Catawba Science Center

Being the science nerd that I am, I couldn't wait until Ella was old enough to take to the Catawba Science Center. So today, we all headed to Hickory for a day of learning and exploring! They have fresh water & salt water aquariums, a planetarium, and lots of exhibits to see. Our neighbors have a coy pond and Ella loves to go next door and look at the "F-I-S-HHH" so we were excited to take her to see lots of fish. The aquariums were set up so you could touch the fish and turtles. We got to touch a stingray, shark, crab, and turtle. The turtles were by far Ella's favorite! They were so friendly and would come right up to where we were standing. Ella stuck her hands right in and immediately tried to grab her a turtle. Once she found out that she could move them around by pushing their shells, she would dunk them when they would surface. At first I was worried they might bite her, but they kept coming back for more. Ella dunked those poor turtles over and over again. She was soaking wet and so was the floor around us. While we were there, we got to see them feed the sharks. It was so funny because while we were standing there a stingray jumped up out of the water and splashed at Cory. It scared him and he yelled :) Scared of a little stingray?!

Let me at those little fishies!

Please don't mistake my finger for a worm!

Come here little turtles...who wants to be dunked next?

We found NEMO!

This little guy was in a tank all by himself. I thought he was kinda cute.

On Exhibit...

They currently have "Little Builders" & "Body Carnival" on exhibit. There was all kinds of blocks and minature construction equipment for the kids to play with. Ella enjoyed pretending to paint with Mommy & stacking blocks with Daddy. My favorite exhibit was the big artery you could crawl through. It started out as a normal healthy artery, but as you crawled further through it you could see the formation of plaques which eventually ended with a fully blocked artery. What an excellent way to teach kids to lay off the Happy Meals :) Here are some fun facts that we learned during our visit at the "Body Carnival:"

~You have about 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body

~Messages to and from the brain travel at a speed of approximately 200 miles/hr

~The average person burns 1.0-1.6 calories doing NOTHING (even while sleeping)

~The human brain weighs around 3 pounds with 2 pounds being water

~Over half of the bones in your body are in your hands and feet

Crawling through the artery

This is what an artery that is completely blocked looks like. Makes you want to eat

another Big Mac & large fry, huh?

Spinning on the human centrifuge. Mommy had to get off because she was getting motion sickness when Daddy started going fast.

Ella wanted to go faster! She didn't seem to mind it a bit unlike her Mommy!

Election Day

This morning we all three got up early so we could go vote. We had no idea how long we would be at the precinct voting so we decided to take Ella some snacks just in case. When we got there we walked right in and got our ballots. Cory and I had a plan of action before we got there so we could get in and out quickly and not cause a major scene. I sat down and voted first while Cory distracted Ella with her Cheerios. I recently bought Ella a new snack cup that was supposed to be "spill proof." WRONG! She managed to stick her little hands in the cup and spill Cheerios all over the floor! So here I am, crawling on my hands and knees picking up Cheerios while all these folks are trying to vote. Luckily, we picked out a booth in the corner so we didn't cause too much of a scene. On our way out the door, Ella got a sticker saying "I VOTED" that she wore proudly all day!! Today, voting took on a whole new meaning because not only do we have to think about our future, but more importantly, the future of our children!

I must say that I'm extremely happy that Election Day is almost over because this means NO MORE political commercials and telephone calls!!! I've come home the last couple days to a message on our answering machine from Hank Williams Jr.

Trick-or-Treat

What an exhausting but fun-filled weekend! Halloween was so much more exciting this year than it has been in the past! It's amazing how holidays take on a new meaning when you have children. Cory and I both agree that it gives us an excuse to be big kids :) We started trick-or-treating around lunch to get all our visits in before going to the fall festival at our church. Ella was the best sport all day because we had to take her costume off and on so many times to get her in and out of her carseat. I tried stuffing her in there to start out but she looked VERY uncomfortable and there was costume parts sticking out all over the place.

We started our day visiting Nana at work. We had lunch with Nana and then went by Walmart to show off our little butterfly. She was a hit in Walmart! Everyone loved her costume and she loved all the attention! After lunch, we headed home for a nap. After nap time, we were wide open until bedtime! We went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood and had a few family trick-or-treaters come over to our house. The first house we went to Ella laid down on their front porch when they came to the door. It was the funniest thing! Definately not the reaction I thought she would have! It was like she thought she had to do a trick in order to get a treat :) We quickly picked her up, grabbed the treats, and headed home. That was the end to our trick-or-treating! After dinner, we headed to the fall festival at our church. Ella loved looking at all the costumes. We were worried that some of the scary costumes or people with masks might scare her, but we were wrong. She wasn't scared at all! The best part of Halloween was that Ella got all kinds of good treats that Mommy & Daddy could helped her eat :) We had so much fun and Ella was such a little ham in her costume. She would flap her little arms like she was flying when you would tell her to "fly like a butterfly." She was so keyed up that we didn't think she would ever wind back down for bed! Cory and I were so tired and couldn't wait to crash for the night.

I took a GAZILLION pictures and couldn't pick just a FEW to post! So instead, I'm posting a ton of my favorites :) Enjoy! We hope everyone had a safe & happy Halloween!

Madelyn (Ella's friend from across the road) & Ella. Madelyn was so adorable in her Little Bow Peep costume! She even had a little pink sheep.

Gracie (Pumpkin Fairy), Brittney (Hannah Montana), & Ella Baby


North Catawba Baptist Church Fall Festival

Aunt Candy, Uncle Matt & Nana

Aunt Ashey helping Ella play games. The object of the game was to pick a duck out of the water and if there was a star on the under side of the duck you got a prize. Ella didn't care about the candy she wanted the "D-U-C-KKK"

Aunt Ashey, Ella & not 1 but the 2 ducks she fished out of the water. She LOVES ducks! She takes a bath with a tub full of ducks every night.

Happy Halloween!

We hope everyone has a SAFE & HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I was looking at pictures from last Halloween and it seems like it was only yesterday! Ella has grown and changed SOOO much in such a short period of time. Here are some pictures from last Halloween to enjoy! We'll post some from today once my little butterfly wakes up from her nap :) We hope everyone gets lots of treats!

FALL FUN

This week started off busy so I'm just now getting around to updating the blog. We enjoyed a much needed relaxing weekend! It was beautiful outside so we spent as much time as we could outdoors. We stay so busy that it's nice to have a weekend at home with nothing to do! Cory and Ella left Friday morning to visit family in Winston-Salem while I worked :( They got to visit with Grandma & Grandpa Johnson and Grandma Grace. We have some exciting news...Grandma Johnson was doing so well that she got to come home from the assisted living center! We are so excited that she is home! After visiting with the great-grandparents, they spent the evening with Grandpa and Nana P. Ella loves playing with Ringo (Nana P's cat). I'm not so sure Ringo's feelings are mutual :) Cory forgot to take the camera so we didn't get any pictures from their visit.

The weather was beautiful on Sunday. After church, we went to Nana & Paw-Paw's house for lunch and an afternoon nap. Ella fell asleep and we put her down to sleep upstairs in her crib. Everyone was worried that we might now hear her when she woke up. But we were so wrong :) When she woke up she yelled "Hey, I'm up!" as clear as can be! She is talking non-stop! Her vocabulary is quite extensive and she can repeat words back to you. We have to be REALLY careful what we say around her. She's already picked up a few new words :) Cory often yells at the dogs using a few ugly words. Ella quickly picked up on it and yelled "damn dogs" at them. We're working on this :) After our naps, we headed to Maw-Maw & Paw-Paw's house. Since the weather was so nice, we took the inflatable bouncer for the girls to play in. Ella LOVES the slide! She is not scared of anything! She flies down the slide and wipes out at the bottom! It is so funny to watch! She gets her adventurous side from her Daddy because Mommy is a big chicken :) She wants to do whatever the big girls are doing. We played outside until the sun went down. We wanted to enjoy every last minute of warm weather before winter sets in.

I love this outfit on Ella! I just love the striped tights :)

Ready...

...here I come...

Wipe out! Check out the static in that hair :)

Madalyn

More pictures...

Ella loves helping in the yard. Here are some pictures of our fall flowers that Ella helped me plant. I've been meaning to post these for several weeks like I promised. Sorry!

Ella & her scarecrow she picked out

As soon as I would get it planted, Ella would pull it out! I lost a couple mums in the process.

Ella saw me pulling weeds so she started pulling up grass :)

Helping clean up the mess after pulling weeds

BOO!

Elmo LIVE!

Once again Elmo is making his way to being one of the hottest toys of the season! He went on sale last week and I couldn't wait to get my hands on one for Ella. Yet another job perk...getting those hard to come by Christmas toys :) Cory and I planned on putting it up for Christmas but neither of us could wait...especially after Cory heard that he passes gas :) This Elmo is the cutest thing ever! He tells jokes, stories, dances, and gives hugs and kisses. And yes, he farts when you squeeze his nose. But, he excuses himself so he's teaching our kids manners, right?! We all 3 enjoyed playing with him when I got home from work. Ella adores him and thinks he is hilarious...she especially loves dancing with Elmo! Definately a good buy!

I LOVE my Elmo!

Kisses for Elmo

Ella is as fascinated with Elmo passing gas as her Daddy is :)

Where's Mattie?

All the doors in our house have levered handles instead of the round knobs...pretty decor but not great for children! About a month ago, Ella was finally tall enough to reach the door handles. Within a few days, she started opening the doors trying to make a great escape! The only positive about this situation is that she now helps let the dogs out to potty :) The dogs will go to the back door and Ella immediately goes over to the door and tries to open it to let them outside. She'll even let them back in when they come back to the door and bark! Since Ella has become so fascinated with the doors, we watch every move she makes and we've gotten in the habit of locking all the exterior doors. On Sunday, I walked into the bedroom for a few minutes and I heard the garage door shut. When I came around the corner, Ella was standing there smiling. I was just thrilled that she actually shut the door and didn't try to go outside or fall out the door onto the cement. I had just went outside a few minutes before that and had forgot to lock the door behind me. Ahhhh! About an hour or so later, our telephone rang. It was our neighbor from up the street. He asked if we knew that one of our dogs was out playing in the ROAD!? Oh my gosh was he serious?! He said he had approached her and she came running home. How did we not know that Mattie was missing? And how did she get outside to start with? Then we remembered that Ella had opened the door and that's when Mattie made HER great escape! I can't believe we didn't realize she was gone? Now, I make sure everyone is inside and accounted for and the garage door is LOCKED!! Poor Mattie :) I gave her a piece of cheese (her favorite treat since she's allergic to real dog treats) and I think she forgave us!