Miss Smiley

Growing Like a Weed

Little Katie is getting so big. She smiles all the time now if you talk to her. She is starting to sleep more at night (thank goodness) and stay awake a little longer during the day after she eats. Were having even more fun with her now that she's interacting more.

Thankful Thursday

The most exciting thign to be thankful for today is that I fit into one of my prepregnancy shirts (it's one of my bigger shirts, but hey, it's a start). I still haven't lost enough pounds to be back at my original weight, but I'm slowly making progress. Walking is my exercise of choice, but that is a little difficult this time of year with the snow and having a little baby with me 24-7. In addition to not being able to walk, I've had to wait for the go-ahead from the doctor to exercise and also come up with a new exercise plan. So today was my first official workout. I found a bounce back after baby work out video at DI sometime ago, and I tried it out today. It's only twenty minutes long and includes stretches so I think I can stick with it. It felt good to work out.

Other things I am thnakful for:

• Christmas treats


• Justin doesn't have homework


• beautiful snow


• safety (no car accidents so far despite snowy roads)


• my family


• my health

Christmas Wreaths

I love Christmas goodies. We've been making one kind of Christmas treat each week since Thanksgiving. It's so fun to make the treats we grew up with . The line up this year includes fudge with toffee bits, sugar cookies, wreaths, gingerbread men, and spritz.

I always intend to give them to people, but I must admit that most of them end up in my own tummy. I ate the first batch of cookies that were intended for our home teacher, and I almost ate the second batch that went to them, but I exercised some great self control and left the kitchen. I also have to keep an eye on Katie...she's always trying to sneak treats when I'm not looking.

Smiles

Lately Katie has really started smiling, especially in the mornings. we love it. I just finished fall semester today so im smiling too. :)

Find Joy in the Journey Now

Katie turned one month old yesterday. It seems like she's been with us forever, and at the same time, it feels like the time has flown by. We love this little girl. She brings us so much joy. we get the biggest kicks out of her little looks and gestures. I feel so blessed to have such a sweet little baby. I love snuggling her the best. My favorite moments with her are the moments when she is falling asleep, but is fighting to stay awake, staring at me through her big droopy eyes.

At first the sleepless nights were so hard for me. I found myself looking forward or maybe it was more like longing to being able to sleep at least four or five hours at time at night. Then about a week ago I was talking to the advisor I had when I worked for the Student Honor Office on campus. He was telling me about how his wife had a hard time adjusting to their first child, but then he told me that she had said that with each of her children (I think they have five), her favorite time with them was in the first six months because she got so much time with them...up all day and night feeding, changing, and rocking them. She said once they got mobile and started sleeping through the night, she didn't get as much time with them.

What Bro. Lehman told me about his wife reminded me of Pres. Monson's talk when he said "Find joy in the journey now." So now when I catch myself wishing for the nights I can sleep a little longer at a time, or when I find myself getting overwhelmed because I can't put Katie down long enough to get my house somewhat clean, I think "I only have these few months to cuddle her before she crawls away from me," and then I settle down for a nice, long snuggly nap with her on the couch.

Day family disco

Well...enjoy!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving feast today. Justin did an amazing job on the turkey. In fact, it was the best turkey I ever tasted.
Besides baking for half the day, we've enjoyed playing games and chatting with each other. Justin's mom and brother are here with us. Toni came up from Utah and is staying with Mary, but we got to see her for awhile today. It's been fun to have family here.
Today, I am especially grateful for all my many blessings. I am so full of gratitude for my family, my health, and my little apartment home. I give thanks for the freedoms I enjoy and the opportunity I had for gaining an education. There are so many things to be grateful for, but I think what I am most grateful for is my Heavenly Father.

Blue Eyes

Katie is two weeks old today. Shes growing so fast and were starting to see more and more personality every day. We're so grateful to have her. One thing that she does that we think is pretty funny is that she will open one eye at a time. She will open one and then a few seconds later the other slowly opens. Sometimes she doesn't open the other eye at all. Its fun to watch. Also, her eyes are clearing up. They were dark blue for a while but now they are lightening up and since she has them open for longer periods of time now, we get to enjoy them more.
By the way, we're planning on blessing her on Sunday January 4th here in Rexburg.

Thankful Thursday

I have so much to be grateful for! The Lord has blessed me with so much, and I am filled with gratitude for all these wonderful blessings.

• My little family
• Not being pregnant anymore (oh, the joy of being able to bend over)
• such a speedy recovery
• window insulators
• sunshine in November
• scriptures
• time with Justin
• burp rags
  

Jill and Katie

I was looking at these pictures today and thinking about how blessed I am to have such a great wife. I feel really blessed to have Jill and I am so grateful that I dont have to worry at all about what kind of mom she will be to our children. I dont have to worry that she will be a bad example to them or teach them incorrect things. I also feel so blessed to have a beautiful daughter that is healthy and happy. I couldnt have asked for a better family.

Baby meets Gorilla

I knew these two would be best friends.

One Week Old

So here we are one week after little Katie was born. Its amazing how time flies but she is such a part of our lives its hard to believe that she's only been on the outside for a week. Thanks so much to everyone who has called, sent things, given gifts, meals, congratulations, and a good time playing Ticket to Ride and stuff like that. We're so grateful to have a beautiful and healthy daughter and were grateful to have such great family and friends.

Here are a few pictures we just took of her in her Sunday dress. Some of them she wasn't too happy to take...







Here's a video of her so that those of you who haven't met her yet can see her in action.

Oklahoma!

So my brother Garrett got his call to the Tulsa Oklahoma mission last night. He goes into the MTC february 4th. Were so proud of you Garrett. This is something youve been working toward for a long time, and now its about to start. We love you
ps: sorry, all we had was paint to superimpose your head onto this picture :)

Our Little Angel

Thankful Thursday

I have so much to be thankful for this week so this will be a rather lengthy post.

• First I am so thankful for my beautiful, healthy, happy little girl. She is such a joy to have in our home. I love taking care of her, and as you can see, we have way too much fun watching her little facial expressions. When I was pregnant, I would always think "Mom was out of her mind to do this twelve times" but now I can see why she did do it. In her own words "There's nothing in the world like a new baby." My greatest joy right now is snugling her and watching her do pretty much everything: breathe, eat, sleep...I think she is such a beautiful little miracle. Justin always says "she just keeps getting cuter" and I couldn't agree more.
• Justin as always is the biggest blessing in my life. He was so great during the whole labor and delivery. He really helped me calm down and handle my pre-epidural contractions. If it weren't for him, I think I would have died before the epidural came. And he has been such a great daddy. Katelyn loves to snuggle with him. He's so good at calming her down and making sure she's warm and happy. And he's got this diaper changing business down. He's also much better at burping Katie, and using the mucous sucker.
• I am so grateful for the hospital staff. First of all, the nurses were so kind and caring. I never felt like they were being nazis about how much Katie was eating or if I was burping her right or anything. all they seemed to care about was if baby and I were happy. I just can't get over how kind they were. Whenever I called for a nusre to ask a question or ask for anything I needed, they acted like it made their day to wait on me. In fact, sometimes it seemed like they were disappointed when I wouldn't let them get me anything. Second, the guy who did my epidural was like an angel sent from heaven. He was already at the hospital when I came in, and he was so speedy quick which was such a blessing. He was also very kind and considerate. Third, I have to saythat my labor and delivery nurse was pretty much the best ever. She was so encouraging and helpful. She has had a baby of her own, and it was nice to have her help coach me through things.
• I'm also really grateful for Abbey, my old roommate. She is such a dear. While we were at the hospital she let herself into our apartment, and not only baked us cookies but cleaned it for us. The bathroom was torn apart because Justin had been doing some home repairs, and it was also the scene of the pre-hospital labor war zone. And the living room was clutterly from all my blankets, pillows, waterbottles, etc that I also needed during my pre-hospital labor hours. I feel bad that she had to clean my nasty house, but it was so nice to come home from the hospital and have a clean apartment.
• I'm really grateful for Katie's pediatricians. The one that we saw yesterday at her first appointment was so kind. He was a good listener, and he treated my all my concerns or questions as if it was the msot natural thing in the world to be worried or concerned about those things. He didn't make me feel like I was over paranoid or inexperienced or anything. That means a lot to me because I can't stand it when people especially in the healthcare field treat me like I'm an inferior or that my fears are unreasonable.
• Thank goodness for Mom. I don't know how many times I have called her and asked "Is this normal?" or "This is what is happening, what do you think I should do?" Knowing the Mom has had twelve kids, and can say "Been there, done that" to pretty much everything related to children, is very comforting and helpful. I've really appreciated her counsel and reassurance. Not to mention now having gone through childbirth myself, I am so grateful she brought me into the world, and took such good care of me.
• Lastly, thanks to all our friends, family, and ward members who have helped us so much and taken such great care of us. Thank you for giving us so much baby stuff and being there to encourage and support us. We really appreciate all of you and everything you have done for us.

Well, there's so much more to be grateful for, but it's just about feeding time for Katelyn so I better get going. Stay in tune for more great baby pics...with Justin around, I'm sure there will be more to follow soon.

Katelyn Jill Day

So we finally landed on a name. The relatives can now set their hearts at ease. We're now at home and glad to be here. Katie is doing great and is looking very cute in her sleeper. Shes a good girl and usually only cries if she gets chilly or when she's hungry (which is all the time--she loves to eat we'll put it that way).

I expect that she'll be crying about many other things before long. For now I'll just be grateful for the way things are; we have a beautiful healthy baby and who could ask for more than that?


Here are a few more pictures. We hope you like them.

--Justin

It's a girl!

At about 5:25 AM this morning, our soon-to-be-named little girl was born. She weighed 8lbs, 2oz and was 20" long. She has blue eyes and wispy light brown hair. Shes pretty quiet and so very cute. we love her. Last night after a few hours of contractions, (and after being sent home earlier because she wasn't dilated enough) we checked into the hospital, where Jill was promptly hooked up with an epidural. In her own words, "after the epidural, it was a piece of cake". We're so excited and happy to have her with us. We'll post more updates as events unfold.

Thankful Thursday

Being that Thanksgiving is this month, I'm going to try to be really dedicated to Thankful Thursday entries...however with Baby coming on board here pretty soon, we'll see how my resolve holds up.

Today I am thnakful for:

• Prop 8 passing. No, I am not a CA resident, but I am so thankful that there are still so many out there who believe in traditional marriage. I believe that greatest happiness comes from families, and I'm glad that the majority in this country still support family morals and values.


• I'm so grateful for my own marriage. Justin and I are so happy together, and I don't know what I would do without him.


• Our car is still working. We found out what's wrong with it officially, and the good news is we'll be fine. So no worries about not having a car to transport me to the hospital.


• Sunshine: I have such a hrad time when it's cloudy for days in and days out. I need sunshine, and I'm thankful that it's been sunny the last few days.

Halloween

To celebrate Halloween, we did several things. A couple days before Halloween, our friends Ashley and Carlin came over to carve jack-o-lanterns with us. The face one is ours and the Lehi's dream one was Carlin and Ashley's pumpkin.

For lunch on Halloween, we made a jack-o-lantern pizza. We put the eyes too close together so it looked sort of asian, but we enjoyed it.

Then in the evening, we had friends over for a Halloween Party. Everyone came in costume which I thought was fun. Among the couples' costumes were Raggedy Ann and Andy, a WWII pilot, a football player, two cowboys, a punk skater boy, an opera singer, and a civil war soldier. Justin was one of the cowboys, and I was a cat.

We made caramel popcorn balls and played games. We had so much fun laughing. I laughed so hard I thought that I would put myself into labor.

Shooting

A couple weeks ago Justin took me shooting. Our friends Carlin and Ashley came with us. We only stayed for a little while, but we had fun. I don't think I hit a single target, but I was just learning how to hold the gun steady enough to see through the scope.

Thankful Thursday

These are my blessings for today:

• Our Car: Our transmission was acting really funny, and we were so scared since transmission problems can be pretty expensive to fix or replace, and we're poor college students. However, my smart and able husband checked the transmission fluid and refilled that first, and now it's working wonderfully. I'm awfully grateful as this next month our car needs to be ready to go at any moment.
• Our new Camera: we just bought a new camera since mine is officially dead and beyond repair. We like it a lot so far, and we're excited that we have it in time for Baby.
• Sunshine: It's sunny today, and as I am not ready for winter yet, I am so happy that the sun is out even though it's a bit chilly.

Epidural Or No

So I went into this pregnancy thing just assuming that I would have an epidural. I didn't know a lot about it except that it is inserted into the epidural layer of your spine and blocks out a lot of pain as a local anesthetic. I kind of thought it was just a shot-a one time dosage thing. However, when I went to childbirth class the video they showed about it said that it was continual or periodic dosage, and they leave the catheter in your back. I don't really like the idea of a little tube being taped to my back for however long it takes Baby to decide she's really coming. However, it seems to me that an epidural is the most effective pain reliver for labor.

Some others that I'm researching include pudendal blocks and spinal blocks. I've also read about natural births by just using breathing and relaxation techniques, but I think I'm too much a pansy to try those out just by themselves.
So for the seasoned mothers out there, what pain relief do you recommend? What things do you wish you had known your first time?

The Little Things

Black Cats and Ghost, Skeletons too. Clowns and witches all say BOO!

I am so excited for Halloween. I love holidays. On October 1, I decorated my apartment with ghosts and bats and pumpkins. I am now waiting anxiously for the night we buy our pumpkin to carve into a jack-o-lantern. I've been singing Halloween songs, and they bring back memories. For all those Whittier Wildcats who went through music with Mrs. Winters here's a few Halloween songs to remember:

Have you seen the Ghost of John?

Long white bones with the skin all gone

Oooooooooo Oooooooo

Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on?

Black Cats and ghosts, skeletons too

Clowns and witches all say boo

Pumpkins with eyes shining so bright

Make me shiver with fright

Halloween, Halloween

We all love Halloween
BOO!

There was an old woman all skin and bones,
Ooo, ooo-oo-ooo,
She lived down by the old graveyard,
Ooo, ooo-oo-ooo,
One night she thought she’d take a walk,
Ooo, ooo-oo-ooo,
She saw some bones a-layin’ around,
Ooo, ooo-oo-ooo,
She thought that she would sweep them up,
Ooo, ooo-oo-ooo,
She went to the closet to get a broom,
Ooo, ooo-oo-ooo,
She opened the door ….. and BOO!

The Hospital Bag

As my due date approaches, I've been thinking what to take in my hospital bag...I'm not quite ready to pack it, but being on a budget, I'd like to start making a few purchases here and there so I can have what I need when it is time to pack it.
My whole life I've known that women going to the hospital to have a baby usually take a bag with them. However, past this idea, I've never given much thought to what goes into the hospital bag. I've seen several lists online and given several from my childbirth classes, but I'm wondering what exactly will be needed or wanted. So far this is what I have come up with:

• change of clothes (probably smaller maternity ones since I won't be back to normal size yet)
• socks: I hear your feet get cold, and I hate having bare feet
• hair ties and bobby pins. I hate having hair in my face or on my neck
• toothbrush and toothpaste other toiletries
• nursing pads
• comfy pajamas in case I get to change out of a hospital gown
• clothes and blanket for baby
• snacks for Justin
• snacks for me (I know I can't eat during labor, but I can eat as much as I want afterwards)
• gum
• camera/batteries

For those experienced mothers out there, is this a good list? What have you found helpful during your stay at the hospital?

It's that time again...

Another Thankful Thursday:

• Lasagna: mine is baking in the oven right now and it smells heavenly. I love good food. Justin cracks up about how excited I get about food and treats, and I just realized that nearly all my thankful thursdays mention food in them somewhere.
• Fall: all the leaves are starting to line the side walks and cover the yards of rexburg. We had our first few snowflakes today, but I think it will be a little while until we get a real snow storm, and I am more than content to enjoy the warm autumn sunshine and beautiful red, yellow, and orange leaves.
• Childbirth classes: I don't really enjoy going to these, but they are helping me to prepare for that big day that is soon approaching. Most of the time Justin and I can't help laughing while practicing our breathing and relaxation techniques, but I think it's good preparation for us. Especially Justin since he's a boy and hasn't really thought about labor and delivery very much in his life. I feel somewhat more prepared because what girl doesn't grow up thinking that more than likely she will give birth to a child so she pays attention to other women's stories and makes an effort to learn about such things.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for:

• Blogging: It's opened up a whole new world of staying in touch and being involved in others' lives especially family and old roommates. I love seeing everyone's families growing and their adventures.
• Halloween decorations: As yesterday was the first day of October, I decorated our house for Halloween. I don't have tons of decorations, but I have enough to make our apartment look festive, and that's enough for me.
• Prophets: I've been listening to NPR for the last several days and have been depressed by all the talk of the house market failing and the big bailout. I'm so glad that we have prophets who have counseled us to stay out of debt, get our food storage in place, and live within our means. Not that we have very much food storage or are completetly on our own financially, but we are not in lots of debt, we're able to pay our bills, we have food storage to last us a little while, and we're doing our best to live within our means and plan for the future.
• General Conference: I'm so excited for this weekend. I love listening to the Prophet and other general authorities. What a blessing it is to have them as guides right now. I loved the RS broadcast. I watch a talk from it over again each morning as I eat my breakfast. I love this time of spiritual feasting.
• Lastly, I am grateful for Fall. I'm sad summer is on its way out, but yesterday I had my first leaf crunching walk of the season, and it was so fun and fitting for the first day of October. I love the sound of crunching leaves under my feet, and I love the bright colors. I just hope the fall lasts awhile and doesn't turn to snow too quickly.

Grand Tetons

We decided that we needed one last vacation/outing before the good weather ends so yesterday we headed to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone. We had limited time to see everything as we got a late start and had to be back in time for me to see the Relief Society Broadcast, but we saw so many beautiful sights and lots of wildlife that it was worth it.
The leaves have already changed colors up in the mountains, and the brilliant oranges, yellows, and reds made the blue mountains even more beautiful. It was the perfect day for the trip and we recommend this time of year for anyone to go see the Tetons. Below are lots of pictures but they are pretty low quality since all we have is Justin's phone for a camera right now. To say they don't do the scenery justice is an understatement.
Like I said we saw lots of wildlife. This included:

• 2 Moose (a mama and a baby in GTNP)
• 14+ antelope (near island park)
• 16 elk (cows and their babies and one bull)
• 12 buffalo (yellowstone)
• a couple red tailed hawks
• and the biggest ravens you've ever seen

Grand Tetons

Moose and her calf

Grand Tetons

Jackson Lake

Moose Falls

Moose Falls