I'm still alive

So I know all of you blog readers out there can't stand it when so called "bloggers" don't update for weeks... frankly it isn't much fun checking blogs daily to not find anything new... and for almost 2 weeks! I know, I know... but it is my blog and I'll blog if (& when) I want to!

A few weeks ago I decided to take timeout from the computer that I live at all day and do some other projects and activities. That lead me to the idea that I would finally start scrapbooking all of the bazillion pictures of Ellee... so I got all pumped and in the mood (which is necessary in order to be productive and creative) when I realized that I didn't have any pictures printed.

That lead me to my next project... go through the 1200+ pictures I have snapped over the last 9 months and pick the good ones. Well that took lots longer than I planned. I had to scan each and every one... crop or edit or remove the red eyes from the ones I picked... upload them to website... make sure the website didn't crop them more than I wanted... visualize the future scrapbook page so I could decide what sizes I wanted these pictures printed... anyhow... it was quite the production and I just barely finished it yesterday. So now two weeks have passed and I still don't have anything to show for it. But when that package comes filled with over 400 pictures... I will be very excited! And very overwhelmed because that means I have to do something with them! That is a lot of scrapbooking!

Anyway... so here is my post... not very interesting that is for sure, but there all of you blog readers... this is for you! Are you happy!

Now for all of you blog readers who only come here to see pictures of Ellee... here are a few of her latest.

Update

So here is an update to the info on the previous post:

Ellee is now 15 lbs 15 oz... 10th percentile for weight (down from the 25th at her 6 month) and maintained her spot in the 50th percentile for height. Judging by the size of her feet (still wears size 1's and 0-3 month shoes are still rather roomy) it shouldn't surprise me that I have such a tiny little girl! At least she is healthy!

9 months!

Can you believe that it has already been 9 months since Ellee joined our family? Crazy how time flies! Last night we were watching some of the videos we took of Ellee when she was younger... I would say littler, but I think she was chunkier then... and it is amazing to me how much they change in such a short period of time.

She still isn't crawling or pulling herself up and "cruising," but she sure can sit like a champ! Her favorite thing to say recently is babababababab... so now her vocabulary consists of yayayaya's, dadadadadada's and bababababab's. She is an especially talented book reader and loves to turn the pages and read to herself. She is a wonderful smiler and a delight to have in our home! We are grateful everyday for her.

Yesterday was the official 9 month milestone so we celebrated with a few pictures. Happy nine months Ellee!

Tulip Time!!!

Yesterday we had to chance to visit another Iowa landmark... Pella. It is a cute little Dutch town and they host an annual festival called Tulip Time. There are typically over 80,000 tulips... but this year just after the trees blossomed and the tulips all bloomed we were hit with a week long freeze and random April blizzard. So there were a few tulip beds with 1 or 2 lone blossoms amidst a huge (sad) green bed.

However they managed to save some of them this year and we ventured out to tiptoe through the tulips. Below are a few of my favorites...

Ellee & her friend Owen

Ellee mostly wanted to eat these ones...

Ellee & Me

Ellee giving Dad kisses!
(behind us is one of the big Dutch windmills)

That's a very tired Ellee...
its been a long day!