Time is flying!

This entire last year has gone by super quickly but these last few weeks...wow, they're going so fast. Not too much time for picture taking lately, we've been busy getting the house ready for summer. Keith and I painted the shutters last week, as y'all know, and this past Saturday we scrubbed our vinyl siding because it needed it SO bad and I planted flowers in my flower pot and flower bed. Fingers crossed that I won't kill all the flowers this year because I do not have a good track record as a gardener. We don't have a lot going on this week...just getting ready for Ella's 1st birthday (a week from tomorrow...wow!) and trying to ween her from nursing. Which, is actually a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Last week we were able to meet up with Tonya Vaughn and her girls, Taylor and Tinsley, for a playdate at the zoo. We had a great time looking at all the animals and spending time with Ella's buddies. I lathered Ella up in SPF 50 but of course didn't think to take care of myself in the suntan lotion department so I got toasted. Oh well, always have to get that first good burn of the summer...ouch. Here are some pictures of our zoo trip and also some of Ella monitoring our work on the house.

(By the way Sis, Mom alerted me to the fact that Ella probably shouldn't have worn this outfit yet because it's a b-day present. Oops...she looked cute though! :))

Tinsley:

Taylor:

Eating cherrios in the stroller and watching us work:

I love this look...she's thinking "Mom, I can't believe you're making me wear this hat and I am about to yank it off of my head in 2 seconds..."

Playtime Outside

We are LOVING this warm weather. So nice to be able to get outside and play for a while. Here are some pictures from our time outside yesterday:

Black Shutters

So we painted our shutters black today. Man, that was hard work! We only had to paint 8 shutters and our front door, but getting into those slats to make sure it was painted all the way was tough. It took us the majority of the day, but thankfully we were able to get it all done in one day. Ella helped us in the morning, but we quickly learned that trying to paint with a toddler = not getting much done, so after lunch Nana came and got Ella to spend the afternoon at her house. Here's some pictures of before and after. You can't tell much of a difference because the lighting is so different so I'm including a picture of our house during the snow because you can see the shutters better. They were hunter green before:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Keith painting and Ella helping:

Miss Emily's Photo Shoot

Ella and I had the priviledge of meeting up with Miss Emily and her mommy Carianne today to take Emily's 6 month (or actually 6.5 month because it took us so long to get together) pictures. Carianne, I'm still working on the pictures because there are A LOT, but I wanted to post just a couple for you to get a sneak peek. Emily sure is a cutie patootie! Very serious today, but we were able to get a couple of smiles.

And here's Ella wondering why in the world I am so worried about taking pictures of that other baby and not her! ;-) I'm sure it was a fluke, but today she pointed directly at Emily and said "babeee." Maybe she learned a new word? Who knows... Also, Aunt Sis you'll be happy to know that she learned how to drink out of a straw today so she can use the sippy cup that you gave her. She actually seems to do better with that than a regular sippy.

I hope everyone has a great weekend...we plan to paint our front door and shutters tomorrow so check back for pics later this weekend.

Happy 3rd Anniversary to us!

Keith and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary yesterday. When we got married I decided that I wanted to try and make a tradition of taking a picture of us on our anniversary so we can see how we change through the years (pregnancies, kids, grandkids, etc.). So, here's the pictures from our first 3 years together.

3 Years:

2 Years...can you say BLOATED? I was 36 weeks pregnant. Would you believe I only gained 26 lbs.? Looks more like 100!:

1 Year (celebrating in Sedona, AZ):

And for good measure, one from our wedding day (one of the only ones on my computer):

Time Outside

Yesterday Ella and I took advantage of the nice weather and hung out in the backyard for a little while. Look at those blue skies...makes me think I'm at Carolina again! :-)

Funny Pics and Video

Ella got some Biter Biscuits for Easter. I've been waiting to give one to her because I know they're so messy so I just opened them up yesterday. She loved it! This is what the end result was:

I'm just going to have to learn that messy = FUN! :-)

Also, Ella has really gotten into playing with the dogs. She loves to chase them...I'm not sure what they think about it, but they've been good sports so far.

More pictures from this weekend...

Thanks for coming to visit Sis! Can't wait to see you again in October! :-)

I'm going to get you!:

100th Post!

I've reached a big milestone! My 100th post! haha...:-) Anyways, my Aunt Sis has been in town visiting from South Dakota this weekend. I'm so glad she was able to get down here and spend some time with Ella now that she's a happy baby...the last time she was here Ella was only 3 months and still a little colicky, plus not sleeping well. All that equals a grouchy baby. So needless to say, I'm sure she didn't make a great impression! However, Ella's redeemed herself because we've had a ton of fun together this time. Here a few pictures and more to come tomorrow.

Some silly pictures of Ella getting her 'jammies on:

Ella figured out how to push a button on one of her toys so that it sings a song...she thought it was hilarious:

Finally, a fun walk with Pop-pop: