Hunter's First Haircut

Finally, after weeks of getting, "what a cute girl", or "how old is she"? Mike and I decided that it was time to cut Hunter's hair. It was a little sad because he looked so grown up after the cut, and gone was my "baby boy". But it was fun to have his first haircut done by his Bebe (Mike's dad) and it made it a little more special!

We Have Missed This!

One of the best parts about living in California was that we could go swimming any time we wanted to, it is something that we have really missed since we moved, but for the last week we got to live it up and take the kids swimming almost every day we were there. Both kids love the water and never got sick of the pool or hot tub. Ella is becoming fearless in the water, and Hunter thinks he is an olympic swimmer (so does his dad). It was also really great that cousins got to come to the hotel and swim too, all of the kids had such a blast. 

Another fun part about this trip was getting to stay in the hotel that Mike's mom manages. First Ella loved staying in a hotel period! She thought it was so fun to go up the elevator, push the buttons, sleep in a big bed, and eat waffles for breakfast every day. But even better than staying in a hotel was getting to help "Nini" (Mike's mom) work in the hotel. Ella got to go in the back and work at her own desk. She had a very important job of sorting paper clips, and color different pieces of paper. SHE LOVED IT! And I think one of the highlights for Ella was getting to have a cousin sleep over in their very own room. Ella wanted to do this every night for the rest of the trip.

The Happiest Place On Earth

Last week, for my birthday Mike decided to take the whole family to Disneyland. He knew this was something that I really wanted to do and I was so worried that we would be too late for Ella to "catch the magic" of all of the princesses and fantasy. It was such a great week and we had so much fun. We got to spend lots of time with family and cousins, and we got to enjoy some really warm weather. The first two days we got to L.A. we went to Disneyland, and it was everything I hoped it would be. The first day was really hot and pretty crowed, so that was a little frustrating, but we did get to see the princesses and the castle and that made it all worth while. The next day was much nicer, not as hot and not as crowded. Mike's family was nice enough to watch Hunter for us, so we just spent time with Ella, letting her experience everything for herself. And the best part of all of this, for my birthday/Easter, Mike's mom got us passes for the rest of the year! It was so generous of her and it really was the best gift I could ask for (his family knows I am kind of a Disney freak). So now I plan on making lots of trips to Disneyland!

Taking Ella to see Cinderella's castle was more exciting for me and I know she was in awe the whole time.

Ella got to meet Belle, which she thought was okay, but she was only really interested in Cinderella.

Again, Snow White was okay, but the real excitement was to come...

...This was the best part. Cinderella taught her how to twirl her dress and she loved being dressed just like her!

She even got a hug, which made the two hour wait worth it (yeah thats right two hours)

Hunter was too overwhelmed by all of the girlie stuff and had to check out, poor guy.

After a little lunch break we headed to the splash park in CA Disney.

Ella loved the cool off period, but was not too happy when she realized there was no towel.

A nice break from the hot weather.

Ella's smile was like this the entire trip, and that made everything worth while!

Ella got a lift to the car, she got blisters from her princess shoes!

Hunter was not able to truly appreciate the Disney experience, but next time he will.

The second day we got to take just Ella, and it was great to have this special time with her.

This is inside Sleeping Beauty's Castle and Ella did not love it. It was pretty scary and dark, so this is why she has such a sour face!

The Teacup, Ella loves Alice in Wonderland!

This was a fun ride for her, but not for Mike, too much spinning.

Alice in Wonderland ride was great too, because she loves the movie so much...

...This was her face inside the entire ride.

The White Rabbit's house, we looked for him everywhere!

In front of "A Small World", this was a great ride too, she loved seeing all of the dolls dance and sing.

We took a train ride around the park and took a break from walking.

The Entrance of the park as we headed to down town Disney.

A yummy lunch that was a New Orleans theme. I loved those Beignets, amazing.

Ella got an ice cream sundae, which just topped off the day.

This is what two days at Disneyland does to a child, and she is still recovering. We had a great time here, and the rest of trip was just as great (more pictures and stories to come).

Hooray! We Have Teeth

All of Hunters hard work has finally paid off and he is now the proud owner of 5 teeth. It has been so nice to have our happy fun loving baby back! Ever since these teeth came in, Hunter is sleeping better, eating better, and just plain happy. You can't really tell from this picture, but there are 2 more teeth broken through, and another two just below the surface. I have never seen so many teeth come in at the same time. So I guess that even though his pain was great, maybe he will be done with the whole process sooner. Of course this could just be wishful thinking on my part.

Just A Couple Of Stories

Just a snapshot of what is going on in our neck of the woods:

Ella loves to go to church, our ward has a great nursery so this is something she really enjoys. Ella always knows when it is Sunday morning because we layout her dress the night before. So when Ella wakes up the first thing she wants to do is get ready and go to church. Well our church is not until 11:00, so this is a really long wait for her. At about 9:00 Ella asked if it was time to get ready and I told her to go check the clock and tell me what it says. Usually Ella will read off the numbers so I can kind of get what time it is. Well this time when I asked her to tell me what the clock said she peeked her head in and said, "it says time to put my dress on". I got a kick out of that one!

This is Ella in her church dress, she loves to get her dress on, but hates putting on her tights and we have had many tears over the fact that her tights don't "work".

These next few pictures is the result of Ella and me playing beauty salon. Hunter's hair is getting so long that we can actually do some cool stuff with it. I call this style "The Edward" and if you don't  know why, then go watch Twilight.

These pictures were taken back when Hunter had 8 teeth coming in and they were supposed to document the pain and discomfort he was feeling. But for some reason when ever the camera turned on he was all smiles. It did not matter how many times I hid the camera and then pointed it to him, he would go from crying to smiling in less than a second. Apparently this is genetic, because I hear that Hunter has some cousins that do this same thing!

I swear he was crying a minute ago!

Don't let this photo fool you, he was in serious pain.