E's Half Birthday + Life Lately

Miss Ellery turned two and a half on Sunday. She's been talking about birthdays and cake quite a bit lately, and since I'm trying to keep myself busy and distracted in these final pregnancy days, I decided to make her a fancy cake. Probably the only half birthday we'll ever celebrate because the girls are almost exactly two and a half years apart. I made a chocolate, PB cookie dough cake with PB frosting. Ellery was very excited about the two and a half candles!

It took her SEVERAL blows to get them blown out! : )

I love it when she wants to snuggle in our bed. Even if it's only because of the ipad ha.

Gym selfie. Except I'm not working out here...hah. Ellery likes to play in the gym at our apartment complex...Me at almost 40 weeks. So ready to be comfortable in something other than sweats again!

Lately

As of Thur (April 10th) I'm dilated to a 2! So baby could come ANY time : ) And I'm definitely feeling like she really could..but if she doesn't come on her own, she'll either come Wed or Thur (Thur, the 17th is my due date).

Putting my feet up. So pregnant!

(but really doing very well!)

Clay painted and put some shelves up for me. We had some scrap wood lying around that I thought I'd fill our awkward nook with. I think it looks pretty good! Now for decorating...

My last two bows. I swear I'm done now! haha. These girls have way too many hair accessories!

Ellery has been a LITTLE better about napping lately (like twice a week?). Sometimes we bribe her though by letting her sleep in "baby sister's crib." This may be an issue after baby sister comes...we'll see haha.

And in her own crib.

She is actually a very light sleeper, but sometimes she just gets SO tired that I can capture a photo of her napping. It's rare though.

New toy for general conference.

She loves it.

 Dancing and showing off her new (to her) clothes. We love hand me downs!

 I also found this old hair clip that was mine when I was little ^

Ellery having a hard time leaving Clay alone while he studies in the bedroom ^

My favorite thing ^

Ellery LOVES the Easter aisle at the grocery store.

Friends and Parks

I think I mentioned in my last "lately" post that Ellery doesn't play too well (or just doesn't play with) other kids. Well, it's funny because since then, Ellery has been very social. Whenever we go to the park (almost every day) she makes a new best friend. She has been showing a lot more interest in other kids and has been giggling and chasing and totally playing with them!

This is Ellery's little friend, Sophia. She lives in our apartment complex and is about six months older than Ellery. Just recently Ellery has decided that Sophia is her best friend. She LOVES her (which is great for me because I love her sweet mom and family)!

Cute, goofy girls!

 They just put in a play structure at our apartment complex, which we are thrilled about. It's nothing special (unfortunately no swings), but anything is better than nothing! We go here almost every day too.

At a park with Daddy.

 She could play in the water fountain all day!

E's Art Work

I just went through and scanned all of Ellery's old art work (plus a million other things). I'll get around to posting those later. In the meantime, here is some of her current work : )

She did everything besides the "Ellery." ^

 Loves painting.

Drawing during conference.

This looks a little creepy, haha. But I love that she is now totally coloring specific things in (not perfectly within the lines, but hey, you can tell what she was going for, right?!).

She asked me to draw balloons and then copied what I did. Hers is the blue one. Almost as good as my lovely balloons! haha.

Ellery drawing "a mama."

And another "mama" on the left ^

I just can't get over the fact that her people actually resemble people! She's so big!

Zoo Days

I took E to the zoo by myself the other day while Clay was at school. I want to get in as many days as I can while the weather is good and before baby comes!

Loved the train ride they have at the zoo!

Ellery was quite freaked out by this big guy. ^ She wouldn't go near him! She said he was like a shark.

Checking out the bird eggs.

Loves the flamingos

We went again with Daddy the other day. This is after an animal show. Ellery quite liked it.

Petting zoo at the library for Easter. They had ducklings and bunnies. E LOVED the baby ducks, but had no interest in the bunnies (until the very last second, when it was time to leave, of course!).

Left: E's reaction to someone trying to put a bunny in her lap. She did not want to hold it!

Right: She loved those ducklings!