a ballerina party!

This was probably my favorite one of Ella's parties to plan. She started saying she wanted a ballerina party about 6 months ago so finally I decided she was serious and started planning. My idea the whole time was, "think pink!"

Devon and I made a bunch of these adorable tissue paper pom-poms and hung them in the entry, the outcome was exactly what I had envisioned!

A ballerina party demands dress up, right?!

So, of course the girls got tutus and tiaras and after a little brain storming I decided that the boys get bowties and crowns. It worked out perfectly! I had intentions of making everything but with mr. clifford's recent arrival, and the holidays, I ended up ordering everything except the bowties (they were pretty easy to make).

I spotted this frame while out shopping one day and just knew I had to use it somehow at her party. I just put in one of the photos we took for her invite and used it as a centerpiece. I loved it!

For her cake I kept it simple, sorta. The most time consuming part was cutting out all the glittery ballerina silhouettes for the cupcakes.

Food was simple too. I figured the most appropriate ballerina menu would be light & fresh! Sandwiches, salads, fruits, veggies, ect.

Instead of the usual pinata, I figured an all-pink candy bar would just go so much better with the theme. I got lucky with Valentine's day being right around the corner, pink candy was pretty easy to find. I also grabbed some cute ballerina accent stickers at Michael's to tie it all together.

Initially, I planned to make ribbon wands for the kiddos, as part of their dress-up gear, but then I had the idea to let them make them themselves (worked out great!)

This was a great way to kick off the party activities.

Coming up with some ballerina games that were age appropriate really required some creativity! I was actually super pleased with my cool invention, think freeze dance+a cake walk+musical chairs.

The kids had fun dancing around to the ballet music, especially with their cool ribbon wands. Ella had me in tears (from laughter) with her moves, the girl can dance!

We also had a "tippy-toe" race, which kinda just turned into a regular old running race (it was a good idea in theory, I guess). Then we just danced! My dad had the fun idea to play the "gummy bear" song and pass out gummy bears to the kids who were dancing, that was cute. We also did the classics like hockey-poky, cha-cha slide & macerna.

The photo below is ella dancing, in the jumper, to alvin & the cimpmunks version of "I whip my hair" (I whip my tail back and forth...)

I Still can't believe my little lady is three! It seems like three is a whole new level, like the end of baby/toddlerhood. She is just so independent now, it goes by too fast, and she is already talking about her next party!!! She knows I can't wait to plan it ;)

We had a great time & we hope everyone who was able to attend did too.

We missed those of you who couldn't be there <3

happy birthday again, my beautiful ella leigh!

p.s. we finally got a family photo of the four of us! only took us nearly TWO months ;)

a two month old.

The little dude is two months today!

He is a pretty content little one, especially when he's with his mommy ;)
He sleeps most of the time but when he is awake he is quite the smiley guy.
He coos and let's out the cutest little laughs.
Oh, and he is still a little fat man, but he is so much more solid than Ella ever was.

Three!!!

Dear Ella,

It seems like just yesterday you came into our lives, and at the same time I can't believe how much you've grown in just three short years. You've made us smile everyday! In fact, we often joke that if you weren't so darn cute and funny, you probably wouldn't last around here ;)

You just have such a strong will and determination, just like mommy, and sometimes you can get in quite the power struggles with us, but just when we're ready to ship you out you say or do something to just crack us up! [We'd never really ship you out by the way, it's just a saying]

You're the smartest little cookie in the jar! We can't pull anything over on you, and you always seem to find the "loop hole" in order to get what you want. You impress us daily with your logic and understanding. You can recognize your written name, and a few other words. You can spell your name and are starting to recognize the other letters in the alphabet as well. You are always impressing adults with your conversational skills. You are definitely a chatterbox, and your little voice is the cutest little thing! You are such a kind and loving little lady, and this has only been made more clear with the arrival of your baby brother. You always want to be right by him, hugging and kissing him. You love helping with him inany way you can. You are always asking me to take your picture with him. We just love how nurturing you are.

You are still very much into princesses, dresses, tutus, sparkly shoes (particularly your red sparkly shoes), barbies, dolls, and everything girly! You asked for a kitchen, and a vacuum for Christmas and have been very into those ever since. Your favorite color is red, which you won't let anyone else like (including your daddy who has always liked red). You love to go on adventures with Gacy, and always come home with the most interesting things (ghetto kites and fishing poles made with sticks and string), and you always have lots of stories to share! You love playing outside, and will drop everything at the chance to go out and play.You love water, and the beach. You are a great little dancer and singer, and will perform (on your own terms).

You are beautiful, don't ever think otherwise! We love you more than words could explain, and there are so many people who feel the same way! You are just the most precious little ball of energy. There is a part of me that gets sad to see you grow farther away from my tiny little baby but you are becoming such an incredible little girl and I can't even begin to imagine what this next year will bring.

On your actual birthday we went to chuck E cheese's

You had a blast playing games and riding all the little rides. You ate just about THREE pieces of pizza! You won (with our help) 370 tickets, and out of all the cool prizes to choose from you picked this tiny little spider man :)

[I will post about your ballerina party a little later]

Happy birthday my little lady <3

just a few little quotes from the past couple days that I didn't want to forget:

While getting ready to leave Gacy's house the other night;

"I'm taking these oranges to my house, can I have a bag please?"

Opening a card with money inside;

mommy: "Wow! What are you going to buy?"

ella: "toys for my friends"

mommy: "that's so sweet!"

ella: "yeah, I'm gonna buy Cole a choo-choo train cause he doesn't have one"

Opening a gift from grammie and gacy (despicable me DVD);

"This is my favorite movie I ever watched!"

Opening a gift from us (Ponyo DVD);

"Ponyo!!! I wanted this for soooo long!"

fresh.

somewhat sadly saying goodbye to 2011, it was quite a good year.

Reflecting back on the events of the year I am quite overwhelmed with how blessed we've been. We have so much to be thankful for. I am so glad we have the love of God and that we can always trust in him and his ways, this year has greatly strengthened my faith in that. I am not much for new year's resolutions but I will say that as this new year begins I am reminded how humbling it is to count our blessings. I know we should always focus on what we do have and figure out how we can use our resources and talents to help others.

So, here's to a year of trusting in God, maintaining a grateful attitude and paying it forward.

happy 2012!

hi, baby.

[warning: a very long and detailed story is about to be told, I am leaving it long for my own documentation purposes, feel free to skip ahead to the photos]

one month ago our little guy-guy made his grand entrance. In that time we have been so very busy adjusting, preparing for Christmas, traveling for Christmas and attempting to settle backin post-holiday. I have been meaning to get his birth story documented though, so even though it's quite late, here you have it; Clifford's birth story.

Tuesday, November 29th, was my "due date". The day started off completely normal and I had come to the conclusion that I was gonna be two weeks late. For weeks leading up to this day I had been experiencing every "sign of labor" you can imagine, which was completely different than the end of my pregnancy with Ella. So, by this point I was pretty much expecting the little trickster to stay inside forever. Ella and I did our usual thing, Devon got home from work and then had to leave again to work at the restaurant. He joked that he'd be expecting my call and I just laughed. Then, at around 7 o'clock, out of nowhere my water started leaking. I was hesitant to believe it but after about half an hour of it continuing I decided it was probably time to have Devon come home. He was so excited, he was ready to rush right out the door and head to thehospital. I told him I had called ahead and they said there was no need to rush, so I just took my time making sure we had everything and doing some last little clean-up. It was close to nine when we dropped Ella off at my dad's and I still wasn't feeling any contractions or indications that I was in labor. It was really nice being able to take our time dropping her off and saying goodbye without being distracted by contractions. We kept telling her that baby brother was on his way, and she kept telling us he wasn't, which made me a little weary of how she was gonna react to seeing him [turns out I had nothing to worry about].

We got to the hospital and I explained that I was pretty sure my water had broken, but I wasn't having any contractions. I kinda had this fear that they would tell me it wasn't my water that was leaking and send me home and I really didn't want to be one of those silly women who can't tell the difference. It took a while to get all checked in and for them to run the tests indicating whether or not my water had actually broken. Luckily, when all was said and done they assured me my water had broken, which meant this was actually gonna happen. Still having absolutely no labor, Devon and I headed to the halls to try to get things started with some walking. When pacing the halls got boring we hit the stairs and walked up and down a few times until I was out of breath (doesn't take much to exert a pregnant lady). We were walking down the hall again when we spotted out doctor so we headed back to our room to chat with him. He laughed when we told him we had just been walking the stairs, he said he'd never heard that before and he was impressed. By this time it was just about 11 and I still wasn't having any sort of contractions. Naturally, he discussed induction with us and reminded us that once the waterwas broken it can start to get dangerous to keep the baby inside. He said he would give me another hour of walking and see where things were headed and then we could talk about starting the pitocin. I started praying pretty hard that my contractions would just start and I could avoid all the medical interventions.

We headed back to the halls and walked for another half hour and I began to feel a little pressure. It threw me a little because it would happen about every thirty seconds but only last a few seconds each time. It wasn't painful but sort of just took the wind out of me so I'd have to stop and let it pass then I could keep walking as normal. We decided to head back to the room for a bit and see if anything progressed. Within a few minutes the pressure was getting moreintense but I still wasn't convinced it was contractions because they felt nothing like they did with Ella, and they weren't following a normal pattern. All of the sudden I got really hot, that kind of hotness that hits your when your about to be sick. I had Devon go ask the nurse to get me some ice chips (best thing ever), though I was hesitant for her to come back in because I didn't want her to strap me back up to the monitors and I really didn't want them to insist I start the pitocin. By the time she came in my body was shaking and she asked, with a very concerned tone, if I was feeling the need to push. It kinda just clicked in that moment that I was, even though up until then I still wasn't sure I was in labor. She called in a doctor to check me, and I was complete. They immediately rushed me into the delivery room where our doctor met us. At this point I was kind ofdelirious, I felt like I was having some weird out of body experience. It felt like I was oblivious to everything and then I'd have these moments of clarity and I'd become aware of my surroundings and realize that I was in a room of people. All at once I was pushing. It took about 5 contractions and at 12:46 out he came. It was such an overwhelming moment, so unexplainable. I was still sort of in that "in and out/blurry" phase, I could hear him crying, I looked up and saw tears running down Devon's face and then they laid him on me and slowly everything sort of went back to normal. He cried and cried and cried, which was so unlike Ella. Soon he was content and he just laid there making the grumpiest old man faces I'd ever seen. We just laughed at how silly he looked, and started calling him Benjamin Button.

I couldn't believe how instantly I felt normal. With ella I had the epidural, which lead to pitocin and my body didn't feel right for days! Having this guy all natural was by far the best thing. I honestly never even had a chance to want pain meds, so I know I got lucky. Seriously, everytime I tell the story it sounds too good to be true, and it really was the best experience I could have hoped for. Everything just worked out beyond perfectly.

He is a great baby. Despite his initial cries he is pretty mellow. For the first couple weeks he only really cried when he needed to be changed, I'm sure that was due to his circumcision. Now, every now and then he can get a little fussy but most of the time he is really content. Ella adores him more than anything in the world, we are pretty in love ourselves.

grumpy little old dude.

the proudest daddy on the block.

big sister falling madly in love.

*one month later,

our little fat man.

back to basics

the whole separate blog thing was devon's idea. I gave it a shot and felt it was too complicated, especially seeing as he never blogs anyway. So, I made the executive decision and have decided to resume our single collaborative family blog.

I feel good about it.