Self Portrait Tuesday

I ain't got nobody to dress up fer, so I ain't dressin up no how!

Family portrait

Thanks again to Jon Willey. Here is our family at the Seal Beach pier.

Invalid

So I'm an invalid who's feeling a little invalid right now. I sprained my ankle badly playing my first game of soccer with the league I just joined. I bit it in the first quarter of play and then we lost 10-0. Ouch. It was not fun, and now I can't really keep up with Ella around the house, and I'm having trouble doing housework while I keep my foot up and try to ice it as much as possible. :-(. Poor me. Erin said that God is punishing for skipping out on the service Sunday to play "a game". I did go to Sunday school though.

I have to wear this friggin' huge moonboot thing around.
The second picture looks a lot better than my ankle looked at first, it looked like I had a cantelope in my sock. Yes I'm a big baby.

Otro novio

Ella has a lot of boys in her life. This one is her godparents' youngest, Isaac. He has a lot of charisma and Ella likes following him around. Its really cute to watch him hug her or guide her around. I think he might be out of her league though, a bit too cool. He also likes to run around in his underwear, we're not sure what we think about that.

Help wanted

Ella picked up a napkin the other day and started cleaning the floor, the back window and some of the cabinets. I think she's giving me a hint.

Outside

We love the outdoors and apparently Ella does too. She sometimes sits in front of the doors in the back and talks to the birds, other critters, and the trees. She cries whenever the front door closes. The other day we were watching her sitting in the middle of the backyard just talking to the sky or something. She didn't even notice us.

We love So Cal! (and the Combs)

The weather has been great here. We went to Manhattan Beach with the Combs the other day. It was gorgeous. Ella and Eden really enjoyed the aquarium at the end of the pier, we walked around, and soaked in the sun on a sunday afternoon. The Combs were our introduction to Compton. They found us our first apartment, and have always been there to talk to about Inner city ministry and whatever else. They work for Campus Crusade's Here's Life Inner City and used to be under Dan Pryor, (and they need support if anyone has a burden for supporting Inner city ministry!). They have adopted 2 adorable girls Eden and Kaylin and are just a very encouraging couple for us here in Compton (they're one of the 8 white families that live here).

We went out to Pechangas afterward to eat. Ella LOVED playing with Kaylin.
Here she is playing peek-a-boo.

Ejumacated

Ella came walking in to our room with a pen and a pad of paper, industriously writing, holding the pen correctly. I had to take a picture, she just looked very studious and was concentrating so seriously on the pad and pen. Don't ask me where she got them. I didn't teach her this either (maybe I should start teaching her more, imagine what we could do?)

shocked and slightly embarrased

So... I'm home with the baby now. Sometimes I need to use the facilities but don't want to close the door and lose track of where she is and what she's doing. So... just the other day she walked in on me grabbed the air freshener, tried to press the button down, and, swear to jupiter, she made a "shhh-shhh" sound. I didn't think I smelt that bad. We definitely didn't show her how to use the thing either.

August 4, Anniversary

Anniversaries are a great excuse to get out and live large for a little while. We went to the Pierpont Inn in Ventura, ate at Erik Erikson's on the pier, watched the fireworks from the Ventura Fair, and left Ella with my family. It was great. This is the suite we had, probably the 'suitest' room we've ever stayed in. Beautiful. We could see the ocean from every window.

Grammie and Grampie Greats'

We had a fun visit with Grammie and Grampie Great when we went to Ventura for our honey moon. Grammie had a temporary walker thing that Ella liked pushing. We also had our first pretend tea.

The Willeys

We had a great visit from our Phoenix friends Jon and Jamie Willey (they went to Taylor and Jamie roomed together with Erin) There are some great pics at http://www.jonwilley.com/family/latrip/

1st Birthday!!

So, Ella had her first birthday. Family and friends made it a lot of fun. This picture is at my Uncle Eric and Aunt Sallys' house in Chino Hills, it was really nice.

Grammie made a gorgeous cake and it tasted good too, once we finally got the guts to cut into it.


And the quintessential, ubiquitous and mandatory cake-on-the-face shots.

Leah, Selah, and Tikvah

We had a great visit from Leah Cohen, Erin's roommate from college, and her two darling little girls. Ella loved playing with the girls, and we loved seeing them play. We also really enjoyed talking with Leah, and just hanging out.