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!

Ella's First Easter 2016

This Easter weekend was amazing. I was so excited that this was going to be Harper's first Easter finding eggs hidden around the house. Last year I hid a few eggs in her playroom, but she was still too young to grasp the concept of actually looking for them.

We started off the festivities Saturday night by getting the girls dressed into these adorable BabyGap bunny jammies after their baths. I had to snap a few pictures and the results were amazing. It is so apparent how much these two love each other.

After we got the girls to bed, Fraser and I got the girls Easter gifts ready. Fraser built their new little tent while I rearranged their gifts and hid all of the eggs around the house. I could not wait until they woke up the next morning and of course everyone slept in!

Harper immediately saw the Easter basket sitting outside of her room with a trail of eggs going down the hallway. The second I put the first egg in her basket, she started running around collecting them all. It took her a while to find them all since I hid about 80 eggs around the house, no exaggeration.

The last few eggs were hidden in their new tent, both girls were excited to crawl in and find them.

After the egg hunt was done and the girls started playing with their new toys, I started getting everything set up for our Easter brunch. I didn't want to do a big dinner since we entertained for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I figured a brunch would be easier and something different. I baked homemade banana bread the day before. We got bought some freshly baked croissants and fruit to put out. I also prepared a french toast bake the night before (it has to sit in the fridge overnight) which I popped in the oven about an hour before family arrived.

I took some pictures of my littlest bunny and I since it was her first Easter. Gosh I love this little girl so much,

After family came over for brunch and the girls had a nap, I couldn't help but get the girls dolled up to take more pictures. They turned out so good! Probably my favourite pictures of them together. Shortly after my little photo shoot was done we brought the girls for a cruise in their new wagon from Grandma and Grandpa. The weather was beautiful and the girls loved it.

After our walk, everyone was pooped, hence Ella's not so thrilled expression above, and we were eager to hit the hay. We are so thankful to have such an amazing little family and to get to celebrate the true meaning of Easter with those who we love. Hope everyone had an amazing weekend.