Birthdays & Blessings

So this is our crazy little Ava! She started sleeping in her "big girl" toddler bed the day after my last post and she loves it. We couldn't resist taking this picture of her a few nights ago where she insisted that she sleep with this "hat" (bowl) on her head and positioned herself at the end of the bed to keep it on. She is seriously such a funny little girl and has more personality than anything I could have ever dreamed up. I love it! My cute little family! The first night in her new bed! She did awesome in it I was so impressed/grateful :)

See LOTS of personality! This is how she decided to eat her dinner one night... As you can imagine she didn't eat much of it.

So tomorrow (in about an hour) our little princess turns 2

So we had a little princess party for her on Saturday night with some of her little friends

We searched for Princess Jewels (aka easter eggs) and had a cupcake/princess musical wand walk

And ate some delicious princess cake

I can't believe our little girl is 2. I swear we just had her. She is such a fun little girl and we love having her in our home! Dave and I constantly look at her and ask each other when she grew up. It was seriously over night. This morning she woke up asking for "one more present." That is her new favorite phrase. But one more normally means a lot more than one. Good thing we had a family party for her today :)

So this is how the morning started in preparation for Ella's blessing in church :) Thankfully it didn't end that way...

Our beautiful little baby in her blessing dress

She didn't even make a peep during her blessing

What a sweetheart!

Our Wonderful Family that came for the blessing

Birthday Party #2 with all her Ashby cousins

Exhausted from the over stimulated, sugar rush weekend (her mouth was blue from the ring pop she was eating) she fell asleep on our lovesac. It was a crazy and busy weekend, but so much fun and we were glad we were able to spend it with our friends and family!

6 Weeks

One of our good friends took some adorable pictures of Ella for us a few days after she was born. They turned out so cute! Thank you so much Kristi we really appreciate you doing that for us even though Ella wouldn't cooperate and stay asleep :)!
I can't believe that our little Ella turned 6 weeks old on Wednesday. It feels like just yesterday that we were heading to the hospital, yet I can't remember what it was like without her in our family. She is such a sweet and content baby and Ava just loves her too (sometimes a little too much). I think the first 6 weeks are the hardest after having a baby. Just adjusting to no sleep :) and to a new member of the family. The last little bit has been so easy though. I feel like I am getting the hang of having 2 kids and going out is so much easier. I am grateful for that. Ella is sleeping so much better too! The last few nights have been great and hopefully they last.
Ella looks so much like Ava did at her age. It is crazy to look at pictures and see the similarities. Ava will be 2 in a week and a half and I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by. It makes me sad but I love seeing the different stages they go through. Ava is my little buddy and has been such a champ through this transition. We bought her a toddler bed yesterday so we'll see how that transition goes :) but she is such a sweet little girl and I love the stage she is in. She is so curious about everything and is constantly talking - which I am pretty sure happened over night. She puts words into sentences and she communicates so well. She is so funny. Some of my favorite Ava quotes are, "I'm gonna get you" as she runs away from us for us to chase her - she especially loves this game with her daddy when he comes home from school. Another one is "It's ok, no wors (worries)" she normally says this after she has loved Ella a little too much and Ella is screaming. It cracks me up! The other day we were on a walk and Ella started crying and Ava said, "It's ok, no wors! Hungry? Yeah!" It was so funny because she was answering for Ella and Ella was hungry. You probably had to be there to hear Ava say it but it was probably one of the funniest things she's said.
Ella rolled over from her stomach to her back a week ago Thursday. I am sure it was a fluke thing but I wouldn't be suprised if she starts doing things early just for protection sake from her big sister. I know Ava can't wait until Ella is big enough to play with her. She is always trying to get Ella to play "zoeys" with her. I don't know where "zoey" came from but that is the name of all her little dolls - and those dolls go with her EVERYWHERE. She loves holding little figures and it is very hard for her to give them up when she finds some at other people's homes.
But all in all these last 6 weeks have been a lot of fun and a lot easier than I thought it would be. I've even run twice since my 6 weeks mark - which was just on Wed. so that is pretty good and I am proud of myself. It is a pretty good workout pushing a double jogger! Life is great though and we are enjoying this stage we are in!