More Fun Family Pictures

Elizabeth's 1st birthday is on Tuesday, so, just like we did with Evie's 1st birthday, we had professional pictures taken of our family. This time, we went in expecting to pay for the entire CD of cute pictures, and I now present the cutest of the crop!

This is probably my favorite pose of the entire set! I love how it shows off both of my pretty girls' pretty smiles!

I love how happy my girls are together.

I can't get over how grown-up Evie looks!

When she's really happy, Elizabeth has this huge grin and takes over her whole face.

Trying to escape...

Our big 1-year-old girl!

Well, my girls are obviously sisters! Remember a similar picture with Evie?

Oh, how I love that mischievous little grin!

Seeing Elizabeth sit on her "1" block made Evie want to sit on the "2" block.

Followed by a close-up of Evie's gorgeous smile!

We think this picture is so fun!

Our first outfits were all supposed to complement Ella's outfit. Then, we wanted to change into something a little more formal and pretty for the girls to wear. Our photographer had been great so far, and she was able to get such bright, happy smiles from my girls. However, during the break we took to change our clothes, another girl decided to "help" her colleague get the girls' attention by being really loud and really shrill. As a result, our girls are a bit more bemused in the rest of the pictures than beaming. Oh well, I still managed to find a few I really like.

This is Evie in her huge poofy dress that she loves!

I think this is a preview of what Evie will look like as a teenager.

We call this the "zombie picture," because it looks a little like Evie is eating Ella's brain. :)

This picture looks like my girls are sharing a secret, but it was really just Evie trying to give her sister a kiss.

This little half-smile is the one that Ella wears when she's being thoughtful or bashful. I love it just as much as the grin!

Elizabeth has such a light about her that radiates out of her sweet face.

The girls with their Daddy.

The girls with their Mommy.

Ella with her Mommy and Daddy.

Evie with her Mommy and Daddy.

Our whole family. I wish that the girls were looking at the camera and really smiling, but this was the best we got.

Disney Princesses

Oh, I am so excited for Elizabeth's birthday! For Evie's 1st birthday, we got her the Fisher-Price Little People Noah's Ark with some additional animals. She loves them, and so does Ella! We really like the Little People in our family because they're just the right size to fit into our kids' little hands. To continue our tradition of getting our kids Little People sets for their 1st birthdays, we found the perfect gift for Elizabeth! Fisher-Price has recently started making Little People Disney Princesses! They're absolutely adorable, and I know Ella will love them. I've already purchased almost the entire collection for her.

 

I bought the palace in a bundle with Snow White and the Dwarves for $55 instead of the $70 that they would have been individually. I also bought several double-packs of the princess figures, which are about $8 full price. Fortunately, I managed to score everything--the palace, the dwarves, and 7 double-packs of figures--all for about $100, instead of $126! The wedding figures of Belle/Prince Adam and Ariel/Prince Eric were available exclusively from Wal-Mart; not even the Fisher-Price website carried them! And, I managed to only get one exact duplicate: Snow White. She comes with both the castle and with the dwarves, so I'm thinking of giving the extra figure to my niece who loves Snow White. I hope that they'll keep coming out with more figures, especially of the princes, but I'm done for now. I had so much fun getting her these toys, and I know that she'll have even more fun playing with them!

Family Visit/Todd's Birthday!

Todd's birthday is the 14th, but he was out of town that whole week for his Team Summit, and then my parents and sister were coming to visit us a week later, so we decided to postpone his party until they could come and celebrate with us! Nona, Granddad, and Aunt Hailey drove all day Saturday and got to us about mid-afternoon. Hailey promptly lay down on our bed and took a nap, and Granddad didn't even make it to a bed! :)

It's a really long trip and everyone was really tired, but even though she was worn out, Nona was excited to see the grandbabies!

And she even managed to get a peek at the new little gumper (tooth) in Elizabeth's mouth and help me get a shot!:

Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures this week, but that doesn't mean that we didn't have fun! The day after my family arrived, we held a birthday party for Todd. The Christmas before, he'd given me The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Bucholz, so I decided to use this opportunity to crack it and have a simple "Harry Potter" themed party for Todd. I bought him the entire hardback Harry Potter series, plus I pre-ordered the box set of Hogwarts Library books (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Quidditch Through the Ages, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard).

I had asked him what, out of the cookbook, he wanted for dinner, and so that night I made him "Warm and Hearty Mulligatawny Soup" and "Chicken and Mushroom Pies" for dinner with my family. Then I set aside the "Perfectly Smooth Raspberry Ice Cream," "Classic Vanilla Ice Cream," and "Creamy, Dreamy Chocolate Gateau" for dessert when everyone else arrived for the party. Everything was very delicious (if I do say so myself!) but the raspberry ice cream and the chocolate gateau were both very time intensive, and I told Todd to savor them both, because I would probably never make them again! Once all of the guests had arrived, Todd opened his presents, and was actually very surprised and pleased with what I got him! (I was surprised that he was surprised, since I'd made no secret out of making his entire dinner out of the Harry Potter cookbook he gave me, but I guess that just means that I'm sneakier than I give myself credit for!)

For a late birthday/early Father's Day gift, my parents gave Todd a little portable propane grill, which he's thrilled about! We packed a picnic lunch and took the grill with us to the park, but just as we started setting everything up, dark clouds rolled in overhead and started sprinkling, so we had to pack everything back up and head home. I thought it was a little cliche, but the rain clouds weren't listening to me. ;) Todd still grilled us some yummy homemade burgers, though!

Finally, as a last hurrah while my family was here, we took them to Cici's Pizza, which is cheap, close by, and yummy. I guess I didn't get any pictures of Evie, but I did get a couple of Elizabeth with ranch dressing all over her face. She likes to swirl baby tomatoes and bites of garlic knots into her ranch. 

We all really had a fun time with my family while they were here, and even though we miss them, we're glad that it won't be too long before we're all together again this summer for my brother's wedding!