First True Blog

Here she is playing with her friends at the New Year's Party...Mia, Mattman, and Desi

Ella says "Happy New Year"

Since I said we are starting a '2009 Blog' here are the pics to start us off. We had a great time having our friends over for a party/playdate for the kids.

o Ok – so now that we have spent some time trying to set up our page, I think we are ready to get going. We are going to try to do this consistently – Adam and I will take turns putting something up each week – we’ll see how it goes! For this first one, I’m just going to take some time ‘catching up’ on everything with Ella that has occurred since that faithful day in April (almost a year ago-WOW) when the beautiful Ella Marie was brought into the world. We have found parenting to be the most amazing, exhausting, scary, beautiful, emotional, wonderful experience of our lives. It’s now – 9 months later – that we are truly starting to bond as a family and enjoy all the wonders that life holds for us. The beginning was tough, we’re not going to lie…living with a newborn is an experience like no other. No one can truly tell you what it’s like to have children because everyone’s experience is so different. We’ve seen Ella through… the sleepless nights, breastfeeding, the NIGHTMARE of being working parents and having to find child care during the day (although this is a reoccurring nightmare and definitely sure to be a part of future blogs), first smiles and laughs (nothing like it), first bites of food, first holidays, first steps and everything in between. Now we are on to getting ready to walk independently, playing with friends and beginning communication. We often have ‘play dates’ with friends of ours from work – that’s what we did for New Years, and are preparing to do for the Superbowl.
o As for Adam and me, besides working as special education teachers during the day, we can be found playing with Ella in our spare time, looking at some of our favorite websites, reading magazines (Golf Digest or Parenting) and currently applying for jobs. We were told the week before Christmas that the facility where we work may close…the closure is still up for much discussion (check out this website from the Richmond Times for more info. on our work situation http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/state_regional/article/MENT25_20090124-215712/187920/ ) , but we are moving on. Luckily we are both young and marketable (both with Master’s Degrees) so we have already had some opportunities come our way. We will be posting lots more about that I’m sure. Otherwise, right now we follow American Idol and Hell’s Kitchen and can’t miss an episode of Grey’s Anatomy (trash I know, but after a long day, it’s kind of nice to settle down to some mindless TV). Our weekends are spent playing (always), going to church, working on projects around the house, spending time with Ella’s wonderful grandparents (here or in West Virginia) or taking small road trips to Charlottesville (we love Sam’s Club and Babies-R-Us).
o Ok I think that’s a great start – will post again soon.