Last weekend John went deer hunting with our friend Steven Owens. I didn't realize just how expensive those hunting licenses are, so I told John he better come back with some deer meat if the license cost THAT much. This was John's first time to deer hunt (can you picture John shooting Bambi?). It was about 20 degrees the first morning they went; they had ice on their rifles; at one point John looked over at Steven and he had ice on his eye brow. Doesn't really sound like fun to me. Don't know if it was beginners luck or what, but they somehow shot and killed 2 deer! One had 2 spikes and the other had 7 antlers. John had the pleasure of cleaning both of them. And boy did he come home with some deer meat! We will be having a big deer cookout very soon! John apparently didn't take any pictures, so unfortunately, no pictures of blood and guts. Steven, send me some pictures!
On a lighter note, Ella will be 9 months old this Sunday. It is really hard to believe. It seems like just yesterday she was a newborn. It is amazing how quickly she is learning things and picking up on things. Last weekend she expressed her first thought and sentence to me. John had been out of town for about 2 days and Ella just looked up at me and said, "Dada, Bye Bye" and then looked down at her hand and was waving. Then the next morning I said, "Ella, where is Dada?". She said, "Bye bye" while waving! Her ever so large vocabulary consists of Dada, Momma, Bye Bye, Uh-Oh (she likes to throw things down and say this one a LOT), and Up (to be picked up). And just last night we asked if she wanted some water and she said, "Wa, Wa" (we think). Genius at 8 months old! I guess every parent thinks that of their own child....
She is just about standing up without holding on to anything, which I fear means she might be walking soon. Have we even baby proofed since she started crawling several months ago? Nope. We just keep our living room barricaded with furniture and toys. I have heard our life will really change once she is walking (if it can change any more than it already did when she was born..I am very afraid!). I definitely miss the days when I could just sit her down somewhere, leave the room, and know she would still be in the same place when I came back. Now I will leave the room for about 10 seconds, come back, and she's missing. Can be quite scary sometimes! Luckily our dogs, Brinkley and Anne Marie help keep a good watch on her because she is into EVERYTHING. She likes to point out any dirt, pine straw or dust bunny on my floor. She'll just point to it, pick at it and look at me, like she's saying, "you know, I could put this in my mouth if I wanted...you really should vacuum more often". Thanks Ella, I know.
With the start back of work and John's school, we haven't really had time to use the camera much, so no new pictures to add. But here's my favorite old video of a duet John and Ella did when Ella was 5 months old.
