Memorial Day 2009

Memorial Day is typically the first day that we swim in my parents pool. Unfortunately the weather yesterday was very conducive to swimming and the pool was too chilly for everyone except the very bravest swimmers (i.e. Keith who will swim no matter what the temp), but it didn't stop us from having a good time. Ella loved her baby pool and the sun came out sporadically which made me happy so that I could work on my tan. ;-) Here's a few pictures from our day.

Thank you to all the men and women who so faithfully serve our country, especially my dad who's a Colonel in the Air Force. We are so grateful for you!!!

Birthdays Galore!

Since Lori is always so wonderful about doing pictures for us, I got to return the favor by photographing her two children's parties this month. First up was Owen who turned 1 on May 2nd. Helena was in town visiting that weekend so she got to come along and help me out with Ella while I took pictures. We had a great time and Owen did such a terrific job on his 1st birthday cake smash. Happy 1st Birthday Owen!

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Next was Katelyn's 4th birthday yesterday. The weather wasn't looking so hot yesterday morning, but by the afternoon the sun was shining and it was absolutely beautiful at Lake Jordan which is where the party was. Katelyn wanted a swimming party and all the kids had a blast playing in the water. Even Ella joined in the fun...a big change from Katelyn's party last year when Ella was the only child with dry hair!

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And a couple of random ones of Ella from the party...

waiting so patiently for the group shot...

Look at all these adorable kids!!

Next up on the photography agenda is Anna's birth tomorrow. Lori has agreed to come and photograph the birth for me in a photojournalistic style and I am absolutely ecstatic to have that type of photography from her birth! Lori ~ you are the best! I know the pictures are going to be wonderful and I can't wait to share some of them on here next week.

Cool Things

Look at what my precious friend Emily made for my hospital stay next week:

Are those not absolutely adorable??? And look at the detail in the ribbon around the bottom...little pink baby feet! Love it!!!

Emily makes bows and flip-flops like these and sells them...I have some bows for Ella and highly recommend them! She can custom make bows to match outfits and she does all different solid colors...contact her if you're interested! Thank you so much Emily!

2nd cool thing...my sis-in-law Latricia made a diaper cake for baby Anna. She made one for Ella too and I am just so impressed by how well she does them. She wraps and ties ribbon around each individual diaper...so tedious and time-consuming! Thank you so much Latricia for such a thoughtful gift!!

Birthday Party at Pump It Up!

We had a very fun birthday party at Pump It Up yesterday. Keith had an issue at Frazer to take care of so he met us there a few minutes after the party started. When we first arrived, Ella was a little skeptical of all the big moonwalks and wanted me to hold her the entire time. At 38 weeks pregnant that was no small feat! :-) Last time we were there I was only around 5-6 months pregnant and could get in the jumpers with her and go down the big slide, but I wasn't risking it yesterday! :-) Once Keith arrived he did all the activities with her and she had a blast. Happy Birthday Evan...thanks for inviting us to your party!!

Happy Birthday Keith and Latricia!

May is a big birthday month for us...we have 4 immediate family birthdays...soon to be 5! Even though we had Keith's surprise party back in April, he actually turned 30 on the 21st. Our sister-in-law Latricia celebrated her birthday on the 20th so we got together with Keith's parents, Aunt Jan, and Uncle Mickey to celebrate this weekend. It was a huge surprise for everyone when we heard a knock on the door right before eating dinner and Uncle Kevin walked in! We were all under the impression that he wouldn't be coming back until Thanksgiving or later, so everyone was so excited to see him! He and Latricia planned a weekend home for her birthday and decided to keep it a secret to surprise everyone. It worked! I know Keith was so happy to get to spend some time with Kevin for his birthday. Unfortunately he has to go back first thing Monday morning so he won't get to meet Anna, but we have gotten some good use out of Skype, so he'll get to see her that way.

On Keith's actual birthday we went out to dinner at Miyako's...a Japanense steakhouse in town and one of our favorite places to eat. We took Ella along kind of apprehensively because we didn't know how she would. After an initial fear of the big fire, she enjoyed the entertainment of the chef cooking and she LOVED the hibachi steak. She gets that honest...steak is probably my favorite thing to eat too. :-) Afterwards we headed to Frazer's padded playground to play and then hit Diary Queen for a blizzard (Keith's favorite dessert). At the end of the night Keith declared that it was a pretty great 30th birthday. Happy Birthday Keifer! :-)

Some Ella Pics...

Ella's Godmother Kelli sent her birthday package this week with the most adorable clothes! I put this little polo dress on Ella today and couldn't resist cheesing it up a little bit to take a few pictures. Our little tennis champ. ;-) Kelli - thanks so much for the present!!

38 Weeks and Last Belly Pic!

I took my last belly picture this morning...I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone by! I am still feeling good, but getting increasingly uncomfortable so I'm getting very excited and a tad anxious about my induction next week. We can't wait to meet our little girl! Please keep us in your prayers on May 27th! :-)

I realized that it's been awhile since I took and posted some good Ella pics...going to try and snag a few this weekend to share. Check back later! :-)

Dr. Appointment Today

I had my ultrasound and Dr. appointment this afternoon. Keith and I were both off on the weight...they're estimating 7lbs. 8oz. right now! But, Dr. Lawhon assured us that ultrasounds tend to overestimate by 15% and he doesn't think she'll be much bigger than Ella (7lbs. 1oz.). Anyways, my blood pressure was up a little more today (140/80...my normal is 98/60) so I think because of that and because she's measuring a little big, he wants to induce on May 27th which is next Wednesday. I was 2cm and 75-80% effaced today so hopefully it'll be an easy induction and Anna will make her arrival next week! :-) So now I'm off to finish up my to-do list and enjoy a final week of just Ella and mommy time!

A few more maternity photos...

Wondering how we kept Ella busy while taking pictures of Keith and me??

Goldfish did the trick! :-)

37 Weeks - Full Term!!!

I've made it full-term! Yippee! :-) Since I have a bicornuate uterus (heart shaped and small which often leads to miscarriage and preterm labor), I think my doctor was shocked everytime he saw me still pregnant after 20 weeks with Ella and now I've managed to carry Anna to full term as well. I do not attribute this to luck, but to lots and lots of prayers! God is awesome! Anyways, even though I'm officially full term, I still have three weeks until my due date and holding out hope for June 1st since we have so many May birthdays in our family. We'll see! :-)

Anna is the size of a watermelon now. I sure feel like I'm carrying around a watermelon these days! We have our weight check ultrasound on Monday. At this stage, Ella was estimated at 6lbs. 7oz. and was 7lbs 1oz. when she was born 1.5 weeks later. I'm guessing 6lbs. 9oz. for Anna on Monday and Keith is guessing 6lbs. 2oz.

Getting Ready for Anna...

We are just about ready for that little girl to arrive! Keith got all of the baby gear out of the attic and put it together this weekend. While he was working on it, Ella kept pointing to it and saying "Baby Anna?" So she knows that something is going on! Other things I've checked off the to-do list...

Diaper bag packed and ready for the hospital...


Ella's Big Sister present ready to go (that girl loves bags just like her mommy)...

And a big necessity - PINK baby swing hung on the swing set. :-) Pink! I didn't even know they made them in that color! Pretty cute!

Now I need to get my bag packed and I think we're just about done!

Ella's Room

Ok...I think I've just about got Ella's room finished. At least to the point that I want to share pictures! :-) I was going for a simple, but girly look. I think I'm really pleased with how it turned out!





Her memo board is now full of pictures from her birthday party...

And just for fun, because I love before and afters, here's what her room looked like a few months ago. Quite a change!








I have just had so much fun decorating these girls' rooms!! :-)

My Mother's Day present from Ella

Ella's Mother's Morning Out class made these little gifts for all the moms on Mother's Day. What a wonderful present! I love that she's able to participate in arts and crafts projects now! I can't wait to see all the fun projects she'll do at school in the future...so much fun! My actual gift from Keith and Ella was a purse that I've had my eye on for months now...I love it too!

Rainbows

We have had A LOT of rain (10 inches last Thursday) lately. We've been so fortunate not to have any flooding problems, but I know a lot of people in our area haven't been so lucky. Frazer UMC majorly flooded and they are still having problems with getting it all cleaned up. The rain was just a mere frustration to us by raining out my maternity portraits 3 times and turning our backyard into a mud pit right before Ella's party. :-) But, even with all the rain, God is so good to send a reminder to us of the promise he made to Noah of never flooding the earth again. He blessed us with this little beauty last Sunday. Isn't our God magnificent?

Bathing Beauty

Bathtime is so much fun with Ella. She loves to splash around in the tub and play with all of her water toys. She's pretty brave about getting her face wet and likes to take a "big swim" before getting out each night. Hopefully this means she'll really enjoy the pool this summer!

Ride 'Em Cowgirl!

We have a wooden rocking horse that my grandfather made for me when I was 2 years old. My dad has a home movie of me riding it on my 2nd birthday and yelling "two" when they asked me how old I was, so he wanted to try and re-enact it with Ella. She wasn't quite as enthusiastic about it as I was, but thought it was really neat when we let her take "say-say" (my parents' rat terrior Sara) for a ride.

A few more birthday pictures

Just wanted to share a couple more pictures from Ella's birthday and after her party. We surprised her with a new tricycle (or as she calls it a new "motorcycle") on her birthday. We got the one with the push handle on the back thinking it would be easier for her, but she won't have anything to do with us helping. So maybe that will come in handy in the future. :-) She doesn't quite have the hang of pushing the pedals, but she sure likes to sit on it and ring the bell! And I love the fact that tricycles come in pink now...too cute! (please ignore the bedhead in these pics...it was first thing in the morning)

When she finished up with Mother's Day Out that morning, my mom had a couple of balloons and some smarties waiting for her in Keith's office. An Elmo balloon...her favorite!

Later that day after Keith got home from work, we headed out to Stevi B's for dinner (not our favorite place, but Ella loves pizza) and to Petland to look at the animals (another of Ella's favorite things to do). All in all, it was a pretty fun birthday for her!

We opted not to have Ella open presents during her party since there was so much going on and we thought it might be a little overwhelming for her. So after her nap that day, she got to wake up and open them. She got some really cool things and enjoyed playing with them all afternoon. Thanks everyone for the thoughtful presents! :-) (bedhead again in pictures...it was right after nap)

Last bit of info...we had Ella's 2 year check up yesterday. She weighs 25lbs (25th percentile) and is 35in tall (80th percentile). Our tall and skinny gal! :-)

Happy Mother's Day!

We were able to celebrate Mother's Day yesterday with both of our mothers and my grandmother. After church Keith's parents came over to my parents house and we enjoyed a delicious steak lunch (grilled by the men) and then time by the pool afterwards. Keith was the only one who braved the chilly pool temps, but Ella enjoyed some time in her baby pool which was nice and toasty from sitting in the sun all day. I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day too!

4 generations:

I love being this girl's mommy!

Keith and his mom:

Just for fun, here's our 4 generations picture from last Mother's Day...Ella sure has changed and I'm looking a little different too! :-)

Ella and me on my first Mother's Day. My actual due date was Mother's Day, but she arrived the Sunday before. What a wonderful early Mother's Day present!

36 Weeks

I just returned from a doctor's appointment...1.5cm dilated, good bit effaced, and head is engaged. I knew I had dropped! :-) Hopefully I've still got a while because I've got a lengthy "to do" list that needs to be completed before Anna arrives! I had the same stats with Ella at 37.5 weeks and my water broke at 39 weeks exactly. We'll go back next Monday for an ultrasound and another checkup. Anyone want to guess her weight?

Check back later for Mother's Day pics!

Maternity Portraits

We met up with Lori on Friday afternoon for a 4th attempt at maternity portraits after getting rained out 3 times prior! 4th time was definitely a charm because we got some images that I LOVE!!! I am still going through them, but here are a couple of my top picks. Thanks Lori, as always, you are fantastic!!!

I'll have some more to share later...

Ella's 2nd Birthday Party

We had Ella's 2nd birthday party yesterday. After getting rained out last year, we were hesitant to try a backyard bash again, but decided to go ahead with it and were blessed with great weather, although a little windy. :-) Ella was so excited about her birthday and talked about her birthday party all week leading up to it. We had a backyard full of friends and family and a great time was had by all. We feel so very fortunate to have so many wonderful people in our lives that love Ella and want to be there for her as she grows up. Not to mention that our friends have the cutest, most well-mannered, and sweetest kids around! Everytime we're at a party with our friends' kids we are just so impressed with how wonderful all of them are!

Lori did an awesome job as the official photog. for the day. Out of 290 images (no kidding!) here are a few of my very favorites from the day and then check out the slideshow for even more. Thank you Lori!!! :-)

Happy 2nd Birthday Ella Katherine!!

I absolutely can't believe my baby is 2 years old today! She is such a little girl now...not like a baby at all. She talks up a storm all the time, loves to sing, play dress-up, put together puzzles, watch Dora and The Wiggles, play on her swing set, imitate everything we're doing and saying...I could go on and on, but I'll spare you all of my mother's pride. :-) I am just so proud of what a smart, beautiful, and sweet little girl she is...we never knew we could love anyone this much! The outfit Ella is wearing in her picture was smocked with love by her Meemaw...she's just learning how to do it, so this was her first piece...didn't she do a great job?!? I sent her off to school this morning with cookies to share with her friends and then stay tuned this weekend for some fun party pics.

Here's Ella's progression...1 day old, 1 year old, and 2 years old.

New Hair-do

I think pigtails are just about the most adorable thing on a little girl!!

My little gardener

I decided to put my bedding and container plants in this week (wow...more difficult than I thought at 8 months pregnant!) and Ella was my little helper. She went with me to Southern Homes to pick out everything (we came home with a purple petunia because as most of you know, purple is her absolute favorite color) and then "helped" me put everything in once we got home. I didn't know if she would really enjoy it or not, but she absolutely loved it and wanted to imitate everything I was doing. Every day she asks about the flowers, especially the purple flowers, and wants to go out and look at them and help me water. I don't necessarily have a green thumb, so hopefully starting Ella out at a young age will teach her to take care of her plants better than I do! :-)

She, of course, had to wear gloves because heaven forbid that she gets her hands dirty:

I gave her some of the empty containers to play with and she would plant a flower and then dump it out and start over again:

Aunt Bena's Visit!!

My dear friend from college, Helena (otherwise known to Ella as Bena) came for a visit this past weekend. It was so wonderful to see her and Ella hit it off with her from the get-go. I wish I had a dollar for every time I head "come on Bena!" this weekend. Ella loved the fact that she had a 24/7 playmate! :-) Thank you so much for coming Helena!! Looking forward to seeing you and Andrew soon!

The weekend project that never ended...

We decided to get Ella a swing set this year for her birthday. After much deliberation, we decided on one and planned a weekend to get it put together. Unfortunately for Keith, it ended up taking much more than one Saturday and Sunday afternoon! 21.5 hours later (4 separate days and with help from both grandpas), the swing set was completed. I know it was such a big chore for Keith, but I also know that Ella and Anna will both love it and spend many hours enjoying it in the years to come. Thanks for your hard work Keith, Kenny, and Dad!!

Getting started...look at all that wood!

Ella and I cheered them on from the sidelines:

Ella checking out their progress:

She will use anything as a phone...even her baby monitor:

"You mean they're still not done with that swing set??"

My dad came to help the 2nd day:

Finally Keith finished it up the last day himself:

And tada.....the finished product!!!

Random Photo Fun!

I'm having the hardest time keeping up with blogging these days. I'm going to try to do better!

Keith's dad comes over on Tuesdays before their softball games to meet up with Keith. He often drives his little sports car which Ella thought was pretty cool last week!

My LTG (accountability) partner and good friend Mandy stopped by last week with her youngest Brooke who is one of Ella's good buddies. They were so adorable taking care of their babies and rocking them in the recliner:

Since it's been so hot outside, we headed to Chik-fil-a for an ice cream cone (they have the best ice cream!) and some indoor playtime. Ella loves fast food restaurants play areas.

35 Weeks

Well, I'm definitely feeling pregnant now. Still enjoying it, but started to feel a lot more tired, not sleeping well, and having a little bit of swelling. We had a really busy week last week and over the weekend so that didn't help anything. I think once I have a few days of rest I'll be back to normal. :-) I had a doctor's appointment today and everything still looks great. I'll start going once a week now and he said in about two weeks we'll do an ultrasound to check the weight. I'm kind of thinking that Anna will be a bit bigger than Ella because I feel HUGE!!! :-)

To compare:

Just 4 short weeks ago at 31 weeks, this week's at 35 weeks, and 35 weeks with Ella