Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! 

We had such a wonderful Christmas!!! 

My Dad was able to spend the day with us this year. He arrived on Christmas Eve, and stayed the night with us at Seth's parent's house, which we do every year. It was such an amazing day! Samantha was REALLY into Christmas this year. That made this time of year even more magical! 

We are so blessed to have such an amazing family! My girls are so very lucky! 

Our "Christmas Eve Pajama" Picture

Playing with the gifts from Santa

Playing a game of Risk

Samantha's First Dance Class

This evening we went to Samantha's first dance class!! Samantha was super excited(I was too!! :))! She's taking preschool ballet and tap class, which is twice a week.
She had such a good time and was disappointed that we had to leave when class was over. She looked uber cute in her little dance outfit!! Today was the last class until January. So the owner was SUPER nice and let us take this class for free and start up her tuition after the Holidays. :)

They had a little "treat" for the parents. We were able to watch the kids do their plies. It was soo stinkin' adorable!

Whoa! I'm slackin'!

Seriously... its been since November since I've posted?! Holy moly! Time has sure gone by!
We are all doing fantastic! The girls are growing up so fast. And are as cute as ever! Samantha is 2 1/2 and Ella is 7 months now.
The weather here has been pretty amazing so we've been enjoying the outdoors by blowing bubbles, playing on the swing set, going for walks, and just exploring. Samantha loves to dig in the dirt, splash in puddles and pick Mommy flowers. :)
Ella is army crawling around and getting into trouble right behind her sister. She's also sitting up now like such a big girl! She has 2 teeth, and about 2-3 now that are on their way on making an appearance. She has just started to sleep through the night. Which is AMAZING! She would only really get up about once in the middle of the night or eat, so it wasn't too bad. But now she just sleeps all night long. :D So Mommy gets a good 8 hours of a sleep now! Woot! :) I cannot believe this little girl is 7 month already!! I swear I just brought her home from the hospital just the other day! I have started planning her 1st birthday party. Totally excited!

Halloween 2011

We were invited to go over to Seth's brother's house for Halloween night to hang out and do some trick or treating with the girls' cousins.  Samantha was really into this year! She had a great time and got lots of candy! We dressed Samantha up as Little Bo Peep and Ella was her little lamb. They both looked so stinkin cute in their costumes!!! I'm so excited for next year! Ella should be semi-into it by then, so it should be even more fun. :)

Pumpkin Carving

Every year we go to Seth's parent's house to carve some pumpkins and have a spooky dinner. It's always TONS of fun. I love to carve pumpkins! I carved Noah's pumpkin this year. He wanted a spiderman one. Let me tell ya, it took forever and I was sure it wasn't going to turn out. But it turned out awesome!! I was very proud of it! :) I'm hoping Noah was too. :) 

Family Pictures

Yesterday we finally got some time to do some family pictures. I was VERY pleased with what we were able to get. I was setting myself up to be disappointment because Samantha isn't much of a picture person right now. She was being a big ole crab apple yesterday, so we weren't able to get many pictures of the girls together and any 2nd birthday pictures. But I was mainly concentrating on family pictures anyway. I'll be setting up another time to get her birthday pictures done. Ella did wonderful. She just chilled while we held her.
It's just amazing to watch our family grow from 3 to 4. Even though it has been tough with 2 kids. They are the world's most amazing kids EVER!!!! I love my beautiful family!!

She's Here...And..Birth Story

I'm sorry it took me so long to update. Ella Charlotte Ann decided she was ready to meet us all at 4:41pm on August 31st, 2011. She weighted 7lbs 14oz and was 20 inches long. She's just amazing!

Birth story-
That morning was like every other morning, so I thought anyway. I got Samantha up for the day and we ate some breakfast. Samantha was watching her usual TV shows and I was doing some house work. I started noticing that every time I walked there was little gushes every now and then. So I went to the bathroom thinking it was me peeing myself, lol, but then it kept happening. This was around 10am. I called my doctor to make sure. I had to wait for someone to call me back. While I was waiting, I called Seth to let him know that I could be in labor, since he was working about an hour and a half away from here. Then I called my Mom(Seth's Mom) to let her know that I could be in labor, but of course she already knew before I called, lol. She went to go pick up my sister from school and came over.  I called labor and delivery at the hospital, and they told me it was probably my water that broke and to come in.
I was surprisingly very comfortable and not having regular contractions so I stayed home for quite awhile, just hanging out, talking to Mom, my sister and waiting for Seth to get home.
Seth finally got home. We stuck around the house for a little while longer. Then my contractions started to pick up a bit more. So we headed to the hospital. We got there around 1:30pm. I was still comfortable enough not to get the epidural right away, and heck, I was thinking maybe I wouldn't need it. Well, I thought wrong. The contractions started to get pretty strong, so I got my epidural. Which was, of course, fabulous!! Except for one crappy side effect, I got the shakes, REAL bad! I also(just like with Samantha) got the worst heartburn. Seth, bless his heart, was trying to keep my mind off of everything by play some cards.
I got checked around 4pm and I was 8cm dilated. Then BOOM at 4:30 I was ready to push. And again she made her entrance at 4:41.
She's absolutely amazing!!!! And TONS of hair! Everybody comments on her hair. She has a lot more then Samantha did and it's a lot darker too.
Samantha is adjusting well. It really depends on the day. Some days she's all over her sister and some days she wants nothing to do with her. Sometimes if I'm holding Ella, I need to put her down right then so I can hold her. lol. She gives Ella kisses and hugs. She wants to know where "sister baby" is at all times. I know Samantha is wanting to play with her sister so bad, but she knows that she can't quite yet and it makes her sad. That's the one thing I'm super excited for, for them to play with each other.
Seth and I are adjusting okay. Seth has been out of town for work, still. So it's just me and the girls. It has been rough. Some days are better then others. It's defiantly a challenge. I'm just so VERY blessed to have 2 healthy, beautiful little girls! I couldn't ask for anything more! :)

Time to push

 There she is!! 

 The doctor. She delivered Samantha too

 One proud Daddy

 Samantha checking out sister

 More checking out

 Ella's ADORABLE feet

 Proud Aunt Amanda

 Proud Papa

 Holding sister