Our Life = Chaos

This wild thing...

+ this little project...

+ hosting parties for Aunt Susie & Uncle Trav...

= CHAOS around here lately!! That's why we have been so MIA w/ the blog!

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Most of you probably already know, but for those of you who don't, Rusty, Ellie, and I are currently going through a MAJOR renovation project and hope to be moving sometime within the next 4 weeks! I was able to snap a few pics this past week of the progress and pull some "before" pics so you can see the transformation!

The front of the house "before" obviously!

The Kitchen before (don't you love the peach?)...
The Kitchen now!!!

which opens to the great room (Rusty and I love lots of natural light)...
The Dining Room before (pls notice the lovely windows that HAD to go)...

The new Dining Room...
Ellie's Bedroom before...

Ellie's Bedroom now...no more blue!!!
Ellie's Bathroom before...
E's Bathroom now...

Back of the House before...

The Back of the House now...

Plus a few features/rooms that I have always dreamt of having!!

A Mudroom/Desk Area for all of our JUNK that we love to set down the minute we walk in the door...Now hopefully my dining room table won't be full of junk ALL of the time! It's currently the "catch all" for everything from my purse, keys, cell phones, Ellie's shoes, and more random junk!

A Playroom for all of E's plastic!

Right side of house w/ side entrance, carport...

So needless to say, we have been VERY busy around here lately. I am hoping to have this renovation project behind me very soon!! I honestly didn't know what we were getting ourselves into with this, but I know it is all going to pay off in the end! More pictures to come once we get to the end of the project!

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Back to the other fun stuff we've been up to! Uncle Travis and Aunt Susie are getting married this Saturday, August 1st, and we can't wait!! A couple of weeks ago we threw them a little Mexican fiesta at our house and had a great time!

Before the party, Ellie was helping me w/ the decorations...

Rusty & Blake at the party...

Me & Leigh (who is marrying Brett on Sept 19th!!! woo hoo!) at the party...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We have also had a little time to get together with friends...Mallory & Ellie playing in the wagon. Notice sweet Mallory just sits in the wagon while Ellie proceeds to climb in and out, in and out, over and over again. My little busy bee never sits still! These sweet babies only have one more week of Aunt She She keeping them, and then she's off to Auburn to start grad school. Ellie and I are still in denial about this HUGE transition. We are going to miss her SO much around here!!
As for my busy bee...I feel like I haven't updated you in so long on all of her little accomplishments. She's doing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" in this picture...

Ellie is 15 months now, and I just can't believe it. She is trying her best to talk and repeat everything we say and do which can sometimes be scary! We are getting to the age where you really have to watch what you say and do! For example, Lollie was in town a few weeks ago and very lightly pushed Lilly out of the way w/ her foot, and said "No Lilly." Well, now Ellie follows Lilly around, kicking her and saying "No!" She has also started walking up to things she knows she shouldn't get into and looks at me and says, "No no." Which is what I say to her ALL of the time! It's hilarious! She is still extremely energetic and keeps us on our toes at all times!!

I'll leave you with this....just plain sweet...
I guess she still looks like him, huh? I hear it everywhere I go!! ha!

4th of July Lake Trip

We went with Rusty's family to Lake Martin for the weekend of the 4th. Rusty's older brother Chad, his wife Tonya, their 3 girls, his younger brother Travis, his fiance Susie, MeMe, and Maw Maw (Rusty's grandmother) all went! We all had such a great time, especially Ellie! She has a great time when she gets together with her older cousins, Madison who is 13, Mallory who is about to be 10, and Mary Mykal who just turned 7. It works out great for me too because it's like having built-in babysitters the entire time!

Ellie spent most of the weekend wearing this:

The best group shot I could get of the 4 girls:
They were determined to get that hat on Ellie!

Her cousins are SO sweet and love her SO much!

Ellie and MeMe

Mowin' the grass...

Ellie's favorite part of the entire trip...getting to carry around her very own piece of watermelon!!

Mmmm..."I never get to do this at home!"

If you look closely you can see the drizzle running down her belly...

I really wish I had gotten some pictures of the entire group, but it just didn't happen. Who cares about anyone but the baby of the family anyway, right? At least that's the way it is in our family! As long as we got pictures of her we're golden!

Family Vacay to Wyoming

It has been a while since our last post, butI have good excuses! Rusty, Ellie, and I spent 8 nights in Wyoming with Lollie, Poppy, Uncle Thomas, Aunt She She, and Uncle Josh!! We had a wonderful trip and made lots of memories. This post is going to be long so I may lose you with all of the details, but I'd like to do this recap for myself to use as a journal from our trip. Read along if you feel up to it or just scan our fun pictures!!

We flew out of Birmingham on Sat, June 20th. Our plane was due to land in Jackson Hole around 1:30 in the afternoon, but we ended up not making it until around 8:30 that night. It was probably the longest day of our lives, but luckily Ellie did GREAT and was an absolute angel the entire day. I was SO worried about her flying, but she did great thank goodness! After we landed in Jackson Hole, we hopped in our rental cars and drove about an hour-and-a-half to Brooks Lake Lodge which is just outside of Dubois, Wy. The lodge accomodates up to 40 people so it is very small and intimate, and all of the guests really get to know one another which is really neat. It is all-inclusive and includes 3 meals a day plus free childcare!

Brooks Lake Lodge:

View from the lodge:We arrived at the lodge around 10:45 pm Sat night, had a fabulous meal, and all went straight to bed! We woke up Sunday morning to another wonderful meal and just relaxed around the lodge in the morning. After lunch we all headed out for a horseback ride (everyone but Ellie). Ellie stayed back at the lodge with the her babysitter, Janessa. The horseback ride was great until the dark clouds appeared and hail started pelting down on us!! It was also pretty chilly the first day with highs only in the lower 50's.

The girls having warm cookies and tea after our cold horseback ride!

We woke up Monday to a beautiful, sunny day. It was still in the 50's this day, but the sun helped to warm us up. Everyone headed out for a morning hike, and then we dropped the guys off along the way to do some fly fishing.

Stopping along the way on our hike:

One of the views along our hike:

The guys caught the first 3 trout of the season! Dad & Thomas with their fish:

Monday afternoon, Mom and I headed to the spa for some pampering! Then we were off to the hot tub!

After all of that we had even more excitement. Aunt She She and Josh got ENGAGED!!!!! He took her out on a canoe on Brooks Lake and proposed! She She said YES, and they are getting married May 15, 2010! We are SO thrilled for them and are glad we got to share in the excitement of the engagement!!!

The newly engaged couple:

On Tuesday, Lollie, Shelby, Josh, Thomas, and I went on an all-day horseback ride while Poppy and Rusty went fly fishing. Tuesday was a beautiful day with highs in the upper 60's. We had an awesome day!

Wednesday right before we left Brooks Lake Lodge:

We left the lodge around 11 am Wednesday morning and headed over to Jackson Hole. My parents good friends own a condo in Jackson Hole in Teton Village. On our way to the condo we drove on Moose Wilson Road and saw lots of wildlife along the way!

Little Baby Moose:

Beautiful muledeer...look at those antlers!

Part of me really wanted to see a grizzly/black bear and part of me really didn't want to see one! My parents have been out to Wyoming several times and have had bear sightings, but I have never seen one. Josh and Shelby actually saw a mama and baby bear when they were up in the gondola, but that's the only bear sighting we had on the trip!

While in Jackson Hole, little Ellie started feeling a bit warm, and I was afraid she was getting sick. The child has only had a fever one time in all of her 14 months on this earth, and of course she came down with something on our week-long vacation! She ended up having a fairly high fever for several days. So many days that Mom and I decided it was best to take her to the local pediatrician in Jackson Hole to find out a stomach virus w/ a high fever was going around.

Pitiful, sick baby:

We did make it into Jackson and walked around a little the day we took Ellie to the dr. The guys in the town square:We laid low for a couple of days since Ellie felt so crummy, and I actually had a pretty bad cold myself. We were able to get some good hot tub time in though (we are on the balcony at the condo and notice the gondola in the background...very convenient)...

Ellie bounced back by Friday so we were able to get some shopping in as well as an afternoon hike and delicious Italian dinner in Teton Village!! On Saturday we got the bright idea to rent bikes at a place called Dornan's and ride 9 miles to Jenny Lake. The ride was tough but totally worth it since the weather and scenery was GORGEOUS!! Poppy got the bright idea to keep going a little further past the lake which made our overall trip about 24 miles total!

Ellie loved her little buggy behind Daddy's bike! I can't say Daddy loved it so much after 24 miles though!

The group taking a break along the way...

The gorgeous Tetons along the bike trail...

We made it to Jenny Lake for a picnic lunch!

Feeling MUCH better and back to herself!!

Poppy made us make the extra trip on the bikes (an additional 6 miles) over to Jenny Lake Lodge and assured us the scenery would be worth it. I guess he was right!

Poppy showing Ellie how to blow the dandelions...

And this is how we all felt at the end of the 24-mile ride!!!!

Overall we had an incredible trip!! I think Ellie is glad to be back at home, in her own bed, on her normal schedule though. She has definitely been catching up on her sleep, taking 5 hours worth of naps every day since she's been home!!