Photo catch-up

I am going to attempt to catch up on what has been going on around here the past few months... via pictures.  Here goes...

~ We found out in late October that Baby Sister would be joining us in June! ~

~ A little nervous at the beginning of her first professional haircut ~

~ But it all turned out okay in the end ~

~ Little family of three ~

~ Our little turkey ~

~ With a special announcement for the family ~
"Turkey Two Coming June 2012"

~ Christmas dress ~

~ Listening to Dr. Wiles tell THE Christmas Story ~

~ So blessed to be part of a church where the pastor cares so much for our children! ~

~ Daddy's little Aggie ~

~ budding artist ~

~ She loved the Rapunzel doll from Daddy ~
~ and the hair extension that came with it... see it on the left? ~

~ We love our seasonal Hello Kitty shirts and new sunglasses ~

Well, I think that about does it for now! Whew.  More to come soon... I will try and keep up for a while.

xoxox

First Fest and Halloween

The Sunday evening before October 31st, our church had their seventh annual First Fest.  It has been fun to watch this grow from a church event to a community wide event.  There were so many people on our church campus and surrounding area... it was crazy!  Ellasyn enjoyed playing a game called "Toss the Pumpkin". She tried to toss an empty pumpkin bucket into a basket.  She didn't make any, but she played twice so I think she liked it.  She also loved the bounce house and the pony ride.  After waiting in line for these few activities we decided we had better start Trunk or Treating before it was time to leave.  She still did not quite understand the point of it this year, but she was pretty good about keeping the candy in her bucket.  She saw quite a few friends and teachers throughout the night and was always to excited to show them her tutu and wings.  She was the cutest "Fifi" (fairy) ever! Unfortunately, I have very.... very few pictures because I somehow deleted them.  Don't you love technology?

Punkin Patch

I found this post in my "drafts" so I though I would go ahead and share what a great time we had at the "punkin" patch!
There is a little farm surrounded by city in the middle of Arlington call Gnismer (Niz-Mer) Farms.  They grow all kinds of things that you can come and pick yourself when they are in season.  This was the first time we had ever been, and we loved it! 

Ellasyn got to walk through the vines and find her perfect pumpkin.

We also rode the tractor around the field a few times to get a better view of the pumpkin selection. 


The weather was beautiful and this was definitly a family favorite. We will have to make this a yearly tradition!

Ellasyn's Second Year Pictures

I love my sweet and talented friend, Gara Hill. She is so great at capturing Ellasyn's personality. Ellasyn is not really a big fan of being told what to do, or sitting still in one spot. No, really? A rebellious two year old? I am not sure that even the jelly bean bribes worked this time... although Travis was a big fan! (I may or may not have given him unsupervised amounts of jelly beans while I was trying to get E to smile. Oops.) To say the least, Gara is super stealth with her camera and I am pretty sure that she possesses lightning fast shutter finger skills. Trigger finger? Shutter finger? You know what I mean.

Without further ado... here are the pics:

"This grass feels a little prickly on my toes..."

~ Looking off into the future~

~ Sweet hands ~


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~ Silly girl ~

 

~ kisses ~

~ precious ~

"CHEESE!"

~How adorable is this girl?~

Thanks again, Gara Hill!

Grama's birthday visit

Ellasyn and I took a trip up to Oklahoma City to see my sweet Grama and the rest of our favorite Oklahoman's, The Ogle Family.  She and I had a great time on the road. She was a good little backseat navigator.  Her favorite thing was driving through McDonald's to get apple slices.  I know, I know... who drives through McD's for apples?  That's my girl. And she doesn't even like the caramel dip that comes with them.

~ Sharing her Potty Book with Grama ~

~ She loves to read  ~

She got to go to her very first pep rally with Aunt Tae Tae and Avery at Merritt and Sayre's high school. Merritt is a cheerleader and we got to see her in action! Ellasyn loved the pom girls and has been asking for pom poms ever since.  Dancing to the band and the drum line was her favorite part. I wish I had taken a picture.  She felt so comfortable in the pep rallyenvironment that she fell asleep in my lap during the loudest part and slept through the whole second half.  That never happens, so I tried to take full advantage of snuggling my sweet girl.

We went out to lunch for Grama's birthday at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants... Poblano Grill. Yummm.

~ Mommie, Ellasyn, Grama ~

~ Ellasyn Hannah and Grama Ella ~
(this girl can rock the boots with just about any get-up)

Ellasyn and I loved our mini vacation, but we were so glad to get back home to Daddy.

Keeping herself occupied in the back seat...

TWO years old!

Ellasyn Hannah is two years old... TWO! 

We had a Noah's Ark celebration with lots of family and friends.  Water play in the back yard, yummy snacks and a delicious cake! 

Travis aka Tadas

Josh aka Dosh

Noah's Ark cake with yummy donut hole bears, tigers and lady bugs.

M.Y.O.M station (Make Your Own Mix)

Ellasyn wore her special birthday dress to church on Sunday and enjoyed lunch at Spring Creek with Marmee, Papa, Bubba, Me-yin-ah (Merinda), Penny, Jude, Daddy and Mommy.

On Monday, her actual birthday, she ruled the day.  Donuts at Shipley's, a carousel ride at the mall, lunch at McDonalds with her "girls" a.k.a. cousins.  Honey, Grandpa, Kelli and Buck joined us too. :)  She had a blast climbing up in the play place with the big kids.

Her doctor's appointment was the week after. It was the first time at Dr. Geppert's that she did not scream the entire time that we were there.  She weighs 26 lbs. and is 35" tall!  She hit a major growth spurt recently and jumped up on her chart from 60% to 80%.  After her appointment we went by her favorite place for a treat. Freeze-onies at Quik Trip!

Ellasyn's vocab grows daily with longer sentences each time. 

E: "Imma (may I) have a banana, please."
Me: "We don't have any more bananas. We will get some at the store today."
(Later, after we returned from the store she is eating lunch and looks over into our fruit basket.)
E: "Oh noooo"
Me: "What happened?"
E: "We deent buy some bananas!"
She has a crazy good memory, too!

Picture uploading is slow going on our compuer right now.  I will have to do an all picture post next time.

Love,
Us

VBS, 23 Months and San Antonio...

Vacation Bible School was great... as it always is!  I am so blessed to be a part of a church that puts so much emphasis on the Jesus Journey.  Our church writes their own VBS curriculum and has an amazing team of ministers, assistants and volunteers to help things run smoothly.  This year, I was able to be a part of that team as a "Hallway Coordinator".  I know, it sounds pretty official, right?  Basically, I made sure the younger preschool and nursery classrooms had what they needed and the teachers were able to visit the wonderful goodie room. 

Ellasyn had a blast at "Bible schooo" and even sang herself to sleep on the last night singing..."Have fun Bible Schooooooo... Noaaaaah" (one of her sweet buddies). 

Because of the busyness of that week, I forgot all about taking her 23 month picture!  However, I did remember the morning that we were getting ready to leave town for a four day weekend and was able to snap a couple quick shots.  I am half sad and half relieved that I only committed to the monthly pictures through 24 months.  Relieved because it is hard to remember now that she is older and I am always late in making them.  But sad because that means she is growing up and turning into a little girl... no longer a baby. *glistening tear down my cheek and a big sigh*

Moving on....

We took our first McDaniel family of three vacation to San Antonio! Despite some naptime/bedtime difficulties, and a few squabbles over who needed to push the stroller and who needed to ride in it... we had an amazing trip.  Ellasyn loved the "Hotel Voom" and the fact that she got to sleep in a big bed.  Our hotel was right on the Riverwalk and she loved riding the elevator down the the water.  She kept asking to "Geh in!" Uh... no, I don't think so. Yucky.  We went to all the typical San Antonio attractions... Riverwalk, Market Square, Alamo, The Quarry, and my favorite... Sea World.

~ reading books with her animals during the car ride ~

~ claiming her bed in the hotel room ~



~ dinner on the riverwalk ~





We had fun at Market Square looking for a Mexican dress (you know the bright colored ones with the embroidered flowers) and a child sized belt to have her name branded on. 

We walked across the street from our hotel to the Alamo on July 4 to take some pictures and spent the rest of that day in Gruene.  When we came back we found out that it was the first time in the history of Bexar County that there would not be fireworks.  Sad. So instead we went on the river boat tour, and watched fireworks on tv.

~ This is pretty typical of Ellasyn's photo sessions ~
~ She is too quick to catch on camera! ~

~ red, white and blue family photo ~



The last day we were there was Sea World!  I have wanted to take Ellasyn ever since I heard of the new Sesame Street Bay of Play that they added this summer.  She loves Abby Cadabby and Elmo... even though she has seen maybe half of an episode of Sesame Street.  We have lots of books and the characters are on some of the Earth's Best products that she likes.  Right before this trip, she watched an episode of Abby's Flying Fairy School on the computer and learned that fairies have wings and fly.  She would flit around the living room and say, "I'm a fee-fee!"  So cute.  Ethan and I were a little disappointed in the "Bay" part, but Ellasyn loved playing in the splash area and seeing the character show.  

~ excited to go to sea world ~

~ waiting for the park to open ~

We watched another show called Azul. It was a beluga/dolphin/Cirque de Soleil type show with divers jumping and flipping off of the rafters in between the fish mammals. I was pretty impressed.

We visited the dolphins and E and Miss E got to pet them.  We saw fish and sharks, sea lions with their sweet tiny (not really) new pups, seals and sea otters. Ellasyn loved them all!

~ running through the splash area with Daddy ~

~ dancing while we wait for Elmo and friends ~

~ shaking her little booty ~

~ Zoe was a little too furry for E's liking ~

~ she liked Abby much better ~

~ her first ferris wheel experience ~

~ petting the dolphins ~



We stopped by the Lost Lagoon water park to ride the lazy river. It was a big hit!  Ellasyn loved "See-ming"  She wore a life vest and we were in tubes... but it was difficult to hold onto her.  We figured out that if we all wore life jackets it was easier to float along with her.  It was fun, but not shaded.  I got a little fried.

~ floating in the lazy river ~

~ playing in the kiddie pool ~



Before we got to Sea World we told her that we were going to see whales she got so excited and said, "Jonaaaah!"  She loves the story of Jonah being swallowed by the "Biiiig fiss". I am a little glad that she was asleep when we got down to the Shamu show... that theater was packed to the gills. Ha. (I know that whales are really mammals) Ethan and I watched for a little while from the very top and got to see the newest Baby Shamu. It was pretty cute to see him/her doing the tricks with the Momma Shamu.  On the way back from Shamu, since Ellasyn was sleeping comfortably in her stroller we just parked her in the shade  she and I waited in the shade while Ethan rode the Journey to Atlantis.



~ Ethan is in the last row on the far left ~

A full day of fun in the sun = free evening of entertainment riding the elevators up and down the 11 floors of the air conditioned hotel. 

~ who needs to pack bath toys when you have two cups and a spoon? ~

~ a little maraca seranade ~

~ my sweet girl in her favorite "Cars" jammies on the roof of the hotel ~

It took all evening, but the pictures are loaded. Enjoy!

Love,

Us