Ellie's 1 year pictures

Here are a few of Ellie's 1 year pictures. All the photos are on facebook.








Nancy I would like my dollar now!

Happy Halloween

Hopefully more pictures will come soon! I am working on Parent teacher conferences. Until then enjoy.

Sneak Peek

We got Ellie's pictures taken last week. Here is a sneak peek. More pictures will be coming soon. You can also see a few more on the photographers web site.

I'm One Lucky Mama!

I was told on Sunday from my mom and sister that I don't post enough pictures of Ellie. Apparently I need to post every day. So here are a few pictures I have taken recently. I will do better at taking pictures of everything. I really am one lucky mama!

Miles and Amanda With Baby Ellwie


If we lay Ellie down with a headband in her hair, at some point she will be wearing it like this. If she gets upset she will pull it down also.


This is Ellie's favorite place to sleep. If dad has her, she will be asleep in no time. I think this is Mark's new favorite thing.


Ellie's favorite thing in the house is our picture wall. She will turn her head and just stare at it. If her eye catches this wall she will turn and squirm so she can look at it.


We just love this little girl!

A Monkey's Uncle

My whole life my uncle Steve always has told me he was a monkey's uncle.

(Thanks Becky I swiped this off of your blog)

Well on Saturday Mark and I ran to Wal-mart to grab a few things. When we got close to the entrance I noticed Steve and Kathy were sitting at the door collecting money for the veterans. We took Ellie over to meet them. While we were visiting Steve put his arm around me and told me he was now a monkey's, monkey's uncle. I had to laugh since I have decorated Ellie's entire room in monkeys. I guess all that monkey talk growing up made me have a love of monkeys.

On Monday I was getting Ellie ready and was sad that she wasn't wearing this outfit on Saturday when she met the monkey's, monkey's uncle.



It's hard to see but Ellie is wearing the cutest monkey outfit. Thanks Aunt Amanda!

Meeting Grandpa Jack

We took Ellie to meet Grandpa Jack on Sunday. It was so sweet watching grandpa hold Ellie. I just had to post this picture.

I love my grandpa!

Birth Story

Ellie arrived 11 days early. I thought for sure she would arrive late. With how stubborn she was when it came to finding out her gender I thought she would be stubborn again and come into this world late. Her delivery was not anything like I thought it would be.

Early Monday morning I woke up with some heavy cramps. I lay in bed trying to ignore them but they continued to be pretty consistent. I decided that I better get up and time the contractions and get a sub plan ready if this was the real thing. I got my sub plans ready and e-mailed out to a co-teacher. Then contractions were not painful but consistent. I decided that I better wake up Mark and go to the hospital to get checked out before Mark went to work. I didn’t want to send Mark to work just to call a few hours later to tell him I was in labor. So we loaded up and headed to the hospital.

We got to the hospital and they hooked me up to all the machines and checked me. I was barley dilated maybe a fingertip open. We waited for an hour to see if I would make any progress. An hour later they checked me again and I still only a fingertip. They sent me home and I was crushed. The minute you head to the hospital, you get your hopes up. I was tired and depressed so I decided to stay at home instead of going into work. I knew that if I stayed home I could induce labor. I had no such luck.

The next day I went back to work very depressed and embarrassed. I decided to use the day to prepare for substitutes just in case Ellie decided to make her debut early. By the end of the day I had lesson plans prepared and ready for a week and a half. I told Mark that because I did this she would come a week late.

That night Mark and I went to visit our friend Sara, who had her baby that morning. Sara was due 5 days before me. As we were visiting with her we joked about how Ellie needed to come out so she could share a birthday with Miranda.

Later that evening as I was preparing dinner I started to get contractions again. I had Mark keep track of how far apart they were. At 9 o’clock the contractions were 6 minutes apart and getting pretty painful. So we loaded up the car again and headed to the hospital because this had to be the real deal.

Once again they hooked me up to the monitors and checked me. Once again, I was barely dilated, maybe a fingertip. They kept me there for an hour to see if anything changed. After an hour nothing had changed. I was headed home again. This time they gave me a painkiller before I left. The nurse said if I still had contractions while on this painkiller then I was in labor. I told Mark I wasn’t going to come back to the hospital unless my water broke or the baby was falling out.

We went home and went to bed. At around 2 am I woke up in pain. I was very frustrated because I kept getting pain but it wasn’t labor. I thought for sure that the pain must be something else like gas. So I got up and took something for gas and tried to go back to bed. The pain kept coming. I couldn’t sleep and I couldn’t hold still. So instead of keeping Mark up with my squirming I got up and sat in the front room.

The pain kept coming. It got worse and worse. I couldn’t stand sitting in the recliner, or laying down. I started to walk around the kitchen. Pretty soon all I could do was cry. I didn’t understand why I was in so much pain I was on painkillers. I decided to call the doctor. The doctor asked me how far apart the pain was and I couldn’t tell him because I wasn’t keeping track. He kind of blew it off making me feel like it was just false labor and I was an over anxious new mom. He told me to wait about 2 hours and if the pain became more frequent or more intense go to the hospital. He also told me to try a bath.

I hung up frustrated and in pain. I kept walking and crying. The pain became so intense that all I could do to get my mind off the pain was to walk and sing. I would sing anything that came to my mind, from Christmas carols to hymns. Poor Mark, was in the bedroom trying to sleep during my personal concert.

I couldn’t take the pain any more so I went into the bedroom and asked Mark if he would give me a blessing. Mark got up and gave me the blessing. He asked me if we needed to go to the hospital, I told him no because they would just send me home. He went back to lying down and I started screaming. I tried the warm bath and I couldn’t relax enough to enjoy it. Mark came into the bathroom to help me at one point and I started to scream at him when he told me to relax. It was at this point I decided to keep track of the contractions. I started to time the pain and it was coming every 2 minutes.

I went into the bedroom and told Mark we needed to go to the hospital. The pain was coming every 2 minutes and they couldn’t possibly send me home in this much pain. So Mark loaded up the car yet again and we headed off. Mark would drive faster with every contraction I would have. All I could do was grab the door handle and scream every 2 minutes. I swear we stopped at every red light. That was the longest ride of my life.

We got to the hospital and Mark left the car running and took me into the hospital. We walked in and I was screaming. The nurse immediately called for a room. Mark gave the nurse my bag and left to take care of the car. The nurse walked me into labor and delivery and all the nurses rushed in the room to help.

When I got in to room all I could do was scream give me something for the pain. The nurses started helping me get my clothes off so they could check me. When they finally checked me I was dilated to 6. They then called in the anesthesiologist to give me my epidural.

During that time I know I scream a lot. At one point I remember telling the nurse I was sorry and I really was a nice person. The anesthesiologist got the epidural in and life started to look a little brighter. After it kicked in I was able to think clearly and relax. After things calmed down they checked me again and I was dilated to an 8.

After about an hour or two I dilated to a 10. They checked the baby to see if she was turned the right way. The nurse thought she was but wanted the doctor to check. The doctor came in and found that Ellie was posterior. He talked with us and we discussed turning her before we started pushing. We decided to try turning her. He attempted to turn her. Every time the doctor would get her turned he would let go and she would turn back. So we started to attempt pushing.

I pushed for 2 hours and I only made a little bit of progress. The doctor came in again and we tried to turn her again but she just turned back. Ellie was not coming down the birth canal. The doctor said I could continue pushing for a few more minutes to see if I could get her down a little further and then he could try and help her out with forceps. So I pushed for another hour. After 3 hours she still hadn’t made any progress.

I then had to make a big decision. I could attempt the forceps and take the risk of causing damage to me and maybe the baby but She was so far up that we could still have to take her c-section or I could just take her c-section.

I did not want a c-section but I was so tired. I had been up since 2am and I had just pushed for 3 hours and she made no progress. I decided to just stop and take her c-section. I didn’t want to try the forceps and cause some damage to me or to her just to have to have the c-section in the end.

So we started the process of getting ready for the c-section. Maybe 10 minutes later Ellie was out and crying. They put her in Mark’s arms, and he came over and let me see her for a moment and then they whisked her and Mark away to the nursery. The doctor stapled me together and then I went back to the labor and delivery room to wait for another hour for monitoring.

After an hour, they finally took me down to the mother and baby floor where Mark finally brought Ellie in and I was able to hold her for the first time.

Ellie is such a blessing. Her dad and I are so thankful to have her in our life.

Eleanor Rose Curtis

Ellie joined our family on May 12, 2010 at 1:11pm!
7lbs, 13oz and 20 inches long
Enjoy a few pictures. Birth story coming soon!

Baby Room Makeover

Ellie's room is almost finished. I wanted to post some pictures of the transformation.

When we bought this house the baby room was painted brown. The family that lived here before had twins and decorated the room with white cribs and light pink bedding and it was very cute.

When we broke out our cherry color crib and got the darker bedding the brown didn't look so cute anymore. My sister has a friend who is an interior designer and she said my baby room looked like it was a bear cave. So the brown had to go.


So, with some persuading, Mark started the transformation to change the brown to pink.
Bye bye brown!

After a few Saturdays we ended up with this. What do you think?

I still have a few finishing touches to do, like curtains, pictures and things, but we are pretty close to final product. We love how it turned out!

Update

I have fallen behind again!
Here is an update of what has happened recently.

I am 26 weeks and I feel like I am gigantic.

I hated all the pictures Mark took of me! I guess that is part of being pregnant.

We still don't have a 100% answer on if this baby is a girl or a boy. We went in again the next week and she wouldn't open up her knees for more than a few seconds. We did get one picture and the technician was 90% sure it was a girl.

Then a week later we were in the hospital to get some things checked out and the nurse was nice enough to bring in the ultra sound machine and check again. The hospital machines are worse than the doctor office and once again She decided to be a stinker and hide. The best picture we were able to get was not very close. The nurse thought that it was a girl also. So... we have been planning for Eleanor Rose, or Ellie for short. I am hoping that two 90% sure answers are like a 180%!

We have started getting the room ready. We have been a little slow. Mark set up the crib a month ago and the bedding set came in the mail today!




Ellie has gotten more and more active lately. Her kicks have become stronger and now Mark can feel her all the time.





We are getting very excited and anxious to welcome this sweet little baby into our home in just a few more months.

Its a.......

BABY!

We went to the ultrasound appointment today to find out what we are having and the baby kept its legs crossed the whole time! We tried everything to get the baby to uncross its legs. I turned on my side, I scrunched up, we poked and prodded but it wasn't going to be bothered.

I should have known this baby would be stubborn!

Here are the picture we were able to get.


The baby had its ankles crossed and stretched out.

The baby also kept placing its hand on its forehead when the tech tried to get a profile of the baby's face. This baby is really shy I guess?



Hopefully next week we will know if this baby is Ellie, or Logan, until then I will keep asking Miles who is in aunt Rosie's belly.

I'm back!

I know it's been a long time since I have blogged and I am hopping to start my New Years resolution a little early this year and recommit to blogging again.

There have been a lot of things happening in our life and I will do my best to catch everyone up on all the details.

First, Mark and I are expecting our first child this May. I am 4 months along and very excited to welcome this new little one into our home. I am so thankful to be into my second trimester. The first trimester was not fun at all. I did not enjoy feeling sick all the time and feeling as if I had no energy at all. I am starting to feel a lot better now.

This Thanksgiving we had two wonderful Thanksgiving celebrations. First, we celebrated at my mom's house the week before Thanksgiving before everyone left for Thanksgiving with their in-laws. We then celebrated with Mark's family.

While we were down for Thanksgiving we carried on some fun holiday traditions like Black Friday shopping and Christmas tree hunting. We also went with Mark's dad to gather supplies for our baby cradle.

Mark's dad is going to make our babies cradle. It was fun to spend time together and pick out the wood and other supplies we would need. Also, I enjoyed watching Mark and his dad study the plans and pick out only the best supplies. I know this cradle is going to turn out great and will be cherished for years to come. Thanks Grandpa Curtis!

The last really big and exciting thing that has happened lately is our new home. Mark and I purchased our first home last month and moved in last week. We are so thankful to everyone that came and helped us move. You made the move painless. Thank you.


This is our new 4 bedroom, 2 bath home. A big change from our condo. I will post more pictures of the inside as soon as I get the inside decorated. I'm a little scared to decorate it. I don't want to screw anything up and make it ugly.

Mark and I have really enjoyed the extra space especially with the baby on the way. Mark loves his garage and I love my kitchen. We found a house that had something for the both of us. I'm to sure Mark is enjoying the snow that has fallen recently and the extra big driveway. He come is everyday and tells me he wants a plow for the 4-wheeler. Luckily the neighbor come over and helps with his plow. Maybe one day he will get a plow.

We can't believe how blessed we are, and we are so thankful for everyone's help and support. I can't wait for the new adventure that awaits us.

What do you do in the summertime?

I get eaten by mosquitoes.


This is one mosquito bite. It measured 130 cm across.The doctor says it will most likely get worse before it gets better. In the mean time I have nick-named it Gigantor.

Girls Camp!!!

I survived my first girl’s camp as a leader.
It was a little strange going to girl’s camp as a responsible adult. I'm not sure that I actually fulfilled that part of my calling, the responsible part, that is. I felt as if I was just another one of the girls. The leaders joked about how this year at camp there were 14 girls and one leader, and sadly that one leader was a Laurel.

On the last day of camp we modified one of the camp songs to fit our ward a little better. Here is the verse we modified:
The leader down at camp Shalom they say are mighty fine.
They play in Biffy water and act like they are nine.
Oh Gee I wanta go to camp shalom!


I guess we just thought the leaders needed to have some fun too. While the girls were doing their stake certification hike we went hiking too. This was so the leaders that were married could call their husbands. We also made sure to take advantage of the snow on the cliffs. We went sledding down a glacier. I know it is shocking; to hear that scrardey pants Rosie went sledding down a glacier. It’s amazing what a little peer pressure will do for you.

When returned from our hike four hours later we started our scripture study for the day. In the middle of the scripture study a water line burst by our cabin and water was spraying everywhere. A few minutes later the leaders of the 8th ward were having a mud fight. Don't worry our girls never left the fire and continued with their scripture study. What can I say we had the most righteous girls at camp.

We did have a spiritual experience at camp. The stake did a wonderful job with speakers. Each day we had a new speaker and they all did a wonderful job. We had everything from a recently returned solider who spoke on what the flag meant to him to Nephi, who shared with us his feelings about the gospel and what the vision of the tree of life meant to him.

I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to go to girl’s camp. I felt as if I learned more from the girls then I could have ever taught them. They have such strong spirits.

The spirit was so strong at camp and it helped me to strengthen my testimony of the gospel. I am so thankful to be a member of this church and to be able to work in the young women’s organization. This truly is the Lord's Church

P.S. I am waiting for some more pictures from one of the other leaders. So I will post more pictures and videos when I get them.

SORRY!!!

I know, I know, all my blog entries start off with how I'm still alive and how I haven't posted anything in a really long time. Well, here I go again.

I'm still alive and I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in a really, really, really,long time. I just haven't been in a blogging mood. I still am a faithful reader and check all the blogs each day. I just haven't had any super exciting news to share. I haven't recently had a baby like Amanda. I'm not pregnant and going to find out the gender of the baby, like Mike and Becky. I've just been doing the same thing every day.

I'm grateful that this past week has been spring break at school. My patience was running thin with all the events that have taken place in my classroom with crying.I was really looking forward to some rest. I must admit I was a little disappointed to wake up to this today. I had to steal the picture off mom's facebook page.


I have used this week off to rest, clean up the house, and prepare for girls camp that is less then 2 months away.

Overall, Mark and I have been doing great. We have been slowly looking for homes and trying to get things in order to hopefully be in a new place by the end of the summer. Mark is still working with Taylor and he really enjoys his new field of work. We just got a letter informing us that he has been selected to be interviewed for a scholarship, and we are hoping he can get the scholarship and start school this fall.

As always I will end my post with the promise to try and be better at blogging but I can't promise anything.

I know many have wondered if we are still alive. It has been over a month since our last post. We are alive, we are just busy. Here is an update.
Mark is still working for Taylor Electric and he loves it. He is currently working on the new high school in Heber. I haven't worried about him working up there until the snow started to fall. I guess I'm just a little paranoid about that canyon with snow and ice. Luckily Mark car pools with some guys from work so he is not driving the 2 wheel drive truck up there alone.

I am preparing for my last week of teaching before the much needed Christmas break. I just want a few days to myself where I don't have to be teacher or Mrs. Curtis. I am still enjoying teaching for the most part. I will admit there are some days that I want to quit and be done but I'm hoping these feelings are just because I am a first year teacher trying to get the hang of this.

For Thanksgiving this year Mark and I headed down south to be with his family. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at his parents. It was my first Thanksgiving away from my family. It was a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Mark and I got up early the following Friday to participate in “Black Friday”. We even got Nancy to come along since she has never attended. We thought being down in a small town like Richfield, the crowds wouldn't be so bad. Boy, were we wrong. The line for Wal-Mart was the length of the parking lot and there were two lines. We decided to go for an $8 jacket and some entertainment. Instead we came out with a George Forman grill, a video camera, a portable DVD player, a toy for my nephew and a jacket. I don’t think we should go shopping on “Black Friday” for entertainment anymore.
I told Nancy that I wanted her to come up north next year and go shopping with me. She was the best part of shopping. She is true shopper and so I was surprised she had never gone. Mark stood back why Nancy and I immersed ourselves into the crowd of people grabbing cameras and DVD players. I trying to be polite was walking around the crowd trying to find the most polite way of entering the mob. Pretty soon I hear Nancy scream “Rosie”, as she pops here head up from the middle of the crowd. Then, I hear her say, “I got two”, as I look over I see Nancy holding up two portable DVD players.
As I make my way closer to Nancy to help her with the goods, she screams, “Do you want a video camera?” Before we knew it we had two DVD players and a camera and everyone was asking where we got them.
We then left Wal-Mart and headed over to K-mart. We had a blast and I can’t wait to take Nancy to some real crowds next year.
On Saturday, we carried on our new tradition and headed up to the mountains to cut down our Christmas tree. I was so excited to actually get to cut down our tree in the snow. There was about 2or 3 inches of snow where we were.
We invited Mark’s friend Kevin to come along and I’m sure he enjoyed walking all over the mountain with us as I critiqued every tree we came upon. We finally found a tree I was satisfied with and cut it down and brought it home. After we cut down our tree we took the 4-wheelers a little higher up the mountain to play in some more snow. Although it was cold we had a great deal of fun.

We finally got the tree decorated and the Christmas decorations up. With both of us working this year, I’m not as into the decorating and Christmas feel as I was last year. We have decorations up but that’s about it. I’m hoping to be a little more excited once Christmas break is here.
Merry Christmas!

Halloween 2008

This Halloween was nothing I would have ever expected.
I have been sick on and off for two whole weeks. I thought I was on the healing route this past week, but boy, was I wrong.

I went in to the doctors office for a cold I had for a week and it just wasn't getting any better. He gave me an antibiotic and it helped a lot. but the minute I was done taking the dosage, all of my symptoms were back. I tried to just take it easy but on Wednesday the following week I felt like I had the flu. I called a sub and went to the doctor where he gave a stronger antibiotic. It was called Factive. I started to take it and I was feeling a little bit better. Last Tuesday I took my last pill. I wouldn't say I felt like a million bucks but I was feeling better then usual.
That night I had to go to my new teacher cohort meeting in Pleasant Grove and then I had to hurry back and for my visiting teachers to stop by. As I was leaving the Elementary school I noticed my legs were a little itchy. I lifted my pant leg and noticed a few red bumps. I didn't think much of it and carried on with my schedule. Later that evening after the visiting teachers left I went into the back room to talk to Mark. The whole time I was just scratching away at my leg. Mark called my attention to it and I lifted up my pant legs and my legs had more red bumps. I pulled up my shirt sleeves and my arms had a few red bumps too. This was when I began to think that I had hives. I called mom to ask if it was common to get hives after taking the full dosage of medicine. She said that it can happen but its not as common. I decided to take some Benadryl and go to bed. I knew I would be okay in the morning.

When Mark woke me up the next morning I was a little surprised to find I was covered from head to toe with red bumps. I quickly got ready for work and headed to the school. I was supposed to go to a new teacher math conference that morning so I had arranged for a half day sub already. I decided I would just extend my lesson plan for a whole day and call my sub and just make arrangements for her to stay the whole day. I didn't even think twice that maybe my sub could not sub the entire day for me. Thanks goodness my fellow first grade team members helped me find a sub for the second half. I headed home to rest and take a heaping dosage of Benadryl.

I slept the day away and it seamed that the hives were just getting worse. By that evening Mark came home and was preparing to go to Young Mens. I decide to get up and walk around for a minute. The minute I got up I became faint and I blacked out. Luckily Mark was there to catch me. Mark helped me to the bed so I could lay down and relax. We decide right then I needed to get to a hospital. Mark called for our Home teacher to come help give me a blessing. Mom and Dad came over to help get me in the car and get me dressed to go outside.

Mark took me over the the Orem Community Hospital at 6:45, and just our luck they were busy. We got registered at the desk and then we had to wait for the 3 people in front of us. When they finally called my name they whisked off into a room and started to check my vitals. My blood pressure was very low, I had a temperature of 102.8 and I was dehydrated. They hooked me up to an IV and then I waited. They ran some more test on me and found that my white blood count was very high. Mark was a little upset with the doctor that came in and told us that from what he could see I had an allergic reaction to something and that was why I was covered with a rash, and I had some kind of infection for my white blood count to be so high. We kinda already knew all that. So he wrote me a prescription for something to help with the itching and told me to stay home for the rest of the week unless i started to feel better. Needless to say the ER doctor was very helpful. We finally left the hospital at 11:30pm.

We went home where I slept for a few hours but was up with uncontrollable itching and coughing. I went into the bathroom to find my face swollen. I couldn't get back to sleep after that, and I was keeping Mark up. I stayed up for the rest of the evening on the couch watching Ocean's 12. When Mark's alarm went off for him to go to work, I called mom to see if she could come over and get me so I could get my prescription filled and to stay with me because with the swelling in my face, the doctor was worried that my throat might swell up and cut off my air supply. Mom came and got me and found me looking like this.

I was just lucky enough, once again to have my team help me find a substitute and prepare my classroom with sub plans.

I ended up at the doctor later that day where they ran more tests on me. They decided to give my body some time to rest and they wanted to see me again in the morning.

The next day was Halloween. I was going to have to miss my very first Halloween as a teacher. I didn't have to worry about finding a sub thank goodness because my team had already arranged one. As much as I wanted to go I knew I couldn't go looking like this. This is what my body looked like as of Friday evening.

This is my leg.






















My back.



My arm.













Thank goodness the swelling in my face finally went down too.

So I guess the moral of this story is... I won't be taking Factive anytime soon.
I'm so sad that i missed my first Halloween. On a funnier note I did have mom take me up to the school so I could see all the kids dressed up. I was able to walk in my room and it in the back and watch my kids for 15 minutes with out any of them noticing me. I also was able to poke my head into my mentor teacher's classroom and say hello and she had to ask who I was.
As of today my arms and face are starting to look like normal and the red spots that cover the rest of my body are starting to look lighter. I am going to attempt teaching school tomorrow in slippers.