Baby Blessing

So I know this is delayed, but I thought I should still post these fun pictures from when all our family came up for Ellie's blessing.  We had a good time playing a little tennis as you can see.  My mom made Ellie's gorgeous dress.  Oh so cute, I just love the smocking on the bodice. 

First time meeting Grandma Hurst

Relaxing.  I can't believe how small she is here :)

My nephew Grant playing golf with his tennis racket.

Clearly not a happy girl.

Four generations.  Cool.

Huntington side of the Family

Hurst side of the Family

I love this picture of my mom with Ellie.  Poor baby, it was a big day for her.

Yum. BBQ at the park :)

Finally an Update!

From age 2 months:

So our little Ellie baby is getting BIG! However she is still so small :)  Of course Dad just had to get this picture of them watching a Tennis Tournament on TV.  Funny thing is she seemed to really like tennis.

Its true.  She loves her daddy!

Sleeping beauty

This was so funny.  Look at her legs and her hands just dangling.  She is mesmerized by whistling!

Funny Face

I love this!  What a sleepy little girl!

I couldn't believe she fell asleep in her bouncer.  She usually hates it after 5-10 minutes.

Check out how strong she is at only 8 weeks!  Super Baby!

Hugs for Auntie Ann!

Dad again.  The truth is that we don't hardly ever have chips.  Still funny nonetheless.

 

 

 

 

I will try to update more regularly now.  Life has just been crazy with this little girl!  We just found out she has a cow's milk protein intolerance.  No wonder she was so colicky her first 3 months of life!  Now its like I have a different child, and its a very positive difference! 

Our first BABY! Ellie Rae

 It has been about three weeks since we had our baby and things have calmed down enough that we can write down our story.  As told by Michael. (However it has taken a while to find the camera cord to download the images so really its been nearly 10 weeks since Michael wrote this :)


June 8 3:00am
Amber who had been awake since 1am, woke me up with some deep breathing and really loud exhaling.  I got up and we timed the contractions for a while and had reached the magical 5 min or less for contractions.  We had some occurring every 3 min as well.  So we got everything we needed and headed for... my office.  Because that is where I had left our video camera.  Then off to the hospital.  We checked in and Amber got a ride in a wheelchair.  A very fast ride as the nurse had delivered a baby just weeks ago in the elevator.  We informed him that Amber's water had not broken so he slowed down. 

oh so fresh!

Once in the hospital room.  The nurse came and showed us all the different things we could do to help with contractions.  Sit in the bed, walk the halls, exercise ball, and most enjoyable a hot bath.  Contractions kept getting closer together and more intense.  (Michael was a great coach, constantly helping me breath through the contractions, I quote, "Deep breath, hold it....slowly exhale," over and over again, which at the end I really needed him to say to keep me focused and not just yell in pain :)




9am

Our little doll

Our doctor came in to check on our progress.  Amber was 7cm.  Some of you know what that means some don't.  I will explain briefly:  It means we are pretty close to having this baby.  The doctor predicted 2pm birth.  Which sounded great to us.  More contractions, more trips to the tub, some bouncing on the ball and 2pm came and went.  By then the doctor had checked and Amber was past 9cm.  But still not a lot of progress and her water had still not broken.

4:30pm  Not a lot of progress.  So we decided to have the doctor break Amber's water.  Then the real fun began.  Pretty quickly Amber had some serious contractions.  From my view I knew that these were a lot more intense than the others, Amber says they were 10 times harder.  Well this did the trick and after a number of these difficult contractions, the doctor confirmed that Amber was at 10cm, the baby was in the right position and it was time to push. 

Ready to go Home!

We are a little sketchy on how long Amber was pushing but we figure more than an hour for sure.  Contractions were coming super intense and often every two minutes like clockwork.  There are some details that I am omitting but this was the craziest thing I have ever seen.  After a long while of pushing, the doctor came in brought in a table of instruments, another nurse and we all knew it was close.... ask amber about the details here...( Thanks Michael, I will. AHHHHHHHHHHH!  After 45 min. passed I just kept asking the doctor between contractions how many more pushes at which he never answered but said as with Michael and the nurse "we can see the head".  Well so I decided I wanted to eat dinner and I was sick of pushing so with the next couple contractions I gave it my all.)  6:47pm Finally, one final intense contraction, Amber pushed 7 times in one contraction, Ellie Rae took her first breath and let us know with a cry.

Proud Daddy!

Happy Mommy

Two months later and she still lets us know with a cry.  Between growth spurts and bodily functions she is quite a vocal girl about her feelings.  She didn't sleep a whole lot during the day for about a month, but we are getting a little better at napping now.  The smiles and coos are the best!

What's up with us :)

Michael and our Bro. in law Briton playing a competitive game at brother Matt's graduation bbq.

North of Steamboat Springs.  So we camped here just before the sun went down.  Awesome view.  We nearly killed our car to get here.  We moved camp to shady pines after our hike later that day.  It was so stinkin hot with no shade.  We also found out how fast we could tear down and set up camp!  It was fast!

Our hike to the top of Hawn's Peak.  Amazing views!

We love to fish.  Even if we have to soak our shoes in the marsh to get there!

Smile for squishy boots!

I hosted Ann's bridal shower which was also a cheese and fruit party.  So fun and delicious!

Oh my!  Yes we are alive.  We had a fun summer, fall, and now glorious winter.  Michael spent the summer in Littleton working on the grounds crew at the Denver LDS Temple,commuting back each weekend practically.  At work, we moved into a new building which was quite the adjustment/stress because everything was totally different organizing wise.  We also gained our first nephew on Michael's side of the family.  He is so cute.

We've enjoyed two weddings in our family-- my sister Ann and very recently Michael's brother Chris. 

Michael started his masters program in math.  We have yet to see his grades but the department must think he's okey-dokey because they offered him a Graduate Assistant-ship for next semester.  Yeah!  Answer to prayers.

Old Faithful.

We did a little camping this summer.  Ann had her open house in Cody, WY so we camped, went to Yellowstone for half a day, and then the open house.  I will post some cool picts from Yellowstone later.  It was fun!  Now you have a glimpse of our life up till now. :)

Oh, and for some reason I can't change my template to something NOT fall.  So I'm stuck with the orange leaves till blogger fixes the problem.

Snow Sculpting!

So in Laramie, spring consists of wind, wind, wind, rain, sleet, snow, snow, snow.  Just when its getting warm enough to do things outside.....snow.  We got 8-10 inches of snow two weeks ago.  It was really wet snow and the sun was out so my sister Ann and I and her friends built huge snow sculptures.  We had some pretty high ambition and decided to start rolling our snow balls pretty far away.  Bad idea.  It was quite the workout.  We decided that we did about 100 squats that day trying to roll our snow balls into place.  It was worth it though.  Great way to get a workout without thinking you are working out! The elephant and rhino were so fun to ride!

Christmas Break

I know this post is about 3 months old, but I thought I'd still post it.  We spent Christmas with Michael's family in Littleton, CO.  The trip down took us twice as long as usual because of the snow and road closures, but we took a back road slowly down to Greeley and then over to Loveland.  On the road over to Loveland we saw about 12 cars that had gone off the road and about the same amount of emergency vehicles getting them out, etc.  It was scary but we made it safely.  All of his family were there and we had a great time together.  Michael and I went shopping for gifts at Barnes & Noble and I was stupid and forgot my wallet, so we walked around the store hiding our gifts from each other behind our backs and such and then had to ring up together, one at a time while the other turned there back.  The cashier thought we were pretty weird, so next time I'll just bring my wallet.  I got Michael the Mr. Bean shows.  He was so surprised; and usually I can't keep a secret from him so I was proud I didn't give into him.  After a lovely Christmas day his dad took us all ice skating in Evergreen.  It was pretty cool to finally go there because this is where my mother learned to skate when she grew up.  The ice rink was on a lake and I felt I had to learn all over again how to skate it had been so long.  The ice was pretty nicked up too, so that made it just a little more dangerous.  We played tag with his family and that was just so scary.  On another day we all went to Devil's Thumb Ranch (by WinterPark) and learned how to classic ski cross country.  It was all our first time so we had fun laughing at each other and ourselves when we fell.  Michael took to it quickly and could go down a hill without falling.  It was basically a new way to run for him.  It was such beautiful scenery, especially at sunset as we headed back.  Excellent place to go if you are into skiing.  We had so much fun, so a big Thank You to Dad and Mom Huntington who gave us fun new experiences!

Dear IRS

Isn't this a great joke, if only you could really do that.  Anyways, looking forward to our tax return :)