Cruise Day 1!

Our cruise was GREAT! Here's a synopsis of day 1 :-)

Uncle Andrew was kind enough to take us to the airport Monday morning. Ella was SO excited!

Ella was SOOO excited to fly! Her last time on a plane was 2 years ago so she doesn't remember it. It was so much fun to marvel at the wonder of the flight with her! It really is amazing!

Caillou kept Ella happy for a good 90 minutes :-)

Chris and I always loved seeing storms on the horizon when we lived in Arizona so we had to document this one we saw from the plane :-) It's just so neat to see where the rain stops and starts like that!

After a shuttle from the airport, customs, and LONG lines we boarded the ship! Ella couldn't believe how big it was!

First we checked out our room...

...then had a snack...

...then went swimming!

Ella was THRILLED!

Watching the boat "set sail" as we left the port in Miami

Ella all settled into her bed for our first night! She slept great the whole time even though she went to bed SUPER LATE (for her). We compromised on bedtime and all went to sleep around 10:30 each night (and slept til about 8am!). Good start! Days 2, 3, 4 to come...

Ella's First Haircut!!!

A couple weeks ago I decided to take Ella for her first hair cut ever!!! Yes, we made it 3 years and 9 months with no cutting. It was pretty easy since she is so old and was excited about "getting a trim at the salon" rather than scared :-) My dad joined us and it was a fun little milestone to celebrate!

Ella was not expecting to lay down to have her hair washed and was kinda freaked out. When I moved back to take this picture she was saying "Mommy! Hold my hand!!"


Before


During

After!

Lollipop as a prize and off we go!


*So, the goal of the haircut was so to even it out and I was told curly hair tangles less when it's kept trimmed-so far, no change on that. Booo.
**We went to Cartoon Cuts and it was WAY too expensive ($16) and slightly ghetto. Nothing bad happened but I don't really recommend it. I can definitely do future trims myself :-)

Road trip to Winston-Salem!

This past weekend Chris went camping with his Bible Study guys and Ella and I went on an adventure!! We drove to North Carolina to meet up with 2 of my college friends and their kids for the weekend. All around it was a lot of fun but the 6 hour drive turned into 8 hours with traffic so that was TOUGH. We ended up staying an extra day to psych myself up for the drive home :-) Ella was a HERO though. She honestly did not whine or cry the entire 16 hrs we spent in the car together. Amazing blessing! She colored, ate snacks, and read books for hours but I must say I am SO thankful for a kid who is easily captivated by cartoons and a portable DVD player!


What I stared at for a lot of hours

What I looked like towards the end of the drive on day 1. Not. Happy.

What Ella looked like. Silly girl!

My GREAT friend Annie and baby Lucy!

Ella loved being able to feed little Lucy!

Ella had a blast with Will and Thomas, my wonderful friend Libby's kiddos!

Ella and Will are exactly a month apart and played together really well! Ella got to learn all about "boy toys" (i.e. guns, swords, and spiderman dress up clothes!)

A kind of horrible pic of Annie, Libby, and me trying to do a self-portrait :-) It's such a blessing to be close to people I've been friends with for literally 12 years now!

And, my favorite pic of the weekend! Thanks for hosting us Libby! We had so much fun!

Bandaids Video

Couldn't upload this before but it's so cute, Chris says it's worth posting on it's own :-) Refer to the previous post for the background story :-) Oh, and the box of bandaids is all gone. Easy come, easy go!

Ella's foray into capitalism: stimulating the economy pre-school style

Today is a momentous day. Ella made her first purchase! She used her own money, from her own piggy bank to buy her own....drum roll please....BANDAIDS!!! This may not sound exciting to you but it was the perfect solution to her tendency/obsession with using bandaids with no real bandaid-required injury. I told her she could buy her own bandaids and use them whenever she wanted and my bandaids are only for actual blood. Now we're both giddy! It was SO cute watching her take quarters out of her ziploc bag and give them to the very accomodating check-out lady at Walmart. She was jumping up and down when she got the bandaids in her own bag, with her own receipt instead of with the rest of our purchases. SO fun to watch this little milestone of responsibility. My little girl is really growing up! And yes, she's already used about 5 of her bandaids today and it wasn't that hard to bite my tongue and let her :-)