We had some extra special visitors this past weekend and were very
thankful that they could make the trip. Now don’t get us wrong, all of
our visitors are special and dear to us but when Great Grandma Ella and
baby Ella get to meet for this first time, that is where the ‘extra’
comes in! Aunt Sherry and Grandma H./Ella got to come and visit for the
weekend! Curtis unfortunately missed the visit but it was amazing to
have 4 generations under one roof! And it was also pretty awesome to
have Ella meet one of the women she was named after. How cool would it
be if she could have met Great Great Grandma Grace?! Anyway, Aunt Sherry
had a business trip to Raleigh, NC which is about 4 hours from us at
the Beach and Grandma came with for this special visit. Julie requested
that they go to the Portrait Studio at Oceana
where we got Ella’s newborn pictures done so they could get some 4
generation photos. Well, Russ did a FANTASTIC job again, no surprise
there and had some GREAT ideas. Ella has a few Christmas shots, as do
all of us together. We cannot wait to get the CD and the prints to show
everyone!
Here are a couple previews that they posted on Facebook!
4 Generations
Our Little Thumb Sucker
Ella
Ella is doing a LOT better with her cold! The congestion is very minimal and the coughing has been greatly reduced. It is great to finally have her healthy and not suffering. On Tuesday, she will be doing her follow up with the pediatric surgeon to make sure everything still continues to be fine with her bottom. And on Wednesday, Ella has her 4 month wellness appointment and shots L. After that, she won’t have any doctor appointments until her 6 month wellness and pediatric surgeon follow-up. Knock on wood!! She is enjoying rolling and sleeping on her belly now. The past couple nights she has been passed out and sleeping for 9-10 hours straight. Julie has hated waking her in the morning for daycare and work. Too bad we all can’t stay home and just snuggle with one another! Ella’s daycare pictures came back Thursday and Friday afternoon and they are just BAD. Julie is SO happy that they went and got pictures done last weekend because it would honestly be a waste of money for her daycare pictures. Long story short, they are blurry and overall just look bad. I think Russ at the Portrait Studio spoiled us!
Curtis
Curtis is flying back home tonight! We are so excited to have him coming home! Their flight took off around noon which is 3PM E.S.T. and should be getting in around 9PM or so. The other day it snowed in Fallon…brrrr!! It made it a little troubling for the jets to fly when they were covered in ice. Curtis was able to take a picture of the flight line with snow which looked pretty good.
Fallon, NV
Julie
Julie is good :) EXCITED to go pick up Curtis so this post may be a little short compared to normal. So for now, we say goodnight and have a great weekend! It's time to bring Daddy Spencer home!! :-D
When pictures are available form the studio, we will try and post the information to look at the photos online to share with everyone. :-D
To vote from an iPhone or iPad, you have to login to facebook through Safari and NOT the facebook app. They claim they are fixing this but it has been a week and still no fix. You will have to like the Gerber page first before they allow you to vote. When you click on view gallery, you can either enter Ella and Virginia Beach into the search OR you can enter just her ID which is 227440 and click search. If you need ANY help, please message, email, call, or text Julie and she will walk you through it. We REALLY appreciate all your help in this difficult competition! Unfortunately, they are not incorporating a vote total like they have done in previous years so we will have no idea how we are doing until the very end. Voting ends at midnight (PST) on December 1st so please vote every day if you get the chance!
Ella
Every now and then Ella seems to be over her cough and back to the occasional normal coughing but unfortunately she is still sick and congested :( We have gone to the Dr about 4 times and had another follow up Saturday with a new doctor. Apparently it WAS bronchiolitis and now it is a viral infection. The Dr. is basically blaming daycare and telling Julie that Ella can either be sick now or when she is older. GREAT bedside manner if you ask us...Julie will be asking for a pulmonary specialist to try and get to the bottom of this. The Dr. also said it COULD be acid reflux so she gave us a prescription for stuff to add to her bottle. Now that floored everyone, even the daycare ladies because she doesn't spit up at daycare and when she does at home it is maybe once and that is to welcome Daddy home. But for us, two months and all these follow ups is too long for a sick baby! Her sleeping has gotten a lot better and more “normal” but she still wakes at least once during the night. We are pretty sure that it is her diaper needing to be changed that wakes her more than anything else. Fingers crossed that the different doctor today will be more helpful AND get us set up with a specialist.
The new doctor was AWESOME!! We are not going to give the reflux medicine and we are going to try and not give the inhaler. Since Ella was only congested and not wheezing when we saw the doctor, she put in a referral for an allergist. There is still a chance we could get into a pulmonary specialist but it will have to depend on whether Ella is wheezing at the next appointment. This doctor is very willing to work with us and help rule out other potential factors. We will see her next Saturday morning to see if there has been any progress. She said what we really need is a baby decongestant but it doesn't exist so she told Ella she should invent it and pay for mommy and daddy's trip around the world. Ella smiled at that so here is hoping! ;) This doctor made Julie feel so much better about being concerned and wanting to get to the bottom of it. We may try and switch Ella's primary physician to her in the system when Curtis gets home. It will also let us make appointments on the weekend if we do! Here is to hoping for progress and better results. So far, we are much happier about the course of action.
Her most recent growth stats... at 4 months and 3 days old Ella was
24.5" (59%), 13 lbs., 3 oz. (38%), and her noggin was 16.5" (75%). It
will be interesting to see what her measurements are at the end of the
month when she has her 4 month wellness appointment!
We have started to do some cloth diapering on the weekends to ease our
way in. Our favorite of the two styles we got, prefolds and pocket,
have been the pocket. One downside we have is that it is a little more
difficult to tell when she is wet. It is only the beginning though and
we will see what happens.
The first Halloween has come and gone! We were able to give the ladies
at daycare a good laugh with a onesie that Julie bought for Ella. And
Ella was also able to show off her outfit from Grandpa and Toni again.
"Don't scare me! I poop easily..."
Grandpa and Toni's Halloween Outfit
We were at a friend's house for a Chili Cook Off/Pre-Halloween fun and we got to dress Ella in her pink camo outfit from Aunt Sherry and Uncle Ed! It is still a little big but when wearing her cloth diapers, it works!
Oh, Hey!
We're just hanging out
Ella was a minion for Halloween! We modified the outfit a little and
had to make some pieces ourselves but not too bad for her first costume
;) Curtis was Gru and Julie was Margo, the oldest of the 3 girls from
Despicable Me.
Ella the Minion
Trick Or Treating
We went to the NEX for trick-or-treating since it had the best time, 5-7PM. Daycare and the neighborhood were starting later in the evening and we wanted to try and keep Ella on her bedtime routine if possible. We were joined by Cammi and Orion at the NEX...Orion was Link from Zelda and Cammi was a panda! We can’t wait to get a costume for next year, especially since she will be walking and probably be more comfortable with hats! She has no problem with headbands or hoods on her sweatshirts but she moves her head so much while she is looking around that hats just don’t work. We think she takes after Julie is loving hoodies ;)
Daycare continues to go well and the ladies wish Ella could give the other kiddos a lesson on how to slow down with their bottles and how to not cry. Apparently, when all the other children are crying, Ella will look around and just kind of give the “I’m tired of you guys” look, let out one “war cry” and be done. The ladies say she really lives up to the 4th of July baby aspect! We are still very thankful for the ladies we have at daycare and love to hear the stories when she gets picked up. It doesn’t hurt to have a baby that they wish all the others would act like!
Four months old on November 4th! Look at me grow!!
All Smiles
Getting reading to cough :(
Ella started to roll over on Saturday, November 2nd! Check out the two different videos! :) The first one is the 3rd roll she did on Saturday. The second video is a couple days later and is a little bit longer. She's getting big! Where did the time go?!
Julie
Julie has been working and trying to get this whole doctor nonsense figured out. It has been a bit stressful, especially when a pediatrician and pharmacist make you feel like crap for FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS THE DOCTOR GAVE....UGH! ANYWAY...trying to move on and let goes of the stress. Julie is thankful for great friends and the ladies at daycare that have been giving her tips and advice with how to get to the bottom of this situation.
On the weekends Julie has been unpacking a few more things that we have yet to unpack from the move...oops? We realized that we all distract one another because we just want to spend time with one another. While that is a good thing, it also slows down our productivity around the house! It has been helpful that Ella has been sleeping late into the morning, with the help of her swing, so Julie can try and get some more things done that are difficult to do during the week. Cleaning is one of them!
Guess who is coming to visit!! Ella's Great Aunt and Great Grandma!! That's right ladies and gentlemen, Aunt Sherry and Grandma H, a.k.a. Grandma Ella (Julie's side) are coming to visit November 16th and 17th! Aunt Sherry has business in North Carolina and lucky for us, it isn't that far of a drive!! Curtis is sad that he will miss it but very excited that Julie and Ella will get some time with them. AND it will be the first time they get to see Ella! Julie set up a photo session with the photographer that did Ella's newborn photos so they can get a 4 generation photo! It will be the closest they can come to a generational picture and it will be great to have a picture of Ella with Great Grandma Ella :o) We also just love the photographer and his work! SO excited! Julie is TRYING to get the house in some order before they arrive but isn't expecting it to be perfect. Yeay for family visits!
Curtis
Curtis is working on updating his Officer package to be resubmitted in January. He had another Officer Board on October 31 at the Navy and Marine Corp Intelligence Training Center. The interview went well and we're going to keep our fingers crossed that he gets picked up this time! Later that same day Curtis stood the board for his Wings and we are happy to say that he passed with flying colors. He is now EAWS qualified and will be pinned in the next month or two! Curtis then left for Fallon, Nevada on November 1st. This trip will be a little longer than Key West and more boring for Curtis. It will also be quite a bit colder, especially at night. The internet should be better in Fallon and allow for better Skype and Facetime opportunities. We will take it all one day at a time! It has been chilly and uneventful for Curtis, as expected. Nothing too exciting to report but Curtis is looking forward to getting back home to his girls!
Other News
We will be coming home for Christmas! The earliest that we would be able to leave the Beach would be late afternoon/early evening on Saturday, December 21st. We still don't know if we are driving or flying. We have to be back in the Beach for Julie to be at work on January 2nd. The plan at the moment is to start up North in Lake Zurich area and then head down South to Beardstown/P Hill.
More Pictures
Here are some pictures of Ella and Orion just hanging out and conspiring...they were talking back and forth with one another.
Tummy Time
Shhh...
...don't tell them our plan
Ella was "petting" the kitty yesterday but really she was grabbing her ear. Thankfully we have a cat that is able to put up with this and hopefully they will continue to be the best of friends! Even though the cat was getting irritated, she didn't run off! Whoo! As Curtis called it...sister fighting ;)
Sister Snuggles
"Petting" the kitty
Okay...grabbing the ear
Until next time! :) We hope you are all doing well and can't wait to share more with you soon!!
Well, it has been about 5-6 weeks and our baby girl still has some lingering bronchiolitis. This wait has NOT been fun. She is no longer on her inhaler at daycare but still gets it when she is at home. She seems to have improved quite a bit! The past two weeks we had a couple rough nights with the coughing being a little more intense but it was expelling the mucus. We were all a little tired for a couple days. Sleep has gotten better for everyone, especially with less coughing. Other than the battle with bronchiolitis, she has been doing very well. She is still a very happy baby! She’s still giving her big toothless grins, blowing spit bubbles, and looking at EVERYTHING. She is getting pretty close to rolling from back to front and tends to get very frustrated that she can’t quite get it. We have started to swaddle her with both of her arms out now since she is so close to rolling over. Julie was swaddling her with one arm out for about a week while Curtis was gone so she could suck her thumb and self soothe. We are temporarily giving up on pacifiers since she still can’t keep it in her mouth on her own.
Modeling her Halloween outfit from Grandpa and Toni
Another shot of her outfit
We entered Ella into the 2013 Gerber Baby Photo Search Contest! We will need EVERYONE'S help to win!! Voting will start on November 4th and go until December 1st. If Ella were to win the grand prize, she could get $50,000 and be in a national ad! Talk about a college/car fund!! We put her in the Birth+ Milestone Category.
While we were trying to get a cleaner shot of Ella for the Gerber photo entry, we managed to get these!
The two sailors of the house
Up to no good!
Being cute
Oh, hey!
How to Vote (Per Gerber Rules)
Unfortunately, the voting process takes place via facebook and that will mean some of you will be unable to help us because we know you do not have accounts. The Gerber Rules State:
During the Voting Period, individuals with a Facebook account will be
invited to the Website, must "Like" the page to become a Fan (if you are
not already a Fan), allow the "Photo Search 2013" application when
prompted to "Get App", and follow the instructions provided to select
their favorite Submission submitted during the Submission Period. Limit
one (1) vote per Facebook user ID per milestone category per day.
You can search for her name or Julie's OR you can enter her ID# which is: 227440. The photo gallery can be viewed here.
Once you open the link, click "view gallery" and it will bring you to a
page where you can search for a photo. This is where you will type in
Ella's entry ID of 227440 and click search. Her picture will then show up below the search area!
Ella's Gerber Entry Photo
We know it will be a tough competition but we would really LOVE to give it our all. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!
Julie
Spirit Week/Homecoming is over at school for Julie and things are getting back to normal. We all went to the Homecoming game on the 12th for a little while to enjoy some food for the teachers/staff and watch the game. Okay, maybe to show Ella off a little too! Julie FINALLY got her official desk at work last Friday in the late afternoon! Julie got to move all of her things from her old desk to her BRAND NEW one on Monday morning. It looks beautiful!! :o)
Looking out towards the front doors/hallway
Looking into the library
You can see a little of Julie's old desk to the left in the second picture. Now that everything is set up and getting cleaned up, everything is looking really nice! It definitely makes students and staff stop and pause!
Julie gets another spirit week this week! Monday is college day so she has to make the big decision on which sweatshirt she will wear...Illinois College or Roosevelt University. BIG decision here ;) There will also be a tye die day, tacky tourist day, dress up like a movie character, and the favorite Marlin Pride day!
Curtis
Curtis is glad to be home with his girls! He got to spend all day Monday with Ella since Julie had to work on Columbus Day. Curtis got a look into the struggles of getting things accomplished when Ella just wants to be held all day. They got to enjoy a PJ day and movie marathons! Ella apparently likes the Hobbit. The next trip for Curtis is to Fallon, NV at the end of the month/beginning of November. This trip will be a little longer than the Key West trip. Fallon is the least fun of the trips because there is a whole lot of nothing. He also cannot drink the water on base because there is arsenic in it. Did we mention the whole lot of nothing? On Thursday, Curtis will have his board for his Wings qualification. This is the last step before he gets his Warfare Pin. He also has an officer board coming up next week. Other than his two different boards and getting ready for Fallon, there isn't a whole lot going on for him. Work! Work! Work! Hi-ho...hi-ho...it's off to work he goes....
The Holidays...
We hope you are all doing well! We should be coming home for Christmas Break and can't wait to see everyone that we possibly can. The plan is to start in Northern Illinois the first half and then head downstate. Julie gets done with school December 20th and Curtis has to work the 21st so we hope to be back sometime after that until about January 1st. Julie has to be back on the 2nd :( But consider this a partial warning that we are all coming back!! We'd like to see everyone that we possibly can but we know it may be difficult. We still aren't sure if we are driving or flying but we will get there one way or another!!
Our happy little girl is now 3 months old! She's is growing so much and we can't believe how time is flying. She is now about 12 lbs., 6 oz. and 24" long! That is about 1 pound and 1 inch from last month. Go baby, go! Last Wednesday Julie had to take Ella to the clinic after she picked her up from daycare because it looked like she had pink eye. Ugh! First bronchiolitis and now this?! So, an unexpected Thursday off for Julie and Ella and turned out that she did NOT have pink eye. Her puffy and pink eye with discharge was a result of the bronchiolitis she is still trying to tackle. The doctor said the nasal cavity was probably blocked and all the mucus she had found a new way out. :( Ella got eye drops for 1 week to be safe which meant she couldn't go back to daycare at the normal time in the morning because of the 24 hour rule with new medicine. We dodged a bullet there! Neither of us had had pink eye and we'd rather not start now! Apparently bronchiolitis takes 4-6 weeks for recovery...hurry up! On a positive note, Ella's extra coughing is forcing the mucus out now. We are really hoping that we are reaching the end of this for her sake. She still gets her inhaler and saline nasal drops which seem to help but we'd love to only have to give her the vitamin D and not "torture" her. Either Ella is continuing through a growth spurt or she's really trying to kick the bronchiolitis because this past weekend she slept past noon on BOTH days. She never does that! Julie took full advantage and got some chores done around the house. Despite the extra coughing and mucus stuck in the throat, we have a happy and smiley baby! Monday night Ella created a new personal record for sleep...13.5 hours straight. WOW!!
Ella has been learning how to blow spit bubbles. Her favorite lady at daycare, Miss Luci, was back on Monday and Ella was making her bubbles for her and being a little goof. Every time Miss Luci went to wipe her mouth Ella would stop her bubbles. When Miss Luci said she looked like a bubble factory, she would start blowing some more. Ella was smiling and you could tell she thought it was a game. Julie got to see it when she picked her up. We were sooo happy to see Miss Luci again!!
"Woah! Look what I'm doing!"
Besides spit bubbles, Ella is playing with her monkey taggie toy more while in her car seat and she recognizes it more and will purposefully grab it. We take monkey everywhere we go in the car now. We need to figure out a name for monkey soon and I think it's a boy. Our little Houdini is figuring out how to wiggle her one arm out during the night from her swaddle pod and is sucking her thumb. She has gone two nights now with one arm out of the swaddle. It seems to help her since she is doing some self soothing now but we are still hoping we can get her to keep a pacifier in her mouth at some point. She will take one but you have to help her keep it in her mouth. She doesn't get much help keeping it in at daycare so the thumb may be the way to go until she gets older. We aren't too worried at the moment. Hopefully we can get to both arms out of the swaddle where she won't wake herself up because one arm looses control. One step at a time! It's amazing to see the difference when she is swaddled versus unswaddled; she sure likes to be cozy ;). As you can kind of tell from our little stories, Ella recognizes familiar people and will smile at them. She will usually have a smile for the ladies at daycare when she gets there in the morning.
Monday will be a fun day for Ella because she gets to spend the whole day with Daddy! Daycare is closed for Columbus Day but Julie still has school and Curtis will have Monday off since they will have just gotten back from Key West. What a lucky little girl! She gets daddy all to herself! And lucky Daddy because he will get to spend the day with her while mommy works.
We continue to get her room put together more and more. Her clothes are getting ready to explode out of the closet! She has been given so many cute outfits from friends and family and we are VERY thankful!
Coming in the door to Ella's room
Ella's Door
Star mobile above the changing station
"Mommy, don't let the kitty eat me!"
Julie
Julie and Ella are doing really well while Curtis is in Key West but will be VERY happy to have him back home. The unexpected day off allowed Julie to be productive. She got her first ever flu vaccine by getting the flu mist. She wasn't thrilled to be getting it but knew it was in Ella's best interest. Curtis has to get one annually so he doesn't get a choice. It wasn't bad but it went down the throat and made it a little sore. There weren't any side effects until Sunday morning when Julie woke congested but it wasn't terrible. That thing does make you a little fuzzy at first, wow!
School is going well still. This week is homecoming week and Julie gets to participate in the dress up days. Monday was jersey day and she got to wear her Braves jersey :) It was a big debate between that and her Peyton Manning one. Baseball seems to be a safer topic out here than football, especially because he high school's alumni is EJ Manuel on the Buffalo Bulls. Tuesday is mix match day but Julie isn't planning on that one. She might get twitchy at not matching ;) Wednesday is wear pink for breast cancer awareness, colorful socks on Thursday and Marlin Pride on Friday! We plan on going to the homecoming game on Saturday for a little bit with Ella to get some food at the faculty tent, watch some football and of course, show Ella off ;). Hopefully it will be a good day and we can be there for a good chunk of time. We will let Ella lead the day's events though. She is the new boss after all.
Julie has been keeping busy with little chores for the next day and the usual stuff around the house. The first trip with Curtis away wasn't as bad as Julie was anticipating which was a nice surprise. Yes, it has been difficult but it has been manageable. Julie went for a few walks with Ella, Cammi, and Orion (Ella's boyfriend). That was enjoyable and some good exercise, especially when you have a 12 pound baby strapped to your front! Julie's co-worker lent her a baby bjorn carrier and Julie and Ella both seem to love it! We like our carrier but right now this one seems to be just what we needed for comfort! Julie also got a moby wrap from a friend but at the time with Ella's coughing and congestion, Ella wasn't too thrilled with it. Maybe when Ella is done with her breathing issues she may enjoy it a little more.
Curtis
Well, Curtis is still in Key West and should be returning soon! Yeay! We are all excited for that; we have all missed one another. Béla was taking it pretty hard and meowing at the guest bedroom door thinking Curtis was in the room hiding from her. I think she will be meowing non stop when he gets home! Béla has been a good kitty and snuggled with Julie every night to keep her company for Curtis. She even has been going into Ella's room with Julie to keep an eye on the two of them. No Hemingway House visits for Curtis this time around but he did get to check out a new restaurant. It has been pretty hot and humid down there and he has not been enjoying that too much. Curtis continues to get closer to getting his wings; he has a couple more signatures he needs to get and a test that he will need to take and then he should be all set! With his testing abilities, he will probably rock the test. One cool thing that he saw was a BIG lizard on the side of the road while they were heading to dinner one night. Curtis is very anxious to get back go his girls and enjoy the cooler weather that just started to come in.
Pictures
We have some more pictures to share! This is probably one of the best parts! Less reading and more pictures? ;)
Oh, hi!
Looking like a fashion diva on Monday
Playing tough. "Don't mess with me and my buddy!"
Condolences
We hate to share bad news but we like to help keep everyone informed and let others know they are in our thoughts. Last week Dorothy Spencer passed away. For those that knew Norma and Ron Spencer, Curtis' grandparents, Dorothy was married to Ward, one of Ron's brothers. We are keeping the Bowling and Ackerman families in our thoughts and hearts as they go through this difficult time. Julie is very glad she got the chance to meet Dorothy at least once while visiting Hank and Marilyn. While we don't always get to see the extended family because we are all spread out, the few memories we have take up a big part of our hearts.
We are just a LITTLE behind on our blogging....OH NO!! We hope you will forgive us!
To begin...pictures of Ella at 2 months! She didn't quite feel like sitting up for pictures but we gave it a shot anyway.
2 Months Old
Someone found the kitty!
We got quite a bit unpacked within the first week but still have some things left to go. Most of our pictures are hung up and it's looking like home! We will keep working on it but we not as fast; we like spending our family time snuggling! We also have internet, landline, and cell phones working again! It took about a week to get it all sorted out...ugh! It was quite a hassle but at least it is all up and running again so we can stay in touch with the outside world and not be cut off ;) We are a bit out of practice on our smoke signals so it would have been rather difficult to communicate.
Ella
Ella's congestion turned into Bronchiolitis :( It is basically the baby's version of a viral infection for adults. She has been on an inhaler since the 11th but has been getting better and isn't coughing as much. Despite her being congested and coughing, she is still sleeping GREAT (6-11 hours at a time)! We try and give her as much rest as possible to help kick the cold but really, she needs to be able to blow her nose. At least we can use saline and suction as much as possible to help her in the mean time. We hope she continues to improve and use the inhaler less each day. When we went back to the doctor to find out she had bronchiolitis, we found out that she is in fact 23' and NOT 21"....oops! The nurse measured correctly the first time but remeasured because Ella was being a wiggle worm. So when we went in on the 11th, she was 11 lbs, 10 oz. and 23 inches. Despite being sick, she's growing and gaining weight!
Ella is still doing great at daycare! She continues to adjust and has been napping better but it still takes some effort. Miss Julie, Miss Luci, and Miss Agnes are our favorites :) They have done such a fantastic job taking care of Ella during the day and have really made our first daycare experience amazing. Miss Luci is absolutely in love with Ella and is always telling us great stories about their day. We really did luck out! Ella gets lots of loving because the ladies love to come over and say goodbye to her when it is time to go home. Ella is still the quiet and good one of the group! A few times all the other kids around her have been crying and she just lays there playing with her toys. She has been VERY interested in everything around her and is always watching her friends at daycare. Ella is still very talkative and we enjoy hearing her "stories" that she has to share.
Ella's room is still a work in progress but we made a LOT of headway on it! Don't mind the mess (we are slightly embarrassed by it) you see in some of the pictures (or the poor quality due to lighting)! The decals alone have made a huge difference since are aren't painting and we love them! (Thank you Boeckelman Family!) We still have some things to put up and away for Ella's room but this has been huge progress from what she had back at our old place. There are still some pictures to hang but also room to grow! I am missing pictures of the door and the short wall when you come in. The door has a sign on it and there are pictures on the short wall. Perhaps once everything is complete and put away we can do an updated series of pictures.
Here are some other pictures we took of Ella over the past couple weeks that are just too cute not to share! We went to the beach for the FIRST time with our friends Sarah, James, and their son Alex. It was the first time for Alex and Ella at the beach. Of course the day we went was the coolest it had been all week, 72. Nonetheless, Ella got to put her toes in the sand. :) We didn't get to stay as long as we wanted but still a fun experience! I bet if it had been warmer and she would have gotten to get her feet wet, she would have enjoyed it. She kicks around during bath time and still loves the water!
Happy Baby!!
Drama Queen
1st Beach Experience!!
Testing out my little blanket pod!!
Watching a movie with Dad
Julie
Julie has been busy at school but she wouldn't have it any other way. They will hopefully be getting the new circulation desk in two weeks and she is VERY excited to have something a little bit closer to the librarians and more permanent. She is currently in the front of the library while the librarians are towards the middle and it seems like they are very far apart. Sometimes it makes it difficult to communicate. Julie has been taking on various projects in the library and she just loves that she can help the new librarian collaborate with other teachers in the building. Freshman orientation just ended in the library and students were doing an iPad scavenger hunt to get to know the policies, procedures, and features of the library. Julie got to test it out on her iPhone before they started and it was fun for her. Julie has gotten to do some book talks with students who were looking for suggestions and one that made Curtis proud was getting a student to check out one of the Timothy Zahn Star Wars books! Banned Book Week was this week...go read a banned book!! Do you know some books that have been banned or challenged?? Did you know Harry Potter is on the challenge list? Where the Wild Things Are is on the list as well. How about the banned list...Grapes of Wrath, For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms, Catch 22, The Color Purple, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn...
Besides school, Julie is doing well. She is about 10 pounds away from pre-baby weight! She is still trying to figure out what she wants to do for a workout routine because she likes to get Ella right after school and spend time with her before it is time to get Ella ready for bed. It will get figured out but no rush when you get to have snuggle time!
Curtis
Curtis' eyes are doing great after surgery! He got cleared to stop taking the medicine eye drops and just keep doing the moisture drops. He is enjoying his eye freedom! ;) Curtis is actually in Key West for a couple weeks for training and qualifications. He got there Thursday afternoon to assist in the setup before the jets and everyone else arrives on Saturday. Every trip there is a small group of people that get sent early to do this and for Key West, Curtis was selected. This will be the shortest of the trips that Curtis takes over the next year as his squadron begins their work ups for deployment next August. As of right now, they are scheduled to deploy for 9 months. We are currently focusing on the present because changes can always happen. We also think spending the time we do have with one another and Ella is more important than worry about something almost a year away.
Congratulations Chief Spencer!!
Jim is officially a Chief now! They had their pinning ceremony on the USS Truman and we were able to get pictures off of their facebook page! We are so proud of him and we know he worked very hard to get to this point. Bravo Zulu Chief Spencer!!
We may have forgotten some things but hopefully nothing too big! If we did, guess what! We can tell you about it next time. :) We hope everyone is doing well and thank you for your patience with our posting delay. Hopefully the extra pictures won you over and you completely forgot about how long it had been between posts!
Until next time, which hopefully won't be as long. We make no promises though!
