Greenville

My mom and I threw a baby shower for my friend Elizabeth this past Saturday so last Wednesday the girls and I headed up to Greenville...with me praying the whole way that Ellie would sleep better than she did the last few times we were out of town. (Fortunately she did! She didn't sleep as good as at home but she was much better than I expected!)
Wednesday evening we went to church for dinner. Emmie had the BEST time playing with the older kids, especially Maggie (who's probably 7 or 8 and was so sweet to my girls) and Amelia (Amelia's aunt and I are the same age and we grew up together in the church!...also on a side note Amelia's mom is an AMAZING photographer...check out her work!). We didn't realize until later that Emmie was old enough to go to the kids program...she was a quite sad when Amelia left...next time we'll stay and let her go to class!
Thursday we had a special treat.  My friend Carissa (mom of Will and Griffin) just moved to Greenville and they had a free day so we went to the zoo with them. The big kids had so much fun checking out all the animals and Ellie even got into the excitement. I think Griffin enjoyed watching the older kids and seeing the animals...he is so sweet and easy going and I couldn't believe how big he'd gotten since the last time I saw him! I, of course, enjoyed getting to spend time with Carissa. The last time we got together they weren't planning to move anytime soon and then in a crazy few weeks they rented out their house, packed up, and moved to Greenville...obviously we had a lot to catch up on!

Thursday afternoon my Grandmother came over to visit. I had a horrendous headache so sadly I missed most of her visit but the girls had lots of fun with her. She brought them flashlights and a little Halloween tin and they've had the BEST time playing with their goodies! They always love the little treats she brings.

Friday morning we ran some errands with my mom to get food for the shower and then hung around the house Friday afternoon. Friday evening I met Paul in Clinton to give him Franklin...we met in a Wendy's parking lot...it had a wierd joint custody feel to it...strange...haha. Funny story: when I got back to Greenville Ellie was in bed but had been crying for awhile. My mom had gone in to pat her a few times with no luck. Once I got home my mom and I alternated going in there for awhile. My dad was upstairs (he had been riding his excercise bike so he was all nasty sweaty..this is an important detail to the story) so I told him he was more than welcome to go in. So he went in, picked Ellie up (with his sweaty self...ewww) and he said she looked at him and pointed to the bed. He laid her back down and we never heard another peep out of her! Guess she figured if that was what we were sending in she'd just go to sleep!
While we were in Greenville we did lots of fun around the house things...went for walks, Emmie rode the tricycle (she's almost got the pedaling thing down) and picked little red berries from my mom's bush,

the girls had lots of fun playing under my mom's desk,

Ellie walked around and read some books (how cute is that...she's clearly my child!),

I played around with my camera and got some great shots of Ellie Belly,

Ellie practiced turning her tongue sideways,

Ellie told some secrets to Gran,

and I worked on Emmie's Little Bo Peep costume (with some help from Ellie and Emmie, who sat with me later and watched).

(Also, contrary to how it appears in pictures, my dad was around some...apparently just not when the camera was out..sorry Grandaddy, we'll get some pictures next time!)

Saturday we had the baby shower (more on that later) and then headed to Pageland for Emily and Blake's engagement party...also a post for another day! After the engagement party we headed back to Columbia. My girls were WORN OUT after a day of partying and went right to sleep. They were so tired that Ellie slept until 9:45 Sunday morning and Emmie was still in her room when Ellie got up and when I went in there Emmie told me she was still sleeping...funny girl!