While Mommy Cooks...

Ellie plays! This is what happens while Mommy cooks. Ellie has her own cabinet that she can do as she pleases with and she loves to play in there!

Happy Halloween!!!

We had lots of fun for Ellie's first Halloween. We started the weekend carving pumpkins with our friends, Andy and Katie. This is the 4th year we have carved pumpkins together and boy have our lives changed over the years, who knows how they will change by next year. Our Saturday Ellie enjoyed a pumpkin cookie, which we also made this weekend. Then on Sunday we had a costume party at MAXlife. Ben was youtube, I was a ladybug and the best of all, Ellie was a butterfly. She was so cute and is at the age that she does not get scared of any of the things she sees. We then raced out of MAXlife to go trick or treating. We went to Andy and Katie's and our friends, Chad and Meredith's. I got a photo of Ellie at her first stop (Andy and Katie's) with the dog Bella as a bee. Then Ben got home and we went trick or treating around the neighborhood. Ellie got to also help hand out candy to a few friends. We had a great time and Ben and Ellie got to experience their first time trick or treating together. They both had a great time. We are very happy Ellie will be able to walk next year when we go :)

Beginning of a New Adventure

We have been practicing with Ellie on her walking. She is pulling herself up more and more and today used the table to take a few steps. I got what I could on video, sorry it is sideways, I can't figure out how to flip it.

Hip Hip Hooray...

Ben is 30 today!!! Ben turned 30 today and we are so excited to celebrate him. He is off leading the middle school fall retreat this weekend, so celebrating will be delayed until tomorrow (with some secret surprises from Ellie and I). Ben is not a big celebration guy so since it is his day we will have just a family celebration, just how he likes and he has requested a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, which I am how to oblige him with. Ellie and I are extremely blessed to have such a great husband and father in our lives and are happy to celebrate him!!! We love you!!!!

Noodle Head

Ellie had her first experience with big girl spaghetti. Now that she is getting teeth we are giving her more of our food. The other night was spaghetti night. Anyone who knows me knows I love noodles and I think our little Ellie is going to be a noodle lover too! She loved squishing the noodles and even putting them on her head. Ben and I couldn't stop laughing and of course that made her laugh and play more.

Pumpkin Shopping

This morning we went pumpkin hunting at the pumpkin patch. We were excited to take Ellie to the pumpkin patch for her to pick out her first pumpkin that was just her size. That had cute little red wagons to put your pumpkins in and a very big patch to search in. We all had a great time and are excited to go back next year!

The Park with Friends

Last week we went to the park with our friends Ethan and his mom Caroline. I loaded up Mayli and Ellie and we hit the road. It is getting much easier to get around with 2 so I am trying to do things now before it gets cold. Ellie had a great time and loved the mulch.

11 Months Old

Our little Elliebeans is 11 months old today. She has grown and changed so much this month. She crawls everywhere and is getting very fast. We have started putting up gates to keep her away from certain places and she has not really noticed yet. She tries to pull up, but can only get to her knees in most situations. She likes to stand, but Ben or I have to put her in the standing position and she has to use furniture to hold on to. She loves to eat everything and will eat everything I serve her. She is working on her 3rd tooth and loves smiling. We have started brushing her teeth/gums and she loves it. She opens her mouth and loves to have brush her little mouth. She loves to explore and we let her. I have created a cabinet for her in the kitchen that she is free to explore and take things out of and when I cook many times that is where she is pulling everything out. We are working on sign language for more and all done. She has recently learned to clap and so when you say more she claps her hands, it is very cute :) She also has learned to wave bye-bye this month and will wave when people leave our house, sometimes she will wave after we have been talking to people a little while or after people have been at our house for a few minutes even though they are not leaving yet, I guess it is her way of saying see you later, time for you to leave please :) She is also great at imitating some of our sounds and loves to say "mmm" after every bite she eats.
We have also been trying to bulk her up. I went to the doctor for our 9 month appointment at the end of August and Ellie's weight was in the 5th percentile. She has always been tiny and taller, like her dad, and our doctor is so laid back and wonderful that he wasn't worried, just want us to see if in the next month we could bulk her up a little. So we have been working hard. A friend of mine could not believe how much we feed Ellie. She eats eggs, cheese, yogurt, and meat almost every day to get her a little chunkier. Well it all paid off. We had to go for a a weight check last week and her weight was: 17.35 pounds, which was the 10th percentile. She gained almost 3 pounds in 1 month. The nurse was pretty impressed especially since she just started crawling and that makes it hard for a baby to put on weight.
We are so excited for all Ellie is doing and can't wait to see what this next month brings, maybe walking is in our near future :)

A Trip to Savannah

At the end of September we took a trip to Savannah. We take a yearly trip with Ben's parents and this year Savannah was the city. We explored new places, tried lots of food, ate lots of gelato and had a great time. It was a place none of us had been so it was nice to discover a new place. It is also not very far, so a great place in the future for our little family to visit. This year was Ellie's first year on the yearly trip and she was a trooper. She did great with all we did and it was great having her because it made us rest every afternoon for naptime :) Ben's mom loves to take pictures when we are all together, so we let her do all the picture taking! Thanks Gran!