19 Months Old

Ella Kate (or Ella Cake as her friends at MDO call her) is 19 months old today. She is acting more and more grown up every day. She talks constantly. Sometimes we have no clue what she is saying and sometimes, you can understand her. She is starting to string words together pretty well like "I found book," "open the door," and "I see moon." She is doing pretty well with saying "please" and "thank you" too. If only I could get her to say "yes ma'am!" She prefers to just answer with "yup." Oh well, manners will come in time...hopefully!
Ella Kate loves her books! She is obsessed with any book by Sandra Boynton and "reads"

several of them pretty well. Two other books that we read all day long are "Baby's Day Out," and "Noah's Ark." I guess it is true that children mimic what they see because EK was reading one of her books and the pages were sticking together. No worries, she just licked her finger and then turned the page. Pretty precious.
Since Christmas, EK has been a busy bee in her kitchen. She loves having tea and offers it to us as well as all her baby dolls on a regular basis. When it is time to pick up, she always puts all her dishes in the sink.
Ella Kate is quite fond of Thomas the Tank Engine. When she watches her "Choo Choo" movie, she likes to sit on the Thomas riding toy that I found at a consignment store. She LOVES it!
I'm not really sure why, but Ella Kate really likes putting toys and things down her shirt. In this picture, she had about 25 alphabet blocks down her shirt. She was so proud that she got so many blocks in her shirt.
Bubbles are a favorite pass time as well. She could stand on her little stool in the bathroom for hours and play in the sink. Whatever!!!

We love this little girl so much and she is such a blessing to be around. Her smile is contagious and she brightens up any room. She is a precious gift and we cannot wait to see what God has in store for her life and for our family.

A Day at the Park

Living in the south definitely has some benefits!!! While so many places have been covered with snow, we have been blessed with perfectly clear and beautifully sunny 73 degree days!!!! This weather is AMAZING!!!! Yesterday we took Ella Kate to the park downtown. It was a great day!

Happy, Happy Birthday!!!

Happy, Happy Birthday to Auntie Jordan!!! We hope you have a super day and that class will be cancelled due to all your snow!!!! We love you and wish we could spend your day with you...settle for a skype date this weekend? HAPPY BIRTHDAY JO!!!!!!

Party Time!

Ella Kate's buddy Warren turned 2 yesterday. EK had a super fun time playing at Will and Warren's house with all of their "boy'' toys!!!!
YUMMY, YUMMY in my tummy!!! EK LOVED the icing...didn't care too much for the cake part though.
The kids "jumped" on the trampoline for a while. Ella Kate thought it was awesome and had a blast running around in circles. She still is so funny when she tries to jump because she gets no air. Bless her...white girl can't jump!!!

Daddy helped her out. This was way more fun!!!


WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check out the aftermath of the trampoline on the hair!!! Nice static action!!!!!
Ella Kate also had an fabulous time with the boys train table. She loves her "choo choos."
This little bumper car was one of Warren's gifts. He didn't care for it, so EK decided that she would take it for a spin instead...for about an hour.
J, and our friends Mason and Kristen were busy playing Rock Band, so EK found some shakers and joined in the fun.
Finally it was Will, EK, and Warren's turn to play some music. It was a great night and we had such fun celebrating sweet Warren's big day!!!!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

While J and I were in Starkville for the wedding, Ella Kate got to spend some time in Columbus with Nana and Pop. She had a BLAST!!!! Before it got too cold, EK went outside to show off her hitting skills that she must have gotten from her daddy and Pop...considering my lack of athletic abilities. Thank you sooooooo much Nana and Pop for keeping Ella Kate for us this weekend!!!

Mr. and Mrs. White

What a GREAT weekend!!! My sweet cousin Shelby got married this weekend at the Chapel of Memories at State. It was a gorgeous day, gorgeous service, and gorgeous bride!! It was so special too that Shelby and Adam asked J to officiate the wedding. This was his first wedding, and might I say, he did a pretty awesome job! We are so excited for Shelby and Adam to begin their lives together and look so forward to the things God has in store for their marriage!!!Congrats Shelbo!!! You looked so BEAUTIFUL!!!
"The Reverend" and Shelbo
Aunt Haley and Shelby...EK was a VERY happy camper when she got to see Aunt Haley, Kay Kay, and G!!!!
Ella Kate was not really in to having her picture made. She instead chose to eye the cake...I don't blame her because it was DELISH!!!!! EK even grabbed a handful of cake and fed it to Shelby's Papaw Art...if only I had a picture of that!!! PRECIOUS!!!!!!
I don't have any pictures of J officiating at the actual wedding, but here he is in action at the rehearsal. So proud of my preacher man!!!

Ringing in a New Year with the Bulldogs

J and I were able to go to the Gator Bowl with some of our very best friends! Our friend Greg Sykes got us all tickets to go and we had a blast!!! On New Year's Eve, Greg, Frank and Andrea Haynes, J and I went to the most delicious dinner at Ruth's Chris. It was AMAZING and the setting was incredible as well. We were right on the river that runs through Jacksonville and it was beautiful!!! We enjoyed our yummy dinner and laughed alot!!! After dinner we headed to the MSU Alumni Association party. The lady that was taking up the money said that they expected about 2000 people...when we went through, there were already 6000 bulldogs in the River City Brewery. It was MADNESS!!! We danced a bit and then went to find a spot on the boardwalk to watch the fireworks. They looked great over the river!!!
1-1-11...We got up early and caught the river taxi from the hotel to the stadium. Even though we were in Jacksonville, it really felt like a home game! There were 2 Michigan people on our river taxi and the rest were cowbell ringing Dawgs. It was nuts and soooooooo fun!!!!

I love a fly over!!! I always tear up a little, and what's more...a bunch of men and women took the oath to join the Marines pregame too. That REALLY got me!
It was so loud!!! We had some amazing seats thanks to Greg. We felt like big dogs in the Touchdown Club. It was so nice!!!!
A little post game victory photo!! We had so much fun hanging out with Frank and Andrea. We really miss getting to see them since we moved from Jackson.
I love that we gave Michigan their worst bowl loss in history and it was also the most points MSU had scored in 11 years!!! DOMINATION!!!!!!


Thank you Jacksonville for an AWESOME trip! I look forward to coming back to visit soon!!!!