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

Ella 11 Month Update

Oh my sweet Ella baby. I cannot believe she is only a month away from turning one. Where has the year gone?! It makes me want to hide in a corner and cry a little. She's our last baby so I'm literally holding onto every.single.moment with her. All of the "baby" moments like how she still curls her legs and feet up to her chest when I change her bum, as if she's still crammed in my tummy! Waaaahh.

Ella is FULL of personality still. She always has been. She is full of laughs, giggles, screams - always making noises. I call her a menace because she's always into everything. Every time I turn around for 30 seconds, she's doing the mad dash into a cupboard or drawer - and the best part is she will see you looking at her and she will make the biggest and cheesiest smile ever. Love it. 

Sleep: Ella has been doing amazing this past month and a half with her sleeping at night. For the most part she sleeps through the night with the exception of waking up at 5:30am some mornings to nurse and then going back to sleep until 7/7:30am. She has also dropped her morning nap and only napping once after lunch when Harper also goes down. This has actually been amazing. She naps for 2-2 1/2 hours which means I get a nice break while the girls nap.

Nursing: Ella still nurses 5-6 times within 24 hours. There's a few nursing sessions that will obviously be dropped once I'm back to work (the countdown is on). 

Eating: For the most part, Ella's a really good eater. She will try almost anything and very rarely spits anything out. However, like her sister, she doesn't care for too many veggies - apparently they take after their momma! Fruit though, holy moly, I cannot cut fruit up fast enough for her.

This monkey is the light of my life along with her sister. She is one of the funniest babies ever. She is so smart it's scary - always watching her sister do things and trying to do it as well. I give her until the end of May and I think she will be walking. She has been pulling herself up on everything and walks with her walker toy. I don't think I'm ready for her to walk, she just seems too tiny!

I am almost done collecting everything for her 1st birthday party, including some things I make myself and sell on my Etsy shop: photo garland  , cupcake toppers , place cards/food cards , favour tags.

I just want to slow time down, my babies are growing up so fast and I want them to stay little forever and ever. 

Hope everyone has an amazing weekend! xo