Ellie reads to Penny

I adore this. Just adore it. And said a little prayer of thanks that Penny actually stayed put for a few minutes and let her do it - usually the second Ellie sits anywhere near her, Penny takes off running, and it always breaks my girl's heart.

Valentine's Day 2017

We spent Valentine's Day just like we wanted - as a family staying out a little too late and enjoying a few too many treats :) I started the day with a Valentine's plate and heart shaped waffle - lost on E but made me happy - haha! We also had music class so E sported her Valentine's finest.
Ellie got her choice of where we ate dinner (Shake Shack) and was so excited to get her present from mom and dad - a Beanie Boo skunk she'd eye-spied in Walgreen's the week before. So much love to celebrate!

Child Crisis Arizona Gala 2017

For the first time in two years, I just got to ATTEND the gala and not plan it! What a treat! The theme was Motown and it was so fun getting gussied up like the 60s. Baby girl looked darn good being front and center, if I do say so myself! Almost $500K was raised for the kids and we had a blast with friends who have been before (the Beverages) and friends who we brought for the first time (the Bachelders)! Brad and I failed miserably at getting a shot together, so this pic of a pic will have to do!

Family date night with friends

Love having so many fun friends with kids all around the same age - sure makes it easy to have a dinner date! I'm sure our fellow restaurant patrons loved us...oh well! Check the video at the bottom for a glimpse into how these dinners go with three under 2.5!

Celebrating Potty Training!

We decided to celebrate how well E has done with the potty with a cupcake picnic at the park!

"Push ups"

Around our park there is a walking path with stops along the way for stretching and exercises. Ellie has decided that these are for "push ups" and since they're on our walk home, always asks to stop to do one. Never mind it's for sit ups, or that she typically just lays on it and wiggles her legs a bit - it's pretty darn cute.

Trike life

I'm okay, mom!

This is what she tells me when she wants to go outside, but I need to do something inside and can't quite go yet. She tells me she's ok, then proceeds to play, by herself, outside in the backyard for about 15 minutes. Who is this child and when did she get so big?!

A rare moment

It's no secret that Penny's not too fond of Ellie. So moments like these truly melt my heart.

Gorgeous girl

Because sometimes I look down and what I see seriously takes my breath away. I can never do it justice in a photo, but here was my attempt today.

POTTY TRAINING!

And here we go! I read a book called "Oh, Crap!" which is basically a boot camp potty training method and it resonated with me. We went for it. And it WORKED! We started on a Thursday cold turkey - no diapers - no anything for that matter - you keep them naked and watch them like a hawk. What you learn about your kid and their potty habits is fascinating and what I learned about this girl is that she is a CAMEL. Yes, my child can drink water all morning, plus a juice box or two, and hold her pee for SIX HOURS. This made the first day a little challenging in ways I was definitely not anticipating, but we persevered, but by day 3, she was basically potty trained. We had a grand total of 2 accidents, both of which were because she just wasn't quite to the potty in time, but she was on her way. By day 4, we had our first outing (a quick one to the park) and within a week we were running longer errands (with a potty in the back of the car for good measure).
I am so proud of my girl for simply nailing it!
Side note: we are still in diapers for naps and bedtime - we're not quite THAT good :)

The infamous car potty. This thing saved us so many times!

My sleeping beauty

I know so many people who do this on the regular, but I can never bring myself to walk into her room when I know she's sound asleep and take a pic with the flash and risk waking her up. I just can't do it. But I'm always so jealous of those amazing sleeping shots people get of their kids - it's when you can't help but adore them in the most intense pure way.
Tonight when I crawled into bed, I checked E on the monitor and I just had to do it. She was so sweet with her babies all over her, holding her hair, in her Minnie jammies - it's so perfectly E right now and I couldn't resist. So behold, the rare pic of my sleeping beauty.

25 weeks!

Again, I've been terrible this go around of keeping track with bump pics, but here we are at 25 weeks!! A little over halfway there!