Mommy's FOUR little Blessings!

Happy 2nd Gotcha Day, Sweet Ella!

On Saturday we celebrated our 2nd official Gotcha Day with Ella. I was actually sick this weekend so poor Ella did not see much of her mommy but I was sure to wish her a Happy Gotcha Day! She loves hearing about our trip to China...so we reminisced about our first meeting (which we often do)...she always giggles now when I tell her how she didn't like Mommy at first...I think it's hard for her to even imagine...let's hope it stays that way-even through the teenage years...





I can't even begin to imagine our life without Ella. She is such an amazing child with such a huge heart-which I know I say a lot. I know God has huge plans for this little one and I can't wait to see those plans unfold. We are so incredibly blessed to have Ella as our daughter...and even 2 years later I am still taken back when I hear her call me "mommy"...still in awe of God's perfect plan...





We love you so much Ella!

Too cute...

I've been feeling a little out of sorts lately so I don't have much to write...but I do have some cute pics of my little Abbie to post...

Ella's birthday...8 days later

I did post a Happy Birthday post and then forgot to post about her actual birthday...seriously-blogging can be so confusing!!! I don't know how people post about events (with pictures) on the actual day of the event...how do you find the energy after a long day to download the pics from your camera onto the computer...only then to wait forever to upload (or download-honestly I have no idea the difference) to flickr and then try and come up with a cute post...that is a lot of work!!! Anyway I really digressed...here are some cute pics from my sweet little Ella's birthday!

We let her unwrap one gift in the morning before school...since she learned to tie her shoes a couple months back we decided to get her a new pair of sneakers...she LOVES them!

Ella and Abbie enjoying Ella's birthday doughnuts...

I love how you can see the excitement in her face...

She just loves Ni Hao Kai Lan

She told us that her favorite part of the day was when we sang "Happy Birthday" to her...that was her favorite part last year too!

(I also let her have orange soda for dinner...hence the orange mustache!)

Blowing out the candles...

We love you, Ella!!!

Halloween 2009

Happy Halloween!

Sorry this is almost a week late! Anyway...the girls had a fun Halloween-well Ella had a fun Halloween until all the scary monsters came out and then she called it a night. Our village has set trick-or-treating hours so I made sure to get the girls right out at 5 in hopes that Ella would make it to more than a couple houses before getting freaked out...well we made it to about 6 houses and then the wagon had to make a u-turn back to our house so Ella could stay home with Daddy and Abbie and help pass out candy. Just like last year we all met up around 7 on our front steps and the girls binged on candy and helped pass out nerds rope to the trick-or-treaters!

My children have no Halloween etiquette...they would peak into windows, walk right into peoples houses...they have a ways to go... :)

A little pumpkin on the loose!

Back home...binging on NerdsRope that are supposed to be for the trick-or-treaters!

We had a neighbor who rented a cotton candy machine and gave out little bags of cotton candy...funny story about that to follow...

I am so happy I got this picture...to somebody who wasn't there it just looks like Ella enjoying cotton candy and Sophie walking back into the house...but this is how it REALLY went down:

-Sophie finishes all her cotton candy

-Sophie then turns to Ella and asks Ella to share her cotton candy

-Ella looks at Sophie like she is crazy and tells her "NO! You already ate your cotton candy!"

-Sophie screams, "I'm going inside! Nobody is being nice to me! Why is nobody being nice to me??...another Maddie moment (John and Kate plus 8-they definitely have the same flair for drama!)

Happy 4th Birthday, Sweet Ella!

My dear little Ella turns 4 today! I can't get too mushy because I need to save that for her 2nd official "Gotcha Day" post that will be coming up in a couple weeks...so as I did for Sophie I will make a list of sweet little things she does at this time...

*Has talked about her birthday for the past month...non stop! Recently she would ask my mom to right on a piece of paper, "It's almost my birthday"-then she would decorate it and give it back to my mom and ask her to save it for her birthday.

*Continues to have a heart of gold-will ask Mommy how her day was and would always ask how Abbie slept when she was going through that phase of not sleeping through the night

*loves Ni Hao Kai Lan-also any little girl that she thinks is from China...there is a little girl in her school from China and she always tells me on the drive home from school that "I played on the playground with Tia!"

*LOVES sports-gymnastics, field hockey, baseball-does not matter the sport-she loves them all!

*Has amazing work ethic-Ella will try and try until she can do something-She took it upon herself one day to learn to tie her shoes and with a little help from Daddy learned to tie her shoes at the age of 3!

*Will pray for Kate everynight-a little girl battling cancer who she never met but heard Mommy pray for her one night and took it upon herself to pray for her as well...

*Is always on "Pray Patrol" at home...if somebody dares open an eye while saying Grace Ella will be right on top of you! We are trying to teach her to take it down a notch! :)

Mommy, Daddy, Sophie and Abbie love you so much, Ella! We hope you have the best birthday ever!