Ellison Reese

It's that time again. Had to clean off the pics in Jonathan's cell phone...

Ellison suffered some boo-boos while I was at work one evening. This is the little face she makes now whenever she's holding back tears.

She wanted to play beauty salon "like at Grandma's". I had to sit in her chair (thank God I didn't break it), and she ran over and got her little Dora dance mat at a cape and draped it across me. We took turns being the stylist.

Ellison was not keen on getting a bath & hair wash one evening. That is, until I mentioned I would wash her hair in the kitchen sink like I used to get done when I was a little girl. Well, that changed everything. This girl was very eager, and the moment the washing started she closed her eyes with this blissful look on her face and whispered, "Ahhhh....."

Off to the first Halloween Party of 2010. Our adult Sunday school class, Families On The Grow (FOG), had a potluck Halloween gathering at our friends', the Campbells, house. There are usually not big turnouts for the social gatherings, but we had a great time with a small group of our friends and playmates.

This year for Halloween, Ellison is going to be a bride. :-) When asked what she wanted to be this year, she said a few inconsistent random things, and then kept saying "a princess". Since she's having a princess dress-up birthday party, we needed to talk her out of that one. Then it dawned on me that she has the perfect outfit already - the wedding dress Grandma made for her (Can we say "yea" for not having to fork out money for a costume this year?). When I asked her if she wanted to be a bride, I got an emphatic "Yes!", and she hasn't wavered once.

Another fellow partygoer, Alyssa Nangle, and the bride swinging in their costumes. Alyssa and Ellison were attached at the hip all evening, like long-lost BFFs. At one point when I took Ellison into the bathroom, she politely let me in on the fact that she was getting bossed around a little, but was having fun nonetheless.

That's Jonathan standing with the cup in his hand...

We knew playing outside in a wedding dress wasn't going to cut it, so we brought a back-up outfit. Voila, we then had a Tinkerbell on our hands. I guess the collection of dress-up clothes we have does come in handy.

Some of the "sweeties" (as Ellison calls all children) on a mini-hayride around the yard. :-)

(Joshua, Ellison, Alyssa, Reagan, Caleb, and Avery)

And John, the driver.

It was a lovely evening of catching up, playing, and crying. Seriously, it got comical at one point because it was a different kid crying every 2 minutes from various injuries, woes, and whatnot. That's always a good cue that it's time to call it a night. :-)

[October 23, 2010]

We had a fun Halloween craft project this year: a Halloween House (I leave out the "Haunted" part). Target had some fun fall projects this year. So one Sunday afternoon we set out to build the foundation. Ellison loves crafts and projects, and felt relieved that we could finally work on it after seeing the kit sit on our dining table for a week.

And what do you think our Little Buggy got into?

She ended up saying "I've got a tummy ache" if that's any indication. I was worried we were going to have a very bare house.

Then Daddy made her some hot chocolate to top it all off. Well, she made it. She loves to do it by herself with the Keurig machine now.

While we waited for the walls and roof to set, we took a nice long stroll through the neighborhood, and decided to try out the Sit 'N Stand. Ellison loves it. Toward the end she looked like she needed to get comfy, so we stuck her in the baby seat, and she was out like a light. I guess the sugar rush didn't do anything to her.

After resting those creative juices, they readily began flowing again toward evening so we could do the fun part. Ellison did this whole side of the orange roof herself. And after that, save for stategically placing candies where Mama put the frosting, she pretty much just wanted to play with the fondant as if it was Play-Doh.

I left the difficult part up to Daddy - doing those fancy windows - while I threw some M&M cookies in the oven. I don't know about you, but I always feel more inspired when I have food in my mouth.

And the finished product...

The very next day I had to move the house to a different zip code - Ellison sat on the bar stool and would say, "Oops! A candy corn fell off! Can I eat it?". Two seconds later: "Oh, Mom, another candy corn fell off!". After 3 candy corn and 3 candy ball casualties, I was finally onto her picking them off.

[October 17, 2010]

Well, it looks a little sparse and is lacking some color, but that will all come after we know whether God is giving us a boy or a girl! Yes, I know it's early to have it all done, but I went into planning overdrive when Ellison started school this fall. Since I was on bedrest during my pregnancy with her starting at 30 weeks, I never got to do the decorating of my firstborn's nursery - all of the little fun preparations. Though I had everything picked out, I had to stay in a horizontal position while my parents and Jonathan did all of that fun stuff. So beyond just wanting to enjoy it, I want to be as prepared as possible should I have to go on bedrest again, especially while having another little body to take care of this time around. Between Ellison's birthday, and 3 or 4 holidays (2 of them being major ones), I didn't want to be doing the baby's stuff in a rush. So all of the aqua, yellow, and green outfits are washed and hanging in their place... already. There is still a list of things to do before Little Squirt arrives, but at least the main necessities are complete.

So we'll be able to decorate the walls with decor in a bright color, but for now they will be plain. Whose idea was it to not find out the sex????

Ellison thinks it's quite fun to lay in the crib. I have a feeling we'll walk into her laying with the baby sometimes.

Can you tell Ellison likes to play in the nursery?

[October 16, 2010]

I love her little posed smiles now with the squinted eyes and crinkled up nose...

[October 15, 2010]

We are SO proud of Daddy!!! He made it through his final class for the import/export compliance officer certification, which has been a long work in progress. Each class (there were 6 total) been 6 weeks long of homework, papers, midterms, exams, and he just completed the last one! It was tough - after working all day, continuing to take care of our finances/bills and the yardwork, having to take care of Ellison on the evenings or weekends that I worked, he had homework to look forward to every single night. And did great in every class. Well done, Daddy! Ellison and I made him a sign and wrote him a letter to present to him when he came home from work on his last day. We had fun decorating, as you can see. ;-)

[October 13, 2010]

The three of us went to Women's Hospital to participate in the Big Brother/Big Sister Class. Ellison brought along her baby to practice with, and it was the sweetest thing to watch. :-) The siblings-to-be practiced changing a diaper (which Ellison has been becoming a pro at lately) and swaddling their babies. They learned about how families care for babies and what to expect. Ellison had been looking very forward to her class...

(There's our little mother on the left.)

After the hands-on training, we all took a tour of the waiting room to peak in the nursery, where the kids were so excited to see a real newborn. Then we toured the delivery room, too, which was good for us since this will be a new experience for us in Greensboro. It made us both miss the luxury of Longmont United Hospital back in Colorado where Ellison was born. Ellison proudly carried her baby throughout the hospital, until we finally ended back up in the classroom where the youngsters got a snack and juice during a story.

I was glad we did the class, as Ellison has always been one to do better with expectations and being warned ahead of time. She made the comment to us, "But I don't want you guys to go into the hospital..." with such a sappy face later that day. I'm already feeling complete dread at leaving my firstborn to go to the hospital to rock her world as she knows it. Her saying that definitely tugged at my heart. We are SO praying that the timing of it all goes so smoothly.

[October 10, 2010]

I was looking so forward to the Fall Festival at Bur-Mil this year. We missed last year somehow, and loved the prior year, so I marked it on our calendar early this time. It was a bit too hot outside - as is our theme this year in Greensboro - but we had a great day.

First stop of the day was the face painting station...

...where Ellison chose a heart. OK, the girl pretty much prompted Ellison to pick a heart, but whatever. It looked more like an apple, but bygones... It was free, it was a sweet young girl doing the painting, E was happy.