Ellie's First Easter

Easter was so much fun this year! Luckily, Ellie was actually feeling good on the days we celebrated. The weekend before Easter we went to the Mustang Community Center egg hunt with all the cousins: Jaiden, Jasmine, Jett, Sadie, Haven, and Ellie. We ate pancakes, hunted eggs, and had a great time. Ellie is actually a good little egg hunter for an 11 month old!

As excited as I am for her to be walking, I'm a little sad, too.

She doesn't seem like a baby anymore!

Nana and Ellie

Hunting eggs

The Grandmas and their granddaughters
Ellie's cousins

(Poor Jett. I'd say he's outnumbered!)

On Easter Sunday we went to church and then headed over to Aunt Des and Uncle Mike's house for an egg hunt and some delicious food. I made an Easter bunny cake and by the end of the meal I felt like I might pop!

Ellie's Easter basket

Her favorite thing in it was this piece of grass!

My Easter Bunny cake
Sadie and the Easter bunny

Sadie and Ellie

Grandma and Ellie

We just told Ellie the Easter bunny isn't real . . .

Not really . . . but, this would probably be her reaction.

This is just another one of the silly things she's doing right now.

I'm telling you . . . I've got a drama queen on my hands!

Trying to get a picture of the 3 girls in their

coordinated Easter dresses. Not an easy task!

Ellie and Haven

Filling her basket

Me, Mom, and Casey

She doesn't look old enough to have a 21-year-old and a 30-year-old, does she?

Ellie is 11 months old!

It is so hard to believe that my little baby will be 1 in a few short weeks. I don't even offically think of myself as a mom yet . . . I feel like I just brought her home! It's amazing how much she has changed our lives. She's so happy and we have so much fun no matter what we're doing with her. She's very easy going and adapts to whatever situation she's in. She loves people and has never met a stranger (except Dace, but we're working on that!). I just love her so much I feel like my heart might burst!

Here is what my Ellie is up to at 11 months:

-She weighs 20 lbs. 10 oz. and is about 28 inches long.

-Still wears size 3 diapers, but we may try 4s after this pack. Wearing mostly 12 month clothes now.

-She has 4 teeth now. Her top 2 came in this past month. She's now taking bites of things that she used to shove in her mouth. I think she likes using them. Also, if you ask her where her teeth are she'll rub her tongue over them. If you ask her where your teeth are, she can point them out.

-She can also point out bellybutton, toes, and nose.

-She raises her hands above her head and smiles when we say "yay," or she does something she's proud of.

-She can point out family members and Elmo is books/pictures.

-She's walking everywhere! She took her first steps a few weeks ago, and now she's officially a walker! She doesn't crawl at all anymore!

-She knows how to wink and she'll do it on command. She usually blinks both eyes, but sometimes just one.

-She still loves yogurt, oatmeal, cheese, and chicken. She also really likes oranges now. She also loves Momma's egg and cheese omelet. Yum!

-She loves to play outside, go on walks in the stroller, swing in the hammock, and anything else that involves being outside. She cries every time we bring her in.

-Her newest thing since she's been sick is to put her hand on her head and say "oh." It sounds very drama-queenish.

-Some fun things she did this month: had her picture taken with the Easter bunny, went to her first Easter egg hunt, flew on a plane to Indiana, went to the zoo, went to the circus.

-Some not so fun things she did this month: got an ear infection- yuck!

Happy 11 months Ellie! We love you so much!

-

Easter Bunny and Ear Infection

Ellie had her picture made with the Easter Bunny yesterday. Once again, the ladies at the mall were very impressed with how well she did. Like she did with Santa, she smiled and waved at the bunny and let him tickle her cheeks. She even wore her headband and smiled! I am especially proud of her since we found out this morning that she has an ear infection. She was a little cranky on Monday evening, but happy all day Tuesday. Then came 11:30 p.m. last night! She screamed to the top of her lungs for about 2 hours straight. She finally fell asleep with Kyle in the recliner, but would wake up hourly screaming in pain. It was horrible! I took her to the doctor this morning and he confirmed that she had an ear infection. She's now on some antibiotics, so hopefully it will go away soon. Poor baby . . . but it didn't stop her from looking beautiful in her Easter dress!

Trip to Indianapolis

Ellie just flew for the first time! We went to Indianapolis to visit our friends Shawn and Stephanie and their little girl Tatum. Tatum is 3 months older than Elliott. The first time they met they were 1 and 4 months old and we almost didn't even get a picture of them together because they both slept so much. Not this time! They had fun playing together. We got there on Thursday evening and went to the zoo on Friday. The weather was beautiful! The girls enjoyed people and animal watching, but were worn out! They both slept until 11:00 the next morning! While rain ruined our plans of going to the park on Saturday, it didn't ruin the guys' plans to play golf. We tried to take the girls to the mall for lunch and shopping, but poor Tatum was not feeling very well. So we postponed our shopping trip till the guys got home. The Hatfields cooked for us every night! We played games and watched movies after the girls went to bed. We haven't laughed that hard in a long time! Thanks Shawn and Steph for a great weekend!

After a long day of travel on Sunday, we were glad to be home. Elliott did great on the flights to and from Indy. She made lots of friends, including the pilots on our first flight. They even let her come into the cockpit and pretend to fly the plane. I was shocked, but they acted like it was no big deal.

Another huge milestone occured while we were gone . . . Ellie started walking. She's been taking steps, 4-6 at a time, but she saw Tatum doing it and thought it must be what all the big kids are doing. She's walking all over the place now! I just can't believe she'll be 11 months this week. I'm so proud of how well she did on the trip. She's such a great baby!

Here are some pics from the last week:

The day before we left- she was cheering on the Rangers.

Practicing her new skills

In the car on the way to the airport

On the plane

"Mom! You gotta see this!"

Luckily she slept on the 2nd (and longest) flight

Waving hi to the captain

I think Kyle was more excited about this than Elliott was . . .

Tatum showing Ellie around the playroom

Sharing books

Pajama Party!

Getting ready for a day at the zoo!

I love this one!

Ellie crashed on the way to the zoo,

but luckily woke up in time for . . .

. . . shark petting with dad. Mesmerized by the aquarium

Snack break

Watching the elephants

You can tell the girls are tired here. Tatum's looking the

opposite direction and Ellie's about to cry and lose a shoe. :)

Photoshoot in matching outfits. I wonder what they're saying

to each other??

We had a blast in Indianapolis! Can't wait till the Hatfields come to visit us!