Our home is under contract!!!

So, I guess all of those showings over the last 2 weeks paid off. Our home is officially under contract and scheduled to close on April 22!!! I am so excited, but a little nervous since we are not totally sure about where we are going! We will still be in the south end of the salt lake valley but we have not decided on that perfect house for us yet! So, there is our bitter sweet news! I am glad not to have to show the house anymore and happy to be able to move on to something new, but sad to leave our first home, our great neighbors and our amazing ward and friends.

When it Rains it Pours!!!

Wow - it has been a crazy 2 weeks!!! I wanted to record some of the "adventures" we have been going through.

Sunday - It started last Sunday night (Mar 7) when Ethan woke up crying in the middle of the night because his throat hurt and he couldn't breathe.

Monday - I took him to the doctor on Monday (dr. apt. #1)and it turned out he had croup. He was given a steroid to help the inflammation in his throat so that he could breathe better. After the doctor appointment I went to the DR Horton offices and put money down on a lot we will possibly be building our new house on. While we were there (me and my three kids), Ethan and Eli were exploring the model home while I wrote the check and then I hear hysterical screaming and an electrician comes in carrying Ethan who had stepped on a nail!! WHAT!?! I couldn't believe it. The guy was carrying Ethan's shoe with a nail and a 2x4 stuck to it. Ethan had angels watching him because when I took off his sock, expecting to see blood everywhere, there was barely a scratch!! What a lucky little boy!

Tuesday - I had plans to meet the builder out at our future lot and discuss the house plans. I was taking all three kids to a construction site the day after my 4 year old stepped on a nail! So, my dad was a gem and met me out there to sit with the kids while I walked through the construction site. We left there and went to Arctic Circle for lunch. Before we got home Ethan had a red, swollen, itchy eye. Yes, it turned out his croup had spread to his eye. He now had an eye infection!! I called the dr. and got a prescription phoned in!



Wednesday - I discover Wed. night that my c-section incision had opened up and started bleeding! YIKES!! Ethan wakes up screaming in the night because his eye is stuck shut from all of the dried eye puss - yeah! Of course, Ellyse is still awake 3-4 times at night - oh joy!



Thursday - Ethan is pretty miserable and says his ears hurt!! So, we go in for Dr. apt. #2 and he has ear infections!! Now, we get to give eye drops and oral antibiotics. Thursday night Eli wakes up with the croupy cough and can't breathe.



Friday - Eli wakes up with the eye infection too! We go to dr. apt. #3 and get the croup steroid for Eli and eye drops as well. I also go to the OBGYN and get my incision checked out. He said my body reacted to one of the sutures under the skin and it worked its way to the surface and caused fluid under the skin and then burst through. Sounds bad to me, but he said it was fine and nothing to worry about - just put a bandaid on it! Okay, sounds good to me - I have other things to worry about - like not letting my 5 week old baby catch the croup that my 2 boys have! Friday night, Tim cleans the garage to prepare for house showings on Sat. and I deal with crying Ellyse and then take care of Eli who throws up in his bed!



Saturday - We have a totally sleepless friday night, but wake up to 4 house showings (oh, did I mention we put our home on the market again on Thurday morning) starting at 10am. We run around like crazy on Sat morning working a miracle with cleaning our house and staging it for the showings, while we have 2 sick kids and a crying baby!!

......Okay, so I guess life got too busy to finish my entry about how busy we have been - ha ha!!! To quickly finish up the week, we had a total of 8 doctor appointments and three very sick kids and house showings nearly every day!! But, we all survived!!

Who Needs Sleep, Anyway?!

So, I thought I would write down some of the joys of being a new mom:

• no sleep - amazing how that affects a person :)
• nursing my sweet little girl and having her little hand hold on to my finger
• seeing my boys give their little sister kisses
• watching my baby sleep so soundly - and hoping that would happen at night time
• crying for no reason - ahhh the joys of hormones :)
• watching Ethan and Eli sing "Twinlke, Twinkle Little Star" every time Ellyse starts to cry
• gettin an amazing nap because my mom came over and watched the kids!!
• hearing the sweet prayers of Ethan: "please bless mommy and baby Ellyse to get good sleep."
• staying in my pajamas all day long
• actually getting to eat a meal without holding a baby in my arms - I love holding my baby, but it is nice to eat with two hands sometimes :)
• getting a chance to snuggle with Tim on the couch while Ellyse sleeps (finally)

Well, those are a few of the joys that come to mind right now. This is such an exciting time of total exhaustion and complete bliss. Having a new baby is an incredible experience!

Our Little Princess

Ellyse had her first photo shoot on Feb12 when she was 1 week old. Her Aunt Katie took some great pictures. Little Ellyse is such a cutie - yes, I am a proud Mama!!!

I love her cute little tongue sticking out.
What a cutie!?!


Katie made her birth announcement - good job, Katie!

Baby Ellyse

Announcing the arrival of our sweet baby girl!!!

Ellyse Lynlee Hall

born Feb 5, 2010

7 lbs. 4 oz.

20 1/2 " long

12:20 pm

We are so glad that our little angel has finally arrived. I went in for a c-section at noon on Feb. 5 and she was born at 12:20. She had a little bit of fluid in her lungs so they took her to the newborn intensive care unit to give her some oxygen and make sure she was okay. I didn't get to see her right away which was a bummer, but she needed to be taken care of. While in the NICU they tested her blood sugar levels and found they were a little low. They gave her an IV in her foot to feed her fluids. Her levels were normal after the first day and she has been healthy ever since. We stayed at the hospital until Tuesday Feb 9 and are now home trying to get into a routine. Ellyse's big brothers just love her to pieces. It is fun to watch them be so sweet and gentle with her.

One last pregnant picture before the c-section

Tim and my mom were both able to be in the operating room and witness the miracle of Ellyse being born.


I am all prepped for the operation

The first picture of Ellyse. That is all I saw before they took her to the NICU.

She is lookin' good and has a little better color!

Ellyse in the NICU

Sweet kisses from her daddy!

They brought her out of the NICU for a minute so I could hold her for the first time.

What a little cutie 2 days old!

Sleeping soundly - 3 days old

Getting ready to go home in her new outfit (Grandma Newman gave it to her)

All set to go home and meet her big brothers - the hospital didn't allow visitors under the age of 12 (due to the swine flu risks) so she didn't meet her brothers until we left the hosptial.

Pregnancy Update!!!

SO.... I am excited to announce that I will no longer be pregnant at the end of tomorrow. I am scheduled to have a c-section tomorrow, Feb. 5th at noon. I will be so excited to out of the pain I am in now and to hold my sweet little girl in my arms. I have been having LOTS of PAINFUL contractions that are very frequent and consistent, but they are not changing my cervix at all. I am only 37 weeks and my c-section wasn't scheduled until Feb. 15th, but with contractions 2-4 minutes apart for several hours, I thought for sure I was in active labor. My doctor decided to put me out of my misery and pain, but wanted to make sure the baby's lungs were developed. He did an amniocentesis to check the amniotic fluid and see if the lungs were mature enough. The results came back mature and now I get to have a c-section earlier than planned - YEAH!!! So, I am sure I will update further tomorrow with pictures of our new little baby girl!!!!

Walmart Scavenger Hunt

On Feb 1 we decided to go on a picture scavenger hunt at Walmart for family night. I can only get around using one of the electric wheelchairs at Walmart, so Tim rode in one too and we each took a boy with us between our legs. This is probably not okay with Walmarts wheelchair policy, but nobody stopped us :). Then we each had a scavenger hunt list and a camera. We had to find each item and take a picture of it and then race to see which team could finish first.

Here was our list:

S sweatshirt

I ice cream

S sippy cup

T television

E envelopes

R race car

(We spelled out the name SISTER, if you couldn't tell)

Eli posing with the first item, sweatshirt!

We found the sippy cups!!!

We got to the envelopes - we are almost done - who is gonna win?!
Tim and Ethan got to the race cars just as Eli and I got there too. So we declared it a tie! Then, we let both boys pick out their own baby sister dolls. When we told Ethan to pick out a doll, he said "Isn't that girly?" We told him it was okay because he could take care of his doll just like Mommy would soon be taking care of their new baby sister. Both boys got very excited and began talking to their dolls and talking about giving her naps and feeding her. It was so sweet to see. Eli even said, "Hi baby Ellyse. My name is Eli. How are you today?"

Right when we got home from Walmart, Ethan put his baby (Baby Butterfly) down for a nap!


Ethan and Eli are so excited to have their new babies to take care of!!!