Another Weekend

On Friday, Ella and I went to the pool so she could play with her friends, Kaitlyn, Ryan and Logan.  It was her first time back in the pool since Vegas, and she did fine.  She didn't seem to like it as much as she did in Vegas, but she didn't scream either so that's a success in my book. ;)

Friday night, Gary, Ella and I went to Pomodoro for dinner, and then Devon and I went to a scrapbooking party at Marlena's house...which is funny since neither Devon nor I scrapbook...we've come to the conclusion that scrapbooking does not like us.  So it turned into a wine drinking party, and it was really fun!

On Saturday, Jen, Kylen and Paige stopped by, but Ella was sleeping so she didn't even get to play with Paige!  Paigey had lots of fun with Rylee though.  Gary, Ella and I went to the main pool in the afternoon (Ella WILL turn into a water baby!), and Gary took her in both the baby pool and big pool.  We started in the baby pool with no floatie...


Some practice floating on her back...

Then a little floatie time in the big pool...

Followed by a little dunking time...

Which wasn't super successful because Ella kept trying to drink the pool water!


The rest of the weekend involved dinner at Kimera, Sunday brunch, lots of errands, walks and Ella falling on her head about 25 times (seriously, when do you need to worry about all the falling?!!).  I bought some new clothes for Ella over the weekend (she is officially in 12 month size), and I just had to get some pictures of her in the adorable new plaid shorts I got her!



Oh, and two more things...in just a day, Ella is crawling on all fours A LOT. Much more than her army crawl (so I guess I was wrong, and she IS going to crawl). Two, her hair is out.of.control. Every time she wakes up from a nap, she has major bedhead sticking out all over the place!

Happy Fourth of July!

It ended up being a pretty busy weekend...in a nutshell, we spent lots of time with friends (Ella had three playdates!!), and I spent a lot of time sewing. ;)  We got lots of pictures from the Fourth!

In the morning, we went to our neighborhood "carnival"...it felt like old times when entire neighborhoods would get together to celebrate...they had music, games, a bouncy house, snow cones, popcorn, cotton candy (which made me very happy!) and lots more.  Here are Ella and I with Devon and Kaitlyn...

After Ella's nap, we went to Devon and Kevin's for a bbq.  Can I tell you how convenient it is to go to friends' homes when they live right down the street?!  The girls were so cute!


Kaitlyn tried to stop Ella from crawling away, but she was not very successful. ;)

I made Barefoot Contessa's red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting...


These are the cute cupcake holders I used...

After the delicious burgers, we headed down to the end of their street for a block party...they have a fantastic street!!  I wish our cul-de-sac would do block parties!  It was a great day. :)

Fun Thursday

Today E and I went to a Fourth of July potluck with our mommy group at the Woodbury pools...it was so fun!  Except for the part where I thought it was a good idea to feed Ella watermelon and hummus (both for the first time), and she threw up all over me and partially on the girls sitting on either side of me!  I didn't get any pictures because I had to hold Ella the whole time (and clean-up the barf all over her and me and the floor), which is a bummer because it was a great location for pictures- their pool area is so much better than ours! 

At night we went to the Angel game with Julie and Ryan...Angels beat the Rangers...GO ANGELS!

I got some photos of Ella in her new "hiding" spot. :)






After having plans literally every single weekend in June, I am looking forward to some down time this long weekend to get some stuff done around the house since we only have 'real' plans on the 4th. Here's to hoping...things seem to always come up!

*Forgot to add, apparently, E waved goodbye to Gary when we left for the Angel game (I was already in the car) and also waved at Sarah and Owen when she was outside with Alex, but I haven't seen her do it so I think they are making it up! ;)

**Edited again to say...I SAW IT!  Alex and her were leaving for a walk so I waved 'bye bye', and she waved back!  It's SO cute...she alternates between waving forward and backwards, and she looks all confused when she does it, like "I don't really know what I'm doing here, but you all seem to get really excited when I copy you."  Awwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!

Playdate & Daddy's Gifts

Today Tracy and Grace came over to pick up Grace's hair clips and play with Ella.  How cute do these two look both wearing their 70's shorts rompers?!


I forgot to post in the Father's Day post that Gary got a new iMac and iPod Touch for Father's Day, but the best gift of all was this sweetness...

Happy Father's Day Weekend!

On Friday, Elizabeth, Ashley and Katie came to visit- it was great to spend time with them!  Ella was of course enthralled with the older girls.

Friday night, Gary and I went out to dinner at Javier's with Lindley and Steve...it was our FIRST night out with another couple (sans kids) in over 8 months!!  It was so nice to go out with other adults and be kid free!

Grandma and grandpa babysat for us so before we left, we decided to try out the interactive rocking horse that they got Ella last Christmas.  She still doesn't get the concept of holding the reins or handles, but she thought the fact that it neighs and moves its head and tail was pretty funny!



On Sunday, we went to grandma and grandpa's for a BBQ (grammy, pop-pop and great-grandpa came too) to celebrate Father's Day.  Ella took pictures with everyone!

All the daddies (grandpa, daddy, great-grandpa and pop-pop)

The grandparents

Mommy and daddy

Not a good picture of Ella, but it shows her cute dress. :)

Then we opened gifts, and Ella's favorite thing was grandpa's giant tube of bubblegum!

After gifts we ate a delicious meal of ribs, corn on the cob, broccoli salad, potato salad, baked beans, fruit, raspberry cream cupcakes and apple pie cake...needless to say, we were REALLY full. Leave it to my mom to "dad" theme everything!







A little more grammy and pop-pop time, and then it was time for bed!



It was a great day, and Ella is so lucky to have the BEST daddy in the entire world!!!

Fun Day!

Julie and Ava came to play with us today, and it was so good to see them.  I'm used to seeing Julie everyday at work so I miss her!  Ava has the prettiest big blue eyes, and don't get me started on how good Julie looks only 3 months after giving birth!

This is Ella's "hey, wait a minute sucka" look...

The "HELLO lady, pay attention to me"...

Then she decided she wanted to hug her friend...

But then, she thought it would be a good idea to kick her in the face & head...and grab her pants?...is Gary teaching her mixed martial arts?

Before J & A came over, I let Ella go down with a lovey because she had been crying in her crib.  I went in to go get it out of the crib after she was asleep, and I found her smooshed against her bumper with her arm stuck up behind her back, yet still clutching onto her lovey!

After our visit from J & A, it was time for me to have a mom's night out with Molly and Jennifer...woot woot!  Ms. preggers even drove me so that I could drink...thanks Molly!