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 1 Year Update

It has been a while since I've wrote a blog post but I've been wanting to do this one for a while. Ella turned one June 11th and I still can't believe a year has gone past already. Not to mention the fact that Ella is about the size Harper was at 6 months - so that always makes it difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that she's a year old. 

Weight: 21 lbs

Height: 30"

Teeth: Four

Sleep: 12 Hours straight at night and has one nap a day ranging from 1 hr 30 minutes - 2 1/2 hours.

Walking: More like running. Yes. And has been since she was exactly 12 months. 

Nursing: Yes, whenever she can get it - which seems to be constantly when I'm not at work. It doesn't bother me because I LOVE breastfeeding and she's my last baby so as long as she wants to I will continue to nurse her - unless of course she's 4 and is able to lift my shirt to pull my boob out..

Confession. When she was first born I was really really concerned her squished nose was going to stick forever and ever. I was very relieved when it settled back down after a few days - poor thing was all squished from being over due. As if her scowl isn't intense already - imagine her scowl with that crease in her nose! Wowza, she would have taken RBF (also known as Resting Bitch Face) to a whole new level!

I remember this day like it was yesterday. Not just because her labour was the most intense pain I've been in in my life BUT how much I immediately loved her. I obviously had all of the sames feelings when Harper was born but I didn't think I could love another baby as much as our sweet Harper. But I did and do. Ella is seriously the perfect end to our little family. She is the fiery babe who makes us grind our teeth when she's been sassy and bust out laughing when she's doing something funny.

Also, her relationship with her big sister is something made of dreams. They LOVE each other so so much. Harper constantly calls her "Ella Marie" and "Baby sister" which melts my heart every.single.time.

Sisterly love.

Favourite foods: These organic Squoosh packets - which seems to be the only way I can get veggies into her unless I'm hiding them in her dinner. She is obsessed with any type of berry but LOVES oranges. She enjoys chicken and ham (although we mostly eat chicken). She drinks water like her big sister and almond milk.

Ella is seriously the funniest baby ever. She is the perfect addition to our little family. Fraser and I could not be happier with our sweet girls.

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