Neighborhood egg hunt. She definitely looks like a little rag-a-muffin! Skinned knees and all :)

Making a beach- 'Look Mommy, I made my foot print!'

The shoes have become sand toys. Bet Sam 'n ' Libby never expected that!

Playing in the sand box- notice the shoes in the sand....

Having tea on the new Tinkerbell tea set the Easter Bunny brought.

Easter Egg hunt in our yard

"Hi Fishies!"

Trip to the Zoo with Daddy when Mommy was in Asheville with Amy-Chris

"It's 'nowin!"

Amazing frozen waterfall on the side of the road on the way to NC via the 'Dragon' aka Hwy 129. Thanks to the rock slide on I-40 we had to find alternate routes to visit our families.

Mary Rose' 90th Birthday party. Ella Kate was kinda grumpy (no nap) until she got some ice cream!

Potty Training and Snow Day

Potty training happens anywhere anytime! We've been eating supper in the living room in front of the fire b/c it's so cold in the dining room! Anyway, Ella Kate randomly tells us she needs to "tinkle on potty" (which is GREAT!) and on her way over to it she grabs the pork chop off my plate and proceeds to take big bites out of it. Notice the get up: balerina (aka princess) slippers, a tu-tu (aka choo-choo train-- guess it sounds similar??), big girl panties, her jacket (no, it's not that cold in the house, she just wanted to play with it), a plastic cow in one hand, and a pork chop in the other. Whatever works, huh?

Giving Abbey "lovin." I guess she was trying to give her a kiss! I meant for her to hug and pose for the camera.

Coloring on Mommy's bed. All dolled up in 3 hair bows, necklace, bracelets, and a spider ring from Halloween!

"Calling" Daddy at work.

There's the one I was aiming for!

And a cute pose with "Pink Francine"

December catch-up

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks. They're in reverse order, sorry, I didn't have the energy to sort them out! We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's. Here's hoping 2010 is as good as 2009 was!

Ella Kate's new dress!

So, do you like it? I hope so because I made it!! Ok, well, I didn't make it by myself, there was more than a little help from Linda. Neither of us thought it would turn out well, but we were pleasantly surprised! We even made it reversable. I now understand why we pay professional seamstresses to make these dresses, though, they're way harder than they look!

New Year's Eve

Since TN played in the Chick-Fil-A (aka Peach) Bowl on New Year's Eve all of our friends were preoccupied. We went out to dinner by ourselves and truly enjoyed our evening out. Thanks to Mimi and Pops for babysitting. It was rainy and cold, so we didn't stay out to watch the ball drop on Market Square. It was a nice night and we're looking forward to 2010.

Christmas and Christmas Eve

After a full morning of opening presents from Santa, Ella Kate was super tuckered out and took a great nap during which the Elves returned with some more gifts! She had so much fun going through her stocking, couldn't get enough of the play-dough and her necklaces and bracelets. She also got some plastic Dairy Queen ice cream cones. I think we had just as much fun watching her open the presents as she did opening them! Each time she opened one she cried "WOW!" even if she didn't know what it was. Kinda like she's already aiming for politeness :)

New vacuum from MimiPops, wish it was real, we'd have super clean floors!

The jacket was from MimiPops and she wanted to wear it as she opened and played with more gifts!

She got a set of doll toys- a pack 'n' play, baby carrier seat, high chair, bouncer, changing pad, and a carrier that she wears. She loves taking care of her babies!

She brought out each gift, even the ones that were way too heavy and big to carry. She had SUCH a good time divvying them up and tearing off the paper.

She got a big stuffed dog that she named Snoopy (after she saw the Snoopy Christmas "book" from my parents). Snoopy is a girl and she wears Ella Kate's necklaces and bracelets when Ella Kate is napping :)

Chris' photography

An ornament Ella Kate made at school of her hand print. Too precious for words. I'll cherish this one.

Ella Kate setting out Santa's cookies and milk. She was so excited to see they were gone and nothing but crumbs was left the next morning. She kept pointing to the chimney and saying Santa? Reindeer? Cookies?

Reading "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" with Mommy

Reading "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" with Daddy

Making Santa's Christmas cookies.

Mixing the cookie dough-- she LOVES helping in the kitchen, even washing dishes!

Funny picture of Lacey hiding under my desk when Chris was vacuuming. She is so scared of that vacuum!

Cuteness after church. I love that hat!

Sitting with Daddy in front of the fire. It has been SO cold here. Today it was a high of 24 and the wind chill made it 13!!!!

Ella Kate loves her Abbey. Abbey is SO patient with her, too. Abbey was just lying there and Ella Kate climbed on top and rather than asking her to ride she just hugged her around the neck and loving her to pieces. She loves her doggies and asks for them all the time. One of her favorite books right now is "Busy Doggies" and she labels each dog as one of hers and giggles and laughs at each picture.

Visit with Gran-Gran

Weekend in North Carolina

Lauran and I ran another 1/2 marathon this weekend- Thunder Road in Charlotte. Kristi ran, too, but she didn't stay with us so no pre-race pictures. The temp was MISERABLE-- 32F at the start line and 36F by the time we finished, at least it wasn't raining! We wore double layers top and bottom- I had on cuddl duds under my tights and a turtle neck with a fleece over that. La wore pretty much the same type of thing. We had gloves and ear muffs, too. I didn't shed a single layer the whole time! For the first several miles I could see my breath, but either it stopped, or I just quit noticing. Needless to say, it was cold. I guess I'm paying for it now b/c I have laryngitis. It was worth it, though, b/c I ran a PR. YIPEE! It only took me 2 years to get back to my old self after Ella Kate was born (2y 9m if you could the pregnancy time!).
After the race we drove up to visit my Grandmother, my Dad's mom, who the great grands call Gran-Gran. That night at the hotel I was trying to coax Ella Kate to bed with bribery of having Papa read her bed time story. It was a great family moment and thankfully Chris had the presence of mind to get it on camera. I love this picture!

Catharine 98, Kathryn 32, and Elizabeth Kathryn 2yrs. Gran-Gran will be 98 in February, and they call her young, b/c there are people well over 100 (one that's even 109!) at her resort-I mean retirement home!

Ella Kate sat in a booster seat for the first time on this trip. She did really well and didn't try to wiggle out of it. We called it her "big girl" seat. This was at lunch in the 50's style diner at the retirement home (one of 3 restaurants/dining rooms). There was an old Mickey Mouse hidden in a mural on the wall- man, she picked it out way before any of us noticed it. I'm afraid a trip to Disney may be in our future.

I think she looks great for almost 98! I'm so lucky and proud to have her in my life!

Chris tried some different features on his camera and took some picts in black & white - they look pretty cool!

We had to try a new route home thanks to the big rock slide at the TN/NC line. This one took us up through VA, but somehow it was actually shorter than our normal route-only took 3.5 hrs instead of the usual 4+hrs! After 2 hrs of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, she finally fell asleep; cuddling "pink lovey" as usual.

We got home with enough time to spare to work on our Christmas decorations. It's looking pretty good thanks to our little helper.

Ella Kate even did the honors of putting the angel on top of the tree. She was so into putting the ornaments on the tree- oh, to be 2 again!