September photo favorites

The month started out with something I have been wanting to do the last couple years - going to the Night A Glow at one of the parks here. They have a ton of hot air balloons in one of the fields and blow them up a night. It is beautiful and fun for the little kids and...big kids ; ). One of my girlfriends reminded me of the night and we went together! Steven joined us after he got off work as well. Ellie definitely liked it!

And then Sundays with our sweet Ellie ... holding hands and then cheesing it up during the afternoon

Park and Old Navy dates often...

^^ Ellie almost always spots this fake dog at Old Navy and she gets so silly around it!

The above pictures captures so many of Ellie likes; shoes, books, bags/purses and scarfs.

As well as the below picture, of her with the hat. My little "helper" while folding towels.

^^ and then playing around with daddy's goggles! hahahaha

^^ she crawls into the rocking chair in her room with a book (or two) in hand 

Red Robin lunch date

^^ Steven's 29th birthday! He is amazing and I'm so grateful I get to celebrate his life!

^^ love it when I can snap a pic of her sleeping! (and look at that hair!!!)

^^ Ellie just got these slippers and she calls them "slippies" : D

^^ oh the things she does in front of the mirror - great entertainment

August photo favorites

This year is flying by I tell ya! We've been enjoying ourselves though, so at least we're having fun! Here's some pictures to prove it ; )

^^ Ellie put her water cup inside her sweater like this, all on her own. Had me cracking up

^^ there's this big youth room off the lobby of our church and a few of our friends are youth pastors. So we usually make our way in there to say hi/hang out. Ellie got introduced to the balls in there and she ALWAYS wants to go in there to play every Sunday now!

There have been lots of hot days around here and we've taken advantage of swimming in some pools! 

Always wanting to dance with her babies! 

We went to the fair - Ellie's first time. She enjoyed the rides and animals for sure!

My mom and step dad came to visit for a handful of days. It was nice spending time with them and seeing them love on Ellie - she certainly loves their attention. 

Taking this toddler to a miniature golf course was a bit too exciting, for her. So we ended up putting her in the ergo and as you can tell, she was happy! 

Eighth Anniversary celebration

Last weekend Steven and I were able to celebrate our eight anniversary in a very nice way. On August 16 was our actual anniversary, but that coming weekend Steven had a couple days off. And, a couple friends of ours had been offering to watch Ellie overnight for awhile, so we decided to take them up on the offer! We dropped Ellie off at their house Friday evening - no tears or sad looks from her...she loves those guys and was content being with them. I'll admit though, it was a little hard on my part. It was going to be the longest I had spent away from her and it felt a little strange saying goodbye for almost a whole day.
But, off we went and checked into our hotel (a little "getaway" in our own city, so it felt like we were going/doing more on our own). We got ready for dinner that was going to be at one of the fanciest restaurants we have been to. When Steven called to make the reservation they asked if we were celebrating anything in particular. They noted our anniversary and from the moment we walked in, till we left, they acknowledged it and made our time there really nice. The food was delicious (we went to Ruth Chris Steakhouse), with good portions - highly recommend. My mouth is watering right now as I think about the food we had! Yum!
Then, after dinner we went to a movie, because when we are kid free, that's something we really enjoy. Our hotel was in a great, central location and we were able to walk around to everything from there. Next morning we slept in till our bodies woke us up. Because hello early wake ups with a year and a half year old (on average Ellie wakes at 7:30). Plus, I usually get up earlier to work out and shower. So, needless to say, sleeping in without any type of alarm or duty was WONDERFUL! We ordered room service for breakfast. Neither of us had done that before, and I've always wanted to! That food was also amazing! After we were all packed and checked out of the hotel we went to the Saturday market, which covers several blocks downtown. Checked out some local stuff while sipping coffee - nice morning indeed. Then we were on our way to get Ellie before her nap. She did great for our friends, and even slept in to one of her late times - lucky them ; ). It was nice to be united back with our girl.
So, overall our weekend was packed with things we love doing - just the two of us! Even though we love doing things as a family of three, it's super important for us to have our own time as a couple, growing our relationship and focusing on us. It's been an amazing 8 years. We have been blessed with so much and are happy with the life we have. And thank you Steven for planning a wonderful anniversary weekend for us! Love you!

18 months

Every month I seem to say, "wow, we have a (fill in the blank) month old!" And this time we can say 1 and a half year old! Each month has something fun to bring. Watching Ellie grow more and more into the person she's going to be is an amazing privilege to see and be a part of.

Size/Growth: Over the last several months people have finally been able to roughly guess Ellie's age correctly. Before, she was so petite and always on the lower side of the growth charts, so people would think she was quite younger than she really was. It's been great seeing her thrive in this part of her growth - she did always impress us with her mental skills - and so now she's hitting everything fabulously. She's still in size 5 diaper, and wearing 18-2T clothes. Weight is 25.79 pounds (84%) and 31.8" (45%)!

Hair: All the time people ask me if I've cut Ellie's hair (for the record: I still haven't!). It's grown into such a perfectly cute, slightly angled, bob. You couldn't/can't really tell that her undergrowth was so much shorter. However, now it's catching up well and I've been able to put it in two low pig tails. Woohoo for more hairstyles; getting her hair out of her face.

Eating: This girl seems to always be down to eat (just like her mama). It's not like we really limit what she eats...we go off her saying she's done or wants more at each meal (3 a day) and then kind of make her snacks (1-2 a day) smaller like the typical person. If she sees you snacking during other times, other than her "scheduled" time to eat, she will want to help you finish the food off! ha. Her favorites are fruit of pretty much any kind (minus pineapple-that we know of), cheese and bread. We can get her to eat a fair amount of vegetables though and try be good at giving her a variety of foods. Just recently did we do dips; ketchup, ranch, etc. which she's really into of course. If she sees you get the ketchup out of the fridge, she'll say "dip!" - super cute. And I forgot to mention in her 15 month update that she was weened off of a bottle around 14 months. She can drink out of straw and those miracle 360 sippy cups great. She loves drinking out of our normal drinking glasses, but sometimes sips too much in and coughs. Her skills with a fork and spoon are great and yeah she'll still be a bit messy, but she's getting less and less so. The amount of teeth she has is 10! There are 6 incisors and 4 molars.

Sleep: Girl is still rocking the sleep game! She takes an on average 2.5 hour nap from about 12:45ish-3:15ish. Then at night she sleeps/stays down from around 8:15pm till around 7:15am. She has basically had sleep under control since we sleep trained her around 5 months. I believe it helps that we have stayed super consistent with the same sleep routine for nap and bedtime and the times. Plus, we just recently gave her a blanket to sleep with-shocking I know! She was just always warm enough and content enough without anything; there wasn't any need for another form of comfort other than her fingers (yes, she still sucks those two fingers...).

Milestones/Accomplishments:
- Climbing up on couch, chairs, boxes - anything reachable.
- Talking. Her vocabulary has expanded SO much. I can't even count how may words she knows and also just repeats. But here are some that are really cute and/or funny (if it's parentheses that's what the word sounds more like): careful (cheerful), blanket (blankie), frog (f@#! word...yep...a curse word! She just so clearly says the 'g' as a 'k' and boy is it funny and bad!)
- Body parts she can identity on herself + others and can say- in addition to the ones I noted in her 15 month update: bum, eyebrow (brow), elbow (bow), belly button (bell butt), nails-on fingers and toes
- Colors. She can identity something that is purple, plus says it..and she actually says most things are purple. And she can say black (back), green (geen), orange (orge) and blue (bue). However, she doesn't always correlate the correct color with object, i.e. blue ball vs. orange ball -but ever so often she does!
- Jumping. Granted she only catches air here and there, but she certainly tries a lot! And says "jump! jump!"
- Informs us when she needs to poop or has pooped.

Likes:
- Music and dancing! She is constantly saying "dance! dance!" If you don't have music playing she will always ask for it. Plus, she's really not that content with it coming just out of your phone, it needs to be playing out of the sound bar. And she still loves dancing - by herself and with you/holding her. One of our friends showed her how to go on her tippy toes while dancing and Ellie picked up on that really fast. She's getting to be a true ballerina!
- Babies. Real ones and the toy ones. She's constantly pointing them out (the real and the toys) and always getting a blanket to wrap around them. She even started to grab her toy ones to dance with.
- Blankets. Playing with them, peek-a-boo, having it on her lap during story time before her sleep times and sleeping with it. She will say "blankie!" when you're getting into the rocking chair to read and if you lay her down in crib without the blanket on top of her, she'll ask for it. Pretty sweet.
-Water...the pool...the bath...bodies of water!
- Slides. She would dive down them head first if we let her, too! Daredevil, carefree she is.

our little dancer! (she's making the baby dance as well in top left pic)

Dislikes:

- Waiting for milk and/or food. If you wait longer than usual to feed her, she will be a bit whinny at your legs until you get her to sit or put her in highchair, with drink/food in front of her. Hangry is a term we use in this instance! haha! (I get that way too if I'm not on it with my snack/meal times, so we try to be diligent with all that...for the both of us!)
- The doctors! At this last appointment she got very unsure fast, cried super hard and clung on to me the tightest she has ever done. It was very surprising (even though they warned us that could happen around this age). At all her other appointments she has been her usual sweet self, but not this time.

Things to remember:
She has such a sweet spirit about her. How she puts her hands out for you to hold or puts her hands together to pray before meals (something she just started this past week-her saying "pray (pay)" when we are putting food on the table!). Wants to smell flowers or candles. Says "bless" (bless you) after people sneeze sometimes. How when she toots, she says "poop". Pats her bum and/or ours, while she says "bum, bum".