How Cool is This?

This was a total accident. I think it's pretty amazing!

Okay, I will post more than this....even though that is pretty dang cool! We haven't been up to a whole lot lately. Just everyday stuff. Patrick is working and going to school and doing great at both. He amazes me everyday. He is such a great daddy and I'm so glad to have him as a husband. Ellie is growing fast as ever. I went and visited a friend the other day with a new baby and I couldn't believe how much bigger she was compared to him. I guess I just don't notice it as much because I see her everyday.

The last few days have been a little rough. For some reason she has decided that sleep is just not an option for her. I'm not sure if there is just so much other fun stuff to do or what, but it is getting pretty old:) She gets so tired and then just screams....tonight for instance she just fell asleep after an hour and a half of crying. It is just so not like her. I give props to all you out there who have a colicky baby. You're amazing!

Okay, so of course....here a few pictures. We have a video camera full of video's that I will post sometime, but for now I don't want to try to figure that out..... Ellie is 18 weeks old. We have her 4 month check-up tomorrow to see how everything is going. Maybe they can shed some light on all the crying, or at least give some advice. She seems to be so healthy and a happy little girl. She is so much fun to have around and we just love her so much. Here is her 18 week picture...all decked out for Halloween...and the shirt is very TRUE!

October 1

I laid Ellie down for a bit while I did a couple of things and when I came back here is the look I got. I LOVE it! She just makes my heart melt. She also does this look at 4am....which makes it extremely hard to be unhappy that I'm awake at such an hour. Hopefully that won't last long. I read somewhere that after kids have been sleeping through the night they sometimes go in spurts and will wake up a lot at night. I am hoping that spurt is almost over....at least for this time.

October 2

She found her toes. Most of Ellie's jammies have something on the feet. She loves to look at whatever that something might be and grab at it. She doesn't do it as much with her feet, just the jammies. Ellie did so great during conference. I was a little worried we wouldn't get anything out of it this year, until after re-reading all the talks, but she was so good and just played quietly and slept a lot. Here she is with daddy.

October 4

She has also found her ears. Some people say to watch for ear infections, but she isn't ever grabbing at them or crying over them. She seems to love to just hold onto them. She loves to hold onto anything and everything, especially faces. They must just be interesting. She fell asleep like this the other day. Holding an ear in each hand.

October 5

I just thought this was funny. We have some polka dot socks....this is what her feet looked like after they came off. I guess they might just be a little small now:) I love cute little feet! We tried out a Johnny Jump Up at a friends house and Ellie loved it. She was so excited to be able to move around freely. She is still a little small for it...as you can tell by her arms going pretty close to straight up....but she enjoyed herself for a few minutes We are going to have to get one now.

October 10

My parents stopped by on there way back from Oregon and hung out. Here are the boys....while my mom and I made yummy pumpkin cupcakes. They were so good. I will post the recipe at the bottom in case anyone would like it. These don't have the frosting on them, but it was really good too. I love having family visit. Hopefully one day we will live closer to both our parents.

October 13

We made our annual trip to the Paradise Pumpkin Patch. Doesn't Ellie just look like she's chillin'? A few years ago I found this patch and we have loved going out there every year since. We go to Paradise Farms because they have a nice, cheap pumpkin patch, yummy apples and apple cider. It is an awesome tradition and I would recommend it to everyone. We waited a little too long this year and there wasn't a huge selection, but we still had fun. Luckily there is a patch across the street that I think the youth puts on. The pumpkins are a little more, but we founds some great ones. We did however decide that it would be a wonderful idea to lock BOTH sets of keys in the car....with everything inside...all of Ellie's stuff, wallet, etc. So, we walked back to Paradise Farms and they were kind enough to let us borrow a phone book and their home phone(we had no cell phone service) to call Beazer Lock and Key. I have to say that Beazer was really great. They took about 30 minutes to get there and even though it cost us $40, they were very efficient and quick. They even let me know that if I bring in my receipt, they will make an extra copy of our key for us. How cool is that! It was about 6:30pm and getting a little cold, so we had to improvise a little.Well, that's it for now. We are loving life and being parents and all that fun stuff. So excited for this time of year with all of the fun holidays coming up.

Pumpkin Cream Cupcakes

1 pkg Spice Cake Mix

1 pkg (3.4 oz) Jell-O Vanilla Flavor Pudding

1 Cup canned pumpkin

1 pkg cream cheese, softened

1/4 Cup sugar

1 egg

Heat oven to 350F. Prepare cake batter as directed on package. Add dry pudding mix and pumpkin; mix well. Spoon into paper-lined muffin cups.(It says 24, but the first batch sort of overflowed...I would make a few more and not fill the pans too full) Beat cream cheese with mixer until creamy. Blend in sugar and egg; spoon over batter. Swirl gently with a small spoon.(Not sure what they really mean, but there picture just had white in the middle. Mine ended up all over the top, but they still tasted yummy, so no big deal.) Bake 18-21 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool 5 min in pan and then remove to a wire rack and cool completely.

Stir 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg into 1 and 1/2 cups thawed Cool Whip; spread over cooled cupcakes. Keep refrigerated.

Love It!

Finally!

Our little mouse "friend" took his last breath in the night. Hallelujah! Hopefully he didn't bring any little rodent friends with him...but...just in case we are leaving the traps set for a while. I'm so glad Ellie isn't crawling yet.

Yuck!

A mouse just ran across my floor:(

I love being a mom!

My visiting teachers came over yesterday. I am so grateful to have visiting teachers. I love to hear the messages they share each month. One of them shared a story she had read recently and I had to look it up and read it through again. I love stories like this. They really make me feel like I need to make sure that I am doing everything I can to make sure that I teach my children and am in tune with the Spirit. Heavenly Father is trusting me to help them back to him and I am going to do my best!

A newborns conversation with God: A baby asked God, "They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?" God said, "Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you." The child further inquired, "But tell me, here in heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy." God said, "Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you. And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy." Again the child asked, "And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?" God said, "Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak." And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?" God said, "Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray." Who will protect me?" God said, "Your angel will defend you even if it means risking its life." But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore." God said, "Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you." At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, "God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel's name." God said, "You will simply call her, "Mom."

There is another story about Mothers that I love that was shared in Relief Society that I will look for to post later.

On a different note. I love waking up to this little girl. She is really finding her voice so much lately and loves using it:) Last week she decided it would be best to use it at 4 in the morning:) Good thing she is so cute and smiley otherwise I might have been annoyed. Here is what I woke up to this morning.

She always looks right at you and smiles huge when I come to get her in the mornings. It melts my heart!

Ellie is learning so much. Everyday she seems to be stronger and doing knew things. She drools constantly and loves to put anything and everything in her mouth....especially her hands. The last couple of days she really like burp clothes.

She has started laughing more and more. One of her favorite things is when Patrick flubbers her neck. She just giggles and giggles. I will try to get a video soon to post on here.

Her hair is getting so much longer. It has at least doubled in length...and....her hair on the left side is finally starting to come in. Hopefully she won't be bald for much longer on that side.

Ellie weighs about 14lbs right now. We go in for her 4 month check up on Oct 14. It will be interesting to see how much she has grown, especially in length.

We had family pictures taken Saturday. Here are a couple of pictures. Jenny Skeen took the pictures and did a great job. Check out her blog at Jen Skeen Photography. I will post more when we get them back.

Cat Spider

Yesterday I was leaving to go somewhere and as I walked out my door, I saw this... I hate spiders....This was is just gross looking. We have had so many spiders this year and Patrick just sprayed our whole apartment to make sure they would be nowhere here:) We have been getting huge....I mean really ...black spiders. This one just creeped me out. All I could say was PATRICK!!!!! Please kill that spider....SOOOON! Of course he did, but then later that night decided to look it up and see if he could figure out what kind it was. It is called a cat spider, or cat faced spider. Who knew? I guess it is harmless to humans, and he felt sort of bad for squishing it. I on the other hand don't want to wake up with that thing by me....so I'm glad it's gone. Now I've got to stop thinking I feel it on me....Yuck!

P90X

So....lately....probably the last 3 years....Patrick and I have been feeling like we need to get into better shape. Just be healthier. We don't have any motivation for it though. I have never been a big fan of running and don't have very good endurance. We just feel lethargic all the time. Lately when we have been trying to be active, we are so exhausted in a short time. I decided that it is time that I try to get in better shape...NOW. It is always easier to do this with someone else to help motivate you, so Patrick is also joining me. A long while ago, Patrick got P90X. I don't know much about it, but know that it is a 90 day program to help get your body back on track??? The guy on the video:) is very encouraging and tells you over and over to make sure to go at your own pace. This is very important to listen to, because when Patrick tried it before, after the second day, he got out of bed and crumpled to the floor in pain:) We just started Monday, and I am already feeling it. I just know that it is a workout video, so I can do it at home and not have to worry about finding someone to watch Ellie or go when Patrick is home. I thought if I blogged about it, maybe I will have a little more motivation to not quit....since others now know of my goal:) Wish us luck!

Thumb Sucker!

It's late and I need to be sleeping, but I just had to post one cute picture. The last few days Ellie has decided to suck her thumb ALOT. She has always liked to suck on her hands and lately has been doing that more...and anything else she can get a hold of(stuffed bunny, toys, my arm, hand and face:) Well, now she is getting really good and finding her thumb. We try to take it out when we see it and replace it with a binky, she now looks at us and takes out her binky....and puts the thumb back in. It is so stinkin' cute right now...but hopefully it doesn't last forever:) I just love this little girl!

Spray on Clothes???

All I can say is this is crazy! What do you think?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

So Many Dishes!

I have recently made the goal of trying new recipes more often. I have always loved to cook, ever since I was little. My mom would always let me help which I loved! I learned so much through the years from my mom about cooking. Even now, I call her with questions on what will work or how to make something. I love that she always knows what to do. This happened tonight as I was trying a new recipe for a fresh peach pie...you don't cook it, which I thought was cool because I really like the flavor of fresh peaches. As I was making a glaze...I think that's what you call it...I mixed it all together and brought it to a boil...then you have to let it rest for 10 minutes before adding the peaches. After the 10 minutes...I realized I forgot the sugar. AAHHHH! So...I called my mom. She calmed me down and helped me fix my problem. My glaze worked out great. I have to wait until tomorrow to taste the pie though since it has to sit over night...but...It looks delicious. Although I enjoy cooking and trying new recipes, the one thing I absolutely hate is all of the dishes I make. Tonight I tried 3 new recipes for dinner...and dessert. I made a chipotle chicken, cilantro lime rice, and the fresh peach pie. I had just cleaned my kitchen...in preparation for making a pie, and when I finished with dinner and the pie, my kitchen was a disaster. I think I used every pot, pan and mixing bowl I own. Oh well...it was worth trying the new recipes. The chicken was very good, but the rice....not very good. I looked up the recipe for Cafe Rio's lime rice, which I really enjoy, but it turned out one big mash of sticky rice. Does anybody have a good recipe they could share with me for rice...or for anything? I would love to try them.

Time Flies!

August 30, 2010. I can't believe it but my cute little girl is 12 weeks old already. She is growing so fast and I have wanted to put so many pictures on here, but...my stupid internet has not been working. ANNOYING! Oh well. Hopefully it will work long enough for me to put on at least one cute picture and that will have to suffice for now:) Ellie is getting a cute little personality and is really starting to notice things more and more. She is so smiley and happy most of the time. Tonight as I was rocking her, she just stared at me the whole time. I couldn't help but get misty eyed because of how much I love this little girl. She brings so much joy into our home and I can't imagine life without her. August 20, 2010. Here is a picture of Ellie in the morning. She is usually so smiley when I go in to get her. It's pretty hard to catch a smile on camera, but this was pretty good:)We had her 2 month check-up and immunizations. She did so well. She of course screamed with the shots, but as soon as I picked her up she calmed right down. She slept a lot the next day and had a fever, but not too bad. She also didn't sleep as good the next few nights, but that's to be expected...right? She weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs 8.2 oz. And is 22 inches long. I thought for sure she would be longer because she seems to be growing out of her clothes so quickly. I wonder if they measured wrong when she was born:) Anyways, that doesn't really matter, all that matters is that she is a healthy little girl and growing perfectly. I love everything about her and have so much fun being a mom! August 12, 2010. Here is a picture of the damage...huge band aids for such little legs.Here are a few things she does all the time.

• Smiles-all the time. We like to sing to her a lot and you can tell she is starting to recognize songs because she will get a huge grin when we sing certain songs-the frog song, popcorn popping and patty cake are her favorites
• You notice in the first picture, she has one hand in her hair...and the other in her mouth. She loves to play with her hair, especially when going to sleep. She also loves to suck on her hands...fingers...arm.
• Sticks her tongue out constantly-she has done this a lot before, but it is getting more. I think it's because of the frog song and we stick our tongues out a lot to see if she will do it:)
• Grasps onto her hands-she just started doing this last weekend. It is so cool to see her developing.
• Follows things with her eyes-she is getting very good at this
• She still wiggles all the time too. She has so much energy is amazes me, she never stops moving
• Giggled-this has only happened once with noise, but it was so cute. I can tell she really tries to laugh more, but no noise comes out, she just gets so excited and her whole body moves and then she sucks in air instead of making noise. Its really pretty funny

Ellie still doesn't sleep a ton during the day, but she is pretty happy and sleeps when she needs it, so I'm not concerned. She does pretty good at night too, so that is wonderful for me:) She really likes to be outside, or just to go somewhere each day. I can tell when she starts to get fussy that she is maybe feeling cooped up. I was really nervous at taking her grocery shopping by myself for some reason. I guess because I wasn't sure what to do if she threw a fit in the store....do I just leave my cart and walk out??? Anyways, I took her and she just looked around and talked the whole time. She doesn't seem to have any trouble in the grocery store...yet:) Side note....I always thought people would never really come up to me in the grocery store...and if they did that they would just comment and not get up in my child's face...but...the first time we went shopping, 3 different ladies came up and got right in Ellie's face and tried to get her to smile...strange how babies make women act differently isn't it? Oh well, she isn't scared of people yet and that just makes everyone love her so much more. Okay, so here are some pictures... August 26, 2010. I decided to make her hair as crazy as possible...it is just getting so long. I thought this was hilarious. Don't worry I put it down after the picture:)August 28, 2010. Patrick's sister got married this last weekend...we didn't get any pictures at the wedding except this one. Her colors were teal and orange. Don't we look so cute. Also, notice the cute gold sandal's Ellie has on. They were so long on her, but I had to squeeze them over her feet. I thought she would hate them, but shockingly, she just stared at them and would click her feet together. Maybe she will be a shoe girl.August 20, 2010. She really likes her bouncer. It has little toys that hang down and she will try to hit them. She isn't great with getting her hands to do what she wants, but she swings them over and over hitting the hanging rattle. It is pretty cool to watch her starting to develop those motor skills.August 14, 2010. I just love this picture. She just looks right at the camera. Every time I take a picture, she just stares at the camera. It's funny because I try to get her to look at me or Patrick to make her smile, but she is fascinated with the camera...I guess it's more interesting than mom or dad:) On another note...Patrick started grad school this last week for Instructional Technology. He had orientation last Thursday and Friday and class started Monday. He is going to be one busy boy this semester. I am so grateful for him and his willingness to take care of our family. He amazes me that he is willing to work full time to support us and go to school. I love him so much for this because I get to stay home with Ellie. Wish us luck with the next few semesters and staying sane:)

Ellie's Blessing!

Today was Ellie's baby blessing. We had such a great day! It all started yesterday with my sister Krista flying in. My parents decided to pick her up and then stay over night with us so we could all spend more time together. When they got here, Patrick opened the door to my brother Eric and nephew Taylor. They live in California and surprised us by coming. I had no idea he was coming and love surprises. It was so great to see him and have him be here. We spent the night Saturday just hanging out and getting all the food ready for the next day. Patrick's family all came up this morning. Our ward changed times today and moved to the 9am block. I am really excited for this change because Ellie is much more of a morning person and I think we will all enjoy church a little more now:) Patrick gave an amazing blessing and the spirit was so strong. He is such a great husband, dad and priesthood holder. I am so glad to be able to have that in our home. Afterwards, we had lunch with everyone at the church pavilion. We didn't get a ton of pictures...mainly because I was starving and it was pretty hot right at noon:) I will have to dress Ellie back up tomorrow and get one of just her in her pretty white dress.

Four generations on Patrick's side. Great Grandma Miller, Grandma Judy, Ellie, PatrickThree generations on my side. Me, Ellie, Grandma BrownAunt Krista and Ellie-Krista kept saying that she could easily sneak away and take Ellie back to Oklahoma with her:) We had to keep an eye on her.Grandpa and Grandma BrownUncle Eric and cousin Taylor-It was fun to watch my brother hold Ellie. He just loved it and she seemed so content with him as well. We were outside right at the hot time of day. We decided to keep Ellie in the shade...but she was still a little hot, so she was sportin' a diaper today:) Great Grandma Miller Well, after a long day of lots of family and friends, Ellie was plum tuckered. She zonked out on my lap... ...and then zonked again on PatrickWe had a really wonderful day and I am so grateful for all of our family and friends and the love and support they give us.

The Story

So...I typed this a very long time ago, but never posted it. I want to post it mostly for my records, so I don't forget anything. Don't feel like you have to read it or anything, just wanted to make sure I can remember it. I have always said that when I had a baby, that I didn't want my blog posts to be completely about the baby all the time, but this blog tells all about whats going on in our lives and right now....a baby is whats going on:) So, this is probably going to be a really long post all about our cute little girl, with lots of pictures. Coming into the World On June 7th, I woke up as usual around 4am to go potty, 4:05am to be exact. The difference this time was that I was feeling a little cramping(not sure what to actually call it) but it was something I hadn't ever felt before. I laid there for about 9 minutes and then felt it again. I woke Patrick up because I wondered if that was a contraction. I really hadn't had any contractions up to this point and wasn't sure what to expect. Patrick started keeping track of time and we tried to go back to sleep, but were way to excited to even think about doing that. The contractions were really light that I just kept thinking, "There is no way this could be what a contraction is." At 7am, I called my mom because they were now about 3-5 minutes apart. My mom had kids pretty quick and I didn't want to not make it to the hospital, but on the other hand I just couldn't imagine that this was labor because it didn't really hurt, at all. My mom suggested we go to the hospital, so I got all ready and we were on our way at 8am. I text my work to let them know I would be a little late(at this point I didn't think we would actually be having a baby that day, I figured they would just send us home) We got all checked in at the hospital and hooked up to the monitors. I was indeed having contractions, but then, all of the sudden, they stopped:( The nurse told us that was normal just because of the stress/emotions of everything happening in my body. Sure enough, after a half hour they started up again. I was dilated to a 4, and 80% effaced at this time. My last doctors appt I was at a 4 and 70%, so not much progress. I talked to the nurse and told her we wanted to deliver with no epidural. She called my doctor, Dr McCulloch said that she would break my water right now, or we could go home and wait a while for the contractions to be more intense. Because I wanted to go with no epidural, we opted to head home for a while and wait it out there instead of at the hospital, where I couldn't really move around a lot or eat anything. We came home at 11:30am and I was dilated to a 6 and 80% effaced. We had some lunch and took a nap while watching Monsters Inc on the computer. When I woke up they were still about 4 minutes apart, so we went to do some errands. I needed to take a book back to the library. Well, evidently the drive over was a little too bumpy or something, because all of the sudden my contractions were much more intense. I called my mom again and we decided to head back to the hospital. It was 3:30pm at this time. After getting all checked in and hooked up again, they checked me and I was still at a 6 but fully effaced. Dr McCulloch came in at 4pm and asked if we wanted my water broken. We decided to go for it. I knew the contractions would get more intense once they did that, but I was pretty far along, plus Dr McCulloch doesn't work on Tuesday's, and since it was Monday night, she said she would come back if we had her before Tuesday:) Having my water broken was such a strange feeling. It is hard to explain it or compare it to anything. It just felt like I had wet my pants, really quickly and a lot of water. One thing I didn't know about having your water broken is that your body keeps producing more fluid, so every time I had a contractions, more water would come out. It was really crazy to me. Well, just as I thought, my contractions became a lot more intense. Patrick was so great with helping me to stay calm and keep breathing. We talked about before that I really needed him to help me if I wasn't going to get an epidural. I did really well for a while, but it seemed like every 4th contraction I just couldn't do it anymore. He kept telling me I was doing so well and that he knew I could do it. For all of you who thought I could do it without an epidural....Thanks for your support, but I broke down. I had Patrick call a friend about the anesthesiologist she had, because I had heard so many horror stories about him and wanted to be sure it wasn't the one that was on call that day. Patrick even talked to our nurse about it and she described the guy who was on call, Dr Williams. When we were sure it wasn't the same one, I told him I needed to have one. He kept helping me to think I didn't, when I finally said, "Seriously, I can't do it without. I really, really need one:) Because so many other girls were delivering(I thought there were 6, but Patrick said there were 3, he is probably more accurate than me considering my state of mind:), and I had said I didn't want an epidural, I was last in line. I took an hour and a half for him to get to me. By this point I really thought I might die. Another thing I didn't realize was that some women shake when they are having contractions. I was shaking tons. My whole body. It was really strange because I wasn't cold, but could stop the shaking. The nurse did keep bringing warm blankets though, that was nice. When Dr Williams walked in to do the epidural, I felt so peaceful about it. He just seemed so familiar and I knew that I would be fine.(I was more nervous for an epidural than anything else) Our nurse asked if I wanted to be checked before they gave me the epidural, I said no, mostly because I just wanted to stop feeling the pain. By this point my contractions were back to back, so they had to help me roll over on my side and scrunch all up to open my spine. Since I was shaking so bad, Patrick had to hold me still while he did it. He just kept saying to hold still. Patrick did so well with it all. I know he was probably freaking out on the inside, but he never showed it. He is so amazing. I am so glad that our nurse gave me the option of not being checked, because right when he was done, she checked me and I was fully effaced and dilated to a 10. I am pretty sure she thought I was and that's why she gave me the option. The nurses were also so wonderful. Our first nurse was Marie, but there were a lot of girls having babies, so at 5pm I got another nurse. I can't remember her name, but she was great too. She helped me to keep breathing and started the pushing. Had they checked, they wouldn't have given me the epidural and I would have had a really hard time with the rest of delivery. It only took about 15 minutes for the epidural to work and can I just say that it was like night and day. I felt so much better and it was a much better experience for me. For some reason I had to wait for about an hour to push. I don't remember why, but that was so hard to not push when I felt like I really needed to. I loved that I could still feel my legs and move them. It made it much easier. At 6:45pm they had me start pushing. My nurse was switched again. This nurse was also so great. Her name was Landri and she happened to be from Star Valley and knows Patrick's family. Small world. She helped to continue pushing and was so supportive. After pushing for a little while, maybe an hour, my contractions slowed way down. She was pretty far down by now and we could see that she had lots of dark hair. I had 3 that were 9 minutes apart. They were thinking of putting me on pitocin, but they picked back up and we didn't need to. At this point Landri also told me that my epidural would be wearing off soon and if I wanted it to last a little longer I had to push the button. I think it is weird that they have you control the button. I could see some people pushing it way too much, but I wanted to be able to feel my legs, so I only pushed it once. Dr McCulloch got there around 8:30pm and Ellie came into the world at 8:44pm. She was perfect and they put her directly onto my lap. It was so cool the feeling of her being there. I can't say how much love I immediately felt for her. Everyone told me that, but it is really so true. Patrick did opt to cut the cord at this point-he had been on the edge about this, but is really glad he decided to. I also forgot to mention that I had a mirror to watch the whole thing. I would recommend this to everyone. It is so cool to see a birth and know what is going on. She came pretty quickly that they had to wait for the NICU nurse to come in and do all of the tests/cleaning/weight etc. Ellie was 7lbs 3 oz and 20 inches long. She had quite the lungs too. We could hear other babies screaming for the first time from other rooms, but it seems like when she screamed, it was so much louder. Patrick did so great with getting pictures and a video of everything-not delivery though, I didn't want that:) They let you do skin to skin with the baby after it's all cleaned off. This was so cool to be so close to Ellie and have nothing else matter in the whole world at that moment. She also latched on really good the first time and ate for a while. After about 45 minutes, we had our moms come in and see her. They were both so excited. They moved us up to Mother Baby floor at 10:15pm. Once we were in the room and all settled, our dad's came in to see Ellie. They were also both grinning from ear to ear. The nurse gave Ellie a bath and Patrick got to wash her hair. She loved the water running over her head. She was just so calm. I think it is so great that they give the first bath on the foot on my bed let the dad wash the hair. It made me more comfortable to do it at home the first time. Our parents left to go home shortly after and we were left alone with our baby. We were both on such an emotional high that sleeping was out of the question. Looking at the pictures now, I can see that I was extremely worn out. We did manage to sleep pretty good, considering the nurse coming in all the time to "massage" my stomach and help with everything. That night was extremely stressful too for feeding. Ellie was so tired and since I really didn't know what I was doing, she didn't latch really well and I was so emotional. I remember the nurse helping me the first time. They next time Ellie woke to eat, I tried for almost 30 minutes and couldn't do it. I finally pushed the nurse call button and had her help me again. The next few feedings were the same way. I was feeling so bad that couldn't do it very well, and then all of the sudden around noon the next day, she just latched on. Ever since then, she has been a very good eater. No problems at all in that area, except falling asleep. I have to keep bugging her to stay awake to eat:) Patrick changed almost all of the diapers in the hospital. The first night, he was changing Ellie and she peed all over his bed. I knew that little boys did that, but little girls also do that. It just doesn't spray all over:) It was so funny. Our pediatrician, Dr Horkley, came in the next day to check her all out and make sure everything looked good. Ellie is so healthy and doing great.

Very Large Wardrobe

I take so many pictures of little Ellie, but don't have a ton of new stuff to post about. She is just growing so quickly and so darn cute. She is finding her voice a lot lately and is really starting to focus and follow objects. I love it when she looks right at me and gets a huge smile. It's gotta be one of the best feelings in the world! July 30-My mom made this little dress. Didn't she do an amazing job! I have a larger one to in yellow that I am excited for her to wear. July 28-I had to take this one cause she loves sleeping on the boppy. Ellie is a really good sleeper at night, but during the day she fights it as long as possible. She sleeps great in my arms...which I love...but I just can't seem to get anything done like that. The boppy has really helped. July 26-Don't I just look so stinkin comfy. I love this toy. I sit under it and just look at everything.July 23-Patrick put Ellie on the couch for tummy time and she fell asleep in a couple minutes. She loves being on her tummy. I didn't get a picture, but she eventually stuck her bum in the air. It was awesome and I found out the Patrick used to sleep like that as a kid:) July 23-I love this picture of Ellie in the tub. She really likes bath time, but we had sort of woken her up for this bath and she doesn't look too happy. July 22-My friend Courtney gave us this outfit. It is adorable and so lightweight for summertime as well. July 21-My friend Shauna gave this to me. You can't see it, but there are cute ruffles on the bum!July 20-My friend Erin gave Ellie this outfit. I love the little capris. I love being a mom and being able to stay at home with this little girl. She is so much fun and I can't imagine going back to work. I am so grateful for Patrick and all he does willingly to support our family and make it possible for me to stay home. Thanks babe!

6 Weeks!

I just have to say that first of all, Ellie slept 7 hours last night. Yippee!!!! She has really been doing great sleeping at night, usually only getting up once to eat. She's been sleeping 5 hours for a few weeks now, however, that 5 hours starts early enough that I am up at 2am and then again at 5am. It really hasn't been bad, but 7 hours....that was wonderful. This picture is as of yesterday. Sorry I don't have one today, she is still asleep:) It was our first day to church in our ward. I tried to feed her right before we left so she would make it the whole time...that didn't happen. So much for being in Relief Society. She still did really great though through the rest of church. The time has flown by. Ellie is 6 weeks old now and growing so quickly. This last week my sister and her family were in town from Illinois, so we packed up and headed down to stay with my parents for the weekend. It was great to spend time with my family and see my sister. We took Ellie to my parents sacrament meeting-the first time, and she did very good. After heading back home on Sunday night, I decided that I should have just stayed down there for a few days since Patrick works all day anyways:) So, we headed back down on Tuesday to surprise my family. We got down early, so it was only my dad home. It was so funny because as soon as we walked in, he jumped up, washed his hands and came and grabbed her. He loves holding her so much and she loves it too. She always falls right to sleep and just snuggles in close. My sister was so excited that we decided to come down as well. She had been swimming with her kids and as soon as they got back, she came running in. This was my very first long ride with Ellie by myself. We bought one of those mirrors that hooks on the backseat, which was great for me to be able to check on her and know she was okay. She slept pretty much the whole ride down. It was a fun few days and I know my family really enjoyed spending time with Ellie...and me:) I noticed while in Orem that Ellie was getting quite a bit longer and just about not fitting into her clothes. She was still in newborn clothes. We finally went up to the next size on Thursday. She is now officially in 0-3 month clothes. It is strange to me, because she I know she is still so little, but she looks so much bigger to me. She is getting more and more rolls on her legs, which is very cute. She is also much, much longer. A lot of the 0-3 month clothes are fitting snug in length, but still pretty big around the middle. We don't have another checkup until her 2 month, so I measured her myself....however accurate that is....she came in at 23 inches. Some of the things she has been doing...

• Holding her head up for a really long time. She loves to look around and see everything.
• She focus's pretty good on things, especially mine and Patrick's face. She will just look at me and I love those pretty blue eyes.
• She still loves to play the tongue game with Patrick. He will stick out his tongue and she sticks her out too.
• She's making lots and lots of noises now, it still surprises her sometimes, but I think she is starting to realize when she is doing it.
• It takes her so long to wake up, especially in the morning. She will stretch and grunt and stretch some more. You will also see in this picture that her feet don't really stay in the feet part of the jammies. She loves to curl up, and the jammies just don't curl up with her:)
• I love all of the facial expressions she does. She definitely got her daddy's ability to make strange expressions. Here are a couple. I love that I have this picture of Patrick. Just like her daddy! I love this little girl so much. She is just so cute and loves to cuddle. We are having so much fun and although we have our days...we wouldn't change it for the world!