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!!

Ahh..Spring!

We had so much fun playing outside this afternoon. Elli is so curious about everything...especially the mower and the little tree in our front yard. She enjoys playing on the hammock. It's her own personal jungle gym.

We've got a talker...

Elli's new loves this week...kissing her baby dolls (and mommy and daddy when prompted) and talking very loud. The kissing all started when I showed Elli how to kiss our Urlacher bobble head. She must love Urlacher as much as I do because it's one of her favorite things now. I don't know where she gets the loud talking from. :) She also loves to laugh and pretty much thinks she is hilarious. Greg and I were watching a recent episode of The Office and started dying laughing (ok all you Office fans...it was when Michael met Dwight outside of the office and said, I hope you aren't wearing a mic...at which point, Dwight basically undressed). Elli looked at both of us and started laughing too. Then she kept doing it. She thought it was hilarious (and she thought she was hilarious).

Yesterday we walked the Race for the Cure (just the 1 mile walk) and really enjoyed it. It was a beautiful day. I'm hoping this will be our first of many, many, many Race for the Cures as a family. It's such an inspiring event. It definitely reminded us of how blessed we are to have Grandma Marilyn in our lives!!!

Overall, we've been spending time outside when it is nice and lots of time with friends. We have a busy couple of weeks this next month which makes me grateful that Elli is pretty low key when it's all said and done. She's pretty good about rolling with the flow...we'll see if I'm still saying that in a month after a trip to the Children's Museum, a couple of bridal showers, some birthday dinners (I kind of forgot my birthday was coming up...I am just excited for Elli's), a trip to Michigan to see our good friend's new baby and a weekend without a whole lot of mommy and daddy because of a wedding rehearsal and ceremony (which we are super excited about...not the being without Elli part, but the wedding part!! Beth, we can't wait!!).

So much to say!

So much has happened since I last posted that this blog could very well end up being a long one. I'm going to try and condense as much as possible and let our pictures do the talking. I'll start with newest news...

Below are pictures from the Easter Egg hunt today at my sister's housing division. Grace was able to get a lot of eggs and Elli and Owen were both very interested post-hunt.

Elli's first apple...thanks for sharing, Grace!

I love being an aunt and because I'm such a nerd I took a picture of Elli, Addie and Owen's FIRST Easter basket from me (and Grace's is in there too). I love having an excuse to spoil them!

My in-laws (a.k.a. Mamaw and Papaw, Aunt Sara and Addie) came to spend time with Elli this week. She obviously had a great time (look at that smile!!) trying to keep up with Addie and eating McDonald's french fries with Papaw! :)

Vegas was awesome. My dad played the part of baby whisperer and helped us to get Elli to nap and sleep at night (which was the only down side of the whole trip...she hated every part about her crib and sleeping). Apart from the sleep issue Elli was really great. Syd and Katie are awesome travel buddies and my parents were an amazing help!

Other Notables:


• Hanging out with the Geary's. Elli had as much fun as we did and stayed up WAY past her bedtime!

I didn't have the camera in hand fast enough, but at one point Elli was standing up underneath her exersaucer so the leg holes were above her head and all we could see were her legs. It was hilarious.

Elli and I are helping watch our buddy Daniel on Fridays for the next couple weeks. Our first Friday was a success - he is the best baby! It's a good lesson for Elli to learn how to share!

Elli LOVES her daddy's spaghetti. By far her favorite food right now. Not sure how it got on her forehead, but I guess that just adds to the fun of it! :

Elli's pointing, drinking from a straw and I'm pretty sure she said ball when we were in Vegas! :)

Her shirt says "MOST LIKELY TO CHANGE THE WORLD." It's one of my favorites! :)