Ok, We are entering that time of year again!!

Well, lets see... I last posted in the end of June, a lot has transpired since that time, so I will just recap the end of summer first...

Our summer has been wonderful!! Lots of quality family time that I am not ready to give up!! Ellie has loved going to the field with her daddy and being the "whistle blower" for conditioning drills. We have spent several days playing on the lake and at the splash pad! Ellie and I are both started noticing that Daddy is beginning to spend less and less time at home. Football was beginning to pull him away as we got closer and closer to the season. Ellie started going through "Daddy withdrawals" and they continue still.

Ellie had her 3rd bday party this month. We did a Gymnastics Party! I really think they had loads of fun!! It was totally unorganized, but with our crew, what do you expect!! LOL It was difficult to get it all done in the hour and 1/2 alloted, but we managed. This was a great way to introduce Ellie to gymnastics. She will start classes in October.

We had our first Football game this past Thursday night. We played Sparkman and came away with a HUGE victory!! I however, didn't get to watch a down!! Ellie was in rare form and ran the entire game!! I chased after her the whole time! She was so tired from her week at PreSchool (yes we officially started PreSchool this year!) that she was warn slap out! When she gets this tired, she becomes wired and just won't stop for a minute. She was running through isles and up and down the stairs. Yes I was "that" mom!! Thank goodness the isles on our stadium are huge and that sit around us, know us and love us or I would have been mortified!! She had a blast tho!

We got home super late that night. Ellie passed out in the car and was not going to wake up for a bath. So I fought her to get her shorts and shoes off while she slept and tucked her into bed with crud smudged all over her face. I would wait to do her bath in the morning. Poor thing didn't wake up for her bath until about 5 minutes after being in the water!! She was just exhausted!

Yesterday I had the whole crew... I watched my nephews while Jana went to Kerry's game (they won) and then the entire family came over and had tacos and burritos at my house for dinner! By the time everyone got here our home was wrecked from all the playing that went on during the day. I promised everyone that it was cleaned this morning but you definitely couldn't tell it! So much for Saturday deep cleaning this week! LOL We will start again today!

Well this should catch you up with our life to today... Pictures to come!!

Spending time with Daddy on the field!

The past few days, Ellie and I have been going up to Kenny's school for their 6 am workouts. While they are in the weightroom, Ellie and I take a 2 mile brisk walk. This is my attempt at loosing a few pounds. Then after our walk and Kenny's team workouts, we meet them on the football field for skills and conditioning. This allows Ellie time to play on her favorite place and spend precious time with her daddy. These are a few pictures of her that I have taken during the day...

Playing a little ball of her own...

Eating ice cream with Daddy after a full day on the field....

Can you say "worn slap out from a 5 am wake-up call??" It didn't last long though. Too much going on on that field for her to stop for long!

Nothing like fun filled days on the field!!!!

Summer Vacation!

Ok, first, this is in reverse order!! It's just too difficult to adjust the pictures to get them back into order. Hahahaha


We were very blessed this year that we were able to go on vacation for an entire week with Kenny's family in Destin, Florida! We had the best time!!


This year Kenny's cousin's family came on vacation with us. I love Jake's wife Chrystal, She has become as close to me as Jake is to Kenny and his brother Kerry! We got great beach time with no days ruined by rain and wonderful food!!

This is Casyn (Jake and Chrystal's Baby). She is Ellie's Bestest Buddy!! They love spending time together and play all day and all night without a disagreement. It's wonderful when Ellie has a buddy to play with! Ellie misses her desperately since we have gotten home. As you can see in this picture, Casyn was enjoying her cupcake that she got when we celebrated her brother and sister's birthday!! The siblings (ChrysLee and Chandler) are found on the beach covering each other in sand. It's so funny to watch them "Hate" loving each other. They fight like cats and dogs, but play like best buds all at the same time!! LOL

Kenny got his wish! He's been trying to get the boys to go deep sea fishing for years. This year they did it!! They caught a ton of fish. The whole family met them at them at the docks to see their catch. All the kids were excited to see them come in on the boat.

One of my favorite things to do while down in Destin is to go on a Catamaran (sp?) ride. The boat is named The Emerald Dancer and we always have the best time. We always do the sunset cruise. This year we were excited that some friends of ours were going to be down during the sametime that we were at the beach and they decided to come along for the ride with us. I think Jake really enjoyed himself but Emily had a rough ride. All in all though, I think Emily enjoyed the boat as well, just got a bit queezy. Next time we will have meds!! LOL

We also got up close and personal with the dolphins too!! Love that boat ride every year, It never fails!!

Ellie and Daddy playing on the beach and in the ocean. Ellie loves to spend time building sand castles. That is ALL Daddy's department and they love to do it together. Ellie is also a dare devil in the water!! She was all about getting out in that water and playing around ALL BY HERSELF!! She really kept telling us that she wanted us to leave her alone and allow her to swim by herself. It was super funny when Ellie told Kenny to "leave her alone" and followed it with a "go over there, your in timeout." LOL

Ellie's cousin Kolton playing in the sand! Gotta love getting a little dirty!!

Ellie chasing the boat in the surf.

Casyn and Jake swimming in the ocean.



Kerry and Kolton gettin their swagger on out on the beach!

Before we went to the beach with Kenny's family, we were able to take a quick trip down to Gulf Shores, Alabama. We helped chaperone the Cullman High School Track team to the State Meet. We had lots of fun, but I cant seem to find any of the meet pictures...

Ellie playing on the beach. She quickly made friends with some kids on the beach. She is so NOT bashful!! hahaha

Spending the day catching up with my Mobile Family!!!

I was so excited to see on Facebook that my cousin Patty and her oldest daughter Krista were coming up to our neck of the woods for a choir concert at a local university. I quickly took the opportunity to meet up with them and catch up!!

Krista Beautifully dressed for her Chior Concert!

I have been a horrible cousin and haven't been to visit in over 2 years, despite our best efforts, nothing has seemed to work out with us getting together. So when I found out they were open for lunch and a little shopping I was super excited!!



Ellie woke up at 6:30 am this morning!! This was way to early for my liking, especially since I have a pinched nerve in my back and I got VERY LITTLE sleep last night, so I told her it was still night night time. I was able to keep her in bed until about 8:00, so that was nice. Around 9:30 I told Ellie I was going to jump in the shower while she watched Dora. She said ok and I took off to my bathroom. The next thing I know, I turn around and Ellie is standing there with her shirt half off telling me that she was taking a shower too. HAHA!! I finally caved and let her take a shower with me, she thought it was the greatest thing. She just laughed and laughed as the shower sprinked her with water. It was really funny...but it actually made washing her hair much easier. hmmm....



Well we finally got out and got dressed and headed to the mall to meet Patty and Krista.... We met at California Pizza Kitchen for lunch. They had never eaten there before since there is not one in the Mobile area. We actually got Krista to try new foods and she liked them!!! So proud of her for venturing out of her comfort zone!! "Go Krista!!"



Ellie was really good considering how long we were there. I think we were in that booth for over an hour. Ellie played around a bit, but for the most part she was really well behaved. Patty took this picture of her from across the table.

She smiled so big for her Aunt Patty!!

After eating lunch we promised Ellie some ice cream so we headed to 32 degrees for yogurt. Ellie was begging for her standard "pink with gummies." That translates to Strawberry with gummy bears and fruit. She loves these new yogart bars!! After finishing her yogart, she and Krista played together really well...

Krista was so good with her!

Then we went out to do some shopping. Patty and Krista took us into Swoozies. We had never been there before, but if you have a little girl, Swoozies is a MUST!!! I'm not even a girlie girl but they had some cute stuff. They have more than just little girly stuff but that was what occupied most of the space. Super cute store!! Then on our way back we noticed that it was starting to rain so I ran and got the umbrellas. Patty and Krista needed to hit (something) Charlies and Ellie and I needed to exchange something at Gymboree so we split for just a second and I was going to meet them back at the Charlie store. Well on our way to Gymboree, we get caught up in some major rain. You see this mall we are at is on outdoor mall, so when your walking from store to store you are outside and they do not have canopies over the sidewalks. So it is throwing us a good rain, Ellie is walkine with her little, pink umbrella up and I have my super huge umbrella up (covering Ellie and I since Ellie moves her's so much she really doesn't keep herself covered) and we are walking slowly through the rain trying to stay dry. You can imagine the looks that we are getting, but we are doing the best we can. I really wish I had a picture of this because I can imagine that it was a sight to behold! (I would like to preface that it was not cold so getting a little damp was not going to hurt either of us.) I wish I knew a security guy at the mall so I could get a copy of their security video.... LOL We met back up with Patty and Krista for a few more minutes and then we needed to head back home. It was getting late and Ellie hadn't had a nap. This makes her a ticking time bomb that could go off at anytime!! We said goodbye and I can't wait till we had to Mobile in May!! I love spending time with Patty and crew!! I so miss them!!

The Zoo...

On Thursday afternoon, Kenny and I took Ellie to the Birmingham Zoo. She loves the zoo and we were really excited to see the new African Safari area. They opened it the Thursday before my Spring Break began. Although the entire area is not opened up for the animals, once they aclimate all the animals to the new area it should be very nice!! The New Boma Area is going to be really cool once the animals are put together there.

The Children's area...

The carousel is Ellie's absolute favorite. She could ride it over and over and over again. It would not matter if she rode it all day, when you take her off of it she is going to have a melt down. (We are working on that...Haha) She always chooses the horses or Zebras as this case maybe.

At the entrance of the African Safari area there is a elephant statue. I do NOT believe that the intention of that statue was for children to climb on and take thier picture, but that seems to be what has occured with it. There was a fairly long line of families patiently waiting their turn to get their picture on the elephant. Ellie was so excited when Kenny placed her on it and then she refused to get down!!! LOL That's my girl, she doesn't want to give up a good thing!! Haha

The new African Safari area has a play center for children. In this center there are African Drums. Ellie just played her heart out on those drums. She was super cute!!

Also in the children's play center were these cute African Masks. Ellie had to beg her daddy to "put on" the masks, but he did it for her. I don't think he would have done it for anyone else but with her, he's just mush!

This ant mound is also in the play center. It is designed with the concept of a rock wall in mind. It was really designed for older children, but Ellie thinks that she can do it all and didn't hesitate to try. With a little assistance, she was able to make it to the top!!

There were a few things that we didn't get to do because we ran out of time so we will have to make it back soon. Next time we hope to feed the giraffe's, ride the camels, and hopefully it will be warm enough to get in the water!! Maybe we will see you there!!

Mommy's Spring Break 2011

Ok...Our Spring Break was filled with activities, this was The McWane Science Center! We went Wednesday afternoon. The Backyardigans were there. The place was packed but Ellie had a blast!! If you get a chance to go, I highly recommend it!

The lift at McWane

Freakin out after touching the shark in the tank!!

She loved it tho...

At the bottom of the giant slide. The lady at the top was super shocked that Ellie jumped into the tunnel and was off before she could ask if Ellie was going to be able to down by herself. Ellie instantly wanted to go down it again, and she was running up the stairs to do it again!! My little Dare Devil!!!

Seeing Tyrone!!

Squashing our faces into the colored pegs was hysterical! Ellie would just laugh and laugh, then she would say "again, again" and we would!

This is Ellie!!!

Ellie and Daddy looking through the Dinosaurs.

Ellie doing her archeological dig...

Playing in the water activitiy.

Riding the fish in the aquarium!!

Ok, It's super late and I am dreading the fact that I have to get up at 5:30 in the morning to get ready for work. Yes....It's back to the real world for me, so I am about to turn in. I will finish updating about our spring break tomorrow. We have many more activities to cover, but before I go, I want to show you what my baby girl did today!!!

She caught her first fish!!! She caught this very nice spotted bass on her tiny, little, pink, and purple Disney Princess fishing rod!! I missed the actual catching of the fish, but Kenny recounted the event for me. He said that she began by saying "I got sumfin!" Kenny thought she was caught on some weeds or something but to his surprise it was a fish. The sucker was fighting so hard that it almost pulled her in. He also said that it was about all that little rod could take to get that sucker in. He had to fight Ellie and that fish at the same time to reel it in because Ellie wanted to do it herself!! Haha

She's a big time fisherman!!!