Happy 1st Birthday Ellie

Yesterday was Ellie's 1st Birthday. I think Jackson was more excited than Ellie, but he already knows what birthdays are all about-cake and presents. Ellie celebrated her birthday by taking more steps. I was actually out getting the cake and balloons when she decided to do this. It was if she thought, "I am one now, I guess I need to start walking." The most I saw her walk was later in the evening when Jackson took off with one of her toys. For those of you who know my parents house, she took off from the table in the old dining room and walked past the oven in the kitchen. She has been doing more of this lately, even today. We had some family over for dinner and cake. Annie and Lauren even made it from Arkansas so that was a lot of fun. Jackson and Lauren decided they needed to show Ellie how to unwrap and play with her presents. Ellie took it all pretty well except if Jackson took her popper that she got from Grandma and Papa. She would scream at him until he gave it back. On the other hand, she wouldn't get upset if Lauren took it-girls! Ellie really enjoyed her cake. It took her a while to dig into it but after she figured out how good it was, she went to town and ate almost the whole piece. We ended the celebration by letting her and Jackson stay up late and play with the toys. All the fun ended today though we she had to go see Papa for her 12 month shots. Luckily, the nurse gave her the shots and she was soon forgiven when she gave Ellie a sucker. Ellie now weighs in at 20lbs (only the 25th percentile which was unexpected considering how much she eats) and is 31" tall (still in the 95th percentile). And not to worry, her head is still in the 90th percentile. She inherited that from my mom's side.

On a sad note, we just found out today that Andy and Autumn had to put their dog, Lulu, down. She has been in renal failure and I guess just this week, things have gotten pretty bad so they had to let her go. Andy and Autumn, we are sorry you have to go through this.