Merry Christmas..

Wow! It's been 2 months since my last post. I'm not very good with keeping up these days. I also procrastinated on making Christmas cards, so don't be surprised if some of you get a card after Christmas actually occurs. Here's a preview...

Halloween...

Pics of my little kitty and cow...

My gangstacow...HA

She looks fierce!

Elli's big day!!

Elli's 1st birthday party was today. It was a really packed day. We started off by going to Chuck E Cheese's which was a lot of fun. Bailee had her best friend come spend the day with her. It was very fun to watch them play together because they act like they're so much older than 4. Elli wasn't quite sure what to think of the cake, but she got the hang of it. She was REALLY mad (as you can see from the picture) that we stripped her of her clothes, but once she figured out that this thing in front of her was sweet and yummy, she quickly got over that. Thanks to all who came to the party. I can't believe my baby is 1!!! TEAR...

Almost 1 year....(sigh)

I can't believe that Elli is almost a year old! I may be a bit partial, but these are some cute kids!!!

SURPRISE!!!!

Priceless!

My sweet, darling husband threw me a VERY SURPRISING birthday party...As you can see by the look on my face I REALLY was surprised!

I'm always telling Tim that he can't keep a secret...this time he did. The party was complete with Transformer hats (look closely at Elli's hat), an egg toss, water balloon shaving and ice cream cake! What a wonderful husband! I love you!

Does this look familiar?

Seems like I've seen this before....


Oh wait!...Now I remember!

This just doesn't seem right...

I don't think I'm ready for this...

C-A-T

Today Bailee informed me that she could spell Dog and Cat... It went a little like this.

Me: How do you spell dog?

Bailee: "D-G-O...No wait...D-O-G"

Me: Ok spell Cat

Bailee: "C-A-T"

She's so smart. Should a barely 4 year old be able to do this? Somebody tell me.

4 going on 14...

This is my conversation with Bailee last night

Bailee: Mommy, I want to go outside and play softball.

Me: Ok. Just a minute. Let me write out these bills. (I'm in the kitchen at this point)

Bailee: But I want to go outside.

Me: Just give me a MINUTE!

2 minutes later I head to the computer to pay the online bills...

Bailee: MOM, I WANT to go outside and play softball!

Me: Bailee, just give me a minute! As soon as I'm finished we'll go outside.

Bailee: (Deep sigh) Oh Mommy, you are SO silly... I wish you would make up your mind!

I was able to hold in the laughter... But it was tough.

Yep...

For any of you who regularly check my blog~ I'm sorry! It's been an ETERNITY since I wrote on here last. Lots of things going on.

That's what the inside of my baby girl's ears look like.... Elli got her tubes in on Tuesday. I have noticed that she takes better naps already. Unfortunately, her attitude remains the same. Sigh...Apparently the attitude was unrelated to the ear infections. DARN! So the screaming-because-I'm-not-getting-what-I-want-right-now attitude remains.

On another note, she also got her 9 month checkup the day she had her pre-op evaluation...

Elli's stats at 9 months:

Height-29 in (95th percentile)

Weight-19lbs 12 oz

The doctor says that if she stays on the height curve that she's on now, she will be taller than Tim ....So for a girl, that's pretty darn tall. We've already determined that she will be our basketball player, while Bailee is gonna be our cheerleader. Her weight hasn't changed much since I took her to the doctor back in the beginning of July, which kinda surprised me...Then I started thinking~This girl hasn't stopped moving since the beginning of July when she learned how to crawl. No WONDER she's maintaining! She never stops!

Next week, Elli will be moving up to the "older infant" group (aka growing up)...It was a little bitter sweet getting the letter that told me that. I'm sad that she'll be moving out of her baby room. It also means that she will have to start wearing shoes. HA! I put shoes on her the other day to try to test it out...They stayed on all of 30 seconds. She figured out REALLY quick how to get those bad boys off of there!




Bailee is going to be starting back in gymnastics next week. She took the month of July off because I was in neverending professional development, but that's over now. I can't believe the summer is coming to an end! Bailee learned this summer that she likes to tube (funny, Elli gets tubes, Bailee rides them)

She's a "sand mermaid"

Just goofy!

I can't believe that this girl has only 1 MORE YEAR until she starts Kindergarten....Doesn't seem like that's right. Where did those 4 years go?

Just the girls...

I realized the other day as I was going through all the pictures on the computer and on my camera that I had NO recent pictures of the girls and I....NONE! So I had Tim take one. Sigh...Now I feel better.

After looking at this picture for a second, I realize that both my girls have Tim's skin tone (Thank you, Lord!)

3 week progression...

This little kiddo has gone from being able to sit herself up by herself to....



standing herself up in her crib to....



Crawling on July 1st and now...



this is her latest move. Now, she's not walking on all fours, but she just props herself up like that for a second or so and then sits back down. Maybe she's giving her knees a break..I don't know. It's funny to watch her stick her little butt up in the air, though. Give her a month and she'll be walking.

My BIG girl!!!

My little girl is getting so BIG! Bailee's birthday was yesterday, June 21st, but I would say she had a whole weekend of birthday celebrations! We started out Friday night with bowling (pic above). She'd been begging all week to go bowling, so that's what we did.

Saturday was Chuck E Cheese day! Even though it wasn't a birthday party, it's kind of become a tradition to go there for a "pre-party"...Grandparents, cousins...everyone joined in on this one. Together we all raised 2,058 tickets to use towards a prize. She ended up with a Disney DVD Pictionary game. It's pretty cool!



Sunday was the REAL party. We rented a blow up slide that we converted into a water slide. She had quite a few friends join in and they HAD A BLAST! Elli even seemed to have a good time, although she didn't participate in the water festivities. Thanks to all who came and played. Bailee LOVES her princesses/Barbies. I think we have enough Barbie dolls to keep a small village engaged.

The most boring vacation EVER!!!!

This past weekend we left for Boxley, AR...Don't know where that is? Well, neither did I until we got there. Boxley is, well, "the middle of nowhere", AR. Somewhere in the north central part of the state. That's about as good of a directional description that I can give you. Tim found this cozy little cabin on the internet located there that has...wait for it...ELK! He enjoyed the fishing and elk sightings, Bailee enjoyed the swimming in the Buffalo river, and I enjoyed a brief trip to Eureka Springs. We didn't get to walk around downtown Eukeka very long because of rain, but I did get to go into a cool glass art shop. They had artwork of blown glass, which is what my family used to do back before I was born--hence why I live on Glass Plant Road-- so I thought this little store was very interesting. Expensive, but interesting. I also got to see some hippies. No trip to Eureka Springs is complete without seeing hippies.

Now my kind of vacation involves a LOT of action. I'm more of an amusement park kind of girl. You know, the kind where you need a vacation after your vacation...Yeah, I'm a little crazy. He still loves me anyway. Here are some of the highlights of the trip!

The women's bathroom at the now defunct Cave Mountain Church

Bailee after taking a dip in the Buffalo River

I just thought this picture was really cool. Taken in Jasper, AR.

Elli enjoying a lemon

AHHH Summertime!!

So far our summer has been full of swimming lessons and swimming...Elli even took a dip today for the first time. I didn't get a shot of her swimming since I was the one in the water with her. She seemed to enjoy it, though you wouldn't predict it from looking at her picture at the bottom.

Bailee and Mr Bullock(her swimming coach)

This picture cracks me up...It's indicative of our day right around nap times.

2 weeks of updates...

SCHOOL IS FINALLY OUT! So that means I have some free time to update this thing. It seems like I've gone non-stop for at least the past 2 weeks...There was prom, doctor appointments, graduation, doctor appointments, gymnastics...oh and doctor appointments! I think I've been to the pediatrician every week for the past month. First, Elli had ear infections (each ear), then the following week Bailee had ear infections. The next week we went BACK to the doctor to check Elli's ears (they cleared up for the most part). The next week we would've been at the doctor, but he called in a prescription without making us come in...And now we were back today...ANOTHER SET OF EAR INFECTIONS FOR ELLI! Poor thing...
For Memorial Day this year, we took a camping trip with Dad, Annette, Gary, Elaine, Brooke, Terry, and our family. We had a nice relaxing time (except for the all day downpour that Sunday turned out to be). Bailee got to catch her first fish with her fishing pole. She turning out be more brave around the bugs and worms than I thought she would be. I'm sure that will all end when 13 hits... Elli even enjoyed herself.
We've reached a few milestones. Elli is now able to feed herself puffs, crackers, and anything else I'm brave enough to set in front of her. If you know me, you know that I have a choaking fear. Tim's always making fun of me for it. I'm doing better, though.

The last day of school meant a water party for Bailee at school. She's sporting her new bathing suit she picked out. I was SHOCKED that she picked out a one piece since she was so crazy about her "bra" last year with her 2 piece...

My little Jitterbug

Bailee and Jackson

Bailee has been spending a portion of her Mondays at school doing a program called Jitterbug at school. It's "fitness with a twist". They incorporate fun things that are actually providing them with physical fitness. This past weekend she had her performance. Her class did "Jungle Book", "Ugly bug ball", "Fishing hole" and "Secret Agent man". It was the cutest! Of course, we got it all on video, but here are a few pics.

Bailee and Kadence

Jungle book

Ugly Bug ball