9 months

So technically Elle is 9 1/2 months right now but I'm a little behind on blogging. Of course we had to get some pics taken and I just couldn't resist buying a ton of them to bring home (those picture places know just how to hook you). Anyway Elle is growing in leaps and bounds weighing in at 15lbs 12 oz and 26 1/2 in long at her 9 month checkup. Really she's on the small side for her age but to me she's getting bigger by the minute.

Elle recently decided to surprise me by suddenly crawling after our dog Wrigley boy was I not ready for this milestone. Elle is into absolutely everything days and she espcially seems interested in things that she shouldn't have most of all the dog food and water. It has been nice though since Elle can just crawl over to a certain toy she wants or instead of her whining for me to pick her up she just crawls over to me and puts her arms up.

Another milestone that Elle has reached is that she has learned how to feed herself and is now eating a lot of "big people food" as we call it. Unfortunately Elle is taking after her father in the food area. She is already becoming a very picky eater and already seems to know about pizza and ice cream thanks to good old dad. So now of course anytime we have ice cream we know we might as well just put in one more scoop for Elle because if she sees it then you better just count on sharing. She's so cute though she gets her way pretty easily.

We've been pretty busy with life outside of Elle lately too. We finally found a new bigger house and are very excited to be moving very soon!! Finally Elle will have a huge yard to play in and a brand new bedroom and playroom!! I'm personally very excited about the playroom myself!

So anyway it's time to go pack but just wanted to fill everyone in on everything going on with Elle!! Here are a few of her 9 month pics!

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a very fun and busy Memorial Day weekend but luckily it was very memorable haha sorry for the pun. Of course Friday I had to work a little but when I got home Elle had to play with one of her new favorite toys.....my water cup. If you know me at all then you know how much I love to drink water and apparently Elle has figured this out as well because she knows if I'm around then there is probably a cup of water close by that she wants to play with.

After we were done playing it was time to try on the adorable Nike Shox that Elle's Aunt Chelsea got for her. They were soooooo adorable and Elle was able to stand a lot easier when she had them on. Of course she had to model for us while she had them on.

Unfortunately Elle was interupted during her shoe modeling because Robby needed some help with some work problems. Thankfully Elle was able to troubleshoot everything just in time for bed!

Saturday morning started off like every other morning lately. Elle gets up extra early because she knows her favorite show is on! Technically she only watches about the first 5 minutes and last 5 minutes because that's when the singing parts are but usually we just leave it on then because Robby and I want to watch the whole thing. Oh forgot to mention this show is called The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and yes Robby knows the whole theme song....ask him to sing it for you sometime.

Elle has been enjoying lots of new types of food but as you can see she is a very very messy eater I guess she's taking after mommy in the messy department. Right now Elle is eating lots of gerber baby food, gerber lil crunchies, mum mums and yobaby yogurt. We do our best to feed her as much organic food as possible and I swear I'll keep her away from junk food and sweets as long as I can. Elle would much rather have whatever mommy is eating than whatever is on her plate so sometimes I pretend to feed her what I'm eating just to keep her happy. We're wondering how long it's going to be till she figures out that we actually aren't giving her any food.

So after a little Mickey mouse and some breakfast it was time to head to our first event of the weekend. Our first 5K race!!! Katie and I decided to do a little extra work during the race by pushing the girls along with us. Of course Robby and Elle's Nana were in the race as well but once we left the starting line they were out of our site till us girls reached the finish line. We had a great time it was actually more fun than I thought it would be. I was also super impressed with Kate and I because we ended up tying for 3rd place in our age group yay!! Go Elle and Emma for finishing your first 5k race!!

After we finished the race we had to wait for a little while so they could enter all the times and get the medals ready so we decided to hang out and have a little snack. Of course Elle wasn't happy with the food I gave her so she decided to steal my orange instead. I had gotten about two pieces before Elle took it and drooled all over the whole thing. I guess Elle already knows I would give her anything of mine to make her happy.

Elle had to hang out in her onesie because it got so warm while we were waiting but then she got to add a new accessorie to her outfit.....my 3rd place medal!!!! We were pretty excited about how great we did in the race!! Robby ended up getting 4th place overall in the race and then 1st place in his age group. Elle's Nana (aka my mom) got 1st place in her age group and first place in the masters group (the over 40 group hehe shhhh don't tell her I said that).

On Elle's first Memorial Day we had a cookout with Nana & Poppie (aka my mom and dad) and then went to the awesome Pecatonica Memorial Day Parade. First we had to have a little family photo shoot though.

Elle really enjoyed her first parade especially the horses she would even stretch her neck to look at them as long as she possibly could. I was really nervous that she was going to be scared of all the sirens and loud noises but Elle was a trooper and even ended up sleeping through the second half of the parade. Daddy even got to collect a little candy and gave Elle her first sucker. Don't worry though people she was definitely not allowed to eat it we just let her hold it and to Elle that was plenty exciting.

We had such a fun weekend and we were very thankful to be able to have Elle experience so many great things. Of course though since it was Memorial Day weekend we couldn't help but think aobut my cousin Jason who is stationed in Afghanistan. We miss him very very much but we are super excited that he will be returning home safe and sound in just a few months. Elle got to meet Jason when she was just a few weeks while he was home on leave but that is the only time they have ever seen each other. Boy will she have changed when he gets to see her again but I know that our whole family can't wait for him to return!!

Where the heck have we been?

It's been awhile since the last time I blogged but I swear I have really good reasons why I haven't been on here.

1. Teething- I think anyone who is a parent that is reading this is probably taking pity
on me. Elle has been working on getting a tooth out for what seems like forever
but FINALLY I can see the little stinker pokin through. It's one of her bottom
middle teeth so I'm sure it's going to make her look even cuter! Anyway yes it is
coming through but I don't think that's going to make it feel any better because she
is still crankier than ever. If she's not chewing on something, eating, sleeping or
sitting on my lap then chances are she's probably crying which makes for one very
tired and overwhelmed mommy, but I'll do anything to try and make my little girl
happy.

2. Sleeping In The Big Girl Room- For the past 7 1/2 months Elle has been sleeping in our room
in a basinet but she has finally made the transition into her
own room. I was very hesitant to move her but I knew it was
time so slowly but surely we are transitioning her. So since she
is no longer just a few feet away it makes for a little bit less
sleep for both of us since I have to go all the way upstairs to
comfort her instead of just across the room. It's very nice
though that we no longer have to quietly creep around our
room afraid to wake Elle up when we're getting ready for bed.

3. Remotes, Dog Toys, Cell Phone- If I turn my back or look away for more than 2 seconds Elle
will have one of those items in her mouth so that doesn't allow
me much free time to blog. However, the good news is that if
Elle is ever upset all I have to do is give her the remote or a
cell phone and she is happy as pie. We even got out one of my
old cell phones so that Elle could have her very own phone!

4. Finally Some Gorgeous Weather- If you're a follower of my blog then technically I did warn
you that once it got nice out I wasn't going to be on the
computer much and finally finally finally it's warm so now we
are out and about. We go on a daily walk usually about 3
miles long if we have the time and sometimes if we're really
lucky then we get to go with Katie and Emma which makes it
even more fun. We're even planning on doing a 5k together
at the end of this month which should be pretty fun and I'll
let you all know how it goes.

So you're probably thinking excuses excuses haha and you're right I should be blogging more since technically I'm doing this for Elle so she can read it when she gets older but right now I'm having so much fun spending time with my little cutie that it's hard to tear myself away to type on the computer. Pretty soon though we will be reaching some big milestones that I'll have to write about and you'll just have to stay tuned to find out what they are.

Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My!

On Friday we were lucky enough to be able to take advantage of the awesome weather by heading up to Madison Zoo. We could not have asked for a nicer day although we did think it was maybe a bit too hot but hey we'll take hot over cold any day. We've talked about taking Elle to a zoo for a little while becuase of her love of animals but now we were finally able to do it. If you haven't been to the Madison Zoo you should definitely go check it out. It's not a huge zoo but it does have some cool animals and best of all it's FREE!

Robby had been asking on the way to the zoo if we were going to get to see any bears and sure enough it was the first animal we saw that day!

It was such a beautiful day and Elle was great through the whole thing no crying or whining woohoo!

The lions were one of our favorite animals we saw that day unfortunately they didn't do much though they were just enjoying laying in the sun.

I'm not exactly sure what this next animal is....monkey, chimp or gorilla who knows I wasn't paying attention to what the signs said. Anyway he was very cute and he just sat there looking at us and this one was sucking on his toe, very very cute.

When we were all done checking out the animals we sat down and had a quick photo shoot.

Elle didn't spend much time in her stroller that day but I had to include a picture of her in it cause boy oh boy do we LOVE this stroller!!! Everyone who has a baby or toddler needs to invest in a BOB Stroller!!

On our way out Elle got to stop in the gift shop and pick out something. Elle picked out the lion right away we're guessing because of it's fun hair. We named him Larry the Lion...real original I know. Larry and Elle got to ride together on the way back to the car.

After a long day Elle and Larry got to snuggle on the way home....I couldn't believe she actually slept the whole way back. You can't see it in the pic but Elle held onto Larry's leg while she was sleeping.

We had such an awesome day together as a family we were so lucky to be able to spend the day together at the Zoo hopefully we will have many more fun filled days this summer.

Bunnies Bunnies Bunnies

Happy Easter Everybody!! We had a great Easter here at the Ludwig house in fact I think it was my best Easter ever and that has a lot do do with the fact that Elle was here to celebrate it with us.

Our Easter weekend actually started on Saturday and that was our busiest day. Our little alarm clock named Elle went off at about 6:15 and boy was she a happy girl...it's always fun to wake up to such a happy girl in the morning! So we got up and started getting ready and all packed up to head to Forreston for the Ludwig Family Easter. Elle got some fun presents and even snuck in a nap while we were there. Elle also got to have a photo shoot in a chair that belonged to her Great Great Great Grandmother which unfortunately I don't have pics of because we forgot our camera.

Then it was time to head to over to the Dorsey household where Elle got to participate in her first Easter egg hunt. Elle loved holding the eggs and we loved opening them because they were full of money since Elle can't eat candy. Of course there were more presents to open (since when did Easter become the second Christmas???). By the end of the night poor Elle was wiped out and ready for bed so we headed home and tucked her in.





Sunday morning we woke up and of course the Easter Bunny had brought some fun things for Elle. I was so excited because Elle actually took half of the stuff out of the basket all by herself. She got a few books, a veggie tales dvd, an outfit with matching hat and a swim suit.

Here is our little chunky monkey modeling her swimsuit. I know it's not as fun as a little strappy number but it does have 50 UV protection.

After we got done checking out all the presents it was time to get ready for church and of course then Elle had to model her very first Easter dress. I looked and looked for a dress I could wear that would kind of match hers but I was unsuccessful.

After church we went over to my parents house for a quick lunch but the highlight of the visit was Elle getting to play with an actual Easter bunny. She absolutely loved it and I knew she would because so far she's loved every animal she meets.

Don't ya love this pic I think Ted (aka the bunny) was trying to give her a little kiss.

Elle kept trying and trying to grab him so finally we just sat Ted on her lap and let her get a few fist fulls of hair!! He was such a good sport he took the abuse and didn't mind one bit.

We had such a wonderful weekend with our little family and I can't help but think how blessed we are to have such a wonderful little girl in our lives. She brings soooo much joy and excitement to our lives I seriously can't imagine even one day without her anymore. We hope that you all had a great weekend with your families as well.