2011 :)

Every since the New Year, I have been feeling extremely nostalgic. I can't help but keep thinking of all the wonderful things that happened in 2011. My life has changed drastically.. for the better :)

Drew and I rang in the 2011 New Year by inviting my brother over for dinner. The guys made Pad Thai and homemade pizza. I was super pregnant, so I think I had a few glasses of sparkling juice, while they each had a beer or two. In the next few days, I sat at home wondering when our baby would be born because she was due on January 5th. Of course she didn't arrive until the 8th in a very dramatic manner (see baby blog posts).

The day we became a family. (Jan. 8th, 2011)

The arrival of Ella Mae, was by far the most exciting thing to happen in the New Year. After we brought her home, we "ooo-ed" and "aww-ed" at her and enjoyed the nasty winter by cuddling our baby girl. It was wonderful.

When Ella was only 2 weeks old, my husband received a life-altering phone call. It was for an interview for a big company in Wisconsin. Of course, he did already have a pretty good job but we knew we didn't want to raise children in Michigan and never really felt "fulfilled" in the little town we were living in. We basically just moved there after graduation because it was 20 min. away from our college and we needed an income. Basically, a buffer until something better came along. We were so depressed living there and escaped to our parents house any chance we got because there just wasn't anything better to do. If we happened to spend a weekend at home, we rented movies and played board games by ourselves. We saw my brother every now and then because he happened to be going to college in the town, and I had my good friend Kurt..but really, that was it. 15 min. away was one of the most dangerous cities in America...so yeah, no good. Drew basically worked every single evening from home and many times had to take calls from India at midnight.. We bought a lot of useless "stuff" because there just wasn't anything to do. So when he received that call, it was like God sent us another ray of sunshine. (lol)

We came close a few other times to moving to Wisconsin, but it never really panned out...so we did take the call with a grain of salt because we didn't know how much they would offer (if offered at all))..but we were still hopeful. Drew made it through the first round of interviews and they wanted to meet him.

On February 3rd, we packed our bags and headed for our first trip to our hometown, 6 hours away. We had been anticipating showing off our sweet bundle of joy to all our friends and family for the past month. It also worked out great, because my best friend's daughter was having her 1st Birthday party that weekend and Drew was able to schedule his interview in Wisconsin before we left.. (our hometown is only an hour away from the WI boarder and only 2.5 hours from where his interview was). It was perfect.

Ella meeting her "Great, Great, Great Aunt Helen" -Dad's side

During that weekend, Ella was able to meet ALL her Great Grandparents, her Great, Great, Great Aunt Helen, Great Aunt and Uncle Sarah and Jon, her cousins Hannah and Liam, my parents again, and some of our friends.

The SAME weekend, another wonderful thing happened. The Green Bay Packers won the SUPERBOWL! It was so exciting! Especially since it was Ella's first, and the same year we *might* move to the Green Bay, area.

GO GREEN BAY! Feb. 6th, 2011

At the end of the following week, Drew was offered 2 JOBS at that company. He had his choice of which one he wanted. The offered him EXACTLY what he asked for in pay and said they would pay for our move. God answered our prayers...ten fold. He was scheduled to start a month later.

Even though we were so excited, we were so nervous to look for a new place to live. We were unsure of which town we actually wanted to live. We knew a lot of people in Green Bay, but Appleton was a lot closer to his work. The company offered to pay for a trip to look at housing, but because it was so far away and the moving company was processing everything slow, we were not able to take a long weekend to house hunt. So basically 2 weeks after he accepted the job, we packed some suitcases and left.

Our suitcases packed on the right. Everything taken off our walls. (March 5th, 2011)

When I mean "packed a few suitcases," I mean that's really all we thought we would need. We figured it would be a week until we moved into a place and the movers would bring us the rest of our house. Boy, were we wrong. When we got to Wisconsin, the company paid for 3 nights worth of food, gas and hotel stays while we searched for a place and then they would pay for another week of hotel stays until we were able to move into a new place. Well, every place we looked at had waiting lists so we couldn't get into an apartment until April at the very least...even April wasn't looking good at one point. But in the mean while, we were leaving the dream life at a resort for 4 nights and then another week at the Holiday Inn...but it had a pool and hot tub, so I was okay with that. :) It was very frustrating living out of suitcases with a baby..we just had way too much stuff. I was thankful I packed EVERY SINGLE OUTFIT she had in 0-3 months. I had a few bags worth.. but it was really nice because she was able to get use out of all her clothes. After our hotel stays were over, we still had a month before we could move into our new place. Drew had started his new job. In the meanwhile, we moved into our friends apartment for a few days and then with Drew's Aunt for the remainder of the time. I tried to move with my mom for a few days, but it didn't work out (haha). We were so thankful for our friends and family and had a great time with so many people, but we were very ready to unpack our suitcases and move into our own place.

The first weekend in April arrived and we were able to move into our new place! The movers came and brought all our stuff and our new lives were to begin. All this time had past and Ella grew so much! She learned to put her feet in her mouth and sit up better and even started to play with some toys. She swam in the pool for the first time (LOVED IT) ... she had already done so much and she wasn't even 3 months old!

Ella all bundled up in the midst of moving boxes. (April, 2011)

 Moving to Wisconsin was one of the best decisions we ever made. We went from being by ourselves ALL the time, to being swarmed by family and friends. Sometimes it's overwhelming because we are still adjusting to being around so many people, but we wouldn't change it for the world. There are times we sometimes think maybe the move wasn't such a great idea, like when a tornado hit us after only being here a few weeks.. haha but we know that can happen anywhere.

Some of the things we have done over the past year include; eating at our favorite restaurants that we didn't have in Michigan, shopping at a really nice mall, resale stores GALORE, went to the zoo, long walks down a 5 mile path right outside our home, lots of summer swimming, different events downtown, concerts, musicals/shows, baseball games, apple/pumpkin picking, I was in the city band and husband participated in softball and kickball leagues, and we had lots of friends and family that live here to enjoy time with.

4th of July: Esky

Green Bay Packers Family Night

Easter 2011

Josh Groban :)

Ella with Natalee (Born 6 days after Ella) and Addie

Shopping with Grandma in Jackson, MI

N.E.W. Zoo

Milwaukee Zoo with cousin Lila

Zoo with Jackson and Lila

Apple picking!

Halloween with bff Elly!

Swimming in the lake!

Baseball game!

Did I mention I got a new car AS WELL? Okay, not "new" but new to me :) I actually had never been car shopping other than after we got married and got our leased car. This was my first car since I turned 16! I had to sell that car in a hurry before our move because it needed a lot of repairs and wasn't going to make the drive to WI.

2006 VW Golf

When Ella was only 9 months old, she rode on her first plane! In October, we went to Corolla, NC for a wedding for some great friends. We were so nervous to travel that far with a squirmy baby, but it ended up being the perfect little vacation. Even with a 4 hour layover, Ella never had a meltdown. Everyone we met that weekend LOVED Ella. She had the title of "The baby at the wedding!" We were even able to party at the reception the ENTIRE time with her (Of course she took a nap in a friends arm). The wedding was the most gorgeous I have been to and VERY fun! The ocean was absolutely beautiful and we were very sad to leave.

The day after our trip, I started a job at a local Child Care Center. It was horrendous...so bad it needs it's own blog post. That was nearly 2 months of the year. (October and November)

2 days before Thanksgiving, we found out some MORE life-altering news! (good!) We we're expecting..again! Ella is going to be a big sister! I will have to start blogging about that journey as well.. but really, so far there is not a whole lot to document. I didn't go in for my first doctors appointment until December 23rd, so for over a month I was nervous and scared. But once we saw the new little peanut on an ultrasound, we became so excited. I am still not sure if it is real to me or not yet. We told our families on Christmas.. they were all very shocked and excited. I think mainly shocked. haha To us, it wasn't all that "shocking" because it was a decision we had been talking about since Ella was born. We are SO excited for July to roll around :) 

The holidays came and went.. It was so fun to enjoy Christmas as a little family for the first time. We wanted to spend Christmas Day with our families...so on Christmas Eve morning, Husband, Ella and I opened our own gifts from Santa before heading out to the U.P. The last 2 weeks of 2011 we spent planning Ella's first birthday party and enjoying every last second with her as a baby.

Baby Holly (Drew's cousin born on Christmas Eve!) 

Aside from basically my bad job, 2011 was absolutely amazing.. We had so many great times and so much love to carry over to 2012. If you read this entire blog post, you are just as amazing. haha!