Tornado weekend!

So Ella and I made the trip to Grammie and Pop's house this past week...just in time for the big tornado! My parents were really blessed that their house wasn't damaged. However, my Dad's barn wasn't quite so lucky. I know he was disappointed. They were blessed to have many helping hands to cut and haul trees and tree limbs. Hopefully the insurance will pay to repair the barn aka Pop's "man cave."

Ella and I drove down on Thursday afternoon. We stopped in Centerville and spent some time with Mike and Ann. Ella had a ball playing with them - especially playing outside in their beautiful back yard. I can't believe I didn't think to bring my camera inside :( Next time for sure.

Once we got to Corsicana, we had dinner at Laura and Stu's. Lily and Ella had a ball blowing bubbles together. She would close her eyes when the bubbles started coming, and then giggle really hard:


Lily decided she needed to spend the night at Grammie's that night which was awesome because the girls got to spend all day Friday together. We went to Grammie's school and had lunch with her. It was too funny, when we told Lily that we were going to eat with Grammie her response was "But Grammie what will your teacher say?" Lily has this perception of Grammie "at school" - I'm pretty sure she thinks Grammie goes to school...not sure if she really grasps that Grammie works there! I love it, it's so sweet.

Funny story...

After giving Grammie a chance to show off her granddaughters at work, we headed home. I was feeding Ella some baby food, which gets pretty messy, so I stripped her down to her diaper beforehand. Lily announced that she too should get out of her clothes just in case she got food on hers. So needless to say, the girls spent the rest of the day playing in the living room floor in their panties. This is how Pop found them when he came home from work.

He said "It's kind of warm in here, Lily. Do you want me to turn on the air conditioner for ya'll?" Lily replies "no Pop it's ok, we just took off all of our clothes so we're not hot anymore." I love it!

Sweet cousins playing so well together

Lily was such a good cousin, she helped take care of Ellie all day!


As you can see, we had a great time despite the crazy tornado! Here are a few more family pictures:
Loving Granny and Gramps:

Ella and Aunt Laura:
She was watching so intently!

Giggling at GrammieKisses for Grammie
Biting Mommy's nose...Grammy got kisses, I got bites!

Hanging out with Pop after bathtime

That's all for now! Thanks for a fun time at Grammie and Pop's. We are so thankful that everyone was safe and sound after the crazy weather.

5 months!

So our baby girl turned 5 months on April 7th...my how time flies. I feel like I have said that a million times since she's been born, but it's the truth. She's just growing so fast...nobody asked me if that was ok. But I will admit, it is so much fun to watch her learn new things each day. I feel blessed to get to introduce her to so many things. Like watching her roll over for the first time, the look on her face when she found her hands, discovered her feet, and even better - discovered her feet would reach her mouth! I think her favorite thing is hands...her hands, my hands, daddy's hands - you name it, this girl loves her some hands.

She's been busy lately, what with learning how to sit up and all! I am so proud!!! She doesn't stay upright for long, but she's working on it. Did I mention how time flies???

Here she is sitting there like such a big kid playing with her toy, minding her own business.



Heeeey Mommy!


And she's falling...
...down for the count!


She's also been very busy outgrowing her clothes. Mommy was so very sad to see this one go. This was the very first outfit I bought for Ella when I was pregnant. It was always my favorite so I thought I would try it on her for one last wear...yeah not so much.


That little belly wouldn't have it!!


Sad day for this Mommy because it's official...this kid is growing! We are on to the 6 months clothes. Ella doesn't seem to mind, she couldn't be happier!


What else...she has discovered the puppies and thinks they are HILARIOUS! When Tucker gets fired up and starts running around she giggles really hard. Her laughter has got to be the sweetest thing I have ever heard!


The dogs, on the other hand, aren't quite as fond of her. Sometimes Tucker will randomly walk up to her and give her a "kiss" but he's not a fan of her "petting" him, which usually consist of Ella getting super excited and reaching out and grabbing his hair! We're trying to teach her to be gentle, but it's a little hard - she's a bit small :)


Tucker keeping his distance


Ella has been sleeping like a champ...for the most part. For the past couple of weeks she's been sleeping from around 9:30 to 5 or so, up for a bottle, then back down for maybe 2-3 hours. And some nights she will even spoil me by sleeping straight through from 9:30 to 7 or 8am. It has been WONDERFUL because this Mommy hadn't slept a full night since Ella was born!! The really funny thing is, Ella seems to know when I have to work the next day. I can't figure it out - on the nights when I have to work the next day, she doesn't sleep all night. She wakes up around 4 and wants a bottle, then again around 6 and wants to stay up. It's so weird, we do absolutely nothing different on those nights, it's like she just knows. I tell myself it's because she doesn't want to risk not getting to spend time with Mommy before I go to work :) But who knows.

Here are a few more sweet pics




Ella and I are headed to Grammie and Pop's this week so I'm sure we will have some fun pics when we get back!

HaPpY eAsTeR!! I hope everyone had a BLESSED weekend celebrating Jesus! We had a good Easter this year, very low key, but a blessed day nonetheless. We visited a new church and really enjoyed it. Ella even survived the nursery with no tears. I was a proud mama. She apparently played hard because the minute we put her in the car she was fast asleep, she didn't even make it out of the parking lot. We had lunch with Nolan's parents and then spent the rest of the day relaxing at home. I definitely missed seeing all of my family on Easter. But hopefully we can work something out for next year. By that time Ella will be ready to hunt some eggs with cousins Lily and Walker and the rest of the group :-) Here are some pics of our sweet baby girl, including Easter Sunday.