Ella is becoming more and more independent. That being said, I don’t always get to pick out her clothes or shoes anymore. I pull out an outfit and she tells me she doesn’t want to wear that. I pull out another outfit and she doesn’t want to wear that either. She has something in mind and she’ll find it. It’s fun to see her personality come out in deciding what to wear. She has to match her shirt and pants but the shoes don’t typically match. Most of the time I let her wear whatever shoes she wants but on Sundays I make sure they do match. This past Sunday she had on brown pants so when it was time to put her shoes on I pulled out her brown shoes. Well that was not what she had in mind. So Ella puts the brown shoes away and starts to put on her fancy high heel black shoes.  The black shoes are cute and all but one of these days she is going to break her ankle if she doesn’t stop running in them. I tried talking her back into wearing the brown ones but it wasn’t going to happen. I ended up changing her whole outfit so that her fancy black shoes would match. I eventually get her completely dressed shoes and all and she puts her foot next to mine and says “just like mommy.” Yes, our shoes looked very similar, both with high heels and a bow on the front.  And my sweet little Ella was so proud that she looked “just like mommy.”

Have you ever had such awesome neighbors you don’t know how to even thank them? This is our problem. Jim and Mae are in their 70’s and are so sweet and adorable. They are of course retired which makes them have a little bit of extra free time on their hands. Ella loves them and thinks of them as another set of grandparents.

It all started in the spring when Jim got rid of some of our weeds for us. Then he sprayed all of our poison ivy and removed it because he didn’t want Ella to get into it. Then he planted 3 tomato plants for us, then mowed our yard all summer, then got rid of some more weeds, then mowed our grass some more then just recently raked up all of our leaves. I’m just not fast enough, I had planned on raking the leaves Monday night when Adam got home from work, well, they were raked Monday morning.

On top of that they got Amelia and Ella a gift when Amelia was born and get our mail for us when we’re gone. Mae has a huge and I mean huge (hundreds) collection of baby dolls in her house and has given Ella 3 of them. I have made them cookies a few times and got them a giftcard a while back but I don’t feel like it’s enough. But I’ve decided there is nothing more I can give this sweet couple, they are just like this. They WANT to do these things for us. At one point I told Jim that I could take care of something he was doing in our yard and he told me that he has nothing better to do because he is retired. Which made me realize he isn’t doing these things to get some type of prize but because he just simply wants to.

I am awarding them with the 2009 Neighbor of the Year award!!

It’s hard to believe that 2 years ago today Ella made me a mommy! It seems like it was just yesterday that we were bringing her home from the hospital and losing  hours upon hours of sleep. Adam and I are so lucky to have such a sweet little girl be part of our life. I am amazed each day at how much she is growing and learning. Ella has changed our lives forever.  I am so thankful God chose us to be her parents.

Yesterday we had an elmo birthday party for Ella. It was awesome to have both sides of the family here to celebrate. She got so many wonderful gifts and seemed to love them all. I’m looking forward to playing with all of her new toys with her this week.  This week as I was getting ready for her party I realized I don’t think I spend enough time with Ella each week and time is flying by so quickly. I work part-time so I can stay home with Ella during the day but sometimes we get so wrapped up in going places and me trying the keep the house clean and cooking all the time I don’t actually sit down and play with her very often, although we are together. Beginning this week we are having more “Mommy and Ella time.”

Check back tomorrow for pictures!

10 reasons why I love being a mommy

In no particular order…

1.  I love the greeting when picking her up from church nursery or from a friends house….”mommy” (with a huge grin on her face)

2.  I love watching her sleep so peacefully

3. I love how everything I do is the most amazing thing in the world

4. I love giving up my food for her when she wants more

5. I love to hear her sing with her high pitched little voice

6. I love that she wants and likes to pray and remembers even we daddy and mommy forget

7. I love her wet kisses and her 1 second hugs

8. I love when she helps me with small chores around the house and thinks she is so big

9. I love to watch how much she adores her daddy and starts showing off the second he comes home from work

10. I love when she crawls on my lap when I’m trying to do something important and gets right in my face and says mommy over and over until I give her the attention she is looking for and I stop what I’m doing

Yes, you read that title correctly, I am pregnant with baby #2. It’s been quite an interesting few weeks knowing that soon our life will change even more than before. We are excited, scared and nervous all at the same time.

I’m already 6 1/2 weeks which means the baby will be here sometime around July 26th….right in the middle of the hot summer! Ella is going to be a great big sister. She loves babies so much. Every time we are around any babies everything else comes to a stop and she devotes all of her attention to that baby. I know she will be a little bossy…since that is her personality but they will be close enough in age that eventually they will good playmates.

I’ve been pretty sick feeling and very tired, just like I felt with Ella, which already makes me think it’s another girl….we’ll just see.

Today Adam and I are celebrating our 4th anniversary! I can’t believe how time flies. I can remember our wedding like it was yesterday.

I am so thankful that I have such a wonderful husband. He is so awesome! I love everything about him. Sometimes I ask myself why I was the “lucky” one. There were so many other girls he crossed paths with but he choose me.

I such a lucky girl…:)

This weekend we traveled down to Cincinnati to see my friends Rachel and David get married. I am so excited for them. I don’t know David very well but Rachel was one of my apartment mates in college so I’m glad we could go. It was a very unique wedding. The wedding was in a playhouse, not the kind you find in your backyard, but one where you see plays..:) Had to clarify because one person thought I meant a backyard playhouse. It was very small, it maybe held 175 people at the most and the seats were on 3 sides of the stage. Then the reception was out in the lobby area which had large glass windows that overlooked the city of Cincinnati, it was beautiful. One very unique idea was she had a photo booth. Everyone got their picture taken and it printed 2 copies, one for a favor which they put on a magnet for the refrigerator and the second was to put into the guest book. What a fun idea! And great entertainment getting to use a photo booth as much as you want!!

I’m jealous right now that they are on there honeymoon and I’m stuck here. I would love to go on a vacation with my hubby right now. Maybe I should clarify, I’m not jealous that I’m not on my honeymoon I’m just jealous of a vacation that involves a beach and no children (Sorry Ella. I do love you!).

Back to the wedding, it was so great to catch up with my college friends again. We are all at such different points in our lives right now but yet when we are together it’s still fun and we get along well. It’s nice to finally be able to get invited to weddings, shower, parties, etc. and actually be able to go. Living in Georgia didn’t allow be to be part of the festivities most of the time.

I’m also very excited for one of my friends right now who is pregnant. It’s top secret so I can’t share who it is but I wasn’t expecting her to be pregnant this soon so I think it makes it more exciting. Congrats!! (By the way, just because I added this paragraph into this blog post DOES NOT mean that the person pregnant is in any of the below pictures.)

Here are some pictures from the wedding this weekend.

This is what I saw yesterday afternoon during the storm. Absolutely beautiful!

While I was eating lunch I was watching some of the travel channel. Today’s show was a lady exploring Iceland, an area I always thought to be ugly but it was actually really beautiful when it was sunny. Every time I watch those shows it makes me want to live overseas for a while. My dream is to live over there just for a year, nothing permanent. I’ve always heard “you can do anything for a year”. So maybe years down the road we can take a leap of faith and explore a brand new area.

Actually, the best plan would be if we timed it right with our friends who are planning on moving to hungry in about 5-8 years. Living in Europe the same time as them would be so awesome. We could explore together!!

Even if I never get a chance to live there a trip would be nice. I’m thinking maybe for our 10 year anniversay (6 years from now) we could splurge and take a 2 week vacation.

Alright, enough dreaming for the afternoon….

I find myself crying, and my eyes stinging so much I just want to scream each and every time I cut up an onion. Many times I will just leave the onion out of the recipe all because I hate the stinging feeling in my eyes. Last night (thanks to Nancy) I was taught a way to never cry over an onion again. Take a half piece of bread and stick it under your tongue. The bread will be way be too big to put the whole thing under so that’s why you let the rest hang out of your mouth. Don’t worry you’ll feel ridiculous as you do it, especially if someone else is in the kitchen with you but it’s definitely worth it! Something about the saliva/bread combination makes you not cry.