Birthday Girl

Ellie turned one recently and for her big day we had a party with some friends and cousins. I felt bad because she didn't really love her birthday experience. She has a hard time with crowds and having too much attention on her. Here she is waiting for her guests to arrive. Her cousin, Brayden is in the background.
This was her cake. Just a white cake mix with jello and whipped topping. She didn't love it. She wouldn't pick any up herself and eat it. Ellie gags on anything new, and the cake was no exception.Here she is getting nervous about all of these people looking at her.

Oh Mom!! You didn't put on the party hat!?!?!!
This was the best picture we had of some of the decorations.
Opening presents is hard too.
She calmed down okay though. This is an awesome quiet book that some friends made for Ellie. It is so amazing!
Family picture after all of the drama. Ellie didn't want to cooperate, but I guess hands in the face is better than crying.
We love you, sweet girl! It has been such a blessing to have you in our lives!!!

Jazz Game

Merry Christmas to us! We used the tickets my sister gave to John for Christmas and went on a real date (dinner out without the baby and an event that takes a ticket to go to). It was great! The Jazz played the Denver Nuggets and beat them quite handily. It had been a long time since I attended a Jazz game. I have to say that there is something much more fun about going to a sporting event than just watching it on TV.
We ate at the Crown Burger. In our opinion it was yummy but too greasy. Then we climbed up to the tippy top of the Energy Solutions Arena. Yes, we were on the top row. However, it didn't seem nearly as high as it did when I was a kid. I felt like I was able to see really well and enjoy being that close to the game.
My cousin, William, and his wife, Camille, came with us. We had a good time chatting and hanging out.
We sat right behind the retired jerseys of the players that I loved as an early teen. I was going to marry John Stockton some day. (At least I got the John right.) :)
Thank you so much to the Guinns who took care of Ellie and got her to bed without a hitch! We owe you big! Also, of course, thanks to my sister for the great Christmas present! So fun!

Slap happy

I re-posted the video. Hopefully it says that it is available now.

Kitchen Chair

These last few days Ellie has been practicing her walking skills, not on the toy walker that is meant for such things, but on the kitchen chairs.

Christmas 2009/January 2010

I accidentally loaded these pictures in reverse order, so I am going backward chronologically. At the beginning of January was our three year anniversary. It was a really busy day because John's little sister, Norma, got married the same day. It was a beautiful ceremony in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. I was thrilled that would could see that on our anniversary. It probably made me focus too much on us rather than Norma and Hema, but it was still wonderful.
These are the beautiful flowers that John gave me between the wedding and the reception. I thought they were so gorgeous!
This was us trying to get a picture of both of us and the flowers. It's hard to get it at the right angle.
So we settled for this one.
Throughout the Christmas holiday many people commented how much Ellie's hair has grown. We love it that her hair does crazy things after baths and when she first wakes up.

This was my main Christmas project. I learned how to crochet and made these hats for my parents and grandparents. There were four attempts to make my mom's hat. I ended up finishing it on Christmas morning on the drive to their house. :)

Ellie had a hard time opening her presents, so we kind of had to do it for her. She loves all of her new toys though.
Here she is with her daddy in one of her Christmas dresses. It actually is borrowed from her cousin, but I thought she looked so sweet in it.
This is her first encounter with Santa. Love the look on her face.

Christmas Pictures

About a month ago, Patti took Christmas pictures of us. These are some of my favorites. Thank you Patti!!!
I love this one because of Ellie's expression. It was actually pretty hard to get her to stay still for the picture. I guess that is what happens with a 10 month old.
Ellie loves this picture! I can't blame her--I do too! I think she looks more like John in the black and white pictures. Probably because you can't see the red in her hair.
This one of her favorite books. She loves looking at the babies' smiling faces.
She now has two good teeth on the top. So I am really glad we have a good picture of Ellie's gummy smile.

I just love her.

Ellie thanks her cousin Jane for the use of her awesome skirt!

Wintertime bliss!

Goings On

I went into Ellie's room after she woke up from a nap the other day and found her like this. This is sure her favorite expression. She really likes to crinkle her nose.
Ellie has also discovered the sippy cup. She LOVES water. It is hard to figure out what end to suck on though. John took a trip to Minneapolis right before Thanksgiving to present the research he has been doing at a fluid dynamics conference. He was gone for four days. My mom came down and stayed with Ellie and me, which was so nice. I am so proud of John for working so hard!