hi moon.

july 26 2010.
a big bright full moon. lighting up the night sky.♥

ella's luau!

IT WAS PERFECT! we were a little worried with tropical storm bonnie heading our way, but she totally missed us, not one single drop of rain. it was a great turnout. lots of kiddies and mommy friends, and good pizza and cake. thanks everyone for coming.

birth day.

yesterday was ella's first birthday!! i can not believe it's been a year!! we had a great day, opened presents in the morning right after waking up and then spent the day at the zoo. came home and ate yummy yummy cake and played with all of her new toys. :) i thought the day would be quite emotional for me but it wasn't bad at all. at 8:37, the minute she was born last year i started to get teary eyed and when i was putting her to bed that night. but besides that i was fine.

so i am now the mommy of an amazing little 1 year old girl. ♥

looking back

one year ago today was my due date. and one day later ella was brought into this world.

what an amazing year it has been. by far the BEST year of my life. she's such an amazing little girl. she surprises me everyday how smart she is. she loves to make people laugh shes such a silly little lady, she has an awesome personality, even the spunky and fussiness, and i'm loving every minute of her, but there is just something about her turning 1 that is so bittersweet to me. i no longer will look back a year ago and say oh she was still in my belly, i will now say one year ago she was here and she was this and this many months old. it's just crazy. if i think to much about it i'll feel that lump in my throat and i can start to feel the tears coming on. i know tonight i'll probably break down and start sobbing but hey, thats what being a mom's all about. :)thank you ella for bringing such happiness into our lives. you really are our world. ♥


on another note, ella got her birthday present from her great grandpa opa, he got her the jungle book 40th anniversary edition dvd. this was my number 1 favorite movie of all times when i was a little girl, my mom actually said at one point she thinks i'd watch that movie 5 or more times a day and fall asleep to it every night. so it was an awesome gift to get for ella's first birthday. thank you so much opa!

first 1'st birthday present.

today miss ella opened her first 1st birthday present from her great grandma. she got....


2 very very adorable books! she loves looking at the twinkle toes book and feeling all the textures and the itsy bitsy spider book is just so much fun to read!

thank you so much oma! ella loves them and so do i. ♥

hand and foot pring plaque

today while walking through target i had this brilliant idea to make a plaque of ella's hand and foot print! and thank goodness they had the crayola air dry clay that i needed just to do it! :) i LOVE how it turned out.



i'd love to make this a tradition to do every july around her birthday for the next 5 maybe even 10 years.


edited to add picture of the plaque all painted. :)

picture day

today we went and had Ella's first birthday pictures taken and my was it fun... NOT! :P no it wasn't that bad, but it definitely wasn't as easy as it was 9 months ago when we had her 3 month/halloween pictures taken. we had to bribe her with goldfish, and we both had to sit on either side of the backdrop so she'd walk in between us and right while she was in the middle the photographer would call her name or make funny noises to get her to look at the camera for a split second, and even then most of the time that didn't work out. but all in all the pictures that we did get were great! even though we only got her to really smile in one, we love them all. we ended up spending quite a bit more then we wanted, but she only turns 1 once. but i definitely don't plan on doing that all the time..

now for pictures, the first few are the ones we purchased and i scanned them onto the computer so the white is a little blown out. the others with the sears writing on them are the ones i saved from the website that we decided not to get. but it's still nice to have them..

ENJOY! :)♥

mothers love

birthday tutu

were getting ella's 1st birthday pictures taken sometime within the next week hopefully and this is the tutu she'll be wearing for some of the pictures! :) i absolutely LOVE it!

just july.

today we finished putting up ella's play house. it is actually her 1st birthday present but mommy couldn't wait to put it up. i can't believe that my ella is going to be 1 in 10 days. i still remember last year counting down the days until i'd be induced. and now she's so big. i looked through some of her old onesies from back when she was a newborn and i couldn't believe she was ever that small. i love her more then i've ever thought i could love. she's taught me the meaning of true love and life and i couldn't ever imagine life without her. for her actual birthday, the 20th, were going to be taking her to the zoo, and then on the 24th she's going to have her big birthday luau! we cant wait! we get to see ella's best friend delanie and her mommy brittany, which is mommy's best friend. and lot's of other friends. she's also going to be getting her 1st birthday pictures taken soon. and has her 12 month doctors appointment on the 26th. this is a busy busy month for us. a very bittersweet month. my little ella will always be my baby, but she wont be considered one anymore. this month my ella will become a toddler.

♥







and here are some pictures of ella and her new play house :)