Week-End Review

Okay, so once Spencer and I got home from Lake Oconee, we pretty much, or I did at least, hit the ground running and didn't stop until Friday afternoon. VBS was at our church this week and even though I missed the first two days, they still had me as an assistant teacher to the 5th/6th grade class. I jumped right in on Wednesday morning after dropping Ella Ann off at the nursery, which she loved. I had a really, really good time helping out with VBS. The kids are always so cute, especially the 2 and 3 year olds because they try so hard to sing the songs and do the motions to them! The theme this year was Summer Seaquest so all the decorations and crafts were nautical based. Next year Ella Ann will be old enough to participate and I cannot wait! I'm sure I'll cry and cry when I see her dressed in her VBS t-shirt to match the rest of the kids!!

After VBS on Wednesday, I went over to Jana's new apartment and helped her scrub it clean so they could move in on Thursday. I picked Mara Kate up on Thursday morning on our way to VBS and kept her all day while Kane and Jana moved. Spencer helped them move too, which ended up being a very, very strenuous job for all involved because the elevator to their 4th floor apartment was broken so they had to carry every single thing up 4 flights of stairs! Good thing I had it easy and babysat all day! :) Mara Kate and Ella Ann had SO much fun together and it was truely a treat for me to keep Mara Kate. On our way home from VBS on Thursday, the girls passed their snacks back and fourth in the backseat, which was so sweet! They ate lunch together and took awesome naps! I was able to get a lot of my work done for my new job while they slept, which I didn't expect! They played, read, ate a snack, and chased each other all around the house laughing and squealing! I laughed at them all day! It was wonderful having entertainment for Ella Ann all afternoon! Spencer was pooped when he got home from helping them move, so it was a good thing we had already celebrated our anniversary because he was even too tired to eat supper!

I have also been pretty busy with work this week, so getting everything done this week has been kinda hectic!

Several people thought I had twins while I was at VBS and I pretty much did for a day! I loved looking in my rear view mirror and seeing my girls!

They both had to eat the same thing for lunch at the same time or else crying ensued!

Having a grand ole time together!

Mara Kate has always loved Ella Ann's car and she camped out on it most of the time!

Dancing to some tunes Baby Tad was playing!

Ella Ann was chasing Mara Kate before she landed in the chair! Ella Ann is laughing in this picture and I hated that I didn't get both of their smiles! It's so neat and fun to watch them really play together now!

Both of the girls wanted in my lap to read! So sweet!

Spencer took our picture before we left for VBS Friday morning. I dressed Ella Ann in her "nautical" outfit to fit the theme for our last day.

My Very Sweet Husband

Spencer and I's 4th anniversary is this Thursday and this past Saturday afternoon Spencer informed me that his parents were coming down on Sunday morning and keeping Ella Ann while he took me on a surprise vacation! I thought it would never happen!! :) Just kidding, Spencer!!! Anyway, I never figured out where we were going until we drove up to the hotel entrance! We went to the Ritz-Carlton Resort on Lake Oconee, which is about 75 miles west of Atlanta. Ohhh my goodness it was so lovely! The hotel was beautiful and we were treated so well by their staff! The hotel sits on the banks of Lake Oconee in Reynolds Plantation and is surrounded by nationally renowned golf courses. We went on a hike around the property on Monday morning and spent some time at their infinity pool each day. We mainly just enjoyed each other's company for a change!

They had wonderful spa facilities, but Spencer and I couldn't really afford the amenities there! ha! I did get to go to a class at their gym on Tuesday morning, so that was fun for me! The hotel was very family oriented, so there were all kinds of activities for kids and the adults enjoyed them too! For example, Spencer and I made smores by the nightly campfire with other families both nights! It was so much fun!

So thank you to my very thoughtful husband who managed to pull this whole thing off without me having a clue and for such a great time! We are so thankful for Gary and Gayla taking time off of work to come down to our home and keep Ella Ann. It was so, so very kind of them and we are truly grateful!!!!

It was also my parent's 30th anniversary this past Monday, so Happy Anniversary!

This is the entrance to the hotel. I'm sure you can imagine how out of place we felt pulling up in our '99 Maxima! hahahahaaa!

Back of the hotel. This is the path we walked up and down to get to their pool and the campfire area is in the top left-hand corner.

Spencer and I both took advantage of the robes provided for us in our room each day! :)

Roasting marshmallows on Sunday night. Yummmmmy!

On the way to our room from the pool one night.

Me in the infinity pool.

A better view of what the pool looked like.

A view of the grounds. The pool area is in the distance.

I was pushing Spencer on a swing. We didn't have anyone to take our picture so Spencer was our photographer!

The following pictures I had to also post because they are so cute! Spencer took a few pictures of Ella Ann vacuuming with me last week! She loves doing anything and everything I do!

My Dad bought Ella Ann this bodysuit that was fitted with foam padding for her to swim in. We put it on her for the first time last week and she hated it! Ohhh but she looked hilarious in it so we took pictures! I laughed so hard I was crying!

Ella Ann Accessorizing

Ella Ann really likes my necklaces, bracelets, earrings, etc. so a few months ago Spencer linked all of her rings together and made her a big necklace, which she wears often around the house and calls it her "nekase". She usually wants rings pulled off of it so she can wear them as bracelets. So this morning I pulled a few off for her and she put them on her wrists. She kept wanting more, so eventually every single ring was on her arm! She will not take them off! I had to take some pictures of her because she is so proud of her "basets", as you can tell from the pictures! Hopefully she will agree to take them off before we go to Wal-Mart this morning! After looking at these pictures, I have realized how big our little girl is getting and how much she doesn't look like a baby anymore! She is really growing up before our eyes so quickly! :(

A Fun Week in Kentucky

Ten days ago, which seems like forever and a day ago, Ella Ann and I left to go to Kentucky to stay with my parents. One of my good friends, Sara, got married that weekend so while Ella Ann stayed with her Nana and Papa, my parents and I got to enjoy a night out with old friends. I got to see several friends from high school that I hadn't seen in years and my parents got to do some catching up with some of there old friends too. It was a really nice, fun wedding and Sara looked so pretty! See the picture below! :)

The rest of the week was spent at my parent's house just hanging out and relaxing. We went out to lunch or dinner a few times, played in the yard everyday, Ella Ann got to eat her snack outside on the front porch every afternoon with Mimi, played in a little pool my parents got her, read lots of books, took long walks, and just played and played! Ella Ann is so bored right now at home! She was entertained 24/7 the entire time! My Dad's birthday was this past Thursday, so we went out to dinner to celebrate the night before at one of my favorite restaurants.

On Saturday Ella Ann and I hit the road again and headed to Spencer's aunt's house in central Kentucky for a family reunion of sorts. Since everyone is beginning to be scattered and/or adding to their family, Christmas and Thanksgiving are getting pretty large and often people cannot come so we did a big family get together yesterday and everyone came. It was soooo great to see everyone and we had a blast! The kids had so much fun playing together and all the adults got to enjoy good conversations and lots of good food! Even though it was really hot, we did get outside and play a few games, or at least the boys did, while the kids played in the hose. We headed back to our home early this morning and it is good to be back! Ella Ann walked in the front door and said "Yeay!!!!" Guess she missed home a little! Ohhh and she was soooo happy to see Spencer on Saturday! I know he really missed her, but I really appreciated him letting us visit with family for an entire week! I think he didn't mind too much having the house to himself for a little while and going out with friends!

I took a lot of pictures so enjoy!

This was taken the Saturday Ella Ann spent with her Nana and Papa. They have a play doctor's kit and Ella Ann loved the glasses! Too funny!

Several friends at Sara's wedding.

My parents and I. The wedding was outside, by the way.

Sara and her dad danced to Frank Sinatra's "The Way You Look Tonight", as did my Dad and I at my wedding, so he took me for a spin in the garden while they danced. Old memories!

Sara, the beautiful bride!

Ella Ann would run up to Dottie, wave, and say "hiiiiiiiiiii!"

Ella Ann loved my Mom's water wand! She wanted to do everything her Mimi was doing, including picking the dying Petuina's and watering them.....

.....hence the dead flower in her hair! She would get really close to drinking the water, but got to scared to put it directly up to her mouth.

This is the aftermath of Ella Ann playing with the water wand! Not too happy about drenching herself!

Every night my Dad would play music and Ella Ann would dance and dance and dance! She would shake her hips back and fourth so fast we thought they would fly off! I'm not exaggerating either!

My Dad is a really good dancer, but he had to alter his style for Ella Ann!

Playing with Mimi's hat and makeup brush. She carried a makeup brush around the house daily and would "powder her nose"!

So much for the hat!

Eating watermelon on the front porch with Mimi.

Ohhhh that watermelon is good!!!!

My Mom is a vacuuming machine, so she shared her expertise with Ella Ann!

Ella Ann received her very first babydoll/Cabbage Patch Kid last week. It came with a carseat and bottle (new and improved since I was little!). I handed Ella Ann the bottle and she immediately put it to her baby's mouth! It was the sweetest thing! She loves her Jalynn Kierra! Nope, CPK hasn't come up with any pretty names yet for those of you who were wondering!

She was also attacked by a sticker book last week!

This is a few of us hanging out outside yesterday with the family. Spencer was trying to get Ella Ann aquainted with a spray Elmo!

When a familiar water wand was put on the hose then she would play with it, as would a few of the other kids!

Drinking water with Clisty. So cute!

Ella Ann, Carter, and Thatcher parked it in front of the tv to (somewhat) watch Cars!

Cuteness

We received a package yesterday from Mimi that had several new outfits for Ella Ann in it. I opened the box on the floor with her and she started pulling all the clothes out and handing them to me to put on her! Ella Ann absolutely hates putting on clothes, so I was floored when she volunteered to have a fashion show for me!!! It is my dream, of course, to dress my little girl up and have her parade around so I can ewww and ahhhh over her! :) She loves it when I do that too! I couldn't resist taking some pictures of her this morning before we left the house wearing a new outfit. It is hard to get her to sit still for a second so it might be hard to see the "sailor" theme of the bubble, but you get the idea. Thanks, Mimi, for the new clothes!!!

My Mom and I lost her precious Little People horse in Charleston, so we had to buy a replacement horse and this is it. It now ranks right up there with the blanket! She carries it around by it's tail and sucks her thumb! It goes everywhere with us, which is not fun for me because it's another thing I have to carry inside and keep up with!

A Weekend At Home

Spencer has a great rotation this month, in that he has every weekend off! Anytime he has two days off in a row, we usually hit the road to go to Kentucky or Tennessee to visit family, which we will be doing later this month. However, this weekend we just enjoyed some time together as a family at home for a change! The Virginia-Highlands, which is a very trendy/hippish/yuppy neighborhood that is close to where we live, was having their annual Summerfest this weekend so we had to go check it out. The neighborhood itself is really fun because there are neat boutiques and restaurants all around and it is a fun place to walk around and see all the beautiful homes. They had closed down one street and intersection and tents filled both sides of the street. Most of the tents had various artists' work, sculptures, jewelry, costume clothing for kids, photos, etc. and there were several restaurants there selling yummy food and treats. The restaurants within the Highlands had tons of tables outside for dining and enjoying some cocktails. They also had a huge area with a playground designated as a kids zone that was a filled with sand in a courtyard area and roped off for beach-type games, flowerpot painting, hand puppet and hat painting, etc. All of this was free!!!! That was the best part! Of course I wanted to make all kinds of crafts with Ella Ann, but I figured it would be a very messy project and she would probably just pull everything off a sock puppet and eat it anyway so we just played in the sand and on the playground, which was a dream morning for her! For those of you who don't know, Ella Ann likes to be clean and hates having any little thing on her hands or feet, so picture us putting her down on the sand and what then transpired! We took her shoes off so she could feel the sand on her toes but that made it worse! The girl wouldn't move from her spot and refused to walk! She loved tossing around these huge balls, but if we rolled one to her and it rolled away, she would just whine in her spot and point at it for us to retrieve it for her! It was so funny! She loved playing on the playground and had a fit when she had finally wore Spencer and I out and it was time to go home! We had so much fun that morning that we decided to go back that afternoon. This was a mistake because it was beyond packed by then and it was really hard to maneuver the stroller down the street without taking someone out, so we just moseyed down the street for a little while and explored some of the artwork and then went home.


Once home, we sat out on our porch and watched Ella Ann play. I got this brilliant idea from Jana, who does this with Mara Kate. I just stripped her down to her diaper and filled a bunch of my Tupperware with water and gave her kitchen utensils to play with and she loved it! I had done this with her earlier last week and I just sat outside and read a book while she played. Yes, I was actually able to read a book while Ella Ann was in the same room with me! hahahaa! It was awesome and she loves doing it! She also loves to try and blow bubbles while outside and will bring the big bucket of bubbles to Spencer and I to blow them for her so she can pop them on the balcony. This is the absolute best entertainment Ella Ann has had since our vacation! Who would of thought that Tupperware and water would bring me such peace!


Unfortunately, we forgot to bring the camera with us to Summerfest, so we have no funny pictures of Ella Ann braving the sand, but I did snap some of her on our balcony yesterday afternoon.

Ella Ann making her Daddy blow bubbles for her.

Waiting on more bubbles!

She loves splashing in the water and dumping the whole bowl on top of her and listening to the waterfall that hits our neighbors porch below us! I'm sure they LOVE us!

My wisk makes a great chew toy!