Sister's Day

There's a show that Maisie likes on Netflix called "Stella and Sam"- it's actually a really cute show. Anyway, one of the episodes talked about "Sister's day". Maisie got so excited about the thought of Sister's day "is that even a real day?" she asked and after a quick google search, I told her that it was on August 2nd (at the time it was a few months away). She was bummed about waiting all that time, but after some reassurance that it would be here before she knew it, she became excited again.

Fast forward to August 2nd... Maisie woke up in the morning and gave Ellie a great big hug and snuggled in bed with her for a few minutes. When Maisie reminded me that it was Sister's day she sweetly asked "Does this mean we get breakfast in bed now?" I laughed so hard because OF COURSE she would assume that because Mother's and Father's day usually entails some kind of treat in bed. Part of me wishes I could go back and say that "of course it does!" and that I would have at least poured some cereal for them to enjoy while tucked in their covers and maybe going forward we will because why not? But instead I kindly explained to her that Sister's day is about celebrating your sister. That it's about doing something nice for Ellie and Ellie doing something nice for her. Maisie quickly turned her disappointment from the lack of breakfast in bed to thankfulness for her sister. It's very rare that Maisie is jealous of Ellie and I think she still thinks it's pretty cool to have a sibling and share her world with her. 

I just love these two sisters so much. My heart swelled with joy when we found out Ellie was a girl because of things like this. I love that they are already becoming the best friends they were destined to be. It's such an honor to see the way they love each other every day and I wouldn't trade it for all the riches in the world. Because of them (and Austin of course) I am the richest person alive.

First Birthday Shenanigans

A few pictures of Ellie from a little photo shoot we did to celebrate Ellie's first birthday and upcoming Sister's Day- I'll post on that soon.











A few more pictures of Ellie's birthday...

I love how lovingly Maisie watched Ellie open her gifts. Not an ounce of jealously, just happy to be celebrating her sister.

Maisie's special cupcake with "gold pixie dust!"

A picture from our birthday breakfast when we had a couple friends come over and celebrate the birthday baby.

It's still hard for me to believe my little baby, who in a lot of ways still seems so little and baby-like, is ONE. She adds a lot of action and smiles to our day and I couldn't have dreamed how seamlessly she came in to our little family. It's like there was always a space for her from the get-go. She was and is so easy to love and we are all still so smitten with our little Ellie bug.

I loved celebrating this little babe. We had originally planned a party with a bunch of friends and their kids, but it turned out that the weekend we had planned it for, EVERY ONE we knew was out of town, had sick kid(s), or some other plans. So we ended up just having a couple friends of ours come over for breakfast (thanks Caden and Kaitlin!). It was low key and very much Ellie's style. 

Even with how laid back it was, that didn't stop her from being spoiled by our families:

-Austin and I got her a Little Einstein's musical toy and a Hape wooden bench w/xylophone.

-Auntie Katie bought her a set of 8 Babylit books.

-Nana and Papa sent a gift card to Amazon so we bought her some cute shoes- which she needed badly.

-Grandma, Grandpa and Miranda got her a babydoll (which she lovingly carries all around the house), the book "If you give a dog a donut" +  the stuffed animal that goes with it and a poppity-pop. 

Now that Ellie's birthday is over, we have Austin's birthday next month and then starts our birthday drought... confused? Starting with my birthday we have a birthday every two months. March, May, July and September. Austin's mom pointed this out one day and followed the observation with "now you guys need to have a baby in November and another in January!" haha!

Cupcake Annihilation

On Ellie's birthday we picked out a special cupcake (ok two, one for Maisie of course) from The Cocoa Bean and let her go to town. I had no doubts that she would dive right in, but I didn't think she would eat the ENTIRE thing like she did. She didn't hesitate a single second and nearly inhaled the thing. Literally. No joke, we had to confiscate the cupcake to clear her nostrils of cream cheese frosting. She was more mad about us taking the cupcake away for the few seconds than she was about breathing in globs of the delicious thick frosting. Silly girl.

Like I said... inhaled it.

This is her sharing face. She was offering a lick of her sticky fingers.

Trying to eat the wrapper after obliterating the cupcake in a matter of minutes.