New Family Update

Whew! It's been a crazy month. I had my precious baby girl 4 weeks ago. I keep thinking I need to update this, but with 2 little ones I've been learning to balance my time a little more wisely. Let me tell you what, I'm actually a little scared to return to work in a month because I know it'll be a balancing act, something I'm not very good at. 

Anyway, enough about me for a moment and let me introduce Baby Girl! 

This is her at 6 days old. It's fun to compare how much both my girls look alike at a week old. 

That face is just too adorable! I'm calling her my miracle baby... I didn't take care of myself like I should have during the pregnancy (but nothing stupid either!), and then to have her in a dangerous delivery situation had I not had her by c-section which I was strongly considering because I desperately wanted a V-Bac would have ended sadly. She is my little miracle baby, and much like my mom, she is a peaceful fighter. She's had some issues with eating and she has been fighting to eat, to swallow, and spit up. She has such a calming, sweet spirit. I can't believe how time has flown with this little one. She is like most babies: she sleeps A LOT, she loves her milk, and she has very messy diapers. She does spit up quite a bit though and she has that same mischievous grin that #1 had when she's filling a diaper. She is already almost sleeping through the night, 5-6 hours at a time. She loves to look at me, Josh, and Little Miss in our eyes when she is awake. It's beautiful to share those moments. 

Big Sister loves to help. 

She constantly wants to hold the baby, help the baby burp, change her diapers, wipe her face when it gets messy, and so much more. She has grown up so much but has a little streak of jealousy too. She also moved into a toddler bed. Now it's getting her to stay in bed... I think it'll be easier once Baby Girl is moved out of our room and into hers. We shall see! 

Josh is still doing security, but has applied for a job. He passed the first stage of testing. Now he is awaiting and preparing for the oral board in 2 weeks. I'm excited for the possible new adventure. 

As for me, I've been a stay at home mom for several months now and have enjoyed it very much! My two girls are truly a blessing. Life will be hard to balance once I go back to work and that scares me because everyone deserves the best of me, especially my girls. 

I love my family and will miss them when I return. But we have a plan and I trust that it'll work out. :)

Summer Vacation Week 5

Monday was simple, I went through organizing the rest of our clothes. We have way too many! But we are getting rid of a lot which is good. We drove up to Mesquite later that afternoon so we could attend my grandma's funeral on Tuesday. Little Miss had such a blast with Grandma, Grandpa, and Lacy Rae! 

Tuesday was a long day! This pregnant mommy was wore out by noon. We went to my grandma's funeral. I missed most of it because Little Miss was being herself and wanted to run around and play. We had to walk to the other end of the cemetery just to make sure she wasn't very loud so everyone else could hear. She got to meet some of her cousins. It was really nice! We drove back early afternoon so Little Miss would take a nap. By 6, everyone was exhausted. We basically watched Youtube the rest of the night. Little Miss didn't sleep so well because she couldn't breathe through her nose. I had to give her some allergy medicine just so she could sleep. 

Wednesday, I began to tackle the living room. A friend of mine who is done having kids had a ton of clothes so she gave them to us. They were sitting in our living room so I decided to go through them and put them in storage ziplock bags. It literally took me all day to sort, organize by size, put them in bags, and seal them up. I still need to sort through the shoes. Little Miss wanted some mommy time though, with her not feeling good I had to stop a lot today. 

Thursday and Friday were my relaxing days which was good because Little Miss still wasn't feeling good and they are daddy's days off. We basically hung out doing very little except going out. 

Saturday, I got enough rest to do some basic cleaning. Daddy grilled for lunch. It's was another simple day.  

Sunday seemed hectic, but it was good. We went to church and just hung out at home all day. This mommy even snuck in a nap. Oh, and Little Miss figured out how to completely open a locked door before church so we officially had to toddler-proof our doors! 

Family Home Evening: Week 1

That's embarrassing... Family Home Evening: Week 1... and we've been married almost two and a half years and our daughter is almost a year and a half old. 

We've done Family Home Evenings before, just not consistently. 

Well, being a member of the primary presidency is changing that. Week after week, house visit after house visit, we are always mentioning gospel basics like Family Home Evening and here I am, a leader, not doing it. 

After prayer and modern scripture study, I was going to do Family Home Evening and our lesson was about why Family Home Evening was important. I used several articles from the April 2015 Ensign and we made a plan. As silly as the lesson may sound, it was exactly what our family needed. 

If you can see from my plan, it was short and sweet. It wasn't perfect, but it worked for us. We have some ideas for activities that we can do as a family in the future that I'm sure we'll adapt/change as Baby Girl gets older. 

If you're like us, try just meeting to discuss the importance of Family Home Evening, set a date every week, create a list of possible activities, and if your family is big enough, set a rotating schedule of who teaches the lesson. 

I will try to get back with you weekly and let you know how Family Home Evening goes. :)

Happy Friday! 

Summer Vacation Week 10 + 2 Days

Nothing very exciting! I just spent my last week of summer vacation with my family, did some shopping, and watched all the Harry Potter movies. 

Tomorrow work begins! I've popped into work twice for a few hours. I'm excited to find out more and meet my entire team! 

I'm not excited about leaving my daughter so I can go work. If I work hard now, maybe things will be different in a few years... Maybe. 

Summer Vacation Week 9 + Our Vacation

Monday about noon, we headed out to see some friends in Rexburg. We just drove straight there minus one stop so Baby Girl didn't have to be stuck in a car all day. It rained a little but overall was a nice drive. We ate at Chick-fil-A for the first time. I got to meet a friend of Josh's. He has cats. We found out that Baby girl doesn't like cats... It's quite hilarious actually. Both Baby Girl and myself ended up super sick that night. 

Tuesday we drove from Rexburg into Grand Teton National Park. It was a beautiful drive. The park is HUGE! It was very stormy so we only ended up on 2 trails and were unable to complete the last half a mile on one which was okay because when we reached about 100 yards from the car, it started pouring! There were people hiking up as we were coming down and boy I sure thought they were crazy. We drove from one end of the park to the other and despite the cold, rainy, dark weather it was gorgeous. We then drove into Jackson and ate at Pinky G's Pizzeria. It smelled phenomenal and tasted great. Baby Girl met a puppy chocolate lab outside the restaurant and we could not get her attention for anything. We then drove back to Rexburg. 

Wednesday we headed back to Burley around 2. Boy, oh boy, we had an adventure driving home. We were hit with three major storms on our drive! With the first major storm, Josh pulled over and we waited for about 20 minutes for the worse to pass us. We still left when it was nasty but, we didn't have to pass through most of it on the highway. Then we had two smaller yet powerful storms we hit on the way home. We made it back to eat dinner and play "Ticket to Ride" with some family.

Thursday was a day I didn't want to be in the car but, I ended up in a car. We went around town. Got some ice cream, bought "Ticket to Ride", and just explored the area. It was a horrible night but, neither josh nor I really wanted to go home.

Friday we left. We decided to make as many stops as we wanted. We had to stop because Baby Girl was fussy so we got some Apple Beer. Josh is addicted to that soda! Then we went to Chick-fil-A and Cabela's. We ended up making a stop in Beaver, we went shopping in St. George, and stayed with my folks in Mesquite. It was a tiresome day to say the least.

Saturday we got to relax, played "Ticket to Ride" some more, then drove home. It was smooth sailing! We visited family and showed off our pictures and what we bought and played "Ticket to Ride". 

As Josh and I return to reality, we begin another school year and all that comes with it!

Pictures will be uploaded to a future post. 

Updates on Baby Girl:

*She learned how to officially crawl on shaggy carpet and now will crawl everywhere.

* She dislikes cats.

*She turned 8 months old.

Summer Vacation Week 8

Sunday, we had dinner with half the family. It was the last time we'd see Steven and his family for a short bit.

Monday was a busy day of researching, making lists, and cleaning. I really didn't get a lot of anything done because Baby Girl isn't feeling well but, I tried. We moved her into her own room finally. 

Tuesday through Thursday were cleaning days, washing days, packing days, and anything else you can think of days.

Friday we left for our vacation. It was a fun adventure. We made several stops but, what really made our 9 hour trip into 12 hours was the traffic delays. Once outside of Las Vegas and once before Salt Lake City. These both delayed us close to 2 hours. However, we made it safe and sound. 

Saturday and Sunday we hung out with family, went to church, and just had a relaxing time before our big day trip the following week.

Pictures will be on a future post.

Updates on Baby Girl:

*She can stand without support for about 3 seconds.

*She stood for a total of 7 seconds once.

* She can handle being in a car as long as it's not stop and go traffic.

Summer Vacation Week 7

I can not believe how time is flying by!!! It's hard to believe that I've been out of school for 7 weeks!

This week was another kick-back week. We had our last whole family dinner Monday night with a BBQ. People are going on vacation and then Steven and his family leave for home. Friday night we went to the 51's baseball game. It was awesome! Baby girl seemed to enjoy herself for most of the evening! 

Saturday was my 27th birthday! We slept in, went to the library, got a mani/pedi, had a delicious lunch at Beijing Noodle Cafe, and ice cream from Thrifty's. It was a spectacular day! 

Updates on Baby girl:

She is teething!

She is crawling!

She can roll 360*!

She won't sleep! Lol. 

She is opening everything!

She pulled a shelf full of DVD's to the floor. 

She can pull herself up using a couch or table.

She can scale the couch or table.

Yep. I think that is about it! :)

Summer Vacation Week 6

This week was a blur! There was too much going on and I didn't keep very good track. Josh's brother was in town. One day the whole family went to the Shark Reef. It was a lot of fun! Another day all the kiddos and mommies went swimming. For some reason everyone got sunburned. I cried when I saw Baby Girl got burned! It was a pretty traumatic moment! On Friday, the men had a game night while us women had the kiddos and ate pizza and watched movies. We were in Mesquite on Saturday and Sunday to visit family including great grandpa Pops. When we weren't busy, we pretty much relaxed.  I'll put up pictures when I can! 

Oh... And our a/c went out! It was kind of sucky but, we got it fixed.

Good news: we are planning an adventurous vacation. We are planning on going to Grand Teton National Park. Neither of us have been there and I am super excited because the pictures I've seen are breathe-takingly amazing! 

When we get back, it's high gear into prepping for the new school year!