Ella Grace Turns 12

 

If I could have stayed in this stage of life - being pregnant, having babies - forever, I would.  I know most women don't necessarily feel that way.  Pregnancy, labor and delivery, newborns..... it's all sooooo hard.  It's the most exhausting stage of life for sure.  But I absolutely loved it.  And the greatest blessing of my whole life is that I got to do it four times.  And those four babies and this man who shared it all with me are my greatest treasures.  They are my whole heart.

So I think every time my Ella Grace, my baby of my babies, turns a year older, it tugs at my heart strings because I'm one year further removed from this stage of my life that I love so much.

Trying to smile in between contractions.

She's here!

Dave holding her for the first time.

One of my favorite parts of having a baby was knowing my mom would come out and help me.

Dave's parents meeting Ella Grace, their last grandchild.

Lacey (age 5) showing off the used (but new to us) 2010 Honda Odyssey (that we still have!) that we bought just weeks before Ella's due date so that we would have a car big enough to hold all six of us!

Fast forward 12 years later and this girl has been non-stop joy and entertainment ever since!

She convinced me to let her have a sleepover party (a very big deal since I'm not a sleepover fan and 90% of the time she asks, my answer is "no."  I could count on one hand the number of sleepovers she has had in her life.)

Pizza party followed by cake and ice cream and games.

The sleepover crew.

I snuck down to the basement to check on the girls early the next morning and found Ella wrapped like a burrito in between two of her friends.

Then I got them all up and made pancakes with all the fixings!

And then brought Ella to her basketball game where they won and Ella scored 2/3 of her team's points, which of course made her day!

And then we treated all the girls to birthday cupcakes after the game!

Since Dom, her bestie from the time she was born, wasn't able to come to her party (due to him being a boy and this being a sleepover party, which for the record was Ella's very first "girls only" party - every birthday party prior was at least half, if not most, boys!), I took the two of them out to dinner the night of her birthday and then back to our house for more hang out time.  I love these two and their life-long friendship so much.

And then last night, we invited over Dave's family for an extended family birthday celebration of our bookend babies whose birthdays are just three days (and 6 years) apart.

So fun to celebrate our first and last "babies!"

Lacey is 18!

 

Wow!  That went by SOOOO fast!  I literally work across the hall from where I gave birth to Lacey 18 years ago.  So I think of it frequently.  And I can't believe that 18 years has gone by since that day and, for all intents and purposes, we've finished raising that little baby we brought home from the hospital.  It doesn't seem possible!  But, alas, here we are.

So, since we can't stop time, we celebrated!

On her "birthday eve", she went out to dinner with some friends and I gave her my credit card to treat her and her friends to dinner.  

And then they came back to our house for dessert and presents.

Then, on her actual birthday, we had bacon-wrapped filet mignon with a side of asparagus for dinner (her choice) followed by her dessert request of bundtinis from Nothing Bundt Cakes. 

And then last night, we invited over Dave's family to have an extended family celebration with the "bookend babies" since my first and last were born just three days (and 6 years) apart from each other.

Happy Birthday, Lacey!

We love you so much!  We wish we could keep you with us forever and that childhood lasted longer than it does.  But we are so excited to see what lies ahead for you!  

Basketball Champs!

While I was in Amelia Island,  Riley's basketball team was playing in a basketball tournament.  I was sad to miss this as I always love seeing Riley and her team compete, but Dave kept me updated on all the games and.......

They WON!!!!!  

Showing off their bling.

Riley has won many a trophy, ribbon, t-shirt etc, but how cool is this tournament prize?!

Riley and her teammate Elizabeth all smiles with their championship rings. 

Way to go, Gators!

30 Year Roommate Reunion in Amelia Island

 

Our first night together, we ventured into town and had dinner at Salty Pelican Bar and Grill.

The three of us met 30 (!!) years ago in Helaman Halls at BYU as 18 year old freshmen in the dorms.  We got together with our other roommate Monique 3 1/2 years ago on the Oregon Coast for a roommate reunion and had so much fun catching up and being together in person that we vowed to do it again.  But the four of us are spread all over the country (one in Maryland, one right outside Portland, one in Utah and one in Texas), have 15 kids between the four of us and three of the four of us work full-time, so finding a time and location that worked for all of us was a challenge..... and took us 3.5 years to do!  Ultimately, we ended up timing the trip around Monique's schedule because, since she works as a ST in the school system, she has the least flexibility of the four of us and the time that worked best for her was MLK holiday weekend in January.  Since January was the time that worked for her, we decided to plan someplace warm, so we chose Florida. None of us had been to Amelia Island before, so we decided to check it out.  Ironically (and sadly), Monique came down with pneumonia right before the trip and couldn't come 😞

Oh well.  At least we're in Florida enjoying a warm weekend getaway, right?  WRONG!  There was a polar vortex and snow storm that came up from the South and hit us right during the time we were there!  So.... 1) the only reason we did this trip in January was so that Monique could come since that was the only time that worked in her schedule, and then she wasn't able to come and 2) The only reason we chose Amelia Island was because we were going in January so we needed to choose some place warm and then we hit record low temps - ha!  The irony 😂

But we made the most of it and had fun walking and talking and eating and hanging out and just being together.  We drove to Fort Clinch State Park to walk along the water and explore the fort and walking paths.

Then we stopped for lunch at The Patio at 5th and Ash - yum!

Then we made our way back "home" (we stayed at Amelia Surf and Rachet Club A136 - a 3 BR/3 bath beach-front condo) and walked along the beach.

Waiting for sunset selfie.

And there it is.... so pretty!

The next morning, Ashley and I bundled up and went for a nice long morning walk while Kelli stayed back and talked to her missionary daughter in Brazil.

We all loved the canopy trees and dripping moss - so cool looking!

We made our way to American Beach, we found a fitting way to spend  MLK day since this is one of nine sites along the African-American Heritage Trail.  It was founded in 1935 as Florida's first African-American beach.

Then we made our way back to the condo to get Kelli and drive into the historic part of Fernandina. 

The Tabby House located at 27 South 7th St.

The Tabby House was built in 1885 and an exquisite example of Victorian architecture.  We loved that it was made from bricks made with concrete and local seashells that you could see in the outer walls of the home.

As we continued our self-guided "tour" of the area, a woman stopped us and asked us if we wanted to come inside her home, which she runs as a B&B.  We said sure!  She welcomed us inside the Williams House, built in 1856, and we were excited that she hadn't taken down the Christmas decorations yet - it was so cozy and warm and beautiful!  

The Williams House has been named a Florida Heritage Landmark Site and is one of the oldest historic homes in Fernandina Beach.

These big beautiful trees lines the streets everywhere.

St. Peters Episcopal Church

801 Atlantic Ave.

Built in 1884, it is known as the "Jewel of Centre Street."

The "Pippi Longstocking House", as it has become known due to this house being used as the location for The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking film, is more formally known as the "Captain's House" as it was built by Captain James Bell, a river Captain, in 1877.

It is locate directly across from the Fernandina Plaza Historic State Park right on the water.

One last Amelia Island sunset!

It wasn't warm and we were missing one of the four of us, but we still had so much fun being together!  30 years of friendship.  So much history.  And we now have kids that were the age that we were when we first met that are meeting their own lifelong friends.  💗