2014 {Year in Review}

Wow, what a year!!!

 Here's a look back at what I refer to as "the year of Ella."

January

I was a WHALE and we made final baby preparations!

February

Ella Grace was born February 3 and our lives have not been the same since!

March

Trav went to Vegas for the longest week ever, Ella enjoyed her first March Madness and my Dad's Mercer Bears beat Dook! (Yes, Dad, that was a highlight of 2014!)

April

We celebrated Ella's first Easter. We also took our first road trip to Adam and Erica's wedding!

May

We celebrated my first Mother's Day and our sweet girl got baptized a week later!

June

I made my first overnight trip without Ella (to Cleveland for Natalie's bachelorette party), Trav turned the dirty 30, and we celebrated our second wedding anniversary.

July 

We road-tripped up to Ohio for Natalie's wedding!!

I also had a birthday (#29!) and Ella and I spent a few days in Virginia with my parents!

August

Family vacation to Hilton Head

September

Lots of football {see here, here and here}...

and a trip to the apple orchard!

October

Lots of fun with pumpkins for our little owl baby!

November

Ella's first Thanksgiving (and first experience with many foods, none of which she is allergic to, thank goodness)! Oh, and I also ran a half marathon! 

December

We all had a very, merry Christmas!

An amazing year right?!?!

2015 brings me returning to work (UGH!), Ella's first birthday (yikes!!), my 30th birthday (ahhh!) hopefully a few vacations (Paris, perhaps?!), and maybe even some babies (for friends, not me!)!

Ok, 2015...you have a lot to live up to! Bring it on!!! 

{For other yearly recaps, check out: 2013 and 2012}

Christmas 2014

Ella was lucky enough to have not one, not two, but THREE Christmases this year!

First up was on December 23 at my parents' house in Virginia. 

Poor girl was getting over her virus so she wasn't in the best mood....she was a trooper though!

Some big hits from my parents were the Mega Bloks and wagon, corn popper, and wood shape sorter!

She loved spending time with my little brother!

And reading with her grandpa!

But she wasn't too sure about this snowman my parents had!

Next up: Travis' parents in Chapel Hill on Christmas Eve!

Ella enjoyed "reading" their newspaper (and by reading, I mean ripping apart)...

...and meeting Auntie Caitlin's dog!

Ella got an anywhere chair from PB Kids (we didn't assemble it till later that night!)...

...and a bitty baby!

Once again, I have to give Travis' mom the best gift-giver award...this lady is so good! She must have stalked my blog because she bought me half of my wish list! :)

 {Hi Beverly! Thank you again for everything!!}

We took a quick family pic (that my husband was thrilled about, can't you tell?!) before going to his grandma's house that evening. 

We made it back to Charlotte by 9:30 and what do you know?! Santa had visited us!

{Eeeek! Seeing this box still makes me excited! Trav did SO good!}

The next morning, Ella (in her new Christmas jammies) came downstairs with us and we opened presents!

She loves her chair and car!

She also really liked her Freshly Picked mocs (probably because her mom got SOOO excited when she opened them!), blocks and bath toys (from Aunt Kaffy--thank you again Kathryn!) ...and I just love this picture of her "reading" the gift card her daddy got her to PB Kids!

I don't think she got enough stuff... ;)

We spent the rest of day laying around, playing with Ella's toys and even got a visit from our neighbors and Auntie Kaffy! It was the perfect first Christmas for Ella and I'm so glad we were able to spend the day at home, just the 3 of us :) (But loved seeing our families in the days prior, as well!) 

And if you missed Ella's 12 days of Christmas on Instagram, here is a little collage!

Life with Ella {week 47}

Greetings from our sick, snotty, germ-infested house! 

If Instagram and Facebook are any indication, we are in the vast majority of you who are fighting off some yucky illnesses! Trav and I are sniffly (me worse than him...pretty sure I have a sinus infection) and sweet Ella just got diagnosed with her first ear infection this morning. She seems to be in good spirits, though, so I am hoping the antibiotics will do their job and we will be healthy for ALL of 2015 (hey, I can hope)!!!

Here's a look back at our {somewhat sickly} week.

Monday we were at my parents' in Virginia, so this day we headed to Richmond. We spent about 20472 hours in REI looking for stuff for my brother. 

If ever there is a fish out of water, is it me at REI. Not an ounce of outdoorsy-ness (is that a word?!) in my blood. So naturally, I had Ella test out the kid bikes, and try on every hat. Duh. 

We moved on to Dick's (clearly still shopping for my brother, but I am little more familiar with this store!) where Ella wanted to play golf!

We had a nice family dinner that evening...

Please note that in addition to everyone's hilarious faces, is my poor child, sitting in my high chair from the 80s. Please don't report us to DSS.

Tuesday, we celebrated our family Christmas, which I will post later! 

And then we went to one of my favorite places in the world, the J Crew Clearance Center!

Ella wasn't so sure about it, but we found some good stuff!! My favorite purchase was these slippers for only $9!!!

Christmas Eve, after a brief morning nap with Grandpa...

...we headed to Chapel Hill to see Trav's family. Ella was so excited to be reunited with her Daddy. She also had fun with her extended family, including her great-grandma!

Then, because we are crazy, we drove back to Charlotte Christmas Eve night, so we could have Christmas at our house the next day (with NO driving!)!!! I will tell you all about our Christmas in another post, so stay tuned!

Friday, we watched Elf!

And exchanged my new bag! Trav was verrrryyyyy nice this year and got me my first Louis! But the bag he got me (the Totally), while I did like it, was a little too small for all of mine and Ella's crap that I carry around daily. So I exchanged it for a Neverfull, which I hope lives up to its name! 

Saturday, I started feeling pretty crappy, so we didn't do too much...just watched daddy rake leaves!

Ditto for yesterday. I felt like I was literally dying. So we watched lots of football!

I really hope we all feel better soon (and if you're sick like 90% of America is right now, I hope you feel better, too)!!

Christmas Jammies!

Happy Christmas Eve EVE!! 

We are a little late to the Christmas PJ link-up party....but better late than never, right?!

Here is my sweet girl in Christmas jammies #1, playing "mail carrier" with Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas cards...and making a mess of their family room in general.

Hanging out with Grandpa...

And a little photo shoot action on the couch...

Annnnnddd onto Christmas jammies #2!!! She has been enjoying the jingle bells as well!

Looking at her reflection in the ornament...

She is getting a third pair of Christmas jammies from Santa on Christmas Eve! 

{Oops. I just can't help myself. At least some of these have polar bears and "wintery" things on them so she can wear them in January/February...right?!?!}

We hope you have a very happy {and healthy!} Christmas!!!!!