Fort Worth Stock show and Rodeo

This was our first year to attend the Fort Worth Stock Show and our very first Rodeo... ever, I think.

We went to the stock show with Ethan's parents since our wonderful museum membership (courtesy of  Marmee and Papa) got us in free!  Ellasyn loved looking at ALL the cows. I think we walked through at least three buildings of different cattle.  The last building, however, was a little too loud for E's liking.   I guess the animals were getting a little stir crazy perhaps.  I think her favorite animals were the chicks and the ducklings. She kept asking me if we could "soft" (pet) them, which we could not.  We found a petting area later where she was able to pet and feed rabbits, goats, llamas, and an Irish calf.

~ "That's a scary noise!" ~
(referring to the loud cows)

~ test driving a tractor ~

~ family photo on the tractor... trying not to blow away ~

~ We got to meet Elsie, the cover cow for Borden Milk ~

~ Not sure about the Irish Calf checking her out ~

~ "He sniffed me!" ~

~ finally posing for the picture ~

The next week, we received an invitation from our friends, The Hills, to attend the rodeo with them.  I was a little nervous how Ellasyn would do and I didn't have much, if any, experience to share with her in preparation. As soon as we walked onto the grounds she said, " Mmmmm... it smells sooo good, Mommy."  Uh?  We may have a future FFA gal on our hands... 

She had a blast at the rodeo!  She loved watching the opening with all the people on horses and the "sparkly girls" with the flags.  She watched the bronco riding and bull riding with great interest and especially loved the motorcycle stunt that they did.  I think her favorite part, though, was wearing her cow girl boots.  This girl LOVES her boots!

~ enjoying some snacks with Daddy ~

~ stole this picture from Gara's blog :) ~

~ E, Mommy and C! ~

~ how cute are we in our boots? ~

Yes, that is four blog posts in three days...
Love,
The McDaniels

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 ~


 <><>

~ 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