Happy Birthday, Ella Bella!

Remember this sweet baby? Well, she just turned one on friday, December 12th! I can't believe that it has already been one year since she was born!

A little of the story...This time last year, we were in the middle of an ice storm and had no electricity! It was tuesday, Ben had just met his mom in Joplin to borrow a generator! I was schedule to be induced on Thursday. I had been praying that since this was my last baby, that I would go into labor on my own to see what that "felt like". The boys were both induced. In the middle of the night, I started having contractions and boy did they come on fast and REALLY strong! We jumped in the car, met my parents in the driveway, sped through town, passed a cop, reminded myself to breathe, squeeled into the circle drive at the hospital, forgot to turn off the car, waited for the slowest elevator ever, then waited some more at the admitting window with the slowest nurse ever, raced back to a room, stripped and thrown on the bed, still trying to remind myself to breath, checked by a not so gentle graduate nurse and heard" she's an 8", watched my husband LEAVE the room to go and move the car, stuck with a needle, was pleading for my already paid epidural, saw a nurse gowning up for delivery, was relieved to see my doctor run in obviously just out of his comfy bed at the hospital since he was living there due to the ice storm, saw my mom and sisters run in to watch, was still pleading with Ben and the nurses for my epidural, heard" it's too late for your epidural", relunctanly agreed to take stadol which was not in the room, felt alot of "fire" if you get my drift, didn't even need to push, she was coming anyway ...then my sweet baby girl that I had SO prayed for was before me in a matter of maybe 5 minutes..

Born at 3:41am!

And then the not so friendly nurse came in with the stadol...are you kidding me?!!!

Yep this is how it went! From door to baby, 23 minutes! Alot more graphics, but I won't go there! It was so fast! I guess God answered my prayers about seeing what "labor" felt like! But I should have added to that prayer for no pain, and less chaos! To Ben, it was all a blur! He was just thankful that we left when we did and he didn't have to deliver a baby!

But it was all worth it! Ella is the sweetest little girl! God, thank you for her! She completes our family and we love her dearly! Happy Birthday, sweet baby!

Her cake...

getting ready to dig in!

What is this!

Do I really get to do this?
Yum, this is good!!!

This was one of her presents! She loves her stroller!
Opening some more!
She was acting like she was big stuff!

After the party, in her birthday jamas!

Silly girl!

Our sweet Ella Bella, we love you and thank God for you every day!

Happy First Birthday! Now, you can't get any older!

All I want for christmas...

is my two front teeth!!!Yep, over the Thanksgiving holiday, Benjamin lost another tooth!

Happy 5th Birthday Luke!!!

I just realized that I hadn't posted these yet! Sorry, Luke! Yes, Luke is FINALLY 5! His birthday was November 13th~This has been the longest year ever! On his 4th birthday, he looked up at me and said " mom, I can't wait to be 5"..... Little did I know then, that he seriously wanted nothing to do with being 4, but wanted to be the almighty 5! It seemed like everyday from then on, he was asking how much longer to his birthday! Yes, it has been the longest year ever for him!!! This year him and Benjamin had a "joint" birthday party which was alot of fun, but on his actually birthday we had a little dinner party for him to celebrate. He wanted to go to McDonalds! Benjamin talked him into Incredible Pizza, which was extremely loud, due to the 200 or so teenagers there for some sort of something...They just took over the place! But he had alot of fun though! He wanted a power ranger, a transformer and a "red walkman" like his brother. So, in the end it was a great night! Blowing out his candle....

Blowing our his candle...

His shark ranger from Benjamin... His torch transformer from Ella...

His red walkman from papa and gigi...

Happy 5th Birthday my sweet Luke!

You are growing up to be such a mighty man of God!

I'll tip my hat to ya...

I just had to post these pics, I LOVE them! Our neighbor put his hat on Ella, too cute, so I just grabbed the camera! The hat only lasted about a minute though!

Happy Boo to you!

Today was Halloween and was a fun day. Ella was the first one of my kids that actually had a "halloween outfit" for the day, pointed out to me by my dad! Probably because she is a girl! She did look awfully cute though! sorry, these pictures downloaded out of order!" Rafael", the ninja turtle, and "Optimus Prime", the transformer, appeared this evening...

and then a sweet butterfly landed in our front yard...

All our neighbors getting ready to to go...

Carson, the monkey, and his brother, Conner the banana with Ella...

The boys and their candy stash after all the fun was over...

Benjamin and Ella...

Ella Grace..I can't believe that she left her hat on!

Benjamin, Luke and their cousin Jaxon, the power ranger...

Ella trying to get in on some of the loot!

Happy Halloween...Did anyone not get enough candy, we would like to donate!

Some fun time in the park...

Today was gorgeous outside, so I thought I'd take the kids to the park after school. They had a blast for some reason today...Usually, the boys will get bored and then just start digging in the dirt or something like that. But today, was different. Luke met a little friend who ran around with him and they were all over that park! Benjamin played with Ella mostly which was really fun to watch... This was the first time that Ella actually "played". She loved climbing up one side and then sliding down the other, with Benjamin's help of course. I think she is getting her independent streak though, because she kept pushing his hands away! Plus, when you take her away from something, she starts making ALOT of noise! Riding the ladybug...this was after some "whiplash" from Luke" helping her ride"!
At least they thought it was funny...

Climbing the rockwall...he is obsessed with this outfit, the shirt is way too small:)

Ella kept looking over the top, probably wondering, "what is this thing?!"

She thought she was big stuff playing with the music makers...

Some more "whiplash" from Benjamin... which they still thought was funny!

This was a tube that you can crawl up in with holes all over it, I looked up and there she was! This picture cracks me up! I'm trying not to think about her tasting the hole though!

When will they come out with eadible germ-x?

Sweet Benjamin trying to get Ella's attention...

I love these next few pics...she is so sweet!

She had on slick pants, which didn't help her at all! She'd try sooo hard to get to Benjamin, then would just slide all the way back down!

"I give up, will you just come get me?"

Sweet Luke...

This picture is so luke! He really makes me laugh! Benjamin would never even think of doing this, well maybe after he saw his brother doing it!

Yep, just another day at the park, but no injuries this time! Thank you, Jesus!

Glitter Pumpkins...

So several of you have asked me about the "glitter pumpkins" and how to do them, so I figured I would blog about it instead of emailing! Actually, Martha Stewart gets the credit, not me! First of all, they make a great teachers gift! Since our school doesn't celebrate Halloween, we try to improvise! We used to do this for friends, family and neighbors also, but 20 pumpkins later I was covered head to toe in glitter and it was ALL OVER my house, so now we stick to just the teachers and their assistants! This year I only had 3 to do! I try to use "Fallish" glitter colors of red, gold and green, but you can really do whatever. My favorite is the red and the gold. When I add green to the mix, it starts looking a bit like christmas! Mixing the glitter is pretty too. All you do is spead elmers glue with a paintbrush all over 1/2 of the pumpkin and then pour the glitter over that half, then let dry. Then come back and put glue on the other half, then cover that side in glitter. After that dries, I put dabs of glue where you can see the pumpkin and then recover with glitter. You can either leave the stems their natural color or you can paint them green, I have done both and either way looks great! Then I wrap in celephane, tie with a ribbon and add a " Happy Fall" card...So easy to do and so simple! Last year I went fancy smancy with the decorative ribbon and fancy cards, then Benjamin said that it looked "girly", so I will have to save the fancy stuff for Ella Grace's teachers, then I can go all out! Well as much as you can with a pumpkin~