Christmas afternoon

Ella with two of her cousins

Puppy pics

Christma Day!

Santa came! Ella was much more into her toys than I thought she would be. I thought she'd be more interested in the wrapping paper and bows, but she wasn't.

Cans in the window

Checking out the ornaments

Decorating the tree

Ella's new ornaments.

Santa came to Creekstone

By the time Ella met Santa for the third time, she was starting to warm up to him. Sort of.

Real snow

Santa's Village

Fake snow


She wasn't too impressed with Santa...

but she liked the dancing snowman.

First Advent

Thanksgiving

Galaxy of Lights

On Friday, we went to the Galaxy of Lights at the Botanical Gardens.

Ella seemed to like the lights, but she wasn't so sure of Santa Claus.

Hard to believe

I can't believe she's grown this much in a year.

Day trip

On Saturday because the weather was so beautiful, we decided to drive to Birmingham to go to the zoo. We had a great time. Ella pointed at and waved to all of the animals. She was so much more interested than she was a few months ago when we went to the zoo in Chattanooga.

Ella and I got to brush a rhino.

More zoo pics

I think her favorites were the kangaroos, giraffes and ostriches.

After the zoo

After the zoo, we found a cafe that was across the street from a park. Once we were done eating, we walked across the street so she could play for a while before we drove home. She loved going down the slide.

After a quick stop at a local toy store, we drove home and she slept the whole way.

Books

Lately all Ella wants to do is read her books. Even during her birthday party, we caught her crawling off to her room to read.

Ella's 1 year stats

Height: 30.5" (89th percentile)
Weight: 21 lbs. (48th percentile)
Clothing size: 18 months - still a little big, but 12 months are way too small

Likes: she LOVES looking at her books, she also likes pulling stuff out of the kitchen cabinets, pushing things around the house, and knocking over block towers
Dislikes: having her diaper changed or her nails clipped
Favorite food: probably lasagne and other similar foods, although she likes pretty much everything
Favorite song: Itsy Bitsy Spider (has been for a while)
Favorite book: she likes all her books
Favorite toy: her LeapFrog Alphabet Train

Halloween

Ella went trick-or-treating with a dragon and a dinosaur. We didn't get any candy this year. She just rode around in the wagon looking cute.

More birthday pictures