February

Here's a report of our February happenings. First an update on our girls:

Emily and Ella are absolutely adorable together. Emily loves to lay next to Ella and says, "Ella sleeping!!" all the time (and very loudly). When she wakes up from a nap she says very intently, "Baby Ella Baby Ella Baby Ella!" It is so fun to have two little girls.

Emily patting Ella....softly?

Ella is so cute. We love to just stare at her. We could not have asked for a happier, more peaceful baby. She only cries when she is hungry or has a bubble, and she eats and sleeps really well.

Emily makes every day hilarious. She sings to herself all the time; she knows about 15 songs. She loves to be tickled or to tickle other people and say "how funny!" She talks constantly about everyone and everything.

Ella's first bath! Once her cord was gone it was fun to get her into the newborn tub and give her a real bath right on the kitchen counter.

We were SOOO lucky to have Grandma Nield with us for about the first two weeks of February! Life was crazy during those weeks! Big midterm papers, late nights, frequent feedings, a sick toddler, etc. We would not have survived without Grandma. Emily was so sad when she had to leave. We miss her!

Emily loves to periodically request to "hold it." That means she wants to hold Ella (we try to explain that she's a girl and not an it), and after a few seconds of holding her she says, "All done" and pushes her away. :) Good thing we actually never let go of Ella when Emily is holding her!

Another cute shot of Ella. Couldn't resist.

On to the actual happenings of February. February 13th was Aunt Heidi's birthday! We had a big celebration for her at our apartment. Here we are singing the birthday song and walking toward Heidi with our present.

Grandma and Grandpa Hunsaker were there, as well as the Richards fam. We had so much fun!

Dave talking here: The next day was, of course, Valentine's Day! But unfortunately I had class until 9 p.m. :( I would have felt totally justified missing the class, but my team had a presentation so I couldn't miss. So we decided Valentine's wouldn't be until the following week. However, being the awesome husband that I am, I surprised Melissa and had this note delivered to her during my class. I wrote this poem to ask her on a date for the next week and filled a jar with Reese's cups. Some of the Reese's cups had little slips of paper hidden in them with the list of activities we would do on our date the next week. I know--so cute.
Well when I got home, Melissa had already responded by putting the same jar (now filled with tiny slips of paper) on the porch when I arrived at our apartment! She wrote a poem in response (quick!) and had me count through 144 "yes" and "no" papers to determine her answer. It was really fun. See below for a report of our Valentine's date the next week. :)

On Feb. 19th we had Ella's baby blessing. Dave did the blessing, and the grandparents and many aunts and uncles from both sides were there. It was really neat. Melissa and her mom made this beautiful blessing dress for her! Thanks to everyone who came and made it special.

Grandma and Grandpa Hunsaker with Ella Rose

Grandma and Grandpa Nield with Ella Rose

On Feb. 20th we finally celebrated Valentine's Day! Dave planned a progressive dinner--not your typical fancy progressive dinner, but a dinner that included stopping at several of our favorite restaurants through town for their particular specialties: McDonald's for fries and a smoothie, Wendy's for chicken nuggets and a chicken sandwich, and Dairy Queen for dessert. So fun! We had so much fun talking and going from restaurant to restaurant.

Here are a few more highlights from the month. We used our double stroller! We went on a nice long walk through the neighborhood so that everyone could see our two cute girls. :)

For Valentine's, Grandma and Grandpa Hunsaker gave us each a $1 gift certificate to McDonald's! So we went with our girls--the first time Emily has ever been to McDonald's! It was really, really cute to watch her eat her tiny fries and try to nibble on chicken nuggets. She loved the bear that came with the Happy Meal, and she acted so shy in public.

We finally spent one Saturday going through every box in our house, just dejunking and consolidating our possessions. Dave decided to get rid of his trophies from high school--mostly from debate and science fair. Melissa actually always teases him that we're going to have a trophy room someday for all of his trophies, so this is the closest we'll ever get! We took one picture of all of them...and then gave them to the D.I. Just had to share this seriously impressive setup. :)

Our newest informal family picture. We can't say just how fun it is to be a little family every day. Life really is amazing, thanks to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Another great month in our lives.

Announcing...Ella Rose!

On Jan. 18th, 2012 at 8:59 a.m. Ella Rose Hunsaker joined our family!! She weighed 7 lbs. 5 oz. and was 18.5 inches long. We are so excited to have her here! Here are some pictures and commentary on the crazy and wonderful days that have followed since her arrival.

Ella Rose came 9 days early! Here's a little about the labor: Melissa began having contractions the evening of the 17th, but painful contractions didn't start until 5:30 a.m. the morning of the 18th. She labored at home for a few hours while Dave got things packed and dressed Emily and took her to the neighbors' home. We finally went to the hospital at 8:15 a.m. We thought we had plenty of time, but we arrived at the hospital at about 8:45 and Ella was born less than 10 minutes after we got to the delivery room! She was fast! Melissa did the whole thing natural again, and she was a champion!

She has long dark hair and beautiful eyes. Unfortunately, a few hours after she was born the doctors began to suspect that she had an infection. That's when the story took a turn we weren't expecting.

Ella spent 5 days at the hospital. She was in the NICU the whole time, tethered to machines by at least 5 different lines. Here's a picture of her bed with the fun welcome signs the nurses made for her.

Day 1

They suspected Ella had an infection and took a blood sample to test. They started her on antibiotics.

Lots of family came that night to congratulate us and see Ella! Emily got to come too, and we were so glad to see her.

Emily and the family got to wave through the window at Ella. Emily was SO excited.

Day 2
The blood tests came back positive--Ella had an infection. They told us we would be in the hospital for at least 10 days. They also drew some spinal fluid to see whether the infection had spread to her brain. Those results were good--no infection in the brain. The doctors decided if Ella continued to do well, we could bring her home in a few days and continue treatment here.

Day 3Ella got a PICC Line--a tube that goes through her arm up almost to her heart. It's like a more permanent type of IV. We (Melissa and Dave) were released from the hospital, but we decided to board at the hospital for a few more nights until we could take Ella home.

Day 4

Ella continued to eat well and show good signs. The second blood sample (from Day 2) came back negative, indicating that the infection was probably gone.

Day 5

Ella was well enough to come home with her PICC Line, but the doctors thought it would be easier to make the transition to home care on a week day than a week end. So we stayed one more night in the hospital.

Bringing Ella home...

On Day 6 we got to bring our Ella home! She had a PICC Line in her right arm, so we weren't able to put her clothes on all the way. You can see her line in the picture above. We were so excited to bring her home!...and to be home with Emily finally!

Here's Ella's setup at home.

Emily LOVES Ella. Of course there's a transition, but she's doing well and loves to see the baby, even though it's usually from a distance. Ella is cuter and cuter every day, and we're so glad to be home with our two little girls.

The PICC Line only had to be in for a few more days, and it's finally over! We were so excited to get it out. Now we have our girl line-free. It has definitely been an adventure, but we saw so many miracles along the way and we feel very blessed.

January

January 2012 has arrived! AFTER doing goals and fortunes for 2012, we finally had our own Christmas as a family! Read on to hear about it...

New Year's Day was baby Charlotte's baby blessing. It was wonderful to get together with everyone on New Year's Day and celebrate her birth!

That night we had our Christmas Eve. Dave's family has a tradition where the dad rocks all of the kids on Christmas Eve and sings them a special song. So Dave got to rock Emily and sing to her by the Christmas tree. This is a really dark picture, but hopefully you can kind of see.
This really is a neat tradition. In fact, Dave's sister, Nettie Francis, just published a short Christmas story about it called Papa's Song.

On Christmas Eve Emily got to open one present--these Santa slippers! Aren't they hilarious? She actually didn't like them, but we got her to put them on briefly and snapped this picture.

Christmas morning! Emily got a big candy cane in her stocking filled with fruit loops. She LOVED them.

The biggest hit was this laptop computer from Santa Claus. Now she can sit on the couch and play with her computer while Daddy is "playing" with his (doing homework).

A pretty pink watch that opens and closes...

We had such a great Christmas, and that night we all slept by the Christmas tree. We tried to have Emily sleep by us without the pak'n'play first, but after about an hour decided we really needed the pak'n'play. :) Can't wait for Christmas to come around again next year!

Here are some other pictures of everyday life. Emily LOVES bath time, and we couldn't resist posting this cute picture of her getting ready for her bath.

Doing homework with Daddy...

Emily loves her Mr. Brown Can Moo. Can You? book from Grandma Hunsaker. She can make all of the sounds.

And it finally snowed, so Emily got to use her snow suit. Here she is playing with Daddy in the snow.

Stay tuned for our NEWEST news, Baby Ella! Coming next...

December

On to December! Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year. Hope you enjoy this post of the fun things we did during the season!

Our cute, Christmasy house. This is probably the last year we can get away with really small stockings for the girls. :)

On December 6th we celebrate St. Nicholas Tag, which is a German holiday. St. Nicholas brings fun treats and leaves them in everyone's shoes, which are placed at the door the night before. Unless finals are looming and you're close to 8 months pregnant...then St. Nicholas sometimes uses whatever happens to be in the house--bananas and oranges.

We made lots of Christmas goodies for neighbors and friends. The chocolate pretzels are always Dave's favorite part. And Emily helped with the cookie decorating.

We got to attend the ward Christmas party, which included dancing! Emily was so cute dancing by herself or with Daddy in the middle of the dance floor. She makes life so much fun.

At Dave's office Christmas party, his boss gave us this snowman decoration. The snowman is soft and the same size as Emily. She LOVES it. She waves to it every day and sometimes gives it hugs. She calls it, "a-no."

December 15th, right on her due date, Charlotte Elizabeth was born to Katie and Andrew (Katie is Dave's sister). She came a little fast and was actually born at home! This is after her parents made it to the hospital with her to recover. What a funny story.

Dave's office had a Christmas lunch for full-time staff and spouses at Chef's Table. It was so good! We had never been there before, and it was really nice.

And of course December means going to Washington!! We look forward to this all year. Here's Emily playing with her cousins. We spent about 10 days there and had an absolute BLAST.

Visiting Aunt Sybil

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa Pratt

Emily making her very own ginger bread house!

Emily playing with Uncle Chris. He flew her all around the house in this laundry basket. Can you tell she was the center of attention? :)

Visiting Grandma Bisson, who happens to live in the same city.

While we were there, Tammie and Brent came and took us to visit Tim and Tobi and their girls. We all had so much fun talking and laughing together.

Chris helping Emily use the roller...

Getting together with the extended Pratt family. Emily was an angel (although not pictured here) and wasn't super cooperative. :)

And of course we got pajamas on Christmas Eve! Here's the girl pajama picture. Grandma took a pair of pajamas and cut them down and custom made Emily's pair. They are so cute on her!

Christmas morning at Grandma's. Emily's still waking up.

The talking purse Emily got--complete with money, a mirror, keys, lipstick, and a bracelet. Who would have thought she'd have so much fun with those things at 18 months old?

Christmas dinner at the Nields'

Grandma had a doll that Emily called "baby." She loved carrying baby all over the house. Here is Emily dressed as Mary holding the baby for the Christmas program. She sang "Mary's Lullaby" for everyone while holding the baby.

Emily helping Chris with dishes.

We got a giant puzzle for Christmas! Here we are working on it on Christmas day.

Grandma helped Emily string fruit loops for a fun Christmas decoration. Emily was so good at stringing the few that were left after she put the rest in her mouth. :)

We were lucky enough to be in Washington for Jared's (Melissa's cousin) wedding! We got to attend the sealing and the reception later that day. Congrats to the happy couple!

On our last night in Washington, Grandma and Grandpa took us out for Chinese. It was delicious. Here are Daddy and Emily waiting for the food.

Saying goodbye to the Nields. When Emily came home, she often said, "Amie? Chris? Grandma? Grandpa? Spencer?" She misses all of you!

After coming home from Washington, we took a drive up to Ogden and stayed a few days with Dave's family. We helped Heidi and Joe make this gingerbread house.

We saw the published, two-volume dissertation that Doug wrote this year for his PhD. Congrats, Doug!

Emily tried on a cute outfit from China. It was adorable! She must have been born to wear Chinese clothes and speak Chinese!

Joe was nice enough to share one of his old capes with Emily and dress up with her. :)

On New Year's Eve we all made posters with our goals on them. It was so much fun!

And we popped balloons that had fortunes in them for the year.

Later that night, we celebrated until midnight with Jake and Sanita back in Provo. It was a party!

Stay tuned for our next post, which shows our very own Christmas back here in Provo!