Christmas + Update

Christmas time is right around the corner and everyone here cannot be more excited. Every morning this month the girls cannot wait to get up to find Sammy the Elf and to open their advent calendars (Kinder Egg & Play-dough Advent calendars). The funniest thing is that Ella is almost always the one to find Sammy the Elf first. She's also completely obsessed with Sammy - demanding I constantly acknowledge Sammy's presence.

 

I feel as if Christmas snuck up on us this year. Although I've been strategically purchasing gifts since September as things I've had my eyes on, go on sale - I still don't feel prepared. We are SO excited for the girls to open their gifts - especially their new play kitchen and all of the accessories!

We are hosting again this year which means we will be very busy getting the house and all of the food ready. My priority is to enjoy the day with the girls and Fraser as much as I can while also getting everything done. Fraser and I have one more day at work and then 11 days in a row of vacation/time off and we could not be more excited. 

These girls are growing at warp speed and I feel like every time I blink my eyes they are both doing something new. For the past year, I've been working on potty training Harper with no luck. It was to the point where Harper full on refused to sit on the potty. I had finally gave up and decided to wait until she was showing more signs of being ready. To be honest, I was getting a little worried when she turned three in November and was still not showing signs of wanting to use the potty.

These past two weeks we started to notice that she was able to predict when she was about to pee in her diaper and would immediately ask to be changed. Yesterday while home with her grandma she requested to have her big girl undies on and sat on the potty all on her own and peed. She was so excited she insisted on calling me at work to inform me - I was obviously thrilled! She continued to use the potty all day and into the evening with zero accidents. That continued all morning, day and night today. I'm sort of in disbelief that she's practically potty trained herself in 24 hours. Now our focus is to get her to poop on the potty!

The most shocking part of this potty story is that little miss copycat Ella ALSO started using the potty yesterday wanting to be like her big sister. I nearly passed out when she peed on the potty all on her own. She looks like a 6 month old because she's so tiny - sitting on the potty peeing. My big girls!

 This sweet girl - I can't even describe in words how cute this kid is. Both of our kids are beautiful and so alike but also so different! Harper is very passive like her daddy where little miss Ella is a complete spit fire like her momma. Everything we were so grateful Harper didn't do - Ella bean is doing. Like eating play-dough, climbing on EVERYTHING, telling us "no" all of the time. And she's so bloody tiny and cute that you can't get mad at her!

 To say we are busy is a complete understatement. With Fraser and I both working fulltime, the girls and my Etsy shop - I feel like time is just flying by. Fraser got a long over due promotion to "Manager of Operations". I seriously could not be prouder. My hunny works his butt off, always helping others and ensuring everything is running smoothly. He was completely thrilled to be promoted to Manager and everyone at our work was not surprised at all. This holiday we are taking as much time to relax and hang out with our sweet babies.

I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas and an even happier New Year!

xoxo

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

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!