A trip to Walmart is always a fun time. Today during our quick trip in Mike and I saw the following:

Girl acting like she was Jessica Simpson, complete with miniture dog in bag.....

Man with freshly shaven Mohawk...

Women wearing a red sports bra and red cotton exercise shorts.....

Young kid asking us about Jello shots....

Funny stuff!!

Pregnancy and leg cramps...forgot about how bad these were until I was awaken at 5:15am with one in my right calf.....It felt like someone was trying to tear my leg off. If you've ever had one of these you know what I mean, if you haven't, consider yourself lucky!! Pregnancy leg cramps suck...they don't go away very easily and seem to last all day. I was still limping around this morning with I got up and it is STILL tender at 1:30pm.

Ella has gone 3 times now in her potty!! Yeah!! She is getting really good about telling us that she needs a new diaper, most of the time she has already wet/pooped herself but she is telling us!

So this morning Ella once again woke up dry. We attempted to put her on the potty but she was having nothing to do with it today. No big deal, put her in the shower and she proceeds to pee....get her out of the shower, put on new Feel n learn pull up. I was getting ready to take her to the potty, when she starts whining and trying to pull her pants/diaper off....checked it and yup, too late. So, I guess 20 minutes after downing a cup of milk is too long, need to check after 15 minutes. I think if I can just get her to pee on the potty, then we will be getting somewhere.

Do any of you remember that movie, Look who's talking, part II? All I keep seeing is John Travolta and Kristi Alley with the potty seat on their heads dancing and singing around their apartment singing, Pee, Pee on the potty, Pee,Pee on the potty to the tune of a congo line. Cracks me up!!

Mike and GraysonPaula and Grayson
Fell asleep with Mommy...wasn't feeling good this day!

This is how Daddy found her...she was really quite for about 10 minutes so he went looking for her...she had fallen asleep in the chair. How cute!!!

Ella is almost 21 months old and she is showing us signs that she is ready for potty training. I can't beleive that she is old enough for that yet.

She has been bringing us diapers when she is poopy and trying to pull her diaper off when it's wet. She woke up this morning dry....couldn't beleive that she went all night with a dry diaper!!So, we went and bought her a potty seat, training pants, these new feel n learn pull ups.....here we go.

I've started doing the purse/bag thing again...www.mythirtyone.com/3568

It's different from Diva girl, in that these bags are ordered and most of them can be monogrammed. They also offer other products.....check out the catalog and if you see something let me know. You can also host your own party online, no matter where you live!!

We are slowly narrowing down the name list, I think we are down to these two:
Delanie (lanie) and Anna....leaning more towards Lanie right now.
And, I still love, love the name Claire but I can't seem to get Mike to warm up to it...I'm still working on him!!

Today is tax day and of course we waited until the very last possible minute to file...of course as in the past, we filed an extension but I still had to do the paperwork and do the whole post office thing. I swear one of these days I will get this done a month ahead. That's my goal!

Ella and Daddy in their Easter Best
Hunting for Eggs at Grandma Judys Apprently you can see better with the glasses on upside down????

Ella fell in the mud....

It's been raining here....and raining.....and raining.....it has finally stopped and left us with about 3 inches of water and a small pond in the back yard.

I noticed yesterday that every ball field I passed was either half under water or completly submerged....why is it that they always seem to build ball fields near creeks or other bodies of water that are prone to flooding??? Or even why they are built in low spots so all the water just collects and sits there? Is there a rule book somewhere I missed?

For Jen, new Hairdo.....

Baby #2

We went this morning with Mikes parents and my parents to find out the sex of the baby....

It's a girl! I was kinda hoping for a boy but I'm totally happy with having another sweet baby girl. Mike is happy, he really wanted another girl.

So now it begins....finding a name, crib bedding, furniture, new clothes. A lot of things will be able to be passed on to the new baby but I still will want some new things. I won't have to get a new stroller or car seat so I can spend more on new clothes for the little one.

Ella got her first haircut last sunday. I think she is the only 19 month old that is already wearing "product" in her hair. She has super curly hair that needs spray gel and detangler every morning. Here she is posing.....

So I'm spending a week up at my sisters helping out after her surgery and have discovered that two children will be plenty. 4 boys, 3 dogs, 2 pregnant ladies and 1 Ella equals complete chaos.
Ella has decieded that most food is not acceptable and has taken to only eating the following:

Hot dogs
grapes
eggs
apples
any kind of chip ( which is called a cookie)
green beans

Do you know how hard it is to concoct a meal with only these foods? I'm hoping that it's just a spell and she will start eating other foods soon.

So I've started feeling the baby move in the last few days and its a good feeling. Up until this point it's always nerve wracking for me .

Well the forecast pulled through and we got 7-8 inches. This morning we took Ella out for some snow time....





She did not want to come back in. We only stayed out for 15 minutes or so, I was afraid she would get too cold.

Having a hard time walking the deep snow

Ella eating snow

Snow Moustache...

It has started snowing. They say that by this time tomorrow we could up to 10 inches of snow. That is a lot for St. Louis....I'm sure everyone was out this morning stocking up on the bread and milk. Because we don't have snowplows and won't be able to get out for days. I do admit that I did go the store and get milk yesterday. I wasn't going to run out of milk for Ella and have to drag her out in the snow.

Aunt Jen sent us some beautiful dresses for Miss Ella, isn't she just the cutest? She is getting so big and saying so much. Although she is talking a lot, I think she is still so frusterated about not being able to tell us excatly what she needs.

We had her 18 month checkup and she was 25lbs and 33 inches long. Dr. said she is doing great. I'm a little concerend about how she will act when the new baby gets here. I'm hoping that she will be young enough that it won't faze her too much.

Speaking of new babies, I've been doing great. Still haven't heard the heartbeat but hopefully next week at our Dr. appt we will. That always makes me feel better. I'm 14 weeks and already busting out of my jeans. I'm in the maternity clothes already.....

Just so you all know, the Christmas wreath is STILL hanging over my fireplace. Any bets on how long it will take my procrastinating husband to take it down?

I'm glad the holidays are over. It was fun but I'm done. Everything Christmas has been put away, minus the giant wreath over my fireplace, which I will have to ask and resort to nagging to get my husband to take it down!

Ella had a great Christmas! She got lots of presents and has been having a ball playing with her new kitchen. We moved Ella into her big girl bed yesterday! It was a little bit of a struggle last night, keeping her in bed. But I think she will do okay. I wanted to start now with the transition of moving her into a bigger bed. We will be using her nursery furniture for the new baby and Ella will be getting new stuff.

We had our first major boo-boo this morning. I had put Ella into her room and because she can now get up and explore her room at will, she decided to crawl behind her bed and pull the ceramic Guardian Angel night light that Aunt Jen bought her, down on top of her head...

I've already had a lady at Kohls ask me very suspiciously what happened....I hate that when your child has a bruise, bump or scratch some people automatically think you did it.

So Ella is sick....first time ever! What bothers me is that on Christmas Day we had my family over. There were 2 sick kids and 2 sick adults! Piece of advice, if you kid is hacking all over the place and you are sick don't come to my house! What are people thinking? It would be one thing if I didn't have children but come on! Do people not use their brains anymore?

On one of the message boards I frequent, there are several moms complaining that their kids (at 17-18 months) are still waking up 2 and 3 times a night. They ask, what should we do? They say that they sit next to their bed until they fall asleep, get up when they cry in the middle of the night and feed them, put them in bed with them....WTH?

I've had Ella on a schedule since she was about 8 months old. I don't rock her to sleep, stay by her side, ect. She gets a book, brushes her teeth, hugs, kisses and off to bed. I think these kids have never learned to fall asleep on their own. I wouldn't be a very pleasant person if I was still getting up a couple of times a night to feed Ella.

At this point, the only think I can suggest is to let them cry it out. They need to be "trained" to fall asleep on their own and sleep through the night. Man, I sound like a hard ass!!

Christmas is almost here and for once, I'm almost done with everything. I'm hoping tonight I can finish up the last of the gift and grocery shopping. I got my cards out on time, presents are all wrapped, except for the few I still need to buy, and cookies are baked. My house is still a mess and there is the issue of Ella.....

She has been so good this Christmas season, until now. I was worried about her tearing the tree apart and ripping up the gifts but being the angel that she is......she hadn't touched a thing...until today! She discovered the pretty beads on the tree, wants to wear them, thinks its now fun to rip open the packages. So, I've spent the day placing gifts around the house in places I know she can't reach. If any of you receive a gift with a "patch" on it..you can think Ella! I wasn't re-wrapping anything so I just creatively "patched" the spots. I think it will give it character, don't you? I just hope that I don't forget where I put things and end up finding them after the Christmas season.

We didn't get Ella's picture taken with Santa this year, so don't be looking for one. She is terrified of the Big guy and I wasn't in the mood to traumatize the poor kid by forcing her to sit on his lap. Besides, we have the same Santa at the mall as we did last year and the old guy was shaking so much I was afraid to hand my new baby over to him. I beleive it's a Parkinson's thing, not from missing the alcohol!!

So in its place, I give you the best of Ella...in the Santa Hat!!

I've become super clumsy in the last few days. I suppose I can chalk it up to the pregnancy. Last night, Mike got a good laugh when I attempted to scoop us some ice cream. It started when I pulled out the 2 different containers of ice cream (because we can't decide on one). As I pulled them out, a large hunk of frozen ham fell out of the fridge and attacked my foot...OUCH! As I hobbled over to the counter and started scooping, I dropped the ice cream scoop! Another mess...

I ate my ice cream and got up from the couch to put the bowl away and tripped over my own foot. I almost nose dived into the fireplace! I don't remember being this clumsy with Ella. Mike was laughing and I was getting more and more mad at him by the minute. I threatened to punch him if he didn't shut it!

Yeah! It's going to snow tonight! I love the snow.....Ella is screaming upstairs...

Dress Up Time!! I was bored...Ella got new clothes...Are they not just the cutest things you've ever seen?

It is going to be a long 9 months....I miss my daily nap that I was able to get with Ella....

Almost 2 years ago Mike and I found out that we were pregnant with Miss Ella. It was the day before Thanksgiving and I had been feeling kinda crappy for a few days, so we decieded to take the test....



Fast Forward to Friday Morning...Day after Thanksgiving...Not feeling so hot so I thought what the heck, I'll take a test...Yep, You guessed it....We will be adding a new addition to the family the end of July 2008!!



It's kinda sad to think that Ella will no longer be my baby...I've got to learn how to love 2 babies....

I'm done with Diva Girl...the 8 boxes of purses that I have to send back are sitting on the front porch waiting for UPS to pick them up. I'm kind of excited, kind of sad. I'm excited to have my dining room back....I'm excited to not have to tell Ella, NO, 16 thousand times a day for getting into my stuff. I'm sad that I won't get a few hours of Non-Mommy time each week....

So being in charge of a Moms groups is hard. It's amazing to me how petty and catty women, grown women, can be. The thing I have to get over is trying to do everything myself...people want to help, I should let them, they don't do things the way I would do them, so I just do it myself.

The weather has finally changed into fall...yesterday it was around 70, today it's 48. And windy...meaning the chore of bundling up Ella has begun. And of course, she poops as I put her in the car!! Ugh!! Off comes the hat, off comes the coat, off come the shoes, off come the pants, change diaper and then chase her around the house trying to put all the listed items back on her.

It also means, freezing my butt off at the gas station. I can't stand putting gas in the car when it's cold and windy out. I swear, the wind can be as calm as can be and as soon as I start pumping gas, it's like a hurricane is coming. I know I could probably get back in the car and some people I know even leave the car running. I have this fear of my car blowing up, how many people do you know that have actually had this happen? I know it's probably a million in one chance, but I don't have the best of luck. I think I'm making that Mike's job for the winter....

Christmas is approaching and I've started the shopping. It is hard to buy for an almost 18 month old. Will she like this? Do I really want to spend this amount of money on something? What is she going to get from the other 100 people that will buy her something this holiday season? Where in the world will I keep all these receipts, so when she receives several of the same gift, I can exchange them? Just as an FYI...so far she has a TMX tickle me Elmo and one of those alphabet magnetic sets.....

Off to get some things done while she is sleeping....

I'm a horibble blogger, I've learned to accept it...so should all of you!!







Things have been busy around here. I've deciede to quit Diva Girl. I really love the company but I just can't keep up with the 8 parties a month that they require me to do. But, I am looking into a new business that is similar to Diva Girl but I don't have the montly party requirement....





Ella has been busy...well, being busy!! She is everywhere, into everything and loves to play with anything that isn't really a toy. Mike and I have talked that for Christmas, she will be getting her own remote, cell phone, box of wire, ect. to play with.





We bought her Halloween costume...isn't she just cute as a bug!!




Ella loves my purses. Her she is carrying one around the house. She gets it around her neck and carries it that way...I guess she is on her way out!

Mike and I (with Daves help) are in the process of putting in new kitchen/bathroom floors. I will post the before and after shots when it is finished.

For you Jen...Let Landon know that Mike is

a Super Hero Too!!!!