It's great to be a Tennessee VOL!!

For Father's Day this year, we decided to get tickets to a TN football game for Dad for everyone to go together! The game we went to was the UT-Vandy game in Knoxville! We left the girls with Carolee and Jeff and loaded up and made the short trek to Big Orange Country :) It was a night game so we stayed in a hotel after the game and came home on Sunday afternoon! We had a blast! Of course, UT won!

the crew minus me!
Alina, Connie, and Kelli

Follow the yellow brick road....

This year for Halloween, Ella put on her ruby red slippers and danced her way from house to house as Dorothy! She LOVED her outfit, especially the shoes! We weren't sure how she would do going up to people she didn't know but she was a pro! After the first house she looked at us and said, "This is easy!!" Yep, that's my girl. Why don't we do this more often? Just go up to a random person, hold up your bag, and you get free candy! It's a win-win! :) And as a special treat, for Halloween we had Madeline, Lily, and Grayson stay at our house since their parents were on a cruise! Ella had A BLAST with her cousins! It was such a fun night and we are ready for next year!

Our princess turned 2!

I know, I know, she turned two at the end of October, but I am behind on blogging and plan on catching up! Ella had 2 birthday parties: one in Henderson with David's family and one here with my family and friends. She is definitely one blessed girl with so many people who came to help celebrate!! (By the way, being the oh-so-prepared mother that I am, my camera batteries died at BOTH parties! I only got a few at the first one and none at the second! I am stealing some of these from my mom!!) Here are some pictures from her parties!

Dancing the night away...

A couple weeks ago, we went to Decatur, AL to see my cousin Meghan get married! It was an outside wedding on the lake, and it was FREEZING!!!! We decided to let David and Jonathan keep Ella and Mary Beth home and meet us at the reception. It was a beautiful place for a reception and we had a blast, especially Ella. She was in the middle of the dance floor with everyone, including the groomsmen, dancing with her! Priceless. Enjoy some pictures of our little life of the party:

Our sweet girl turned 2!

Ella Brooke,

We want you to know how happy we are that you are our daughter. We feel blessed that God chose us as your Mommy and Daddy. We love every single minute with you. It seems crazy that it has been two years since we first laid eyes on you. Your chubby cheeks and sweet, kissable lips melted our hearts immediately and everyone else who saw you, too :)


The first year with you we got to watch you change constantly and learn how to do lots of new things! We just knew you were going to be funny, because you were already doing things to get us to laugh! There was never a dull moment and each day seemed like a big milestone somehow. We thought life couldn't get any better!





This year has been even crazier. When did you go from that little baby to a very independant, smart, funny little girl? Watching you learn and grow is one of the best parts about being your parents. From learning to walk, to running, to starting to talk, and loving Mickey Mouse, Little Einsteins, and now Ariel and Dora more than anything, loving most all foods, jumping from room to room, dancing everywhere, singing all day everyday...life is so much better than we pictured it back when we were talking about having a sweet baby. You, baby girl, are every prayer answered. You are every dream realized. We had so much fun celebrating with you today. Your sweet smile brings us more joy than you know.





We love you, EB! We are so excited to see where the next year takes you. Keep singing and dancing, and we'll be there clapping and smiling, prouder every day.
We love you always and forever,
Mommy and Daddy

September in a nutshell :)

Where did September go....?? Is it just me or did I blink and now we are over halfway through October? Can time please SLOW DOWN so I can savor every single laugh, giggle, hug, kiss, game, song, and dance that my sweet girl gives us?? I am constantly amazed at her sweet little personality and how it develops...and constantly shocked at how her temper develops too :) I'm sure anyone with a 2+ year old can understand the craziness that becomes your child the closer you get to 2! But regardless of the sometimes crazy temper, she is a constant joy in our lives.

Back to September :) It found us in Alabama celebrating our sweet niece Mary Beth's 1st birthday, in Knoxville cheering on the Vols!!, and spending lots of time together. Here are several pictures from our September, enjoy!

*Side note: Ella did not make the trek to Knoxville, because, well, didn't you read the part about her developing a temper?? We thought it best to leave our little curly headed monster at home with David's Mom. She came up and stayed with Ella so we could have a night away!

Not Me! Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I read MckMama's blog just about every day! I love the Not Me! Monday posts, and have finally decided to do one of my own! So here we go...

After an hour of wrestling with Ella to go to sleep, I did not tell her that her birthday party was cancelled if she did not go to sleep this instant!

It was also not me who acted like I was asleep this morning when she woke up so I could get 15 more minutes of sleep...I love mornings with her....I would NEVER do that....

I would never give in at Kroger and buy the little princess a king size bag of m&ms just so she would stop screaming. I can control my child, I do not have to bribe with chocolate....

I am also not that wife who lets my husband clean the house so I can update my blog :) Never, I would always help while he's helping!

So what have you not been up to this week? Let me know or head over to MckMama' blog and let her know!