Such a Proud Moment

I am so proud~ Ellie said "Thank you" to a stranger for holding the door open for us today :-) She is so polite!!

I took her to baby praise at church today and she had a really good time. There were lots of kids there and she would wave and say "hi" to each person that came in. My angel~

September

I can't believe that we are 3 months away from Christmas! Where has the time gone? It's already consignment season!! I've bought Ellie a few things but overall I am doing really good about not overbuying. I even got Ellie some Christmas gifts at Wal-Mart last week that were on CLEARANCE!! Wooohoooo!!

We've all been staying busy. We went to Dothan for a few days so Stephen could play in a golf tournament then went to Orlando for a week to visit family and friends :-) It was a good trip, the weather was Perfect, and it was so nice to go to my old work and visit with everyone. I even got to see some of my old students! We visited with Aunt Rachel and her girls and Ellie had a blast. We stayed with Stephen's dad, Nina, and Pamela and it was really nice. They kept Ellie for a couple hours several mornings so that Stephen and I could sleep. Ellie would go with "mima" or grandpa to walk Pamela to the bus stop and see Pam off to school. She bonded really quickly with them so that was nice. They loved having her there :-)

Ellie did not really like the long trip and spent most of the 10 hours home complaining/crying/screaming. She only slept for 2 hours the entire trip. Towards the end of the trip it felt so nice outside that we rolled the windows down and turned the music up. Ellie thought that was really fun and I got quite a few really cute pictures from that.

So anyways....today was a busy day for us. We walked around the property this morning then went to church, ate Chinese, washed my car, vacuumed all three cars, played in the pool, finger painted with Chocolate Pudding (for the first time), played with markers (also a first), walked to the lake, played in the pool again, finally bathed (again), and put the little love bug to bed! WHEW!

I've uploaded a few pics from recently but it just takes soooo long!

New words every day

Oh how time flies. Ellie is 16 months old and weighs 20 pounds (Yes, she is a tiny little thing). Ellie is saying new things every day and her newest one is her name! It actually comes out "EhE" but she does get the "l's" in there sometimes. She has started using several sentences and is pretty good with signing. For months she's been saying "Let's Go" and "I don't know" but now she is saying "night night mama/dada", "I love you", and "I got it/you". She is soaking up everything she hears and is repeating a lot of it. For this I am grateful that she stays home with me so I don't have to worry about what she might pick up for her vocabulary :-). She is very good about saying "Thank you" every time you give her something or do something for her. She is just the sweetest little girl ever. If you remind her she will also say "please" or sign it. Speaking of signs she has put her own twist on them. She does all the signs I have taught her but she changes them a little. For example, water is supposed to be three fingers spread out like a w while you tap the index finger on your chin. SHE does the index finger and taps her nose while saying "water". I think it is just so cute.

For the past couple of days I have gotten to experience having two kids under the same roof. I have been watching my friend's son and it has been pretty interesting. He is almost three and Ellie is 16 months so sometimes they play well together and sometimes not. I find this rather exhausting; constantly saying "share" and trying to mediate. However, I will say that Ellie LOVES having another little one to play with. They like to chase each other around the house and spin in circles as they laugh out loud. I must admit that I feel a little lonely when she has company because she isn't depending only on me :-(. But anyways.... I will survive :-).

My little love bug

Ellie is just the sweetest little baby EVER :-). We hadn't talked to mom in a few days and when we finally got her on the phone yesterday Ellie started kissing and hugging the phone. She was so excited to talk to her grandmomma and it was just so sweet. So then we got her on the web cam and of course Ellie was kissing "grandmomma", aka, the screen. She is definitely grandmomma's girl; I have to fight for my kisses when she's here :-)

(This was last month when we dropped off mom and bubba at the airport. Ellie was helping with the luggage)

We went to visit my dad last week and Ellie was saying "tito" and "tita". We got Pizza one night and Ellie wanted some so bad but I was trying to make her wait because we were in the car; well she just kept saying "itza" and signing "more". She is saying so much these days; she'll be using sentences before I know it. While we were there my nephew came to visit and he has gotten SO big. He is almost 9 and he is almost as tall as me and weighs almost as much as me. He weighs 97 lbs!!!! I can't believe how big he has gotten. I remember when he was a newborn and was so tiny. He is still very sweet and Ellie absolutely loves him. It doesn't matter if she hasn't seen him in months she goes right to him for him to pick her up every time. She just looks at him so lovingly it melts my heart.

Her other new thing is cereal with milk. When I put her on the counter she walks to the cabinet with the cereal, points at it, and then gets a bowl (which is also right there). I love that she knows what she wants and of course it is so cute. I think everything she does it cute ;-).

Stephen is doing good and staying busy with golf. He's been playing in lots of tournaments to try and prepare himself to go on tour this fall. He now has a golf trainer and a personal trainer so we're trying to get him ready. And the best part about this personal trainer is that it is FREE. His golf trainer is giving the guy lessons for free to train Stephen. He must have a lot of faith in Stephen so that makes me feel good. I am nervous about him going on tour but you only live once so he might as well go after his dream.

I don't know if I mentioned it last time but I am selling Premier Jewelry to make a little cash and I love it. I had nine shows this month so I was super busy but I love it. It's only a few hours and it gets me out of the house a little bit. At this moment I should be getting stuff ready because I am having Allison's baby shower here tomorrow. I really have so much to do and I don't know where to start.....Y'all have a great weekend!

Been a while

I

know it has been a while and my mom called me out yesterday for not updating sooooo I thought I'd drop a few lines :-)

May was SUPER busy. Mom and Bubba came in town and we had Ellie's first birthday party. It was fun and I'm glad that we decided to wait for grandmomma and grandaddy to be here. The kids played outside in the baby pool and sprinklers some and played inside too. It was soooo hot! Other than Ellie's party we didn't have any major events but did manage to stay very busy with grandmomma. Ellie didn't miss a beat with her grandparents and she loved having them here. After they left she woke up the first couple of mornings, looked at their bed, and said "granma"; so sweet! Of course, I accused mom of spoiling Ellie but turns out she had her very first ear infection :-( The poor girl was so pitiful.

(Alabama Th. and Ellie was giving mom the evil eye because she didn't want to get down but I wanted her to. It was so funny!!)

Ellie is walking, running, and talking up a storm. She says new words almost every day now. Oh, she said her first sentence at the end of May. She said "I love You" clear as day. Mom was taking her out of my room and in her sad/almost crying voice she said it to me. It was so sweet! Mom and I both heard it. I think she actually said it again to mom one day too. Ellie likes to "roar" like a lion and "ahah" like a monkey :-). At this very moment I can hear her through the monitor roaring and ahahing while sfhe is supposed to be taking a nap. She is also really into her golf clubs and bag and drags the golf bag around everywhere. Actually just this morning we took a walk around the property and she drug that thing the whole way.

We went to the beach for one night a couple of weeks ago and Ellie really liked the ocean. We were supposed to be there for another night or two but it didn't work out for us so we came home. She also likes the pool a lot and isn't scared at all to go under the water. Stephen and I took her to the pool last sunday and she stayed in for three hours. It was a zero gravity pool so she was able to stand and walk around and she kept going to where she would go under water and then I'd move her back and we'd do it all over again. She's a water baby, what can I say.

Ellie is a very sweet girl and is always giving people hugs and kisses; especially little kids. I really don't think she ever meets a stranger (if they are kids) which is strange to me because Stephen and I were both shy. Neither of us take immediatley to people the way Ellie does. I like to call her my little lover. She has grown so much and is such a good helper and listener. I don't have to tell her over and over to do something, she usually does it the first time. She also likes to help do the dishes, laundry, vaccum, and anything else I am doing. I pull weeds out of the pinestraw and then take them to the end of the yard and throw them into the wooded area and Ellie will copy me. The only differnce is that she gets the actual pine straw and takes it to the end of the yard instead of the weeds. It is so sweet and so cute that I can't bring myself to tell her no. I don't want her to think that I don't want her help. I just tell her thank you and think to myself that I can just buy more pinestraw, lol.

Oh, and Ellie went to the potty all by herself last week! Twice!!! We haven't really worked on it this week because we've been out of te house a lot but we'll get back on it soon. She is really into sitting on the toilet, wiping, and then washing her hands. Smart girl I tell you.

Well I'm going to go. I want to try and do a couple things while Ellie is asleep. It's gotten pretty quiet on the monitor so I think she decided to take a nap. OH, and check my photo tab. I'm going to add a bunch :-)

Ellie is ONE

My sweet baby girl turned one yesterday. I didn't have time to post and I still haven't had time to put up the pics but will soon. We had a very busy day and had dinner and cake with daddy when he got home from work. She liked her cake but wasn't into smashing it. She just picked at it a little and was quite neat. Daddy smeared some cake on her face so I could get a "messy" picture. Ellie was able to talk to Grandmomma and Grandaddy on the web cam first thing in the morning and then her Grandpa Steve in the evening. I love having the web cam, thanks mom :-). Anyways, I'm going to play with little bit. I'll post new pics later!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter Everyone!!