Spaghetti.....GOOD!!

I hope you used your best cave man voice as your read the title! Let me tell you....Ella really enjoyed her dinner tonight. I don't think I've ever seen her get this messy during a meal. She even had a noodle in her hair! Cracked me up! She sure does love spaghetti! Crazy kid!




We just went straight to the bath tub!

Pajama time....and of course she had to wear the hat too!

Tea Anyone?

Ella is very into pretend play right now and she loves to play tea party. It was so much fun that even her daddy decided to play too. It was so cute watching them play together. She has always been a major mommy's girl (she still is), but she is slowly becoming more of a daddy's girl. She insisted on wearing her hat all evening.

Cheese!

I love, love, love this picture!

WARNING....WARNING.....!

CUTE NAKED BABY ALERT BELOW!

TAKE CAUTION!

Again...she still insisted on wearing her hat.

Gotta love naked baby bootie!

Busy.... but fun weekend!

We had quite a busy weekend, but I like it that way anyway. Friday night I babysat my niece's Hannah and Kaity. It wasn't hard, but I just had all three of them for a few hours. Bless my sister-in-law, Krystal, for watching all three of them everyday. You make it look very easy! Thank you for everything you do for Ella!

We took Ella to the stock yards on Saturday along with my parents, and to say that Ella enjoyed it would be an understatement. She had a blast! I loved watching the expressions on her face every time she saw something new. I used to think (this was before I had Ella) that taking young children to things like that would be the biggest whippin', but now I understand why all of us crazy parents do it! We can't wait to see our child's faces fill up with joy when we see them experience new things. She won't remember it, but I will!

Below Ella is stacking her blocks. It's fun to watch her because she gets mad when they fall over. Poor kid has my temper. She may look like her daddy, but she acts like me. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. Only time will tell! :)

Stinker!

She did this all by herself. I was impressed!

Getting ready to go on a walk

Ella's new hat...so cute!

Looking at the baby chickens.

Ella and my Dad (Grandpa)

Swing Baby Swing!

Daniel finally finished putting up the swing set. Ella had a blast swinging in her new swing as you can see below. It was bitterly cold outside today, but she didn't care! She is such an outdoor's girl...she must get that from her daddy!

Here she is going down the slide. She couldn't get enough of it!

A few pics to share....

I love her expression in this picture. Priceless!

Ella and her piercing blue eyes. She gets them from her Daddy. She just loves being outside. I promise...she can't get enough of it...rain or shine...hot or cold. At least she keeps me busy. She is all the exercise I need. Today in fact, as soon as we got home I changed clothes, and we were out the door on a walk/jog. I just love my evenings with her!

Ella and Conner playing ring-around-the-rosie. It was too cute! They didn't want to stop. Ella really missed her buddy Conner and Miss Michelle.

Stay at home mom, here I come!!!

For those of you that don't know yet, I am not going back to work next year. Whoo-hoo!!! I'm going to be a stay at home mom, and I can't wait! I've wanted to stay at home with Ella since the day she was born, but financially we just weren't ready. Daniel and I have been working really hard to get things in order, and we've finally done it. I told my boss earlier this week that I will not be coming back this next school year. I finally feel like it's a done deal. It's been hard staying motivated at work knowing that I only have 4 1/2 more months to go........and let me tell you.....I am SICK of junior high kids!! If I have to answer one more stupid question I might just go insane. I've always been an impatient person, but I think working with 7th graders for the last 7 years has made it worse. I've had a bit of anxiety this week after having time off over Christmas. It's always hard for me to go back to work after a break because I enjoy being with my family and watching Ella explore and discover new things. I always feel like I'm missing out on her growing up, but not anymore! I must say though that teaching is the best job you can do if you have kids because of all the time off, but you have to deal with idiotic questions and babysit all day...oh....and teach too. It's a trade off! I think I enjoyed teaching more before I had Ella. My priorities changed. I will probably go back to teaching eventually, but I want to enjoy my baby while she is still a baby, plus one of these days we might try to give Ella a little brother or sister. Who knows what life has in store for us. I can't wait to find out!

Everyone else is doing it!

So....I thought I would try out this blog thing because it seems like everyone is doing it now. I thought it was kinda silly at first, but then I found myself gravitating towards it. So here's the short version. Above is a pic of my husband and I when we were only 20! Crazy in love! We had no idea what life had in store for us. We were so wide eyed, with lots of dreams and plans for the future. After we got married, we dreamed of course of adding a little addition of our own to the family. Who knew it would take three years, lots of heartache, tears, doctor visits, and prayer to bring little Ella in to our lives. It was all worth it in the end. With lots of love and prayer, we have become a family of 3. Our daughter Ella was the little miracle we thought would never happen. We are truly blessed!

Ella Claire is now 18 months. Above is our family photo taken last month.