Long time no see!!

Hello everyone!! Wow it has been WAY too long since we've posted and for that we apologize! We have been busy busy busy and need to update you all on what's been happening!!  First of all, our little Ellie bear is 6 months old!!! (Update: I started writing this SO long ago that she is now 7 months old! I am SO bad at keeping up with this blog and promise to do better!)  We cannot believe what once was our tiny little newborn is now almost 17 pounds, sitting up on her own, and making the world a happier place one smile at a time.  She is the absolute love of our lives and we are thankful to God every single day for such a wonderful little blessing.  As I mentioned a second ago, Ellie is now sitting up unsupported (with a few wipeouts when reaching too far for a toy or a pug) and can roll from her back to her tummy and back again although she still isn't a huge fan of tummy time.  She loves playing in her exersaucer and her new jumperoo and discovering all of the fun toys that surround her. She can cross a room in a mere manner of seconds simply by rolling over and over and over, especially if a certain toy or something interesting is in her sight, such as a pug. She SO desperately wants to crawl and has been following Mommas example and doing her planks to build up her upper body strength. She tries very hard to tuck her legs under her and wiggle forward and backward a little but no real attempts at crawling have been made. She is a tough girl though! Many times she has fallen over when reaching too far and I expect to hear wailing but she doesn't make a peep! I would think with how stubborn and strong-willed she is that she will be crawling around 8 months old.
Ellie is now eating solids and sometimes to her dismay she has eaten a wide variety of fruits and veggies. Yams, apples, and squash seem to be her favorites while she makes yucky faces at peas and sometimes bananas. I even took a stab at making her own baby food which turned out very well and proved to be a money saving adventure which was fun to do. It might be a while until I make more because it takes some planning but I now have another shelf in my freezer occupied by cubes of frozen baby food:green beans, yams, and butternut squash.
Ellie is starting to vocalize more and more and is definitely discovering the many ranges of her voice, including bouts of screaming at the top of her lungs which sometimes hurts Mommy's ears however I continue to encourage her to work on her singing voice. :) She is developing many different facial expressions and imitates a lot of the things we do which is hilarious. She loves to play "where's Ellie?" when we put something over her face and she pulls it down so we can see her and we act very surprised. We usually get some giggles out of that which makes us laugh in return. She also has some ticklish spots under her armpits and at the top of her hip which will encourage more giggles. Her favorite toys are her rolling hippo, rolling light up snail, laugh and learn puppy, her playhouse and her jumperoo. She loves watching Koby and Baloo play and loves to have dance parties with mommy and daddy.
We can't believe in a few short months that our little baby will be one year old and walking around before we know it! (And you better believe I'm already jotting down ideas for her first birthday party!) we love our little bear so much and are grateful for her every single day.