Lake George with Parley and Heather and the kids!

Cousins! Owen and Ella

Lauren and Ella

Dressage at Saratoga with Meg and mom :)

Heath, Owen, Ella and I outside the Palmyra Temple

My first Mothers Day - how truely blessed I am

Mothers Day
I'm so thankful for my mom who I love so very much.

I am also blessed to be able to call my mother in

law a friend. To all the Mother's out there, since having

little Ella, I can now more fully appreicate all of the mothers in my life.

Life as a mom

Uncle Ethan and Stefan made a suprise visit to visit!

Ah the joys of no sleep...

Little "Ell" as James calls her

Ella is three weeks old today and doing great. I would not trade my new job as a mom for anything (despite its ups and downs). I never thought I would love this new life so much. Ella and I were doing great with feedings until mom got an infection and things started to spiral down. We are plugging away and doing the best we can until I recover fully. As for our little girl. She weighs 6 lbs and 10 oz and the doctor says she is perfectally healthy. She has a lot of strength for a newborn her doctor says and we can definately see this. There have been several occassions when she almost rolled over on her own! Scary how fast the time goes. I feel like she is already growing up too fast. She has been doing great with sleeping lately and infact we think she enjoys her bed a little too much. If we don't wake her to eat she could go probably the entire night. We love watching her many emotions when she is in a sound sleep. Our favorite is watching her smile. Ella enjoys when we talk to her. She will stop crying or doing whatever newborns do best when we whisper in her ear. She is so sweet. We love you sweet girl!

http://www.nosmallmoments.com/blog/2011/03/newborn/perfection-albany-saratoga-clifton-park-ny-newborn-photographer/

Our little girl has arrived!

Ella Grace was born Friday February 25th at 7:21pm weighing 6lbs 1 oz in the midst of a snowstorm!!! She was one week early. I had my 39 week appointment and was in the doctors office when they told me I was dialated to a 4 with contractions close together (though I could not feel them), and that I had better go to the hospital. I was so nervous as this took me by suprise! My dad drove me to the hospital because James was at work at the time. I called James to tell him the news. He was so excited and such a trooper! The roads were terrible by the time he got off work and he had to shovel his way to our apartment to get us what we needed for our hospital stay. He finally made it to the hospital around 12:30pm. I was admitted into the hospital around 11:30, my MD broke my water around 2pm and then the looong wait (or what seemed like forever). Mom and dad had arrived in the afternoon and were a great support to us. As time went on my contractions grew stronger, though tolerable ,and I was able to get up and walk around to progress my labor throughout the afternoon. At 5pm I was getting tired and the contractions were begining to get real hard despite our efforts to focus on breathing techniques. The nurse asked if I was ready for an epidural or other pain medication. I decided for the epidural which was administrered around 6pm. My doctor checked me at 6:40pm and said "You're at a 9 1/2...Let's have his baby!" James and I looked at one another and were so excited. I pushed for about 45 minutes and our little bundle of joy had finally arrived. We were overjoyed with emotion and are so grateful to be parents of such a sweet little girl. The doctors were wonderful and we truely feel blessed at this time in our lives.

Happy Birthday James!

James and I celebrated his 27 birthday recently and had a blast! We went to eat at Dakotas Steakhouse (James favorite ofcourse) and spent time together before the arrival of our little one. It was so nice to go out on a date together. We aren't able to do it as much now that James works so hard at his job and does not spend as much time at home. I bought hime a BYU sweatshirt, dress shirt and tie and cologne. We also were able to celebrate at mom and dads house and enjoyed dinner and James favorite chocolate cake (Thanks mom and dad :o) Happy Birthday Love!

Baby Shower with more to come....

I want to thank my sweet mom who took so much time in preparing
my first baby shower. She is truely one of my best friends and I am
so blessed to have her in my life. Thank you for everyone's support and generosity in attendance with my shower. We had a wonderful time. Here are some pictuers of my
special day with more to come. I would have posted more pictures but
my camera died during posting. More to come soon ... :)

My shower cake was a big hit. Mom helped design it with our baker.
The baby cupcakes were our favors/thank yous for everyone who attended.
They were hand molded with fondant....a big hit!