1st Birthday

We were without internet last week because apparently our extender, which is located in the garage so it can pick up signal from the church, does not like real cold weather. And last week it was very cold. This week? Back in the 70's...well, that is until today when the high was in the 50's. And that's why everyone I know has a runny nose. But, I'm chasing rabbits. All of this to say, I've been wanting to post on the blog but haven't been able to. So now that Ella's almost 13 months old, I guess I'll go ahead and write about her 1st birthday. :)

On Riley's 1st birthday I made him blueberry muffins (from a package - I cheated), so I decided to make it a tradition each year. When Ella's 1st birthday came along, I thought, why not? So, out came the Martha White blueberry muffin mix.

"What did you say this is?"

"And what am I supposed to do with it?"

Sweet girl's a bit more picky as to what she'll stick into her mouth, so they weren't quite as big of a hit as they were with her brother. Oh well, there's always next year!

Thankfully, my mother (the baker) was here to help me prepare for Ella's party. We decided to keep her celebration pretty low-key by having a few close friends over for dinner and cupcakes.

Ella got her own mini-loaf cake. Stay tuned to find out how she liked it compared to the muffin...

My mother-in-law found these "Ella" balloons several months ago. Both kiddos LOVED playing with them. In fact, a couple are STILL filled with air...almost a month later! That's a good quality balloon, I'd say!

Is it just me, or does Riley look way too old here?! Slow down, time!!!

The goodies table

Happy Birthday, dear Ella! Happy Birthday to you!

 "Once again they've put something in front of me that I have no clue what to do with!"

"So they cut it up...now what?"

Daddy stepped in to help out

"You expect me to do what with this?!"

Ella's over the cake and Riley just wants to eat her cake since one cupcake was obviously not enough for him!

"Okay, people...what's next on the agenda?"

Presents!

Gigi's tradition (Daniel's grandmother) is to send a dollar for every year the child is turning. Ella received her first dollar!

She got a cute (warm!) outfit from Ya Ya

Her first Cabbage Patch doll from our sweet friends, the Cody's (and they were thoughtful enough to find one that's named Ella! how fun is that?!)

Our friends, Lee (music minister at the church) and Jeannie gave her this soft purple bear. She loves to scoot around with it and give it kisses.

Her Uncle Chad, Auntie Jill & cousin CJ gave her this fun, talking picnic basket.

And Grandpa & Grandma gave her a toy that's supposed to help her as she learns to walk. We're still waiting for the day when she'll stand. :)

She was so adorable...she wanted to play with all of her toys immediately!

Ella with two of her biggest fans, Lee & Jeannie

Our sweet friends, the Cody family - Andy, Lena & Jamie

I'm horrible and didn't get a picture of Ella with my parents on her birthday, but here's one we took a couple of days later!

I'm still in denial that this little lady is 1! I am so thankful for the last year we've had with her, though. She has definitely made our house more exciting! I wouldn't trade watching her interact with her big brother for all the money in the world! They are two precious gifts we don't deserve, but how thankful I am that God chose us to be their parents!

We love you SO much, Ella Grace!

Center stage

Today was our last day at Community Bible Study for 2012. We'll start back again in January, but the last day before Christmas they always have the children sing some songs for the mama's and grandma's. 2 years ago, when we had just started attending CBS, Riley went on stage with his class, saw me on the front row attempting to take pictures, and immediately walked off the stage crying and ran into my arms. Last year he did much better, but didn't sing much. Just kind of looked around taking it all in.

Apparently, he is quite comfortable with being in the spotlight now because today he did SO well! I videoed the whole thing for the grandparent's sake (so if you're not a grandparent, I will not be offended if you skip this 3-minute video). Riley's in the middle of the stage just behind the older lady sitting on the floor. Enjoy watching our little man perform!

Let's Go Mustangs!

I spent most of my growing up years in a large city - Jacksonville, Florida. I have no clue how many high schools are in Jacksonville, but there are a lot! High school football was a pretty big deal, but within my youth group, there were many schools represented, so the church as a whole did not support just one team.

Moving to small town Texas has been eye-opening for me in many ways, but especially when it comes to school spirit and supporting sports teams at the school. Texas has independent school districts (unlike Florida), so each town has their own schools. Our elementary, junior high, high school and administrative buildings are all on the same property. Our youth group is made up of one school...Hughes Springs. So, everyone in Hughes Springs supports the Hughes Springs Mustangs. On any given Friday night in the fall, you will find most of the town at the football game. And even though the regular season for 2012 is over, you will still find most of the town at a football game on Friday nights because we are on the road to STATE! That's right, our Mighty Mustangs are in the 3rd round of the playoffs right now. If we win two more games, we'll head to the State Championship at Cowboy Stadium in Dallas. Do you know what my 3-year-old would do if he got to go to a football game at Cowboy Stadium?! Oh my...just thinking about it gets me excited! I know, I know. One game at a time. But still!

We didn't make a lot of their regular season games this year, but once the guys made it to the playoffs, Daniel and I pretty much had an unspoken agreement that we'd go to as many playoff games as they played...no matter where they were held. So far we've traveled down to Nacogdoches (about 2 hours away) 2 weeks ago, and then a small town outside of Tyler (an hour and a half away) this past week. In 2 days (Saturday), we'll go to Longview (just 45 minutes away - yay!) for their next game. The team we play Saturday night we've already beaten once this season, so we're praying it will happen again! Many of our youth are on the team, and several of the coaches are members of our church. It has been such a joy to watch both groups give glory to God and be very open about their faith throughout the season.

Before the team leaves town headed to the different games, there's always a send-off where people can come and show their support. Here's the first play-off game send-off where I grabbed a pic with my favorite cheerleader, and sweet friend, Halie.

Riley went with me to the send-off, and he was in awe as the football players walked by. He would give anything right now to be on the Mustang football team. :)

The first play-off game was held at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, and we played the Hearne Eagles.

Within the first 50 seconds, we made a touchdown and a two-point conversion.

It was cold that night, and bad mama forgot Riley's gloves, so he just decided to wear mine. :)

Our little Mustang

His sweet friend Abigail moved away a little over a month ago, but she and her daddy came to the game. Riley was so glad to see her, and they had a blast playing together.

"Mama, they're winning by a lot...do we really have to stay until the end?"

Some of my favorite people...Kevin & Cara Carrington. They got married this past May. Daniel performed the ceremony, and we did their premarital counseling. Love them!

And the final score...

Fun night, but we were definitely ready to get in the car and get warm!

Playoff game #2: Mustangs vs. Centerville Tigers in Whitehouse, TX

Look at that moon!

This game was much more challenging than the week before.

"Do we have to take a picture, mama?" Yes, son, yes we do! :)

Love them! Don't worry, we didn't just leave Ella at home to fend for herself. :) (Although, that is what my hubby told several people when they asked about her.) My parents were in town for both games, so they played with lil' bit. This weekend, my awesome m-i-l is coming just to watch Ella so we can go to the game!

This was the last shot I got at the game because it was a very intense, down-to-the-second (literally!) kind of game. In fact, we went into overtime tied at 21. It was really late by then, and we still had to drive home, so we headed to the car when overtime started. However, we could still hear the game, so when Hughes Springs scored a touchdown in OT, we decided we had to stay and hear how the game ended. Amazingly, after Centerville scored a TD making it 28-27, their kicker missed the field goal and we WON!

Saturday night there will be a Mustang stampede heading down to Longview to take on the Elysian Fields Yellow jackets! Praying for a well-played, safe game in which the Mustangs dominate! So proud of our boys! Can't wait to see them in action again AND looking forward to watching our small town rally around them once again as they take the field!

So maybe small towns aren't so bad after all... :)

She's 1!

Ella Grace turned the big #1 last week on Monday, November 26! Why am I waiting until now to post? Well, it sounds good to say that I waited until the day she was supposed to come (scheduled c-section for Dec. 5), but really, it's just because I've been busy and have just now gotten a chance to sit down and write. My parents came to visit for almost 2 weeks during Thanksgiving and Ella's birthday. We had a wonderful time, but I didn't spend my "free" time typing blog posts. I spent it going to the grocery store alone (amazing!), going on dates with my hubby (amazing!), napping (amazing!), and playing with my kiddos instead of washing bottles (completely amazing!). They have returned home, and we're attempting to get back into the 'normal' routine.

So, back to the one-year-old. It still has not settled into my brain that our sweet surprise of a daughter is a year old.

There are some contributing factors as to why I'm having a hard time grasping her age. Yes, the year has FLOWN by, but also:

1. She's still ADDICTED to the bottle (I'm a little embarrassed to say how many she still takes a day, but just know it's a ridiculous number). She's definitely getting better about eating solid foods and trying new things, but it will still be a while before I can quit washing bottles. I took her for her 1-year appointment today and the Dr. didn't seem too concerned. He just said the longer I wait to wean her, the harder it will be. And then he said, "For instance, if she's still on the bottle at 18-months it will be a lot harder to get her off than it would be now." I said, "If she's still on the bottle at 18-months, I will be insane by then!" :) So, if you think of it, say a little prayer for Mama & Ella as we work together to kick this addiction!

2. She weighs in at 19.10 lbs, so she still gets to watch the cars behind us instead of the ones in front. I wasn't sure how much she weighed, but I hadn't rushed in turning her around because quite honestly, we don't have a car seat for her yet. Now I'm glad I haven't been panicked trying to buy one. We were counting down the hours until we could turn Riley around because he hated his rear-facing seat. Ella doesn't seem to mind it - especially when brother's in the car to entertain her - so she'll just keep on riding that way until a little more meat gets on the bones.

3. She seems to have no desire whatsoever to pull up on furniture or attempt to stand, much less walk. Honestly, this has concerned me over the past couple of weeks. Riley was a late walker (almost 15 months), so I didn't expect Ella to walk earlier. But, he at least tried to stand up and cruise along the couch. Ella is completely content with scooting around on her bottom. I talked about this at length with the doctor today and he did a pretty thorough examination of her legs. Guess what his diagnosis is?! STRONG WILL and STUBBORNNESS. Yippee! Aren't the ages of 2 and 3 going to be FUN with this little one?! :) Seriously, though, he thinks she is determined to do things her way in her time. We're going to give it 3 months and then go back for a follow-up appointment. He said if she hasn't shown any new developments by then we'll begin investigating possible causes. 

Although we're moving at a slower pace in some areas, other areas of Ella's little life reveal she's been with us for a year. Such as:

1. She has 7 beautiful white pearlies (3 of which came in while we were in Peru!)

2. She is a pro at eating with her fingers. In fact, many times she will only eat something if she's able to hold it and feed herself...there's that strong will again :)

3. She has mastered the art of drinking out of a sippy cup. I give her brother all the credit for this one. Lil' bit wants to be like him so badly, and she watches his every move. She learned very quickly how to drink out of a straw because she sees Riley doing it all the time.

4. She's babbling quite a bit and saying some words that are recognizable. For the longest time she'd say "Mama," but that has since been replaced with "Daddy." I attribute it to the fact that she's with me all the time, but maybe that's just me trying to make myself feel better. :) She also says "that" very clearly. She will point to all types of things and say, "that! that!" Today she said "up" and looked up at the ceiling. She says "yum" when something tastes good. And I say "yum" to her when I'm trying to convince her that something tastes good. I did it tonight when giving her yogurt for the first time, and it seemed to work! She ate about 1/2 of the cup. Even though she doesn't clearly say a lot of words, she most definitely understands a WHOLE lot of what we say to her. She's very responsive and is good about following directions.

I sure do love my sweet girl! She may have a strong personality, but she is the most cuddly, tender-hearted girl I've known. All it takes is a stern word and her lower lip puckers, she gets real quiet, and you can tell her little feelings are hurt. Most children around this age do not want to cuddle up, they always want to be on the go. Ella loves to play, but she also loves to lay her head against my chest and spend quality time just being together. Oh, how I cherish these moments! I pray all of the time that God will never allow me to forget the special times with either of my children. I hold on extra tight to each hug and each cuddle knowing that tomorrow they'll be heading to college (or so it will seem!).

I'll leave you with 2 recent videos of Ella Grace. Enjoy watching our big girl in action!

11 months

No worries. I'm not confused as to the age of my daughter. I'm just VERY behind on posting! So, I figured I should do her 11 month post before her 1st birthday...even if that IS only 5 days away! (all of this post has been written in the 11-month perspective)

We celebrated Ella's 11 month birthday in Ormond Beach, Florida. At first she wasn't too sure about the sand, but after a few minutes, she seemed to get used to it. Although, when the tide started coming in and water ran up on her, she was less than impressed! Such a sweet little bathing beauty!

Ella began showing off a new way of sleeping while on the trip. I have no clue how she does this or how in the world it's comfortable, but she is quite the limber little thing. Olympic gymnast, maybe?!

If you can't tell, she spreads her legs and lays her torso down in between. She doesn't fall asleep like this every time, but if I go in and find her like that, I always have to readjust her. It hurts me to see her sleeping like that! Obviously she finds it comfortable...somehow!

Ella is a big fan of water bottles. If ever we're somewhere and don't have a toy, just pull out the water bottle! Or even if we have a toy, and she sees a water bottle, she's going to reach for that bottle! Endless fun and entertainment...full or empty!

Speaking of water...Ella learned how to drink out of a sippy cup this month. I say "thank you" to big brother for that one! She watched him drink from his so much that it basically came naturally. In fact, she started taking his so often that I had to buy her a couple of her own (the one in the pic below is Riley's...). She's not as addicted to water as Riley, yet, but she seems to like it okay.

Two more teeth came in this month! That puts us at 4 (2 middle bottom and 2 middle top)!

Ella and I have always had a strong mother-daughter bond, but in the past few months she and her daddy have developed a very special relationship. She adores him, and I think he's pretty smitten with her, too. :)

Apparently, Ella has a similar love for pulling DVD's off the rack as her brother did around this age. Here's Riley at almost 11 months...

 And here's Ella a little before turning 11 months...

Ella experienced her first Halloween this year. However, when I tried to take cute brother/sister pictures, she refused to cooperate!

 And there were tears - lots of tears!

Little Miss certainly has a mind of her own! I mean, don't we all, but since Day 1 of her time on this earth, I've known she was going to be strong-willed. Her will is displayed mostly in times of eating. I was telling my mom the other day that Ella's eating habits (or lack of) has been my biggest stressor lately. Don't judge, but this girl is still taking 5 bottles at 11 months. That's right, 5! She has never liked baby cereal. She can pretty much take or leave baby food. Squash is definitely her favorite, but she's very picky about the rest. She's not a huge fan of fruit (what??) and there's only a couple of other veggies she'll eat. Even then, she only eats about 2 jars a day. Riley would eat 2 jars at one meal. This is such a learning curve for me. So, even though we didn't start Riley on table food until a year, I went ahead and began Ella early in hopes that we'd find some food she'd actually eat. It's a slow process, but there have been a few things she's taken a liking to. I'm praying there will be more in the next month or two! Here she is showing off her self-feeding abilities. :)

This girl loves music (really, I'm not sure how she could be part of our family and not!) and is still refusing to crawl the "typical" way. We've started calling her 'Scooter' because of how she moves from one place to another. This next video shows both the joy she finds in music and how she 'scoots.'

Ella Grace, you are an amazing blessing to our family! I thank God every day for choosing to place you in our home! You bring us all so much joy and laughter. I pray you will always be yourself and do things the way God created you to, and not how the world says you should (i.e. crawling). We love you SO much, munchkin! I can't believe this is my last 'month' birthday update for you! Here we come, big one-year-old!

Who doesn't like FREE?

I don't know about you, but I'm not a huge fan of sending someone just a plain-jane greeting card. I love to send personalized cards, and in the past I've made those on Shutterfly. Just recently, though, Shutterfly created a new greeting card brand named Treat. If you haven't already looked at their website, www.treat.com, you should check it out! Treat cards are VERY easy to make, they cover every occasion imaginable (holidays, birthdays, thank yous, etc etc etc), and they're personalized by YOU! Also, one of my favorite features is that you can include a gift card inside your Treat card. They have partnered with www.tangocard.com, and when you send someone a gift card with their greeting card, they can either choose to shop at one of the many partnering stores, donate the money to a charity or redeem it for cash! How awesome is that??

And guess what else is awesome? Just for reading about Treat on my blog, you get a FREE greeting card! All you have to do is go to www.treat.com, create your card, and type in the code TREATBLOGR at checkout! It's as simple as that! But, be sure to act quickly! The code is only good today (11/19) and tomorrow (11/20). Happy card making!

No Monitor

I'm sitting on the couch right now, and instead of hearing two baby monitors in the background, I hear silence. It's so weird! Why don't I hear monitors? Because the kiddos who are usually on the other end of those monitors are not here tonight. Daniel and I are leaving tomorrow morning for a week-long mission trip to Peru, so Riley and Ella are spending the next week with Ya Ya (Daniel's mom) in Little Rock. I drove them up there this morning (which was a dream trip, by the way - both kids did SO well!), got them settled, took a shower (a whole other story for another time - our plumbing at the house has been less than desirable this week), and then headed back to Texas (post-obligatory Wal-mart trip).

We are now packed (mostly) and relaxing a bit before hitting the sack preparing for a long day of travel tomorrow. We'll drive to Houston in the morning (about a 4.5 hour trip), catch our flight to Lima at 3:30 and arrive in Peru at 11 pm. Then Saturday morning we'll get up and drive 6 hours to the mountain village where we'll spend the week. All prayers are appreciated!! We are so excited to see what the Lord will do over the next week! AND, Daniel and I are personally excited because this is our FIRST international mission trip TOGETHER! We've both been multiple places, but never as a married couple! This is literally a dream come true for me!

I know I'm way behind on posting (Ella turning 11 months, Family vacation to Florida, plumbing issues, etc.), but it will have to wait until after this next great adventure! Ciao until we return!