Ella's Big Girl Room

For the past month we have been preparing for and finishing Ella's new room. I wish I had taken some before pictures. This used to be our office with a huge desk and tons of bookcases. It has been a little hard losing our office, but we sold our old furniture, found new places for supplies, and bought a smaller desk that is now in our bedroom. We have been doing some major cleaning out and downsizing. Our bedroom is a little crowded, but Dustin has to have a place to work since he often works from home. We are really happy with how her room turned out and we love spending time in it. Ella loves it too and she is already sleeping in her bed too. We thought the transition would be really hard, but it went super smooth. During the day for her naps I still have to lay down on the floor for a couple minutes. For some reason if she sees me lay down she will lay down and go to sleep. I think it is harder for her to go to sleep since it is light and she is tempted by her toys. The great thing is that she never tries to get out of her bed. She looks so adorable in her bed since she is so tiny in it. We now only go in her old nursery to change her diaper on the changing table. I am excited to find out what we are having so I can get going on that room. I am a little bit of a planner and an organizer, can you tell? :) Anyway, enjoy the pictures.Please ignore that one of knobs on her dresser is missing. There was a flaw on it so the furniture store is getting us a new one.
Ella insisted on sitting in her chair while I was taking pictures, and then she kicked me out. I was really hurrying because of it so I apologize that they are not the best pictures.

We just got the nightstand on Saturday and I feel like it needs something more done with it besides the lamp, but I haven't figured it out yet. For now, Ella just loves the turn the lamp off and on about 50 times a day. This is the lamp from her nursery and it is a little small in the room. I might need to make some changes. Opinions are welcome :)

Recent Pictures

I called this post recent pictures, but I think some of them date back to December. Anyway, enjoy!

Here is Ella in our old office that is now her room. You can see we were mid transition with all the chaos behind her. For those of you who know Dustin well, you understand why this photo makes him so proud. :) Like Daddy, like daughter.
Ella loves her blankets. She has 3 that she loves and she enjoys snuggling with them and she always has to sleep with one. This was just us watching tv one night and Ella wanted to be extra cozy. Please ignore me looking like a total dork in the background.

We have a routine that we do with Ella every night before bed which includes reading. I don't remember this night, but Dustin took a picture of us enjoying one of her Ella books.

Ella loves her cousin Riley and she asks about him everyday. She was lucky to have him come play with her one day. They were having fun playing piano together.

Every time I try to take a picture of Ella she comes right up to the camera. Usually the outcome is not so good, but this one was actually kind of cute.

What, don't you cook with no pants on? :)

Ella is very attached to her Daddy these days. He has been so crazy busy with work and side projects that she hasn't seen him tons lately. But when they do play together they have a blast. I love this picture because she just has the look of pure joy on her face. He is such an amazing Dad!

Here is just more of their piggy back ride.

Dustin's parents were in town a few weeks ago and Ella loved getting to spend time with them. Grandpa Rob was playing Old McDonald on the guitar so Ella could sing with him, and Ella was also stealing most of Grandma Jana's dessert. Thanks guys!!

Our Big News

As many people are now discovering from the ticker on my blog I am pregnant!!! We could not be more excited and we can't wait to meet the new member of our family. I hope that no one feels bad that they are just finding out, but we kept the news to ourselves for awhile. As some people know I had two miscarriages before Ella and actually one before I got pregnant this time. Because of that, we get nervous telling anyone other than family until we know we are out of the woods. Getting pregnant at all has always been a little bit of a rocky road for us so we feel especially grateful when we get one that sticks :)
We found out that I was pregnant right after Thanksgiving but I was instantly nervous due to my history. Fortunately my doctors monitor me very closely, gives me helpful drugs to take, and run many tests which did put me at ease. Also, I was pretty sick so that was a constant reassurance that everything was going okay. I am so happy to be mostly done with the whole morning sickness thing. The week before Christmas we had our first ultrasound to check for a heartbeat and when we saw it we were so relieved. We wanted to tell Dustin's parents in person and we wanted to tell them when it looked very optimistic. We wrapped up the ultrasound photo for one of their gifts and it was so much fun. Dustin's grandma has video of them finding out that I will have to post at some point.
I decided that I wasn't going to blog about being pregnant until I was out of the first trimester, but then I had an appointment at 14 weeks and I just decided to wait for that. That was last week but I am just getting around to it because Ella got really sick that day and is just barely getting better. I can do another post about that later. Anyway, a lot of people who see me often figured out I was pregnant awhile ago because my belly is quite obvious. I thought I showed early with Ella, but it is even more pronounced this time around. I must admit, getting the big belly is slightly less exciting the second time around. I think it is because I am now remembering what it feels like to be so big. It is all worth it though and the more I grow I know the little baby is growing and is healthy.
Alright, now that I have written a novel I will get to the details that most of you actually care about. My due date is August 7th, so Ella will be a month shy of 2 1/2 if I go full term. We are really happy about that spacing. I am a little nervous about being gigantic when it is really hot, but I am sure I will survive. My big ultrasound isn't until March 19, but since I am so anxious to know, but doctor said he would try to sneak in a quick ultrasound to take a peek at my next visit on March 1!! So hopefully I will have some fun news to share that day. I really think it is another girl, but we will see. To be perfectly honest we don't really care what we have. We have reasons for wanting both so I will be excited either way. We have already gotten started on Ella's big girl room and I will do a post of that when I finish with it. For those that know me I am a major planner so I am dying to get the nursery all organized. Thanks if you actually made it to the end of all this. Dustin and I are thrilled and we love having so many great people to share it with.


Here is a picture of me around 12 weeks I think. I am already quite a bit bigger which is a little shocking to me. I apologize if I bother anyone with my bare belly. I am already feeling a little guilty because we took weekly pictures with Ella, and so far this is the only one we took. And don't worry, when I get gigantic I will post pictures with a covered belly :)

St. George Christmas

We headed down to St. George to spend the actual Christmas holiday with Dustin's family. It was a very memorable trip because one of our presents to Dustin's parents was to share our big news. We had kept it to ourselves for a month so we were so excited to tell them. (I will do a separate post all about "the news'). It was such a fun and relaxing trip and Ella quickly became attached to her Grandma Jana.

This was one of Ella's favorite gifts from her Grandma and Grandpa. She instantly knew what it was and put her baby down to go "night night."

We went to a great park near their house. Ella had a blast with her cousin, Hannah. As of now Hannah is Ella's only girl cousin so it is fun to see them spend time together.

Dustin's parents treated us all to an amazing dinner at their clubhouse. This is a rare picture of just Dustin and me before the meal.

Ella spent the entire two hour meal in her Grandma's lap. I have to admit it was so nice to eat my meal in peace. Ella had a blast with her and refused to sit anywhere else. Thanks again Jana!!

Here is Rob and Jana with their grandkids.

The whole time we were down there Ella hardly napped because there was too much excitement going on. But one afternoon after church Ella finally crashed during lunch. Here is where she first fell asleep...

...and eventually it turned into this.

We always love to go swimming when we go down to visit, but usually Ella hates it. We were excited because this time she loved it. Of course she had to be with her Grandma the entire time.

Thanks again to Rob and Jana for such fun visit. We can't wait to come again!

Jensen Christmas

I debated even doing Christmas posts since I am so late, but for documentation purposes here goes. This year we had a couple different Christmases over a few weeks. The first one was with my side of the family. Here is a shot of most of us, I think only a couple people aren't in it. Now we have 13 people and this was David's first Chrismas. This Christmas was a lot of fun since there were six kids, that always makes it more exciting.


Here is Ella in her apron that my sister Amy made for her. She loves anything to go along with her kitchen.

My brother gave Ella this stroller and she absolutely loved it. She takes her babies for walks around the house all the time.

We are alive!

I can't believe it has been over two months since I did a post. Well I can a little since I finally unloaded my camera and I had nearly 200 pictures and videos on it. I don't have any excuses for taking such a long break. However, most of my free time on the computer has been spent couponing. I started really getting into it in September. I could probably spend a whole post just talking about that but I won't bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that those of you who know me well know how I like to bargain shop, so couponing for groceries was right up my alley. Dustin has become creative trying to find places for all the food and toiletries. We have food stashed all over our pantry, cupboards, and above our cupboards. I would take a picture but unfortunately we left our camera up in Park City this weekend and don't have it.

We don't have too much exciting news to report in the McQuay house. Dustin is crazy busy with work as usual and I am busy chasing after Ella. She has turned into a little girl all of a sudden and she is such a joy. Her personality is really coming out now since she can communicate so much better and she is constantly amazing me and making me laugh. As I posted some of these pictures from just 2 months ago I am amazed at how much she has grown and changed. I apologize that this post is really picture heavy, but the grandparents appreciate it. Anway, here is the a little of the last two months in pictures.


Ella loves when I vacuum and she always gets her vacuum out to help me. She actually just got a toy vacuum for a gift so I am sure she will really enjoy using it.
We debated carving a pumpkin for Halloween because we weren't sure if Ella would even care about it, but we decided to do it and she LOVED it!

Here she is in her butterfly costume before trick or treating.

Ella and Iris trick or treating at the first house. At first Ella was pretty confused, but once she got the hang of it she loved it and she lasted for well over an hour going all over our neighborhood.

We were thinking she wouldn't last very long and didn't bring a stroller. Needless to say Daddy took over to keep us moving.

Obviously Ella did not want to get her picture taken, but I had to capture her adorable outfit. I bought this with my mom and I wanted her to see it.

So Ella is kind of a picky eater, but every once in a while we come across something random that she loves. She can not get enough chili or black beans. This night she ate a ton of beans and got a black bean mustache. She made quite the mess since she decided to forego using a fork and just dig in with her hands.

We had a wonderful thanksgiving up in Park City with my family. Of course I didn't take any pictures of the amazing food my mom spent hours making, but it was delicious. Dustin was having fun running laps with all the grandkids in the house and they loved it. Riley is in front and Josh is in back and Sam and Alex are somewhere too. Dustin is a very loved Uncle.

Ella helped us decorate our tree. She was so excited about it so we just let her do what she wanted. We had a lot of clusters of upside down ornaments. Here is the finished product.

Mommy and Ella in her cute Christmas dress.

Unfortunately this is the best picture we got of just her. She loves to walk toward the camera when you are taking a picture. So cute!

Because we were so excited we let Ella have her Christmas present early. Plus we will be in St. George for the actual day, plus Ella doesn't really get it yet anyway. Just nod and smile with me because we just wanted to rationalize giving it to her like 3 weeks early. She loves her kitchen and this was her playing with it right after she woke up. Don't mind the bed head.

Putting something in the micorwave. It is amazing to see how much she know from just watching me in the kitchen all the time.

Are you kidding me??! Opening the oven with a hot pad? This girl is hilarious!

Relaxing with Daddy and Charlie on a Sunday afternoon. I think Dustin actually fell asleep.

Last week my sister Amy came to our house with Riley to hang out. We made sugar cookies and let the kids decorate some. They loved it, but hardly any sprinkles actually made it onto the cookies. I found them all over the place. Here is Ella thoroughly enjoying herself.

Riley and Ella deeply in focus.

Riley and Ella had so much fun playing together all day. Here they are playing the piano together.

And finally, here is Ella reading in her cute little chair.

Well we have already had 2 Christmases and have one more to go. I will have to do a post to show them all. Maybe my New Year's resolution should be to blog more :) Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

Funny videos

I am really behind on blogging (as usual) and I have a bunch of photos to put up, but for now I have some funny videos. The first one is from a month or so ago. Ella loves to play our digital piano and push a bunch of the programming buttons. As you can see she also loves to dance.

This second video is just from the other day. Last week my mom had foot surgery so she is on crutches. Ella has seen her a couple times on her crutches and not quite known what to think. I was at my mom's house and was busy doing something so Ella occupied herself by getting into the kitchen drawers. She grabbed a potato masher and wisk and started doing what you see in the video. It took us a minute to figure out what she doing, but when we did we could not stop laughing. It is amazing to me how much Ella picks up from watching people. Enjoy!!