Hello Mr. Milestone

Ella is officially in a big girl bed. Last week, Heath and I got her the cutest little toddler bed and made the plunch last night putting it together. I was NERVOUS, but more than that, I was sad! It's like the crib was the little bit of baby I had left to hold on to. And now the crib is in pieces and there's a bed in it's place.

But it's exciting! I love her little bed and it fits perfectly in her little room.





Ella's reaction when she first saw it.



As you can see, she was SO excited about her surprise.



She immediately had to make sure this bed bounced as well as her crib.




I think she's satisfied.






A family pic:


She did great in it last night. After we put her in bed, she played for about 30 minutes laying down with her stuffed animals, which is normal. At that time, I went in to check on her and sat on her bed and was talking with her for a minute, when she looked at me and said so sweetly:
"Mama, go out the door."
"What?", I said.
And she repeated, "Mama, go out the door."
I said, "Do you want me to leave?" She looked up at me with those sweet eyes and said,
"Yes."
So I guess a new independence has come with a new bed. But I'm okay with it. Really, I am. Really, I promise. I'm fine.


Bye, bye sweet crib!

My Girl

My good friend, Amber, so sweetly took these precious pictures of Ella Monday night! I am in such awe of her talent!







































FYI: Amber is the wife of Vernon, who lead us on our Sudan trip. It is her and her husband who started the ministry His Voice For Sudan, which is the ministry our group went through to the Sudan in July. They are an awesome couple and it is an honor to call them my friends.

Amber, how can I thank you enough? You have captured the complete sweetness of the girl that I love so much! I am so grateful for the gift you possess and the gift you have given me.

Sudan | Days 6, 7, & 8 - The Boys

On my last Africa post, I talked about what Jennifer, Corey and myself did the 3 full days we were at the orphanage. This post I want to share what the boys on our trip did for those 3 days.

There jobs were to build relationships with the men that help out at the orphanage and to help them with some of the manual labor, like collecting fire wood, pulling up tree stumps, fetching water, etc...




Then in the afternoons, when the kids got out of school, the boys got to spend a couple of hours playing with them, which was SO fun to watch!!

They taught them Duck, Duck Goose! Our boys really had a challenge because those kids are QUICK! It was very entertaining to watch how quickly our boys would get caught.






Here's a video that shows how fast and fun they are.

Duck Duck Goose from Janelle on Vimeo.

My sweet hubby running as quickly as he could.




One of the things we loved so much was when the orphans would sing to us, especially this one song in particular called You Are Welcome. It was their welcoming us to their orphanage song when we first arrived a few days prior to this. So our boys would randomly start singing the song and then all the precious orphans would start singing.

This video is of one of the random times when our boys got them to start singing and my husband, who is hilarious, could always get some good laughs out of the kids by being silly. You'll see.

Sudan | Heath dancing and singing with the Orphans! from Janelle on Vimeo.









Next Africa post I will dedicate completely to the water fetching. Y'all, it really is mind blowing to see what they have to do to get water. It was probably what impacted me the most on the trip.

The Biggest Loser

The Biggest Loser premiere came on tonight!!

I was so excited to plop my mentally drained self from Bible study down on the couch and watch the Biggest Loser. It's always been my favorite reality show.

Were you guys watching? Were you already crying within the first 5 minutes? Yea, me either. hehe

GO COWBOYS!

Last night was an awesome game between the Cowboys and the Eagles where the Cowboys proved victorious!

Maybe it had something to do with the cutest Cowboy cheerleader they could ever have.








Ella and her Daddy decked out in their Cowboy gear and watching their favorite team.












Ella and Joshua got to play a football game of their own!!