Yay, houseguests!

Matt (not pictured), Heidi and Ellery are here for the weekend! Hopefully it will stop raining for 5 minutes...

It's shaping up to be a banner week for Ellie

So far she's figured out forward motion (we'll call it crawling, though I think it will be a lot more polished by the weekend) and gotten started on solid foods.



Early reviews are in...

Bananas - "Awesome!"

Rice Cereal - "Seriously, are you people kidding me?"


Movies coming soon.*



*AKA when dad gets it together.

Why is that bird trying to wake Ellie up?

Even more Minnesota

Cousin Laura, exhausted from loving


Ellie's even more huggable in person!


Wait a minute, I used to live in one of these...


Midwest crazy factories, just as crazy

More Minnesota...

Kicking it with cousins...


Nice to make your acquaintance, Uncle Dick!


Cousin Jake, pre-Gophers


Grandma, Cousin Emily and Aunt Joni post-bath, pre-bed*


Cousin Zach and Dad's bald spot



*Ellie's, that is.

Traveling is fun...

But it's great to be back home!

Less sleepy

Much, much less sleepy

Sleepy

very, very sleepy...

Interesting fact...

A good baseball team is still fun to watch even if they play in a lousy ballpark.*

Twins win, despite seriously mediocre middle relief.



Another interesting fact, ballparks are too loud for babies.





*Especially if they play Hold Steady's "Massive Nights" during a pitching change.

Half a happy birthday

Ellie turned six months old today. Hard to believe it's already been half a year that our little lady's been here. It's been, by far, the best six months of our lives. She has changed so much since we first met her. And every single day she finds new ways to amaze us.

She's a sweet and wonderful girl and we feel so lucky to be with her. And she's very lucky to be loved by so many people.



We love you Eleanor!

Ellie in Minnesota

She did great on the plane and is being very sweet for all the family.

More to come...

Crazy Factories are made for sharing...

Ellie and Cameron demonstrate synchronized sweetness*






*Olympic Sport in 2012

Slack-jawed amazement

Yay, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Mark came to visit!

Now why don't they just come to live here?

Sigh...

Swimsuit Issue

Ellie shared my shock when she discovered that it was 82 degress INSIDE our house last night

She just sweated less.

Family dinner

*Mom took the picture

Good morning, ladies

What a great reason to get up every day!

Aunt Julie...

Back in Seattle and dropping some knowledge on Ellie.





*Special props to Great Aunt Judy for the Big Rex book. Big hit.

So many strange battery-powered noisemakers, so little time

The strange thing is that this is how I sleep too