Stories that need posting

The replacement dozen of flowers arrived the next day after Brent called to say there were a few problems with the first. Look how pretty they are. Elli thinks she has the best daddy who got his girls such beautiful flowers. I agree.

One day Elli and I were talking about all the people we love. We named as many people as we could then I asked her who we love best. I was looking for the response of "God" but instead she replied, "Uncle Devin."

Elli is quite the social butterfly, she must get that from Brent:), so needless to say, now that we have Lance and Lana here she is loving it! Here she is brushing Lana's hair and wearing the 4th or 5th new outfit for the day. This is the type of "dress" Elli's wears nearly all the time. She loves the sleeping gowns and wears them to play in, not really to sleep in:)

Brent, Lance, Kyle, and Devin all played basketball in high school under Coach Jim Brown. He retired from coaching this year after 23 years and the school threw a surprise recognition evening for him. All the brothers were able to go as well as about 50 others. Quite a legacy of players.

Elli opened her Valentine's gift from us (a red polka dot "dress" and a coloring book). Lana asked if there was anything left in the bag for her. Elli replied, "You can have the receipt."

Elli is really into reading all the letetrs she sees around the house, driving in the car, in the grocery store, etc. She then tells you what she just read, (ex. on a cereal box, "P-O-S-T says cereal.) So, she got a sweet little teddy bear from Brent's Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jim with little hearts on it that say "love", "kiss", and "hug." Elli read "L-O-V-E" and said, "heart language." Love that little girl.

Valentine's Day Gift

My pretty roses. (Notice the new handles in the background on the cabinets)

Giving me a Valentine smile.

She thought posing with the tree would make a great picture:) See her little roses? So proud.

Brent ordered some pretty roses for me for Valentine's Day. When they arrived today I was so excited. However, when I opened them, I saw that three of them were broken and one was already dying. So, the broken ones I put in a vase for Elli, and told her daddy got some for both of us. Well that was the best idea ever. She carried them around the rest of the day. She is very proud of her roses as you can see in the pictures. (Thankfully, when Brent called the company and told them the state of the roses, they decided to send me another dozen.) Thank you Brent for the thought and gesture. Happy Valentine's Day to you too, a little early.

Snow Day Trials and Smiles

So my day started with the decision to cancel class or not. I decided to go, but I took Elli to my mom's house so I wouldn't be out and about with her in the car. I fish-tailed and skidded my way into work and then got stuck twice on my way home. Once at the end of my mom's street where two people shoveled me out. Then, here, in my own drive-way. So, I put a movie on for Elli and started shoveling myself out:0 After shoveling, I made this cool igloo. So proud of myself for this one.

Elli and her friend Emilie went inside to play in it.

We then went over to the neighbor's house and helped build a snow slide and igloo there. Such fun. We are waiting though for the ice to form so the slide will be slippery.

Look at the smile on her face. I love having Elli to play with me in the snow. Half the time I think it takes me getting out there for her to see how fun it is, but then her smile takes over and we are both laughing and having tons of fun:)

Hide-N-Seek

This is a picture of Elli "hiding" from me after I hid in this same spot:)

We play lots of games throughout the day. I have mentioned several of them over these years in posts, but this post is devoted to Hide-n-seek. Elli really enjoys playing and I like it as well. However, I usually hide first and then Elli hides next, right where I was. Sometimes though she'll say, "Mommy, you count and I will hide in my closet." Then, I hardly finish counting before she starts yelling, "I am in the closet!" I think she may still get a little nervous about the whole hiding thing, so maybe that is why we play it this way. Either way, she sqeals with laughter when she finds me or when I find her:) She actually still hides her eyes from me and thinks she is hiding. I would love it if she never outgrew that! ...to the days of playing games...

The Bunny Hunt

Mommy, I see the tracks. The bunny is hiding in there.

Pretty smile in the midst of hunting for bunnies who left tracks in the snow. Look how pretty those snow covered trees are:)

It wouldn't be a day in the snow without eating some:)Snowball fight! Love that smile. Pure happiness here.

My little snow angel's angel. What a fun day in the snow. We never found the bunnies, but we sure did have fun time looking for them.

The Cabinets get a Makeover

For Christmas I got several gift cards that I decided to use towards handles for our kitchen cabinets. They were a long time in coming and now they are all done. Brent did an awesome job with a little help from his dad.

Ellianna Ballerina

Elli wanted to wear the best ballerina outfit she had when her Aunt Leah came to watch her ballet class. Isn't she so cute?

Can I have a cracker?

At church Sunday night we celebrated the Lord's Supper. Elli wanted to know why she couldn't take it. I explained again that it is for those who know who Jesus is, believe what he says, and have asked for him to forgive them of their sins. (I try to refrain from saying, ask Jesus into her heart as that wording doesn't really describe what she is doing and it is confusing.) So she then says to me, "Mommy I asked Jesus to forgive my sins." I agreed that she had, so I asked her to tell me who Jesus was. She got very serious and said, "Mommy, Jesus is God." I was tearing up at her sincerity and wondering if maybe Elli was ready to participate in the Lord's Supper. Then, she looked up and said, "So, can I have a cracker?" Maybe we'll wait a little longer:)

The Many Looks of Princess Ellianna

Elli posing for a picture in her "hand-me-down" flower girl dress from her cousin Callie.

Ballerina tutu with princess shoes and balloon.

Another hand me down dress was needed in order to use her new stamp pads for our school craft:)

Elli has the ability to make friends wherever we go. She has won over a bagger at Kroger whom she calls, "Pastor Mike." (He is not a pastor:) He often will give her a balloon, but this day he gave her a special pink balloon and some princess shoes. As you can see she was ecstatic!

Another funny story of Elli's ability to make friends is that when we walk into our bank, everyone literally stops what they are doing to say, "hi, Elli." They offer her cookies, sometimes she heads to the back room to get special treats, and she even has the chance to choose her flavor of sucker before leaving. (whoever can find the request first yells out, "I found it!") Oh brother!

The Joys of Being at Home

Dancing with her Hula Girl outfit on. Dancing takes up a big part of our day.

Elli likes to be with me all the time. When I was making dinner, she asked me if she could sit up on the counter and play dinner with the dishes. (She was very careful.) This is typical of our days as well. Elli likes to be with me doing what I am doing as much as possible.

Elli was taking her baby to the "store" and it was raining outside. So, she is dressed up and ready to go. So practical she is.

She still likes to dress up. I love seeing my little princess ome down in a new dress every so often.

Elli also still enjoys doing school with me at home. She is doing very well. She has also taken on two responsibilities that she does without me asking. She wakes up and turns off her heater and makes her bed, all by herself, before coming out of her room. What a big girl!

I feel very blessed to be able to be at home with Elli most days. We truly do have a wonderful time. I have the opportunity to witness this amazing person's growth every day. What a blessing. Just when I think there is no way I can ever forget the things she says and does, I seem to forget them. Too many memories to keep them all inside. So that is why I have this blog with these pictures and stories, to help me remember the best days of my life:)

The Snow is Melting Fast

I really wanted to make a snowman, but by the time the snow was ready to make a snowman, it was melting. So Elli and I ran out quickly today to build a snowman while we still had snow. Elli noticed she was taller than this snowman as well:) We also had to make a bunny and a turtle so the snowman would not get lonely. She makes everything come alive, like I did when I was a child. She actually asked if we could wrap the bunny in a blanket. I love imagination.

Elli's faithful Friend

When I was making dinner, Elli was playing cash register and she told me she needed more customers. Curious to see who the other customers were, I peeked over to see this...little snowman.

"I can jump as far as snowman!" (June 2009)

This little snowman used to be a decoration I got out at Christmas time. But, for the last year and a half or so, it has been Elli's friend. It has taken on many names, played many games, been to school and church, slept in her bed, and participated in countless other adventures. Today she said, "Mommy, look how much taller I am than snowman." A sad realization on my part.

Science Experiment

The end result.

I feel that my school with Elli has been a lot of memorizing and not a lot of content, so today we did a science experiment. We got a cup of snow to see if it would melt and make a cup of water. We also kept track of how long it took the snow to melt. After 25 minutes, we only had about 2 ounces of water. Elli was surprised we didn't have more. Her excitement was fun to watch.

Illness Shared by Mother and Daughter

Both Elli and I have been sick with a stomach virus. I ended up sleeping on the floor of her room last night, which Elli loved! Then, all day today, Elli has not left my side. We even napped in my bed together which NEVER happens! She has been the sweetest little girl, hugging and laying on me. She is feeling better than I am at this point, but she is so sweet. I guess if there is a good thing about throwing up all night, it is that Elli and I got to spend so much sweet time together. She has such a "mothering" spirit.

Real Hills this time!

On Saturday morning we went to Hawkins Hill to do some sledding. The walk was brutal, for Brent, but the sledding was awesome. Elli wasn't brave enough to go down this hill by herself, nor was I all that willing to let her try, but she loved taking turns with us!

Look at those smiles. Elli was having a blast!

The hike back up the hill at Shawnee Park was not as bad as it was at Hawkins Hill. Elli started out only wanting to ride with one of us, then once Brent put her on by herself, we had to beg her for a ride:) Her giggle and smile were so fun to watch.

Snow Day fun

We had some sledding neighbors stop by for a visit. Literally, they sledded down to our house:)

Elli's first snow angel of the season.

This is the real angel. Brent made a path in the front yard for Elli to sled down. It isn't very big and not that fast, but for a girl who wasn't so sure about sledding, it was perfect.

Grandpa came back down for a visit to help Brent fix the truck, but they ended up getting into an unknown problem that required the resources of a garage. Bummer.

Story on my eyes

Elli woke up this morning and said to me, "Mommy, when I was sleeping, I had a story on my eyes." I thought that was the cutest expression I had heard in a long time. I asked her what kind of story it was. She replied, "A Lily story."

Grammy's Funeral

Our family before the service began.

Grammy's four kids. From the left; Sharron, Sheila, Cheryl, Greg (dad). You can't see the flowers in the background, but they were very pretty. Thank you to all who contributed!

This picture was taken of all 9 grandchildren about 28 years ago. Front:John Scott, Jennifer, Leah, Jeff, Mary Ruth. Back:Ben, Heather, Michael, Lori.

We took the updated version at the funeral home. We are all a little bigger and Leah refused to sit on Jennifer's lap:)

The grandkids, all grown up.

Grammy's funeral was very well done and ended up being a blessing. Dad read 1 John 4:7-12 which is Grammy's favorite passage, and he prayed, Mary read from Romans, Ben read a devotion Grammy wrote on the hymn Blessed Assurance, Jeff sang and played his viola and Heather, Leah, and I shared some stories about Grammy. Pastor Matt Fleck read her eulogy and gave a messgae. Overall, it was very good. Los of people that were near to each of us were there as well as MANY who came out of their love for Grammy. It was a ad day as we said goodbye, but a good day visiting and sharing with each other as well. I met my cousin's youngest child for the first time. She is now 5! I also saw another cousin I hadn't seen in about 15 years! We all love and miss Grammy.

Christmas Week with the Fergusons

Okay, Linda you may not like this picture all that much, but your expression is priceless. The kids went together and got mom and dad money for a new dishwasher. So fun to watch them open up a wad of cash!

Getting ready to open gifts. As you can see, Seth is so impressed:)

We loved having Jenna and Justin here and cannot wait for them to move closer!

Justin got lured in rather quickly to an extenisve time of playing dollhouse with Elli. She'll rope in anyone who comes close so look out if you are not planning on spending lots of time on the floor.

Brent's family, missing Lance and Lana, came to our house the week after Christmas. It was fun to all be together. We opened presents Tuesday evening. Mostly though, we enjoyed spending time together.