Our Little Monkey

My mom came to visit last weekend and got Ellie jumping on the couch to "Five Little Monkeys". She has a big time! You can also hear her say "Crockett" and "Daddy". Notice that Grant is eating and of course watching Jeopardy in the background!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Fall is here!

Just wanted to pass along some pics from our weekend. Ellie was sick for the first part, but we were able to get out on Sunday and go for a hike to Frying Pan Tower. We decided against climbing to the top of the fire tower. We went a little ways up, though. The leaves are really starting to change here and it is so pretty up on The Blueridge Parkway.

Yesterday, we went up to the Pumpkin Patch to pick out some pumpkins. Ellie had fun with the little pumpkins thinking they were balls. She would pick them up and throw them! We had to explain they were not balls!

Ellie is really starting to talk and say words we can understand! Her vocab consists of, "Crockett" (her favorite word), "hot", "toot toot", "ma ma", "kitty", "duck", "apple", "daddy", "ball", "baby", "boo", "yucky", and she is now saying "tee tee" when she wets in her diaper. Now if she would just go use the potty! We think that she has an interesting set of words in her vocabulary, but it is so cute when she gets close to the oven and waves her hands and whispers, "hot!". She does the same with "yucky" when she is getting her diaper changed or getting close to something dirty. She is a handful for sure and full of energy, but we wouldn't have her be any other way! Hopefully she will get out of her hitting stage before Maggie arrives!!!!

Football!

Fall is for football! At the end of Sept. we made the trip to Oxford to watch Ole Miss play Vandy. Grant got to join us on the trip! On the way there we stopped in Crossville to see Ellie's buddy, Kayne. Kayne is a month older than Ellie. On the way home we stopped back in Crossville to see Sean and Jessica Stephens and meet their little boy, Grove. We had a good time in Oxford seeing Grandaddy Ellis and my family. Ellie also got see my cousin, Rebecca, and finally meet second cousin Tiley.

Last weekend we went to Charlotte to watch the Chiefs play the Panthers. My good friend, Turk, plays for the Chiefs and got us tickets and passes to the player area afterwards. The Chiefs lost, but we got to see alot of Turk on the field and then see him afterwards. Ellie and Turk finally got to meet! It was so great seeing him and we had a wonderful day. I don't think we'll be going to anymore games this year since we are now counting down the days until Maggie arrives. We have less than a month now! Ellie is patting my stomach and saying "Baby", but we don't think she really knows what that means - especially since she will have to share daddy with another little girl!

Toy Box built by GrandRon

About three weekends ago, Grant's parents brought up the toy box that GrandRon built for Ellie and Maggie. It is absolutely beautiful! I wanted to share some pictures of it. We are so grateful to him for putting in so much time working on this for the girls. We were in desperate need of something to put all Ellie's toys in and this is more than we expected. So we say a BIG THANK YOU to GrandRon for all of his hard work on this and it will be something that will be treasured for years and years to come.

Trip to the Nature Center in Asheville

On labor day we took Ellie to the Nature Center in Asheville. She loves animals and loved it here. They have lots of animals that are native to Western North Carolina such as wolves, black bears, and river otters. They also had lots of snakes and turtles. Ellie really liked the turtles and even got to pet one. They also had a petting area and we could not get Ellie to leave! One goat did decide to ram her a little and scared her, but she was fine. Her favorite was this one sheep that just let her stand there and pet it. She also stuck her finger in the turkey cage and a turkey pecked it. She screamed and then was fine. She just loves the animals and wants to touch and play with them all. It was a good time and wore her out! Next we will have to go to a zoo!

Orange Beach

We are back from the beach! Ellie had a blast on her first beach trip. Grant is in clinicals so he could not go. Ellie and I both wished he were there! Ellie loved the ocean and wanted to play in it all the time. She needed her Daddy because chasing a 14 month old while six months pregnant can be tiring! My sister-in-law, Shae, and nephew, Brinson also came. My brother, Bo, had to work. My younger brother, Andrew, or as Brinson calls him, Uncle Monkey made the trip and entertained the kids. He was very good with them and let them torture him at times. My mom came, but my dad had to work. We had alot of fun with the kids and watching them run around in the ocean and sand. It is so different going with kids. I remember the days of relaxing on the beach, taking walks, reading books, riding the waves, etc. Ha! Not any more. We were all chasing toddlers, getting sand thrown on us, catching the jellyfish, keeping kids out of the ocean, keeping Ellie from eating sand, and well, being six months pregnant forget riding the waves! However, it is so much more fun now. I think we for sure have a beach girl. We also kept up with Olympics and I made sure that Ellie watched the beach volleyball since Grant is determined to have her be the next Keri Walsh or Misty May. We were glad to get home to see Daddy and Crockett for sure. Ellie would have stayed at the beach forever if they had been there, but there are two things more important to her than the beach and those are her Daddy and her puppy dog!

Hopefully, I will have some video up soon as well! Enjoy!

Jackson/Oxford trip July 2008

We had a great trip to Jackson and Oxford. Ellie got to play with her cousin, Brinson, and see her second cousins, Curry and Anna Grant. We also got to go to a surprise birthday party for Mr. Bill Gayton and hear Magi play. Magi was the band that played at our wedding reception three years ago that weekend! We also went to my first cousin, Mandy's, engagement party in Oxford and got to meet her fiancee. On our way down we stopped and had lunch with Grant's grandparents as well. We saw lots of friends and had a great time.