Ella is Four Months Old!

Ella arrived at her fourth month on July 21st. Since Ella and I were still in Florida then, we took her picture a little later than usual. Her four month appointment with the pediatrician was on Tuesday, July 28th, so we took her picture that day, too. Ella now weighs 14 pounds, 4 ounces, is 26 3/4 inches long and has a really big head!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Stacey!

My niece Stacey turned 3 while we were in Florida. Her birthday was on Tuesday, July 21st, and her birthday party was on Sunday, the 26th. My sister, Debbie, bought some cupcakes on Tuesday to celebrate her actual birthday.

Her party was at My Gym in Coral Springs. Stacey started out having fun, but was so exhausted that she ended up in a very sour mood by the end of the party.

By the end of the party, Stacey finally fell asleep in the middle of the room, while everyone else played around her. It was really funny!

Where's My Cow?

First, an explanation of the post title, in case you don't read Terry Pratchett books! In his books, Pratchett has a character that reads a book to his son. The book is called Where's My Cow? Pratchett actually decided to write this book as a children's book and Tom often reads it to Ella.

On July 10th, Chick-fil-a had their annual Cow Appreciation Day. For those of you that are not familiar with this holiday, the idea is that you dress up as a cow and get a free combo meal. Chick-fil-a even has a cut-out cow costume on their website that you can wear if you don't have your own costume. So, naturally, we dressed Ella in cow ears and went to Chick-fil-a for lunch.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering, yes, Tom and I wore our cow costumes, but, no, we didn't take any pictures of us!

Rockin and Rollin All Night Long!

Well, not really all night long, but Ella has finally learned how to roll over. She did it for the first time on Wednesday morning while we were playing in her room. I had her on her back on a blanket on the floor. I went into her closet to get something and heard a thud. I figured she had kicked something over, since I was emptying a suitcase of toys and reorganizing her room. I turned around to look and found her on her tummy off of the blanket. I was so excited, but sad that I didn't get to see her in action! I turned her back over and put her back on the blanket. She was so proud of herself.

I then turned her on her tummy on the blanket and she pulled up on her arms (something she hadn't done before b/c she HATED being on her tummy). I turned away for another minute to continue organizing and looked back to find her on her back. I couldn't believe that she had rolled over twice and I missed it both times! Of course, all the videos I took were on the Blackberry so the quality isn't that great, but at least you can sort of see what's happening! Tom did get some video with the video camera last night. Hopefully, we'll have some time this weekend to download those so I can put up some real footage!







In other news, Ella had rice cereal for the first time last night. She wasn't really into it, but I think that may be partly due to the fact that she had just eaten a bottle about 20 minutes before we tried to feed her. I'm going to try again later today to see if she'll eat any of it. Pictures and video of that will be up soon!

A Very Special Post

We lost a very special person last week. My grandfather, Jerry Brass, was truly a remarkable man and is already missed by many people.

Grandpa was always there for all of the major milestones in our lives and that did not change with his great grandchildren. I am very thankful that he was able to make the trip to Atlanta for Ella's baby naming last month. He got to spend some quality time with Ella that weekend and we will cherish those moments forever.

Here are some of the pictures that were taken with Grandpa/Great Grandpa that weekend. We love you very much!

Happy 4th of July!

Ella really seemed to enjoy her first Independence Day. We met up with our friends Steven and Brandi and their two daughters at Wills Park for the evening. We arrived around 4:30 PM, set up camp in a shady spot and enjoyed our afternoon/evening. Ella was fascinated by everything around her. She hasn't really spent that much time outside all at once before, so it was a new experience for her. We got some great photos of her at home in her first outfit and some others at the park in outfit number two. You didn't actually think she only had one 4th of July outfit, did you? She is my daughter, after all! Seriously though, all 3 of her Grandma's bought her adorable outfits for the day. One is still a bit too big on her, so she'll be wearing that one on another day.

Ella actually did really well the entire time we were in the park. She played for a few hours and even went to sleep about 30 minutes before the fireworks began. Of course, the fireworks did startle her awake, but she didn't cry. I took her out of the stroller and held her in my lap so she could watch. They were really loud, so I covered her ears, but she was mesmerized by the show!

Since we had the camera with us anyway, I figured I might as well get a rare shot of Tom and me in here, too!

Catching Some Rays

Monday afternoon was so beautiful that I took Ella out onto our deck to enjoy the weather. Here is what she had to say about her getup...


I also got one cute one without the sunglasses.