Happy Birthday Ellie!

This was taken last fall, but it is just so ELLIE

Party pics. My camera was really not fast enough for all the action.






It is so incredible to think back four years. I told Ellie last night the story of that same evening four years ago: Biz had come over to help me hang a few pictures in Ellie's room {and had expressed her disapproval of Ellie's name. It didn't "flow" HA! I will never let her live that down}. I had picked up a pizza on the way home. It was a normal evening. It started to get a little stormy {just like last night!} and Brandon and I were headed to bed. I went in and washed my face and came out to tell him I thought my water had broken. His response was {an unethusiactic} "Are you serious?" You see {and I spared Ellie this part}, we had both slept TERRIBLY the night before. For the first and only time in our married life, we both tossed and turned so much that Brandon had actually retreated to the couch! We were SO. TIRED. and so ready to hit the sack. Here we'd been waiting 9 long months for this baby and when she was finally ready to get here, we were really ready to just go to bed and wait one more day! But that was not how things played out. We headed to the hospital and arrived by about 10:30. Twelve short hours later, we were holding a precious baby girl named Ellie Jordan Fields.
How different things are today! How she has blessed my life! I can't even put into words the joy Ellie brings to my life. She is funny, smart, sensitive, and fiesty. I get sad to think that she is getting older and may not always want me to rock her {every single night!}, but Nana is right when she says that each passing day brings new reasons to enjoy being a Mama. I miss Ellie as a baby, but I would not trade her as a FOUR YEAR OLD for any amount of money. And I am sure I will feel that way when she is 10, 15, 20 and 60! Just last night, she made me laugh so hard I almost fell on the floor:
Ellie wanted a {homemade} blueberry muffin. I told her she needed to finish her dinner, but I fixed the muffin and set it beside her plate. {Proof I'd let her have it!} Mason said he wanted to get down and asked for something in the living room. Ellie said "YEAH. Go in the living room and get it for him. You can go on in there NOW. I'll be fine!" I said "WHY? Are you going to eat that muffin when I leave the room???" She busted out laughing because that was EXACTLY her plan. I guess she didn't think I was smart enough to figure that one out!
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We had a wonderful birthday party at Imag.ination Sta.tion. It turned out that FIVE children were on vacation so there were only a few kids, but we partied anyway. Tonight Ellie has requested: Shells and cheese, deer meat and fried okra. She has a couple more gifts to open {from us and from Biz and Tim}. I am excited about what she is getting from us. Here's a hint:

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We had a nice weekend. All of Brandon's parents came down the for the party. His dad and Linda were able to make a weekend of it so we got to spend lots of time with them which was nice. I think if Mason spent much more time with Grandma Linda, she'd have a very hard time getting rid of him. He wanted to be with her all. the. time! Brandon's mom and John came out for a little while after the party and checked out the progress on the house. John was helpful with some issues he saw with the house that we were able to address with our contractor this morning. It seems when you say "structural issues" to a contractor, they come right out the next morning!
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There is a trailer of siding sitting at the house that was delivered some time yesterday. Word is they will start with siding tomorrow. The basement ceiling has been finalized and they should be getting that done this week so {hopefully} drywall can start as soon as the electrician {BRANDON} finishes with the electric. Our contractor did say to me Friday "Just don't be mad at me when it is not finished on time." OH LORDIE! Somebody hold me!