Our birthday girl

It is hard to believe our sweet Ella is turning four...why can't they stay little forever? I often times ask her if she will stop growing, she of course says "no way" but makes up for it by telling me she will always be my baby....I love her so much!!

We kicked off the birthday week with a little party at preschool. This year Ella chose a princess theme for her birthday, so I put my creative hat on and made some fun princessy cupcakes.

The class sang to her and she even got to wear a special tiara...I think she really felt like a princess!

Such a little pill

Poppa and Pink Gramma are in town this week, Chloe wasted no time getting into their things...what a little handful she is becoming!

Disney Days!!

She did it! Ella made it to the castle!! As a reward for her much improved sleeping habits we headed to Disneyland to do a little celebrating. Ella was ecstatic when midway through our car ride, we finally told her where we were driving ...we just couldn't get there fast enough!!

Waiting for Mickey Mouse

Grandma and Ella on the teacups

Ella and Ariana with Goofy

Our private viewing of Fantasia Mickey..pretty cool

Waiting for the Playhouse Disney Show to start

Ariana loved the Ferris wheel....her mommy, not so much!!

A rare Chloe moment: falling asleep in the stroller

Princess Ella we are so proud of you!

Girls Night

Simone and I enjoyed a much needed girls night out this week!! Several boutiques in the area got together and planned a ladies night filled with shopping, limo rides and food!! We had so much fun getting in a little uninterrupted shopping and of course laughing our heads off to things that probably no one else would find funny. Simoney you were an awesome date!! Let's do it again soon. Thank you to Barth and Grandma for watching our babies!!

Progress report

I am so happy to give a positive report on the princess chart! Ella has been doing so well during her bedtime routine. I must say that this chart has been a success....thank you Grandma!! Every night before bed, Ella decides which sticker she will place on the stone the next morning, and there is usually a very specific reason for her choices. As soon as she wakes up she usually asks...."mommy, did I sleep good?". Once this has been confirmed she excitedly runs to her chart and puts the carefully selected sticker on the stone. The cutest part is her daily call to Grandma to tell her the good news which goes something like this:


Ella: "Hi Grandma"
Grandma: "No, don't tell me you are calling to tell me something"
Ella: "Yes Grandma"
Grandma: "What?" (grandma totally knows what she is going to say, but she pretends that she has no idea)
Ella: "Grandma...I sleeped good" (she says it this way exactly with a little smirk on her face)
Grandma: "No Ella, I don't believe it....I don't think you are telling the truth"
Ella: "Yes!! I did!!"
Grandma: "How come you are sleeping so good?? Now Grandma has to do a flip!" (this is the part that Ella anticipates and waits while grandma puts the phone down to do a backwards somersault....yes, she really does it. Pretty good for a grandma huh?)
Ella: "Did you do it Grandma?" (laughing)
Grandma: "Yes...now you are going to have to stop sleeping so good so that I don't have to keep doing flips...Grandma is getting old!"


It is the exact same conversation every day, but Ella just can't get enough of it and looks forward to each morning knowing that Grandma is going to have to do another flip!! Another one of the many reasons we ♥ Grandma!!

Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you Ella...keep up the good work!!!

Two princesses and a nacho

This year we spent halloween in San Diego. The evening started at the church harvest party where Ella and Chloe played games and won tons of candy. We then headed back to grandpa and grandma's for some trick-or-treating. The neighborhood is pretty big, so we cleared out the seats in the back of our car and piled in. It was pretty fun! Ella and Chloe were both princesses and Barth was Nacho...for those of you who know my husband, this was the perfect costume for him. Barth didn't want me to miss out on all the fun, so he insisted that I dress up as him (pretty creative, I know). Ella got a little concerned when she saw me in scrubs and kept asking if I was gonna work at the hospital like daddy. I reassured her that this was just for the night. Too many pieces of candy later and way too late at night (10:30pm to be exact), the girls headed to bed and we called it a night!

Sleeping Beauty and the fairy princess

The "Chloe" look

She was fascinated by the hot air balloon at the harvest party

Nacho Libre that is....

Me as my hubby....a surgeon (that is Ella's friend Kai)

let's carve pumpkins!

Okay, so I am a little behind on some of these posts, but here is what we have been up to...

The girls had been anxiously awaiting the day we got to carve our pumpkins. In preparation for the inevitable mess we cleared out the kitchen and covered the floor with garbage bags. The girls thought this was pretty cool. Ella carefully drew out what she wanted on her pumpkin and daddy did his best to copy it (he did a pretty good job). Chloe got bored after two minutes and told mommy she wanted "happy" to be on her pumpkin. Barth and I helped the girls out with their pumpkins and finished our creations after the girls went down for naps. Barth carved a crazy face on his pumpkin and I chose a cat...my girls are obsessed with cats right now so it was just what they needed!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN