Ella now has a total of three teeth. One up top and two on the bottom. Now she can do some real damage when nursing! LOL Luckily, she hasn’t bitten (hard) since that top tooth came in. It looks as if the second top tooth will be making an appearance very soon. You can almost see the tooth through the gum. She’s not quite 8 months yet and she has three, going on four, teeth! Unbelievable! My three other kids didn’t even get one tooth before 8 months old.

Our family vacation to Tennessee was so much fun. David, the kids & I left on April 18th for Pigeon Forge, TN and came home on April 24th. We rented a cabin rather than getting a hotel room. Our cabin was wonderful. We had a great view from the top of our mountain and the kids especially enjoyed the pool table and hot tub. While we were there we did a lot of sight seeing. We took the kids to WonderWorks , a really cool place similar to the Children’s Museum (only way better). We also went to Cherokee, NC for a day. On our last day, we took the kids to Forbidden Caverns.

We had a lot of good family time. The kids had their daddy all to themselves all week (and so did I!) and we just really enjoyed ourselves.

The cuteness! I can hardly stand it! I love this child!

Just one more day before the kids are out of school for the Easter holiday. I can’t wait! They are off of school on Friday for Good Friday and then they have the whole week after Easter off too. But then, the real reason I am excited comes. We will be leaving next Saturday for our Tennessee vacation. It has been since 2006 that we’ve had a family vacation. We are so overdue! We have a cabin reserved in Pigeon Forge for the entire week and I am looking forward to a whole lot of family time and relaxation. Our cabin has a pool table and a hot tub and it’s on top of a mountain with a huge wrap-around porch with a lovely view. David , the kids & I are looking so forward to it.

My little Ella is now 6 months old!! I can’t believe how fast this first year is going by. On March 25th, she hit the six month mark. And she has 2 little teeth already! My other kids didn’t get a tooth until they were over 8 months old. Needless to say, I was very surprised when I felt that first tooth in mid-March.

So, in honor of my baby turning half a year, I am posting some recent pictures of her!

In my bouncy horse!

Sitting in a chair like a big girl!

What a face!!

Showing off my two little teeth. What a big smile!

So, David & I have planned a vacation in Tennessee in late April. We’ve booked a cabin in the mountains for a week. It was weird; before we booked the cabin, we were just hoping to go on vacation. After we found a cabin and booked it, we were dying to go on vacation. Neither one of us can wait until that week gets here! We are in dire need of a nice relaxing family vacation. A week in the mountains in a cabin with a hot tub and a pool table sounds like heaven right now! We haven’t been on a family vacation since Disney World in ‘06. Then, we traveled with David’s mom & dad. In fact, we haven’t had a “just us” vacation since Jacob was 2! That means that we haven’t had a vacation with just us (David, Jacob & I) and the girls! That’s crazy… considering Leah will be 9 this year! Don’t get me wrong, we’ve been on lots of vacations, but always with other people. And we have had little weekend get-aways with just us and the kids, but never an all-out vacation. Needless to say, we are very excited. April just can’t get here fast enough!

Daylight Savings Time sucks. I really dislike it. These first few days are like a shock to my system. I feel tired and disoriented. Anything but rested. And tomorrow, I’ve got to get my kids up at what will feel like friggin’ 5 a.m. Why do we do this? For “extra” daylight. What a load of crap. No matter what our clocks say, the sun will still rise and set at whatever time its going to rise and set. Arizona doesn’t do DST. I wish we didn’t. If it’s good enough for Arizona, its good enough for us!!

My mom & I took my kids to the zoo today. The weather was perfect! It was about 75 degrees, overcast and breezy. The animals were out. The big cats were lazy, but visible, which is always nice. When it’s hot, they hide. The big orangutan was really cute today. He kept putting his hand out, wanting his audience to throw him something. Food, I assume. His hands were very long. Creepy long. But he was funny.

Ella was an angel. She rode in her stroller most of the time. I carried her around for a little bit, but not too much. She’s quite a load. I think she liked being outside, but she couldn’t have cared less about the animals.

This week off of school has flown by. I can’t believe tomorrow is Friday already. NOT fair! I am so ready for the summer to be here. We have planned a vacation to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee in April, so I have that to look forward to. We rented a cabin in the mountains for the week of David’s birthday. It will be our first family vacation since Disney in ‘06. Much needed, believe me. We are all excited about it!

As big & chunky as Ella is, she doesn’t really enjoy eating food. Here is her first encounter with rice cereal (mixed with mommy milk) on a spoon.

In goes the food:

Not too sure about that:

Another bite:

Eh… it’s ok, I guess:

It took me forever to feed her just a few spoonfuls. She just kept spitting it out. I talked with the dr. and she said it’s no big deal if she doesn’t want to eat yet. SO we gave up on cereal for now. But I thought the pictures were so cute!!