Picture overload!

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

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?

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

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!

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

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!

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!!

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

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!

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!

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

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??

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

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?

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

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

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!