We used to say she looks just like me...

But now I realize I think we were wrong...she's way cuter than I was!



And on a side note, GUESS WHAT!? One of my very best friends is moving to Gainesville!! I'm so excited!!

Hahnsey!
PS: we are so past due for a Boo Boo post!

1 Year Anniversary

One year ago today I was called to serve as my ward's Young Women president. I really can't believe it's been an entire year. I suppose after a year I would have hoped that I would feel like I really had a handle on this calling...perhaps more like a profesh, if you will;), but that is far from the truth. I still feel like I have so much yet to learn...that I am so far from where I should be in the realm of Young Women presidents. Doubts have crept into my mind so often of "why me?" when I know about a zillion other girls who I feel like could do such a better job than me.

Last month after Young Women in Excellence, I got some peace on the matter. I wrote a talk alone in my room for the event, that I know I really did not write alone. After the program I just had this sweet feeling...an assurance that I wasn't so bad at this calling. Of course I can do better, but that will always be true. More than that, I had a feeling come to my mind that the most important thing I can do as a Young Women leader is to help the girls have good feelings and excitement when they think about coming to church on mutual nights and Sundays, and most importantly, to help them discover & nurture their own individual testimonies of the Savior, Jesus Christ, and the restored Gospel. Ultimately, the greatest desire is that those good feelings and the testimony will lead them to the temple to make sacred covenants with Heavenly Father and to be married there so they may start their own eternal families.

We can love everyone freely & easily when we have the love of God in our hearts, because we see everyone as children of our Father, and therefore our brothers and sisters. But it's more to truly love someone on a personal and individual level. It's on top of that first kind of love. It's deeper and more meaningful. And I can say with all of my heart that I love each of my girls so much...on that deeper level. And what Heavenly Father reminded me of that day is that they love me too. There are few things that make my heart happier than when I walk into the Young Women room and they all give me hugs. I just love these girls! I want so much for them to reach their divine potential. They are such good girls. Some of them don't come from homes where there is much support of Gospel principles. But they keep trying. And so must I. There is much to do, still.

A few weeks before Young Women in Excellence, I was listening to an EFY track on my iPod with the line "And though I'm just a girl..." when that line came on, the Spirit whispered to my heart: "There is no such thing as just a girl." As the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley said "when you save a girl, you save generations."







There is no such thing as just a girl.

Ella Grace's 4th Month!

Weight: 14 lbs, 61st percentile
Length: 24.5, 74th percentile
As you can see from the above pics, she's more observant now. She checks everything out and also enjoys toys and books even more now!
The first day of Ella Grace's fourth month was spent having her first Christmas feast with all of my siblings and their children at my dad's house. Ella Grace looked adorable in her new Christmas dress from Grandmommy!

After the party at my dad's, we went to Stace's parents' house to spend the night and share our babies with them:)

The following day Ella Grace had her final ultrasound of her hips to see how that finicky developmental hip displaysia problem was coming along:

At her follow-up appointment that same day with the pediatric orthopedic surgeon, the doctor said her hips look great! That they have developed properly since those first signs and ultrasounds which showed a problem. What a blessing.

The following Saturday, Christmas Eve, we went to my best friend since kindergarten's annual mother/daughter Christmas party! It was neat to bring my own daughter to it, as well as my mom. Only one of girls I grew up with also has children, 2 boys. So Miss Ella Grace was the only baby girl in attendance!

That night we had Christmas Eve dinner at my brother and sis-in-law's. She put fun little gifts on everyone's plates! Julian got a little dinosaur, I got a family personalized notepad--SO cute-- and Ella Grace got two little ribbon hair clips in the shape of ladybugs...adorable! (I don't remember what Stace got! I'll ask when he gets home from work...)

Speaking of hair accessories, I couldn't find the bow I'd packed for her to wear that night, so I pulled one out of her cousins' stash (they're 5, 7 and 9 years old). This was the result:

I about died laughing! To which Beth replied emphatically: "you stop laughing! That is BEAUTIFUL!" hahaha! We had a little joke "the bigger the bow, the better the mommy!" but I think this was hilariously too far! ;D
Ella Grace's first Christmas was wonderful, despite Julian coming down with hand, foot and mouth disease. Thankfully little Miss Sunshine didn't also get it!

We had our own little Christmas in Gainesville, then did Christmas with my mom at Beth and Chris' house, and then Christmas with Stace's family. Here are Julian and Ella Grace in their adorable Christmas p.j's, also from Grandmommy! Yes, that is a smocked Christmas tree on Julian's jammies...ahhh...perfection! :)

This month Ella Grace tested out her jumperoo! Here she is in it for the first time:

She LOVES to bounce and play in it! She has so much fun! Absolutely delighted:)
She is taking more naps in her crib these days. We love having her close to us in bed each night, but we may try and put her down in her crib at night soon. We'll see! We're really not in a big rush:)

She has definitely been markedly more alert this last month, but when she does sleep, she gets lost in deep thought... ;)

People say that babies' little personalities really start to shine through around 4 months old, and that has definitely been true for Ella Grace! She is SO playful and happy! She seems to have really grown out of the little bit of fussiness she used to have about her (which, I'm still convinced is simply because my attention is divided now, so I'm not able to give either baby my 100% undivided attention all the time-- I say that because she really is such a good and sweet baby. So mild and go-with-the-flow.)


This last month, she has been less "talkative" (but I can tell you what, that has definitely changed on this, the first day of her 5th month! She's been chatting away all day! lol!)

Here she is sporting an adorable little sweater. She is just a peach!

She just lights up when she locks eyes with you, and gets this HUGE smile on her face! She follows me with her eyes everywhere I go-- and when I look back at her, she's ready and waiting to give me this adorably sweet smile! Oh, she's so scrumptious!

She still adores bath time! This month I put her in the shower with me for the first time in her infant tub. She loves that too! Julian has never really been a fan of the shower, but now, especially having two, having one that enjoys it makes it easier for me to be able to take showers...which is always a plus! ;)



"Mom, I think we need to have a serious chat about how cute I am."

I agree, little one, I agree.

The last Saturday of her 4th month, Julian received a tricycle in the mail! So Daddy set it up in the living room, and being that it was so cold outside, Julian gave it his first test drive in the kitchen. Then we ran out to do some errands. While we were out I thought to myself "we should invite the missionaries over for dinner tonight." So Stace called them up and they were set to come over at 7:00. When we got home Stace and I were in the kitchen preparing a scrumptious dinner. I put Ella Grace down on the floor on her activity gym/ mat and Julian was ecstatic to watch Wonder Pets. His eyes were glued to the screen. I turned around to get something out of a drawer and I hear Ella Grace start screaming! I turn around and see the tricycle next to her head and Julian looking up at me saying "Mama, I hit Ella Grace with the tricycle." Ooooh my goodness. Why did we leave it in the living room?! I ran to her and Stace put Julian in time out. I took her to her room to nurse and calm her, and then the missionaries rang the doorbell. Poor guys...they walked into chaos! She calmed down pretty easily, but I was still so worried. I called Pediatric After Hours and explained the situation and told the nurse there was little goose egg, and what felt to me like an indentation. The nurse said the goose egg was a good thing, but the indentation concerned her because it could be a skull fracture. She then went onto say a bunch of other things, but all I heard was "go to the Pediatric ER, (not Peds After Hours), and skull fracture, skull fracture, skull fracture." I grabbed my keys, and before I left the missionaries asked if there was anything they could do. They, along with Stace, proceeded anoint her and bless her with a blessing of healing. I told my best friend Kathleen this story later, and she pointed out to me that it probably wasn't a coincidence that they were there. Thank you Kathleen. Why didn't I recognize that? I called my mom crying as I drove her there. Of course, she calmed me down and helped me as I dealt with feeling like the worst mom in the world. She and the doctors. That was nice, and I really appreciated it. Ella Grace was happy as ever and acting normal, so it looked like they were going to send her home, but as they were getting ready to do so, Ella Grace threw up quite a bit. This was cause for concern, and being that she was hit in a place where the skull is very thin, they decided to give her a CT scan. She was so good and calm, and made not a peep during the CT scan.

That's not a sight I ever wanted to see. Thankfully, the results came back normal and we were good to go! Thank heavens. What a night! We got home at about 11:30 PM.
This last Sunday, the last Sunday in her 4th month, we took some pics after church. I just love these sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetie baby kiddos of mine!

That night we took some more photos of this little angel!

She sure loves her daddy! And Daddy pretty much adores her!
The next day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Grandmommy and Pop Pop drove down for their grandbabies fix. We had a fun day with them!


The next day, the last day of her 4th month, was also Grandmommy's birthday. Julian went back to Tallahassee with them, but Ella Grace stayed behind and celebrated with us!

It's so amazing. You really do love the second baby just as much as the first. I remember worrying how that could be possible. But it is. And you do!

I mean, really...how could you not!? :D

Hilary Weeks sent us a Tricycle!

Last week Hilary Weeks made a post on her blog (which has since been taken down) saying her husband had sold his online stroller business, and there were a few items left in the warehouse they had decided to give away. There were a few strollers, a play kitchen and a tricycle. I doubted any effort on my part to request one of the items would pull through because I was sure someone had already claimed all the items, but I went ahead and sent her an email just in case.

I started my email by first telling her how much I love her music, and that I pretty much listen to my Hilary Weeks Pandora station on a daily basis. I went on to say that if the trike was still available, we'd be so grateful to receive it! I told her "We are not destitute, but my husband is a PhD at University of Florida so we are a poor student family livin on love.:) I know there are probably a lot of people out there who are more in need than us, so if you get emails from people who are in particularly dire straights, please send it their way before me. But if not, I'd love to take it off your hands:)" Next thing I knew I had an email in my inbox saying they were going to send it to us! YAY!

Daddy taught him how to ride it on Saturday, and today Julian practiced again with Grandmommy and Pop Pop!


We are so excited to have received such a fun (and such a wanted) toy...from pretty much my favorite artist!

This Christmas season, we....

Took our children to bars... ;)

And then to parks, to make up for it;)

Ane when all his "puffballs" appeared,

Got a special visit from Santa Clause!

Played with a sweet baby girl...

Were ecstatic (as you can see by the photo) to deliver Christmas treats...

Went to fancy Christmas parties...(and were just as ecstatic to do so...)

Made time for love...

Played with our three favorite little girls (not infant size;)

Broke out with hand, foot and mouth disease on Christmas day.... (he was not as happy as he looks in this picture)

Opened some sweet gifties...

Wore pretty Christmas dresses...

Did lots of snugglin...

And lots of baby girl admiring.....

Among other things, which will be blogged about soon:)