Some fun photos

This post is nothing but a bunch of random pictures that I love right now. The one above was at our friends' son's birthday party today. His name is Ryer and he is one year older than Ellie. She absolutely adores him and his brother Cooper. She loves playing with them and it is really neat how Cooper takes care of her. Today, he kept showing her how to climb on things at the playground and helping her up. It was really sweet.

 

Here is Ellie and Ryer playing with their lifesavers (it was a Jedi party after all.....and Star Wars was a big theme amongst all the boys there). She had no idea what they were, but enjoyed it nonetheless.

 

Ellie and Cooper as they watched the fire fighters in their big red fire truck. Total side note, but the fire dept. was called to come and open a friend's car.....she had locked her keys in there. Had no idea that the fire dept. did that free of charge?

This picture is here to show you how far Ellie has come since welcoming her cousins into the world two months ago...Before they were here, SHE was the center of the universe. She was both family's only grandchild. When Hailee and Estela were born, she had a lot of learning to do about patience, sharing and adjusting to the fact that she now was going to share the attention with these very cute little ladies.

My parents got Ellie her own baby doll in the midst of all of this, and she really is very nurturing with it. She feeds her a bottle (and burps her), gives her the pacifier, and this is how we found her baby one day after Hailee's car seat had been left unattended. She even buckled up the seat belt perfectly and said the baby was cold so she got her this blanket (bath towel but who is counting). She still sometimes gets "baby like" around her cousin Hailee and wants to be held if she's not getting a lot immediate attention, but at least she is much happier than during those first weeks when we thought she was not going to want anything to do with babies.

Here are Ellie and Hailee taking a bath together......she kept putting water on her cousin to keep her warm and tickling her. Every time Haillee cries, she runs to get her pacifier and puts it in her mouth. I can't WAIT to see what a wonderful big sister she will be to our soon to arrive baby. We are very fortunate that Quang's sister and her hubby live really close to us and we get to spend lots of time with them every week. Not to mention that Quang's mom watches the girls together a lot, so Ellie gets to spend lots of time "practicing" her big sis role.

 This is my adorable niece Estela. I hate not living closer to my brother and his kiddo, because I feel like she's growing up WAY too fast and I am missing out on her seeing her do things. Hopefully once I am on maternity leave, I can see her as often as I see my other niece and my girls can spend lots of quality time with their cousin from momma's side too! Estela is truly one of the most beautiful babies I've EVER seen and I am so excited and honored that I get to be her godmother! What a blessing.

 And here is Hailee bear doing what she does best again......SLEEPING! For the longest time, we had this inside joke in our family that she would fall asleep if she knew I was near by or coming over......I swear I didn't see her awake for weeks! But now she's up a lot and smiling and cooing and I love love love watching her grow into her little personality.

  

And here is my little HAM again, being her goofy self. Wearing her shoes on the wrong foot and playing dress up. I love her so much!