Happy Birthday Madi!

Our good friends' daughter, Madison, is turning 2! She had her birthday party this past Saturday since her mom, Mikel, is due with their second baby girl right around Madison's actual birthday. It was a beautiful morning to have a party. Here's the birthday girl and Ellie:


Ellie was a little shy at first (not normal for our little girl), but she warmed up quickly and became herself. I was droopy from the benadryl and tried to stay off my foot, but definitely enjoyed the party and the delicious and CUTE cake!
Birthday girl with her mom, both oh so beautiful:

The Chick-fil-a cow came and made an appearance! Almost every kid was scared of her. Ellie warmed up to her pretty quickly:


Thank goodness we have a good friend who likes watching Ellie, with me being droopy, I was definitely not on top of my game. Elizabeth Ramsey stepped in and was great with Ellie:

Madi got a huge tub of animal crackers as a gift, Ellie was quite interested in it. She kept trying to figure out how to get the crackers out:

Here is a typical moment for Zach. He was caught eating right off the birthday cake! Luckily Mikel didn't mind.

Birthday banner #2. I made another banner for Madison. I thought it turned out well :)

Cornhole:
Another beautiful shot of Ellie:

So Pretty

We have had such beautiful weather the past few weeks, even though we've gotten quite a bit of rain as well. I'm kinda sad it's getting so hot, because the 70 degree weather was perfect! Our azalea bushes have been blooming and they are so beautiful, I had to go take some pictures of them and of course Ellie!Ellie enjoys walking so much! The world is definitely a new place now that she's walking.

Zach and I are extremely blessed to have such a happy child! She has four teeth coming in and she barely whines or fusses! She has been picky with her food and wants to sleep a lot, but keeps a smile on her face!


So I must tell you what happened this weekend. Friday morning I was bitten by two fire ants. I don't think I have ever been bitten by a fire ant because I definitely had an allergic reaction. I almost immediately started breaking out in hives everywhere, and then within an hour my foot began to swell. I took some benadryl, called the doctor to make sure I shouldn't come in, and then passed out! All weekend I basically slept because I kept benadryl in me, poor Zach! I tried to stay off my foot, but we kept pretty busy... so I was on it a little more than I should've been. Today the swelling is almost gone! I had to take a picture for the memory:

It doesn't look that swollen, but it definitely was! I couldn't even get it into a shoe!

New Do

When Ellie eats, she almost always rubs her hands on her head. This is the result:

Birds

We bought a bird feeder on Saturday! We absolutely love watching all the birds that come to chow down.

Friends!

Sunday we had lunch with some friends that are in our small group from church. There are four kids total in the group: Hannah (2. 5 years), Grey (1.5 years), Grace (15 months), and Ellie (12 months). Since they are all walking now, they are able to play and interact a lot more. This Sunday we actually witnessed them playing together (usually they are with babysitters during our group time). Ellie had so much fun and was trying to keep up with Hannah and Grey running around. She was squealing with delight because she was having so much fun. Ellie is definitely a socialite and she plays so well with others!

Walking and Walking

Ellie just loves walking, and I love when she totes stuff around while she walks!

Here is Ellie walking with her drum:



Ellie walking with her cup:

Music to My Ears

Ellie loves her new xylophone from Great Grandma Grose....Ellie the musician:

12 months!

Tuesday Ellie had her 12 month check-up, and today she went to the hospital to have an ultrasound and some other procedure to test for urine reflux. Praise the Lord that the results came back all clear, so she does not have reflux! It was definitely a lonnng morning because Ellie did terrible during the ultrasound and the other procedure. She screamed the whole time. I think now that she's walking, she hates staying still. It took an emotional tole on mommy, and I'm glad daddy wasn't there because he is much weaker when it comes to her in pain or uncomfortableness.

So you might be wondering what all Ellie can do?? It's amazing to see how fast they grow and what they learn, and it's so much fun to see how much she enjoys every new moment!

Ellie weighed 19lbs. 5oz. at the doctor, so still not ready to face forward (sad, I like her facing forward). She measured 28 inches long... glad she is at least still growing! So that makes her in the 25 percentile for height and weight, but she is in the 75 percentile for head circumference. Therefore I can still say my little girl is a smart little one! ha!
This is all what Ellie can do:
-WALKS
-stands up by herself
-walks while holding objects
-say mama, dada, hey, uh-oh, no, yea, open, up, all done
-point at objects and also points to identify objects you ask her about
-kiss (making the pucker sound... she's so good at this one!)
-won't eat any vegetables without squeezing them in with something else she likes
-I think she is going to be a picky eater because she really only wants fruit to eat!
-she has officially weaned herself (we're on the 2nd day without any feedings, she hasn't asked one bit.... this is such a blessing to know she was ready as much as I was)
-drinks whole milk... not as much as she needs, but we're getting there
-stands on her tip toes to reach for objects on table
-opens cabinet doors
-uses sign language for eat, more, all done
-waves hi and bye (done this for 3 months now!)

Here is a video of her walking (She is just the cutest ever walking!):

Weekend Celebration

This weekend was very eventful! Ellie had her first birthday on Saturday and her first Easter on Sunday! She's a little too young to understand the meaning of Easter, but we cannot wait for the day that she can celebrate the resurrection of our Lord! We hope she will be as excited as us to say "Jesus has risen!"
Ellie was the cutest little birthday girl. Her party went extremely well, she was in a good mood most of the time and I think she really enjoyed all the attention :) She had a great turn out with all the family driving from Kernersville, and she got so many presents! Zach and I spent Saturday night opening the boxes and getting the toys out. She has played with every single one of them and is loving trying to figure out what all they can do.



The morning of her birthday, she really decided that she has this walking thing down. So she is rarely crawling anymore! We hope we've gotten most of the bruises out of the way too, but I have a feeling there are many more to come. Her doctor's appointment is tomorrow, so I'll update you with all the stats and all that she can do sometime later this week.

Airport Fun

On Sundays we usually go to the airport to watch the planes while Ellie sleeps. It was a beautiful Sunday, so we actually got to enjoy the park there. They have a little play area for kids that is full of sand. Ellie loved playing in it and surprisingly didn't eat it! Here are some beautiful shots:

Duck, Duck, Goose

This weekend we went to Lake Johnson to enjoy the beautiful weather. This was Ellie's first time noticing the ducks and geese. She was fascinated and so intrigued.

Mac & Cheese

Since Ellie is almost a year old, we have been trying to feed her what we have been eating every night. Well, the only thing she has eaten is chili and bojangles. We were very shocked to find that she did not like macaroni and cheese, although she has eaten a little bit of it before. We thought the experience was hilarious so we took a video and a few pictures.

Bubbles

We bought a bubble machine for Ellie's birthday party (really cheap at Target). We wanted to try it out to see how well it worked, it worked great! I'm super excited about using it Saturday and throughout the summer. However, I think I am even more excited I have something to blow the bubbles for me!
I just really like this shot...

Birthday Project

For Ellie's first birthday, I wanted to make her a birthday banner that we can use every year for the rest of her life (if she so chooses). It took a while to finally finish it, but really I have only worked on it 2 days (did not require a lot of time, especially considering it was the first time I have ever done something like this). I think it turned out quite well!

Beginning:


Middle:End:

This wasn't my first time using a sewing machine, I did make our curtains for the living room in February:

So Tired

Sundays are a long day for us, we leave around 8:30am and don't get back home until 8:00pm. Ellie always falls asleep on the way home, so when we get home we put her pjs on and put her straight to bed. This Sunday she was so tired she fell asleep while we were changing her! We thought it was so cute, we took a picture:

Stuck

So since Ellie has been walking she has gotten herself into a few predicaments. I was able to capture one, where she got stuck behind the trashcan in the kitchen. She had so much fun squeezing her way into the corner, but then soon got really upset she couldn't get out!

All by Herself!

Ellie has been taken many more steps all by herself! She still isn't wanting to walk everywhere, but she is much more confident. We took a new video of her progress :)