Our Beautiful Ballerina and Weekend Photos

Ella dressed up as a ballerina. (She's playing peek-a-boo w/ Mommy behind the door.)

Of course we had to incorporate a matching bow.

Our little twinkle toes.

Surprise! I got you with the camera Ella.

This was a post party after the baby shower; the kiddos had fun with all the balloons.

Our little girl trying to collect all the bright pink balloons to keep to herself.

They were quite tapped out so we introduced Logan to a little Dora.

Baby Shower

I had my first ever baby shower this weekend and it was a lot fun! My friend, Amanda, (EOD wife) threw one together for me on Saturday and it was fabulous! Everything was super cute with a bright pink and green theme. Six other EOD wives came over to help celebrate; I feel very blessed to have such support! Thank you ladies! We pretty much stuffed ourselves, sat around and chatted, and finished off with opening presents and eating cake. Jonah was in charge of four toddlers while the party was going on; I think he's happy that we aren't pregnant with multiples. Here's some photos from the party...

Crazy weather this week in So Cal...

The weather has been crazy here; right now it's hailing outside. We've probably had the amount of rain that So Cal usually has in a year just within this one week. However, we're enjoying the cooler weather and the reminder of what normal weather in our home states feels like.

We're counting down the days now for the arrival of our little one; Jonah has two full work weeks left and then he will be taking off the rest of February. Nana will also be arriving in 2 weeks from this Saturday! We're also super excited to have Jonah's dad and grandparents coming out to visit the week of Esme's predicted arrival. We hope that she'll make her entrance so that they will all be able to spend some time with her throughout their stay! Our next visitor will be Grandma Marcy the first week of March! We are so thankful to have our family members able to help out with baby Esme and her big sister Ella!!

Ella seems to be catching on more to the expected arrival of her baby sister. She knows who she is and what her name is going to be. She understands that pretty much everything pink in Mom and Dad's room at the moment is Esme's. She enjoys helping me fold the clothes and loves to check out all her old teether toys; today we got out a bag of diapers to put away in the basket. Ella wanted to try them out on her puppy instead of her baby doll.

My health is doing fine; I've another appointment this upcoming Wednesday. (2 weeks before the due date) I'll then have another closer to Valentine's Day. I take a nap every day when Ella does; I haven't been getting any sleep at night because of the discomforts and Esme trying to kick her way out. However, the excitement of knowing that our little girl will be here soon has me all giddy. (Granted, Jonah isn't getting much sleep either between my snoring and waking up every 30 minutes.) I've looked through all the photos of our baby Ella and it's exciting to know we'll have another little tiny one very very soon! I think Ella is the perfect age for her arrival; she's going to be a wonderful big sister and such a great helper! We are so very blessed!

She loves to color and use lots of stickers; above is her most popular dress up ensemble.

She loves to feed her puppies!

Ella blowing Mommy a kiss!

We love our little girl!

Just adorable.

She absolutely loves her puppies.

She watches a little movie in her Dora couch.

Wonder Woman sometimes confused as Super Girl.

Check out our princess!

Washing the lettuce.

This is her favorite park (plus Mom and Dad's); it has a fence around it.

Counting down the days...

Less than 26 days and Esme will be here!! I've to remind myself that the lack of sleep these last few days are to help prepare me again for having a newborn in the home. For those of you that are interested in the pre-labor signs... I'm almost positive that Esme has dropped. (However, this can mean that I still have the remaining predicted days left.) I'm hoping that she'll wait until February 7th (Nana will be here!!), however, we have wonderful friends in the area that are more than willing to step in to help with Big Sister Ella if she decides to arrive early. So, we spent yesterday super cleaning and organizing everything around the house. I'll be getting diapers today and stocking up on some Dreft (sensitive skin laundry detergent)... yes, my nesting instinct has finally set in.

We informed Ella this morning that her sister will be here in a month and she looked even more confused when we told her that Christmas was a month away back in November. It's going to be so much fun getting the girls together for the first time; we'll make sure to have lots of photos for you to enjoy.

That's it for now. I'll be posting photos of Ella dancing around in her pink tutu, so check back soon! :)

Sunshine Weekend & 5 WKS (35 DAYS) TO GO!!

Well, I think that we are going to start attending the Saturday evening church service. We have had quite a few weekends in a row now where we were unable to get motivated enough to make it to the 8 AM service. So, today has been a relaxing stay at home Sunday for us. We've enjoyed our weekend together. Yesterday we took Ella to a local park and packed a little picnic lunch. I finished a little Esme craft project over the weekend (which you'll see below), and I've been busy organizing and trying to figure out what we might need before her arrival.

Jonah and I are having so much fun with Ella. She is such the talker and such a joy to be around. She loves to be involved with everything that we do, and we noticed that she thoroughly enjoys having her parents at home with her at the same time. She's been sitting on the potty just about every hour; we've decided to keep her in pull-ups and pretty much just have her keep trying until she finally gets it. She knows about stickers and special treats if she goes, so I'm thinking that once it happens she'll be ecstatic about the rewards and want to go more.

Last night I watched a documentary about home births. It was quite informative and made me totally understand and respect women that decide to go this route for their natural childbirth, however, it wasn't convincing enough for me to decide to call a mid-wife and schedule one of my own.

Ta ta for now! :)

I made gumball looking letters for Esme.

I spray painted them brown, put pink multicolored circle stickers on the letters, and then glazed over them with glitter Mod Podge.

Today Ella wanted to color while Jonah painted.

Sliding with my baby girl.

It was in the upper 70s yesterday and quite bright out.

Ella loves the park.

Hi Daddy!

Super cutie; check out the Pumas her Daddy got her.

On toddler watch duty.

Lunch time.

She had a peanut butter sandwich.

Saturday morning watching an X-Men cartoon with Daddy.

Welcoming the New Year...

Our adorable daughter.

Ella, Jonah, and Skylar.

Our beautiful family!

Megan & Ella.

Ella feeding her fairy bear.

So darling!

We were playing hide and seek & this was the infamous peek-a-boo location.

Not cooperating for smiles this morning.

Yes, giving the nose a pick.

Ariel is still a big hit.

I got her to laugh but she leaned backwards. This is our typical goofy angel. We love her!!

I woke up to find Ella holding in her hand her pink tutu with matching bow. (We put a toy chest in her closet, so she's uses it now to get to her clothes and accessories.) Anyways, she was already undressed when I came in to see her and was asking me, "Where's the kitty shirt?" She knows that she has a sparkly matching shirt (shown above) that goes with the whole ensemble. I'm quite impressed that she also picked out a matching bow. She's such a cutie! This morning wasn't a battle for getting dressed or having her hair done; she was thrilled with the fact that she picked out her entire outfit and that Mommy was agreeing with her ensemble. ;) She's so much fun and such a blessing. Today marks the start of potty training for our little one... we have ventured into pull-ups full time now. I feel like it's a lot of my duty to get her to learn how to use the potty seeing that I'm home 24/7. So far today... I've gotten her to sit on the potty for a few seconds... she then says, "All done Mommy!" I'm going to have to start some new tactics that make it a little more exciting for her. I'm not sure if Ella's into the whole "Big Girl" expression yet. Your potty training expertise is always welcomed for guidance.

My pregnancy is going well. The discomforts have arrived with being so far along. I guess the only thing major is that I'm having continuous pain in my left hip. I've my 36 weeks appointment on Wednesday, so we'll see what Esme's signs for expected arrival are to be. I actually went into labor on Ella's due date, so I'm assuming the same for our Esme (Es-MAY). Jonah plans to take off from work for almost a month around when she will be arriving. We feel very blessed that he will be able to do so. Please keep our little family in your prayers; we have lots of new and exciting things happening this year and are still a little vague about them all.

Thank you for all the love and support.