Flashback to the 80s

A few days ago, I was in our bathroom and giving random objects to Ella Ann to keep her occupied while I put on my makeup. I gave her this red headband that I wear when I workout to play with while I got ready and she loved it! She carries it around the house and knows that it's "her headband" and tries to put it on her head! I took the below picture of her last night wearing it. She will come up to me and hold her handband up so I can put it on her. If she tries to do it, she ends up wearing it around her neck all day, which looks even more 80sish!!! I call her my little Jane Fonda! Now I just need to find her some leg warmers and off the shoulder sweatshirts!!

Workouts with Ella Ann!

Ella Ann's Aunt Emily and Uncle Paul recently took a trip to NYC and sent Ella Ann a t-shirt for Valentine's Day!!! Isn't that so nice??!!! She looked so cute in it, even though it will be a little while before she can wear it out of the house!! It looked adorable on her and we really appreciate you thinking of Ella Ann!!!!!!!! Thank you guys, you two are so sweet!!!!!!

A Trip to the Grandparent's House

Since Spencer was going out of town for work last week, Ella Ann and I went to stay with my parents in Kentucky so we wouldn't have to spend the week/weekend all alone. We had a really good time with them, especially Ella Ann because of the constant attention, playtime, and fruit! ha! We mainly hung out at their house and relaxed because it was way too cold to get out, but we ran lots of errands and went out to eat. My mom and I took Ella Ann down to the mall and let her run free for about an hour, which absolutely wore her out! She loved the open space and went crazy over a huge Beenie Baby display at a bookstore! Of course my mom couldn't let her leave empty handed and Ella Ann refused to put down a really soft white bear so it came home with us and she hasn't parted with it since! She sticks her thumb in her mouth each time she holds it! She also got her Valentine's Day present from her Mimi and Grandpa, which was a Little People Valentine set. She kept carrying around the table with the umbrella attached to it and would try and say "umbrella".

We also went shopping and out to eat in Evansville on Saturday. It was so nice to get out and walk around and I even was calm, cool, and collected when Ella Ann was over an hour late for her 2nd nap! For those of you who don't know or couldn't guess that I'm a complete crazy person when it comes to Ella Ann's naps because I'm such a stickler about them! So, for the people that are always telling me to calm down and not worry about it because Ella Ann would be just fine if she missed a nap or was late for one, you all should be proud of me!!! :) Ella Ann also had a very sweet ride while we were at the mall (see below) and enjoyed being pushed around!

While we were in Kentucky, Ella Ann's cousin Seth was born! Spencer's sister had her second little boy last week! We stopped on our way home on Sunday to visit with everyone and meet Seth. He is SO cute and SO tiny! Carter was really good with him and was very proud to show me his new "Baby Seth"!!! Ella Ann loved our pit stop because she got to play with Carter and all his fun toys!

We were glad to get home on Sunday and see Spencer, though. Ella Ann was very happy to see her Daddy and started smiling and pointing to him when we pulled in our parking lot! Spencer brought me home a variety of hot sauce from New Orleans, which I've used twice already and it's only 8:30 a.m. the following morning! I have put it on everything I've eaten so far! He also brought home a huge carmel and chocolate chip covered apple, which for some reason, I have been craving lately. We said we would only eat a piece of it last night, but of course the whole thing was gone in about 1 minute!

Thanks again to my parents for all the fun and food! We had a good time and we'll see you again soon!

Ella Ann showing Grandpa the bow from her present. She played with that bow for 4 days!

Ella Ann had just polished off some spaghetti and after cleaning her off, this was the result!

This was her car that she got to ride in at the mall. She loved it!

Rolling and tossing a ball with Grandpa and Mimi provided endless entertainment!

Ella Ann, Carter, and Seth. Carter did so well holding him! Nana and Papa now have THREE grandchildren!!!

Playing in Carter's car.

I wanted to post this picture of Ella Ann when she was 4 months old. Seth is borrowing her green seat in the next few months. The seat was stored at my parent's house, so I had brought it upstairs so I could take it to Mandy. The last picture is of Ella Ann in the seat last week. It's amazing how much she has changed and how big she has gotten in only 11 months! See, she's also grown hair.....finally!!! I was able to put a bow in it last week for the first time! She's wearing her new bow in the picture with Carter and Seth! We will be sure and put a bow in her hair now every time we leave the house so she will no longer be mistaken for a boy!!!

4 months

15 months

Don't ask why she has this hat on inside before she went to bed. She put it on and wouldn't take it off! I think she kind of looks like a pilot getting ready for takeoff!

Toddler Time

Since Ella Ann seems to be transitioning to only 1 nap (she hasn't taken a 2nd nap in like 4 days and wouldn't take her morning nap yesterday)....ohhhh so sad for me, I thought we would do something fun this morning instead of fighting a nap so we went to "Toddler Time" at our library that is close to our home! It was only about 30 minutes long, which was plenty of time for me! :) It was for ages 15 months to 2 years. Ella Ann and I walked into a room full of pre-schoolers, and a few toddlers around her age. Ella Ann LOVED it! She didn't necessary enjoy the storytime because she, of course, didn't pay any attention, but she really liked watching all the kids and interacting with them. Three stories were read with singing breaks in between each song and then they finished with a song that included an alligator puppet. Ella Ann would run in circles around the kids gathered in the center of the room to listen to the story and stop and point in their faces! Geez! She would also stop at each adult sitting with the children on the floor and the adults that were sitting in chairs around them and give them her biggest smile ever! Once they smiled or said hi to her, she would go to the next adult and do the same thing! It was hilarious to me, but I'm sure annoying to them!


Ella Ann would stand with the kids and sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider", "The Wheels On the Bus", "The Hokey Pokey", and several songs that I wasn't familiar with. I guess I should start brushing up on my nursery rhymes! She loved the puppet show and kept trying to squirm out of my lap and go up front and snatch it from the man's hand! They also played music before and after story time and Ella Ann would just stand and shake it like it was nobody's business!! :)


I think getting out during her usual morning nap today was great for her. The chaos wore her out and I put her down after I fed her an early lunch a few minutes ago so hopefully she will sleep a long time!

I took this picture of her as storytime was beginning. I got the "are-we-really-staying-for-this look"!

Well as you can see, she warmed up quickly to the entertainment! This is her distracting smile that she would spread across her face before she took off running in front of the kids and back again! I apologized to the man reading afterwards!

"And you do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around!"

Quality Time with the Grandparents

My Mom and Dad came down this weekend for a visit. After Ella Ann quickly warmed up to them, she was dishing out hugs, kisses, smiles, and giving them books for one of them to read to her. It was fun to watch her interact with them. Ella Ann is becoming more and more social, expressive, and interactive that is was really fun for the grandparents to play with her. Each time they see her she looks different and has mastered new skills, such as showing them where her shoes and socks are or pointing out the animals in a book. She is really into balls right now and loves this inflatable one that she has. My Dad was her playmate tossing the ball back and forth and making her fetch it! Ohhh she loved it! She also enjoyed sitting in my Mom's lap and looking at books with her and playing with Baby Tad.

We went to a neat deli for lunch on Saturday that served up some amazing sandwiches. We shopped around the mall that afternoon and came back to our house to play. Unfortunately, Spencer had to work all weekend so he only got to see my parents for a short time Friday and Saturday night. We went to dinner on Saturday night at a really, really neat restaurant that we all loved. The food was amazing and the service was spectacular! It is very close to our house, so we will be going back for sure! Ella Ann had a blast, too, and enjoyed some of my Mom's grits!

My parents went to church with us on Sunday and said their goodbyes to Ella Ann and I. It wasn't too sad for them to leave because we will be seeing them again next week. Thanks again, parents, for all the food and goodies you brought us all! Ella Ann has eaten all my blueberries and raspberries! You'll need to bring a separate container just for her next time! ha!

Ella Ann won't be sharing any of her grapes with Mimi! She stuffed both handfulls in her mouth at once! She loves her fruits and veggies! That's my girl! :)

Baby Tad is a permanent fixture in our living room these days! He often goes on errands with us because Ella Ann refuses to part with him!

Reading with Grandpa.

Ella Ann was playing peek-a-boo across the table with her Grandpa at dinner on Saturday night. As you can probably guess, she had spaghetti for dinner!

A quick picture after church on Sunday.

My Sweet

As I was cleaning my kitchen this afternoon, Ella Ann was secretly digging into our candy dish in the living room and enjoying some Dove chocolate! I didn't know she had gotten into the candy until she came running up to me holding a mangled piece of what used to be a square of chocolate! Besides eating ice cream, this was her first experience eating a sugary treat since she hated her birthday cake! The child has good taste--who can pass up some Dove??? I propped her up on the kitchen counter, and after I wiped down her hands (she was touching everything with her chocolate-coated fingers), I snapped the picture of my mischievous little girl. Fortunately she was wearing a navy shirt, which makes it hard to see the streams of chocolate that were running down her front!

I was wondering why I hadn't heard any noises from the living room for over 5 minutes! Ella Ann had also smeared the candy all over her new chair that she sits in in the living room! No worries, though, I washed it and it came out clean!

Life Update

I feel like I haven't updated you all on our lives in my posts lately. I have just been posting on our outings, holidays, or visits from family members. So I thought I would just post on what's new with us. I used to post about all of Ella Ann's new tricks, smiles, faces, steps, etc., but now that she is walking I guess I think that everything else after that is just everything else! I thought that her walking was the biggest thing ever, so nothing has really compared to that in my mind, which it all should! Shame on me! :) Sooo, with that in mind, I will just let you know what Miss Priss is up to these days! She is as crazy and fun as ever! As soon as her little feet hit the floor in the morning, she is nonstop, literally, until she is back in bed at nighttime! She is constantly in motion, which is fun, but tiring! She can practically run now, so I cannot do anything in another room, even as fast as I can move it, she is right behind me! She points to people in pictures now and tries to say their names, but I think only Spencer and I at this point can figure out what she's trying to say. She can say "milk", but it's "meeeee" and she says "please", but I think she thinks I'm saying "peas", so it's "peeeeeeeeeeeeees"! She'll say "niiii niii" for night night and she also says, unfortunately, "NO" quite often! She has no stranger anxiety right now and will go right up to a stranger and wave, smile, dance, or give them her furrowed brow. She is known in our playgroup now as "the girl who makes the mean face"! Ohh no!

She also seems to understand what Spencer and I say to her. We tell her to go get a diaper, which she does, get her milk, or any of the many farm animals she has and she will usually get the correct one...she even says "llama"! She is also still our dancing queen. She will start dancing to the music of a commercial or any other sound that sounds like a beat! She loves dancing to the "Electric Slide" at my gym's nursery! I cannot believe I let them corrupt her mind with the "Electric Slide"! She has now started to stomp her legs with music, which is her latest smooth move. Ella Ann doesn't like to watch television, but she will stand in front of it if the Mickey Mouse Club is on and dance along with Mickey and the gang. She points to Mickey Mouse and says "Meee"!

She is my shodow now more than ever and loves dishing out hugs and kisses, and greets her Daddy each night by running to the door when he walks in and giving him a huge smile and hug or kiss! Ohhh I love it, and I know Spencer does to!

Spencer is really busy this month at work. Ella Ann and I don't get to see him much, which makes for a long day sometimes. He is setting up interviews now and will be going to several cities to check everything out. I am excited for him and the next chapter in our lives. It will be neat to see where God is going to place us and the adventure He will take us on. It will be fun if we stay here or if we move. I know we will be happy wherever we are. Spencer also gets to take a trip to New Orleans next month and San Francisco in May to present his research. He says it won't be fun because he'll be doing boring stuff all day, but come on, I think he'll have time to do some fun things and explore! So yes, I'm jealous and mad that I don't get to go! He will be staying in nice hotels and eating lots of good food! That's enough for me to call it a vacation! ha!

I am finishing up my courses to be a certified medical transcriptionist. I have started posting my resume online and applying to a few jobs, so hopefully I will find the perfect job to fit my life soon! It will be nice to make a little extra money for us so that Spencer and I can go out and enjoy ourselves sometimes! My Bible study that I regularly attend at my church has started back up after the holiday break, so it has been great to be back and Ella Ann enjoys going and playing in the nursery. We also still go to our playgroup once a week at church, which gives me a chance to hang with other moms while the kids play. The Dinner Club that was started back in August has really been growing! We have 20 girls now! We meet once a month and three of us cook. The girls who volunteer to cook pick the theme. We have one tonight, our "Souperbowl", serving soup of course, but I cannot go because Spencer is on call and I will stay home with Ella Ann. We are going to do a cookie exchange next month in honor of Valentine's Day and I'm going to have it here at the house. So that will be fun. My friend, Jana, and I have started trading babysitting once a month for each other while the other couple goes out on a date. It is such a treat and all of us benefit from it!

Well, that's a long enough update I suppose! Of course Ella Ann's update is the longest because what Spencer and I do is not exciting! I just posted one picture of Ella Ann below so this entire post isn't just writing! My parents are coming down to visit this weekend, so I'll post more pictures next week!

Ella Ann LOVES her blanket! We now own 3 of them so we will never be without in an emergency! One goes with us wherever we go!

A Visit From Papa & Nana

This weekend Spencer's parents came down for a visit. Although it was a quick visit, it was fun! Ella Ann has been VERY much into hanging on my legs, literally, if I'm not sitting down playing with her, so I was thankful for the break they gave me! I was able to go to the grocery and spend some alone time at the mall....just browsing, of course! I could take my time and enjoy just walking around by myself! My mom is my usual shopping partner, so I did miss having her around...and her wallet! hahahahahaa! :)

It was a very nice weekend here weather wise. We all went to the park on Saturday afternoon and turned Ella Ann loose in the open area. Spencer and I sat on a bench and watched Nana and Papa chase her around! Right now Ella Ann is loving dogs and the park was full of them, so she had a field day running after them and doing some petting!

We went to a fantastic restaurant for dinner on Saturday night that is famous around here for it's southern cuisine. It was really good food and we all enjoyed our meals, including Ella Ann. The waitress swore she would love the homemade yeast rolls and warm cinnamon rolls they gave us, but no chance. The child is weird for sure if she turned down such delicious bread!

We went to church together on Sunday. Spencer had the day off, so it was good to have him there with us since it's a rare opportunity these days to attend church together as a family.

Thanks Gary and Gayla for taking care of Ella Ann so Spencer and I could relax and for taking us to lunch and dinner. We sure appreciated your visit!

Papa trying to get a quick picture with Ella Ann before she chases after a dog that she has spotted!

Ella Ann with her Nana.

She has been set free to run in the park!

Of course she cannot sit still to get a picture with ole' Mom and Dad!

Under the Sea

Yeay!!! We finally made it to the aquarium!!!! We received year passes as a Christmas gift, so we made use of them already and went on Tuesday! All I can say is, WOW! It was absolutely amazing and we will go ALL the time! What makes it even better is that we save $10 on parking because we can walk there!

Ella Ann absolutely LOVED every second of our tour there. She was beyond enthralled by all of the action in the tanks and would squirm in our arms to hurry up and get down so she could race to the glass and see all the fish, sea lions, whales, sharks, jellyfish, crabs, otters, and penguins! Spencer and I had so much fun just watching her enjoy it all so much! It was neat to watch her experience everything for the first time. Of course, you can only imagine how much she pointed at everything! Ella Ann would stand in front of the glass and when a fish or whatever else was in the tank passed by her, she would bounce up and down, smile, and squeal! It was sooo cute! There were a ton of people there, but that didn't stop her from pushing her way to the front and walking over, literally over, anyone that stood in her way! Spencer and I tried to keep up with her, but she wore us out! We lasted only an hour and a half before we were ready to go! At least we know we can go back as much as we want and see it all!

This sea lions were the first exhibit we saw and Ella Ann loved them! They would whisk past her and she would run to the side of the tank were they were headed!

She pushed her way in front of a young boy to see the jellyfish!

How many times did we say, "Yes, Ella Ann, fish!"

I wanted to include this picture of a big, grumpy fish we saw! How would you like to run up upon that in the ocean? It made me think twice about getting in the water!

I wish we were able to capture the whale sharks on film. They were in the massive tank behind us.

Christmas Tour 2006

We hit the road early Friday afternoon last week and made our first stop in Tennessee at Spencer's sister's house to have Christmas with his immediate family. Gifts, gifts, galore is all I can say! Carter and Ella Ann raked it in and got some really cute things from everyone. They really enjoyed sitting in their new, monogrammed chairs from their Nana and Papa and playing with their light up ducks that are for the bath!
We left for Kentucky on Saturday and stayed with Spencer's grandmother and had Christmas with her. We have not seen Spencer's two grandmother's for quite a long time, so they were beyond happy to see Ella Ann; I'm sure they were happy to see us too! ha! Sunday morning we went to his other grandmother's house and spent the day with the rest of his extended family. There were 24 people at his Nanny's house, which is definitily a record! Everyone is adding to their family these days, so we loved getting to see everyone and spend time catching up and eating, and eating, and eating......etc.! It was great!
We left for my parent's home on Sunday night and had our Christmas with them on Monday. Again, we opened many gifts and ate some more great food! I'm still stuffed and we are all still eating leftovers! We cannot complain, though, we only get such yummy food around Christmastime, so we must enjoy every last bite that we can! Ella Ann received some really fun toys from my parents and loved playing with some of them over the course of this week. Unfortunately, Spencer had to work on Wednesday, so he left Ella Ann and I and we stayed with my parents until Friday. My poor Dad drove us home to Georgia and then turned around and drove back to Kentucky the same day! I guess it was worth it to have his favorite women with him all week! Sorry Mom, he loves you too I'm sure! hehehehee!

Ella Ann did great traveling and was quite a trooper with all the car rides, missed naps, new faces, etc. She was the life of the party, along with her cousins, Carter and Thatcher. We all loved sitting around in a circle and watching the kids play together. What a blessing they are to all of us! The three of us are sad to be home in a way because we already miss everyone so much and our time together was so short AND it passed so fast, as usual! We will be back in the car doing it all over again, though, before we know it!

Happy New Year to everyone! Love, Spencer, Katie, & Ella Ann

Ella Ann & Carter sat still for one second so we could snap some pictures of them in their new seats!

You can almost hear all of us saying "NO!" through this picture, can't you?!?! Ahhhhhh the temptation of the tree and ornaments!

How cute is Carter at his Granny's house??? Do you think he is photographed often?

While Carter and Thatcher napped, Ella Ann entertained the crowd at Nanny's house on a stuffed horse!

The three little angles playing with Thatcher's new toy.

Playing on her new rockin' zebra in her Cindarella hat at my parent's house. Ella Ann woke up and hopped on her new ride!

Round 4 of Christmas at Grandpa and Mimi's house!

Ella Ann just loves Dottie. The poor cat couldn't get a break from Ella Ann, she chased Dottie around everywhere clapping and yelling! This is a rare moment of petting!

We were listening to Christmas music as we opened presents in the living room. Ella Ann ran to the room where the music was playing and when I walked in, she was swaying to the music by herself! My Dad then picked her up and danced with her! Nobody puts Ella Ann in the corner, nobody!

She would not part with this toy, even for breakfast!

I could bore you with 50 more pictures of Ella Ann, but I think you all have seen enough for now! :)

It's Almost Christmas!

Yeay, it's almost Christmas! The three of us are getting really excited about seeing our families soon! Ella Ann needs some entertainment because I haven't been doing too good of a job lately! She's getting pumped about seeing her cousins, Thatcher and Carter!

We took the below pictures this past week/weekend. They are pretty random, but funny! The first picture Spencer took last week of Ella Ann pushing Elmo around on her car. She put him up there all by herself and began giving him a tour of the living room!

Since the weather has been beautiful here recently, we were all able to go to the park on Saturday, where once again, I was forced into tossing a football with Spencer! I do, though, have to admit I'm getting much better, either that or Spencer is just saying that so I'll keep playing with him! ha! Ella Ann wants to be a part of it now and enjoys carrying the football around with her in the house. I believe Spencer is very proud! I took the pictures of her in her pjs this weekend. Spencer dressed her, which is why her pants are hiked up all the way to her neck! Of course I would never do that! :)

Last night, our church had their Christmas service. It was called "Breath of Heaven" and included the story of Jesus' birth. They had an orchestra and many, many people in the choir singing. It was beautiful and Spencer and I really enjoyed it! We dressed Ella Ann in her Christmas dress that her Nana gave her and she looked so pretty! We tried to keep her with us for at least some of the time in the sanctuary because it was a family-oriented event and we knew she would love hearing the music. Unfortunately, that didn't quite happen. Ella Ann was all over the place! Not even her precious blanket or veggie puffs could keep her contained! She didn't even make it through the first overature of "Silent Night" before she was in the nursery! We have realized we have a very antsy child because there were several young children close to her age in the service that sat peacefully in their parent's laps most of the time. Ohhh well, maybe next year!

Merry Christmas to you all!!!! Love, Spencer, Katie & Ella Ann

Ella Ann giving Elmo a ride on her car!

Ella Ann is ready for some football!!!!!!

Ella Ann in front of our tree after our Christmas service last night. She's pointing at her favorite gift to torture, her Nana's! The bow may be half eaten by the time Nana does get it!

I took this picture as Ella Ann was walking toward me trying to give me a hug, or grab the camera!

Decking the Condo!

We have FINALLY put up our Christmas tree! Yeay! Because Ella Ann and I were out of town last weekend, we waited to get our tree until this past Saturday. We tried to get it on Thursday, but the place was closed both times we went (no we're not stupid, we were there at the right time the second time around, but no one showed!), so we finally picked one out on Saturday! The tree we picked out is beautiful, but we again had to wait over 24 hours for the branches to fall so we could decorate it! Unfortunately, Ella Ann was unable to help us decorate last night because she had a temperature and was beyond fussy, so she went to bed early. No worries grandparents, she is MUCH better today! Spencer and I think it was just teething because she has been fussy for several days.

Anyway, as you can see from the pictures below, our tree is fabulous, and the lean gives it flare! ha! When Ella Ann woke up this morning, I went ahead and lit the tree so it would be ready for her. I sat her down in front of it and she was mesmorized. She loves touching the branches and the nonbreakable ornaments within reach. Now she attempts to say tree, but it comes out "breeeeeeeeee!" There is a small ornament of Santa's face that she can touch and each time she points at it I say, "Santa" and she repeats back to me, "Daaada", but it sounds somewhat like "Santa"! :) The "breeeeeeeeee" will be her entertainment for the next two weeks!

Our stockings.

Ou beautiful leaning tree!

I wanted all to see our Disney tree skirt, since it will be covered with presents from here on out!

Ella Ann admiring the tree this morning.

Ella Ann with her pointer ready! (The "Daada" ornament is behind her.)