The Depth of Christ's Love

This morning I was listening to a John Piper message off his website. I don't know why I don't more often... The message was entitled The Depth of Christ's Love: It's Undeserving Objects from Romans 5:1-11.
I am so refreshed by God's specific and direct love for me!That while I was a sinner, hostile and not seeking God, HE loved me first- while I was his enemy.
"You see, just at the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might dare to die. But GOD demonstrates his love for us in this : While we were still sinners, Christ died for US!"
I daily forget the DEPTH of his love for me. I too often pridefully credit myself with what a "good person" I am. I love my husband and care for my home, I bring an occasional suprise lunch to my friends, I even host showers and leave Christmas and thank- you cards in my neighbors mailboxes, I talk to strangers in the supermarket line and pray for great causes and ministries outside of Tennessee.
I cannot even compare my good deeds and acts of love to God's love, and I often forget that the " good things" I do come from God himself. This new year I want to study more of God's love for me and the cross fo Jesus Christ. Then maybe I will not foucs on myslef and what a great person I think I am. Thank you Lord that you loved me first and demonstrated that love through Jesus!

Christmas with the Manns and the Princes

Christmas night we spent with Lon and Sharon at their apartment. They made a yummy Christmas dinner and Lon made his delicious banana bread. He sent us home with half a loaf. Thanks Lon it was awesome. Remind me to get the recipe...

Sharon loves Ella Reese. Here are some cute pics of her with Sharon and Lon.

They got Ryan a fridge pack of mountain dew as a gift. Ryan said it was the best Christmas present he had gotten. He loves that stuff...yuck.

I didn't get many pictures at all. I think we were so tired from the whole week and weekend that we were ready to relax with Sharon and Lon.Lon practicing to be a daddy some day. Very cute. Except Ella Reese looks like a deer caught in headlights.
That's better.

We spent Christmas Eve with Ryan's family.

These are all really random. As much as I love taking pictures I did not get a lot during our Christmas time with Ryan's family. We did Christmas at night because of work schedules and so on. I was pretty much back and forth during all the festivities all night feeding Ella Reese and trying to put her down for the night. We spent the night and spent Christmas morning there.

She is beginning to not sleep anywhere anymore. She use to fall sleep in her carrier, and any given flat surface. Many mothers warned me it would not last long...that time as come. It is hard for her to go down at night in a place other than her crib. And Ryan and I are night owls and always stay out late at people's houses. So I ended up nursing her to sleep (which I do not do at home ) most of that weekend.

Anywho...here are the pictures I was able to get.

This is Cole prince giving me his animal crackers that came from his stocking stuffers. It was funny..he just dumped them all out onto the coffee table and started handing them to me nonstop. He is the cutest thing ever !!Ryan and Nick posing in matching polos they got from Nana Smith...lookin good boys, lookin good.
Owen at the dinner table after he was scolded by his daddy, Matt, to finish eating so we could open presents. Then he saw I was trying to take a picture of him. He was trying so hard not to smile. You're still cute even when you pout Owen ! I love you !
Ella Reese with Papa. He adores her.., So sweet.
Owen smiling now for me. Cutie pie.

Baby Alarm Clock

Ryan is notorious for sleeping through our obnoxiously LOUD alarm clock. He is notorious for sleeping and sleeping longer and harder than a normal person should. I think he hibernates every night he goes to sleep because it is HARD to get him up. Only two things will get him up. One is to go next to him in the morning and say in a normal volumed voice, "Ryan, I am pregnant". That worked really well when I first found out we were pregnant with Ella Reese. His eyes shot right open.

The second way to get him up is to bring Ella Reese to the bed and lay her next to him. He can't resist. So here is Ella Reese in action...

Camera Happy

Sharon, my lil sis, came over last week. I know, I am trying to play catch up on my blog. So Christmas pics will come later...

Sharon adores Ella Reese. She's been smiling alot at Sharon lately...it's so sweet.

" Doris, I miss you !" Ella Reese says. ( my big sis..she's in Philly waiting the arrival of baby Evie due January 11th. How exciting! )

She's putting everything in her mouth lately. It is so crazy to see her hold and play with toys. She's slowly turning into a toddler...
She loves her fuzzy bunny. She will sometimes ( like above ) will try to nurse on its' nose. It's pretty funny !
Me and mommy. Love those chubby cheeks ! They just sit on her shoulder in this pic.
Ella Reese posing with her flower rattle. She held it like that on her own. I leave the rattle in the crack of her changing table next to her head. She loves to play with it.
Ryan found a new setting on our camera that makes the photos look really cool. He was trying it out when I was changing her... Check out her bald spot. It is starting to grow in. Ryan calls her baldylocks ....
Her face looks especially ROUND in this photo.
" Hi daddy ! "

Peek - A - Boo !!!

Nana Prince got this dress for her. Already too big. You are growing too fast Ella Reese...















Playing peek-a-boo with mommy...

Peek...

...A.....
...Boo!!!

* giggle giggle *

First Roll Over Pictures

Here they are!! If you didn't read my previous post...Last Sunday as I was getting her ready for a bath she rolled over for the very first time!! She was moving a lot so I grabbed the camera to get some naked pics. As I was snapping she just rolled right onto her belly!!

Here she is playing with her hands...








Grabbing for the book she gets onto her side...

...tucking those legs in for the big heave....

..ANNNND onto her belly she lands!!!! Yeah Ella Reese!! You did it!!

She laughed today !!!

This picture is not of her laughing,..i just like this hat on her.
Ryan and I were eating dinner and I was playing with her. I had her sock and was covering her eyes playing peek a boo.
She busted out laughing!! It was soooo exciting!! She has always grinned real cheesy, mouth open wide like she should be laughing. And she will even giggle at times.
It was so exciting to hear her REALLY laugh. And I was glad Ryan was able to be there too,..since he missed her roll over for the first time.

Two weeks ago I took her to her 4 month visit. She got shots. Here are her stats:
12ponds 15 ounces.
24 inches long
head circumference is 40 cm
Dr. Perry said she falls in the 50th percental with her weight and height, but her head falls in the 25th percentile. I couldn' imagine what her head would look like if it WAS in the 50th percentile...it is so round and big now.

Update on contacting me. Bellsouth is hooking up our home phone tomorrow!! Yippeee!!!

She finally did it!!!

Ella Reese officially rolled over today!!! I was getting her ready for a bath after her feeding,..I had her on the floor, took her diaper off and she started rolling onto her side reaching for a book above her. SO I let her and decided to take the opportunity to get some naked baby shots...she was butt naked. As I was snaping away she rolled onto her belly !!! So I got the pictures to prove it. I was so excited!! I have trying to work with her to start rolling over... and she would but only with me helping her do it halfway.
I will post the pictures later... How exciting!! Now I need to start watching her more closely and be sure to not leave her on the bed or changing table...eeek..

Silly Ella Bella Reesie Pieces

These are pictures from two weeks ago....
This one is from last Sunday before we left the house to go to church. It was Baby Dedication Sunday at church. I got her dressed and fed, then I laid her in the crib to play so I could get ready. When I went to get her to leave this is what I came to. Baby fast asleep buried under her blanket! Don't worry mom, she was fine. I knew without even lifting the blanket that she was okay because I heard her make her baby elephant breathing noises.
The blanket was actually way above her head when I laid her down. Somehow she got to it and covered herself....

I finally found some jeans for Ella Reese. They were on clearance at Target for $5.58. Not bad, huh... I've been lookin for a pair for quite some time and told myself that I would not spend more than $10 on jeans for a baby. Well, I got them on her the other day and couldn't believe how much like a big girl she looks !



I seriously need to set a camera in her room when she is sleeping, because this baby apparently does some pretty funny things. There was one week where almost every other morning for a few days I come to wake her up and find her like this....
Her feet, and one time her whole leg !!, was pushed through the small openings in bottom of the sleeper. And those openings are not big enough to pull limbs back in...In this picture both her feet are sticking out. Below is a close up. I know, I know...she has big feet. Just like her mommy and daddy. Makes me wonder how it was possible for her to do fit her feet through in the first place !

My Birthday week

I have no photos to update you with from last week. I had taken a bunch actually...but Ryan accidentally erased them when he was investigating a problem with our memory card. I was bummed..but I have a bizillion pictures already. What did hurt the most when he told me the pics were gone was knowing there were a good handful of pics of Ella Reese in her crib doing crazy things...
Ella Reese is really getting more mobile and I had started a mini documentary of when I get her from her crib and she has things tossed around. It is so funny. There was one where she was sideways in the corner , had the bumbper removed from the side and it was laying across her and she was holding onto one of the spindels on the crib grinning at me. I just died laughing! Silly baby...
Funny story,...or stories. Last week was an interesting week. It was my birthday on Tuesday, the 12th, and Ryan was out of town that week to North Carolina for work, and I was without any phone or internet. We had decided to cancel my cell phone plan but had to do it last Monday night to get within the 30 day window and not to pay a ridiculous fee to break our contract. Ryan felt bad leaving me at home with no phone and on my birthday as well. It dawned on my that tuesday morning that if anyone was going to call to wish me Happy Birthday they would not be able to reach me.
I was fine with it though, really. It was actually funny to me. It was interesting to see how did without my beloved cell. I joked and said that it the experience would let me see what it was like to live in Colonial days...
It was interesteing to see how dependent I, and I am sure we all are, to my cell phone. The week turned out fine. I just was not able to speak to anyone. I did once drive to a nearby Weigels just to use the pay phone. Sharon and Lon had me over for my birhtday on Tuesady and made dumplings and stir fry--yummm. Then Sharon treated me to a Starbucks mocha frappacino. The rest of the week I had Christmas parties and hung out with family. If anything it was more hard on Ryan to be away.

I often times will tease Ryan when he complains about his Blackberry phone, which is the size of his face and has internet on it. He will talk about how he wished his phone had an MP3 player, camera and bluetooth- whatever that is. And I will tease his complaining and say,.." Man, all I can do with MY phone is CALL people. That's it!". It is amazing with all the technology these days what you can get. Scarey too. Ryan and I joke and say that when Ella Reese gets older her jaw will drop when we tell her, " When we were growing up we had HOME telephones"...and she will look at us and say,.." what is that!?".

Four Months Old

We cannot believe that she is now four months old! It has passed by so quickly and yet at the same time it feels as if we've had her forever. Not a day passes that we are so thankful for Ella Reese and are blessed with such joy because of her. She has changed so much this past month. She is not rolling over on her own yet, but is definately getting there.
Just this past week when I go in the mornings to go get her from the crib... I come upon a crib that has been tossed upside down! I have these two small pillows and two stuffed animals in the crib that have been there for decoration. I had planned on keeping them there until she really got moving...Well,..one morning I got to her crib to find that one of the the two dolls I keep in the corner above her head on the right,..one was next to her and the other one, which has a pink ribbon tied around its' neck, was down by her feet BUT the ribbon was still in the corner above her head! And a pillow that is suppose to be in left corner above her head,...was on her belly!! I almost died laughing. She was just laying there sucking on her fingers and grining at me.
I took these photos trying to get some naked baby pictures before she gets bigger. The lighting wasn't the best, but I wanted some to document her 4 month birthday. I wanted to get some better naked bottom shots, I only got one decent one. As you can probably tell she is getting chunkier all over...especially in her legs. I love it!

With Daddy...

Pics from last week

Ella Reese is getting better on her belly. One way I get her to stay on her belly for a longer time is to put this book in front of her. She loves to look at all the pages. When she is on her back she will turn the pages with her hand. She is really reaching for it then pulls her hand down...but it looks like she is turning the pages.

I got this pink hoodie for her at the beach. I am a hoodie lover myself... In these pictures it looks like she is bustin some rhymes. The second one looks like she is raping on a microphone. It was hilarious! She's really just searching for that hand to suck on.
Just this past week we've noticed that she has found her two fingers on her right hand, and occasionally she will find her thumb.

"Hello there turtle ! "