The Big 3-0

I celebrated my 30th birthday last Friday...hard to believe I am already 30 years old! Eric cooked me a yummy breakfast and Campbell sang me Happy Birthday when she woke up. I went shopping with the girls and my sister and met Eric for lunch. We celebrated my birthday and Eric's birthday (he turns 30 this Friday) that night with some of our friends. We went to Mi Cocina and then to The Ginger Man. I enjoyed a few too many mambo taxi's and had a blast celebrating and catching up with everyone. My brave dad babysat both of the girls so we could go out. My mom wasn't feeling very well so he handled both of the girls on his own and did great! He didn't even call once with questions. Thanks dad...you're the best Pa ever!!! Here are some pictures from our dinner. Thanks to everyone for making my birthday a special one :)

Ella's Baptism

We had Ella baptized this past weekend in front of family and friends. It was a very special day for Eric and I. Ella was pretty funny during the ceremony. She was laughing, babbling, smacking her lips and putting on a show pretty much the whole time. She wore the same dress that Campbell did when she was baptized, which was very important to me. It was a beautiful service and we had a nice dinner at our house afterwards.

Love this girl!

Our family

Mimi and Pa

Getting baptized

Godparents

The Solheids and Ella

The Redmans and Ella

Ella's beautiful cake that Nana got for her

Big Girl Bed/Bye Bye Paci

This past weekend Campbell made the transition from a crib to a big girl bed, sniff sniff. We decided that we would ditch the paci at the same time...we told her that big girls sleep in big girl beds and don't use paci's anymore. She was only using her paci at nap and bedtime, but it was definitely time to break that habit! She did amazingly well the first night. Before she went to bed she put her paci's outside for the paci fairy. We explained that the paci fairy would come during the night to get the paci's and take them to babies that needed them and that she would leave her a gift. She fell asleep all on her own and slept the entire night. We could not have been prouder! When she woke up the next morning we went outside to see what the paci fairy brought her...she was so excited to see a princess castle. She literally hasn't asked for her paci's since we got rid of them. I guess she was ready!


We have been having a few issues with naptime. Since moving into her big girl bed and ditching the paci she hasn't taken a nap. This is day three of no nap :( I think she is still getting used the the bed and is having a hard time settling during the day. I am hoping this is just a stage and that her great napping habits will return soon! I can hear her in the monitor as we speak playing with her music teapot while she is supposed to be sleeping.


Overall, she has done SO well. We are super proud of her and am so glad she did well with the transition. She is such a big girl and I can hardly believe it :)

Ready for bed!

Paci's waiting for the fairy to pick them up :)

Checking our her princess castle for the first time!

She's a little excited...she played with it ALL day!

Ella's 9 month appointment

We had Ella's 9 month appointment yesterday. She looks great and is developing perfectly! She is still a big girl that doesn't have a lot of interest in moving :) She only had to get one shot and she handled it pretty well. I can't believe that her next well checkup will be her one year checkup!!! Here are her stats...

weight: 20lbs 12 oz (75%-90%)
height: 27.5 inches (50%-75%)
head: 17.8 (90%)

Just as a point of comparison I looked up Campbell's stats at 9 mos and she was 20.2 lbs and 29 inches. So, they are about even on weight, but Campbell was quite a bit taller.

Cabo

Last weekend Eric and I went to Cabo to celebrate our 30th birthdays...without the kiddos! We were there for 4 nights and 5 days. It was so beautiful and the weather was wonderful. We slept, ate and drank a lot :) We stayed at the RIU Palace. It was a beautiful all inclusive resort in a great location. The food however, was not the best. We ended up going out to dinner twice while we were there. Both times we went to The Office, which is one of my favorite restaurants in Cabo. It is right on the beach and has delicious seafood and mexican food. It was really nice to getaway and relax, but even nicer to come home and see the girls. We missed them terribly. I feel like 4 nights was the perfect amount of time to be away from them. It was the perfect way to celebrate our soon to be 30th birthdays :)

Grabbing our first of many beers when we arrived at the Cabo airport!

Beach time!

The entrance to our hotel

On the terrace before lunch

Eating dinner at The Office

Working on my second margarita and feeling good :)

Our view as we laid out by the pool each day

Catching some rays

Eric on his way back from the bar :)

Before dinner one night

Dinner at The Office again!

The beach that our resort was on

Ella-9 months old!

I am so amazed that she is already 9 months old. What did we ever do without her??? :) She is getting so big and has a personality that keeps us laughing everyday. She makes funny faces and has some interersting noises. She still smiles all the time, but her gummy smile has turned into a funny 4 teeth smile. Happy Birthday sweet girl!

She got her two top teeth this month

Isn't moving yet...she is still very content just sitting around

Sleeping great and taking 2 naps a day

We are working on eating small pieces of food rather than all pureed. She still prefers her pureed food but is making progress on eating other things. She ate a few bites of toast and puff this morning and didn't gag :)

Eats four 6 oz bottles a day and has 2 or 3 "meals" a day

We will call her our chunky monkey. We don't go to the Dr. until next week, but I am dying to get her stats

She is doing great on her antibiotic and we haven't had any signs of another bladder infection (cross your fingers)

She learned how to drink out of a sippy cup, but still doesn't drink much from it

She loves taking baths with Campbell and LOVES any and all attention that he sister will give her

The Circus

On Saturday we went took Campbell to the circus with The Redmans and The Thorntons. We like to try to do things with just Campbell every once in a while, and the circus was the perfect thing. She was so excited to see clowns, elephants, tigers and dancers. It was really fun to see her experience the circus for the first time. Overall, she did great. The show was a little long so she was definitely ready to go home by the end. We had a blast and can't wait to take Ella with us next year!

Trying to see the elephants before the show started

Playing dress-up with clown clothes before the show

Family shot right after the circus

Fire!

Right before the circus started

Campbell and Daniel

Daniel thought the circus was too loud :)

Just Dance...

I enrolled Campbell in a little "creative movements" class at a dance studio near our house. It is just a short session that we did to see if she had any interest in it. Of course she did! She is actually the only little one in the class this session, so she is loving the one on one attention. I am going to enroll her in an actual dance class this fall. Here are some pictures of her in class last week. There is also a little video of her dancing to wheels on the bus with the teacher. It actually cracks me up. I have had just as much fun dressing her up as she has had in the class :)

Happy Birthday Daniel!!!

Daniel turned 2 yesterday!!! It is hard to believe that he is already 2! We went to his birthday party at Gymboree last weekend. Campbell and Ella had a blast and Daniel was loving all of the attention. We are so glad we got to share in his special day yesterday as well. We went with the kids to an indoor safari park to play and then to lunch. Love you Daniel and Happy Birthday again :)

About to blow out his candles

The birthday boy!

Eric and Ella (I love her smile here)

Ella and Kate (Kate LOVES Ella)

Campbell, Charlie and Daniel

Eric and his girls!

Backyard Makeover!

I have to give big props to Eric for this makeover. He did the entire thing by himself and it turned out amazing!! The backyard started out without a single tree, bush or flower in it and only had a small concrete slab for a patio. Over the past few months he has totally landscaped it, edged it with stone and put in a new expanded patio with pavers. The amount of work that he put into it is amazing and I asolutely love the way it turned out. Thanks for all of your hardwork babe! Here are some before and after pictures.

BEFORE

Eric getting ready for a hard days work.

He used A LOT of sand to expand and even out the patio

Notice that here is no landscaping along the fence...

The patio before the pavers are put down, and right after our fence was stained!

AFTER

One of the sections of landscaping Eric did

I LOVE this section. He even planted all of the flowers for me :)

Our new patio!

It is much bigger!

Another view of the backyard