Christmas cont'd...

Best part of this past week would have to be having this person around... She She stayed with us for an entire week, and we loved every second of having her around!!

Last Wednesday was Ellie's last day of MDO. These are her teachers, Ms. Julie and Ms. Marilyn. She will be moving up to another class after Christmas so we wanted to get one last pic with them. We will definitely miss them!!!

After school we headed to meet Anna Kate and Katherine for our 2nd annual ornament-making extravaganza! First Ellie and Katherine had to exchange gifts...

Then it was time to paint! She has definitely done this before at school...

Lovin it...

Katherine's turn!!

Thank goodness She She was there with us. Right after Ellie dumped a bowl of water all over herself we decided it was time to find something else to do while the mommies painted!

Suddenly realized on Saturday that we had no pics in front of our tree!

I love the poses she has been coming up with lately!

Lollie came up Friday and then headed over to GG's house in Anniston with Ellie on Saturday. Rusty and I joined the family in Anniston on Sunday morning...

Me and GG


Ellie's first present!!!!! She was so excited!

A pink tutu from GG!!!

Tryin' it on for everybody...

She She and me with my chubby face, and I have 4 more months to go! All of this Christmas candy doesn't help!

She She captured this on camera, and I just thought it was funny. Never a dull moment around here!

Busy Weekend

Last weekend was a busy one! My friend Ryan, her husband Scott, and their two boys Daniel and Davis got to our house Friday evening and stayed until Sunday. Ellie had a ball having 2 constant playmates the entire weekend! We got an early start Saturday morning and headed to The Village Tavern to have Breakfast with Santa! Anna Kate and Katherine also met us there along with Mandy and Jackson Brien, Nancy and Wesley Moore, and Auntie Meghan!!

Ellie and Katherine having their milk...

Ryan and Daniel

The whole crew...from the left...Davis, Katherine, Ellie, Wesley, and Jackson... Obviously our attempt to get a group shot of them didn't go so well! Every one of them is crying except Ellie who is looking down at them like, "come on guys...what's the deal?"

After breakfast I decided we would go try to sit in Santa's lap, and this is how that went...

Needless to say there was no "sitting on Santa's lap!" To say she was terrified would be an understatement. I felt like a terrible mother for making her get anywhere near him! I have never seen her act like that. She was literally shaking. Poor baby...we'll try with Santa again next year!

She managed to regain her composure and pose for some pics with K. Our attempts to get pics in their pink coats didn't go so well either...Sweet, but poor Katherine looks like she's miserable!

After Breakfast with Santa the Mamas headed to Mary Helm's house for a girls' brunch and then Saturday night we had a couples party with all of my college friends and their hubbies. Then on Sunday, we hosted a baby shower for Meghan and sweet Mary Clark! I unfortunately have no pictures to document any of it! We had a great weekend, but I was exhausted by Sunday night!

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Tuesday night Rusty, Ellie, Jimmy, Kelly, Mallory, and I headed to the Chili Cookoff that Jimmy and Rusty sponsored and participated in and WON!!! Their chili won 1st place out of about 20 total!! We were shocked although it was really good!! The Moores and Prewetts in front of the AllState Escalade! AllState Escalade!

Jimmy and Rusty's chili was gone...probably since they won 1st Place!!

The girls had fun too...
Hugs...

They sure do miss seeing each other everyday.

Ellie with all of the chili behind her.

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Ellie just being herself...mischievous...

Despite her smiles she has been feeling a bit crummy lately. She's had a few ear infections that just wouldn't clear up. I think I determined that she's had fluid on her ears constantly since August. We had a visit with the ENT on Monday of this week and decided to move forward with getting tubes in her ears and had that done on Thursday. The procedure went extremely well, and she is doing great. She was such a trooper through it all. We are hoping there are better days ahead without ear pain or infections!!

So Much to be Thankful for...

A healthy little girl....

a happy family who....

is very excited about Ellie having a baby BROTHER in April!! We found out the news last week and couldn't be more excited! Now it's time to figure out what to do with little boys because all we know around here is little girls!

My family came up to our house this year for Thanksgiving, and we had a wonderful time!

Lollie brought G.G. (my grandmother) over on Wednesday afternoon and showed up with these for E...

that's right...her very first pair of Uggs!! Pink of course! Lollie has been eyeing these for well over a year now and just couldn't resist! What a fun Thanksgiving treat! Baby Boy Prewett also got some treats of his own. We need some blue around here!! Don't think he'll be wearing all of the pink daygowns that Ellie wore!

Thursday for lunch...the table all set for our feast! I had so much fun getting to use all of my stuff this year!

Ellie having her appetizer before the feast...

Ellie and Lollie...

Up to no good as usual...look at that face...

One of her most favorite people in the whole world...Poppy...

After a delicious meal of turkey (cooked on the Green Egg by my hubby), dressing (cooked by my grandmother) and all of the rest of the fixins, we all took it easy and rested which was exactly what I wanted to do!

Friday we got up and out early to run some errands and then headed back to watch our Auburn Tigers play! She She and Ellie getting ready to cheer on the Tigers!

She's learned to say "Touchdown Auburn" and hold her hands up in the air and "War Eagle" which is hilarious. She is also obsessed with "Aubie" on her dress!

Poppy and Ellie very proud of our Tigers for playing their hearts out for all 4 quarters! Even though we didn't come away with a win, we sure put up a fight! War Eagle anyway!!!! And for the record...Bammers...you didn't "beat the h*ll out of us!" Rusty was at the game and said they "tried" chanting that cheer at the end, but the AU crowd wasn't letting it fly! ha! I love it!

Saturday night we had a girls' night and headed to a new place called Yogurt Mountain. All I'm going to say is that someone is definitely a fan of this place!!

I mean, she ate every bite with her spoon, by herself! If you haven't tried this place (it's down by Whole Foods and Newks off of 280) you need to go. 15 different kinds of yogurt (that means it's healthy, right?), a gazillion toppings of your choice, and they charge by the weight of your cup! It is delish!! Mmmm...somebody must take after her Mama when it comes to ice cream!

Sunday we headed out to get our Christmas tree!!! Since Mama forgot to take the camera we decided to get a few pics in front of the tree once we got home with it. After years of insisting on a massive tree that didn't even really fit in our house, I found myself to be much more grounded in the decision-making of this years' tree. I couldn't be happier because it fits our space perfectly!

I don't know why she did this, but it was hilarious when we told her to pose in front of the tree and she knelt down like this!

I love the fact that we can ask her to "smile" for the camera now, and she actually does it!

I'll leave you with this so you know she's not as innocent and sweet as she looks....

yes, our microwave is down low, right within Ellie's reach. She loves every minute of it too and has recently discovered how to open and close, open and close, the door! She also has a drawer that is especially for her directly under the microwave and decided that putting all of the contents from the drawer and into the microwave would be so much fun. I am just waiting for our microwave to blow up one of these days!
So proud!!!

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful this year, and I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did. We truly have so much to be thankful for and can't wait to celebrate Jesus' birthday in a few weeks! That's the way we refer to it around here at least...the best way I can explain it to a 19-month old! I can already see that this is going to be such a fun and memorable Christmas for us because Ellie is so intrigued by everything so far!