First (professional) haircut

Well, I tried growing Ellie's bangs out, but her large, vein-y forehead was screaming for something to frame it, so Tuesday I gave in and took Ellie to get her first haircut at a salon (I've trimmed the back of her hair myself before to avoid baby mullet.) The result? Well, we think she looks quite grown up. However, it was difficult to get a good photo because she certainly wasn't too happy about this experience...as she isn't about most new experiences. The only way I could get her to forget her woes was to give her my wallet and let her fill her shoe with quarters. :) I'm thinking I should write a book called, "1000 Ways to Distract Your Baby that will Probably Only Work Once." Or is there already one out there? If not, I'm a millionaire.

Obsessed with getting Dressed

My girlie girl has discovered the joy of clothing. Dishes need to be done? Ellie hanging on your legs? Ya get out a pair of shoes, a pair of pants, or best of all, a JACKET, and whamo, busy baby, for at least 10 minutes. Pure unadulterated silence. Ahhhhh!

(oh, and when Ellie gets her arm into a jacket hole, she says 'Bye bye!' to her hand :)

Mother's Day in Sandilands

Last week Sunday for Mother's day the family all went to a provincial park nearby called Sandilands for Mother's day/my birthday/my bro-in-law Nathan's birthday. We had a blast! Here's Rob showing off his skills with an axe.Regan and Ellie with 'Bapa': monkey see, monkey do.

My very pretty soon-to-be-married sister Dana.

Ellie and Auntie Dana take cover in the van when we had a supper time drizzle.

The dogs.

Ellie amused by something.

Ellie with Grandpa.

Ellie's Great-Grandma Hildebrandt

Ellie with her drowsy looking mama. Mama's drowsy a lot lately.

Nathan and I blow out the candles on our very expensive birthday cheesecake that my parents bought at a fund-raising auction.

My soon to be brother-in-law Jon, who used to play a lot of baseball.

And Rob, who never did play a lot of baseball. He jammed his finger pretty bad right after this shot was taken. Poor honey.

Aunties are the best!

A moment with Dada.

Regan

Auntie Karla and Ellie with cheesecake all over her face.

Ellie and Regan's typical display of affection - touching foreheads. They are the best of friends.

Regan with Grandpa. The girls both just love this guy.

Ellie having a blast with Nana and her hat.

"YOU wear it!"

"Ta DA!"

Ellie just wanted to tell you (if you didn't know already)...

Her little brother or sister will be here around the very end of December!

A Wonderful Birthday

This week Monday I turned 27 and Rob sure went all out to make me feel blessed. I had no clue he had such a stellar gift up his sleeve. So he put the memory card for the camera you see above in my birthday card, and I (being slightly technologically retarded) thought it was something to store our thousands of pictures of Ellie on. Not a particularly MOVING gift, but I was satisfied, nonetheless. Then Rob said, "That doesn't work in our old camera. Go look on the bed downstairs." And there, on our bed, was this beautiful shiny piece of wonderful. Made me cry. I've been taking pictures ever since. (Not that that's anything new.) Then we went to the zoo for the day and had a picnic and everything about it was PERFECT...perfect weather, perfect amount of people there, Ellie was great...it was just awesome. After we came home we brought Ellie to her cousin's house to play and went out for dinner on our own. Put Ellie to bed and watched a rented movie and VOILA, a perfect day had just occured. Thanks, Hun!! Anyhow, below are some memories from our trip to the zoo.

Rob meditating on the wonderful weather.

Mowing down on cukes.

Cukes.

Ellie spots a polar bear.

This is the polar bear.

This picture doesn't quite do it justice, but Ellie was completely taken by the peacocks. Birds, especially big ones, are her favorite creatures. Have I mentioned she does a really mean bird impression? Quite screechy and loud.

There's the peacock.

A raccoon.