Lake Fun!

We spent Memorial Weekend at the lake.

It was pretty relaxing....

Last year when we went to the lake little missy was too little to join in on the fun...

but this year was different. She enjoyed playing in the pool, riding in the boat, floating in the lake and riding the jet ski! Here are some pictures from our weekend!

Driving the boat!

Floating in the lake to cool off!

First Jet Ski ride with mom and dad!

Sitting her "her" chair!

Happy Graduation!

Thursday night we all headed over to Flint Hill Christian School to celebrate my cousin Whitney's graduation! We were so excited to be able to celebrate this special day with her!

( I tried to get some good pictures but that didn't really work out because my battery died on my camera when we were eating out before :( So here are phone pictures)

The ceremony was nice but.......

very long....

the kiddos got a little impatient.....

..

but we made it through!

Congratulations Whitney!

I remember the day you were born...I really cannot believe that it was 18 LONG years ago!

you have grown up so fast...right before our eyes!

We love you so much, Wee!

New Windows

Here is a picture of one of our new windows!

We are really excited about them!

Since the windows that we had were the original ones ( and our house was built in 1937) we decided it was about time for some new ones.

Now they are all in and they look great...

It is so nice to have nice, new windows that actually open and close!

Week in Pictures

We have had a busy week.

We have not done anything really exciting...we have just been busy with things around the house. We got new windows this week...so that was super exciting!

I will have to post pictures of them later.

Here are some pictures from our week :)

Ellie played outside while we worked in the yard.

She loved playing with the balls!

Our morning walk worn Ellie out!

The ducks at her Mamaw and Pawpaw's house that she loves to go feed.

She learned how do say "Duck" this week!

She also knows what the duck says...

Riding on the gator with daddy...

Helping her Pawpaw with his garden...

12 Month Pictures by Kim Brantley

I got the CD the other day with Ellie's 12 month pictures!

They were ALL SO GOOD!

Here were just a few ( out of 200 and something) of my favorites!

Thank you so much Kim for all the beautiful pictures!

You are my Sunshine!

You are my Sunshine!

My only Sunshine!

You make me happy when skys are gray...

You will never know dear how much I love you...

Please don't take my Sunshine away!

I love you so... sweet little Ellie Bellie!!!

Up and Down

UP...

Down...

We went to the park the other day and I promise Miss Ellie went up and down these steps 50 times! She was so proud that she could do it ALL by herself!

TROUBLE!

Some little girl is TROUBLE!

*************************************************************************

I am sure you will not have go try very hard to guess who did this the other day!

Beach Trip!

We spent the weekend at the beach!

Everything was great!

...beside the storm that we went through on the beach...with the kids...I call it a " Mini Hurricane" because the word storm does not do it justice :)

Ellie absolutely LOVED the beach!

She took a long nap under the umbrella!

I thought this picture was so sweet.

Matt and Ellie sitting at the edge of the water. If you look hard enough you can see her little piggie tails standing straight up!

Heading back to the house after a fun day on the beach!

We cannot wait to go back in a few weeks!

Gator Rides

One of Ellie's favorite thing to do at her Mamaw and Pawpaw's house is to ride the gator!

I think she really loves being able to ride and not be in a carseat...

She is so funny because when it starts going her hair just sticks straight up!

And when you stop or slow down too slow for her likings she starts rocking back and forth like she is saying " GO!...Faster!"

Birthday Party!

Saturday afternoon we went to celebrate Ellie's cousin, Clay's 1st Birthday!

Ellie had a fun time playing outide with all the toys...

She however had a hard time dealing with the fact that there was a wagon and car there just like hers. She just about pushed the kid out of the car to get into it when she saw it...we will have to work on sharing :)

This group picture of all the kids cracks me up....

from a distance Ellie looks kind of happy and maybe even smiling...the truth...she fussed the whole time we tried to take pictures of all the kids...oh well

Casey's Cause

Saturday morning we walked down the mall in Trussville for the 4th Annual Casey's Cause race.

Your can learn more about Casey's Cause here: /http://www.caseyscause.org/

The weather was perfect for the race!

Theey had a blow up slide there this year and Ellie absolutely LOVED it!

She also had fun dancing to the band!

Here is a picture of the three of us!

Oh yeah.........and the best part!

Seth and Emily both placed in the race.....YAY!

Swimming, Swimming in The Swimming Pool!

On Friday we took our first swim trip ( in the big pool) for the year!

In these pictures Ellie looks like she is having a grand time but that really wasn't the case.

We actually only stayed at the pool for about an hour because we were swimming with my brother-in-law and his friend and I was so embarrassed because Ellie was being the "bad" kid.

She was pretty mad that she could not just do her own thing in the pool.

I had got her this little ring thing thinking she would like to sit and peacefully float around in it....but then I realized I was talking about by child....She needs something that she can easily move and and get up and down and all around in...so we are still looking for the "perfect" float.

Favorite Vacation Spot

At Kelly's Korner she is posting about favorite vacation spots....so I though I would do the same!

We love to go on vacation....our very favorite place is somewhere warm and sunny..

The picture above is from our 5 year anniversary trip that we took to Puerto Rico.

We had SO much fun there.

We went to Old San Juan, went snorkeling, and went to the rain forest.

I would go back tomorrow if I could!

We also love to go to Orange Beach...

I hope Ellie loves it as much as we do but from this picture I am not convinced!

We are actually going this next week for a few days.

I cannot wait to lay in the sun and hear the beach!

I also cannot wait to get some yummy seafood from Docs, The Oyster House and The Shrimp Basket!

Last year we went down in September and went to the Seafood Festival down in the old part on Pensacoola. We had a lot of fun doing this!

Another favorite is Navarre Beach.

We have been going there with my family since before I can remember.

We started going to celebrate my Aunt's birthday and now 25 years later we still go and we have not missed a year despite all the changes that have happened over these past 25 years.

We look foward to going every single year and I know that when Ellie is able to know about the beach and how much fun it is she will look foward to it too!