Brittney's Birthday Party

For Brittney's (Dustin's sister) birthday this year we went up to Millcreek Canyon and roasted hot dogs and hung out.  There was a little stream right by our site that the kids and Darla (Rob & Jana's dog) had fun playing in.  This was Ella's first experience doing anything like this and she lasted a lot longer than I thought she would.  It probably helped being distracted by her cousins, grandparents, great grandma, and aunt and uncle.  Thanks to everyone for holding her so much!  

Ella with her Daddy

Ella with Brittney and Hannah (I swear she was happy like one second before I took this picture)
Dustin and me
Ella with Grandma and Grandpa
The birthday girl with her cake.

This picture is not great, but I just love James' face.  I think he was excited for cake.

Ella is 6 months

I can't believe that our little baby Ella is already 6 months old.  The time has gone so fast and it is weird to think of life before she was here.  Ella has changed our lives in so many ways and I love her more than anything.  It seems like everyday she is changing and learning something new.  She is such an alert little girl and she loves to talk, laugh, and watch her Baby Einstein movies.  Ella makes me laugh and melts my heart everyday.  She was such a miracle to us and I look forward to continue seeing her grow up. 

At her 6 month check-up she was:

16 lbs. 9 oz.  (63%)

26.5 in. (78%)

This is Ella at 6 days old heading home from the hospital.

This is Ella at 6 weeks old playing with Daddy.

And here she is at 6 months old laughing at her Baby Einstein movie.

Ella's new loves

 Ella recently has started to really like some new things and she is learning new stuff too.   Lately she thinks that Charlie is really funny.  I have a video of her laughing that I will try to post later. 

                                      

This jumper activity center has been a lifesaver for me and it allows me to actually do things with two hands.

Ella is also very interested in all the remotes and loves to push the buttons.  Hopefully it isn't because she sees us using them so much. :)  

And big news, Ella is learning to sit all by herself.  So far this is as close as she gets, but it is still exciting.

St. George Trip

We recently went down to St. George to visit Grandma and Grandpa and to run a race in Pine Valley.  Dustin was injured and couldn't run, but he watched Ella so that I could run without a stroller.  While we were there we also went and saw some dinosaur tracks and just relaxed.  Ella made the trip kind of difficult because she started teething.  The teeth still haven't broken through yet, but her symptoms come and go.  Hopefully they will come in soon!

                                                  The race was pretty small with only 100 runners so that is why there is no one near us in the pictures.

                                                Rob and Jana right before they finished.

                                               Ella reading with Grandma

                                                 At the dinosaur tracks

Potatoes and Toes

In the last couple weeks Ella has successfully started eating solid foods.  So far she has only had rice cereal, sweet potatoes, and bananas, but the potatoes are her favorite.  She makes a huge mess every time she eats, but she really enjoys herself.  My personal favorite is when she does a raspberry right as I am putting a full spoon of food in her mouth.  This usually leads to me finding sticky stuff in my hair and all around the kitchen throughout the day.  Also, lately Ella loves to grab her toes constantly.  Today she even tried to get them in her mouth.

Rice Cereal

Sweet potatoes (clearly very messy and this was only part way through the meal)

Watching her Baby Einstein video and grabbing her toes.

My first best friend

Recently my friend Alyssa came to visit us in Utah with her mom.  Alyssa and I have been friends since we were very little when I lived in Oregon.  I was sad to leave her when we moved to Utah, but it is great that we can still keep in touch.  While they were here we did all sorts of fun stuff. 

We visited the Olympic Park

We rode the zipline at PCMR. I was terrified but Alyssa was excited.
We rode the chairlift to the top of Deer Valley

Ella went on her first chairlift and don't worry, she was strapped to her daddy with her bjorn.
Ella loved being around Alyssa
We miss you Alyssa!!

We finally have a blog!!

I signed up for this blog not long after Ella was born, and now she is 5 months and I am just doing the first post.  I am not the best at keeping in touch with everyone that I would like to, so I thought this would be a great way to keep everyone updated.  We have definitely been busy the last few years.  We got married in November 2004, I graduated from BYU in December 2004, in November 2005 we bought our first house, in May 2007 we sold our house and moved to Arkansas for the summer for Dustin's internship, in July 2007 we found out we were pregnant, and in September 2007 we lived in Salt Lake while Dustin finished up his last semester.

In December 2007 Dustin graduated from BYU with a degree in Information Systems and he walked in April.

In January 2008 we bought our house in North Salt Lake and Dustin started work in Park City with Backcountry.

On March 2, 2008 at 11:00 am Ella was born 2.5 weeks early and took us by surprise.  She was 6 lbs. 13 oz. and 19" long.

Unfortunately Ella ended up in the NICU for a couple days with really bad jaundice and it was so difficult to leave her.  I was so excited when I was able to bring her home.  She was so tough with everything they had to do to her in the hospital.  This is us right before we went home.

When Ella was 3 months old we did a 5K race together in Springville along with the rest of the Jensen clan.  She was a good sport and slept through the whole race even though it was pouring down rain.

Ella went swimming for the first time in St. George when we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa McQuay.  She wasn't a big fan of the cold water, so the second time we put her in her blow up pool filled with warm water.

I will add more of what we have been up to later, but this post is getting really long for everyone to look through.