Exhausted

Being a dad and a little girl is just way to exhausting!

New Swing and Camera

For my birthday, we decided to go ahead and get a new camera.  We decided on the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-HX9V and are very happy with it.  It has lots of great features and though I am still learning about it I am already beyond pleased with what it can do!

Ella had gotten a new swing a month or two ago and we hadn't gotten a chance to use it since it had been 100 degrees plus for the past 2 months.  We decided to get it set up this weekend and I figured it would be a great time to test out the action setting on my camera.
 

I am just amazed how clear the pictures come out even with the swing going so fast!  Can you tell she loves her swing or what!

She is such a ham!  Usually I can never even get a smile out of the kid, but I got plenty!

Just so happy to be swinging! 

We hope to get great use out of the swing and the camera this fall.  I already feel a trip to the pumpkin patch coming up and lots of time in this swing now that the temperatures are starting to drop!  No more 100's!!!!

First Birthday - The People

I figured I would finish up the week of birthday posts with a few pictures of the people that came to Ella's birthday.  Unfortunately I had loads of pictures of people, too many to post, so I just picked a few to share.  We were so glad so many friends and family were able to come!

Ella and Mr. Trey (Ella was the first baby that Trey ever agreed to hold before they were a year old - this includes his own nephew)

Uncle Doug, Aunt Regina, Ally, and Parrain

Josh (Keith's old coworker) and his daughter Emily

Josh's other daughter Aubrey - isn't her hair just gorgeous!  I sure hope Ella's hair is as pretty as this when it is longer.

Crazy Granny - she thought that Ella's clothes looked better on her

Ally and Rowan - Ally was the flower girl at our wedding 4 years ago.  I can't believe how much she has grown since then

One Year!

Well Ella Kate, you are officially 1 year old.  I know everyone always says it, but it really feels like it couldn't possibly have already been a year.  It is amazing how much you have grown and changed in this past year.  You have become such a little person already!

You have already grown such a personality and while somedays that is great, somedays you already have such an opinion about what you want and when you want it!  We can already tell that you are going to be quite the strong willed child.  Should definitely keep mommy and daddy on our toes!

So what have you been up to this past month?

You are wearing a size 4 diaper and have officially moved into 18 month clothing though the pants are way to long on you.  Don't know where those short little legs came from.

You weigh 23 lbs 11 1/2 oz and are 29 1/2 inches long (at least according to the drs office - I still believe you are longer than that)

You take 3 6 oz bottles a day, eat 3 full meals, and usually 2 snacks.  You still have quite the appetite.

You have officially mastered the art of walking and are trying to extend that into running.  We can barely keep up with you as it is so we hope you wait just a little longer before you really take off.

You are quite the little daredevil.  You love to climb up on anything you can find and tend to think you should dive head first off.  I better start knocking on wood or we are going to end up with stitches soon enough.

You love buddy (the cat).  Still not sure how he feels about you, but he sure does let you beat him up and chase him around!

You are still a fabulous sleeper and even take 2 great naps a day!

You have 12 teeth and we are hoping that means we will get a little break with the teething process, but at the rate you got those 12 I don't see any relief in the near future for your mouth.

You love Yo Gabba Gabba and any show that plays music that you can dance to.  This includes commercials!

You love being outside and have been known to sit at the door and yell until we agree to let you out.

You are still the light of mine and your dad's life!  We love you more and more everyday (even when you are throwing yourself on the floor in a complete rage cause we didn't let you do what you wanted to - I told you that you were strong willed).  We can not wait to see what the next month and everyday of your life has in store for you!

The First Birthday - The Cake

I am pretty sure few words are needed for these pictures...

Awaiting the cake... and wondering why everyone is singing to her!

What is this strange thing that they have placed in front of me???

HMM... this stuff doesn't taste so bad

Now we are talking!

The First Birthday - The Details

Since Ella Kate hasn't really started to show interest in any one thing in particular, we decided to not have a real theme to her party.  I went with a cupcake/polka dot/bright color type theme and I think it came out really cute.

I had a friend of mine from college do the birthday invites.  I thought I still had a picture of them, but I can't seem to find it.  The only things I told her to include were the colors turquoise and pink, and to put a cupcake somewhere on there.  She did exactly what I asked and they came out great.  If you need invites you should definitely visit her site on etsy. Edited to add: Ella's invites were featured on her blog yesterday - check them out here.

For the drink table, we did a big pitcher of tea and served all the soft drinks out of big plastic tubs. 

 The tubs worked great!  They luckily didn't sweat and really held quite a few drinks and still looked cute without having to use plain ice chests.  Courtney made the tissue pom poms to help add a little extra color to the table and I think they added just enough pop!

Being that my mom is quite the craft person I put her in charge of Ella's birthday banner.

 We decided to hang it above the food table and she did a great job on it!  We just traced the letters on scrapbook paper and attached it to plain cardstock.  I have seen many of these online that you can order but it was definitely cheaper buying it.

For food we decided to just do finger foods since the party started at 2.  We did make your own sandwiches on some great Brioche bread, veggie tray, 7 layer mexican dip, and spinach dip.  Just the right amount of food!

I really wanted to showcase pictures of Ella from the past 11 months.  I had been keeping up with taking her picture each month on her month birthday so I decided to make another banner utilizing those pictures.  Unfortunately I didn't get an up close picture of it but you can see it here.

 I also decided to frame some pictures from her newborn, 3 month, 6 month, and 9 month photo shoots.  I used some polka dot scrapbook paper to frame them out and just used cheap plastic frames.  I just can't believe how much she has changed and you can really see that when all those pictures are right up next to eachother.

 Since part of my theme was cupcakes, I decided to forgo the traditional birthday cake and go with cupcakes instead.  It was great for me cause then I didn't have to worry about having to cut the cake which I hate doing.  I ordered custom cupcake toppers from etsy and they did a great job with them.  They were able to duplicate somewhat the cupcake from the invitations to bring it all together. They also did the favor tags to go on the treat bags to match.

 We of course had to have a smash cake just for the little one!  More to come on that in the next post.

The First Birthday

We had Ella's First Birthday Party on September 4, 2011.  Since it was Labor Day weekend lots of the family was able to come up for the weekend.  I had over 250 pictures to go through just from the birthday party so I am splitting it up into a few different posts.

Let's just start with a few different pictures...

Ella Kate and her friend Annabelle.  Annabelle and her parents go to church with us and her mom is also the lovely lady that does all of our professional pictures.  Now that Annabelle realizes that Ella Kate is no longer a baby I think the girls are going to have lots of fun playing together!

Opening presents!  Ella's attention span lasted about 5 minutes with this.

With her LSU tiger she got from Parrain.  She still isn't 100% sure about this guy.  Not sure if it is his teeth or what, but we know he will grow on her!  She has purple and gold running through those veins!

Easton opening his treat bag.  Since there were only a few kids under 5 at the party I had to do very few treat bags.  I found some rubber ducks that were painted like farm animals, small Disney board books for $1 at Target, and some little plastic sunglasses.  They weren't much but the kids seemed to enjoy them.

Ella Kate and her nanny.  This is the only picture of the two of them that actually came out.  Courtney, Brad and the kids stayed at the house all weekend and all three of the kids had so much fun playing together.  I think Ella could have watched Easton all day.  Just watching that kid run can wear anyone out!

First LSU Game

The first LSU game was held in Dallas on 9/3/11.  Unfortunately it was also the weekend of Ella's first birthday so we didn't get to go, but Keith did go with his cousin and his brother and had a great time.  The Tigers played the Oregon Ducks and came out with the victory!

Our little family before Keith left to tailgate.  It sure is hard to get a picture with a 1 year old where she is actually looking!  This is the best we got!

Ella with her Parrain.  She was trying to blow kisses at the same time.  Don't you love the jersey?  Her Aunt Jennifer picked that up at Goodwill for like $2 bucks!  Such a deal!

Granny bought Ella a new chair to watch the games in.  She wasn't too sure about it and that was probably a good thing saying about 2 seconds after this she flipped out of it!

Since it was also Ella's birthday weekend we had lots of family up here including little Rowan!  Probably the happiest baby ever and he was also supporting his tigers!