Ellie and her Vocabulary

I my be biased but Ellie has a vocabulary of a three year old. She can say whatever she wants to say. However, she is only going to say it when she wants to. Just some examples:

This morning as me and Josh were getting ready to go out Ellie left our room and I couldn't find her. I looked in the living room and there she was playing with her blocks. Here is our conversation:
Me: Ellie where are you?
Ellie: Yes, mommy?
Me: What are you doing?
Ellie: Playing with blocks.
Me: Why don't you come back into our room and play with them. Mommy needs to keep an eye on you.
Ellie: Yes yes (and she gets up and runs to our room)


This afternoon, I had the hardest time trying to get her to take a nap. She was so sleepy but would not go to sleep. After laying down with her for about 45 minutes, I lost my nerve and put her in her room. She of course screamed and cried, but eventually I thought she had given it up. Then Ellie started to call for me and say "snack". Which it was lunch time, so now I felt bad, but she really needed a nap. She stop talking, but I could hear her moving around on her bed. Josh peeked in and she was playing peek a boo with her blanket. So, he went on in to get her and we ate lunch. After lunch, she wanted to watch "Donald Duck" on my phone. We watched it and then I told her she had to lay down for a nap. We went to my room and I told her that when she woke up from a nap she could watch Brobee (Yo Gabba Gabba). She cried because she wanted to watch it then, but I kept telling her she had to sleep first. Then she snuggled up to me (still crying) and within a minute, she fell asleep. The funny part is when she woke up and we went into the living room she started saying Brobee. I said, " Yes Ellie. Mommy did promise you Brobee when you woke up." She said "YES!" So she had to watch Brobee.


Last night in the bath, I was getting Ellie to say all her families' names. She was doing a great job!! This morning, Josh got her to say it again and got it on his phone. So we have evidence that she can say them!!! All of them!!

Everyday I am just impressed at how much she can talk. She will copy everything we say now. I told her "I promise" (about what I don't remember), and the rest of the day she was saying "promise". She just amazes me at how much she knows. It is great to get to play with her. I love her more and more every day! Oh how wonderful it is to be a mom!! Sometimes I have to remind myself of these precious moments (especially on days like today when she wouldn't take a nap.)

Elliegator and Outdoor fun

I know that it has been a while since my last post, but I have been pretty busy. And I am about to be even more busy with basketball starting up! I have got to give myself a break.

Anyways, Josh, me and Adam and Ashley went to Gainesville for the Tennessee/ Florida game. We had a blast!! We got to stay in Gainesville which was so much better! I can't believe we use to stay in Lake City. So, we did alot of shopping...I mean ALOT of shopping!!! I found Ellie the perfect outfit!! A UF Cheerleading outfit. I mean it feels and looks like the real thing! I was so happy that I didn't really pay attention to the price tag and just bought it. So, Ellie is going to be a UF cheerleader for Halloween. I even found her a pair of white Reebok shoes! She is going to look so cute. I am really hoping that Ashley will buy Carter a jersey and let him be a football player for Halloween. They would be so cute together!!!

Well, here are a few pictures of Ellie in her outfit. I think that she likes it. She wouldn't let me take it off of her!!

She was yelling "GOOOOOO"

Do you like her choice of accessories?

This past week has been the best weather!! I love it when it is in the 70's and you can wear jeans and a shirt and be just fine. I wish we had this weather all year long! Well me and Ellie decided to make the most of it one day after school. I grabbed a few of her toys (mainly because we are horrible and haven't bought her anything that goes outside!) and we took off. She loved playing with her golf set. Although the wind was blowing her ball around and leaves were blowing around. Every time a leaf would blow across the driveway, she would ask "Whats that?" I would have to reassure her every time that it was a leaf and she was fine. I think the noise of it must have scared her a little bit. I also took her four wheeler out and she is still trying to ride it, but she is a little too big. It was really cute though. Of course, when it was time to go inside, she would just start crying and telling me "NO, NO Mommy!" I couldn't resist. We had to stay a few more minutes. Here are some pictures of one of our days outside.

I think she must have been singing!

Happy Birthday Colt!

I have a new nephew today, Colton Foster. Born this morning at 8:45am weighing in at 8lbs 4 oz and 20.5 in long. Wow! Big boy! Everyone is doing good and I can't wait to see him. I didn't get to go today because I just don't have the days to take off, but I will be spending the weekend with them! I can't wait! Pictures to follow!

Florida Football and Playtime

Well here is our family picture in our UF jerseys. Soon Ellie will have a cheerleader outfit to sport, but unfortunately she didn't have it in time for the first football game!! Saturday was the day Josh couldn't wait for and it was the day I usually dread. I am now officially a football widow. Oh well, I love football too so it really isn't that bad. We decided that since we all have jerseys with #1 on it, we thought we would take a family picture. I thought it turned out great!! Ellie actually smiled!!

We went to the Kelly's house and watched football and let the kids play together. They had so much fun and was the best!! They played better this weekend then they have so far. They are getting older and loving the company. This morning Ashley and I took the kids outside to play on the swing set. Of course they loved it. Ellie loves to swing. We let them go down on the slide by themselves and they loved it. Ellie was all about it at first, but when she went down it too fast the first time, it scared her and mommy had to hold her the rest of the time. I was taking pictures and me nor Ashley thought she would go that fast since Carter didn't. But Ellie just took off and fell all the way off the slide. She never cried though. Tough Girl! Here are a few pictures to enjoy.

Pee Wee Football

Josh is coaching again!! He is helping coach the 9-10 yr old pee wee football team with some of his buddies. He is having a blast! I think it shows him how much he really enjoys doing it. So far they are doing great!! 2-0 is their record. This Saturday was a close game, but they pulled it off. It was a great game!! Here are some pictures to show you! Oh yeah, he hasn't thrown his hat down!!! (remember when he coached high school... that was all he did when he got mad!!)

Chad Bolton, Josh Wilbourn, Josh Etheredge, and Keith Jarrell

One of the boys making a great play!

Doing what he does best!!

Touchdown Indians!!!

Update

Since it has been a while since I wrote a blog, I thought I would update you now (seeing as how I have a second finally). But I am tired so if I ramble that is why.

School started off great. I think I will really like 7th grade. They seem to respect me more. I guess because I don't quite look like a 7th grader. That was my problem with high school. I looked like one of them and they didn't respect me. So, school is going really good now. I am having to start from scratch with the class, so that is keeping me tied down. Since we have no teacher money this year, I am trying to find ways to keep the students engaged without having to make copies. That is actually really hard!!! I have a smartboard in my room, so I have been making powerpoints of my notes and making the students copy them. It's been working out fine. I find games online and let them come up to the board and play them. They love playing with the board.

Other than the classroom, I have a grant to fix up the greenhouse outside my room. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM DOING!!! NO idea where to begin!! I know what things probably need to be fix, but I am afraid that I will miss something. With it being a grant too, I have to keep up with everything. So that means lots and lots of paperwork and pictures to prove it. Crazy! I think my head is going to spin off!!! Too much stuff!!

On a different note (basically I have to stop talking about school before my BP rises to a deathly level), Ellison is talking so much now. I mean actually talking. She is picking up on everything and saying everything. She surprised me Saturday morning. I turned the TV on for her to watch cartoons and she said "Mommy, Manny." And yes, Handy Manny was on TV. I have never heard her say it before.
Here are some more conversations:

Josh: Love you Ellie, be back in a minute.
Ellie: ove you in minute bye bye daddy

Me: Lets go play with Mrs. Sarah and Jessie (as we get out of the car at daycare)
Ellie: no no mommy, no no
Me: yes I will be back this afternoon
Ellie: no no mommy...(and a bunch of gibberish... probably cursing me for leaving her there)

Ellie: ELMOOOOO
Inez: yeah there is Elmo
Ellie: I get it I get Elmo
Inez: Okay you can get Elmo

Ellie: Mommy Elmo (whining and crying and crawling up in my lap while I am on the computer)
Me: not right now Ellie. Mommy is working on school stuff.
Ellie: No no, Elmo mommy (continues until I give in or she gives up)

As soon as we come in from school (or actually anytime we come home), Ellie will walk to the TV, turn it on, find the remote, give it to me and shake her head yes. Apparently I am suppose to know what she wants (obviously to watch cartoons). She then signs "more", which now means eat. So I fix her a snack and let her eat it in the living room while watching cartoons.

So as you can tell, our lives are interesting. Ellie says something new everyday, but of course I am so tired that I can't remember everything. I think I need to keep a book about it. She is so fun right now. I love coming home to her!! I still don't like our night time. She will fall asleep on her own now, but she will not do it when she wakes in the middle of the night. And this week she has decided that she wants mommy to rock her back to sleep. Mommy doesn't like this. She did so good for a week. She slept thru the night and all, but I don't know what happened now. Oh well. One day she will sleep.

Pictures are to come in the future. Stay tune!!

Overwhelmed

Wow! I got an overload of information today! Today was our offical day back to school (for teachers anyways). We had inservice at the high school which was really neat. They did a "virtual" inservice, where they had 5 host sites and we didn't have to travel to far. It was good. I liked it. That only lasted about an hour and a half and then we had to go to our lunchroom and have a faculty meeting. Well, I got stopped about 100 times on my way to the meeting. I guess it was actually good, because it was people who didn't know me. Anyways, I was flooded with information at the meeting about all the stuff that I have to do. I never had to do most of this stuff before. I feel so lost!! I know that I can handle the classroom and the material. It is the same as my high school biology lessons. So I am not worried about that. I am worried about the lesson plans (how in depth, long etc...), and all the other little paper work that I have to do. I know that this is a bigger school and I should have been prepared a little better, but WOW...

{takes a deep breath...}

Anyways, I can do it and I am really excited about starting this school year. I have really high expectations for myself and my students. I can't wait to get to coaching!! I am excited about all that. Can't wait for softball especially!

Anyways, I got to get ready for the rest of the week. School starts Monday!! Hope everyone is ready!!