I miss him so much! I miss his laugh and his stories. I miss his hugs and him telling me he loves me. It's really weird knowing that Grandpa will never know Ella....at least here on earth. He was only here for 4 months of Jack's life so Jack will never remember him. Owen hasn't talked about Peepaw in a while either so it's sad to think that he probably won't remember him either. All of our kids are going to miss out on knowing a wonderfully amazing man. 
I love this shot of her cute profile and her little hand by her head. Her profile picture reminds Michael and me of Owen's. I can't wait to see what she looks like.
Here's her little foot. She was pretty still for most the ultrasound, but towards the end she started doing summersaults. So that's what I've been feeling! :)
I am 17 weeks 5 days today! I kept up with my tradition of wearing the color for the sex that Michael thinks we were having. For Owen's ultrasound I wore pink even though I totally knew he was a boy. For Jack's ultrasound Michael thought he was a boy and I swore he was a girl, but I wore blue and he was right. This time Michael was sure it was another boy and I really wasn't sure either way, but I wore blue to keep up with the theme. Can you tell I like traditions and themes?
Thank you for all your wonderful name suggestions, but we just fell in love with Ella Grace so that's our beauty's name! Tonight we had my parents over for dinner to tell them the news and this sign is how we did it. We had it covered up by another piece of paper and then we let Owen pull it down.
This was their reaction! They were so sure we were going to have another boy, but they were SO hoping for a girl. They both got teary eyed. Ella is going to be one spoiled I mean...well loved little girl. 
After telling Mom and Dad I spent lots of time on the phone calling our other family and friends letting them know the good news.
Here's our family of 5...that's so weird to say! I'm so excited!!! So I'm curious who was right when it came to the voting? Did you vote for a girl? 
The real life picture...Owen making some freaky face and me getting hit in the face by Jack. He's really going through a hitting phase and we're working on putting a stop to it, but he is one stubborn kid. 
I love how the bottoms have horse shoes on them. They are also labeled so you know which is the left and which is the right. 
Here's a close up of the cowboy on the side of Owen's boots. It looks just like the cowboy on the Wyoming license plate. 
And of course the boys do just that!
If you click on this picture you will see Murphy's repair job that my mom did on his front left arm. Not sure how that happened. One memory I have of Murphy is that somehow a ping pong ball got stuck up inside him...you know how ceramic things have a hole in the bottom of them. I'm not sure if it was my brother or me that stuck it up there, but it was there for years. Eventually we finally got it out, but I remember being sad about it because it had been there for so long it had become a part of him. I know I'm weird! 
My boys....oh how I love them and oh how I'm trying to raise them to be strong independent young men. Lately the boys have both really struggled with separation anxiety unless they are left with Daddy or Ga-Ga & Pa. Other than that they both become very emotional about Mama leaving. With MOPS starting up recently and us trying to make it to church on a more regular basis this has definitely put a damper on things for Mama. On Sunday I tried staying in the nursery and playing with them for a while before I left so it wasn't such a shock, but it totally backfired. I think I got to sing one song before the nursery coordinator (my good friend Lori) came walking out holding Owen by the hand and Jack in her arms. They were both a mess! 
I could just kiss that cuteness all day! 
Jack is such a climber. He not only knows how to go up the stairs...he can go down now. Such a blessing. We hardly ever had to worry about shutting the baby gate anymore. He also knows how to climb up on the stool that we have in the bathroom and he basically hangs from the pedestal sink by his arms. He also loves to step on the back of Owen's McQueen couch and try to get up in the window. I'm sure he'll figure out how to get on the real couch before too long. In this picture he's standing on the Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn chair that I put in the playhouse that's outside. He was actually trying to climb through this open window, but never quite made it. 
I actually got this mower for Owen back before Jack was even born at Winco too. It only cost $6 and they play with it all the time. In this picture Owen is trying to wash the mower off. 
Jack got soaking wet!
The pans...we love pans! Thankfully I have old ones I don't really care about so we just leave them outside so the boys can play with them anytime they want. 
For the last two years we've gone with our friend's Micah and Kim, but since we've had such a limited amount of time to spend as a family we decided that the 4 of us should just go and have some special family time. Thankfully we did not have a repeat of last year and the weather was perfect!!! It's hard to believe this was Owen's third time at the fair and well...Jack's third time as well since I was pregnant with him the first time we took Owen.
Michael wore Owen in the backpack for the beginning half of the day and Jack rode in the stroller, but halfway through we switched them around.
Owen and Jack love animals so we knew we'd have to spend a good amount of time checking them out up close.
This pig was certain he could escape if he just worked on that latch a little bit longer.
I had seen picture from another friend who had gone to the fair that there was a mama pig and piglets so I knew I wanted to see them.
Oh my goodness...those cute little piggies!!! There was actually two mama pigs one with a litter that was 2 days old and the other was 3 days old.
There was another fair goer that was checking out the piglets and he started naming them....bacon, ham and pork chop!!! It's funny, but at the same time not. They are too cute to think that they might end up as food.
Owen just kept saying the llamas were "So Messy" because they all had hay on their heads.
That is one very big and we think pregnant cow!
This made me laugh!
After lunch I saw that there was a free face painting booth so I took the boys to get sharks put on their faces. Jack did really great, but I was by myself since Michael was taking Owen to the bathroom so I couldn't hold him and get pictures at the same time.
Owen didn't really like the feel of the air on his face so he wouldn't let her finish the shark by putting sunglasses on him, but it still looks cute.
Here's what it was supposed to look like. That's one stylin' shark!
We weren't sure if Owen was going to want to go on the rides, but the more he saw them he kept asking to go so we bought 20 tickets (way more expensive than I remember them being when I was little) and set out on an adventure. There was this fire truck that immediately caught Owen's eye. He was barely tall enough and I wasn't sure he would like it, but he ended up having a great time.
Michael took this awesome picture of me and Owen. I love it....he was so happy that mommy was sharing in this moment with him. He's getting so big!!!
All done! Once the ride stopped the operator opened the doors for us and Owen immediately grabbed the door and shut it and said, "Again!" It was so funny! I wanted him to try a few more rides since there were so many to choose from and I really did need to go on this ride with him and I didn't want to waste 4 more tickets on me riding the ride.
The next ride was another fire truck...this one just went around and around. He was so focused on the ride that he didn't even notice us until the last 3 turns and then he was all smiles and waves.
Then Owen spotted the cars!!! 
I was too tall to go on these with him and he couldn't go by himself. He ended up riding on this twice and both times in the pink car with a girl driving him around.
This is how he looked the whole time. Just chillin' out, enjoyin' the ride! He never once touched the steering wheel.
Of course we didn't go to the fair and not having any yummy food. That's an attraction all in it's own. For lunch I had a super yummy Chicken Gyro and Michael had a Fire Roasted Corn on the Cob. We brought snacks from home for the boys. For dessert we had to get an Elephant Ear.
Mmmmm Mmmmm Mmmmmm!!!!
After eating our dessert we headed to the vendors so I could buy a Super Shammy and then it was time to go home. We were only there for 3 1/2 hours, but with two boys that were way overdue for their naps that was pretty good. The boys really did great and we can't wait to go next year.
