Saturday, June 30, 2007

4%

Our doctor's appointment went well considering we were literally there for 3 minutes. Nurse took us in, weighed Ella and we left. She had not quite gained a pound since her 15 month appointment. She's weighs 19lbs 10oz. But she is in the 4th percentile now. As we were walking out of the office, the nurse said the doctor would review the weight and give us a call. We haven't heard from her yet.

I got many sweet comments about how perfect our Ella Bella is and we agree. I don't know if we'll actually hear from the doctor, but if we do I'll let y'all know. But as you can see from the picture below we have every reason to be concerned.


Thursday, June 28, 2007

Here It Is!

In an hour, Ella and I are headed to her doctor for a "weight check". At her 15 month appointment Ella weighed in the 3% of babies. Anytime a baby is under 5% in any area...head, weight or length, the doctors get a little concerned and want to figure out if there is something going on to contribute besides genetics.

There are some definite things that contribute to Ella's 3% that does not have us concerned.
1. She was 4 weeks early and weighed in at a whopping 4lbs 15oz at birth. She's always been small. Although I have some chubby chubby pictures of her at around 6 months that are adorable. But she's just never been a roley poley baby.
2. Her dad's family is the smallest family I've ever seen. Heath is the tallest at 5'7". His mom doesn't even make it to 5 feet. Ella's destined apparently to be like them.
3. Ella is well proportioned. She is also 20% in height and 15% for head circumference.
4. At her 15 month appointment, Ella was still recovering from her horrible stomach virus that landed her in the hospital and caused her to lose over a pound.

For these reasons, neither the doctor nor myself are real worried about this. Ella eats a lot! But we still have to be careful and are now having to go in for weight checks. Hopefully she will be a little up on the percentages this morning. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

On a totally different note:
My blogging friend Shannon let me know that Hok and Jaimie's dance from Wednesday night was finally on You Tube. So if you missed it or even if you don't watch the show, you will appreciate this talent. Enjoy. And have I already said that I love them and predict one of them will win?

More Summer Luvin'

Are y'all watching So You Think You Can Dance? It is highly entertaining this season. The dancers are so talented. But why I'm writing about the show is because last night I saw the most amazing performance to date.

My new favorites:

Hokuto Konishi

AND

Jaimie Goodwin

I am declaring now that these two are going to win. Well, I guess there technically can only be one winner, but I can't choose which one. Okay, yes I can, HOK!

Their dance last night was incredible. I tried to find it on You Tube so y'all could see it, but apparently You Tube uploading video people aren't fans of SYTYCD because there were like 2 videos total from the entire season thus far. BUT, I am not totally the bearer of bad news because tonight's episode is the results show and they always do a short recap at the beginning. They will at least show a clip from their dance.

On another note: Are y'all watching Army Wives? So good. My mother-in-law watches Lifetime like it's the only channel she can receive on her television. At least once a week she calls to tell me about another show or movie that is on that I MUST SEE. And I yawn, fall asleep and wake back up in time to say goodbye. Not really, but I'm just not a fan of my husband left me, I'm pregnant with another man's baby, I've been thrown in prison, my friend's been stabbed 1,000 times, kind of story lines. It's depressing. I'm more into The Office kind of story lines that make me feel good. So when my MIL told me about Army Wives, again I was not thinking I would check it out. But then I kept hearing about it, not just from her, but from people who like the same television shows I like. So I checked it out and can you believe it, I love it. They are only on the 4th episode. It's not too late. And you can catch the first two episodes online.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Company Picnic

This was one of those weekends when you have SO many things on your calender that you can't possible attend them all, even though you wish you could.

We had 3 different things that we wished we could have gone too. It made me so sad to not be able to go to them, but it was not possible. Something had to give.

The one thing that was priority to attend this weekend was Heath's annual company picnic. Honestly, I wasn't looking that forward to this picnic. Earlier that week I had learned of a good friend's couple's baby shower that I never received the invitation to due to the fact that we had recently moved. AND we have Saturday service that I help out with and enjoy immensely each week at the same time as that shower, After working out how I would attend BOTH the service and the shower, Heath informs me about his company picnic which put a kink in both of those things since it was right smack at the same time as the shower and service.

After much contemplation (and Curtis being so kind to understand we needed to be at the picnic), we decided we would spend the entire evening there. I'm so glad we did because it was a lot of fun, but I was sad to miss out on the other things.

The entire time Heath and I were driving to the picnic, we kept talking about how we recognized the name of the place this picnic was at, Circle R Ranch in Flower Mound. But we could not figure out how we knew the place. Even driving onto the property it still did not click. As soon as we walked into the building, we immediately looked at each other and said Sadie Hawkins 1998! This is where Sadie Hawkins was our freshmen year in college. If you read my anniversary post about how our relationship began, then you know we were not together yet, which means we did not go to Sadie Hawkins together our freshmen year, kind of sad. I went with David Jackson, a very good friend at the time. And Heath went with another girl. In fact, I don't really even remember us talking much that day. But I still did not have a thing for Heath at this time. It came later in the summer. It brought many fun, interesting memories being back there.

Ella is obsessed with balloons. So when we saw there was a balloon man, we had to go straight to him. On the way to him though, Ella definitely tried to steal other children's balloons out of their hands.













Squeals of delight!
















After eating a delicious dinner and getting our balloon. We headed to the pool.
The two little boys with Ella are Ethan and Zach, my two cousins. My uncle also works for this company so we get to spend lots of time with my aunt, uncle and two cousins at work functions.
My Aunt Natasha spent lots of time with Ella in the pool and Ella loved it.
After the pool, Ella got to have a pony ride! This was such a fun day with her.







After the pony ride, Heath starred in the company softball game and Ella and I cheered him on. Ella did not understand the concept of softball. Every time Heath came up to bat and hit the ball and run to first base, Ella was so sad that he was running away from us, she would SCREAM, "DAD, DAD, DAD, DAD" over and over. She was so upset and panicked that he was running away. It was the cutest, sweetest thing.


Ella cheering her daddy on to home plate and very relieved that he came back to us.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Safety First














Visiting daddy at work!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

VBS

Last week was VBS "Game Day Central" at our church. It's always Wednesday through Sunday, 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM, every year.

This is definitely a fun, busy, crazy, exciting and exhausting week for me. Myself and another lady named Marla for the past 3 years have led the opening rally that all the kids go to together first thing in the morning. Then we teach the music class the rest of the day after that. It really is so much fun, but it is nonstop peppiness, which can really take its toll on even the most peppy.

I do love this role because I get a chance to meet every single kid. They each HAVE to pass through the music class, even if they don't want to, and it's always interesting to me to see which ones I form a relationship with throughout the week.

The major thing I learn over and over again each year with this role is humility, or really Get Over Yourself, This Isn't About YOU! I do struggle a little bit with this though.
The reasons? Here's a little preview of me the last 3 years.

Notice first, the outfits.
Notice second, the facial expressions.
Notice third, the motions.
And I would say notice fourth, the songs, if I could play the these cheesy lyrics for you. For example, "Go Boy, Go Girl, go be a witness all over the world. Recruit and tell if you have to yell. Don't sit around like a farmer in the dell recruit and tell." Case and point!
VBS 2005
VBS 2006
VBS 2007











BUT however humbling (AKA embarrassing) this experience may be for me, I have learned that the kids really do love it. They aren't judging me or the way I look. They aren't judging me for my silly motions and wide eyes and over the top facial expressions. They aren't judging me for giving my whole heart and soul to "Father Abraham Had Many Sons".

I have to remind myself of that every morning those 5 days each year and especially the Sunday morning we do the songs in front of the ENTIRE congregation. That is the real surrendering, y'all.

The week is filled with stories and songs about the God that they can ask to come into their hearts! And decisions are made each year! It's exciting! It's worth every second.

This was Ella's first year for VBS!! They originally put her and Joshua, who are both a little over one year old, with the 2 year olds because they would be doing actual VBS activities. The baby class would be mostly playing in their own way and not really doing organized things, because you know, it's difficult with babies and one year olds. After about a couple of hours,however, our preschool director decided that class was a little to rowdy for the two youngsters, so she switched them over to the baby class, which was totally fine. The last thing I want is for Ella to be pummeled by a running 2 year old during craft time with stickers. She still had a great experience I'm sure. Maybe it gives her and Joshua a sense of leadership being the oldest in their class showing the other babies how to you know sit up, walk, pick up toys, feed themselves. Or maybe not.

This was when she was still in with the big kids. Look at her sitting in a big girl chair. I was a little surprised to see this picture. She's so good. And notice the temporary tattoo she is sporting on her arm.







Joshua and Ella playing.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

What a party!

So, my idea for Heath's party was to have some close friends over, very low key, nothing over the top exciting. Just a chance to hang out, have fun, chit chat and eat meat off the grill. WELL, it ended up being one of the craziest, funniest, chaotic and exciting nights I've had in a while. It was one surprise after another. So many unexpected things happened I must share them with you on the timeline listed below!

1. 6:00 Party begins.

2. 6:05 Still vacuuming.

3. 6:15 Friday rush hour allows guests to start trickling in.

I was so excited to spend the evening with my friends. Little did I know that so much had happened in their lives in the short time since I had seen them last.

4. 6:30p.m. We all find out that Sunni and Xavier have sold their house and have bought a new one! I am so excited for them. I know this is something they have been wanting to do for a long time now.

5. 7:00p.m. Grilling is going great! We are all eating, eating and eating all the wonderful meat Heath is cooking. Heath's new grill is a huge success!! Boys are outside doing boy things, Girls are inside talking and dealing with 5 playful babies.

6. 8:00p.m. One of the girls says, "I have something to tell y'all!" I wait with bated breath.. "I think I'm pregnant!" And there was much screaming, crying, and rejoicing!

7. 8:01p.m. Joshua comes running through the living room with his new shirt on that says "Big Brother 2008"! Melissa and Peter are having baby #2! Yes, two pregnancy announcements in the span of one minute!! I was hovering between overjoy and having my first panic attack, fearing there may be something in the water.

8. 8:30p.m. Ella is begins a serenade of screaming because her poor little bottom is bright red with diaper rash. There's really only one cure for diaper rash... naked time. Naked Ella is one of the most precious and adorable things I've ever seen. Naked Ella does however come with a down side...why is the carpet wet?

9. 8:45p.m. Ava has bad diaper rash also so the cure is administered. Sunni stripped her naked for some air time on the tooshy. What's that noise? OMG, Ava is pooing diaperless! You know how in a moment of crisis you get like super human strength or cat like reflexes, you stop thinking, adrenaline kicks in and you just react...Sunni is now experiencing one of those moments as she is catching poo in her hands. This is something only a Super Mom could do.

10. 9:30p.m. Ella is in bed, comfortable and sleeping well.

11. 10:00p.m. All guests are on their way home.

12. 10:30p.m. Heath and Janelle are headed to bed.

By the time this night ended, I was overwhelmed to say the least. None of these things have still really sunk in. Sunni caught the poo y'all! 2 of my good friends are pregnant, AGAIN! It was great!

Laney and Ella love to play this piano together!
Joshua, Ella, Jonas and Ava had lots of fun playtime together.
Heath was in heaven with his new grill.
The Boys!
The Girls! Pre-poo and pee!

Friday, June 15, 2007

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Today is my husband's 28th birthday!! We both now have two years to go until the big 30! This has been one of the busiest weeks of my life (VBS + Heath's b-day) and today is one of the busiest days of the week. I wish I had the time to devote myself to write a sweet post of the wonderful, funny husband I have, but I literally have this 3 minutes right now to write.

Happy Birthday Heath!! I love you! I love you! I love you!

Heath got one of the best presents he could ask for this year. He finally got the grill of his dreams. We had a little birthday grill party for him tonight so he could break it in. It was a very exciting night. And I know I will be enjoying this present for a long time! Will post exciting pictures soon.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

First Shiner

Ella had never had a bloody injury until a couple of weeks ago. I am very surprised however that none of her injuries thus far have caused blood. I feel like she bonks her head constantly and has a permanent bruise on her forhead. But two weeks ago, she had not only one bloody injury but two.
Anticipating this would happen eventually, I wasn't as panic as I thought I would be. I think the reason in because I knew EXACTLY why she was crying. For the most part, having a baby that can't talk yet, usually when they cry it's a guessing game. But in the case of these accidents, I knew exactly what part of her body was in pain and I was able to come up a with a solution for that pain. It was a little bit of a relief to finally know exactly what she was thinking.

The first injury happened on a Tuesday night. Ella fell and busted her lip on Heath's new subwoofer that is on the floor. It was really really sad. Thankfully Heath was there when it happened and it really only bled for a minute and she didn't cry as hard as I had expected (or as hard as I would have if I had just busted my lip open).

Her second injury was just two days after that. She fell and busted her eye on our coffee table. She handled it very well though. She's so strong! And Heath and I were both there again to help her and comfort her.

You can kind of see the black eye (under the right eye) as a result of the bonking.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Janice and Joey's Day of FUN!

Okay, so it wasn't Janice and Joey's, it was Ella and Laney's! I just really like that Friends' episode.

Last Friday, Laney and Ella got to spend a lot of the day together doing fun things. It was their Friday Fun Day. That's my little creative name I came up with. Good huh?

We started the day at this fun little water park literally a block away from Kristin's house.



I wonder what she is thinking.












After the water fun, we cleaned up at Kristin's house and the girls had matching dresses. We didn't even know it until I got there and pulled out the dress I brought for Ella. So we had to take pictures of them, of course.
How cute are they playing their favorite game of peek a boo with each other?













The day ended with a stop at the park on the way home. Ella LOVES the park. We are having some swing issues however. I always want to take Ella to the park because it brings her such joy which brings me such joy, but I know as the mom that when it's time to leave it's going to be a huge issue. Everytime I start to pull her out of the swing she loses control of her emotions, screams and kicks and tries to do everything she can to stay in the swing. As a new mom, I'm not used to these tantrums as they are just starting and I'm sure it's just the beginning. I always feel so guilty when pulling her out, but it's been 30 minutes, your face is bright red from the heat, and your sweating. I think it's time to go. I wonder though how long she would actually stay in the swing if I didn't put a time limit on it. All day? All night?
This particular park time with Laney, the swings were on the other side kind of far and since we were only staying for a few minutes, I decided to not even let her see them or there would have been major issues.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Bluebell & Bluegrass - A Lovely Combination

So I'm a little late posting about this fun event our church had since 3 of my friends already posted their pictures from it a few days ago. We had a wonderful time. It was the first annual Bluebell & Bluegrass event and it was extremely successful. About 400 people from our church and community showed up for it. The music was great, the ice cream delicious, the weather was perfect and the fellowship with friends was priceless.
My good friend and talented photographer, Corey, took this picture! I love every picture she takes of Ella.
Here's my friend Corey now. This is such a cute picture! I love your hair!
Corey's husband and Heath's good friend Andy! Ella thinks he is so silly.
Could she be posing more for this picture?!
Sunni brought the goldfish goods for the babies.




























Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Amendment!

Since I posted my Summer Luvin a few minutes ago, two blessed people commented to let me know that Big Brother does in fact PREMIERE JULY 5th!!!! If y'all didn't leave those comments anonymously I would send you a big thank you email! Thank you, thank you! You have made my night and my week!
I must apologize to CBS. I spoke very badly about you and I was wrong. I totally love you again!

Summer Luvin'

Okay, so this spring I wrote a LOT about my favorite reality shows. I don't plan on doing that this summer, but I am definitely still watching.

Here's a run down of my summer viewings:

So You Think You Can Dance: This is the dance version of American Idol, so you know I love it. Some of these young dancers are so amazingly talented, the show keeps you well entertained, much like DWTS. FOX Wednesday 8/7c & Thursday 9/8c

Hell's Kitchen: I know this show has lots of cursing, but if drama is your middle name, then you must check it out. It's never ending and very fast pace. Chef Ramsay is possibly my favorite summer reality character. FOX Monday 9/8c

America's Got Talent: This show is kind of lame, but it's summer and I'm a little desperate. The thing I do really like about this show is their format. It's not your typical 10 finalists and vote one out each week. It's very different and too difficult to explain. There are some very interesting talents out there that this program showcases. NBC Tuesday 9/8c

The Biggest Loser: This is my favorite show of the summer. Of all the reality shows in the world, this one actually does some good. The transformation the contestants make is remarkable. And they say they are usually doing it for their families back home, which makes things very emotional. And it's usually full of its own helping of drama! NBC *can't find the day and time

Last Comic Standing: I will watch this show until it gets to foul for me. It can be extremely hilarious, but there's always those few "comedians" that feel like the worst possible things to say are the most hilarious, which totally ruins it for me. I don't understand that. NBC Wednesday 9/8c

American Inventor: If this show is like last year's, I'll lose interest after the first couple of episodes. But I will pick it up again during the last couple just out of curiosity of who the final inventors are and what they invented. ABC Tuesday 9/8c

Notice that I don't have any CBS shows. I'm not very happy about this because no CBS shows means NO Big Brother, my absolute favorite reality show of the summer if not of the entire year. Why CBS? That's what I want to know. Why would you run Big Brother for 7 successful summers and for no good reason just stop. You have made a big mistake CBS. You are losing millions of viewers that tuned in to the riveting drama not just once a week, but 3 days a week. Plus those die hard fans that actually paid money to register online to have constant access to the cameras in the house. Why would you want to lose all of that exposure?

Y'all enjoy your summer of shows and if I'm missing out on a can't miss show, well let me know!

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Funny Funny!

Y'all this made me laugh so hard! Ellen Degeneres is one of my favorite people. I think she is one of the funniest comedians and definitely THE funniest female comedian.

I am addicted to her talk show. I Tivo it everyday. The other night I was in bed catching up on her shows for the week and was laughing, full out belly laugh, the type where you can't breath, definitely can't talk, and tears are rolling down your cheeks. Heath came in because he thought something was wrong with me.

This is the clip that made me laugh so hard. The set up is she was filming short international promos for her show.
Save it for a moment when you need a good laugh.