I love the holidays!

And here it all starts again. Halloween kicks off my very favorite part of the year. And I'm already excited about Black Friday!!! Halloween was such a success this year. The girls had some pretty cute costumes that other people handmade for me since I am not very good at that sort of thing.... :) Ella was Little Red Riding Hood and Sadie was The Big Bad Wolf. Being that Sadie has grown up pulling hair and biting her sister, I felt that the roles were very fitting! Sadie and I went to Ella's Halloween party yesterday morning at school and we had such a fun time. Sadie wanted so bad to be a big kid like the rest of them. She got to eat cookies with the big kids, play games, and sit in the circle with them.

Here are the kids praying over their snack. It was so cute to hear them saying their prayer in unison.

Sadie got hold of some of the super cool loot Ella got from her party.

Josh and I carved our very first pumpkin. Ella was supposed to have the job of scooping out the seeds, but she was too grossed out!

And we ended the night with a little trick or treating. It was so much fun. Ella would show Sadie where to go and would walk her up to the people handing out candy. And if someone looked a little scary, she'd make sure Sadie was ok. Although I think that was more for her own comfort :) And Sadie told every single person that gave her candy "Tay-tu Mama". It was the cutest ever.

Sadiebug's 1st Birthday!

Okay, so I realize it's been over 4 months since her birthday but I'm just now getting around to this post. So, let's start with the food (because that's my favorite part).

The party favors (strawberry jar cake with homemade buttercream frosting)

And now for the cake (as promised). Completely homemade from scratch and my first attempt at a cake. I found these really neat food color pens that the guests used to sign her cake.

And apparently, if you use gel food coloring instead of the regular kind, the colors are much brighter!

There were some imperfections in the cake, but all in all it was a success and an accomplishment for me since I don't even own a mixer. Luckily my mom let me borrow hers.

And now for the party! It was a berry-themed party since that is her favorite food of all time.

this was the best present and still saves my life most days. the girls love to "cook" for me.

thanks to noelle for the super cute birthday outfit :)

Sadiebug, I had so much fun celebrating your first birthday. I still can't believe that you're the same tiny, cuddly, little newborn who slept hours on hours in her swing. I love watching you figure out who you are and what you like. Your personality is all of it's own. You are such a mommy's girl, but when daddy is around you are mesmerized. I know just how you feel. :) You are so much fun and I love you with all of my heart.

Since Sadie was born, I never thought that having two kids was all that difficult. Maybe it's because they were spaced out perfectly in age or the fact that I didn't have any sort of hormonal issues after Sadie was born, or the fact that I was only home with both kids two days a week.  The hardest part was the typical newborn stuff that you get with the first one anyway, so it's not so much of a culture shock the second time around.  Sleep training is the devil.  Either way, two kids was a piece of cake. The older Sadie gets, the more difficult things get. She is like a walking disaster. A small toddler-sized tornado ripping through every toybox, closet, and cabinet within reach. I don't ever remember Ella being so destructive. Yesterday was a wild day. As I was taking a shower, Sadie was in my bathroom drinking her bottle and as I'm trying to hurry through my shower, I see her take every tampon under my sink out and scatter them on the floor. Then she gets all of the extra hand soaps (apprently I stock up) and litters them throughout the bathroom and closet. Then she comes out of the closet holding several tank tops she took from out of my drawer. Finally I'm able to get out and stop the madness. So I'm getting dressed and then she comes walking in with the toilet brush in her hand. I am hoping, by this point, that she didn't put it in her mouth. So the morning goes on like this. I'm in the kitchen later and hear an "Uh-oh" come from Sadie in the living room. She spilled Ella's entire cup of water onto the rug. Then she's thrown every single toy out of the toybox, destroyed every puzzle (because she only likes to take them apart and not put them back together), pulled every book from the bookshelf, and dragged out all of my tupperware. So I scoop the kids up and we go to the grocery store. I linger for a while because I really don't want to go face the mess. We finally get back home and Sadie tells me she wants a "Mahnah-mahnah-mahnah" (banana)....

I may lose my mind soon. :)

I'm not sure when it happened, but sometime recently Ella has decided she'd rather play with her friends. *GASP* But I was always her favorite playmate. It happens so fast, doesn't it? But I still have Tuesdays and Thursdays where it's just my girls and me and those days are the best days.

Just got an "I luh loo" from Sadiebug this morning. Such a sweet girl.

I luh loo too baby girl :)

Life is like a herd of cats?

A bit of a long update, but I guess that's what happens when I'm too busy/lazy to blog.

Life at our house is pretty crazy right now. The kids are so much fun, but incredibly busy. I still want to have more though :)

Here are some updates:

Ella still LOVES gymnastics, but I recently discovered that Lake Jackson soccer starts at 4 years old. So Ella and I are both so excited about next spring. Sorry gymnastics, you were fun while you lasted.

Ella just moved up to her new class at school. I've been anxious about her moving up for a while because she's had one teacher that moved up with her from the day she started, but this was as far as she could go. So Ella's on the other side of the school with the rest of the big kids and new teachers. But luckily, she's still got Spencer :) I love that Spencer loves Ella. AND, she comes home every day with a smiley face in her folder and praises from the teacher about how good she is in class. She makes me proud.

Ella can write most of the letters in the alphabet. There's something about little kids' handwriting that is the sweetest thing. Getting notes from Ella is going to be my new favorite thing.

Ella also loves to sing. She has an incredible ear for music. She knows most Justin Bieber (Justin Beaver, as she calls him) songs. She has an awesome memory. She picks things up so quickly and finds new and hilarious ways to try out new words.

The other day, Ella was throwing a bit of a fit and she tells me "I am so terrible. And I'M SO DRAMATIC!!!" She thinks that the word terrible means something like frustrated. Josh and I will sometimes tell her that she's being a little bit dramatic, so that's where the second part comes from. So many times she'll say something and we have to stifle our laughter because either 1) we don't want to encourage what she just said or 2) we don't want her to feel like we're laughing at her when she's upset. But she constantly keeps us rolling.

And I know I'm not alone here, but it's gotten to that point where I never know what's going to come out of her mouth. She's embarrassed me a few times, so now I've taught her to only ask me questions about someone after they've gone and she whispers to me. Am I teaching her to talk about people behind their backs? I'm ok with that because I'm really tired of the "Mommy, is that a boy or a girl" question. And the worst part is that sometimes, I don't know the answer either. Talk about being put on the spot. There are times where I'll see someone walking towards us and I have to distract her because I can already tell she's going to shout out some obvious difference in this person's appearance. I love it though. I love how observant she is and how much I get to teach her. Answering her questions is a pretty awesome task. Really, just delving into her little mind is a priviledge. I love the rawness of her outlook on life and her emotions. She definitely puts it all out there.

Sadie is hilarious. Absolutely crazy. She's starting to talk more. Her favorite words are puppy and daddy, so she walks around saying "Daddy Puppy!" a lot. She's also learning i love you and thank you. It's the sweetest ever.

She also loves sitting on the potty. She walks up to me, pulls her shirt up, and yells "Potty!" so I can take her to go sit on it. Every once in a while, she'll accidentally pee and then she gets so excited. I'm wondering if this is a sign that potty training will be easier.

She's also learning animal sounds and knows all of the parts of her face.

Puppies are her favorite. Well, puppies and vacuums.

She is doing much better at work. I've fenced her in and she plays really well at her table. She loves to color and she's definitely right-handed. I still don't know if Ella is left or right-handed. She uses both equally.
Sadie is also extremely ornery. She is the funniest, sweetest, most independent kid I've ever met. But she has also got a pretty good mean streak in her. She hardly ever cries, only when she's really ticked off. She also pulls Ella's hair out all the time. Poor Ella. She deals with the abuse, but we'll all be glad when Sadie learns not to do that.

The girls are the best of friends. They share everything. It is so sweet when Ella wakes up and comes downstairs. Sadie shrieks in excitement yelling "Ella! Ella! Ella!" whens she sees her. It makes my heart melt knowing that they love each other so much.

I will say that lately, my life seems like I'm continually herding cats. And if you've ever tried to do that, you know how impossible it is except at dinner time. So right now, I'm just trying to keep up. I wonder what it will be like with three. I'll try not to focus on that or else I won't want to have another one. :)

I'm cooking in the kitchen and I hear "Mommy, come look at us" and this is what I see... *sigh*

Sweet, sweet Sadie

Ella got her first haircut a while back. She did awesome!

An extremely rare moment at my house. Ella sleeping on the couch. Sadie kept trying to stick toys in her mouth.....

Oh, and I got some new ink a couple weeks ago....

I wear my sunglasses at night so I don't see the dark. -Ella