Ella's First Birthday

June 11th marked our sweet little Ella's first birthday. I know I say this a lot, but where has the time gone? When I started going through all of her monthly pictures I was holding back tears. It feels like just a few short months ago we brought her home from the hospital and now here we are. We have a sweet and completely hilarious one year old, who's full of mischief and sweet smiles.

Ella's birthday fell on a Saturday which was super awesome. She woke up super bright and early which was actually nice since I had a lot of decorating and prep ahead of me.  

I was so happy with how everything turned out. I was going with a flower/"thanks for watching me grow" theme. I wanted the decorations for the most part to be pretty simple but with splashes of colour here and there. 

The "Ella" banner and the monthly banner cards are from my Etsy shop. I'm so happy with how they turned out and were the center of all of the decorations. 

 The other tables were again decorated pretty simple. White table cloths with burlap table runners and pops of dark and light pink.

Fraser picked up some pretty Gerber daisies to compliment the whole theme. 

 I made two big goody bags for Ella and Harper, full of necklaces, treats and other small nick naks. Harper in particular was in her glory opening hers.

 I painted little flower pots a pretty pink and stuffed them with flower packets and little treats. Everyone went home with a sweet little picture from Ella's cake smash photo shoot.

The favors were topped with some custom favor tags from my Etsy shop - these will be listed in a few short days.

Fraser snapped some pictures of our princess and me. She was wearing the most adorable tulle dress from Old Navy that I got for a ridiculously cheap price. It was exactly what I wanted, something simple but princess like.  

Ella is currently obsessed with necklaces and will crawl/walk around the house with 10 on her neck at a time. She is honestly the funniest babe ever.

Ella preferred the icing over the actual "cake" part of the cupcake. Such a diva.

Managed to snap a few pictures of the birthday girl and her big sister before the festivities. Of course Ella bumped her lip resulting in a pretty big fat lip. Poor thing. She apparently didn't get the memo that you're not supposed to get hurt on your birthday!

Overall the day was amazing. Our little Ella was surrounded by all of the people that love her. Fraser and I are so blessed to have this little angel in our lives. She's so full of spunk, love and laughter. I'm so happy to call this babe my daughter.

A 12 month update will be posted within a few days. Stay tuned! xo

Emotional

These past few days have been rough. I've pretty much been crying off and on all week. I'm trying desperately to put a brave face on and have fun with the girls but the sadness eventually comes. The other day was beautiful and sunny so I brought the girls in their wagon to the park around the corner from our house. They had an absolute blast. Harper was so excited to go down the slides and to swing on the swings. Ella even loved going down the slide with my help of course. They both had the biggest smiles on their faces going down the slide.

Harper loved walking up and down the stairs like a big girl. She was so proud of herself that she could do it on her own.

She wasn't opposed to stopping to pose for me - she's pretty used to me always taking pictures of her!

Ella bells pretty much hung out with me for the most part since the climbers are surrounded by wood chips - there was no way I was putting her down so she could attempt to eat them, me and my OCD tendencies.

I attempted to put her in the baby swing but would not let her go, she is still so stinky tiny that she looks like she would flip right out of it. She wasn't a big fan anyways. Instead I took turns sitting the girls on my lap to swing on the big swing. Both loved it!

On the way home, Harper always likes to walk part of the way holding my hand, while we pull Ella in the wagon. She gets so excited to hold my hand which always makes me melt. 

Yesterday was especially emotional for me. Ella was having a rough day from the fact that she has two big teeth poking through the gums on the top. She was super attached and would scream out of no where in pain. She spent half of her nap time sleeping on my chest during which I quietly sobbed the entire time. It makes me sad that I won't be here to do that with her next week. If she's not feeling well, I won't be there to snuggle her to sleep. I won't be able to sooth her. 

I get excited about going back to work and then out of no where I'm so sad at the idea of it. Monday is going to be hard for me, I know it will be fine - that they will be fine - but I am going to miss them so much and will be looking forward to seeing them at the end of the day. 

The rest of this week is super busy with finishing up Etsy orders when the girls are in bed, finishing last minute things for Ella's birthday party on Saturday and organizing the house for my return to work. At the end of the day, as long as we are healthy and happy, everything else will works it's self out. There are people who are struggling with much harder things than the dreaded return to work - so I will suck it up and get things done!

Returning to Work

Firstly, can we take a moment to appreciate all the cuteness that is Ella's kiss face. She started this about two weeks ago and I seriously cannot get enough! The funniest though is when she's doing this to the dog, who wants anything other than to be kissed, and she just crawls around following her with this face. It makes me bust out every.single.time.

On other less cute and happy news, this coming Monday marks a week before I return back to work. I've never been so excited and sad to do something in my life. I always tell people, if I didn't have such an awesome job, I wouldn't go back. But I do. Not that work is more important than my kids because it isn't and never will be. However, I can't help but always think, god forbid something happened to Fraser, I would have my job to fall back on. I would be able to take care and support my children. That's why I'm going back.

People also inquire about my Etsy shop and why I don't just do that and work from home. A) my shop is only just starting to get busy/busier B) it does not have dental or health benefits for my family and finally C) it's not reliable. I have no idea how many sales I will get in a month so I would have no way of planning, which is a big no no for me being slightly OCD with planning and organizing. I enjoy running my shop and making pretty things for people but it would need to take off a lot more for me to ever consider doing it full time.

It hasn't fully hit me yet that I'm returning to work in just over a week and it probably won't until Ella's birthday weekend (the Saturday before I return). Then I anticipate lots of water works and anxiety to ensue. I love my girls so much and would love nothing more than to stay at home and watch them grow and learn. I've been literally soaking up every last minute with them, taking them outside everyday, doing crafts and lots of cuddles. But it is coming to a end. I will only get to squeeze them for a short time in the mornings and will get home just in time to feed them dinner, bath them and tuck them into bed. I will cherish weekends as it will seem like the only time I'm not rushing around getting things done, where I can sit and play with them. Okay, maybe the water works won't wait until next weekend, sigh.

I'm so lucky and grateful to be these girls momma's. I seriously cannot believe some days that they are mine. That I created them. I carried them for 9 months each. And would do it again in a heartbeat! Love you my sweet Harper and Ella, to the moon and back!

27th Birthday Festivities

This past Friday marked my 27th birthday. That's right, I turned 27 on the 27th of May - that's never going to happen again! Fraser took the day off work to hang out with me and the girls. Our original plan was for Fraser and I to go out for lunch while my mom watched the girls but since the weather was so nice I thought we would bring the girls to the park. I couldn't think of a better plan than to bring Harper and Ella to Storybook Gardens. Harper had only ever been once and this would mark Ella's first time.

The last time Harper was at Storybook was right after Ella was born - so last summer! She was still really small and didn't get to enjoy everything like she did this time around. She was OBSESSED with the mini houses and buildings and since it was a Friday there was barely any kids which made it easier for her to play. She particularly loved the grocery store and the little cottage/house. 

And can we take a moment to talk about how freaking cute she is in her sunglasses. I'm lucky if I can get her to eat breakfast without wearing them!

The go-karts were still too big for Harper but Fraser pushed her around a few times which she loved!

These two were melting my heart walking around together holding hands.

My sweet lady and I - gosh I could eat her all up sometimes!

Our sweet Ella pretty much chilled in her stroller while we walked around since it was super duper hot out and she was really tired. However, the second we rolled around to the parks splash pad, Ella nearly jumped out of the stroller. This girl goes banana's in the water, she is completely fearless and is a fish in a babies body. She was literally in her glory playing with her Daddy in the water. She was sticking her face and hands right in the stream of water. Harper on the other hand, took a few minutes to warm up to the water. I walked around with her coaxing her to splash around. Before I knew it she was running around playing.

Overall my birthday morning was amazing. I spent it with those that I love and finished off the day with a lovely dinner out with my hubby. I seriously love these guys to the moon!

Hope everyone has a lovely rest of the week! xx