Father's Day Fun!

We had a FABULOUS Father's Day weekend here - and I had the pleasure of celebrating with three of my favorite dads: my dad, my husband's dad, and my daughter's dad :-)

My dad came down on Saturday for a surprise day.  We took him to Sonic for lunch (since he doesn't have one of those close to him) and sat outside at the picnic tables to eat.  Yummo!  I ordered the spicy popcorn chicken, which was good for a few pieces, but then it just got to be too much for me.  Note to self: stick with the original!  Then, we went mini golfing at the local family fun center.

There was a Father's Day weekend fundraiser going on there where ALL the proceeds from golf game sales went to the local pregnancy crisis center.  They provide counseling for people facing unplanned pregnancies, but they also provide prenatal care and education for people who can't otherwise afford it.  They even have a 'store' that you can go in and get clothes, formula, bottles, blankets, and other baby gear for free if you need it.  It's a really great ministry that Andy and I are proud to support.  So anyway, we took him mini golfing AND supported a great charity.  Win-win!

Well, we pushed Ellie in the stroller for half of the 18-hole game, since she was asleep in her carseat when we got there.  That worked out just fine until we got to the section where you go up the 'mountain' for a few of the holes.  Andy and my dad were hilarious - they would take turns playing and watching the stroller at the bottom.  So Andy walked up with me and played the hole, then while I was playing, he went down and traded places with my dad, and then he would play and we'd move on to the next hole and the process would start over again in reverse.  This went on for 5 or so holes.  It was pretty crazy, but it worked!  Eventually, Ellie woke up and wanted OUT of that seat, so Andy carried her for the rest of the game.  I offered to hold her while he was playing, but he refused, insisting that he could handle doing both at the same time.  He played just as good of a game as he did when he wasn't holding her.  Super-dad, I tell you!

Well dad won, no surprise there.  But I came in SECOND!  I never beat Andy at ANYTHING!  Not even Candy Land!  I was so proud of myself, but chose not to rub it in too much.  He only scored three strokes more than me, so it was a close game all around.  The main thing is that we had a blast.

Then we made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby (at dad's request) to check out their selection of model airplanes.  And then we stopped at Target to get him some swim trunks because he forgot his at home.  We were terribly hot and sweaty after golfing in the sun, so we came back to the house and climbed in the pool!  It was a little chilly at first, but once you got used to it, it felt amazing!

Ellie enjoyed herself a lot more this time.  Eventually she was just laughing and laughing hysterically at everything.  Dad and Andy were splashing around - hilarious.  They made a whirlpool and we floated along - hilarious.  We chased the beach ball around and around - hilarious.  She even had a really good time when I would hold her forward and let her flap her arms in the water and 'swim' to daddy.  I loved it.  It makes me so happy that she is going to enjoy swimming in the pool like I did when I was a kid.

Here's a video of our pool-time fun...

(Yes, I FINALLY figured out how to do videos on here!)

We had to get out eventually though, which she didn't seem too thrilled about, so Pappy cheered her up.

Quick dry off and then we enjoyed ice cream cones on the deck.

(No, dad did not get two ice creams.  He was holding mine.)

Before too long, it was time for Pappy to go home.  It was a really fun day, though.  So much fun that after dad left, Ellie ate and then slept until 7:30!  We must have really worn her out!

This is my 'laughing uncontrollably' face!

Sunday was church and then we got to celebrate with Andy's dad.  He came over for lunch - Andy made him steaks on the grill, baked new potatoes, corn on the cob, and fresh cantaloupe from the market.  He and Ellie played for quite a bit and then we had more ice cream cones for dessert!

Nothing fancy, but that's what he likes.  We all enjoyed lunch and then had a nice relaxing afternoon.  Ellie even took a nice nap and let me work on getting some pictures and video off my camera!

Ellie also had a special present for her daddy.  For Father's Day, I wanted to get him a grill, but of course I didn't know what to get.  And with a purchase that big, he would HAVE to be in-the-know because he handles all of our finances.  So back in May I said to him, "Hunny, I want to get you a grill for Father's Day.  Go buy whatever you want."  So he did - in time for Memorial Day because that's when the sale was good.  I was kind of bummed that he wouldn't be getting anything ON Father's Day, so I got him some nice metal utensils to use with the grill.  Well the first time he wanted to use the grill, he obviously needed some tools, so I ended up giving him those early too.  Ok, time for a plan 'C'!  So, I saw this pin on pinterest and decided that it was something I could do a) easily, b) cheaply, and c) quickly.  PLUS his favorite candy is Reese's Pieces!  That's what we call a win-win-win-win.  So during nap-times last week (thank you, Ellie!) I put this together.  Just some scrap-paper that I put through the printer, cut out, and glued to the jar that I bought at Hobby Lobby.  Don't worry, it was labeled as 'food safe' - I checked :-)

Toss in a big bag of Reese's Pieces and the gift was complete!

Now he has something to take to work and sit on his desk and nibble on.  He was really pleased and he really didn't expect to get anything today because he already got his gift twice!  Mission accomplished!

And that's our Father's Day recap!

In other random news...

Ellie has discovered her feet as of Sunday morning!

One hand in the mouth, one hand on the toes, one hand pulling mommy's hair... wait, I don't have enough hands!

It's adorable, but it makes it even more difficult to get her diaper changed.  Is she too young to potty train??

Also on Sunday, Ellie has started sucking on her bottom lip.

I know, it doesn't seem all that magnificent.  You kind of have to know my family.  See, that's a fidget-y habit that my dad has.  I've done it too ever since I was a little girl (although mine is more chewing instead of sucking).

And now little Ellie seems to be carrying on the trait!  With so many people (particularly at church) saying that she looks so much like Andy, it makes me happy to see that there is at least a little bit of me in there!  Even if it does mean that she will end up with perpetually chapped lips like I have.

The other week, Grandma brought Ellie a rattle that looks like a cordless phone and then *this* happened.  I think she was spending a bit too much time at work with me!

Good morning, this is Ellie, how may I help you?

And she's FINALLY getting the hang of the Johnny JumpUP!  She digs the jumperoo, too, but we still have to have a pillow under there because poor girl's legs are still too short to touch the floor!

And this one is a few weeks old, but here is a video of Ellie rolling over for the first time (at home)!

And last, but not least, here's the emergency that called me out of the shower this morning...

Now that she can roll over, this kind of stuff happens on a pretty regular basis.  And always in the middle of my shower.  No matter what time I wake up and start it, there's always an emergency right in the middle.  *sigh* I love my daughter, I really really do.

Thanks for stopping by!

5 Months and Summertime!

Ellie-bear turned 5 months old on June 5th!  Crazy!  She is growing and developing by leaps and bounds now.  There is NO slowing her down!

A bit of a more realistic view of what goes on all the time!

A few weeks back, she came down with her first ever cold.  Then I got it.  Andy didn't believe me that I was getting sick, so he insisted on giving me a goodbye kiss before he left for work.  Guess what?  He got it, too.   So for about a week, we were all just miserable.  We even skipped church one Sunday, which for us is a pretty big deal.  Ellie and Andy recovered just fine, while my cold turned into some mild bronchitis.  I had a teensy fever and was constantly coughing up all sorts of unspeakable things.  But the fever wasn't bad enough to go to the doctor for - they would have laughed at me for even calling it that.  And the great and mighty internet told me that they no longer like to prescribe antibiotics for bronchitis, as it is usually viral, not bacterial.  So they probably wouldn't have done anything for me anyway.  I suffered through it and am just NOW, over 2 weeks later, finally almost done coughing.  Whew.

Wearing red for Pentecost Sunday!

Ellie also decided that this was a good time to start rolling over!  Two Monday's ago (that was June 3rd, I believe), I picked her up from the babysitter's and she told me that she had laid her on her back on a blanket in the middle of the floor with nothing dangerous around her and went to the bathroom.  When she came back a minute later, she was magically on her tummy!  I was so proud!  Although I did feel a little bad that she scared the babysitter so badly.  We came right home and I laid her down and she did it again!  She hasn't stopped since.  Which means she also hasn't slept through the might since.  She always gets squirmy in the middle of the night and it used to be that she would just wiggle herself around and get her head down at the foot of the bed or something.  Well now she wiggles and rolls herself over on her tummy and then gets stuck.  She can roll from her tummy to her back.  She just doesn't remember that she can do it.  So she's stuck and calls for help.  I go in and flip her back over, but now she's awake enough that she realizes that she's hungry and needs a little snack in order to fall back to sleep.  It doesn't keep me up for very long, but any mom will tell you that it doesn't take much of an interruption to throw off the whole night.  Instead of getting 7 hours of sleep, I get a three hour nap, a half hour of being awake, and another three hour nap.  It's exhausting.  The only consolation is that I've been able to get her to nap IN HER CRIB in the afternoons!  We get home from the babysitter's and I feed her and then wrap her up in her swaddle and lay her down and she sleeps for 2-3 hours!  It's a beautiful thing.  I could use the time to get a little more work done around the house (or update the blog!), but mostly I've been taking the opportunity to catch up on the sleep I've been missing out on at night.  Oh well.

Ellie's also making lots of good progress toward sitting independently.  She doesn't really want to, though.  She just wants to STAND!  She grins and giggles any time you stand her up.  She'll hold your fingers for balance, but she supports herself all on her own.  It started out as a way to distract her during a meltdown and now she's hooked on it.  I'm a little nervous as to how quickly she's going to just stand up and run away.  I'm hoping she decides to crawl first to give us some warning!  Our babysitter's daughter (who is now 4) apparently never crawled.  She just went from sitting to standing to walking.  Uh-oh.

Maggie is still not sure how she feels about this new bald thing in her house.

We opened the pool over Memorial Day weekend (even though we were sick!) and we've gotten to use it a whopping one time since then.  The temperature outside just hasn't been consistently high enough to warm up the water.  And then when it did get warm, it rained and cooled it back down.  Oh well, we'll get in again before the summer is over, I'm sure!  Ellie was kind of 'blah' about her first time in the pool.  She just sat in her floaty and chilled while I pushed her around.  At least she didn't scream!  And she looked SO CUTE in her little swim suit!

Mommy and Me swimming!

Just chillin' in my floaty.

Drying off snuggles!

We thought she was going to get some teeth here a few weeks ago, but that turned out to be a false alarm.  Well, not quite.  You can definitely see them right under the gum, they just haven't pushed through yet and now they've taken a little break.  A week of a screaming, teething baby and I thought I was going to get to see some teeth!  But that was only HALF of it!  Oh my.

I'm a bunny - I munch munch munch on LEAVES!

Mom and Dad came down last weekend and Mom, Ellie & I went to our favorite thrift store and a baby consignment store that we'd not been to before.  Well the consignment store had a lot of nice things, but still priced more than I like to pay.  We found her a cute pair of shoes for the fall, though!  The thrift store turned out much better.  I just have to brag here for a second.  When you have a day this good, you have to share it!  I went in looking for some summer clothes for Ellie that would fit her NOW.  See, all of her summer clothes are size 6 or 9 months and she's still in the 3 month size in almost everything.  And it's summer here.  Not every day, but most days.  And the poor kid only had 2 dresses and 1 romper that fit.  So to the thrift store we went.  As soon as we walked in the door, we saw a walker for her like I've been looking for.  The church doesn't have a walker or jumper at all and I felt like it would be really handy to have there for when I need to bring her to work with me.  Well, it's nothing fancy, and it needed cleaned up, but $4 is totally in my price range!  Then onto the clothing racks...  I got her 4 outfits (2 dresses and 2 rompers) and then moved on to the mommy section.  (On the way, we found a bumbo chair for her for only $3!  She's been LOVING that one!)  My pre-pregnancy clothes fit in most areas - except my boobs.  I never, EVER thought I'd complain about this, but they're just too big for my clothes right now.  And I need to look semi-nice for work, so I can't just wear the same t-shirts every week.  Well I found 4 really nice shirts for myself that fit me now and I think will continue to fit me in the future, too!  Since we were on such a roll, we decided to go look for some work shirts for Andy.  He spends a lot of time out in the field assessing sites that he's issuing permits for, so he likes the golf-style polos that are really light weight but they still look nice.  Well, we found him one for $.99!  It was amazing!  So all told, I spent around $33 and got 4 outfits for Ellie, 4 shirts for me, 1 shirt for Andy, a walker, and a bumbo.  Seriously, that's a pretty darn good trip to the thrift store!  And I am NOT embarrassed to brag about it!

Wearing our new 'thrifty' outfits!

Andy and I celebrated our 4th anniversary this week (the 13th).  Nothing too exciting, since I had lessons that evening.  We did enjoy some super yummy chocolate cake with peanutbutter frosting like our wedding cake.  That was nice.  Maybe next week we'll go out to dinner or something, who knows.

It's WIRELESS!

This coming weekend, my dad is coming down and we are doing something special for him for Father's Day.  I can't tell you any details because he reads this, but I will say that it is NOT the same thing he got last year!  I've seriously been having nightmares about that, but that's a post for another day, haha!  Anyway, I'll share our Father's Day fun with you next week.  Promise :-)

Grandpa LOVES dancing to the music I play him on my foot-piano!