Ponytails and the Park

Ellie wanted a ponytail the other day like Mommy and then wanted to pose for her picture. Her hair is getting longer by the day and it fit great in a ponytail. After her nap, we then took advantage of the great weather we had last week and went to the park. Ellie was so excited to go to the park and since the fall she is able to freely go on anything as she is much more coordinated, but the swings are still the favorite. The weather was beautiful at 70 degrees in January. I know many people in North Carolina are loving this weather in January, but I have to confess I am missing the winter and where is the snow? I have lived here since 2003 and this could be the first year since I have lived here with no snow or ice :( Having grown up in South Florida most of my life I am familiar with this kind of winter and have to say it is a reason I moved from there so that I could enjoy the seasons. So in our house we are wishing and hoping that winter will show up before the spring arrives, if not summer could be here a lot earlier than we all want :)


We love this smiley girl!!! I mean really how can you not love this face :)






This is what she calls smiling :)

27 Weeks

We have hit 27 weeks today! This pregnancy in some ways is flying by and some ways is creeping by. Before I know it a week has gone by and we are closer to meeting our little girl. We have been busy around here preparing. I pretty much have everything ready other than washing the bedding and clothes which I will do when we move Ellie to her big girl room. Ellie has started putting her hand on my belly each night while we read and then telling the baby night night. Little girl is kicking around in there and seems to enjoy the sounds she hears out here. I have been healthy so far. I am exercising daily and eating raw fruits and veggies as snacks. I have my glucose test on Friday and a check up and then I will be going every other week as I will enter my third trimester and my doctor also wants to keep an eye on my blood pressure. My goal is to get to 37 weeks with no blood pressure issues and with prayer and trust in God it will happen. I made it to 33 1/2 weeks with Ellie before bedrest hit, so this time I am better shape and eating better and praying we have a pregnancy that is bedrest free. Thanks for your continued prayers for this pregnancy and our family as we get ready to be a family of four within the next 3 months!



Sorry it is a little blurry, but you can see the baby bump best in this one. Ben says I always pick night to take my picture and it is not the best time of day. Next time I will try for a day photo :)

Big Girl Bed

We will be moving Ellie to a big girl bed in the near future so we can get her used to her new room since the baby will be moving into the nursery. Ben is making all her bedroom furniture! He is doing a great job and loves doing it! He wanted Ellie to have something that he made for her that she will always have just from him. We have eliminated our guest room and made it a playroom/Mommy's office and Ben has painted his former man room yellow instead of blue and we have put Ellie's bed in the new big girl room. She has not seen it and we are keeping her out until Ben builds her dresser and we get a few things to decorate the room. We are then going to let her pick out a fish for her new room since I have an old small tank from the teaching years and then we will start her transition. We are looking forward to it, but I also can't believe my baby is a big girl! Here are a few pictures of her bed and when her room is all done we will be sure to update the blog!

Cookie Palooza

Our Christmas cookies are finished and oh so delicious! Ben and I made them yesterday while Ellie napped and this morning as a family we decorated them (well Ellie ate 2, but Ben and I decorated them). Ben did it growing up so we started doing it last year and it has become a family tradition for us. Ben is looking very forward to when the girls and I do all the work and he enjoys the eating, there are many benefits for a man living in a house with girls :)

McAdenville and a Christmas Treat

This year we went to see the lights in the town of McAdenville (another tradition with Andy and Katie we have been doing about 5 years, pre kids). We had a great time and it was especially fun with Ellie this year as she is obsessed with pointing out all the lights, especially the ones that are red. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of our fun evening, but I will remember to take some next year.

Also, I have been making treats. I love making treats in general, but I especially love making them during the holidays and giving them away to good friends. Here is one of my treats that I made and found on pinterest.

Billy Graham Library

We love this little girl more than words can say and watching her sit during story time was so cute!





This year we wanted to go to Billy Graham Library. It is another free event here in Charlotte. We met up with Ben's sister and her family and though it was more adult friendly with the space they had they did a good job of setting up the area. There was a live nativity and performers singing and playing Christmas songs and there was a little story time for the kids, which Ellie loves a good story and enjoyed her sticker she got afterwards. It was a short event, but we got to see Rachel's family and Ellie enjoyed the time with her cousins, who she also got to play all morning with :)

Village Park

Ellie and I enjoy going to Village Park in the summer and playing on the Splash pad, riding the train and playing on the playground. This summer one of our visits the train conductor told us about the Christmas lights they put up and we decided to check it out. So Ben, Ellie and I headed there one night and it was a great family event in the community. It was free except the train ride, but the train ride was minimally priced. We started at the model train set up, which was one of Ben's favorites. He has his own model train that he would love to set up and this one was large and interactive. We then saw the singing bears, which are puppets, and Ellie loved them. Santa was there and you could take your own pictures for free with him, but Ellie is not into that this year, we will try next year, but I will say I am a stickler with Santa and look to make sure he looks like the real thing and must have a real beard and this Santa did :) We then rode the train through the over 100,000 lights that were set up and Ellie loved it and so did Ben and I. We ride the train in the summer and never have to wait in line, but that was not the case here. The line was not at all horrible, but Ellie did not understand why she had to wait and after everyone got on and we watched the train pull away while we waited our turn, she turned to Ben and started screaming and crying and saying "Choo-Choo". Her little heart just didn't understand why it left her, but Ben consoled her and we told her it was coming back for us and she looked diligently for it to return. We felt bad her little heart didn't understand, but I also told Ben that we were definitely not ready for Disney World :) Ellie then had a great time dancing and running around while we watched the light show. She kept us laughing. We have fun pretty much anywhere we go together so this was just another adventure that we are looking forward to going to year after year.

I have included many pictures of the model train mainly for my dad, my grandpa and Ben's grandpa as they love model trains and we thought of how much all 3 of them would have loved this model train set up.





Not feeling the picture, just wanted to enjoy that train!