Kelly, Sarah, and Annika Paskett

The New and Improved...

2010-05-18T23:31:00.007-06:00

Sorry I've been such a slacker with my blogs, but most of you know why. It's been a really hard few months for little bug and me, and we're so thankful for how much the family has rallied around us.

Meg and Ryan came into town for a visit, which has been great. We don't get to see them as much as we'd like. The girls got along well, although Anni left for Oregon the morning after they got here, so it was short lived.I can't believe how much they look alike. I was hard pressed to get this picture. Getting two toddlers to both look at the camera at the same time is really hard!This one is a little questionable, but it was too cute not to post. After, Addie said that Anni gave yucky baby kisses.

I was in desperate need of a cut and Meg went one better and colored my hair for me. I took picture of the whole process. She did an AMAZING job. Love you Meg!

Before...

Contacts!

So excited to fix my hair

A team effort from Ryan and Meg to pull my hair through the cap

Letting the bleach work its magic

Washing out the bleach

Initial coloring done Just a little more in the front...

At 1 or 2am, we're finally done

Tada!

Dinosaur Park

2010-03-29T22:13:00.000-06:00

We went to the Dinosaur Park today with Uncle Sid. Anni loved it! especially the the slides. She stayed with Uncle Sid the whole time.

She wanted to walk on her own, and wasn't scared of the dinosaurs at all. She kept roaring at them!

This was the only one she was leary of, and Uncle Sid took her right up to it. As soon as she touched it, she wasn't scared anymore.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-16T19:29:00.003-07:00

Ross and his girlfriend Lauren were in town over Valentine's Day, so we went to a museum and to dinner with them. The giant t-rex was the main reason for going, but it turned out to be kind of a downer, it wasn't as big as we thought it would be.They had some nifty space exhibits.

The bug exhibits were fun, although Anni kept trying to grab them.

They didn't have a high chair at dinner, so she sat between us. She turned circles and ate saltine crackers. She got frustrated and hit me with a saltine at one point, but it was a good night.

18 Months Old

2010-01-22T11:11:00.003-07:00

Being 18 months old means more things to get into and more trouble to make. She likes to walk around on her tip toes and loves putting things into boxes and taking them back out, including herself.

Her vocabulary is slowly expanding, and I'll bet it explodes soon. She says Mama, pup pup, ba (which can be ball, bottle, book, bye bye, or binky depending on what she's pointing at), yeah, car, up, baby, num num for food, nigh nigh for good night, and Dada. We almost got her to say apple at the store today. Sometimes she'll try to mimic us (we've almost gotten pretty and itsy bitsy), but not a lot yet. We've been trying to read to her a lot and she loves the touchy-feely books, especially her farm animal one. She'll turn to the page with the colt and then point to her rocking horse. She's a quick one.

She loves to make noise, like any toddler. She spent almost an hour banging on a bowl with a spoon last night.

She's been eating really well and will chow down a whole banana in one sitting. I found some chocolate Cheerios on a sale last week and she loves those.

18 Month Pediatrician Visit

2010-01-20T23:12:00.003-07:00

We met our Oregon pediatrician for the first time today, Dr. Mary Ulmer. I really like her. Anni is finally gaining some weight and has moved into the 50th percentile at 24 lbs. She's also in the 50th percentile for head size and height, 31.6".

She ran through a quick check for signs of autism, Anni has none. She is very healthy and very social. She attached herself to a lady in the waiting room for some reason and unloaded the contents of the diaper bag on this woman's lap while I filled out paperwork. The lady was very nice and just laughed at Anni.We're supposed to start giving her a toothbrush twice a day, just to play with for a few minutes and actually brush her teeth once. Easier said than done.Our little bug had to have more vaccines today. Instead of 2, she got 3 because I had them give her the hepatitis A one too so she won't have to get any at her 2 year old check up. I had to hold her hands so she wouldn't grab, so we were doing itsy bitsy spider and the nurse gave her the shot. She was so upset, it's just heartbreaking. I hate having to restrain her during those. I had to go to work, but Kelly said she was miserable all afternoon. Her legs must have been sore because he said she wouldn't walk, just whimpered at him and held her arms up to be carried. The vaccines always make her tired too.

Itsy Bitsy Spiders

2010-01-08T19:56:00.002-07:00

Anni's new favorite song. She'll come up to us and do the hand motion for the spider and say "izzy bizzy" in baby talk. It's adorable.

Zoo Lights

2010-01-06T11:38:00.005-07:00

Over Christmas we went to Hogle Zoo with Mom, Dad, Ryan, Megan, and Addison. It was snowing, so it was a lot of fun. A little cold, but we bundled up the babies and everyone had a great time.

Get me out of this thing.

Family pictures by the elephant.

She reminds me of the kid from "A Christmas Story." "I can't put my arms down!"

Snowballs

I'm not going near that thing.

17 Months Old

2009-12-21T11:19:00.003-07:00

We have a very busy little girl. She gets into everything and has very big opinions. Some of them are: she loves shoes, mostly because that means she gets to go out, she does not like syrup or anything that has come in contact with syrup, if Mommy and Daddy can do it, so can she, and, under no circumstances, is it okay to tell her no.

I know these make this thing open somehow...

Being a sweetheart

Trying new foods with Daddy.

She's starting to use more words that are understandable. To me and Kelly at least. She says Mama, an occasional Dada, Gabba, ball, pup pup for Woofie, ni ni for night night, ba ba for her bottle, but still mostly just squawking and pointing.

16 Months Old

2009-12-02T12:03:00.003-07:00

She looks so much like Abigail in this picture.

She loves waffles and sitting in her own chair like a big girl.

She's a cuddler and likes to run and jump on blankets.

Our friend and neighbor Chris has a sweet little dog that is Anni's favorite playmate.

She's our little princess and loves her crown.

School Update

2009-11-14T13:25:00.007-07:00

Kelly is doing great, he is in the top 10 students in the school with a 4.0 GPA. He's finished 2 of his 3 English classes, a computer class, a nutrition class, and skills 2 now. Skills 2 was the hardest class he'll have. The majority of drop outs happen during that 3 weeks. He got an A. He showed up for open lab at 530 am everyday during that 3 weeks to study and get his prep done for the day.Now he's in meat and seafood identification and fabrication. He's learning how to properly do all the different cuts of meat and some classical preparations of them. He made seafood sausage this week.He's made a few good friends and we see them fairly regularly. Chris is a ninja and lives in our apartment complex, so he comes over once or twice a week to visit. Nick and his girlfriend live in Hillsboro and they've come over twice now. We've invited them and Jessica, who is oddly possessive of Kelly, to come over for a Rocky Horror Party. It was supposed to happen at Halloween, but our schedules never lined up, so it'll just happen when we get around to it.

15 Months Old

2009-10-23T11:05:00.005-06:00

Anni is still growing in leaps and bounds, mostly in her hair. She has a total of 10 teeth now. Four on the top and on the bottom in front, and 2 molars on the top and bottom. She seems to get teeth in pairs or fours. She's been chewing on her fingers and everything else so much I think she must be working on more, but I can't feel them yet. She bit me pretty hard last night when I was trying to feel for them.No new words yet, just "up."The problem now is that she uses "up" for everything. It's kind of hard to differentiate between when it means up, down, look at me, give me that, or I don't want to play anymore.Empty diaper boxes are one of her favorite toys, she loves being pushed around the room in them like Great Grandma Sonia used to do with her toy box. We're working on the "where's your..." game. She knows nose and head, I'm going to post of video of it later, assuming I can get her to cooperate. We're also teaching her to blow kisses. She gets it sometimes, and sometimes she puts her hand over my mouth instead of hers. It's still cute, so I'll take it.We had a good visit from Uncle Ross, but I'm going to do a separate post for that.Lastly, we got Anni a winter coat. It's only an 18 month, but it's huge on her. She was so excited to get it, she cuddled it all through the store, the whole ride home, then played with for another 5 or 10 minutes when we got home. I had a hard time getting a picture of it because she was running around flapping her arms. Her little hands don't even come out of the sleeves yet. We can roll the cuff for a month or two until she grows into it. Because we bought it big she may not hit a growth spurt till spring, but if we'd have bought it to fit I'm sure she would have out grown it in a hurry.

Horrible Luck

2009-10-12T20:44:00.003-06:00

After the misadventure with my car, I figured things had to start getting better. Nope!

I was working out in the garden center last night, when I heard the unmistakable crunch of two cars colliding. I thought, "Oh, that sucks. I wonder who got hit. Probably just some customers."

A few minutes later Josh came out and asked me if I drove a truck with Utah plates. He then told me that MY truck had been the one that got hit. She was 16, driving her grandpa's Mercedes. She thought her foot was on the brake, but was on the gas. When she mounted the curb she panicked and must have pushed harder on it because she not only went over the curb, but also 6 feet of sidewalk, then hit my truck and knocked it a good foot or two. Josh told her she was lucky because she'd hit the car of the nicest person in the store, which was sweet of him. Poor girl, if she's have hit the car next to mine it would have been the biggest jerk in the store.
The insurance company is paying a repair shop to pick up the truck in the morning and for Enterprise to get a rental to us tomorrow too. This mess should be cleared up pretty quickly, thankfully.
The top picture is my truck, obviously, and the bottom one is the front of her grandpa's Mercedes.

My Poor Geo

2009-10-06T19:43:00.003-06:00

On my way to work today I got in a car wreck. Someone cut off the guy in front of me, he slammed on his brakes, and then I did, but not fast enough. The jerk that cut him off just kept driving, so he got off scotch free.

Everyone was okay, I've got some whiplash, and my neck and back are hurting, but I'll be fine in a few days. I keep laying on the floor to stretch my back out and Anni keeps body slamming me. Little turkey.

It didn't really do any damage to the other guy, he was in an '05 Ford Mustang. There was a dent in his bumper and I scratched the paint a bit.

The insurance probably isn't gonna do a thing for us, we only had liability on my Geo.

This is the damage.

14 Months Old

2009-09-21T18:45:00.004-06:00

Anni is growing so fast! All of her 12 month clothes fit and she's moving into 18 month on some things and not so much on others. We bought some 18 month old pajamas for her to grow into and they just drown her. She doesn't mind so long as it doesn't impede her walking. She's goofy baby and such a cuddle bug. She still just loves that puppy. She'll grab him by one ear and carry him everywhere.

She doesn't like posing for the camera much, so to get good pictures I have to take tons and sort through to get the best. Usually the cutest ones are when she's not even paying attention to the camera. After all this time of being skinny she's getting a fat little Buddha belly. I love this picture because she's just jutting it out there.

She loves to open and close doors and if one of us isn't home, she'll go through the whole house opening and closing every door looking for us. If you go into a room and shut the door before she can follow, she'll stand outside it and pound on it, just screaming. She doesn't like not being allowed to be right in the middle of what we're doing.

Anni still loves bath time and loves being naked, like all babies. She was biting her pirate here and just let go of it with her hands, so she kind of looks like a dog with a toy. She does it a lot.

School Update

2009-09-02T14:25:00.006-06:00

Kelly is kicking butt in school. He's acing all of his quizzes and goes in early to study so he can spend a little more time with Anni and me at night.

How could you stand to be away from this face?

They're kind of like boot camp as far as the dress code. He has to be in full uniform all the time: a toque (the hat), jacket, pants, shoes (polished), apron, side towels, and cravat (a tie thingy), it all has to be perfectly pressed and clean and he has to be clean shaven (except for existing facial hair).

Yesterday we found out that he was awarded a $1500 scholarship for an essay that he wrote about why he was going to culinary school. I'm so proud of him, and all the people in his presentation group are really happy to have him with them now.

Anni wearing Kelly's toque.

After this week he's done with his first class, skills 1 and sanitation. Skills one was mostly knife skills and some product ID. He's gone through about 30 pounds of potatoes at home and in class practicing. The hardest cut is a chateu. It basically looks like a 7 sided football that's 3 inches long. Today, he had to ID 80 herbs and spices for a final. Tomorrow is the knife skills final, he has 2 hours to do 5 chateus, 8 large dice, 12 medium dice, and 12 paysanne of potatoes, 18 julienne and 24 brunoise of carrots, 12 julienne of green pepper, 12 batonnet of celery, half an onion in a perfect medium dice, chiffonade 6 leaves of spinach, and supreme 1 orange. A paysanne is 1/2 by 1/2 by 1/8 inch cube, a brunoise is a very, very fine dice (1/8 inch cube), a batonnet is a perfect 1/4 by 1/4 by 2 inch rectangle, a chiffonade is the finest strip you can cut, and supremes are perfect segments of citrus with no peel or membrane.

Monday he starts Nutrition and Writing/Composition. He won't be using his knives for these ones, so they'll get packed away for 3 weeks.

Baby of Mine

2009-08-25T17:11:00.005-06:00

Anni is really getting the hang of walking. She gets faster and more coordinated every day. She walked all the way from the couch, across the living room, and down the hall into her room today, with out falling. It was impressive.

In a way it's kind of sad, but she's a toddler now. She looks like a toddler, not a baby, and she's acting like a toddler too. She throws tantrums, won't eat, and does things just because we told her not too. It's a good thing she's cute.

Baby Hazing

2009-08-23T20:50:00.004-06:00

Anni has officially initiated Kelly and I into parenthood. She had a diaper blowout during her evening nap, and decided to paint her crib with it. It was smeared across her face, in her hair, and all over her feet.

I called Kelly in to come and see what she'd done. He took her clothes, bedding, and Woofie and put them in the wash while I did the same with her. She laughed through her whole bath.

If she weren't so cute most of the time, I'd have been really upset. She didn't know better, and I did the same at her age, so we'll just continue on and not feed her corn anymore.In other news, Kelly's doing great in school, work is going well, and Anni seems to do well at daycare.

13 Months Old

2009-08-21T21:04:00.003-06:00

Anni is walking on her own now, not just when we coax her. She'll do it when she's carrying something or when she wants to get from one thing to another and there's nothing to hold on to.

She's screaming like a banshee right now, but normally goes to bed really well and is taking her naps without us cuddling her to sleep.She loves to eat grown up food with us and does really well with it. If she doesn't like it, she pulls it out of her mouth and hands it to me. It's frustrating sometimes.She loves our nightly walks and will just sit in her pack and watch everything go by. We walked through the Catholic Missionary Retreat/convent next to our apartment the other day and she was just jabbering up a storm. There was a little nun praying as we rounded a corner, so we tried to hush Anni, which of course, makes her louder. Poor lady, she didn't seem to notice though.

Our New Home

2009-08-13T16:04:00.005-06:00

Bye-Bye Grandma and Grandpa

We have arrived. The trip was long and boring, but we made it without incident. We left at 9:30pm, drove through the night and arrived at our new apartment at about 1:30pm. We unloaded everything and just kind of crashed. We've been putting everything away through the week and just have a few clothes and odds and ends left. Kelly's parent's, Ross, Lesa, and Nate came up with us. We couldn't have done it without them, they were just awesome.

The view from our side balcony

Looking from our living room toward the kitchen and hallways Grandma and Anni in baby's room Our room and bathroom

Our living room

Lesa in our tiny kitchen

Anni is having a hard time adjusting, but it getting better now. She's finally figured out that she has free run of the house and can go where ever she wants.

We live right next door to a nature preserve, so we go walking there almost every night.

I got the job at the Lowe's in Portland, it's my same position, so I'm really happy about that. I start on Saturday.

Kelly had his orientation on Monday and got his uniforms. He starts class on Monday, he's really excited.

Kelly got me a webcam for my birthday, so we are set up on Skype. Video chats await!

Annika's First Birthday (part 2)

2009-07-27T16:56:00.003-06:00

On Saturday we had Annika's birthday party at my parent's. We had lots of family and friends come to see her, it was great.

Anni loves her Uncle Sid.

She was much less excited about the cake this time and mostly just painted her leg with frosting.

She got lots of wonderful gifts, cute clothes and fun toys, plus her forward facing car seat.

She spent most of the night playing with her car seat.

1 Year Pediatrician Visit

2009-07-24T09:47:00.003-06:00

Annika is perfectly healthy! She's 29 inches tall and weighs 19.6 pounds. That puts her at the 50th percentile for height and head size and 25th percentile for weight. Our little muffin is just petite, no way around it.

She got her chicken pox vaccine too. I never had chicken pox, so I really hope this helps to keep her from bringing it home and giving it to me when I'm 25.

She's big enough for a forward facing car seat now, which I think she's really gonna like.

She's got so much hair now, and it just has a mind of it's own. It's so cute.

1 Year Old!

2009-07-21T15:28:00.003-06:00

It's been a busy day. Anni's first birthday is today and Kelly had to have surgery on his knee. The surgery went well, he's just fine now. He has to use crutches for a few days, so Lesa is here to help with Anni. After we turn in the crutches he'll be hobbling around with a limp for a week or so, then he should be 100% again.

Lesa, Anni, and I visited Grandma Sonia while Kelly was in surgery. She had a birthday cupcake for Annika. She licked at the frosting, but mostly just threw it on the floor.I just can't believe how quickly the year has gone by. She was so tiny and barely filled a corner of her bed, now she's a moose and can almost stretch from one end to the other. She could barely lift her head and now is almost walking. She changes everyday, and we just fall in love with her more and more with every change.

Annika's First Birthday (Part 1)

2009-07-18T21:16:00.005-06:00

Annika's first birthday party went very well. She got some new books and lots of love and cuddles.

The cake was a whole new experience. She started off by just poking it, then grabbed a handful of frosting off the top.

After a few minutes of grabbing and sucking on her fingers she decided she didn't need the plate anymore and dumped the cake off of it.

She started grabbing handfuls of cake after that and throwing them as much as eating them.

Everyone close by got hit. I had frosting all down the leg of my jeans. She totally demolished the cake.

Afterwards, I just stripped her down to nothing and dumped her in the sink in the bathroom. Their mirror ended up with frostingy baby fingerprints all over it. She was faster than me.

Grandma Sugar was much more delicate eating her cake.

Oregon or Bust

2009-07-11T19:10:00.002-06:00

It's official. We will be moving to Portland, Oregon during the first week of August. There have been a lot of mixed feelings about us leaving among the family, but we really feel like this is the best thing for us. The school offered Kelly a few grants and we got the financing to go, so we are going to jump on the opportunity. The longer we push it back, the less likely we'd be to go at all.

Kelly is so excited, I'm really nervous. I've never lived farther from my parent's than Logan.

It's going to be an adventure and we're ready to get started!

Annika's Birthday Parties

2009-07-08T12:58:00.003-06:00

The Official Birthday Invitation to Our Friends and Family:

We're doing 2 birthday parties. One in Logan and one in Ogden.

The one in Logan will be at Casper's Ice Cream at 3pm on Saturday, the 18th of July. That one is also a birthday party for Kelly's Grandma Sugar.

The party in Ogden is at my parent's house on Saturday, the 25th of July. We haven't decided on a time, but it will most likely be at 3 or 4. I'll adjust this post when we make a decision.

Leave me a comment if you need directions or have questions. I hope to see everyone there to help us celebrate the first year of my little angel's life!

Drinking Juice

2009-06-29T19:59:00.003-06:00

11 Months Old

2009-06-21T09:18:00.004-06:00

We are so close so big changes! One month and Anni gets whole milk instead of formula and gets to ride in a front facing car seat. She loves cheese in all forms. String cheese is her favorite, and Mama's favorite for her to eat because it doesn't end up all over her like the grated cheese did here.

She's walks around furniture and will take a few steps with help, but doesn't like to. She jabbers and almost seems to have put words to people. Mama and Dada, of course, Papa for Grandpas, Nana for Grandmas, but those two aren't very reliable yet. It's hit or miss, so I don't think she's really figured it out completely.

Alaska!

2009-06-17T17:01:00.018-06:00

I've been meaning to post this for a week, so sorry about that! It's been busy and Anni hasn't wanted to let Kelly or me out of her sight! When we first picked her up, she wasn't sure what to do. She just stared at us with a smile, then crawled back and forth between us for the rest of the day. Grandma LeAnn taught her to play patty cake, it's just darling.

Here is the Seattle coastline, taken as the ship was pulling out of the harbor.

Here's a great pic of Addison being shy before she got used to us. By the end of the trip she was dragging me and Kelly around everywhere.

Kelly and I on the first formal night.

Kelly and I coming into Juneau.

Downtown Juneau

Our ship, the Golden Princess, from the tram.

At the top of the tram.My hand in a cast of a brown bear paw. It's huge and it's not even a grizzly! A native totem carved into a tree.See? There is snow in Alaska!A caboose in Skagway, Alaska.This is the drill they used to drill through the mountain.Smuggler's Cove in SkagwaySailing through Endicott ArmKetchikan, AlaskaNot enough land to build a road? No problem. We'll just put one on the water.All the houses are up on the side of the mountain, so they have street signs on staircases. Crazy!This bald eagle just swooped in and perched 20 feet from us on the dock.Addison and Abigail love to dance!Grandma's 90th birthday celebration.Our last stop!Victoria, CanadaJust for Sid

10 Months Old

2009-05-22T18:14:00.005-06:00

Annika is her mother's daughter. Our girl loves dirt, grass, and just generally being outside. She likes to feed herself and to eat with everyone at dinnertime, but isn't a big fan of mashed potatoes yet.

She loves her baby cheetoes!

Family Pictures

2009-05-09T21:50:00.003-06:00

For my Mother's Day gift, I wanted family pictures. One of my good friends from high school, Lyndee, offered to take some for us. She did a great job, although Kelly doesn't like how he looks. These are a few of my favorites.

9 Month Pediatrician Visit

2009-05-06T11:05:00.003-06:00

Annika is as healthy as a horse. She's 27 3/4 inches tall and weighs 17.4 pounds. She's totally average on her height and head size, but weighs less than 3/4 of the baby girls her age. We're allowed to start giving her eggs, cheese, and yogurt now.

She got another flu shot and only cried until Kelly picked her up, but we had to get her finger pricked to get her iron level tested and she cried for a long time over that one. We haven't heard anything back from that test, so her iron level is fine.

It always makes me smile when nurses and technicians that work with children every day stop and tell us that our baby is beautiful.

We have Anni's one year appointment and then we'll be in Portland and will have to find another pediatrician.

Good Java

2009-04-23T20:27:00.005-06:00

Since Anni loves dogs so much, and Ross is tired of being alone while we're at work all day, we all pitched in and got a new family member. Java is a 3 month old, purebred chocolate lab. (Java comes from his color, of course, but is also a nod to Ross's computer programming.) He's a bit on the hyper side, but I guess that's just a normal puppy thing. The only dog I ever had was Poncho, and he was the same age as me. We're working on training. He knows sit, but doesn't always listen. Stay is coming along slowly (no pun intended), and heel is working pretty well. He still pulls a little when we go for walks, but no where near as much as he did at first. He whined and cried a lot the first few days, but he wasn't used to being alone. He's got a few good toys now and some bones to chew on and is doing better. He loves playing tug-o-war and chewing on his rawhide bones. Anni loves him, but we don't dare let him get too close yet because he still nips a little bit when he gets excited.

9 Months Old

2009-04-23T19:00:00.005-06:00

Anni is 9 months old now. She talks constantly, and crawls very quickly when she wants something. She won't crawl if she thinks one of us will pick her up and carry her. She sleeps for about 11 hours every night, and only wakes up if her teeth bother her. She has her 2 front bottom teeth and is working on a third one, but we're not sure where yet.

She says a few words, like Mama, Dada, Baba, and Anna, but I don't think she knows what they mean yet. Her bouncer and her stuffed puppy are still her very favorite toys.

Cousins

2009-04-20T20:21:00.003-06:00

Kelly, Sarah, Abigail, and Josh came to visit yesterday. Josh is huge! Sarah said he weighs about 24 pounds, we think Anni weighs about 18. Her 9 month appointment is on Monday the 4th. Abigail just loved Anna, and played with her quite a bit.

Josh is doing everything faster than our Anni. Crawling, standing, walking, you name it. That's okay though, we love our little monster no matter what. :)

New Friends

2009-04-18T22:17:00.004-06:00

I spent my day yesterday visiting friends with Anni. First, we went to see Sharlott and baby Skye. She's about a month or so old now, but is still just tiny. Anni thought she was pretty cool, but didn't compare to the dogs. Anni loves dogs. Sharlott has a black lab and a black... something. Anna just squealed and bounced while they barked and ran around, but wouldn't pet them. They were just too big.Then we went to see my friend from work, Rachel. She has a cat and a little Pomeranian. Anni liked the cat, but adored the puppy. She tried to pet him and wasn't scared at all.

She's going to be a little animal lover.

Annika's First Easter

2009-04-13T19:21:00.006-06:00

Anni had a lot of fun on her first Easter. Here are the picture highlights.

She got to play with Grandpa. She got to cuddle with Aunt Lesa.

Her best friend, Woofie, was there for all the fun and games. Grandma LeAnn and cousin Isabelle were so happy to see her.

Cousin Jasmine couldn't get enough of her.

She loved playing with the eggs.

She had even more fun chewing on her plastic eggs.

All of the cousins after the egg hunt. Anni and Cooper contemplating the mysteries of the garden cart.

Let the Sun Shine In

2009-04-08T10:07:00.005-06:00

Now that some nice weather is finally rolling around I've been able to take Annika outside to play. She loves it. Going for walks are one of her favorite things. I was the same at her age. My mom kept a calendar of my first year with all my milestones and various interesting things. It's pretty cool. She worked part time and kept really good track of things. Anni rolled a lot earlier than I did, but that could be because Mom never put me down.

I got both my bottom teeth at the same time, just before I turned 5 months old. My two top ones came in at the same time too, at 7 months. By 8 months I had 5 teeth. I was sick quite a bit, but overall a good baby.

I crawled just after I turned 10 months old and got into EVERYTHING. The quote from mom was: "What happens when you walk? Heaven help us!!"

At 11 months my first word was "kitty" followed by "ouch" 2 weeks later. I would sing and hum with the radio too. At 12 months I'd walk between 2 people, but wouldn't try it alone. I started to walk at 13 and half months and started to run a week later.

On Sunday I went and visited one of my best friends from High School and Junior High, Sharlott. She had a little girl about 3 weeks ago. Skye is just tiny. She was a bit over 5 lbs when she was born and is somewhere around 6 and a half pounds now. I was afraid to hold her, I thought I was going to break her. Anni was never that small, even when she was brand new.
She's a sweet baby and Anni was pretty enthralled with her. She got upset when Skye started to cry and jabbered at her, I assume to tell her it was okay. It's going to be a lot of fun when all these little angels are old enough to start playing together.

That Was So Fun, I Think We Should Do It Again In 4 Months!

2009-04-03T23:41:00.005-06:00

We are moved. We forgot our linens the first night and ended up sleeping in our sleeping bags with laundry for pillows. Anni had all of her stuff though. I made sure I knew exactly where it was. Not the case with our things. I still can't find stuff (it took 3 days to find my socks) and still haven't gone grocery shopping or even emptied our our bins of dry foods, but we're here. It's taking some getting used to, but it's a nice place in a good neighborhood. The commute is a pretty annoying, but it gives me a little time to wind down after work.

The move itself did have some funny moments, resulting in a few memorable quotes:

"The blinds work fine, so long as you don't touch them."

"How can something so little stink so bad?!"

"I think I blew an O-ring!"

"I've got to get my O-rings tightened before we lift that again."

Anni has warmed up to Ross and seems to enjoy having another person around to dote on her. She's learned to sit up by herself. I put her in bed, on her back, a few nights ago, went to check on her a half hour later, and she was sitting up in the corner grinning from ear to ear. She was so proud of herself, I just had to pick her up and cuddle her. She'll do it a few times everyday, especially when we put her in her crib and she's not pass out tired. She rolls over onto her tummy and worms her little legs underneath her, pushes up with her arms and just kind of tips backward. I don't think she knows exactly how she's doing it, because she always seems surprised.

She loves to play peek a boo, especially when she gets to control the blanket (or pajama pants, as the case may be).

I Hate Moving

2009-03-27T17:48:00.003-06:00

Moving with a baby is by far more difficult than moving while pregnant. I can't even imagine trying to move with a toddler. I guess we're gonna find out how hard it is in 4 months. Props to Ryan and Meg for managing with Addie and moving cross-country.

Look! I'm helping!

This is Kelly's brother's house, where we're moving to.

Can you tell what department I work in by the boxes I bring home from work?

Just a few more loads of small stuff and one big trip for the furniture and we should be done.

8 Months Old

2009-03-21T19:53:00.004-06:00

Anni cut her first tooth yesterday! Or possibly the day before, but I found it yesterday. She's already learning to bite. She got Kelly a few minutes ago when he wasn't paying attention to her. Apparently the funniest thing we can say is "Ow!" (She had help learning that one though.) Kelly yelped it when she bit him, and she just busted up into a fit of giggles.

She's grown in leaps and bounds during the last month. She still hasn't quite worked out the kinks in crawling, but she has no issues with rolling for what she wants. She's just the happiest, giggliest angel and charms everyone she meets. She's working on eating lumpier foods, but hasn't quite got the hang of chewing consistently. She likes little pieces of bread and seemed to enjoy the pieces of beet that I gave her today. We gave her Alaskan salmon, wild rice, and peas baby food the other day. She was a little iffy on it, especially after she forgot to chew one of the whole peas.

She loves piggyback rides. She'll get a big handful of our hair like horse reins and bounce and kick like she's riding. We're going to have an animal lover, without a doubt. She's a little like a puppy when she's happy and excited. Puppies wag their tails and end up wagging their whole body, Anni kicks her feet and bounces up and down. It's hard to hold her when she really gets going.

Cartoons

2009-03-16T10:38:00.003-06:00

Our little muffin likes her cartoons, but is particular about which ones she'll sit through. Miss Spider's Sunny Patch is a good one, but Baby Genius Nursery rhymes is the winner by far.

Don't worry, we don't let her watch much TV, just while we're trying to get ready or need a break.

Gigglemania!

2009-03-15T22:50:00.000-06:00

Kelly was mimicking the gurgling noise Anni's tummy made and apparently it was hilarious.

We love our little giggle monster!

Family Fun

2009-03-10T12:41:00.007-06:00

We had a family party at Kelly's Grandma Sugar's house on Sunday. Kelly's cousin Kyle joined the marines, so it was kind of a goodbye/good luck party. There were 4 little ones there including our Anni. Cooper, who is 10 months old, Breeana, about 18 months, and Hayden, who is 3. Anni did really well with all the fuss and commotion.

She warmed up to Grandpa Brent and didn't seem to mind being passed around. She did puke on Kelly's cousin Mckell, so I don't think Anni is McKell's favorite baby a long shot anymore.

Don't even think about putting me down.

Anna's pacifier was the hot ticket item of the day, we ended up having to take it away from her because Cooper and Breeana both kept trying to steal it and stick it in their mouths.After we took the pacifier from her she played for a few minutes, then looked at Cooper and jabbered something and he just busted out in tears. I don't know what Anna said to him, but apparently it was rather rude. I had to pick him up and give him to Grandma Sugar. She comforted him with pieces of her dinner roll.

Why I Think Anni's on the Verge of Crawling

2009-02-23T21:18:00.002-07:00

7 Months Old

2009-02-21T22:10:00.004-07:00

Seven months have just flown by! Anni is feeling a little under the weather the past few days, I think she's getting the stomach flu Kelly had this week. She's been throwing up more than usual. Bath time is one of Anni's favorite things. She'll sit in the tub and play for a long time without getting fussy. The yellow rubber ducky is her favorite bath toy. She cries when we take her out and go to get her dressed.

Everything still goes in her mouth. No teeth yet, but they're coming. She seems to drool more everyday and bites everything. She got into a tug of war with Kelly the other day over her stuffed giraffe that Aunt Natalie gave her for Christmas. I love this picture because her little double chin is so obvious.

Music to My Ears

2009-02-15T15:25:00.004-07:00

Anni is a music loving baby! She just bangs away on her musical toys so we gave her a spoon and a bowl to play with this afternoon. It took a second to figure out, but she had a great time once she got it. She was so excited when she first start making noise and just looked at me with a huge grin.

We got a new sippy cup for her at the grocery store today too. This one has a rubber spout that's closer to a bottle nipple. It took a few tries, but she figured it out and drank about 2.5 ounces of apple juice from it. The plan is to just give her juice out of the sippy cup so she doesn't expect to get juice in a bottle. I think it'll be easier to get her to take milk from the sippy cup, when the time comes to make the transition.

She's still a little sick, but getting better. Her cough is lingering and her nose is still runny, but she ought to be fine by the end of the week

Le Cordon Bleu

2009-01-28T22:20:00.004-07:00

It is official. Kelly has been accepted to the Western Culinary Institutes Le Cordon Bleu program in Portland, Oregon. The semester starts August 17th, with orientation starting on the 10th. We plan to leave on the 3rd or 4th.

The initial plan was to go to the school in Las Vegas, but I've been watching the job openings with Lowe's in my department and there have been several in the Portland area during the past few months, and no openings in all of Nevada. Just from that, I think I'll have a much better chance of transferring to Portland than to Vegas. I wanted to go to Vegas because I have my Aunt and Uncle there, but if I can't find work, we can't survive, with family or not.

The program is one year of classes, then a 3 month externship. Kelly is extremely excited about going, and can't stop talking about it. I'm so happy for him.

The school has a career placement service that has a 95% rate of employing graduates. The 5% that is excluded isn't because they couldn't be employed, they just continued their educations elsewhere or found a job through different means.

6 Months Old and a Pediatrician Visit

2009-01-21T16:57:00.005-07:00

Anni is 6 months old today! Dr. Boehm says she's very healthy. She weighs 14.8 lbs and is 25.5 inches long. She at the 25th percentile for weight and 50th for height and head size. She did pretty well with her shots. She only cried for a few seconds, then fussed for about 5 minutes, and then fell asleep and slept for about an hour. Now she's just feverish and tired. Poor little angel.

She's ready to move on to 2nd foods. They're just bigger portions and mixes instead of single foods. She's can also have pureed meats and a wider variety of fruits and veggies.
Today was strawberries and bananas. She liked it quite a bit, but couldn't quite finish all 4 ounces. Could be she was full from the stuffed puppy she tried to eat beforehand.

She loves blowing raspberries and spit bubbles. She's also paying more attention to what we're doing. She has no interest in my cell phone until I pick it up and start to do something with it, then she'll focus all of her attention on trying to take it from me. She reaches for things that she wants and getting more inflection in her noises. It could be that I'm just more aware of them, but it seems like it's easier to distinguish hungry, angry, tired, and bored noises. Hurt is a very easy one to pick out, thankfully, I hear that noise pretty rarely.

The doctor also said that now is the time to start weening her off the pacifier. I'm going to wait until early next week when she's feeling better to really start. It just doesn't seem wise to take away something that's comforting when she doesn't feel good.

Sitting Pretty

2009-01-12T19:28:00.002-07:00

Anni learned how to sit all on her own! We have to sit her up, but she can balance now. She just loves the new view. It's amazing how she just figured it out one day, and hasn't had any trouble with it since.

Christmas and New Year Blog

2009-01-01T20:12:00.004-07:00

Our Anni got spoiled rotten at Christmas with toys from everyone! Grandma and Grandpa Paskett were very happy to spend Christmas Eve and morning wit her and got to see her open her first presents. Mostly we just started a corner and she held on to the paper while we pulled on the box. She's still too little for most of her toys, as she can't quite sit up on her own yet, but she still likes to play with them while she sits in her high chair that Great Grandma Sonia got for her. Everything makes noise and lights up, which she loves.

I forgot my camera on Christmas day.

She napped through most of Christmas afternoon at Great Grandma Sonia's, but got to play with Great Grandpa Tom and Aunt Natalie a little. Cousin Blaike got to meet her and said she was a cute little squirrel.

She was passed around at Great Grandma Doris's on Christmas night, and was starting to get pretty cranky by the end of it. After, we went to Grandma Cindee's and opened the last of the presents. The storm blew in and was getting bad, so we didn't stay long. She fell asleep on the way home.

Her first New Year was pretty low key. She saw her cousin Addie and Uncle Ryan and Aunt Megan. We visited for a little while and went home at about 1030. She fell asleep on the way home again. We were in bed when midnight rolled around.

We played games and visited on New Year's day. Addie was pretty sick and didn't want to do much socializing.

Favorites

2008-12-30T14:30:00.002-07:00

3 Favorite Purchases:
Our Computer
Mine and Kelly's wedding rings
Our Wii

3 favorite movies:
Sweeney Todd
Lucky Number Slevin
Serenity

3 things I haven't done yet:
Bought a house
Lived in another state
owned a brand new car

3 favorite dishes:
Chicken Parmigiana
Raspberry Pie
Kelly's Tacos

3 favorite shows:
Chuck
Two and a Half Men
Firefly (I don't care if it's not on the air anymore, it's still a favorite

3 activities you enjoy:
Playing with Anni
Playing Wii
Visiting with family

3 places I have traveled:
Germany
England
Caribbean

3 favorite treats:
pomegranates
chocolate oranges
Haribo frogs

3 things I would buy if money were no issue:
A nice house with lots of land
A restaurant for Kelly to run
A new car

3 people you want to tag:
Sid
Grandma
Meg

Baby's First Christmas

2008-12-26T21:53:00.003-07:00

This was Annika's first Christmas. We spent Christmas eve and Christmas morning with Kelly's parents. They were so happy to see her.

Here's a video of Anna opening her very first present.

5 Months Old

2008-12-21T23:18:00.003-07:00

Anni is just getting smarter everyday. She's likely going to learn her name this month, start raising her arms when she wants to be picked up, and giving us hugs and kisses back. I'm betting she's going to figure out sitting on her own too. Crawling is just around the corner!

We're excited for her first Christmas, even though she won't be able to do much, it's going to be fun.

A New Pediatrician

2008-12-10T13:42:00.003-07:00

We've been arguing about Anni's puking and the lack of anything the pediatrician is doing about it, so we made an appointment with a new one, and are going to start seeing her instead. I like the doctors equally, but Kelly prefers Dr. Boehm (pronounced Bame, in case you care) and her office is much closer to home, 12th Street instead of at Ogden Regional Hospital.

She looked Anna over, who now weighs 13 pounds and 3 ounces, and said she's healthy and a happy baby. We described the problem and she said that it's definitely reflux. She gave us a sample of baby Prevacid to give her and made an appointment to see her again in 2 weeks to decide if it's helping or if we need to try Prilosec instead. She says that it probably won't help her to throw up less, but it will decrease the acid in it, so she's more comfortable and it's less irritating to her skin. We have to hold the pill inside her cheek until it dissolves. We tried that the first time and she wasn't happy about it. Today I tried the other method, dissolving it in water and giving it to her in a dropper. That worked much better, so we'll stick to doing it that way.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-03T08:31:00.003-07:00

I forgot my camera, but I got some pictures from the weekend at least.

There were just shy of 30 people packed into Mom and Dad's new addition. It wasn't a tight fit really. The older kids were playing in the living room and basement with the TV's, the younger kids ran circles around the tables, and the adults just chatted in the great room and passed around the babies. Well, they passed around Annika. Josh didn't want anything to do with anyone beside Kelly or Sarah.

He's just a big baby, still much bigger than Anni. He seems like he should be older, except they make the same noises and that gives away that they're the same age. Josh liked her. He stopped fussing at one point because she was right there by him.

Mom, I think he's going to eat me...

I didn't get to spend much time with family because I had to work, but I've got more time off around Christmas, so I should be able to visit everyone.

Mom and Dad seemed to enjoy having 3 of the 4 grand kids there.

There's nothing more tiring than packing babies around though.

Sitting

2008-11-25T09:01:00.004-07:00

Anni is working out the kinks of sitting on her own. I think she likes the new sensation of tossing herself backwards.

4th Month Pediatrician Visit

2008-11-24T12:08:00.003-07:00

Miss Anni is 12.8 pounds and is 24.25 inches long. That's the 25th percentile for height and weight, and she's in the 10th percentile for head circumference. That means that she's heavier and taller than 25% of the babies her age, and has a bigger head than 10% of them. She's just little!

Hi Mom!

All said and done, she is very healthy, developing perfectly, and loves her doctor. I've never seen her smile and coo so much for anyone except Kelly and me. She's hitting all her milestones right on track and even a little early on the basic motor skills.

What? I didn't do anything...

She had more vaccine shots today. It's absolutely heartbreaking, but some baby Tylenol, a cat nap, and a warm bottle later, she's feeling much better.

Can't...quite...make it....

Since we're still concerned about how much she throws up, the doc scheduled us an appointment with a pediatric gastroenterologist to do an analysis on her to determine if we do need to do something more than just wait it out. We got the go ahead on rice cereal, which should also help, so I'll be posting a video of that soon.

4 Months Old

2008-11-21T09:52:00.004-07:00

Anna is 4 full months old. She's also sick at the moment. She had a fever of 101.5 on Wednesday night, but it broke after a few hours and she's been sitting at 99.1, which is pretty normal for her, ever since. She's got a stuffy nose and a little cough, so do I for that matter, and it's making both of us cranky.

She's supposed to start giggling regularly and get more and more interactive this upcoming month. We'll probably be able to start giving her rice cereal after her appointment on Monday. We're going to have to come up with a high chair before too much longer. She's starting to sit up a little bit. If we sit her up and let go she can balance for a second or two, sometimes. She can sit for several minutes if she's balancing herself by holding onto our hands.

She definitely recognizes Kelly, Grandma Sonia, and me and is all smiles when she see one of us, assuming she's not cranky. She looks for sounds, especially voices, and is starting to join in on conversations. She's taking an interest in toys, so we're going to need more of those! Her favorite plaything is still her hands. She'll look at them, suck on them, and will play with them for longer than anything else. She's not terribly particular about whose hands she's sucking on. Mine and Kelly's fingers regularly get grabbed and stuffed in her mouth. Basically everything she manages to grab gets put in her mouth.

Sweetheart Tag

2008-11-19T19:35:00.006-07:00

1. What is his full name?
Kelly Raymond Paskett

He was named after his mom's father, Raymond, and grandfather, Clarence (whose nickname was Kelly.)

2. How old is he?

3. Do you have any nicknames for him? What are they?
Of course... Sweetie, Muffin, Husby, etc.

4. What color are his eyes?
Blue

5. What color is his hair?

Brown

6. How tall is he?

6' 3''

7. What is his favorite color?

Baby Blue

8. What is his favorite food?

Pretty much beef anything.

9. What is his favorite past time(s)?

Kelly loves to just stay home and cuddle and watch TV. As far as actual activities go, he adores golfing, backpacking, and cooking.

10. What is his favorite sport?

Golf and Soccer

11. What does he want to be when he grows up?

A chef

12. What does he do that surprises you?

He does a lot that surprises me, not always good things. Usually I get surprise cuddles that scare me or I wake up to baby fingers in my nose.

13. What's your favorite feature about him?

I love his big muscly arms. ;)

14. What's your favorite quality about him?
I love his sense of humor and I love how much he tells me he loves me.

15. What do you admire most about him?

His devotion to family. He'll do almost anything for his parents, mine, me, or the baby.

16. What's a hidden talent that he has?

Cooking, he is an amazing cook.

17. Where did you meet?

At Best Buy in Logan, we worked together.

18. When, where, and what did you do for your first date?

Our first date was New Year's Ever 2005. We just hung out at his apartment with his roommates and their dates.

19. When and where was your first kiss?

New Year's Eve 2005, on his front lawn.

20. What first caught your eye or attracted you to him?

His cologne, then his sense of humor.

21. Who said 'I love you' first?

Him. February 6, 2006.

22. How long did you date before you were married?

1 year and 4 days

23. How long have you been married?

Just shy of 2 years

24. Does he have any nicknames for you? What are they?

He usually never calls me by my first name, I'm just sweetie, honey, chicken lips (not one of my favorites)

25. What are your favorite things to do as a couple?

Just spend time together, whether it be cuddling on the couch watching TV or hanging out with our families. Playing the Wii together is our newest pastime.

Boys Will Be Boys

2008-11-15T23:41:00.003-07:00

I took Anni and went to a girl's night out tonight, while Kelly stayed home and hung out with his brother, Ross.

I should preface this by saying that we bought our one and only Christmas gift for each other at the beginning of the week, a Nintendo Wii. They were in-stock at amazon.com, and we jumped on it, since we couldn't get one last Christmas. Being the instant gratification seekers that we are, we immediately started playing it.

Kelly and Ross rented MarioKart and Lego Star Wars and vegged out for the 5 hours I was gone. I came home to this:

They rented the game, but bought the light saber attachments for the controllers.

In Kelly's defense, Ross bought them for us as a belated birthday present for Kelly, and Kelly wants to buy the Lego Star Wars game with our spending money from the next paycheck, and they are kinda cool, but I almost came unglued before the explanation.

In summation, boys will be boys, and I need to remember not to leave my husband unattended with his brothers.

Picture Tag

2008-11-15T12:06:00.002-07:00

I was tagged by Tami.
1. Go to your pictures.
2. Upload 4th picture from the 4th folder.
3. Post, and explain what the picture is of.
4. Tag your friends.

This is a picture of my Grandma Doris holding Annika, I think for the first time. Anna is her 17th and youngest great grandchild. I am her 8th and youngest grandchild.

I tag Grandma Sonia and Lyndee; time to update those blogs!

Time for a Change

2008-11-07T17:48:00.003-07:00

I got tired of my hair and decided it was time for a change.

So, I went from this:

to this:
I'm hoping the curls will be a little quicker and a little cuter than just plain Jane straight.

What do you all think?

A Day with Annika

2008-11-05T10:25:00.011-07:00

I thought I would blog the play by play of my Wednesday off with Anni. I think it'll be interesting for parents to see how their kids compare and for non-parents to get a glimpse of a typical day.

12:30 AM: Anna finally fell asleep for the night.

3 AM: Fussed for a minute, went back to sleep.

6 AM: Cried for about 5 seconds, fell asleep again.

7:45 AM: Woke up for breakfast and a diaper change.

8 AM: Finished her bottle, fell asleep.

9 AM: Woke up, ready for cuddles.

9:30 AM: Fell asleep in my arms, so I put her down and started the laundry.

10:30 AM: Awake and ready for her second breakfast and in need of a new diaper.

11 AM: Quick breakfast for mom while making funny faces at the munchkin.

11:15 AM: First spit-up of the day. Looks like I'm going to be washing my pajama pants, sweater, and bedspread. Two more spit ups promptly followed while I changed the laundry.

11:45 AM: Anna started fussing and grumping from a sour tummy. (I can tell it's a bad belly because she's burped, but keeps spitting up.) Cue the warm rice pack on the tummy.

11:50 AM: She's asleep. Probably just a cat nap, but I can get started on the dishes now.

12:20 PM: She's awake and after a diaper change, is, for the moment, happy to sit up against Mommy's pillow and watch the TV flicker and mom fold clothes.

12:40 PM: Anni's sick of sitting, so I laid her down on the bed with her gym and she's happy again. She scratched her cheek so I clipped her nails, which she doesn't like much because it requires holding still. I usually wait till she's asleep, but she was in a good mood, so I just did it quick. Now for a laundry switch and a stove top scrub while she's still amused with the gym.

1:10 PM: Fussing is promptly resolved with her lunchtime bottle.

1:25 PM: More spit-up. A new burp cloth is required.

1:50 PM: Another sour belly. A new diaper and warm rice pack later, she's fairly happy again.

2:25 PM: Sound asleep for her afternoon catnap. Time for a quick shower for Mama..

2:55 PM: Awake, smiling, and farting. She is her father's daughter.

3:15 PM: My little monster decided to start crying, only stopping when picked up and carried
around. Instead, she's getting a bottle then a trip to the grocery store.

4:00 PM: She fussed all through the store. I don't blame her, I hate Walmart too.

4:55 PM: She's done nothing but cry since we got home. She fusses while I hold her, cries and screams if I set her down. A diaper change didn't help. Either she's got an upset tummy, is tired, or is getting Kelly's nasty cold.

5:05 PM: Still crying. Temperature is 98.7, so she's not sick yet.

5:10 PM: Sleeping. She was just tired and cranky.

5:35 PM: Awake and much happier, hope she stays that way while we eat dinner.

5:50 PM: She was good while we ate, but now is crying again. She stopped after her dinner bottle.

6:10 PM: After some spitting up and another blanket that has to be washed, it's tummy time!

6:55 PM: She's been such a good girl. She played with us and then she rolled over! It took a fart and a grunt to get her over the edge, but she did it all on her own!

7:05 PM: Switch the laundry, then it's funny noise time while Mommy folds clothes.

7:26 PM: Maybe not. Switching the laundry turned into cleaning the kitchen, again. Funny noises with Daddy turned into nose vomit, mom's side of the comforter needing more of a wash, another vomit covered blanket, and a diaper and onesie change.

7:35 PM: Now funny noise time.

7:55 PM: Bath time!

8:10 PM: In her bed, half asleep. I'm kinda doubting it'll last.

8:35 PM: Awake and wanting dinner.

9:00 PM: Bottle is finally gone, baby is back in bed. So begins the nightly bedtime battle.

9:35 PM: Still awake, attempting a diaper change to get her to sleep.

9:40 PM: Spit up requiring pajama change.

9:45 PM: More spit up, another blanket to be washed and boogers to be sucked.

10:20 PM: Starting to fall asleep on Daddy's chest.

10:35 PM: Still awake. I'm hoping another diaper change and the rice pack will work.

10:45 PM: No luck. We're going for a car ride.

11:15 PM: Sound asleep at last.

Hopefully that was educational or at least interesting.

Annika's First Halloween

2008-10-31T11:28:00.004-06:00

For Anna's first Halloween, we dressed her up as a pea pod. I have to work tonight, so we took her trick or treating in Logan on Sunday the 26th and in Plain City on the 30th. She was a bit of a pill on Sunday and didn't want to be in her costume, so she threw up in it. Thankfully, it's machine washable. Once Daddy picked her up and started playing with her, she was much happier.

Hi, Mommy!

Don't even think about putting me down.

She was an angel yesterday and was just thrilled to be the center of attention. After a lot of looking, listening, and drooling, she fell asleep in Great Grandma Doris's arms.

I'm very green, Mom. I don't think I like it.

Happy to just hang out with Grandma.

I'm a sweet pea!

Out for the count.

Cold Season Has Arrived

2008-10-22T23:36:00.003-06:00

Annika has her first identifiable head cold. Her little nose is running off her face and she's sneezing up a storm. We bought a humidifier for her room. Any suggestions for helping her feel better?

3 Months Old

2008-10-21T22:40:00.003-06:00

Annika is 3 months old today. I've determined that the cause of her grumpiness in the evenings is that she's overtired. According to my baby newsletter, she should be sleeping for 10 hours at night, which she usually does, but needs 5 more hours of sleep during the day spread out through 2 to 3 naps. She's not getting that extra sleep, because she doesn't want to miss what's going on.

She's very close to rolling over, but can't seem to get her arms out of the way. Her grip is very good and loves playing with her plastic keys. She's very talkative too. Today she was trying to mimic the noises Kelly was making at her. She has a very distinctive "ah-goo," "ah-oo," "ah-bawk," and "nuh-uh" when she's cranky and often "maa!" when she's fake crying.

She's starting to splash with her legs, but slides down every time she does it, so it scares her.

I love bath time!

These fingers are so tasty I want to eat them all at the same time, but I'm not giving up the pacifier either!

Look at how good I can hold my head up.

3rd Month Pediatrician Visit

2008-10-15T23:11:00.004-06:00

We took Anni in to the doctor today in an attempt to figure out her tummy problems. She looks healthy, feels healthy, and acts healthy. She weighs 11 pounds and 4 ounces, so in the 25th percentile for weight. Dr. Qader says she's gaining weight right on track, so he's not worried about any nutritional inadequacies from puking so much. She's had a cold, so that could be part of the problem lately. With the mucus in her throat her first instinct is to puke it up. He says that if we're really concerned about it, he can call and set up the esophageal scope without any problems, but he doesn't feel like there's enough of a problem to warrant it. Babies just puke. He's loathe to put her on any medications that she doesn't absolutely need, and I agree. He told me to try and only feed her 2 ounces at a time, but to do it every hour and a half to see if that would help. I tried, but she wasn't having any of that. A really cranky 15 minutes was all the pause I could get out of her. She's just so miserable after she eats, and I wish I could do something to help. Unless it gets worse we're either going to have to wait until she grows out of this or find an other doctor. I like our doctor, and don't want to go to another one that will just rely on pills to fix everything. My next guess is to try and cut things out of my diet and see if it helps at all.

Going Private

2008-10-09T14:12:00.002-06:00

Ok, given the diaperless nature of Anni's first laugh, I'm moving the video to the baby blog and changing that one to private. I'm still leaving the family one public though. Send me an email at sarahpaskett@gmail.com for an invite to it.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

2008-10-08T16:38:00.012-06:00

I thought that I should do a blog showing how quickly Annika has grown during the past few weeks. Time really does fly.

July 22nd

July 29th

August 7th

August 10th

August 20th

August 28th

September 6th

September 15th

September 21st

September 28th

October 8th

Blessing the Baby

2008-09-28T19:50:00.011-06:00

The blessing for Annika was today. It went really well. She was quiet throughout and just happy to be there. She got a little fussy in the afternoon, but I think she was tired of being passed around like a bag of chips. My father-in-law gave her the blessing, and she wore the dress I was blessed in 22 years ago.

From left to right: Great, Great Grandma Violet, Great Grandma Sugar, Great Grandma Sonia, Grandma Cindee, Great Grandma Doris, and Grandma LeAnn

Aunt Lesa, pulling faces at the babe.From left to right: Great Grandpa Tom, Great Grandpa Bernard, Grandpa Steve, and Grandpa Brent.Happy to be back with Daddy. A good family picture.
Those fingers taste good! There's something on the ground that's way more interesting than the camera.
At some point we do plan to do birth announcements or something similar, probably with this picture. It's just a matter of having money.

2nd Month Pediatrician Visit

2008-09-22T13:19:00.003-06:00

Annika now weighs 10 lbs 7 oz and is 22.5 inches long. I'm starting to think that she's just going to stay little and petite, which is better for a little girl than being a tank, I suppose.

Dr. Qader says she's right on track, and is hitting all the milestones that she should. He's not worried about reflux, because she's not losing weight. He said to just make her take breaks during meals, even though she gets mad, it will help to keep it down. He said that if we're really concerned he can do a test to monitor her acid levels, but we would have to have a tube put down her throat for a night, then if needed he could give us an antacid, but we'd have to do the whole thing over again a few months later to see if it was helping. I opted not to jam a tub down her little throat, since he's not worried.

She had to get her first vaccines today, and that didn't make her too happy. She took her oral vaccine just fine, and was laying there watching the nurse, starting to doze a little, when the nurse poked her with the first needle, there were 3 of them. Poor little Mei Mei. Her eyes got huge and she held her breath for half a second, looked at me like "what did you just let her do to me?!" then turned bright red and screamed. She only cried for a few minutes, then whimpered for a few more, then fell asleep in the car and has been sleeping for the past 3 hours. I'm going to wake her up to play, so hopefully she'll sleep for us tonight like she did last night.

Daddy playing "flying baby," his favorite game, with Anni.

2 Months Old!

2008-09-21T21:39:00.004-06:00

Today Annika is officially 2 months old.

She was sleeping really well up until last night, then just wouldn't go to sleep and has been a grump all day today.

We had a milestone today, she looked up at me and gave me a big gummy grin, twice! She's been smiling for a week or so, but not really at anything, so it's really rewarding to finally have a smile meant for me.

We just love our tiny little angel!

Annika's Blessing

2008-09-19T08:54:00.004-06:00

We will be blessing Annika in Logan on September 28, 2008 at 9am. The church is on 100 W and 600 S. We will be doing a brunch afterwards, but we're not sure on the location yet. The plan was for a park, but it will probably be too cold, so we're still working on that one. Hope to see you there!

Scrapbooking Madness

2008-09-16T16:12:00.004-06:00

My good friend Lyndee gave us a scrapbook with a few pages set up for my baby shower. I finally got around to putting in the pictures today while Annika played. I think the pages turned out really cute. Thanks Lyndee!

Joshua Bernard Spiers

2008-09-08T10:01:00.003-06:00

We took a trip to Twin Falls yesterday to see Joshua's blessing. I can't believe how big he is! He's only 2 weeks older than Annika.

Abigail is as busy as ever, but did take a momentary interest in Anni.

Grandpa and Grandma Spiers had a good time, and were very happy to see so many of the babies.

Annika did really well with the drive. She slept the whole way up and about half of the way back home. She stayed awake through all of church and for the lunch after. She started fussing a few minutes into sacrament, so Kelly and I took her outside after Josh's blessing.

Woes of the Working Mother

2008-09-04T09:32:00.006-06:00

Having worked 3 full days so far, I've come to a conclusion: bills suck. I miss my baby and I hate working till 11 o'clock every night. In all fairness, the shifts pass quickly and they need me there, but it's still hard. I only see Kelly for a few minutes in the morning while I feed the baby before he goes to work, for about 45 minutes on my lunch break, and from when I get home till he dozes off. Maybe a grand total of an hour and a half a day. I don't like this game. It'll get better eventually, but for now it really sucks.

Honestly, how could you not miss this face?

We tried a new tactic with getting Mei-Mei to sleep last night. Kelly started her bedtime routine: bath, bottle, book, at 7 rather than 9 or 9:30. He said it was hard to let her cry, but when I got home she just fussed for about a half hour then slept till 6 this morning. I think. There may have been a 3am feeding in there, but I honestly don't remember. I'm still frazzled from the last few nights when she wouldn't go to sleep till 3am, but still woke up at 6, then would fuss till 8 and then sleep till noon.

She's waking up now for her mid-morning snack. She usually wakes up pretty happy, unless she's really hungry. Right now she's in and out and just happy to be here. What an angel.

Back to the Real World

2008-08-28T12:19:00.006-06:00

That blissful period of reprieve from work know as "maternity leave" is coming to a close. I'm back on the schedule at work with a full 80 hour pay period ahead of me. Monday is my first day back. My managers and coworkers seem excited to have me back, but I'm torn. It'll be nice to get out of the house and to make money again, but I'm going to miss Anni like crazy. The garden departments are going through the transition from summer to the holidays. Halloween decorations are up and Christmas will be following suit shortly. From what I understand, I will be spending a large chunk of my winter outside, selling Christmas trees, packaged firewood, and ice melt. Kelly has a big down-filled coat I plan on wearing. I'm going to look like a red and black Michellin Man.

Annika is sleeping better. At night, she usually sleeps for 5 or 6 hours at a time. The problem is getting her to go to sleep initially. The past few nights we've both been so tired we don't have the patience to fight with her, so we just put her in the car and take a drive for a half hour. She'll fall asleep and stay asleep. Last night, I was bound and determined to have her go to sleep on her own. That went over rather poorly. We fed her and did her nightly bedtime bath, and she fell right asleep. That lasted for about 15 minutes before she woke up screaming. At about 1:30 in the morning she finally went to sleep and stayed asleep. I think I just let her sleep too much during the day yesterday. She falls asleep quickly and sleeps pretty well when she's on the bed with us in the evening or with us in the living room, but as soon as we put her down in her room, in her bed, she wakes right up and won't go back to sleep.

One Month Old!

2008-08-21T13:31:00.004-06:00

Today, Annika is one month old! It's gone by so quickly, I just can't believe it.

Cousins

2008-08-18T13:13:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, Kelly's nieces, Isabelle and Jasmine, came to see Annika. Jasmine is 7 and Isabelle is 5. It's amazing that in a few short years Anni is going to be that big and that much trouble. The girls just loved her and were so excited to finally get to see her.

Grandma LeAnn and Grandpa Brent were pretty happy to see her too.

I let the girls play in the kitchen while they were here. I suppose we could have actually made something, but they were having a good time mixing random spices in a bowl and adding water to see what came out. I'd forgotten how messy little kids can be. It cleaned up easy enough, and they had fun, so it was worth losing a bit of sugar, flour, and spices we don't use much.

A Day at the Fair

2008-08-12T14:36:00.008-06:00

We took Annika to her first fair on Saturday. She slept through the entire thing. Addison was pretty excited about it though. Kelly got some Daddy-Daughter bonding time; she loves her little sling carrier.

She got a little overly warm and ended up with a little, tiny heat rash on her arm and cheeks. We should have taken the stroller, but I wanted her close to me while we were out in such a crowded place.

I'm amused that the first picture we have of all three of us is outside the Weber County Fair. Makes me feel closer to my redneck roots.

Kelly got his funnel cake fix and we got to spend time with my parents, Meg, Ryan, and Addie. She was so cute at the petting zoo. I can't wait to take our little bug next year!

This is the strip quilt that mom made for Anni. I just love it!

2 Week Follow up Visit

2008-08-06T11:48:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was Anni's second week follow-up with Dr. Qader. She's 20.5 inches long and 7 lbs 14 ounces now. She's in the 50th percentile for height and 25th for weight. She's just a tiny little thing, but very healthy. We're really happy with how quickly she's growing, it's just amazing that she was just a moving bulge in my belly 15 days ago.

The doctor said not to worry about reflux unless she starts losing weight. The spit up and puking is just normal. If anything, she's probably eating a little too much and that's why she pukes. He says not to worry, she'll work it out and figure out when to stop on her own.

She's sleeping better at night, and waking me up to eat rather than me waking her up, which is a relief.

Anni also found her tongue and fingers this week. The novelty of her tongue is wearing off and she doesn't stick it out as much as she did a few days ago, but her fingers are still fascinating. She doesn't suck on her thumb, but will suck on the side of her fist or her first 3 fingers. She's extremely strong, and can hold her head up very well, as illustrated here.

She's doing better with baths. Her little stump has finally fallen off, so we can do real baths now. They're getting necessary, because she spits up and pukes on us and herself so much. Her little diaper rash is slowly getting better. The doctor said to keep an eye on it and to use a lot more Desitin than we were using, and it should clear up by the end of the week.

First Pediatrician Visit

2008-07-29T15:47:00.002-06:00

Today was Annika's first visit to Dr. Qader, the pediatrician that took care of her in the hospital. Kelly and I just love him, which is very refreshing after not particularly caring for my OB. He answered every question very thoroughly, and gave us a lot of information and options.

Annika is back up to 7 lbs, 7 ounces. Most babies take about 2 weeks to get back up to their birth weight, so we're really happy with the chunky monkey progress she's making. She's not jaundiced at all and is very healthy. Her lungs sound good, a relief after the scare she gave us in the hospital. Our next appointment is in a week.

2008-07-25T19:36:00.003-06:00

Annika Ellen Paskett

2008-07-25T16:59:00.006-06:00

So, here is the full play by play of my delivery:
At about 1 AM on the 21st my water broke. Feels a lot like peeing your pants, except you can't control it at all. Kelly was extremely calm and just started loading things up to go to the hospital. I was in a blind panic, trying to call my doctor, who was on vacation, calling my mom to ask her what to do and trying to not forget anything, because I hadn't bothered to pack a bag. I wasn't having any contractions until we got in the car and were halfway to the hospital. They didn't really hurt because my amniotic sac only had a little tear in it, so I still had a lot of cushion. We were admitted into the hospital at 1:30, dilated to a 1, and then were just stuck in limbo until 6 AM when the shifts changed.

Once the shifts changed and the doctors got in for the day we got some orders. They put oxytocin (a contraction inducer) into my IV to get the contractions closer together and called for the epidural.

The slow leak in my water had removed a lot of the cushion so the contractions were getting very painful by the time they got around to the epidural at 7 AM. I was dilated to a 2. I think they may have gone a little heavy on the medication because I couldn't even tell when I was having a contraction. I only pushed the button 3 times during the whole thing, and 2 of them were while I was pushing.

After the epidural, I couldn't have cared less about what was going on around me, I was just happy as could be. My primary nurse was training another nurse, so I was the guinea pig. She was explaining how to check dilation and about to show her, when I mentioned that I was a little uncomfortable with having my business on display when they turned on the spotlight and just ignored me. I guess I knew I wasn't going to have any modesty left at the end of it.

By about 9 AM I was dilated to a 6, and at 10 AM to 8. Somewhere during those two hours the nurses determined that the slow leak in my water had stopped because the baby's head had pushed it tight enough that it closed off, so my water was going to have to break, again, before we went any further.

At about 11 AM, I was fully dilated. During the course of the dilation, I started getting sick and throwing up every hour or so. At 11, I started feeling sick again while the nurses checked the dilation. I leaned over to throw up, and the head nurse got all excited and told me to do it again. While mentally cussing at her, I started, involuntarily, hurling and I heard the most sickening splash noise. Apparently a little poke was all my water needed and throwing up is better than the best push a person can do.

The nurses told us that there was meconium (fetal poop) in the fluid and that NICU nurses would have to be there during the delivery. We asked, well Kelly asked, because I was still really stoned and barely knew what was going on, what the long term issues could be from a meconium baby, and what we needed to be prepared for. All she told us was that her son had been a meconium baby and now he was "just a big shit." I thought Kelly was going to rip her head off. She finally told him that 99.9% of meconium babies are just fine, and that the NICU nurses are there to protect against the .1% that have problems. Several hours later we finally got someone to explain that the baby inhales the contaminated fluid in the womb and that it coats the lungs and can cause very serious infections, but usually doesn't if suctioned out.

The nurses had me push from a little after 11 AM till she was born at 12:41. All in all, it was 11.5 hours of labor and an hour and a half of pushing.

They suctioned out her lungs and she was doing really well, except she was blue and wouldn't cry. She was fussing and grunting, but the nurses could not get her to cry. They finally handed her to Kelly, and he brought her to me. My parents came in shortly after that. She was still really blue, but everyone kept saying it was normal. After a few minutes her eyes got wide, her mouth went slack and she stopped breathing. I panicked, started to pat her back, and hit the call button several times, while mom flicked her feet. She started breathing again just before the nurses got there. She did the same thing, twice, when I tried to feed her a few minutes after that. Kelly finally got the nurses and told them to take her to the nursery and figure out what was wrong with her. After they tried to feed her a bottle and she did the same thing they sent her down to the NICU. We didn't get her back until 10 PM. They suctioned her lungs several times and monitored her oxygen levels. Finally, she started crying and eating normally, and that was when they sent her back. We sent her to the nursery that night so they could monitor her sleep, and brought her to me to eat. She did fine all through the night, so the pediatrician that had been with her through the day before said we could leave that night.

She has a tendency to sleep through feedings and wake up so hungry she won't stop crying or latch on, so I've had to wake her up to feed her every 2.5 to 3 hours. Yesterday evening she was insisting on being fed every hour and a half. I'm learning to listen to her better. She'll start to fuss and whimper when it's time to eat, but won't wake up enough to cry.

All in all, she is an angel. She doesn't cry unless she's really hungry, dirty, or being messed with. She doesn't like diaper changes or getting her clothes changed much, but she's getting better about those two, and stays pretty calm.
She's telling me it's time to eat, so I'm going to bring this blog to an end.

Thank you so much to everyone for all their support and love!

Baby Shower, Part 2

2008-07-20T10:41:00.005-06:00

Yesterday was my baby shower with Kelly's family. They are all so loving and supportive!

We played the "yarn around my belly" game, and Grandma Sugar was almost right on at about 42 inches.

We got lots of books to read to her and some really cute toys. Grandma Sugar, Rita, Jenny, and Heather all went in on a bouncer that turns into a little push walker. I'm really excited for Mei-Mei to get big enough to play with it.

The whole family tied a quilt for us. It's just darling.

Baby Shower, Part 1

2008-07-15T15:08:00.006-06:00

On Saturday, Mom, Aunt Natalie, and Grandma Sonia threw a baby shower for me. Although there were a lot of last minute cancellations, we had a good turnout, and had a really good time.

My friend, Lyndee, was right on the money with her guess of how big around my belly is. Grandma is measuring every one's guesses.

I won the baby trivia game, Aunt Shirley won the baby in an ice cube game, Sherri kicked our butts in the word scramble, and Aunt Cloann won the memory game. Here we are all deep in thought.It was really nice to see everyone. I haven't seen Aunt Susan since my wedding and Aunt Carla and Cloann for at least 3 or 4 years. The food was wonderful and I couldn't be happier with how everything went. We've got almost everything we need for the baby. I think. The few things we're missing I think we'll get at the shower Kelly's family is doing for me this Saturday. Everyone has been so generous and so happy for us. We really couldn't ask for more.

Everything still seems a little surreal, even though the baby could be here any day. I doubt she'll be early, but if she is, we're ready, materially, now.

The Bucket List

2008-07-09T16:21:00.004-06:00

So, Kelly and I rented "The Bucket List" last night. Very good movie, I fully recommend it. I'm also very proud of myself because I didn't cry. Preggy hormones and all, and not one tear! Yes, this is an accomplishment. Last week that Humane Society commercial with Sarah McLaucghlin made me bawl for 20 minutes.

In short, Morgan Freeman is an amazing actor, Jack Nicholson still gives me the creeps, and Jack from Will and Grace is such a cute guy when he's not portraying a giant, flaming gay man.

In light of the fact that it was a good movie and I have nothing else to really blog about, I feel like I should post a list of things I'd like to accomplish before I die. I know it's cliche, get over it.

Sarah's Bucket List

Start a family (halfway there on that one)
Own a home
Cook a full Thanksgiving dinner for my family (immediate, extended, or both. for those of you who are thinking about bailing on cooking this year, give me some time! I'll have a newborn!)
Own a brand new car, not just new to me
Have a 50th wedding anniversary
See Rome
Not have to live from paycheck to paycheck
Get my Master's Degree
Watch a tree grow that I planted, in my own yard.
Skydiving (I've always wanted to do it, but I know it's gonna have to wait till my kids are older)
Go on a cruise with Kelly (another one with the kids too, when they're old enough)
Learn to play the violin
Take a camping trip Kelly's way (tents, hiking in and out, packing all the food on your back, etc.)

That's all I've got for the moment. I'll add more as I think of it.

Work and Baby Update

2008-07-03T14:52:00.005-06:00

I worked the first of my early morning, 6 hour shifts today. I can't believe the difference a few hours makes. I've been working from 9 to 6 for the past month, then this week Scott cut me down to 9 to 4 because I kept throwing up at work, but I was still getting really tired and sick. Today's shift was from 6 to 1. It wasn't hot, so I could work outside and actually get things done. I didn't feel sick at all, and much less tired than I normally do. The only problem is that Lowe's requires a half hour lunch on shifts over 6 hours and an hour lunch with any shift over 7 hours. I should be okay if I just remember to take something light with me so I can eat in the break room and to keep my time under 7 hours. Six hours just isn't enough time to get everything done that needs to be done though!

Today's issue was from one of the vendors. They dropped a shipment off outside the gate last night. When I got in this morning, we checked it and received it. We had to reject over half of the plants. They were heat burned and disgustingly moldy. I think the driver had turned off the refrigeration to save on gas. (He was coming from Oregon.) So I spent most of my day dealing with that, then receiving another plant truck that came in.

The girls at work are convinced that I'm going to go into labor any day. Apparently the baby has started to drop. I didn't really notice, except I couldn't bend over far enough to put my shoes on, but the receiving girls and head cashiers were having a fit about it yesterday. I think they may be more excited than I am. There seems to be two groups of "baby followers:" the ones that come up and play with my belly every time they see me, and the ones that ask me about it a lot, but are terrified to touch my stomach. They're fine with smacking my arm or patting me on the back, but won't do more than barely touch my belly. It's actually a little weirder than the ones that poke and prod, because I'm used to that. Women with children of their own make up most of the "play with the belly" group, and a few guys and the girls without kids the "safe distance" group.

We're slowly getting things ready for the baby. Most of the clothes are washed and the room is being slowly organized. I've been doing most of it myself because every time Kelly walks into that room he gets kind of googly eyed and starts playing with stuff. I caught him in the act with the soft front carrier. We can't use it until she can hold her head up on her own, but he was bound and determined to test it out.

The baby shower is going to be interesting. He doesn't usually get giggly and excited about things in front of anyone but me, but with all the cute baby stuff for our little one there, it may be too much for him to contain.

Sorry!

2008-07-02T17:10:00.002-06:00

So, I really dropped the ball, blog-wise, in June. I've been so busy with work and baby stuff that I haven't really had anything to post about. I'm going to try to do a better job this month. A new blog once a week is the goal, but the problem is: I have no life outside of Lowe's and my belly. So, if I start blogging about what happened on Law and Order: SVU reruns, you know why.

10 Life Lessons I've Learned Through Pregnancy

2008-06-13T16:15:00.006-06:00

Karma~ Yes, your bladder CAN get smaller. Don't complain or it will.
Theory of Relativity~ Feeling your baby move is a wonderful thing. It is slightly less wonderful at 3am.
Self Reliance~ "It's your vomit, honey, I'm not cleaning it up. Oh, don't forget your to wash your hair."
Human Nature~ About 70% of people will smile and go out of their way for a pregnant woman. Around 20% blame you for your condition and give no quarter. The remaining 10% just don't care.
Perception~ Most people don't notice that your pregnant "glow" is coming from the insane amount of sweat you're producing.
Patience~ It may not seem like it, but someday you will stop vomiting for no reason, and will realize that it was all for a very good reason.
Perseverance~ Just because you threw up ravioli once, doesn't mean it will make you hurl again. Although after 3 times, you might want to reconsider your lunch options.
Compassion~ I've only gained 20 pounds and I'm exhausted. Maybe obese people do have an excuse for using the motorized carts at the store.
Mystery~ It is possible to cry for an hour and not know why.
Conformity~ There are 6 billion people in the world. Even the stupidest question has already been asked by someone else, so take comfort in knowing your pointless panic attack has happened before and will happen again.

The "Lowe-down"

2008-05-25T19:24:00.003-06:00

So, here's the update on my first full, operational month with Lowe's: I really like my job. I've almost got a full complement of coworkers now, so things are running much smoother. I have a full time waterer, so much less is dying now, except when she has her two days off and no one waters anything. We worked out that glitch and rotate mine and Becky's days off with hers now, so one of us water when she's gone. There's another guy with a horticulture degree starting in a week or two to help me out. He's going to cover my responsibilities while I'm on maternity leave. (I already checked, he cannot be given my position while I'm away on maternity leave.) I feel like I've really stepped up to my responsibilities. I know exactly what my plant orders are doing, I'm keeping the nursery stocked, and keeping my people busy. It's kind of funny, the order of management goes from my zone manager, Scott, to my department manager, Ryan, to the team lead, Matt, to me, then to the sales associates and vendors. Most of the people in our area don't even know who Matt is. They come to me first, sometimes over Ryan. Ryan doesn't care, he'd rather they came to me and left him alone to get his other stuff done. Matt doesn't seem to want to step up to a leadership role either.

Everyone is really good to work with, albeit, there are a few quirks here and there, but that's just to be expected. The baby is making the days feel longer and it harder to do my job. My current game plan is to work through the 24th of July and then to start my maternity leave. I'm going to talk to the doctor about it as it gets closer and see what he thinks will be best. Scott and Ryan said that everything slows down after the 4th, so I'll be fine to go when I need to.

Ryan and Addie's Birthday Party

2008-05-19T09:42:00.008-06:00

Yesterday we celebrated Ryan and Addie's birthdays. Ryan's was actually yesterday, but Addie's isn't for another 2 months. We just celebrated anyway because they'll be in North Carolina then. I'm gonna let Meg do most of the narration for the day in her blog, but I thought I'd post the cute pictures that I got.

I cannot get this picture to post straight no matter what I do, but it was too cute to leave out.

Holy Crap, I'm Having a Baby

2008-05-17T16:26:00.004-06:00

I've known about the impending arrival of my daughter since late November. However, it hadn't really sunk in that I was actually going to be a mother, it just felt like a dream or like I was making it up.

I assumed it would get real when I started to feel her kick. Nope.

I thought it would feel real when we saw her ultrasound pictures. Nuh-uh.

I figured it would seem real when I started to show and people asked me about it. Nada.

I guessed it would be real when we picked a name. Nothing.

Seven months pregnant and it still didn't feel real. I thought I was nuts. Finally, last night, it got real. All it took was this:

There's nothing better in this world that having an internal panic attack in the middle of Babies'R'Us. That store scared the crap out of me. Thank goodness for the Prozac keeping me calm and normal or I'd have started bawling and had an "I can't take care of my baby" spaz right there in the middle of the store.

I'm not sure why it was the car seat that made it so real. We've had baby clothes for weeks, a swing, and lots of other little things, but they didn't do it. The car seat did. I stood there and stared at it for a minute and all I could say was "Holy crap. I'm having a baby." The reality of it is wearing off again, and it seems like it's happening to someone else, but every time I pass by that little orange car seat sitting in my kitchen, I know it's really me having the baby.

Kelly says he's already had his "holy crap, we're having a baby" moment and has moved on. I don't think he has yet. I don't think it's really going to sink in for either of us until we're in the hospital with her.

I'm just afraid we won't be ready.

Grand Opening is Officially Over

2008-05-05T16:09:00.003-06:00

Well that was fun. The Grand Opening festivities lasted from Thursday to Sunday. I don't think I've ever seen so many people in a store at once. My entire nursery is just empty. I spent today calling my suppliers trying to get restocked from Mother's Day this Sunday. It's so frustrating to have to tell people that I'm out of product when we've only been open for a week. Half of my plants haven't even come in. I got a handful of trees this morning and a second shipment of shrubs. They apparently didn't get my fax with the changes I wanted to make because I now have 120 1 gal arborvitae, 80 5 gal arborvitae, and more junipers than will ever sell. I don't have any burning bushes or lilacs and barely any barberries. No raspberries to speak of either, but 56 pots of blueberries that won't grow here. My department is understaffed, as is the front line for cashiers, so I spent most of my time at a register. My poor plants are being neglected because we don't have the manpower to water them, help customers, and run 4 registers. I only have 4 people, including myself, to cover the whole outdoor department for 7 days a week and 16 hours a day. The senior managers have been spending a lot of time at registers and doing cart runs to try to compensate for what the other departments are lacking too. Supposedly I have 2 part time waterers that are in orientation tonight and will hopefully be ready to go by the end of the week.
The baby is making it harder to do the things I need to. I have to send other people to help a lot of customers because I can't lift the paver stones over and over. One or two isn't an issue, but when they want 50 of them, I can't do it. It's getting hard to stand all day, my feet and lower back hurt really bad by the end of the day. She spent all of today on my Sciatic nerve, so I've been hobbling around trying to ignore it.

Anyway, on a more pleasant note, I do actually really enjoy my job and I like the people I work with. I don't have to babysit them, and I can give them a list of things that need to be done and I know they'll get done if it's at all possible. This past weekend it was just physically impossible to get anything done.

Preggy + Work = Tired Sarah

2008-04-30T12:23:00.004-06:00

So, the Grand Opening for my store is tomorrow, I'll let you know how it goes. The way my schedule worked was that I had last Saturday off, then worked 10 straight days till next Wednesday. I was pushing too hard to get my garden center set up and was burning out, so my managers let me take today off after I watered my houseplants to recoup for the craziness that is going to start tomorrow.

I kinda feel like I'm leaving my team high and dry, because there's so few of us, but the baby comes first. One of my girls made that very clear yesterday. She's mom's age, and asked if I'd taken a break. I laughed and told her that breaks implied that I had 3 seconds to breathe. I got in trouble and she made me go sit down.

I've been dragging the past few days and was worried that if I kept pushing that hard I'd end up on bed rest. I basically collapsed when I got home and slept for 3 hours. I keep thinking that there's so much I need to do around the house, but no. I got the day to rest, so I'm going to rest. Except for doing laundry, because nobody likes smelly employees.

Happy Birthday Mom!

2008-04-21T09:50:00.015-06:00

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Today is my Mom's birthday, so I felt as though I should dedicate a blog to her for being such an amazing mother.

Good mothers beget good mothers, so I'm feeling pretty good about the arrival of my daughter.

Mom has supported every big decision I've ever made.

Mom never hesitates to laugh with us or at us when we deserve it.

Finding pictures of Mom can be a challenge, because she usually hides from the camera.

For the past 28 years Mom has taken care of us. She would always stop and buy us a slurpee when we had to go to the doctor for any reason. She made us a good dinner almost every night, even though I was/am ridiculously picky and usually complained. She washed all of our clothes, even Kelly's when he'd get sprayed by a skunk.

She came to every extra curricular event we had: swim meets, basketball games, band concerts, plays, award ceremonies, and all of our varying graduations.

She accepted all of our friends growing up, even the ones that annoyed her, and gave us a lot of independence.

Now, she has lovingly accepted all of our spouses as family and still gives the independence we need with a good dose of mothering when we need that.

Mom showed me that there is no reason to be anyone other than who you are.

Forgive me for not making this longer and more heartfelt, but I've got the flu. My wonderful mother is going to bring me some shower tablets to clear my head though.

Home Sweet Home

2008-04-19T17:53:00.003-06:00

I think I hate unpacking even more than I hate packing. Kelly said it wasn't so bad, kinda like Christmas, because you get to open boxes and find things you didn't know you had. Bear in mind he only unpacked a hand full of boxes. I had a couple of days off, so I unpacked the majority of them. I'll post pictures when we finally finish unpacking and get all the picture hung. I had no idea we had so much junk. He says its like we're still at Mom and Dad's because he doesn't know where anything is, but there's less food here and it's warmer.

I love you Mom and Dad, and really, really appreciate you letting us stay with you, but holy cow, your house is always cold.

The neighbors are pretty quiet and the area is nice. I just have a short walk across the street to go to work, so that's a definite perk. We're far enough off the main road that we don't get any noise from Washington Blvd or from Harrisville Rd.

Work is going well for me. We finally have finished setting up the store and are doing a few days of training before the varying Grand and Soft Openings during the week of the 27th. My department still needs some work, but my plants are all going to be delivered next week, so that should take care of it.

Kelly likes his job, but was miserable this week. He's got the nasty flu going around. Again. We had to take him to Instacare last night because he's developed an ear infection with it. He got ear infections a lot as a little kid, and still has problems with them. I didn't get them much, so I'm hoping our little girl takes after me in that aspect.

Business as Usual

2008-04-08T18:52:00.002-06:00

Life has mostly returned to normal. Kelly found a job with American Dream Builders, I'm still with Lowe's and have fallen into a groove, so work it good for us both.

Our grand designs on getting a house have fallen through. We figure we don't have time for a yard anyway, so we're renting an apartment across the street from Lowe's and hope to start moving in at the end of the week. I've enjoyed staying with my parents, but I miss having my own space, bed, and things.

I'll post pictures when we get a place.

I Hate Waiting

2008-03-31T19:38:00.002-06:00

We are officially stuck in limbo, waiting on everyone else. I've filled out the forms for the house we want, which was just perfect, by the way, and we're waiting for the background and credit checks to come back so the landlady can make a decision. Then we have to wait for the current tenents to leave before we can move in.

We are completely moved out of our Logan apartment and are waiting for the landlords there to do an inspection and send us our security deposit back.

I'm stuck sitting at the front door answering phones and directing newbies and vendors at Lowe's for another two weeks because I can't lift the heavy stuff to hlep fill the shelves.

Kelly's looking for jobs and has to wait to hear back from the varying companies.

None of it can really be rushed, so I guess we're stuck just waiting.

Moving

2008-03-24T19:26:00.003-06:00

I've finished my first week with Lowe's. It wasn't too bad. Heavy on the boring side because I had to finish all my computer training before I go to Ogden. My trainer, Derek, is just the guy working the same position I'll have. I really like the people working in the Logan store, so I hope I have as good of a group in Ogden.

I start in Ogden on Wednesday with the rack set, then mass receiving is scheduled to begin on April 2nd, so we're making the move at the end of this week.

I hate looking for apartments. I've been dragged through the most horrible apartments in the ghetto because they're within our budget and had to drive wistfully by "for rent" signs in front of beautiful apartments we could never afford. We finally found a cute little 2 bedroom house, within our budget, in a really nice part of North Odgen. The only problem is that the current tenents won't be out until the end of April. So we're going to live in Mom and Dad's basement for a month. It's really nice to know we can rely on them for help when we need it.

Thanks Mom and Dad!