December 2010

This is gonna be a long one with lots of pictures!  And I think I'll do a seperate Christmas one.  December was super busy for us as I'm sure it is for most people. It is my most favorite month though!  December started with celebrating Elly's "Papaw's" Birthday.  This night was also Elly's very first pigtails!!  She still doesn't have as much hair as most girls her age but it is finally starting to grow a litlle and I'm so excited! 

Also this month, Casey and several others were honored at a Crab Orchard basketball game and were officially inducted into the 1000 point club.  It was a nice presentation and nice to go back and watch a game.  We definitely don't get to do that enough.

Next up, Santa Train!  We heard about this and thought Elly would enjoy it so we gave it a try.  Elly did love it, but it didn't live up to my expectations. Oh well, it was for her and she did have a good time. 

 This was us before getting on!

Elly wating with Grammy to give her wish list to Santa.  She was so cute waiting patiently and this is my favorite picture of that day.  It really is amazing to watch the excitement through a child's eyes.  I know the coming years are just going to be great!

Her first Candy Cane!  Compliments of Santa!

A couple weeks before Christmas, we went to my Dad's in Kentucky for the weekend to do our Christmas with each other.  SIU happened to be playing in a game near my dad's house so it worked out well. 

Look what Mommy (& Daddy) got!!  A new camera!  Just what I..uhh...I mean we wanted!

And Elly got a new horse!  She loves it!

Look at this cutie!  This was before going to dinner and I was playing with the new camera.

 Us at Dinner...too bad Elly's not looking.  We had such a good time that weekend!

The following weekend, we spent all day Saturday baking and baking some more! 
Elly's got a close eye on those turtles!

 Some of the finished project! I had never baked so much on my own before and it was so much fun!  Hopefully this can become a tradition! 

We did take a break to go to Jayden's birthday party.  Jayden is our neighbor and we are so thankful his family moved in across from us! This was Elly's second birthday party at Extreme Sports this month and she had so much fun we decided to sign her up for their toddler gymnastics class!  We started in February and she is loving it!  I love watching her learn...and I think she's doing a pretty good job!  I'm a proud momma!

I think this picture is hilarious!  I look more scared than she does!

After the party, it was back home to finish the baking and make up all the plates!  I thought they turned out good!  Hope everybody liked them!  Casey and I both took them to our coworkers and gave them to neighbors and some other special people!

The next day, we went to Walker's Bluff, which is a somewhat newer winery by us with Joe, Debbie, and my mom.  They have awesome Christmas decorations and have a Sunday brunch every weekend through the holidays.  Santa is there, and they have a workshop with crafts for kids, and an ice skating rink.  Probably lots of other stuff too.  We just ate brunch and visited with Santa.  It was free and they even let me just take my own pictures instead of buying theirs.  Elly was super friendly and said hi to both Santa and Mrs. Claus but would not get too close or sit on his lap!

The next week, we got together with Lindsay, Carter, & Fisher to exchange our Christmas gifts.  We got Carter this pillow pet and to say he loved it would be an understatement!  Not sure if he's still loving it, but that day, that boy LOVED it and that's what it's all about!  Well not really, but it's a pretty great part!

Elly got this adorable apron with an "E" on it and I got a matching one with a "D" on it!  We will really be ready to cook next year!  Thanks Lindsay!

Fisher just being cute playing in the tunnel!  I love that little face!

And Elly in the tunnel!  

Aren't these two just so cute together!  They both look like they're up to something.  I just know Elly will marry either Fisher or Carter!

So that takes us right up to Christmas!  That will be another long post...but at least I'm getting caught up right?!! 

November 2010

Yes I realize it is March, but as expected, I haven't kept up with my blog so I'm going to go back in time and do a little catch up.  Just hitting the highlights of each month. :)

November was a full month of more football, Casey's 29th Birthday, Thanksgiving, and preparing for Christmas. 

Mommy & Elly at a game

Happy Birthday Daddy!  Dirt Cake...Yum-O!

Casey got a blu-ray player for his birthday and couldn't wait to go buy some new movies.  He came home with several for himself but the one he was most excited about was the Christmas Classic 3 pack which included the original versions of Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, and Santa Claus is Comin to Town...all in blu ray!  We were both so excited to watch them with Elly.  Oh the things that make us smile these days!

First Movie Night, watching Rudolph! Complete with popcorn!

Elly dancing to the songs!

Next up, Thanksgiving!  And yes, we were watching Christmas movies BEFORE Thanksgiving!  Christmas is kinda a big deal around our house and we start early!  But...as far as Thanksgiving...Elly got to enjoy my favorite tradition of the day this year - watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!  I decided this year that I WILL go to that parade some year very soon!  Not sure how with Casey's schedule, but I WILL make it work!  While watching the parade, I did all my cooking for places we were going and made my first ever Chocolate Meringue Pie. 

Casey's family always has a chocolate pie at most of their holidays and for some reason I got ambitious and decided to give it a try this year!  I definitely don't think it lived up to Grandma Hale's version, but everyone seemed to like it!  I did not!  This was the real deal chocolate...not pudding...way too bitter for me! 

While cooking and watching the parade, our "pet" turkeys appropriately made a visit to our backyard on Turkey Day!  These turkeys travel all across the neighborhood and in the fields behind our house and pass through our backyard daily.  Today, they got pretty close!  They were actually even closer but I didn't get my camera in time.  They are such an everyday occurence I didn't think much of it until I realized it was Thanksgiving haha!  Elly loves these turkeys!  She announces to us everytime she see's them...she's the first one to spot them a lot of the time!  There's usually between 30-40 of them!

And finally, Our Family on Thanksgiving 2010

(This was at my mom's house...notice the tree...see I'm not the only one!  Wonder where I got it?!!)

On to decorating our own home.  Casey bringing in the tree and giving Elly a ride!

And one final picture....Elly cleaning up after bringing the tree in. She's such a big helper!



I'll post our decorated Christmas tree and other decorations in my December post.  Looking back, November was a great month!

Elly is 17 months!

I cannot believe my baby girl is 17 months old today!  She is growing so fast and never fails to amaze me!  I'm going to try to post what Elly is up to each month...I wish I had done this from the beginning (I have it written down, but wish it was on here and recorded better), but better late than never!  Maybe I should change the title of this blog to that lol...I've been saying it an awful lot! 

Elly at 17 months

I almost forgot to take a picture today so this is tonight in her PJ's before bed.  It is so hard to get her to stop for a picture these day so this is the best I could do!

• Elly is between 21-22 lbs, wears size 18 month clothes, size 6 shoes, and size 3 diapers still

• She just got her 16th tooth and these last 4 eye and stomach teeth have been the absolute worst of all her teeth.  None of her teeth have been easy but these have by far been the hardest. 

• She has pretty successfully made the switch to one nap a day, which is a welcome change for me.  I know most people dread it, but she never really had a nap schedule before and now she seems to have falled into a pattern of a 2-3 hour nap somewhere between 12 and 3!

• She typically sleeps through the night in her crib, but will wake up around 5-6 AM and then I bring her to our bed and she will sleep until 7 or 8.  I love this and kinda have the best of both worlds with this routine!  I think she had such a hard time getting out of our bed and into hers because I secretly enjoyed her sleeping all cuddled up to me all night and didn't push her out as hard as I could've...shh don't tell Casey!  That is very tiring though to a nursing mom (I became an all night baby buffet!) so while I miss it, I am definitely enjoying my uninterrupted sleep now!  And I still get some cuddle time in the mornings!

• She still eats anything and everything, including spicy foods and beets!  I don't think I've ever given her anything she turned away.  She loves cheese...it's probably her favorite...any way it comes, she'll take it, especially string cheese!  Bananas, blueberries, grapes, yogurt, animal crackers, goldfish, scrambled eggs, beans of any kind, green beans, carrots, peas, and the occasional fruit snacks top the list!  Also, she has learned to neatly "dip".  Today at the basketball game, we shared some nachos and she so perfectly dipped her chips into the spicy cheese and barely made a mess at all!  She loved it!  Oh and I've just recently started giving her juice and she loves loves loves orange juice!  It's still watered down and I limit it to one cup a day (which is probably only 3ish oz of juice)...yes I'm one of those moms!

• She is running and climbing all over the place.  She has figured out that if she can't reach something, she can get her step stool to help her out!  She also can open door handles which is kinda scary...we're gonna have to invest in some new babyproofing items!

• She loves baby dolls and all the Sesame Street characters, especially Abby Cadabby, but she's been on an Ernie kick lately!

• Other than Sesame Street and occasionally Dora, TV and movies do not keep her attention at all, which is perfectly fine with me! 

• She knows all her animal sounds, including "gobble" for turkey which we keep practicing for Thanksgiving!  Not an animal, but she just learned what Santa says, "Ho Ho"...we are still working on that third Ho!

• She points to and names almost all her body parts including knees, chin, neck, cheeks, fingers, toes, arms, legs, foot, hand, plus all the regular ones.

• She loves to pray!  She will put her hands together and name all the names she knows, inlcuding the doggie! At the end, she always says, "Amen"!

•  She appropriately answers yes and no to questions

• Her vocabulary continues to amaze me and she has been pretty consistent with putting words together lately.  She will repeat just about anything you tell her to if she's in the right mood and says new words every day so I have no clue how many words she can say.  Words I hear all the time...mommy, daddy, mamaw, papaw, grammy, grandma, grandpa (Tanner), Neal, doggie, babies, milk, juice, cheese, crackers, cookies, yes, no, please, bye bye, car, play, pray, up, down, on, off, shoes, socks, bow, diaper, pee pee, poo poo (even though she's not been going on the potty anymore), ok, toys, night night, I could keep going, those are just the ones off the top of my head. 

• She loves her music class still and is finally learning the actions to the songs (I think she's known them for a long time, she's just now started doing them in class).  She will "sing" in the microphone when it's her turn most of the time.  At home, she sings in her Dora microphone all the time while dancing! 

• She has been enjoying the ball games...she loves finding the mascot and will yell "doggie" and she dances when the band plays and claps at the right times!  She also is very intrigued by the cheerleaders, which makes me proud!

It seems like I could just keep going, so I will leave you with that and one more picture from tonight

October Update

I know I have really been slacking on this whole blogging thing! I was so excited about it and then nothing...I know! There was so much in the month of October I wanted to blog about, but just never did it. Sorry. I decided about the end of the month I'd just do a big blog with all of October's happenings and now it's the middle of November! But better late than never I guess!

So first of all, I have to say October is probably one of my favorite months..a close second to December. I love everything about fall..the decorations, cooler weather, chili, apple everything, pumpkins, football, candles, fires, smores, halloween...I could go on and on! As much as I love this month, I will never forget October 2007...my Uncle Jerry passed away as well as my dog, Blackie who was 17 (we think), and my mom sold the house I grew up in. Yes I know while my Uncle passing is a legit reason to be sad, the others might not be to many people, but to me they were devastating. My dog was my "rock" growing up...sounds silly I know, but he went through a lot with me and was always there! Ironically (or not), it was my Uncle Jerry who lured him into our house for the first time one Thanksgiving as our neighbors had moved and left him behind. I love to think about them playing in Heaven together! My uncle was an amazing man and I miss him so much! And while I'm happy my mom moved on with her life and moved to a new house, I still miss my "home"...But "home" is so much more than a house and I have to remember that. Anyway, that wasn't necessary to share, but it's what I think of when I think of October. So moving on to October 2010...gonna try to post some pics and let them do most of the talking...

Watching the SIU homecoming parade with Grammy

Elly and Keith's idea of tailgating! 

The game was great...we won!  After the game, we celebrated my mom's birthday on 10-10-10 at her house...no pics of that, but it was a good time! 

Next day...pumpkin patch!

  They ran right up to this and stuck their heads through with no prompting from us whatsoever!  Smart kiddos!

On the hayride!

Trying to lift them!

The next weekend started with a wonderful dinner at the Savages' and more football! 

Here's a cute pic of Elly before the game :)

This was taken at Lindsay's...we went there before the game to help make cake balls for Fisher's 1st birthday party later that day

Happy 1st Birthday Fisher! 
I love this little guy and his big brother is pretty great too! 
You can see the cake balls we Lindsay and Krystal made in this pic!
(I never actually contributed anything to them, but it was my idea so that counts for something right?!!)

The next day we met my Dad at Patti's for lunch to celebrate his birthday.  We love that place!

Elly loved this horse so much! She would laugh and laugh and when it stopped, she'd say "more".  We had to keep putting quarters in over and over!


The next weekend, we left Elly with Casey's parents and got a jump start on Christmas shopping!  We got some great deals thanks to Kohl's coupons and Kohl's cash!  We had a great time playing outside when we came to pick Elly up and got some really cute pics in the process!

Once we finally got away, we took naps and then got up and carved pumpkins!

Not so sure about this!

Picking out which one she wanted to do.  She picked the spider!

Me doing the carving!

Ta Da!  Us with our carved pumpkins!

 I love this picture...it was totally random, but turned out great...thanks Krystal for taking it!

Carter came over that week to help decorate sugar cookies!  He wasn't quite as interested in it as he has been in the past, but that's ok...guess he's growing up!  We still had fun, but boy did having him and Elly wear me out!  I don't know how Lindsay does it...not to mention with a full time job and working on her masters!  She's amazing!

The cookies were just one of my fall baking/cooking projects...I also made crockpot apple butter, caramel apples, pumpkin pancakes in the shape of pumpkins, and chicken & dumplins from scratch...this was my first time making all of these too!  I took pictures of them when I had big plans of blogging about it all, but I think this post has enough pictures so I'll spare you those!  Still had to brag on myself! 

And now for Halloween!  More bragging...I was so proud of myself for making Elly's tutu for her Abby Cadabby costume!  It turned out really cute and was actually super easy! 

 This is my favorite Halloween picture because it is the ONLY one she held still for and smiled!  All the rest she is running around like crazy!  Guess that means she was having fun though!

At Grammy's house...you can totally see her attitude coming through in this one!

Everybody had to wear Abby's hair, including Great Grandpa Tanner!  Elly loves him so much...they always share vanilla wafers and she follows him all around!

Trick or Treating with my friends! 

Having fun!

Giving Daddy a kiss at the end of the night!  Another picture I love! 

And that ends our month of October.  It was such a great month...so many wonderful memories made and so much fun was had!  We are so blessed! 

Sorry for the overwhelmingly long post...I will try to do better from here on out, although I will admit I am a procrastinator so no promises! 

Great Day...Cute Stories!

I was off work today and decided to catch up on some much needed chores around the house so Elly and I hung out at home all day and had a fabulous time! First of all, she let me sleep in until 8:30 and woke up in such a sweet mood. She's been sick so when she woke up in the middle of the night last night, I let her come into our bed. Her favorite word at the moment is, "boo" so this morning she woke up saying "boo" over and over! Guess you have to see her do it, but it really is cute...she really thinks she's scaring you. She'll hide behind things and then pop her head out and yell "boo" and just laugh and laugh! Anyway, we had breakfast and started cleaning away! I got the whole house clean and laundry done before noon! All of a sudden, Elly has become scared of the vaccuum cleaner. I left her in the living room with Sesame Street on (her favorite show) while I went and vaccuumed her bedroom and when I came out, she was sobbing, real tears and all! Now the cutest thing was that Lacey (our lab) was standing right beside her and kept licking her face like she was telling her, "it's ok, calm down"...again, super cute! I had to be a little extra creative to finish vaccuuming the rest of the house but we got it done! After that, we went outside to put some mums in pots that I bought last weekend from a nice little Amish lady and decorate the porch with the corn stalks, straw, and pumpkins I bought last weekend too on our great adventure we had with Lindsay and her family (& Amanda too). Elly was playing so good when I looked over at her to discover the almost empty bag of potting soil on her head! She thought it was hilarious...me not so much at first! She was covered in potting soil...all in her hair and down her shirt, in her eyes and ears. Needless to say, she got an early bath today! I had to shampoo her hair 3 times! She took a nap after that while I made a 3 layer pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting! Yummy! I made a casserole from a new recipe and we finished our day with a long walk after dinner...the weather was just perfect today!

I am so looking forward to this weekend! I am off Friday and Monday for Columbus Day and then Tuesday is my normal day off so I get a super extra long weekend! It's SIU's homecoming so Saturday we're planning on going to the parade, maybe a little tailgating, and then the big game! After that, my mom is having a little get together for her birthday which is 10-10-10 this year...how cool is that! She made the cutest invitations with the Dancing With The Stars judges holding up 3 10's! By the way, that show is totally not keeping my interest this year...at least not yet. Sunday, may hold the pumpkin patch after church and hopefully lots of relaxing with the hubby! Him being gone all the time is already getting old and it's only the first of October! Oh well, it's just part of it I guess. I have lots of little projects planned for my days off including getting pictures organized and finally up on the walls. We just got our beach pictures in the mail that we had done in Daytona this summer and they are so good! I can't wait to show them off! Also, I'm going to attempt to make apple butter in the crockpot for the first time....sounds easy, so we'll see how it turns out. I am really hoping I get around to working on Elly's baby book too...I feel so bad, but I am yet to write anything in it...yes that's right, I said anything! I have kept good notes in my calendar and a few other places of when she hit all her milestones and stuff, but haven't recorded any of it in the baby book. That was part of my motivation for starting this blog...to serve as a sort of baby book for her since I'm obviously not very good at doing it the way most people do! Oh and one last project...I've decided to make Elly's halloween costume...well just part of it. She's going to be Abby Cadabby (from Sesame Street...I'm suprised at how many people have no clue who she is). She already has a headband that looks like Abby's pigtails and a wand. I'm going to make a tutu for her! Never done it before, but I've heard how easy it is and I just want to try it. I have no idea how to sew so making her a no sew tutu might be the only way I may ever make a Halloween costume for her so I figured I better take advantage of it! Then I'll get her some wings and some sort of shirt and we will have an Abby costume! We'll see how this turns out!

Hope everybody has a great weekend and enjoys this awesome weather we are going to have!