Little Visitor

Ellie had a friend stay with her last Thursday night...Piper Kelton!! The Keltons were coming through Bham on their way to Florida and stayed the night with us. It had been waaaay too long since we had seen them so it was great to get the girls together. Ellie is 4 months older than Piper, but they are at the age now where they have so much in common and had a great time together!This is about the only picture we got of them somewhat posed and standing side by side!

Very typical...Ellie and Lilly harassing Piper for her "nana!"

Sweet.

"Come on Piper, please let me have a bite!"

Rebecca and I attempted to get some shots of them together. Ellie sits, somewhat cooperative, but Piper will have no part in sitting.

Now Piper sits, and Ellie is over the sitting!

Ellie goes in for a kiss!

Let's try the backyard...

Uh, no. Picures just weren't happening this day!

Ellie did find a really good stick though!

As a side note...happenings around our house...Ellie can pretty much reach anything that is on the edge of the kitchen counter I have recently found out! Example...this morning as I was wiping down her tray on her highchair, I hear a lound "splat!" I turned around to see about 8 eggs cracked and smashed all over the kitchen floor! Yep, she grabbed the egg carton that was apparently on the edge of the counter and pulled it right off. Meanwhile, Lilly runs up and proceeds to eat the raw eggs, and Ellie smears her hands all in the mess! All I could do was laugh, and the thought crossed my mind to go and get my camera, but after 15 minutes of clean up I was over the laughter!

Ellie is also still eating anything and everything we give her. After she ate her dinner at church tonight, she proceeded to steal collard greens, black eyed peas, squash casserole, and green beans off of my plate! I mean she literally climbed up onto the chair at the breakfast table and stole food right off of my plate! I thought for sure she'd spit the greens out, but she kept going back for more! She never ceases to amaze me!

Fall is here...

and we sure are enjoying it!

We got our pumpkins and mums yesterday! Ellie loves the pumpkins and doesn't remember them from last year so it was something new and fun for her!

Smelling the flowers...

She's lovin' the new grass! And we are too for that matter!

Daddy got her an orange push pop from the gas station, and she loved every bite of it!

She's also still into climbing! She discovered that I kept fruit in the bowl on the breakfast table and oh what a treat!

Just about every time I grab a banana, it has bite marks through it from you know who!!

"Oh, I love it when Mama just lets me have the bag of Chex Mix to myself!"

Mouth full...So happy!
Ellie is changing every day and saying so many new words. We are just amazed by what she understands and can say. I am quite certain her vocabulary is right on target with where she should be for her age, but her daddy and I are blown away with some of the things she can say! She is very much into her Daddy these days too which I love to watch! I love to see her face light up when he walks in the room...precious.

Weddings, Birthday Parties, etc

We have had several busy weekends here lately!! We celebrated Jackson Brien's first birthday with him in Atlanta last Sunday and had so much fun at the party!!!

Mandy, Jackson, and Sam

Ellie insisted on helping Jackson with eating his birthday cake!!

And he didn't seem to mind sharing!

Ellie trying to figure out if she wants to jump in...

Ellie going in for a kiss for the birthday boy!!! He seems to like it!



THEN, this weekend we headed down to Pensacola for Leigh and Brett's wedding!! We had an absolute blast, and Leigh made the most beautiful bride! I wish I had some pictures from the wedding, but unfortunately I didn't get my camera out all weekend. Congrats Leigh and Brett!! We are SO happy for you!


After the wedding festivities, we headed back up to Birmingham today to celebrate Miss Katherine Crowe's first birthday!!!!
Anna Kate, Katherine, and Blake

Look how stinkin' cute this birthday cake is!!!

Blair Verdigets made the party all the way from Atl!!

Ellie had a blast at the party...she's starting to get the hang of these bday parties and figured out real quickly how much fun they are...especially the cake! Swingin' at the party...

I think she has done this at every party...playin' in the ice...

And, she did a lot of this...

"Diving" in and out of the bouncer!!! In and out, in and out, over and over again!!

Before we left the party, she had to lean in and give the birthday girl a sweet hug and kiss...
Happy 1st Birthday Jackson and Katherine!! We had SO much fun at your parties!!!

First Day of School

Backpack, check. Lunch box, check. Paci, check. Blankie, check. New dress that Lollie was supposed to have ready by her first day of school...not so much! Lollie, we hope it's ready soon! And yes, she insisted on carrying every bit of this!

This is about the best picture I got. I wouldn't say she was exactly thrilled about her first day of "cool" as she would say. She actually started Mother's Day Out at our church today so I guess it's technically not "school" but close enough for this Mom. She has been going to a little program at our church for the last 3 weeks that has gotten her warmed up for this big day so she actually did really well. She still cries every time I leave her, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that will change very soon. It still breaks my heart every time though!Getting in the car w/ her backpack. Notice the mud in the background? Yeah, we don't quite have landscaping at the new house yet. Rain, Rain, go away so we can get some grass so my 2 little rats aka dogs will quit tracking muddy pawprints all through my house! I question having 2 dogs quite often but am always reassured that they're nice to have around when I see Ellie's face light up when she sees them. I guess that's worth all of the muddy pawprints!!!!!!!!!! We've officially moved in and are trying to get settled and finish unpacking box after box after box. We are loving all of this space!

Just checking in...

There is not much going on around here except packing boxes and keeping up with E! We had a rough time last week battling an ear infection, but we're all better now thank goodness.

Always the entertainer. I found her in the living room like this the other day...

Do you like the ensemble? Monkey pj pants, ski bunny t'shirt, socks, blue and orange paci, and a pink hat! So I hear putting Vicks on their feet w/ socks helps when they have a bad cough. I'm convinced it works so we did this for a solid week! Oh, and the "boy paci" is thanks to Poppy. When she was in Atmore for the week they somehow misplaced all of her pacis so my dad ran to Walgreens and came back with blue pacis! We'll just call them her "Auburn pacis!" She obviously doesn't care what color they are!

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We are getting SO close to being finished with the house reno! The movers are officially set for Tuesday at 8:30 am! Woohoo! We ran over yesterday to let Ellie put her handprints in the wet concrete along w/ her name and the year. She thought it was hilarious and so much fun!

Hope to be back soon with pics of the completed house!

She's Back!!!

My baby spent 1 night with MeMe and 5 nights with Lollie and Poppy this past week down in Atmore, and boy did we miss her! She had an absolute ball going to visit the doggies at Poppy's work, riding the golf cart with Poppy, and seeing her great-grandmothers! We are SO glad to have her back though! I don't know what my parents did, but she came back saying a LOT of new words! It's amazing. Some of her words...tree, cheese, house, bee, teeth, gone, seat. Yes, some of the words are a little random, but I'll take anything! She is also nodding her head "no" a lot. For example, "Ellie, do you want to go night night?" She proceeds to shake her head no! It's hilarious, but I try not to laugh in front of her. It's not so hilarious when I put carrots, bananas, blueberries, turkey, etc etc (anything healthy) on her highchair tray, and she shakes her head NO and throws it over her shoulder! Lollie and Poppy, what in the world did you let this child eat last week?! She usually eats everything I give her! I will say after one day of having her back, I am exhausted! Whew, she keeps me on my toes!

We had her 15-month appt (even though she's 16 months today) today, and she was a very big girl during her shots. I always dread the shots, especially as she gets older. As far as stats, she weighed 26 lbs. 6 oz. (88th percentile) and was 32 3/4" long (95th percentile). That's the lowest she's been on the chart for weight since she was born!! Dr. Stone said she was growing as she should, and she looked great!

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We had another busy weekend celebrating these two...Brett & Leigh!!

We girls spent Friday night having dinner at 26 and then back to Hotel Highland for Leigh's Lingerie Shower.

Saturday night we gave them a couple's shower... Hostesses from the couples shower

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Two weekends ago, Rusty, Ellie, and I traveled to Gatlinburg for a family reunion on my mom's side. We rented an awesome 6 bedroom house, and it's probably the first time I can ever remember everyone on my mom's side getting together and having an actual bed to sleep on! Mom has 2 brothers and 1 sister plus all of the kids and now great-grandkids!!

Pit stop at the Tennessee Welcome Center. Someone couldn't handle the 6.5 hour drive! Someone's Mom couldn't either! It was the longest drive ever!

Poppy chasing Ellie at the rest area.

Her new thing when we go outside...sticks.

She had a blast being the only baby there! That meant a LOT of attention from EVERYbody!

My cousins and Grandmama

My girl cousins and Grandmama

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Lastly, I have been feeling like Ellie is just bored lately so I decided to try a new activity..."doing artwork." I bought some toddler Crayola markers and a sketch pad. I should've known better! She spent the entire time eating the markers and drawing on the floor in her bedroom...

This is what she looked like after about 10 seconds...
Luckily they washed right out/off!
So much for new activities!