Man I suck at this!

Hello again! I know, I know.. it has been FOREVER since I've updated this thing so now I'm giving a re-cap of how everyone is. I was pretty busy for a while working and taking care of Viv but now I'm only taking care of Viv. My "lovely" job laid me off in July (if anyone missed that memo). I was pretty dang ticked because I had been there for four years, but I realize I'm a lot happier now w/out all the stress. I wasn't a huge fan of Turner Gas but change is hard so I stayed because I was comfortable. Now I hold down the fort! I cook dinner almost every night, clean, water plants, pay bills, take out the garbage, and have Viv following me the whole time. :)

Luke is going to the University of Utah now and only has about 5 semesters to go be

fore he has his bachelors in Business Management and Finance. He also works full time to provide for his family. I'm so proud of him and am impressed by what a hard worker he is. I know he has a lot on his shoulders but he rarely ever shows it unless I pester him about how he's doing with everything.

Now for Viv. She has the most out of anyone going on. She started walking at 7 3/4 months old and complete

ly by-passed crawling (and no she doesn't not have developmental problems from this). She LOVES books and he

r baby doll; however she does throw her sometimes. She say's "ba" when she sees her ball and "baba"

when I ask if she wants a bottle. When you say "stomp your feet" she will do just that and points to her nose when you ask her where it is. I can't believe how fast babies learn things. She's starting to drink milk and eat big kid foods but isn't a big fan of juice (which is nice since cavities suck). She will usually eat ANYTHING mommy and daddy are eating though, preferably over her own food. Vivian is also starting to climb up and down on the furniture. This is fun and she gets a kick out of it so I just watch to make sure she's safe. She LOVES being outside and if there's a rock or a hose near she'll grab it and have fun for minutes. She has a short attention span ha ha.

As a family, we travel to St. George as much as we can. Sometimes I go without Luke so I can have some good girl bonding time. My family also comes up to see us as much as they can. Since Viv has been born, my mom has seen her once a month which I think

is pretty darn good. We also took our first camping trip together this year. I will say I don't recommend taking an 11 month old camping in 100 degree weather unless you have a hotel to go back to so they can cool down. I hope it will be better next year when she is almost 2.

I'm probably forgetting A TON of things but that is what happens when you don't update your blog in many months. Thanks for reading and I'll try to update this again soon!

Vivian's First Shots

So yesterday (August 21) was Vivian's 2 month doctor appointment. She now weighs 13 lbs 5 oz and is 24 inches long. The doctor says she is growing very well and is in the 95% for her age. I'm not sure if this is a good way to tell whether or not she will be tall. I was in the 95% when I was a baby and we all see how tall I am. :) Anyhoo...she is doing very well. The doctor suggested we put her on a new, lactose free, formula because she seemed to be having an allergic reaction to the regular stuff. I guess she was having a hard time breaking down the proteins which caused her tummy to hurt making her think she was hungry. This made her eat every hour and a half. Now, when I called the nurses and asked them if this was normal they said, "Sure, just keep feeding her!" Boy were they wrong. I think I'll be talking to the doctor directly when I have concerns from now on. Hopefully this new stuff works so she can eat less, be more comfortable, and sleep longer. After the general check up, it was time for her shots. She got 2 in one leg, 1 in the other, and some liquid stuff she had to swallow. She drank the liquid stuff up really fast. It must have tasted good. When it was time for her shots, Luke held her hands and I closed my eyes. She cried for a second, but it wasn't anything worse then I've heard before and she quieted down once her bottle was back in her mouth. I was very proud of the little peanut. Once we got home, she took her afternoon nap and woke up very unhappy! I think her legs were sore from the shots because when she moved them she would start screaming. Now this was a cry I had never heard before. It was nearly impossible to change her little diaper listening to her cry. Mom even had to cry too. I gave her some children's Tylenol and eventually she fell asleep on our bed. Once she woke up, she seemed to be doing a lot better (thank goodness). She got another dose of Tylenol before she went to bed for the night and didn't have any problems after that! Today (Aug 22) she is 100% better. Mommy and she both slept in, however, because they were so pooped from the day before :)

Life as a mom

Hello Everyone!! It has been a while since I last wrote but things have been a little busy. Vivian was welcomed into this world on August 21, 2008 (the day after her dad's birthday). I decided to be induced so my family could be up here for it and because Grandma was stressing out a little bit. I didn't have any contractions by her due date, however, it still worked out for the best because the little peanut was bum first so those contractions would have never started. After 10 hours of sitting there going through the contractions, the doctors discovered this tiny problem and 30 minutes later, Vivian was here via C-section. The whole delivery went great and Vivian weighed in at 8 lbs 4 oz and was 22 1/2 inches long. Vivian and I were in the hospital Thurs-Sunday and boy was I glad to go home! She was also a little juandiced at first, so while we were there, they put her on the bilirubin bed. Other then that, she did great! Since she has come home with us, life has been totally different. She is my everything. My days are now based on when she takes a nap and when she eats which is about every hour and a half. This made for an incredibly hard time nursing. I felt really bad at first, but then I realized she is happy and growing strong and that is what really matters. If I didn't have to work, I would probably spend all day just staring at her but since I do have to work, I squeeze it in when I'm not playing with her :) Luke is also adorable with her. He has gotten better at giving her a bath and he is still working on changing her diaper. He doesn't like how much her legs wiggle. So far her favorite times are when she's naked and when she is eating. She has recently started smiling so just putting her on the bed and trying to get her to do that is fun. We've also realized that from the nose up, she looks like Luke when he was a baby and from the mouth down, she looks like me. She also has the chubbiest body ever but it is absolutely adorable! I just want to kiss her cheeks all day. So, as you can probably tell, I love being a mommy! Getting up in the middle of the night really isn't all that bad, poopy diapers come and go, and it's great when the crying stops because you made everything all better. Just looking at her makes me feel so blessed. Tomorrow she will be two months old. I can't believe how fast time has flown by. I'm just trying to take in every minute of it.

6 days and counting!

Well, today is Friday 08/15 and Baby Viv has 6 more days til she reaches her due date. She's technically due the 21st but I see her going a little bit past that. I was 10 days late so it would be karma ha ha. I packed a bag for myself and baby last night so if anything does happen, we're good to go. I also cleaned the house, did some b-day shopping for Luke, and paid bills that were due close to that time. Hopefully I've got everything taken care of so I can have a breather when she gets here :) Now I just wait. . .

We moved!

Since Luke's Grandma remarried and offered to let us live in her house for 2 years while we saved up money for our own place, since she is now living with her new husband. Well, this weekend we finally moved into it! (Here is a picture of our new backyard) However, moivng wasn't easy. It is amazing how much stuff you can accumulate throughout the years that you didn't even realize you had. We have a food processor. WEIRD! We had a lot of wedding gifts in storage since our apartment kitchen didn't have much counter space but it was like a second wedding when we pulled all our stuff out again. One thing that made the move 100 times better was hiring movers. Being 37 weeks pregnant, I couldn't really do much so the movers moved all of our big furniture down three flights of stairs for us. It was a stress relief for Luke as well. We moved all of our own boxes ourself and still have a few to pick up but we've got all the important things out. It has been nice putting our own furniture and pictures up in her house because it is beginning to feel more like our home. It will definitely be a great place for Baby Vivian's first 2 years. Now that we're in, I also get to start washing all of the baby's sheets and clothes so they're ready for her to wear when she gets here. I have been looking forward to doing that! I am glad that I technically have three weeks until the baby is here thought because we have a cat (Daisy) who hides under our blankets most of the day hoping she will magically pop back up in her old home. So I have 3 weeks to get her adjusted to the new house before we bring a baby into it. Whoever says pets aren't like kids obviously hasn't had a spoiled cat like ours :) JK. Ok so I'm not. She is very spoiled. Well that was our weekend. I hope everyone had a good one as well!

Hot Mama!

So my work threw me a little baby shower and this is the super sweet shirt they made me!! I just wanted to show you all. :) They also took me to Olive Garden which was very tasty. Thanks guys!!

Big weekend!

So we did it! The nursery is pretty much done (with the exception of the inside of the closet) To your left, you'll see the before picture. Pretty bad, I know. We had to tear off all of the wallpaper then patch the holes and finally repaint it. The top is a pale yellow while the bottom is a little darker yellow. Luke's mom painted most of the room since I couldn't. Then my mom came up this weekend and we put all the new furniture together ourselves. The dresser was, by far, the hardest thing to put together. After all that was done, we put the bedding on just so we could see how it looked. I think it looks pretty dang good if I do say so myself. It makes me feel good to have the nursery done. I just want to stand in there and wait for Vivian to come. I'm so glad my mom could be here to help set up the rest of it, too. She wanted to help so much when she heard we were starting to paint, but it is hard when you live 4 hours away. Besides, I'd rather her be there for the finished product anyway rather then just help paint then not come up again until the baby is here. Luke was great! He wanted us to have the entire weekend to ourselves and we did. I really enjoyed it. I had so much fun with her! Luke's mom and sister also threw me a baby shower this weekend! They did such a great job. I really do have some awesome in-laws. We only played 2 games (thank goodness) then opened presents and ate the rest of the time. Baby Viv got SOOO much stuff. It was over whelming but very nice of everyone who came. Now I just need to get myself a baby monitor, mattress pad, and a few other odds and ends. Sure, I've got 6 weeks left, but having all this done takes a bit of the stress away. Now Luke and I just have to work on moving all our stuff once his grandma moves her furniture out. The big move in date is August 2! It'll be nice to finally be in there so I can start working from home until this baby comes. This weekend I also found out that I have Group B Strep. I looked it up online, and let me tell you, those websites aren't the most pleasant places to look up that sort of info. I texted my friend Mel and she gave me some reassuring advice though which made me feel a little bit better. So technically I got rid of one stress with the nursery being finished and replaced it with another. Ha ha isn't that how life goes?? I just want her to be ok. That is my main concern right now.