Tons of Updates

Dustin is out of town and I got the girls to bed super early so I took the opportunity to do some major updating on our blog.  If you care, I did 6 posts tonight so just keep scrolling down if you want to read them.  Enjoy!!

Ella

I feel like I haven't given an update on Ella in a while, and she definitely deserves some attention.

Some things about Ella I don't want to forget:

-Ella is a girly girl.  She wants to be a princess and thinks that anyone wearing a dress is one (notice her Snow White costume).  If I would let her, she would put her lip gloss on 100 times a day.  She notices sparkles everywhere and asks to wear a skirt everyday.

-She always wants to make sure her outfit matches, along with her shoes and hair bows.

-She is a sassy girl with a serious attitude.

-She is very independent, "Just let me do it mine self!"  I hear that constantly throughout the day. 

-Ella loves to sing, dance, and twirl.  She always asks Dustin to be her prince and dance with her.  It is just as adorable as it sounds. :)

-She does not take naps and hasn't since she was barely 2.  But she will sleep 12 or 13 hours a night.

-She loves PB sandwiches, fruit snacks, cereal, waffles, pancakes, chocolate, quesadillas, guacamole, edamame, black beans, and much more that I can't think of right now.  Unlike other toddlers, she doesn't really like juice or ice cream. She is fairly adventurous and will try most foods.

-She loves to sing songs, especially the ABCs.  Every night before bed we sing I Am a Child of God and I Love to See the Temple.

-She is very determined.  At 2 she decided she would learn the alphabet and she learned her colors around 18 months.  Just yesterday she wrote her name for the first time. 

-She loves to brush her teeth and lately she wants a ponytail everyday.

-Ella has the cutest voice and has us laughing constantly with what she says.  The other day Dustin came home from work and changed his clothes:

                               Ella:  Daddy, did you change your shirt?

                               Dustin: Yes Ella, I did.

                               Ella: Oh, did you spit up on it?

She is getting used to me changing Grace's outfit like 10 times a day with all of her spit up. :) 

-Ella has high energy.  When she is bored she really starts to push my buttons.  I constantly need to give her something to do.  She loves to be my little helper.

-She is not potty trained yet.  She has successfully been there a few times, but then she decides that she doesn't want to do it anymore.  I refuse to make it a battle of wills and to ask her sit on the potty 100 times a day, so I am waiting until she decides it is time.  Right now she is wanting to be in a diaper because Grace is.  I am not concerned about it, but I will definitely be happy to not be changing diapers for 2 kids.

-Ella loves Curious George, Sesame Street, Super Why, and pretty much any Disney movie, especially the princess ones.

-As of late she really likes to get her picture taken.  She asked me to take the above picture of her with her baby.

-She calls Dustin and me by our first names a lot.

-She loves our extended family and constantly asks about all of them.

She says please, thank you, and excuse me like a champ.

I could go on, but I don't want to go too crazy.  I just need to be better about keeping track of all things Ella.

I love this little girl so much.  She keeps me on my toes constantly and melts my heart several times a day too. 

  

Gracie girl at 4 months

I am so behind on blogging and I mostly feel bad that I haven't been putting up pictures of Grace.  She has grown and changed so much.  I am currently compiling a bunch of pictures of her to post another time.  I can't believe she is 4 months old already and here is a current picture of her.

Grace is such a joy and a wonderful addition to our family.  She is a really happy baby and is constantly smiling.  In some ways she is like Ella, but she is her own little person too.  She just had her 4 month checkup and here are her stats:

14 lbs. 2 oz. (59%)

25 inches (75%)

I looked in Ella's baby book to compare their stats and they are almost identical, Grace is just a few ounces heavier. Here are some things about Grace that I don't want to forget:

-Grace smiled at 6 weeks and since then she will smile at practically anyone.

-She has a clogged tear duct in the same eye that Ella did. It is definitely not a fun thing.

-Around 6 weeks Grace decided she didn't need to take naps (hence my lack of blogging the last few months).  Fortunately she started sleeping through the night pretty early.  She currently still doesn't take many naps and will sometimes wake up once to eat.

-She is not a fan of bottles but we are working on it.  I feel really lucky that she nurses period since Ella wouldn't.

-Grace is a really easy going baby, I think she takes after her Dad.  Ella was a much more serious baby and she had a real intense stare.

-She looks a lot like Dustin.  People used to think that Ella looked like Dustin, but since Grace was born now everyone says Ella looks just like me.  Genetics are funny.

-She just barely started to suck her thumb.  Like her sister she has never been a binky fan.

-She drools constantly (notice her bib in the picture) and she spits up a ton too.  I usually have spit up somewhere on me.

-She hates tummy time and as such is not rolling over yet.  Tonight was the first time I got her to be on her stomach without her screaming and I think she is coming around.

-She has the chubbiest cheeks that I love to kiss.  We call her chub-a-lub :)

-She has had blue eyes since she was born, and I think they are going to stay that way.  Her hair is kind of brown with auburn right now, but I think it is too soon to tell what it will become.  Unlike Ella, she has kept a lot of her hair.

-She doesn't like to sit still.  If you are holding her she is happiest if you are walking around.

-Grace is a snuggler, she loves to be held and talked to constantly.

-She has super tiny feet, just like Ella did.

Becoming a mother of 2 has definitely been a challenge, especially since Grace started boycotting naps.  There are many days that Dustin walks in the door from work to find me still in my pajamas usually covered in spit up and totally frazzled.  Ella has really learned how to push my buttons and try my patience which has definitely been a challenge.  And this will probably sound so cliche, but as hard as being a mom can be, it is also the greatest joy and I wouldn't change it for anything.  I love spending my days with my 2 beautiful girls.  They teach me so much and make me want to be better in all parts of my life.  Sometimes Dustin and I just look at each other in disbelief that we have been married 6 years and have 2 children.  I feel so blessed to have such a great husband and to get to be a mom.  I am so close with my own mother, and I hope I can be like that with my girls too.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving this year in St. George with Dustin's family.  Dustin had to work on Wednesday, so we had to drive down on Thanksgiving.  His family was in the kitchen all day so when we showed up the meal was ready.  They did such an amazing job.  I took a bunch of pictures but somehow missed the actual food.  I think I must have been really excited to eat. :)  Going to St. George always feels like a mini vacation, and as usual we had a great time.

The beautiful table

 The kid's table

 The dessert table.  Brittney and Peter's pies were delish!

 Dustin and I were nervous about the drive down to St. George.  Fortunately Grace slept almost the whole way and we only had to stop once to feed her.  Her expression here represents how happy we all were to get there.  Five hours was a long time in the car for us. 

 Ella has been really into taking pictures lately.  I usually find a lot pictures of the couch and floor, but sometimes she actually gets people.  Here is a good one of Dustin...

 ...and one of Grandpa :)

 Dustin's parents and sister both of Golden Retrievers and Ella loves both of them a little too much.  She was always asking to feed them or brush them.

 Poker is always popular :)

 Ella LOVES her cousin Hannah and always wanted her to hold her.  Hannah is tiny too and I don't know how she can carry her.  She is so cute with Ella and I love that Ella has her to look up to.

 We went to a fun Christmas craft show and Grandma bought Ella a wand, Ella has been playing with it constantly since we got home.

 Ella always insists on walking in front.  This was on our way to the clubhouse to swim. 

Rob and Jana, thanks for such a wonderful time.  We wish we could have stayed longer.

Swim Lessons and Halloween

We signed Ella up for a parent tot swim class at the rec center.  It is definitely not her favorite thing, I am afraid she inherited my swiming skills. :)  I was still such a proud mom watching her.  Here she is with her class.

 Dustin's parents were in Park City over Halloween so we were able to spend lots of time with them.  I have hardly any Halloween pictures! Fortunately Ella has worn her costume almost everyday so I have many pictures with her in it :) I know Dustin's parents have a bunch and I need to get copies.  I forgot to bring Grace's costume on acutal Halloween, but she did get to wear it to her cousin's Halloween party.  She made one adorable pumpkin!  We were planning on trick or treating on Saturday night, but it was a total downpour outside.  The rain evenutally slowed down and we took Ella out for just a little bit.  The next day we did some great trick or treating in Park City with Dustin's family.

Grace with her Grandma Jana

 We surprised my mom and trick or treated at her house.  Ella is the little Snow White in the front.

 It was pretty cold and for some reason we left Grace's coat in the car so Dustin and his Dad kept Grace warm.



Wheeler Farm and School

At the beginning October we went to Wheeler Farm with my sister and her family. We fed ducks, did a corn maze, rode the wagon, and did pony rides. Ella and Riley are just 8 days apart and my sister is due soon with a little girl (Tessa).  She and Grace will only be about 5 months apart! 

Ella and Riley had a blast feeding the ducks and their Dads had fun keeping them from falling in the water :)

 Ella got impatient and evenutally just dumped her whole bag in.

 Ella was able to ride a pony and she absolutely LOVED it.  Looking back we wish we had paid to let her ride a second time.  She can be timid sometimes but she was totally excited this time.  As you can tell we were nervous at first so Dustin held on to her shirt.

 Grace was great the entire time.  I stayed with her while the rest of them went on the wagon ride.

 Wagon Ride

 We attempted to get Ella and Riley to sit on the step...

 ...so that we could recreate this picture from 2 years ago :)  It is fun to see how much they have grown up.

 We had Loran take a ton of family pictures for us.  Unfortunately most of them turned out like this.  They totally make me laugh and it truly captures the chaos that 2 kids can bring.

 We did end up with one good one.

 In other news, I am doing a little Joy School group with a few girls in my neighborhood.  Ella absolutely loves it!  In carrying on with the tradition from my mother, I had to take pictures of Ella on her first day of school. Her poses totally capture her personality.



Grace's Blessing

Grace was blessed at the end of August (yikes, I am really behind.) Dustin did an amazing job and afterward we had our families over for a yummy lunch. Thanks to everyone that came.  I wish I had gotten pictures of everyone, but her are a ton nonetheless.

Our new family of 4!

The spread.  We did a healthy salad bar to go with Dustin's new lifestyle (another post for another day).

 Our cute nephews holding Grace.  These 4 are all brothers!

 Sam

 Alex

 My cousin Kevin and his cute wife Natalie.  They are family and our neighbors too!

 Britt (Dustin's sister)

 This is what the kids spent most of the day doing.  Ella's kitchen is by far our most popular toy.

 Dustin and our nephew Josh.

 Our niece Hannah. 

 My brother Greg and his wife Lucy.

 Grandpa Rob

 I think we wore her out :)

 Our get togethers always seem to end with dancing.  Here are some of the kids rocking out.

Grace's Arrival continued

So I have been meaning to do this post for a long time, especially when you consider that Grace is 2 months already.  But I promise that I have a good excuse other than my life being extremely crazy.  My laptop is old and was having some issues.  One such issue was that the hard drive was completely full and there was nothing to erase to make more room.  So basically I  couldn't load any pictures onto my computer.  It has been driving me crazy and Dustin got me a new laptop last week so now I am back in business.  I know some of you don't care about this story, but I want to have it written down so I don't forget.  I have tons of pictures in this post so feel free to skip to those.

As I was nearing 37 weeks I just felt like Grace would be making her entrance soon.  That was about when Ella was born, plus I just felt as though my body couldn't handle much more.  I don't think it was possible for my belly to grow any bigger.  I was 37 weeks and 1 day on Sunday the 18th.  That evening I started having some contractions but I didn't think much of it because I had been having Braxton Hicks for months.  I went to bed and Dustin was up working late.  I kept having contractions and I couldn't sleep so I played a game on my phone for a long time.  When Dustin finally came to bed I was still up and told him about the contractions. I still wasn't sure that this was the real deal so we both went to sleep.  With Ella my water broke, so I didn't have to time contractions and determine if I was really in labor.  I was only able to sleep a couple hours, and when I woke up I was surprised that I was still having contractions and they were getting a little uncomfortable.  I couldn't believe that I had been sleeping through them.  My doctor told me to come to the hospital when I could no longer speak through the contractions, and I was definitely not to that point.  I woke Dustin up and we started keeping track around 4 in the morning.  They were about 4 to 5 minutes apart for a couple hours so we figured Grace would be coming that day.  We called my mom so that she could drive down to stay with Ella, and we called Dustin's parents so that they could start the drive from St. George.  

We headed to the hospital around 8 or 9 and by the time we got there I was pretty uncomfortable.  Dustin's grandma got there right when we did so we had some company.  The nurses got me hooked up to the monitors and started checking me for progress.  I think over 2 hours or so I only dilated one more centimeter and my nurse was nervous they might have to send me home.  My doctor wasn't in at the time and the on call doctor saw that I was just barely 37 weeks and wasn't sure that I would stay.  I was in quite a bit of pain, and in my head I was thinking there was NO way I was going home.  My nurse was awesome and she had me get up and walk for an hour to see if I would progress more quickly, and it worked.  I was dilating enough that the on call doctor had me get my epidural and broke my water. The doctor couldn't believe how much amniotic fluid I had, no wonder I was so huge! Dustin's parents got to the hospital around 1 and I got my epidural about an hour later.  It relieved my pain for maybe 45 minutes or an hour.  But then I was pushing the button trying to get more of the medicine and nothing was happening.  The anesthesiologist came back in and said everything was fine and that I was getting the medicine.  They had just barely started my pitocin so I knew the contractions were going to get a lot stronger.  Dustin's parents and Grandma went for lunch in the cafeteria, and while they were gone a lot happened.  My nurse came in and confirmed that I wasn't receiving my epidural, somehow the machine had paused.  She checked my and I was at a 7.  This is when the real pain started.  My nurse left for maybe 5 minutes and while she was gone I felt so much discomfort and pain and I was praying that I was almost done.  When she came back she checked me and I was at a 10, and she couldn't believe it. Dustin called his parents and Grandma to rush back.   I remember feeling so desperate to be done, that is as close as a natural child birth that I think I could handle.  My legs were just a little numb, because once the problem was discovered, I progressed too quickly for it to make a difference.

While I was at the hospital I was under the impression that my doctor was out of the office and wouldn't be able to deliver me.  But he happened to come in that afternoon for an interview that ended up not happening.  Because I progressed so fast he was able to be there.  He came rushing down and when I saw him I started crying.  I was in so much pain and was so ready for her to come out and seeing a familiar face was awesome. He promised me he could be in his scrubs in 30 seconds and he wasn't joking.  The rest is a little bit of a blur but I know I pushed for just a couple minutes before Grace came out.  I remember my Dr. saying that this was as big of a baby that my body could handle.  I definitely felt that way.  I still remember how great it felt when her head was out and then her whole body, such relief!!  Because Grace came down so fast she had swallowed a bunch of fluid and the nurses had to pump her stomach to get it out.  She actually had to have it done again that night because the fluid was making her sick and she didn't want to eat.  Grace kept scaring us because she would kind of choke on the fluid and stop breathing for a few seconds.  Not to get all churchy on everyone, but Dustin and I said a prayer that she would be okay, and after that she didn't have any more problems.  Anyway, back to right when she was born, other than the fluid she was perfect and weighed 6 lbs. 12 ounces (just 1 ounce less than Ella) and she was 19.75 inches long.  She was born at 4:31 p.m. Because she came out so fast she looked really good and wasn't too squished.  She was so cute and we were so happy to meet her.  I was especially excited when she nursed like a champ right after she was born.  Those of you who know what we went through with Ella will understand why I was so happy.

The second time around was definitely different than the first.  I knew what to expect, but this labor was totally opposite from Ella's.  I really think the whole process is such a miracle and it is an amazing experience. I could have done with a little less pain, but in the end I was totally proud of myself for being tough. Our hospital stay was awesome, except for the problems I mentioned earlier.  I was so nervous about the whole nursing thing but I got a lot of help and it went great.  Through the whole process Dustin was by my side and was amazing as usual.  He is an incredible dad and I just love seeing him with our girls.  I feel like they are always going to have the cool dad.  Dustin's dad was and is that way so Dustin had a great example.  Dustin was my rock through everything, especially through all of those crazy hormones after the birth that make me cry a lot and doubt myself.  Grace did have bad jaundice and had to be under the lights at home for a few days.  It was difficult and I hated having to take her back in to get her blood taken. But I was just grateful that she was at home and not in the NICU like Ella had been. We are so in love with our little Grace and she has been such a joy.  Our lives were total chaos at first but things are starting to calm down.  I feel really lucky to have 2 healthy, adorable girls and I wouldn't change anything for the world.

Get ready for tons of pictures...

This is my last pregnant picture.  This is when we were walking the halls to see if I would make more progress.  Dustin was laughing because I looked like a tent with a head on top.  In my defense I have 2 gowns on :)  I really was huge, wasn't I?   

Mid contraction

 This was probably taken during the short time that my epidural was working, that would explain the smile.

 Dustin and his Dad keeping me company.

Grace is here!!

Daddy putting on her first diaper.

Can you tell how happy I am to be done?  I was so excited to eat something since it had been almost 24 hours.

 I was so excited to meet my little girl.

Dustin with the awesome Dr. Kaelbarer

Dustin's Mom and Grandma meeting Grace.

On the elevator ride up to my recovery room.

My Mom and Ella meeting Grace for the first time.

The 3 loves of my life.

Ella was so cute with Grace and was really excited to hold her.

Grandma Jana

A great picture of her awake.

Going home.

I want to thank everyone who visited us in the hospital and helped us out when we got home.  My mom stayed with Ella and then stayed for 5 more days to help us out.  She kept my house clean, my laundry done, and pretty much everything else too.  It truly was a great experience and we love being a family of 4 now.