Every Day is a "New" Day: Ella is a 1-YEAR OLD!

I cannot begin to explain how this beautiful child has changed our lives. I'll be honest, before she was born, Tim and I braced ourselves for the dreaded 1st 3 months and kept telling ourselves that once they were over, our lives would become somewhat normal again. From the day we brought her home, the 1st few months were some of the favorite of Tim and I's that we could have had with a newborn. We would even fight over who got to put her to bed or hold her because she was so sweet! She kept this same sweet, laid-back, easy going personality throughout her 1st 12 months and I am just so in LOVE with her it still amazes me!

My favorite moments of the day are waking her up and seeing her giant smile greet me when I come in to get her.

She loves to look out her window and try to find dogs...her favorite word and animal at the moment. She also is can say hat, that, da for daddy, mama.

She will kick her legs if you ask her to and give you her "stinky" feet while she is on her changing table. If she sees her shoes, she will put out her foot to have you put them on her. She can't get enough of them and it must tickle when I put them on her because she always giggles when I slide them on her foot!

She still is sporting only 4 bottom teeth but it looks like her whole mouth might explode with teeth sooner than later I hope. Otherwise, we'll have to have some dentures fitted in her mouth so she has some upper teeth :)

She has become a great eater and willingly tries new food. We are having a tough time with the whole milk transition just like her big sister so we'll see how long that lasts.

She will sit in the playroom and play with all the toys and talk to herself in some secret language that only she knows and have a blast! And, she sure does babble alot so I'm assuming we will have another talker on our hands!

Her hair is becoming curly on the ends but it's much lighter than Avery's and it likes to stick up everywhere right now. She will sometimes keep her bows in and when they are not in it's everywhere!

Walking by herself is getting better but she looks like a little drunk man trying to do it on her own. She can get about 10 steps max and then plops down on her bum. Good thing she's got some padding down there!

There's so much more that I can't even begin to think about but I just know that she is such a joy and bright light in our family. I can't wait to see her grow and watch her relationship with Avery grow this coming year. I look forward to watching her walk, talk, hug, kiss and grow into a sweet little toddler - at least I'll cross my fingers on the continued sweet part :) I love you so much sweet Ella. Thank you for making our family complete and our hearts whole.

Love, Mommy

Here are some recent photos of her that I took while she was playing in her room and in the living room. Enjoy!

some nudie, pitutie photos in her room...she can almost see out the window!