One Year Old!!

Today is the big day! Our baby girl turned one year old. So incredibly impossible to believe......

It has truly been the most amazing year. Eliana is the sweetest, happiest, most precious baby ever. She has been such a joy to our family the past year.

She loves her big sister soooo much. She laughs at absolutely everything she does. She still smiles pretty much all day long. She is a snuggle bug and will just sit in your lap and chill for as long as you want her to. She loves to smother you with kisses and has recently started blowing kisses to everyone with a big...."mmmm, ahhh".

She waves, claps her hands, dances, and sings. She is such a talker! She has all kinds of little words but the top favorites are:

Hi, Thank you, Mama, Dada, Good job, dog, woof, uh-oh, nanana (banana), nana, papa, aud-dee, wuv ooh (love you), all done and night, night. All of these in her own little voice of course but still clear as day! So sweet to hear her talking.

So far still no interest in walking. I"m a little torn between thinking she is just lazy and wants us to hold her all the time, or just crawl, and thinking it may be this awful ear infection she's had for almost 4 months now. (Tubes may be in her near future :( )

Either way though, she won't even try! She's pulling up though and standing and of course crawling all over the place.

She started taking Music Class this spring and absolutely loves it. She loves music so much, it absolutely catches her and stops her everytime she hears it. Makes mommy proud.

The big one year checkup! Eliana weighed 23lbs. and was 30 inches tall! She is 75th percentile for both.....my big girl!! And thankfully, she is completely healthy other than the fluid in her ears which is still there. But that is okay! We have a visit to the ENT scheduled and will get her taken care of!

We had a wonderful, fun party for her birthday yesterday! Pics to come soon. It was a bunny theme and we had all kinds of treats, good food, Easter egg hunt and lots of fun. So many friends and family came and it was so special to share her special day with everyone. Can't wait to share some pictures.

Eliana Grace Katz..........we are so unbelievably blessed to have you in our lives!! Everyday you wake us up with such a beautiful smile on your face and remind us how blessed we are. What a little miracle you are. We just can't wait to share each and every day with you and see this beautiful little person you are already becoming. You are going to bring so much joy to so many people with your sweet little happy self and we are so proud to be your family. We love you soooo much!

A few more party pics....

Eliana's 1st Birthday Party.......Easter Egg Hunt!!

Presents don't taste so good!!

Cake does!!! Yummy!!

Nana and her girls.....

Sisters.

Jaci, Ellery and Aubrey

Aunt LeAnn

Party is over for Daddy......too much excitement!!

Emails....

Some recent emails from my inbox.....

To Jon:

Overheard just now through the baby monitor....conversation between our daughters.

Ella cries....

(aubrey) "Ella, I can hear you! I am going poopie in the potty."

(eliana) "Poo Poo?"

(aubrey) "Yes Ella. Poo, Poo. Now stay in there and be brave.....I have to wipe my butt and then I will come see you."

(eliana) "Poo Poo?"

(aubrey) "YES EL-LA! POO POO!"

To Mom:

seriously mom.......you could've TOLD me to BAKE the pie crust before filling it and refrigerating it.........yep, just tasted unbaked pie dough before i realized it should have been baked before being filled with the strawberry stuff....

glad it came in a 2 pack.....

i should NOT be allowed in a kitchen.

To Jon:

(Aubrey and Eliana were both on antibiotics that were making their stomachs upset. Jon was out of town the whole week and both girls were sooo sick. End of the week comes and I celebrate by taking the girls to the local pizza joint by myself. Quite an interesting evening.)

So right when we pulled up to pizza moon, Eliana fell asleep. Poor baby. Didn't get a nap at all this afternoon......she was exhausted. But I figured she needed to eat before she went to bed anyways so I went ahead and woke her up to go in. Aubrey said she was starving so I was excited that she would finally eat something!

We get inside and Eliana starts crying in the stroller. Really loud. So the waitress takes us to a table and is standing there for 10 min. trying to figure out where to put the stroller and the high chair and make it all fit. All while Eliana is still crying......

So we finally make it to a different table at the very back and get all settled in. I order for us right away, give Ella her bottle in the stroller and all is well. We play with dough and wait for our food. Salad comes for me and Aubrey decides to have a banana pepper. Against my better judgment I let her. Again, just happy to see her have an appetite and eating! So she eats it and then gets this funny look on her face.

"mommy......do you ever feel like you might need to throw up?"

I begin to freak out. "Aubrey, do you need to go to the bathroom and throw up?"

" no, I"m good. definitely good."

So i am still freaking out a little, thinking she is gonna vomit at the table any second but she seems fine so we go on. I put ella in the highchair and start to feed her. She is still kind of fussy, but eats a few bites and then just seems totally uninterested so I stop. She is grabbing everything off the table and throwing it on the floor.........having fun. She even invented a game which aubrey named "cracker hockey".....sliding her crackers alllll over the table from side to side and laughing.

Our food comes! Aubrey takes 2 bits of her pizza, and so do I.

Then Aubrey says, "mommy, I can't eat. I don't feel good. I really just wanted to come to pizza moon so I could remember what it looks like in here. I don't really want to eat here."

:)

So I ask the waitress to box up everything and bring us our check. She leaves and then Aubrey jumps up and starts screaming that she has to go to the bathroom.....NOW! Ella's in her chair so I tell Aubrey just to run and go and I will be right there. She runs to the bathroom all by herself....running through the restaurant and crying and screaming......

Waitress comes back, I sign the bill in 2 seconds, grab the stroller and belongings, pick up Ella and halfway to the bathroom realize that Eliana is soaked. Not with pee but with diarrhea. All up and down her pants, her shirt and all over me.

So we get to the bathroom and Aubrey is in the stall crying and going diarrhea. Eliana is now crying and soaked.

I am about to cry myself but decide to laugh and get on with it. Got everyone cleaned up, clothes changed (Yay! the one time I actually remembered to bring a change of clothes!!) and went straight to the car and came home. Both girls immediately went to bed and are sleeping soundly now.

DON'T YOU WISH YOU WERE HERE???

WE MISS YOU!!

Precious.

I have been feeling yucky with a sinus infection for the past few days. So I told Aubrey I needed to lay down and take a little rest while the baby was napping. She said, "okay Mommy......you go right ahead. I am gonna stay downstairs, clean up, and take care of everything for you!" So sweet she can be!! So I went upstairs and rested and when I came back downstairs, sure enough, all toys were put away, the kitchen table was cleaned off and wiped down (her favorite chore, she loves to windex....) and in the middle of the table was one of our drinking glasses with 2 paper flowers in it that she had drawn, colored and placed in the "vase" ............

"Look mommy! I got you some flowers to help you feel better!"

And cue the tears from mommy.

My sweet little angel....... she has such a precious, sensitive, and loving spirit. She never ceases to amaze me. I took a picture of my beautiful "flowers" because I never, ever want to forget them.

Dorothy.....

A shot of some of us grandkids with Grandmomma on her 93rd birthday!

Today would have been my Grandmother's 95th birthday...........I am missing her so much. My grandmother was soooo special to me. She was such a strong, amazing woman who had such a simple, yet astounding life. 6 kids, 15 grandkids, and more great grandkids and even great-great grandkids than I can count. All of these lives touched by this wonderful woman. She died about a year and a half ago when I was around 4 months pregnant with Eliana. I was sooo sad that she never got to meet my little angel but I believe she is loving her from heaven........just like all the rest of us. She loved her family so much, especially her grandkids. I don't think I will ever stop missing her but I am just so thankful to have had my Grandmomma for 31 of my years here on earth. Loving her and missing her today on her birth date.

Short but sweet.......

Her first animal sound........

This one is for the grandparents!!

She is quite the talker already but this was her first animal sound caught on my cell phone. Her big sister was reading her a book and she just came out with it!

Sweet girl....

Thankful......

for my beautiful, wonderful friend Kristin. She lost her father this week after a battle with cancer. Her dad was so awesome and I have such fond memories of him from growing up. Kristin and I always knew to ask her dad when we wanted to go somewhere or do something as teenagers because we knew we could sweet talk him into anything!! He was quiet and wise and wonderful and will be missed very much.
Much love and many prayers sent from our family to the Rains Family today......

A little......

visit to Louisiana to see Nana, Papa, Emmy and Austin for their birthdays!! Yep, they all have birthdays in February. So the girls and I took a solo flight out there to spend a nice, relaxing weekend. Eliana stayed in someone's arms the entire time we were there. She loooved it. She is such a snuggle bug. Papa was in heaven rocking her to sleep every chance he got.

Aubrey was Nana's little sewing prodigy. She was in Nana's sewing room making dresses for her dolls, pillows for mommy and daddy and all sorts of creations. I think she may have a talent for it like her Nana!! She loves to "craft" more than just about anything. (Other than her undying love for her horses and animals.......and any game or activity that involves them.)

Austin wowed us all in a very intense basketball game!! It was the last game of the season and his team was undefeated. It was a close game, well played, and they came out victorious!! Austin is an amazing athlete and we are sooo proud of him. Watch out NBA!

Emmy was thrilled to hang out with her nieces. She spoiled them both. We are also so thrilled for Emmy that she is engaged!!! She and Jarrell got engaged during Christmas time and he is such a great guy. We can't wait for the big day....

It was a great visit and of course we look forward to the next one. We love our "Wood" family!!!

SNOW!!!

So I think Atlanta is the best place to live. Four real seasons, driving distance to the beach and the mountains, major airport to anywhere you could want to go, and on and on and on.

But I truly love the winter in Georgia. It is short and almost every year you get that one (and usually only one) magical snow. Heavy enough to play in all day for one day and then pretty much up and out the next day or so........I LOVE IT! It's the perfect winter for me and then I am ready for spring.

This year we looooved our beautiful snow day. We actually got three this year! But this first one was the best and we had such a great time. Schools closed, neighbors came out and we all played and enjoyed the beautiful winter wonderland. Our neighborhood is sooo pretty in the snow I think with all the rolling hills and the wooded lots........makes picture taking alot of fun!

We played outside until we were freezing and soaked and came in to a hot fire, hot cocoa and some marshmallow roasting.

Aubrey has seen the snow before and loves it........she was sooo excited when it started to fall. This was Eliana's first snow! We bundled her up in an oversized snowsuit (thanks leslie!) and plopped her right down in the middle of it. She had no idea what was going on but smiled all the same as she watched her big sister and friends throw snowballs and make a snowman.

Let it Snow!!

My Funny Valentines.......

So a few "rough" pics of my girls for Valentine's!
Not the greatest pics due to bad photography on Mommy's part and little to no cooperation on the girls part........but alas, Valentine's is blogged.
Thank you Mimi and Nana for the precious Valentine's outfits!!
And on this Valentine's Day I am loving my big girl and my baby girl and thanking my husband for loving me and giving me such a sweet and amazing family!!
I love you Jon, Aubrey and Eliana!
Happy Love Day.