Father's Day and bubble baths

I didn't do a great job taking pictures this past weekend and I'm kicking myself now because she had a blast playing outside this weekend. So the following pictures will do...

Remember how I said Elli loves baths? Well....pair it with some bubbles and she is on cloud nine. Scott made her a hat during her bubble bath and she kept it on the whole time not wanting it to fall off.....

"Elli....where is your hat?" She's got a lot of sass, but is lots of fun!!

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We got the chance to meet our new niece, Avery, this past weekend. Once again, I'm kicking myself for not taking more pictures. Elli wasn't all too interested in the new baby, but more interested in playing with all the new toys in the room. She really liked this little dollhouse of Kensley's. She's never played with a dollhouse before....

Elli did manage to give Avery a couple kisses during the day, but I didn't capture any of those.

This is what Avery did most of the day; however, she did spend quite a bit of time awake when we first got there. I couldn't believe how tiny she was and I can't even remember when Elli was ever that small. When I first held her I told Scott..."I want one...." He laughed and said...."Have you looked at your stomach lately?"

My finger was in front of the flash, but I had to post this picture anyways. Look at this little smile!! I guess she didn't seem to mind that the majority of the day was consumed by 2 little toddlers running around!

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HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DADA!!!!

Although this was the only picture I took on Sunday, I'm glad I was able to capture Elli and Scott's 2nd father's day together. Elli is one lucky little girl to have a dad like Scott. Scott is an amazing dad and loves this little girl more than she could ever imagine. Scott loves doing "guy" things, but whenever Elli is ready to play dolls or make-up he's always in. One of my favorite times of the day is when he walks in from work. Elli squeals and runs towards the door yelling "Dada....Dada." She asks about him throughout our day and calls him on her fake phone while he's at work. I can't believe Elli and I ever got so lucky!

And here is where I'd post pictures of Elli playing outside on Sunday; however, I didn't manage to take my camera out of the bag. She played with her older cousins (which we're finding that she prefers playing with kids a little bit older than her....don't know why?), riding around in a play car,taking tractor/wagon rides and playing in the sand. She got quite dirty, but didn't seem to mind much!

We have a new update on our patio! We've finally decided the company that we will go with. Scott is in the process of getting our name on the books so we can get a start date. We are so excited to get this project done, as our weeks are going so quickly. We are slowly getting things ready for the baby and we couldn't be further away on deciding on a name for him. Scott and I spent our 3 hour car ride trying to figure out why none of the names we've thought about for him have jumped out at us. So....we've decided to go back to the baby name book. We're just hoping we don't leave the hospital still calling him "bubba" because whether we are ready or not....this baby is coming in 8 weeks or less!!

All about Elli

Elliana continues to be our sweet little 16 month old. She is growing and learning new things everyday. Elli continues to be full of energy and makes us laugh multiple times a day. She loves the water....whether it be taking a bath, playing in her little pool, or going to the big pool. She would spend all day in the water if we let her. Lately, she's been very generous with her hugs and kisses. And trust me, we don't take them for granted. For each little kiss or hug we receive, makes us wonder how we ever got so lucky to have her. Elli continues to be into everything. It is not unusual for me to find some of my make up in one of her drawers or a bottle of tums in the bathtub or turn around to find my lipstick smeared across her face....I could go on and on. She tries to mimic our actions more these days than she ever has. She also has tried to imitate Bella. The other day I caught her bending over trying to eat a tall piece of grass right after she saw Bella eating grass. Saturday, Scott saw her bent over trying to get a drink out of the Bella's water bowl. Elliana still loves music and dancing. Her and Scott continue to have dance parties in our office quite frequently. Elli keeps things interesting around our house! She is one special little girl and I can't believe I'm lucky enough to be able to spend most of my week with her (and I'm also pretty lucky for a husband who lets me do this)!

Elli is really into climbing these days. Siena and Elli at the zoo on Sunday....

And she enjoys stroller and wagon rides more than she ever has....


Elli loves animals....real or fake! This is her 3rd time on the carousal and she did much better this time! She loves the horses, but it scares her when they start moving. Siena wasn't a big fan of the carousal either.

In addition to animals, Elli still loves to have the perfect accessories with her outfits. We took her shopping in Cincinnati on Saturday to meet up with some of our friends. Of course she needed her purse and sunglasses for the trip.

These pictures just don't capture what was really happening. Elli had her glasses on and off....tried to walk around with them.....I can't explain it, but Scott and I were cracking up!
In addition to her accessories, Elli also needed her toenails repainted this weekend. She sits so still when she gets her toenails painted and even tries to help me blow on them when we are done. So...if you see her....please make a huge deal about her toenails and how beautiful they are because she loves it!! She's all girl....drama and all!!

Elli can turn anything into a toy. Having fun playing in the dog cage we put up for Hunter....

If you know Bella and Elli's relationships then you know this is torture for Bella! Elli loves Bella, but Bella still isn't so sure of Elli (unless Elli is giving Bella food).

Elli is borderline obsessed with dogs. Elli goes nuts when she sees or hears a dog....often yelling at the top of her lungs "da....da....da...." (for dog). We've been watching our friend's dog for the past couple of days. As you can guess, Elli went crazy on Thursday morning when she saw Hunter come down the stairs. She has formed a special bond with Hunter and will be sad to see him go on Tuesday. This dog has probably gotten more hugs and kisses within the past week than he's gotten in his 4 years. She loves Hunter and he's been so nice to let her hang all over him!!

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I'm not a fan of this picture....one day I'll get a decent picture of me on here, but for documentation sake.....


I was 30 weeks along in this picture. Elli is still clueless that in 9 weeks or less another little person will be coming to live with us. We've been referring to my expanding stomach as "bubba" for 2 reasons....1. she can say this 2. he currently doesn't have a name. I'm confident that she will be a good big sister (once she gets over the whole jealousy thing....she still doesn't like it when I cuddle with other little babies....she'll learn)!

10 weeks to go

Wow....the 2nd blog for today! We got a surprising (well....not so surprising....we figured it'd happen sooner rather than later) phone call on Saturday night. Our newest niece was born around 2am on Sunday morning. Avery Leigh came into this world with quite an interesting story and has made Scott and I re-think our plan for when I go into labor.

Avery is a small little thing that we unfortunately haven't gotten to meet in person yet. I was able to skype with her tonight and got to see her open her eyes a couple times. I know Elli is excited to be a big cousin and is looking forward to skyping with Avery tomorrow. We're hoping to make a quick trip to Indy here within the next couple weeks to meet little Avery!

Welcome Avery Leigh....we can't wait to meet you!!
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As I mentioned before, Avery's quick entrance into this world has made Scott and I brainstorm other options for what would happen if I went into labor in the middle of the night. Our original plan was that we'd just take Elli with us until one of our parents got to the hospital to take her home; however, we never considered that things could happen quicker than expected and our parents might not make it in time to take her home. Luckily, we've had a couple offers for people to take her while we head to the hospital. We don't have a definite plan yet, but will slowly develop one within the next couple months. We do know that Elli will stay at our house with our parents while we are in the hospital. Once we are home, we plan to keep things as normal as possible for her. She will continue at daycare 2 days a week while I'm on maternity leave (Multiple people have suggested we do this and since we have to pay for our daycare anyways to hold her spot....I'm all for it!)

We are about 10 weeks away from meeting this little guy and it doesn't seem like any time at all! We've got a couple of projects that we'd like to complete before this little one arrives which will make for a busy summer. We are planning on putting a patio on the back of our house. It looks like August (great timing, huh?) will be the soonest that we'd be able to get this done because of how rainy our spring was. At least we'll be able to enjoy it for a couple of months before it gets too cold. After meeting with a couple companies (we have a couple more coming out this week), we've pretty much decided on a design and have an idea of the type of pavers that will be used. I'm letting Scott take the lead on this since he has wanted this for quite some time, but we are both really excited to have a place for us to go outside! We are also planning on building a jungle gym/swing set this summer (another project I'm letting Scott take the lead on....when he told me he wanted to do this soon I thought he was crazy, but it will be nice to be able just to take Elli out in our backyard once the baby is here rather than taking both of them all the way to the park). We talked to our neighbor this weekend (they have kids very similar in age to ours) and they are just as excited for us to get this since we have the bigger yard. These 2 things, along with getting the kids' rooms ready, and refinancing our house are proving to be a busy summer.

We are really excited to meet this little guy. He is extremely active (in fact, I'm not real sure when he sleeps....he is always moving). His room is slowly coming together. We now have moved all the furniture out of his room and are preparing to move Elli's furniture over there here within the next month! This pregnancy is progressing much quicker than my last!

5 year anniversary and time at the pool

Scott and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary this past Friday (June 3rd). We've been together for 10 years now which doesn't seem possible!

Here is a picture 5 years ago....

And here is a picture of us on our anniversary....with a toddler and one on the way.

I'm not thrilled with this picture of myself; however, it was the only decent picture we took of the 3 of us that day and I had to post for documentation purposes.

Thankfully, we had some babysitters in place so we could go out for our anniversary on Friday night. Scott and I enjoyed a relaxing dinner out and then decided on a movie after we had remembered we hadn't been to a movie together since before Elli was born. We had a great night out! Here's to many more years to come! Thanks for all the cards, gifts, and messages!

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Get ready for many pictures of Elliana! I guess you could say I've made up for not taking many pictures over the last couple of weeks!



I LOVE this picture! I actually found it on my camera and I must have taken it a couple weeks ago. I can't remember what was going on when I took this picture, but she doesn't look too happy with me! I love this little face!

Elli continues to be all girl! She's really into carrying purses lately and even tried to carry around the diaper bag earlier. Clearly, the bag was a little too big for this little lady, but she definitely tried hard to make it work.

My mom had given Elli a dollar the day before to carry in her purse when we went shopping. She loves that little dollar and hasn't had the opportunity to spend it yet.

Getting ready to head to Meijer to pick up doughnuts for the morning and get a little swimming pool for Elli. (Thanks Sarah and Travis for the outfit! It fits great and we love it!!)

Heading out the door....purse in hand!

We let Elli pick out her doughnut this morning and she picked out one with blue icing that ended up everywhere after she was done eating! Elli is not a fan of getting her hands dirty! Often when she gets food on her hands she wants it off immediately. So we've been trying to teach her just to lick it off her fingers (I know...parents of the year right here :) ). She did a great job of successfully cleaning off her fingers this morning while eating her doughnut!

Elli loved her doughnut!

Clearly happy with her doughnut of choice!
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Elli loves the water. The other day she kept looking in our neighbor's yard pointing to their little pool so we decided to get a little pool of our own.

I had a hard time getting her out of this pool for lunch today! I can already tell we will get a lot of use out of this over the summer. Notice Elli's swim hat around her neck. She wanted to wear it as a necklace rather than a hat, so we had to bring out another hat. I kept trying to take it off, but she wanted to keep it on.

I promised Elli that we'd take her to the pool after Scott got home from a golf tournament. This is her favorite spot....walking up and down the pool stairs....

We can't wait for many more days at the pool this summer!!

Elliana turned 16 months old last week! The 2nd year seems to be going just as quick as the 1st year. I know I say this all the time, but I can't believe how old she is getting! We had a busy weekend and are still trying to get caught up!

This is what happens when you take a 16 month old and an almost 19 month old to a nice restaurant.

And since I didn't get any good pictures of Elli this weekend, here is a picture of Kensley and I (who will be a big sister any day now....hoping she doesn't become a big sister until next week....We'd really like to go out for our 5 year anniversary this Friday and we'll lose our babysitters if it happens sometime this week. Just hold off a little longer, Amber!)

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The next couple pictures were taken on my phone. Elli is a wild sleeper. Yes, we still go in and check on her before we go to sleep....usually we cover her up with a blanket if she isn't already. We love seeing her different sleeping positions.
This picture was taken last night. She loves that blanket!!

This was taken a couple weeks ago.
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We took a trip to Easton a few weeks ago to show her the big train and let her run through the fountains (Easton has a designated area where kids can run through all the fountains).

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And just in case you've forgotten how sweet this little laugh is......

Notice the fingernail polish on her toes? She kept pointing to my painted toes this morning....I asked her if she wanted to me to paint hers and she said "YEAH!" She sat so still and kept picking out different colors to put on her toes. I love having a girl!!

Elliana is growing up too quickly. I think this weekend we realized just how big Elli is getting! We almost have a 16 month old...a 16 month old!! I can't believe it....I wish time would slow down for just a bit. Elli is doing great and loving all this warm weather we've had the past couple weeks. She loves playing outside and it is hard to get her in once she's been out for some time. The second we pull in the garage she immediately points to the basketball and football on the shelf and wants down the second you get her out of the car.


We've managed to keep sickness out of this house for quite some time now. However, Elli came down with a fever last night and still has one today (she has been fever-free for a month now....the longest stint we've gone in some time). We are thinking it is just teeth, as she's been consistently getting some over the past month and drooling pretty badly. Elli's done pretty good with teething, but her molars have caused her some pain!


We spent the majority of our weekend outside (beautiful weather....horrible for my allergies). Elli and I started the weekend off by going to the zoo with our friend Carrie and her son, Gavin. Gavin is almost 8 months old and weighs just about as much as Elli. The zoo was packed....we unfortunately picked the same day to go as most field trips in central Ohio. We had a good time and I was completely exhausted after only a couple hours. I was hoping Elli would take a good nap for me when we got home, but the 20 minute nap she got on the way to the zoo was the only sleep she got that day.

A picture of Elli and Gavin at the zoo. They don't look like they are enjoying themselves, but they really did. I took this picture right as we got in the zoo and I think they both were a little overwhelmed at how many people were there!

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We cleaned on Saturday morning (I'm afraid the nesting has begun...BUT I managed to clean all the rooms upstairs and clean all the carpets!) and then walked to our local park. At this point, Elli wasn't in the best mood....we should have just gone after her nap, but we tried to fit it in before nap.

She enjoyed her ride without her hat on.....

And then got mad when I made her wear it. She has my complexion and will need sunscreen and a hat every time she's out this summer. She managed to get sunscreen in her eyes again by rubbing her eyes. We got some water on a paper towel and put it on her eyes once we got to the park, but as you can see in the following pictures....her eyes were still bothering her.

When did she get to be so big?? Check out her new big girl shoes!! I brought these home on Thursday night and she started stomping all around in them like she didn't know how to walk in them. Then she didn't want to wear the shoes, so we made a huge deal about how they were new, big girl shoes! She then loved them....started running all around, jumping, and wouldn't take them off.

Climbing up the stairs to go down the slide! The park was SO busy this day....she waited and waited for the swing (really....she just stood there and watched.....it was so sad....she wanted on that swing so badly), but never got to ride it because of how many kids were there.

Elli started getting her fever on Sunday afternoon. She didn't have much of an appetite, so being the responsible parents that we are....we took her to get ice cream....because...well....I was craving it. It was a new place that we had found last weekend and it is yummy! That sure made Elli feel better! On the way home we drove through our neighborhood and looked at everyones swing sets planning the one we will build for Elli. I hope the park will not be as busy all summer as it was this weekend!

Random Updates

Elli continues to grow and develop daily! She is an active little girl that is always on the move. She just recently mastered jumping with both feet coming off the ground together. She got a little taste of what a trampoline was like while we were at my staff meeting for work yesterday. Elli loved the trampoline in the occupational therapy gym and many more OT related activities.

Elli's speech is developing....just a little slower that we'd like. Elli is now effectively telling us "no" and we often hear this when she is getting ready to go to bed, take a nap, or like tonight- when she didn't want to eat her pizza (who doesn't want papa johns pizza????). She is saying "da" for "dog" and can pick out a dog anywhere. And using "mo" for "more" (along with her sign), mama, dada, yeah, no, "I" for "hi," and "dah" or "dow" for "down. She is still using her signs. We've noticed some frustration, as Elli tries to tell us what she wants, but can't effectively communicate it.

Elliana is all girl! Her outfit is typically not complete with out the appropriate accessory- her necklaces. If she sees me putting on a necklace, she thinks she has to have one too! One of her favorite activities is "helping" me put on make-up. She likes to dig through my make-up bag to find the right colors for her! I take the make up (with the lids on) and touch her face in the right places....she gets a huge smile on her face, as she thinks she has a face full of make-up. She loves chapstick and I have appropriately taught her how to smack her lips together to make sure the chapstick evenly spreads on her lips :) She needs product on her hair if she sees me put some on mine (obviously we just pretend we are squirting it) and enjoys a good purse. Lotion is a necessity if she sees it out on the counter or sees me put it on. She is a good mom to her baby doll and has just recently started smacking her lips while giving the baby a bottle or some food (which I think is incredibly cute).

Elli continues to rely on her "niney" or blanket for comfort. I found a pacifier behind her crib and I was curious to see what she'd do with it since she hasn't had hers for quite some time. She got a huge smile on her face when I handed it to her and then proceeded to give it to a baby doll. I was really happy to see her do this....hopefully she'll be a big help when her little brother gets here by giving him his paci.

I haven't done a great job at pictures this week. I meant to get some good pictures of Elli in her new wagon (thanks Nana and Papa Lindvall), but it has been raining ever since Saturday evening. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate for this weekend because I know Elli will want to take a couple rides in it.

Here are some pictures of Elli before church on Sunday. Her Nana and Papa Lindvall got this dress for her and I think it is so cute. She looks like a little doll and we got a lot of compliments on it at church on Sunday. She wasn't cooperating with pictures, so we had to give her Scott's phone to keep her still....

Obviously laughing at Bella. She loves her dog. We've practiced singing "Happy Birthday" to Bella many times today. Bella celebrates her 3rd birthday on Saturday!

And the photo shoot was over. Elli became too interested in the camera and wanted to sit on my lap to look at the pictures....