Ellie's had a {half} birthday, shout hooray!

Can you believe Ellie is half of a year old?! I really can't! How is my baby growing up so fast?? This past month has brought some bigger milestones and I just can't believe how much  Ellie has grown and developed since she was born. Life truly is miraculous and seeing Ellie learn and grow reminds me every day that we do have a loving Father in Heaven with a much greater plan for us than we can even imagine!

At 6 months, Ellie:

• Weighs 14 lbs and is 26 in. long
• Loves to blow raspberries! She likes to stick her tongue out when she does it and it's hilarious! 
• Is talking a lot more. She's moved from cooing to really babbling and she can make all kinds of letter noises. Her favorite is na na but she also likes ba ba and da da and today she kept saying ma ma so I just let myself pretend she was calling for me and I loved it ;)
• Loves to use her new noises when she's upset. Instead of crying she'll just get a mad face on and start yelling "na na na na!" Of course it's sad to see her upset but it's also really adorable sometimes haha because it's like she's trying so hard to tell us why she's so upset with us and we're not taking her seriously!
• Has started eating baby food! I can't remember if she technically started last month but if so it was only a couple times. Now she eats baby food every morning and evening and we're going to add in lunch time in the next couple days. And she loves it! She's gotten really good at eating off a spoon and hardly makes a mess anymore (yay!). If you're too slow for her she'll lean toward you with her mouth wide open :)
• We've also started sleep training with Ellie this past week (I told you this was a big milestone month!). Ellie has been a champ! She cried for about 15 minutes the first night (we did the going in method and I only had to go in twice) but they were the longest, hardest 15 minutes of my life. She fell asleep and slept great, though! The next couple nights were the same and then she started going down without crying! She's also become a much better napper since we started sleep training. All of our lives have become about a million times better! It's really been magical. 
• Loves to grab anything and everything within her reach. The Christmas tree and my phone are two of her favorites. Last night it was my waffle hahaha. 
• When she grabs something it goes straight to her mouth! 
• Can sit in the high chair now and loves it. She even sat in one of those wooden high chairs at In-n-Out and did great--until she started sucking on it haha, gross! As I said, literally everything goes straight to her mouth :)
• Still loves to grab faces and especially necks. She likes to hang on when you're holding her :)
• Loves to pat things. She'll pat her hands together, pat her legs and her toys, and she pats me all the time :)
• Learned how to throw tantrums, but luckily grew out of it pretty quickly. For about a week she would scream, not cry but scream, whenever I put her in the carseat/swaddled her/etc. I was fine with that habit not lasting for long!
• Likes to smack her lips!
• Loves her tongue. I mentioned before she likes to blow raspberries with it. She also likes to just stick it out and play with it or stick it in her bottom lip. She can twist it around and it's pretty impressive haha.
• Is getting better at sitting on her own. She's also a lot better at rolling but still no crawling which I'm totally okay with!
• She's just the sweetest thing ever! She had her 6 month check up today and she just jabbered to her doctor the whole time he was doing her check up and only cried for a second right when she got her shots. She was good as soon as they handed her back to me. We really don't know how we got so lucky (blessed!) to have such a seriously sweet & happy baby girl but we are SO grateful for her. I can't imagine a world without Ellie Grace! ♡♡♡

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I couldn't not throw this one in haha 

And just in case I don't get around to blogging about it-- Ellie had the best first Christmas ever!! She was definitely spoiled haha. The first present she got her hands on was a candy cane from her stocking. I let her suck on it because it was still in its wrapping but the next thing we knew she had blue all around her mouth so I'm pretty sure she got her first sweet little treat--oops! :) She had fun grabbing at the wrapping paper on a few of her presents but mostly just liked to play with them after Mom and Dad unwrapped them. She got clothes, books, toys, a play mat with a piano, and a high chair! She loved watching her cousins open all of their presents, too! One of the books Ellie got was "My First Book of Mormon Stories" and we can't wait to read it every night together as a family so we can learn more about Christ and keep the spirit of CHRISTmas in our home all year long! Can't wait for many more Christmases to come with this sweet girl ♡