Hudson James and catch up

After Ella's first birthday I took a "vacation" from keeping up the blog. Also 2 weeks after her first birthday (the last time I really blogged) we found out we were pregnant, traveled, bought our first house, and life got a little crazy chasing around my busy girl. I love going back and looking at the posts from Ella's pregnancy and first year, so I am going to try to add some pictures and updates in here and get going again.

We were surprised a couple days after getting back from Breckenridge, CO to find out that we were pregnant! My first trimester was pretty standard (compared to my pregnancy with Ella) and I had my 2 weeks of nausea and other than that I was mostly extremely tired. Thank goodness Ella still napped twice a day during my first trimester because momma usually needed a nap too! I definitely felt Hudson kicking around much sooner and have loved the feeling of having him move around all cozy in there. I love this part of being pregnant. 

Being pregnant in summer has definitely been a whole new ball game. Anyone who knows me knows that I am already very hot natured and wouldn't exactly say that I thrive in the heat, but the Lord is teaching me so much in choosing joy because I have a little girl who adores being outside, loves the water, and has little interest in kicking her feet up on the couch in the air conditioned house. We try to get in fun activities in the morning and be more creative with our afternoons. So far summer has been really fun with her. We have definitely had our long, hot days, but overall we are really trying to soak up our girls summer before sweet Hudson arrives! 

I get giddy thinking about when he will arrive. I love thinking about the fall and the holidays and how we will be adding such a sweet joy to our family. I know the newborn stage can come with its fair share of long nights and sleep deprivation, but I feel so much more confident going into baby #2 and trusting that I can do it. With Ella, there were so many times I doubted if I was doing it "right." With Hudson, I know we can do it and have tons of friends and family who can lend their wisdom on the harder days. 

This pregnancy I have not had too many crazy cravings. Although 2 times I have called James to get Cane's on his way home from work. All I really want is the toast and Cane's sauce, but I have kept that craving at bay. Right now its coconut yogurt with almonds and dark chocolate chips...yumm! Oh and fresh lemonade never hurts :)

Here are some pictures from my pregnancy so far...

 12 weeks at the Easter service

 14 weeks...so excited to announce we are expecting!

 16 weeks 

 18 weeks and bought our first house

 19 weeks and snuggling after lots of unpacking

 22 weeks

23 weeks at the beach

24 weeks right before Ella's swim lesson

Overall, it seems like this pregnancy is flying, so hopefully I will be able to document some more and get back into blogging about our growing boy and busy girl! Luckily, we have still been taking lots of pictures, so at least the family book at the end of the year won't lack for documentation! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!! 

Ella's First Birthday!

Saturday was filled with so much joy and excitement! It was so wonderful celebrating our sweet girl and thinking of what we were doing that time the year before. I can't believe how much she has grown over this past year and her party was a perfect celebration of the blessing she is!

I had so much fun planning her party. The theme was "Ella's Favorite Things" and I kept the decorations girly and fun. The food was all of her favorites and for favors we did rubber duckies and apple sauce pouches in a bag with cute little dogs on it (ironic?). I wanted the whole day to be a celebration of her and the things she loves. I did a few fun crafty things and kept the rest of it pretty simple. 

We had her friends and family all together and she could tell everyone around her was excited and she kept smiling and laughing all day, which was the sweetest thing! She LOVED eating cake (no surprise at all) and cried when we took it away. Here are some sweet pictures from her birthday!

Me and my birthday girl! 

I made little centerpieces with pictures on popsicle sticks and cupcake goldfish on the table. I also put together a little book with pictures for the guests to sign/write Ella a note. 

Incredibly lucky to call this my family. 

Such a little goof ball!

Being silly with Nana

The birthday girl with grandma and grandpa

With her Aunt Ashley and Aunt Fifi

Favors and Drinks

"Ella's Favorite Things" 

I made a "1" sign with some of our favorites. I also did a monthly picture banner, but don't have a good pic of that. 

Sweet daddy helping Ella enjoy her favorite foods!

Loves her cake!!!!

Opening presents and loving all the tissue paper!

After we had her party we celebrated with family that night. We enjoyed pizza and cake and had a great time celebrating Ella! 

Singing her Happy Birthday! 

She kept clapping while we all sang. 

Ella with her cousins. 

Lovin' on my sweet girl after a day full of fun!!

Happy Birthday, Ella Mae! You are the sweetest blessing in our lives! 

learning the hard way

The last 24 hours have been pretty crazy for our little family. At 6:45 last night Ella and I were playing and waiting for Dad to get home. Jaxon was sitting by us, as usual and Ella was cruising all over the place. I was on the floor with Jaxon on my right and Ella started playing with her ball to my left. Out of nowhere and for a reason we still don't know, Jaxon lunged across me and bit Ella. It was by far the most terrifying thing I have ever experienced. I had to pull him off her and picked her up. There was blood on her and me and I could not figure out where it was coming from. At that moment James walked in the door and when she looked at him I realized Jaxon had bit Ella's ear. 

We got in the car and headed to the ER. They triaged her immediately and then we waited an hour and a half to see the doctor. After the doctor took a look they called in the plastic surgeon. When he arrived he went over everything with us and told us he thought surgery was the best option to fix her ear and stitch up where he could. We waited about 45 minutes for an operating room to open up then got her IV hooked up and prepped her for surgery. They sedated her through an IV that put her into a deep sleep while still being able to breath on her own. All of the doctors and nurses kept coming in to see Ella...she stole all their hearts and was an absolute dream. Considering the pain she was in she was such a trooper!!

Normally, Jaxon is such a good dog and Ella can literally pull the hair on his face and he won't budge. Ella's first word was dog when she was 10 months old and every time she sees him she gets so excited. James and I are firm believers in raising children in a home with animals. We believe it teaches them so many wonderful things, and never in a million years did I ever think something like this would happen. I was sitting right there, there did not seem to be anything that provoked him and all I can guess is that he was going for her ball. 

With that being said, today was very hard for our family in many ways.

A lot of people might be thinking, "that is why we don't have dogs," or "you just have to be so careful," but what I have learned from this is more that being parents requires sacrifice and a tremendous amount of faith that the Lord is in control and understanding that accidents are accidents and they happen. Understanding that last night was the first and might not be the last trip to the ER. Learning that even when you love your dog like a child that your baby's safety is most important.

This morning we made the choice to choose a different home for Jaxon. We know that Ella is our first priority, but saying bye to our dog was not an easy thing. Thankfully he will be living with James' parents now and crated anytime children are there. For now, this is the right decision for our family, but one day there might be room for a dog again, just not today. 

Here are some pictures of our sweet girl...

 Prepping her for surgery with her IVs.

 Snuggling with momma.

 Her poor ear. The gauze is on until tomorrow to prevent clotting. 

 You might be wondering how it is possible to be this cute in a baby hospital gown and IV...she is so sweet!

After surgery they had to monitor her for an hour then we could take her home.

So last night the lesson I learned the hard way was not that dogs are unpredictable, but that I am not in control. While the events definitely led to our family having to make changes, more than anything I learned that no matter how close I sit to her and try to protect Ella from harms way, life will happen. I am incredibly thankful for an amazing plastic surgeon who did a beautiful job on her ear and hopeful that it will heal. We would love and appreciate prayers for a speedy recovery and no infection. 

11 months

Our sweet girl is 11 months today! I cannot believe that in one month we will have a ONE YEAR OLD! That is still so hard to believe! 

This month Ella has developed SO much! I feel like her personality is coming out more and more everyday! She is definitely able to communicate (i.e. yell at us sometimes haha) about what she wants. She is doing great with her sign language and getting really good at telling us when she wants more food, or more of an activity and so on. I am loving being home to see all of this. She is also all over the place. She is not walking along yet, but will hold on to our pinkies and walk...she gets going really fast if she is headed towards a toy she wants or Jaxon. I still think we have some time before she walks unassisted though, which is fine by me! She can get to that when she is ready.

She has started making really silly faces this month and been playing lots of games. She will start the game peek a boo and get really excited when you join in and she loves to play phone. It is still so amazing to me how much a baby grows in a year and that just 11 months ago she slept and ate and that was about it :) Ella still loves bath time (since the day she was born). I am not sure what it is, but bath time always calms her down and she loves it so much. Now getting pj's on after bath time doesn't always go as smooth...haha.

She is a big eater and loves food. Right now she is loving blueberries, sweet potato pancakes, quinoa, bananas, turkey, (rice and beans when Nana takes her to dinner), and yogurt. We are still working on eating straight veggies, but she will eat spinach, broccoli  and peas mixed in her quinoa just fine, so we will take it!

I have been working on planning Ella's birthday party (which might be one of my favorite mom things to do.) I am just so excited to celebrate the blessing she has been in our lives and how much joy she brings us! 

Here are some pic of our big girl....I think we might have some red in that hair...

 Love that sweet face!

 This is the reality of an 11 month photo shoot...haha

 She is such a snuggle bug!

She LOVES books!

Here is to one more month of babyhood! I can't wait to see how she grows this month! 

10 1/2 months

Well this month we are a little late with our monthly update...but that's ok! I will blame it on trying to keep up with my busy girl. She is everywhere lately and I am loving this stage!

This month Ella really got fast with her crawling. It takes her no time at all to get to where she wants to go. She loves crawling into the bathroom when someone is in the shower or heading to the back door when James goes in the backyard. She is also cruising everywhere! She is walking along just about anything she can. I really love watching her grow through these stages and am so thankful to be here to see all this change!

Ella also got an ear infection this month. It is only our second one and was much harder than the first. She was waking up a few times a night and usually pretty fussy, but thankfully she is better now and back to a normal sleep schedule. 

She is also loving solid foods more and more everyday! This girl LOVES to eat her solids. Turkey, bananas, quinoa, food pouches, mangos, butternut squash, and mashed potatoes have been some of her favorites this month!

Here are some pictures of our growing girl...

 She loves playing in her room. 

 Cruising along...

 Silly girl

 This is what happens when you try to get a 10 month old to sit still

YAY we are done with pictures!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We are so thankful for our sweet girl!!

9 months

Ella turned 9 months on Friday and we had her check up that morning. She is a growing girl! So much has changed this month and life definitely looks different with a very mobile baby. Ella started army crawling around 7 1/2 months and I guess she got pretty good at that and wasn't so interested in crawling on her hands and knees, but that has changed very quickly this month! About a week ago she took off and is EVERYWHERE on those little hands and knees. She is getting very fast, too! Also, around 8 1/2 months she got very interested in wanting to stand on everything she could reach. Nap time definitely looks different since every now and then she will stand up and call mama or dada...good thing she is really cute. 

She has also grown a lot since her last check up. She weighs 17 lbs. 6 oz and is in the 50th percentile for weight! She is our petite little one, but we are so thankful that she is continuing to grow. She loves solid food SO much and eats just about anything. 

This month she has been saying a lot of mama, dada, and other babbling and lately she has started saying nana....which my mom loves! 

This month has been filled with a lot of milestones and learning how life looks different with a crawler. We are loving each stage and seeing her grow brings us so much joy! 

Here are some random pictures from the month and from her monthly pictures...

 Pulling up on everything!

 James was able to work his magic and get the camera and flashlight to work together so we could capture this little snuggle bug and how she likes to be close to her sheep and bunny at night. 

 Happy October!

 Such a goofball!

 Always loves that thumb!

 I think we might have more teeth coming in...

 Loves her bunny!

 Reading...lots and lots of reading around here

 SO MUCH LOVE

Loves her baby

Here's to hoping time will slow down just a little....