Lily & Savannah Ellis

Yesterday the Ellis family doubled its size!  After a very smooth and quick delivery, we got to meet the two newest members of the clan: Savannah Laura Ellis and Lily Kathryn Ellis. 

 Pre-game prep: wheeling into the delivery room

After almost five years of waiting, and without further ado, we present the newest members of our little family:

Savannah (who won the foot race) weighing 4 lbs 14 oz

 Lily weighing in at 3 lbs 13 oz

The delivery went seamlessly.  Christa pushed five times and out came Savannah.  Then with the way cleared--and not wanting to be left behind--Lily popped out 2 minutes later with just one push.

I am so proud of Christa.  She did an awesome job throughout the entire pregnancy and delivery.  And in fact, today (the day after the babies came) is our 5th year anniversary so she has given us the best anniversary gift of all time!

First Family Portrait

 Thanks to everyone for your faith and prayers in our behalf.  Mom and babies are doing great. 

And I'm sorry I didn't get a post earlier.  It's been busy between 1) making sure Christa has everything she needs and 2) staring at my new daughters for hours on end.  :)

Here we go...

The babies are coming today!! 

 

On the way to the hospital at 4:00 AM

 We checked in to the hospital bright and early.  Christa's getting hooked up to the iv, but she asked me to post a couple of pictures of the pre-game warm-up so that everyone can be praying for us.

Rachel & Conlon: First Comes Love...

The week after Rob's graduation Rachel, his younger sister, got married in Utah.  Rob and I had to make it a whirlwind trip--arriving at 3am Saturday morning (delayed flight), sleeping a few hours, heading to the temple and reception, flying back to Houston at 7pm, finally getting home at about 2 am Sunday morning (delayed flight). 

But, for Rachel, it was totally worth it!  We're so thrilled she found her personal Prince Charming; Conlon seems like such a sweet guy.

Here are a glut of picture highlights from the 24-hour trip:

Meeting Tennyson for the first time since he was about 5 days old

Waiting for Rae & Conlon to come out...and meeting the FUN Bonner family

Teairsa and Mark-- 2 awesome expressions and for Mark, awesome hair. 

One of Rachel's precious new nephews

Eden--Kit and Kevin make the CUTEST kids!

Ryn, the first Kit and Kevin creation

Happy, happy!

Sisters

More Sisters--Conlon's siblings have the BEST smiles! 

Who knew weddings were a contact sport?  I lost a toenail in an encounter with Darrell's shoe during a group picture.

I felt pretty badly about leaving such a gruesome memento on the Bountiful Temple grounds.

First Official Belly Photo: 27 weeks with TWINS

Rob's siblings & spouses #s 1-5 (minus #3-Matt and Natalie somehow escaped our photographic grasp). 

Joy & Darrell with baby Margueritte

Kit & Kevin with Elle, Eden, Ryn, and Darren

Mark & Aupreille with Tennyson and Teairsa--who we could NOT catch smiling all day! 

John & Laura sans kids: footloose and fancy free!

Rachel and Conlon's reception was beautiful and we wish we could have been there for more of the pre & post wedding festivities.  I guess that's what happens when student life finally rolls to an end and you have a real job to get home to....times like these are when getting a Ph.D. starts to seem like a better and better idea.....

Actually, not really.

Graduation: He (we) DID IT!!!!

I'm about 2 months behind on this...but, better late than never!

!!!!!ROB FINALLY GRADUATED!!!!! 

 Officially.

In May we flew back to Cambridge to experience all of the pomp and circumstance that goes with a Harvard Graduation.  It didn't disappoint.

We had a great time sharing a lot of our Law School memories with my mom, brother, and sister, as well as Rob's parents--who hadn't been back to Cambridge together since Stan graduated from Harvard as an undergrad!

After finishing all of the official stuff, we took everyone down to the North End for our favorite gastronomical experiences in Boston:

At Regina Pizzeria we got our two favorite pies: the Formagio Bianco, and the Pollo Pesto.  After eating our fill everyone could understand why my poor taste buds have been completely spoiled...all other pizzas just seem to pale in comparison to the pizza at Regina's.  I guess that's a great excuse to come back and visit! 

After filling our pizza-stomachs we took a walk down Hanover Street to fill up our cannoli-stomachs (mine were both feeling very compressed by these 2 little girls sharing the stomach space) at Mike's Pastries.  

 Then Rob felt his gelato-stomach rumbling, so we stopped at our favorite gelateria and made sure that we were all COMPLETELY stuffed before finally heading home for the evening. 

Paul and Nancy Dredge, Stan and KK's friends from Harvard, were kind enough to host us at their Arlington home "Bonnyview."

Day 2 of our whirlwind trip was full of revisiting Harvardian memories--from the 1960's to 2010!

Stan and KK enjoyed riding the T again, which brought back some of KK's old commuting memories.

They showed us a few of the places they lived when Stan was an undergrad there.  And KK even got a few pictures of some of the Harvard Yard squirrels that used to give her the evil-eye as she'd walk to the T stop in the middle of winter wearing her grandmother's old squirrel coat.

We gave them a tour of the Law Library--Rob's home away from home--and made sure to get a picture of the specific spot where he'd study on rainy days so he could dry out his socks and shoes on the radiator.  

We had a great trip.  And even though it's really nice to have a positive income now that we're done with school, we really miss all of the fun times and great friends we had in Cambridge.

A Full House!

Rob's brother, John, and his wife, Laura, and their kids are staying with us for a few weeks this month before John's internship starts. Their 5 cute kids mean that all of a sudden things are a lot more fun around here!

Introducing: 

Nora Jane--hamming it up for the camera

Cosette (Coco) hamming it up for the camera

Laura, Nora, and Coco...they give me hope that we'll make it through the first year with twin girls!

3-year old Anne Loren

Big brother, and champion swimmer, Brian

Dad (John) coaxing a smile out of Caitlyn

And Nora again, ready for her glamor shot  :)

So if anybody is looking for a party, you're almost guaranteed to find one at the Ellis homestead this month!

P.S. This post marks a momentous occasion: all pictures were taken by CHRISTA!   Rob is busy bringing home the bacon, so I realized if we waited for him to take pictures our blog would die.  Good thing I have some cute subjects to practice on...

The Mud Run

A few weeks ago we went up to Dallas because Matt convinced Rob that participating in this Mud Run would be a great brotherly-bonding experience. 

A nice "before" shot

The course was about 6 miles long with 30+ crawling, climbing, swimming, jumping, swinging, MUDDY obstacles to get through. 

Natalie and I herded the kids to a place in the shade where we could catch some of the action.

Running

Climbing

Crawling

Still smiling!

And after 1:36 hours, the brothers reached the finish line!  I'm pretty sure there wasn't even a single inch of them that wasn't completely caked in mud.

Mmmm....Rob's muddy arm-hair

Luckily the race organizers anticipated the serious need for a post-race shower and brought a fire-engine to do the job.  I bet the firemen were glad for the change of pace! 

And finally, THEY WERE CLEAN!!!!   Except....2 days later, Rob was still finding mud in weird places like his ear canal and belly-button. 

Natalie and I thought it looked like so much fun that we're going to participate in Mud Run #2... after she's done growing her little baby girl and I'm done growing these two little ladies.  3 more Ellis grand babies coming in August!!

Baby Girl A

Baby Girl B

What you can do with a little time on your hands...

Since I'm not working now, and since my very good friend Amanda was expecting a baby boy, I broke out the old sewing machine and got creative:

"Stud-Muffin" and Future Missionary Onesie

They were so fun to make and I LOVE how they turned out!