Day 7!

Today was a great day!  We had a doctor's appointment this morning, went to Target to shop for presents for my sister's pseudo baby shower tomorrow, and then SOMEONE took a 2 hour nap!!!!  I am pretty sure the angels were singing along with me.  It was great!  Ellie hasn't napped like that in months, and this mama was so happy her baby realized how good a long nap feels.  Here's hoping for a few repeats!

So onto the fun stuff...

I realized tonight while we were getting ready to put Ellie in her pj's that I hadn't taken a picture of her outfit. Fail.  It was then I realized I am not very good at documenting things I intend to document.  Haha!  I never have the camera at times most people would remember their camera...or at least their cell phone!  I guarantee I will have a ton of pictures of Ellie eating, shopping, playing with her toys, and reading her books. Stuff she does every single day.  But the special stuff, events, outfits?  Good luck!

These pictures feature one very tired baby...and for your viewing pleasure I am including a super blurry picture so you can see how cute she is mid-walk.  I know.  Ridiculous.  I'm thinking it, too.

She is just wearing a sweet shirt from Carter's with a pair of brown leggings.  As much as I love her boutique and smocked outfits, there is just something about Carter's!  I feel they hold up so well to everyday wear.  I also feel they grow with her better than most clothes.  I just love them.  For those wondering, she is holding her diaper rash cream in one picture, and trying to eat it in another.  It is the small things.

I have asked Mike to remind me to take her picture in the morning tomorrow when she is bright eyed and bushy-tailed.  We will see if either of us remembers!

I hope y'all have a great weekend!

Days 5&6!

I am a bit behind, and I will confess we missed a day of our 25 days of Christmas.  Tuesday we had a monsoon, and Ellie didn't get dressed or leave the house.  She was in pj's all day long!  That's okay.  Let me stop for a second and debut my new graphic for the rest of Ellie's 25 days of Christmas...I love it!  Isn't this a fun way to add flair to this months' posts?  (thanks, Leslie!)

We picked it back up on Wednesday, and we even got to go have lunch and meet a sweet newborn baby girl.  My friend Rebecca had Charlotte on election day, and she is just the sweetest!  We had so much fun!  Ellie helped herself to some puppy toys, and Charlotte's paci.  Oops.  Sorry, Charlotte!!  I had not taken any pictures of her cute monogrammed peppermint shirt so I decided to do a video before getting her ready for bed.  It isn't great quality, and if you prefer to not hear my voice then I suggest you mute your speakers!

Today we ventured out to the mall to check out some sales at the Vera Bradley store.  Today is the 30th anniversary and they had different sales for different time blocks.  The first one was from open to 2pm.  50% off one item!  Yay!  So we went, and we waited in line for 45 minutes to pay for our one item.  Call me crazy, but I love me some Vera Bradley!  Poor Ellie.  She was so good until we were about 5 people from the registers.  Then she lost it.  After we paid I let her walk around this little area that had benches and Christmas trees.  She had so much fun!  Today's outfit is in honor of the non-traditional Christmas colors.  I love the fun colors...teal, purple, pink, etc., but Mike hates them.  We only have traditional Christmas colors in our house, but when I saw this shirt I thought we could pretend the deer is Clarice from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer!

Fun, huh?  She walked around for about 20 minutes until it was time to head home for nap.  She was so good, and such a trooper to suffer through our Vera Bradley experience.  I love my new purse!  :)

Thank you for stopping by...I appreciate you reading my seemingly shallow postings on Ellie's Christmas wardrobe.  We don't have too much exciting going on right now, but we are thankful for healthy days this December.  See you tomorrow!

Marriage after baby...and more Christmas!

I've been thinking a lot about my marriage: how it is now and how it was before Ellie.  I love being married.  I love my husband...he is still so handsome and so funny to me, and that 'spark' is definitely still there.  After Ellie was born, and she wasn't sleeping at all and our days were so off, I wondered if we would ever get that husband and wife time back.  I missed it.  When you have no sleep, and can hardly tell your days from nights it is easy to become fatalistic.  Ha!  Our nights eating dinner together and talking at the table, or eating in front of the TV watching our favorite shows were some of my favorite times.  Ellie started sleeping through the night a little after 10 weeks, and we quickly found ourselves in a new normal.  We were able to eat together, clean the house, watch TV, etc.  It all became very routine, though.  

There is nothing wrong with routine, but I also want there to be some special times.  Most of all I want Mike to feel loved and respected as the man of the house.  I want to start making his special meals, and pack his lunches again.  Maybe even get up and make him breakfast.  Mike, if you happen to read this please note I said MAYBE...I make no promises so don't get your hopes up.  I think one of the most important things I can do for Ellie is to love her daddy.  I want her to see my priorities as serving the Lord first, loving my husband second, and being a mommy to my kids third.  I think the first two are necessary for me to successfully do the third.  I want to show her a marriage full of love, passion, and fun.  I want to show her that with God's help, a marriage can last till death do us part.  Marriage isn't always easy, but spending a lifetime with my best friend is worth all of the 'discussions'.  Ha!  

I will leave you with some super cute pictures of Ellie on day 3 of our 25 days of Christmas mission!  We didn't do anything 'festive' yesterday except for some Christmas shopping.  I am about halfway done with gift buying, and my goal is to finish before every place gets super crazy.

She is applauding herself for smiling for the camera in this last one...haha!  Whatever it takes!

See y'all tomorrow!

Day 2 of Ellie's 25 Days of Christmas!

I had planned on doing a couple of different things today out of the house, but poor Ellie is majorly teething.  She is getting two HUGE teeth.  There have been many breakdowns in this house today...and not just by Ellie. ;)  Oh the fits!  Today was the first time she has thrown herself on the ground and kicked her legs.  It was both funny and sad.  These teeth, y'all.  They are winning.  We ended up staying around the house all day, finishing the tree and working on the outside decorations.  

The teeth are seriously right there, so I am hoping we will be a little happier here in the next couple of days when they finally push through.  Ellie still looked so, so cute in her little Elf smocked outfit.  I love this outfit!  It came with pants, but since it was 81 degrees today she wore it with the bloomers that were made for her birthday outfit.  Thank goodness I had those!  They matched perfectly!

Ellie was not about to humor me by looking at the camera...

I tried to help her out by giving her a strand of lights to play with.

The bow was gone at this point. :(  Breaks my heart.

The picture fun ended when she did this...

No baby was hurt in the taking of these pictures.

Here is a picture of our almost finished tree.  I have some gaps to fill, but I ran out of ornament hangers.  I love how it looks!  The bottom only has ornaments I don't mind her grabbing if she happens to sneak one past me.  I have a stuffed felt nativity set and glittery snowflakes down there that won't hurt her, or won't be hurt by her.  Ha!

Tomorrow we are going to finish the decorating the inside, and hopefully, the outside of the house.  I cannot wait to show y'all!  

I hope y'all have a great Monday!  See you tomorrow!

Ellie's 25 Days of Christmas

Happy December!  I am so glad it is here...even if it did get close to 80 degrees today.  :(  Last year, for Ellie's first Christmas, we didn't get to do exactly what we had wanted to.  December 15th, when she was 8 weeks old, she contracted group B strep.  It was a bacterial infection that could have been deadly, but it was caught in time and we are forever grateful.  They weren't sure how she got it, one doctor said it was late onset from birth (I tested positive for it, and was given many rounds of antibiotics during labor), and another doctor said it was contracted environmentally.  We will never really know, but those 10 days in the hospital while she was on IV antibiotics were long and scary.  We felt so blessed though, and so thankful it was caught when it was and nothing permanent came from it.  

This year I am determined to live it up, as much as she and Mike will let me!  We are doing 25 days of Christmas outfits!  Yay!  Most of you know how much I love dressing my little one up in super cute clothes, so this is really a perfect fit for us.  (I figure I might as well do this now while she has no say!)  We are also doing all of the little events I can talk Mike into!  Tonight we went to a little neighborhood Christmas party.  They turned on all of the lights, and Santa was there.  There was also a DJ who played all of today's greatest hits...and not a single Christmas song.  Strange, no??  Ellie had a blast walking around the park, watching the big kids play, and dancing to the music.  We also got to snack on cheese, crackers, and cookies.  It was really nice!  The lights are beautiful!  I was a horrible mom/blogger and forgot both the camera and my phone but I did manage to bring my glass of wine.  I will take pictures of the lights this week when we are out for a walk.  

Today's outfit is Christmas plaid, and I love it!  We were coming back to town after being at my parents' house to celebrate their 35th anniversary (more on that to come!), so I didn't manage to get a picture till tonight.  She was not at all cooperative!  

Ignore the unfinished tree in the background!

Please come back each day to check out our 25 days of Christmas!

Also please check out Leslie's blog for a Spark giveaway.  We love Spark over here!  Don't forget to follow my blog for another giveaway opportunity!

Pictures of my angel!

I lied.  I said I would update everyone on our lives today, but I have spent the past couple of hours making a tree topper and fighting decorating the tree with mesh.  Such a pain!  I have never done mesh before, but I love how it looks so I thought I would give it a go.  So far so good, with the help of YouTube!  I want to at least upload some cute pictures of Ellie.  

She loves hiding from people and playing shy....I'm glad she doesn't realize most of the time it is a one-sided game!

We went out to eat with my sister, Allison, and Ellie indulged on some french fries.

She started feeding herself the little baby food pouches...it is so cute!

Applauding herself for feeding herself...

She was quite proud!  

I let her have a cheeto, and I think she approves.

 I tried to get a good one of my loves on Thanksgiving, but alas, you gotta work with what you got!  Neither one is smiling, but they are still so darn cute!

The last picture I will leave you with is one that pretty much sums up the past week...teething is killing us.  She has been a mess...super clingy and fussy.  I hope these new teeth hurry up and come in so we can get back to normal.  Thank God for tylenol and wine!

I hope y'all are having a good week so far!

Craziness!

So sorry I have been MIA for OVER a week!  We have been so busy, and then Mike's car has been out of service for the past week which means I have the honor of shuttling him to and from work.  With Ellie.  Lord, help me!  Last Monday he was moving his seat forward and the motor died.  The seat motor.  Isn't that odd??  Our car guy takes the week of Thanksgiving off so we weren't able to have him look at it until today. 

Anyway it has been crazy, and I feel I haven't recovered from the holiday and we are starting to prepare for the next holiday.  I will blog about our week, and what's coming up, tomorrow.  I will also have a massive photo dump of my favorite subject: Ellie!

See y'all tomorrow!