All About Ella {age 2}

Happy Birthday Sweet Ella!  I can't believe you're already two!  You've grown so much in the last few months and your language has exploded.

- You're saying 3 and 4 word sentences and repeat just about anything and everything, it's so cute and funny!

- You're wearing size 24 months with a few 18 months and 2T sprinkled in. 

- You're obsessed with "The Good Dinosaur" movie.  You ask to watch it several times a day along with Bernstein Bears which is a favorite of Leahs.

- You still love babies and love to play with Leah's dollhouse or any little figures.  You even play pretend with your food, pretending they are mommy or daddy.  It's too funny! 

- You take about a 2 hour nap and sleep from 7:30ish to 7:00ish.  

- You surprised us the other day and started singing the ABCs, I haven't worked very much with you on that type of stuff, so I'm not really sure where you picked it up. You can almost count to 10 by yourself too, again not sure where you picked that up.  

- You love to play with Leah and I love to watch your friendship develop.

- You're interested in the potty and have even sat on it a couple of times, but I'm not quite ready to tackle that so we'll wait a few more months. 

Overall, you're just so much fun and I love watching you and your little personality develop!

And a few pictures from our impromptu photo shoot in the front yard. 

Leah's Preschool Graduation

We celebrated Leah's preschool graduation on May 12th.  We couldn't be happier with how her preschool year turned out.  She attended preschool Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings from 9-12.  It seemed to be the perfect amount of time for her to be at school and she really enjoyed both her classmates and her teachers.  She is so excited to go to kindergarten and have some familiar faces from preschool who will be there with her.

Leah with Ms. Emily and Ms. Sarah. 

The back row is all the preschool graduates who will head to kindergarten and the front row will all head back for another year of preschool.  

Leah and her teacher Ms. Sarah. 

Ella wasn't interested in a family picture or in taking a picture with Leah and I, ahh, life with an almost two-year-old.  

Spring Break and Easter Fun

I was lucky enough to get a full week off for spring break, so we headed to Salina for some family time.  I was hoping the weather would be a little nicer, but it ended up being cool and windy.  I realized the wind is something I definitely don't miss from Kansas.  

We didn't do much exciting, but spent some good time playing with family and cousins.

I can't get over how much Ella has grown and how much less, baby-like and more toddler like she is. She's such a sweet, sassy little thing and wants more independence by the day. 

Since we were all dressed up for church, we took advantage a took a few pictures.  

Time at Grandma Debbie's and Papa Greg's is almost always spent outside and the zip-line never disappoints.

 Natalie and Emily were nice enough to pose for me.  Such sweet sisters and great big cousins.

On Friday, we headed to Dorrance to see Aunt Susan, Grandma Siefers and all the cousins.
Leah and Grandma Debbie while we colored Easter eggs.

Go Cats!

The Cats might be out of March Madness and football season is long over, but I can't not share these Wildcat cheerleader cuties.  I think these were from when we dressed in purple for the bowl game.

Ella's a little stingy with her smiles, especially when it comes to having a camera to look at.  

I'll take what I can get and keep appreciating the real-life smiles when they come.  

Perhaps these will inspire me to pull out my big camera more often and get back into blogging.  I've been feeling some mom guilt that I haven't documented as much of Ella's life as I did with Leah, poor second child.