a few firsts

We had a few firsts at our house today...

First of all...Essie got invited to her first dress up birthday party!!!! Her friend Avery is having a "fairy" birthday party in february and I am so excited! Essie has a tinkerbell dress up outfit that will be perfect for this!!! Look at the cute invite...it's a magic wand...complete with pixie dust!!! LOOOOOVE!

Then when we got home Essie got to play with playdoh for the first time...she wasn't so sure about it.  She wanted to lick it.

And then got to try her very first Cadbury egg....she loved it.

And finally she has really gotten into coloring lately.  She drew/colored in her Elmo book for the longest time today!!!

elmo head to toe

I packed essie's favorite Elmo shirt, bow, and shoes today for daycae.  Mrs. Deena said that Essie found the shoes in her bag early this morning and made Deena put them on her and she wore them all day.  She was upset when Deena made her take them off for nap! She didn't want to take them off even when she got home.  It makes me so happy to do things for her she cherishes! But I'm afraid she is only going to want to wear those shoes. 

craft-tastic Sunday...

We've spent our Sunday just hanging out and finishing up several projects. 

Essie played with blocks...

pretended to be mommy...

and even painted with water.  (who knew a bowl of water, piece of paper, and paintbrush would keep her entertained so well?)

I worked on several bows...it's been a long time since I made her any bows and I've been wanting to make her a Valentine bow.  Here are the three I made today. 

I also painted her some Elmo shoes.  I saw these on a website awhile back and have been looking for some Keds.  I found some on 75% off awhile back (so I only paid $6.00) and I got to it today.  These aren't quite done..I still  need to add the ribbon laces but Essie is flipping for them already!

on a brighter note...

After we cleaned today...(it feels soooo gooood to have a clean house) we had a pretty good day! We've been talking about changing Essie's crib over to a toddler bed for awhile so we did that today...

She loves it so far! She loves being able to crawl up there on her own! We will see how that goes tonight though!

While we were doing laundry Essie came across this Elmo shirt of mine (we all have ELMO pjs now) and carried it around and begged me to put it on her.

Then we met up with some friends for a baby shower.  Essie and Adalyn had the biggest time playing! Essie rarely gets to play with kids older than her and she mimicked everything Adalyn did.  She called Adalyn "alla" over and over and over.

At one point it got quiet in their room and I found this...YES Adalyn had found the Qtips and the two girls were cleaning their ears together! We laughed and lauhed at those two crazies!

well damn (part two)

I mentioned a few times that we've been praying HARD for the position here at the city of Jonesboro.  Well Travis found out yesterday that he will most likely not get the position.  However he was offered a position in little rock with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality.  And since his umemployment is currently under investigation (and we've not been able to draw any money the past few weeks) it looks like Travis will be moving to Little Rock in two weeks.  He will be able to stay with his sister down there so we will not have to rent somewhere for him to stay.  But with extra expenses it looks like we will be worse off finacially than we were before.  So needless to say we are at an ultra low point right now.  We're not sure where this job will lead to..if that means we will live seperately until the summer and Essie and I can relocate down there.  We just don't know.  At this point Essie and I are staying here.  We cannot afford for me to resign and relocate. And to be honest dont WANT to just yet.  We have a ton of decisions to make...when to put the house up for sale, etc.  And Travis will be away from his family for 5 days each week (we are hoping he can come home each weekend).  I will be a single mom for the most part which is going to open a whole other can of worms.   And poor little Essie will just not understand and that's the part that KILLS me.  She loves her daddy so much I cannot imagine how hard this is going to be on her (and him).  I'm hoping we can purchase a webcam or something so we can at least skype each night for her to see /talk to him.   So anyway..I spent 99% of yesterday bawling my eyes out...I had a complete meltdown at lunch yesterday with my coworkers...and bless their hearts they were so sweet to me.  I cried so much my eyes were swollen almost shut and I went to bed with a migraine.  I know...things happen for a reason. It will work out in the end.  Try to think positively but honestly I've been positive for over a year now and I'm tired! I want to wallow in self pity for a few days until we can pick ourselves back up and move forward.  Yes things could be worse.  We have so much to be thankful for.  But at this stage in our life...things kinda suck! But we are working throught it..praying for a miracle to happen in the next two weeks...and keeping busy to take our minds off things.  Today I cleaned to clear my head.  Travis and Essie ran a few errands so I could clean uninterrupted and the first place I tackled was her room....

And bless her lil heart she wants to help so much so she has chores around the house too.  Her favortie chore is to feed the dogs.  If the dogs bark or scratch for food she will run to the laundry room and get them food.  We have to help her fill the cup up but she dumps it in (near, around, in the general vacinity of) their bowl.  She is so proud of herself!

And she also likes to help unload the dryer. 

But every now and then she just can't resist taking a warm towel and wearing it as a scarf! :)