Crawl For Cancer

A friend of mine talked Tom and I into joining her team for the fourth annual Crawl for Cancer. A few thousand participate in this pub crawl where the proceeds go towards cancer research. Each team had ten people on it, four and a half hours to visit five bars, and drink four pitchers of beer at each bar. We had a great time but it was a bit interesting considering I do not drink anymore.

Still in love....

with kitty

Playdate

We had planned on going to the zoo today with the Tash, Isla, and Ben Bowsher; however, it was storming this morning so we decided to head down to the Bowsher's house for a playdate. Of course as soon as we got down there the storms cleared and the weather ended up perfect. We still had a great time on our playdate. I got some adult chat time and
Ella got to see friends and new toys...

Ella showing baby Isla some toys...

She liked touching Isla's soft hair..(she did not like me holding Isla one bit though)

We walked to the park nearby

Laughing at each other...

She looks smitten :)

And Ben had to show Ella how to use his IPad...

We had some lunch and then headed home for nap. Thanks Bowshers for the time away from home!

Let the Law School Journey Begin....

Today we had NKU Chase School of Law Friends and Family Day.
Not sure why daddy isnt smiling in the pics cause he honestly is super excited about starting law school...

Ella lasted for about 45 min of the morning session of Q&A and lecture and then she had to go potty. Her and I made a trip to the car to use her potty and then decided to check out a little bit of campus...

Ella loved the statue in front of Nunn Hall which houses Chase School of Law...

Ella caught up on her reading outside of The student union to prepare herself for her college years...

And last she took in about fifteen minutes of a movie while we waited for daddy before the Friends and Family luncheon...

We are so proud of you Tom and can't wait for you to start your law school journey!

Fun in the Sun (yes the sun made an appearance)

Ella and I spent from 245 til 745 outside today. We spent part of that time at the park and the rest of it in our yard with a break for a quick dinner.

Ella loves to watch Tom mow the yard (safely from the house that is)
She is afraid of how loud it is when it is on so typically even when its off she likes to view it from afar.
Today however she decided to be brave and check it out
She had to slowly ease herself into it...

Once she got herself up in the seat she couldnt get enough!

Tom and I have been working hard outside the last two weekends (him more so than me) and we still have a long way to go. Last weekend we worked on patching grass, weeding, and pulling dead bushes. Tonight Tom tackled repairing sections of our fence with the neighbor. Of course Ella had to "help"

The guys even got out the chainsaw which Ella enjoyed watching from a safe distance..

She made sure she sported her safety glasses...

And after watching the guys work, she is back on the tractor. Working really hard to get the key in the ignition...

Tomorrow we head down to NKU for Tom's law school open house (pics to come)
Then Sunday we will be working on mulch, planting bushes, further fence repair, putting in a sidewalk out back, re routing drainage pipes, and picking out retaining wall for our back patio. I by no means expect to accomplish all that in one day. I feel we have some long weekends ahead of us for the next month or so!

Braving a night out sans toddler

Thanks to....

Leslie who is Ella's everyday teacher and sitter...

We were able to go out for an adult dinner and drinks...

with friends last night...

Kramer and Karl were two of Tom's roomates at Xavier. Tom has remained friends with them over the years. Karl resides in Cincinnati; however Kramer lives in Cleveland and this is his first visit back to this area in a couple years..

Our busy lives don't allow us to see Karl, his wife Sarah, and their kids as often as we'd like, but we see them at least a few times a year.


Thanks again to Leslie for our dinner out. We really really enjoyed the few hours out as a couple and to catch up with friends. This was actually our very first week night out without Ella since she was born! This is also the first time we have used a sitter in the evening other than our mother's!

"While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about."

Its been quite awhile since we have given an update on here of things Ella is able to do. We have our reasons for that but decided with all the amazing things she has learned over the last 21 months, its time for an update. There are WAY too many things to include if I were to name all she has learned in the last 21 months so Ill just name some of the things she is currently able to do or working on.
She is working on small puzzles as seen below as well as small board/peg puzzles...










She uses please, thank you, and excuse me at appropriate times and without being asked to do so. She can answer almost all questions and express all her wants and needs in complete and grammatically correct sentences. She even puts ing and ed on the end of words for present and past tense. To date her longest complete sentence is eight words long.
She has been able to count to thirteen and sing the entire alphabet for quite awhile now. Most recently we noticed that she is able to count objects if asked how many. For example on vacation there were dogs on the beach. When asked how many dogs? She was able to say 1,2...2 dogs.
She is able to identify blue and orange on a consistent basis as well as consistently identifies/labels Q, X, and A. (not sure why?)
She also is able to verbally identify a star, circle, and heart.
She can also draw a circle.
She knows the difference between little girl, little boy, man, and woman and quite frequently yells out little girl or little boy or baby when in a store. She also is able to identify verbally a group of men, women, children etc as "people" (she likes to throw an s on there as in peoples :)
She is literally able to verbally identify pretty much anything you ask her. Whether its out and about, at home, or in a book.
Each week at school she has lessons. Last weeks lessons were color identification by verbally identifying as well as matching color to color as well as big vs little. After just two days, Ella was not only able to verbally identify big vs little on 2D picture cards but also was able to sort the pictures in big vs little piles.

Our little girl also has quite the sense of humor. There's not a chance in the world that you wont have a little chuckle when you're in her presence.
On vacation she started saying HUH? when you say something she didn't hear or understand which I think is too funny coming from such a little girl. We also heard an "oh my gosh" and a "shoot" all used within context, so obviously she's taking in everything we are saying.
She also hears me call Tom Tom so quite frequently she refers to him as that. She will say Tom where you going or Tom what are you doing or Tom come here.
I will admit I have a serious Starbucks problem, which I'm working on. But to let you know how bad my problem is and how Ive involved my daughter in this...I order a decaf, nonfat mocha. I've never formally told her that I order a decaf nonfat. Well one day, about ten minutes after we left Starbucks she belts out DECAF NONFAT! Hilarious. And still to this day out of nowhere she will yell it out. Tonight as we pull up to the drive through of Sonic for a milkshake (another problem of mine)she yells out decaf nonfat!
I know I'm rambling and I know I am forgetting many of the things she is doing as of late. None of this is meant to brag as Im sure all of you in some way or another share in these amazing joys and moments of awe with your children.
Ill leave you with last Ella story that makes me chuckle.
Last week her and I were in the kitchen and she was looking at some birthday stickers I had received (thanks reba!). Noone told Ella they were birthday stickers and frankly I was not really even paying much attention. Next thing I know she takes a sticker of a birthday hat, places it center on her head, right where you would wear a birthday hat, and yells at the top of her lungs "HAPPY BIRTHDAY"!

Ella and the "guys"

Last night we had two friends from high school over for dinner that we have kept in contact with over the years. For some reason Ella was head over heels for them and quite the entertainer. She kept asking to sit on their laps and had to include them in everything she was doing from building blocks to reading books. All evening she would say "hey guys look at this or hey guys look at that". The best part was that the guys went right along with it and played whatever she wanted!
They left after she went to bed last night so the first thing she said when she woke up was "guys, where are you?". When informed they went home, she said with sad face and sad voice "aw guys". Thanks "guys" for making our little girl's evening by playing with her!

Mother's Day

Since we spent the past week in Myrtle Beach with Grandma Joyce, Grandma Joanne came over yesterday to celebrate Mother's Day with us. We had a very relaxing day of hanging out at home, having a nice lunch, and playing outside.

I am so blessed to have Ella as my daughter. Each day I am amazed by the joys of motherhood.
I have written Ella yet another letter to go into her box that I will give her someday. This time that letter stays private between her and I.

Tom knew I had been wanting a pair of Tom's shoes. So for Mother's Day Ella and Tom bought me the Mother's Day special edition that says Tom's loves moms. I absolutely love them! We bought Ella a pair of Tom's a couple weeks back. Below are Ella and I new shoes!