3 Story News!

Hi, All! It's been a while since we've given you a really good update on everything... and we apologize (and by we I mean me, but Sean also.)

While we're still terribly excited to have a little one running around, we're even more excited that he'll be running around our OWN HOUSE! Yep! We bought an adorable townhouse near where we met and had our first apartment. Here's some (not entirely great) pictures and descriptions of our new place!

 So you walk in from the street and this is the general view. A good-sized living room and coat closet and then stairs.

 This is the garage that you get to through the living room. All that carpet and fridge will be gone when we move in.

 This is our unfinished basement. It has all the plumbing ready for a 2nd full bathroom and can be made into a bedroom pretty easily.

 When you walk up to the second story, this is our living room. We'll put our tv and entertainment in here as well as all Milo's toys in a few months.

 This is our crowning jewel: The Kitchen! So spacious with all the counter space! Eventually, we'll put in an island, kitchen table and chairs, and use the corner you can't see as office space. There's tons of room in here and a powder room to the left you can't see.

 A closer view of our beautiful stone countertops and nice sink.

 And a pantry for all our food goods and appliances! Perfect.

 This is the view from the front of the house. This picture honestly doesn't give it justice. That shiny strip is Utah Lake and eventually all that grassy-dirt area will be retail and more housing and a train station. 

 On the third floor is our awesome laundry room with the same counters as the kitchen and bathroom. 

 Bathroom! This tub is the deepest tub we've ever had with built-in shelving! So sweet.

 This will be Milo's slice of the pie. The wall you see without the window will be painted cream with baseball stitching and that's where the crib and rocker will go. 

This is the view from Milo's room where I'm sure to spend a few early mornings. Beautiful.

And that's where we'll be in a few short weeks! I'm so excited to be able to set up all my stuff and hang things on the wall and put together the nursery! It's all going to be awesome. 

Oh, and I got a haircut.

Anyway, it's going to be great.

Love, Miss Ellen (and proxy Sean)

The Father Talks

Meet little Milo Donner!

During the ultrasound, this picture was orange and black instead of black and white and it looked like he was standing in fire. I liked that. Not in a, "I hate this kid" kind of way, but more of a, "This looks so cool!" sort.

Today, we were driving home from furniture shopping and Ellen fell asleep. (Hard day of ultrasounds and furniture shopping) I had sometime to let my mind wander and I started thinking about how in a few short months we will have a tiny person that we have to keep alive, first and foremost! I feel confident that we will be able to pull this off.

Beside that highly important part of parenting, we will also be responsible for teaching him basic human things need to know. Ya know, things like communication, counting, some kind of work ethic, eventually driving, and not being an all around horrible person!

I think the thought that seems the most intimidating is knowing that we are working with a completely clean slate and we have an insane amount of control over how Milo will see the world through out his life. This is a huge responsibility.

~Sean

It's a Boy!!! and other news.

Sean and I announced on Monday that we're having a boy, however, we did not post it here.
Not for any real reason, we just spaced it. [Actually, I remembered and asked Sean if he would post it here but...I love him anyway.]

Here's the video we posted to our facebook accounts:

We're both terribly excited! I'm so glad I get to share my interests in things like dinosaurs, baseball, and art with a tiny baby boy in a few months.

Last weekend, we went on a spontaneous road trip (like we do) to Wyoming for Sean's youngest brother's birthday. We got there at midnight-ish and Sean woke Jeremiah up with a swift punch to the face, which I'm sure Jeremiah appreciated ;). We chatted for a bit and then went to bed and the next morning, went to the bagel shop a short walk from their house.

There, we got to surprise Jeremiah with his mom's, dad's, and youngest sister's presence, and them with ours. If that makes sense. Later that day, Sean's other younger brother and his wife came out too. Milo was going absolutely berserk (aka punching me in the guts) the whole weekend, either because he was excited to hear his uncles, aunts, grandma, and grandpa or because he was uncomfortable staying up late chatting or sleeping on an air mattress. Either way, it was nice to see about 1/2 of Sean's family.

Before we left for Wyoming, Sean and I had a meeting with our lender and we're pre-approved to buy a house! Hooray grown-up stuff! Now we have a meeting with our realtor (/friend) this coming Friday to start our search. So exciting! We'll get to bring Milo home to our own house!

We're just very happy with how everything is going. We only need some people to give the final word on Sean's new position (that he's actually been doing for the past 6 months). Then everything will be great.

Love,
Miss Ellen and Milo

20 Weeks - Halfway There

Hi, all! Guess who's halfway to making their special appearance! It's Baby Donner!
Also, look who has an adorable baby bump now! {Before we get too far into this, a disclaimer. If exclams' make you shout in your head, you might have a headache by the time you've finished reading. It's just so exciting!}

Sean felt some movements a couple weeks ago and posted this:
"Guys! I just felt my baby kick! #OscarMagic"
and only got 59 likes.

But this kid has been squirming for weeks now and it's pretty fun. I at first thought it was likely due to his father's... qualitites, but now I'm thinking it might be something more along the lines of I drink a lot of milk so this baby's bones are going to be crazy strong. Or it could be a mix of both.

We have an appointment on Monday that will HOPEFULLY FINALLY tell us the gender. Let's just say we're getting impatient. If not Monday, then the 18th will be the official find-out date for sure for sure. When we find out, we'll finish our announcement video and post it here and facebook! It's seriously too sweet. You'll love it.

Speaking of appointments, I had a physical therapy appointment today and I only found out that my left leg is 2 cm shorter than my right leg. And that I should sleep with a pillow between my legs but I'm awfully toss-y and turn-y so we'll see if that actually sticks.

In honor of our 20 weeks, we got our prints framed!

 This will go in our future kitchen/dining room, depending on space or whatever. 

This cute guy will go in the baby's room! We bought it at FantasyCon last year and that's been our plan since. 

There's not much else besides that... We're just super excited! Only 20 Weeks to go!

Love, 

Miss Ellen

Flutters

Seriously, guys. Feeling all this baby's little flutters is the weirdest thing, but at the same time it's not. It feels like I've always or never imagined it. In a word: indescribable.

I feel him (assuming it's a him) shift around just about daily, besides today where I felt him during every school period. I'm really hoping that all this moving is going to tire him out so when he's here, he'll just sleep and not want to run all around always. But I doubt that's even close to how it works. It's fine, I'll just be happy to have him.

There is one thing that I'm not the biggest fan of, though. Lately, I've been SO HUNGRY ALWAYS. This has never been a part of my life. Some days, when I was by myself at home all day, I would just forget to eat. Either that, or I would just snack most of the day till dinner. Not anymore. I could seriously eat like 5 or 9 meals a day, it feels like.

Snacks just don't cut it most of the time and I'm getting tired of going to grab something after school before I beast-out on somebody because I'm starving. I'd be happy eating fruits and veggies if they were an entire meal, but that just circles back to snacks. I want a full meal: side dishes, entree, drink, the full deal.  Here's the catch, though. I am a terrible cook and I'm hungry NOW. NOT WHEN FOOD HAS BEEN COOKED. Now. As in immediately.

Okay, I had a snack and it's better... but now I just need like 7 more snacks and we can talk. Thinking about it makes it worse. My current every second feeling:

That's all. Just thought you'd like an update.
Love, Miss Ellen

In a Heart Beat...

We had our 16 week appointment today! Good news: we heard the heart beat! 155 - regular! We'll have another appointment with a specialist in a week or so to see all the organs and find out the gender! Wee!

And I'm starting to look nice and round and wearing real maternity clothes. It's all exciting!

Just thought I'd post an update. This weekend we got to spend a little time with Sean's sister Rhiannon (and might again tonight if she can get on a dumb airplane)   and it was great! It's always nice to see some of Sean's family.

And this next weekend is Valentine's! Sean and I are going to a super fun ball and it's gonna be awesome! I'm just really lucky.
Love,
Miss Ellen

Sinking in

In all honesty, it's still pretty strange to think that in a few short months, I'll be a mom. I almost cried a little while watching the Mother's Day episode of Raising Hope with the realization of it.

But I'm actually super excited although this all seems like a dream still. Even with the bump getting bigger and occasionally having little flutters (maybe?), it's so unreal.

I think it might be because I've been dreaming about this since I was so little that it doesn't seem like it's happening. Crazy.

Anyway, everything is going well. I'm feeling better about wearing fitted shirts and I'm eating way more than I was a few months ago (for example, I just ate 4 string cheeses, a small bag of sunchips, and 2 airheads as an after school snack). So it's all good news.