1 year young!

Happy birthday sweet baby girl! Wow, what a year this has been! Our lives have been forever changed and we feel so blessed to call you our daughter.  This year has flown by and you have taught us so much about patience, laughter, and love.  You are a sweet, intelligent, funny, sensitive, energetic, amazing and beautiful baby girl and we love you more than we could have ever imagined.  You bring so much joy into our lives and make us smile and laugh each and every day.  This past year has been filled with many memories and we look forward to many more.  Happy 1st Birthday sweet baby girl!!

June 2, 2011 was a wonderful day.  We started Ella's birthday morning with a surprise red wagon from her Pa-paw.  She was so surprised and immediately lit up when she saw it.  We did a couple of laps around the living room before daddy left for work.  We had a great day playing and when daddy got home from work we went for a ride around the neighborhood in the wagon and had pizza for dinner.  Of course we sang Happy Birthday to Ella and she tried to put the candle out with her finger!  She loved her cupcake which she managed to get all over herself` (see pictures).   We had a wonderful day celebrating and are looking forward to celebrating even more at her birthday party this coming weekend!

Here are a few milestones from this past month along with a few pictures:

·         Stands for long periods of time on her own

·         Officially says “mama” and actually looks at mommy when she says it - finally!!!

·        Loves playing with her water table (an early b-day present)

·         Went "swimming" for the first time
·         She is much more talkative and loves repeating any sound you make.  It's pretty funny when she tries to talk over you when you are talking by screaming.  We can tell that she already likes to be the center of attention - uh oh!

Playing tug of war with Lexi

Memorial Day Weekend in Plano!

We had a wonderful and fun filled Memorial Day weekend visiting Pa-Paw in Texas!  It was the first time that Ella felt truly HOT temperatures - 97 degrees with a 103 heat index! 

All weekend Ella loved playing in her daddy's old red wagon from when he was a little boy!  She spent so much time with her Pa-Paw being wheeled around the house and outside and even learned how to say "GO"!  She had such a great time in the wagon that Pa-Paw bought her her very own red Radio Flyer wagon for her birthday!

 

 

Friday we went to the pool and Ella got to "swim" for the first time.  She absolutely LOVED the water.  We started in the baby pool but learned quickly that she was ready to go to the big pool!

helping herself to a snack when we got home from the pool

Saturday we went to the Byron Nelson golf tournament and had a wonderful (although HOT and Windy) day!  Ella loved playing in the child size golf cart and daddy loved meeting Dustin Johnson!

Sunday we went to church and had lunch at mommy and daddy's favorite BBQ place - Rudy's!  We also cooked out with Pa-Paw, Anna, John, Reva, Johnny, Sarah and Mia and they even surprised Ella (and mommy and daddy) with a birthday party to celebrate Ella's first birthday!  It was so sweet and Ella got to have her first taste of cake.  She loved playing with the balloons and really enjoyed opening all her sweet gifts!

 

Happy 3rd Birthday Lexi!

Lexi is 3 years old today!  We celebrated with gifts (of course)! She got an ugly snake so she can play tug of war with Ella and a little pink bone that says "it's all about me", which is exactly what she thinks!

Mommy also made Lexi some not so yummy cupcakes and we had a nice steak dinner, one of Lexi's favorite meats!

Happy Birthday sweet girl, we love you!

Cupcakes!

Birthday girl with her gifts!

Toy that says "It's all about me!"

Lexi after she opened her new snake

Daddy and Ella making their annoyed faces! Like father, like daughter...

I think the birthday girl had a fun filled day!

What a wonderful first Mother's Day!

What a wonderful Mother's Day I had today!  I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family and absolutely love being a mother! I feel it is truly my calling in life and I have such a wonderful family to look after. 

Today we had a special day that started with sleeping in (at least mommy did)! We had a lazy morning at home and then went to lunch at Nordstrom Cafe (my favorite) and did a little shopping. 

This year was so special being a mother to such a wonderful little girl (and little puppy) and there is truly no other title I would rather have! I hope that I will always be a role model and friend to Ella just like my mother is to me.  I feel so incredibly blessed to have such wonderful, strong and compassionate women in my life and I hope that Ella will want to be just like us!

Yard projects

Today we did a lot of little projects around the yard.  We replanted the begonas in our planters and hung lights on the fence. We are excited to spend more time out there now that the weather is nice and we finally have a table and chairs to eat dinner outside! 

We also washed all the outside windows - not as labor intensive as I thought and we are so pleased with the results!

Here are a few pictures of the new and improved yard!

View of the lights at night

This is how Lexi helps with yardwork - notice her eyes are closed!

Our new table and chairs

A few pictures of our beautiful roses: