Happy Birthday Holly!

For our Thanksgiving week, we're extra thankful to welcome our little Holly to our family. She was born November 24, 2009 at 1:05 pm. She weighed 3lbs and 10oz and was 18in long. After an ultrasound Monday afternoon, they determined that she needed to be born so they could assist her in gaining weight. So, monday night around 7, Ian and I headed up to the hospital leaving Atley with some good friends of ours. They induced labor and I had mild contractions all through the night making sleeping slightly difficult. At around 8 the next morning, the doctor came and broke my water. Because I was preterm, it took a little while for the contractions to become regular, but once they did, Holly came so quickly. We pushed for around 5 minutes. Then I finally got to meet my beautiful little girl.

She looked really great and they were very pleased with her cry, though she was tiny. We got to see her for about a minute before they whisked her away to the NICU. Ian went with her, but they sent him back pretty quick because they had some further procedures to do. The next time I saw her, this is how she looked.

We left the hospital the next night because I hadn't been able to see Atley because of the hospital restrictions. Our little Holly did really well the first day or so, coming off the oxygen and breathing on her own. She even opened her eyes for a quick photo shoot. The following pictures and videos are really a treasure.

Since we left the hospital, we've been able to go back and visit her twice a day. The nurses that are taking care of her and really great at explaining things and telling us how she's doing. And, as any NICU parent knows, the time our baby spends in the NICU will be full of ups and downs. Currently, she's back on the oxygen and has a tube in her lung because, as I understand it, it sprung a leak. They've discussed transferring her to the hospital in Idaho Falls, but as soon as the ambulance was on it's way to pick her up, she turned around and was maintaining her oxygen levels. The doctors say that she's quite feisty and definitely a fighter. We have no idea when she'll be able to come home. We're so thankful for everyone who has been praying for her and our family and ask you to continue. Though there seems to be no long term problems, we'd like to bring her home as soon as possible and we certainly need the faith and prayers of everyone.

Videos!

Atley has been doing some pretty funny things latley so decided to share! Firstly, he's found his dancing feet! Ian says we should put him in tap dancing or clogging because he believes he's a real prodigy. I just think he adorable and it's good exercise. He always puts on the moves no matter the music, but this music comes from a toy he received for his birthday. He absolutely loves it! Check it out!

The second video is Atley at the dinner table. He's becoming more picky with what he eats and some foods he used to love he now refuses. This video is a game he was playing at dinner. He decided that he no longer likes shepherd's pie, but he wanted to pretend like he did so he'd whine for some and when it got close to his mouth, he'd make the "yuck" face. It was weird, but also pretty cute. Enjoy!

Happy 1st Atley!

Just after Halloween last year came Atley. We remember that day well and so we celebrated! The day got off to a rough start though. Ian and I forgot to change our clocks, so we didn't realize we were running an hour ahead of schedule until we arrived at church for Ian's morning meetings. Almost nobody was there! We hurried home and since we had an extra hour, we let Atley open one of his presents.

He and Ian played with it until it was time to go to church while I laid in bed contemplating how mean daylight savings time is to small children and their Moms.
Church was rough because nap time was thrown off, but we survived.
When we got home we hopped on the video chat to talk with Grandma Almeda and so she could watch Atley open the presents she sent.

We also got to video chat with Grandma and Grandpa Baron and Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen. It took up a good portion of the day, but it was nice to have them be able to see Atley and sing to him even though they live far away.

Later in the evening some of our friends came over to share Atley's birthday cake with us.

We got a free birthday cake from Albertson's, and I made cupcakes too! Atley was the center of attention since we gave him his very own cupcake and let him go to town.

I'm not sure he realized that there was cake under the frosting. He eventually got there, but left about half the cupcake scattered on his plate.
On Monday Atley had his 12 month check-up, too! He now weighs 19lbs 7oz (7th percentile) and is 29.5 inches tall (41st percentile). As we looked back at pictures of the day his was born (6lbs 3 oz), it was hard to believe he was ever that small. He now has 8 teeth, he walks, and we're still working on the talking thing. I think he knows what he's saying, we just have to learn his language.
It's such a blessing to have Atley in our lives. He brings us a lot of joy and laughter. We're excited to see his reaction to the new baby and to call him "big brother." We hope you guys had a great Atley day too!

Halloween

We had such a fun Halloween this year. Ian and I agreed it was the best we've had in a number of years. Atley dressed up as a California surfer dude.

We really enjoyed seeing him all dressed up and he was a pretty good sport about it too. Then, on Friday I was able to take him over to Ian's work where they did a "Trick or Treat" for the kids.
They had so many decorations from different movies and other things! Ian's team did "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Ian was the best looking dwarf I'd ever seen.

The best part about thier decorations was the diamond mine they made for the kids to crawl through. Atley probably would've stayed in there all day if we let him.

That same night we went to our ward party where Atley was able to run around the gym and play with the other kids in his costume. Oddly enough, Atley was more interested in looking in the cabinets than getting candy.

Saturday, we went to a party that our friend put together. Atley made a Frankenstein mask, played with ghost balloons, and enjoyed a Halloween cupcake and popsicle. On the evening of Halloween, we stayed home to hand out candy to the Trick or Treaters. We were all suprised how many children came by, but we were glad to hand out candy!