New Favorite

This is my new favorite sister pic!

First Day of School

Big Day!  Addy's first day in the 3 year old class, Ella's first day ever at school and my first day back from maternity leave.  All went great.  Addy had a blast at school and was very excited when she got home.  She is in a class with pretty much all of her good friends at school, so she was happy to be back with some of the kiddos that she missed this summer.  Seems to like her new teachers and the new toys in her classroom.  There is apparently a jewelry bucket (not a jewelry box per Addy) and she played dress up and fashion show today apparently.  The note home today from her teachers said that she did a really good job following directions today.  We were happy to see that comment!  Here is a pic of her before school today

Ella had a great day too!  When I dropped her off, her teacher said I was welcome to call as much as I wanted during the day to check in on her.  I had convinced myself not to call because I didn't want to know if things weren't going well, but after I got back from lunch I couldn't help it I had to call - fortunately her teacher said she was having a great day.  Slept and ate well.  I asked if she had been fussy and her response was "Oh no, she is a good baby."  Ella was happy when she got home, lots of smiles and that made me happy.  Here is a pic of Ella before school today (when I uploaded the pic I realized it kind of looks like she is crying in this pic...it is actually a smile.  I finally got Addy looking at the camera and smiling but still working on getting smiles on cue from Ella!)

I should also add that we had 2 kids in bed by 9:00.  That is a record.  Now we are cleaning and getting ready to do it again tomorrow! 

Last Week of Summer

Last week school was closed and we had 5 whole mommy, Addy, Ella days!  Knowing that it was going to be a long week if we just hung out at home all week I made sure to have a bunch of play dates for Addy and Ella got to come along for the ride.  Ella got to spend some time at both of the grandparent's houses, Addy got to go to the Children's Museum with Grandma and Grandpa.  It was a busy fun week!  Here are some pics to commemorate the last week of summer before school and work started

Ballerina bike ride

Can't get enough swimming with Granddad!

Ella is rockin' in her saucer these days.  And here is pic #1 of Ella modeling Addy's headbands.  Addy had a blast dressing Ella up.  Ella tolerated it well for a while!

"Not so sure about this one ma"

OK, no more! 

Addy put this outfit together - I think that she walks better in my heels than I do! 

Ella resting in the shade outside. 

Have you ever seen anything so pitiful?!  I don't remember why she was upset - think it was because she wanted to come inside and I was trying to get her to play in the pool more since it had taken longer to get it set up than she played in it! 

More Beach Fun

We had another great weekend at the beach this past weekend.  Just so nice to get away from the distractions at the house and hang out and relax. 

Made in the shade.  It was HOT this weekend - thank goodness for he beach umbrella and tent!

Addy making "snow" angels in the sand. 

Not sure where this pool came from but we've loved having it to play with on the deck. 

Popsicle time on the stairs. 

Ella is becoming quite the beach bum.  Her favorite thing is to sit on the deck and rock.

Cute Sister Pics

"Fish" Wolf

At the beginning of summer we couldn't get Addy to leave the steps long enough to even make it towards the deep end of the pool - now she swims over by herself (well, with the help of a noodle) and swings around on the rope. 

When the pool isn't super full she can easily stand by herself in the shallow end.

Old Friends and New Friends

Last weekend we had an amazing night catching up with old friends and Ella and Addison made some new ones.  The Wardells and Weavers were in town and we met up at Ralph and Sandra's for a pizza party.  There were a whole bunch of little girls running around - kind of funny that we all have 2 little girls (the little boy you see in some of the pics is David's sister's son).  There must have been something in the water at Bellaire High School!

Rolly-Polly

We try to do tummy time, but have trouble sometimes because Ella flips to her back so fast.  She really has that move mastered! 

Great tummy time!

Roll in motion

And Ella is on her back! 

Growing Like A Weed

Ella is officially 3 months old now!  Everyone says that it gets easier after the first 3 months - I thought that the first 3 months went super smooth, so who knows what we have in store.  I start back to work on the 24th, so that should be interesting.  Not sure how I'll get me and 2 kids ready and out the door before 10:00, but I guess we'll have to figure it out.  Ella has still been sleeping through the night, so I haven't been getting up until 7-7:30ish.  She gets baby of the year in my book for her sleeping habits so far!  There will obviously be some alarm setting required come the 24th.

Addy definitely gets the big sister of the year award!  I keep expecting her to get tired of having a baby around, but I haven't seen a minute of jealousy and she absolutely loves playing with Ella.  We spend more time playing in Ella's room than we do in Addy's room these days.  I imagine our troubles will come once Ella is old enough to get into Addy's stuff and mess it up! 

I got all of Ella's 3-6 month clothes washed and they actually fit really well.  I am excited to have some new outfits for pics :)

Freddie the Firefly is probably Ella's favorite toy.  Every day she is trying to get more and more things in her mouth.  Freddie's wing was a hit this day! 

Ella really likes to sit up these days.  She hadn't been a fan of the Bumbo chair (the purple thing) but now she can sit in it for a while before she gets mad.  Only problem is that she spits up a lot when she sits up.  She is still a bit small to use Boppy (the pillow looking thing...not sure who came up with all these strange names for baby gear) to help her sit up, makes her kind of slouchy, but she loves it.