What a day!!

I just got home an hour or so ago from blogging through my friend Lindsay's labor and delivery. I had a front row spot for the whole thing. Talk about some intense, exciting blogging! A couple of times I felt like I couldn't type fast enough! lol.

Being a part of her baby Baileigh's birth, was just such a sweet reminder of how precious new life is. It really is one of the most incredible things ever. It was so weird being there with her since she gave birth in the same room I delivered Ella in! It was so precious to come home to Ella who had missed me so much that she had been asking my sister constantly, "Mommy Home?". I felt like I couldn't kiss her enough because she is just growing SO fast. I really wish I could find that "pause" button for life tonight.

Check out their blog if you haven't already and leave them some encouragement and love. Plus new baby pictures are always fun to look at! :)

Busy..

Last week held all of the excitement with snow and ice, then led us into the weekend with coughs and runny noses! I guess you have to pay a price for the winter weather!! Ella caught the cold/cough first and passed it to me over the weekend. She spent most of last week and the weekend really cranky and fussy. Being sick and cutting at least 3 more teeth made for a sad girl. I have been able to keep this cold at bay so it's not been too bad for me. I was a little worried at first, since I can't take all of the "good" medicine and am left to the basics, but I haven't been too bad off and the Sudafed is working when I need it. Poor Randy has been determined to keep from getting sick, but woke this morning feeling terrible. He had to head off to work with some cough drops and lots of meds!! I guess we traded Ella getting better with Randy getting sick. Isn't that always how it works!?!?

Here is a pic of Ella snuggling with her Daddy when she was feeling bad..

Other than that, we have been doing the same ole' stuff! The weather today is supposed to be a little warmer, even getting into the upper 60's. I'm going to try and get Ella to the park this afternoon before the rain and cold front rolls back in. She has really missed the playground, but who wants to go play when it's cold and wet most of the time!

Love this picture of Ella, feeling good again and so proud that she eats at the table like a BIG girl now!!

The Moore's Blog

A sweet friend of mine and her husband will be having their baby any day now. She is actually due today!! I helped her start a blog that she is going to use in the same way we did, to keep family and friends updated on her progress and the baby's birth. I wanted to attach a link so that all of you Discovery people could go ahead and put it in your favorites. I know it was SO cool for Randy and I to read everyone's encouragement while we were having Ella, so I'm sure they would enjoy your comments and such when they have little miss Baileigh. :)

Here's a link to the web page:

Johnny and Lindsay Moore's Blog

What's your pledge??

I heard about this video and decided to look it up on YouTube myself. Wow, it has such a great message, I just love it! I didn't personally vote for Obama, but now that he's in office, I'm excited to see what's to come. I hope that he can really do some of the things he has said he will do. I love the point of this "pledge" video, that we have to personally help change our country. So many little things make a difference..Hope you get inspired and pledge to do some good, I know I am going to try!

Mother of the Year Award!

Thought I would share this video with you from our snow day yesterday. Yes, I accidentally threw a snow ball right in Ella's face...but she took it really well. My wonderful husband caught it all on tape, so I will go ahead and share it with you before he does, lol!

Snow Day Part 2!

The snow has been coming down all day! It's been so pretty to look at through the windows..almost like the whole yard is covered in a big, white, blanket!! We decided since so much more snow had accumulated, we needed another round of snow play! Randy, Ella, Princess, and I went out and had so much fun! We had a snowball fight and made snow angels! We started a snowman, but the snow wasn't staying packed well enough (that, or we just got lazy!) so we left him as a big pile of snow. It's just been a really fun day! My camera's batteries decided to die after only 2 or 3 pics so a lot of them were taken on our phone.. (really nice, I know!)

It's hard to tell, but there are icicles lining the roof of the house..It looks so pretty!

Randy found a huge icicle hanging from the roof and Ella just had to have a taste!

Our house covered in snow and the view from the back door..

It was nice to get back inside and get warm, but what a fun time!

I must say I am enjoying today..lots of FUN. We played in the snow, watched the Presidential Inauguration, ate homemade Tacos (one of our favorites!), more SNOW, about to make snow cream for a snack, and tonight we'll watch some American Idol..what a nice, relaxing, day!

SNOW DAY!

You would think by the excitement around town that maybe they moved the location of the Presidential Inauguration to Greenville, but the truth is..the weatherman informed us that today would be a SNOW DAY!! It's pretty funny how many places are actually closing because of the snow! It's just barely 8:30am and Ella and I have already finished "Round One" of snow play. Once more settles on the ground we will head out again, but I wanted to be sure we got some playing in before it goes away. Ella loved it! She was just running around so excited and not quite sure what to do!! I couldn't even get a picture of Princess because she just kept running laps around the house! lol! I guess you can tell we are Floridians! It's maybe an inch out there right now!lol! Last I heard they said we could get up to 6 inches though!!!

Hope you like the pics..only a few because it's still kinda wet out there and we were getting soaked!

Then Sings my Soul...

Wow! Two in a row :)! This week I chose Ginny Owen's song "Free". It's an old one, but I still love it. Ella and I had alot of fun singing and dancing to it this morning! Hope you enjoy it.

And by the way...the video is weird and random, but it's the only one I could find between YouTube AND GodTube..so..weird it is today. lol.




"Free" by Ginny Owens:

Turning molehills into mountains,
Making big deals out of small ones,
Bearing gifts as if they're burdens,
This is how it's been.
Fear of coming out of my shell,
Too many things I can't do too well,
Afraid I'll try real hard and I'll fail -
This is how it's been.
Till the day you pounded on my heart's door,
And you shouted joyfully,
"You're not a slave anymore"

You're free to dance-
Forget about your two left feet
And you're free to sing-
Even joyful noise is music to me
and you're free to love,
Cause I've given you My love,
and it's made you free
I have set you free

My mind finds hard to believe
That You became humanity
and changed the course of history,
Because You loved me so.
And my heart cannot understand
Why You'd accept me as I am,
But You say You've always had a plan,
And that's all I need to know.
So when I am consumed by what the world will say,
It's then You're singing to me,
As you remove my chains

You're free to dance-
Forget about your two left feet
And you're free to sing-
Even joyful noise is music to me
and you're free to love,
Cause I've given you My love,
and it's made you free,

Free from worry, free from envy and denial
Free to live, free to give, free to smile

You're free to dance-
Forget about your two left feet
And you're free to sing-
Even joyful noise is music to me
and you're free to love,
Cause I've given you My love,
and it's made you free
I've given you My love,
and it's made you free
I've set you free

Baby #2 is a........

BOY!!!!

We were just *SO* excited to find out that Baby #2 is a boy. Everything looked great and my due date is still calculated for June 7th. We were really thinking it was going to be another girl, so we were thrilled to find out we were having a boy this time. We are also happy because we can finally use Ella's "boy" name that we have loved since before we even married.

We can't wait to meet you little Noah James!!!!!

Lessons Learned...

One of the great things about Ella getting older is that she has become more and more self sufficient. This is really great when I need an extra hand or she has made a big mess and can help clean up. Well, she has just about mastered the art of self feeding. So now at every meal, she uses her own fork or spoon to eat her food like a big girl until she is finished. She has been really good about eating it and not playing too much and letting us know when she is done and wants to be excused. WELL! This past Saturday, I left her alone with a bowl of Raviolis and some juice while I got some laundry and other stuff going. I came back to find this...



Just another lesson learned, that while she may be getting really good at doing things on her own, she is still just a toddler..easily distracted by red sauce.

Thank goodness for stain removers!!!!!

Then Sings my Soul...

I KNOW I'm a slacker..but I finally posted one today :)

This week has been one for me where everything seems to be slowly going bad instead of good. Just random stuff, but enough that I was beginning to have a "What next!?!" kind of attitude. Ella and I were running errands and listening to this song and I just had a really comforting moment. It just reminded me that it isn't always going to be perfect, but I can't let my focus be in the wrong place or it will not get any better. So I've had to listen to it a few times since then because music is almost like a prayer time to me. Hope you get something from it, too! Also, don't forget to mute the player on the side, first! :)

So far in 2009..

I love how the start of a New Year makes us more reflective, but also eager to make things better in the year to come. So far, we have spent a lot of the New Year going through our house and just getting rid of "stuff". I am such a pack rat. Now I'm not extreme enough to save actually junk, but if something is in good shape and practical, I reason that we should probably keep it in case we need it...but we rarely ever do! So I have decided it's really not worth the $5 bucks I may possibly save us every few years. lol. It's all going OUT! Randy has been teasing me with jokes about "nesting" way too soon. But truthfully we do have to get rid of this stuff if we're all going to fit in here this summer. So I have been going through closets and under sinks daily to eliminate the clutter. The only room I have left is the dreaded spare bedroom. The room where anything that doesn't have a "home" somewhere else in the house goes. I think we might need a dumpster by the time I get through it all!

As for our family time, it's been wonderful. Randy's schedule allows him 3 days off in a row and we just love having so much time together. This week we spent most of it just around the house working on random projects. While Ella napped, Randy and I caught up on episodes of Lost. Ella is growing so fast, it's scary. She is talking like crazy and is actually making pretty good sense! She definitely has Randy's goofy personality. Her new favorite joke is to pretend she's 2 or 3 instead of 1. When we ask her how old she is, she will proudly say "3". then she will giggle because she knows she's NOT three! So we ask again and she says, "2". It can go on forever, before she finally laughs and says, "Ella 1". We've been trying to figure out how in one year, this baby... became such a big girl. Thankfully we are enjoying her "big girl" side so much knowing that this summer we can get our baby fix all over again!

Here are a couple of new pics for now..my camera batteries are near dead so I haven't been taking as many as usual..

Ella has been testing out her "fashionista" side so she is usually found wearing hats, necklaces, or high heels around the house...Hey, at least this hat happens to match!!

Here is Ella with one of her books, she loves hearing stories and pretending to read them to herself. I just LOVE having her come ask me to read stories..makes my day ;)

Happy New Year!!

Love, Princess Ella
(and the rest of the family)