Finally... We are back on line!

Let me warn you before you go flipping through all of these pictures... They are not in order, actually they in some places they really skip around a lot. However, the more recent pictures are towards the top. That being said... I hope you enjoy!

Build-A-Bear and Bill's Visit

June 4-6, 2008

Ellie at Build-A-Bear making "Doggie" a pink and white french poodle.
Here she is stuffing her after putting her heart in... she is so proud of herself!
"Oh!!" I think the machine surprised her!
Ellie and her daddy reading her new Dora book at Barne's & Nobel
Mmmm, pink ice cream with sprinkles!
Ellie and Bill at Oregon Ridge Quarry Beach. "Spin me more Daddy!!"
She sure had fun!
Ellie and I sitting in the sand.
No, even before you think it... she is standing up and not going pee-pee!!
It is time to go home before all of us get burned up!!

Puddle Time

Puddle hopping, really there is not much better!
More in the puddles after the storm. We were wasting time after dinner... we lost power but luckily by the time we got home we were back in service! Yeah!
Splish splash!!
This is probably one of my most favorite pictures so I had to include it. It just screams innocence and wonder.

Erica's Baptism and BBQ Reception

After Erica's baptism we got everyone together for a picture. Who knows when that will happen again!?! Starting at the top: John, Jay, Jim, Lisa, Brendan, Heather, Meghan, Andrew, Meme, Brian with Robert, Papoo, Sean, Angela, Margie, Julie, Marion with Erica, Mary Beth, Ellie, and Ping-juan
Aunt Marion with Erica and Meghan, Ellie, and Heather.
Ellie and Batman... Batman, put that tongue away!!
Smiling Elle-belle.
Erica's baptism... Lisa ans Brendan with godparents Hanna and John with Erica.


Baby Loves Disco

Most of you have heard about this but if you haven't it is a family friendly dance party and if you want to know more you can read about it here... Baby Loves Disco
Ellie in her pink sparkly dress... pretty girl!!


Wes and Kelly's Wedding Reception

June 14, 2008
Ellie on the swing with Aunt Marg.
The Reichart clan. Top row: Wes, Kelly, Pat-pat, Ronnie Reichart
Bottom row: Brian, Lori, Kaitlyn, Erin, Emily, Alex with Emma, Erin, and Dan

The female cousins: Lori, Margie, Erin, Kelly, Kaitlyn, Emily, Emma, Alex, Erin, Ellie, Mary Beth
The other Reichart clan: Sean, Meme, Ellie, Mary Beth, Margie, and Papoo

More Baby Loves Disco

Belly up to the bar for a snack break!
Kiley getting her groove on! Who would have ever imagined that that we would let our children crawl on a bar room floor (at least before the age of 21)!
Beth and Kiley
Ellie scoping out the dancing.
Beth and Kiley shaking what the got!

The bubbles and DJ
Ellie in her Tinkerbell dress shaking her booty!
Erica, Lisa, Angie, and Grant's toes in the play area.
All that crazy dancing!!

After church one Sunday
Checking out the fountain... How close can I get without getting in trouble?
Pool time in the back yard.
Getting her head wet.
Even the princesses come to cool off!

At the Zoo

Relaxing in the tunnel
Cheese!
I don't remember what these were but they were pretty cool looking!

Genny's 3rd Birthday

Smile girls!
The puppet show

Back to the Zoo

Mamma and baby Sampson at 2 months old.
Ellie with the Elephants in the background.
Ellie as a Ping-juan
The polar bear... Thank God there is a large and thick peice of glass between them!
Nap time... I'm jealous!

Ellie in a nest.
In another nest
Ellie-turtle
The cow that talked back to Ellie. They were mooing back and forth... Hilarous!
Looking at the giraffes.

Misc. Pictures

Playing the kitchen drums.

Mother's Day Brunch

Erica working on lunch
The dynamic duo... need I day any more??
Ellie and I make a pink cake.
Mmmm... trust me, it tasted much better than it looked!

The Towson Town Festival

Ellie in the inflatable maze.
Climbing up the inflatable slide...
then coming down... Weeeeee!!!

Margie's Softball Game

At one of Margie's games.
During the 7th inning stretch.

Back to the Towson Festival

Sharing my gyro... yummy!
Ha, ha!!
Not too happy on the pony ride.
Nose to nose with the goats.
Petting the bunny.

Other Random Photos...

Filthy and on our way home from school (and straight to the tub)
Ellie at lunch one day.
Roller skates.
Putting on my lip gloss... Beautiful!
Getting a rainbow at the Towson Festival.

NC Trip in April to Sell the House (finally!!)

The Lysse clan: Abby, Jer, Jess, Mike, Ellie, Deb, and Bill
Mike, Jess, and Ellie
Fairy Ellie
Looking for bugs with Schatzie...
Even under the rocks!

Genny and Dr. Snow Wipe
Take two hugs and call me in the morning!
Tired girl
MB, Ellie, and Bill in NC

Update...

I want to start by apologizing that I have not been very up to date with the blog. Not only have we both been very busy but my computer is out of comission. I hopefully will be able to get it back in working condition soon but until then I will update you with text and not photos.

The house in NC has been sold. Closing was Friday, April 18. This is huge and one less thing to worry about. That being said, Ellie and I were in NC that weekend. The weather was, for the most part, plesant. We got to see Grandma and Grandpa's new house. They definatly busted their butts to get it in "visitor condition" in just one week. (Thanks guys!) I was able to catch up with some of my friends, I think I need another vacation from my vacations just to get ready for work. Ellie had a great time visiting with her Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, Michael, Jess, Abby, and Bella. I don't know who was more tired by the end of the trip, Ellie or I!

Ellie got her first pair of roller skates and now she is a roller queen! I was surprised that she only fell once and she isn't obsessed with them! I figured she would be especially because she is allowed to do it in the house. Oh, well!

We were in the car going back to daycare from the doctors office a couple of weeks ago and Ellie just didn't want to go back to school. So, I told her that she would be able to play at the playground at school, thats fun, right? And here is how the rest of the conversation went...

"Mommy, you come to playground with me."

"No honey, I have to go back to work."
"I come to work with you?"

"No honey, you are going back to school, remember, you can play on the playground there."

"You come to playground with me."

"No, I have to go to work."

"You have playground at work?"

"No, theres not enough room at work for a playground. I have instruments at work."

"You have impotents at work?"

"Yes, I have instruments at work."

"I no have impotents, I have playground."

"Yes honey, you are right. You don't have impotents, you do have a playground."

And yes, you did just read that right!

Ellie and I met up with a friend of mine, Denise, and her daughter, Meghan, to walk in the Special Olympics Inspitration Walk. It was a dreary day but all in all not too bad. Ellie walked almost a mile and a half by herself (actually some of that was running with Meghan) and the other half a mile she rode on my shoulders. And yes, that did wonders for my back. I think it took me two weeks to recover from that! Oh and did I mention that either Denise or I pushed the empty stroller the whole way! But I do want to say a very special thanks to everyone who sponsered Ellie and I in the walk, in all we raised over $350! Thanks so much it went to a good cause and wore Ellie out that day... Everybody wins!!

Looks like Ellie has seasonal allergies... The other day at Margie's softball game she just sneezed and sneezed... Poor thing! Well, the doctor prescribed Zyrtec. Cross your fingers and hopefully it works!

We are in panties now!! My big girl was asking and asking to wear panties to school last week so I talked to one of their teachers. She said that their policy is 1 full weekend without an accident. Obviously we weren't there.... We hadn't gotten that far! But she did suggest to put her panties over a diaper and send her to school. Best of both worlds, right? Well that is how she went to school last Friday. Apparently one of the teachers took her diaper off and let her go in only panties all morning and it lasted until nap time when she had an accident. So we tried it again Saturday... only two accidents. Then Sunday... no accidents. And yesterday at school... accident free!! Way to go Ellie!!

Speaking of Saturday, Ellie and I went to the TowsonTown Festival, just a couple of miles from Meme and Papoo's house. We had a fantastic time! We listened to music, watched ballerinas dance, did some shopping, shared a gyro (yum!), listened to a donkey "Hee-Haw", pet a goat named "Pancakes" and a big fluffy bunny, we even got a pony ride! The sun was shining and it was a wonderful day!!

Well, lets see... I think that is it for now! We have soem big weekends coming up... Baby Loves Disco, Mother's Day Lunch, and beautiful spring days for lots of outside time! I will let you know how all that goes!

Happy Easter Eggs!
First, let me explain... All Easter Ellie was running around and wishing everyone a "Happy Easter Eggs!" How cute, right?
Second... I am sorry that all of these are out of order. Something messed up when uploading all of these and not all of them showed up. I will post the first round now and later in the week I will get the others up online. So, enjoy these for now! Ellie on her egg hunt in the front yard.
See, I got eggs!
Look, I got another one!!
Ellie and I on Easter before church with Schatzie on th top step. It was a little chilly but hey, that is what you get in Baltimore when Easter is still in March!
Ellie and her Easter bunny pop. Already eating the ears off first. Where do they learn that?
The Eyebrows Story
So let me explain the "eyebrows"... the day before she was running around playing with a Sesame Street band-aid and wanted it on her boo-boo. Margie figured she meant the bruise from the crib incident (see Big Girl Bed post below) but then Ellie pointed to the other side. That was the first "eyebrow". I chose my battle and let her go around like that all day. By dinner time I told her we were going to have to take it off and that spun her into a full-on temper tantrum. Fine, we will leave it on, it really isn't worth it. After bath I was getting her pjs together in the bedroom and she came running in and showed me that Papoo helped to put the second "eyebrow" on her. Thanks, Papoo! He swears that she actually put it on but he did admit to opening it. I told him, "Fine, but now you need to get both of them off before church tomorrow." He just brushed it off as I put her to bed. Ellie sleeping at this point was far more important than taking them off and another tantrum! Now here we are on Easter morning... Ellie is runnng around in her pjs half high on sugar and I reach over and RIP! No tears, just confusion and then she wants to see the old band-aid. She shrugs and goes on eating her bunny's ears. Papoo is just sitting in his chair chuckling at this point. Then when she comes over again...RIP! and the second one is off! Well, the "eyebrows" were off in time for church (no thanks to Papoo) and all was fine. See, candy seems to distract them from almost anything! Lucky me!
Look at what the Easter bunny brought...
Baby Ellie Bunny. I just had to throw this one in. When I was uploading photos I came across her first Easter pictures and had to smile! Wow, things were so much different... look she is sitting still!!
Dying Easter eggs with Andrew on Saturday morning.
Cheese Andrew. I can say I think he is the first Easter bunny I seen with a shiner!
They are both going to kill me for this one!! But anyway, here they are using dueling pottys!

Ellie, Andrew, and Erica

Ellie's Big Girl Bed...
Well, in case you didn't know... on St. Patrick's Day (Monday) Ellie fell out of the crib trying to get out that morning. I always told myself that once she starts trying to get out on her own then it is time for an upgrade! Well, the time is here so Wednesday after school and work Ellie and I ventured out in the rain to go shopping. Friday afternoon we took down her crib and built her bed. I say we because she "helped" and almost lost some screws. And no matter what some people may say... No, there aren't any extra pieces! So anyway, here is Ellie in her big girl bed...Smiling for the camera...
No, no jumping on the bed, just sleeping!!
Ellie in bed with her new princess-esque comforter. What a silly monkey!!
This is just how wound up and excited she was that night... running around watching b-ball naked with snow boots and a puffy vest. And no, she didn't get that from me, and there is no telling where she did get it!
UPDATE... She has been doing well in her bed. She will wake up occasionally but she will go back to sleep and so far she has stayed in her bed all night long. Way to go Ellie! The added bonus... Schatzie has not joined her in bed either, lucky me!

West Towson Easter Egg Hunt
This Saturday there was an Easter egg hunt for the neighborhood. And with my luck we didn't get the info until the night before and you had to donate a dozen filled egg to the cause by that night. Luckily I was slightly prepared for Easter this year and had some plastic eggs, stickers, jellybeans, and chocolate stashed and waiting. We made due and Papoo dropped off our donation after Ellie went to bed. Phew! We made it!Here is Ellie on hot pursuit for some eggs. The kids in her age group 0-2 had free range of the basketball court.
Bonus! 4 in one spot!!
Ellie and her stash. She made a killing!
Afterwards we ran off some of that sugar on the playground. She had a time on the swings, in the sandbox, and in the cars. There would have been more to play on but it had rained the night before and a lot of the jungle gym equipment was still wet.

Trip to NC
March 6-11, 2008
Ellie and I went to High Point to visit every one. We hadn't been there since we had moved in September. It was nice to visit and I know that Ellie had a blast. But who could blame her? There were at least three people there to wait on her, she got to eat biscuits, cookies, and all the bacon she could fit into her tummy, and more princess movies/ stuff than anyone could want! Ellie and Abby on an Easter egg hunt in Grandma's backyard.
Ellie and her Daddy
Look at that shining face... that smile is even brighter than the sun that day!
Hmm.... where to start?
Shoe shopping... One of her most favorite pass times. Here she is modeling a fashionable pair of Espedrilles.
Looks like she is going to make them fit one way or another.
Hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa before bedtime.
Ellie in her Tinkerbell outfit giving Princess Arora some juice.
Snow White and her greasy bacon smile say "Cheese!"
Bill, Ellie, and Michael
Ellie, Michael, Jess, and Bella
Congrats to Mike and Jess... Looks like Bella will be a big sister in a few months!!
Playing catch-ball with Grandma and Ms. Shirley.
Snow White and her Daddy watching a movie.
Princess, don't worry one day your feet will touch the pedals. But until then that is why we are here to help. Don't grow up too fast!
This brings new meaning to 'baby steps" back into working-out!
Ellie hanging out at "The Wolf" studio with my friend Opie Joe.
Look another Snow White!!
Abbey is helping Ellie check out her Easter basket.
On their hunt for the Easter basket... Found it!