You Wanna Know Why????

So you want to know why I haven't updated in like....forever????
It's called O-U-T-A-G-E!
If any of you have husbands or family members that work at LCRA, you know what I'm talking about. I'm not gonna go into detail, because quite frankly, I'm not completely sure what all goes on during an outage - all I know is that my husband is ALWAYS at work. He has been working 7 days a week, sometimes (or mostly) 14 hours a day for over a month now. I don't know how he does it, but I admire him for it! He puts his total heart & soul into his job and never complains about it - I wish I liked my job that much! So, because he is at work so late, I don't have anyone to occupy the little monster while I blog & believe it or not, Ella isn't really into the whole blogging thing yet so she would rather me come play with her in the living room. But hopefully outage will be over soon and life will return to normal around here. I just keep telling myself that with all this crazy working Neal is doing, he & I will own LCRA one day!!! Hee Hee!
OK, lets play catch up.....
HALLOWEEN: Ella was a little 50's girl & unfortunately I never did get a really good pic of her costume. She had fun I guess, of course she didn't have a clue what was going on but she enjoyed all the attention and ohh's & ahh's she got.
We met up with Krystal and Braxton and "did" the square, then went and hung out with Jess & Hudson for a while. Me, Jess & Krystal were like the 3 amigos back in the day, so here is the new triple threat:











CORN MAZE: We went to the Rocky Creek Corn Maze in Moulton a couple of weeks ago. What a neat place that is! We took Ms. Lindsey & Logan with us and Logan had so much fun we had to drag him out of there. They had a huge "hay slide" (which I went down by the way,) a pretty little flower patch, a hay ride, train ride, and all kinds of other fun stuff! I think it's open every weekend until the end of November, so if you get a chance, you should go...it's fun!

WALKING UPDATE:
I know I posted a video of Ella walking last time, but she is finally starting to really get it down. She has decided that even though it's faster to crawl, it's more fun to walk, so she is really on the go. She is still a little slow, which is fine with me, but she is working on speeding it up a little. She's so cute to watch, she gets so excited when she gets going and starts throwing her arms up & down and bouncing until she finally falls down. I don't have a recent video of her walking, and she is sleeping right now so you're just out of luck for now!
And speaking of sleeping, I have to brag a little bit. For about a month now my baby has been going to bed all by herself, no bottle, no paci, no rocking - IT IS WONDERFUL!!! Every night after she has her bath we sit down and read a couple of her favorite books, have a little milk from the sippy cup, brush our teeth, say our prayers and play in bed for a few minutes, then roll over and go night night. And it was so easy, I thought I would have to do the whole "let her cry" thing for a long time, but she only cried for about 5 - 10 min for a couple of nights. To all my friends with little ones - I strongly recommend it!

And now I just had to show y'all what I bought Ella this week. I don't know how practical they really are or if she will ever wear them just out and about, but they were worth one good picture! Check these out! They're called Baby Legs and I got them from a website called The Pitter Patter Boutique. I also ordered what I have come to think is the best thing invented since sliced bread, the Toss-Me-Not sippy cup holder:
I actually bought 2: one for the car and one for the high chair. I have only had them for one day and I am already LOVING THEM!!!! Both the baby legs and the sippy cup holders come in lots of different colors and designs for girls & boys. I also have the link listed to your right under "other sites I like."

OK, well that's all I have for ya. I will leave you with a short video of Ella Bella enjoying her birthday present from Mommy & Daddy, and hopefully it won't take me so long to write next time. See Ya!!!

What A Weekend!

We had a very busy weekend to tell you about! To start it off, Ella had her 12 month doctors appointment on Thursday afternoon. After sitting in the waiting room for an hour, completely emptying my HUGE purse onto the ground - twice, eating a couple of Kleenex, and making friends with everyone in the waiting room, we left there with her getting 5 shots and her blood drawn. There's got to be a way to combine all those shots into 1, it's just so torturous the way they have to do it over and over like that! Surprisingly, she did really well. She screamed of course, but there were no real tears or fever, just a couple of really big knots on both of her little thighs and a little bit of crankiness the next day.
Friday night Ella spent the night at her Nannie's house because I wanted to go hunting with Dad and Neal leaves for work before 5am. I got to shoot a little "trash" 5- pointer buck, which is always fun! I have been hunting with my Dad for as long as I can remember and it is still such a wonderful bonding thing for us. After all these years and after all the deer I have shot, I still tear up after I pull the trigger. I guess it's the thrill and just the whole idea that it's something so special I share with my Dad...sappy I know, but I'm a Daddy's girl!

After the deer hunting was over, I picked up Ella and we met Krystal and Ella's fiance', Braxton at Pizza Hut. The kids were so cute - Braxton really watches over Ella and makes sure she gets whatever she needs. While we were there, Ella decided that's where she wanted to walk. She took about 5 or 6 steps towards Braxton and of course I was crying....again! Pizza Hut? Come on...what's that all about? Why can't she do it here at home in front of the camera? Sooo, after that we came home and had about an hour and a half ferocious battle about her taking a nap - and as usual she won. So here it was 4 pm, time for cousin Colby's birthday party and she has had no nap AT ALL! I have to say though, she really did well for not sleeping. She had lots of attention to keep her happy. While we were there everyone kept saying how they remembered how tiny she was last year at the party. It was the day after we came home from the hospital that we took her last year, she was 3 days old. This is what she did last year... And here she is this year...Colby got this cool scooter for his birthday so he let Ella take his old one for a spin...Thanks Colby!

Now you would think since she hadn't slept all day that she would totally crash out when we got home. Oh no... we had to have another knock down drag out! But this time I won! I finally just gently threw her screaming behind in the crib and turned my monitor down. After about another hour of watching the red lights flash on the monitor, she finally went to sleep. My gosh, now that's what I call a marathon!

Sunday was another fun & busy day. We started out by sleeping in a little later than usual, which was really nice. After we played and had breakfast we went to the park and had a play date with Jaley & Hope. This was the first time all 3 of the girls had been together since they were all little bitty, and it was so cute to watch them today. They played on the ground for a while, they went down all the slides, swang and went for a ride in Jaley's wagon. Ella was exhausted when we left and was asleep about 2 minutes after we got in the car. Which, by the way, was only about a 30 minute nap, which was all she had again today!!! Ugh! Anyways, here are a couple pics from the play date.

Our plans for the afternoon fell through but we ended up getting a call from Krystal and Braxton wanting to go to the Jersey Barnyard to the pumpkin patch. So off we went, again running on very little sleep. This time Ella Bella wasn't in such a good mood. She wasn't fussy, but she definitely wasn't passing out many smiles. We had fun, but the Barnyard looked a little run down compared to earlier years. Poor little Braxton got attacked by a chicken while we were there. No joke, it literally jumped on him and pecked him - we had blood and all! He was fine, a little Hydrogen Peroxide and Neosporin will patch him up just fine!

This one just makes me laugh...Hee Hee! So once we finished at the pumpkin patch, we came home to get dinner ready for Daddy when he got home from work. We made Lasagna, garlic bread and a homemade pumpkin pie for dessert...it was delicious!

So then we were just sittin' around having some nice quality family time, enjoying Daddy finally getting home from work when Ella just started walking from here to there all over the living room. This was all the footage I caught before my camera died, but it will do!

She ended up staying up late again tonight just wanting to play. I sat with her and read, put her in her bed and said prayers, kissed her goodnight and walked out only to hear her start screaming. Gosh kid, give me a break! I don't know what her deal was this weekend, but I hope it's not going to be a habit. All of a sudden she stops...nope not sleeping, Daddy went and got her. I thought, "Ha good luck with that!" Then I look out from the bed room and see this:

NOT FAIR!!!!!!!!!!
But at least she's asleep!

It's My Party...

Well, we have survived our 1st big birthday bash! I never knew how exhausting it was to plan a "kid" party - all the party favors, balloons, Kool-Aid, & entertainment - WOW! And it's expensive too - but of course totally worth it.
Ella looked absolutely adorable, at least me and Daddy thought so. I found this precious little brown & white polka dot dress that was just perfect but it didn't have any pink on it; and little girls HAVE to have pink on - always. (I can't believe I said that - I swore I would never dress my daughter all pink and fluffy like my mom did me & Chels, but what you can't see is that Ella is wearing ruffle socks. Ha Ha! I love it!) Anyways, back to what I was saying; the dress was lacking pink so my mom added this pretty little pink bow and it was just enough. (Thanks Mom!)
She was a little overwhelmed by all the people at first but warmed up really quickly and stole the show. She was passed around from this aunt to that uncle, grandma, grandpa and everyone else under the sun. I was really proud of her, she was such a trooper.
Now for the cake...My sister made this beautiful cake for the little princess and Ella loved all the little butterflies. They were the first thing she grabbed when we put the cake in front of her.She was more interested in soaking in all the attention she was getting from the crowd standing in front of her with our cameras in her face than she was in digging into the cake at first, but she finally figured it out.

So after she demolished the cake, we went for a quick dip in the tub and changed outfits again (for the 3rd time) to get ready for opening presents.
She started to get a little tired and fussy right before we started opening but it didn't take her long to shake the attitude after she saw all the bags and tissue paper. She had fun opening them all and had a few gifts that she wasn't ready to move on from. She really got some cute toys and a lot of really nice clothes too.

We really enjoyed the party of course, but I think we had more fun hanging out in our PJ's all day on Sunday watching her play with all her new toys. She was occupied the entire day by all her new stuff and every now and then she would just put her hands behind her head and look around like "oh my gosh, look at all this!" It was so precious! So here are a few snaps of her playing with some of her new things. OK, let me explain this 1st pic - She has this weird thing where she thinks she has to climb on top of EVERYTHING. I just had to post this picture because she tried and tried all day to climb on top of this little baby stroller that Sabrina gave her and she finally got it late that evening, and she was so pleased with herself as you can see by the sh#t eatin' grin on her face. If this doesn't spell success, I don't know what does.
Neal & I gave her a big girl swing that hangs from the tree and she really loves that too. All the kids at the party took turns pushing her and making faces at her when she swung by them - they all had so much fun!
She finally pooped out around 10:30 p.m. and crashed for the night....and I went to bed crying; again, because I just can't believe my baby is already 1. You plan and wait for this day to get here for so long then it passes so quickly right before your eyes - but I have about a million pictures to remember it by and they are all posted on our Shutterfly website for you to check out. I guess that about wraps it up about the party so I will leave you hanging by telling you Neal & I think she will be walking by the end of this week... :)

365 Days Old!

Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday Precious Ella Leighhhhh
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOO YOOOUUU!


Can y'all believe it has been a year? I can't and I couldn't help but cry this morning as I sang this to her.

Thank You God for Giving Me This Joy!

There will be much more to come after the birthday party tomorrow, so stay tuned......

Snotty Nose? Clear It Up...

I don't know if it's just that time of year, or if Ella is completely full of snot because she is teething - most likely, it's a combination of both! They poor little thing constantly has a river of thick, yellow, yucky snot pouring out of her nose. And like I said in a previous post, the respiratory therapist in me HAS to get it out. But, just recently my mom found this wonderful bath product to your left...Johnson's Soothing Vapor Bath. It is so wonderful and for the rest of you mommy's out there, I will tell you why:

1.) Squirt a little bit in the bath tub while you are drawing a bath for your little one and the menthol aroma just from the water clears their little sinuses so much.

2.) Use A LOT of the soap on your wash cloth when you wash them and it really, really clears their sinuses and loosens the congestion in their chest.

3.) Mommy gets her sinuses cleared too while bathing baby!

4.) When you squirt the soap in the water...you get bubbles!

5.) When you get bubbles, you get bubble beards!

6.) There is nothing cuter than a little heinnie (OK, I don't actually know how to spell that) butt sticking out of the bubbles!

To finish this up, Ella had her 1st full day at the Hostyn church picnic today. She had so much fun and her feet never hit the ground - no wonder she's still not walking. I of course packed her stroller and pack & play thinking she could play in there while Daddy was making sauerkraut, and Mommy was working at the auction. Yeah right! She had plenty of babysitters, especially her cousin Becca. By the end of the day she was filthy, covered with dirt from head to toe; buggers crusted all over her nose and face to say the least; and a little balloon painted on her arm (thanks Aunt Linda!) When I got done working, I took Ella over to the dance floor and all it took was 2 waltz's and she was out! Forget the pack & play, she took about a 20 minute nap in a bag chair, but hey - whatever works right? I'd say from the looks of it, she had a successful day of fun at the picnic!
As she screamed all the way home - I started digging in her diaper bag only to find that there were still the same amount of bottles there that I packed when I left the house. The poor kid hadn't eaten all day! To protect the innocent, I did try to feed her before I had to start working but she wasn't interested, but still...I felt so bad.
Well, she is still alive and she is tucked safely in her bed with a full tummy, clear nose and menthol scented hair. So rest easy everyone, and have a wonderful week!

We Got A Climber

Well...we're still not walking, but we are definitely getting closer. She has been practicing letting go and standing alone and is getting better and better everyday. Just last Sunday I watched her stand straight up from a sitting position without holding on to anything. Then later that evening she was holding onto my leg and when I walked off she just kept standing there so pretty, so tall and so strong. My heart started racing as I knelt down in front of her and said "Well, come on...walk to Mommy." Deep down I was thinking "No, not yet, your growing too fast. Slow down!"
Then she slowly sat down and chose her alternative mode of mobilization - crawling. Thank gosh, I'm just not ready for her to walk yet, that's TOO big of a step.

Just within the last couple of weeks Ella has blossomed so much - she is so interested in learning and experimenting with anything she can get her hands (or toes) on. She is climbing onto and into EVERYTHING! It cracks me up; it seems like every time I turn my head she is hanging head first into a laundry basket,a drawer, a box or even the toilet. She is incredibly nosy, unpleasantly impatient, and completely spoiled rotten or as her Meme says "S-P-O-I-L-T!"
Oh the joy of kids, what would we do without them?

Need a good laugh...watch this!

I have watched this over and over and cry laughing every time!

I LOVE kids!

Naked Baby Alert!

I finally have a good video of Ella Bella Leigh in the bath tub. She absolutely LOVES bath time, it's her favorite time of day! That is until we have to ruin all the fun and make her get out, dry off, put on lots of lotion and powder and get in her PJ's - she doesn't really care for that much. O-Kay, she hates it for some reason and throws a horrible fit every night. I guess that's her que that it's almost time for bed.

The poor kid has had a pretty rough week, but has been such a trooper. She had a tooth come in last week Friday, then started with the hershey squirts (which are still flowing today) and as of yesterday, she now has 2 more teeth coming in. That has got to be so painful, I feel so bad for her, but she hasn't really been all that fussy - not that I'm complaining.
Anyway, Neal came home this afternoon from being in Marble Falls all week, and boy was Ella excited to see her Daddy. It is the cutest thing, she sees him and her whole face lights up, she starts kicking her feet and hands and she nearly jumps out of my arms reaching for him. We really miss him when he's gone and this is just the beginning of it. In a couple of weeks he'll be starting the outage at LCRA in which he'll be working 12-13 hours 7 days a week - I know it doesn't seem legal but hey, the money's nice! :)
Daddy's girl hanging out Sunday night before he left town for work

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!

I just thought I would share this with y'all because I just think it is too funny!
A friend of mine sent me an e-mail with a link to www.makemebabies.com

They use a picture of you and whoever else you want, and show you what your baby will look like. Soooooo.....here are the results for me and Neal:

I think Ella turned out much better than that and I'm just praying that when it's time for #2 our genes don't get mixed up in this website!

I Love Mornings!

If you would have asked me to get out of bed at 7AM on Saturday morning about a year ago, I would have laughed in your face and told you you were absolutely crazy! But now that I have Ella, once I hear her sweet little voice coming through that monitor, I can't wait to get up and wrap her in my arms. This morning started out like every other - She woke up around 7:15, I went and got her, put her in bed with me and we played for about 15 minutes, then we got up and started getting ready. She played on the floor, we danced to music, then I got in the shower.

That's when the fun started!

I was washing my hair and had my eyes closed, when I opened them...there she was half way in the shower - fully clothed! I just looked at her and said "what the heck are you doing?" She looked up at me, then crawled all the way in. I just stood there cracking up at her and she just sat there cracking up at me! I wish I could have frozen that moment in time, it was so precious! So I just went about my business and finished showering while she played with my shaving cream and face wash, being showered with water - having a blast! Here's a little clip of the scene...sorry it's sideways, you'll just have to cock your head a little.

And when it was all said and done and I got her out, she tried to crawl right back in. Look at the size of that diaper! Lastly, I just thought I would throw a couple questions at ya...why is it that babies won't do what you want them to do when you want them to do it? I spent an hour with Ella in the bath tub last night trying to get a cute video to post and she wouldn't do anything funny for the life of me. Then this morning when I'm in the shower, soaking wet and camera less, she pulls a fast one on me. And why won't they play with ANY of their own toys? I swear I could have a toy at the house that she doesn't even notice, but if the exact same toy is at anybody else's house, it's the coolest thing in the world! Worse yet, instead of playing with all the cool stuff I have for her in the bottom drawer in the bathroom, she finds - and LOVES this......For all of you men reading out there, that would be a pregnancy test!

I can't make this stuff up people...

Hope you all have a great week!
Peace Out!

she will always be Forever Young...

We love you SO much Whitty, and miss you more than words could ever say!