Boring? No way!

Between Ella's silly antics and Cade's penchant for mischief, days around here are anything but boring!

Shower for Baby Ava

On Sunday afternoon, Ella and I attended a "baby party", as Ella called it, for my cousin, Lindsey, and her baby girl, Ava. A picture of the proud mama- doesn't she look great?! All the decorations were brown and pink elephants. It was so cute!

Ella and I won a game!!

Ella thought she was big stuff being there with all the grown-ups. She kept going back and forth from her seat to the food table, getting fruit and punch and cake for everyone. Getting ready to dig into a cupcake...

And she was so excited to watch Lindsey open our gift...
After she opened it, Ella kept telling her, "Look, you can lay the baby on it and she'll just play and play. She'll love it!"

Lindsey with the proud aunts and Grandma...

We are very excited to meet Baby Ava!!

60th anniversary celebration

We celebrated Chris' Grandma and Grandpa Martin's 60th wedding anniversary Saturday night. 60 years! Isn't that amazing?? What a wonderful legacy of love and devotion these two have given their family. We are so thankful to have them in our lives and were blessed to share such a special night with everyone.

"Loveful"

A sweet line that Ella has been ending her prayers with over and over lately-

"Thank you for everything we have,
and help us to be more thankful
and more loveful.
Amen"

More loveful. More full of love. I'm not sure where it came from, but it's a perfectly precious and fitting word. My heart just kinda melts every time I hear her say it, and, I have to admit, in recent times when I have found myself in desperate need of a little patience and compassion, it's her simple, little prayer that has come to my mind. Please help me to be more loveful. Amen.

Preschool Christmas program (in January)

Ella's Christmas program at preschool was supposed to be the week before Christmas, but ended up being cancelled due to snow. She was so disappointed! The kiddos had worked so hard and they all kept asking when they were going to get to have their program, so the teachers decided to reschedule for yesterday. It was so cute! You just never know what they're going to do or say at this age! They started the program laying on their bellies and jumped up at the beginning of the first song. One little boy just decided to stay that way most of the show. Another little boy stood up there with his finger in his nose the whole time. Evie, the little girl next to Ella, kept (loudly) whispering to her mom, asking when she could have a mini-muffin (there were refreshments after the show). They were all so adorable. We were laughing so hard! I wish I had gotten the songs on video, but I couldn't remember how to switch my camera to that mode. Bummer. Ella is fourth from the right (including the little boy laying on the floor =)...
It was so funny. I think they are supposed to be running in place, but most of them are doing different motions here.

Ella was having such a great time up there. She was definitely one of the loudest singers. =) I love her face in this picture.

Blowing out the candles on the birthday cake for Baby Jesus...

Our little star posing for a picture with her brother. Cade was so good sitting next to me the whole time. He kept pointing up at the stage, saying, "Hey, Ma, it's Ella!"

Ella and her best buddy, Mia

We hung around to enjoy some cookies and cake with all her friends. Can you guess which little boy Ella wanted to sit by?! Look at her twirling her hair. haha! She's a mess!

Finally on the mend

Cade is finally on the up and up. The poor baby has been so sick and feverish the last few days. If he hasn't been sleeping in my arms, he's been on the floor like this-It breaks my heart when my kiddos are so sick! I could tell he was feeling better yesterday afternoon and this morning, he is almost back to his sweet, little self. Super thankful for that. When he seemed to be feeling better yesterday, we decided to do some Valentine's Day crafts. Since the moment we took down our Christmas decorations, Ella has been begging to decorate for Valentine's Day. Yesterday seemed like a good day to get started. Cade worked hard on his valentine...

And so did Ella...

Very prettty, Sis!

Feeling well enough to give Momma a small smile...

All finished. Looks good, you two!

It was cold and snowy yesterday and our cable was knocked out, so I put in The Sound of Music as background noise while we were playing around. There is something so cozy and nostalgic about having that movie playing on a cold winter's day. I was Ella's age when I first saw it and have loved it ever since. It's amazing how it can still capture a little child's attention. We had a picnic snack in the living room...

Everytime a song would start, these two would drop whatever they were doing to dance and sing along. We watched the marionette puppet show five times! They were loving it. No complaints from this mommy!

Love these faces

We are having so much fun taking pictures of these sweet, little faces with our new camera. Here are a few of my favorites so far.