Ellen Anne is 11! May 5, 2021:

I said it in Finley’s post I’ll say it in Ellen’s too…I cannot believe they are 11.

The day they were born was among the longest and scariest of my life. I wanted to keep them in as long as possible but these little humans had other plans.

Ellen Anne arrived on the scene, 1 minute after Finley Joseph at 12:59pm. She weighed 3 lbs 15 ounces and I didn’t even get to see her face until hours after my surgery.

She had the tiniest head and these adult sized lips (still has those) and you could tell she was going to have the biggest eyes.

Ellen is the most responsible 11 year old I know. She’s calm. She’s honest and she’s incredibly hard working.

Whenever I needed help with Fletcher when he was smaller or even now, I always go to Ellen. Fletcher even goes to her when he needs something because he knows she will always be willing to help him.

No one likes to read as much as this child. Holy smokes. The buckets of books she has read this past year is incredible. Whenever a Ellen gets in trouble, which is almost never, the only threat we could make that made any bit of difference was to threaten taking away her books. Thankfully we haven’t had to do that and yes, it felt wrong to threaten such a thing.

Ellen cares deeply about doing the right thing, in school and in sports. She wants so badly to be great at everything and is very hard on herself. She is a perfectionist, especially with school work and wants to put out the best product always.

Ellen is a fierce competitor. Look out if you have to be guarded by her in basketball…you won’t score much. She’s the Queen of the jump ball. It’s a blast to watch.

She loves volleyball the most and has worked so hard this past year to keep getting better. She is so smart and understands the game better than her body can yet execute it. This will serve her well in the long run. This year she took on the high jump in track and field and her fearlessness to launch herself over that bar was wildly impressive.

Ellen loves being home with her family and her and her sister Fiona have really become best friends in this last year (a positive to come out of quarantine). Each night I have to return to their room numerous times to get them to stop the giggling. I have a love hate relationship with this ritual. She also loves movie nights and is the last person to complain about what is picked. In fact, she almost never gets to pick, which is typical. She’s such a go with the flow kid!

She also adores her friends and is the most loyal friend ever.

Ellen may be the most easy going kid I know. She never complains and does what is asked of her. She is game for anything from a hike, to a bike ride, to a family kickball game to jumping in the pond. She will do it all, especially if she’s with her favorite people.

She may or maybe not be a thrill seeker. She fears nothing at amusement parks and loves the scariest of rides. But thrill seeking aside it’s not the kind I feel we have to worry about because she cares so much about being good and she’s so practical.

She hates chicken more than any person I’ve ever known. She loves steak like her big brother and raspberries are her go to fruit of choice. She also doesn’t hate my chocolate chip cookies.

She is very strong willed. For example, she gave us sugar this Lent. I was incredibly blown away by her resolve to not eat any sweets during this time period. Especially considering her siblings were eating sweets. She is the kid that makes up her mind and it won’t be changed. Her will power is impressive.

We are so blessed to have this sweet, easy going, competitive, beautiful (even though she has no idea), and smart young lady as our daughter.

She is the sweetest girl and makes us proud every single day! We are so blessed to call this lady our daughter!

Some pictures of Ellen as a baby!