Zach, Sara, and Kenleigh Mae

As A Perfect Parent I Shall Judge!

2011-11-03T21:49:00.001-06:00

I am on a blog hiatus. In fact, I’m still on one. If anyone asks, you never saw me here. I am by no means the role model for good parenting, correct parenting, A+ (heck, maybe not even B-) parenting. I do what I can and I try to teach Kenleigh right from wrong with every opportunity that presents itself. She’s young…sometimes she learns…sometimes it takes her a while. I can say that I’m trying. I have a list of few things that I want her to understand from an early age and I try to stay consistent. That’s what this is about, consistency. I believe that children are creatures of habit and it’s up to us to keep consistency in their lives and be good role models. I don’t judge how others parent and I don’t usually have an opinion on others parenting styles…ie…if they are parenting “right” or “wrong”. Who am I to say what’s right or wrong. Anyway, I have a HUGE vent. It’s big. If you’re easily offended and can’t take an opinion for what it is…which is very little, you probably shouldn’t read this. I also believe I’m saying what so many wish they can say. I did something today that I swore I’d never do. I’m certain I’ll likely never do it again. *An example is about to present itself on why I have NO right to judge another parent’s parenting style* It’s cold here in Salt Lake. Kenleigh and I are bored. On the weekends Zach and I usually try and stay busy for the most part…Kenleigh is like her dad…can’t sit still for too long. Now that it’s getting cold we are running out of things to do to stay busy. Zach worked late so I took Kenleigh to McDonalds so she could play in the play land. It’s true, I also purchased her a kids meal and watched her slowly eat a meal that could never disintegrate on its own…it’s plum full of preservatives…and grease…and the cholesterol just radiates off the fries. Yummy! It was delicious…Don’t judge me! :) Anyway, there are these signs all over the play land. Something like “don’t climb on the outside of the play apparatus”, “no hanging from the beams”, “no shoes in playland”, “please use kindness while playing” (this one I made up). Doesn’t really matter, for the most part these kids can’t read. It has become clear to me their parents can’t either. The entire time we were there I was watching these…I’ll guess 5ish and 7ish year old boys playing like mad men. I’m not sure there was one time I watched them play inside the lavish slide sculpture of fun. They only climbed on top like monkeys…they climbed, they jumped, they hung, and swung. Can’t count the number of times they almost landed on Kenleigh. Where was their mother? She was right there, “Dumb, dumber…get down from there…how many times do I have to tell you?” Their names weren’t really dumb and dumber…that was mean of me to say. Hmmmm…. Usually if I’m in public and I have to tell Kenleigh something a second time we leave…I’ve never had to ask myself the question “how many times do I have to tell you.” She’s not perfect…nor am I. She doesn’t always get it the first time. I usually allow for a learning curve. Not when it’s at expense of others. I counted 5 times between the two of them they were put in time out…AT MCDONALDS. Who does that? Take the dudes home… I’m not sure how long their time outs were intended to last. She usually went back to chatting with Norma (her BFF) while they slipped out of time out and back to their asinine shenanigans. Of course I didn’t want one of them to fall off the machine of complete, illegal fun. What if they broke their ankle? McDonalds would be out millions for having a play land. Of course maybe all the signs (the ones I listed above) would help their case. They sure learned their lesson with the hot coffee incident. Yeah, it’s true…I'm not sure if y'all heard by now...McDonalds lost millions in a lawsuit because that woman burned herself on their coffee. Did y’all know coffee is hot? I read that somewhere…oh yeah, on my styrofoam hot chocolate cup. When they don’t print that on there (you know, certain gas stations) I forget it’s hot. I just chug away and die of blistery throat illness for the next 72 hours complaining that my HOT chocolate was hot. Maybe their own mother was hoping they’d fall and break a bone so she could sue. It’s not totally ridiculous. Oh back to my rant…then the hoodlums kept calling each other “son of a bitch”. Apparently their mother didn’t mind being called such vulgerness. It is her they would be speaking of, right? She’s the mother of these sons. She mustn’t have minded. Her response, “we don’t talk that way.” “Yes, we do. We just did.” “Sigh.” Is this the world I we live in? I’m aware that boys will be boys…kids will be kids. I have a child, I’m not ignorant. At what point in public do you as a parent put your foot down with your kids and just remove them from the situation? Kenleigh and I had to basically suffer (too much? We suffered, ok) because the mom wanted BFF time and wanted McDonalds to babysit her kids. I watched her tell the boys it was time to go almost too many times. I threw up in my mouth twice. She put their shoes on multiple times only to have them take them off and continue playing. I’m not sure when they left. Poor Kenleigh, her playland date was cut short because I couldn’t bare it any longer. Oh, while I’m at it there was another mother there SLEEPING. I swear I can’t make this stuff up. Her kids were playing and she was sleeping. Am I a rude, judgmental person? Please tell me if I am. I’ll work on my acceptance of what I see as complete disregard for those around as well as their own children…maybe I expect too much. Maybe I should stray from McDonalds. I think I will!

Happy 1st Birthday!!

2010-09-07T16:10:00.000-06:00

I’m late, but she’s still one! I can’t believe it’s been a year since the day my life changed beyond what I could have ever imagined. What a year it’s been. Kenleigh has taught me so much. Things I couldn’t put down on paper. She’s just amazing. I’ve changed because of her in so many ways. I relate to people differently and so much more deeply. Anyway, the last year in our household has been a blast. I watch in amazement as she shows me something new every day. I laugh because she’s hilarious and I cry when she cries. Sometimes just inside but I’m crying none-the-less. I think it’s taken me this entire year to learn that people at my work don’t care to watch yet another video of Kenleigh eating, walking, sleeping, talking, laughing, etc. I can’t count the number of videos on my phone I’ve walked around the office to show my co-workers. They’ve all been so patient! I think even Zach is ready to kill me. Although, he’d never say it. I can’t imagine how he loves hearing me reminisce on a daily basis. “Hey Zach, do you remember when….we used to have Kenleigh sleeping in the bassinet next to our bed and I fed her 4+ times a night because I didn’t know differently…we used to comb her hair in a mow hawk because it was only an inch high…the first time we fed her solid baby food…her first laugh...oh do you remember the first video we made of the day she cried actual tears….” Yes, he remembers it all just like I do. I could go on and on. I could vocalize it non-stop. I LOVE talking about the many events in this last year. Kenleigh is so smart (like all our kids of course). She says, Mama, Dada, Nana, Hi, Uh-Oh, Baby, No (as she shakes her head no, it’s cute), More, and Shit (I’m convinced – Zach, not so much. It’s denial though I think). She waves hello and bye-bye, she gives kisses and loves, she blows kisses, she gives high fives, she started walking about a week before her birthday…ish. She still loves her baths but hates getting washed. Makes it so much fun! She still isn’t the greatest eater. Right now she’s going through a stage where she’ll eat something one day and wants nothing to do with it the next. At her one year check-up she weighed 18.12 pounds (20th percentile) and was 29.2 inches (60th percentile). She’s completely off her bottle and formula. That part was easy considering she hardly drank a bottle to begin with. A few ounces here and there weren’t missed. She transitioned to her sippy cup really well! She, by far, favors her daddy still. This has been a source of contention in our household. I’ve always been happy she loves her daddy but I’m not going to lie it makes me really sad to see her react to him so excitedly when he comes home but she doesn’t for me. I’m learning though that she really does love me. She’ll just be a daddy’s girl. I’m ok with that. I’m lucky to have such an awesome husband that makes such a great dad! She’s super independent. Not a fan of being held or carried around. Lately when we’ve gone grocery shopping she thinks she needs to walk. This has been a problem and I’m not sure how to get around it. It’s fine if she wants to walk but she wants to go where SHE wants to go and not where I need her to go. She still loves doing anything outside. Although, back to her independence…we love taking walks around the neighborhood but can’t figure out how to keep her happy in the stroller. We’ve let her walk on her own but it takes her FOREVER to get from one point to the next. She also wants to pick up every rock along the way. That’s daddy’s fault because he keeps giving her the fun rocks to play with. She also thinks she can walk down the stairs like an adult…also daddy’s fault. He holds her hand and lets her walk down going forward. Now she won’t turn around and go the right way AND NOW she wants to walk down forward without holding our hands. A couple nights ago she had a break down until we let go of her hand. Of course her first step she flipped forward and fell off the stair face first and had a cow. Luckily we were there to catch her. She’s definitely feisty! I look forward to so many more years of watching her become her own little person, watching her learn, and learning with her!

Bear Lake

2010-08-22T12:55:00.001-06:00

As tradition every year we go to Bear Lake with Zach's entire extended family on his mom's side the last weekend in July. A family reunion if you will. Although, I can't imagine they'd call it such. Anyway, we were pretty excited to take Kenleigh on a little vacation. She really enjoyed the water but unfortunately her mouth enjoyed the sand and seashells more. It made it pretty hard to enjoy ourselves at the lake so we spent a lot of time at the condo and took advantage of the huge amounts of grass and sidewalks!

She didn't mind the water being so cold but hated that stupid hat!

Ah, just catchin' some rays.


just

11 Months Old!

2010-08-22T12:36:00.000-06:00

Wow, I should get mom of the year for my awesome updating skills! Again, I won't go into detail now. Below are some pictures of Kenleigh's 11th month of life. What a month it was!

It was certainly has gotten harder for her to let me just take the picture! Then again I think that started around 4 months. Ha ha!


4th of July (celebrated on the 3rd in Utah) with her cousins on Zach's side. We're just missing Brayden!

She loved her dad wheeling her around in this little jiggy!

And HATED getting off...

Watching some fireworks! She loved them for the first few minutes and then got bored. Shocker!!

10 Months Old!

2010-08-22T11:53:00.000-06:00

Since it's been forever since I've updated I'm not going to go into detail about what Kenleigh's doing at 10 months old. In fact, her birthday is a week from today so I'll be updating her talents next week...er - next month knowing me! I have, however, included pictures from her tenth month of life.

It was this month that we noticed Kenleigh's hair might be going curly!

Kenleigh loves to swim or be in water of any kind!

We got a bike trailer this summer and she LOVES it. It's actually really fun riding along next to her and just watching her amazement.

She wants to drink like a big girl but I wouldn't say she's a natural!

Bath time! I mentioned above that she loves water. Seriously, if she's ever upset and we can't calm her down (feisty red-head) we start her a bath. She giggles with excitement!

9 Months Old!

2010-06-13T16:41:00.040-06:00

So I'm a little late...Kenleigh turned 9 months old a couple weeks ago. We took her for her 9 month appointment the Monday before the 29th. She's still so little but the doctor said she's hanging in there so no concerns for her eating yet. She's 28.2" long and weighs 17.1 lbs. Her weight was under 25% and height was above 75% so still long and lean. Kenleigh is getting so much fun to play with. She's been fun for us since the day she was born but she's really getting ineractive. She's really become quite the additction for both me and Zach. I seriously walk in her room and look at her sleeping countess times a night. I could literally stare at her all night if I didn't need my own sleep. Here are some more of her latests.

Crawling. She crawls so fast it makes us laugh. Up until lately it's been your standard crawl and the last little while she speed crawls. it's pretty cute to watch.

She still won't sit still. She's kind of a monster. She's into everything and trying to climb on everything. It's gotten pretty difficult to keep her from hurting herself.

She stands up to anything and lately she's starting to turn from one furniture piece to the other without really thinking about it.

She still only has her two bottom teeth.

She still isn't the greatest eater. She has good days but many, many bad days. Not a bottle, sippy cup or baby food fan. I haven't found many regular foods she'll chow down on either. As I mentioned above doc isn't too worried as of yet!

She says mamamamama and dadadadda. We like to think she's referring to us but are told it's not true yet. She says a lot of other babble too but those are our favorites.

She's still sleeping through the night on her own. Anywhere between 11 and 12 hours. It's WONDERFUL!

She claps her hands together and loves to play "so big".

She loves to be upside down.

She loves to be chased. She thinks it's so funny to crawl away from us and she keeps looking back to see if we are chasing her. When we start to she just gives up, falls to her defeat and giggles. It's the best!

She still loves her baths...really any water. We took her to Logan a few weeks ago and took her in the pool at the hotel. It was way too cold for Zach and me to swim in but Kenleigh had no problems with the freezing temperatures. She really could have spent all day in the pool Zach and I just couldn't do it. Next time little girl, next time.

She points at anything that interests her. So cute!

Kenleigh at Grandma's on Memorial day just tossing toys out of the toy drawer!

She doesn't even look at them first she just picks up and tosses.

We put them back in and she starts all over!

Swinging at Grandma's...her latest favorite!

8 Months Old!

2010-05-03T21:05:00.006-06:00

Kenleigh Mae turned 8 months old last week. She’s seriously getting so big. Her personality is really starting to shine through. I missed her 7 month post so I’ll post a little about the last two months.
• She is officially crawling. Still really slow, but getting the hang of it.
• She stands holding on to anything. Sometimes she lets go and turns from one ottoman to the other without thinking about it. Other times she face plants.
• She eats like crazy – not that you would know from her size. She eats mum mums and Gerber puffs and feeds herself. She eats any fruits and vegetables we give her. Although it took a while to get her to eat any fruit.
• She loves to be in her bouncer. She bounces on our laps or the couch whenever possible.
• She is talking a ton. Sometimes I’m convinced she is trying her hardest to tell me something.
• She really loves her daddy.
• She still loves her baths. We are going on a couple trips in the up coming weeks and we are excited to see how she does in cold water swimming pools.
• She has two bottom teeth.
• She gets into everything she can. If it’s not meant to be played with she’ll find a way.
• She is starting to explore more so it’s hard to keep her from getting bumps and bruises.
• She’s a true red head (feisty). We sure love it though. She gets a lot of attention for her red hair.
• She is finally an amazing sleeper. When we got home from Georgia we were going to try crying it out for a week to see if we could just get her sleeping once and for all. The first night we took away the night time feeding, swaddling, and rocking her to sleep. We put her right down and not a peep was made. I knew the other shoe would drop within a few hours. Nothing…no crying. She didn’t wake up once. It’s been two months and there are no changes to report. She was seriously just ready. It was perfect. She sleeps from about 7:30-8 to 7:30-ish. Almost 12 hours straight. I have no complaints. I do still go in there every time I wake up just to look at her. She’s seriously the cutest little sleeper.
Enjoy a couple more pictures!
Her current position of choice. Too cute!

Here is the first time she took a nap without a swaddle!

Flying Fiasco!

2010-03-29T21:52:00.004-06:00

Here I go with my flying story. I really don’t recommend you begin reading until you have a lot of time! Tuesday my mom drops me off at the airport to start my journey with Kenleigh back to Salt Lake City. If you know me you know that I HATE to fly. It’s a huge fear of mine. I do it anyway because it’s really the only way to see family. The only logical way. Our plane getting in to Atlanta was 45 minutes late. I only had a 25 minute layover in Denver so I knew there was trouble. 25 minutes usually isn’t a stretch in the Denver airport. After a very bumpy flight we made it in to Denver around 6:15. I found out we missed our flight by less than 10 minutes. The flight we should have been on was also delayed due to weather so to find out I missed it by 10 minutes and not 45 really sucked. It sucked – to put it lightly! We were confirmed on the next flight at 9:25 PM. UGH!!! Kenleigh isn’t a cuddler, she really likes to be playing on the floor or in her exersaucer. Not a huge fan of being held. I was not looking forward to this next three hours in the airport alone. To top it off the blizzard outside is only worsening. I’m freaking out about flying in this kind of weather. Then I look up at the board and find out my flight is delayed an hour. An hour later I look up again to find it’s delayed another hour and another hour and another hour. Finally before 1 AM all flights in and out of the Denver airport have been grounded. Grounded??? You have got to be kidding me. I have a 7 month old with me with a limited supply of food. Did you say grounded? I had done really good holding it together up to this point but I couldn’t handle it for just a moment in time. I went and stole a wheelchair, dropped my belongings in it and sat down with Kenleigh in my lap. I couldn’t even bring myself to walk another inch so I wheeled us to the back of the line to get on the next available flight first thing in the morning. I call Zach to tell him my flights cancelled and all I can do is cry. Poor Zach, he’s home and can’t do anything to help us. He felt entirely too helpless. Sad. I cried, “I seriously can’t do this. I can’t spend the entire night here. I’m tired. I’m frustrated. I’m sad. And worst of all I’m tired of holding Kenleigh.” How sad is that to say? It wasn’t to say I was tired of being around her. I was literally tired of holding her. My arms and body were aching. I had to use the bathroom sooooo bad. Denver airport doesn’t have changing tables in their bathroom stalls so I didn’t have anything to strap her to. I certainly wasn’t going to put her on the bathroom floor. So basically I was just tired. Zach told me to be aggressive and go to the front of the line and just insist they help me so I can go and make ourselves comfortable for the night. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. There were thousands of people there all for the same reason. Why was I so special? Then I realized I really didn’t see many kids. I really did have unique circumstances. After a lot of crying and over an hour in line without moving an inch in my wheelchair I decided Zach had a point. I stood up, walked to the front of the line, and started bawling. The lady was so helpful and asked the couple who was next if I could cut in line. The woman’s answer…”it doesn’t really matter what we say she’s going to anyway.” Thank you kind woman. Oh and PS we weren’t even going to the same destination so it’s not like I took her seat out from under her. Ask me if I felt bad. I didn’t. Not at this point. They couldn’t get us on a confirmed flight until 10:30 the next morning. I braced myself for the long evening. I’m also proud to say I didn’t lose it again emotionally. That’s not to say I didn’t want to lose it on a few individuals. Anyway, I got my ticket and Kenleigh and I headed to the bathroom. I rolled us into the handicapped stall and never felt better. Actually that’s a lie. I’ve felt a lot better…on many occasions. After that we found a quiet hallway and made ourselves at home. It’s true, I was close to an outlet; I plugged in the phone, made up Kenleigh’s bed. Prepared my snacks…you know so that once she fell asleep I didn’t wake her and rocked my girl to sleep. I never dared to fall asleep because I was too afraid of my perfection of a daughter getting kidnapped. I just watched. Watched people and watched Kenleigh sleep. I don’t get to watch her sleep much so that part was nice. Kenleigh woke up at 5:30 that morning and decided she didn’t want to sleep anymore. Turns out that was also my last bottle for her. I packed extra but not that much extra. We packed up our hut and headed for the terminal. On our way though we did find some formula for Kenleigh. As I’m headed to the terminal I realize we are heading to the basement. No bueno. Not good. It’s cold in the basement. I realize I’m not getting on a plane with a jet engine. No ma’am. I’m getting on a prop plane. You know, with propellers and only 30 people. You know, the kind that has to be weighed before they can take off. Yes sirs, that’s the one. It was so cold in the basement as I mentioned before. The doors were open so people could get on and off the planes. I mean walk on and off the runway. Yep, people walked right onto the runway…in the blizzard…and up the stairs…all 3 of them to get on the plane. The basement was cold. Kenleigh was cold. I felt horrible. I had a jacket and I tried to wrap her up. Couldn’t people tell I already felt bad enough? I guess not.
Nice (not so nice woman): You really should wrap her better in this cold. You need to get her out of here.
Me (in my head): And take her where you psycho?
Nice (not so nice woman): Don’t you at least have a jacket or hat for her? She’s going to catch a cold.
Me (out loud this time): No, unfortunately her jackets are in her suitcase. We’re coming from Georgia.
Nice not so nice woman walks away. She’s lucky this time!
A kind gentleman next to me caught the rather non discrete eye roll from me and offered his blanket. Thank you nice sir. As we sit and wait for our plane (prop plane) Kenleigh is getting hungry. I make her a bottle with the formula I happened upon. Turns out she doesn’t eat formula she has never had before. She wanted nothing to do with it but was starving. I bought an apple juice and diluted it and it turns out she doesn’t drink that either. Kenleigh was starving and wanted all of us to know about it. She did really well up until about 9:00 AM waiting for our plane. She is now in hysterics. I’m trying frantically to rock her to sleep when this big, BIG southern woman (I’m not judging I’m just giving a mental image) walks up and says, “don’t you think she’d stop crying if maybe I hold her?” Me (in my head): Um, no I don’t. I think you’ll scare the crap out of her and she’ll cry beyond what I can handle at this point. Me (outloud this time): Um, no. I think she’s hungry, out of food, tired, and just needs her mom. Thanks though. Oh people. So interesting. Finally at 10:30 we start boarding out plane a touch late. No big deal. The end is finally in sight. 11:00 AM the pilot comes over the intercom…did I say intercom? I meant he stands up and starts talking to us (small plane remember?). When it rains it pours. Apparently our breaks are frozen and we’ll be a while longer. Seriously? Then this 5 or 6 year old boy yells out to the pilot (dumb boy the pilot already locked himself back in the cockpit) “If you don’t fly this plane right now I’m going to give my loudest scream ever. 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhh” Me (in my head) to boys mom: You’ll regret that. Sure enough Kenleigh is up and matching his screams.
Kind woman next to me: Why is she crying so much?
Me: She’s just really hungry and tired and she won’t eat this formula or her apple juice.
Kind woman next to me: Well I guess with your next child you’ll learn to breast feed her won’t you?
Me: Punches kind woman in the face.
Was she serious? She really was. People…so rude.
Long story short…shorter than I could have made it. I made it home at about 2 on Wednesday with my sweet Kenleigh in tow safe and sound! Oh yeah, and for every rude individual I dealt with there were many more nice ones!

Meeting More Family

2010-03-29T20:42:00.006-06:00

When I heard the news about Jarod being sick I felt like I needed to get out there right away and just be with my family during this hard time. I booked my ticket and headed out the next week which was last weekend. I was so excited to take Kenleigh to meet her Grandpa, Uncle Jarod, & Aunt Lindsey for the first time. I’m terrified of flying and new it would be even worse with Kenleigh. Luckily she really did distract me and it wasn’t so bad! We flew in on Saturday and went straight to Jarod and Lindsey’s for dinner. It was really good to hang out and spend time with everyone. It made it a little better and a little worse for me to see Jarod. Just knowing what he’s going through (not really knowing but imagining) breaks my heart. I really had to hold back the tears. It did help though to see that he’s the same old Jarod. If anything, this reminds me how close we were in high school and we won’t ever lose that bond we had. Before Zach Jarod was my best friend. Sunday we hung out at my parents for a while in the morning and then drove back in to Atlanta to spend a few hours with Jarod and Lindsey again. Our friend from high school Aisha brought everyone lunch. It was wonderful to see her. I try to see her every time I make it out to Atlanta. It isn’t enough but it’s a good start. Thanks Ish, for lunch! We found out that day that Kenleigh apparently is a dog lover. It took both Kenleigh and Jarod’s dog Georgia to warm up to each other but when they did it was so sweet. Monday my mom went with Jarod, Lindsey, and Lindsey’s mom, Janice to some of Jarod’s doctors’ appointments. They went really well and they were able to get a good idea of what’s ahead. Dad’s work got rained out so it was a good time for him and me to spend some time together. We never really get to do that. Dad always thinks I’m there for mom so he just hangs out while we do all our bonding. We talked for a long time and I have to say it was pretty nice. I mean I could have done without most of it but some was nice…well not necessarily some but… Yeah, I missed mama! Ha ha, just kidding daddio! Monday night I had just put Kenleigh to bed and we decided we wanted some ice cream from Dairy Queen (this will be a theme in all my blog posts after leaving Georgia). I put dad in charge of Kenleigh while mama and I went for ice cream. I tried to give him direction in case Kenleigh woke up before we returned. He said he wanted none of it. Okay then, if you say so. We got home and dad had Kenleigh downstairs in as much light as possible completely un-swaddled and she loved it. I on the other hand about lost it. All that work to get her to sleep and he probably just needed to throw the binki in her mouth and she would have been right back to bed. I really was happy to see that they got their moment actually. She really loves her grandpa! He really loves her too. Tuesday we woke up and headed right over to Jarod’s to see him one last time before my flight left. It was really hard to say goodbye. I really miss being out there but my home is here and I’ve gotten rather used to it. We then went to lunch and headed back to the airport. I was happy to be heading home because Kenleigh and I really missed Zach so the goodbyes were bitter sweet. Hopefully we’ll get to make it back out there before the year passes us by!

6 Months Stats!

2010-03-29T20:39:00.002-06:00

I forgot to post Kenleigh’s six month stats on here. She went to the pediatrician just after she turned 6 months old. She’s really starting to grow. She was 14.8 lbs. (40^th %), 26.7” long (95^th %), and her head is 16.7” (70^th %). Her doctor said she was tall, skinny, & smart. We’ll take it!

Prayers Please

2010-03-13T12:22:00.001-07:00

If you're reading my blog then I'd love to request prayers from you, your family, and your friends. My brother Jarod was just diagnosed with testicular cancer. He's such a fighter and he'll get through this with his family and friends behind him. He has a road to recovery but knowing my brother he'll make the most of it and find the blessings along the way. please go to my sister-in-law Lindsey's blog for all the details. She'll keep it up to date for anyone who wants to follow it.

http://jarodandlindsey.blogspot.com/2010/03/rollercoaster-week.html

6 Months Old!

2010-03-03T21:05:00.015-07:00

Kenleigh turned 6 months old this last Monday. I guess she really only gets a real half birthday on Leap year so we had to go March 1^st this year. I thought Kenleigh changed a lot over her fifth month but apparently change is going to start coming faster and faster. This month flew by and Kenleigh is growing right before our eyes. She has her 6 month appointment on Monday so we’ll see how much she has actually grown then. Kmae had a rough couple weeks this month too. She caught a stomach bug and bronchilitus and ended up in the hospital for a night to get re-hydrated and other fun stuff. She’s better than ever now though. She’s moving like crazy, though not yet showing any signs of crawling. She scoots backwards which is so cute. We just lay her on the floor and seconds later I swear she is across the room. I made a ton of homemade baby food this month so we had some yummy food for when she was ready for solids. I was really letting her tell us when she was ready. We started last week and she’s done really well. Though, I swear it’s making her sleep worse. I stopped a couple days ago to see if my suspicions were justified and I say they are. I know the doc will make us start on Monday though. We think she is teething but have yet to see any tooth buds. Other fun changes are below.

She is getting close to sitting on her own. She gets too distracted and falls over still though.
She loves to have her feet free so she can play with her feet…she tries to get them in her mouth.
She loves necklaces, mom’s hair, tags, remotes, cell phones, and garbage.
She belly laughs a lot more. It melts me.
She has started reaching for people when she wants you. Also my favorite when she reaches for me.
She growls at her binki all the time. It’s in her hand getting growled at more than it’s in her mouth.
She still loves her baths – it’s a fun time for the three of us.
Her eyes are green! Just what we were hoping for!

5 Months Old!

2010-01-30T21:46:00.004-07:00

Another month has come and gone. Kenleigh is getting so big. This month has been so much fun. I’m sad to see it go so quickly! It’s been amazing to watch how quick Kenleigh is learning new things. Kenleigh still has really bad acid reflux. She was diagnosed last weekend with chronic reflux. Whatever that means. She still struggles from time to time eating her bottles. She now has a ton of phloem in her chest. The doctor says it’s all part of the reflux. She coughs a lot because of all the phloem and seems congested often. Apparently it’s all related. Poor girlie. She’s on Zantac twice a day and Prevacid once. We haven’t noticed a difference since she started Prevacid. We’ll give it a month and if no change we’ll take her back off. Below are more fun milestones.

She rolls from front to back and back to front all the time. We used to have to entice her with toys to get her to roll on to her tummy but now she just does it. Sometimes she does a full 360 but usually surprises herself when she does.
She’s holding all her toys really good now and she definitely has some favorites. I’m a complete sucker and buy her several new toys a week.
She loves to stand. She does really well in her exersaucer.
Now everything she picks up has to go in her mouth for a taste test…even mom’s hair!
Just today she finally ate some rice cereal without spitting it all back up. She did really well. We gave her a half tablespoon for dinner and it was just enough. She’s still really small so we’ll see if the extra calories makes her put on the weight or not.
She babbles non-stop. She has picked up yelling in fact. Now when she is mad she doesn’t resort right to crying. She first yells to get her point across…if that doesn’t work then bring on the tears.
She started doing a new thing where she sucks her bottom lip in then spits it out over and over.
I have a feeling the binki will be going away soon. She never keeps it in her mouth very long. When she does have it in she’s always taking it out to play with it and can’t figure out how to get it back.
She is getting more and more hair and it seems to be staying red.
Her eyes are officially GREEN. So cute!

Kenleigh in her exersaucer. She is wearing her little camo outfit from Grandpa! She loves it.

Four Month Appointment and More!

2010-01-09T20:47:00.012-07:00

Munchkin had her four month appointment on Monday. We weighs 12.9 oz. (25^th percentile), 24” long (50^th percentile), and her head circumference is 41.1 cm. (50^th percentile). Still a little long and lean but all in all very little. Her pediatrician said it was just fine though and she is within normal range. He said we could start solids anytime now. He mentioned it could help with her reflux. Not necessarily looking forward to that stage so I haven’t started yet. I lie, we did try rice cereal a couple nights ago. We literally couldn’t get it in her mouth. Guess she isn’t ready. Her reflux is still pretty bad – doc did up her Zantac prescription and it has helped.

Today Kenleigh woke up from what is normally a three hour nap after only 30 minutes and started screaming. It was a cry of pain I just couldn’t pin point her pain. She cried literally non-stop for an hour and a half…we both cried for some of it. I knew she wasn’t hungry, her diaper was changed, she was tired but she’s never had a problem falling asleep even if I don’t stay on top of the nap. It was a cry to tell me she was in some sort of pain. At least that’s what it seemed like. My heart broke the entire time; I cried with her because I didn’t know how to make her better and that killed me. My sister Cori mentioned she thought KMae might be teething. I don’t see anything at all. I always thought 4 months was a little early. She doesn’t have swollen gums or anything. She does have a few other symptoms but who knows. So taking Cori’s advice I gave KMae some origel. She stopped crying within seconds and continued her 3 hour nap. So sad. I’m not sure if she is teething or not but I certainly hate thinking she’s in pain.

The picture below is for my dad. It’s her 3 month appointment after she got her shots. The nurse gave her a hot pink camo band-aid! I knew dad would love it. The last pictures are some porcelain shoes my really good friend Sue made for Kenleigh. They have her name, birth date, and birth stats on them. They are in the color of her nursery. Sooooo freaking adorable! The rest are just some cute pictures!

Pink Camo Band-aid! I can't imagine her any cuter! Loves getting baths Liker her daddy, turns blue when she's cold! AMAZING!!!

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T21:46:00.004-07:00

I can’t say I’m sad to see 2009 go because I’m anxious to see what’s in store for 2010. I can’t imagine our life slowing down at this point. 2009 was definitely the best year of my life. It was very good to us. I can’t say that pregnancy was really my thing but I can say that what followed definitely was. Kenleigh has been a huge blessing in our lives. She makes every day one trillion times better than ever before; and we had a good life before. It’s now just that much better! I hope for 2010 I can be pregnant again and --- NO WAY…totally kidding! I really do hope that we can just continue learning about our little girl, remain in good health, and in good jobs! Happy New Year!

4 Months Old

2009-12-31T21:58:00.001-07:00

I can’t believe our munchkin is four months old. I can’t be sure because I’m not going to go back and read but I’m pretty sure all my monthly posts start out that way. Seriously though, time is flying. She has changed so much from when we brought her home. Zach and I were comparing her four month pictures to her one month picture and cracking up. We don’t go to her four month appointment until Monday so I’ll post her stats then. In the meantime here are some fun things she’s been up to.

Her hands are in her mouth constantly. We will be relaxing and all the sudden we hear this extremely dramatic sucking noise. Turns out it’s just KMae.

She talks a ton…she talks and talks and talks. She is so interested in what we have to say and she shows that in her responses.

She has rolled from her tummy to back. She has started trying to roll from her back to belly. It’s so cute, she puts her feet in the air and then they fall to her side. This puts her almost over the edge. She has technically done it once in the middle of the night...oh it scared me. I heard her crying in her crib so I went in and she was face down. She was swaddled so she couldn’t use her arms to get her back over. Oh, worst feeling ever! We tried to stop swaddling her and that then became the worst night ever. She’s back to swaddled and in her sleep positioner.

She loves her daddy to sing the peanut butter jelly song to her. If anyone is curious how the song goes call me. It’s seriously so funny! He even does a dance to it.

She has discovered her toys and loves to play with them...and put them in her mouth.

She loves to stand. She will do it all the time if someone is there to hold her.

She still loves her swing.

She is very random in her sleeping. She does great some nights and terrible other nights. There isn’t yet a pattern so we’re not sure what direction we’re heading. I do try to remind myself when I’m up in the middle of the night with her that I’m lucky. I’m lucky I even have the opportunity and I’ll take any extra time I can get with her. Especially now that I’m back at work.

She is the world’s worst eater. She takes 30+ minutes on a good day to eat 4 ounces. Though, it seems others have better luck with feeding her. I have tried to move up to level two nipples but she’s so dramatic. She chokes so badly and I give in every time. Zach says we need to stick with the level 2 long enough for her to get used to it but I jump ship!

She’s still tiny. I can’t wait to see what her weight and length are. Everyone that sees her says she is very narrow for her length. That could be due to her terrible eating…not sure. I’m really light and dainty so maybe she gets that from me. OR NOT!

She is just a joy to be around. I think Zach and I say "she's so cute" about 8000 times a day and we find it still doesn't get old. We laugh constantly with her...the smiles never end at the Howarth household. Good times!

Kenleigh's First Christmas

2009-12-31T21:47:00.002-07:00

I’m sad to say I didn’t really get any pictures for Kenleigh’s first Christmas. What kind of mom am I? I’ll answer that…I’m the kind of mom that didn’t get any pictures of her daughters first Christmas! I guess we didn’t miss much. It’s not like she was opening presents all day! On Christmas Eve we went to Zach’s parent’s house. That has become tradition and I quite enjoy it! Zach, me, & Kenleigh got some great gifts. It was so much fun to hang out with all the family…Ok the fun part is actually watching all the little kids. They get cuter and cuter. When we got home we got KMae ready for bed and surprised her with one last present. My brother Jarod and his wife Lindsay want all their nieces and nephews (so far only nieces) to open their gift from them on Christmas Eve. Kenleigh was so excited…and by Kenleigh I mean me! Kenleigh made this year so much more exciting. It almost made it harder to wait on St. Nick. We managed. Christmas morning Kenleigh woke us up to see what Santa brought. Or she woke us up to eat…it is all a blur. We got ready and headed to my mom’s house. This was also good times. Again, fun to see the family! By now the girlie was getting tired and was done with all the people. She basically lost it. That was good enough reason for me to agree to hit the road. We got home and just relaxed the rest of the day….relaxed by putting all her entirely too fun toys together. Now that was good times! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday!

Oh Good Times!

2009-12-31T21:43:00.005-07:00

So Zach and I thought it would be fun to get Kenleigh’s pictures taken professionally for Christmas. We had several reasons. She has way cute outfits that she’ll never have any reason to wear. She can wear them once, get the picture taken and never have to see it again. It’s fine. Works for me. She’s the cutest baby ever so why wouldn’t we put it on film every chance we got? And of course, we wanted to do some sort of gift for our parents for Christmas with Kenleigh’s pictures. So a couple weeks before Christmas we made an appointment. We narrowed it down to only two outfits. We napped her, fed her, changed her, and anything else you can think of to make a happy baby. Boy did we succeed. We had about the happiest baby on the planet; and boy was she cute! Well we got to the place and I notice that her eyelids are about as red as you could imagine. Our darling munchkin as you know is a red head. This generally means a bit of fair skin will be involved. Bless her heart – this means if she is tired it will show, whether she knows it or not. The place that was doing her pictures said they did not photo shop. I couldn’t figure out why her eyes were so red. She slept a ton. She was so happy. But it just wasn’t right. What kind of mom would I be to allow these pictures to take place? She just wouldn’t forgive me. So….we rescheduled for the next day. Even better – we napped her, fed her, changed her, and anything else you can think of to make a happy baby. Ha – Success! She was so happy and so darling. We decided to change it up…we used outfit two first this time. We got to the place and we were all ready. The photographer introduced himself and the conversation to follow goes something like this…

Photographer: How does she do on her tummy?

Me: Tummy? Um, ok if you're QUICK. (I really emphasized quick.)

Photographer: Hand her over…….

He puts her on the set ON HER TUMMY, positions her (so cute I’ll add) and then goes and fiddles with his camera for I’m not even kidding what felt like 3 minutes. That’s a long time in infant land. She was ready…and then she wasn’t. It was just too long. She started crying followed by screaming. Nothing calmed her except walking out. Zach walked out, calmed her down and we tried again. The second she saw the photographer she started screaming again. Actually it became pretty funny. She would only cry when she would look at him. Smart little girlie. I told him what makes her mad and he didn’t want to listen. After the second night of trying we gave up. We decided we’ll try again and have her pictures done next month. I posted pictures of her two cute outfits though since now they will likely go to waste! Sorry, the date on my camera is wrong!

Outfit 1 - Darling!

Outfit 2 - Too cute!

KMae Rolls!!!

2009-12-09T21:48:00.002-07:00

Kenleigh rolled over today for the first time. I attached a video below. *Disclaimer ~ Please excuse my high pitched voice. I was super excited and I had no idea how I sounded on video. My acting career never took off. Though the dream has never died. Oh, enough about me. Back to the girlie. I was telling Zach last night that I thought she was getting close and low and behold...only a day later. She's such a big girl. I was hoping she would roll over on video and then get so excited with me...instead she rolled over and was done. She finishes off with a yawn. Time for bed! She seriously is the light of our lives. We keep wondering what we ever did before her. Enjoy!

3 Months Old

2009-11-29T22:22:00.007-07:00

Today Kenleigh is 3 months old. I seriously can’t believe how quick time is flying. My first trimester seemed to be the longest three months of my life. I love being a mother more.than.anything! I can’t imagine anything in life that feels more rewarding. It felt like it was a tough adjustment period for me for a little while. Kenleigh was pretty fussy early on and I wasn’t sure when that would ever end. I didn’t know the right ways or the quickest ways to calm her. I am her mother and I didn’t know the right ways to calm her. This was hard. I felt like my entire life stopped so I could take care of this little girl. For a long time I felt like I couldn’t leave the house or even function in the outside world. I was constantly stressed. All while loving my new little girl. A few people had mentioned that I seemed different. Of course I was different. My entire life just changed. Yet some felt that I didn’t seem as happy as I was. This made me sad. I didn’t want to be different. I didn’t even realize I was different. Looking back though I was. I was just as happy – I was happier actually. I just didn’t know how to emulate it. Of course in a quick conversation is seemed obvious but those around me closer sensed my level of stress. I’m not really sure if it was post partum depression. I’m sure to an extent it was. I know that it was a huge release of hormones into my body all at once along with a huge life change. It was scary, it was stressful, it was amazing. Over the last several weeks I personally have noticed a change. I enjoy Kenleigh even more. I didn’t know it was possible. We are figuring each other out. I calm her now – she wants me. We have our own touches with each other. I enjoy her differently. I enjoy her constantly. I stress less. My emotions are level. She’s my blessing. An incredible blessing. My life doesn’t feel like it’s adjusting anymore. I’m a mother. I will always be a mother. I’m sad it took me a while to figure out how to be a mother. To some it is very natural, for me I had to adjust. This shouldn’t have surprised me. I still burn toast. Of course it wouldn’t come easy. Not for me! I still burn toast but now I’m a lucky, lucky mom!
Anyway, Kenleigh was so excited for her three month birthday that I think she woke up every hour the night before. Actually I know she did. This morning Zach got Kenleigh up and let me sleep in for a bit. I guess he had plans of his own to celebrate. When I woke up I came downstairs and Zach and KMae were nowhere to be found…they must be in the basement. That was out of character. We haven’t hung out down there since she was born. Literally. I went to see what they were up to and this is what I found. Zach was down there entertaining her with a little Xbox. I seriously laughed so hard. She was so content lying on her play mat watching him play. They were bonding. It was cute. Father-daughter morning in our house was fun. I let them be.
For the last couple of weeks our good little sleeper has become a bad little sleeper. I’m not really sure what happened. She used to wake up only once a night for a quick bottle and was back to bed. Lately she has been up 2-3 times a night and sometimes (too often) more. I think in the next few weeks we are going to try some sleep training with her if we can’t get her back on track. Not sure how that will go. Here are a few more updates.
*She is still smiling a lot and laughing. She has even started belly laughing. Not a ton but when she does it I can’t help but crack up myself.
*She still hates tummy time. Any suggestions?
*She still hates being in the car. She has gotten better but it’s totally random on if she’s going to scream or not…more screaming than not still.
*She is ok to not be rocked to sleep for her naps anymore. Now I just put her in the swing at naptime and she goes right to sleep.
*She is the SLOWEST eater on the planet. I have tried faster nipples and she chokes. She just likes to eat slowly. She's dainty!
*She pays more attention to her toys and is actually entertained by them.
*She has discovered her hands. She is always staring at them and sucking on them.
*She pulls on my hair.
*She is starting to drool a ton.
*She’s still perfect.

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T21:51:00.005-07:00

I have to say Thanksgiving was a little different for us this year with having Kenleigh and all. At the very least it gave us that much more to be thankful for. In general I have always hated Thanksgiving. Don’t get me wrong – I’m fully aware of the meaning of Thanksgiving. I get it. I’m thankful. I’m thankful for so much. I try to remember all year everything I am thankful for. For example: I’m thankful for Thanksgiving because I get another day off work, a long weekend, and time with family and friends. Yeah right until they fall asleep on me. Brings me to one of the reasons I’m not a fan of the holiday. EVERYONE sleeps…so lame! Seriously, we never get together and we finally do and now you want to sleep? We eat food that in my opinion is top of the line gross. It’s true, Thanksgiving feasts are not my favorite. Not even close. I’m not sure why…really, I’m not. The napping though, I still can’t get over the napping. I can count on maybe one hand the number of naps I’ve taken in my adult life…I think those were all during my first trimester of pregnancy. Basically what I’m saying is that I didn’t choose to nap. My body kept shutting down…it just did it…all on its own. I couldn’t nap if I tried. So while y’all are napping I’m sitting around twittling my thumbs in front of a television of football. Oh I can’t change the channel. Inevitably someone will complain. Even though I know they were napping minutes before. This year though was different. I had Kenleigh. She has no problem entertaining me while everyone else is napping. I’m thankful for Kenleigh. I’m thankful for my new little family.
This year we went to my mom’s house early and hung out there for a while. Kenleigh was a huge hit. She is so cute…so, so cute. Not sure if I mentioned how cute she is. My nieces Launa and Teiha are always so fun with her. I’ve been a little protective and haven’t let them hold her so I decided to give in on Thanksgiving. You know – give them something more to be thankful for. I’m thinking Kenleigh wishes I wouldn’t have given in. As soon as I handed her over she had had it and she was sure to let them know! After my mom’s we went to Zach’s parents for dinner. Just the five of us…it was a quiet night. But no naps – more to be thankful for! Now onto Christmas. I love Christmas!

Launa and Kenleigh - Launa cuddles even through the screams!

Teiha and Kenleigh

Our little family

My morning girl!

2009-11-18T13:56:00.002-07:00

This is how Kenleigh wakes up every single morning. It's the best!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM7mfgNwApU

Two Months Old

2009-10-29T21:53:00.002-06:00

So sad I forgot to take the mittens off!

Kenleigh is two months old today. That is absolutely crazy for me to say. I thought the last two months of my pregnancy would never end and yet here I am two months in to motherhood. Best role I’ve ever played for sure! Kenleigh is such a joy in our lives; we really cannot get enough of her. I only have just over three weeks left before I have to go back to work and it’s seriously breaking my heart. If anyone out there knows of part time or just more than part time work that I could get insurance please shout it out to me! I’ll do anything to go back with flexible hours!!! Zach hates it enough that he has to be away from her; we can’t imagine how it’s going to feel when I go back. Good thing we have a good babysitter. Thanks Amy! Kenleigh had her two month appointment on Monday. Everything looks great. At two weeks she weighed 7 lbs 13 oz (50th percentile) and was 20.5” long (75th percentile). At two months she weighed 9 lbs 14 oz (40th percentile) and is 22” long (70th percentile). So she is still long and lean! She had her shots and those have not been very fun. I have heard to expect them to be fairly fussy for few days and lose their appetite. She has done both. She is pretty fussy and wants to eat but when I give her the bottle she really fights it. She still eats it but it takes triple the normal time to get down. It makes me so sad. She LOVES her daddy. She had such a fussy day yesterday and as soon as dad came home he had her laughing and smiling for so long. It was really cute. Zach is great at coming home and taking over for me for a bit so I can get some other stuff done. I may take this next part back eventually but as of right now she is a great night time sleeper. She sleeps in her crib (alone!) and has since 6 weeks. I have to say ‘alone’ because this was really hard for me. I knew I had to go back to work when she was 12 weeks old and I wanted the transition to be as seamless as possible. I knew I wanted her in her room by then so I figured 6 weeks should be enough time. I am super paranoid and don’t do very well with her being without me so for the first few nights we pulled the mattress off the spare bed and put it on her floor next to her crib. It was a rough few nights. Then a few people told me she probably sensed I was there (I smell so yummy) and relied on that. I finally decided to get out of her room. Don’t worry, our room down the hall just still seemed too far away so I camped out in the room across from hers. It’s closer. After a few nights I missed Zach so I talked him into sleeping in there with me. After night one in a full size bed he was done. He convinced me to come home. I did it…for a week (almost) I have been in my own bed and Kenleigh in hers. It’s nice to have night talk again with the hubby…I missed him! It’s getting easier. I’m still up super late checking on her a million times but I finally fall asleep. She was fairly scheduled during the day. She ate every three hours with her last bottle at 8 p.m. then off to bed until 8 the next morning. However the last few days she has wanted to eat more often but the same amount of food. I tried to up her ounces to keep the every three hours but I’m thinking it isn’t working. She’d still like more often. Maybe a growth spurt. She just had one of those though so who knows? Either way, what Kenleigh wants she gets! Here are a few more updates:
*She lost most the hair she had when she was born but it’s filling back in…so cute and still red!
*She smiles a lot and is really starting to talk. She laughs and smiles the very most when I go in to get her out of her crib in the morning still. Cracks me up!
*She holds her head up so well but still fights tummy time. I think I’ll give her a rest for awhile.
*She HATES being in the car. I don’t think it’s so much her car seat though. She’s fine until she’s locked in the car!
*During her daytime naps she likes me to rock her to sleep and then I’m ok to put her in the swing.
*She still has the hiccups a lot but not as often.
*She is still just perfect!

Oh, I Love Her!

2009-10-27T09:45:00.008-06:00

Kenleigh is eight weeks old today. That’s crazy. I can’t believe that I have a two month old. Oh how I love her. I’m going to attempt writing a blog but I’m not sure it won’t take hours. Let’s have some fun and just see. Right now it’s 1:03 p.m. on Thursday. I feel like I can’t get on the computer anymore because I’m always attending to Kenleigh. I have a feeling it’s not supposed to be this way though…or maybe it is. The only computering I do these days is on my phone. I have decided to put K-Mae in her bouncy seat and sit her at my feet. Is it gross that my foot is bouncing her chair (on top of the vibrating and white noise it’s doing on its own) just to see if I can write a post? Anyhow her it goes…I’m having emotional debates internally I do believe. We have had some rough roads with fussiness (which I’ll explain in her two month blog post) but all in all I’d say we have a pretty content baby. She is very scheduled in her eating and then I try and play with her for a bit before she takes a nap. *Note – K-Mae wasn’t having the bouncy seat…it’s now Monday morning at 9:22. Anyway, here was the problem. Kenleigh sleeps great at night but doesn’t nap anywhere but her swing during the day. Well lately I have been feeling guilty because she looks so cute, yet lonely over in her swing even though she is sleeping; so I pick her up. For some reason I think she’ll continue her nap on me or on her boppy where I don’t feel like I’ve abandoned her. Well, that never happens. Instead I just make her mad – in turn stopping me from getting anything done. All the adults in my life have recently told me to LEAVE THE BABY IN THE SWING. I guess if that’s where she sleeps I shouldn’t feel like I have abandoned her; she’ll cry if she needs me. Nice huh? Took me a while to figure that out! So….on to the real story I’m here to blog about.
I have always been told that babies love the car. If you have a fussy baby take her for a car ride. Yeah right. Who came up with that? It certainly doesn’t work for us. K-Mae will be incredibly content…we put her in the car seat and she chills…we put her in the car and all bets are off. She HATES the car. Last Sunday Zach and I wanted to go up to Park City Outlets and get her some cute outfits. We thought we’ll feed her first and by the time we get there she’ll surely be zonked out. It’s a good 25-30 minute drive. We were so wrong. She cried THE ENTIRE WAY. I’m not even kidding you. Then she was just mad. She wasn’t about to allow shopping to go on. I finally sat her down and explained to her that the shopping was for her; that she’d be voted best dressed if she’d let us shop. She finally agreed under a few conditions. Zach had to let me do the shopping while he held her facing forward close to the front door so she could look out at all times all while he was pacing back and forth. It’s true, we conceded. I shopped like I was on Shop Til You Drop. So fast… I went to check out and oh man…that woman at the checkout didn’t stop. She talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked (annoying huh?). That’s what she did. Zach begged K-Mae to cry so the woman would get the hint. She didn’t instead K-Mae sat there so content. Her timing is impeccable. So after a long…30 minutes…of Shop Til You Drop we thought surely she was worn out and the drive home would be relaxing. It wasn’t. She cried THE ENTIRE WAY. Poor girlie. But her clothes sure are cute!!! Here are a few pictures of my darling.

This is the day I tried to bounce her with my foot while I computered.

This is her getting ready to be buckled in her car seat. Happy as long as she isn't going to be put in a car!

How cute is she so tiny in her huge crib?

Waving hello from the bumbo!

Thanks Mom for finally taking me out of the dreaded bumbo!

One Month Old

2009-09-30T20:51:00.003-06:00

Wow, I can’t believe it. A month with Kenleigh has already come and gone. She turned one month old yesterday. She has been such a joy to have around. I am however definitely ready to get out of the house a little for the remainder of my maternity leave and explore the world that has almost been foreign to me. Here is a few things Kenleigh has been up to:
*Sleeping – during the day, not at night. However, now she has developed colic or reflux or something…she cries pretty much always if she isn’t eating or sleeping. I take her to her pediatrician tomorrow to check for reflux. Poor girlie.
*She loves light. It’s funny to leave the room with the light on and go into somewhere dark. She’ll turn her head as far as possible to keep looking at the light.
*Her eyes are still gray. The never did go blue (in my opinion). We are hoping they turn green.
*She loves taking a bath – she hates getting out!
*Her neck is getting really strong. She likes to hold her head up by herself whenever possible and look around.
*We think she is smiling more just because…not because of gas.
*She recognizes our voices. When I’m gone and come into the room she gets really excited…this excites me.
*She loves to be rocked but hates her swing…great!
*She has the hiccups about three times a day.
*She got her first real baby acne yesterday on her one month birthday.

*Her hair is still red but is falling out quick. I'm excited to see if it comes back red.
*She’s pretty much perfect!!!

Kenleigh Mae Howarth

2009-09-06T20:52:00.010-06:00

Born August 29, 2009 @ 6:33 p.m. - 7 lb. 2 oz., 19.5"

Kenleigh Mae has arrived. I think I say in all my posts that I ramble way too much. Once again I’m sorry this is so long, I like details! I’ll attempt to spare you the minute by minute. My last Doctor’s appointment was Tuesday, 08/25 and I left with absolutely nothing to report…nothing – 39 weeks and still no progress. This time I wasn’t down. I knew that Kenleigh was healthy and when she was ready she would come. I finished the week feeling like my normal self. Stefanie’s wedding was set for the 29th and I was in her line. Zach and I went to Clinton Friday night for a BBQ dinner they had to give everyone a chance to get acquainted. It was a ton of fun and lots of just relaxing. We got home around 11:30 p.m. and went straight to bed. As I was going to sleep I felt like saying to Zach, “something feels different”. I pretty much felt different my whole pregnancy so I figured it was nothing. I woke up at 2:30 a.m. and knew I was having contractions. Nothing too strong and not super regular; the hours went by and they got worse and worse. My breathing through them finally woke Zach up. I told him I thought I was in labor and he thought we needed to go right away. I told him that I won’t be that girl that gets sent home and I wanted to do my labor as long as possible at home. He left to work around 7:30; around 10 I couldn’t take it anymore. The labor and delivery nurse said not to come in until my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and a minute long. They were only 3-6 minutes apart and about 45 seconds long. At that point I didn’t care. I called Zach and had him come get me – even if just to take me in for a pain shot to help me relax. We got to the hospital around 11 and by then my contractions were exactly where they wanted them to be. One nurse checked me and I was barely dilated, not even a 1 yet. She thought they would have to send me home but had us walk for an hour to see if there was progress and not false labor. 30 minutes into the hour I was buckled on the floor crying with each contraction (I was a baby having a baby)…sad huh? We got back to the room and no progress with dilating, however, I had softened. She was able to work some things out (um, down there) and get me admitted. YES!!! It was around 2:00 p.m. that they gave me my epidural at about a 2+ and broke my water 30 minutes later – still a 2+. At 3:45 they checked me again, still 2+ so they decided to start me on pitocin. 45 minutes later 2 nurses rushed in because Kenleigh’s heart rate wouldn’t stableize; I was a 5+. They said when a mother labor goes that quick the baby doesn’t generally handle it well. They took me completely off pitocin. They checked me one hour later and I was a 9+…I couldn’t believe how quick that all happened with only 45 minutes of pitocin. I was so excited and so scared I couldn’t stop crying. The doctor got their around 6 and I started pushing around 6:15. After 3 contractions of pushing Kenleigh was born at 6:33 p.m. I have never in my life cried so hard. She is amazing. She is amazing. She is amazing! I thank God every minute for the most precious gift on earth. She is amazing. Zach wanted a boy so bad for our first child. He came to terms quickly that we were having a girl but of course still wanted his boy. Now, he says he can’t even imagine what it would have been like to have a boy. He is so addicted to her. He holds her every chance he gets and hasn’t watched TV in days because he can’t stop staring at her. Oh we are so lucky. Pictures are below.

Zach's first picture with Kenleigh

Kenleigh and me hanging out

More hangout time

Kenleigh in her coming home outfit (love it)

Zach and Kenleigh - He can't put her down

(*the wet spot on the couch is her first poop on Zach and other items - too funny)

Doing what she does second best - Chillin'. First best is sleeping during the day!

Seriously? Could she be any cuter? Um, NO!!!

38 Week Update...Long

2009-08-20T18:30:00.002-06:00

I think this might be the first time I’ve given an update on my doctors’ appointments. Hmm, I should have started this sooner. So Monday Zach and I went for my appointment and boy did it leave me feeling sad and scared. I’ve been measuring a touch small on the outside from probably the first appointment that I got measured at; usually around 2 weeks. My doctor said it could just be my “good abs” (ha ha ha) and as long as I measure within two weeks or less there will be no cause for concern. He reminded me at each appointment that I was still 2 weeks small and again no big deal until 3. I went in for my 37 week appointment last week. You guessed it – still measured 2 weeks small. No big deal. However, no progression….most of you know what I’m referring to. As well, sweet Kenleigh hasn’t even dropped yet and until she does – no progression. My doctor had said that because she was so little he had a sneaking feeling I’ll likely go past my due date. Yay. I left as a Debbie Downer. I really did and I’m not apologizing for it either! So I go in on Monday for my 38 week appointment. I told Zach I just knew that I’d have no progression and I won’t be sad about it. I decided ahead of time to come to terms with it. *This next part is a secret*…please do not tell Zach. The REAL story is that I KNEW beyond a shadow of a doubt (I’ll blog about this SHADOW OF A DOUBT stuff later – who says stuff like this and what the H does it mean?) that I was going to show some progression. Mom’s instinct I guess. Am I a mom yet? Better yet has the instinct kicked in? I get my blood pressure taken and it’s gone up a touch. Not sure why (probably because of this secret I have been keeping). Then the doctor listens to Kenleigh’s heart beat. Oh it was so cute. I actually think she said “love you mommy” too since she knew all ears were on her. Then he measured me….What?? I was only measuring at 34 weeks. It really freaked me out. Last week I measured 35 weeks, how did I shrink? Now I'm 4 weeks small - a freaking month. He said she probably dropped in to position. This excited me…remember the secret I just told…I knew she had! He checked the internals and nope, no ma’am she had in fact not gone anywhere. Still up in the ribs! On top of that, no further progression. You have got to be kidding me. I left that appointment feeling really down and out. I tend to talk a lot…by a lot I mean Zach has learned the courtesy response like y’all would not believe. The drive home was quiet. I didn’t want to call family, I didn’t feel I had anything to report. He finally asked what was wrong I just cried. My poor baby, why is she so little? Thank God I have a sister-in-law who is not only amazing and always says the right things but she’s a Labor & Delivery nurse as well. She made me feel so much better…at least for a minute. I was extra scared because my darling cousin gave birth to her little Luke in June early because of IUGR. I just couldn’t shake the idea that I would go through the same thing (my heart breaks that she had to). She’s a saint – saints can handle trials. I’m not sure I could. Long story short…is it too late at this point to be considered short? I went in for an ultrasound on Tuesday so they could measure Kenleigh as well as my fluid levels. Everything measured out perfectly. Now I intend to live out the remainder of my pregnancy with gratitude and I’m leaving Debbie Downer home. Most of her anyway. I’m not at all bitter or upset or sad or mad or angry or frustrated or irritated or mad or bitter or mad or annoyed or upset that according to my doctor I will likely go past my due date. He said if I get to a week late he’ll induce me. This doesn’t make me mad. It doesn’t. Seriously. It really doesn’t. Mostly it doesn’t. I am just grateful that in no less than 2 ½ weeks I get to meet my little girlie.

Almost Forgot...

2009-08-10T20:27:00.003-06:00

I couldn't help but add the blury picture of Kenleigh's dresser (hamper to the right) and I also added another one of her name, the letters sit right above her dresser!

**original post started below.

It's About Time!!!

2009-08-10T17:44:00.009-06:00

My Mama is going to be so proud. I’m finally putting up pictures of Kenleigh’s nursery. Now I know it looks like I got a little too detailed (hi, I’m posting pictures of inside her dresser) but I wanted to make sure to show my parents EVERYTHING since they don’t get to be here right away. All the pictures are below. Now for a little update…well, I’ve got nothing. I’m 37 weeks pregnant yesterday. I went to the doctor on Friday and I wasn’t dilating or effacing at all. She hasn’t even begun to drop yet. He said until that happens I will have no progress. So now we wait. At first I was a little sad but now I’m just ready to be patient and wait it out. The nursery is done, her laundry is done. I cleaned the entire house yesterday and today from top to bottom. Washed every piece of bedding, rugs, and decorative towels. I literally can’t think of anything else to do. Best part is that after all of that I feel great! We are getting so excited to meet Kenleigh. The hardest part is just waiting to see what she looks like. My doctor said since it’s my first baby I’ll have to make it to one week past my due date before he’ll consider an induction. So I potentially have four weeks left. At least I know that’s at most! Anyway, wish I had more to write but I don’t. Enjoy the pictures!

This is right when you walk in

This picture is above the chair, casts of her first hand and footprints go here.

Her crib and some wall decorations

Her valance and diaper hanger

close up of her crib

her bedding

close up of decorations

her lamp

clothes (in order of her age)

onesies, pajamas, hats, socks

receiving blankets and burp cloths

diapers and such

swing

stroller

car seat and base

high chair

pack n' play/bassinet with changing top

bouncer

me at 37 weeks pregnant

I just noticed I never took a picture of her dresser as a whole, it's a set with the crib so they match. I also didn't get her cute pink hamper so picture a cute pink hamper!!!

My Atlanta Trip...Finally!

2009-06-26T12:18:00.010-06:00

I’m finally writing about my trip to Georgia to see my family. It’s been all too long and I fear this post could be just that, all too long. Pull up a chair, kick your feet up (unless you’re me and you have no flexibility left) and relax!

I got to Atlanta late afternoon on Friday the 15th. Right when I walked out of the airport mama was there pulling up. It’s like our minds were synced perfectly for timing. Shocker! We didn’t waste a second. We started getting caught up right away on what’s new…there wasn’t much. We talk all the time. However, apparently we couldn’t shut our yaps. We were so preoccupied with talking that we almost died. I know, I’m generally a dramatic person so you may not believe me. I’m not even kidding though. See the pictures for proof. Or at least imagine these pictures are proof. We were at a red light right behind a train track. The light turned green and we were going to turn left. There was a truck or van that had to go through the light first though so we could yield to them. They WOULDN’T go….Mama was getting so annoyed. He just kept pointing at something our way. Um okay dude, we can’t read your mind – go or we’ll cut you off and go ourselves. Pregnant girl on board must get to a bathroom. We went, he flashed us and honked (I believe, that could be my dramatic nature making things up, but I really think he did something). RIGHT after we drove over the train tracks and turned left we heard the train. We narrowly escaped the wrath. We looked back and the warning bars were already down with the flashers going full speed. We have no idea how we got through the tracks without getting hit by the bars coming down. The kind man in the vehicle, what – he is kind now, that wouldn’t allow us to yield to him was pointing at the train!!! Oh we laughed.laughed.laughed. Mama asked me not to mention anything to dad, why bother with a lecture? We know where we went wrong! It lasted a day, we couldn’t keep it from him!

This is the light that we had to turn left at, apparently he didn't want to get hit by a train!

These are the tracks that dad narrowly escaped having to add our memorials to.

This might sound like I’m being judgmental but I assure you I am not. I’m simply stating the obvious. Atlanta is a country all on their own. Ask Teiha. Though, I love it out there the culture just isn’t the same. We went to Dairy Queen the night I got there – or another night, who cares – we literally couldn’t understand the sweet woman. She was so nice she even told us to “hab a goob bay.” I think that’s what she said. It was a nice change from the Dairy Queen in Asheville where my bully worked. Ugh, my parents sent ME every time to get our after dinner ice cream because they loved watching me get threatened, my bully really wanted to beat me up. Rude…way rude.

On Sunday Jarod and Lindsay invited us over for a BBQ. First we were going to an event that Lindsay had put together for the new company she is starting. Mama bought me a pedicure – heaven, and Jarod and Lindsay bought mama a manicure for Mother’s Day. It was a good time relaxing and eating a bagel…and by “a bagel” I mean several bagels. Well, me anyway! Before we went into Atlanta though we stopped at Babies R Us because my sweet parents wanted to buy my pack n’ play for Kenleigh. It’s soooo cute, I can’t wait to show pictures. Unfortunately for pops it took a while in the store…and luckily for him they had a million gliders that he could sleep in. Right as we were getting ready to leave father decided that he wanted to share with the rest of us what he concluded after many minutes of lying in the glider. His exact words to the rest of us, “I bet a lot of pregnant women shop here.” Could we start calling him captain obvious – or is that too obvious?

I had so much fun while I was there. I missed Zach and got a touch home sick for him but I’m glad I went. Thanks mama for helping me FINALLY complete my registry. I didn’t even come home and delete it either this time. I love you guys so much!!

My Apologies to Crazy - Not So Crazy - Cori "Cheney"

2009-04-19T11:35:00.000-06:00

A while ago we had a girl’s night. We ate yummy food, played bonco, laughed, laughed, ate, laughed and made fun of Cori. I’m not sure how the subject came up but someone asked Cori if she suffered from a slight case of OCD. I guess being the over dramatic, older, dominating sister I couldn’t even let her answer her own question. Yet I found that I myself couldn’t answer it either. Not unless the snorting laughter coming straight from my lungs stopped first. At that point I found it very necessary to touch on a “small” part of Cori’s childhood. I decided it was important to tell all the girls just how really OCD Cori was. I’m not sure how many of you already know this, but I’ll tell my story anyway. When we were kids Cori always complained that the left side of her body was a lot bigger than the right side. We always dismissed her complaints because most, if not all, people suffered from this. Usually the difference is so minor that not many, or any, complain! Not Cori…she would ALWAYS stuff a wad of toilet paper in her right shoe because she thought it made her shoes feel the same size on her smaller foot. She would tie and re-tie her shoes over and over until the tightness was equal. Big deal? Ok not so much. The best part comes when my mom would be doing laundry and she would yell upstairs to Cori to get her butt downstairs. Hold on, I’ll be right back. I have to laugh so more….
Ok I’m back. She would say to Cori, “if you keep one more hair tie on your panties before you put them in the laundry you’re going to get grounded.” Some of you wonder what she meant by this. Cori’s complaint of her body being two different sizes really went to extremes. She would rip the left side of her underwear to make it a little looser on the leg (the leg that was SO much bigger). You’d think this was enough. Nope – she also tied the right side to be tighter with a hair tie so they felt the same. Seriously, was it that necessary? Were her legs really that different in size? I think not…I thought not.
The other night when we were all together we were laughing at this story so hard at poor Cori’s expense. She kept trying to defend herself but we couldn’t let her speak because we were laughing so hard. As I look back I realize Cori never let out any laughter. This was a serious subject. To her at least! After we all stopped laughing one of our friends gave Cori a chance to come to her own defense. She asked Cori if she still suffered this problem or if her right side had caught up to her. Cori said she still has the problem and it still drives her nuts but that she has learned to deal with it. I still couldn’t imagine that she wasn’t following in my dramatic fashion. I made her prove it. She backed up bare feet against a wall with a neutral person at her side to judge. It’s true; we concluded that night that Cori’s left half is in fact unnaturally bigger than her right. Her foot is literally an inch longer! I had been humbled. Cori wasn’t being dramatic. Her thigh is bigger and I’m pretty sure her arm was too. My bad Cori, my humble apologies to you!

Almost 20 weeks!

2009-04-06T21:27:00.002-06:00

Yay, i'm almost 20 weeks pregnant. Some days I think time is flying, others not so much. I'm posting a picture for my lovely parents who wish I would move closer, but i've not yet been enticed enough. Ok fine, whatever...I'd love nothing more! Not a lot of update really. My 20 week ultrasound is Monday. I'm soooo excited. I can't wait to see her again. She moves like crazy. Definately active at night...similar to both of her parents. I still haven't registered; I feel too overwhelmed just walking in a baby store. It's starting to sink in more and more that we are about to be parents...1/2 way there! I can't believe how lucky I am to get to feel her all the time and know that I'm the one that's preparing her for this life. Oh crazy. I wish Zach could feel her but she's not kicking hard enough yet. I only get sick about twice a week, so that's a positive! I'm still down 3 pounds from when I started so i'm not complaining about that! I think i'm over my food aversions...yay! That's about all I have for now. Enjoy my only picture!!!

Finally!!!

2009-03-16T22:26:00.003-06:00

So Zach and I cheated today and went to Fetal Foto to find out the gender of our sweet baby. I’m sure you can tell by my new background that we are having a girl!!! I’m so excited, words cannot even begin to describe. All you mothers know what I’m talking about. I had a hunch from the moment I found out I was pregnant that I was having a girl. We were sitting at dinner in Cancun and a friend said, “oh it’s a boy!” I’m sure he was trying to keep Zach pumped. We bet $10 right there and then because I just had no doubt in my mind that he was wrong. Today he found out he has to pay up on his bet! Anyway, I hadn’t imagined that when the ultrasound tech said we no longer have to call her a shim because she’s a girl that I would be surprised. I mean I’ve known all along. The words just shot from my mouth, “I told you so Zach” followed by tears galore. It was INCREDIBLE to put an identity to my sweet little child. We knew right away that if we were having a girl we are going to name her Kenleigh Mae. Zach’s not sold on the spelling because he thinks that’s too hard for a little 3 or 4 year old to learn to spell. How cute is he, already thinking ahead! Then there is me, sure she might have a tough time spelling it but when she learns cursive can you imagine the cute signature!? Ha ha ha!! Of course the first people I called were my parents in Georgia, I started crying all over again. Since the day I said “I do” and I knew I finally found the man I would spend the rest of my life with I have never felt so AMAZING as I do on this day! I’m not even sure that’s the word. I never imagined I could feel so complete. I swear I have been feeling her kick (or punch) for a couple of days now, but I knew it could be anything because it’s still so early. The ultrasound tech had no doubt it was her that I have been feeling. She was soooo active I couldn’t stop laughing. Her feet kept kicking my uterus during the ultrasound. It was very obvious she wanted her presence known. Zach called her a (please excuse the language) camera whore. He said she’s already just like her mom. Oh, he’s sweet, ha ha! Below is a picture of sweet Kenleigh Mae Howarth!!!

It's a.....dunnn dunnn dunnn.....

2009-03-09T22:26:00.005-06:00

…I really have no idea what we’re having, well what I’M actually having. I say “we’re” because sweet Zach helped make the little dude or dudette, but I suppose he won’t be having anything…until it’s his (which I suppose it already is) and then he’ll HAVE a child. In the meantime, I’m not sure what I’ll be having…I just wanted to practice for next week when I do find out what gender our sweet buttercup is!
I’m doing this post strictly for my mama! She would like an update over the last month of pregnancy and she also wants to see a “baby bump” picture. Against my will I’m giving both. Against my will because I’m incredibly ashamed to say pregnancy thus far has chosen not to agree with me and for that I’m afraid I might be too negative. Admitting the problem they say is the first step so I’m hoping I keep some of the negativity to myself. Incase I don’t, please attribute it to hormones. Yes, hormones. The picture is against my will because I’m 16 weeks and look 40 weeks. Maybe that’s a bit dramatic. Though, I’m generally not a dramatic person so some will likely agree with my assessment. Though if you do please do not post it on my comments. My darling cousin Brooke is around 23 weeks pregnant and she posted a picture of her at 20 weeks along. I swear to you all you cannot tell she is pregnant. Many of you know who she is so I’m sure you’ll pause your reading and go compare her picture to mine below. However, those of you who don’t know her please do not search my blog list to compare pictures. That’s rude! I have several scientific reasons why she looks so little. 1 – I’m a lot shorter. 2 – she has experienced this before. Oh whatever, every blog has to have someone to analyze things. So let me get you started. #2 is actually a lie. They say the more kids you have the sooner you start showing. I know, I know. I guess I’m in denial. So I guess I only have one scientific reason why I’m a touch bigger in the belly and to be honest I’m not even sure I’m shorter than her. It has NOTHING to do with the fact that she is in incredible shape. I’m guessing she has abs of steel and they are helping her hold her sweet boy in, or that she is a marathon runner, probably craves healthy food…etc. It really has nothing to do with any of those reasons. I think she just has good genes. Yes, it’s my genes. Scientific reason #2 – I have bad genes. Brooke – I hope it’s ok half my post is about your cute belly. I hope you’re flattered at any rate!
So my update…I’m almost 16 weeks along. We find out next Monday what our baby’s gender is. I’m sooooooo excited. We do already have names picked out. I hate to write them for the world to see because I can’t guarantee they are official but I’m thinking so. Maybe I better wait just in case though! Since I found out I’m pregnant I have lost 14 pounds. I’ll find out Wednesday at my next appointment if I’ve put some weight back on. I’m guessing I have though. OOOHhh speaking of, I think that gives me reason #3 – go back a few posts in my blog when I talked about starving Zach (accidently of course). I think I learned back then that malnourished people tend to bloat. I’M BLOATING, there you have it! What a relief! So anyway, I thought around 13-14 weeks that my morning sickness was going away so I decided to stop the anti nausea medication. Two days later I thought I was dying. How dramatic does that sound? Again though, not a dramatic person. Turns out I had a lucky two days. I just can’t imagine I’ll be sick for an entire 40 weeks. No one is that bad in life right? I’m looking forward to the day of consistency and feeling good and I know it’s coming! FAITH!! In the beginning I used to talk to my little dude/dudette and ask Shim to not make me so sick! Later I had an ultrasound where Shim was flipping me off. I don't think I flipped my parents off until at least 16 and even then Iit was behind their backs. Sorry parents! After that I let Shim do what Shim chooses because I’m afraid of its wrath. Good parenting huh? I also think it’s inappropriate to call it Shim because that could give Shim a complex. I don’t speak it aloud and until Shim learns to read I’m not all that concerned. If however, you are concerned and you think I’m already starting out on a bad parenting track, again, please attribute it to hormones…oh and also please do not post that part on my comments. I did, for everyone’s enjoyment, post the ultrasound picture of Shim flipping us off! I cannot imagine anyone would disagree with the fact that we are blatently being flipped off. Ok I’m done. I’m sorry I was negative. I don’t really think I’m fat. Well I do, but what girl doesn’t? I also do not mind the sickness because my parents always say they would do ANYTHING for their kids and I tend to think I’ll agree. I already know I’ll do anything for Shim and if it means being sick for a few nine months I can handle it!

Sorry about the glare!

Yay for good news!!!

2009-02-02T20:01:00.003-07:00

I’m back! I’m blogging…my dad says, “it’s about damn time.” January has been a crazy month for me. It turns out I’m pregnant. I say that as though I had no idea…and that’s not true. We planned and it happened so quick I was shocked and excited and shocked, and mostly excited! I found out the day I got to Cancun that I was pregnant. I tested abnormally early and got a positive and couldn’t believe my eyes. God was just telling me a bit early so he could make sure I was extra careful on my trip. Unfortunately I may have been so careful that I didn’t get my full fun out of Cancun. Maybe some day I’ll return and try again. I was a nervous wreck. It is my first child and I wanted this so badly I didn’t know what was acceptable. When we were on the speed boats the ocean was so choppy I kept telling Zach to slow down because I was afraid he was going to knock the baby loose. Poor Zach. When we went zip lining I thought the harness would suffocate the little fella’. I had to decide, me or the baby…well that’s what I thought I was choosing between. Turns out I was too scared to fall so I wouldn’t loosen the harness. I really wanted to though. Also turns out stuff like that doesn’t suffocate babies. If anyone’s unsure about child bearing call me, I’ve researched it all! When we got back from Cancun the sickness kicked it. Thank you for not letting me be sick in Cancun. In the last month I’ve lost about 10 pounds. Maybe a couple of those pounds were lost in Cancun because I was afraid of much of the food. Ok so in January I’ve lost 8 pounds. I love to eat, I loved to eat. I never want to eat again. I really don’t. I have aversions to almost every food known to man. As I sit here there is nothing I can imagine eating that would make me happy. I lied, a lemon. I peel them and eat them like oranges. Those are yummy. Don’t worry hygienists in the family, I brush after! I told my parents the day we got home from Cancun. In dad fashion I heard, “it’s about damn time”. I wonder on days if I’ll get more than that but I think that means “congrats, this grandchild will be my favorite”. Sorry Cori, there’s only room for one! Just kidding, I don’t think Launa or Teiha could get beat out! Anyway, I wanted all my family and friends to hear the good news. I’m 10 weeks today and so excited. The doctor said I was pretty much out of the danger zone so that’s why I’m announcing it now. I know anything can happen so keep us in your prayers. I’m so excited and I feel like at this point in my life I’ve never wanted anything so bad. We had an ultra sound today. I didn’t scan the picture but have a pretty good idea of what I saw so I drew it for you all to get an idea of what my little baby looks like. It’s not to scale, apparently it’s the size of a Brazilian nut. Whatever that size is. That’s according to my weekly pregnancy calendar I get emailed to me! I love you all!!

Cancun!!!

2008-12-23T22:27:00.016-07:00

Yay!! I’m finally writing a blog. I’ve been so busy with finals that I haven’t had time to write anything, nor have I had any motivation. Audrey, this is for you…now when are you going to update? I know finals are over, don’t kid yourself.
Zach and I went with some friends to Cancun for a week this last week. The each day on the trip one of us would say to the other couple “so, are you going to want to be our friends after this?” ha ha…we had soooo much fun. I’ll tell you EVERYTHING that happened but that means it’s going to be a looong blog. Dad says I can talk and I’m showing him it’s true.

The front of our hotel

The view from our balcony
When we got there we checked into our hotel and we were early for dinner so we decided to just walk around and acquaint ourselves with our new surroundings. There were Iguanas everywhere. They were huge too!

We walked to one of the big markets where they sell things and Preston, one of the people we went with, allowed me to believe that I could barter with anyone. He said that I could literally name my price and they would sell me whatever I wanted. Are you kidding me? Is it true? I’m here to tell you it’s not true. I wasn’t even shooting low on my prices because I was feeling bad for these people and they seriously kept laughing in my face. “You too low, you gotta let me make money. You are crazy, you don’t know what you’re buying here…this is real cotton…” Blah! I didn’t buy anything because I couldn’t even believe they laughed so hard. Rude. The next day we went on this boat tour where you take a speed boat through the “jungle”, maybe 16 miles they say, to this place where you go scuba diving. Let me tell you what an experience that was. I have always loved water. I love going to the lake and wake boarding and swimming and everything that comes with it. I lived not far from a beach for many years and to my knowledge I would always get in and have me a swim. Well, here we are in this gorgeous ocean about to scuba. Don’t you worry…I jump in the water and I’m pretty sure my scuba gear isn’t even on, therefore I have yet to put my head in the water. Yep, sure enough I see a shark. I start screaming, “Shark. Shark.” Zach grabs my arm and tells me to calm down. There aren’t any sharks. Ok so maybe I didn’t see a shark but I’m pretty sure at the time I thought I did. Then all of the sudden I realize there are tons of fish right next to me…uh duh…what did I think we were going scuba diving to see? Sunken ships? I started crying and really wanted to go back to the boat. After Zach calmed me down again I got brave and continued with the scuba experience. It really was an amazing experience and I’m so happy that I did it. I come home to find out from my mom that when we went to the beach I was scared of the ocean then too! Oops… The next day we went zip lining through this most incredible jungle I have ever seen. It consisted of 11 zip lines through the jungle 120 feet off the ground. I am deathly afraid of heights…I know, you’re thinking it seems I’m afraid of everything…it’s true, I am! I graciously let our guides know that I was freaking out and they took such good care of me! It was the most fun I’ve ever had. After we zip line they take you on a mountain biking trail. It was neat but the only thing I learned from that is I hate exercise and that’s why I’m getting fat. Now that’s not a very good life to live. I just have to figure out what to do about it. Most likely call the Mendenhall’s for help and learn to run or something! I’ve noticed Stacey and Ryan have gotten pretty good and I’m thinking there could someday be hope for me too! Anyway, the mountain bike trail took us to this sink hole or “cenote”. It was several hundred feet deep of natural water, no salt. It was amazing. There was a zip line that you could take in, but there was quite a drop. I never got in because it had snakes and…well…it had snakes! Later that night my amazing friends entered me into a singing competition. Don’t worry, I won. Yep it’s true. I know dad, I’ve been trying to tell you it’s my calling. I mean sure it wasn’t about who sung the best, it was about who knew the most songs, but is that really the point here? We did so many things this week scuba, zip line, boat tours, mountain bike, lay out, eat, swim, boogie board, almost get killed by the boogie board, bleed because of almost getting killed by the boogie board, convince myself a shark would find me if I’m bleeding in the ocean, run out of ocean, trip on rock, get stung by something that’s not right (that was Zach by the way) and it was such a good time to just get away from reality…work, school…um, well work and school! The locals in Cancun are so much fun to be around and they teach you so much. We asked so many questions and they were always gracious enough to educate us. I learned on this trip that I’m not graceful and I had many injuries not necessarily worth discussing. Know that I’m ok and we made it out alive. However, the plane ride home was horrifying and I’m embarrassed to say that I cried. So what you guys learned from this trip is that I’m a crybaby. You can also take with you that I have the most patient husband on earth who will get me through anything with so much love and attention I wouldn’t know what to do without him. It’s good to be home and eating good food again!

Some random snake we found at the mall named "Tiny"

Holiday Tag...Thanks Amy!

2008-11-03T19:17:00.002-07:00

I just got so excited!! I’ve never been tagged before…ever! I’ve always wondered what it was like to do a tag.

Top 3 Vacations
1. Cancun – I assume…I’m going in 6 weeks so I will later confirm.
2. Georgia – since that is where my fabulous family resides.
3. Not a huge traveler so I’ll stick with the two for now!

Top 3 Favorite Flowers
1. Daisies – My wedding flower.
2. Lily's – Another wedding flower.
3. Birds of Paradise – Also part of my wedding.

Top 3 favorite comfort foods – I would like to preface this with it’s really rude to make someone pick their top 3 favorite comfort foods…
1. My mom’s fried chicken and fried potatoes.
2. My mom’s meatloaf – I’m not just making that up either.
3. My mom’s enchiladas.
4. My mother-in-law’s chicken with lemon chive sauce.
5. Bagel sandwiches.
6. Plain bagel extra toasted with garlic schmear.
7. Pickled cherry peppers.
8. My mom’s fried pork chops.
9. Lot’s of other food I’m sure my mom would fry for me
~This my friends is why I had to quit my skinny jeans!

Top 3 Places to Shop
1. Nordstrom – mostly for the Mac makeup…ADDICTION!
2. Gap
3. Yep, no more of a shopper than I am a traveler. We’ll call it good at two.

Top 3 Opinions About Halloween – I will try to keep the Halloween Grinch to a minimum.
1. Carving pumpkins is lame!
2. I don’t even get candy because I don’t have kids and the candy I do buy the kids come to my door and steal. AND when they come to the door I feel all awkward and wonder what I’m suppose to say. Ugh…I’m working on it I swear.
3. I do love to decorate my house for Halloween. I just don’t love the un-decorating. Hey, for the most part that was a non Halloween Grinch thing to say. I think I’ve made progress.

Top 3 Opinions About Thanksgiving
1. It helps me remember everything I am thankful for and reminds me to count my blessings.
2. It’s a day I usually get to spend with family and for that I am lucky.
3. I wish I could take naps because it does get a little lonely after dinner. Everyone wants to take a nap yet none of the men let me change the channel from football because they claim they are “just resting their eyes”. Whatever, I swear I will get a hold of the remote this year.

Top 3 Opinions About Christmas
1. It is seriously the most amazing time of year. The spirit in the air is fabulous!
2. I love Christmas music and started listening to it on Saturday right after I was sure Halloween was over. I would transfer straight to Thanksgiving or Kwanza music but most the songs I know that go with those Holidays are from Adam Sandler and aren’t always appropriate.
3. Snow makes me happy and especially on Christmas day!

Top 3 things I look forward to during the week
I have a pretty uneventful life as it stands right now. Work, school, school, I guess there is some work in there…and then there is school. Oh I do get to see Zach some. Wait, do I? Yeah, I think so. Okay so I look forward to seeing Zach.

Top 3 Events Happening This Week
1. My month end late night – probably coming Wednesday!2. I get to see Aida on Friday with my mother-in-law and cousin-in-law and I’m soooo excited. It’s tied for my favorite musical next to Mama Mia!
3. Stefanie’s house warming party – go us..it’s her birthday…Oh, well her house warming party I mean.

Now I am going to tag......Marcy Cheney, Stefanie Eberhard, Audrey Cheney, & Andrea Gray!

I am not a quitter...Well, I wasn't!

2008-10-28T22:40:00.005-06:00

I want to make it clear that I am not a quitter. I’m not, I swear. Ever since 7th grade when I quit the swim team and shortly thereafter tried to quit the track team and my dad made it clear to me that quitting is not the answer I have not been a quitter. I do not intend to start now. There is the time that I quit the diet…and the gym…and the skinny jeans but those were just unreasonable requests and I do not feel that these quits count! I have been begging Zach forever now to carve pumpkins with me for Halloween. I think every year since we met. Then time passes and no pumpkins get carved. This year I bought the pumpkins and the carving kit and we were on our way. I was soooo excited. I cannot even begin to share my excitement. We picked our stencils and we were off. Um, well Zach was off. I did my first cut into the eyebrow – ugh, I was seriously so annoyed. I could not believe how boring this was. I cringe at the thought. In fact after this post I do not intend on ever discussing or participating in pumpkin carving again. I’m not kidding, try me. After my quick moment of despair happiness sunk in. I knew that Zach was dreading the night the entire day so I was sooooo excited to give him an easy out. After just seconds from the start I told him that I was bored and he was lucky because I wasn’t going to force him to carve pumpkins with me. Wow, a man I thought I knew so well blindsided me unexpectedly. I got the same speech from him that I got from my dad in 7th grade. “You need to finish what you start, blah blah blah.” Luckily I hadn’t carved my pumpkin an ear yet so I had someone…something to tune out the lame speech with me! I quit. He couldn’t make me carve that most retarded pumpkin. I have a life you know. After much guilt tripping I finally gave in and carved the stupid pumpkin. Oh I don’t know if anyone has ever mentioned this before but I’m incredibly stubborn. I was not about to carve the stupid stencil. That would take way too much time and precision. Instead I turned the lame pumpkin around and carved my own little 30 second face. I just finished my art class this summer I was at least cut out to free carve. And I did..I think I clocked me at just under 30 seconds. AND 30 minutes later Zach was finished with his. I must say he did an excellent job for someone who was dreading pumpkin carving. After all was said and done he said he would do it again next year. If anything good came from pumpkin carving it was just another agreement on how to raise our kids. We agreed that I’ll take them to theme parks and he can carve ridiculous pumpkins. I will never carve another pumpkin. Maybe I’ll paint one next time!

Here is the stupid stencil of what my pumpkin was supposed to look like.

This is me making an extremely good judgment call and overrulling my stencil.

Zach's perfect artwork...he really surprised me. I'm a proud wife.

Our perfect match!!

Welcome to Texas

2008-10-28T22:27:00.004-06:00

I had to go to Houston, Texas a couple weeks go for a business trip. I was so excited because of course my other favorite people live there. I cannot tell you how long it’s been since I have seen my cousin Audrey. Actually I can, it was the Cheney reunion the summer of 07. So there you have it, it’s been too long. Audrey and I always got a long so good. When I spent the summers at my dads Audrey and I were stuck at the hip. She was the trouble maker and I was the peace maker. Wait, is that how it went? Audrey made the drive and picked me up from the airport when I arrived on Wednesday. We went back to her seriously darling house and before we did anything I took out my detective notebook (you know, the little handheld notebooks that fit within pocket protectors) and took notes on all her decorating ideas. Before you know it there won’t be a bit of difference between the two houses. Aud - your amaze me with your decorating. I have a feeling Jimmy helped!! Then Audrey made me a gourmet lunch; a hot pocket. Not something I have successfully cooked, therefore it was gourmet. After a while we went to Uncle Tom’s and Aunt Cindy’s. I was sooo excited to see them. I’ve always had a really special relationship with my Uncle Tom and will forever be grateful. It was so nice to visit with them both for such a long time. They called in dinner from this delicious Mexican restaurant. It just so happens that Mexican food is my favorite! They must have known. Before and after dinner I got to play with Audrey’s perfect little children Landon and Emma. We caught two tree frogs and by we I mean Aunt Cindy and Landon. That was right up my alley considering I’m addicted to frogs of all sorts. I had so much fun playing with them and I find myself now missing them. I’m so happy that I got to spend time with this side of my family. Since we moved and they moved shortly after we have had very little time to sit and chat. Thanks Audrey for driving me around the city, thanks Jimmy for giving up the wife for an evening to drive me around the city, and thanks Uncle Tom and Aunt Cindy for having me to your house for dinner. It was the best; you guys are all the best. I love you!!

Um, seriously, how cute is she? I can't even handle it!

Emma

Yep, again...amazing. Audrey, I cannot believe you created her. I guess with Jimmy's help I can believe it. Just kidding, it's no shock to me.

The family, minus Jimmy who is taking the picture. Thanks Jimmy!

My cute neices and Halloween = Disaster!

2008-10-28T22:00:00.005-06:00

Around mid October Cori and Brandon invited us to go with them to take Launa and Teiha to a little kids spook alley thing that a woman from Cori’s work put together. I told Cori from the very beginning that it was a bad idea. I have never been around two kids that are so afraid of their own shadows…besides myself at age 5…through 22. Last year we went to dinner with them around Halloween and there was a Frankenstein in the restaurant and they freaked out. Teiha LITERALLY forced herself to fall asleep at the table because she was so scared to have to see him. He was the nicest Frankenstein ever too. So funny. So because of this experience I just knew that Launa and Teiha couldn’t handle a spook alley, even if it was for 2 year olds. Bless their hearts. So we get there are they are doing ok. We get to the front and there is this witch that told the girls that if they are scared they just yell “boo” and the scary people will leave them alone. We walked through the first 5 steps of the spook alley and came to another witch who basically wanted to tell them their future. She asked them to come closer and they started screaming from the top of their lungs…sweet Cori decided that was the funniest thing she has ever witnessed and couldn’t stop laughing, at her own kids. My heart broke and I just started yelling “boo”. We walked the remaining 45 steps saying, “boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo”. I was carrying Teiha because she would not let go of me and I think Zach had Launa…maybe Cori did. Anyway, the poor people working were probably incredibly bored for that 3 ½ minutes. They were forced to completely stop participating for the time being. When we were done we were laughing so hard. We asked Launa and Teiha if they had fun and I think because we were laughing so hard they thought they better say they did. So of course since it was so much fun we asked if they wanted to do it again and they were very quick to yell “no, but we did have fun.” Uh huh, sure ya did! The rest of the night Teiha kept asking if the scary witch was going to be where she could see her. I think for a week straight Teiha inquired about witches and other scary creatures. So sad and sooo funny all at the same time.

This is Teiha as a pretty witch... not sure where her hat landed.

This is Launa as a pretty witch; how cute is her little pose?

Me with both of them. They are seriously perfect!!!

U of U Game!

2008-10-28T21:50:00.005-06:00

Oops…I have not posted in a loooong time. My bad. Not that anyone cares! Several weeks ago Zach’s fabulous sister Heidi and brother-in-law Jon along with their son Tyler and Jon's brother Todd so kindly invited us to share in their season tickets to the Utah game. It was a lot of fun. I quite enjoyed myself because Heidi is a people watcher as am I. We did a lot of talking and a little game watching. I learned that they have a lot of yummy treats there and if you go with a 4 year old you actually have better excuses to buy and eat those treats. Did I already mention they were yummy? But did I mention how yummy they were? Once the Utes had a fairly large lead I went with Heidi to take Tyler (our cute nephew) to see the fountain. There was a humungous beast employee …humungous is explaining the extent of her beastliness, not her size…she seriously unnecessarily yelled at Tyler not to put his hands in the water and made the little fella cry. Then there were like 5 other kids being much more dramatic in the fountain than Tyler was. She very much annoyed me, but such is life when you share a world with beasties! So I don’t have great pictures to accompany this post but I’ll share what I have…

Zach and I in our freshly purchased Utes gear!

My cute darling sister-in-law Heidi... I don't know why it looks like John is hiding, he loves getting his picture taken. Must have been a fluke.

Like I said before my brother-in-law loves getting his picture taken but something must have gone wrong with the camera...he'll be happy to see that I at least got a really amazing profile shot of him and really Todd too!

Thanks guys for the invite. We had fun!!!

Advice or suggestions from ANYONE!

2008-10-05T13:38:00.000-06:00

I LOVE my house, seriously I do. I unfortunately was cursed with the non ability to have any taste or passion for design. I lie, I think I have the passion I just don’t have the taste. If someone shows me something that is well designed I have the ability to know for myself if I like the look or not. However, I cannot for the life of me come up with my own ideas. SO….I am soooo bored with my house. It’s nice, I believe it’s decorated tastefully, but it’s pretty barren. All I really want to do to change things up a bit is paint a wall or two. I have been thinking for weeks what wall/walls I should paint. Here is my plea to you. Will ANYONE who has good taste please come to my house and give me a few ideas? Do you charge for your service? I’m sure we can work something out!! If you are a blog stalker and you can help, please for the kindness of humanity help. If I don’t know you I only have to quickly complete a background check and then you’re welcome to my house…or not complete a background check, we’ll talk! Not only will I feel as though I accomplished something that many adults can do on their own but it’s a good excuse to do lunch with a friend, or make a new one [:)]! Do I sound pathetic? Good, I am! It should make you want to help me even more. It’s true, I’m begging. I do those kinds of things. Thanks in advance, I’m sure we’ll talk soon…hint, hint!!!

Three-Year Anniversary

2008-09-21T23:21:00.003-06:00

Friday was me and Zach’s three year anniversary. I’m not sure if we are still considered “newlyweds” or not. Some say if you are married two years or more you are no longer newlyweds and some say you are if you are married 5 years or less. I’m not sure who write the rules but I’d like to speak to him/her. I’m curious what justifies a newlywed. I say we will always be newlyweds because we will always make sure it feels “new”. Wow, that was just really sweet of me. I knew it was in there. Anyway, we don’t have any tradition per se; we just like to go to a nice restaurant and whatever else. Since I have met Zach I’ve been known to be a story teller. Whatever, fine…some would say it started long before I met Zach. Anyway, he seriously believes anything I say. I would say over the last year he has started calling my bluff but I can get him to recant that pretty quick if I try hard enough. So a couple of days ago I asked Zach if he has done any anniversary shopping lately. He said something like, “why, you think it takes months or something?” I told him that with the budget we set for each other he might of wanted to start early (this is funny because we have never discussed anniversary gifts…we just do whatever). He thought I was being serious, like maybe we really gave each other a budget. I told him that we talked about it a while ago and we agreed to spend at least $300 on each other this year since it’s year three and I think it needs to be special. He believes me…does he seriously think that I really want $600 spent for our anniversary? I felt really bad because his face was something of shock and disbelief. I’m usually begging him not to get me anything because I honestly don’t understand the point behind it. Well anyway, I told him I was kidding because I was feeling bad. He did give me some fabulous roses and we went to dinner at Spencer Steak & Chops or something. It was so tasty!

My Education...

2008-09-16T21:42:00.002-06:00

It’s no secret that I am in school right now trying to better my future…or not better my future. Why you ask would I possibly be risking “not bettering my future”? Well the longer I’m in school I’m starting to wonder how educational school has really been for me. Maybe it’s me and maybe I’m missing something from the syllabus’ but as far as I can recall there are some things I have yet to learn. Who knows, maybe this particular piece of information I’m yearning for doesn’t come until senior year. Since none of my college professors find it necessary to teach me I must come to you. Can anyone please explain to me the phrase…or word…or words…”believeyoume”? Is it “believe-you-me”, just plain “believe you me”, or “believe, you, me”? So that’s the first question, my next question is what does it mean? I caught myself at work the other day accidently using this word, words, or phrase. I was so irritated. I think if I had the option I would have left work early. I could not believe this had just come out of my mouth. That moment really solidified for me that sometimes I just don’t know what the H I’m talking about. Seriously, why would I even say that when I don’t know what it even means? I asked around and I’m pretty sure I used it in the correct context and yet no one could tell me what that context is. Are you serious? I wanted to throw up; I still want to throw up. Yesterday morning I went to my human anatomy class and asked my teacher to better educate me and he laughed like I was insane? Ok, sure…he teaches Anatomy and not English but aren’t they supposed to get their generals complete in school before they become teachers? How did he not at least learn this? ANY information and/or thoughts are heavily requested here. I’m seriously losing sleep…

Is minor addiction always a bad thing?

2008-09-09T17:34:00.000-06:00

I ask this because I think I have developed a minor addiction. This has done nothing for me except boost my self esteem. Tel l me how that can be bad…(hey dad, if you are reading this try to remember that not everything that goes through your head needs to be said out loud). There are a few others this bit of advice might be useful for as well, you know who you are! We have this fun place in Salt Lake called Boondocks and let me tell you I have become addicted. I’m like a child again…and some would say “again” isn’t really appropriate to use here. Anyway, Zach and I go and race the racecars and my discovery is that I am really good at it. I told my mama that I would post a picture but even though I took my camera I was too busy kicking butts to take the picture. I’m not generally a competitive person but for some reason if you put me in these cars all bets are off. We went last Saturday with some friends and I got out in front and there was this car tailing me so bad that he kept hitting my back bumper. I kept hearing this little voice get so annoyed, but I wasn’t going to let up. Not for anyone. When I looked back I could see Zach and our friends dying of laughter but I didn’t know why. I couldn’t see the person that kept hitting me in the back because he was too close. Anyway when the race was over (and I won) Zach and our friends pulled up behind me and I asked them why they were laughing and they pointed to their left and there was this little boy just behind me seriously about to cry. Had I known I was competing with a 7 year old the race may have ended differently. You know, me in 2nd or something. Ok, it’s true, I’m a terrible person…had I known I was competing with a 7 year old I would have still stomped all over him but I might have been yelling sorry during the race instead of hysterical laughter. We all have our faults right? I don’t even see how that 7 year old was over 36 inches anyway. He should have stuck to his little kid track and left to big doggs to do their business!!!

Officially domesticated?

2008-09-09T17:15:00.002-06:00

So I have some good updates on my former posts. Today Zach went to his “hip” doctor…not hip as in he’s way cool but hip as in the joint that connects your femur to your pelvis. His doctor said that he is in excellent condition. The weirdest thing happened though through his recovery. His scar tissue traveled from his thigh to his lower back…strange, but doctor Hawes said he will still be swollen for the next six months or so which means the scar tissue can still shrink. Dr. Hawes also said that the hip looks really good in the sense that Zach probably isn’t going to get the necrosis – something something. Something about his hip can still die from lack of blood from the injury and if it did he would have to have total hip replacement. Yeah, that’s it. Anyway, the X-Ray was looking good but just in case he has to go back in March for one last check-up. Keep your fingers crossed that everything continues to go well.
Next – I cooked dinner. It’s true that I occasionally cook but nothing too exciting. This time I cooked without a cook book and no input from my fellow peeps. I tried to call my mom to find out how to make her delicious fried chicken but she was too busy to answer my call so I had to go on…after a moment of tears. Yes, so I cooked fried chicken, mashed potatoes and homemade gravy, corn on the cob and for the hell of it I made onion rings (incredibly healthy) and a sweet potato haystack. Um, interesting mix it’s true. The verdict from Zach was…….DELICIOUS! It was actually kind of fun too. So now I’m wondering if I might not be so bad if I could just learn a thing or two. I do keep telling Zach that if he would buy me one of those things (I think they are actually people) that would come up and do all the prep for me to cook I would cook for him on a more regular basis. Something about those cost money and we aren’t rich. Here’s to hoping...

Memories...what would we do without those memories?

2008-08-13T16:52:00.001-06:00

It's true, I was singing!

I saw this on other's blogs and I love it! I sure hope everyone can come up with a memory we have shared. Yes, yes I am begging.

Here are the directions:
1. Add a comment on my blog of a memory or two that you and I had together. It can be anything fun that you remember. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot or not at all, just put any memories you have.
2. Re-post these instructions on your blog. Try to keep it going on your blog with your friends!

Yay! Should be fun!

What a wonderful world...

2008-08-05T22:37:00.004-06:00

That’s how my mom started her last blog post so I figured it was only appropriate to start mine that way as well. This last week I have been reminded that we really do live in a wonderful world but also a very unpredictable world. My mom and dad found out last week that my dad is in stage 4 kidney disease. There is no real answers as of yet how long his kidney’s have been progressing on a downward path. His doctor did say that he was not far from stage 5 which is kidney failure. As my mom mentioned he will be going through a battery of tests over the next several weeks and when he goes back August 25th to get the results of these tests he will likely be put on a transplant list. My dad was extremely sick when I was around 10 years old and because he is a fighter he made it through with real strength. During that time, even though I believe I was close with my dad I really missed out on a lot. My dad lived about 3 hours from us and we did not get to see him often. Honestly until I became older I didn’t understand how sick my dad really was or even how much I really missed out on. Here is why I believe our world is wonderful. I get to thank God every day that he gave me and my dad the opportunity to grow closer. Now my dad is EVERYTHING to me. He is seriously so amazing; it’s hard for me to consider that my dad has trials ahead because he has always been “invisible” in my eyes. In the sense that nothing can touch him…maybe that’s his superhero power! I thank God every day that I get to be with my dad this time during these next trials. My parents are so amazing…to them they just look at this as another bump in the road that dad will get through and as mom said “live life normal and plan to do the things they have always wanted to in their own way.” In my heart I too know that everything will be ok. My mother-in-law Diane donated one of her kidney’s to her sister Cathy over 20 years ago and God bless Cathy, that kidney helped her live more of an amazing life. Our trials could be so much worse and I remind myself that constantly. I really am so lucky to have such an incredible dad!!!

A Blog About Nothing…Or Something…

2008-07-28T21:46:00.001-06:00

So I don’t generally like to talk about myself (it’s true, this point can be argued); I can’t help it this time because I’m super…yes super excited! I’m in school right now majoring in accounting and I’m working really hard. Zach keeps forgetting he’s married because he’s so lonely. Poor fella’…I did marry a patient one. Anyway, they have been giving me more and more responsibilities at work (I work in accounting as well) and finally it turned into an official promotion! I just became the Staff Accountant. I’m very excited because it’s just confirmation that what I have been working so hard towards is paying off. That is all…

Oh Cute!!!

2008-07-17T14:22:00.006-06:00

Okay so I went to dinner last night with one of my favorite friends that I haven’t seen in sooooo long Lizz Pizza. She is having a minor quarter life crisis…we all have them. Maybe I had mine at 12 and it was called a 1/7 life crisis but I’m thinking it was the same thing. Unless that was me going through “the change”. Anyway, we decided to drive downtown and get our ears pierced. We have both had it done in the past but for one reason or another we took them out. We had a lot of fun just hanging out and now we have BFF piercings! Everyone is Lizz’s BFF! J/k. I love you Lizz and I’m glad I finally got some time with you!

This is us in the car after we did it!

This is a close-up (obviously).

Right or Wrong?

2008-07-12T22:57:00.004-06:00

Okay so I think I need a little feedback. The whole growing up crap that I’m going through has really started to become overrated. Since I got married we bought a town house so that’s a responsibility I don’t particularly care for. You know the whole payment shiz and then there’s decorating and cleaning…and everything I’m no good at. As if that wasn’t enough. Zach thinks he has to go and mature beyond his young 27 years. Sometimes I call him dad because he acts so grown up. I’m not completely prepared for it. So my question is this…If you were at a restaurant where they have tables that they seat more than just your party and you were the last at the table and you happened to look at someone else’s bill is that a problem? I am by nature a fairly nosey person. Not in the sense that I care what others are doing so I can judge because I don’t. I really could care less what people do or how they live their lives…I’m just curious. I live vicariously through others through People Magazine and US Weekly. To my point I suppose. Tonight Zach and I went to Tepenyaki for my birthday and we sat next to this very nice couple. I could tell their big agenda was money. That’s all they talked about throughout the entire dinner. She spilled on his shirt (can’t tell ya how that happened) and she said, “oh babe, I just spilled on your Versace shirt.” Seriously? Seriously? Seriously? Was that so necessary? How about the standard classic, “oops, sorry about that!” When they left Zach and I were the only two left at the table…hell, I think we were the only two left in the restaurant. I couldn’t help myself. I can’t explain why but I was so curious if they were good tippers. I took a glance around and when no one was watching I opened the black book to see what kind of tip they left on their credit card receipt. Immediately Zach gave the little dad snap, “Sara, you don’t do that!” Oh really dad, don’t I? I just did. I asked him why that was wrong and he couldn’t really say. He said, “it just is.” So I have to ask my peeps…was that so wrong? I didn’t look at their names or bank info…just the tip. In case anyone was wondering they weren’t fabulous tippers….standard 20%. Thanks Versace shirt wearers for not making me feel cheap!

Happy 4th of July...Belated!

2008-07-12T13:37:00.010-06:00

In “Sara fashion” I’m going to start making all of my blogs belated. It’s my goal. From now on I’m not posting any of my updates on time. Lucky for me, it’s called “Sara fashion” for a reason. The beauty of my goal is that I don’t even have to try. I absolutely HATE when people are late with things and for some reason I can’t seem to do anything on time. Hmmmm, I think they call people like me hypocrites. What to do…what to do. So I wanted to post about my 4th of July! By the way, happy belated 4th of July. We had so much fun. Zach, me, Cori, Brandon, Launa & Teiha all drove to Casper Wyoming for my grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary! It also doubled as a family reunion. Usually when we do a family reunion on my mama’s side it’s on the 4th of July weekend. Anyway almost everyone that came stayed in the same hotel and it happened to be the hotel the party was at! It made everything very close and convenient. I haven’t seen this side of my family in 4 years! It was soooo good to see everyone. We always pick up right where we left off. I’m technically the “step” grandchild, cousin, niece on this side of my family and I love them more than they will ever know because they have never made me feel “step”. In fact I don’t think I have ever heard a single one of them ever mention that word! I can’t even think of a time in my parents’ marriage where “Marcy” – my mom – has ever introduced us as her step kids. And to me Marcy has never or will never be known to me as my step mom. I'm so lucky to have two moms! How amazing is that? We didn’t see fireworks this year but we did have a lot of fun. Jarod and I were BEST friends in high school and since I have moved back to Salt Lake we have naturally drifted apart. Only in the sense of how often we talk and small things like that. Oh, and I only get my butt smacked once a year now instead of 8 times a day! Don’t ask…or judge…please! We will always be incredibly close. Anyway, he and Lindsay flew up too and so it was fabulous spending time with them. It’s good to spend more and more time with Lindsay. I did learn this weekend that I wasn’t exactly welcoming to her when she became a part of the family. For that I feel really terrible. I didn’t realize how protective over Jarod I was. He picked a good one though; she keeps in right in line! I am so grateful for my GIGANTIC FAMILY from all over the place. I sure wish I got to see more of everyone. I love you guys so much!

Dad & Teiha. He is such an amazing grandpa! Though I don't know first hand because I don't have kids and for that I'm pretty sure I just got taken out of the will.

Grandma & Grandpa. Such a great example of what true love is.

Zach & me Dad & me All the kids minus Kyle (he sadly couldn't make it) The whole immediate family (minus Kyle)

My Husband is Incredible!!!

2008-06-29T19:40:00.009-06:00

So Zach had his 8 week doctor’s appointment for his hip on Friday. The appointment went SO good! Dr. Hawes (Zach’s Hawesome Doctor…..ha ha ha ha I’m laughing at my own joke) told Zach the break couldn’t look better. He said he actually could no longer even see the break. There was one part of the pelvis that broke off when the femur came out of socket (well most the femur, the rest was sheered off by the pelvis) that he couldn’t fix because he couldn’t find the broken bone inside him and he wanted to limit the amount of metal that went in; anyway, he said that part actually filled itself in which isn’t very common. Go Zach! So Dr. Hawes told Zach to wean himself off crutches within the next week during physical therapy. When we got to the parking lot Zach tried to put full weight on his leg. He said it was hard because his leg felt like jell-o. Literally less than 2 hours later he called me at work saying he was walking normal with full weight and no crutches. He’s insane. He hasn’t touched the crutches since and I’ve never seen him happier….besides our wedding day when he was ecstatic….mmmmm hmmmm! The doctor told Zach he could play basket ball within 1-2 months but not at full speed. Zach is giving himself 3 months so he can just concentrate on working out to the fullest and going back, excuse me but, “balls to the wall”. Then I’m thinking he’ll make himself eligible for the 2009-2010 NBA draft! Ha – he can dream…we can dream! MONEY and a job he loves, who wouldn’t want that? Anyway, I just needed to brag a little. I’m so proud of his recovery and I think I did more complaining than he did!

I'm thinking this face is saying, "if you take one more picture of me I'm going to throw our computer through a window so you can't blog anymore!"

This is him at the physical therapist's office making his first appointment!

Yay for recovery!!!

Baby Steps...

2008-06-25T21:57:00.006-06:00

It’s true, I can’t stop smiling. Who knew that a trip to the grocery store could be soooo much fun? As I once mentioned I am not a chef…heck I am not a cook…who am I kidding I can’t cook a bowl of cereal. Maybe that’s my first problem. I don’t think you are supposed to cook a bowl of cereal…are you? Just kidding; maybe I don’t give myself enough credit. Okay so I don’t cook and it’s probably something I’ll never pick up…or don’t intend to pick up anyway. I do however do a mean load of laundry, I can vacuum like a maniac, and I can even clean a toilet better than Mr. Clean himself. Anywhoo, since I don’t cook I’m not always sure what to buy at the grocery store. Zach has never liked grocery shopping but I think about 3 months into our marriage he learned if he didn’t come with me to help pick food out he probably wouldn’t eat. Bless his sweet sole. I love when he comes to the grocery store with me. He is such a big help. Ha ha, I make him sound like he’s 3. He really helps though because he gives me such great ideas. Well, I think I’ve told you all that 8 weeks ago Zach broke his hip. Life has pretty much been at a stand still because there isn’t a lot he can do right now. Onto the good news…He FINALLY came shopping with me again. I was so lucky because he was not really up for the embarrassment of…See Below:

Yes, that’s right – THE SCOOTER! Ha ha ha ha ha, he is so freaking cute. He just rode along with me on his little scooter. I should say on his man scooter. I mean this was no ordinary scooter; I can’t explain why but just trust me. Zach will kill me when he sees this post. The entire time we were there he was bright red with embarrassment. I honestly almost felt bad for asking (making) him come with me. He kept saying, “Sara people can’t even see a cast, they probably think I’m faking.” It was darling!

This is us just about to leave the store. I MADE him take pictures and he was dying. He was so embarrassed. In fact my excitement carried on the whole way home and his embarrassment continued as well. I danced and sang and danced and danced…and sang and danced! He finally said, “do you only do things like this to embarrass me?” Ha ha, good thing he knows he can’t get away from me now! I love him so much and I especially love his willingness AND patience to put up with my insanity!

Belated Father's Day!

2008-06-17T19:40:00.001-06:00

So in Sara fashion I’m posting a touch late for Father’s Day! I just wanted to tell my dad and all the dad’s in my life happy father’s day. I want to start off by telling my father-in-law thanks for everything he has done. He has raised such a special man (by special, I don’t mean short bus) for me to marry. Randy is always so calm and quiet so when he talks our ears naturally perk up because if words are going to come out of his mouth they must be good. Randy and I bonded almost right away after meeting. He likes to hang out in his room and watch fishing and for some reason that just didn’t sit right with me. Why would he want to be alone when he could hang out with me? Looking back I realize now he didn’t want to be in his room but knew I was coming and ran….fast! Don’t worry I always tracked him and watched fishing with him. By year 2 I think he thought I knew so much about fishing he wanted to take me on his next journey. He also learned I knew very little, if not nothing; I just read a lot online before I got to his house. My dad, grandpa, & brother have always called me Mae and once Randy found out my middle name I don’t think he ever stopped. Now in turn I call him Allen (his middle name). Randy, I just wanted to say thanks for welcoming me into you family with such wide open arms.

Onto my grandpa’s. I have the best grandpa’s a girl could ask for. I remember when I was little my Grandpa Cheney always let me sit on his lap and he would let me sit there for days if I wanted to. He has the loudest most contagious laugh that we grandkids couldn’t help laugh when we heard him. My parents split when I was very young and grandpa always made sure every chance he got to make sure I was doing okay. He’s always been excepting of my life and I appreciate him for that. My grandpa Morrell also has a special place in my heart. We lived with him for a brief period in my childhood (don’t worry, thanks to that I got the lead in my 2nd grade musical. My career just skyrocketed at that point. Well up until the end of 2nd grade anyway.) and he always did what he could to make us feel like it was our home. Then there is my grandpa Quick. What a man. My dad and mama were married when I was very little but still old enough to know that I wasn’t born into his family. If I didn’t know any better though I’d think we were blood. He also has called me Mae since as far back as I can remember and I know that’s a special bond we have. I don’t feel he has ever treated me any different than his other grandchildren and for that I am so very thankful. I love my grandpa’s so much and I hope they all know that.

Last but not least…another saying I use but I hate. My fabulous father. I have always heard that a girl looks for someone that reminds her of her dad to be her future husband. In my case this was just not true, but that’s only because I already had the spot filled. My dad and I are absolutely identical in personality. No matter what the occasion is if my dad and I are together for too long we are bound to have some silly argument at some point in time. They usually only last 2-5 minutes but they are there and they are tense. I was just talking to Zach about this 2 nights ago. Zach has gotten to spend a lot of time with my dad for the most part but it’s usually for some occasion so there are a lot of other people around. It hasn’t given my dad and Zach the quality time that I think is important they have. We went to GA for Spring Break this year and spent several days with them without a bunch of other company. When we left Zach’s exact words to me were “I had no idea you were the spitting image of your dad, you are identical in personality.” Of course he threw the word “personality” in because we don’t really look a like. Dad gave me all the good looks! Ha ha. I’m kidding, no I’m not…well, yes I am. To finish his quote he said, “no wonder you fight, you're constantly fighting for attention.” That hit the nail on the head. My dad and I are both very dramatic people when we want to be and it just happens that when we are together is when we both choose to be dramatic. My dad is who gave me my sense of humor. Granted it's not always appropriate but it's there thanks to him! I lied when I said Zach wasn’t like my dad. He’s just like him in all the ways that are important to me. He has such integrity, pride, love for me, and so many more qualities I couldn’t be more thankful for. Dad, thanks for showing me that I deserve the best in everything I do and everything I want and strive for. Because of you I will never sacrifice. I love you so much and hope you always remember that.

Amazing!!!

2008-06-07T00:08:00.000-06:00

So I have the most amazing story to share with you guys. My sister Cori called me a couple days ago to tell me this and I about died. She works at a family practice clinic and a few weeks ago this guy came in and she was getting all his vitals and whatever and as she was puting him in his room to wait for the doctor he told her that she had such a familiar sole (a lovely sole I'll add). When he was leaving the office he told her that she is so great and he would just love to work with her every day because of her cheeryness (is that a word?). Anyway, this man came back in last week to bring his mother who had an appointment. Cori is the one that roomed her so she got to sit and talk to them again. He kept telling her that he felt like she shared the same sole with someone that he knew. She didn't want to ask who because what are the odds she would know the person anyway. Well he told her the name Sara Cheney. She said she almost fell to the floor. Before she could get a word in he said "you look nothing like her, but I feel like you share a sole." How incredible. She told him that we were sisters and that for the longest time we haven't even been together because I had lived in North Carolina and not long after I moved back Cori moved to California. I loved this story because seriously what are the odds that someone would put the two of us together. We honestly look nothing a like. There are pictures below for those who need reminders on what we look like. So it turns out that this guy is the owner of the company that I work for. He came up to my desk today to tell me the same story. The funniest part is that he knows me by Sara Cheney and I only worked there for like 2 months with my maiden name. Should I be offended? Great, now I think i'm offended. Well Cori had her tonsils out yesterday and her right sinus rebuilt (or something, I really don't know the exacts because I'm definately medically challenged) and I was feeling sad for her so I came home and started going through pictures. These are what I found...

This was taken in the summer of 2003. It was the first time I went to visit her in California. Brandon was out at Sea for the Navy and we were clearly not in our right minds. I love doing make-up so I begged her to let me do her make-up. She nicely obliged as long as I let her put lipstick on me (something I will never wear). I nicely obliged. Remind me that at some point the obliging must come to an end or we end up looking like this...

I'm not sure what went wrong but I'm pretty sure Cori had something to do with it. We were laughing so hard that we went to the neighbors (I think around 1 a.m.) to have her take pictures! Cori, that was rude of you!

Cori, this is dedicated to you. I hope you feel better soon. I love your guts!

Why would anyone beg to drive?

2008-05-28T15:31:00.000-06:00

I think it’s time for a little update on how life is going. In my life I have been incredibly blessed with so many things at this point and I wouldn’t feel good about asking for more. However, if someone (maybe a genie perhaps) came to me and said since you have all of the immaterial blessings in life a person could ask for name a few things on the materialistic side you wouldn’t mind having. It would take no time at all for me to casually mention, to the genie of course, that I need a personal driver. It’s true; I need nothing else in life but a personal driver. I HATE to drive with an absolute passion. Buy me a brand new $100,000 luxury car and I don’t want it if it means I never have to drive again, but could still have the convenience of getting from point A to point B within a decent time frame. If I were an inventor (don’t count me out yet, I may become one after this) I would invent this perfect speaker sound system for the outside of cars. There will be some rules that come with it but those will come later. The gist of my invention is this. If someone is in the fast lane and feels like going slower than the slow lane you can simply tell your apparatus to tell the idiot (clearly not appropriate) in front of you to MOVE! Somehow my invention will use some generic voice though because we don’t need high pitch screams flying toward your car while you are trying to drive…even if you are an idiot. My list of examples can go on for days, but I’ll keep it to one. Use your imaginations and I’m sure you will be in agreement that this invention is a must. Wow, onto the real reason I started this entry. Poor Zach is not allowed to drive for a full 8 weeks. This means that he has 4 or 5 weeks left. He told me a couple weeks ago that he is having a really hard time having people wait on him. Obviously for an independent person this becomes difficult. The fact of the matter (I hate when people say that) is that he has to deal with it. We as his family do not mind driving him all over the place because it’s what family is for. I secretly hate it because I hate to drive…shocker! He told me that he will critique every little thing I do in my driving until I finally give in to him and let him drive. I laughed so hard, I thought it was a joke. Don’t you worry he was being 100% serious. Three weeks into me being his personal driver (he takes my biggest dream and makes it reality for himself) we have had no normal driving conversation. It goes like this…Sara turn here (as if I didn’t know), Sara weren’t you going here, Sara I think you’re going to wrong way, speed up, slow down, don’t turn so sharp, who taught you how to drive? All of this followed by a giggle from Zach. Zach thinks I’m going to give in against his doctor’s orders and let him drive out of pure frustration! I called the doctor and updated him on Zach’s progress. Please see very professional illustration. Doc knew right away Zach was trying to get away with driving and forbade it. Now I think Zach really believes me and started being the nice man I married! I think Zach has finally come to terms with the idea that he wouldn’t be driving for several more weeks. I don’t know what he’s complaining about! He really is being such a trooper though and I’m so proud of him for keeping such a great outlook on things! I love you honey!!!

Oh poor, poor, sweet Zach!

2008-05-15T20:19:00.000-06:00

This post really could be several different posts, but I’m going to roll everything into one. If any of you don’t know already let me tell you how Zach was raised. His mom was a very hands on mom and she never let her kids go without. I personally think that’s a little overrated. I may think that though only because I’m constantly letting him go without. Before Zach and I got married I would always tell him that I can’t wait to have someone that I can pamper. I told him that I look forward to having someone else to cook dinner for, clean up after (boo), do laundry for etc. I honestly thought I was telling the truth though. I wasn’t just telling him these things so he would marry me. Where the heck did I go wrong….where did he go wrong? Poor guy! We got married a couple years ago and now he has this cute pudgy belly. Some would say that’s because I feed him so well. Ha ha ha ha, I’m laughing so hard right now. What really happened is malnutrition. Do you guys ever see those commercials with the kids from third world countries who are (God bless them all) sick from starvation? I’m not trying to make light of their terribly sad situation, but if any of you have noticed these poor kids have these bellies that stick so far out. We all know they aren’t fed well. That’s what has happened to my husband. I forgot to feed him and I’m sick about it. Don’t get me wrong, the boy is self sufficient…but only when it comes to fast food drive thru. I really don’t want something tragic happening to him like a heart attack years down the road. His dad had a heart attack when he was 45 so I know that from health history Zach is prone to the same devastating consequences. What I have concluded in all of this is that I am going to learn to domesticate myself. I don’t know how to do it so if anyone has any ideas please let me know. There are those that ask why we don’t have kids yet and let this be a good example as to why. Until I can learn to keep a plant kicking there is no way I’m letting a poor child suffer.

This last week while Zach was racing his BMX bike he had an accident and broke his hip. He took the ambulance to the hospital…who am I kidding…the ambulance took him to the hospital (and he hates how I drive)! He had surgery a few days later to put his hip back together. A few days after that he was out of the hospital. He has to be off his hip for 8 weeks! Now if that doesn’t get me on the road to domestication I don’t know what will. I think I have been doing pretty good waiting on him and then tonight rolls around. Gourmet meal or frozen pizza? I ask myself this question often (I don’t know what a gourmet meal means, I just hear the term a lot) and pizza usually wins. Zach however has to make it because I don’t know how. Sad huh? Anyway, I took a stab at the microwave pizza AND I LOST. How ridiculous is that? It’s a freaking frozen pizza. The instructions are to put in microwave for 3 minutes and serve. I got to the microwave I swear only 3 minutes later and cheese was everywhere…except on the pizza. Is there anyone out there who is willing to give me just one pointer on how to better domesticate myself? I’m sure Zach would win in divorce court if he were on his death bed from accidental poison or starvation….

Here goes nothing...

2008-05-14T20:54:00.000-06:00

To be completely honest I don’t understand why people say that. “Here goes nothing”. Certainly something is going or there would be nothing following the statement “here goes nothing”. And in my case there is something to follow. So here goes something! I have finally decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon. I read everyone else’s blog and I always thought blogging was for those with kiddos. Kids seem to be a shared subject amongst the blogging bloggers. I decided after my fabulous mother decided to pick it up that I needed to see what this world is made of! I do, after all have an occasional story to share with those whom care! I do miss all my wonderful friends and family and I clearly do nothing on my end to keep in touch so maybe this will help. I love reading what is going on in your lives so now I’ll share a little about mine! Wish me luck.