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).