Happy Thanksgiving!

Another holiday has already come, this being my favorite time of year, it sure does seem to fly by to fast! Thanksgiving is really one of my favorites, not because of the turkey, but because of the warmth that I feel each year with traditions that I grew up with and sharing them with my children. I love to get up and watch the Thanksgiving day parade, then spend time in the kitchen making something delicious and finally spending the rest of the day with family just eating and having fun. So that is exactly what we did, and it was wonderful. We started off the day with a nice cup of hot cocoa and just us girls watching the parade while Bobby was out playing "turkeybowl" and then on to making yummy food to bring to my moms. Kate was such a good helper in the kitchen as I was making stuffed mushrooms, I love it when she helps and she just loves to be a big helper. Then off to my mom for appetizers and a delicious Thanksgiving meal. Such a wonderful day!

Play time with their uncle!

Ella just loving the attention from her uncle

Take 1

Take 2

Take 3--finally a good one

Just some funny things at this "photo booth" at my moms

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! This year Kate was desperate to be her favorite princess, princess Belle. So off to the store we went to doll our little Kate up to look just like princess Belle, but with blonde hair. Ella was dressed as an adorable little spider, mostly because the cute, fluffy costume not only looked so cute on her but would keep her warm as well. Halloween was so fun, I love watching Kate get so excited to go to door after door and say the magic words "trick or treat" to get candy, she loved every minute of it. In fact she kept us out until almost 8 p.m. trick or treating, that's about 4 hours of trick or treating and we finally had to stop her! If it were to her, she would've kept going all night to finish off the wonderful night of trick or treating with her cousins on both sides of the family, we carved a pumpkin and she was just so proud of our work. I truly love this time of year, and it really get so much more fun once you get to do these things with your children!

Lucky #7

Wow. 7 Years?! I cannot believe it, there have been so many wonderful moments. And then toss in a few difficult and possibly hilarious or embarrassing  moments depending on who you talk to and you get my marriage. Our actual anniversary was a pretty relaxing night since we had a newborn. Kate went to my moms, we had a nice dinner at Mimi's Cafe while Ella slept in the car seat and then a walk in the parkway afterwards which is something we love. For the gift this year..REAL tickets! So excited!

On another note, lucky number 7 is the theme for this anniversary and I think lucky is a word that really describes my life with Bobby:

Lucky that I saw Bobby at that dance 8 years ago

Lucky that I found the courage to ask him to dance (yes, I had to ask him)

Lucky that I have someone who really understands me and loves me even more for my quirks, someone who shares the same humor so I always have someone laughing with me in the so many funny moments in life.

Lucky that I found someone as hardworking and dedicated to not only my happiness but that of our daughters. 

Lucky that I found such a smarty pants as he is now a graduate in pharmacy

Lucky he's the kind of dad to our daughters that I'd hoped for, I love that Kate is a daddy's girl and I know Ella will be as well. I want our children to have a great dad as I did. 

and finally, 

Lucky that I was able to find such a truly loving and giving person, someone I will always be able to turn to as my best friend and partner and I am so lucky he loves me. 

Happy Anniversary Sweetie. 

Presenting Ella Grace Nunley

Let's face it, I have not been great at blogging recently. My cute little Ella Grace is now 4 months old, but hey there's no time like the present to write about her birth so I can catch up and write about how cute she has been as she's grown. It's just a very good thing that I am at least caught up on each of my girls journals that I am keeping for them to have when they are older, that way I feel a little less guilty for not keeping up with the blog as well as I should be. Anyways....

Little Ella came on July 25th, 2012 at 2:34 p.m. and she was really pretty easy from the beginning, except that like her big sister, she did not want to come out! She was also a week late and didn't show any signs of coming so my Dr would not let me go any longer and scheduled me to be induced. I was really worrying about Kate and how she would handle the HUGE changes coming, so it was nice to be able to drop Kate off at my moms without rushing as it would've been that way had I gone into labor on my own. However, my personal feelings with induction are that I would really prefer not to do it, I love the excitement that comes with going into labor on my own as I did with Kate. Call me crazy, but I love that whole experience, contractions and all. So I was a little sad that I had to schedule it when I wanted so badly for it to start all by itself. Yet I liked that it had less shock on Kate, I was for sure packed and had everything packed for Kate without any stress, so it wasn't terrible. Bobby on the other hand, loved it this way. So after I got all checked in and induced we hung out while I went through the contractions for a while until they got pretty intense, I got the epidural when I was dilated to about a 5 and then they broke my water. They told me after my water broke that i'd have about 3 more hours or so until it was time to push. Once my epidural set in and I felt the warm and cozy relaxation set in from getting this wonderful med, we put on a movie so I could relax until....a little pain in my side began to get stronger. At first I didn't really think anything of it until it spread to my lower ab and got so much worse that I thought, great I'm going to be one of the stories where the epidural doesn't work. So as I was once again squeezing Bobby's hand to death and grinding my teeth I finally get the drs to come in and check me out. They figured the meds weren't working yet but didn't think to check me until we mentioned it. They were in the middle of explaining that it won't be much different there until they stopped and said "you're dilated to a 10! We need the Dr now!" I dilated from a 5 to a 10 in less than 40 minutes. So at 2:25 I started to push and literally less than 10 minutes and 5 pushes later, little baby girl came and she was totally healthy. They placed her in my arms and a gush of love came for this little girl. I love this whole experience and holding her for the first time to feel that love for this little baby who's been inside me for the past 9 months. Ella was here and she was beautiful, with so much hair!

When Kate met her little sister it was love at first sight. I couldn't have been happier with her reaction, she loved her sister from the moment she saw her and would not leave her side as long as she possibly could. It was truly sweet to see the love between these two already.

There was some debate with her name for a few days, it was either going to be Elizabeth Grace and called Beth or Ella Grace. I first agreed to Elizabeth as Bobby had wanted that name and it really was a beautiful name. But then Ella really kept ringing in the back of my mind for her and I tried to just push it aside. Then we got home and Bobby told Kate her sisters name was Beth and Kate said "no dad, it's baby Ella" and for days we tried to get her to say Beth but she wouldn't, so that got us to thinking that maybe her name should be Ella as I was kind of feeling it too. So her name is Ella Grace Nunley, and we love her so much!!!!