Lake Days

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

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

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

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

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

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!