6 months!

I can't believe it! Elliott is 6 months old. She doesn't technically have a half birthday (it would be February 30th) so we took pictures today. It works.

I can't believe we have a six month old baby. The past six months have been the most amazing, fun, exciting, tiring, beautiful six months of our lives. Elliott brings so much joy to our lives. She is such a fun baby. I love staying home and spending so much time with her. 

Elliott has hit a couple big milestones this month. Her biggest, of course, was learning to sit up. Elliott has a very stubborn personality. She is very independent and likes to do things her own way. She is also not afraid to let us know if she is frustrated with us. I started trying to get her to sit up about a month ago because I figured she could do it, but she would only sit up if she really wanted to and if she had a specific toy to play with. But then, one day, she decided to do it. And now, it's all she wants to do. If I lay her on her back she will moan in frustration until I sit her up. She also gets frustrated in the Bumbo now. She's probably thinking, "I know how to do this on my own, mom!!" She looks so adorable sitting up. She skipped all the steps of sitting up where they support themselves, fall over a bunch, etc. She literally sits up all day and doesn't support herself at all. Silly girl. She just reaches around grabbing her toys and flapping her arms. 

Elliott's other big milestone this month is reaching her arms out when we go to pick her up. She doesn't reach for us all the time, just when we go to pick her up. She stretches her little arms out and gets all excited. It's so sweet.

This month Elliott had a couple experiences where she got upset when someone other than Josh or I was holding her. This is a new one for her too! We went over to Alyson and Nathan's house for dinner and Alyson was holding her and she just looked back and forth between Josh and I and then got this big pouty lip and started to cry. It was so sweet. And she stopped once I was holding her. So cute. But a little early...haha.

Elliott is all about flapping her arms, squealing with excitement, and gasping really loud when she's excited. She is so happy all the time and we love having her around. 

Here are her 6 month statistics (according to my own, probably inaccurate, measurements). 

Length: 26 inches

Weight: 17 lbs 9 oz

[is it just me or does she get cuter by the day?]

Happy half birthday baby girl! We love you so much!

**in other news...**

Elliott sits up in the big tub now.

She loves when we stand her up at her toy chest. She just stands there pulling toys out.

She loves her daddy. We've all been feeling a little under the weather this week and she makes daddy feel so much better.

Under Construction

Sorry for the mess. The blog is currently under construction. 

The Riverwoods

Our weekend was a lot of fun! On Saturday we hung out with Morgan and Jenn all evening! They came over for homemade pizza with homemade dough, homemade pizza sauce, fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, pepperoni, sun-dried tomatoes, and roasted garlic. It was the best homemade pizza Josh has ever made. Seriously, a masterpiece! Everyone agreed that it was delicious. After dinner we headed to the Riverwoods. 

I'm not sure why we don't go to The Riverwoods more often. They always do fun things and the little shops are so cute. Not to mention the awesome restaurants up there! Well, on Friday and Saturday they were doing something called Fire and Ice. It was basically a big winter festival. They had a snowboarding skiing hill set up for tricks, ice sculptures, s'mores, sales in all the shops and even a huge firework show! 

When we got there it started snowing like crazy. I started to get a little nervous because if it kept up like that we would have been soaked. But we went in to Kneaders and got hot chocolates and by the time we came out it had slowed way down. It was such a beautiful, wintry night! We watched the snowboarders, made some s'mores and went inside Blickenstaffs. And at 8pm they put on a really great firework show that we stayed and watched. 

[making s'mores]

[one of the amazing ice sculptures]

[all of us together]

[the crazy snow!]

[adorable smiley Kate in Kneaders! She is so cute!]

[the snowboard hill]

[and the jump with rail]

[Elliott was awake for the firework show and she wouldn't look away from them. She loved it]

And here is my Vine video from the night. 

After it was over we headed over to Morgan and Jenn's where we hung out, talked and played some fun video games. It was such a fun night! 

Elliott's First Valentine's Day

Being Elliott's first Valentine's Day, I wanted to get some cute pictures of her all dolled up. I think they turned out pretty cute. Happy Valentine's Day from Elliott!

[Trying to eat her tutu]

[Showing off that beautiful, long neck!]

**kisses**