Ellie's First Year Photo Shoot

 This was the face Ellie made pretty much anytime there was a balloon around.  She just wanted to eat them!

Such a happy birthday!


Growth update:  Ellie is little!  She's gained about a pound since her last checkup three months ago! She weighs a whopping 19lbs 13 oz and is about 29 in tall.  She's 50th percentile in height, and closer to 30th in weight now.  She's popped out 4 teeth (3 molars) in the last two weeks, so she's not been napping great.  I'm just hoping she'll start napping better once the teeth are all in!  She pulls up on everything, crawls around like crazy, and is loving exploring!  She's discovered the kitchen drawers and bathroom cabinets, so that's exciting!  :)  She is just as loving and friendly as ever, though when she's sleepy especially, she does sometimes show her preference for Mommy!

Ellie's Birthday Party

 Ellie's birthday party this week was so fun!  It was a sunshine theme, so lots of yellow!

First, some of the details:
I made her a little shirt with a sun on the front and a number one on the back. 
The invitation was adorable.  Trust me.
I printed a picture of her from each month and tried to make it look like a little garden-sunflowers, you know?  :)

The cake turned out great!

 James set up the table-looks awesome!

 Singing "happy birthday"!

 She wasn't sure about this cupcake...

 

 Elijah was sure about his, though!  :)

 Family pictures!

 We had a ton of yellow balloons all over, it was so fun for all the little ones!  :)

Family Picnic

I made this awesome picnic blanket out of bandannas a while back and we finally pulled it out to break it in!  It's nice and big so it was great!  It was super windy during our picnic (I had made salad for me and James and had to move it into mugs!) but still great fun!

 

This is Elijah's new picture pose.  I'm not sure what exactly he's doing, but he props his hand up by his face.  Hilarious!

 This is another picture I've taken a lot lately.  The kids LOVE these racecar carts at HEB and Lowe's!  :)

 

Play Kitchen

We made Ellie's birthday present about two weeks ago.  I had seen online some nightstands turned into play kitchens, and have been wanting to make one.  James rescued this microwave cart for me from the side of the road, and it sat in his office for months because I wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to do with it.  We had a long weekend, though, and Ellie's birthday was quickly approaching, and so we seized the moment and jumped in with both feet!  It turned out awesome and I am SO thrilled with it!  James got WAY more involved than either of us had really planned, but I could NOT have done this without him and he ended up enjoying it, too!  :)

Elijah helped use the tools.  :)

James did all the cutting.  Power tools.  I didn't even want to try!  :)

We turned the top shelf that we cut off into a backboard and I painted a little scene on it to become a window.

Painted all the pieces several times, including a last minute couple coats of polyurethane when we saw how scratched up it was going to get.

And the finished product is ADORABLE!!!!!

Sink, shelf, window, stove:

Microwave (4/4 is Ellie's birthday, hence the time):

Hooks for potholder and apron (I just got back an apron Jen and I had when we were little that some cousins had borrowed-how sweet that now Ellie can use it!):

I LOVE how this turned out!!!