We have deer meat again!

This past weekend after dropping Ella and me off at the lake, Will headed to Kingstree to hunt w/his cousin Jim. Thankfully, he shot two deer (a buck and a doe), so we once again will have meat in our freezer. Why am I so happy? Well, besides the fact that it saves money, it's much healthier than cow's meat (leaner and no hormones, etc) and actually tastes pretty good. Will processes the meat himself, and I help w/the grinding and storing. Needless to say, this was a great early b-day present for Will who turned 32 Monday.

Ella had a wonderful time w/Ga-ma and Gan-pa at the lake. I think her favorite thing was watching Gan-pa feed hound dog. The ducks were also a treat. I don't have many pics to share b/c Will took the camera, so mine were taken on my mom's camera. Since her computer is acting up, she's having a hard time sending the pics to me. If and when, it ever works, I'll post more to share. There are some adorable ones of Kenny (Gan-pa) reading to Ella that I'd love to post.

In Prosperity, we enjoyed Roma's restaurant (awesome chicken spaghetti and pizza!) and the new Main Street Diner(yummy blueberry pancakes w/whipped cream on top!). Unfortunately, unlike Jeff, I don't have pics or links to post of these eateries b/c they don't have websites. While in Prosperity, Mom suggested we go to the downtown shops as a treat for me and Ella (well, really just for me). ;-) I don't think she'll ever come up with that idea again. She told me later that she could have handled 2 hours but 3 was just way too much. As most of you know, I am quite the indecisive shopper. We went into this one store and I must have stayed in there an hour deciding on frames and baskets. Sorry, Mom! Ella was actually pretty good in her stroller (we kept her distracted by offering her different stuffed animals in the store to hold), but at the end she was getting extremely tired and ended up falling asleep on the way home (w/ a new bunny by her side-Ga-ma just couldn't resist.) :-)
And it was on the way home, that we caught the tailend of the Clemson/Wake Forest game on the radio. We started listening right as they got the ball after the missed field goal attempt from WF and decided to turn the game around. Yay Tigers!

This week, Ella has been bringing me books to read to her and then lifting up her hands, so I'll pick her up and put her in my lap-so sweet. She also loves looking at and pointing to pictures of herself. And she's quite intelligent too. Today, as she was on the changing table, I decided to clean her little nose out. She kept turning further and further away from me, so I couldn't do it-she finally turned all the way around on her tummy w/ a sly grin on her face.

And she's started playing hide-n-seek w/me. Her favorite place to hide is behind the glider in her room, though today she chose under the kitchen table. Of course, I always look all around the room first asking, "Where's Ella?" "Oh, Ella, where are you?" Sometimes, she'll come out just to show me where Miss Ella is. :-) So cute.

And no longer does our dear Ella crawl when I'm chasing her. No, she just walks as fast as those little legs will carry her to get away. It's sad to admit-but our little baby is finally turning into a true toddler. You can just see the wheels turning as she tries to figure out new things everyday and the defiance she has when things don't go her way. Thankfully, her "trantrums" don't last long. I guess Will and I can't blame her for her lack of patience (she can get easily frustrated) as we're the same way. We've just learned not to throw tantrums in public...I hope! :-)