Baby News...

The latest news from the Ellingson Household is our awaiting arrival of our baby girl! That's right it certainly has been a long time and a long time has blessed us completely!

We moved into a new home last year now living in Elko, MN (just across town from where we were before). We like the new house and love the neighborhood! It is however in the Lakeville School District however have kept the boys in the New Prague School district, attending Eagle View Elementary School.

Andrew is now 8 (until his birthday in September) and William is 6 (until his birthday in June). Time has blessed us with wonderful boys. Jay and I feel so fortunate to have such good kids. They are so excited about the arrival of the baby that they gave up having their own room to allow the baby to have her own. The transition of them joining rooms has gone so well. Aside from the little occasion here and there when one of them comes to tell us of the snoring their brother is doing.
Andrew has really become quite the student, loves to read books and enjoys learning about history - namely Abe Lincoln (Grandma Mel is so proud! He enjoys participating in Cub Scouts where he just advanced from Wolf to Bear. Andrew and his best friend just completed a "Home Alone" class where they learned about everything from kitchen safety, emergency contacts to building their own first aid kits and finger printed them self to have a record on file. He and William also just completed a Community Ed Basketball session.

William is enjoying 1st grade, he also has become a very good reader and has improved greatly on his spelling throughout the year. William too is in Cub Scouts (with me being his Den Leader) and just advanced from Tiger to Wolf.

Jay continues to work at Park Chrysler Jeep where he has for the past 12 years. He enjoys the daily accomplishments of auto mechanics challenging problem solving. I couldn't be more proud of his knowledge - it has come in handy with our own vehicles and the side jobs of family and friends. Its a real money saver!

I on the other hand have changed careers and am now working for a Branding Agency in Edina. I really have come to learn so much about marketing and enjoy the creative aspects that go into naming a product. As I mentioned earlier I also have truly enjoyed leading William's Cub Scout Den. They are a great group of boys with an amazing amount of energy! We meet once a month as a Den and once a month as a Pack (that's all Dens grades k-5th grade). The boys have learned so much from it and really enjoy working towards new belt loops and other such accomplishments!

Well the baby news is getting more and more exciting. Baby girl is due on April 14th however have moved along so quickly with already being dilated to 4cm as of 2 weeks ago. My next doctor check up is this Thursday where no new is good news! I don't feel any different from last checkup however at this point in the stage you just never know.

Happy Halloween Party for Andrew's Birthday!

Well after a great weekend I am proud to report that we made it through another son’s birthday party! Couldn't believe all the kids and was so thankful to have the family and friends around for support and more importantly the help!Andrew turned 7 and we threw him a Halloween Party. Most everyone came dressed in costume, even the grandparents! I will post a few photos shortly! The evening was fun but seriously what was I thinking with all those kids!!!We had Ninja, Army Guy, Star wars Clone Troopers, Superman, a Boy Scout, Pirates, Kittens, and Skeletons, a Princess, a Nun, a Cook, A Clown, A Court Jester, A Witch, Vampire and even a Bowling league! My favorites were Andrew as Mario and William as Luigi -BROTHERS!We bobbed for apples, played the bozo game, pencil drop, ate cupcakes; mummy dogs; brain shaped jell-o and more! Wow what a party. If anyone has a party they are planning I certainly would love to help! However keep in mind I don't know when to quit!School is going well for both of the kids! I went to school on Friday to join William for a special classroom lunch. He really likes his teacher and all the fun activities that do. He brings home so many art projects that our house just gets more cheerful with every new drawing/craft. I hope to make it to school in the next week for a special lunch with Andrew and his class. Andrew is so excited about reading. He brings home a book every night for us to read together. His teacher send home spelling lists on Mondays for the test on Friday's so far Andrew has only missed one word each week (11 out 12). Jay and I started a new session of Marriage Ministry at Church. It is just a great way for us to get involved supporting others! Its 10-15 couples who come for an evening of fellowship, dinner, topics to discuss with your spouse (like: communications, love language, parents/in-laws, and sex - just to name a few). It runs for 7 weeks on Sunday evenings. It is bible based and truly some great tools are offered to make marriage have an even more solid foundation. For Jay and I who took the course 2 years ago we have continued to gain from the evening. Jay is in the kitchen helping with dishes (they call him “Suds Master”) and I am one of the servers (tending to the plating of the meals, serving and clean up).I guess the other bit of new lately is that we still have our home for sale. When the market fell this spring and the housing market out here in New Market became so overwhelmed with Foreclosures and Fraudulent mortgages ( at least in New Market) we thought we would give the market a try with our home. We are upside down with it anyway and pray that God will lead us into a better spot with a home and place us to rest our feet. Besides it’s just a house! As long as we are able to stay a family - that is what is most important – Everything else is just stuff! On Saturday before the Birthday party I attended a beautiful Woman’s Breakfast with New Day Church. I had the pleasure of listening to a woman speak about how the struggles of life tried to get in the way of her joy and have to say how amazing the talk has made me feel and how much brighter my vision is! It taught me so much about what I long for in my life and how I can get there with faith. Trusting yourself and believing in God to guide your path as we get there… a quote was shared and I have now copied this quote off and placed this quote in many rooms on my house. So as I log off today I leave it with you: “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it” ~ Charles Swindoll

Thoughts...

I was talking to a friend this morning over the phone and you know that type of friend that you can talk to like you have known each other for years but yet still learn new things about every day; or the type of friend where you can just pick up like no time has passed at all and talk for hours… it simply warm you deeply to have them in your life and more import – in your heart. It’s a conversation that lasts with you throughout the entire day and no matter what your day is like or how awful it can get…because it can get pretty bad in a daily life of SALES! But no matter what, it just can’t bring you down! Your heart is filled warmly! Those are the friendships we all long for… those are the friendships that we cherish. Those of you that read my blog, you know who you are and I just wanted to take a minute and say thank you!!

Mid September News

....It was a busy September (and still is). We attended my cousin-in-laws wedding in Fargo. Sara made a beautiful bride becoming Mrs. Danny Zimmerman. The boys certainly enjoyed the "Dance Party" (aka reception) and have asked many times when we will go to a "dance party" again. Needless to say we have many mini parties at home thanks to the Music Sara gave us from the reception. We celebrated (as a family) Andrew's 7th birthday on the drive home, September 13. He was tuckered mostly from all the swimming at the hotel and dancing the night before.

We have a Scary Birthday Party planned for Andrew in just a few weeks which should be a great time. We choose a Halloween themed event with kids being invited to wear their costumes. I am really looking forward to bobbing for apples, lighting a bon fire in the driveway and letting the kids have a great time!

Day 2 for Andrew/1st Full Day for William

Got the kids off for school this morning and both were excited. William was taking on his first full day of kindergarten and Andrew was heading back for day 2 of 1st Grade. Loved that he came home with the comment of "mom, I love having Mrs. Delly as my teacher, she is really great!"
William came home so excited to tell me all about his first day of kindergarten. He came running off the bus (#17) to give me a great big hug! I was so happy to see and feel that he wasn't too big to hug infront of his friends. William then started right in... "mom we got a visit from the ginger bread man..."he said! "AND I ate him!" Then he continued to share the song they sang in music class and then interupted himself to say we even got to eat lunch in my classroom..." Andrew could barely get a word in about his day and the minute he started to tell me something William piped in... "Andrew your talking too much it's my turn!"
I was trying to remember back to my kindergarten teacher - Miss Donsky. I remember going trick or treating to her house and having her make a bulletin board just for me at the end of the school year of the students that hadn't lost any teeth - I WAS THE ONLY ONE!

Day 1 of New Blog/Day 2 of School

What an excited few days we have had at the Ellingson house. I was talking to a friend of mine today about a cute William story and she was telling me that a lot of people are Blogging for that reason alone. Later on in life I would like a way for my boys to be able to look back on the thoughts I had and the stories they impacted me with and made me smile, laugh, cry and more...
Now for the William story: As I was tucking William into bed last night and recapping the exciting day that we just completed with Kindergarten oriantation and getting to spending the afternoon with his best friend Eric (going to Chuck E Cheese and to Eric's house to eat He then melted my heart by saying, "ok mom, I'll ask God to keep me little for just a couple more days but then I have to go to kindergarten!"