Sunday, April 08, 2012

Easter Weekend

Saturday morning we got up bright and early to attend Breakfast with the Works at Keeneland. On Saturdays during the Spring meet, you can go to the race track and watch the morning workouts while enjoying a nice hot breakfast. They also have all kinds of activities for kiddos - face painting, temporary tattoos, bingo, jockey costumes, etc. Ellie is still a little too young to participate, but we can't wait to go back next year!

Truce Wither was the name of this work horse that stopped to have his picture taken with us, and let us pet his nose. He was a racehorse 4 months ago, but had to retire because of weak knees. Now he escorts the thoroughbreds on and off the track.


Ellie was a little unsure of Buckles, the Keeneland mascot, but definitely interested in his giant head. (Buckles is named after Keeneland's Bugle Blower, Bucky.)
Going to Keeneland during the races is great, but you don't get much of an opportunity to actually see the individual horses very much as they are running, this provided multiple views of the horses trotting, sprinting, and whatever else it is thoroughbreds do (walk?) around the race track.

Later in the afternoon, we headed out to the Kite Fest at Jacobson Park.

This multi-pieced kite was by far our favorite.


Then, early, early this morning - The Easter Bunny visited our house!! He was so generous for Ellie's first Easter.


Ellie loved her little chubby bunny!

She was also pretty excited about her pinwheel once her daddy showed her how it worked.

After church we headed over to Ashland to take some pictures of Ellie in her Easter dress.

In the sun, there's not much denying her hair color!

Happy Easter!

Sunday, April 01, 2012

Wildcat Weekend

We had so much fun this weekend!! The Cats beat the Cards in what was a nail-biter of a game - luckily we had great friends with which to watch it.

Matt and Jen drove in from South Carolina and Rachael and Sylvain came down from northern Kentucky. It was so great to watch the game with people who understood all the hype! Ellie went to bed during halftime, but she showed her support all day long, starting with Big Blue Breakfast in the morning.


Once we had won the game it was time for the celebratory blue velvet cake!


When dinnertime rolled around tonight I told Pete the kitchen was closed - so he suggested Rincon. Ellie was pretty happy about his choice! (these are phone pics so forgive the quality)

The new Graeter's next door opened on Friday and everyone knows Pete can't resist ice cream. Apparently, neither can his progeny :)

So we will hit the sack tonight having had a fun-filled few days! If you want more great pics of this weekend - check out Jen's blog or Rachael's.

Saturday, March 31, 2012

11 months.

I pretty much don't want to talk about it. I'm caught between being sad that my baby is going to be one year old, no longer a baby baby, and being proud of her and all the things she is learning. Either way, I'm pretty close to tears at any moment.



Last month Ellie grew two more teeth - her bottom right lateral incisor and her top left lateral incisor - bringing her total number of teeth to seven!

As you can tell from the pictures, her hair is getting thicker by the day - red? brown? blonde? We still can't tell, maybe the summer sun will bring out its true color. (doubtful though because of my stringent hat policy)


March was such a warm month for us - Ellie got to watch her daddy mow the lawn for the first time this year - she wasn't sure what she thought about it at first,

but then decided it couldn't get her through the storm door. (Yes, those are barnyard jammies - so. stinking. cute.)

Ellie's babbling has turned to jargon - she wakes up from her naps and starts chatting it up with her crib pals, Zebra and Coon, and is SO happy to see us when we open the door.


She still loves reading books - but is definitely partial to the ones that have pop-ups, flaps that lift, or touchy feely pages.

Our favorite thing from month eleven is best shown in video - hope you enjoy!



Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Big Blue Excitement

Matt and Jen are driving in from SOUTH CAROLINA to watch the game with us on Saturday!!!

We can hardly stand it!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

First Day of Spring

Happy First Day of Spring!! It was in the mid-80s here so I dressed Ellie as though it was the first day of Summer.

Once she reached the top of the stairs, she pushed open the gate, crawled over to her bookcase, and selected a book! *sniff* She's such a big girl!!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Go Big Brown!! (?)

Unless you live under a rock, you probably know of Lehigh beating Duke in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. Ellie wanted to make sure you knew who she was rooting for in tonight's game so she put on her granddad's old gym shorts right before bed.

LET'S GO ENGINEERS!! er, um..... MOUNTAIN HAWKS!!

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Cutiepie O'Crawford

Ellie started the morning all ready to celebrate St. Patrick's Day -


- but then the mercury climbed close to 80 degrees so we had a wardrobe change!

We spent the evening in the backyard blowing bubbles.



And, naturally, sampling some shamrocks :)


Thursday, March 08, 2012

Monday, March 05, 2012

First Snowfall

We woke up this morning to five inches of snow - in Lexington!! We quickly ate breakfast and bundled up the wee one to head outside for some fun.

Ellie wasn't super-pumped about all her layers,

but we had fun once we got outside!




Until, tragically, the fun ended.

Fear not, she was right as rain once we got her inside and warm and dry. She was up to her typical shenanigans again in no time.

Sunday, March 04, 2012

Daddy's Girl

Most people have already noted how much Ellie favors Pete in the looks department. In case you had any doubt, here's photographic proof: