Pictures, Pictures & an Update

Here are some pictures from last week - enjoy!

Eloise & Mama on Mother's Day:

This week Eloise discovered a new love for olives. She also discovered that olives have holes in them just the right size for small baby fingers. We didn't even show her this trick...she came up with it all on her own. Smart little cookie this one...

Look of fulfillment? Angst? Not sure...

Elosie Right now:

Things that Eloise is doing right now - (mostly a list for this mom so she doesn't forget):

Says: Dadda (all of the time), Mama (sometimes), nana (banana), dis (this), yes, NAHH (NO!!), Dack-ker (cracker)

Says 'doggie' & 'wuffs' at the dog. Points to the neighbors houses that have dogs & wuffs at them as we walk by - SO CUTE!!

Says 'me-aw' for kitty & still the tongue trill for kitty
Other animal sounds: elephant, lion, ... but mostly everything is a doggie
Signs: Please, Thank you, More, All Done - working on Eat, Drink, Daddy, Mommy
Gives kisses & says 'Muah' while doing it. Open mouth with tongue kisses only. :)
Waves & says Hi, Bye-bye & once in a while says 'Night-night'

Pulls up on everything! Reaches almost everything. Cruising along the furniture. Crawls like a mad woman...she can get places very quickly now.

Stops & sits when I call her name to come back from going somewhere she shouldn't. Most of the time she even comes back! :D She points to things & signs please. She seems to think that anything she points to - you will give her. I have NO IDEA where she's learning this from...

Eats a banana (nana) every morning. In fact, as I get her up, the first thing she says after me-awing at me, is nana. She also has cereal or graham crackers with her nana. She's drinking milk now, willingly! Hooray!!

She loves reading the pop-up books my mom gave her. She's memorized where the flaps are to look under & also where the textured parts are on each page.

I absolutely love this age she's at right now - she's so much fun & learning SO much every day. Absolutely amazing.

Shimmerz Pearlz Release Today!!

Shimmerz is releasing a new line of Pearlz today! Woo-hoo! These colors are so vibrant & beautiful. I've been playing with them and I love how they sparkle & shine. If I were to pick two favorites...I'd have to say go with 'Carrot Top' & 'Blue Into Town'. SOOOO fun.

Tulip Fields

A few weeks ago, we went to the tulip fields with Miss Amanda, Miss Sophia, & Miss Erin. It was so much fun with Ella Roo. We took pictures for about 1 1/2 hours, then had lunch. Perfect afternoon for a tip-toe through the tulips.

Eloise in a wooden shoe:

You're not suppose to pick the tulips - but Eloise can't read, so she didn't know that. Please don't tell on her...

Dear My Blog

Dear My Poor Neglected Blog,

I promise that one day very soon, I will return to you & update you in a proper way with lots of useless information & adorable pictures of a certain sweet-pea. Until then, enjoy one less blog update popping up in your google reader.

Sincerely,

*Un-bloggy lately* Jessie

Bucky

When I was one, my parents got me a horse named Bucky. All was well with Bucky, until one fateful day when I rode Bucky into the sunset (so to speak). Or...if you're one, I was riding him through the kitchen, out the door, and down the step into the garage. Apparently I was not prepared for such a grand ride and was thrown off of Bucky upon entrance into said garage. This angered my father and poor Bucky was cast into the street at a high rate of speed for hurting his little girl. :) Thankfully Mom rescued Bucky from the street after tending to me. I rode Bucky around for years after, scratches on him and all. :) Fast forward thirty-one years and now Eloise has her own Bucky, courtesy of my parents. She will not be allowed to ride Bucky in any areas where stairs could become involved...

Her Bucky is new and improved and plays music when you press his cheek. And he's pink, comes with his own basket for carrying dolls and books, and has a fleece main and tail. How great is that?

Eloise loves her Bucky. Thanks mom & dad!

An Eloise and her Elephant

An Eloise and her Elephant

One year of photos:

12 Months!!

Here it is...the last installment of elephant pictures! I have loved this monthly routine of ours, getting out the elephant to see how much he had shrunk since his last venture out of the closet. I think I'll take another one with them together at 18 months and then again at two.

Eloise & her pal Elephant:

Ooohh, shoes! Love to pull off those shoes...

Pretending to be nice to Elephant - I think she's hoping to lure him in a little closer

So that she can do this to him! Poor Elephant. Attacked in the bedroom by Eloise with the shoe.

At 12 months my little one is:

Cruising furniture
Crawling like a 'real girl'!
Pulling up on anything and everything -including the cat (or so she tried)
Eating 'real' people food - good bye baby food!
Says 'Na-na' for banana
Signs 'More' & 'Please' - SO proud of her for this!!
Tries to moo like a cow. :)
Has a sound she makes for the cats - it's a tongue trill starting high & descending to a lower pitch. She makes the same sound every time a cat comes into a room. Or a dog too for that matter...
Goes to bed between 6:30 & 7:00 and sleeps until 8:00 am or 9. :)
Loves to play with shoe laces
LOVES to read books - we do this most of the time. Chooses reading over playing a lot of the time.
LOVED swimming in the pool at Nellie's birthday party this past weekend - she was kicking & splashing...so much fun!

A whole year of my Ella Roo. What a blessed Mama I am.

Sneak Peek

If you want to see the rest of this project (& I think you do!) go here!!

This is only a sneak...

So happy that spring has finally sprung!!

Meeting Wyatt

Here are some photos from yesterday & our date to meet Wyatt.

Eloise wasn't too sure what she thought about mama holding someone else...

Wyatt & his mama Kari - love this picture

Hee, hee

Congratulations Brett & Kari. And thank you again for letting us meet your precious boy!!

My Friday Four

Here's a little list of things that made me happy today (which is Thursday, but it's so late, no one will read this until Friday, hence the title). Are you still with me??

1. My little sweet pea signed 'please' for the first time today. She's really good at signing 'more' but up until today, hadn't officially signed please or thank you. We're on the road to good manners now!

2. I have an announcement: (& I'm SUPER excited about it) I've been invited to be an official member of the Shimmerz Design Team!!! WOO-HOO!!! In fact, I created a super fun project tonight that I will put on this blog & on this blog in the next day or two.

3. One of my former students is a rock star. Seriously. He's signed with a band called Sixteen Cities as their drummer. I'm a very proud former music teacher right now. Grant it, I only had him for one year, but I'm still claiming him as MY former student...

4. I got to hold this little bundle today!! Thank you Kari for sharing your precious boy with us - we were so happy to meet him!

That's all I have for now. I promise that will post pictures in my next post. Promise. Promise.

Eloise Easter Bunny

Yes, I know these are almost a week late...but better late than never, right?

Here are some sweet pics of my favorite Easter bunny from last Saturday.

And...I have a confession...I don't have any pictures of her in her Easter dress! *GASP!* I'm hoping they are on Tim's camera...
End of confession.

Elizabeth Kartchner : Newest Face of Shimmerz Paints

I have some Exciting News to share......

Liz Kartchner is the newest Face of Shimmerz!!!

She is excited to become a Shimmerz Endorsed Instructor and will be using Shimmerz Products in her upcoming classes!

Liz writes a monthly column for Creating Keepsakes Magazine called "Dear Lizzy", she wrote the book "52 more Scrapbooking Challenges" and has a fun Craft Line called "Dear Lizzy" from American Crafts.

Welcome to Shimmerz Liz!!! To learn more about Liz you can check out her inspiring Blog here.

My Friday Two...

Gasp! I forgot one thing for my list yesterday - so I had to add it today and wouldn't you know, I thought of something else on top of that, hence the 'Friday Two'.

1. Auntie A made a baby bunny for Eloise's birthday & it's just the sweetest little thing. It sleeps in Eloise's crib with her & when she wakes up, she begins to drag the bunny around the crib...at which point the bunny loses it's blankie & becomes a little naked & cold. :) Here are some pics of Miss Sophia loving on the bunny:

So sweet:

You can also see more pictures of this bunny & order your own here.

2. I *may* have bought fabric last night with Miss Amanda to make a table runner for my table. Yikes! What was I thinking?? :) Should be a fun project as long as I can have help...right Amanda Pants? :)

That's it for today - happy weekend!

My Thursday Four

My Erin is always making lists on her blog & I love it. So I asked permission a few weeks ago to try a list or two on this blog & permission was granted. So...here we go a (small) list of things that I'd love to tell you about that are running through my head right now:

1. I am loving these pillows made by My Andrea for my couch. She brought them over last week & I adore how they brighten up the entire room!

2. I've now done several posts for Shimmerz & I'm still so honored & proud to be a Guest Designer for them. Go check out the newest posts here! PS Did you know that Shimmerz has been around since 1999? That's right - I learned something new last night when I read that too. Now that you've learned something new - you're done for the day!

3. Eloise had her 12 month well baby check up this morning. She's 20 pounds on the dot & 29 1/2 inches long. Dr. says she's doing great!

4. I'm thinking of doing this & this for my next running goal (5K's for both). Does this make me an official 'runner girl'?

That's all for today - maybe next Thursday I can pull off a 'Thursday Five!'

Enjoy your day!

Birthday Party!!

Here is Birthday Party update #2. Let's see how many posts I can get out of one event, shall we?

Here are a few more pics of the birthday girl from Saturday's party. Thank you again to all of our friends who came to her party to love on her on her special day. We loved hosting all of you & hope that you enjoyed it too!

Here is my beautiful girl with one of her many balloons:

A closer look at the cupcake tower (thanks Auntie Cole!) & the signs I made:

Another balloon - the girl is all about tissue paper & balloons. No need for gifts this year - who knew? :)

The 'before' picture. Waiting for her cupcake while we sing to her. Love her face here:

I'll be back in the next few days with more pictures & more tid-bits from the party. See you soon!

The 'E' Party

Last Monday night (a week ago) we had a very special event at our house. An event that had never before been celebrated. An event so exciting that three of our guests (including one of the honored attendees) traveled over 500 miles to participate. What is this monumental event you ask? Are you ready for this?? It was an "E" Party. That's right. **And there was much rejoicing**

A few months ago My Andrea & I were chatting & we decided that we would do a joint birthday party for our 'E' 's and call it an E party. Andrea came prepared - she made each E their own shirt. I made an E birthday banner (which will be featured on a blog near you in the next week or so). We had balloons, presents, dinner, cake, & even other guests!! It was a super fun evening. Thanks Andrea, Matt, & Ethan for coming over so we could celebrate our E's together. I still can't believe my E is one year old...

Auntie Andrea & little E (as we referred to her for the day). :) Notice Eloise's hair-bow! Yeah...that lasted about 2 minutes...

'Big E' opening a present from 'Little E' . Are you confused yet? :)

Our E's

The carrot cake with two E's (yes, one big, one little, one pink, one blue) and age appropriate candles for each E:

Birthday Party Sneek Peek:

I'll be back in the next few days (promise) with a real post about Eloise's birthday party. We had a wonderful time. Thank you to all of our friends & family who joined us both physically & in spirit. :) Here are just a few pictures to keep you coming back for more...

Birthday banner:

Cupcake & favors table:

And the pictures you will all be waiting for: Her first cupcake!! Let's just say that it got worse from here...