Grace Elizabeth is Here!!!

Grace Elizabeth Grahl made her grand entrance into this world five days early and after only around five hours of labor. She is 7 lbs. 9 ozs. and 21" long. We stayed in the hospital for only 24 hours since Momma and baby were doing well, and she is now home and happy.

Nonna and baby Grace . . .


Aunt Tracey and baby Grace . . .

Aunt Sandra, Grandma, Daddy, and baby . . .

The family :)

Aunt Sandra and baby

Coming home . . .

Ella is excited to have a baby sister. She likes to look at Grace and share her blankets, toys, and binkies with her. Mom and Dad just have to monitor the "sharing" :)

Daddy always gets all the attention . . .

Sweet baby Grace . . .

Asleep with Grandma . . .

Enjoying a good book with Aunt Sandra . . .

Mother's Day Weekend 2010

For Mother's Day weekend, we spent some time in the City but made Half Moon Bay our home base. The weather was great, and we had a lot of fun with Ella.

Here is Ella with Mommy in front of the Rodin "Thinker" outside the Legion of Honor. We went there to see the Cartier exhibit. Ella did not enjoy the jewelry, so Mommy had to take the quickie tour and then entertain Ella (with Aunt Tracey) in the lesser used porcelain room down the hall.

This was about one year ago when we went to see the Tiffany/Faberge exhibit.

And here is this year! What a difference . . . more hair and less fat :)

We had to park way down the hill from the museum. This was on the walk back down to the van . . . the Golden Gate in the background looked much clearer in person.

We stopped on the way out of the City at the Beach Chalet for lunch. Ella decided to practice feeding herself.

Our table with a view . . .

This is Saturday at the California Academy of Sciences. What an amazing remodel! When we were kids, this was our favorite place to go, besides the SF Zoo. This is a picture of the aquarium on the main level. Behind us, the tanks you look down into are actually the tops of the tanks for the aquarium which is really on the lower level. We are looking into the stingray exhibit here.

And here is the famous alligator pit we always remembered from our childhood. The difference is that today they only have the albino alligator because the other alligators used to pick on him. Ella was being very squirmy which made Daddy nervous.

Ella points out a fish for us to see . . .

The penguins were great fun for Ella to watch as they went racing by the window . . .

At the gift store Ella was not so sure about the alligator head snapping toy . . .

Ella and Mommy check out the fish in the big tank . . .

All the ladies on the roof of the museum . . . that's the De Young in the background.

On Sunday we decided to drive south and have a picnic on the beach . . .

Wake up Daddy!!!

Ella got really excited about throwing sand in the air . . . her scalp was covered!

And new baby makes four!!

After lunch, we drove a little ways back north to Ana Nuevo--the state beach where the elephant seals come to rest and hide from the great white sharks. The walk is about a mile and a half one way, some of it through sand, so while Ella was having a great time because we let her walk a lot of it on her own, Mommy thought she might go into labor!

When we got to the beach, we were amazed at how close we could get to the seals! There were rangers there to make sure no one disturbed the animals.

Kurt estimated there were about 250 at least . . .

Ella Update

I can't believe it has been a month since I last posted pictures of Ella. I guess we didn't do anything interesting in April, or I didn't take any pictures. I decided to post a few things.

First, I thought it would be fun to visit the past . . .

This is Ella at five months old . . . remember those cheeks? and the male pattern baldness!!

This is Ella at eight months old . . . still some cheeks and still pretty bald.

This is Ella at 17 months old . . . now she climbs into her saucer herself, but she still needs mom to get out :)


Here is Daddy jogging by the house with Ella in our new Ironman jogger.

We got the duo in anticipation of the new arrival . . . Mommy is going to need some down time!

Nonna and Mommy and Ella went to the Folsom Zoo last weekend. There is a mountain lion behind them!

There were peacocks everywhere . . . Ella did not like their loud cries.

Ella is laughing at some little kids playing with one of those boards where you stick your head through the hole and someone takes your picture. This was near the bear enclosure.

Ella took her turn posing as a bear.

Happy Easter!

On Saturday, we went to Aunt Nancy's house to have a family Easter dinner. No ham--we went south of the border with enchiladas and tamales. Ella had a blast playing in the backyard and getting all sorts of attention.

Here she is posing with the Wilder side of her family . . . maybe Ella should be a dentist when she grows up :) I think she's wondering what kind of family she was born into--the old ones are getting a little nutty!

Ella and Nonna share a laugh when the teeth come out . . .

After dinner, we put her in her Easter dress which is actually just a cute dress Nonna bought her months ago. It's still a little big for her, but she had great fun walking around the yard lifting her skirt--Mommy never puts her in dresses, so poor Ella does not know what to do with all those ruffles!

She did, however, know how to pose with the flowers . . .


Of course we played Baggo. Ella had fun wandering between the two sides and causing delays in the game.

This was Ella's reaction after Uncle Greg missed a throw that could have won he and Erin the game . . .

On Sunday morning, I put Ella in a hand-me-down dress from her cousin Vanessa for Easter services at church. After church we came home and Ella played a little in her dress. Here she is reading the new Mother Goose book Aunt Nancy bought her.


Here Ella is playing with her new Ball Popper . . .

And here, Ella is being naughty by getting up on the box that her little chair from Grandma Grahl came in--she is a little daredevil!!