A vacation and a wedding!

We are just back from our most recent trip to Florida. This time we went down for my sister Beth's wedding, in which I was maid of honor and Ella was the most adorable flower girl ever! We left on Wednesday night and got there late. Ella did great on the flight and had her own seat for the first time. She loves to fly and is always amazed "we are up so high!" she declares...over and over. She was also very inquisitive this time and asked a million questions..."what's that sound?" "Can we get off the plane yet?" "Do planes have arms?" .....so fun. We spent Thursday at my parents house enjoying the sun by the pool and relaxing. On Friday we headed to the beach to start wedding preparations. Friday was the rehearsal and dinner at the Tradewinds Resort where Beth was getting married. This place was BEAUTIFUL! It's a huge resort right on the beach and was a perfect location. AFter rehearsal we went back to our room to get some sleep. Saturday I got up early and went to Beth's room to help her get ready and get ready myself. We spent the morning getting ready and taking pictures and even had some time to walk down by the beach. The ceremony started around 4 and was right on the beach, it was gorgeous. Everything was perfect! We then took more pictures...more pictures and more pictures. Then we joined everyone else at the reception which was located right on deck next to the ceremony site. Again it was perfect and in fact I've never been to a nicer, more classy wedding. The setting was gorgeous, the tables were beautiful, the food was amazing, and a lot of fun was had by everyone! And while it's good to be home, I miss the sun already! I'm already looking forward to our next trip down this summer. :)

Happy Easter!

For the last week Ella has been singing "here comes petter cottontail...." so I knew she was excited about Easter. This year we (I mean the Easter bunny) hid A LOT of eggs...upstairs and downstairs. As soon as Ella woke up she grabbed her basket and started searching for eggs. She quickly found all the eggs upstairs and then we moved downstairs (to our newly finished basement....awesome) where she found a bunch more eggs including her basket. This year her basket had some movies, chalk, bubbles, books, stuffed animals, stickers, and of course CANDY! She had a good breakfast of jelly beans and marshmallow bunnies. Later in the day she went to grandma's for another Easter egg hunt, candy, and a nice dinner. A fun Easter was had by all. :)

Ella turns 3!

On Friday, April 2, my baby turned 3! I can hardly believe how fast the time has gone by. She is amazing in every way and is constantly making us laugh, it's hard to imagine what life was like before she came. The night before her birthday after she had gone to sleep I filled her room with pink balloons so we she woke up she was already excited. She said "It's my birthday, look at all the balloons" Immediately followed by "where is my cake?". So since it was a special day I let her have a birthday cupcake for breakfast. Craig took a half day at work and we he got home we opened presents Ella got a scooter, helmet, memory game, my little ponies,and a Dora guitar. This year we spent the day playing outside since the weather was so nice, near 80 degrees! Later in the day we went out with the extended family for dinner at Carrabas and came home for cake. At the restaurant she got plenty more gifts as well. It was a fun day for all of us :) The next day Ella's friend Sydney came over and brought her a Kai-Lan playset and bubbles! Ella had a great third birthday!

Oh my how you've changed.... My baby is turning 3 :)

Welcome to the world Ella, April 2, 2007



Ella's first birthday! April 2008


Ella's second birthday! April 2009


Ella's third birthday! April 2010

Spring images....

Spring break happenings....

Well so far spring break has been nothing short of awesome. We haven't done anything Earth shattering, but it has been great. Basically we are sticking around home this week since we will be going to Florida for a vacation and my sister's wedding in a few weeks. On Monday Ella and I went to Grand Rapids to the butterfly garden, this is becoming a spring break tradition with us and Ella enjoyed it this time even more than years past. She was a little apprehensive at first and seemed worried the butterflies would "get" her, after some reassurance that she was safe she seemed to really like looking at all the butterflies, in the jungle as she called it. She was given a passbook with all the different types of butterflies and she really liked finding one in the book and then trying to find it somewhere in the garden. We ended up staying in there almost 2 hours. After that we headed over to Rivertown Crossings mall, I love that mall. They have great stores for little ones Gymboree, Stride Rite, etc. They have a pretty nice play area too. We walked around for awhile, did some shopping, and grabbed something to eat. On Tuesday and Wednesday we did a combination of a lot of little things, shopping, met Craig for lunch (at Red Robin...yum), visited the pet store to see the animals, played outside (a lot...bubbles, chalk, etc..), went to Build-A-Bear. Thursday was gorgeous, near 80 degrees! Went spent most of the day playing outside and it was great. The weather has been amazing this week!