Picture Overload in no particular order...

Here are some long past due pictures of our sweet Gretta.

Just after a bath. We hated baths at first but we're definately warming up to them. Gretta's hair is so soft and fuzzy after baths, Mom loves it!!

I just love this picture because I think she has the most angelic face!

She wasn't so happy to be woken up to get a picture. Here's her mad face.

This is the best gas smile ever! I can't wait til her smiles are because she sees us and is happy! But it gives us a fun glimpse into her real smiles!

This was when Gretta had bad jaundice but she was still such a good baby, absolutely content. How did we get so lucky??

This is my favorite asleep picture of her so far. She is so beautiful, I can't get over it!

Just playing with her tongue!

She lost a sock but I loved to see her folding her hands when she fell asleep. So cute!!

Just love this...Being the mama is the best!

Only a few days old and so precious!

We dressed her up in this outfit and had a blast taking pictures. Love her beautiful dark blue eyes.



Weird picture of me but I love Gretta's smile. It looks like I'm tickling her!

Mama's Gretta Rae.

Daddy and his little Gretta Girl. That's what Marc calls her the most.

We love this Baby!!

Our first week as parents...

We have loved having this baby girl with us these last two almost three weeks. She is an amazing baby. She is so good. She hardly ever cries, only if she's hungry.

We already experienced our first big scare. When she was 3 days old we ended up in the emergency room. While running some tests on Gretta they gave her an IV and put her in a bilirubin bed since her jaundice was high. Needless to say we didn't sleep a wink for about 36 hours until we finally got the good news that she was fine. The biggest scare of my life. I just sat in the emergency room and sobbed. I can't believe how afraid I was. I couldn't believe the love I had for this little baby and how scared I was that something could happen to my precious daughter. After all it took for us to get pregnant, the last thing I could face was the unthinkable. Thankful doesn't even describe my relief when the panel of doctors told us she was fine. I am so thankful to Heavenly Father for hearing our prayers and answering them. We took a couple pictures on our cell phone of her in her sad bili-bed. It broke my heart to see her in there, listen to her cry when she got her IV and stand by her bed knowing I couldn't comfort her, hold her or kiss away her tears.

We're so thankful for our pediatrician. He is great, we're so lucky to have him.

Introducing Gretta Rae

Gretta Rae Ballif was born March 20, 2009 at 10:26pm. She weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and was 19 1/2 in. long. She is doing so well and is absolutely beautiful!

We're all doing well and just enjoying this amazing baby. We'll post more pictures in the next few days when we catch up on some much needed sleep!!

2 Weeks to go and Ready to POP!!

I know I never update. This pregnancy is taking it's toll. I'm tired, sick and sore. But happy, just not blogging regularly. If any of you even still read this blog, feel free to make your votes as to when this baby girl will finally come. I've been progressing for the last two weeks and am now about 90% effaced and dilated to a 4. But we've been almost that progressed for these last two weeks so...who knows.

We had a rough weekend including excessive throwing up and a bladder infection, leading to dehydration which ultimately landed me in the hospital. I got two bags of fluids and some antibiotics and by this afternoon, I'm feeling better. They monitered our baby's heart and she was still doing great so that was a HUGE relief to me since through it all her movement was very minimal. It scared me a lot. But she's fine which is really all I cared about. Needless to say, we're getting anxious!! We are so excited to have this little girl join our family! Anytime now!! This girl is as stubborn as her daddy.......actually she gets it from her mom.
Here's 38 weeks along.

A Very Special Day

It was a great day last Saturday when our whole family attended the SLC temple together except we missed our brother-in-law, Scott and wished he could have been there with us. What a special day to be in that sacred place together. Families are Forever!!

7 Months!

Huge but happy!! The few pregnancy complications I ran into have either been cleared up or managed and so I'm feeling grateful and happy. I feel like I've just popped the last month and grown so big. So far, the report on our baby girl is that she's healthy and I feel her move so much so we're hoping that keeps up. I can't believe that I'm 32 weeks along (almost). 8 left. Crazy but so exciting!! We are both getting anxious. Enjoy the pictures. It's torture for me to take them and post them cause I'm so unhappy with my looks but for posterity sake...here they are.

Congrats little brother!!

I wanted to post a congrats to my little brother, Nick!!

He got his mission call this week to Cali, Colombia!! We are so excited for him and so proud of him!! I am going to try to keep his blog updated (well, semi-updated) throughout his mission so those of you interested in hearing what's up with him in Colombia, don't delete Nick's Blog!! Love you, Nick Bud.