What we've been up to (longest post ever)...

So sorry for the blog update delay. Mike is home (!!!) and we've gotten to spend a lot of time together these last 3 weeks. This is a really long post but there are lots of fun pictures and stories, including Elise's first flower girl experience! Here's what we've been up to...

After 368 days of deployment, Mike finally arrived home around midnight on Monday, April 26. I put Elise to bed at 8 and then got her up around 10 to get in the car to drive to the field. All of the ceremonies were held outside. She went right back to sleep in the car and stayed asleep while we sat in the car until 11:30 pm. My parents, Mike's parents, my sister-in-law and my grandfather all came up for the ceremony so they saved a spot for us on the field. I have MANY pictures that Mike's sister took for me. Here are just a few. We are so thankful to be reunited!





Elise is pointing to the horses that were part of the ceremony. She said "neigh neigh neigh" the whole time.



We also took a trip to the Cameron Park Zoo. Elise loves the animals, especially the "rahfs" and the meerkats (check out the third picture... we are thinking Boss might be part meerkat since he has perfected this pose, haha).



On Mother's Day we had the opportunity to dedicate Elise and publicly commit to raise her in a home that puts God first and teach her so that one day she will have a relationship with God and accept Jesus Christ as her Savior. What a huge responsibility! We are so thankful that God has blessed us with the gift of s precious child. Our parents came to our church to see the baby dedication ceremony and then came over to our house for fajitas. Elise wore her girliest dress :)

The moms

Our good friends "Uncle" Mark and "Aunt" Ali

Elise and her grandparents

New toothbrush (I LOOOOVE this one... it is by RazBaby)... click here for more info

She hates being dried off after her bath

On May 14, Mike's brother Ben got married to my new sister-in-law Kara! Elise was a darling flower girl. I wish I had a video of her trip down the aisle. She did amazingly well. Mike and I were both in the wedding, so my dad had the honor of starting Elise at the back of the aisle. He will be telling this story for years. After the other flower girls and the ring bearer started down the aisle, he put Elise down and told her to take her basket to mommy. She walked about 2 steps, dumped out the rose petals, and then starting "running" up the aisle. It was so cute! Once she made it to the front, she walked over to me and stood next to me for a minute and then started walking back to the center. I picked her up and passed her to my mom, who carried her off to the side and fed her raisins throughout the ceremony. I could hear her saying "more more more!" as she was eating the raisins and then saying "mama mama mama" as they walked her toward the back of the pavilion. We were very proud of her, especially since she was sick the whole day (and still has a lingering cough).

Before getting dressed

"Come look at this cool cat outside!"

She had enough of pictures and wanted to run away to explore... I couldn't keep up in my shoes so Daddy had to go get her.

First finger smash... she loved sticking her hand in a cup of ice

Pretty flower girl

She wanted to ride in the getaway car with her uncle Ben

Mr. and Mrs. Ben Powell!

Here is an example of how I am still learning to use my new camera. This would have been the cutest picture had I focused on her face and not her dress!


Changes in Elise

I'll elaborate more for her 16 month post next week, but here are a few updates.

At the end of April we had her 15 month checkup. She was 25.5 lbs (between the 75th and 90th percentiles) and 32 inches (95th percentile). The nurse actually measured her at 33 inches but we think that was too long. She is definitely getting leaner. She looooooves her daddy and called him "da" for a few days, then "dada", and has been calling him "daddy" for a few weeks now. She is a busy, busy girl and somehow we are all tired at the end of the day! She is so talkative and we are constantly surprised by new words that she says. Some new ones include "swings", "bible", "donkey", "whoa", "brush", "water" (wah or wah wah), "toes", "thank you" (she has only said this once so far). She refers to all letters as "eeeee". Her pronunciation is getting better and better and you can actually distinguish "bath", "boss", "bus", and "ball" without using context clues. She will say "no" if she doesn't want something but giggles and smiles to indicate "yes". She's had a runny nose for several days and when it needs to be wiped, she says "nose!". She loves to ride in her strollers but hates getting into her high chair or booster seat. She fusses at the beginning of almost every meal because of this. We stopped nursing a week ago and we are both doing well. I can't believe we did it for 15.5 months. That seems like a very long time and it means that I was pregnant or nursing for 2 years. It's kinda nice not doing either of those for a while :) It would have been difficult to wean her from the last feeding before Mike came home. Since he was off last week, he got her up in the morning and read books and gave her a cup of milk. After a few days of this, she was no longer in the habit of nursing when she wakes up. I am happy that I did it but also happy to be finished. I am sure that many of my mommy friends can relate to this.

Mike is back to work this week but then will take 2 1/2 weeks off. We are looking forward to more family time and a trip to Sea World. Thanks for reading!