Elusive

This picture is completely out of focus, but I think it will be one of my favorite pictures of Ellie for a long time to come. This smile, this girl, is my heart.

If you meet Elle for the first time, she seems serious. Actually, if you've lived with her for the last two and a half years, she seems serious much of the time... 

But this little girl is so very sweet; she’s a happy child who’s great at going with the flow… a requirement with two big brothers who can be significantly less go-with-the-flow-ish…

But when it comes to flashing a big broad smile… well that’s a little more elusive, especially when the camera comes out. I think that is due less to her serious side, and more as result of Ellie's natural reaction to a camera, which is saying, "Macaroni and CHEESE, now can I see the picture?" Needless to say, the majority of our pictures are her either not smiling, or clearly talking. 

It's funny... even though we have so many pictures of her where her mouth doesn't seem to be smiling, her eyes clearly are smiling as big and as broad as the image above.