I guess it's time for our semi-annual blog update. Jake just finished another season of basketball. His team was undefeated.


Ella turned 2 on Feb. 26th. She loved her play place and her Mini Mouse swimming suit.

Here's Ella and Haylie (birth sister) celebrating Ella's b-day at Chuck E. Cheese.

"Hmmm. This birthday thing is great. When do I get another one?"

Spirit days at Jake's school - Crazy hair day, nerd day, rock star day. You can probably guess which picture is which.

We finally caved and got a puppy! His name is Volcom, and he's a black lab/lab husky. He was a surprise present for Jake's 10th birthday (aka a moment of weakness).

We didn't get much snow this winter,
but Ella did get to bundle up and play in the snow a couple times. She couldn't walk, but she was definately warm.

Jake turned 10 on January 5th. Along with the puppy, he got Guitar Hero World Tour for the Wii, which quickly became a family favorite.

Christmas Day. Here's Jake on his favorite present, a ripstick.

Here's Ella showing off her Christmas loot.

Jake and his cousin, Rachel, on Christmas Eve playing the parts of Mary and Joseph in our traditional family nativity re-enactment.

Ella played the part of haste (inside Hildt joke - "and they came with haste"). No one has ever fit the part as well.

Happy Halloween

Ella had a blast trick-or-treating! On the way up to each house she'd start saying "treat, treat, treat." Then she'd happily put the treat in her pumpkin and say "say syoo" (thank you).

Here's Jake trick-or-treating. He had a great time, as always, and got way too much candy. He's been on an extreme sugar high for the past three days!

Here's Ella in her Minnie Mouse costume. She wore the ears long enough to take a picture, and that was the end of that. But she did love wearing her "preee" (pretty) dress.

Greg and Jake carving pumpkins, which is a great excuse to play in gooey guck.

Here are Jake and Ella at the pumpkin patch. They both had a great time playing in the hay maze and picking out their pumpkins.

Here are Ella, Sierra, and her new baby, Haylie. It's hard to tell from the picture, but Haylie looks just like Ella, except she has black hair instead of red. What a cutie!

Here's Jake playing Guitar Hero

Here's Brenna, Teri, Me, Michelle, and Becca at our girls' weekend in Aspen.

In August, I started a performing arts group. Here are 10 of my 20 students. I've been having so much fun teaching them songs and dances in preparation for our Christmas concert.

Here's Ella doing the actions to her favorite song, "Daddy Comes Home."

Here are some of Ella's animal sounds.

Here are some of Ella's first words. She doesn't like to cooperate when the camera is on, so we only got a few of her favorites. Some other words she says are peez (please), say soo (thank you), yeah, no (her favorite), Teh-tah (Trevor, her cousin), mimi (mommy), sheshees (fishies), and a few others.

We're finally blogging again!

We had an amazing summer full of fun! We got to see so many relatives who we haven't seen in a long time. A few of them gave me a hard time for not updating my blog in over six months, so here you go.

Here's Ella's first tube ride behind the Ashby's boat on Labor Day weekend. Rough water, but still lots of fun.

The highlight of our summer was an unbelievable family vacation - a Carribbean cruise. My parents took the whole family on a cruise for their 50th anniversary - over 30 people. What a blast! We weren't sure how the kids would do, but I think they had more fun than anybody. Thanks Mom and Dad for a vacation we will never forget!!! (except maybe Ella, who probably forgot the day we got back).

The best part of our cruise was our day in St. Maarten. Greg, Jake, and I went on a treetop zipline adventure tour. It was incredible.

St. Thomas was another stop on the cruise. We went to Coral World where Jake got to hand feed a stingray, and we all got to feed the lurikeets. As soon as they saw the food, they came down out of trees and perched all over us. Very cool.

Here's Ella catching some rays on the ship.

My 3 handsome nephews - all leaving for missions in the next few months. We will miss them, but we loved getting to spend some time with them on the cruise before they leave.

Here's our family at dinner on the ship. Notice the big smile on Greg's face. Meal times were definately his favorite. He's quite proud to announce a 7-pound weight gain on our 7-day cruise. I've never seen anything like it!

Here's Jake at Laguna Beach in California (most beautiful beach in the world). We had a great family trip to California for the 4th of July. It was so fun to spend time with my family and to see our old friends from Temecula who we miss so much!

Greg and Ella on the boat at Cascade Lake in Idaho at the Hamblin family reunion. We had a wonderful weekend with Greg's family in June. We stayed in a house right on the lake and spent lots of time on Robbie's boat. Jake and Ella loved playing with their cousins. We especially loved going river rafting and "riding the bull." Thanks to the Hamblins for a great weekend!

Here's Jake and his cousin, Rachel, on the merry-go-round at the Denver Zoo.

Ella's first merry-go-round ride. She loved it.

Happy 1st Birthday Ella!

We can't believe it, but Ella is really 1 year old! Her birthday celebration started on Sunday with a party with the Shafrons and Haakensons (birthmom and family). As always, Ella was sufficiently spoiled by them. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's how she felt about it.

On her birthday, 2/26, we had a family party with the Ashbys. We gave Ella a cake, which she surprisingly was not too interested in attacking. She did enjoy opening her presents, though - even the clothes.

Ella loves her new presents, especially the ones that make noise! She loves to dance. Here's a sample of some of her moves.

She may be short, but she makes up for her size with volume. In an effort to decrease some of her yelling, we've been trying to teach her some sign language. Here she is showing a few signs. Yes, we know they are not very accurate, but give her a break - she's only 1.

Ella has become quite proficient in walking since our last post.

Jake has been taking guitar lessons. After just 3 lessons, he's already playing a few songs. Here's a sample.

Look what I can do!!!

Now that I'm almost 11 months old, I decided to start walking. I think I'm pretty cool. Maybe soon I'll be able to keep up with my brother!