Ellie: Months 4-7

Ellie is now 8 months, so here is a quick recap of months 4-7.

4 Months: chubby and sweet.

5 Months: sitting up, and loves sucking on bottom lip.

6 Months: starts crawling (our earliest crawler by 2 months!), eating, and now too big & wiggly for swing.

7 months: standing up, climbing stairs. Where did this kid come from?

Ellie is so great, we love how funny and energetic she is.

April was Stitches Month

April wasn't a good month for agility. Rich started it all off when he went skiing...sometimes you just shouldn't try to squeeze that last run in. He didn't even realize what had happened until he saw his blood-soaked thermal undies when he got home. A few days later Abby was riding her razor, hit a bump, and flew over the top. She landed right on her chin. The helmet didn't do much to help. I am sure our insurance loved us that month.

3 Months (a few weeks ago)

I think I have been using the phrase "a few weeks ago" a lot lately. So, I'm perpetually a few weeks behind these days, life goes on. Ellie is actually rapidly approaching four months, so here is a quick recap of three months.

St. George Trip

A few weeks ago we traveled down to St. George to see my little brother, Kody. Kody is a marine and is now serving a tour of duty in Afghanistan until sometime in the fall.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Matt, he looks almost exactly the same as Rich did at that age.

We spent an afternoon in Snow Canyon at the Sand Dunes. I love the red rocks of southern Utah.

The kids loved burying themselves and grandpa in the sand. Those were some gritty baths that night.

Saying Goodbye

2 Months!

When it comes to size, Ellie seems to be following Matt more than Abby. She weighs in at 11 lbs and a few ounces (70th percentile) and 22 1/4 inches (also 70th percentile). So cute and funny!

Sweet little hand, and HUGE thighs.

Beatles gear. A must-have for Rich's kids.

Ellie is getting to be so smiley and so chatty, I love this stage.

Jungle Love

In keeping with our tradition of celebrating Valentine's Day as a family, we thought it would be fun to do a jungle theme this year.

We had various species of monkey and bear at the event. Do other jungles have teddy-rabbits, or just ours?

Our two crazy tigers. Ellie didn't get to participate in the face-painting portion of the night, I didn't think she would appreciate me trying to scrub it off.

For dinner we ate slimey snakes...

....and for dessert? Jungle mud, topped with dirt. The more food one has on their face, the greater the enjoyment. I think they both liked it.

Ellie's Blessing

We blessed Ellie a couple of weeks ago. My mom is an incredible seamstress and made her sweet little dress.

Ellie with Nan and Grandpa

Matt is

a kid with really cool hair,

our class clown,

a guy who isn't afraid of his feminine side,

possibly, a future rock star.

Abby Turns 5

We decided to keep things pretty low key for Abby's birthday this year. We went bowling with my parents and my brother's family. Abby was done with the whole thing after about three frames...kids!

Our primary put this sign up in our front yard for a few days around Abby's birthday.

Abby's favorite colors are pink, purple, silver, white and gold.

She loves all things princess. Her favorite foods are pizza, and beans & rice.

Her current favorite book is "Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She was Extinct", by Mo Willems.

Wait, Slow Down!!!

Time is going by too fast. Ellie is getting really big.

Just a couple of weeks old...

...a little older.

This is the last time those legs will be that skinny for a few years.

Let the premature hair loss begin. All of our kids go through their "male pattern baldness" phase. Ellie is well into hers.

What a Way to Finish the Year

2010 was crazy.

But, I think we ended it pretty well with the addition of Ellie to our family.

Gabriella Lea was born on December 28 at 10:48 pm.

She weighed 7 lbs, 8 oz. and was 19 inches long.

She is so sweet, we are thrilled to have her here!