6.1: Party

Early in the day we let her play in her exersaucer and play on the floor instead of being held knowing that there would be tons of people visiting and holding her.

Well also she has fun playing all over.

Around 12:30 the first set of people arrived and Ella got a present! Ella helped open in. She got lots of nice things. She even got a needlepoint bib that someone made for her.  Most everything was size 9 months but some of it fit her right away! Ella is just so big.

Ella really enjoyed the tissue paper and the box too. It's all a gift to her.
I wasn't expecting any gifts and didn't even think people would give gifts. I just wanted everyone to meet Ella. Lots of people brought gifts though! Everyone is so nice.

I have numerous pictures from the day but most of my family hates pictures so I'm barely putting any on here. Above is my cousin Sheryl but she's closer to my mom's age than mine.

This is my Aunt Wanda. My mom said she loves to hold babies. I didn't know that. I just figured everyone loves to hold Ella.

 My Aunt Elaine specifically told me not to take any pictures of her! I not only didn't listen but here's a picture on my blog that she reads! Ella makes Logan look so big. He's almost 2 years old in these pictures.  He liked Ella's toys. Also all of Ella's borrowed toys used to be his.

It wasn't just family that visited. A few friends came over. Here is Brie. Her husband, John, was also there but  even thought I took about 30 pictures of Brie, John doesn't seem to be in a single one.  I was so overwhelmed with so many people so that's probably why.

 Ella took a selfie!

Ella really liked Art. I think she likes men better than women. Or maybe she just loves the men we know. After I had this picture loaded, I realized Jason was there in the background playing on his iPad.

I took about 15 pictures of Art holding Ella here and all but 2 are blurry! I also just missed a picture where Ella was looking at him with her hand on his face.

Here my dad is holding her but I think he's busy watching TV. Look at Ella's legs. She's sitting like such an adult. I can't get over how cute she is.

Ella took 2 hour naps throughout the day. I think so many people really tired her out. Before everyone showed up, my mom mentioned she hoped Ella would take her normal 40 minute naps so that people wouldn't wait around forever just to see her. Of course that's not what Ella wanted to do!

Mike took the picture of Connie holding Ella. I was glad because I didn't get a chance to take any. I'm pretty sure people held Ella and I did not get pictures. I also had on a nice shirt and a skirt and didn't even get an outfit photo of myself. 

Jen also came to visit. She came later in the evening. She was the only one here at the time. There should have been others but they all came earlier. It was nice to not have a million people.  Ella was pretty fussy by this point. She was teething pretty bad.  Then hours later when Jen texted me about meeting Ella she commented on how well behaved she was!   That wasn't even as good as Ella was the rest of the day.

Jen lives an hour from my parents which is a bad enough drive but earlier in the morning she was 2 hours north of her house visiting her family. She had far too much driving for the day!

It was an exhausting day. I got stressed out with so many people at one time. Too bad everyone was there in the afternoon instead of some in the evening. With so much going on, I only took about 225 pictures. On a day when not much is going on I end up with 300-500 pictures. I think I do it wrong.