Ella's First Birthday!

Saturday was filled with so much joy and excitement! It was so wonderful celebrating our sweet girl and thinking of what we were doing that time the year before. I can't believe how much she has grown over this past year and her party was a perfect celebration of the blessing she is!

I had so much fun planning her party. The theme was "Ella's Favorite Things" and I kept the decorations girly and fun. The food was all of her favorites and for favors we did rubber duckies and apple sauce pouches in a bag with cute little dogs on it (ironic?). I wanted the whole day to be a celebration of her and the things she loves. I did a few fun crafty things and kept the rest of it pretty simple. 

We had her friends and family all together and she could tell everyone around her was excited and she kept smiling and laughing all day, which was the sweetest thing! She LOVED eating cake (no surprise at all) and cried when we took it away. Here are some sweet pictures from her birthday!

Me and my birthday girl! 

I made little centerpieces with pictures on popsicle sticks and cupcake goldfish on the table. I also put together a little book with pictures for the guests to sign/write Ella a note. 

Incredibly lucky to call this my family. 

Such a little goof ball!

Being silly with Nana

The birthday girl with grandma and grandpa

With her Aunt Ashley and Aunt Fifi

Favors and Drinks

"Ella's Favorite Things" 

I made a "1" sign with some of our favorites. I also did a monthly picture banner, but don't have a good pic of that. 

Sweet daddy helping Ella enjoy her favorite foods!

Loves her cake!!!!

Opening presents and loving all the tissue paper!

After we had her party we celebrated with family that night. We enjoyed pizza and cake and had a great time celebrating Ella! 

Singing her Happy Birthday! 

She kept clapping while we all sang. 

Ella with her cousins. 

Lovin' on my sweet girl after a day full of fun!!

Happy Birthday, Ella Mae! You are the sweetest blessing in our lives! 

learning the hard way

The last 24 hours have been pretty crazy for our little family. At 6:45 last night Ella and I were playing and waiting for Dad to get home. Jaxon was sitting by us, as usual and Ella was cruising all over the place. I was on the floor with Jaxon on my right and Ella started playing with her ball to my left. Out of nowhere and for a reason we still don't know, Jaxon lunged across me and bit Ella. It was by far the most terrifying thing I have ever experienced. I had to pull him off her and picked her up. There was blood on her and me and I could not figure out where it was coming from. At that moment James walked in the door and when she looked at him I realized Jaxon had bit Ella's ear. 

We got in the car and headed to the ER. They triaged her immediately and then we waited an hour and a half to see the doctor. After the doctor took a look they called in the plastic surgeon. When he arrived he went over everything with us and told us he thought surgery was the best option to fix her ear and stitch up where he could. We waited about 45 minutes for an operating room to open up then got her IV hooked up and prepped her for surgery. They sedated her through an IV that put her into a deep sleep while still being able to breath on her own. All of the doctors and nurses kept coming in to see Ella...she stole all their hearts and was an absolute dream. Considering the pain she was in she was such a trooper!!

Normally, Jaxon is such a good dog and Ella can literally pull the hair on his face and he won't budge. Ella's first word was dog when she was 10 months old and every time she sees him she gets so excited. James and I are firm believers in raising children in a home with animals. We believe it teaches them so many wonderful things, and never in a million years did I ever think something like this would happen. I was sitting right there, there did not seem to be anything that provoked him and all I can guess is that he was going for her ball. 

With that being said, today was very hard for our family in many ways.

A lot of people might be thinking, "that is why we don't have dogs," or "you just have to be so careful," but what I have learned from this is more that being parents requires sacrifice and a tremendous amount of faith that the Lord is in control and understanding that accidents are accidents and they happen. Understanding that last night was the first and might not be the last trip to the ER. Learning that even when you love your dog like a child that your baby's safety is most important.

This morning we made the choice to choose a different home for Jaxon. We know that Ella is our first priority, but saying bye to our dog was not an easy thing. Thankfully he will be living with James' parents now and crated anytime children are there. For now, this is the right decision for our family, but one day there might be room for a dog again, just not today. 

Here are some pictures of our sweet girl...

 Prepping her for surgery with her IVs.

 Snuggling with momma.

 Her poor ear. The gauze is on until tomorrow to prevent clotting. 

 You might be wondering how it is possible to be this cute in a baby hospital gown and IV...she is so sweet!

After surgery they had to monitor her for an hour then we could take her home.

So last night the lesson I learned the hard way was not that dogs are unpredictable, but that I am not in control. While the events definitely led to our family having to make changes, more than anything I learned that no matter how close I sit to her and try to protect Ella from harms way, life will happen. I am incredibly thankful for an amazing plastic surgeon who did a beautiful job on her ear and hopeful that it will heal. We would love and appreciate prayers for a speedy recovery and no infection. 

11 months

Our sweet girl is 11 months today! I cannot believe that in one month we will have a ONE YEAR OLD! That is still so hard to believe! 

This month Ella has developed SO much! I feel like her personality is coming out more and more everyday! She is definitely able to communicate (i.e. yell at us sometimes haha) about what she wants. She is doing great with her sign language and getting really good at telling us when she wants more food, or more of an activity and so on. I am loving being home to see all of this. She is also all over the place. She is not walking along yet, but will hold on to our pinkies and walk...she gets going really fast if she is headed towards a toy she wants or Jaxon. I still think we have some time before she walks unassisted though, which is fine by me! She can get to that when she is ready.

She has started making really silly faces this month and been playing lots of games. She will start the game peek a boo and get really excited when you join in and she loves to play phone. It is still so amazing to me how much a baby grows in a year and that just 11 months ago she slept and ate and that was about it :) Ella still loves bath time (since the day she was born). I am not sure what it is, but bath time always calms her down and she loves it so much. Now getting pj's on after bath time doesn't always go as smooth...haha.

She is a big eater and loves food. Right now she is loving blueberries, sweet potato pancakes, quinoa, bananas, turkey, (rice and beans when Nana takes her to dinner), and yogurt. We are still working on eating straight veggies, but she will eat spinach, broccoli  and peas mixed in her quinoa just fine, so we will take it!

I have been working on planning Ella's birthday party (which might be one of my favorite mom things to do.) I am just so excited to celebrate the blessing she has been in our lives and how much joy she brings us! 

Here are some pic of our big girl....I think we might have some red in that hair...

 Love that sweet face!

 This is the reality of an 11 month photo shoot...haha

 She is such a snuggle bug!

She LOVES books!

Here is to one more month of babyhood! I can't wait to see how she grows this month! 

10 1/2 months

Well this month we are a little late with our monthly update...but that's ok! I will blame it on trying to keep up with my busy girl. She is everywhere lately and I am loving this stage!

This month Ella really got fast with her crawling. It takes her no time at all to get to where she wants to go. She loves crawling into the bathroom when someone is in the shower or heading to the back door when James goes in the backyard. She is also cruising everywhere! She is walking along just about anything she can. I really love watching her grow through these stages and am so thankful to be here to see all this change!

Ella also got an ear infection this month. It is only our second one and was much harder than the first. She was waking up a few times a night and usually pretty fussy, but thankfully she is better now and back to a normal sleep schedule. 

She is also loving solid foods more and more everyday! This girl LOVES to eat her solids. Turkey, bananas, quinoa, food pouches, mangos, butternut squash, and mashed potatoes have been some of her favorites this month!

Here are some pictures of our growing girl...

 She loves playing in her room. 

 Cruising along...

 Silly girl

 This is what happens when you try to get a 10 month old to sit still

YAY we are done with pictures!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We are so thankful for our sweet girl!!

9 months

Ella turned 9 months on Friday and we had her check up that morning. She is a growing girl! So much has changed this month and life definitely looks different with a very mobile baby. Ella started army crawling around 7 1/2 months and I guess she got pretty good at that and wasn't so interested in crawling on her hands and knees, but that has changed very quickly this month! About a week ago she took off and is EVERYWHERE on those little hands and knees. She is getting very fast, too! Also, around 8 1/2 months she got very interested in wanting to stand on everything she could reach. Nap time definitely looks different since every now and then she will stand up and call mama or dada...good thing she is really cute. 

She has also grown a lot since her last check up. She weighs 17 lbs. 6 oz and is in the 50th percentile for weight! She is our petite little one, but we are so thankful that she is continuing to grow. She loves solid food SO much and eats just about anything. 

This month she has been saying a lot of mama, dada, and other babbling and lately she has started saying nana....which my mom loves! 

This month has been filled with a lot of milestones and learning how life looks different with a crawler. We are loving each stage and seeing her grow brings us so much joy! 

Here are some random pictures from the month and from her monthly pictures...

 Pulling up on everything!

 James was able to work his magic and get the camera and flashlight to work together so we could capture this little snuggle bug and how she likes to be close to her sheep and bunny at night. 

 Happy October!

 Such a goofball!

 Always loves that thumb!

 I think we might have more teeth coming in...

 Loves her bunny!

 Reading...lots and lots of reading around here

 SO MUCH LOVE

Loves her baby

Here's to hoping time will slow down just a little....

a big girl carseat

James installed Ella's new carseat this weekend and so far she likes it so much better than her infant seat. She has always disliked being put in her carseat, but lately was REALLY fighting it most of the time. We had a great coupon and some store credit that we needed to use before the beginning of October, so we bought her seat and thought we would go ahead and put it in and see if she liked it better.

So far it has been success! She seems to like sitting up straight more and it nice and soft, too! Picking a carseat was definitely something we researched A TON and talked with other moms we know to see what has worked well for them. We decided on the Britax Pavilion, which is the Boulevard with Click and Safe on the straps. We did not really think that you had to have the Click and Safe, but BuyBuy Baby only had solid black left in the Boulevard and I saw this cute fabric on the Pavilion and was sold! For about $16 more we didn't have to wait for them to order the Boulevard and it is the same carseat just with the click and safe which I don't mind.

I know there are a lot of people who also really love the Marathon and we were definitely between the two of those, but when we put Ella in them she seemed to do better and just fit better in the Pavilion. There were also some reviews that said the Boulevard/Pavilion made it difficult for their baby to see out the window because of the extra side protection foam. We have not had a problem with this at all. We are in a SUV and Ella seems to be able to see out the window just fine. Plus, we really like the extra protection that the side impact foam provides.

Just like any baby decision or purchase you definitely have to do what works best for your family. There are pros and cons to all baby items and you just have to find the one that matches the pros you love and the cons you can deal with.

Here is our sweet girl in her new carseat. She is also cutting her top 2 teeth. We can feel the left one already through her gums and the right one is pushing through....AH! BIG girl!!!

Happy Monday!

8 months

Our sweet Ella is changing so much every month! This month she has been a moving machine. She is army crawling and up on her hands and knees like crazy! She has also gone from laying down to sitting up on her own. This might be one of the funniest things I have ever seen. She is literally laying down and walks her arms back into the full splits to get to sitting up. Every time I take her to the nursery at Watermark or anytime anyone sees this they always call her the little gymnast. It is hilarious!

Also now that she can sit up from laying down, she likes to sit up in her crib, which is a whole new world. She even looks straight into the camera and says, "Mama." She also says baba, dada, and other babbling, but I will just enjoy believing she is calling me by name...haha! I really have loved her learning to say mama though...it has been really sweet. She is a talking machine and loves to talk most when we are driving around.

She is still feeding 4 times a day and eating solids 3 times a day. We have started pulling her highchair up to the table without the tray so she can eat with us as a family. James can't get enough of this and thinks it the cutest thing ever. She loves just about anything we give her and is doing great with picking up all of her finger foods! She gets frustrated grabbing avocados and bananas but finds creative ways to get them!

We are so grateful for our sweet girl! She bring us so much joy! Here are some pictures from her 8 month photos....

Her monthly photo shoots definitely get harder every month...but definitely funnier!