Her Last Night As a 3-Year Old...

Although we celebrated Ella's birthday a few days ago, it dawned on me this evening that tonight was her last night of being a 3-year old.  Since I am a sentimental sap and I don't like change, I discovered a few years ago that the growing up of my kids is not something that I am excited about.  I wish that I could just push the "pause" button on Ella's life and keep her my little girl forever.  I honestly do not know what I am going to do when she leaves me in 1.5 years to go to full-day Kindergarten.  The thought of it just makes me want to cry.  As a result, I grabbed my camera tonight with a heavy heart and walked into Ella's bedroom to take a picture of her sleeping away the final hours of her being three years old.  I just think that she is the most precious and sweetest, little girl around.  I am so grateful that she came to our family four years ago.  She has been such a blessing and a joy in our lives.

And with all of that said, here is a quick, quarterly update on my 4-year old baby who is growing up way too fast!  Ella continues to grow and develop and establish her independence.  In the last three months, she began taking swimming and ballet lessons every week.  She absolutely loves both of them and is excited to go to them every week.  Ella also has started to have some regular playdates and loves being social and playing with other children.  We usually have a weekly playdate with our next door neighbors, Poppy and Daisy, and a friend from church named Amelia.  Ella also really loves playing with two sisters, Isla and Emma, during her preschool co-op every week.  Ella now can write her name perfectly and can easily count to 20.  She still loves coloring and looking at books and also loves being read to every single day.  She proudly declares on a regular basis that purple, red, and pink are her favorite colors. She enjoys watching her princess or Barbie or fairy movies during TV time every morning, but also loves playing with dolls and other little toys every single day.  Ella still loves all things princess and girly and can be found wearing a different costume or outfit from our dress-up box in the office on a regular basis.  As a result, I cannot wait to take her to Disneyland next week to have her meet several of the princesses. She is going to love it!  Ella has gotten into the habit of singing songs (both real and made-up ones) all the time...especially in the car.  It is the cutest thing; however, she usually wants the spotlight all to herself and will get mad at me for joining in with her.  Ella really plays nicely (for the most part) with Logan whenever he is home from school and I am loving having two children two years apart who are finally old enough to be each other's playmates.  Since there is such a large gap between Lia and Logan, this is really the first time in my mothering career that I have experienced this.  Ella also loves any attention she can get from Lia and loves playing dolls or having a book read to her by her older sister whenever she gets the opportunity.  Ella also continues to say the cutest things that just make us smile or laugh or gush all over her on a regular basis.  I wish that I had the time or the energy to write them all down before I forget them!  Overall, we just love our Ellie B and are so happy she is the baby in our family!

An Early 4th Birthday for Ella!

Just like with Easter this year, we decided to celebrate Ella's 4th birthday four days early so that my mom could be in attendance.  I mean, what's a birthday party without grandma being there?!  So, we decided about a week ago to tell Ella that her birthday was today and even got Logan and Lia on board with the entire thing.  Since she is still young enough, Ella had no idea that we switched days and seemed thoroughly pleased with all of her birthday celebrations yesterday and today.  So, hopefully, we can call her 4th birthday a wrap before it even comes!  Here is a break down of what we did for Ella's birthday.

I baked cupcakes for Ella's little, preschool co-op using princess cupcake holders and red frosting that she picked out.  She was so excited to bring them to preschool yesterday to share with all of her friends during snack time.  Here she is about to head into Jace's house proudly carrying her plate full of cupcakes.

We started off this morning with our traditional waffles with whipped cream and strawberries for breakfast.

After Logan and Lia helped me sing "Happy Birthday" to Ella, she blew out all four of her candles before enjoying waffles with the rest of the us in the dining room.

Ella then had a playdate with her friend, Amelia, from church in the morning before we headed off to ballet at 12:30.  Ella then played quietly during the afternoon while I decorated her Elsa cake and worked on the birthday dinner.  Here is the finished product.  I made this same cake three years ago for Lia's 7th birthday party.

After Ron and my parents arrived around 5:30 p.m., we gathered back in the dining room for Ella's birthday dinner.  I made pot roast, rosemary, roasted potatoes, sauteed asparagus, rolls, and Caesar salad with Martinelli's sparkling cider.  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the dinner except for the birthday girl who only drank her sparkling cider and ate her roll.  Oh dear.  We let her off the hook since it was her birthday.

After dinner, Ella got to open her presents.  Here is my favorite picture of the entire evening--our darling, almost-four-year-old posing in front of her pretty, pink presents!

Ella getting ready to open up her special birthday gift...

An American Girl Doll Wellie Wisher!

I know that this picture is a little bit blurry, but I had to include it.  When Ella realized what was inside this gift, she jumped up and started screaming.  It was so cute!  I just love how this picture captures the look on Ella's face.

Ella happily showing off her new Willa doll.

Along with the Willa doll, Ella got several other items from the Wellie Wisher collection.  Here she is showing off her the snow sled and snow shoe set.

Mama helping Ella read her birthday card from Lola.

After having to ask permission for many months to play with Lia's and Logan's Lego sets, Ella finally got her own Cinderella Lego set.  She was so excited and so am I as she finally can play with these darling toys without being bothered and bossed around by her older siblings.  Since Logan is the resident, Lego expert in our family, he immediately had to rush in to inspect Ella's new set.  Here is one of the adorable pictures I managed to get of these two carefully examining the pictures on the outside of the box.

All three of the kiddos surrounding the Legos.  Apparently, this was a big deal in the Hartland for the youngest child to finally get her own Legos!

After gift opening, we went back to the dining room to eat the Elsa cake.  Here is our sweet Ella holding her new Wellie Wisher stuffed bunny (that she carried around with her nonstop for the rest of the evening) getting ready to blow out her candles.

Ella blowing away!  I can't get over how grown up she looks in this picture.  She is all little girl now--no toddler left in her!

Mommy and daughter posing together before we cut into her Elsa cake.

Ella smiling away with the destroyed Elsa cake in front of her.

Quite possibly the cutest birthday girl around.  Ella eating her cake and ice cream.

And Logan and Lia doing the same.

Happy Birthday, Ellie B!  We love you to the moon and back!

An Early Easter

My mother decided a few weeks ago to fly to SLC with Natalee, Brynn, and Callie to attend General Conference.  As a result, we decided to get together as a family a week early to celebrate Easter since the holiday falls on General Conference Sunday this year.  After some crazy weather the last few days that even included snow, we were grateful that it did not rain today.  Although it was a little cold, the weather was pleasant enough for another Easter egg hunt in my parent's wonderful yard.  We gathered together at 5 o'clock for a delicious ham dinner with all of the fixings before heading outside for the hunt.  Like always, my mom assigned designated areas for all of the children to go looking in for their goodies.  Everyone had a great time and it is always so much fun to see the excitement on the faces of the every time they find another candy or toy.  Here are some pictures of our outside fun today...

Ella starting her hunt with Trenton looking on.

Ella showing off her Elmo coloring book that she just found.

Lia looking hard in her large, flower bed in the front yard.

Cutie pie Ella giving me a smile.

Logan searching in his flower bed on the side of the house.

Lia striking another pose next to the beautiful daffodils that were in bloom.

Logan finding a baggie full of M&Ms.

The three "little ones" standing together after their completing their Easter egg hunt.

The entire gang posing for their annual, post-Easter-egg-hunt picture on grandma's hill.

Lia's Recognition Assembly

After almost two years of waiting, Lia was finally selected again to receive an award for her behavior at school.  This character award is only handed out to a few students per class three times a year and Lia has only received it once--at the end of her second grade year.  Lia was put in a class this year with a teacher who allows her students to vote on which three children are recognized at these assemblies.  Both Lia and I do not like this system her teacher uses and thought she would never get chosen this year as it is more of a popularity contest than anything else.  So, I was rather surprised when I went to the mailbox earlier this week and found a letter from Lia's school informing me that she had been chosen to receive this award and would be recognized at an assembly on Thursday.  I was so happy for her and proud of her at the same time.  I quickly sent Ron and email and was shocked when he replied that he could sneak out of work for an hour to attend the assembly.  So after dropping the kids off at school this morning (including Ella at preschool), I drove back down to the school where I pulled Logan out of class and met Ron in the gym to cheer Lia on as she arrived with the rest of the 4th to 6th grade students.  Just like two years ago, she was so surprised to see all of us sitting in the gym cheering her on.  The students were recognized at this assembly for being patient, kind, and honest this trimester and I felt like Lia was the perfect choice for all of these character traits.  Way to go, Lia!  We are so proud of you!

Lia waving to us as she walked into the gym.

Lia standing with the other 4th, 5th, and 6th graders at the front of the gym.

Lia walking up to receive her award.

Lia standing next to her good friend, Allison, who was also chosen this trimester by their classmates.

Lia and the rest of the 4th graders standing proudly with their awards.

Lia exiting the gym.

Our proud girl showing off her star and award after the assembly was over.

Lia with Logan standing next to her.  I just love that these two finally get to be together in the same school.

A proud mama with her Shaw Road kiddos.

Lia and Allison before heading back to class.

A Belated St. Patrick's Day

Since our family spent St. Patrick's Day apart yesterday with Logan and Ella being at my parent's house while Ron and I were skiing with Lia, we decided that it would be best to wait to celebrate St. Patrick's Day a day late when we could all be together.  I talked to the children about this in advance and told them that I had sent a note to their leprechaun, Lucky, telling him not to come visit our house until the night of March 17th.  Everyone was in agreeance with this and so the kids went to bed last night super excited to see what Lucky would do.  Lia and Logan set up their leprechaun traps and wrote a note together asking Lucky not to make too much of a mess (although I know that they really wanted him to make a mess).  The kids woke up this morning even more excited to see what Lucky had done and he did not disappoint.  Lucky drew green, smiley faces on all of their tummies, turned the toilet water green, made a huge mess in the kitchen and the family room, left a trail of shamrocks and gold coins everywhere, and even left them a box of Lucky Charms to eat for breakfast and little pots of gold, Rolo candies under a rainbow made out of paper streamers.  As always, it was so fun to see them running and giggling around the house as they made all of these discoveries.  We also enjoyed a traditional, corned beef dinner in the dining room tonight complete with a spontaneous visit from our neighbors offering to give the kids a ride on a mini tractor that they had rented for the day to complete a yard project.  What a fun and lucky day it was!

Lia, Ella, and Logan showing off their "pots of gold" with the rainbow behind them.

What their three pots of gold looked like on the table before they picked them up.

The kids showing off their smiley faces with the messy kitchen behind them.

Posing with the green, toilet water.

Our St. Patrick's Day dinner complete with corned beef, garlic, mashed potatoes, shamrock-shaped ravioli, cabbage, kiwi-strawberry juice, and shamrock-shaped, sugar cookies with green frosting.

The kids and I ready to eat our green dinner!

The kids ready to go on their tractor ride with our neighbor, Kyle, at the helm.

Backing away from the front door.

And, they're off!

The gang heading down the driveway with Daisy and Poppy at their side.

Having so much fun!

Cruising down the sidewalk.