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Ella times...



Adventures in dirt! We were outside playing the other day and Ella decided dirt was the best toy ever and that it would make a nice facial powder as well...and she just couldn't stop there...she had to sample the flavor of the dirt as well. Just getting her daily minerals!



She got embarrassed when i wanted to take pictures of her messy face...you wouldn't think that would be possible for the most un-inhibited kid in the world!



More messy faces. Ella was an amazing helper while i made brownies a few days ago.



Gotta get every last morsel of brownie batter off that spatula.



Proud to be a mess-maker!



Not sure what this face was about...I told her i wanted to take a picture of her and this was the face she pulled. Gotta love our animated Ella.

Jack times... quite content to be held as much as possible.



Most kissable chubby cheeks ever!





Smiling at Daddy.



Look at those back rolls!



My sweet little buddy.

Ode to My Kids

Ella Marie Henkel
2 years old
3 ft. 1 in. tall (99th percentile)
26.6 lbs (50th percentile)


This picture to me characterizes how Ella experiences most of life! About 95% of the time she is the most positive, happy, colorful, outgoing little girl you'll ever meet. I am always reminded of how great the little things are when I watch Ella experience them. For example the simplest thing such as a rock can be so entertaining and fun to her. The other day I bought some Teddy Grahams which I thought would be a fun snack for Ella to try...but on the other hand she was so excited that they were little bears that she would not eat them...instead she made them into her little buddies and carried them around with her everywhere she went occasionally giving them kisses. When I watch her enjoy the little things it helps me to remember to be thankful for them as well.



Jackson Louis Henkel
At 3 mo. & 13 days old
24.5in long (89th percentile)
16 lbs 13oz (97th percentile)

Our little Jackson is such a funny little guy. He smiles incessantly and you just can't help smiling back at him when he does. He's quite a little chunk as well. I love it, though my back and arms don't...i gotta be building some muscle from this little bruiser. He's so cute how he constantly watches Ella and what she is doing. I think they will end up being great friends some day. She is already trying to give him her toys to play with...that might be just due to the fact that she knows he won't actually take them so he's easy to share with ;).He's also quite strong. He loves to sit up or try to pull himself to standing in your lap when your holding his hands. Chad got him to laugh out loud the other day while he was tickling him and it was so darn cute (i'm attaching the video of him doing it). He is such a sweet little boy. I love the way he looks at me with such love and trust it just warms my heart. My kids have been such an amazing blessing to me and teach me so much daily. Though sometimes i would like to ship them off to Timbuktu in all reality i wouldn't have them any other way!





Gotta love my sweet hearts!



As I said always smiling at his big sis!

"Tenacious" Twos

On April 10th was Ella's 2 year old Birthday! We had so much fun throwing her a little party and watching her play with her little friends! It was so crazy to be celebrating two whole years of having her in our family...it goes so fast! Ella is such a sweet little girl with such a loving and friendly free-spirit. Everyday she cracks me up with the new things she learns and says. For example if i say "oh I'm so tired." She will say "I tired too Mama." To give an example of her "friendliness" no matter where we go she has absolutely no inhibitions or shyness. She will walk right up to a stranger and have them hold her...especially if they have candy. Chad said it best when he said that she would be the happiest kidnapped child in the world! The night of her birthday it was a bit too cold to go to the park so we took her to the Play Zone at Arctic Circle where a little boy was there playing too and Ella walked right up to him and tried to give him a hug but he in turn tried to run away but our "tenacious" little girl just kept on trying while running after him! She is already a big flirt! She also is a great big sister, whenever Jack is crying she will go up to him and say, " Shhh Jacky it's ok, be happy." She loves going up to him and giving him hugs and saying, "Jacky's my buddy." Our little girl is just amazing and we're so thankful to have her in our family.



The first thing we did for her little party was go outside and play with bubbles, cause who doesn't love bubbles!







Chilling just watching bubbles fly by.







Our happy little girl getting ready for her , "Happy day, Party!" as she called it.



Ella's little friend Ryan Elmer came over for the party and Ella loved having her there.



The next thing we did for the party was an Easter egg hunt!



Ella's other little friend Ashley Anderson came over too and got to participate in the egg hunt. It was so cute to see them scurrying around to get all the eggs. Ella became a little horder as you can see her pile of eggs on the couch! She was all about dumping all of her candy in a big pile on the couch and shoving as many gummy bears as she could into her mouth.



Ryan devouring her spoils with her dad Will.



My dad was down to pick my sister Mallorie up so that she could go home from college for the summer and he was able to stay for the party. Thanks again Dad!



After wards, we had some cake and ice cream and watched the girls get nice and messy!



Ashley looked so dainty eating her cupcake.



And Ella just liked picking off all the frosting!



Jack was having a great old time being held by Nicole Elmer who's soon to be having her own little boy at the end of May.



Here's our little girls colluding together .



Then Ella got to open some presents which by the way she could have been completely happy with just one. After she opened the first one she was done, she ran off to go play with it and could have cared less about the other presents she had. So we ended up opening them over a period of a few days which kept her birthday going for awhile!



After all the birthday hoopla Jackson was out cold!

Jackson's Blessing

Last Sunday we blessed Jackson at our house. We had to have it at our house due to how late our sacrament meeting is so that my dad could make it. (He flies out to Lewiston, ID every Sunday for work on Monday and Tuesday and there's only one flight which he would have missed if we would have waited till our Sacrament meeting at 3:00!). Though we would have liked to have it at church so that we could have invited more people it all worked out well in the end. It was a little crazy all packed into our small living room but it was a really nice experience and little Jack was perfectly quiet the entire blessing. At the end of the blessing all the men moved their hands to step away and I guess Chad didn't have too great of a hold on him so Jackson came a bit close to taking a tumble but Daddy saved the day. :)



Our first family pic where everyone is at least looking in the same direction and mostly smiling...



Three generations of Henkel men.



Everyone agrees that Jackson got the "Lamb eyes"(my side of the family has those squinty smile eyes) Plus everyone says that Jackson pretty much is a little spitting image of my Dad. So my dad was trying to do Jackson's big smile face to show you how similar they look.



Jack didn't quite cooperate by doing his usual huge smile but as you can see from the pic above that Jack is a little Bryan. The grandpa's are definitely excited to have a little grandson now!



The proud Grandmas holding the little bud!



I had to show this picture because if you look close you will see that some people didn't quite get the memo that this pic was supposed to be a "normal" photo.



That same person didn't quite get the memo that this picture is a "funny" picture...



In the end we were able to get everyone on the same page!



The Lamb family minus Tyler.



The Henkel side of the family.



The Lamb side.



Our little family (Ella was having a tough time wanting to take any pictures that morning so pretty much every picture she is crying, squirming,or looking the other direction and Jack on the other hand was plum tuckered out after all the commotion over him!)



Henkel kids.



Lamb kids.



The Barnums (Diana, Jason and Macazlyn)



Mom and Dad Lamb



Mom and Dad Henkel. (check out Gigi's amazingly blue eyes!)



Some friends in our ward that were able to come to the blessing.



All the cousins...as you can see Ella was NOT having picture time!



After the blessing we had fruit crepes and we tried to take a picture of Ella's berry stained face but she was not interested.



This was her I'm going to rough you up if you take one more picture of me face!



And we can't forget another exciting celebration of that weekend was my little brother Cody's 13th birthday!



We love you Cody! Thanks for coming down even on your birthday and when you weren't feeling well!