The Simple Things in Life

One of the best payments for being a mom is a smile from my beautiful baby girl. Some of these pictures make me laugh:

I love seeing her develop. Every week or couple of weeks she seems to learn something new. She's now slowly getting better at walking assisted with just one hand rather than two:

She can stand on her own without holding on to anything for 10-30 seconds before she realizes what she's doing and kind of panics.

And last but not least, we have been having some great 80 degree weather. So I try to take her outside as much as possible to play. She LOVES being outside.

Presidents Day Weekend Part 2

This is me and one of my best friends, Dana, college roommates for 3 years!

One of many dances we attended

Another dance

Dana moving away after 3 years of being roommates

Besides my family escaping to Arizona for a winter getaway, my friend Dana and her sister Tracy came to visit! Tracy has a February birthday and they decided to go to warmer weather to celebrate. It was great seeing them! I was looking through old pictures and we had some great times, in my opinion. I miss those days.

8 years later

Dana, Me, Tracy

Thanks for coming! Hopefully we'll see each other again soon.

"What's in Your Mouth?"

That's what I call this stage in baby Ellie's life. Sure she's been putting things in her mouth for a while, but it seems like ever since she has gotten the pincer grasp down I've asked her "What's in your mouth?" several times through out the day.

But her favorite thing to put in her mouth, the thing she will drop everything else for, are her snacks:

President's Day Weekend

My sister said she wanted a blog post to read and I said nothing exciting enough happens to blog about. But I remembered a few weeks ago my family came into town for a winter getaway over the short President's Day weekend. It's nice having great weather to entice people to come visit! It was a short visit, but still great having my parents and siblings stop by.

When everyone first got here, there were 8 of them, and walked in and started saying, "Ellie!" she was so scared! Ha, that's probably one of the few times she ever gets scared. But I took her to her room with just my parents at first and she warmed up to them. Then my brothers took turns, and then she was just fine!

 My mom LOVES her grand babies.

 

And so does my dad. Ellie was a bit tired when we took these pictures, that's why she's the way she is in these.

 And Ellie and her cousin Katelyn LOVE uncle Isaac! He is excellent with kids.

Grandma, Ellie, Momma

Grandma and Grandpa Morris

Unfortunately I didn't get pictures with my other two brothers or sister-in-law. But next month for sure I will! I can't wait for all my family, including my sister, to come for my brother's wedding! I love my family.

Month Eight

I think I say this every month, but where does time go? I cannot believe 8 months has come and gone since little miss E joined our family. It's incredible to to see the change that's happened over these 8 months:

Ellie has tried green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, bananas, applesauce, pears, peaches, rice and oatmeal. The only things she doesn't seem to like are peas and green beans, but if I mix some with other veggies she can't seem to tell. She is also now eating cheerios, puffs, Chex cereal, gold fish, and bread. I think she loves being able to eat by herself.

She wears 9 month clothing for the most part. She's an expert crawler, stander, and sitter. She loves music! And overall is just a happy baby that we love very much!

Videos of her:
    Ellie's first time crawling (1/23/12)

  Ellie crawling a month later (2/26/12)

   Ellie practicing running

   Ellie dancing to the music

Turning Old & New Year Resolution

Last week was my 26th birthday. 26. It seems so much older than 25. I don't really feel like I should be 26. I like to think I still feel young. So my New Year resolution (yes I realize it's no longer January) is to be healthier. Go running (when I had the baby I lost all the motivation I once had), eat healthier (more veggies and fruits), and just enjoy every little moment of life (in other words, less TV!). Hopefully this 26th year I can feel just as young as I did at 18 when I was first entering college and whole new world of fun!

Last week my husband spoiled me for my birthday. We went to IHOP the Saturday before; they give you free breakfast for your birthday, you just have to sign up online. On my birthday he took work off to spend the day with me and the baby. He did dishes for me - I don't care for doing dishes. What a guy. For my gift he helped me out with the exercising goal and got me a Kinect with the Dance Central game. I love him. He knows me well. I love to dance. For dinner we went to Benihanas! I've been wanting to go there for a while, and then my cousin told me they have a birthday deal as well! When I used to travel to Japan for work I went once to a restaurant that cooked the meal in front of you and I had been wanting to take the hubby so he could have the fun experience. Plus Benihanas has sushi and he LOVES sushi, so it was win-win for the both of us.

I never thought I would love sushi, but I do. So delicious!

The chef was pretty entertaining!

And the food was AH-mazing! So delicious!

Even Ellie was entertained by the chefs!

And they even give you "Birthday Ice Cream" - Haagen-Dazs ice cream. When I would travel to Japan my boss would always stop at the Haagen-Dazs shop in the metro station to get some strawberry ice cream. I couldn't resist getting it once again!

Yummy - wouldn't mind some right now...

They even give you a free picture ;)

It was a great day and I loved spending time with my little family. To being 26 - hopefully you're just as great a year as last!

Friday Night Entertainment

This week Ellie has learned how to make a cheesy smile. Tonight she was being exceptionally funny. She makes me laugh :)