Daddy's Little Lamb

The other night, Ella started getting fussy so I picked her up out of her swing. As I picked up my little darling, I noticed her shirt was soaked with spit up. I took it off and let her roam free in her diaper. Clothing seems to be more of a restriction than anything else to little Ms. Ripley. Ella took some deep sighs of relief and satisfaction as she laid on the floor while I tried not to be too girly about how giddy it made me to hear these sweet tones. Ella suddenly gave a little shiver and I decided to get her a onesie. When I tried to pull it over her head, I noticed that it wasn't going to fit. Then it hit me. My little girl is growing up or at least she is getting bigger. I have only been a father for two months now and time hasn't really seemed to be doing anything but stand still. Ella was just a little thing that never needed new clothes because she didn't seem to be growing. Due to the long nights, it seems more like the past two months were more like one really long day. The only reason to take any notice of time was to know when to feed. I guess what I'm getting at is that time with family, specifically my two favorite girls, is timeless. Families really are forever or at least they are in my world. At first I got way ahead of my self and started thinking about how fast she is growing and how soon she'll be walking and talking. It kind of escalated into thoughts of her first day of school, her first date, all the boys I would have to screen and possibly knock out. Finally, I came to my senses and remembered that I need to enjoy these little moments.
Also, while I was having this epiphany, I noticed that Ella looked like a little lamb. What really helped the lamb effect is that when she got made about the onesie being stuck on her head, her cry kind of sounded like a baaaahhh. My baby is so cute. Shalie thinks I'm rude for putting up this picture. She says it's torture. I say it's timeless.

Date Night!

Sita and I had our first night out alone since Ella was born, thanks to my sister Nikki. I had her take a couple of pictures before we left. It felt so good to shower and get ready for a night out on the town. It is a rare occurance now, so I thought we better take some pictures. We started our night out by going to Christopher's Steak House. I am pretty picky about my food, and I must say it was amazing. We then went to the Gateway and made our way over to the Chocolate Factory for some ice cream. We ended our night with a movie. We went and saw Bourne Ultimatum. I am not really a movie fan, but I really enjoyed it. I had so much fun spending some one on one time with my hubby, I think he was feeling neglected :). It might sound crazy, but on our way home I started to get butterflies, because I was so excited to see my baby. I just couldn't stop smiling. Sita thought I was crazy, but I actually missed her.

These are a few of her favorite things....

I wanted to post some more pictures of Ella. So these are a few of her favorite things. She loves her bath time. After every bath I give her a little massage with her baby lotion, and she thinks she's in heaven. Ella loves it when her daddy gets home from work or school and they get to visit about their days. She likes to go for walks down to her Aunt Nikki's. She also likes to take naps and make cute poses. Ella loves to have her little piggies painted. And last, but not least Ella loves to fall asleep in her swing.

Ella's Blessing Day

Here are a couple of pictures from Ella's blessing on Sunday September 2nd. Sita gave her a beautiful blessing. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful husband. It was so fun to have most of our family there. I was so glad that my Grandma Houston could make it. My Mom and Grandma helped me a lot with Ella over the weekend, it was nice to have a little break.

Are you a blog stalker?

This whole world of Blogging is quite new to me and Shalie...well, technically I am greener than Shay. Shalie was the instigator of our desire to create a blog for the family. You see Shay ( she'll probably kill me when she reads this) was very familiar with the Blog scene, yet, she herself did not have a blog. She would, how do I put this, follow or observe people's blogs persistently almost out of obsession. In other words; she was stalking. Apparently, she is not the only one. She was introduced into her guilty little secret by other blog stalkers. It's kind of a community of people who want to know what's going on in other people's lives. Not that it matters, but the majority of them are women. I found that typical...I mean interesting. I merely dismissed it and thought it was a phase she was going through, but, alas, it was one of the few mistakes I rarely make. I found this out when we ran into a group of friends that are part of the stalking community. They started spouting out statistics about such-and-such's child and so-and-so's new hair cut. Bewildered by the amount of time they all had invested into their stealthy pursuit, I wondered how many people partake in this obsession. So for any brave souls who would like to use this moment to share their addiction, please let us know. I will volunteer the first one, "Hi, my name is Shalie and I'm a blog stalker........that felt so good!" Thank you for sharing Shay.

Can you spoil a newborn?

Ever since Ella has been born she has been held, I think she has been laid down a total of five times. Every night after I get her to sleep I go to lay her down in her crib, and it never fails she wakes up and starts crying. I need some advice. She will sleep for hours in my arms, but not in her crib. Just look at her cute little face, I can't stand to just let her cry. My husband thinks she is just spoiled, but I always thought you couldn't spoil a newborn. I have been sleeping with her in the recliner at night, and am not getting much sleep. I don't care if you are a mother or not, if you have any advice I would love to hear it.

Reuinons and Departures

Time with loved ones always seems too short; especially when that time ends so abruptly. Last week Shalie got the idea that maybe she and Ella would take a trip down to St. George for a week and a half. Shay's cousin Lex would be getting married the next weekend (today) and I could come down the next weekend and pick them up. Little did I know how sad and lonely I would be. No little cries or funny noises for daddy. No waking up in the morning to my beautiful wife's kisses. I didn't really want to hang out with my single friends because they wanted to do "single-people" things, but I didn't want to hang out with married friends because it reminded me that I was alone. Even worse...we don't even have cable so no ESPN or comedy central to cheer me up. The time definitely made me appreciate my girls that much more. Needless to say it was a happy day when I got to head down to the St. Geezy. I was just outside of Beaver with hopes of happy hugs and sweet kisses of reunion when I received a voicemail from Shay. Her voice not only had a sound of urgency, but it was obvious she had been crying. My heart dropped and I sat on it while I waited for service to call her back (I hate sprint). Unfortunatley, our time on earth with Grampa Clark Houston had run out and he was called back to his father's side just an hour or so earlier. Time really does seem so short sometimes. I feel like I was robbed. I might be the one to know Grampa Clark the least being that I am married into the Houston family and we have had only a few encounters and was looking forward to many more, but I'll have to wait. Grampa Clark had a way with people(I'm sure that will come in handy up there) that made him so endearing. Among his hundreds of children, grandchildren, and great grand children, he never forgot my name. He knew my interests and made it a point to talk about them when he saw me. I'll never forget his great sense of humor and loving nature. My favorite story that he tells ends with the punchline, " If I wasn't in my Sunday best, I would have taken ya." Well here's to you Grampa Clark; we love you and miss you. Keep a seat warm for us up there.