My little big girl turns 1!

Can you believe that sweet little Ella has hit the big one year?!?! It seems like just yesterday we were meeting her for the first time. Now she's crawling, laughing, creeping, clapping, and saying words. It truly is some sort of miracle how babies grow in the rate that they do. Their little brains and bodies are working non stop.

The preschool's parade float

We've been pretty busy around here. Getting ready for Christmas and Ella's birthday. Thanksgiving weekend we got our tree and decorated it along with the rest of the house. The girls enjoyed going through all their ornaments and hanging them on the trees. The bottom of our tree is bare though so that Ella's little hands don't become too tempted to rip things off. Addi and Alyse had their Christmas pageant at the preschool. Alyse was a shepard and Addi was Mary. Then, we also had the Christmas parade with the preschool and the girls were beyond thrilled to get to ride on the float and throw out candy. I love that the two older girls are really starting to truly understand Christmas and all that the season brings.

Quick lunch for Ella before everyone else arrived!

I made a month by month banner. Picture isn't great, but I thought the concept was adorable :)

Loving the icing

Such a tidy little eater for having such a messy cake!

She's a good sharer!

She did pretty well opening her gifts too!

We had Ella's birthday party this past weekend. I prepared a lasagna lunch and had all the family over. It's was pretty low key, but nice to have everyone there to celebrate out little girl. I also made her smash cake along with a larger cake and some cupcakes for the guests. She was pretty excited to finally get her very first taste of cake. She wasn't in love with the cake but her eyes began to sparkle at the icing. She was pretty tame and didn't make a big mess at all. She did try sharing some of her icing with mommy, nanny, and her sisters. Very cute.

She had her 12 month checkup as well. She's growing and healthy, and is running on the small side like Addi. She got three shots (including the second half of her flu shot) and just cried just long enough to slap some bandaids on and her shirt. No worries. The rest of the day she's been up and playing as if she never even got pricked. We did got back to the lab the next day to have her CBC workup and the tests did come back with her being anemic. It should be an easy fix though, we've started her on an iron supplement and will do a follow up appointment with the doctor and the lab in January. Addisyn had the same issues at this age so I'm not worried.

There is one more small concern, and the first is going to most likely shock you. She's short. How she's short, I don't know, but she's in the 10% for her height. Addi and Alyse were always in the 80's-90's percentage-wise for their heights and Doug and I are both tall, along with tall extended familys. Of course, each child is their own person so I'm sure little miss is just perfect. Hoping she gains a bit more length between now and her 15 month checkup though! Everything else is a keep doing what we're doing kinda thing.

Here are her stats:
17lbs 6.5oz (20%)
28 inches tall (10%)
18" head circumference (75%)

And, to compare with her big sisters':
Addi: 16lbs 11oz, 29.25 inches tall
Alyse: 20lbs 10oz, 30.5 inches tall

11 months and she's mobile

Almost time for school!

It's time... little baby Ella is on the move. It's a third crawl, third scoot, and third I-don't-know-what. But! She's going. She can efficiently move from one spot in the room to the other and is just now discovering that she can chase after me when I mysteriously slip out of the living room and into the kitchen. She's so proud of herself too. It's quite funny when she really gets moving and she will start with the squealing too because she's just so excited.

Ella with her ribeye and fresh green beans. I couldn't cut the steak fast enough!

Not only is she on the move, she's also really starting to get this whole baby talk down. When she wakes up in the morning I find her sitting up in her crib yelling "mommmma, mommmmma, mommmmma" over and over again. She will sometimes say dada, bye-bye, hi, and all done. Of course they don't come out sounding just like that, but we know it's what she's saying. We can see those wheel in her head spinning all the time. She's also eating like a big girl. Essentially, no more purees. It got to be where it was more of a mess to offer baby purees to her than what was getting in her mouth. So I was able to convince her enough to eat the left over foods I had made in the freezer and that was it. Now, she's on table foods. Basically, anything we are eating she's eating. Her absolute favorite is green beans. She will also gobble up corn, peas, bananas, grapes, and strawberries. I also give her meats like chicken, steak, and cold cuts from the deli. She's just like her sisters were when they were babies and loves her food!


One of the things I love most of this little baby is her personality. She can go from snuggle muffin, to jokester, to cranky pants in just one day. She still loves her momma and would rather be attached to my hip than on her own (or with anyone else) and I'm ok with that. Others may be annoyed by it, but not me. She's only a babe once and I'm going to take all that I can get.

Fresh catches!

We also spent a weekend in Hudson this past month. The girls had fun, and then boys were finally able to catch some fish. Even Addi and Alyse caught fish. At first the were both so excited to go fish, but once Alyse got her line out that first time she quit and said she was done. Once she saw Addi bring a fish in though she was ready to go again. Little miss competitive. Then, it was off, and it almost seemed as if they were taking turns catching them even though they each had their own poles.


Halloween was fun. We walked Grandma's neighborhood and both of the girls filled their pumpkins with candy. We even found a house that was handing out toothbrushes (one of the local dentists, lol) and another house that had jell-o shots for the grownups. All in all, a good night for everyone.

Our Sofia, Rapunzel, and Snow White! Sweet, sweet princesses!

Just call us the Crouppenthalers

Poor Lysie-poo napping off being sick!

Well, this family has whatever nasty bug that's going around everywhere. Alyse started first, last weekend. After scaring me half to death Friday night, I took her to the pediatrician first thing Saturday morning, and right away the doctor diagnosed her with croup. She needed a round of steroids, a few days of rest, and then deal with the lingering cough. Luckily, that first night was the worst and the following nights she was able to sleep straight through the night. Sunday night, Addi spiked a fever, but  we were lucky again because it never returned. Then, this past Friday, little Ella began to run a fever. The thing stayed all weekend, and still today, Wednesday, she's feeling crummy, coughing, and still running a temperature. Her little nose is running and she has a nasty cough, which is also croup (took her to the doctor on Monday because she started vomiting along with the fever/cough). All around, it's just been a yucky week and a half. And all three of my girls are just coughing away like there's no tomorrow. I'm hoping that over the weekend we can all find our way back to the healthy way of life :)

Ella's escaped toe ;)

Ella hit the 10 month mark. I didn't even realize it until today. Two months away from a year old. Wow. Aside from her being sick, she is such a happy little thing. Her smiles and her squeals are precious, and I love her "baby talk." She's a little goofball and loves making other people laugh at her. If we ask her "how big is Ella?" She will put her arms up, and sometimes she'll even say "so big!" Not that it comes out in those exact words, but when she's copying us and says it only when she's asked, we definitely know that's what she's saying.

Doug finally made his trip into the attic to get the 6-9 month clothes for Ella. Poor thing went to bed one night with her piggies all covered up, and then when she woke up in the morning her big ol'toe had popped its way though, haha! This was finally a convincing enough picture for Doug to muster up the strength to go up there.

Last Thursday, we went on the preschool field trip to Green Meadows Farm. The girls loved all the animals, Doug came too since he had fun at it last year (I had the flu and couldn't go), and I was my normal paranoid self with all the nasty animal germs and sanitizing those girls just about every 2 minutes. They loved the hay ride and train ride, milking the cow, catching the ducks and chickens, and looking at all the other animals. Finally, I can't forget about picking out our own pumpkins!

Addi and Alyse are loving school. I love how much they love school. As much as they love it though, it certainly wipes them out. Addi generally comes home and will nap until 4:30/5 o'clock. The days she naps the longest are the days she complains about having to take a nap
. That's how I know she's really tired, haha! They both have their well checkups tomorrow at the doctor. Addisyn is particularly nervous that she will have to get a shot. I'm not sure if its time for a booster for her or not so we'll have to see. Luckily for them, I believe they can both get the flu mist instead of the shot. I was planning on having Ella get hers tomorrow too, since the office did not have them yet at her 9 month checkup, but with her being sick now, she's going to have to wait a bit.

The closest I could get to getting all 3!

The Month of Birthdays!

September is here (and almost gone) and that means birthdays for the two oldest Dupp girls! I can hardly believe that Addi is 5 years old and Alyse is 3. Insane. 5 for Addi means that she finally hit the milestone to chew gum. Years ago, I told her she had to be 5 to have gum, and like the little elephant she is, she didn't forget. The day of her birthday, all I heard about was wanting to try gum because she was finally five. So, that night Doug brought home a pack of gum, and she got her first piece. She smacked that gum like no tomorrow and the smirk on her face was priceless.

haha, orbit commercial pose ;)

For their birthdays, we took them to the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party. We've gone the past three years and have always had an awesome experience. There are hardly any wait times. In fact, most things are walk on. There's an awesome parade and firework display, AND it's in the evening so the weather is [generally] comfortable. Plus, trick or treating and getting tons of "good candy"; aka, chocolate!

The last time we went to Disney, the girls knew over a month in advance that we were planning a trip. That was a month of torture listening to the whines of wanting to go to Disney THEN instead of the time we had planned. So, this time around, we kept it a secret until the night before. That night before, we gave them their early birthday gifts of costumes. Rapunzel for Addi and Princess Sofia for Alyse. They were so excited. Then, I showed them the Disney tickets. They were ecstatic. The smiles and their shrieks made every single cent we spent on those tickets and costumes worth it. They could barely contain their excitement, and of course, they were ready to go!! Unfortunately for them, they had to wait until the next evening and suffer through a day of school knowing what was waiting for them. They survived though!

Another part of their gift was that mom and dad got us a family suite for us all to stay out at the Art of Animation hotel. That part, they did not know ahead of time. So the next afternoon after I loaded up the car, we went to go pick up mom. The girls were so ready to change into the costumes but we were still going to have a couple hours before the party started. We told them we were going to go ask Mickey for a place for them to use to change. Once we got all the way to the room and inside, mom told them that we were going to be sleeping there for the whole weekend. They weren't quite sure what to think in the beginning, but evenutally got excited.

Next, we went out to the park for the Halloween party. The girls got to do all their rides. It was Ella's first trip out to Disney as well, she loved all the people watching. She also LOVED Dumbo. She started crying when we had to get out and wouldn't let go of the seat belt, lol. Alyse zonked out (Ella too!) around 10/10:30. She did wake up just before midnight though and was able to ride the Magic Carpets before the park closed.

Ella as Snow White

Alyse and Addi :)

Saturday, we spent the whole day at the pools at the hotel. The Rohrs and Golds came out to swim, and then the Rohrs stayed for pizza and cupcakes. We even had a tattoo parlor set up in the room and EVERYONE (except lil miss) received a Minnie Mouse tattoo. I was surprised at how good a sport everyone was, the men included!

And, now for some of my favorites from the weekend, and I can't get the stupid blogger to format how I want so sorry it's going to be a bunch of scrolling.

Teacups! Alyse was cracking up on this!

Ella LOVED Dumbo!

Addi's first time of Thunder Mountain. She said she didn't like it, but she was screaming and laughing the whole time!

You know Alyse had a good weekend, she's smiling for a picture!!

At our hotel!

The Nemo pool at the hotel

Happy Birthday, Addi and Alyse!

This is the section of the hotel we stayed in, Lion King.

Cars!

It was a pretty awesome weekend, and I know the girls both had an excellent celebration. This upcoming weekend we're having a small cake and ice cream party at the house so that they can celebrate with everyone else since we were away on their actual birthdays! These are some pretty lucky girls :)

We've got a 9 month old!!

Ella's first night in her crib!

Not-so-little-anymore-Ella is 9 months old. Hard to believe she's been in our lives for 9 whole months! Even harder to believe, she will be a year old in less than three months!

So, here's her little update. She has moved into her own room and into her own crib. It was virtually a seamless transition, aside from the second week into it, when she got a bit of a cold. As soon as she was feeling better though, it was back to sleeping through most nights. She is wanting to crawl so badly, but hasn't figured it out just yet. She will go from a sitting position to almost down to her tummy. Mostly, she scoots. She scoots around on her bottom all over the place! Some of the places she scoots into are quite funny. She also gets close to being on all fours and then will rock back in forth like she's wanting to crawl. I'm sure it won't be too long and we will have a babe on the move!

Ella's first time eating scrambled eggs!

She's still loving her foods. Sometimes she gets some finger foods like puffs, rice rusks, and bananas. She loves bananas and will start squealing and waving her arms whenever she sees one of those things! She's even had some eggs!

She's also been in school the past few weeks while I've been working at the preschool. I was very worried over how she would do, but after a couple rough days, I am happy to report she LoVeS it. She gets excited every morning walking into the classroom because she knows where we are going. She loves her teacher and will even reach for her and try to suck in her face. With this, she's even gotten better outside of school in terms of letting others hold and interact with her. It is a nice relief to get to hand her off for a few every once in awhile. Last week, she even stayed at home with Doug for the evening while I went with Lisa to take the older two to an ice skating show. Progress, and I'm loving it!

Sisterly Love <3

She is such a happy smiley baby, and I love it! I love the little smirks she will give out of the corner of her mouth and the sweet mischievous glare she will give with her eyes. She loves clapping and can even do pat-a-cake whenever someone sings it to her. Her giggles are contagious and she's super ticklish on her tummy and at the back of her neck. Biggest news! She says momma! In context! Love it! She will also say "more" when she wants more food and we are working on getting her to use the sign language sign for "more" also. I wouldn't be surprised if she starts using it any day now.

She had her doctor's appointment today! Tipping the scales at a whopping 16lbs and half and ounce, haha! I was sorta shocked at how small she was! I think I was most surprised at how "short" she is, especially because she seems so long to me. Here are her stats:

16lbs .5oz (25th%)

27" tall (30th%)

17.5" head circumference (75th%)

And for compasrison's sake her big sisters' stats at 9 months:

Addisyn- 14lbs 10oz and 27.5" tall

Alyse- 19lbs .5oz and 28.5" tall

Ella at her checkup and finishing up a leftover bottle from school :)

8 month little sweetie!

My crazy kiddos that are pretty much just plain awesome! ;)

Wow, we have been so busy and that just makes it seem like time is flying by even faster than it already seems. Today, Ella hit 8 months. Since her last monthly update she has started eating solid foods, is a completely unassisted sitter, and she can even push herself backwards while she is sitting on the floor. While she's on the bed she can go from sitting down to her tummy and then back up to sitting. While she's sitting upright she likes to try and grab things that are just barely out of her reach so I'm sure it will be no time before she starts going down to her tummy while on the hard floor, and then *gasp* she'll be on the road to crawling! Eeek! My baby isn't big enough to be a crawler. She is also my little appendage. Little babe rarely lets me put her down and when she does allow it I pretty much have to be in her sight at close range AND it can't be in the arms of anyone else. If she can't have mommy she most certainly doesn't want anyone else. I know to most people this would probably seem an inconvenience, but I like to look at it that this is the smallest fraction of her life where she's going to want/need me as much as she does. Before I know it she will be up and running around with the rest of the crew and I will just be chopped liver.

Two of my three sweet girls!

There is one up and coming problem though with the dilemma of my extra appendage. I'm started work at the pre-school and little miss is going to be in the baby room while I'm doing so. Her poor teacher is going to have her hands full and I'm just praying that Ella learns that it's ok to stay with others for a little bit and that she's not losing me for good. We've decided that tomorrow will be know as the EllApocalypse  day. Poor thing is going to have it rough, but she's going to have to find some way to cope.

From a different perspective, I'm excited to get out of the house some and into a classroom again. Not quite sure how Addi feels about "Ms. Momma" being her teacher for a few weeks though, haha!

Baby food! I decided to take on the new adventure of making Ella's baby food. So far, so good. Easy peasy, and it's nice to know exactly what is going into her food. After a week or two of oatmeal, we started on the green peas, which she surprisingly took like a champ. Then it was on to bananas, green beans, carrots, apples, plums, apricots, and peaches. At the grocery store yesterday, I bought some yellow squash, butternut squash, and some sweet potatoes. So far we haven't had any bad experiences and I'm happy she's a healthy and hearty eater. She gets so excited for her food and while bounce and bob her head in her chair along with some happy squeals and arm throws. Love this little girl :)

Here are her first batch of green peas steaming and then getting chopped! yummo! Baby food that tastes like the real thing, because it IS the real thing!

Next week, school officially starts (just pre-planning this week) along with ballet for Addi and Alyse. It's almost time to get back to the grind!

And!!! check out this comparison photo of Addi and Ella around the same age. Crazy how much they look alike!

Finally, can't forget about Lysie-Poo. Here she is feeding her baby. It was her excuse to not clean up her mess. Smart kid, smart kid, haha!

7 month baby!

These days, weeks, moths have just been flying by. Sweet Ella Kathryn had her 7 month birthday on 7-11 day! So her big sisters and I took advantage of free slurpee day and had one to celebrate. Who can resists the frozen goodness of a slurpee?

Also, in light of Ella's 7 months of life I FINALLY gave her baby food! Oatmeal! She pretty much ate it like a pro. She was even grabbing the spoon to help bring it to her mouth. Such a big girl. Now, I'm ready to start making her purees and then to move on to self feeding. Making her food is going to be a new adventure since I'm home and have the time to do so. If she's anything like Alyse though she will breeze straight out of the purees and directly to self feeding table foods.

One other little "milestone" for baby Ella within the two weeks or so she's started to wave. It just started as her doing it wuthout purpose but now (if you catch her in  cooperating mood) she will wave back at you and smile. Sometimes, you can even get a double wave.


This past month, we have been quite busy. We had our annual 4th of July party and walk to the fireworks. We went bowling for Doug's birthday. Took a trip to Alexander Springs.  A day of bouncing at Monkey Joes. Addisyn and Alyse took two sessions of swim lessons. Then we've been in and out of pools all summer! I think these two girls are starting to grow fins. Alyse is essentially swimming and Addisyn is on her way to getting over her reservations and swimming too.


The girls have been enjoying all this free time of the summer. They've painted crafts, gone on outside adventures, hit up the park several times, they manage to make the house a war zone everyday (as well as a disaster zone), and staying up late most nights. I think we are all started to get a bit tired of each other though, and it will be nice for the school year to start back up so that we can get back into the routine of school and ballet.