Thanksgiving Week.

Ella I think might almost be all the way healthy!

Sunday - we didn't go to church as she was still coughing a lot. And I didn't want to bring her around a bunch of other kids. It was a quiet day but productive in cleaning/rearranging. We are in the process of moving the guest bed out of Ella's room into the office. Well the office has about 2 years worth of clutter in it - so it took some time going through everything, rearranging, and getting everything all cleaned up! Today we made the big switch.

It was rather a normal week for us. Josh had his first eye exam. He's been getting some bad headaches so I advised him to have an eye exam. :) He does work on a computer 8 hours a day....since that is his job! I thought maybe he's getting a headache from staring at that all day. He has better than perfect vision for distance...but was prescribed a very mild prescription for the computer. He at first said there was no way he was getting glasses.....but then he warmed up to the idea....or caved...and is getting some glasses to wear just while at work. He didn't like what I picked out for him....so after going back and forth - we settled on some Oakley frames that are black plastic...I approve :)

I started doing some wrapping tonight for Christmas....but soon ran out of tape (I only got 3 presents wrapped)...that love of tape must run in the family! ;)

Thanksgiving was fun. We went to the lake for lunch. Ella was super excited to go over and play with Grandpa and Gigi - and was thrilled the puppies were along for the ride. (They came with us for a week visit at the lake since Josh's parents are coming this week - it's better when the puppies aren't at our house). However when we left...Ella said, "where are my puppies?!?" in a rather accusatory tone! Ella and Grandpa had the best time (well Ella did - Grandpa was a good entertainer!)

Grandpa and Ella played with Chapstick...Ella LOVES chapstick...I have to hide it! Then Grandpa took Ella for a walk around the house...and Ella kept wanting to walk more....but it was cold out...so Grandpa had to bribe Ella with the pie inside!

And this is Ella's new smile...when she has chapstick on...she doesn't want to mess up her "lips" so she does this funny scrunched up nose smile. Silly girl! (and notice that Felix the cat is in her arms....as Felix goes everywhere with us!)

It was a nice day filled with steak, shrimp, salad, and peanut butter pie! :)

We got home and we skyped with Ella's Nanny and Grampy in Vermont and all her cousins. She just stood and stared at the TV watching everyone! We have skype connected to our TV...so it's like watching the family on TV (reality TV!)

I was given the option to take Friday off - and I jumped on that opportunity. I was thankful to have it off and spend time with Josh and Ella. I made a bunch of muffins. And I am going to make a German Chocolate Poke Cake to bring with us tomorrow - we are going to a friends house to have a Thanksgiving meal.

I got lots of laundry, dishes, cleaning done today. And tomorrow morning...I get a massage! :) I'm looking forward to it!

Still Fighting a Cold...

Poor little Ella has been fighting this cold for 2.5 weeks now. I did actually end up taking her to the Doctor on Tuesday afternoon. She has an ear infection and a sinus infection. Started her on an antibiotic. She was a little better about going to the Doctor this time...but she still knows when the person who walks in with the white coat is the Doctor...she flips out. Starts crying and saying, "noooo!" Her cough is pretty bad today. She was up 3 times last night. She did however take a 3 hour nap today....which she needed!

Let's see....last Sunday Josh left to go to Virginia Beach...he had to be in court there on Monday so he left Sunday to drive over. He was in court all day Monday and then had to drive back Monday late afternoon....he got home around 9. I got off at 2pm on Monday...so I had 3 hours to myself before having to pick Ella up...it was awesome! I did some Christmas shopping and had a great time walking around the stores by myself (it's been a while since I was able to do that!)

Tuesday was a normal day for all....well except for having to take Ella to the Doctors. Wednesday...Josh had a normal day of work...and then had to go to "night driving training." So he got home around 11:00-11:30 that night. Thursday....was the midnight release of the xbox one!!! Aren't you excited?!? Josh was :) Him and 2 of his friends went and got theirs! Which was on pre-order....so he went to bed at like 4am....he took Friday off specifically to play on the new xbox....but he has lots of vacation time built up....so why not! Then Friday I worked....and had a girls night after work. Josh picked Ella up and I went to dinner with two friends and then we went and saw Chonda Pierce...who is a Christian comedian...and she is hilarious! I had a fantastic time and was home way later then I am used to! So I didn't get to bed until almost 11:45...and then I had to work this morning! Whew....it's been a busy week!

Ella was a big helper today....

She was very eager to help Mommy make brownies! (She did just wash her hands before helping....as she is touching the spoon!)

The nurse at the Doctors office said, "Wow...Ella looks just like you!" I said, "Well she does have a few of my features....but if you saw my husband then you would think Ella looks just like him!" She said it must be the hair...you both have long hair and similar colors.

Last Friday night we went to the hospital to see our friends who just had a baby. Ella can't go back into the Mother/Baby center so Josh and I took turns going in. I saw out with her in the waiting room first and then we switched. Ella colored a picture for "Baby Sadie." She is very excited to meet her....but of course Ella needs to be healthy first!

I am having a massage next Saturday....finally cashing in on a Christmas gift from LAST year. I'm looking forward to it! I wish it had been today.

Well that has been our week in a nutshell....and I'm ready for bed....I only slept for about 5 hours last night....and I like sleep!

Ella Joy Taylor

And here is the video clip....

I think I have watched it at least a dozen times!

I may be slightly partial...but she is so cute! :)

Josh had today off....lucky him! I had to work. And actually I can say that Josh did a fair amount of work around the house. Our next project is to spruce up the upstairs bathroom. So Josh did some work in there. And he began a long process of cleaning out the office (aka JUNK ROOM) - it has just accumulated over the past 2 years - everything! He hung some pictures up on the walls, moved the book shelves, and began to start going through things....a big step! And he reloaded ammo.

I do 99% of our bills electronically. I opened up our electric bill this past week and about fell on the floor....it's the highest bill we've ever had! How is that possible....it was October...a few cold days...but not awful. I told Josh - he wouldn't even let me tell him the amount - he said he didn't want to know! However, said that he would make a phone call to the heating/air guy that put in our new coil this past spring. So today, Mike came out to the house....and discovered the problem...a wire had come loose and it was causing the air conditioner and the heat to run simultaneously. Cold air was being blown over the heater and the heater was trying to warm it up and blow out warm air - so that's why it sounds like it's been running 24/7 - because it HAS! That's just great. Oh well....at least it's fixed now!

Ella loves putting me to "bed." It's her new favorite game. I lay down. She covers me with a blanket, brings me dolls, "reads" me a story, gets me water.....I actually LOVE to play this game! :)

And speaking of bed....I am ready for bed...I know it's 8:19 - but Ella shared her cold with me and I am so whipped. I fell asleep around 9:30 last night and I woke up in the exact same position this morning - I'm pretty sure I never moved an inch last night! Plus my kindle is downstairs right next to my bed...and I just love getting into bed and reading!

No Naps!

Two days in a row...Ella wouldn't take a nap...ummmm I'm not happy about this!

We put her in bed to have resting time but she keeps getting up and playing. We go in and put her back to bed and she gets back up again! All is well - she's not grouchy....until about 6pm..and then she's rolling around on the floor as whiny as can be! Hopefully a trend that will soon be broken!

We're having family pictures done next weekend...I'm really excited about them! I just went today and bought 3 items of clothing - 2 for Ella, 1 for Josh to pull the look all together....and hopefully Ella will be co-operative and they will turn out!

My stories are going to be random...I'm too tired to try and put them in order tonight!

Ella and I went to church together today. I had nursery. Josh had to work today.  After church we're driving along and Ella points out the window and says, "Daddy get hair cut there." I was really surprised she put it all together...Good job Ella!

So I made the mistake about a month ago to let Ella bring her chair into the bathroom to let her stand on it and brush her teeth, etc. Well now she likes to get into Mommy's make-up bag! I was getting her bath ready yesterday so I went in her room to get a towel and washcloth and I walked back into the bathroom to catch her putting on my makeup!

Ella's doing better about eating. Even Beth (the sitter) said Ella has been eating more....yay a growth spurt maybe! Maybe she'll start filling out a little instead of growing taller! Some of her 2T pants are already getting a little short on her!

Ella is a little parrot. When we read her a story she wants to repeat every word. Which is good....helping her learn new words/phrases. The other day (I'm not sure where she learned it) - she said, "Oh snap." It was pretty funny! And she says, "oh my crackers" all the time.

My video isn't working....but I will try to upload it tomorrow. If you say to Ella, "your name is Ella," she'll say, "no my name is Ella Joy Taylor." It's soooo cute!

Since Ella didn't have a nap today and I had nursery....it meant I spent 12 hours with Ella today....12 hours straight....ahhhhhh! That 2.5 year old has run me ragged. I am so tired! I can't even think of anymore cute Ella stories!

Oh by the way (great) Grandma..Ella LOVES Raggedy Ann and Andy. It's her favorite thing to play with right now. She likes Andy the best and carries him everywhere! And she likes Felix to sit on the counter and if you move him she gets upset and puts him back on the edge of the counter!

Thankfulness!

So it's the month of November....the month of Thankfulness. And I have so much to be thankful for. I was reminded how thankful I am for Josh after spending a whole week of just Ella and I!

Josh left Monday morning at 5:50am. I can't really complain too much. Ella did fairly well. We kept up with our normal routine during the week. Thursday was Halloween. I let her wear her Minnie Mouse costume to Beth's house. Beth's house is in a very popular neighborhood in Lynchburg....well I didn't think about it...but it was Halloween! So I got to Beth's house around 5:15 and it was already packed out with kids trick-or-treating...they were coming in droves! Ella was scared of the kids in masks...glad we didn't go! I took her to my work just to say, "Hi" to the few people who were still at work and then we headed home.

Saturday morning Ella and I went to a vendor show....had some pictures done...

It's this booth where they have all kinds of props that you can put on and take pictures - it was cool. Ella enjoyed it! We went outside and got to go in a big bounce house. She jumped for about 20 minutes and then I took her to the mall where she got to go in a place called, "Bounce About" that had 7 BIG bounce houses....that was pretty cool!

We stayed there for about 1.5 hours. Then we went to the food court to Chick-Fil-A to get lunch. We walked through the mall. And then it was about 1:30...time to get Ella home for a nap! I sang songs with her the whole way home to make sure she stayed awake in the car! I thought for sure she would sleep for at least 2 hours....nope...1 hour - that was it! So when she got up we played for a bit and then went to the grocery store. Josh called around 5:40...I thought to tell me that he was home....nope...instead told me that their car had broken down about 35 minutes from our house....on their way home from Chicago....great just great! A tow truck was called and I went and picked them up....again THANKFUL that they were that close to home...could have been much worse!

Sunday - went to church. Josh found a great new way to get Ella to go to the nursery...so he brings her as it's a little easier than when I try to drop her off. So he brings her and she is just screaming MAMA...I can hear her as I am walking down the hall! He ended up taking her outside and they talked. He told her that he would let her go down the slide 2 times...and then she had to go to nursery and play while we went to church. She agreed...he let her go down the slide twice...and he said that they went to nursery and she walked right in and did absolutely great - no tears! And had a great morning....now hopefully that works every week! I did 6 hours of laundry! All of Josh's clothes, towels, bedding....my washer and dryer were non-stop! I cooked a few meals, made muffins, made brownies. I was busy but was LOVING having Josh home to help entertain Ella!

Ella can talk really well. She is forming sentences. Oh....I went to lunch with mom and dad on Wednesday as they had a trip to Lynchburg. We went to lunch and it was free pie day! So I brought home a piece of pie. Ella said, "Pie? I like pie!" And yes she did...they few bites she was allowed to have!

She is such a routine girl. She has a mini muffin and yogurt with milk EVERY single morning....routine like her Mama!

She did great with the time change....although this morning she was up about 30 minutes early. Talking of sleeping....making me super sleepy...time for me to go to bed!

Go, go, go!

Go, go, go! That's what this weekend felt like! We both worked all week. It was a COLD week. Saturday we got up and played/cleaned around the house for a bit. Josh then took the puppies to go get their pedicures and took Ella with him (the vet is about 1.5 miles from our house). When they got to the vets office he let Ella carry Bella's leash. Well the receptionist, techs, and even the vet were all swooning over Ella and her two adorable chihuahua's. The vet was even carrying Bella around saying that they were two of the sweetest dogs. And they gave Ella a kit-kat. It was her first ever kit-kat (the snack size) - she liked it a lot! Once they got home, I was ready and we went to an apple orchard that is about 15 minutes from our house. It's a small little orchard but they had goats, and a donkey that Ella was in love with. She kept petting them and just laughing away. We got some fresh cider and some apple cider donuts. Then, out of the blue, Josh says, "let's go to Roanoke to the gun show." So...why not! We drove to Roanoke and went to the gun show. We looked around and saw lots of pink guns (Ella and I checked those out!) We saw a few people we knew from church there. And Josh found some powder that was a good buy. So he bought that. By this time it was about 2:30...and we had not had lunch yet. So...I told Josh to just pick where he wanted to go...he chose Red Robin...which is pretty much all gourmet cheeseburgers (his heaven!) I did eat a cheeseburger and it was very good...Ella had a corn dog (she loves those and only gets them on occasion). I let her choose between broccoli or apple slices and she chose broccoli! She actually ate some of it too (good girl!) Then we headed back to Lynchburg. Ella fell asleep...and so did I! We stopped at a tool place on the way home...Josh wanted to get some work gloves - he's clearing out some brush behind our house. Ella slept, I stayed in the car, and Josh went into the store. Then we went to TJ Maxx....Ella slept, Josh stayed in the car...and I went shopping! :) Ella woke up just as I was walking out to the car....we came home and had just enough time to get changed and head back out again! We were going over to a friends house for dinner and a campfire (and to make S'mores!) Well it was a late night! Ella stayed up til 10!! The latest I think she has ever stayed up! I felt bad having to wake her up Sunday morning!

Sunday morning I had nursery at the 8:30 service....so I had to wake Ella up to get her ready and to have a bath (to get the campfire smell out of her hair!) We went to church, then stopped at the grocery store. Josh took care of the trash while I made lunch. I did a bunch of laundry. Ella got a good nap in....then it was time to go to a Fall Festival! Ella got to wear her costume....

What a cute Minnie Mouse! It was at Hyland Heights church. It was from 4-7. We had a trunk or treat at our church tonight....but it didn't start until 7:30 (which is actually Ella's bed time) - so we opted not to do that and instead go to the Fall festival. They had a "kiddie-zone" area for Ella's age...2-5. So she got to play some games and got to get a few pieces of candy. We went on 2 hay rides! She did get to bounce in a bouncy house for just  minute but then they let some bigger kids in and she got scared so she wanted to get out. The hay rides were her favorite. They had pony rides too - we brought her over by them - and asked her if she wanted to do that -she watched them for a minute and said no. It was a long line - I wasn't going to stand in line and have her back out! It was fun....we stayed for about 2 hours.

And now I'm getting ready to go fold all the laundry. Josh is leaving for Chicago first thing in the morning and will be gone for a full week :( He'll be home Saturday night. So another week of just Ella and I - whew - I'm tired already!

Fall Weekend!

Well it might just be our last Fall weekend...I looked at the weather this week...a high of 49 on Wednesday...what is up with that??

After a week of getting up at 5am, working full-time, being a mommy full-time, and cooking, cleaning, etc, etc....by Friday night...I'm done! I was falling asleep on the couch by 7:30...I did manage to stay awake for another hour or so...and was asleep by 8:45! And what time was Ella up...5:41 on Saturday morning...what?? Josh got up around 5:15...he had to work...so I don't know if she heard him...but when I heard her start making noise...I thought oh man! So I jumped in the shower so I could get that out of the way before she was fully up. I was really hoping she would go back to sleep....but no...she was up for the day. So we had breakfast and got ready...and really it was only 7:30...nothing was open of course! So we hung around the house and played for a bit....then we went out and I had looked up to see what time TJ Maxx opened...and their website said 9...so that is what time we were there....well their website lied...because the sign on the door said 9:30...well I wasn't going to sit outside for 30 minutes...so we went to a different store instead, Ollies, and walked around. We looked at books. And found a couple of good deals. Ella got compliments galore there. "What pretty eyes. What a good little girl. She sings so pretty." Yes, Ella was singing in the store...I kept saying..."shhh remember to use your inside voice!" She was a good girl though! Then we made our way to Kroger to do our weekly grocery shopping! It was only 10am...and really quiet at the store...it was nice!

Saturday at 5pm was when we went to the birthday party for Ellington. They had 3 bounce houses, games, painting pumpkins, hot dogs, and cupcakes. Ella was loving every second of it!

She talked about it the whole way home! "Had fun!" And this morning she got up and wanted to see her pumpkin.

We went to church this morning and then after church they had a Fall festival. So we ate there and then played on the playground. They did have 3 really big bounce houses set up...but Ella was too scared to get on it...they were much bigger and there were a LOT of kids!

At least we got a few more fun activities in before the weather gets really cold!