Weekend

We had a great weekend filled with lots of friends and family.  Friday was just a laid back night at home.  Saturday we got up early and went to KB's for breakfast.  I love when we do that!  It just starts our day off good.  We used to do it all the time, but it had been a while since we'd gone.  We rushed home from breakfast because my friend, Chrisy was coming over with her adorable twin girls, Ella and Sophia.  They are 19 months old so they have a lot in common with Elly.  It had been way too long since we got together and the girls had so much fun playing together.  I think the last time we saw them, they weren't even crawling.  It was a lot easier that time!  They just sat and played with whatever we put in front of them.  This time they were running all over the place and dumping out all sorts of toys!  But that means they had fun, so it's all good with me!  They stayed for lunch and then headed home because it was naptime for everyone!  Here's some pics of them playing...it is not easy to get pictures of 3 toddlers!

I can't really tell them apart so I'm not sure which one this is, but isn't she just so cute!  I was so jealous of their pigtails!

Elly riding her horse

For some reason they wanted to climb in this shelf thing...it normally holds containers of toys but they dumped all that out and climbed inside!

Combing Elly's hair!  Most of our friend's kids are boys so it was fun to watch Elly do girly things!

Elly giving kisses!  Please excuse her crazy hair...she kept pulling her pony tail out!

Look at all those toys!

We tried to pose them for a picture and this is the best we got!  Still pretty cute, huh?!!



At the same time as the girls were destroying my house playing, Casey's friend Brad came over to help him smoke some ribs!  We came up with this great idea last weekend when the weather was so pretty.  I tried to tell them it was going to be nasty this weekend, but they didn't care and wanted to do it anyway.  So they spent the day smoking ribs in the new smoker Casey's dad had gotten for Christmas. We also smoked a boston butt and let me tell you, it was all SO GOOD!  I think I could become addicted to smoking meats!  I made some sides and we had a great meal!  Brad's wife and Casey's parents came over too and Krystal ended up coming too because she got off work early.  It was a great time!  I meant to take some pictures, but completely forgot!

Today, we went to church...where Elly went to her little class again with no problems!  It took us so long to get to this point so I'm proud of her!  We went to the nursing home to see Grandma Tanner for a little bit and then came home for lunch.  Casey's parents came by to have leftovers with us.  We made chocolate chip cookies (not sure why since we have leftover coconut cream pie) and hung out for a little bit and finally got Elly down for a nap.  I think she has another cold coming on, but I'm hoping it's just allergies.  Getting her to take a nap and go to bed tonight was harder than usual and I'm betting that's why.  We shall see. Spent the rest of the day watching basketball, doing laundry and picking up everything to get ready for the week.  

Hope you all had a good weekend!

March 2011

Yay!  I'm posting about March and it's actually March!  This month started with spending another weekend in St. Louis for the MVC tournament.  SIU had a tough loss and didn't make it past Friday, but we still had a good time.  My mom went up with us to watch Elly during the games and dinners.  We are so fortunate to have grandparents close by that are willing to help as much as they do!  The last night we were there, Elly woke up with a horrible cough. I didn't think much of it until 2 days later when she started running a 103 fever.  Still didn't think much of it, just figured she caught a virus.  A few days later she developed a double ear infection, and then the next day her cough just kept getting worse, she was breathing so fast and it ended up turning into pneumonia!.  It was the sickest Elly's ever been!  I hated to see her like that.  She was so pale, had those glassy eyes, and didn't want to do anything but lay around which is so not like her.  Finally after about 3 days on antibiotics, the fever broke and her lungs started sounding better.  I never did take her to the doctor for any of that.  It is nice that I can diagnose her myself but I sure don't like it.  I think if she ever gets sick that bad again, I'm just going to play mommy and leave the doctoring up to someone else!  But all is well and we are so thankful to have her up and running around and have her full appetite back! 

So since basketball is over, we have been enjoying having the last few weekends free!  The first ones since probably last August!  I love going to all the games, but I am always so ready for this time of year to roll around!  It is nice to have Casey home more..I know Elly likes having him around!  The weather has been so nice here so we've been playing outside a lot and going on lots of walks!  I was excited to see dirt in the bottom of the bathtub after Elly's bath the other night!  I love when she has the chance to play hard and get dirty!

Here's a few pictures from this past weekend.  Casey had poker night again at our house and a couple of the wives were able to come hang out too!  Here's Elly and Jackson enjoying a cookie!

And a close up of Elly's chocolate covered face!

These are from Joe and Debbie's house this past Sunday.  We went out there for lunch and Elly had a blast riding her tractor and playing outside!

Alright, so now I'm all caught up!  I am really going to try to keep this updated more regularly from here on out!  We shall see how that works out for me! 

St. Louis trip

Earlier in February, I had a continuing ed. conference to go to in St. Louis.  My friend, Shalini, who is also a Nurse Practitioner decided to come up and go with me!  It was more of an excuse to get together for a weekend in St. Louis since she lives in South Carolina and is getting ready to move to Hawaii!  So Elly and I went up on Wednesday afternoon to pick Shalini up at the airport and then we did a little shopping.  My mom came along too to hang out with Elly while we were at the conference and the fact that she gets free rooms at Harrah's is pretty nice too!  She came up later that night and after shopping, we met up with her and had a nice dinner at the hotel. 

We didn't have to be at the conference until the afternoon on Thursday so we used the morning to go to the zoo!  The weather was unusually warm so it worked out great!  Elly loved the zoo last summer, but I think this summer will be so much better!  She had a great time!  Here's some pics from our day...

Elly in the petting zoo



 Checking out the hippos!

Grammy and Elly posing by the snake

I always take a picture of the elephants...probably because my dad always did since elephants are his favorite!

 Check out all the spit on the camel!  Gross!

Shalini got a group picture on her camera that I am going to have to get a copy of.  I wish I had taken more pics this weekend.  I wasn't feeling great and was super tired because the night before I left, I stayed up most of the night with a friend in labor.  It was worth it though, she had a precious baby girl and I was beyond honored to get to be a part of it!  But because of being tired and getting sick, I was a little off all weekend. 

After the conference that afternoon, we had another great dinner at the hotel.  Elly did not sleep good in the hotel and getting her to bed both nights was awful...I'm thinking maybe she had a touch of what I had?  Who knows!  We went to the cofererence all day on Friday and my mom and Elly did a little shopping and then headed home.  I dropped Shalini off after the conference and came on home.  It was a great couple days, but it went by way too fast!  I can't wait for Shalini to move to Hawaii so we can visit her there and have lots of time to hang out!

Superbowl

Superbowl wasn't too exciting for us, we just stayed home and relaxed.  It was nice to be able to watch the game and the commercials without distractions.  We cheered on our packers and were so excited they won!  I figured I had to post this picture of Elly.  Grandpa Tom got her this shirt, of course!

Valentine's Day 2011

For Valentine's Day this year, we decided to do a little craft and make valentine's for the grandparents and a few other special people.  I was so impressed with how well Elly did making her handprints.  I let her do it in SIU colors for Father's Day last year to make a picture for Casey's office and it was one huge mess!  Cute, but messy!  This time she sat so still and put her hands where I told her!  She's growing up!

Here's the valentine's we made!  I thought they turned out pretty cute!

This was the Sunday before Valentine's Day.  I got this outfit from a lady on facebook that makes the cutest things.  This was actually a used outfit so I got a great deal on it!  I thought Elly looked so cute and she got tons of compliments.  I got asked all day if I made her outfit...I wish!  Maybe someday!  In the meantime, we will definitely be buying more from Lois Jean's Linens.  I have no idea how to make that a link but she's on facebook under that name!

My best attempts at getting some pictures that morning!



Valentine's Day was on a Monday this year so unfortunately we had to go to work, but somehow I managed to get up early enough to make these hot pink chocolate chip pancakes!  It was a mix, don't be too impressed!

I used a cookie cutter to cut one into a heart for Elly and when I gave it to her, she said, "Pink? Heart? Eat it?"  She's just way too smart!  Once I assured her it was indeed to be eaten, she had no problems digging in!  And don't you love the hair?  She get's it from her momma, bless her heart!

Even though Elly has awesome grandparents that offered to babysit so we could go out, we just decided to cook at home.  By the time we got home from work, changed, and got out we would've had to wait so long, we just thought it would be easier this way.  And it was!  Here was our meal!  I think it was Elly's first time having asparagus and she actually ate it really good!



After supper, we let Elly open a few little gifts we got her!

She got a couple new books!

And this ginormous Dora doll that I found on clearance at Walgreens!  I thought it would be perfect for her to sit at her table and have tea parties with so maybe Mommy could have a little break!

Hope everyone had a Happy Valentine's Day!  We sure did!

Bathtime Fun - February 2011

 Just some cute bathtime pictures!  Elly loves taking a bath!

And she loves dumping water over her head!  She's not scared at all and will just laugh and laugh!

 I sure do love that little face!

January 2011

We rang the new year in with our neighbors, Dipal and Brittany.  They had a great party and we probably could've stayed all night playing Wii, but Elly was at home with Bailey and a friend and they had a sleepover to get to. I didn't get any pictures that night, but we had a wonderful time!

January must not have been too exciting for us because I don't have a whole lot of pictures.  I know it included lots of basketball games...SIU wasn't the greatest this year so maybe that's why there's no pictures haha!  We did take a trip down to Chuck E. Cheese in Paducah.  It was Elly's first time and she had a blast!  Too bad she got the stomach flu a couple days later and then passed it on to over 10 people!  Probably another reason why there's not many January pictures...we were all sick!  And no joke, 10 seperate people who either came to our house or had contact with Elly including us, ended up sick!  We felt awful about it!  I actually got sick about 8 hours before Elly so maybe I started it and brought it home from work, but I'd rather blame good 'ol Chuck E. Cheese!  Oh well, it was fun!  We just won't be back during the peak of cold/flu season!

She loved skee ball!  Just like her Momma!

Picking out a prize!  She got some stickers, crayons, and a bracelet that broke before we were out of the parking lot haha!

These are my only other January pictures and it was just a day Elly looked cute in her boots and I wanted to play with my camera!

Christmas 2010 - Christmas Day

We had a wonderful Christmas day!  Elly actually let us sleep in a little bit...probably from being up late the night before and all of the excitement!  I'm betting that won't last many more years, if any!  We brought her straight out to her presents when she woke up and she just kind of slowly walked around looking at everything and taking it all in.  She'd stop at each thing and want to sit and play with it and would get upset when we kept trying to show her other gifts.  Her kitchen set was the last gift she got to and she didn't waste anytime starting to play with that!  It was hard to get her away from it!

We finally did though and she enjoyed unwrapping a few presents too!

Trying out her new doctor set on her new baby!  She knew exactly what to do!  Wonder why?!!

Just playing with all her new stuff!  And no, that's not a real bottle!  It was the new one that came with her baby :)

Laying down on her new bean bag with her new baby and covering up with the blanket I made her!

Right about the time we were finishing up opening presents, my mom and Dave got here. We had a wonderful breakfast and then Elly had more to open...and so did we!  This was her posing with her new apron, hat, and mitt Grammy got her to go with her kitchen!

Checking out the grocery cart Grammy got her!

And playing in her new tent!

Once we were finally done, we decided to go outside and play in the snow!  We were so lucky to have a white Christmas!

Snowball fight!! 

Elly thought it was great!

After that, we came back in to warm up and realized we had a few more gifts to do.  My mom always gets a can of black olives in her stocking and we always take a picture of it!  I think it was a tradition started when her and my Dad were first married and I've kept it going as long as I've been old enough to buy her gifts on my own.

Ahh..Finally done!  Naptime!

Normally we would be done for the day, but because of everything being in disarray because of Casey's Grandma, we had not gotten to exchange gifts with his parents so we headed over there for the evening.  Elly got a tricycle!!  She jumped right on and was ready to go!

Poor girl was so sick of opening presents, we had to bribe her with candy to keep going!  Isn't that sad?!  She sure is blessed and I pray that I will teach her to be grateful and very giving herself.

Back at home - our living room at the end of the day!  I cannot stand going to bed without picking up but I definitely made an exception this night!

And this is Elly in her Christmas dress.  We had to miss Christmas Eve service at church because of the last minute change in plans to have Casey's family at our house so Elly didn't have a chance to wear her Christmas dress until the Sunday after Christmas.  This was the best picture I could get that morning, but isn't she just adorable?!!  She made this Christmas one of the best ever!!