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!

Welcome

So I've decided to give this blogging thing a try! I'm so excited to have a place to share what's going on in our lives with the people we love! There are so many little day to day stories and things that happen with Elly and I'm hoping this will give me a place to share them and keep a record of them for my own benefit as well.

So a little update on "things" - My little Miss Ellyana is already 15 months old! It seems like it was just yesterday I found out I was pregnant or bringing her home from the hospital. She has been such a blessing...so much more than I ever could've imagined! Having a child truly does change EVERYTHING, but in such a beautiful way! I experience things differently now and see everything in a different light! She has brought me so much joy and inspired me to be a better person...a better wife, a better Christian, a better friend, etc. She is going to learn so much from me, that I feel this immense responsibility to show her the "right" way.

Elly is a walking, talking, happy little girl. Those words really are understatements, who am I kidding?!! She is walking, yes, but also running and climbing on everything she's not supposed to! And talking...oh her vocabulary just continues to grow! Her newest trick is animal sounds! I am proud to say she knows several different animals including a rooster, which she will tell you says, "Doodle Doo!" She can point to and name almost all of her body parts, including her "butt" which her Daddy taught her just tonight! I am oh so proud of that one! She finally sleeps all through the night in her own crib, which after several months of sleeping with us and waking up every 2 hours was a huge accomplishment! Overall, she is a perfectly happy, beautiful child who appears to be developing just as she should be.

Casey and I are doing well too. We both love what we do and are grateful for our jobs! I am so thankful that I was able to cut my hours down to part time after Elly was born. I have no idea how full time working moms do it! Funny how I can go on and on about Elly, but have a hard time coming up with something to say about us! Our lives kinda revolve around her right now, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

I'm still trying to figure out all this blog stuff, so I am yet to figure out how to put pictures in posts and lots of other things I'm sure I'll eventually understand, so bear with me as I learn!