Ella & Justine's 2 Year Anniversary Pictures!

When Ella and Justine started talking about celebrating their anniversary, Ella mentioned wanting to have their pictures taken at JCPenney's together. They both have a hard time deciding exactly what they want to do, but they finally decided to have the pictures taken on the same day as their date day on April 18th. I scheduled their appt for 11am. The day before JCPenney's called to confirm the appt and I asked if Pooja was working and they said she was, but not until 3pm. I asked if there was an open spot for after 3pm so Pooja could take our pictures and she said there was one at 5pm. I wanted to double check with Ella before changing the appt so I told her I'd call her back. 

That night I mentioned it to Ella and she didn't really give me a firm yes or no. Then right before she went to bed she said they decided to not get their pictures taken. That's when I had to let her know about the cancelation policy and how for most places you have to give them at least 24 if not 48 hours of notice if you want to cancel without being charged. The next morning I was able to call them right when they opened and inquire about changing to the later time and they were totally fine with that. 

They went back and forth in regards to what they were wearing and they eventually settled on their matching Aero hoodies. Justine out of habit came over wearing his Crocs so for lunch we went down to Kent Station and ate at Wing Stop and then drove over to his house so he could grab his nice Adidas shoes.  

Ella has had a lot of professional pictures this last year. Once with her and Logan, then our family pictures with Starr, next were her 16th birthday pictures and now pictures with Justine. 

This is Ella's favorite picture...she loves the way Justine is looking at her and smiling. 

Sweethearts! 

I told Pooja that they were allowed to kiss now so they could do kissy pictures. After that I feel like almost every picture was a kissy picture! ;)

2 years....that's so crazy! 

It's also crazy to think that they were 14 & 15 when they started dating and now they're 16 & 17. Time flies! 

Love the leg pop and their matching shoes! 

J + E = <3

I can't remember why they actually put their hands up and started pretend fighting, but I thought it was cute since they've been together 2 time around the sun...like 2 round in the ring. 

This was my favorite kissy picture. 

There is a picture with this exact pose on the wall at JCPenney's and I knew I wanted them to try it. Ella and Logan did this pose when they had their pictures taken as well. It's such a fun pose! 

This is my most favorite pose from the whole shoot. I love how relaxed they look and their smiles are so genuine. Ella doesn't usually come up from behind and hug Justine so this felt weird to them especially since he is so incredibly ticklish. But look at how cute they are! 

Happy 2nd Anniversary you two lovebirds! Praying for you both as you grow and mature.

Dates & Justine's Birthday Celebration

On Saturday, October 18th, Michael and Robin made the trek up here so family and friends could buy some beef from them. This is the 4th time we've gotten to see them this year. Once for our staycation in January, another time for them to deliver beef, our camping trip in August and then this time. I love it! 

After everyone picked up their beef we went out for an early dinner. When they were up the last time to deliver beef I wanted Sushi, but they had just had Sushi so we went to 13 Coins instead. This time around they were up for Sushi. 

We went to Trapper's and decided to get All You Can Eat. We had never done that before, but it was fun! 

This was my first sushi roll and it was so good. The only bummer about All You Can Eat is you can only get each roll once. I got another roll after this and it was good, but not as good as this one. We also got gyozas and edamame. 

Just the next day on Sunday, October 19th, we celebrated Justine's 17th birthday. His actual birthday is the 20th, but he was going to be celebrating with family on that day.

 He wanted to go to Red Lobster and since we have picky eaters we just took him and Ella and left the boys at home to make their own lunch. 

After lunch we came back to the house so he could open presents. 

He had a bunch of cards to open. He also got new Bluetooth Headphones from Ella, PS5 Minecraft Game from Jack & Zeke and a Google Home Hub from Michael, Owen and me. 

Ga-Ga & Pa even came over and they said that Justine was able to open the OJEZ box because his name started with a 'J'. He opened it and inside was $117! 

That night we had SNL group at our house and I got Costco Pizza for dinner.

 I had asked Justine what he wanted for dessert and he finally decided on this Mango Float dessert. It looked supper yummy unfortunately the mangos I bought didn't ripen quick enough so we ended up using canned peaches instead. It was still so good, but now I really want to try it with mangos. 

A couple days later on Tuesday, October 21st, we went out to celebrate Ella and Justine's 1.5 year anniversary. 

Justine is probably asking to order something. This is his please face! 

They wanted to go to Bai Tong which is where we took them on a date last November. 

This time it was much more comfortable since we didn't get seated where every time the door opened we got blasted with cold air. 

Crab Rangoon! 

Crispy Garlic Chicken, Salted Egg Fried Rice and some yummy spicy dish that I can't ever remember the name of. We also got an order of their fresh rolls....I love those! 

As for gifts...Justine got Ella this pretty ring. Her gift to him is she wants them to design matching sweatshirts together, but they haven't gotten around to that yet. 

Bowlero Date Night!

On Sunday, June 22nd, Ella and Justine wanted to go out for a date night to celebrate being together for 1 year and 2 months. 

After church they wanted to chill out and watch a show and then they wanted to go out. I thought it was hilarious how Justine was just resting his hand on Ella's head while they were watching their show. 

Our first stop on the date night was the beach at Redondo. 

It was a gorgeous!

Michael and I sat down the beach a bit so we were out of ear shot of the two lovebirds. I think in all we were there around an hour. 

They chatted and also took fun sunset pictures of each other. 

I love this pictures of them! 

Then is was off to Bowlero! 

Since it was a date Justine paid for him and Ella. We decided to go ahead and pay $22 for unlimited bowling for 3 hours. 

Once we got our shoe sizes all figured out it was time to bowl. 

I did really great the first game...I think I got at least 3 strikes. After that things went downhill in regards to my score.

Michael and I got a couple drinks from the bar...someone actually came by and cleaned up my drink before I was finished drinking it so I ended up getting another one for free. Score! Ella and Justine got these milkshakes that looked amazing!

 I think these two had a great time. I'm sure they're looking forward to a time when they can go on dates by themselves, but for the time being double dates work! 

We had a lot of fun bowling and the atmosphere of the bowling alley was great overall. Towards the end of the night one song came on and the video for it was pretty inappropriate. Shortly after that it was time to go anyways so it wasn't a big deal. 

Ella's Birthday Weekend!

Leading up to Ella's birthday weekend I had been talking with Jen (Logan's mom) about Logan coming out to visit Ella as a birthday surprise. Logan ended up flying in late on Friday night and surprising Ella by calling her at 10:15pm. We don't normally let the kids stay up that late, but I started that new documentary on Gabby Petito and we were really interested in it so the kids didn't ask questions. Ella got a call and was like why is Logan calling me so late. Then there was a knock on the door and that's when I started recording. 

 

One thing we've figured out from this is that Ella does not really like surprises. It takes her a minute to get her emotions to catch up to the situation. She was super confused and trying to process through what's going on. At first I was like is she happy that Logan's here, but she definitely was it just took her a minute. 

Later than night I walked into Ella's room and found them face to face just chatting away like the besties they are! Love these girls and I love their relationship and I love that Logan gets Ella....her weird moods and all! 

On Saturday we just binged watched romantic comedies all day long. We kind of had an Adam Sandler / Drew Barrymore theme going on. First we watched 50 First Dates and then they watched Blended. We wanted to watch The Wedding Singer, but it was rent or buy. 

The girls always have such a great time chilling with each other. 

Sunday was Ella's actual birthday and I'm absolutely sure this was part of why Ella was little thrown off with Logan coming. She was going to get to spend the day with Justine and she had it all planned out in her head how that was going to go and now with her bestie here she wasn't sure how that was going to look. Ella and I had a chat on Saturday and she got her feelings out and I told her that it would all work out just fine. We had to drive two cars to church that day so it worked out perfectly. The boys drove home for lunch and then Michael and I took Ella, Logan and Justine out to Circo Circo! 

They make these faces at each other all the time! 

Oh that's sweet! 

Sitting next to the dad....scary! :) 

I wanted to get a picture of Logan with Ella and Justine so Logan came around and just plopped her head right between the two of them. Then she started laughing and then she started coughing and it made Justine laugh. He doesn't normally show his teeth when he smiles so when I capture and open mouth smile I love it...he has such a nice smile! 

Once they got their giggles out we got a normal picture! 

 

I was there too! 

Logan and I shared my favorite dish....Pollo A La Crema and Ella and Justine shared one as well. Michael got something else I didn't even pay attention. All my focus was on getting this yumminess in my tummy! 

Since Valentine's Day was on Friday and they weren't able to see each other they decided to exchange gifts on Sunday. Justine wrote Ella a letter....they haven't been exchanging letters since their 6th monthsarry. He did buy her a few things as well, but they didn't arrive in time so he gave her those gifts later.

Ella and I went shopping on Friday so she could pick out something for Justine. She also got him a card...which was actually the most expensive part of the gift! We were going to go to The Dollar Tree, but she didn't want to make an extra stop so she picked one at Wal-Mart. 

We found these super cute coffee mugs that hug each other! It's hard to shop for a guy for Valentine's Day, but these were truly adorable! 

Justine was having the mug that represents Ella hug him! 

Aren't they so cute!!!

 The one that's Justine is the one on the right because he's hugging over the top because that's how it's supposed to work. The taller person's arms go over the shorter persons. Also I think it's ironic that his mug is the darker of the two. 

Logan wrote Ella the sweetest Valentine's card. They really are the bestest of friends! 

Look at these cuties! 

Logan was also so super sweet....her and Ella talked about how Ella wanted to spend some time with Justine on her birthday and Logan was totally cool with that. She just went up into Ella's room and watched a movie on her phone. Later on she told me that it was really nice for her to have some alone time too. She feels so comfortable at our house it's like it's hers and I love that. We all need a little reset time when we are around a lot of people. 

Ella was getting girlfriend love so Justine needed to have some bro love. 

Then for some reason it turned into Logan and Justine tickling Ella. 

Later that night we had The Chosen group and even though Logan hasn't seen any of the episodes she joined us. Ella and Justine usually sit on the couch behind them in this picture, but some other kids got those seats first so they had to sit on the ground. 

Charlie was being very social during group so Justine scooped him up and held him.

After group was over Justine and Ella had a little bit of time to use his Valentines gift. I made them hot chocolate with whipped cream. 

At first the whipped cream was nice and fluffy and tall and looked like hair for the huggers. It was cute, but the cocoa was so hot it melted really quick. 

Birthday hugs! 

Just like last year when we flew out to see Logan and had to drive back that's exactly what happened with Logan. The flights were so full she wouldn't have gotten home for days. We ended up driving her to Aunt Becky's house and then Aunt Becky drove her to meet her mom in Ellensburg. 3 day holiday weekends are just not good when it comes to flying standby! It was so great having Logan here and it definitely made Ella's birthday weekend extra special!