letters to my daughter: Month 9-ish

Dear Ellie girl,

Yup, late again. I am starting to give up hope of getting these letters written to you on the 21st of each month, but don't worry baby girl, you can continue to expect them :)

Originally I was intentionally waiting to write your letter on 9 mo, 1 week cause that was the day we had planned to dedicate you at our church and I wanted to write about that, but last Sunday you woke up with a really bad cold and high temp of 103!! so this letter along with your dedication got postponed.

You pretty much slept on my chest ALL day and were so miserable. Your dad and I were pretty concerned and called the Dr. to see what they thought. You also had a super runny nose that was stuffing you up and a cough! We kept you tylenol-ed, snuggled up, and continued to watch your fever. It eventually broke the next morning but then we noticed your eyes were super goopy and I just couldn't shake that mama feeling inside that something just wasn't right! After another day of watching your fever and your eyes, the Dr's office finally decided that they should see you and we found out you had your first ear infection and a double one at that!

So this past week, we been treating you with antibiotics for your ears, and just trying to keep you comfortable and happy. We also got drops for your eyes which cleared them up after one dose! I know it seems kinda funny for me to write all these details about you being sick since kids get ear infections all the time, but baby, it was your first and along with so many more of your firsts, I want to tell you about these things. Your mama is silly!

I am excited for you to read these letters one day and I often wonder when that will be. Will I give them to you when you are a teenager and think that your mom is so annoying and embarrassing or will I give them to you when you becoming a mom of your own sweet babe, I don't know. I guess I will just know when the time is right! But most of all, I hope they bless you to be able to read what I was thinking about you and feeling during this sweet, amazing time in our lives!

Let me tell you a little more about you at 9 months! You are now 18 and 1/2 pounds and 27 inches tall! You are still all over the place, speed crawling we like to call it! Pulling your self up on everything and I've gotten you to take a few steps on your own too! (But only when you are barefoot and on carpet for some reason! and if the toy is tempting enough!!)

Still eating everything we give you and liking it all! We recently gave you spaghetti! You also tried mashed potatoes and turkey during Thanksgiving.

You are now saying mama all day, everyday! I love this!! And I DO think you get that it's me because you say it when I come into your room in the morning to get you from from your crib and other times to me when I am holding you or you want me to hold you.

The day after Thanksgiving your Grandma Miller got you an early Christmas present of a new "big girl"carseat but you are still facing backward for now. You're not loving the car rides as much lately but you're not screaming in them either, just seem a little annoyed and whiny about them :)

You also are saying "pa-pa" in the cutest little whisper voice. I wonder if that is what you will call your dad or will you say dada soon? What else? You are fearless, I swear! Trying to dive off the stairs into my arms every time you climb up them and I follow you. I think this is a game for you.

You are getting better and better at the sippy cup but still wanting/needing me to help hold it for you most of the time.

You are so interested in other kids and always are touching or pulling yourself up on or attacking them! But in a cute sweet "I just want to play with you! way :)

Baby girl, you bring so so much joy and fun and laughter and love into my life. You have my heart sweet girl!!

I love you so much!

love,

your mama

P.S. Only 2 more months (less really) until you turn ONE YEAR OLD!! Are you kidding me!!! Seriously, it has flown by so fast, just like everyone says! But you will always always be my baby girl, sweet love of mine!

A few pics just because!

Just because she's sooo cute and we love her so!

She loves this fuzzy blanket and the fact the chair swivels! fun times!

And yes, she kinda has an outie belly button it turns out!

Someone's back to enjoying their baths!!

Pretty blue eyed girl!!

a little Christmas decor...

Once again, I shopped my own house to come up with some Christmas-y looking mantle decor! It's fun to try and change it up for the different holidays and to do it without spending any money. I made the wreath out of coffee filters, believe it or not! Also, we can't help it that our living room paint color coordinates so well!! (which I am actually so sick of that green!)

I also made us a Advent Calendar to count down to Christmas with and put something fun to do each day underneath each of those little circles, like get the christmas tree, make Ellie a stocking, watch a Christmas movie, get Ellie's pictures with Santa, go see Keizer lights, etc. This is definitely a tradition I want to do for all the years to come!

click on the photo to see it larger

click here to see the Halloween mantle!

Silver Falls family hike! (In October!)

Trying to catch up on blogging!!!

Back in the beginning of October,

we took our first family hike to Silver Falls with Ellie!

Matt's parents and Ellie's cousin Garrett

joined us for a 6 mile hike and a picnic!

(It's hard to get miss Ell to look at the camera!)

Mom's turn to carry that 18 pounder!!

Her face cracks me up as usual!!

And check out Matt's NO MORE PICTURES face!! Ha!

Ellie's 1st trip to the beach!

We got to take Ellie to the beach finally!

Of course we waited until it was almost winter!

But amazingly we had a beautiful day!

It was cold but we had sun and blue skies :)

You can see by her face and especially

her hands her funny reaction to the sand!

Her dad tried to bury her just a little bit :)

She wasn't too fond of sitting in it, but loved standing!

She is standing behind that log, though you can't really tell.

This girl is going to be walking soon!

This one's for you Grandma/Mom......all your girls!

For her motorcycle riding Grandma!

My Pumpkins...

A pumpkin T-shirt (and socks!) counts as a costume, right?

This was the extent of Ellie's costume this year.

We'll make sure we go all out next year when trick or treating

(at least to the Grandparents houses) makes a little more sense :)

Ellie did pass out candy with her dad

to the 5 trick or treaters we got though!

What a cute little helper!

and some more crafty mama-ness

hmmm... is this blog turning into a craft blog too?

I made this little quilt for a new friend who is having a boy in the end of November!

I was on a really tight budget for her gift so I dug through my fabric stash

and came up with just enough odds and end to put together the pattern.

I often get sucked into buying random fat quarters of fabrics I like

but never more than one or two at a time.

Fortunately, I was into buying greens and yellows for awhile!

I also ended up using the fabric that I was going to make Ellie's crib sheets out of

which never happened ;)

I'm glad it still got put to good use for another sweet babe!

Making it reminded me how much I like quilting!

I better figure out which friend is having the next baby?!?!

Funny faces!

About a month ago this seemed to be Ellie's preferred expression of choice!

I was trying to teach her how to kiss, so maybe that's where it came from.

It cracked me up! Matt on the other hand hated it :)

But, what's not to love about that cute silly face!?!

Letters to my daughter: Month 8

Dear baby girl,

Yup, your mama is late again! But only by 1 week this time :) And I'm changing it up this time. I really don't know why I've never included a photo before, but I've thought about other times and then just wanted to keep things looking consistent....but today I thought, who cares!! It's fun to change it up and I love, love, LOVE this photo of you! I love your "michelin man" arms!! I love that something as simple as making our bed turns into a opportunity to laugh, cuddle, and play!

Sweet girl, let me tell you what's new with you in this past month. Bullet point style!

-For some odd reason which I can't figure out, you officially HATE getting a bath! I don't know what happened to the baby in those photos a few posts back, but now trying to bathe you is like putting a cat in water. You try with all your might to get out of the sink or tub!

-You can climb ALL the WAY to the top of the stairs!!! (which we only let you do while fully supervised with us right behind you) You definitely seem to be fearless!

-You have no stranger anxiety at all and with a little work anyone can get you to smile at them. I just tell them you make them earn it!

-You love to be around and often right on top of or in their face of any other kids! You are mesmerized by them.

-We are now putting you in the church nursery! (it only took us 8 months!)

-You constantly are babbling and sorta humming in the carseat. I like to think your trying to sing along to the music.

-You still only have 2 teeth but have been quite drooly lately so maybe more are on the way.

-You love to be standing up against something and pretty much have been standing as long as you have been crawling. I wonder when walking will come, but I'm also not in any hurry for it :)

-You will eat everything we give you and so far don't dislike anything! Mostly all purees, chunks of banana and avacado and hard boiled egg yolk, puffs, tiny toast pieces and plain greek yogurt make up you diet right now but we're always trying new things!

-You are starting to get the idea of waving and we practice when I leave each day and also when your grandma leaves.

-You LOVE playing with your daddy and get to for a little while each afternoon before I get home, I am so thankful you get this special time together.

Well, Ellie girl, as you can see, you are clearly the love and light of our lives and we are so glad to be you parents!! I can't even believe it's been 8 months!! Wow!

I love you so so much!

love,

mama

a little fall decor

I've been wanting to decorate for the seasons and holidays

for quite awhile now but have never really done it.

Mostly because our house has always been

in some sort of construction craziness.

Now that that is coming to a end!!!!!

(with most all our big projects done!!)

I figured I would give it a shot.

Also, hosting a mom's night out

with a craftiness aspect to it doesn't hurt the motivation factor either!

I'm not really a fan of witches, ghosts, and goblins sort of decor.

Cute and funky and vintage is MUCH more my style.

I tried to pull it off just by using stuff all found around my house

and a few .33 cent pumpkins from winco!

(please ignore the nasty brick fireplace!! one last project to be done!!)

(click the photo to see it bigger)

Pumpkin Patch!

Today we went to the local Pumpkin Patch

with the mom's group from church.

I've been looking forward to this trip!

Probably more than Ellie ;)

To find her pumpkin the girl had to do a little taste testing!

She was so excited about the one she found,

I couldn't get her to look at the camera...

(cute little thing!)

(both of them!)

More taste testing!

(it was getting close to lunch time you know)

Her face in this last one just kills me! I think it's safe to say

my daughter has perfected the "stink eye"!

Funny girl!

I love being her mama!

letters to my daughter: Month 7.5

Dear miss Ellie,

Well, as you can see this letter is a wee bit late this month! Sorry girl, but also it provides me with something to share with you. What I want to tell you is at times in your life, things are going to slip through the cracks, have to be put in the back burner, or postponed until later. And that is OK! It is ok when those things happen because you are busy being in the moment, loving others, learning about yourself, and following you heart. Sometimes the "need/should/want" to do's far outweigh the GET to do's!

I am so thankful I GET to be your mom, get to spend time with you each morning before I leave for work, get to play in our bed with you on the weekend mornings, get to take care of you by feeding you, changing you, loving on you, teaching you, and praying for you. I am so thankful that I get to be your daddy's wife, that I get to love him and learn with him, that I get to take care of our home and all that comes with that responsibility, that I get to provide meals for our family. I am so thankful that I get to be me! Not only as a mother and wife, but as a daughter, sister, FRIEND. Sometimes all that comes with those get to do's means blogging about the doing of them gets put off. And that my girl is OK, because even if it's not put out there for the Internets, all of these things are written upon my heart.

Month 7 of your life has been so fun! You are a mobile machine. Since I wrote you 6 month letter, not only have you mastered crawling but also pulling your self to standing (first in your crib!), as well as climbing!!! the stairs. We have got to keep a constant watch on you little lady. You are very determined and that is the one word I would pick to describe you right now. You are also eating solids now and so far there's really nothing you won't eat. You've had rice cereal, oatmeal, prunes, pears, apples, carrots, sweet potatoes, summer squash, green beans, peas, Cheerios, hard boiled egg yolk, and the list goes on. and girly, you are a MESSY eater....but it sure makes for some cute pictures!

Darling girl, today is my birthday and I can honestly say, that on my 27th birthday YOU are the best gift I could have ever received this past year! You bring so much joy and love into my life. I am thankful for you now and always.

love,

your mama

Get messy, get clean!

In August we started giving the girl solids (the pureed kind!)

and bathing her in the kitchen sink!

pantshead

Dear Ellie, sometimes mama likes to put your clothes on you in the way they weren't meant to be. And then it was just too cute not to photograph! I promise I'll let you do my hair and makeup and dress me up in silly outfits in a few years and we'll take pictures of that too! It's only fair :) I love you my little "Aunt Jemima" babe!

sleeping babe

Ellie seems to love to find the corners of her crib to get her head in to sleep. No matter how much I try to put her in the middle, she ends up there. I recently started putting in the beautiful blanket that her "Auntie" Chare' had made her. It has soft fuzzy fabric on each of the corners and Ellie loves to put that part on her cheek or hold on to it when she's falling asleep. So cute!

love the neck rolls!

cute girl!

more craftymama-ness

just a few things I made for a recent baby shower :)

What's new? A LOT!

Over the past month and also just this week, Ellie is now:

-sitting up on her own

-getting herself into sitting position and then having no hands on the floor to support her

-crawling!

-starting to eat some cereal in the evenings

-gotten 1 tooth on the bottom

-and as of yesterday STANDING in her crib!

CRAZY!! We love our girl and love seeing all the new things

she is learning and doing each and every day!

yum?

Don't let the smile fool you! She doesn't really like the stuff, but we were making her smile! ha!

letters to my daughter: Month 6

Dear baby girl,

That seems to be the nickname of choice right now, so I will begin your letter with that. It's funny how those change from week to week. Currently, your dad is calling you "Booger" the most. Sorry girly!

Well, two days ago you turned 6 months old! Sorry for being late with your letter. Life has been a whirlwind these past few days and I have no excuse but myself. Your mama is a last minute type of lady who likes to add more and more to her plate all the time. I always say I work better under pressure!

Enough about me though, let me tell you about you! You are now 16lbs, 14 oz and 26 inches long. That puts you in the 75th percentile for both height and weight! Whatever that means :) And as of just this morning, you have one single tooth starting to poke through on your bottom gums! (which explains a lot! haha) Here we go on the teething adventures....

Also, you are now sitting up all by yourself as of about 2 weeks ago as well as scooting all over the place. You constantly surprise us on how you get from here to there. I come into you room to find you sitting half up with one hand at your side kind of holding you there and you look like your posing for me! I love being greeted by your smiling face in the morning. You are so proud of yourself, it's too cute.

Another crazy thing you have started doing is getting up on both your hands and feet, no knees on the ground at all. You are totally doing the downward dog yoga position! The first few time you did this resulted in a face plant or two, but now you have mastered it. I can't believe how strong you are. Just one more thing you amaze us with.

Baby, I love how much I love you. It is one of the best feelings in the world to just be so overwhelmed by it. To see you and to literally, just feel it swell through my body how much I care about you and love you. Being you mother has been such a life transforming gift. I love you for it.

I really can't believe it's been 1/2 a year you've been in the world now! It really does feel like yesterday you were swimming in your sleepers and we were bumbling through diaper changes and you spent over half the day asleep on our chests, I suppose that feeling of just yesterday never goes away for any mother or father. I am so very thankful for our yesterdays, our tomorrows, and especially our todays.

i love you Ellie girl. With all that I am, i love you.

love,

your mama

a little series i like to call....

Ellie vs. water bottle

success!!

Ellie's 1st camping trip!

cousins!!

good morning!!