A Plethora of Pictures

Somehow, Elliana just grew up over night. I don't know where my baby went, but Elliana is a full-blown toddler now. It makes me sad. :(



Caleb and I were both noticing how "grown up" Ellie was this weekend. We couldn't put our finger on what has changed, but we agreed that she is no longer a baby. She is becoming more fun all the time and we keep saying that she is the BEST gift that God has ever given us!



She is communicating so well these days, and she's constantly surprising us by repeating words that we had no idea she could say. I guess it's time to start being careful of what we say in front of her. Ha!

Elliana likes to play in our sink while I dry my hair and put my make-up on. (Don't worry, I stay right next to her the whole time).







This past weekend we spent some time outside and I got some GREAT pictures. Have you ever been on Picnik? It's a fun website that helps you to edit and play with your pictures. I had WAY too much fun playing with some of these.

Take this picture for example. Here is the original:



Here is the same picture in black and white, with a little color.



...and still the same picture.



Here is another original:



I LOVE this effect!



These last 3 are just some new favorites (I didn't do much to them).





I wish I could make time stand still because I would love to keep Elliana small and adorable like this. ;)

Let The Fun Begin!

I can't believe that next weekend is May already. Once May is here, you can see summer on the horizon!

We have a lot of fun things planned for this summer (and next summer too, but I'll get to that).

First of all, this weekend Caleb and I will be leaving for Kansas City for Nate's (my brother-in-law, Caleb's brother) graduation from College. I can't believe he's graduating from College already, it feels like he just graduated from High School yesterday (sorry Nate).






Anyway, I'm looking forward to this weekend. It should be a lot of fun.

Once we get back from the Kansas City trip, we'll only have 5 weeks left until our 5th Anniversary cruise! This will be our first cruise and I am SO excited! I will miss Elliana terribly though. I'm ready for snorkeling, swimming, kayaking, staying up and sleeping in as late as we want to, all the fun shows, and all the yummy food that comes with a cruise. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures to share from that trip!





Last week we hosted my family for dinner so we could talk about/plan our next vacation. We (my side of the family) haven't been on a vacation together in 11 years! We're planning on taking a vacation next summer, 2011. We need a place that we can drive to since Jenn (my sister) and Jon will have a family of 6 by then (yikes). So we're talking about Galveston or South Padre Island, Texas.

My sisters and I spent a lot of time looking at and discussing beach house rentals over the weekend. It only made me want to go... I don't know... now!

Here is one of the houses we're looking at:









...and here is the other one:











Really, can you blame me for being a little excited?

Also on the list this summer is celebrating my grandma's and Caleb's grandma's 90th birthdays! We'll be going to Washington for Caleb's grandma's birthday.

All of the vacations and trips aside, I'm even looking forward to the little day to day things I'll be doing with Elliana this summer. We're going to go swimming at the lake by our house (free), go to the park to play and feed the ducks, have lots of play dates with cousins and friends, and I'm also hoping to spend a day or two at the zoo.

Yep, it should be a great summer!

I Got Nothin'

Like my sister Courtney said, after a while you run out of words for random.

I don't know why I've hit such writers block lately, but I just don't have a whole lot going on right now. So I'm stuck doing another "random" post.

I touched on this subject a little bit in my previous post, but I've had a really bad week where this subject is concerned and I just need to get a few things off my chest. I can't believe I'm about to be this honest or vulnerable, but it's just driving me up a wall right now. I am fed. up. with. my. body. I realize I could always try harder, but I feel like I'm trying pretty darn hard to improve my body right now. I know I said I'm not a good dieter, but by no means am I sitting around eating fast food and junk food. I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, lean meats, whole grains, and I try to keep my dairy to a minimum. I do let myself have dessert from time to time (maybe I need to cut that out), and I rarely eat red meat. Plus, I really am exercising on a regular basis. So why am I not thinner? I feel like I would have to eat nothing but celery and drink water to be smaller at this point.

Where is this coming from? A few bad comments from my nieces on both sides of the family (they're only 3 and 5 years old and they don't know any better), and a bad shopping trip today. Does anyone else get depressed when shopping for clothes? For the record, I don't hold anything against my nieces. It's like they say, "kids are honest". I guess this will always be an ongoing struggle for me. I. will. not. give. up! I'm sorry about the venting. Again, I just needed to get it off my chest. Whew! I feel better now. I can move on.

Onto a more positive subject, Elliana continues to make us laugh. We always say that she is the BEST thing that has ever happened to us. Last night we were eating dinner with Caleb's parents and carrying on in conversation. Ellie was trying to get our attention and inform us that she was "all done". I honestly did hear her the first time, but just kept talking. As we kept talking, Ellie just got louder and louder saying "all done" over and over. Finally, when she realized she wasn't getting through to us, she screamed "ALL DONE"!! Loud enough for all of us to stop mid-conversation, and just laugh. Maybe you had to be there, but it was SO funny!

I'm finished with work, for now. As I was leaving last week, I checked in with my boss and she said she might ask me to come back and train again in a few weeks since she's expecting another new employee. The experience/job has been perfect really. They've been really flexible with me in terms of hours, and I was only putting in about 10 hours a week. Sounds like I may be asked to come in and train on a regular basis. This could be a great/ perfect fit and answer to prayer. I'll only work for about a month and then get a month or so off. God is so good.

Elliana and I had a wonderful day. The weather has been gorgeous lately, and I plan on taking full advantage of it. Today Elliana and I went on a very long walk and spent a long time at the park. She actually went down the slide by herself for the first time today. Somehow she got twisted around and ended up head first, but when she reached the bottom of the slide she smiled and said "more"!

We don't have a lot going on this week and I couldn't be more happy about that. Our last month has been crazy busy, to the point that Caleb and I have become desperate for a night at home. Sounds like this will be the week that we get some R&R.

Once again, I'm mad at myself for not taking more pictures. I've been really bad at taking the camera with me. I'm going to work on this. Hopefully I'll have lots of pictures to show on my next post.

Since I don't have any pictures of my own to share, I stole these from facebook to share on here. Ha!

This picture was taken about 9 months ago. I can't believe how much Elliana has changed in that short time.



This was taken of our family on Easter. It's now one of my favorites.

More Random Thoughts

I guess I assumed that everyone that reads my blog also reads my sister's blogs. In case anyone out there doesn't know my sisters, or read their blogs, my sister Jenn recently found out that she is expecting baby #4! She is due at the end of November and I can't wait to meet and hold him or her.

I'm also anxiously awaiting to meet and hold another new nephew in about 1 month. My sister-in-law Shamree is expecting her 3rd child (a boy). Fantastic, this is only going to make my baby fever worse!


I told Caleb the other day that I couldn't think of anything to blog about and his response was "blog about how much you love me then". Ha! I love him even more when he says stuff like that. He never fails to make me smile or laugh.


My return to work is almost over. I can't believe it's been 1 month already! It's been good to be back and to earn some extra money. I really enjoyed the opportunity. At the same time, it has confirmed to me that I do not want to return long term.


Okay moms, I would love to hear from you on this one. I now weigh the exact same (even less some days) as I did before getting pregnant, and yet my body is an entirely different shape. It's so irritating! My question is, do you think that the saying that "your body will never be the same after having kids" is the hard, honest, truth, or a sad excuse? Just curious what you all think.


On that note, I have been told several times now that if you want to lose weight, your success depends 80% on diet and 20% on exercise. I find this depressing. I like food. And I'm not talking about all junk food and sweets, I just genuinely like all food, good and bad. I am NOT a good dieter. However, I am disciplined in exercise and working out. I've even gotten to the point that I enjoy exercise and working out, and I miss it when I don't.


In less than two months, Caleb and I will be on our cruise! I can't wait! This is another incentive for losing some weight.


Elliana stories, oh jeez, where do I begin with Elliana stories?


Last night we had dinner with Jenn and Jon at their house. After dinner Caleb undressed Elliana to put her in her pajamas and looked at me and said "this is the second night she's not going to get a bath". Well, Ellie heard the word bath, noticed that she was undressed, and made a bee-line for Jenn and Jon's bathtub and dove! Head first into the tub! No joke! Thankfully, my mom was there to grab her right before her head hit the tub.


As I've mentioned before, Elliana loves to move piles of anything from one side of the room to the other. Today she took all of my bras and panties out of my underwear drawer and threw them into the trash. Ha! Think she was trying to send me a message?


She is talking ALL the time now. Unfortunately we can't make out most of what she's saying, but we can't turn her off! We're loving it though and we're enjoying this stage so much! I wish she could stay at this stage forever. Okay, maybe not forever.


That's all I can think to talk about right now. I figured my post wouldn't be complete without a few pictures, so here you go:

Ha! This is how I found Elliana when she woke me up (she's my alarm clock) the other morning.

She LOVES being in this bathrobe.






Oh how I love the many faces my daughter makes. She is so animated!



I just like this one.



and this one.



My mom took this picture last Friday right before Caleb and I left for a date. Thanks Mom!

Little Dancing Queen

So... I don't know where Elliana learned to dance like this, but Caleb and I can't get enough of it.

We have to try so hard not to laugh when Ellie starts dancing. We thought everyone would enjoy watching too.

Easter Weekend

We had a fun, full Easter weekend. We spent time with lots of family and friends.

We got a lot of great pictures from the weekend. I can't believe how grown up Ellie looks in some of these pictures.

I just wanted to share our pictures with you. Enjoy!

Good Friday

"He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our sins;



the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."
Isaiah 53:5



For some reason this has been the verse on my mind and also the song in my head.

We have a lot of plans for this Easter weekend and I wanted to remind myself of what we're really celebrating. We're watching the Passion Of The Christ tonight and while I hate how gory it is, it's also good to let the reality of the pain that Christ went through sink in.

I promise my next post won't be so serious. I'm hoping to have lots of pictures to show from this weekend. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend.