Blessed

For Aunt Sarah

2011-08-15T14:43:00.002-05:00

Ella has some excellent advice as to what to do if you are getting your wisdom teeth taken out.

A Sunday Afternoon

2011-08-09T15:40:00.004-05:00

Just a few pictures of Ella and Carter in their big sister/little brother matching shirts. Ella's has an "E"-it's kind of hard to tell. I love these. Carter will grow out of his soon! I tried so hard to get some good pics of them together in these shirts but one of them (usually Ella) was not at all cooperative with this any time I tired, so I just had to take what I could get! Carter was crying off and on during this, that is why Ella is plugging her ears :)

Oh Ella. Playing on her "computer" :)

I told my sister Sarah I would post this video of our Sunday afternoon...so here it is :)

Back to Blogging

2011-08-02T16:54:00.005-05:00

Yes, the rumors are true. I'm back to blogging! Try and contain your excitement :) If anyone is still reading my little blog, great! If not, that's ok! The other day I was going back over my blog from the time Ella was born through now. I LOVED reading it! Yes, I have all the same pictures saved on my computer. But I don't have the story behind the picture. I have some things written down in my journal, but it's so much easier to read in short tid-bits (with pictures!) on my blog. I want to be able to look back and read the same things about Carter. It's also great to back to for reference.

Carter is 11 weeks old. Hard to believe this little guy has only been in our lives for 11 short weeks-feels so much longer! Cannot imagine life without him-he just makes our family feel complete. For now at least! He started smiling a few weeks ago and I just LOVE it. This is the first actual smile I got on camera.

This face of his cracks.me.up. He makes this face when he's really trying to focus on my face.

My sweet boy!

Right now Carter is on a pretty good schedule. He LOVES to eat, unlike his big sister! He pretty much eats every 3 hours and naps about 1 out of every 3 hours. He's still waking up twice at night to eat. Every one in awhile he'll just wake up once. I'm trying to decide if he's actually hungry when he wakes up or not so I'll probably start using a paci to see if he'll go back to sleep with that. Ella never took to the paci which was nice later on when we didn't have to break her of that. So we'll see how that goes! So right now he goes down at 7:30, up to eat around 1 and again around 5, then back down until about 7am. Sleep training is much harder with the second in my opinion! With Ella we were able to give her a few minutes of fussing to see if she would go back to sleep on her own. Since Carter's room is right next to Ella's, I really don't let him fuss for too long because I don't want him to wake her up! Ella was pretty much sleeping through the night at this point-Carter, not so much. Oh well...he'll get it eventually! I can also say I've been MUCH more relaxed the second time around. I drove myself crazy trying to get Ella on a schedule from day 1. It did pay off in the end I guess but not sure it was worth it! This time, I didn't even attempt a schedule until I had to go back to work and it was much more enjoyable :)

As far as Ella goes, she is doing GREAT as a big sister! She just loves Carter to pieces. Sometimes she loves him a little too much (like...oh I'm going to just squeeze you because I love you SO much!), but overall she's doing great. Although, I never realized how LOUD she is until Carter came home! That girl is either not talking at all (which rarely happens), or she's loud. She also thinks every toy of Carter is actually hers. One of her most spoken lines is "yeah, this toy is Carter's. It's mines though."

This past Saturday Rusty and I took her to see her very first movie in the theater: Winnie the Pooh!

She did great. I think this was the perfect first movie for her. It was only an hour long and was such a kid movie that I wasn't worried about her talking during the movie. She actually didn't talk except at one part she got a little scared and asked me to turn the channel :) I think she loved having popcorn and orange fanta (her first soft drink!) just as much as going to a movie. We also left Carter with my mom so that just Rusty and I could take her. Such a fun memory.

Lastly, here's a little clip Rusty took of Carter. Nothing too exciting but he just doesn't do a whole lot yet! We love just watching his little face, hearing his sweet noises and seeing his crooked smile.

At long last

2011-06-14T19:23:00.002-05:00

My poor little blog. So neglected. So unloved.

I've been meaning to update but then keep thinking-everyone who reads my blog is probably my friend on Facebook anyways! So, I may or may not keep up with my blog.

BUT, I at least wanted to blog about our newest addition, Carter William!! He is the sweetest most beautiful and wonderful baby! We are so in love with him!! Ella just adores her little brother. She asks to hold and kiss him all day long. Her most said phrase each day is "he is SO CUTE!".

This picture makes me laugh...this is Ella wearing her ladybug Halloween costume from last year. Backwards.

Carter was born on May 19th. He was technically considered a preemie since he was only 36 weeks 2 days. Quite the surprise to us!! I had a routine dr.'s appointment on May 18th and was surprised to find out I was 3-4 cm dilated already. In hindsight, I probably should have just tried to take it easy from the point. But I didn't. I went to Hobby Lobby to get the rest of my nursery decorations. Then I went out to lunch with Ella and my mom, went home and got Ella to bed and then started having lots of nausea. I took a little nap and woke up feeling worse, plus having mild contractions. Finally around 3pm I called my dr. She said to come in and get checked again. Rusty rushed home from work and I got in to the dr. around 4pm. She checked me and I had dilated to 6 cm! Total deja vu since that is what happened with Ella as well (just not quite as quickly!). The NP told me to go to the hospital to get monitored. Rusty and I got to the hospital around 6pm and by 8pm they decided to admit me! I wasn't contracting a ton but they figured if I was already 6 cm, I wouldn't go much longer anyways and they didn't really want to send me home being that dilated.

I got my epidural pretty quickly (yay!), the dr. broke my water (thankfully my dr. was on call that night!) and by about 3:45am I was ready to push. My whole labor really went very well. I had gotten an anti-nausea medicine that really knocked me out so I was able to sleep quite a bit before it was time to push. Carter came at 4:31am! This labor was definitely different than Ella's. It was hard work for sure, but a little easier than the first time around. We were So thankful that Carter was healthy! I was really beating myself up that he was being born so early-just feeling like maybe I could have done something to have stayed pregnant longer. It did take awhile to get him warmed up and regulate his temperature but other than that, there were no real problems. He stayed 1 night in the NICU because of his high jaundice level but Ella had the same problem and she was only born a week early.

We went home on a Sunday morning! It was so relaxed and a great homecoming. Rusty was able to take a full week off so we really had a chance to bond as a family of 4. Carter just fits right in! He's such a content little guy. He definitely will let me know when he's hungry or needs a diaper change but other than that, he's content just being held or sitting in his swing.

He is a big fan of bath time. Maybe that isn't evident with this picture! It was the only G rated bath pic I had :) Ella was really excited to help me give him a bath the first time but since then seems fine to let me take care of that job. We did have a slight heart attack moment when she was "helping" me give him a bath-she tried to clean him with a steel wool brush. Luckily I caught her in time!

Ella has been doing great with Carter. I really haven't seen any jealousy towards him at all which is SUCH an answer to prayer. She does get a little impatient with me if she wants me to help her with something while I'm nursing him and she has to wait. But other than that, she seems to have really adjusted to having him around!

I am enjoying this newborn phase so much more this time around. He is so cuddly and loves to just nurse and be held. I am looking forward to him getting a little bigger so I can start

going out more with him and Ella together. Right now I feel a little confined to the house, but I know that will get better!

Potty Training update

2011-03-13T19:41:00.002-05:00

Hello! Didn't want to leave anyone hanging. We just finished day #11 of "potty training". Ella is doing awesome!! Seriously cannot believe how well it's going. After 3 days, she was accident free for the most part. Our only problem times were in the car (she had an accident in her pull up on the way to Aunt Rachel's just because she told me she had to go but there was no where for me to stop and let her go), and she also would go #2 in her diaper during naptime. But, on Day #8, she finally did go #2 in the potty! I knew all day that she had to go, she kept telling me her tummy hurt. Around 7:30pm, she still hadn't gone so I finally just made her sit on the potty and told her I would come back in a few minutes. She started crying after about 30 seconds saying "Mommy, I can't do it!" But, then she did! Since then, she doesn't seem to be scared anymore and has been fine. She has had a few accidents in the car (wearing a pull up) but they are getting fewer. She also has no problem going in public-I just bring her handy little seat cover everywhere we go! She seems to be holding it for longer and going less times during the day. We're still a long way from wearing panties during her nap or at night, but I'm so happy with how well she's doing. I'm loving not changing or buying diapers!!

Potty Training Day, apparently

2011-03-03T11:35:00.002-06:00

Potty training has been on my mind since Ella turned 2. We tried potty training a few weeks after she turned 2 (I wanted to try out the 3 day method), but after about 4 hours I decided she just wasn't quite ready. She would scream every time she had to sit on the potty. So I gave up and decided to hold off. She's now 2 and 5 months. She's told us she has to go off and on for the past month or so but usually asks to put her diaper back on after an hour or less. My goal was to have her potty trained by the time the baby comes in June.

This morning she asked to go potty first thing after she woke up. I was surprised when she actually went. I put panties on her and was shocked when she told me she had to go again about 20 minutes later! And she went! She's now been up for about 7 hours and only had once accident while I was in the shower. She was so disappointed! And to make it worse, somehow she peed on her blanket which made her even more upset! So-blanket is now in the dryer, hopefully dry by her nap time! I thought this pic was really funny. She insisted on putting on her hat and gloves (I think she thought I would have to take her outside if she was wearing those!), and kept them on for awhile. Silly girl.

A little of this and a little of that

2011-02-24T19:40:00.007-06:00

Hello! I've been meaning to update for awhile now-for anyone who's been wondering what we've been up to!

Rusty and I had a fun Valentines Day in Cincy! We went to a Jim Brickman concert and to dinner. I don't know why we even bother going to nice/fancy places to eat anymore. Every time we go, we end up wishing we had gone somewhere more "regular" (and cheaper). We were sitting by a window that overlooked The Ram and we kept wishing we had gone there! Regardless, it was nice to have time together! Here's a pic of the place we went.

Here's the Valentines wreath I made! When I say "I", I actualy mean Rusty and Rachel cut out the felt for me (a much bigger task than I thought it would be) and I rolled them up and glued them on the wreath. It was fun to be crafty, wish I had more time for it.

The rest of this post is random, but just stuff that's been going on the past few weeks! Ella's been very into making faces lately-here is her "scary face".

I am wishing I could freeze time right now! Ella is so fun right now. Some funny stories about her lately...

I gave Ella a bunch of my old jewlery to play with and then gave her a bag to put it in, except she refused to put any of it in the bag. She told me that she had "bones" in her bag. At first I thought she said "bows" but then she said "No Mommy, BONES!" I asked whose bones they were and she said "Rachel's!" So I looked in the bag and a bunch of bobby pins were in the bag. I held one up and said "Is this a bone?" "YES!" haha-I guess bobby pins are called bones!

Yesterday morning she was playing in her kitchen "cooking", when a loud airplane flew over our house. She says "Airplane-BE QUIET! I'm cooking in here!" :)

I have shielded her from Dora for as long as possible (for my own sanity), but she has finally gotten pretty into it (combination of the Dora exhibit at the Childrens Museum and watching Dora at grandams). So I finally got her a Dora doll and now everything that we do with Ella, we have to do with Dora. If Ella gets a kiss, Dora gets a kiss. Dora rides in the car with us and looks out the window, etc.

She is starting to understand more and more that a baby is coming and she's gonna be a big sister! She'll randomly come kiss my belly or want to talk to baby brother. Sometimes she'll just shout out "I'm gonna be a big sister!" It's very sweet although I know she has no idea of what's to come!

Ella LOVES to sing. Her favorites are ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, My Girl, Jesus Loves Me. We also have a fun kids CD that we listen to in the car and she always asks to listen to her "new song" which is a silly song about mangos and bananas.

We've been working a lot on letters and numbers. She can count consistenly to 15 and sometimes will get to 20 but not usually. She can identify about half of her letters but those are pretty iffy; for numbers she can identify numbers 0-10. Her princess Leap Frog laptop ($1 garage sale find!) helped a lot with her letters.

Potty training really needs to happen soon! I don't want 2 kids in diapers. I've been trying to follow Ella's lead a little bit-I don't want to make this a stressful experience for her, but at the same time, I don't want to wait forever! She seems to lose interest after about an hour and will ask me to put her diaper back on, then throws a fit if I won't do it. Then she refuses to sit on the potty. Not really sure what to do at this point!

As far as my pregnancy goes-I am 24 weeks right now but feel like I am about as big as I was at 35 weeks with Ella! I said that to Rusty tonight and he didn't say anything so I have to assume he agrees with me! The pregnancy is going well though. I've been having some braxton hicks contractions here and there but my dr. said it was nothing to worry about. We have absolutely nothing done to prepare for this baby and I've been freaking out lately for some reason that he will come early!

Tonight Rusty and I went out for my birthday dinner. I realized I have pretty much no pictures of me from this pregnancy so we took a few before we left...

This is the beginning of a series of pictures where we tried to get a good family pic of all 3 of us smiling and looking at the camera. Not easy with a 2 year old!

Sorry for the randomness of this post!

2011-02-03T13:49:00.004-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!!!

I love you and miss you so much!! Thank you for being such a wonderful sister and friend!

Some favorite pics :)

Recipe

2011-01-28T16:28:00.002-06:00

I often get in a cooking rut, so I love when people post recipes they like. So...here's a recipe I made last week that was a hit with everyone in my house! Ella took a bite and said "Daddy try it. It's delicious!" That is high praise-she is hard to please!!

This is a variation of "hobo packets" with hamburger and potato. I just used sausage instead and it worked great!

1 potato per person
1 package sausage (I used the Eckridge skinless smoked sausage-fully cooked)
raw carrots
salt & pepper

Chop potatoes and carrots into chunks (I peeled the skin off Rusty's and Ella's potato first but left mine on). Cut sausage into slices.

Rip off one large sheet of foil. Place a few dabs of butter in bottom, top with potatoes, then salt and pepper. Put carrots on potatoes, then place sausage on top of carrots. Make 1 packet per person.

Wrap packet up tight, but try to leave a little room for air. Place packets on large baking sheet (mine leaked a little). Place in 375 degree oven for about 50-60 minutes.

I actually did mine in a 375 oven for about 40 minutes and then cranked it up to 400 degrees and cooked another 15 minutes or so and it was perfect. I also didn't have carrots so I just cooked veggies seperate in the microwave.

This is really yummy and clean up is easy! The sausage makes the potatoes really yummy and flavorful. I was pretty liberal with the butter too so that probably didn't hurt either :)

Its a....

2011-01-21T12:33:00.002-06:00

...BOY!! Probably everyone who reads this blog already knows that, but thought I'd post it anyways!! Here are a few pics from our ultrasound

His cute little profile!

And...the money shot. He definitely wasn't shy!

We are so so excited! Even more than being excited about having a boy, we're just happy that everything looked great and he is looks healthy!

We came home to tell Ella and she seemed to not care at all :) Rachel came home from work and had bought me a little onsie that said "Little Brother". I was holding it later and Ella said "hey, that's for my little brother!" So, I guess she understand a little!

Winner!

2011-01-14T06:24:00.005-06:00

Last month I won something on a blog giveaway! I see blog giveaways all the time but rarely enter them. One blog I read pretty frequently is The Macs blog. They have an amazing (and sad) story and God has really used them. They are so humble. They had a giveaway in December for a $50 gift card to DaySpring-I entered and I won! So I wanted to give some recognition to The Macs blog since I won from them, and also to DaySpring! I had always thought DaySpring only did cards and stationary but they had a ton of stuff and great prices! Here is everything I got for $50:

A Calendar Set-it came with a full sized calendar, a smaller desk sized calendar and a purse dayplanner.

I got a mug for my mom for her birthday:

A child-sized apron for Ella:

A mug for Rusty for Christmas:

This Christmas serving platter that says "Jesus is the Gift":

I also got an advent calendar for next Christmas that I forgot to take a picture of.

Thoughts and Ramblings

2011-01-08T17:39:00.004-06:00

As I started thinking about 2011 and some goals I wanted to set for myself and my family, I was a little overwhelmed at how many things I came up with. Looking back over the list, they all boiled down to one thing-spending more time with God. By myself and as a family. I came across 2 blog entries recently that I thought I would share. I came across this blog over a year ago and follow up from time to time because I'm always inspired! I love how purposeful this girl is with her children.

One thing I've been recently convicted with is praying for Ella (and this new baby). I feel like I should be praying daily for Ella but there are times when I can't remember the last time I just sat down and prayed for her (I hate to admit). So when I came across this idea, I had to share it. Here's a link for an awesome idea-a prayer journal for your children. I really want to try this! I think it will help me better relate to Ella and be more patient with her. As her mother, I am called to pray for her and will be held accountable before God on how I raise her.

Another great idea this same girl had was creating a morning routine. We have a very loose morning routine, I don't like it. I feel like I'm constantly on Ella's schedule, especially lately. I feel like there has been a very definite change in Ella's behavior lately-she has become very defiante and is constantly testing boundaries. I think having a set schedule every morning would really help. Here's a link for this one. I find this a little overwhelming, but very inspiring. I'm not exactly sure how we would implement this since a lot of play dates, outings, etc. take place in the morning for us. Plus Ella wake up around 5:30 and I'm barley coherent at that time of day! But I'm sure I could do something more that what I'm doing now. I love that this incorporates bible time and chores-neither of which are things we do on a regular basis.

These are both BIG steps for me and are a big time commitment. But as I looked back on 2010, I was asking myself "what area of my life have I grown in?" I really couldn't come up with anything. I had not been in the word more, fallen more in love with Christ, or grown as a wife or mother. What did I do in 2010? I was not purposeful. So...these are just a few of the areas I would like to grow in for 2011. Being a mama is a priveledge and I want to honor God in how I am raising these children that He has blessed me with.

One thing Rusty and I have started doing as a family is family devotion time before Ella's bath time. We've only done it a few times but hope to do it every night except Wednesday and Thursday when we have Awana and Life Group. But even after just doing it the one time, Ella remembered it and was excited about doing it the next time. She knew where to get the bible (we just use her children's bible), and that she needed to go sit on the couch. We're still working on not letting her bring any toys (tonight she wanted to bring her farm animals with her), but it's a work in progress. We also have a short prayer time afterwards. She still hasn't said her first prayer by herself, but I will ask her who she wants to pray for and then I will pray. I try to get her to repeat prayers but so far she hasn't wanted to. Tonight when we asked who she wanted to pray for, she said "Aunt Lori"-one of Rusty's sisters. So, we prayed for Aunt Lori!

I'm excited to see how God will work this year in our family!

Happy New Year :)

2011-01-01T12:23:00.004-06:00

Happy New Year! Hard to believe the holiday season is over-well not officially over for us since we haven't done Christmas with Rusty's side of the family yet-that will be next weekend. Thankfully it's not at my house so the de-Christmasing has begun! I was already clearing out the Christmas decor the day after Christmas. The only thing left is my Christmas tree which is hopefully coming down later today! It doesn't help that it's been warm here-it was almost 60 degrees yesterday! It put me in the spring cleaning mood so I was going nuts cleaning and organizing yesterday!

Our Christmas was great! Chris & Sarah came from TX and stayed Weds-Sun with us. It was hard to see them leave. Ella just LOVED them. We were worried about how she'd do since they left in August, but it was like no time had passed! When we saw them at the airport, she immediately went to Aunt "Sawah" and rode the escalators with her. She was just in her element the whole time they were here.

Christmas morning was fun. Ella loved all her presents-here she is with the easel that daddy bought her

...and her tickle monster hands. She likes to put these on and chase us around the house.

This pic is a little blurry, but this is Ella in her Christmas dress in front of the tree. She was pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!

Before the "heat wave" came in, we had a ton of snow. Remeber Ella last year in the snow?? Well this year was a different story. She loved it and didn't want to come in! She was so funny though-we had a sled for her but it had just been sitting in our garage so it had gotten a little dirty and there was a tiny little dead gnat in it. We wiped it out but she just couldn't get over the fact that there had been a dead bug in it. So the entire time we were pulling her on it, she wanted to get out because she didn't want to sit on a bug. Girly girl!

Our other big news (which probably everyone already knows) is that Ella is in her big girl bed! Her crib converts to a day bed/toddler bed thing, so it wasn't a huge transition. We started out by putting a safety rail up, but since it really wasn't supposed to go with this particular bed, it came up really high. We weren't sure she realized she could get out. We wanted to teach her to stay in bed even though she could get out herself. So yesterday we took off the rail. It makes me nervous because she could fall out, but I guess that's just something she needs to learn too. If she does fall out its a very short fall to the floor and we have it lined with a ton of pillows so it wouldn't hurt. So far so good though! She's stayed in her bed all night long and hasn't fallen out! I'm still not sure she's even thought of getting out. When she wakes up, she just calls for me and when I come to get her she's standing up in bed waiting for me. So we'll see if the realization of her freedom kicks in any time soon :)

Here's a video of her seeing her big girl bed for the first time...

I'm excited for 2011! This will be an exciting year for us, obviously with the addition to our family in June! My pregnancy is going pretty well so far. Over Christmas, I did have a little scare with some spotting. Since our miscarriage last year occured on Christmas Day, it made me more worried than I might have been otherwise. But thankfully when I went to the Dr. when they opened, they said everything was fine. I just overdid it a little over Christmas. We find out Jan 20th if Ella will have a little brother or little sister! Ella has said over and over that it is a girl, but I'm feeling more boy this time around so we'll see who's right! I admit I'm hoping a little more for a boy just to have 1 of each but of course I'll be so happy either way! Ella is starting to understand more and more about the baby. She'll kiss my tummy or sometimes if she's in not so nice of a mood she'll "crush" the baby, pressing her hands on my stomach. Hopefully that won't be something she does to the baby!!

Wishing you all a blessed New Year!

Big News!

2010-12-15T15:20:00.002-06:00

I thought I had pics to attach to this post but I'm not sure where they went! BUT, just wanted to finally announce our big news-Ella's going to be a big sister!! My due date is June 14th. We're very excited! We've had 1 ultrasound and today I heard the heartbeat again so I felt comfortable announcing it. It was hard to wait this long! We had a bit of a hard road getting here, again-not as hard as with Ella but it still wasn't easy. We lost a pregnancy about a year ago and then it just took a little while to conceive again-so we're just very happy and excited! I'll try to post some pics soon!

Major Catch Up

2010-11-04T06:55:00.008-05:00

Is anyone still reading my sad little blog? It has been so neglected! I have nothing to say for myself other than I have been really lacking motivation! I feel like we've been in survival mode a little bit for the past month or so. Ella's been battling another ear infection (JUST when we thought we were rid of those pesky things!), so sleep has been hard to come by. If I can manage to take a shower, get Ella dressed and get dinner on the table, I feel like my day has been a success!

But in the midst of lack of sleep and sickness, we've been doing great and have been enjoying Fall! Yay for Fall.

Doesn't Ella look so OLD in this picture? I have really no reason for posting it other than that. And because she's cute!

I'm going to try and recap our last month or so! We had the Fall birthday celebration at Rusty's grandma's house so Ella got to have another birthday party! Here are some shots with her great granny, who she calls "Baga"-you can tell she loves her a lot!

A few weeks ago we went to Zoo Boo for the first time. It was fun but I think Ella was a little too young to enjoy it as much as the older kids did. She did love the candy and especially the safari animals since her favorite movie is The Lion King right now! Here she is with her friend Ally! In case you can't tell, Ella was wonder woman and Ally was a strawberry :)

Super Ella!

Ella is very shy to strangers and is extremely clingy to me right now, so it always surprises me that she isn't scared of these giant animals! She likes the big dinosaur that walks around The Childrens Museum too.

I've been trying to be better about staying at home and finding things (other than watching TV) to do. So a few weeks ago I made my own play-dough for the first time. It was a hit! Its so much softer and easier to work with than store bought play-dough! I'll definitely make it again. Here's a link to the recipe I used in case anyone wants to try it: Play-dough recipe

Ella doesn't look super excited about it in this picture, but she really does love it! I got out all my cookie cutters and she cut out lots of fun shapes. At the last garage sale I went to, I got a ton of play-dough equipment for $1! So she's been having lots of fun with that too.

I was so excited to take Ella trick or treating this year! Unfortunately, I took her to the dr. on the Friday before Halloween and she had a pretty yucky double ear infection. I decided to go ahead and do 1 round of antibiotics to see if we could just get rid of it that way since I'd already tried my natural approach a few weeks ago and it didn't seem to work. They put her on omnicef, which I know she had last winter. For some reason this time around, her system just did not handle it well and it resulted in some unpleasant side effects. They hit hard on Sunday after church and we decided to forgo trick or treating. I was so bummed! Her costume was just too hard to get off and on and we were having to do very frequent diaper changes at that point. So instead, she put on her tutu and fairy wings and helped Daddy hand out candy. Every time the door bell rang, she ran to the door and said "more friends are at our door!" At some point we'll have to tell her that not everyone who comes to our door is a friend, but at this point, it's the only thing that makes her not scared of people coming over! Here she is, looking pretty happy considering the rough day she had!

The other new thing we've been doing is the sensory tub. I'd seen it on a few blogs and had wanted to try it for awhile but just never got around to it. It is a HUGE hit! I would say she has spent at least 2 hours a day off and on since I put this out. The idea is to change it up every once in awhile with different textures and items. I know some girls do it seasonally. I also have seem them ranging in sizes to big ones that kids can sit in, to pretty small ones. I had originally wanted to use dry beans but couldn't find any cheap ones. Then I saw one girl who had used oatmeal so I decided to do that. I just used bowls and scoops from her kitchen and a few other things and tossed it all in. I can't tell you how much she loves it! If anyone tries this, I will warn you, using oatmeal is messy! It starts to break down pretty quickly and leaves a powdery dust. But it does clean up really quickly. I also made the mistake of turning my back for quite awhile the first time Ella used this. Here is how it went.

Started off pretty great!

She figured out after about 20 minutes that she could fit inside it!

It kind of went down hill from there-notice the oatmeal, everywhere!

Oh well. It took all of 5 minutes to clean up. And she told me about 100 times "mommy, I having FUN!", so that made it worth it! Now its the first thing she asks for when she wakes up. And she's gotten much better about keeping the oatmeal in the tub and she hasn't gotten back in it since that first time. I think i will try beans next time just for something new and hopefully a little less messy.

Last Saturday we went to have some family pics taken! We've actually never gone anywhere to do family pics, and I haven't done any professional (well, Target) pics with Ella since her 1st bday! Its just always such a hassle to coordinate, plus Ella just has never done well with getting her pics taken by someone other than me. But my friend Erin just started her own photography business and she had this really pretty location that she used. So I figured with it being outside, Ella might do a little better. So we scheduled but, but unfortunately it was only 42 degrees out when we did these pictures! We were only outside for about 30 minutes and I was hugging and warming Ella up between pics. She wasn't a very happy girl. She really wanted to explore and play but it was just too cold. But despite her unhappy mood, I think Erin got some good shots and I was happy overall with how they turned out! One little smile from Ella would have been nice, but oh well. Maybe next time! Here are a few (for anyone who hasn't seen them on facebook).

Ok, I think I'm caught up! Whew! I'm going to try hard to have more regular posts from now on!

2 years ago...

2010-09-26T19:39:00.003-05:00

Two years ago today, I was in the hospital, getting ready to have a baby! Hard to believe it's been 2 years. Best 2 years of my life for sure!

Ella's bday party was yesterday. We just ended up doing a family party and that worked out great. Ella was a little overwhelmed by all the presents! She just wanted to stop and play with each thing. Overall she did great and got lots of fun new toys! Minnie Mouse was definitely the theme of the day-I certainly hope she loves Minnie for a LONG time!

Here was her Minnie cake...I did NOT leave myself enough time to make this! I'm not sure what I was thinking-I didn't start icing it until about 2 hours before the party. It was much harder to do than I thought it would be and I didn't even ice the edges. Oh well! It definitely wasn't perfect but I don't think Ella cared :) One mistake I made was showing her the cake at the beginning of the party instead of right before we were about to eat. All she wanted to do was eat that cake! I ended up putting her in time out at her own party because she was just out of control!

Looking at her gift pile, ready to dive in!

I was so excited to find this-its a Minnie Mouse oven mitt! She loves to "borrow" mine and pretend to bake. This also came with a little mini cupcake pan, spatula and decorating kit. Cute!

Aunt Rachel got her these dress up Minnie Shoes! They are so cute! Today all she wanted to do was twirl around in her Minnie Shoes :)

This was probably her favorite present of the day-a Minnie Mouse and Car from Uncle Chris and Aunt Sarah. We were able to skype them in during present time! (oh, if you are wondering about that bump on her head...she had a little run in with a brick fireplace-so sad)

Time for Cake!

This was about the best family picture we got-Ella was NOT in the mood all day!

Reading her new book with Aunt Rachel

Much happier after her nap!

Here are some things about Ella at 2 years old...

*she's still mostly a mommy's girl, but has gotten MUCH more attached to daddy

*not a great eater lately-her favorite meal is cheese in a tortilla and grapes

*talks so well! her favorite phrase is "oh goodness!" and "I'm Ok Mommy!"

*sleeps from about 8pm-6:30am, 1 nap a day, usually around an hour

*loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Agent Oso, Pooh Movies, Finding Nemo and Cars

*Loves reading-her favorites are Pokey Little Puppy, Goodnight Moon, Guess How Much I love you, and her "Alice book"-a pop up Alice in Wonderland book

*talks on her play phone a lot-mostly to Aunt "Fra" (Sarah)

*Has gotten much better about recognizing people and going to them, much to the delight of the grandparents

*In mostly 2T clothes but some of her 18 and even 12 month clothes still fit!

*Giving kisses is probably her favorite thing to do-she probably kisses me at least 50 times a day-love it!

I'll probably go back and edit when I think of more things but my mind is going blank! She's just a fun loving and sweet little girl. She's so affectionate and sweet-most of the time! We can tell she's transitioning into the phase where she will really be testing her boundaries and seeing what she can get away with. So far she is very responsive to time outs and the occasional spanking. We have not had to spank her too many times but I can already tell she is staring to work the system with the time outs, so spankings may be happening more often in our house. I'm thankful for her sweet spirit and look forward to seeing her personality develop more and more!

2010-08-09T19:15:00.003-05:00

I was catching up on some of my regular blogs today and realized what a post slacker I've been! So here is my attempt to catch up!

I realized I hadn't even posted 4th of July pics, oops! So here are a few. Here is Ella with her Uncle Chris, who (whom?) she loves dearly. She'll be so sad to see him and Aunt Sarah leave in just a few weeks-they are moving to Texas!

Ella's obsession with Mickey Mouse continues.

Jen-this one's for you! We had a play date a few weeks ago and one of the little boys, Tyler, had this cool Mickey Mouse sippy cup. Ella just fell in love with it! So a few days after they left, I found a 3 pack at Walmart. I intended to give them to her one at a time, every once in awhile. But she saw them before I could put them away and just got SO excited that I just let her have them all :) She is pretty much always with these things!

Since it's been so hot here, we've been going to the Children's Museum a lot. Ella loves these wooden bears in the PlayScape area. She loves to hug them.

A few weekends ago we went to my Aunt's to celebrate my cousin's 19th bday.

I think Ella is saying "why are you taking pictures when we could be eating cake?"

Practicing her moves

Visiting my aunt always makes me want to move to the country! They have lots of wide open space and just built this beautiful wrap around porch, which Ella loves to run on!

Next up-State Fair! Hopefully we can go a few times this week as long as we can handle the heat!

A Little Update

2010-07-18T19:58:00.002-05:00

I just had to jot down some of the stuff Ella has been up to. She is just so stinkin FUN! When Ella was a baby-probably around 3 months old-I remember being a little bummed. She just wasn't that FUN. She was cute and sweet and I loved her a ton, but I just didn't have as much fun with her as I thought I would. Is that horrible to say? Then a friend of mine said that she was much more of a "toddler person" than a "baby person". At the time, I thought "No way, I am totally a baby person. I love babies!" But now that I have a toddler...I SO am a "toddler person". Not that I didn't love the baby stage and often miss holding, rocking and nursing Ella, but I have to say I just enjoy the stage she's in right now so much! Rusty and I were talking the other night about starting to think about baby #2, if God blesses us with another one, and Rusty said "I wish they could just be born at like, 6 months old." :)

Ella is just such a joy to us. She talks up a storm and it is so funny! It's amazing how much her vocabulary has expanded, just in the past few weeks. She knows pretty much all her colors-she is consistent with orange, yellow, pink, purple and black. She's been doing better with green and red, but blue is still iffy. She can say her numbers 1-10 but not always in the right order :) She knows most of her animals but we need to work on the animal sounds, I've been slacking in that area!

Her interest in drawing/coloring has gone down a lot but she loves to play with play-doh. She also loves to just sit and read books or do puzzles. She's also discovered her shopping cart, which she's had for months but hasn't shown much interest in until now. I line some of her play food on my lowest pantry shelf and let her "shop" out of mommy's pantry. That will keep her busy for the longest time! She also has started pretending and its so cute to watch. Most of the time I'm not really sure what she is pretending to do but she gets really into it! She loves to pretend to be asleep, play hide and seek, and build a "house" out of couch cushions. She loves to touch the ceiling when Rusty holds her up high and she loves to climb up me with her feet and then flip over.

One of her newest sayings right now is "Oh gosh!"-I'm not so happy about this one. I try not to say "gosh"-I'm not really offended by it, but I'd just rather her not say it. She heard it on Mickey Mouse of all places, he says it all the time. She's also gotten really into watching the movie "Cars". Cute movie, but they say "idiot and moron"-why? So far she hasn't picked these words up. I don't want to be the super overprotective mom that doesn't let her kids watch anything, but I don't want to wait until she starts saying those words to address the issue. Not really sure what to do!

As far as her vocabulary goes, I feel like she really knows most common household words and can communicate what she wants pretty clearly. It does usually just come out as a bunch of babble with just a few recognizable words but it gets the point across at least! Her sentences are short and missing words but I think she does really well! Her memory is also starting to develop more. She retained a lot of what we did this week and has continued talking about it for days after! She remembered going to Monkey Joes and the Childrens Museum. Today we hung out at my sisters's apartment and Ella remembered exactly the spot where she had found a rock the last time we were there-probably 3 weeks ago now!

This Friday, Rusty and I are celebrating our anniversary by going to Kings Island and IKEA! Yippeee! My sister is watching Ella for us all day-I will definitely be missing her but it will be so nice to get away for a day!

Summer Days

2010-07-07T15:31:00.002-05:00

We are having such a great summer. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed summer so much! Normallly I'm not the biggest fan of summer but this summer is different. Ella (like all kids I guess) LOVES being outside. On most days, we're outside more than we're inside. Even 90 degree weather hasn't bothered me like it usually does which is a blessing! Here's a little of what we've been up to the past few weeks.

Ella loves running down the hill in our back yard. Actually, it's really just a small slope. But to her, it's like climbing Everest! The angle of this pic does make it look pretty steep but it really isn't. She likes to climb to the top and then run down, saying "WEEEEE!" Then she says "Fun! Again!"

Ella also loves taking her babies for walks in their stroller. This usually ends badly, with her getting tired of walking and wanting me to carry her (and the stroller and the baby) home.

Last week we went to the zoo-probably for the last time this summer. Ella was surprisingly not into the animals and wanted to just run. Everywhere. She didn't even like the dolphin show, which surprised me. She kept saying "all done!" Stinker.

And...most of our afternoons are spent like this. Outside, playing in the water and taking a break to eat a popsicle.

After Rusty gets home from work, Ella likes to help him water the flowers (please ignore our totally dead hanging plants that died while we were in FL. We are trying hard to bring them back to life but I think it's a hopeless cause).

Guess that's about it! Hope your summer is going as great as ours!

Our Disney Vacation!!

2010-06-29T20:28:00.005-05:00

We've been back for over a week and I'm just now getting to blog about this! It's hard getting back in the swing of things!

We had such a great vacation! God is so good and really answered a lot of prayers! Things went very smoothly for the most part, we were all healthy (HUGE answer to prayer) and the weather was-well, good enough I guess :) The next time we go (definitely going back when Ella's a little older), it might be a good idea to go in the spring or fall when it's not so hot! It was in the mid 90's and so so humid every day! Luckily there are lots of air conditioned little shops to duck into and spend lots of money at!

We left on a Tuesday night. Rusty, Rachel and I left our house around 5:30 and headed to Rusty's Mom's to pick up Ella. We got on the road around 6:20. Here's Ella-ready for the long road trip! Other than hitting some bad weather, the drive to FL went pretty well. Ella fell asleep around 10 and slept until 2:30 when we stopped for gas. She didn't fall back asleep until 4ish and then slept until we stopped for breakfast at 7. We got to Disney around 11:30.

Once we got all checked in, we all took naps and then headed out to Magic Kingdom! As you can see, Ella is just super excited to be here! :)

We didn't do much that afternoon. Rusty and Rachel went out to ride some rides while I stayed with Ella and rode some kiddie rides. She really liked the Pooh ride although it did scare her a little.

The next day (Thursday), we went to Epcot. Despite the horrible heat, Ella managed to fall asleep for over an hour. (she's holding on tight to the pooh and Eeyore we got her at magic kingdom-she held on those and played with them every day!)

While Ella was napping, we walked through a lot of the different countries. And we had a Snow White spotting!

Once Ella woke up, I decided to go ahead and wait in line to get pics taken with all the Mickey's Clubhouse characters. We had to wait for about an hour but I'm glad we got the pics! Here's Ella waiting in line. She was pretty good!

She doesn't look it in this picture, but she was actually VERY excited about seeing Mickey Mouse! She saw him while we were waiting in line and had a mini meltdown because she wanted to run to him and give him "pats"-which is what she does to show love, it's very sweet! More on that later...

I didn't put the rest of the pics but we also got pics with Donald, Daisy, Pluto and Goofy (who she was scared of).

Next day was Hollywood Studios, which we all really liked. Tower of Terror was a really good ride! We also got pics taken with Handy Manny! I really wanted to ask him what his intentions are with Kelly but I didn't :)-everytime Rusty and I watch this show we wonder if him and Kelly will ever get together. Ha!

Ella's favorite part of the whole trip was probably seeing a live playhouse disney! it was so well done. They had Mickey's Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, Tigger & Pooh and Handy Manny. It was basically a big puppet show but it was really cute and Ella was just glued the whole time.

After the show, Rachel and I went to ride Tower of Terror while Rusty took Ella around.

We went to Downtown Disney in the evening on Friday. Here is Rusty and I in front of the "Jenny" from Forrest Gump!

Ella exploring some of the statues and giving them "pats"

Rachel and I trying to cool off!

I don't have any great pics from Animal Kingdom but we did go there! That is where we went Saturday and it was just so busy and so hot. Rachel and I rode the water ride first thing and we got so wet that I just felt disgusting the rest of the day and neither of us felt like being in any pics!

Saturday night, Rachel watched Ella so Rusty and I could head back to Downtown Disney for a date night! Despite it pouring down rain, we had a great time! We ate at this amazing Irish place, wish we had it here! I wanted to try everything on the menu!

Sunday, Rusty stayed with Ella and Rachel and I headed back to Magic Kingdom, just the 2 of us. I felt so free! I loved having Ella there of course, but it was so nice to just walk around and do what we wanted without having to worry about stopping for diaper changes, snacks, etc. We met up with Rusty around 1pm and headed back for our LONG drive home! That was not fun! It was WAY better to drive at night than during the day! But, we made it!

So, that is our trip in a nutshell! Lots of fun memories. We LOVED the place we stayed-we stayed at Fort Wilderness Cabins. It was a great setup-it was basically just like a little apartment with a bedroom, kitchen, living room, etc. It would even be fine for 2 families to share since there are 2 double beds, bunk beds, and then they have pack n plays to let you borrow! We also learned for next time we go that we need to bring umbrellas/ponchos everyday-that would've been super helpful because we got wet every day we were there and I guess that is pretty common! We also found out that its much easier to drive than to take their transportation. It's nice to have if you don't have a car but be prepared to spend lots of time on the shuttle. We also had to remind ourselves to just not stress about things. We saw SO many people arguing with each other and yelling at their kids. Its so easy to do, especially when its hot.

Since we've been home, Ella has just been fiestier than ever! One little story to leave you with. The other night I put her on her time out bench and she was NOT happy about it. She sat on her bench, looked up at me and said "Mommy NO PATS!" It took me a minute to figure out what she said but once I figured it out, I was shocked! Of course it hurt my feelings that she was basically telling me that she didn't love me at that moment, but I was also pretty shocked that she had figured out a way to communicate that using the things she knew how to say!

Ella update!

2010-06-10T13:04:00.005-05:00

Happy June!

Enjoying a juice date with her friend Zoey on Memorial Day...

One of her favorite past times...guess she sees Mommy doing this a lot!

We've been spending lots of hot days at the park by our house! Classic Ella face.

And...it's a splash park! Ella loves it but is a little intimidated-some of that water is pretty strong! I'm not sure if Ella is more fearful than other kids, but I usually feel like I'm the only mom having to run through the water with her child! Oh well! I've learned to just wear my swim suit whenever we go-I usually end up more wet than she is! This day there happened to be just a few kids. We went today though and it was PACKED. When I left, there was someone sitting waiting on my parking spot. It's a popular place!

Ella loves the playground equipment they have there. I like it too because it's easy for me to keep track of where she is. Some of the parks we've visited have so many tunnels and bridges, I lose track of her all the time!

Ella and her friend Ally, planning their escape! They didn't get far.

This picture cracks me up! Ella, practicing her matrix moves, with her friend Ally again :)

So it's been awile since I've given an Ella update! She seems to be changing every day. She goes to Rusty's Mom's every Monday and Tuesday and it seems every Monday, they comment on something new she's doing since they saw her the past Tuesday! Her vocabulary grows by the second it seems. She's very curious and constantly asks "what's that?" She has started walking up to people we don't know (usually in the park) and will look up at them and say to me "what's that"? It's a little embarassing! But she just wants to know who that person is and I guess she doesn't know to say "who's that?" :) Here are some other tid bits about Ella at 20 1/2 months:

*she's quite the perfectionist.

*she hates for things to be dirty, messy or out of place. She was pretty upset at Walmart the other day when one of the tubes of chapstick had been knocked out of the box, so we had to fix it. She's extremely persistent and will not let it rest until it's put back into place!

*Her favorite foods are blueberries, strawberries, peaches, (soy) cheese, (soy or almond) milk, and juice-in that order! She is a pretty good eater overall but dinner is by far our hardest meal with her. I've learned to just not push bites on her and eventually she'll take bites on her own. Her favorite dinner is spaghetti!

*She had gotten really good at feeding herself until recently-she wants me to feed her. It's a little annoying and my food always ends up cold. But as much as I persist for her to take her own bites, she'll just say to me "YOU do it"-even if it's taking a bite of toast.

*Has finally transitioned into 1 nap. We were going back and forth between 1 and 2 naps for over a month. Finally I got sick of never knowing from day to day what our schedule was going to be and just decided to do 1 nap. Eventually her body figured it out I guess, because now she'll consistently go down at around 12:30 or 1 with no problem and sleeps about 1.5-2 hours.

*LOVES bath time! This was such a triumph for us-we struggled with bath time for quite awhile but now as soon as we say "bath time", she runs to the stairs. Actually, a few nights we tried to skip bath time but as soon as we tried to put her PJ's on without doing a bath, she would just cry and point to the door, saying "bath...bath". So now we pretty much just do it nightly as the start of her bedtime routine.

*Her bedtime routine is great right now. Bath starts around 7:30 and by 8 she's usually in bed and close to asleep. I used to sing to her and rock her before putting her in her crib, but now she prefers reading 1 Pooh book and Goodnight Moon. Wake up time is around 6:30. She usually wakes up talking about something-not sure if it's something she had a dream about or what. This morning she woke up saying "swimsuit! Water!" haha! She also is still in her crib and has not shown any signs of trying to climb/jump out so we're not planning to put her in a toddler bed any time soon!

*She loves Finding Nemo and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse-she'd probably watch those 2 over and over all day if I let her. We've scaled back a LOT on TV-she usually watches 2 Mickey's in the morning and part of Finding Nemo after her nap in the afternoons. Other than that I try to keep the TV off! Definitely a challenge on rainy days!

*I've bought her a potty chair but haven't really tried using it yet. She's just recently started telling us (sometimes) when she's dirty or wet so I guess that is the first sign that maybe she is getting ready!

Well, I could go on and on but I'm sure this is getting boring! If you're still reading at this point, thanks! :) I'll end by this video of her, which I find hilarious. Most of you that read this blog probably already know about how her new favorite word is "dangerous". She likes to point at things and say "that's dangerous!" It's pretty cute. So here she is saying "dangerous".

Oh, and one more thing. We live for Disney in 5 days!!! Any tips on long car trips/vacations with a toddler would be greatly appreciated!

Where to begin?

2010-05-23T12:53:00.010-05:00

We've been trying to get back into our normal routine.

It's a slow process.

In the past 3 weeks, we've moved my Mom here, graduated my youngest sister (we didn't actually go to her graduation ceremony as she decided against walking-but we did do a "reenactment" of the ceremony at our house!), had family from Holland come to stay with us for 3 days, and successfully married off (is that the right term?) one sister.

Whew.

Last week was a week filled with mixed emotions for me. I had thought Monday morning would meet me with relief, but instead, it left me feeling empty. It was definitely time for my sister to move on with her own life, but I was surprised with the sadness I felt with one less person living in our house! It will just take some getting used to. And it won't be for long as we will have another (much welcomed) house guest for awhile starting June 12th when my youngest sister comes to stay with us!

So I've finally found a quiet moment to sit down and start sorting out the events of the past few weeks. It will probably take me a few posts to catch up. I'll start with what happened the most recently, and I suppose, the most exciting of all! Sarah's wedding, of course! (Sorry, Rachel-your graduation reinactment was quite exciting but it will have to be pushed to the next post) :)

Thursday night kicked it off with Sarah's bachelorette party. I'll just say that Sarah has some pretty wild and exciting friends. I'll post a few *select* pictures in a future post. Maybe.

Friday night was the rehearsal. It was such fun! The actual rehearsal went fairly well and we got all the kinks worked out. Here's us sisters-don't mind the construction in the background!

Dinner was directly afterwards at a fun local place called Scotty's Lakehouse (I think). They had wonderful burgers and fries and I regretted that I had placed my Cobb Salad order in advance, but I ate Rusty's fries :)

Saturday was the big day. We prayed and prayed for good weather and we were blessed with a beautiful day with just a few drops of rain towards the end of the day. I had also prayed a LOT for Ella to behave well as the flower girl. She's totally unpredictable. We decided early on that her and I would walk down the aisle together, holding hands. Getting her to walk down the aisle by herself was something I didn't even want to attempt. She did great at the rehearsal so I really hoped she would do it during the wedding.

Here we go. So far, so good!

Uh-oh. Something catches her eye in the pew. I try to ignore it and keep walking.

Ok, she let out a pretty loud shriek so I should probablly try to get this under control.

And...this is me dragging her up the aisle, as she begins her meltdown.

But aren't her shoes cute?

Ok, this pic got out of order. I think it was pre-meltdown.

And...here comes the bride. Isn't she beatiful? I really didn't expect to tear up but the moment I heard the music and she walked out with my Dad, I lost it. My little sister was getting married!

I really really enjoyed the whole ceremony (other than my feet hurting so badly from my shoes that I really thought I might pass out). She walked out to the song "Kisses & Cake" which is one of the main songs used in the movie "P.S. I Love You". One of her bridesmaids sang a really pretty song by Brandon Heath-I can't remember the name of it now...Love is Near maybe? The Unity Candle Lighting was to "I'll Be By Your Side" by Tenth Avenue North. They first just lit the candle and prayed as a couple.

Then the wedding party came and silently prayed over them.

Then, finally...the kiss!!

The ending song was "This Will Be" by Natalie Cole. It was perfect!

They are so happy! Aren't they a cute couple??

The reception turned out so great. Our church gym has never looked so classy! The bridal party was introduced to the song "Now that We Have Love" from the end credits of the movie Hitch, and we tried to kind of recreate that end scene-cute.

First Dance (to "I'll Be" by Edwin McCain")

Cutting of the Cake (forget what song they had during this but it was a good one!)

And...just some fun pics from the reception. Ella was a wild child! I have a really cute video of her dancing that I'll have to post later.

All in all, it was a great day and a beautiful wedding! All the hard work was definitely worth it and I know my sister is going to be so happy!

(A lot of these pics were borrowed from Amber and Anya-thanks girls!)

We miss you Aunt Rachel!!

2010-04-25T20:24:00.003-05:00

Tonight during dinner, Ella started saying "Rachel?? Rachel??" She misses her Aunt Rachel and so do we!! I tried to get a good video of her asking for Rachel but by the time I got my camera out and recording, she was on the tail end of it, of course! We miss you Rach! See ya soon!!

2010-04-18T19:01:00.002-05:00

I just uploaded about 200 pics from my camera onto my computer, yikes! We've just been having a crazy couple of weeks at our house. We've got about another month before all the craziness calms down! One sister is getting married, another sister is graduating from college and moving, my Mom is moving from about an hour away to about 10 minutes away and we have some family from overseas coming to stay with us! It will be a fun month but I'm also looking forward to some calm :) Rusty and I really-like REALLY-want to go on vacation after all this but we'll see what happens. We'd really like to go to Disney. I know Ella's too young to even remember it but we have some Disney Dollars to spend and it just seems like a good set up with staying at the Park and being able to just go back to our hotel for Ella's nap without too much hassle.

Last weekend was the big spring family get together on Rusty's side of the family. Since everyone is so spread out and busy, we try to bascially do a get together 4 times a year and celebrate all the bdays that hit around that time. We were blessed with a wonderful sunny day! Here's Ella with her maw-maw, grandpa and cousin Mariah.

This next pic is by request, so here you go Nancy! :) Ella wore this outfit to church last week and got quite a few compliments on her diva shoes, ha! One of the many reasons I love having a girl-you should see this girl's shoe drawer!!

Ella has been doing really well with eating lately. She's great about trying new things and really likes most things. I even made tuna patties for dinner the other night and she gobbled them right up, I was surprised! I realized I'd gotten in the bad habit of still feeding her and not letting her really practice feeding herself with utensils. So...here she is after feeding herself spaghetti.

This past weekend I had a few luxury hours to myself. The first hour was spent at the BMV replacing my lost drivers license. SIGH. But the next hour I hit the first garage sales of the season!! I had been itching to go and Saturday was the perfect day. There were several neighborhood sales that I hit up. Sadly, it seems everyone had the garage sale itch-it was super packed everywhere. Not sure if all the good stuff was bought up on Friday or what, I was pretty disappointed at what people were trying to sell. Used coloring books? Lingerie (yup-really)? Yucky old pots & pans? Clothing with stains and holes? So, I ended up spending $3. I got Ella a cute little dr. kit, a t-shirt and a sun hat. Funny how the focus of my shopping has totally changed! Here she is with the stethoscope of her dr. kit. I was CRACKING UP when I turned the corner and saw her like this!!

And.....last but not least.....we got a new car!! Yippeee! We've been praying about it for about a month now. We had a 2001 Chevy Malibu that I was driving. It was starting to get some miles on it but it was paid for and we've not had any problems with it in the 7 years that we've had it. We also had a 2001 Nissan Pathfinder that Rusty drove. It had quite a few miles on it (like 132K!) and was starting to have problems. And we still owed money on it. We took it in for a maintenance check and found out it needed some work done. So...we just prayed and decided to go car shopping on Saturday. And well...we found a car! It's a 2008 Saturn Vue and it's beautiful and I love it! The dearlership was willing to take a trade on the Pathfinder and gave us definitely more than it was worth. All the stars alligned and we decided to go for it! Rusty is making a HUGE sacrifice for me on this! He's going to be driving my Malibu from now on so that I can drive the new car. I honestly feel a little guilty about this and was really sad for him last night. He really loved that Pathfinder. It was a guys car. The malibu...well, not the most manly car. But he keeps insisting that he's totally fine with it, what a great husband!! This new car will be such a blessing for me-so much roomier for getting Ella in and out, buying groceries, getting the stroller in and out, etc. Yay!

Plan B, Easter and I love you!!

2010-04-05T20:34:00.003-05:00

Can you tell from the title that this is going to be a random, catch-up post? Ha! Last week was a fun week for us. The weather was super nice and Ella has been in a great mood! I have to chalk it up to her ears continue to improve. It makes me mad that we weren't able to help her earlier. It was a pretty miserable 4 months or so for all of us-her, dealing with constant pain and irritation and us, dealing with a generally unhappy girl for a lot of the time! I'm hoping things will keep going up from here!

Friday, my sisters Sarah and Rachel were both off work and home. Since the weather was supposed to be great, we decided to take Ella to the zoo! I guess everyone had the same idea. We figured out pretty quickly that something was going on. Cars were lined up really far back. I decided to zoom past everyone, hoping maybe there was just an accident or that everyone was actually turning before the zoo. Nope! Everyone was in line for the zoo! But when we actually got to the zoo entrance, it was all coned off! I'm really glad we didn't wait in that line for an hour only to find out we couldn't get in! I later found out that we had to park somewhere else and shuttle over. We came up with a Plan B pretty quickly. I'd packed a cooler with sandwiches so we just decided to head over to the Art Museum and see if we could just eat lunch on the grounds there and let Ella play around in the grassy areas. Thankfully, the museum was pretty empty and we were able to have a great time there! Ella loved eating outside and then getting to play.

We started off our Easter festivities by dying...Ella's mouth. I had the Easter Egg painting kit in a cabinet and well, Ella found it...

...you can't tell very well from this picture but her mouth was VERY green, as were her hands, legs and hair! Augh! My first reaction was to find the box to make sure it was nontoxix! It was :) So then I took a picture. And then I cleaned her up. So, that is about as far as we got this year with painting anything. We'll try again next year!

Easter morning was pretty hectic at our house since I had to leave earlier than everyone else for worship practice. As I was leaving the house, Ella was in her highchair eating breakfast. I was saying goodbye and was turning to leave when Ella yelled out "I love you!"-for the very first time!! I've been trying to get her to say that for months it seems but she just clams up and will never say it back to me! So, I was a very happy mama :) Especially since I didn't even say it first, she just said it out of the blue!

And, of course, Easter egg hunting pics! We weren't sure how she would do with this but she did great! She really understood it-we were surprised. Rusty hid 11 eggs and she'd gotten them all in just a few minutes. So we just kept re-hiding them, in the same places even, and she thought it was so fun!

18 months!

2010-03-27T19:13:00.002-05:00

Today my sweet little girl is 1 1/2. This picture totally describes her personality. Fun, silly and full of life!! She is such a joy to me and I can't belive how much she is changing! She makes me laugh constantly and I can say that I really enjoy her company! Every day I feel like she can communicate with me more and more and that is so nice. I know I will probably say this at every stage-but this stage is my favorite so far! There are definitely days when I'll be looking at baby pictures of her and get sad that she's not a baby anymore, but this stage is just so much fun. Here's some things about Ella at 18 months.

*She's a pretty good eater. She'll try anything once. Now that she's completely off dairy, I'm having to introduce new things and that's been a little tricky. She LOVED mac & cheese which now she can't have unless I make it with soy cheese. A typical breakfast for her is soy yogurt with toast or waffles. Lunch is usually some sort of lunch meat or turkey hot dog with fruit and then dinner is just whatever we're having. She really likes spaghetti and this girl loves bread and carbs! She also really likes graham crackers and teddy grahams, which is her normal snack. She used to eat lots of goldfish crackers but now she can't have that because of the cheese. I need to be better about giving her veggies. She doesn't like veggies very well so I try to hide them in with other things when she eats. Sometimes she'll have butternut squash with hot dogs all mixed together. Sounds gross but she loves it!

*She's back to 2 naps a day. I'm gonna stretch the 2 naps out for as long as possible! We went to 1 nap for awhile but it just wasn't working-she was getting tired by around 10:30 or 11 and then would only sleep an hour and wouldn't take a 2nd nap. So now we do a morning nap at around 9:30 and afternoon nap around 3. She goes to bed around 7:45 and is up usually around 6:30.

*Her favorite activity right now is drawing! She also loves to go outside and just RUN! We've gone to this inflatable jump place called Monkey Joe's a few times lately and she really enjoys that. She also loves being at the Children's Museum. Her favorite shows to watch are Agent Oso, Handy Manny and Mickey Mouse Club House. Whenever I get my laptop out she runs over and says "Hot Dog!!" so I can play the Hot Dog song for her on youtube :)

*She is a total mommy's girl, although she definitely loves her daddy. She's had quite a bit of daddy time lately and I can tell she's much more attached to him than she used to be. She also is starting to recognize people more that she doesn't see very often.

*Her vocabulary grows daily and she's putting more words together (all done, all gone, i get you, let's go, etc.). she still hasn't said "I love you" and I can't wait for her to learn that one!

*She still isn't thrilled about bath time but we've seen some improvement. She's still in her infant tub. I'm thinking the issue was part fear of the water and part pain in her ears. As her ears have started getting better, her fear of baths has decreased. We're not too worried about it right now.

*I bought her a potty chair this week. I don't think she's at all ready to be potty trained but I just wanted to introduce it to her. We practiced sitting on it a few times but she just didn't get it-but she does like sitting on it!

*EAR UPDATE!! I took her to her pediatrician this week for an ear check. The chiropractor had said to get her checked after 2 weeks to make sure there was no infection and that the fluid hadn't increased. After looking in her ears, the dr. said one ear was slightly pink but nothing that she would even prescribe an antibiotic for. She said both ears still contained fluid but that was totally normaly. She said fluid can stay in their ears for up to 3 months after an ear infection. I was a little worried about how my pediatrician would react to the fact that I'd gone the natural route and not done tubes. She was actually very supportive of it! She said that as long as her hearing was fine (which it is-we had that tested) she saw no reason for tubes at this time. She said to continue what we've been doing and she would continue to check Ella's ears. She said that in May we should just schedule an appointment with the ENT to do a pressure test and make sure that everything was back to normal. So, we're continuing to just give this to God and pray that her ears will heal and not require tubes! We've seen a HUGE improvement in her disposition in the past few weeks that I can only assume is because she's starting to feel better!

Well, for anyone who's still reading this long post, thanks for reading and being interested! :) It's a joy to share our life with you!

Rachel and Tabitha's DAY OF FUN!!

2010-03-24T20:41:00.006-05:00

Friends' reference, anyone? (Joey and Janice's DAY OF FUN! Joey: does it have to be a whole day? Janice: YES, because that's how long it takes to love me!). oh how I love Friends.

Anyways, I got to have a special day of fun with my sister Rachel last week! It was so awesome! We both randomly just said several times through out the day "I'm having so much fun!" It was really the first whole day I was without Ella ever! I was away from her overnight once for a woman's retreat, but never did she leave early in the morning (Rusty took her to his mom's) and then I just have a day of relaxation. We were blessed with awesome weather that day too so it was just perfect!

After Rusty left with Ella, I went back to bed and slept for another hour! It was great! Then Rachel and I got up and made these carrot cake pancakes that I'd seen on PW's Tasty Kitchen website. If you look at the picture of the ones on her website, they look great-the perfect consistency. These were ours. I'm not really sure where we went wrong but they were definitely not light and fluffy. They were just ok.

After breakfast, we got ready and headed out. First stop: Starbucks!

They have this new drink called Dark Cherry Mocha. Oh my, it was so good! We got it iced. If you like dark chocolate and cherry, you will love this drink!

Our next stop was JoAnns! I love that store and could spend hours looking around-it's a pretty dangerous place for me actually! I limited myself to this one purchase. I love this fabric! I got 5 yds of it I think. My initial thought was to make a tablecloth but now I keep thinking of lots of other things I want to make! I might re-cover the seats of my kitchen chairs with it...? I'm sure I'll come up with something!

After JoAnn's we went several places but I got too excited about being out and about, baby-free, and I forgot to take pics! We did go to Old Navy where I got some awesome deals and also to this cute store called Details over in the Keystone at the Crossing area.

Our next stop was the Fashion Mall! We did some looking around at Crate & Barrel and then headed to Cheesecake Factory for lunch!

Our lunch was so yummy!

After lunch, we just browsed around the Fashion Mall. Of course we made a stop at the best store there! Anthropology of course!

Rach and I trying on some super cool glasses.

It was the perfect day! Great company, great food, great shopping and great weather! Love ya Rach!

Best purchase ever!

2010-03-16T19:25:00.002-05:00

We've been making good use of our Children's Museum Pass the past few weeks! Ella loves it there! We got to go last weekend with our good friends. This is seriously the only picture I have of Ella and her buddy Hudson where it's not a big blur. Those 2 were on the move constantly! They were so cute together. Hudson's mom Lindsay and I were laughing because as we were walking from the dinosaur exhibit, some guy stopped us and asked if they were twins! Uhm-nope! haha.

Ok-I had to include this picture. It's of Ella on the runway at the Barbie exhibit. She got ahold of my camera tonight and was pushing buttons like crazy. When I got it back from her, I found this picture-somehow Ella had added the word "Congratulations" to this picture! HA! Didn't even know my camera could do that!

I've been looking around for a flower girl dress for Ella-she's going to be the flower girl in Sarah's wedding in May. Should be interesting! So, flower girl dresses are like $60 at David's Bridal-no way am I paying that! I looked around on Craig's List and Ebay but didn't find anything. Then last week I was wandering through the kids section at Target and saw this dress with the Easter Dresses.

I think this could totally pass for a flower girl dress! And it was only $18-I can handle that :) Ella may insist on wearing the hat down the aisle too, not sure. She LOVES to wear this hat!

Now this is my best purchase ever-this little table & chairs set I got Ella! My original plan was to wait for garage sale season and get one. I looked around at goodwill but never came across one. I finally caved in and just bought one at Babies R Us with my 20% off coupon. I'm so glad I didn't wait another 2 months to buy this! To say Ella loves this would be a huge understatement. Since the moment I put it together, she's been sitting at it. Tonight she sat there and colored for over an hour! She never does one thing for that long! Money well spent!

The only sad thing is that now yet another room of my house has been overtaken by kid stuff-I guess it was bound to happen! Last week I bought Ella a kitchen set off Craig's List and I had no place to put it except our front room. So, if you come to my house, the first thing you now see when you come in the door is a lovely plastic kitchen. Oh well!

Ear update

2010-03-12T09:10:00.002-06:00

Just thought I would write about the latest update with Ella's ears if anyone's interested!

I took Ella to the chiropractor (a christian guy who was recommended to me by a friend) on Wednesday. I felt comfortable with him the moment I met him! And Ella actually was really comfortable with him which is very unusual for her-especially lately. We talked for quite awhile about her history with ear infections, how antibiotics weren't working, and her visit with the ENT. Her ENT appt was last week and I was not impressed with the dr. at all. I left feeling flustered and confused. He, of course, recommended that she get tubes put in. That recommendation was based off the fact that she had fluid in her ears and the pressure test came back very high. Thankfully, her hearing test came back totally normal. I initially told the dr. I'd go ahead and schedule the tubes appt. But after watching the video and talking to the nurse, I started feeling very uneasy. I said I'd like to think about it before making the final decision. I did ask the ENT dr. about chiropractic treatment for ear infections. He was immediately very defensive and made me feel like an idiot for even asking about it!

So...anyways, back to the chiropractor appt. The reason I went in the first place was just so that I would know I'd researched every option before letting them poke holes in my baby's ears! Dr. Zimmer (the chiropractor), felt Ella's neck to make sure nothing was "locked" that was preventing the fluid from draining. Her neck was fine. Now-I didn't quite understand everything he told me but it went something like this. Her first ear infection was a result of switching her from breastfeeding to regular milk. I'd already concluded this myself about 6 weeks ago. I'd seen a direct correlation between dairy and her ears getting infected. She was on dairy for most of the time that she had her ear infections because I just didn't realize that was the problem. Switching her to soy got rid of the ear infection but the fluid in her ears were still there. According to Dr. Zimmer, the number of antibiotics she was on (5 or 6, I forget) contributed to the fluid in her ears because (this is where it gets fuzzy for me) her immune and digestive systems were harmed from all the anitbiotics. He explained several times how the immune system being down caused the fluid but I just wasn't getting it. But I trust him on that. The fluid in the ears causes the pressure. Once the fluid leaves, the pressure leaves also. His recommendation is to hit her hard with probiotics and immune boosters. I have a regimen to follow for the next 2 weeks. He said after 2 weeks to take her to my pediatrician for them to check the fluid in her ears. He thinks it will be either gone or greatly reduced. He said to then just periodically schedule ear checks to make sure that fluid is gone. She also needs to be taken off all dairy. There is a chance that she will still need tubes. But he said that this has proven to be very successful and he's done this with lots of kids, including his own.

So, if you're still reading...sorry that was long and boring! But, hopefully it might be a help to someone else whose child is struggling with ear infections! I'm definitely not saying tubes are wrong to get, but for us, this was just what I felt was best for Ella.

I'll keep everyone posted on whether or not this works! Oh, and the kicker was that Dr. Zimmer didn't even end up charging us for our appt. which was so nice!

Bubbles!

2010-02-27T15:36:00.003-06:00

This is the view I have most of the day so I thought I would just share that with you :) Ella LOVES to be held right now. I don't mind holding her but I'd really like her to be able to play on her own also. And she wants to be held at the most inconvenient times of course, like when I'm trying to make dinner! :)

I don't have a lot to post about really, just thought I'd put up a few pictures from the past week. I love the expression on Ella's face in this picture.

We're both actually looking at the camera!

I found her sunglasses in her diaper bag this week and now she likes to wear them a lot. Its so cute!

I'm going to give a video another try. I've posted several recently that look like they are fine but then when you try to view them on my blog, they are not able to be viewed. I've noticed this on some other blogs also so it must be an issue with blogger. I really hope this video works, it's so funny! I'm trying to get Ella to play with bubbles but she's just not having it. She hates getting her hands messy!

30 years of memories

2010-02-24T12:34:00.002-06:00

Today I turn the big 3-0. Yep....the birthday I've been dreading for the past several years is finally HERE. But, thanks to a wonderful husband, great sisters and great friends, it's really been a great day so far! And...I started praying about a week ago that I'd have a good attitude today and I think that has helped a lot! So, I was trying to decide what 30 things to post for my 30th birthday. I decided to post 30 memories. I tried to mainly list happy memories but there are a few not so happy ones in there! These were just off the top of my head-there are so many more that I could list that I just didn't put on there. And I noticed that most of the ones that popped into my head were recent ones, so I tried to go back a little too. Ok, enough! I'll just list them now! :) oh, one more thing-these are in no particular order.
30 memories I have from the past 30 years
1. My first date with Rusty
2. Rusty proposing
3. My wedding day
4. The first 6 months of living in Indy-cried pretty much every day!
5. Rusty's horrible sunburn on our honeymoon
6. The day I found out that I had to have surgery if I ever wanted to get pregnant
7. The moment I found out I was pregnant
8. Laura's taking me to the hospital-and her reaction when I told her I was being admitted
9. The moment Ella was born
10. The first time Ella smiled at me
11. Going to Europe with Rusty on the best vacation ever!
12. Realizing God's perfect plan when I got hired at my current job a week after being fired from a job I hated.
13. Watching Pride & Prejudice with my sisters all night (hellooo Mr. Darcy)
14. Camping with my grandparents in their pop-up camper
15. Totalling Rusty's car in college
16. Meeting Lissa in IT class in middle school
17. Going to England after sr. year of HS
18. Shopping for my wedding dress
19. Marching Band
20. Sarah telling us she was engaged
21. Grocery shopping with Rachel (when we found the graham cracker crust)
22. Getting "outback full" with Rusty
23. the "cockroach incident" with Lissa
24. Doing summer CEF with Michelle and Amanda
25. My marsh memories...too many to name!
26. When my friends threw me a surprise party when I moved from Lafayette to Indy
27. Driving in a blizzard from Lafayette to Indy for Christmas the first year Rusty and I were married
28. When it took me 5 hours to get home from work (normally a 45 min drive) because of all the snow
29. Saying goodbye to Anya
30. Signing papers when we bought our house

Through the ups and downs, of one thing I'm certain-God's grace is abundent and sufficient! I'm truly blessed!

Our day at the museum

2010-02-17T20:35:00.006-06:00

Since winter seems to be dragging on forEVER, we've (I've) been trying to come up with things to do to get us out of the house. I was always one of those people who said I'd never use the TV as a babysitter or let my kids really watch TV. Hmm. Well that all changed about 2 months ago. I'd exhaust all my creative and fun ideas of how to entertain Ella by about 10am. So now our routine has turned into-Ella up at 6am...I try to stretch it to at least 6:15 but by that time she's usually screaming...we head downstairs to get her milk and on comes the TV. I've memorized the line up. I wake up with the Handy Manny (or Imagination Movers) theme song in my head. Normally the TV is on until about 8 and then we head upstairs to play. I try to keep the TV off until about 2 or 3 when she gets up from her nap and I let her watch 1 On Demand show. Then by dinner time the TV comes back on so that I can get dinner started. Ella is just not a great self-entertainer. I try to just let her have alone play time but she usually doesn't go for it...so that means I'm trying to entertain her for about 11 waking hours. That's a lot! I totally run out of things to do with her so I'm sad to say the TV is on more than I'd like. This winter has made me want to seriously consider moving somewhere tropic. Between Ella being sick for all but about a week of winter, it being too frigid to leave the house, and having all my friend's kids be sick too, we've been going a little stir crazy! It's weird, but sometimes the weekends are worse than week days. Even though Rusty is home, I feel even more stir crazy than usual! I don't have people to get together with on the weekends. Rusty has been out and about all week at work so he wants to just be home and relax, while I'm itching to get out of the house! So Saturday we decided to hit the childrens museum. Ella had been once when she was about 9 months old and wasn't too impressed. I thought she'd like it more this time but wasn't sure what to expect really.

It was a hit! She loved it!!

So the carousel was actually the last thing we did but I uploaded my pics out of order. I think we'll do this first next time. Ella was so wiped by this point that she was pretty out of it the whole time!

As soon as we got to the museum and put Ella down so she could walk, I knew it was a hit. Ella LOVES just being able to run free right now. She's at the point where she rarely falls when she walks and she can run pretty well too. Luckily, it wasn't busy at all when we went so we felt ok letting her walk. We spent the majority of the time in the 5 and under area called Playscape. I was super impressed with it! There were tons of different activity stations but really, Ella would probably have been happy with just one of them! We had to drag her away from each one to show her the next and each time, she was more and more excited.

If you know what Rusty does for a living, you'll guess how proud he was when she did this :) I just had to laugh. Rusty's a civil engineer and is actually one of those people that likes what he does-so, he's pretty into street design and street sign placement and all that. Ella immediately went to this one and started moving the street signs, it was so funny!

Ok-so reverse the order of these next 2 pics! Ella loved the slide :)

Play kitchen-Ella loved feeding the babies and making us tasty treats.

This was just a tumbling area for kids 2 and under. She was a little uncertain of this one at first but ended up really liking it!

So, we'll most definitely be going back to the museum. A lot. We ended up just buying a year pass because I can see us going at least montly if not more.

I found out on Friday of last week that Ella has another ear infection. I was so sad and frustrated. She's basically had an ear infection since November 1st. It would clear up a little for a day or 2, even up to a week, but just would come back. She is on antibiotic but I'm also researching the link between dairy and ear infections. Anyone that has info on that, let me know! That one week that her ear infection cleared up-she was a different child! Days are just so rough with her most of the time because she's in pain! I don't think it's horrible pain but just enough that it makes her aggitated very easily plus it messes with her sleep. We're not ruling out tubes but I'd like to try all alternatives before going that route. I've heard great things about them but I've also heard enough bad stuff that I'd like to keep that as my last resort.

Sorry this was a long and kinda boring post! Summary: I'm so over winter. We watch too much TV. I like to get out of the house. I love the childrens museum. I hate ear infections.

oh ella

2010-02-10T20:35:00.005-06:00

I feel like I just posted yesterday but it's been a couple of weeks I think! The past few weeks have just been a blur. I had Lasik done on my eyes almost 2 weeks ago. I'm so glad I did it! So far my vision isn't quite where I want it to be and my eyes get dry through out the day, especially at night. But when it's all said and done, I know my vision and eyes will be where they need to be! I still wake up and reach for my glasses, keep forgetting I don't need them anymore! It's been especially nice in the middle of the night if I need to go comfort Ella. She's been waking up off and on the past few weeks. I'm not sure if it's a bad dream or what. She'll just wake up crying really hard. I'll go in and pick her up and rock her and she goes right back to sleep. Last night she didn't wake up so maybe we've gotten through this phase!

Today was Ella's first class of her new swim "lessons"! She took a swim class at the Y when she was 6 months old but I wanted to get her in a class now that she's older. I really want her to like the water and not be afraid of it. I especially thought now would be a good time since she's started acting afraid at bath time. I had no clue how she would act when we got in the pool. It was pretty much what I had expected. As soon as we got in the pool, she freaked out and started crying. It took her a good 20 minutes before she really seemed to start enjoying the water. But every time we would move to a new activity, it would take a few minutes for her to not be scared. I really want to raise her to be someone who enjoys trying new things! But, there's only so much I can do I guess. One thing that I decided to hold off on was putting her under water. I didn't realize that would be part of this class. I think it caught all the moms off guard! The instructor just brought a hoola-hoop out and said we'd be ducking them under water to get from outside the ring to inside. I was the only mom who didn't do it. I think maybe next week we'll try it if Ella seems to like the water in general more. I really didn't see the benefits of sticking her head under water when she was already pretty upset. Anyone have any advice about this?

Well here are a few pics of Ella in her new swim suit and new flip flops. She looked so cute!

Here are a few more pics from the past few weeks. This one was taken last Sunday. You can't see the whole outfit but she was sporting her Colts cheerleader dress...sadly, it did not help :(

And...our 2nd attempt at getting her out in the snow went better than the first time. She really liked just walking on the road and kicking the snow. We did try to pull her in her sled but she wanted nothing to do with it!

Well, Ella's napping so I better go be productive. She's pretty much down to 1 nap a day so my "me" time is pretty much gone. I need to take advantage of it while I have it!! Maybe go do a 30 day shred workout?? I really should! I'm trying to lose 10 lbs by my sister's wedding!

Update

2010-01-22T07:04:00.005-06:00

This is video 1 of 2. I know I've posted videos of her reading before but it just cracks me up!! She's showing some of her repeating skills here :)

Well I already posted this on FB but we took Ella to the dr. yesterday and her ear infection is GONE!! I'm convinced it was the natural treatments and not that antibiotic!! But the bad news is that now she has either strep for some sort of virus! She woke up yesterday morning at 4:30. At first I thought it was because I'd put her to bed so early the night before (6:30!), and she woke up happy. It was actually pretty funny. Rusty and I woke up to her saying "mama! mama? mama? where's mama?....." over and over for like 5 minutes. Finally after I guess she decided I wasn't coming, she started with "daddy? dada? where's daddy?" for about 5 minutes. Then I finallly went in there to see what was up. When she wakes up all happy and talking like that, I just KNOW she isn't going back to sleep. But when I went in there, I kissed her forehead and it was burning up! Sure enough she had a fever of 100.8, poor thing! When we got to the dr., she checked Ella's throat and said it looked pretty nasty. My dr. sounded pretty certain it was strep, but the test came back negative. She said though that a strep test can come back negative in the first 24 hours when it's actually positive. GREAT. She still has a fever and has been pretty miserable all morning, just laying on me.

Here's the 2nd video...more of the same but still pretty funny! I can't wait until she starts actually talking in sentences, I think she's gonna have a lot to say!

PS I think this will be my new blog look for awhile, I know I keep changing it!!

How to...

2010-01-19T18:39:00.005-06:00

I came across this youtube video and it has changed my life! Ok, not really. It's not like I fold 100 fitted sheets a week or anything, but still. I figured I'm almost 30 (yikes) and I should probably know how to properly fold a fitted sheet!

www.domesticadventure.com/2009/12/how-to-fold-a-fitted-sheet-101/
(how do i get the actual video to show up on my blog, does anyone know? i tried but couldn't figure it out so this is the link to it)

I'm very excited because right now it's 7:45, Ella's sound asleep, my house is clean and I have nothing pressing to do! Yeah! This hardly every happens. Usually when it does happen I canNOT let myself relax and I end up mopping the kitchen floor or clipping coupons or something ridiculous like that. I just have a really hard time relaxing! I'll probably spend the rest of the time trying to decide how exactly I want to relax and by the time I decide, it'll be time to go to bed. I think there may be something wrong with me.

So, I think Ella may finally be over her ear infection! I don't want to jinx it so I won't say it out loud, I'll just type it. Wednesday of last week she was on day 6 of her 4th antibiotic and she was showing no signs of improvement. Desperate, I started researching anything and everything I could find relating to ear infections. By God's grace I came upon a blog of a new friend and she had a section on ear infections! That led me to find a little vitamin shop and get some garlic ear oil. There was a nutritionist there who also helped me find some probiotics with immune boosters. She also suggested that I switch ella to soy milk for awhile until the ear infection was gone. Within about 24 hours Ella seemed to perk up and started sleeping about 13 hours at night. Thursday we go to the doctor to get her ear checked out. I'm just praying they are better! Regardless of what happens with her ears, it just felt good to finally take charge of Ella's health and stop being at the mercy of the 5 minutes the doctor gives me every 2 weeks.

Saturday Ella started getting a little fussy again, this time it seemed to be focused in her mouth. Over and over she kept crying and slapping her jaw line towards the back. I worked up the nerve to stick my finger in her mouth and sure enough her gums were pretty swollen in the back-seems like her 2 year molars are coming in! I know it's a little early but she's always been a little advanced in the teething area.

Ok, well I'm gonna go start relaxing!

2010-01-07T14:30:00.004-06:00

I bundled Ella up today to go play in the snow. I just wanted to take her out for a few minutes. I got her a sled at a garage sale over the summer and I thought she'd really like it!

Or not. I was so bummed! Hopefully she'll like it more eventually. This girl is NOT an outdoor girl! Oh well. Too bad it took like half an hour to get her and I both bundled up just to have to go right back inside. I did pull her around our patio and then carried her into our front yard, and then let her walk around the driveway. She screamed the whole time.

Ella's 15 month appointment was yesterday. It did not go so well. She was great in the waiting area, happily playing with toys, but as soon as the nurse came out to call us back, she started screaming and pretty much did that the entire time we were there. It was great! I'm not sure if this is typical or just my pediatrician, but we always get called back right on time (within a few minutes). We see the nurse, get measurments, etc., and then she says "the doctor will be in shortly!". Usually from that point we have to wait about 30 minutes for our doctor to actually come in the room. Of course Ella's already stripped down to her diaper and I can't really redress her since the doctor could come "any minute". I'd much rather just wait an extra 30 minutes in the waiting room with my daughter fully dressed, happy and playing rather than naked and crying! Finally I just put her boots on her so she could at least walk around.

So-here are her stats:

Weight 22 lbs 6 oz (40%)

Height 31 in. (62%)

Head 19.25 in. (98%) yup. she can't wear old navy tops because they won't go over her ginormous head!!

The bad news is that she still has an ear infection. Pretty sure it's the same one she's had since beginning of November, she just can't get rid of it, poor girl! So she's on her 4th antibiotic. If this doesn't work, there is one last antibiotic that is an injection that they can try. If that doesn't work we'll probably have to go the tubes route. Really hoping we won't have to go that far though!

Have you danced during lunch lately? We have!

Some videos

2009-12-31T07:26:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was a cold snowy day so Ella and I pretty much stayed in and played all day. She's getting so fun to actually play with! I love sitting back and just watch her read a book, do a puzzle or play with her babies. I can tell she is going to have quite the imagination! I was getting bored yesterday so here are a few videos I took. The 2nd one is her saying her body parts, it's quite entertaining. I think the funniest thing is that I was watching the video this morning and Ella could hear the video from across the room. When I would ask her where something was in the video, she would do it from across the room, and then do it on the video. She's so funny!

Christmas and 15 months

2009-12-27T20:55:00.004-06:00

I Know, I Know, bad blogger!! I've been so bad about taking pictures too. Ella's in that "I'm too busy playing and having fun to bother with silly pictures" phase. It's great. :)

Today Ella is 15 months old! I haven't been great about documenting her milestones and months. I wrote some stuff in her journal today and realized just how much she is changing and growing. I just kept writing and writing and writing! I hope one day she'll be able to read this journal I'm writing her and enjoy learning about what she was like as a baby. I guess she's officially a toddler now but I still like calling her a baby! Ella is quite a character. She loves to laugh and have fun but she's very particular about what she likes and how she likes it. She gets frustrated easily when things don't go her way. She's very vocal and loves to communicate with us. I made a list today of all the words she can say and I came up with 38 but I'm sure I missed a few. Her most favorite words right now are " no, mama, daddy, no, light (which sounds exactly the same as daddy when she says it), kitty, no, cuppy, baby and thank you". Did I mention the word "no"? Wow does she like to say that. We really try not to tell her "no" a lot but it slips out so easily! She's great at saying thank you, she says it all the time. Just recently she's started saying "please" more and more. We've been working on her saying "yes". Tonight at dinner I was looking in the fridge for what else I could give her. I said "Ella, would you like some grapes?" She got a big smile and said "Yes! Please! thank you mama, thank you!". I am serious, she said that! My sister Rachel was in the kitchen and we both heard it! We were laughing so hard. I think at that moment I would've given her pretty much anything she wanted!

One weird thing about her (I think it's weird) is that she is scared of our bath tub! She still takes a bath in her infant tub! We sit it in our tub and fill it up and then she sits in that. We've tried a few times to just sit her in the tub and she freaks out. Like shrill, neighbors can probably hear it, screaming. She's never had a bad experience with water and even took "swim lessons" at the Y so I'm not sure what's going on. Guess we'll just keep trying and hope she gets over it!

Ok, on to Christmas. We had a different Christmas this year. My sister was in TX with her fiance and my Mom couldn't come at the last minute because she was sick. We had a slight Ham fiasco (the oven is supposed to be ON when you cook a Ham...?) but overall it was a nice day spent with friends and family. Ella still doesn't really get the present thing and mainly really liked looking through the first present she opened-a Little Einstein book-and didn't want to bother with the rest of her presents. But she got lots of fun things and we haven't even had our Christmas with Rusty's side of the family.

Here's a backlog of pictures from the past few weeks...

A few pics from Christmas day. With all the craziness going on, I only took a few pictures.

Christmas morning, excited to open some presents!

Here's Ella with her new gloves from Aunt Sarah and also her new chair from Mommy and Daddy. She was so funny with these gloves. She's never worn gloves before so I put one glove on my hand to show her. Of course it was so small it only went down over my fingers. So when she put the gloves on, she would only put it on her fingers. Monkey see Monkey do!

We opened presents with Aunt Sarah a few days early...

Here's a few pics of Ella in her Christmas dress. Could NOT get her to sit still in front of the tree!

And...a few random pics from the past few weeks. I tried her tutu on last week. It still fits! She loved it, didn't want to take it off!

Trying on Daddy's Colts sweatshirt. Too bad it didn't help them tonight.

Proof that she DOES HAVE HAIR! People seriously stop me at the store and say "Oh don't worry honey, she'll get hair!" Why do people feel they need to stop and tell me that?

Here's a video from today. She was being so silly!

Winner winner chicken dinner

2009-12-08T21:16:00.002-06:00

Yep, that is what I am. A WINNER! :) haha...last week I won free tickets on the radio! That's the first time I've really won anything except a raffle at work one time. I won 2 tickets to see Jim Brickman (Rusty and I already went to that show last week-had so much fun!!) and 2 tickets to see Transiberian Orchestra on 12/23. I was so excited!! I felt like it was such a blessing and just little present from God to me, maybe that sounds silly. I've been trying to be better about being thrifty and not buying things we don't need. A couple of years ago Rusty bought me tickets to see Jim Brickman's christmas show as a surprise and I was SO excited. The day of the concert, I woke up feeling a little off. By the time I got home from work, I was so sick and we ended up giving our tickets away since you can't return tickets. I was just so upset-not only was I really looking forward to it and couldn't go, we lost out on that money! So, I felt like I could finally just let that go now that I won free tickets :)

Ella has been so hilarious lately. She's also been very naughty but I won't focus on that right now! This morning I was in the kitchen and Ella was in the living room. It had gotten really quiet so I went into the living room to see what she was up to. this is what she was up to! this is now one of her favorite places-inside her toy box. She also really loves sitting on the couch/chair. Its so funny, as soon as I sit her up on the couch, she just stretches out and puffs up her chest like she just thinks she's hot stuff. I thought about using this picture on our christmas cards this year but I feel like the background is too messy. I've probably got 100 pics of her in front of the tree-none of which she's smiling in and most of them she's not even looking at the camera. SIGH.

Here's a pic of the 3 of us on Thanksgiving. Could not get a good smile out of that girl all day!

The Wednesday before thanksgiving, I put Ella in her first ever nightgown. She was so stinkin cute!! I brought her downstairs to show everyone and she just started prancing around the living room-she knew she was cute!

This is another place she loves to sit lately-her $1.99 goodwill lawn chair :) I brought it inside to clean it off and she discovered it and decided it needed a home in our living room. I'm wanting to buy her a cute arm chair for Christmas so hopefully that will replace the lawn chair soon!

Before it got too cold a few weeks ago, I took Ella outside to explore the backyard. I can't wait to let her sled down the little slope back there!

Ok, on to naughty Ella. We're having some meal time issues with her. She tends to have outbursts that result in the throwing of food and her sippy cup. Saying "no" has no affect (effect?? ugh, i can never remember) on her whatsoever. Even slapping her hand, swatting her bottom or flicking her mouth seems to not phase her at all. We've tried just turning her highchair around so she's "shunned" for awhile but all she does is turn around and look at us and cry. Today I actually took her out of her highchair and put her in her crib 2 different times. That was HORRIBLE. She screamed and screamed until she got hysterical and then she wouldn't even finish her lunch because she was so upset. So...I've got a few more tricks up my sleeve but its getting pretty frustrating! The worst part of it now is that she does it very deliberately and defiantly so we want to make sure we establish with her who is in charge! Any suggestions?

Giving Thanks!!

2009-11-26T07:25:00.002-06:00

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
Let the earth hear His voice
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
Let the people rejoice
Oh come to the Father through Jesus the Son
And give Him the glory
GREAT THINGS HE HAS DONE!

I woke up with this song in my head, how fitting!
Praising God for all the blessings in my life. Every good and perfect gift comes from above.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Ok. Time to go make a turkey.

Back to normal

2009-11-20T10:38:00.002-06:00

After being hit by some sickness in our home, I think we are back to normal! For now at least. It had to happen-Ella had her first ear infection last week. Poor girl! She was just not happy...crying at every little thing, having trouble sleeping at night, 20 minute naps (if that). I felt confined to the house because she was such a nightmare to take anywhere! I thought it was just a cold (no fever, no pulling at the ears) so I didn't take her to the dr until about a week into it. Thankfully, after a few days of antibiotic, Ella is back to her happy self. Here she is in a less than happy state...

One day last week we went to Borders to visit Aunt Sarah on her lunch break. Ella really loved standing in this corner for some reason!

Ella playing with her buddy Zane at church! Ella looks a little out of it...

In the midst of trying to get Ella healthy we had a busy weekend! Saturday night Rusty and I went to his work holiday party. I was so happy Ella was healthy for us to go. Aunt Sarah watched her for us, thanks Sarah! Rusty looks a little weird in this picture. I think he was uphappy he had to wear a suit.

I promise Rusty had not been drinking. The party was a '40's themed "puttin on the ritz" and they handed out accessories!

Ella has been cracking me up lately! Her newest thing is saying "thank you". Its so stinkin cute! She loves to hand me a toy, let me say "thank you" to her, then I give it back to her and she says "thank you" to me! She also likes to say it after I give her a kiss! Her new favorite toy is her work bench I got her from goodwill yesterday. gotta love toys at goodwill! yesterday she kept walking around with her wrench, trying to "fix" things. She is also hilarious to take out in public. She is super friendly to everyone we pass by. She loves to "chat" with them, say hi and laugh. This is definitely my favorite age so far! Such fun!

Bless You!

2009-11-10T19:58:00.002-06:00

Some new/cute things Ella's been up to lately:

Says "bless you" after someone sneezes. It sounds like "bessew", so cute!

Loves to play with her shoes and hair bows/clips. She likes to lay out all her little clips in a row and then points to them and likes me to hand them to her, one at a time. She's VERY particular on which one I give her.

Really likes sitting in her little antique chair even though she has problems getting in and out of it. Its pretty high off the ground for her so I have to sit right by her when she's in it.

Still loves Little Einsteins. Her attention span to watch it is about 10 minutes right now.

Likes to carry her blankie around and often trips on it. Trying to break her of that :)

Loves to wrestle on the floor with us. She really likes to tickle us too, its so funny! She'll move her fingers around really fast on our belly and say "ickle ickle ickle" and then laugh.

Can finally get on and off her little train and 4-wheeler. She hasn't figured out how to move on the train yet but she can go backwards on the 4-wheeler.

LOVES milk, she would drink it all day if I let her. She drinks about 27 oz a day!

Says "no no no" a lot. She mainly says it at meal times. She's also started answering my questions with "no". "Ella, do you want to go eat lunch?" "no". hmmmm. Another thing we're working on...

Its amazing how much she can communicate to us right now! Its rare that she wants something or is upset about something and we can't figure out what it is. The other day I forgot to get her sippy cup out for her at dinner. Right away she pointed to the cup holder on her highchair, looked at me and said "cuppy!"

Sorry if this was a boring post, not too much going on here! Looking forward to a fun weekend-Rusty and I are going to his work's holiday party. The theme is "puttin' on the ritz", fun!

We have a walker!!!

2009-11-04T15:10:00.003-06:00

I'm proud to announce that Ella is finally FINALLY walking! I know she's only 13 months so its not like she's really a late walker or anything. But of all my girlfriends or blogs I read, everyone else must've gotten early walkers. It just made me feel like Ella was late. She had been in the "pre-walking" stage for so long, since before Labor Day even! I'm not sure what took her so long!

Last night around 7, Rusty and I were just sitting in the living room with her and Rusty was watching The Simpsons. Ella was standing, holding onto a chair. All of a sudden, she just took about 10 steps and stopped right in front of the TV and stood there for about 2 minutes, watching the Simpons! Then she turned around and walked back to the chair. Then she walked to the fireplace, then to me, then to Rusty. She was like a machine! It was really funny how she went from not at doing it at all to just doing it! I guess its all or nothing with her. Here's a video I took last night-this was probably the 2nd or 3rd time she walked. Can you believe how fast she's going?? Today has been a little slower. She's been walking here and there but she still wants to hold onto my finger when she walks. Not sure it that is just out of habit or if she feels nervous. Go Ella!! You can do it!!

My Little Ladybug

2009-11-01T19:46:00.004-06:00

I know I'm biased but Ella was the cauuutest little ladybug there ever was!! After the fiasco of actually getting her in her costume, the rest of the night went great! Ella really loved handing out candy with her daddy and seeing all the other kids.

We decided to take her around to a few houses. She's still not really walking on her own but she does great if one of us holds her hand.

Taking a little break. Once she got her first piece of candy she had to sit down to investigate.

And...we're off again!

It's crazy to think back to 1 year ago when Ella was just dressed up as a little pea pod!

In exciting news, Ella took what I will call her first steps yesterday! FINALLY! She's taken steps here and there for the past month but it was never initiated by her. Yesterday while Rusty was home with her (of course), she stood up and just took about 6 steps towards him! Then she did it again this morning with him and finally with me this afternoon. Woohoo! I'm really hoping that within a week or 2 she'll really have the hang of it! I cannot believe its taken her this long considering she was already really stable on her feet at the beginning of September!

In not exciting news, Ella seems to be pretty off schedule thanks to daylight savings time. Thanks a lot! Is getting light earlier in the morning worth having to wake up at 5:30? Uhm, no.

Ella's first show

2009-10-30T18:11:00.004-05:00

Today was Ella's first time to a "show"! We went to see an Imagination Movers show with my friend Lindsay and her little boy and niece. It was cute but we might try it again in a couple of years. I'm not sure how much Ella really enjoyed it. She paid attention for the first 5 minutes or so and then got pretty squirmy. I had to bribe her with snacks the whole time just to get her to be still. We made it for about an hour and then decided to leave early. I had fun though...it made me excited to do more things like that in the future when she's a little older!

I feel like I've been slacking a little with picture taking so here are just a few from tonight :)

Wednesday afternoon we took an impromtu trip to the orchard! I've been wanting to go or awhile and it just never worked out. A friend called me up and asked if we wanted to go and I said yes! It felt nice to be spontaneous for a change :) It ended up being right around Ella's nap time when we went but she did great! She played for awhile in the kids area and then we went to the pumpkin patch. It would've been soooo much easier if she could've walked, it was super muddy. I finally gave in and just let her down on the ground. Mud washes off, right?

Turning Thirty

2009-10-25T18:41:00.002-05:00

I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since I posted! We've pretty much been running on auto pilot here lately. Ella's been "off" for the past several weeks. She's been like a different girl almost! She was fussy from the moment she woke up until the moment she went to bed at night. Meal time was the worst. I would have to fight to just get a bite into her mouth! I felt like I couldn't take her anywhere because she would just be so unhappy the whole time that I would end up having to leave. Even going grocery shopping was nearly impossible because she would just cry and reach for me through the whole store. I'm really not sure what the problem was! Maybe teething? She did run a fever a few times. I kept her home from church several Sundays and a Wednesday due to fever/fussiness. But I'm happy to say that we've had 3 really good days in a row so maybe my happy Ella is back! Friday was Rusty's 30th birthday! He got the day off work and the 3 of us just spent the day together, running errands and just being together. Ella was great the whole day which was much needed, for all of us! Saturday morning, Rusty and I left for his birthday weekend in Louisville! My sister Sarah was a HUGE blessing to us and watched Ella for us from Saturday morning until Sunday afternoon. It was our first time away together since Ella was born and it was so nice! We had several nice meals out (hardly ever do that now!), went to the Slugger Museum and went to see the Titanic Exhibit that was in town along with an IMAX about the Titanic. After we checked into our hotel (got a great deal on hotwire!), ate some dinner and then went on a Ghost Walk to see supposedly haunted spots in Louisville. Of course we don't believe in that kind of thing, but it was just something fun to do. Sunday morning we got to sleep in, had a nice breakfast and stopped at the outlets on the way home. Its crazy how much I missed Ella! She did so well with Sarah though, I was so proud of her!
Its amazing how much Ella can do and say now. She is still not walking...we are very ready for her to take her first steps. She loves walking by holding our fingers but that gets old pretty quick. :) She has taken steps on her own here and there but never on her own initiative. Here's her current vocabulary: mama (or mommy or mom), daddy, duck, fishy, shoes, toes, eye, "b" (blankie), "mimi" (milk), uh-oh, GO GO GO (I'm pretty sure this means "no no no" but I'm not really sure! she usually only says it if she's mad and she always says it very loudly), yummy yummy (said when she's hungry or if she sees a food that she wants), cuppy (sippy cup with water), baby, hair, ball, cow, bye and hi.
I think that's it but there may be a few more. Seems she adds a word or 2 each day. She also knows where her eyes, nose, hair, toes and belly button are and she says "moo" if you ask her what a cow says and "baa" if you ask what a lamb says. The majority of these new words and "tricks" have been learned in the past 2 weeks or so! Its so cute and fun.
She's developed a fear of her changing table lately-that's been fun. She's also gotten extremely attached to her blankie. I try not to let her have it except for at night or during naps but she'll crawl around looking for it and saying "B"??? "B"???
I'll try to post soon with Ella's halloween costume pics! She is SO cute in her costume!

Playing catch up

2009-10-07T12:53:00.003-05:00

Whew! Its been a busy couple of weeks. I feel like I'm still playing catch up from Ella's bday party weekend. We had a great birthday weekend though. Although things didn't go totally as planned with Ella's schedule on either day, we still had a great time and everyone was very understanding. Ella got so much stuff and we are so grateful to everyone! Ella was definitely getting bored of most of her toys and books and loves all her new stuff (and so do I!). Here's some party pics!

My mom & I reading Ella one of her new books

Ella riding her new 4-wheeler from Opa!

Opening presents with mommy (she did so great with sitting still during this!)

Ella and her friend Hudson-they were super cute together!

Ella playing with her new baby-this baby never leaves her side!

This past weekend was my first time to be away from Ella overnight. My church had a women's retreat from Friday-Saturday. I dropped Ella off at my MIL's on Friday around 11am and didn't see her again until Saturday night around 6 (Rusty picked her up after work and kept her until I got home). I actually did ok with it. I missed her and thought about her a lot, but I didn't cry or feel overwhelmed or anything. Ella didn't do quite as well. She was pretty good for Rusty while I was gone, but when I got back she started showing some signs that maybe she didn't handle it that well. She was really clingy to me and would almost seem upset if Rusty came in the room (like she thought I would leave again??), she also started waking up around 4:45am and wouldn't go back to sleep along with waking up several times during the night. This was also 2 days after she had her 1 yr. shots, plus I was in the process of weaning her. I didn't intend all these things to happen at the same time, that's just how it worked out! So, we cut back on the weaning and I tried to really cuddle and love on her a lot and she seems to be doing a little better. Naps are still a challenge right now-she normally takes great naps but this week has been rough. It took me an hour and a half to get her down this morning and then she only slept for 30 minutes! Rusty and I were saying the other day how it seems that as soon as one thing is going smoothly, something that used to be going smoothly suddenly isn't, or something else becomes challenging. I guess this is just a small preview of what to expect the next 18 years right? But, even on the most challenging of days, Ella will crawl (nope, she's not walking yet) over to me and randomly just lay her head on my shoulder and give me a hug. How can I be upset after that?

Here's a cute little video of Ella watching her favorite show. Hopefully you can hear it ok!

1 year pics

2009-09-26T06:20:00.002-05:00

I decided to try my luck with Target again for Ella's 1 year pics. They turned out as well as could be expected I guess! Ella wasn't in a great mood the day we went. She was teething, I'm not even sure how many teeth she has coming through right now but I'd say maybe 3. She would just drool and chew on her hands (or anything she could find). I felt so bad for her! I gave her motrin, teething tablets and orajel but nothing really seemed to give her much relief. So for how miserable she was, I guess I should be happy with how the pics turned out! I'm still not thrilled with Target in general though. The day I went they were running about 30 minutes behind. There was a family of 6 ahead of me and then 4 people behind me waiting. It was just a little hectic. Then when I went to actually pick out the pics I wanted to order, all thos people will still there so I had hard time focusing. Oh well, I guess that's what you get for no sitting fee and coupons :)

Today is Ella's first party! She has a family party today and a friends party tomorrow. Yesterday was spent cleaning and decorating. I was doing ok until I hung the first birthday banner last night. It just sorta hit me...my baby is turning 1!! I just kept thinking back to when she was born and those first few months with her. Her first birthday seemed so far away then, it didn't seem like it would ever get here. And now all of a sudden its here!

Here's a few of the pics that I liked:

I think I ordered a few 3 1/2 x 5 of these, she just looks like a cute little bear cub!

The pearls weren't intended to be in the pictures. The photographer gave them to her just as a distraction because she kept trying to crawl away. Of course once she got them, she would NOT let them go! I kind of like them in the picture!

Doesn't she look like such a big girl in this one?

The only picture of her smiling :)

Happy Fall

2009-09-23T08:21:00.003-05:00

My favorite season is here, woohooo!! I'm trying to get a pretty new fall template for my blog so it may look a little funny until I get it fixed :)

Here are some reasons Fall is the best!
*pumpkin spice latte
*wearing sweatshirts and jeans
*pretty fall leaves
*apple cider
*carving pumpkins
*covered bridge festival (a family tradition!)
*biscuits and apple butter
*fall decorations

Here are some movies I always watch in the Fall
*Father of the Bride
*You've Got Mail
*Sleepy Hollow
*Stepmom

Hooray for Fall! I missed you.

Philly

2009-09-18T19:45:00.005-05:00

Well, this feels like old news now, but we made it back from our fun trip to Philly! We went over Labor Day weekend to see some good friends who moved there a few years ago. The drive down took about 12 hours. Without Ella, we could've made it in 10 but we definitely needed the number of stops we took. Here's Ella on our first stop. As you can see, she's pretty excited to be out of the car :)

We got to Philly at about 6pm on Thursday night. The town our friends live in (West Chester) has a festival the first thursday of every month so we were in luck! It was so cool...lots of booths, food and tons of Irish music! We loaded the kiddos up and headed out. Sadly, this is the ONLY picture I got of Ella and Sasha. Don't they look like they're having fun?

Let me tell you...Ella LOVED Sasha and Misha. By the time we left, she'd learned to say Sasha's name (Sash). She didn't learn Misha but she just called him "baby". Even after we got home, she would crawl around the house saying "baby...?...Sash...?". So cute!!

We went to downtown Philly to see the sights on Saturday. Ella was super cranky for a lot of the day. We waited for quite awhile to tour Independence Hall. Here we are right before going on our tour.

I didn't realized the tour was guided and that the first 15 minutes was a lecture! Ella was the only baby in there and she was not at all interested in the history of Independence Hall :) It was so uncomfortable! I felt like everyone was just starting at us the whole time thinking "what idiots brought a baby to this?" So, Ella and I ducked out pretty quick and Rusty finished the tour alone. While waiting, Ella made a few friends! These girls were very sweet and just sat there while Ella talked their ear off and pointed at the girl's bow.

Ella just loves other kids. While we were waiting for our tour to start, there was a little boy sitting in the grass by us. He was probably 4 or 5 but Ella pretty much calls everyone "baby". So she goes over to him and starts saying "baby! baby!" and pointing at him. He ran over to his mom and (very offendedly) said "that baby just called ME a baby!!"

Our biggest "adventure" happened on our way back to our friends' house from Philly. We thought we were in the right lane but before we could do anything about it, we realized we were in the lane that took us over the bridge to New Jersey! It was so crowded, there was no way we could get over. So...off we went to NJ. We figured we'd just turn around and head back as soon as we could. So we get over the bridge and turn around only to find out that the only way back into PA is over the toll bridge. $4. We had NO cash! We asked if they would make an exception and take a credit card but no. So we had to get off on this side exit to find an atm. Wow were we in the ghett-o. We drive for awhile and finally see this tiny little corner shop boasting an atm inside. Lots of tatoo'd men with major bling standing all around the outside. We pretty much had no other option but to stop there. So Rusty parks, locks the doors behind him and instructs me not to make eye contact with anyone. It was very dramatic. Well, needless to say, nothing happened. Rusty got his money, we got back into PA and all ended well :) But, I guess we got a funny vacation story out of it!!

Here's a few more pictures from this past week

Oops...caught in the act!

Getting one more use out of her baby pool

The next pics I post will most likely be from her 1st bday party!

Picture overload!

2009-08-30T19:54:00.004-05:00

Today I finally got around to taking all the pics off my camera and onto my computer. There were 109...yikes! That's a lot for me! I tried to go through and post my favorites. I messed up uploading these in the right order yet again...I'll figure it out some day! I think these actually ended up in reverse order of when they happened!

This weekend we had a lot of family time which was so nice! I realized that a lot of weekends get so filled up with projects and errands that sometimes we go an entire weekend without spending much time with all 3 of us! Rusty watches her while I go to the store...I watch her while he mows the yard...you know how it goes. So Saturday we decided NO PROJECTS! We took advantage of the nice weather (74 and sunny!! in august!!) and headed downtown. Didn't realize there was a big motorcycle race this weekend so there were bikes (and bikers) everywhere! I was afraid Ella would be scared of all the noise the bikes made but she didn't seem to mind at all! It was actually pretty funny to see these big brawny biker men pass us and look at Ella and smile at her. Buncha softies! We walked to Borders and looked at books with Ella. That was fun for about 5 minutes. She's at the age where she'd much rather be down on the ground than in our arms. After Borders, we walked to the canal and just walked down to the river and back, enjoying the nice weather. Here's some pics from our walk!

After we walked the canal, we ended up just heading back to the car. We seriously named off about 20 places downtown where we could eat and couldn't decide on any of them so we just left. We ended up stopping at Logan's Roadhouse for dinner on the way home...go figure :)

Last weekend we got the chance to go visit my little sis Rachel in Evansville! She moved into a new apartment this year and we wanted to see it and just hang out with her before classes started. We don't get a chance to see her super often because its about a 4 hour drive. Ella did so well in the car! Didn't cry once! But, she was off her routine for like 3 days because she didn't get her normal naps and went to bed about 2 hours late. I couldn't believe it affected (effected?? i always forget) her that much. Unfortunately, I didn't get ANY pics with Rachel, but here's one of Rusty, Ella and I in front of the Ohio River

I have so much fun with Ella during the week on my days off work (Wed-Fri). Usually I will plan a play date 2 days and then 1 day we'll just hang out at home, take walks, etc. A few times, I've been really ambitious and walked with her to the Goodwill that's close(ish) to our house. I'd say its a good 1.5 miles each way. I could be totally wrong on that...I'm a horrible judge of distance. It feels like 5 miles but I'm sure its not. So last week on a cooler day, we walked there. By the time we got there, I really wasn't sure I'd be able to make it back. It suddenly felt like about 90 degrees! Even after being in the cool store for about an hour, I still wasn't sure I'd make it! I actually contemplated hitching a ride home with the Hamilton Express minibus thing that was parked in the parking lot. But...I sucked it up and made it home! Ella and I celebrated making it home by having a creamsicle. Ella loved it.

Probably the funniest thing Ella has started doing lately is getting really into the Disney Channel show Little Einsteins. She still has a very short attention span with watching TV, but she will always stop whatever she is doing if I turn on the intro music. We listen to the intro of Little Einsteins probably 4 times a day. That song is in my head all the time!! She'll crawl over to the TV, sit in front of it and wave her arm in the air. Its so funny!

Here's a few random pictures from the past month or so. Here we are at the State Fair. Please ignore Rusty's blue teeth he got by eating a blue raspberry slushy. Thank you.

A few weeks ago, Ella and I went for a play day with my friend Lindsay and her little boy Hudson. They played so well together! It was the first time I'd seen her really play with any other kid. They got along really well!

And...a couple of pics of my sweet girl. She's so happy! What a joy she is to us!

This picture isn't all that exciting except that the shirt she's wearing was one I wore when I was a baby! A few months ago my mom told me she'd found some of my baby clothes and wanted to know if I wanted them for Ella. I was honestly a little nervous. I didn't want to hurt her feelings and say no, but I was a little worried about what they looked like! To my relief, they were actually pretty cute! I guess baby clothes in the '80's are back in style!

Its hard to belive that in less than 1 month, Ella will be a year old! This thursday, we leave for Philly to visit our good friends Brandon & Anya! They moved to Philly 2 years ago and we have yet to visit them. Any tips on how to survive a 10 hour car drive with an 11 month old would be greatly appreciated!

Quite a week

2009-08-20T19:40:00.002-05:00

Ella has had quite the week. Here are just a few highlights:

Monday: Ella was at Rusty's moms. She likes to touch the air vents that are in the floor, especially when the air is coming out. She was playing and then Rusty's grandma walked by and Ella made a mad dash to catch her. (funny in itself. Rusty's grandma is no spring chicken). So anyways, Ella goes to catch Granny, Ella's finger stays behind. Poor girl! She's got a pretty nasty gash on her finger!

Wednesday: I put Ella down for a nap only to have her wake up screaming about 20 minutes later. I go in to see what is wrong and she's got a gash on her cheek that's bleeding. Hmm. Later on, we're in the kitchen and I see her sitting in the corner, munching happily on something. 10 minutes later when I finally pry it out of her mouth, I find that its a huge piece of mulch. Gross! We also went to Kinkos to look for her bday invitations and she managed to knock a ton of envelopes all over the floor.

Today: Lets see...grabbed her the second before she dove down the stairs (from the very top! Her had was litterally on its way down the first step). Was making dinner, went to check on her and she'd figured out how to crawl up to the 2nd step and right as I was about to get to her, she lost balance and fell backwards and hit her head on the floor. She learned how to gag herself-nice. She did it all day long today. All the way through Target. I've heard of kids doing this before, I don't get it. It can't feel good! And if I hold down her hands so she can't do it, she'll just make the noise like she's gagging and then just start laughing hysterically! Also today, she found the power button on the TV and turns the TV off and on continually. She also found the one outlet I forgot to put a cover in and stuck her finger in it.

Even with the "active" week we've had, its been great. I love her spunk :) She's gonna keep me on my toes, that's for sure!

What's Up with that?

2009-08-13T20:25:00.002-05:00

Has anyone else noticed an increasing (and disturbing) trend of people not wearing shoes in stores? I was in CVS the other day and the girl in front of me was wearing shorts, a t-shirt and...that was it. No shoes! No socks! Just bare feet!
Then today, I was in Kroger and this man walks by me. He's probably about 50, a little scruffy but pretty normal looking. As he walks by, I notice he's wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and yep, NO SHOES! Bare feet, at Kroger! Gross! What ever happened to No Shirt No Shoes No Service? Ok, that's it. Just had to get that off my chest.

Being a Mother

2009-08-10T14:10:00.003-05:00

I ran across a poem the other day that made me think about my priorities. Sometimes I try to be Wonder Woman. I feel like my day is a success if Ella is happy, I've had my devotions, my dishes are done, dinner is in the oven, the laundry is all washed and put away, my bed is made, I've gone to the gym. So of course, I count very few of my days as a complete success. When I remember this week a year from now...will I remember a memory I made with Ella this week or will I remember that I made my bed every day this week? For me, sometimes (ok, a lot of times), its very easy to lose focus of what's really important. When Ella remembers her childhood, will she remember a Mom who always kept a clean house or will she remember a Mom who wanted to spend time with her above anything else? Will she remember a Mom who cooked a 3 course meal every night, or will she remember how I played hide and seek with her or made her laugh until her belly hurt? I know there is a fine balance here but I'll admit, I've yet to find it. I'm trying to find the balance. I'm totally type-A personality. I have a VERY hard time looking the other way when there's dishes in the sink. I develop a little tick if I can't sweep my kitchen floor at least once a day. Where do I find the balance between "this is who I am" and "I want to be more laid back?"

These are just some of the thoughts that have been rattling around in my type-A brain lately! I actually made a list about how I can be more laid back. O dear. I think I need serious help people! :)

Here's this poem that got me thinking. I so want to be this kind of Mom!

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Ella 10 months belated!

2009-08-06T19:56:00.003-05:00

I'm so behind with my pictures and blogging! I didn't even take Ella's 10 month pic until today (even though I put her actual 10 month date on the paper). Ella is such a character. She is such a fun loving little girl. I took so many pics today, trying to get a good one of her for her 10 month pose but didn't have much luck. Here's a couple...

Ella is now officially mobile! Wow, I thought I had a hard time getting things done before! She did an army crawl for a few weeks before she finally figured out the coordination to actually crawl. But now she seems to be getting faster by the minute. About a week ago, she pulled herself up to a standing position for the first time. Now she does it pretty often. Yesterday she figured out she could do it in her crib-not good. I was really hoping she would figure that out-who was I kidding? She also figured out a few days ago that the stairs might be a fun place to climb. Guess we'll be going to Babies R Us this weekend for some gates!

On the same day Ella turned 10 months (7/27), Rusty and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary! Yay for 7 years :) Coincidentally, I was talking to a friend the day of our 7 year anniversary but she didn't realize it was our anniversary. She was telling me how the 7th year of marriage is known for being the hardest and worst year. I'm not sure if that is true but I hope not! I'm hoping our toughest years are behind us! For our anniversary we went to Weber Grill. We had a really sweet couple sitting behind us that were celebrating their 25 year anniversary!

Here's a pretty cute video of Ella. She's just so vocal right now. You can hear her saying "mama", "baby" and "duck duck", and you get to see some of her mad crawling :)

One thing I'm struggling with right now is nursing. I really wanted to nurse for an entire year but now that Ella's 2 front top teeth have come in...kinda rethinking that whole thing! Uhm, ouch. Any of you mom's out there who have nursed have any tips? She doesn't bite but I can feel her her top teeth and she's broken the skin. I have a feeling she just isn't latching quite right and at this point maybe its too late to re-train her. Thoughts??

I'm also starting to think of her first birthday party! I can't believe its NEXT MONTH already! How can that be?? I'm thinking about just doing a green/pink polka-dot theme party since her nursery colors were green & pink and my baby shower theme was polka-dot and I have a lot of the dots :) Any cute 1 year bday party ideas you've heard of?

Summer Fun

2009-07-23T18:13:00.002-05:00

We've been having such a fun and busy summer. So busy that I've been neglecting my poor blog! Figured I should write and show my blog some love. Last weekend we (Sarah, Rusty and I) went to a wedding. I just love weddings! I especially loved this one because we knew lots of people at the reception. I hate going to weddings where I don't know anyone. Unfortunately, we had to cut the evening short because Ella was acting up a little and we needed to get home to her. Sarah and I squeezed in one picture before we had to leave...

Last weekend we took Ella to her first county fair! Yeah!! While we aren't fair enthusiasts, like SOME people I know, we do like a good fair. Although I do have to say, I felt like this fair was stinkier than I remember. Hmm. Ella wasn't overly interested in the animals. She really liked the baby goats but I forgot to take a picture of that. Here she is with Rachel, looking at the Llamas. Llama Face!! (2 points to whoever can name that movie!! we will see who our REAL friends are) :)

One good thing about going to the county fair over going to the state fair is that the food is so much cheaper! The ears of corn were only $1.50, what a deal!! It was soooo good.

Last week, my little sis Rachel came for a visit. For some reason, when Ella saw her (they hadn't seen each other since Easter), Ella said "oooh, teacup!" Not sure where that came from, but now we call Rachel Aunt Teacup as a joke :) Rachel, Ella and I went to downtown Noblesville, an artsy/crafty/country/antique-y little town. One of the kids toy/bookstores had a bunny so we had to let Ella take a look. She loved it!

And...here we are at the park. There's this really cool splash park across the street from our house. I can't wait for next summer when Ella can run around in the water. For now, we just put out a blanket in the grass and watch the rest of the kiddos play! I got reconnected with some girls from High School a few weeks ago and have met them several times for playdates. Last week the play date happened to be at this park!

Ella seems to be learning something new daily. She's definitely mobile now. She's not totally crawling but she can get where she wants to go. Its a whole new world! She's also added "baby" and "mama" to her vocabulary (I think). Its still hard to tell exactly what she is actually saying versus just babbling. I can't believe she'll be 10 months old next week! She actually turns 10 months old on our 7 year wedding anniversary! :)

9 months old!

2009-07-05T19:50:00.003-05:00

Ella turned 9 months old last week! I'm absolutely loving this age. I'm sure I'll say that at every age milestone until probably middle school :) Ella is just so expressive and responsive to us, its great! Well, great MOST of the time. She definitely lets us know when she's not happy. She has a mind of her own, that is for sure. She knows exactly what she wants and gets pretty mad if she doesn't get her way. Parenting books....here we come! If anyone has any suggestions for "discipline" for a 9 month old, pass it on! We're at the stage where we're not sure exactly how much she understands so we're not sure what level of discipline is appropriate. She's even hit me a few times when she gets really mad. SIGH. She's got a strong will for sure. But I know that God will really be able to use that strong personality for His purpose. Our job is just to help her use it in the right way! Only by God's grace!

Ella had her 9 month check up last week. I felt kinda bad...I'd doped her up on tylenol so that her shots wouldn't bother her only to find out she didn't get shots for her 9 month appointment. Oops! Other than that, her appointment went great! She checked out perfectly healthy. She weighed 17lbs 14oz (31st %), height was 28 3/4 inches (85th %). Here's her 9 month pic. I decided to post this one because you can also see her mischevious look...a look that I see quite often!

This week has been another busy, but great, week for us! One of my dearest friends, Michelle, and her family came to stay with us for a day and night. Michelle and I have been friends since we were in diapers, literally! After college, she moved to Virginia so we don't get to see each other very often. God blessed me by allowing me to be pregnant with her...her with her 2nd baby and me with my 1st! It was so wonderful to have someone to go through my pregnancy with, and especially for it to be her! We ended up delivering our baby girls only 2 days apart! We were so excited for our girls to finally be able to meet...I hope Elizabeth and Ella will be as great of friends as Michelle and I are! Here's a pic of their bath together...we couldn't resist :) Ella wasn't the biggest fan. She's used to sitting in her infant tub so I think the big tub was a little overwhelming for her.

I think this is the best one I got where they are both actually looking towards the camera!

Michelle and I with our girls! Again, nearly impossible to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time! Michelle, I love you and I'm so glad we got to spend some time together!

Our 4th of July was fun although it was a total rain out here! Luckily we had great weather the day before the 4th so Rusty and I got a chance to go this series that the local art museum puts on every Friday night of the Summer. You get to sit outside on these huge grass "steps" (they're big enough to lay blankets out on). You can bring food and games and just hang out. Then once it gets dark, they play a movie on this huge screen. The one we went to see was Goonies :) Classic! We went with my sister Sarah and her BF Chris...they were nice enough to go early and buy our tickets and save us seats since we couldn't get there right when it opened (my Dad came to watch Ella for us, thanks Dad!). It was great! For the 4th, we had a cook-out in the afternoon and then played some Phase 10. Wow is that a long game. On the night of the 4th we went to hang out with our friends Rob & Jenny who just had a BEAUTIFUL baby girl, Kelsey. We ate, played some wii and had some great conversation. All in all, a wonderful week! Here's a pic of Ella and I on her first Independence Day!

Vacation!!

2009-06-28T19:42:00.002-05:00

Well, we survived our first vacation as a family of 3! It was great! Definitely much different than the vacations we used to take, but still great :) We went to Holland, MI for 3 days and 2 nights. We just wanted something relatively close by (about a 5 hour drive) and for a short time to see how Ella would do. She did great in the car. She got fussy a few times but then, so did I! :) We ended up getting to our hotel around 3:30 Thursday and went straight to the beach (about a 2 minute drive). Here's Ella, in her swimsuit cover up (modesty first!) all ready to go...(notice the lovely decor of our hotel/condo room)

And...here we are at the beach! Ella LOVED it. She really liked the sand. We ran into some problems though because she's at the stage where everything goes straight in the mouth, so who knows how much sand she ate. Also after about an hour she started getting sleepy and rubbing her eyes...not good. We didn't stay for too long that day.

Friday moring we woke up bright and early (thanks, Ella) and headed out to the boat dock for our condo just to take some pictures. There was also a cute little park and Ella went on the swing for a long time.

After Ella's nap (which didn't go well), we left to do some sight seeing. Since my Mom's from Holland, I had a list of dutch foods I wanted to bring back for us and her. We went to this place called Windmill Island. We didn't see any other tourists...we were literally the only ones there! Not really sure why! Slow day I guess?? I also realized the next day that I'd left my wallet there. Thank goodness someone had found it and turned it in! I guess I should be thankful there were no other tourists there that day...someone could've taken it!

Then on our last day there, we went to the beach again for a few hours and then headed to do more sight seeing. Here's Ella right before we had to leave the beach!

At the place we went sightseeing the 2nd day, we were about to leave and I see this guy walking really fast towards me. Then I notice he's holding my camera! I'd left it sitting on a counter in one of the stores. Sheesh! I felt like I was losing my mind! Thankfully, I think we did make it home without leaving anything important behind!

So, overall a good trip but we learned lots of things about what to do on our next trip. First of all, we need a hotel/condo with 2 seperate rooms, or at least a much bigger room if its just 1 room. We just brought Ella's pack n' play for her to sleep in. Our room was so small that we had to put it about 4 feet from our bed. Her bed time is about 7:30 so it made it pretty hard for us to watch TV or read, play cards, anything really! I'm not sure what was up with our room but there was this huge crack between the door and the frame so it let a lot of humidity in so our room just felt damp. yuck. Ella had a really hard time going down for her naps and going to sleep at night. It was just too light and too noisy for her. Today she napped about 6 hours total...she was so tired, poor girl! Also on our trip, she turned 9 months old and her front top left tooth popped through! But even through all of that, she was SUCH a happy girl. I lost count of how many people commented on what a happy and content baby she was. She is such a blessing! Even though this vacation wasn't as relaxing and carefree as our vacations were before Ella came along, I wouldn't want it any other way!

First Father's Day

2009-06-20T20:43:00.003-05:00

Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there!! And most of all, Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband. Rusty, you are such an amazing Dad. I love to see the look on your face when you get home from work and see Ella. Your face just lights up and so does hers. Even though right now she's a bit of a mamma's girl, I can tell how much she loves and adores you. Watching you become a Dad has been one of the greatest things I've ever experienced. We were both so clueless when we got home from the hospital (despite all the books I read!), and I just couldn't believe what a natural you were. You just seemed to fit perfectly into the role of being a dad, so effortlessly. You were there for every night time feeding, waking up with me sometimes just to sit with me while I nursed so that I didn't have to be up alone. You'd get me glass after glass of water and just do anything you could think of to make it easier on me. We've come a long way from those sleepless nights (praise God!) and you are still there for me, every step of the way. You're so willing to get up early with Ella on Saturday mornings so I can sleep in; to let me go out and have "me" time; to change diapers (even the dirty ones!). I'm so blessed to have you as the father of my child. SHE is blessed to have you as her father. Thank you for providing for us and for loving us selflessly. Happy Father's Day.

Picnic!

2009-06-09T11:18:00.004-05:00

Well, Ella went to her first picnic this past weekend and she loved it! She loves to be outside and it was such a gorgeous day for it. It was our church picnic and it was lots of fun. Rusty got to play lots of football (although he's been pretty sore since) and I got to hang out with the moms and babies. Ella was totally hamming it up towards the end of the night. I sat her in the grass and there were about 10 people behind her, all making funny faces and noises at her. She was definitely a crowd pleaser. I got about 50 pics in about 5 minutes probably! We tried to get some family pics but it was really windy and this was at the very end of the night so Ella was very ready for bed! Here's a few though!

This picture is so funny! She has started making this crinkle nose when she smiles now :)

Such a happy baby!

Ella and her friend Zoey. Zoey was NOT a fan of the grass so we didn't get many pics of these girls together!

Unlike some kids, Ella really likes being in the grass! A lot of my friend's kids about her age really hate their legs touching the grass but she doesn't seem to mind. Maybe she'll be an outdoorsy type of girl. Not sure how I feel about that.

She was a little uncertain about the swing at first and was hanging on pretty tight with both hands. By the end, she got courage to let go with one hand and seemed pretty happy!

This picture was supposed to go first. This is when I first sat her in the swing.

Ella has just been cracking us up lately. I can't remember when I've laughed so much!! I guess this is making up for all the CRYING I did the first few months, ha!! She's "talking" so much, its hard to know when she's actually trying to say a word and when it's just babbling. When do you count something as her "first word"? She's repeated lots of things after we say them...mama, dada, bye bye, duck, baa, quack, and several more.

The funniest thing she's done recently was last week. She's started moving (dancing?) lately, just wiggling her torso. Rusty's afraid she got his sense of rythm. :) Anyways,whenever she does it, I'll do it back to her and say "wiggle wiggle wiggle". So we were visiting my Mom and were at Kroger and Ella was sitting in the front of the cart. She started her dance move and started saying "wiggle wiggle wiggle", just over and over. We were cracking up! And of course now she won't do it anymore.

I took a ton of pictures on Sunday of just Ella and Rusty, I can't wait to upload them and post them! Speaking of Rusty, I have to give him huge props. Last night I broke our coffee maker. Our brand new coffee maker. Oops. So this morning I roll out of bed, half awake, and I remember that I broke it and say I'm super tempted to go to McDonalds and get an iced coffee (they are SO good...as good as Starbucks I think and less than half the price!). So we start our day and Rusty leaves for work with Ella and I start working. About 15 minutes after Rusty left, I hear the garage door come back up. I go downstairs, assuming Rusty forgot his laptop or lunch or something. But, in the door he walks with an iced coffee from McDonalds! Yeah! I knew marrying that guy was a good idea! :)

8 months old Today!

2009-05-27T19:10:00.003-05:00

Today Ella is 8 months old! Another month gone by SO FAST. It seems like Ella started doing lots of new things this past month. Her personality is coming out so much. Here are some things about 8 month old Ella:

Nicknames: Ella Bella, Sweet Pea, Sugar, Stinkerella, Portabella, The Ella-nator (Rusty calls her that sometimes. I do NOT) :)

Weight: 18ish lbs

Favorite things: nursing, reading books, singing, "talking", cuddling, her sippy cup, bath time

Least favorite things: getting dressed, diaper changes, getting her faced wiped after eating

Favorite foods: squash, banana, applesauce, oatmeal cereal

Clothing: mostly 6-9 month

This past month she got 2 teeth, started clapping (she LOVES to do this), and started waving (sometimes). She's so funny. Somtimes when we wave bye bye to her, she'll start clapping instead of waving. I think she's finally started to associate clapping with being happy and with music. A lot of times she claps when she gets in the tub or when I start singing to her. The other day, I gave her some food she didn't like (oh, sometimes she spits when she doesn't like things...not good). So finally I gave in and gave her some bananas. After her first bite she started clapping :) She also talks/babbles ALL day long. I don't even have to have the TV on for noise anymore! The past few days her babbles have sounded like she's saying "diddle, diddle, diddle" over and over. and over. She's also gotten really into cuddling lately, which I love. She loves for me to rock her. She'll just put her head on my shoulder or chest for the longest time...SO Sweet! It's been a fun month, can't wait to see what this next month will bring!

I love this picture of Sarah and Ella. Don't pay attention to my messy kitchen!

Memorial Day

2009-05-25T20:49:00.003-05:00

Sunday at church, our Pastor challenged us to really instill patriotism in our children. He said something he does with his children is to take them to a cemetary on Memorial Day to honor the men and women who died defending our country. What an awesome idea! That is something we plan on doing. Today we went to visit Rusty's grandpa's grave site. He served in the air force during WWII. We planned on taking Ella (not that she would know) but it was so rainy and gross out today that she didn't come along this year. Happy Memorial Day!

Today was a rare treat for Rusty and I. We spent the entire day, just the 2 of us! We love Ella dearly but we were desperately in need of a day for just us. We planned on going to Rustic Gardens, this cool miniture golf course in Indy. Its really one of a kind, SO fun. Well, the weather had something different in mind. What started out as a forecast of isolated rain turned into an all day downpour. We were pretty bummed at first but then decided to go bowling. We bowled for a few hours. I'm SO glad it was just the 2 of us. We were an embarassement to the game. I blame wii. Anyways, after bowling, we went to Olive Garden for lunch, went to see the new Night at the Museum and then walked around Family Christian Book Store for awhile. It was a great day!! Big thanks to Rusty's mom and grandma for watching Ella for us!

Here's a few pictures from the past few weeks!

At Steak & Shake. Ella's first time!

3 generations

Me and my sweet girl

PS I keep forgetting to post this but Ella has 2 teeth now!! The first one (bottom right) popped through the Friday before Mother's Day. The 2nd one (bottom left) popped through Wednesday of last week. They are SO cute. I can see the bottom right one when she smiles. She didn't seem to be in any pain at all when they popped through the gum, hopefully that will continue for the rest of her teeth!

Little Diva??

2009-05-19T08:32:00.004-05:00

This video may not be funny to anyone but me, but I just had to post it. It's so Ella. Totally happy but then the tiniest thing isn't the way she wants and the world is coming to an end. And then she's happy again. Maybe babies in general are just like that. But I think we have a drama queen in the making on our hands.

Mother's Day

2009-05-12T20:05:00.002-05:00

I know its a few days past Mother's Day but I still wanted to post about my first ever Mother's Day. There were times over the past few years where I didn't think I would ever be able to celebrate a Mother's Day but yet, here I am. I'm so so thankful. For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to be a mom. After Rusty and I got married, like most couples, we talked about how long we wanted to wait before we started a family. When we moved from West Lafayette to Indianapolis, I felt VERY ready to start a family. But I knew it wasn't quite the right time. We wanted to be in a house and be more financially secure. Finally, the summer of 2006 came and it was finally time. Finally time to become a mom. Little did we know that OUR plans weren't GOD'S plans. Go figure :) I ended up getting pregnant in January 2008, 1 1/2 years after we started trying. I know in the grand scope of things, that really isn't THAT long, but to me, to us, it felt like an eternity. I wondered what God was trying to teach me, teach us? Why did God put this desire in my heart if it wasn't to be? I prayed and prayed that if it wasn't God's will for us to have children, to remove that desire from my heart. Adoption was always in the back of my mind, but I'd always looked at pregnant women with envy. I WANTED to be pregnant, to experience everything. I saw friends get pregnant that weren't even trying. I heard about teenagers getting pregnant. But not us. I knew God had a plan for us but sometimes it just felt so unfair. I humbly praise Him for not letting this waiting period make us bitter. And of course, now looking back, God's timing was perfect. And, with all we went through, my first Mother's Day was that much sweeter. I now look at my darling, sweet baby girl and she is a constant reminder to me of God's love and faithfulness. I'm so honored that God chose me to be her mamma. My prayer for this first Mother's Day, and for every Mother's Day is that I will never forget God's perfect timing, God's faithfulness, God's steadfast love.
I've been given the ultimate gift.

You think she's having fun?

2009-05-08T20:06:00.002-05:00

Tagged! (not it, no tag backs) :)

2009-05-07T11:13:00.002-05:00

So my good friend Lissa tagged me for the "8 things" quiz...8 things I did yesterday, 8 things I'm looking forward to, etc. I've been tagged a bunch of times of facebook for stuff like this too. No offense, but I'm just not really that into that kind of thing. I feel like I have nothing good to really say, or nothing interesting to say. Not that I ever have anything THAT interesting to say but that doesn't stop me from blogging! BUT, I was thinking, the point of all those things is to get to know people better, right? And what says more about someone than their guilty pleasure?? :) So I'm starting a new "tag" of sorts...what is your guilty pleasure?? I'll start. I'm kind of embarrased to admit this. You ready for it? Ok, here goes.

I am totally addicted to The Real Housewives of New York City. Ok, I feel better that that is off my chest. I first discovered the show probaby 4 weeks ago. They play reruns of all the shows on Bravo during the day. I got totally sucked in!! Why do I care about a bunch of stupid socialites who just stab each other in the back all the time? I have no idea. I can't get over how pointless their lives are. But, nevertheless, its really entertaining.
So....I tag Lissa, Amber, Jen M., Jenny J. and my sister Sarah. Give me the dirt.

5am ramblings

2009-05-02T04:25:00.002-05:00

Its 5am on Saturday morning and I am blogging. Why? Because my sweet, adorable baby girl will not go to sleep! This is really rare for her. She pretty consistenly sleeps from 7-7 now but every once in awhile she'll wake up around 4:30am. Almost always she'll go right back to sleep after I nurse her but not today! When I put her back to bed she was quiet for about 5 minutes (until I was just drifting back to sleep...) and then she just started being really noisy. I really didn't want Rusty to wake up...he's had such a long week at work and lots of early morning. So, here we are, downstairs. Ella's on a blanket beside me playing and I'm blogging and watching infomercials :) I'm seriously thinking about buying a cordless vacuum. Or a ShamWOW.

Yesterday after her morning nap, Ella woke up in the best mood! She was just so smiley and happy. So I decided to do an impromptu photo shoot....

Here's her 7 month pic from a few days ago...

Something sweet - a lot of times while I'm nursing, I'll pray out loud. Partly to pass the time and partly just so Ella can hear me praying. Almost every time I start to pray, Ella will instantly stop nursing, get really big eyes, look up and me and just start smiling and making all these sweet noises. Its like she just knows that we're talking to God :)

I do have one prayer request. Maybe someone reading this has experienced something like this with their little ones? I noticed a few days ago a lump/mass/knot (not really sure what to call it) on Ella's chest, underneath her left nipple area. Am I allowed to say nipple on my blog? nipple. anyways, I was worried about it so I called my dr. I was hoping she would say it was normal and not to worry about it but she said she wanted to have ella come in so she could look at it. Its about marble-sized, not tender to the touch and only on the left side. You can definitely feel a difference if you compare the 2 sides. So, I'm mildy freaking out about it but trying not to worry too much. So I'd appreciate your prayers! Thanks!

My 7 month old

2009-04-28T20:40:00.002-05:00

Ella turned 7 months old yesterday! I know everyone says it, but I just can't believe how fast the past 7 months have gone. Ella's personality is coming out more and more every day. She babbles and "talks" constantly. I can't wait for her to actually start talking to see what she has to say! Sarah was telling me that at the school she teaches at, they have quiet time for 5 minutes in the morning. She said that as soon as the 5 minutes are up, a few of the kids just burst with all the things they've been holding in for the past 5 minutes. I think that's gonna be Ella :)

This past weekend was a baby shower for my good friend Jenny! I cannot wait for Jenny's baby girl to come so Ella can have another playmate! The theme for Jenny's shower was rubber duckies-Jenny loves them. I found an adorable 3D duck mold and decided to go for it. It was pretty tricky! I felt like I was on one of those cake challenges on the Food Network channel! (sidenote-is anyone else really into those cake decorating shows or is it just me??)

So, here's a picture of the duck cake when it was finished! I'm showing you the cake from its best angle. Looking at it straight on, it looked a bit "off". I had to decapitate it in order to slice it. Jenny ended up taking the duck head home and she's gonna freeze it and maybe have it at Kelsey's 1 year birthday party! How cute!

Ella LOVES to be outside. She just looks around and takes it all in. I love that she's big enough now to sit in her stroller and be happy in it. Here she is last weekend in her floppy sun hat.

So Ella's hair is finally long enough that I can clip bows in it! It looks a little funny since it takes pretty much all the hair she has to get the clip to stay. But I still think its pretty cute!

And finally, one of her in her swimsuit. She usually wears leggings with it when we head to the Y. Does anyone know if they make the little swimmers diapers in smaller than 16 lbs? That was the smallest I could find.

I haven't taken her official 7 month picture yet. Yesterday she came home from Rusty's mom with a really red swollen eye. She kept itching it and seemed really irritated. I was going to take her picture last night but she was just too fussy. This morning when she woke up it was fine, so I'm not sure what was up with that!

Baby food, yum yum

2009-04-23T13:01:00.005-05:00

Who knew making homemade baby food could be so much fun? I've gotten really into it! I decided when I was still preggo that since I would be staying home with Ella 3 days a week, surely I had time to make babyfood. I imagined slaving over the stove, cooking up peas, carrots, green beans and squash. I had no idea how fun and easy it would be! I talked to a few girlfriends who did their own food to start off with. I looked at this website and got some great pointers. Ella's first food (after rice cereal) was avocado, which she hated. But I soon learned that she'll eat almost anything if I mix it with banana or applesauce. Except peas. So far, haven't found anything I can mix that with to make her eat it! Well, the other day I found this website and it opened up a whole new world! There are actual recipes, which I love. Before, it was just very basic to me (mush up a banana and add some applesauce). But this webiste shows how you can use spices and introduce lots of different flavors, I love it! At Ella's 6 month dr.'s appointment, her doctor told me not to be afraid to use spices in my babyfood but I wasn't really sure how to go about it. One recipe I really like (and tried yesterday) was the sweet 'toes recipe. It was really good! Ella hasn't had it yet. We just introduced peaches yesterday so I'm waiting a few days before trying something new. Another one I thought was really interesting was the Pork "Chops" and Applesauce recipe. I love how it gives the age range it's recommended for. I look forward to trying lots of fun recipes from this website!

Other than trying new foods, Ella has also started her swim "lessons" at the Y! We go with my friend Jen and her little boy Zane. Its not so much swim lessons as it is just singing songs and splashing around in the water. But I think Ella still enjoys it. I have some pics of her in her swimsuit but they're still on my camera so that will have to wait until the next post. But trust me. Adorable.

To tide you over, here are some more pics from over Easter weekend.

Ella with her cousins. I don't think they got the whole pinwheel concept but this one turned out pretty cute

At church

Ella givin a big smile for her great granny

He is Risen!

2009-04-12T19:13:00.004-05:00

He is risen indeed! Praise God for an empty tomb and a risen Savior!
Happy Easter!

Well I am ashamed at my lack of posting and hope to not go that long again! I was so behind in uploading pics. I'm sure lots has happened since I last posted but now its all a blur! Ella had her 6 month dr's appt a few weeks ago. It went well! She's 15 lb 12 oz (44%) and 27 inches (84%). Looks like she's gonna be tall and skinny. Hmm, wonder who she gets that from? Not me!

Ella's first Easter was great! We had an awesome church service this morning and I really felt God's presence. I'm so thankful for a wonderful church, God is so good. After church we came home and ate and played lots of wii. I got a chance to take a nice long walk with Ella and my mom. Ella was such a happy girl all day. Her Oma and Opa were here and so was her Aunt Rachel so she got extra spoiled. She loved all the attention but after awhile I could tell it had just gotten a little too much! I took her upstairs for awhile and just had some Ella/Mommy time and she was all better. What a sweet little girl she is! Here are a few pics we took today:

Ella, Oma, me
the 3 of us :)

do you think this girl is gonna be spoiled??

Today I had nursery duty at church. Its weird being in the nursery now that I have one of my own in there! She's just now getting to the age where if I'm in the room she wants me to hold her. Our church nursery is so fun right now...we have quite a few babies around the same age. Here is a pic of Ella and her future BFF Kennedy! Kennedy is my friend Amber's baby and she is such a sweetie! I look forward to these girls growing up together!

One of the most exciting things that has happened in the past week is that I learned that Target sells BabyLegs leggings! Oh my they are the cutest thing ever!! They are definitely nice for having Ella wear around the house, they make changing diapers so much easier and keep her legs nice and warm!! I did have an embarrasing moment when trying to decide which ones to get. Rusty and Ella had come with me to Target. Rusty (unbeknownst to me) had wandered off with Ella to the toy section (shocker). So I walk over to the leggings section, thinking he's right behind me. I see a cart coming up right beside me so I assume its Rusty. You probably see where this is going. So remember, I am REALLY excited about these leggings. I see all of them before me and I say "OH MAN, OH MAN, HOW WILL I DECIDE WHICH ONES TO GET!?!!" I was purposefully being extra dramatic. So then I hear someone say "uhm, excuse me." Yeah. Not Rusty standing beside me. Just some lady who now thinks there's some legging-obsessed girl who talks to herself. heehee. Ok, all that to say, here is a picture of the leggings :)

I love this next pic of Rusty and I lovin on miss Ella! We went to a get together with Rusty's side of the family this weekend and had such a great time. Ella is the youngest of all the cousins so she got extra attention and loved it!! It was so great to see everyone!!

And finally, a few pics of Ella's 1st Easter dress. I love love love this dress! She will probably be wearing it every Sunday to church untill she grows out of it :) The photo shoot went pretty well until I brought out the Easter basket with the grass in it. The grass stayed in the basket for approximately 5 seconds. Now I'm finding it everywhere, including in Ella's diapers. I guess babies really like that stuff, who knew?

We may do another photo shoot in this dress this week. I keep timing these shoots wrong and Ella's not wanting to smile! Of course as soon as the camera gets put away, she's all smiles!