Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was so much fun! My dad's brother, wife, daughter and her 3 kids came out from California which made this year so much more fun having family in town. I loved it! Can I mention that I also loved it because Alan took the night feedings all weekend? I was in heaven! The day started out very lazy. Just hanging out at home in pj's. My cousin Lynnette and I finally made it to the gym around 11am. Got in a good workout and then headed to my parents for Thanksgiving. Mmmm! I love Thanksgiving! It's so fun to spend time with family, eat good food and focus on all the blessing I have. I was very impressed I didn't eat very much this year but I certainly made up for it the next day! :(

What's better than one Thanksgiving? Two! We had my dad's siblings, my mom's sister, husband, son and wife and their 4 kids come over the next day for leftover and hung out. What a good time that was and it was so fun catching up with my cousin and his wife. I just adore them! I'm sad I didn't get any pictures of Friday but I did get some from Thursday...

My cute cousin's son Brady helping me feed AJ

I can't stop kissing my little guy! He has the best chubby cheeks to kiss!

What I am grateful for this year:

1. My sweet little guy. I adore him so much and can't get enough of him. I get excited a lot of times when he wakes up from his naps because I actually miss him when he's sleeping. (I don't get excited when he gets up for his 3am feeding. ;))

2. I LOVE LOVE LOVE being a mom. It's better than I ever could have imagined. It's been such a blessing in my life.

3. These aren't all about AJ, I promise! I am so grateful that he's such a good baby. He sleeps pretty good and I'm not as tired as I thought I would be with a newborn. (I was way more tired when I was pregnant than I am now.) He sleeps anywhere. I can put him down and he falls asleep on his own. He'll sit in his swing for long periods of time and I love how when he sits in his swing, he kicks his feet, waves his arms and talks to himself. Adorable! He's the best baby!

4. OK, OK enough about him...for now. I am so grateful for my sweet husband. He's so good to us and works so hard to make our lives so good. He's so giving and is always putting his family first. He's such a great dad and AJ adores him. He smiles more for Alan than anyone else. I'm just slightly jealous of that. ;)

5. I'm grateful that Alan takes the night feedings on the weekends so I can get more sleep. Now that is a good hubby! :)

6. I'm grateful for spanks. That sounds really funny but after having a baby and gaining 60lbs, they are heaven sent! I don't wear them all the time but they are nice to put on when you want to wear a fitted shirt and not have a belly!

7. I'm grateful I've lost almost 40lbs of the 60 I gained. Yes, I gained 60lbs! That is crazy! I lost 30-35 of it with in a month and am working hard to take off the rest.

8. I'm grateful to be back at the gym and working out without a big basketball hanging in front of me. Awe, it's nice!

9. OK, OK enough of the superficial! I'm grateful for my family. I LOVE them SO much and LOVE spending time with them. I know I can always count on them and they will always love me no matter what.

10. I'm SO grateful for wonderful in laws. When AJ was born my mother in law came out for almost a week and took such good care of us. She would remind me to eat (I was constantly forgetting), she fed me, she let me sleep whenever I was done feeding AJ, she cleaned my house and did my laundry. The support meant the world to me. They are really good to me!

11. I'm grateful for my calling. I love serving in Young Womens. I love our girls and love the leaders I serve with.

12. I'm grateful for the smiles I get from my baby. They melt my heart!

13. I'm grateful for his tender heart. He really is such a tender, sweet little guy and I'm so grateful for the spirit he brings in our home.

14. I'm grateful for a sister who is so willing to watch him daily so I can go to the gym and who is so helpful when I need a sitter and is willing to watch him so Alan and I can go on a date once in awhile. (It will be nice to go on a date and not miss him constantly and think about him constantly! The first time we left him to celebrate our 3yr wedding anniversary, I cried after we left the movie because I was missing him so much! I know, I'm over the top!)

15. I'm grateful for the relationships I have in my life and for all the people who are so good to me and my family and show up for us when we need them. Family, neighbors, old and new friends.

16. I'm grateful for my life in general. I feel really blessed to have all I have and to have the life that I have. I'm really happy and count my blessing every day for all the Lord has blessed me with.

AJ's baby blessing

AJ got to meet his big brother finally! Justin flew in from California for AJ's baby blessing. We blessed him on November 7th when AJ was just 5 weeks old. It was really exciting for me to see these two little guys meet each other. I think it was little overwhelming for Justin but he loved it!



AJ's blessing day turned out perfect and I was really lucky to have so much help that day. I had gotten mastitis (a breast infection that feels like the flu) for the second time the day before the blessing. It got progressively worse throughout the day and by 6:30pm I was in bed with a fever of 101 and the chills like I've never experienced before. I was lucky to have my in laws staying with us and they were so great to get my house all ready for the big day while I laid in bed wanting to die!

I was so grateful to feel somewhat OK to make it to the blessing. The blessing was so sweet. Alan was really great and kept getting choked up as he blessed him (he'll deny that ;)) but the spirit was so strong and it turned out great! AJ had a lot of loved ones come out and support him. The day was perfect!

Our little family

Three generations

My sisters

Our good friend, Ryan

Our good friends Ron and Angie

AJ's cousin's adore him and love to hold him!

AJ's newborn pictures

My very talented sister (www.crystalynlifeimages.com) took AJ's newborn pictures for me. I'm so in love with them! He melts my heart. I've been loving being his mom. It's been an amazing 6 weeks!

AJ Sleeping

I recorded this video in the hospital when AJ was just 2 days old. So cute and hilarious!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Meet our new addition!

Our little peanut (AJ which stands for Alan Jr.) finally made his way into our family on October 4th, 2010 at 5:45pm. He weighed 8lbs 11oz. and almost 22 inches long.

I had my first contraction on Saturday night (the 2nd) and they continued every 2 hours through out the night. At 5am I just couldn't sleep anymore out of pure excitement knowing my little guy was coming soon. So I got up and spent 3 hours cleaning, doing laundry, vacuuming, etc... Just wanting everything to be perfect. At 10 am as we were watching conference my water broke BUT I wasn't sure if was my water so I decided to wait for my contractions to speed up. Through out the whole day, they were all over the place. I would have two about ten minutes apart and then I'd go one or two hours before feeling another one. My sister kept telling me to go in but I really didn't think it was time. At 7pm she called and lectured me, telling me that since my water broke I had to go in because it could cause infection. That I didn't know! So we got ready and headed to the hospital.

Leaving for the hospital. Wow, I didn't realize how big I was!

They checked me in at 8pm and did tests on me to see if in fact my water did break. No one could tell me if my water actually broke. They put my tests under a microscope and if your water has broken it will look like one big fern. Well mine was a string a ferns. Something they'd only seen once before. They decided to keep me and just induce me because they weren't sure. I was only dilated to a 1 and 50% efaced so they spent 12 hours thinning my cervix. My contractions were getting so intense I couldn't sleep all night. Alan laid on the couch and talked me through every contraction by rubbing my feet and saying, "just breath. It's OK. Just breath." Then he'd try to go back to sleep. I of course, couldn't sleep at all! I was too excited and in too much pain to sleep. My sister came at about midnight and stayed till 4am just to be with me. She's always been there for me. By 9:30 am I couldn't take the pain anymore. I'd been crying through all my contractions and they were almost on top of each other giving me no time to relax between contractions. I was done! I got my epidural and that was the best thing ever! I could finally relax and sleep. At 10am they started me on pitocin to induce labor. I was able to take a 2 hour nap because I was so relaxed. 2 of my sisters came that morning and hung out with Alan as I slept. They came to video tape the birth and take pictures and of course for support. By 3pm I was dilated to a ten and at 4:45pm the nurse wanted me to start practicing pushing. As soon as I started to push she realized how close I was so she hurried and called the doctor. I pushed for an hour. WOW! I'm so glad I worked out during my pregnancy because that was quite difficult to do. Especially at the end when my contractions were on top of each other and I didn't have time to recover before I had to push again. I watched the whole thing in a mirror and it was so amazing to watch. At 5:45 AJ's heart rate dropped too low so the doctor had to cut me to get him out. When he pulled him out little AJ looked terrified and started to cry. The best moment of my life was when they laid him on my chest. He was shaking and grabbed on to my hair with both his hands. I started to talk to him and as soon as realized it was me, he let go of my hair, stopped crying and started sucking on my neck. It just melted my heart. I get emotional just thinking about that moment.

He's only been in my life for less than 2 weeks and I can't imagine my life with out him. I went to the store today and left him home and it made me so anxious. I hate being away from him and can't get enough of him. He's such a little snuggler. He loves to snuggle and suck on a pacifier or my finger. He snorts sometimes. I heard him snort for the first time as they were laying him on my chest right when he was born. He snorts when he cries or when he's hungry and getting ready to feed. He makes the funniest facial expressions. He cracks me up! Awe, I love my little boy! It's been an amazing 12 days and I can't wait to see him grow but also don't want him to grow at all. He's such a good baby and I'm so in love with him!

We've been spending our days figuring each other out, bonding, sleeping and feeding. He's picked up breast feeding so well but just can't stay awake for it so feedings take about an hour. He doesn't sleep much during the day and likes to be held most the time BUT he sleeps like a champ at night so I can't complain. We are trying to work on a schedule and that has been more difficult than I thought because I feel like all I do is feed him (he's ALWAYS HUNGRY eating every 2hrs) and hold him. We'll figure it out!

Here are a bunch of random pictures I've been taking with my cell phone:

He loves snuggling with his dad