Preschool

I have SO much to blog about. However, I couldn't let the night pass without quickly blogging about my conversation with Riley today after we picked him up from daycare/preschool. For those of you who don't know, I've gone back to work. That is another blog in and of itself, but I will say it is such a good thing for so many reasons and it is working VERY well for ALL of us. I am very humbled and honored to be a part of the Primary Children's Medical Center team! Anyway, when we picked Riley up today I asked him what he learned at school today. Normally he says he does not know. Today he said "Timeout." So I asked him if he had to go to timeout today and he said yes. I said, "How come?" He responded, "I run around and around and around and throw balls." He then proceeded to tell me, "You run OUTSIDE not INSIDE." Soooooo I guess he was being the little hooligan he is and finally had someone else catch him! Hahaha! He is so cute and loves his school. I 100% recommend it to EVERYONE with kids 2 and older (they don't take kids under 2). She is our neighbor and has been in the field for like 11 years or something and is so good with kids and the center is brand new and blah blah blah haha. I will stop rambling, but for real, ask me if you have questions. Anyway, I wanted to document what Riley finally learned at school! Love that little boy :)

My Sweet Baby Girl

Dear Addie,

You are almost 6 months old now. I can't believe 6 months have already passed since you made your grand entry into this world. You are such a joy to have around. There are so many things going on in your little life and I don't ever want to forget them, so I thought I'd write you this letter. One day when you are older, I think you'll appreciate it. Addie, you are such a sweet spirit. Every morning when you wake up you give me the BIGGEST smile ever. It melts my heart. Luckily, you got that trait from your daddy, because I HATE mornings. In fact, any time you wake up, even from a power nap, you grace us with your big gummy smile. You love love love your feet. You found them at the beginning of this month. You play with them lots. Lately you have been sticking them in your mouth. You are super flexible, just like your brother was, and still is. You love to blow raspberries. Even while you are eating your bottle. It makes for interesting feedings, but it is super cute. I will say, it is a bit noisy during Sacrament meeting though. When I change your diaper you love me to sing you the song "If I Die Young" by The Band Perry. They play that song nonstop on the radio and I love it. You like it when I sing pretty much any song to you. I wondered what I sounded like so I recorded myself on my iPhone the other day and then promptly deleted it after listening. I'm sorry I'm not a better singer my sweet girl. You've been rolling over for about a month and a half now. In the last few days you've been pushing up a lot. I think you'll be crawling in no time. I guess we better dig the baby gate out of storage. When you drink your bottle you like to hold on to our fingers and you lift you left leg in the air. You even fall asleep with your leg in the air sometimes. You like to play with your feet while you are eating too. You are so silly. Everything goes in your mouth. And when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING! Your hands, our hands, toys, hair, books, phones, etc. Anything and everything you can get. I'm note sure if you are teething or not. Your brother didn't get teeth until way later in life. I guess only time will tell! You sleep really well at night. For that, I am grateful! I need my precious sleep, and so do you! I trained you from day 1 to be a good sleeper. I just can't handle life without a full nights rest. You sleep from about 8:30 pm to anywhere between 7 and 9 am. It is glorious. You also take 2 legit naps a day. Your first one is about 2 hours after you wake up and lasts about 3-4 hours. Your next one is about 2 hours after you wake up from your first one and it is only about 1-2 hours. You are definitely a baby of schedule. If you get thrown off of it, man are you one mad baby! You love to stand. You have since you were a wee wee one. Like wee as in 3 months! We gave you your first taste of baby oatmeal on our trip to Illinois. You really weren't sure WHAT to think about it. We don't give it to you on a regular basis. Only really because you don't seem to need it much yet. We have tried carrots and sweet potatoes too. You love sweet potatoes. The other day you ate an entire container of them! I'm trying to avoid the sweet stuff for a little bit so you don't reject the veggies. Unlike your brother, you have chubby thighs! It is fun to have a baby with some baby fat. You still seem little though. You most definitely still fit in your 3 month clothes, but we have ventured into a few 6 month things from time to time. No matter what, you will ALWAYS been my LITTLE girl! I love you and I am so grateful you chose MY family to come to. I love love love you!

XOXOX

Your mom

Yarn

So I want to learn how to crochet. I think it would be fun. Why not add another project to my list with all the free time I have! *chuckle* Anyway, I was telling my mom this the other day and she was like oh I know how to crochet! (I had no idea she knew!) So we are going on vacation in a little bit and my mom is going to meet us there and join the party so I decided to go buy a few burp cloths that she could teach me on. So yesterday I popped into Sew N Save in Layton. They have DARLING fabric and they have blankets and bibs and burp cloths all ready to be crocheted. So, I take the kids in with me and my carrying Addie around and Riley has his "Go-Go packpack" (Diego backpack) with him. I show him the toys he can play with and I go back over to look at the different fabrics to see what I want to use for this new little project. About 5 minutes later Riley comes running over to tell me about the fire truck toy he found and he is so excited! He goes back to playing with it and I go back to shopping through the bibs. Probably another 5-7 minutes go by and I finally decide what I want, pay for it, and go to get Riley. That is when I notice it is rather quiet. I'm like oh man what is he doing?! I get over to the toys and Riley has not one but TWO balls of yarn that he has taken off the shelf and unrolled! Not completely unrolled, but 1 is probably like 1/3 of the way and the other is just a little bit. I'm like are you kidding me?!?! He tries to sneak it into his little backpack and I'm like HELLO that is stealing!!!! So I pick up the yarn and bring it to the cash register and I'm like I guess I am buying these now too. The cute old people working there just laugh and say well we can probably roll this one up and it will be ok. So I buy the one that is like 1/3 of the way unrolled. Riley keeps saying I'm sorry Mama,, I'm sorry Mama! Honestly, I wasn't really mad, it was funny. But really?! I mean I know he is obsessed with tying things and his tape measure and string and stuff, but what possessed him to do this? And it was brown! Why not pick a cute color that I can use?! He was so happy we bought it though! Here are a few pictures of when we got home. It is now one big ball of yarn and he wanted me to unknot it all yesterday! He was freaking out and crying about it....I'm like uhhhh that is one big knot! Haha.

Friends

This is more of a thought provoking blog than anything else really. So take it for what it is worth and let it be that. What IS a friend exactly? I've kind of been reflecting and asking myself that lately. We all have people we love to be around, have fun with, tell secrets to, etc. You know, I am talking about people other than your spouse. I have a few people I am friends with but when I am around them I end up grumpy because they are grumpy, or swear because they swear and it rubs off, or gossip because they gossip. It has been said those who gossip with you are the ones who gossip about you. So why am I still "friends" with these certain people?
What makes someone a friend and not just an acquaintance? What makes you want to call someone and invite them to do something with you or with a group of people? Or what makes you NOT call someone to do something with them? Like especially if you call them a "friend". Facebook and blogging and things of that a nature are like a double edged sword. It is fun to keep in touch with people and see what they are doing, but what about when they post/blog things like the awesome play date, or girls night, or lunch date, etc, they had and you wonder why you weren't invited? Especially when the group they hung out with are people you are all "friends" with. It makes you wonder.
Jeff and I had this conversation the other night. That is why this is all being brought up. We were talking about who are "friends" are. I don't have family close by so I depend on my friends for things like shopping and movies and stuff like that. Jeff's family is about 30-45 min away but we aren't exactly the best of friends and I don't think I have ever been invited to do anything with his mom or sister or sister in law except for family events (which is fine, I'm not complaining, that is just the way it is). In fact, most nights, including the weekends you can find Jeff and I at home, by ourselves (well with our kids). We have a few other couples we hang out with on RARE occasions, and none of them are from Syracuse. Interesting, huh? Jeff is pretty much 100% a homebody. It doesn't bother him at all. And really it didn't bother me until recently, when I started reading about all these things my "friends" are doing with our other "friends", but I'm not invited to. Haha, now this looks like I am begging for friends that want to do things with me. Nope, not really. It's ok. I've invited a few friends to do stuff recently and it's been fun. I think I would rather build long lasting relationships with them and know I can count on them and they can count on me and know it will be a good time and we will laugh and have a ton of fun rather than get drug down and be unhappy. But why call someone a "friend" if you aren't going to include them?

PS. If you live more than like 30 minutes away you are not included in this rant (AKA Annie!).

Long Hiatus = A million posts in one!

Oh man I have totally been a blog slacker lately! Lots has happened since my last post too! Addie had her 4th month appointment at the beginning of June. She is still my little girl! I thought Riley was little, but I think she is even smaller than he was! She weighed 11 lb 14 oz (that was with a giant wet diaper on though, so I think it was probably more like 11 lb 7 oz without the diaper)- 20% and was 23 1/4 inches- 25%. I was kinda confused how she is smaller than Riley but actually making it onto the charts since he didn't...then someone reminded me boys and girls have different charts! Ha! Anyway, she was a trooper for her shots, although she DOES scream until she goes purple...it's really sad. However, she is pretty good for the rest of the day!

4 months old!
In June I also finished my medical transcription course...finally! I feel like it took forever. I guess having a baby and really struggling with it kinda threw a wrench into the schooling for a little while. I was really excited to find out that I had also PASSED the final! A lot of people don't pass it on the first time so I was really really relieved that I had passed. I didn't get honors or high honors though so I am going to take it again to try and get a higher score.
June was also my birthday month! I've decided I still think my birthday is super fun even though I'm not a kid. Jeff and I have been trying to be better about presents and not giving in early or anything (like we did at Christmas and LOVED it). So he kept my present until the night before so I could use it on my birthday if I wanted to. I was spending the day at one of my besties (Andrea) while our car was in the shop for a recall and to get an overall check before we drove it across the country to Illinois. Anyway, he got me the first season of Pretty Little Liars! Ha! I love love love that show. It is one of my guilty pleasures. Anyway, it has gotten some really good use (more on that later)! We also went to Cafe Rio for dinner (it is on my diet with a few modifications...yum!) while Andrea and her husband, Joe, watched the kids. Riley loves Joe more than he loves us so it was a win-win situation for all!
So speaking of our car, after the check up we decided we were just going to trade it in a get something new. It had a electrical issue that they couldn't really diagnose and we didn't want to worry about it breaking down on us on the long drive with both kids. Plus, it was out of warranty so no matter when we had to get it fixed it was going to cost us more $$ than we wanted to spend on it and we had to do some general repairs to it to get it ready for the trip. Instead of forking over cash into a car that we didn't plan on keeping for too much longer anyway we decided to get a new one! We looked into a lot of options. We wanted something bigger since we have 2 car seats and whenever we buy something we have to ask to borrow someones car. We didn't want to spend like 30k on something so we did some research and found out some good info. We test drove a few different things and ended up with the new Elantra Touring. It is essentially the same thing as our old car, but it has more room in the front and back and it is also a hatch back, which we LOVE. It makes loading stuff into the back like 500000000000 times easier! Hyundai hasn't always been the most popular car maker, but we sure love ours! In fact, the new Elantra (not the touring, just the regular one) gets like 40 miles per gallon on the freeway. And it is a super super cute car! We love our Hyundai and definitely recommend them!

Our new car!

Here is a montage of things that have been happening in the last little bit!

Tape measures can be dangerous! Riley is OBSESSED with his tape measure and takes it everywhere...it is getting kind of ragged and cut him the other day!

Jeffs parenting skills...he didn't really give her any :)

Addie found her toes the other day and loves to play with them! She also started rolling over as of June 16! She had been so close for awhile, but finally mastered the task of rolling ALL the way over on the 16th

Riley prefers your every day household items, such as the tape measure and this kids laundry/toy basket, over his toys! What a silly little boy!

Last, but not least, this makes my heart melt! Such a sweet picture <3

Speech Therapy Part 2

Ok, so a few weeks ago Riley had his second testing for his speech. This time it was one-on-one with a speech therapist at the elementary school he will go to one day. I got to sit in on it with him. All they had him do was look at a flip chart with pictures and name the pictures. He did so well! I am proud of the things he knows. He is such a smart little boy...just one that struggles with speech lol. So at the end of the test the lady said she would have to score it, but she could tell me he didn't pass without even scoring it. I chuckled. I wasn't surprised one bit. She said she would talk to the school psychologist and see how he did on his other test and then set up a meeting for us to go over all the results. Well we had that meeting this morning and it was definitely interesting. I had both kids with me and I was meeting with 3 other adults in a TINY room. So the 6 of us were crammed in there like sardines...good thing the weather was cool today or it could have been stinky! Haha, sorry for the tangent..anyway, the psychologist talked first and let me know he is below average for his age with self help but only because he isn't potty trained yet. Well, honestly, that was my decision not to potty train him because of the new baby and such. Anyway, it is a task I am going to tackle in the next week or so. Other than that he is fine. As for speech, we already knew he hadn't passed. The results were a little surprising though. Apparently he has a lisp...but it isn't the kind where he thrusts his tongue forward, so it isn't a big deal. However, the ONLY letters he can say in the beginning, middle, and end of a word without saying them wrong or omitting them are M, W, and H. THREE letters...that's it! I was kind of shocked, but for some reason it doesn't really upset me or anything. We originally had decided on this program called "Talking Time". It's a group setting and they do activities with other kids and then meet for a few minutes alone with the speech therapist and then the parents are taught things to do at home. However, when we went in today I mentioned that Riley had started stuttering again. He originally stuttered for like a month and a half and then stopped and then started again a few days ago. He does it pretty consistently. So I tried to get Riley to do it for them so she could see what I meant. At first he wouldn't but then he did and she said that is definitely a stutter and he probably doesn't qualify for talking time anymore because he doesn't just have an articulation issue, he also has a stutter. Sooooooooooooooo that means he will have to meet with her each week instead. Honestly, I think it might end up being a better situation for him anyway. So I'm not totally sure where we are going from here because the speech therapist has to meet with her supervisor now that things are changing. Either way, I just want him to get the help he needs! One thing the school psychologist did say was that Riley has really good cognitive, fine motor, and gross motor skills! I was happy about that! They gave him some blocks to play with while we were talking and he separated the different colors into piles and then stacked them. Apparently, that makes you smart :) I love my little man so much!!!!!!

Speech Therapy

HOW could I have forgotten to blog about this?!?! I have shared this with some of you, but a lot of people have no idea about it! The day before Riley's birthday we had a birthday party for him. Jeff and I got him a fire truck house for his present. Riley would run around saying "Fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fire truck house!" At first we thought it was really funny and cute. Then we thought he was trying to say fire fighter truck house. Then we realized he was stuttering. How you ask? Well he started to do it with EVERYTHING! He would say things like "I want to play play play play play play play ball." Or " Baby baby baby baby baby baby baby Addie." Then he started to say things quieter, but still stutter. Then one day I asked him to say fire truck and he said "Fiiiiiiire, Fiiiiiiiire, Fiiiiiiire" then hit his fist to the side of his leg and said, "I can't do it!" It broke.my.heart! I had researched stuttering a little bit and found out it is kind of normal, especially in boys. The thing that wasn't normal was to have it progress so quickly and have him get upset about it. The other thing I worried about was how little Jeff could understand. I mean he probably only understands about 10% of what Riley is actually saying. I understand him like 95% of the time, but there are times where I don't have any idea what he is saying either. People around us are always looking to me for translation when he is talking to them. I mentioned it to my friend Courtney and she told me about this program Davis county offers. I called them up and they asked me a few questions about what was going on. Then she felt like it was definitely something to look into so she had me fill out this little survey. She told me it would go before a board of people and they would decide whether or not he needed to be tested. She also told me it would take about 2-3 weeks to find out. Well, 4 DAYS later I got a call that he was eligible for testing. I was kind of surprised they called so quickly, but was happy to get him in! I took him for testing on April 29. It was a group setting and they tested lots of areas including, vision, hearing, fine and gross motor skills, language, etc. After the testing they pull you into another room to discuss the findings, both good and bad. Well, Riley did well in most areas, but he FAILED the language part :( SAD, huh?! So now we have to go have 1-on-1 testing with a speech therapist. I'm still waiting for them to call to set it up. Oh ya, he also didn't pass the self help either. I'm not quite sure HOW they test that because it's not like they had him take his clothes off and then put them back on, or have him brush his teeth, or wash his hands. So I dunno? I guess we will have further testing on that as well. Either way, I would rather have things taken care of when he is young, rather than putting it off and having him get made fun of in school and stuff.

3 Months Old and a Blessing!

Addie turned 3 months old on Sunday! I can't believe so much time has passed and how big she is getting! She is finally pretty much grown out of her newborn clothes! Her 3-month clothing is definitely big on her, but I know she will grown into it in no time! We also had the opportunity to bless her at our Church on Sunday. While it wasn't your typical in-sacrament-meeting blessing, it was still as beautiful and spiritual, if not more! Jeff did such a great job! I am so thankful for a worthy husband who holds the Priesthood. It was nice to have our family and a few of our close friends celebrate her blessing with us. We are also grateful Brother Gomm took the time out of his morning to conduct the meeting! (Thanks Erika for lending us your husband earlier than needed on stake conference!) Not too much else has been going on! We are super excited to have my parents come visit in 2 weeks! I also booked my plane ticket to New Hampshire in October for one of my best friends wedding! Jeff was supposed to come with me, and for reasons I won't get into, he is no longer able to...it is HUGE disappointment and I'm really heart broken about the situation. BUT I am going to have a BLAST with some of my favorites while I am there :)

Our little eternal family after the blessing!

Addie's monthly picture! I haven't uploaded one for April...but I'll do that shortly...better late than never :)

Easter or April Fools Day??

Yesterday was Easter...or was it? It felt more like April fools day at our house! Riley woke up at 4 am with a fever which meant I knew we weren't going to church like we had planned. I was bummed. I had bought Addie a super cute dress to wear and Jeffs parents had gotten Riley a dang cute outfit for his birthday. I was ready to show off my cute kids. Well Riley started to decline as the day progressed. Jeff was at church because he had to teach his Sunday school class. I text him and said he needed to come home so I could take Riley to the instacare down the street. When we got these his fever was up to 102 (not THAT big of a deal) but he was super lethargic. By the time the Dr came in he was almost passed out...it was really scary for me and the dr!! They ran a bunch of tests and they all came back negative. They told me if Riley didn't start to perk up they were going to send us to the ER for a spinal tap to check for meningitis (insert minor FREAK out!) They gave him some meds and juice and had us hang around for awhile. They also wanted a urine sample and since he isn't potty trained yet (awesome mom award since the dr was like he's potty trained right?) they had to put this bag on him. So he started to perk up about 30-45 min later and he finally peed! His urine came back clean and his strep test too...since he wasn't so lethargic they sent us home. I was glad we didn't have to think about the word meningitis again! They told us to keep him away from the baby because she can't fight things as well and we didn't really know what he had anyway. He's been a trooper with steering clear from his little sister and keeps saying, "But I love her! " too cute! Ok so heres the 2nd half of this joke of a day! So while Jeff was at church I got a text from my friend Katie. She was like are you guys still blessing Addie next Suday because apparently it is stake conference?! So I called her and she said at the end of sacrament the bishop announced that next week was stake conference, which means no sacrament and no baby blessing! We both were scheduled to bless our babies that day so we were kinda freaking out hoping he was wrong. Not to mention we had set up this specific day to bless her back in FEBRUARY when she was born! So I frantically texted Jeff (along with a million other texts about Riley being sick) to go talk to someone in the bishoprique about it. Our invitations had already been sent out weeks ago and people had RSVP'd! Katie had also had this day approved as well by the bishoprique so we were rather confused and U.P.S.E.T. To say the least! So Jeff finally calls me and I can tell by the tone of his voice it isn't good news...yup next week is stake conference and too bad so freaking sad for us we can't bless her!!!!! At this point I am FUMING mad and bawling my eyes out! I understand we have a new bishoprique but this is a HUGE mistake and effects so many more people than just me! I mean we have people coming from Logan, Provo, Salt Lake, etc! So now what am I supposed to do with the 30-something people coming to my house next Snday that have rearranged their callings so they can make it? Well, the solution we were given is we can do it another Sunday (ya, not going to work), at our house or in the RS room. So, we decided to do it in the RS room on Sunday at the same time. We have been told someone from the bishoprique WILL be there to conduct the meeting. So we are blessing our baby, we just dont get to do it in front of our ward family too. Blessing her is all that matters. I'm done being so pissed about it. I love our bishoprique and to be honest all of the men serving In It are my friends husbands. I hope they don't get offended when they read this. But seriously it sucks. Yesterday was lame. Addie didn't get to wear an Easter dress on her first Easter and Riley was too sick to be anything near excited about what the Easter bunny brought him. I obviously didnt have the Spirit with me because I was so mad. So, I think I'll go celebrate Jesus now and that he is my Savior. I love him.

PS. So sad and sorry there are no Easter pics to post!

Projectile Vomit and a 2 Month Checkup!

So last Friday Addison decided it would be fun to start projectile vomiting. It FREAKED me out! I had NO idea why she was doing it and I was worried something was wrong. I mean she was in the middle of nursing and she lifted her head and started shooting vomit out her mouth...sorry to be so descriptive but that's what happened! We NEVER take her out and no one comes here because I am a HUGE worry wart about germs and don't want her to get sick. So anyway, I called the Dr's office bawling my eyes out and made an appointment for their next available slot, which was like an hour later. We took her in and well, she was FINE! I wasn't mad that she was ok, in fact I was thrilled, just confused. But what worried me more was her weight. She was ONLY 7 lbs 7 oz and was a WEEK away from being 2 MONTHS old! Heck, when I was born I weighed 7 lbs 6 oz! I asked the Dr. what he thought and he said, well she has gained a pound since we last saw her so she isn't loosing. He said they would evaluate it at her next appointment- which was in a week. Anyway, this was kind of a wake up call to me. In 5 weeks she had only gained a pound. We were still really struggling with breast feeding. I mulled it over the weekend and decided I was going to only pump and feed it to her in a bottle. That way I KNEW she was getting something. Well I wasn't getting enough for the whole day to satisfy her...I was like one bottle short so we started supplementing with formula for that one feeding. After the first day of feeding her my milk through a bottle and 1 bottle of formula she COMPLETELY changed! She was SO happy. She started smiling a TON more. Our whole family became less stressed. I felt like a new person and a new mom. I didn't DREAD having to feed her. Life was definitely good. Well today was her 2 month checkup. So we are now 1 week post vomiting issue and 4 days into bottle feeding. You ready for this????? Since last Friday...1 WEEK...she has gained 1 lb 1 oz and 1 1/4 inches! ARE YOU KIDDING ME????!!?! I have been starving my child. LAME. All because I felt like I really NEEDED to breast feed...like I was a failure if I didn't. How STUPID is that?!?! The Dr. today was REALLY pleased with her turn around and she is actually on the charts now. I think she might have even made it to the 10%! He told me he wants us to bring her in every week for the next few weeks to track her weight and make sure it continues in an upward pattern. I am THRILLED though. Who freakin cares if I can't breast feed. I want my baby to be HEALTHY. Not pretend to be healthy because she has breast milk. Breast is best...but not when your child isn't getting enough. I feel so much peace now knowing that she is growing, smiling more, happy, etc. I don't feel guilty that I have to feed her formula. She got BM for the first 2 months and I still am going to pump a little so she has some. Anyway, I'm going to get off my soap box. So my little Addie weighs 8 lbs 8 oz and is 22 1/4 inches! WOO HOO! She is still WAY smaller than Riley was at 2 months...but who cares. She is my little baby girl and I love her to pieces :)

This is Addison's birth announcement! I LOVE it. We are sending them out...but we don't have a billion dollars to send them to all of our friends...so here is a digital copy! Some of you will be getting a hard copy to cherish (lol)...but we wanted to share with everyone we love...so here ya go!

Happy Birthday!

So this post is a wee bit late...but I have been SO busy. Anyway, on March 20th Riley turned 3!!! I can't believe my little boy is 3 years old already! It's fun to see the difference between a new baby and a 3 year old. I can't believe he was ever as little as Addie. Riley is in to all things BOY! We got him a fire truck house for this birthday and he LOVES it! I saw it on a deal at this site called kids.woot They have daily deals and have really good prices! Anyway, we got the fire house for like half off! To be honest, it is kind of like a boys doll house!

Anyway, since Riley's birthday was on a Sunday we had his party on Saturday afternoon. Jeff's whole family came and then my mom was in town as well! It was a blast. We made home made pizza and I made a DELISH berry-licious cake. It was from weight watchers (that's another post) and it was SO good and it is not too bad for you either! It's great! Anyway, my mom and dad bought Riley a house to play in outside and Jeff's parents and sister got him a slide! He was in HEAVEN!



**NOTE: Random children were not included with Riley's presents!**

Jeff's brother and his wife got Riley this wicked awesome Robot book! He seriously was so happy!

He is definitely spoiled...but he is our first AND it had been a long time since there was a grandbaby born into either family! We love our little Riley and are excited to see what new things he comes up with this year! Here is a little info on our Ry guy:

*HE loves firetrucks! I asked him the other day what he wanted to be when he grew up and he said "A FireTruck! Woo Woo Woo" (you know the siren sound they make haha)
* He loves to play ball and will play with ANYONE who walks in the door!
* He loves cars and monster trucks!
* He tries to sing along to the opening songs of his favorite TV shows...he's not very good at knowing the words but he is FREAKIN HILARIOUS to listen to! His favorites are Dora the Explorer, Go Go ( Go Diego Go), Caillou, Clubhouse (Mickey Mouse) and Bob the Builder! Our favorite to watch him sing is Bob the builder! I'll have Jeff upload a video of it later tonight :)
*He can count to 5...and sometimes 10
*He LOVES fruit...especially strawberries
*He is such a good big brother! He loves Baby Addie and tells us all the time! He says "Mama, I like Baby Addie!"
*He loves loves loves his Papas and Grammas and cousins and aunts and uncles! It is like Christmas morning EVERY time he gets to see them
*He knows how to get places while driving and will tell you which way to go (and he is right 99% of the time!)
*He loves to play outside
*He is a huge homebody...if he has the choice to go somewhere he will choose to stay home! (Totally his father's son!)
*He is really polite (most of the time) and says please and thank you lots!
*His favorite foods are chicken nuggets, hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, mac n cheese, shredded cheese, strawberry jam, milk, any fruit you allow him to have, green beans, carrots, yogurt, and of course candy!

We love you Riley! We are so blessed to have you as our son! There is NEVER a dull day with you around! Thanks for making us laugh and smile all the time. Here is to the best 3rd year a little boy could have :)

CAKE

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to...ok just kidding. It's not my party (my birthday isn't for another 3 months) but I did cry today. I'm just feeling super overwhelmed. Anyway, we won't get into that. Instead, I'd like to tell you about the Cake I want. It isn't edible. It is BEAUTIFUL though. And very expensive. SIGH. Like so expensive I won't have one for a very very very long time. If ever. Sigh. I have expensive taste. I'm not sure why. Would you like to see the Cake I want? It's Berry Chiffon Cake. Doesn't that just sound expensive? Like even if it WERE edible? Well here goes nothing. I'm going to show you a picture. But be warned. You may fall in love too and want one.

This cake is a whopping $349. Yupp. That is why I won't be getting one anytime soon. I think I'll save my allowance. Oh wait, I don't get an allowance. Shucks. Maybe if I am a really good girl Jeff will buy me one. But then I will feel guilty that we spent almost $400 on a PURSE!!!! But seriously, it's beautiful. It's made out of Italian cut velvet. It's soft...and pretty. Maybe I can have a slice of Cake?

That slice is the matching wallet. Yum. It's only $128. ONLY right??!! Haha. Who am I kidding? I DO have a coupon though :) One day my friends, one day.
Internet shopping made me feel better today about everything I was overwhelmed with (it didn't make it go away or change the situation, it just took the sting away for a little while). Other than the fact that it brought to my attention that we are not filthy rich and can't afford $400 purses lol.

Sigh...

I'm struggling with life today....it's not full of roses, sunshine, and pretty things.

Boobs...yupp, you read it right

DISCLAIMER: This post will NOT contain any pictures :)
Hooters, knockers, jugs, boulders, boobies, breasts, etc, etc. You get the picture right? Well, I hate them. I think boobs are so weird. And what I think is even weirder than boobs...BREAST FEEDING!!! Ok, so apparently you are supposed to LOVE breast feeding and think it is the best thing in the entire world and grow this amazing bond with your child...nope, not me. I think breast feeding is SO weird. Like seriously, if you actually think about what you are doing and that there is MILK in there. I mean come on, seriously?! Honestly, the only real reason I do it is because it is FREE. How can you pass that up? (Unless your girls don't work and there isn't anything to provide for free.) Do you want to know more reasons I don't like breast feeding? Bras...holy cow...apparently I am super picky AND have huge boobs because I can't find a good breast feeding bra ANYWHERE! Well that's a lie...I found ONE, but it has been discontinued so I lucked out that they had it in my size...you can't even order it online. While shopping for these stupid bras I even went to that specialty store in Bountiful (and had to stop at Target on the way home to PUMP in the parking lot because my trip had taken so long and Jeff was home with the kids and I had left him milk to feed her but that meant my boobs were jam packed FULL of milk). Yupp...so I can't find bras. Oh ya, some people recommended nursing tank tops...I thought hey, that could be a good idea, so I bought one. Well, I promised no pictures, and I am going to stick to that...BUT I did take a pretty funny one the other day. The nursing tank top fit..everywhere but my giant boobs. They were so heavy they were weighing down the shirt and half of my boob was hanging out...pretty sure that isn't how they are supposed to work. You know what else? My boobs leak ALL the time. It is SO awkward and inconvenient. I SOAK through nursing pads. Lame. (I was able to make a pretty funny joke about it though. I text my mom at the butt crack of dawn the other morning while I was nursing and this is what it said: I think I have a plumbing problem...because both my faucets are leaking lol lol lol) The only thing I have found that works is the disposable ones. So I won't be spending all my money on formula, instead I'll be spending it on disposable nursing pads lol. Oh as for the bonding thing? Nope, definitely not. I look down at her tiny little face and think wow, my boob is like 10x the size of your head...and then I realize she is sucking away at my BOOB...and it is weird. I also don't like that I am the only one that can feed her. Sometimes I wish Jeff could help at night when she thinks the world is ending because she nursed an hour ago and is all of a sudden STARVING again. Yupp...she nurses like every hour to hour and a half at night before bedtime...but I really shouldn't complain about that either because she sleeps relatively well at night. I called the Dr. the other day to see if I could stop waking her up and night and he said yes. Thank goodness. I was sick of it. It was a huge ordeal to get her to eat. She wanted to sleep...not like sleepy baby sleep but like hello mom is it the middle of the night why are you stuffing your giant boob in my face kinda sleep. I agreed. Things are tons better now that we both can sleep until SHE decides she is hungry. It isn't as hard to get up either when I know the feeding will be mostly successful. Ok, now that I have complained lots about it, I will say I am truly grateful that I can nurse little A. It is SO good for her, especially because she was early and is little. I don't think formula is bad...that is pretty much all Riley got, so don't feel bad if you are reading this and can't breast feed. I am also grateful because it is free and I'm not working, and I didn't budget like $200 a month for formula...so it's a good thing it is working, or we'd be boob poor. Anyway, my plan at the moment is to nurse her until she is 6 months old...older than that seems even weirder to me. DEFINITELY I will stop when she can walk (if it is before a year). Now my next goal is to get the feeding to take less time...like 30 min TOTAL including a diaper change. That would be nice.

March

We are super excited about March! My mom is coming out to visit in a couple of weeks...she is super excited to meet her new granddaughter and see Riley. He loves her to death. She is such a trooper and chases him around the house non-stop! They are best buds. My mom and I have an addiction to SkipBo. I can guarantee there will be lots and lots of SkipBo games played....and here's the challenge because I know she reads this blog...I WILL KICK YOUR BUTT!!! Hahaha...we also really like to play Dominoes. Yupp...we're cool like that :) I can also tell you we will pee our pants at least once...because we laugh so hard. My mom and I are outta control, crazy, spunky ladies...it's going to be a good time. In March we will also be celebrating Riley's 3rd birthday!!! I can't believe he is almost 3 already! What the heck has happened in the last 3 years? I can't imagine A ever turning 3 years old...but I know some day she is going to be just like her big brother :) Hopefully March means nicer weather so we can go outside and play...by ourselves...since people have germs and I am paranoid about them lol. We have lots to look forward to this month...I'm pretty excited. You should be too...that means I'll blog more :)

PS. Pretty cool picture huh? Yupp...that was my idea. You can steal it if you want...but maybe give me coolness credit k? I am going to take her picture every month with the name of the month since she was born on the first...and we can watch her grow. Don't worry...I'll do the cute pictures next to a stuffed animal too :)

One Month

My sweet baby girl is one month old today!! I can't believe a whole month has already passed...but I sure am glad! This past month has been full of lots of ups and downs, mostly downs though! I think we are starting month two out on the right foot and I am so excited! I can definitely tell my little girl is growing! YAY! She is finally filling out her newborn clothes :) I am excited for her to fit into the darling things hanging in her closet! My friend Mackenzie took newborn pictures for me the other day. Here is a sneak peek!

Bread

Almost a year ago I took this bread making class. They claimed they would teach you how to make bread from start to finish in less than an hour...they were right! Oh man...can I just tell you it is the easiest, yummiest thing to do? It costs CENTS to make it too...something like 0.25 per loaf! You can't pay that little in the store for bread...and definitely not bread this good! The best thing is, is the dough can be used for so many other things too ex: pizza, cinnamon rolls, dessert or dinner braid (not sure what that is? google it!), bread bowls, etc etc. You have to have either a kitchen aid mixer or a bosch in order to make it...I had purchased on awhile back on KSL (see old blog post) for a good deal so I already had it. You might say, it is expensive to spend $200 on a kitchen aid, but think of how much $ and time I am going to save making my own bread....well over $200, that's for sure! I also love my kitchen aid to make yummy things like ice cream and cookies...but that's another story. Anyway, I wish this post had smell-a-vision because my whole house smells like fresh baked bread right now...mmmm mmm good :)


PS. If you have a kitchen aid/bosch and you want to learn how to make it...I'll secretly teach you (but don't tell because they say you are supposed to pay to take the class to learn and you have to be certified to teach)

Check out their website: www.pantrysecrets.net

2 Week Checkup and Sewing

Things seem to be sorting themselves out around here. I'm quickly learning how to juggle 2 kids and make them both happy (most of the time). Things seem to be going TONS better in the nursing department...so thank you for your prayers haha. Addie had her 2 week checkup on Tuesday and she weighed 6 lbs 7 oz and is 19 inches long! We were SO excited! In a week she gained 14 oz...guess something is working lol. I've been sewing a lot lately. It is my way of getting away and doing something for myself. I feel so good when I accomplish something and I love making new things and saving us a ton of $$! I made a "Hooter Hider" the other day...they retail for like $35 and I made one for like 1/4th of that....I also just made this blanket thing called a clover blanket, or carseat swaddle blanket...for now, I am calling it a Baby Bungalow Burrito...they retail for like $60..which is a rip off in my opinion! Anyway, they are awesome! I'll post some pics later tonight! Anyhoo, all is well at the Maas household!

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls has a brand new meaning to me....

Notice how there are TWO waterfalls in this picture...and yes, sightseers too...that would be Riley

Hospital and Home

My first night in the hospital was HORRIBLE! I had possibly THE worst nurse EVER! She never came in when her shift started to introduce herself (not that big of a deal to me typically) BUT the CNA came in and said they needed to do routine vitals on my baby, so she took her. Well I fell asleep for 45 min and when I woke up Addison was STILL gone! So I paged my nurse...well she came in and was like oh, well I didn't write it down but I THINK your babies body temp was low so we had to put her under the warmer...sorry I don't know if that is your baby though....ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! I was like well figure it out because I want to know where my kid is. Low and behold it WAS my baby who was cold and under the warmer. The other awesome thing she did was tell me I should nurse AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. So that entire night I nursed Addie for like 1.5 HOURS at a time...no joke. Ya, the next morning my new nurse was like no no no no no! They should only nurse for 10 min on each side because they burn too many calories otherwise...great. She also refused to take out my IV for no good reason other than she didn't want to. It was serving NO purpose...I had already gone to the bathroom and the bag had been empty for hours...eventually my CNA took it out in the middle of the night for me. Don't worry...I asked the next day to never have her as my nurse again.......

So things at home have been good for the most part. Riley transitioned SO well. He LOVES his little sister. He always wants to hold her hand and he says he wants to hold her in his arms, but then when he does he says "Too heavy mom" lol...she's rather light in my opinion :) At her 1 week check-up she weighed 5 lbs 9.5 oz and was 19 inches long. The dr recommended I nurse her every 2 hours instead of every 3...ya, that didn't work out so great. I cried and cried and cried. Nursing was going well, but then everything seemed to fall apart. She forgot how to latch and would get so mad about it...it was like Riley all over again. I was seriously determined to nurse this time around though because it is FREE and SO good for your baby. We didn't budget formula into the 2011 budget (lol, I know!) so I would feel guilty spending all that extra $$ when I could provide free, better food for Addie. Now, with Riley nursing just did NOT work (due to the minor detail of taking an allergy pill EVERY day...ya I NOW know that depletes your milk supply....) So anyway, nursing was good, then bad, very bad. Poor Jeff, I've been an emotional wreck (as most of you probably have read on facebook) I think it would help if my boobs weren't like 4 times the size of my babies head...I need like 4 hands to maneuver everything....ya, not exaggerating. So on Friday I made Jeff take a half day so I could go see the lactation specialist. THANK HEAVENS. Things have been SO much better since then. I won't say it is easy, or that I love having to feed every 3 hours ALL DAY and NIGHT long...but it's working. Well by working I mean she poops and pees....so she is getting something. We have an appointment on Tuesday for her 2 week checkup and we will see how much weight she has gained and we will know if it is really working. I am not totally opposed to the idea of pumping. I mean heck I don't leave the house so who really cares if it isn't the most convenient thing....but it is still free. My goal is week by week. Well really, more like day by day. I've heard if you can make it to 6 weeks things are sooooo much better. They also told me that once we finally get to her due date things will click a lot more too because she will be more mature and close to where she needs to be...we only have a little over a week until we get there! Soooooo if you'd like to add my breast feeding needs and well being to your nightly prayers, I'm all over it! I pray all the time about it and thank Heavenly Father it has worked for at least 2 weeks...I'm so not thinking long term...it's too scary. Ok, I'm done ranting :) I'll be back to blog soon...and when Jeff gets home I'll have him help me add pictures :)

Surprise...She's Here!

Holy crap! It's been almost a year since I've blogged...shame on me! I felt like at the time nothing exciting was happening and my life seemed pretty dull...well looking back on it, lots of things actually happened...I'll update those later.

Soooooooo as I'm sure pretty much all of you know by now, our little girl was born!!! I kinda knew things weren't going to be much longer, but I didn't think they would be as soon as they were! At 34 weeks I was already dilated to a 2, but they did a FFN test (preterm labor) and it came back negative. That meant I had at least 2 weeks before she would be born and there was only a 1% chance that she would be born in those next 2 weeks. So things went by relatively uneventful for the next 2 weeks...then at 36 weeks (Thursday January 27) I went in and I was at a 2 still, but I really hadn't been having too many contractions. Well a few days before my apt we had a little snow and I decided to shovel to start some contractions, I mean I KNEW it wouldn't put me into labor. So anyway, for like 5 days I had contractions. Well on Monday January 31, I was having more contractions, but nothing too crazy. Then I got a phone call mid to late afternoon that one of my best friends brother had passed away...we knew it was coming, but it seemed so soon. Anyway, I spent the better part of the afternoon bawling my eyes out. Jeff got home and I hadn't even gotten around to making dinner. Well we decided to run to the store to grab a couple of things and so Riley could use a gift card he had gotten from my Aunt for Christmas. So we did this few errands, came home, ate dinner, and started putting together these Lego vehicle things Riley had gotten. Well my contractions started to pick up and were pretty strong, but not horrible. Well they just kept happening and happening, but they felt weird...more like my back ached and I had period cramps. I figured it was too early too because I wasn't even 37 weeks yet! Well I finally fell asleep around 1 am...and woke up at 2:30 feeling horrible. I woke Jeff up and told him I thought I was in labor but was going to take a shower to see what would happen. So I got in the shower and things didn't get any better. I tried drinking water, walking around, laying down, etc...well finally at like 4:15 I decided to go to the hospital. I had to go to the ER because the rest of the hospital was locked up shop for the night...I felt like such an idiot as the WHEELED me in a wheel chair to labor and delivery...I was like I can TOTALLY walk on my own. Well anyway, my contractions were now 2 minutes apart and relatively strong but not horrible. So the lady brings me to L&D and I look up and one of my BEST friends is working! So she checked me in and got me all set up and stuff and sure enough my contractions were 2 minutes apart and I was dilated to a 3. So they called my dr and he decided to have me walk around for an hour to see if things were progressing. My friends shift was just ending so she hung out with me and we did laps around the hospital for an hour. Well then they checked me and I was at a 4+ and officially in labor! I called Jeff and let him know it was REAL and he needed to get to this hospital. He quick woke Riley up and got him ready and met his mom in Farmington and headed up to the hospital. By this point my contractions were getting a lot stronger and hurting. My doctor came in and checked on me and said he would wait to break my water until I had my epidural because I was hurting so much. So finally the anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epidural...it was so nice! Well it was like 11:30 and the nurse came in and checked on me and I think I was at like a 7 or something...so Jeff went to get lunch. Right before he left one of my machines was making this beeping noise for like 5 minutes...we couldn't figure out what it was so we just ignored it. Well Jeff got back from lunch and the nurse came to check me again and I told her I was in pain and about the beeping noise...well my epidural pump had DIED and for the last 40 minutes I had NO pain medication. I was now at an 8 and wanting to scream. They put new batteries in my pump and had me press the button every 5 minutes for like 15 minutes but it wasn't working as fast as I was progressing, so they paged the anesthesiologist so he could push another round of meds into my epidural directly. Well that was pretty much instant and intense and I then felt like I needed to push and sure enough I was at a 10. Well that's exciting except for the fact the epidural screwed me over. I felt SO drugged and couldn't talk and was having a hard time breathing. I was super flushed and couldn't keep my eyes open. I was secretly freaking out inside, but everyone else was worried too. I was pretty much silent the entire time I was pushing, which was only like 30 minutes. The nurse kept making sure I was ok because I went from talking non stop (you know, the normal Carrie) to not talking AT ALL. So I quick had the baby and like 5 minutes later I started to feel normal again and not need the oxygen anymore or anything. It was so weird, but I was glad I didn't actually FEEL the act of giving birth and I was coherent enough after giving birth to enjoy the moment. Our precious little Addison Rae was born 1 day premature at 1:40 p.m. weighing 6 lbs and 18.5 inches long! She has SO much hair and squeaks a lot! She is tiny tiny tiny! When he left the hospital she was only like 5 lbs 6 oz or something along those lines. We had to stop by the store and buy newborn clothes because we were totally not prepared for such a little baby! Anyway, that is a way long story, but some of you were wondering what the story was so there you go! Don't worry, I have lots more to blog about...like the WORST nurse ever the first night I was in postpartum. Ya...wait for it, you'll die!

From Addison 0 to 3 Months

From Addison 0 to 3 Months

From Addison 0 to 3 Months

From Addison 0 to 3 Months

From Addison 0 to 3 Months

From Addison 0 to 3 Months