Merry Christmas!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!  I just thougt I'd send out a Christmas greeting because my Christmas cards are not going to get done!  Instead I'll be sending out a card after we finalize Ellie's adoption and are sealed to her this spring.  We are doing well and have been so blessed this past year with our sweet baby girl.  We love her to pieces!!  

P.S.  Isn't Santa good lookin'????  Heehee

I Am So THANKFUL!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  I thought I'd post a few things that I've been thankful for this past year...

1-Ellie Maxine, our beautiful miracle baby, she has brought more joy than I ever knew was possible!

2-Rachel, our sweet birthmother and friend.  LOTS OF LOVE!!

3-Jeremy, for bring such an amazing husband, and working so hard for our family, he is the love of my life and my best friend.

4-My mom, she really stepped in to help when we we only had days to get ready fo Ellie and I was in a panic!

5-My sisters, for coming over and cleaning my house, and watching Ellie so I can lay down!

6-Sara, for coming from Ohio to see our baby and making me the CUTEST diaper bag and quilt for Ellie!

7-Our sweet neighbors and ward members who took such good care of us when Ellie came.

8-Our friends... we are so blessed with great friends!!!  Enough said!! :)

9-Our health.

10-Jeremy's job: you never realize how blessed you are until you have to go without it, 8 months of unemployment this year.... we are so GRATEFUL for our EMPLOYMENT!!

11-My sweet grandma BUB, losing her this year was one of the hardest times for me, but I am so grateful for her legacy and that my daughter can carry on her name.

12-Our house.

13-My dog.  Funny how attached infertile people get to their pets.  Yes, I talk to her and she has been my baby for the past three years!!  Hahahaha-- ok bring on the crazy pet lover comments!

14-My king size bed!  

15-The Christmas season that is finally here!!!

  

  Oh goodness, I have so much!  Up until Ellie came into our family, this year was going down in our books as the worst year ever, but it's amazing how a tiny baby can turn everything around! Ellie has been so fun, I love being her mom.  I understand now when people say that being a mom is the hardest yet the best thing you can do, I love it!  Ellie is starting to coo and grin whenever she looks at us, and everytime it makes my heart melt.  Oh how I love my baby girl!!! 

Our First Family Pictures!!

Yesterday we went to Pleasant Grove to get some pictures done with Ellie. My cousin Mandi is starting a photography business, and these are a few of the beautiful pictures she took! To see the rest go to her blog at nuttsphotography.blogspot.com. She does beautiful work, and I must say it helps that we have such a beautiful baby! Ellie is smiling a lot more, and she's finally getting some rolls!! She has been such a blessing, I just love her to pieces! Isn't she soooo cute?!?!?!!!

It's been a month!!!

Ellie is just over a month old and is getting so big!! She is more alert and she focuses on our faces a lot more! She has been such a blessing, we love her soooo much!




My sister Sara came to visit this past week from Ohio. I was so happy she was able to come see Ellie! We had so much fun! I had three baby showers while she was here. It was so good to see my family and friends. Everyone has been so kind! Thank you everyone!!! My sister Rachel was able to come down from BYU-Idaho for the weekend too.




We finally got Ellie's bedroom painted! I'm still working on getting her room put together and organized, but I love how her crib looks!!


And finally, I took a few pictures of her cute hands and feet!!



I love being a mom, I'm learning lots, but I love my sweet baby girl so much!!!

Baby Ellie!

Ellie has been such a blessing! She's more alert during the day now... and at night! I'm still getting used to the nighttime feedings and her being wide awake. Good thing I have my sweet husband who takes a turn at night, and a good mom who has been a lot of help. Here's some of my favorite pictures of Ellie from the past two weeks. This first one is my favorite of her!!! She's such a happy baby!

And I love this pink bow!!!!!!

Skinny little thing!!

Ellie and my dad

Pretty girl!!

Nice Shades!!

Bath Time

Wide Awake

Ellie and Daddy

Ellie and Mommy


We took Ellie in for her two week check-up. She was 5 lbs. and 13 oz. and 19 inches long. She's still a peanut, but she's growing! We just love her!!!

...and then there were three...

I'd like to introduce the blogging world to our sweet baby girl Ellie Maxine! She was born on September 22nd at 4:42 pm. She weighed 5 lbs. 5 oz. and is 18 inches long! I got a phone call from Rachel's mom on Monday around 11 am saying that Rachel's water had broken during the night and they were at the hospital. Rachel had invited us to be there during the delivery... amazing I know! So I called my mom hysterical that I wasn't ready and I needed some help! We weren't expecting Ellie until next week and I was a bit overwhelmed. My sweet mom reassured me that we were ready and to enjoy every minute. When we got to the hospital we met Rachel's parents and her younger brother and sister. What an amazing family she has!! We loved meeting them and spending some time with them. As the day progressed Rachel was given her epidural and then she started on pit. During that time when they checked Rachel we found out that instead of crowning Ellie was trying to look out... face first. After a bit it was determined that Rachel would have to deliver with a c-section. Rachel was not excited about the idea, but Jeremy and her dad gave her a sweet blessing. How incredible that Jeremy was able to be part of that.

Now what happened next was the most spiritual and amazing blessing of my life. Rachel was told that she could only take one person with her to deliver Ellie. Jeremy and I were out in the hall and when I came back in Rachel's mom told me that Rachel had asked that I be the one to go with her! I cannot describe how honored I was. Rachel had her sister and her mom there that could have gone with her, I certainly was not expecting it. It all happened quickly for me... I'm sure not for Rachel, but suddenly I was being escorted to surgery in my scrubs and all. I sat and held Rachel's hand and watched as she brought our baby girl into the world... yes I watched them pull Ellie out!! I don't know how to describe what that was like to be holding the hand of the bravest woman I know as she gave birth to my baby! I've been crying a lot... and that memory will stay in the most sacred part of my soul.





Ellie was a bit swollen after she came out, but I was amazed at how fast it went away! Isn't she beautiful?!! Rachel was so sweet every step of the way, she let me hold and love her. She told me several times that she knew this was right, and that we are her parents. It's an amazing act of love and faith on her part. I am proud to have her as Ellie's birth mother. By the way--- she looks fantastic for having just had a baby.

Because of the c-section Rachel was supposed to be in the hospital for at least three days, but today we found out that Rachel was ready to go home and we could come get Ellie!! We rushed and picked up a few things and put together a basket for Rachel and her daughter Alice. Nothing we could ever do will even come close to repay her for the gift of being parents, but we tried to be thoughtful!







We love Rachel so much, I've been asked by several people about the kind of relationship we will have now that Ellie is home with us. Rachel and I have a one of a kind bond. I feel connected to her like no one else in my life, and I felt it the first time we talked. Her and I will be life-long friends, I look up to her for her courage and faith, she has been an amazing example of being Christ-like. Ohhh how we love our Rachel!!


There is soooo much more to our story. So many tiny miracles that brought Rachel into our lives and then Ellie. We love her soooo much, she is such a sweet baby. We're home and I just hope I can be a good mommy to her!!

MIRACLES HAPPEN!!!!

Miracles happen, and a miracle happened today! Let me back up to 4 weeks ago. I got a phone call from my OB/GYN, or should I say my previous OB/GYN. I haven't seen him for over two years due to a change in our insurance. He called and said "Jenny, I have a young woman who is looking to place her baby for adoption and I thought of you. Are you interested?" Uh... my response... YES!! Lots of prayers and fasting, crying, and more prayers!

Fast forward two weeks, we met the first half of our miracle. Her name is Rachel, and she is the most amazing person I have ever met. She is beautiful, selfless, incredible, an angel, our miracle. I never thought I would love and adore someone I just met, but I do. She is everything I could have asked for in a birth mother, everything. And even more than that, I feel like I have known her forever, and I think I have. She is a blessing, our miracle.

Fast forward to today. I got the phone call of a lifetime, it was Rachel, she told me I'm going to be a MOMMY!!! What do you say to someone who is going to make you a mom? "Thank you" seems insincere, "I'm so grateful" is not enough, I'm still working on what words have been created to express the most grateful depths of my soul. Our baby girl is coming, did I mention it's a girl?!!! And she's coming in 12 days, I guess now since it's the middle of the night and I can't sleep out of so many emotions, it's closer to 11 days. Rachel is going to be induced on September 29th. We are naming the baby Ellie Maxine, after my sweet grandma Bub. Ellie is coming, and I can't wait to meet the second half of our miracle!!!!

To Rachel, if you read this, LOTS OF LOVE!!!

Our Bedroom... and Girl's Camp!

Okay, I'm going to start with our bedroom. We finished it in the wee hours of the morning on my birthday! Hooray!! That's the one thing I really wanted! I still don't have anything on the walls yet, I'm trying to find a mirror for the wall across from our bed, and I'm still not sure what to put above our bed. I hesitate to put anything above my head that could fall and dent it in the night! Maybe a wreath of some sort? Send me any ideas if anyone has them.






So there's the final prep... and ta-da!!!! Here's the finished product! YEA!!









I have to say the colors look much better in person, the camera doesn't do the walls justice, and it makes the shades look drastically different, but you get the idea. I love it though!


Now on to girl's camp... I'm the 1st Counselor in the Young Women's in our ward, so I got to go to girl's camp for the first time since I was a Laurel. It was so much fun, we have a tiny group of girls, but it was great! We went on a hike to Minnetonka Cave in Bear Lake, yeah, 888 stairs. It was quite the hike, but very worth it!









If you look really close at this picture, you can see our girls down at the bottom of this set of stairs. I was at the top heading down, we'd already come up this set, I tell you, it was straight up and down!!



Our girls in front of our nice cabin! It was fabulous, the leaders all had beds! Nice eh?! My next project is my now craft room, the one day baby room. I hope to have it done before I start preschool up again on September 3rd! Hopefully we will have our adoption papers done by Halloween, that's the new goal!!! Let's hope there's no more hang-ups!