Ok last one and then I'm pretty caught up!

Randy and I have been debating whether or not we should buy a set of clippers so that I can start giving him haircuts at home..The main deciding factor up to this point has been that I have NO idea how to give a haircut..I have watched TONS in my line of work, but never done one myself..So last night we went over to my sister Lynsey's apartment to use her clippers. We wanted her to do it since she's in Cosmetology school right now, but since she's only 2 weeks in she said no way! She figured Randy would HAVE to forgive me if I messed up lol! So we borrowed some of her supplies and I gave him a pretty good haircut! It took WAY longer than it should have, but I think it came out great and it was free!

Ella had alot of fun looking through all of "Aunt LaLa's" goodies in her kit for school!!

"EEET"!!

The word heard most around our house is always, "Eat" "Eat"! It very quickly turns into "EEET" when she doesn't get food as quickly as she'd like. This morning she was practicing eating by herself. She does a pretty good job, but she gets *really* messy. It's like two bites from the spoon, one fistful, ect..

Play Date

On Wednesday, we had a couple of Ella's little friends over. She is really starting to enjoy having friends to play with now tat she is a little older. It was alot of fun! She was pretty tuckered out and took a long nap afterwards!!

Playing Catch Up..again..

I have alot of different posts that I have wanted to put up, so I am going to try and get them all caught up! Or at least most of them!
I feel like I have a ton of pictures and video because Ella is growing and doing so much stuff each day..Yesterday, she was pretending to feed herself! She went into the kitchen and got a paper cup and plastic spoon from the kitchen cart and was walking all aroung the house "eating"..It was so cute!! Here is a little video...

Watermelon Festival

Last weekend we went to the Watermelon Festival to pass out candy and glow stick bracelets as a service project for church. It was alot of fun and I think the parents really appreciated the happiness the kids got from a free glow bracelet!

*It's hard to believe how much can change in one year..I pulled up this picture from last year at the Watermelon Festival..I can't believe how much the girls have grown!!*

Ella's New toothbrush..

Ella got her first "big girl" toothbrush (that is still very much a little girl toothbrush lol) and she just loves brushing her teeth. She likes to do it herself of course, but she actually does a pretty good job!

He got Randy AGAIN!

Geez this is the second post Claude has made about Randy's eyebrows lol! I must admit that the time spent adding eyebrows to EVERYONE in the group is pretty impressive though..Check it out here on Claude's Blog.

Flower Bed Update..

Just came in from working out in the yard. I needed to pull a few weeds from the flower beds and Randy did some weed patrol, too with the Weed Wacker. The weather was nice outside so it was actually kinda fun! Thought I would put up a couple of updated pics of the flower beds now that they've settled in..We put them in last month while Randy's parents were here- so these are my "Birthday Flower Beds" lol!

They haven't grown much bigger yet, but some of the fillers are starting to spread and take root..

Here's Randy working hard ;)

The only problem we've had so far is that something is eating my Hostas..I'm trying to do some research to figure out what will prevent it..any ideas???

Hide N Seek

Ella has hit a new stage where she just *loves* to be chased or surprised! We took a little video today to show you..it's a little dark at some points, but you get the idea!

Playing Catch Up!!

So we have been pretty busy most of the week. We stay pretty busy these days even if we don't leave the house. Little Miss Ella is everywhere! She knows all of the "good" spots to hit when mommy's not looking...ya know like the drawers she can open or pulling out all of the magazines! Thankfully I have been trying to keep most everything at her level OK to touch. She is also trying to talk a lot. She says "Ouch!" if she falls down, this week she started saying "Light" or "Ight" because Daddy showed her how to turn it on or off. She is making us laugh all the time. We're pretty sure she will grow up to be the "class clown". She's a silly girl!

So besides hanging out at the house, here's what we've been up to..

*Friday Night*

Randy had spent that morning setting up for Worship Fest at the Convention Center. It was basically a bunch of bands lined up to play and worship for 24 straight hours. Pretty cool! So Friday night we parked there around 6 and walked across the street to the Wal Mart parking lot where we got McDonalds and went over to the Heidi Newfield Concert. She was formerly in the band Trick Pony, but has gone solo. It was a great concert! Kinda weird for her I'm sure since there weren't that many people and we were all just standing around in the parking lot, but oh well! She still did great and we enjoyed it. Then, we walked back across the street to worship fest and stayed there an hour or two. It was really great. We got to spend some time there with a lot of friends from church and most of the youth group, too! I thought it was cool to see all the different ways people like to worship God. There were some people who were a lot more charismatic than me, but it was neat to watch! As it got late, Randy took us girls home for some sleep and headed back up to hear a friends band..t was definitely an awesome night and I'm thankful to Randy for taking the time to plan it for us :)

So...

Heidi Newfield Concert- FREE

McDonalds for Three -$9

Worship Fest 08- Free

Night together with family and friends- Priceless!

lol I had to do it!

Ella and I have also been having some Fun n the Sun with her new pool that Bria got her for her Birthday! It's a perfect size for Ella to play in. She loves it! I meanwhile just lay there and TRY so desperately to get a tan. Try being the key word. The only thing that can REALLY tan this white girl is the Tanning beds, and it's really tempting, but 1) I refuse to waste our money that way and 2) Since my tanning days I've gone and become an esthetician and really know how bad my skin will suffer..SO I resort to a little natural sun here and there :)

Sorry for slacking, AGAIN!!

Things that make me SMILE :)

*All of this for only $5.40*

Just got back a little while ago from Walgreens..They have a deal with certain items where if you buy 4 or 5 of them (depending on what you buy) you get a $5 Register Reward (basically a paper gift card). So today I went in because I already had a $5 register reward that expires tomorrow so I needed to use it. I bought 2 boxes of Cheez its, 2 packs of cookies, and a box of pop tarts and it was $10.20 so I used my RR and paid $5.20..THEN they gave me another $5 RR from that order so I bought another 5 boxes of poptarts and paid another $5.20 after using the RR. Since this is all stuff I would normally buy and use I was pretty excited about it- thats ALOT of stuff for 10 bucks (and really only 5 because I left there with another RR to use next time for $5!)!!

I'm so thankful to Barbara for teaching me all of the great money saving tips!! She is amazing!

Long day..ready for bed!

I love this whole blogging thing!

It's one of my favorite things to do..go through everyones blogs and looks for updates. I love reading the ones that I know will be updated pretty often and seeing what new things they have posted. It makes me wish that I posted more often. So..

I decided to post tonight even though I'm not really sure what it will be about!!

Forgive me if it's boring! and random!

We had youth tonight at church and it was alot of fun. We surprised Randy (well kinda, he started suspecting that somethign was up!) with cupcakes and ice cream and a cookie cake for his be-lated Birthday. Fun times.

Ella is doing great. She is so silly and keeps us smiling all day. Her favorite thing to say is "Dat" so she is always pointing to everything saying "Dat, Dat" (That). I love hearing her test out new words! So cute!

Well, enough rambling for me..I need sleep..

Here are some pics just because I think you can never have enough pictures with a post.lol

Here is Ella looking *so* girly and you know I just love it! She is so cute now- she will kiss her stuffed animals and hug them!

and this next one is a silly one my sister (Aunt Lala) took of Ella looking in her little mirror- she didn't realize the face Ella had made until we were looking back on the pics, lol!

We're Back!!

I was going to wait until tomorow to post this, but since Anna requested an update, I decided to go ahead and post. :)

The camping trip was awesome!
First night was a little interesting because we got in really late and it was REALLY cold that night. We didn't get much sleep.
Day Two we went exploring and found a few really beautiful waterfalls..We stopped at a waterfall/swimming hole and had a ton of fun swimming. We actually climed up into the waterfall some! Randy did some jumping off a cliff there, too.
Day Three we went to slidding rock in Brevare, NC. It took us 2 hours to get there from our campground and it was raining most of the way. The overcast didn't stop us from jumping in to the 40 degree water and slidding!! It was a blast!
Day Four we went white water rafting on the Nantahala River. The whole trip was alot of fun and we had some much needed family time. Hope you all enjoy the pics :)