Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Exciting News!
Friday, July 27, 2007
Eleanor and Honest Abe
This summer:
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Summertime Slackers
Monday, May 28, 2007
Cutie Pie!!!
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Spaghetti
Sunday, May 20, 2007
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.
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!!
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
The D Word
In the midst of the nasty virus, Ellie started in her new class at school. She is just blossoming in there as she has been opened up to so many new and exciting activities. Her teacher is great, a younger gal named Miss Amanda and Ellie has taken to her right away. We already have quite the collection of art projects and paintings as they do one every day in her class. She LOVES sitting at the table in her own little chair to eat too. I think her favorite thing in the new class however is the outside play time. When I arrive to pick her up, her class is out on the playground. It's so weird to see her out there climbing on the equipment and playing outside like a big girl! Because she loves it so much, it's hard to get her to leave so we usually spend 20-30 minutes playing together on the playground before I drag her off crying. She is doing great though and it's fun to hear the big kids and teachers call her by name now and tell her goodbye. We are just so blessed to have such a great place to take her everyday!
Easter came in the midst of nasty cold weather and snowflakes so Ellie wasn't too keen on the two or three Easter Egg hunts we dragged her to. I thought she would love to pick up the pretty eggs off the ground, but instead she just stood there looking at them and pointing at them, afraid to pick them up and then cried. Aunt Amy and I tried to get her to see the fun in it but she wanted nothing of the eggs or the giant Easter Bunny running around. Her cousins however did enjoy the hunts and Joey was lucky enough to find the grand prize egg which won him a brand new bike at the Easter Egg Hunt we went to on his birthday! What a special 6th birthday!!
Sunday, March 25, 2007
And We're Off . . .
* Kitchen Escape * Toddler
Speaking of changes, Ellie will be moving up to the next room at daycare in one more week. I have been talking with her new teacher and visited her new classroom last week. She will be in a room with three other girls who are just a couple of months older then her. There are only four babies so the numbers are nice and low. They each have their own crib still but sit at a tiny table and chairs for lunch and various projects. The biggest difference in this room will be that they now have a lesson plan and set schedule. They go outside twice a day or play out in the big long hallway if the weather doesn't cooperate. They go on wagon rides outside, have an art project everyday and on Tuesday's she will start going to chapel with Pastor John. He tells stories, plays his guitar and sends them off with a hug blessing. I'm so excited for her and think she is going to have so much fun in her new big girl class.
Other than walking, she is really staring to get her personality now. She does things now to make us laugh and is purposefully (an not so purposefully) being silly. She is talking a lot, although most of it is still gibberish but now and then a few real words are popping out. Her favorite term right now is "hi da-da!" but she can say ma-ma, da-da, uh-oh, and no, no, no. Here is a video of her saying no (which we find ironic as we have been very deliberate in not using no for every little thing!) Anyway it is cute, at least for now!
Speaking of cute, Ellie has now attached herself to a lovey for the first time. She hasn't used a pacifier forever, never cared for a blankie but has fallen in love with her bear from Aunt Sharon. She picked a good lovey as he is made from extremely soft, squishy material and is super cute to boot. For a few weeks, she was desperately holding onto him when we went out of the house or when she went to school. It didn't take long for his nice pink outfit to start looking a little black and gray and I worried about what would happen if he were lost or needed a bath so I went ahead and bought two more identical bears which we now rotate often and have back-ups. Every once in a while she will see them all together and seems overwhelmed with love and affection!! Her infatuation is not as intense these days but she still prefers to have him close by and will stop, lay her head down on him and say "ahhhhh" if she passes by him while playing.
Otherwise, we are enjoying the warmer weather and being outside again. Ellie LOVES taking walks in her stroller and going to the park. She often cries when we get home and go to get her out and she will point or go to her stroller when we go by it as if to say-let's go! Spring break is the week after this coming one and hopefully we can find some fun, outside adventures to get in to! We welcome your comments and feedback!!
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Spring is in the Air!
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Three and a Friend
On Sunday we took oue maiden voyage to Ikea. I LOVE Ikea and am excited that we are getting one very close to us in Spring 2008 but I had never been to one yet. Meva and Chuck live about 15 minutes from one and we decided to make a visit with all of the babies. It was a fun adventure getting four babies ready to go, including all of their gear. We all fit into the mini van quite nicely and I had the privilege of sitting in the back with all the babies. I had a very attentive, smiley, adorably cute audience for most of the trip until the babies one by one fell asleep. Here's a video of the napping car. Ikea was awesome and I had so much fun looking at all the cool things and had to restrain myself in only getting a few smaller items. Our gaggle of babies seemed to attract quite a bit of attention as we moved through the store, especially with Meva pushing her big triplet stroller. We heard the words for three and four babies in many different languages as people walked by and tried to guess whether they were triplets or quadruplets. When we were asked, we would reply "triplets and a friend!" It's amazing the questions and comments people would make, some very personal!! The babies were all very good during our excursion and all in all it was successful and enjoyable.
Our visit with the Kennedy's was great but not nearly long enough. We know there will be many trips and visits in the future as our babies become great friends just like their mommies and daddies!
If you want to read more about the triplets, visit their blog here. Below are a few more pictures from our weekend. There were too many cute ones to post them all! Enjoy!!