Drum Roll Please...It's a...

BOY! Tim and I went for my ultrasound this afternoon. I am so grateful he was able to leave work and come with me. It's such an amazing experience seeing your baby's face and watching their little hands move. I loved listening to the doctor explain what we were seeing when we looked at the chambers of the heart and he moved up the spinal cord. This little guy moves inside me constantly and it's exciting to have a visual of him moving as well. With Ella, the ultrasound tech was fairly sure it was a girl, but left a little doubt. This time around, the doctor said, "And those are the boy parts." We didn't have a preference, but we're excited to have a little boy join our family! We've actually been slipping up and saying "he" for awhile, so it'll be nice to do it consciously.

1, 2, 3...Go!

We had a fun weekend together as a family. Ella and I were so excited to have Tim home from his trip and to enjoy some nice summer weather together. Besides having Dad home, the highlight of Ella's weekend was my garage sale purchase of a little slide for $2. After I set it down in the backyard, she probably slid down it 50 times in a row, saying "Up! Down!" or waiting for me to say "Go!". Ella is such a delight and Tim's the best of companions. I am so grateful for a weekend of laughing with and simply enjoying my wonderful family!

Gross Illinois Bugs

I don't know if these exist in Washington or not, but I'd never seen them before. This was a particularly juicy speciman I found while digging up a bush in our backyard. Soon after this picture was taken, this little guy found himself in two pieces. Apparently they can really mess up your lawn if they get out of control. Looks like something they would force you to eat on Fear Factor. Nasty!

Sunday Pictures

Ella wore an adorable red polka dot dress I've been waiting to dress her in since I received it at her baby shower. She looks like such a big girl in this dress! I love the one with her hands by her face and her big grin - Tim really captured her personality. I've also had some requests for a pregnancy picture, so I've included one as well.

I can't wait till gas costs 10 dollars a gallon!

Yep you read that right. I filled my tank today at the bargain price of 4.15/gallon, shaking my head in disgust as I saw that the previous person had spent more than $70 on their tank. And I thought, you know, the quicker gas prices rise, the quicker enough people are going to start getting upset enough about it that something might actually change. I'm sick to death of seeing all the advertisments by BP, Shell Oil, and all the other gas companies telling me about all the wonderful things they are doing to find alternative energy sources. While I'm at it, I'd also like to say that I'm extremely annoyed with the car companies and the ads they put out about all the wonderful new technologies they're developing. I'm sorry, but until I can buy it, I don't really care what you're developing. In fact, it annoys me that you're "developing" these technologies when they're already perfectly achievable. As a case in point, click this link or paste it to your browser to see a video of a guy who converted his Prius to 100% electric in his garage.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=w3kZv_VNmhM

I'm pretty sure that Toyota (or any other car manufacturer) could do the exact same thing very easily, people just aren't pushing them or the government enough to actually do anything about it yet. I think the best way to actually make something happen is for enough people to get really upset about gas prices. Therefore, I can't wait for gas prices to reach $10, $12, $15 a gallon. The sooner it happens, the sooner the pressure on the car companies, gas companies, and government will grow to the point that I will be able to go into a car dealer and buy a 100% electric car, solar car, or car that runs on SOMETHING OTHER THAN GAS!!! (posted by Tim)

Mandy's Visit

My friend Mandy and I met working for the American Cancer Society in Washington. She was a Chicago native, but a natural Seattelite. Mandy and her husband moved a few years ago, so we've kept in touch, but haven't seen each other. We even had our babies within a few weeks of each other in 2006, but weren't able to meet them. So, now that Mandy lives in Chicago and we live about 4 hours away in Jacksonville, we've really wanted to get together. Needless to say, I was very excited when she emailed to let me know she had a business trip to nearby Springfield. Mandy was kind enough to drive an extra half hour to Jacksonville and we spent the evening catching up and sharing our lives. I had so much fun and I can't wait for our family to plan a trip to visit Chicago. It also made me miss all of the wonderful people I worked with at ACS over the years.

Fireworks!

We spent the evening of the 4th of July at the Jacksonville Fireworks show. It was actually pretty impressive and we had a good time. Here are some pictures. Ella was pretty tired by the time they started lighting off fireworks :)

4th of July Parade

Ella loved it when she woke up on Friday morning and Dad was there to greet her. We all had breakfast together, then headed out to the Jacksonville 4th of July Parade. Ella especially loved the fire engines and tractors, plus everyone in the parade throws a ridiculous amount of candy. She came home with a bag full of candy (yeah for mom and dad too), 4 beaded necklaces, and a ball.

Thanks, Amanda!

Amanda had an amazing link on her blog to http://sjhblogdesign.blogspot.com/. I've been dying to customize my own blog and this website helped so much! I want to find some free scrapbook paper that better represents my style, but this is fun for now.

I'm Queen of the World!

So, my mom gave me a nice reality check yesterday. I originally started this blog to share news about my family and post pictures. She asked for more photos of Ella, so here's some from the other night.We bought a box of baby wipes Saturday and Ella desperately wanted to carry it around. I enjoyed watching her strain to pick it up, convinced that she could do it. I tried distracting her with the smaller box of wipes that she could carry, but she would have none of it. Eventually, she decided that, if she couldn't carry it, she might as well stand on it.My favorite part came when she instinctively reached her hands up in the air and declared her dominance of the box. It was completely reminiscent of the famous "I'm King of the World" scene in "Titanic." Unfortunately, we did not capture her doing this alone, but here's some fun photos. In the final photo, she's showing me her beloved belly button.