Hello! Its me again

Hello! Remember me?
Clearly having the third baby has left me with little time to do the fun things...anything which is why I havent been blogging for the past six months or so. But in case you havent talked to me lately let me fill you in on a few of the major events that have happened lately.

EVENT #1 Kids started preschool and the are LOVING it...and I am too because of event # 2

EVENT #2 Emma Kate Bailey Ellis arrived December 28 at 6:07 am- all on her own ( I might add) with no help from medicine too...we barely made it to the hospital and through the medical paperwork.

- Emma Kate is a double name. We like it because is sweet, but not too sweet. And its Southern..and we are too now.
- She is the brightest-eyed baby I've ever seen and loves to laugh and talk and smile
- She is nearly 4 mo now and N and T are wonderful with her

EVENT #3 We found a house three weeks after EK was born, bought it, remodeled a kitchen and moved ourselves in Mid March.
EVENT #4 we helped plan and execute my brother's engagement to his sweet girlfriend, Christina.


Those are just the life-changers. Nevermind the multiple parties, events, lectures, trips, and visitors we've had....Honestly I dont even remember most of that because I was either uber-pregnant or had a newborn

Needless to say, life has been sweet, busy, and VERY exhausting. BUT we are in love with our family of 5, and 7 including the doggies. AND we feel very blessed.

I enjoy reading other people's blog posts and truthfully, It makes me feel guilty and inadequate that I cannot write much on my own blog.In fact, I am disappointed when other people dont put on new posts frequently ( which I know is insanely hypocritical)..Between the diapers, snacks, errands, unpacking, nursing, and yelling at the dogs...most days I just feel too tired. And plus, right now I'm reading the Hunger Games, which calls to me every time I have a free moment.Its really good and I feel hip that I'm actually in-the-know with something popular. Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to post some pics of my new sweetness, Emma Kate, and our new home. But if it takes me a while, then you know I'm just trying my best to do life, and well...friend me on facebook. I just learned how to upload pics from my phone and its much easier for me!

September 2011 so far

We have had a really fun month already! Some of our favorite people came to visit us...and yes, we went hiking. Yes- five children and all. We had a blast! We love those Kelseys!!!

 

I Love my Man in this outfit

. Man+ Baby + Baby in backpack + chaco s= HOTNESS

(oh and dont forget the Spyderco pocketknife)



 She carried this leaf the whole hike

 Since we opted out of camping this trip, we decided on smores in the firepit and it was a big hit!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.......well preschool anyway

Emma Kate Bailey Ellis

Its official! We are having another sweet baby girl. Emma Kate Bailey Ellis will be here the first week of January. We are over the moon!!! In case you were wondering, Emma Kate will be what we call her..but we wanted to give her a middle name too. She will have lots of options when she is an adult. We have always really liked the name Emma Kate, and always liked double names. Now that we live in the true south we thought it was time to do the double named child. And Bailey- we really just liked it for cuteness factor.

I'm 21 weeks along....and she is healthy and active already! We cant wait to meet our sweet girl....now we just need one more female vizsla and our numbers in the Ellis house will be even finally!

BACK IT WAAY UP to MAY

So, we are backing things waaay up...all the way back to May. I've had this post ready but forgot to write in the captions and oops now its pretty much September and I'm just NOW posting this. BUT we took a pretty spectacular trip in May that I feel is noteworthy or I guess I should say postworthy. We decided to book a beachfront condo in Gulf Shore AL with some of our best friends, Callie and Chris and their family. It was our first real "lets bring our kids " vacation together. Callie, Chris, Mark and I go way back with traveling adventures but this is the first with our families meshed together since having kids. It was a wild ride...but you know? It worked!Even with 5 kids under 4 years old , two husbands and two pregnant ladies. We had a ball with our sweet friends...those pics at the bottom...

These first are a little detour we took on our way to Gulf Shores we stopped at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta... I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS!!!! It was INCREDIBLE! They had the largest aquariums I've ever seen with whale sharks, and beluga whales, and penguins, and scary sharks and every fish and water animal and mammal you can imagine! I was one of my favorite destinations. I"ll definitely go back!

 Beluga Whale tank!!! They were doing tricks for us on their own and there were three in there!

 My personal favorite...see that fish overhead? If you know me, you know I'm obsessed with sharks! And I got a really fun look up close here

 WHALE SHARKS IN THIS TANK! THEY WERE ENORMOUS AND SO GRACEFUL! I think there were three in here too along with other huge creatures. Yes, that would be my son laying on the ground...he laid on the ground in front of this tank for about 20 minutes...

Ok..on to the real trip...heres Chris and their son Carson...and one of their precious baby girls...who I guess are about 14 mos here? Callie and I must have the other kids in the condo...we only made it to the beach all together one time during the whole trip...wasnt the beach gorgeous?

 My kids were happiest at the beach on the last day. It took them a little while to actually get used to sitting on sand and neither one of them liked the ocean at first. Noah still hates it but now, after a couple of beach trips since May, she loves it again.

 So Noah did alot of this. We had to be creative to find ways for him to enjoy the beach without actually having to touch the sand. I love this pic. I could eat him up!

 My sweet boy LOVES cars

 Ok! There she is! One of my very best friends. This girl has gotten me through life! I love her so much !!!

 oh! And I knew I had one of my handsome hubby. ...SO. We went to a restaurant called The Hangout. It was really fun and easy atmosphere for kids. They had a sand playground for the kids to romp around, outdoor music, and dancing too. But the highlight was the foam machine that expelled a HUGE mound of bubbles every hour. WOW!!! Kids were getting lost in this thing!

 Here's Carson enveloped in bubbles 

 My sweet girl, she was a little weary of the bubbles at first but she danced with them - typical- and chased them around

 Back to the beach pics, I'm sure glad I got those two up top of them smiling - because, to be honest, there was a whole lot of this while on the beach

 And this....

 But daddy got in the water and got in the sand to build castles with them...and the beach suddenly got better

 Then one night we went to some kiddie rides ...which the kids loved!!!

 Even the babies were entertained

 The best part of that night was when Chris and Mark decided to take the "older" ones...meaning the ones over the age of 1 yr. on a bumper boat ride. Thats where we found out one of Taylor's talents...She can aim!!! She went after Chris ruthlessly! Her gun actually got stuck in the ON position but she kept her aim at Chris and HE GOT SOAKED!!!! It was so hilarious to watch our husbands and kiddos laughing their heads off! It was a memory for sure!!!!

 This is one of my alltime favorite pics! I love these two...I think they might be trouble later on

Callie and Chris, Carson, Caroline, and Carleigh....and baby Cami. We had A BALL with you all! We are so blessed to have your friendship in our lives.  I'm so glad we got to vacation together!!! Lets make it a regular thing! Love you all!

What we do around here...when its HOT

I love shirtless, diapered babies!!!! Dont you?

Summer Catch up part 2

Back in Early June we took a FABULOUS trip to Nantucket with our good friends John and Christine- sans kids might I add. We had such a fun and relaxing time just chatting, and eating, and riding bikes around the gorgeous scenery in Nantucket. We made some wonderful memories with these two and I have lots of stories but for now, here are some pics from the trip.

The seals would follow us as we walked on the beach. We usually had at least two watching and stalking us everytime we were on the beach! This is the baby seal that Christine and I ran down the beach to see. It was a little leary of us so we had to use the major zoom to get this shot. Yes, I wanted to pet it but thought it wouldnt be so fun explaining to the the ER and my ER husband what happened.

This is THE PERFECT spot for Happy hour...it wasnt our spot but I told Mark he is WELCOME to purchase this piece of property anytime for me...

Kind of a dork shot of me ...I have no idea what I was looking at...probably the tiny planes people had to get on to fly here.But I think I wanted to document that I was pregnant with #3 during this trip...as I was pregnant with #1 last time we were in Nantucket.

The BEST night of the whole trip!!!! This was the perfect spot for happy hour and we watched the sun go down...I didnt partake of the "happiness" of course, being preggo, but I may have had more fun than everyone else.