Eloise’s One-Year Pictures

To capture Ellie’s one-year milestone, I decided to shoot a few portraits of her. I almost always prefer lifestyle photography over posed portraits, because I think they more accurately capture personality and I love the idea of showing people in their own element. But, there is definitely a time and place for portrait-style photography. For example, when Eloise was first born, we had studio photos taken of her and our family, and I absolutely adore them. Also, because I am constantly taking pictures of her running around our house and playing outside, I thought it would be nice to do something a little different to document this special occasion.

 Let me tell you, getting a 13-month-old to sit still and cooperate was tough. Because we have a relatively small apartment with a lot of windows, I only had a small area of wall space to work with. She was constantly running in and out of the frame and climbing off her chair. When we got outside, she was even more distracted. But, in the end, I am so happy with how the pictures turned out, and I think they capture her personality perfectly. 

Eloise’s feather crown is from A Tiny Arrow // romper and dress are from Gap

Ellie’s Floral Birthday Party

Last Saturday, we celebrated Eloise’s 1st birthday with a small get together at our apartment with our families and a few close friends. As you may remember from an earlier post, our theme was “with grace in her heart & flowers in her hair.” This meant lots of fresh flowers (some silk ones too), bright colors, flowy dresses, and moccasins. For food, we kept it pretty simple – brats and veggie burgers on the grill, pasta salads, chips and dip, and a few homemade sweets. We also made a pretty tasty sangria {recipe to come later}. The weather was perfect, and we had a wonderful time!

We got miss E all dressed up in a floral crown {made by my creative and oh so talented mama}, a sweet little embroidered dress, and her new moccasins. She made the perfect little boho birthday girl! She even let me snap a few portraits of her before the party.

For Ellie’s cake, we decided to make a slightly larger version of the cupcakes we made for the rest of the party goers, using a giant muffin tin. We actually just used white cake box mix and added our own homemade buttercream frosting. They turned out awesome! As you can see, E was a little apprehensive at first, but soon figured out what to do with it. I think she liked it {although, she seemed to like the chocolate bars better, just like her mama}.

 

We had the best time celebrating our sweet girl. Thank you to everyone that helped to make her day special. I can’t believe she is already one!

One

Last week, our sweet Eloise turned one. I took the day off of work, hoping to spend the afternoon at the zoo or at the beach. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperative with our plans, and instead it rained through the early afternoon. We spent the morning at home, opening presents and relaxing. In the afternoon, we ended up heading over to the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum. It was our first time there, and although we had fun, it wasn’t exactly geared towards children as young as Ellie. Nonetheless, it was nice to get out of the house for a while and explore a new place. After the museum, we stopped for some frozen yogurt, which surprisingly E was not all that into.

Eloise is now walking pretty consistently, although she’s still pretty wobbly, and she crawls when she wants to get somewhere fast. She says a handful of words, including “dada,” “mo” (more), “nana” (banana – means any food), “bo” (book), “ba” (ball), “baba,” “da” (dog), and sometimes “mama.” Her new trick this month is kissing, which usually involves a big, wide mouth, slobbery mess. She kisses her bunnies, her dollies, the dogs, mama and dada, and all of the babies in her books. She also has makes the silliest cheese face when she thinks she’s being funny. She is still not sleeping great {at least to some extent due to a string of ear infections that she’s had over the past three months} and routinely wakes up at 5 a.m. {not great for mama, who is absolutely not a morning person}. She has the sweetest personality though and is usually pretty chill and happy.

On another note, it’s a good thing that we’re done with her monthly photos, because she has absolutely no interest in cooperating with me anymore! Below the last one, along with a collage of week 1 through month 11. I cannot believe how fast the past year has gone by and that I now have a little toddler on my hands!

This past weekend, we had a small party for Ellie with our families and a few friends. I plan to share a few pictures from the party in a few days.