Dancing and Singing!

Have you seen this youtube video montage yet???

AMAZING!!!!



OH MY GOSH this makes me so want to watch all of these movies! Grease! Footloose! The movie w/ Julia Stiles! West Side Story! Saturday Night Fever! All of them. Is it just me or DO YOU LOVE YOU SOME KEVIN BACON!!?!?!??!?

And speaking of singing and dancing. Did you see this?


SO SO SO SUPER FUNNY!!! And just amazing tv... I HEART Jimmy Fallon (and my girlfriend Tina Fey)

So, I hum to Ellie every night while I'm rocking her & giving her a bottle before bed (YES I KNOW we need to start working on cutting out the bottles). For whatever reason, the songs that pop into my head are mostly showtunes. I always laugh (to myself) because they are pretty cheesy. I seriously always try to think of other songs but these are my "go-tos":

-Stranded at the Drive-in (Grease)
-Hopelessly Devoted to You (Grease)
(Seriously those are almost always the first two I start humming until I can think of something else)*
-Sunrise, Sunset (Fiddler)
-Somewhere That's Green (Little Shop of Horrors)
-Goodnight Sweetheart (a 50's do-wop song, but made popular to me by the movie Three Men and a Baby)
-We'll Be Together (Grease 2)
-Wonderful World (not the Louis Armstrong version, the Hawaiian Brother Iz version)
-Hey Jude (Ok, this one's not cheesy, but i still laugh to myself because I can hear my 21 year old self playing it on the guitar!)
-Close Every Door (Joseph)
-The Rose (Bette Midler--my junior high choir ("glee club") had a riveting performance of this one
-Seasons of Love (Rent)
-Without You (Rent)
-Pass it On (this is one that has appeared in my head lately for some reason--it's a Camp Pyoca song we used to sing around the campfire!)

SO YES I LIKE SHOWTUNES!

*You may ask yourself, "Why would she not include Rizzo's "There are Worse Things I Could Do" in there?" Well, that is one of my top all time favorite songs, believe me! But it doesn't HUM well. Try it. I like a song w/ easy verses and a good melody.

Ellie's 12 month pics (32 photos), by jennifer skinner

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
Click here to view photos

Here is the link to the full set of high quality pictures from Ellie's 12 month photos! I had a coupon at Target to order prints, but I couldn't decide on which ones, so I spent too much $$ on this disk! SO: family members, please use it and buy some prints.

Hugs

Dried Snot

You know you are a mom when...

You get to work on multiple occasions in one week with snot on your clothes!!!

Seriously, though Ellie has been fighting something for a week or so now, and it finally reared it's ugly head last night w/ a fever and vomiting. Got in w/ the Dr. today and it's a sinus infection. Started antibiotics today, so pray for us that she kicks it quick!

Also pray for Daddy too. He's sick w/ a cold too and he might be dying a slow death. Poor thing!!!

12 Month Pics

So, Ellie got her 12 month pictures at Target on Saturday. She did good for about 5 minutes, then was pretty much not having it. I'm not sure why, but I think the time of day was off... we are in the middle of readjusting nap time and she didn't take a morning nap. Could also be that she is stubborn and only wants to do what she wants to do!!! I was SO happy w/ all of them though. I used to think these portrait studio people didn't know what they were doing, but the girl who did these was just awesome!!! I even had a coupon, but I ended up buying the CD (not cheap) because I couldn't decide. Here are a couple from the Target website they give you. You can't print these images, but I will pick up the CD Saturday and will have them up on snapfish for your viewing pleasure this weekend.

OH MY GOSH I HATE GETTING MY PICTURES TAKEN!!!

Yes, she is attempting to re-inact an album cover of some cheesy 80's artist... I am thinking MJ Thriller (although I would not consider him cheesy)

Now we're talking...

The first thing out of my mouth when the photographer busted out this couch was "OH my gosh, it's a Costanza sofa!" I tried to get Ellie to pose on it like him, but she was not havin' it. It was touch and go from the time we got there.

Love this one!

Tate!

Here is a small taste of how awesome it was to have Tate stay w/ us for 10 days! He was so good with Ellie and she, of course, adored him. He was so good about playing with her. It was truly helpful to have him around! Too bad your mom won't let you move here :)

Bestest Cousins! from Jennifer Skinner on Vimeo.

Pics

All of these pics are in the snapfish album below, but since some people can't view snapfish at work, etc... here are a few fun ones for today.





Aunt JuJu



Josh & Jer

Is this not hilarious w/ the powerpoint screen behind them?


Opening presents (note her adorable Madonna t-shirt from The Hutchersons)


Two awesome daddies (SAHDS!)

A Life

I just looked at the past, oh I don't know, 47 posts on my blog here and realized that every one of them has ELLIE in the title.

Don't get me wrong. I love my boo! She is the center of our universe. But, I should once in a while post about SOMETHING ELSE, huh? (Or maybe just post more often, but that's another story--which may or may not be related to she who must not be named).

Hmmm.... what else can I post about?

I have read some HILARIOUS books lately. I would highly recommend:

Afterbirth: Stories You Won't Read in a Parenting Magazine

Sh*t My Dad Says

And not-so-hilarious, but great:

The Help
(seriously, have you not read this yet?)

And to name some other ADULT things I've done lately:

-Browsed at an antique store
-Purchased a bottle of wine that cost more than $5.99
-Purchased some new clothes for myself (At a consignment store, but it was in Carmel! And they were name brand!)
-Got my car washed and vacuumed it out myself
-Went to see Eclipse (ok, maybe not adult, but it was without kids)
-Watched True Blood (2 vampire references in a row?) (also? this past weeks episode was so disturbing that Craig and I decided that we need to be careful whom we admit to that we love the show!)

Aaaaand............that's it :)

This Saturday my girlfriends that I grew up with and I are heading out downtown Indy, so maybe I'll have a few more adult experiences?

Ellie Update

Just a couple pics from my phone...

Me & Grammy! Ellie hadn't seen Grammy in over a week and was obviously super happy!



Best Cousin Ever! Tate & Ellie "swimming" last weekend.



I have lots more fun ones of the Mitchens visit which I'll post soon.

We had a blast while they were here... She is so spoiled now and has to have someone playing with her at ALL TIMES. Just like her mommy!

Here are some new stats:

-12 month check up last week: 25 lbs, I forget how many inches, but she is in the 93rd percentile for height, weight, headsize! She's a big girl! She did really good w/ her immunizations.

-SIX teeth! Four on top, two on bottom. SO CUTE. It really changes her smile and how she looks. She tried to bite Grandma last night (not maliciously or anything), so hopefully she's not going to be a biter!

-ALMOST walking... she will walk behind some push toys on her own and is getting braver by the day, but we aren't necessarily rushing this one :)
-As always, but even more, LOVES her doggies. Especially Roscoe. They hug and play every day when she gets home from Emily's.

-LOVES Emily's! She goes right to Emily every morning and starts bossing her around over there saying NANNER (banana) and pointing to her high chair demanding breakfast. She loves playing w/ Aidan, Izzy & Ethan. Ellie & Ethan are really cute together. She loves all the other kids that come to visit, too, especially Tessa (Jeff & Carrie Cummings little girl). Tessa is a momma hen and loves taking care of Ellie--which in turn, Ellie loves.

-Words she's saying: mama, dada, balloon (ba-oon), ball (oh she says ball like 100 times a day), nanner (banana), dog (da). She'll sometimes repeat what you say but I think that's about it for words she says on her own.

-Her bed. She loves her bed! She is still such a good sleeper (we are so lucky!!!) and pretty good napper. She loves to get in her bed and play w/ stuffed animals and roll around in there.

-Chairs. We have her booster seat sitting on the floor of her playroom and she LOVES to sit in that like a big girl chair. We need to get her one of those toddler rocking chairs or just a little plastic chair.

-Milk. She's off formula now and drinking milk. We are supposed to be starting to wean her off bottles... goal is by 15 months. She doesn't seem to like milk out of sippy cups, so we are working on that.

-Food. She's still a good eater, but getting pickier. Loves mac & cheese (well ANY cheese in general), fruit, green beans, black beans, hot dogs (gross! i have tried to get her to eat the vegan ones--she won't! i do buy the "good" hot dogs though that are all beef, no nitrates, no yucky stuff!). Her and daddy battle every night w/ her throwing food on the floor for the dogs... we are working on telling her "no" but she's still pretty little to really grasp that concept.

Craig and I are both liking our jobs pretty well. I'm lucky to have a house cleaner PLUS grandmas around all the time who like to help w/ dishes and laundry :) Otherwise working 5 days a week would be a LOT more stressful!

Mom is scheduled to have her hip surgery Oct 4th! YIKES!!!! That will be an adjustment for all of us! Of course, especially mom :)

I think that's about all for now!

Ellie's Bday (67 photos), by jennifer skinner

Here are the pics from Ellie's birthday, her baptism, her baptism/b-day party with the family (in Osgood at The Grub!), then some more of the party & randoms from Emmie!



I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
Click here to view photos

Ellie's One!

Quick update… Everything was great Saturday for Ellie's party! Thanks so much to all of you for making it so special! The weather was perfect and I think a good time was had by all! Of course, I didn’t feel like I got to talk to anyone and NOW I get it, why a smaller one might be a better idea :) I didn’t really get to take it all in and enjoy Ellie eating her cake, etc but I know she had a BLAST. Special shout out to my parents, Craig's parents & my sister for helping w/ all the set up and clean up!

Sunday we got up early and went down to Versailles to my Grandma’s church for Ellie's Baptism! She did great—she was really antsy but no one cared, of course. She let the minister hold her and walk her around the church. We had a big lunch w/ the whole family after church and celebrated boo’s birthday some more!

My house is FILLED to the brim w/ toys, in-laws and dogs (my inlaws brought their 2 chihuahuas), but we are recovering from the fun filled weekend. I know Ellie is going to have such a fun week w/ Mema, Papa & Tate. Oh, she absolutely LOVES Tate. Anytime he is sitting on the ground, she crawls over and plops down in his lap. He hates that I'm sure! :)

Pics to come in the next few days.

Love you!