Saturday...

We headed to Mammaw and Pappaw's. Lucky for us, Payton was spending the weekend there, too. Look how happy Ella was to see Payton!
The two of them played outside all afternoon. Here's Ella on the little horse. She said, "Mommy, take a picture of me doing this!"
Cuddling with Mammaw- isn't this such a sweet picture?
Mammaw bought the kids some glow sticks and boy, did they have fun with those! They played outside forever, entertaining all of us!
We were blessed to get to spend some time with Great-grandma and Great-grandpa Martin, too.

So much fun...

We had such a wonderful weekend, visiting with family. Chris got off work a little early Friday and we headed to Mom and Dad's. Jason brought the kids over and we just laughed and played and had a ball.

Ella was so excited to see Lexi and I know Lex was pretty thrilled, too. These two are just the biggest buddies.

Ella loving on "Baby Tarson" as she calls him. It's been a couple months since we saw Carson and it is crazy how big he is getting! He's so funny and such a sweetie!
This is a rare pic of Carson actually sitting on my lap. He's such a Pappaw's boy and usually as soon as he sees him, he wants nothing to do with me. He's not unhappy in this pic, he's just "punking out the camera" as his Daddy says. :)
Splashing in the tub. Don't worry, Carson actually loved Ella pouring water in his face. :)
We got to see the college kids for just a short time. Ella was super happy to see Jared and Katie. I think she reallly misses having him around.

Bandaids

Ella walked right into the couch today and, after a few long moments of screaming, decided the only thing that would make her face feel better was a bandaid. When she looked in the mirror and saw how silly it was, she wanted me to take a picture. She kept saying, "That's a silly bandaid, Mom."
Then she decided that a week-old boo-boo on her foot needed the bandaid more.
Then it went to her finger and belly button and, finally, to her baby doll (who was crying because she hit her head on the couch-haha!). The good thing was that by the end of it all, there were no more tears. :)

Fun at the farm...

We had a great family day today. We took Ella to Niederman Family Farms and she had such a blast. It's a fun place, with a petting zoo, pumpkin patch, and playground. Ella LOVED petting the sheep and goats and looking at the roosters. I wish I could have captured every expression on her face- she just didn't know what to do next!

Here she is petting some of the animals with Daddy.

Just "horsing" around... (I know, awful joke :)
We took a wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch. Ella had a hard time picking out just one pumpkin, so we got two- one big and one "witty, witty" (itty bitty).
Yea! Look at Ella's pumpkin!! And look at Mommy's pretty mum! :)
Ella must have said, "Mommy, I had so much fun at the farm!" at least 50 times on the way home. We can't wait to go back!

Yum...

We asked Ella what she wanted to do tonight, and she said "Go to the fountain and eat ice cream!" Of course! That is just about her favorite thing in the world to do!

Sharing with Daddy...
Before we leave, we wish on some pennies and throw them into the fountain. Tonight, Ella got to make a really big wish (on a quarter) and throw it in. We love to see her having so much fun!

Exciting news!

For those of you who don't already know, we are expecting another baby!!
We are thrilled and can't wait to see what God has in store for us. This new, little addition will be here sometime in April. My due date has ranged from April 2 to April 12, but we trust that he or she will show their sweet, little face exactly when they're supposed to.

This ultrasound pic was around 8 weeks, and not very much is discernable at this point (the head is on the right). All I cared about was that little heart beating loud and strong! I feel fantastic. I thought my pregnancy with Ella was easy, but this one has been even easier. Here I am heading into the second trimester and have only had a few days of nausea! Seriously though, the things that have made me nauseous at work would make anyone nauseous- pregnant or not- so I have been extremely lucky!

Lots of people have asked us what Ella thinks about it. Obviously at this point, she has not a clue what she's in for! :) We have told her that there's a baby growing in Mommy's belly and that when that baby is big enough, he or she will come to live at our house. She just looks at us kind of funny and usually changes the subject. She does like to tell people that she's going to have a "baby budder", but I don't think she will start to get it until my stomach starts to grow.

So if you think to remember us in your prayers, please pray that this little baby will grow healthy and strong. He or she's going to have to be pretty tough to keep up with big sis!

Auntie April

Aunt April was in town for work and stopped by for the night. We were so excited and happy to see her!! Ella was her instant buddy and did not want to leave her side. They ate dinner together...
They colored together...
They even hit the dance floor together (but I agreed not to post those pics!).
We were really happy to get to spend some time with her. Come back soon, April!!

A little reward...

Ella had a little cabin fever this afternoon, so we got her out of the house and decided to let her run wild in Toys R Us. We told her she could pick out a special treat for being such a good girl lately and trying to use the big girl potty. It took her a while to decide, but she finally picked out a pretend ATM machine. We said, "Sorry, Sister! You're a little too young for that!" It would only be a matter of time before she started expecting real money to come out of there!

Instead we picked out a giant coloring book and new markers (yes, Mom is being brave with this one!). How fun! Ella couldn't wait to get home and play!

Notice the marker on her cheeks- she was covered with it in less than two minutes!

New shoes!

I took Ella to the mall today for some new shoes. She has outgrown all her summer shoes and keeps telling me they're "hot" when we put them on. Anyways, she was so excited about her new shoes and wanted to wear them out of the store. She kept lifting up her foot to show them off to everyone we saw in the mall. :)

She was so darn proud to show Daddy, too, and even wanted to call Pappaw and Mammaw to tell them all about her new shoes.

I couldn't get a shot of them on her feet, because she was dancing and jumping around. Daddy has her convinced that new shoes make you run faster and jump higher and Ella was putting it to the test! Maybe next time I can catch them on her feet. Anyways, she picked these out because of the little butterfly on the strap. Super cute, huh?

Surviving the storm

We made it through the windstorm without any damage or injury. All we had was some minor damage to our landscape, and we are so lucky, considering our next door neighbors lost the sunroom off the back of their house. It was just blown away! We heard on the news that West Chester sustained winds of 84 mph. Many houses in our neighborhood lost siding, shingles, and swingsets. Our parents (over two hours away) lost many big trees in their yards and part of Dad's barn blew away. We're thankful no one was injured and that those trees didn't fall on their houses!

I'm so glad, too, that the power is back on! It was off for most of the day yesterday and came back on around 3 this morning. Apparently 80% of the Cincinnati area is still without electricity. How we managed to be in the 20% that have it back already, I don't know, but thank goodness! We figure someone important must live on the big hill behind us. :)

Another thing we were grateful for is that after driving around for almost two hours yesterday, we finally managed to find a Walgreens that allowed me to buy some Tylenol for Ella. She woke up early yesterday morning with a terrible fever and we didn't have any children's Tylenol. I was crushing adult Tylenol and dissolving it in apple juice- you don't need much imagination to figure how hard it was to convince a sick two year old to take that! Anyways, the Walgreens manager met me at the door and asked if it was an emergency and if I was paying cash- yes and yes!! Thankfully, Ella is feeling a little better today- still has a fever, but she has more energy and is eating some.

So I hope all of you were as lucky as we were. We're pretty happy we didn't plant all those trees we wanted to last weekend. We thought we were just being lazy, but obviously, there was a reason for it!