A visit from Daphne!

Daphne came this week to visit our family and go to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to find an apartment to live in as she moves there in August to be a professor at LSU! We were so glad she stopped through Houston first! We went to the pool and enjoyed the sun!

She got to accompany me on Deacon's first time at the pool! History :)

 A little handstand competition! Ella first..

Then Cavin...pretty sure Daphne had it in the bag!

 Deacon was so happy to be in the water!

I just love his happy disposition! We also went to Bahama Bucks to get a sno cone treat!

I'm not a big fan of the blue! Channing and her dad sure are!

Daphne enjoyed some blue as well! She is such a fun loving sister/Aunt and we love having her around! She taught Ella the game Dominion and did some German lessons with her and helped us do PIYO workouts and played and played some more!
Daphne and I left for a couple days to go to Baton Rouge to find her an apartment.

The drive to Baton Rouge really was pretty smooth and fast! The waters are really high due to the past rains this last month! We got there and looked at some apartments...after the first 3 I really was starting to be concerned about if we would find something and what kind of housing options she might have. We took a break and went to campus and it is really pretty. We stopped by the famous "Mike the Tiger".

The storms rolled in and we got pretty wet walking back to the car! I think it will be an adventure for Daphne to get used to all the rain!

There were some beautiful, old trees surrounding the campus!

After campus, we hit a few good apartments on a different side of town that gave us some good options, and we found one that Daphne is really excited about. I think it will be great. So we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner to celebrate a successful day, and because we were officially starving! ;)

We were tired from waking up at 3:45 and walking most of the day, but we got a little shopping in and relaxed at the hotel!
It was a quick drive back and a nice rest of the weekend. We had a fun visit and we look forward to seeing her in a week again when we go back to Utah!

Deacon's 10 months!

Deacon is a happy little guy and we sure love him!

He reached his 10 month mark and is happy and healthy! He is 23.5 pounds and 29 inches at his last appointment a couple weeks ago.

He has 4 teeth on top and 3 on the bottom with the 4th that has broken through on bottom. He has silly teeth and kinda looks like a snagglepuss, but we sure love him! 

He rolls around everywhere and is happily content sitting up and playing all day. He can almost crawl, he gets up on all fours and then reaches and either flattens out or goes back to sitting up. I'm in no hurry to help the mobility as I know I will be chasing soon enough!

This is his new favorite thing to do, but it keeps him busy and happy and doesn't take me too long to reorganize ;)

He loves loves bread like his mama! As soon as he sees me getting a piece out of the bag, his hands and feet start rolling, it's so funny! He can eat a piece of bread in like 2 seconds! 

He also loves bananas, cheerios, blueberries, and watermelon!

He has a sister that is extra "helpful" and who loves to see him first thing in the morning!

He also loves to pile on people ;) He is still a good sleeper and always clapping. Anytime you say YAY!! He will clap. He learned to wave but it's mostly his hands rolling. He loves peekaboo and lots of the German songs his Oma and dad sing. He also loves balls but he always throws them back behind him instead of in front..we will have to work on that! He is always wanting to stand up and getting really good at balancing. He is growing and growing and we love him!

Dance 2014-2015

Ella has always loved to dance. She is a great little dancer and great at learning choreography. This year we moved from gymnastics to dance. The dance studio "Define Dance" recommended she start in ballet to get the basics and then move into other dance classes, so that is what we did. Well after a year, I have been very unimpressed with the studio and very disappointed with the money we spent as not a lot of skill was learned. I felt as though the studio was very unprofessional and to be honest I could have taught her everything they did in a couple months and I don't dance. So...we learned our lesson and won't be going back, but unfortunately it left Ella with a little less of a desire to pursue dance. Such a shame because she is naturally much more gifted than I. Hopefully we can get her into something a little more fast paced and with A LOT more teaching and training. Anyway, she had fun for the most part and here she is on her last week. 

Her dance class was called Twinkle Stars.

This is her friend Addy who she took the class with.

Her class only had 5 girls, which would have been an ideal setting to really teach them more individually, but instead I'm afraid they kindof just brushed off the class....

Last day of dance class. They wore their costumes to prepare for the recital.

The difference of a real camera and not a phone ;) This is the night of the performance. May 30, 2015. Her dance was called "Magical Fairies". It was pouring rain and thundering and lightening as it has been for several weeks with the flooding that occurred, but we got in without getting too wet!

I had to buy some lipstick for her to wear..since of course I don't wear any!

 It was a very pretty dress.

 Waiting to backstage to perform!

Here she is....I was wrestling Deacon in the back so I didn't use my good camera...she is second from left! 

We love her and are proud of her and who she is becoming!