Our First Thanksgiving

Before Ella was born...before she was just a glimmer in our eyes, Tom and I had a really adventurous life. I want Ella to know her parents at one time in their lives were kinda cool. We spent our first married Thanksgiving in Zell Am See, Austria skiing with friends. It was my first time skiing the alps and it was amazing. We had a great time and the Austrians at our hotel even cooked us a nice little Thanksgiving Day meal complete with my first bowl of pumpkin soup. I will never forget it. It was the start of my traveling bug;) From that point on, I was determined to see what the rest of this big, beautiful world had to offer.

I spent today thinking about how thankful I really am for all of the blessings I have in my life. I adore my husband and can never thank him enough for working hard so I can stay at home to raise Ella. People always ask me how I do this without him, but I can't imagine being in his shoes watching us from afar. (Although I wouldn't mind a vacation every now and then!) I am so thankful to have my little buddy Ella. She keeps me sane and sometimes makes me insane but it's always a new day with her and I love her more than she will ever know. I'm thankful for family, friends, Riley, the roof over my head, the clothes on my back, the hot showers I take, the hot meals I eat. I could go on forever. Some people in this country don't even have those simple things we take for granted everyday. It's so easy to want nowadays, but I don't remember the last time I felt I needed for anything. That's a blessing in itself.

Here are a few photos of our First Thanksgiving in Austria! (This was back in the day when I barely took photos. Can you believe that?)

Driving toward the mountain. I was intimidated to say the least.

In Salzburg, Austria

In front of Mozart's House

And now, a little Ella on Turkey Day:)

Hmm this was the ONLY bite she took of her meal. She filled up on those tater beaters;)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with their family and friends. I sure missed mine a bunch today...everyday for that matter:)

Honest Ella

You know you have let yourself go a little as a mom when your two year old daughter feels your legs and says "Ewwwwww mommmmmmy HAIR." Then walks away in disgust. Obviously she doesn't realize I am just preparing for winter.

A little patience...

Ella is sick. I took her to the Dr. today and she has an ear infection and a sore throat. Nothing serious, but she is a certified whiney pants today. Do I blame her? No, I hate being sick. But all day it's been crying, whining, fits, crocodile tears. I asked God for a little patience on the way home from picking up her medicine and I looked up at the sky to find this:

Do you see the angel wings in the sky? Aren't they beautiful? Ever since Ella was born, I have been praying to my grandma and whenever I ask for patience with Ella (which tends to be often!) I find signs that she's listening to me. I know it sounds totally crazy, but it happens. I truly believe she watches over us. After all, she was the beautiful mother of TEN children. She must have had the patience of a saint. I know she never got to meet Ella because she passed away a few months before she was born, but man was she looking forward to her first great grandbaby! Thanks Grandma for passing on a little bit of your patience to me. It helped a lot today.

And yes, I took this while driving. I'm so bad.

Hilarious.

Ella and I have not stopped laughing since Monica posted this to my Facebook. Nor has Ella stopped saying "again, again". See for yourselves

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Fall Fun!

Last weekend while Auntie Monica was in town, we decided to take some pictures in the same park Ella had her one year photos taken in the year before. We are on a tight budget this year as we are managing two households so I couldn't afford photos from my amazing photographer Kim. It's too bad because I think we took around 400+ photos and spent more time laughing at our lack of focused pictures and slacking photography skills than anything else. But it was certainly a fun day in the Myriad Gardens of OKC. I have to say I hit the lottery with my sister-in-law. I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful, caring, loving person to be my one and only sister. She is downright awesome and I love her dearly. (not to mention she is always so fabulously put together, cute and buys Ella everything we can't afford to buy her). Ella has even learned to say "Annika" for Monica now. It's pretty darn adorable.

Here are a few photos from our "Fall Fun" shoot. You may look, but you may not make fun of our skilllllzz. I looked legit with my camera bag and all. But needless to say, I really missed Kim.

My new favorite photo of Ella

A girl and her Louis

Lunch at Toby Keith's in Bricktown

As you all know I take way too many photos and post way too many photos, but every mom thinks their kid is cute and hell I am no different;) Besides her daddy needs to watch her grow every second! Here are the rest of the pics from that day: Click here. Trust me, I won't be offended if you don't want to look at anymore of our Fall Fun day.