Smiles, originally uploaded by markandmandy. Dad snapped this shot with my new iPhone – Elsie clearly approves!

Smiley sitter, originally uploaded by markandmandy. Grammie bought Elsie this outfit and it doesn’t have any pink on it (well it has some purplish flower centers).

Cricket has been extremely smitten with Elsie – she wants to sit on Elsie (hopefully not to steal her breath), lay with her or she even allows elsie to grab her hair. We have to keep a close eye on… Continue Reading →

Martha did a segment on tie dying with kids so I thought Elsie and I would take a stab at it on my last week of maternity leave (sad, sad, sad) … We purchased some white onesies and some rit… Continue Reading →

I hate going to the store … so I put it off as long as possible. With only one diaper left (after raiding my diaper bag stash) I desperately need to get to the store. I came out to my… Continue Reading →

On Friday the Johnston/Olbrys crew arrived after three days of road tripping. They arrived in great spirits ready to meet miss Elsie Lane Elsie is wearing her Trumpettes – from Chris and Saira – they are too cute! We had… Continue Reading →

Mark has been taking Lola to agility class and while Grammie was here we took her up to show off Lola’s progress. Uncle Josh came along as well. Mark leads lola through the different obsticles … “tire” “Jump” “Tunnel” “Chute”… Continue Reading →

This year we celebrated a first fourth of july for both Elsie and Mark – we started out the day with a bang (and some spit up on our new outfit from Grammie). Our neighbors put on a big to… Continue Reading →

On Saturday we picked up Grammie and headed to the lake by Jessica and Yancey’s (for you Montana folks, this lake is like lake elmo only clean). We brought a few beverages and enjoyed hanging out on the beach. Grammie… Continue Reading →

Elsie is finally interested in her play gym … I think she wonders if these guys got dressed in the dark with their different colored boots (at least I think that’s what she is saying) Fortunately she has a guard… Continue Reading →

Tiny Dancer, originally uploaded by markandmandy. We put on some ballerina shoes today and had a little dance off – Elsie won! She loves the Beatles just like her grammie (the early stuff, not the druggie phase).

Today is heather’s birthday so we wanted to send some birthday cheer! First get all dressed up in your birthday pinks … Have dad put a sign on you since you haven’t mastered the art of Sign Spinning … and… Continue Reading →

We have been having some hot, hot, hot weather lately – it hit 100 degrees yesterday. We thought a walk through some cool grass might be fun for the bean. First she enjoyed the hot concrete … Curled up little… Continue Reading →

Who says babies can’t sit up! This cool bumbo chair is holds the little bean up in the perfect sitting position. She is still skeptical but when I told her all the big kids were doing it – she was… Continue Reading →

For Fathers day we had the Richau crew over for Brunch. We made crepes – when I say we I mean mostly my dad and mark (and my mom too). Elsie got mark a new shirt (she’s already able to… Continue Reading →

Shelley, Heather and Lisa threw a meet and greet for Elsie while we were in Billings. Here are a few shots of the fun: the four generations – Ruby, Pam, Mandy and Elsie Carol, Karen, Shelley and Me: Heather and… Continue Reading →

This weekend we traveled up Montana for fathers day, an Elsie meet and greet and Riley’s 4th birthday. Heather is the ultimate entertainer so this event is known as Riley-palooza throughout Billings. This years theme was Pirates and there were… Continue Reading →

Today was elsie’s 8 week doctor visit (she will be 9 weeks tomorrow) and it was the dreaded vaccination day. Mark conveniently went to California to avoid any association to the shots. As usual Elsie loved having her clothes off… Continue Reading →

Working hard with dad, originally uploaded by markandmandy. who says you need a nanny?

We went to the google picnic on friday and Elsie wanted to fit in … We only stayed a bit, enough time for some pulled pork sandwiches and a beer – and time to introduce Elsie to the googlers. Lola… Continue Reading →

elsie is skeptical of hats and dresses … but she is excited about summer!

Elsie and I decided we really needed a rocker in her nursery – we looked at gliders, but felt that the sleek design of the Sleepy Time Rocker was right up our alley. Just sitting in it makes elsie very… Continue Reading →

Daniel with Elsie, originally uploaded by markandmandy. Last week Mark hosted dinner for his co-workers. I was out with Amy so Mark (with the help of uncle josh) had baby duty as well as cooking duty. The boys did great… Continue Reading →

We took our first outing without Elsie this past Friday … We asked our neighbors the Jost’s (Jost like toast) to watch the bean. Cheryl is a NICU nurse so we figured if anything went wrong she would know more… Continue Reading →

and I will CRY IF I WANT TO! We actually got this pink tu tu for Olivia Lu Kodama – who when born was actually Miles Kodama. When Elsie was born they sent the sea of pink back our direction… Continue Reading →

On Wednesday we headed down to Dorset (Alison’s Country Home) for a relaxing last few days. As we were driving we happened upon Stonehenge – so we had to do a quick walk around. Stonehenge is quite a site –… Continue Reading →

Today was a very relaxing day for us. We are staying with Alison in Clapham and woke up to a beautiful sunny (yes there is sun in england) day! We had tea and toast in the back garden and elsie… Continue Reading →

We drove into London this afternoon (after a quick stop at the Dragon School for Boys in Oxford) to have dinner with Glynn, Cindy, Peter and Anika. Elsie was named for Elspeth (Mark’s Mom) and Elspeth was named for her… Continue Reading →

On Sunday we headed to Steeple Aston to visit the Kewley family (Jan is Mark’s godmother). We didn’t get a photo of the B&B we were staying at in Badsey until now and Mark wanted everyone to see that we… Continue Reading →

Today was our very first English Wedding – We arrived at the church in Badsey and walked in with our pram seated right by the videographer (a great way to ensure that Tom and Lucy hear Elsie’s cries over their… Continue Reading →

Today was a day of relaxed touring of lots of little villages around the cotswolds (cotswolds refers to the type of stone used to build the villages). We went for tea and scones which were served with this butter-esque stuff… Continue Reading →

Well we made it to London in one piece and actually the flight was a big success! Our seats weren’t ideal because the plane was packed and the guy next to Mark was clearly an eastern european wrestler, but Elsie… Continue Reading →

Mandy, Elsie and I are on a stopover in Chicago on our way to London for the Miller family wedding. As I am a Premier something or other from traveling last year, we get to go into the Red Carpet… Continue Reading →

Elsie has been a great baby – for the first three weeks she was sleeping close to 18 hours a day and just happy as can be. We kept quiet about it hoping not to jinx it – but somehow… Continue Reading →

She loves baths just like her mom! Sorry I don’t have photos of her in the tub (Grammie those are on your pink camera!) but this slippery little sucker requires 2 sets of hands to wash and hold on to…. Continue Reading →

whoever invented snaps is brilliant – and whoever decided to make baby clothes that completely unsnap and then snap back up is even more brilliant. These fantastic jammie suits are just what the middle of the night pants changer ordered…. Continue Reading →

Michael has been visiting us and taking little miss elsie in, and just like us, he thinks she is cute as a button. Of course when Michael is around you will also always have shiny silver! 🙂

this is definitely a life skill when you have a munchkin.

Its official! We received Elsie’s passport this morning so we are set for our England Holiday. I still think its crazy she needs a passport, but the US government thinks she could be a terrorist. I guess some people could… Continue Reading →