Ellie Walking!

So much happens in a month!

I'm finally back with an update! My good intentions of being a faithful blogger this summer fell by the wayside. So sorry! It's been a busy month... We've been in Florida, Alabama, Kentucky, Iowa and back to Kansas in the last 4 weeks! Whew! Ellie is one well traveled child... Here are some highlights from her last month!

• Two new teeth! You got it! Her top two teeth have broken through!!! And with the new teeth has come a new bad habit of grinding her teeth! Ouch!
• WALKING! Ellie started walking TODAY! I will try to post a short video of this soon...
• Exploring EVERYTHING - that's right...from toilets, to outlets, to taking everything off of bookshelves and cabinets... if it's even remotely within her reach, it's hers for the taking. If it's out of her reach, she'll figure out a way to get to it. Time to lock everything down for a season!
  

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson came to visit in Florida and we had so much fun together!

Ellie is also Mom's "helper" unloading the dishwasher!
I just have to make sure and unload the knives right away! Yikes!!!

Playing is hard work... I love this cute pic of Ellie crashing while eating her bottle before bed!

I turned the big "33" while we were in Florida and Joel threw a surprise party for me! Ellie even waited up to help celebrate!

Ellie got to hang out with her friend Griff while we were in Kentucky on our way home from Florida! They had fun playing together and we parents just might do a little matchmaking in the years ahead!

Ellie and Daddy having fun in Seaside a few days before we left Florida...

Ellie hanging out with some Kaleo guys during one of the program socials.

While we were in Iowa, we got to celebrate Ellie's ONE year birthday

a few days early!!! Here she is enjoying her first cake!

We can't believe our little girl is almost ONE!

What a wonderful first year it's been with our little Ellie.

summer please slow down!

As you can see, Ellie continues to have a fun time in Florida! She's the lucky one who doesn't have to do any work. It's fun all the time for her. :) When Dad and Mom get a minute away from working with the students, we love to take Ellie to experience fun things during her first summer at Kaleo! Last weekend, all of the students left the project to have a team weekend to bond with their team. While they were away, the staff got to spend some time together. We went boating on Saturday afternoon and Ellie got to go on a boat and swim in the bay for the first time! She had a blast!

Last weekend, we got to meet all of our KSU crew in Seaside and we squeezed in a fun family pic!

One thing that we are learning about Ellie is that she is very impatient when it comes to eating! She's so well behaved at almost every other time, but when she is hungry, you know it! Here is a little photo of her impatience in action... I had just fed her part of her lunch and was getting her some fruit. She just couldn't wait for me to get back, so she started crawling to me with her booster seat still attached to her bottom! It was a hoot!

Finally, here is a pic of Ellie enjoying her first Kaleo RAVE! Everyone dressed up in neon colors or white and we danced in black light. It kind of wigged her out at first. She wasn't sure what was going on! But after the initial shock, she had a fun time dancing the night away! One student even gave her a glow stick necklace to wear so she could fit in!

The summer is going so well. We just wish our time down here would SLOW down! But we are trying to soak up every day... More soon!

2 weeks in Destin...almost!

Hey everyone!

Hard to believe, but we are already 1/3 of our way through our time down here in Florida! The time is passing so quickly. We're having a wonderful time, but staying really busy with the fast pace of the program! Ellie is LOVING all of her new friends. So much so, that she is completely worn out every night. Our night owl has turned into an early to bed little girl and has usually crashed out by 9pm! It will be interesting when we get back to school! The funny thing is, she is still sleeping until about 9am and then up for an hour or two and back down for a 2 hour nap. I think our girl is GROWING and needing her extra beauty sleep... :)

She still loves her bathtime and is thrilled that we have a huge tub down here. I have been giving her baths most nights (compared to every 3 nights back home!) and she just plays and plays. She's at such a fun age... Now if I can just keep her from drinking her bathwater (yuck!) and trying to stand up and slipping and falling back down into the tub! Here are a couple of bathtime pics...

Another FUN adventure Ellie and I had together was going to these shooting fountains at one of the outdoor malls down here... A couple of the other Moms and I got our kiddos all suited and sunscreened up (which is a huge process in and of itself!) and let them play in the water to their heart's content! You can't necessarily tell it from the pictures (Ellie squints a TON in the sunshine and it makes her look like she isn't so happy!) but she had a BLAST crawling at mock speed through the shooting water... She has absolutely no fear and would stick her face right in the water. I told Joel he has to go back with me next time. It was definitely memorable!

One of the parts of the program is getting to have different teams over for dinner! Tuesday night we had these beautiful KSU ladies over for some chicken enchiladas... We had such a fun time together...

And last but not least, we just got home from an evening in Seaside, a little town about 30 minutes from here... Joel, Ellie and I headed over there to check it out cause the KSU students who are in Destin and those in Panama City are meeting there for the afternoon on Saturday! We're sad that our students and staff are split up for the summer, but so glad that it's just a short jaunt to meet them halfway... We got a few fun pics while we were there.

Ellie made a new friend named Paxton. She seems to LOVE boys! Yikes...

Just couldn't seem to get Ellie to look at the camera! She was so distracted by all the people walking by. We have one incredibly curious little lady, that's for sure!

Kisses from Mommy while we are trying to get her to look at the camera. :)

Finally...SUCCESS! Thanks to the sweet lady who stopped to help us get Ellie's attention...

I just love pics of Ellie and her Daddy!

That's it for now... Thanks for dropping by to check in on us!

the beginnings of Destin!

Ellie swinging at Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's house on our way to Destin!

Sitting in her Daddy's old high chair!

Making her famous "Ellie face"

Ellie's first picture in our summer home in Destin!

Ellie trying on her new "floaty" suit for Florida! She obviously thinks it's pretty neat!

Hey all!

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Again, the days are flying by and I'm just now getting around to posting! It's been a wild couple of weeks! I got to celebrate my FIRST Mother's Day and it was WONDERFUL!!! Joel and Ellie bought me a beautiful pandora charm bracelet that I was so excited about!!! We also got to go on a picnic and had so much fun. I, of course, didn't get a good picture of the day! Such a bummer. :( But it was a wonderful day. :)

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The last week of school was a blur of final meetings, parties, etc. It's always so hard to say goodbye to everyone...even if just for the summer. I guess that's a good sign. We just love our students. They really are like extended family to us!
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Now we're in Destin and almost a week into our Kaleo Summer Training Program. Can't believe how quickly time is going. We are LOVING being here... such a neat change of pace and we absolutely living life on life with the students so closely for a few weeks. We build such neat relationships with them in this short amount of time because of the intense time we get together everyday. We love it.

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Ellie is loving being down here and just eating up all the attention from the students. I know I've said this many times before, but she is just an extrovert to the MAX! She comes to life when there are people around and is always so full of smiles and crazy expressions... It's the best! She also has some little friends here her age, which is so fun for both of us! It's great for her to be around other little people and fun for me to get to be with other young Mom's every day...

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God has been good! Looking forward to updating you throughout our summer here.

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Love you all! Thanks for checking in...

a much needed update pt. 2

Ellie with a bunch of StuMo girls after our last StuMo of the semester!

Ellie hanging out with the boys at Caleb's graduation party! They all color coordinated!
K-State Proud with Mommy and Daddy!

More fun after StuMo with the girls!

Ellie loves to read with her Daddy!

Ellie playing with her new friend Brandon on the KSU football team...

She was so intrigued with how big he was and his dreadlocks!

He was so tall, he had to duck to get through our front door! Ha!

Everyone has been laughing cause this is Ellie's infamous "9 month face" as her Daddy likes to call it! She is always raising her eyebrows and puts her little mouth into an "O"!

She is VERY into mess making these days... Her favorite activities are pulling things off of any shelf within her reach. As you can see in the background, she has pulled all of the CD's off of her bookshelf in her room... Then she loses interest. :)

I got to have lunch with my friends Jana and Gentry and then they graciously offered to watch Ellie while Joel and I headed to the Spring football game!

Ellie LOVED her time with Jana and G-dawg! :

Ellie "drinking" coffee at one of our morning staff meetings.

a much needed update pt. 1!

I can't believe that almost a month has passed since I last blogged!!! So sorry! A lot has happened since my last post so I will try to catch up a bit, though it will be impossible to cover it all... The third weekend in April, Ellie and I made a quick trip home to Iowa to visit my family! We had SUCH a good time relaxing and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa McCulley and even got to see Ellie's Great Grandma Katie, Great Grandma Barb and Great Aunt Phyllis! Thanks for the wonderful time!!!

Grandpa Richard feeding me!

Ellie lovin' on Grandpa and Grandma after church

Fun times with Grandmas at McDonalds and at Grandma Katie's apartment
So glad that Aunt Phyllis could come over for a visit!

Ellie, Mommy and Grandma Barb

We even got to see some good friends of Mommy's! Here is Aunty Tarah!

Playing piano with Mommy

On our way home, we got to stop in DesMoines to meet my new friend Bethany and her Mommy Teri.

We have SO much fun when we go to Iowa!!!