Ellie is 4 months old

Weight: 12 lbs 11 oz

Height: 26 inches

 4 months old and she has found her toes!

Ellie is still our sweet, little, even tempered baby.  She is a mover just like her sister was and is already a pro at rolling over.  And though she doesn't talk, she still finds a way to make herself heard over her older siblings.  She is such a rewarding baby - you give her just a little bit of attention or a little smile and she gives you back giant grins and giggles with a cute little dimple.  It doesn't take much to get her to laugh and she loves being tickled.

 

 I loved her in this little dress - the pictures don't do it justice.

Below is just a little video of Ellie smiling.



Berry Picking

This was probably one of the things in Oregon that I loved doing the most.  We went berry picking.  It was just so picturesque.  Nothing like being outside with gorgeous scenery, nice weather, eating blueberries, raspberries and marionberries right off the bush.  It didn't hurt that we finished the day at the farm playground drinking freshly made blueberry and strawberry shakes.

I feel like Ellie is left out of most of our posts.  She's such a sweet baby that she spends most of our outings asleep in her car seat, so I forget to take her picture.  She did wake up for a little bit of berry picking.

Goodbye Iowa

I got a little sad writing this post - these are our last couple pictures from our time in Iowa. We sure loved it there, especially all of the wonderful friendships we made while we were there. The move was crazy and exhausting especially with a new baby and John having to stay and finish up the last week of residency in Iowa after we had to move out of our house.

Thankfully, Ellie loved sleeping in her vibrating bouncy chair while we packed the truck. And James and Tori loved Grandma's ipod & ipad.

When it was all done we were very proud of ourselves. It's starting to become a tradition that we take a picture of how well John was able to play Tetris with all of our stuff in the back of an ABF truck. I'm amazed we fit all our junk in less than 16ft! I'm just hoping this isn't a tradition that gets repeated too often. :)

Happy Birthday James!!

One of these days James will have a birthday when we aren't in the middle of moving or on an away rotation. Unfortunately, that probably won't happen until his 4th birthday. Luckily, he still seems to have a bunch of fun. Below he is enjoying his birthday meal of mac 'n cheese. I don't think I've ever seen a kid down mac 'n cheese like James - he loves the stuff.

Here are a few pictures of James opening presents. The first thing he opened was a card that sang Old McDonald. He liked it so much that I had to hide the card so he would actually open his presents.

Tori loves being the big sister and helping out during birthdays.

Below is our birthday boy wearing his new train pj's to bed (sleeping in the Donigan's pack 'n play, because the poor boy's crib is already packed on the moving truck - he didn't seem to mind).

ENT Residents

In under a month John will have officially completed his residency training in ENT. Above is a picture of his classmates (the residents that are finishing up this year with him). From left to right: Matt, Andrew, John, Geir, & George. We sure loved these guys and their families and even though we're spreading out all over the globe we hope to always keep in touch. We were able to have a lot of fun together over the past 5 years. Below are a few pictures of our last couple of get-togethers before we all moved.

John residency class had the most children in one class of residents ever in their program and probably more than any other program out there I would imagine. By the time they graduated they had 17 kids between the 5 families with one more on the way. It was not an easy feat to get them all pictured together.

The last few pictures are just of Tori, James and Ellie enjoying the park we met with them at.

Tori's Dance Recital 2011

Another year - another dance recital. :) Tori sure loves everything about dancing - especially getting all dressed up for the recital. Below are pictures of her class in their tap and ballet costumes.

I've included probably more videos than anyone except for Grandma will watch. The first video of them doing their recital dance in the studio I like the best since you can really see Tori and her facial expressions. I was impressed with how she can move her hips - I thought it was very fun to watch. :)

Here is a picture of what Ellie was thankfully doing while I was video taping (James as you can see in the video was not sleeping).

Siri and Tori right after the dress rehearsal. Below James wanted to be in a picture, too.

Jaci, Tori, Claire, & Siri striking a pose right before the dance recital.

Proud, but sleepy family after Tori's recital (it didn't end until after 9pm).

A Few More Cute Ellie

Just a few more pictures of our sweet Ellie at about 5-6 weeks old. We sure love our sweet girl.

Niabi Zoo with Grandma

We had to do our annual Niabi Zoo trip one last time before moving. It was even more fun since we had Grandma Katie with us. I think this was our first time doing it with our new car, too. Grandma got a cute picture of the kids enjoying a movie in the car (the only way to travel:)).

I think we have 5 years worth of pictures of Tori and James growing up on this rhino - fun memories.

Above Tori is showing us her neck just like the giraffe.

The kids' favorite is always riding the train. James absolutely loved it this year.

Above we're comparing Ellie's wingspan to the different birds they have at the zoo.

Our cute little girls pretending to be monkeys (James, our other little monkey, had fallen asleep in the stroller).

We finished our fun day with 3 very happy, but tired kids.