"Ponies come to my home"

I wanted to do something really special for Ellie's 3 year birthday party since it will be her last here in Valdosta. I rented ponies for pony rides! Ellie sat on the horse for the whole 2 hours. Everyone got a ride on the ponies! Everything went smoothly and Ellie had a blast celebrating her 3 years of life with all her friends riding off into the sunset. Minus one very important person:(
Beautiful pictures are thanks to Autumn:) Thank you to all of you who have shared in our lives in the past three years and have poured into Ellie and been an influence into the little girl that she has become...we will miss you so much more than you know...please don't forget us!

Izzy Grace these days

Well Izzy, is so different from Ell. It takes getting used to everyday almost. It's like we're still getting to know her more and more. She is a great nurser (she eats in 10 mins) but is not a fan of baby food really. There are good days and bad days. She's pretty good at swatting the spoon when she's done. I try to teach her the sign language for "all done" and "more" but she would rather swat the spoon when it's coming at her like it's a fly buzzing around her face, then she arches her back and flexes her body until her face turns purple...that's when she's done and sometimes that's after two bites. She has recently discovered baths with sister with no seat! She splashes and squeals the entire time, seriously the entire time she's in there. But she is now sitting up good on her own and rolling all over but hasn't figured out how to sit from laying down (no rush on these milestones), which is fine with me because my house is not baby proofed in any way!

She is none the less a joy everyday! She has some allergic reactions that we are still trying to figure out. There is some eczema issues on her face which we are figuring out and are finding it's possibly a corn/gluten intolerance. Being a baby can be so hard sometimes...LOL

She is still in my room with me (Britt's in our guest bedroom) since she wakes up a few times in the night I don't want to put her in the room with Ellie. Which is such a bummer because I have matching bedding and furniture in there but Izz almost never sleeps in the crib. When Ell is in school I put Izz in there for her morning nap otherwise it's just a cute bed that no one sleeps in. Because she wakes up a few times at night I have not had a solid night of sleep since I was pregnant:/ There are some days that I really feel this too. Daddy will be home in about 9-10 weeks so hopefully she doesn't accomplish too many of her first year milestones without him!!!

Jax Beach for the weekend

We took a trip to the beach a few weekends ago. It was fun to get out of Valdosta and shop at a real mall and see the ocean and drive around. We made it down to St. Augustine too. Ellie was fascinated with the waves!! She squealed with delight the first time she saw the ocean and then did not want to get out. We took a break from "surfing" to make a castle and look for shells...It was such a fun opportunity to teach Ellie about new things like the salty water, the undertow, seashells, and what fun things the sand can do...too bad we're leaving the coast soon.