Vacation

Here is the promised video of her clapping:)

Here are some pictures from our vacation too. We went to see my dad for his birthday this year and had so much fun. Ellie went to the lake for the first time and we got to see a lot of family that we haven't seen since March. Ellie wasn't a huge fan of the 8-9 hour drive but she did well considering.

Someone was a little bit sleepy I think.

"You want me to get out?"

Ellie and Grandpa Stanton

Ellie with Uncle Tyler

Sweet picture of cousin love. Thanks Max, for sharing your  movie!

Ellie's favorite toys

:)

Such a happy girl, even when exhausted.

Uncles Jeff and Tyler playing with Ellie

"Happy Birthday Grandpa!"

9 Months

I can't believe it has been a whole month since I have updated this blog. Ellie is now 9 months old and getting so big! She has been taking steps on her own for over a week now and is trying to clap:) I will get a video of that and post it as soon as I can, she's so cute! Here are a few pictures of our little girl this week. 

I almost forgot: at her doctor's appointment she was in the 95% for her height! Where did that come from? :)

8 Months!

Little Ellie turned 8 months on the 12th of this month. I thought I would share a few pictures and a cute video of our little girl.

Playing with Daddy at the park

Going up...

And sliding down.

She has her eye on something she wants.

Hmm, how do I rip this thing.

This is her "I'm concentrating" face...I love it!

"Oh, hi Daddy."

Yummy!

Enjoy!

4th of July!

It was so strange not to be in Iowa enjoying the cool of the lake this year for the 4th but we had a great time with some of our friends! My high school best friend was in town so we went to her parents for a cookout. It was so good to spend time with all of them. Ellie was a little nervous of the 5 dogs at first but by the end of the day she didn't mind them.

She makes some of the cutest faces:)

Not very happy that Mama put her on the floor to play when she was having so much fun on the table.

Mmmm delicious.

Saying hi to Sarah.

She had a lot to say.

Look how cute that little face is:)

She is just the sweetest thing I have ever seen!

We hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!

7 1/2 Months

Our little cutie is getting sweeter and sweeter every day! She is now pulling up on EVERYTHING like a champ...like an empty toy bin for instance. 

Ellie thinks mess making is the newest Olympic sport. She's been practicing hard.

And the gold medal goes to...Ellie Nussbaum!

She thought she was going to help load the dishwasher, she ended up just  pulling out all of the dirty dishes.

She loves her baby brother, though most of the time she is a little too rough. (Sorry, we have to block him out)

Reading a book in her tent with her daddy.

She is getting so busy and so daring; and she has plenty of bruises on her head to prove it! It's so fun watching her little personality come to life!

Changes

Wow! It has been a long time since I have gotten on here. Ellie has gone from our perfect sleeper from birth to deciding that she needs lots of mommy and Ellie time all night long. Needless to say, we have been a little tired the last month or more.

Little Ellie has been learning and growing so much. She is now crawling army style(she's trying really hard to her up on her knees), sitting, pulling herself up (though only on people not on objects) and taking steps when we hold onto her hands. We have been having so much fun playing with her and chasing her all around. One of the first places she went when she learned to move was straight to the dog food bowl! Her newest trick is going from being on her belly to sitting up all by herself. Here are some recent pictures and videos!

She loves playing with her lips, watch for the fish lips:)

She stills loves her bath time. Especially now that there are toys to play with!

She loves to play with balls!

She's 7 months! (another ball)

She is so cute!

Ellie loves to play outside.

Yay Ellie!

In other news, Ellie is a big sister!!! That's right a BIG sister. The newest member of our family arrived on Tuesday. His name is Michael and he is only 6 weeks old. He sleeps all the time right now. Ellie is not really sure what to do with him yet but she will learn. I wish I could show you all a picture but I can't because he is foster. 

Out of the Dark Ages

We finally have internet in our home again! (Thanks to a great deal from AT&T) So I will hopefully be able to update the blog a lot more often now.

First, an update from the last post. We had a great visit with Grandpa in Indy. We had lunch and hung out for a little while until he had to go back to work. Ellie did great on the short trip and loved seeing her grandpa.

After our visit with Grandpa Ellie went to watch Daddy play softball for the first time.

Ellie has grown more the past few weeks then she ever has I feel. She has learned to roll from her back to her belly so she is all over the place now. She even got herself stuck under our futon:)

Because she has learned to roll, she has grown out of being swaddled at night. We found her in all sorts of uncomfortable positions and decided it was unsafe. She seems to not mind at all and still sleeps through the night for the most part. (Though she is fighting a cold and has bad diaper rash again so she has been up quite a bit the last few nights.)

She has also learned to chew, which I think is just adorable. I wanted something to distract her in the car when we went on vacation so we bought some puffs and gave it a try. It took some time but she got it figured out:)

She also has this really cute trick too:)

And here are some pictures from our vacation. We went to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania for a week of relaxing and hanging out as a family. We did a lot of hiking, movie watching and game playing. We also went to Bush kill falls to see some family. Six little girls, so cute!

5 of the 6 little girls and their mommys

Playing games with mama and daddy

So sweet:)

First time with her feet in a river

The sign for the resort we were staying on

Walking in to our condo after Ellie's first 8 hour car ride

And here is a video of her talking on one of our hikes. The video is horrible and sideways but her voice is just too sweet.

We are now back on the available homes list for foster care. Last time it took 5 months to get a placement so we probably won't have another child too soon but I will let you guys know as soon as our next kiddo arrives!