Happy Birthday Grace Elizabeth and Lillian Jane!

So if you haven't heard already, my sister's twins arrived today! They were delivered by C-section at 1:13 and 1:15 this afternoon, and each are 16 1/2 inches long. One is 4 lbs 6 oz and the other is 4 lbs 8 oz, but I don't remember which is which! Sorry! But they are both beautiful! They both have very dark brown hair and I think it's more than what Brock has now! I went down to see them tonight and they are beautiful! Because they are in the NICU, Brock and Ella are not allowed to see them, so just I went down. I was the last visitor for the night, but I got to be the first (besides Eric and Shelene, of course) to hold them! Horray! They are beautiful and of course, so tiny! I took some "measurements" so I would have something to show Chad and Ella. So from the top of their heads to their chin, is about the size of my middle finger...thier eyes are about the size of my thumbnail, and from their elbow to wrist is about the size of my pinky! But they are doing so very well, and so is Shelene. Shelene should be home on Monday or so, but the babies will be a bit longer. Before they go home, they have to learn how to eat on their own and that is a process much easier said than done! The first two pictures are of Gracie and the second two are of Lilly, and the last picture is of the kids on Easter Sunday. Once we get to see the girls a little bit more and Ella and Brock get to see them, I will post some more pictures. By the way, select carefully when you vote on the poll or you might have a few people after you!

A New Adventure Every Day!

With two these two kids, life is never dull! Chad and I know we have th best and cutest kids around and we could not imagine life without them! Ella is the greatest big sister, always wanting to help give Brock a bottle, read to him, hold him, and play with him. She also likes to play baby every now and then, which usually involves climbing in Brock's car seat and crying. Ella loves going to school, making art projects and she has recently discovered photography. She likes to take pictures of her stuffed animals, me, Chad, Brock, and yes, herself! Nice self-portrait, huh? We think it's a winner! She recently discovered a new talent: playing the trumpet! While at my mom and dad's Aunt Brittany got out her trumpet and had taught Ella how to make some noise on it. She was doing pretty well! Aunt Brittany even gave her an extra mouthpiece to practice on at home. She loves it and we are looking forward to the day when she can start some lessons! Ella looks forward to American Idol each week and is not at all shy about expressing her thoughts on the singers. It is never a dull moment with her and we love it! Brock is also doing well, growing bigger every day and thickening up a bit now that he's getting enough to eat. Funny how that works! He had his first "haircut" a few weeks ago, which was actually more of a trim. He had a bit of mullet action going on so we took care of it. I did the holding, Chad did the trimming, and Ella did the photography! Not bad huh? Brock is also starting to enjoy his bath time a little bit more, especially since his Aunt Monica and Uncle Ian bought him his duck tub! He loves it and gets rather impatient if he sees it getting set up for a bath and I take too long to get him in. Brock also goes with me to babysit once a week while Ella is in school. The twins we babysit, Tessie and Tamry, just adore him! When we arrived just last Thursday, they saw us pull up, came running to the door, and started jumping up and down shouting, "Lel-la! Bock! Lel-la! Bock! Lel-la! Bock!" They just love to get crazy with Ella and help take care of Brock. We sure do have fun with them! We are certainly looking forward to a lot of upcoming visitors over the next few months like my Uncle and his family, Chad's brother and his family, Grandma and Grandpa Stites, and of course, the big arrival of the Westover twins! I'll be sure to post more then! In the mean time, we hope everyone is doing well. Be sure to check out Ella's poll and vote!

Christmas Break

We certainly enjoy our Christmas break, but boy did it fly by! Once I finished up with my finals, I ran around like crazy trying to get Christmas together and we just barely made it! Of course, I was up till 3am, wrapping presents, and we didn't begin unwrapping presents till 2pm, but who's keeping track right? I tend to think that it won't be as stressful next year, but we'll just have to wait and see! One of the highlights for Ella this Christmas was the magnifying glass that Santa brought to her. It was one of the first gifts that she opened and she had to use it to inspect each and every angle of just about every present after that! At some points we were wondering if we were going to be stuck there till next Christmas! She uses her magnifying glass now to be a scientist, a palentologist digging up dinosaur bones, or play detective. It's fun to watch. Just a few days after Christmas, we were lucky enough to have all of my family together and some friends for Brock's Baby Blessing. For those of you who may not know, this is just as important to us as an infant baptism is in other faiths. It's very special because Chad gave Brock his blessing, just as he did Ella after she was born, and my dad, Javier, Ian, Eric, (all brother-in-laws) Adam (a close friend), and our Bishop were all able to particiapte. It was very nice, and of course afterward we had some delicious food to eat! A big thank you to Shelene, Kristen, Mom (Wyckhuyse), and Monica for helping out with all of the food! We were so glad to be able to have so many people come like the Bakers from northern Utah, my cousin Ashley from California, and the Farfans all of the way from Oaklahoma! Of course, those of you who were not able to attend, you were sorely missed, especially Mom and Dad Brock, who even bought tickets to come, but that darn snow would just not allow it! After the blessing, we had a full week to be able to spend some time with the Farfans, so Ella, Brock and I made several trips down to my mom and dad's. One night Ella even got to stay the night with Aunt Brittany, Aunt Melissa, and her cousins for a New Year's Eve slumber party. They played games, ate junk food, stayed up past midnight, and the best part was, Chad and I had a quiet night at home! Of course, we had Brock with us, since he hasn't yet reached the appropriate age requirement for cousin sleepovers, but maybe next year! And one of the kids' favorite things over at Grandma and Grandpa Wyckhuyse's house these days is Grandpas TWO drumsets! That's right! Not one, but two! So the kids had a giant "jam session" and Brock even got in on the action! He had his first drum lesson from Grandpa! And in other news for the Jordan family, Chad still is working like crazy and trying to get to the gym when he can so he can be the next Arnold! Most nights when he comes home, I put him to work right away either making dinner, doing dishes or doing laundry! He's awesome and never complains! I don't know what I'd do without him! I start school again on Monday, so between that, the kids, and doing the music in primary (the childrens group) at church, I usually am running around pretty crazy! Ella is doing well in school and the best big sister ever! We've been trying to plan a few extra special things every now and then to thank her for helping and to encourage it along! Brock had his two month old check up the other day and he is right where he should be for his weight, and he's pretty tall! The doctor was also pretty impressed with his leg stregnth, but said we need to work on his shoulders. I think that if we put him on his tummy a bit more, that should do the trick, but Chad figures that a few trips to the gym and he will catch up in no time! Of course, his appointment meant shots, Brock cried of course, and as I was trying to comfort him, I look over at Ella, only to see that she's crying too! And the fact that she was so concerned for her brother made me get teary-eyed! Ella needed a lolipop to help her feel better and kept telling me that she was sorry for crying, but I thought it was very sweet! Just more proof of how much she adores her baby brother! Well, right about now is when I would say to check out the new book of the month, but I'm not going to do that anymore. Instead, yhe book club I participate in keeps a blog and I added the link on my list up on the right. We did add something new though, and we're going to call it "Ella's Poll". For this month, it's a list of some of Ella's favorite treats and she wants to know what everyone else thinks. Vote as much as you want! Also, I had so many pictures from the past few weeks that I posted some more down below! Check them out! We hope that each of you enjoyed your Christmas!

Christmas Pictures

Thanksgiving

Sorry that it has been so long since I've updated the blog, but what can I say? Between the kids, school, attempting to keep my house in order, trying to spend a few minutes with my husband, and a new church calling, life is crazy around here! We had a great Thanksgiving and we hope everyone else did too. We went down to my parents house to spend some time with everyone. Ella had a blast playing with Alexis, Spencer, Aunt Brittany, and "Aunt Melissa" (she's an honorary family memeber!). Brock of course got all kinds of attention and didn't spend more than five minutes at a time in his bouncy seat! He loved it! And he certainly did enjoy his "bonding time" with daddy and grandpa! What a group of good looking guys! We were so excited to hear that Shelene and Eric are going to have a baby. Alexis and Spencer will be great helpers! The one bad side of Thanksgiving though, was that we discovered that Ella, like Chad is allergic to cats. Each time she would go downstairs to see Aunt Monica's cat, she would come back up with red, itchy eyes! Oh well, not much we can do...I finally took Brock to get some pictures done of him. They are in, I just need to go pick them up, and then most of you should be getting one in the mail pretty soon. We're not going to do Christmas photos this year like we did last year...I want to wait a few more weeks to try and get rid of a few more pounds before we take professional pictures again! But we will do those soon! As for Brock's pictures, if you want to view them or order any, go to thesmilestation.com, enter my name and access code: LTTT0883106342TAR. I have to forewarn you though, the ones with me in them are horrible, I was not planning to have my picture taken and so my hair was in a pony tail, and I was wearing no make up. Not to mention that towards the end of the photo session, Brock was crying and wanting to eat, but the photographer insisted on trying to get this picture, making me just a little cranky. Then they kept trying to sell me this horrific photo with me in it and the girl couldn't understand why I didn't want it. Finally I was sick of her pushing it on me, so I said, "Yeah, don't even pull that one up again, because it's awful and I would never even consider buying it." She didn't bring it up again. Ella is doing great, cracking us up all of the time. I was told by one of the primary leaders about one of her funny little answers last week. They were going to talk about the three members of the Godhead but they were giving the kids hints so thy could guess. The teacher said, "The three..." and Ella shouts out, "Billy Goats Gruff!" She is a great big sister, always wanting to help out. Sunday, she was on the floor with him playing baby, and today, I came out of the bathroom to see that she had built a "tent" for him. Be sure to check out our new book of the month; it's a great one! Take care and Merry Christmas to all!

Welcome Home, Brock Alan Jordan!

As hopefully all of you have heard by now, we welcomed our little baby, Brock Alan, Thursday morning at 7:13. He weighed in at 7 pounds 15 ounces, and measured at a nice, long 21 1/2 inches. Mom started out with some early labor Wednesday morning, and as the day progressed she was pretty sure it was time! But after a trip to the hospital, we were sent home, told that yes, we were in labor, but Mom was not making enough progress at the moment. Mom and Dad were not home for more than a hour when her water broke and we were on our way back! Things really got going then and Mom was able to handle the labor until about 3am and then she broke down and asked for the epidural. Boy was that fabulous! Mom, Dad, and Grandma Wyckhuyse were able to nap for a little while until the nurse and doctor started expressing a bit of concern for Brock's condition. Each time Mom would have a contraction, Brock's heartrate would drop down a little bit lower than where it should be. So the doctor presented the idea of a C-section and said they would monitor Brock's condition for a little bit longer before a decsion was made, but they wanted us to know that it was a strong possibility. But fortunately, he hung in there, and his heartrate went up again. So by the time Mom was ready to push, the doctor said we could proceed as planned. Whew! Everyone was so impressed with Mom's fabulous pushes and after only 40 minutes, we had a baby. As Grandma Wyckhuyse explained it, after his head was out, the rest of him just kind of fell out! We discovered the reason that his heartrate would drop during contractions was because his ambilical cord was wrapped around his neck once, but the doctor had it under control and fixed the problem before we even had time to worry about it. Of course, as Mom and Dad looked at our new baby, they couldn't help but be amazed at the little miracle we had just taken part in! And Dad and Grandma were just so amazingly supportive the whole time, Mom could not have asked for a better support team! Shortly after Brock was born, we found out that our friend and neighbor, Tia, was just around the corner from mom with her baby girl who had arrived the night before. So, Mom and Tia had fun going back and forth throughout the day to visit with each other, and hold each other's new babies! Brock passed all of his newborn tests with flying colors and we are all so happy now to have him home with us. We are all doing well, and Ella is so happy to FINALLY have her brother. She loves to sit and hold him, give him kisses, brush his blonde hair, and help in any way that she can. Last night, Mom was feeding Brock and was supposed to be singing Ella bedtime songs, but she was falling asleep! So after a few minutes, Ella decided she ought to take over and began singing lullabies to Brock. It was so cute and almost made Mom cry! Words cannot express how happy and gratefull we all are, not only for our new baby boy, but for Ella and for the joy that she brings to our family every day. Thank you again to all of you for your continuing love, support, and well-wishes. We are so blessed to have so many people to share our joy with. A big, giant thank you, to Dad, for being an amazing support to Mom before, during, and after the whole labor and delivery process. He is taking such good care of us all! Another big thank-you to Grandma Wyckhuyse for being there with us, and one to Shelene for sending out pictures to everyone right away. We love you all!

No, No Baby Yet!

No, he hasn't come yet! So, it's been awhile since we've updated our blog, but we have been crazy busy lately! With school, play dates, babysitting, and of course getting ready for little "Chad Jr." (no, that's not his name....just thought we'd clear that one up since many of you asked). But it's been a lot of fun. One of Ella's favorite things to do lately is have her friend, Savannah over. Ella told mom that Savannah is her very best friend. They are adorable together and so very silly. Here they are watching a video, wearing Daddy's socks.
A big huge thank you to Shelene, Grandma (Eileen), and Brenda for putting together a baby shower for us. It was a lot of fun and we were given some adorable clothes, blankets, and much needed items for "Chad Jr." And although Angie Fennemore from our ward was not able to attend the party, she brought over a gift for the baby and for Ella! It was a kit, containing a magic wand, tiara, journal and purse to decorate. Ella was so excited, but it had to wait for a few weeks because she was insistent that all three of us decorate them together! It took us awhile to find the time, but we managed! Mom decorated the tiara and purse, Ella did the journal, and Daddy decorated the magic wand. And a lovely magic wand it is! Thanks Angie! It was a hit! Another gift was a new baby doll and bottle from Grandma Thelma and Grandpa Jerry. Ella was so excited, and for several days, she didn't do much except take care of her babies! She feeds them often, puts them down for a nap, and we have to whisper when they are sleeping so that we don't wake them. Even though their clothes are pink and purple, they are both boys, and since there are two of them, Ella thinks it would be neat if we had two babies too! No thanks! We'll just take one at a time!
Yesterday we took Ella on one last "only child" trip to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. She loved the jelly fish, sharks, "nemos", and "dorys". She was even brave enough to reach out and touch a starfish in one of the touch pools. Then, that evening, we saw our first snow of the year! That's right! About a week ago, we were still in the 80's and then all of a sudden the temperature dropped like crazy! It snowed enough to stick and Sunday after church, we put our snow gear on and went out to play! We make a giant snowman, snow angels, had a snowball fight, and then topped it all off with mugs of hot chocolate when we came inside. We don't think the snow is going to stick around for much long since we are supposed to hit 70's again by the end of this week, but it sure was a fun preview of winter!
Well, this is a very exciting time for us as all of you know, since we are anxiously awaiting the any-day arrival of "Chad Jr"! Mom and Dad of course are pacing the floor for the big day, but Ella is just as impatient. Just this evening, Ella announced to us that she was going to say a prayer for her brother to come, and sure enough, she did and she prayed that he would come "very, very soon, like the day after tomorrow." So I guess we'll just have to wait and see how her prayer is answered! We will try our best to keep you all updated, and we apologize in advance if we overlook anybody! If we do overlook someone, it's not that we don't love you, it's that the arrival will have Mom and Dad both just a little scatter-brained! Thank you to all for your love, support, and beautiful gifts! Don't forget to check out our baby's week by week development (39 weeks) and our book of the month.