We've lost count of our many blessings

I have been sitting her for the past 15 minutes trying to come up with a decent lead in for our Thanksgiving rundown. The fact of the matter is that there's just no way of quantifying all of the things that we are grateful for this year. In a time such as this, when so much of the rest of the world is struggling to just tread water in an economy that seems to be a neverending tidal wave of loss, every last one of us Ellwoods has more than we could ever be thankful enough for.

Still, no matter the laundry list of 'things' that we have in our lives, there's one thing that we will all agree on, it's not what is in our lives that we love most but who are in our lives.




We could name names but that just wouldn't be fair because we thank God for ALL of our family. Glory be to God for His many blessings this year especially. As Miss A would say? A-MEN!

Thank you good genes!!!

My whole life I have longed for beautiful fluttery eyelashes. Mine are ridiculously sparse and nonexistent even with special thickening, darkening, and lengthening mascara. Thankfully, Miss A scored big in the genetic lottery to be able to get D's eyelashes instead of mine!


She's such a little beauty. I mean, I AM her mama but this isn't biased opinion that I'm offering here. Pictures don't lie, right? ;)

She wants to change her name to Noah

If Miss A's crib were spontaneously audited by a crib safety inspector, it (well, we) would surely fail...


Count the Hello Kitty slippers or not, there are 10 stuffies in there with her. TEN!!!! And there's actually one elephant that didn't fit in the frame that is tied to the one end of the crib (it's a music box of sorts). And this is pretty much how Miss A prefers to have her crib. Currently her favorite animals are the white bunny, the piggy, the big grey elephant (she uses it for a pillow), and the black cat (because it looks like our cat that we actually have). She's also got three blankets (including her favorite yellow one) that she has to have in there!

It's a wonder she can fit in there herself. *Sheesh!*

Better late than never!

If I could change anything about myself it would be that I would have much better timeliness. Seemingly no matter how hard I might try, I am always just barely missing the boat with things. Case in point? The other day when I posted something here I did so without recognizing the fact that it was my 100th post!!! Can you believe that? There have been ONE HUNDRED POSTINGS here since I started this blog a year or so ago!!!

Anyway, I wanted to recognize this occasion with some recent things that have been on the camera but - for whatever reason - haven't made it on the blog so far. These are all recent happenings and definitely important but still somehow weren't on the docket to be posted here. Don't ask me how or why it's been like this. The only thing that I could cite as the reason would be that Miss A spilled a whole glass of water on the desktop keyboard a week or so ago and since I've not been able to use it regularly I've been kind of out of sorts and therefore out of habit.

So here they are in all their glory! I give you some outtakes of my amazing family!!!

A weekend or so ago D took it upon himself to tear down the fence that has seemingly divided us from the rest of the neighborhood since long before we even lived here. It was (literally) blood, sweat, tears (and LOTS of rain!!!) at times but all of his toiling paid off and I'm sure you will agree that toiling is indeed what he did...

The A-frame contraption that he's using was his own genius design to try and create better leverage to lift some of the ridiculous cement blocks that were holding some of the fence posts in. The contraption was.... mildly helpful. Thankfully, our very kind neighborhood across the street came over and pulled the one post out with (literally) brute force. It definitely helped that he was about the size of an industrial sized refrigerator and probably could have walked onto any pro football team as one of their defensive lineman or something. (I don't know enough about football to know the positions but what I'm trying to say is the guy was HUGE.)

[EDIT: D has corrected me and the aforementioned and reports that he is the one who got the one pictured out and the neighborhood got a different one out.]

And then, of course, we've got Miss A and her best friend (our dog) hanging out on the couch watching a little bit of the Disney channel. I think they were watching Handy Manny actually.

Don't you just love how Miss A is hogging all of the blankets on the couch? Please note: She's also wearing her favorite cow print pajamas. Sadly, her lately growth spurt has her on the verge of being too big for them! Say it ain't so!!!

But I will tell you what IS so! It's Miss A's hair!!!! Check out how so very long it is these days. Think we will be able to get it into pigtails by next summer??? I would LOVE that! That would be awesome!!!

And finally... *sigh*... this is why Miss A cannot be trusted to be left to her own devices for even two measly seconds these days!!! Though I wasn't the "guilty party" who wasn't looking in the first place *coughDcough*, I will readily admit that this can (and will for that matter) happen to anyone of us who thinks that it could never happen to them!

The story behind the pictures? Well, D was doing his usual morning routine and trying to also eat some breakfast at the same time and while he was turned around doing something or other, Miss A took it upon herself to get a second helping of cereal. Take note of the Calvin and Hobbes face she's making as she's stuffing her face and the spoon that she attempted to use to scoop her mess off the floor and eat like a civilized person (OF COURSE).

Happy 102nd blog posting, all!!! Thanks for keeping up with All of us Ellwoods!

Say yes to the rocking chair

Recently Miss A and I have started watching the TLC show "Say Yes to the Dress!" together. If that's not the ultimate of girl bonding television programming I don't know what is!

The other night when we were watching a little of it, Miss A took it upon herself to relocate from her usual spot on the couch next to me to her rocking chair that Grammy and Grandpap got for her last year for Christmas. She's been slightly too little to use it easily or comfortably but she has just come off of a two week growth spurt and she's been getting a ton of rocking chair time in lately.

You will notice that it's sitting out in the middle of the living room and not in it's usual place by the large rocking chair (that is actually D's favorite). Miss A actually pulled it out to this position by herself and then set herself up with her favorite yellow blanket and bottle to watch the show.

She's definitely a little woman who knows what she wants and how to get it, wouldn't you say?