Ella was "helping" Cousin Brady bounce in his jumperoo.  I think we may need to have Brady checked for shaken baby syndrome after all her "helping"!  Oh Ella, how you don't realize that Brady is growing much faster than you and will be much bigger than you very soon - we hope you are prepared when he plots his revenge!

Nana with her grandkids! Carson was helping measure Ella and Brady's feet - Brady won! His feet are bigger and at 4 1/2 months Brady outweighs his 13 1/2 month old cousin Ella! Ella is so lucky to have her big protective cousins Carson and Brady around!

 Cousin Carson giving Ella a ride on his tractor! He is an excellent driver! He created a dirt pile to drive through to make things a bit more interesting - that a boy!

Aunt Megan and Ella running through the sprinkler!

Bob, Ella, Aunt Megan and Cousin Carson playing in the pool!  These are defiantly four Swanson's!

Gimme 5! 

Ella getting a helping hand from Papa at Uncle Ben and Aunt Megan's house over Memorial Day weekend.

Ella and Bienna watching Baby Einstein on a Saturday morning. 

(Well actually Bienna is just waiting for Ella to drop some Cherrios!  Following Ella around when she has snacks has become Bienna's new favorite hobby.  It works for us, it keeps the floors clean!)

I love my trike! This was my birthday gift from Mommy and Daddy!  I rode it to Dairy Queen the other night to get an ice cream cone.  It was lots of fun, I screamed and giggled the whole way!

Ella enjoying the summer weather in her new pool! 

Are you trying to surf? 

And of course showing off her bikini body! 

Lookin' good baby doll!

Cousin Fun!

Last Sunday we went over to Uncle Matt and Jenny's house for a BBQ.  We had a lot of yummy food, as Matt is the grill master and Jenny made a ton of delicious extras!  Ella loved playing outside with her cousins Ethan and Emma, and even Boomer their dog.  We all had a great time jumping on the trampoline and playing baseball.  Finally summer is here - Yea!!! 

Mother's Day!

Bob and Ella made me a flower pot for Mother's Day!  Maybe I have been putting to many flower headbands on Ella lately, because she apparently thought she needed to be planted in the pot!  She had a great time rocking it back and forth trying to knock it over while she was in it!  It was a great Mother's Day, Ella was her usual entertaining self which kept us laughing all day!  G'pa and G'ma Swanson came to town and we had a nice lunch with them.  We hope all the moms we know had a wonderful Mother's Day!  And thank you for another perfect Mother's Day Ella Mazzy, your Mommy loves you!

It's Circus Time!!!

Ever the perfectionist - Ella helping cousin Ethan get the black lipstick off of his teeth!  She seems to have a tooth infatuation - hopefully that will continue and she will become a dentist like her aunt Megan!  

Ethan, Emma and Ella at the circus.

Cute Kids!!!  Emma and Ethan with their painted faces at the circus.  I had to post this picture due to Emma's "innocent" face!  Don't let her fool ya - she's a wild child!  That's why we love her!  Her main hobby these days seems to be seeing how many outfit changes she can go through in a day!

Emma having her makeup applied at the circus.  It's good practice for the many hours in her lifetime that she will be sitting in the make up chair as the next big supermodel! 

(Of course, she will be paving the way for petite  supermodels - no 6' ladies in this family!)   

Bob, Ella, Ethan and I at the circus.

Whoa Ella you are getting heavy!!! 

Cousin Ethan realized the best way to keep track of Ella

now that she is walking, is to hold her! 

It's a losing battle buddy! 

We had a weekend of family fun!  Saturday morning we kicked of garage sale season!  Mommy and Ella are big fans - we had to get our fix!  We hit up Waukee since they were having their city wide sale.  Daddy is not so much of a fan, but he sure does make a good chaffer for us!  Thanks daddy, we love you!!!  Ella scored big!  After we filled the trunk with new clothes for her, we headed to cousin Ethan's soccer game!  Ethan is loving soccer, he improves every week.  Last week he scored 2 goals!  In the afternoon we all went to the circus!  What a great time!  I think the bears were our favorite!  Ethan and Emma had their faces painted, and Emma went down the big inflatable slide.  Ethan opted out of riding the elephants this year - it's probably just "kid stuff" anyway!  ;)  We finished off the day by going to a fish fry at our friends Greg and Katie Dryers house that evening.  Needless to say on Sunday, we all slept in and hung out in our jammies all day!