Ella's Baptism ♥

We did Ella's baptism on Sunday the 1st of March, in Bethlehem at the inlaws NG church - same as Mia.

It was such a beautiful, special day.  My folks and sister came all the way to be there with us, and lots of the Free State family was there too, including both of Mia and Ella's great-grandmothers.

Ella looked totally angelic in her special baptism dress, and she was so good during the ceremony. I loved that Mia also stood in front with us.

I'll let the photos tell the story!  Precious memories were made! ♥

 

 

 

Really loved the cupcake-cake!

 

Sister love ♥

 

 

Ella had fun opening her prezzies, I loved the gentle way she touched her special bangle!

 

Thank you gifts for the guests, Mia helped me make them!

 

Most special paintings that my sister did for Ella's room ♥

I found a beautiful poem online, that I wrote in a special card for Ella, and read it aloud to everybody at the tea party after the ceremony:

"Ek sien die water drup op jou voorkop:
In die naam van die Vader en die Seun en die Heilige Gees.
Ek kyk na die Here op

om by Hom hulp te vra
in hierdie taak wat Hy aan my opdra.

God het Sy water oor jou gegiet
om jou daarmee te seën.
Ons as ouers word gebied
om Hom te vrees
en te glo dat Hy altyd by jou sal wees.

Vir ons is jou doop ‘n heilige en sigbare teken
van wat jy in ons lewens beteken.

Nederig staan ons hier voor U,
van alle waardigheid gestroop.
In my keel is daar ‘n knop wat stu,
oor my wange is daar trane wat loop,
in my hart is daar onbeskryflike hoop.

Hoop vir jou, Ella my kind,
dat jy die regte pad sal vind,
want God het jou
aan ons toevertrou."

It was special to show Mia photos from her baptism day, for her to know that we also had such a special day for her too.  Here's the link to that post:  Mia's Baptism and also her special poem.

This was the invite I designed for Ella's baptism: 

 

And I made a personalised thank you message afterwards and sent it to each family:

 

Such a special time in Ella's life! ♥
xx

Ella is 9 months old!

1. How old today:  9 Months exactly

2. Current weight & length:  Just been checked at the baby clinic, she's almost exactly the same as Mia at this age! 9.9kg and 72cm.

3. Recent milestone reached:  She claps hands, she can "ta" things if I ask her to, she's started with a few words, "papa" was first, then "baba", then "mama". Cutest!

4. Next milestone:  Crawling! And hopefully sleeping through the night.

5. How is baby sleeping at night?  Some nights are better than others... it's still hit and miss.  She slept through the night once, a few weeks ago! It was amazing... but of course I lay awake waiting for her to wake up... On average she wakes about 2-4 times, then I just need to give her dummy back and reposition her. Other nights she wakes every hour...

6. Day naps?  She still has three day naps - one shorter nap in the morning, one long midday nap, and then another short late-afternoon nap.  Her awake time is roughly 2-2.5 hours, although sometimes stretch her last awake time til bedtime if needed.

7. How is feeding going? She has 4 milk bottles of 150ml each, and she eats breakfast, lunch and supper, with biscuits or fruit in between for snacks.  She eats really well - she's been pushing away her pureed baby foods in favour of our food, so the last week or so she's been having dinner with us, exactly what we eat, and she loves it!

8. Feeding times?  Not really set times, it's according to her nap and wake-up times...

9. What has been the recent baby highs? I really enjoy this stage. Her excitement, her curiosity, the way she watches her sister.

10. And baby lows? I sure would love some more sleep at night...  Also, separation anxiety seems to be kicking in, the poor body.

11. How is the rest of the family doing?  Good! Hubby's working hard, but he helps so much with the evening bath and bedtime routine, and weekends are great to all be together. Mia's a very good big sister, adjusted well and she's happy.

12. What has been working best recently, baby-related?  Having different "play-stations" set up all over the house.  Ella gets bored quickly. So we play in the lounge, then we move to my room and she plays there, then we go to her room and we read books, play with stacking cups and blocks, then we go sit outside, etc etc.

Here's Mia's update at roughly the same age. Cute to see the differences and similarities in the sisters!

Two big milestones for my two girlies!

This week had this mommy's heart bursting with love and pride. ♥

Mia wrote her name for the first time.  We've been practising for a while, I would write it out and ask her to trace it and try copy it.  She wasn't super interested or keen each time I tried, so I didn't push it, and would just often point out the letters of her name, until recently she started showing me everywhere she saw an "M" for "Mia".  Then on Tuesday she took the blackboard chalk, and proceeded to write her name. Bless! She was so pleased, even more so at her crazy mommy doing a happy dance!

Last weekend Ella said her first official word, "Pappa". She didn't say it specificially to Wyn, but repeated it a couple of times. So cute! Then, on Monday she started with "Mama-mama-mom!" Oh gosh, isn't it just the most beautiful sound ever! My heart. ♥

xx

A quick hello! :-)

Goodness me, two kiddies keep one busy!!  I have a to-do list that I made for December, meaning to complete it before the new year... still haven't ticked off half the things on that list!

The days just speed by in a blur of laughter, hugs, frustration, tears, kisses, fun and tiredness.

I'm sad that I'm not doing as many blog updates of Ella's development - I go back so often to read about Mia at the same age as Ella... but that being said, Instagram is such a wonderful way to share and document photos, so at least Ella features on there a lot! (Feel free to look me up on Instagram, my username is JessV_83!)

We're all well, healthy and settling back into routine.

I'll do my best to do blog posts more often, I love my little blog, do love sharing what we're up to in this space!
xx

Christmas crafts, holiday fun, special memories!

We've been very busy making memories!

Mia baked cookies, we used this recipe from Alton Brown. They came out really nicely! Packaged some of them for gifts.


Ella is 8 months old today, and such a happy baby.  Shame, about two weeks ago we went through a very rough phase, she had a virus that caused terrible fever blisters in her mouth, on her tongue and her chin, poor body didn't eat or drink very well for a few days. Luckily she's all better now, the horrible fever blister on her chin has just left a mark, hope it will clear up in time.

She's getting very keen to become mobile, gets quite frustrated at not being able to move to where she wants to go. She adores the walking ring and moves really fast in it, I giggle so much at how her lil leggies go!

She's a precious lil thing, she gets a million kisses a day.

Eating litchis - ultimate summer holiday snack!

Lots of fun putting up our Christmas tree - Mia did most of it herself! Such a special tradition. I loved the way she was so gentle with the ornaments, carefully hanging them, chatting about them, choosing her favourites. So special!

We made clay decorations again, this time using a different recipe from the previous two years - we tried this one this time - it came out quite nicely!

We made Christmas cards - again - Mia did a lot of the work herself! Such a big girl.

Summer fun - hubby thought he'd water the grass, Mia thought she'd get sopping wet!

A fun lunch at a restaurant with my special people. Oh I love my two girls to the moon and back!

Mia's last day of school for 2014!

Oh my big girl, what a year it has been! 
You went to school for the first time, and you became a big sister. 
You learnt how to cut with scissors, jump off steps and trace pictures. 
You lost your fear of climbing jungle gyms and your sensitivity to loud noises (mostly.)
You talk so wonderfully and say the best things. ("Hello my beautiful sunshine mommy" - this makes my day!)
You are gentle, kind, giving and loving.
You make jokes and make us laugh.
I am so proud of you!
I love you to the moon and back.
xx

Pine Lake Holiday 2014 ♥

We had a super special time in White River, as always. I'll let the piccies tell the story!

 

Such fun spending time with my hubby and two precious girlies ♥

 

Mia enjoying our tradition of visiting the chocolate shop for their melted chocolate!

 

Heaven in a cup!

 

Ella had a taste of choccie too, mmm!

 

Swim time!

 

Mia was in awe of the rhino statue

 

This view. Soulfood.  

 

Summer vibes!

 

Nom nom icecream!

 

Mia enjoyed playing putt-putt with us!

 

Much of the holiday was spent with baba in the arms, teething baby, unfamiliar surroundings... 

 

Last swim 

 

Family selfie! ♥

 

Ella got her first tooth!

More ideas than time!

Oh gosh, I have so many blog posts in my head, and just haven't been getting around to finding the time to actually come and sit and write them!

We've been through a rough time again (still!!!) with us all being ill. Since the stint two months ago when we all had terrible coughs, I never really got completely better, have had a constant cough.  Then Mia started two weeks ago with a bad cough, coughing terribly at night, sometimes only for an hour, sometimes for two, and then a few nights where she didn't stop coughing the whole night!! 

After going through numerous bottles of different cough mixtures and anti-histamines, I eventually took her to the paed last week Thursday. So she's on antibiotics again, and I'm so terrified that it causes vomiting like it did in June... her tummy is already upset.  The paed reckons I must give the probiotic supplement an hour after giving her the antibiotic and that's what would make all the difference in her getting sick from the antibiotics... So let's see...

Then Ella started with a cough on the weekend too.  Poor baby.

We go on our White River Pine Lake holiday this Friday!!! Gosh this has snuck up on us so quickly!  I'm not ready yet at all, need to still make my pack list and pre-holiday to do list and shopping list, eeeek!

My weight loss mission is at a bit of a stand-still at the moment...  I am eating quite well, bar the ever-present glass of vino and piece of Lindt chocolate... And I'm not going to the gym much at all, I've either been sick or else too busy with kiddies, clients, home stuff, etc.  I have, however, been trying to fit in some body weight exercises as much as I can: squats, lunges, planks, push ups, and kettlebell exercises.  I know I should do more, but at least it's something and not nothing at all!

I feel anxious and overwhelmed by the way that I have so much in my head that I'm wanting to do and just not getting around to. My usual excitement for the festive season, this year, is bordering more on a feeling of neurotic frenzied insanity!  I am behind in all my usual craft-activities that I do with Mia, I owe visits to friends who had babies recently and I haven't even met them yet, I hate how cluttered my house is feeling.

Ella is growing up so fast it's crazy, I'm trying so hard to savour these moments of babyhood because it's just passing in the blink of an eye.

Definitely need to calm down, get myself organised and procrastinate less...
This holiday is coming just at the right time!
xx

A fun morning in Pretville!

We had such a special day yesterday. The four of us went on an outing to Hartebeespoort - Wyn went on his bike and I took the girlies in the car. This was exactly what my soul needed - some special family time!

Pretville is a movie set in Harties, where they filmed the movie, and now it's open for the public to visit, walk through the streets and look at the "shops", from a hair salon, post office, Baby Boom to a Pep store! It all has a 50's feel to it, stunning vibrant colourful décor, I just loved the bunting hanging everywhere and cute Afrikaans sayings and posters. Vintage cars and scooters parked all over, and so many cute corners to take photos in!  They play music from the Afrikaans movies over the speakers - really felt like we stepped back in time - or onto a movie set!

It was a lot smaller than I expected, from what I remembered from the movie I was expecting a long street to walk through, and it's really just like one block - but with enough to look at and lots of little corners to take photos in! A super quaint restaurant with milkshakes and hamburgers offers refreshments, and there's a movie theatre where they have set times that they show Afrikaans movies.

Definitely worth a visit, I would highly recommend it for a fun day out!

Afterwards we went to Jasmyn fruit & veg market, bought a trolley full of veg, yay!  Then a quick lunch before we headed home and both girlies had a nap in the car.  Ella was soooooo good the whole day, sitting in her pram, looking at everything.  Mia enjoyed the outing a lot too, I wasn't sure what she would think of Pretville, but she loved looking at everything, knocking on all the doors and loved her pink milkshake.  She was also kind enough to oblige and entertain me by posing everywhere I asked her to! ;-)

A love letter to my two girls

Dearest Mia and Ella,

Today, I just wanted to write a letter to my two girls, to try and put into words, the love I feel for you.  My sweet precious princesses...  You two are so beautiful.  I stare in awe at each of your perfect faces. I marvel at how wonderfully God made you, with your soft skin, beautiful eyes and sweetest smiles.

I feel so happy and blessed when I'm sitting with both of you near me. I just love to hug you girls, and to press my face into your neck and inhale you - you girls smell so divine, the best scent in the whole world.

There is such a special bond forming between the two of you, I love to see the way you two look at each other, smile and laugh at each other, touch each other. Oh, the special times ahead of us!

My darlings, I love you to the moon and back. I love you more than all the stars.  I love you with my whole heart. I love you, I love you, I love you.

Mommy
xx