October 2014 - Welcome Baby Jenna!

On October 1, we welcomed our new, sweet Jenna to the world! I had set up an induction to have her that morning. I called the hospital the night before, and they were hoping to get me in at about 7 am to get the induction started. I called 30 minutes before, as instructed, and unfortunately they were really busy and didn't have a room available for me to come in yet. So we hung out for a while, played with Kallie, and then at about 9:30 am they said I could go ahead and come into the hospital!

We arrived to Timpanogas Hospital at 10, got checked in and settled into my room. They started my pitocin at about 11, and we just got to hang out and wait. I told the nurse that I would like to have an epidural, so she went to get the anesthesiologist. After about a half an hour, I was starting to be in more pain, and wondering where the nurse and doctor were. Come to find out that the patients in the 2 rooms next to me had emergencies, and the two anesthesiologists were in their rooms helping them; so they were not able to come and give me my epidural for a long time. (Thankfully, my sister Brittany was there (she's a labor and delivery nurse at American Fork hospital) and she would push on my legs to try and give me relief from the contractions.) The doctor finally came and he could tell I was in a lot of pain from waiting over 2 hours for the epidural, so he told me he would give me a combination spinal tap and epidural, so that I could get relief from the pain quickly. So a little after 2 I got the spinal/epidural, and it was again the waiting game. About an hour/hour and a half after, I started feeling the contractions again. The nurse called the anesthesiologist to come back, and he decided to up the dose on my epidural. When that didn't provide me any relief, the nurse called him back again. At this point, all I could do was cry (and I continued to cry until after the baby came). By the time he got there, he discovered that the epidural would need to be replaced.....but it was too late. I was too far a long and close to giving birth, so there was no time to re-do it. (Since he did a spinal/epidural combo, we didn't know that the epidural didn't work until the spinal wore off.) I have a few friends who had gone into labor so fast that they couldn't get an epidural, so I knew that going without an epidural was a possibility (I tried to mentally prepare myself for this possibility with both of my pregnancies), I just didn't expect my lack of epidural to be because I got one, and it just didn't work. But obviously this baby was going to come regardless of an epidural. My doctor, Dr. Ollerton, came and I started pushing. All I wanted to do was lay there and cry because of the pain, but between Mike, Brittany, and my doctor, they convinced me to push through it. After about 10 minutes of pushing, our cute, squishy Jenna was here (and at this point I was crying out of joy and relief that I did it)! They handed Jenna to me and I immediately fell in love with her little chubby face! When the nurses told me she was 7 lbs 15 oz and 18 1/2" long, I was glad I got induced a week early! I was expecting to have another tiny baby like Kallie, but Jenna has proved me wrong.

So, with the exception of the epidural not working, the delivery went really well! They got Jenna all checked out and cleaned up, and I got to keep snuggling her after. My parents (who were SO generous in watching Kallie while we were in the hospital) brought Kallie to the hospital with them to see the baby a little while after I had her. It was SOOO cute to see Kallie meet Jenna for the first time. She wanted to be up on the hospital bed with me and the baby. Kallie would give her kisses and say that she loved Jenna--it was so sweet! My parents brought Kallie to see all of us in the hospital for the next two days while we were in the hospital. It was so sad to see Kallie leave; she was definitely confused about why we were not going home with her. The rest of our hospital stay was good. We have family visitors every day. But it's always nice to come home, and with our sweet new baby Jenna, it was even better!

Waiting (as patiently as possible) for this little girl to come!

Our cute chunky babe -- 7 lbs 15 oz!!!

Our family of 4!

Our hospital visitors a little bit after Miss Jenna was born

A few more of our hospital visitors the next couple of days after Jenna was born

Welcome home baby Jenna! Our hospital stay was nice, but we are glad to be home

She's already such a sweet and adoring big sister!

September 2014

Kallie just keeps getting cuter and cuter every day! It's so much fun to watch her develop, learn, and grow! The older she gets, the funnier she gets. We love the new things she is learning to say. Here are some cute (and sometimes not so cute) things she said/did this month:

• 2!!! (Felt lucky that she slept in til 9:30, then she barfed on me, and I realized she wasn't feeling well and that's why she slept in)
• Added a few 3 word phrases: "hold me please" and "I got it!" (When she got her bouncy balls she threw across the room)
• Watched the video of being sung "Happy Birthday" to over and over, and started singing it to herself
• Called Phillip "syrup" for a few days
• Sept 8 -- 2 year checkup. 20 lbs 4 oz (below the chart) and 32" (16%)
• Still in mostly 12 month size clothes (wears some 18 month clothes, great for length, but still too big on waist)
• "Need help" is one of the most common phrases heard in Kallie's day
• Tries to pull us off of the couch and says "pull"
• Says "Oh no! Dad!" Every time we get off the phone with Mike (or anyone we are talking to)
• Throws her hands and arms up and says "I did it!"
• Lines her Hello Kitties up in bed when she wakes up
• Jumped on moms belly and started some contractions

Even though Kallie had a rough start to her birthday, she started feeling better by the afternoon, so we took her on a walk to the neighborhood park, and walked around the neighborhood and helped her jump off of rocks. We stopped to smell all of the roses along the way to the park, and just tried to do some of the things that make Kallie happy:

We had a little birthday celebration with my family for Kallie a couple of days after her birthday. She loved all of her presents, eating her birthday cupcake, and I think her favorite part was when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her! Kallie and Gavin had a great time playing with all of her new toys, and her birthday balloons!

My parents have a time share up in Park City, and since we live in Utah now, we got to go with the family this year! They are building a golf course right by the hotel, so Kallie had a fun walk with Pappy and DeeDee to check it all out. We loved playing together in the pool, and had a ton of fun when anyone would hold her hands while she jumped into the pool. Thanks for the fun trip Pappy and DeeDee!

Kallie loves making new friends; my cousin's little girl, Nora, came over to my grandma's house a couple of times this summer, and Kallie loved playing with her in the playhouse! Kallie and Mike discovered a little bike in my parent's garage, and Kallie loved when Mike would push her around on it! Pappy went on a golfing trip, and Kallie decided to get into his golfing bag and strap herself in! She loves going to the park and climbing things! She especially loves when Pappy will make cookies with the kids!

Kallie absolutely adores her cousins! It's great living close enough to the Henderson's house in Wyoming. They are all so cute when they play together!

 One of the greatest things about being back in Utah is going to BYU games! GAME DAY! Every game day I make sure Kallie is dressed in her game day apparel! We are so grateful that my dad takes us with him (and the rest of the family) to the games--we have so much fun together! Go Cougars!

More fun with Kallie (and the top left picture is Kallie's last day as an only child!):

Mike was able to go to Salt Lake City Comic Con this year with his friend, Spencer (thanks Phillip for getting tickets--I wish we had a picture of you at your table). They had fun seeing all of the cool statues, and looking at all the people dressed up. Some of the highlights were meeting Brandon Sanderson and getting to see Phillip at his table.

August 2014

Happy August! We started out the month by celebrating our 7th Anniversary! Mike and I were a little lame this year...we went out to Olive Garden (thanks to my parents for watching Kallie while we went on our date); our dinner was delicious, but we were both so tired, that we decided to come straight home after dinner and just watch a movie here! But, happy 7 years to us:

We are so lucky to be part of such a wonderful ward here! Kallie loves going to nursery and playing with her friends, and she has really taken to singing time. We are currently nursery leaders, and trade off weeks being in there. It's so fun to get to be in there with Kallie and see how well she is doing. She also has made friends with some of the 8 year old little girls in the ward, who come over and play with her for a couple of hours a few times a week.

We had a huge rain storm one night (we were over at my Grandma's house for dinner), so Mike took Kallie outside and let her run around and play in the rain--she loved it! Then we had fun making faces and taking selfies:

Kallie is so funny. She is so smart with the iPad; she loves to open it to the photo booth app and take silly pictures of herself. It's synced to Mike's phone, so he will check his phone during the day and have tons of new pictures of Kallie! She still loves accessories, and likes to help me pick out headbands/flowers to wear every day. We are constantly outside, and she likes to go and play on the Nilson's trampoline any time she can!

We took advantage of Thanksgiving Point's "Two-for-Tuesday's" deal, and got into the new Museum of Curiosity for $2! We went with Britt, Gavin, DeeDee, Emily, Cory, and Brandon. It was really fun! Kallie had a blast running around and checking everything out. I think her favorite part was the little baby table that had the chairs/seats cut into the table (and she is so tiny, that she fit into the seat easily); she loved putting the toys in the water and filling up the cups.

We went with the family to a pre-season BYU Football scrimmage. After the scrimmage, we decided to not take her to any of the football games, since she really wasn't interested in it (she got to play with a babysitter/friends instead, which I'm sure she liked better!)

We always have a fun time with family! Kallie loves the new ball pit that Mike got for her, and especially loves playing in it when he plays in there with her! We love going on walks, and try to go on walks with Grandma when we can. She thought it was a blast when DeeDee pulled her around in a box like it was a sled.

We got a Seven Peaks/Pass of All Passes this year, and had a great time going to the pool! Kallie got really brave at the end of the summer and loved going down the little kid slides. I would stand at the bottom of the slide to catch her, and Mike would wait at the stairs to help her back up to the top (I wish I had gotten a picture or video of her doing it):

Kallie highlights for this month:

• (6-8 yr old) friends stopped by 3 times in one day (while Kallie was napping) to see if Kallie could come play ("she's just so cute!")
• The term "terrible two's" comes to mind...had a rough week, possibly just due to getting hand/foot/mouth
• Still loves to watch "steins" (little Einsteins)
• Is very good at maneuvering the iPad and often calls FaFa and Grammie on Skype (multiple times a day)
• Calls her blanket a "glayet" and Pappy is "Pad"
• Started asking mom to kiss her ouchies
• Won't go outside by herself, but when Gav went with her, they went across the backyard and to the neighbors trampoline and started jumping all by themselves
• Started nodding her head yes or saying "mm-hmm", instead of laughing to say yes. Likes to say "nope"

July 2014

We had some fun times this July! Here are my Kallie highlights first:

• Fell asleep on mom while she was mowing the lawn (using a riding lawn mower, of course)
• Started "punch dancing" while singing "da da da da"
• Repeated words for prayers (at dinner and bedtime) and kept folding her arms at dinner one night so we could say more prayers
• Jumping is her new favorite activity! She loves to jump down the stairs, over cracks, or anywhere! She also started jumping with both feet (instead of one foot at a time)
• Loves to point out letters that she recognizes anywhere she sees them (on people's shirts, or on the cereal box). She usually says the sound of the letter, instead of the name of the letter. She loves to have me point at a letter on a cereal box (while we eat breakfast) so she can tell me what letter it is
• Her vocabulary has increased so much since we've been here! She says new words every day, and can repeat a lot of words (sometimes she is very creative with how she says words)
• DeeDee bought Kallie a lady-bug back pack that Kallie refused to take off for 3 days (I made her take it off for nap time and bed time)
• Loves to run up to people and "scare" them by yelling "boo!"
• Learned how to open her bedroom door all by herself

It has been great living with my parents. Kallie loves being able to see them and play with them every day! We love to go on walks together, play bouncy ball, and play in the playhouse:

A huge bonus to living with my parents is that they are willing to babysit for us! We went on a fun date night to Tucano's to celebrate Tanner and Shar's birthdays:

For Independence day, we joined in the fun for a neighborhood parade and breakfast. Kallie's favorite part of the parade was collecting the candy that the people in the parade were throwing out:

It's so wonderful being close to our family again! Kallie loves playing with her aunts, uncles, and cousins! There's so much for her to play with here at Pappy and DeeDee's! And of course, we had to hit up Chick Fil A on the "dress like a cow" day, so we got free food--totally worth it!

As always, swimming is a highlight for us! We can't get enough of the pool:

Just some more pics of this little cutie! She loves trying to help dad when he's doing yard work, and loves to play with him whenever he gets home from work! The bottom left picture is when Kallie and Mike got to go to a demolition derby with Uncle Josh, Pappy, and DeeDee.

We are still missing our Indiana friends! Luckily, a lot of them have ties to Utah, so I get to see them sometimes! My dear friend, Camille, and her kids drove through Utah on their way to Arizona, so I got to meet up with Camille, and meet her new little cutie, Landon. Kallie was so excited to play with Brielle and Jaden again--they were such good little friends in Indiana!

We went with the family to see the parade of floats this year. There were actually some really cool floats! My aunt, Karen, helped do one of the floats, and it is crazy how much goes into making them! It was a cool experience to go and see all of the floats:

Exciting stuff for Dr. Mike... his name is officially on the door at the office! It's so much fun going to the office and seeing his name there! It makes it feel so official (as if it wasn't official enough before....)

My mom framed Mike's dental school diploma for him, and it turned out beautifully! We love you Dr. Merkley: