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!