Our sweet baby is 2 months old this weekend. Hard to believe, yet even harder to remember what life was like before him. He is such a wonderful addition to our family and everyday, we fall more and more in love with him. He has such a sweet temperament and just waits for someone to talk to him, so he can flash this huge, adorable smile. Already a little charmer! I have a pretty hard time resisting him!He is up to 9 lbs 4 oz, 22 inches long, and finally starting to fill out some of his clothes. He is growing appropriately and looks great. What a small and perfect miracle he is!
The other night when Ella was in the tub, she was splashing water everywhere and I reminded her to try to keep it contained (she has been known to pour huge cups full of water out on the tile just for fun). She said, "Yeah, 'cause if all the wood gets wet, our house will fall down," which is what her daddy has told her. I asked, "If the house falls down, what would we do? Where would we live?" Ella thought for a minute and said, "I guess we could just go to the mall!" Haha!
Over the weekend, a lot of the ladies on the Freeman side of the family (my mom's side) got together at an aunt's house in Louisville. I was able to go for part of the day Saturday. It was great to see some of my aunts and cousins that I don't get to see all that often. Plus, my mamaw was there, and got to meet Cade for the first time. Counting grandkids and great-grandkids together, Cade is her 58th grandchild! I pretty sure she enjoyed meeting him just as much as she probably enjoyed meeting her very first. She kept saying, "Oh, I just have to hold that sweet, little baby!" Cade meeting Great-Mamaw Freeman...
Joli, Jalyn, and Cade...
Cade and his "big" cousin, Keenan. He is about 4 months older than Cade and so precious! 
Keenan and his mommy, Emily...
Me with my sweet mamaw...
Lex and Kaitlyn are the same age and became fast buddies...
Ella is in a habit of saying, "Shake your boooooty!!" every time she is changing clothes, taking a bath, or using the bathroom (pretty much whenever she is naked!). This is accompanied by a little dance that is not, in my opinion, very appropriate for a 3 year old and I'm not exactly sure where she picked it up (no, this is not something that Chris and I do around the house :). Needless to say, the more we tell her it's not nice to do this, the more she does it. Everywhere. All the time. Go figure.So tonight before dinner, she stands in her chair, does her little dance and the whole "shake your booty" bit. We tell her to sit down, it's not nice to do this, especially at the dinner table, yadda, yadda. Then it was her turn to say prayer. It went something like this:"Our father in heaven, thank you for today. Thank you for our food. Thank you for Ella not saying shake your booty at the table. Thank you for Mamaw and Papaw and Grammy and Pappaw and all our family. Shake your BOOOOTY!!!! In Jesus' name, Amen!" Hahaha!Chris and I could hardly contain our laughter. Seriously, it's like she can't control it. What are we going to do with her?!!
So last night after dinner, Ella and I went outside to play for a little while. We came in, watched American Idol, shared popsicles. I gave her a bath, dried her off, cleaned her ears, brushed her teeth, put lotion on, helped put her jammies on, put medicine on her "itchies", gave extra kisses to her boo-boo, all the while singing silly songs and making funny faces. I read her a bedtime story, made sure she had a drink before bed, went downstairs to get her blankets and pillow, went downstairs a second time to get her care bear, helped tuck all her dolls and animals in for the night, gave each of them kisses, and took her to our room to say good-night to Daddy. Ella climbs up on our bed and Daddy, who is already half-asleep, rolls over and hugs Ella good-night. Ella says, "Aww, I love Daddy. He takes care of me." :)Sorry, Mom, for all the times I took you for granted and overlooked the small things you did to take care of us. Mothering is often times a thankless job... but I wouldn't trade it for the world!
Our sweet, little girl turned 3 on Saturday. We had such a fun day celebrating her and all she means to us and our family.I told her when she woke up that she looked so much bigger and asked her if she grew overnight. She said, "Yeah, I'm a lot bigger. I grew from 2 to 3 last night." :)
Ella, there's a surprise for you at the door! 
Birthday balloons!!
She couldn't wait to put her "special party dress" on. She looked adorable!
Playing a game with Papaw and Payton...
Ready to open gifts...
A new Dora doll!!
New dress-up clothes! Thanks, Uncle Chad and Aunt April!
A new bike! Thanks, Papaw and Mamaw!
Giving it a test drive...
She received so many other nice gifts... a water sprinkler from Uncle Kyle, a backyard water park from Grammy and Pappaw, another doll from Chad and April, lots of clothes, a new doll stroller, make-up, money, and more. She is definitely one spoiled, little girl!Time for the pinata!! It was so much fun watching these kids take turns trying to whack this thing! We laughed and laughed.
Go, Ella!
Payton gave it all he had...
And finally got it!! Everyone raced to get the candy...
On to the birthday cake!
Make a wish, Princess!
Each time she blew out the candles, she said, "Let's do it again!!" So we did!
We finally couldn't take it anymore! We had to dig in!! Yum!
Happy 3rd birthday, Ella! We love you so much and thank God everyday that He saw fit to make us your mommy and daddy. We can't imagine our life without you! 
We went shopping and Ella got to pick out some new tennis shoes. Poor baby has been telling us her shoes hurt. No wonder, she has grown from an 8 to a 10 just since Christmas! Here's a pic of her new "pink and green and silver and all the pretty colors" shoes...
We went to Winton Woods yesterday. It was a ton of fun and we were excited to find another neat park pretty close to home.
We didn't realize there was a wet playground there and didn't bring Ella's swimsuit. Next time we'll know, but she didn't let that stop her from having a grand, old time in that water!
Today, the little girl across the street had a birthday pool party. Ella had such a great time!
Making new friends...
Making new friends...
Love the make-up, Ella!
Aunt April with the birthday girl...
