Fall 2012

Since I was so terrible with keeping up with posts, here's a look back at our Fall festivities.  We kicked it off with a trip to the pumpkin patch (an annual tradition).  Ella loved seeing all the animals and roaming the pumpkin field.  I think her favorite was the hayride where she got to wave to all the scarecrows.  

Photo op before heading in.  (My bump was 23 weeks at the time.)

Lunch time.  Remy got to come along and loved the attention.

Patiently waiting for the pig races.

Waiting for the hayride.

She loved sitting in Daddy's lap and waving to the scarecrows (a habit she developed from walking around our neighborhood and waving to the many scarecrows adorning our neighbors' yards.)

Ella got to meet the beautiful horses that pulled us along.

Checking out the chickens.  Ella makes excellent chicken noises.

Pumpkin time!

Exhausted from the day, Ella takes a rest while waiting for the car to pull up. 

In October we also celebrated Ella's first anniversary of her baptism.  We got her a special little dessert and lit her baptism candle to commemorate the special occasion.

She is definitely inherited her father's trait of not loving desserts.  She ate the fruit and some whipped cream and left the rest of the mini cheesecake.  

Halloween was particularly warm this past year, so we had to abandon our original costume idea (Amelia Earhart) for something more practical.  Since Ella loves pointing her toes and dancing around the house, we thought it appropriate for her to dress up as a ballerina.  

Our prima ballerina.

We went trick-or-treating at an event in downtown Monrovia near where we live.  She thought it strange that all the dogs were dressed up.

Going store to store for candy.

We met up with her friend from Gymboree class.  Madelyn made the cutest bumble bee and her new baby brother, Gabe, was a ferocious tiger.

Remy made sure to check out her goods when we got home.

What is this stuff... candy??

The days following Halloween, Ella would ask to look through her candy stash.  While she didn't get to have any, she did get to eat some pretzels she got from a health-conscious neighbor! 

New Year, New Posts (Hopefully!)

So the reason for the lack of posts has because I've been having trouble uploading pictures to Blogger.  For some reason, they kept telling me I exceeded my limit.  I didn't even know I had a limit.  Anyway, I think it's been fixed, but we'll see.  For the time being, before my barrage of catch-up posts, I thought I'd try it out and post some pictures from our latest photo shoot (taken in November).  I wanted to get some pictures of Ella approaching 18 months of age, some bump pics (I have been SO incredibly bad at keeping up with this pregnancy...sigh), and some Christmas card pics.  So here are some of our favorites.  Thanks to my old high school friend, Teresa at Pirouette Photography, for taking these lovely photos!

Checking In

We are alive!

We are here!

We are just overwhelmed with all the stuff going on that keeps me from sitting down and actually completing a post.  I have several "drafts" but nothing finished.  So I figured I'd just check in quickly in hopes of catching up soon on all the happenings.

I can't believe how quickly the days, weeks, months (!) have flown by.  I can't believe that Halloween and Thanksgiving are a fond memory, Christmas is knocking on our door, and our little baby will be making his (!) arrival in just 9 short weeks (!!).  Is this all really happening?  I can't wrap my brain around it.  I have so much to say about Ella and how much she's grown, about how Adam and I celebrated 5 years of marriage while scarfing down a three course meal in thirty minutes because we're conditioned to eat fast and chase the little one around, about how this pregnancy has taught me so much more about giving up control and letting God take the reigns of my body, my emotions, and my ideals of motherhood.  So much to say and so little time.  But I hope this checking in will kickstart my blogging once again.

In the meantime, we are just trying to enjoy this holiday season and taking things one day at a time, knowing it won't be like this again.  Stop.  Breathe.  And savor this special time in our lives.

Here's to catching up soon!!

Birthday Boy

Another belated birthday post.  This one goes to Adam, husband and father extraordinaire!   We celebrated his 32nd birthday with lots of cake, family, and some close friends.

We had Chinese cake with our family on his actual birthday.  The lime-green cake wasn't a hit, but I loved it!

On his birthday weekend, we had an intimate dinner at a new Spanish-influenced tapas place called Racion.  We fell in love with this restaurant on an impromptu date night a few weeks earlier and knew it would be perfect for our small gathering.

Dinner was followed by ice cream cake at our place.  Our stomachs were definitely exhausted from all the celebrating!

Belated Birthday Pictures: The Cake Smash

I had never heard of a cake smash until I was a very grown adult.  Okay, it was like three years ago.  As a kid, it just wasn't part of our culture to smash a cake.  My mother would have said, "What a waste of a perfectly good cake!"  Well, she more likely would have said, "It's too messy!  Let's just eat fruit!"

But I love the idea of a baby being able to just dig their hands into a cake and get messy.  They are so tactile that it seems like the.best.birthday.event.ever. for a one year old.  That being said, I try to avoid feeding Ella processed sugar.  Plus, she just doesn't have a sweet tooth (total father's daughter thing going on here).  So I brilliantly decided I would bake her a small cake that was low in sugar so she could smash and eat and have a grand ol' time.  Well, I ended up getting a cake mix from Whole Foods that allowed you to add your own sugar and was gluten-free (not that Ella is allergic to gluten, but it just sounds healthier, doesn't it?).  Remember now, that I was in my early stages of pregnancy and definitely feeling the symptoms so I was exhausted by the time I had to bake this cake.  Let's just say it didn't turn out as planned.  The thing was super dense.  Like, I-could-throw-it-at-a-pug-and-knock-him-out kind of dense.  But I frosted it anyway and hoped no one would notice.

Ella noticed.  We all noticed.  There was no smash.  The poor girl couldn't break through it.  She just swirled the frosting around a lot.  I had to take a knife and break it up for her, only to realize the inside was uncooked.  Total first smash cake fail.  But she had fun nonetheless and managed to get frosting everywhere.  It was a learning experience for all of us.  For the next kid?  Totally using angel food cake.

Testing out the cake.

"Um, Mom, it's rock solid!"

"Can I get some help?"

"Much better!  There's cake inside!  And I don't like it!" 

"But my toes do!"

"Here, Dad, you like Mom's cooking!"

Belated Birthday Pictures: Le Fete

Here are pictures from Ella's Secret Garden birthday party.  I chose the theme because one of our favorite things to together (and with the Grandmas) is to visit botanical gardens.  Ella really enjoys watching birds and looking at flowers.  So the theme seemed appropriate.  Since having Ella, we haven't really thrown an all out party like we used to, so I was really excited to go all out on this one.  Then I found out I was pregnant the week of her party and my energy was zapped.  Fortunately, I planned ahead somewhat and had most of the preparations done.  We ended up simplifying a lot of things, but I think Ella enjoyed the event nonetheless.

This way to Ella's party!

I LOVE these moss letters I found on Etsy.  I embellished them with some butterflies to give it a whimsical touch.

We catered from Lemonade, that specializes in light, fresh faire.  Perfect for a summer party.

I scored this wire terrarium at HomeGoods for super cheap.  It housed some spring flowers and served as table decor!

I saw these fabric napkins on clearance at BHDLN, and I fell in love.  You can always use fabric napkins in cute, girly prints.  Always.

Ice cold lemon water, sweet tea, and raspberry lemonade kept things refreshing.

As did lavender soda (gotta have herbs at a garden-themed party!) and some Fat Tire beer.

Found these flower-themed alphabet cards on The Land of Nod, and couldn't resist using them for a first birthday party.  I love when ideas come together!

Some birdhouses I found at HomeGoods, and some paper fans to help beat the heat.

Handmade paper party hats for guests to wear.  I made these with help from Donna and Ashley.  Clearly this was done before I found out I was pregnant and and lost all my energy.

Little lunch boxes for the smaller guests.

Don't let the pout fool you.  Ella was a party animal!

Wearing her hat for all of 15 seconds.  I'm saving it for her 15th birthday and making her wear it all day long so she can better appreciate her mom's handiwork.

Picnic-ing.

Blessed with so many gifts.

We saved her cake for her actual birthday (the day after the party).  So we celebrated with mini cupcakes from Dots instead!

Fascinated by her 1 candle.

It was a sparkler candle and I realized it maybe wasn't the most appropriate one to use.  Ha!

First time having a cupcake.  First time having a baked good.  First time having so much sugar in general.

She just liked posing with it.

And she didn't really want to eat it.  Just maybe throw it around a little.

We nibble on these 1-year-old legs on a regular basis.  

Belated Birthday Pictures

I am finally getting around going through all the beautiful pictures my sister-in-law, Kathie, took of Ella for her first birthday.  Sometimes I still can't believe we have a little daughter and that she's really here.  Crazy, since we now have another little one on the way, and we are bound to feel the same way about have two children.  Time has blessed us so much, and it was so great to celebrate Ella's big milestone.  Here are a few more of our favorite pictures from the shoot we did at the Huntington Library.  (I'll post more pictures in following posts.)