A Little Late

Happy Thanksgiving a couple of days late. I never post much when we are on the road. And the pics will have to wait until we get back. I hope everyone had a great turkey day yesterday and shopping day today. We ate a lot and hung out with my fam yesterday. Brandon and I even went out sans kiddos 2 nights in a row. Granted, the first night we were yawning like crazy the whole time. My brothers were playing music right down the road from my mom's house. Then last night we went bowling with some of my brothers and cousins. It was really fun. Today I got some really good deals but I still have a good bit of shopping to do. Guess I'll be going to Dothan in the next few weeks. Who's up for a shopping trip?

Thanksgiving Feast

Yesterday was the Thanksgiving Feast at Ellie's school. It was really nice. The kids in the 2,3, and 4 year-old classes sang some really cute songs and there was a potluck lunch. The school provided turkey, and chicken fingers and each family brought a side, bread, or dessert. There was lots of food everyone (even Ellie) found something to enjoy. Each table was decorated with a pumpkin made to look like a turkey. The kids had all decorated the paper "feathers" that were stuck in the pumpkins. One chair at each table had a sticker on the bottom and whoever was sitting there got to take the pumpkin turkey home. Ellie did a great job singing and her Indian costume was really cute.



All dressed up and ready to go.
She wanted to take a silly picture after I took a bunch of regular ones.

Here she is in costume on the stage.

This is as close up as I can get with my camera. (Hopefully I'll get a new one for Christmas).

I tried to get some cute shots of the girls in their matching dresses. Thanks MeeMaw!!

Ann Marie kept falling over on to Ellie. She said, "It's ok Mommy, she just loves me."

Caught one of her almost smiling. I think this may be my favorite picture of her yet.

2 Cute Girls and a Mystery

Just some random pics I've taken that I thought were worth sharing. More later from the Thanksgiving Feast...

Sweet Baby. This is how she looks after she's been in the car seat for a while. However, when you are putting her in the car seat, she screams. Every. Time. I think it's something about being confined. May have a wild one on my hands.

This is such a classic Ellie face, I had to share it. It is usually accompanied by the phrase, "Mommy, what are you talking about?" or "I have to 'Fink' about it."

Cute smile

When I saw this I thought for a moment that we had a Giant -Napkin Stealing- Rat problem. But then I realized we just have a weirdo 3 year-old who loves chocolate chip cookie dough without the chocolate chips. And who thought it would be nice (and hygienic) to leave the chips on the (clean) napkins.

He is with us?

Wait til you read this.

On the way to ballet today.....

Ellie: "Mommy, at night, I talk to God in my bed."

Me: "That's great, it's good to say your prayers to God at night." (thinking they've been talking about this at school)

Ellie: "No, silly, at night when I can't sleep or my belly hurts, I talk to God."

Me: "Really, who told you to do that?"

Ellie: "No one, silly, I just thought of it in my heart."

Me: "Um, ok."

Ellie: "Sometimes it's like he's really there and in my room."

Me: "Um, ok."

Later I tried to find out what she talks to Him about, but she wouldn't share with me. Clearly I am not needed much for her spiritual growth. So if anyone has a prayer request, just let me know and I'll forward it to Ellie.

They could be twins

** Warning** Nudie Baby pics follow*****


It's really freaking me out how much Ann Marie looks like Ellie did at close to the same age. She is a little bigger than Ellie was, but the resemblance is scary.


Ann Marie
Ellie

Ann Marie

Ellie

And here's a bonus shot from this weekend. Ellie's new favorite hobby-huntin' with Daddy.

Peanut Festival

I just realized that I never posted the pics from this year's trip to the National Peanut Festival in Dothan.

Ellie loved it, Brandon and I ate yummy fair food and Ann Marie slept the whole time. It was a good night for all.

The first thing E said was that she did NOT want to ride the Ferris Wheel. It was too big. I didn't think she would like to ride anything, but I was sorely mistaken. Once she realized how much fun the rides were, there was no stopping her. Maybe I will have someone to ride the roller coasters with me in a few years.

As you go in to the grounds, you have to pass the petting zoo and pony rides before you get to any of the fair rides. So of course, E wanted to see the animals and ride a pony. I was on stroller duty so Brandon took her in to both things. She was afraid of some of the bigger animals, but she loved the pony. There was some big hairy buffalo thing in the petting part and I thought E was going to jump back over the fence toward me when she saw it. I laughed and laughed. This pic is her looking at the hairy thing. See how she is all the way on the opposite fence. Hilarious!

Once we finally got to the kids' rides, we rode the flying elephants,

Dizzy Dragons, and the Merry Go Round. All were very fun and surprisingly the carousel was the fastest one. I swear, if I hadn't been on there holding on to Ellie, she would've gone flying off. The camera batteries died before we could get a picture on it though.

One other cool thing we saw was the sea lions. We didn't get to see the show, but we watched them sliding and swimming and eating fish.

Overall it was a fun night. AM didn't wake up until we were on the way back to the car. I had to feed her before we drove all the way home, but the car was much warmer than outside so it was OK.

1 Month

What's that you say???

I'm 1 month old today!!

I can't believe it! She's been here a whole month. And yet it feels like I have fed and burped her a million and a half times and changed a billion diapers. Actually that may not be an exaggeration.

Things are going great. She gained almost a whole pound in the last 2 weeks. We went to the doc's office on Thursday for a weight check and she weighed 8lbs 10.5 oz. I was so excited. I think it took Ellie 2 months to get there. Ann Marie is a really good eater. We've even given her a little bottle of formula a few times because it seemed like the milk factory was not satisfying her. But most days it's not necessary.

Ellie is still besotted with her and has not been jealous or anything. She wants to love on her all the time. Here they are together yesterday and this morning.

Check out the difference in last month and this month in the big chair. Last time we couldn't even keep her upright. She kept folding over. This morning she was strong and practically sitting up on her own.

October 2008 A few days after we came home from the hospital

November 8, 2008 1 month old

And here's Ellie's brand-new and 1 month pics. See any resemblance?

May 2005 A few days after we brought Ellie home

June 2005 Ellie at 1 month old

I have a feeling that I will have a hard time keeping their pictures straight as they get older. At least the chair is blue in Ellie's and red in AM's.

Fun Running

We had a big day on Saturday. It was the annual Ft. Rucker Chili Cook-off. The whole thing started with a 5K run that Brandon participated in with a team of people from work. After the adults' run, there was a 1 Mile Fun Run for kids. Ellie wanted to race and she actually ran the whole way. Brandon ran it with her and we were both surprised. He said she didn't even slow down to walk once.

Here she is waiting for Brandon's race to start.

The starting horn for the 5K.

Showing me her skillz and warming up for her race.Stretching out before the Fun RunAnd....they're off....Pace yourselves!

Coming in at the finish line

Showing off her medal

Hamming it up with her buddy Madison

She still had plenty of energy for the bouncy house!

Trick or Treat

2 Cute Halloween Bugs

Ellie had a great time Friday night. She's been talking about it (and eating candy) ever since. A lot of the LAME houses in our neighborhood were dark and deserted. The only upside to that is that E did not get a huge amount of candy. The bad part is, we did not have a huge amount of kids visit our house so we have a lot of candy left over. Luckily I only bought stuff I don't like. But, E thinks because we still have candy left, that there will be more trick-or-treating. You can't explain waiting a whole year to a 3 year old.

Brandon did most of the house to house walking. I stayed by the street because.....

this is how Ann Marie trick-or-treated. We took the carrier, but she wanted nothing to do with it that night. Checking out her loot.

She sorted it out right away. Anything she didn't like went into the big bowl for our trick-or-treaters. Anything chocolate went in my belly! Thank goodness she didn't get much. Everyone knows I have no self-control.