Things to Remember, Plus Recent Cell Phone Pictures

I wanted to write some things down here for us to remember. And I have tons of cell phone pictures from lately to share. I think I just need to do a weekly "Cell Phone Picture" post. We've certainly been keeping ourselves busy enough to have plenty of fun pictures to share on a weekly basis, so maybe I'll dump them here once a week! 

• Ella is constantly saying "this is the best day ever!" when she's having fun. She probably says it every day, and it makes me smile every single time.
• Memorial Day morning Carter felt the baby kick for the first time, two times in a row. He said, "Wow, you were telling the truth!" I'm not sure if he thought I was fibbing about the fact that the baby kicked me or that there was a baby in there in the first place. And he also said, "I almost had happy tears when it kicked me the second time."
• Ella spent the night with Nana and when she got home that afternoon, evening, and the whole next morning the kids played and played so nicely and silly together. Lot's of laughing and silliness. I could tell they missed each other. They both said so. 
• We (Eric, Carter, and I) are in a habit of calling Ella "Ella Reesie" as a term of endearment, so she has started calling herself that. It really cracked me up one day when I heard her call Carter "Carter Reese!" Carter got a good giggle out of that, too. 
• We also sometimes call Carter "Carter boy" and our dog Stormie, "Stormie girl." One day when we dropped him off at school recently, I heard from the back seat, "Mommy, I miss my Carter boy." So cute. And then just a few days later, we visited Eric at work and had lunch with him, and when we said goodbye and got in the car to head home, she said to me, "Awwww, I miss my Daddy boy." I love the cute stuff she comes up with.
• I love how Ella says the word "something" right now. She'll say, "Mommy, can you get me STUMPIN to drink?" or "I hear STUMPIN!"

Just a fun 'auto awesome' of me and the kids winding down for bed one night. We've had a lot of fun taking turns piling into one of their beds each night for story time. Ella always loves it when it's her bed too.... the novelty of that hasn't worn off yet.

 Precious kids snuggling together

 Watch out because Ella can now operate the water guns!

 Early morning sleepy head came down on her own and climbed in bed with us. We now have a light up clock that tells her when it's ok for her to get up, because she tends to wake early. We have a 7 o'clock rule around here ;)

 Helping Mommy cook!

 Cutie pie slept in one of her big brother's t-shirts!

 Carter and his team lining up to bat on game day.

 Lucy came to play one evening while the boys had t-ball practice. Fun girl time! 

 ChickFilA selfie.

We were all up early and decided to head there for breakfast and playtime one morning. Pardon my sleepy face, as this picture was taken about 7:30am. :)

 But, we got more than an hour of playtime in the play area by ourselves. They loved it and played hide-n-seek over and over.

 Oh, there is a 24 week bump sighting.These last 6 months have flown!

 Carter spent the night with Nana and Eric and I took Ella on a date. Two carousel rides, a trip to the Disney store and the bookstore and a dinner date at Cheesecake Factory with cherry cheesecake for desert.... she was one happy little lady! Eric and I cracked up when she told us she wanted to eat at the "Cheese Factory." Sounds about right for her.

 We've been in full fledged swim lesson mode this week, plus spent a lot of extra time at the pool afterwards since we're all already in wet suits. It's only Wednesday, and we've probably been in the pool a total of 12 hours this week. Eric is down with the kids now for round #3 of the day. We love summer!! Carter and I are brown, Ella smells like sunscreen 24/7 even after a bath, and it makes for some pretty great sleeps for all of us!!

Eric and I are looking forward to celebrating our anniversary this weekend!! And I'll be sure to dump cell phone pictures again next week sometime!