I'm back!! 5 month update.

The last five months have been absolutely amazing!! Matt and I love being parents. It is amazing how much Ella has grown up in such little time. She is getting such a distinct personality. It is perfect. So far, we have been able to see that our little girl is going to be very active like her daddy. She is just always busy and doesn't like to just 'chill out' very often. She is going to be very dramatic and is very expressive like her mommy. She is just such a sweet, sweet girl. She has the sweetest laugh that just warms your heart. She smiles all the time. Recently she has decided to make a new smiling face where she scrunches her nose and squints her eyes when she smiles. So stinking cute! Her first laugh was at Max, the bulldog. She will just light up every time she sees him, even if it is across the room.

I am so fortunate to be able to stay home with Ella. We have so much fun during the day. Getting to know your baby is a feeling that you just can't describe. I honestly don't know where the time goes each day. I am constantly busy, but have no idea what all I do, because nothing seems to get done! :) I mean, there are days that I look at the clock and it is 2:00 or so and Ella and I are still in our pajamas and there has been nothing done in the house that day! As busy and tired that I am at times, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I am so thankful to be able to be home with Ella and get to hang out with her all day everyday! She is such a blessing.

The last few months have been crazy busy. Ella came in September, so we were pretty much out of touch with the real world for a month or two. By the time we started getting some sleep and getting out a little, it was Thanksgiving and the holiday rush began! We were traveling every weekend from Thanksgiving until the week before Christmas! We had 7 Christmases this year with different families! Whew!! It was great to see family and to get out a little. Needless to say, we have really enjoyed our time at home the last couple of months.

Our next few months will be pretty eventful as well! Matt and I bought a new home! It is one of Matt's dreams to get a little bungalow in the Heights area of Little Rock and "fix it up." So, that is what we did while our family is still somewhat small. We found a little house just a block away from our rent house and have lots of big plans! We closed in the middle of January and Matt and my dad have spent a few weekends working on demolition. It is going to definitely be a new adventure for us. We have a couple more weekends left on demolition and then will start the rebuilding back process. Matt has taken it pretty much down to the studds! Definitely a project. He is planning on doing most of the work himself. Fortunately, he is able to do that. My job has been to keep the baby. So, no complaints here!

That is about all that is new here since Ella has come. She has just been changing like crazy. She is growing up so big and becoming such a wonderful, sweet little girl. She is "talking" constantly. She says "da-da" all the time! Her little voice is such a perfect sound! Here are some pictures from the last few months. I will work on updating more often.. I will do better, promise!!

Our little razorback fan! Only a few weeks old.

October 2009. Our first big outing to Petit Jean National Park with Granna and Maryn. Such a beautiful day to have a picnic and take a nice drive. Ella did great!

Ella was an Elephant for Halloween this year! Didn't go anywhere. Just dressed up at home and Granna and Pops and Uncle Carl and Bebe came over.

First Football season! Typical Saturday morning in the George household!

Bath time. First time in the water. Check out the rolls. She is eating good!!


November 2009. Ella is Two months old!!! Starting to smile some.

December 2009. Going to get a Christmas tree! She loves her baby bjorn carrier!

December 2009. Ella is Three Months old!

First time in her Bumbo.
Christmas Morning. Santa brought Ella a Jewelry Box, some books and "tickle monster" gloves

January 2010. 4 months old. She is just growing up so much.
That hand is constantly in her mouth these days as we are SERIOUSLY teething. It should be any day that those pearly whites pop out! I can see them down there getting ready! (And it is obvious that Ella can feel them.. we have had a hard couple of weeks with her teething!)Ella loves her activity center. It has been nice for me too cause she will play in there by herself!We love, love, love mirrors! Here she is talking to me in the mirror. Then she saw daddy with the camera! February 2010. We have snow!Ella tried to eat snow for the first time! She didn't like the cold on her lips :)!First time to sit up by herself. This is a picture as she was falling forward. She is getting close!At 5 months old, we started some rice cereal! She loves it, but is still trying to get the tongue thing down without it all coming out.

Well, that is all for now. We are just loving every minute with our sweet girl. Matt is doing good at his job and is staying very busy! We have a wonderful church and a great community group at church. We are getting to spend more and more time with friends, too. Life is good and God has truly blessed us! We are so grateful for all of His blessings!

She's Here!!!

Ella has finally arrived! 6 lbs. 7 oz. 19 in. long... Such a perfect gift!!
She is over one week old. She decided to hold out and wait till the last minute when we went in to induce last Thursday morning. Everything went great with the labor and delivery. I was in labor a total of 5 hours so I couldn't ask for anything better! We are all doing very well. We had to stay one extra day at the hospital because Ella was a little jaundice so she had to hang out in the lighted billibox until her levels went down. We finally got to go home on Sunday night. She is doing well. We went to the doctor for a follow up on Monday morning and everything went great. Nothing to worry about. All is back to normal. This week has been a little rough as far as trying to get a schedule set and trying to get some sleep. To be such a little girl, Ella definitely has an appetite! I feel like everyday gets a little better. She is starting to get on a schedule and we are starting to get a little more sleep during the day. Despite the lack of sleep, Matt and I have truly enjoyed being parents. Ella is just perfect! I will update more later when I have more time.

On our way to the hospital


Hooked up and ready to go!


HERE SHE IS... OUR SWEET LITTLE GIRL!
ELLA JANE GEORGE

Look at all that dark hair! What a big surprise!!

Our New Little Family!

Still Waiting

Well, we are still waiting for Ella to come into the world! Today is her due date and there is no sign of our sweet little girl yet. I went to the doctor yesterday and everything is looking good. She is in position and I am progressing well. It looks like it could be any day now. We set an appointment for next Thursday, Sept. 17th to induce if she has not come by then. That is the latest possible day for her to stay in there and not risk any health problems. We are wanting to give her all the time she needs to be ready on her own, but we are not sure if she is just getting a little too comfortable in there or if she is just stubborn already :). Hopefully she will come on her own before next Thursday. Good news is that next week at this time, I will no longer be pregnant and I will have a little baby! Wow! I have really enjoyed being pregnant and am afraid I will kind of miss it. I guess I am just one of the truly lucky ones that didn't have it too hard. I am hoping that my labor and/or the first few months with Ella doesn't pay me back for my easy pregnancy, so I guess I shouldn't speak too soon! I am sure there are some people out there that are wanting to say really mean things to me right now when I say I have enjoyed being pregnant and it hasn't been too hard, so I will not say any more about that :)!

This past weekend, while on "Ella watch", we got to enjoy the first Razorback game of the season! Matt has ordered the game plan package on the TV so that he can be home more this football season but still not miss any games. We walked up to a cute little baby store close to our house and got Ella a new little Razorback onsie Saturday morning. (Notice I said WALKED... we are trying to get her to come see us... I hear if you walk, it starts contractions so we have been doing a lot of walking! I don't think it is true, but it can't hurt!)

The back has the back of the pig on it with its squiggly tail. It is too cute!

Our Labor Day weekend was fun. Matt's mom came to see us for the weekend and my grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousin got to come over for the game. While some of the family went to the game, we had a small party at the house for those that wanted to just stay here and watch it. Even Max put on his Razorback jersey to cheer on the hogs!
Even though we won, Max got a little bored and had to take a few naps during the game :)

I have been a little disconnected this week due to our computer crashing. I think we got it all fixed up without losing any pictures, itunes, or documents that I know of so far. Whew! That could have been bad! I am posting some pictures of Ella's room since lots of people have been asking. We just can't wait for her to be there in the little crib or to be rocking her in her rocking chair, or even to change her on her changing table. There is no mistaking it is a little girl's room with all the pink!The bed is from my brother, Eric. It was Maryn's bed. The chair was also Maryn's chair from my parent's house. We are borrowing it until Ella gets a bigger room that will fit a big comfy glider! :) The rug is one of my favorite purchases. It is pink with white polka dots! I ordered her bedding off Ebay. It is so sweet and simple! Matt painted the stripes on the accent wall. He did such a good job!

The little table is one of my grandmother Asbury's (one of the grandmothers that Ella is named after). My sister painted it white. Matt and I found the canvas in a cute little boutique in Dallas when we went on our anniversary get away. It was our "inspiration piece" as they say on HGTV! Matt's Grandma Jean (another grandmother Ella is named after) made Ella the pretty quilt on her rocking chair and I made the pillow when I was "nesting!"

Ella's changing table that I found online and diaper genie from her great Aunt Kelly and great Uncle Dale! The mirror is from her great grandma Jean. The little canvases were painted for her by my friend Emily to match our big canvas. The mobile is one of my favorite things in the room. My mom got it for me off of Etsy. It is pearls and crystals and sparkles as it spins around. I love it and I know Ella will too!

Ella's Aunt Meredith added the taffeta ruffle fabric onto the bottom of the crib and the curtains! She added it to the dotted sheer curtains and the pink silk panels! I think this just makes the room complete! They turned out perfect, better than we could have pictured!

We got Ella's bookcase at a craft show in Springdale before we moved. I have been collecting children's books for her for a long time. I hope one day she will like to come and get books to read like her cousin Maryn does.

This picture shows the pretty chandelier that Matt's mom has been saving for her room for a long time. It is light green and has flowers and leaves on it. So pretty.

As you can tell, we are ready and waiting! We are so blessed to have had such a wonderful pregnancy without any complications so far! Please pray that our sweet Ella and I stay healthy during delivery and that she is healthy and happy once she gets here. Hopefully next time I post something I will be including baby pictures and Ella will be here!

New Beginnings

Well, I am officially blogging! Matt and I have been saying we are going to start a blog for a while. Now it is official! I figure since Ella is coming anyday, we should get this thing started so that everyone can keep up with all that is going on with the George's.

Let me begin with all that 2009 has brought us so far (man has it been a crazy, challenging, exciting year full of change!) This will be a long post so get ready. Most will not be this long, I promise. Just a quick run down of our life this year....

- The first week of the 2009 we found out we were going to have a baby! This was such exciting news! We shared the news with our parents and our siblings on January 16th when everyone was in town at our house celebrating Matt's mom's birthday! Here are some of Ella's first baby pictures. (Maryn, our 3 year old niece, says she looks scary here!)

- Then, in February, we got the news that Matt was part of the large downsizing at Wal-Mart home office. He was one of almost 1000 workers laid off. This was a huge reality shock for us (Especially having just found out we were pregnant!). I can honestly say that this was one of the most challenging times in mine and Matt's life so far. He was completely blindsighted. Matt spent the next 2 months looking for a job as well as finishing up last minute house projects because we just knew that we would be putting the house on the market as there were no jobs available in Northwest Arkansas. We had a hard time accepting that we were going to have to move, but we knew that this had to be a God thing and we had to let go of our "plans" for our life and trust His plan for our life. We found no jobs in civil engineering or construction estimation in Arkansas for the longest time. We were preparing ourselves to have to move far away from family with our new little baby on the way. Fortunately, Matt got a call from a Steel Company in Little Rock wanting to meet with him about a job! To our knowledge there wasn't even a job posted here. What?! It had to be God. After all we had gone through the last couple of months, what are the odds that we would end up back in Little Rock?! After a day-long interview process and taking a few tests, Matt got offered the job! So, I was going back home. We put the house on the market and prayed a lot!! Matt moved on to Little Rock and I finished the semester teaching and showed our house almost everyday! We were so fortunate to have bought in such a great location in Springdale. Our home in Springdale, which we still love so much, sold in less than 30 days! What a blessing! Matt and I were sad to leave, but we are so excited about the new chapter in our lives. Here we are on moving day, in June, after we had already made our final walk through and gotten pretty emotional about waving goodbye.

(notice the sunglasses to hide the emotion :)! Also, notice that I was 28 weeks pregnant...I had a good excuse not to have to help too much on this move :)!)

- In April, we found out that our little peanut was a girl! We had the family up to our house again to celebrate and share the news! Aunt Meredith brought the cutest cake and we announced that her name was Ella Jane so Aunt Meredith also brought a book just for Ella!



- Once we got to Little Rock in June, I found a new Dr. and got some 4D pictures taken of Ella! There are over 40 of them and a 45 minute video too, but I will just put a few on here for you to see. I am picking the pictures that show her different little expressions.

Isn't she just the sweetest little thing?! I can't wait to meet her! We love her so much already! She is definitely going to be an active little girl, I am afraid! :)



- In June, we celebrated our 4 year anniversary! I honestly think I fall more and more in love with Matt everyday! I am so happy that he is my husband and I get to spend the rest of my life with him! He is such an amazing leader for our family and is definitely my rock! He is such a blessing in my life. For our anniversary (and a pre-baby get away), we spent a long weekend in Dallas. We got to see George Strait open the new Cowboys stadium and did some shopping and relaxing. Here are some pictures from our wedding 4 years ago and from our Dallas get-away.








The stadium was amazing, as you can probably tell! Of course George Strait, Reba McIntire, Blake Shelton and Leanne Womack put on a great show too! We had a such great time.




- We have had such a great summer getting settled in Little Rock. I have had 3 showers for Ella which were so pretty. The first one was an extended family shower for my Dad's side of the family. Some of my dad's cousins gave it for me. The second shower was with a lot of my sorority sisters that are in the Little Rock area. It was so fun to get to see everyone and get caught up. I have posted a picture with all the hostesses. The last shower was given by my sisters and my aunt and cousin. It was so much fun and was so beautiful! I just loved getting to see everyone at my showers. We are all so excited for Ella to get here.


(Notice the cute blocks Ella's Aunt Elizabeth made... They turned out great!)

- So after all that and much more, here we are in Little Rock. We have settled into a little rent house in the Heights area and are expecting the arrival of our baby girl! (***I will get pics of Ella's room and my growing belly posted as soon as I get them onto the computer***) Matt is doing good and enjoying his new job with Lexicon, Inc., a part of Schueck Steel. He has his own office with a window!! :) (that is a big change from his Wal-Mart headquarter cubicle) He is starting to get the hang of things and is learning a lot. He is feeling a lot more comfortable and confident.



We are continually humbled by all the blessings that God has given us and the amazing changes that have occured in such a small period of time! This has been a whirlwind of a year so far and we know the best is yet to come! Our little baby girl will be here any day. We are patiently waiting on her to to come into the world. I have been taking daily walks to try to speed this process along (even though it is supposed to be an old wives tale and doesn't really put you into labor). But, I figure it can't hurt anything! :) She is so funny and has such personality already. She will start moving around like crazy whenever she hears her dad call her name. It is so funny! She loves it when he talks to her and reads to her. Even if she is sleeping she will wake up and start moving around. She is also very good at telling me when it is time for a meal. Everyday at breakfast, lunch and dinner she just is wild! I love it! Even though it is getting a little painful now since she is so big in there, I still enjoy watching and feeling her move around in my belly! It is so amazing seeing her little body roll around from side to side. This has been such a great pregnancy. I have truly enjoyed it a lot, but am getting to that uncomfortable point where I am getting very ready to see her and to hold her in my arms! As you can tell, we just can't wait. We are so anxious for the little things that comes along with being parents and having a sweet little baby. Until then, I am going to savor all the quiet moments at home and the sleep that I am getting right now before she comes!