I apologize to everyone who is seeing a million posts on their google reader or email from my blog. I accidentally deleted all my blog posts (dumb, I know) and so I'm trying to restore all of them via previous google reader posts. (Thank goodness for google reader!)
I only have two more to do, but I apologize again in advance.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
blogging again
[Pictures at the end of this post.]
It's been a whirlwind of the past 3 months. The first month with Adelaide was full of lots of happiness, but was also a very difficult adjustment. When my mom and mother-in-law both left, I thought I was going to die. I thought if I was able to even shower that day, I would have accomplished something great. Somehow I was able to make dinner that day. Kenny was impressed and so was I.
When Kenny's family came out to visit, we blessed Adelaide in church. She fussed during the blessing, but it still turned out fine and was a special experience. Also, we just celebrated our 1st year anniversary. Kenny's parents were generous enough to take care of Adelaide for the night and we went to a bed & breakfast in SLC. On the way to SLC, we stopped at Trafalga and went on a 3D motion theater ride, the Classic Fun Center to go roller-skating, Smart cookie to get cookie icecream sandwiches, and Pier 49 to get a dessert pizza. For all of that we spent $2.75 (thank you starving student card!). Then we went to Star of India for dinner (I love Indian food!) and in the morning we went to the SLC temple to do a session (first time for both of us). It was a wonderful anniversary, but we missed Adelaide SO much so we came back right after our session. It was happy to be together as a family again.
I've come a long way since then. My days are often still lonely and boring, but I have learned how to be much more productive! Taking care of Adelaide is definitely a lot of work, but I have to say that I have more joy in my life than ever before. Addie has recently started smiling a lot and it makes everything worth it.
My typical day I'm up by 7am and in between feeding Addie, I'm either looking for jobs, cleaning the house, doing dishes, making dinner, learning Spanish, or doing laundry. I try to be productive each day--otherwise I'd feel like a total slug stuck in the house all day alone. Adelaide and I venture out of the house about 3 times a day to go on a walk in either the stroller or baby bjorn. Usually Adelaide likes the walks more than I do (it's so hot!), but they're happy.
Kenny is busier than ever taking Spanish and Arabic this term and doing an internship with the Red Cross as a member of their disaster services team, working on a Latino Outreach program. I wish I could see him more but Addie and I are happy whenever he's home! We recently had to buy a new computer (my laptop is seriously dying), so we got a nice iMac and found a desk at the thrift store Savers. Kenny now has a study spot in the house so he often will stay home in the morning (before classes start) to work on homework instead of heading straight to the library. It's so nice to have him home. Kenny also recently got called as the deacons quorum advisor and assistant scoutmaster in the ward. He loves it so far. We're still enjoying being sunday school teachers to the 13-14 year olds in the ward. They're good kids.
Adelaide has grown so much since she was born. We haven't been to the doctor in a month, but I'd guess she's more than doubled her birth weight by now. She's so strong. She'll be 3 months old this Friday, the 15th!
Birth stats:
Length: 21 in
Weight: 6 lb 12 oz
2 week stats:
Length: 21 in (69% percentile)
Weight: 7 lb 10 oz (29% percentile)...although look how much she grew in 2 weeks!
2 month stats:
Length: 23.2 in (80% percentile)
Weight: 10 lb 12.5 oz (52% percentile)
I'm guessing she's over 24 inches by now and probably around 13 pounds...but who knows really. We'll find out her new stats at 4 months.
Adelaide is now "talking" and it's adorable. She makes all sorts of cute noises all the time. She can stand pretty well (I just hold one of her hands) and she's doing much better with tummy time (she seems to enjoy it sometimes). She still makes lots of funny faces (that's the #1 thing I remember from her first couple weeks of life). Addie will take a bottle (which is very convenient if we need to leave her with a babysitter or something). She used to not like the car very much (she'd cry almost every time), but she seems to like it a lot better now. I can actually sit in the front seat (most times) with Kenny when we drive places!
Adelaide took awhile to figure out the whole night and day thing. We started giving her a bath every night around the same time (per Kenny's mom's suggestion) and it really helped! We developed a routine and after a week or two, she figured it out. She is sleeping really well at night now (thankfully!) because of the routine and because we got some medicine for her acid reflux. I have no clue how I survived endless nights with a combined 3 hours of sleep. I'm glad that stage is over. Adelaide LOVESSSS bath time. She just smiles the entire time. She loves it so much that for the first couple weeks of bath time every night, she would scream (mad that we took her out) for hours after. Luckily she's over that stage now.
Addie has met my Mom, Molly, Katie & Connor & Emmeline, and all of Kenny's family (except his brother Jesse who is on a mission). She will meet Jenna in 2 weeks when she comes back to UT (yay!!).
When Kenny's family came out to visit, we blessed Adelaide in church. She fussed during the blessing, but it still turned out fine and was a special experience. Also, we just celebrated our 1st year anniversary. Kenny's parents were generous enough to take care of Adelaide for the night and we went to a bed & breakfast in SLC. On the way to SLC, we stopped at Trafalga and went on a 3D motion theater ride, the Classic Fun Center to go roller-skating, Smart cookie to get cookie icecream sandwiches, and Pier 49 to get a dessert pizza. For all of that we spent $2.75 (thank you starving student card!). Then we went to Star of India for dinner (I love Indian food!) and in the morning we went to the SLC temple to do a session (first time for both of us). It was a wonderful anniversary, but we missed Adelaide SO much so we came back right after our session. It was happy to be together as a family again.
Sorry for the long update. Now hopefully I can be more on top of things and post more regularly. My next goal is to make some movies of Addie that I can post on here. I made one movie but I've been having problems trying to upload it. Anyway, thanks for reading! :)
BIRTH
MONTH 1
MONTH 2
MONTH 3
and more....
Friday, March 11, 2011
because of guilt
Recently a couple of people mentioned how much of a slacker I am when it comes to blogging.
I'll admit it, I'm a complete slacker. And I've started to feel pretty guilty. So I'm finally getting around to posting.
I'm not really sure how to sum up our life since the end of November....
We went to D.C. for the first week of Christmas break and spent time with Natalie's family. It was so much fun, especially to see Emmeline for the first time! We loved it and got even more excited to be parents.
It was great to spend time with family. At the end of the week, Kenny's family drove up to D.C. to see Natalie's family and spend the night. That was crazy (adding 10 more people to the house), but lots of fun. Afterward, we drove with Kenny's family down to SC. Natalie learned that an 8 hour car drive is not super fun at 5 months pregnant (now, at 8 months pregnant, I think I would rather die first....okay, that's a bit dramatic). We spent the next week of Christmas break with Kenny's family in SC. Kenny did some manly work in the backyard with his brothers while Natalie watched the old Ramona TV series with Bonnie and Brooklyn (Kenny's little sisters). It was good times.
After Christmas break we flew back and unfortunately started real life again. Kenny is kept ever busy with school. He's planning on majoring in Geospatial Intelligence with a minor in Spanish and learning Arabic on the side. His Arabic class alone takes 4 hours of work a day (at least), but he loves it and wants to learn the language well. Natalie is still teaching high school math. Her kids are lazier than ever (I've never seen such lazy kids in my life--this school has some problems with its policies. They basically encourage kids to put things off), but she still has a lot of great students and is enjoying her job. Below is a couple pictures of what some of Natalie's students like to do with the extra time in class.
It is good to be kept busy until the baby is born, but also exhausting to work full-time (+ extra hours since a teacher always works outside of school hours). She's got a long-term sub set up and will only have to return to school for maybe a week or so at the end of the year...depending on when Adelaide decides to make her appearance. :)
We've got a crib, carseat, stroller, highchair, and plenty of beautiful blankets. We're in the midst of collecting other necessary items. It's getting more and more real. If Adelaide is born on time, we only have 4 1/2 weeks left. We can't wait! Of course we're nervous and we know we're only going to be more tired, but she's coming whether we want it or not.... so we might as well be excited!!
We got released from our fabulous nursery calling (sad life!) and got called to be sunday school teachers for the 13 year olds. We're actually enjoying it more than we thought we would. We've really enjoyed going to a couple BYU basketball games this season and are loving our busy, crazy lives!
Here is Natalie at almost 35 weeks (a week ago):
I'll admit it, I'm a complete slacker. And I've started to feel pretty guilty. So I'm finally getting around to posting.
I'm not really sure how to sum up our life since the end of November....
We went to D.C. for the first week of Christmas break and spent time with Natalie's family. It was so much fun, especially to see Emmeline for the first time! We loved it and got even more excited to be parents.
It was great to spend time with family. At the end of the week, Kenny's family drove up to D.C. to see Natalie's family and spend the night. That was crazy (adding 10 more people to the house), but lots of fun. Afterward, we drove with Kenny's family down to SC. Natalie learned that an 8 hour car drive is not super fun at 5 months pregnant (now, at 8 months pregnant, I think I would rather die first....okay, that's a bit dramatic). We spent the next week of Christmas break with Kenny's family in SC. Kenny did some manly work in the backyard with his brothers while Natalie watched the old Ramona TV series with Bonnie and Brooklyn (Kenny's little sisters). It was good times.
After Christmas break we flew back and unfortunately started real life again. Kenny is kept ever busy with school. He's planning on majoring in Geospatial Intelligence with a minor in Spanish and learning Arabic on the side. His Arabic class alone takes 4 hours of work a day (at least), but he loves it and wants to learn the language well. Natalie is still teaching high school math. Her kids are lazier than ever (I've never seen such lazy kids in my life--this school has some problems with its policies. They basically encourage kids to put things off), but she still has a lot of great students and is enjoying her job. Below is a couple pictures of what some of Natalie's students like to do with the extra time in class.
It is good to be kept busy until the baby is born, but also exhausting to work full-time (+ extra hours since a teacher always works outside of school hours). She's got a long-term sub set up and will only have to return to school for maybe a week or so at the end of the year...depending on when Adelaide decides to make her appearance. :)
We've got a crib, carseat, stroller, highchair, and plenty of beautiful blankets. We're in the midst of collecting other necessary items. It's getting more and more real. If Adelaide is born on time, we only have 4 1/2 weeks left. We can't wait! Of course we're nervous and we know we're only going to be more tired, but she's coming whether we want it or not.... so we might as well be excited!!
We got released from our fabulous nursery calling (sad life!) and got called to be sunday school teachers for the 13 year olds. We're actually enjoying it more than we thought we would. We've really enjoyed going to a couple BYU basketball games this season and are loving our busy, crazy lives!
Here is Natalie at almost 35 weeks (a week ago):
Sunday, November 28, 2010
our happy life
Last post, we said we planned on blogging more in the future. Believe us, we have planned on doing it every week. It's just never happened. Until now.
Exciting news since our last post is that we know we are having a baby girl! We are very excited. We also felt her move for the first time and now she moves quite a bit and likes to stretch and push underneath Natalie's ribs. It's really comfortable (..not). We've heard it only gets better :). Natalie is more than half way through already. It's pretty crazy and really exciting.
We've kept really busy this past month with school and work. It seems there is never enough time--sometimes we only see each other 30 min a day. Weekends are heavenly and we spend as much time together as possible. Our favorite activity to do together is cook! We have made all kinds of delicious dishes like pumpkin pie, pumpkin rolls, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, broccoli salad, cheesy cauliflower soup, honey oatmeal bread, cinnamon raisin walnut bread, blueberry streusel muffins, butternut squash red pepper puree soup, snickerdoodles, shortbread cookies, hawaiian haystacks, and more.
Our friends Madeleine & Ked invited us over before Halloween for a fun activity. We had pumpkin cookies and each carved a pumpkin. Kenny went with a crazy face and Natalie went with "pumpkin pi." Ha.Ha. So funny. Here is a bad quality picture of our pumpkins:
We handed out candy that night, although we didn't have too many trick-or-treaters. Natalie made ghost lollipops. They were cute but we had lots and lots of extras.
That night, Natalie's mom came in town (to help move Jenna back home for treatment of her recently diagnosed brain tumor). It was fun to have her stay with us for a night even though the circumstances were definitely less than ideal. We also went to visit Jenna in the hospital that week after her biopsy. Now Jenna is home with family which is good but makes Natalie sad (she's never been in Utah without a sister until now). Jenna has another major surgery tomorrow and then starts chemo treatment--please keep her in your prayers.
The first few weeks of November sure flew by.
After a long, hard day at work, Kenny suggested they take a bike ride and visit Dave & Carol's family (Natalie's aunt and uncle). So they went. It was more uncomfortable than Natalie expected with being pregnant, but it was a lot of fun and good to get some exercise and get her mind off things. Kenny took some pictures during the ride.
One day Natalie had a conference for new teachers down at BYU so she got to meet up with Kenny right after he got done with class! It was happiness. We took a walk around BYU and took a picture with the pretty sunset in the background. We have a new goal to take at least 3 pictures a week because we are horrible at it!
The 20th of November was Kenny's 23rd birthday. He wanted to go on a run early in the morning with a friend, so while he was gone, Natalie cleaned the house and made a large breakfast for Kenny. His favorite breakfast is cornbread and milk, so Natalie made cornbread, eggs and sausage, a fruit smoothie, and yogurt and granola. Here is a picture of the breakfast (half eaten) and Kenny after his run, enjoying the breakfast:
Then Natalie took him to see Harry Potter (surprise! She blindfolded him on the drive over to the theater) and then they just relaxed in the afternoon. They went to Tucanos for dinner with Kenny's birthday coupon and Allie's generosity, took a free carriage ride through the Riverwoods, and then headed to BYU for the men's basketball game (thanks to Ole for getting us tickets!). We met Kenny's friend KC and his fiancé there and had a great time! BYU won and since they scored over 80 points, we got free (birthday) cake at Maglebys and then went to Coldstone to redeem Kenny's free birthday icecream! It was a fun-filled day for pretty cheap.
Here are some random pregnant pictures of Natalie in case anyone is interested:
Recently we've done more cooking and enjoyed our long Thanksgiving break! We enjoyed Thanksgiving day at Gordon & Sarah's and Rhodes & Heidi's (Kenny's aunts and uncles) and Dave & Carol's. Here we are with the delicious spread at Dave & Carols:
This break has been so wonderful. We love spending time together, playing cards, cooking, and just laughing and talking. Natalie's mom sent us ADORABLE stockings in the mail (she hand-made them)...and yes, there is already one for our little girl Adelaide. We also got a cheap $20 artificial Christmas tree that will hopefully last us a couple years and decorated with old lights and ornaments Natalie had (plus a few new beautiful ornaments someone made us for our wedding!). We love how Christmasy and homey it feels.
Our church calling is in nursery and we love it--Kenny especially. The kids LOVE him and he's lots of fun. Natalie took a picture today of Kenny playing "horsey" and letting two of the little girls ride around on his back forever. This is classic of what happens every week in nursery (Kenny has also taken them on imaginary plane rides to China and they've had to jump out with parachutes, etc...and the kids totally act it out and love it! Natalie has a video of this one on her phone but has no idea how she'd upload it on the blog...).
Only 3 weeks of school and work left and we will be flying home for Christmas! We're going to be able to see both of our families over the break and we couldn't be more excited. Life is wonderful and we are more than happy.
Exciting news since our last post is that we know we are having a baby girl! We are very excited. We also felt her move for the first time and now she moves quite a bit and likes to stretch and push underneath Natalie's ribs. It's really comfortable (..not). We've heard it only gets better :). Natalie is more than half way through already. It's pretty crazy and really exciting.
We've kept really busy this past month with school and work. It seems there is never enough time--sometimes we only see each other 30 min a day. Weekends are heavenly and we spend as much time together as possible. Our favorite activity to do together is cook! We have made all kinds of delicious dishes like pumpkin pie, pumpkin rolls, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, broccoli salad, cheesy cauliflower soup, honey oatmeal bread, cinnamon raisin walnut bread, blueberry streusel muffins, butternut squash red pepper puree soup, snickerdoodles, shortbread cookies, hawaiian haystacks, and more.
Our friends Madeleine & Ked invited us over before Halloween for a fun activity. We had pumpkin cookies and each carved a pumpkin. Kenny went with a crazy face and Natalie went with "pumpkin pi." Ha.Ha. So funny. Here is a bad quality picture of our pumpkins:
We handed out candy that night, although we didn't have too many trick-or-treaters. Natalie made ghost lollipops. They were cute but we had lots and lots of extras.
That night, Natalie's mom came in town (to help move Jenna back home for treatment of her recently diagnosed brain tumor). It was fun to have her stay with us for a night even though the circumstances were definitely less than ideal. We also went to visit Jenna in the hospital that week after her biopsy. Now Jenna is home with family which is good but makes Natalie sad (she's never been in Utah without a sister until now). Jenna has another major surgery tomorrow and then starts chemo treatment--please keep her in your prayers.
The first few weeks of November sure flew by.
After a long, hard day at work, Kenny suggested they take a bike ride and visit Dave & Carol's family (Natalie's aunt and uncle). So they went. It was more uncomfortable than Natalie expected with being pregnant, but it was a lot of fun and good to get some exercise and get her mind off things. Kenny took some pictures during the ride.
One day Natalie had a conference for new teachers down at BYU so she got to meet up with Kenny right after he got done with class! It was happiness. We took a walk around BYU and took a picture with the pretty sunset in the background. We have a new goal to take at least 3 pictures a week because we are horrible at it!
The 20th of November was Kenny's 23rd birthday. He wanted to go on a run early in the morning with a friend, so while he was gone, Natalie cleaned the house and made a large breakfast for Kenny. His favorite breakfast is cornbread and milk, so Natalie made cornbread, eggs and sausage, a fruit smoothie, and yogurt and granola. Here is a picture of the breakfast (half eaten) and Kenny after his run, enjoying the breakfast:
Then Natalie took him to see Harry Potter (surprise! She blindfolded him on the drive over to the theater) and then they just relaxed in the afternoon. They went to Tucanos for dinner with Kenny's birthday coupon and Allie's generosity, took a free carriage ride through the Riverwoods, and then headed to BYU for the men's basketball game (thanks to Ole for getting us tickets!). We met Kenny's friend KC and his fiancé there and had a great time! BYU won and since they scored over 80 points, we got free (birthday) cake at Maglebys and then went to Coldstone to redeem Kenny's free birthday icecream! It was a fun-filled day for pretty cheap.
Here are some random pregnant pictures of Natalie in case anyone is interested:
Recently we've done more cooking and enjoyed our long Thanksgiving break! We enjoyed Thanksgiving day at Gordon & Sarah's and Rhodes & Heidi's (Kenny's aunts and uncles) and Dave & Carol's. Here we are with the delicious spread at Dave & Carols:
This break has been so wonderful. We love spending time together, playing cards, cooking, and just laughing and talking. Natalie's mom sent us ADORABLE stockings in the mail (she hand-made them)...and yes, there is already one for our little girl Adelaide. We also got a cheap $20 artificial Christmas tree that will hopefully last us a couple years and decorated with old lights and ornaments Natalie had (plus a few new beautiful ornaments someone made us for our wedding!). We love how Christmasy and homey it feels.
Our church calling is in nursery and we love it--Kenny especially. The kids LOVE him and he's lots of fun. Natalie took a picture today of Kenny playing "horsey" and letting two of the little girls ride around on his back forever. This is classic of what happens every week in nursery (Kenny has also taken them on imaginary plane rides to China and they've had to jump out with parachutes, etc...and the kids totally act it out and love it! Natalie has a video of this one on her phone but has no idea how she'd upload it on the blog...).
Only 3 weeks of school and work left and we will be flying home for Christmas! We're going to be able to see both of our families over the break and we couldn't be more excited. Life is wonderful and we are more than happy.
Monday, October 11, 2010
we promise we're still alive
Dear family and friends,
So last time Natalie wrote was back in June before we were even married.
Quick update:
Kenny came home from study abroad.
We flew to D.C.
Kenny met Natalie's family.
We drove to South Carolina.
Natalie met Kenny's family.
Natalie went back to D.C. Kenny stayed in South Carolina.
Kenny came back to D.C. We got married in the D.C. temple.
(Our wedding day was absolutely perfect, by the way.)
We went to Ocean City, MD for our honeymoon.
We drove back to D.C. for a week and spent time touring D.C. and visiting with Natalie's family.
We drove down to South Carolina and spent a week with Kenny's family.
We drove to Alabama with Kenny's family and had a family reunion at a lake house.
Kenny taught himself how to french-braid Natalie's hair (Natalie doesn't even know how to french-braid!).
We flew back to SLC, Utah.
We moved into our apartment in Orem, UT.
Natalie started feeling sick.
We went on an intense backpacking trip in the Uinta Mountains with Aunt Monta and Linds.
We got called as nursery leaders in our ward.
We found out we were pregnant (surprise!).
Kenny got a job working for BYU grounds.
Natalie started working at Westlake High School.
Kenny started classes at BYU again.
We are busy as ever. Life is wonderful. We are so excited to have a baby join our family in just 6 months! Life is sure to change quite a bit. We are incredibly blessed and happy.
We plan on blogging more in the future. Sorry for our absence.
Love,
Us
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
soon
I just realized that I haven't written in forever. I think I forgot I had a blog. I probably won't write again for a little while, so I thought I'd write a short post.
Kenny came back June 3rd and it was truly magical. Our reunion was much better than I imagined it being. Being with Kenny is the best.
We flew back to VA the next day and spent about 4 days with my family. It was really fun (especially since most of my family hadn't met him yet!). Then we drove to SC and spent a week with Kenny's family. It was so much fun! I love his family so so much and felt like part of his family from the very beginning. It is going to be fun to have a lot of younger siblings.
I came back up to VA a week ago without Kenny and will be here until Monday night without him. It's really hard, but comforting knowing we will be married in just 9 days!
I am so excited--not nervous at all. I am so confident this is right and so happy. Kenny is the most wonderful man in the world. I told my family the other day that my life is so much better than any chick flick...it's so true.
I love my life. 9 DAYS MORE!!
Kenny came back June 3rd and it was truly magical. Our reunion was much better than I imagined it being. Being with Kenny is the best.
We flew back to VA the next day and spent about 4 days with my family. It was really fun (especially since most of my family hadn't met him yet!). Then we drove to SC and spent a week with Kenny's family. It was so much fun! I love his family so so much and felt like part of his family from the very beginning. It is going to be fun to have a lot of younger siblings.
I came back up to VA a week ago without Kenny and will be here until Monday night without him. It's really hard, but comforting knowing we will be married in just 9 days!
I am so excited--not nervous at all. I am so confident this is right and so happy. Kenny is the most wonderful man in the world. I told my family the other day that my life is so much better than any chick flick...it's so true.
I love my life. 9 DAYS MORE!!
Monday, May 24, 2010
this summer
So Kenny will be back from Europe in a week and a half. I know that to most of you it seems like this has gone by fast, but on my side...well, it's seemed like forever and a day since I last saw him. And it's only feeling longer now that it's getting close! It's really hard being away, but it's great to feel so much love for him and to be so confident that this is right! Next Thursday (when he gets back) is going to be THE BEST.
Kenny has sent me a few letters and a ton of postcards since he left. It's pretty fun to get things in the mail, especially from Kenny! He's really adorable. I love being in love.
So about 12 hours after Kenny gets back from Turkey, we are flying out to D.C. to spend a few days with my family (talk about jet lag). I'm SO excited. Then we are going to spend a week with Kenny's family down in SC and then a week apart (it's going to kill me...but at least we have practice...and we want a chance to spend one-on-one time with siblings before that basically never happens again). Then Kenny will come back up the week before we get married and it will be greeeaat.
Only 5 1/2 weeks left until we get married! I am so excited.
This is the Kenny I love and miss desperately:
Oh how I wish he was here.
Kenny has sent me a few letters and a ton of postcards since he left. It's pretty fun to get things in the mail, especially from Kenny! He's really adorable. I love being in love.
So about 12 hours after Kenny gets back from Turkey, we are flying out to D.C. to spend a few days with my family (talk about jet lag). I'm SO excited. Then we are going to spend a week with Kenny's family down in SC and then a week apart (it's going to kill me...but at least we have practice...and we want a chance to spend one-on-one time with siblings before that basically never happens again). Then Kenny will come back up the week before we get married and it will be greeeaat.
Only 5 1/2 weeks left until we get married! I am so excited.
This is the Kenny I love and miss desperately:
Oh how I wish he was here.
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