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!

1st Little Sewing Project

Well, I have been thinking about it for a long time, and I finally decided to take my first sewing lessons. I started about a month ago, and this is the first thing I have made for E...I have stared at it all day in amazement that I actually made it. I can't take credit for the monogram, just the dress!
I cannot believe her legs in this picture. She is losing all of her rolls! Sad!
I have also made one other dress for her, and I am starting a pair of pants tomorrow night. We'll see if this continues. I really like the amount of $$$ I am saving...my main motivation for it all!!

Ellie Has Some BIG News!!!

Read closely...yep, that's right...she's going to be a BIG sister!!!!! I realize this may not be news for some of you, but it may be for others. I am 15.5 weeks right now, and the baby is due April 25th. Ellie's (and my) birthday is April 17th SO they will be almost exactly 2 years apart. Who knows, I could have another one on my birthday! So far I have been feeling great, and this pregnancy is very similar to the way it was with Ellie. We will find out in 3 weeks whether Ellie is going to have a baby sister or baby brother! I have a slight intuition that it's a baby brother, but we shall see! More to come!
She is super-pumped!! If she only knew what's coming! Ellie also has some other big news.....she went poopy on the BIG potty last night!!!! I couldn't believe it! We were SO excited! It may not happen again for a while, but boy was I super proud of my big girl for telling me.

One more exciting thing...I was writing her name on her diapers this morning for MDO, and she pointed to the first letter of her name and said "E." I was like, seriously, how did you know that? I certainly didn't teach it to her! Amazing how much they learn so fast!

Halloween Weekend 2009!

We had an awesome Halloween weekend! We started off with celebrating Uncle Josh's 25th birthday on Friday night. He grew this great-looking mustache for the special ocassion...nice huh. She She was happy to see that he shaved it off first thing Saturday morning!

Ellie had fun celebrating with us!

We also had some more visitors...She She...Lollie...

and Poppy!!

The girls headed out to lunch on Saturday and browsed through a few shops, and I think Ellie may have found what she wants Santa Claus to bring her for Christmas this year! We couldn't get her off this horse! She had so much fun!

After eating lunch and shopping, Ellie got a good afternoon nap and woke up raring to go!

Hanging out with Josh before putting on her costume.

Ellie got all dressed, and we headed over to the Lawley's for a little pre-trick or treating party! She got to do some craft activities (which consisted mostly of eating the glue stick!)...

and got to see one of her most favorite people in the world...Anna Spencer or "Spencer" as E calls her!

Then we headed back home to meet the Moores to head out and go trick or treating!
Ellie as a duck and Mallory as a lamb...they were so cute.We also met up with Ellie's new buddy, Douglas, who was a NOLA Saints football player!
First house, Ellie digs in, gets several Rice Krispy treats and tears into them!

Ellie getting some candy...
After about 2 houses she really got the hang of it and started running up to every door! She loved it!
At one point her pumpkin got so heavy she had to throw it over her shouder!
Our trick or treat group...we had a great night and didn't want it to end!

The Moores, Prewetts, and Dellaccios

Boo at the Zoo

Our little duck...

Ellie got all dressed up Friday evening, and we headed to Boo at the Zoo!! After taking all of 2 pictures our camera started acting up, but luckily we ran into our friends Cameron, Beth, and Julia, and Beth was sweet enough to get some pics of our duck for us! This is about all we got...

Getting warmed up for trick or treating next weekend...getting some candy. We still have to work on actually saying "trick or treat!"

Ellie and Julia. Ellie is obsessed w/ babies. She hovered over Julia the entire time we were with them!

Mama and Ellie

E had a great time riding the carousel...well, we did have to rescue her off of the horse she was riding after about 2 minutes. She just wasn't so sure! Then we rode the train in the dark and saw all of the ghosts and goblins. Good thing she didn't actually know to be scared of them! After that we had some popcorn, a Laffy Taffy or two and headed home. The animals weren't out for us to see, but we did get to see a few peacocks which Ellie thought was really cool.

My Big 18-Month Old!

I forgot to mention that my baby turned 18 months old over the weekend!! On the 17th to be exact. Just a couple of accomplishments around here:

-Ellie, you are telling me now whenever you have a "Tee Tee" or a "Stinky" as we call it around here. I see potty-training in your near future!

-You started calling your paci your "sassy" a couple of weeks ago. It's the cutest thing we have ever heard!

-You have become very interested in books lately which makes us very happy. You will actually sit in our lap and let us read to you.

-You still eat just about anything we offer you.

-You add several new words to your vocabulary every day. The funniest is when the dogs are barking and you tell them to "hush." Wonder where you learned that???

-You have started calling everything you're holding "mine" and pointing to yourself. I guess you learned this at "cool."

-You can do your puzzles all by yourself.

-Your new "game" is running from me all of the time! When I'm trying to get you dressed, change your diaper, out in the driveway you head straight to the street and laugh the whole way, and the scariest is when we're trying to get into the car you always run straight for the parking lot!

-You still love playing outside. That's basically all you want to do!

I am sure there are many more that I'm not thinking of, but that's it for now! Happy 18 months sweet baby! It's been the best 18 months of our lives.

Fun Weekend at Lollie & Poppy's

Rusty headed to Chicago for an AllState conference from Weds-Sun of this past week so Ellie and I decided we would take a trip down south to see Lollie, Poppy, & Uncle "Ayee" as Ellie calls Thomas. We have NO idea why, but she for some reason cannot pronounce his name so he has officially become "Ayee!"

Ellie loved playing in the sand in Lollie & Poppy's backyard! Dad poured some sand in order to try and get the grass to fill-in, but Ellie just used it for playing!

On Saturday, Lollie and I took Ellie to a local farm to see and pet some animals. My parents know the people who own this farm, and they raise "cage free, organic" animals which I think is very cool and rare for South Alabama! First, we got to pet the goats which were very sweet...

Just as I thought, Ellie wasn't in the least bit afraid or timid around them...

We also got to see a herd of sheep. They apparently aren't quite as "people-friendly" because this is about as close as we could get. Ellie is chasing them here!

"Cage free" turkeys...

Then we saw lots of chickens!

Ellie is "calling the chickens"

Cutest of all...baby chicks!!! They were adorable!

Lollie, Ellie, and I also made a quick trip over to Wal-Mart in Bay Minette (25 minutes away and the closest to Atmore) to buy Ellie some toys for when she is visiting. Lollie decided she needed some entertainment. We found this Wal-Mart grocery cart and thought it was so cute! She definitely thought so too and enjoyed "shopping" all weekend!

We're back in Bham safe and sound and glad Daddy is back from his trip!