Ella's 1st birthday brunch

We had a great time at Ella's 1st birthday brunch. Our new house has been so much better for entertaining, we have had both girls most recent parties at the house. I am thankful to have the space we need to entertain. Below are way too many pictures from the party...my sweet co-worker graciously took pictures at the party and I am so thankful that she captured these sweet memories so beuatifully.

Ella is 1!

Ella, I cannot believe that you are 1 today. We go to the doctor for your 1 year check up on November 2nd to find out your exact stats and percentiles. You wear a size 12-18 months, a size 4 shoe and a size 4 diaper. You are getting bigger every day. You have 2 bottom teeth and 2 top teeth that are just popping in. You are such a happy girl and so smiley.

You are being transitioned to only 1 nap at school and this often makes you pretty fussy in the evenings. I don’t think you are ready for only 1 nap so we are sticking with 2 on the weekends. You love to play and figure things out. You like to chase balls while all of the neighbors are out playing in the cul-de-sac, you love the little toy car that our neighbors have loaned us…you really just love to be outside, just like your sister.

You are a pretty good eater. You have eaten anything I’ve ever given you. Lately you love to eat the squeezable applesauce (although you make a huge mess with them), mashed potatoes, mandarin oranges and turkey. I am going to transition you away from your bottles tomorrow, we will see how that goes. You began practicing with sippy cups about 2 months ago and you are now pretty good at it.

You can say night-night, mama, dada and ball but you don’t really associate the words with what they are yet. You love to wave hi and bye and you blow sweet kisses. You are so much better of a sleeper at this age than your sister was. You go to bed around 7:30 and you wake up at about 7, you sleep solid through the night…I. AM. SO. THANKFUL. FOR. THIS!

You are such an amazing addition to our family. I am so thankful for your precious life and that I get to be your mommy. Happy 1st birthday, I love you so much sweet girl!

Reese- 2.5 years old

Reese, you are somehow already 2 and a half years old. You weigh 33 pounds and are much taller than any of your friends. You are now wearing 4T clothes...I bought mostly 3T for Fall about 2 months ago and none of them fit you anymore. You wear a size 8.5 shoe and you are in a size 5 diaper but we are slowly working our way out of diapers, fingers crossed.

You are so precious and getting to be so affectionate. Last night you hugged me and said "I love you mom", it melted my heart. You have recently decided you call me mom instead of mommy. You love your friends and you love to name all of them off to us, most every day. Your best friend is Reagan but you also seem to really love Carter, Blake, Alex, Luke, Tatum and Leo (those are the kids you talk about most anyway). You have recently started to be able to count to 10, although you replace 5 with 9 every time but the rest of it is perfect. You can sing the entire abc's song, twinkle-twinkle, you are my sunshine, Jesus loves the little children, and row row your boat. You father has taught you how to say "cool dude" with your thumb up and "cowabunga dude" but you struggle with that hand gesture- he wants you to be a child of the 80's and has you do this all of the time. You do this strange thing with your mouth that your teacher's have named the alien (I have that one on video). You love to play outside with the neighbors.

You have become a super star sleeper. On the weekends you will sleep from 8:30ish- 9:45ish, we call you our teenager on those nights. You still love Lyla so much. You get so much joy from your binkies and I don't know when or how we are going to eliminate them. You are only allowed to have them at nap and night time and you are okay with that. You hate thunder and loud noises and I am always anxious for you when it is bed time and it is storming.

You and Ella have your tense moments but most of the time you are so sweet to her. If she is upset you are always so quick to figure out a way to make her happy. Yesterday we went to Shogun for lunch. Ella started to fuss when the chef lit the big fire at the beginning. Even though you were concerned yourself your first thought was to comfort Ella. You put your arm around her and told her that it was okay.

You are such an amazing blessing & I am so thankful that He chose us to be your mommy and daddy. We love you sweet girl!

Branson- fall 2012

Last weekend we took a short trip over to Branson. We only spent 2 nights there but we had a really fun time. We got in on a Thursday and spent the evening on the Landing. We ate at Bass Pro’s restaurant. We always eat at this restaurant because there are fish and animals mounted on the walls for the little girls entertainment, it is loud (disguises the noises that loud young children might make) and the food is pretty good. After dinner we went down to the fire and water display. Ella loved it and Reese decided she was scared of it, but she had a good time.

 

 

 On Friday we ate pancakes at a local diner and then went to the butterfly palace. The butterfly palace was fun but overpriced for what it was. I was expecting a really large rainforest with lots of butterflies (similar to the one in Galveston) but this was more of a medium sized back yard that was really humid with some butterflies. The girls didn’t love it but they had a good time. That evening we went back to the landing. We went to Bass Pro Shop to see the fish tank and all of the animals, both of the girls loved this. Then we had dinner at the Mexican restaurant that is on the water, you can see the fire and water display from your table. After dinner we let Reese enjoy her first build-a-bear experience. She loved this. Meet Macy below, our new bunny rabbit addition. We got Ella a small pre-made version of the one that Reese got, Reese named her Marissa. The names that Reese came up with make me laugh because 2 children from Reese’s class had baby sisters in the past few weeks and they are named Macy and Marissa…she loves babies and she begs to see her friends new babies on facebook every night. Now she and Ella have their own babies, with the same names.

On Saturday we took the girls to the Christmas village. Santa was working at the Christmas shop and he had a long conversation with Reese about listening to her mommy and daddy really well and he would bring her some presents at Christmas. She wasn’t scared of him at all so hopefully she will be excited to sit on his lap this year…we will see.

 

It was a fun get away. I love getting to spend time away with my cute little family like this.