Sleep and Ellery's first hair cut!

Sleep, oh how I love sleep!  I haven't gotten a great night's sleep since Aayla was born 9 weeks ago.  Then last night happened!  I fed her at about 9:30 and she was in bed asleep by 10:30.  The most she's gone is 5 hours so when I woke up at 6am and realized she hadn't woken up all night, I first had to make sure she was still breathing, then did a celebration dance in my head!! Yay!  What a good little sleeper I have!  Seconds later I realized that getting a long stretch of sleep comes with an expense.  For all you mothers who nursed your babies and have experienced engorgement, you know what I mean!  Holy smokes!!! I was going to explode!  I left the room to pump.....28 oz!!!!  That's a record for me.  I could have gotten more out but stopped early to save some for Aayla when she would decide to wake up and eat.  She ended up waking up at 7am!!  What a good girl.  I still had plenty to feed her by the way.

Ellery time!  She got her first hair cut last week.  Well actually just some bangs.  Abbie did a good job.  I think they turned out cute.  Ellery likes them too.  She keeps saying, Abbie cut my hair!  She's so cute!

Here is a before picture...

 

And here is the after pictures.  What a cutie pie!

Valentines Day!!

I like Valentines Day.  I think it's fun and cute.  It's probably the most hated holiday though.  Single people hate it because they don't have anybody to celebrate it with and it's a reminder to them that they aren't in a relationship, which can turn into very bitter, resentful feelings.  People in relationships hate it because they don't want a holiday to tell them to show love to their spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend.  Whatever.  It's just a fun holiday to show love to everyone!!  Everyone has friends/family/people to love.  You don't have to spend a lot of money or do anything special.  Remember in elementary school when you made little Valentines boxes and gave all your classmates little Valentines notes with candy?  Then your class had a party with fun games, pink cupcakes, heart candies, etc.....  That was awesome!  It can still be fun as an adult.  Everyone who hates this awesome holiday, go ahead and take a deep breath, relax, and get over whatever reason it is that you don't like it.  Moving on.....

It was a good day for us, although we didn't do much.  We did all dress in pink for church.  We took some pictures afterward.  These are actually the first family picture of all 4 of us!  They didn't turn out that good, but it's all we have of us.  Ellery got Tinker Bell Valentines with heart suckers and chocolates for everyone.  She had fun handing them out.  My parents were in Arizona helping Annie move, so we had Brandon, Katie and Abbie over for dinner.  Jacob decided to be in charge of dinner.  He ended up making steaks with mushrooms, onions, and a yummy sauce, rolls, green salad, and roasted potatoes.  It was very good, thanks Jake!  As my 'gift' to Jacob, I made dessert.  I made a pumpkin cheesecake, which I have to admit turned out excellent!!  I've never made a cheesecake before, so I'm glad it turned out well.  Abbie also brought over some cute chocolate cupcakes with pink sprinkles and we had a variety of yummy drinks provided by the O'neils!

 

Ellery got some new clothes and a cute cupcake marshmallow on a stick from Grandma Webb.  She always loves getting new things in the mail from her, thanks Monica!  I gave her some heart lollipops, which she carried around for the first day, and now I'm pretty sure she forgot about them, and eating them!  Oh well, no sticky mess to clean up!

Sisters

Ellery is starting to pay a little bit more attention to Aayla and be a good big sister.  She really likes to help throw her diaper away.  Whenever Aayla cries, she rushes over and tries putting her "pinky" in her mouth.  Here they are on the floor.  Ellery was being really cute trying to hold her hand and talk to her.  She even tried giving Aayla her "yellow."  If anyone knows how possesive Ellery is of her yellow blanket, you'll know what a big deal that is of her to share.  She can be sweet sometimes.

Growing Up

The girls are getting so big. No, not Millie, she's actually dropping weight like seventh period French class.

Ellery and Aayla are growing up. Today, Ellery wanted to get dressed ALL by herself. Somewhat missed the concept of front and back on the shirt, (or she's going for the Criss-Cross look) pretty sure the socks are as backwards as a sock can get too, but other than that, not bad for a first solo attempt. These were taken before hair got done too... so don't worry, she didn't actually go out in public looking like this.


Sorry, Ellery, kinda looks like a Nick Nolte mug shot.

Aayla is now too big for her NB onesies. She's more alert and awake much of the day... unfortunately much of the night too. She likes to sleep on her boppy pillow and in her new (used) swing. But since Millie doesn't want her to be dependent on them to sleep through the night, she's still just a crib baby after about 9pm. She's definitely been a different baby then Ellery was but I'm excited for her to get a personality to interact with.


Everything else is pretty much same old same old. I'm still in school and filling out applications for PT school. I've been doing volunteer work at the Utah State Mental Hospital in their physical therapy department Mon, Tue and Wed mornings. I have to say, those mornings are my favorite! I makes getting up at 7am worthwhile... I know 7am isn't that early for many of you, but for Millie and I, it's typically not fun and avoided at all costs. Thanks to Ellery's new lack of sleeping in, it's become more and more unavoidable.

Millie is well. As mentioned earlier, she's getting back to her pre prego self with (what seems to me) ease. Much more so than with Ellery. She's not had to return to work yet (she's taking the full 12 weeks, I think) so it's been nice having the family together pretty much all the time lately - except when I'm at school. Millie has used the time home to take back most of the household duties from me like: cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc....

Millie and I will be running the Arizona Rock and Roll Marathon again next January. We also want to run the Disneyland 1/2 Marathon in September, so we'll probably start serious training this summer. And yes, summer. We'll know more about that when I find out where/if I get accepted to a PT school this year. Till then, we'll try to keep everyone up to date on everything.