Ellie is ONE!

Today, our sweet little Ellette Michelle turns one.

I think this last year was the shortest year of my life! It was definitely a good one, but it went by way too fast. This sweet little girl showed up and instantly melted our hearts and wrapped us all around her tiny little fingers.



She grew up into this sweet, sassy, adorable, loving toddler who has changed our home and our family for the better.



Her brothers adore her, and she thinks they're pretty awesome as well. I love to hear them play together and make each other laugh.



 Ellie is quite the chatterbox. She walks around talking to anyone who will listen, including strangers at the park, or the library, or wherever. She still doesn't say a lot of words that actually mean anything, but she sure has a lot to say. The extent of her vocabulary is still just "ma" (more) and "uh oh", but she's using these words more frequently now. When she is crying about something she doesn't like, she cries "na na na na", so it's possible that her third word might be "no".



Ellie will fold her arms for prayers, sit down by the front door if you tell her it's time to put shoes on, give kisses, throw a ball, turn the TV (or Wii, or Xbox) on and off and on and off and on and off, push toy cars around making car noises, and attempt to comb her hair if she gets a hold of a comb or brush.



Running is Ellie's new favorite thing. She loves to do it just because it's fun, but she has also started running away when she does something naughty.



She also LOVES the park. She hasn't gotten brave enough to climb on the toys (which is fine with me!), but she loves trying to walk around on the wood chips.



Food is another one of Ellie's favorite things. She will eat pretty much anything and she has an appetite about as big as her brothers'.





Last, but not least, here are the rest of the birthday pictures I took the other day.

Happy birthday, sweet baby!