Cousins

The time has finally arrived for Ellen to play with her cousin Kate. It's one of the days that I've dreamed of for her. I remember so many fun times with my cousins and I couldn't wait for Ellen to start making those memories too. Ellen and Kate had a blast chasing each other around the house squealing at the top of their lungs. Although loud, it was secretly music to my ears.

Thank you cousins for being such an important part of my life! I love you ALL!

Momma's Little Helper

Sophia loves to get into things. As you can see she was "helping" me with the laundry. (luckily I hadn't started folding it yet) Every bit of clothing was out of the basket by the time she was done. And it didn't take her long at all! I just couldn't bring myself to tell that cute little face NO NO! It's just laundry right?

Sleeping Beauty

Ellen, Sophia and I went on a walk with some friends from the neighborhood. I knew it was getting close to Sophia's nap time but we went anyway. We finished walking with our friends and started around the corner to come home. I laid Sophia's seat down and by the time we got to the end of the street and into the garage she was OUT!

My Girls

I'm posting these pictures of Sophia mainly so Grandma Jane and Grandpa Dale can see how cute she looks in her new pajamas. Thanks so much! She has quickly outgrown her other ones.

These pictures of Ellen I couldn't resist putting them on here. She asked me if she could go outside and I quickly said yes. I looked out the window to check on her and this is what I saw. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was reading her bible and sitting in the sun. She sure is a girl after my own heart! I later caught her walking around the yard praying! I wish I could have gotten a picture of that, but these were hard enough to get without her knowing what I was doing.

Happy Birthday Sophia (part two)

We finally celebrated Sophia's birthday on Saturday. Here she is eating one of her favorite foods, hard boiled eggs. She can really make a mess out of things!

I was secretly hoping for the same "mess" with her cupcake. I just knew that she would tear into it and destroy it. Boy, was I WRONG! Instead, she cried her eyes out!

She wanted nothing to do with it. I even tried to hold her and she still didn't like it. Oh well, they tasted really good. Maybe next year. (she never ceases to amaze me...just when I think I've got her figured out, she goes and proves me wrong)

So, we gave up on the cupcakes and moved to her gifts.

Tim and I have made a tradition of buying the girls a bible for their first birthday. We buy them one that they will be able to use once they start reading.

Ellen bought Sophia this little Fisher-Price purse. Which is fitting since Ellen has more purses than I do! Sophia loves the songs and goodies that go inside. Great idea Ellen!

We also got Sophia a bear from Build-A-Bear. Ellen went with us and helped us pick it out. Ellen also came up with a great name for the bear...Lucy! Now we have Purple Bear and Lucy!

Overall it was a long week, but I can't believe Sophia is already 1. Time flies when you're having fun and we are having LOTS of fun.

Happy Birthday Sophia (part one)

I posted earlier about Sophia's pink eye and how it effected our little party with friends. Well, Ellen and I decided to make cupcakes anyway and thought that just the 4 of us could celebrate. I found this recipe from a friend on facebook and knew I had to try it.

Ellen is mixing the colors for the rainbow cupcakes. It was a much longer process than regular cupcakes but I knew it would be worth it.

This is how they turned out!

This is the card that Ellen picked out for Sophia all by herself. I thought she did a pretty good job of writing Sophia's name on the envelope.

Here she is...the pink eye birthday girl! This was all she could handle. We didn't even make it to the cupcakes and gifts.

PINK EYE!

Most of you missed out on Sophia's Pink eye experience so I wanted to share some of it with you. She woke up Monday with a little bit of what I called "sleep" in her eyes. I tried wiping it away and noticed it again around lunch and again around dinner time. Tuesday she woke up with her left eye matted shut. I decided to call the doctor just to check it out. After explaining to the nurse what was going on she said I needed to bring her in. We saw a PA and she said it was pink eye and it was very contagious! Needless to say I came home and made some phone calls to cancel her little birthday party we had planned for the next day.
POOR SOPHIA!



Everything was cleared up by Saturday and we "celebrated" with just the four of us. (More on that in another post)

Garber Gang

This is the fam! All of us in our purple and white. The picture was taken after church so the girls (and I) look a little worn, but that's okay. One of these days we'll get a picture of all of us looking at the camera...maybe!

Suprise Visit

I posted earlier that we didn't go anywhere this year for Easter, but we did have family come to us. Dale, Jane and Charlie came down Sunday afternoon. We grilled and spent time playing with the girls. Jane had this awesome scavenger hunt planned for Ellen that took her all over the house finding different clues (inside the eggs). Ellen had a blast!

It all started with an egg in Grandpa's pocket. That's where he hides "treats" for the girls.

Grandpa read the first clue and then we all had a turn reading to her.

The hunt ended at the mail box where she found a pretty pink pinwheel and a parachute bunny. It was a little too windy for the bunny, but the pinwheel worked great!

Happy Easter

This year we stayed home for Easter. It was nice to be at our own place and do our own thing. We love going to see family, but it was much more relaxed this way. I took a lot of pictures so I'm just going to list them for you to see.

Theses are the girls baskets. We did the baskets and egg hunt on Saturday and spent Sunday talking about why we really celebrate Easter. They get so confused at this age and I didn't want them to think Easter was about eggs and candy. It really is the most important celebration that we Christians have. Christmas is great, but lots of babies are born...Good Friday is special, but many people die....Easter Sunday is far above the rest because JESUS WAS RAISED FROM THE DEAD! What an amazing day that must have been.

The girls looking at their goodies in their baskets.

Ellen had this bunny unwrapped and eaten in no time flat!

The funny thing about this picture is that she didn't even notice the egg above her head!

FOUND IT!