Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Ellie's first birthday party



Happy Birthday Ellie Lynn!!  We wanted to share some pictures from Ellie's first birthday and her party.  On her actual birthday, July 8th, I had to work all day (which I was very sad about) but luckily Russell ended up not working and surprised me by taking her to my work so we could go out to lunch together.  We went to our favorite lunch place near my work called Skip's Place and Ellie got to order her own kid-sized hamburger.  That night we had my mom, dad and uncle Pres over for pizza and a small family celebration for Ellie's birthday.  We watched her open some presents (this did not keep her attention for very long) and spent a lot of time playing with all of her toys.  The night was filled with smiles, giggles and laughter as it usually is when Ellie is around.  She started a hilarious new "trick" where she starts shaking her hips when a song or music is playing, thus starting the "shake your booty" game.  All we have to do is play music or just say "shake, shake, shake your booty" and she responds by shaking her booty.  It is too cute for words.  

Ellie's First Birthday Party
On Saturday July 13th we had Ellie's first birthday party at our house.  The theme was Little Mermaid Under the Sea and we even had floating jellyfish in the tree outside.  It was a super fun day spent with friends and family and it was our first official party hosted at our new house. We had about 45 people over and everyone had a blast!  We had a few people in the pool and we were very happy that it wasn't too hot outside.  Ellie loved her smashcake and got frosting all over her face and even tried to share with mommy and daddy.  We were so happy that our friends and family got to celebrate with us and we are still in shock that our little bear is one year old!  

the backyard decorated 

floating jellyfish

The birthday girl in her birthday outfit

Ellie's smashcake made by mommy

Happy Birthday To You!
"Why is everyone singing to me?"

Hmmm, not sure what to do with it
Ellie trying to eat her smashcake 








frosting face!!













Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Our little girl is one year old!!

Russell and I are still in shock that our little bear is one year old!  How could this year have flown by so fast?? I know people always tell us, "they grow up so fast, so enjoy every minute" and I think that is so important to remember!  She is SUCH a joy and blessing and we just can't get enough of her.  Her personality is really blooming and she is emerging into a loving, giggling, energetic, and adorable little toddler. She now weighs about 19 pounds and is almost 30 inches tall (I almost said 30 inches long but now that she is standing up and walking I guess we need to change that to height).  She is a good eater and LOVES fruit, especially berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries) and peaches.  She also enjoys chicken and turkey and still loves her mum-mum crackers.  She can eat most foods by herself with her fingers and is learning how to use a spoon (even though most of the food ends up on her face or her shirt).  She can stand up all by herself without holding onto anything and is SO proud of herself when she does this and looks around for someone to clap or praise her.  She can take steps independently but still wobbles and then goes back down to the floor.  She can cruise around the entire house walking behind her Disney princess truck or push toy and sometimes even uses the chair in the kitchen for this purpose, pushing it along with her when she's walking.  She loves to help mommy and daddy in the kitchen by taking everything out of the drawers and showing us what she has found.  And much to our dismay she LOVES searching through the fridge but then tries to climb in and gets very mad when we remove her and close the fridge doors.  She still adores Baloo and Koby and giggles at them when they do funny things and tries so hard to say "doggy."  She likes to dangle toys in front of them and laughs when they try to take them from her.  She loves to play "How big is Ellie" and responds by shooting her arms up in the air above her head while we respond "SOOOOO big!"  She remembers people now, especially Grandma, NaMa and NamPa and says "dadda" and "ammmm" for momma.  
Ellie cruising around with her Disney Princess truck






Ellie enjoying the view at Andis Winery 
Ellie's first trip to the Oakland Zoo...she LOVED the elephants

Our cutie pie

She LOVES her pink chair

She still loves reading books
We cannot believe how fast this year has flown by but we have loved and enjoyed every single minute.  Happy birthday Ellie Lynn...we love you SOOOOO much!!  



Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Ellie is on the move!!

Ellie is officially mobile! In the last few weeks she has made huge developmental leaps including learning to crawl, pulling up to stand and standing while holding onto things. She is changing so much right in front of our eyes and seems to learn new things overnight. We have already lowered her crib mattress down since she learned to sit up on her own and now when she wakes up from naps we find her trying to pull up to stand on the side of her crib. She is interacting so much more with everyone, including the dogs and has learned to play fetch with Koby. She knows how to throw the ball for him and almost teases him by waving the ball in front of his face before she throws it but he is such a good boy and waits patiently. She is learning new sounds and babbles away while she is playing. Russell would swear she is saying "dadda" but I know better and that she is still just making sounds but he seems proud anyways. ;) we love our little girl SO incredibly much and are so blessed to be her parents.
Some of Ellie's favorite things:
Playing with her house, especially opening and closing the door and the window
Standing with support and grabbing for toys
Crawling everywhere and she loves I you crawl with her or act like you're going to come get her
Playing chase
Dancing
Eating Mum-Mums or apples
Pretending she's talking on the phone
Going after the dogs' tails










Bringing home the bacon...

Well...the time has come and I have finally gone back to work!!! I have been on the job hunt for a few months now (while secretly enjoying the extra few months off work) and finally found a part time position at an awesome clinic in Carmichael called North Area Physical Therapy. The owner is a fellow UOP alumni and is a very nice guy who is being very accommodating and understanding with my schedule and I know I am going to be very happy here. I am working Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 8-5 and we are so lucky and blessed to be able to have Ellie home with Russell on Wednesdays and Fridays and Russell's mom Debbie is watching her on Mondays. And my mom is helping for a few hours Friday mornings. So it makes me feel better going back to work knowing she is home with them and that I get updates by text and pictures so I know how she is doing throughout the day. It has been a very emotional week for me and driving to work Monday morning was very hard but she is doing great and I'm loving my job so I know it will be good for everyone! I have been SO incredibly blessed and fortunate to have been able to stay home with Ellie for the last 9 months and am sad to leave a few days a week but also excited to get back to being a PT and helping people again!!



Sunday, March 3, 2013

Can't shake this bug....

Hey everyone!!  Wow...what a rough few weeks it has been for us Pearsalls!  The three of us have been battling this horrible virus for almost 3 weeks now which has turned into a sinus infection for Russell, an ear infection for miss Ellie and a sinus AND ear infection for Ashley.  So needless to say we have gone through boxes of Kleenex, bottles of Gatorade, filled up humidifiers, and drank dozens of teas (which is a good excuse to use all of our mugs!), and hopefully we are now on the mend.  Sleep has been extremely difficult for all of us, which makes it harder to recover and with Ashley not being able to take many medications, she has sought out new herbal remedies and discovered a newfound obsession with tea.  Fenugreek tea is a natural chest and head decongestant (and boosts milk supply too) and chamomile tea helps with sore, itchy throats and irritating cough.  We bought ours from Elliott's Natural Food which you can find here and here.  Our Fischer-Price swing (which was previously disassembled and put in our lovingly named Junk Room) has SAVED our lives as Ellie has been napping and sleeping in it so she can stay upright and be soothed by the constant motion.  I had just about written it off and was commenting on spending so much money on something that we used for about 2 months but hey, now I'm totally grateful for it!   Russell and I quite the pair these days, yelling across the room at each other like a pair of old farts who can't hear because our ears are so plugged.  So here's to hoping we are all on the road to recovery!  Thanks for checking in!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Long time no see!!

Hello everyone!! Wow it has been WAY too long since we've posted and for that we apologize! We have been busy busy busy and need to update you all on what's been happening!!  First of all, our little Ellie bear is 6 months old!!! (Update: I started writing this SO long ago that she is now 7 months old! I am SO bad at keeping up with this blog and promise to do better!)  We cannot believe what once was our tiny little newborn is now almost 17 pounds, sitting up on her own, and making the world a happier place one smile at a time.  She is the absolute love of our lives and we are thankful to God every single day for such a wonderful little blessing.  As I mentioned a second ago, Ellie is now sitting up unsupported (with a few wipeouts when reaching too far for a toy or a pug) and can roll from her back to her tummy and back again although she still isn't a huge fan of tummy time.  She loves playing in her exersaucer and her new jumperoo and discovering all of the fun toys that surround her. She can cross a room in a mere manner of seconds simply by rolling over and over and over, especially if a certain toy or something interesting is in her sight, such as a pug. She SO desperately wants to crawl and has been following Mommas example and doing her planks to build up her upper body strength. She tries very hard to tuck her legs under her and wiggle forward and backward a little but no real attempts at crawling have been made. She is a tough girl though! Many times she has fallen over when reaching too far and I expect to hear wailing but she doesn't make a peep! I would think with how stubborn and strong-willed she is that she will be crawling around 8 months old.
Ellie is now eating solids and sometimes to her dismay she has eaten a wide variety of fruits and veggies. Yams, apples, and squash seem to be her favorites while she makes yucky faces at peas and sometimes bananas. I even took a stab at making her own baby food which turned out very well and proved to be a money saving adventure which was fun to do. It might be a while until I make more because it takes some planning but I now have another shelf in my freezer occupied by cubes of frozen baby food:green beans, yams, and butternut squash.
Ellie is starting to vocalize more and more and is definitely discovering the many ranges of her voice, including bouts of screaming at the top of her lungs which sometimes hurts Mommy's ears however I continue to encourage her to work on her singing voice. :) She is developing many different facial expressions and imitates a lot of the things we do which is hilarious. She loves to play "where's Ellie?" when we put something over her face and she pulls it down so we can see her and we act very surprised. We usually get some giggles out of that which makes us laugh in return. She also has some ticklish spots under her armpits and at the top of her hip which will encourage more giggles. Her favorite toys are her rolling hippo, rolling light up snail, laugh and learn puppy, her playhouse and her jumperoo. She loves watching Koby and Baloo play and loves to have dance parties with mommy and daddy.
We can't believe in a few short months that our little baby will be one year old and walking around before we know it! (And you better believe I'm already jotting down ideas for her first birthday party!) we love our little bear so much and are grateful for her every single day.















Saturday, October 20, 2012

3 month update and Tahoe Trip

Hello again everyone!!  Gosh I have been really dropping the ball with updating our blog lately and there is so much to catch up on!!  Where to start??  The biggest news is that Ellie has not only been sleeping in her own room in her crib this week but she has been sleeping through the night!!!!  These parents could not be more proud (and happy to get more sleep) of their big girl!  I selfishly put it off for too long because I liked having her close by in our room but as it turns out, she obviously sleeps better in her crib because the first night she slept 9 hours, followed by 10.5, then last night 11.5 hours!!!  Unfortunately that did not mean Russell and I slept through the night last night because Koby got sick and was throwing up every few hours. Poor boy.  (update: He is much better today and back to his crazy self.)  Anyways, Ellie is doing so great!!  She is sleeping less during the day because she gets so much sleep at night but that is great for us because we have more fun time together.  We've been doing trials in the Bumbo seat which she seems to like and she still LOVES her play mat!  The only thing we can't seem to progress on is her tummy time because she still seems to hate it!  We try to make her do it for at least a few minutes here or there but she fusses and ends up working herself up so much and starts crying.  So we try to get her to work on her neck strength by sitting up on our laps or in the bumbo seat and we've also put her facing outwards in the Baby Bjorn a few times which is really fun and she seems to love it.  
Ellie lifting up on her tummy

Ellie's 3 month picture

Helping the Giants through the post season 
Rooting on daddy's softball team

Mommy and Ellie at Smashburger

Had to throw this one in of Baloo because he's so cute!

Daddy and Ellie passed out in the rocker

Reading time with new books from Terry and Moorea

Ellie LOVES Baby Beluga

More tummy time

I love the Packers!

Bumbo seat adventures 

Go Giants!

Ellie and Mommy

Going for our morning walk
The first weekend of October we took Ellie and the boys to Lake Tahoe for an extended weekend for our friends Melissa and Nick's wedding where I was a bridesmaid.  It was a beautiful weekend and we got to stay with Russell's parents at their house in South Shore with was conveniently located just 5 minutes from where all the wedding festivities were.  The weather was gorgeous (and a nice break from the heat in Folsom) and Ellie did SO great!!  She was such a trooper all weekend with the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner and the wedding itself and she was such a good girl that everyone gave us compliments on how well she did.  While we were there we went on a walk along the Taylor Creek to see the Koakane Salmon spawning so here are some pictures...







Ellie and Auntie Melissa




Melissa at the nail salon the day before the wedding

Me and my brother Sean who was the photographer for the wedding

Me and Russell at the reception

Me, Russell and Sean at the reception

Ellie in her pretty pink dress for the wedding


Me and the beautiful bride