Update on our lives

Hello to everyone and sorry I've been a little out of touch. We've been very busy!
Gracie is now 6 1/2 weeks and she's doing well, despite a few "issues" we've run into over the last 6 weeks.
Feeding issues:
At first we had trouble with feeding. My milk had a hard time coming in and Gracie lost a bunch of weight and then wouldn't gain it back and so the doc put us on a strict feeding schedule for a few weeks and we had to go in every few days to watch her weight. Eventually that all came together and she started gaining weight, which was great because the constant feeding and supplementing and pumping was a bit overwhelming and tiresome. She's now gaining weight just fine, although now she's been spitting up more and more. I'm not sure if it's reflux, but I'll just watch it over the next few weeks to see if it continues to get worse.
Head Shape Issues:
One other issue is that her head has become mis-shaped. She always has her head to one side and that has flattened one side, caused a bulge to go out the other side, pushed her forehead forward and pushed one of her ears forward, out of alignment with the other ear. SO...we're supposed to work with her on stretching her neck to the other side. If she's not improving by her 2 month appointment, we'll need to work with a physical therapist. Then we may or may not need to put her in a helmet at some point. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.
Gracie and sleeping:
She's been sleeping great! That's the good news. For the last week or 2 she will sleep from about 10:30 until 5:00 or 6:00 and the other day she even slept until 7:00 - it was great! It's so nice to have a nice block of sleep time, let me tell you!
Henry and Ella:
The other kids are doing great. Henry is really into playing computer and wii games and loves to run around outside with the neighborhood kids during playgroup.
Ella is into everything and acting very much like a 2 year old. She's a little stinker, but she's also so much fun and full of life. The picture of the marker on the cupboard was her masterpiece from yesterday. Yep - it's permanent sharpe marker. It came off the counter and the oven, but won't come off the drawers, the fridge or the dishwasher. I've been told to try magic eraser and so we'll have to buy one and try it.
Henry and Ella are finding how much it is to play with each other (most of the time), which is great for giving them something to do while I'm nursing the baby half the day.
Anyways - that's about it. Hope you made it through this long blog post!

Gracie's Blessing

Okay! Now that I've finally posted the Halloween post, I can now move on to Gracie's Blessing.
We decided sort of last minute to do her blessing on November 1st. We weren't sure when we were going to do it, but then my dad was in town to pick up my mom and so we threw it together and it all worked out very nicely.
Here is a list of who was in the circle: My dad, Jim (Adam's dad), Jess (Adam's brother), Lance (Adam's brother), and Kevin (Adam's brother in law). Then Adam also invited our home teacher, Matt, and 2 of his good friend's, Matt and Howard. It was very nice of everyone to come and support us.
Adam gave Gracie a wonderful blessing and she only cried just a little bit! :)
The above picture of just Gracie isn't the best, but believe or not, it was the best of the few pictures I took that day...unfortunately...

Halloween Pictures

These are a tad late...BUT I wanted to post a few pictures from Halloween.
Henry was an army guy - he's wanted that for a while now since he's really into army and war things.
Ella was first a leaf fairy and then Minnie Mouse (a couple of days before Halloween my parents picked her up a few costumes that had been discounted so we could give them to her for Christmas - for dress up. She saw the minnie mouse costume and wanted to wear it...).
We went to 3 parties - 1. Josh and Jessica Hakes party the weekend before Halloween 2. the party at Adam's work the day before 3. Our ward party the day of. And after the ward party Adam took the kids around to trick or treat for a few minutes. Needless to say, we had plenty of Halloween fun and ended up with WAY to much candy!

Thank You Provo!!!!

Wow! What a night for Provo politics. Thank you to all you Provo voters who went out and voted. Thank you especially for voting for Laura Cabanilla, Sterling Beck, and John Curtis. These were hugely important races and after a long wait for change, finally, we have it. Thanks to those who campaigned, who read fliers, who hosted signs, who got involved in the discussion and cared enough to vote! I am quite excited for the possibilities presented us with the changes now brought to our city. Thanks, thanks, thanks.