A day at the farm!

Well a couple of weeks ago we went to the farm to steal some ground cover for our back yard...it is alot cheaper than buying it (ha ha ha!) Anyways I took my dad's camera and took some pics of Lydia. It was so fun to go back and see it in the spring, last year at this time I was so overwhelmed with just having a new baby I didn't really get to enjoy the beauty of the farm. I really do love that place and feel so blessed that we had the opportunity to live there even if it was during the worst winter ever. Anyways so here are some pics of Lydia and I threw in a couple of the farm!

By the pioneer house...she was obsessed with the gravel and kept picking it up and trying to eat it!

Such a cutie

A little giggle caught on camera!

The trees at the farm are absolutely amazing, you can actually here them sway in the wind and while we were living there I made friends with an owl that lived in one of them. We would "hoo hoo" back and forth!
Love the quaint pioneer house
Where else is there are little stream that leads to a working water wheel that is in the valley that is?
The bridge that Chris proposed to me on...this will always be a very special place to me for that reason alone!

Spring has brought me such a nice surprise...Lydia is walking right before my eyes!

Ok so I know that I am a little obsessed with my child, and yes I have posted for like the past 6 days which is very excessive and slightly ridiculous. But these are all important events that I don't every want to forget!

So I took Lydia in for her 1 year check up, her stats are as follows-

She weighs 20.8 lbs and is in the 50%

She is 29 inches long and is in the 40%

And I don't remember how big her head was but she is in the 80%

Dr. Boettger was very excited about her growth and progress. We did however find out that she is anemic and is going to have to start taking iron supplements, the poor child is doomed it runs in the family. He was extremely impressed with how many words she can say, and says that should make for a much happier toddler. When he started asking about crawling and walking I said yes she is crawling but not walking quite yet. Well it is almost like Lydia heard me and decided that she was going to walk. The Dr. left and we were waiting for the nurse to come back in to do her immunizations and Lydia saw a toy she wanted and she took her first few steps. I was freaking out, and was hoping that it wasn't a fluke. I even told the nurse when she came in, I think she thought I was crazy.

Anyways I got home and of course I had to show Chris, now usually when I talk something up to Chris Lydia get's gun shy and makes me look like and obsessive mother (oh wait I am, ha ha ha!) anyways Lydia must've been out to prove something because on her first try showing daddy she took 5 steps. Anyways we set up the camera on the chair and this is what we got...I hope you enjoy watching some of Lydia's first steps!

I few things that Lydia is doing now that she is a big 1 year old

-She mimiks just about anything and everything she observes. She loves it when you stick out your tongue, she will then promptly stick hers right out back to ya!

-She is eating big girl food and surprisingly some of her favorites are cooked carrots, celery, blackbeans and of course she loves quesadilla's (sounds like a good mix of her mom and dad!)

-She is crawling all over and started walking today!

-She can crawl up stairs, but hasn't quite mastered going down them.

-She loves to play hide and go seek. It is the cutest thing in the mornings she will go "AAAHHH!" and wait for chris (who is still in bed to respond) when he does she responds right back. THey go back and forth until Lydia finds him!

I love that little one and look forward to many more new and exciting in the months and years to come!

April 21st, 2008...Baby Day!

The time has finally come...

Where we were 1 year ago!



Ok so I wasn't kidding when I said that this is one long drawn out story and so here comes the finale!


Sunday night was probably the worst, I was now very tired going on no sleep for almost 48 hours and I have eaten very little beacuse I'm in so much pain. We continued the kettle bath's which was the only thing at this point that gave me any sort of relief, I even fell alseep a couple of times in there (that can't be safe) Anyways the worst part about it is that now I'm worried that I am not going to have Lydia and I have absolutely no extra days to take off from work, because every day I take off now is one less I get with her when she is actually here. So I am freaking out thinking I am going to have to go to work and teach school, luckily I got work off at the studio (yes I was still teaching dance at this point, the parents loved seeing me do my leg extensions 9 months prego, it was hot!) Anyways and everyone I talk to is like you can be in labor like this for weeks before you actually have the baby, especially with your first one. So all through the night I'm having contractions and praying that I will have the baby.


In the morning we decided to set up a dr. appointment with my Dr. instead of going to the hospital (if I had known how expensive it was going to be I would've tried to be a little tougher, we spent about $3000.00 alone on the false alarms!) Anyways so we got an appointment right at 9:00 I go in there expecting that he is going to tell us exactly what the hospital has told us 3 times "You are effaced but not dialated! I look like crap (I swear so many people's pictures right after they have a baby they look so cute, that is what I imagined for myself but no I looked like a beached whale that was about to explode!) So we get into Dr. Barton's office, who by the way is the best dr. ever, I love him and am so sad that I will have to find a new dr. for our next kids because our insurance changed.


Anyways we finally get into him and he has heard from the Dr. on call about all the false alarms and I'm sure he can tell that I'm pretty emotional so he checks and it's good news I was finally dialated and to a 4. I was so excited I kissed Dr. Barton and told him he was my hero. So it was off to the hospital. We got all checked in, we were in this room with a beautiful view, and it was an absolutely georgous day. It was sunny and perfect weather just like today infact. So we got in and the nurse asks so are you going to be doing an epideral, and if so when would you like it. "NOW, will work fine!" I am telling you once they got the epideral in I was a happy camper, I could have 10 kids if as soon as the contractions start they hook me up to that thing, it was amazing. I took a nap, my parents came and we were just all hanging out shooting the breeze all so excited for the new arrival that was shortly coming. So at about 12:00 Dr. Barton came to check on me and I was at a 6 more good news but there was some bad news Lydia was posterior and he thought that I may have to have a C-section. I had some amazing nurses that heard Dr. Barton and so they tried some different positions that help the baby turn. She was one stubborn baby...no big surprise. At about 4:15 my parents and Chris headed to the cafeteria to get some much needed food (especially for Chris) The nurses came in at about 4:30 and said you are at a 10 lets start pushing so we called them and they came rushing back. By the time Dr. Barton came in we were in progress and so he decided to let it ride and see if Lydia would turn. I pushed from 4:45-5:54 finally at about 5:53 Dr. barton did an epesiotimy (sp) and she instantly turned and out she came. It was the most amazing moment of my life.


Side note I had asked my mom to be in the room with me, but it all happened so fast that my dad sort of got caught in there as well. He stayed at the head of the bed but it was pretty funny. He was trying to be helpful and kept getting in the way of the nurses and so finally he was on fanning duty, he took a clipboard and would fan me, he did get some pretty amazing pictures though of Lydia just moments after she was born. They are pretty graphic but they are absolutely amazing! Poor chris he was so nervous that he didn't want to really have to do anything but they sort of just throw you into it whether you want to or not, so he was a total trooper other then the fact that about half way through the pushinghe pulled my IV out and I was bleeding everywhere (ha ha ha!)


So at 5:54 our lives changed in a way that only a mother can understand. We were so blessed to have this new little life come into our family. It was a decision that was met with much adversity, which is always what happens when you make the right choice.


Lydia Ann Knudsen came out weighint 7'11'' and 21 inches long. She had these big blue eyes, and she just stared up at me like she knew who I was. I love that little girl and will never forget April 21st, 2008! So Happy birthday baby girl!

Lydia then....and Now!

Liddy-bug's Birthday party!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LYDIA!
Well on Sunday we celebrated Lydia's 1st birthday with the family. It was so much fun to have both mine and Chris' families over. Our families get along so well, it was a lot of fun and even if Lydia doesn't remember it I think it turned out really well! I decided to go with a Lady-bug cake because we always call her Liddy-Bug, and I have a feeling that Lady bugs are going to follow this child throughout her life (ha ha ha!) Anyways everyone came over for Cake and ice-cream and to watch Lydia open presents. Then afterwards of course we took all the new toys and headed down to the studio, it was a riot to see the little kids (Lydia, Raini and Bode) and the big kids (all of us) having so much fun. Balls were flying kids were riding cars and running around and it was just alot of fun. Thanks to everyone who came for helping to make Lydia's 1st birthday such a special one. We know she has a lot of people who love her alot and we love you guys for it!

Just a few of Lydia's presents...this was before Chris family arrived, yes she is one spoiled child.
Here are a couple of pictures of the cake I made, I made two, one was my test and the other was the real one.
I think that they look cute but I hope they tasted ok...you never know when you cook a cake in a bowl!

Grandpa and Nana Hardman let her open one present before everyone got there and she loved it, it is a singing keyboard...anything with music and LYdia is absolutely enthrawled!

The kids were having a little pow-wow in the bounce house...it was so fun to see Lydia play with other kids, they all seemed to have a lot of fun!

Lydia opening her presents with the help of Bode and Raini!

The only pic I have of Lydia getting ready to blow out her candles...and don't worry it is so blury! (needless to say my camera isn't top of the line!)

Everyone watching Lydia eating her cake...what did we do before we had kids?

THe gang!

I think that Lydia liked her birthday cake

All done...she looks like a vampire child!

Bode and Raini got in on the cupcake action as well!

Raini getting ready to get cleaned up.
Well Lydia definitely made out like a bandit...She is one spoiled 1 year old!
Lydia playing with a few of her toys...we had family night outside, basically it consisted of Chris cooking the bacon for BLT's and Lydia and I playing with Che'

I love the look on her face...I think she thought she was going to fall.

She loves her new baby stroller, she pushed that baby around all day!

Come, come on the drums! (from "The Break-up")

Chris...the master of the grill! Once Che smelled the bacon he wouldn't leave Chris' side!

April 19th, 2008-April showers bring...more disappointment!

Continued from previous post...I told you guys this was going to be a dewsy!

So throught the night I kept having contractions and was in a lot of pain. At this point all I could think about was the fact that I had both my family shower as well as my friends shower that day. So Chris and I got up at about 5:00 am knowing full well that I wasn't having the baby but that I needed medicine to dull the pain or else I was going to be a wreck for the showers. So off to the hospital we went again.

This time the hospital was calm, the nurse at the front desk was very nice and they got us right into a room. I don't know if ya'll know this but when you check in they keep you for two hours regaurdless of whether or not you are going to have the baby, so we hunkered down and were prepared to hang out.

The nurse came in got me all hooked up and then checked my progress...yet again I am effaced and now I'm dialated to about a 1 (but the nurse said that was pushing it.) She reccomended that I take a walk to see if it will enduce me, little did she know if the riding lawnmower wasn't going to do it then a little walking definitely wasn't going to work. So finally she talked to my dr. gave me some MORPHINE, and sent us on our way. Now mind you they say either the morphine will slow the contractions or put you into labor even more. At this point it slowed those contractions right down. Chris and I got back to my parents slept for 3 hours and then I had to get up and get showered and ready for some showers.

I had my family shower at Chris' parents at 12:00 and then my friend shower at 5:00 at my good friend Amanda's. At the family shower I was feeling really good, I couldn't feel my contractions at all and was starting to think I may not be having this baby soon afterall. By the time I was opening presents at my friends shower I was grinning through the pain and just trying not to show it.

Chris and I went and got dinner that night at some BBQ chicken place and by now I was really feeling the pain. We didn't want to go back to the hospital to be sent away again so we went home and chris got the tub all ready for me.

****Mind you we are living at the farm, and I had never been in the room with the tub before because Chris thought it was creepy. So he went in there with rubber gloves, lysol and some serious elbow grease and he got it ready. Now I was sort of still grossed out so we just kept the lights off so I didn't have to really see where it was that I was taking a bath. Not only that but the water heater at the farm only held like 5 gallons I swear so Chris would get the tub all hot and then get the kettle going and walk back and forth pouring hot water into the tub so that I could have a couple minutes of relief. This went on until about 4:00 am and I finally told Chris to go upstairs and get some sleep.
I tried to brave out the contractions on my own and I won't lie I bawled like a baby, they were by far the most painful things I have ever experienced. They were coming every 5 minutes and they were so bad I would have to get out of bed and try to brave it. This went on like this through the night...

I'm not going to make you wait for Sunday April 20th, because basically all that happened was I went to the hospital at about 2:00 pm only to be sent away with morphine again, but this time it didn't work so Sunday was another painful mess of a day!

Now keep in mind that I have now been in active labor for 48 hours, I don't really count Friday because I wasn't in too much pain. And I'm not going to lie that I was ready to be done being pregnant...

Sorry to keep you hanging but there is more coming soon!

April 18th, 2008 Contractions start!

Well I am going to be doing a 4 day post remembering back to last year before I had Lydia so bear in mind this is more for journaling purposes, and because I don't every want to forget how special that time of my life was.

Well I woke up at about 5:00 am on Friday April 18th, 2008 and it almost felt like I was going to start my period. I was having really bad back cramps and it woke me up. At first I just brushed it off and really didn't think anything of it. As I was eating my breakfast I started thinking...OH my gosh these could be contractions. Not really knowing what a contraction feels like, I sort of imagined that contractions=screaming, sweating and all sorts of pain. Is what I didn't realize is that they don 't start out that way. So I went to school with a little flutter of excitement and I also started noticing that they were actually starting to get a little painful. When I went into the office my good friend Katherine (she was the secretary) was in there and we started talking and I told her I thought I might be having contractions. So we started talking and determined that they were most likely contractions. We sat in the office timing how far apart they were and they were abou 8-10 minutes. I was a little concerned at the time because my Due date wasn't until May 2nd and I was not prepared to go into labor early. Luckily...actually by divine intervention I had set for my long term sub (Kim Petersen) to come in and observe that day, so I could go over all the lesson plans with her. Luckily I had been working on my lesson plans for months and was totally prepared in that aspect. So Kim came in expecting to observe and left feeling a little apprehensive since she was under the impression that she would have another two weeks to finish out the job she was working at the time.

By about 12:00 the word had gotten around that I was having contractions, of course the principal was out of the school that day and so I thought Oh great I'm stuck here until 3:50 and I'm going to have this baby at the school.

Side note my students are freaking out excited they are all cheering and giving my tummy high five's and hugs and telling "baby" that they couldn't wait to meet her.

So right before lunch Susan Henrie (one of my all time hero's) comes in and tells me that she will take my class so I can go to the hospital. By now my contractions are coming every 5 minutes and they are getting so intense that I am having to stop what I'm doing to concentrate so I don't freak out. So I call Chris (who knew nothing until now) and tell him to get our bags ready, because we are going to the hospital.

So i meet him at the farm and he was so cute he had our bags packed, and Lydia's bag packed and he had the camcorder out ready to document the day our daughter was born. We are both so excited and Chris is calling our parents to tell them that we are heading to the hospital and that they might be grandparents by the end of the day (ha ha ha!)

We were so nieve. So we get to the IMC and first of all Chris get's vallet, because he thinks I'm going to have this baby NOW. So he is telling people to get out of the way, and rushing me in there. So we get to the info desk in the women's center and the nurse ignores us, so Chris pipes up and is like "Can we get some help, my wife is about to have a baby!" now at the time the nurses response made me so mad, and now looking back I realize how right she was. The nurse responds "is this your first baby?" Us-"yes!" Nurse-"Well get in line there are quite a few people waiting and there is no way you are having that baby today!" Both Chris and I look at eachother all confused like whatever I'm having contractions it is going to happen today. So anyways we have to walk around the hospital for two hours before we even get a room. Once we get a room the nurse does some tests and basically tells us I am effaced, but not dialated at all. Asks if I want any pain medecine (which I didn't need at the time) and sends us home.

Huge false alarm, and very dissapointing. So we go back to the farm we got to the hospital at about 1:00 pm and got back to the farm at about 6:00 pm. Now we have had a taste and we want that baby more then ever to be in our arms. So Chris has a master plan that maybe if we shake things up a bit, it might get Lydia a little more motivated to get here. So he sets me up on the riding lawn mower and I mowed the huge lawn at the farm, all the while I am having contractions which are getting worse and worse.

That evening we are watching the news and realize that it is the salt lake marathon and it goes right past the farm (on 6200 S.) So since we are now resolved that we are having this baby soon we pack up our things and go to my parents house to stay, since we knew if I needed to leave during the marathon we were out of luck, and I was not having my baby at the farm (ha ha ha!) So that night kind of ironically we all sat around watching the movie "Juno" and timed my contractions. We finally went to bed and at this point the contractions are getting so bad that I am waking up in so much pain that I can't lay down...

Well if you want to find out what happens next you will have to read tomorrow's post, let's just say that this story is very long and drawn out but worth the wait!

Deceptively Delicious!

Well I had seen Jessica Seinfeld on Oprah talking about her new recipe book called "Deceptively Delicious." At the time I was prego with Lydia and I thought to myself, wow I am totally going to do that with my kids. Well my Mom without knowing that I wanted that recipe book got it for me for Valentines day, and I have finally decided that it is going to be a way of life for our family. I am tired of always feeling like we don't eat healthy, and it is my fault because I'm the one who cooks. Not only that but Lydia has put her foot down, she is done with baby food. I have never seen a baby throw a tantrum the way that she does when you try to feed her some pureed pears or bananas!
Anyways I was going through the cookbook and was really cravin muffins, I found a recipe that sounded great Peanutbutter, banana muffins. Not only did it sound good it seemed pretty healthy (minus the peanut butter.) So this morning while I was making some Chicken noodle soup, I decided to try out the recipe (so I used the left over carrots from the soup for the puree!) Anyways here it is step by step!

I think the only way to really make this way of life work is if you have all of your purees done ahead of time. I had done the carrots earlier and it was quite the project!

It's pretty sad how proud I was of my little bags of puree!

The only way I can cook is if I keep Lydia occupied...really healthy meal golden grahams and a ginger snap!

Looks like the easter bunny took a crap in my bowl!

You know that they are good if even Chris will eat the finished project without one complaint!

It was an eggcellent Easter!

***This is a long one that involves throwing up and diarhea***

Ok so I'm kind of eggsagerating about how eggcellent our Easter was...in all honesty it was not one to write home about (but it is one to blog about!)

It really started on Friday. We went over to our friend Bill and Jandie's house for dinner and to dye easter eggs. We were the first one's there which looking back was a miracle and lucky. We had only been there a couple of minutes and Lydia threw up (were not talking spit up we are talking projectile, head spinning, exercist throw up.) So we thought maybe she just had an upset stomach and after she threw up she seemed fine, well she played with Alex her new little buddy for a while and was acting tired so I went to put her down. Gave her a bottle and she started acting like she was going down when it happened again...only this time worse the poor thing threw up so much it came out of her nose (it was so hard to see as a parent, I'm not going to lie I wanted to cry!) So obviously after apologizing up and down about our daughter leaving her mark on thier guest bed spread we headed home. She fell asleep on the way home but soon after putting her in her crib she was puking again, and this time it was bile. I was freaking out now, Chris totally had to calm me down, I'm not going to lie I was ready to drive her to the emergency room demanding that they make her better. Well it is hard because you forget everyone get's the stomach flu and it is ok. So we kept her hydrated with Pedialyte and just had to wait it out.

To make a long story short she was threw up saturday morning and then all through the night saturday. Chris came to bed at 5:30 am when he finally got her down to sleep. The poor thing is just having a rough go. So I woke up this morning to a still sick child. The good news was that she didn't throw up today but now she has a severe case of diarhea. So 4 loads of laundry, 5 sippy cups of pedialyte, 10 saltine crackers, and lots of hugs from mom, dad, grandma, and nana I think that she is finally feeling better. I was the most sad that she didn't get to wear her easter dress to church, and that we missed the opportunity to be spiritually fed today.

So please note that the reason Lydia is in a white onsie while opening her easter basket is because she had already been through 3 pairs of PJ's and two outfits due to poop and throw up. So I finally gave up.

Her Easter basket...Chris was even surprised (he didn't know I had put one together for her!)

She had just woken up from a 4 yes 4 hour nap so she was a little hesitant at first!

She instantly loved the bunny...she kept putting it up to her head and going "Ooohhhh!"

Yeah for my little Easter Bunny!

I just wanna squeeze her, she is so cute

Playing with her new bubble tray...I love the rolls on her legs!

She wouldn't play with the actual play dough but she loved taking the lid off and putting it back on and also she really loved tearing the box that it came in apart!
Lydia hated this little jiggly ball...it was so funny Chris would put it right by her and she would either throw it as far as she could or start scream-crying until we moved it away!

About to throw the hated pink jiggly ball!

As usual where ever Lydia goes her mess is sure to follow.

I am so greatful for the easter season, not just for the easter baskets and the easter eggs but because of what it is truly about.

Discovery Gateway...now that's what I call fun!

Well Tuesday Patrice and I took the kids to "Discovery Gateway!" We went on Tuesday not realizing that it is $2.00 off Tuesday so it was somwhat of a mad house at first but who are we kidding it was a blast. I think that Lydia will appreciate it a little more when she is closer to Bode's age but she seemed to still have fun, and would not let me hold her to save her life. Overall it was so much fun, so thanks so much guys for a fun filled SUNNY day! Liddy at the water station...she loved slashing around even though she kept trying to put her hands in her mouth after and the chlorine smell was pretty strong so we didn't stay there long (ha ha ha!)

Bode had so much fun adding food to his cart and checking out at the register! He is so stinkin cute...and I loved his new easter basketball outfit!

I put Lydia on the car to try to keep her off of the floor but we found somthing that worked even better... Lydia can't walk on her own yet but she can sure walk while pushing. Lydia and Raini were so funny Lydia would push her until they ran into something, I would move them and then it was off again!
Look out for the fire truck girlies! Bode is such a little stud, he is such a good kid he listens to Patrice and is very considerate of his sister and cousin Liddy!
They all loved the ball station, they would load the balls and then put them in the vaccum it was pretty cute!
The easter bunny made a guest appearance...Lydia actually loved "IT" even though I'll be honest look at that thing, I would be scared if I didn't know better (ha ha ha!)

Cute Raini hanging out with Mom!
The gear board, I thought it was such a fun idea and of course one day when I create my perfect playroom I want one of those!

You know you had a fun filled day when it ends like this...I love you Liddy-bug and have so much fun watching your grow and play!