Baby's First Christmas

Our little "Ella"phant

We made a brave attempt to take our little "Ella"phant out for her first Halloween. We weren't quite how sure how long she would last but we thought it was worth a shot. She started the night super excited to see her cousins and be with lots of "big" kiddos. We ate pizza, crammed in some cupcakes, and started off. By the third house she was already ready for bed...in these photos she was pretty delirious. Overall it was really fun seeing everyone out in their costumes and spending time with friends and family. Hopefully next year she'll score some candy so Mommy and Daddy can steal a few pieces :)

August Recap

We spent most of August visiting family and friends trying to soak up the last days of summer. Ella has proven to be a good traveler so far and has done her fair share of it in the past three months. The first weekend in August was spent at Lake Martin celebrating Jared Wingfield's 30th birthday with some of Josh's dearest friends from college. It was great getting to catch up, share stories, and cruise on the lake sipping our gourmet coffee. It was also Ella's first introduction to two of the Wingfield boys, Hank and Conrad Hudson, who are both sweet as pie!...for more on the weekend click here and here. On our way back from Lake Martin we made a stop by Auburn to eat at Mama G's and drive by some of Josh's favorite places. The second weekend we spent time at Lake Hartwell with the Bluster family. We had a great time and made some hilarious memories...most of which will never be blogged about . After our fun at the lake Mom, Ella, and I headed to St.Simons while Josh was on business in New York. My cousin just moved into an adorable cottage on the island so we went to visit and help her get settled...my new favorite place is Moo Cow Ice Cream. We ended August by celebrating my sweet Grandmother's birthday in Habersham with the whole Bluster family . It is amazing how fast times goes by when you have a little one...I felt like yesterday we were bringing her home...she is a little slice of heaven

Here are a few pics from August...

* Lastly, this Sunday (Sept. 4th) Josh is preaching while his father is away...we girls are so proud of him :)

If you'd like to watch live or sometime afterwards go to www.apostles.org. The service begins at 10:30 a.m.

baby girl's first time in the lake

Happy birthday Jared!

Ella with Hank and Conrad Hudson

Josh and Ella outside Mama G's

Nene with all her treasures

Any kids dream

Eli having fun on the slide...none of us expected how fast he would fly!

precious one

Ella Mater Tater

Youssef Beach Trip 2011

It has been one busy summer here at the Youssef home and besides changing diapers we have been busy soaking up the summer sun with our little Ella Mae in tow. We were all excited to welcome Josh's sister Sarah, and her boys Aidan and Oliver, in from Kenya to spend a month here in Atlanta. A few days after their arrival we all headed down to St. George Island to vacation for a week. It was a great time catching up and laughing together...since it is rare that we are all together. We also celebrated Joshie's 33rd birthday with a delicious chocolate cake compliments of his sister Tash. Ella enjoyed all of the sweet kisses from her cousins, time with her grandparents, and naps on the beach. We are now in town for a short while before heading to the lake for the next two weekends with family and friends. Hopefully I can be better about taking more pictures...but for now here are a few from this week.















From Left to Right Oliver (3) Bryce (3) Knox (9 months) Ella (2 months) Aidan (5)

oh how we love her

Special Visitors

Little Ella has had a number of visitors in the past two weeks and we are so grateful for all of the prayers, food, and gifts we have reciveved...It did not take long for Ella to acquire a closet full of pink girly dresses :)

Monday we had a a very special visit from Ella's great-grandmother and two great aunts. They were so kind to bring lunch and dessert and we had a lovely afternoon together. Here are a few pics of their visit.

Elizabeth "Ella" Mae Youssef

On Wednesday May 25, 2011 we welcomed our little Ella into the world. I was induced beginning at 8:00 a.m. and she was born at 6:09 p.m. She has proven to be of our blood as she decided to come fashionably late, "sunny side up", pooping her pants . Josh and I were overjoyed and were greeted by a room full of screaming, crying relatives who were eager to find out the name and sex of our newest addition. We have loved getting to know our little bundle and are getting adjusted to the lives as parents. Here are some pictures of Ella's first week of life. More to come soon.

Wedding Pics

copy and paste this link to check out some better pics of Mere and Rob's wedding

www.griffingibson.com/blog/meredith-and-robbie-tie-the-knot

still waiting...

We are still here and the baby has decided to be fashionably late...just like a Bluster :) The anticipation is killing us and we have tried every trick in the book. To help us kill time please take part in our gender poll to the right... feel free to share any advice on how to induce labor in the comments below.

Meet the newest addition to our family!

no, not the baby... well... this is Josh's baby... born in 1967...
9 more days until the real baby arrives!

Mere and Rob get hitched!

What a beautiful day it was at the Bluster house last Saturday for the last and final Bluster Wedding. I really can't say enough about how perfect everything was so I will let the pictures do the talking.I don't have tons of great pics but hopefully this will do for now. Kudos to my parents who throw one heck of a party. So proud of the new couple and so glad we didn't have any babies come early :)

Josh and my very pregnant self

Rehearsal dinner pics


The wedding gurus with the bride

the wedding site

Setting up

Mom and Mere

The beautiful bride

Mere and Rob's getaway Bronco...more on this later

Happy 3rd!!

This post is dedicated to my best friend. Happy 3rd Anniversary Hubs! Life would not be the same without you. Much Love.

Babymoon!

Josh and I really wanted to get away for a few days before the arrival of our little one. We debated flying somewhere out of the states but settled on driving down south (way down south) to spend our babymoon in Boca Raton, FL. It was a long drive but we figured we probably wouldn't get 10 hours/both ways of uninterrupted "us-time" in the coming months. It was well worth the drive! We spent one night at Jupiter beach, three nights at the Boca Beach club and took a short day trip down to Miami to eat dinner. We treasured our time together and enjoyed pampering ourselves one last time before the baby arrives. Our next beach trip in June will surely be different but we are looking forward to having our little one join our family!