Three steps forward!

So, I started this blog a couple of weeks ago and am just now getting to finishing it up. We've been pleasantly busy, so here is what we've been up to.

We had so much fun with the awesome weather around my birthday. We tried to take advantage of it as much possible...lots of hammock, park and playing on a blanket time.

We celebrated my birthday by going to the Children's Museum. A few notables from the museum:

• Elli loved it!


• Elli climbed 'up' anything she could.


• She was really understanding the 'case and effect' station.


• She tried to kiss a chunky little 12 month old.


• Elli enjoyed the story time...or she enjoyed trying to eat the fake food during the story time.


• Elli was exhausted but she continued to play her heart out...and was SO good!!


• She wasn't so sure about the carousel ride, but I figure she'll get used to it.


• We got a membership and plan on going regularly (we got the +2 so if you are in the area and want to go please call us!!)


• We went again this past weekend with my whole family and we had a ton of fun. Owen, Grace and Elli seemed to all really enjoy our time there. It definitely reinforced our decision to buy the membership.

We also had fun trying to fly Grace's kite on my birthday weekend. It was such a beautiful day to hang out with my family.

We went to a nearby park and Elli got her first swinging adventures in. She seemed to like it...well, she was actually enjoying the string cheese more but I think she liked the swing.

Look at her hair flying in the wind! :)
Elli's not so sure about the feel of grass. She would crawl from one end of the blanket to the other, but never actually touched the grass if she could keep from it. She did enjoy our dandelions...good thing we have about a million for her to play with.

Elli loved the cake and ice cream at Katie's shower. She started dancing when my sister was feeding it to her. The ladies got a big kick out of it, but I was a tiny bit embarrassed because her dance is a little provocative...lots of hip action. Not sure where she learned that from. Seriously!

Holy moly! With all the great weather updates I forgot to mention that Elli has two teeth! That's right! The first tooth came a couple of weeks ago and our babysitter Kelly had to tell us. We didn't even know it! Elli didn't have any of the symptoms (well except for what we found in her diaper...which made things really interesting when she pooped in the bathtub...good times) so we weren't really looking for it. Now that she has one she must be cutting more because she's definitely slobbery and EVERYTHING goes in her mouth. I guess that's not terribly uncommon for her, but it's to a new level.

Elli's birthday is just about a month away. I have been enjoying thinking through the plans. I'm so excited and feel so blessed that God chose Elli for us. It's been such an amazing year. Everyone, save the afternoon of June 6th for E's party! Everyone's invited for some homemade ice cream and cake. Yum!

Another HUGE update: Elli is starting to walk. She's taken a step here and there but on Sunday she took three or four steps at a time! She loves to walk with help so I have no doubt that it will be any day that she starts and doesn't stop.

We visited our friends that moved back home to Michigan a couple of weekends ago. They have a precious baby boy - only 4 weeks old! It was so fun to see them and catch up.

Mother's Day was spent at the park and then with the Nicholson's. It was a beautiful day. We had fun eating our picnic and feeding the ducks.

I love the above picture because Grace was drinking her Sprite and she saw Elli watching her, so she just plopped down and let her drink from her cool M&M cup. We typically (okay, we ALWAYS) shy away from feeding Elli carbonated beverages, but I thought it was so sweet how natural it came to Grace to share with Elli. No wonder Elli loves her big cousin so much!

We had fun on Papaw's golf cart too! The weather was just warm enough to go for a ride.

Yay! Grandma and Granddad are back!!