The Best Gift!

Normally two of my favorte smells are a crackling fire and freshly brewed coffee. However, presently, if you come within 10 yards of me with a cup of coffee in your hand I will likely grab said coffee from your hand and fling it out the nearest window...mug and all. And if I even so much as drive past your house and a waft of woodstove smoke manages to seep into my car I shall no doubt curse your name.

NO, I'm not losing it. I'm carrying the best gift of all this Christmas, a new little baby due to arrive in July!!!! It has been a long two year wait, along with three rounds of clomid which literally made me feel INSANE and whos crazy hormone elevating effects have made for a horribly sick momma this first trimester...but it is beyond worth it to be able to announce this news and we are over the moon!

Some of those two years I was patient, content, trusting and at peace. But I'll be honest, other times I was bitter, upset, sad and depressed. It was much the same rollercoaster of life and faith that we faced in our almost three year wait to get pregnant with our beautiful little Ella. No matter which phase I was in at the moment I would constantly repeat that God was in contorl, His will and His timing were perfect, and whatever would be was what was supposed to be. Sometime I believed myself when I said it and sometimes I didn't. But here I stand, growing a new little life inside of me (that honestly at times feels like it's sucking the life out of me :) and I am beyond thankful for every second of it.

I'm coming right up on 12 weeks. We truly, truly, truly covet your prayers for a full term pregnancy and a happy, healthy little love in the new year!

Rejoicing and praising God for this and so many other answered prayers this year. May you and yours have a blessed Christmas!!!

What A Difference A Year Makes!

This morning Ella went from dead sleep to wide awake yelling, "MOM! I CAN SWIM ALL BY MYSELF JUST LIKE EMMA!!!" She then proceeded to run downstairs to our room and show me by hurling herself headlong onto my bed and kicking and paddling with all her might. She insisted that I had a video on my iPhone of her swimming with Emma and then going to sleep. I tried to explains dreams to no avail. The child is still searching for the video as I write.

Good thing it's time to sign up for our 3 months at the Y and take our winter swim class! We downed some breakfast, dug out our suits and hit the road for some free swim. This girl was OVER the MOON excited! And in the pool she swam (with her bubble), twirled, did blast offs and blew bubbles ALL BY HERSELF. There was much laughter and giggles and NO uncontrollable screaming. Oh what a difference a year makes! You can read about what I mean in this post entitled Voluntary Torture if you missed this joy of a post last year.

I also purchased her a swimming floatie belt thing where you can remove one foam peice at time as she gets better and better until she needs no help at all. And somewhere between the Y and home my daughter has combined the two terms bubble and floatie and now calls her colorful swim aid a "boobie". This term elicited such raucus laughter from me when it first came out of her mouth that I fear I shall never convince her to call it anything else.

Well, we're all signed up and ready to rock the Parent and Pike class in the new year...boobie and all!

Long Time No Post

I know it's been FOREVER and a day since I've posted. So naturally I'll start out with pictures of Ella and the happenings over the last few months. I'll also throw in some Ella quotes as well, because they're just so dang cute!
Upon returning from her 3 year well child check up and talking about her new doctor, "Dad! He didn't shoot me!"
"I built a tower but it wasn't very impressive so I knocked it down."
"That is the end of discussion. Okay mom?" (after any sentence really. Apparantly I say this to her a lot...because she's an expert staller and negotiator!) We took a trip to see Auntie Jen and Uncle Greg and Ella took her first rides! We celebrated her third Birthday with both sides of the family. While she loves the presents and cake, she is very much not a fan of being the center of attention and generally hides under the table when being sung to or asked to blow out the candles :) Auntie Jen got this helmet for her and she wore it around the whole time. Good thing she likes it because I'm teaching her how to ski this winter! We bought her boots and grandma bought her skis! She's quite into decorating the house and tree for Christmas and she loves listening to Christmas music! Don't be alarmed if in the middle of belting out Jingle Bells she adds in that Jesus died for you and me. She's putting it all together and it's a joy to see/hear. Here she is supervising daddy cutting down our fat fatty Christmas tree this year (funny stories to go along with that...but maybe another day. She also took her toy saw and "cut down the tree" herself....along with every thing else in the house. I believe she cut down the chair, table, stairway, nightstand, bed etc. etc. Such a cutie!