Jonah is out of town for the week but will be home on Monday. Ella and I have been hanging out and spending time with Ella's best bud and her mommy. Other than that, I've been catching up on a few books and just happy that I'm only away from Jonah for 10 days rather than 7 months. I love our little family and feel so incredibly blessed!

Girly update... other than this virus I can't seem to shake, I'm feeling quite well this pregnancy. Ella is such an adorable little girl and so smart. We have conversations all the time and she's become so easy to understand. (Jonah and I speak toddler language if anyone needs an interpreter.) At this moment she is pouring me tea to drink while making the "Tshhh" sound while also feeding every other small figurine she owns while saying "There you go; yum yum yum." As for girly number 2... she seems to be doing quite well. I'm five months (1/2 way!) now and can feel her kick quite often. I'm starting to remember how it was around 8 to 9 months and seeing Ella's foot swipe across my belly. Jonah and I called her an alien. LOL. ;) Anyways, I'm looking forward already to meeting our next little girl and already wondering what she's going to be like.

Here's our most recent photos...

Ella loves horsey rides.

She's a Daddy's girl.

I love him.

John and Jonah hanging out in the wanna-be "man cave".

Ella bumming off John for some ice cream before bed.

I absolutely love this dress; it reminds me of fall and makes me miss Michigan and Tennessee.

Ella was telling her bear to say "Cheese".

Ella and her best friend, Hannah, hanging out.

It's almost impossible to get them both to smile at the same time.

Jobs

We've had a lot of fun this week. Ella attended her first birthday party other than her own over the weekend. It was rather interesting trying to explain to Ella that she couldn't help her friend, Hannah, with opening her presents as well as none of then would be coming home with us. ;O) LOL. Other than that, we've had a couple friends in town this week and have enjoyed visiting with them; Jonah and I have recently been quite sad realizing that all of our mutual friends have left town or are moving away from here. Perhaps some other couple will adopt us soon.

Anyways, things have been a little stressful. We realize in nine months from now we will be moving, however, the comfort of knowing that at least one of us will have a full time job available to us isn't their yet. I would say right now that this is our number one goal. I am the one that is seeking employment and will be available to work by June 2010; I know this seems like a long ways away, but with the way that our economy it is right now I feel that having some network between friends and family is probably my best bet for employment. For those of you that do not know, I do have a BA in Music Teaching from University of West Florida and had the pleasure of teaching a wonderful 3rd grade class at Rocky Bayou Christian School for 7 months. I would love to get into anything that involves children, however, financially we are at a position that I am more than willing to pursue other venues. That's in a nut shell for now; please feel free to email me with any ideas or possible job opportunities that you may hear of.

Love to you all.

Tennessee & Michigan Travels

During the month of August we were able to cram in a 2 week vacation that ended too quickly. We flew into Tennessee to visit with my family for approximately a week and then rode up with Jonah's cousin, Laura, up to Michigan for the following week. We then flew home from Michigan and it took us about 2 weeks to get back into our regular routine. We had so much fun visiting with family and friends and wished we could have stayed much longer. Thank you all for your love and our apologies for those that we were not able to see during our travels. Below are some fun photos taken for you to enjoy. ;O)

We were able to catch up with our friends Sammie and Mary while visiting the folks in Tennessee. We had fried brownies for the first time served with vanilla ice cream; yummy!!

My mom made a homemade chocolate pound cake to celebrate Ella's birthday. More deliciousness!

Ella insisted on seconds but had a rather hard time finishing them.

Side walk chalk time with Uncle Brett.

This was taken at a local lake near my folks house. We were able to eat at an actual boat house for lunch that day.

Marcy & Sam Bruner! We love you!

Ella loves for Daddy to swing her.

Ella and Grandpa.

These are all photos taken up in Michigan at Jonah's grandparents house. We had so much fun visiting with all the family. We celebrated Ella's 2nd birthday while there. Thank you for ordering the Elmo cake Courtney! ;O)

Jonah and his cousin, Courtney.

Ella's cousin, Aylah. Cute!

I know it's not facebook guys, but here's the super cute photo of Laura and Josh. (Jonah's brother with cousin.) :O)

Laura and our newest niece, Macy. :O)

Josh and Andrea (my wonderful brother and sister in law).

Thank you Aunt Susan and Uncle Bob for the cute outfit!

And thank you to everyone for Ella's gifts. She had a wonderful birthday!

Yes, Elmo!

Papa and Aylah having a moment together. Super cute!

While up in Traverse City we were able to attend our close friends John and Sam's wedding. The wedding and reception was absolutely gorgeous and we felt honored to share this special day with them it was also a joy to visit with all their families and friends. Here are some fun photos taken Saturday, August 8th.

Congratulations John and Sam!

Jonah's best bud Jason. They both looked pretty classy.

This is the dress that my wonderful sister in law, Andrea, helped me pick out from Motherhood Maternity.

Jonah paid a dollar to dance with John on his wedding and John's sister Heather created a beautiful ambiance.

Guess what?!

Ella's going to have a baby SISTER!! On Friday we found out that we are 85 percent likely of having a little girl. We had our boy name picked out and I was quite certain this one was going to be a boy, however, I was wrong and our ratio is now going to be 3:1. Jonah is thrilled with the fact that he will be having lots of needy princesses

around the house desperate for his attention. ;O) We have plenty of time to pick out our little girl name and will announce it once the big day arrives. We are super excited and looking forward to sharing our little blessing with you all. My health is great as well as the baby's; since we arrived home from our 2 week vacation, I've been able to get back into work out mode. When I went in for my 14 week visit I hadn't gained any weight in 6 wks, however, the little one has and my stomach is bigger. ;O)

Isabella has turned two already!! Our little girl is so incredibly amazing. Her brain is such a sponge and her vocabulary has become so much understandable in the past few weeks. Potty training is still a work in progress, however, I'm committed to having her out of diapers before our next one arrives. I'd be surprised if she was still in diapers by Christmas. Ella absolutely loves animals; pretty much anything fuzzy and not human is adorable to her. She's always hunting for bunnies to catch a glimpse of on our way to daycare in the morning. She has her favorite stuffed animals that she enjoys talking and reading books to everyday. Recently her "babies" have gotten the boot when up against her animals. She has a shopping cart that she uses for a stroller; pretty much the baby doll gets stuck underneath while the puppy gets the pillow and blanket up top. Jonah and I found this to be quite amusing but something to work on with baby sister on the way. We have been trying to explain to Ella that her baby sister is in Mommy's tummy; she has seen the most recent ultra sound photos and is quite interested in those and realizes that it's a baby. She now goes to the fridge and points at the baby photo saying "Awww Baby; big hug" while squeezing her arms together in a cradled rocking motion. Cute!!

I'm quite behind on my posts, so I'll just explain these photos below for now until I get further photos up. These were taken prior to our Tennessee/Michigan trip in August. Jonah allows Ella to collect coins and stash them away in Jonah's old chipmunk bank. I got a couple cute photos of how excited Ella gets to save her money. ;O) Once it's filled up, we'll take her to the bank to deposit her money into her very on savings account. The last photo is of Ella with her bright pink pony; she got a gift card from Uncle Mike and Aunt Wanda for her birthday and this is what she picked out. Thanks to you both for the gift!! :O)