A's First Visiting Teaching Appointment

Allan and I only have one car.  We keep thinking we're going to buy one, and then something comes up, and we continue to wait.  Sometimes, like the day I went visiting teaching, a second car would be really nice.

I really enjoy walking, and since the girl I was visiting only lived a mile away I decided to walk instead of ask my companion for a ride.  I checked the map to make sure I knew where I was going and A was on schedule to eat about 5 minutes after the appointment began so I gathered up her things and went to put her in the moby wrap for our walk.

She decided she wanted to eat a 1/2 hour early.  She was VERY insistent.  So I quickly made her bottle and again tried to put her in the moby wrap so I could feed her as I was walking.  (If this ever happens to you just call your companion for a ride!)  She was fighting me really hard so I couldn't get her in the wrap very well but we started out anyway.  She was in the wrap just enough that it supported her but not well enough for me to let go of her at all.

So, picture this:

A woman walking down the road with a baby half hanging out of a moby wrap.  The woman is holding the baby with one hand and holding a bottle with the other.  She is also trying - in vain - to hold a blanket over her baby's head so the sun doesn't burn her, but the wind is blowing so hard that it's almost futile.

Don't worry she didn't get sunburned.  She gobbled up her milk happily while she looked around at all the new things to see.

We walked down the road the way I thought we were supposed to go and arrived at the highway.  I was pretty sure the map didn't show the highway, so I turned around and went another way.  When I was almost there a kind woman asked if she could give us a ride, but I turned it down because we didn't have a carseat for little A.  We arrived to the appointment about 15 minutes late.  Both the girl I visit teach and my companion had forgotten about the appointment, lol!

We had a nice visit, and then I discovered that the highway is also 1st Ave - the street I was supposed to walk down.  I had doubled my walking distance for no reason!

A and I walked home (the right way this time), and A had a nice long nap in the sling.  She was a happy little camper, and because I didn't have to feed her and she was in the sling all the way this time, I was a happy little camper too!

Maybe it wasn't so bad after all. ;)

2 Month Highlights

Little A is such a smiley, happy baby.  She LOVES playing on her play gym and especially loves this elephant rattle

and this butterfly chime (from Nana)

that hang from it.

One day I lay my sweet girl down to play and she started kicking the butterfly happily like normal.  She usually plays for at least 15 min before she gets tired, sometimes longer.  So, I was expecting to have a nice lunch.  However, as soon as I walked into the kitchen she started fussing.  A rarely fusses so I went in to see what was wrong.  She looked fine, and I knelt down to talk to her.  She gave me a big smile and then looked up at her gym with wide eyes.  I kept talking to her and she kept looking at me and then up at her gym.  Finally I looked at where she was looking and discovered that her elephant was hooked up over the arm of the gym so she couldn't see it.  She missed her friend!  I pulled it down and she gave me a huge smile and then promptly turned to her elephant and talked to him for the next 30 min!  What a funny girl.

She loves to play on this gym so much that she'll play until she falls asleep.  It's so cute to watch.  She'll kick and bat at the toys and then drift off only to struggle awake a few moments later to kick and bat again.  Eventually she rolls on her side and goes to sleep.  When I move her before she's ready she squawks at me, lol!

I moved a couple of her toys around on her play gym one day.  At first she played as usual, kicking the butterfly and talking to the elephant.  Then she turned her head to look at her Giraffe and there was a frog there instead.  She was NOT happy.  She proceeded to yell at that poor frog for the next 2 minutes!  They must have become good friends after that though because she suddenly smiled a big smile at him and proceeded to play as usual! So funny!

We went to my Poe's funeral.  It was our first road trip with Little A.  She did great!  She really is such an easy, contented baby.  We tried to get a crib at the hotels we stayed at (we ended up staying at 4 different hotels, sheesh), but there was only one that had one available, so we bought her a pack-n-play.  We also brought her play gym with us so she'd have somewhere to stretch out and play that was familiar.  We had so much stuff that Allan had to get one of those carts the hotels have so we could get it all in.

It was an 8 hour drive for us, but with A it turned into much longer.  We did the first three hours on Thursday evening after Allan got home from work.  The next day we did the last 5 hours (more like 8).  It was a long trek but we made it. A either slept or looked out the window during the drive.  She cried once when we weren't able to get stopped to feed her at the normal time.  Other than that she was a pretty happy camper.

First night of the road trip

The last leg of the trip went through a mountain pass.  We had checked the weather before we left and were expecting rain but we got into the canyon and drove right into a blizzard.  We didn't have snow tires as we live in the dessert and rarely get snow.  When we started up the canyon there was an SUV in front of us that was paving the way.  We slid from time to time and were a little nervous but felt okay continuing on.  Then the SUV turned off into a ski resort and us in our snow tireless little Buick were paving the way through the snow.  It was really bad and hadn't been plowed, and we thought we might turn around, but the other side of the road was a lot worse than our side so we kept going.  We slid onto the other side of the road once but managed to get back over into our lane before the traffic got close.  We slid over to the edge of the road several times as well.  Then some daredevil on the other side of the road decided to pass the cars he was behind using our lane!  We had to either move or crash, so Allan started to take the car over to the edge of the road again, but we ended up sliding into oncoming traffic.  Gratefully, and miraculously, we didn't get hit by anyone and managed to make it back into our lane again.  We continued on our drive sliding around occasionally until we finally did a complete 180 into the snow bank on our side of the road.  Thankfully it was really slow, and A (who had been sleeping the whole time) didn't even wake up.  We sat there for a while contemplating what we should do when a snow plow came by.  So, Allan backed out onto the road again, and we followed the snowplow, extremely slowly, down the mountain pass.  Both of us agreed we'd never been so scared in our lives.

When we got to our hotel Allan checked in and was walking back out to the car when a elderly couple stopped him.  The asked him if he was the Buick they followed through the canyon.  He said yes and they said "We're so happy!  We were so worried about you!  We didn't think you were going to make it!" 

When we went home we made sure to avoid going through the mountain pass and took another way around.

The funeral was beautiful.  My Aunt T did a great job.  It was held in the Methodist church that my Poe went to.  My dad and Aunt T were baptized there, and my Poe and Gram taught Sunday school.  Lots of good memories for them there.  It was a very small but very pretty church.  My cousin A made a power point presentation using pictures of Poe, and it turned out so great.  There were a lot of pictures I hadn't seen before.  My sisters and I sang "I Stand All Amazed".  It was originally supposed to be a piano solo but the pianist they were expecting wasn't able to come and since it isn't a Methodist song the pianist that was there didn't know it so my Dad and Aunt T asked my sisters and I to sing it ...a capella ... Allan said it was really good.

At the cemetery

At the luncheon afterward.  All the sisters, nieces and nephews, and two of the cousins.

It was so good to hear all the memories people had of Poe and good to have some closure.  Sometimes it still doesn't seem real.  We also got to see some family that I hadn't seen in almost 20 years!  We weren't able to stay long enough to have a tour of all my family's old haunts, but we're hoping to go back and check it out.

A got to meet K1

and also met Grandma H

There was a miscommunication about who was taking who back to their hotels (some family were staying about 40 minutes away), and Allan and I ended up taking some of our family back.  We were staying in the same city the funeral was held in though so we ended up leaving little A for the first time.  We left her with Grandad, Grandma H, and Gram. They really enjoyed having her, and we got to avoid changing two poopy diapers!  It was really hard to leave her though, and we still haven't left her again!

I started my calling teaching CTR 5.  The first Sunday was pretty rough (throwing chairs and books) but I have some help now and things have been going much, MUCH better.  The last couple of lessons have been very successful!

I got Allan a jack and jack stands for Christmas, and he was finally able to pull them out to rotate our tires.  He loves doing as much work on the car and house as he can and always does a great job!

We love to go in the backyard to play.  A loves how the wind rattles her toys.  While she plays I read scriptures and other books to her.

We had our first family picnic.  A loved it even though it was kind of windy.

 Little A loves to help hold her bottle and can do it by herself for up to 30 seconds.

She had her first diaper rash but thankfully it wasn't bad and it went away really quickly.

She will take a pacifier while she falls asleep but spits it out as soon as she's drifting off.  Its amazing how far that pacifier can shoot out of her mouth!  After she spits it out she sucks on her bottom lip.

A sleeps between 5 and 7 hours at night!

She loves to rock in the rocking chair and read stories. One of her favorites is "Oh, The Places You'll Go" by Dr. Suess.  The pictures are really bright and interesting to look at.

She learned how to say "Mmmaamma"!  However she doesn't associate it with me yet.  It's her "I'm angry" word.  It's pretty funny though because she usually says it when she's angry at Allan, like she's asking me to come and take her from him, lol!  But she loves her daddy and they still have great conversations together; A is getting better at keeping up her side of the conversation.

Dancing with Daddy

We started painting A's nursery.  Allan got the primer on.  Next we'll paint it grey and then we'll get the pink stripes and chair rail in.

Our precious little girl.

One of our favorite outfits! Thanks Aunt D!

Another one of our favorites.  Dad picked this one out!

Yes she does!

This one says "Apple of my eye".  Another one that Dad picked out.  So cute!

This is another one of my dresses from when I was a baby.  She looks so cute in this one.  The bonnet has an opening in the back and her hair sticks out of it.  So darling!

 We took some two month pictures of her.  Here's a few:

Our future dancer.

Love that smile!  If you look close you can see 4 of her 5 dimples!

At her doctor appointment Little A weighted 8 lbs 12 oz and was 22 1/4 inches long.

Little A's Baby Shower

Our sweet friends here in Arizona threw A and I a baby shower.  (To my chagrin I don't have a single picture.)  The shower was so fun!  Since we moved right before A came we hadn't seen many of them for a couple months, it was really good to see them all again.  Everyone was so generous and A was given SO many adorable little outfits.  They also set us up with diapers and wipes to last for a long time!

Underneath all those clothes are several boxes of diapers and wipes.

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to our friends here.  They have been so supportive of us through this whole experience.  From the beginning they did all they could to help us feel comfortable and a part of the community.  When they became aware of the trial we were experiencing they reached out with open arms and helped us get the word out that we were hoping to adopt.  Almost every week someone would tell me about how they had given our card to someone or suggested us as adoptive parents to girls who were considering adoption.  They let us babysit their kids, invited us over for game nights, listened to us moan and groan, and fed us dinner when we had babies fall through.  They were always there to comfort us and celebrate with us.  We are so very grateful to them for their friendship and support. 

We really feel like we have a family here. 

Thank you!

Newborn Pictures

When we were getting everything ready for our adoption profile our friend Rachel did some pictures for us.  They were gorgeous! This is one of my favorites.

She also did our pass-a-long cards which turned out great!

We like her photos so much that we had her do A's newborn pictures too.  Here are a few of our favorites:

The outfits A is wearing are dresses that my sisters and I wore as babies and I made the little white booties.  That cute pink bow is from Rachel's collection. 

Rachel does a great job and we had so much fun!  She was very gentle with A and took all the time A needed to be comfortable.  Check out Rachel's blog at rachelbellephotography.blogspot.com.

1 Month Highlights

The first month of her life we did what every new parent does...

Take Pictures!

I took a picture in all of her outfits and tried to take one every time she did something new.  (Don't worry.  I won't be posting them all, lol!)

This is her first time in her bouncer.  She wasn't sure about the bouncing at first and still prefers the heart beat vibration.

This cute little sleep-n-play is from AG.  She looks adorable in it.  The hat is from K6. The greens clash pretty bad but she looked so cute in the hat!

This is how she looks at Allan.  In awe and wonder.  It melts my heart.

 She loves her daddy and is always so happy when he comes home.  We always sing "I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes Home" when Allan gets home from work.

This cute hat came from a close family friend.  She made the hat (and another one too!), so talented!  They look adorable on her.  I think she looks like a character from Strawberry Shortcake.

Rockin' the 80's in a cute outfit from K3.  K5 got her the leg warmers and the cute flower and headband are from a sweet girl who follows our blog!  We use the headbands and flowers she sent every day!  A loves them!

A loves to "talk" to her stuffed animals. Mostly she just stares at them and smiles with the occasional grunt.

She loves to read with her daddy.

 Allan and I go on a date every Friday or Saturday night.  Since A came we've been having our dates at home.  When she was 5 weeks old we took her out to eat with us at Denny's and then went shopping at Ashely's Furniture to find a new couch. They were having a huge sale and we were hoping to find a deal.  We didn't find anything then but we found one online later.

Our new couch!

This is probably our favorite outfit.  It's from AG - she's got great taste!  It's super cute and easy to get on and off.

Sporting another cure flower from the sweet girl who follows our blog.  She's only 9 and she made them herself!  So talented!

Another one of our favorite outfits!  We bought this one.

A loves to talk to her Dad.  Allan is really good about talking to her and asking her questions.  They have great conversations ;)  I'm glad that he's started doing this already, I'm sure it will make for a great relationship when she's older.

A loves to have time to play by herself or just zone out for awhile, so we got her a play gym.  She LOVES it!  Especially looking at herself in the mirror!

Feeding A on our new couch.

This cute hat is from K3.  It was originally for A's cousin P but it was too small so it went to A.  It didn't fit her for too long but it was so cute!  It came with some little mittens too.

This cute outfit is from K1 and cousin B.  This cousin B is our little angel who passed away.  She would be 3 now and we miss her every day.

Wearing the outfit daddy picked out for her with a cute bow from a friend.

Wearing the bow Nana made her.

Cooking with Mom.

I made a moby wrap and my sister K6 gave me her May Tie (pictured above), which was handed down from a dear sister-in-law who passed away.  A LOVES to be worn in both of them and it's been really nice to have both because they hold her a little differently and sometimes she prefers one to the other.  It's sure nice to be able to work while I hold and talk to her, I get a lot more done that way.  This day we made bread and muffins and then made dinner.

In case you were wondering, the may tie has more back support than the moby wrap.  You have to get it just right on your shoulders so it doesn't dig in but once you figure it out it's really comfortable. I highly recommend it if you need some extra back support.

A learned how to blow spit bubbles, ha!

A playing on her gym.  She reached up and grabbed these rings and surprised herself, lol!  She let go before I could get the camera so I helped her grab on again so I could get this picture.

Tummy time!

A does really well in tummy time.  She can lift her head enough to turn it from side to side.  She hasn't figured out how to use her arms though.  Instead she uses her legs and pushes her bum in the air!  She's had many a face plant unfortunately, but she never seems to mind.  She always starts out pretty happy and then gets frustrated and screams at us.  Occasionally she falls asleep which always cracks us up! 

Another outfit from our angel cousin B.  The cute booties are from AG's friend who gave a bunch of her daughters clothes to AG to give to A. They are SO cute too!

This is also an out fit from cousin B.  The blanket is from Aunt M.  It is the perfect swaddling blanket and is really light weight so we can use it here in the heat!  Thanks Aunt M!

Making dinner with mom again.  This time in the Moby Wrap.  We made salad and Southwest Baked Chicken, yum!

  I have to cut in and say that A absolutely loves her mom. The first time that Kami left A with me to go to the store she was gone for a couple hours. When she got back and came up to say hello to A, A smiled the biggest smile I had seen her smile and started moving around excitedly. She always has a smile for her mom.

Such a happy little girl!  She started smiling and responding to smiles when she was about 4 weeks old.  The morning after we got the news that our Poe had passed away A woke up a little earlier than she usually does.  I laid her down in bed beside me and she just stared up at the ceiling and smiled and giggled for about 30 minutes.  I think Poe made a pit stop to visit his new great granddaughter.

I love this picture, she looks so self satisfied.

 Along with A's first month came a bad case of baby acne.  It went away after about 2 weeks but then her skin was really chapped for another 2 weeks.  Poor girl.  She also had diarrhea for a little while and we were worried that she might be allergic to her formula.  However, the doctor didn't think so and had us try a formula for gassy babies.  She hated that and spit it up a lot so we went back to the original formula and she's been fine ever since.

First day of church, 4 weeks old!

 For her first day of church A only went to Sacrament Meeting.  We had been planning on waiting another week to start taking her but then we were asked to speak in church so we took her to sacrament meeting and then Allan took her home since it was my turn to go to church.  Our talks went well and she was a little angel during the meeting.  She ate at the beginning and then slept through the rest.  When the organ started playing the first song and everyone started singing her eyes went HUGE and she started looking all around her trying to figure out what was going on.  She got used to it pretty quick though.

First day of church.  Allan picked out her outfit!  He did a really good job too, she looked adorable!

Another cute bow and her adorable smile!  She has five dimples!  One under each eye, one at the corner of each side of her mouth and another one on the left side of her face further back in her cheek.  The chubbier she gets the more dimples pop out!

It was a little chilly this morning so I took advantage of it and dressed her in a coat that my Grandma S (my moms mom) made.  This was one of the jackets that I wore when I was a baby.  I wanted to match it with the crocheted hat that AG's family friend made but by this time it was too small :(

Snuggling a bear that our friends little girl picked out for her.  She loves this bear so much!  This bear and her bunny are her favorite animals.  They both rattle.

This was right before we took her newborn pictures.  We didn't take them until she was a month old because we were so busy with everything. They turned out so cute though!  I'll post some of those in the next post.

We like to play on the play gym as a family too!  A loves it when we play together!

Her favorite way to do tummy time is on dad's belly!  She'll lift her head and grunt at him until she is tired out and then they have a long snuggle.

We took some 1 month photos at home too.  My goal is to take some photos like this (with the bunny and frame) every month so we can see how she grows.  This dress is one that my sisters and I wore.

I love this picture!  It looks like she's been up to something!  This is also a dress and bonnet that my sisters and I wore.  This is the blanket that Gram gave her.  It's so soft and cuddly.

Such a happy, happy girl!  Love that smile! The blanket in this picture was made by Nana.  It's gorgeous!

A also loves to snuggle her burp rags.  It's hard to keep them under her chin because she likes to tuck them under her arm and on the side of her face.

She started giggling when she was 4 weeks old.  She usually does it right before she falls asleep.  She'll smile and giggle and then she's out, ha!  It's super cute!  She also does it when she's having zone out time.

A loves to kick her butterfly chime that we hung from her play gym.  Besides looking at herself in the mirror it's her favorite thing to do.  She also likes to bat at the toys above her head.  When she's in her bouncer she likes to bat at those toys as well.  We also have a swing.  She wasn't so sure about the swing at first, especially when I turned it on vibrate.  She made some hilarious faces and then squawked at me to get her out, but she likes it now and when she's gassy she loves it!

Little A loves to roll onto her sides.  She prefers to be on her sides than her back and as soon as we set her down she immediately rolls onto one of her sides.

She also loves to hold onto fingers and if you wiggle out she'll replace her finger with yours so she has something to hold onto, lol!

She's a really good sleeper!  At night she sleeps 3-4 hours at a time and has a long nap during the day!  Mommy's loving it!

At her 1 month appointment she weighed 8 lbs and was 21 inches long!