Better Late Than Never

I am officially admitting to being "off my blog game" the past couple of weeks. I can't seem to get anything posted in a timely fashion. Either a thousand things that are blog worthy happen all at the same time, or I can't find the time to sit down and get it posted OR both. ie-the baby deer and Jenny and Adam's wedding...same day! So, with that said, we had a fabulous time at the wedding last weekend. It was really the first time in awhile that Matt and I had the opportunity to get all "dolled" up and spend the evening alone together.The wedding was beautiful and we had a great time. We were surrounded by good friends, good food and good dancing. Matt was cracking me up as it had been even LONGER since we have danced and he was insistent that he had forgotten how. But, being Matt he didn't pass up the opportunity, I was so proud! I believe he said, and I quote, "I feel so awkward out here, I'm like a dad." Yes, but sometimes even dad's dance and I thought he did a great job. Jenny was beautiful, she looked so happy and I was so glad to share that special day with her.Some of my pledge sisters and friends from high school and college were there. It was great to see them and get to hang out and catch up for a little while. I'm so proud of these girls, they've all accomplished so much since we left Auburn.

My mom came in town to keep Ella for us, we were so thankful to have her here. She came bearing Disney princess pajamas, gowns and a VERY glamorous Tinkerbell dress. Ella was obviously extremely excited. They spent the night playing dressing up-changing outfits repeatedly, watching movies and cooking Ella's favorite meal - fettucine alfredo! I think they had as much fun as we did and for that I'm so thankful. Ella just stood in the kitchen and waved as we left...she was less than phased to see us go.
MeMe and PaPa were in town this past weekend. I'll post some pictures from that visit when I get them, so that is still to come...eventually I'll get caught up!

Oh deer!

Saturday morning Matt got up early to work in the yard as he usually does. The phone rang a few hours later and it was him. "Abby, I'm down here in front of the tool shed next to a baby deer, it's sitting next to me and I can pet it. Ask Ella if she wants to come see it?" Well, she was still sound asleep, but knowing her love for animals (of any kind) I thought it would be worth waking her up. So soft and sweetly I whispered, "Ella, daddy's outside with a baby deer, Do you want to go see it?" With absolutely NO hesitation she sat straight up with eyes WIDE open and shook her head yes. So, I quickly put on her shoes and my mom, Ella and I headed down to see what was one of the most precious things that any of us had ever seen, it was truly amazing...

You'll have to please excuse our bed head and mismatched jammies. Like I said, she had literally just rolled out of bed. And our compromise is that she can pick out her own jammies every night if I can pick out what she wears during the day, reasonable enough.





Once we got off the phone with the wildlife people and they had informed us that after several hours the mother would come back and as long as it wasn't crying or walking around making "calling" noises it was fine, we all felt better. They also said to leave it alone and touch it as little as possible...Well, we didn't offer up the fact the our almost 2 year old that smelled of cookies and freshness had all but cuddled with it for at least 20 minutes. We all began to walk back toward the house, this is what happened...
The sweet deer, which we named Cleet, would walk not too far away from Matt. We all got a big kick out of the fact that it probably thought he was its "mother". Cleet clearly didn't sense that Matt loves to hunt and after this incident I'm not so sure he'll continue loving it so much. Besides, we could probably get some good money for his gun and bow! The picture below isn't very good, but it is of Matt sitting with Cleet (to his right) so the rest of us could go back inside.
I think they really bonded, it was precious. And, Ella was ecstatic. She loved every minute of it!! Just so you're not worried, the "real" mother came walking down the hill about an hour later. I'd like to say that we all watched as they shared a long anticipated embrace and walked off into the distance together, but I can't. They were a little more sneaky than that, I guess that's how nature works.

WAR EAGLE!

Alaskan Adventure

Matt spent last week in Alaska. He went with SoSo and had an amazing adventure. This was definitely a fishing trip of a lifetime amongst other things. No doubt it was any outdoorsman's dream come true and I'm so very thankful that he had such a wonderful opportunity to do something he loves. You've all heard me harp time and time again on what a wonderful husband and father he is. So this was a well-deserved break from his very busy and monotonous daily routine. Alaska has many things, but one thing it doesn't have is a cell phone signal. So our communication during the week was limited. Occasionally, there would be a spot while they were headed out were there would be a sporadic signal so needless to say I clung to my cell phone last week as if my life depended on it. When I would get to talk to Matt he sounded like a child on Christmas morning. There was such excitement and shear joy in his voice that it made my heart glad. He described the beauty of the mountains, waterfalls and the clearness of the air and water. He saw humpback whales, orcas, sea lions, otters, bears and lets not forget the MASSIVE fish that our little Alabama bass can't really compare to.

Here is Matt fly fishing in some Alaskan creek. He didn't pick up this hobby until a little over a month ago. And if I may take this moment to brag a little bit, all of the guides were more than impressed with his skill and couldn't believe he had only been doing this for such a short time...no doubt an ego booster! These pictures are my FAVORITE...he looks like such a stud!! He's like my very own Brad Pitt in A River Runs Through It.

This is Matt and SoSo with their "catch" that day...you could definitely live off that for quite awhile.

Apparently, this is the "professional" hold...fish in hand, rod in mouth. At least it's not the other way around!!

Reelin' in a "big one".

And this is it...a whopping 45 pounder!

Matt's trip Into the Wild was no less than a success. And what guy wouldn't enjoy Alaska and all it has to offer for an entire week.

Matt, we're glad you had a wonderful trip, but we're even more glad to have you back home! We missed you more than you know! He said the only thing that would've made it better was if Ella and I had been there to share it with him. I agree, but we had an equally great time in Huntsville visiting with my family for the week. We even got to hang out with one of my dearest friends from college, Anna. She was in town visiting her in-laws and made some time to drop by and see us. Ella calls her "Nanna" and we really enjoyed our time together!

My First Girl's Weekend...And Ella's Too

Last week my mom, Ella and I headed down to Mobile to stay with my aunt Myra and cousin Emma. That weekend would be my first "girl's outing" and first time being without Ella. But, first, we had a wonderful relaxing week together and really enjoyed getting to see those family members that we hadn't seen in so very long.







Here is Ella getting her "hot pink pedicure" from my cousin Heather while enjoying her cookie...that's the life! She couldn't stop talking about her "pitty toes." Ella was completely enamered with Heather's two kids: Lil, who's almost 10 and "Jacup" (Jacob), who's 7. You would never have guessed it was the first time they had ever seen each other. When they walked through the door Wednesday night Ella walked right up to Lil and rubbed her arm almost as if she knew exactly who she was.







Ella had a wonderful time playing with my cousin Jen's two girls, Juliannah (blue) and Camilla (white.) They got along so well and were so sweet together. This was the first time Ella had been introduced to true "dress up" and she LOVED it!







Juliannah kept wanting to have her picture taken...Ella not so much, but she was a trooper and stood still long enough to capture a couple of those cute moments. Though she was much more interested in the play kitchen and twirling around in her fancy dress.







On Friday afternoon, I left to meet the girls for a weekend at the beach in honor of Jenny's wedding next month. This is the first time that I have left Ella overnight and this particular trip was going to be two! It would be an understatement to say that I cried...I balled like a baby as Ella innocently looked at me through her big brown eyes and with her sweet little hand wiped the tears as they streamed very steadily down my face. I imagine this won't be the last time that she acts more like an adult than I do. I must add she didn't shed a SINGLE tear. As I am very thankful for that fact, it put me at ease to know that she would be fine. I think everyone knew I was the one we had to worry about! She did great by the way for the entire weekend. She truly loved playing with all the kids.





So after an emotional good bye, I was off to Gulf Shores. Jessica's family was gracious enough to lend us their amazing beach house for the weekend. That's it- not to shabby, huh? We would walk right out onto the beach, spend the day there and then in the evening we would all sit and talk on the back porch listening to the waves and enjoying the nice breeze.







It was amazing, the weather was beautiful and it was absolutely wonderful to get to hang out and catch up with these girls from high school and college that I hadn't seen in years. The very best part was that even though we hadn't seen each other in so long and almost every aspect of our lives has changed, it was like nothing was different. What a huge blessing to have those kind of friends! I even met some new girls that I equally enjoyed getting to know. It was such a nice change of pace to be able to relax without having anything or anybody to worry about. Though I'm not too proud to admit I missed my husband and daughter like CRAZY! There's absolutely nothing like getting away to make you appreciate what you have at home.

Now, I feel reasonably sure it wouldn't be a true girl's weekend without some sort of crisis. So, in true girl fashion we didn't disappoint. On Saturday morning as we were getting ready to head down to the beach some of the girls ran downstairs informing the rest of us that there was smoke coming out of the vents upstairs and it smelt as if something was burning. Long story short, once we realized the maintenance guy was less than sure about what was going on we wasted no time in calling the fire dept. Don't worry the air conditioner upstairs had blown out and it was fixed in record time.

Saturday night was Jenny's "Stock the beach bag" party. She got lots of creative gifts for the honeymoon. We went out for a little while after that and then it was time to head home Sunday morning. Jenny and I have been friends since high school. I was so thankful to get to spend this special time in her life with her and appreciated this chance to just hang out with the girl's!

It's all in the purse!

I often take for granted how intelligent Ella actually is. I know she's extremely intuitive, I know she soaks up massive amounts of information like a sponge, I know the wheels in her head are constantly turning and I know that long before she could really communicate verbally what she wanted or was thinking she understood what we were telling her. Most kids are this way. They learn quickly, pick up on everything and probably at the age of only a few months are much more intelligent than many of us are as adults! (Not meant to offend anyone, Ella often makes me question my own intelligence!) Anyway, the point being that most often times when she tells me something it is a fact and she says EXACTLY what she means. It's important for me to not dismiss what she's saying as if she doesn't know what she's talking about. Let me explain...

The other day Ella and I were shopping. We were in a store and she was sitting in the back of the buggy as opposed to the seat. This makes for a MUCH more pleasurable shopping trip as it is much more satisfying to her to spend her time getting up and down and moving around rather than being confined to the tight quarters of the seat. So, as she would have it she disputed her way into the back of the buggy thus winning the argument! Motherhood has taught me quickly how to choose my battles! Anyway, we were strolling along and I found a bag, which I liked and threw it (and by threw it I mean gently placed it in the back were Ella was sitting.) She was excited about this "purse" which she referred to it and wasted no time putting it over her shoulder. Of course several steps and a few aisles later I happen across another one that suits me better so I swap them out and we head about our business. It's not but just seconds later that I look down and notice that not one, but both of Ella's juice cups are missing from her diaper bag. I immediately take inventory: keys, wallet, cell phone. CHECK! Then, I asked, "Ella, where is your juice?" She very matter-of-factly replied in her innocent and high-pitched tone,"The purse, momma." To which I said,"Oh! they're over there by the purses?!"

"Uh huh," she said.

So we headed back to were we came from. I'm of course on all fours bending down to glance under the shelves and between the aisles for these juice cups that she has most discreetly thrown out of the buggy. Minutes of this uncomfortable crouching and still no juice cups. So I begin to retrace our steps and continue my up-and-down posture on my scavenger hunt through the store. Now, normally I wouldn't mind a couple of missing juice cups, but it was, what felt like, 150 degrees outside and it was imperative that I have something to which I could rehydrate my toddler on this outrageously hot day. So back to the hunt, as you can imagine, I'm slightly irritated that I've been crouching through the entire store like a duck looking like quite the spaz in a rabid search for JUICE! So, I frustratingly (but lovingly, of course) explain,"Ella, if you don't stop throwing your juice out of the buggy you're going to get in trouble." "But momma, it's in the purse."

LIGHT BULB! "Oh! It's IN the purse?" "Uh huh." I could almost hear her thinking, "Duh, mom. I only told you that 20 minutes ago." Once more we head back over from were we came, I find the initial bag that had been replaced, pick it up, open the top and low and behold...both her juice cups and her stuffed dog! She really had made herself at home. And, I guess next time she tells me "it's in the purse" I'll listen just a little more closely!!

Miss Prissy

If you click on the collage it will get bigger, I just figured out how to do it!