Beary Merry Christmas To You!!

Well, I skipped a Thanksgiving blog, so I'm going to give you a brief ongoing of that event at the Bruner's house in Tennessee.  The celebration occurred with my brother, grandmother, mom, dad, Ella, and I.  Mom cooked a huge feast with everything made from scratch; even fresh vegetables from my parents massive garden this recent summer. We basically did what everyone does on Thanksgiving, stuff yourselves so full that you have to lay down and take a nap for the stomach pain to go away.  A year ago, my brother & I started a little "Walmart Tradition" where we get up at the butt crack of dawn on Black Friday and shop with a million other people to get some of those (as my father-in-law calls them) "steals" of a deal.  Yes, we did get up this year again around 4:45AM and went to the one store (and only store) Walmart.  The sad thing is that we're supposed to be going to buy presents for other people, but we pretty much go to get the $2 DVDs. Haha. I know my husband will be proud. :) However, I did realize this year what great deals they have for toys, so I'm thinking this might have to be a yearly event with all the young generations that are coming into the world. :) So, that was our Thanksgiving and my Walmart promotion for you all.  I look forward to next years celebration with my husband, however, I'm pretty sure him & Ella will be sleeping in the day after. 

Now onto Christmas... we're getting into the holiday festivities around the house.  Ella has done an excellent job with helping with the ornaments.  I'll have to upload more photos b/c our tree looks much different now; the top of the tree is fill with decorations and below it's looking a little scarce.  You pretty much have to check your shoes around here for ornaments before putting them on. ;) While decorating, I'll have to say that she was getting the ornaments off quicker than we could get them on. We've also been doing a lot of baking and making lots of packages and sending them off to Daddy and his fellow buddies.  I'll have to say that having Christmas so soon is exciting to the 3 of us because we know it means a closer reunion to finally being home together in 3 months. I try not to get too excited because I know those last 3 weeks are going to be very slow. :) Less than 100 days to go though and we'll all be home together!! Well, in a motel working on getting a home together. LOL, but that's fine with me!!

Here's an Ella update... she learns new words constantly. We've been working on sign language a little together because she's been learning them off of her Baby Einstein dvds.  She pretty much will say anything you ask her to, most of the words are sounded out correctly but sometimes aren't finished completely. A lot of her sentences are one to two words which I read is quite normal for her age. She's a little chatter box though and loves to explore everything. I've finally gotten her into music; she loves to dance at the beat and shakes her little booty. Her favorite toy right now is a bear that I had when I was younger. (The first photo is of Ella with him.) In the photo you can see he has a diaper on him because Ella decided the other day that he needed a changing, so with a little help from Mommy, he got one. ;) 

I'll try and get another post out soon of more photos from this month; especially during present openings. :) Lots of Love to you All. ~E,J,&I

Spider Princess

October 2006

October 2007

October 2008

Hello!! Ella was a "Spider Princess" this year; I had gotten a used dress up in TC that seemed to be more of a witches costume with no hat, so the title was changed. Needless to say, she still looked so cute prancing around in her little costume. That's pretty much the extent of our Halloween this year; we had about 15 trick or treaters come to visit which Ella was pretty fascinated with. She didn't know what to think about most because of their scary costumes. I sent photos to Jonah and he said that she's going to laugh at these photos in 14 years. :O) We'll be looking forward to next year with Da Da; perhaps a costume party?? It will just be fun to be together.

Here's a brief update of what else is happening in our family. Jonah is doing well; he has had a change of address recently, so if you are wanting to send him packages please email me and I'll forward it to you. If you are interested in getting your box out in time for Christmas, I'd have to say that now would be the time to start making that happen. I know that it gets even harder for us around the holidays not being together, so packages are a wonderful way of sending some love.

Ella and I are in Tennessee; we got here two weeks from this upcoming Monday. We plan to stay here through the holidays. Mom has entered me in a couple craft shows this month, so we'll be taking on those with the jewelry my grandmother, mom, and I have made. We'll see how it goes. I'm doing whatever I can to stay busy and have the next couple of months go by as quickly as possible. Words could not express how lonesome I am for Jonah and the longing I feel to be home together. I have to remind myself to take one day at a time.

Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers. Lots of Love. ~E, J, & I

Above are some cute photos of Ella this week. She has a lot of fun playing in the little fisher price house at Nana and Papa's and just this week learned how to climb up her crib from the outside. Hmmm, I'm predicting she'll be in a toddler bed before two; what do you think?? She had fun this week making Daddy a card; she used crayons for the first time and managed to take a bite of the color blue. Mmmm blueberries! 

This weekend I've a chorale concert that I've been working towards for the past couple months up in Traverse City. We'll be performing Vivaldi's Manificat and Gloria by Boccherini. I'm exhausted, but super excited because these pieces are fabulous. Then on Sunday Ella and I will be heading down to Tennessee for a couple months to visit with my family. 

Jonah is doing good; please continue to keep him in your prayers for safety. We're counting down the months until we'll finally be home together again; 5 left which is much better than 7!! :O) We love you Jonah!! 

Thanks again for your prayers. Lots of love~ E, J, & I

I'll try and get some more videos up soon; my computer is a little slow of uploading them. 

DADDY

I told Jonah that he got promoted from DaDa to Daddy recently. Ella actually points at his photos and says his name "Daddy", as well as when she sees him on my laptop, and she even associates talking on the telephone as "Daddy" or "DaDa". She loves to pretend to be talking on the phone. She has a fake phone that she puts to her ear and talks, but pretty much anything else can be a phone too for her. I think the funniest was when the sea horse bath toy became a phone the other night & she seemed to have gotten "Da Da" on the phone that way too. ;O) We love you Daddy!!

Recently I took a little rode trip just north of Traverse City with Dawn and Ella to check out the fall leaves. The colors seem to be reaching their peek now. Seeing that I was born and raised mainly in the south where we never got the opportunity to experience rarely any type of season other than hot, hot hot, and hotter; I'd have to say that I'm pretty awe struck with this beautiful season. I'm excited that Jonah, Ella & I will be making our way up to Michigan someday to continue to enjoy these beautiful colors together every year. 

Ella is finally interested in swings. She was pretty hesitant about it at first, but now she understands that they are for enjoyment rather anything else. Her hair seems to be growing more everyday and still remains curly. She's learned lots of new words and continues to be interested in everything. She loves to figure things out and never gives up until she does. Not only does she look like her daddy, but acts like him. :O) They are my wonderful pair and I'm so excited about seeing them together again. 5 more months!!

As always, thank you for your prayers, love, and support. ~E

Rocker Video

Here's a cute video of Ella in a rocking chair. This is especially for Daddy! :O) Every day after her morning nap she has a routine of grabbing a book and sitting down in the rocker. We're very proud of our little girl.

I'm pretty excited about fall; the warm colors are splendid and I love all the smells, especially, carmel pumpkin candles! Hope you also enjoy the fun photos of Ella in her Halloween outfit. 

Lonesome

Here are some updated photos of what's going on with our little family at the moment. Ella is exploring how to sit on rocking chairs, horses, and basically anything that is close to her level. I posted also a picture of Daddy playing football overseas and looking much messier than Ella does when she eats her yummy pasta dishes. Ella is a lot better balancing now when she walks, babbling a lot more, and has even learned some new words! Jonah is doing good; he says that he's not busy and ready to come home and be with his girls. Currently I'm singing in a local chorale and starting a jewelry/baby clothes business online. (myworld.ebay.com/mommadorn) 

Well, that's a brief update! "Lonesome" is pretty much how I feel for our little family right now until Daddy gets home safe. As always, please continue to keep our little family in your prayers. We love you all & miss our friends & family that are miles away! :O)

Fun up in Michigan

Hello! I just wanted to post a couple more fun photos taken during our 3 weeks together up in Michigan. Their are some really cute ones of Jonah & Ella. 

Briefly, Jonah is over in Afghanistan; I'm not going to go into detail on his whereabouts, but I'll keep you updated as much as possible. Also, If you're interested in sending him packages please email me & I'll give you an address. I should have the address within the week. I know that he'll need food that is ready made because it's likely that he's not going to have electricity. Books, snacks, photos, & letters would be wonderful, and the more packages sent, the better. It's going to be another long approx. 7 months for the 3 of us not being together. Please keep Jonah & his team in your daily prayers.

Enjoy the photos & thanks for keeping us in your thoughts!! Lots of love!!

Ladybugs!

Here's the pictures from Ella's little birthday party taken last Saturday. We had a lot of fun & it was a great celebration. I'll be posting up more photos throughout the next couple of weeks from our 3 weeks spent together up in Michigan as a family. We've some cute ones taken at Jonah's grandparents house while spending a weekend with them & having lots of fun in their pool.

Right now Jonah is back safe in So Cal. He is to be deployed soon; please keep him & our family in your thoughts and prayers; especially for safety over Jonah. I'll continue to keep you all updated. Thanks for all your love & support. ~E, J, & I

This Monday I start week

Ella's 1st Birthday!

Today was a blast! Ella started off as chipper as ever. She had so much fun opening her presents. We started off this morning with one & she opened 3 more throughout the day. Her birthday cupcake was a big hit. We had to stop her during the enjoyment of it because we didn't want her to get a belly ache. It's hard to believe that she is one year old already. The year has flown by. Anyways, this is going to be short b/c I want to go spend time with my hubby. We've one more week together until he has to head back to So Cal. We're not looking forward to being away from each other for so long. Please keep him in your prayers for safety so our little family can be home together again in the spring. Thanks for all the love and support. ~E