Show us your life...Tell us about your church

I have been trying to come up with a way to write a post about our church and what a big part of our lives it is becoming but I just couldn't think of a way to bring it up without it seeming totally off the wall.  As I checked Twitter tonight (yes, I am totally addicted) I saw where Kelly's Korner is doing her Show Us Your Life Series and this week it is "Tell us about your church".  Perfect excuse...so here goes nothing!  Oh, and of course there will be a few pictures of Miss E thrown in for good measure!

For half of my life I was a Presbyterian.  I was Baptized in the Presbyterian church and was very involved in choir and all youth activities.  That church was very small, and it got to the point where my brother and I were the only kids there our age.  My parents were also extremely active in the church and all of their friends and our friends were church friends.  I loved that and still do.

Fast forward to my middle school days.  We had recently moved to Bartlett and I started a new school.  My parents made the difficult decision to leave the church we had attended for years to find a new, bigger church.  They did it for us and never looked back.  I can honestly say that was the best decision ever.  It was hard for me to walk in to such a large youth group all alone knowing no one, but I am SO glad I did.  Church became my life, my best friends were there, and it was always so much fun.  I learned a lot, grew a lot, and to this day I can still say that some of my best friends are from that church youth group.  I love that those are the friends that I don't see as often because I live out of town but can talk to and we can pick up right where we left off.  To me, those are true genuine friends.  Some of my most treasured memories are of youth trips and time spent with those people.

After Don and I got married, we both agreed that we needed to find a church home.  We visited all different denominations and various sized churches but never really found "the one".  A few months later when I found out I was expecting, we put that search into overdrive.  I knew right away that I wanted my children to have the same wonderful experiences that I did growing up in church.  I want them to be raised in a Godly home where that would be the focus of our lives and that they will learn to love Him and love church like Don and I both did growing up.  I want that SO badly for them.  I know without my church and my youth friends, I would not be the person I am today.  I can only hope for the same for my own.

One Sunday, we visited Englewood Baptist Church, and were immediately hooked.  It is full of young, married couples, many with young children.  Our Pastor is young himself , (36-37) with 4 young children and I honestly cannot say enough about him.  Our Worship Leader is Travis Cottrell...you may have heard of him, he's kinda famous!  He opens up for Beth Moore's Living Proof Tour and is AMAZING.  Everyone there is so loving and welcoming and we never feel pressured, guilty or ashamed.  Every week I leave there wanting more and I love that feeling.  We are slowly getting involved in different areas, with Sunday School being our next step.  This is a scary one we haven't yet conquered but I know we need to do it.  We plan on starting Wednesday night activities soon and this is also where Ellie attends MDO.  Have I mentioned I love this church?  Because I do.  And don't forget I grew up Presbyterian/Methodist.  I never in a million years would have dreamed I would end up being Baptist, but I am so glad I am!

Around the end of January, Don and I stood in front of the entire 11:00 service and joined Englewood Baptist Church.  It was one of the proudest days of our married life (besides our wedding and Ellie's birth!).  Englewood is big.  In fact, it is HUGE.  But it doesn't feel like it to me.  Yes, it's crowded and parking is crazy but it is truly a wonderful place.

14 months!

Ellie, you are 14 months old and as busy as ever!

Just last month, I was worried about your talking.  That is just funny to me now because your vocabulary has really taken off!  You say:  Mama,  Daddy (Da, and Da Da), De De (she loves it!), diaper, bottle, cracker, uh oh, bye bye, Hi, more, ball and bite.

You are completely off of your bottle...PTL!  You still barely drink any milk.  I am lucky to get 2 or 3 ounces down you before bed.  Everyone keeps telling me not to worry too much since ou eat plenty of cheese and yogurt.

Making an important phone call

You still give lots of kisses and you still LOVE your babies!  It is so sweet.  You are also fascinated with Minnie's doggie door.  We searched high and low for our remote control only to find it outside the next day after a big rain storm!  Too bad it wasn't the TV remote, but the one that goes to our cable box.  I guess I need to make a call to JEA to order another one soon!   We have also found multiple paci's and sippie cups out there.  You just love to be outside.

You are still pretty attached to your paci.  We are working on only having it during naps and bedtime, but it's not going so well. HA!  You are in a size 4 diaper, mostly 12 month clothes but some 18 month, and a size 4 shoe.

You are Miss Independent.  You always want to feed yourself, and you do a pretty good job!  I think your picky eating days may be over.  You LOVE cherry tomatoes, lima beans, black eyed peas and you even ate bow tie pasta with spinach at De De's.  I was very impressed!  Scrambled eggs with cheese and yogurt is your favorite breakfast meal.  You eat every bite!

I am afraid that the dreaded separation anxiety has kicked in.  It breaks my heart every time, but it only takes a few minutes until you have calmed down and completely forgotten you were left somewhere (which is rare, trust me!).

I say it every month, but I can't believe you are 14 months old and I can't believe you are MINE!!!

Another fun weekend!

Friday night, Don and I were feeling a little "wild" so we decided to take Ellie on her first trip to Chuck E Cheese!  She had been on Spring Break from MDO all week and I felt like we all deserved a little fun family outing together.  After Don got home from work, we found on online coupon and off we went!  I realize she is still a little young to truly enjoy a place like that, but we figured why not.  I think we were both surprised at how much she enjoyed herself.

Saturday Don had practice so Ellie and I headed to Bartlett to have lunch with my grandparents, my parents, Aunt Rach, Uncle Matt, and Grandonna's brother John who was in town visiting.  We had a great time!

This is definitely the side of the family that those famous dimples come from!

My mom offered to let Ellie stay with them for the night, so Don and I got a much needed dinner out with friends!  We even managed to catch a late movie which was nice.  

This morning we made it to church and now Don is working and Ellie is back home with us.  It was a nice break but I sure missed my girl!

Special purchase

I have had an unusual spurt of energy/motivation tonight.  It is 11:35 and I decided to scrub the kitchen and clean out/reorganize my closet!  Something like this never happens, especially this late at night.  But it hasn't been bad at all because I can get so much done 10 times faster without a little helper at my feet:)

Anyway, the reason for the random post is to show a picture of a special purchase Don and I made almost 2 years ago.  I was 12 weeks pregnant with Ellie, and we were able to take an awesome trip to Hawaii.  I am SO glad we got to go because I don't know when we will be able to take another trip like that alone for a long time!

We wanted to buy something for the baby and since we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl, we settled on something pretty gender neutral.

Just brought back lots of fun, sweet memories.  I can't believe we now have a 14 month old!

Spring has Sprung!

What a beautiful weekend we had!  We were in town which was nice and only had a few engagements to go to.  We started off Saturday morning by walking in the Morgan Kelley memorial 5K at LU.  Over 280 people showed up to "run with love" for Morgan.  Ellie did great in the stroller, and it was a great way to kick off a beautiful Spring weekend!

Saturday night we had a couples wedding shower to attend and we took Ellie with us.  The party was on a farm so there were baby goats, chickens, turkeys and donkeys!  Ellie was completely fascinated and loved petting the goats and walking all over the place.  We didn't stay for the whole party (someone was ready for bed) so we called it a night pretty early.

Sunday was our day to keep the nursery.  We were put in the babies class with Ellie's BF Will.  She has since moved up to the "Babies 3" room and HATES it.  We should just call it the crying room because every single kid in there cries the whole time.  Once we got settled into our room, we decided maybe we should go get Ellie out of her room and let her hang with us and the babies.  BAD BAD BAD idea.  She cried even more in there than in her own room.  She was SO jealous!  She could not stand the thought of one of us holding another baby.  It really was pitiful.

Miss Priss with my necklace and purse:)  And she does this all on her own...I promise!

After nap, Don was off to work so Ellie and I ran a few errands and played outside for a while.  She just loves being outside but her poor allergies are a mess!  She has finally figured out how to push the button on her 4-wheeler to make it go.

Waving to the neighbors!

We are definitely loving springtime and I have a feeling this summer is going to be even better!

March Madness

I totally forgot to blog about Ellie's first Tiger basketball game!  My parents have football and basketball tickets to the Memphis Tigers games, and they had been begging for us to come all year.  We finally made it to the last regular home game of the season!  Ellie had a great time people watching and was a perfect angel throughout the entire game.

And in true Ellie fashion, she dressed the part perfectly!

Today, in honor of their first round game against Arizona, she wore her Little Memphis princess dress from Uncle Matt and Aunt Rachel.  It was a sad, sad loss but a great fight.  I was in the living room watching the game by myself acting a fool while Ellie napped.

Guess that's why they call it March Madness!

  

Ellie went up to work with Don for a little while last night during his intramural basketball game.  I am hoping she gets his athleticism for that good scholarship money!  

St. Pat's

Happy St. Patty's day!  Hope you all are wearing your green.  You know Ellie is!

Just for fun, here she is exactly one year ago.  What a difference a year makes!

What's going on?

Remember how Ellie woke up with a yucky eye on Monday?  Yep...pink eye, or some sort of infection.  It managed to travel over to her left eye as well so she stayed home from MDO Tuesday.  I am trying to remember how many full weeks of "school" she has gone to since we started twice a week!

We are armed with the tiniest, most expensive bottle of eye drops you have ever seen and let me tell you what a challenge it is to try and get those drops into a very busy 13 month olds eyes.  Fun times!

Other than that, we've had a great week!  Don got to babysit at work yesterday while I worked since Ellie didn't go to school.  Ellie sat in on football meetings and flirted with all of the "Pitt Crew".  I really appreciate his help SO much.  Major props to all you single moms out there.  Most days I am standing at the door waiting for him to walk in and take over baby duty for a little while.  Ellie's smile is so sweet when she sees him walk in!

I know I've mentioned this before, but  Ellie loves her some baby dolls.  It is just too funny watching her fling them all over the house.  I always hoped she'd be the type to play babies, and I guess I got my wish.  She now says bay-bee all the time.  It's so cute!  She can also point to her nose, mouth, ear, eye, toes and her "bow" or head.  She has learned all of those body parts in the last week or two.  I feel like all of our nighttime book reading has really helped with that.  When I say, "Ellie, where's your (hair) bow?"  She points straight to her head or pulls out the bow if there is one in (which drives me crazy) and says "bow!"  I feel like I spend half my day looking for or putting in her hair bows.  Ya'll know she rarely leaves the house without a bow on her head!

We've started bedtime tooth brushing and it is going pretty well.  Miss independent would much rather brush them herself than have my help!

And yes, we brush in the high chair.  #1, because it's the only time she will be still enough for a picture, and #2 the thought of her walking around with any type of stick in her mouth scares me to death!  There will be no lollipops, corn dogs, or straws in my house unless she is sitting in her chair.  Car included!  

We have a few things going on this weekend  but thankfully they are IN town.  Guess I should unpack from the last 3 weekends we have been gone...huh?!?!?!?!?

Fun weekend

We are still resting up from a busy, fun weekend!

We started out by taking Ellie on her first trip to the Zoo!  We had a great time and stayed over 3 hours!  We will definitely be going back on another pretty day soon.

Our little monkey next to the gorilla

She would stare, point and talk about every animal she saw!

We watched the Sea Lion show...

Getting sleepy...but she hung in there!

I tried out my zoom lens for the first time.  I still have a lot to learn but I loved getting to use it finally.

At the "farm"

We let her out to walk...but she is almost running!

Later on, we headed to Franklin for an engagement party for Blair!  I cannot believe she is getting married, but we are SO happy for them.  We had a great time!  I didn't take any pictures, but here we are at my wedding.  

Ellie went with us and stayed with a babysitter for the first time while we went to the party.  She did great!  We had lunch with everyone on Sunday then hit the road and headed home.

Don's Spring break is over and I am so sad.  I always get down when he goes back to work after he has time off.  We LOVE having him home with us!  He had to work Sunday, so E and I met Aunt Jenny for dinner at McAlister's.  Look who is drinking MILK.  The straw, and the special lap helps:)

Ellie woke up with a puffy right eye and lots of green junk coming out of it.  I am PRAYING it is not pink eye.  I am waiting to see how it is after her nap.