Merry Christmas!

Holiday Fun

Ellie & I are having so much fun this year making fun treats to celebrate Christmas! She is so into making anything these days, whether it's a paper snowman or decorating a gingerbread house, she is in hog heaven (right along with her mama!).

We made sugar cookies last Thursday when we were stuck inside due to a wintry mix. Ellie loved rolling out the dough and sticking the cookie cutters in it most of all. Please excuse the major bed head, this is what she looks like most mornings when she wakes up!

Just a few of our cookies...notice many of them have little bites taken out already!

A few weeks ago we made our first gingerbread house together. (the first of what I hope will be many more in a long tradition) Ellie loved trying all of the different candies and quickly realized that she she liked her M&M's ("emmies" as she calls them) the best.

June 29th...

This is the due date of the newest member of our family! We heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time on Tuesday and it was such a relief. I am 12 weeks today and am looking forward to starting my 2nd trimester in the next few weeks. Like my first pregnancy I have been nauseous, in the afternoon-evening and it has not been fun! I am definitely starting to feel better and hope that I am nearing the end of this phase in my pregnancy. Ellie is excited about being a big sister and having a little baby in our house. When I tell her to say hi to the baby she waves at my belly, so cute! We are so thankful for the blessing of another child!

Catching up...Part 1

Ellie always looks forward to "driving" Paw's tractor when we go for a visit.

Helping Nan take pictures of the family on Thanksgiving

Ellie & Paw

Ellie loved "helping" her daddy rake leaves this fall, and of course jumping in them!

Apparently, she was a little hungry here. This girl still puts EVERYTHING in her mouth and it drives us crazy!!!!

NOVEMBER

I like to refer to November this year as nauseous November, which is fitting because I was sick for the whole month! Besides that Ellie & I both had a bad cold for one week. I watched a friend's daughter, Reece for a few weeks, and we traveled to Brevard for Thanksgiving. We had a fun time visiting with family and thankfully my nausea was a little better while we were away! I don't even remember if I took any pictures but if I did I'll post them later.

Catching Up...Part 2

OCTOBER

Halloween
This year we took Ellie out for her first trick-or-treating experience and we stayed out for an hour, which was much longer than we had expected her to last. It didn't hurt that we met up with her best buddy Teagen. Our little bumble bee buzzed around the neighborhood picking up candy for her mom & dad (mostly dad) to enjoy! Thanks Ellie!

In honor of Ellie's love for Mr. Potato Head instead of doing a traditional jack-o-lantern this year we opted for a princess potato head pumpkin. I found these kits at Target one day and knew this would be perfect!

NC State Fair

Ellie & our neighbor Emma checking out the piggies

This was our first experience in the kiddie section of the fair and we had so much fun watching Ellie enjoy the rides. She rode the ferris wheel, carousel (twice), cars, & a big slide. She would have ridden rides all day if we would have let her!