15.5 months and 30" tall

At 15.5 months old (6/1/09), Eliana was 30 inches tall.
At 32 years old, Sabina is 61 inches tall...
So Ellie is almost half as tall as her mother.
Is that normal?

How cute is she?! Don't you just want to gobble her up?

Gro-a, Gro-a - Avocado Heaven

Ellie's FAVORITE food is avocado. She asks for it EVERY time she eats.
"GRO-A, GRO-A!!" (which OBVIOUSLY means avocado)
Here she is in avocado heaven...

Who says you need to buy expensive toys?

Nicaraguan Style

We're back! Here are pictures of Ellie in an adorable dress from Nicaragua that her Tia Lubela gave her. Thanks Tia! Too cute!!

Ellie now knows what a cow says and LOVES saying moooooo ALL the time.

The Bunker

So, a couple of weeks ago the air siren sounded in the middle of the night. Sabina and her mom turned on the TV for more info and it turned out there had been a tornado spotted in the area so the siren was for a tornado warning.

This prompted us to prepare a tornado bunker for the next time. Here's Ellie testing it out. We left her in there for 48 hours and she didn't seem to mind at all.

Bigger Challenges

Since Ellie is learning things so quickly, we thought we'd give her something a little harder....like driving.



She picked that up in just an hour and a half so then we had her practice backing the car into the garage.


Look at her using those mirrors like a champ!

2009 Mother's Day

It was such a great Mother's Day.

Here are the Ellie highlights from the day for Grandma & Grandpa in North Carolina.
We are still waiting for you to move to Georgia... ;-)

Apparently avocado is a good hair gel.

Ellie enjoyed her lunch and got so dirty that we decided to have some fun by giving her a bath in the sink like when she was a baby.

Pay no attention to Ellie's hair band in my hair. I just got a fabulous haircut, but I needed my hair out of the way to avoid it getting wet and curly again.

Charlie Chaplan

Guess the brown stuff under Ellie's nose. Hint: it's not any type of body fluid or boogers. :-)

It's almond butter.

Guess the fruit

The other day Steve realized that 90% of the pictures we have of Ellie are in her high chair... ha.
I can't help it. She's so cute when she's messy!
Guess the fruit she's eating below!

A Choo!

Imagine a soft white thing that you you pull on, and then another one pops up for you to pull on it. Imagine that happening OVER AND OVER again. So fun! Wouldn't you be happy too?

I love being a mom

This last year has been amazing. I still can't believe that I'm a mom and that Ellie is such a beautiful little girl. Being able to stay home at with her has been the most amazing blessing. I love getting her up every morning and miss her every night after she's gone to bed. Here are some pictures of story time, my favorite because we get to cuddle.
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

What does a cow say? Mooooo!!!!

Great Date #2

From MarriedLife Live:

"Most of us want to spend time with our spouse, but most of us don't spend enough time with our spouse. When we do get time together, a lot of us experience the classic, "What do you want to do? I don't know, what do you want to do?"

MarriedLife presents the Great Date Experiment. For the next 6 months, once a month, MarriedLife is rolling out a different Great Date. Each date is complete, yet you get to choose the options. "

If you'd like to have some GREAT DATES (they are so fun!!), you can download the dates here.

Each date has a theme, one of the six essentials of marriage: (in no particular order)
1. Hurry home
2. Nurture Romance
3. Celebrate Differences
4. Cultivate Communication
5. Trust God
6. Finish Together

Our dates have been so much fun and we've made some great memories that will last a lifetime. Here are some pictures from our second Great Date a couple weeks ago.

We went to Casablanca, a Mediterranean restaurant, and tried a bunch of appetizers for dinner. So good!!!

Then we went to a park and swung on the swings.

Then we went to a grocery store and picked out a dessert for each other (something the other had never tried before - under $2) and told each other why we picked what we did.

Steve got me some milk chocolate because I started liking milk chocolate more since my pregnancy. I got Steve peanut butter whoppers because he loves peanut butter and malt, so the combo must be fabulous!

The paper square is our "date instructions."

Then Steve carved our initials on a tree in my mom's front yard.

So romantic... ;-)

Four years (June 11) and going strong! I love this man!!! He is the greatest husband and father a woman could ask for! I thank my God for him so much!!!

Thanks to Buckhead Church MarriedLife Live for such a great date; and thanks to my mom for babysitting for free!

The Nun

So one of the things Ellie loves is to leave her shirt on her head as we are changing her clothes. She gets so excited when we leave it on her head that she stands up and goes straight to the mirror and looks at herself. Completely adorable.

This time she loved the way her pink top draped over her shoulders so much that we just left it on for a bit while she played around the house. Maybe Ellie will be a nun someday. Who knows?

I mean really. Couldn't you just gobble her up?

Some of Ellie's favorite things: a ball, and her musical table that Uncle Kevin & Aunt Jackie gave her for Christmas. Thanks guys!

B is for Bread

To say that Ellie loves bread is an understatement. Here she is digging into a fresh loaf of warm homemade bread. Mmm!!











We love Daddy...

Barbie Dolls

A couple weeks ago my friend Barbara came to visit. She is my longest friend; we've known each other since 5th grade. She gave Ellie an adorable Barbie shirt, so we decided to take a photo shoot of the two blonde hair blue-eyed beauties.

Yummy yummy in my tummy

Okay, kids are pretty cute. But they are ESPECIALLY cute when they eat...




We've been teaching Ellie sign language. Raising her hands above her head means "all done!" It also means lots of food in the hair!


Ellie likes to say "mooooo!!!" while she eats. This seems to be her favorite word lately... :-)


Mmm... corn and something green.


She's so cute we can't even stand it sometimes...


Ellie recently realized she can control her eyebrows. So she's been having fun making this mad face, and then smiling really big. We caught her on camera this time, but she can look even meaner. It's so funny!


Hmm... where does this go?

Oh, right here! I mean, it must, it fits just perfectly!!


We made a smoothie, and Ellie liked it a lot! Look at her FOUR teeth!!