Waiting on Ella.

Eric & I at the 34 week mark with Ella, this past December.

Today I am officially 38 weeks (those of you wanting months…that’s about the full 9 months) pregnant with our second little girl, Ella Faith. We are now at the point where anytime I call my mom, mother-in-law or sisters “are you in labor?” is the very first thing said to me when they pick-up, which I don’t mind at all…so fun having a family so ready and excited with us to meet little Ella! The crib is up, the cradle is up, the super huge double jogging stroller is put together and ready to jog, the little baby carseat has been properly installed in the car…….things are ready and we are eagerly awaiting meeting our second little girl face to face anyday now!

As we wait on little Ella’s arrival, I have caught myself at times getting a little impatient wanting to just be able to hold Emma on my lap again at night as I rock her to sleep, wanting to see Emma’s reaction to baby Ella, wanting to sleep on my belly again, wanting to wear normal jeans, wanting to watch the happiness on Eric’s face as he holds our new little daughter in one arm and our joyful little Emma in his other, wanting to hold little Ella in my arms, see her precious little face, hands, toes, nose……etc. etc. etc.

Then one night recently as I was chatting with our little Emma in the rocking chair before bedtime and she climbed into the little “alcove”  (between mommy’s lap and the arm of the rocking chair) she has now become accustomed to as mommy’s belly has grown to big for her to comfortably enjoy mommy’s lap…I realized I needed to cherish these last few days of moments with our little family of three! Enjoy and be thankful for the fact that God has allowed us to have another child and has thus far given me such a healthy pregnancy, with a healthy little girl growing inside of me.

Eric & I at the 36 week point with little Emma, back in June 2010.

I told my mom just today on the phone (as I was answering her questions about if I had felt any contractions today, what the possible driving to the hospital scenarios could be, etc.) that I am not annoyed about having to wait for Ella’s arrival, I am thankful to be pregnant, thankful to have made it full term, thankful to have a wonderful hubby, the list could go on and on. I, well we (Eric, Emma, and I) are just excited about Ella’s arrival, excited to experience all the things mentioned in the above paragraph and become a little family of four!

And may I just say I am very happy that I personally know the only One who at this very moment knows the precise timing of Ella Faith’s arrival! He knows that it is not one second too early or one second too late, but rather right on His, always perfect, time schedule…and that is what allows me to enjoy these final days as we eagerly wait on our little Ella to arrive.

Our Holiday Highlights 2011.

Okay so apparently another part of “nesting” for me is getting this blog all caught up on a few of the holiday happenings that I haven’t yet filled you all in on! We had so much fun spending time together as a family, Eric had a break from seminary and even had a good amount of time off of work in that week between Christmas and New Years, it was wonderful and we definitely made the most of our family time!

Enjoying some family time looking at Christmas lights!

We had many family trips to the park (which…have I mentioned one of my favorite things about our new place is the great park within walking distance, so great!)…and Eric had some great daddy/daughter times at the park with just Emma and daddy to give mommy some good resting time during those days off too!

Emma & Eric enjoying some time at the park!

I got to go to a Christmas Michael W. Smith (a favorite Christian singer of ours!) concert with my two sisters, it was like an orchestra concert in a beautiful concert hall, we all felt so sophisticated as we had seats right behind the orchestra, super cool!

With my dear sisters at the concert!

We had a fun filled family day going to visit my grandparents for lunch (out in California visiting for the winter) at their condo in Oceanside, then going to the bookstore in Fallbrook (our old stomping grounds…lived there our first 3 years of marriage) which is seriously the best used bookstore ever! Proof: we bought 35 books for only $8, nope not joking. We then wrapped almost all the books for Emma under our Christmas tree…she loved opening them all and reading each one as she opened it haha! Then we stopped at my parents house on our way back home for some dinner, bathtime, and playtime for Emma (my parents weren’t home at the time, but we did enjoy the Christmas decor and cozy fireplace, thanks mom and dad) it made a very nice rest stop in the middle of our family traveling day!

Emma with my grandparents in Oceanside!

Emma helped mommy with all the Christmas shopping (which was done before Christmas break started for everyone that week before Christmas….so I feel I beat the Christmas rush of shopping which is a very satisfying feeling)!

Emma's favorite way to help mommy with Christmas shopping..."vacuum" the floors of Target with the roll of wrapping paper!

Emma loved opening our advent calendar each day in December (she also expected there to always be a piece of “lotlate” – chocolate – behind the door, no matter what else was included in that day’s advent activity)! Eric and I had so much fun planning each day and going through it with Emma…more details on the planning and ideas for advent calendar activities in a later post sometime!

Emma ready to open the final day on our advent calendar on Christmas morning!

We got to go to Disneyland with my side of the family (my grandparents – from Illinois – and my Aunt, Uncle and cousins – from Washington – included!)…Emma’s very first Disneyland trip, very memorable! Our favorite part of the day was watching Emma watch the parade with that look of childhood amazement, precious!

Watching the Disneyland parade with our little girl...Emma was unable to look away from the parade she didn't want to miss a thing!

We had a super fun Christmas Eve day with just our little family of three (well actually four :))!

Emma reacting to opening presents with our little family Christmas Eve morning, she's a great reactor, so much fun!

And of course a great Christmas day (and few days after Christmas too) spent with my family all together at my parents!

With my fabulous family on Christmas day! My mom's present to her parents was professional pics of the whole family, thank you T&H Photography!

We were also privileged to be assigned the parts of Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus for the – very laid-back and non-fancy – family Christmas play this year…we all gather together to listen to my dad read the story of Jesus’ Birth out of the huge family Bible and the kids (or sometimes those of us a little older too :)) all set up different parts for themselves to act out, it’s great!

Our little family as Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus!

The grand finale of the day, which is by far always one of my favorite moments on Christmas…after the Christmas play my mom brings out Jesus’ birthday cake, candles lit and all, the lights are dimmed and we all sing happy birthday to Jesus (there is a certain version on A Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir CD that we listen to and sing along with)…this time never fails to bring tears to my eyes and is the perfect way to end Christmas, focused on the real reason we have to celebrate, Jesus coming down to save us! Thank you LORD!

The family all gathered around Jesus's birthday cake at the end of Christmas day!

Of course there were so many other fun moments throughout the entire month of December but those are some of the basic highlights from our holidays! We thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas this year! Especially thinking up both new and old ways to start showing Emma even now at this young age that Christmas is all about Jesus coming to earth to save us and how that has changed our lives completely!

A Whole New Level of “Nesting.”

As you can see by the date of the last post I put up (almost two months ago now), I have been a bit distracted lately! Between moving, being in the final months of pregnancy, having a bunch of fun family festivities over Thanksgiving and Christmas, and little Emma wanting to watch videos on facebook of her grandparents and cousins nearly anytime the computer is out while she’s awake…my computer time has been limited (or strictly reserved for Emma to watch videos!) and the blog got bumped to the backburner pretty quickly!

Most recent "preggo pic"...35 weeks and counting!

However, one final reason for my recent absence from the blog can be blamed on a pregnancy symptom we all affectionately refer to as “nesting.”

Let’s just say I catch the whole “nesting” bug pretty intensely. In fact, I believe (and Eric would probably back me up here, right babe?) that I am somewhat always in “nesting mode”…the organization ideas just keep on flowing (pregnant or not)! This means that the whole pregnancy “nesting” symptom simply intensifies (times like a billion) when I am in the final months of pregnancy!

Good thing I have such a wonderful hubby who; A. Loves me; B. Appreciates the organization (or at least knows how to act excited for me when he gets home from work and I very proudly show him what new project Emma and I tackled during the day); C. Just laughs at me, never getting annoyed; and D. Reminds me to rest and that it is a-okay if everything is not perfectly put in place! Thank you my love! :)

Seriously though, let me just give you a small scope of the “nesting” projects I have tackled in the last month (I do hope you all enjoy a good laugh over some of my OCD tendencies that will be so clearly revealed here):

• Food pantry organized (yes I know, not a part of the nursery for the girlies, but to me still something I wanted in order to make kitchen work all the more easier once we’ve got two little girlies to take care of).
• Desk area organized (also a section of the home I wanted to be sure was in tip-top functioning order before little Ella arrives because I know I will not have time to do any extra rummaging through papers to pay the bills after she comes…gotta make the paperwork for bills as simple as possible and I do believe that we now have a very efficiently functioning desk area to stay on top of the bills).
• Closet and dresser in the girl’s room organized (Now this was a major overhaul project that was top on the list of getting done for obvious reasons..figuring out how to fit so many adorable pink outfits in one room was quite the fun challenge for me and my weird love of organizing! I am pleased to now officially say I have things put away in the way I feel will most help me keep things running efficiently and practically with all the little pink things, flower headbands, diapers, shoes, blankets, burp clothes, etc. etc. etc. that little “stylish” baby girls require)!
• Ella’s crib is up, along with all the proper bedding (thanks to my mom and mother-in-law who helped find the bedding online to match Emma’s)!
  

  Me with my wonderful hubby!

• A final layout to fit both Emma & Ella’s cribs has been decided on and it looks cute, not crammed (thanks to the help from my sis and the serious help from Eric as he moved the furniture in the nursery around so many times as my sister – who is also pregnant – and I were not much help in actually moving the furniture but just in actually placing the furniture in certain places in our minds and then letting Eric complete the placement for us in real life…again can I just say what a wonderful hubby I have!)!
• Hanging picture frames and other fun stuff on the walls in the nursery, including two bins for diapers (one filled with Emma’s size, one filled with Ella’s size), two bins for the girls headbands (again, one with Ella-sized bands and one with Emma- sized bands), and finally one more bin on the wall to hold the flowers that clip onto the headbands for the girls (gotta keep those headbands within practical reach for day to day use…you all see how much Emma uses hers!).
• And of course…what closet organization would be complete without the color-coordination of hangers for our girls clothes (yes….it’s true…I admit it…I had to…it just makes more sense to me…Emma has the light pink hangers and Ella has the dark pink hangers…..and may I just say it adds so much to their cute little pink-filled closet)!

Emma enjoying testing out the baby swing for Ella!

There are other things here and there that have been done as well but these are the main ones that really helped things feel completed and oh so ready to go for when our little Ella arrives! Emma has been such a great helper to mommy of course in getting things organized (her favorite project thus far…organizing all the baby shoes…she wanted to try just about every pair on just to be sure they were good to go for Ella, what a good big sister she is already)!

She has also thoroughly enjoyed the little swing and bouncy seat we recently took out of the closet for little Ella, I think she wonders why we didn’t let her know earlier that we had these fun little gadgets in our home, haha!

Anywho…needless to say we are getting very excited about welcoming little Ella Faith into our home in the weeks to come. We can’t wait to see little Emma’s reaction to having a little baby sister! And we are so thankful to God for our two little girls…and no worries people, no matter how OCD I may sound after you read this (sheesh!), I know that “nesting” is really just the beginning of the serious day-to-day blessings we receive in raising these two little girls, what a joy!