Ella the Little Ballerina, Or Not.

Ella wanted to take some ballet classes, so we got her signed up for tap and ballet. I think I may have been more excited than she was about this. I couldn't get over how cute she looked in her little outfit. At the end of the 10 classes, us parents got to come in and all the girls got to show us what they had learned. I came armed with the camera and video camera and annoyed everyone with all of my picture taking. I loved it. Ella on the other hand had had enough after about the first 4-5 classes. She said it was too boring. So maybe dance isn't going to be her thing. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

Ella and her teacher Ms. Nelly.

Halloween

Halloween was a blast this year. Since we live in the home of the KY Derby, I thought it would only be appropriate for Ella to be a horse jockey. I may be biased, but I believe she is the cutest little horse jockey I have every seen. Cutest! We were able to go to the biggest halloween party at our local zoo. I was nervous that nobody would be able to tell what she was. But throughout the night, I heard people say, "Oh look. What is she? Oh, she's a horse jockey!" Brad said every time I heard someone say what she was my smile would get bigger and bigger! Below is Ella with a couple of her best friends from Toy Story, Buzz and Stinky Pete.

We also made our annual visit to Hillcrest, a street here in KY where all of the houses go all out with there halloween decor. People from all around town come and walk up and down the street. I've never seen anything like this place!

Ella was so brave!

He Looks Good in White

At the beginning of every school year, the dental school has a White Coat Ceremony, where they present the dental/dental hygiene students with their white coats. I was so excited that it was finally Brad's turn!

It's held at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It really is a beautiful campus.

All the students marching in.

I fed Ella Starbursts the whole time to keep her occupied.

Brad getting his white coat!

Brad with Dean Sauk. The whole time I was taking pictures Ella was yelling, "Hi dad! Hi daddy! Hi!"

Snuck in a quick pic of Ella and Brad before he had to go sit back down.

Handsome boy!

These are all of the LDS students in Brad's class. There are 120 students in his class and 21 of them are LDS. Go class of 2014!

All the students that have kids. It will be fun to take a picture at graduation and see how this has changed!

All the wives in our hubby's coats!

The whole fam. Isn't my mom's face priceless???

Our little family. I sure am proud of Brad! I know it's going to be a long hard 4 yrs, but if anyone can do it and do it well, I know Brad can!

Vacation in our own City

We love it when family comes to town because we get to do all of the tourist-y things and it always feels like we are on a vacation in our own city. So, when my mom, dad, sister and brother came to visit we were off to hit all the major sites.

First stop: Churchill Downs

We didn't realize that there weren't any live races going on that day, but you can't come to Louisville and not go to see Churchill Downs so we went anyway to show that fam the track.

This picture cracks me up. Erik and Ella re-inacting the Barbaro statue.

Next stop: The Louisville Slugger Bat Museum.

Me taking a picture of Lyndsie taking a picture of my family. For those of you who have been to the museum know how hard it is to get a picture that contains most of the bat in it. It stands 120 ft in height and is 9 ft in diameter!

Erik holding the Micky Mantle bat.

Erik and my Dad with Barry Bonds.

Ella and auntie Lyndsie.

Stop three: The Kentucky State Fair

We've lived in KY for 3 years now and have never gone to the KSF. We hear all about it, but have never made it down. We decided that this would be the year! I was hoping to give my family a good taste of what KY is really like; you know mullets, missing teeth, that sort of thing but people there were surprisingly normal and it was a little disappointing but fun none the less.

I wish that I could have taken this home with me. Isn't it cute? Notice the sign!

I know you are probably wondering what this is. Well my friends, it is a deep fried snickers. Yes, that's right. Here in KY you can get a deep fried snickers. We had to try it.

Erik getting ready to take a bite. It wasn't half bad, but I prefer a regular Snickers!

The best part of the day, the free MC Hammer concert. The man has some serious dance moves. I was so impressed. I couldn't understand a word he was saying, but my goal in life now is to become an MC Hammer back-up dancer. They were so good. It was truly entertaining! That night we came home and started practicing our dance moves in the kitchen.

Brad, Lyndsie, Erik and half of me before the concert got started.

We Heart Summer

We have sure been enjoying our summer, hence the lack of posts. But I have tons of pictures and thought I'd just give a snapshot of what's been going on.

We bought a house!

Hans (previous home owner), Brad and I right after signing on our home :)

We planted a garden...

....It died shortly after.

We had our first BBQ with a few friends!

We went fishing.

We went swimming.

We built a swing for Ella in our backyard.

We enjoyed spending time with this little lady.

We cheered Brad's softball team on to win the Championship! Go LDS! (They played in a church league--they even prayed before every game! haha )

Ella learned to ride a bike.

We made friends with a turtle we found wandering our street.

We spent more time swimming.

We celebrated having the greatest Dad by giving him a book we made for Father's Day.

Enjoyed more time with our little sweetie pie.

We picked fruit at Huber Farms.

Did some more fishing.

We acted a little silly.

Went swimming again!

Ella started Ballet and Tap class. She is the smallest, cutest little girl I've ever seen in a tutu. (She's second from the left).

And after all of that fun, this is what we all felt like!