After the Rains

These are a couple of pics of the flooding that I took off my friend Laura's page who lives down the street:
It has been raining quite a bit, almost non-stop for the past 3-4 days. This morning, Ron woke up with Ella with the intention of letting me sleep in :) Sometime around 8:30 the skies opened up and the rain came in buckets, so much so that it woke me and I jumped out of bed... for those that know me, you KNOW I'm a slow and grumpy morning person. Our back yard looked like a swamp and no one has gutters so water was spilling and surging everywhere.
It finally stopped raining around noon so we decided to venture to the base pool for a swim at the rec center. The road out of our neighborhood was blocked due to flooding, and an atempt to exit via the back of the neighborhood proved unsuccessful as the usually dry riverbed was now a surging rapid, 15+ feet deep and had washed debris over the road. (It might look like a regular river, but this is a ranch and the "creek" is a dried up river bed - amazing to see it rushing with water!)

Instead of risking getting stuck, we came home and decided to take Ella out for a walk instead...This is the entrance into our neighborhood:

SA Children's Museum

We headed into downtown to see the San Antonio Children's Museum with Sara and Ryann. It was a lot smaller than the Hawaii one, and not as interesting but they did have this ball cage the girls liked the most. The object was to get as many balls as possible and put them through all sorts of tubes, pipes and mechanical paths that used suction and air flow to collect the balls in an overhead clear bin. A yellow light would start to flash and the bin would open dropping the balls onto the kids below. It was so fun, that the parents got into the collecting part so there were more balls to fall. Not a bad day at all, considering the overcast and now raining weather.

Texas Bluebonnets

After ballet class we met Sara and Ryann at a field behind the shopping complex to take some pictures. The bluebonnets are in full bloom and gorgeous!

Springtime Pictures of Ella

I have been getting into photography and re-acquainting myself with my camera and all it's feature. Ella is an enthusiastic model but for some reason will crinkle her nose and clench her teeth when she poses. You may note that many of the photos from the past couple of months look at little...shall we say "tense" :)

Coup d'etat

Well, it might have been a successful coup d'etat... Ron and I have overthrown "the blanket". But, like all good tactical thinkers, Ella might just be waiting until our defences are down to strike again. We had our third successful night without the blankets Ella normally needs to fall asleep. The first night, she cried and begged for a few minutes until exhaustion took over (thank goodness for a busy day and no more napping - she fell asleep more from a long day rather than the blanket meltdown).

The second night she went to bed, got up once to ask me for her blanket - we have 8 infant receiving blankets, the flannel ones that have been a staple since Ella was born, easily replaceable and a constant nighttime companion. She went back to bed with no fuss, but attempted to get her way with a look of utter heartbreak and despair, along with a dramatic sigh for good measure. I'm onto your antics, Miss Drama :)

And last night, she didn't even ask for her blanket and went right to sleep. Now, all that said, Ron and I are feeling pretty triumphant but we figure it is only one of the battles we have in store for us. We are sharpening our swords for the next big one, thumb sucking! Here are some pics of Ella and her beloved blankets...

Easter Sunday

The Easter Bunny came today and Ella found all her treats around the house this year. It rained last night and was foggy this morning so we did the easter egg hunt in our pj's instead of the beautiful easter dresses the grandmas bought Ella, and also inside instead of out in our gorgeous Hawaiian backyard....

Easter Eggs

Yesterday, we invited Sara and Ryann over to dye some easter eggs. After a nice lunch out, we let the girls do some eggs but then spent the rest of the time glittering and photographing the eggs while the girls played on the playground. Ella plays dress-up, it's only fair I get to play artist every once in a while...

Backyard

Easter Portraits

Easter Bunny

We went to the mall today so Ella could have her picture taken with the Easter bunny...