Maternity Pictures

Before leaving for Washington D.C. Tyler and I (mostly me, but Tyler was in a couple of them!) had our good friend Emily take maternity pictures for us.  She and Beckett braved the Texas heat and got some incredible images!  I am absolutely in love with them and can't wait to finally replace some of our engagement pictures in the apartment with some of these.  Take a look below!

 

So incredibly excited to meet this little girl!  By the way...we made it to DC, and week one has been FULL of fun already!  Get ready for post on our time here so far.  

The Merry Month of May

May has been a very exciting month!  Tyler and I have been very busy getting ready for our Emma to get here, graduating, having our first, and second (and soon to be third) baby showers, and packing our apartment up for the big (across the street) move when we get back from Washington DC in July. 

For starters...here are some recent belly pics:

A few weekends ago, Tyler and I made our way to Allen to celebrate Emma at our first baby shower.  My besties (Lynley, Nikki, and Lindsey) and my sisters hosted the most perfect shower I could have ever imagined!  It was a Welcome to the World theme and the turnout was impressive!  We continue to thank God for how blessed we are to be loved by so many people who surround us, and to know that our little girl is already loved by them too! 

 

Here's a picture of my wonderful hostesses:

 

 

 And one outside...even though it was a little sunny!

 

It was so fun to see these women!  My friend Lynley is pregnant too!  She is only 5 weeks behind me, and it is so fun to experience this together (even though we're in different cities).  I am so excited to raise our kids so close in age!  Here is our belly buddies picture!

 

Then, my cohort threw me a shower before graduation.  

I am so incredible thankful for this group of friends!  Here we are (not at the shower) in our graduation regalia!  These people mean the world to me.  I can't believe the past two years have gone by as fast as they have.  They have made my education experience everything it is, and I cannot imagine staying in Waco without them.  Saying goodbye has been bittersweet, but I am so excited to see what these incredible people do in all their new roles, and continue to grow in our relationship despite the fact that we aren't together 24/7 anymore!

Speaking of graduation...the Carpenter/Mize/Ellis clan added three new masters to the family!  Kayla and Aaron graduated with their Master's in Social Work, and I graduated with my Master's in Higher Education and Student Affairs.  Graduation weekend included a hooding ceremony with my cohort and the actual graduation ceremony.  

 I'm so thankful for my family and friends.  Their presence and support made for such a wonderful weekend of celebration.  I love these people so much...words cannot describe my love for them and how much they mean to me!

In other news, Tyler and I have been working to pack up our apartment before we leave for Washington DC in 2 weeks!  We are hoping to have the apartment completely ready to move by the time we leave on June 3rd so when we get back from DC on July 7th we can just come back and move out!  Then, I can finally start nesting...I can't wait to start decorating Emma's room.  I have so many ideas, but until July, I won't be able to see how they work together.  One thing I am excited to see come together is all of the bedding for her.  I'm making all of the crib sheets, changing pad covers, and crib skirt for her nursery.  So far they are looking GREAT!  I'll post pictures when they are more complete...and when they are actually on a mattress, changing pad, and crib!

Well...I'm officially 28 weeks pregnant!  I bet a lot of you are thinking I'm crazy to be getting ready to spend 5 weeks in Washington DC and be this pregnant...but no worries...my doctor has given me full permission to go!  Plus, this is a chance that we may never get again, and I'm not going to let a 7 month pregnant belly stand in our way. 

What's next for us...

Baby Shower in Arkadelphia
Arkadelphia High School Graduation (Tyler will get to see his former students get their diplomas!)
Finish Packing the Apartment
Pack for DC
WASHINGTON DC TRIP
Family Reunion in June
Maternity Pictures
Move
NEST
HAVE A BABY IN AUGUST!!!!!!!

It's getting crazy around here...but it is some of the best crazy ever!

Pregnancy & Life Happenings {Lately}

So...besides the growing girl in me right now...a lot has happened since I last blogged (mostly a lot that doesn't have to do with being pregnant...but I know people like to hear about being pregnant...so here's a update on both...).  I hope this post isn't terribly boring...here we go!

I am currently 24 weeks and 3 days into my pregnancy.  More than halfway there, and even though it seems like it took forever to get to that halfway point (20 weeks) these past 4 weeks have FLOWN by.  If you follow me on Instagram, you know more about the pregnancy week by week than anyone who just reads this blog.  For the rest of you...here are some pictures of my growing baby bump:

 

I feel like I should also announce (to the blog) that we found out we are going to have a little girl!  I was convinced we would have a boy, and after our sonogram appointment...and lots of uncomfortable poking on my tummy...we had plans to drive to Dallas and have Tyler's birthday dinner at Taverna (his favorite restaurant) and do a personal reveal there.  Right after we ordered (yes we made it all the way to Dallas without peeking to see if baby E was a he or she) Tyler opened a small gift and inside was a PINK "I love my Daddy" bib!  I could not believe it!  We are so excited and can't wait for this little girl to steal our hearts...ok she already has!

Emma Mechelle Ellis

Emma was the name I had picked out, probably in middle school, and I have never let it go.  Mechelle is my middle name, and I love it.  I love that it is spelled differently, and so I wanted to pass that on to our sweet girl.  She is a "lively" baby (says the doctor when I told her she kicks a lot at week 20 and they don't seem to do that until week 24) and is kicking and punching and headbutting all the time!  I LOVE IT!  I love that I can feel her moving around and being spunky.  Sometimes its the highlight of my day to just sit down and feel her moving and watch my belly get the hiccups. 

Maternity clothes are AMAZING.  Where have they been all my life.  Tyler is not a huge fan of the full belly panel pants, but Emma and I are in love with them. 

We are currently trying to figure out our living situation for the next year.  Our lease is up in a little over a month, and we are looking for a bigger place for our little girl...ok let's be real...for all of the crap we have.  Since we don't feel like we can start nesting until we know officially where we will be living, all nesting has been put on hold.  This is probably a good thing because I have plenty of other things to do to occupy my time right now...cough cough...like graduate! 

Yes, I will be graduating on May 17, and I am thrilled to be able to put the (obligatory) books away for a while.  In other news, I was recently accepted into Baylor's Higher Education Studies and Leadership Ph.D. program.  After giving it a lot of thought, I have decided to defer my acceptance for a semester so I can spend those first few months of Emma's life adjusting to being a mom. 

Baby showers are approaching and this baby thing is starting to get real!  We've registered, and since we can't nest yet, we are just waiting (and stocking my parents' garage with baby things) until we can get into a new apartment to set up the nursery.  We did buy fabric for her bedding and I am so excited to start seeing how things will come together. 

I probably haven't mentioned that Tyler has accepted a fellowship out of Judge Starr's office that will send the two three of us to Washington D.C. this summer.  As if we don't already have enough going on, we will leave June 4th (the day after Tyler's last day of school) and return to Waco on July 7th!  We get to spend a whole month in D.C., and even though I'll be crazy pregnant, it was an opportunity we couldn't pass on!  So prayers that Emma does not decide to make an early appearance in the world would be great...hold on little girl...we at least need to make it back to Waco!  Though, I'm thinking it is probably very unlikely that she will be early...if she's anything like her dad she will definitely be late! 

Thanks for wading through the stream of consciousness above...I think you are all up to date now on the happenings in the lives of the Ellis household.
 

T + E = 3

That's right folks!  If you haven't already heard from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or the other 1,000 people who already know...I'm PREGNANT!  Since we only started telling people about 3 weeks ago, it is still a little surreal to us.

*Baby is the tiny white blob at the bottom of the black moon-shape thing*

Side note: telling people you're pregnant is weird...there's no good way to bring it up in conversation without sounding completely conceded.

This is how we spread the news...

Precious, I know!  And if you're going to ask us if we're having a bear, or if we're naming it "Baby," someone has already beaten you to the punch (thanks Kayla, Justin, and Jimmy...the three most sarcastic people I know).

Needless to say we are SUPER (or sOOper, right Tara) excited about little E.  Here are some of the highlights of this journey so far:

1) We found out on December 1st...it was a long process of taking 5 different pregnancy tests 6 days early (because they can do that) and having no idea if we were pregnant because 2 said yes and 3 said no.  Finally, I decided Tyler decided we should just be patient and wait a little while longer.  We got back from Thanksgiving break, took a test while we were unpacking our suitcase, and found out we were pregnant on the first day of Advent...appropriately since Advent is all about waiting!  It took a little while for it to sink in...a long while for Tyler (who by the way, kept forgetting I was pregnant).  I scheduled my first appointment, and embraced the Advent season, and waited.

2) We had our first appointment right before I was officially 7 weeks along.  Got to hear the heartbeat and see the tiny dot that was Baby E.

3) Because I have a horrible lie face, and because they wouldn't stop bothering us, Kayla and Aaron were the first to find out.  I told them that baby was the size of a poppy seed and asked if they had any poppy seeds in their pantry so we could see what size that actually was...Kayla immediately responded "are you kidding?  You think we have poppy seeds in our pantry?  We do have quinoa!"  Then she proceeded to get the quinoa out, and we all decided it was an appropriate substitute (we were wrong by the way...quinoa is way bigger!).  Which brings me to #4...

4) We call it Quinoa.  The nickname immediately stuck once we pulled the quinoa out.  So if I refer to baby as Quinoa...know that's the name right now!

5) We told the rest of our family on Christmas Eve...apparently we could not surprise them because they had been waiting so long (really folks...4 1/2 years) for us to drop the news on them.  So basically, when we asked them to open a present that was going to tell them we were pregnant, they were too distracted with asking each other "is this it...do you think this is it...are they telling us...are you thinking what I'm thinking...etc."  Come on...OPEN THE PRESENTS!  Since Kayla and Aaron were in on the news already, they sneakily hid their GoPro in the bookcase and we got it all on film!

6) We announced to the rest of the world when I was officially 12 weeks along!

7) I embraced my first sign of baby bump at 15 weeks!

8) I was only a victim to morning sickness twice...even though I was nauseated constantly for about 10 weeks!

9) We find out if Quinoa is a boy or a girl on March 13th!

I would say those are the major updates so far.  Plenty more to come...like cravings (which Tyler calls my normal eating habits...what does he know...I'm carrying his child...but he is pretty much right).