Hello Again!

I'm not sure how many people still read this blog, but if nothing else it serves as an online journal for us. I really need to be better about recording special events and taking more pictures (with a camera, not my phone!) With that...

This spring has been a very busy time for us. It started out with Esteban and I looking at houses and talking about some major changes so that I can be home more with Ellie. Right now, we have a tag-team schedule of Esteban being home with Ellie in the morning and me going to work. As soon as I get home, Esteban goes to work and I am home with Ellie. My mom and Aunt Kelly have been a huge help with overlap times many days. Although this schedule has "worked," it has been hard rarely seeing each other during the week and with my school day having a rigid schedule, Esteban has to work around my schedule.

Although we still are looking into changes, they are looking a little different then we originally thought. Esteban is still pursuing his career with Chick-Fil-A and has also applied for some a few academic advising positions with universities in the southeast (Chattanooga in particular). We are really using this time to pray that the Lord will open up doors (or close doors) and make His path clear to us. I am excited to see what our future holds!

Esteban spent quality time with his dad during spring break. The timing worked out well- I was able to be home with Ellie and not have to worry about making arrangements for her. His dad has been ill and it was really great for Esteban to be able to spend this time with him.

I have 12 full school days and 3 half days of exams left! I am so excited to spend the summer home with Ellie! She will be 18 months old next week, hard to believe how fast this time has gone by! Ellie is walking/running around and having so much fun exploring EVERYTHING! She loves to give hugs and kisses to her family and "noses" to everyone. I love watching her play with Esteban, it is so funny how she is so rowdy with her and gentle with me. She loves "babies" (by babies I mean anyone under 10 years old) and dogs and yells out everytime she sees one! Ellie is a great eater and so far not too picky, which I hope stays with her. She is VERY smart...while doing laundry the other night, I gave her a few of her shirts and told her to put them away. She went in her room, opened the shirt drawer and put them in! I love having a little helper with the chores around the house :) She also starts saying "Mimi" everytime we pull into my parent's neighborhood! Ellie and my youngest brother, Dan, are best friends. She loves to play with him, especially basketball.

I will have to post pictures later...when I have time to download them on to the computer. Yah for Friday! Krissy has quarter finals of the State Championship game tonight and Prom tomorrow...then we have Mother's Day on Sunday...hopefully I will get some pictures from those events to put into here as well.

Jenn

Snowed In 2010

We had been hearing for days that a "wintery mix" was on the way...then it turned into "blizzard" conditions. We are all anticipating the snow fall Sunday night and anxiously anticipating the call for schools to be closed Monday. I have never seen the snow fall so fast, it almost sounded like it was raining outside. We did have school canceled Monday...and Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (tomorrow). Although it did not get above freezing today, hopefully the sun helped the roads clear enough to go to school Friday. These type of snow storms do not happen in Georgia often, so they do not have enough equipment to clear the roads fast enough. We have enjoyed this time at home, warm and safe.

Here are some pictures of our house Monday morning.

View from our kitchen window after the snow fall...beautiful!

My car.

Our backyard.

View of the front yard and street in front of our house.

Our road.

Our cute little country house- so pretty in the snow!

Family slumber party!

This is the rocking chair I had as a little girl...Ellie was watching the school closings with us and so happy to have more family time!

Picture of the Day

I just LOVE this scarf my Aunt D made for Miss Ellie! It has been freezing- it was 19* when I started my car this morning...brrrrr!!! It will sure be put to good use!

Ellie's 1st Birthday Party!

Ellie's 1st birthday celebration started this weekend with a Minnie Mouse Party...her official birthday is Thursday, November 11th (Veteran's Day). I have to admit, I am still a little girl myself and love all things pink and sparkley. I didn't want to get out of control with her 1st birthday, since she will not remember it at all, but it still a special occassion and I wanted her to look back on pictures and know how special and how loved she is! I was all over the place with ideas, so I finally decided I need a theme and went with the classic Minnie Mouse. I had help from lots of crafty and creative friends and family and was VERY pleased with the outcome of the party. Esteban sometimes jokes that he is worried because Ellie doesn't have many little people friends (that live around us), but I was thankful for that the party was mostly adults. We will have years of little ones running all around to enjoy...but I felt like it was crazy enough getting ready for my 1st "kid" birthday party.

The first step to the party planning was to chat with Mrs. Carolyn Lewis (she is the mother-in-law of my friend and co-worker, Katie Lewis. Mrs. Lewis lives a few miles away and LOVES babies...especially Ellie). Mrs. Lewis also LOVES to do anything that involves paper crafts. She has a one of my dream rooms- a room in her house fully stocked of paper cutting machines, ribbon, glitter, cool markers, and more...it's wonderful! I originally showed Mrs. Lewis a picture I found online of a birthday invitation that I was wanting to create. I was just hoping she would be willing to cut out the Minnie Mouse heads on her fancy machine and I was going to do the rest... but she went above and beyond and made these adorable invitations! (see below) I made the "mistake" of showing her a website that had lots of Minnie Mouse decorations and such.... so she lovingly went to town creating the most precious handmade decorations.

The adorable invitations!

Decorations on the front door

and throughout the house...

Ellie's 1st year book we made on Shutterfly.

Cake pops!! See my friend, Ashley's, blog for more details! They are delicious!

More Cake Pops!

Next, another crafty friend has a home embrodary business and made this shirt for Ellie... check out her website and see all of her handy work!

I was inspired to make a cake myself. I love baking and was up for the challenage. Yet another creative friend, Jennifer Williamson, had recently made birthday cakes for her little girls Princess and Toy Story themed parties. She was sweet enough to help me learn how to use fondant- which is SO MUCH EASIER THEN IT LOOKS!!! I had a lot of fun with the cake and look forward to making many more in the future.

Here is the cake before the ears and black ribbon went on...

Ellie's "Smash Cake"

THE Cake...with cupcakes

My sister, mom and Christa (AJ's sweet girlfriend) helped me get all the food ready and decorate the house. (Esteban helped hang the streamers as well) Before we knew it, people were ringing the door bell and the party was on!

Aunt Kelly and Teagan- 2 of Ellie's favorites!

The cake again.

Watching the J-E-T-S game before present time...only for you B. Strauss!

Our little family!

Ellie loved seeing all of her friends and it is so funny to watch her with different people. She is starting to recognize and remember certain friends and family members and has special ways of interacting with each. (I need to get more pictures with Ellie & her guests from the other cameras!!)

Ellie "reading" her picture book with Uncle AJ and Christa.

Ellie and her "Uncle Chuck"

Ellie was pretty good with opening the presents. She especially loved the toy phone Amber and Frank gave her. Brian and Meredith gave her a bag full of books- Ellie loves looking through books. When we were done opening presents Ellie clapped, so everyone started clapping...it was too cute.

I was anxious to see how the cake would go...but I shouldn't have been surprised that she was very delicate and danity- the way she is with everything. She just took little bites at a time, but soon enough had pink all of her. She was not nearly as messy as I imagined.

Now time to play!!!

Thank you to all the sweet friends and family who were there to make Ellie's 1st birthday so special for us and for her! We are so thankful that she is loved by so many!!! We are looking forward to Ellie having lots of little friends/cousins in the future to share many more birthdays with...with all the weddings we have had this year it shouldn't be too much longer :)