Visitors

We had some visitors this weekend. My mom and my aunt came to see Ellie. My aunt got to meet her for the first time and my mom got to see her for the first time since Thanksgiving. My aunt took lots of pictures and they turned out great. My aunt will be sending more soon, so we will have some more and some with her and Ellie too! We got a three generation picture with my mom, Ellie and I and are looking forward to taking a four generation picture next month. We are also going to get my aunt to take a family shot of Ben, Ellie and I when we go to Tennessee next month. We had lots of fun cooking, visiting, going to IKEA, and seeing the sights of Charlotte. They also bought finger puppets for Ellie, but I am not sure who is enjoying them more, me or Ellie. We already miss them and can't wait for Ellie to meet her Great Grandmary and Great PawPaw next month and they can't wait to meet her.

2 Months Old

Ellie was 2 months old on Monday. She had her doctor's appointment on Tuesday and she now weighs 9 lbs. 3 oz. and is 22 inches long. She also got 3 shots and seems to be as scared as her mom when it comes to needles! The doctor said she looked great and we think so too!!

Sleeping

Ellie is a wonderful sleeper. She started sleeping through the night on Tuesday, right before she turned 8 weeks. Ben had been sick, so I was doing all the night feedings. I would feed her at 8 and then let her go as long as she could, and that was through the night. We are so excited. Ben feeds her at 8, so they can have their one on one time, and then we put her to bed and she has been waking up after 7. She then takes a morning nap and an afternoon nap, which is great for me to get things done during the day. She is a great baby.

Helping Mom Cook

Ellie has been getting good at holding her head up. We tried out the bumbo seat and she did pretty well. She is liking it more and more. She helped me cook dinner tonight and enjoyed sitting at the table with us to eat. I also got a couple of shots of her smiling the other day. I was on the phone with my mom and told her to smile for Grandma and she did. I got a picture at that very moment. Ben has been sick so Ellie and I have been hanging out together because he wants to make sure he doesn't get her sick. This has given me lots of time to snap pictures, which we know our family that lives far away love seeing!

Garage Work

Ben has been working hard organizing our garage. Ever since he did Ellie's room he has wanted to create things. During his parents' visit he began his garage projects. Ben and his dad built Ben a work bench and Ben has been busy building storage that hangs from the ceiling for all of our stuff we keep in the garage as well as things we can move out of our closets in the house and put in the garage. I love organization and I am very excited about this whole project. Here are some pictures of the building of the work bench and I will post pictures of the new garage shelving when it is all complete. We are starting the new year off getting organized and I am so excited that Ben wanted to do this and he has having so much fun doing it.

Christmas (and the past month)

Hello again! It has been forever since I have posted. I know posts without pictures are no fun, so we haven't been posting since Ellie's pictures are all the same, we have also been very busy. It has been lots of work getting ready for all these holidays and going many places and being a new mom :) We have been very busy with shopping and preparing for the holidays. Ben's parents came to our house this year for Ellie's first Christmas and Ben and I loved our first year staying in our home and our bed for Christmas! Ellie had a great first Christmas and has been a wonderful addition to our family. She is on the verge of really smiling, she gives us grins now. She doesn't love tummy time, but it does help her neck and she is getting good at holding her head up. She also is stretching some of her crib sleeping out at night and giving us a good 5 hour stretch. She is great at sleeping and loves the car and running errands. She enjoys her bouncer and swing more everyday and is able to entertain herself for little stretches. Her focus is getting better and she loves looking around when she is awake. She has enjoyed having a few babysitters and has been wonderful for all of them. We are getting into a little routine and now with all of the holiday busyness behind us we can get into a routine with our little family of three. We are looking forward to Ben being home this week and hope to have lots of family time! Hope you enjoy the pictures. I went a little crazy with the stocking pictures, but they were so cute and I figured we could take Ellie's picture with it every year to see how she is growing!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We were so thankful and blessed to have little Ellie here to celebrate her first Thanksgiving and were overjoyed she had come two weeks early. We had a great time with family and great food. We also enjoyed cutting down our Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving with our great friends Andy and Katie. It was our 2nd year cutting our tree with them and has become a tradition with them just like carving pumpkins. Ellie had a great time and was absolutely wonderful. She even went out to dinner for the first time on the way home and was great in the restaurant and even slept while we all ate! She is getting bigger everyday and is a great eater. We tried a bottle for the first time a couple of days ago and she did great. It is also great for Ben to be able to help feed her and it gives me a little more sleep. We have also tried sleeping in our crib and that is not going as well. She got addicted to people holding her in her first 2 weeks of life, even while she slept, and she now does not like to sleep very much without being held at night. We are working through her withdrawal issues and will have to watch how much she gets held while sleeping. We are hoping this is short lived and she starts to enjoy her crib!