Lately

One of these days I'll get around to posting more pictures!

In the meantime, here's a little E update:

She is literally in the easiest, most fun stage she's ever been in! She plays by herself super well. If I'm lying on the couch not feeling well, she'll just go play in her room, read books to herself, take care of her dolls, and sing songs. My favorite is when I hear her singing the ABCs or Twinkle Twinkle. She also loves to play in her crib. I'll put her in there and she'll just roll around and play with her stuffed animals for 30 minutes or so (she also sleeps great at night, no waking up, and takes two hour naps every day). What an angel baby. She RARELY throws tantrums these days. She's often happy after waking up (not always, but this is a huge improvement). She is talking like nobody's business! She doesn't say many sentences, but she can pretty much say anything, or at least repeated back after we say it. She says "Thank you, Mama" and even "You're welcome" all on her own. She says "I love you" and gives the best hugs. She prays now (repeats back what we tell her to say). She is pretty reverent and pretty good about folding her arms and closing her eyes (most of the time). She loves to play hide and go seek. Her favorite thing in the world is running around and playing with her Dad when he gets home from school at night. Unfortunately she's learned how to open and close every single door in our apartment, and can even unlock the bottom lock of the front door (fortunately she can't reach the top lock), and can lock all the other doors. She has yet to lock herself in a room yet, but I'm almost positive it will happen one of these days..She's also obsessed with Micky and Minnie Mouse. She asks for "Moush" (aka mouse) multiple times a day (she only wants to watch Micky Mouse Club House and Minnie Mouse's Bowtique).

Clay is rocking school. He's getting 100% or high 90s on all his tests. He likes school and is working very hard. But Clay is one of the best time managers in the world, so he also manages to make enough time to do the majority of the dishes, help with the cleaning, and of course, spend as much time with Ellery and me as possible.

I am still sick. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. I'm 13 weeks (tomorrow). The baby has a great heart beat. I'm perfectly healthy minus the nausea. So things are looking good (we should find out the gender right before or after Thanksgiving). I'd say I'm throwing up about 50% of the days, but typically when I do throw up it's only once or twice that day. But it's also really random (don't want to jinx myself again!). Usually I throw up in the middle of the night, first thing in the morning, or after lunch. When I'm not throwing up, I'm still sick. I literally feel not good, and yucky ALL the time. But I do have lots of times where I don't feel THAT sick. I even manage to run errands occasionally and take Ellery out of the house at least once most days lately. We often just walk around the parking lot, but we've also had a couple of play dates recently. I definitely have a baby bump now. I'm starting to gain back the weight I lost in my first trimester. I'm just two pounds shy of what I weighed before I got pregnant. ONE day I'll post a baby bump picture. My problem is that I never do my hair or makeup these days, and my hormones are all over the place, so I have worse acne now than I did in the 8th grade. Not really wanting to take self portraits lately : /

Clay's Mom came to visit us a few weeks ago, and was incredibly helpful. She took Ellery to the park, the pool, the children's museum, etc. She stuffed our freezer full of meals, cooked for us, bathed Ellery, cleaned our entire apartment! She is amazing. I honestly have the world's best in laws. Every single one of them. So grateful. Ever since she left, Ellery asks for Grandma every day. Clay's sister Ariane also came up to help us out the other day (they live in Houston, so that's actually kind of a big deal for them to drive four + hours each way just to see us and help us out!). She brought her three kids with her, so it was a little crazy, but crazy in a good way. Ellery LOVES her cousins. She had a blast playing with them. It was definitely good for her to see them and get some good social interaction in. Ariane did the same thing Jean did (bring meals, cook, clean, and get Ellery out of the house and playing outside!). So so helpful. My sister in law Haley, also contributed to the freezer meals that were brought up. How lucky am I?! I haven't had to cook in such a long time, which is such a blessing right now. Cooking and dishes are NOT pleasant things at this point in pregnancy.

Well, I do have hopes that I'll get better soon, but I'm also not expecting it at all. I'm just grateful baby and I are healthy, Ellery's happy, Clay's doing well, and grateful for wonderful family and friends.

P.S. I also wanted to note that I had a girl's night in Dallas the other night. I drove down and met 13 of my girl friends for dinner and dessert at the cheesecake factory. I made such wonderful, life long friends in my last area. I miss those ladies and am grateful that we don't live too far away (it SHOULD only take 40 minutes to get to Dallas, but because of horrible traffic, construction, and two accidents, it took me an hour and a half to get there!). Anyway, grateful I felt well enough to go, and I love those ladies.

Oh, and since I'm rambling, I'll also mention that I absolutely LOVED general conference this last weekend. I swear it gets better every six months. I soaked up every minute of it. I love the Gospel.