A Little of This, A Little of That...

I am making this post to catch up on the many pics in the past couple of months that never made it up on the blog. Things have been so busy, I've just been posting about the bigger things(ie Ella's bday). A few people have asked about events that I never got around to posting....so here they are!!! I have thrown in very random photos, from totally different events/times over the past 2 months. Some I am posting simply becuase they are so cute! Anyway, totally out of order, thanks to Blogger (as my friend Jess would say), here they are!


In February, we took our first trip to the Magic House. Let me tell you, we had the BEST time and Ella absolutely loved it! We spent a solid 3 hours there, and she was entertained the entire time. We definitley want to go back, it is such a neat way for kids to explore and learn. We literally took hundreds of pictures, but here are a few highlights:

Of course, a visit to the Magic House includes your picture with the electro-static thing (what is it called?). Her hair was everywhere! At first she looked a little unsure, but then ended up with this smile on her face. Hilarious!

Crawling through one of the many activity areas.

My little musician. This girl LOVES music. Listening to it, singing, and MOST of all, dancing :)

Which leads us to this picture: We had a birthday dinner for my Mom, and Ella and Mimi were listening to music and dancing. Isn't that the sweetest?


For Ella's birthday, I sent strawberry cupcakes to the sitter. Here she is "taste-testing" for me :)


This is the little princess 4-wheeler Mimi & Papa got her for her birthday. We took it to the driveway for a test drive and she was LOVING it!

The Veo clan on Ella's birthday. Last year on her first birthday, we took her to Alex's for pizza. We did it again this year for her 2nd, and hope to make it a birthday tradition :)

Here is a pic of Ella and Daddy on Valentine's Day. That is what Ella made for Daddy, her handprints and a picture for him to have in his office.

(Tom and I had just returned from a night in St. Louis...he surprised me by taking me to my first Blues game! No pics....they turned out horrible! I think my camera was on the wrong setting b/c the ice was so bright it washed everything else out!!)

Everyone's favorite Valentine...with presents from Daddy, Mama and Papa.

I sent some Valentine's Day cookies to the sitter with Ella. She helped me put them on the cookie sheet. Such a big helper ;)

Baking with my girl! (much more fun when the cookies are from scratch!)

Here is Ella making out her Valentines for her friends. I love how intent she is. She did so well!

Cheese!

One of our many trips to the park....this was on her birthday.

At the end of February, I was lucky enough to get to go to KC for a triple shower honoring three of my friends (all ADPi girls!).....2 having babies and one getting married!! This is Carie, who has since welcomed beautiful baby girl Riley! Doesn't she look adorable? The other guests of honor were Dr. Laura H., expecting a baby girl in late April/early May and Monique who is marrying her sweetie in May. It was so great to get together with my girls! We missed the few who couldn't make it, but I think it was the most of us that had gotten together in a long time!

Me with my Katie. We had such a great time. Although I drove in a BLIZZARD to get there that morning, it was so totally worth it. We laughed from the time I got there until I left. Our excursions included a trip to Target, in a cold, icy parking lot, changing clothes in the car of said parking lot, jump starting cars (Katie and her Mom are pros!), and spinning tires trying to get up an icy hill. Always such a blast with this girl.

Christen, Katie and I. Christen lives in Louisville, KY, so I was SO happy to get to see her too!! She is FUN.

A pic of my hubby and I at trivia night at our church. We had SO much fun and had a great table of people. We didn't place very high in trivia, but I think we had more fun than any other group there!

Playing with farm animals, sporting my headband. Love this picture.

Hope this catches us up a little. Sorry for the total randomness.....hopefully now I can keep up with this thing on a regular basis and not get so behind!!!

Have a great week everyone!!

Party Time!

Last weekend, we had Ella's 2nd Birthday party. It was SO much fun. To see the difference between her 1st birthday and this birthday was amazing. She had such a great time, the weather was beautiful, and we were able to share it all with family! And there was no shortage of kids, which Ella loved!

The kids spent a lot of the time outside, since it was in the 70's! We grilled burgers and hot dogs, and the kids played in the yard until dinner time. I swear this was Ella's favorite part of the day, just running around the backyard!

Birthday girl stopping for a quick picture. She looks so big here!

This is so cute...Tom had just asked Ella where Ethan had gone, and this was her response.

There he is! She loved it when the kids would chase her.

We had a hard time getting them to come in and eat dinner. I had to lure her with the cake and presents ;)

Enjoying some hot dog and mac & cheese :)




PRESENTS! :)

She did such a good job opening presents. She would sit on my lap, and for the most part, let me read the cards before she tore into the gift.

Her new tricycle from Uncle Adam (Amo), Aunt Jenni, Skyler, Candice and Sami. A HUGE hit.

Carrying around her new "Dora knows your name" doll. Tom and I ordered this for her. She's all about Dora (as was the theme for her party), and you can program this one to say your child's name, their friends' names, all their favorite foods, colors, pets, etc. Very cool.

And of course, check out her new boots!

Are these the CUTEST, or what?!?! She had to learn how to walk in them, which was funny because at first all she could do was a very deliberate "heel-toe" kind of walk.

Looking through presents, I just like this picture of me and my girl.

Those feet!

Mimi & Papa's gift.....a new battery operated princess "four wheeler." She's still trying to figure it out and starting to grasp that it will go if she pushes the button.

Here is her Dora Cake:

Not too shabby, right? I did it myself!

Singing Happy Birthday to the birthday girl. She thought that was pretty neat :)

All she really ate of the cake was the icing...just like her Daddy.

Mama and Daddy with the big 2 year old!

It was honestly SUCH a great day. Thank you to everyone who came, it was so wonderful because we were able to share it with all of you. Needless to say, we had a very tired girl on our hands that night :) Now that's proof of a great party!

ELLA IS 2!

How is it possible that my sweet girl is 2 years old today? It makes me so happy and so sad all at the same time. Thrilled to be watching this beautiful girl grow and learn, sad that she isn't a little baby anymore. I do my best to savor every moment with her, as I know they go by all too fast. Happy Birthday, Ella Grace. You bring such endless joy to my life. Mama loves you more than you'll ever know :)