Misc. Fun

Here are some snipits from early February. The image quality seems a little less than satisfactory...the pics were emailed from my phone so I think some of the quality was lost.

I'll have to be better about toting the camera around more.

Thomas got Ellie her first swim suit for Valentines Day. He took Ellie & I to Blowing Rock/Boone for the weekend and we had a great time! It was way too cold outside to enjoy the suit, but we had to have her try it on and do a photoshoot. We've been going to the Harris Y right near our house and using their indoor pool. I've got pictures of that adventure somewhere!?! I'll post...

But Ellie loves the water and does a great job floating!

Mmm! Sweet potatoes! Ellie is still enjoying solids and getting used to the idea. So far, she's had banana's (her fave), sweet potatoes, peas, and apple (I blended one up into sauce form). Sometimes I mix rice cereal or oatmeal cereal into the food, but it makes it so much more bland. I think avocado is next on our list!

Sitting pretty with her bow from Aunt Emily and her sweater from Cousin Hannah.

Or maybe Cousin Wes picked it out?!

Look at those chubby feet! Love them.

Puppies getting a little rowdy with the food. The light gray one on the right is the one Emily is going to have. She hasn't decided on a name but they have already bonded!

 

The group. They love their box!

So chilly! Ellie is sporting her super-cool tights, with her super-cool hat, and her gorgeous dress (from Grammy!). She loves sitting like a big girl in the stroller (and not in her car seat attached to the stroller any more). What she does not love is the cold wind! When it gets blustery and really chilly, she will suck in air and kind of catch her breath when it hits her face and if it keeps up for a few seconds, she will force me to pick her up....

She looks so cold down there all by herself!

She is not a fan of the cold weather. But we go out anyway! :)

Snuggly Babies

The puppies are so big, and so cute! They've got their coats, and Ellie has hers.

Such snuggly babies (the pups and Ellie!)...

Tub Time

Ellie is doing an amazing job at sitting up. She can sit for as long as she so pleases and she can multi-task while doing it! She can chew on her fingers (as seen below), play with a toy, look around and laugh, etc. No longer are the days where she has to "focus" on sitting.

I added these great tub pics b/c I fear the sink/tub days are almost over. You can see that she is about to pop out of the of the tub and now that she can sit, she likes to do so in the tub. After she's had her bath and is rinsed off, we let her sit in the tub and splash around. She's almost ready for a 100% sitting up tub-time!

1, 2, 3...4 Puppies!

P.S. Did you know we had puppies? Well, really, Kaya had puppies. It was sort of a surprise to us, too. We had about 2 weeks notice. Thomas' friend built us a great box and the puppies have been fun to have and absolutely no work thus far. Kaya is a busy mom (we have bonded now, of course) but it hasn't affected our lives yet! They are too cute. These pics are from their first day...which was 1/20/10. There are 3 girls and 1 boy. I'll upload more pics of them soon; they look much different now. Let me know if you know anyone who'd like one! We still have two left (one is going to Lucia and one to Emily). They will be ready to leave Kaya in about a month.

Bad Habits

I've gotten into a bad habit...not writing blogs! I was in such a good habit before Ellie was here and in her first few months. Now? Weeks go by and I don't even think about it!!! Here's to changing bad habits into good ones...

Ellie is six months...as of 2/8/10. She has enjoyed starting solids and loves bananas over rice cereal. We haven't tried them yet, but sweet potatos are next. She loves to sit in her high chair and eat with the big kids aka Mom & Dad.

Sometimes she's more fascinated with her bib or the spoon than the food!

Ellie gets a kick out of playing games now. She squeels when you "scare" her and even laughs when you tickle her. She also plays coy sometimes and will look away when you are trying to entertain her but she will still smile. She won't "acknowledge" you but she is smiling...so cute. Daddy is still silly, too!

Do I have slobber on my shirt? Yes, I think I do.

I can flip over faster than you can say, "Cutie!"

I'm not crawling yet, but I think I understand how it might happen. Just lift up my belly and kick my legs!? Oh, I don't know. I think I'll just stay right here for now.

Here's Ellie helping Mommy preview a house. Here she is showing off her sitting skills. This was at the beginning of her sitting voyage so she's still leaning. She's much better now. Now, she can sit and chew on something at the same time without even wobbling! I'll try to get a video uploaded of her sitting and playing soon...it just takes so darn long to do. Most times, it "Fails".

Christmas 2009

Well at least it's only January and I'm posting Christmas blogs....at least it's not "Christmas in July" yet. Enjoy!

Ellie's first Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. The look on her face is saying, "Why the heck did you people wake me up!?" She did great in Mass though. Not a peep, but she did look around the entire time. I think she was too excited for Santa to fall asleep.

Ellie & Hartung cousins Christmas morning before getting started on stockings.

All three girls had such a fun time!

Pajamas, presents, breakfast. Merry Christmas!

Ellie normally naps every 2 hours or so during the day. Today, she stayed up for at least 4 hours straight. She just sat with Nonna and watched all of the presents & chaos.

Her first coat! And a fur one, at that! Nonna spoiled Ellie with her first fur.

Thomas loved helping Ellie open her presents. She got more than Mommy & Daddy combined!!!

Her Christmas dinner outfit. It's new from Daddy! I want to kiss this face. Although it looks like she just smelled her stinky diaper!?!?

Too many mimosas...

Love you, family!

A Month!?!?

I cannot believe it has been over A MONTH since I last "blogged"!! What a bad Mommy. :)

We had a great month leading up to the Holidays and an even better time enjoying them once they were here. Ellie's First Christmas. My First Christmas in Charlotte with Thomas' family. Ellie's First New Year. The list goes on.

I'll quickly go through the month of December in this blog leading up to Christmas Eve. My apologies for taking so long but we were just having too much fun to sit at the computer. And I've been working on real estate, too. This week I got my first contract since getting back into it "the game". Woo hoo!

Ellie is appx 4 months here. Time flies. And look how those cheeks are growing, too! :) She's still an angel.

A look at the view from my office.

It's a great view isn't it: Ellie, coffee, Christmas tree, laptop, view out to the sunny days. We only stay this way for a few mintues before Ellie plays on her mat on the floor next to me. She can only sit in the Bumbo for a few minutes before wiggling. And I don't let her wiggle since she's on top of the table. Never fear--I'm always within an arms length to grab her!

Around 4 months, Ellie was practically weaned from sleeping swaddled in a blanket. Here she is in a little sleep gown with her cute "feetsies" hanging out.  Her freedom from the swaddling blanket was completely undone around Christmas when Ellie had a growth spurt causing her to wake up every 2 hours at night even hungrier and more grumpy than before. The swaddle was back in full force to insure as much sleep as possible. Two steps forward, one step back, right?

Update on the nursery: a bookshelf!

Great Uncle Greg and Great Aunt Dawn gave Ellie this wonderful bookshelf that is now home to books, toys, and dolls. It has put the finishing touch on her room.

Thomas, Ellie, and I went to McAdenville (about 30 min from Charlotte) to see their Christmas lights. The city becomes "Christmas Town USA" (this is literally how they advertise) for the month of Dec. It was a great time and the weather cooperated by being clear & cold!

We parked the car in front of the downtown Post Office and walked part of the route so we could enjoy the lights and the homes up close and personal.

The line of cars was unreal...it took us about 20 minutes waiting in line before we could even get to the main road. It was fun to see all the kids so excited!

Mommy & Ellie outside. It was FREEZING but, darn it, it was sunny. We had been couped up for at least 5 days with cold rain and this day was sunny and we took our play time outside. We only lasted about 20 minutes but it was refreshing nonetheless.

All the presents wrapped and ready to go to Aunt Regina's for Christmas morning!

The week before Christmas Thomas, Ellie, and I went to Isabella & Emma's Holiday Recital at their school. It was raining so Daddy protected Ellie since we were sans umbrella.

Here's Isabella, one of the recital stars, signing autographs for Ellie.

"Mom, I want to dance and sing with my older cousins!"

Proud Cousin Isabella after her show.

This was an interesting night. No, Ellie didn't blink for the picture. She is sleeping. This bath was given at about 10pm one night because Ellie had "spit up" all over herself. The sheets, her outfit, her HAIR! Poor angel. You can't imagine my guilt and need to cuddle her once I found that she had spit up and then fallen asleep in it!

She had had such a rough night she couldn't even stay up for her bath.

Wrapping final stocking stuffers and enjoying a cocoa drink with homemade whip cream by Santa's favorite Chef Elf. It was late and we were obviously a little silly.

Christmas, here we come!