Whoa There!

Hi! I'm still alive. I haven't blogged in a while because I've been spending every free minute working on Ethan's first year baby/photo/scrapbook online. I must say I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I can't wait for it to arrive! I wish I could share it with all of you, but I couldn't figure out how.
I decided in the process of designing his book (I used Shutterfly, but I customized every page and designed it all myself) that designing/ putting together photo books is a new hobby of mine. I LOVE working with photos and making gifts out of them. Now if only I could figure out a way to make money doing this...

I named the title of this post "Whoa There" because between time flying by, Ethan hitting big milestones, and having so much to do to keep me busy, I feel like I just need to put the brakes on-if that is even possible.

Speaking of milestones, Happy Birthday to my amazing, sexy, wonderful husband Caleb! He turns the big 30 today! We've already done a ton of celebrating which included a weekend get away in Denver with his best friend Joe and a surprise party this past weekend. Tonight the two of us get to celebrate with just each other and have a much needed date night. Caleb, I love you more than anything and I hope we get to spend MANY more decades together as husband and wife.

As I mentioned above, our Ethan had hit some BIG milestones since I last posted about him. After months and months and months (you get the idea) of teething, our little man FINALLY has some teeth-2 to be exact. His first tooth came between his 12th and 13th month. He had only one tooth for a while and he was rocking the one tooth look. ;) Now he has an adorable two teeth grin.

Then, on May 4th, Ethan took his FIRST STEPS! It was after dinner and he took 3 steps towards me! Then within 2 weeks, he started walking full time. Now he's not crawling AT ALL anymore. I'm a little sad, but also excited for him. He has been wanting to walk for SOOO long and has been using ANYTHING (he mostly used our hands or pushed furniture across the room) to help him walk.  Suddenly, over night it feels like Ethan changed from my baby into a toddler. I guess that means it's time for another baby, right? ;)

Does anyone feel like time is suddenly in fast forward? I don't know what it is, but I feel like once the last week of May came, summer was staring me in the face. And with that, I have a never ending list of things to do.

We leave in 10 days for our San Diego vacation with Caleb's family. We have SOOO much to do, most of it involving lots of laundry and lots of packing. But before then, we have family visiting to spend time with, and I have cupcakes to make for my cousin's fiance's shower that's being thrown the evening before we fly out for San Diego.

Speaking of flying, this will be our first time flying as a family of four. To say I'm anxious is a huge understatement. I seriously don't know how to have a successful flight with a 3 year old and a extremely active 1 year old. I guess success will mean landing safely with all of our things and our children alive and by our sides. :)

I wanted to end this post with some photos I took of Ellie and Ethan having fun together in our backyard the other evening. I loved how these pictures turned out. To me, they just scream kids and summer. Yep, summer may be crazy, but it always brings back so many fun memories and a sense of well being for me.

When did this girl get so big?

Hopeless Romantic

We're officially in trouble. Elliana at 3 years of age is in love-with being in love!
I'd like to say I don't know where she gets it from, but the truth is I was always a hopeless romantic growing up. I was always in love with love, and man, was I boy crazy (just ask my sisters)! I guess I have to admit that she's like me in this way.

Although I had these traits growing up, I never thought about what it would be like as a mom to watch my daughter blush and smile when it comes to romance. I'm already scared for what she will be like as a teenager.

Here's a little proof for you:

She loves Disney movies, but her favorite scenes are always the kissing scenes, the dancing scenes, and the wedding scenes. Those are the scenes she wants to watch over and over again.

Or even better, if I'm on the computer she'll ask to go to youtube and watch this video:

When I told her a few months ago that my cousin is getting married, she clapped her hands and jumped for joy. Then, with a big smile on her face, she asked "Are they going to kiss?!"

Every day when Caleb gets home from work Ellie and Ethan run (or crawl) to the door to greet him. After they give Caleb a HUGE hug, Ellie always, without fail, says "Daddy, kiss Mommy." And if that wasn't enough sometimes she tells him to kiss me longer or kiss me more.

The other day in the car I was listening to a CD Caleb made for me many years ago. The CD has a lot of our favorite romance songs on it. I assumed the kids would get wrestless after hearing one song but Ellie seemed to be enjoying it. She was smiling and dancing along to the music in her carseat. Then Michael Buble's "Everything" came on (This song always takes me back to Courtney's wedding because Courtney and Jeremy played this song along with their slideshow).

Anyway, Elliana was listening to and enjoying this song. When it was over she said "Mommy! I want that song again. I want the kiss song again." Now she always refers to that song as the "kiss song" and requests it often. She only likes to listen until the line "And I can't believe that I'm your man and I get to kiss you baby just because I can", then she wants to start the song over again. Ha!

I could go on and on with stories, but you get the idea. Now I just pray that we can teach Ellie to guard her heart and to save her kisses for when she's really in love - and not until she's 30. ;)

Every Move I Make

As I've mentioned a few times before, this song has been Ellie and Ethan's absolute FAVORITE for some time now. Every time it comes on, they can't help but "dance" or at the very least get in a better mood.

I've really been wanting to catch their reaction to it on video and I FINALLY did! I know you won't enjoy watching this as much as I do (since I'm their biased mom), but I hope you enjoy it some. :)

I mostly love how you can see the difference between boys and girls on here. Ethan stops to "dance" briefly in between throwing the ball around and screaming, and Ellie never stops twirling and "dancing". Love these kiddos of mine. :)

 

 

Conversations with Elliana

Before I dive into the hilarious things that our 3 year old Ellie has been saying lately, I need to touch on a few things.

First of all, I have to note that I am just as excited (maybe more) as my sisters are about how our family photos turned out! I just assume that anyone that follows my blog follows their blogs too. If you haven't seen the rest of the photos all over the Internet, then let me lead you here and here. Thanks again to the very talented Becky Young.

Second of all, I had the most wonderful time with my sister Courtney and my mom this past Sunday. Mom and I were gifted with tickets to Wicked at Christmas! We had been counting down to Sunday ever since Christmas. I didn't know anything about Wicked going into Sunday and I'm so glad I didn't. I enjoyed it SO much, words can not describe. I sometimes like to dream that I would've had a career on Broadway (I wish). I forgot my camera, but Courtney took lots of great photos and put together a wonderful post about our day on Sunday. If you get a chance, you might want to check out her photos.

Now, I'll try to get back on topic. I've blogged before about how hilarious our Elliana is. She simply keeps us laughing all of the time. If I was better at documenting her every funny phrase or conversation, this blog would be flooded with Ellie stories. At the end of the day my husband and I like to swap stories of the things Ellie said when one of us wasn't present. I thought it was only fair to share a few of those stories with all of you. :)

A few weeks ago we were driving home (I can't remember where from) and Caleb pointed out to Ellie that a lot of progress had been made on the big construction project near our home. Ellie responded with "Wow. That is hu-, hu-, HU-MAZING!"

During that same drive, Caleb pointed out something on the side of  the road (I can't remember what it was). Ellie exclaimed "Oh, Wow!" Caleb asked "Did you see it Ellie?" Her response "Nooooo."

Anytime we try to warn Ellie of any danger, like running into the road, or getting burned, or hurt in any way, she always asks "Could I die?" Depending on the danger we're currently warning about, we sometimes answer "Yes Ellie, you could die." She then claps her hands, jumps up and down and says "Yay! I'll go to heaven! I LOVE heaven!" I ask you, what do you do when your child has no fear of death?
 ;)

Anytime we tell her about something fun we're about to do, she exclaims "Oh boy! That's my favorite holiday!" 

Whenever Elliana tells me something, and I hesitate to answer, or I look puzzled she says "Mommy! Im not kidding! I'm serious!"

The other day I was brushing Ellie's hair. She yawned and sighed "I'm so tired." I asked "Why are you tired Ellie?" She responded with "I didn't sleep very well (yes, she said very well) last night. Ethan kept me awake with his crying all night long. I just couldn't sleep." Ha ha. I wonder where she's heard that before?. ;)

Today Ellie asked me "Mom, why does my cousin Reagan think kissing is yucky?" I answered "I don't know Ellie. Do you think kissing is yucky?" Her answer "No, I think I like it!" Oh dear.

This isn't funny, but one of my favorite moments with Elliana is when she tells me "Mommy, you look (or smell) pretty." She usually tells me that when I least expect it and it melts my heart. My absolute favorite moment with Ellie is at the end of every day when we're putting her to bed and she says "Mommy, will you lay next to me, cuddle me, and tell me a story?" How could anyone say no to that?

And just for fun, I thought I'd throw in a few of my favorite photos of our Ellie from our photo session.  These photos capture her perfectly!