First Word!

Ella said her first word yesterday...."Dada!" And it's not just babbling, it's her first honest-to-goodness word. Werner feels very loved.

Climbing monkeys and trees

Not a lot has changed in two years!

Funnies

Scene: sitting at the table, ready to eat dinner.

Grandpa: "Let's pray."

Rand: "No, let's eat!"

Rand thinks the song "I Am The Walrus" is hilarious. He likes to sing his own version as we drive down the road, naming whatever he sees. It goes something like, "I am the car, and I am the stoplight, and I am the tree, and I am the house, and I am another house, and I am the Ella, and I am the fence...."

The other day I was just d.o.n.e. with Rand for a number of reasons. I told him, "Rand, I have lost my patience." He asked, "Where did it go? Is it gone forever?"

Cousins!

We had a lovely time meeting the newest member of the Fisher/Guenther family, baby Elijah!

Grandpa and Grandma!

I love how Ella and Elijah are staring at Rand in this photo.

Doug graciously allowed Rand to help blow out the candles on our birthday cake.

Hmmm.....

Ella thought Elijah was very fascinating. She wanted to touch him so badly!

Elijah also let Ella try out his swing. She loved it!

Not-so-baby Ella

Ella is officially not a baby anymore. Yesterday she was playing on the bathroom floor, grabbed ahold of the bathtub, and pulled herself up to a standing position, plopped down, and did it three more times! We promptly set up the crib and packed away the co-sleeper. She loved the crib and looks so tiny sleeping in the middle of it.

Ella loves music and "sings" along. She crawls a couple steps at a time, and is very good about rolling and scootching all over the floor. She thinks the dogs are so funny and laughs whenever you make animal noises. She rides in the seat of the shopping cart and thinks that's just grand.

She is getting two more teeth (for a total of four), but she's getting the top canines instead of the top middle, so she looks like a little vampire baby. Ella still loves to snuggle and would rather be held than just about anything. She's getting quite good at feeding herself and LOVES food.

Happy Easter!

We spent a lovely Easter day yesterday with some friends from church....lots of food, games, and even an Easter egg hunt for the kids! Rand woke up to a basket full of candy, fruit leather, and his first movie: Wall-E. He was so excited!

We did not get any great Easter pictures -- we took a few before church, and then forgot to get someone to take a family picture later on. Alas....Ella still looked awfully cute in her little Easter dress (thanks, Caryn!).

We did lots of baking over the weekend. Rand and I made a biscotti shaped like a rabbit on Saturday morning (something I used to make when I was little), and I made a 10-layer cake for Easter lunch. It looked cool but didn't taste as good as I hoped.

On an aside note, my posts are so out of chronological order that it's ridiculous. Please note that things did not happen in the order they are posted.

Baseball!

Some pictures from John's Special Olympics baseball game....it's always so fun to go and see all of the kids having a great time playing baseball. Rand and Grandpa got to run the bases before and after the game, and Ella once again showed her preference for taking naps in Grandpa's arms.

Beach Babes

We spent a beautiful day at the beach....Ella loved looking at the water and feeling the sand. She was very good about not eating it. Rand dug and dug and dug and wasn't a bit afraid of the waves -- he ran into the water all by himself and had a great time splashing in the waves.

Visitors!

Over the last month, we've had several relatives come out to visit Arizona! Well, they actually came to see Grandpa and Grandma Fisher, but we loved seeing them.

Aunt Becky really isn't torturing Ella.

Bethany and Ella

Breann and Rand

Breann and Ella

Handsome Guys

Riverboat Ride

Did you know that we had a huge lake about an hour away from us? I sure didn't. When our cousins Bethany and Haley came out to visit Grandpa and Grandma, we went on a riverboat ride around Canyon Lake. It was a beautiful day and the view was so different than our typical cactus and rocks!

Ella in her lifejacket. Isn't she cute? It was more like a straitjacket since she couldn't turn her head or suck her thumb, but she was a sweetheart and didn't put up a fuss.

Rand loved watching the water go by.

Grandma has the magic touch and got Ella to take a nap. She had her own built-in pillow.

After the boat ride, we had a picnic by the lake. Rand had a great time throwing rocks in the water!