The rest of the family...

Wow, an actual picture of Josh and I


We were trying to compare our big bellies. I'm pretty sure I win.

I just love this new dress on her. It's just so summery.

More Ella

Here are some recent pictures of our lives - well, Ella's anyway.
She loves corn-on-the-cob.
Not sure what that face means.
This is the face she makes when she wants to say no, or is just not pleased with something.
Hangin' with Ocean and Meadow
Cooling off in the pool.


She loves Marissa - one of the girls in our youth.
Her first time wearing pig tails! So cute!

You can't catch me!

Well, I got tagged. I've been putting this off, because, well I'm really quite boring... but here goes. I'll see what I can come up with. (For those of you who don't know. I have to give 8 interesting/weird facts about myself and then tag 8 other people to do the same) Sorry in advance to those of you I tag.

1. Having Ella caused my body to trade in a milk allergy for a fish allergy. The weird thing is that fish was the only thing I craved while I was pregnant with her.

2. Sometimes when I am somewhere really high - like a building - I feel an incredible urge to jump. (no, I'm not suicidal)

3. I love the idea of reading, but I'm really quite bad at it. I have numerous books that I have purchased for myself and never read. So sad.

4. I used to want 10 kids, and I wanted all boys.

5. I only lock the door to our house when it's a mess. Like I don't want the robbers to see our mess, but they can take whatever they want any other time. How warped is that.

6. I literally want to throw up when I see someone wipe their childs face with a dishcloth.

7. I ate my first peanut and jelly sandwich in college. I can thank ol' Aaron Oskey for that one.

8. I don't do it very often, but I could kick most peoples butts in a belching competition if I had to.

Now this is the hard part:
I tag: Sarah Gullacher, Chelsey Beda, Pam Meister, Karen Adams, Suzanne Dobbertin, Jenecia Griffiths, Shyla Rohrer

hmmmm

So, she got out of the dryer, but...
This picture was a little staged. She got in head first and I spun her around for a better picture.
This is what we woke up to on Thursday! Crazy weather - and today was beautiful. I'm just thankful all my flowers are ok - the snow insulated them from the cold. That one dead looking plant was already looking that way. They can outlast the cold, but can they outlast my sad, sad not-so-green thumb?

Well, it's been a while, so here are some recent pictures of Ella.

Don't you just love little baby legs?


The swings are still her favourite


Ocean and Meadow had a sleepover the night Blue and Deb's baby was born. Samuel Forest was born on Good Friday - they are all doing well.




She loves helping Josh.

Baby

Well, these may not be the most exciting pictures to some of you, but to me, I will never stop being amazed at what God can do in creating new life. These are from my ultrasound today, and I absolutely love the second and third pictures where you can actually count out the babies finders and toes. The technician couldn't get all the pictures she needed, so she thought I would probably have to comeback for another ultrasound. Oh darn, like I could ever get tired of staring at my child. She couldn't tell what the babies sex was, but we don't want to know anyway. At least this stopped me fram changing my mind at the last minute. That's probably part of the reason Josh comes along because he doesn't trust me with surprises (rightfully so), and obviously because he wants to see the baby - not to mention the fact that I beg him to because I can't carry Ella with such a full bladder. Well, I hope you are as in awe of these as I am.

Oh Ella, where are you?

The other day Ella and I went downstairs to do some laundry. After I was done I told her to follow me upstairs. Well, for some reason she just wanted to stay down and play. For those of you who know Ella that is quite unusual for her because she normally just likes to be wherever the action is. Since there are only who of us during the day the "action" is wherever I am. So I thought I would just let her hang out for a little while and go check on her often (our basement isn't exactly a good play area). So, after going down a few times, the next time I went down there wasn't a sign of her anywhere. I was calling and looking and she was gone. I was starting to get a little panicked. She usually would just respond right away or make some kind of noise anyway. Well finally I looked more closely to where she was playing the last time I saw her - right nest to the washer and dryer - and sure enough, she had crawled into the dryer. She brought all her blankets downstairs, had pushed them into the dryer and gotten right in with them. She was so happy just playing away. I told Josh the story and he got kind of freaked out. I told him there was no way she could shut the door on herself, so no need to worry. He said "yeah, until she has a little brother or sister to stuff in!" So true.

Spring Fever

Well, the other day it was beautiful here, and I totally caught a bit of spring fever. So, Ella and I headed out to the garden store. We bought some poppy seeds, tomato seeds and different herbs. Then we got some little flowers that you keep inside for awhile and then transplant them. They were on sale, so hey why not. They also had some gardening gloves on sale, so I got myself a pair, and then they had little kids ones with frogs and Ella loved them, so once again, why not. They were only 98 cents. So, the two little gardeners went home and got to work. Here are a few pictures of Ella "working" The one with the glove in her mouth is showing how she takes them off - just like an adult would do- well maybe not with gardening gloves, but you know what I mean. Funny girl. Now there is snow on the ground the ground, and it is cold, so my fever has been put on hold - I'm sure it will return soon.

Some new pictures, finally!

Ella got a haircut recently. This is a before shot. Below are some after shots. I didn't realize how crazy it was getting until after it was gone.


Sweet shades! If you zoom in on this you can see some of the van inerior through the reflection in the glasses. (And where we stopped for a little treat)
She loves to take the laundry I'm folding and dress up. You can tell how productive my days are.



Mmmm, carrot juice.



Such a pretty girl! Half the fun of spring is the new clothes!

Home Sweet Home

Well, I can't find the cord to download pictures right now, so words will have to suffice. Just let me tell you, it is nice to be home - it's also really nice to hear my husband say over and over that he's never going to let me go away again. It's nice to be missed. We had a good time, it was actually quite relaxing. Me mom let me take a nap quite often while she took care of Ella, that was great. We got to meet Ella's baby husband Eli Drew Ramsdale. He is quite a precious little thing, and Ella really liked him. She actually loves babies, but what little girl doesn't I guess. All in all it was pretty uneventful, except for me puking on the plane home during the turbulence while holding onto Ella. And then she cried because she hates it when I puke - she's so sensitive.
I'm not really sure what else to say - my mind's pretty blank - oh pregnancy brain - don't you love it?
I'll put pictures up soon.

Oh where to begin. I feel as though my life has been crazy lately. We have been flying, and it is not quite over yet - but I'll give you a short (hopefully) synopsis of what's been happening. On Valentine's Day my nephew Barrett flew into town to stay with us for 10 days. He was great, and we had a lot of fun with him - but it did keep me busy. We went to the zoo, the dinosaur museum and the science centre - not to mention numerous games of mancala and Settler's of Catan. He loves playing games and would clear the table while Josh and I were still eating so he could set up a game for us to play. I also love games, so it was a lot of fun.
Well, the day after he left we got up at 3:30 to be able to catch our flight to Vegas. No, it wasn't a fun filled trip of gambling our life's savings away, but rather to pick up a van that Josh bought on ebay. A little nerve racking since you are never quite sure what you are going to get on ebay, and since it wasn't exactly new. It is an '89 VW vanagon, and let me tell you it is quite a sweetheart. We drove it all the way home without too many problems, and even spent the night in it at a truck stop in Montana. The back folds out into a queen size bed so the three of us were quite comfortable. I'm sorry to say I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I'll try to get some up soon. On the way home we stopped in the beautiful town of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We spent a couple of days there with our dear friends Robbie and Krista Morford. There were plenty of laughs and good 'ol Northland stories told. We also saw Todd and Jennifer Lamppa. It's kind of cool how even though we haven't seen them in almost 2 years, Robbie and Josh act as though they've never been apart. They are quite a pair. Jackson hasn't gotten a lot of snow this year, but we woke up the morning after we got there to almost a foot of fresh snow, so the boys went snowboarding all day.
On with the story, so we got home Thursday evening, and my parents were in town on business. So, we spent a couple of days with them - and then they got the bright idea of taking Ella home with them, and I would go out next week to get her and stay for a few days. Since they have been begging me to come for a while, I thought I would. So Josh and I are officially baby free - except for the giant that is growing in my belly! I feel huge already, I'm a little scared.
Anyway, tomorrow I head out to Winnipeg for a few days. Boy, I didn't realize how hard it was to leave Ella, I cried at the airport, but by the evening I had gotten into the swing of things. We went to the bookstore so we could look at magazines without anyone trying to rip the pages out. We went out for dinner and just sat there for so long drinking tea, and today Josh said "Boy, you can get a lot done without Ella along." So, it has been fun, but I sure do miss my baby. Here are a few pictures to remind us all of how cute she is.

Water Baby

Here's a funny little story about Ella. Yesterday we went over to Blue and Deb's house for dinner. Meadow made quite a mess during dinner so Deb put her in the tub. Ella was hanging out with her just watching from the side. So I was cleaning up a little and just thought I would look in on them. Well I look in the bathroom and think "Oh, Deb decided to put Ella in the bath too". Well, as I get a little closer I notice that she is completely dressed. That's right - t-shirt, jean skirt, tights and leather booties, and she is having the time of her life. It was like she didn't even notice that her clothes were still on. So I went through the aweful chore of taking off wet clothes and let her play in the tub for probably over 1/2 an hour. She thought it was awesome to have a bath with other kids. She would pour water over her head and then just laugh hysterically. The only reason she wanted to come out was that Meadow was bribing her with a cookie. Anyway, Deb found some pink princess pajamas for her to wear, and there was a princess toque lying around so I put that on her to. Deb went into the bathroom to clean up and Ella followed her in. She was draining the water and turned around to hang up a towel. From the corner of her eye she sees Ella straddling the tub and before she could grab her she was back in the now one inch of icy cold water wearing pajamas, a toque and eating a cookie - and she couldn't have been happier. At least Josh got his wish - she definitely loves the water. I'm sorry to say that the only picture we got was on Josh's phone, but I'll try to post it later.

Youth

I had a busy but great day for a monday. This afternoon I went out for lunch with Marissa, one of the girls in our youth. It's so awesome just to feel like I am beginning to build a relationship with them as they are starting to trust us and we are learning to love them more. I can really see the Lord working in my life to even be able to reach out to them. I am just so thankful that He has called us to this ministry at this time. This weekend we had an activity planned, but we needed other people from our church to pull it off. Sadly, we had no volunteers and I was quite sad. So we came up with another activity and about an hour and a half before the activity we had a parent think it wasn't such a great idea. (We were going to play hide and go seek in an empty newly painted house and they thought we may damage something) So we cancelled that, and I was just plain annoyed. Josh was trying to think up something else and I was just like "No, I'm done! No youth this week" So we called all the kids and told them the sad news. Well within a half an hour they had all called each other and then called us back basically demanding that we have youth. So, Josh was just going to go so I could stay with Ella - but they pretty much begged me to come. Now if that wouldn't make you feel good I don't know what would. It was so encouraging to see that they really want to be there. It was the most encouraging youth activity we've had yet. In church on Sunday we were singing Indescribable by Chris Tomlin and one line says "you see the depths of my heart and you love me the same" and that just became so real to me. On Saturday night the depth of my heart was annoyance, complaining and self pity - but God still gave us an awesome night that I could never have planned to matter how hard I try.
Just a little family phot from our trip to the hot springs.

Bust a Move

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I'm not sure what's wrong with the sound. Sorry my voice sounds so annoying. Isn't her hair awesome?

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Well, I just wanted to write a little something to let you all know that we haven't dropped off the face of the earth. I'm not sure why I haven't been blogging, but I guess it's just not a priority right now. I have been quite busy, but guess what Kelly, it's Christmas - the whole world is busy! Tomorrow we are going on a skiing trip into a hut where we will be staying for a few days. No nothing romantic or anything - there will be 17 of us all together - but it definitely should be fun. I'll let you all know how it went. Have a great weekend.

Trick or Treat

Halloween Part 1:
Boy did we have a good halloween. We went to the mall (as mentioned earlier) and walked around and got candy. She ate 3 suckers while we were there. Wow, more sugar than she's probably ever had. Then we came home and hung out for a while just waiting for the trick or treaters. Now let me tell you, I'm not very experienced in the halloween department. In fact, THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I'VE HANDED OUT CANDY IN MY LIFE! I grew up out of town, and since we've been married we've gone to a harvest party at our old church. So, as you can imagine I was very excited. I thought kids started coming right after school, so we waited and waited and then realized apparently 6 o'clock is the time to start - because they started coming from everywhere. So I put Ella's parka on (because it is freezing here) and we waited by the door. When the kids came, she would just stand there and yell at them and wave her arms around like a crazy woman and try to chase them out the door. Now she wasn't doing this because she was scared or anything, but because she was so stinkin' excited. She chased them because she wated to go with them I think, or at least get really close to them. Josh came home shortly after it started, so he did the handing out for a little while while Ella and I walked around the cul-de-sac so we could meet the neighbours and Ella (i.e. mom) could get a little candy. Good thing we did, because we ran out and had to give the stuff we gathered away. You don't want to anger the little devils.
Halloween Part 2:
At 7, I left the house to go to a friends for a "girls scary movie night." What a great idea since we all know that when girls normally get together they watch "chick flicks", hence the name "chick flicks." So there were about 7 of us, and a few of them were pretty late. I felt bad about being 20 minutes late, and I was the first one there. Anyway, we chatted for a while, drank coffee, ate cookies - blah, blah, blah. Finally at 8 we put in the movie. We watched "The Village" Now this was chosen on purpose, because when Lauren invited everyone she got quite a few "now how scary do you mean"s out of us, so she took it easy. Now don't get me wrong, we were still scared, there was a lot of screaming and holding hands and what not, but the movie really wasn't that scary. I acually enjoyed it. Now the ending was not too great, and the story it self lacked a little, but it was incredibly clean, with even a little romance to make all us girls happy. I give it a 4 out of five. Now, I'm not to picky, I like a lot of movies - so don't take that too seriously. I'm sorry if you rent it from my reviews and hate it.
Anyway, all that to say, we had a great halloween. Here's the little lamb - oh and click here to watch her in action.