Ella’s Birthday Party

Ella’s birthday was Monday, April 2nd.  We decided to have her birthday party Easter weekend so that my sister and her fam could make it.  We went with an Easter theme.  I had been searching on pinterest for a few things to make for her party, but they needed to be easy because I am not crafty at all!  Here are some pictures from her birthday – there was no smash cake because of the broken arm.  I was so sad when I realized that she wouldn’t be able to have that.  Several people suggested wrapping it in a trash bag, but I didn’t want her first birthday pictures with a trash bag on her arm, so we went without.  I mentioned to Tommy that we may be doing a smash cake once the cast is off.  The cake was not quite what I had in mind – I had emailed the bakery a picture of what I was thinking and when I went to pick it up there was a big bunny on the cake.  I almost died!  I had specifically said that even though it was an Easter themed birthday party, I didn’t want some bunny cake.  I quickly did some doctoring of the cake to get that bunny off and it was fine.  We had a great time celebrating Ella and loved having our family and friends over.  She received tons of great gifts and has been having a blast playing with all her new toys.  So thankful for our sweet girl and what a blessing she has been to our family!  I can’t imagine life without her.  She and Owen adore each other and can’t get enough of each other.

 

Some one year stats – weighs 22 lbs, 31 inches long.  Eats most everything that is given to her.  Started walking a month ago (had been walking about 85% of the time and then when she broke her arm March 15th it put the walking at 100%), loves playing outside with bubbles, chalk, swinging and chasing Owen and Sampson.  She loves Owen’s toys as well – is content with super heroes or her baby doll.  She is definitely very vocal – talks a lot – her vocabulary that we can understand includes mama, dada, pup pup (puppy), kitty kitty, ball, book, baby, hi, bye bye, uh oh, bunny and milk.

 

Ella’s Birthday – one year ago

I know it’s been forever – I just can’t get my act together with blogging.  However, I do want to update on Ella’s 1st birthday, but wanted to go back and document her birth day so I have it recorded somewhere.  My due date with Ella was April 14th and I was hoping baby girl would stay put at least until the 15th.  I thought this was a reasonable request since Owen was 5 days late.  As a teacher with TAKS just around the corner, I was wanting to get in as much time as possible with my students.  I went for my 38 week appointment on Thursday, the 31st of March.  My doctor told me she didn’t think I’d make it more than a week.  I was already at a 4 – yikes!  I went to school Friday and decided I better have everything ready just in case.  I let my students make predictions on when they thought Ella would arrive.  Some guessed that day and of course, I thought they were crazy.  I had asked Owen this same question on Thursday and he said in 2 days (which turned out to be right).  Friday afternoon, Owen and I played on the play ground for a couple of hours and then went and stopped by to see Tommy.  He was getting his hair cut and Owen wanted to watch.  So, we went there and then I told Tommy I had to come home that I was so tired and not feeling great.  We came home, Tommy started mowing, etc.  About 8:30 or so, I went outside and told TOmmy I thought I was having contractions.  They weren’t hurting, so I wasn’t convinced.  I never had contractions with Owen or Ella before I went into labor.  I called the doctor – of course my doctor wasn’t on call that weekend.  I was super sad because she didn’t deliver Owen either.  Tommy went into get the house ready mode and cleaned the kitchen and vaccuumed all before going to bed at 1 am.  At 2:15 I woke up and my water had broken.  Tommy’s brother came over and stayed here so we wouldn’t have to get Owen up.  Then, Tommy and I headed to the hospital.  We got there around 3:30.  Got checked in and Tommy texted our friends Jonas and Tricia because they were at Baylor having their little boy.  She had been induced Friday night.  We had talked about how fun it would be to be there together, but didn’t think it would really happen.  Got an epidural around 5 or 6 – 7 centimeters and then by 8 I was at a 10 ready to go.  We then had to just wait on my doctor – Dr Fields got there and Ella was born at 9:18 am.  It was such an easy delivery compared to Owen’s.  I couldn’t believe how fast it was.  12 days early and still weighed 7 lbs 15 oz.

December update

It’s been a while.  So, here is the update on what we’ve been up to.

• Ella is obsessed with Sampson’s water and food bowls.  Owen loved them as well, but they weren’t elevated at that time, so it was less of an issue.  Tommy built this awesome dog food/water table, but I am afraid she’s going to pull it over on herself and that the ceramic bowls are going to break on her.  Also, she wants to put the dog food in her mouth – I must dig it out at least 10 times a day.  Owen was just there for the water to play in.
• Owen and I have been working on writing the letters of the alphabet.  He’s not interested, but I am forcing the issue a bit – he’s interested in writing his name, but could care less about being able to write anything else.  So, I am taking the approach of learning how to write other people’s names – therefore, we learn more letters.  We are currently working on Allison’s name – hoping he can show her this weekend how well he can write her name.  The teacher in me wants to push him a little.  Because he isn’t in preschool this year, I feel like I need to be working on these things.  Not sure homeschooling would ever be for me – I have to really try hard to get him excited about some aspects of “school”.  If it’s math or science, he’s all over it.  Boys are very different learners than girls – I am thankful I have witnessed it first hand with hundreds of kids throughout the years.
• Owen got in a stranger’s car the other day.  We were at the store and had parked on the front row.  When we were leaving, he asked if he could walk in front of cars on the sidewalk to our car.  I said sure.  I had to walk behind cars because I had the cart, but I could see him, so I wasn’t concerned.  I unlocked the car and looked up and didn’t see Owen.  I call his name, look around and see him sitting in the passenger seat of the car next to us.  The car next to us was the exact same and they had left it unlocked, so Owen climbed on in.  The whole incident lasted about 10 seconds and I thought it was funny.  I woudl have died had they come out and seen my child in their car.  He was embarrassed about the whole thing.
• Took the kids to see Santa.  Thought Owen would love it this year – not so much.  He wouldn’t smile, talk to him and the tears started welling up in his eyes.  Ella was about 2 seconds away from losing it.  There is always next year, right?

• Ella said her first word two days ago – da da.  It’s so cute to hear her say it and she says it a lot when Tommy gets home from work.  Owen’s first word was mama, so it seems fitting for hers to be da da.  My baby is growing up.  We also have dropped the swaddle.  I babysat some kids the other day and had taken the swaddle with me for naptime and then accidentally left it there.  I didn’t realize until bedtime that night, so we were without that night.  I had planned on picking it up the next day, but it didn’t happen.  After two nights without a swaddle, I decided we better just be done with it.  So, we are.  It’s strange how things just come to an end – especially when you weren’t planning on it.
• The Elf on the Shelf has come to live at our house.  It’s been fun to see what he has done.  Major props to Tommy for being such a great dad and willing to create anything.  He made a zipline through our house for Felipe (the elf) to ride on.  Owen LOVED it and was so impressed!  He is always creating something cool for he and Owen to play with.  My brain doesn’t work that way – I hope Owen gets that from Tommy.

Ella,

Today, you are 8 months old.  How can you already be 8 months old?  It makes me kind of sad that you are becoming less of a baby each day.  Right now, you are sitting on the floor playing with Owen and wearing his Christmas pajamas from 3 years ago – this makes me smile.  Here are some things that you are doing at 8 months:

• crawling all over the place – you started crawling about 3 weeks ago, but have really taken off in the last week.
• pulling up and trying to cruise ( will we have an early walker like Owen? – time will tell)
• loves trying new foods – some favorites are mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, avacado, apple sauce and dressing (she ate tons of dressing at Thanksgiving)
• has 4 teeth (top 2 and bottom 2)
• playing with Owen’s toys – superheroes are good chew toys
• just learned to clap and does it all the time – she’s quite proud of herself
• loves to talk – no real words yet – she has said the mama sound, but doesn’t realize what she’s saying
• loves her mama – she doesn’t want me to be too far away from her.

Happy Half Birthday Owen!

I thought I had set this to post on the 18th – clearly, I am still figuring all of this blogging out.  So, better late than never.

 

Today, Owen is 3 1/2!  I love half birthdays.  I think my love of half birthdays goes back to maybe elementary school or junior high.  I have a summer birthday, so my school would call out your birthday on your half birthday and give you a half of a birthday sticker.  For some reason, this made my day and from there the love of half birthdays was born.  In college, Sherry, Melissa and I all had August birthdays, so we would always celebrate our 1/2 birthdays together in February.  We would go as far as getting out the birthday sign (inserting a 1/2), buying a 1/2 of a cake, etc.  Ridiculous, I know.  Then, I became a teacher.  I then had the opportunity to introduce 10 years worth of children  to half birthdays.  They all got their desk decorated with butcher paper that said Happy 1/2 Birthday!  They loved it!

Back to my boy though.  Here are some things that Owen LOVES at 3 1/2

• Ella – I could have never dreamed how much this boy would love his sister.  He can make her laugh when no one else can, is always wanting to play with her, hates her taking naps, loves to feed her, give hugs, kisses and talk to her.
• Superheroes – we play superheroes and bad guys on a daily basis.  It’s so fun to be a mom to a boy!
• Sampson – Owen is always very disappointed when Sampson can’t go with us.  He goes lots of places, but he can’t go everywhere.
• Friends – He loves his friends and is always excited when the older ones get home from school.
• Books – Praying he will continue to love books and reading for the rest of his life.  This would make my heart happy!

So thankful for the gift of Owen.  He’s such a blessing to our family and I am blessed to be his mom.  We love you O!

My little chef

When Tommy and I first got married, I knew that I wanted to provide our new little family with home cooked meals.  My mom always cooked a huge breakfast and dinner everynight.  I didn’t realize then how spoiled I was to have a mom that got up and cooked biscuits and gravy, eggs, bacon or whatever else you might want EVERY SINGLE DAY!  Wow!  No one else even ate breakfast besides me, so it really was an act of love.  The problem when we got married is that I hadn’t ever taken the time to learn from my mom.  Looking back on those first months of marriage, I laugh at the things I “cooked.”  Yes, I put dinner on the table, but I am not sure you could really call it cooking.  However, I realized that I not only had a desire to learn to cook, but actually enjoyed it immensely as well. 

In Owen’s 3 years of life, he has spent lots of time with me in the kitchen.  His cooking varies from getting out lots of pots, bowls, cups and spoons and putting dry pasta in them and mixing with water, just using water and most of the time flooding my floor, or sitting up on the counter with bowls, spoons, measuring spoons and whatever else he might can find and using flour, sugar, salt.  At times, part of me just wants to say no because I know the mess that is about to be made, but then I remind myself that this time of him wanting to cook with his mama is fleeting and I choose to deal with the mess.  Here are some pictures of my sweet boy in the kitchen.

 

Flash Back Friday – Halloweens from the past

I decided to start something called Flash Back Friday so that I can post pictures of old to have some of my favorite moments captured here on the blog.  Today, we’ll revisit some Halloween’s of the past.  We’ll start with Owen’s first Halloween.   We didn’t buy any costumes that year because my mom sent one and my friend Melissa had sent him 2 that she had bought way before Owen was born that were on clearance.  Melissa is always on the look out for a good deal – I was thankful she thought of my boy.  Here are him in his costumes from 2008.

   

Halloween 2009 we were in Houston for my niece’s birthday party.  Owen was a dragon and super cute.  He felt so big trick or treating with his cousins.

        

Halloween 2010 – Owen was the same dragon.  He asked if he could wear it again and since it fit, I was more than okay with that. 

Now, let’s flash back qutie some time – 1999.  Here is a picture from “Zap Man” from a Halloween social with the sorority.  The days of sorority needs to be a post in and of itself.  I couldn’t find the picture I wanted to use from when we were The Jackson Five, but this one will have to do.  I was Tito.  Picture quality is terrible – tried scanning it in, but need some practice with our new printer/scanner/copier.  But, you get the idea.

Halloween 2011

Owen loves dressing up, so I was excited to see what he might want to be this year.  He has lots of hand-me-down costumes from his cousin Ryan, so I figured he would pick one of those.  He teetered for a bit between Spiderman and a Lego (which we would have made out of a box), but in the end Spiderman won out.  What 3 year old boy doesn’t love a Superhero!  Ella only being 7 months was subject to whatever we put her in.  I had seen this adorable strawberry that I thought about getting, but then Sherry offered up their pumpkin costume and I jumped right on that – free costume – yes, I think I will take it.  

The week before Halloween, the kids and I were in Houston for my niece’s birthday and while we were there, I talked my sister into helping me carve a pumpkin to put Ella in.  I had seen it on pinterest and thought I had to try it.  So, we dug out all the goo and popped that sweet girl right in.  Sweet pea didn’t even fuss a bit- she was all smiles.  I was schocked! 

Halloween night, we all headed out to trick or treat and I thought it would be a great idea to bring Sampson along.  It was great until Ella decided she’d had enough of the stroller, so we had a stroller to push, Ella to hold and a dog to walk.  That may have been Sampson’s first and last trick or treating.  Owen lasted much longer than I anticipated (over 2 hours) and had a blast.

            

Blogging 101

Am I really doing this?  I swore I would never start a blog – don’t get me wrong, I love reading them, but just wasn’t sure blogging was for me.  However, I have been thinking about it for a while and decided to just try it.  We’ll see.  The husband will for sure laugh at me for creating a blog.  Welcome to our little world.  I am hoping to just document the happenings of our life and maybe share a few recipes along the way.  You’ll see a lot of these precious people – Owen and Ella.  Here’s to more posts in the near future!