Ella is 18 Months!

Okay, so she turned 18 months old on the 6th, I am just a little behind!

Ella, I can not believe you are a year and a half old! My goodness, the next thing I know you will be two! You are just the most precious girl and you light up my life! You DEFINITELY have a STRONG personality! You know what you like and what you don't and are very vocal about it! You are also a little ham and enjoy being the center of attention (again, I just don't have any idea where you get these traits from! =) ) You are not afraid of anyone or anything and you are so adventurous. You have a deep belly laugh and I just love to hear it.

You are now wearing a size 7 shoe. You still wear size 24 month clothes, but we are about to move  up since things are getting too short. You are soooo tall. You are bigger that most of the two year olds you are friends with. You have really slimmed down though because you are growing and because you run everywhere. You wear Momma out chasing you around! We don't go to the doctor until August, so I don't know your official height and weight yet.

Your hair is getting longer and you ave some serious bed head when you wake up in the mornings. You still wake up at about 9:30 and you go to bed at 10:00. You only nap once a day, but you nap for three hours!

Your favorite TV show is Yo Gabba Gabba. Really that is the only show you will sit still for and truly watch. You love to get up and dance when they are dancing. You spread out your arms and say "Yo Yo Yo" when the show comes on like DJ Lance does and you tell them Bye Bye when they are over.

You still love to read books every night and you even read to yourself now. I love to listen to you just jabber and turn the pages.

You say so many words now. You say a new word everyday and I just love watching you learn. You use about thirty words regularly, but can say way more than that. You can also count to three. I learned this when I just started counting one day and you finished it for me! You love to make animal sounds, but your favorite animal is the dog.

You are very ticklish and I love getting you. You will ask me to tickle you too! You also love to play chase and have also started hiding and love to be found. You go behind the curtains and stay very still and don't move a muscle and you laugh so hard when Momma finds you. You keep finding new hiding places though and sometimes Momma gets a little worried!

You dance anytime you hear music. Girl has got some rhythm!

Your Mom and Dad love you so much! You are just so amazing, fun, beautiful, sweet and funny!

Joyful-Photography on Facebook & Blog

Please head over to Joyful-Photography on Facebook & Joyful-Photography Blog to check out my latest pictures and become a fan!!!

What's Going On?

Well, I am glad you asked. We have now been back home for a grand total of 6 days! I feel like this is the longest I have been home in a while. Ella and I are getting back into our usual pattern, which includes keeping Hunter three days a week. I don't think I am quite used to that one yet. I am just not an early riser! Unfortunately, it looks like I am not going to be having that problem anymore because Hunter is going to be leaving me and will be enrolled in daycare starting August 2nd. I will be sad that I don't get to see him as often, but that's what weekends are for!

Last weekend I cam e back on Saturday afternoon from Wichita so we could go to a Sunday School party at church Saturday night. We had so much fun! Sunday morning Ella anted to wear her sunglasses, so of course Momma had to take a picture. Trey actually asked me to take their picture, which hardly ever happens!!

The few weekends we have been in Dallas we have been looking at houses. We found one that we both really liked and it made us face the fact that we would have to give our current house up and neither of us is ready for that. Plus, I just love our neighborhood. So, that is that, we will be staying here for at least another year (or until I start feeling the urge to look again!).

Since we are staying I decided I wanted to do a little shopping and tackle some of the areas I have been putting of. Area #1 - Mantle. I just don't like a lot of 'stuff' so I only had stuff on our mantle at Christmas time, but after I put that away I found myself wanting some 'stuff' to put on it. So...Viola!

I am very happy with it. Plus, I have more pictures of my girl up, which makes me happy!

New clock, candle from my Mom's house.

Our dining room also got a few additions. We now have the piano that was at my parent's house. My Mom didn't want to put it back in after getting new floors, so with the help of Trey's brothers and Dad, my Dad and my brother, and Trey it is now at my house. I would love for Ella to learn to play. She plays it now, but it is not quite what I have in mind!
New piano = new place to display pictures!!And finally, this painting was added to our bedroom. I have been looking for a while for a BIG painting to go on one blank wall, and couldn't find anything I like under $500. Well, I found this for $60 and I love it. It had the grey blue/royal blue/ and orange I was wanting.

I also made a cornice board for our breakfast room and it has been installed, but I haven't found the drapes I want to go with it yet. I hope to do some shopping tomorrow. I am hoping life will settle down a little bit no, but I doubt it since we will be traveling to Wichita very soon.

Permanently Packed Suitcase?

I am starting to think I should just leave my suitcase permanently packed I have been to Wichita soooo much this Summer. I just returned from another trip there. This time, it was to attend my Uncle's funeral. My sister, her (almost) 4 year old son, my brother and sister-in-law, and their 10 month old son, and me and Ella were all in town. Talk about a crowd for one house! My parent's loved having all their kids and grandkids in town at once though.

While we were all there, we also celebrated by Mom's birthday.

All of us kids got together and bought her new bedding and paint to re-do one of her guest bedrooms. I also volunteered to come down one weekend and paint it for her.

Caleb helping her open her presents.

We also got her a large rug for her living room, a rug runner for her hallway, and a rug for her back door. Dad bought her hard wood floors which should be finished being installed today!! Man, am I jealous!! =)

Saturday night our friends, Brooke and James Fouts, came over to Trey's parents house. Their little boy Blake will be two in August and is the spitting image of his Daddy. They played and had a good time.

Until Blake got one of Ella's maracas her Uncle Zachary got for her in Mexico. She did not want to share. Luckily she is easily distracted with Gold Fish!

My Mom and I went shopping Saturday afternoon and got her this cute little outfit! She looks so grow up. And her pigtails and getting more and more full. Not just a sprig of hair anymore.
She loves her babies!

Blake and Ella were so fun to watch. They started to crawl into her babies bed, but we weren't sure it would hold 65+ pounds, but sure enough it did.
They had a great time rocking back and forth.

We had a good time visiting with James and Brooke and can't wait to meet baby Fouts #2!

I have now been back at home for two days and am sadly preparing to make another trip. My sister-in-law's (Trey's brother's wife, Lindsey) Mom passed away this morning after a battle with lung cancer. Lindsey is my age (27) and that is just too young to loose your Mother. Please keep them in your prayers!

July 4th

We started out our July4th by heading to church. There was great music and a wonderful sermon. Ella moved classes room the older baby room to the young toddler room. Our sweet girl is growing up. I think she will have more fun in there though because she is so full of energy and really loves to play. After church we ate some leftover ribs that they smoked on the grill the day before and some baked beans I made. There were still delicious!
Of course I had to take a few pictures of Miss Thang all dressed up. We went shopping the other day and she just had to have this little dogie purse. The girl is obsessed with dogs and loves purses, so hat could be better than this! She hasn't let go of it since we bought it. In fact she had to hold it while the girl as checking us out at the store because she wasn't about to let go.


She has a matching bracelet too. I mean, accessories complete every outfit! =)





That night we planned on going to Harry Myers park in Rockwall to watch the fireworks with our friends, but the traffic was AWFUL getting into the park. What should be a 10 minute drive turned into about 40 minutes. I guess everyone planned on getting there at the same time we did. Instead we went past downtown because our friends had heard that people that actually went to the park last year got stuck in traffic for an hour and a half. NO THANKS! So, all of us met up and sat in a parking lot and let the kiddos play. I think it worked out a lot better this way anyways!

This is Gregory and he is about 4 months older than Ella. He is soooo cute! He just got his head shaved, but he did have long RED curls. I miss his curls, but this has got to be a lot cooler for the Texas Summer. These two were a hoot! They were hugging (of course with a little prompting) and being so sweet together. Ella was playing a little hard to get, but eventually she ended up chasing Gregory and trying to give him hugs. Gregory's dad, Brad, put the in the stroller and pushed them around for a while. I would say it was a successful first date! This is Gregory's sister, Addison. She was so good the entire time and just hung out on her blanket or with her Momma.

After the fireworks were over we headed to our Sunday School teacher's house for more fireworks. There were six or seven couples there and we all had such a good time. The boys mostly stayed outside and the girls were mostly inside. Ella wanted to be outside for a little while until someone lit some black cats and the loud noise kind of scared her, so we were inside the rest of the night. She and Gregory had toys spread out everywhere. We finally headed home around midnight and Ella was fast asleep in her carseat. She even stayed asleep as I carried her in, put her on the changing mat, and changed her clothes!

We had a great time and this morning Trey went and played golf with a few of the guys while Ella and I played here. I love long weekends!

Joyful-Photography

I am so excited to let you all know that I have started my own photography business, Joyful-Photography!! If you have a little extra time on your hands please go to www.joyful-photography.com and check it out!

Starting soon I will also have a photography blog.