Headbands!!

I love putting headbands on Ella and I was looking for the ones that have the big flowers on them. Well come to find out... those can be pretty expensive!!! So I decided that I would make some myself! They are super easy to make and only cost around a dollar a piece to make!! Here is Ella modeling her sunflower headband!

I have all kinds and colors of them now!! If anyone would like one, just ask and I can make you one!

Ella's Baptism!!

Ella was baptised on June 20 at St. Susanna Church!! We joined St. Susanna's after visiting it. We were looking for a church that we felt fit us. It is a huge church but everyone has been so welcoming and friendly. It is a young church with a lot of kids in it, which we were looking for. Father Bob Farrel baptised her... We had never met him before but he was extremely nice! She was baptised during our 9:00 mass. We wanted to do it this way because we figured we were introducing her to the church and she was the only baby baptised... just made it a little bit more personal. She was soooo good through the whole thing. She slept through everything, even the water being dumped over her head! Here is a picture of Ella with her godparents, her Aunt Trisha and Uncle Daniel.

We were lucky to have all of Ella's grandparents AND great grandparents make it to her baptism.

It was a great day because it was Andy's first father's day and our one year wedding anniversary!!! We celebrated a lot that day!! I will post pictures of Ella's present to Andy later!

Being a Mommy

When you are growing up, you always wonder what it feels like to be the mommy. You play babies and you dress up and you play the mommy. The love of a mommy is undescribable... When I was pregnant with Ella I wondered and worried would I be able to take care of her? How would I know what she needed? Would I be a good mommy? Now that she is here, I feel like I never wasn't a mommy. Loving her and taking care of her came so easily. Changing diapers, 4 am feedings, fussy moments are all worth holding that little baby in my arms. I always watched my mom and wondered how she could have 7 kids and never be phased or pushed too far. Her love for us all came so easy and I never understood. But now that I am the mommy, I understand completely. I hope Ella grows up knowing how much her mommy and daddy love her, just like I knew mine loved me. Then some day, I hope she gets to feel what its like to be the mommy instead of the baby :)

I took this picture yesterday afternoon while I was doing laundry... it is kinda blurry yet it seemed so perfect...

Almost 3 weeks!!

Ella will be 3 weeks on Monday and it is so crazy how the time has flown by!! It seemed like forever that we were waiting for her and now I am wishing time would slow down! She has changed sooo much within the last 3 weeks!! She has started having longer awake periods and she is wanting to lay and play more. She is also holding her head up a lot more and looking towards sounds and voices.

Ella Grace's birth story

We are so excited to welcome Ella Grace Robben into the world. She was born May 31, 2010 at 3:08 pm. She was already 4 days late when she decided it was time to come. I had been to the doctor on Friday the 28 and was told no change in dilation or effacement. I had been at 2 cm for about 3 weeks. On Sunday, Andy and I went for a walk with Mousse before church to try and get things moving. I had felt a little crampy and tight all morning so I was hoping it would set it over the edge. During church Andy told me that he had asked God to send the baby that day. Well... about that time I started having contractions. This was around 10:30 am. I was having contractions every 10 minutes for 3 hours when I decided to call my doctor. The answer center told me to go straight to the hospital, even though I was only contracting every 10 minutes. So Andy and I took our time, got ready and got Mousse ready for the long haul. We arrived to the hospital and were checked into triage. As soon as we got there, my contractions jumped to every 6.5 minutes. After being checked we walked and walked and walked and walked. Soon they were every 2 minutes. But... I wasn't dilating. So we were checked in and my water was broken. After about two hours, I had only dilated 1 cm, so pitocin was started. After that, the pain started to get worse and worse. I finally made it to 6 cm around 8 am Monday morning. I finally got an epidural and was able to relax and hopefully dilate more. However, no matter how high the turned the pitocin my contractions did not get stronger and I stalled at 6 cm. I was at 6 cm for about 7 hours when they decided that a c-section was the only option, I wouldn't be able to go any further on my own. So they got us ready and took us back to surgery. Within 15 minutes of being in there, Ella Grace was born. The doctor also figured out that she would never have come on her own because she was transverse and I wouldn't have been able to deliver her. She immediately was kicking and screaming and fighting the doctor (she can be a little monster!) She was 21 inches and 8 lbs 4 oz. We are so happy and blessed that she was healthy!! Here are a few pictures of our beautiful baby girl :)