Utah Visit in January

Drew and I ventured to Utah in the beginning of January for a doctor's visit and of COURSE we had to take a little extra time for fun with Shannon and her family!

It was cold cold COLD! It was fun to spend time with everyone and Drew had a BLAST. I know he loved the one on one time and getting so much attention.

Drew and Rylee were sharing the earphones - so cute! It was funny that he was on her lap when they are getting to be close to the same size. 

Uncle Ethan took Drew for a ride round the house on the scooter. Andrew LOVED this thing. He would just sit on it all the time even if he wasn't going anywhere. 

 

Aunt Shannon took him for a ride outside. They were FREEZING to say the least!

Of course, living in Arizona we don't have proper Utah gear so we had to borrow some of Rylees. Is he not the cutest thing!?

He did great at the doctors and they gave us a great job on current care and to keep moving forward with what we have been doing....so, no surgery!

It was a great trip and Drew even fell asleep on the plane ride home. It was great, except he was very grumpy when we arrived and made me carry him and our carry-ons on top of being pregnant. It was quite exhausting and we were glad to be home!

Italian Sausage Bread

Dinner Guests

Dinner

 

Success

Recipe:

Homemade bread dough
Italian sausage
Mozzarella Cheese
Red sauce (jarred or homemade)

Make homemade dough - I love my breadmaker which saves me a ton of time!
Prep the meat, cheese, and sauce when you have about 30 minutes to go before your dough is finished.
Brown Italian sausage and then drain. Shred cheese. Make sauce if making homemade.
Divide dough in half and roll out somewhat rectangular.
Fill with cheese, a little sauce (you don't want it soggy), and sausage.
Fold the dough like a burrito and seal the edges as best you can.
Flip the loaves over and make shallow slits on the top of each loaf.
Rub with butter and sprinkle with garlic seasoning.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown (make sure the bottom doesn't burn. I do mine at 375° since that is what my bread recipe calls for.
Slice and enjoy buttered and dipped in red sauce!

Yum a Lum!

**Caution - this will most likely cause heartburn in pregnant women....but SO worth it!**

Growing a Baby

I love being pregnant. I love growing a baby so to speak. It takes a lot of extra energy and food and sleep (that I don't usually get) and of course the ever expanding abdominal area, but I LOVE it! It is so worth every second of heart burn, cravings, sciatic nerve twinges of pain, minimizing wardrobe, midnight runs to the bathroom, and the occasional kick to the bladder.

I have been so blessed to be able to visit a specialist for some fancy ultrasounds when I was pregnant with Carter and now with our baby girl. We debated on going for the 20 week visit, but at about 23 weeks I decided I really wanted to get in and see some more pictures of her! My mom went with me and boy did we get some great pictures.

Tiny little perfect fingers.....

Adorable little feet with ten tiny toes

 

The face of a beautiful miracle

(She was squished up against the side of my uterus or placenta or something so it was hard to get her little face. Hopefully we will get a better shot in a couple weeks when I go back)

She looks great, but a little on the small side. There was also another abnormality the doctor found, but nothing that will require surgery or is life threatening, but concerning nonetheless. The doctor is going to follow up after my next normal OB appointment to make sure the little lady is growing well and that everything checks out. We are not too concerned about her size since Carter was a small baby as well, but you can never be too safe. We continue to pray for this little miracle and that the pregnancy will continue to go well and there aren't any other complications.

Things are a bit different this time around. She moves a lot lower than Carter did and I think she does more dancing than kicking. *smile* I don't crave near as much fruit as I did with Carter....instead I crave those heavenly sugar cookies from Paradise Bakery! My Braxton Hicks contractions are definitely more uncomfortable this time around and I notice them a lot more. Other than that - my belly keeps getting rounder and time continues to go by WAY too fast!

**For those wondering, the doctor found that one of her kidneys has not developed correctly and is not functioning, but luckily we all have two and her other side is working perfectly. He said this is not linked to any other problems and out of all the things that could go wrong, this is not that bad and she should be just fine! We still continue to pray for our little baby girl that she will continue to grow and develop the way she should.**

Baby Girl Preparations

The world as my boys know it is about to be rocked by two very small females. My sister is due to have her little princess any time and the new Baker little girl will be gracing us with her presence in a few short months. Move over balls and trucks....make way for bows and dolls.

Shelley and I thought we would get some practice...

Carter discovered these extremely adorable shoes of my moms and just had to have a trot around the house in them. He LOVES them.

 

I know I know - these are not healthy habits for my little men, but hey - makes for some good pictures for their later years, right?!

Example

A pint of example is worth a gallon of advice. 

Author Unknown, from The Road To Success is Always Under Construction

We had loved having my mom here and staying with us for the past couple of weeks. She came out a couple weeks ago waiting for baby Hailee to arrive. I have to admit that I am a little glad that Hailee has taken her sweet little time to get here so that we can enjoy mom a bit longer. 


My mom loves to keep busy and likes to find things to do and she does not rest even when away from home and visiting out here. I continue to learn from my mom whenever she is around. I need the reminders to just stop and play sometimes. It is fun to race cars down the hallway. There is someone else in the world that Carter prefers when sad or hurt besides me. There is always cleaning to be done and time to do it. 


I don't think a dirty dish has spent the night on our counter top the entire time my mom has been here. At night while I am working to whatever she is up washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen. Apparently my floor could not be put off being mopped because at 11:45 pm while trying to get in a bit more work before the Sabbath on Saturday night I see my mom out mopping floor quickly.....spending her last Saturday minutes mopping MY FLOOR. 


I have a dirty little secret....I can keep up with laundry just fine. The sorting, the washing, the hanging....but the folding....oh the folding. I have to admit that I have had laundry piled on my floor for days on end waiting to be folding and I just go through it and pick out what I need instead of putting it away. One time it was so bad that the clothes had been on my bedroom floor so long that when I finally did get them all put away Drew came in and said "what happened??!!!!!" while looking astonished at the clean floor. 

****A picture of the pile of socks on my floor when my mom got here. All clean...just not paired and put away. I new something must be done when I caught my mom in my room folding my laundry. Shameful on my end, I know****

My mom and reminded me and once again trained me as a new mom that is is much easier to just keep up on loads on laundry and put them away as I go. Hopefully this will be a lesson learned and I will do better. I know I can apply this to all aspects of house cleaning and life really. It is easier to manage a task or problem when it is small and takes little to no time or effort....rather than waiting for things to multiply and become more difficult. I might as well do things now because I would rather not have to do them later. 

I continue to learn from my mom, whether she is staying at my house or miles away back in California. I love her dearly and admire her example. I am not sure what we are going to do without Grammy around! 

The Perks of Arizona

Although Arizona is hot hot hot in the summer, but has its perks in the winter. We have been so happy to have my mom staying with us for the last little while waiting for Shelley to have her little bundle of joy. We have taken advantage of the BEAUTIFUL weather and made a couple trips to the park. The park is always a bit more fun with Grammy around....and I have an extra hand to be able to snap a few pictures!

This is usually the position Andrew is found in when it is time to leave the park. He could play for 15 minutes or 5 hours and he will still be SO sad to leave. Thanks Mom for the extra help - I have LOVED having you here!

The Poppie Pocket

My dad and Drew have a special little bond. Drew adores his Poppie and I do believe the feeling is mutual. He was here visiting this past weekend and I found Drew snuggled up in the perfect little place with his Poppie on the couch quite often.

Drew is also not the kind of child that falls asleep just anywhere, but I decided to let my dad give it a shot since he thought Drew would fall asleep sitting with him on the couch. Lo and behold....Drew fell asleep! Tender moments - sweet memories.

Carter even snuggled up there a couple times for a few seconds here and there.

We miss you Poppie and Drew asks for you quite often, especially when he is really tired at night and wants to fall asleep on the couch snuggled up in the perfect Poppie pocket.

NOW it Makes Sense

Almost a week of runny nose and coughing (well, kinda of - he holds it in most of the time)
Low grade fever.
Shorter naps.
Smaller meals.
More tears.
Increased need to be held by mommy (definite understatement).
Rising concern from before mentioned mommy.

Almost 90 minutes at the doctor's office.
Two ear infections.
One breathing treatment. (oh wow - I didn't know a child just over 22 lbs had SO much muscle and fight in him)
Diagnosis of RSV.
Prescription for antibiotic.
Breathing machine sent home.

Hopefully this little boy will be feeling better soon. No wonder he was so sad and crabby. Poor baby!

***This is breathing treatment #3 and he is doing much better with them now...hence the HUGE smile for the camera.  We have also found that this little gas mask casuses the child to be quite hyper. He is such a funny kid!***