Ella's One!!!

Can you believe it's already been a year? Although Ella turned one, I think she thinks she's three like Ava. She tries so hard to do everything Ava does, including running. She always has at least one bruise...her feet just can't keep up with her body. We haven't had her one year doctor appt. yet so I can't update her stats, but I am guessing she's a little bigger than Ava was at this age. The week of Ella's birthday my sister Linzy and her family were here again to visit. Ella's b-day fell on a Tuesday, but with her party not till Saturday, we didn't do much on Tuesday. She was able to accomplish one of my favorite milestones...turning

face-forward in the car!

Here is the whole gang....Ava, Ella and poor Ashton in the back. Only one more month and he gets to turn around too!
Unfortunately, it was sooo hot last week we didn't get to do much outside. We did spend a LITTLE time in a SMALL pool to try and cool off.
After a few hot days it was finally Saturday....the hottest day....and time for Ella's party! The day was crazy....I thought my main concern would be getting the food and decorations ready, but Ella threw me a curve ball when she decided not to take her second nap. She has never missed her second nap entirely, but she was not having any part of it. I was a little nervous as to what kind of mood she would be in for the rest of the night....and I figured there would be some tears...from both of us.

Ella could not have proven me more wrong. She did great! She was happy and smiling all the way up to 7:30 when she passed out in my arms. Not just dosed off, but passed out and slept through me getting her ready for bed! We started the festivities with opening gifts....with a lot of help from Ava.

We didn't even have time to get one gift out of the box before Ava was tearing into the next one.

Ella tried to read the cards....but it's difficult to do when it's in your mouth.

Once the gifts were all opened there was a round of applause.

It took Ella a minute to realize there were no more gifts. "Where's the rest, mom?"

Say Cheese!!

Next, was the cake....I knew this was going to be a disaster so I stripped Ella down to her diaper before we even started.

Ella poked her cake one or two times before diving right in....

Here's a few of the best cake shots....

"Hi Dada"

The end result...exhaustion was starting to show.

Ella had a great party and we want to thank everyone who came and helped make her first birthday so special!!

I also need to take this opportunity to say Happy Father's Day to Dan. We celebrated out at G-ma and G-pa F's house. We BBQ'd, swam and enjoyed the day. Although I brought the camera, I didn't get it out much. I did get one good picture of Ava and daddy sharing some ice cream cake!