Where does time go??

I was just looking through some of Ella's pictures and can't believe how much she's grown in the past 5 months! She is really good at giving "kisses" now and she is SO close to rolling over from her back to her tummy. She is also getting really good at the whole sitting up thing, too. She has gotten a lot bigger, but she is still so sweet and so cute!

THEN

NOW

Christmas Day..

So we just got home from spending Christmas day with some friends..SOO much fun! I'm still full :) ...I just got an email from my aunt with some pictures of my family from Christmas Eve..This Christmas has really been a hard one for us- I have been really homesick this year and we have both been worried about Randy's mom who just had surgery (but is doing GREAT by the way!!) I've said it once today, but we really miss you guys!

..and Justin, too ( the only pic I have to put here I used a few weeks ago..but scroll down to see..)

Merry Christmas

We just wanted to wish all of our friends and family a Merry Christmas! To all of you who are out of state- we miss you very much and wish we were with you right now..To all of our friends here in Greenville, thankyou for helping to make our Christmas without our family enjoyable. We love you all very much!

Meet "Rusty"

Yesterday, we picked up Rusty, the newest member of our family..He is a black husky mix. His mom was hit by a car leaving 5 puppies behind. So far he is doing great! We brought him home around 2 or 3 and he hasn't had any accidents inside yet! Last night was a long night helping him get used to being alone :( He cried ALOT! Even after a long night of listening to him cry, Princess is SO excited! He was a little afraid of her at first (but who wouldn't be??) This morning they started playing and chasing each other- I think they will be best buds in no time..

Here are some pics..

And of course I couldn't post without adding some of the REAL Princess of the house.. :)

Big cheesy smile :)

"It's beginning to look alot like Christmas.."

FINALLY! Yesterday it started getting cold around here again..It really makes it feel more like Christmas when you have to bundle up to go outside..When we woke up this morning the cars were iced over and the yard was covered in frost! I LOVE when there's frost on the ground because it looks like snow (at least to this Florida girl ha ha) It didn't show up well in the pictures, but here's some anyways..

I've said it before, but babies in winter clothes are soooo cute!!

Ouch!

On Friday (after spending the day at the Ebeling's house) I took Ella out of her car seat and found that she had a broken blood vessel in her left eye..I'm not sure if something flew in it, if it's a scratch, or if it was poked, but it's there...A friend of ours that's a PA said she could have sneezed and done it!! She doesn't seem to mind and hasn't noticed it but it scared me!! Thankfully it is apparently painless and the Christmas pictures are done :)

Best Friends..

I have some updated pictures of Ella and Bria. I watched Bria for a little while today. They are getting so big!!

Sooooo cute..

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree..

So we got the tree up over the weekend!! I'm so excited! Last year we didn't get the tree up until a week before Christmas and I was really upset about it. This year we were not going to let time get away from us..The first place we stopped had trees STARTING at $45 (for a real live "Charlie Brown" tree) Thankfully we didn't give in and pay the $65 it would have cost for the ones we actually liked..instead we found an amazing little tree farm between here and Ayden. They had trees you could cut fresh- ANY tree you choose for $35 and some were REALLY big! We ended up getting one that was already cut and brought over from the mountains because we liked it better (still only $40 for a 6 ft tall tree!!) It really felt like Christmas loading it up in the COLD...brr..

I have some pics though...:)

And....almost all the way done!...still need Randy to reach up and add some more to the top :)

Ella...

Have you smiled yet today?? This ALWAYS makes me smile....


I know....She's pretty cute!!

Play Time!!

Hangin' with Uncle Justin

Still nothing fun and exciting here...

Ella has been sweet and happy..she is soooo close to laughing- we can't wait!

She has been really enjoying the entertainment provided by a new face.....

Lots of this going on this week:

Thankful thoughts...

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!! Hope everyone had a good time! We had a really great Thanksgiving (anyways as great as possible without our extended family!) Some friends from church (the Haynes) had us over for lunch with some others from church, too. It was alot of fun and the food was soooo yummy!!

Here are some things I am thankful for...

*An amazing God who blesses me even when I don't deserve it..

*My wonderful husband for putting up with me, loving me, and being such a good daddy to Ella.

*ELLA- I can't even put into words how thankful I am for her..or all of the things she's reminded me to be thankful for..

*my family who I miss SO much..I am thankful for all of the good times and holidays I had with them that I took for granted (never realizing how hard it is not to be with them)

*not having to work so I can be with Ella..

*our house that is so perfect for us!

*being healthy and having a healthy baby..

*Randy's new job

*Discovery Church and all of our church family (this could be a long list so I'll leave it at that)

There's more but I'll spare you..

well.........

We have a visitor this week- Randy's little brother Justin flew in from Florida yesterday! Randy got a call on Wednesday seeing if it would work and Friday he got in!! This is Justin's first trip to Greenville so we are enjoying showing him around and hanging out!

I'm sooo ready for my Christmas tree...I think we are going to get one this weekend (woo hoo!) Randy is also going to put lights on the house sometime this week...

Hmmm..really can't think of anything else to put in here (except some new pics..)

I guess no news is good news?!

I haven't really posted anything lately because there hasn't really been much going on..Randy started his new job today which is really exciting!! He left around 9:45 and said he wasn't nervouse or anything..Ella is finally getting back into her routine here at home... She had her shots last Tuesday and took it much better than last time. She had a fever for awhile afterwards, all the way into the next day but once that was gone she was her same happy self! I must admit, this time was MUCH harder for me though- she is alot stronger this time around and it broke my heart having to hold her tight so that they could give her the shots..I put some random pictures below to show some stuff we've been up to..



I'm loving how cute Ella looks all bundled up since the weather has gotten colder. (It's been warmer these last couple of days but last week was COLD!!)

The Sunday before last was my first week back singing again since having Ella. It feels really nice to be back :) We've been taking Ella with us to band practice on Tuesday nights and she has fallen asleep both times!! (If you've heard how loud our band plays you would never believe she sleeps through it!!) I guess all those practices while she was in my tummy prepared her for it :)

Here's the pics from last week:


Thought you would enjoy an updated picture of Ella and her little friend Bria :)

Definately love the pic below of our little piggie with cereal on her face- she's too cute!


Guess I'll end this by saying that I LOVE fall!! I took this today while letting Princess out- It's so beautiful and the weather is so nice..really making me excited about Christmas this year :)

Back from Florida..again

Hi there! We got in from Florida yesterday..Ella and I are pretty worn out but VERY glad to be home!! We had an awesome trip :) It was fun seeing all of our family and of course Disney was a blast!! I have pictures from Disney to post but I still need to develop the ones from visiting family...they're coming soon, I promise :)

So..here are some pics from our trip to Disney with my mom and sisters...

Happy Halloween!!!

Wow another busy week!We had a really fun Halloween this year!

Last Saturday we went to a Halloween party for church. It was so much fun! Ella won a prize for being the "Best Costume for a girl child" Very exciting! Randy and I also got a few silly awards for being a partner...Sweetest (Laci) and Most Athletic (Randy- although I know you wouldn't have that one confused with mine..) We also were pretty blown away to win the "Partner of the Year Award" I was pretty positive it would be given to anyone but us, so it was very cool to receive it!

Here we are as: Peter Pan, Windy, and Tinker Bell..

Tuesday Shanna and I took the babies to a small pumpkin patch (the real one we wanted to go to was closed) We were so excited to take their pics..Ella hated it! She cried the whole time lol but we still got some good ones of Bria..Then of course as soon as we got home she decided she was ready to take pics with her pumpkin and they turned out GREAT! There are also a few of Princess I think you'll enjoy..

We had just got them both up from sleeping in the car...that explains why Bria is confused and Ella's screaming...

We tried to take a couple in the costume, but she was ready to stop by then.. I love the lip in this pic though!

I pulled out Princess' costume, too! She makes a pretty cute pig :)

Yesterday we went to playgroup and had a Halloween Party! It was adorable and I have some really good pics from there as well!

Here are also a few pics I took this week for fun! Ella was being very photogenic!

Whew! That was a long post- Thanks for hangin in there and looking at everything!!