e's first vacation: love & honor

 

before leaving ohio and heading for indiana, we decided to make a pit stop at our alma mater, miami university. we thought it was the perfect time to go and show ellery where her parents met and fell in love. it's so fun that kyle & i's story started there, and the campus is filled with so many memories. i can't believe it's been 5 years since i graduated - 6 for kyle! we had a wonderful afternoon reminiscing as we wandered around our favorite spots on campus, remembering fun nights uptown, study dates at king, stir fry at bell tower, and many many more memories! to be honest though, the campus didn't look as pristine or picture-perfect as we imagined it. maybe our standards weren't as high back in our college days :) but it was still such a pretty campus.  and as we walked, students loved seeing ellery in her stroller - and she loved it, too! though, it did make me feel just a tad bit old. i just wanted to shout, "i know you're worrying about finals, but look! in 5 years this could be you - very very happily married to an amazing man with the most adorable baby girl! it flies by, people!" 

lunch at one of my oxford favs - fiesta charra!

showing e where we really fell in love - late night talks on the drive outside maccracken hall

so, ellery got to see where our love story began. we gave her her very own private campus tour. it was a pretty good one, so i wouldn't be surprised if she ended up going to miami one day. and who knows, maybe she'll also become a miami merger, too :)

we also got to sneak in a few visits with friends who live around oxford. first, we made a stop to see my sweet friend kelly and her adorable daughter mabel. though too much time goes by between kelly & i's visits, i treasure her friendship so much, and love how real and comfortable i am with her. and plus i loved seeing our "girls" together - though ellery mostly just did a lot of staring at mabel :)

we also got to grab froyo with sean, one of kyle's fraternity brothers. he's one sweet dude. kyle actually lived with him and pat while he stayed at oxford the first semester of my senior year. kyle's relationship with sean is another one of those special friendships. it was so great to catch up!

e's first vacation: ohio

the last week of april, the morgans packed up and went on a road trip! and if you ask kyle, i may have packed up just a bit too much... this was the first time taking ellery on an extended trip, so i was prepared to be gone from home not just for a week, but could have probably lasted a month with everything we had! we tried our best to prepare, having no idea how ellery would handle an 8 hour drive from milwaukee to columbus, ohio for the first part of our vacation. and let me tell you, she was a little champ! we did stop 3 times, but it helped that she is a quick nurser. and one of the stops we actually went to kyle's parents house in indiana, had pizza for dinner, they snuggled ellery, and we were back on the road! all in all, the car wasn't that bad. she would snooze 2-3 hours, hang out for a bit, get a little fussy, then i would sit in the backseat with her. (most of the time, she just wanted to hold my hand. so sweet). thankful that we have an easy-going baby!

so, for the first few days of vacation we were in ohio spending time with my family. it was wonderful. i feel like we squeezed so much into those days we were there. e got plenty of time to snuggle and hang with mawmaw. we had family pictures taken at my brother's house (post of those to come soon), as well as a get-together after the photo session where ellery met so many of her family members. we spent time with my dad, ellery's pawpaw. we even got to sneak in some time to visit sweet friends who live in columbus. it was just right. the days didn't fly by too fast. we had a good mix of relaxing and being on the go. and ellery slept pretty well in her pack n play while sharing a room with us. and to top it all off, we had donatos pizza, which i love. it just makes my heart happy every time we cross the state line into ohio. it really was such a wonderful visit - just the way to kick off our vacation.

thank you so much mawmaw for letting us take over your home with all of our stuff - clothes strewn everywhere, baby toys all over the place. i know you loved it though :) can't wait for you to come "crash" our house - get here soon!

enjoy pictures from our visit (and meet my family if you don't know them!!)

spending time with mawmaw

shopping time!

mawmaw attempting to feed e at the mall - girl worked up an appetite from all that shopping!

though, she decided to protest taking the bottle :)

bath time!

taking time to relax :)

family get-together at matt & jess'

lightsaber fight: uncle kyle vs. ethan & landon. 

i think squirt the dog is winning (by biting kyle's behind!)

meanwhile, ellery was all tuckered out from getting pictures taken

ellery & aunt beth

silly faces with aunt april & mikaela

uncle matt, what is going on with that silly mustache??

hi uncle wes!!

sweet cuddles with great grandma judy. i don't know who loved cuddling more :)

e & aunt keely

hanging with uncle corey

love you mawmaw!

ellery loved smiling at aunt jess!!

spending time with pawpaw mark & laurie

all smiles!

reading "the very hungry  caterpillar" 

thanks pawpaw mark & laurie for my book & super cute outfits!

rock on, dudes

well, hi there cousin ethan!

ethan & landon loved cuddle time with ellery!

they both kept asking to hold her - so sweet! 

pawpaw with all his grandkids!

happy 5 months ellery!

i can hardly believe our sweet girl is five months. let me tell you, this past month was a blast! filled with so much fun... ellery is such a good baby! and her personality is really starting to shine. we went on so many adventures and made so many memories. we are so beyond blessed by ellery and all the joy she brings!

also, happy birthday to aunt keri! ellery is oh so happy to share her birthday with you!

as always, be sure to click on the picture to check out all of ellery's favorite and not so favorite things!

sit up, woof woof!

i mentioned this before, but ellery is not a big fan on being on her back. she would rather give herself a workout by doing some tummy time. you go girl. and lately, she's added some new moves to her workout plan - attempting to sit up! 

e loves when she's laying down, and i pull her up so she can sit, and most of the times she loves to go all the way to standing! so we thought we'd give this whole sitting up thing a try. and really, she did awesome! i propped up pillows around her, pulled her up, and let go! it was pretty funny - she more so folded herself in half than sat up on her own. so, i would give her a little help to sit back up (it's a serious baby ab workout, people!) and she would go for it. she would topple over every once and awhile, but for the most part, she seemed pretty excited about her new view of the world. some of the pictures below, those big eyes, i just can't handle them... 

that one's gotta be my fav...

ellery has also found something else she loves... sound of dogs barking! while babysitting, the girls & i went to get their dog bailey and take her for a walk. bailey let out some little yips, and ellery could not stop giggling! i immediately told kyle we need to get a dog. those little laughs were worth it! instead, he suggested i imitate the dog barking. and it worked. the higher pitched bark, the better. works every time to get her to at least smile. and lucky for you, i caught some giggles on video. 

it completely baffles me how in love we are with her and how proud we are of the smallest things, like learning to sit up. and how often I thank God for the joy He brings into our lives through that sweet little babe. love you so ellery!

dr. daddy

kyle jokes that lately, his life has been taken over by kids. first there's ellery. and then we decided to start serving together in the children's ministry at epikos. and now, kyle has 3 months in a row to work at children's hospital. so yes, i would totally say the little ones are ganging up on kyle. but it's really been a fun thing to see. i remember kyle didn't particularly love his pediatric rotations during medical school. he just wasn't 100% comfortable with kids, especially as patients. he often joked that he just couldn't talk "baby" - you know, that goofy high pitched voice we all get around babies, and we start to make up cutesy words just to get them to smile? well, i am happy to report, kyle has turned into one big silly goofball, all in the name of making miss ellery laugh & smile. which has come in handy at work and church. 

so, one night while kyle was on-call overnight, we thought we would pay daddy a little visit. we grabbed some chinese and headed to the hospital. e and i both agreed it was fun to see daddy "in his element" at work as he showed us around. we also both thought he looked pretty cute in his scrubs :)

it's amazing to think of how crazy kyle's schedule actually is - each day is different hours, sometimes he's gone more than 24 hours at a time, his schedule and sometimes hospital changes every month. but really, this has become our normal. and it isn't all that bad. most nights, we eat together as a family. lately, kyle has been off for the weekends, or at least one weekend day. and sometimes it's nice when he's on-call during the week, since he has his post-call day off and we can spend it together. even if that means we all just relax and nap so dad can get his rest. so we make it work. a date night with the babe and chinese at the hospital. sounds perfect to me :)

 dad has a pretty cool view from his on-call room window! you can even see downtown milwaukee!