She takes after mom

So Ella got a gift card for her bday- (Thanks Anthony family!!) I knew exactly what to get her. Ella loves Playdoh. I got her the stupid Fun factory but it is too hard for her to use and I hate cleaning it out. I saw this set at Target that was like Mr.Potato Head with Playdoh. I was still getting the pieces out of the box. I had experimented in making some playdoh feet. I turned away for a sec and here is what my daughter came up with:



I only made the feet and balled up some playdoh for her :). I am so proud.

So speaking of creativity, I have lots of new stuff at my etsy store. I am really happy with the direction of my creative flow lately. I stopped trying to imitate and am now just doing my thing. It's fun. Check it out by clicking the button on the right!

Just another day

We had a great holiday! I hope everyone else had a fun one. We headed to Cleveland on Thursday night and hung out with my bro, Jason, and family. Many ppl know that my brother happened to marry my best friend, Jenny. Well, Jenny wanted us to hang out so for the first time in a really long time, we went out by ourselves. It was such a great evening. First we went to an outdoor mall where all the stores were closed because it was the Fourth of July. We still got to do some window browsing and hear some fun live music. More than anything we got to talk. We never get to do that without kids and the rest of the family around. Then we went to the Cheesecake Factory and had drinks and appetizers and dessert. God, did we do it good! It was a great time.

During our window browsing, Jenny had told me about this store I had to see. Check it out:




Just think for a mere $3.00 you can get Heather's Butt Rub too. I know I am a weirdo, but how fun is that? We also got Dave a shirt that says "I got the best butt rub at Heather's". First thing my ultra conservative husband says, "Wow, I can wear that everywhere." Inject sarcasm in that please.

We really just relaxed all weekend and got to spend some quality time with them. My niece is three and just so much fun. I think its hard on her though. She has very high expectations with Ella and my little girl just doesn't keep up yet. I think it would be better if she talked more. She is getting there though. We hear a lot more from Ella.

Speaking of...Ella had her two year a couple of weeks ago and I forgot to post.. She was right at the 50th percentile for all except her head which was 55th percentile. I was happy with that. He said that he wasn't super concerned yet with the talking. He said he wanted us to get intervention at 2.5 years. I was thinking about still going earlier but she is making progress right now. Everything was fine on the motor control front. He basically had her just walk to me which you think she would have done right away seeing how we put her on the other side of the room with the doctor, but she just stood there. Then he offered her a hand and she took it and walked with him. That was cool. It means she was comfortable with him. Basically our dr appts aren't too bad once we get past the nurse. Sometimes the eyes and ears are rough but she didn't fight nearly as hard as she did at 18 months. And she has smiles for him now. Really so far, two is so much fun. The tantrums can get old but she rarely has them. I know how lucky we are. Ella is happy 99.9% of the time. The other .1% usually comes around food. She is such a picky eater all of a sudden.

Here are some of Ella's two year pics to end on :)The last one isn't one we got but it was on the CD and I thought it was cute and kinda represented the age.

What a long month

Those pics make me want to be a kid again. While watching Ella play in the fountains, I felt like I wanted to jump in too. These are the pics I promised from the mall with the cool fountains. Ella has so much fun there.

The last two weeks have been so insane at work. I am behind now but at least feel a little less pressure. One of my coworkers got married and while she was gone I tried really hard to step up. I did a good job but the effort left me brain dead.

We have had a lot of things going on. Ella turned 2 on June 20. Yay Ella!! We had a great birthday party with lots of friends and family. I have zippo pics from the party right now except what my friend Barb was nice enough to send me. Thanks, Barb!!

I do have pics of the family party later that night to celebrate both my niece Sydney's 9th birthday and Ella's. Ella got the cutest doll from my mom and some yoga videos from my brother and fam. Sydney got a huge Star Wars lego set from us and my folks. And then she got the guitar from my brother and Jenny. Our Syd is such a character :). The last pic is the birthday hat Syd made for her


Ella and her cuz Saoirse




Ella and her cake







Sorry about all the funky spacing. Still can't figure out what I am doing wrong!

It finally happened

Ok I will later post pics of playing in the cool fountains at the mall. We went back yesterday with my parents and we had a great time! It was so very hot. We had a great day overall. I survived my first bachelorette party in a long time without too much of a hangover. We then went to hang out with my mom and dad after Dave mowed the lawn and Ella got her nap so everyone was happy. After the mall, as we headed home we saw the horrible black clouds that were sitting west of us and heading our way fast. I told Dave that we should get to my Mom's apt and wait it out. Very good decision! The wind was so strong and while we were on our way the sirens started going off. I was so scared! We made it safely and after it was all over, we decided to stay and play Wii Fit for a little while. It was so much fun and I have to brag that I kicked everyone's butt. So then we headed home.

We thought we were ok from the storm because we really didn't see much damage on our way home. Then we got about a block away and it was awful. Where before we saw twigs and small branches, now there were whole trees on the ground and the street lights were out. As we drove down the street, I had this sinking feeling. This is what we saw when we got home:








The last one is not our pool- we wish we had a pool. That was the neighbor's pool that OUR tree decided to take out. The fence isn't ours either. So we had no actual property damage. The front does not look that bad in that pic but it was pretty messy. The back was much worst. Amazingly enough, we just have a lot of clean up to do right now. We already got the front done. If you look at the top of the trees you can see the pretty sizable limbs stuck up there waiting to fall. We are nervous about those. The tree service guys were out tonight. They got started. Guess what? None of the tree removal is covered. It stinks! I am just glad everyone was ok especially our neighbors who were swimming moments before the storm hit.

So now, a lot of money later, we have words of wisdom for people with old big trees- trim them regularly. If the ppl who had the house before us had started, and we kept it up, we would be ok probably. I knew this would happen someday but the idea of getting up there was so daunting. We are hoping that they will grow back in and we can maintain them regularly. Right now we still have no power, and it is storming again. Dave is at the house :(. We miss him. We are chilling at my moms which makes for more driving but at least we are comfortable. Anyways thankfully we are all safe and so is our house!!

Drama on the block

So last night I am trying to cram in all my Wed night shows that I DVR. There are quite a few and I never get them all in. So it is about 10:40 or so and all of sudden there was this huge bang! The only thing I could think of was that it sounded like a shotgun. My first thought- crap the neighbors are shooting each other. And I am alone with Ella. So I run and check that the doors are locked, then go sit on the couch and try to figure out what to do. My first instinct was to grab Ella and hide in our room and wait for sirens. Now that was an extreme reaction. I grabbed my phone and waited. Then I heard some pops that were definitely fireworks. Why the heck are there fireworks going off?

Then it hit me- THE RED WINGS WON THE STANLEY CUP!!!

I know I am a moron. Maybe Dave and I need to stop watching the Sopranos every day.

I've been tagged!

So my sweetest friend,Barb, tagged me to do something called a meme. I had seen a few on the random blogs I read thanks to Barb's links :).

Here is what she posted:

The Meme originated over an idea that was prompted by the book written by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser, Not Quite What I was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. It's a compilation based on the story that Hemingway once bet ten dollars that he could sum up his life in six words.
His words were- For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.


Here are the rules:
1. Write your own six word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
4 .Tag five more blogs with links.
5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!



I really tried to think of something very cool and original but the same words kept forming in my mind so here is mine:

In her smile, I find peace.

Things are weird right now. I don't know if anyone else feels the same or not, but I find myself tense a lot for no real reason. I think I am sensitive to other people's tension and stress and everywhere you go anymore, people are not happy. Except for my girl. She is just joy personified. I look at her, and everything is ok. It doesn't matter what is going on around us. I am happy with her. Still to this day, I can't wait to get home to be with her.

Ok I tag:
1. This Blog Sucks- Ok nevermind Christine got her :)
2. Franklin, Fronda, and Peanut
3. the Karras
4. Julie
5. Ok I have no more. I read a lot but I feel weird because I don't know them that well :)

Perfect day

I really thought today was going to be ordinary. I felt like we should do something special, but I wasn't sure what with Dave working and stuff needing to be done. Well I got a lot of laundry done and some stuff around the house cleaned up. Ella took her nap, and afterward, I planned on going with her to feed my mom's cat. There is a nice new outdoor mall by her apartment so I thought we would stop and walk a bit there.

Well things started out a little hairy. We forgot the stroller so Ella had to walk which only was an issue when we got in stores. Ella loves to touch EVERYTHING. Well we only stopped in three stores thankfully. We hit the playground for a few, and then we found the fountains. They have these cool fountains that are on timers. Ella had a blast! Of course this was not planned so she was drenched and I had no change of clothes and certainly no towel. :) So we went to Parisian where they just happened to have some cute patriotic shirts and shorts on sale for 50% off. I was going to get her an outfit for the fourth anyways. We then headed off to get dinner, but on the way we stopped to listen to the live music playing :). They were singing oldies songs and Ella loves music. We went to Taco Bell for a quick bite, grabbed a cookie, and went back to the music. Ella was a dancing fool. For an almost two year old, she has some moves. She really gets into the footwork especially.

It was just a great day. We are both tired but it was worth it. Here is some pics from this morning after I got her dressed in her really cute dress.


Ella gets this cheesy smile now everytime the camera points her way!

That's better!

Miss Hollywood


Mom, you're cramping my style!