Lucy's Photoshoot

So my cute neighbor Dana called me up the other day and asked if she could take some pictures of Lucy. I was excited and of course I said yes. She was just wanting to get some experience and get her name out there because she wants to start her own photography business. I think she has talent and you can check it out at http://www.danawillisphoto.blogspot.com/. Anyway, here are some pictures of Lucy's big day.

Christmas!

This is the first year since we have been married that we aren't going anywhere for Christmas. We usually switch off years with the other's family but this year because we were blessed with an early present, we are staying here. It actually works out really well because Brady's brother is coming home from his mission a few days after Christmas so his family will be here anyway and a lot of my family is here because of school and work and my Mom is here too because of Lucy. Anyway, I was so so SO excited because we finally got to get a tree! A REAL tree too :) I always grew up with them so I'm hooked. Here it is, a little sucker, but I just LOVE it!

Also, Lucy had her 2 week appointment on Friday. She is doing great! and getting chubby cause she gained a pound! :) So cute, Brady can not wait for her little cheeks to keep chubbing up. Here's a pic. Her hair is so fun to play with, in this one, Brady gave her a part and made her look like a little school boy. It was hilarious. Plus, I think she looks kind of mischevious......

Some labor and the 1st Week at Home

Lucy is doing great! She is sleeping so I thought I'd seize the opportunity to blog about how labor and the hospital was and how she's doing. It's a long one so buckle up :) Thanksgiving came and we were able to enjoy it. Brady's family came and they have a long standing tradition of going shopping on black Friday. Naturally, I wanted to go, 9 monthes 2 days pregnant and everything. I had been feeling great and so I decided to go. We left around midnight and went to South Towne Mall then Target, Kohls and WalMart. I wasn't in pain or anything at all the whole time. I finally get home and roll into bad at about 9:00am. 11:00 I get up because I feel like I have to go to the bathroom and sure enough on my way to the bathroom my water breaks. Long story short, and a few calls later we are being admitted to the hospital and it's about 12:30. I only started to feel real contractions after my water had broken and we were on our way to the hospital. They were not very regular so they started me on petocin and I began enjoying contractions. After I felt like I had suficiantly experienced all contractions had to offer I admitted that I was ready for my epidural. Too bad, there was a C section going on so I had to wait another half hour before I was able to get it. I was really nervous about it but now I will admit it is about the greatest thing ever. That was at about 5:00. They checked me then and I was only a 2. We were expecting to have her sometime in the middle of the night. We were proven wrong. When they checked me at 7:30 I had dialated to a 7 and by 8:00 I was fully dialated and they wanted me to rest and descend for an hour. 9:00 comes and I start pushing with the nurse. She says we will probably push for a half hour before she calls my doc to come in. Luckily, 10 minutes later she is on the phone with the doc and he is on his way. Waiting, waiting, waiting. He gets there and after only a few more pushes and some major encouragement by Brady (who was incredible during the whole thing) she arrived at 9:55. Woah, it was pretty quick. She was healthy and no major problems. What a blessing and a miracle. The rest of the time in the hospital as great and we came home Sunday night. Her first week home has been a lot of adjusting but in a good way. She is sleeping and nursing really well and with the help of my Mom even the nights haven't been too too bad :) Brady can't get enough of his new little girl. She doesn't do too much yet but we still can't resist taking so many pictures of her. Here are a few. Enjoy!

Lucy Arisa

Lucy is here! She was born Friday night at 9:55. 8 big pounds and 20.5 inches. Everything went really smoothly and Brady, she and I are all doing well. I promise to post more later with some pictures I just don't know how long she's gonna sleep right now...... :)

40 Weeks

This is what I want to be doing on Friday :) Yes, it's true, my baby counter on the side over there says 40 weeks. Today is my due date and yes, I'm still pregnant. Baby has decided that she will decide the date, not my counter. Ill have to talk to her about that when she gets around to being ready. Haha. I'm actually pretty relieved that she is not here yet. I would be very grateful if she were to let me enjoy the next few days with family and the whole Thanksgiving fun and shopping. I feel really good. My Dr. says that if she doesn't come before then he wants to try to induce on Monday or Tuesday of next week. We will know if that will happen on Sunday night if we get a call from the hospital. Pretty short notice!! So that's all that's going on. Thanks everyone for calling and checking up on me! We will let you all know as soon as she makes her debut!

38 1/2 Weeks

Well, 39 on Wednesday and woah! Getting really close :) I'm still feeling good, not terribly uncomfortable or anything. Plus suprisingly I have been sleeping really well! which I am taking full advantage of because I know it won't be that way for very much longer. Baby is getting huge inside I swear she's gonna come out 5 years old for how much she sqirms and kicks. Brady is really excited and I am really nervous...but I'm sure things will go fine. Finally, a pic.

Nesting?

So I'm pretty sure I'm to that stage because all of the sudden having the desire to clean out and organize under your sink just doesn't seem natural.....

Girls Night!

Or IN!! So a few of our husbands have been trying to get the word out and get together with whoever else thats a guy that wants to go to the new James Bond movie. They are planning to go on the 17th. Im not sure what time but if your hubby wants to go have him contact Ryan Sorenson so that they can all arrange when to get tickets. Anyway, since they can't have ALL the fun!, we were thinking that while they are at the movie we should have a girls night! We can go out or stay in or go out to dinner then come back and do something, I don't know. So, comment if you are in and if you have any ideas!! Spread the word, we love everyone and everyone is invited, even if your hubby doesn't want to go to James Bond! :)

Photo Tag

The Rules: Go to your picture files. Pick the 4th file, and the 4th picture in it.
Tell a little about the picture. Tag 4 friends or family.

My pic:


I laughed so hard when this ended up being the picture. This was taken Christmas 2006 and that little cutie is my nephew Jack, 2 months at the time but he just celebrated his 2 year birthday! This Christmas was Brady's first real one at my house since we had been married and this HUGE Crunch bar was one of the family gifts that he got to open. It was soo funny when he opened it cause seriously, isn't it the LAST thing you expect? I mean where/who/how do you even get a Crunch bar like this?! Apparently my Dad did some business with a guy who had connections at Nestle and I guess they give these out for certain events or something, anyway, my Dad is awesome and ended up with this one. We put the babies next to it just to give a little size comparison. My dad ended up having to cut this thing with a table saw, its not the kind of candy bar you can break in half and make a s'more out of I guess, even though we were tempted. Where would you get the graham crackers for that??...
Here's one more:


I Tag: Anyone who wants to do this, it's pretty fun!

Our Halloween Adventures

So this Halloween for us was sort of an uplanned final harrah before baby comes. We ended up going to 6 parties with 5 different costumes!! I am officially done with Halloween for probably about a year, oh wait that's perfect since it won't come again for a year haha. Luckily we were able to figure out the vast majority of our costumes from things we already had. I made things, we put things together, we dreamed up all sorts of creative solutions and it was a blast. It started out with our ward party on the 18th which we were in charge of, and took off from there. For that party I dont have any pictures but we were a 50's housewife and the milkman. Then on the 24th we went to Michelle and Zacc's awesome murder mystery party where I was a whore that ran a brothel and Brady was one sexxxxy spray tanned indian chief.

Then the next night on the 25th we went with Nate and Monique to a party with their friends where we did the milkman again and here are the pictures of that. We won the best couple prize it was really funny.

2 days later we teamed up with the Darlings and invited the whole neighborhood to cram into our house for a party! For that one we dressed up as Juno and Bleeker and have to say it was probably one of our favorites, I mean c'mon who can pass up shorts like Bleekers?

That party was soo so fun thanks everyone for coming!! After that we had a little break, until Thursday that is haha. On the 30th we went to the Griffiths for another murder mystery which was blast! I was a gypsy fortune teller and Brady was a frankenstein like monster who was a ballerina/musical theater junkie. I just want to say that I couldn't love this guy any more I swear he is always up for a good time and I just love how he is confident enough to dress up like this.....

Then on actual Halloween, which by the time it came I could swear it has already passed, we went to the Putmuns for their last minute murder mystery with some of their friends . For that one I was a french maid and Brady was a jazz muscian.

That's about the sexiest french maid costume I could pull off being 9 months pregnant. Haha. We had soo much fun this year for Halloween I just couldn't believe how fast it went!! The only downside of being so busy was that all of the sudden I'm due in 3 1/2 weeks and Im can't believe it! Ahhh! I have some 35 week maternity pics to post so Ill do that soon, even though they're a little late. Well, I hope everyone else had a fun Halloween season, we sure did! Thanks everyone! :)

Baby Shower!

So I have been blessed with such wonderful friends. They were gracious enough to throw me an incredible baby shower on Wednesday night. I don't have very many pictures so if you were there and took any I would really appreciate them! I got some really great stuff and it was ALL needed so THANK YOU!!
Big and Pregnant and getting closer....and bigger....

Castle of Craziness

On friday night we got hooked up with some sweet VIP passes to Castle of Chaos (thanks Darlings!) and I have to say I was a little on edge because Ive never been to a haunted house and this one is rated one of the scariest or something like that but Im not gonna like, little dissappointed with the haunted house but a still a blast to go to with some friends! But only if you get VIP passes cause the lines were huge and LONG! but we didn't have to wait :) Scariest part of the night, a creepy guy jumping out from behind a car in the parking lot! So funny.

Toybox

I have been diligently working on baby's nursery but still do not feel ready to post pictures yet. Sorry, it's coming soon for those who haven't snuck in to peek yet! One of the things that I felt compelled to complete before posting pics was her toybox. I found this thing at DI and yes, I talked the guy down from $20 to $10 haha. This is what it looked like when I got it.

and after 2 paint jobs and a couple of hours it now looks like this and I love it!

You can see a little of my paint job in the background :)

Tagged!

Thanks Gina! I know you tagged me forever ago and Im just getting around to it but here they are...unspectacular quirks :)

-Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
-Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them.
-Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

1. I am so so cheap! Im not sure if that is a quirk or not but seriously I am! Sometimes I find myself at DI thinking "I don't want to pay 2.50 for THAT..." and I'm at DI....... That might sound bad and it's not out of control but I'm really a bargin hunter and a digger, that's why I like Ross so much and Ross likes me. Garage sales and KSL are heaven sent.

2. I'm not very organized. I would like to think I am but when I man up and admit it, I really am not that interested in organization. As long as I have a general idea of where things are I am satisfied and when I go to look for something I usually have 3 spots to look and if it's not in any of those places, then I start to think...I need to be more organized.

3. I love all the Back to the Future movies. Thanks Dad! Im pretty sure that qualifies and quirky.

4. I can't stand it when people use too many words to explain something just because they think it makes them sound smarter or something. Im not talking about when people use "like" too much Im talking about when someone says something like "It generally is right about the same way as comparitively to what it looks like when you see something that is similar to blah blah blah just spit it out!"

5. Brady always used to get annoyed with me when we were dating because when we would hold hands I would subconsiously move my hands over his and if I found any sort of bump or cut or anything I would unknowingly concentrate my attention on it with my fingers. He would then call my attention to what I was doing and how he didn't like it and so I would stop. I always felt stupid and now try harder not to do that. haha.

6. It doesn't bother me if my socks don't match.

Alright, I know that last one is kinda lame, well they all really are but oh well!

Im tagging: Shelly, Sami, BJ, Malerie, Tiffany, and Erin

Fall

This might be the time of year when I miss NY the most. It is so beautiful there in the fall and sorry Utah but you just can't compare. Everyone here thinks the leaves change and its great but they have no idea what they are really missing. 2 months of beautiful comfortable temps, cute sweaters with no need of a jacket, scarves and cute hats without the rest of the bulky winter attire. Here we are only offered about a week of "fall" that is disguised as the week between when the temp goes from 90 to 50. Oh well, we have to take what we can get. Atleast we still get apple cider! Yumm. And pumpkins. I was so excited about fall this year for some reason, maybe because it signifies the closing in on my due date for baby, but for whatever reason I just couldn't wait. I already put up my fall decorations and set out candy corn for lucky visitors :) It just needs to cool down a little during the day for it to feel more like it!

Baby Bump Watch

I was planning on having Brady take a pic for my 30 week post anyway, then I heard on the radio that they were having a baby bump contest and decided it would be fun to enter. Since I have a baby bump and all. Voting starts tomorrow and if you want to it would be fun and you can vote at http://www.971zht.com/pages/babywatch/ Im #137. :) Anyway, things are still going well and I will finally admit that cravings are a part of pregnancy....haha I haven't really been craving anything specific but things sound really really good and I can't get them off my mind unless I have them. Its really hard to have any sort of self discipline! Rough times haha. I will post pics of the baby room but I still have to put up curtains and do a few more finishing touches. I got all the painting done though which is nice because I am sooo tired again! I have no energy and its rough I feel like it takes so much self convincing to do anything! Oh well Brady is wonderful and supportive and understanding so it's all good. I can't believe Im almost 8 months, crazy but good! We are getting really excited for baby girl to make her debut.

Peaches

We just got back from a wonderful trip to St. George. We were lucky enough to go with the Laynes and the Coonradts. Tracy's parents were gracious enough to let us all crash at their house and it was soo nice. It felt just like being at home, perfect for vacation! When we go to Cali to visit Brady's family it is like a true vacation. No work, no school, no time schedule or responsibilies just pure relaxation and chill. That was how this vacation was and it was exactly what we needed. We have tried to go on several vacations this summer and for one reason or another they have all been cancelled. When this opportunity arose we jumped on it! Brady has been working hard all summer and definitly deserved a break, which this trip definitly provided. Not only were we able to relax, swim and play but Tracy's parents have peach trees and yes, they are in season! Oh my goodness it was incredible. Think of anything you could eat that has peaches and is delicious and we probably ate it. Peach pie. Waffles with peaches on them. Peach cobbler..or slobber as Tracy says haha :) Peaches Peaches Peaches. Not only that but we were sent home with almost a whole 5 gallon bucket full! Unbelievable and delicious. The only downside of the whole weekend...Brady and I got burned swimming on the last day.....the car ride home was a little rough but lots of aloe and a few days later we are recovering. Thank you Jon and Tracy for a great weekend!

25 Weeks

This week I'm 25 weeks and everything is still going well. I started to paint the nursery and things are beginning to seem more real. I've been feeling a lot of movement and finally Brady can feel it when he puts his hand on my belly (that is growing!). Its really exciting. Everyone keeps asking but I dont have any cravings still. I wonder if that is just a big myth that women make up to eat more of what they want while they are pregnant haha. We will see.
This huge budda came out of nowhere!

An Update

I realized I should post a quick update about Brady's progress. He had a Dr. appt last Friday and things went well. The doc said that Brady was improving dramatically, the blood was draining really well from his eye and that he was happy with the improvements. But, this was the first time that he had been able since the accident to get a really good picture of Brady's retina. Unfortuantly it showed that there is a dent there that will almost certainly be permanent and affect Brady's vision. Right now he is seeing about 20/70 which is an incredible improvement from the 20/200 that he was seeing the day after it happened. We were told that it should continue to improve but will probably not return to perfect - he sees 20/10 in his other eye. He has been able to return to work but it is difficult for him due to the fact that his vision is still impaired. Although he was told he could return to normal activities, it is still delicate and he is taking it a little easy. The other thing is his pupil. After the accident we were given drops to put in that paralyzed the muscles in his eye and cause his pupil to react to light. His pupil is still big and the doc said the effects of the drop can last up to a month! and that his pupil will go down a little but will be bigger than his other one permanently because the muscles were damaged. So, overall he is doing much much better but it's taking some time and that is taking a little toll on him. We appreciate everyone's continued love, prayers and support. Thank you, it has made a world of difference.

Balls

Tennisballs. Eyeballs. Proceed with caution and never mix the two together. It has seemed inappropriate until now to blog at a time like this but I feel ready now. In case you haven't heard what happened, Ill give a little recap. Brady was playing a friendly game of tennis last Wednesday night when he was suddenly caught of gaurd inbetween matches and took a tennis ball straight in the eye. Not above, not below, directly in his eye. From that second on our night went something like this. Brady: "I can't see anything" (hand covering eye). Ok, well, let's get you some ice and it's time to leave. Ice. Driving home, (ring, ring) Me: "Katherine (Jenkins), Umm Brady got hit pretty hard in the eye, should we just keep ice on it or what?" Katherine "Is it bleeding, look at it" Me: (pulling over, looking at Brady's eye for the first time) "UMMMMM OH MY GOSH CAN WE COME OVER...." If you didn't know, Bradys has the most beautiful green eyes. I fell in love with them almost instantly when we met. But Wednesday night, when I looked at his right eye it was completly brown. The white of his eye was red. It was scary to say the least. We rushed over the Katherine's and she looked at it. Flashlight checking his eyes. Katherine after examining: "Um you need to go to the ER right now, your pupil is fixed, and uh it should NEVER do that.." Since I was a shaking disaster by this time, Katherine was gracious enough to drive us to the ER at 11:30 at night. We got there, they got us in and started to examine Brady further. On top of everything, while they were checking the pressure in his eye, he blacked out. It was then a big rush of the dr. trying to bring Brady back, calling for help, me freaking out cause I don't know what's going on, and them wheeling him away to hook him up to monitor his vital signs. For the next 2 hours I proceeded to stay by his side trying to keep the poor guy awake while we waited for the results and the doctor's diagnosis. Finally he came back and explained the the color change was due to Hyphema, bleeding in the eye. That was also the cause of a lot of the blurriness that Brady was experiencing. The passing out was a combo of the pain, the pushing on his eye and the stress of the situation. Finally, he also had some corneal abrasions. They made an emergency appt with the opthomologist for the next morning, gave us some drops to put in his eye and sent us home. The next day Brady received a blessing and we went in to see the doc. He does a much more thorough anaylsis of Brady and concludes that the impact was strong enough to have caused some damage to his retina. This was very scary for us because your retina, there's basically no fixin it, unless your body says yea, we can fix this. At that point, the doc was fairly optamistic about the whole situation but couldn't give us any concrete answers. He said there was still inflamation of the retina and blood in the eye, we would have to give it a few days, see you on Monday. We were very concerned. But luckily we are blessed with wonderful friends and family that are very supportive. A lot of praying and fasting later we began to feel much better about the situation. When we went in on Monday the doctor said that there was no bad news. The cloudiness in Brady's retina seemed to have gone and that the general condition of his eye seemed to be improving. The blurriness he was still experiencing was due to the blood still in his eye. That just takes time to go away. So even with that positive news, we are still praying for everything to go smoothly from here on out in relation to his eye and his recovery. There is still a chance that thing's could not work out as hoped but we feel really optimistic about the situation. Brady has been wonderful through this whole thing, I just can't even imagine how scary it must have been for him and still is to have something as delicate and important as your eye be put in jeopardy. I want to say thank you to everyone for all the continuing love and support and prayers and faith we have received though this scary time. We go in again on Friday morning for another doctor appt. Until then, we just have faith things will continue to move forward and his eye will continue to heal.

and the verdict is......

It's a girl!!!! Still. Haha, we went at 16 weeks to see if we could find out early what we were having and they said it was a girl then. So we have been tentatively telling people it is a girl but we didn't tell the ultrasound tech just to see if she made the same diagnosis. A test of sorts. So I'm 21 weeks now and yes, still a girl :) That is great we are soo soo excited, especially Brady, go figure! These are pics of my 16 week ultrasound cause they are much much better than the ones we got today.

So crazy, I can't believe that's in me. It was so funny when we were there having the ultrasound cause she was freakin out in my belly, even the tech was like, ummmm she certainly is a big stretcher and woah! she's having a party in there and so on. So, if that's any sign of what we have coming, we are in for trouble! Im pretty sure it was all the Mountain Dew I drank last night/this morning trying to stay awake through the entire Dark Knight.....ooops sorry baby.

20 Weeks!

This week I am 20 weeks. Halfway through is what everyone keeps telling me. (only halfway?!! just kidding) We are going in on the 18th to find out for sure what we are having. I went in at 16 weeks and they said we were having a girl so we will see! I've been feeling better, which has been nice. I think everyone would agree that a little less throw up is always good! Other than that and the almost regular headache things are going well. No real cravings yet.....haha. Here is my 20 week belly shot.....
Getting there!

and the obvious decision is.....

NOT HIM! EWE Jesse
C'mon give me a break!!! If the looks alone aren't obvious enough who to choose (I know that sounds shallow but...) if you watched the show you would have seen what an incredible guy Jason was!!
Yay Jason
Or even better yet, can you believe she got rid of THIS guy?! I think that they drugged her so their ratings would go up. There is NO other explanation for this kind of horror.