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!

Ella Ann's Blanket

This is how Ella Ann sits in her chair, usually, with her blanket draped over her head or wrapped around her head! She also walks around the house often with the blanket completely over her face, which obviously causes her to bump into everything or trip and fall! The other day she ran smack dab into the tv, start crying, but still didn't take the blanket off of her face and continued walking with it covering her! She is so weird! Since the precious blanket, we have 3 by the way, must go with us everywhere, she also puts it over her head when she's in her carseat. I will be driving and look back at her and she's just sitting there with her blanket completely over her not saying a word! It's hilarious! It's like a little ghost riding in the backseat, except for I need to cut her out some eye holes so she won't trip anymore! She sure loves her blanket! Spencer wants her to get rid of it because she always sucks her thumb with it, or anything soft for that matter, and he thinks she's going to go to school sucking her thumb. Well, I will be the last person, you know, to take that blanket away from little Ella Ann considering I slept with a blanket forever and know how comforting it is! Ahhhh the little pleasures in life!

I haven't posted in a while about what Ella Ann has been up to these days. She has always provided endless joy and entertainment to me, Spencer, and our family, but in the last few months her personality has really blossomed. She is always full of energy, as every toddler is, and loves to exert her new-found independence in all kinds of ways, such as climbing on the couch and sitting beside Spencer and I (certainly not on our laps anymore), not wanting to hold my hand in public or running ahead of me in public, wanting to walk beside her stroller or push it herself, saying "no" 50 times a day, etc.! It's great, though, to watch her become her own person and understand her sense of self! She's now a child, no longer our baby. :( The good news is that she readily dishes out hugs and kisses to Spencer and I and still loves to cuddle with us. Thankgoodness!!!

These are some of the words that Ella Ann can say now: Uh-oh (which is said for any sound that she hears everyday), pease (please), no, shyes (yes), dog, kitty, up, I know, hi, bye-bye, most animals and the sounds they make, car, bus, ellaopter (helicopter), ree (tree), ater (water), milk, oomeal (oatmeal), ereal (cereal), nana (banana), ogurt (yogurt), okra, getti (spaghetti), awfower (cauliflower), wower (flower), bobbie (blanket), bobo (pillow)...yes she often speaks her own language, outside, dirty, gross, yucky, grass, awberry (strawberry), apes (grapes), erwings (earings), acklace (necklace), and most of her body parts.

She can say the names of everyone in our immediate family and she tries to say "Miss Jana", but it comes out "ana" and Mara Kate is "Kate". Pretty good! We love hearing her say "Aunt Mandy" and "Aunt Kasey"!

This past Thursday, Jana and Mara Kate came over for a playdate. Of course Jana and I talked nonstop the entire time and the girls enjoyed playing together. Both of them have been bored with their toys and not really interested in playing, even though Jana and I traded toys for about a month. This problem causes trantrums throughout the day because neither Jana or I can sit there for hours on end and play with them! This is why playmates are great because they babysit themselves!

Here are a few pictures of our little 18 month olds!


Ella Ann and her Indian hat that she made while in the nursery at my gym earlier that day. She wouldn't take it off!


Ella Ann and Mara Kate




I had put Ella Ann's chair in her room before Jana and Mara Kate arrived because last time the girls both wanted in it but Ella Ann dragged it back out into the living room and once Mara Kate sat in it, she had to squeeze onto the seat too and then Ella Ann.....



she pushed poor Mara Kate off!

****Also, here is the link to view Ella Ann's 18 month portraits. You will also need the username and password.

Username: Jensen4of4
Password: 8229

http://www.collages.net/PhotogEvents/Events.aspx?photogcode=8229