January 20, 2010

It's official! Emerson Lane will make her debut on Wednesday, January 20, 2010. We have scheduled my c-section for that morning at 7:30 am.

I love that that is her birthday for SO many reasons...

*My girls will be exactly 22months apart

*Ella's birthday is on the 20th day of March
*It's a good even number. :) (I'm weird like that!) Ha!
*It's doesn't fall on one of the 3 other birthday dates my family has in January

At my last appt. we did not get to see sweet baby girl, but we will at my next on Dec. 1. It's already time for me to go every 2 weeks and then every week! This pregnancy has seriously flown by. I am so glad though because we are now very close to meeting her. :) Another thing I am looking forward to is staying in the new hospital rooms at Baylor. They redid the whole maternity floor and it is gorgeous! With Ella, we were in the smallest room ever and poor Zach had to sleep where he was always in the way. We are looking forward to spending those first few days with Emmy in such a nice, peaceful environment.

And what's a post without a picture??? Here is my BIG GIRL who is 20 months old today!!!


Last but not least, I was one of the crazies last night who stayed up late and camped out at the theater to catch the first showing of New Moon! Yes, I realize that I am almost 30 years old and pregnant, but I am a huge fan of the Twilight series. You are never too old to fall in love with a good book, and more importantly to go out and do something spontaneous and fun! :) It was such a fun experience, and I was glad to have my mom, sister, and friends there to live through the madness with me. The movie was amazing and well worth the wait!!! Thanks girls for such a great time!


Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Arbor House and Playdate

This morning Ella and I {along with our MOPS group} went to the Arbor House to visit and play Thanksgiving games with the elderly. If you have never heard of the Arbor House, it is an assisted living facility here in town, and it is absolutely beautiful! It was so rewarding to know that we could lift the spirits of those who live there by bringing our sweet babies and kids to visit. Ella is too young to have participated in the games, but she was still able to smile and wave at those who came. She was very interested in pointing out letters on the walls and looking at the flowers out the window too. :) We had such a good time!





After heading home and eating lunch it was time for our next event of the day. A friend of mine from high school hosted a playdate at her house. The mommies had fun chatting while watching the babies play. We also made cute little Christmas frames for the holidays. Thanks for such a fun time Julie and Chloe!



We then came home, took naps, and daddy came home from work early to take Ella to the park before he headed to the Mavericks game tonight. He also surprised me with my all-time favorite drink from Starbucks...a peppermint mocha! This was my first of many of the season, I'm sure. That truly made my day. :)

Ella's bedding finally came in today, so while they were at the park I went shopping {on my own...woohoo!} to get a few of the necessities to help get her room finished. There are still many things to be done, but at least we are making progress.

Ella Lately

It's been a while since I last posted! Blogging has definitely been put on the back burner lately due to me being in full nesting mode, and trying to get things in order for baby sister to get here.

This past week I pulled out all of Ella's old onesies and other clothing to wash and hang in Emerson's closet. It was amazing the rush of memories and emotions that came along with seeing certain outfits again. It took me forever to go through everything because I would just sit there and reminisce as I sorted through. Ella wanted to "help" me {and by help I mean take everything out of the containers and put them on her head}, so she got to listen to me tell stories to her about when and where she wore each item of clothing. :)

It is truly amazing how far that little girl has come in her short almost 20 months!



Today we finally had Ella's 18 month check-up...almost 2 months late. It turned out that way because her year appt. was set up late as well. Anyway, we had a fabulous report and Dr. Smithers was very proud of Ella's progress. She now knows her ABC's and can recognize each letter in print, her numbers through 15, shapes, and colors. Her vocabulary is amazing, and I love that we can understand most everything she says or is asking for. She loves to color, read, and "play puzzles" as she would say. The park is definitely her favorite place to go right now, and her and daddy go almost every afternoon when he gets home.

Ella's stats:

Weight: 26 lbs. 9 oz. (50-75%)
Height: 34 in (75-90%)
Head: 48cm (75-90%)

We got her wooden potty seat in the mail the other day, and I finally got it set up this afternoon. She wanted to go potty in it immediately after seeing it, so that is exactly what she did. Every time she does it she gets the most surprised look on her face. I am not pushing the potty issue right now, but thought it would be nice to have her gradually get used to it.




Ella has really gotten into singing and dancing and moving to the songs that are on her dvd's, so I caught a few of her moves on camera today. She loves to sing along, and I will hear her singing some of the songs to herself while playing something else during the day. It is the sweetest sound!




And when she gets tired, she sits like this and I love it! She looks like such a big girl to me.


Or she grabs a book and lays on her stomach to read.


This is what I get when I ask for a smile these days...so cheesy!


Well, I am officially 30 weeks pregnant! It is going by so fast!!! I have a dr. appt. tomorrow as well and am hoping to peek at Miss Emerson. We haven't seen her since I was about 19 weeks prego. I am also hoping that we talk about a date for her birthday. :) I will update more tomorrow...have a great rest of the week!

Emerson Update and Big Girl Furniture!

What has Miss Emerson been up to this month?

How your baby's growing:

By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds and measures 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels. She can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes. With her eyesight developing, she may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. She's also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We are anticipating a VERY busy holiday season like every year, so preparations are in full swing for the upcoming arrival of Emerson Lane. Ella's big girl furniture was delivered today, and it is so sweet! I have been "talking it up" for a few days now with her and she has been walking around saying "new room!" over and over. I am going to start gradually making the transition by letting her nap in her new bed for a while until she gets used to it and then move her to nights when she seems ready. Knowing her, she will be so excited and WANT to sleep in there. :) Emmy won't need the nursery for a while after she is here, so I am glad we have lots of time for a smooth transition.

I'll post room pictures as soon as it is completely finished, but until then I will leave you with a few pics of Ella's first impression of her big girl furniture...




We are going to have to break this habit very quickly...
No more monkeys jumpin' on the bed! :)


Hope everyone is having a great week!

Halloween Festivities 2009

What an awesome weekend this has turned out to be! We got an early start to Halloween this year and went to the Harbor for the carnival on Friday night. We had no idea what to expect, but decided that it would be fun to go out to eat and then see what fun things were going on by the water. Well, it was pretty crowded and most of the booths had "big kid" games to play for candy, so we thought it would be best to just let the kids run around and enjoy the chilly fall evening. Even though we didn't make it into the bounce houses or play games, Ella and Caysie had a blast being silly together and wearing their little selves out! After about an hour of playing we took the girls to Twisty Treats to get frozen yogurt for dessert. What better than ice cream on a COLD night?!?! We then headed home and Ella had Caysie stay for a sleepover. :)

Ella loved looking out at the water and the boats.


Love their little ice cream faces!




This morning we all woke up early and headed out for our day in Canton. We picked up donuts for the girls and then went to eat a yummy breakfast at Chiloso for us. :) With bellies full it was time to go shopping! Caysie decided to go play at my sisters, but Ella was along for the ride. She actually did pretty good in her stroller looking around at all the sights and people walking by. After getting some big girl bedding ideas, walking around the Arbors, and eating a snack it was time to head back to get ready for Trick or Treating!

Every year we go to my sister Cari's house for chili and trick or treating. They recently moved to town, so we looked forward to walking around a new neighborhood. Before getting dressed up in costumes there was plenty of play time with cousins outside. The weather was perfect this year!



Cari always loves to deck her house out during Halloween for the kids...







After finally getting everyone into their costumes and taking way too many pictures, it was time to go trick or treating! We loaded up 2 wagons with costumed kids and walked around collecting delicious treats. Ella had so much fun walking up to the houses this year like one of the big kids saying "trick or treat" and "gank you" {thank you} after getting her candy. Of course I was the crazy momma standing there with the camera getting her "firsts" on film! :)

Ella was a nice witch this year. :) She just kept calling it her "pretty dress".





Trying to figure out what made her bracelet glow...


Clayton was the sweetest little pumkin...


Caysie the midnight fairy...


Cameron was an Indian...




Sisters






I just love sharing our traditions with Ella and can't wait to introduce them to Emerson next year as well. It will definitely be interesting to have 2 costumed girlies to keep up with next Halloween! Love it!

For last years Halloween post click here!

Trunk or Treat 2009

Tonight was our church's annual Trunk or Treat, and we had a blast! I love being a part of a church family like ours where we have been blessed to get to know so many families personally and have formed special relationships with each. It makes events like these that much more fun to look forward to!

Well, miss Ella would not take a nap today for anything. Come to find out, she was too excited about tonight! I let her lay in her bed for about an hour and listened to her through the monitor just jabbering away. I finally decided to get her up and as soon as I walked in she said, "Go to church, have fun with Honey, Caysie, Moni, and Grandad, get candy...". All I could do was laugh! It truly amazes me how she processes things sometimes.

This year was fun because we had my mom and Caysie, Zach's parents, and my sister with her 3 boys there. The kids had so much fun going around from trunk to trunk playing games and collecting candy. While Z and I worked a shift at one of the trunks, Ella got to enjoy some pizza and some candy with the family. {Healthy, I know!} After dinner there was time for more games and bounce houses! Ella actually liked being bounced around inside with the bigger kids. She did not want to come out. :)

First, a few pictures of Ella before MOPS this morning...
(The piggies lasted all of about 5 minutes today!)




FBC Trunk or Treat 2009










This is as good as it gets with 3 little ones...it is impossible to get them all looking at the camera and smiling at the same time! (Not sure who the other little boy is???)


I just added this last one because it shows my baby bump. I haven't taken many pictures this pregnancy, but here you go...it's big, I know! Ha! :)


Stay tuned for more Halloween pictures this weekend!

Halloween Baby Bash!

This past Wednesday we had our annual Halloween party with all the babies. Ashley and Kate were so sweet to host this year. All the babies came dressed in their costumes ready to have a good time. There was definitely lots of food, friends, and fun!

This year was a little different than last though...instead of trying to hold the babies in upright position, we were chasing them around trying to keep them out of everything. What a difference a year makes! (Plus we have added a few to the group since then.) It was so fun to watch them all run around and interact with each other. We are so blessed to have such a great group of friends!

Before we left, Ella had to check herself out in the mirror...
She loves her "pretty dress", as she calls it. :)



Ella the Witch, Cam the Kitty, and Dr. Barrett


Macey the beautiful flower~


Colt the adorable skeleton~
{So sad that I didn't get a picture of his big sis, Emma!}


Kate the precious ladybug~


Miss Addison


When we got home, Ella ran from me several times because she did not want to take off her costume!


Thanks again friends for such a fun get together!