Beaches and Boxes

Ellie turned 10 months on the 11th. Hard to believe she
is getting so close to her first birthday... although she
seems to think she's way past all that. Here are some
shots from the last couple weeks.

More tug of war. Ellie and Tucker fight over toys 80% of
their time together. But for the rest, they are very cute, always
trying to sit on each other or hug or play. She is a doggie girl
to be sure.

There are lots of baby gates in the house, yet it
still never feels like enough with how wild she is.

Trying the cute and pathetic look...

"Fine, I'll just eat my way through."

Sitting and watching Nascar... she kept playing a
game where she would lay back flat on the pillow, then
laugh and pull herself up, just back and forth all night.

I don't think Grandpa is allowed to open this box
that came for him as it is Ellie's current hot spot.
She climbs up and sits on it all the time to play.

Then she screams and looks for you to come
and watch her play on it.

Ellie loves her big girl lunches. She has those
yummy frozen pb & j's, and some veggies and juice.
She scarfed the whole sandwich down in no time.
A girl after my own heart. I think I've had peanut butter
and jelly for lunch at least half the days of my life.

Ellie got to play at the man-made beach here at lake
Montclair. She seemed to enjoy it. I just think she
looked cute in her swimsuit.

Checking out the sand and water.

Having fun with Daddy.

And of course, playing with Mom.

Who can resist a hug from this monster?

I think this face pretty much sums her up. She's crazy...

...and wild...

...but so stinkin' cute!

She ain't no sissy...

We've had a fun couple of weeks. Ellie is doing great!

We are all amazed at her strong personality. She never
hesitates... just goes for things, like jumping off couches
or beds or stairs or whatever. She wrestles dogs and people
all the time. She pushes and pulls and shoves to get what
she wants or grunts when she doesn't. When she gets hurt
or mad, she seeks comfort for a brief moment then just wants
to look at whoever (or whatever) it was so that she can
glare and give them the evil eye as she commits the moment
to memory. Then she screams or does fake laughs just
to get more attention from people. She keeps us laughing!
Here is a sample of our photo log from the last couple of weeks.

Showing off a toothy grin. She has 4 on the bottom, and her
two front-middle teeth are coming in as well.

These, plus 2 more dozen, were baked for the Marine OCS boys
that my parents do a church meeting with at Quantico...
so Dean and Mel know that he will be well cared for.

Ellie has a strange love for tackling people. She literally pushes
you down and climbs on your head or puts you in a choke
hold. She's quite the little wrestler, but then again, Adam did
start teaching her this at a VERY young age.

Yes, that is the cookie dough beater they are fighting over.

Our funny little patriot... she obviously doesn't like to keep
things on her head, but it was cute all .5 seconds that it lasted.

Adam showing off his American spirit!

Ellie must have known what was in the box
because she did not want to let it go.

She and Tucker always fight over whatever object
the other one has. This time it was an ad.

Ellie loves Grandma's little rocking chair. She sits
and rocks or plays in it all the time.

All the way up the stairs... We're proud of our brave
girl, but she requires constant supervision. That girl
will just jump or dive off of anything.

She also loves juice.... all kinds of juice.

More dog time.

Ellie's love still grows for her 130 lb Tank. She always likes to
be with him, and he is incredibly sweet and patient with her.
We love that big guy.

But she does prefer to avoid the kisses on the face (he's
knocked her over with his gigantic tongue before).

Dumping the dog food... one her favorite hobbies. Then
she hand-feeds the dogs.

I had the amazingly horrible luck of capturing this moment.
Yay for potty-training... NOT!

But yay for clapping!

DC

Well, we made the move to VA. We are readjusting to the
humidity, rain, and mosquitos, and we are loving it.
We miss our family and friends in Utah VERY much,
but I'm afraid Army-life has programmed us to move.
It's just what we do... and what we want to do.

Ellie is as great as ever. It is hard to believe how much
she has changed in the last few weeks since we posted.
She's over 9 months old! She started crawling a few
weeks ago and has already progressed to climbing
small sets of stairs on her own now. She pulls herself
up and stands all the time. She has 4 teeth, all on the
bottom. She talks and babbles all the time... but her
only real learned word so far is 'MAMA', which is cute,
but a little exhausting when its used in distressed tones.
She is a funny girl who constantly makes us laugh.
Brace yourselves for a fair amount of photos.

Adam posing in front of the building where most of his Physical
Therapy classes will take place (voted one of the biggest
eye-sores in the DC Metro area).

Ellie likes to fall asleep in Daddy's arms.

Playing with Grandma in the backyard. She is loving
all of the extra attention out here!

Grandma made her famous "3 x Better Beans... and Ellie
COULD NOT get enough!

Showing off those big brown beauties!

Crawling time!

She discovered her tongue one night and it was hard to get
her to forget about it. But we got some cute pictures.

What a goof!

Ellie loves juice boxes, but always wants to do things by herself.

We have discovered a teething soother that Ellie will
actually use... an icy cold coke can! She would not let go of it!

She loves to wrestle with Dad... always!

Tank... our big boy... is one of Ellie's new best friends.
She loves to be next to him, pet him, and even hand feed
him pieces of her snacks... and he seems to be okay with that!
She has become fearless with all the dogs.

Here is Ellie with the newest member of the Garner family
out here.... Tucker! He is a big adorable 8 wk old puppy. She
just wanted to grab him and hold him when he first came, but
lately they mostly just fight over toys that get cycled back
and forth between them. They're funny together.

I thought this one was funny.. she looks like she's having a
serious talk with the two dogs.

We're not sure if she realizes that she's not one of them... she
likes to have their chews and toys as much as her own.

Pulling on Dad's face.

There's a lot of action here, so I guess she got worn out and
fell asleep mid-lunch in the high-chair.

And of course, she ADORES her Uncle Jake!

Waving to her admirers (she always makes friends when
we go out, especially while we ride the metro)!
She's such a friendly girl.

We can't get enough of her!

More dog action... She and Tex shared the duty of licking
out the ice cream bowls last night... crazy kid.

Little Tucker showing off his cuteness.