Ellen's 9 Months

Today Ellen is 9 months old!  That is 9 months of love, laughter and complete joy!  Our hands are truly overflowing with God's blessings. 

Ellen is growing and changing right before our eyes.  Each day she is learning something new and growing.  We love watching her explore the world but we have such a hard time with how fast time is going since she arrived 9 months ago. 

Here are a few things we hope to never forget about Ellen at 9 months! 

She LOVES anything soft.  Her stuffed animals and blanket are her favorite toys.  When she finds something soft she sticks her whole face into it!  She just can't get enough and we can hardly stand  the cuteness! 

Ellen loves to sit next to her toy basket and take one toy out at a time.  If it's soft she sticks her face into but otherwise she checks it out and then moves onto getting out the next toy. 

Socks are ALWAYS off and in her mouth!  ALWAYS!!!

Ellen still has no teeth so we want to remember that adorable toothless smile.  It will be changing very soon! 

That tongue! 

Those cheeks! 

This month Ellen did learn how to crawl "properly."  She also is walking around with her walker and climbing stairs like crazy.  We love how she stands on her tippy toes and how she gracefully gets down from standing.  :)

Here are a few other things Ellen has been up to this month.....

Rachel took our family photos and she did a wonderful job!  We took them by the creek behind our house and it was a perfect day.  Ellen of course had her cute tongue out for ALL of the pictures!  :)

Ellen experienced her first snow of the year.  She wasn't too sure about it but Heber let her know that snow is the best!

We had our "Friendsgiving" with our journey group.  Getting a group photo was a hoot!

The Papik crew came over for a fun morning.  Ellen loves them so much! 

We celebrated Thanksgiving with three different meals!  At our Henning Thanksgiving she started saying "Dada" for the first time!  Such a little turkey!

We also got to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family.  She loved all the attention!  :)

 

 

It has been yet another great month!  We are excited to introduce Ellen to the Christmas season! 

Ellen's 8 Months

This post is super late this month.  Our computer crashed so it took us a few weeks to get back up and running.  Also, Ellen is on the move so blogging is much harder.  We have had a great month with our sweet Ellen.  She is so interactive and happy we want her to stay this age forever.  :) 

 

At the beginning of the month I was gone and Drew put Ellen down in her crib while he warmed up her bottle and came back to find her standing in her crib!  Now she pulls herself up on anything and everything.  She will walk around our ottoman and couch all day long if we let her.  When she first learned how to do it we had a couple of nights of little sleep because all she did all night was pull herself up and then couldn't get down.  :)  It was pretty cute even in the middle of the night.

This month she also started leaning in to give kisses.  They are usually open mouth kisses but they are absolutely adorable!

Ellen had her first trip to the pumpkin patch.  It was a perfect day and we can't wait to take her back again next year.  Vala's is the best!  We feel so blessed to have such good friends that are in the same season of life. 

Ellen has always loved the swing at the park down the street from our house.  So this month we got her one for the backyard and she loves it.  We are out there everyday when the weather allows. 

This month Ellen also got to meet her new baby cousin Quincy for the first time.  We were able to travel to Des Moines to see him in the hospital.  He is so precious.  We also got to go back at the end of the month and spend a whole weekend with baby Quincy.  We are so in love!  These two will be running around getting into trouble together in no time at all!

This month we also got to celebrate Aunt Chelsey getting engaged to Pat!  We are so excited for their upcoming wedding and Ellen loves looking at Chelsey's beautiful ring. 

This month Ellen also celebrated her first Halloween.  She was the cutest honey bee we have ever seen.  :)  Our house was full on Halloween night and we had many laughs taking the kiddos trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  Our sweet neighbor even had a special Halloween treat for Ellen, cheerios and baby food.  So sweet!  It was a fun first Halloween! 

Here are few other things Ellen has been up to this month.....

Ellen and Heber are inseparable.  She loves to crawl on him constantly and he doesn't seem to mind much at all.  Heber can ALWAYS get her to smile!

 Drew and I got to slip away for a Husker game day date.  Ellen got to spend the day with Grandma Marcia.  She had gotten Ellen her very own chair.  The poor chair got some wear during her first visit but I know she will love it each time we visit Roca. 

Ellen and her Daddy!  Can you tell they are related?  :)

Ellen went to vote with us. 

It was a busy month filled with lots of love!