10 Weeks Old

Our little Ellie is 10 weeks old today! How the time has flown by. We have mixed feelings about her growing. She is becoming much more interactive and its fun to see her develop and figure things out. However, I would love to have her stay small for a while longer. These pictures were right at 2 months old. I took her to the doctor and she is doing great! She weighed 11 bls 6 oz. She also had her first shots. I cant believe they give 3 at once; poor thing! She did great, however! Only cried for about 10 seconds. Here is a picture of her at the Dr's office.

I love her rolls!:)

This is my new favorite of Ellie. So sweet.

Ellie at 2 months with her bear. I went back to work last week. It was hard. I felt bad, but Ellie did great! Joe loves having Daddy time with her and takes such great care of her. This is a picture I took when I got home the next morning, just before I took her to my friends, Laura to watch her. It just melted my heart!

It felt like a had never left when I was back at work. I wondered if it was really worth it to go back, but it was mostly hard just that first shift. It's good for me to do something else just for me. I love my co-workers, which makes it easier to be away. I'm grateful to my friend Laura for wanting to watch her those two times a month after I work so that I can get some sleep. We enjoyed dressing Ellie up for Halloween. Her costume was a little big still, but she has to be the sweetest Butterfly! No trick or treating yet, but we took her to Joe's work that has a big parade and she was of course the center of attention there. Maybe I will talk Joe into dressing up next year! I want to think of something that would work for all three of us.

Ellie with her cousnins Molly and Grace We also have been able to get together with both of Ellie's birthparents. We love them so much and have enjoyed spending time with them. We are grateful to maintain an open relationship with them.

Ellie with her birthfather Ben

Ellie with her birthmother McKenzie

Ellie with her birthmother McKenzie and sister Alora Xander has become Ellie's new watch-dog. It took awhile for him to come around, but you can tell he loves her. I was getting ready the other day while Ellie was sleeping. I was listening to some music and Xander came out of his sleeping cave and was looking at me. I went and checked on Ellie and she was fussing. I got her asleep again and then a few min later he looked at me again and I heard Ellie fussing again. What a good helper Xander is! He always wants to make sure he knows where she is. So cute. Here is a pic of her and Xander on Halloween. Its a little blurry of Xander. I couldn't get him to hold still.

Here are some more fun pics of Ellie. I just cant take enough of her cute face!

Double chin

Ellie and Mom

Love this. Wish it wasn't blurry. It's so hard to get a good picture when she is smiling so cute!

Another cute smile

This is one of Joe's favorites. Go Bronco's!

Ellie with Grandma Romney

Ellie with Grandma Fail

Sweetie-pie

Milk Face

I can't see!!!

Such a sweetheart

Our Growing Ellie

Ellie is 6 weeks old now! It's crazy how fast the time goes. We enjoy her so much. She is smiling and responding more to us each day. She went through a growth spurt this last 2 weeks. I took her into my work to weigh her last Thursday. She weighed in at 9 lbs 7 oz. I couldn't believe it. When we left the hospital, she was at 7 lbs even. Ellie is such a good baby and very low key. We are still working on limiting her naps during the day and longer sleep periods at night. She seems to be on my same schedule of staying up late and sleeping in:) Too many years of night shifts is still sticking with me. I figure I should just stay on that schedule since I will be going back to work in a couple weeks. Joe continues to work full-time. He enjoys checking on Ellie during her naps at work via our baby monitor camera. He is the best Dad. He is so excited to come home each evening and totally takes over. Here are some recent pics of our sweet girl.

The cutest smile

Ellie and her Bear

She has to have her hands by her face whenever she can

You can see those chubby cheeks!

Showing off the cutest double chin!:)

Ellie and Dad

Ellie and Mom

Ellie in her pretty dress

Cheering for the Bronco's

First outing to church for a family baby blessing

Trying to stay out of the sun

Ellie and Grandpa Romney

Ellie with Great Grandma Spelts (Nanny) and Grandma Romney

Ellie with her cousins Molly and Grace

Joe was so excited to personalize one of Ellie's Bronco's outfits. Thanks to Grandma Fail.

Fun with Ellie

It's been 3 weeks since we brought Ellie home and we have enjoyed every moment! She is such a blessing in our lives. She is good natured and so sweet. We love to watch her and snuggle her every chance we get. We feel so overwhelmed with gratitude of all of the love and support we have received from family and friends. It's fun to see how everyone has been just as excited for Ellie as we have been. Here are some pics of the last couple weeks.

Ellie with her cousin Grace. Grace is 6 weeks older than Ellie. Ellie looks so tiny!! My sister Mindy and I are so excited to have them so close.

Ellie and I at our baby shower

Ellie and with my sister Mindy and her two daughter's Molly and Grace

Dad got a welcome home from work gift. Ellie was so excited she peed on him:)

Ellie smiling.

Daddy and Ellie ready for the Bronco's game. Joe has been so excited for this day. He bought Ellie 3 Bronco's one-zies to wear for game days.

All bright-eyed

This is what I get to look at everyday while holding her

One happy Dad!

Ellie with Grandma and Grandpa Romney

Our little Family

She is so tiny in her crib

So cute in her car seat

Ellie all bundled up after her bath I realized there are not much of her and I and of all 3 of us. We clearly need to remedy that!

Melon Days

We took Ellie to her first Melon Days in Green River last weekend. It's a big deal for Joe and his family. We enjoy it each year. It was quite the endeavor to pack everything. It's crazy how one baby can need so much!! It was so nice to be with family and we loved showing Ellie to friends and family. They were so excited to meet her. Joe enjoyed playing in the softball tournament with his brother, cousins, and friends. They actually did pretty well this year. It's a blast to watch them all.

Here is Ellie with a couple of her cousins. They enjoyed holding her.

Swinging with Grandma and Grandpa Fail

Ellie with her cousin Gabbie. Gabbie has really enjoyed Ellie and has turned out to be a great helper and babysitter. Gabbie would take any chance she could to hold Ellie and to feed her. It will be cute to watch them together.

Ellie's Nursery

We had awhile to prepare for Ellie's arrival and really enjoyed getting the nursery ready. We thought of doing beadboard on the walls, but decided on a different wainscoting with frames. We loved how it all turned out. If it wasn't so time consuming, I would love to have it in the whole house!

The vinyl on the wall says, "We made a wish and you came true". I fell in love with this saying when I saw it. Ellie is definitely our wish come true.

Joe's mom has a vinyl machine and was able to scan the crib fabric to design the vinyl elephants. This is one of my parts of the nursery.

The changing station.

Ellie Ann Fail- Our Miracle

We are so excited to announce the new addition of our sweet Ellie Ann Fail. She was born early Aug 29, 2012. She weighed in at 7 lbs 5 ounces. 18 inches long. This was all made possible through the miracle of adoption. We were lucky to have been chosen from a wonderful birth mother McKenzie and birth father Ben last March. We felt instantly it was a great match and have been so lucky to have such a special relationship with them and their families. McKenzie allowed us to be a part of her pregnancy and attend all of the doctor appointments. A couple days ago, we were able to be in the delivery room when Ellie was born. Joe cut the umbilical cord and put on her first diaper:)

Ellie's first of many diapers

Ellie in her cute bow that the nurses made her

Ellie's first bottle. She caught on so quick! We decided beforehand with McKenzie that we would stay at the hospital most of the time prior to placement with McKenzie and Ellie, which is when McKenzie signed her relinquishment papers. McKenzie and her family were so welcoming and supportive of us. The hospital gave us our own "bonding" room, which made it nice to have our own space as well. We had a lot of time with Ellie as well, which was so fun! Placement day came yesterday morning. Here are a couple of pictures at placement. Lots of happy tears were shed by us all.

Our family with McKenzie. I will cherish this photo forever McKenzie is truly our hero. She was an angel sent to our family. We admire her strength and faith. We saw how much love she has for Ellie and us as well. We are eternally grateful for her. She made our greatest wish come true! We are happy that we have decided to maintain an open relationship with her and the birth father. We think it will be beneficial for us all and especially Ellie. We have developed a wonderful friendship with her. I have to say that we feel so blessed to have this opportunity to parent Ellie. We have been waiting for her for a long time. I don't think it has really set in that she is ours, but we are enjoying every moment with her! We brought her home yesterday and have been so excited to show her off to our families and friends. Here are a few more cute pictures of our sweet little angel.

Ellie and Mom

Ellie's first car ride. She slept through it all.

Melt my heart! I just thought this was so precious of her and Dad.