Eliana FloorWalker

It's official. Eliana is walking! After months of assisted walking through the house and everywhere, she is finally doing it on her own. Enjoy!



"Impressive. Most impressive." -Darth Vader-

A Masterpiece: Carrots and Peas on Highchair

Howdy friends and family. Our camera decided to divulge all of its photos today and we thought you might like to see some of Eliana and the family. An album has already been set up on Facebook which you can access here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=115291&id=505458532&l=d8b543a684

Some I didn't seem to include were our recent family photos (one of which is displayed in our living room) so here's a treat for you.


We continue keeping busy. I am busy with lots of homework, research projects, consulting, and playing tour guide to Eliana as she walks around the house. It is amazing how much she has learned and grown over the last 10 and a half months. Megan is busy playing Mommy, making curtains for Eliana's room, and dealing with the baby who loves walking everywhere Mommy will let her. Eliana is growing like a weed with six teeth, hair that can actually support a bow (though Eliana doesn't support the bow), and a love for adventure and excitement (at least as much as we let her get into).

Love you all and God bless.

It's cool! It's hip! Isn't it?

Cool Occurrence One:
Eliana started to walk this week. Unassistedly, that is. Her highest number in a row is something like nine. Now, these steps were not towards her mother, mind you. They were walking to her Aunt Amber, who is much cooler. The in-laws (whom I adore, incidentally), came down for conference this past weekend. Which was awesome, by the way. Eli loved playing with her Aunt Amber, enjoyed Grandpa, who looks a lot like her Daddy and Unc Jason, and liked Grandma until she scared her with noseblowing. Grandma thought Eliana didn't like her very much, but I think that Eli was just being herself. When someone really really want her to like them and play with them, she doesn't want anything to do with it. Take me, for example. If I am doing anything that distracts from Eli, she comes and demands my attention. The only reason I am currently writing this is beause she is napping. Now, if you want Eli to come do something with you, she will run away quickly. Unless you have something that she wants. In Amber's case, I suspect it is beautiful red hair that she can...play with? Pull on? Something like that. She loves to play with mine while nursing before bed at night.

Numero Dos:
The toilet fairies fixed the toilet! Hooray!!! Since we moved in last May (approximately a year and a half ago), the toilet has had this little quirk where it runs constantly. While the girls all went shopping to find a homecoming dress for Amber, the boys fixed the toilet. I'm still not completely positive which all boys were in on it. I think just Dad, Brian and Jason. Anyway, they decided to let me figure out on my own that it had occurred. It was given away by the different flush handle. It wasn't until after it flushed that I realized that it wasn't running constantly anymore. I am super excited. Next up: Fixing the drippy sinks. Dunno when that will happen, but they need new washers. Badly.

Cool Occurrence Number Three. Literally.:
Our heater isn't working. Our landlord went down on friday (?) to make sure everything was in working order to start using our awesome old heater (which I really do love, it's quite wonderful), and it seems the pump is broken. Which means no heat or moisture from our beautiful steam radiators. Sad freaking weekend. It's been cold, and I am so so so so so so so sooooooo grateful that Mom and Dad Wells lent us a space heater last winter. And didn't ask for it back. We've been using it for Eliana's room, and using the oven to heat the rest of the house. Needless to say, our bedroom is the coldest room in the house. Luckily the temperature has not been so cold that we have had to move in with Eli, although that may happen in the near future if fixing the pump takes too long. So if you want to pray for our heater, we would be okay with that. Our neighbors probably wouldn't complain either.

I wanna play with the magic eraser....*sniffle*

I have decided that I should stop being a bum. This is going to be very difficult for me, but it is in fact what I am GOING to do. Now to just convince myself to give up fanfiction....

The last couple of days have been fairly uneventful, with the exception of being somewhat more happy/productive than normal. We had JordyLeeny over for dinner on Sunday (homemade beef stroganoff in the crockpot-AMAZING!), JordyLeeny and Sarah for FHE on Monday (I suppose last night), and I learned to play SCUM, which is kinda funny because I was given SCUM cards for my birthday three years ago and did not ever use them until last night. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it. Soy el-Vice Presidente! Also, we had amazing deliciousness of yummy used bookstore goodness happen to us last week. My friend Marie (who is completely amazing, even if she does live at monkey headquarters) decided to get rid of a large chunk of her manga. She didn't want to deal with trying to sell it, so she gave to me (happy SQUEEEEE!!). I kept about 3/4 of what she didn't want, and took Ranma (poor confused boy/girl/panda) down to the used bookshop, where I was given in-store credit for used books. This combined with the loveliness that is a remodeling sale, and Brian and I ended up with 16 scrumptious books out of the deal. That's right, you heard me. Megan on cloud freaking NINE! This in addition to the Bookstore sale that Brian let me buy four books at earlier last week. One of which is a lovely slowcooker cookbook of yummy delicious goodness. Give me an excuse to have great food that is not labor intensive and I will take it any day of the week. Speaking of slowcookers, I also found a blog that tells you how to make yogurt in one. See here: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/you-can-make-yogurt-in-your-crockpot.html .

In other news, Eliana is a monster. Silly alien spawn, I love her, but she crazy. A week and some ago she fell and cut her gum open on the corner of our entertainment center, which scared the holy guacamole out of me - blood everywhere - and it has been steadily healing ever since. Well, I was looking at it to check progress yesterday, and lo and behold there is a little tooth creeping out of the slice. On the top. What happened to bottom teeth first? She also seems to think that boobs are for playing with. We are still breastfeeding at 8 months (only four more to go to reach our goal - woot!) and she delights in both trying to blow raspberries at her feedings or sucking in and pulling back to make a popping noise. NO BUENO!! Just because I feed you with them does not make them yours, little boo! She also seems to have decided that spoon feeding by mom or dad is not for her, no sirrah! Yesterday I tried to feed her lunch and she would have none of it, trying to steal the spoon from me at every opportunity, and trying to get the babyfood jar as well. She'd been fussy, alright, screaming angry, about us trying to feed her for the last few days. Apparently she has decided that she is an independent woman child and wants to feed herself. So for lunch today I gave her finger food and no problems whatsoever. Right after we stock up on baby food, no less. Gah, now what? I am considering letting her just have the bowl and spoon and see what happens, but I'm afraid. Very afraid. Brian, be warned, Eliana may be getting baths more often. Aren't you a lucky daddy?

Also, I broke the swiffer handle off today. It was very upsetting. Stupid trying to mop the kitchen floor. I just want a clean house! In happier housecleaning news, the generic magic erasers are wonderful too! I used one to take scuffs off of wall and floor recently, and things came right off. Happy sigh. And Brian even cleaned all the dishes last night for me. He really is a wonderful hubby. Don't think I could have done better. Now to just buckle down and clean the bathroom floor. And the tub. And the ceiling in the kitchen. Don't ask, I don't know how it got dirty. I suspect that it was always that way and I have just recently started to look up. The tub just needs a really good pumice-ing. I still haven't found a cleaner that will take off as much hard water build-up as this tub has. Please note, yet again, much of it was there before we moved in over a year ago - I cleaned the crap out of the stupid thing multiple times and gave up because of the whole pregnant and new baby thing. Now that Eli is dangerous and moving (crawling and getting into everything - hooray baby gates for their magical containment properties), I feel that I can finally start getting more done. She's not quite as attached at the hip to me as she used to be. Oh, and we finally got naps figured out, although by the time I write this, she'll probably change it up just to keep me on my toes.

Well, that's about all the random thoughts that I have right at the moment. I do hope you enjoyed this episode of the life of Megan.

Hawaii + Zebras + Crawling + Surveys + Office = Us?

Brian here. Thought I'd do my customary stop-in and send everyone love, pictures, videos, etc. We've been really busy over the last month. So...

Wells Family Hawaiian Adventure


Let me give the abridged version because there are a lot of details to why. So Megan's little sister Cherokee elected to move with their real mom in Hawaii, and Megan was asked to be a chaperon for the transition. Well, Megan wouldn't go without me, so... hence we had a beautiful week on Oahu.

We enjoyed all the sides of the island. We went snorkeling twice (and Megan LOVED it!), we saw the Laie Temple, enjoyed local shopping (where we saw my cousin Heidi and her husband Craig), and went to a fantastic luau at Paradise Cove (AMAZING!!!).

Eliana was mesmerozied by the hula dancers (and who wouldn't be)

Eli meeting her future husbands... I mean, the hula guys


Eli meeting a hula dancer

Great weather. Did wonders for our skin. Megan's step-dad made some awesome videos of parts of our journey, which I've linked for your enjoyment:

Seeing Oahu -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itHJtemXaYI&feature=channel
Paradise Luau -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDLPk5lD3pg&feature=channel
Fire Dancer from Paradise Cove -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZSlNFudJVQ&feature=channel
An Eliana montage -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0V66B0rx08&feature=channel_page
(or search oahusteve on youtube.com)

Independence Day starring a Zebra


Our 4th of July was great spending it with Jason and Megan (holla!), who are also moving down the end of the month (yippee!). We visited the Hogle Zoo the day before the 4th which Eliana loved... mainly speaking to the animals. (They did not respond for comment.) Fireworks were cool, and Eli just stared wide eyed.

Our Pride and Joy

Then there's Eliana. She turns 8 months this week. Her last doctor's appointment put her at 18 pounds and 27 inches (right where she should be along the 75th percentile). Eli loves all types of food, especially if its off our plates. She loves vegetables, fruit, Cheerios, whatever's for dinner. In the last month, she has started a full crawl with the moving arms and legs, not the hopping around stuff anymore. We've taken a few videos. The first is from last week of Eliana and her favorite "Right Round" toy.

The same day she got her crawl on, she started pulling herself up on furniture (as seen below).

Now she walks along the table, the couch, the TV stand, etc. Walking, I'm sure, is around he corner. Here's another one, showing off her amazing "Table Walking" ability.

Not a lot of hair or teeth yet. Words are not exactly words yet but the essence of "Mama" is there. But we're loving every minute seeing her grow. She's our little blessing. Happy as a clam.

If Mama Ain't Happy...


Megan is loving being a mommy and seeing all of Eliana's growth. She's been doing some online surveys to make a little extra money during Eli's naps. Her garden is flourishing with huge squash plants and huge tomato plants. None to eat yet but the babies are all over. Cooking new foods and eating healthy have been her recent goals. (I'm working on the liking a vegetarian meal, still. I'm just stubborn.) Of course, she makes wicked desserts (banana pudding, cheesecake, etc. drool. etc. drool.)

She's recently a Class A residential house finder (for Megan and Jason), a Class A wedding invitation designer (for Chris and Miriam's wedding, which were phenomenal), and a Class A "squee"-er (thanks to Erika, who stopped in from Michigan, much to Megan's enjoyment). She's been putting her major to use by getting to redecorate some of the house including a new love seat, new shelves, new lights, new curtains. She's really made it feel like our home.

And by the way, I'm still utterly, completely in love with her (2 year anniversary next month).

Brian, Resident Statistician


So, epic fail. When I wrote my title, I spelled "statistician" incorrectly. I'm totally going to succeed in this field. **droops head in stupidity**

Anyways, I'm just working full-time for FHSS Research Support doing statistics for the College. It's been slow, with the occasional grad student or professor, but I've been learning a lot. The big things going on with me is getting ready to decide if it's time for grad school or a "real" job. I'm taking the GRE and my last grad-prep classes this Fall, so we'll see if I'm graduate school material. Elsewise, I'm just enjoying being a handyman for the wife with all her projects and playing with my little girl.

Well, I think that's about it (give or take a 25 page dissertation). We want you all to know that our love is with you. We're loving our lives and invite any of you to stop by for a visit. Come see Eli. She would like it.

God bless y'all.

Eliana's Sign and Mommy's Cloth Diaper Love

The absolute coolest thing ever happened this morning! It completely makes up for the rough night that we had (Eli got up three times last night, one of them because it was too hot, and we haven't put the air conditioner in her bedroom window yet. We really need to get on that.). Anyway, so Brian got up this morning, changed her diaper as usual, played with her for a little bit, and brought her in and set her on the bed next to me so that he could start getting ready for work. I roll over, still slightly groggy, but happy to see her, and start saying good morning to my sweet baby girl. Well, all of a sudden she very deliberately makes the sign for milk. I was so excited! I've been using that sign when I ask her if she's hungry for a few months now, but wasn't really sure when she would start using it. There have been a few times that I thought that she might be trying, but it was not a definite sign asking for milk until today. So she made her first sign this morning, I grinned at her, and she grinned at me. Beautiful. It was cool, because Brian saw it too, and we were both amazed. And then I fed my baby milk.

Part 2: Cloth Diaper Love
I love love love cloth diapers!! We are mostly using the BumGenius All-in-One One-Size organic diaper, with a few prefolds thrown in when we run out. I love them! We've been doing cloth for three or four weeks now (I think), and they are awesome! Nothing at all like the cloth diapers that our moms used. No pins (which is wonderful), and they now make flushable liners so that when baby starts solids and you can't just throw the poopy diapers straight into the wash anymore you can put in a liner and the poop shakes right out with the liner. Love love love. Occaisionaly we do miss putting a liner in when she poops, but that's what yellow cleaning gloves are for, right? So that you can clean up messes that you'd rather not touch with your bare hands. I feel like with using cloth I'm actually getting something out of diapering her, instead of throwing away 40 to 50 dollars a month. Of course, it is a big up front investment, but in the long run it does end up being cheaper. Especially when you consider that cloth diapers usually last through more that one kid. Yes, I'm a hippie. And I love it.

Four Words

STAR. TREK. WAS. AWESOME.

Brian and I went to see it last night, and being who we are, we decided to dress up. I went as a Trill and he was a Starfleet Commander. It was basically awesome. Unfortunately we didn't get to go opening night, so we were the only ones dressed up, but I don't think that a lot of people here in Provo are into that sort of thing anyway. We got some very interesting looks, but my favorite was the old couple who walked by us and said "Hello Commander" to Brian and then looked at my spots and were like: 'Wow, you're a Trill!" and then he said "It was a Trill to meet you." Absolutely awesome. We apparently are young Trekkies, and they are old ones. It was funny though, because Brian's costume was super easy to put together, and mine cost 10 bucks at DI. We thought that it was hilarious, because any time that you see Star Trek characters dressed in casual clothes, they look like they fell into a rummage sale bin and came out dressed that way. Anyway, the movie was great, Spock was AWESOME (I absolutely love Sylar, and he was AMAZING in this role) Kirk was perfect, cocky enough that he was, well, Kirk, and intelligent enough that you really end up rooting for him. I'm definitely interested to see if they end up completely remaking the Star Trek universe now that they have created the alternate, but I'm not really sure if I want them to. It's a little scary to think about starting over. Anyway, I am really in the mood for some ice cream and The Next Generation, so I'm going to go drool over....that is watch me some Picard and Riker.

Global Warming My .... Um.....Eye....

I would like to point out something that is very incongruous with the whole 'global warming' epidemic. Today is the first day of April. And it is in fact, snowing. Wait, I get it now, global warming is the best April Fool's joke ever! What the problem really is, the reason that it is warmer later into the year, and colder into the spring, is really that scientists miscalculated the duration of the earth's rotation, and the year is actually supposed to be a few minutes longer than they have made it. Wow, I'm glad I figured that out. I believe that I will wait to tell them until after I've graduated though, because I would hate for them to fix it in the middle of the semester and have to wait an extra few days to graduate. That would just be miserable. And they'd have to come up with some crazy name for that extra week. Like leap week. And knowing BYU, they still wouldn't let us have a spring break! Of all the nerve. Of course, my whole theory could just be a product of Utah being screwy for weather. They do say that if you don't like the weather here, wait 10 minutes. Which is somewhat true. Monday it snowed 4 inches, and yesterday was beautifully sunny. Stupid Utah. Stupid snow. Stupid global warming.

Anyway, enough ranting about the beautiful (kill me now) weather, and on to recent happenings in the Wells household. Brian and I are still managing quite well in our studies, Eli went through another growth spurt, and is trying to exhaust her mommy by waking up 2-3 times during the night when she had been down to 1, Megan (me) wants to just quit school, and is just happy that she only has 3 weeks left, and Brian is for some inexplicable reason still enjoying sadistics....I mean, statistics. My mom left this past friday after having been here for just over a week, and it was really quite fun. I was horribly nervous beforehand, not having seen her for quite a few years, but found out that we have an awful lot in common. And she completely spoiled me while she was here. Shame on her (Thank you mom). We did drive up to Boise so that she could see Cherokee, which she completely enjoyed, and I had the strange experience of seeing both of my parents in the same room, and sort of smiling, no less. All in all, it was really good, although next time I hope that I can convince them to stand close enough to each other that I can get a picture with them and myself. Although I have no idea when 'next time' is going to be. Considering that mom lives in Hawaii, and it's a trifle expensive to come out here, the next time might be when Cherokee gets married, although I really hope that it's sooner than that, and I think that my mom hopes that, too. I also have realized that I don't need to worry too much about getting old. I have similar skin to my mom's, and all week everyone kept asking if she was my older sister, which was hilarious, but she really doesn't look old enough to be my mom. Cher's, maybe, but apparently not mine. We also were naughty and surprised Brian while she was here. Wednesday night I put Eliana to bed and mom and I started getting ready for a 'girls night out'. Little did Brian know, we were secretly planning a date for him and I. I looked freaking hot, too. So once I was ready, my mom told Brian to go put on his shoes, and he looked at her for a second and then was like "Oh!". It was really cute. Also, my mom and I bought matching shoes from Charlotte Russe. Honestly, they may even tie with Jessica's 'the shoes' for amazingness. Although I haven't quite decided if they do or not. But they are extremely sexy. Anywho, I need to write a research paper to piss off my parenting and child guidance professor. It's about breastfeeding and the development of allergies. He is of the opinion that breastfed babies rarely get allergies, and I found a bunch of research studies that contradict him, although others agree with him. So basically they can't really prove that breastfeeding prevents allergies. So there.

Peanut Butter and Awesome

Brian here. Thought I'd drop in my customary what down low on the low down...
First off, wanted to let you know that a new album is up on Facebook of Eliana from January to February. Here's the link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=66199&id=505458532&l=2d262

Well what about us? Things are going well for the Wells Family. Both Megan and I are doing pretty well (Megan says it's actually "FREAKIN' AWESOME") in classes. Megan was completely amazed today when I said she had 6 and half weeks of class, plus a week of finals, and then she'd be done with school. It's crazy to think about her being all graduated and having a degree. (It's just so she can one up me. Haha... j/k)

My family came down for the President's Day weekend, which happened to coincide with Valentine's weekend. (What is up with that anyways... too many holidays in one weekend. It just ruins it, ya know.) We had a great time. This also meant we got a new car! Hooray! We told Dad we were looking for one since ours was like hashed from our accident last year. Well Dad found an awesome deal up there; we bought it and he brought it down. It's a lovely gold 2003 Ford Taurus which has more space and CD player. Megan loves to drive it. Probably because it doesn't look like she bought it from the ghetto.

Eliana is growing so much! She's over 13 pounds now and I'm sure beyond that by now, which means she's doubled her birth weight. She has discovered the joys and wonders of moving objects and TV. Many a night has been spent watching Star Trek or a movie with Eliana just big eyed towards the screen. We were actually watching a movie a couple of weeks ago, some kind of explosion happened and Eliana jumped back in her seat with big shocked eyes. It was cute.

She has also found the joy of music. She loves hearing mommy and daddy sing. She's fallen in love with:
- "Popcorn Popping"
- "In the Leafy Treetops"
- "I Love to See the Temple"
- "I am a Child of God"
- "Book of Mormon Stories"
- "Little Bunny Foo-foo"
- etc...
But of particular interest is her theme song which we made up from an old army tune Dad Wells taught us. It's a cute little song. Megan just wrote a third verse. The other song of interest is a song we heard on InsideOut's newest CD "Sharing Time" (which she loves to listen to in the car... no crying). It's called "Peanut Butter and Jelly". Its a fun song. I've linked a homemade YouTube music video to it (please note we did NOT make the video).



Well... I think that's all for today/tonight. (I've been writing this over the course of about 10 hours.) We love you all. We appreciate your love and support and your prayers in our behalf. More posts to come because more is yet to happen.

Desensitization to human feces

It's amazing to me how quickly you get used to cleaning up someone else's poop as a parent. I have gotten to the point that it is just a fact of life that I will probably be washing baby poopoo out of a onsie every day or two. Of course, then there are the days that it happens two or three times. Just recently Eli had a day where I set her down in her bouncer seat, and about ten minutes later had a poopie diaper. They don't smell terribly bad, but she goes off like a trumpet and is quite loud about it. So I take her out to change her, and there is a lovely yellowish stain all up her back. All over her outfit. Somehow she missed the chair (thankfully). So I get her changed and go back to washing dishes. Probably twenty minutes later I notice that she has a new brown stain, all over her new onsie, only this time it's up the front. I have no idea how she managed that one. Butt in back, poop in front up far enough that her belly button is filled with it? Not sure how the logistics of that worked. So I take care of that one, too. Now, I'm no fool, and realizing that it's just that she wants to ruin all of the cute clothes, I put her in the ugliest onsie that we have. It works, and she didn't have another blow out that day.
Well, today is the second day that I am really back into my prepreggo jeans, and they look quite spiffy. Not gonna lie. Now, I know that she is just itching to get poop on them. It's how she rolls. (Well, actually, she rolls from her tummy to her back, but you know what I mean.) So I'm nursing her, which is prime defecation time. I hear a rumble. Uh, oh, she's gonna try for it. So I put my hand over the edge of the diaper to assist it in poop keeping. Woohoo! No poop escaped from the side! Yay for me! So I very carefully lay her down on my lap, assuming the diaper has done it's job of absorption. Not so! I grab the changing pad to lay her on, and as I move her I notice a lovely big spot right on my thigh. Eliana 1 - Mommy zero.

Oops, I hear her going at it again, better make sure she doesn't get it on the couch! Where did I put that changing pad?....

By Popular Demand...

Many have asked to see more pictures of Eliana. Well, I've done so on Facebook. So if you follow this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=60654&l=0d983&id=505458532

It should get you to the new album of Eliana. Some are repeats, but whatever. I'll add some more later. But enjoy!

Yeah, the baby found a thumb... MINE

Happy 2 month birthday Eli!!! Yeah!

School has begun anew... to the chagrin of all involved. Megan is enjoying her 3 classes (the last 3 remaining before she graduates). I am feeling spread thin between 4 stats classes, work, etc. Eliana is enjoying her time on campus. She gets to see all the interesting people and hear random strangers say, "She's so cute" all day long. Eli has gained 4 pounds and not sits at 10 lb 10 oz as of Wednesday. She actually had an ear infection this week which was no fun. Though the good news is that she has slept at least 8 hours each night this week. (Yumm... I love sleep.) The big issue is she loves breastfeeding. And hates the bottle. Go figure. You start them on the bottle; they like it; you give them the boob and she's like, "Why did you ever give me the bottle? This boob is delicious!" And so it goes...

So, yes, we abbreviate Eliana as Eli. I know it's spelled like Eli from the Old Testament, but we aren't British and so we don't add extra random letters that confuse people. (Thanks, and no offense, Cadence.) So it's Eli. Ta da.

Tuesday we had the awesome priviledge to hear Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. I've copied the link here: http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1819&tid=2 This will get you to the site to download the mp3, or in about a week or so, the written transcript. Seriously, this was one of the top three talks I've ever heard at BYU. It's entitled "Remember Lot's Wife" and focuses on the sin of not letting the past alone, whether that be in relationships, family problems, etc. He teaches to not dwell on the past, but have faith in the bright future which is in Christ. Full of power. A must read for sure.

Well... I know you don't want to hear about our BORING lives (wait... that's what a blog is for?), so here are some pictures:

This is Eliana in her blessing dress on the day of her blessing.

The proud parents after the blessing. Cue music. We are a happy family.

Here is proof that Megan is still hot after having a baby. Eli is definitely mommy's daughter.


And this is just one of my favorite pictures of Eli. SOLID! Also a disclaimer: this was not posed. She just did it. She's totally her dad's daughter.

We were going to post a video of Eli rolling over from her front to her back but its 220 MB. Blogspot doesn't like that so much. Meh.

Brief overview of three weeks

So it's been a while since I've been able to update, as those of you who actually read this have probably noticed...it's been an interesting last couple of weeks. My mom came down at Thanksgiving and stayed with Brian and I to help take care of Eli while we finished up classes, which was awesomely amazing of her, and if she hadn't I wouldn't have finished up my classes, and then we had our finals week. Mom left on Friday before finals started. Finals week was...well, it was actually kinda a week from hell. Try two massive projects that had to be finished by the end of the week, and by massive I mean that I spent the entire week working on them, plus I had been working on them off and on for the two or three weeks before. I wanted to die by the time that I had finished. Brian got all of his finals taken by Wednesday, and so I got to do all of mine on Thursday and Friday, while he watched the baby and helped me to assemble (cut and paste) my design file projects. I have the best husband. I actually managed to pass all of my finals, and grades were posted for classes earlier this week. I managed a 2.9 GPA, which considering that I had a baby mid-semester and was taking 15 credits, is not bad at all. It's actually my second highest semester GPA since I've come to college. Impressive, no? And now all I have is three more classes (9 credits) which I am taking this coming semester, and I will graduate in April! Hooray for me!
Saturday after finals ended we got to go to Brian's cousin Melissa's wedding. It was really fun, and his parents came down for it and stayed with us. I absolutely love getting to see his family. I love his mom. It was so neat for me to get to know her even better when she came down to help us when Eli was born. Anyway, we caravaned up to Boise with them and Jason on that Sunday, although we had originally planned to drive up on Monday. It's a really good thing that we did go up then though, because a horrible nasty storm came up on our way there, and the roads were horrible. Brian and I ended up sliding off of the freeway at one point. It was so scary. Luckily we were alright, and neither us nor the car were hurt. Brian's family was in front of us when we went off, but they came back and helped to dig us out. And I do mean dig. It's actually kind of funny, because Eli slept through the whole thing. So in any case, the trip up to Boise took a bit more than 8 hours instead of the normal 5 1/2 due to road conditions, but we did get there. The break was awesome, with the exception of a head cold for me, courtesy of Jessica, and Brian managed to come down with a stomach bug right after I got to feeling better. Christmas was a lot of fun, although because we got sick we weren't able to do as much as we would have otherwise. We did get to do Eli's baby blessing this past Sunday at my parents house. It was awesome! Brian was able to give the blessing, and Eli looked beautiful in her little white dress that her Grandma Wells got for her. We'll post pictures later on. We drove home on Wednesday, and made really good time. The roads were in excellent condition on the way back. Since then we've been getting things ready for school to start back up and just doing some general relaxing. We've gotten to see our friends Leeny and Jordan, and Shaun and Lanette both thursday and friday, and us girls are getting together again today to watch the last of the Anne of Green Gables series, which I had never before seen any of, but are really quite good. I'm enjoying them immensely. Well, that's a general update of what we've been up to, and I'll attempt to be more punctual in my next post.

PS: Brian and I are so excited! Eli slept through the night for the first time last night! 8 1/2 hours in a row! Woot! Not going to lie, though, I was a little worried when I woke up before she did. Weird, huh?