Ella Pearl--3 months

I can hardly believe our sweet baby girl is already three months old! I'd love it if time would slow down just a little bit. 

Here is another picture overload, but I just want to remember every little detail of this baby girl--she is heaven! 

She sleeps ALL night--really? What baby does that? Hey, I'll take it! 

She also gets chubbier every day--I LOVE IT! I just can't get enough of her chubby cheeks and beefy little thighs; Ohhhh I just want to squeeze her she's so cute!

I have also LOVED watching her grow and become more interactive; it's fun to see her little happy (sometimes sassy) personality emerge. Being a mom is better than I could have ever imagined. 

So, now for the overload: 

 

Either this baby is really social or really bored of her parents. Either way, she has surely made friends with the baby on the diaper box--maybe young love? 

We made a trip down to St. George during the second week of March, and Ella and I were able to stay and hang out with the fam during their entire spring break. It's always fun to be home, and as I've mentioned earlier, the babe gets spoiled rotten. 

While in St. George: 

Ella went to her first soccer game. If you know anything about my family you will know that this is just the beginning of a lifetime full of soccer games for this girl. 

Ella was a show off and held her bottle all by herself. Whatever it takes for this girl to be closer to her food--she's obsessed.

She entertained us all with her airplane arms while going down the stairs at my parents' house. She does it every single time--hey, at least we know the girl likes to have fun!

She met her great grandma Cottle for the first time. She nestled right into her; it was adorable. 

Ella fell even more in love with her Poppy. Seriously, she loves him.

She also got majorly spoiled by her uncles. They love her, and it's the cutest thing ever. 

 We realized that we don't need to buy Ella anymore toys--all we need to do is install a ceiling fan. She literally grinned at this thing and made cooing noises at it like it was an old friend. Haha, oh Ella. 

To sum up Ella's visits to St. George, I thought this picture of her sitting on her throne was fitting. This chick literally rules the roost. 

After a week in St. George, we were both so happy to be reunited with Daddy! 

One thing to mention here: Ella is a big time daddy's girl. Scotty has such a soothing nature and it literally just calms Ella right down. But she also has a lot of fun with him, too. Seeing these two interact with each other makes me love my Scott so much more (and I already thought I loved him millions!)

 I love my little family--these two are my happy. 

 Back at home, we had a day at the park with Aunt Amanda. While we were there, the sun was shining and Ella girl's hair looked red red red! I love it and hopes it stays that way!

We also thought we probably should get the BYU tradition flowing, so we took her on her first visit to campus. By the looks of it, I don't think she was immediately converted, but we still have plenty of time. :) 

Side note: since birth, Ella's right eye has occasionally been pretty droopy (why is my baby's eye droopy?!!) Oh well, she's still cute. 

 

 She also has a fixation with biting her lower lip. Haha, lots of things to explore, I guess!

Which brings me to my next point: Ella licks EVERYTHING!

Here she is licking her blanket, but that's not even where it ends! The other day when Scott was holding her, she started licking his CHEST. Literally, the girl has to try everything out (gross). 

 

 She's starting to discover herself a little more, too. One day I got her all dressed and was trying to get a good photo of her, but I could not get her to stop admiring her polka-dotted pants. She also loves looking at herself in the mirror (but hey, if I were that cute, I'd want to do it all day, too!) 

And sometimes we'll wake up in the morning to little baby coos from Ella's crib and walk over to find her just laying there with her little feet hanging over the edge of the crib--no crying, just simply hangin out. 

Oh, I don't know what I ever did without this little girl. I'm so thankful to Heavenly Father for sending her to our family--I think He knew that we needed her; she has changed our world. 

We love you, little bug!

 

Ella--2 months

I'm a little behind making an update on our little Ella (almost a month, oops!)

At her 2 month appointment, she was 10 lbs. 6 oz. and was 23.5 inches long--the little miss is slowly plumping up! 

I literally take like a million pictures of her every single day, so be prepared. 

One day, I was just snapping away pictures of Ella just after she ate (that's usually when she's the happiest, let's be honest), and I snapped this cute one. But then..

this happened.

Projectile vomit for the win! Oh I cannot WAIT to show this picture to teenage Ella, Ella's future husband, children, etc. 

  

During Ella's first cruise in the stroller, she had a look on her face like, "What on earth is going on?" Then she screamed. 

This little chick is a total morning person--like a 6:00 a.m. morning person. The above smiles are proof of that. It's such a sweet face to wake up to! 

We took a trip down to Las Vegas/St. George in the middle of February--always the best! It's crazy how much more work and time it takes to prepare and pack for a trip when you have a baby (our car is literally packed full now--only one extra little person, what the heck!), but Ella is a perfect little traveler, so she makes it a piece of cake! When she isn't giving a gummy smile, she is sleeping, like the whole way, so we can't complain!

Visiting family=Ella getting spoiled rotten! 

 Whether it's cousin Lucy making sure she looks pretty..

or getting snuggles from uncle Christian, this baby gets lots of love, and then she has to go home with her boring old parents... I think she goes through a bit of shock when she gets home!

Ever since she was born, Ella has had an extra long piece of hair above her ear. Sometimes it just awkwardly hangs there, but a lot of times it dries into a cute little curly-Q (like in the picture above), and I love it!!

She also is constantly cracking us up by all of her hilarious sleeping positions--especially the third (it's the typical one, haha!) 

Stop growing up so fast, Ella girl! We LOVE you!

Ella--1 Month

I can't believe that it's been an entire month with our Ella girl (okay, almost six weeks, slacker status on my part!)

We had a doctor's appointment when she was three weeks old, and at that point she was 7lbs 7oz and measuring 22 inches long-- she's in the 10th percentile in weight and the 90th percentile in height. So basically, she's a tall, lanky thing!

^^This picture was taken during a night in her first week at about 3 a.m. She was wide-eyed, and sleep was nowhere in sight. Luckily, we've got the whole sleep schedule figured out. She even slept for 5 1/2 a couple of nights ago--lucky parents!! 

These gummy smiles KILL ME. 

For some reason Ella would much rather wear her headbands over her eyes. She literally is constantly pulling them down, and the fact that they completely cover her eyes a lot of the time doesn't even phase her.. it's like a self-invented sleep mask. Diva baby. 

It's pretty easy to see in this picture that Ella has gone bald on the TOP of her head! She has tons of hair in the back and on the sides.. but who knows what happened to all of the hair on the top of the poor girl's head!? Let's just say she's rocking the old man hairstyle these days--comb-over soon??

She LOVES her swing,

 

 gets comfortable in the craziest of positions,

and makes us laugh all the time (man, those are some nice muscles, girlfriend!) 

We are in love with this little sweet pea!!

Ella Pearl

 On December 29, our family changed forever--
I just want to record some of the details of that perfect and beautiful day when our sweet baby girl, Ella,  joined our family.

My due date was December 19th. In my mind, Ella would be born on time and we would be home with family for the holidays with our brand new baby (Haha, first time mom expectations!) The due date came and went... and the next day, the next, and next...and nothing! No contractions at all--none! I was losing my mind! When we went to see the doctor on December 22, there was no progress whatsoever. Since I was on my way to being a full week overdue, the doctor scheduled an induction to begin the night of December 28--anticipating Ella to be born on Monday, December 29. Scott and I were both SO excited that no matter what, we would be meeting our new baby girl within the week.

Scott and I had a wonderful Christmas together in our little apartment, and the days that followed were pretty quiet and uneventful--we were pretty confident that the little lady would hold out until the induction, and she did!

We headed to the hospital on Sunday, December 28 at 8:30 p.m. The first really big snowstorm of the year had just slammed Provo, but luckily we just had a few blocks to drive from our house to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital, got settled in and I received my first dose of Cytotec--the first of about three I would receive that night. Now,  I was told that in rare circumstances Cytotec induces full-blown labor, but most of the time, it just slowly starts to "ripen" things and get the body ready for labor (TMI? I'm sorry!) So after I received my first dose, my mom and sister headed home, and they were just planning on coming back to the hospital in the morning when I would start the Pitocin drip and when the doctor came to break my water. Scott and I were just planning for a long night at the hospital--uneventful and anxiety-filled as we waited for our baby to come.

Uh, we were wrong! About an hour after my mom and sister left, I started to have contractions. And then my water broke. In a panic, I called my mom and told her that "Uh, I think my water broke. Maybe you should get back here!" At that point I was dilated to just over a 2. And the contractions were a couple of minutes apart. So they started me on Pitocin.

The contractions were strong and consistent... and pretty darn painful. Everyone was making fun of me because the only thing I could think of to do to get through those contractions was to have Scott squeeze my hand. Like really hard. I think the poor boy thought he was going to break my hand, but it helped (I think). But after awhile, all I could do was beg for that blessed epidural! I kind of felt like a pansy for asking for it so early on, but man, it was insanely relieving and I enjoyed every remaining minute of labor.

With everything happening so fast, our little Ella was a little distressed. With every contraction, her heart rate would drop. And that freaked me out! They had to put me on oxygen in efforts to get a little more oxygen to baby. And in order to slow things down, they had to take me off of Pitocin. Her heart rate began to normalize, but the contractions didn't slow down. During this whole ordeal, the nurse called my doctor who was at home in Salt Lake (not expecting to have to be at the hospital until 5 or 6 that morning). He left home immediately and drove down the snow-covered I-15 to get to the hospital. After all of this, it was about 2:30 a.m., and I was dilated to a three.

An hour later, my nurse came in to check on my progress. So, at 3:30, an hour later, I was dilated to a six. Things were happening fast! She said she would come back in as soon as the doctor arrived at the hospital which should be any minute. Twenty minutes later, my doctor came in with the nurse. I think at this point, we were all expecting that we were still a couple of hours away from the delivery. My doctor checked the progress, and said, "You're at a ten, let's get this baby here!" We were all sooo shocked at how fast everything happened (especially Scott, I thought the boy was going to pass out!) 

I pushed through three contractions, and at 4:06 a.m. our sweet Ella Pearl was here. I've never heard a sweeter sound than her little cry. She had lots of strawberry-blonde hair and was perfect in every single way.

She weighed 7lbs 1oz and was 20 inches long.

For some reason, for the few hours after her birth she couldn't stop sticking out her little tongue... so many new things to figure out, I guess!

I was SO tired and knew that I should rest while I could, but let's be honest... I couldn't! I couldn't stop cuddling and staring at my little girl. I couldn't believe she was mine. 

Our Ella has brought a piece of heaven into our home. 

I can't believe that Heavenly Father is entrusting Scott and I to raise this perfect little spirit, but I am so thankful that we have His help. 

 We love her SO much.

Baby Snow

We can hardly believe it, but our sweet new addition will be making her appearance in just three months! This has been such a happy, stressful, nerve-wracking, wonderful and beautiful little while, and, all together, we feel so immensely blessed.

I took this picture literally three minutes after we had made the discovery. I think Scotty's face sums up the intensely crazy moment that was. You know those super cute wives that think up a clever and adorable way to break the news to their husbands? Well, that wasn't me. It more went like this, "Uh...Scott! Scott! SCOTT!!"

Despite the look on our faces, we are thrilled about our little bun in the oven!

Scott's world is about to be taken over by women--poor guy! This was the day when we found out our baby was, in fact, a girl. We couldn't resist heading out that night in search of our first piece of baby girl clothing (and to be completely honest, I haven't been able to stop since!) This cute guy is going to be the sweetest dad, and let's be real here, he loves the baby shopping too. Several of our conversations lately have sounded like this: "Hey, so what should we do tonight, Scott?" To which he quickly replies, "Let's go look for an outfit for our baby!" Yep, he's my hero!

We are new to this whole parenting thing. So, we decided to start by learning how to swaddle a newborn through watching YouTube videos one night. We had to improvise a little, you know, for lack of baby. But hey, you gotta start somewhere!

At this point in the blog post I would insert my 25 week belly mirror selfie. But I refuse to even take one of those. Quite frankly, the belly ain't cute; it sort of just looks like I ate too much pizza for lunch.  

A picture of our baby girl from the first ultrasound. This was literally a sacred experience for me--to see her move around, kick her little feet, and stretch out her tiny arms. Oh, I can't wait to meet this little one.

This has been such a fun, spiritual, oftentimes freaky time for us, but through it all we feel so blessed! We have no idea what it takes to be awesome parents (suggestions welcomed, please) or even, really, how to make a baby stop crying (really, I've got a lot to learn!) 

But honestly, we are grateful that this little spirit is ours and that we have the opportunity to be her parents--we are SO excited to meet her!

An Elect Lady

As a girl in this big, wide world it's easy to feel inadequate. Seriously, everywhere we are there are messages being sent to us of who we should be--the clothes that we should wear, the group of friends that we should have, the special diets we should incorporate....the list goes on and on. Sheesh, I'm getting overwhelmed just thinking about it.

In the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord speaks to Emma Smith and calls her an "elect lady."
In this world today, it's easy to equate being "elect" to meeting the world's standards--I literally do it every darn day.
Lately, my eyes have been opened to a different kind of "elect lady"-- I like to assume that this is the kind that the Lord was referring to when He spoke to His daughter, Emma.

As the years go on, I come to appreciate this elect lady (my mom) more and more.
Let me tell you more about this remarkable lady--

She has been my rock since day one. The days that filled her pregnancy with me were hard ones for her, she was dealing with more than most people ever have to. Yet she remained devoted to me, and understood her role as a mother and worked to build a beautiful life for me to be born into. When I was born, she was my instant best friend.

She has taught me the importance of education and hard work, of good books and of music. I literally can't think of a piano recital, violin or cello recital (even though it was sometimes screechy), dance recital or soccer game (even when I ran away from the ball) when she wasn't there. I always knew my mom would be there to support me in anything and everything. The majority of her afternoons were spent driving me and my siblings to our various activities--she sacrificed so much of her time to make sure I was partaking of every opportunity I could.

She is a silent, selfless server. Never once has she made a production of the kind things she does for people, but she does them everyday. She doesn't ever look for what she can get, but rather, seeks to look for what she can give. She isn't about all of the social stuff--she sees people as individuals and as children of God, and she genuinely loves them.

She teaches me that family comes first. My favorite days are the days when I can be at home with my family--my mom makes it so fun. She puts forth every effort to make every family time special and to make our family become closer.

She understands when I'm hurting, and she reminds me of where I can turn. She has had her fair share of hard, hard times, and she constantly reminds me of what Jesus has done for her, and what He can do for me. As I have watched her pray, read the scriptures and consistently hold family home evening, my own testimony has grown. She reminds me of what it means to be a disciple of Christ.


She doesn't receive recognition from the world; to the world, she actually might seem ordinary.
But, to me, my mother is the opposite of ordinary--she is the epitome of elect. Each day, she has shown me the kind of woman that I want to become.

On Being an LDS Woman

 Lately, I have felt overwhelmed at how very blessed I am to be a woman in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Let me tell you why:

• I know that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me; I know that I can pray to Him, I know that He hears me, and I know that I can receive personal revelation from Him that is meant just for me.
• I belong to the largest women's organization in the world wherein I have opportunities to teach, learn and serve.
• I get to be part of an equal, eternal companionship with a wonderful, righteous man who respects and loves me.
• I have the blessing of being able to participate in the most God-like act granted to men on earth--the creation of human life. 
• In a future day, I get to work alongside my husband in nurturing and raising children.
• I am able to receive every blessing of the priesthood as I attend the temple, partake of the sacrament, and receive blessings from worthy priesthood holders in my life.
• I can receive every ordinance and blessing of the holy temple; I get to be a part of an eternal family.
• I get to hold callings in the church; I have the blessing to lead and guide.
• I am never limited by being a woman in the church; I have the chance to go to school, work, and be a contributor to the community that I'm a part of. 
• As a woman, I am respected and honored in the church; I am constantly reminded that I matter, that my role matters.
• Heavenly Father trusts me enough to be the nurturer and teacher to the children He will send to my family. 
• I am always reminded of my own divinity and constantly feel the love and support of my church leaders.

What more could I ever want? I am blessed beyond measure. I am SO thankful to be a woman in the true Church of Jesus Christ. I am thankful for the roles that I have, and I am blessed to know that there is a God in Heaven who loves me, who will help me, and wants me to succeed.

"You are very precious, each of you, regardless of your circumstances. You occupy a high and sacred place in the eternal plan of God, our Father in Heaven. You are His daughters, precious to Him, loved by Him, and very important to Him. His grand design cannot succeed without you."

 -Gordon B. Hinckley