Another beautiful day in CA!

Thursdays are our playgroup days. So today we met up at Breck's house and walked over to her community pool. Here are the older girls holding hands while we crossed the street. Left to right, yours truly, Ella , Amelie and Kate. Too cute. Little girls can be so sweet;-) Pretty soon two more will be added. Breck is expecting her second in june, then two short months later it will be time for me to deliver. That will make 7 girls and 1 boy!! Yikes! That's alot of kids.

Ella's new sand box

Even though this wasn't my idea I feel very proud of myself for creating this for Ella. I found this on Pinterest and I couldn't wait for the weather to warm up so she could enjoy it. Instead of purchasing a sand table or a large wooden sand box that cost at least $50-100 I bought a large rubber maid container($13) and a bag of sand ($5) and thats it! When we are done playing we just snap the lid shut. If I don't want her playing in the sun I can wheel it into the shade. It's perfect. Everyone knows Ella doesn't like getting dirty anyways so she doesn't mind sitting outside of the box. Now I just have to convince her it's ok to get her hands dirty. As soon as she gets sand on her fingers she wants to wipe them off just to put her fingers back into the box. Oh well...I guess she will have to figure that one out for herself.

24 Weeks!

Well, we are a little more then half way there to meeting baby girl #2.  Ella has been very attentive to my belly.  She asks to hug the baby and give her kisses, and at times she just sits next to me while we watch TV and will rub my belly.  It's nice that she is getting to experience this pregnancy with us.  It's one of the perks of being pregnant with a toddler.  But there has been a lot of difficulties too.  Some days I just don't have the patience or energy for the toddler tantrums, and struggles that Ella has been displaying.  I definitely feel more tired this pregnancy, but I guess I have under estimated how exhausting it can be to take care of toddler while trying to keep up with the house, and take care of myself.   But overall the pregnancy has been going well, other then the wicked sweet tooth I have developed.   I am guilty of indulging more this pregnancy then I did with Ella.  Lets hope all the walking we do in Yosemite next week will help take care of those extra calories. 

The Ultrasound pics are from our 19 week scan when we found out the gender.  I promised to post them but never got around to scanning them.   I think it's amazing to see her face close up since we never got any Pics of Ella like that but the rest of the pics did not turn out great.  Ellas ultrasound pics were more defined and we got to see her feet, hands and individual bones.
Next post will be of our Yosemite vacation.  We can't wait to leave town for a little bit and get some exercise outside.  
See you next time!!

An Ella brag

Ella has been super sweet the past few days . This week on our way to a friends house, from the back seat of the car Ella said to me " Mommy, you are cute and funny and take care of me and I love you". That just made my week. I don't need anything else for mothers day now. But that's not all.

Then one night I went to a Moms club event and left Ella with Ben. I thought I would be home in enough time to say goodnight to her but had such a good time socializing I lost track of the time. When I got home Ella was asleep but Ben said she had a melt down right before bed time. She was crying because I wasn't home to say good night to her. Even though I felt bad I didn't get to say goodnight to her it was nice that she missed me so much. Since I have been pregnant I have not been the fun parent. When Ben gets home from work he is fresh,exciting and playful. Where as I am tired, achey and irritable. So I have been feeling like Ben is the her favorite. It was nice to hear that she missed me so much.

And these pictures here in the post is of Ella reading to me and the baby. I told her Mommy was tired so she said, "You relax on the couch mommy and I will read you and baby a story. " Then she proceeded to cover me up with one of her blankets. It was by far my favorite week. Ella has been so sweet and affectionate lately. It has been a perfect beginning to a mothers day weekend.

Ella

Her future is so bright she's gotta wear shades!

Spring sunshine

The weather has really gotten nice here. We have had some hot days but for the most part it's been very comfortable. It's my favorite time of year. As long as I can wear flip flops and tank tops I'm happy. And I love doing warm weather activities with Ella.

Yesterday we took our first trip to the pool and today Ella is blowing bubbles,and playing with side walk chalk. But her favorite activity now is playing catch with Baxter. She has so much fun stealing the ball away from him as he chases her from one end of the yard to the next. She cracks up. And ofcourse Bax loves the attention and exercise. It's nice that they can entertain one another. It allows me to clean the kitchen or better yet, enjoy some of the sunshine in peace.