Ella's First Easter

 Happy Easter from our little bunny!  Really, is there anything cuter than a baby in bunny ears? :) 

"Hey, what is that on my head?"

"Really mom?"

It was so special to celebrate Easter with Ella this year! We started the day out with her opening her Easter basket filled with new hair bows, bibs, books, shoes, and snacks.  The Easter bunny knows what Ella likes :).  We went to church where Ella did great in the nursery and then had Easter dinner at my parents house with my family, aunt, and uncle.

After making cake pops a few weeks ago, I decided to try making them into some chicks for Easter like the ones Bakerella has on her website.  I have to admit they turned out pretty cute and also tasted delicious!  

Ella and her friends Sophie and Nate thought it would be fun to celebrate Easter a few weeks early while we were in Suncadia...

7 Months Old

More than half of Ella's first year has flown by and our little girl is already 7 months old!  We don't have another doctor's appointment for another few months so there are no new stats, but we know she is growing and changing every day.  Her newest achievements within the last month include sitting up very sturdily, scooting on her tummy to reach a toy, chatting constantly (saying "ma", "da", "ba", "ee" sounds), holding herself against something to stand up on her own, sticking her tongue out and spitting, deciding that she is now a tummy sleeper, and eating puffs and more solid foods. We love seeing her personality coming out more and more as she is more vocal about letting us know what she wants or doesn't want.  We have been having a lot of fun playing with her now that she can interact with us so much more.  We love our sweet girl so much and can't imagine our lives without her.  She is definitely the biggest blessing to us!  More than anything, I wanted to include some of our favorite pictures of her from the last month.

Our smiley girl

 Loving sitting up and playing

 Eating is very tiring :).  This is the one time she actually fell asleep in the middle of eating dinner.

 Playing with dad

 Standing up all by herself

 Laundry helper

 Her favorite way to sleep

 Her scooting postion

 Full of personality at 7 months!

Suncadia Part Deux

We headed over the mountains to spend a four day weekend in Suncadia with six of our good friends and two of Ella's best friends.  We made the same trip over last year with the eight adults and decided it would be a fun tradition to go back for a second time with the addition of three babies.  It was fun to think back about Brooke, Alison, and me all being pregnant at this time last year.  We rented the same beautiful house that we stayed in before and spent time relaxing, playing with babies, reading magazines, going for walks and runs, playing games, eating lots of good food, taking lots and lots of pictures of the babies, and the girls even got a day at the spa getting manicures.  It was such a treat to spend such quality time with good friends.  I think we took almost 1,000 pictures during the weekend - thank goodness for digital photography.  Our babies will be grown before we know it and I wanted to include lots of pictures of all the fun memories we shared!

Sophie (8 months), Nathan and Ella (6 months) are all at the perfect age right now to sit up, steal each others toys, roll over on each other, and spit up all over all the blankets and toys :).

 Dads and babies

The gals: Lisa, me, Alison, Brooke

 The guys: Jamie, Rob, Cody, Matt

We took turns making delicious meals (isn't food and candy often the highlight of a trip!?) and my cake pops made their debut.  I have to admit they were delicious and fun to eat and there may have been a few arguments over how many each person got.  

Anything involving red velvet, pink candy coating, and sprinkles is sure to be a hit:

 Yum.

 

Pajama time!

The guys were so sweet to hang with the babies so us girls could enjoy our time at the spa.  We ended up getting kicked out of the "sanctuary" at the spa for talking too much and too loudly...apparently we were supposed to be quietly relaxing.

We took advantage of the sunny but cold weather and went for a long walk one of the days.  It looks like we were a walking advertisement for the BOB stroller.

Ella and Nate - little flirts already.  First the smile...

 ...then the hand hold...

...then the giggle...

 ...watch out dad!

Bath buddies!

 Our little splasher

Breakfast club

We made most meals at the house but went out to dinner at the Lodge one night.  Our little family before heading to dinner...

 

Jamie and Lisa

 Brooke, Sophie, and Rob

 Alison, Nathan, and Matt

The girls at dinner...

 

We couldn't leave without taking an "Active baby" group shot - all the dads work for the Active Network...

Clearly they were getting tired of all the picture taking.

Nate:  "Pleeassse no more pictures!"  Ella: "It's okay buddy, in a few more months we'll be able to crawl our way out of these pictures."

 We made them pose for just one more picture with the dads.

I think this may have been my longest post ever...what a fun trip! We look forward to continuing the tradition for years to come.  It's fun to think that next year our little ones will be running around!