And off we go...

The grandma's look ready right? Tomorrow is the day! I can't believe it's here but we leave for St. Lucia tomorrow night. I have a mix of emotions. I am really excited, but so very nervous about being so far away from my girls. So as I take a break from the blogging world, and the mommy world for that matter, I pray for all the grandparents involved and that my girls know that Mommy and Daddy are coming home!

And I will leave you all with this super cute picture of my little snow white!

Adalyn Ella

My baby girl! I know you are no longer a baby, and are definitely all toddler these days, but you are still my sweet little baby girl. You are my cuddle bug. You love to give hugs and kisses. Your sweet little personality is starting to emerge more and more. You are still pretty shy, but not quite as much as Aubrey. You are just a happy girl! You like playing by yourself. When you are playing by yourself, you are usually sitting on the floor pretending to read your self a book. It's so cute! You love books, whether mommy or daddy are reading to you or you are just looking through a book alone. You are still the girl of a million expressions. You have so many cute expressions and usually always leave daddy and I laughing. You like to do pretty much anything Aubrey is doing. So if she dresses up in her princess clothes you usually come to me with some dress up cloths and say "help". You love your sister and you are always trying to give her hugs and kisses. You also love Elmo, or "melmo". You are always carrying an elmo book around the house! Another fun thing you have been doing lately is pointing out every hat, necklace, and earings you see. And I do mean every. If we are at the store and you see some one wearing any of those things you get all excited and start pointing and saying the item over and over agains. I sometimes have to calm you down about this one! So funny! Your vocabulary is starting to grow a lot. You love to be outside, and especially go for walks in the wagon.
Here are a few words you say now:
mommy, daddy, Aubey (although you know your name is Adalyn, when we ask you what your name is you say "Aubey), bye, hi, all gone, more, please, Nana, Papaw, night night, no, mine (you learned this a lot earlier than Aubrey ever did, but I think you must have learned it from your sister), book, eat, snack (your favorite word!), out (outside).
You also just recently started putting two words together. You love to say "good girl" (I'm you learned that from your sister). You also like to steal things from Aubrey and then show me and say "Aubey's juice" or whatever it is you stole from her! Aubrey doesn't really like this new trick. And whenever you find a new spot to sit down you say "I sit". Aww, I love this stage. Listening to you figure things out and hearing all the new things you are learning just melts my heart.


I love you sweet girl, and I am so excited to watch you grow. You have my heart and I wouldn't want to spend my days doing any thing other than spending them with you and your sister. I am so thankful that I get to be your mommy!

Aubrey Claire

My sweet Aubrey Claire. You are growing so big, way too fast! I feel like overnight you became a little girl. There is nothing baby left in you. Your sweet and adorable personality makes me smile. You vocabulary has taken off in the last couple of months, and you like to talk ALL the time. I guess that's a little bit of your daddy in you! You are so kind to your friends, take such good care of your little sister, such a good listener and so obedient (most of the time) for daddy and I. We couldn't be more proud of the little girl you are growing into. Your favorite things to do are: anything outside, playing with your sister, going to the zoo, playing with your friends (especially Mary, Sally and Addie), going to the gym, going to eat lunch with Daddy when he is at work, asking mommy to sing all sorts of songs (Abc's and the Ariel song are your two favs), coloring or any type of craft, dressing up and playing with your babies. You are a girly girl most definitely! You have been getting better about going to your class at church, although you still always want to go with Adalyn to her class! I am head over heals for you litte girl! You melt my heart when you come and give me big hugs and kissed and tell me you love me out of the blue. I love and cherish those moments! Here are a few funny Aubrey moments:

You got a new princess plate for Christmas and you love to eat on it. The other day at lunch as you were eating you said "oh no mommy, cinderella all dirty." Apparently
her face got a little dirty because of the mac and cheese on top of her!

One day as we were coming home a little past nap time, you and Adalyn were both crying in the van. So we started counting blue cars together. Now everytime we get in the car you say "count red cars mommy!".

We have been working on counting to ten and you are starting to get it. When you count with mommy this is how you do it, "one, two , three". You then just keep saying eight until mommy does, then once I say eight you yell "nine!". We will keep working on that one!
You are such a good helper! The other day I was looking for Adalyn's cup. You found it for me and handed it to me and said "Here you go babe." You obviously hear mommy say that all the time!

Yesterday the UPS man delivered a package for Daddy. You ran to the door and saw the box and start jumping and you yelled "pizza!!!". Poor girl thought we were having pizza for lunch!

As I was putting you to bed one night, I was hugging you really tight. You put your head on my shoulder and started patting my back like I do yours and then you sais "dis my mommy". Aww, it melted my heart!

After I put Adalyn down for her nap the other day, I went into your room to put you down but I couldn't find you. I found you in the playroom, where Adalyn naps, giving Adalyn and kiss and telling her you love her!

This one is about that same princess plate. You like to cover up a different princess at a time with your food, then you say "oh no mommy, where did (insert princess name) go? And you go down the list til you say all the princesses. This is our fun lunchtime game!

Every now and then (especially when Adalyn is crying) you come up to me and say "I be good girl mommy", or "I no crying mommy". You seem to be so proud of yourself. You also always tell me this when I pick you up from church. Lots of times when we drop you off at church you cry, so when I pick you up I will ask you why you were crying. You always tell me "I want mommy back". Aww.

I mentioned earlier how much you love to play with Addie. Addie is a super girly girl, she is always wearing a tutu and carrying some frilly little purse. So when we are at home and you are all dressed up in your princess stuff you always say "I show Addie". I guess you know what your friend likes! So cute.

You have my heart little girl! I love spending my days with you and your sister and I can't wait to hear all the new funny things that you will say. I love you sweet girl!

My Prayer

I am so blessed to be the mommy of these two girls. I couldn't ask for a better job. My days are definitely not always easy, but seeing these two sweet faces every day makes every moment worth it. They are such great sisters. They love to be together, and play together. They don't like to be seperated but they also don't really like to share their toys with each other. Aubrey is such a sweet big sister. She is always hugging Adalyn, helping her with all sorts of things and of course telling her "no" when she thinks she is misbehaving (gotta love the bossy big sister role). I have always prayed for my girls, from the moment I learned that Aubrey was growing inside me. I pray for them to learn how to obey Jeff and I and God, I pray for them to understand and grasp the depth of God's unconditional love for them at an early age, and I pray for the choices they make now and in the future. But one prayer that has just been weighing so heavily on my heart lately is about their relationship as sisters. I just so desire them to be close, to get along and to be protective of each other. But I don't mean just now, while they are young. I want them to be close for years to come. I want them to experience that close relationship that only sisters know. I know at times they will hurt each others feelings (they are girls), but I pray that they are able to quickly forgive each other. I know that the Lord has put this on my heart for a reason, as He is trying to mend the brokeness that I have experienced from a broken relationship with my own sister. I want to obedient to Him and really pray for these two and for myself and Jeff as we teach them how to treat each other. I want these sisters to always take care of each other, and to love each other no matter what. That is my prayer and my desire for my girls.

Winter in Southern California

Although there are several things that I don't really like about California, the one thing that makes up for ALL of those things is the amazing weather and gorgeous scenery. When I say to myself "man I just want to move back to Texas", I have to quickly remind myself of this perfect weather and being 10 minutes from gorgeous beaches. We are so spoiled here. We have had gorgeous weather the past couple of weeks. 70-75 and sunny makes for a pretty great winter. We have been spending lots of time outside at playdates, playing at the beach as a fam, and just enjoying our own backyard and having picnics. So this post is just to say thank you God for creating a beautiful place and allowing us to live here!

A Few Additions

Just to let any of you who follow my little business, Ella Claire Designs, I just added a few items to my collection.
http://ellaclairedesigns.blogspot.com

Day at the Zoo

We enjoyed so many fun family days while Jeff was off for Christmas and New Years. It has been hard getting back to real life again! On Sunday we spent the day at the zoo. It was a perfect San Diego winter day, 73 degrees and sunny! The girls had a blast riding in their wagon and looking at all the animals. We of course made sure to make it to see the giraffe's and the elephants since those are Aubrey's favorites, and I'm sure they will be Adalyn's too since she is the typical little sister and likes pretty much anything here sister does!

Watching the turtles.

















This girl has become such a Daddy's girl lately. Jeff loves it!















Aubrey freaked out when I first put her on this. She thought it was real apparently, but once I told her it wasn't she thought it was great!


















It's really hard getting a picture of a 16 month old and a 2 year old, so this is the best we got!















Climbing the rocks.

Balloon Animals

A couple of nights ago we went to Corvett's Diner for dinner. It was last minute so I unfortunately didn't take my camera. This restraunt was tons of fun. Everyone was dressed up as if was the 50's, and there was dancing in the aisles. Adalyn was a little overwhelmed with the craziness at first, but Aubrey had a blast . She was dancing the whole time we ate. While we were there the girls were given these balloon animals. They loved them and have been playing with them for days!

The girls showing off their balloons.


That Ariel balloon is pretty spectacular!

Dressing Up!

Aubrey and Adalyn got lots of fun dress up clothes for Christmas, and they have had a blast trying it all on. From tutu's, to princess dresses, to tiaras, and Adalyn's favorite: shoes! They've been entertaining Jeff and I too! I always knew these girls were girly girls, but man I had no idea they would love tutu's as much as they do. They sure are cute little princesses. I asked Aubrey the other day what she wanted to be when she grew up and she didn't say anything. So I said "do you want to be a ballerina?". And she said, "No mommy, a princess ballerina". Oh my!

You can see Aubrey is holding a wand. She runs around the house swinging this wand singing "let it shine, let it shine, let it shine". She came up with that on her own, I mean we sing "This little light of mine" all the time, but so funny that she put that with her wand.





They love to look at themselves in the mirror after they are all dressed up.

Adalyn LOVES wearing the shoes. She can't walk in them, and gets really frustrated, but she always is asking to help put them on.