A few Ellie videos and pictures

Ellie's 1st Birthday!

Happy Birthday, our sweet little Ellie!  I can't belive she is one already.  She still seems like our little baby!  She is a really fun mix of sweetness, toughness and independence.  I think so far she is the most daring of our three kids - she is determined to be like James and Tori and do whatever they do.  She can stand pretty well all by herself and is getting good at saying, "dada". 

 Here is Ellie enjoying her cake.  The funny thing was that she wasn't too interested in it until I gave her a fork just like everyone else - then she dug right in.  Such a little lady. :)

 Ellie loved her presents, but so did James. :)  Below Ellie is telling James how she feels about him playing with her new toy.  They like to tease each other, but they sure are cute together.

Happy Easter

 Tori and James dying Easter eggs - James really got a kick out of it this year and it's always one of Tori's favorite things to do.  She always makes some really pretty and creative eggs, though, I don't think anyone does them as good as John. :)  Below they are enjoying their Easter cookies after dying is done.

 Ellie loved her Easter basket, she was so cute it was really fun to watch.

 The cutest thing was that she loved this little purse and put it right on and seemed so proud of herself.

 Ellie may have loved the Easter basket, but she was not a fan of getting dressed up for church and getting her picture taken.

 I eventually got Ellie calmed down enough to take some cute pictures of all three kids (Ellie was much better without the hat - I don't think she was a fan).  Below is one of my favorite pictures of the kids I think I have ever taken - they just all seem to like each other so much. :)

 Another highlight of our day was bubble guns and a little Easter egg hunt in our back "yard". 

Easter at the Zoo

The Saturday before Easter, the zoo had some fun Easter activities.  We tried to go to the zoo pretty often, but this time we got to see the most animals out and active so it was really pretty cool.  I'm not sure if they were just all up because we went earlier in the morning or because it was a pretty cool morning, but we sure had a great time.

It was sort of crazy how only a small pane of glass separated us from these cheetahs - especially because they had a hungry look in their eyes. ;)

I kept telling Tori to put her head in the lion's mouth for a picture, but she wouldn't do it, so John showed her how.

This Elephant behind Tori just had his 50th birthday.

It's hard to see, but above the rhinos are walking around, we had never seen them before.  The hippos were a lot more active than usual, too.

A few cute pictures waiting for the Easter egg hunt (which was really a pretty pitiful hunt for just a tiny bit of candy thrown on the ground, but the kids didn't mind).

Below Tori is trying to run as fast as a cheetah.

Easter Egg Hunt with Friends

 We had an Easter egg hunt with friends from church at a local park and the kids had a blast.  It stopped raining just in time to hide and find eggs.  It was a beautiful afternoon and it was a lot of fun being with friends.  James thought it was the coolest thing in the world to hunt for eggs with candy in the them at a park and talked about it every time we passed that park for months afterwards.

 Above is a picture of Tori and probably her best friend in Oregon, Natalie. 

 Above we tried to get all the kids to stand in one place before they searched for their eggs - not an easy task. :)  Below is a picture of James, Tori, Natalie and Sarah.  Natalie and Sarah were such sweet friends to Tori, it broke our hearts having to say goodbye.

Even Ellie joined in the fun - especially once she learned that there was good stuff inside the eggs.