Hot MamaJama

Okay I found this today & decided it was just too cute to keep to myself! here is Savannah singing happy Birthday to her dad, her cousins, her aunt & 2 of her uncles. She is 2 1/2 years old!

Can you believe that she started smiling at me at 2 weeks old? So now that she's 3 weeks old I finally caught it on camera. It must be a lot of work to get those cheeks up too. :-) All my other kids were quite a bit older before they smiled. Maybe she'll be an extra happy, smiley child. Dawson was 7 weeks old before I saw one. But now we know why...he's just such a serious child. Here is the first smile of Dawson's that I got on camera

For girls, multi-tasking just comes natural they say. I'm going to have to agree. Savannah wanted to hold Ella who was slightly cranky so I said she could hold her while I cleared the table from breakfast. I walked in to find Savannah playing a little hand-held electronic game while holding Ella who had fallen fast asleep on her sisters lap. What sweetness!

So I gave Ella her first official bath on Tuesday. She didn't like it very much. These pictures are all taken kind of at a weird angle, Savannah must have some of her Grandma's photographer genes.

This post is dedicated to my wonderful husband. Thanks for making my birthday wonderful. Thanks for taking such great pictures that I treasure. I love you Tim!

For years now my sister & brother-in-law have been playing the card game of Spades with Tim & I, on each occasion we can. When we get together we play & talk & laugh & make lots of very fun memories! We have a tradition that every new year's eve we go to their house & stay up until midnight & then me & my sister climb into bed together while the men stay up long & goof off. Well January 1st of 2009, I decided to keep track of how many games we play & who wins each time. The Final tally for 2009 (which included the last game that ended at 11pm, Dec 31st, 2009) was the guys winning 11 games & the girls winning 9 games. So we played 20 games of Spades in a 12 month period! So this year (as of Jan 11 th ) we have already played twice & the girls have won both times. Here's to another great year of fun!

Dawson actually looks happy to be with her, since all the other pictures we take he has a weird look on his face, like "what do I do with this baby?". For Christmas we gave Savannah her own digital camera. She absolutely loves it & actually takes pretty good pictures. Her & her cousins have all had fun with the camera & their babies. Well my mom & sister also had fun with our camera & babies... Ella really is in there somewhere. :-) The kids are getting more comfortable with Ella & Savannah is quite adept at holding her & posing with her, etc. Hunter is a little less comfortable, but doesn't ask to hold her as much as Savannah does, so he doesn't get quite as much practice. And I had to put this pictures, because nothing can melt a woman's heart like seeing her husband bonding with his little daughter!

In all the categories here are the winners... Closest to when she would be born: Missy, she was only off by 6 hours & 7 minutes. Closest to weight: Missy Martinez & Mandy Malmgren both put 9lb, 2oz, which was only 12 oz. off Closest to length: Whoever put their name as Ella Grace & Gary Cyphers both were right on at 21 inches. Closest to labor length: Floyce Webber was only off by 1 hour 40 minutes. Overall winner with the most things close (points added up, etc.) was Missy Martinez. Thanks for the fun everyone!

The new addition to our family has been a big hit! Ella Grace Penick brings with her a very exciting story of her swift entrance into the world. The short version is that I had a few contractions in the night around 1:45am that woke me up & then I dozed back off. Nothing major. Until 2:05am I felt my water break at the same moment I had a VERY hard contraction. I woke Tim & he jumped up to start putting in the calls. At this point I was having hard contractions every 7 minutes. My parents arrived (My dad to stay with the other kids & my mom to go with us) at 2:20am. We then were on our way to Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa. On the way my contractions jumped up to about 2 to 3 minutes apart. We wheeled into the hospital at about 3:20am. They put me on a triage bed to wheel me to a room & right there is where Ella was born at 3:25am. All 9lb. 14oz of her self! There were lots of nurses rushing around & an ER Dr. catching the baby! Yes that means no pain meds , ...