Belly and Birthday

I have been meaning to do a post about Ella's birthday party for about a week, but once again time has gotten away from me and life has been busy. To start things off, here are my most recent belly shots. I missed about 5 weeks of pictures and then got 2 in a row. My belly has really been growing so you might even be able to tell the difference between the pictures. I sure feel different from last week.

Here is me at 17 weeks.

And this is me today at just over 18 weeks. I am just starting to feel uncomfortable and sleep is getting harder, but it is all worth it.

In other baby news at my appointment last week my doctor did a quick ultrasound to check the gender. The baby was in a really tough position and so he was having a hard time getting a look. At first he said girl, but then we got some better looks and he thought boy for sure. He gave us an 85% chance that it was a boy. It really looked like a boy to me, but we will find out for sure at my real ultrasound appointment on the 19th. I am so excited to know so that I can start getting the nursery ready. Also, I think I have been feeling the baby for the last week and half or so, but I don't know for sure. They say it is easier to notice the kicks the second time around but it is still a little hard for me. In the last few days it has been more pronounced and I am more confident that I am actually feeling the baby and not my food digesting.

On to the party...

A week ago my sister and I threw an Elmo birthday party for Ella, Riley, and her husband Loran. He was a good sport to share the party with two 2 year olds. I decided that I would attempt to make them a cake. This was the first time I have ever done this, but it actually went better than I thought and was kind of fun. Dustin made the frosting and helped to get the colors just right.

This picture was at the beginning of the process.

And here I am with the finished product. I was going to try and put the names on, but I ran out of room and I had a small amount of confidence of me making the names legible with frosting. We decided to go with the ages.

This is a group shot of some of my family. Notice my brother on the far left being his usual self :) As you can see Dustin and I had some fun decorating our house. We were quite proud of what we did with our fan. :) Although now that I see it in a picture, I think it looked a little more impressive in person.
We played pin the tail on the donkey which was hysterical. To my family, we have a video of each person playing, so let me know if you want them. Here is my nephew, Josh playing. He was the big winner and beat 11 of us.

Ella loves her cousins, but she really likes Josh. She constantly wanted to be in his lap or doing just what he did.

Loran and Amy put together a pass the parcel game. This is my mom opening one of the layers.

Amy helping Riley open a present.

Ella opening presents. She still does not totally get it and gets pretty excited about the tissue paper.

Loran opening his gifts. I think we all gave him ITunes gift cards.

The two birthday boys and the birthday girl blowing out the candles.

Cute Riley enjoying his cake and ice cream.

It was a really fun party, and to all my family, I hope you had fun!!

I still can't believe that I have a 2 year old. Ella had her 2 year check up this last week and here are her stats:

24.0 pounds (16th percentile)

34 3/4 inches tall (76 percentile)

The doctor said she was great in every way and we agree. I need to do a post about everything she is into these days and all the talking she is doing. I will just tell you for now that her latest interests are the color pink and watching Aladdin. :)

This picture is from today. Dustin got up with Ella and let me sleep in a little bit. I came out to find them like this watching their favorite show, Curious George. This picture makes me a little sad because I am husbandless (if that is a word) for the next 12 days. He left for a work trip to Costa Rica today and I already miss him. I am really pathetic and we have only been apart for a couple nights over our nearly 5 1/2 years of marriage. I am excited for him and know he will have fun, but I am going to miss him and I know Ella will be sad once she figures it out. And I am really glad we have an alarm system to make me feel safe.