Ellie Raye Sylvana Benson at 29 weeks!

Here is our baby girl at 29 weeks! I hope you all enjoy these pictures. It's hard to believe our beautiful baby girl will be here in 11 weeks! Have a Happy New Year!

Missouri Trip

Well John and I had an amazing Christmas this year! We are very excited for next year though since Miss.Ellie will be here. We got to spend time with alot of our family. On Friday we left to go to Missouri and got home today. We had a great time!! Our nieces have grown soooo much since we saw them last in September. They are amazing little girls! Hope you enjoy pictures from our trip!

Baby Bump at 28 weeks= 7 months!!!

Miss.Ellie's Nursery!!

Hello everyone! I'm sorry it has been a few weeks. Life has been pretty crazy for me at work. Since I last posted I have been to the doctor and we have got Ellie's room started!

Well I will let you all know that I have officialy gained 5 pounds now! Yay! The doctors thought I was never going to gain weight. 3 of the 5 pounds I put on last month! I am for sure all baby in the front and my back is starting to feel it. We are on the two week rotation now at the doctor. I go again this Tuesday. We then have our 3D Ultrasound on New Years Eve. We are sooooo excited about it! I will be posting all the pictures on here. I have also decided if I have to I will just record the ultrasound from our tv with my camera so you can all see it! We also have our prenatal class January 24th. We are excited/nervous about it. I have heard that Henry counties prenatal class is awesome. So that is a plus.

As you can see below John got Ellie's crib put together. It is absolutely beautiful! We got our bedding for it as well. The wall the crib goes against is the only finished wall. We still need to get our dresser, curtains, some pictures and add the rest of our wall decals put up on the other walls and we'll be finished. I pretty much have the wall with the window on it done I just need to get the curtains. Hopefully I can get the rest of the walls decorated over my 2 week break from work :)

John and I going to be busy for Christmas this year. We are starting our Christmas celebrations tomorrow. We are doing the Lewis Christmas at Welliver's then back to my Grams' house. Christmas Eve we are spending with my Mom & Step-Dad then my Step-Mom's family. On Christmas we will be going to my Mom's, Dad's, Step-Dad's families, Grams' house and then John's parents house. Then the day after Christmas we are going to St.Louis to visit with John's brother and his family. We will be there until Monday. We are very excited to see our nieces!

I will update you all if the doctor tells us anything exciting at our next visit. If not I will try and post pictures from our Christmas. I will for sure update you all with the 3D Ultrasound pictures on the 31st though.

I hope everyone traveling gets to their destination safely. Merry Christmas!!!!!!

John was SO excited to put her crib together :)

Lola is mad because she can't get to John.

Lola finally got to her Daddy!

Ellie's nursery has been started!

Ellie's crib!

Ellie's crib!

2nd wall.

Okay I stole this idea from an episode of a baby story! It's a collage of John and I when we were babies and then we put pictures of Ellie in it too!

Her dresser will go under the pink sign it says Princess! The curtains will not be aqua those are just the old ones I haven't found the perfect curtains for her room yet!

Ellie's stylin trashcan Grams Lewis got for her room!

Nanny & Papaw Benson got Miss. Ellie a New Holland cup, bowl and silverware set!

Ellie kicked Daddy!

The most amazing thing happened tonight and just now!!! It made me cry! John put his head/ear on my belly because I was nagging at him to see if he could hear anything funny in my belly. Well he finally put his ear down and pressed his head and all of a sudden Ellie kicked or punched really hard. It was sooo AWESOME because this is the first time John's been able to feel Ellie!!! It was so strong it pushed out the spot of my stomach!!! I just wanted to share it with all of you. It was pretty amazing for both John and I!!!! Have a good week!

Nitro

I'm sorry, I know many of you have been wanting to see a picture of our car we got on Monday. But this week has just been crazy! I love my new SUV!!! It's pretty awesome. I will try and get some better pictures this weekend of it to post. We decided that now was the best time to buy and we were wanting to get a new car before Miss.Ellie gets here. Miss. Ellie is doing great too. We go to the doctor on Thursday morning. I think she's gonna bust her way out of my belly sometimes! She loves to move and do flips! I have a feeling within the next months of the pregnancy she's gonna cause Momma alot of pain by her gymnastic abilities :) We get to pick her crib up tonight Grams Lewis got her. We should be getting her mattress Nanny and Papaw Benson got her anyday too. I will get pictures on here of everything asap. I am going to start decorating her nursery over my Christmas break!

I thought this was AWESOME!!!!

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24weeks=6months!!!!

Wow! We are sooo excited for Miss.Ellie! This past week we hit 24 weeks or 6 month mark. She is going to be here before we know it. She is growing so much as you can see below. If you notice in the background I was disturbing Duke from his nap!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Wow life has been sooooo busy lately! This past Saturday John and I took a roadtrip. We went to Scottsburg for a work related issue for him. On the way we went to the Edinburgh outlet mall and got Ellie some bibs and a pink and brown outfit shown below. We then went to Bloomington to pick up John's Uncle Larry's tractor and we got to spend some time with John's Aunt Karen, Aunt Krista & Uncle Mike. Aunt Karen got Ellie and adorable bluejean and purple outfit and her Longaberger baby basket! Thanks again Aunt Karen! I am very excited to put Ellie's little footprint on the basket along with our delivery doctor's autograph :) On Sunday we went to my Grams' house to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Lewis'. It was fun John and I went over after church and I helped her cook.


Now this week I am just trying to do all the fun Thanksgiving activities with my kids at school. They are loving it. We made indian headbands, vests and necklaces today. Tomorrow we are going to watch Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving and eat popcorn with our stuff on we made today. I really love my job it's soooo rewarding.


I have also included a picture below of our Christmas tree I put it up lastnight and got our new decorations for it. I also put up the Hallmark ornaments that I had got with my Grandma and Grandpa while growing up. I hadn't been able to put them up because it was very emotional for me to do it. Now it's so nice to sit and look at them and remember those special little moments.


Miss.Ellie is doing great! I can't believe I am 24 weeks already, time has flown by!! Ellie is moving around all the time. My stomach has been aching alot lately and I don't know if it's from the stretching or her kicking and hitting me so much. My stomach is really getting huge. John thinks the things that have been coming along with my pregnancy are just hilarious so hopefully Ellie gets him back for me.


On Thanksgiving John and I are traveling to Bloomington then back to New Castle for Thanksgiving at my Mom's house and then my Dad's house too. The day after me and Brooke are going to go shopping. John and I have alot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and I hope all of you do as well. We want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. We miss everyone we won't get to see and spend time with over the holiday! Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Iraqi Scarf

Something that definitely touched me happened in my classroom yesterday. One of my students' Mother had been in Iraq for 7 months. We knew she would be coming home for 2 weeks sometime before Thanksgiving, but when was the main question.. This particular student has been living with his grandparents while she has been gone and the grandma has been coming in and helping with our class everyday! Well yesterday in class we all heard someone pulling on our door that we have to keep locked at all times. When we looked it was the Mom from Iraq in her uniform with a big bag on her back and her arms fully loaded with bags! My student and his Grandma/her Mom ran to the door and they were all 3 just crying, hugging and telling each other how much they loved and missed each other. I was completely balling my eyes out. It was unspeakable to tell you how this moment was. This mother had been in an airplane for over 18 hours. As soon as she landed in Indy she took a cab directly to the school just so she could see her son and Mom. She didn't get to call and let them know she was on her way either so nobody was their to pick her up. All she had was Iraqi money so the cab driver took a check for $86 for her cab ride. It was amazing to see this reunion!!! It made me realize how lucky I am to have all of my family and friends here and close to me. I honestly don't know what I would do if I couldn't see John or my Grandma for 7 months! The men and women who are serving for our country are amazing people and I have so much respect for them all! Below is a picture of an Iraqi handmade scarf that my student brought in today that his mother got for me in Iraq. The picture doesn't do it justice it's so beautiful!!!

Miss.Ellie's pack n play!

Well we got our pack n play in the mail today. It's part of our Christmas from Nanny and Papaw Benson! We were so excited to put it together. It's actually pretty awesome. It vibrates, plays music and has a night light!! It was pretty funny because Duke was afraid of it at first and Lola honestly just thought it was for her. She just kept watching John and thinking it was going to be hers in the end. After he got it completely put together she stood up on her tip toes and was looking in it trying to figure out how to get in. She's going to be in a big shock i'm afraid when Ellie comes home! She's sooo used to being the baby especially John's baby! Thanks again to Nanny Natalie and Papaw Kim!!! Ellie's going to be napping and playing in luxury as John would say!!! On another note we are sure Ellie's going to be an amazing gymnast she's moving around like crazy!!! I hope you enjoy the pictures of Miss. Ellie's pack n play!

Due March.20th, 2009

Well we went to the doctor today. Miss.Ellie's heart rate was 150. Dr.Benson went over our ultrasound with us and said that she's perfect. :) They measured me as well and let us know that her set in stone due date is March 20th, 2009. We go again to the doctor on Dec.11th and we have our 3-D ultrasound on Dec.31st!!! We are extremely excited about our 3-D ultrasound they basically look how they will at birth in this type of ultrasound. They are amazing...it will be a great little late Christmas present to us! This will be the only other time we get to see Ellie until she is born unless we have some complications. I have to get my thyroid checked again so keep your fingers crossed my levels are still where they need to be like last time!

My mother-in-law and I went to Hobby Lobby this week and I got some stuff for her room. I got a pink picture that says princess, a door knob hanger that says princess and some lettering to put on the wall that says thank heaven for little girls. We also got a big package from John's cousin Rachel with books, c.ds, dvds, diaper bag and a shopping cart cover. Thank you sooo much again Rachel! Ellie is going to enjoy all of it!

I hope that everyone is doing great. I am definitley ready for Thanksgiving break and this rain to stop in Indiana! Hope everyone has a great weekend. I will try to post some pictures later on!

Well it has been amazing shopping for little Miss. Ellie lately. We know for sure she is going to be spoiled rotten by all her grandparents and her aunt B plus Mommy and Daddy too. They have all already started buying her soooooo much stuff and that's no exaggeration!!! We have a plan sketched out too that Granny Griffey and Nanny Benson will be watching Ellie when Mommy has to go back to work in August. We are so excited we don't have to worry about a babysitter! She is going to have awesome grandparents all around for sure! John and I went to Target last friday and did our registry and got some stuff. Some pics are below the cowgirl clothes and pink coat Daddy picked out to take to the Hospital with us :) We also went to Babys R Us lastnight and picked out our bedding and put that on a registry. When we got to Babys R Us John let me off at the door and when we walked out to get into the truck he informed me he parked in the expectant mother parking spot. It was pretty funny and cute! We got Ellie letters as shown below in white with pink and brown dots. Her room is going to be done in pink and brown dots and flowers. It's going to be sooooo adorable. We are going to start getting the nursery together in December! Hope you enjoy the pictures of some things we have got and others have gotten Ellie. I will try to post more of them so you can see all the fun stuff we get! We officially have our Target and Babys R Us registries done but not Wal-Mart because their scanner gun was messed up last weekend. Hope your all doing well!