12 months

I know yall are like "enough with the birthday" but I am trying to be fair. I am just dragging it out to torture myself. :) but I will use this to catch up and post all the random shots I have of her over the month that I never got around to posting.

Happy Birthday Sweet Eliana!I cannot seem to grasp that my baby girl is one! That it was a year ago that you entered our lives and warmed our hearts. I really can't imagine life without you and I love you dearly. I say that with my whole heart, body, and soul.
You are so special. You are so unique. You are so beautiful. You light up a room when you enter and (as Nani put it) your big blue eyes dance when you smile. You are so precious. You are my baby girl and always will be.

This is my favorite age because you really start to see personality. You love to laugh and think that everything is funny! You really want to join in on the fun that everyone else is having so even though you don't understand, you will laugh too.

You are cutting your four top teeth here at the same time! Wowsers is right! I think they were growing by the minute too! I swear they grew over nap time!

You are still not walking on your own. A few steps here and there but you like to hold on to something. (To be fair this didn't happen till after her birthday)

You love to play peek a boo with a big grin.
When you are beside someone or in their arms, You love to stick your face around in front of them and look closely at them until they look at you. This is a favorite of Daddy's. There really is nothing cuter that you checking something out with full curiosity.
You love to lay your sweet head in my lap. melt. my. heart. I love it.
You like to mimic and do it well. One night at dinner recently, we all tried to snap our fingers, you included. You like to "comb your hair" and "talk on the phone".

You are a good eater! You love to take control and feed yourself. I figured out that you ate much better this way. You LOVE pasta! peaches and green beans! It was hard for me to let go and let you get messy but its been so worth it. I think you will be a much better eater than Alex.
You also will take baby food straight out of the pouch nozzle- its great! Easy, clean, and you are eating good stuff! yea!! And you really seem to eat most everything we give you. For a while you were doing this chipmunk thing where you would shove food in your mouth and keep it in your cheeks. You would keep your lips lock tight and not let us in to get it out. Thankfully this only lasted a few weeks (maybe since you have more teeth now its getting better).

you were in an extra good mood that day

You love to play with brother and he LOVES it! recently, the game of choice is to crawl around and under the kitchen table. You love bath time but just decided that you were done with the bath seat. I mean, screaming fit done! and all you want to do is stand. Your independence came to surprise us all




You love to be outside and play in the climber house. You go in and out and close the door behind you. You just started raising your hand up in the sky while outside too- not sure if you are feeling the wind or what. It sure is cute though!

You have the sweetest lil curl coming in! yay!!
Your stats-
weight: 17 lbs 4.5 oz- less than 5th %...tiny lil bird
Height: 28.5 in- 35th %...you are a few inches shorter than Alex at this age
head: 65th %...big heads run in the fam, sorry hun

our measure board official birthday marking

trying to cheat huh ;)

Kalyn!!

the hair, she is always eying the hair :)this reminded me so much of Alex who also loved to get into the pantry

a typical site for me

and thats a wrap lil stinker butt

because

I cant seem to get my real postings done

travis said just put some pictures up

and they are just so darn cute watching tv together

he cracks me up and hates me for ithe wants to be like daddy

have a terrific tuesday!

walker! texas ranger

Ellie is a walker! from Cassie Isaacson on Vimeo.

someday I will catch up on all the blogging I need to do! until then here is a quick one!

Recipes

So, my goal for the party was for it to be completely safe for my kiddos- no egg, dairy, or peanuts. Not that Alex would eat it all (I did know that both kids would be eating cake) but it is nice to know that its all safe no matter what they get into and that there would be no accidents. I also wanted it to be well rounded with food everyone would want to eat! It needs to taste good! :)

So I set out to make dairy free ranch dip... and guys, it was sooo good! Everyone seemed to love it and I think they would have never known if I hadn't had it labeled and told them. It was super easy too!

Dairy Free Egg Free Ranch Dip
1 cup Vegenaise (see below)
1/4 cup soy or rice milk
1 pkt generic hill country fare ranch dip (if you dont have HEB, check the generic version at your local store, or follow this recipe and be fancy with putting in the real herbs and spices)

Mix altogether and chill.
I actually split (roughly) the recipe and it was plenty for our party.
yes, I know what you are thinking. sounds weird. gross. but really, it tastes like real mayo and makes for some good ranch. the only downside is the price. its a pretty penny.

I also put some of this out to dip in too. This is one of my favorite dressings and it is also dairy and egg free! LOVE it!! Alex won't go near it. :(


What had to be egg and dairy free was the cake. Alex is in to cake now and of course Ellie was going to have cake. The days of separate cakes is over. Its too much work and not worth it. Alex wants what we are all having.
I had read that you could add Sprite to a box mix and that it would turn out, but I was hesitant. Well, low and behold it is true and it is delicious!
I found that Duncan Hines Moist deluxe cake mixes are dairy free (all except the vanilla, go figure, so Strawberry it is!)
Add 10 oz. of 7Up or Sprite and I added a small cup of applesauce to help it stick together a little better. Mix and bake according to box. I mean, it doesn't get easier than that!
I topped it with Pillsbury Strawberry Icing!

I am so not winning any baker of the year prizes or my own cooking show on the Food Network but I dont care. This is how I do cakes!
and I hope yall know that I am sharing not to get kudos or anything but to help others who may be in my shoes.

It was a VERY Hoppy Birthday

Lets see how many cheesy lines I can get out of this theme! :)

We love these peeps and love that they made the party sooo special!

when did our babies get so big?!

I tried REAL hard to make a group pic happen...it was a pipe dream. But this is pretty darn close!
Ella Kate, Tyler, Alex, Eliana, Evan, Madison, and Kalyn (only missing Brennan)

but I did get this sweet one of him and his daddy Evan ready to hop on home

this cutie is easily bribed with treats :)

they look way too relaxed right?!

somehow the party moved outside and quickly became a water gun party....

and have you ever seen such a stylish soccer player?! she has been paying attention at big brothers games!

the tuptate... as Alex saysshe took the singing very seriously. :) she is so timid. I swear she smiles and laughs all the time though! I love this shot that shelby got. shelby is so good and I am envious of her fancy new camera. someday maybe!

I like this "real" picture looking back at the crowd, you can see why it was a little overwhelming for the girl

she was lovin' her some cake in no time

i love this one of her looking at Chad...she was so glad he put together her new bouncing turtle from cousin Kalyn


we got her a chair of her own so that she doesn't have to fight the bro for his anymore...yet, now he wants her's. go figure. also showing off her precious cupcake bloomers- love! :)

Happy Birthday Eliana! We love you!!