Are you as shocked as me?
I can't believe our little angel girl is so old?! May as well switch her from Pampers to Depends!
These photos are getting harder and harder to take because she just wants to play with the paper!
We started the month out right with some professional photos taken by
Grandmommy. :) Julian had photos taken by Dina Ivory when he was 7
months old. Here is a photo of one of the photos she took. (This is hanging in Grandmommy's house.)
She is the same photographer who took all of my baby
photos, and I even used to be her baby and child model! Unfortunately,
my modeling services do not translate to a discount with my own
children;) Her photography skills are amazing, but quite pricey! ($60
for a 4x6 print and you don't get the digital file...so I'll just let your imagination run wild on how much say, an 11x14 will cost ya'!)
Now, in almost all cases, the fact of the matter is that you get what
you pay for. But...Grandmommy was kind enough to take on the challenge
of recreating the set of Julian's Dina Ivory photo shoot for our sweet
baby Ella Grace!
I think these are just as beautiful as Julian's 7 month photos...and I paid exactly $0! :) And the fact that hey were taken by none other than her Grandmommy makes them even more priceless<3
I'm soooo glad she got one of "the tongue"!!!
We went over to our friends' the Savage's with the Glenn's one Sunday afternoon for some amazing lasagne! Pioneer Woman knows what's up, and Amelia is a great cook! We put 4 of the 5 kiddos on the couch & tried to snap a photo. It was pretty futile, but I just love this one of Ella Grace! I am glad I got a photo of this night too, because on this night she started doing this scream thing where she is basically saying "Pay attention to me! PLEASE!" She screamed, we looked at her, and then she just did this HUGE smile! So we all laughed...reinforcing the action, so she screamed again! This went on for a while! She's done it a few times since! Silly girl!
We went down to St. Petersburg for Stace and Stacy's annual ARES conference. Stacy was the president this year, so he was in charge of the whole shebang, and Stace presented a paper there!
We got there a little bit before Stace's family, so we ventured down to the beach as we waited for their arrival. I love this photo I took of Ella Grace! I just can't get over how beautiful her eyes are when the light hits them just right.
Stace's mom gave the kids adorable Janie and Jack swimwear to commemorate the occasion and get them looking as adorable as ever for the beach!
Ella Grace loves the sand! She just loves experimenting with new
textures. I LOVE the way her eyes light up when she sees something new.
She gets so excited!
We took a little trip to some nearby outlet malls one rainy afternoon. I just love this photo Stace & I caught of our babies. My sweet babies.
Elaine took some family photos on the beach. Julian had THE WORST tantrum of his life right while I was trying to get him ready, in the hotel room while in front of everyone...so, needless to say...I was a bit on edge...and Mommy didn't have much time to get ready! I didn't get to do my hair. Oh well! I just gotta ignore my hur!
It was so fun to spend some time with Aunt Candace at the beach! She is such a fun person to be with...and dance with! Here two of my favorite girls are at the big reception that Stace's dad and uncle perform for every year it's on the east coast.
Our little Gracie likes music just as much as her brother! My goodness, was she kickin those little legs as fast as she could!
It was so cute because you could just see how proud Stacy was as he toted her around. He sure loves his grandbabies and seeing him with them may just be one of the all-time biggest heart-burster (I'm coining the phrase) sights I've ever seen!
The next weekend, we found ourselves back on the road again to travel up to Tallahassee to see Aunt Candace give a talk in church. Julian slept through most of it, making Ella Grace the only conscious baby in the whole meeting (this is a stark contrast to our chapel in Gainesville...we have enough kids in our ward for 3 PRIMARIES...we have 2 nursuries, and there are probably as many babies as there are nursery-aged children). Every little squirm and noise she made was sooo amplified! haha! Here she is, hot-natured little thing after a nice, nursing session.
Back in Gainesville, Ella Grace experienced several firsts this month! We went to the park lots this last month. Julian loves to push "his baby" in the stroller!
One of her firsts includes her first time on the slide (this photo was accidental, but I like it! kinda artsy-phartsy, no? Plus, it's the best I could do with one hand on baby girl during the slide experience!)
She'd splashed in the pool before, but this month was her first time wading in the pool. She just LOVES it!!! Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of these occurences...but I have some going to and from the pool!
I love this picture of her little face, but Julian looks straight up crazy in it, so I cropped it! lol!
She also got to swing in the swing for the first time this past month...she also loves this! She just smiles and giggles the whole time. Goodness, this little girl is just the light of my world!
(Right alongside her brother and daddy of course!)
It's so fun to watch these two interact...even now, when they still
don't do it a whole lot. It just makes me excited for when they WILL be
attached at the hip...partners in crime...etc. It's what I always
wanted! A boy first, and a girl shortly thereafter. That's what my best
friend, Amelia B, had growing up. And my little girl heart always
envied the relationship she had with her brother who was just one grade
above us...and wished I had that too. He was protective of her, and they were very close. I'm excited & grateful to have that as a part of my family now:)
Ella Grace also pulled up by herself for the first time this month!
She must have figured "why stop the exciting milestones now?" and went on to begin crawling!
She absolutely loves the feel of grass between her fingers and toes
We also ventured out to the Natural History Museum with brother to explore some dinosaur bones. Ella Grace was so invigorated by the dinosaurs, she just plum wore herself out!
Stace's mom was hoping to take some photos in the pretty wildflower fields around Gainesville. She and Stace's dad drove up for an afternoon and tried to capture some. Unfortunately, it started raining shortly after we arrived...and the sun had already peaced out! She still got a few goodies, though!
I am so glad we got these pictures because Ella Grace is wearing one of my dresses from when I was a wee bebe. Thank you Elaine!
Ella Grace went up to Atlanta this month to celebrate & witness her Aunt Jessica's graduation from college. We had a great time playing with Aunt Kathleen, who introduced us all the world of DSW.
Aunt Kathleen is so stylish... I need to hang out with her more often so some of her fashion sense will rub off on me!
Grandpa Bill paid for our hotel room at the St. Regis the night before the graduation. I've stayed in many-a fancy-schmancey hotels in my day with my dad...this was one of my favorites! (A TV in the mirror was one of the reasons:) Here is Ella Grace after we checked in!
Aunt Kathleen and our sweet friend Megs watched our kiddos that night while we went to the special dinner my dad threw at the hotel. He rented out a room in the restaurant there. It was a special night, indeed. By the end of the night, everyone was missing our kiddos, so they came down for an appearance! Here is sweet baby girl with the lady of the hour!
Here she is with my sweet niece Caroline and sister Marissa! Below is my dad giving her some sweet big kisses!
After the graduation, we went to the Imagine It! Children's Museum with sister Jessica and brother Chris and his wife Beth, and their sweet girls. Chris is just the sweetest with babies! (Actually, both of my brothers are!)
Here he is letting Ella Grace experiment with some moon sand. Moon sand is so fun!
Here she is playing the piano with her cousin Georgia...the one many say Ella Grace favors...
That night we spent a cozy evening in with Kathleen and snuggled on her brand new couch! This is pretty much the best feeling in the whole wide world. I don't have to describe the feeling...the photo says it all.
We drove home from Atlanta on Mother's Day and stopped in Pearson to wish a happy Mother's Day to Stace's mom and Grandma.
Man, am I grateful for Elaine's photography passion & skillz!
All these pictures are just too cute!
Ella Grace with Mommy on her first ever Mother's Day!
Again, with the hair...y'all I was driving all day... Plus I haven't gotten it re-highlighted since November...what's up! :/
Julian stayed with his grandparents for a few days after this, so we got to spend lots of one-on-one time with our sweet baby girl! Oh! I forgot to mention she got her top two teeth this month, too! They grew in just like Julian's...far apart & just like little pieces of Chiclet gum! lol!
The following two photos portray accurately how she feels about solid foods:
Silly girl! Eat up!
She is getting better each day with her willingness to eat solids. She doesn't seem to love any one thing in particular. She just kind of tolerates it all!
On her last Saturday as a 7-month old, we ventured out to the Santa Fe Zoo. Ella Grace absolutely LOVED the squirrel monkeys. They were just hilarious to watch, at least Ella Grace thought so!
Afterwards we went to lunch with Daddy using one of his Groupons (did you know my husband is the king of Groupons?) We took this photo and he called her "one big blog of baby"...
Then we bought her a new toy at Ross. She really likes it!!! Yay for new toys!
Ella Grace also began waving this month! The first time was at the ARES conference, but she didn't really do it again for a while after that until this last weekend! She waved to the family sitting behind us in the pew at church...she was delighted! We were too! Oh I just love this silly, sweet funny baby girl!
She LOVES playing on the piano! One of her favorite, favorite activities, for sure!
I truly could not ask for a sweeter little girl to be mine. I am so grateful to be her Mommy. What an amazing little blessing she is!
