Mas Outfits

I'm trying to go outside my comfort zone so I tried the whole bootie trend...I don't think it's for me.

The shirt is an adorable James Perse (super comfy) that I scored at Marshalls!  And they still have them if you want one!

I bought these yellow Sam Edelman flats for spring (you can get them at Nordstrom in tons of great colors), and they are SO comfortable!

And finally, just a park day.  Those are NOT sweats, they are navy linen drawstring pants.

Luck 'O the Irish

Apparently leprechauns visited our house the night before St. Patrick's Day, and they left the kids some treats (a light-up ring and bracelet for Ella and a clicker necklace for Everett) and turned their milk and eggs GREEN!

Just a Saturday...

Does anyone else love weekend mornings?  I feel like the kids are the most lovey towards each other in the morning so you get this kind of adorableness...

After the cuddle-fest, Ella and I headed to ballet and because both girls' ballet shoes are now way too small, we took a trip to the dance store after class to buy some new shoes!

Then it was time for lunch and little play time around the fountain on another gorgeous day...

And finally, outfit for today...

And a work outfit from last week...

More Proud Mama Moments...

Ella's Self Portrait

Nothing too exciting, but just a couple things I know I'll like to go back and read about someday. :)

First, Ella's school called me yesterday morning to tell me that because they need more room in certain classrooms, instead of basing which classroom a child is in solely on birth date, they are now basing it on age and maturity/advancement of the child.  So anyway, Ella is supposed to be moving up to the green room in June, but the director told me that because she is so articulate and advanced socially, they are skipping that room and moving her up to the orange room (the room above green).  Yay Ella!

Second, the other day when I got to school, Ella's friend, Francesca, was sitting down crying a little bit.  I said, "What's wrong Francesca?!", and the teacher told me that she got bonked in the nose.  So Ella goes and sits next her, puts her arm around her and strokes her face.  I swear, that girl can be such a sweetheart sometimes!  I don't care if she's the smartest girl in class or the prettiest girl in class, but seeing her show signs that she is growing into a caring and empathetic little person makes me so happy!!!

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As for Everett, he is making Gary extremely happy because he seems so interested in sports.  You've seen the video of him dribbling the soccer ball.  Gary bought him a soft bat recently, and Everett wouldn't let go of it for half the day!  Yesterday, he started dunking the basketball into the little plastic basketball hoop.  Who knows if he'll be any good at sports, but it does melt my heart a little to see Gary SOOO excited that "his boy" seems into sports...he must of yelled at me 20 times while I was cooking dinner, "look at this!  he keeps dunking the ball!  he loves basketball!  watch this!"  Don't get me wrong, Ella has Gary wrapped around her finger- she is definitely daddy's little girl, but it's also so nice to see the special bond between a little boy and his daddy. :)

Everett 15 Months

Sorry for the lame photos, but I don't have a good photo, and I wanted to post his 15 month update!

He is actually almost 15.5 months, but we just had his 15 months appointment yesterday.  His stats:
Weight: 23.2 pounds (40th percentile)
Height: 34.25 inches (75th percentile)

And we continue with the tall and skinny!

He is running like crazy, and although he walked later than Ella, he never had the crawl/walk stage.  He went straight from crawling to always walking and now running!  If he does start to crawl, and you say, "no Everett, stand up please", he will get right up and walk.

Which brings me to the next thing...he understands everything!  He is a man of few words but doesn't miss a beat. ;)

Aside from mama and dada, he is very selective with his words.  He likes to say "ball" (ba), "kick", "more" (ma), and I think he said "no" yesterday.  I think he says other things once in a while but not with any regularity.

He points and claps a lot, but he never waves anymore!  He loves to dance.  If you turn up the music in the car and say, "let's dance Everett!" he will bop his head and go crazy in his carseat.

He LOVES stuffed animals, which is so funny because Ella never really cared about them.  He lights up when he sees a stuffed animal and hugs and hugs it.  The only other toy he really likes are balls.  He still doesn't care much for cars.

He also loves animals- especially dogs.  He makes a kissing sound over and over every single time he sees a dog!  It's adorable.  He'll run over to the dog, but he likes to stay about 1 foot away from them. 

Sunny Days Again

After a few rainy overcast days (yuck), it was beautiful, sunny and 72 degrees again today!  Hurray!  We walked around the Spectrum and Ell and I hung sat on the fountain out in the sun...

We did our daily Target shopping, and Everett is finally learning to walk holding hands!

And this is just a public service announcement for other moms of girls...I never buy Ella rash guard bathing suits because, well, they are always just fugly.  Which is fine except for on vacation or when you are at the pool every day- too much sun.  So I have to give a big THANKS to Target, who finally came out with a cute rash guard suit!!!  They made the top a tunic style and used a pretty cute fabric!  It is on sale RIGHT NOW at Target so make sure you pick one up!

Ellaism

Ella got out of bed a few times while Gary was gone so every night before bed, we've been saying, "what's the rule?!" and she says, "no getting out of bed!"  Then she says, "I don't get out of my bed anymore mama."

Tonight, she wasn't as enthusiastic about the rule so I reminded her that we would have to lock her door if she couldn't stay in bed (she hates having her door locked).  So we're talking, and she says, "maybe you should lock my door mama...just in case." 

Apparently, she just didn't trust herself tonight!  I started laughing...but left her door unlocked. ;)

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Unrelated, but I made these Oreo Cupcakes today, and OMG they are tasty!  Recipe on my cooking blog.

Ireland

So the reason that I've had SO much quality time with the kids lately (and I meant A LOT of quality time) is because Gary recently took a position in his company where he now has to travel internationally.  So we went from zero travel to 3-4 two week trips a year...you read that right, he'll be gone for TWO WEEKS at a time (shoot me).

His first trip was this week (they eased him in with a week long trip) to Ireland, and it just so happened that my parents were also out of town this week so no help whatsoever = lots of mommy/E2 time!  I was soooo scared, but the week was awesome.  I don't know what planets aligned or how many guardian angels were with me, but Ella was on her BEST behavior.  She listened well, helped me with Everett, did everything I asked, didn't fight bedtime...heavenly!  I do have to give a shout outs Jill, Lisa, Amy and Kate, who took me in right after naptime (because let's face it, afternoons are the worst time of day) for playdates and dinners, and Julie, who came down with the girls to play with me- they made my week alone SO much easier!!!!  I only had to cook a real meal once, and then last night, I had to resort to this...

I will say, the week did NOT start off well...Ella was SO sad.  I've never seen her like that.  She wouldn't eat, if I asked what she wanted to do, she would say, "nothing" and just sit on the couch...she wouldn't even play with her friends!  I am blessed with TWO children who have weak stomachs so when Ella gets upset, this happens...

That was Saturday morning.  She also did that on Friday night...at Jill's house.  Nice thank you for dinner, huh?  Thankfully, she got a little less sad with each hour and by Sunday morning, she was back to her old self and no more throwing up for the week!

And while I'm on the floor wiping up vomit and trying to keep Everett away from it with my foot, Gary sends me this photo from his seat in business class (must be nice)...

And this photo from the fancy VIP lounge at the airport (Ella sleeps with a Hello Kitty so Gary bought another HK to take with him to Ireland)...

He got to hang out with Leprechauns on Grafton Street- the main shopping area in Dublin...

And he saw the original Auld Dubliner (we have one here too)!

Saint Stephan's Green (a big park in Dublin)...

Genius Style

My 3 year old can write her name!!!! 

Ok, so she doesn't exactly get the order of the letters right, and she loves making "E"s so she always does more than one, and it's about 50/50 whether she decides to write the E correctly or backwards (apparently we were in a backwards mood for this picture), and she always writes the "L"s backwards, but hey, not bad for a 3 year old, right?!

Payback!

It took 15 months and 5 days, but Everett *finally* defended himself against Ella for the first time ever!  He bit the crap out of her cheek...

Of course I told him "NO! We never bite!" because biting is never okay, and Ella was hysterical, but on the inside I was like, "you go boy!"  Seriously, if you have ever been around Ella and Everett together, you have seen it- she NEVER stops touching him.  Ever.  She is always hugging him, trying to carry him, putting her hands around his waist, 'helping' him walk, touching his face...it never ends...despite being told 934 times a day, "STOP TOUCHING YOUR BROTHER!!"  I cannot imagine how irritating it must be to have someone in your personal space all.day.long.  Of course, she went right back to bothering him immediately after she stopped crying.  Sigh.

The kids and I have been going on a lot of long walks.  I don't even recall Ella ever having my phone since we listen to music on the stroller speakers when we walk, but I found this photo on my phone!

We've also been going to the park a lot this week, and Everett can finally play pretty much alone on the smaller park equipment (he also spends a lot of time sitting on the step snacking!)...

And although this week has involved LOTS of quality time with the kids (more on that later) and less time working (which means tons of time in yoga pants), I do have some photos of recent outfits...

I took a closeup of the necklace from this outfit because it was one of my 70% off Target finds!  I'm not usually a huge fan of chain/link necklaces, but I really liked it with this outfit...

I couldn't decide whether this needed a necklace or not, but I ended up going with no necklace...

Running into the office with the kids...

Friend's house for dinner...

Weekend Stuff

Everett got to play a little t-ball with one of his two best friends this weekend...

Then we had dinner, and this is what happens when you give a 1 year old a piece of BBQ Chicken pizza and say go to town...

We did some lunch and shopping with Olivia and Sydney.  I love these girls together!  (And we did not plan them wearing matching dresses!)...

The girls got lipgloss watches for being well behaved...pucker up!

Lots of running around the fountain going on...

Everett with his future wife...do you love her adorable flirty expression like he just said the funniest thing she ever heard?!

Finally, can someone please explain to me how my 3 year old knows all the lyrics to Taylor Swift's "We are Never Ever Getting Back Together"?????  And this is a bad version where she was being shy because I made her do it, but before I taped it, she was belting it out word for word perfectly clearly!  What the heck?

Mucho Casual

Not a lot of effort going on around here lately because I've either been home working, home with the kids or just running out for quick errands, but at least I wasn't in yoga pants, right?  Right?!