Missing in action...

If you have ever wondered why Wesley seems horribly under-represented in the 5,372,804 pictures I have taken over the past year, this is why...

La, la, la - Just taking some everyday pictures of Ella - nothing going on here.



Hmm... Wesley's watching her, maybe I can sneak in a picture of him.

Okay, that first one wasn't so great, but maybe I can get another without him noticing. (#1 & 2 below - click to see it larger).
Well, stink! I'm caught.
And, this is what ensues from that point on - an elaborate attempt to escape without being photographed successfully.



He did give up this one, and it would have been pretty good if it hadn't turned out blurry.



Oh, well, the mamarazzi lives to stalk her son another day. At least now you know what I'm up against.

Three Reasons...

Three Reasons
1. You need to have a reason to get up in the morning.
2. You need to have a reason to be proud of what you do each day.
3. You need to have a reason to go home at night.

What are your reasons?

I saw this on Carrie Colbert’s blog (something one of her professors said in class) & it got me thinking. I’ve been considering my future a lot lately – looking at some possible changes to be made & praying God would show me His will & guide my decisions. Just wanted to share this little tidbit & ask you – What are your reasons? You don’t have to tell me, just think about them.

A very obvious one for me is no. 3. I have three very good reasons to go home at night (a place I love to be, in spite of its tendency to look like a tornado has ravaged it) – they are a boy, a girl & a man – three people that I love more than I could have ever imagined possible. Three people who I strive to love more fully & unselfishly each day for the rest of my life.

Crawling queen...

This first video is from Dec. 4th (she had been crawling for exactly a week)



And, this one is from Tuesday.



She can really cover some ground these days. Oh, and that slapping noise, that's her hands hitting the floor. It sounds like a duck walking through our house when she's crawling around. Anthony thinks it's so funny that she does that.

Baby picture comparison...

I get asked a lot who I think Ella looks more like, me or Anthony. I don't have any pictures handy of Anthony when he was a baby - I think he's about two or so in this one. The back of mine has my age as one in this pic. The picture of Ella was taken this past fall at seven months. Sorry for the bad scan - I was too tired to find a dust rag to clean the scanner (shhh... don't tell anyone or I might lose my good housekeeping award). Anyways, the point to this is - you decide who she looks more like (as always, click on the picture to see it larger). Feel free to leave a comment & let me know what you think.

Photo shoot progression...

Sometimes people ask me how I get such good pictures of Ella (not trying to brag on myself) & I have to tell them the truth...I take a Lahaaaattt (translation: LOT) of photos to get one good one. Case in point: I wanted a picture of her in her ultra-cute Christmas dress that my sweet friend, Sunny, sent for her, so I started shooting (click on the pictures to see my little comments)

Awww....now that's the smile & the well-behaved girl I'm looking for. Then...

It can take lots more shots than just ten to get a good one, but I thought you might enjoy the progression of a typical shoot with Ella.

What cha' up to?

That's what a friend of mine always asks me when he calls.

Me, I'm sitting at my desk at home reading blogs (a rare occurrence these days - the sitting while at home part & the personal computer time part) & helping Wesley review his spelling words. I just finished feeding Ella so she is in my lap taking turns prying open the desk drawer & dragging out some object she shouldn't be playing with (she just started wailing because I took away the screwdriver that she was about to stick in her mouth) & grabbing Wesley's weekly newsletter with his words on it & crumpling it up so she can stick it in her mouth. She LOVES paper & plastic - I think it's the sounds they make. I have to wrestle the now soggy & crumpled paper from her hands each time he needs the next word. He came up with the idea last week that instead of just writing the words as I call them out that he will write sentences with them. My favorite one from last week was, "My sister is pretty." This weeks it's, "My mom is strict." (I had to explain the meaning of strict) Yes, buddy, she is.

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. The very night that I posted last I discovered Ella's first tooth (one of the bottom front ones). She now has the two top front ones as well as both the bottom ones. She crawled for the first time & pulled herself to standing on her own the day before Thanksgiving & has been becoming more & more mischievous ever since :) With your first you are so excited about them getting more & more mobile. I have discovered with the second while you are excited at their accomplishments, it is tempered with the knowledge that there's no going back (& that you haven't yet 'baby-proofed' a single room in your house) - no more plopping them down in the middle of the room with a few toys & looking back to find them in the same spot. So, it's a little sad - she's much more a toddler who wants to get down on the floor than a helpless infant who likes nothing more than cuddling with momma for hours.

So, anyways, that's what I'm up to at the moment.

A little note about Christmas cards - if you usually receive one with our yearly newsletter & a picture, you won't this year. The downturn in the economy can be blamed for that. I have most of my regular card recipients' email addresses & will email it instead. If you're not a regular card recipient & would like to see our family's smiling faces & hear a little about our past year, feel free to leave a comment with your email address & I'll make sure to send it to you as well.

You can see E.G.'s two bottom teeth in this picture from last Saturday
(click on it to see it much larger)
(her daddy is fond of calling her by her initials)

Tag Game...

I've been tagged, again. This time by Haley. Here's what I had to do:

Pick the 4th picture folder on your computer.

Pick the 4th picture in that folder.

Explain what the picture is about.

Tag 4 blogging friends to do the same.

Here's my photo:


And, an explanation...

This is a picture I took in April for a scrapbook page that has yet to be created. It will be titled, "Ode to Coffee." Just kidding - or maybe I'm not. The idea was to journal about how I owe pretty much any productivity I had for the first four months of Ella's life to caffeine, because I felt like a walking zombie until she started sleeping through the night (translation - for longer than 3 or 4 hours at a time).

Seriously though - I never liked coffee all that much until I discovered mocha lattes (Yum!) when I was pregnant with Ella & I had to choose between horrendous nausea all day, every day or taking phenagran & having to prop my eyelids open to maintain conciousness. My favorite coffee treat is the mocha java chiller at Sonic (pretty much a coffee milkshake). If they didn't cost so much & I didn't care about the size of my backside, I'd have one every day :)

And, I'm tagging Sunny, April, Laura & Karen - I know most of you don't have time to do this - my feelings won't be hurt if you don't :)

This one's for Grandpa G...

From Sunday night...



Wesley can always make Ella laugh easier & louder than either of us can. He entertains her on a regular basis & she LOVES it. This is just a snippet of normal everday life in our home (and a hello to Grandpa G. who lives all the way down on the Mexico border in Texas).

And a few things I don't want to forget about Ella...
-She holds her tongue between her lips all the time (must get a picture of this)
-She stops what she's doing to watch intently when I eat (following the fork with her eyes back & forth from my plate to my mouth)
-Her favorite new toy at the moment is one of her big brother's mini-basketballs (he's not too happy about that - keeps trying to re-claim it)
-Her bottom two teeth are almost poking through (her brother didn't get his first tooth until he was a full 9 mos. old - looks like she's following suit [should that be suite? I don't know])
-She is becoming oh-so-wiggly & is this close *picture my thumb & forefinger just a hair apart* to crawling. Her very protective brother is constantly saying, "She's about to fall off the [insert piece of furniture I've sat her on for a few seconds]." I have to remind him that he's still alive & intact so I might be able to handle it.
-She loves being gently tossed in the air.
-She didn't inherit her mamas genes in some areas, because she is very much a morning baby - generally wakes up smiling & kicks her little legs & giggles on the way to daycare in the mornings.
-She has recently developed separation anxiety (normal for her age) & I usually have to sneak out of daycare quickly so she doesn't realize I'm leaving her. She's fine if she doesn't see me go. I remember bringing Wesley back to daycare at 8 mos. old after being home for the summer where my mom had kept him while I was in school/at work & having to hear him cry as I walked away from him to go to class each day - tears this mama's heart up just remembering it.

Loads of Ella videos...

In an effort to make myself feel better for neglecting our blog, here are a few videos from the past few months...

Me tickling her. She wouldn't laugh for me like she usually does.

Aug. 23rd

Ella 'talking' to her favorite toy - Bessie, the cow, hangs over her changing table.

Sept. 4th

Eating green beans for the first time (which you can see she likes)

Sept. 4th

Eating applesauce tonight for about the 20th time (which you can see she dislikes)

This is the reaction we used to get when we tried to feed her anything remotely sweet (applesauce, peaches, sweet potatoes...) She has started accepting peaches mixed in her cereal, but as you can see she acts like you have placed some awful, foul substance in her mouth instead of yummy applesauce. She will NOT close her mouth with it in there either. She'll stick her tongue out until it finally slides out of her mouth, or she has started spitting it out by blowing raspberries. This is a little foreign to me since Wesley gobbled up pretty much anything you put in his mouth at that age, but it's pretty funny to see her doing it.

I've been tagged...

My friend, Laura, tagged me, so now I have to post 6 facts about myself, then tag 6 other people.

Here's my six:

1) If I eat ice cream too fast it makes me cough (still one of my very favorite foods).

2) I was the first person in my fourth grade class to learn the multiplication tables.

3) I make the best 'shark fin pie' - according to my hubby.

4) My middle name (Rose) is after my dad's name (Ross).

5) I love the smell of fresh, clean laundry straight from the dryer but hate putting it away.

6) I kill plants - the only plant that has survived in my house for more than a few weeks is one little flowering plant that Wesley gave me in a hand-painted flower pot for Mother's Day (from daycare) 3 or 4 years ago (outside plants are okay as long as they can rough it on their own).

So here are the rules if I tag you...
1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random facts about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up. I am tagging...

Sunny, Haley, April, hmmm, I'll have to come back & add three more later, I'm drawing a blank on friends that blog...

All things boy...

You know you have a boy when you look in his backpack & find a couple rocks he has brought home to add to his collection. Or, when he sticks his head out his bedroom door to show you his two rubber snakes (when he's supposed to be in bed asleep). Or, when you get two (yes, two) calls within one month from the school nurse saying he has hit his head on the playground, but "don't worry, he's fine. We put some ice on it. He didn't even cry." Oh, I could keep going... But, I love 'the boy' (as Anthony & I affectionately refer to him) & wouldn't trade all his boyness for anything in this world.

He's not too fond of having his photo taken by the mamarazzi (me) these days, but here's a few from last week...

Time lapse...

I love time lapse photos (a pic taken of the same person in the same place over a period of time - or something like that). Ella recently outgrew her infant car seat because she surpassed the weight limit for it (20 lbs). I was so sad about it because that thing is really handy. It's so much harder to go grocery shopping, eat out, etc. because she's not yet steady enough sitting up on her own for the restaurant highchairs/buggy seats.

Anyways, here are a couple pics of her in the beloved seat. One from the day we brought her home & one from the last time she rode in it (about a month ago).

Happy Half-Birthday to E!

Today is Ella's half-birthday. These first six months have FLOWN by. I'm already sad that her first birthday is so close. Sometimes I wish life had a pause button.

To celebrate this momentous occasion :) here are some pics showing how far she's come...



In the NICU on the day she was born (I only have one picture of her not in the NICU with all those tubes & wires from the day she was born & it would probably gross too many people out, so I won't post it)

Still in the hospital a couple days later...



Today (with a lot less hair)...

And a couple from yesterday just cause she's so cute. :)

Videos of Ella...finally

We have a video camera, but for the life of us cannot figure out how to upload videos to post on here (it's a digital one - doesn't have a USB cable & our Mac won't accept the small DVD's it records on), but I now have a phone with video capabilities. So, I'll just have to settle for the lesser quality videos so Ella's Grandpa G (A's dad) can see her antics.

This is her FAVORITE thing to do after her bath...chew on her toes. As soon as her diaper comes off, the toes go in the mouth. Wesley cracks up every time she does it. I told him her feet were MUCH cleaner than his are so it's okay for her to chew on hers :)



And, here's one of her playing with her rattle. She's just figured out how to work the rattles. It's so cute when she does it because she blinks her eyes everytime it makes noise & bops herself in the head constantly. She's in her stroller in the video (was going to post pics of why, but blogger isn't letting me upload them - will have to try again another day).

Four & Five Month Pictures...

Man, I have really not been good about posting here. Sorry bout' that.

Here are Ella's 'rug' pictures (and some others from those shoots) from the last couple months...

Four months

And, Five months (this past Saturday)




"Is that ol' Daddy tickling you?"


And, my favorite, "Momma, it is SO not cool to show a girl's booty on the internet."

Two & Three Month Pics...

A little behind on posting her monthly photos, but here you go...

Two Months...

Three Months...

Roll Call...

Saw this on someone else's blog & thought, "I really need to do that on ours."

I would really like to know who all reads our blog. I know who some of you are because you leave comments every now and then, but I'm wondering just how many 'readers' we actually have.

So, please leave your name and where you're from in the comments. If you don't feel comfortable leaving your name, at least put where you live (no need to be real specific - you can just put the state you live in if you want).

Look forward to hearing from you!

Must be something in the water...

I keep a list of links to friends' blogs (mostly college friends, so I can keep up with what's happening in their lives) that I don't necessarily get to check every day. I've been pretty bad about checking some of them since lil' Miss Ella came along. So, today I thought I would get all caught up on the happenins' that I've missed out on. I check a couple and find out my neighbor from when Wesley was born is expecting her fourth (Yay for her!), check a few more and find out a friend from the BSU at UT Martin (or BCM for the younger folks) & his wife are expecting their third & FOURTH (double Yay for them!), then check a few more & find out a college friend that I've known since going to church together back in high school & his wife are expecting their first (Yay for them, too!).

It's a little overwhelming, I tell you. Of course, my brother & his wife are also expecting. I'm thinking I really need to master the art of knitting so I can get to work on some lil' pink & blue booties (I started trying to learn when I was pregnant with Ella, but gave up because I couldn't figure it out from the written instructions - I'm much more of a visual learner - guess I'll have to find someone who can teach me).

Almost forgot to add a picture...

This is at our friends' house after Wesley played in the mud with their

kids (I don't think he's ever been that dirty before :) - don't know if you

can tell from the picture, but his shorts were completely caked with mud)

Funny conversation...

Read this on Tara Whitney's blog & laughed out loud. Anyone who is married will certainly identify with this.

Edited to add: forgot to add a picture - can't have a blog post without a picture :)

My mom was holding Ella & talking to her. Her eyes have gotten stronger since this picture was taken, because I think this is the last time I saw her go cross-eyed trying to look at someone/something.

Our lil' family

found this little doo-dad from someone else's blog - you can create a family 'sticker' - thought it was cute, so I had to have one for myself...

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com