Big Shoes to Fill

Due to the fact that I have repeatedly mentioned that I suck at blogging, I am not going to play catch up. Although there is one thing that has occurred in the last 6 months that I feel is worthy of backtracking for. On November 21, at 10:10pm I received the news that my grandfather, Lloyd Jensen Dunn, had passed. I was surprisingly not phased by this. I was more sad for my grandmother and that I wasn't going to be able to go to the funeral. Don't get me wrong I love my grandpa and I was a little confused as to why I wasn't mourning. Although I was plenty emotional about everything else (turns out I suck at mourning too.) We ended up being able to get down to Cali for the funeral and it was such a neat experience. And I realized why I wasn't mourning in the traditional way. My grandfather was truly an amazing man married to an amazing woman. I am so glad that I was able to spend this summer with him and that he was able to meet my baby. When I was a child I used to get sad at the thought that my grandparents probably wouldn't be at my wedding and that I would probably never have the opportunity to take my kids to their house to have as much fun as I did when I was young. But I have been blessed enough to have found the most wonderful man in world, be sealed to him and have my beautiful daughter before my grandfather's time came. My grandparents came to Addy's baby blessing and Scott and I drove them home. My grandfather was not in the best of moods and when Addison started crying in the car I didn't see how it could get worse. I got her a bottle and was about out it in her mouth when my Grandpa took the bottle from me, all stern faced, and gave it to Adds and then started making smiley faces at her. And I thought then, this is something I will never forget, the amazing love that my Grandpa possessed. And that is why every emotion but sadness came to me, all of my memories of my Grandfather are laced with love and embellished in joy. When I think about all of the memories that I have of my Grandparents and how I wish my kids could experience the joy I had with them, I start thinking of my parents and Scott's parents and how happy I am that they get to be my children's Grandma and Grandpa Dunn. And I know that they will be great at it. Grandpa I miss you, I respect you, I love you, Thank you for everything.

The Cost of a Baby

Have you ever noticed how expensive it is to have a baby. Not only does it cost a lot for all of the medical treatment during pregnancy and the appointments for the baby after he/she is born, but your baby also goes through 20 diapers a day and you're constantly washing clothes and all that cost doesn't include all of the necessities you need, i.e. bottles, burp cloths, bibs, bath stuff, furniture. After all that necessary expense there's not much money left to spoil your baby or yourself with the many different baby toys/accessories that make your life easier and are just fun to get your beautiful baby. i.e. swings, high chairs, bouncers/jumpers, soothers, play yards etc. You think those diapers are getting expensive check out the prices on those items. So when my sister came down from Washington to visit, she suggested we go check out garage sales for baby things. This is what we found:

Baby Einstein Bouncer Retail Price: $89.99
My Price: $15



Alphabet Place Mat 24sq ft. Retail: $29.99
My Price $4


Graco Play Yard with Mobile and Changing Table Retail: $119.00
My Price: $20


Graco Bouncer Retail: $44.99
My Price $5


Swing Retail: $69.99
My Price $5


Kids Tunnel Retail: $29.99
My Price $3


Giant Monkey Retail: $154.99
My Price $1


Graco Swing Retail: $119.99
My Price $10


Baby Bouncer Retail: $51.99
My Price $10

The look on my daughter's face as she embraces her new best friend: Priceless

I am a newly converted fan of garage sales!

Disclaimer: We did not buy all this stuff for Addison.

Crib vs. Mommy and Daddy's bed

Well, Last night was Addison's first night in her crib. It went well I think. I put her in their about 9:00 and she slept well. Unfortunately, I didn't. First of all, we haven't found a bumper that we like yet. Second, I think that the mattress that we have might be too small for our crib. Needless to say I was a bit concerned. I was constantly asking Scott if he thought she would be ok. One conversation was like this: Me:"What is she suffocates?" Scott: "Is she on her tummy?" Me:"No" Scott: (laugh). I only calmed down and started thinking she'd be OK when Scott reminded me that if by some tiny chance that she would move to the side of the crib and somehow get stuck between the bars that her crying would wake us up before any large amount of damage could be done. (oh yeah)

Shortly after that Addison was crying. She was cold. See, we hardly ever put her to bed naked, but last night was especially hot. So after I put her in bed (with a blanket on because I figured she'd take it off anyways) Scott turned on the air. Too bad the vent points right at the crib and while the air in the room is 85 the air blowing out feels more like 50. When I went to pick her up she was only semi wrapped up in her blanket, her little arms and legs were freezing. She stopped crying immediately after I put her next to my warm body. She was still kind of whimpering though, it was really sad but way cute. So I fed her to calm her down and back to sleep she went. Scott closed the vent and I put her back in the crib, this time dressed in probably the warmest sleeper anyone has ever seen. It's not really a sleeper though, it's more like a sack with arms.

She slept soundly, occasionally fussing for a second at which Scott would get up to get her and I'd have to remind him why she was in the other room. We went to sleep. About 2 hours later she woke up to eat. I was very tired, and the walk to the crib took a lot out of me ;P. I laid in bed while feeding her and fell asleep. When she woke up several hours after that I simply turned her to the other side and fed her again. In the morning I had almost forgotten we even tried kicking her out of our bed... Almost. She did spend about 3 hours of the night in the crib. So with a combination of her hunger and my never ending laziness she won out.

We'll try again tonight...

She's Here!

Okay, so I officially suck at blogging. I'll admit to that. I tried, really hard in fact. I tried to write about our 1 year anniversary and about all the Birthday parties and my baby shower but I sucked at it. However, now I have a beautiful baby girl who is way more interesting than I could ever be. So, maybe my blogging forecast isn't so gloomy anymore.

Addison was born at 5:11 am on June 15th. She was 7 lbs 11.5 oz. It's amazing how soon the love for your child comes. She is so amazing. Today she is four weeks old. She sleeps and eats and poops all day long just like everyone says newborns do. But she also glares at us when we wake her up, sighs in relief when she passes gas, smiles while she's falling asleep, wake up the moment we leave the room, she tries desperately to launch herself off of my lap when changing her or off of her boppy, and is not content to not sleep between us. She's so precious. Oh, and she spits up missiles on her daddy. I got a ton of adorable accessories for her from my baby shower so playing dress up with her has been quite fun. Unfortunately, right now we are all pretty sick and her cute little coughs make me so sad, but they are super cute. When you're that small everything is so cute I guess, even the crying. It's probably not a good thing when your mother wants to video tape you crying because she thinks it's so adorable. All the time while I am feeding her, I am thinking that she looks so precious and I want pictures. Then, it hits me that a picture at that time would be semi pornographic and I'm quickly over it. I mentioned to two of my sisters and they said they've thought the same thing. Well, anyways I think you've heard enough of my talking about her super awesome cuteness. Now you can just see for yourself...

Well, I didn't make my goal of ten posts in April, Sorry Crys. In all fairness it has been an eventful month, grandparents in the hospital, babies born, babies in the hospital... the list goes on. Now I'm pretty sure I've got strep throat so I can't really be visiting anyone.

The baby is doing great! She moves all the time and her specialty is hiccups right when I lay down for bed. I can definitely tell she is growing rapidly. My shirts are starting to feel shorter and my pants are starting to feel tighter, not to mention the absolutely lovely stripes that are starting to appear on my belly. I'm measuring 40+ inches around the belly now. But that might just be her position. We are kind of leaning towards the name Addison now but it's still up in the air. Maybe we should just let people bid on the name on ebay and start her college fund.

I've been pretty bad about remembering all the great things about being pregnant and mostly just focusing on the negative. Which, is pretty depressing. I think that our society has kind of made light of child bearing lately and I subconsciously jumped on that. I've been annoyed with all the things I can't do and have been feeling "useless." When really I am sacrificing my time, body, and various other things to bring a very special someone into our family. I am going to spend the next 7 weeks trying to only remember the good things about being pregnant, like the clothes i wont be able to wear in 2 months (hopefully) the kicks and movements I know I'll miss, and how excited Scott is for our baby girl. Scott has been so amazing during my pregnancy. He's always willing to make me anything, and brings me my vitamins, comes with me to doctor's appointments when he can, and not talk back when I'm being super unreasonable. He's the best. Speaking of which, his Birthday is coming up and I could use some cute ideas for a gift... so if you have any ideas, please don't be shy.

This last week

Well, Bekah's shower on Wednesday went really well. And cub scouts was, well what you'd expect it to be with seven 8 year olds running around.
Math was born at 6:56 am on Thursday morning so Scott and I drove out to see him. He's so adorable. Now we're just waiting for Fat Al to pop. Surprisingly Math now being with us has not yet made me more impatient for mine. Though I'm sure it will soon enough. Friday we went to the Angels game. A 10-4 loss against the A's but I felt like we won because we scored 2 in the bottom of the 9th, I got to be with my wonderful husband and my parents, and the firework show after the game was spectacular.(totally beats Disneyland's)
I have decided to pick up crocheting again, and now I remember why I stopped: It's so hard.
:( Well practice makes perfect right? I'm trying to make Bisquit a baby blanket. Well have to see if it ends up looking anything like it should. I've been inspired by my sisters lately to get more arts and craftsy. Scrapbooking hasn't been to appealing lately. So I'm sticking with things that have to do with our almost new arrival. I seem to have more enthusiasm for projects that have to do with the baby. After I make the blanket I want to try to crochet some booties. They are way cute. I went up to 40 inches when I measured my belly last week, but today I was back down to 39 so I guess well say Buscuit is laying the other direction today.
Well, life is moving rather quick lately, I'm just trying to keep up. I can't believe I've only got 10 weeks till I get to hold my baby girl. It's the little things in life that make to big things not so big. And family, of course, is always a supportive foundation. I love my family so much. And I miss the ones that are not nearby. Love you guys, Thanks for all you are!

Busy, Busy

Yesterday I cleaned and rearranged our bedroom in an attempt to make it seem bigger and it worked. It is much more enoyable to be in the room now. Biscuit's stuff is all in the crib for now but Scott and I have fun plans for that soon to come.

Well yesterday was opening day at Angels stadium. Angels had a 6-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins. It was very awesome. And then Erica and I kicked butt at rook over our husbands! Fun times.

And then I woke up this morning. I had so much on my to do list that of course I procrastinated the most important ones. I have to teach cub scouts tonight and Bekah's shower is tomorrow night. I've got to rearrange some furniture to accommodate as many people as we invited. I also should get some cleaning and shopping done for it. But instead I took care of bills and did 6 chapters for my online logistics class. Why is it so hard to do the work that is top priority? Just for the record I fully intended to get one of those things done when I saw Crys' challenge to blog at least ten more times in April. It'll be okay though, I work much better under pressure.

Easter

Easter weekend this year was quite interesting. Saturday I was babysitting Sara and Noah and after Elthon and Sean left for Priesthood Session Cassey, Allison, and I enjoyed chasing 5 toddlers around Carol's backyard or an Easter egg hunt. Good thing Noah was plenty happy to sit in the stroller. Jasher of course went straight for the pool and bent down to touch it. Aaron threw the basketball in the pool and then kept saying "I get the ball." Luckily no one went in. Those toddlers all run a lot faster than two 9 month pregnant women and me at 7 months. It was a lot of fun though. On Sunday we had a nice delicious Easter dinner. We got Biscuit a cute dress for Easter.


I love Easter because it seems that it still represents the resurrection of Jesus Christ to most the world. Whereas Christmas has become more crowded with presents and political correctness. Plus Easter doesn't have the added stress of Christmas shopping. It's nice to just take the time to reflect on Jesus' resurrection and the atonement that was necessary for the resurrection to happen. I'm so grateful to my savior for enduring it all and breaking the bonds of death that all might live again.

39 inches and counting...

I measured my belly today. I'm 39 inches around the belly button, which is unfortunately 50% an outie now. I'm 27 weeks pregnant and loving it. Scott and I haven't picked a name yet so, our baby girl has been nicknamed by family, Biscuit. Biscuit is moving around all the time. When I first started feeling her in January, I sometimes got motion sickness. Now it's gotten so normal that I think I might suffer withdrawals when she's no longer in there. Although there are several things I won't miss. We are so excited for our new arrival. My sister Cassey is 9 months pregnant, due April 16. My sister in law due April 22. So pretty soon I will be surrounded by newborns with 2 months still for mine will come. I think it will be an interesting test on my patience. We had an ultrasound this week. Everything is looking good. The baby is just over 2 1/2 lbs. It's an amazing thing having life growing inside of you. It all became more realistic after I started feeling her move. Now it's a lot easier convincing myself that drinking enough to fill a small swamp a day is necessary.

First posting protocol

So what exactly is the first post of your blog supposed to be like? Is there certain protocol one is supposed to follow? This is my third attempt at a blog and I still have no idea. I decided to start once more and actually remain faithful to it. I've been following my sisters and seeing the easiness with which they discuss their daily lives, thoughts, and feelings makes me envious. And I thought how about instead of being envious of them, why don't I try (again) So here is my attempt. We'll see if it lasts more than a week, cross your fingers.

One of the reasons that my last two attempts at a blog failed is that I simply did not think I had anything worth saying. But as I've gotten older and wiser(I hope) I've been able to realize all the wonderful things that I do have to talk about. And the times that I think I don't have anything special going on are the times that I've failed to recognize them. I am hoping that this blog will help me to grow in many different areas. I'm also hoping that it will fill up the lonely days when my hubby is at work or school and I am procrastinating the things I really ought to be doing. I also hope that I can keep it as a record of my life right now, as it is a novel idea it is more exciting than a traditional journal. Hopefully I can look back on it to help me remember this stage in my life and all the special things that were happening.