Ellie Grace Fellers

Happy Halloween

2010-11-07T20:20:00.000-05:00

We started off Halloween on Thursday. Some of the women on our street got together with all of the kids and carved pumpkins. We had fun! The kids were a little wild but it was a good time!

This is mine and Ellie's pumpkin. It is an owl sitting on a tree. The owls eyes broke, so a toothpick had to hold them together.

Friday Ellie got to bring her costume to school for Trick-or-Treating there. They also had a party after naptime!!

Saturday morning, Denise and I along with the kids surprised Mimi and Papa and rang their doorbell at 9 am. Mimi and Papa were still in bed! We had to let them see the kids in their costumes! The kids got lots of candy from them plus Frosty coupons and $10. Thanks Mimi and Papa!!

The kids were acting so crazy! Oh my, they were so hyper!! We couldn't even get them to be still for pictures.

Braxton was a Race Car Driver for Lightin' McQueen and Ellie was a Kitty Cat. I am working on Ellie's third scrapbook. That year she was a cat too. Ever since she saw the pictures of her dressing as a cat for Halloween, that's what she said she wanted to be.

Saturday night we went to Mimi Mary and Papa J's for Trick-or-Treating in their neighborhood.

Cousin Haedyn was a Candy Corn Witch!

Mimi Mary dressed up too!!

On Sunday, we had Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood. Denise, Richard, Braxton, Chris, Janell and baby Noah joined us.

Ellie was so excited to hold baby Noah!

Superman Noah!!!

We all had a wonderful weekend spending time with friends and family. Ellie is already asking to go Trick-or-Treating again!!!

Reunion Fall Festival

2010-11-02T12:00:00.000-04:00

Our neighborhood had its annual fall festival two Saturday's ago. I took Ellie and then Christian joined us later. They have a ton of stuff for the kids to do. Ellie's favorite was the bunnies. Christian and I have thrown around the idea of her getting a bunny for Christmas. We will see what Santa brings!

Her next favorite things was the trampoline! This girl loves to jump!!

I love this pic! Back flip time!

The Bus Fair! This is a purple and green (I think, I cant really remember) school bus where the inside has been converted a gym! See pic below! The Bus Fair comes to Ellie's school too. Ellie loves the Bus Fair and Ms. Lora!

Then we had to make a second stop at the bunnies! I couldn't get her away from them!! She loves animals so much!!

I think someone is tired!!

Watkinsville Fall Festival

2010-11-01T20:05:00.006-04:00

A few Saturday's ago Ellie and I met Christian's sister, Elisa, her daughter Haedyn, Mimi Mary, Elisa's in-laws, and a few of her friends at the Watkinsville Fall Festival. They had a few bounce houses, pony rides, face painting, a petting zoo, and a tractor ride for the kids. They had tons of craft booths and several stations of what looked like yummy food. I wanted a funnel cake, but never ended up getting one. I did however grab a bag of boiled peanuts on the way out. Daddy, Ellie and I all enjoyed them when we got home!!

Ellie, Haedyn and Ruby

....closeup of the girls...not pictured is Carter, the only boy, and his sister Ansley

Ellie had to get her fast painted!

Train ride with Mimi Mary

Horse ride time...or should I say pony!

Haedyn riding her pony

Ruby riding her pony!

Ellie's 4th Surgery

2010-09-28T12:05:00.001-04:00

Ellie had her 4th set of tubes on September 7th. We are crossing our fingers and praying this is the last set! Ugh! She did really well. She couldn't eat anything after midnight the night before. We had to be at the surgery center by 8:10 am. We left the house close to 7 am. She said her tummy hurt on the way there. Once we were there, she didn't talk about being hungry anymore.

She was fine until we had her put on the hospital gown. I don't know if she remembered all of the other surgeries or if she just didn't care to wear it. I had to distract her, a lot, after that. I took her back to the OR. I think it will always be hard for me to take her back...no matter the age. I was holding her. She was fine until we walked into the OR. She saw the equipment and the doctors and nurses standing around....she freaked. She was crying so hard. They put the mask on her face to put her sleep. It was hard seeing her cry get softer and softer. I don't know! Just not something a mother wants to see!!

Her first, second and fourth surgeries were at Meridian Mark CHOA down by Northside Hospital. The third surgery was at the Gwinnett location of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. The Gwinnett location is much closer for us, but they didn't have an opening there until the end of October!

I have posted pictures from her first surgery till now. I love seeing how much she has grown and changed!

Surgery 1: Waiting Room

Surgery 2: Waiting Room

No pictures from the waiting room at Surgery 3!

Surgery 4: Waiting Room

Can you tell that she loves the camera?

Surgery 1: Pre-op Room

Surgery 2: Pre-op no picture!

Surgery 3: Pre-op play area

Surgery 4: Pre-op Room

Surgery 1: Post-op Room

Surgery 2: Post-op Room

Surgery 3: Post-op Room

Surgery 4: Post-op Room

Vacation 2010

2010-09-09T10:29:00.012-04:00

Back in August, we took a family vacation to PCB, FL. We had a wonderful, relaxing time. We left about 3 am on Saturday morning. Most people thought we were crazy, but Ellie gets very bored on long road trips. She slept all but two hours! It was nice! It was raining when we got into PCB at about 9 am. I was really worried about the weather because there was a tropical storm that was over PCB. It said rain the whole week! It cleared up right about lunch time on Saturday. We were able to spend the rest of the day on the beach. It rained on Sunday all day. Other than that, we had beautiful weather! Much better than last year.

Christian's youngest brother, Grant, and his girlfriend Lauren came down and stayed with us until Wednesday! It was nice having some extras hands to entertain Ellie. Christian's sister, Elisa, and her family came down along with her in-laws and stayed in the same resort. Ellie loved being able to play with Haedyn!

Unfortunately, I uploaded these pictures in reverse order! Sorry!!

One night, we took the girls up to Pier Park. They have a lot more rides and activities for the kids to do now.

Ellie on the train ride!

Ellie getting a little sun!

Haedyn and Ellie had a sleepover!

Ellie's new way to take pictures! So cute!

We stayed at the same resort as last year but a different condo. Last year we were on the 24th floor! This year we were on the 23rd floor. We love being high up, so we can have great views of the beach. We were able to see dolphins jumping out in the water on Sunday! It was so neat! The girls loved it!!

Nap time!!

On Wednesday night, we went to Captain Anderson's for dinner!! Yummy! Such great food!!

Ellie had to have her towel like mommy!

One Sunday night, Aunt Elisa watched Ellie while Christian, Grant, Lauren and I went to dinner! It was very nice....except Grant and Christian acted like kids. They made me feel right at home! Just kidding guys!

After we were all dressed and ready to go we realized......

The girls had on stripes.....

....and the boys had on red shirts! Too funny!!

Ellie's new thing?!?! Cheerleading!!!

She was asking to stunt the entire time we were there. At first, she wouldn't lock her legs. By the end of the week, she was getting better at stunting!! I have a cheerleader on my hands!!

Ellie and Haedyn

Just some cute pics!

We had a wonderful time! I am ready for our next vacation. As always, it went by way too fast!!

Ellie Pics

2010-08-07T07:25:00.001-04:00

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We had Ellie's 4 year pictures back in June! I love Maura, our photographer!! She is absolutely wonderful!! If you are in the Atlanta area you have to look her up!

http://www.maurarobertsphotography.com/

It was so hot when we took pictures! By the end of the shoot, the back of my hair was completely soaked with sweat! Gross, I know. I think it was a heat index of like 105! I was a little nervous that we would look hot in the pictures. I was so excited to see that we didn't!!

We have been running non-stop these days. Ellie plays outside till about 8:30 pm every night. It is so hard to get her in! I will hate when winter gets here and she cant play outside!!

I took Ellie to the dentist for the first time yesterday. It was okay.....she was excited at first. I told her that she was going to get sparkles on her teeth. When the hygienist pulled out the instruments, she flipped her cookies!! She was screaming with big crocodile tears! I felt awful. She wouldn't even let me pick her up! We finally got her calmed down. She sat on my lap while they cleaned her teeth. I really think she has been traumatized by all of the ENT visits.

Speaking of ENT visits, she had an ENT follow-up after her dentist appointment, poor kid! This is the 4th visit since May, I think. Every time we go in, she has an infection in her left ear. She has been on two antibiotics and two different types of drops this summer. I feel like this is never going to end! She still had an infection in her left ear. The doctor and I were discussing a few options: take the left tube out completely and see what her ear does.

This could be done one of two ways: in the office with no anesthesia or in the OR with anesthesia! My problem with the first way is that she is already terrified to go to the doctor. She keeps begging me not to take her. They have had to suction her ear out before. Trying to hold your screaming child down, is not fun! I was not a fan of this option. The second option I am more open to, but I still have some hesitation with. She is 4 and has gone under anesthesia 3 times already. If they take it out under anesthesia that is 4 times. If she starts with the infections again, they would have to put her under again to put another tube in. That would be 5 times when she is not even 5. That bothers me!!

The doctor believes the reason she is having all of the infections now is because the left tube could be infected itself. So are final option and choice is to go in and take out both tubes, clean the heck out of her ears, and put new (possibly a different material tube) tubes in! I am still a little worried/concerned. I do think it is the best option. I just hate the she is still having to deal with this. It doesn't seem to bother her. She can tell me when her ear is draining. She never complains of it hurting, so that does make me feel a little better. I am not sure when her surgery will be. We leave for vacation next Saturday. I think it will be in September.

Lake Days

2010-07-22T13:20:00.007-04:00

A couple of weekends ago, we took our new neighbors girls to the lake with us, Baylee and Katie. Ellie LOVES them! This was our first time taking Ellie's "friends" with us to the lake. It was a lot of fun. Baylee and Katie are sooo good with her! They have a little sister that is 3, Emily. Ellie loves the older girls! She will play with girls her own age, but as soon as older kids come around she wants to be with them. It is nice for me because they don't argue like the younger ones do.

Baylee and Katie are cheerleaders for a competitive squad. Ellie loved cheering with them. Ellie walks around and counts now when she does some "cheerleading" moves.

It is funny how natural some of this come to Ellie. She just did it when they told her too!

Katie, Ellie and Baylee

I think this is Katie.

Baylee....

Ellie

Baylee was cracking me up at all of her jumps into the water. She definitely gets some height.

Katie, Ellie and Baylee...see what I mean.

Daddy pushing Ellie in the water!

So cute!!

Cute Ellie Stories:

Last Tuesday night, Ellie started complaining that her head was hurting. She was up and down most of the night still complaining of her head hurting. I gave her some Tylenol, but I am not sure it did anything for her. She was running somewhat of a low grade fever. I took her to the doc Wednesday morning. They told me it was probably viral and to watch her. We got home, and she was laying on the couch. All of a sudden she lifted her head up and said, mommy my head doesn't hurt anymore. I told her that was good but unfortunately she was still running a little bit of a fever. Ellie asked what a fever was. I told her it was her body trying to fight something. She looked up at me and said, I'm not trying to fight anyone! How sweet is that?

We have been trying to get Ellie to tell us when she wants more food at dinner. Most of the time she will eat whats on her plate and then says she done. The other night I made a pizza. She ate one piece and then went to get up. I asked if she was hungry still and she said yes. I made her sit down and eat another piece. After the second piece, she said she was done. I asked her again if she was hungry, and she said no. About an hour later, she was getting ready for bed, and she asked for more food! So, I go into the spill that she needs to eat more at dinner. The next morning I was backing out of the garage headed to drop her off at school. I said, ugh! Mommy is hungry! She immediately chimed in, you should have ate more dinner!! At least I know she was listening! :)

In Ellie's class at school, they are learning which president is on each bill. Yesterday when we got to school, Ms. Josette asked Ellie who was on the dollar bill. After a few seconds, she answered George Washington. This morning when we got there Ms. Josette asked Ellie again. Ellie hesitated, and I asked her if it was Bob or Fred. She immediately said no and then said washing machine! Haha! It was so cute!!

July 4th

2010-07-22T13:00:00.002-04:00

On July 4th, we went to Elisa's house for a late lunch/early dinner (C's sister). We had a wonderful meal! Papa J and Mimi Mary brought their golf cart and the Cadillac Escalade that they gave the girls for Christmas. It was fun watching the girls ride in the Escalade with their shades on!!

That night we went out behind our house and watched fireworks for 2 hours! I have to say by about an hour and a half in I was done with fireworks. It was cool because we could see the fireworks from Lake Lanier, Chateau Elan, Mall of GA and the ones that our neighbors were setting off! Ellie didn't like the loud noise at first. I ran to the house and got her ear plugs that she wears in the pool and at the lake. She was good then!

Its funny too because a few weeks ago one of the older girls, Ansley, on our street was having a sleepover for her birthday. Ellie just HAD to stay. I should have taken her home with me....C and I didn't leave their house until midnight. Ellie wanted to stay so bad, so I did feel bad if I made her go home. Well, the kids finally went to sleep after 12 am. I get a call at 3 am from Cliff, Ansley's dad, saying that Ellie wanted to come home! I felt so bad! Tammie, the mom, said that she tried to get Ellie to get in bed with her, but she wouldn't. They brought her home (they only live 3 doors up), and she went right to sleep! My point is that she loves Tammie now. For the fireworks, she HAD to sit in Tammie's lap! Every time we see Tammie now she runs and gives her the biggest hug!! So cute!!

My Sweet Girl in her festive dress!

The best picture I could get of the girls with Mimi and Papa!

TX Peeps

2010-07-12T12:17:00.007-04:00

Back in June, my moms youngest sister Penny and her family came into town. Penny, Robert and Chris arrived early Sunday morning. Scott, my cousin..Penny's oldest son, arrived with his crew, wife Candra and two daughters McKenna and Malorie on Tuesday night. It was great getting to see them all.

On Wednesday, we went to Lake Lanier Islands. We arrived right about 10 am when they opened and left about 4 pm. The kids did great! Ellie and McKenna got to do the slides. Unfortunately, Braxton was still too short to do them. I also think he is a little scared too!

Thursday we went back to Lake Lanier except to go out on the boats. It was nice because nobody was on the lake. Right as we were packing up to leave a storm hit....a bad storm. It was thundering and lightening pretty bad. Scared the crap out of me!!

Thursday night we all went to Stone Mountain for the laser show. Ellie and Braxton had their ears covered the entire time. They both have tubes, so they are more sensitive to loud nosies. They do fireworks throughout the program now. We all had fun!

Friday the younger guys played golf. The older guys relaxed and went to Bass Pro while all of the girls and Braxton went to Mayfield Dairy. It was cute! Not what I thought it would be....but a nice cool way to spend a hot summer day!

Saturday we spent back at mom and dads. Penny, Robert and Chris left around 4 pm. The rest of the gang headed out to Richard and Denise's. The kids got to play on the slip-n-slide and in the baby pool!

We are glad the the Divelbiss crew made it out to GA! We cant wait for next year out in TX!

Sorry for not having many pictures. We all kept forgetting our camera! :(

Summer Nights

2010-07-01T06:30:00.000-04:00

We spend just about every night at our pool. I get home from work. We pack the cooler and head to the pool! We love it! Ellie loves it more! When the pool first opened, she could do the slide with her swimmies on. The lifeguards then started saying she couldn't do it unless she could swim to the ladder without them. The Sunday after her swim lessons ended, Christian tried letting her do the slide without her swimmies. She did it all without taking a second breath. We were so excited!!!

This is the slide at our neighborhood pool. It is a lot of fun!!

The kids pool!

Ellie coming off the slide. Yes, she does have socks on. I couldn't find water shoes that fit her. Her feet were getting so raw from walking around the pool that they were bleeding. My neighbor gave me the idea of her wearing socks. It works great!!

Love the face.....

Some nights we bring dinner up to the pool! This is a nice, crazy face from Ellie! :)

For the most part, Ellie doesn't wear her floaties anymore. She is not good enough yet to be out in the middle of the pool without them. She hates for me to make her put them on. I can tell when she starts to get tired, so I make her put them on.

Swim Lessons

2010-06-30T12:29:00.003-04:00

Shauna and Ellie

Ellie and Shauna had swim lessons the first week of June. It was exhausting for me. I would work all day, get home and get us both fed, and then off to swim lessons. Luckily, it was only four days. I wasn't quite sure if she got anything from the class at first. A few days later, she was swimming further then she had before by herself. Swim Atlanta gets you though. Its not a one class, she knows how to swim...kind of thing. There are six classes each at 100 bucks a pop! It does get to the point where she is learning more than how to swim, but I wasn't ready to drop $600 bucks on all of them.

The lifeguards are our pool also do swim lessons. I might see if one of them will work with her the beginning of next summer.

Mother's Day Weekend

2010-06-04T07:24:00.002-04:00

We had a very busy Mother's Day weekend! I took Friday off of work and cleaned the house for a baby shower that we were having on Saturday. I started cleaning some Thursday night, so I could take my time that morning! I finished up with the house around 11 am. I was able to go get a pedicure and do some shopping! One word....Nice! It was so great being able to take my time and not feel rushed to get back to the house.

I picked Ellie and Shauna up at 2:30 from school....right after nap, so they were happy and full of energy! I took the girls to our pool! They had so much!

Ellie and Shauna are pretty much inseparable....or Patti and I make it that way. We do a lot of things together. The girls take gymnastics together. They were doing a wheelbarrow at gymnastics the other day. At least I think that's what you call it. It is where one person walks on their hands while the other person holds their feet in the air. Well, I am laying out right beside the kid pool. I look up and see Shauna grabbing Ellie's feet. It was only about 2 feet there, but it was just enough where Ellie couldn't keep her head out of the water. I called for Shauna to drop her feet twice and she didn't. I flew off my chair and grabbed Ellie. She of course and this point is crying because it scared her. Luckily, she did hold her breath. Poor Shauna didn't realize what she had done! It scared me to death! They were back playing in no time!

On Saturday, I dropped Ellie off with my mom. Unfortunately, do to scheduling conflicts, Christian and I missed Braxton's party. Mom took Ellie, so she wouldn't miss it! I headed back to the house to get ready for the baby shower

Christian's BF, Chris and his wife Janell are expecting a baby boy in July.

Not sure whats going on with my camera. This is the best picture I had of them!

When I say EVERYONE is pregnant in our little group of friends, I mean EVERYONE....except me :(

Obviously, Chris and Janell are pregnant. Here is Brandy and her husband Grant. They had Ali in August after Ellie was born. They are now pregnant with a boy too. They are due at the end of July.

Jessica, in the white just had a sweet baby girl, Corinn, in April. Jill in the black shirt is pregnant with a girl too! Okay, so Tiffany in the red is not pregnant. I am not the only one! Megan, couldn't make it, but she is also pregnant! Something was in the water! They are all due within a month of each other! I also have to add that two of the girls I work with.....one is pregnant and one just had a little girl!

We had a wonderful time at the shower. Chris and Janell got lots of needed items!

Sunday the Holden family came over the house for Mother's Day. My child was MOODY!!! If I remember correctly, she was upset because we couldn't go to the pool. It was still a little chilly outside.

We had lunch at the house and then went up to the neighborhood park.

Her pouty face!!

After the park, we headed back to the house. The kids played outside while the adults watched. It got hot quickly! We decided to take the kids to the pool! They were so excited!! Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl

2010-05-29T10:46:00.000-04:00

1 day old:

3 Months Old:

1 year old:

2 years old:

3 Years Old:

3 years, 6 months old:

To my sweet baby girl:

Happy Birthday! I cant believe you are 4! You are such a joy to our lives! Dad and I love you so much! I love watching you grow and transform to a little lady! I love that you have your dads personality. You always try to make us laugh. Most of the time you succeed! I cant wait to see what the next four years bring....but slow down. I don't like seeing you grow so fast! I hope you have a wonderful 4th birthday!

I love you, baby boo!!

Playing in the Water with Shelby

2010-05-21T08:36:00.002-04:00

My little surfer chick!

Ellie and her friend Shelby spent one Saturday afternoon playing with the water hose and a bucket. Who knew that would be so much fun?

Easter....really late

2010-05-21T08:26:00.000-04:00

We spent Saturday with mom and dad. The Easter Bunny brought Braxton and Ellie candy and cute piggy banks. Ellie was in need of one. All of hers are very small, and jammed full of money! Now we have upgraded and has plenty of room for more money!!

We had a wonderful Easter....well sort of! Christian unfortunately woke up with a stomach bug. I tried hard as possible to keep us both out of the house and away from Christian.

The Easter Bunny brought Ellie two of her most favorite items: gum and chapstick. Ellie is a chapstick freak! I cant say anything....she gets it from me. She also received a dry erase board and the Alvin and the Chipmunks DVD. She was very excited!!

Closing her eyes, so mommy could get the camera ready....and capture a pic!

Sunday afternoon Ellie and I went to Shauna's house, Ellie's BF.

I love this pic! So cute!

The girls had an Easter egg hunt at Shauna's too!

Showing mommy all of the eggs that she found!

Shauna got a trampoline for her birthday. The girls love jumping on it.

Ellie jumping with Gigi, Shauna's grandma!

Shauna's Birthday Party

2010-05-12T08:25:00.010-04:00

Ellie's BF, Shauna, turned 4 back in March. They had a Princess Birthday party. All the girls dressed up in their princess dresses. Ellie didn't last too long in hers.

They played pin the princess to the castle.

They got to make two sand bottles.

Shauna....the birthday girl!

They also got to hit a pinata! Ellie was by the far the best at hitting the pinata. I think she might be good at swinging the bat one day.

She knocked the neck loose.

....and broke one foot off!

Pizza for lunch!!

.....and a castle cake!

All of the girls got to help Shauna open the present that they got her!

Golf Cart and Golf

2010-05-12T08:00:00.005-04:00

We got a golf cart at the end of the December. To say Ellie likes to ride on it, is an understatement....oh and all of the neighbors kids! Its a nightly question, "can we go on a golf cart ride?" We are enjoying the golf cart just as much as Ellie. It is nice to be able to go up to the pool or just right around the neighborhood on it.

Ellie is starting to want to drive the golf cart more and more. We have started letting her. She actually drives really good. She has had her Mustang since she was a year and an half. She does get distracted looking at things. Monday night she was sitting in my lap driving. I was trying to explain how you have to stay in the middle of your lane. I kept saying, "stay in the middle, stay in the middle." We were leaving the neighborhood Tuesday morning. I turned off our street and Ellie said to me, "mommy stay in the middle!"

Christian plays golf anywhere from 2 to 3 times a week. We met Christian on the 18th hole one night. There was nobody playing behind Christian, so he let Ellie come up and putt some. She loved it.

While going through the pictures on my phone, I found these two. We had a garage sale at my moms a few weeks/months ago. She took the kids up to the school park to play. Let me say she walked with the kids up there. It is a good distance plus a steep hill. This is how we saw them coming back!

Charleston Day 3

2010-05-11T07:24:00.002-04:00

I am so sorry that I haven't posted in awhile. We do not ever stop these days!

Our 3rd day in Charleston was low key. It was cold and windy! We hung out around the house most of the day. We met most of Christian's moms family at a restaurant called Sullivan's for dinner and to celebrate her dad's birthday.

Elvis was our entertainment for the evening. I wasn't quite sure how Ellie would react to him! She LOVED him. She would dance with him, she would dance while he sang, and I think her favorite part was Elvis singing to her. She had these goo-goo eyes when he came to her to sing!

Grandpa

Elvis serenading Ellie

My two favorite people!

While Elvis was singing to Ellie, she all of a sudden made this face to him! Everyone died laughing....including Elvis! Its was so funny!

Charleston Day 2

2010-03-28T17:59:00.006-04:00

We had another relaxing day in Charleston. The weather was, I think, warmer than Thursday but it was a lot more windy. My crazy child wanted to get in the water. She had a blast. Haedyn wasn't quite sure about the water. She would run in and then run out!! Ellie had Ms. Lauren, Grant's girlfriend, go into the water with her! Thank you Ms. Lauren!!! I wouldn't have gone in there. The girls got to layout while the girls napped. It was nice to chit-chat without the girls interrupting. The boys went to the beach and played Lasso Golf. We all had a wonderful day!!

We also had an Easter egg hunt for the girls. They had fun hunting the eggs. We did decide that they are getting older and can spot them more easily, so we will have to hide them more next year.

Daddy was hiding behind a bush and scared the girls!!

Ellie opening the eggs to see what the Easter Bunny put in them!!

Charleston Day 1

2010-03-26T12:10:00.007-04:00

We are currently in Charleston. We are having a little family reunion/birthday party (Christian's grandfather). We drove up Wednesday after Christian and I got off work. Ellie did much better in the car than I expected. She still was a little antcy, but it wasnt too bad!

Yesterday, we spent some of the day at the beach. It was windy but still a little warm. I ran up to get my camera and came back and Ellie was soaked. Here are some pics from the beach.

Ellie and Haedyn racing on the beach (aka mine and Elisa's idea of getting them to run their energy out).

Chillin' before bed.

Cousin lovin'

Jaelyn's Birthday Party

2010-03-25T19:28:00.006-04:00

We have had a busy month with birthday parties. The first weekend was Shelby's birthday party. Shelby lives a few doors down from us. The second weekend was our only weekend we didn't have a birthday party.

This past weekend was even busier. Friday night we had some friends over for dinner. On Saturday morning, we met up with some old friends of the Fellers at the park in the neighborhood. Ellie and I had to leave early from the park for Jaelyn's birthday party. It was a Princess and the Frog themed party. Jaelyn's mom, Stephanie, made all of the girls tutu's and tanks to wear. It was so cute to see all of the girls dressed up.

After the birthday party, Ellie went to my parents to have a sleepover with Braxton. Then on Sunday, I had a little party at the house! Whew! What a busy but fun weekend!!

Here are some pics from the birthday party......

The birthday girl.....

Ellie after she got her makeup done.

Shauna, Ellie's BFF from school.

Ellie and Mommy

Ellie dancing

My little sassy frass.......

More dancing......

Saturday at the Park

2010-03-05T13:53:00.005-05:00

Two Saturday's ago, Ellie and I met up with Shauna, Shauna's mom Patti and Laura, Shauna's Aunt, at the Park. Everyone else had the same idea since the weather was nice! It was great to be outside in somewhat warm weather!! We are anxiously awaiting Spring!!!

Ellie playing before Shauna got there!

There is a library right next to the park that hasn't opened yet. It had a huge parking lot, so the girls could ride their bikes without having to worry about cars. The girls used the book drop off line as a race track!

We have had some what of a rough week with Ellie last week. She came down with croup on Sunday. I should have known that she was getting sick. She ALWAYS asks for a bagel as soon as her eyes open on Saturday and Sunday. It was about 9:30 am both days when I realized she hasn't asked for anything to eat! That's always a sign for me when she is about to get sick...not wanting to eat!

Back to the croup.....this is the third time since January that she has had it. They hadn't treated her for it previously because they said it wasn't a bad case. Christian stayed home with her on Monday and took her to the doctor. She gave us a prescription for an antibiotic "just in case she got worse." Christian called me about 1 pm and said she had started running a fever...101.9. I got the prescription filled and started her on that Monday evening. At 12 am that night, she woke up with 103.1 fever! I hate fevers! The scare me so much! She was so hot! To hold her, made me hot! Then she was lying on me and I could feel her heart racing! It scared me! I took her temp about fifteen minutes after I had given her another round of Tylenol and it was down to 102.9. That made me feel a little better! She started feeling better while at home on Tuesday!!

She still is not herself. She is very emotional! I am not sure what is wrong. I ask her whats the matter and she says she doesn't know! I am not sure either! I am hoping she will be back to her old self soon!!

Snow in Atlanta

2010-02-24T15:23:00.004-05:00

Two Friday nights ago Atlanta was hit pretty hard with a snow storm. Well, it was hard to me!! I work about 30 minutes from our new house. It took me 2.5 hours to get home!! Ugh!! It was awful!! I also had Shauna, Ellie's friend from school, in the car with me as well. She was an angel! She literally only asked me to change the movie and that was it! Once I got home, with cold pizza, I was able to enjoy the snow a little bit more....after an adult beverage as well!!

Here are pics from Saturday morning after the snow had fallen.....

Ellie and Shauna ready to play in the snow!!

Ready to go on a golf cart ride!

The munchkin!!

These are the pics Christian took Friday night. When I did finally make it home, he said I took pictures for you. I figured you would want them. Great is what I was thinking. I brought the camera to work to look at the pictures. He did get several of our house, several of the neighbors kids. Do you know how many of our child? Zero, Zip, None!! I just had to laugh!! Thanks honey!!

This is the view from our balcony off of the guest bedroom, looking towards the right.

Same spot but to the left.

Backyard

Front of the house....

Poor Kaos! He is a mess! He wouldn't go out in the snow!! I really don't know how he is a Husky.

I think we ended up with about 4 to 4.5 inches of snow in Hoschton!!

Ellie had her first spend the night out party a few weeks ago with Shauna. She did great except for Patti, Shauna's mom, said she gets up too early. Shauna and Ellie have basically grown up together at Legacy. Patti and I say that they act more like sisters than friends.

Shauna spent the night with us the night it snowed. The girls did great! They played upstairs Friday night. They actually took just about all of the toys out of the playroom and put them in Ellie's room. They watched Mickey Mouse before bed and fell asleep in their sleeping bags in our room.

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-15T15:19:00.008-05:00

We had a pretty quiet Valentine's Day. Christian took Ellie on a golf cart ride while I went to the store. She ended up falling asleep on it. Christian said he took her home once he saw that she had fallen asleep! When she realized they were home, she was not a happy camper. Luckily, she fell back asleep once they were inside.

We went on another golf cart ride went I got back. Ellie loves the golf cart. She doesn't care what temp it is, she wants to go!! Christian and I can't wait till it gets warmer. I am sure we will either be on the golf cart or at the pool!

I was out Saturday shopping, so I picked Ellie up this Dora Book. It comes with a little record player. I thought it would read her the stories. Well, it plays music while you read the book. Its actually kind of annoying. The music is loud and then you are trying to read over the music. Oh well, she loves it! That's all that matters!

Here she is trying to read us the book like her teachers do at school! Too cute!!

This is what Ellie and mommy got daddy for V-Day. Christian was being a smart butt, and wouldn't let me take a picture of him. It is a GA shirt with GA pj bottoms. He said that I would probably wear it more than he will. He is probably right, for once!

Christian surprised Ellie with a teddy bear and roses for me. The door bell rang about 11:30 am yesterday. I was thinking who in the world is that! I saw the FedEx truck drive away and then I knew! Ellie loves the bear and I of course love the roses. I did feel bad because he said there was supposed to be a spa gift card in the box. There wasn't, so we will have to get that straightened out!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day.

Cruise 2010

2010-01-19T12:56:00.004-05:00

Christian and I went on the annual FSSR Cruise!! We had a great time as usual! Unfortunately, the weather wasn't the best. The cruise left out of Mobile, AL on Thursday before the snow hit Atlanta. It was right about 60 in Mobile, so that was nice. The next day was just about perfect. It wasn't pool weather, except to the kids, but we were able to sit at the pool clothed and be comfortable. Saturday in Cozumel was rainy and windy. We had a rough time at first coming back. The boat was rocking pretty well. Thankfully, on Sunday the waves seemed to calm down a lot more!!

The hubs and I

Dusty, Mary, Marie, Ashley, and Heather

Heather, Ashley, Grant, Lauren, Travis and Jennifer

Ryan, Jessica, Hannah, and Michael

For some reason, I didn't take very many pictures. These are the only pictures I had.

I hate that we missed the snow....well not really. I do hate that we missed Ellie playing in the snow though!! Thanks mom for keeping Ellie! We really appreciate it!!

Christmas

2010-01-13T15:25:00.009-05:00

We had another wonderful Christmas! It was a lot of fun to see Ellie get so excited about Santa!!

We started off Christmas Eve with Christian's family!! We had fun watching the girls open their presents!

Ellie with her new doll.

Haedyn and Ellie

Let me explain the next two pictures. We got home Christmas Eve from Christian's parents. Ellie wanted to make Santa muffins. I told her it was too early and that we would make them later. I threw the package on the kitchen counter. About an hour later, I am sitting in the bedroom reading. I hear a scream from Ellie...worst scream I think I have ever heard from her. I walk in the living room and Christian said that she grabbed the muffin packet and took off running. The only problem was there was a wall there. Ellie hit the corner of it with her ear.

This picture is really blurry, but you can see how black and blue it turned. It looked like this within a matter of about five minutes.

Luckily, the her ear was just badly bruised!! Later that night, we finally got to make muffins for Santa.

Santa was very good to Ellie. She received a scooter, sleeping bag and a baby doll station (swing, high chair, bed, and tub that coverts to a changing table).

Funny story about the baby doll station. Ellie was asleep in our room. Christian and I decided to put her scooter and the baby doll station together upstairs, so that if she got up she wouldn't see us. Christian put the baby doll thing together and I put the scooter together. The baby doll thing just snapped together. It didn't take any screws. We finished putting them both together and picked them up to take them downstairs. As soon as Christian gets to the top of the stairs with the doll thing, half of it falls ALL the way down the stairs! It was so loud!! I ran to make sure Ellie didn'tt come out and Christian had to reassemble everything!! Surprisingly, Ellie didn't move!

I went to bed about 10:30 and about 11:30 I hear Ellie crying. I walk out and she is standing in the living room crying. Still crying she asks, "who brought all of that in here?" She was pointing to all of her Santa gifts. I tried to act surprised and asked her if Santa had already come, but she didn't look the least bit interested. She seemed more terrified that someone had been in her house! I picked her up and we went back to bed! Luckily, she was excited on Christmas Day.

We went to my parents around lunch time on Christmas Day. We had a wonderful lunch and loved watching Brax and Ellie make a mess with all of the wrapping paper and tissue.

Braxton got Ellie a stuffed cat and a book to go with it. Ellie loves it!!!!! Her name is now Sassy Cat. Sassy Cat goes where ever Ellie goes, if possible. She sleeps with her and loves on her. She will give me her stuffed rabbit and tells me to sleep with it while she sleeps with Sassy Cat.

Fellers Family Pictures

2009-12-22T15:26:00.011-05:00

The Fellers gang had family pics made back in November. We used Maura again! She did Ellie's 3 year pics back in May. I love her work! She did another fabulous job!!

The whole Fellers Family

The Crumbley Family

Ellie and Haedyn

Cousin lovin'

Grant, Christian, Hunter and Elisa

Family pic

Meme Mary and Papa J

The Original Fellers'

Grant and his girlfriend Lauren

More of our cute girls!

Color.....

Black and white.....

My beautiful baby girl!

Christian being well Christian!

My sweet hubby and I

My little family!

Sweet Ellie

Maura Roberts Photography

maurar@bellsouth.net

Catch Up

2009-12-02T16:11:00.010-05:00

I know! I know! It has been almost a month. I will offer no excuses! Hehe!!

Our neighborhood offered a visit with Santa. It was great! I made an appointment for Ellie at 12:25 pm on a Saturday. Ellie and I left about 12:15 because she could not wait any longer to see Santa. We walked right in and Ellie talked to Santa. She told him what she wanted for Christmas! As you can tell from the pictures, she was not completely sure about Santa. At least she wasn't screaming!!! We were back home within ten minutes!! It was great not having to wait in line for an hour plus!!

Ellie telling Santa that she wants a doll for Christmas!

We had another wonderful Thanksgiving this year!! We had dinner with my side on Thursday. Mom and I went shopping all night for Black Friday!! It was a lot of fun and well worth no sleep. I added up all of my savings and it was right at $200! You can't beat that!! After shopping, I headed to the house. We got ready and were off to Helen to spend some time with Christian's family. His parents rented a log cabin in the mountains. It was a great!! It was a little cold, but not too bad.

We had a nice campfire!!

Elisa brought a game, I don't remember what ts called. If you look close you can see the balls that are right about Ellie's head. There is a ball on each end of a string. You throw it towards the other 'stand', not sure of that's the right word. If you got it on the blue bar you got 1 point, yellow was 2 I think, and the red was for 4 points! Everyone had fun playing it!!

Morning pic with my two favorite people!! We had incredible views from the cabin.

Uncle Grant, Haedyn and Ellie in the hot tub!

Tuesday was hat day at school!! I am sure it didn't stay on long!!

We are ready and excited about the holiday season. We are still enjoying our new neighborhood as well. Ellie has met so many new friends. It is great!! There is one little girl that is 3 like Ellie. Her name is Shelby! Shelby lives three doors down from us! Ellie has me call her mommy every night to see if Shelby can play! It is great having lots of kids for Ellie to play with!

Cute story:

Ellie is in to lipstick, big time!! I was walking into Target the other day and saw they had a princess lip gloss for a dollar. I knew Ellie would love it! I gave it to her that night and she kept asking to take it to school. I kept telling her that she couldn't take it. She would tell me that she would put it in her bag and run over put it on and the leave it alone. Yeah right, is what I was thinking! The next morning Ellie and I were on the way to school and all of a sudden, Ellie said mommy, did you turn the alarm on so nobody would get my lip gloss? I reassured that the alarm was on and she didn't have to worry. Ellie responded with good because I would be really, really mad if somebody took my lip gloss!! Where do these kids come up with this stufff?

Neighborhood Kids

2009-11-09T15:15:00.002-05:00

Ellie and Jake

Ansleigh, Grace, Will, Ellie and Jake

The pictures are from my cell phone, so they are not the best.

All of the kids in the neighborhood are in love with her car. That's the first thing they ask about when they come over to play.

We always have kids somewhere in our yard. I cant even begin to tell you how many kids live on our street. It is so great! We have four to one side, two on the other side of them, 2 on our other side, triplets beside them....I think you get the picture. The house across the street from us in under contract. The people that are moving in have four kids. I love coming home and seeing all of the kids in the neighborhood out playing.

Ellie has also been acting a lot better since we moved. She used to throw tantrums pretty regularly. I never thought that they might be out of boredom. She hardly ever throws them now. They usually come when we have to go inside. She is a lot better if she sees that everyone is going inside and not just her.

Cute moments by Ellie:

Last night I was giving Ellie a shower. Our shower has two sides that are glass. She draws on them. She said something about drawing a 0. I told her to draw a 0. She did. I said okay, draw 1 now. She drew a 1. I then asked her to draw a 2. She drew II. Not what I was thinking, but she did draw 2 just in roman numerals!

This morning on the way to school Ellie asked that I pick her up. I don't mind picking her up, but I get home later than Christian. I was trying to explain to her that if Daddy picked her up, she would get a lot more outside time. She looked at me and said, "mommy, we have to take turns!!"

I hope to post Halloween pics soon. My SIL, took the pictures while I pulled the wagon!! Talk about a workout!!!

Fall Festival and Halloween

2009-10-28T11:32:00.011-04:00

Our new neighborhood has an annual Fall Festival. Christian and I took Ellie two Saturday's ago. It was cold and drizzly! The weather could have been better, but we had a good time. There were lots of activities for the kids.

Ellie got to pet bunnies. She wasn't as thrilled with this as I thought she would have been.

Jumping on the trampoline was probably her favorite. She looked like a pro. She was doing back flips. It was a little slippery since it was raining, so it was hard to get her footing sometimes.

She also got to ride on a pony....a pregnant pony. She also wasn't thrilled with this either. I don't think it was fast enough for her! She is a dare devil.

Lastly, she got her face painted by Twinklz. Twinklz was great! She interacted with the kids and made them laugh. She was a great clown!!

Doest even look like Ellie!

She also got her first tasting of cotton candy! She took one bite and was done. She is definitely Christian's child. Me, I ate the whole thing! It was fabulous!!! After I ate it, he gave me this odd look and asked if I knew that was all sugar! Duh! Well of course!! That's what makes it good!!!

This past Sunday, Reunion had a costume contest. Ellie is a Wild West Cutie (per the costume package). She really wasn't sure what she wanted to be. Ellie love to wear her cowboy boots that her Uncle Grant gave her. I saw this costume at the store and thought it was perfect for her!!

She cracks me up with her poses!!

I think her tights are just a tad to big! If I could have pulled them up as far as I could, the really would have gone over her head! I think I might get her some new ones for Trick-or-Treating!!

She kept saying that it was tickling her!! She has started doing this a lot lately. I have to watch what I buy her!

They broke all of the kids in groups according to age. Ellie didn't win. The little Roman Warrior beside her won! I have to admit he was so super cute!!

Reunion is also having a Pumpkin Carving Contest tomorrow night. We went last Saturday and got a pumpkin. I decided to carve it last night. We did something fun for Ellie. Can you guess what it is?

I love this part! I have no idea why!!!

Ellie lost interest quickly! I cant say I blame her. I wouldn't let her touch the knife!! It literally took me all night to carve this pumpkin!! I am glad we only do this once a year. My hand was killing me afterwards!! It was worth it!! Ellie loved the pumpkin when I was done!!

House Part 2

2009-10-19T11:17:00.003-04:00

At some point this weekend, I realized that I did not put any pictures of the front or the back of the house. The funny thing is that when I realized it, I was doing something random like walking out of Publix. Who knows what made me think of it! So here is the front and back of the house.

The covered patio is partially what sold us on this house. We had looked at a few other houses in the neighborhood, but loved the idea of being able to sit outside under cover!! The patio is really big! Christian would like to add a fire pit and a flat screen....someday!

We have Moved!!

2009-10-16T12:49:00.001-04:00

I am very excited to say we have moved! I will try to give you a short version.

Christian has been playing golf in a neighborhood called Reunion Country Club for probably about a year now. He has said before that he would love to live in this neighborhood. They have incredible amenities. I didn't think anything about it because Christian will bring things up and then never act. This is a great trait, but never know when he is serious!!

The last Monday in August, Christian called me and told me he wanted me to go look at this house in Reunion. That night, we went and looked at it. I thought it was a beautiful home but really didn't think Christian would act on it (love you honey)! Christian and I talked about the house. We were both in love with it and head over heels for the neighborhood. The neighborhood has over 100 events a month. It was definitely a neighborhood we could see ourselves in.

On Tuesday, September 1 we put our current house up for sale. On the following Saturday, we placed an offer on the new house (Labor Day weekend). I know most people probably thought we were crazy taking the risk of carrying two houses, but it was something we were willing to do. I had also told Christian that if this was meant to be, everything would fall into place.

We were SO LUCKY and GRATEFUL we had two couples look at the house. Both came to look a second time. The second couple looked at the house on Sunday, September 13 they made an offer the following day.

We closed on our new house on Wednesday, September 30. We moved in that weekend. It is a 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath. It has a great playroom for Ellie and an incredible master bedroom/bath for Christian and I. The best thing about it is that there are children that live on both sides of us and the entire street.

When Christian did the walk thru with the builder, who also lives in the neighborhood, he said that for some reason (not planned) the street that we live on is filled with kids. I am so excited. Every time we would come see the house there were kids playing in the yards. We NEVER saw this in our old neighborhood. Ellie cant wait to get home at night and play. The kids love her. They have come over a couple of times and asked if she could come out and play!! She is playing so hard at night that some things have changed for the better....she is eating like crazy. Ellie has always been a good eater, but it is better than ever now. The best is that she is sleeping so good at night. I was really worried about her in the new room. We still do have a few issues getting her to go down, but once she is asleep, she is sleeping through the night! Yay!!

Here are some pics of the new house:

Sad Saturday

2009-09-29T13:00:00.005-04:00

Kaos (pink nose) and Skyler (black nose)

Skyler would always beat up on Kaos

Best Buds

I am sad to say that this past Saturday, Skyler went to doggy heaven. It was a rough morning. Skyler has always been our mischievous dog. She would dig holes throughout the backyard or under the fence to get out. Sometimes Kaos would follow, sometimes he would not. I am very thankful that he didn't follow this time. I don't think I could handle losing both. Skyler dug out sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning. She was very determined....she moved a center block to get out! We had no idea that she was out until Saturday morning when I found her. Definitely a bad surprise! We miss Skyler a lot....definitely Kaos. He has been moping around. I feel bad for him.

Ellie is doing really well with it. It all happened so fast that I didn't have time to think about what to say. At first I told Ellie that Skyler was hit and that she went to heaven. Then I realized about an hour later this might be too much for a three year old, so I told her that Skyler ran away and we couldn't find her. She is a smart girl though. Every once in a while she will say, "Skyler ran in the street and got hurt. We don't run in the street. We will get hurt." I am glad that she understands the bad things that can happen if she ran into the street.

On a lighter note....funny things that Ellie has said lately.

Last night we had Mexican for dinner. We were on our way home and Christian said that he ate to much and that he might throw up. Ellie said, Daddy when you throw up, I throw up!

I was giving Ellie a bath last night and some shampoo got in her eye. We washed it out and she seemed to be fine. A few minutes later she told me that her eye still hurt. All of a sudden Ellie screamed out, "Eye! Stop hurting!!"

Sick Little Girl

2009-09-22T13:00:00.008-04:00

We had a rough week last week. I dropped Ellie off at school on Tuesday. I knew that her eye was red, but there was nothing coming out of it, so I didn't think it was pink eye. I hadn't even gotten 10 minutes down the road, and daycare called and asked that she be picked up because her eye was watering, and they wanted to make sure it wasn't pink eye. I went to work, got my computer and headed back to get her. I had called the doctor to see if they would call in a prescription for pink eye. I didn't want to take her to the doctor and expose her to everything that is going around. They wouldn't because they said there could be an underlying issue, so off to the doc we went. They did diagnose her as having pink eye.

About 2 or 3 on Tuesday afternoon, Ellie felt so hot to me. I didn't have a good thermometer at the house, so the two of us ran to Walmart to get one. I took her temp in the parking lot. It was 99 or 100, I don't quite remember. I called a RN at my office, and she thought it could be the flu. I also called the pediatrician, and they said to watch her over night and see what happens. Wednesday morning she woke with a 102 fever. Christian stayed home with Ellie. He called me and said she is bouncing off the walls. Christian brought her up to my office to have lunch. She wouldn't eat anything....even her favorite Chick-fil-a. I knew she was a sick baby then. He took her back home. He said she walked in the door and got sick. We took her back to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon, and they tested her for strep and the flu. Both came back negative. They said it was all viral.

Christian stayed home with her again on Thursday. It was the same thing. For a couple of hours she would bounce of the walls, and then they next thing you know she was sick again. I still don't understand all of that.

Daddy built Ellie a fort.....inventory: black: guest bedroom comforter, red: our king comforter, stripped: Ellie's comforter, and a sheet somewhere in there. That's all I can see...know telling what else was in there. Luckily daddy had it all cleaned up before mommy got home!!

My mom came up and spent the night with us on Thursday, so she could keep Ellie on Friday. I know my mom was questioning why she was staying with her because yet again she was bouncing off the walls. Friday morning at 5, Ellie was up again with 102 fever. Mom took Ellie to the doc again for me (yes, that's three times in one week).

The doc had a chest xray done on Ellie just to be safe. It came back clear. Poor mom and Ellie were at the doctors office for about 3 or 4 hours. The doc diagnosed Ellie with flu symptoms, but not the flu! I still don't understand that. Luckily, Friday night I could tell that Ellie was starting to be her old self again. Saturday morning she woke with a very low grade fever. She said her head was still hurting, so I gave her some Tylenol. Her fever never came back after that.

Ellie was so wired this weekend. I can't say I blame her. She was locked up in the house for four days. As most of you know, we have had so much rain here, she couldn't even go outside on Saturday. We did let her play in the garage for a little while. That helped some.

I took these pictures with my iPhone, so they are a little fuzzy, and she has a pink nightlight in her room. I love how she is in the middle of the bed spread out!!

Ellie's Burn

2009-09-10T11:30:00.004-04:00

About an hour after it happened

Two days later

Turn your volume up. Its kind of hard to hear.

We had a great holiday weekend! Ellie and Braxton spent Friday night with mom and dad. Christian and I hung around the house and got some things done.

Monday afternoon we went to a friends house. Chris was grilling some food. We had told Ellie that the grill was very hot and not to touch it or go by it. She had done good all night and not gone by it. She was standing behind Christian's chair and I guess didn't realize how close she was to the grill. She started backing up and bumped right into the grill. I immediately ran for this skin conditioning oil from Arbonne that I have. I swear by it!! I have one in my purse and one at the house. She cried for about 45 minutes. As big as the burn was, I wondered if she was going to sleep good that night. She really did great though. She was back to herself after about an hour. She hasn't even noticed it since. I felt awful. To see her in so much pain, an not be able to do anything. The oil helps so much, but it does still burn for a little bit.

I wish I would have gotten a video of the conversation we had before this one. It was so cute. I think her facial expressions are what make it so great.

Cutes Pics of Ellie

2009-08-27T14:01:00.011-04:00

My sweet baby girl is so intrigued by the girls downstairs. She just cant wait to get down there!!

It was crazy socks and hat night at gymnastics this week. Shauna's mom found the purses and I found the hats.

Ellie, Shauna, Jaylin, Ava

Ellie and Shauna are at Legacy Academy together. Shauna has been on vacation the past two weeks, so she hasn't been in class. Even though they had just seen each other less than 2 hours before, they each flipped out when they saw each other!!

Baby Boo

My BF Keri received a hat very similar to this for her birthday!! I loved it!! I had to get Ellie and I one.

Just some cute pics of Ellie!!

I am not sure where she is getting this "hand on the hip" thing from. I love it though!!

We had a great, busy weekend. Friday night Christian was playing golf, so Ellie and I went shopping. We hit Hobby Lobby and then the mall. Ellie go to ride the train. It is so cute. It is just like the train that they had at Pier Park in PCB. We then ate dinner, shopped a little, and then Ellie got to do the trampoline. The video is sideways. Its from my phone.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

On Saturday, we went to the lake. I think our boat has been feeling neglected. Saturday evening we had a wonderful dinner at the Blue Willow in with Christian's family. The girls had ice cream from an old soda shop.

On Sunday, Christian and I took Ellie back to Lake Lanier Islands. She loved it!! She wants to ride the big rides so bad. I hope that she will be 42" next year, so she can!! I am also so excited to say that Ellie started swimming under water by herself with no life jacket!!!! Lake Lanier Islands is a small water park that is on Lake Lanier. They have it roped off where people can swim in the lake. Ellie was swimming out there with her life jacket on and I told Christian that we need to take her life jacket off and see how she did. We took it off and off she went. She swam under water a good distance to Christian. We were both so shocked and excited!! We tried to see if she could swim on top of the water, but she hasn't mastered that. We are so proud of her!!!

We got there right at 10 and nobody was there. I think Ellie's favorite part is the wave pool. I am sure it will be the slides next year if she is tall enough!!

PCB....Adult Trip

2009-08-27T13:35:00.004-04:00

Me and my hubby

Karlie and Greg

Lauren and Grant (Christian's youngest brother)

Chris and Janell

Storm coming in

The whole gang at Angelos

Our condo. We stayed at Calypso this time. We were on the 19th floor. Great view!! We decided to stay here because it was close to Pier Park. We were able to walk over, so we didn't have to worry about driving!!

Boys in the ocean

I was able to spend my 30th birthday at the beach with great friends. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday! We had been wanting for years to go away with a group of friends, but it had never worked out. Chris (pictured above) turned 30 at the beginning of July, and I was turning 30 at the end, so we made it our excuse to get away!!

There we four couples that went down. We had a blast relaxing at the beach and pool. We had great weather. It stormed two mornings before we got up. It was perfect!! The guys went and played golf one day. They were going to play more, but it was just too hot. I think the temperature was in the high 90's when we were there.

Ellie stayed with my mom. We were not able to say the "b" word (beach). She loves it and would be sad that she couldn't go with us. When she asked where we were, I told her we were having mommy and daddy time!! Of course we missed our little girl, but it is always nice to have some time alone!! Thanks as usual mom for watching her!!

Gymnastics

2009-08-13T09:53:00.007-04:00

It is funny to me how kids take you literally!

Example: Before we left for gymnastics on Tuesday I wanted to get some pictures of Ellie. I told her to go stand by the tree. I meant for her to still be on the driveway but over by the tree. She went all the way up to it....where the branches were just about to touch her head!

Second Example: I got Ellie this skirt when we were in PCB a few weeks ago. It has a dolphin on the front and says Panama City Beach on the back. I wanted to take a picture of her tush! I said, "Ellie turn around and let me see your tush." I meant for her to just turn around. What did I get.....

It is hard to tell in the picture, but she is sticking her tush out so far!!

The rest of the pictures will look a little weird. The parents sit outside of the room. The have a sliding glass door and then a window as well to watch. You can see the reflection of everybody watching.

Ellie LOVED gymnastics. On the way home from gymnastics, she asked if we were going back the next day. I really wish the class was two days a week. She enjoys it so much!! Her class was upstairs at the facility. You could look down and see all of the "big girls" doing the real gymnastics. Ellie was so intrigued watching them. She kept asking if she could go down there. All of the other girls could care less about the big girls, but not Ellie. She was all about it. I think we might have a future gymnasts on our hands.

Ellie's Funny Moments:

Christian used to pick Ellie up from school, but she started throwing a fit every time he did saying that she wanted me to pick her up. So, I have now been picking her up. Yesterday morning, she asked that dad pick her up. On their way home, she looked at him and said, "daddy, thank you for picking me up, but if you pick me up tomorrow, I am going to scream!" When Christian told me, I couldn't help but laugh!!

I bought Ellie a big coloring book last night at the store. I got home and gave it to her. We all colored for a little bit. After awhile, I asked her to pick her crayons up and we would go to Chick-fil-a for dinner. She was putting her crayons in the box and looked up at Christian and I and said, "mommy, I am not mad at you, but daddy I am mad at you because you keep pooting." Christian said, "I haven't pooted." Ellie looked at us with the biggest, sassiest attitude and said, "yes, you did!"

If she has this much attitude and sassiness at this age, what I am going to be dealing with when she is about 15? Pray for me!! :)

Swimming Girl

2009-08-11T15:10:00.003-04:00

Ellie has gotten so good at swimming. She will stick her face in the water, kick her feet and swim to us. Even though Ellie has always loved the water, I am still so surprised that she is not afraid.

Last night I was giving her a bath, and she kept asking me to watch her. She would lay flat with almost her whole head under water like she was floating. She was so proud of herself!

Pool Time

2009-08-04T15:58:00.005-04:00

Approximately 3 weeks ago, Christian's dad and mom came home from Houston! Yay! Ellie and I met Elisa and Haedyn at Meme Mary and Papa J's pool before they actually got home. The girls had a good time playing with each other. Elisa and I enjoyed a little adult talk!! We were all so happy that Meme and Papa were finally home. The girls were so tired by the end of the day. We were sitting at the kitchen table, and Ellie fell asleep in my arms. It has been awhile since she had done that. I love and miss it!! My little girl is getting so big. I cant believe she is 3!

I signed Ellie up for gymnastics yesterday. I am super excited for her to start. I hope she is able to learn how to tumble at a young age. I wish I had. I started to learn to late, so I was scared of falling and getting hurt. Christian and I both think this is a good age for her to start.....she is so fearless! We will see. She starts class next Tuesday. I made the mistake of telling her that I signed her up last night. Oh my gosh....all I have heard is.....nastics? When are we going nastics? Shauna will be at nastics? The child opened her eyes this morning and asked, "are we going to nastics?" I am glad she is excited. I really think she will love it! We will see.

July 4th....really late

2009-08-04T08:24:00.008-04:00

We spent the morning of July 4th at the lake. Christian starting feeding the ducks. In my opinion, it was a little scary. There had to be at least 50. Ellie and Christian were on the boat and I was on the shore by myself. Ducks can be mean sometimes!!

Saturday evening we went to Christian's best friends, parents house for their neighborhood fireworks show. His parents fixed a fabulous meal. Their neighbors had a trampoline and the girls asked to go jump on it. It was so much fun watching them. Ellie, as we all know, is not scared of anything. Abigail is probably the exact opposite. She is very reserved and quiet. At first she would just jump, by the time we left she was doing flips (front rolls) with Ellie.

I was a little worried about Ellie and the fireworks. She hates loud noises. When we go to public restrooms, she covers her ears before I flush the toilet. At first she did cover her ears, but then she was fine. She loved watching the all of the pretty colors. We had a great time with some great friends!!

Hardwood Floors

2009-07-14T16:15:00.005-04:00

Christian and I put hardwood floors in most of the house a few weeks ago. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would have been. We started about 9 pm on Saturday (he had just gotten home from Houston from seeing his dad). I am glad we did. It was late, but it gave us a feel for what we had gotten ourselves into. We worked till about 1 am on Saturday. We got up Sunday morning and started about 9 am. We worked till about 6. Then we were back up on Monday and finished about 4. It was a lot of hard work, but so worth it in the end.

We are still working on little things like the shoe moulding. We got it nailed down on Monday night. I will work on sealing the holes and painting it the next few nights. We also have the transition strips to lay. The last step is to paint some of the baseboards and then I am painting over the blue! Lots of projects going on in our house.

I was doing the dishes on Monday night and could hear Ellie and Christian playing. Every few minutes I would hear her laughing. Christian called me out to see.....

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ellie was having a blast!! She is not scared of anything! Later that night, she had me do the same thing to her baby doll while she recorded. Too cute!!

Ellie's 3 Year Pics and Family Pics

2009-07-07T07:31:00.004-04:00

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

In May, we had Ellie's 3 year pictures and some family pictures taken. Ellie did incredible. I am more than pleased with the pictures. My brothers wife, Denise has a sister in law (Denise's brothers wife) that is a photographer. Maura is amazing with the camera!!!

Back in 2007, Denise through a surprise 30th birthday party for Richard. Ellie was about 8 months old. Maura took some pics of Ellie, and they are some of my favorite pictures. I still have them on my computer today. I couldn't wait to see these pictures because I knew they would be incredible and of course they were. I have about 50 pictures to choose from. It is going to be a hard decision. Give me about a month and just about all of them will be somewhere in my house!! It will be too hard to choose one over another.

Maura Roberts Photography
maurar@bellsouth.net

Ellie's Birthday Party

2009-06-25T13:26:00.018-04:00

I know it is the end of June and Ellie's birthday party was at the end of May, but we have been so busy....at work and at home! I am finally finding some time to upload the pics.

My beautiful birthday girl!!

While daddy was making the food for everybody, we all swam a little bit.

Uncle Grant throwing Ellie in the air

Then we ate some yummy hamburgers and hot dogs.

Then we ate some birthday cake!

Then Ellie was able to open all of her great birthday presents!!

Braxton

Abigail

Haedyn

Shauna

Then a little bit more swimming!

I went to put more sunscreen on Ellie and she started crying saying that it was burning her. So, we improvised. We used Papa's shirt to make sure she didn't get burned. She looked like a football player with her swimmies on underneath!

When we left, Ellie was chowing down on a bag of potato chips. We were not gone five minutes and she was out! All of the kids did great! The party started at 11:30 am and we left about 4:30 pm. There was not in fussing until we pulled them out to leave! They are all a great bunch of kids. Thank you to all who made Ellie's birthday so great!

PS: We missed you Papa J and Meme Mary! We cant wait to see you! Papa J we hope you start feeling better soon! We love you!!

Last Vacation Post

2009-06-16T12:20:00.016-04:00

On Monday, the sun wasn't out at all, so we went to Gulf World. I thought it would be a perfect day since the weather wasn't the best. What I didn't realize was that Gulf World is basically all outside! Before we left for Florida, mom had asked if she should bring jeans. I said no. Well, I guess we should have brought them. It was so cold outside. We were all in shorts. Luckily, we did have a blanket in the car from the ride down.

Sea Lions

We got to see a bird show. They had lots of birds that would do different things like count and sing.

The best was the dolphin show.

Those who know Ellie, know she is not scared of ANYTHING!!

She loves to be thrown in the air.

I have not been to PCB since 2003. I went with 3 of my best girlfriends for my bachelorette weekend. So much has changed since then. They have torn down close to all of the old, nasty hotels and built new high rise hotels. It was so nice to see how things have changed. One thing they have added is Pier Park. It is a huge outdoor shopping mall. It has a couple of restaurants and tons of stores and boutiques. They have a carousel, train ride and bouncing thing for the kids. Ellie loved the carousel and the train ride. I think we went everyday, so she could ride both.

Vacation Post 3

2009-06-10T12:50:00.008-04:00

My two favorite people

We have a model on our hands. The two where her arms are up by her head....she did those poses on her own. Too funny! I tried to get some pics on the beach but the wind was too bad.

I was trying to teach Ellie to hold her nose when she jumps in the water. She would hold her nose, count to three, let go of her nose and then jump into the water. Too cute!!

Vacation Post 2

2009-06-09T12:12:00.019-04:00

Everyday we saw a ton of stingrays from our balcony. A friend that I work with goes to PCB regularly. She said she has never seen a stingray! Yikes! There were a few times where they would swim by people in the ocean. The people scattered quite quickly.

While we were in FL, we put swimmies on Ellie. I had told Christian that he was probably going to have to just let go of Ellie, so she would see that she would float on her own. I hadn't gotten the words out of my mouth and he had let her go. The rest of the time she was swimming by herself. It was such a relief for us as well. We obviously still watched her, but I didn't feel as nervous with the swimmies on her.

Meme and Ellie

Since the weather was some what bad, we would spend the mornings in the hot tub. One morning we came out to lots of bubbles in the hot tub. Ellie loved it. It was like a gigantic bubble bath.

Mom and Ellie

(I think this is one of three pics of me the whole time we were there)

Daddy and Ellie

Ellie LOVES jumping into the water!

Hi mom!!

Playing in the ocean

I love this pic!

I still have lots to post from our vacation and from Ellie's birthday party!!! I will try and post some each day!

Vacation 2009

2009-06-08T11:09:00.020-04:00

I know I am late posting pictures from our vacation. We had a great first Fellers Vacation. It was nice to be away from cell phones and the hustle and bustle of Atlanta. The weather could have been better.....and it could have been a lot worse. It was VERY windy. We were really only able to go to the beach on Saturday and Sunday. The rest of the week it was so windy it would hurt so bad for the sand to hit you.

Ellie did great on the way down. We left at 5 am on Saturday, May 16th. She slept till we were out of Columbus.

Side note: My dad picked up the dogs Friday night. I never expected Ellie to be so devastated about her dogs being gone. After dad left, she kept asking where her dogs were and if Papa could bring them back.

I put Ellie in a pull-up just in case she needed to go potty and we couldn't find a bathroom fast enough or pull over so she could use hers. I brought her training potty with us. It came in handy. Let me also say that Ellie had never used the little potty when we were potty training. It was a toy. I love the below pics. Every time I see them, it cracks me up. Yes, we are on the side of the road.

I love this pic of Ellie. This facial expression is so "Ellie." Christian and I have already summed up her parent/teacher conferences in the future....Ellie talks a little too much. She is also the class clown. Always has everybody laughing!!!

Views from our condo:

Straight Down

Left

Right

Straight Out

Beach view of our hotel/condo

I have always seen other peoples kids rolling around in the sand. I am not a big fan of the sand being all over me, so I always think,"ugh!" Within 5 minutes of being on the beach, Ellie was rolling around in the sand. She was literally covered from head to toe.

Meme and Ellie in the pool

Rain storm

Rainbow after the storm

Daddy made a chair out of the sand.

My most favorite pic from the trip!

I have lots more pics that I will try and post throughout this week!!

Ellie's Birthday Present

2009-06-03T10:41:00.006-04:00

Picnic table

We had wanted to get Ellie a play set for Christmas, but we knew it would be cold and she would want us out there with her. Christian had the great idea to switch around her gifts. We were originally planning to give her the kitchen for her birthday. I am so glad we waited to give her the swing set. The weather has been so nice. She loves it. She always wants to go out and swing. I thought she would want to do the slide more than swing, but no she is a swinging fool!

We bought the swing set on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. It was a cloudy day. We started about 1 and stopped about 10 pm Sunday night. We had 3 things to do on Monday morning to finish it. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be to put it together. I was labeled the Forman of the job. I would get everything together and hand the wood and screws off to the boys. While the assembled one step, I would be getting the items for the next step together. We really had a good system down. It would sprinkle every once in a while. It was nice because it would cool us off while we were working.

Thank you to everybody who helped: Chris, Janell, Grant and Lauren and of course Daddy!!

Happy 3rd Birthday!!!

2009-05-29T07:37:00.002-04:00

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Birthday, Ellie! We love you so much!!!

Lazy Day at the Lake

2009-05-17T21:03:00.008-04:00

My beautiful daughter!!

This is her new sleeping spot. It was nice because her life jacket has a flap on the back to keep her head afloat. She laid on her stomach, so I flipped that on the back of her head. It kept the sun out of her face, but it still allowed her to breathe.

Playing in the water with daddy.

My cutie, patootie, little girl and my skinny, winny husband!!

Christian has lost thirty pounds since January!

.....Here's Trouble

2009-05-17T20:51:00.005-04:00

We went to mom and dad's last Saturday night for Mother's Day. On the way home, Ellie asked if we could paint her nails. I told her we could. We got home, and I ran to Home Depot to get floor samples. Christian texted me a picture similar to the first picture. I couldn't figure out what it was. I called and he told me it was finger nail polish!!! Ugh!! Ellie decided to paint her own nails. She had it all over her outfit. Perfectly cute outfit that is now ruined! Luckily, I had taken my sheets off of our bed to wash them before we left to go to moms. The polish only got on our egg crate that is on our bed. She even had the polish on the bottom of her feet. How she didn't get it on the carpet, I am not sure!!

Best Friends Forever

2009-05-13T13:12:00.006-04:00

Skyler running from Ellie!

Ellie loves her Kaos!! She tells us all the time that he is her best friend. Kaos is so good with her. He lets her love all over him and he just stands there and takes it. Skyler on the other hand doesn't care for Ellie to give her hugs. She typically runs the other way when she sees Ellie coming. Ellie loves to go get in the dog house with Kaos!

Braxton's 3rd Birthday Party

2009-05-13T12:59:00.005-04:00

The birthday boy!

Braxton's birthday party was 2 Saturday's ago. It was at an inside soccer complex. The kids had a blast running around kicking the soccer balls. I don't think soccer is in Ellie's future. The poor girl is so clumsy. I think she is just so tall for her age and her feet are also so big, it just throws her off balance. I hope that she will grow out of it soon!

Head Injury

2009-05-06T13:54:00.007-04:00

I received a call on Friday right about noon from daycare. It was Ellie's teacher, Tracy. She said that Ellie had been hit in the head with a wood block. She said it looked really bad and didn't want to scare me, but she thought Ellie might have a concussion. I told her I was going to call her pediatrician and then be on my way to get her. I talked to the doctors office, and they said that I needed to evaluate her. They said to find out if she passed out when it happened, if she was sick to her stomach, had any dizziness or stumbling. If she did had any of these symptoms, then I needed to take her straight to the emergency room.

I got to daycare and Ellie was running around playing with her friends. I do have to say it looked awful. The pictures really don't show how big of an "egg" she had on her head. Tracy said that it looked better than it did when it first happened. They had put ice on it for about 15 minutes.

By the time we got home it was about 12:45. It was time for Ellie's nap, but I wanted her stay up for another hour just to make sure she was okay. She was so tired. I felt awful for her. It was hard trying to entertain her when all she wanted to do was take a nap. I took her outside, so she could ride her car. She loves to do this. She wasn't so thrilled about it on Friday though.

Sour puss face!

After an hour of me being with her, I let her take a nap. She slept for 2 and 1/2 hours. She was so tired. Her head looks a lot better now. I expected it to bruise really bad, but it never did.

Day at the Lake

2009-05-06T08:04:00.005-04:00

We were able to take our boat out a few weeks ago. It was nice to be back on the lake....with water in it. Last year, Lanier was approximately 25 feet below full pool. It is now about 7 feet under.

Ellie was her typical self....as soon as the boat started moving, she fell asleep. She even tried to sleep under the console again. She is definitely a lot longer than last year. I wasn't able to get a pic this time. I will try the next time we are out.

Easter Weekend

2009-04-15T13:08:00.013-04:00

We have had a busy few days this past week. I had lasik surgery on Friday. Christian's parents met us at the eye doctor and picked Ellie up for "Camp Grandma." After the surgery, I came home and took my sleeping pill (doctors orders) at 4 pm. I woke up at 7 am on Saturday morning.

We had awful storms come through Atlanta Friday night. I didn't hear a peep! Christian said he came in several times to check on me, but I hadn't moved. That's what a sleeping pill and a Valium will do for you!

Saturday morning we had a post-op appointment at the doctor. We left there and helped a friend move. Saturday night we went to Christian's sisters for Easter. We had a fabulous dinner. The girls had an Easter egg hunt.

Sunday morning we went to my parents for brunch. Ellie and Braxton played in the boat while we waited on meme and papa to get there. The Easter Bunny brought the kids rain boots, so they can play in the water. They also had an egg hunt.

Then Sunday afternoon we had a Masters Party at our house. Along with the busy weekend, Christian and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on Sunday.

Cute stories of Ellie:

Tuesday I recorded Oprah. There were several country stars on her show that day. Tuesday night around 8 pm I turned Oprah on. I had Ellie in our bed trying to get her to calm down to go to sleep. Kenny Chesney was performing. Ellie started clapping along with the audience. Then she blew Kenny Chesney a kiss. I lost it. We are going to have our hands full when she is about 15...maybe sooner! Yikes!

When Ellie is trying to tell us a story, her little brain just moves so much faster than her mouth can get the words out. She is so stinkin' cute when she does this. She was trying to tell us something the other night and she just couldn't get it out. Christian looked at her and said, "spit it out, Ellie." She looked and him and said, "I don't have anything in my mouth, daddy." She proceeded to open her mouth and stick out her tongue to show us that there was not anything in her mouth.

Making Muffins with Mommy

2009-04-06T15:53:00.005-04:00

First of all, I am sorry that the images are so blurry. I think my camera is need of service.

Ellie loves making muffins. She likes to help pour the milk and stir. Of course, the best part is eating the muffins. After we mix the ingredients together, Ellie loves to lick the fork and spatula. I love that she likes to help out with baking. I definitely enjoy baking more than cooking. Christian is the cook of the family. He is typically the one that cooks dinner every night! Love it!!

Princess Party

2009-04-01T15:24:00.016-04:00

Shauna, the birthday girl

Shauna getting her nails painted

My beautiful princess

The girls got to pick their princess dress....

....then they had their nails painted

Ellie had a dress change. The other was itching her.

...then their make up done

...and their hair done.

The princess is now complete!!

A little playing....

The four beautiful princesses

Corea, Ellie, Shauna and Jalin

Ellie was invited to a princess birthday party on Sunday. Ellie had a blast. It was in a kids hair salon. They dressed up as princesses and had pizza and cupcakes. The girls were great. The salon owner said that this was the best group of 3 years she had ever had. They were all so calm. The parents all talked about how it wasn't their norm.

Golf

2009-03-31T12:56:00.004-04:00

Christian started playing golf about two years ago. He would play a couple of times a year. A few weeks ago he came home from playing golf and said he wanted to really get into golf. I thought it was great. He doesn't hunt anymore, so I thought this would be a good way for him to have some guy time.

A few days later Christian came home with this big net thing. He first put it up on the side of our house facing the neighbors...cars and houses. He would hit the ball at full force. I had asked him if this was the smartest thing to do and he said that the balls will not go under the net. The only way there would be a problem is if he hit it over the net. He had hit several balls and they were caught by the net. Well, the last one didn't. We are not quite sure where it went. It is still missing!

The next night, Christian put the net in front of Ellie's bedroom window. Let me just add that Ellie's window is a very large window. I am thinking...Great! We are going to be replacing a window here shortly. I believe his second swing went under the net. This is the damage.....

This is a nice size hole in our siding! It is problem the size of a softball if not a little bigger. I am thankful that it didn't hit her window. Her window is less than a foot away from this hole! Let me also mention that my husband already has 5 pieces of siding to replace in the back of our house from grilling. Note: you need to move your grill away from your house when you grill. Otherwise, it melts the siding!

After this incident, Christian moved his net to the other side of our house. I think this is a much better location.

Christian was out at this same spot last night. I was looking at the side of our house thinking about how much we need to wash the house. Yeah, I noticed another hole in the siding. It is really small and probably would look more like dirt than anything. I would have thought it was dirt, but knowing his luck so far I asked him. He is about to be banned from playing golf anywhere around the house!! Men!!

Growing.....

2009-03-17T12:58:00.007-04:00

9/18/2007 - 1 year, 4 months

4/25/2008 - 1 year, 11 months

3/8/2009 - 2 years, 9 months

Its amazing how fast they grow. Ellie is more than half my height. She comes up to probably my belly button. I have always said that she is going to be taller than me by the time she is five. She is closing in fast! :)

I love how all of these pics are with Kaos. Skyler wont sit still long enough for me to get a pic of her and Ellie. Ellie loves her Kaos. She tells Christian and I that Kaos is her friend! Too cute!

Painting....Ellie style

2009-03-17T12:48:00.005-04:00

While I was working out last night, Ellie kept asking me if she could paint. For the above reasons, I typically dont let her paint, but last night I caved in and let her. This is what I get for letting her!!

She is so funny. She has to try everything.....lotion, hand santizer, shaving cream. I dont get it. I have a body wash that I typically use on her. It is by Dial and its Honey and Almond. The first time I used it on her. She licked her hand and said, "mmmmm!"

Snow Day in Atlanta

2009-03-06T11:09:00.009-05:00

Front of the house....obviously!

View of our street

Backyard view

Daddy with his make shift snow cap! Its a dish towel under his hat!

Ellie Belle!

Mommy and Ellie

It has definitely been an interesting week her in Atlanta. Sunday around lunch time it started snowing. It didnt stop until that evening around 7ish. Some parts of our county got 4 inches of snow. I think we got about 3 inches.

It had just began to snow when Ellie and I took a nap. I walk up about an hour later. Everything was covered in snow. I couldnt believe how much it had snowed in an hour. Ellie slept for another hour. It was one of the few times that Ellie took a two hour nap! I kept going in our room and looking in the video monitor to see if she was stirring yet. She finally woke up, so we went to play in the snow. We didnt last too long! It was so cold and Ellie didnt like it when she fell down. She is definitely a summer girl.

Starting this past Monday, I had jury duty! As a side note, about ten years ago when I had jury duty, it had snowed as well. I just thought that was funny. Anyway, so a lot of schools were closed on Monday because of the ice on the roads. I got up like it was a typical day. I checked the news channel and Legacy, Ellie's school, was not on the list. I assumed they were open. I put her in the car and off we go. As soon as I pull up to daycare, I notice there were no lights on and the director was out putting a sign up that said "Closed Monday." Typically, this wouldnt have been an issue. I would have just stayed home with Ellie, but I had JD and it had not been cancelled. I had to report at 1 pm. Thankfully, Denise was off since the schools were closed. Ellie and I met up with Richard and he took her back to their house. A play day with Braxton. She was so excited. Below is a picture that Denise took.

Denise said that they were riding in the Jeep and the wheels kept spinning, so Braxton and Ellie decided they needed to fix the Jeep!!

As far as JD goes, I was selected as Juror #2 on a criminal case. I was completely shocked. They ask you if you know anybody that is cop, has been a cop, etc. I know 3: My uncle is a retired cop, Christian's best friend, Greg, is an undercover agent with Gwinett County (the county we live in) and my best friend Keri's husband, Brendon, is also a Gwinnett County cop. I hear stories all the time from Greg and Brendon. The lawyers even asked if I had heard stories. I was sure that since I knew the two of them that I wasnt going to be picked! Nope!! I was!!

It was actually a very interesting process.....beside a lot of waiting. The guy was charged with hijacking a motor vehicle, possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and theft by receiving stolen property. We found him guilty on all three charges. He will now be in prison for the next 15 years!!

Another thing that was very interesting was that as all of the jurors were leaving the courthouse, we were able to stop and talk to the lawyers. They were so nice. They were asking us what we thought about the trial, what made us side the way we did. We also learned that it was the DA's first trial!

Stephanie and Keith's Wedding

2009-03-04T20:36:00.011-05:00

The Bride and Groom

Kaden

Braxton and Ellie being silly...as usual!

Daddy dancing with his little girl!

Cake time!

Daddy and Ellie

Ellie moving in on a younger man!

Stephanie, my best friend since middle school, got married this past weekend. We had the pleasure of attending her wedding reception. We had a great time. The kids had fun playing on the great deck and dancing. Below is a video of the kids getting their groove on!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Rough Week

2009-02-27T08:09:00.006-05:00

The week started off we me opening the pantry door on Ellie's foot. I didn't know she was that close to the door.

Later that night, Ellie put her finger in the door at the same time that Christian was closing the pantry door!

Side note: I was at the dentist when this happened. I texted Christian to let him know I was on my way home. He texted me back with "ok, smashed finger on this end." I texted him back, "is it broke?" He sent me, "heck yeah, all 4!" I was pulling in the garage when I got this message! I was thinking...well we will be in the emergency room tonight. I flew into the house and he was standing in the kitchen just a laughing and Ellie was standing beside him with her one finger in the air! He thought he was sooo funny! Men!!

Not quite sure how she got this cut on the bottom of her big toe!

Then yesterday she got an "egg" on her head! You can kind of see it on her forehead in this picture! Her teacher, Ms. Tracy, said she was spinning around and then all of a sudden she fell and hit her head on the ground!

We are hoping it gets warm and stays warm soon. It is our spring/summer ritual to go outside every afternoon. We were outside yesterday enjoying the nice weather! Ellie drove me around in her Mustang! Last summer, I was driving her around! It was a lot of fun!

We were walking into the house yesterday afternoon and all of a sudden Ellie started saying, "I am princess!" I asked what she said. "I am a princess." Well, she is definitely mine and Christian's princess, but I am not sure where she got it from! Haha!!

Working Out with Mommy

2009-02-20T07:33:00.005-05:00

Stretching

Push ups with mommy

Lifting weights with mommy

Christian and I started a workout program back at the first of the year. We are able to stay at home and workout. It is nice not having to worry about a gym membership and being away from Ellie. Ellie has started working out with us a little. She stretches and then gets the two pound weights and works out a little.....well for about 30 seconds and then she is bored with it. I have been trying to get pictures of her working out with us for a while, but it is hard to do both at the same time! Christian didn't workout the other night, so we were finally able to get some pictures.

Cute story: The other night I was lying on Ellie's bed with her. I started going over names with her. This is how the conversation went:

Mommy: What is daddy's name?

Ellie: James Christian Fellers

Mommy: What is mommy's name?

Ellie: Stephanie Dawn Fellers

Mommy: What is Braxton's name?

Ellie: Braxton Holden

Mommy: Well, what is Braxton's middle name?

Ellie: Braxton Holden

Mommy: Yes, but his full name is Braxton Gene Holden

Ellie: No, meme said Braxton Holden. It's Braxton Holden!

Mommy: Well, yes ma'am!!

Too funny!

Ellie's New Big Girl Room

2009-02-15T20:49:00.006-05:00

Ever since we moved Ellie to a big girl bed, she has asked for a BIG girl bed. Last Sunday, I decided to move the guest bedroom bed in her room. She LOVES it. She hasn't slept better. Of course, I had to get new bedding for her new bed. I found this bedding set on clearance this weekend. The only problem, is that after washing everything I went to put it on her bed. I couldn't get the flat sheet to fit right. I looked at the tag on the sheet and it said Twin! Ugh! I am going to take the sheet back to Macy's tomorrow and hope they have another set where they can just exchange the sheet. If they don't, I am not sure what I am going to do! I made this padded headboard based around one of the pink colors in the comforter. I still have a few things that I need to do like curtains (the black is from the old bedding), hang pictures on the wall, and paint two nightstands white to add next to her bed.

Ellie has watched her movies in our room for probably a year now. Christian is always watching TV in the living room which lives me to go upstairs if I wanted to watch something. Well, for whatever reason I never have, so last weekend I also decided to move a TV into Ellie's room. We had two TV's sitting in our guest bedroom that work perfectly fine. Now Ellie watches her Dora movies in her room. Its great! She has been playing with more of her toys that were to big to drag out of her room. Best of all, the mess stays in her room instead of ours, and I get to watch what I want to watch!

Updates...

2009-02-10T12:29:00.012-05:00

Here is Ellie in her new Dora slippers. She got these for Christmas. She is watching Dora. This is the dazed look that she used to get went she watched Shrek. Now its Dora!!

so tired......

Ellie's cheese face!

Two Sunday's ago, Braxton came to play with Ellie. These two are a complete mess when they get together. They play so hard and so rough! Denise and I just sit back and laugh at them. They are definitely entertaining! Uncle Richard would die if he saw Braxton on the pink bike. I didn't get any pictures of him in the pick helmet!!

Daddy took Ellie to the elementary school by our house this past Sunday, so I could go grocery shopping and finish cleaning the house. He said she did a great job driving. She used to not turn the stirring wheel. She would press the gas and go where it took her. He said she is learning to turn the wheel and drive a lot better.

She is also learning to maneuver her bike more. She could ride her bike last summer, but she wouldn't always steer the best, and she wouldn't use the brakes. Since it has been so nice here lately, we took her out to ride her bike. She was using her brakes and turning like a pro.

Christian took Ellie to her 6 week check-up for her ears. Everything looked good and her tubes were in place! Yay! I think we do have to take her back for a hearing check in the next couple of weeks and then check-ups every 6 months after that. Pray that these tubes stay in place and that she has no more ear infections!!!

Ellie is transitioning into her new class at school. Ellie has always moved to the next class earlier than the other kids. She wasn't supposed to move until she was 3...or closer to it, but she has met all of the requirements for this class. She does have 3 of her best friends moving with her. She will be in the class for 6 months and the other 4 classes for 6 months as well. Then its Kindergarten! Ugh! I cant believe she will be 3 in a few months! She is growing up way too fast!!

Big Girl Bed!

2009-01-21T14:06:00.008-05:00

At Christmas, we moved Ellie's bedroom to our front bedroom. Her old bedroom backed up to our bathroom. We have always had to be some what quiet in the mornings getting ready. When we moved her, I wanted to go on and convert her crib to the toddler bed. Christian didn't want to because she was crawling out yet. So I left her in the crib.

Two Saturday mornings ago, Ellie woke up at 5:45 am. I went in and told her it was too early to get up. I left the room hoping that she would at least sleep until 6:30 am. At about 6:15 am, I hear a little voice say, "I have to go potty!" I was half asleep, so I wasn't sure if she was standing in our room, if it came from the monitor or if I was dreaming it. Well, she was in our room!!

Every morning around 5:45 am she would crawl out and come to our room. There was only one night when she crawled out at 1 am. Ellie was still not sleeping through the night.

This past Friday night, we converted her bed to a toddler bed. She has done so good. I am so glad we waited as long as we did. We don't get the excuses like I need to go potty, I need a glass of water, etc. She did start waking up at night again, but she just sits up in her bed. I will go in there and tell her that its okay and she goes back to sleep.

One more milestone down....

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Here is a video of her crawling out. This is a video of the video monitor in our room!

Cute story: If Christian or I hurt ourselves, Ellie will come up to us and say, "I'm sorry mommy. Its okay mommy." While saying this she will rub our head or back....which I might add is the sofest touch ever!! Last night Ellie noticed a cut on my thumb. She asked what had happened, and I say that I cut it while trying to cut an apple. She looked at me and started rubbing my back and said, "It's okay sweetheart, its okay!!" Christian and I looked at each other and just laughed! She is so stinkin cute and sweet!!