12 months!

My baby is a year old! I've said it a million times but I seriously cannot believe how quickly time flies. She's a little person full of opinions and personality.

Now on to the pictures.

First up is a little trip to Gateway I took with Witney and Audree and their babies. We had to get a picture of all the kids lined up in the back of the car. Ella looks completely confused.

Next up is further proof of Ella's love for her daddy giving kisses through the door. The good news is she will now give me a kiss whenever I ask, they aren't limited to just daddy. This has greatly improved my self esteem.

She LOVES to drink our drinks. No matter what it is or if she has the exact same thing in her sippy she always wants what we have. She is pro at drinking through a straw and loves to lug around this giant hospital mug of water.

Daddy's girl. They are glued to the TV watching a golf tournament. Danny is lucky someone else in the house is willing to watch this with him because I am not at all interested in watching golf.

Ella's new thing is to crawl inside her basket to play with her toys. She has gotten really good at getting in and out.

During the past month we got to go on our annual Flaming Gorge trip with all of my extended family on my mom's side. Ella was a big helper when we were trying to get packed. I would put a little pile of stuff next to the suitcase and she would crawl over and start stuffing everything inside. She then decided to crawl up into the case herself so we snapped a quick pic.

We had fun but I'm not sure how much fun Ella had. The poor girl is used to a quiet house for naps so having so much going on all around made it nearly impossible to get a nap so she was so tired the whole time we were up there. The other challenging thing this year was that the water was so high that the entire beach where we usually play was underwater so our "beach" was mostly weeds.

Ella spent most of the time hanging out on her blanket playing with Grandpa while Danny and I enjoyed a little break and played on the four wheelers, jet skis and boat.

We took a little family paddle boat ride that was fun.

Ella is such a little tease and loves to make people smile and laugh. She loves to wear sunglasses and hams it up when she puts them on.

And finally here she is the night of her party enjoying her new toy from Grandma and Grandpa Hafen. She was laughing so hard as she was walking around with her new toy. I think she is quite proud of her ability.

A few other fun things about Ella at a year:

• She LOVES to share. Seriously I have never seen anything like it. Whenever she has anything she is always trying to offer it to someone else. This includes her goldfish with other kids at the pool, her toys with whoever else is in the room, her food with Danny and I, etc.
• Her favorite book is "Goodnight Moon."  We read it every night before bed and sometimes even at naps because she reaches for it and opens it up. She loves to point to the different things in the room especially the fire in the fireplace. On every page she has to rub her finger on the fire and then take my hand and help me touch the fire as well.
• She is a little singer. She always sings along if I sing to her or during church during the hymns.
• She loves to find her belly button and will point to it if you ask her "where's your button".
• She is a little tease. She will watch you out of the corner of her eye until she knows you are watching before she does something (i.e. take off down the hall, turn on the bathtub faucet, pull out all of my shoes) then do it and throw back her head and laugh.
• She already has seven teeth and (4 on top and 3 on bottom) and judging by the last couple of nights, I'm pretty sure she's working on another. 
• Speaking of nights, she still doesn't sleep through the night. Ever. She is always up once around 2 for a snack and then goes back to sleep. This means it has been over a year since I've slept through the night as well. That could explain the bags under my eyes.
• We are trying to transition her to whole milk through a sippy cup. She's not thrilled by this idea but hopefully we can move to the next stage without too much heartache. 
• We have been teaching her baby signs and she has caught on so quick. It's adorable to watch her do her little sign language to tell us what she wants. It's amazing that I can ask her what she wants and she can sign it to me. We avoid a lot of unnecessary tears this way. 
• She is getting so close to walking. She can walk behind her cart or walker and along furniture and walls really well. She can stand for a little bit all on her own as well. 
• She loves playing with balls. She holds them in her hand and then moves her hands up and down like she's throwing it up in the air. She also loves to chase them around the house.
• She is also all girl and loves shoes. She loves to go in my closet and pull out my shoes and try to put them on her feet. Of course her favorites are a pair of red high heels. 
• She says "mom" and "da" 

We love Ella so much. We love the little person she is becoming and the sweet personality I can already see coming through. She is one of the happiest, sweetest babies I've ever seen. She is a delight to be around and can cheer up anyone around her. I feel very lucky to be her mom.