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.