My One Year Old

The last of my babies has reached their first birthday!  Happy birthday to my Ella-Bella (yesterday). 

We had a wonderful day with friends, family, and plenty of goodies!  Now it's time to celebrate Valentine's Day today...then Myke's birthday next week....then Chloë's birthday the week after that.  February is fun!  

My Baby is Turning ONE!!

Ella Maureen Hines

Tomorrow is the big day.  Ella will turn one year old.  I can't believe it has been a year since she came into our lives and changed it for the absolute better.   I could not have asked for a better baby (and I'm not just saying that because I have to as the mom).  She's been such a perfect addition (and completion) to our family.  A happy little chiquita, a snuggler, a momma's girl, and just overall a very chill and laid back baby girl.  She goes with the flow which is perfect for the fourth child (and ideal for any child, right??).  Anyways, we just love our little Ella-Bella.  It's great to watch her grow and change and exciting to see what she'll be like as a toddler/little girl...but, at the same time, I want to hold on to my baby Ella forever and snuggle her soft baby skin.  I could not have asked for a better year than this last one.  Love to my Ella-Bella!  xoxo

cutting the cord

first time holding my baby girl, Ella :)

Super Bowl Sunday (part II)

So my 10k was on Super Bowl Sunday (see previous post) and then afterwards we headed to Lego Land for some family time together with the kids.  Super Bowl Sunday was the PERFECT time to go!  Very few people there and NO lines for anything!  The kids had a blast.  Here are a few pics:

Eli on the train

Choo-choo

Why am I up posting at 6am?  Because Myke rolled over in bed and elbowed me in the head around 5am and I haven't been able to fall back asleep since.  I gave up trying once it was almost 6.  I have too little free time to waste it lying in bed trying to fall back asleep!  Also, now that Ella is SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT CONSISTENTLY !!!!!! I don't have the broken nights of sleep anymore.  It's wonderful and amazing :)  She was definitely the child who took the longest to sleep through the night (by which I mean the 10-12 hour stretch on a regular basis).  So I'm enjoying that.  I'm seeing breakfast time with the kids again after a year of missing it (our routine was that I got up and fed/changed Ella in the night and then would go back to sleep, pillow over my head, and Myke would get up with the kids when they woke up and get them dressed, do breakfast, etc.  I would usually mosey down around 7:30/7:45am.  So now that I'm up in the morning the kids are all weirded out.  It has been almost a year since I was regularly at the breakfast table with them.  AND, if I get up with them now and let Myke sleep in they are even more weirded out.  I "don't do breakfast right", apparently.  Ha.  They obviously got very used to Myke and his morning routine.  So on those days Myke usually comes down and kicks me out of the kitchen and takes back over anyways.  

So, we're in February!  Birthday month is here!  We had originally planned on having a big triple birthday bash for Ella, Myke & Chloe but now we're doing 3 smaller separate things.  Not really birthday parties...but just a small celebration for each on their birthdays or their birthday weekend.  I thought it would make it less work...but it's not really.  And we're going to Disneyland on the 20th.   It was mainly for Chloë's birthday as an alternative to a birthday party.  She's excited about it- even though she had to give up her talked-about-for-the-past-year-plans for a "Luke Skywalker Pool Party" birthday.  Ha!  I know we're in SoCal..but the pool is 56 degrees right now.  Ain't no one getting in there!  I don't think she even knows who Luke Skywalker is!  

10k DONE!

Before the start.  Super Bowl Sunday 8am.

Action-selfie Anie took while we were running

post-race

The girls

Completed my first 10K.  A few months ago I didn't think I could ever run over 6 miles without stopping.  I enjoyed running...but a couple miles was what I enjoyed.  Anything over 3 miles sounded painful.  It's definitely a mental game in the end.  And definitely not as hard as I thought it would be.  Thinking of doing a half-marathon next.  Anie (my friend-since-college who ran the 10k with me) is trying to convince me to sign up for the one she's doing in June. We'll see!