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Monday, June 30, 2014

Life with Ella {week 21}


We are currently in the middle of packing up my entire house to go to Ohio this week! So life is a little cray cray right now...but not crazy enough to skip my weekly recap!

Monday, we celebrated Ella's 20 week "birthday" by having a little photoshoot with her 20 week ultrasound pictures!


She enjoyed them a little too much...she kept trying to eat them and wrinkle them up! 


And because I love a good comparison picture: 


Since we had no air (our a/c went out last Sunday!), we went to Panera for dinner!


...And this is how we slept...


Tuesday, Ella got some relief from the heat, when I dropped her off with Chelsea and Jeremy while I tutored. 


After that, we discovered the cutest consignment store in Ballantyne (Charlotte people, it's called Mommy and Me!)


Ella also went to her first swim meet!


We went to cheer on a little boy I used to babysit...Ella LOVED looking at the water and the kids swimming! 

On Wednesday, we FINALLY got air conditioning!!! While the guys were installing it, we read/ate some books...


...and Ella helped me work on my tutoring stuff!


On Thursday, we went to the mall and discovered the major sale Gymboree was having!


I got the coat above for a whopping $4!!! And all the clothes pictures below for $50 total!!


I have a serious problem...this child has more clothes than she knows what to do with, but I mean, how can you resist cute clothes that cheap?!?

On Friday, we met some of our friends at the splash park! Ella actually SAT UP by herself!!! But she was on a hill, and it lasted all of .5 seconds, so I couldn't get a picture of it. (When we got home, I tried to get her to sit up again, and she just kept falling over! We will keep working on it, before making it official with her milestone sticker and photoshoot!!)

{She's soooooo close!!}

Ella decided that was exhausting, so she spent the rest of our time at the park sleeping!


And that evening we had a bath...look at my cute little ducky!!! 


On Saturday, Ella came with me on her first trip to the teacher store! (I had to get some things for Natalie's wedding, haha)


We also went to the mall and got these towels from Pottery Barn Kids! They were on major sale, and I love how they turned out!!!


Saturday was also Ella's first taste of rice cereal!!! 
Here's her first bite...


...and then she knocked the bowl on the ground, making a HUGE mess...


We tried a few more bites before giving up; she hated it! 


Maybe we'll try again next week! 

Yesterday, Ella helped me make a sign for Natalie's wedding!


We also went to brunch at Terrace Cafe (soooo yummy!) with some of our friends who were visiting from out of town! 
Ella decided to sleep the entire time!


Sunday evening, we went to a wedding, so Ella stayed with one of her (many) boyfriends, Thomas! I will blog about the gorgeous wedding later!!

Well, we're off to Ohio soon! Have a great 4th of July and I'll be sure to recap all of our adventures (including driving back 9 hours on my birthday-yay) when we return!! 

Monday, June 23, 2014

Life with Ella {week 20}

How the heck is my sweet girl already 20 weeks old??!! 


And, I also can't believe I've been writing these little weekly updates for 20 weeks in a row...if you're still reading, congrats!!! 

We had a relatively low-key week last week...

On Monday we were super happy playing in the jumperoo...


...but the happiness did not continue when Ella had to go to Kathryn's while Mommy and Daddy went out for their anniversary dinner. Poor Auntie Kaffy!

On Tuesday, Ella seemed to be in a slightly better mood, so we went to Target...


...and out for a walk! 


On Wednesday, Ella came with me to find a bridesmaids dress for Natalie's wedding (we just had to get any black dress, which was super awesome!)


Ella also got this headband at H&M. I'm kind of obsessed with it! Ella, not so much. 


Thursday, we had more fun times in the jumperoo...she really loves that thing!


And we also discovered fruit snacks wrappers. 


Considering I craved these like nobody's business while I was pregnant, I should have known my child would love them too...well, just the wrappers for now!

On Friday, we went to the pool with baby Frankie and my teacher friend, Caitlin!


We also had to dog-sit for Auntie Kaffy's puppies!


Something about Kathryn's house Ella does not like! Do you see her screaming her head off above?!?! Yikes!

After that, we went to Emma Cate and Holden's birthday party at the spray ground! Ella was too little to go in the fountains, so she watched from afar...


...she did love her party favors though!

{Not pictured: bubbles! She loves the bubbles!}

Saturday was National Wear Your Lilly Day, so of course Elle Belle had the perfect dress:


And we went to the Lilly Pulitzer store to find some shorts for me!


We even got put in the pretty princess fitting room!


Unfortunately, I have wayyyy more cellulite than I did last summer, so I decided the shorts were a no-go. I did pick up this swimsuit for Ella and a new phone case for me. Plus we got a free necklace with purchase! And all of sales people LOOOOVED Ella!!! They said she should come model for them and bring in customers! Haha!

After Lilly, Ella had her first Whole Foods experience! 


Well, she's technically been here before, but not to grocery shop! 

We even took the escalators that are for shopping carts... 


You're probably not supposed to take your stroller with your 4 month old in it on this thing....but don't worry, I held on tight! Don't report me to DSS, k?! 

Saturday night, while I was over at my friend Andrea's, Ella rolled from her back to belly for her dad!! He managed to get an "after" shot:


Sunday was REAL fun because our air-conditioner went out...so we had this fan following us all over the house...


Trav's parents were also here, sweating it out with us, so we finally decided to go get some sushi, and watch the soccer game in the nice cool a/c of the restaurant!


When we came home, it was about 80* in our house, so Ella decided she needed a nice, cold beer to cool off. 


{She really didn't have any! Promise!!}

We finished watching the soccer game...




...and Ella loved bouncing with her grandpa!


Last night, we tried to get Ella to roll back to belly again, but she did not really want to. Probably because it was so hot. 


While I've been writing this post, the air-conditioner guy has been working on our unit. He has just informed me that we will need to buy a new air-conditioner, and it probably won't get installed for a few days. Oh yay
So now I'm going to take a cold shower, and then we are off to the mall, library, grocery store and anywhere else I can think of that has air-conditioning!!!!

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Our Second Anniversary

Yesterday was our second wedding anniversary!

It's hard to believe its been 730 days since all of this!!




{If you want to see our first anniversary recap click here}

Last year, I was about 7 weeks pregnant and on the verge of some very epic morning sickness, so this year, I was excited to 1. not be nauseous for days on end, and 2. DRINK! 

Our anniversary celebration began when Travis came home from the store on Father's Day (yes, his day!!) and surprised me with these pretty roses!


Yesterday, on our actual anniversary, we went out to dinner at Bentley's on 27, where we had our wedding reception!

Of course, I had to wear my wedding shoes!


Before we headed out, Ella and Daddy had to have a little chit-chat about behaving for Auntie Kaffy...I don't think she listened very well. 


After dropping a not-very-happy Ella off with Kathryn (who I seriously owe my life to at this point), we headed uptown! 

We all know how Travis is with his sporting events, so we pushed back our dinner reservation and stopped at Carolina Ale House to watch the end of the USA World Cup game. The place was packed! 


Meanwhile, my poor, poor child was screaming her head off at Kathryn's. Thank goodness she eventually calmed down (after an hour!) but at this point I was seriously considering calling it a night and heading home to rescue Kathryn! I'm just so glad she finally calmed down and I felt so bad for Kathryn!!!

Anyways, around 8:00, we headed up 27 floors to our favorite restaurant, Bentley's! If you have never been there, I highly recommend it. Yes, it is expensive, but it is SOO worth it! They wait staff is so welcoming and accommodating (the owner even came by our table...he remembered us/our wedding, and chatted with us for a little bit) and I have yet to taste anything not amazing and high quality there!

This was the view from our table:


{Note the wine glasses...I could drink this year! *YAY!*}

For an appetizer, we got some calamari (our fav!)


For our meal, we actually ordered the same thing (hi, old married couple!), which was a delicious NY strip, with pomme frites (aka French fries) and creamed spinach. I do not like creamed spinach, and probably wouldn't normally touch it with a 10 foot pole, but this was outstanding! And I was so excited to have a juicy steak this year! (Last year, I was afraid bc I would have had to get it well done...and you can't come to a place like this and get your steak well done, right?!)


For dessert, our waiter made bananas foster right at our table! 



Best part: it was on the house! Their anniversary treat to us! :)


{Sorry not the best pics, I had to make do with my iPhone!}

It was a great evening out with my favorite husband and baby daddy!!


We had a great time and conversation (and surprisingly, didn't talk about Ella too much!), but of course we were glad to pick her up from Kathryn...and I know Kathryn was glad, too!! :) 


Here's to many more years of wedded bliss! 
{And hopefully our daughter behaving better for babysitters on future anniversaries!}