January News: Some good.. some not so good!

For those of you who do not know, my Nanny babysits Ella every Thursday while I am at work. When I was a child I loved my Nanny so much and even preferred being there than at home on most days! So, when I found out that she would be watching Ella I was super excited and felt very blessed that Ella would have the same experience I did as a child.

This past Thursday I got a phone call at school from my mom telling me that Nanny had fallen down the stairs. All mom knew was that Nanny couldn't move, Ella was upset, and my Grandbubby needed to call the ambulance as soon as someone could come get Ella. Luckily, my sister was able to go pick Ella up and I immediately went to my principal to see what my options were. Thankfully, I have one of those principals who is all about family and he told me to let Ella spend the rest of the afternoon with me at school since getting a sub that late in the day is near impossible! Bekah brought Ella to me around 12:15 asleep so I told my kiddos they had to be silent so she could nap. However, as I went to lay her down on my blanket she immediately popped up ready to go! She went to lunch with us and recess out at the playground. Not long after, Kermie came to the rescue to pick her up so I could teach the last hour. Although bringing your two year old daughter to work isn't ideal, I was very surprised at how well behaved she was! I honestly think she could go to kindergarten (with me there with her!) and be just fine at two!

After several hours at the hospital, Nanny found out that she broke her tibia right where it inserts into the knee. The doctor gave her several options one being a total knee replacement since she already had a great deal of arthritis in the knee. She chose this route, but has to wait 6 weeks for the swelling to go down and then will undergo surgery and rehabilition. Please be praying for her and my grandbubby as they deal with all the struggles that will follow!

Since Nanny is out of commission for the remainder of the school year, we are now trying to figure out where Ms. Ella will be going on Thursdays. When she was small she would go pretty much any where, but now that's not the case. So, we will see what happens with that!

On a more positive note, we are finally going to invest in a new heating system for our house! We have lived here almost 4 years in frigid winters and did not put Ella in her bedroom for that very reason! The front of our house feels about as cold as it does outside! We've put off the investment, but after deciding to stay here for a few more years until Kermie's term on the Sadieville Renassiance Board ends we thought it was necessary! Not to mention that there just might be another baby sharing that room as well (if we don't remodel)! I'm definitely not excited to be spending so much money, but so excited for Ella and baby number two to be able to play in the front bedroom! The heating should be complete by Thursday of this week !!!!

Dress Up

My Tinkerbell on Snow Day # 2. Ella sure loves to dress up these days and makes mommy pretend too! Mommy always gets to be the prince.... lucky me!

Christmas 2009

After feeling quite lazy and rather yucky, I've finally found enough energy to do our Christmas post. I was horrible this year and left our camera for our three Christmases away from home, but I did manage to get some shots of Ella on Christmas morning and a family picture.

Overall, Ella really enjoyed Christmas this year. She never warmed up to the idea of Santa and actually told us she didn't want him visiting her house, but she loved the idea of Jesus having a birthday and really loved getting to see all of her family.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has a blessed New Year! :)

My Two Year Old: The Photographer

Ella has recently taken up photography. Here are a few pictures from her latest photo shoots :)

Her daddy having so much fun!

Balls in her deflated ball pit!

Ceiling of the Train

Food in her shopping cart

One of a thousand ornament pictures.

Mommy and Daddy on the train.

Mommy at her birthday lunch!

The fire roaring!

The lamp???

And, here are a few that we have taken that we love :)

Santa Sightings

The Donovan's have spotted Santa many times over the past few weeks, however, Ella has had about enough! She likes Santa fine from afar, but when he gets close she wants nothing to do with him! Here are a few of our latest Santa Sightings!


Bluegrass Railroad Museum "Santa Train"

Santa came to Sadieville City Hall! Ella's wishing he'd go back to the North Pole!

Or maybe he's not so bad after all :)

A Visit From Santa

A teacher friend e-mailed me this cute website. Ella loved getting to hear from Santa :)

http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/8d29175ba058dda76e58261f06197138

First Trip to the Dentist

Monday was Ella's first trip to the dentist and to my surprise she did fairly well! To have only had a 30 minute nap and a runny nose, she was an "enjoyable" two year old.

When we first walked in she was so excited because we had been talking about it for a while. She loved the toys and couldn't wait to go back with the dentist. When they called her name she ran through the "little" door excited about what was to come....... until she had to sit in the x-ray chair! They put the x-ray cap over her and I think the heaviness of it freaked her out! Since mommy was prego there was no holding allowed which didn't help the situation at all. After a few minutes of crying we decided to bypass the pictures for the day.

On to the cleaning we went and Ella really warmed up to the hygenist. She actually let her clean her teeth, floss her teeth, and do a flouride treatment with her brand new tooth brush. I think the tv playing above her head helped! :) Since she was in good spirits by this point, we tried again for x-rays and she did wonderful! It was so weird to see Ella's big girl teeth in the pictures. It probably sounds weird, but it actually made me sad!

By the time it was time for the dentist to come examine her teeth, Ella was about ready to be DONE! She let him look at them sitting up, but laying down was another story! The whole time he counted and poked she fussed.

Finally, the best part of the trip came and Ella got to choose a toy and put her no cavity sticker on the door. She left a little grumpy, but with extra clean teeth!

Way to go Ella! :)