Blessed

I'm not sure you want to watch this, but if you are feeling brave are are in a place you can shed a few tears, click the link below:

Warning: Get your tissues!

Aren't we blessed??? I can honestly say that I thank God for Ellie everyday, but in the moments when there is a little too much crying, and not quite enough sleeping, it is hard to enjoy myself. I can't imagine what these parents would give for the chance to stay up all night, every night with their sweet Eliot. I don't know why God chose to give us an incredible, perfectly healthy, AMAZING little girl who gives me tremendous joy everyday. I don't deserve these lavish blessings, but I sure am grateful. My heart just overflows with gratitude every time I look at her. THANK YOU SO MUCH, GOD, FOR THIS AMAZING GIFT!!!

Pumpkins!

Today I planned for us to go to a pumpkin patch. However, I didn't really want to go to Pumpkin Works just to get a pumpkin, and I didn't really know where else to go. Plus, Ellie was really fussy after her nap this afternoon so I didn't want to get her back out. So, I just ended up going to Wal-mart to get some pumpkins. If you wait until the week before Halloween to get pumpkins, there is not such a large selection. There were only three left, two of which didn't stand up on their ends. So I got the one that did stand up and I got a white pumpkin! I just got Ellie a bag of little pumpkins.
I have been trying for weeks to get a good fall picture. We tried this afternoon to get some outside. I think we got a few decent ones. Next, we carved our pumpkins. I put Ellie in her highchair and gave her the insides (minus the seeds) to play with. She really enjoyed it! She played there the whole time we were carving. I have pictures I will have to post later because I have not put them on the computer yet. Here are some of the pictures we took today. I played with them on a new program:

Nashville trip

This weekend I thought it would be fun to take Ellie on a little trip. We went to Nashville, IN and Brown County State Park. Although we had a good time, things did not quite go as planned. My main goal for this trip was to get a good fall picture of Ellie so that we could make so wallets for family. So I got Ellie dressed in her cute fall outfit and we set out. Our first stop was to Nashville for a little browsing, dinner, and hopefully a good photo op. Here is where things began to go awry. First of all, don't go to Brown county in the fall. It is beautiful, yes. But everyone and their brother has the same idea. There were sooo many people! So much traffic and people packed onto the sidewalks. However, we forged on. For some reason, I didn't think about the logistics of getting a baby in a stroller around in crowds and in and out of little shops. This was just not doable. So Tyler stayed with Ellie while I went in and out of a couple of shops. About this time we decided that dinner here was out of the question. We decided to go to a candy shop--(we needed some chocolate), look for a spot for a picture and head to the park. While Tyler was in the candy shop I decided to hold Ellie for awhile. I picked her up and I was surprised when my hand felt a soaking wet bootie! Now, we have not had a diaper leak and many months, so this was very unexpected. Not only did she leak through her diaper, but her onesie, pants, and stroller were all wet! To make matters worse, I didn't have anymore pants! I always bring extra clothes. But for some reason, I didn't that day! I had shorts, but it was much too cold for shorts. So, I changed her and just wrapped her pantless self in a blanket and we headed for the car! Needless to say, our perfect fall picture in her cute outfit just wasn't happening! We decided to go on to the park and just look around a bit. We went to a couple lookouts, but because Ellie was without pants, and we really needed gas...our trip was cut short. However, after a trip to Target for some new pants, we had a pleasant dinner at Red Lobster. Here are some pictures from our eventful trip:

Sleep Update and some fun things!

I have caved :-( Ellie is crying herself to sleep right now. A couple of weeks ago, things were really starting to improve! We had a good routine down. I have been working for a couple of hours in the daytime and they let me bring Ellie with me. This has helped our routine and she was getting two regular naps. I thought things were going great! Then, she went back to her old no napping self. Tonight she just wouldn't settle. So she is crying. I hate it but I don't know what else to do. I guess I am just going to take this day by day and do whatever works.
In other news....Saturday night I got a much needed girl's night out! I went to Indianapolis to celebrate my friend Kelli's birthday. We ate at PF Chang's. It was delicious! I had never been there before but I intend to go back! I had lettuce wraps and crispy honey chicken. Mmmm...it was so good :-) It was really nice to get to see some old, dear friends. I really enjoyed it. Poor Tyler had a rough time with Ellie. I left at 5 so that he would only have a couple of hours and then he would just put her to bed. Well, she screamed when I left, which was hard, and I guess she didn't improve much. He got her to bed and then he sent me a message at 11 that she had been up for an hour and wouldn't go back to sleep. So, I headed home. Poor Tyler.
This weekend we finally got a video camera! I have been so sad that we were missing all these moments. We borrowed a camera for Ellie's birth, so we have footage of her right after she was born. But we have missed the rest of her first eight months! So before we miss anything else we went ahead and got one. We got a hard drive camcorder so as soon as I get something good recorded, I can post a video!

Funny Faces

Lately, Ellie has been making some funny faces! There are hard to catch on camera, but here are a few examples.




I just like this one because you can really see her teeth.