Camera Happy

First of all, I have to thank my oh so talented sister Jenn for another new, beautiful blog design. This ol' blog of mine needed a face lift and Jenn was kind enough to design a new one for me. Check out Munchkin Land Designs if you're ever in need of a new look. I'm not just saying this because Jenn is my sister, she is one talented lady and she never disappoints! She does more than blog designs too. :) Thanks again Jenn!

I LOVE this new design! The silhouette of  the family looks almost just like us. :) I can't wait to see what our family of 5 looks like after this last baby is born!

Caleb and I enjoyed a long awaited date last Saturday night. We decided while we were out to go shopping for a camera as we were in great need of one and we had some Best Buy gift cards burning a hole in our pockets.

We don't know too much about cameras and we only need a simple point and shoot to capture our every day lives. We looked around and played with a few mid-range point and shoot cameras and settled on this Sony camera:

As we checked out Caleb reminded me that we have 10x more photos and videos of Elliana than we do of Ethan. He asked me to promise him to make better use of this new camera and take more photos and videos  of the kids during the day. So, I've been doing my best to keep that promise and I've been a little camera happy this week. If only we could be outside more to get better shots when the lighting is better.

These are my favorite smiles of my 2 precious babes this week. 

I've commented before that Ellie is becoming more girly by the day. She loves to dress up (wearing several different dresses throughout the day), dance around the house and practice curtsying. 

Here she is dancing and curtsying. 

On Sunday my parents stopped by my house with my Grandma Rose to return Ethan's shoes that we had left at their house the night before. While they were visiting Dad insisted that we take a 4 generations picture with Grandma Rose, Dad, me and Ethan. I'm really glad he suggested it-ever since we lost Grandma Nancy I find myself wishing we had taken more pictures of/with her. 

I'm thinking I look awfully pale next to Dad and Grandma-I need to do something about that. ;-)

Since we finally have a camera again, I figured it was time to capture my first baby bump pic. Here's a collage of me with all 3 pregnancies. No, I did not mean to wear the EXACT same outfit from when I was pregnant with Ethan. If this wasn't my last pregnancy, I would be buying a whole new maternity wardrobe.

Sunday night a sweet friend handed me an unexpected and generous gift. They gave me a card with a voucher inside for a free latte and 2 free kids passes to Cool Beans Playhouse. I'd never heard of or been to Cool Beans before so as soon as I got home I checked out their website. 

Today we made a little visit to Cool Beans and we all loved the place! It's a big playroom full of all kinds of toys, a tree house with a big slide, an area for hanging from ropes and jumping into a soft pit, etc. One of the greatest features for moms is that there's a little cafe right next to the play area where you can enjoy a drink or a healthy snack while watching your little ones have a blast! I don't think we'll be visiting too often since it's not the cheapest place to take the kids, but we all had a great time!

Here's some of the best shots of the day:

 Ellie's favorite spot. As always, wearing a huge grin on her face.

Ethan nearly never stops moving so it's almost impossible to get good pictures of him. 

This is my favorite one from today. 

How about a toffee nut latte? Why yes, don't mind if I do. :)

I've decided that my long, lifeless, dull brown hair has to go. 

I don't know when, but I'm hoping to cut and color it in the very near future.

 I'll definitely post a picture after I have a new look. :)

Life Without A Camera and other Randomness

I was going to name this post "Another Random Post" but really I'm mostly having a hard time not having a camera to document our lives right now.  So, I'll fill you in on what's been going on without pictures (sorry). :)

Caleb and I sent our camera in to be fixed and unfortunately it is not fixable. :( So, it looks like we will be shopping for a new camera in the next few weeks. I can't wait!

This past week we passed the huge milestone that had been on all of our minds ever since Dad's cancer diagnosis. Dad had his surgery to remove his prostate on Thursday and we all breathed a huge sigh of relief when we heard the surgery was over and he was in a recovery room. Jenn did a great job posting about that day on her blog.

I love this picture of me, my mom and my sisters surrounding Dad. Notice how we're all smiling? 

SO relieved to have his surgery behind us!

I am still in awe at the number of emails and texts we all received the day before Dad's surgery from loved ones saying that they were praying for Dad. We have the most amazing friends and family in the world, and let me tell you, we felt your prayers! Like Jenn said, if I ever need to learn what it is to be a good friend, I need to look no further than our own friends and family. We are all blessed indeed.

We will know in 2 weeks after some more tests are done if Dad is in fact cancer free or if he will need more treatment. We are of course praying for a cancer free diagnosis. :)

I've said this before, but January and February are always the longest, most dull months for me. The weather is too cold to enjoy being outside, and aside from Valentine's Day (which some people would argue isn't a real holiday anyway), there isn't a lot of celebrating going on. I can't tell you how happy I am that January is already almost over! We're almost half way through the winter blues.

While waiting for these boring months to pass, I've been enjoying watching some of my favorite TV shows.

A new favorite this year is Downton Abbey. Have you seen it? If not, you must watch it! Caleb and I love sitting down and watching Downton Abbey together (although if you ask him, he'll deny that he likes it ;)). If you haven't been following this show, then you must watch from the beginning. It's not one of those shows that you can just jump into and catch up. We rented seasons 1 and 2 and watched every episode last summer. We're LOVING season 3 so far!

Another show that I am hooked on is The Bachelor. I know. I know I should be ashamed but it has been my guilty pleasure for many years. I don't know why I am so hooked on the show. The couples rarely survive after the taping but I still enjoy watching almost every season to this day. I've only missed a few seasons. I think I'm going to like this one. I'm a big fan of Sean Lowe! I really wanted him to "win" when he was on The Bachelorette with Emily Maynard.

And last, but not least, I figured I should do a little catch up on my pregnancy. I'd take a great photo to show you my growing baby bump, but wait... I can't! Meh.

My 20 week ultrasound is already scheduled! Sure, it's a month away, but that means I'm only 4 weeks away to being half way through this pregnancy! It's speeding by.

Now to see if we can really escape the 20 week ultrasound without finding out the gender of the baby. I really hope we succeed. 

Over this past week I've been feeling those first little baby kicks. :) Sure the baby's not big enough to feel every little move, but I have been feeling a little kick or two on a daily basis for a week now. This is by far my favorite part of being pregnant!

I'm a little worried about naming this 3rd child. First of all, there has been a great debate over whether or not to name this baby an "E" name since Elliana and Ethan both begin with E. Caleb says no E name, I say yes. However, I don't want to pick a name that I only sort of like just because it begins with an E. It will have to be the perfect fit! With Ellie and Ethan, we knew almost from the beginning of those pregnancies what names we liked. This time around, we have no idea where to begin. Oh well, I'm sure we'll find the right name for this baby, boy or girl. :)

I'm Baaack! (With Randomness)

I think this is a new record for how long I've gone without blogging. I had every intention of blogging sooner (I even wanted to do the 2012 Year In Review that my sister Courtney did) but any free time I had (which was very little) was spent passing out from exhaustion or relaxing with Caleb.

Although I do wish I had more documented from the past month or so, I don't regret letting myself rest when I needed to. I apologize in advance, this post could get long as I recap the last 4-6 weeks.

The past 4-6 weeks have been kind of a blur really. December was full of baking, lots and lots of baking, birthdays (both Ellie and Reagan turned 4, and I had 3 other nieces birthdays to celebrate in the month of December), Christmas shopping, wrapping, Christmas parties, preparing a song to sing on Christmas Eve, etc.

Missing Grandma Nancy this Christmas season was hard. I noticed as Christmas drew closer, I became more emotional. With every beautiful memory being made there was a slight sting behind it knowing Grandma should've been here.

BUT, right before Christmas each of the women in our family was given a beautiful gift from Grandma, one of her last wishes, to carry with us. We were each given a beautiful cross necklace designed by Grandma Nancy and her mom "Grammie", years ago. My sister Jenn wrote a beautiful post about that experience.

Aside from the obvious heartaches of missing Grandma and thinking about Dad and his upcoming surgery, our Christmas was a good one. We spent Christmas morning as a family of 4, then packed up and stopped by my parent's house briefly to exchange gifts with my family, then headed to Caleb's family cabin where we spent 3 days in the snowy mountains.

Here's Caleb reading the Christmas story to Ellie and Ethan out of their children's Bible on Christmas morning:

These 3 are my world. I LOVE them!

Ethan wasn't really as grumpy as he looks in this picture.

The highlights from those 3 days included  making a gingerbread house with Ellie, playing on the frozen lake (don't worry, I was very careful), and a sleigh ride with the whole family through the snow with a quick stop for cookies and hot chocolate half way through. It was storybook perfect! Just what we needed to end the crazy Christmas season.

During our stay at the cabin, our camera started acting funny and now we can't get it to work at all. Boo! So, I really hope we can get the camera fixed soon or all of my posts are going to be extra boring. Anyone know how to fix a camera that says "Lens error, restart camera"? I have NO idea how to "restart" my camera!

At the end of 3 days, Caleb stole me away for 48 hours to celebrate my 31st birthday. We stayed at a hotel in Denver and saw The Hobbit and Les Miserables within 14 hours in the movie theater. Before that weekend, we hadn't seen a movie in theaters for almost a year! I guess we really wanted to take advantage of time without the little ones. Ha ha. Les Miserables was SO moving-I highly recommend it!

After my birthday weekend was over, we returned home with the kids and it was New Years Eve. This was one of our less exciting New Years Eve's as we went to a small party for just a couple of hours and then headed home to put the kids to bed. Caleb and I plopped down on the couch, watched a movie and toasted with sparkling cider. I couldn't even stay up until midnight this year. Oh well, I was still more than happy to say goodbye to 2012!

Right after New Years, it was wedding time! My cousin Ryan married his fiance Lorin this past Thursday and the whole week was spent with out of town family and filled with wedding festivities. The rehearsal dinner was a blast and the wedding was beautiful!

Well, that catches us up to now.

I'm going to be 14 weeks pregnant on Tuesday and officially in my second trimester! I can't believe how fast time is flying and how fast this pregnancy is going. We're pretty confident that this will be my last pregnancy so I'm trying to soak it all in and not complain about how "large" I am already. ;)

Caleb returns to work tomorrow and I can't tell you how much this is going to upset the kids (and me too). It's amazing how quickly we get used to being together all day every day over Christmas break. I'm just thankful that we get to spend as much time together as we do.

Whenever January hits, I'm both sad and relieved to have life slow down. As we look on to 2013 and we wonder what it holds, I'm finding that my hopes/prayers for this year are a lot more simple than in past years.   Mostly, I hope and pray for healing. Healing for my Dad as he recovers from his surgery on January 17th, and that we will hear that he is cancer free after his surgery. I would also pray for healing for so many that lost loved ones this past year. Those that lost loved ones to tragic and horrific shootings, and those that lost loved ones in other unexpected ways. I also pray for healing for families that are being torn apart through other circumstances.

I hope and pray for healthy babies. A healthy 3rd baby for us, healthy babies for my sister Alli and my friends, and most of all I pray for babies for all of those couples that have been dreaming and trying to have a family for many months or years.

I'm really curious to see what this year holds. No matter what, I know God is faithful, and I'm holding on to that truth.