Time is FLYING

 The girl LOVES her farm animal books!

 Enjoying the sunny weather and arts festival!

 Those legs and diaper butt kill me.

 Always watching daa (Dunkan) in the back yard...and excuse the dog's dried slobber all over my sliding doors, it's a constant battle over here!!!

 My presh.

Playing with cousin Brooks!!!  They love each other.

I swear I think about posting something and then a month has passed before I do!  I feel like Ellison has changed so much even since my last post...it's crazy!  She has increased her speed big time with crawling, prompting her Ga-Ga to call her "scooter" and once she sees something she wants you have .5 to get there before she does!  She is standing up while holding onto everything a ton and likes to take steps while holding your hands, and daddy has been able to get her to stand on her own for a good 5 seconds a few times!  Once she realizes what she's doing she drops and I think because she is a speed demon on those hands and knees the walking thing isn't her first priority. :)  She is talking SO much....I think she might be a genius. :)  She tries to repeat almost every word you say and if she can't then she does a good job of repeating your tone and some syllables.  Some examples are: ouch, uh-oh, daa (dog) woo-woo (woof woof), cow, moo, diaper, eh eh eh (sound of monkey when asked what they say), shows you her tongue when you ask, she has said "all done"...just to name a few!!  This is SUCH a fun age and I can't believe we are approaching 1!!!  Oh and she has 3 new teeth making 4 on top, 2 on bottom!

We are counting down the days to our Colorado trip (I have been counting since LAST summer when I was too preggers to travel and the whole fam got to go without us!) and are so excited that we will celebrate Ellison's 1st birthday in the mountains.  So fitting since Ma Ma & Da Da started our life there too! :)

crap....10 months half way over!

Ok, I am getting SO behind and I want to post new pics but I am too tired for that business tonight and have 13% battery left on the ol' Mac!  Soooo....I am settling for at least documenting Ellison's status.

At 10 months, 2 weeks old she is:

-Crawling EVERYWHERE.
-Pulling up, stepping from side to side while holding onto the couch, our sliding back doors, a chair, you name it.
-Crawling to sitting, sitting to crawling, you get the picture!
-Eating basically all real food....and loving it I might add.
-She has said: Da Da, Ma Ma, Nana, turtle, hat, apple, yellow, blue, night night, da (for dog), and seems to attempt to repeat many things we say although they aren't quite clear.  :)  Oh and how can I forget "Hiiiii"...which she says all day every day to everyone.  SO presh.

That's all my brain can produce right now.  I can't believe her 1st birthday is so close....it's crazy!

9 month stats

I used to feel like Ellison was going to be a baby forever and now time is flying so fast!  I have been meaning to post her stats from her 9 month appointment and 2 weeks have already gone by!

I don't think I ever did this, so just so we can see how she is growing, her birth stats were:

Weight: 6lbs, 9 oz
Length: 19 1/4" long

At 9 months:

Weight: 20 lbs
Length: 27" long

She is getting SO big!  Her percentiles are always like 75% in weight and 30% in height...hehehe.  Short and round. :)  Although she DOES have a chance at some height from her dad some day!

Other things:

-she has her 2 lower teeth and one on the top is breaking the surface
-she is crawling EVERYWHERE
-we had to lower her crib mattress again last night to the lowest one because she is pulling herself to standing now and scaring us to death looking like she was planning to hop over the rail!  :)
-saying ma-ma, da-da, nana, ba-ba, and da when she hears or sees a dog...might be her first real word!!

Here are some recent shots....

 Checkin out the grass

 I love her!

I love nap time with just a T and diaper....showing off her long legs!

Next appointment will be her 1 YEAR.  That is crazy.  Sniff.  Sniff.

Cousin love

Ellison is so very fortunate to be able to grow up with cousins so close.  We have Maggie in Kansas City, Griffin and Lucy in Dallas, and Claire, Nat, and Brooks right here in OKC!  Last weekend we took advantage of Dad's spring break, packed the Prius up and headed south!  It was SUCH a wonderful weekend for all of us and the cousins are starting to really get old enough to bond...which is so fun to watch!  They are in for a lifetime of love......and embarrassment from their fathers. :)

Here are all the squids:  Lucy: 5 months, Ellison: 9 months, Griffin: 2 years, 3 months

Their reunion 

 Bathtime!  We laughed at how their mommy's skin tones shined through on them.

Ellison:  Olive  Lucy:  Fair/Rosy 

They love each other already...we are hoping for college roommates some day!

 Griffin teaching "Eldison"

 That boy may be one crazy 2 year old, but he has the sweetest spirit.

 Squid-mobiles!  :)

 ****Just need documentation that Ellison really starting crawling ALL OVER the place over the weekend.  Pretty sure observing Griff's active lifestyle gave her confidence to get on with it!  :)

 This is pretty....

 ....maybe I should taste it like I do everything....

 ....petals in mouth!

Yes mommy it WAS funny and I AM T-R-O-U-B-L-E!

Must be the season...

So last week there was one day that it was 70 degrees and sunny and the next 33 degrees with snow flurries.  Only in Oklahoma.  BUT, on that gorgeous sunny day I was walking when this song came on from my husband's shuffle.  First, how much do you love their hairdos?  Second, I love this song.  When I returned to our house, I noticed something bright yellow in the middle of our otherwise dead and poopy-looking grass.  Aren't they beautiful??

I mean granted, they are weeds, but still they helped the lyrics of the song ring true.  I took it as God's reminder of the beauty that lies within even the drabbest of seasons and His promise of the blessings to come.  And it ignited the hope that swells inside me as Spring arrives....when the warm sunshine replaces the cold and the world is buzzing with renewal.  I LOVE it!


Speaking of the season....it is also the season to start thinking about planting vegetables and I have to say I am SO very excited!  Hubby and I have been talking about doing a vegetable garden for literally 6 years and are finally in a home that allows for it and have made the commitment.  YESSSSSS.  Now when I asked Bubba to build the raised bed, just a simple box, I should have known by now that nothing involving building or designing with his own hands is simple.  You would think being married to this man who pursued a master's and now PhD in construction that I would get this by now.  I am a slow learner.  So after a lengthy marital conversation and his insistence on getting cedar to match the fence and arrange the boards to create a specific design, I gave in and left him to the project.  Sigh....my way would have taken 1 hour.  :)  However...everything he does turns out beautiful, for which I am very grateful, and this was no exception.  Here are some visuals of the process. 

The beginning frame

 Those edges better be flush!!!

 His captivated audience :)

 Who eventually got cold, tired.....

 and hungry.  

But ol' Bryan worked until sundown!

 Ta da!!!  The finished product!

 And the design IS fabulous!

Dunk is happy with it.  :)

Now all we needed was dirt.  Lucky for us my brother-in-law, Willie, (and yes, my sis and I are married to a Bubba and a Willie...what are the chances???  I guess that's the Okie life!) has started a business building, planting and maintaining organic home gardens and organic lawncare (check him out!  www.urban-harvest.com) and was already pouring dirt last weekend, so Bubba pitched in to help.

 The A Team

Garden ready!!!

Now all I need is some overalls, a sun hat, gardening boots and oh yeah.....my veggie plants!!  I will be documenting their growth frequently and I hope this works!  I can't wait for Ellison to see where her veggies come from and help us harvest our goodies.  :)

Happy planting everyone!

8 months!

Just for my memory books...

Ellison:

--has 2 teeth.
--has been saying ma-ma, but has now added da-da (and I KNOW she associates that with her dad now cause she says it right when she looks at him, but he doesn't believe me).
--has been on her hands and knees rocking back and forth, scooting backwards on her tummy and practicing her pilates plank :), sitting up without falling straight over, and is about to take off any day now.
--has started grabbing foods with her fingers and feeding HERSELF and can drink water out of a two-handled sippy cup.
--has waved bye bye one time and I can tell she is really observing us doing it and contemplating doing it again. :)
--Oh, and is growling when she is tired and wants something.  Yep, you heard me.  She growls.  It's not pretty, but is an interesting new sound she's discovered!
--And is still the sweetest girl on the planet!

Surprise!!!

My ever-so-thoughtful, dear sweet husband blew my socks off last weekend when he pulled off the best surprise 30th birthday party ever!  I don't think people believed me when I said I had NO CLUE about any of it, but I really didn't and that made it even more amazing.  I was so overwhelmed by the whole thing that I never even got my wits about me to take one single picture....so I have nothing to show for it! :)  But don't worry, the whole night is forever engrained in my memory and I have to say I am the most blessed girl on the planet.  So many special people in our lives went to such great lengths to keep it a secret, and to be there and it meant more to me than I can say.  So thank you, thank you....and thank you to my out-of-town dearies who sent sweet messages!!  I love you all so much.  Best present ever!!!!

And since I didn't have any pics from the party, I thought I'd share some other fun ones from recent days....

The cousin's very first walk together!  That is baby Brooks, my nephew!

Elli was real excited about it! hehe!

We have had two fun play dates recently.  The first with Brooks and precious Ruby and Dax and then we played with sweet Avery, born a month after Ellison!

Family play day in the beautiful snow!  Once the sun came out it was fabulous...felt like we should be spring skiing!  And **IMPORTANT** all soon-to-be mothers, people shopping for mothers, whoever! the BOB stroller is the BEST and a must-have for mom's who like the outdoors and are active!  I am telling you we walked over ice and mounds of snow and the BOB off roaded like nobody's business.  Worth every penny!

Oh nothing just wanting to show you the monster in my bed.  We have a queen sized bed people and look at him!  He hadn't tried to sleep with us in over a year, but then came winter and look who snuck back up there.  Not the ideal sleeping arrangement.

All dressed up for mommy's birthday lunch.  Miss blonde hair and blue eyes...she looks nothing like me, but I carried this child for 9 months, I promise!!!  :)

Let's review, shall we?

So for the "memoir" purposes of this blog, I'd like to do a quick review of our life in pictures to bring us up to date.  This really is a great way to keep a running digital scrapbook of our life (especially Ellison's growth) without having to download, pay to print, and then organize pics in a real scrapbook.  I hope to do that someday as well....but this is not the season for it.

So let's begin! 

The day before our wedding....so this is our "dating" pic.  We were babies!!  

Ah the wedding.  Bliss.  The beginning of it all....and best day EVER!

Then came our first child.  The Dunk!  He is THE epitome of the term "gentle giant"

Then, BAM!  5 years later I was knocked up.  :)

On June 25th, 2010, our precious bundle arrived!  She was perfect!

1 month

2 months and SO excited about her first lake trip!

3 months

4 months...she kills me!

5 months and on the morning of her baptism wearing her special bloomers and showing off those baby blues!  Thanks to her Ga-Ga Bloom for those!

Just for fun....had to include these from our Christmas card photo shoot cause she was hilarious and too precious!

6 months and really?  Is your heart melting yet?  Oh and we are addicted to fun hats! :)

7 months and our most recent.  Good thing we got our snow boots from Aunty Hannah all the way from Tibet....they are keeping those toes warm this winter!

Whew!  Ok, I feel better to have that accomplished.  Ellison is about to take off crawling any day now and we are waiting for those first teeth still!  Geez, it's like she has been teething for months and not one stinker to show for it.  But, every day brings something new, so we will check back in soon!