Ella's first birthday party!

Clockwise: Nicole, Beth and Salina and Roddy catching up.

Beth and Aaron, he is so cute.

Ella had a good time with Grandma before opening her presents and eating her cake.

Nikki and I's cake with the "hugs and stitches" theme from her party.

Her cheesecake. No bake no egg cheesecake with a no wheat flour etc. crust. It was a pain for nikki trying so many different ideas and recipe's leading up to her birthday, but it was worth every minute. Ella wasn't sure at first and kept putting out her tongue after she put a bite in her mouth, but Nicole gave her a little bit of crust, and it was like wahbow! She was all about the cake after, cheesecake and all, and loved it.

She was so good at un wrapping, it was surprising because we weren't sure she would know what to do, but was a pro.

This shows how windy it was at the park. I have never felt it this windy here before when it wasn't santa anas. I think because the park was on the beach it made it especially so, but salina's umbrella went inside out and almost flew away!

She liked bags more then presents, easy acccess.

She LOVES this book from Grandma. it lights up and sings when you turn the pages. Any time we read it, her head bops and she claps.

Elmo from Grandma

Elmo phone from Yvonne, Dave and Amber. She had fun with Aaron.

Aaron was more excited about this gears gadget then Ella, he played with it for the rest of the time, cute!

Playing with cousin Aaron

So close!

Everyone loves a head scratch :)

Walking into the non-sunset with Beth.

Disorganized recent March photo's

Eating after her pics on the 24th. The balloons kept her very entertained, she loved all of them.

March 19th at the grocery store. She kept giving a guy mixes signals.. her "cheaser smile" when he was looking away or semi- paying attention.. a big scoul and grunts when he waved at her.. poor guy didn't know what to think.

Her and her favorite pass time, her straps.

A column for her cake, we saw it at michaels and got clear mini mosaic pieces and butterfly/ bug/ glitter buttons to fill them, that way we have stuff to go in her scrap book etc for keepsakes. Wish us luck! we got a lot of work to do tomorow!

Cake supply shopping tired her out!

Ok.. so.. I really need to explain these pics...

It all started when I was eating some M&M's cause I was starving.. so.. I had my bag and was talking to Nikki while Ella played, and I looked over and her hand was in her mouth.. for some reason, me being me, panicked as I thought she had some how gotten an M&M and was eating it! So, what do I do?? I open her hand to look at it.. and as I am doing that, she grabs my bag with her other with lightning speed and PSHHHHHHH go's the big bag (we are piggies so got the Big bag of dark choclate hershey M&M things) of candy, all over her lap. Well, now I was really shocked because she didn't have One candy, she had 50!, all within her reach!! I said ooooooooooooh and I looked as she gave me this face. It was soo sad. I had picked them all up and had them in my hand but was kind of stuck on what to do, if I moved I would spill them back into her lap (curse my small hands), so I sat there saying, it's ok ella, it's ok.. and would touch her cheek to no avail.. every word I spoke and touch I gave got a lip quiver in response. Her eyes were welled up and she just stared at me. Luckily we were 4 or 5 minutes from home.. any longer and I couldn't have looked at her saddness. I have never seen this face before and hope to not again. It was heart breaking!

Note.. I still had to take a picture when I got an available hand.. it was so sad, but so cute at the same time.

These are from Ella's bath tonite, they aren't the best and are blurred because the words Ella, Still, and Camera on phone, do not go well together.. but I still love them <3

This is the new "cheaser" face that I was talking about before. I had never seen it until I came back from Burney.. All you have to do is wrinkle your nose in Ella's direction, and you get

this face 5 or 6 times, it's adorable xxx.

Good night! It is wayy past my bedtime! We got a lot of cake decorating and party planning a head, more pics to come!

Birthday pictures!

Ella got her one year pictures taken yesterday, yay! It started off Horrible! Ok, not horrible horrible, but I was so nervous that it wouldn't turn out ok, because Ella was not a fan of the photographers. It was the same photographers that we weren't a fan of with her last pictures, but they were surprisingly better with her and more patient. When we first got there, they kept asking Nicole, to have her "sit".. which.. if anyone knows Ella.. she doesn't like strangers and definently is not ok being left alone around them. The first 10 minutes was spent with Ella clinging to Nicoles legs while glaring back at the photographer with cries and pouts. He left us for 10 minutes so she could get used to the room and surroundings, which helped out some.

We had a really good picture session once the lady photographer came in to help the guy, Ella thought her antics were funny. She looked so big with her standing up and smiles, and sitting by herself. There was a little movie magic behind it, but we'll pretend that she is a 5 year old picture taking pro.

Enjoy!

P.s. We did NOT buy all of these!! They are all on the CD lol, no way could we afford all of the pictures. The picture of one hand being held is Nicoles, and the picture where both are held is Nicole and Linda (Grandma). The pictures where she is laying with her feet crossed, standing with a flower, and standing on the wicker couch is what I was talking about when I said "movie magic. It was taken by by timing the shots to the mili second. I am amazed at how good the laying down pic looked, it was like she was just lounging enjoying the day, when in reality I didn't even see that pose because she was up and rolling over as soon as the photographer let her go.

K, Enjoy!