Leaf Pile!!!

What to do with a pile of leaves?

Jump in them of course!

The end!

Nice Day to Play

Before this Christmas cold front hit, it was pretty nice outside.

So, we had a play day outside.

Ellie and Tripp loved it.

And I loved taking pictures of their little adventure.

Tripp doesn't like touching his knees to the hard cement, so he always crawls on his hands and feet. He looks like a little gorilla! I tried so hard to get a picture of it, but he was not cooporating with me.

I did get a picture of his cute hat.

I love it! It makes me smile every time I see him in it.

Ellie calls him George when he wears it. You know, like Curious George.

It even has little ears on it.

And Ellie thought this was a pretty cool pose!

She thought it was funny that she could still see me.

Naughty Joel

Ellie LOVES her Uncle Joel!

He's the silly Uncle that has successfully taught Ellie how to:

stick her tongue out...

give "pound its"...

say some interesting words like Bomquesha (if that's even how you spell it!)...

show everyone the food in her mouth at the dinner table; "look, it's seafood, Ellie!"...

and they have a special nickname for Grammy that only the two of them use...which she is NOT too fond of!!

As you can tell, Joel is pretty fun!

Sometimes though, I have to tell Ellie that we can't do what Joel's doing when we are in front of other people! Nice, huh!

So when Joel does something that Ellie knows is wrong, she says, "Naughty Joel!"

The night of her birthday, something very naughty took place....

After her party, we went outside to take the trash out. And this is what we found.

Our poor Pittsburg Gorilla (that was quite expensive and breakable) was hanging from our house! At first I was really mad. I thought it was probably a student pulling a prank.
They had gone through a phase of ringing our door bell and running away during the night.
Not very funny either. I figured they must have upped their game a little.
Then I realized that Uncle Dave (Don's brother) had been holding the gorilla earlier that night, so I knew it must have been them.

After we realized who it was, we promptly cut him down and took him inside. What we didn't account for was Ellie's reaction.
She was MORTIFIED!
I just told her Uncle Joel and Uncle Dave were being funny.
She was not consoled by my explanation.
She got a huge pouty face and yelled "NAUGHTY JOEL!"

Ellie was so worried that we had to put the gorilla inside next to Matt's hippo he got from Africa. Matt told her the hippo would protect Mr. Gorilla.
We even had to pray for the gorilla at bedtime so that Naughty Joel wouldn't take him again!


*Ellie just walked up and saw the pictures again and said. Oh no! Poor Mr. Gorilla! That was a very Naughty Joel! Guess she's still not over it!*

After that traumatizing incident was over and Ellie was in bed, I started looking through all the pictures of the party. When I got to the end, I saw the hanging gorilla. They had even been thoughtful enough to document their little deed for us!

So...to get Joel back, here's some pictures I'm sure he thought I deleted...

Joel: Farmer by day, Model by night...

He's a natural isn't he!

Thanks for always keeping us on our toes and being such a good uncle, Joel!

Ellie sure does love being with you!

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Ellie had her 3rd birthday on November 28th.
She is such a ball of fun!

She has been excited about her birthday for almost a year now!

So planning it was extra fun!

She wanted a purple princess cake (and then she changed her mind to a pink pony cake the day before her birthday!)

I thought it would be fun to make her a tutu so she could be just like a princess. She wore it the whole day until her birthday party! Oh well. I thought it was cute!

So Anne wore it a while for the party! Lovely!

Ellie Good, Ellie's very best friend, got to come celebrate with us! She was a superb present opening helper. She would stand by a present and say, "Ellie Renee, there's another present by my foot!" She said it for each present until they were all opened! They are so funny together!

Tripp enjoyed all the festivities too. My parent's gave Ellie an activity picnic table. Tripp decided it was his duty to climb to the top of it. What a little goofus!

And then it was cake time! Ellie has been saving special heart and flower candles for her birthday for months. She would get them out and look them a lot! She was so excited to finally use them on her cake!

And when we sang to her, this was the expression on her face. I think she was pretty fond of all the attention.

This isn't the best picture, but I love the hands on the hip and the smile so very much!

And then the Ellie's shared some birthday cake together on her new table!

We love you so much Ellie.

And we loved celebrating another year with you!

WE'RE BACK!!

HAVE NO FEAR...

WE'RE STILL HERE!!

We've been pretty busy lately, but without internet, it was pretty hard to keep up my blog.

But now...it's back!! Woohoo!! I'm sure you were all so worried, so let me ease your fears and let you know that everyone is fine and dandy.

We moved again...to Elbing. We LOVE it...but it is harder to get things like internet service and phone service...little things like that!

But thanks to AT&T and Wild Blue, we now have service to the outside world...how nice! I have to admit though, I have never experienced internet so slow!

So patience...mainly for me...pictures of our life are coming soon!

For now, I'll leave you with the two cuties...which I'm sure will take the rest of the day to download.

Enjoy!!

Grandma

Eleanor (Ellie) Churchill Martin

A Godly Woman

She blessed us all with her life, love, loyalty and laughter.

On Saturday, August 22, Grandma developed throat pain so intense that she was unable to swallow, and could not eat or drink. Several inconclusive tests were done, and by Wednesday, she returned home, where she had been asking to go since entering the hospital. She told the doctors she was older than any of them and knew it was her time to go, and she just wanted to go home!

The family took turns staying with her and Grandpa. I was able to go and be with Grandma on Wednesday, September 2. She slept the entire time and was having such a hard time breathing. It was hard, but also a sweet time together. Grandpa would just sit by her bed and whisper in her ear and talk for hours to her. He had told her earlier that she was on her "flight home." She had looked at him and said "I wish we could get on the same flight." What love they had for each other, and what a priviledge to see it, especially in those last days.

Wednesday night, Grandma went to be with Jesus.

On the last day she was able to talk to us, my Aunt Frances was sitting with her. Grandma was in so much pain. She reached out and held Frances's face and said, "Don't cry for my pain, it's just part of the process."

The funeral was on Tuesday. It was hard. But it was such a good funeral. I wish I could have known her better. She was hilarious and always playing tricks on the kids and Grandpa...like putting slivers of soap in brownies, and sewing up Grandpa's boxers for his first day in court! She had such a witty sense of humor until the very end. She was real. She loved people deeply with no motive in return. She loved Jesus so much and showed other's by example how to be a good wife and mother (and grandma), and how to have a personal relationship with Him.

We named our Ellie after my grandma. I have always loved the name Ellie and thought it was special that we could also honor my grandma by using the name. Little did I know just how great

of a person I was naming my daughter after. What a legacy! My mom is so much like Grandma. I pray that someday there may be glimpses of them in my life as well. And I pray that my Ellie will know just how special her great-grandma was. Just how much she loved Jesus and how she had a way of making everyone around her feel important because of how she treated them.

"Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also..." Proverbs 31:28

The park again!

I got so many cute pictures from the park.

I figured out how to do neat things to them on an editing website.

But me and my amazing computer skills couldn't figure out how to download them on here...

So the normal ones will have to do!

I think they're still pretty cute!

I asked Ellie to lean up next to Tripper so I could get a picture of them together. This was her rendition...

Her face was so funny. Like, "Yes, I know this looks good!" What a goof-ball!

I was talking to Bree, and when I turned around, I saw this!

Tripp had fallen asleep in the swing!

His shoe fell off in the process of moving him. I decided it just added to his overall adorableness!

What a tired little cutie

Fun at the Park

We got to have a little fun trip to the park with our friends from Pittsburg. Bree and Drew have been back and forth throughout the summer because of work--which I have enjoyed! I hadn't gotten any pictures of our get-togethers, so I thought I would bring my camera with me to the park.

I felt like the dorky mom that takes her camera everywhere capturing every movement her child makes, but it was fun!

Teacher's Helper

I got to be a teacher's helper a few weeks ago!

Marisa and I have been friends for 10 years! She graduated from Tabor and she is now teaching 3rd and 4th grade at Newton Bible Christian School. She is SUCH a good teacher with amazing, creative ideas. She's also REALLY patient...always a plus! Those kids are incredibly lucky to have her as their teacher!

Her theme for the year was being individually different and special, but all having a place that fits together...like a puzzle! (She could explain it better though!) There were A LOT of things to cut out, so I got to help one day. It didn't take us too long, and it was so fun to be able to just talk for a while a catch up.

Here's some of our finished projects! I especially liked the cupcakes...'cause they were really easy to cut out! My birthday is in May, and Misa's is in July!

Tripp was so good the entire time too. He just sat in his bouncer for hours and listened to us talk. I think he thought we might be talking to him and gave us huge smiles a lot.

This is Misa's second week of school. I know they are loving you, Mis! And loving all your cool decorations! I hope you told them who cut out all those amazing birthday cupcakes! You are a great teacher, Mis! I'm so glad I got to be a part of it...thanks for letting me help!