Life is crazy!

We moved on the 30^th and everything went great. Thank you to the grandparents for watching Ella. Currently we still have a lot of unpacking to do…. As you can imagine and 1 year old does not give you time to do that! ;) Friday August 5^th we celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. We spent the weekend in Seattle with Cody’s Mom, stepdad Larry, Cody’s sister Kendall and her new fiancé Garland…. Yes that is right Garland purposed to Kendall Friday night in Seattle!! What a fun night!! We are so excited for them :) It was a very nice long weekend of celebrating, shopping and relaxing.

Also new…. Due to unforeseen circumstances we had only last week to find Ella a new daycare. Luckily we had some references for other places with openings. It was a very unexpected and stressful week. So Ella started her new daycare in Albany today and we are really excited for her new learning possibilities and for making new friends :)

Cody and my Dad leave tomorrow for Alaska to go fishing with my Uncle Steve that lives in Anchorage. They won’t be back until next Monday afternoon. They will be bringing home some yummy Salmon & Halibut!

I am finally getting around to Ella’s birthday thank you’s… thank you for your patience. I am not used to be so unorganized! :( So  as you can tell our lives are a little hectic at the moment. Just wanted to keep you all updated :)

Ella's 1st Birthday Party! (PICTURES)

Happy Birthday Ella!

Ella turned one yesterday! We feel so blessed to have a happy healthy little girl. 

She brings us so much joy everyday :) 

We look forward to celebrating with our friends and family on Sunday!

Big Announcements

First of all we are buying a house in Salem! We will be closing on our 1920 downtown Salem Bungalow July 22^nd and moving in July 30^th. (We will send an e-mail out with our new address once we move) We are so excited to pay a mortgage and not rent in Salem! The home has the original hardwood floors, original built-ins as well as a quirky little hallways and so on. It’s on a fifth of an acre so we’ll have lots of yard work. The house is very structurally strong but does need some cosmetic fixes aka great weekend projects! It’s 1200 square feet, 2 bedrooms with 1 bathroom. We still have our townhouse in Portland, with renters in it. We are hoping the economy will get a little better so we can sell that in the near future. Here are some of the pictures from the listing:

Kitchen

Living Room

Dinning Room

Big back yard

The second announcement is about my work. The CEO notified me that I have been elected the Secretary of the Board of Directors for my Credit Union (Valley Credit Union). This is the first time an employee has been on the board. It is a big honor and comes with big responsibility. We will have a monthly meeting and I will get a say in the direction of the credit union as well as take the meeting notes for the board. This is pretty huge considering I have only been here for just over 2 months. I am very excited for the experience!

Here are some pictures of Ella :) We cannot do a blog post without them!!

Who wants to play "BA"? (Ball)

Pointing at everything now..

First pigtails

Who wants to play "BA"?! (BALL)

The things that make Daddy laugh...

She is so close to learning to walk!