Getting ready for baby!

I had my 34 week Dr. appointment today and everything is looking good! I have one more 2 week appointment and then I go every week. The Dr. told me that I would more than likely have this baby earlier then I had Ella so if that is the case I need to really hurry and get all of my stuff done! That would be great if I did have the baby sooner but I won't get my hopes up. I have been having lots of random contractions throughout the day that are actually kind of painful,so I know my body is starting to get ready for the big event. I feel like I'm much more impatient this time and I want to hurry up and meet this baby! The baby is very active, sometimes I think it's going to kick through my belly!

I'm officially in "nesting mode." I have finally started on my long "to do" list. We got the bassinet and the swing out of the garage and put together. I have started rearranging Ella's drawers and closet. We went and looked at car seats last week at Babies R Us which resulted in me seeing a ton of other things I want to buy =) How is it that there is way cooler stuff for babies now since I had Ella a year and half ago? Ella has been having fun playing with the swing and putting her baby in it. She also likes to walk by the bassinet and say "baby night night" which is really cute. So I still have a lot of things to do but at least I'm starting to cross things off the list. It's already May! June will be here before we know it!

Ella putting her baby in the swing




Giving her baby some of her sippy


Testing out the bassinet

Happy Friday!

I just wanted to share my new favorite picture of Ella. She looks so cute today in her little sun dress and I actually caught a smile on camera! She has a lot to smile about today too, because when she wakes up from nap we are going to go for a walk down town and get ice cream! After that we get to go meet her cousin's new puppy!

Back to the zoo

We bought our zoo passes last week and have already been twice! Ella LOVES going to the zoo and mommy enjoys walking around enjoying the beautiful 75 degree weather =) We went today with a group of friends from church, we had a fun time!

Getting ready to go


Making a quick call to my friends to let them know I'm on my way


A little stop at the gas station


I love the elephants!



I also love the fishies!


Where is the real tiger!?

Enjoying a beautiful day

Scrapbooking, tests, and babysitters!

I have spent the most part of today at a huge scrapbooking party! My creative memories consultant was throwing a "national scrapbooking day" fundraiser event at the high school down the street so I have been busy FINALLY finishing up Ella's baby album. I'm actually home right now taking a break because my back started to hurt really bad from sitting for so long. (oh the joys of the third trimester) I thought I would post a blog while I'm laying down and Ella is watching "Little Bear."

Paul drove to Cincinnati this morning to take an important certification test. He has been studying for this test for a while now and they kept changing the date on him so he's glad he was finally able to take it. We have to wait for a few weeks to find out if he passed since somebody actually has to sit down and grade it.

So, since I was gone, Paul was in Cincinnati, and my sister is out of town for the weekend we hired our first babysitter! I had somebody come highly recommended by my sister that we used. She did a great job and Ella loved her! It's so strange because I feel like not that long ago I was babysitting and now I'm hiring babysitters.

Anyways, sorry this isn't the most exciting blog post. I will finish it up with some cute picture of Ella.

Here is Ella at the zoo yesterday staring at the Tiger that was right up against the glass.


Just being cute


here is a video of Ella practicing her phone etiquette

8 months pregnant! 55 more days to go

We have less than 2 months left before our baby arrives! I'm going to be pretty busy these last 2 months. I have so many little things to get done and so many things to buy! I have to basically rearrange all of Ella's drawers and make room for the baby's clothes. I also have to get all the totes of clothes out of the basement, go through them, reorganize and wash them which I'm dreading. I need to try and get all of this done while taking care of a toddler full time so it's going to be a bit of a challenge. Is there somebody you can hire to do all of these little tasks? =) I guess I need to just do a few things each day and slowly cross off my long to do list.

Then and Now

I can't get over how fast Ella is changing! Here is a picture of her back in September right before her first birthday.


Here she is wearing the same outfit except this time she paired it with a matching bracelet, her fashion sense is already very developed =)

Fernando Ortega

We went and saw Fernando Ortega Sunday night in Cincinnati with our church. He is one of my favorite artists and his music has been such a blessing to me. He actually provided most of the music for our wedding ceremony and he has sung Ella to sleep many nights so his music of course holds a special place in my heart. He is an amazing pianist and he has an AMAZING voice! If you are unfamiliar with his music go check him out!

I forgot my camera so the only picture I was able to get was with my cell phone and I'm not even in it, it's Kym, Kurt and Kylee. It's also horrible quality but oh well, it's my only memento of the evening =)

The end to a busy week

Last night we celebrated the end of a busy work week for Paul. He has been speaking for the last four days at the Honda plant in Marysville to about 50 people. He has been working super hard all week and has been really looking forward to Friday. He is working on a big project with Honda so it's a pretty important deal! They even flew people in from Canada and Mexico to attend the summit. I'm of course very proud of my hard working smart husband =)
We went out to celebrate at Red Lobster last night and enjoyed a delicious meal. It was fun to be able to relax and enjoy time together. Afterwards we went to Big Lots to look at beds for Ella. I had seen one there a long time ago that I really liked and I wanted to see if they still had it. I know, what a fun way to celebrate ;)

Ella loves it when I dress us alike


Ella's very serious when she's eating



Ella likes this bed

ABC's

Ella loves to sing her ABC's. She always sings "Q!" it's so so cute!

For Sale

It's official, our condo is on the market! Now we are beginning a journey into unknown territory. We are selling it for a considerable less amount then what we paid since the market has gone down so much. We are doing what they call a "short sale" meaning the mortgage company has agreed to take less than we owe for it. Unfortunately, with us not living in it we are losing too much money every month with a mortgage, home owners association fees, special assessment fees that the home owners association keeps charging us, and then our rent and utilities here in Ohio. The tenants that currently live in it have expressed some interest in purchasing it so we are really hoping they decide to since then we wouldn't have to worry about getting it cleaned up after they move. We just pray that it wouldn't be on the market too long and that the mortgage company would be quick to respond to any offers that may come in. It's so discouraging to watch the news and everything is about recessions, record high gas prices, foreclosures, and the housing crisis. It's even scarier when we know we are directly affected by all of it. Knowing God is sovereign and in control of it all is our biggest comfort right now. We know that He will work all of this out for His glory and that we just have to continue to pray and seek Him. This has been a huge life lesson for us and I'm glad it happened to us now and not later in life. We just got done reading a great book by Dave Ramsey called "Total Money Makeover" which I wish we would have read years ago! It's really helped motivate us to be in a better place financially. Our pastor actually has couples that he is doing premarital counseling with read the book which I think is soooo smart! If you know anybody getting married buy them this book =) So keep us in your prayers as we are going to have a crazy time ahead of us and pray that God would give us wisdom as we are dealing with a lot of major stuff that we are unfamiliar with! Even though it's easy to get discouraged in times like this we are so thankful for the blessings God has given us! We have a roof over our head, Paul has a GREAT job, we have food in our cupboards (if Goldfish crackers count) we have a beautiful healthy little girl, and a healthy very active baby in my belly =) God is good!

Fun at the Park

I took Ella for a walk down to the park today. She had fun playing on the swings and running around. She even was able to go down the slide by herself! We didn't stay too long because it was very crowded and some kids were trying to steal her pink car so we decided to head back home =)

Spring is here!

I'm back after a week break from the blogging world.
Today was a beautiful, perfect day! The temperature was 68 degrees and the sun was shining. It felt a lot like being back in Santa Maria. It's amazing how the weather changes the whole mood of the town. It felt like a parade was going on outside our house today with all the people out and the motorcycles everywhere. We live across the street from an ice cream store so that is always packed when the weather gets nicer. I remembered today why I liked Ohio and why we moved here =)
We took Ella outside today in her little car to let her enjoy the sunshine. She was able to wear her new styling sunglasses and looked super cute! Later we went out to my sisters house to go on a bike ride. I was able to borrow Cindy's bike and go too which was really fun. I haven't been on a bike ride in years! Ella loved being on the back of Daddy's bike and I had fun riding along side her. We had some good BBQ over at Dennis and Cindy's house (Kurt's parents) and had fun playing outside Kym and Kurt's farm. It was such a fun day, and it feels so great to finally be done with winter!

I do have to make a note about the sad news we got this weekend that Skybus airlines is done. Skybus offered cheap non stop flights to Burbank out of Columbus which enabled us to visit California a lot this year. It also made it possible for our parents to come visit us too. With the news that they were ceasing flights came the reality that trips to California will also be ceasing for us. I'm glad we were able to visit California a couple weeks ago and that I was able to fly Skybus one last time. I'm grateful for the 10 months we had with them and the many great times with family we have had because of their low priced tickets. We still have Southwest airlines so hopefully they don't fold in the next few weeks =)






Ella's new best friend Jewel




Ella and Daddy riding together to Dennis and Cindy's (I didn't have a bike yet so I drove)