Spring Color

I LOVE being outside and seeing beautiful gardens. That being said... our gardens have a long way to go!! :-) I was in the backyard tonight, and I decided to share the pictures of some of the color we have. I am excited about the next few months -- I love to be ourside, and I love all of the pretty flowers! Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took this afternoon:

Wisteria... I love wisteria. Although I must say, I am completely jealous of my parents wisteria. They have an arbor in their backyard. Every year it is COVERED in wisteria blooms that hang down over your head. It totally looks like something out of a magazine!

  

My lilac bush -- I love the fact it is white, they are so much more rare! It smells wonderful too. I am getting a little dissapointed. They blooms won't last very much longer, and it will be a whole year before I can smell them again.

Tulips! -- We have all different colored tulips, but I really like these red ones.

Finally, my dogwood tree!!! It is the only dogwood tree I have ever seen that has pink and white blooms on the same tree. I absolutely love it!

I am looking forward to more color and pretty flowers as spring goes on!

Hope you have a good Friday, and a wonderful weekend!!!

--Amanda

Peg Board

My Mammy and Grandaddy (who passed away January 25, 2011) got Ella a peg board for Christmas. It is really neat, and sometimes I think I like it better than Ella!!! :-) Anyway, she has been playing with it a lot lately. --which never fails to make me emotional because of Grandaddy, and then Alan makes fun of me!! Ugh!! As you could see, she played with it and loved it...

       

...and this is when the destruction began...

She started with little "towers", and there was no "eventful" destruction.

The towers began to get bigger...

 

        

This is when she decided that she could destroy the blocks quicker... she began kicking her "towers". (... and I wonder why my house isn't clean...)   

Lastly, she decided to turn the board upside down and make towers. She was determined to make all the pieces fit together even though it didn't. 

  

...and of course, we needed to taste the blocks. I am sure they were wonderful!!!

Ella loves playing with her pegboard, and as I said it makes me very happy, and sad, because I know Grandaddy would have loved to watch her play right now!

Since I am already emotional, (...feel free to stop reading now...) I would just like to say how blessed Alan and I have been to have the opportuinity to have so many family members. We both had alot of Great-Grandparents that we were able to spend time with and get to know. Actually, we both still have Great-Grandmothers (yes, Ella has 2 great-great-grandmothers -- how cool is that???)  She actually had four when she was born, but Alan's "Grandmother", Mary Lou passed away on May 8, 2010. My "Grandma McDonald" passed away March 30, 2011. It seems like we have lost alot this year between great-grandmothers, my Grandaddy, and Alans's uncle, Alan Dale who passed away in August 2011. It has made us appreciate and cherish so much the time we have with our families. We are thankful for all of our family, and hope to spend many more years with them!

--Amanda

Last Weekend

We had a really good weekend! Alan and I both had ALL weekend off!! We have just hung out around the house. (Ella hasn't felt very well though. She is getting a tooth, and her allergies have been horrible!)

This is how Ella started her weekend. She found her bouncy seat from when she was a baby. It was funny to watch her get into it! She would "slip'n'slide dive" into it so it would bounce.

Saturday morning Ella and I went up to Chick'n Quick to visit. ...I know, my own plant wasn't running so I had to go to another one!! lol. It was really good to see everyone. Ella decided that she wanted to try on Alfred's golf shoe!! She made herself a seat on his bookshelf.

She got really mad that she couldn't get her boots off!

We also got Babe's whelping box set up. This is a picture of her from last Sunday. I think we will have puppies in the morning!!!

Hope you have a good Friday!!!

-- Amanda

Tennis

We decided to play tennis tonight. This is the first time we have played tennis this year, and I decided that Ella needed to have her own racket. Yes, I realize that this means at some point this summer it will probably be used as a weapon... hopefully she will choose Alan instead of me!! (Although if she has my coordination, it won't matter because she won't be able hit anything with it anyway!!)

We had LOTS of fun!!

--Amanda

Going to the Lake

We decided to take the boat out on the lake today, and we had SO much fun! The weather was wonderful; it was so nice to get outside and enjoy it! Also, Alan and I got a slip at the marina today, which means, I don't have to drive the boat or the trailer anymore! I am super excited; this is going to be a wonderful summer! Before I post today's pictures though, I wanted to post some old pictures of Ella at the lake.

Summer of 2009

This is Ella when she was three months old. Look at those skinny little legs!! It is hard to believe she was that small. She loved napping in the boat.

Her life jacket made the perfect pacifier holder.  

Summer of 2010

Ella and Grandpa riding the jet ski!!

Summer of 2010

Ella and Papa.

Ella and Gran.

Ella was driving the boat for Daddy! She knows how to use the throttle to make it go faster, but she doesn't like to slow down. She can honk the horn, too!! Her biggest problem is that she can only turn right... I am sure she will have lots of practice this summer!!! 

 

This is just a random picture of me, ha ha, I didn't get to take any pictures with Ella.

I am sure there will be many more lake pictures this year! We are looking so forward to getting to play in the water with Ella. I am sure she will love getting to ride the tube!

 Earlier in the week, Ella got into my closet, and this is what happened...

It was absolutely adorable to watch her walk around in 4.5 inch heels, and she was really good at it!! (She gets that from her mama ;-)!) At least she has good taste, you can't go wrong with D&G slingbacks! lol!!

Of course, I have to post my favorite picture of the week. As if you couldn't tell, Ella makes the rules at the house, and she has become very bossy. Alan and I can't help but laugh. She is hilarious. This is a picture of her telling me to be quiet.

Have a fantastic week!!!

--Amanda