Just say no to worms

Ella is not a fan of worms or bugs. We try to tell her that they are good for the yard and garden but she wants nothing to do with them. Jason found a worm the other day and showed it to her and tried to get her to touch it....NOT happening. Even "baby" worms, the tiny little guys are a no go. She's a down and dirty rough and tumble girl otherwise, but slimy bugs and worms just aren't her thing!

Ugly Tree GONE

There was a "special" ornamental tree in our backyard when we moved in, and Jason and I both hated it! (Sorry if you have one in your yard! It's just not our thing). Removing it was last weekend's project. We've been working hard to get our backyard re-landscaped I guess you could say. Basically getting it shaped up so it's family friendly, with lots of space to play, "easy" to maintain, has garden space, has plants and shrubs that aren't dead, ugly or going to poke a kid in the eye, has a patio and room to just hang out.

It's a work in progress for sure. We couldn't have done any of what's been done so far without the help of our awesome family!!! You all have been great about giving us ideas, seeds, plants, not to mention blood, sweat, and hours upon hours of labor! We owe you all a BBQ once the sun comes out and the mud pile disappears!

John showing off his chainsaw skills!

Watching the action outside!
Helping carry the tree to the truck to be hauled away. What a strong little helper!

"Here ya go Papa, this goes in the truck too"

Train Day, With the Zoo in the Middle

Making friends with the goose as we wait for the train

First MAX ride, she was in awe! Her smile got even bigger when she knew we were going through a tunnel.

Ella is SO in love with trains. Any time she hears a train she wants to see it, and then of course wants to ride it. We thought the girl would love nothing more than to ride MAX to the zoo and then ride the zoo train for her special 2nd birthday treat.

On our way to park and catch MAX downtown she saw a streetcar and said, "Ella ride choo-choo.....someday!" Jason and I both busted up laughing. That is the answer that we always give her when she asks if she can ride the choo-choo. She'd never said "someday" before and it was pretty ironic that it was the day that she actually got to ride the train, and multiple times at that.

It was a rain free, but chilly day at the zoo. We had a fun visit and got to see a lot of Ella's favorite animals including the elephants and zebras. She LOVED the MAX and zoo train rides. What a perfect way to spend a 2nd birthday!

Headed home, but that was part of the fun!

A Thomas the Train gift to celebrate a train filled day!

Happy 2nd Birthday

Is it time yet? Are my guests here?

So I'm a little behind on posting things, but better late than never as they say. Ella's 2nd birthday was a couple weekends ago. We had a party for her at our house. She is one loved girl, she was showered with hugs, kisses and thoughtful gifts. She knew the party was for her, and hammed it up at all the appropriate moments! :)

It's so hard to believe that she is 2 already! People aren't kidding when they say if you blink their childhood will be gone and they'll be off to college. Here are a few pictures of our sweet girl's party.

She was so funny as everyone sang happy birthday to her, she just looked around and grinned ear to ear!

Licking off her candles, all 2 of them!

A little less messy than last year!

Playing with her new bowling set

It's a.......

We didn't want to find out the gender of this baby. Really I was the one that didn't want to find out, but my husband was sweet enough to go along with the plan. I figured we have all the major baby stuff we need in fairly neutral colors so we'd be set on everything except for clothes if we had a boy. When in life do you really get a good surprise?

So fast forward to almost 20 weeks into our pregnancy...that is almost halfway mind you, and we went to have our ultrasound. I had a friend do it so I knew I could trust her work and not have to double check what she was seeing on the scan. So I told her I wanted to see the heart views but nothing else, just wanted to see for my own eyes that everything looked good....So I closed my eyes or looked away from the screen the entire scan until she said it was ok to look. She started doing the heart and said ok you can look, she got all the normal images, all looked great and then for some crazy reason she scans down to look at the cord, well I saw what was clearly the gender....she said "all you see is cord" so Jason wouldn't wonder what the heck he was looking at. At that point she didn't know that I had seen the gender. I was totally bummed that I had made it so long without knowing and saw what it was on accident, and I didn't know quite what to do. Jason didn't know that I saw what it was either, and I stewed all night wondering what to do, should I keep it a secret and act surprised when it comes out - no way in heck that was going to happen! So the next day I made a cake and filled it with gender specific colored frosting and when he got home I told him that I saw the gender on accident and that he could find out if he wanted, he just had to cut the cake....of course he wanted to know! So he dove in and.....

IT"S A BOY!!!

We're so excited, but really would have been happy either way. Now we have to switch our minds out of pink mode and into boy mode! We're very happy and can't wait to meet our little one in August!

Proud daddy enjoying his BLUE filled cake!

Ultrasound Pics

Here are some ultrasound photos from our little one's scan a couple weeks ago. All looks great. Baby is healthy and growing like a champ...our gender reveal story to come later. :)

Profile and shoulders

4 chamber heart

Little piggies

There are really 5 fingers there! :)

The "Lord Voldemort Face" as Jason calls it.

Face and eyes

Zoo Train

Ella loves everything train related! We have two sets of railroad tracks near our house so we hear trains all the time....the girl is obsessed with them! "Ella ride choo-choo" is a daily request at our house. So we took her to the zoo to do just that, ride the choo-choo. She loved everything about the ride and was quite disappointed when the ride was over!