I love being a mom

This last year has been amazing. I still can't believe that I'm a mom and that Ellie is such a beautiful little girl. Being able to stay home at with her has been the most amazing blessing. I love getting her up every morning and miss her every night after she's gone to bed. Here are some pictures of story time, my favorite because we get to cuddle.
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

What does a cow say? Mooooo!!!!

Great Date #2

From MarriedLife Live:

"Most of us want to spend time with our spouse, but most of us don't spend enough time with our spouse. When we do get time together, a lot of us experience the classic, "What do you want to do? I don't know, what do you want to do?"

MarriedLife presents the Great Date Experiment. For the next 6 months, once a month, MarriedLife is rolling out a different Great Date. Each date is complete, yet you get to choose the options. "

If you'd like to have some GREAT DATES (they are so fun!!), you can download the dates here.

Each date has a theme, one of the six essentials of marriage: (in no particular order)
1. Hurry home
2. Nurture Romance
3. Celebrate Differences
4. Cultivate Communication
5. Trust God
6. Finish Together

Our dates have been so much fun and we've made some great memories that will last a lifetime. Here are some pictures from our second Great Date a couple weeks ago.

We went to Casablanca, a Mediterranean restaurant, and tried a bunch of appetizers for dinner. So good!!!

Then we went to a park and swung on the swings.

Then we went to a grocery store and picked out a dessert for each other (something the other had never tried before - under $2) and told each other why we picked what we did.

Steve got me some milk chocolate because I started liking milk chocolate more since my pregnancy. I got Steve peanut butter whoppers because he loves peanut butter and malt, so the combo must be fabulous!

The paper square is our "date instructions."

Then Steve carved our initials on a tree in my mom's front yard.

So romantic... ;-)

Four years (June 11) and going strong! I love this man!!! He is the greatest husband and father a woman could ask for! I thank my God for him so much!!!

Thanks to Buckhead Church MarriedLife Live for such a great date; and thanks to my mom for babysitting for free!

The Nun

So one of the things Ellie loves is to leave her shirt on her head as we are changing her clothes. She gets so excited when we leave it on her head that she stands up and goes straight to the mirror and looks at herself. Completely adorable.

This time she loved the way her pink top draped over her shoulders so much that we just left it on for a bit while she played around the house. Maybe Ellie will be a nun someday. Who knows?

I mean really. Couldn't you just gobble her up?

Some of Ellie's favorite things: a ball, and her musical table that Uncle Kevin & Aunt Jackie gave her for Christmas. Thanks guys!

B is for Bread

To say that Ellie loves bread is an understatement. Here she is digging into a fresh loaf of warm homemade bread. Mmm!!











We love Daddy...

Barbie Dolls

A couple weeks ago my friend Barbara came to visit. She is my longest friend; we've known each other since 5th grade. She gave Ellie an adorable Barbie shirt, so we decided to take a photo shoot of the two blonde hair blue-eyed beauties.

Yummy yummy in my tummy

Okay, kids are pretty cute. But they are ESPECIALLY cute when they eat...




We've been teaching Ellie sign language. Raising her hands above her head means "all done!" It also means lots of food in the hair!


Ellie likes to say "mooooo!!!" while she eats. This seems to be her favorite word lately... :-)


Mmm... corn and something green.


She's so cute we can't even stand it sometimes...


Ellie recently realized she can control her eyebrows. So she's been having fun making this mad face, and then smiling really big. We caught her on camera this time, but she can look even meaner. It's so funny!


Hmm... where does this go?

Oh, right here! I mean, it must, it fits just perfectly!!


We made a smoothie, and Ellie liked it a lot! Look at her FOUR teeth!!

Puppy Hugs

Ok, so Ellie really loves her little puppy. Here she is giving some serious huggin'.

Fresh Milk

We gave Ellie some of the fresh milk from Carlton Farms and we're trying to figure out if she liked it or not...

Y'all Come Back Now, Ya Hear?

This past Friday, we went to Carlton Farms to see some animals and buy some fresh milk and eggs.

Easter Sunday

C'mon now, how cute is Ellie's Easter dress?!?!?!?!?

Raindrops On Roses And Whiskers On Kittens....

These are a few of Ellie's favorite things:

Taking her socks off.

Playing with the wind chimes.

Riding on Daddy's shoulders.

The Hunt Is On!

The park near where we live had a free Easter Egg Hunt the weekend before Easter. Only about a bazillion people showed up.

Ellie was so distracted by all the people running after eggs that I had to pick up a few for her otherwise she would have come away empty handed. I only had to push over two toddlers to get some for her.

In Like A Lion

Supposedly, March is "in like a lion, out like a lamb".

On March 1st during the 11:00 am service at Buckhead Church it started snowing. Of course, we took Ellie outside to see what she would think about it. I think it ended up being 4 - 6" in the Buckhead area.

Ellie's First Birthday

Well, the downside of playing at a park with a million other kids is that you can pick up pink eye. That's exactly what happened. Ellie had pink eye for her first birthday so it just ended up being us, the grandparents and our friend Katie for the party.

Ellie had a great time and really enjoyed her sugar-free banana cake. We actually had to help her get messy.

The Park

So, there is this AMAZING new park just a half mile from where we live. We love to take Ellie there whenever we get a chance. She loves the slides!