Christmas picture outakes : )

I was trying to take this picture at our church on Sunday morning. Hunter would not stop kissing Ella. Normally sweet, right then all I wanted him to do was smile at the camera!








Love Ella's face!













My husband's pick for our Christmas cards.











Lovely.












And finally our winner. Never mind that neither kid is looking at the camera. But this was the only one with 2 smiles and 4 eyes open. So, there you have it!!!

Okay, so let me start by saying that I am incredibly stressed!!! We have a very good chance of moving to Spokane, WA in about 25 days. Of course this is all depending on the Air Force (surely they will finally take pity on us and actually do what we are requesting) Chris has asked for an early out (9 weeks) at the request of the Spokane Police Dept so he can get into the Feb academy. I am excited about moving but 1. I am not emotionally prepared to leave all of the wonderful people that I know here and 2. I hate packing 3. I don't want to drive with our 2 kids 1700 miles 4. We don't know where we are going to live 5. I don't want to unpack and OH YEAH we don't even know for sure that Chris has the job so I'm a little freaked out about it all. I am trying to start packing the house and get rid of a bunch of stuff. But little Miss Thing has decided that she no longer wants to take naps. That's right my 15 month old has not napped for 4 days straight. Normally not a horrible thing, given that she is incredibly happy these days, but when you are trying to get things done and she is getting into EVERYTHING it kind of makes things hard. Ella has been SO happy lately. I don't know if it a coincidence or it is because of the ear tubes but she has been extremely vocal, very loud, and has been laughing a lot. I dare to say that her breathing is a lot quieter too, could it be from her tubes???? My grandparents are coming on Friday so we are excited about that! They will be a huge help because they can occupy the kiddos while I get some stuff done!! YAY!!! I think my mom has watched my video montage 50 times, every time I talk to her she says she has watched it again, which makes me laugh. My mom was talking to my new sister-in-law the other day and asked her if she had watched the video, which she had. She told my mom that she had been thinking a lot lately about her and Dustin (my little brother) having a baby and the possibility that they could have a baby with Down syndrome or some other disability and how that now because of Ella she knows they could handle it. That makes me feel so good. I mean really isn't that what we all want. One of my goals in life is to tell as many people as possible about Ella and that because of her they see that a child with special needs is just as wonderful as a typical child. Not to say that it's all a walk in the park, but it's wonderful. I know that I have said this before but I wish that when Ella was born I had known all that I know now. That is my only regret. I feel like I missed bonding moments with Ella in those first few weeks to months. So, I just want people to know that things will be okay and your life can change in the blink of an eye but it is all for the better. I don't know if any of that makes any sense at all, it's almost 1am and I can barely keep my eyes open but I felt a need to post.