AZ Trip / Ellie's Blessing

We just got back last night from a week vacation in Arizona. We had an awesome time and loved spending time with our families and friends. We even got to experience a MONSTER Arizona monsoon storm! I miss those so much. This one was huge and was responsible for blowing down big tree branches in the Andersen Hotel's front lawn! Here is a little recap of what we did...

On Friday my step-sister got married. After the wedding we took some family pictures outside of the temple. My second dad, Randy Walker, took them for us. Thanks so much Randy!

         
On Sunday we were able to bless Ellie at Greg's parents house. It was so nice because all of Greg's family was there (there are 9 kids in his family, 8 boys and 1 girl), and my family was also there, but we were missing Wes and Amber's family. It was so nice to finally get Elllie blessed. We were waiting until we went down there, so we could be with our families. Greg gave Ellie a beautiful blessing. I am so grateful for him and all that he does for our little family.

We also took Andersen family pictures that day.  I never realized how huge the Andersen family is until I saw this picture.

I was sad to leave yesterday and can't wait to see everyone again!

Family Fun

I know it's a miracle because I have updated my blog a lot recently.  Anyway, last week I went up to Utah with my family for a big Dyer reunion.  I had an absolute blast!  I love my whole family and love the "Dyer Pride" we all have.  Greg couldn't come because he had work which was very sad, but every one there was so helpful with Ellie.  I hardly even held Ellie the whole week long because my cousins, sisters, and aunts were always with her.  It was very nice.  Thanks to everyone for being so awesome!

After the reunion was over my family went up to Yellowstone.  I must say that I am pretty sure Yellowstone is one of the most beautiful places on earth.  Not only that, but we saw a lot of wildlife there too.  Throughout the two days we spent there we saw deer, elk, a moose, herds of bison, a bald eagle, lots of birds, and even a bear!  We really lucked out.

One place we went to was a beautiful waterfall.  I knew we had to hike to see the waterfall, so I put Ellie in a sling and set off on what I thought would be a very leisure walk.  (I was even wearing flip-flops).  Well the "leisure" walk turned into be about a 2 hour ordeal!  Keep in mind that I had a c-section 6 weeks earlier and had not done a bit of exercising to this point.  We had to climb about 300 or so stairs to get to the view point.  Luckily Lindsay carried Ellie the whole way back because I know I never would have made it.  Thanks Annie for helping me get up those dreadful stairs.  After it was all over it ended up being one of my favorite parts of the trip.  Overall, it was a fabulous week (minus the fact that Greg wasn't there).

Here is the fam. Gotta love my sisters!

Ellie's first hike!

Twin Cousins

Ellie has a twin cousin named Halle who is just as adorable as her.   They are 18 hours apart (Ellie was born on the 11th and Halle was born on the 12th of June).  There were 6 Andersen babies born within a year of each other.  Ellie and Halle were the last two born and the only girls so they are instant best buds.  My brother and sister-in-law, Lee and Lara, came up to Utah this week, so we of course had to dress them as twins (the outfits were $2!) and take tons of pictures of them.

8 Weeks!

Tomorrow Ellie will be 8 weeks old!  She is getting so big.  She is now smiling more frequently and is holding her head up (it still is pretty floppy though).  And most importantly, she has been sleeping through the night!  (Last night doesn't count because she kept unwrapping herself which wakes her up.)  I finally caught a smile on camera.  By the way, I need to give a shout-out to APX, Greg's work, because he won a new digital camera at his work party.  I love it!!!  Thanks APX!

It's Official...

After 7 weeks with Ellie, I can now say I'm officially a mom. It finally happend, I was pooped on yesterday! This was not just any old poop it was a blow-out! I like to call it "Old Faithful." Yesterday morning I woke up to feed Ellie at 6:15. (By the way, she slept 7 hours that night!) After I finished I went to the changing table to change her diaper. Well between the transition from the dirty diaper to the clean diaper she pooped everywhere! It happened so fast I didn't even have time to react. Seriously in a matter of seconds there was poop all over my arm, my shorts, the wall, the baseboards, the carpet, the changing table, and even the air vent on the ground! It was disgusting. Greg had just left for work so it was up to me to clean it all. Luckily I had just bought some disinfecting wipes the day before so I could disinfect the entire room. It took me about 20 minutes to clean the mess up. I'm sad because I wanted to take a picture of it, but I couldn't leave Ellie on the changing table covered in poop. I'm glad to say that we both made it through the disaster. I couldn't help but laugh at the situation because it was kind of funny. I'm just glad I wasn't standing in front of her because then I would have been entirely covered in poop!

Random Pictures

I had to throw this picture in because I realized I hardly have any pictures with Ellie and I.  I don't like to be in pictures, but I decided that I better start taking more "family" pictures together.  My mom didn't like to be in the picture either and I always wish I had more pictures with my mom and I.

I love this picture because Ellie actually has a little smile on her face.  The other two girls are my adorable nieces, Kalie and Sarah.  I love these girls!

 

 

My little sister, Kyla, has been here for a couple of weeks now to help out.  She has been great!  She was watching Ellie while I was getting ready.  I came back downstairs to see this.  Sarah and Ellie had fallen asleep in her arms.  She is such a great aunt!  She told me she was dying because both of her arms were asleep.  Thanks for everything Kyla!!!

I finally finished the nursery yesterday.  It is a pretty small room, but I figured it works for a baby.  I just wanted to point out the adorable curtains made by Amber.  Also, you can kind of see the blocks above her crib that say Ellie.  Marie made those and I love them.  Thanks girls!  You are the best!

Fourth of July

This post is really late, but I wanted to show you all a couple of pictures from our Fourth of July. I love the Fourth in Utah because there are always so many fun things to do all day, AND it is not boiling hot for the fireworks. In the morning we went to the parade they have every year in Provo. It is a big deal and you have to go a day early to reserve your spot for it if you want to get a good one. Luckily, some awesome friends of ours saved spots for us, so we had a nice shady spot the entire time. Then that afternoon we had a delicious BBQ with some of my Dyer cousins. Mark and Marie let us use their house while they were out with the McConaghie's. Thanks guys. Then that night we went back to Provo to watch the fireworks. It was a great show and overall a pretty good day.

This is Ellie's "Zoolander" look.

Of course I had to dress her up in patriotic colors. I originally planned to put her in this awesome outfit Amber gave me that was a complete American flag. The top was red/white stripes with blue sleeves that had starts on them, and the shorts were blue with stars. It was a 3-6 months size, but the whole time I was pregnant I thought for sure it would fit her because it looked so little. Apparently, I had no idea how small babies are because it was WAY too big. Oh well, I will save it for future babies. :)