Tad poles

We live just down the street from a creek and little pond all of the little neighborhood boys like to fish in. It was so nice last week Ella and I went almost every day down there. We take Angie for a walk and usually come back soaked head to toe from playing in the water.

On Saturday, Geoff, Ella, Angie and I went for a walk to get out of the house. Geoff took a mason jar with us and the three of us spent an hour or so catching teeny minows
(like the size of my pinky nail) and tadpoles. We have come home with a jar full of 13 tadpoles, three minute minnows and several snails surrounded by pond scum which is at the bottom of the jar.

Geoff and I thought this would be a great way to teach Ella about nature, God's world, etc. Saturday night I googled tad poles to make sure I did not kill these little things. I thought they probably took about three or so weeks to become frogs. WRONG. It takes about 6 to 12 weeks. I think we took on a project that I had not planned on.

They are in a jar sitting on our kitchen counter. Little slimmy things swimming around. I told Ella, once they start to grow their legs etc, we are going to have to put them back in the creek. The last thing I need is 12 fromgs hopping around my house!!!

Ella is APC- accident prone child

ella sitting in a warm load of clean clothes

Ella has been in the hospital 6 times before she turned three. Hospitalized 4 times for dehydration and complications from the ROTO virus, one for the dog bite and one for the broken arm. That is NOT including all the other Dr visits we have had with two concussions, private area injuries ( 2, dont ask, just dont let your kid slam down in the bath tub with toys around and PRAY that you have boys so you do not have to worry about that) and who knows what else we have been in the dr for.

So last night Geoff was putting Ella into bed and she was being silly. She slammed her face down into the pillow ( noticing a slamming habit??!!!) and I had propped her pillow up against the head board. She did not know that and the next thing I hear is SCREAMING and Geoff trying to comfort Ella. He told me what happened so I laid down with her thinking this over exaggeration of emotions was due to the fact that she was beyond tired. I lay down with her, cuddle her up and start to kiss her head. I was brushing her hair out of her face when I noticed something. Geoff was still in the room sitting on the bed with us and I asked him to turn on the light. As soon as he did, I see blood dripping down her forehead. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!

I asked Geoff if it was ok that she come and lay in bed with us so I could watch her and make sure she was going to be ok. She was and drifted off the sleep about 45 min later. I woke up this morning and asked Geoff what in the WORLD are we going to do when social services comes to do our home study for the adoption. "Yes, sir, please may we adopt this child. Yes, our daughter is fine. She is in a cast, with bruises all over her ohhh and a slice in her forehead." How fast do you think they are going to run out my door!!!! Geez. She has her fathers very large head and her mothers inability to walk in a straight line or watch what she is doing. Not a good combination......

our pumpkin seeds

Aunt Candas gave Ella some gardening tools and seeds for her birthday. By the time we got around to planting them, we were about a month late for our region. I was hoping we could just tend to these little guys and have at least some teeny pumpkins by Oct. Then Ella and Bella ( next door neighbor) could come and pick some and we could carve them for Halloween. So we have been watering the heck out of these plants not expecting to see anything growing for a while.

Last week we went out and we have sprouts. I think Ella called everyone she knew to tell them about it. Well this morning we are watching Noggin and some show has a live puppeteer thing and they are playing in a band to help their "Arthur" grow.

So guess what. We now have a CD player out in the back yard making our pumpking grow more. So Ella, GiGi and Ga Ga ( her imaginary friends) are dancing in the back yard yelling at the pumpkins to grow all while listening to JACK F.M. GiGi apparently is not singing the songs correctly which makes Ella laugh and laugh.

Can you image what our neighbors think of us? I bet they would like I us to go back to the funny farm where we came from.....

hh

My Prince

Sunday night we were driving home from church and Ella was talking about princess' and prince. This went on for a while and she said princess' are girls and prince are boys. Correct. I stated how daddy was my prince in which Ella replied, "Peyton is my prince. I LOVE Peyton!!!"

This relationship started when Ella was about 18 months old and Peyton had just turned two. Now they are three. When we go to High Point C of C, they will ALWAYS walk together holding hands. It does not matter if it is giving to the children helping children program or going to children's church. They are together. We are very excited to start school this year because Ella is starting at a new school, Peyton's school. Ohhh laa laa!!!

Trip to NaNa and Paw Paw's

Ella and I just got back from New Mexico where the weather was perfect, Ella was a toot and I was exhausted!! It started off on Monday morning when we had to go to Dr to get Ella's cast off. Radiographs showed that poor little Ella is a "slow grower". Uhhh no kidding!!! Her arm is still broken and they put a new (pink, of course) cast on for FOUR more weeks!!!! YIKES!!!! Twelve hours later, we finally arrive, stinky and tired to mom and dad's.

Tuesday morning could not have come early enough for Ella because she was going to ride her horse, Bandit. It is all she talks about since she rode him in June. She LOVES that horse. Don't know if the feeling is mutual, but he does pretty well with her.

Wednesday Ella woke up to Blueberry muffins and three candles. Today was her birthday. Dad decided to take her fishing. She really enjoys fishing. But what I did not think of was a fishing pole for HER!!! The other times we have gone we took a kid rod. It lasted about 15 min before she was off onto something else because the poor rod was WAY bigger than she was!!!

Thursday was another Bandit day. Once we arrived, I could tell the horses were not in the corral and had a sneaking suspicion they probably took them on a trail ride for guest at the Resort. Holy Cow. You would have thought Bandit was never EVER coming back. Ella FREAKED out that he was not there. I mean, FREAKED. Lost it. Mom and I did the best we could to entertain her for the next little bit as we drove home. She crashed in the car on the way home and when I was getting her out of her car seat, she mumbled something about Bandit. As soon as she woke up from her nap, down the mountain we trecked to ride Bandit again!!!

Friday we flew home to one lonely daddy and puppy dog. The trip was nice overall. I got to spend some time with Ella Bella before baby boy arrives!!!

favorite things in life

Hold you me. When you have kids, they come up with all sorts of things to say, names to call people, generic sayings. Ella has not been a stranger to this sort of language. The one that has lasted the longest and just warms my heart through and through is "hold you me". She has out grown all her little sayings, but still today, when she wants me to hold her, is it "hold you me"

Baby Kaitlin. OHHH we ADORE this child. This is my absolutely beautiful niece. Ella is obsessed with her. If you come over to our home, Ella has about 20 babies and they are ALL named Kaitlin. The other day when we told her we were getting a baby boy, I asked her what she thought we should name him, her response "baby katie boy". I told her we already had a baby Kait so we would have to find something else. I see how much she loves her baby cousin because it has always been so important to me to be around family. I just can not WAIT to see how she will be with baby boy Hardin soon!!!

This is my new favorite game. Since we moved to our new house, we nearly tripled our square footage. I taught Ella marco polo so if I am in a different spot, we just call our "Marco" "Polo". If you are ever at our house or playing hide and seek with us, you might here "Markers" "Pillow" because that is what my sweet little gal calls it. Geoff and I can not help but smile when we play this game

Ohhh my life....

I love my life but man, it is such a soap opera sometimes. I look back at it and it does not seem real.

So I am a dork and could not figure out how to log into my account and update on the most recent events of our life.

Some of them would include: me in a cast, Ella in a cast, me facing surgery to a weird thing with my achilles tendon, Eddie our Great Dane dying, my parents in Africa, Candas birthday, Geoff's birthday, Ella's birthday and party ( which I forgot to send the invites out to and we rented a pool- so I had to do a lame email to everyone) AND we are having a baby boy scheduled to arrive in Aug.

Now that I know how to log on, I will keep my so entertaining life. Pictured above is Ella right after the ER trip with her broken arm, my foot and our friends the Turners. Who we all go to the same orthopedic surgeon together AND have the same dr appts. We are a gimpy family!!