The many faces of Ella

Ella had her 4 yr. old check up this week and while we waited for the doctor, I tried to take a picture of her in her cute patient gown. But as pictures often go these days, getting her to smile sweetly at the camera was impossible. Instead I got these shots and as I look at them now, I think they are better anyways!!







That's my girl!!

Forgot to post this exciting news!

I almost forgot to share this with you all but Luke has graduated to a big boy car seat!! He looks so cute in it! Now if we can just get some hair!

Luke's GREEN Birthday party!

For Luke's 1st birthday, we decided to have a "green" party. So, I got everything I could find in green and brought it to Mims' house for his party.

Including green decorations



Green party favors



and green snacks!



Belle, Brooks and Blake got to come join in on the fun.
The kids played bean bag toss...



wrestled with uncle Logan (which is always the best part)



and played duck, duck, goose outside... Logan was an awesome goose!



But then it was time for the big moment!! This is Luke about to blow out his candles or I guess candle. Isn't he sooo cute!! Thanks to Landry for this great picture!



Luke as he eagerly waits for his cake.



His first bite....



..half way through...



Done!! Boy, that must have been good. He moaned with delight all the way through! He is officially 1!



And we can't forget to say Happy Birthday to Pa. It was his 65th birthday on the 17th!
Special thanks to Mims and Pa for letting us destroy your house!! It was fun!

Happy 1st Birthday, Luke!

On January 13th, 2010, Luke turned 1. This is a picture of him on his birthday, an official big boy! Happy Birthday, Luke. We love you so much. You have brought us such joy this first year. It is fun watching you grow and learn new things. Your smile is infectious and your laugh hilarious! We are lucky parents.

Ella's 4th Birthday Party

For Ella's birthday this year, we had an ice cream sundae party. We got all the different toppings for sundaes and then invited all her friends over so they could make their own..as big as they wanted! Ella even had two!!

Here are all the different toppings we had...yummy!



We gave out ice cream bowls with spoons as party favors. They were really cute.





We set up a bean bag toss for the kids. They really enjoyed it....but the most fun was...



Maggie the Balloon Lady! She did all kinds of different games and made the best balloon animals ever (it was really quite impressive)



...even daddy got in on the fun. That's him at the front of the line wearing the balloon basket. The kids had to shoot their balloons into the basket and later he was a target for them to shoot their arrows at..it was fun to watch!



Luke enjoyed the excitement as well. That's him playing with the colors we set out for the kids to color ice cream sundaes.



Then it was time for the real fun...Ella blew out her candles and then made the biggest sundae ever! It was lots of fun and I think everyone had a good time.

Silly Ella

Ella came out of her bathroom looking like this the other night. She thought she was pretty funny. I did too! Those are all of her head bands by the way.

Winter Fun

It has been unusually cold here the last couple of days which gave us a great idea to roast marshmallows and make s'mores outside using our fire pit. It was lots of fun and Mims took a quick picture of us for the blog.

Happy 4th Birthday, Ella!

January 1st, 2010...Ella is 4 years old. She is no longer a baby or even a toddler...she is a little girl, a little kid. Where did the time go??

Although, the birthday was a little hard for me...4 just seems so old to me...we had a great time celebrating. We actually were able to get up before Ella did and surprise her with a few presents while singing Happy Birthday to her in bed. She couldn't believe it and dove right in. We got her a little #4 T-shirt to commemorate the day and the ever so important Baby Alive doll.



We then headed over to celebrate with Mims and Pa. Ella got to open up even more presents including a very cool and very big chimp from Aunt Amber and Uncle Logan along with a Curious George book...8 stories in one..we have read all of them about three times now! Thanks so much you guys! Luke was very intrigued with the chimp!!








After blowing out candles and eating some birthday cake, mommy, Mims and Ella had a little girls' day. We went to watch the Princess and the Frog, just the three of us. What a great way to spend your 4th birthday!!





Mommy and Daddy love you so much, little Ella! We are so proud of the little girl you are becoming! Just like my mom used to say or actually still says...no matter how old you get, you will always be my baby!

Happy New Year!!

We hope you all have a wonderful 2010!



We had a great New Year's Eve party at the Burdine house. We started with a few decorations. Ella helped me decorate with balloons and streamers which was a very exciting deal! Dad was very surprised when he came home.
We then kicked the party off with a little pizza making. Ella had loads of fun piling on the cheese...so did dad! We then played all the new games Ella got for Christmas. It wasn't a good night for the girls though..daddy beat us at all the games.





It was then time for the real celebration! We put on our New Year's tiaras (Lyle wasn't too excited about wearing those. He was hoping for a cool hat...maybe next year), made a toast with some delicious Sparkling "wine" to the beginning of 2010 and then rang in the New Year (at 9:00 pm) with a count down on the balcony where we blew our horns and popped our party poppers. It was a great start to the New Year and we plan to have an even better party next year!