Memorial Weekend/Jensen Birthday Party

During Memorial weekend we had a big birthday party with my family at our house.  We celebrated 6 people's birthdays, ate lots of yummy food,  and played at the park.  Thanks to my family for squeezing into our little house.

This is my nephew David, we were celebrating his first birthday.  Of course he was more interested in the wrapping paper than the gifts

This is just a group shot minus a couple people.  It seems like it is really hard to get a picture of a lot of us at once.

Ella was excited to play with one of David's presents.  She was constantly trying to help everyone open their presents.

Here is Ella enjoying some banana bread with her Dad.  I just took this picture because I thought Ella looked funny carrying a water gun and her purse.  She is my well rounded girl :)

David getting ready to dig into his cupcake.  It seems like just yesterday we were doing this for Ella's first birthday.

We all headed to the park to play.  The boys were all playing baseball and Ella just had to join in.  We were totally shocked when Dustin threw her the ball and she actually hit it with the bat.  She had such a good time running all over the place.

Here is the daredevil Riley spinning really fast.

And here is my daredevil, Dustin, spinning even faster.  He was having the time of his life. I have a funny video of him doing this that I will have to figure out how to post.

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

Last month Dustin's parents came up and stayed in Park City for a week.  It was so fun getting to spend so much time with them while they were up here.  We just can't get down to St. George as often as we would like to see them.  Unfortunately I did not get my camera out as much as I would have liked.  The picture above is Ella with Grandpa at the aquarium.  She had a really good time there.

And here is Ella with her Grandma Jana, they were good buddies the whole week.

Ella loves her cousins, Hannah and James.  This was taken after a yummy dinner at Baja Cantina.  Dustin's dad treated us to some very delicious meals.  :)

One of the days we had a big combined birthday party for a bunch of us at Dustin's grandma's house.  I was shocked to see that this was the only picture I took that day.  Grandma and Grandpa gave the kids each a Zhu Zhu pet (I don't know if I am spelling that right) and they had a blast playing with them.  

One night they were at our house for Ella's bedtime.  She insisted that they lay in her bed and read to her.  These are 2 people who would do anything for their grandchildren.

Dustin and I truly loved getting to hang out with Rob and Jana so much.  I am very fortunate to have seriously cool in-laws and I feel like Ella is very lucky to have them for grandparents.  I am excited for them to come up to meet their newest granddaughter in the not too far future. 

29 weeks

I am 29 weeks today and here is a picture of me.  My belly has definitely been growing and changing.  At my 28 week checkup my doctor told me that she was still laying horizontally in my stomach, but he said she would be moving head down pretty soon.  I am almost positive that she did just that the other day.  I had 10 very painful and uncomfortable minutes and then my belly was just shaped a little differently. At my last visit I had gained 26 pounds so far and my doctor told me that he thought I would probably gain at least 10 or 12 more pounds by the end.  I was hoping to not gain quite so much, but oh well.  I am exercising and eating pretty well so I figure I need the weight.  Unfortunately I am growing out of most of my maternity clothes because my belly sticks out so far.  You can't tell in the picture, but my belly was totally hanging out the bottom of my shirt (classy, I know :)  )  Overall I am doing great and am hoping the next couple months go by fast.  In other news we changed our little girl's name.  I won't bore anyone with the details, but I had some worries about Alice.  One day a different name just popped into my head and we both liked it.  I am 100% wanting it and Dustin is close. He just wants to stay open to new ideas just in case.  Anyway, the name we picked is...Grace.  I think that is all the pregnancy details anyone could care about, so here is my picture.

Disneyland (tons of pictures)

At the beginning of May my mom took our whole family to Disneyland for her 60th birthday and we had such an amazing time.  I was a little worried about how I would handle all the walking while being so pregnant, but I survived.  I wore my pedometer everyday and the most walking we did was 8 miles one of the days.  It was such a fun trip, we spent 5 days going to both parks so we had plenty of time to go on all the rides we wanted.  I was actually able to go on quite a few rides so it was a really fun trip for me too.  I took tons of pictures and here are just some of them.

Here is my cute nephew, David.  He is 10 months and was a such a trooper.

This is Loran and Riley on a ride.  Riley was fearless and went on anything he was tall enough to go on.  He is one brave 2 year old.

Some of the group taking a cotton candy break.  Ella was in heaven with all her cousins and her Grandma all week.

Ella LOVED Minnie and all the characters.  Just today she saw Minnie on t.v. and asked me if she could hug her.

Ella was not a fan of the rides, just like last year.  We got her to go on a couple but she would usually say "go home" or "hold you" which means hold me.  This was her face for the first half of It's a Small World.  Fortunately by the end of the ride she was much happier.  The only other rides she liked were the Carousel (if we sat on the bench) and there was a boat ride she was okay with.  She was happy to watch everyone else go on rides.

Amy and Lucy on the teacups.

Ella loved playing with Alex and he let her wear his Pluto hat.

At the end of each day we were very glad to get back to our hotel room, take a shower, and fall in bed.  Towards the end of the trip I was pretty sore by the time we got back to the room.  This was Ella one night all ready for bed with her milk and Minnie.  We had a king sized bed there so we just let her sleep with us each night.  

Ella is very fond of her Grandma Diane.  We saw a lot of this throughout the week.

Dustin took this picture of Sam, Lucy, and Josh when they were waiting for Space Mountain.

There was a little water play area that Ella had a blast in and completely soaked all her clothes.  I had brought a change of clothes so we just let her have fun.  After her hating all the rides it was great to see her enjoy herself.

Dustin took this picture while I was on a ride.  Riley, Ella, and David got to see Minnie.  Dustin told me that Ella kept hugging her and asked Minnie to hold her.

This is just a cute picture of Ella waiting for our character breakfast.  She is looking so grown up to me lately.

Before the breakfast they take your picture with Pluto.  Ella looks slightly more excited than the boys.

Throughout the breakfast they would play music and Goofy would come out and dance with the kids.  Every time Ella would run up and hold his hands to dance.  She was in seventh heaven.

Ella loved and hugged every character that came to our table.

Group shot with Jasmine.

Ella was really excited to meet Aurora.  She has been really into the Disney princesses lately.

My mom shocked us all and went on California Screamin', a super fast roller coaster.  I got this picture of them right when the ride took off.

The trip was so amazing and I feel so lucky that we got to go.  It was great to do something like this before the baby comes.  Thanks Mom!!  

Pregnancy Update

We have been having tons of fun and staying really busy lately. The weather has been so beautiful and we have been enjoying it. But since it is late and I am tired that will be another post for another day. As for the pregnancy I am now 25 weeks and feeling pretty good. I am starting to feel uncomfortable and not sleeping too great, but overall I am just fine. I am constantly feeling this girl move around and I swear she is doing somersaults all day long. I feel like my belly is huge, in fact I just packed up a bunch of my maternity clothes because they wouldn't cover my stomach. If it weren't for Shade maternity shirts that are made extra long, I would have no shirts to wear. At my last appointment at 24 weeks I had gained 8 pounds in one month, Yikes! I think my doctor said that I have gained a total of 17 pounds so far, but he said it was just fine. Hopefully I won't gain quite as much as I did with Ella, but I am not going to stress about it. I am so much more active this time around thanks to my friend Jen, who got me excited about wearing a pedometer and trying to get in 10,000 steps a day. We will see if it makes a big difference come July or August. I have had several friends have babies in the last few weeks and it gets me so excited for our little girl to get here. I am in the process of getting her nursery put together and I will post pictures when it is done. Also, we are almost positive that we are going to name our girl Alice. It feels good to have a name to refer to her as. Thanks to all those who offered their thoughts and opinions, we appreciated it! Anyway, this is me today in all my glory...

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone. This is Ella all dressed up for church last week in her Easter dress. Unfortunately, this was the best picture we could get. I still thinks she looks pretty cute. :) Enjoy!

Fun Weekend

Last weekend Dustin's parents were in town and we had tons of fun and celebrated Ella's and James' birthdays. It was so great having them here and Ella was excited because she got to have them all to herself when they babysat her while we were at our ultrasound appointment. She sure loves Gra gra and Pa pa as she calls her Grandma and Grandpa.

This is just a cute picture of Ella showing me her bear.

This was Ella before church giving me a "smile." She spends a lot of time pushing her stroller around.
Here is Ella with her cousins on the McQuay side. She loves Hannah and James and gets so excited to see them.
We had the birthday party at Dustin's grandma's house. Ella had a blast playing soccer in her huge yard with Hannah and James.

Ella opening one of her presents from Grandma and Grandpa. She loves all dolls and babies.
This is Grandma showing Ella the pillow she made for her big girl bed.
Ella was super excited to get a bike from Grandma and Grandpa. She especially loves that she can put one of her babies in the basket. Ella asks to ride her bike everyday. She hasn't totally figured out how to pedal, but she is really close. I am so glad the weather has been getting warm because Ella is loving getting to play outside so much.
Her Aunt and Uncle gave her a Disney princesses helmet that she LOVES to wear, even when she isn't riding her bike. Here she is modeling it with her Grandpa.
Ella finally really got into singing Happy Birthday and the whole birthday experience. She has been singing Happy Birthday a bunch ever since the party.
Ella and James blowing out their candles.
Thanks to everyone for such a fun weekend!! I still can't believe I have a 2 year old, even after two birthday parties.