Valentine's Day

Ellie's Valentine from her Daddy

My Valentine from my Hubby

Our Family

Ellie's Valentine's Cookie from her Grandmommy & Grandaddy

The Cragwall Cousins

Ellie reading her card from Grammie & Papa

Ellie reading her Valentine from her parents

14 Months Old!

Ellie amazes me every day the things she learns and picks up on - you can teach her a new song or word and she will remember it an hour or day later. I am still loving being able to teach her new things and hang out with her during the day. My 2 days of breaks with her Mother's Day Out program have truly been a blessing, but I'm always excited to pick her up and be around her again. Some changes since the last update for Ellie have been:

1. She has some molars that have come in - no wonder she was a fuss bucket and waking up a TON at night in the last few weeks! I thought it was just some normal sized teeth coming in but low and behold, it was some HUGE molars! It all makes sense now.

2. She is walking up a storm! Her independent streak is coming out because she wants to walk wherever we go instead of being held.

3. She has added in a meal during the day - she now wants breakfast immediately after her milk instead of just a snack in a while. So, she eats 3 meals and 2 snacks a day now with some milk before bed.

4. She's still a great eater for me - not as many veggies as she used to when I made her baby food, but she still eats pretty much what I give her. I can always disguise the veggies mixed in with something else or with cheese.

5. We have finally turned her carseat around to face forward. We waited to do this until she was just too big the other way around because all the research shows that it's actually safer for them to be rear facing longer than just 1 year. Plus, Ellie was totally fine being faced that way. BUT NOW, she's a big girl and can see so much more in the car.

6. She still LOVES books. Every day at some point she brings me several to read to her and if there is anything unique about that book, she remembers to do it on her own (like feel the page or point to something I have pointed out to her).

7. I have introduced her to a few good kids videos recently and she really enjoys them (shocker). My favorite (and hers) by far is the Boz series (Christian series made by the creator of Barney and endorsed by MOPS). The other favorite has been Baby Einstein and I will be the first to admit that Boz and Baby Noah have helped me watch Ellie while I make dinner a few nights or two!

8. She is starting to grow out of some of her 12 month clothes but she's not quite ready for 18 month. Her "Ellie Belly" is still huge and adorable. She's now wearing shoes every day (thank you Lord for Robeez), but she's still wearing the 6-12 month size, on the verge of wearing her 12-18 month size.

9. Her recognition of people and places is getting better and better.

10. She loves to be around cats and dogs and loves watching other kids, especially ones bigger than her. She does well at her program with the other kids and is a good independent player.

11. She's been laughing more and interacting more with us, adding words to her vocabulary like "Buh Buh" (bubbles) and "Yeah" and "No" when we ask her questions. She also is picking up well with sign language words that have come in handy during meals and bedtime (see below - she is saying "bed" in sign language!)

It's amazing how she changes so much in a month! We sometimes stop and look at her and thank God for giving us such a cute, silly little girl. Until next month...

A Day at the Park

We had a random weekend of great weather here in Knoxville with temperatures reaching 60 degrees, so us along with everyone else in the city decided to take advantage of this weather and go to the park! I had only taken Ellie one other time earlier in the week to walk around, but this time Jesse came with us. We both got to exercise and then we had time letting her explore and WALK!! Here are some pictures and a little video from our park trip.

She's Walkin'!!

13 Months Old!

She's still changing! Each and every day, my daughter does something new or starts figuring something out - it never gets old. So, I thought I would share some of the changes since her 1 year update.

Ellie learning to use the walker

1. She has started on her quest to be a walker. She loves using her walker from Grammie and Papa and she is getting much better at using it. We are still at the lots of steps before falling stage, but she is getting more and more confident! (1st and 2nd video taken at the end of December and the last two were taken yesterday)

2. She will wear shoes now! Thank God for Robeez - they were the only shoes she would wear for the last few weeks, but we have gotten her to wear some of her other shoes recently. Now, it's just a matter of keeping up with her size!

3. She has been basically weaned to whole milk. I still mix a little formula in because I don't have the heart to waste something so expensive, but I only have a little more to use.

4. She is a GREAT eater still and is eating more of our food as we break her stomach in gently. So far, no food allergies and with her having so many teeth, she can chew stuff really well.

5. She has started a 2 day a week program at Ridgedale Baptist Church and WE LOVE IT! They keep her from 9-2 in a room of 5 other kids her age (11 - 23 months) and it's already challenging her and helping her learn to walk. God definitely provided this program to us so I could still keep my teaching job and have her taken care of.

6. She is responding to questions a lot more like "do you want a snack?" or "do you want to walk?" and she will nod or say "yeah" (sort of). She definitely understands any words related to food, nap, bathtime, daddy, mommy, play, and some other phrases.

7. Ellie LOVES music and dancing to it. Recently, she has started doing a new dance move of shimmying her shoulders back and forth instead of just nodding her head or bouncing. Sometimes she even twists her arms around. We love her new move.

8. She is figuring out some of her new toys from Christmas and her birthday. We love watching her make sense of a new way to stack something or take something in and out of a "purse" or even pulling something apart and putting it back together.

A short clip of her taking her first steps

Changes keep happening and sometimes I miss her being that little baby that snuggled all the time with us, but I can't help but love the stage she is in where she lights up when we walk in a room and gives us a big hug and smile! Thank you God for our little Ellie Belly!


Ellie walking in some shoes other than Robeez

Ellie showing off on the walker now

Snow Day

This winter, we've had more snow in Knoxville than we've had in a while. This week, we've had it twice and I took Ellie outside so she could experience a "snow" and step it in a little. It reminded me of when we did that back at Ft. Campbell a year ago. This time, she saw the snow, felt it on her, and even ate some! I thought I would put some pictures side-by-side so you could see how far she has come! :) Happy Winter!

UT Bowl Game

Jesse and I received some "date" money from the Mason's again and we decided to use it to buy bowl tickets. We had not been able to go to a UT home game at all this season (Jesse had a ticket to go to one but ended up in the hospital that day) so we jumped on the opportunity. UT played in Nashville at the Music City Bowl so we made it an afternoon/evening date with Jesse's mom who graciously babysat for us at the house. We headed over early so we had time to eat at where else but Joe's Crab Shack! We definitely crabbed it up after about a 45 minute wait with other UT fans! They even played Rocky Top a few times while we were there. Once we finished, we walked over the pedestrian bridge to LP Field. I had never been there and it was an awesome stadium - we even had a chair back in the bleeds! It was windy and cold, but we enjoyed the game. Unfortunately, the game ended differently than we wanted, but it was overall a good game. We drove back afterwards in time to get a few hours of sleep before our baby girl woke up. Overall, a GREAT DATE! Thanks, Mason's, once again...