pick up the kids. Ellie Mae, Ellie and Hannah were *so* excited when Mr. Jon pulled up to let them aboard!

The girls were giddy on the bus during the entire ride (we were the first stop, which meant that the girls got the longest ride and were able to welcome their friends as they boarded the bus)!

With completed papers and craft in hand, we officially have a preschooler...where did the time go?! Ellie Mae absolutely loves going to preschool (twice a week for two hours each day, and Sunday school with the same teacher in the same room) and seems to be learning quite a bit. Last week, she was so proud to report that she was the helper for the day -- I'm not sure what other duties she had, but the highlight was passing out napkins for snack time! :) She chats all about the comings and goings of classroom life when we pick her up...so fun to her narrate her days and articulate her thoughts, especially as her vocabulary continues to grow by leaps and bounds!

Crawling!

Tommy moves all around the house now with impressive speed! He loves to explore new things, but his very favorite target is shoes of any kind! I found him a couple weeks ago alone in Ellie's room -- without other shoes in site, he had zeroed in on her doll's shoe!

Our cuddly bath time boy!

Asuncion Family Vacation at Lake Tahoe

We had a fantastic time vacationing with my Mom, Rupert and two step-brothers' families (Rob, Lori & Morgan and Stew, Ree & Reese) at Tahoe in early October! It snowed immediately after we arrived, leaving a foot of the white stuff on the ground! By the end of the week, though, we were enjoying beautiful sunshine and nice fall temperatures. Fun extremes!

Ellie on a walk to the lake trailing Grandpa Rupert...

Grammy Gayle and Ellie Mae playing in the snow! They also played quite a bit on our balcony and made an adorable snowman that lasted for three or four days.

Grammy Gayle laughing at the kids! I love this picture!

Grandpa Rupert, Ellie Mae, Grammy Gayle and Thomas

Rice Cereal for Tommy & a couple of Ellie pics

2009-07-29T00:21:00.001-07:00

Tommy turned 6 months old on Sunday! To celebrate, we fed him his first solid food on Monday for lunch - delicious, super flavorful (ha!) rice cereal. He seemed to enjoy it, and big sister Ellie Mae had a terrific time feeding him! His head, though more controlled by the day, is still a bit wobbly when he sits upright, so the combination of him bobbing around and trying to grab the spoon made for a messy adventure! It's hard to believe that he is already old enough for real food...time sure flies!

This one is for Grammy Gayle -- Ellie in her new butterfly dress.

Cool Aunt Beth stayed with us about a month ago and Ellie watched her put on makeup in the morning. Beth and I ate our breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls shortly after and noticed that Ellie was mysteriously missing from such a treat. Upon investigation, I found her through the closed door of our bedroom, though the closed door of our bathroom and in the very back corner behind the toilet with my makeup bag and all of my makeup surrounding her. She said that she wanted to be pretty like "Cool Beff"! She chose my mascaras, eyeliner, and an old container of cream eyeshadows, specifically the dark brown and dark purple colors, to accomplish this goal. So funny!

Ridiculously Late Update with Tommy pictures!

2009-06-01T23:22:00.000-07:00

Wow! Four months has flown by, which is exactly how long it has been since we last posted any pictures of our new Tommy, who is now four months and one week old (or 18 weeks)! (Thank you, Auntie Sarah, for the good reminder! ;) ) Ellie loves her little brother and being a big sister -- she is both helpful and "helpful"! Tommy, or Baby Brother, as he is most often called, adores his sister. Ellie still gets excited every time he wakes up ("Mama, he's awake!") and he usually greets her with big smiles. Tommy is a very happy baby -- we often see huge smiles and he has taken to giggling a lot, complete with shoulder shakes! He has been such a tremendous blessing to all of us! Here are a few (well, 29) photos in chronological order to play catch up for the last several months, including Ellie's first ballet recital and many growing Tommy pictures to give the long distance Aunties a good fix. :) We hope you enjoy!

Ellie smiling sweetly!

Ellie in her pink throne (her own armchair with "Ellie" embroidered across the back)

Fancy Ellie

Tommy at 5 weeks.

Morning Time!

Tommy in his bath around 5 1/2 weeks.

Tommy and Grandpa Mark. Tommy has this effect on lots of us!

Tommy at 7 weeks.

Tommy (7 weeks) and Ellie - the diapered duo! Ellie wanted to lay down next to him, so she stripped down to her diaper first to be like him!

Wow! What a difference in size!

Ellie and Tommy (2 months) at Great-Grandpa Collins' house in LA

Great-Grandpa Collins and his four great-grandkids: Ellie Mae (2 1/2), Thomas (2 months), Trent (7 1/2 months), Ezekiel (14 months).

Great-Grandpa Collins and Ellie Mae

Our family with Grandpa Collins

Grandpa Rupert with his four grandkids at Easter: Morgan (8 1/2 months), Reese (8 months), Thomas (2 1/2 months), Ellie Mae.

Morning Time Again

Thomas - 3 months

Our sweet sleeper

First ballet recital! The girls were adorable! Ellie was a bit shy both of her times on stage, but she did dance and looked really sweet the whole time!

Our princess also likes to play in the dirt -- as soon as we arrived at home after the recital, Ellie took off her ballet shoes, donned her snow boots and ran back outside to grab the last bit of daylight!

Tommy learned to talk on the phone a bit early! He's almost 3 1/2 months old here with our Pause guys Tom, Jake & Will (they call themselves Tommy & Ellie's Pause brothers!).

The Cool Ellies - Ellie Ferreira and Ellie Mae!

Tommy - 3 1/2 months

Tommy and sweet big sis, Ellie!

Tommy & Grammy Gayle

Our smiley baby boy!

Slide show of Thomas

2009-02-01T21:44:00.001-08:00

First Day of Ballet Class!

2009-01-07T18:11:00.000-08:00

Ellie had her first day of ballet class this morning! She is in a class of nine 2 and 3 year olds -- Princess Ballet. Her teacher is a very patient woman (Shannon in the green shirt) -- she is so good with the girls! Ellie is excited to dance with her friends, and is learning how to follow instructions, to freeze, to walk along the yellow line, the difference between inside the ballet box and outside, how to wait her turn to be called upon, how to walk on a balance beam, how to turn in a circle while holding a bunch of flowers above her head, and other fun skills. They also learn ballet principles -- how to chasse (sa-shey), how to curtsy, how to be quiet like a ballerina ;).... The class meets once a week and will culminate in a recital in the spring. The girls are all adorable -- so fun to watch!

Eugenie Lilley, who is helping in the class, Ellie and Hannah as class begins.

Eugenie, Ellie, Hannah, Shannon, the teacher, and Jade

The class: Eugenie, Ellie (behind), Brooklyn in pink, Hannah (behind), Shannon, Jade, Selah, Lily and Kai. (Two girls are not in this picture).

Eugenie, Jade, Brooklyn, Kai (behind), McKenna, Selah, Lily, Hannah, Ellie Mae (with her back turned) and Shannon.

Ellie had a lot of fun with Hannah today!

The girls laughing in the mirror!

Our Snowbunny!

2008-12-18T23:14:00.000-08:00

Our first big winter storm hit last weekend and left us with a winter wonderland outside! It really feels like Christmas now! Ellie was excited to go out in the first real snow of the year, and we had fun dressing her in her thick snow attire! Below, Ellie and Papa are getting ready to go out in the snow on another day of the storm...the snow was really showering down that afternoon.

Ellie Ferreira and Ellie Mae coming in from sledding. They weren't too sure about how they felt going down the hill with Joel, but they loved being pulled together in the sled on the flat ground. After a little bit of time, though, the two Ellies decided on their own that they wanted to go inside to play at Ellie Mae's house -- they must have been really cold to suggest leaving the great outdoors!
Allan snapped a few photos of Ellie in front of our tree the other day -- here are two of our favorites...

Pause Family Christmas Party

2008-12-10T22:07:00.001-08:00

There is a program at Hume called the Joshua Wilderness Institute, a nine month long program for college-age students that emphasizes intense study of the Bible, life skills, work ethic, evangelism, etc. The students have two Thursdays each month to "pause" from their hectic school, study and work schedules to spend time with a family (assigned for the year). We have been super blessed to be able to be Pause parents for the second consecutive year, along with our close friends, the Davies (we share one Pause family because our own children are still little enough to require a lot of our attention on any given night -- between the four of us adults, we figure they get the equivalent of at least two regular people!). We have six fantastic students and are having a terrific time getting to know them!

A tradition of Pause is the annual Christmas party and gingerbread house competition between all of the Pause families. Last year, Joel, Ellie and I were on a plane to Disney World during the party, and thus missed the festivities. During our absence, our family's very well-intentioned gingerbread scene (under the direction of the Davies) suffered a series of mishaps and ended up winning the award for "Most Inappropriate." Last night, we had the chance to redeem our group's standing -- any other award was to be considered a victory. Much to our excitement and surprise, we did not just win a different award, we won first place! (Well, technically runner up, but they decided that it wasn't fair for the staff entry to win, so the runner up became the first place -- whatever you call it, we'll take it!) We like to tease the Davies that this is the difference that our influence makes, but in reality, we'll give the credit to our students. :)

The first picture and the one below are of Ellie Mae and Ellie Ferreira singing Christmas carols. They had a great time together all night, and especially enjoyed tickling one of the Joshua students during the quiet story time!

Our Pause family hard at work: (left to right) Will (from South Carolina!), Damon, Julie, and Tom (they also had an ugly Christmas sweater competition, which explains Tom's fun stripes!).

Jake is another of our Pause kids, and loves the little ones! Connor and Olivia Davies are on his lap.

Here are a lot of us with the finished masterpiece: Jake, Tom, Brittany, Jen, Ellie Mae, Ashley, Breanna, Julie and Connor.

And the winner is..."Alone Time with God" - a depiction of the Wildwood fire that happened at the beginning of the year, rumored to have something to do with solo time in the woods, a campfire and a certain Joshua student. The fire was really put out by a helicopter with lots and lots of water, so our scene is fairly realistic! Poor student, but we hear that he is a good sport! :)

Thanksgiving Week in Stockton

2008-12-07T16:14:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Day with Two New Cousins!
Ellie has two adorable new cousins, Morgan (left) and Reese (right), born two weeks apart this summer. She has visited with them once before, and had a great time getting reacquainted on Thanksgiving Day. Ellie loves babies, so having two to follow around and "help" made for a terrific day! We were trying to capture Christmas pictures for my mom and Rupert's annual card in this series -- lots of cameras flashing and parents waving their arms in the background, especially when we finally got all three girls on the same chair!

Baby Ben Laponis

One of my closest friends from both high school and college, Mindy (Shore) Laponis, had her first baby in August. Mindy made the trip to Stockton from San Jose early in the week so that we could meet little Ben for the first time. We had a great time catching up and after 16 years of friendship (high school, Cal, Delta Gamma, bridesmaids...), it was so fun to get to see Min in her new role as a mommy! Ben is super cute! :) Ellie loved getting to spend the day with a baby friend!

Ellie Loves Lep Kuchen!

Our friend Elisa grew up with a wonderful Christmas tradition in her family involving Lep Kuchen (German spice cookies). Two Saturdays before Thanksgiving is "Batterday Saturday" and is the time to make multiple batches of the dough for these cookies. Each batch typically makes between 85 & 100 cookies, and needs to be refrigerated for a minimum of one week. The Saturday before Thanksgiving is "Lep Kuchen Day," the day for baking all of these wonderful treats! Elisa typically makes two batches, while her dad makes four -- the idea is to make enough to last for the season. When we all moved to Hume in 2002, we began to join the Watsons for these two traditional days. Over time, Lep Kuchen Day has come to symbolize the coming of Christmas to us, too. Last year, the Watsons moved back to Arizona :( , but Elisa and her family graciously gave us this recipe that has been in the family for generations, and let us keep the Hume branch of Lep Kuchen Day going! We baked our two batches while in Stockton, and were excited to find out that Ellie Mae loves Lep Kuchen as much as we do! Our hope is that this tradition will feel like her own as she grows up, so that when she is an adult, she can look back like Elisa and remember Lep Kuchen Day as a wonderful part of every Christmas. In these pictures, she has a cookie in one hand, a cup of milk in the other, and a big, happy smile (yes, it is the morning, but at least Lep Kuchen have nuts and dates!)!

November Catch-up

2008-11-19T21:20:00.000-08:00

Trick-or-Treating!

Ellie Mae was very excited to be a princess for Hume's trick-or-treating day this year, and even more excited to find out that two of her little friends were princesses, too! Hannah (left) was Cinderella and Ellie Ferreira (right) was a fairy princess. The girls had so much fun together as we drove around to different neighborhoods and walked door to door. The candy collecting was great, but riding on the back bench seat together was definitely the most exciting part for these little 2 year olds...they were absolutely delighted to be together! Our favorite part as moms was watching them climb into the car at each stop!

Rainy Day Snuggling!
I love it when Ellie wants to curl up on the couch together! She'll often bring her crayons and coloring book with her so that we can color together. We usually start each morning snuggling this way. :)

"Baking" with Mommy
Ellie loves to help Mommy bake...sometimes she is interested in helping to pour ingredients in the bowl, but mainly she wants a taste of every ingredient. I recently let her taste unsweetened baking cocoa thinking that she would never want it again, but as it turns out, there is little that Ellie doesn't like in the food category, especially when it comes from Mommy, and she actually asked for more! In these pictures, we made a birthday cake for one of our Joshua pause family kids and Ellie's contribution was licking the beater. The amazing thing was how much chocolate cake batter landed on her face, hands and clothes compared with how much she actually ate -- not much at all made it as far as her tongue, but she was thoroughly pleased! There's nothing quite like cake batter and whole wheat toast for breakfast! :)

Tea Party
Ellie was invited to a two-year-old tea party last week at the home of Michelle West, a mom on the hill of older kids with a heart to get to know the little ones (she is also hosting a three-year-old tea, a four-year-old tea and a boys tea!). Hannah Gerber and Ellie Ferreira were at the party, and the three girls had a terrific time! They started the morning on the giant trampoline outside, and had fun bouncing with each other and lots of little rubber balls. Ellie is still talking about going "bouncy bouncy" every day! After jumping up an appetite, they went inside for apple juice "tea," cheese, fruit and little cookies that they were able to decorate with frosting and lots of fun colored sprinkles all set out with beautiful dishes (Michelle really set a lovely table, complete with place settings for each mommy and bracelets for the girls!). Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the actual tea. The girls also played with fun toys and playdough. They ended the party with another round of jumping on the trampoline. Peter Carey joined in the fun on his way home from a walk --he is just 16 months old, but had a blast being bounced by the girls while sitting down! What a fun party!

Friends!
We've had two fantastic weekends in a row with lots of former Hume visitors! We had so much fun that we forgot to get the camera out! We did manage to snap a few pictures of Ellie and Kiefer Watson as they enjoyed a late morning snack...Kiefer is four now. Ellie had a wonderful time playing with Kiefer and Cooper, Kiefer's 15 month old brother, last weekend while the Watsons were here at Hume! The Watsons were here from Arizona for a three day weekend, along with the Sees, now in Fresno. Beth Mlakar also stayed with us for the weekend while they were up (Beth is teaching in San Jose now)...Ellie Mae loves her Cool Aunt Beth, or "Cool Beth" as Ellie calls her! The weekend before we had the Downs family at our house, and had such a terrific time catching up with them and spending quality time! Ellie really enjoyed playing with everyone, kids and adults alike, and particularly warmed up to Yvonne (we knew she had taken to Yvonne when she was willing to cuddle with her right after her nap on the last day -- this time is usually reserved strictly for Mommy until she wakes up fully!). We love our friends! :)

Pumpkin Patch!

2008-10-22T22:21:00.000-07:00

We went to a fantastic pumpkin patch down in Reedley two weekends ago with a bunch of Hume friends. The kids had a great time walking along the paths through the old oaks on the farm, watching miniature trains, riding a real "choo choo train," playing on tractors, taking a hay ride, and of course, picking out pumpkins! It was such a fun fall Sunday activity! We followed the pumpkin patch with a trip to Bear Mountain Pizza for lunch on the way up the hill. We're looking forward to returning during the Christmas season when it becomes a Christmas tree farm -- they promised hot cocoa or cider along with the train ride for that season!
Above: top - Ryan and Jessie Minnasian, Jaron and Becky Ferreira; bottom -- Jen and Ellie Mae, Jen and Jade Tilley, Ellie Ferreira, Bunnie and Hannah Gerber, April and Peter Carey. The only person missing from the picture is Joel -- he bravely went with the group as the only dad (the others were all working), but still had a lot of fun with Ellie Mae! He'll probably do some heavy recruiting for the next trip!

The main path up to the trains from the entrance featured a fun suspension bridge. This was Ellie's first experience trying to walk on shaky ground. She and Ellie Ferreira did a great job of falling down together every few feet while smiling and laughing before they finally asked for help!

Friends! Ellie, Hannah and Ellie Mae on a journey together.

Ellie and Jade on the train together.

Ellie found a box of pumpkins her size and immediately took to the task of relocating them to a new pile. She is serious about her "jobs"!

Hay ride with Hannah! The hay wagons were pulled by a John Deere tractor.

Ellie decided to drive Ellie Mae and her baby brother Jaron "to Target"!

Ellie, Ellie Mae and Hannah

Ellie Mae's Great Auntie Pam would be proud -- a true farm girl driving tractors! (Aunt Pam has her own grape ranch and has given Ellie overalls and toy tractors to influence her farming side!)

Ellie was delighted to get a turn in the driver's seat!

Checking on her passengers!

Singing Trees and Big Sister Prep

2008-10-19T22:48:00.000-07:00

Ellie has a singing Halloween tree that she loves to hear, but up until a week ago was still too afraid to push the on button herself and would watch from a safe distance of 5-10 feet away. In the course of the last week, she has not only become comfortable enough with the tree to turn it on by herself, but she has taken to caring for the tree. She tries to feed it and give it "tea" from her kitchen set. Yesterday, she came in to tell us that the tree had "poopies"..."yucky poopies!" We thought that was pretty funny. Then, a few minutes later, we found Ellie on the floor in her room surrounded by her wipes warmer that she had taken down from the shelf for the occasion and several discarded wipes that she had clearly pulled out, and using another wipe to clean the tree's "poopies"! The tree is dark brown, so we can only imagine her need to use so many wipes to try to clean it. :) You can see her holding the tree down in this picture.

After she finished cleaning the tree's "poopies," Ellie brought two diapers out of her room and wanted Papa to help her put one on the tree. She's taking care of the tree in these pictures! Grammy Gayle thinks that Ellie is getting ready to be a big sister to the new baby brother due in February! I had been waiting to give Ellie her first baby doll until the baby arrives so that it would be a special gift to mark the transition, but after seeing that our poor daughter had to resort to being a "mommy" of a singing tree, I promptly jumped online and a real dolly should be arriving by the end of the week! Hopefully she'll be this caring with the real baby when he arrives!

Ellie's 2nd Birthday Part 2

2008-09-03T14:46:00.001-07:00

We had a second party for Ellie Mae with family on the 23rd, the day after her 2nd birthday. All of Joel's family was here for the party and my Mom, Rupert, Dad and Grandma all came up, too, along with old family friends (Donna was my first babysitter) and some of our Hume "family," the Davies. Joel made delicious barbequed pulled pork sandwiches with homemade BBQ sauce -- authentic southern food! It took him about 17 hours to smoke the pork...well worth the time! Uncle Allan (Joel's brother) grabbed the camera for us during the party, so these are his pictures -- Allan just became the full-time photographer for Hume a month ago and has an incredible eye for capturing moments. We sure had a great time celebrating our sweet Ellie Mae!

Ellie, Connor Davies (2.5) and Olivia Davies (4) blowing bubbles and playing with party blowers.

Ellie greeting Grandpa Dan, who came up for the day to be at her party

Hug time! Ellie and Olivia

From left: Richard and Donna VanSlyke, longtime family friends, Grandpa Dan and GG (Great-Grandma Schuler).

Ellie running to Great-Grandpa Schuler and Donna to say, "Thank you!"

Sweet Connor!

Ellie's cute little cousin Ezekiel (7 months) -- Ezekiel is Joel's brother Brent's first child.

Ellie Mae loves corn on the cob!

Present time! Ellie was really into opening gifts this year! Grammy Gayle let her open presents the day before (her actual birthday), so Ellie took every gift to Grammy to help her open during her party!

Opening another gift with Grammy Gayle. From left: Julie, Olivia, Damon and Connor Davies, Great-Grandma Carmen, Grandpa Rupert, Grammy Gayle and Ellie Mae.

One of Ellie's favorite gifts was a new pink laptop just like Daddy's (Joel's computer isn't actually pink!). She was absolutely delighted!

Grandma Debbie made Ellie a beautiful outfit as part of her present. Joel is holding up the jacket as every one looks on amazed! Counter clockwise from toy box: Uncle Brent, Auntie Crisha and Ezekiel, Uncle Collin, Grandpa Mark, Auntie J (Jennalee), Grandma Debbie, Grammy Gayle, the Davies.

Two great-grandmas! Ellie saying, "Thank you!" to Great-Grandma Carmen (who also came up for the day to be at the party). GG is watching from the side.

Ellie's cakes! Our theme for the party was butterflies.

Ellie looking at her cakes.

Oops! Too soon! Ellie was so excited to blow out her two candles that she blew them out in the middle of "Happy Birthday!"

So...we relit the candles and had a second round of candle blowing for the pictures!

Caught in the act! Ellie couldn't resist taking a swipe from her cake when she saw it just sitting alone on the table!

Yum!

Our little birthday girl loves cake!

Ellie's Birthday!

2008-08-24T18:49:00.001-07:00

Ellie turned 2 years old on Friday (8/22)! We had a fun cupcake party at the playground with lots of little friends and moms. Grandma Debbie, Grandpa Mark and Uncle Allan were at the party to celebrate, too!

Cupcake time! Ellie Mae, Olivia Davies, Connor Davies, Brooklyn Hoelzer and Ellie Ferreira. (Tristen Hoelzer, Peter Carey, Ryan Minassian, Jade Tilley, Baby Jaron Ferreira, Baby Corin McLaughlin and Baby Hudson Geer also came for the party)

Cupcakes with Olivia!

Ellie loves babies right now. She is playing with Baby Jaron (Ellie Grace's little brother) in the stroller while Corin hangs out on the side.

Peek a boo!

Ellie side by side on the slide with Ryan.

Ellie and Connor sliding down the spiral slide.

After the party, we spent time with family. Grandpa Rupert and Gramma Gayle came up in time for the afternoon and dinner.

Ellie was very proud of herself in Grandma Debbie's shoes!

Ellie loves to dance with GG (Great-Grandma Schuler)

Uncle Collin played the keyboard with Ellie.

Ellie enjoying her new wagon from Grandpa Rupert and Gramma Gayle! She loves to sit in it.

Looking cool in shades!

Summer Catch-Up!

2008-08-11T13:50:00.000-07:00

The summer has flown by and we're a bit behind in our posts! Here are a few of the fun highlights...

We took a trip to Cat Haven in June with several families and had a terrific time. Cat Haven is about 45 minutes away from Hume and is the home of many different types of cool cats -- tigers, panthers, a cheetah, snow leopards, etc. -- a local treasure! The girls had a lot of fun together and enjoyed the cats, too. This is Ellie, Ellie Mae, Olivia and Hannah (the cage is just above the hedge).

Ellie had her first sprinkler experience in June at Gramma Gayle's house. She loved getting wet! You can see her bucket in the background -- one of her favorite activities is collecting rocks, and Gramma and Grandpa just put in a whole flowerbed full of different sized rocks that has led to hours of fun!

Gramma Gayle and Grandpa Rupert took a trip to Hawaii at the beginning of the summer and brought back this hula outfit for Ellie Mae. She had a great time dancing with Gramma in the living room, learning to sway and make the grass skirt twirl!

Ellie Mae and Joel had a great time leading Hume's annual Fourth of July parade. Joel drove the new fire engine and Ellie sat in his lap. The parade is about as small town as small town gets, with people jumping in on decorated quads, golf carts, Suzukis, bikes, strollers, and anything else that can move. All of the little ones dress up and feel fancy to be in an actual parade. The staging time lasts for 30-45 minutes, but the once the parade actually begins, it is finished in roughly 10 minutes!

Grandpa Dan had a family reunion at his house in July. We had a fun time catching up with relatives and family friends! Ellie likes to go for rides with Grandpa, and here she is directing him around the backyard!

Gramma Gayle likes to give Ellie a tub to use to fill her watering can. Ellie Mae decided to use it as a swimming pool instead one morning. She even asked Joel to take off her diaper before she climbed completely in the tub. She sat folded in that little tub for quite awhile, cold water, no clothes and all!

We've had a couple of wading pool playdates with the other moms and kiddos this summer. The little ones range in age from newborn to four years old. Here, Ellie Mae is in the pool with Ellie Ferriera, one of her favorite friends. Ellie's baby brother, Jaron, is in the background (sitting up) with another little boy, Shiloh.

Ellie Mae, Ellie, Jade and Hannah enjoying playing together!

Cool Aunt Beth has come up to Hume several times to visit this summer. We love her visits and only wish that she could stay longer (like forever!)! :) Ellie loves to play with Beth and they even played in the pool this summer, learning new tricks (Beth has been a lifeguard and taught swim lessons for years).

Ellie Mae loves to wear Papa's things and thought to put on his hat backward by herself! She has also taken to wearing his EMT photo badge on her shirt, proud to be wearing a picture of Papa. She even held it up to the phone one night (still attached to her shirt) while talking to Gramma Gayle and said, "This my Dada, this my Dada."

We woke up one recent morning to, "I stuck, I stuck," coming through the monitor. When I went into her room, Ellie had piled all of her animals on top of herself and in front of her. She was very proud! She then immediately called for Dada to come see her. :)

Uncle Allan and Amanda were over for dinner a week and a half ago, and had fun playing with Ellie and the camera! Amanda is in the background of the first picture, Ellie is playing with Uncle Allan in the second two pictures and
Auntie J (Jennalee) is helping Ellie with her watering can and dirt project in the last picture. We love having so much of Joel's family here! Ellie is clearly delighted with all of the fun!

Ellie likes to make herself little "beds" when she's watching movies. This was the first day that she learned to cover herself, too.

Gramma Gayle came for a visit last week and we had a lot of fun! Ellie Mae is enjoying sharing breakfast with Gramma in this photo.

Ellie's First Braids

2008-06-08T16:03:00.000-07:00

Trip to the Watsons

2008-06-05T18:25:00.001-07:00

So I have been a little slow in updating our blog as of late. Here are some pictures from our trip to see the Watsons. We traveled out to AZ about two weeks ago with Beth and spent the weekend catching up with them and playing Rockband. Here are a few pictures:

Todd working on some great hamburgers

Beth, Jen and Elisa

Kiefer and Ellie

Ellie and Grandpa Mark

2008-04-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

Ellie hamming it up with Grandpa, yes that's a lemon in her hand.

Bed Time Stories

2008-04-15T20:10:00.001-07:00

Jen is reading Ellie a story before she goes to bed for the night.

Water Bucket

2008-04-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Ellie playing with a water bucket at Grandma's house. Shortly after she was covered in mud and soaking wet. She also got her hands on some sort of fungus or mushroom that looked a lot like a piece of bark which caused a scare and prompted a call to poison control who told us the stuff was harmless.

Ellie Sitting in her Rocking Chair

2008-04-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

Ellie is sitting in her rocking chair at Grandma Gayle's house. She really thinks she is big stuff!

Grandpa Rupert's Birthday

2008-04-13T09:49:00.000-07:00

Ellie is helping Grandpa Rupert blow out the candle on his birthday cake.

Ellie's First Easter Egg Hunt

2008-04-13T09:44:00.001-07:00

Ellie is sitting here enjoying the spoils of her first eater egg hunt.

Ellie's Lunch

2008-03-20T15:07:00.000-07:00

Ellie Loves GG

2008-02-13T15:28:00.000-08:00

This a great picture from an evening that Ellie spent with Grandpa and Grandma Schuler last week. Ellie has become so comfortable visiting them that this last time she had her coat off and was telling Jen and I "bye bye". In most situations Ellie is quite concerned when Jen and I leave.

Uh Oh!!!

2008-02-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

The other night Ellie got her hands on a box of tissue and emptied the entire box before Mom and Dad figured out what was going on. The first picture above was right after a very convicting "uh oh" and the second picture is her trying to stuff all the tissue back into the box.

2008-02-05T14:14:00.000-08:00

While we were at Grandpa Dan's house this weekend for the Super Bowl Ellie found a dust mop in his closet. She really got a kick out of pushing it all over the floor.

The Ellie Mobile!

2008-02-05T13:45:00.000-08:00

So we made a big change this weekend and purchased a Toyota Sienna. It's funny how kids change things. I can't count the number of times both Jen and I said we would never own a mini-van and watched skeptically as friends moved to them. I guess kids have a way of changing those kind of things. I have to say though these new vans are pretty amazing and are very family friendly. Ellie was already at home in the vehicle on our drive home last night.

Ellie's latest high fashion outfit...

2008-02-05T13:32:00.001-08:00

Diapers and Ughs!! Ellie was very proud of her self and starting running all over they house.

Grandma Gayles idea of baby sitting!

2008-02-05T13:29:00.001-08:00

As you can tell by Ellie's expression she didn't know what to do.

Ellie's First Snowball!

2008-01-17T12:55:00.001-08:00

Ellie had a lot of fun here making her first snow ball and learning how to through it!

Ellie Talking On The Phone

2008-01-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

Ellie is talking to Grandma Debbie on the phone. She has learned to hold the phone up to her ear. Also she figured out how to call other people...

Ellis Shares Her Cheese

2008-01-17T12:43:00.000-08:00

Ellie is trying to share her cheese with Grandpa Dan.

Story Time With Uncle Damon

2008-01-17T12:02:00.000-08:00

Priceless

2008-01-01T22:22:00.000-08:00

So when does this become inappropriate anyway?

The Paparazzi!

2007-12-31T23:34:00.000-08:00

Ellie Gets Stuck

2007-12-25T12:27:00.001-08:00

Ellie was having a great time exploring Grandma Gayle back yard until she found herself stuck between two pots.

Ellie Helps Uncle Allan Edit Photos

2007-12-09T23:13:00.001-08:00

Ellie was able to give her favorite uncle some great pointers on several changes needed to photos he was working on. They had a few disagreements but in the end they figured it out.

Pajama Party!

2007-12-05T01:21:00.000-08:00

We had a great dinner tonight with the Davies. After dinner Jen and Julie went to bilbe study and the kids had a great time playing together.

Ellie's First Lime

2007-12-03T23:51:00.000-08:00

Ellie had her first lime yesterday, as you can see from her expression she really enjoyed it. She continued to eat most of the slice while making all kinds of great faces.

Concerning Ellie and Baskets

2007-12-02T16:57:00.001-08:00

Ellie has taken to climbing into baskets and boxes. If one is left alone she is usually sitting in it within minutes.

Batter Day Saturday

2007-11-27T22:47:00.000-08:00

The schuler's had their first batter day last week. It was a lot of
fun but we were sad that we were not spending it with the Watsons.