Ellie's First Haircut!!!

Up until today, Ellie has only had her bangs cut....by me....which usually involves me chasing her with scissors. Ha! Our neighbor & hair girl does my hair, so it's high time Ellie gets her hair done too!!! Thanks Bethany!!!!

As soon as Ellie woke up from her nap, it was her turn. She sat on my counter to watch all the action! Just a little trim in the back to even it all out.. And a bangs cut too. She sat sort of still but I think she loved it! We captured some locks for this sentimental momma.

After

Before (silly blogger)

After

Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo

Oh boy! Did Ellie have a fun time being pushed around in her stroller, looking at all the animals!!! Cows, pigs, bunnies, chicks, and lots more. She seemed more comfortable in the stroller than out. But that's ok. Gotta love my shy cautious girl.

She didn't want to have her picture taken on a pony. Nor did she want to pet some baby goats & have her picture taken! Those both cost $11. But she did want to feed & pet the goats in the petting zoo :) For $1 you got a small ice cream come filled with pellets. They went crazy over the cones. He he. Ellie did a pretty good job of holding out her hand and feeding them.

Thank you to our friend Katie for getting us in for free & showing us around!!!

Beauty & the Beast

Ellie has been to the movies before, so this wasn't her first time.......she was still excited, saying she would see Belle BIG! And in 3d. :)

We invited bestie Wendy & Hayden to come along. So off we went to see Beauty & the Beast in 3d!!!! Oh but first we stopped to get chicken nuggets & French fries. Yep, we snuck that in. ;)

The girls didn't keep their glasses on the whole but they still enjoyed it. For two year olds, they did awesome!!! Even in the "scary" parts where the dogs were barking & the beast was yelling!

I enjoyed seeing a childhood movie and the Tangled short story ;)

Here are some pics of the girls enjoying movie, popcorn, candy, nuggets, fries, a maybe a little Mr Pibb ;)

How today became "clean bath tub" day

It's almost Ellie's nap time and I'm thinking, "we can hurry up and get my bathroom chores done before I lay her down." She loves chores, especially wiping out the sinks and counter tops. However today, she got distracted by a brush scrubber and sponge by the bath tub. She was playing with them and kept telling me she was cleaning. Sure, fine, as long as you're happy and not eating the sponge, it's cool. So I do the bathroom chores by myself.

I move on to making the bed & tidying up my room. She's too quiet, I think, but I keep putting the pillows on the bed.

I walk into the bathroom to find this!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my! Ellie says, "I'm cleaning momma"

All I could do was praise her for helping me clean, hold back the laughter, and help her finish cleaning the bath tub!

Catch all post.....

The Duranimals are busy, or so it seems. It's all relative I suppose. I'm working three days a week, which is pretty awesome. I get to be home with Ellie 4 days a week! We have an awesome friend who keeps Ellie when I'm working during the week. We are so blessed by her! She loves Ellie like her own & Ellie thrives on the interaction with her friends, Brooklyn & Brenley. She comes home saying the funniest, smartest things! ....including requesting Justin Bieber dance-alongs to "baby baby". She thinks the song is about literal babies, not ooo-la-la like ;) she grabs a doll & bounces away. Good times!

Jon is working for Chesapeake energy & loves that! Thank goodness some people like to do research, review documents, and post to excel spreadsheets all day! I admire his love for his job.

As I said, Ellie likes babies. Posted is a picture of her with a load of babies in her stroller. She even had them underneath! Her face couldn't contain the excitement she had; so proud to have piled up so many ;) At 28 months old - her latest happenings are potty training, waiting on 2 year molars, talking non-stop, and taking care of babies (of course). She loves to watch Cinderella & Where the Wild Things Are; still loves Olivia; enjoys all things "princess" & can cook up a storm in her play kitchen. She makes me laugh all the time and I am so grateful for our days together.

Blogging via iPhone

Well isn't this going to be much easier!!!!!! I downloaded the blogger app.....so here I am! On a mission to blog a few times a week! Today Ellie & I have been hanging out at the house, minus a trip to Kroger :) She read to her babies, pushed them around in her stroller & then took a long ole nap herself! It's been a good day!!!!

Big girl bed!

Jon & I have been very lucky parents when it comes to the sleeping department. When we brought Ellie home from the hospital, she & I spent about a month & a half on the couch. Yes, the couch. Gasp! Isnt that not recommended by the AAP?!?!?! You're right but oh well! It was important to me that Jon got his rest since he was still having to get up & go to work. Ellie made an easy transition into her bed upstairs & we only did CIO (cry it out) for a few nights. She has been such a great sleeper from the beginning. Then one day...wow! She started saying "cant go night night." That lasted for about a week but then she would still go to sleep fine. Guess she was serious about this cant go night night business because after a week of saying that, she made it come true. For two nights she screamed in her crib for 3+ hours. I am not joking! 3+ hours. Who knows how long it really lasted, because after trying EVERYTHING we know, we shut off the monitor & went to bed. Cruel but wow, she was crazy! We then went to Houston for a weekend & for 3 nights she slept in the bed with us. Gasp again! But there was no way I was going to listen to all of that screaming when we were all 3 sharing a room!

My mom talked to me a lot about this and she mentioned that when David & I were little she would stay on the floor by our beds until we could calm down. Genius! I had been praying and asking for prayer that I would know what to do about this whole "cant go night night" business. Does Ellie need me or is she just being 2 & she needs to work it all out?!?!?!?!? The decision was made - take this opportunity to move her to a big girl bed since she was already having issues. Two birds, one stone. I had been dreading the transition to toddler bed, so why not knock it all out? Thus....

We got back into town and I took Ellie to Target. We went up & down the bedding isle and she decided on Cinderella. :) This is something I swore I'd never do -- no character room. You can tell how desperate I was to play up the idea of sleeping in her toddler bed with no tears/screaming. It worked! She watched her daddy take it all apart & make a big girl bed, she loved sitting on her Cinderella sheets, and that night she fussed for 7 minutes. Yes, 7 minutes!! Thats amazing compared to where we were a few days before! Oh, I forgot to mention that I bought everything Cinderella in Target -- sheets, bedspread, stuffed animal, night light, pj's, sippy cup, play phone! I stopped short at Cinderella wall decals. That was going a little overboard for me ;) Here is Ellie her after her first night in the big girl bed!

Since she's been in her big girl bed, she still will complain about going to bed, but goes without a fight and without crazy screaming. She doesnt try to get out of bed or her room. Today for her nap, she climbed the stairs with me, without complaint! Thank you Lord for your favor & direction! Ah! We've made it past another milestone. TODDLER BED!