Happy Birthday to Ellie!

Today we got to celebrate the birth of our second perfect daughter! She is such a joy in our lives. I can't imagine not having her cheerful personality and spunk in our house. She has learned so much so fast and I am constantly in awe of how her little brain works. She loves to copy us. Today Scott was whistling through his hands and she kept trying to do it. She also clicks her little fingers trying to snap. It's so cute. She is also so close to walking! She can walk, but she's still a little shy unless she's walking to one of us. In no time she'll be cruising through the house! She has also learned to go down stairs backwards instead of head first. Same with the couch and momma's bed. She says hi, all done, daddy, momma, and yeah. She doesn't love books as much as Addy did at this age, but she tolerates them while we read :) Ellie is an absolute daddy's girl. She was sitting at the window the other day pounding on it saying, "Daddy, dada, dad!" She watches him pull in when he gets done with work. If Scott walks past her (to take off his coat or go to the bathroom) when we walks in the door she gets very offended and lets him know with the saddest of cries. It's adorable. She's a great sleeper, has been since we brought her home. She is starting to use a fork on her own and loves it. She has a gappy little smile that she is constantly showing off. Ellie LOVES dancing. It's probably her favorite activity. Baths and water are also her favorite. She is so brave and often scares me :) We love this ball of fun!

So to celebrate we did a day of things she loves. We took pictures, went to the dollar store to get her a balloon, went to DI to play with all the random toys (which is so gross, but we sanitize lol), looked at the chicks at Cal Ranch, and had pizza for dinner. She got to eat cake and take a bath. And daddy had work off so she got to play with him all day long :) Enjoy our pictures. My internet is too freaking slow to upload a video to youtube in shorter than all night, so I'll post those tomorrow...or Sunday. Whenever they finish. My first one (only 2 minutes long) says it has 400 minutes left...oh the joys of living right outside of town...

Not a fan of facing the sun lol. She was not opening her eyes for anything! She gets it from me!

 Cards from Grandpa and Grandma Carter and her aunts and uncles on my side :) She loved them. I had to hide them to get her to focus on her presents!

 Daddy picked this one out. She loves it. He always picks the best loved gift. I'm jealous.

 Addy insisted that we have birthday hats :) I love how much she loves her sister and I love how excited she gets about everything. Today while we were looking at the chicks she did a huge, happy giggle and then yelled, "I'm just so excited!" And before bed she said, "I had such a happy day." I love it.

 Ellie was scared to dig in. She wanted a fork lol. You can tell I'm not the kind of mom to let her just make a mess all the time :) Addy has always been a clean eater, and Ellie is learning as well. They don't like sticky hands and they like silverware. It makes me happy. Because I hate laundry.

Happy birthday sweet girl! I hope you had a fun day. You are mommy's favorite one-year-old. I love you more than words can say. And I'm so proud that you're mine.