It's the Final Countdown...

I had my 34 week check up today and little Ethan is growing just perfectly! His heart is strong, he is measuring exactly on 34 weeks and I have only gained 20 pounds thus far... I say that with pride and a big exhale! I will return to the Doctor on the 30th, then it's every week with an examination, from there. I have been so blessed with this pregnancy! A boy, he's healthy, he's beautiful (from what I can tell). With a difficult first trimester, I am so thankful that the rest of this pregnancy has been a breeze!

We are so ready to begin this next chapter in our lives, God has a lot in store for us and I can't wait to sing his praises!

(34 wks. No lipstick and just woke up from a nap!)

Remember when I showed you a little piece of something I've been working on? Well here it is! My Mother and I made a clock for Ethan's room. Since I don't have any artistic bones in my body, Mom painted his monogram on there for me. I love it!

When I nursed Ella, I had always said I needed a clock in her room. I had seen some homemade ones out there and always thought "Now that is something I can do!" So I did it. It's not perfect, but I think it is a great compliment to his room.

Birthday Bonanza!

Our beautiful little girl is 3 years old now! She celebrated her big day with lots of special occasions. These pictures are backwards, due to the fact it's been a while since I've blogged and forgot that uploading pictures is such a pain...

Birthday Morning!
Breakfast celebration with some gifts and cupcakes.



Birthday Evening!
Bonfire Celebration with Mom, Dad, Ella and Danner (Our Dog)Ella learning how to cook a hot dog on a stick!

And it wouldn't be a bonfire without SMORES!!!The weekend before her 3rd Birthday!

Family Night at Papa Ron's turned into BIG Birthday Celebration for Ella!!! We planned to just eat pizza and cupcakes and play with cousins, but Nana T and Papa had other plans :-) They had a whole celebration set up for their special little Ella!
Ice Cream Cake!
Cousins! Noelle and Ashlyn, Owen was off playing....
Ella received a 12 gallon fish tank from Nana T and Papa along with 6 little fish! We are sad to report that there are only two remaining....
Mini Celebration with Ella and her Besties....Henry and Grady!

They gave Ella these awesome sandals and some lip gloss that we wear everyday!!!
Everybody wanted some chap stick!
Hugging her Boys and telling them thank you!

She also had 2 more celebrations, one with Nanna and Poppie and one with her cousins on my side, in which we shared an Ice Cream Sundae Party with Dylan who turned 5 that same week...

We are not big Birthday party parents, but Ella sure did have a lot of celebrations from those who love her! Thank you everyone who made Ella's day Super Special!

I can't really explain where I have been or what I've been doing....

We have definitely been busy, but it's not the "Oh I can't wait to BLOG about this!" type of busy. It's like most every day of the week is filled with good stuff like play dates and Dr's appointments, so I can't complain...I just feel kinda lame!

Ella:
Well she is doing great! She loves that she has had lots of play time this week. She has been tired and sleeping good, but doesn't go to bed early! We have had a great week though, she has been helpful and happy and is she is so excited about her 3rd Birthday coming up! She probably talks about it everyday. We aren't planning a big party, but we are having a joint celebration with my nephew Dylan and our family!


She loves dancing and Barbies and anything girlie! Despite her efforts to do everything by herself...She is such a sweet and loving little girl!

Ethan:
He is doing good! Really starting to make some big movement and he has started getting the hiccups almost daily, usually in the morning. I am 29 weeks and will be going to the Dr. every two weeks until I reach 36 weeks. My weight gain is about 18 lbs, I'm not sure why I just put that out there but oh well! I feel large some days and not so big on others. I have had a lot of sciatic pain, but other than that everything is going great.


I have not done a whole lot to his room. I did get all of the baby necessities from Heather this past week and Ella has had more fun with that stuff... I don't feel rushed to have every little thing right away because I have the basics, but my wonderful group of friends in Manchester threw me and another one of our friends, that is due right after me, a surprise shower last night! It was so much fun and I got some really great things! Cute outfits, diapers, monogrammed bibs, burp clothes and a diaper cover, medicine, wash clothes....I feel so blessed!



The next week is suppose to be really nice outside so I'm hoping we can get out a little and knock some of this dust off of us... In the mean time, I'll try to think of some interesting posts to write about!

Ticking Time Bomb

The past two days have been um, different. My little love bug is being a little terror! So it's about 3 weeks until her 3rd Birthday and I'm totally convinced it's not the Terrible Twos, it's most definitely the Terrible Threes! She is not being bad, per say...but crazy, sneaky, silly, rowdy, argumentative; I could go on.

Let me give you a couple of examples:

Yesterday, as I was blow drying my hair, I opened the bathroom door to find her slathered in Vick's Vapor Rub! "Look Mommy, lotion!" Oh boy...even though we bathed she looked like a grease monkey for the rest of the day.

As we are standing in the check out at the store, she had her back to me...As I peeked around her I found her opening a pack of Mentos! So of course I had to buy them, but she did not have one. ;-) I decided to share them with my bible study!

My phone rings, this monkey goes wild. Screaming, jumping, climbing all over me! What in the world...

I could go on with examples as well, but I won't. I know my nerves are a little short these days, so maybe it's just me. With all of this craziness she still looks at me with a smile on her face and says "Mommy....I love you!" Brings it all back together.

Speaking of Time...

I have a new little project! Let's just call it wall decor for Ethan's room. I will reveal the whole thing soon, but for now here is a couple of sneak peaks:

Goodwill find for .49 cents

A little paint...

The first coat!

Life AFTER Kids...

Is pretty amazing!

Don't get me wrong it is definitely hard, we have been through so many struggles. It's a new kind of responsibility, but at the end of the day it is so gratifying! But do you remember the days of just you and the Hubby or even just you, when life was a party?? It was a weekend ritual to eat out, you saw friends on a weekly basis, you both worked full-time jobs and money was never an issue....

When Ella came into our lives a lot of things changed. We both still worked, but time was precious and learned to spent our weekends at home. Don't get me wrong, we still played! We have some amazing family that is so willing to help us and spend time with our daughter, but lately we have become a lot more home bound and even including our Bean in anything we do. I guess you could say, we are becoming mentally prepared for two kids...

The Hubby laughs at me when I get so gitty about going out, with our family! Ella hasn't always been the easiest child to take to dinner, but lately we have had these family date nights that is such a treat... But something always happens, sickness. I try to make excuses, but you know when to call it quits. To me going out as a family is such a prize and being home all day, I look so forward to the company. Which brings me to life AFTER kids, how funny is it that things change so much. The things we look forward to now, the family time we crave.... It's all part of that unseen plan. Life after kids, I wouldn't change a thing!

Ethan John and Some Quality Girl Time!

Yesterday was a big day for Ethan and me! We both had a task at hand that needed to be very successful. I needed to pass my glucose test, in which I will get results for next week, and he needed to show his spine!

At 20 weeks, Ethan was immobile...curled up in a ball and not going to move for anything. Thank God he was proud enough to let us know we were having a precious baby boy! Since he was so snug, my Doctor requested another ultra sound to get the rest of his spinal views.

1. Spine is very important and it comforted me to know that everything was A.O.K.
2. I was thrilled to get to see my boy again!

Ethan really put on a performance for us yesterday! It may have been because I had just chugged pure sugar, but nonetheless he was a Rock Star...

(3D picture: mouth, nose, eyes, arms around face)

(3D: Same Image, maybe a little more of the face)

Thanks to my girlfriend Holly Jane, I knew to ask for some 3D images! WOW, is all I can say. I love it! It was hard to get a great 3D image of Ethan because his arms were hugging his face and his cord was right in that area too.

(Ultra Sound: Profile)

This is where my Rock Star comes in...

(U/S: Lateral View... "Hi Mom!")

I laughed so hard! What a cheese. He was yawning, moving his mouth, sticking his tongue out all things that a baby does. I just wanted to scoop him out and hold him right then and there and kiss is little yawning mouth! But he needs to stay just where he's at for now!

(Right Foot, I believe)

After my ultra sound, I had to do my blood work for my glucose. The Lab Tech assured me that pulling samples of blood is much more accurate than the good ole' finger prick, so I have a good chance in passing! (Let's hope so...) After that I had a great visit with Dr. J and she was very pleased with my progress. I've gained about 14 pounds, which she was was good, but I just laughed...Oh My Word! I still have 3 months to go.

After my appointment, I did some shopping and even bought some blue hangers for Ethan's closet. Yes, I got really excited about coat hangers! Then I met up with one of my best girlfriends to celebrate getting old. Since this time last year we have wanted to do one of those painting classes, but it just never happened... So this year with both of us turning 30, we were determined to go paint! It was so much fun, it was also pretty stressful. We left there saying "At least we can say we did it!"

Erin and I with our Master Pieces!

A Work in Progress!

It was such a great day! And some time away that I so badly needed!

There was a prediction for snow in Middle Tennessee! Looks like they nailed this one ;-)

We woke up to 6" or 7" inches of snow this morning. It's beautiful! Ella was eager to head outside, so we did...But the real fun came when Daddy got home. We broke out the sled and the coveralls and had a blast!

Ella loved sledding and did it over and over and over....
But got a little tired walking back up the hill! I cracked up at how Jeramy just scooped her up, she didn't care, she wasn't walking :-)
So the trick to sledding is to "wear down the path!" That way you will go REALLY fast. This particular path went between the trees so me, being over-protective, had to go stand down there just in case she strayed from the "path." Meanwhile, I thought it was a great time for a video!