Party Time!

I can't believe my little baby will be 1 on Tuesday! It is crazy how fast time goes by!!!! We celebrated Ella Kate's birthday on Saturday with our families. It was great to get everyone together and Ella Kate is one loved little girl for sure. She was not lacking in the attention department at all!
Our nephew John David LOVES my daddy and stayed right beside him almost the entire time. He taught my daddy all about his DS games and he tried to tell EK about them, but I don't think we are quite there yet.
My sweet little monkey...stop growing up so fast!!!
My mamaw, mama, and Haley
My Papaw, EK, J's mom and Gregory
Haley, EK and my Aunt Carolyn...I'm not really sure what EK is studying, but I thought it was a great picture of Ha and LingLing!!
My boys...John David and Gregory. They are such sweet little boys and it is always fun to get to see them.
Ella Kate really liked taking all the tissue paper out of the bags. She got some precious things for sure!!!
Who's excited about riding in a wagon???? Ella Kate sure is!!! She has been sitting in this wagon I think pretty much every minute she has been awake since she got it!
YUM YUM!!!! Our precious friend Katie Braddy made Ella Kate this delicious cake. It was so cute and tasted great!!!! Thank you Katie for doing all of this. You are the best. Also, the silver candle holder was a gift from my Aunt Diane Knarr. It is a little elephant and it is beautiful! There is a whole set of the little circus animals so as EK gets older and needs more candles, we will have these adorable holders to use. Thanks Aunt Diane!!!
Trying out the cake
Satisfaction!
Ella Kate driving Baby Celia around in her new car.
EK showed out in a big way at her party. She walked around so everyone would see her. Yeah for EK walking, now let the chasing begin!!!!
EK loving on her papaw.
This little girl loves her Aunt Haley! She ALWAYS choses Haley over me. Oh well! Thank you Ha for being so great with her.
My sweet girl with my wonderful sisters! I love you two!!!!!

Thank you to everyone who made the trip to Jackson for the birthday. You made us feel so special and it was great to see everyone. Ella Kate is so blessed to have each of you in her life. Thank you for all your kind gifts and for everything you do for us. We love you!!!

Baby Celia

As I mentioned in my last post, we are so lucky to have so many loving, supportive people around us. Another very special family whom we LOVE is the Ford family. They are some great friends from Columbus and we have so much fun when we get to spend time with them. (J loves to give Madison and Mary Dade a hard time!) For Ella Kate's birthday, the Ford's gave EK a beautiful Madame Alexander baby doll complete with a pink sailor suit. Mrs. Celia is trying to remind EK that she will be a DG one day, I think!!! So, in honor of sweet Mrs. Celia, we have named the baby after her. Ella Kate LOVES this baby and she is too cute rocking her and patting her on the back. Thank you Norman, Celia, Mad and Mary Dade! We love you guys and we can't wait to see you soon!!!

Sweet Friends (More Like Family Though)

My little family is so lucky to have the most incredible people surrounding us. One of those families who we treasure so much is the Sykes family. They are Jesus loving, family loving, fun loving, Bulldog loving and Ella Kate loving people...I think they like J and me too. They are such special friends to us and we love them dearly. We always know that we can call them at any hour of the night and they will do their best to help us with whatever our need may be. There have been countless "medical emergencies" where we have called Pam and of course, she drops whatever she is doing to take care of us. She is EK's pediatrician now too..even though we live 2 hours away!!! Well, Hunter was playing baseball in Jackson this weekend, so the whole crew was in town. Pam, Matt, and Sarah Kat came by to bring Ella Kate a birthday present before one of Hunter's games. We had a great time visiting. It seems like forever since we have been in Columbus to hang out with them. They were too sweet to bring her a gift and she LOVES it. At Christmas, they have her a basketball set, so now she can round out her sporting skills with a baseball set!! Too cute!!!! Thank you sweet Sykes fam!!!! We love you guys tons!!!!!!!

Ella Kate and Aunt Pam
Ella Kate and Sarah Kat....I can't believe my little flower girl will be in the 6th grade this year!!!!
Ella Kate working on her baseball skills.

Daddy's Day and IBC

Happy Daddy's Day to J! He is a super daddy and Ella Kate just adores him. No one can make her laugh like him!!! Quite precious!!!! J works so hard to allow me to stay home with Ella Kate and I am very thankful for all he does for us. God has blessed me sooooo much with an incredible Christian husband and now daddy to EK. We are two very lucky girls!!!!

We celebrated Father's Day yesterday by having dinner with my family at Soulshine. Ella Kate LOVES some Big G!!! A HUGE thank you to G for babysitting EK while we went to the ballet on Saturday night. She had a great time with him and he even let her sleep in his chair with him instead of her bed while they watched golf. Rotten!!
Today, J's mom, dad, grandmother and nephew Gregory came over for a bit. It was great to get to see Pop for Father's day (a day late) and we had a yummy Little Tokyo lunch and played and played. EK was pooped from chasing Gregory and took a 3 hour nap this afternoon! Thank you Pop for also making the yard look so pretty too!!!
J, EK and Meemaw....Ella Kate doesn't sit still very long at all which is making the picture taking quite a challenge!!!
Saturday night, Mom, Jordan, Haley and I went to the International Ballet Competition in Jackson. It was AMAZING! The competitors were doing their contemporary routines and they were so good!!!!!

Here we are in front of the flame. It is the olympics of ballet apparently. =)
Haley, mom and me
the sisters

Summer Fun

Ella Kate and I are so happy to have J back home with us. Earlier this week, we enjoyed some "us" time and we had a blast just hanging out together. We went to Renaissance and strolled for a bit and then tried out the fountain thing. Ella Kate had a super fun time and she and J were both soaked by the time we finished playing.



Ella Kate also did a little walking practice outside of Fresh Market. She has taken a couple of steps on her own and she can stand on her own, but she won't fully commit to the whole walking idea. Maybe by her birthday at the end of the month?

On Tuesday morning, we took Ella Kate for a little swim. She LOVES the water and we can't wait to go again. Thanks to our sweet friends Frank and Andrea for letting us play in their pool!!!
Yeah for a lazy weekend! We do have an open house on Sunday...cross your fingers that a buyer comes by to see our house!!!!

11 Months Old

Happy 11 months Ella Kate! It is crazy to think that in one month we will be celebrating her first birthday!!!! So, what is Ella Kate up to these days? She can stand on her own. She won't take any steps yet, but she is super close. She points at everything and "says" it's name. Her favorite words are duck, ball, dog, bow, book, mama, and daddy. She is on the go constantly. She loves her little push toy that she can walk with. It also can be let down and you ride it like a car. She thinks that is awesome. The laundry basket is a favorite toy as well. She LOVES her baby doll and hugs her and pats her on the back. She rocks her baby and kisses her. It is precious!!! She is not a huge fan of table food, but she does like Nutri Grain bars and Multi-Grain Cheerios. The Toddler Mum Mums are her favorite as well. She is such a loving baby and she gives super hugs. When she hugs, she rubs on our backs. It is something I want to always remember. So, happy 11 month birthday my little peanut!!!!

On a side note, J and the group have made it to El Salvador and checked in to their hotel for the night. They will head home tomorrow!!! YEAH!!!!!

While J is Away

This week Ella Kate and I have been staying at my parents. J and a group from our church headed to Guatemala last Saturday to work with La Senda orphanage/school. They have had an amazing week and were supposed to return today. However, a volcano had other plans and decided to cover the airport and all of Guatemala City with ash. J and the group are an hour away, so everything at the orphanage was fine. So, after a very long day of trying to figure things out, the group will leave at 6:30 am tomorrow morning to ride a bus to San Salvador, El Salvador. They will spend tomorrow night there and fly out on Sunday. They are due to return late Sunday night. This was the best option considering the earliest flight out of Guatemala city will be on June 3rd assuming the volcano stops! Anyway, please lift the team up in your prayers. Pray for safe travels and that they will make it through customs and eventually back in to the states without problems. Also, please lift of the people of Guatemala. Many homes were destroyed and they still do not know the extent of the damage.

So, since Ella Kate and I have been hanging out with the Joneses while J is away, we have stayed busy! Today, Mom, Jordan and I took Ella Kate to the Natural Science Museum. She LOVED it!!! Daddy and I had gone to Bass Pro the other day and EK thought it was awesome, so I knew she would love all the fun critters at the museum. Here are a TON of pictures from our day.
Mommy and Ella Kate...don't you love the rustic background? This is about as close to the woods as I would ever like to be!!!!
Auntie Jo and EK...EK is so happy to have her fun aunts to entertain her this week. She will probably be depressed when we actually go home to our house!
Kay Kay and EK and a brown bear
Ella Kate loved the bear. One of her favorite books is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?"

One of EK's newest things is to point at everything. It is pretty cute.




It was a super fun day! We passed by the Children's Museum and it is coming along very nicely. I can't wait until this fall when it opens!!!!!