Ellie: 6 Months

I cannot believe little Ellie is already half a year old! When she was first born it felt as time was sooooo slow. Now it is just flying right on by. I have officially started getting teary eyed if I think too long about how fast the time is flying. She is so much fun and so cool and sweet! Every passing month brings more and more fun as Ellie grows and shows us more and more of her playful and goofy personality.

I will share her height and weight on the 5th- she is far too active and mobile for me to pin her down for measurements anymore so, I will leave that with the nurse when she goes to get shots on the 5th.

This past month, Ellie got into some new things. She is officially a crawler!!! She is able to slowly crawl to wherever she wants to go! She gets up on her hands, and knees and pushes forward now "correctly" with her toes and knees. I am so happy for her and proud of her. It makes her so happy to crawl where she wants to go! When she gets tired, she holds her little hands and pauses to suck her fingers and then does a scoot and high plank type of crawl. That one looks hilarious!

She walks around the living room while holding my fingers, taking beautiful big strides. Sometimes when doing this she stops taking steps and starts jumping with both of her feet/legs and laughs so hard at herself! She has learned that the playful "pterodactyl sound" we make at each other is a fun little game, and she occasionally will chase me while sitting in the rolling chair of her play table, and make the sound at me with her hands out reaching for me. She thinks it is funny when I scream and try to run away. I see many games of tag in our future!!

She can pull-up and stand herself up with ease. She gets really wide eyes and very excited with herself when she is standing up tall!

Ellie waved at me one morning. It took me a minute to realize what she was doing and then I realized she was waving and smiling at me and she was working out in her mind how to do it like me! I was ecstatic. Later, she waved at Blondie...who thought Ellie was waving a snack at her. "Lick!" Haha!

She had her second snow here at the rental house!

She loves to have raspberries blown on her tummy, being tickled, playing airplane with daddy after their Butterfly Kisses slow dance, playing "Naked Baby" when getting ready for bath. Ellie loves to be kissed, to crawl, pretty shiny jewelry, picking out her clothes, petting Blondie and Cajun, outside, jumping, music, playing and being silly, sweet potatoes, toys, and books and story time with friends at the library. Ellie loves the "preaching" at church and likes to shout out her own little coo of "Hallelujah" and "Amen!" (This is why we are in the LC service, now, haha!)

Ellie and I joined a mommy and me type of hiking group. I love hiking, adventure, and being outdoors, as does Ellie. I strap her to me in the baby carrier and off we go. This month we hiked Paris mountain, Raven Cliff Falls, Jones Gap Falls, Jump Off Rock in NC, and Big Glassy Mountain, Flat Rock, NC where we also met some goats and chickens. Hiking with Ellie has been the most amazing thing. We have made wonderful friends with the most precious mamas and babies. Our drives out to our hikes are amazing times for praising and worshiping Jesus in the car with music, praying, and thanking God for the gorgeous views we see as we drive and explore. When we are in the mountains I feel the joy and warmth of the Holy Spirit even on the cold days and I talk to Ellie when we stop for lunch about how God created all that she is seeing! It is truly amazing getting to do this with her. It is an amazing bonding time with her.

Ellie had play dates with lots of her boy friends....not boyfriends...lol. Sam, Grant, Myles, Eli, and Asher! She loves watching them play and she loves to discover them. I notice she progresses more in her growth and skills during and after playing with her somewhat older friends. It is like she wants to try and keep up with them. It is so good for her to play with friends and we are so thankful for the invitations extended to us to spend tine with great friends. Ellie also got to hike Oconee Station Falls with Eli and Asher! So beautiful! I suppose you could say Ellie had a play date with her newest/ bestest girl friend growing in Lauren's tummy, who's name I'll not yet disclose as my friend Lauren has not made that public at this time. Those two will be two peas in a pod. Just like their mommies are!

Ellie got her ears pierced! It is so stinkin' cute and she did AWESOME!

(Ellie gives judgy looks, you have to earn her sweet smile, lol. In this case, she was like, " Lady- what do you think you are doing with my ears?!")

She got to go to the Upcountry History Museum for a free night of exploring the Jan Brett and Katherine Hepburn exhibits. Ellie showed interest in Katherine's fine jewelry and lipstick, and all the beautiful color of the illustrations of Jan. She was able to play in a large gingerbread house and go fishing with magnetic colorful fish. She got to have a story read to her at the museum and then Ellie got to pick out any book she wanted for free! What a fun and awesome night!

Ellie tried green beans, sweet peas, zucchini, avocadoes, and spinach. She hated them all except thavocados, and avocadoes and even those she simply tolerates. She has learned the color of green is not a good color to be near her mouth but orange is always welcome. I never ate greens unless my parents made me until my 20's when I decided to live a healthy lifestyle. So I blame me for her displeasure in taste of such. I had masked the greens with sweet potatoes just so she would eat, however, I felt upon research my sister and another friend gave me that I needed to stop masking the tastes. It takes 20 tastes to determine if the baby truly dislikes a particular taste. Masking food also can create a picky eater....so....I have stopped masking the greens and we will endure what I call the "Green War."  It is a learning curve sometimes, knowing what is best for your baby and how to approach things, but I sure am thankful for my sister who has raised/ is raising 4 truly beautiful, very healthy, and wildly intelligent children, to help me out with my one precious little Flicker. Ellie is very blessed!! Soon, we will just be giving her table food. What I cook for Eric and I, so she will eat, also. Obviously, very finely chopped down or mashed.

Ellie celebrated Blondie's 2nd Birthday and wore a party hat!

She also got to go with me to the Upstate American Heart Association where Ellie and I were interviewed by FOX news about the Little Hats, Big Hearts Program. (This is a program that many volunteers with the talents of knitting or crocheting create little hats in red for all babies born in February to be distributed to all babies born in the month of February as to raise awareness to the number one birth defect affecting 1 in 100 births, Congenital Heart Defects.) Ellie was recorded with me during the interview. She sat in my arms while I spoke. I am pretty sure she pulled her hairbow over her eyes and I had to fix it while filming, and she probably drooled a lot...but it will add some character to the shots they got hahaha! Ellie and I will be aired along with the other volunteers who made the little hats and helped pack them up for these sweet babies, on February 2.  Feb.2 is National Wear Red Day, again, as to raise awareness for CHD's and heart disease and stroke. Ellie got to help me pack bags with hats, too! Her first news interview and volunteering experience all at once!! I am so proud of her and so thankful I can share her love with the community and with other little babies to be born in February! Our goal is to raise Ellie with a heart for Jesus, people, and service to others. Love God, Love His people.

We bought our land upon which God is allowing us to build our dream and forever home! Ellie and I talked about how we will decorate her big girl room, her play room, and all her land to play on, and her lake to kayak on and fish in! The building process is now in motion! We are thankful for this adventure for Ellie and to imagine all the times we will have with her in this home we are building. She will truly get to grow up in this home! Such a huge blessing!

Ellie can sit up, pull up, crawl, roll around like a little ball, take steps while holding my fingers, show me she wants more milk (she knows how to communicate non-verbally to me quite well, which I am impressed with!)

Other photos of Ellie in her past month:

Guilt Free Healthy and Nutrient Filled Homemade Pizzas

Eric and I have a couple we are very close with who are even better and wiser to healthy eating than us. This friend is where I get a lot of my inspiration for this awesome lifestyle. She has given me much education and many wonderful ways to treat my body well with food. We had them over recently for dinner and play time for our babies. It came up in conversation that once a week her and her husband make their own little pizzas. Eric and I raised our eyebrows with surprising delight and the wheels started turning. I am always looking for exciting new recipes to keep it interesting. So I promised Eric I would do this. I have done it before when I still lived with my parents so I already had an inkling of how to healthfully make us our pizzas.

One little problem. I am TERRIBLE at making anything with a dough. I once attempted rolls. They were like flour covered hard dough balls. I made a chicken pot pie crust ( a healthy one) having successfully achieved one 3 times, but the most recent one was quite crumbly and not nearly enough of it to cover the vegetables; though it still tasted delicious at least. So, it is always a toss up when it comes to me making crusts and things requiring flour.

Anyway, I hate when I go to read a recipe and the blogger rambles on. So to the point:


**The ingredient list for the crust is for ONE pizza crust. I made each one individually. You can double to make a larger pizza- or just have double the ingredients and do as I did and make each crust separate.** The Sauce and Toppings ingredient list was sufficient for TWO pizza crusts.**

INGREDIENTS:

AlMOND FLOUR CRUST
* 1 1/4 cup of almond flour
* 1/4 cup of ground flax seed (I literally just took flax seed and put it in my food processor until it was like flour)
* 2 cold organic large eggs; beaten
* sprinkle of pink Himalayan salt
* sprinkle of fresh ground pepper
* 1/4 tsp. of fresh rosemary
* 1/4 tsp. of fresh basil
* 1/4 tsp. of aluminum free baking soda
* 1 Tbsp. of organic extra-virgin olive oil

HOMEMADE PIZZA SAUCE:
* One large Roma tomato
* Fresh crushed or minced garlic
* Fresh Ground pepper
* Fresh Basil
* Fresh Oregano

TOPPINGS:
-Here I believe you can add whatever you like within a healthy means, of course. Tonight, I added the following:

* One small yellow onion; sauteed in olive oil, first
*One Fresh sliced Roma tomato
* Chopped spinach
* Cheese (this is my guilty pleasure)

I would have added some green peppers and olives but sweet Ellie had had enough of errands when I did my run to the market so - I chose my battles.

If you want/need meat--add some grilled/ baked chicken with Italian herbs, or some lean ground turkey seasoned with Italian herbs.

THE COOKING PROCESS:

I started first by making the crust.

- Add all crust ingredients in together in a medium mixing bowl- mix- and form a big dough ball. Reminder this is for ONE pizza.

- Set on a baking tray coated lightly with olive oil and form your pizza crust shape.

- Now to prepare the sauce: Chop and mince your large roma tomato as fine as you can get it. I have a vidalia onion chopper with a super fine mincing grate that helped with this. Put into a small bowl. Add all the other ingredients to your desire...I don't measure out my spices. I would normally prepare this in a mortar and pestle, but surprise, surprise- it is packed. Therefore, I put it all in a glass bowl and used a potato masher to grind and mesh it all together. It works.

- Next, take the prepared sauce and evenly distribute this across the pizza dough crust.

-Add toppings. This part is all you. Add what you like but please remember this is about eating healthfully.

Then once the pizzas are prepped, put them into the oven which has been preheated to 425. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Enjoy!