Home Sweet Home

Gosh I love her. It devastates me to think that had we gone along with our own plans we would've never had her join our family, since we were done and happy (and overwhelmed!) at four kids. I'm so grateful she came to us. I feel sad about how ungrateful I was to be pregnant with her. Yes life is harder for the next while, but she is so worth it.

About 9 years ago we decided Mexico was getting too sketchy to continue our twice a year trips to Rocky Point. Funny thing, however, is that in the past 2-3 years many of our friends who were too scared to go when we were going started actually going! A few months ago Justin and I started debating whether it was time to start going again and we were tentatively planning a trip for this October. Last week my friend Ale Ray texted and asked if we wanted to go stag with her at her mom's resort condo in Rock Point. Well that sounded even better than an October trip! So we had about 5 days to get our stuff together and we headed down.  When we realized the awesome exchange/conversion rate at the supermarket down there (18 pesos to the dollar!) we made daily $.30 donut trips and stopped by for 3 bags of fresh flour tortillas on our way out of town. They were only $1.25 for a one kilo bag and so yummy! We took turns staying at the condo with Polly for the first two days, but ...

Polly was blessed today, May 29 2016. Daddy blessed her that she would honor the great women she was named after, that she would have faith and touch others with her love, kindness, and make others around her feel important, just as her namesakes did. On our pew sat all the Owens boy cousins and it was a little rowdy but a fun site to see all those boys. We only have one boy cousin close in age to Brighton, but Dale has a ton, about 4 on the Owens side and another 4 on the Ellsworth side. They are going to have some fun times as they grow up together!

Two days after school let out we went to the river. 9 other ladies took me up on the trip and we had a huge fun group there. Such a lovely spot on the Verde, with great company. It's a lot to pack,  but the kids loved our tire swing, boats and hammocks. Yay for summer!

Today we went to cousin Stratton's baptism. Right after the baptism Justin left with the boys for some trail riding with our friend Mark Young from the ward. They had a lot of fun and had a campfire dinner and came home after 9pm. The girls and I went over to David and Marisa's house for the luncheon. Adair ended up going home with Don (his little girls just love her), so it was just me, Daisy and Polly on the way home. Daisy likes to put the booster in the front seat when we ride alone, so she was up there with me talking to me in her cute way. She asked me how baby Polly came out. I told her there was a place down by my pee pee where the baby comes out. She was satisfied with that answer. Then she told me when Senna (our dog) had her babies there was lots of blood and "she ate it." She looked at me in all seriousness after that and said "Did you do that?" Lol. I laughed and assured her I did not! Ah I love that girl!

I've referred to Polly as a "sour puss" on her fussy days. Today was definitely a fussy day, and Daisy (who loves Polly so much! ) told me "She's just being a Pussy Cat huh Mommy?" Love that girl, she's so cute!

Our little Ms. Polly Rose is named after two remarkable grandmothers. The first being my great great grandmother Mary Ann Jones Ellsworth. She went by "Polly". She joined the church in 1854 at the age of 18. Two years later in 1856 she bravely left her family, country (England), and everything she knew to come by herself to America and join the pioneer Latter Day Saints and pull a handcart 1400 miles across the plains in the first handcart company. I can't imagine doing that alone at 20yrs old! I have always admired her courage and faith in doing so. "We were met in Immigration Canyon by the First Presidency and a brass band and hundreds of people in carriages, on horseback, and on foot. It was a day never to be forgotten. We had reached the goal and on foot all the way. I never left my handcart for a day and only rode over two rivers. We waded streams, crossed high mountains, and pulled through heavy sands, leaving comfortable homes, fathers, moth...

Well Polly had a most exciting birth so I thought I should document it while it's still fresh. I had taken up tennis a year prior and was having so much fun (and really wasn't looking forward to being homebound after getting a taste of freedom with Daisy in preschool and no babies at home. I was trying to get in as much as I could before the baby). My team is made up of ladies from my ward. It has been so fun having tennis to socialize and exercise 2-3 times a week. We joined a beginning tennis league and I was determined to continue playing as long as possible. My team captain scheduled me to play the day before my due date, and everyone knew I might not make it but I had a goal to play if the baby had come yet, no matter how slow I was. I had also continued to play several times a week before this match. The morning of the match came and I remember getting ready and feeling a very low contraction, not really in my belly at all, but felt more like right at my cervix. I thoug...