Busy as a bee

We've been busy just like everyone else in the world getting ready for spring! We've been spring cleaning and preparing for a great party we hosted Saturday night for one of David's best friends and his fiance, Chad and Jackie! Catherine Ellis has had a big week visiting with lots of family and celebrating birthdays for friends! We're so glad spring has arrived and we're loving the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors with friends and family!

As David and I have been preparing the house for the party - Catherine Ellis has been continuing her job as tiny helper! Cain surely enjoyed her help as we bathed him last Sunday - can't you tell she's just loving it? Wish I loved washing the dogs as much as she does - do I foresee this as being one of her chores - you betcha!

Hey this looks like this could be fun!

Showing Mommy how to bathe my buddy Cain

Is this fun or what?

My Dad came to visit on Wednesday, so we lunched with him and Catherine Ellis had a great time showing him all the great new things she's learned to do since January!

GDaddy and Catherine Ellis

Friday evening before David got home Catherine Ellis and I enjoyed a little sunshine and blanket time out in the front yard - it cooled off a bit, but it was still a glorious afternoon!

I love being outside!

Saturday we enjoyed celebrating Tram's birthday party - Tram is the sweet 2 year old (almost!) son of one of my best friends from Auburn, Mandy! He was the best birthday boy and we had a wonderful time crawling and climbing all over everything at Gymboree! Thanks for inviting us to celebrate with you Tram - it was SO much fun!

We had to wear our name tags on our back so we wouldn't tear them off:)

Catherine Ellis and Caroline Draney - two cutie pies!

Having a blast - I had a hard time getting her smiling since she was concentrating so hard on climbing onto EVERYTHING!

Precious! And look at all that hair Catherine Ellis is finally growing!

Two little ladies just chatting away!

Hey Mom, look at us!

Saturday evening we hosted a couples wedding shower for Chad and Jackie - it was so great to see everyone and we had a wonderful time!

David and friends Saturday night

David and the boys listening to old school recordings from college - they were amateur rappers back in the day

This afternoon Catherine Ellis's Greats (my Aunt and Uncle) stopped by to see her and a good time was had by all - she's so much fun now that everyone spends most of their time either chasing after her or taking her outside! So we welcome all the extra hands we can get! Thanks for visiting us Auntie B and Uncle C - and for all of Catherine Ellis's new prizes!

Catherine Ellis and Auntie B

Loving on Uncle C - look at that sweet face!

Hanging out with my main squeeze - Uncle C

Laughing at Catherine Ellis's crazy Daddy (in attempts to make her smile, David was jumping out from behind the bushes...the things we do...)

High in the sky!

Playing with Daddy

What a gorgeous afternoon and weekend!

Have a great week everyone!

Tiny helper

We started spring cleaning this weekend and had a little help from our tiniest member of the family - Catherine Ellis! She loves to get into anything that she's not supposed to be into - you name it, she's there - it's like a magnetic force attracts her to things she shouldn't be playing with. Go figure!

We are hosting a party for one of David's best friends this coming weekend and realized that it had been quite some time since our poor yard had been tended to - probably over a year. It made us realize we'd been existing and things that didn't have to be completed or worked on - well they didn't make the list of priorities. David worked for over 7 hours in the yard Saturday and I worked for about 2 or so and it looks a lot better - but we still have a way to go. It was refreshing to feel like we'd accomplished something. Thank you Meme for watching Catherine Ellis while we worked. ....although she did sneak a help here or there from time to time.

We started out unloading the dishwasher and she really liked that:

Helping Mommy with the silverware

I got it, I got it!

Housework is so much fun!

Next while I was packing up recycling, Catherine Ellis cleaned the fire place (not really, but she climbed all over it):

Look at me - I can pull up on the fire place!

Daddy had a night out on the town - so we walked with a friend of mine and Mom, Catherine Ellis and I called it a night early. Daddy made it hope early the next morning and today we ate lunch out and ran errands in preparation for the week and weekend - of course it was freezing again today - in the 40's and raining - and they are saying we may get some snow, but unlikely - gosh, we're ready for spring! Only a day or so of this and we should be back to warmer weather. Catherine Ellis LOVES being outside, so we dressed up her in her new rain coat (thank you Pop and Gran) and headed out:

Styling in my new rain gear

Quite the charmer

We've also been preparing for our tiny helper to transition to the toddler phase - we've purchased her new big girl car seat (we have a few more weeks before she is riding in style - forward-facing) and sadly a new bathtub :( The infant bath that Aunt Sara and Uncle Daniel gave us has been so wonderful for a year and she still LOVES it - however, she's just about outgrown it - baths in the sink are so much fun though, so we've continued - until I found the perfect blow up bath tub for her last week:

A blow up DUCK bath!! If you know Catherine Ellis, you know she LOVES ducks!

Laughing at Daddy - Daddy is in charge of bath time - and I love it!

I'm so glad I have a duck to play in the water with!

I can't help but think of how fast this past year has flown by (I know I say it all the time, but it's still hard to process!). Tonight I asked David to take a picture of Catherine Ellis and I as I was drying her off - the last time we took this picture was October 2009 - look how much she's grown! We can't believe our eyes. So, get ready for a walk down memory lane (even if it is short) with us over the next few weeks as we prepare for her first birthday! Have a great first week of spring!

October 2009

March 2010

When Friends Become Family

Friendships and family are the two things in this life that we think make life worth living! We've been so blessed in our relationships with our friends and families and we love it when we get to welcome more friends to our family. This past weekend we were in Tuscaloosa for the marriage of one of my best friends (and one of CE's godmothers), Corrie and her now husband Jamie!

Corrie and I met during my short time at UA and have been great friends ever sense. I love her like a sister and am so joyful that we were able to spend the weekend with her and her family and friends.

David, Catherine Ellis and I made a family trip out of the weekend and all spent Friday - Sunday in Tuscaloosa with Corrie's best friend Erica and her husband Brock. What a great time we had!

Corrie and Jamie celebrated their upcoming marriage and we made tons of new friends as well as seeing old friends. What a fabulous weekend and what a stunning and faithful couple. Jamie has 4 sweet children that he adds to Corrie's family and we couldn't be more excited about welcoming them to ours. They all met Catherine Ellis for the first time at rehearsal dinner Friday night and it was hysterical - CE has never had more people touching her at one time than she did Friday night! She handled it pretty well though!

This will mostly be a photo blog from the weekend but we just want to give a shout out to the new Lake family - may God continue to bless you and lead you as you embark on this wonderful journey of marriage and family! Thank you for allowing us to journey with you! It's always so nice to be reminded of just how blessed we are to have such wonderful, caring and compassionate friends and family in our lives. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Catherine Ellis & Aunt CoCo

Catherine Ellis and Anna (the youngest Lake!)

I like hanging out late night with the ladies!

Wild and crazy

Sharing my puffs...sweet girl

Show and tell, huh? Can anyone say over stimulation?

Holding tight to my puffs

Entertainer of the Year...

Bridesmaids and Corrie

Catherine Ellis and beautiful bride, Aunt CoCo

And last but not least, the fabulous Lt. Col. and Mrs. Jamie Lake

Splish Splash

Catherine Ellis loves her bath!!! Enjoy!

11 Months

Really? Am I really typing 11 months for Catherine Ellis - surely my sweet baby can not be that old? Where does the time go? The days fly by, faster and faster the older she gets. David and I were laughing in the doctor's office today that we've figured out why people have more children - their babies start growing up and there is just something about a baby that you can hold in your arms (when she wants you to!) and rock and cuddle and who needs you for everything.

Now don't get me wrong, that same baby is hard, hard work and there are just as many moments when I look at her and say "how do other mommy's do this with more than one?" But God is faithful and has given us just the right amount that we've been able to handle; I don't always handle having a child as gracefully as I would like to, but every single moment has been more than worth it. She is the joy of our lives - life is not the same - and that's what is so much fun!

March 9, 2010 - 11 months old

I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him
1 Samuel 1:27

No truer words have been spoken in our lives! Thank you Lord for your blessings!

Now on to the fun part - what is our 11 month old up to you ask? We'll do 11 fabulous things with one to grow on:

• Catherine Ellis is MOBILE - she's quite the speed crawler - we literally run laps around our house in the mornings and on the weekends (thank goodness it's a small house!) - we love it!
• She has 7 beautiful teeth and still likes to grind them from time to time (we're trying to stop this but aren't sure how to)
  
• she has added bye-bye, baby, uh oh to her vocabulary - that makes her total words - 7
• she loves books and being read to - she turns the pages so well and we think that makes her so smart (Aunt Wren told me that it's a developmental characteristic they look for in kindergartners, so of course, I think we are WAY advanced, haha)
• she's pulling up on everything - it's still a bit of a struggle, but she gets so excited when she does, so it's worth the work
• she has the cutest round belly - she's growing out of most of her 6 month clothes finally:) We are still in 6-12 month clothes, but I bought a few spring things in 12-18 months and they are wearable
• speaking of belly - she weighed in at 20.4 lbs this morning at the doctor - go CE - this child has been in the 25% percentile since birth - so we are excited that she's going to be riding like a big girl in her forward facing car seat in a few more weeks
• her hair is changing - it sticks up all over the place now and nothing you do can make it lay down flat - is this the beginning of curly hair? We sure hope so!
• she's eating more and more table food - but still loves baby food (when she's not sick). Avocado is still hands down her favorite food.
• transitioning to the sippy cup is not going so well - she hates it - and normally throws it on the floor - we're fine with that - she can have a bottle as long as she wants (just kidding, but she still has a few more months before we really have to enforce the cup)
• she is still sleeping through the night - Praise the Lord! - and has been again since 8 months - it's been a really nice past 3 months. Typically she's down by 7:30 p.m. at the latest and sleeps until 6:0o a.m. Some mornings are earlier - but on average she makes it to 6:00 a.m.
• she falls asleep on her own - I still rock her a bit before bed to soothe her, but most of the time she's still awake when I lay her down and she falls right to sleep.

Silly girl!

Happy Birthday precious child - Mommy and Daddy love you so much and can not believe that in a mere 4 weeks you'll be a whole year old! Thank you for all the joy you bring into our lives! We love you dearly!

To my Aunt Stace

Happy Birthday!
Thank you for loving me, playing with me and being the best Aunt a little girl could ask for - we miss you and hope you have a GREAT day! We can't wait to see you soon!

Yay! It's Aunt Stace's birthday!

Okay, Mommy.....

I'm done, but I still love you Aunt Stace!

For a sick baby, we did pretty good on our photo shoot this morning! Enjoy!

Love,
Catherine Ellis, Megann, David, Cain and Emma