Happy Half Birthday & Christmas!

Things have been so crazy around here, that I didn't even get a chance to post anything about Ella's half birthday! So, now you will get a combo post with that and Christmas updates!

Ella turned 6 months old on December 16th. I can't believe how fast time has flown! She is just growing up so fast! At her 6 month check-up, she weighed 15 lbs 2oz, and was 25 1/2 inches long. She can do so many new things, and the world is opening up very wide to her! I'll just pick out the major ones. She CAN roll over, but chooses not to! She has done it a couple times, so I know she can, but she is content with staying where she is for now.

Another thing she can do that has made my life a little easier is that she can hold up her own bottle. She's a pro with the small ones, and can hold the big ones up pretty well. She loves oatmeal, sweet potatoes, and this week we'll try either carrots, peas, or green beans. Yum!

Ella can now basically sit up all by herself. She's been doing the tripod thing for a couple months, but now she sit up without any support for several minutes! It's so nice to be able to plop her on the floor and play with her. She's able to do so much more!

Now on to Christmas! I was so excited for Christmas because it was Ella's first, and I couldn't wait to give her new toys to her! We got her a play mat she can play on either lying down or sitting up, a butterfly that rolls and plays songs, a little keyboard that we can hook to her crib and she can kick at it to make noise or she can sit and use her hands. She also got other fun toys from family members!

Craig and I also got each other some things. I have to say it's so nice having a husband that has a great taste in clothes and he can pick me out some really cute stuff! I hate clothes shopping, so I look forward to birthday's and Christmases!

It was nice to spend time with family and was a great Christmas this year!

We don't have the money to get professional pictures done, so I did it myself. I'm no photographer, but thanks to a free trial of photoshop and the "Photographing Your Family" board on Baby Center, I think they came out pretty well for my abilities (even with all the cut off limbs). We framed them to give to both our parents'. Craig's parents come home this Wednesday night, so we will give it to them the next day.

Craig wanted me to add this. While staying at his parents' house while they were on their mission, we also took care of their cat. I'm not really a cat person (even though I have one), and there are only a handful of cats that I actually like. Besides Marcy (our cat), Friskey was the favorite.

Unfortunately, her long life ended around Christmas. She was born when Craig was in junior high and she grew up with him. She was around 17 or 18 years old. She lived her whole life outside and she has endured many storms, summers, and even times of strays eating her food. She was such a sweet little cat. I only knew her for 2 or so years, but in that short amount of time, I grew to love her. When we discovered her body, I just burst into tears. All I could think of was that I'll never hear her loud raspy meow again, and she'll never try to sneak into the house while we feed her again. Goodbye Friskey. You are extremely missed, but we know that you are now able to live up to your name again!

Hello Again!

Wow. It's been a long time since I last posted! We have been very busy, though. We won't get any rest until New Year's day, unfortunately. There hasn't been many interesting things going on.

We went out of town for Thanksgiving this year. This was the first time both Craig and I have been away for Thanksgiving. We went to California with my family and had a blast at my brother's house. This was one of the best Thanksgivings I've had! Ella got to "play" with all of her cousins on my side and it was fun hanging out with everyone! It has been about two years since I have been able to visit my brother and his family at their house (they come here about 2-3 times a year), so it was nice being able to go back.

Since Thanksgiving, we have been extremely busy getting ourselves moved out of Craig's parents' house. They are coming home from their mission on Dec. 31. We are trying to get our stuff out of here by Saturday. It will happen, it will happen, it will happen... we are temporarily moving in with my parents until Craig can find a new job. One where we can afford to be able to afford to live somewhere on our own (Dumb student loans, car we had to buy because I totaled mine a week before we got married, and Craig's house he can't sell). Craig does have a job now, and we're very thankful for it.

Anyway, even though we are freaking a bit about, we are extremely excited to move out! There will be more room for us at my parents' house. Obviously not the most ideal situation, but at least we have somewhere to stay! We're hoping he'll be able to find a job in the next couple of months. If anybody knows of anything...

I guess this last part was a bit of a vent, but I needed to let it out. Thanks for reading if you made it this far!

Our Little 5 Month Old

Wow. I can't believe Ella is 5 months old! She actually turned 5 months yesterday, but in the middle of the night Saturday/Sunday I came down with a violent illness, so I was not up to posting anything yesterday. Okay, so it was just really bad stomach problems. Anyway, as I was saying, time has flown by so fast.

Ella is starting to sit up on her own now! It's so exciting! She does best when she's on my lap, but she's getting better on the floor.

She is also into everything she can reach and get her hands on. Especially the computer keyboard! Also, things that she can pick up go straight to her mouth and she makes a big slobbery mess (see her shirt in the pictures below).

One other thing that we both discovered is that she loves sweet potatoes! Hates rice cereal, though. In the next couple days I will re-introduce bananas to her. We took a break from solids when she got sick.

Ella LOVES books! Especially ones that also make noise. She just stares at the pictures and grabs at the pages with her hands, and gets so excited when she sees a book coming near her! It's so cute! I think we might have a little bookworm on our hands! ;-D

The one thing that she is still not doing yet is rolling over, either way. She has no interest in it. I guess she wants to focus on sitting up and working on her fine motor skills! I'm not worried about it, but she better be doing something in a month in time for her 6 month check up!

Here are two of her most recent pictures.

Look What I Did!

I love Baby Center. What can I say? I have learned many things from being on since I found out I was pregnant with Ella. Tonight, as I was reading the posts on one board (I can't remember which because I read like four or so), someone posted a video they did of their baby that had music accompanying it. I thought it was awesome, and I wanted to give it a try. Here is my creation!

Warning: It's kind of long. Just under 7 minutes. Also, there is music, so don't forget to turn your speakers up! It's much more interesting that way.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Halloween!

This year was a very fun Halloween! This is the first time we have had a kid to celebrate it with (even though she didn't know what the heck was going on). For weeks, we had been trying to figure out what we wanted to dress Ella up as. We decided on a bear, since her daddy calls her Ella Bear. She was so stinkin' adorable in the costume, even though it was too big. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera. But my sister took a few pictures of her and I will need to get them from her.

We went trick-or-treating with my sister, brother-in-law, their kids Matthew and Grace, and my mom. No, we didn't collect any candy for Ella, but we tagged along and it was fun! There were so many kids out that night like I have never seen in my life! It was awesome! Matthew dressed up as Dash from The Incredibles (he got frustrated when adults called him Mr. Incredible), and Grace dressed up as Snow White. Their costumes were SO cute, and I have to say that my sister made them and did a wonderful job!

After trick-or-treating, we when back to my sister's house and chilled and ate their leftover candy they were passing out. A few more people came by, and Matthew gave them candy. He had been doing this all night. So cute!

So that was Ella's first Halloween! I can't wait for next year!

Finally!

My long stressful week is finally over! Where to begin...

As you all know, Ella was sick last week. I, and the nurses we talked to, thought she just picked up a virus somewhere. I wish! Oh no! It was much worse. On Saturday night, Craig went to the ASU football game, and I stayed home with Ella. Her fever still hadn't gone away, and it actually got to 103 that night. So, I freaked out, gave her more medicine, and called Craig (not that he could really do anything). He reassured me all would be well. After that, her fever went away, and I was relieved. He got home around midnight and then we both stayed up until around 1am. Ella was asleep in the living room in her Pack and Play. I went to go get her and take her to her crib. She woke up and would not go back to sleep. She was very fussy, which is unusual, so we knew something was wrong. Craig called the after hour nurse line while I tried to calm her down. Well, they said that since her fever is not gone completely after six days, they recommended that we take her to the ER. Not what I wanted to do at three 'o clock in the morning, but Craig really felt that we needed to. So we did. We were expecting to back home Sunday morning. Wrong again!

In the ER, they took a urine and blood sample, and put an IV in her. Oh my goodness! I've heard bad things about putting catheters in babies, but IV's are WAY worse. It took the nurses about an hour, four pricks, and a popped vein to finally get it in. And they didn't even know if it was good. It was, thankfully.

We waited for the results as I held Ella and rocked her to sleep. We were SO tired.

The ER doctor came in and told us that she had a urinary tract infection and that she needed to be admitted into the hospital. I got a huge lump in my throat and knots in my stomach the second I heard that. This is not supposed to happen to my baby! But, I also was relieved to finally know what was wrong with her, and she would be better soon.

We just got back from the hospital, and we have our regular little Ella back! She got pumped with antibiotics from 6am on Sunday through this morning, and she has to take oral medication for seven days. We were hoping to go home yesterday, but the doctor wanted her to stay another night. I wasn't happy about it, but time flew by, and here we are. Finally home.

Oh, the Misery!

Wow. This has been one stressful week. And it's not even over! Sorry, this will be long. To start off the week, Ella had her 4-month well baby check-up. That morning around 6am, I was feeding her, and half way through her bottle, she pukes EVERYWHERE! TWICE! WITHIN 5 MINUTES! She soaked herself, she soaked me, and the second time she soaked her bed. Thankfully, Craig hadn't left for work yet, so he was able to help me clean up. Well, at that point, he decided to stay home from work and go with us to her appointment.

Her appointment went very well. She now weighs 12lbs 15oz. That's very good considering her past weight issues. She actually gained 3 pounds in 2 months! Yay! She also is now 24 inches long. Her doctor says she is very healthy, except he still heard her heart murmur she's had since about 2 weeks old. He believes it is very innocent, but since it hasn't gone away yet, he wants us to go see a pediatric cardiologist. So much fun! Anyway, the big thing at her appointment was getting her immunizations. Last time was not fun, so I wasn't looking forward to it this time. She gets a high fever for about three days and is completely miserable. However, I was mentally prepared for it this time. At least I thought I was. This time is so much worse than last time! I'm so stressed, I think I'm going to make myself sick. She's had a high fever since Monday afternoon and it's still not gone. I've been pumping her with Tylenol (not literally) and it won't go away.

Last night, I about had a break down. No, I did have a break down. She got so hot! Craig gave her a blessing, so I knew everything would be alright. Her temperature spiked up to 103 around 8:30pm. I freaked when I saw that so I immediately called the after hour nurses for her pediatrician's offices. The nurse told me to keep giving her Tylenol and go to the ER if her temp gets up to 105. And she said to call Ella's doctor's office in the morning if she still had a fever.

Well, she did. 102 to be exact. And that was a while after giving her more Tylenol. I called the ped's office and the nurse said that since the fever has lasted for more than 3 days, it sound as if Ella has picked up a virus somewhere. That explains the puking earlier in the week. She puked twice on Tuesday. The nurse also said to give her ibuprofen instead of Tylenol because it works better and longer. I went to the store to get some infants' Motrin and gave it to her when we got home. Now she is sleeping soundly and hopefully the fever will finally break for good!

This was just one part of my week. To top things off, my cat Marcy had surgery on Wednesday. However, it was just a routine complete hysterectomy. AKA she got spayed. I just like how the tech put it so I used it. She's doing great, but I need to keep her quiet and give her pain meds every morning. I also have to make sure she's not licking the incision. Thankfully, she has not and is healing well. I really feel bad for my dog Nash, though. I have been unintentionally neglecting him. Poor guy.

Anyway, I can't wait until Ella is better. I REALLY hate seeing her suffer. Last night, I cried all the tears I could over her.

Now, I have to muster up the energy to clean up my highly neglected kitchen. I haven't been able to clean it this week at all, and now we're out of clean dishes. Hopefully nobody will stop by before I can get them done!

Sorry this was so long, but I just needed to get it out. Thanks for reading if you made it to the end!

Happy Four Month Birthday, Ella!

Our little Ella Kate is 4 months old today! She is learning so many new things, but she has no interest in rolling over yet ( at this rate, I think she'll be sitting before she rolls over ;-D)! She would rather grab at things and pull them to her mouth to chew on them, look intensely at anything and everything, and yesterday my mom and I discovered that she loves to look at books!

To celebrate her birthday, and add to all the new things she's learning, we decided to try out solid foods with her last night (I couldn't wait for today)! Well, she did a pretty good job! She didn't spit out as much as I thought she would. Below is a VERY short video of her eating.

I'm excited Ella is learning all these new things, and glad she's growing so big, but looking at some older photos of her, I can't help but wish she were that small again.

State Fair!

On Friday, we went to the State Fair with Craig's sisters. This was my first time going, as far as I can remember. I may have gone when I was really small, but I don't remember. I met Craig at his work and then we drove together to the fair. We got there around 5pm and it was still pretty warm. Not too bad, though.

We went on opening day, which is dollar day until 7pm. Holy cow! It was crowded! We had fun, but we couldn't walk two inches without bumping into someone, so we decided to leave around 8. Besides, it was an hour past Ella's dinner and there was no place to stop and feed her. She was tired and hungry, but she was a little trooper and was a very good girl. She only started to cry when we were trying to get through the endless wall of people, so I picked her up and she was fine.

Next time we go, Craig and I decided we will not go on dollar day. Too many people, and too many questionable/scary people. Here are a few pictures. We didn't bring our camera, so these are ones Craig's sister Melissa took and sent to us. Thanks Melissa!

When we first got to the fair.

Ella zonked out.

A strange picture of us. I was caught a little off guard and I don't know why Craig was smiling like that.

Aunt Melissa and Ella.

Yum Yum!

Last week, Craig and I were in the mood to make a sweet treat. One that was easy, very yummy, and a recipe that we had all the ingredients for. Well, we found it! They are peanut butter balls. They are so good, I've made the recipe twice since then, so three times in one week! Wow! Not good for the waistline I'm trying to shrink, but oh well! One has to splurge on something! Anyway, I thought I'd share the recipe with you.

Peanut Butter Balls (found in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook-I modified the recipe a little)

1/2 c. peanut butter

3 Tbsp. of butter (softened)

1 c. powdered sugar

8 oz. dipping chocolate (I just used chocolate chips)

Mix together the peanut butter and the butter until well incorporated. Gradually add the powdered sugar. Roll into little balls (The recipe says 1-inch balls, but who measures anyway!) and set on wax paper lined cookie sheet or plate. Melt the chocolate in the microwave. Dip the balls in the chocolate using a fork. I tapped the fork on the container the chocolate was in to get rid of the excess chocolate. After all the balls are dipped, place in the refrigerator to set up the chocolate. They are ready when the chocolate is not shiny.

I am not a candy maker, therefore, I cannot dip things in chocolate without them looking like a mess. I somehow also made the balls look like misshapen blobs! Hehe! I don't care though! I'm just going to eat them anyway!

Happy Birthday!

My little girl is 3 months old today! She has grown so much in just the past month. She can now smile a lot, she can laugh, she loves to look around everywhere, she talks a lot, and she can even grab and play with toys! She even rolled over once! I look back at her newborn pictures and remember how small she was. She is getting so big! I don't know exactly how much she weighs, but she is definitely over 10 pounds! She is such a joy to me and her daddy's life and we feel so blessed that she is a part of our family! Happy Three-month Birthday, Ella! Mom and Dad love you so much! (This picture was actually taken yesterday, but she's close enough to 3-months. It's one of my favorites so far!)

Ella's Special Day

Yes, I know. Two posts in one day. Anyway, yesterday was a special day for our little girl. It was her blessing day. Her daddy blessed her and it was such a nice blessing. He was sooooo nervous, but he didn't even show it! The circle was small, because a few of Craig's friends were supposed to be there, but they didn't show. So, Craig's twin brother Keith, my dad, my brother Marc, and our brother-in-law John (my sister's husband), and Craig's friend Nate were in the circle. Craig's parents are on a mission, so his dad was not able to participate. Ella was so pretty in her beautiful blessing gown! Thanks to my mom for putting in the time to make it!

After Sacrament Meeting, all of our family gathered at our house (well technically his parents' house because we're house-sitting while they are gone) and had a great time visiting and eating. It was a pot-luck style get together, and everybody brought some delicious food! After everybody left, we Skyped Craig's parents, so they were able to take part in the day in some way. It was a very nice day and it was wonderful to be able to be with both our families at once.

Both of our families together

Happy little family

Full view of her dress

Matthew (my nephew) holding Ella

My sister Kerin, her husband John, and Matthew

Keith (Craig's twin) and his daughter Ashlynn

Kerin, my dad, and Craig's sister Melissa

Camping in the Rain!

Last weekend (Labor Day Weekend), we went camping with Craig's two sisters and their families. Our first plan was to go up Friday evening and everybody else would go up Saturday morning, and come home sometime on Monday. It started storming down here in the valley, so we decided to not risk driving a long distance in a storm. Plus, it would be hard to find a camping spot in the dark. So, we decided to leave bright and early Saturday morning. We left around 6am. We took Craig's Altima because it's bigger than my Cobalt and we definitely needed the room with a baby and a dog! We almost didn't get everything fit in the Altima, but Craig is the master of making things fit!

We got up to the usual place and of course our spot was taken, but we found a place just as nice, except for all the traffic of quads that went by. We got set up and really enjoyed the day. The others got there around 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon, and it started to rain just soon after they finished setting up. It lasted for about an hour, but was very enjoyable. We had bought a canopy with a bug net so Ella could sit under it and not get bugged by bugs (haha!) or get too much sun. We did not have any problem with too much sun! After the rain let up, we finished getting all our stuff in the tents and so on. It started to get pretty chilly an never got warm the rest of the trip.

The next day was miserable after around 11am. It not only rained, but it stormed, and was downright cold! I think the temp. was around 40 degrees. Yes. In Arizona. In the summer. We were prepared, though! Anyway, the rain never really let up, so around 3 or 4pm, Craig and I stared packing up to leave with poor Ella bundled up in her carseat in the car. And that was Ella's first camping trip. I wouldn't call it a bust. We had lots of fun the first day and a half. It was an adventure, and I love adventures!

Hobbies

A couple of weeks ago, I decided I needed a new hobby. I was tired of not really having anything to do when the baby is sleeping and when I'm not cleaning. So, Craig and I went down to Joann's to find something for me to to. I am not a crafty person, but I thought I'd give it a try. I have a sewing machine, but I don't feel like getting it out a sewing something. Besides, patterns and fabric and all the notions can get pricey. We walked straight past the scrapbooking section (I HATE scrapbooking and do not plan on ever doing it again) and then started walking up and down the aisles.

Then I saw it. It looked interesting and challenging, but not too challenging for my non-crafty self. I remembered back when I was young, I had a big box of beads to make jewelry with. I had many hours of fun doing that, so a new and more sophisticated type of jewelry-making was just what I needed! So, the new hobby that I chose is making wire jewelry. Like bending wire into neat little shapes, adding beads and creating a cute piece of jewelry. It looked pretty easy too!

We got home and I was very excited to try out my new hobby! It is fun. However, pretty challenging for me because I'm NOT artistic at all. I'm getting a little better at it, though. so far, I have made two pairs of earrings and am working on a necklace that I will give to Ella when she is older. I don't have any pictures yet, but I will post some soon!

ASU ranked 15th in AP Top 25


The ASU Sun Devils will start the 2008 season ranked 15th in the country, according to the Associated Press Top 25, released this morning.
The Sun Devils (10-3 in 2007) are listed 16th in the USA Today coaches preseason poll.
The Georgia Bulldogs are No. 1 in the AP poll, the same place the coaches placed them.
Ohio State, USC, Oklahoma and Florida round out the top five.
Missouri, LSU, West Virginia, Clemson and Auburn are ranked 6th through 10th. That gives the SEC four of the top ten teams in the AP poll.
The only other Pac-10 team to receive preseason consideration by the AP Top 25 is Oregon, ranked 21st.
Cal garnered 59 votes, good for 28th. UCLA got six votes, Oregon State five, Arizona three and Washington one.
ASU opens the season in Aug. 30 at home against Northern Arizona.

She's Growing Up So Fast

Nope. Not talking about Ella. Not talking about my wonderful nieces either. Who am I talking about? Her name is Marcy. In fact, she's not even human. She is our cat. Here she is.

We got her when she was 8 weeks old, just about a year ago. She was the tiniest little thing! She still is, actually. She's probably only about 6 pounds, and she's full grown.

Anyway, as the title says, she's growing up so fast! Okay, so she's technically an adult already and has been for two months. We haven't been able to get her spayed yet (can't wait for October!) and like all female cats who have not been fixed, she has been going in and out of heat. At times, this has made us a bit insane. If you've ever had a cat that's gone into heat, you know how it is! So, because of this, there have been many cats hanging around outside the house. This is a good time to mention she is an indoor only cat.

Well, our little kitten has officially been through her first "relationship"! Yes, she had a boyfriend! He started to hang out right by our front door every day for about 2 weeks, and they would even look at each other through the front window. It was so cute! We really liked him, and approved of him and named him Marco to fit with Marcy's name. Although we would never let them come in contact with each other because we don't want little kittens running around! One day last week, I went out to go take a picture of Marco, and he wasn't there. It was a very sad day for our family. We're hoping he'll come back someday.

Smiling Away!

Our little girl is so much fun! She's very active and has started to smile. In fact, she is so active it's hard to get a picture of her of her actually smiling!

She is also a great sleeper! Except for those nights every once in a while where she decides to be a little night owl! And this is what happens during the day.

All in all, she is our little super hero!

She's Here!

For those of you who didn't know (and even those who did), I have been pretty busy for the past nine months: growing a little bump. I was pregnant!

Announcing the arrival of little Ella Kate!

She was born June 16

Weight: 6 lbs 15oz

Length: 20 inches

She is a week and one day old and is such a joy to have! We are very blessed to have her as the newest member of our family! Craig and I still cannot believe we are now parents, but I think we are falling into our roles very quickly and with ease. Below are some pictures of her. We don't have many available yet, and some are very bad quality, our camera got dropped and broken a few minutes after she was born, so we had to rely on our cell phones, a disposable camera, and siblings who took picture the next day.

Following the Crowd

Okay, so I have decided to actually start a blog of my own. I'm not usually good at doing things like this, and am not a very creative person, but I thought it would be fun to give it a try. You may ask why I decided to start now. Well, if you look at the next post, you will see something a little different in our life. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!