Cutie Pie!!!

Along with spaghetti, Ellie apparently likes pie . . . lemon meringue to be exact! She found our nearly empty pie pan and went to town helping herself to the leftovers. I especially like the licking the pan shot!!

Spaghetti

Recently Brian fixed spaghetti for dinner. I ran out to do a quick errand while dinner was still cooking and when I returned I found Ellie enjoying a plate of spaghetti . . . in more ways then one! Enjoy the pictures and videos!!

Spaghetti Monster, part I

Spaghetti Monster, part II

Birthday Girl

So, it's only been a month since her birthday and I'm just now getting photos up. Beware, there are lots of pictures in this post. Ellie had a great and very busy birthday weekend. For starters the weather was ABSOLUTELY perfect all weekend long. It was sunny and warm, but not too warm

Friday, Daddy finally got to take his daughter to her first Cincinnati Reds game. Ellie has been to a lot of ball games in her life already with cousin Joey's t-ball, mommy and daddy's vintage base ball and the Dayton Dragons, but I think she was a little overwhelmed with her first major league game. She didn't cry, but she clung to me and didn't let go while we were in the stands. She just looked wide-eyed around her at all the people. When the crowed roared and clapped, she would look around and start clapping too. It was cute! After a while though mommy, cousin Joey (who also came with us) and Ellie went to the courtyard area of the park to play on the jungle gym and check out the interactive exhibits. While nursing, the Reds got a home run that sent fireworks into the air. Ellie never stopped nursing but turned her eyes to watch them above her head-dinner and a show!! Ellie also got her second Reds shirt (the first was last summer even though she never went to a game) a black Adam Dunn shirt to match mommy! Here are a few photos from the game.

Saturday we started the day having and early lunch with our friends Jolie and Lily who were visiting from Michigan. Jolie is a long time friend of mine from camp and Lily is her daughter who is just a few months older then Ellie. It was fun to catch up and see each other as our last visit with them was in August.Here's a picture of all of us after our meal.

Next we went to watch cousin Joey's first t-ball game of the season, his opening day. Last year Ellie arrived 5 hours before his opening day parade, just in time for Aunt Amy and everyone else to get home and watch-wasn't that nice of her!! Ellie enjoyed being outside and playing with Emma and Great-Grandma and the rest of the family who came to watch Joey play. Afterward we had to stop and get some ice cream of course!

Sunday was the BIG DAY! Ellie's first birthday. Ellie was born at 4:00 am on April 22nd. When Brian was little, his parents would take a picture of each of the kids at the exact time of their birth. Brian and I thought that would be fun, but we never bargained for a middle of the night baby and even though we set our alarm with good intentions, I'm sad to report we did not get a picture of Ellie at her birth time, although we did get one when she first woke up. Maybe next year!!!

Ellie's birthday party was held at Aunt Amy's house. She has more room for all of us there. Ellie was lucky to have great-grandparents, grandparents, great aunts/uncles, aunt/uncle, cousins, and family friend Uncle Peach there to celebrate with her. She did as I predicted she would with the cake. She poked at it a bit but overall didn't care for her hands being covered in icing and just wanted mommy to wipe them off. I don't think she appreciated everyone staring right at her either. We didn't get a lot of pictures of the cake-eating as we were too busy enjoying watching her. Here are a few videos to enjoy also.

Happy Birthday to You

Cake?

She got lots of fun presents and overall just enjoyed running around inside and outside with her cousins and everyone she loves so much. It was a great weekend full of all the things we enjoy the most-family and friends, baseball, cake and ice cream! The year went by quicker than we thought and we can't imagine our lives without our beautiful baby girl. We love you Ellie!!