Why little boys need daddys :)

I was busy telling Jordan to BE CAREFUL till I finally realized what fun Landon was having sliding around the house on his new train ride :)

Here's the story...

Of our little baby Ellie's arrival. :)

I was scheduled to be induced on Friday morning (the 16th) -- we had a hard time on Thursday night deciding if we wanted to go with it or just keep waiting, (My doctor w/ Landon had recomended I be induced at 39 weeks this time around since Landon was so big, we hadn't gone for that but I was just past my due date) - we finally decided to go for the induction. So, that night we got all of our things together, talked to Jordan's parents about plans for Landon while we were gone, and got a good nights sleep!

Friday morning, we got up and ready to go -- feeling great (although a bit nervous of course!) and well prepared. We got in the car at 6:30 to head to the hospital and as soon as I sat down in the car my first contraction started! Five minutes later when another came I told Jordan and we joked 'wouldn't that be funny if I went into labor on my own on our way to the hospital?' Sure enough, by the time we got to the hospital in American Fork, I was definitely in labor and I got to be my nurses "easiest induction ever."

When Landon was born, I decided to get an epidural after several hours of some tough contractions. I was very glad that I did and remember thinking, "why would anybody choose to give birth without an epidural?" 

For some reason, I decided to give it a try this time around. :) (Why? Partly because I remembered the epidural being so painful. Partly probably because I figured if women have been doing this since the beginning of time, surely I could too... partly because I didn't want to feel like I had to defend  why I chose to get an epidural whenever I heard other mom's talking about their natural child births and the amazing experience it was...)

And pretty much, it turned out that my labor was actually a pretty neat experience. It was really really hard but I was okay! The nurse and midwife were super positive and encouraging and in between contractions, I felt so amazed that I was doing it - when they told me I was doing such a good job, I felt like I was! :)

On the other hand, the delivery (even though it was only about 25 minutes) convinced me that I really would not choose again to give birth without an epidural! It was just too hard and too painful - more than I could put myself through again and more than I would make my sweetheart Jordan watch me go through again. Too, too hard.

But oh we were so happy to have our little Ellie here!

And, one great thing about no epidural was a super quick recovery. Grammi and Grandpa brought Landon to come see his new baby sister and I was up and about that afternoon and the next day walked laps around the mother baby unit with Jordan! :)

And that's the story of our beautiful little baby Ellie's birth-day!

Welcome to our family baby Ellie!

Our little Ellie was born on Friday, January 16th --7 lbs. 15 oz., 20 inches, and oh so beautiful! She is just a sweet, mild, and precious little one and we are so happy to have her here!

A Late Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

It has still felt like Christmas at our house  (even though it's a week into January) especially with all of the crazy snow we have been getting! Today, I finally decided it was about time to put away all of the decorations and things -- knowing that if I didn't do it soon, this little baby girl would come and soon enough it would be Valentine's Day and we'd still be enjoying the beautiful lights of our Christmas tree! We had a lovely Christmas w/ my family (and Jordan's family too via Skype!) and even got a visit from Jenny for a couple of days. 

Such a delight to share all the wonders of Christmas with our little boy! 

As Landon opened his stocking, he walked around passing out the treats he found inside to everybody else -- until he got to the Reeces tree which he knew he wanted for himself. 

This was probably about the longest sitting still we got from Landon as we opened presents Christmas morning. He had a great time though passing out presents for everybody to open -- that is until he opened his marble madness game...

This was indeed a magical toy - never before have I seen this child so focused or so involved for such a long time! It kept him occupied for hours on Christmas day and for the days that followed too. Amazing!!

Happy New Year! 

Jingle Bells

This past month, Landon has started to love to sing and it is so fun! He'll sing his nap time and night time songs along with me and when I go to do music in Nursery he gets so excited to sing along.  Jordan taught him Jingle Bells one night in the car which quickly became one of his favorite songs - here he is singing with Aunt April.

Precious! :)

Last night we were sitting on my bed and Landon came and gave me a big hug and said, "Mommy, you're a beautiful princess!" 

(He got this line from his Little Bear movie where Duck wishes to be a beautiful princess, but it was super precious still.)

A pretty happy thing to hear from my little boy! :)

And just funny -- the last couple of days Landon has been calling Jordan "Daddy Boy".  We have no idea where he got it, but it comes out every once in a while - "Here you go Daddy Boy" or "Thank you Daddy Boy!" What a funny kiddo!

Pretty Cool!

Here's an article all about Animoto from Entrepreneur magazine-- Jordan works for a pretty cool company! :)