Mini photoshoot

These are just a bunch of pictures from the past week or two.  Some days I get in the mood to play dress up and photographer.  I am now on a mission to save up for a super awesome camera!  I mean, we would definitely get our money's worth...this child has had thousands of pictures made just in 5 short months!

Grabbing the camera

This one is going in a frame!

My mom calls this the Gerber baby picture:)

I love these bloomers!

Leigh's baby shower

This past weekend I helped host a baby shower for our good friend, Leigh!  Baby Will is due to arrive around July 24, and Ellie cannot wait to meet him!  Here are a few pictures from her shower.

                                   Jenny did a great job decorating, and her back yard looked beautiful!

The table set up....we went with a blue and brown/sunflower theme

Jenny, me and the mommy to be!

Jenny and I before the party

Yummy petitfors

Of course this sweet thing had to make an appearance:)

Jenny, Ellie, Lisa and me

The cutest watermelon baby carriage!

Delicious food!  We had French toast casserole, sausage crepes, roasted potatoes,

 fruit, quiche, assorted muffins, juice, mimosas and petitfors.

Leigh...the mommy to be!  She looks great.

OJ, water and pineapple juice

Baby Will should be set!  He is going to be a welldressed little boy!

Our favors...sunflower cookies with sweet baby sayings:)  

The pots with the sweet sayings

                                              

We had so much fun planning this shower.  Come on baby Will!

Beach pictures from my camera...finally!

Waiting to eat at Pineapple Willy's

Ready for a day at the beach!

Our little beach baby!

My favorite of our family beach pics

Getting ready to eat at Capt. Anderson's

Ellie loved the pool!

First day at the beach

Family fun at Pier Park

Swimming with Daddy

Looking cute in her cover up:)

I am finally taking the time to upload pictures from my camera.  These are a few of my favorites from our Florida trip last month!

21 Weeks

Here is our big bubble blowing girl at 21 weeks!  As soon as I figure out how to post videos, I will put one up of her from this morning.  It is hilarious!!!

Father's Day

I really hope Don had a good 1st Father's day.  Poor thing had to work all day in this awful heat, so we decided to keep it low key and stay home.  I told him I would fix whatever he wanted, and he requested steak!  The only thing with steak was that he would have to do the grilling.  He said he didn't mind, so while he was working Ellie and I made a trip to Sam's to pick up some things.  We got some yummy ribeyes (his fav) and had baked potatoes and corn (2 more of his favs!).  I even attempted to make homemade ice cream for dessert.  Notice I said attempted.  I guess reading the directions to the ice cream freezer would have helped!  So we had it tonight instead.  It tasted just like Chick-fil-A Ice Dream to me, yum yum!  

For his gift, he got to take a mini golf vacation up to the Kentucky Lake to play golf on the Tennesseean.  I think he had fun and enjoyed a night with the guys.  He must have had a big time because he came home WORN OUT!  

I am so thankful for a hard working, sweet husband.  He does so much for us, no matter how much I may complain.  I may get frustrated when he is working late nights and weekends or if he comes home exhausted, but I have to keep reminding myself that he is doing it all for us, and for that I will never be able to thank him enough.

I can't forget my sweet Daddy or now "Peeps" and Don's dad, Mr. Kevin.  My dad never missed a beat while we were growing up, not even a single dance recital!!!  From what I have heard about Mr. Kevin, he was just as supportive, involved and loving as my Dad is.  Not a day goes by that I don't think about him and wish I could have known him.  I always wondered if Father's Day was hard for Don, but now I hope being a Daddy himself will only make this day special again.  

So thank you to all of our wonderful Daddy's and Grand Daddy's...we love you so much!

It's been a while...

I was on a roll there for a while with the whole blogging thing, can't believe it's been over a week!

Last week I got to meet up with 2 sweet friends that also have sweet baby girls!  We had a great time sharing birth stories, our fav baby products and our routines.  I love mommy talk...it's so much fun!  It was an interesting meal to say the least...3 mommy's and 3 babies.  The hostess was a little dumbfounded!  Here is a pic of all 3 of our girls, Ellie, Ali and Emily.

 Ellie is still a busy bee just talking up a storm (aka cooing, babbling, etc....) and grabbing everything in sight.  My mom came to visit us yesterday so I could get some things done around the house and so she could hang out with her girl.  While they were having fun, I cleaned out my closet and dresser drawers.  I ended up with 3 huge garbage bags of clothes that Don took to Goodwill for me today.  I love having an organized closet!  I need to purge clothes more often, but it's hard.  I tend to be somewhat of a packrat.  I even found shorts from cheerleading camp from my freshman year in high school!  They had been worn so much the elastic was completely stretched out.  I also got all of my LU and AOII tshirts together so I can eventually have them all made into a quilt.  I have been wanting to do this for years, so at least I have the first step done.  Mom also brought lunch for us and helped me with the never ending laundry we have.  Thanks for coming De De!!

Mom had so much fun with Ellie on her visit that she volunteered to take her back to Bartlett for the night so we could have a break.  I gratefully accepted, so Don and I got a much needed date night...dinner and a movie!  Three months ago I would have never dreamed I would want a night off, but we needed it.  With his crazy work schedule we rarely have any time to ourselves, so it was nice!  Thanks again, Peeps and DeDe!

Until next time, I'll leave you with a few pics of this sweet face!!

Growing up...

Today Ellie has made it to 20 weeks old.  She is no longer in the teens!  These weeks just come and go in a flash.  Some days I feel like she was just born, but in some ways it's like she's been here forever.  The irony to all of this is that before I know it, she WILL be a teenager and we WILL be shipping her off to college.

I hate to admit this, but I now know how my parents felt all those years.  I cannot imagine the worry they felt so many times as they let me drive by myself for the first time, or my first prom, or when I got sick, or when they sent me off to Europe when I was barely 16.  I don't think I could do it!  But on the other hand, I want E to be a strong, independent, confident young woman.  I also want her to have everything and more than I did growing up.  I want her to have many friends that she will be able to call anytime or count on for anything.  I want her to join a sorority (if she wants to) because I loved that part of my college life and made many lifelong friends by doing so.  I hope she finds a sweet, loving husband that is good to her like her daddy is to us. I want her to always strive to do her best and to treat others the way she would like to be treated.

I got to thinking a lot this afternoon about all of my great memories because I had a sweet friend Kim and her baby, Elam stop by.  They brought Ellie this cute panda onesie in honor of our future little AOII:)

And since I am in the mood to reminisce, here are a few old photos of my college days at LU.

                                           AOII's at an LU basketball game:

                                                              
                                                  Fred and Wilma on Halloween!

                                              
                                   Us before Rose Ball in 2005
       ( I don't think either of us had a clue what our lives would be like 5 years later!)

                                                

My college graduation May 2005

I guess I am also feeling a little sentimental today because not only did she turn 20 weeks, but she ROLLED OVER and I MISSED IT!  We are together 24/7 and I feel like I don't miss a thing she does all day, but today I walked over to the mirror to brush my hair while she was laying on a blanket in the living room floor. When I came back in I was shocked to see she was on her tummy!

My baby is growing up right before my eyes.  I better enjoy it all now.  And don't worry, I won't miss that roll over next time.

Welcome to Baby Land

For some strange reason, Don has been insisting that Ellie needed one of those doorway jumpy bouncy things (as if we needed ANOTHER baby entertainment device to take up more space). It seems like this past week she has been wearing me out. I am constantly searching for new forms of entertainment because quite frankly, I think she is bored! We watch Baby Einstein until I want to poke my eyeballs out, she is still very unsure of the Exersaucer, she is OVER the My Little Lamb Infant seat that she practically lived in for the first couple months, and the swing she can only take for short periods of time. The swing used to be my "go to" device for fussiness/sleepiness, but now she barely naps for maybe 30-40 minutes at a time in it.

So in desperation yesterday after he kept talking about this door bouncer thing, we made a trip to Toys R Us and got her one. I hate to admit it, but Daddy was right on this one! She LOVES it! She is still figuring out that she can bounce in it, but she loves to swing and turn herself around in it. At first it made me very nervous because I was afraid it wasn't sturdy enough to hold her just hanging from the door frame. Don reassured me that it was fine, and today she has spent quite a good amount of time it! Granted, I have to sit right in front of her and clap and cheer and talk to her, but it's progress. My main reason for looking for new forms of entertainment is so I can actually get some things done around here. She doesn't sleep nearly as much as she used to during the day, and I have to work! So it is definitely a balance we are working on. Hopefully we will both get into more of a routine come August...if I ever figure out where she will be going! I have not heard back from Forest Heights UMC or the lady in Medina...but that is a whole different story!

So, big props to Daddy on this one. Maybe I should start listening to him more:)