A Sip & See for Ellis Paige

On Sunday, June 1, 2014 we had a Sip & See Shower for Ellis.  Sip & See's are gaining popularity and are basically a baby shower held after the baby is born so that other people can come by and meet the baby!  Since Ellis was born in Austin, there were lots of people back in DFW who hadn't met her yet.  This gave everyone a chance to come by and see our baby girl and indulge in a cupcake and punch!

My mother in law, Claire, was nice enough to host the shower at her house!  Ellis looked beautiful!  I dressed her in a baby blue smocked dress that actually belonged to Kyle's sister, Sara, when she was a baby!  

The lovely hostesses!  Claire, Kori, Mom and her helper, Evin Kate

 

The table looked so cute!  Lots of pretty newborn pics of Ellis and some beautiful pink flowers, plus cupcakes, snacks and drinks.

 

Everyone loved holding Ellis, who slept basically the whole time!  These ladies were all friends of Kyle's grandmother, Ginks.  Claire still keeps in touch with all of them and has lunch with them once a month.  

More love for Ellis!

It was a great turnout and I was so glad so many people were able to make it.

 

Evin was quite content at the Sip & See.  She found lots of people to walk around with, enjoyed a cupcake, and even needed her dress tied up so she could get around easier!  She's a busy girl!

 

Looking at her crazy auntie!

 

After the guests left, I opened lots of wonderful presents.  I didn't even expect to get any, but everyone was really generous and I got some CUTE things for Ellis, as well as some great necessities off my registry for our move to Chicago.  

Grandparents & Ellis!  Mums, Gran and Pops love this little bundle!

 

Aunt Kori

Sisters and Cousins!  I can't wait until they are old enough to play together!

  

Us with Mums

and Gran

I am so thankful I get to be her Mommy!

 

I took a few more pictures of Ellis in her dress when we got home that day.  We are so happy to have this sweet girl as our own!

A Celebratory Weekend

The last weekend of May, we drove to Mansfield to celebrate Mom's birthday, Abigail's first birthday, and Ellis had her Sip & See Shower!  

Lane was excited to hit the road.  Had his shades on and thumbs up!

 

Ellis was happy to get there too.  Relaxing at Mums' that night.

Lane enjoyed playing baseball in the yard.

And was excited to take his first swim of the summer in Mums' pool!  It was still a little chilly for anyone else to want to get in.  Lane didn't mind!

Evin settled for just getting her feet wet.  And Scout (in the background) was probably the most excited for swimming season to begin!

Ahhh!

  

Ellis doesn't really spit up too often, but man...this one was a doozy!  All over her, me, and mom's newly upholstered chair.  Yuck!

Lookin' cute!

We were happy to get to go to Abigail's first birthday party in Dallas.  She looked pretty adorable and loved her cake!

Josh's cousin, Emily, LOVED Ellis.  She was a good little helper and held her for me while I chatted and watched Lane.  She even fed Ellis a bottle!

Lane and Gage had the best time playing!

Big girls and little girls!

Daddies and Daughters

 

Ellis had a fun time at her first party!

We ended up staying the rest of the day and into the evening to hang out with Josh and Carrie.  Lane made himself at home on Abigail's new cabana chair and umbrella set.  It's a tough life he leads!

Carrie was her usual, wonderful hostess and had painting activities for the big kids once the party was over.  Lane enjoyed painting birdhouses!

 

The next day was Sunday, June 1st.  Claire was nice enough to host a Sip & See Shower for Ellis at her home.  I will post lots more pictures and details of the event soon!  Ellis looked beautiful!

 

We went out to dinner at a hibachi place in Mansfield to celebrate Mums' birthday.  Mom thought Lane and Evin would enjoy the cooking show.  It ended up being a pretty stressful dinner!  Evin was pretty wiggly and fussy at dinner and Lane was his usual picky self and kept {politely} telling the waiter he didn't like the food.  He had a couple of melt downs and kept wanting to get out of his seat, then spilled a drink everywhere.  Going out to eat just isn't like it used to be!

We did get a cute picture of all the kids with Mums.  Happy birthday, Mums!

This little gal won best behaved at dinner.

 

Bedtime stories with Mums

One evening, while Lane was outside swimming, Mom went to water her flowers and found THIS GUY coiled up near the hose.  A large copperhead!!!!!

I was inside feeding Ellis, so Kori and Mitch came to the rescue and hunted it down and killed it with a shovel.  Unfortunately, this wasn't the only one and since then, Mia was bitten, as well as the neighbor's dog next door.  These things are everywhere around Mom's house!  Ewwww!

Mitch took it easy the rest of the night after his snake mission.  ;-)

Ellis had her first facetime session with Daddy, who went back to Austin on Sunday after the Sip & See.  The kids and I stuck around until Tuesday morning.

Happy gal!

 

On Tuesday morning, we went to a pottery place to paint a plate using the kids hand and footprints.  We all had groupons that expired, so we needed to get it done while I was in town.  After we painted, we all went to brunch at Cracker Barrel.  Evin was so happy and kept flashing her famous cheesy grins at me!

After our meal, we rushed back to Mom's house to pack up and get on the road back to Austin.  Lane fell asleep immediately!  Shades and all...

Meanwhile, back in Austin, someone put a great offer on our house and it was accepted!  No more showings.  Whew!