The day that we left to head down to Utah for Lance's Grandma's funeral Lance took his LAST end of school Praxis Exam that covers everything they have studied the past 4 years. And he just got the results and PASSED. Yeah!!! We are very proud of him. No more tests! Well at least not in order to Graduate...now he just has to go through all the licensing hoopla for California. :)
Congrats Lance!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
Goin Back to Cali
Well the Job search is over for us and after a month of interviews, lots of time spent weighing the options, and a whole lot of prayer Lance accepted a position in Ventura California! This was one of the hardest decisions we've ever had to make and California was probably one of the last places we expected to go but now that we've gotten our answer and everything is settled we feel really good about it and are getting so excited to get there!
And it doesn't hurt at all that two of our really really good friends live in Southern California....one of them RIGHT in the city Lance will be working in. It's crazy how things work out.
So wish us luck in finding an affordable rental!!! Ahhhh :)
In an effort to save a little more money we will most likely not be going out to Purdue for Lance's Graduation. It would have been so fun to see him walk and see some of our old Purdue friends....so for anyone planning a Disneyland trip make sure to look us up...we'll be about an hour from Disneyland!
Catching Up
Ella 10 Months Old
This is the best I've got so far for her 10 month old pics. We were going outside the other day and I had to set her down and she was very content just sitting in the grass so I thought I would take advantage.
Stats
So she was 15 lbs at her last appointment in December (I posted for her 9 month stats that she was 17 lbs and when I took her back to the doctor a week later she was 15 lbs.....I remember thinking 3 lbs in a month seemed like a lot to gain...so apparently they weighed her wrong whoops!)
She has two little teeth on the bottom and we were very relieved to see them the Sunday after Christmas because we had had about month of ear infections, cold, and cranky baby and couldn't see an end in sight so teething was a great explanation.
She is just LOVING eating food. Her favorites are bread bread and more bread, pears, and peaches, peas, rice, black beans...and really anything she can feed herself.
As you can see from these pictures Ella is enjoying sitting up and has no inclination to do anything else at this point! :) Actually it's probably more like Lance and I have no inclination FOR her to do anything else, we are really enjoying having a 10 month old who is NOT mobile yet. But we can tell that those days are numbered. Ella can roll over and has figured out that in our house that is all wood floors she can move herself backwards by just sliding on the floor. She is interested in everything she can get her hands on, and we've had our first few encounters with having to pull stuff like wicker baskets pieces, and rubber bands out of her mouth!
But she is still just our sweet sweet little baby who just adores her whole family. When Lance and I were in California and the older girls were staying with my Mom the one thing Mia would say every time we talked on the phone was how much she missed playing with Ella and when would we be home so she could play with Ella. The girls are both really sweet to Ella and love any excuse to "mother/smother" her :) But Ella takes it all in stride and doesn't seem to mind all the extra love.
Whoops the hat went down a little too far!
Making ice cream in a bag. You don't even need Rock Salt...who knew!
Well I think I'm finally caught up for the month! These are my last random little winter pictures.
Trip # 4....Oregon
You can tell we are just a LITTLE bit excited about sleeping in the hotel.
The Children's Museum in Salem and a REALLY huge rocking chair.
Going Swimming at the hotel....Lance was gone all this day so it was just Mommy and 3 non-swimmers. Thank heavens for waterwings and baby floaties... we had a blast!
The Aquarium in Newport
The Girls were in their own little world having some "Girl Talk" and were cracking us up their hand gestures and conversation. Maddi sat like that with her legs crossed the entire time. :)
You can see her two little teeth on the bottom!
It was much warmer than Spokane but the girls were still pretty brave to put their feet in the water because it wasn't THAT warm. :)
The Oregon Coast....Beautiful! We had two days while we were there that were really sunny (which is rare for them). And we still couldn't believe that we could be without coats in the middle of winter!
So trip # 3 was actually just a day trip down to Pullman, Washington to interview there for a job and look at the area. It was a really small college town but SO SO beautiful as it's right in the Palouse Mountains. I'd never actually seen the Palouse mountains (or not that I remember) but wow!
And then our last and final trip #4 was to Corvallis Oregon to do Lance's last interview. We had a blast and after our little break in between trips it was nice to go all as a family. Maddi and Mia were super excited about the hotel. You can tell from the first picture!
Trip # 2.....California
We had about a day between trips to get all the laundry done and repack and the Girls were helping me fold laundry. This pile doesn't look that big in the picture but this is them after they Jumped into the Pile...they were so excited to see how big it was and were dying to jump into it.
Ella on her first flight.
This was how Ella was from the moment we woke her up at 5 am. Just Happy to be Alive!
Ella was cracking us up with her funny little personality that came out on our trip. I think without her big sisters around to run the show she felt that she needed to make up for all the silence....or maybe she just REALLY enjoyed all the one on one time with Mommy and Daddy.
Cute little Brian and Ella. Since Ella's mommy forgot to pack ANY baby toys on our trip Brian was very nice to share his with her. Of all the things to forget to pack I forgot baby toys AND baby wipes!!! The airport does carry packets of wet ones sold for about 2.00 a package containing ONE wipe each. :)
The boys doing some boogie boarding
Ella enjoying a little siesta on the beach.
Gracie, Avery, and Mikaya playing at the beach....swimsuits in January...amazing!
Ella was such a wonderful little traveler. She spent most of her time either smiling her little head off (as seen in the pictures above) or doing this!
Just like "Date Nights"!
Most of our trips this month have been for job interviews that Lance has had, and every place he's gone they've always invited me to come along as well which was really fun when we had to got to Ventura, California. Our good good friends from Purdue who we lived five houses down the street from us were moving to Ventura 2 days before our trip and they were so nice to let me and Ella come hang out with them (litterally the day after they had received all their boxes) while Lance attended interviews all day, and then we had such a blast hanging out for the rest of the weekend with them and our other really good friends from Purdue who were also very nice to drive up from San Diego on Saturday with their cute little girls. We were sad that Mia and Maddi were not able to come with us and see their friends but I have to say....traveling with ONLY a baby for 3 days was proably the easiest thing Lance and I have done all year! :) And I think the girls were throughly spoiled by Grandma Tresa who came to stay with them and didn't feel like they missed out too much.
This was how Ella was from the moment we woke her up at 5 am. Just Happy to be Alive!
Ella was cracking us up with her funny little personality that came out on our trip. I think without her big sisters around to run the show she felt that she needed to make up for all the silence....or maybe she just REALLY enjoyed all the one on one time with Mommy and Daddy.
Cute little Brian and Ella. Since Ella's mommy forgot to pack ANY baby toys on our trip Brian was very nice to share his with her. Of all the things to forget to pack I forgot baby toys AND baby wipes!!! The airport does carry packets of wet ones sold for about 2.00 a package containing ONE wipe each. :)
Amy and Ella
The Girls....Amy, me, and Dani
Our crazy husbands!
They were very nice to find a wet suit for Lance to borrow....and we'll just leave the story at that! :)
The boys doing some boogie boarding
Ella enjoying a little siesta on the beach.
Gracie, Avery, and Mikaya playing at the beach....swimsuits in January...amazing!
Ella was such a wonderful little traveler. She spent most of her time either smiling her little head off (as seen in the pictures above) or doing this!
Cute Gracie and Ella
Just like "Date Nights"!
Most of our trips this month have been for job interviews that Lance has had, and every place he's gone they've always invited me to come along as well which was really fun when we had to got to Ventura, California. Our good good friends from Purdue who we lived five houses down the street from us were moving to Ventura 2 days before our trip and they were so nice to let me and Ella come hang out with them (litterally the day after they had received all their boxes) while Lance attended interviews all day, and then we had such a blast hanging out for the rest of the weekend with them and our other really good friends from Purdue who were also very nice to drive up from San Diego on Saturday with their cute little girls. We were sad that Mia and Maddi were not able to come with us and see their friends but I have to say....traveling with ONLY a baby for 3 days was proably the easiest thing Lance and I have done all year! :) And I think the girls were throughly spoiled by Grandma Tresa who came to stay with them and didn't feel like they missed out too much.
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