More on Ellie

Well, it's hard to believe, but Ellie has reached 8 weeks! Yesterday she had her doctor's check-up. She is doing well and growing like a weed. Her height is now in the 90th percentile (don't ask me where she got her height from), and everything else has stayed pretty constant. I also had to experience the dread of giving my little one shots. I give immunizations on a daily basis at work, but let me tell you, it is a very different experience when it is your own child. She screamed bloody murder, like I have never heard her scream before. It was quite traumatic for the both of us. Luckily I know that in the long run this will help my little girl. OK, so I usually don't get on my soapbox when I blog, but here's my nurse's plug for immunizing. Here's just one example why everyone should immunize. My doctor told me that the newest routine immunization, the rotavirus vaccine, which has only been used for about 3 years, has made it so he has only seen about 3 cases of rotavirus in the past 3 years where he had over 50 each year before the vaccine. My point? Vaccines work. Vaccinate your kids. I digress...back to Ellie. She was quite grumpy all day, but let me tell you, Tylenol is your friend after shots. It made Ellie feel so much better when she had Tylenol in her system.

Here is a comparison of how much Ellie has grown. Here is the dress that Ellie went home from the hospital in:

And this was her wearing it on Sunday. Look at that adorable smile!

On another note, I have tried on more than one occasion to take some cutsie, more "professional" looking pictures of Elinor. I am not very good at it. There is definitely an art to it. Don't get me wrong, Ellie is always cute, but my pictures just aren't very professional looking. Two weeks ago my sister-in-law was in town, and she took some very cute pictures. I wasn't expecting much after the photo session because I felt like Ellie cried through the whole thing, but Kristen is a miracle worker. So here is a couple of the pictures she took. Even the one of Ellie crying is cute. Thanks Kristen.

A Month Plus Some

Our little Ellie reached her one month mark on Saturday. It is hard to believe that it has been a month, we can't really imagine life without her. It is so fun to see her grow and develop. She was such a skinny girl when she came out. We were happy to see the formation of a cute little double chin after about a week's time. She now has a lot more beef on her arms and legs than she did initially and has quite the chubby little tummy too. We measured her crudely last week, and she is at least 23 inches long. That is 4 inches more than the hospital measurements. She loves to explore the world and look at everything around her. Her neck has been strong from the beginning, but every day it seems like she is more stable with it. She has made it through the majority of two weeks of church. The first week she slept the whole time, while last week she showed off her beautiful eyes to the ward a little more. Last week Ellie started grasping things a lot more. This unfortunately brought on the discover of her hair. Often times, when she is angry, she will grab a chunk of hair and hold it in a death grip. This of course makes her more angry. It is a viscious cycle until will can release it.

This is a picture of Ellie after a bath. This is a good picture of her considering she is usually screaming bloody murder after tub time. She has yet to learn how relaxing a bath can be. She looks pretty cute though, doesn't she?

I've been meaning to post this picture for a while. This was taken about a week and half after Ellie's birthday. This was Ellie's first encounter with a cousin (Ellie is the one on the right, if you can't tell....hehe). The cute girl on the left is cuzzy Ainsley. Ainsley is only about 6 months old. I can't believe that Elinor will make such drastic changes in just 6 months. I just think the contrast so funny.

I am sure that this will not be the last post completely dedicated to our cute little girl. We are such proud parents, and so happy to have as part of our eternal family.

2 weeks

Hello. Well, it is hard to believe that 2 weeks have already passed since the speedy delivery of our little Ellie. We are happy to have her here, and everyone in the family is doing well, despite a little bit of sleep deprivation. Ellie went to the doctor today for her 2 week check up. She is now 7 pounds 1 ounce and 20 inches long. Go Ellie! You're growing like crazy! Just to let you know a little about Elinor: She now has a cute double chin and chubby little belly because all the splendid fat she has accumulated. She has a very strong neck and very strong little legs. She uses her legs to kick off her blanket while she is sleeping which results in her angry grunting because her little toesies are cold. She does not like to be swaddled. In fact, usually her arms are above her head while she sleeps. She does not sleep for more than 3 hours at a time, even at night (much to our dismay). Maybe someday. She poops a lot....we've gone through a lot of diapers. But that's to be expected, and its a good thing because she's she no longer has a yellow tint to her skin. We are so happy to have Ellie as part of our family.

A Speedy Delivery

Early this morning at 3:02 our beautiful Elinor Jean Winter was born. She weighs 6 lb 7 oz and is 19 in long. She has lots of dark hair (more than me, Brad). And we also learned that she is not very patient. You see she was actually due until July 11, but she decided she wanted a June birthday. Last night after Teri and I did a late night delivery for the pharmacy we arrived home and started getting ready for bed at about 11: PM. Teri felt just fine until her water broke in the middle of family prayer. We were totally unprepared! Well, at least we did not have a bag ready. So while Teri is leaking a bit I am running around the house in my "daddy jammies" packing a bag with who knows what. But within a half hour or so we were checking into the hospital. Once checked in Teri was dilated to a 3 and looked like she would be a while. But Ellie had other plans. In about 45 minutes she was rechecked and was dilated to a 7 and in the transition phase of labor. Because the hospital was having quite the busy night (11 deliveries!) the anesthesiologist was preoccupied and Ellie could not wait. Long story short, Teri delivered natural (no drugs, and she did awesome), Our doctor made it just in time, and 3 1/2 hours after our family prayer we were holding our new baby girl in our arms.

I am so very grateful for the help we have received from our family, the medical staff, and the Lord. Elinor is beautiful and we love her so much already!

Little Surprises

So, a little history behind our house:

It was previously occupied by a Latino family for about a year before we moved in. They let the yard and house get a little under maintained. (the yard was atrocious) But before they moved in a nice lady lived in our house who was a gardener by trade. She actually worked in a nursery. And being the gardener that she was she planned a very nice garden where different flowers would pop out at different times of the spring and summer. So we have been enjoying these little surprises popping out of our ground. (the only pictures we lack are the tulips that came up the week we moved in)

We are very grateful for this gardener lady and her skills. Thanks to her our yard, which has taken a back seat to painting lately, does not look absolutely horrid.

Thank you random gardener lady!!

Christensen Family Trip to Park City

Since we've been working so hard on the house the past month, we were lucky enough to have a family vacation planned this week with the Christensen family. It has been nice to get away and not think about work, school, or projects that need to be done on the house.


Here are some of our pretty pictures from our adventures here in
Park City

The beautiful Christensen gals

And the manly men

Here we are at the Upper Provo River Falls
almost up to Mirror Lake

Teri is dressed very appropriately

Now here we are at This is The Place State Park.
We decided to take a trip to the park because Mom and Dad recently discovered that our great great grandfather's cabin from Emery county was moved to the park last year. A big family lived in this tiny cabin, and it was the post office to boot.

Us having fun on the train ride around the park. Weeee!

More Home Improvements

Boy, it sure does take a long time to paint a house when you have a limited time schedule. To start off the week, Brad had his first experience texturing a ceiling on Monday. We had to cover up where a swamp cooler used to be in the hallway. He did a really good job, and now you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference. Wednesday was another painting day. Tanya, Janel, and Mikey came over and painted the army room. It needed two coats of primer to cover up all that lovely green, and all those lovely holes. They also painted the ceilings in the kitchen, living room, entry, and hallway. By Saturday of this week we were able to get the final coat on the walls of the kitchen, living room, entry and hallways. Thanks for all the help yesterday: Nathan, Rex, Tanya, Dad and Mom (Winter), and Mikey. Throughout the day, everyone kept noting how our next door neighbors were having a party and how jealous they were of the blow-up bouncy room inflated in their back yard. Well, right as we started the cleaning up process, Brad commented to our neighbors about how cool their bouncy room was. And the good neighbors that they are, they invited everyone over to have a go in the big blow-up toy. I think that pretty much made Brad's day. Not only did everyone get to have some fun in the bouncy room, our nice neighbors provided us with the left over food from their son's birthday party. It was really nice of them especially since I didn't have anything planned for dinner. Mikey, Brad, and Nathan stayed up until midnight taking tape off the walls. It is really great to see the front room without accents of bright blue tape. Thanks again everyone for your help. We couldn't get this all done without it. I am not much use in my "current state." I attempted to paint yesterday, but trying to stand up or just move around and not touch wet paint is more than a chore with a big belly. Anyway, thanks again. We are so much closer to having some semblance of order in our new home!

Brad, Nate, and Rex showing our new neighbors

just how mature we are

Weeeeee!!

We were too lazy to get a ladder,

but not too lazy to be creative!

(we actually did end up getting the ladder out)

The fruits of stripping tape at midnight

And now the prettiest little preggy out there

(this was written by Brad)