Labor Day 2015

It was a day full of everything but labor.  My kind of holiday!  Elise was a little gem and slept for 7 hours and 45 minutes the night before!!! I woke of feeling like a million bucks.  We took our time getting ready, then met up with Sue and Chey and explored the Onion Days booths at the park.  Really, the booths are mostly full of junk, lol, but I did find a few cute headbands for Elise.

It's become somewhat of a tradition to get together with the Jensen family on labor day and go for a bike ride down Payson Canyon then meet in West Mtn for a BBQ and then play a "friendly" game of volleyball (lets be honest though, when Lorin and I start playing there's no such thing as friendly unless you're on the winning team)!  This is typically what happens every year.  This year was a little different, but still just as fun!

We kept the tradition of the bike ride and took a ride down Stumpjumper -- Lorin, Dan, Brent, Bridgette, Chris (and his dad and brother), and I.  Grandma Sue and Chey stayed home and watched Elise for us!

This year we decided to do tin foil dinners instead of a BBQ.  Each couple brought their own. Everyone was pretty creative with their dinners.  There was salmon with asparagus, lots of steak, and each dinner looked delish!  Dan and I made Italian chicken with peppers, mushrooms, and onions.  We enjoyed smores and banana boats for dessert.

The volleyball games didn't happen this year.  Instead we spent time sitting around the campfire and sharing funny stories and memories.  We talked for hours and enjoyed each other's company.  Dan entertained the group with all the children's songs we now know by heart thanks to little Elise.  We sang, "Carrot stew" "Wheels on the bus", "Green grass grew all around" and many more.  It was pretty funny to see a group of grown ups singing our hearts out around the campfire to such songs.  There is really nothing that stops Dan from entertaining his little girl :)

Most of the gang, waiting for our tinfoil dinners to cook

These pictures have nothing to do with Labor day, other than I took them on Labor day lol.  I just love them all too much not to share.  Elise is so photogenic (which she does not get from me!)

Grandma Sue was making all sorts of funny faces and noises to get her to smile

Yay! We caught a smile on camera!

I smother her with kisses all day long!

"Really mom??  Another picture??"

She chose the perfect time to nap right when our dinners were ready to eat!

Supergirl!  Playing with Aunt Bridgette

Two Months Old!

As of yesterday Elise is two months old!  It feels like time is flying by and at the same time feels like she has always been a part of our family.

In her two short months of life she has changed so much and seems less and less like a newborn!  She went to her two month check up this morning, and she is healthy as can be.  She got her first round of immunizations, which I was worried about because I was afraid of her having a negative reaction, but she was a champ!  She cried for a few seconds right as the shots went in, but I picked her up once the nurse was done, and she immediately stopped crying and has been great all day.  So far no reactions whatsoever.

She weights 11.2 pounds which is 42nd percentile, which is not as much as I thought she'd be, but she sure feels like a chunker after holding her all day!  She is 22.75 inches long which is the 60th percentile.  Perhaps she inherited the dormant tall gene from her parents :) Her eyes are still beautiful blue, and her hair has started growing in brown again (she lost a lot a few weeks after birth, and mom is so excited it's starting to grow back!)

She is full of smiles, and I think she is close to laughing!  She reaches and grabs for anything you put in front of her, including toys, hands, and she has even started reaching for my face when I put it close to hers and will grab on to my nose! She has noticed her toes and will grab them occasionally.

She is so alert and expressive, and she makes the best facial expressions.  My favorite is her the way she furrows her brows and stares at you with her big blue eyes wide open.  She has started drooling and likes to blow bubbles with her spit :)  She coos, and makes lots of gurgling noises.  I love having conversations with her, and the more I talk to her and make her baby noises, the more she talks back.  It's the cutest!  She loves starting at her own hands and I get a kick out of her making sense of her surroundings!

People ask me all the time if Elise is a "good" baby.  Being that she is my first, I have no other babies to compare her too, but I can tell you she IS a GREAT baby!!!  She is very happy, and does not fuss much at all, apart from the normal infant needs.  I have heard the first baby is good to trick you in to having more babies...well we're a few years out from that, but being her mom is simply the best!