Ella's First Birthday Party!

Well, the dust has settled and I've finally "goo-goned" the last of the butterfly/flower stickers off of my windows.  It's time to get her party onto the blog.  It was so great!  Ella did awesome even with the double ear infections we found on Thursday (party was Saturday).  We had 50 some people here and thankfully it was a beautiful day outside.  We were so thankful to share her special day with such good friends and a little bit of family.  Her party was a flower garden theme, and while that seems perfect for an 80 degree day in early May, we literally had snow a week after her birthday.  Crazy Colorado!

I found a cheap kiddie pool that just happened to have butterflies and ladybugs on it (perfect!) that I filled with balls. Ella loves to play with balls, so she absolutely loved it.  She still plays in it all the time.  Best birthday gift we could have gotten her.

We borrowed a bounce house from a friend (thanks Aunt Elycia!!!)  That kept all of the bigger kids busy.  

We served an easy lunch: pulled pork sandwiches, mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, pasta salad, fruits and veggies, punch, and of course sweet tea.  For her cakes, I made (I know, shocking!) two flower cakes (Rainbow chip and chocolate) and a yellow sheet cake.  

Ella did so great with the cake.  It was my proudest moment as a parent so far.  That's all I wanted for her birthday, for her to go crazy with the cake.  She did not disappoint.  My little piggie!

She did well opening gifts.  We didn't open all of them as she started to get a little fussy with all of the big kids way up in her face.  She was overdue for a nap but of course loved the wrapping and tissue paper.  

In the craziness of the day, we didn't get a lot of pics of her decorations, but I wanted to be sure to record those.  It worked out great for her party to be soon after Easter, as I found a ton of Easter/Spring decorations for really cheap.  I put the stickers on the windows, mirrors, and some of the stuff in the kitchen.  We hung flowers, butterflies, and those hanging lamp things.  We had antennae hats and Matt made the awesome birthday banner.  We also printed each of her monthly pics to put up and had made a book of her weekly pics.

12 Month Pics

My little, teeny, tiny baby girl just turned 1 year!  What!?!  How is that possible?  I just gave birth to her!  Is she considered a toddler now?  I may cry.  Here are her 12 month glamour shots:)

Ella's First Easter

Ella had a great first Easter.  We went to church and then came home so she could open her Easter baskets.  She had one from us, Grammy, and Grandma and Papa.  She's a little spoiled:)  She liked opening and closing the eggs most of all.

We went over to her friend Boden's house for a late lunch/early dinner.  Here she is on the couch with all of her friends who were there.  Caris and Atley, Courtney, Wyatt, Ella, and Boden.

She loved crawling through Boden's tunnel!

It was a great Easter, especially with our friends up in Evergreen (even with the snow)!

11 Months Old!!!

Can you believe our pretty little girl is already 11 months old?  I simply cannot!  We are less than a month away from turning one year!  Crazy!  I managed to do this little photo shoot all by myself, while usually Matt is snapping photos and I'm trying to get a smile.  Thankfully, there was no falling off the chair.

I love it that she looks like she's modeling her bow in this one.  She was just trying to look out the window.

Ella is currently sugar and spice!  I think that's what makes her a girl.  I also think I need to get used to it as it will probably always be this way.  She is at her cutest and sweetest stage for me yet.  She's just so fun and adorable and learning so much right now.  At the same time, her fits or fussiness are the most annoying for me right now.

There's that sneaky grin.  Her fits are mostly shown whenever we stop walking her by letting her hold on to our fingers.  That's all she wants to do, day or night.  When we decide our backs have had enough, she throws a full on, head thrown back on the floor, fit.  Not fun.

We are just getting over a good 2-2 1/2 weeks of Ella being sick.  It was the worst!  She had a horrible cold and ended up with double ear infections, a bad rash (either viral or from the amoxycillin), and a high fever for four days.  To top it all off, she's getting her first two teeth (on the bottom).  It was not a joyous time in the Johnson household.  Thankfully, it was nothing worse and she's back to her fun self again.

Some Faves

Here are a few of my favorite things about Ella recently:

• She loves trying to pick up two things at once in the same hand.  Usually her paci and a ball.  She then tries to crawl around while holding on to both of them.
• Her face when Matt comes home.  I just need to video it soon.  As soon as she hears the garage door, no matter what we're doing, she stops and smiles huge and watches for him to come in.  Once he comes in, she smiles even bigger and looks at me as if to say, "Do you see him?  He's here!"  Every time.  Love it.
• Anytime we hear a dog bark outside, she imitates it.  So cute.
• She loves to snuggle with me when she gets up from a nap.
• She's starting to dance:)  We need to work on more moves though.
• She wants to pick out her own book for her bedtime story.  If I try to read another one, she'll shut it until I let her go to the bookshelf and pick one out.  I love this for two reasons: 1) She loves reading and 2) She's a girl who knows what she wants (some may call this picky, I call it wise).  

Napping

Just a quick post to do a little venting.  My biggest struggle as a mother has been with napping.  Ella is getting close to being a year and I still feel like she is a horrible napper.  Perhaps this is my fault, but I like to think that she has FOMO (as my Aunt Carol calls it), Fear Of Missing Out.  Allow me to take you on a brief journey of our napping adventures.

• From birth to through the first few months, Ella would only nap in the swing, in her carseat, or right on our chests.  As close to us as humanly possible was where she would take her longest naps.  As sweet as it was, I finally got to the point that if I wanted to get anything done, I had to remove my leach.
• Around 3 months, as we were transitioning to daycare, I began trying to get her to nap in her crib (took a while for that, though she was already sleeping in it at night).  She would nap on her own on our bed if she fell asleep snuggled next to me.  Then I would hold my breath and sneak away.
• By 4 months she was napping in her crib but we would have to rock her to sleep for at least 10 minutes and then lay her down.  At daycare, she wasn't napping at all as they wouldn't rock them to sleep. 
• Soon we got to the point that she was consistently taking four 30 minute naps a day.  Boy was I enjoying all that free time! (hear my sarcasm).  Soon we went down to two 30 min. naps a day.
• I had many people say to me, "Well, if that works for you, then great."  Heck no that didn't work for me!  We tried crying it out multiple times.  Girlfriend just sucked at napping.  She was, however, consistently sleeping through the night.
• In January, so around 8 months, she was still taking a 30 min. nap in the morning and for her afternoon nap, she would wake up after 30 minutes but I could usually get her back to sleep for another hour or so.  That is how it was for the last couple of months.  I had been debating trying to get rid of the morning nap (the whopping 30 min. one) with the hopes of lengthening the afternoon one and then suddenly she began sleeping for an hour and a half during her morning nap without waking up!  It was crazy!  She did this for a whole week.  Then, of course, her afternoon nap was shorter, but I was loving the long stretch.  
• Of course, today she slept for 30 min. this morning and would not go back to sleep.  She's having her afternoon nap now and I would put money on her waking up by the 30 min. mark.  Sigh.
• I really felt like once she started crawling she would be tuckered out more.  Now I'm hoping for walking to wear her out, that and playing outside more.

 Gotta go!  I've got 20 minutes left to get everything done that I can before she wakes up!

Spring is in the air/10 Months

I know I may be jumping the gun a bit here, but I was so excited to pick out a spring background for the blog!  Matt just told me this morning that one of our tulips is starting to sprout.  I'm so excited for spring!!!  I realize it will now likely snow next week.  Here's why I can't wait for spring:

• With the warmer weather, we can walk and play outside more, which makes Ella nap better in the afternoon and makes Mom all around more happy.
• We can swing outside more, which makes Ella nap better in the afternoon and makes Mom all around more happy.
• We can play outside more and I might actually get some sun/vitamin D, which makes Mom all around more happy...get the point?
• I'm excited to see what flowers come back up and maybe actually do some gardening now that I'm not a freak about having Ella outside.  That said, I really hate bugs and will likely give up all gardening once the first spider comes close to me or her.
• Grilling!  Momma loves when Daddy grills.  It makes mealtime much easier for me.
• Easter is coming!  I can't wait to dress little miss up in some adorable, frilly outfit complete with hat and shoes and the whole bit.
• Ella is nearing 1 year.  While this also makes me want to cry, it's exciting.  I feel like 1 year is such a milestone and opens up lots of new horizons.

That said, she just turned 10 months this past Sunday.  We got a few good pics in.  She's not all about staying still for the camera anymore.  We'll just have to get more creative and quicker at taking action shots.  In the last week of her life, Ella has had a couple new firsts.  She threw her first fit.  I thought this didn't happen until well into her second year.  Apparently girls are advanced in the fit throwing category.  I don't know; I can't relate (Ruth oughta get a kick out of that one).  We were having lunch at the mall with friends and she was so excited to be surrounded by other kids (ie, screaming uncontrollably-in a happy but extremely loud way) that she decided she didn't want to go back into her stroller.  She was shrieking (now not in a happy way) and arching her back and drawing lots of fun stares from strangers.  Awesome.  She's also started doing this really fun back arch EVERY time I try to put her in her high chair now.  I LOVE IT!!!

Her other first was walking without our help.  No, you didn't just hear me say she's walking (praise the Lord!), but she did manage to do it by herself while pushing one of those walking toys.  We were at her bf Wyatt's house and she just had to show off for him.  Of course, the next day Daddy went out to buy her her own walking toy.  I'll post video when I get it off of Matt's phone.  Very exciting.  My baby is becoming such a big girl.  Tear.  Here are Princess Fussy Butt's 10 month pics:   (like the nickname?  she only gets it while she's fussing, which is not right now.  She's napping.  I think I just jinxed myself.)