Cleaning

Whenever I get books from the library, I take them home and wipe them with a clorox wipe. So after I got a ton of books from the library this week, I was cleaning them and Ellie wanted to help! Of course I must let her help, so I gave her a paper towel and she helped me clean. Even after I finished cleaning, she still wanted to clean... IMPRESSIVE! We decided we must catch this moment on video:

Growing Up

It's amazing how fast little ones grow. Ellie has changed so much from just 4 months ago. She is saying so many new words, phrases, and even some sentences! The other day we were in Lowes and a lady was talking to her. Instead of saying bye, the lady said "see you later alligator". I was completely shocked when Ellie repeated her very clearly for an 18-month old! I tried to get her to repeat it, but it didn't happen.

Ellie also has been learning to be quite the listener! Of course this comes with a lot of consistent discipline on the parents' end. Being consistent is definitely a very hard thing, especially when you expect and demand they listen the first time! We still have a ways to go... but we've come a long way. One thing I've been very impressed with is her ability to understand "if you do this, then this happens or you get this". One of the areas this comes in handy is when eating. She tends to demand the food she wants to eat and refuses to eat what we give her. Usually she has at least one item she likes (bread, fruit, cracker, or goldfish), most of the time the other items (chicken, beef, broccoli, rice) she likes but not very much. What happens is she demands more of what she wants and refuses to eat the other items. This was not acceptable for us, so we started the "if you eat this, then you can have more of that". We had some tantrums at first (some really bad ones when we were out, especially if anybody had fries), but after two weeks she listens extremely well! She will finish eating what we tell her to, and then she gets what she wants (sometimes she doesn't even want it anymore and is satisfied with what she has). AMAZING! It's so nice to see hard work paid off!

So last thing I'll share since this post is getting long, is how she LOVES to help mommy! She always wants to help clean and carry things. One thing she usually is very good at is putting up toys, however she doesn't like it when I make her do it by herself. I was very impressed the other day to find her cleaning up her toys without me even asking, it made me so proud! I had to take a picture:

What a Wonderful Daddy...

The night after I wrote the last post, I didn't get any sleep! Of course after I write about how great I've been feeling even when I'm a little sick, I start feeling awful. I have gotten a lot of congestion that seems to be settling in my lungs, which prevented me from sleeping Thursday night because I had a hard time breathing. Luckily I have a wonderful husband, who also is a great father, who took Friday off and spent time with Ellie.

Here is what their day looked like:
Spent over 2 hours at Marbles museum. (They painted their own faces). Then they went to Starbucks, of course... a date with daddy is not complete without some starbucks. And yes, Daddy lets Ellie have some of his coffee/frap.

I would have to say she was wiped out, and I was able to rest the WHOLE day! This was such a nice thing and something much needed for me. Not only did I have a sleepless night, but I've been feeling some much needed "me" time. I was able to rest, read, watch a tv show, and have some much needed non-distracted or rushed time with the Lord.

Not only did Ellie have a great time with Daddy on Friday... Saturday I woke up feeling just terrible because of the sleepless night on Thursday, and Daddy was so kind again to take Ellie out and let me rest AGAIN! It wasn't a whole day, but still extremely thoughtful and needed! I hate missing out on family time, but I know I should rest, so I make him take videos of moments. Saturday they just went to Target, I thought this was worth posting:

35.5 Weeks

I'm 35.5 weeks... getting closer! I'm definitely very excited and can't believe it's almost here. I'm feeling great considering I'm 8 months pregnant. I'm actually sleeping better, but have been somewhat sick. I had a little bug 2 weeks ago, and now I think I have a cold. Not too much fun, but I definitely am not feeling bad. My energy has been low, but since I'm sleeping better, I think I feel better overall. Here's my growing belly:
Ellie is starting to understand somewhat of what we are saying about a baby inside my stomach. She kisses Ainsley, will put her hand on my stomach to feel her move, and calls her baby or Ainsley. I'm not sure how much she gets, but I think she understands a lot more than what we think! Here is some shots we got of her with Ainsley :)



And here's a family photo, you don't see much of these!

Happy Birthday Anna!

Today is my dear friend's birthday, Anna Pepper. Since she now lives in Georgia and we never get to see each other or hardly chat... I thought this day was well deserving of a post!




She didn't quite say happy birthday, although she can say it somewhat. She gets shy sometimes on video :)

Anna- Hope you have a fabulous day! Love you boo!

Ring Around the Rosie

Ellie loves playing 'Ring Around the Rosie'. This is just after she took her bath, hence only the diaper.

Bring the Rain

I stumbled across this blog Bring The Rain, created by Angie Smith, from one of my friend's blog list. I was amazed by her faith in the Lord. I don't know her story, but she started this blog because she lost a child. What a terrible tragedy. My heart breaks just even thinking about losing Ellie or Ainsley, however I hope if the Lord chooses to take one of them, I will have the same heart she has. I hope I never have to experience the pain of losing a child, but I do know that there will be pain in my life.
This quote is the theme for her blog, "And I know there'll be days when this life brings me pain. But if that's what it takes to praise you Jesus, bring the rain." All of us will go through pain, so we definitely can learn from her and strive for that same trust in our Lord.

So you can go to her blog and read the post, but just in case you don't, here is some of what she says and my thoughts:

Her most recent post was on John 5, when Jesus heals the lay man. Jesus asks the man if he would like to get well. Our small group studied this chapter the other week, and we concluded the same thing... what kind of question is that? Of course this man wants to get well! However if you look at his response, he doesn't say yes. Instead he gives reasons why he can't get well, having no hope of ever getting well.... having little faith. This is the reason why Jesus asks the question, to reveal this man's attitude. Angie relates it to her circumstance saying, "And when Jesus hears my the man's rambling, doubtful answer, He tells him to be obedient and to disregard the pool. He doesn't need water, just a willing servant." Stop making excuses, have FAITH. Stop relying on other things to heal you, God is the one has given those other things the power to heal, so rely on God instead.

However, he doesn't always heal the way we want him to. I'm just going to quote the rest of her post because I love the ways she writes this:

"Do you want to get well?"

In my mind, I hear Him asking it a little differently..."Do you believe I can make you well?"

Well, yes. Of course I do.

I'm not relying on feeble statistics and human ability. My God is asking me a question and I will do the only thing I know how to do.

Kneel deep and nod yes, believing that He can handle the rest.

After all, it's His house of mercy. His unending grace and love.

Whether it's been 38 minutes or 38 years you've been waiting, one thing is for sure. He is the same God now as He was in Jerusalem years ago.

So get up, friend.

It's time to walk.

No matter how the Lord heals us, we should trust Him. In my own experiences and from what I've seen in others' experiences, it never fails... God ALWAYS proves to be faithful. He is the only constant, the one who has continued to be faithful since the beginning. Life will bring pain, sometimes pain we might not think we can handle. The Lord will continue to prove to be faithful, he teaches us in our pain. He brings us closer to him and we end up praising him. So Lord, bring the rain, if that's what it takes. My life is to bring him glory!

Potter Puppet Pals

Ellie loves this video! This is the only video she actually will watch every time, and over and over. I'm not sure why, but Zach can pull it up on his phone and it's a great entertainer/distraction. Thought I would share, maybe your toddlers would love it too??

Fun on Halloween!

We had a blast on Halloween this year, definitely more fun when you have kids. The day started off a little rough since it was raining, but Ellie sure did like her Halloween card from Aunt Patsy and Uncle Larry.


As soon as it cleared up we went to HollyFest, a carnival Holly Springs has each year. We ate, watched some pigs race, walked around and looked at the vendors, sang with the bands playing, petted animals, and went down a huge blow up slide! It was so much fun and all FREE, except the food.It definitely turned out to be a hot day, so Ellie's costume didn't last long at HollyFest. This is why she is in black leggings and her white big sis shirt (they were underneath the costume). After we were tuckered out from all the fun at HollyFest, we came back and took a nap. We wanted to participate in the parade in our neighborhood, but we slept right through it!

Ellie's best friend, Addison, of course had to come and trick or treat with us! Before we went trick or treating, we had to eat! I was planning on cooking, but since we slept so long, I knew there wasn't enough time. As a group we decided to dress up in tin foil (as burritos) and head to Chipolte for a free burrito! Here is our friends, Katie and Uriah dressed up. Great burritos, huh? Didn't need much to get the free burrito, but we tried.

And here's what you've been waiting for, the girls dressed up:


So now on to the trick or treating. First we did a trial run:



After they somewhat understood what was going to happen, we headed out. We thought the girls would last about 4 houses or so, but they LOVED it! We went down our whole street! Ellie loved going up to everyone's house. She didn't quite get how she was only supposed to take the candy and not give it away. Here she is giving her m&m's to our neighbor, who was trying to let her take some pretzels! We kept reminding her that tonight is all about her taking whatever candy they gave her.


So Ellie would run up to the house and knock on the door (since she couldn't ring the doorbell). Addison was a little shy about walking up to the house, but whenever the person would pop out with candy, she couldn't wait to grab some. Addison would say hey, grab some candy, and then say bye. She was very friendly and always smiling when the person came. However Ellie was much more hesitant when the person opened the door, she just gave a blank stare until we prompted her with what to do. They were quite the pair!


There were a ton of kids trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, but we didn't get to hand out a single piece of candy! Since we slept so long, ate out, and all went with the girls... we just weren't home. We sure do have a lot of kit-kats to share! So to end this long post, here is a clip of Ellie who actually could say "trick or treat", even though she maybe only did once. We had to get her on video saying it because it was just so darn cute. We took this video Sunday morning. (Yes, she is in her costume because she insisted on wearing it again.)