Ella's new chair

We got Ella her own chair to sit in because our couch is still high for her and she doesn't know how to safely get down. She was still sitting in her bouncy seat, but she is getting too big for it. I found her this rocking chair for such a good deal and she loves it. Every morning after breakfast she loves to crawl in it with a blanket and stuffed animal and watch some cartoons.
THis is her sitting in the first time the night we got it.


Here is Ella right before bed. She has figuring out the whole saying cheese and smiling thing for pictures. She says it all the time though so I think she just likes to say cheese.


Here she is the next morning with some bed head. She went straight to the chair after breakfast.

Bye Bye Bottles

This is probably terribly unexciting to most of you, but Ella is finally off of the bottle. As her mom I am so proud and relieved. I am such a first time mom and I am constantly worried about certain milestones she should be at. And lately, the fact that she was 15 months and refusing anything but a bottle had me worried. Her doctor had told me a long time ago that 15 months was the cutoff so that date had been looming over me. Fortunately he gave me 3 more months at her last checkup. Over the past several months I have bought probably 10 different sippy cups in hopes that one would work. To my disappointment, not only did she not like them, but as I would show it to her she would try to hit it out of my hands. Those of you who have been around her a lot know what I am talking about. Anyway, I don't know if it was the timing or the newest sippy cup to her collection (thank you Alicia!!!) but all of a sudden she drank out of that cup like a champ. And for all the money I spent on so many cups, the winner was $1.74 at Wal-Mart. Pretty much since that day she wouldn't drink out of a bottle. She is now drinking out of almost all the sippy cups I bought earlier. Yesterday Dustin and I were watching her drink out of a straw and you'd think by our expressions that she just won the Nobel Peace Prize or something. Hilarious!! Last night I packed up all her bottles and our huge storage holder that has been sitting on our counter for the last 15 months and it felt so good. Not to mention my kitchen looks much less cluttered. I was going to post a picture of her with her cup, but Dustin took the camera with him to the Wasatch Back race, so I will have to post one later. I feel a little ridiculous that I can write such a long post about this, and that there is a post period. But these small victories are now a big part of my life as a mom and love them all. I suppose the moral of this story is (and I should heed my own advice here) to enjoy the time with your kids and worry less about when they hit their milestones. My worrying didn't help the situation and Ella has always gotten there in her own time. We'll see if I can follow my own advice...

15 month checkup

Last week Ella had her 15 month check up and she did pretty well. She is not very fond of going to the doctor, but this time she didn't scream quite as much. I was really happy because her weight percentile went up a little bit and he said everything with her looked great.

Her stats were:

weight: 21.4 oz. (28%)
lenght: 31 in. (69%)

Here are some recent pictures of our cute little girl. She is growing and changing very quickly and we are enjoying every minute.

Relaxing with Daddy and watching their favorite show, Curious George.


Playing with bubbles


Asleep on her Grandma Jana after a very busy day.