The Third Trimester Begins...

Yep, that’s right, I’m officially in the third trimester! And if you look at Ella’s baby ticker at the top of the blog you can see we’re less than 90 days until our due date. Eeeek! I seriously can’t believe how fast it’s gone by. It seems ten times faster compared to when I was pregnant with Clara. I know the next two months will fly with it being the holidays and that freaks me out just a bit! But on the other hand I’m super excited to meet Ella.

The month of October was busy with lots of fun. We celebrated Nana’s 80th birthday with a surprise party weekend. It was exciting to have family in town from all around the country. We hung out at Galveston one day with my “Colorado Family” and all the kids LOVED it. Clara had a blast chasing and “feeding” the seagulls. Later in the month we took our first trip to Space Center Houston, which of course she loved as well. She pretty much loves any place she can run crazy and not look back. Clara's new thing this past month is making faces. These faces usually occur when she's annoyed, mad, shy, etc. One day we were in Hobby Lobby and a lady in line said hi to her. She gave her the meanest look ever (furrowed her brows and scrunched up her nose and mouth)!!! I didn’t know whether to laugh or feel really embarrassed. I think this might be something we’ll have to work on in the future. HAHA!

Something exciting for Jason this month is he spoke/taught/gave the sermon (whatever you want to call it) at the high school church service! He worked so hard preparing and did an awesome job! I am extremely proud of him for wanting to be challenged and try something he never thought he could do. It makes me feel so lucky to have a husband who wants to grow in spiritual leadership and take risks. You go honey! He is also getting in shape for his first race since surgery! Him and a couple guys are planning to do a 5k next month.

What I’ve been up to: chasing a 15 month old, growing a person inside me, trying to finish Ella’s room and enjoying working on orders for my ETSY shop. I have almost reached 400 sales and this month marks the one year anniversary of opening my shop! I will definitely miss it once I have to take “maternity leave.” But it will be well worth it….. :)

22 weeks

24 weeks

27 weeks

13 months

14 months

15 months (she looks so much older!)

With Nana at Boo on the Boardwalk in Kemah

Galveston

Surprise dinner

My "great" aunt Cheryl

Cousins Austin and Ryland

LOVES playing outside and in the dirt

Little astronaut

Ella dressed up for Halloween

First Halloween to trick or treat!

First time to carve pumpkins

Pumpkin Patch

Our Daughter...

We are extremely excited to announce we are having a daughter and her name will be Ella! We think it is such a beautiful and classy name like Clara. It was also Jason’s great-grandma’s name which gives it an extra special meaning. The cool thing is that each of our daughters will have a great-grandma’s name from each side (Clara being my great-grandma).

Now for the middle name….we have decided to be unconventional by using the same middle name as our first daughter! We really wanted a middle name that had a significant meaning and no other name could really compare for us. We love that both our daughters’ names will always be able to remind us (and them) of the grace God gives us in our lives. It’s so easy to go about life and forget about what Christ did for us. Easy to forget the gift of grace that He offers just because He loves us. That we are made right with him purely because of what He did on the cross and nothing else.

My ongoing prayer is that Clara and Ella know there is nothing they can do to earn God’s love. And there is nothing they can do to lose it. That Christ died for them so they might have eternal life through a relationship with Him. I pray one day they will understand and be humbled by the grace God so freely gives.

Ok, so now for some other reasons we chose to use the same middle name for both our children. Most of these quotes come from my husband:
1. It’s efficient. For example, when they are both in trouble at the same time you would just have to say “Clara and Ella Grace! Get over here!” as opposed to “Ella _______ and Clara Grace…” – Jason’s idea
2. “The middle name is a chance for the parents to go wild and do whatever they want.” - Jason
3. “If George Foreman can name all six of his boys George Foreman then surely it’s not too weird to use the same middle name.” – My mom
4. “One day Clara and Ella won’t share the last name anymore but will always be able to share their middle name.” – Jason (I thought this was so sweet)

Joking of course.....

In the past month Clara has developed a love for shoes and playing outside. She will find all sorts of shoes around the house, slip them on and try to walk in them. Clara LOVES being outside and will even have little tantrums when we make her come in! She is getting to the stage where she copies everything we do from cleaning the floor to mimicking silly sounds we make. She can point to her head, nose, mouth, ears and feet when we ask her and is fascinated with her belly button. But even more interesting to her is MY bellybutton since it’s protruding from my stomach! She loves to read and play “dress up” with the dogs. This entails putting random articles of clothing and some of mommy’s necklaces on the dogs’ backs and heads. They have been very good sports. :)

The pregnancy is flying by and I am BEYOND excited to meet Ella and see what she looks like. Jason seems to be freaking out a bit more than me but I’m sure he’ll be fine. Haha……

I’ll stop writing now because this post is already so long. I will TRY to update sooner that way I can fit all our “updates” in! See a couple videos at the bottom....

Sweet Ella

Ella Waving

Before the appoinment

After the appointment and so excited! (Amber had an appointment at the same time so we got to see each other)

Little bug playing at the park

I'm gonna puke!

18 Weeks

20 Weeks

22 Weeks

My little nature girl

Preslee's princess dress up birthday party

Tinkerbell

Hangin' with the big kids

My best friend Amber had her baby!
Cara Turner Clark

You're gonna have a little sister. She was super excited ;)

Visiting a friend while shopping at Lowe's

Ready for Fall

Clara had her 13 month check up last week and is doing great! She weighed 21 pounds and 1 ounce and was 30 inches tall. The doctor says she is in the 45% for weight and 73% for height. She is OFFICIALLY walking now and is very proud of herself. Two more molars came in this week along with a little cold (or allergies). Poor little girl! We’ve had a sad baby on our hands…. To get her mind off things we took her to the park for the first time since she’s been walking. She loved being able to go everywhere on her own and loved playing in the dirt. We also went on walks and to the frozen yogurt shop this weekend. It definitely got her out of her cranky/grumpy/sad mood.

Exciting baby news! We got our double stroller in! We have been researching them for a couple months now and finally decided on one that was best for us. We have loved our Baby Jogger City Mini and recently found out they make a double version of it! I was against side-by-side double strollers, but the selling point of this particular double is its narrower design. It can fit through any standard doorway! You can also snap an infant car seat into one side (when the baby is still little and likes to sleep a lot) while big sister Clara rides in the other side. See pictures below…

Even more exciting is I have started feeling “Clara Junior” (this is what Jason has named new baby)! I started feeling him/her around 15 weeks. This seems crazy because I didn’t feel Clara until I was about 22 weeks.

Jason’s foot is doing a lot better and he has been cleared to run. He’s not to that point yet but we can at least go on family walks again! I know we have both missed these. We are excited about fall bringing us cooler weather and some football! And also our ultrasound in 11 days...

Looking at sister or brother's picture

Will there be a baby sister next to Clara?

Or a baby brother?

Date night

Sick baby...

Sweaty and dirty after playing at the park. And ready for football!

Bubbles!

Hanging out with "Uncle Chaz and Aunt Christy" (she looks so old to me in the this picture!)

Leaving happy at the yogurt shop

My tummy pictures..

12 weeks

14 Weeks

16 Weeks

17 Weeks