Ella - 5 months

 Happy 5 month Birthday to ELLA!

Ella  (also affectionately called.... chub-a-lub, chubs, Hoss, Ella-Bella, turkey-lurkey, drooley-magooley, etc...)
Ella is so happy & smiley. We just love her.
She just figured out rolling over (belly to back) on Sunday.  She is a belly sleeper so when she ends up on her back she just plays with her feet.  Nap time has become a little more complicated.

Love these two.
So thankful that God has blessed us with them.

tip tap toe

Today the girls were encouraged to dress up for dance class, since Halloween is Wednesday.  I threw a pair of wings on Lily with her leotard & tutu & called it a BUTTERFLY!  Here are Lily's classmates: 

We had a pirate, butterfly, dalmatian, princess, witch, tin man, pumpkin, etc...

They're so cute & even cuter when they are "dancing."

demolition has begun

As I said in my previous post, we closed on the "new" house on Thursday, therefore, demolition began on Friday.  Why do tomorrow what we can do today?

BEFORE - The glass block wall (which goes from the entry into the hall bath).  Not sure what the previous owners were thinking.  That could make for some very awkward moments. 

BEFORE - I don't think I need to say why we gutted the bathroom.

AFTER - The hall bathroom is gutted down to the studs & sub-floor.

BEFORE - There were two full/half walls breaking up the entry, living room & kitchen.
You can see the glass block wall thru the one opening & the kitchen cabinets thru the other.

BEFORE - Lots of cabinets & walls breaking up the space.

AFTER - The two half walls are taken down & entryway. kitchen, living room are opened up.

AFTER - The excess kitchen cabinets out & walls taken down.

AFTER - See how OPEN it is now!

BEFORE -  This is the hallway down to the bedrooms. You then had to walk thru a bedroom to get to the utility room & salon (which will eventually be our master bedroom). We are taking out the wall that ends the hallway.  

AFTER -  We will lengthen the hallway all the way down to the master bedroom.

That's all for now.  

Our list is never ending, but we can see the beauty in this current dump. :)

For Sale & Answered Prayer

Our home officially went on the market on Monday, October 15.

We have had a sign in our yard since Friday, September 28.  That Sunday (2 days later) Jake emailed our Realtor & he had already received 4 calls about our home.  This was just from the sign being in our yard.  It was not online yet.  Our Realtor has been getting calls every weekend about our house.  This was & is so encouraging!
We got the MLS up on Monday (10/15) late afternoon - see it HERE.  It takes another 2-3 days for the MLS to get up on most of the real estate sites.  I was praying that we would get ONE showing that first week.  We got a call on Saturday (10/20) at 12:30 pm for a 1:30 pm showing.  I had 45 minutes to get the house ready, the girls packed up & head out.  Jake was away at a school activity. I got the house ready, woke Ella up from nap (she wasn't too pleased with me), packed everyone in the car & headed to the park.  A few times Lily let me know that she was tired (it was 1:15 pm which is her nap time). I didn't even have time to eat lunch, but I didn't care.  We prayed for a showing in the first week & God gave us one!  On Sunday, we were given a teeny tiny bit of feedback, from the showing, but nothing of real consequence. Monday afternoon another showing request came thru for Tuesday evening (10/23) - it was the same people from the first showing! Exciting!  This was so nice to have over 24 hours notice.  We have not received any information/feedback from that showing.
We closed on our other house yesterday afternoon.  We now own TWO houses.  Hopefully, not for long.

We are praying that God would either give us an offer on the house this weekend or another showing with someone new.  We know that this is praying for a miracle (especially in this economy & housing market) but our God is big & awesome!

He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20 ESV

my 3 favorites

Lily's FIRST haircut

I have been wanting to cut Lily's hair for months, but thought it best to wait until most of the heat of summer was over. It's been so nice being able to put her hair in a pony tail, braids or pig tails.  That being said, it was 80 here yesterday, but it's October so fall is coming...right? We set up Annie on the iPad & I began cutting.

All cut & ready to dry.  I think i cut off 6 inches & all the curls.

I had to post this picture....check out Ella's chubs hanging out.

 Ready to head to church - back & front view.

Ella - 4 months

We had Ella's 4 month check up today.

She weighed in at 16 pounds on the nose, and stretched out to 26 1/2 inches. 

Lily weighed just over 16 pounds at 9 months!

Ella hasn't rolled over yet, but she is getting close.  Lily rolled over just after 3 months, but she had a lot less weight to pull.  Lily was always the 10th percentile for weight.

Ella is so sweet & smiley.  We just LOVE her.

Here is some sister love: