Ellie's First Birthday Party

Y'all.

Our Ellie Paige is ONE.

How do we have a one year old? I do not know. But somehow, according to the calendar, she is 12 months. This year has been amazing and funny and scary and tiring and worth it. So very worth it.

We had a small, family party at my parents' house for Ellie's first birthday. We grilled burgers and hot dogs. Grant said a prayer thanking the Lord for Ellie Paige, and then the party commenced! It was so fun to have everyone together under one roof. Ellie seemed a little overwhelmed at first, but all of a sudden her little personality couldn't help but shine through. 

Plus, she loves presents. She's not ashamed to admit that.

We were so thankful for the guests from out of town that traveled such a long way to celebrate our girl. The theme was butterflies!

The cutest banner from Etsy:

My mom found these precious butterflies at Garden Ridge:

 The goody bags for her cousins:

 Her special birthday dress. (Also an Etsy purchase!)

Getting her new car from Grammy & Pops, while her cousins Scarlett and Juliet share in her excitement.

 I think she was pretty pleased!

The cake was made by Virginia's Cakes! Marble cake with a butter cream frosting. My fave! Virginia also made our wedding cake. Full circle moment.

 The girl and her daddy.

 Time for cake!!

Oh my goodness. She was oh-so-very confused while all her people sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She stared at us with the funniest face. I couldn't stop laughing.

 Not sure.

"Okay.... this is pretty good!"

 After cake, the birthday girl took herself a birthday nap upstairs while the rest of the party took themselves outside. The kids swam and played on the swing set while the adults sat around and visited. 

It really was so wonderful. We are so thankful for how our friends and family love our sweet girl. 

On to the toddler years!

A Day in the Life

This morning, at 6:20am, my eyes popped open. Ellie was fussing. I checked the video monitor and saw her thrashing around, frantically trying to find her pacifier. Sometimes if I give her a minute or two she finds it on her own. I watched her get more and more angry. Since she normally doesn't wake up till around 7am, I decided to get up and help her since I didn't want her to get so worked up that she was awake for good.

I stumble into her room, in the dark, and start helping her with the search. I check the corners, under the blanket, under her little legs.... I can't find it. She's now reaching for me. Getting more and more angry. I power walk to the living room, dig one out of her diaper bag, run back into her room, hand it to her, and run out. Thankfully, she immediately went back to sleep. I did too.

She woke up again at 8:11am. HAPPINESS. She never sleeps past eight, but I was just thrilled. I nearly skipped into her room and told her that mommy was so thankful. She clapped and we sang a little song about how nice it is to sleep as I changed her diaper. As we headed out to the kitchen, we stopped by the light switch which she turned off for me.

Into the high chair she goes.... along with a handful of Cheerios for her to munch on while I figure out what we're going to have for breakfast. I desperately need to go to the grocery store. She had fruit with oatmeal and some pieces of a cereal bar. Then we snuggled on the couch while she had her morning bottle and I watched The Today Show as usual.

She played with all her toys on the floor and bugged her daddy while he was trying to work. She crawls down to his office dozens of times a day and bangs on his window. It's so funny that when she sees me coming to pull her away from his office door, she crawls away from me really fast. Such a silly girl.

She lays down for her morning nap, while I make my coffee and sit down to do my Bible study, read emails, and check the daily sales. To be honest, 98% of the time I never buy anything, I just love to look and see what's available.

Ellie wakes up and starts playing again. I turn on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while I brush my teeth and put normal people clothes on. I walk out into the living room and don't see her. I find her in the kitchen. She has dumped Moxie's bowl of water all over herself. She finds this to be hilarious. We go into the nursery and change her diaper and her pajamas and put her into a little onesie and some capri leggings. I put a bow in her hair and put her shoes on while I talk to Aunt Jaclyn on the phone.

Then it's into the car so we can head to the grocery store. She starts to fuss. I keep a pile of newspaper ads from grocery stores in the front seat of my car for such a time as this. If Ellie is fussing in the car, all I have to do is hand her a sheet of paper. She loves paper. She giggles and crinkles it and tears it. I talked to her Baba (Grant's mom) on the way to the grocery store about their travel plans for Ellie's upcoming 1st birthday party which is in less than a month!

We get to the grocery store. I'm so thankful for my HEB who has "Parent with Child" parking spaces. So nice and convenient. She loves to sit in the cart and point at people and things as we go through the store. I have to hand her little trinkets from my bag to entertain her while we shop. Mama's keys... Mama's wallet, a rattle... when she's done with each item she throws it onto the ground. Such a helpful girl. People stop me in the store and tell me how BIG she is! And then they ask me how old she is and I say "next month she will be 1" and then they say "Oh, so she's not big.. she's SMALL!" Which is so very true. She is so small.

We load up in the car and I'm sweating and I look at the clock and I realize we are way past her lunch time. I get home as fast as I can, passing her yogurt drops at stoplights to keep her from melting down entirely. I get her in the house and rush to get all the other groceries in while I am simultaneously trying to put lunch in front of her.

For lunch she has 2 chicken nuggets, bananas, and blueberries. We top it off with a bottle and after a few minutes of playing my sleepy girl is ready for her afternoon nap.

I know that as a mom, I should use the afternoon nap to get things done around the house. I don't. I use the afternoon nap to sit my booty on the couch and veg out. I know this isn't the best use of my time, but I can eat my lunch and drink a Diet Coke and surf Facebook and it is glorious!

Little Miss wakes up and I chase her around the house. We read a few books. She does lots of crawling. I gave her a small bottle of Whole Milk this afternoon. It was her first time to taste whole milk. She finished it, but she kept taking the bottle out of her mouth, staring at it, and then putting it back in. "Something's different.... but okay. I'll take it."

She pulls up on the storage ottoman several times to dig out her toys. I'm so proud of her for how strong she is getting. She is just now really starting to pull up which is encouraging since I thought for sure it would never happen. She's on her own schedule :) She pooped. I changed her diaper. She pooped again. Always a pleasure.

I load her into the stroller, complete with her sun hat, and we embark on a little walk. We walk to the park and she has a blast on the swings. Then we got super adventurous and the 2 of us went down the slide together. Four times. Yes, I dragged my fat butt up the stairs and put her on my lap and we went down the slide together. Four times. She had a blast. I was out of breath.

We went to the mailbox and got the mail. She held some junk mail on the walk back home. By the time we got back in the house, we were both so thirsty. She gulped some water out of a sippy cup and banged some toys around as she continued her quest to get down to Grant's office as many times in a row as she could.

She was standing at one of her little toys and then saw something on the couch that she wanted. She was brave. She tried to take a step. She fell and hit her head on the bottom of the couch. It was hard. Instant sobs with real tears. I picked her up and consoled her. Grant came out of the office and he cheered her up instantly. She definitely has a little bump on her forehead. Makes me so sad. We journeyed back into the nursery where we read books and played. Then I cooked dinner while Grant entertained the girl.

Back into her high chair. She ate pears, half of a turkey dog, and a whole jar of pureed spinach and potatoes. She gets it all over her face and hands. After a good wipe down, we strip her down and she's into the tub. She splashes and plays with a duck. Then I pick her up and wrap her in her pink snail hooded towel. Probably one of my favorite parts of the day. She gets into a new diaper, some fresh pajamas, and I wrestle her into my lap to brush her hair. Then it's into the living room for another bottle. Part milk, part formula. She sucks it down and then we cuddle.

Right now she's playing on the floor. I'm typing this blog and I'm about to put her down. It's 7:20. It's been a long, full day. I just wanted to document this little day in our little world.

She's gonna be one. Goodness gracious. What a blessing!

***7:28pm. Update. She pooped again. You're welcome for that piece of information.****

Status Report

So... here's what's been going on around here.

This little girl will be 11 months on Sunday. ELEVEN. You know what comes after that? TWELVE. I can't handle it. Can not handle. 

PLEASE STOP LOOKING SO OLD.

I mean seriously.

Last weekend we went to Lake Travis with our Bible study group. 5 couples, 2 nights, no kids, lots of sunshine, lots of relaxing, lots of food and drinks, lots of laughing, a dance party, sleeping in, swimming in the lake, cruising in a boat... it was heaven.

And there was a porch swing. And I lived on it for 48 hours.

It was the longest I had been away from Ellie since she was born. A little over 48 hours. It doesn't sound that long, but it was such a nice break. I came home feeling rejuvenated and refreshed and ready to tackle the week! Big thanks to my parents for watching Lady Bug for us so we could go play on the lake with our friends. I did pretty well, but on the drive home on Sunday I was READY to see her. 

It's been a busy week, full of errands and laundry and trying to keep up with an ever-changing baby girl. She is active. She is opinionated. She is hungry. She is needy.

She is awesome.

She is learning new tricks. This afternoon she pulled herself to standing for the first time. I should add that as soon as she pulled herself up to the standing position, she started pooping, so there's that. Like I said, new tricks. She loves paper. She loves going to get the mail. It is a requirement that I hand her a piece of junk mail as we walk back to the house or we have an epic meltdown on our hands. 

It is hotter than blazes here in Houston. We are baking. The last few days I've taken Ellie to the park to swing and we only last a few minutes because we both start melting. She has fun for about 90 seconds and then I can see it all over her face. "Mama, I am all kinds of uncomfortable." Me too, little love. Me too.

Grant is working like crazy and I'm so glad that his job allows him to work from home. It gets a little cramped sometimes. There have been moments where I have to take Ellie out to the backyard cause Grant is trying to have a phone conversation while Ellie is expressing her feelings and emotions. She can get pretty loud. When we bought this house, it was just the 2 of us and we both worked out of the house over 40 hours a week. Now, we are both home, with a baby, and Grant tries to conduct business. We have a bit of a layout problem. There's no place for Grant to sequester himself from the rest of the activity of the home. Also, Ellie's nursery is sandwiched between our master bathroom and the utility room. Lots of noise involved with both of those rooms. 

All of that said, I also must add that we are feeling super blessed. What we have is more than enough. We are thankful for this beautiful home and will stay here as long as we need to! 

I'm also really thankful for this guy.

He is the best of the best. 

All Aboard the Train to Random Town

Look. Let's be real. It'd be super great if I could form cohesive thoughts and string them together and write an eloquent and well written blog post but that is just wishful thinking at this point. I feel like my brain exists in little snippets so that's what comes out when I sit down to write. I'll work my way back to writing anything that is remotely compelling. In the meantime, here's some random clusters of sentences that have nothing to do with one another.

1. I love HGTV and I love the show Property Brothers. Sometimes I feel like the homeowners are really bratty and demanding and rude to the Property Brothers. I want to grab these people by the shoulders and tell them to pull it together. You have the Property Brothers making you a beautiful, perfect home in about six weeks. Shut yo mouth. 

2. I made a birthday cake for Grant yesterday. Why? Well, because his birthday was yesterday. How original of me. I made him a classic yellow cake with vanilla icing and sprinkles. Here's the thing. THE CAKE HAS GOT TO GO. It just stares at me all day through the plastic wrap. And there's a handy dandy fork in that cake pan which softly beckons me... "Just a bite!". Liar. The cake is a liar. I've changed the covering to aluminum foil so I can't see it so easily. The bottom line is that the cake needs to get out of my house. 

3. One of my favorite ways to relax is to look at houses online. I know, it's weird. Especially since we are in no way house hunting. I just like to look at different houses in different areas and see how people decorate and what certain houses are going for. That being said, every once in awhile I see a house that I want to show to Grant for various reasons. Tonight I found a house that is beautiful, unique, not too big, not too small, and well within our budget. Grant loved it too. Unfortunately, the house is REALLY far out there. Totally the boonies. As Grant said, "we could live there, but we wouldn't have any friends." This is true. No one would ever come see us. 

4. All the television shows. They are gone for the summer. What am I going to do? How long do I have to wait to find out the answers to all those cliff hangers? Did Dr. Webber actually die? Is Bailey going to find him? Will it send her into a tailspin? And also, who leaked Olivia Pope's name to the press? WAS IT MELLIE?! I just need to know. Also, I will miss Jim and Pam Halpert forever and ever amen. 

5. I'm hungry always. And that's the end of that story.

6. Ellie is crawling everywhere and she is fast. She's not so much crawling as she is pulling herself around on her belly like a wounded soldier. She shows up in rooms and gets into stuff she shouldn't be getting into. Like the time I walked into the kitchen to find her about 5 seconds away from eating dog food out of Moxie's bowl. I caught her in time, but she sobbed as if I had broken her heart. Sorry, sweet girl. I'm just gonna be one of those super strict moms who does not let her kids eat dog food. 

7. Did you know that Target is now selling Panera Mac & Cheese in the refrigerated section? It's true. And it's glorious. Just another reason to love Target....

Okay so this list ends at 7. I had lofty goals of making it to 10 but that's just not how it worked out. To my perfectionist friends, I apologize. 

My First Mother's Day

On Mother's Day 2011, I remember laying in bed that morning and tearing up because I wanted to be a mommy. I wanted a sweet baby and I wanted to start our little family. I kept thinking "Maybe on Mother's Day 2012 I'll have a baby in my arms!". While the timing didn't work out exactly like that, we were pretty darn close.....

On Mother's Day 2012, I was hugely pregnant. Grant decided to give me a sweet gift, a Pre-Natal massage. I was thrilled due to the fact that my back was a hot mess, but I felt kinda silly. I know I was great with child, but I didn't really feel like a mom yet. Heck, I hadn't even seen this baby in me. How could I be honored as a Mother when I had never even looked at my baby's face?

On Mother's Day 2013, I woke up to the sound of my sweet girl chattering in her crib. "da-da-da-da-da....hahaha! babababababaaaaaaa!!!" I walked in to see her sitting up in her bed, clapping her hands, and cracking up laughing the moment she saw me. I scooped her up, kissed all over her cheeks, and hugged her tight. 

For the rest of my life, I'm going to be a mama because of Miss Ellie Paige. She started this new journey I'm walking. I've learned so much and am continuing to learn from my mistakes. We have really great days and really bad days. We have a lot of fun, and we also have meltdowns. Both of us. 

Our days are filled with changing clothes, reading books, banging toys together, taking walks, running errands, getting in and out of the carseat (which she hates), scheduled naps, trying new foods, splashing in the tub, and lots of bottles. She has brought me more joy than I ever, ever though possible. She is exuberant, expressive and delightful..... while also opinionated, stubborn and demanding. She's a tiny little human who will be 10 months old on Thursday. I'm not quite sure how that happened. 

She is my sweet little friend, by happiest girl, my beautiful daughter. I hope and pray that I do right by her. I pray that I don't screw this up. I want her to know how much she is loved. I want her to learn hard lessons and make mistakes. I want to soak this time up because in a few months she'll be a toddler and all this baby stuff will be long gone....

I'm so very thankful that the Lord chose me to be Ellie's mom. 

Disney 2013: It's Different With a Baby

Oh, Disney World. What a magical place you are. We've been so many times, and this time was SO. VERY. DIFFERENT. Going to the parks with a 7 month old was a whole new experience! So here's the thing... these pictures are not in order so we'll be bouncing around a bit as far as timelines go. Just bear with me :)

Both trips, Ellie slept on the flight for the first hour. The rest of the time we had to keep her occupied. She really did fantastic though. Everyone was telling me how good she was. 

One flight attendant even gave her wings and as we began our descent she came on the PA system and said that the flight crew would like to thank Ellie for choosing Southwest Airlines :)

This was taken after Ellie had a little incident in the park and needed a change of clothes. She is very excited to be wearing jeggings for the first time. 

Seeing this never gets old. I love this castle. 

I had a plan to get a picture of Ellie in front of the castle, but that never happened. That's because our day in the Magic Kingdom was not our best day. It was hot, Ellie was not having it, she screamed a lot and SHE NEVER TOOK A NAP IN HER STROLLER NOT EVEN ONCE. Oh my goodness. Ellie with ZERO naps is not a very good Ellie. It was not her happiest day. Plus, our trip was cut short since my sister-in-law got sick and we were all taken out of the park in a Disney van out a back exit of the park. It was probably for the best though. Ellie wasn't thinking that this was the happiest place on earth!

 One of the best parts of the trip is spending time with our nieces and nephew. Evan and Emmy turned 4 while we were there and I so love spending time with those precious little munchkins.

Isn't Emmy just beautiful?!

This was our last night of the trip. We took a boat to dinner at Downtown Disney. It was downright chilly!

Ellie did a little better in Epcot. We stayed at the hotel that morning and let her get a good morning nap since she refused to sleep in her stroller. This picture kills me. She loves to prop up her feet!

Ellie and her Baba got some great bonding time on this trip!! She's the baby whisperer :)

Oh, our Olivia Claire. The curls. I can't handle her cuteness. She's a ham and she and Ellie really bonded on this trip too. Ellie LOVES her Livi. They are only 2 years apart so we're pretty sure they will be good buddies a few years down the road....

Epcot. The giant golf ball. 

Hi. 

Mr. Evan Charles. 4 years old. That smile.... he is just too much. He says the funniest things and he still gives great hugs. He loves his "Guncle Grant" and he is ALL BOY. 

This was the only smiling pic I got on Magic Kingdom day. The onesie is an Etsy purchase. 

Three generations. The dad life!

Chase and Ronda's kiddos were KNOCKED OUT. Love this pic. Disney World is exhausting!

My sleepy girl!

They aren't fancy at all. Isn't this what everyone wears when they eat hot dogs?

Ellie just loved being with her cousins!

This girl traveled by plane, train, bus, boat and car. What a trooper!

We only rode 2 rides with her the whole time we were in the parks. And, let me tell you, SHE DID NOT LIKE THEM. She sobbed. Big tears. I felt so bad... I don't want to traumatize her! She held on to me so tight. Poor darling girl. She really didn't want anything to do with the parades either. 

Now, what she DID like.... watching her cousins dance. Amazed. 

These kiddos are looking so old....

The curliest girl in all the land....

My little Minnie Mouse girl...

The leg!

We really did have such a good time! The first day was rough but we soooo love being with family that it makes it all worth it. We know we'll bring Ellie back soon and she'll love it. She just needs to nap a little better next time :)

Excused Absence

Well, I've been missing.

There is no blogging happening as of late.

And to put the cherry on top of this situation... I MISSED THE OSCAR BLOG.

Here's what happened:

We went to Disney World. We went with the family and we brought our 7 month old daughter which means SO MANY THINGS HAD TO BE PACKED. Pretty much her entire nursery came with us on the plane. As we zipped up our suitcases to head to the airport, I had to make the executive decision to leave the laptop at home. It was just one more thing I would have to carry and I just couldn't justify the extra weight and hassle.  I was going to miss most of the Oscar ceremony anyway and I just didn't think I would have the energy to gather photos and write a witty blog about all my favorites at the end of a long day.

As it turned out, I really didn't have the energy whatsoever and I'm content with my decision. I just couldn't do it. I am still recovering from a week long trip with an infant. Y'all. Seriously.

We had a great time and I will absolutely post pictures in the near future. But for right now I just wanted to come explain my absence.

On another note, here are three things I am looking forward to:

1. I'm having lunch with my dear friend Liz today for her birthday, which was a long time ago, but we are just now celebrating. I miss my friend and I'm so glad to be able to sit at her kitchen table and visit.

2. Grant comes home today. He's been in Austin and I miss him. Ellie misses him too.

3. I ordered Ellie's Easter dress on Etsy a few months ago. Yes, months. Easter dresses are important, y'all. And this one KILLS ME. Everytime I open Ellie's closet and I see it hanging there in all its glory... I just get giddy. It's perfection. Can't wait to put it on her. Oh, I love Easter.

In closing, LOOK AT THIS GIRL: