Long long week

I'm so beat! We had quite an adventure in Kinston. The drive there was very pleasant. Ella was great, until it got dark. She hates the dark. She doesn't mind being outside at night, but if she's looking out a window she doesn't like it. We were about an hour from Kinston when the sun went down and she kept saying, "it's dark outside." When I say kept saying it, it was more like 200 times. So I jumped in the back and put in Tinker Bell. I used to bash tv's in cars and swore I'd never get one. But I sware my next car will have one. She was sucked into the movie, forgot about it being dark and it was great. We got to Kinston around 6:30. We did dinner and then realized we forgot the baby monitor. Which we needed since they have really steep wooden stairs next to the room we sleep in. And the baby gate was kind of cheap and easy to get over. So my granddad and I went to Walmart, which is about 25 minutes away. We got a monitor that has video so when we update to a toddler bed I can see what she's doing. LOL We got back around 9 and Ella was still awake. My grandmother couldn't wait to give Ella her Christmas presents as much I as begged for her to wait until the morning, but she did it as I was out of the room. Ella got her first bike! We need about a week and she'll have it down. She can put her feet up and gets the idea, but isn't there yet. Well, the excitement from the bike made her hyper so getting her to bed was the worst experience thus far. We went upstairs at 10 and she screamed, kicked, got out of bed, jumped around, for 45 minutes. I waved the white flag and had mom go up. I watched on the video monitor and Ella hit my mom in the face, so then I saw mom spank her then Ella got her feelings hurt then soon fell asleep at 11. It was rough.

The next morning Ella woke up at 7 and I was mad. She had 6 hours less sleep than she normally gets, so I knew the day wasn't going to be great. We got dressed and went with mom to meet my Papa at BoJangles for breakfast. Ella was in a mood, but it was nice to spend time with him. We had some great talks and have finally bonded over the past 2 years and it's nice. After breakfast we drove around Kinston in hopes Ella would fall asleep, but she wouldn't. So we headed back to the farm. My aunt Carol then showed up and Ella refused to go to her. Which broke Carol's heart. E latched to me and I got some good cuddle time and tried to get her to sleep. She hasn't cuddled like that with me in over a year! It didn't work and my aunt lured her with a cookie to go sit in her lap. Then my uncle Lenny, Paula, and their kids Mary and Wil showed up. Ella loved playing with Mary. That was her new best friend. They played outside and threw the frisbee around with Gizmo. Which is my old dog who needed a place to run instead of living in apartments, so I gave him to my grandparents. We stayed outside until lunch time. Which was wonderful! Everyone in my family are such great cooks. My grandmother fell last week, so she was only supposed to cook the turkey and dressing and we all brought lots of food. But she cooked a bunch of stuff, so got really tired. She fell asleep while eating, twice, so she went to take a nap. We went back outside and played some more. Then Lenny and crew left and my aunt Lynette, George and their kids Katie and Ashby showed up. Katie is Ella's favorite and she was on Ella duty the rest of the day. Katie went to the bathroom and Ella came crying into the kitchen saying, "poop poop potty. Be right back. Katie..." It was too funny! My grandmother soon woke up and came out to talk with us. Ella stayed in a good mood and I don't know how! No nap with less sleep than normal and she hung in there. Everyone left at 7 so she could go to bed. My aunt left some pj's and boots for Ella and I can't wait to get pics of her in them! Before they all left, everyone (9 people) gathered in the living room and sang Jingle Bells around Ella. She was overjoyed with excitement. I wish I had it on tape. I then put her to bed around 7:30 and it only took 15 minutes and she was out. Which was nice compared to the night before!

She woke up again at 7 and I was really mad this time because I was exhausted and not in the mood to put up with a grumpy baby. But, luckily she was pleasant. We got to hang out with my granddad before he went to work, so it was actually a good thing. We then started packing and my grandmother woke up. We got the car packed and left around 10, much to my grandmother's dismay. It took no time to get home since there was little traffic. Ella slept for 2 hours! She was great but melted down the last 15 minutes of the trip. We unpacked the car and then went to get our Christmas tree. We've gone to the same place for 5 years now. Though, they never have the tree I want on display, so the guy had to go through about 15 trees before he found the perfect one. It's not that I'm so picky about the tree limbs, I just like a tall fat tree and normally the trees out are skinny. Rachael met us out there, so she was our photographer. Not like we needed anymore pics taken! We came home and played around. Ella had lots of fun playing with my mom. Then we ate dinner and Ella went to bed. I put up my tree and it is beautiful! I love it. I deep cleaned the living room so everything looked pretty. So it's been a great week, though tiring.

Hope you enjoy the pics! There were over 500 pics taken, 340 uploaded... I think every minute of the trip was documented, but not by me! Hope everyone had a wonderful turkey day and had plenty to be thankful for!