2006 Archives

December, 2006 - Ella's BIG day! (AKA The Birthday Party)

We had SO much fun in December at Ella's birthday party. I know you have been waiting and waiting for this moment - for me to post the pictures from Ella's party. She DUG INTO that cake like nobody's business and became a painted indian by the end of her fun! I narrated everything on the picture page that happened so without further ado, click here to see the pictures!

November, 2006 - Fun with Rylee

Rylee and Ella have been having a lot of fun playing together! Jessi, Rylee, Ella, and I went to Chick-fil-a and played on their playground. It was Ella's first time and she loved it! Her favorite thing was crawling up the slide to meet Jessi and Rylee. We got some good pictures! Click here to see them!

November, 2006 - Part 2: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is finally here (or at least finally on our webpage). For Thanksgiving this year, we went to Kansas and spent time with Justin's family. Ella really enjoyed playing with her cousins and Grandma and Ho-Ho.

We tried to take more pictures this year so that we'd have more to share! Click here to see pictures from Kansas.

November, 2006 - Part 1: Our trip to Kansas

The first part of the week of Thanksgiving, we were there with Larry and Shirley and Ella hanging out. The second part, the rest of the family were able to come into town and we celebrated Thanksgiving. Here is the first part of our trip to Kansas. The second part should follow shortly.

Click here to see the pictures!

November, 2006 - Packing for Thanksgiving

Ella was the perfect little helper (in her eyes) for our trip to Kansas this year. Since we're leaving for our trip to visit his parents over Thanksgiving, I wanted to get as much packed in advance as possible. While I was packing for Ella, she did her best to help me out. Click here to see pictures of this and more.

November, 2006 - Walking!!

On November 12, Ella was brave enough to let go of our hands and walk back and forth between us. She's still not brave enough to walk without us near her, but it won't be long... Click here to watch Ella take a few of her first steps!

November, 2006 - San Antonio

Mom, Ella, and I took an extended weekend trip to San Antonio the first weekend in November. It was a long drive up there (not including our quick stop at San Marcos outlet malls), but was well worth it! This was the first time Ella was able to meet my mom's sister and family. We had a fun time of sight-seeing and spending time with Aunt Jan, Uncle Eddie and my cousin, Kerry. Hopefully we'll be able to visit again sometime next summer with Justin! Click here to see pictures of our adventures!

October, 2006 - Out on the Ranch

Our Sunday School class teachers are moving to Costa Rica to do mission work. We had a going away party for them at a friend of our's parent's ranch. They cooked some good food and we had some good fellowship with them before they left. Ella got to see real horses for the first time.

Toward the end of the month, we went out to "Boo at the Zoo" at our zoo. I saw three or four students from school dressed in costumes and we were able to take some pictures of Ella with pumpkins and haystacks. Click here to see the pictures!

October, 2006 - Our Pumpkin Party!

This year, we hosted the annual pumpkin carving party for the third year in a row for our Sunday School class. We had yet another good time! Justin got the XBOX set up out on the deck with the projector again for the guys. Inside, we worked tediously on copying patterns onto the pumpkins to carve, and we played with a bunch of kiddos dressed in cute costumes! It was really enjoyable - especially having a little one this year dressed as an indian girl. She makes a cute little indian! Click here to enjoy the pictures.

September, 2006 - Growing Up!

After Grandma and Ho Ho left, we went to Gran's house the next weekend and also to visit Meridith and the kids. It was fun!

Click here to see pictures of our visit and just some fun pictures of Ella playing. She got to swing for the first time at a park at the end of September at a birthday party. She really enjoyed it.

September, 2006 - Visitors and More!

Grandma and Ho Ho came to visit us and we had a blast! Ella got a new car and had so much fun playing with it. She is getting so big now. She LOVES walking around on the furniture and with us holding her hands. If she can get over her fear of letting go of us, she'll be walking soon. She's pretty clingy so we'll see!

Time passes so fast with this little one. She has grown so much over the past year. It won't be long until she turns one year old. Wow... Click here to see the most recent pictures of her.

August, 2006 - Our Littlest Helper!

Ella has become quite the little helper in the Hollis household. Click here for some pictures of her helping Mommy feed Daisy and clean the house.

August, 2006 - Amarillo, here we come!

We were finally able to take a trip to Amarillo this year. It was a much awaited trip since most of Justin's family has only had the chance to see pictures of Ella. Everyone loved meeting her and we were happy to show her off! We were so glad that we had a chance to go and really enjoyed our time there.

Click here to see some pictures of our trip.

July, 2006 - Busy as a Baby!

This summer has just FLOWN by! I'm not sure what exactly happened, but somehow, July is over and it is hard to recall much free time. But, it was a wonderful month! Within this month, Ella started crawling (technically "scooting", but she's getting the job done) and now she has two bottom teeth. We're thinking she may be working on a top tooth due to her current chewing requirements, but maybe she's just starving and looking for food - ha ha, just kidding.

Click here if you would like to see what we were up to during the month of July!

June 28, 2006 - Our "Vacation"

We have almost skipped Ella's 6th month pictures entirely, but I'll just have to go back and add them later. For now, I figure we can just skip on ahead to our trip we took last week. Our "vacation" was to Las Colinas where Justin had training every day and Ella and I had the days to go shopping, etc. It was a nice time to get away from home, but probably not as relaxing for Justin since he was still working and caught the cold that Ella and I both had the week prior to leaving. Oh well!

We did have some fun moments of which we would like to share with you. Click here to see pictures of our "water-iffic" time!

May 17, 2006 - Moments with Ella

I've been slowly working my way towards catching up on our website pictures. Ella is growing and changing so much day by day! It is so hard to believe that she is already so close to being half a year old. Where has the time flown?

Keep coming back to look for updates. I am hoping to post more pictures by next week to get caught up. Click here for the newest pictures!

May 7, 2006 - Ashley's Birthday Weekend!

The Hollis' came into town with Molly over the weekend and celebrated Ashley's birthday. It was a fun time for everyone. We went to Mercado's and spent time together on Saturday. Then Sunday, after church, we had cookie cake and opened presents!

Ella is just as cute as ever! Not much has changed for her from the last update. Still grabbing at everything and working on balance while sitting up! Oh, and she just LOVES her jumper! I'll add some pictures of her in that soon... Click here for pictures from my birthday.

April 2006 - Ella is Four Months Old

Actually, since I am writing this update in May, she is five months old, but I am a little behind. Since we are so far behind on updating the website, I just compiled a page highlighting most of the pictures from her time as a four-month-old. Hopefully soon I'll be able to put up pictures from her newly spent time as a five month old! Oh, and I did include a few pictures of Daisy, our ignored "firstborn".

As a four month old, she started doing a lot of new things, including grabbing things, definitely rolling over front to back and back to front, more vocal, definitely giggling from the gut (real cute) when tickled, and towards the end was doing a great job of holding herself up better when sitting. Unfortuntely, we learned she has allergies and her sleeping schedule also reverted to the earlier days (waking up more) in the middle of the night with a stuffy nose unable to breathe and ready to eat. But, we've been working on that to hopefully change this back to her 8 to 10 hours a night routine. Click here to see pictures!

March 11, 2006 - Ella is THREE Months Old!!!

I can't believe HOW fast time has been flying. She has been growing so fast lately. So far, she is doing all of the basic "tricks". We haven't seen her roll over without help from us, but at Brandee's house (her sitter), she has rolled over quite a few times. I'm sure one day she'll be rolling up a storm! She's definitely a BIG girl! I can't believe how she continues to grow.

We took some pictures of her for her 3 month pictures and have put a few of them up. I didn't have a lot of time to rotate them or anything so you'll have to bear with me. We also started eating rice cereal every evening. That has helped tremendously with her eating in the evenings.

She is now sleeping regularly from about 8:00 to about 4:00 or longer every night in her crib. She is just changing so much! Click here to see pictures of her.

March 11, 2006 - More odds & ends!

Here are some more pictures of our baby girl! Click here to see them!

February 24, 2006 - Sitter time!

This marks the last weekend Ella and I had together before I return to work. With that, I have spent TONS of time with her. I introduced Ella to a stuffed animal (her Moo-Cow) as you will see in some of these pictures. I hope she will attach to it in my absence. Though I'm sure I'll have a harder time than she will!

Ella will be going to a friend of ours to stay during the days. She has a daughter that I'm sure will entertain her daily. Click here to see the latest pictures of Ella.

February 20, 2006 - Odds & Ends

Not much has changed since the last update. She's still as cute as ever and really starting to smile up a storm! Here are a few pictures that we've taken lately. She just loves those naps (as do I)! Click here to see the latest pictures.

February 9, 2006 - Ella's First Photo Shoot @ Two Months

I finally got around to trying out our new camera on Ella in a more "professional" stance. No, I'm not an expert, but I think some of them turned out pretty cute. I guess it's hard for them not to be cute when we're talking about our little baby girl though!

I think it will be easier to catch some cute photos of her when she's a more eager participant. As of now, I was trying my best to catch her awake, well fed, with a changed diaper and a smile. We'll see what you think. Click here to find out!

February 7, 2006 - More of Ella

Things have been busy lately in the Hollis household. We're moving right along and growing and changing! Ella is now two months old. I still can't believe we have a new baby, much less a two month old. Where did time go? I never thought having a newborn would go so quickly. Well, these aren't the most exciting pictures, but if you're a fan of Ella like we are, I think you'll like them! Most of the pictures you're about to see are of the day-to-day things she does, sleep, sleep, smile, sleep, sleep, sleep... oh, and there are a few occassions where she's actually just hanging around. Click here to see the most recent pictures of her!

January 31, 2006 - Ella smiles!

The moment is here! The moment we have all been waiting for... Ella has officially "smiled"! There have been SO many times that we have said, "I wonder if she's really smiling or if it is just gas?"

Ella is always happy when she gets her diaper changed. That is usually the time that she is also most alert and the most responsive to me. Since last week, I've been wondering if she's been smiling at me while I change her diaper, but I've always figured it was just a coincidence. Yesterday, I was just SURE that she actually smiled. Then she smiled again and again - each coming a little more easily. Daddy came home and she didn't smile for him. I tried and tried to get her to, but she pulled the "singing frog" routine for us - smiled only for me and no one else.

Today, she smiled more for me and I was just sure she'd smile for him, too. Sure enough, she smiled for him and even had a small giggle to follow as he was tickling her feet! She has such a pretty smile! Click here to see the most recent pictures of her - pictures of her smiling are at the bottom of the page.

January 24, 2006 - What a big girl at 6 weeks!

I went to my follow up visit at the doctor's office & had the chance to weigh Ella! Actually, I had the chance to weigh me and then me holding Ella. She weighs 11 pounds already. Can you believe it? It was just 6 weeks ago that they announced she weighed 7 lbs 1 oz. My has time flown and our baby has grown!

Ella's still the most wonderful child in the world! Her hobbies at the current time include eating, dirtying her diaper, sleeping, eating some more, dirtying her diaper some more, looking around before passing out, eating some more, dirtying her diaper some more... you get the picture. She is loving the all-inclusive, meals paid, free room service stay at her new place of residence outside the womb. We're looking forward to receiving that first smile as a "tip" for all of our efforts towards making her stay enjoyable. Click here if you would like to see more pictures of her (as I'm sure you might)!

January 17, 2006 - Random pictures of Ella

It has finally happened! We have had time to update our website! Ella is doing wonderfully. It took her a while to get back into the swing of things once we got back from Christmas. For the week after we were back, she did not want to be put down and let us hear about it!

Click here to see pictures of Ella from the last few weeks after being home from Christmas. She went to church (Sunday School Class) for the first time when she turned 3 weeks old. And she just took a trip to Fort Worth after church this Sunday to visit Jude, Kyle & Lisa. She's staying busy and keeping Mom and Dad busy at home as well!

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