Friday, December 31, 2010

2010: the year of elle

2010 was the best year of my life! i think the hubs would say the very same. our lives changed drastically at the birth of our sweet baby girl, elle louise, and we can't imagine life any other way. we don't "do" as much. we don't see friends as much. we don't shop as much (unless its for elle louise). we don't eat out as much. we love more. we laugh more. we spend more time at home. we cherish the small moments and milestones. we talk about elle and life a lot. basically 2010 was the year of elle louise and its been a great great year.

january:
basically the whole month of january was dedicated to prepping for elle's arrival!
we packed hospital bags.
i was showered with gifts and lots of love at my 2nd baby shower.
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february:
on february 4, 2010 we welcomed baby elle louise into this world. with open and loving arms. and, we haven't looked back since. at only 6 pounds, 2 ounces and 18 inches long she was the tiniest thing we had ever laid our eyes upon. we didn't know what to do with such a tiny little thing. but, we quickly figured out our roles as elle's mommy and daddy.
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march:
didn't get out much!
spring sprang and left us with lots of snow!
elle louise high turned one month old. it was a crazy day and i learned on that day how fast time would fly from then on out.

april:
started back to work on april 16th. hated it. worst. day. ever.
celebrated easter!
elle belle turned 2 months old (on easter)!
spent a couple of the warmer days outside.
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and again, we didn't get out much!

may:
whew. looking back, may was a busy month.
elle louise turned 3 months old! also on her 3rd month birthday we celebrated mother's day and dedicated our sweet girl at church.
i turned 27 and aaron turned 29
our nephew, parker, turned the big 0-2!
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started spending lots of days and weekends at my parents pool.
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my hydrangea started to flower and bloom!

june:
elle turned 4 months old and we dressed her up as rainbow brite for the occasion
we celebrated aaron's first father's day! it was a special day!
aaron and i celebrated 3 years of wedded bliss!
hosted a baby shower for my SIL, holly!
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july:
elh turned 5 months old! we took more pictures with her ellephant to document the occasion.
july 4th we had a big party for my mimi and poppy to celebrate 50 years of marriage!
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our nieces, regan and riley, turned the big 0-6!
birthday parties at carillon beach
our little family went on not one, but TWO beach vacations...
babe on carillon beach
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we went to carillon beach with aaron's family and to sgi with mine! it was really much a vacation with a 5-month old but it was fun.

august:
elly bean turned 6 months old and more pics were taken.
my niece, taylor katherine, was born on august 23rd!
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elle louise had her first (and hopefully only) urinary tract infection.
we started elle on solids. girl LOVES her some food.
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september:
i started working 2 days a week this month, so this was kind of slow month for us. all i wanted to do on my days off was soak elle up. i missed her so much!
elle turned 7 months old and you guessed it, we took more pics with her ellephant :)
we had our first official playdate with jessica and ruby.
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elle really started developing her personality in september. she purposefully started doing funny stuff to get reactions out of us.
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october:
elle turned 8 months old. this month we decided to not take pictures. NOT! ha ha! we definitely took more pictures.
took bean to the bikes, blues, and bbq festival in fayetteville.
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our great friends, the duong's, got married. it was such a personal, simple, and beautiful wedding!
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and, i took a blogging break during the month of october so i don't have any posts to link to.
we dressed elle up as an "elle"phant and went to a few things in our community and trick-or-treated a little!
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in november, i blogged about october.

november:
elle turned 9 months old!
we had family pictures taken
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decorated for christmas
celebrated our first thanksgiving with our little turkey!
sold my FRYE boots!

december:
crazy busy month.
our little blessing turned 10 months old!
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finished decorating my house for christmas. only took me about 3 weeks! not too bad considering i have a 10-month old that was undoing everything!
elle louise visited santa for the first time and to our suprise actually liked him!
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we sent out our first christmas card as a family of 3!

we celebrated christmas! with all of our family and friends.

2010 has been a wild ride for sure. the. best. year. ever. its bittersweet to see it end. however, i'm ready to ring in the new year and to see what the gracious Lord has planned for our family in 2011!

Monday, December 27, 2010

our very merry christmases

we started out celebrating christmas with my poppy tom (dad's dad) and my cousins and their families. poppy gave me money this year to get elle's presents. i decided to get her one big thing and a couple smaller things. she loved the b.zany zoo (the big thing) and plays with it so much. i'm excited about it because it is educational and keeps her entertained. AND...it doesn't make noise!

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poppy with his grands!


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elle louise not too excited about her gifts! she just wanted down to play!

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the girls and some of their gifts!


christmas eve we celebrated with aaron's family at his parents house. every year we wear jammies and just veg out on soups, sides and desserts. its usually mass chaos since there are like a gazillion of us...so i can't really say its relaxing, but it is fun!

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parker and his favorite toy of the evening!


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elle louise is obsessed with this baby and is ready for her to be big enough to play!

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hilarious! papa reading the christmas story!

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ha ha!


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elle ripped open a present for once! cute baby gap clothes and PUFFs inside!

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she liked the gift-bagged gifts. small obsession with tissue paper!

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me and sweet baby taylor! and when i say sweet, i mean SWEET!


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pretty sisters!


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siblings!


christmas morning we opened presents with our elle louise. she didn't know what was going on and all she wanted to do was play with her old toys and rip tissue paper into tiny pieces. next year she will really get into it i am sure!

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my stocking!


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woo hoo! whatever.


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dad, see my new toothbrush?


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really likes the toothbrush!


after we opened presents at our house we headed over to my parents for our annual christmas brunch. i swear my mom texted me 500 times asking when we were coming over. they were so excited about their first christmas with elle!

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mom got elle louise a baby stella doll and she loves it!

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she wore stella on her back forever. it was so funny. she looks like such a big girl here :(

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ha ha!


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yay for presents!


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poppy tom came for brunch !


last but not least, christmas night we celebrated with my mom's side of the family. it was as it always is. warm and comfortable. and, a tradition that i look forward to every year.

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family!


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opening more gifts!


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someone is very sleepy!


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oh, what could it be?


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a stroller for baby stella! thank you mimi and poppy!


our first christmas with elle louise was so much fun! it was great starting new traditions for my family and living out existing traditions with our girl. i look forward to many more times like these!

blessed are we!