Welcome Ella!

Ella Grace was born August 14th at 11:20 a.m. She weighed 8 lbs. 11 oz. at birth.

We are so happy to have Ella join our family. She is a very sweet baby. We have been busy adjusting to life as a family of four, but we like to think we are managing well. A HUGE thank you to all that have helped us out (Grandma and Grandpa Schmollinger and Uncle Anthony especially). We can't thank you enough.

Ava has been adjusting well - she has her moments when sharing mom or dad causes an outburst. Day by day, hour by hour we are figuring it out and having some special family time.

Ava's First Bow

At a recent play date, I put a bow in Ava's hair... and it stayed! It stayed until she pulled it out. The look on her face is priceless - it isn't too hard to figure out what she is thinking. I have been trying to get a bow in her hair for a very long time, so this was a big deal to mom!

Doctor Appt

Today we had another doctor appt. This was just a standard appt. I had a lot of crazy things happening on Friday night, but things calmed down around midnight and I was able to go to sleep. Today we found out (after a quick ultrasound) that our little one is again breech - in the last four weeks she went from breech to transverse to head down and now back to breech. Good thing we have everything scheduled already. The heartburn is terrible when her head is up - it is so bad I can hardly get air!

Thanks to everyone who is on call to help us when this little person decides to make her entrance!!

A beautiful day

This is from a few days ago. We drove up to Garvin Heights - it has been years since we were up there last - to see the sights. The mosquitos were so bad that we had to make it a fast visit, but it was a beautiful night.

Our New Addition

We decided to take the plunge and trade in the Camry for a new Sienna. We like it a lot and think it will be great for handling two kids!! We took her on a drive tonight to show her the sights!

Recovering From the Weekend

We had a busy weekend that started with a little shower with some of my girlfriends. It was nice to get together and chat a bit, eat some yummy food and watch Ava and her little friend play together. Kevin was busy at home working on finishing the trim for Ava's new room and completing some other items on the "honey do" list!

Ava's hair is coming in more and more every week. Recently she brought me the tiny barrettes that I bought her - she wanted nothing to do with them before that. She was watching me pull my hair back with a couple and must have thought that it was a good idea. She even posed for me so I could take a picture of her with them in!

Only three weeks until we get to meet our new addition!

A Busy Summer

Somehow we have managed to have found ourselves so busy that the blog has not been updated in almost a month. I apologize to those to check it from time to time - I really don't have a good excuse!

We are four weeks from meeting our little Ella; we are very excited. And I am not yet feeling prepared. I haven't packed our bags, but have made lists of what to pack for everyone.

Here are some pictures from the last month. We went up to the cities a couple of weeks ago and stayed with Melissa and Jeff in their new home. We visited Underwater World at the Mall of America and the MN Zoo. It was a nice weekend. Melissa and Jeff were so thoughtful and we were so relaxed those couple of days. (Thanks Again!!)