Baking Bread

Ellie and I made bread this morning! She poured all the ingredients and whisked it until it got "too hard" with all the flour in it. Next we sprinkled flour all over the counters and she helped me knead the dough. She did pretty good I must say. After we kneaded the bread for TEN long minutes, we had to let it set for an hour and a half....

Next it was time to punch the dough and make the rolls

All done~all that's left is the baking

I just got these out of the oven and they are YUMMY! Good job Ellie

So thankful for this precious child

I am so thankful that God has blessed us with Ellie. She is such a wonderful girl and brings such joy to everyone she is around. She is always happy and laughing and making the funniest faces. She has the best sense of humor and uses it often. Each night I lay in her bed with her and we read certain books in a certain order. The last two books we read are her Bible (pre school version) and a book of prayers. We read about 8 prayers from the book and the first one we read is The Lords Prayer. Tonight, as I was reading it to her she was kinda mumbling along with me so I said, "lets read it again" and she says "no, I'll read it mommy". This is what she says "Our father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as in Heaven"..."Forgive us of trepasses and lead not to temptation"...and she stumbled through the rest. Now, she got the first five lines PERFECT then skipped a line, said a couple more, then said some of the other phrases. This child is only 27 months old! I felt like my heart was going to come out of my chest, she is so amazing. I cannot thank God enough for this precious gift and I just wanted to share a little bit of why she is so awesome :)

Fingers

Ellie is trying to learn the names of all her fingers. She really likes the pinkie finger and the thumb. Her pronunciation of all her words is getting so so clear. I think it's been clear all along but she's really sounding out each letter now. I love that she can talk. Makes life so much easier :)

Stephen and I took her to the bowling alley today. It was her first trip and she had so much fun. It was the middle of the day but they had cosmic bowling going on so everything was lit up. She liked her bowling shoes and that the shoe laces were lighting up. Of course daddy took her to the arcade section while we waited for our lane and they played games. She likes that game where you throw/roll the ball and try to make it into one of the holes. Daddy lets her walk up to the front and toss the balls in but she still manages to get them into the zero point hole most of the time, lol. We had lots of fun. After bowling we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and then to Target. It was such an awesome family day. I love days like these :).
Stephen and I decided that we want to join a bowling league together so I think we're going to do that in September. Should be lots of fun. It would just be nice to do something as a couple on a regular basis. I just need to talk to grandmommy about watching Ellie for us those nights. It's just one night a week and its close to her bed time. Besides, grandmommy and grandaddy love watching Ellie ( and she LOVES them). Shouldn't be a problem, I'm excited!

Everyone enjoy your weekend~

I love you Mommy

Ellie is always saying " I love you mommy" and it melts my heart. She's so sweet!

Happy 4th of July

We celebrated Independence day yesterday with some of our best buddies. Ellie really enjoyed the fireworks and playing outside in the dark :). She was asking today if we could go see fireworks again, lol.

The Garage Sale Stand-off

Stephen, Ellie, and I went to some garage sales this morning. At one of the houses Ellie found a suitcase that opens up to a beauty parlor. Well, she sees this thing and says "momma, I want to see this". So I go over, open it for her and this other little girl, about 4 years old, comes swooping in and looking around. Well Ellie was getting anxious and saying it was hers and I kept telling her not to worry, the girl was just looking. Well, the little girl decided that SHE wanted it and I say "No, sorry honey, Ellie had it first". Well, her mom yells, from where she is CHECKING OUT, "get it" in Spanish. Never even comes over to assess the situation. Well if you know me, you know I'm not gonna sit back and let my daughter or myself get bullied by someone who won't even come check out the situation. I tell her again, "No, you can't have it, she (being my daughter) had it first". Well at this point it's a standoff. Ellie closes the suitcase, picks it up, and firmly grips the handle saying "No, it's mine". This is my child, and she will not be bullied by ANYONE. It was so funny and irritating at the same time. I am so glad that she sticks up for herself and at the same time I'm thinking this other mom is being completely lazy and rude. She was ALREADY CHECKING OUT when her daughter tried to swoop in on Ellie's toy. UGH. Below is the item in demand and as you see it is at our house :)

PeeJamies

Ellie would LIVE in her "peejamies" if I allowed it. This all started back in April, the day after her birthday party. Tito and Tita bought her a pair of pajamas with satin pants and she could not get enough. She wore them all day, every day and only took them off long enough for me to wash them. Below are the pjs I speak of...

I mean seriously, the only time she didn't have the p..j's on were when we were going somewhere. I was able to finally convince her to rotate her pjs but here we are, JULY, and she is still living in her pajamas. She is a lady of leisure. With that being said, a lot of the pictures I have of her appear to be in the morning, because she is in her p.j's, but it's just an illusion. Sometimes its 3 o'clock in the afternoon, we've been out and about in regular clothes, and as soon as we get back in the DRIVEWAY she's asking about her pajamas :). Who am I to tell her she can't lounge around the house, play in the yard, or on the trampoline in her p.j's? LOL. You're only young once.

Update on Ellie

Ellie is a TALKER, which I love, but some of the stuff that sticks out in my mind is:

"You a princess mommy"
"Coming Mom"
"Just a second"
"You'll be right back?"
"Hey babe/Wake up babe" (in which she is talking to her daddy, lol)
"I love you so much"
"I want my grandmommy"

I registered Ellie for MDO in the fall so I'm anxious to see how she does with that. I am sure she will love it but it's still scary, well not scary, but nerve wracking, to send my sweet little angel to spend time with other people and kids on a regular basis when I'm not around. However, several of her good friends go to the same church she'll be going too so at least there will be some familiar faces.

Ellie and I have gone to pick blueberries several times this season. We are really taking advantage of living so close to the blueberry farm and go anytime it is cloudy and cool. Which, if you live here you know we've had lots of those days lately. She doesn't really like blueberries but she likes picking them and she enjoys visiting with the cat that lives in the barn at Smith Farms. When I was growing up my mom always took my brother and I to pick berries of all sorts. My great grandmother and grandfather had a farm in Ohio where we spent time each year so we were always picking something on their farm, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, etc. Mom also took us to local places if I recall correctly. Good times nonetheless.

J U M P

Daddy surprised Ellie with a trampoline last week. He came home with it just as I was putting Ellie down for a nap and we went outside to assemble it. It took us the entire two hours and we finished putting it up just in the nick of time. When Ellie woke up we brought her outside and she looked shocked. Her mouth was just hanging open and she said "Zat my trampoline? I want to jump".  She LOVES so we are on it all the time!