Ella Kate - 5 Months

This past Saturday was Ella Kate's 5 Month birthday and this past Wednesday (11/19) she cut her first tooth. She is a rolling over machine these days and is definately ready to be on the move. She is starting to get on her knees when on her tummy and we are working on sitting up solo. She loves her Jumperoo (Thanks Sarah) and is quite a little jumper. We used to have a big trampoline when I was a kid and I can't wait until Ella Kate is old enough to have one. I hope she thinks it is cool for her Mom and Dad to be jumping on the trampoline b/c we definately will be :) Only recently has she begun to take interest into sitting up while playing. It absolutely amazes me that only a month or so ago we were working on rolling over and now we have conquered that and have moved on to sitting up. I wish I could learn and adapt that fast.

I have attached some pics from a photo session that we had at our house. Dave was the photographer and he did a great job. Also attached are some of my favorite little reindeers..

This will be Ella Kate's first Thanksgiving and I am so excited about having our new little addition with us during the holidays. I remember last Thanksgiving is when we broke the news that we were expecting to the fam. We are going to B'ham this year for Thanksgiving and it will be fun to watch Ella Kate interact with all her little cousins. She has 5 little girl cousins to play with including one that is only about 6 weeks older than she is. We had an early Thanksgiving dinner last night (Sunday) with Dave's side of the family and had a great time. Dave smoked a turkey and I made a casserole. It was fun hanging out with the fam and laughing about all of Leigh's electronic equipment.

Emmy & Kenneth's Wedding - St. Simon's Island

This past weekend our good friends Emmy and Kenneth got hitched!! The wedding was held at an outdoor chapel that Emmy's uncle, an archtiect, had built on his property. Everything was just beautiful and the band at the reception was great (especially when Kenneth's Mom decided to join in). Lisa's rendition of Bobby McGee is unmatched in my mind. Dave even danced :) During the wedding weekend we stayed at the King and Prince hotel on St. Simon's Island. The hotel was just perfect and we are already planning to go back for a vacation there this summer. Friday night when we arrived we got all dressed up for the Rehearsal Dinner. As you can see Miss Ella Kate thought it was all so exciting that she just decided to nap through out the entire dinner. I still can't believe she slept through the whole thing. There was 100+ people at the rehearsal dinner. She snoozed through all the toasts or maybe I should say "roasts" and even stayed asleep for the special entertainment by the Chicken Man. I can truly say that I can't exactly explain what the Chicken Man was or did but he was hilarious:)

After the rehearsal dinner Dave and I went out with the gang and Dave's Mom and Dad who were also in town for the wedding took Ella Kate back to the hotel. Ella Kate normally is fast asleep by 8pm and is my good little sleeper. However she thought when LeLe and PaPaw took her back to the hotel Friday night it was party time. When Dave and I got back to the hotel around midnight she was wide awake and playing as you can see from the pics.





Saturday morning there was a Brunch on Sea Island and then Saturday night was the wedding. The wedding Saturday night was perfect however the brunch did not go as smooth as I had planned. All was going well until we arrived on Sea Island, which is a private island, and entered the security gates. We arrived a little before 11am and I had planned to feed Ella Kate once we got to the brunch around 11:15am. Well as we were about to get out of the car I was shaking Ella Kate's bottle and noticed it was leaking. Oh yes - I forgot the nipple to the bottle. You see I had this brilliant idea to organize the nipples since these days I have several different sizes that I use depending on if I put rice cereal in her bottle or not. Well my brilliant idea now seems pretty stupid. Anyway Sea Island was almost a 20 min drive from our hotel and a bottle with no nipple is useless. Needless to say I dropped Dave off at the brunch and went on a search for a grocery store with Dr. Brown's nipples. I also found out that day that Miss Prissy is pretty picky about which bottle nipples she will use and Dr. Brown's is the one and only. To make a long story short I finally find the Dr. Brown's nipple and arrived back at the party just as it was ending to pick Dave up.

The wedding Saturday evening was just perfect and as you can see from the pics Ella Kate had a great time!! Sunday morning we all slept in and Dave and Ella Kate played while I packed up all of our stuff. The King and Prince had a wonderful Sunday brunch so we filled up and hit the road. Such a fun weekend.

Veteran's Day

Today was Veteran's Day and Ella Kate and I went to Lenox Mall to do a little shopping and then went for a jog around Laurel Park.

Ella Kate all dressed up for a day of shopping in a bonnet that I wore when I was a little tot.


Ella Kate all bundled up for our afternoon jog.


I have also included a couple of shots of Miss Priss attempting to eat solids. As you can see most everything ends up on her and me :) Actually she is doing much better but it is a messy process. She is quite a pro at blowing bubbles these days so even though she opens her mouth and takes a bite almost immediately she starts blowing bubbles and laughing as if it is a game. Let's just say it is a work in progress.



It is amazing how mobile she is getting these days. She rolls over back to tummy and tummy to back like crazy. It makes me nervous everytime I change her diaper on the changing table b/c as soon as I lay her down she is automatically trying to roll over. She is starting to get on her knees when she is on her tummy so I feel sure that crawling will definately be coming sooner than I am probaly ready for. While we were out shopping today I bought her a high chair cover for restaurants b/c she is super nosey :) For example we went to La Parilla for dinner tonight and she was being fussy in her carrier. However as soon as I took her out and sat her on my lap where she could see everyone she was as happy as she could be. She can sit up pretty securely in her high chair at home and I think she will be ok sitting in the little restaurant high chairs now too. I think we will at least try it out next time we go out to dinner.
Pics of our happy little princess!!!




That is all for now. Enjoy all the pics. I will post details and pics of this past weekend at St. Simon's Island for Emmy and Kenneth's wedding tomorrow.

Our Sweet Angel

We had a fun Halloween weekend with Miss Prissy Pants! On Halloween night we went across the street to a neighbors Halloween party and had a great time!! There were tons of kids and Ella Kate just loved watching all of the kids run and play.
We are continuing with the solid foods and so far she has had Rice Cereal and Bananas. She is not to sure about solid foods quite yet. She sits up in her new high chair like a big girl and while she looks the part of a baby eating solids I am not convinced that she has actually swallowed any of the solid foods yet. Dave and I can't help to laugh because we put a spoonful of bananas in her mouth and she very politely spits and sputters what looks like the entire spoonful of bananas back out. We will keep trying and hopefully she will take to it soon.
The good news is that she has conquered the back to tummy rollover. It all started last week and now she is a rollover machine. If you lay her down on her back within two seconds she will have flipped over to her stomach. It is amazing to see how quickly she can sling herself around. We have been working on the back to stomach rollover for some time now as before she would get so close but just could not figure out how to get her arm out of the way. But when she finally made her mind up that she was going to do it there was no stopping her.

Well that is all I have for now. Everything is going great and Ella Kate is the joy of our lives. I know it sounds cheesy but it is so true. People always ask me did you ever think you could love something so much? It truly is amazing how much you can love one little person. She means the world to her dad and me and we are thankful everyday for her sweet smile.