Ellen's One!

Today Ellen is one!  It has been one year since our precious little gift arrived.  How can it be!!?

It has been by far the best year of our lives!  We have loved every minute of watching Ellen grow and change over this past year.  Her little personality keeps us smiling! 

Since we have made it one year we are of course now professionals.... NOT!  Parenting has taught us so much about God's unending love for us.  We have grown individually, as a couple, as parents and spiritually over this past year.  God has used Ellen to bless our life in so many ways. 

Ellen has continued to grow and change this month.  Her personality is coming out big time.  Her favorite pass time is pushing ANYTHING across the floor.  She also enjoys climbing our windows and Heber.  She has become quite efficient at climbing these days.

Ellen is not walking on her own yet but will stand and take four or five steps at a time.  For now she is most content to hold a hand or just crawl.  We are enjoying these crawling days before they come to an end. 

This month Ellen took her first big vacation.  We went to North Carolina to visit our dear friends Kyle, Natalie and Connor.  We met Kyle and Natalie at church and their friendship means so much to us.  They have since moved to North Carolina but we love having a "winter home" to vacation. 

Ellen did good on the flights.  We WON'T go so far as to say it was easy or fun but she was a trooper.  She was sure to turn up the charm to all the passengers around her on the plane.  We survived. 

All the flying was TOTALLY worth it to spend a long Valentines weekend with people we love so much.  Connor and Ellen played together so well.  We had fun just reconnecting!  So many memories!

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

What an amazing year it has been!  We are so thankful for our sweet little Ellen and can't wait for all this next year will bring! 

 

 

Ellen's 11 Months

We can't believe it is only one month before our sweet baby girl turns one!  How can it be??!! 

This month Ellen has been busy, busy, busy!  She is on the move.  She is not walking but she will stand for short periods and is all over the place crawling.  You can't take your eyes off her for one second. 

This month Ellen has started waving.  It is usually delayed but that makes it even cuter. 

Transitioning from pureed foods to finger foods has proven to be a challenge.  She has become very picky.  Her favorite foods are cheerios and toast.  We have tried EVERYTHING else and we will continue.  In time we know she will become less selective.  This is her happy cheerio face. 

Ellen has also become a lot more verbal this month.  She makes lots of sounds and is very passionate about what she is sharing.  Her main word/sound is "da-da." 

 

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

Our Christmas celebrations continued into January.  We had our Christmas party with the Flohr and Meyer families.  We had a fun night of food and lots of play time.  The kiddos are just too cute!

We also celebrated Christmas with our annual white elephant party with our journey group.  Kevin and Vanessa hosted the wonderful night.  There were many laughs!  Especially when we received a fish bowl complete with a fish! 

For Christmas this year we received a zoo pass from Grandma and Grandpa Henning.  We have been lucky enough to have friends take us and we realized just how much Ellen loves the zoo.  This month we went several times each week.  We love going with friends and Ellen loves the animals.  Her favorite are the big cats.  Ellen is CRAZY about cats!  She also loves the aquarium and she seemed to like the butterflies as well.  We will be spending lots of time there. 

In  mid January we packed up and went out to Gothenburg to celebrate the Erb family moving back to Gothenburg.  It was the first time our whole family has been together in a long time.  It was so much fun to be together and watch Ellen and Eli play. 

These are a few other random pictures from the month. 

It has been such a great month.  We are excited to think about celebrating a year with our sweet girl. 

Coming up next month we are going to make a trip out to NC to visit our dear friends Kyle and Natalie.  I'm sure we will have lots to share about that adventure!