Our Halloween was great!! I'm taking advantage of my last year of being able to pick Tay's costume. I have a feeling she'll want to be a princess for about 6 years straight! ha. We just went to our ward's trunk or treat. It was awesome to trick or treat at 70 degrees! Seriously. When we left the house I was afraid the girls would be sweating to death in their warm Utah halloween costumes. But, once the sun went down, it was perfect!! Seriously. Wish everyone could be here with us!

As you can see from the pictures below, Eric's mom made these costumes for Tay and Olivia (her cousin) 2 years ago. So, we decided to reuse them and have the girls match. It was perfect! This is Tay, Halloween 2008.

And Tay and Oliva, 2008.

Ellie, 2010

Tay, 2010

I took this picture of Ellie today and realized I have a super similar one of Tay. Look at the differences in their cheeks. Ellie still has good cheeks, but nothing like Tay's!! What do you notice that's different?? You can definitely tell they're sisters, though.

The Cabin

Every year Eric's family does a trip up to the cabin in July. It is always an awesome time, and this year was no different! I had spent 2 1/2 weeks in Utah without Eric, and then he met us at the cabin. So, it was especially great to see him again! I was actually pretty nervous to go up there with a brand new baby. Also, packing kinda stressed me out, because I had to pack for Utah for a month and for a cabin trip, which require entirely different kinds of clothing. Needless to say, we had a lot of stuff!

Although the trip was wonderful, we did have our fair share of not so great things happen. When the kids and I first got there we went with part of the family in a four wheeler type thing down to the lake. Ellie got hungry there, so I decided to feed her there instead of driving all the way back to the cabin. So, I was feeding her, and Tay was just walking around the lake. While I was feeding Ellie, she decided to have this monster blowout. It was all over her and me. Luckily I had another diaper to change her into, but no clothes. No big deal. But, when I was changing her, Taylor fell and busted her lip open and was crying. Plus, she had had no nap and was a total mess. So, she wasn't really just crying, she was totally freaking out, and would not be calmed down. She's one of those kids that mostly just gets mad when she gets hurt, so she was doing a lot of yelling. Eric wasn't there yet, and I had been single-momin it for 2 1/2 weeks, so I was done! Anyway, I totally just started crying, and we went back to the cabin and put Tay down for a nap, changed Ellie, Eric got there, and everything turned out just fine. Now that I'm writing it, it doesn't seem like such a big deal. Oh man.

Another time we put Tay down for a nap. Everything seemed just fine, until Eric's mom brought Tay out COVERED in mascara! She had gotten into my makeup bag and gotten mascara, eyeliner and lipgloss on soo much stuff! She ruined about 20 pieces of clothing. It was all over her. Eric was also gone when this happened and I was nursing Ellie (go figure). So, I made Tay take a cold shower. She was totally screaming, because the water up there was actually cold! She's had to take some cold showers here, but the water is not too bad. Dang, I sound like a mean mom! Then, Kjersten (Eric's sister) took over Taylor because Ellie was screaming. So, I finished feeding Ellie, cried, and had most of the mess cleaned up. Then, Eric got back. Such is the life of a mom:).

Other than those 2 incidents, we were great! A few of the other kids got sick, my niece and nephew had to leave:(. We luckily were not infected! We had a blast. Played some Minute to Win It games, stayed up late playing card games, rode 4 wheelers, fished, ate tons of yummy food, and just hung out. There were lots of kids there this year, which made it really fun! Now for some pics...

Ellie's Baby Blessing

On July 25th we blessed little miss Ellie Quinn Nelson. It was a beautiful blessing given by Eric in my parents ward in Utah. There were 6 people in the circle: Eric's dad and brother, my brother, my dad, Eric and the Bishop. It was so great to have all the family there. We actually took some family pictures after the blessing, which we totally forgot to do with Tay! Oops. Afterward, we all came back to my parents house and had crepes with strawberry and whipped cream filling, some with banana and nutella, and some just plain with syrup. We also had eggs and sausage. It was delicious! It's making my mouth water right now! Anyway, here are some pictures...

Ellie Quinn

Wooohooo! Miss Ellie Quinn is here! We're so excited and grateful to have her in our lives. She is such a sweet and beautiful girl. She weighed 7lb 9oz and was 20in. long. She has a little bit of really, really dark hair. She looks very different than Tay did, which is so fun! She is a great baby! Very mellow. Tay is doing well adjusting to her. She is very concerned when she cries and tries to get everything she can for her. She'll put all her babies, all the binkies she can find, and any blankets she can reach around her to make her happier. I love it. She is going to be the best big sister. She hasn't even had an accident yet!! I can't even tell you how happy that makes me:)!!

Here's the story of Miss Ellie...

I went into the hospital at 6AM on Friday May 28th. I had to get antibiotics for the Group B Strep. I got the antibiotics until 10:30. Then they started the pitocin at the lowest level ever! It was ridiculous. It was totally the same. Nothing changed. I guess my Dr. was at another hospital and wouldn't be able to be there until after lunch, so they were just stretching it out. Dumb, dumb. Anyway, once they got ahold of the dr. and he said he was available, they came in and checked me, and broke my water. I was dialated to a 5. About 20 minutes later I got my epidural. It took about 20 minutes to get it all in, and then at least another 20 minutes until I felt anything from it. I was actually in a ton of pain. A lot of the family was in there with me. I was trying to talk and laugh, but I was hurting a lot. So, they left. I just started crying. The dumb epidural was NOT working!! So, I had Eric go out and get the nurse. She came in and checked me, and kinda freaked out. She said I was dialated to a 10 and the baby's head was right there! She said I needed to hold on because the dr. was like 15 minutes away. I had gone from a 5 to a 10 in about 45 minutes. It was totally intense. Then the dr. came...finally.:) I pushed 3 times and she was here! It was amazing to see her sweet face. I loved it!

I feel sooo blessed to have a healthy, wonderful baby. It's sooo crazy to be the mom of TWO children. Holy moly. We have some adjusting to do, but I'm excited to do it. My sister, Hannah, was here helping for a couple days. Then my mother-in-law came and brought Tay with her. She stayed for 3 days with me. It was SO, SO nice to have so much help. She left this morning, and it's been going really well. I know there will be ups and downs, but I'm excited to have our little family. I love them!:)

A Quick Update

Check me out...doing ANOTHER post! I am awesome;). It has really gotten hot here lately. Like, in the 100s the past couple of days. So, we've spent some time in the water. If it were up to Tay, she would be naked all day. She has this fabulous habit of taking her swimming suit off as soon as it gets wet...no matter where we are! How fun is that!? Well, onto the pictures...

See, told ya. She loves having nothing on! I was inside making dinner and came out to find this little set up. She had used her bike to get on the swing, and set all her babies up by her. How sweet:).

Filing feet is a must here, especially wearing flip-flops all year round.:) Lucky for her, her feet are still so baby soft, I love them!

These pictures with the sunglasses on cracked me up. She was loving them. This is the one and only time she has wanted to wear them. We'll take what we can get.

So darling;)

We went to a little splash park with our friends. Tay actually loved it. We'll be headed back there, for sure. Walking out to the car. They were holding hands forever! I've been told that Eli is already betrothed to someone else, but Tay will not let that stop her. She's determined to win him over:).
And finally...a belly picture. You know, the ones I HATE taking! So awkward for me. Anyway, this is me at 38 weeks. 1 week from today I will be induced and finally get to see this little one!! Can't wait.

This pregnancy has been as smooth as can be. The beginning went super fast, especially since we didn't tell anyone until I was 17 weeks. Then, the last 2 months has been soooo long! Wow, I'm ready. I tested positive for Group B Strep, so they are inducing me 6 days early so I can get the antibiotics in and working before I have her. Tay's labor was total 4 hours, and the antibiotics need to be in there for 4 hours before I have Ellie, so they don't want me to go into labor on my own, because there might not be enough time to get the antibiotics in. Got it? I did not request to be induced early, I swear.;) But, it is really nice. Only 6 days, though. So, looks like yet ANOTHER May baby in this family. I DID NOT want a baby in May, for real. Let me just tell you what we have going on already in May:

-Tay's birthday (5th)
-Our anniversary (6th)
-Mother's Day
-My mom's birthday (11th)
-My dad's birthday (16th)
-My brother's birthday (20th)
-Eric's birthday (25th)
-Ellie's birthday (28th)

Awesome. Neither of my babies were due in May, but May it is. Sometimes I think the Lord just laughs at me...thinking I can be in charge of any of this! ha. Anyway, we're SUPER excited!! Can't wait to see her sweet and healthy face.

Oh. My. Gosh. I HAVE to post more often. There are a bazillion pictures!! Sorry. We've been VERY busy around here. I also have to take more pictures with Eric and I...we have NONE! Enjoy Miss Taylor.

Loving mom's shoes.

We tried to move her to her big girl room. yeah, that lasted 1.5 nights. ha. She hated it, and I'm not ready to give up a good napper! Little miss Ellie will be sleeping in her bassinet for a few months. I'm sure she won't mind:).

Wow, so far behind! Yes, this is Easter. Right after her nap. We had a great Easter. Tay loved looking for the eggs. She ate the candy for weeks!
Just my cutie face.

We took Tay to Chuck E Cheese while we were visiting in Utah. She FRREAKED out when we first tried to put her on the rides. It took her a long time to warm up to it. But, then she loved it! She kept asking for more monies to put in the rides.


This picture speaks for itself...the night before the 1st big potty training day. All the essentials.

She has done SO, SO well. 7 accidents the first day:(, then only 1 the next. We haven't had more than 1 accident any single day since then, and most days she doesn't have any. It's officially been a week. I'm really proud of her! She will probably regress when the baby gets here, but that's ok. At least she knows the basics. I'm glad I decided to do it before the baby, because I don't think I would have the time or energy to devote to it for MONTHS after the baby is born. It was a full-time job! But worth it.

So, we almost can't go to the park anymore. It's super hot here already. But, some mornings we get ready early and head out to the park. She loves, loves, loves swinging. She also FINALLY will go down the slides by herself. This makes the park experience a little more enjoyable for me!
Happy birthday morning! She is too cute when she wakes up. Happy girl!

We went with her friend Eli to get some frozen yogurt on her birthday. It was super fun, and yummy!
Birthday strawberry shortcake with her cousins.

Blowing out her "candles". She grabbed the match right after this and burned a sad little blister on her finger.

My anniversary flowers. Happy 4 years to us:). We went and got Thai food, went to the mall, and got some cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory. It was awesome.

Our happy girl today. Just had to show that I got her hair in 1 pony. This is even after nap, which usually destroys her hair. It was SOOO cute when we went to church, and WAY easy to do. YAY.

Well, I wish I could say I'd be doing another post before the baby's born, but...that will probably not happen. I'm feeling great, and dialated to a 3. Down to weekly appointments, and a little over 3 weeks to go. Getting super excited to see this little one!