Thursday, May 29, 2014

Baby #2 will join us....

... November 2014. :)

Our due date in the 19th - 3 days before Ella's 2nd birthday. Although I'm not sure I would have enjoyed sharing my birthday with a sibling, I do kinda think it would be fun for them to both be the 22nd. Ella was born on Thanksgiving day - and that was actually nice as well - although it was the hardest I've ever worked for a Thanksgiving dinner - it was nice to just have someone bring me a turkey dinner with no basting or dishes to do :) This year Thanksgiving is the 27th, however, so I'm ok if I'm NOT 8 days overdue. :)

I've been feeling ok - more tired than last time, but I am running around after an 18 month old rather than sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day.

Here are a few weekly pictures we have taken - I'm impressed I've done 2 so far. Things are definitely different with Baby #2.





We also had some family pictures done by the wonderful and talented Leigh Young, here is one she graciously sent us early for this announcement. :)

Monday, May 26, 2014

Memorial Day Weekend

We had an action-packed weekend! I loved having my man around for 3 days! 

Friday:
We had a neighborhood bonfire - our first s'mores of the season (while Ella slept across the street at home). 

Saturday
We did some yard work (ripping out two trees in the back and transplanting two smaller ones from elsewhere on the property). Then we took Ella to Living Treasure Wild Animal Park - she loved it! There were a few animals she didn't want to feed (and few extras she tried to - the Lions) but overall she was really into it. We finished off the day with burgers at home. 









Sunday
We had church, then grilled at home. We took E to a park near our house and out to soft serve! 







Monday
Josh made blueberry pancakes for breakfast and let me go out shopping while E napped. After I got back I got to sit in the sun and start a new book, The Poisonwood Bible, while E slept for 2 more hours!! We introduced E to the sprinkler and hit up Lowes. 





Sunday, May 25, 2014

Catching Up Part 2

To finish catching everyone up: 

Ella and I have done some more garage saling. The car ride home was tight with E squished behind her new sandbox ($5).


She won't be using this for a while, but it is basically unused AND blows bubbles when you peddle! ($5)


Josh also replaced our kitchen faucet. The previous one was chipping and rusting where the paint was missing. We also had 3 additional "attachments" that made cleaning harder. Josh covered those up as well! 

Before: 

After:

Ella also had her first swimming experience, she was hesitant at first.,. 




Josh and I have continued to clean up the yard and remove our terrible trees. 



Ella's love for stealing our shoes has continued to grow! 


1 other thing has been keeping us busy - but I'll share that soon in a separate post...

Thursday, May 22, 2014

It's officially summer

Today Ella had her first taste of an iconic summer treat! She caught onto the concept of squeezing up the Popsicle pretty quickly. :) 




And parental bonus - we now have someone to eat the orange ones :) 

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Trucks

Ella loves trucks. All trucks. The mail truck, dump trucks, garbage trucks, and basically anything else that makes lots of noise! 

This week yardsaling, I got her this Tonka truck for $1! 




Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Catching up

Since I had a two-month break from the blog due to general life craziness, I'll do a quick overview to catch us up. Just like old friends.

I'm now blissfully at home full-time. Josh and I had been talking about me shifting to being at home for quite some time - and we finally felt like it was the right time. How's it going? Awesome! I'm less stressed, enjoying Ella's energy more fully, and am spending more time outside playing! 




Josh and I have been working in the house together. Mostly the outside. The previous owners were not lovers of nature, so most of our bushes (turned trees) haven't been trimed in the last 7 years (according to my judgement of overgrowth and the neighbors rating on the owners). 

We have been uprooting trees, oh boy! I'm the official branch clipper, getting it down to bare bones so Josh can cut it into a stump and then dig up the roots. We have removed 6 trees! [In the pictures below, all of the circled trees have been removed]

BEFORE: [Front of House]
 


AFTER:


BEFORE: [This pictures of of the back of the house, but the trees we removed run along the left side of the house]


AFTER:
Here Josh has removed 4 trees, and our loving-named "Dr. Seuss tree" is all that remains. We found a birds nest in it, so we were waiting to remove the tree.

Here is the nest: 


We have also started yardsaling as a family. I'm not a big mall shopper and Josh's frugal side loves the hunt, so this might be the only shopping we ever do together! Our greatest finds so far: metal wheelbarrell for $2; princess party pack complete with plates, cups, napkins, decorations, and games for $1; baby travel highchair (used once) for $2!!! 

And alas writing this post has caused me to need to catch up elsewhere - so I'll finish later. 

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Mothers' Day

Although I've only had the honor of being a mom for a short while, it has tremendously opened my eyes to the sacrifice my mom made for me. 

Having carried and loved Ella, I better understand my mom's love. Having worried about her while we are apart, I understand why my mom just likes to hear my voice on the phone. I fault her less for slight nosiness. I appreciate her late nights balancing family and work and I hug her a little more wholly when I see her. 

Thanks, mom, for all your love, support, and sacrifice. You are one of a kind! 


I'm also extremely blessed to have a non-nosey, opinions-to-herself, supportive mother-in-law. Her job of raising my Josh into such an awesome man wasn't easy and I'm grateful for the groundwork you laid. :) 


So grateful, blessed and lucky.