One Very Full Month

There has been so much going on in the month since we last posted. We sold our big puffy chair so that we'd have room for our Christmas tree. We visited Chillicothe for Christmas, which was a lot of fun. The day we drove out, it started to snow, and it ended up taking us four hours to get there instead of two. Stella slept through most of the trip, thank goodness! While we were there, Stella got to meet lots of extended family. We also really enjoyed getting to spend lots of time with Grammy and Grampy and Uncle Will, Aunt Noodle (Kristen :)), and Julienne, who's growing so fast and is so much fun.

As always Elijah thoroughly enjoyed everything about Christmas and asked everyone if they had a present for him... our mail lady, any friends that visited, random strangers. He was also very sad that we had to take down our Christmas tree, and almost every other day, he asks if we can put it back up.

Stella and Elijah both got a lot of presents. Ben's family sent presents from Colorado, which was fun. We didn't get to go to Colorado this year since Ben's still in school and Stella's so little, but hopefully we'll get to visit next year.

In non-Christmas news, Ben accepted a job to work at a structural engineering firm in Kansas City starting at the end of May. What a huge blessing and answer to prayer! It means a lot of work for him this semester though because he's got classes, he's being a teacher's assistant for two professors, and he has to try and finish his research and write his thesis. He's a busy man! Yet somehow he manages to help out a lot with Elijah and Stella.

I've been spending my time taking care of Elijah and Stella. I've also been officially diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, which means I'll be on insulin for the rest of my life, but God has been good in giving us the means and resources to take care of me thus far, and all of my lab work has come back looking very good. Between Stella's doctor appointments, my post-partum appointments, and diabetic appointments it felt like my new job was going to appointments. Thank goodness things are finally starting to slow down!

Stella is two months old today! She's still eating and sleeping a lot. The last couple of days have been wonderful because she hasn't been as fussy, and she's been sleeping better. She's such a sweet baby, and she makes lots faces. Ben and I have been calling her our "little drama queen" because she can make the saddest faces at the drop of a hat. She's also quite the little diva. Enjoy the new pictures! Oh, and be sure to check out the flickr photos on the left to see more Christmas and more Stella pics.