Christmas Party

We went to our ward Christmas party on Saturday because I wanted Emma tosit on Santa's lap. And guess what? She got to sit on two Santas. First, her "future" boyfriend in our ward Luke(poor girl, we promise we will let her make her own choices, but we sure think he's cute), our friends Kyle and Kylee's son who is about 6 weeks older than she is and then Santa came to our ward pary. Emma did okay and then she decided she didn't want to be on Luke's lap anymore as you can see by the pics. We are getting excited for her first Christmas. She had a Dr's appointment today to check on a diaper rash, I am such a first time mom, and weighed 12 lbs 10 ounces. She is sure growing up fast. We can't wait to go to Utah and meetall her cousins that she hasn't seen yet!!

Almost Christmas

We have had fun the last few weeks as Emma has become more aware of her surroundings. We got her a Bumbo chair for Christmas, but her dad decided she needed it early. I think I will still stick a bow on it for Christmas. She loves sitting up and watching TV. I am not so sure how I feel about the TV part, but she loves the colors. We got her a new play center too, thanks to her Gigi Nelson's gift of shopping. She smiles at the sun in the middle and has started to talk to all the toys. She likes to hit them with her fists and tries to grab them. She loves playing with her cousin Parker...here are some pictures of them and her new toys.

She has an aversion to the carseat lately, or more the car when she can't see anyone's face. Thank goodness for all the smiley face toys, they really help keep her happy! We can't wait for her first Christmas! She has found her fist and likes to suck on it lately. We are also trying to wean her from sleeping in her swing, but since she sleeps with her arms straight up if not swaddled and swinging, she hits herself when she moves and wakes up so that may still take awhile....

Thanksgiving and Cousins

Emma had her first Thanksgiving last week. Mostly we got pictures of her with all of her relatives and she only got to eat the yummy food through her mommy. She did pretty good, but got a little overwhelmed by all the new people. She loved to be carried around in her carrier on my chest. She is such a curious baby and wants to be able to look around and kick. Here are some pics of her over the holiday. There is one of her with her Gigi Nelson ( she has two Gigi's Rod's grandmother and my grandmother)Another is one of her with Papa, her mom's grandfather.

She spent the morning watching football with her dad and then the afternoon finishing helping her mom make the dinner. We got some other cute ones of her with her grandad, her Uncle Jordan and Her Grandma and Parker. Parker really loves Emma, as well as her other cousins.

Time to be done, my little one just woke up.

Smiling

Okay, surprise surprise for those of you who know I am not the most frequent blogger, but I finally caught my little daughter smiling on camera so here it is. She is so much fun to listen to. She talks away, especially if you mimic her noises. I can't believe what a little personality she is getting. Oh and here are some of her holding her rattle, even though her mommy put it in her hands for her.

Life is Crazy!

I seriously feel like life could not get any crazier, but I am sure those more experienced moms will tell me that this is just the beginning. We went to the home auction this weekend. It was very educational, but also very long for our family. We were so close to getting the house we wanted, the guy was saying going once, twice and then an investor outbid us. I mean seriously do they really need more houses? We just wanted one little one for our family. Then it came up for reauction because apparently the investors did not want the house....and we got outbid by a different investor, but I think the auction people made a mistake because they came over to us and tried to talk us into putting in a back up offer for the amount it sold for after they told us that they had us at the highest amount. We were able to end up putting in an offer we felt more comfortable with after the auction just in case the investors don't want it and we will be contacted in 7-10 days. Keep your fingers crossed for us. Here is a picture of Emma and Daddy afterwards...they were so tired.

Last week we went to Bullhead where I worked for the first time in a long time. Just a few hours for my mom. Emma hung out with her Aunt Amber, Uncle Steve and Aunt Katie and cousins for those hours. It was the worst thing ever leaving her, but it was nice she was in such capable hands. Here is a picture of all the cousins that we took for their grandad.
Also, today we had Emma's 2 month well check. She was so mad when I undressed her because she was so cold, but calmed down after I fed her. She had her shots, which I was scared about. I had given her tylenol before we went to the doctor and although her screams were really sad, she calmed down and fell asleep before we left the office. She is still sleeping. Wow, those must have worn her out. She is 11lb 3 ounces - 57%, 23.5 inches 87%, and her head is 56%. Her feet are still tiny. Here is a picture of her wearing shoes, but we had to take them off because they kept falling off her feet.
All in all though I think I am getting the hang of this parenting thing. Emma slept for 7 hours last night, then went back to sleep for about 2. Yay. We had to get her a new humidifier after I accidentally dropped hers while I was filling it and the hard plastic shattered and spilled water all over the carpet. Thank goodness for my tiny carpet cleaning machine that sucked up the water. Now I just can't wait to go see twilight this week! Emma's Daddy is going to watch her so I can go.

2 Months Old

I decided to take Emma to Sears today because her Dad wanted some better shots of her in her blessing dress, plus she is 2 months old today. She did very well, it is getting easier and easier to take her out it seems and then......we got into the last outfit, her blessing dress, and she decided she was cold and had a meltdown in the photo studio. Thankfully it wasn't busy and the lady was really patient with us. Emma ended up falling asleep and so we got a cute one of her feet since she was asleep. Some of these photos are so funny. One of the ones on her tummy looks like she is going to come and get you. That is our future corporate lawyer shot. Do they accept headshots this early:) We decided that we should have used Sears from the beginning because we were much happier than with the professional photgrapher we used as far as service. Here is our precious baby!

Halloween

So we were trying to decide about what to do for Halloween this year. We missed our ward's trunk or treat because it was the weekend of the blessing and even though we know Emma can't really trick or treat wedidn't want her to miss her first Halloween. We decided she could dress up and go trick or treating with Parker on the night of Halloween. Thankfully her cousin Parker was more than willing to carry her trick or treat pail. It was more for show, because is Emma really going to eat candy?

It was really funny because Parker's two pails got heavier and heavier and he would not let anyone help him carry them so by the end of the 8 or so houses we went to, he was dragging them home and falling over from the awkwardness of it all.

Emma wore an ASU cheerleading costume that her grandad bought her. We mostly just wanted to dress her up. Happy 1st Halloween Emma!

Two of these pictures are of her being confused about her cheer and then her go ASU pose. The other one is her gangster pose..

Emma's Blessing

We had Emma's blessing last weekend. So many family members were able to come down from Utah and also from Bullhead City. We were so happy to have so many people here to share in such a joyous occasion. Emma made it about half way through her blessing before she started crying, but I would probably be crying too if I was so little and all those big people were suddenly standing around me. It was both of our first time's back and church and surprisingly we made it all the way through sacrament meeting without having to rush out with a screaming baby. We did a lunch at the park afterwards. Here are some pictures of that day.

A little about the photo shoot shown below...that was about two and a half weeks ago. We were going to go sans diaper, but as soon as Daddy placed Emma on Mommy's lap wrapped in the blanket Emma promptly went to the bathroom all over Mommy's lap. I think the photographer didn't want to take another chance.

Emma and I have been trying to get more on a normal schedule. She is not all for that, still not really sleeping well. She goes between sleeping 2 or 3 hours at a time through the night and pretty much sleeps in her swing now. If we lay her in her cradle her eyes pop open, but if the swing works that is what we have to use. We did go for walks this week and she likes that once we get going although she doesn't like it to begin with.

We tried a Wal-mart trip yesterday and I learned an important lesson. Only buy what you went in for and get out. If you spend more time in there than necessary disaster happens. First she had a blow out and screamed until I found the bathroom( did I mention I had frozen stuff in the cart at this point?) during which many older women were glaring at me as if I was a bad mom because I couldn't calm Emma down. For those of you who have met my sweet little girl, you know that calming Emma while she is in the car seat is almost impossible. After the change ( whew, no more tears) I had one last thing to get, the thing I came for, ant killer. Yeah, apparently ants have decided that I don't have enough on my plate and they need to attack my bathroom. That was when Emma started shrieking again. I tried the sling, didn't work. I finally ended up carring her over my shoulder with the sling wrapped around me while I pushed my cart with the car seat in it. Again, many more silly stares. Then after I got home and promptly fed her, I emptied my bags to discover that the clerk had put my stuff into bags that must have had the person before's me makeup merchandise, so now I have to go back and return that since it was not mine. We will do that after Rod gets home from work....

However, all in all my little girl is amazing. She smiled at me yesterday which makes it all worth it. I am learning to love this mom stuff!

Emma's photo shoot at 4 weeks

Life as a parent

I went to Bullhead this week to see my old Dr. She was concerned that my tailbone was dislocated and not broken and sure enough that is what was going on. So basically my other Dr's advice of wait 3-6 months for it to heal would have done nothing. My old Dr adjusted it and although still tender, I think that there isan end in sight for my tailbone pain...yay!

Other sad news that happened while we were in Bullhead was my mom was back in Illinois for a business meeting and had amild heart attack. They found that the major right artery to her heart had a huge blockage in it. They were able to place a stint in it and she came home on Saturday after my dad flew out to get her. It has been an emotional roller coster in our household lately with this happening and our new little one. It really makes you realize how precious life can be. I never thought this kind of thing could happen to my mom, but am so grateful that she is doing well now. Thank you everyone for your prayers during this time.

As for our precious little girl, we had another Doctors appt on Friday. She is now 9lbs 6 ounces, 2 lbs bigger than her birth weight. We had a photo shoot last Saturday and will send out announcements and put the pics on the blog once we get the cd. I asked the Dr about some of her eating issues and unhappiness every night from about 10 until 130. Basically our daughter doesn't have a lot of content time during the day. He gave us some remedies for colic and recommended the book," The Happiest Baby on The Block". This book has been a lifesaver and has some really neat theories. For anyone who has had an abnormally fussy baby, I highly recommend it. It has been really hard for us to watch our sweet daughter struggle everyday with problems we don't feel we can solve, but now we think we might be getting a handle on things. Hopefully she can get some more rest now at night....I am starting to think that I won't be able to run on 4 or 5 hours of sleep anymore. I know it will get better.

Here are some more pics of Emma with her cousins and her Uncle Jordan who came and gaveus some great help for a few days.

More pics

Our beautiful baby!

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted, but I feel like I have been in survival mode. I have been using my free moments ( are they relly free?) while Emma naps to sleep myself or find time to eat. I feel like my life has been stolen by this precious little one. This is what it means to be a mom. And even though I am frustrated during the moments where she is screaming for 3hours if we stop bouncing her because she is colicky or when she decides her bedtime isn't until 1 in the morning, everytime I look at my precious daughter I am grateful to have her in our lives.

We are both adjusting to our new surroundings. Everytime I think we may be developing some sort of schedule, Emma changes it. I think she is going to have the stubborness her mom and dad have. Although I am starting to get used to the lack of sleep. If onlymy tailbone would get better. We have been having so much fun though getting her dressed. It is like having a little doll. She has started to love her bath times and if fussy before going in the water, she stops immediately and calms down. She loves the warm water. She also loves her daddy who has been wonderful when her mommy needs naps. He is very willing to share the load and help out wherever needed. Emma is 3 weeks old today. Here are some pics of her over the last two weeks.

We Are Home!

Here I am blogging again. I cannot believe how wonderfully happy you can be when you bring home such a precious person from the hospital. Roderick and I were so grateful to be home after feeling like we were at a hospital hotel - meaning we were at a hospital but people came and checked on us so rarely that we might as well have been at home. However, all we can really think about is the beautiful little girl we have brought into this world. And yes, we think she is the most beautiful little girl in the entire world.

Childbirth was interesting for me. Labor for about 6 hours and boy was that erpidural great. I only pushed for about 30 minutes or because from 430 until they checked me again at 730 I had gone from 4 dilated to 10 and ready to go. I am so grateful my Dr was only 15 minutes away from the hospital. She was a great Dr. I did end up breaking my tailbone during delivery which stinks now, but heck thanks to the epidural I didn't even feel it happening.

Here are some more pictures of our little girl at home. She is sleeping and eating so much better since we have her here. She loves her Tigger robe and we are having fun dressing up this little doll. We were a little worried when her weight dropped into the 6 lb range, but her Dr assured us that she would be fine and gain it back soon. We love being parents!!! Welcome to the world Emma Belle!

She had her first "bath" at home which mostly consisted of a sponge bath, but she has been sleeping so good ever since. She fell asleep and has been trying out her new bed here at home.