So I haven't posted in a while, because I've been feeling like ---well, let's just say, not good at all. Morning sickness? Let's just call it what it is: All day, all night, constant for weeks and weeks sickness. I don't like to post without a picture, but I don't think it would be appropriate to show one of how I really feel, so I'll just find a cute baby one of Ellie and remember that soon I'll have two new angels in my life. That's right, if you haven't already heard... it's twins! I won't find out the sex until Jan. or Feb.

Halloween

Ellie was the beautiful Princess Gisselle from the recent Disney movie "Enchanted". Isn't she beautiful. Dress and bucket were compliments of her grandmas.


Dan was the Chef Extraordinaire who put the bun in this oven. We wore it to the ward party as our happy announcement!

success

Well, it worked! Your prayers and fastings and names in the temple-ings have not been in vain....

I'm Pregnant!!!

They said I had a blood count level of over 1200, what ever that means... the nurse said it means I'm "very" pregnant. I go for a vaginal ultrasound in two weeks, they said at that point they could tell me whether I'm having twins or not.




They also said I need to still take it easy. I wonder how flying will be?







I have to cut back on exercise too, which is sad for me, but worth it. Maybe I'll try this...
Is it ball yoga? Who knows.



I guess I'll become a great walker!

Hail to the Princess Ellie!

It all started one Sunday evening...





She came home from grandma's wrapped the blanket around her waist, and knelt down so it puffed out all around her. Then she said:

Mama, I'm a princess.

Indeed she is!

Then it continued...



She was Cinderella for a couple weeks with a dress she stole from our sweet neighbor Ella.











After that, she started stealing any dress she could find from the Leishman (our other neighbors) dress-up box. This is one of her favorites. She was playing in the leaves with it on when Aunt Kandy got this picture. She never takes the dress off!
I even went to the DI and bought her a few to wear around the house.
She wore this one over her new cute birthday clothes the entire day of her party.




















Since everyone in the family knew that she was princess crazy, she got totally princessed out for her birtday.

She got a wand from Aunt Dawn...















Princess shoes from cousin Adri and the Godfrey gang....
















Princess movies (Sleeping Beauty and Barbi) from Grandpa Brent, and a music player from cousin Ava...








But best of all from Grandma Debbie, she got a giant trunk full of princess dresses, shoes, and the all important accessories.



She immediately put them on for the main event...blowing out the candles on the Pretty Pink Princess Kitty made by Grandma Kristi. "Oh, so cute," Ellie said. She tried blowing them out by herself to no avail. At the same time mama decided to help her, she waved her magic princess wand and the candles were out..MAGIC!!! The lovely sparlky accessory on her head (among other wonderful treasures) is also from Grandma Kristi. There was no end to the presents!!


The princess craze continues. Be looking forward to some lovely Halloween pics of Ellie as Princess Giselle from Enchanted.

Oh, what beautiful embryos.

Here is picture of our little embryos. Aren't they so cute! The clinic gave these to us the day I got inceminated. The egg on the right is "graded" a B2, which is as perfect a human embryo as you can get. The one on the left is graded a B3+ which is like second place. I guess mice can get embryos graded B1, but never humans. They called me the day after the transfer and said that two more eggs had "blasted" and were good to freeze, so we've got a couple in the freezer for later. Everything went well and was very easy and painless. The doctor just waved her magic wand and impregnated me. I just hope it works. They gave me a couple valium to help me relax, and can I just say... I LOVE DRUGS! I slept like Grandma Ruby in the afternoon. Our pregnancy test is on the 29th, so I'll post as soon as I know.

Bussiness Time

Well, tis the big week, the big week for baby-making, in-vitro style. We've been telling all of you about it for months and the time has finally come. The big day of transfer is Thursday.















Dan left his healthy sample at the lab on Saturday. They got 16 eggs from our donor, 10 of those were mature, and 8 were fertilized.





The 8 fertilized embryo are growing and dividing as we speak! The doctors will most likely put 2 into my body on Thursday. The rest will be frozen.




















This is the time we need all of your thoughts prayers, and fasting if you so desire. They have given me a 65-70% chance for success, and have been very optimistic, so we really think we'll be successful. Thank you all for your love and support, I'll be letting you know what happens as soon as I know. I hope we get a happy result!

Climbing, Flying, and Boredom

So, here I am, sitting in Newark, NJ, doing what I do best. Waiting. Always waiting - for a flight, for a hotel room, for a ride, waiting for a plan. Right now I'm waiting to go to Oslo, Norway. While sitting here fighting my rising boredom, I decided it was my turn to post on the blog. I've been out on the road for six days with six more to go. I'm looking forward to doing a little bouldering in Oslo, a run in Dublin, and then coming home. Our family had a great summer climbing, traveling and relaxing. Holly and I summited Mt Rainier for the second time via the Gibraltar Ledges route, and we had a great family vacation in Jackson, WY.
Last weekend before I left, Holly and Ellie and I met up with Scott, Maggie, and Casey for a climbing trip down to Maple Canyon. It was so much fun! Holly climbed hard and Ellie, after wearing herself out by rolling in the dirt numerous times, went to sleep in her pack 'n play at just the perfect time to allow Mom and Dad to go climb together. While we were there, Casey H. took the Family Portrait in this post. He is a magician with a camera. To see more of his stuff go to www.caseyhyer.com or click on the link to one of his blogs below. We finished the day off by eating fantastically fat hamburgers and fries before retiring to Casey and Alisa's house for the night. (Thanks for having us over guys!)
While I'm gone on my Continental sponsored adventures, Holly stays busy hiking, running, teaching, and most importantly, momming. Ellie is so sweet and beautiful, and definitely keeps Holly busy. Holly is truly a superwoman for dealing with all of the responsibilities of home during my long absences. Thank you honey! It looks like I've managed to make it through another wait! :)
See you all again soon.

Yes that's right. I am a P.E. teacher this year, and yes, I am teaching a flag football unit. Me, who only watches one football game a year, the super-bowl, and the only reason I do that is for the food. It's way different when you're working with the sweet little 6th graders though. They are so fun at the beginning of the year, and still thing their teacher is awesome. Even the cool boys want to catch with me and have kicking contests against me, like I'm some kind of expert. I guess I have them fooled. I am having a blast this year wearing pajamas to school and sleeping in until 15 minutes before I need to be at school. My hair is in a ponytail all the time, and I love it. I'm home by 11:00 am. I know you all want my job, but it's too bad, you can't have it. Ha Ha to my siblings who always labeled me as the black-sheep un-athletic one in the family. I get to teach athletics for a living, so take that!

Puppy

 

I have finally added Picasa 2 to my computer and am experimenting with it. Isn't Ellie so precious with her favorite puppy in the world. This was in our back yard yesterday right after church.

Weekend Gifts

Our family time was extended into the weekend because of a sad little mis-hap in the fabulous Wellsville mountains. On Thursday, the day before Dan was to report for his trip to London, he took a little "jog" to the top of the mountain. In true Dan "ROCKMAN" style, he chose to jump jovially like a giant mountain goat down the jagged trail. In true Wellsville form, the trail was completely overgrown hiding any perilous obstacles that lay waiting to trap the happy hiker. As you can see, a rickety rock rioted right up and bit Dan in the ankle. He was sooooooooooo sad to have to call in sick for the first six days of a twelve day trip, ha ha. We celebrated our free weekend with a visit from our good friends the Alldreges. We all went to the beach at Hyrum Dam and played in the water, then had fun grilling hamburgers back at the house. It was a fun day and great to spend time with our friends.

This is Ellie sneaking into daddy's luggage. It was hilarious!
Just so I don't have a bunch of weirdos sneaking into my blog and looking at cute pictures of my darling baby, I decided to block it and only allow people I invite on. If you want to be invited, I guess I just need your e-mail. I hope I did it right. I was tempted to put my e-mail here, but decided if you know me, you can figure it out somehow, you know, call me or drop me an e-mail.

Angel Child

The other day after I got out of the shower and had wet nasty hair, I was holding Ellie. She kept petting my hair and saying "Pretty, Pretty," then she said, "Bootiful," I told her she was so sweet. Then she patted my face and said, "I love you so much, mama," It was so sweet! It's great to be a mother. The joy of interactions with this beautiful little girl surpass my expectations every day. She is so much fun.

Groceries - What the $%&*@#?

I wanted to copy an image of a bag of groceries, but I haven't figured out a way to copy images from the web yet. Maybe one of my blog friends can give me some advice about that. My query is about groceries. How can I cut back and save money. My sweet, cheep little sister brags all the time about how she only spends $200/month on groceries. How the crap do you do it? Send me a list, I don't believe it. I spend more than twice that much. Do you have a separate budget category for non-food items like paper towels and diapers. Perhaps I'll try that next month. What do you eat? How is that budget buying any kind of produce? Please help me with this. I see ads for Albertson's where you can get 10 items for $15, but are you really saving if you don't pick items that you always use? And... is it cost-effective to go to different stores. Plus, I HATE WAL*MART!!! I like to get most of my shopping done at Macey's, is this why I'm failing miserably at a decent grocery budget? HELP!! We desperately need to save money so that we can do this whole in-vitro thing and add to our family. My grocery budget is the largest variable in my budget, I really want to do better. Any advice?

Upon our return from Jackson Hole, we wer delighted to get to visit the newest member to the Cooper clan - Baby Casen Stewart Cooper. While we were meeting the sleepy newborn, Ellie and Camden enjoyed some quality cousin-bonding time. I'm not sure if I've seen Ellie giggle so much. They had a blast rough-housing with the big stuffed horse. Are'nt cousins wonderful!

We just returned from our annual trip to Jackson Hole where Ellie enjoyed swimming at String Lake with her daddy, playing with her cousins (she is kissing James - Darcie and Ryan's youngest), and hiking comfortably in the backpack with mom and dad. It was a really fun trip. Ellie loved the water at the lake and the river. She really liked seeing the buffalo near our camp and laughed right out loud when she saw them. It was wonderful to enjoy the magic of the Tetons with our beautiful little girl. It was awesome family bonding time. Ellie was excited to get home though and danced happily around the house upon our return.

On the 4th of July, Ellie and I visited Bear Lake. Ellie loved the parade and had fun picking up candy. She really loves visiting Grandma Kristi's house. She loves that Grandpa Crane lives there so she can try on his cowboy boots! Daddy was off celebrating the 4th in Paris, France. We talked to him on the computer like we always do. He could hear a big Jack Johnson concert from his hotel room where he also has a great view of the Eiffel Tower. Yep, it's hard work being a pilot!

Ellie and her Mommy were very glad to be reunited and celebrated with a birthday party for Cousin Justin. Ellie has been singing "Happy Birtday to Justin" ever since!

Meet the Coopers

Welcome to our family's blog. We are having a great summer. Here's a taste of our wholesome recreational activities.

Dan and I made our second trip to Mt. Rainier summiting on June 28th at about 6:00 a.m. It was awesome and epic as we climbed with a team of 9 people on Gibraltar Ledges. I of course froze in the wee hours before dawn and swore to myself to sell all my gear upon return. However, the glory of the summit quieted my threats, and I'll most likely seek out other mountaineering feats.