Elynn's Birthday Party

We had a small birthday party for Elynn on Saturday, which was her actual birthday day! It was such a great party. We had my mom and her husband, my sister and her husband, my grandma, Brent's mom and dad, Brent's sister, Michelle and her kids, Brent's uncle Johnny and aunt Mary, my friend, Lisa and her girls and my neighbor from across the street. It was so nice to not have as many people, mainly kids, there because we were able to really focus on Elynn and not on all the kids running around.
Elynn didn't know what to think. Every time she woke up, from morning to naps, someone new was at our house. She would just furrow her brows and look at them, like, "i know you but I am not sure why you are here."
She loved her ballons and LOVED her cupcake. She was trying to grab that cupcake out of my hand while we were still singing to her. I was afraid she was going to grab the burning candle. Once she got a hold of that cupcake, she secured it on her chest with one hand and used the other hand to shovel it in her mouth. She ate the WHOLE THING! I was shocked! I just knew she was going to have a stomach ache because she hadn't had sweets before that! She loved it!
It was a nice, simple party. I felt like I got to participate and enjoy the whole party instead of running around like a mad woman. It was great!

I decorated her door with streamers and balloons for when she woke up! (pinterest)

I LOVE this picture. She is almost always sitting in her bed like this when I go in and get her. She will look at you and smile, then turn back around. Such a sweet head.

Birthday girl!

She thought the balloons were so cool

So did Ezra and Emersyn

Cupcakes, Bake pops, Cookies and Sunglasses! What more could a girl want?

Ezra and Emersyn wanted to be in the picture too

Me, my mom and sis (baby Townes in her belly)

The decorations

Her balloons

My sweet girl and I

give me those balloons, Mimi

Ezra and Marvey making the ice cream

Trying to get the balloons

cutest bottom ever!

her new chair

so happy

Happy Birthday to ELYNN

give me that cupcake!

Mom and Dad with the birthday girl (going to town on her cupcake)

After she got all cleaned and changed. So happy! This is Elynn all the time.

Always clapping! Mainly for herself!

She LOVED opening her presents!!

My grandma gave her this book. It was given to MY GRANDMA when she turned ONE! It was dated 1942. Elynn Sara is name after my grandma!

She loves, Violet, her puppy

I was going too slow

making sure she didn't miss anything.

We had such a great time celebrating her and have been so blessed with her in her first year! 

Elynn turned ONE!

Elynn 3 weeks

Elynn 3 weeks

Elynn is ONE

Saturday my sweet Elynn turned ONE! I can't believe it. I want to say this has been such a FAST year! I mean, I am pretty sure I just brought her home from the hospital! But, sadly, that is not the truth. She is ONE and loving it!
This sweet, sweet girl is PURE JOY! She is ALWAYS happy, smiling, clapping, dancing and just loving on you! She loves to do and be wherever her brother and sister are. She has recently discovered that we have a pretty awesome backyard and LOVES to go outside! She will go to the back door, which is glass, and press her face to the window and start banging on it! It is way to cute. Ezra and Emersyn love when she is outside too. The weather has been perfect so we having been living in our backyard. She loves to swing, walk with her push toys, ride in her little tykes car, go down the slide of the playhouse and watch Ezra and Emersyn run and play.
Some other things she is doing now:
-she stands by herself all the time. When she does this she claps for herself and gets really excited.
-she has taken some steps, but then gets really excited and starts clapping for herself (again) and falls down
-she can say, "mama", "dada", "uh-oh", "ma" (for more), "dat do"(thank you), "nana"(banana)
-she has two bottom teeth and is FINALLY getting her top two teeth (which is a good thing it took a while because I am still nursing!)
-she blows kisses
-she waves
-she loves to dance
-she plays peek-a-boo while covering her little eyes with her hands. CUTEST thing, she will peek at you from between her fingers to make sure you are still playing. OH SO CUTE. She gets the biggest smile!
-she also plays "where's Elynn?" she will cover her face with whatever she has in her hand and you say, "where is Elynn?"
-she is my snuggle bug! She loves to snuggle and be held. And I hold her A LOT! I just can't get enough. She will hold her arms out to me and smile, and I just have to pick her up. She will immediately put her head on my shoulder. Makes me melt every time!

Took Elynn to the doctor today for her well visit. It was a good thing because Elynn was at the start of a sinus infection and her ear looked a little red like it was about to be infected. So, we were able to start her on meds before it got ugly!
Anyway, she weighed in at 19.8 pounds (25th %) and was 29 inches tall (50th %). I was shocked that she wasn't 20 pounds and that she is in the 25th percentile for weight. Who knew!

We are so very blessed with this healthy, joyful, smiley girl. She is a blessing to our family. I could not imagine our family without her. I thank God everyday for the three little, but big, blessings in my life! I am so thankful HE called me to be their mommy!

My princess and Knight

Emersyn and Ezra had a great day today playing. They actually have been playing really well the past couple days. It's pretty fun! Today, they played princess and knight. I got some cute pictures.

Celebrating 6 YEARS!

Tomorrow is our 6 year anniversary! Wahoo! Love my man! He is such a blessing to me! I could not have hand picked anyone more perfect.

Here are some of the things I love about him:
I love his heart, I love that he loves God and makes me want to be a better person, I love his work ethics, I love how true to his word he is, I love how he is always hands on with the kids, I love that he can do ANYTHING (really!), I love how he seems to be "quite" but is pretty witty, I love how thoughtful he is, I love how he is always available for me, our family, his family, my family, I love how hard he works around the house, I love how he teaches our children the value of work, I love that he will be outside all day playing with the kids, then can as easily come in and play dolls with Emersyn; I just plain LOVE THIS GUY!

So, every year, so far, we have done something for the house as our anniversary present to each other. This year, we decided that we wanted to put up new lighting in our kitchen. So, we did. We also got new curtains for the living room and framed out our other two windows. I will take pictures when that is complete.

I love you, Brent! I am so thankful for you and am so excited about Always and FOREVER with you!

(I need to find a picture of what the other light looked like. I didn't get a pic of the "before" before he took it down)

Elynn: 11 MONTHS

My baby girl is ONE MONTH AWAY from turning ONE! AAHH! Okay, I had to get that out! I just cannot wrap my mind around it. I mean, literally, 28 DAYS! Craziness! It went by so fast! I love that she is such a cuddle bug, because I hold on to her so tight, hoping she won't get any bigger. It is NOT working!

So, 11 months! She is cruzing furniture, but is not interested in walking as of yet. She has let go of things and just stood there, but that is about all. When she started to do that last month, I thought, "oh, she will probably walk early because I don't remember Ez or Em doing that." Well, so far, no. I have tried to hold her hands and see if she will walk with me, and she will pull her legs up and try and sit. I am not in too much of a hurry for her to walk, but it is nice when they do start walking and they aren't on the ground all the time. We shall see.

Other things she is doing or that has happened:
-we have TWO teeth! Ha. Her cousin, Joseph, and her friend, Holton, have full mouths of teeth.
-she can wave 'hi' and 'bye'
-she can blow kisses (super cute!)
-she can sign "more". She will also give a big head nod if she really wants it! Love it!
-she can say "uh oh" in a cute higher pitch voice. And, she LOVES to play the "uh oh" game, where she throws things down, looks for it and says "uh oh"
-she loves to crawl up the stairs and go into Emersyn's room to play with her dollhouse
-she eats anything and everything you have and that you will give her. She loves to eat! I think she is a social eater. Anytime anyone is eating, she thinks she needs to be eating too.
-she loves to dance. She will sit and clap to songs, she will get up and bounce up and down or sway side to side when a song is playing.
-she also loves to "sing" with you. If I start singing "twinkle star" or the "abc's" she will "sing" with me.
-she loves peek-a-boo
and her brother and sister!

I think that I am going to have to start weaning her when she turns one. It is getting to the point where if Ezra and Emersyn are in the room while she is nursing, she will get off to see what they are doing and then get back on, then off, then on, etc. And, lets face it, when are they NOT in the room with me?? It makes me sad, but I am so thankful that we have been able to do it for as long as we have.

I love this happy, happy girl, and am so excited to see what this new year is going to bring. She is a light in our life!

Emersyn pushing Elynn on the swing. Elynn loved it!

One of her happy faces!

Ha! Had to put this one in. A little too hard of a push!

Love these two!

This one is funny. She was in the middle of doing her happy squeal

Getting kisses from Jager