Cold Stone

Elle had her first experience with Cold Stone ice cream and she LOVED it! She was pretty quiet while she ate...always a good sign. She then got up and did some booty shakes and dance moves and entertained the entire Cold Stone customers. It was really fun!

Valentines Day

Elle had a very fun Valentines Day! She really understood the concept of Cupid...bringing her presents. It was hillarious! We woke up and she found some cute dresses, a light up heart necklace and an Aurora Pez! She LOVED her gifts from cupid.

 We then made pink heart pancakes!

Daddy had beautiful roses delivered to Mommy!

Throughout the day we found out where Nick was and gave him little treats. We heart attacked his car while he was in court, dropped off some goodies in his car while he was at school. It was really fun and made our day FULL of Valentines!

We met Daddy for lunch at our favorite sandwich place, Caruso's! Elle was FULL of love and kisses!

We ended our day playing at the library and finding some good books and movies to check out!

                               Elle showing off her new Valentines Day dress! She is so beautiful!

Decorating cupcakes

Elle had her friend from church, Lynden come over to help decorate cupcakes. They did a very good job! LOTS of sprinkles on those mini cupcakes.
We then went later and dropped them off at Daddy's work for his office staff to enjoy!

Open Gym

Elle has been going to open gym at this really fun Gymnastics Center. She LOVES it so much. A full hour of jumping, bouncing, somersaults and running! It is a great way for her to burn some energy too!

The BANDAID!

Elle burned her finger on the skillet about 3 weeks ago. We immediately put on a PRINCESS bandaid. Whenever that bandaid fell off, a new one went on. When it fell off, a new one went on.
She would FREAK out if it came off...hysterical! We let it go on until all the bandaids were gone.
That was tonight! We took it off of her in her sleep.
Elle comes into our bed around 6:30 every morning. Nick and I were waiting to see if she noticed. Sure enough, about 5 minutes after laying there, her finger went up and she just starred at it.
She got up after a while and started FREAKING out that she needed another bandaid on her finger, but we were DONE with the bandaid issue! So she walked around for about 2 hours with her whole left hand completely unable to do anything with it. It was so funny!

BYE BYE BANDAID!

3 Day Potty Training

From the advice from TWO trusted friends, I purchased the 3 Day Potty Training e-book. I cringed at the thought of spending $24.99 on an E-BOOK, but I knew my cousin Kate, and my old roommate Erin, wouldn't steer me wrong!

Day 1- February 4

 The morning started as usual, cereal and juice, watched Curious George. When it was time to get ready for the day I had Elle go get me a diaper from her diaper drawer. Well when she looked in the drawer all her diapers were GONE! There were new panties and a fun potty chart. I told her we had to give all our diapers away to the babies, and she seemed fine with it.

Well.. does this little girl have bladder control! She held in her pee for 6 hours! And this was after drinking 4 cups of juice and two cups of POP! She was so scared of going on the potty. I kept praying she would just release, either in the potty or in her pants. Well, it ended being in her pants. We ran to the bathroom and the remainder of her pee was on the potty. From that time forward she just got better and better! We ended up having 11 very minor accidents for the rest of the day. I went in and checked on her before I went to bed at 11:00 and she had wet her panties. We got up, went to the potty, got changed, and she stayed dry until 7:20 the following morning!

* My favorite part of the day was how she would talk to her pee.
Here are some awesome phrases from Elle:

" Come on pee"
"Come on out pee pee"
" Time to play pee"
" Go swimin pee"
" Come play with the pool toys pee"

It was hilarious and provided a MUCH needed laugh!


Day 2- February 5

We got up, went potty, had our cereal and juice, and the day went awesome from there! She had 2 very minor accidents! She did amazing. Went to bed that night at 9:00 and woke up at 8:00 with DRY panties.

Day 3- February 6

Honestly I could have taken her out by the time. She was on the ball! There were times I was focused on something else or talking to Nick and she just went in the bathroom and started setting up her potty chair and potty stool.

On Thursday was our first adventure out of the house. I had to pick my location carefully since Elle gets distracted easily. I thought about Target, but she loves that place too much and is WAY too distracted there. So we went to the grocery store and got a few things and walked around.
She went pee before we left which was awesome! We were in the store for about 40 minutes and as we were leaving she told me she needed to go potty. So we did!

                                                                  ( Elle's throne)

                                                                ( Elle giving her pee encouraging words)

                                                             ( My favorite picture )

Daddy and Mommy are so proud of Elle!  She has picked this potty training business up like nothing! She enjoys feeling like a " big girl" in her princess undies that she loves so much. She LOVES washing her hands....loves it! We couldn't have asked for a better potty training experience!

Elle's "Silly" Face

Elle learned this awesome "silly" face from Aunt Kami and cousin Tyler. She loves making it!

Our last day

We were out the door by 9:30 AM to head to Phoenix. We couldn't leave without saying bye to PAPA! We met him on the side of the road and he got out and gave Elle big hugs and kisses. Elle loves her papa a lot.

Elle took a much needed nap on the way to Phoenix.

The plan was to meet Aunt Becky and Connor for lunch at Rainforest Cafe. I was sure Elle would love it, considering how much she loves zoo animals. NOWAY! She was terrified and we were OUT of there within 5 minutes.

So we ended up eating delicious ( not) mall food. There was an upside...they had a MERRY GO ROUND! I was sure Aunt Becky would have offered herself to go with Elle, but I went instead. Of all the animals she could have chosen to ride on, she wanted to sit on the bench. So we sat on the bench and had the time of her life!

We said one more goodbye to baby Connor and  Aunt Becky and headed off to find a treat! We went to a frozen yogurt place and it was awesome!

We got to the airport, just in time, and Grammy walked with us all the way to the very last step she could take. We said goodbye and flew home to DADDY!

Elle was perfect on the flight and literally was pushing through people when we were getting off the plane to see Daddy. He was waiting for us and she ran to him and just hugged him and kissed him! We sure missed Daddy!

We had such a fun time in Arizona and are so thankful my parents could fly us out! I love the relationship Elle has with Grammy and Papa. She loves them so much!

Day 6: Walk and shopping

Grammy had to go play in a tennis match in the morning. So Elle and I decided to go on another walk!
We BOTH walked about a mile. Elle told me she wanted to sit in the stroller on the way back, under one condition, " No Straps!". She is so independent!

When Grammy got home we were READY to go to lunch and finish our trip with more shopping!

As my last meal I chose, El Molinitos of course! So good! Elle ate almost an entire basket of chips and couldn't get enough salsa! Arizona girl at heart!

We went to Tucson Mall after and Grammy took Elle on a shopping spree. Grammy has really good taste! Elle was getting sick of walking ( and we were getting sick of chasing her and carrying her

 30.5 lb body), so Grammy rented a stroller. Elle stayed in the whole time and really enjoyed "driving".

I love this picture of Elle. Our trip was coming to a close and I really think she was day dreaming of seeing her Daddy! I gave her 4 pennies and taught her how to make a wish. She would close her eyes tight, throw her penny in the fountain and say, " WISH". She was so soft and sweet.

We went over to Aunt Susie and Uncle Ken's for dinner. It was of course delicious and Elle was in heaven in Aunt Susie's " Grand" room. We had fun just talking and catching up. Whenever we come into town we always need a little visit from Aunt Susie and Ken Dog.

Day 5: Park, Bowler visit

Started the day going on a nice walk with Papa. We found a cute little park and had some fun!
Elle learned to climb up the jungle ropes. It was fun seeing her growth, just in the span of 5 minutes. She was VERY unsure if she wanted to keep climbing at first. Mommy had to help a little the first 2 times. After that she was like a pro!

                                                             ( look at that determination)

Papa went down the slides with Elle. It was SO fun for Elle to see him doing that.

We got a call saying CONNOR was here! We rushed home and spent the rest of the day with Uncle John, Aunt Becky and baby Connor. Great Aunt Becky and Amelia and Ross came over for a visit too. It was so fun seeing them! Great Grandpa Dillion and Great Grandma Kathleen came over too for some dinner and a visit.

Uncle John is a very talented photographer and set up his studio in Grammy and Papa's house.

She made this picture totally amazing...

Love how Elle is so gentle and sweet with baby Connor!

This photo shoot was so fun!