Treasures

I want to post about our move and the new house soon... and I will.

Just not today.

Now that we have most boxes un-packed we have really begun to resume life as usual.

Ellenie still only eats the strawberries out of the the freeze dried strawberry-banana mix.

We still hold large tea parties everyday.

We (read I) are back to lots of laundry. With help from my folding elf.

We still all sit around, day dream, and discuss important topics like what kind of pink princess we're going to be when we grow up.

And of course, we still treasure hunt.

And today we found two really encouraging treasures...

First, we tried out 1 of 2 parks in town. The equipment was not that great but the area around it was wonderful. Given that EVERYTHING is on a hill here, it was awesome to find a huge, FLAT, grassy area to run around. Then we found the large acorn "hats" seen on the right of the picture. I can admit that I have a real love for acorns and even though I try to blame Lillianna for all the stashes of acorns around our house...I'm just as guilty for stuffing them in my pockets and bringing them home. Especially the hats. So in the picture above, the ones on the right were found yesterday. The hat in the middle is a regular hat from Lillianna's treasure box and was just to give some scale to the picture. Then the one of the left is one from our favorite park in Decatur. So whattayaknow?! I don't know what kind of acorns those are but I'd never seen one before or since the park in Decatur and now we have one here! It's sign for sure!

THEN...

last night we were enjoying the last of the warm temp before the storm rolled through and one of our new neighbors stopped by. Guess what she told us?! That we are the proud owners of a "very prolific" blueberry bush! BLUEBERRY BUSH? Could it get any better since I am already the proud owner of the most prolific blueberry eater?!!

I'm taking these as two direct blessings/signs/gifts from God. Especially since I haven't found a lot of things about Columbus itself that have made me smile...but these did.

And these two treasures did too.

ONE

One year (and a couple of weeks) ago...

We welcomed Ellenie Lane Parsons to our family. It was a perfect day and it's been a perfect, well, how about a sweet, very full, wonderful year!

Ellenie's first birthday fell on moving day so we had a celebration the night before the movers came with our precious neighbors The Adams and The Hales, our dear friends Mike and Donna, and good ol' Dandy and Wil. It might not have been grand in scale but it was grand in love.

E: Uh, Mom & Dad, I really think you ought to think about what you're asking me to do.

A spoon full of sugar...

Ellenie,

you are a true delight to me and your daddy. You make us smile a hundred times everyday. We are absolutely in love with you and your blossoming personality, heart, and soul.

For the first half of your life so far, you were quiet, content, and as they say...laid back. Then one day, you sat up and decided it was time to get busy in this life. Truly, two days after you sat up on your own, you leaned forward and start crawling. You have been busy being big ever since.

E: Now this is fun!

In the end, icing covered Ellenie's ears, hands, hair, face, and neck. She squealed in delight when I took off her clothes to change her, so she spent the rest of the evening just how she wanted.

A couple of days later, on her birthday, we woke up for the first time in our new, empty home.

The truck arrived several hours later and so we had a Move-In Birthday Party.

E: It's my birthday. I'm gonna party like it's my birthday.

E: Sis, since it's my birthday, I'm in charge!

L: Uh, does that mean I have to change your diaper?

We celebrated her birthday the way every one year old wants...at the local Mexican restaurant!

Or atleast the way this one year old's mother wanted.

Ellenie, you are overwhelmed with curiosity, bravery, and happiness. You love music and have just discovered how much fun re-reading one book 12 times in a row can be. But you really only love books about animals. You do not love to eat. You love to make funny faces and love to cuddle all day with your blankie. You love to be outside. You love your family and it has been a gift to me to watch you fall in love with your Daddy all over again since moving to Columbus. Your sister makes you laugh so hard and also makes you so aggravated. That's the wonderful thing about having a sister. Your sister is so gentle and loving with you 92% of the time. The other 8% she really wears you out. But you are tough and often give it right back to her.

You have been such a joy. I can't wait to see your beautiful face each morning. You have made me a better mother. Thank you sweet child for making my life more blessed.

I love you.

CHRISTMAS

I know, I know...

it's almost the end of January and it's just not that exciting to see month old Christmas pictures.

But I feel I need it on record so I'm just going to hit the highlights.

The girls sat with Santa. Lillianna reported she wanted, "a Ariel dollie, a stroller, and a wand." Check. check. check.

The rode the merry-go-round. Not a traditional Christmas moment...just a cute one.

We celebrated with friends...here Lillianna and bibby show off their gifts to eachother. They just happen to get eachtoher the same thing!

Ellenie and Virginia show off their beauty.

We also celebrated with all of our precious little friends in Decatur. Here's just a few of the 18!

We had so much fun!

Christmas before Christmas in Birmingham with Sue-Sue, Pops, Jean-Jean, Aunt Ashley,

Uncle T, Aunt Lesley, and Cousin Kylen.

I wish I could kiss you everyday sweet boy.

My most favorite moment of Christmas...when Lillianna talked with Santa on the phone on Christmas Eve. Can't you just see the wonder in her face?

Christmas morning at the Lakehouse in Kentucky.

"Santa ate all the brownies!" (We forgot to bring the cookies to Kentucky!)

The Marvelous Millers came to celebrate too! Bentley looked so handsome and handy in his new tool belt.

Ella showed the other girls how to make a funny face with an apple slice.

Overall, a very happy Christmas!

A very, very sweet one too!

Connor Hayes Yezerski

Dear Connor,

Welcome to the world sweet nephew! I was so honored to be there...to hear your first cry and see your Mom and Dad melt with pride, excitement, and love when they first saw you.

What an incredible moment.

You are going to have a wonderful life my dear. Full of family, friends, laughter, music, teeth (your dad is a dentist), and lots of jokes (your Mom (thinks she) is a comedian).

You also have lots of Aunts, Uncles, and cousins who can't wait to get their hands on you and teach you the ways of the world. Lillianna couldn't wait and saw you when you not even a day old! We stopped on Christmas eve on our way to Kentucky so she could hold you.
Thank you for being so patient with her.

You do have 2 male cousins but you also have 5 female cousins so get ready to play your part in the next tea party. It's a loud, fun, crazy bunch when they are all together and I know you'll fit right in. Something tells me you are going to take center stage when you get big enough. I can't wait to be there and cheer you on!

I borrowed this picture from your Mom. I guess by now you know how special your parents are and how crazy they are about you. Your brother, Napolean, has had a little trouble sharing their love and their bed with you. But soon you will be big enough to play with him and love on him too. Just don't try and uncurl his tail...it's supposed to be like that.

I love you "Little Buddy" and wish you all the joy and peace and love your big life can hold.

love,

Aunt Carroll Lane

I don't know where to start....

I've never taken a break from this blog/family journal this long.

We just had so much going on I had to...but since so much happened I really want to catch up.

Let's see, in the last month...

We have a new nephew/ cousin!

We had a wonderful Christmas!

We moved to a new state.

We celebrated Ellenie's 1 st birthday.

We unpacked 167 boxes (okay, there are still atleast 30 in the garage)

We fought off the stomach bug.

We celebrated Brad's 30th!

We've tried to resume our old routines in our new surroundings.

Most of all, we've enjoyed our many blessings.

One of my favorite being that we all live under the same roof 7 days a week!

Whew. It makes Lillianna tired when I talk about it all at once.

So I'll try and catch up a day a time - just hitting the highlights.

Who knew wrapping paper could be so much fun?

Have you met my billy goat?

She won't eat pears, peaches, bananas, grapes, peas, carrots, beans, cheese, or yogurt.

But she will eat paper towels, wrapping paper, napkins, paper on straws, kleenex, junk mail envelopes, pew response cards, and her very favorite: toilet paper. She does prefer for it to be un-used. Thank goodness.

Oh Tannenbaum!

This past weekend, we went and got our Christmas tree.

We're pretty particular about which one...it's always the first tree Brad picks up.

So since we're only there a few minutes, I wanted to make the most of the "Christmas-y"

moment for Lillianna by introducing her a wonderful Christmas-y tradition she should always take part in...

Pelting your loved ones with snowballs.

Since we live in Alabama, she must learn to take advantage of such opportunities...who knows the next time she'll get to throw snow.

(A new shipment of trees from the North and they still had snow on them.)

Then we came home to decorate...
Ellenie was still in the snowball frame of mind.

Lillianna really enjoyed decorating the tree and was SO PROUD of ALL the apples she hung.

Got a few presents under the tree...looks like a few more are in the curtain....

Oh, just want I always wanted!



L: Since it's Christmas, I'm feeling like sharing.
E: W-w-w-w-what?!


E: Whew. Decorating the tree is very hard work.

L: You can say that again.

E: Decorating the tree is very hard work.

Yep. This was the scene a little after 11 pm last night.

I took a pic for Lillianna to see...she loved the story even though she was sad to see the tree bare and against the wall this morning.

Merry Christmas!