OUCH!!

Here is what happened to my poor baby today!!

Ella and the Mixer

Happy 2009!!

Wow! Another year come and gone. Yes, I am still here!

It has been a crazy past couple of months. Thought I would post an update for those of you who still actually check my blog. There won't be any pictures until I can get my hard drive cleared off-hence the reason I haven't been diligent to keep this thing up!

We had an awesome Christmas this year! We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day with my family in Alpharetta just taking it easy and hanging out! We made appetizers for dinner on Christmas Eve for dinner and watched movies-it was great! Christmas day we spent a lot of time in our Pj's just taking it easy and enjoying our time together, and of course our new gifts! That evening my Aunt and Uncle and their kids came over for dinner. My Dad grilled the most amazing beef tenderloin EVER on the green egg. It was so good! The day after Christmas we headed to Nashville and spent the week with Reid's sister and her husband, and Reid's Mom and Dad. We had tons of fun playing games, eating way too many goodies, watching movies, some fun shopping, and we even took Ella to see the movie "Bedtime Stories" (which was so cute by the way!)

We got back home on Thursday evening, and I am just now starting to get the house back in normal working order. The Christmas decorations are down (with the exception of the outside ones since it hasn't stopped being wet outside since we got home), the new toys are slowly finding places to be, and the suitcases are just about unpacked.

School starts back up this coming week, along with our normal everyday activities! It will be nice to get back to our regular schedule. There is something to be said for a reliable schedule, isn't there?

As for the kids....

Ella is getting to be such a big girl. She is a huge help to me, and she loves her little brother. She is high energy, and loves to go and do. This past week visiting family was definitely a highlight for her. She sure does love to visit! :)

Cooper is learning and growing by leaps and bounds! He's pretty fast at walking now, and of course still climbs on anything he can! He is starting to talk a lot now! Some of his vocabulary includes: Papa, Yaya, Nana, Pop, Ella, Daddy, Mama, snack, pizza, doggy, eye, and YEAH!! His newest thing is to respond to something that he wants, or wants to do with: "YEAH!!!" It's so cute, I need to post a video of him saying it. He also loves a good snuggle if you can get him to hold still for long enough! :)

My figure competition!

Training for my competition is coming along GREAT! I am in the last few weeks of my "bulking" phase (aka trying to put on some solid lean muscle mass). I should be meeting with a nutrition coach in the next week to see when I need to start the cutting phase (aka getting rid of the excess fat to see the nice lean muscle!) My posing suit is purchased, still need to get shoes. This month I will be contacting a posing coach to help me with my posing routine. Every day I think that I am crazy for wanting to do this, but I know I will be very proud of myself in the end!

Alright, so there is a little catch up for you! Hopefully we will be getting the hard drive situation fixed soon!

Gingerbread House Party

Yesterday at Ella's school, the parents were invited to join their child for a gingerbread house decorating party! It was a blast, and the kids got all sugared up to boot! ;)

My Beautiful Autumn Girl-Having Fun in the Leaves!

Halloween 2008!

Here are just a few pics from our Halloween! I posted a ton more on Facebook, so request to be my friend and you can see more! we had a great Halloween weekend! After Ella's Halloween parade and party at school, we headed to Nashville to spend some time with Reid's family. Ella and Cooper got to do their trick-or-treating there with some friends that live next door to Reid's sister Ashley and her husband Michael. We had a ton of fun!

How Tall This Fall?

Every year we go to "Uncle Shuck's Pumpkin Patch", and every year we have to get the "How Tall This Fall?" picture-it's a must!! Here are the pictures from over the past 4 years. I thought it would be fun to compare :)
Ella-2004-5 months old: What a peanut!

Ella-2005

Ella-2006

Ella-2007

Ella-2008! What a big girl!


And here's Cooper!
Little 2 week old Cooper! 2007

Cooper-2008-This is the best picture we could get. He wasn't too happy about standing there ;)

Homemade Halloween Decorations!

Look what Ella and I did this afternoon during Cooper's nap! The scarecrow she made at school, but the pumpkins and bats we did today! I found the pages of eyes, noses and mouths online and printed them out. We used construction paper to make the pumpkins,and cut out the faces and glued them on. So fun!

Gymnastics Olympic Superstars Show

This past Friday, Ella and I went with our friends Laura and Libby to see the USA olympic gymnastics team in a show at Phillip's arena! It was put on by Disney, so they had fun music, lots of cool costumes and of course lots of awesome gymnastics! The bonus was we got to sit in the Mayfield Ice cream suite and have free ice cream! :) We had a ton of fun-definitely a great girls night!!



Shawn Johnson and Nastia Lukin!

Rainbows are always magical!

(This is from a few weeks ago, and I just now added the pictures, so now I can post it!)

Last night after dinner, we walked outside and there was this HUGE rainbow in the sky! You could see both ends of it. Ella kept saying "It's SOOO gorgeous!!" She loved it, and was even talking about it this morning. Unfortunately these pictures don't do it justice! Also, a picture of the drawing Ella made of it this morning :)

Ella danced at the fair!

Today Ella's ballet/tap class had the opportunity to dance at the fair on the main stage! It was very fun, and all the girls were really excited about it. They danced a tap routine to "I Wanna Be Like You" from the Jungle Book.

Who Tooted?

Ella made a doll at school yesterday. They are studying life on a farm, and were talking about how they made dolls for the children. Anyway, this morning she was playing with it and I overheard her singing:

"Rock-a-bye baby on the tree top,
when the wind blows the cradle will rock.
When the WIND BREAKS the cradle will fall,
and down will come baby, cradle and all"

hahahahaha!

Letter B Week

Last week they "studied" the letter B in Ella's class. It also was her week to be the line leader and bring snack, so we decided to have a little fun with the snacks-with it being letter B week and all. :)

Monday, we took Baby Banana Bread Muffins (aka mini muffins) and bananas. Wednesday, we took Bees and Bears trail mix and blueberry yogurt. And for Friday, Ella and I made letter "B" cookies, complete with icing and sprinkles-oh, and we used blue icing. :) Here are a few pictures from the day we made the cookies!

Fun Weekend!

We are back from an awesome weekend of celebrating Leah and Chris' wedding in downtown Atlanta! We had a blast! I have some pics to share, but I need to make more room on my hard drive in order to put them on my computer. So for now, enjoy this picture of Ella and her GIANT pancake from this morning at Twelve Hotel :)

First Day of School!

Here is our pretty girl all ready for her first day of 4 year old preschool! She was SOOOOO excited, and woke up ready and raring to go! This year she is attending school 3 half days a week.

This morning started out very crazy. I was on my way to teach my 6:00 a.m. cycle class at the gym, and had pulled into the turn lane-when lo and behold, there was a dead deer laying right there in the center of the turn lane!! Of course, it was pitch black outside, and I didn't see it until it was too late, and WHAM, I hit the blasted thing!! UGH!! I was in Reid's car, and immediately there was this dragging sound. I was like, oh please do not even tell me that the friggin' thing is stuck to the bottom of my car!! So, I pull into the parking lot, and *whew* the deer is not stuck to the bottom of my car, but this little guard thing on the bottom as pulled loose. See Reid's blog for a picture! So, I teach my class (heart totally racing, and totally shaken up!), come home, get Ella dressed and ready to go, get her some breakfast to take in the car, and I take her to Walmart to get some duck tape, hoping this will temporarily help the situation so that Reid can actually get to work without the part dragging along. Come home, Reid comes out takes a look at the car, decides that it can't be taped up, so proceeds to remove the loose part. While this is going on, Cooper wakes up, I go up and change his diaper, bring him down, put him in the stroller with his breakfast so that he can sit out with Reid while he fixes the car, and I take Ella to school!!

Yikes! What a morning! But Ella was a trooper, and went with the flow, had an awesome time at school and came home very excited! She even came home with a little ring of 5 "sight words" (Words they memorize and learn by sight-they will get a new set to add to the ring every month)-which I was excited to see, and she was very anxious to have me go through them with her. It looks as though this is going to be a great year for her, and I am looking forward to see what is in store!

Just A Lil' Update in Pictures!

Here's some pics of the kids, because, well, I know why you really come to my blog ;)



I was making lunch, and heard someone playing the guitar. I look in the family room and don't see anyone, then here is what I found :)

Look at me standing!

This is Ella's new favorite thing to do at lunchtime. Drink water or crystal light with her tea set. What a girlie girl.

I LOVE this picture of Cooper trying a powdered doughnut hole for the first time.

Sitting in the cart like a big boy!

Big helper at Kroger

Ella and her friend Libby being silly at Lollipops Toystore

Big boy on the move!

Having fun in this cool tunnel!

Pretty Girl all red faced from running around

Halarious

Chapel, Ella and Cooper (and Phoenix was sleeping in the stroller) having a playdate at "Catch Air"

Happy Cooper

Playdough People

Here are mine and Ella's creations during Cooper's morning nap today :)

Summer of Camps!

Ella has had a great Summer, full of lots of camps! She is like Mommy, and loves to go and do, so we decided to enroll her in several camps this Summer.

For 6 weeks at the beginning of the Summer, Ella went to Camp All-American (click on it to see the website)at my parents church, Perimeter. She went to their Pre-Camp,2 half days a week. She had a ton of fun playing in their splash park, playing games, singing songs, taking her lunch(this was a huge hit for her!) and doing crafts!

A couple of weeks ago, she went to a Fairy Princess Ballet camp put on by the parks and rec. department here in Cumming. It was 2 days, from 10-12, and she had a BLAST! When I picked her up after the first day, the first thing she said when she got in the car was "Mommy, when do I get to go back?" :)

Last week, her gymnastics program did a "Countdown to the Olympics" camp for kids ages 3 1/2-7. It was for 3 days, from 9-1-and she got to bring her lunch, which was once again, a huge hit! She had so much fun last week, but she was totally WIPED by the end of the week! They did all the gymnastics "stuff", learned about the upcoming Olympics, played games, and did a few crafts. At the end, they had a "closing ceremony", where they each got to stand on a platform and get a gold medal. Totally forgot to take the camera to that, so sorry about no pictures :(

And this week was the final camp of the Summer. She did another dance camp with the theme of Mermaids and Hula. They did a final performance for all the Moms when we came to pick them up. I will upload the video tomorrow, but for now, here is a picture.

Such a Great Helper!!

Ella is such a great helper to me around the house. She is always willing to lend a hand. So, when I was cleaning the other day, Ella asked to help so I let her have at the windows. She loves it! (as you can see from the pictures, this was before we were about to go swimming with a friend-hence the bathing suit...oh, and pre "Orange wall" in the kitchen :)

Summer

Our latest venture into literature with Ella has been the Random House Book of Poetry for Children. We read several poems a night, and Ella just sits and listens. She chooses to have us read it to her every night! Tonight we read this short, funny poem called "Summer" by Frank Asch. Ella thought it was so funny, and we both just laughed. She had me read it to her again, and at that point she had it memorized and just started reciting it! After we were done with our reading, she wanted to go downstairs and tell Daddy the funny poem.

So here it the poem. Enjoy :)

Summer

When it's hot
I take my shoes off
I take my shirt off
I take my pants off
I take my underwear off
I take my whole body off
and throw it in the river.

Ella Dances A Pirate Jig

The other day we went to "Jumpin' Safari" because it was too stinkin' hot to play outside! They were playing this pirate music while we were there. I told Ella to do a little dance to the music, and this is what she came up with... :)