Doesn't Get Much Better Than This

My handsome husband and beautiful baby. This is a picture from our recent Christmas Card photo shoot. More to come soon!

Thankful For My Parents

These are my parents. Yes, they look like your average set of parents & grandparents, but they are not. They are both way beyond average. I would say a lot closer to amazing. And for them I am so thankful.

I am thankful that when I was 16 and wild and crazy that they did not kill me. Yes, it is nice to still be alive.

I am thankful that when I told them where I wanted to go to college they said okay, and when I finally realized that was a stupid mistake, they came and helped me move to Texas Tech.

I am thankful that when I got into a wreck for the fourth or fifth time, they would still say, as long as you are okay that is all that matters. The car can be fixed!
I am thankful because they have been such amazing role models for me as to what parents should do and the role of a mother and father. From my Dad I learned to be strong, affectionate, business savy, and a good b.s.er. Whenever something bad happened, or something unexpected comes up you can count on my Dad to say one of two things. 1) God is in Control 2) God doesn't make mistakes. What a great response to have. But he doesn't just say it, he means it.

From my mom I learned to be a strong woman who can do things for herself. I learned how to have fun, to be sarcastic, to be open and approachable. My mom is real. 100% genuine. Bold and honest. I also learned how to be a mom from watching her. She was an active stay at home mom who would play with us. Not sit on the couch and watch TV or spend all day on the internet and expect us to entertain ourselves. She played with us. She read us books and engaged us.

Just by having her as a Mom I learned how to be a Mom.

I am so thankful that God chose me to be their daughter.

Thankful for My Two Loves

To continue with the things I am thankful for I would like to add my husband and daughter to the top of the list.

My husband is an amazing man, sensitive, giving, affectionate and loving. He was such a good husband, but this year I learned that he is one of the best Dad's also. He loves me and he loves his little girl so much and I am so thankful to him for who he is and what he does.

We are both so thankful for our daughter. For 9 months we prayed for her and guessed who she would look like, what day she would come, how we would be as parents and worried over so many things as well. Now that she is here we pray and worry even more than we did before, wow now I know what my Mom and Dad were talking about!

We are so thankful that she is healthy and happy and we are so thankful that God chose us to be her parents. She has enriched our lives and has brought us so much joy.

The day she was born. We never put her down. I was so tired and so thankful to Trey for changing her diapers and letting me sleep for just a bit. My two favorite people on Trey's first Father's Day.

Throwing his girl in the air.

This is my favorite picture of the two of them. He gives her a bath every night since I am with her all day long.

These two people are the love of my life and I am so thankful and so blessed to have them in my life. Who/what are you thankful for? Thanksgiving has a whole new meaning for me this year and I know it does for a lot of you new Mother's/Newlyweds out there too!

Thankful

With Thanksgiving one week away, I would like to post a thing or two each day that I am thankful for.

This is NOT the thing I am most thankful for, but it is where I will start my list...

I am thankful that I am not as big as a house. Last Thanksgiving I was almost 8 months pregnant and OH SO LARGE and OH SO UNCOMFORTABLE. I wanted to get Ella out of my stomach so badly and would have been so thankful for that! Every time I saw my parents they would say "surely you can't last much longer" or "there is no way your stomach can get any bigger"; however, I consistently proved them wrong and just kept growing!


Do you see that stomach?! Now do you understand why I am thankful?!

(I would like to point out to you that my husband is totally checking me out and looking at my butt in this picture. Either that or he is noticing how large it is? I choose to believe the first.)

Missing Sock - Wordless Wednesday

For More Wordless Wednesdays visit 5 Minutes For Mom

Ella is 10 Months!

Ella, you are growing so quickly. I was talking to your Dad yesterday on the way home from church and saying how it the past week you have really become so much MORE vocal. Now, I didn't think it was possible, but apparently it is. You are constantly jabbering. You love to say Dada and sometimes say Mama. You have started to repeat Bye Bye when I say it. If Daddy and I scream you will also copy us. We love to play that game with you because you get so excited and LOUD!

You are constantly on to go. You are a SPEED crawler, and now with the assistance of your lion you almost run through our living room. You are getting braver and will reach out from the coffee table to the sofa to make the transition. You can stand on your own for about 5 seconds, until you realize you are doing it and then you grab on to something. You are going to be walking any day now.

You love to clap your hands, blow raspberries, give sugars (kisses), and motor boat and will do all when asked. (I couldn't quite catch the hands coming together in the clap, but I loved the expression on her face here!)

You used to be the cleanest eater ever, but recently you have decided that you like to spit your food out. It is not because you don't like it, I think you just like to spit! We just moved you to stage 3 baby foods and you seem to like it. You do not however like stage 3 spaghetti and meatballs! I think your favorite food is still bananas.

You weigh 24-1/2 pounds and wear 18 or 24 month clothes, depending on the brand. Your eyes are still crystal blue and your hair is getting so thick and has stayed blonde.

Every month your Dad and I both think it isn't possible to love you any more than we already do, but every month we are wrong. You are soooooo much fun at this age and just love to roll around in the floor with me and love to be tickled and you have the most amazing laugh I have ever heard. You make my days so enjoyable!

A Little Bit Busy & A Lot of Lazy

It's not that I haven't wanted to post anything, it is just that I have been too lazy to upload the pictures. Just bein' honest!

Last weekend was my hubby's birthday so, yep, you guessed it...we went to Wichita. Seems like we have been going there so much lately and with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, we will be headed there again.


Anyways, back to the birthday. Friday night we hung out at my parents house and Trey got to open his presents from my parents. They got him some new boots and two pairs of jeans, which is exactly what he asked for. My mom fried some delicious fried chicken and we ate that and some birthday cake. Trey turned 27. He is a whopping 2-1/2 weeks younger than me.

Then we headed over to his parents house where we would be staying and he and his two best friends Justin, from The Veals, and James, from Baby Fouts, woke up early Saturday and Sunday morning to go duck hunting. Trey had such a good time! Saturday night we had his birthday celebration at his parents and James, Brooke, Blake and Justin all came over.
(I was such a horrible picture taker this weekend because I do not have any pictures of Trey, or me, or birthday stuff, or Justin!)

I do however have pictures of Ella...are you surprised?! This is her and Trey's dad hanging out outside waiting for the food to be ready. He Gigi (Trey's Grandmother) got her this little giraffe and she went to town chewing on the little guy. It is some 'big popular toy in France'. I saw something about it on TV and Gigi went to a baby boutique in Wichita to get it. Ella really likes it, so it was a good buy.


I told you she was serious about the giraffe.


This is Blake. He is 4 months older that Ella. Isn't it funny how he is the only with any sort of a neck in this picture?! He and Ella are both what I like to call 'healthy'.

Everyone says he looks just like his Daddy, but he definitely has a lot of his Momma too.

Blake wasn't too crazy about playing with Ella. I think it is because she can be a little aggressive! At one point Ella invaded Blake's personal space so he pushed her down, but my girl didn't just take it. She stood right back up and yanked Blake's pacifier out of his mouth and gave him a little swat. After that they got their issues worked out and had a good time.

We missed not getting to see Joanna and Jaina, since they didn't make the trip with Justin. One day we will get the three kiddos together.

So, we had a good weekend and made it back to Dallas and I am always so worn out. Ella is not a big fan of sleeping anywhere but in her bed or in my arms, so neither of us got a lot of sleep. Don't worry though because we have definitely caught up on it this week!

A New Look

So, today I finally took the time to figure out how to change my layout to three columns and make a cute header. Next step, adding more cuteness. Well see how long that takes me to accomplish because first I have to figure out how to do it. Ha!

Ella's First Halloween

This was Ella's first Halloween! Let me start by saying I LOVE Halloween and I love dressing up. This is the first year I haven't dressed up and gone to a party. My mom always made my costumes when I was little and I always had the BEST costumes. So, she and I went looking for Ella's costume and we both just thought this was precious. So, Ella was my little lady bug...tutu and all!

So excited it is Halloween!!!

You will notice she has her arms up in a couple of the pictures. No, she isn't trying to fly...she just hates the wings.

Awww, so much better now that I finally got rid of those dang wings.

And of course I had to get one with my little lady bug.

We only went to a few houses trick-or-treating. It is not like she can eat the candy, I just wanted to show her off to some of the people we know in the neighborhood. Then it was back to our house to hand out candy. We probably had about 50 kids, which wasn't as many as we had last year. They all got a kick out of Ella though and she liked them just as much. I can't wait until next year when she can walk.