Bibs!!

Ellie is now 11 1/2 months old!!! I can't believe how fast time has gone by. Ellie is at such a fun stage right now and I love seeing her personality develop more and more. I am having a lot of fun planning her 1st birthday party! I want to show some pictures, but I am going to hold off and share all the fun at once. I am blessed to have lots of talented people in my life that LOVE Ellie, so we have had fun making the invitiations and tutu by hand- and practiced making the cake. Her birthday shirt will be hand made by another friend! Let's just say, this party was prepared with lots of LOVE.

Check out the 2 pictures below with 2 of her prettiest bibs- the kind of bibs you don't want to use when they are eating.

The first one is homemade by my dear friend, Britney (Smith) Miner's grandma. I was texting Britney this morning while Ellie was eating breakfast and I remembered she was in Savannah with her grandma this weekend. Her grandpa recently passed away and Britney and her sister, Kaley, took their grandma on a little trip. Her grandma has always been so sweet to me and I thought she'd enjoy to see a picture of her hard work in use :)

The second one is from another good friend, Amber Scates (soon to be Amber Heery!) It is just too cute for words!

Good thing Ellie had bananas and cheerios for breakfast so the bibs stayed nice and pretty!

UTC Homecoming

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Oh Happy Fall

I just LOVE this time of year. I love the color changes in the trees, I love pumpkin patches, I love candy corn, I love the weather in the south, and I love college football! Esteban and I took Ellie up to Chattanooga this past weekend for UTC's Homecoming Game vs. Georgia Southern. It was Ellie's 1st UTC game and she was great! She got a little scared with the loud crowd during a touchdown, but I think it made her want to just sit in my lap the whole game. We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed being up there. Being homecoming, Esteban ran into some old players and remininsed about the good ole' days :)

See above for a family picture at the game- 2nd largest crowd in school history!

I'm Back!

Ok, so I know it has been way too long since I have posted. Volleyball season is over and I feel like a new person! It is so nice to leave school at 3:oo pm and have no obligations but to love on Ellie. Speaking of Ellie, she is playing with her babydoll and giving her kisses over and over again as I type this. My sister, Krissy, taught Ellie how to give Eskimo Kisses (or "noses" as we call it to Ellie).

I will do my best to update the blog now that I have more free time! Here are a few pictures for now...

Ellie 10 1/2 months old...hanging out in her PJs before breakfast.

Current favorite thing to say "Uh oh"

With my mom and Krissy before Homecoming

Swimming in the Rain

Ellie and I went swimming today with my mom and cousins, Keelin and Teagan...there was "pop up" rain on and off, but it was still sunny so we decided to keep swimming...then all the sudden it started POURING!

As you can tell by the picture below, Ellie LOVED it!!!

Time flies when you're having fun!

It is crazy that Ellie is a little over 8 months old already! I was looking through my baby book the other night and realized I need to do a better job of recording Ellie's milestones. I guess I thought I would "never forget" when this or that happened, but sometimes thinking back over the past 8 months I get a little blurry about exactly when something happened. So on that note, here is where Ellie is at now:

*army crawling, starting to get on all fours more

*squirming and wiggling all over, loves to squeal while she does this- new game she plays with Esteban

*sitting up on her own

*can sit up from laying on her back

*eating stage 2 baby food and has fun trying out "big people" food such as bananas and pasta

*LOVES drinking cold water from a "big people" cup but refuses to drink water from a bottle or sippy-cup

*reaches out to touch someone's face...if she likes them

*plays with my hair when she is falling asleep

*smiles ALL the time and LOVES life- happy girl!

*says "da da," "ma ma," "ba ba," and other gibberish, but we don't think she actually knows what that means yet

*my mom taught her how to clap her hands- I need to get a video of that on here for you all to see, it is too cute- looks like she is at the Opera or something fancy, very proper clap!

*puckers up and makes a kiss sound when you ask "Ellie, can I have a kiss?"

*pulled herself into a standing position for the first time in her pack-n-play

*curious about everything and listens to conversations around her very intently

With all of that said, we are having so much fun watching Ellie grow and change everyday! I am starting to prepare myself that summer is coming to an end...volleyball starts this week and I think it will be a good start to getting back into reality! I can handle getting sweaty and playing in the gym, but I am not 100% ready for lesson plans just yet.

playing UNDER her Baby Einstein instead of in

Hanging out at the pool

Sleeping with Uncle Dan

Playing with toys at Mimi's house- outfit from her Grandma Lopez that her GREAT grandpa St. George would love- he loves red!

Crazy lady in her zebra swim suit

Playing with Keelin & Teagan after swimming

Sweet girl

July is here!

I am having a bit of a hard time coming to grips with that fact that July is here. For those of you that do not live in the south, that means our summer is almost over! I start open gym for volleyball the last 2 weeks of July, we have try-outs and pre-planning the first week of August and school starts August 9th!

I sure have LOVED this summer! Being home with Ellie has been wonderful and Ellie and I have had fun spending a lot of our days at the pool with friends or my family. Esteban has been working really hard and things have been going really well for him/us!

We had a great 4th of July in Chattanooga! My good friend Amber and her fiance, Frank, came with us on a day trip to Chattanooga! Esteban and I love any chance to go up there, we sure miss it sometimes. If you have never been, you need to go- it is such a quant and fun city! We started off by eating lunch at Tony's, a local Italian restaurant in the Art District. Then we walked around, drove through UTC's campus- lots of new construction going on-, then drove around Look Out Mountain, then back to the Art District to hang out at Rembrandt's for a while before finding a spot by the river before the fireworks started.

Us on the walking bridge.

Amber and I on the walking bridge in Chattanooga.

Esteban at Sunset Rock on top of Lookout Mnt.

Stopped at the little shop on the way down to mountain for some Coca Cola and a little browsing.

Ellie loved "tasting" the Coke.

Esteban, Frank and Ellie on the Tennessee River.

Our family on 4th of July in Chattanooga :)

Chattanooga did their big fire work show on Saturday night, but the Lookout's had a firework show after the baseball game. It actually worked out perfectly, there wasn't a huge crowd but we saw a great show! Ellie did NOT nap at ALL Sunday- guess there was too much excitement and she didn't want to miss out. Thankfully, she LOVED fireworks and fell asleep as soon as we got in the car and slept all the way home!

Ellie playing and waiting for the fireworks to start.

Watching fireworks, so serious.

Happy 4th of July!