sweetie pea is 8-months old today

at 8-months old elle louise:

• very busy. constantly on the go!
• crawls and gets places. cutest thing to watch. she follows me around the house now and its the greatest thing.
• the sweetest! the joy of our lives.
  
• is wearing size 4 diapers. we buy seventh generation and they tend to run a little small. at least that's what i keep telling myself.
• has TWO little chompers on the bottom. and teething like crazy. not sure where the other teeth are going to sprout. she seems to be teething on her right side the most.
• still mainly breastfed with some solids thrown in here and there. i try to sit elle down with us for at least one meal a day. if she is tired or hungry its worthless. but as long as she is neither she really enjoys "experimenting" with foods. and, just for the record she LOVES anything sweet and chicken noodle soup!
• wears mainly 6-12 months clothing. can wear some 12 month things and some 3-6 month things.
• is short and chubby!
  
• has the tiniest baby feet i have ever seen. currently she is wearing 0-3 month sized shoes. its crazy!
• has the funniest little personality. plays pat-a-cake (claps and rolls it up). throws her arms over and wants us to acknowledge it with a "yeay!" and then she claps. loves all her new "big baby" toys that we were handed down.
• pulls up on everything!
  
• says "dada", "baba", "ba", "da" (which i think she means dog!), and is constantly jabbering.
• loves to be read to. she is so content to listen and sometimes gets very excited and says "eh, eh!" over and over.
• has a little separation anxiety. she does well once i leave and i'm out of sight, but as long as i am in view she wants me. which, i don't hate! ha!
• still LOVES bath time. it is seriously her favorite. she could play in their forever. i usually let her just play and play until the water gets cold (or we are in a hurry).

one year ago, i was days away from finding out the gender of our little bean growing inside of me. it was also the first time that i would see her. it was one of the most amazing days of my life. and, to think, here we are a year later with our very fun and sweet 8-month old. 4 months away from a 1st birthday party. these last 8 months have just flown by. i miss our days of just lounging around with my sleepy newborn on my chest. it was hard then, the long nights and sleepy days. i still remember it well. and i do miss it like crazy. but, i love each new moment with my girl. elle louise is a joy to us. a pure joy. the ultimate blessing. my heart melts every time i look at her. she really has her daddy and i completely wrapped. something new everyday. we are having the time of our lives with our little girl. i don't want to miss a thing!

there is another VERY IMPORTANT BIRTHDAY today!

the best brother in the whole entire world turned 22 today! christopher currently resides in russellville so we celebrated this past weekend. i love my brother to the moon and back and am so grateful for the close relationship that we have. he is a blessing to my family!


christopher and cati. so thankful that he brings this girl home with him. we love her to death. i don't want to jump the gun or anything. but, i'm pretty sure that she will be my sister-in-law one day and i couldn't be more excited!


yep. the cake shop spelled christopher's name wrong. he he!


elle louise getting reacquainted with her uncle cracker! she wasn't too sure about him. he's just gonna have to come home more so she doesn't forget him between visits. hint hint, christoPER!

also, this weekend was the big bikes, blues and bbq motorcycle rally in fayetteville. we decided to venture down there for a few hours on saturday. it was fun. loud and crazy as always. but, fun nonetheless. and, the perfect enviroment for people-watching!

aaron sold his motorcycle about a month ago (praise JESUS!), so he was pretty sad without it this year. not me. so glad that thing is out of our lives. i can breath!


melt my heart right away!


snug as a bug in a rug. or, a baby in a moby wrap! my favorite!

we met jason, holly, parker, and taylor there. holly was super mom for the day! okay, everyday. she wore taylor and pushed parker in the stroller through all the madness. i was impressed!


umm, never!


uncle j's bike!


tuckered.

so, after much thought and i've decided to quit blogging for the month of october (i will be back on november 4th). i have so much in my life that i need to spend my time doing right now other than blogging. i will also not be reading any blogs (except for a few that have specific needs that i pray for!) and commenting. i will miss all my blogs, greatly. but, this is just something i need to do. i will also free myself of facebook. i've just decided that i am way. to. sensitive. for facebook. the world does not revolve around me. this i know. but, sometimes my feelings just get major hurt when i read certain things. anyway, i've just decided that facebook is not for me. so i'm avoiding facebook for the month of october as well. i will come back to blogging. i may never go back to facebook. ha ha. who am i kidding? i will be back on november 1st at 12:00 a.m.

i have several projects around the house that i want to finish. i want to get a spreadsheet of our budget up and running. i need to organize all our pictures and get elle's scrapbook started. start on her baby book. deep clean our house. top to bottom. windows and baseboards. yuck. get my etsy shop going. and many more things.

love to all. i will miss you all. please come back in november!