Announcement time...

Most of you know this since I have a relatively small blog-reading audience but for those who do not...I'm PREGNANT!!! We are THRILLED!!! It was a LONG time coming. Maybe I'll share that story at some point but suffice it to say, I am now very knowledgable about fertility treatments and thankful for how God can use them!

I'm 14 weeks today which means I am offically in my second trimester! Thanks to 4 years of praying against a pregnancy like my first one (I threw up for 7 months) God has answered! I have had normal pregnancy symptoms but not sick like last time AT ALL!! Praise the Lord! We've seen ultrasounds, heard the heart beat, and I swear I've felt movement since about week 11. I'm not showing yet but I'm sure that will change in the next month :-)

So, that's all for now, just wanted to put it out there so when it relates to our lives now I can share openly. We covet any prayers for a healthy baby and pregnancy!

Wee Chefs!

Since our dance class disaster last year (Ella screamed and cried and wouldn't go in) we haven't tried another class but Ella said she was ready. This time when given some options, she chose cooking which thrilled me! We started this week and it was so much fun! She was really shy at the beginning but warmed up by the end (it's a 1hr and 45min long class!)

Decorating their Chef hats


gotta have just the right color...


the teacher said Ella looked more like the Pope than a chef ;-)

After reading a story about Pizza, we made Pizza! I was helping a lot so I didn't get any pics of the process but here's the final product...




The kids read another cooking related story while the pizzas baked and cooled





Ella's new buddy from class (Ella's very excited that her friend is 5 oooOOOoooo!)

Looking forward to next week!

Ben stole the show!

I'm rather behind but I'd be remiss if I didn't post pics and video from Ella's preschool Christmas Show. SO cute. Ella knew all of the songs and motions really well (we sang them at home for a month!) but she isn't a "showman" when it comes to getting on stage at school. No big deal-still super fun to see her all dressed up with her friends and whispering to them and hugging them in the middle of a song. She's getting so grown up!

Oh, and don't miss the kid in the bottom left of the video. He talked loudly to his mom in the audience the whole time and was HILARIOUS. When he loudly announced he didn't like Rudolph and wanted to sing Jingle Bells again while pulling parts of the garland in front of him apart Chris whispered to me "what's that kid's name?" and I told him "that's Ben" and Chris said "Ben's my new favorite kid."


Getting ready to go on stage

The whole crew

out of the mouths of babes....

There are a number of words Ella uses that mean other things. These are getting fewer and fewer since she can talk since a lot of them came out of her not being able to say certain words when she was little. My favorites though are the ones that are just her sheer creativity :-)

Ella-isms

her "hair dresser"-the drawer in her dresser where we keep hair stuff

"map"-any kind of menu or directions or actual map that you read to decide the next step

"standing holder"-her wooden stool from ikea. she named it this a LONG time ago because that's what it does, it's for standing and holding :-) Now we all refer to it that way.

"happy time"-morning. Not anymore but for a good year Ella would come into our room in the morning and hold open the curtains and say "You have to get up! It's Happy Time now!!"

"I spy"-any tool or toy you look through (binoculars, kaleidoscope-both are "i-spies")

"Hobo"-when Ella was tiny she couldn't say "pillow" so she called them "hobos." Chris decided this was now the word for pillows in our house and we all still use it a good 2 1/2 years later :-)
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Overheard Ella saying to Chris very matter of fact-ly and angrily "When I'm an adult I'm going to do whatever I want. And when I am an adult and I have kids, I'm going to let them do whatever they want!"


Ella (after taking her Tinkerbell vitamins): Mama! I just ate worm keeper!
Me: a what?
Ella: a worm keeper
Me (legitimately confused):a worm keeper? What is that?
Ella: you know, where worms stay until they're ready to come out and be beautiful butterflies!
Me (laughing): ahh! like a cocoon?
Ella:No mom. Like a worm keeper.


We were talking about Snow White while reading the story and got to the page where she's laying in a coffin-type thing with her eyes closed
Me:oh no! Did she die?
Ella: No. Don't worry. She just went to sleep with some flowers for her hobo.

Beautiful Birthday!

We had 3 birthday parties for 4 year olds last weekend and I forgot my camera at all of them. Craziness. So, I'm 100% stealing these pics from my SIL Amy from one of the parties because they're SO good! Happy Birthday Lexi, Hanna, and Sophie!