First Christmas for Ellie Jo!

Christmas this year was wonderful. Ellie Jo obviously wasn't too excited about it but it was fun to have it be her first Christmas.

You know that yer gettin' old when on Christmas morning you wait until you eat breakfast first before opening presents. And not just any old breakfast homemade biscuits and gravy. Obviously it was worth the wait.

All the daughters in my wife's family said that they were just going to enjoy each others company pretty much and not do presents. They stuck to their guns but the parents didn't go with it. Even though a couple of them were in on the vow. Michelle was very careful not to agree to not giving gifts so she's in the clear. Everybody was completely equal. Every one got the exact same things. The only difference was that Joe Got shorts instead of PJ's like the girls. No worries there.

Over all it was a good Christmas. We just can't wait until next year when Ellie Jo can be a little more excited about it.

Being in SLC

We've been here in SLC since Friday because Joe's dad had an emergency surgery on his appendix Thursday night. He was back home recovering a couple hours before we got there at 4:30. So it's going very well.

There's a major plus to being here that we didn't realize before we came up. Sarah's family's house is only ten minutes from the nearest In-n-Out! That is an amazing reality. Just thought we should mention that.

It's been a roller coaster for all involved since we've been here especially for the baby. She's been passed around more than the Utah Jazz's turnovers! But she's getting used to it. Today has been an awesome day as far as Ellie Jo's attitude. She's been sleeping and eating well, and when she's been awake she has been feeling and acting good.

It's been awesome spending time with everyone up here so far and it's still a couple days until Christmas. There's still alot in store. We can't wait.

1st Baby Road Trip

So we finally got to go to Salt Lake City. We've been in Cedar City for the past few months because Sarah's OBGYN told her not to travel for the couple months before Ellie Jo was born and obviously having had Ellie Jo in the middle of the winter we haven't really had her out for most of her first month let alone to travel. Luckily for us and her she did amazing the whole way up. We left Cedar City and she slept the whole time until we stopped in Fillmore to have lunch. Ellie Jo also awoke to acquire some lunch herself. As soon as lunch was over we got back on the freeway again headed to Salt Lake City. We made it far as Santaquin and Ellie Jo needed to eat again. So we stopped. She fell asleep again and we headed out again headed for Grandma Julie and Grandpa Tarbet's house because G-pa had his appendix removed last night. We got there just fine and she got hungry again. Needless to say she did awesome especially for her first time on a long road trip. At least she did alot better than we thought she would.

Just a little jog about G-pa T. He is doing alot better. He was diagnosed with appendicitis yesterday after G-ma Julie dragged him against his will to an insticare. He was directly sent to the hospital for surgery. But he was only in the hospital for a matter of about 16 hours. Now he's home doing alot better.

Baby check up and the H1N1 Vaccine.

We're pretty new parents. Ellie Jo is coming up on being a month old. So everyday is a new adventure. We think that we're in some kind of routine with her and then the next day her whole attitude is completely different. Last week Ellie Jo was sleeping through the night extremely well. Some nights it was 5 to 6 hours at a time. So we were thinking that this was something we were going to able to get used too. But all of the sudden she hasn't been sleeping well through the night this week. So we were pretty frustrated not knowing what we were doing wrong. It seemed that the milk from feeding Ellie Jo was running out and that's why Ellie Jo would get frustrated when she would eat. But we were wrong about alot of things when we talked to a Nurse at the Department of Health clinic.

After sitting in the crowded waiting room of the Department of Health clinic for about a half an hour or so the line for the H1N1 vaccine had died quite a bit after winding almost out the door when we got there. So Joe, who hadn't been vaccinated yet with a new baby in the home, jumped in line. He filled out the information sheet required while he was in line. In the time it took him to fill the form out Joe was next to get the vaccine. Sarah was still waiting to see the nurse in the WIC office of the clinic when Joe went in get his vaccine. Sarah went in with the nurse in the time it took Joe to get the shot. The shot literally only took about 30 seconds. He came out and Sarah was gone. What are the odds. So he went in to where Sarah was talking to the nurse. Sarah and Joe had alot of questions about feeding the baby. What was normal, what wasn't, what to do instead. Like we mentioned earlier Ellie Jo was sleeping good and now she isn't. She only wanted to eat every two hours before and now it seems like it's every 20 minutes. When we were talking to the nurse she said that it was good that she was eating so much. She has gained 8 oz in the past week and a half. Plus her head has gone from 13 inches to 14 and 7/8. So almost it's almost 2 inches bigger then it was when she was born. That's pretty intense.

It was a very good trip to the clinic. The trip answered alot of questions that we needed answered. This kind of stuff might sound boring to our followers but to us it was an awesome day.

Life is Sweet!!!

This up coming blog is written by Joe.

I have to try and put into words how awesome my life is, and it's not because of anything that I did. I have just been blessed to be in the right place at the right time.

I have to start where it started. My Mom and Dad are the best. I definitely wouldn't be nearly where I am today without both of them. I wouldn't know about the amazing Gospel that I have a strong testimony of. It's because of that testimony that lead me to the place where I met my beautiful wife. She is the absolute shining light of my life. I would be completely lost if it weren't for her.

We live in a wonderful and safe place. Sarah and I went for a ride this evening and just took it all in. It is gorgeous.

Speaking of gorgeous. I have the most beautiful daughter because I have the most beautiful wife in the world. They are both so awesome and I am so grateful for both of them and the awesome feeling I get when I am with both of them.

I was just feeling that my life is sweet. And I am so grateful for all that I am blessed with.

4 Years Ago!

On December 10th 2005 Sarah was in Calhoun Georgia and Joe was in Sugar Hill Georgia and we were discussing life with each other via telliolor devise when we decided to get engaged.

Just a back ground on how all of this came about, Joe started his mission in the field 3 months before Sarah did. When Sarah came into the mission Joe was in an area on the opposite side of the mission for a couple days when the mission president called and asked him to go to the other side of the mission, in the district that Sarah was in, and be the Elder who could drive for a companionship, because there were two elders assigned companionship to each other who couldn't drive.

Sarah was with a companion that she enjoyed very much and so was Joe. In fact the whole district was pretty close. 6 weeks after that the companions that each of us had and enjoyed were transferred and we both got companions that were less than desirable. So we relied on each other for support. We would call and vent to each other about each our companions. That's what started us being so close. 6 weeks after that Joe was transferred to Sugar Hill into not only a different district but a different Zone. But the fact was still the same. We both had less than desirable companions and relied on each other for support. So the phone calls didn't stop even across the mission.

When we would talk we started by venting about our companions but it eventually leaked into talking about each others interests and back home life. We found some crazy similarities. Sarah said something to Joe about night games. Joe said that he never got to play night games because he lived on a main road and didn't have any neighbors that were very close. She basically said no way because that was her situation too. That was the gate way to findin out all of the other similarities. Both their parents are divorced. Both Dads have remarried and the moms haven't. Both are the youngest of 3. Both lived on property with a fair share of land (being a few acres). And there are many more.

We were talking about those similarities when Joe asked Sarah if she had ever been proposed too. She said that she hadn't. So Joe said "Will you marry me?" jokingly. Sarah said "Yeah" not so jokingly. There was a slight pause and Joe said "Yeah will you marry me?" not jokingly realizing that she wasn't joking. Sarah said again "Yeah. Yeah I will." That happened 4 years ago today on December 10th 2005. Now we have been married over two years and we have a 2 1/2 week old baby. It's crazy what life throws at yuh when you least expect it.

Wellness 2 week check-up

Ellie Jo had her two week wellness check-up this morning. She was measured at 7 lbs 10 oz. but she is 22 inches long. She's not up to the weight that is ideal according to the pediatrition but she has grown. So thats good.

Ellie Jo ate about an hour before the appointment so she was sleeping good when we got there. As soon as we got into the room we had to undress her to take her temporature and all the weighing and such and she did not like that all. She was so mad that while she was laying there on the table she stuck it to the nurse and pee'd a practicle pint all over the table. It was hilarious and for the moment she stopped crying completely. To add injury to insult not only was she naked, cold, and mad from have everything checked but the nurse had to prick her heel to get blood samples and obviously no baby two weeks old like getting stabbed on the foot and have the vlood drawn out while they are cold and hungery already. But as soon as all of it was done Sarah took a few minutes while we were there in the room to feed Ellie Jo to hold her over until we could get home. She has been just fine ever since.

Michelle's gone! : (

Michelle has been here since the 20th of November. She originally came down with Orrin and they were both here helping Sarah right before and during the birth.

Orrin left Thanksgiving Day with Catherine, Ivan, and Onge, who all came down for the holiday.

Michelle has been so amazing! She has helped us so much over the past couple weeks. Joe has had school all of this past week so Sarah would've had to fend for herself while he was gone but Michelle stepped in valiently to the task. Not that Sarah can't or couldn't have done it on her own but all the help she could get was and is obviously greatly appreciated. Michelle's gone to the store for groceries and prepared frozen meals so we just have to heat and enjoy. That will be a humungous help. She's stayed up with the baby at night sometimes helping to sleep after Sarah has fead her so that Sarah and Joe could get some sleep. But most importantly, it was good to have her here simply for moral support and advise. It's always good to have help from those who have been through it and know what helps. There's obviously no sure fire way but any advise in the beginning is greatly appreciated.

Brand New Baby!!!

Hello, hello. We have had some recent reason to start blogging. Our daughter, Ellie Jo, was born on the 23rd of November at about 8:15 p.m. Weighing a whopping 7 lbs 14 oz. She's gorgeous because she looks just like her mom.

Sarah was feeling some minor contractions at around 6 a.m. She didn't tell Joe until he was a little ways into his English class. Sarah texted "I'm having contractions about 10 minutes apart but they aren't hurting way bad yet and they aren't lasting very long so we're not going to the hospital yet." That was around 9:15 a.m. Joe went home and while we waited for the contractions to get closer we stayed at home and played cards. Michelle and Orrin had come down a couple days before. Orrin has the massage skills to hit all the right pressure points to speed up labor because at this point Sarah was already a week over due.

Around 4 p.m. we all headed to the hospital because the contractions were starting to get worse. Sarah was in a lot of pain until around 5 p.m. when she was able to get an epidural. after that she said that she hardly even felt anything the rest of the time.

About 7:30 p.m. she started pushing and then at about 8:15 p.m. Ellie Jo was born into this world.

She didn't cry at all right at first. She was pretty calm. The nurses said that she had a lot of gunk in her lungs still so they were trying to get her to cry while they cleaned he up to help get some of the gunk out. But everything worked out. She cried a little bit when they gave her a bath.

The poor little girl must have had a pretty traumatic life right at first because there were a million cameras taking pictures of her right after she was born and they haven't exactly stopped as one could imagine.

While we were at the hospital we had a little scare while Sarah was feeding Ellie Jo that first night. Ellie had coughed up some gunk and didn't clear it out all the way and couldn't breath very well. She was starting to turn blue. So Sarah had Joe call the nurse. "Hi. Can I help you?" "Yeah. We're not sure our baby is breathing." No longer than 5 seconds there were 3 nurses in our room. They grabbed Ellie Jo and got the gunk out in a matter of seconds. They said that it happens all the time and they showed us some tricks in case it happens later on. The nurses were all very polite and helpful during the entire ordeal.

Wednesday rolled around and Sarah, Joe, and Ellie Jo got to go home. Ellie Jo wasn't eating too well on Thursday so we went into the hospital to get some tricks to see if there was a way that we could get her to eat regularly. There was a lactating specialist there that gave us some tips and now to this day Ellie Jo is eating just fine. Lately she has had some stomach issues that have just been upsetting her. The moral of that story is that she doesn't sleep very well which we know is normal but we don't get a whole lot of sleep either. That was just a little vent sentence. We know that there is more of that to come.

Over all, of course, this entire experience thus far has been amazingly rewarding and life changing and we wouldn't change it for the world.