Eli Holford

Eli Holford

5.23.2011 at 8:57 pm.

7 lbs. 6 oz.

21 inches

Welcome to the world sweet baby Eli!

We are so happy to have you in our family and we all love you so much already!

My daughter for sure

My mom sent me some pictures of me when I was about Kaylee's age and well, I can't help but think that we look like sisters in these. Don't you think so?

(I'm obviously the blond one in the middle :) )

Last couple of weeks in Utah

We've been here in Mississippi for 2 weeks now, and I came across these pictures from Utah that I think are too cute not to post so here is WAY TOO MANY pics of my beautiful daughter. I'll get to posting about Mississippi soon. Have a great weekend!

We went to the park like always on a nice warm day

We played in the snow in April (only in Utah....)

We returned to the park when the sunshine came back

Went to Church

went to see some horses with Carol and Claus

My BYU graduate

Ryan graduated BYU couple of weeks ago and you can only imagine what a happy day that was for all of us, but mostly for him.

I've seen him spend hours and hours a day writing papers, doing homework, working on presentations and studying for tests. He spend as much time with me and Kaylee as he possibly could after he came home from school and then had to make up for that time spent playing with Kaylee and being a husband to me by staying up until 3,4 or even 5 AM catching up on homework and studying.

And when the semester finally came to an end each year, he helped me pack all of our stuff, drove 2 days to wherever we were going to live for 4 months and worked harder than most people I know all summer long. And when each of those long hot summers were over, he started school again just couple of days after getting back to Provo. We never really had time for vacation between semesters.

I'm so proud of Ryan. I really don't know anybody who works harder than him almost all year round to make sure our family has everything we need and more.

I'm beyond grateful that I was able to stay home with our daughter and didn't have to leave her for hours each day to go to work. That's pretty impressive for a full time student, don't you think?

Now, I'm so happy this chapter of our life is over but I'm even more happy seeing these pictures of my handsome, hot husband in his cap and gown sm

iling and knowing that all of his hard work finally payed off.

Congratulations babe, you DID IT!!!!!!!!

YOU ARE A BYU GRADUATE!!!

I am very lucky. Lucky to have a beautiful wife that loves me, lucky to have good friends that offer to help us move without even asking (Tanner, Brad, German thanks to you all), lucky to have a job and graduate from college.

I rarely post online, either here or on Facebook, but I would like to take a chance to say that I have...

Every year we move at least twice, each time with Erika doing a majority of the packing while I'm studying for my numerous school finals or working during the summer. In addition, not only does Erika get to clean my dirty clothes and pack my things, she has an added bonus of either Kaylee clinging on her or the excitement of refolding clothes after Kaylee knocks it over for the third time.

Last night we stayed at Willie and Michelle's place (they were angels for letting us stay on such short notice and so we could be together before I drove to Texas). We stayed on their twin beds (which their kids sacrificed for us, bless their souls), with Erika on one, me on the second, and Kaylee on the floor. In the morning, I awoke to see my beautiful, pregnant, and sacrificing wife asleep on the floor with Kaylee in the second bed. She did this as Kaylee was waking up, crying each time, and she wanted me to have a good night sleep so I could make the long drive home. My heart broke into a million, rather a billion, pieces. Erika literally is one of the most selfless and benevolent people on this earth. Always concerned about others more then herself, she is literally an angel on earth.

They say behind every great man is a greater woman. Let me be clear, I am by no means a great man, yet I am confident that with Erika behind me and through her love and support, I will become one.

Erika sacrifices every year, without seeking praise, and I often take her for granted. Therefore, it's my pleasure to bestow upon you the Best Wife Ever Award 2011. Thank you Erika, thank you for all you do! Love ya babe!

Feelings on baby # 2

I haven't really been good about documenting this pregnancy for some reason. I'm not sure why that is. Part of it is because this time round I'm busy with Kaylee and don't have time to read baby center three times a day, spend 3 hours sitting at the computer searching for baby names and other stuff like that. I also need to take more pictures of my growing belly because I only have 9 weeks (or less) left.

My feelings about this pregnancy at the beginning were kind of mixed. I had a miscarriage after Kaylee and before this one, so I was super excited when I found out we were expecting again. I didn't want to get my hopes up so I tired not to get too crazy about it but I had a good feeling that this one was a keeper :o). When we found out that baby #2 is a girl, I was even happier. Not that I wouldn't want a baby boy, but to think that Kaylee will have a sister to play with is a great feeling because I have one and she truly is my best of friends. Sure we got into fights growing up, but believe me when I tell you that there is no better friend for better or for worse that your own sister. I love mine to death, and I hope that Kaylee will feel about her little sister the same way.

I also had a few moments where I felt like I was "cheating" on Kaylee in the sense that she has been my only one for 2 years now, I almost never go anywhere without her (including shower), she is with me every second of every day and has no idea that that's about to change big times. I really hope that it's not going to be hard for her to learn to "share" me. I'm planning on including her into everything I do with this little girl, like baths and stuff so she never feels left out.

And of course some days I just feel so overwhelmed thinking about packing, moving to another state, flying with Kaylee alone (we've done it a few times before but never at 9 months pregnant haha) and unpacking just 4 weeks before my due date, getting a new doctor, adjusting to having two kids and not really having much help with it. Ryan is going to be working 6 long days a week like every summer but he will stay home for a week after the baby is born which I am so thankful for. His mom is also planning to come for a week after he goes back to work which I'm excited about because I honestly can't imagine what I would do it alone. I know there is a lot of women who have even more kids and have to just do everything by themselves, but looking at Kaylee's schedule for the past few months where she doesn't like to nap and stays up at least until midnight and think that I'm gonna have to wake up with the baby every 2 hours all night long and stay up with Kaylee all day long drives me into a panic mode. I'm sure I'll figure out a way how to do it all ( I don't really have any other options) but no matter how hard it is going to be, I know it will be all worth it. I really am so excited to welcome this little girl into our family in just a few weeks, hold and kiss her and introduce her to her big sister. I know us girls are gonna have so much fun together this summer. We'll miss having daddy around most of the time but we'll be one big happy family when we'll be all together.

One thing I'm sooo not looking forward to is to have a post-baby body in the middle of the summer. There isn't a day that goes by without me thinking about being down in the hot south and not really being able to wear much to cover up my jiggle belly and all the extra fat after the delivery. It wasn't as hard with Kaylee since she was born in February, and this time round I'm really stressing about it. I'm sure though that once I see that little bundle of joy, I won't care as much (at least I hope so...).

And last, but not least, I have fallen in love with my husband even more lately. I have always loved him to pieces, but it's just kind of different, better if you will when I'm pregnant. When I see him help me clean up because it's hard for me to bend over for me these days, or he paints my toe nails because I can't reach them anymore, puts my socks on (for the same reason), tells me to go take a nap when he has a minute to watch Kaylee and many other things, I just want to squeeze him and never let go. It means so much to me that he loves me and Kaylee so much, takes care of us and spends every break he takes from studying and writing papers with us. I love him to the moon and back and I hope I let him know that every day.

So, that's all for now. I hope you all have a great week and that Ryan can finish his 35 page paper on time and nail it!!

Sunshine tease

I'm not even trying to get use to this nice weather we've had these last few days since it's suppose to be raining/snowing today, but I sure like to enjoy it when it comes before it goes again.

Friday was one of those days. We went to the Provo Library for story time, then headed for lunch with our friends Mike, Steph and little James. I was hoping Kaylee would take a short nap after that so we came home for a bit but as I mentioned before, my daughter thinks naps are way overrated so I gave up and took her to the park. So glad I d

id, because we had a wonderful time. And of course we couldn't go home without driving to campus and chasing the ducks around! Thank you sunshine for

showing up for a few days, and Spring, please come soon!

So glad daddy took a break from studying and homework and came along!