Mom came to visit!

My mom came to visit! It was perfect timing because Hy started working out of town constantly and the baby chose the night before her arrival to start going through her 4 month sleep regression. That has been a pretty exhausting experience, let me tell you! I think we are finally rounding the curve though after almost 3 weeks! *Knock on wood*

Anyway...

We went and picked mom up at the airport and immediately went out to brunch at Bread and Ink. They have amazing Chicken and Waffles! The Screen Door has pretty amazing ones too, but at B&I there isn't a two hour wait! So good!

Mom holding Miss Em at Bread and Ink. One of them was exhausted... guess who?

If you didn't guess correctly the question above, this should clear up the answer!

Miss Em has been really fascinated with what we are eating and trying to grab at things for a while now. I think part of the reason she had been waking up so often at night is because milk alone just wasn't doing it for her. I am making tons of milk too, so supply isn't an issue.

My original goal was to strictly breast feed our girl for 6 months, but it honestly came down to "What do I feel like the baby is needing at this point" instead of what I wanted to do. So I made a batch of sweet potatoes mixed with breast milk and we tried it out on our girl. She has an adventurous spirit so far when it comes to food, but I am trying to not branch out just yet.

She did amazing even from the first bite. She still has a little bit of a tongue thrust, but she ate everything that I gave her! She ate an entire serving of sweet potatoes and then nursed for 30 minutes. Hungry girl, right?

Haha, look how happy and content she looks!

One of the days that mom was here we went and spent the day in Portland. We started by taking Miss Em on her very first jaunt to VooDoo Donuts. The line wasn't too long and we were in within 30 minutes.

Em loved looking around at all of the VERY interesting people that live in Portland. And they LOVED looking at her! I still get complimented on our "gorgeous and perfect baby" everywhere we go. *Which to be honest can be a little overwhelming to me!*

Playing dress up with items out of the diaper bag to keep us entertained while waiting in line!

 

After VooDoo, we drove into down town to 23rd street and went to find the PB&J Grilled cart that is hidden in a little nook. Mom got the Hot Hood, which has black cherry jam, smoked jalapenos, apple wood bacon, and peanut butter. 

I got the Smoking Goat. Which is olive bread, almond butter, apple wood bacon, goat cheese, and apricot jam.

You might think it sounds disgusting, but it is legitimately the best peanut butter sandwich you have ever eaten. There are no words.

We ate our sandwiches at the International Rose Garden and had a little picnic. Em tried to eat the roses.

 Random shot of mom and Em at our favorite little dinner, the Stardust.

 

My 26th birthday was that weekend and Hy had the weekend off , so we headed to the beach. Beaches in Oregon and Washington aren't like California or southern beaches. They are cold. Freezing cold. All year round. 

My gorgeous little family!

 

Em and her daddy heading out to look at the water. We dipped her toes in for a split second and let her put her toes in the wet sand, but she was not happy about it!

The day after that, Hy went out of town again and mom and I went to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants Catedral Tapatia in Vancouver. We ate some amazing food...

Emilia ate my mom's chin.

We took Miss Em shopping and she barfed herself out of her outfit, which means that we went to the Carter's outlet and went a little wild.

She LOVES looking in the mirror at the adorable baby! It makes her laugh and smile! Look how stinking cute her face is!

We took mom to the airport and after she sat there for 4 hours and all of her flights were canceled she came back to my house for a bonus day! The next day she did actually leave though, and the two of us were exhausted. We spent almost the entire day in bed snuggling and recuperating!

 I better be recovered enough because next weekend me and Miss Boss are headed out on a plane to Utah for PEACH DAYS!! Which happens to be my most favorite holiday of the year! Parades, shopping, and peach cobbler!!

July 20th 2012!

This is going to be the LONGEST post ever. And probably won't have too many pictures. Bare with me or turn away now! It's also going to have a lot of personal information... and some may not be pleasant!

A year ago today, I found out that we were FINALLY going to expand our family! July 20th 2012 was an amazing day! I blogged about it a little bit last year when I finally talked about our pregnancy on this blog, but I didn't end up saying too terribly much. I need to do a pregnancy post and share a bunch of pictures; maybe that will be next!

The long and the short of it is this: in the middle of June we started on a different medicated cycle and had small hopes that it would take. In my head I was already calculating the prices of IUI's and IVF. I mean, we hadn't had any success for such a long time... why would it happen this time?

July 20th 1987 was my due date! I (being a stubborn human) didn't come out until July 28th 1987. But still my due date was the 20th.

I took a pregnancy test on July 11th and it was a big fat NEGATIVE! I was completely bummed. But like I said, negative pregnancy tests were a way of life. It's like paying your rent or phone bill. Something you do every single month but don't look forward to. I called my doctor to talk about the test and she said that there was still a small window of hope that this could be our cycle. At that point I was 10 DPO when I got the negative.

She said "If you don't have a period by cycle day 35, take a test." So I made a promise to myself that I was NOT going to test until day 35. Which happened to be on July 20th. Every day was a debate in my brain. Hoping for that little bit of magic that the 20th could be it! Thinking how neat it would be if my due date could be the magical day for us. On the other side of the spectrum, me trying to convince myself that everything I was feeling was nothing but regular lady time fun.

Half way through the cycle, I was in excruciating pain. Barely making it through work, taking 2 hour tubs every day kind of pain. I didn't want to jinx myself but I swear to all that is holy I not only felt myself produce an egg, but I felt it make it's way down my fallopian tube. After not producing any eggs (for who knows how long) my body was hyper sensitive and I swear I felt EVERYTHING!

Anyway...

The morning of July 20th came and did not greet me with a present from my wicked aunt. Before work I stopped off at the local Fred Meyer's and bought the absolute cheapest pregnancy test that I could find. I think it was like $3. I was too tired of peeing my money away to buy a nice one. Seriously.

I worked all day with that little time bomb ticking away in my glove compartment. I could practically hear it mocking me from the parking lot.

I finally went home and decided to just get it over with. I peed on that sucker, put the cap back on, and threw it down on the cupboard with the ugliest scowl on my face. I got up and put my hands on either side of that test and stared it down, fully prepared to be in a terrible mood for the rest of the day.

But then something started to happen. Something that had never happened before. The negative sign started turning into a positive one. Time froze and I stared at the test thinking that I might be losing my mind a little bit. At the end of the obligatory 3 minutes the result line was DARKER than the test line.

I have never put my pants back on so fast in my entire life. I didn't even flush. I made two quick trips right after. I went to my doctors office and had my blood work done. Which came back in the quadruple digits. I also went to Safeway and bought some Clear Blue Digitals and a bottle of Gatorade. I chugged the sucker as I sped home, probably going much faster than the speed limit. I peed on those two tests so fast and stared them down the same way. They came back positive so fast I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't of seen it.

I told my husband that very night after work. He had called me on his way home from work and asked me if I had taken the test yet and what it had said. I told him I didn't want to talk about it, which he took as another negative test. He didn't pressure me to talk about it too much and I changed the subject. I didn't want to tell him over the phone! We got ready and left to go out for dinner (plans we had made previously). My brilliant plan was to not tell him until dessert and have the kitchen write on the plate in dessert sauce "I'm Pregnant!" but that so didn't happen!

We got about a mile down the street from our house and we were sitting at a red light. The radio was playing and a commercial came up for Mount Hood. ( It's where all of the people in the area go snowboarding every winter.) It was talking about pre-ordering your seasons lift tickets to get a reduced price. Hy turned to me and said "We should go get our tickets and go snow boarding a bunch this winter." I burst out laughing. I COULD NOT STOP!

He must have thought I was having a seizure and he asked "What is going on? Are you okay? What are you laughing at?!" I was laughing like a complete lunatic!

I looked straight ahead and said "Well, I can't go snowboarding because I'm pregnant!"

He asked me if I was serious about a dozen times and started to cry. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. (He might be a little embarrassed that I put that in here, but it's totally true!) We cried and kissed and laughed all about the same time. We were a mess! I turned on my phone and showed him this picture:

To this day I still remember how his face looked when I told him and the sound his voice made, and it still makes me weepy.This is basically the longest blog post on the planet to tell you about the beginning of the best days of our lives!

We took this picture that night after dinner while we laid on the couch thinking and talking about our growing baby. I was 4 weeks and 6 days pregnant!

It took us a really long time to get here, but knowing everything that I know now... I wouldn't change a day of it. I know people say that, but the truth is that I honestly wouldn't.

If you read all the way through, congratulations and you are awesome. Thank you for sharing one of the best day of my entire life with me!

* I post pictures almost every single day on instagram, so if we are friends you should add me! Sukisnap

Weekly Emilia

 

 

I obsessively take pictures of our baby. That is just a fact! Every giggle fest I video tape. Everytime she learns something new, I take pictures. What did I blog about before her?? Oh right, my dogs!


 Hy has been working out of town a lot lately. They have a lot of work going on and everything is under deadlines! So he doesn't get to see Em everyday which he would like. So when he is home, she is in his arms almost constantly! He just loves her so much, and I really don't think that I could have found a better father for my child!

 

 

 

 

Because her daddy isn't home during the week, I try to cuddle her as much as possible! I do that anyway. But now I have even more reason to! I am so glad that my baby is a cuddler, I don't know what I would do if she wasn't! 



 

We decided that Miss Em was finally big enough to get a Jenny Jump Up! She is still a little bit tiny in it, but we have found that if shove a towel in the seat it helps prop her up! She loves it! Mostly she just swings right now and kicks her feet. But when her feet finally get to the ground, I know she is just going to be a little rabbit!

 

Em has started into teething! She has been much more drooly lately and gnawing on her hand, but the other night it really hit a high note! She couldn't really sleep much the other night and was just super unhappy! The only way that I could get things done the next day was to strap her to me in the sling! 

 

On a side note, I did go and get teething gel the next morning and ordered a Baltic Amber baroque teething necklace. It's pretty stinking cute, and hopefully will help.

 

She is really cute... what can I say? She will be 4 months this Friday! I can' believe how fast time is flying, and how gorgeous she is.

 

 

 

Our favorite thing to do right now, is to go put a blanket in the grass and lay in our front yard. We look at the sky and around our neighborhood and just talk. It's really sweet.



 

I HAD to post this picture! If you know Rueger, then you know he has some serious OCD. Once he starts licking, it is really hard for him to stop. The reason I posted this picture is because this is the look of some serious self control and focus

. I told him " You only get one" and he licked her once and stopped. Such a sweet dog.

 

After Em gets up in the morning, I usually bring her into bed with me for a morning cuddle. She likes to roll all up in my armpit. Silly girl.

 



 





Lots of Miss Em

I just have so many cute pictures of the baby, that I have a hard time now posting every single one of them!

When ever she gets out of the tub, her hair is sooo curly! Just like her mama's! It makes me pretty proud and I think it's pretty adorable! If you look up close, it might be easier to see them, because they are pretty blonde!

This is the face she gave me when I put her down and she let me know (pretty clearly) how she felt about it!

I love this picture because it was such a nice day to lay in the grass. I just happen to catch her sticking out her tongue at the perfect moment! What a ham!

 

 







I love this picture because you can see what her hair does when it's dry! It forms this one curl and makes her look like a who! Also she is pulling a little sass face, which I think is pretty funny!

 

 

I am obsessed with this video! She was up way past her bedtime one night and just suddenly starting talking my ear off! It was so stinking cute! And her laugh at the beginning is so funny!

 



 

 

Em is the biggest snuggler on the planet and I love it! I try to get in at least one prolonged snuggle every single day! 

 

During the summer, we try to get to the farmer's market as much as we possibly can! It's located in downtown Vancouver and is always a great place to walk around with the baby. It's much more fun when Hy comes with me and holds Em though! You should see the women check him out while holding that baby!

 



 

 

This picture makes me so happy! If you didn't know, Em had a really bad bout of colic for about 6 weeks. It was not a nice time! If you have ever dealt with colic then you know what I mean! We were desperate and nothing was working! Colic calm, tintures, gripe water, pure diluted chamomile tea (which actually improved her digestion a little), baby massage. I gave up milk (actually all dairy), caffeine, carbonated beverages, even chocolate! The only way that we could get her to sleep was in her swing! The elevation and rocking would calm her down and let her pass the gas more easily. So when we moved her into her nursery, we had to rework her sleeping habits! This was the very first time that she actually stayed asleep after being put down in her crib! Still a work in progress!



 

 

 

This picture is sweet because I had been talking to her while holding her up with my knees! She smiled and fell asleep! All of her tiny cubbies onesies are getting too small! She is growing so fast!



 

 

She amazes me with how strong she is! She has been standing for a few months now and can pretty much hold herself up! She just needs a little help with the balance part! If she wants to stand up, she will push off of you and stand up herself. It's insane!Also she has a lot of strawberry blonde in her hair. Who knew!

 



 



I just am so smitten with her sweet face!

 

 

A few weekends ago, the three of us went out boating with Hy's work people! It was really fun and they have a very nice boat! I was a little worried about how miss Em would do, but she LOVED it! I was so relieved! We got her a baby life jacket, slathered her in sunscreen, and put on her tiny swimsuit and off we went! She fed, took naps, and played! We were on the water for like 4-5 hours and she was so happy and calm the entire time! When her daddy would wake board she would fall asleep from the vibrations of the engine! We all had a really great time!

 

 

There is so much more, but I better break it up a little and not over fill this post! I hope everyone has a great week!

 









Baby Blessing

On our southern Utah trip, we decided to have Emilia blessed. Hy and I are pretty low key kind of people. We like to keep things pretty mellow and laid back. So when we were thinking of having the baby blessed, we decided that we didn't want anything crazy. We didn't want to do it in front of a million people, and we didn't want a huge party. So we decided to do it at my grandparent's house in Cedar. There were only like 10 people there and it was perfect.

(It was really special to have it at my grandparent's house because they were the first family we told! A year or two all of this, grandma had made me promise that when we finally did get pregnant that I would tell her before any one else! I told her on her birthday last year and we both bawled like babies!)

We wanted my grandpa to bless the baby and as always it was beautiful. That man can make a tear jerker out of a gnome. Jeeze. Hy held the baby and there were only a few others in the circle: my brother, my dad, grandpa, and a member of the bishop rick. It was short and sweet and exactly what we wanted!

My sister-in-law Jess took some photos after of the family. (all of us, except for her!)

All of the gentlemen from the circle (with the exception of the random clerk)

You can't forget my favorite boy of all time

 

 

A bunch more of the family!

 

 

 

Just need to photoshop Jess in on this one!

 

 

After all of the pictures we had pizza and ate my dad's famous cheesecake bars! They are my absolute favorite and practically the only thing I wanted to eat when I was in the hospital having the baby.

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I was just remembering the other day how the week before I found out I was FINALLY pregnant, there were signs every where. I mean EVERY WHERE! I would sit down and watch t.v. and there would like 4 first response pregnancy test commercials back to back. The first time it happened I thought that was someone was just really bad at their job, but like the 5th time it happened I started to get a little bit crazy! I would drive to work and suddenly there would be a billboard up saying things like " Are you pregnant? Do you want to be a mom?" and then a random number. This stuff went of for a solid week before I finally got to my test day. If nothing had happened by that day I was supposed to test. I was totally set on not testing and just being a grumpy jerk for a solid chunk of time, but those signs were everywhere!! Pretty crazy.