Happy Birthday Ellie!

What a difference a year makes!



Ok, so Ellie's birthday was over a month ago, I know, but if you read on you might cut me a little slack. Just maybe.

We had a wonderful time celebrating Ellie's birthday in Columbus. She loved it!


Ellie with something ridiculous atop her head

I made her a cow cake which actually turned out better than I thought.


Moo



Thanks to Baba and Grandchuck for hosting Ellie's 1st Birthday party.



Here's a little video of the big event




Well, it has been quite a year! We have loved every minute of the past year we have spent watching Ellie grow. She has gotten so big and is really turning into a little person, not just a little baby anymore.






Here's a list of Ellie's recent accomplishments and entertaining feats:

*walks and stands all the time
*tries to run after the cat, but usually falls and then continues to chase him by crawling
*laughs when chased
*tries to tickle your toes
*shows her belly when prompted (probably not a good habit as we get older, but so darn cute at this age)
*found her belly button yesterday and discovered that mommy and daddy have them too
*plays hide 'n seek, but peeks through her fingers (uh-oh, early signs of a cheater, I hope not)
*fascinated with the bubbles in the bathtub (which had to be added when she no longer wanted to take a bath)
*says momma, dada, nigh nigh (while crawling to her room to go night night), mo (more food please) and several other unintelligible things that make for a lovely conversation
*makes the sign for "I don't know" (arms up by shoulders, shrug of shoulders accompanied by a tilt of her head)
*loves, loves, loves to swing outside
*loves on all of her animals and baby Betsy
and I am sure there are plenty more adorable things she does that I am forgetting!


loving baby Betsy

And in other news...

We are moving! Oh boy, where to begin? We will be moving to Columbus, GA (my home) and Jim will be opening his own practice just across the river in Phenix City, AL. Jim is only licensed in Alabama so that's why his office will be there. But this should be good because he will hopefully be able to pull patients from the Auburn/Opelika area as well as the Columbus area.

This has been a long and stressful year for both of us. We moved to Mobile so Jim could go into practice with two of his brothers and unfortunately it has not worked out. There is no easy or short way to sum up what went wrong, but after many sleepless nights and much deliberation, we have made a decision that we think will be the best for our family. This has probably been the hardest thing either of us has been through, but I know we will make it.

We really don't know when we will be moving, maybe sometime in the next three months. Jim is working on a lease for a space and hopefully it will be ready for us to open in January. I say us because I will be going back to work at Jim's office.

So we have had a few things going on down here in LA and it looks like we will be headed to higher ground. We are very excited to move to Columbus and have already been overwhelmed by family and friends who share in our excitement. So there ya have it.