We have 3 teenagers in our house now!
Although honestly it's felt like we've had that many for longer. Ella hasn't necessarily looked like a preteen for a while now.
Let's see what our sweet girl has been up to the last year!
On her actual birthday last year we were able to set up my old bed in her room. We had just torn down the clubhouse that was in her room the day before her birthday. It was so fun to see such a big transformation in such a short amount of time.
Ella use some of her KiwiCo paints and stencils to create her own project. We bought a package of these tote bags so she made one to hold her choir books. She still has I 4 more bags. I need to have her get them out and be creative!
It always seems like Logan is coming over around Ella's birthday and we love that!!!
She usually spends two nights with us and then goes to church with us on Sunday morning. I absolutely love how these girls have still maintained their relationship even though they are miles apart.
Ella was so excited to paint her room with Daddy!
About a month after starting her bedroom remodel it was officially finished!
Zeke was so happy to help get her room all ready for her. He did a really great job of helping me clean up my grandpa's old dresser that had been in basement for years.
One Wednesday when Ga-Ga & Pa were over for family night, Ella and I tried on my wedding dress. She almost fit into it perfectly. She just needs to grow a couple inches and fill out a bit on top! I am under not impression that she will actually wear my dress, but if she does that would be pretty awesome!
With Ella having a nice big bed Charlie decided that he loved to sleep on it. He hasn't been doing that a lot recently, but he does love to hide and sleep under it sometimes.
Working on another KiwiCo crate with my girly! She really really liked the crates she was getting in the beginning, but the more recent ones haven't interested her as much. Most of the time she does end up enjoying them, but I usually have to encourage her to actually do them.
Ella had been getting a lot of headaches so I thought she might need reading glasses. Her eyes aren't that bad at all, but she does have a slight prescription. I usually have her wear them when she's reading a chapter book, but not for normal everyday reading. She looks adorable in glasses!
Ella loves anytime she gets to spend with her amazing friends. I definitely think quality time is one of her love languages!
One last thing she needed to absolutely complete her bedroom remodel was closet doors. She wanted her doors stained, but had been painted and were not stain grade doors anyways. Also those bi-fold doors are horrible. They always come off the track and they pinch you if you're not careful. I ended up finding this barn door shower curtain and I cut it in half and sewed up the seams. It has worked perfectly and it's super cute...plus no more pinched fingers!
Ella's finished KiwiCo project. This one was definitely her favorite. She got to make two pots out of clay, paint them and then she learned how to do macramé. She kept one for her room and the one she's holding in this picture she gave to Logan!
Jack and Ella all ready in their choir uniforms for the spring concert! They both really enjoyed being in Cantate 1.
The Mother's Day tea at church was so much fun! I love that Ella is getting older and able to come and enjoy these types of women's events.
Loving on Charlie....he is honestly everyone's favorite furry family member!
Our church was asked to come and be a part of a school fair at a local elementary school that our church supports so Ella, Zeke and I volunteered to help out. It was fun getting to play games with the kids. I love having opportunities for the kids to get out and serve others and it's even more awesome that they actually want to do it.
For Jack and Zeke's birthday party we went to Tower Lanes in Tacoma. Ella loved carrying Aaron around on her back!
Plus even though it was her brothers' birthday's she still got to hang out with her friends! She had so much fun this is where she picked to celebrate her birthday this year...although she just wants it to be girls! :)
Since the Dial family has moved to Eastern Washington, we don't get to see them almost everyday like we used to. We miss them so much! It is so fun when they do come over and visit. On this particular day the girls did each other's make-up and dressed up in Ella's dresses.
Ella finished up 5th grade and ready for summer vacation!!!
First adventure was camping in Ephrata! We always have to go to DK's to eat and get ice cream. Her most favorite ice cream is cookie dough with extra cookie dough!
Our friend's the Oliver's came camping with us. Jonathen's son Jaxon was up from Texas. He's about the same age as Ella. They had fun playing together and it was definitely her first crush!
Ella loves to paint! One day she went to her friend Aidry's house and she painted this sign for Daddy! He loved it and has it right next to computer in our home office!
Ella is such a stinker sometimes because she will be completely adamant that she is not going to like something. She will dig her heels in and she's not moving one bit. Then later she finally gets bored or something and decides that she'll try it and then she ended up loving it. That is how it was with the bumper cars at Wild Waves. She such a silly girl! I'm so happy that she finally gave them a try and now she'll go on them over and over again!
She also went through a phase with this hat, sunglasses and same shirt!!!
One day while we were doing yardwork I asked Ella and Zeke to be responsible for cleaning out Penelope and getting her fit for use. They did such a thorough job and got her looking all pretty!
More KiwiCo projects...this time Ella was learning to make plaster pots. She got to make three of them. She then learned how to dip paint.
They came with these cute stickers that were the leaves. She folded them over a wire and then stuck them into the Styrofoam that was inside the pot. These are super cute!
Family bowling day!
More fun time with friends! 4th of July is our favorite!!!
Ella loves her Papa...she loved this picture so much she chose to have it on her debit card we got from Greenlight.
Enjoying Daddy's homemade Crème Brule. Ella Bean is amazing at trying new things. The latest thing she tried and absolutely loves is green olives! That's my girl!!!
Ella's friend Aidry loves to do hair so whenever she's over I know that the girls are going to ask to get out the flat iron!
She has a TON of hair so it's not a quick process! Her hair is long normally, but it's SO long when it's not curly! Personally I love her curly hair!
Aidry and Ella spent a lot of time with each other last summer. It was Aidry spending the night at our house and then Jared would come to pick her up and then Ella would ended up spending the night at Aidry's house. They have a shared passion for the outdoors, gymnastics and painting so they make a great pair!
They even worked with Aidry's cousins and had a Lemonade Stand which was honestly Ella's dream. I think each of the kids ended up making $20!
All the PACE's Ella completed in 5th grade. Girl is a hard worker!!!
The absolute best thing has been seeing her love of reading take off! It used to just be me and her brothers sitting around the house with our noses in our books, but now she's right there along with us!
Last summer Ella and Zeke got to go to Kid's Camp. It was the first time our church offered a summer camp for the younger kids. It was only 3 days which for your first camp is actually nice. It was also super close at Lake Retreat so if anything went wrong we could swing by and pick the kids up. Thankfully everything went great and the kids had a blast!
Sitting in the shade at Wild Waves waiting for the older boys to ride The Brain Drain. Aidry came with us twice to Wild Waves and her and Ella are such a cute pair. They both just love to hang out in the wave pool for hours. I actually think I talked Aidry's Dad into getting her a pass this year so she can come with use whenever she wants. I know Ella and her will have a blast!
Celebrating the Back To School Bash!
In the past we've always celebrated at Red Robin in Des Moines, but we've since visited the Red Robin in Federal Way and I doubt we'll ever go back to the Des Moines location. The Federal Way location is so bright and new, the employees are so happy to take care of you and everything is so prompt!
Moving on to 6th grade and yes she is unstoppable!!!
After school one day we went for a hike at Saltwater State Park, while taking a break Ella saw this carved into the bench. Why yes....Ella was here!
On the third day of school Ella gave us a big scare. You can read all about it here.
Sweet girl resting in the ER! She still had a horrible headache!
The next day feeling much better and she actually had an appetite!
Checked out of the hospital and happy to be going home!
Ella loves it whenever Papa & Miss Ruth come over because Miss Ruth will always sit and do her hair in all sorts of fun ways!
For Labor Day weekend, Ella and I headed over to spend sometime with Logan. We always go to Silverwood when we visit in the summer, so even though it was a holiday weekend we braved the craziness!
While we were there Ella's strap to her swimsuit broke, but thankfully Logan's grandma had a safety pin.
While we were there the girls wanted to bake cookies so of course they had to look the part!
Papa drove me and Michael to the airport when we went to Maui. Jack and Ella were the two kiddos that wanted to come with him to see us off.
We took one last camping trip at the end of September to Seaquest State Park. It was such a nice place to relax and have fun with the kids right after be away from them in Maui.
The weather was perfect while we were there!
After Ella's seizure scare her Neurologist wanted to dot all the i's and cross all the t's in regards to her health. He ended up ordering a 48 hr EKG for her. Thankfully she didn't have to stay in the hospital the whole time. We went in on the morning of October 4th and she got all the leads put on her head.
The guy who put the leads on was the same guy that put the leads on for her 1 hr EKG she had the hospital in August. He was super nice!
She got sent home with her head covered and the power pack in her small backpack.
The next day we had to come back so they could fix any of the leads that came off during the night.
The room was freezing so I got Ella a blanket even though she insisted that she was FINE!!!
The next day we headed back and took the leads out. As you can imagine her hair was a disaster after all that!
Thankfully the results came back and showed that she had no seizure like episodes at all!
Pumpkin Time!
So focused on her creation!
She made it where her pumpkin was winking! ;)
Charlie absolutely goes crazy for treats and we all love to be the one to give him his treats. Ella loves to hold them so Charlie will eat them out of her hands. Sometimes he gets excited thought and bites her finger!
Working the Axe throwing game with Daddy at our church's Fall Festival. Well....at least that was the plan, but then Daddy had to go and cook 500 hot dogs so this sweet girl manned this game basically by herself! I was so proud of her! She was exhausted afterwards though!
All the major holidays are always spent with the Kuch Family! Christina and I were saying just the other day that there needs to be another major holiday between New Years and Easter! Life is just crazy busy and we need to have that excuse to slow down and make time to get together. These girls do get to see each other every Friday at choir, but they are working and so it's not the same as getting to hang out and visit!
I'm thinking this might be the last time she dresses up as an 80's girl....who knows though!
Logan ended up having surgery early in November and was staying at DoubleTree Hotel in Seatac. Ella and I came to visit her right before they headed home. It was a short visit, but so nice to see her and give her a hug!
Ella's birthday party this year isn't actually happening until March 4th. I thought about asking Jen if Logan would be able to make it, but that's a long way just for a party. A few days after that thought, Jen texted me and said that Logan's going to be in town that weekend since she has a doctor appt on Friday. It couldn't have worked out better. Now Logan is going to spend the night and get to come to the party. I love how God doesn't just give us our needs, he also gives us our wants sometimes too....even the ones we honestly didn't ask for!
Picture evidence that the two middle children can actually get along!
On our way to Thanksgiving in Oregon, we stopped The Country Cousin for breakfast and Ella got the cinnamon roll. She knew it was going to be big, but not that big!!! We ended packing up what she didn't eat and Jack ate it in the van later on our way home.
Logan ended up coming out again in December and she just happened to come on a super busy weekend. She got to go with us to the Women's Christmas Dinner, the Living Nativity in Gig Harbor and to church the next day. It was so much fun! Jen and Richard weren't sure if she should stay with us since we were so busy, but it wasn't a big deal at all. She was just another one of our kiddos for 3 1/2 years when I was her nanny so it was just like that again for the weekend. It was amazing and we loved it!
All the kids are in Tae Kwon Do and for the month of December we didn't have class...which is amazing for us parents. We did have a fun gift exchange though and I have never had so much fun at a gift exchange before. We were laughing our heads off. The best part was everyone in our family ended up going home with the gift they wanted!
Ella picked snowman paper this year for all her gifts!
The homeschool choir we are a part of has two semesters a year. They have a performance near Easter and then another one near Christmas. Last year the kids had blue shirts, but I love the red shirts even more!
This time around due to space they decided to have performances on 2 nights. Ernie and Katie are from our church and they are like an extra set of grandparents for my kids. They ended up attending the performance with me on Thursday night. The rest of our family came to support Ella on Friday night. I honestly need to get better at taking more pictures. It's always so crazy after the performance though!
Christmas Crafting with the Storer Family. I love this tradition with them...even if it the kids aren't as thrilled to do the craft as they used to be.
My Christmas Babies aren't babies anymore!!!
This year we did Christmas differently since we were going to a cabin. (I will be blogging more about that at a later date) Each person got 2 gifts. One from me and Daddy and one from their sibling.
Ella really wanted a Holiday Barbie. Thankfully she was in luck and Jack and I were able to snag the last one they had at Wal-Mart.
The kids also had some fun stuff in their stockings. For Ella's gift from me and Daddy she got the Polaroid camera she'd been wanting for years. We gave her some film with the gift, but I wasn't sure that she had enough so I bought more and put it in her stocking.
Speaking of the cabin.....it was everything we hoped it would be and honestly a flawless trip! These kids made so many wonderful memories which was the whole point of the trip. It was absolutely worth the high price tag!
Ella, Anna & Addison all shared a room. Anna & Addison shared the queen bed and then we moved the futon mattress into this little nook area...which fit the mattress perfectly and that's where Ella slept!
We had our second Christmas at the cabin on the 27th and of course Ga-Ga spoiled the kids and got them all sorts of unhealthy yummies that they love!
Miss Ruth got the girls these super cute clips so she was busy doing all the girls hair one day.
Eating at the bar was something that had to be rotated between the girls and the boys so everyone could enjoy it!
On January 14th we bought a new van. We didn't pick it up until after dark so we didn't try to figure everything out that day. The next day was Owen's 16th birthday so we didn't want to take time away from celebrating him. On Monday, MLK day, we spent a bunch of time sitting in the van figuring out all the bells and whistles. Ella and Zeke came out to join us so we told them they could watch a movie in the van if they wanted to.
On January 20th the youth group headed out to Leavenworth for winter camp. At first Ella was not going to go at all. Nope! Then she found out the cabin they were staying in had a pool table and she totally changed her mind! She is quite a pool shark and she was looking forward to stomping all the boys. In fact she did beat all the boys she played except one of the youth leaders. She is actually the only girl at our church's youth group. Thankfully there is a women youth leader so that's nice. She is totally fine being the only girl though...with 3 brothers she's used to being around all boys!
Ella decided that she really wanted to have a bookshelf in her room so she asked Daddy if she could help him build one. It was so sweet! They both worked on it together and the best part was it was made using scraps that we had lying around in the garage. The only thing they had to buy was the stain. It turned out so nice and Ella decorated it so well!
Ella's latest KiwiCo crate was to make a basket weave lantern. It turned out so cute!
For her birthday present from me and Daddy, I took Ella out on a shopping date. Our first stop was Value Village. She was looking for flannel shirts....she's in love with flannels right now. She ended up finding 3 different ones. She got a black jean skirt, but we're going to take that back. I miss the days when Value Village had dressing rooms! She also got a cute pair of earrings and a picture frame for her room. After that we went to Wal-Mart in search of a watch and some boots, but unfortunately boot season is on the way out so there weren't any there. She also didn't like any of the watches either. We went to Target where they had some boots, but not any she liked. After that we went to Famous Footwear where Ella proclaimed....Why didn't we just come here first! She found a pair she liked a lot, but I was only spending $60 on her so she had to fork over $14 of her own money. She actually got to use her debit card for the first time so that was pretty awesome! After that we went to Claire's in search of a watch but they didn't have one she liked. Our last stop was at Starbucks to get a couple Pink Drinks. On our way home she said she had a great time. That was what I was shooting for...having a good time with my girl!!!! We are both so similar that we sometimes get on each others nerves so this was exactly what I was hoping it would be. Here's to more shopping trips with my sweet girly!
Ella Grace you are officially a teenager now! That is just nuts to me!
I was just looking at my memories on Facebook and seeing what I was doing this time 13 years ago. The day before your birthday, I met with my friend Lori at a coffee shop and Daddy took the boys to the zoo since he was still unemployed. I was really wanting you to stay put until February 25th, but at the same time I wasn't sure how I was going to make it 10 more days! I was HUGE and super uncomfortable! I'm so glad that I didn't have to wait and you decided to come on Peepaw's birthday! I love that we celebrate your birthday and that it reminds us of him as well. You were such a chunk too....almost 9lbs! There was no way I was going to make it to February 25th!!!
Ella you are such a fun, sweet and caring girl! Everyone and I do mean everyone loves you! You light up a room and bring joy wherever you go! You can be shy and unsure about yourself in new settings, but once you get comfy you are off and on your own! You are quite an independent girl. You love to learn new things and get excited when you can do something without needing any help. You are the hardest worker I know. You are so determined and even if you do struggle you just keep on trekking. You honestly inspire me with your attitude and your will to never give up. Things don't always come easily for you, but you don't let that be an excuse to not try or give up. I'm so proud of you sweet girl! Keep showing up, keep putting in the work and you will succeed!
You are almost as tall as me, but not quite and that really bothers you. Years ago your doctor estimated that you'd be 5'5" tall...which is taller than me and you took that as a promise. You wear a size 8 - 8 1/2 shoe, but you seem to have stalled in your height. I'm sure you will still grow a bit so I'm not worried at all. I'm sure I'll hold the title of shortest Martin family member soon! :)
Ella Grace, my beautiful girl...
I'm so happy that we had a nice time celebrating your birthday. I hope that we have many more mommy / daughter shopping days like that in the future. You are just my favorite girl EVER!!! You might not be the most affectionate kiddo, but that's not going to stop me from loving on you girly! God gave me you and you me and He knows what he's doing! God has great things in store for you and I pray that as you grow in your faith, you will listen to His voice and His leading for your life.
I love you my precious girl!
Happy 13th Birthday Ella Bean!
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