6 1/2 Months...1st Time in the Pool

I am officially on summer break, home with Ellie EVERYDAY and LOVING it! She is my personal wake up call, bright and early, but I don't mind one bit! Today, we had breakfast, I did a yoga video, laundry, and a shower before 8:00am!

My grandparents (dad's side) live in Virginia and after seeing Krissy's Prom pics and newer pictures of Ellie decided they missed everyone and wanted to come down for a visit! After a 9 hour car ride, they arrived full of positive energy and ready to love on everyone. Ellie had a little fever so we weren't around as much over the weekend, but it was still great to visit with them. The last night there were there we had a HUGE rain storm. No thunder or lightning, just super heavy rain. Krissy, Dan and I went on my parent's front porch to watch the rain and then I dared Dan to run out in the middle of the street...being a 10 year old boy, he jumped on that dare...and Krissy shortly joined him. Below is a picture of the girls in the family after all that fun... my mom, grandma, Krissy, Ellie, and I.

Ellie is such a HAPPY baby! We are SO BLESSED!

Ellie is sitting up more, but wobbles over pretty quickly. She loves to be able to see everything...and always eying what to get her hands and MOUTH on next!

On Monday, Ellie went to the pool for the 1st time! She loves the bath, so I assumed she would enjoy the pool as well. She ate lunch in her Bumbo seat...here she is relaxing and loving life.

We have a foam set of the ABCs and 123s for bath time...Ellie loves to play with them and teeth on them...it's funny because they are made by the company, Sassy, but the only letter that says "Sassy" on them happens to be the "E" ... here is Ellie with her Sassy E! (Sassy Ellie)

She likes to take off the sunglasses a little more now then a few months ago...

Hanging out in her stroller and checking out the ducky on her towel.

Always got a smile on her face!

Big shot in the pool!

Swimming with my little cousin, Teagan.

Chilling out in her float with a football and passy...she stayed like this for a long time!

Ellie was so comfy in her float, she almost fell asleep... unfortunately, we had to take her out and change her so she didn't take a nap in the wet diaper...but she quickly fell asleep and took a nice pool side nap in her stroller.

Happy Birthday, Krissy!

This past weekend was my sister, Krissy's, 17th birthday...we had a little cook-out at my parent's house. My brother, Mikey, is home for a few weeks from Boise State and has had fun hanging out with Ellie in the afternoons while my mom is watching her. I am SO thankful that my mom has been able to help us out so much with Ellie and can't wait for the week to end and I will be FREE for the SUMMER!!!! I think I have already mention it in a previous post, but I am so blessed to have a job where I get the summer off to be with Ellie and more time with Esteban!! Below are a few pictures from Krissy's birthday, along with the fun RAINBOW cake I made her. I got the idea from http://blantonbaby.blogspot.com/

Ellie and I with the birthday girl!

Pretty girls!

Chillin' with Uncle Mikey

some of the family.

sweet baby girl.

starting to make the cake...it was so easy and lots of fun! Here is a brief idea of how to make it.

1.You need two boxes of white cake mix, food coloring and icing (recipe called for homemade icing, but since this whole rainbow thing was new I didn't want to risk it and went with the store bought kind)

2. Prepare the cake mix as directed on the box.

3. Separate the first box into 3 bowls- about 1 1/4 cups each and use the food coloring to make purple, blue and green. I started with the bottom of the rainbow so I could start icing as they cooled. I thought about just doing fun colors too, so be creative! Repeat with the second box- yellow, orange and red.

4. I only have 2 round pans so obviously only cooked 2 at a time. Once the purple and blue cakes cooled I iced, layered and iced and then put it in the freezer for one hour- the recipe called for this since the cake gets heavy with all the layers and makes icing easier.

5. After an hour, repeat the layer, icing, layer, icing process with green and yellow...then freeze another hour.

6. Repeat again with orange and red and freeze another hour.
7. After the entire cake was in the freezer about 45 minutes to an hour, I took it out and iced the whole thing.
8. Since we were going to be traveling with the cake, I kept it in the refrigerator until we left and saved the writing for when we got there.

We sung HAPPY BIRTHDAY and then...

TA-DA!!!!!

Uncle Dan, Ellie and Aunt Krissy being silly :)

more pictures...from my phone- 6 months

playing in her Bumbo seat...

chillin'

more Bumbo play time

so fresh and so clean, so happy :)

6 months!!

It is hard to believe Ellie is already 6 months! Below are a few pictures of Ellie in dresses from her Grandma Lopez. The dresses are 3-6 months and as you can see, they are still a little big on Miss Ellie. Although she is long like her mommy, she is very "dainty" and/or "petite." I think dainty sounds so sweet and southern :) I really hope to get some professional pictures of her taken soon...maybe once school is out for the summer and Ellie becomes my full time job! Oh the blessings of being a teacher! Speaking of teaching, we are so relieved that I finally signed a contract for next year- they waited until the last possible second to give them to us this year! Esteban and I are so thankful to have good jobs right now with the economy! Anywho- hope you enjoy these few little pics until we have time for more!

Krissy's Prom Pictures & Chick-fil-a

I can't believe Ellie is almost 6 months old! Esteban and I keep saying how it seems like she is changing on a daily basis. I am so excited that school is almost out and I can spend my entire day hanging out with Ellie and get to spend more time with Esteban!

This past Saturday was my sister's prom. Ellie and I picked up Krissy's friend Erin and we went to take pictures and Ellie had lots of fun! After, we stopped at Chick-fil-a to visit Daddy and eat dinner.

Such a sweet smile!

My beautiful little sister, Krissy!

Pictures were done and Ellie was ready for a nap! Ellie fell asleep in Erin's arms...it was sooo humid!

Sweet Molly and Ellie.

Here is Ellie's photoshoot at Chick-fil-a...she is starting to smile for the camera which is so fun!