JamieJordanJessalyn

Jessalyn's First Dollhouse!

2012-02-07T13:51:00.003-07:00

I've been wanting to get Jessalyn a doll house for a while now. I grew up playing with a doll house my dad made for me. He completely wall papered it and made all the furniture. I played with that thing for hours and hours. So technically this was a gift from Aunt Martha :)

She has loved playing with it but not exactly the way it should be played with. She doesn't quite get that concept yet but she still has fun putting things in it and taking things out. I even put water in the little bath tub and she that it was pretty awesome. She would put one of the dolls feet in the water then lick the water off. Haha. And she knows what the little sink is for because she was pretending to drink out of it. lol.

I think that I'm just as excited with the doll house. Just like I am with all of her baby dolls and barbies. I'm probably even more excited. So excited that I decided that the house was missing something.

So I made a little chair for the baby to sit in, a little baby blanket and baby pillow and a little stuffed puppy.

I made a bed complete with a comforter, two red pillows and two matching polka dot throw pillows!

The mommy and daddy needed something to sit in so I made a comfy little couch with two bright little throw pillows.

She thinks it's funny when I put them to bed and cover them. She says "Ni Ni!" (Night night) Haha. Let's so what else I can come up with.

Saying Goodbye

2012-01-26T19:51:00.006-07:00

Here are some pictures from my dad's funeral. Thankfully my cousin James and Aunt Terry captured these moments for us.

My First Project

2012-01-19T14:43:00.003-07:00

Once I took my sewing machine out of the box and started reading the instruction manual, I was so overwhelmed with all the buttons and words like bobbin and walking foot. Umm....what does that mean and where do I put the thread?! Haha. After about two hours of interruptions from a baby and stopping to watch a tutorial on youtube, I finally figured out how to thread my sewing machine. Now what? Well, I scoured beloved pinterest to find my first project. I decided on something that seemed simple enough and something I actually need.

And here it is. A makeup brush roll up for my precious brushes. I never had a place to put them when I travel and I've been wanting something like this for a while.

Here is my finished product. What you can't see are some of the imperfections from trying to figure out what some of my buttons mean and deciding how fast I wanted my pedal to go. I'm pretty proud of it but I definitely need A LOT of work. Luckily two of my sisters in law know more than me so I'm definitely going to be asking them for tips. I really think I need to get together with Heather and some of the crafty girls from church and have a fun crafting and sewing class. hehe.

5 Years Later

2012-01-19T14:14:00.004-07:00

Jordan and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary on Saturday. We always like to do something fun for our anniversary and we're thankful that my mom has paid for us to stay at a nice hotel for every anniversary. It's been her traditional gift to us. We usually like to get each other a nice present every year too.

Jordan is the best gift giver ever and got me my first sewing machine. I love sewing but I've been doing everything by hand. Now I can do so much more stuff.

We got to stay at the Westin Crown Center in down town Kansas City. The hotel was so nice and we also had a beautiful view of the city from the 15th floor!

And yes Jessalyn spent out anniversary with us. Haha. She was so excited about the hotel room. She was walking all over the place looking at everything and she even loved looking out the big window.

We went to dinner at one of the yummiest restaurants ever. Bucca Di Beppo! Jessalyn was having fun playing peekaboo with the group of girls sitting behind us.

After dinner, we went back to our room and ordered room service dessert. We got some creme brulee. One of our favorites. Jessalyn enjoyed it very much too. We also drank some Martinellis sparkling cider. Jessalyn got a little cray cray and was partying with the whole bottle! lol. It was empty. And one of my favorite things to do for our anniversary is reading the cards we got for each other.

I can't believe we have already been married for 5 years and we even made the cutest little goofiest baby girl ever! Haha. It's definitely one of the best accomplishments we have made in those 5 years. Here's to many, many more great years ahead of us.

Playtime with Jessalyn!

2012-01-08T17:14:00.002-07:00

This girl is taking after mommy and LOVES chapstick and lipgloss and lipstick already! I taught her how to put it on her lips because she always watches me put mine on. Daddy even got her own chapstick for Christmas in her stocking. lol.

She thinks it's hilarious when I wear my shower cap when I take a shower. She thought she was pretty funny when I put it on her. Jordan and I were cracking up pretty hard when she walked around the corner to show daddy.

She put Mickey down for a nap and snuggled with him.

And playtime wouldn't be complete with out some quality time with puppy. These girls really are best friends. She can't wait to get home and see puppy whenever we are out.

She loves her playtime. Sometimes it's hard to get her to bed. After we clean up all her toys and have a bath she will walk in the living room and start taking out toys.

We went to the Zoo

2012-01-05T08:14:00.005-07:00

Last Friday was a beautiful day, so we packed ourselves a lunch and headed over to the Kansas City Zoo for the first time.

I think Jessalyn is going to have the same phobia as me and her grammy. Being scared of really big things. When I took her out of the stroller and started walking towards this polar bear she turned her head away and made her little scared noise. I wasn't going to get any closer anyway because that giant polar bear scared me just as much.

We got to see some beautiful and not so beautiful animals. And to Jessalyn, everything was a "Puppy".

She had a great time just strolling along. Of course that took us hours to get from one place to another. But she was really enjoying herself.

She really liked the elephant from far away. I'm sure if it was up close she wouldn't feel quite the same.

This was her still watching the elephant when we were ready to leave and about to walk away.

Then it was lunch time. This girl love chips! Especially since we never gave them to her until recently because we are always afraid of her choking on them. She is really good about eating them. She takes tiny little bites and smiles the whole time.

Growing up I was so used to the tiny little zoo we had in Tucson. This zoo was ginormous! We definitely got a work out with all the walking we did. We even walked all the way to Kenya! haha.

And Jessalyn made her way to Botswana. Those tiny little legs must have been exhausted! lol.

The zoo was so beautiful. I loved all the scenery. It's nothing like what I was used to. We really felt like we were in Africa.

We had one tired little baby by the end of it. We will definitely return to the zoo sometime soon.

Our Year

2012-01-02T08:17:00.009-07:00

New Years Eve 2010:

It's so hard to believe that this was a whole year ago!

January 2011:

She was here for our first blizzard.

And she got to go in a swimming pool for the first time and loved it!

February:

Jessalyn got to go to Colorado for the first time to visit her grammy and Poppa.

She even got to spend time with her cousin and her Tio.

March:

She started sitting up on her own!

April:

She got her first taste of baby food!

May:

This was a very exciting month for all of us. Jessalyn started crawling and got a whole new sense of freedom.

And I got to get baptized by my husband the day before my 27th birthday!!

June:

Jessalyn got her first tooth!

And she discovered how to pull herself up on the dishwasher for the first time. That was only the beginning of the trouble this girl would try to get into. Haha.

July:

We went to Worlds of Fun for the fourth of July.

The worst part of the whole year was having to say goodbye to my Pop. He is still in my thoughts and dreams every day. I love you and miss you Pop!

August:

Jessalyn took her first trip to Tucson and got her first taste of Eegee's. Yum!

And she got to meet the rest of her cousins and aunts and uncles!

September:

We took Jessalyn to Deanna Rose Farmstead.

And she also got to go to her first Kansas City Royals baseball game. Can't you tell she had a great time?

October:

We celebrated Jessalyn's first birthday!!

And got to dress up in Wizard of Oz costumes for our first official Halloween.

November:

We celebrated Thanksgiving with James and Heather and the boys.

December:

We got to celebrate our first official Christmas as a little family!

And Jessalyn met Santa! Haha.

And we ended the year off with Jessalyn's first trip to the zoo!

I've heard it many times that time flies faster once you have kids. I can completely agree with that now. This year past by so fast that it was almost a blur. All the months just seem to blend together. As fast as it went, I can't believe all the things that happened in a year. We are so happy with all the spiritual blessings we have received this year. We look forward to 2012 and all the exciting events that are in store for us.

Christmas Day

2012-01-01T12:27:00.003-07:00

Well, our first Christmas came and went very quickly.

We all did enjoy ourselves despite the stomach flu that Jessalyn went through staying up the whole night before Christmas. She was feeling well enough to open all of her presents and was a very happy girl.

She got babies, babies and more babies! Haha. A little girl can never have enough dolls, right! We unfortunately had to stay home from church since she was sick but we had a fun lazy day and relaxed by the fire.

Penny had a great Christmas too! She got some new toys to destroy, a new bed and some yummy doggy cookies in her stocking.

The stomach flu got passed onto me that night so the next few days consisted of us getting over the stupid bug. We disinfected the whole house and Jordan luckily has been able to escape it. It wasn't the Christmas we were hoping for but it was still a good one with some good memories.

Christmas Eve Traditions

2011-12-25T18:02:00.005-07:00

We spent most of the day on Christmas Eve at James and Heathers and ate some more yummy food. Since it wasn't super cold outside, Jessalyn got to play outside with the boys. She is so in love with her cousin Logan. She is always trying to give him kisses and loves hanging around him. She got to open up a few gifts from her Uncle James and Aunt Heather.

The Christmas Eve tradition is for Heather to make everyone jammies. Here is a picture of them last year. I can't believe how tiny she was a year ago! So much can change in a year.
This years jammies were so cute! Jessalyn got her own little nightgown.
She looked so adorable waddling around in her new jammies. Thanks Aunt Heather!

Since this is our first official Christmas together, we need to start making our own traditions. So one tradition we started is to all get some comfy pants on Christmas Eve. It was my idea. It's really just an excuse to add to my Aero comfy pants obsession. Haha!

Jordan was acting surprised even though he totally knew what it was. Doesn't he look pretty awesome in his matching Christmas eve jammies from Heather!
Yay! I love my new comfy pants!

Christmas in the Park

2011-12-22T08:09:00.003-07:00

Last night we followed James and Heather out to Christmas in the park. We went last year too but it was more fun since Jessalyn got to see all the lights.
She liked these little elf guys and kept pointing at them and smiling. Christmas in the Park has Three hundred thousand lights and 175 animated figures and splashes of Christmas color.
She enjoyed watching from the backseat for a little while until she got a little restless. So we took her out and sat her on my lap in the front seat since the car was only moving about 5 mph.
She thought she was pretty cool after being able to ride in the front seat that she refused to go back in her car seat when it was over.

We had lots of fun and plan on continuing the tradition!

Meeting Santa

2011-12-20T10:54:00.002-07:00

We went to eat at the Cheesecake Factory over the weekend. One of our favorite restaurants! I got the dulce de leche cheesecake. I think that one is my new favorite next to the banana cream. Jessalyn got to sit in a booster seat like a big girl and was loving the bread. She took that big piece of bread with her and kept eating it all the way home.
Saturday morning we had our Ward Christmas breakfast where they served pancakes and sausage.

Jessalyn watched all of her friends play but being like mommy and daddy she was too shy to actually go play with them. It takes her some time to warm up.

And she got a special treat. She got to meet Santa! HAHA! Isn't this picture priceless.

As soon as we got close to him she started grabbing onto me. I tried to sit her on his lap but all she did was this. So Santa made me sit on his lap. She still wasn't having it. So the result was me laughing and Jessalyn trying to get away. Haha. She was fine as soon as she walked away. She's funny about strangers anyway but this stranger had a very scary big beard. I would have been scared too. But I'm sure when she is older she will laugh at this picture.

After meeting Santa she hung out with her friend Nate. He's just a few months older than her. Future husband maybe? Haha.

The Princess has a Castle

2011-12-15T13:04:00.002-07:00

Jessalyn's grammy sent her this cute Princess castle tent.
She loves crawling in and out of it. When she gets inside she smiles and has a silly little look on her face.

The funny thing about that binky is she doesn't even like binkies. She will just randomly put it in her mouth and chew on it sometimes. But she has never liked them. She looks so cute with it though doesn't she!

Thanks Grammy! She loves her castle!

Happy Birthday, Jordan!

2011-12-08T11:46:00.002-07:00

Jordan turned 27 yesterday. I made this banner for him so he saw it when he woke up to go on his route.

Jessalyn liked snuggling with daddy on the couch yesterday. What a great birthday present.
James and Heather took us out for dinner at our favorite restaurant Oklahoma Joe's. Yum! Heather made a delicious brownie bottom cake and the boys picked out a bey blade for their Uncle Jordan so he can play with them in their bey blade stadium next time. haha. They rode with us in the car on our way to the restaurant and were so excited about the present they got for him that they told him what it was before we were even close to opening the present. lol. Thanks James and Heather and Logan and Caleb and Roman!

Cutest Face You Will Ever See!

2011-12-08T11:18:00.001-07:00

You're welcome!

I know this just made your day. Haha.

Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

2011-11-27T19:37:00.006-07:00

For those of you who don't know, this is mine and Jordan's first official Christmas together. I grew up not celebrating holidays so every year we never had a tree in our house or any decorations. At first, the idea of having a tree was so weird to me. But as time went on I actually started getting excited about decorating it. This is a very exciting year for us! So on Saturday we went out to get a tree with James and Heather. We decided to go for a real one.

(Click on the pictures to see them bigger.)

Since I'm new to this whole tree thing, I wasn't aware of some things. Like I didn't know you were supposed to buy hooks separately from the ball ornament things. And I didn't know how to set up a real tree with water and everything. Jordan gave me the run down about how to decorate a tree. Apparently the lights go first. lol.
We even set the mood by listening to some Christmas music and Jessalyn waddled around playing with all the ornaments and walking back and forth around the living room and dining room. Luckily she really hasn't attempted to take anything off the tree yet. She was just touching the ornaments that she could reach.

Since I was getting into the spirit, we picked a red, white and silver theme for our tree. A few months ago we started our collection of ornaments since we didn't have any at all. We found some on sale and we each picked out our own. Well, we picked out Jessalyn's and Penny's but you get the point. I think they really fit our personalities. A piano for the music man of the house, lipstick for the beauty guru, a tiara for the Princess and a bone for the puppy!

Daddy helped Jessalyn put her ornament on the tree. She was pretty interested in the candy he had in his mouth as you can see her eyeing it.

And Jordan put the finishing touch!

We put it by the patio window so you can see it perfectly from outside.

I love how it turned out!

Messy Face, Thanksgiving and a Birthday!

2011-11-26T07:27:00.004-07:00

Here are a few fun pictures from this past week. Last Saturday we went to a baby shower for our friend Karrie. She is having a baby girl and Jessalyn was very happy once I handed her this ice cream cone cupcake. I couldn't get it back because she was too busy stuffing her face with it.

She has been very independent lately and only likes to feed herself. I was eating a yogurt and left a little bit in the container and left it in her reach on accident. She was very excited about what she found so I decided to give it to her in her high chair so she could feed it to herself. When she was done this is what she looked like. lol! I think she was proud of it because she was showing it off. While I was cooking dinner, she was playing with the pots and pans. Of course. Isn't that like a required baby thing that a baby must do at some point?

She started climbing on the shelf in the cupboard...

And she made it! But a few seconds later she fell backwards and good thing I was there because I caught her just in time. She was pretty scared after that and was done with the pots and pans.

Thanksgiving was great! We went over to James and Heathers and had such delicious food. Heather made the best turkey ever. It just melted in your mouth. Yum!

Jessalyn loves her cousin Logan. She was watching him play Angry Birds.
And then she enjoyed a delicious cookie made by her Aunt Heather.

The day after Thanksgiving was Caleb's sixth birthday. Jordan and I went out shopping to see if we could find some black Friday deals. We go a later start than most at 8 am but we did get a few good deals.

After shopping we went over to James and Heather's for pizza and cake for Caleb's birthday. Jessalyn has so much fun whenever we go over there.

The boys have lots of fun toys to play with and they are always fun to follow and watch what they're doing. Logan is so good with her. He's very helpful and he plays really well with her. She even kept trying to give him kisses! Isn't that so cute!

The kids had fun playing with Caleb's new birthday presents.

And Jessalyn thought she was pretty awesome eating cake with the big kids all by herself while mommy and daddy sat on the couch. Haha! She was chatting away with the boys and enjoyed the cake very much.

Our Love Story!

2011-11-19T11:06:00.005-07:00

Since our five year wedding anniversary is coming up in about two months I thought it would be fun to tell our story about how we met and fell in love.

*Warning* This is very long but a great love story and worth the read! Haha.

Around this time of year it has been seven years since we met.

It all started here at park place mall the end of 2004 and the beginning of 2005.

I was working as a hostess at Metro Grill. I was already working there for about a year. Jordan was working for American Valet right outside the restaurant. He had been working there around the same amount of time as me. All of us Metro hostesses became friends with most of the "valet boys" as we called them. The valet boys would come in and chat with us hostesses when it was slow and there wasn't anything else to do.

I didn't notice Jordan until a little bit later because he was so quiet and mostly kept to himself. But once I did notice him, I guess you can say I believe in love at first sight as cheesy as it sounds. I thought he was so cute and would secretly watch him at the valet stand. I was curious about who this boy was so trying not to be too obvious I asked one of the other valet boys what this cute guys name was. Jordan? I remember thinking I never thought of him as a Jordan. lol. But what's even funnier is that when I was little my name was always Jordan when I played house.

Us hostesses were always very friendly to all the valet boys when they came in to get a drink or use the bathroom. I said hi to Jordan a few times when he came in but he was so shy and quiet he never said anything back. So I gave up and didn't say hi to him anymore when he came in. A few days later, it was slow and I was in a joking mood so when Jordan came in to use the bathroom I told him "You can't use our bathroom." I said it in a jokingly serious tone. He laughed and gave me a jokingly sarcastic look and proceeded to the bathroom. Come to find out I had to be mean to get this cute boy to talk to me. Haha. From then on he became my chatting buddy.

In some ways, working there was a little bit like high school. I decided to tell one of my hostess friends about my crush on the valet boy and she decided she was going to tell one of the other valet boys that I had a crush on him. Well, with that little game of telephone the names got mixed up and he ended up telling him a different girl had a crush on him.

My crush only got bigger after chatting with him so I started asking him when he worked next so I would know to go to work dressed up extra nice. I would get so excited to go to work whenever I knew he was working. This was back in the times when AOL instant messenger was popular. So instead of asking for my number he asked for my screen name. Pretty nerdy and ancient. Haha. I went home that night and signed on hoping he would send me a message. But nope. Then it hit me. I gave him the wrong screen name! The next time I saw him at work I told him what I did. That was on a Saturday when the mall and the restaurants were really busy so we didn't get a chance to talk much. He told me he would write down his screen name when he got a chance.

For some reason that day he was giving me extra butterflies. So much that I could barely concentrate on my difficult job of greeting people and seating them at tables. lol. I was constantly looking outside to make sure he hadn't left work yet without giving me his screen name. I even told one of the girls "What is wrong with me. I can't concentrate!" Then I saw him grab his stuff getting ready to leave. I was sure he forgot about giving me his screen name and I had no idea when we were both going to work next. I was getting pretty disappointed when I saw him walk away but then he started heading toward my direction. I walked over to the door and he handed me a little valet tag with his screen name written on it. We told each other when we worked next and went on our way. I was so excited that he remembered so I went to put the tag in my purse. I told one of the girls about it and she asked if he gave me his number. I didn't even think to look on the other side. I pulled it out of my purse and turned it around. There was his number! I was even more excited.

One of the girls convinced me to call him as soon as I got home. And if anyone knows me, I was never the kind of girl to call a guy. I always waited for the guy. But this was so different. When I got home I literally went straight to the computer to check if he was online. He wasn't so I took a deep breath and dialed his number. I don't exactly remember what we talked about but the conversation wasn't very long because he was with his brother James. He did mention that we should hang out sometime.

We chatted and worked with each other a few more times before we actually planned our first date. I still remember what I wore for our first date. A long sleeve dark blue abercrombie shirt with a long beaded blue necklace, jeans and black boots. I even wore my replica Jessica Simpson wedding ring that I just got in the mail. Haha. I was and still am obsessed with her. He came and picked me up at my house in his little white honda. He was such a gentleman, opening all the doors for me . He hasn't changed. He's still the gentleman he was on that first date. We went to dinner at the Bamboo Club right next to where we worked. The food was delicious and the conversation came so easily. It was by far the best date I had ever been on.
After dinner, we went to the theater in the mall and watched Meet The Fockers. While we were waiting for the movie to start, I was telling Jordan about my Jessica Simpson obsession and showed him my new ring. I handed it to him and he accidentally dropped it on the floor in the dark movie theater. I could tell he felt so bad but I really wasn't worried about it at all. He searched for it on the floor and found it and apologized. He probably thought that was the end of us. Haha.

But it definitely wasn't. We were inseparable from that first date on. We saw each other every day even though we lived about 40 minutes away from each other. January 14th rolled around. We were hanging out at my house and started having a deep discussion about our relationship. That's when he asked me to be his girlfriend officially. But I was hesitant at first. Not because I didn't want to be with him. It was because I was recently getting out of a long on and off two year relationship with somebody that was no good for me. He also recently got out of a relationship with someone who completely took him for granted. My past relationship issues made me scared to get into another one. But I decided to go for it and give it a try so I said yes.
It was about three months into our relationship that we knew this was for real. We knew we loved each other and said it. We even started talking about marriage. I knew he was the one and had no doubts about it.
Dating Jordan made me realize what a real relationship was supposed to be like. We never fought, we never broke up, we never questioned our love for each other and we were completely open about everything. We weren't hiding anything. This was all completely opposite from my last relationship.
Our one year anniversary was rolling around on January 14th, 2006. Jordan had a whole day planned out for us. I made him a scrapbook of each month of our first year. We started our day off with a romantic picnic lunch at the top of Mt. Lemmon. I wasn't paying attention when he told me to dress warm because I wore flip flops. I was pretty cold but it was still a great lunch. After lunch we went back to his house to exchange gifts and cards and to relax for a little while. For dinner we went to a fancy restaurant called Flemings. We even got special treatment because it was our anniversary.
After dinner, we drove out to one of the casinos to see one of Jordan's favorite musicians, Jim Brickman, in concert. His music is so beautiful and romantic that it was a perfect thing to do for our anniversary. Half way through the concert Jim Brickman announced that there was someone that wanted to ask someone a question. Then he said "Is there a Jordan out there?" I didn't realized that he was asking about my Jordan until he stood up and pulled me along with him. Everything else was pretty much a blur from there. He took me up to the front, said some stuff and I was so shocked that I'm not even sure what he said. But what I do remember was he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. In front of thousands of people! Obviously I said yes! We sat back down and all I could do was stare at the big sparkly ring on my finger. After the concert we felt like celebrities. Everywhere we went everyone was saying congratulations.

Exactly a year to the day, we got married. Everyone always says the first year of marriage is always the hardest. But honestly we're still waiting for our hard part. We've definitely been through a lot but has never been between us. The troubles we have gone through have always been about things happening around us. And we are so lucky to have each other to lean on to get through those tough moments. They have only made us stronger as a couple.
And now we are so blessed to be a family of four. (Can't forget about Penny) I'm looking forward to our future because it only keeps getting better. I'm especially looking forward to our five year anniversary because of special blessings that we are going to able to share with each other by going to the Temple and being sealed for all time and eternity.

A Picture an Hour

2011-11-16T19:15:00.004-07:00

I saw one of my favorite bloggers do this and thought it was a fun idea. Basically it's Jessalyn every hour of today from when she woke up to when she went to bed. It was a very laid back day today and we just stayed home. She wasn't feeling too well and had a runny nose.

Hour one: we usually wake up and watch a little bit of tv while we eat some breakfast. This morning she decided to pick out which bag she wanted from the Vera Bradley catalog. Haha.
Hour Two: Her daily routine consists of taking all of her babies out of her toy crib and sitting in it for a little while. Sometimes she likes to take everything out from the drawer in the crib. It has a lot of fun stuff like bracelets and her own cell phone.

Hour Three: Snack time! She was eating some cut up bananas and of course sharing them with Puppy.

Hour Four: More play time! I don't know why I bother sometimes but during the day I put all of her babies back in her crib and as soon as she sees me doing that she goes and takes them all out again.

Hour Five: Nap time. She looks like a peaceful little angel when she sleeps.

Hour Six: After nap time, it's time for lunch. I usually have to share with her some of whatever I'm eating.

Hour Seven: Reading her favorite book in her favorite chair. She looks really into it doesn't she. Haha.

Hour Eight: Helping mommy put away the laundry while she plays with her baby.

Hour Nine: Snack time again. She was stealing my yogurt from me. I would give her a spoonful she would walk away and eat then come back for more.

Hour Ten: Daddy's home! And she REALLY wanted him to hold her if you can't tell by her face.

Hour Eleven: Dinner time! Dinner isn't usually this messy but we were eating beans so of course she has to have some too. And she had to take big handfuls and feed herself.

Bath time. This was right after dinner. I had to have daddy help me take off her messy clothes so I could put her in the bath right away. I think bath time is her favorite part of the day. It has been since day one.

Hour Twelve: Sleepy time. After her bath we put on her nice warm jammies. She hung out with daddy for a little while and helped him finish his homework. She was also petting his beard. It was almost like she just discovered it. lol. Then it was time for milk and fell right to sleep.

Our Walking Baby!

2011-11-11T16:58:00.001-07:00

Jessalyn has been close to walking for about a month or so. She still crawls when she wants to get somewhere faster but she waddles around the house and I giggle every time I watch our silly little zombie baby. This was her tonight just walking around with her little snack all excited.

13 months- Puppies and Books

2011-11-09T13:11:00.003-07:00

This time last year, I had a one month old. Looking back, that first month was such a blur. I barely remember how tiny she was. My memories are so blurry because I was so delirious and sleep deprived.
I must say I am completely loving this age right now. This girl of ours is so much fun. She's been talking our heads off lately. She looks at you and mumbles a bunch of baby babble and we usually respond like we knew exactly what she's talking about. And she usually has such a serious look on her face.
She gets really excited when she is eating something good that we are eating. She usually gets so happy that she has to give both of kisses. It's almost like the kiss is saying "Thank you for this delicious food." lol.
I think her favorites things right now are puppies and books. Especially her puppy. She loves getting kisses from her puppy. She will hold her face close to puppy and go "mmm" waiting for her to lick her face. It's pretty darn cute! I have to stop Penny before she tries to lick her face off because Jessalyn might let her.
She has a nice collection of books but she has a few of her favorites. But the best kind of book is one about puppies! She loves the one that she's reading in the first pictures at the top. She loves to give all the puppies kisses.
Along with all the fun stuff there is not so fun stuff. Like the temper this little girl has. Sometimes it's hard to say no to her because of the tantrum she will throw if she doesn't get what she wants. I know she knows what no means but she really loves to test us. Most of the time when we say no she will laugh and try whatever she is doing again. She usually has a suspicious look on her face because she knows she shouldn't be doing it. Sometimes it's hard to take her seriously because of how overly dramatic she can get. It actually just makes us laugh. But we love this baby girl to pieces.

I forgot to post this last month but these pictures were exactly a year from each other. She was beautiful from day one and just keeps getting more and more beautiful!

Quotes To Live By

2011-11-03T10:28:00.003-07:00

I've read this quote a few times before but at this point in my life it really hit home. It really makes me think about the relationships you have in your life and how much they change as time goes on. Sometimes they change for the better and sometimes they change in ways that you never thought they would. I've been in situations where I've tried really hard to make certain relationships work but in the end you realize that it's not really meant to be.

I have always been a firm believe that everything happens for a reason. I question what the reasons are but even though it may hurt at the moment, it was the right reason in the first place. I've learned that it's best to just move on and not dwell on it. I've grown up so much in the past few years. I think I grew up faster than some people that are pretty close to me. I found the love of my life at nineteen and got married at 21. I was already starting my dream career out at the age of 20 and became a mom at 25. Sometimes a lot of those things don't happen until someone is in their thirties. I've made big decisions for my family which has made me grow up even more. I'm 26 now and I could say now that I really know who I am and what I want.

I'm so thankful for my husband. He is truly my best friend and the one person I can count on when it comes to anything. He knows my deepest fears and secrets and sometimes he knows how I'm feeling even before I do. I'm thankful to have my daughter who will grow up to be my best friend like it was with my mom. I'm thankful that I have that stability in my life to know that whoever changes around me that I still have them to never question where we stand.

I'm also thankful for the close friendships I have but I realize more and more that they are few and far between. I hold on to the ones that are worth it and move on from the ones that don't make the same effort that I do. Life is too short.

My little girl

2011-11-02T11:41:00.001-07:00

I like to listen to Pandora Radio through out the day and when I'm doing stuff on the computer. I was listening to the Tim Mcgraw station and this song came on. I stopped and just listened to it and pictured dancing with my dad at my wedding. This song always made me think of him but even more now. This is totally our song and my favorite moment when we had our father/daughter dance was when he looked at me and said "You're not a little girl anymore." I love you and miss you Pop!

A day in the life of Jessalyn

2011-10-30T18:31:00.004-07:00

Jessalyn usually sleeps in till about eight or nine every morning. Yesterday she was so excited when daddy was getting ready for work in the morning she wanted to get up and hang out with him at seven am. I was still half asleep and heard her talking in the other with daddy. Then I hear them in the bathroom laughing. I guess she wanted daddy to do her hair while he was doing his and here is what I woke up to! I started cracking up as soon as I saw her. Daddy did a pretty sweet job. Haha.

After we get up and get out of bed we usually go and watch some TV while we eat some breakfast. Then she likes to play with all of her toys for a while until she starts getting sleepy. She has never been a big napper and now she is down to maybe one or two naps a day. Sometimes she fights her naps and it's a battle to finally get her to sleep. Her naps range from about thirty minutes to almost two hours on a good day. But that is pretty rare.
Yesterday while I was doing my hair in the bathroom, I turned over to look at her and there she was relaxing watching TV and eating snacks. She was really enjoying herself. Haha.

Then she thought this basket was pretty awesome and started climbing all over it and trying to get inside of it.

She has a thing with sitting in baskets. Can you tell?! I was going through some of my scrap booking stuff and she was helping by hanging out in the basket and playing with everything.

I love hanging out with this girl! We have so much fun playing with her babies and making messes. Cleaning up the messes aren't quite as fun.

This was the night before. Two of her cousins came over and they decided to start a band. The little Sheffer band rocked! Haha.

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-25T20:02:00.003-07:00

We went to another pumpkin patch with James and Heather and the boys this time. It was a much smaller pumpkin patch but Jessalyn and her cousins found some fun in the corn box. And She really loves to play with pumpkins. She stole this tiny one from Aunt Heather and held on to it the rest of the time.
I was going to take Jessalyn out to take a picture by the pumpkins but she wouldn't let me because she was having too much fun. By the time I was finally able to take her out her diaper was filled corn. lol.

Don't you just love our family picture! Haha!

What's been goin on...

2011-10-23T07:20:00.002-07:00

Jessalyn has been as busy as ever. She is very nosey and loves to get into all the drawers and cupboards and take everything out. Good thing we got some child proof things so she can't get in them any more and make a huge mess.
She really loves climbing on and into everything. Drawers, her crib for her babies, the dishwasher and anything else she can reach. The only thing is she has some trouble trying to get out. Daddy actually taught her how to climb off the bed. She has gotten pretty good at it the past few days. Her landing is little rough but at least she gets the job done and she is pretty proud of herself when she gets down. Thanks Daddy!

When my family was visiting we noticed a funny thing. While I was working with some tools putting Jessalyn's new crib for her babies together, Jordan was in the kitchen baking. Does something seem a little backwards here? Haha. We had a good laugh about it

Other than baking, Jordan is happy to be done with one of his chemistry classes. Chemistry has definitely been one of his biggest struggles so far. We're so proud of how hard he is working. Especially with his paper route he does every single morning. He is such a hard worker!

When he's not in class, studying or working then he is having fun playing guitar hero with us. Jessalyn is quite the singer. Haha. And quite the drummer too with daddy's help.

This girl loves to eat. She really loves beans just like mommy. One night while we were eating enchiladas she was getting antsy in her chair so I put her on the table. She went to town eating the rest of my beans for me. She had a blast and made a huge mess.

Last weekend we went to a fun place for cousin Logan's birthday. They had a little section for babies and toddlers that had a few little rides and a train

She loved all the rides so much it was hard to take her away. We had to ride the train two times in a row because she got mad when it stopped.

She took her first steps on Wednesday but I think she is being very cautious and hasn't completely started walking yet. She has gotten the hang of standing up by herself. When she stands she gets so excited and looks to see if we're watching then she loses concentration of sits back down.

She's also been talking up a storm. Not that we understand her but she totally knows what she's talking about. Her newest thing is saying "What" and "That" and sometimes "What" sounds like "But". I'm not too sure why but she likes to say "What" when she wants something. She says it then points her little finger at whatever she wants.

That's whats been going on in this Sheffer household lately.

Dreams

2011-10-17T11:49:00.002-07:00

It has been three months since my dad passed away. Every single night since that day I have had dreams about him. I don't always remember what my dream was about or what he was doing in my dream but I do know that he is always there. Sometimes he is just hanging out in the background and other times I have dreams that he is still alive and I wake up excited but realize it was just a dream. But the interesting thing is that dreaming about him is very comforting to me. I almost feel like he is living in my dreams. Like it's his way of letting me know that he is okay and that he is watching over me.

He is always in my thoughts on a daily basis. Sometimes I forget that he isn't here anymore. I guess it still hasn't hit. I don't know how long it will take for it to hit me or if it ever will. A few times I got excited about something and wanted to tell him about it but forgot that I can't just pick up the phone and call him. But I feel his spirit around me all the time so he probably already knows.

Hanson Musical Ride Tour

2011-10-12T18:47:00.003-07:00

I'm just getting around to posting about the Hanson concert that we went to last weekend. This was our first concert as parents. Before we had Jessalyn I always went to the concerts hours in advance just so I could get my perfect spot in the front. We would also wait for a long time after hoping Hanson would come out to greet the fans.
It's funny how your priorities change once you have a baby. I really didn't feel like standing around for hours and I really didn't want to leave Jessalyn alone for too long even thought she would most likely be sleeping the whole time.

So instead of going hours early, I put Jessalyn to bed and her uncle James came to watch her. We left to the concert at about 9 pm hoping we skipped the opening act. And also Hanson is known for taking forever to come out after the opening act so we wanted to skip that too. Luckily we got there just in time. We took a look at the merch table then Hanson came out about ten minutes later.

The concert was at the same place we saw them last year and it's a small place so no matter where you stand you can still see them pretty good. They put on an amazing show as always. We had so much fun watching Hanson and listening to their music and we also had a lot of fun watching all the drunk people. There were a lot more drunk people at this show than we've ever noticed before. Or maybe standing in the back they stand out a little more. haha.

I took a picture by their tour bus and waited about five minutes to see if they would come out. But I was tired and wanted to get home to my baby so we left. And Jordan had to be up very early for his paper route. Oh geeze... We're getting old! lol.

And no this isn't our car. I don't think Jordan would allow that. It was a fans car that we passed by so I had to take a picture with it. I can't wait for my next Hanson concert. I think this makes Hanson concert number 8. I'm starting to lose count now. lol.

One Year Ago Today...

2011-10-09T16:40:00.005-07:00

I went into labor at about 1 am. I was in labor for about 15 hours and pushed for about three hours. I found out that there really is such a thing as love at first sight. I fell in love the moment I laid eyes on our little miracle.
Everyone who has kids tell you all the time how fast they grow up. I believed them but I didn't realize how fast it really happened until her first year was done and gone.

It's crazy how much her looks change in a matter of weeks. And it's crazy how fast she can go from just laying around and not rolling over to being a super speedy crawler and climbing up on everything. Jordan and I always ask Jessalyn if she got prettier over night because we feel like everyday she just got cuter and cuter.

*Jessalyn at 12 months is talking up a storm. She has long conversations and she is pretty sure she knows what she is talking about in her baby language. New words she says now is "Yeah" and "Wow" and sometimes it sounds like she is saying "This".
*She makes the silliest face ever when you touch her nose and say "Peek a boo!" or when she hears a loud noise or you do something silly. The face she makes is the third picture above. It makes me laugh every time! haha!

*She isn't walking yet but that is just fine by me. She can stand by herself with no support but she hasn't taken any steps yet.

*She really loves baby dolls. She gets so excited when she sees them and now she loves to kiss them. She even makes the "muah" noise when she gives kisses.

*She is still nursing so that means I made it to my second breastfeeding goal. One year! But it doesn't seem like either one of us plan on quitting anytime soon.

*She knows the sound that Penny's leash makes and crawls to the door super fast because now she thinks she needs to go take "Puppy" out to potty too.

I went a little picture crazy as always so enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Jessalyn!

Hello Fall!

2011-09-23T11:10:00.006-07:00

My favorite season is upon us! I love fall for many reasons and here are a few of them.

I love all the pretty decorations. The fall leaves, pumpkins, yummy smelling candles, cute little signs, the colors and so many other cute decorations.

The changing colors of the leaves. I'm so happy that I now live in a place that I actually get to see this and it's pretty much the most beautiful thing to see.
Picking pumpkins at the pumpkin patch! I've only been doing this the past three years or so but it's definitely one of my favorite things to do and we'll keep it going especially now that we have Jessalyn. Last year we went the day before I went into labor with her. Thanks to my mom making me take a ride on the bumpy hay ride a bunch of times.

Going along with pumpkins I love pretty much anything and everything pumpkin. Some of my favorites is pumpkin pie. Mmm....I can probably eat a whole pie by myself!
As far as drinks go I love hot spiced apple cider. I can probably drink this everyday. I don't get starbucks very often but when the Pumpkin spice drinks come around I have to have one at least once a week. I get mine with out coffee of course.

I get so excited to pull out my boots, scarves and sweaters as soon as the weather cools down. I also love to wear cardigans and tights with a cute dress.

And oh the makeup is so fun! I love the dark burgundy and wine colored lipsticks and nail polish. Gold and bronze eyeshadows are so fun for this time of year. Bronze and plum blushes are also a good change for fall

I'm so excited for the months ahead!

(P.S. This post has taken me all day to do because Jessalyn thinks she needs to help me by siting on the computer desk and throw everything off. But I finally got it done with her sitting on the desk and throwing everything off. lol. Now I need to go and clean it.)

Jessalyn's First Royals Game

2011-09-20T14:53:00.005-07:00

(Click on the pictures)

We went to a Royals game with James and Heather and her cousins. Isn't this picture just precious!
She had a great time clapping when the crowd did and getting excited whenever anyone else did. And of course she danced whenever they played music.

She had so much fun that she passed out on daddy's lap. She jumped every time the crowd got loud but stayed asleep for a while.

She had a great time watching the game with daddy! We tried to look for a little Royals shirt for her but they were all way too expensive for her to wear it just once. So we dressed her up in blue instead and I found a cute little Royals hair clip.

She had some fun watching the game with cousin Roman too!

I had to take this picture with Jessalyn at the same spot I did when she was in my belly. It's crazy to think she was in my belly and now that's how big she is!

Climbing

2011-09-17T09:45:00.002-07:00

Jessalyn has discovered climbing.
And she's doing it everywhere she can find.

Oh goodness gracious!

11 Months Old!

2011-09-09T18:08:00.002-07:00

Jessalyn turned 11 months old today! W-O-W.....How did that happen?! One more month and she will be one year old. I just can't believe it. I know everyone said times flies but you never really know how fast time flies until you experience it.
*Jessalyn has quite the personality these days. She'll tell you if she likes something or not. She started doing this really loud screech when she wants your attention or if she wants something.
*She can officially say four words. Momma, Dada, Puppy, and baby (bebe). And tonight we're pretty sure she can say Hi.
*She knows what Hi means because usually when she hears the word she does her little baby wave with her hand. She will wave at you sometimes if we tell her to say hi and she isn't being too shy.
*She is pulling herself up all over the place but hasn't attempted walking yet. (Thank goodness!)
* She loves handing people things like her toys. She loves doing this back and forth and if you don't take whatever it is she will be mad.
*She loves being read to. She'll bring me her little sesame street books and I'll read them about 4 times until she gets bored and moves on. I have the books memorized by now.
*She loves to eat everything she can hold in her hand. She prefers to eat when she can hold her spoon or she can put the food in her mouth herself. She is quite independent.
*She hates to be covered with blankets. I try to cover her and she automatically kicks them off.
*If you rest your hand or arm on her she doesn't like it and will push you off.
*She loves given wet open mouth kisses when we say "Kisses"
*She loves, loves, loves music. She will do a little booty shake when she hears a song she really likes.
*Penny and Jessalyn have a close friendship already. Penny is so gentle with her and loves licking her face and Jessalyn gets so happy when she sees her puppy and loves patting her back.
*She has four top teeth and two bottom teeth.
*She is a speedy crawler and prefers being on the floor crawling as fast as she can everywhere.
*She loves kids and gets so happy when they talk to her.
*Her all time favorite snack is still goldfish crackers and now she loves the little gerber cheeto puff things just as much.
*She cries when daddy leaves for school and gets soooo excited when he comes home she wont let him put her down.
*She is extremely attached to mommy but mommy doesn't mind because I think we both have the same amount of separation anxiety from each other.
*She is the most gorgeous, sweetest, most lovable baby ever and she has blessed our lives the 11 months she has been in them!

Wordless Wednesday!

2011-09-07T11:19:00.000-07:00

Fun at the Park

2011-09-05T20:53:00.002-07:00

Today since Jordan had the day off from school and the weather was beautiful outside (low 70s!) we decided to go to the park with James, Heather and the boys.
She was having a great time doing her speedy crawl all over the place. I went down the slide with her a few times and she was a pretty big fan of this blue tube thing. She climbed in it and crawled back and forth and would just sit and hang out. She couldn't figure out how to get out of it so she would sit and look at me and wait for me to get her out. Then she would climb back in.

Days like this are why we love living here in Kansas. I love the cool crisp air in September. Sitting and playing in the green grass and all the beautiful green trees. I'm looking forward to this upcoming fall season!

Baby Dolls

2011-09-02T17:02:00.003-07:00

I always like to walk down the toy aisle whenever we are at Walmart or Target. I use Jessalyn as an excuse when really I want to see what new dolls and barbies they have come out with. Haha!I have been obsessing over these baby Disney Princesses lately and have been thinking about getting one for her birthday. I found these little Twinsies that come with two little princesses together. I held up the box to show Jessalyn and she let out an excited squeal, reached for the babies and kept saying "Bebe, Bebe!" over and over again. So of course I had to get them for her. Oh man am I in trouble when she gets older and can really tell me which toys she wants! Haha. I think I had just as much fun as her taking them out of the box and playing with them. We played for about ten minutes with her handing me Belle then handing me Ariel. I would hand them back she would play with them then hand them back to me. I would give one of them a kiss then hand it to her and she had her mouth open ready for a kiss for her new baby. So precious!

Girly Time

2011-09-01T08:15:00.004-07:00

We had a great time in Arizona. Jessalyn got to spend some girl time with her cousin Annabelle and Aunt Samantha.

We couldn't wait to get these girls together. They had a great time together but they obviously don't understand how to share quite yet. When Annabelle would leave her bottle laying around Jessalyn would go for it and try to drink out of it. And Annabelle really wanted Jessalyn's sippy cup. They also wanted each others baby dolls too.

These little princesses are so darn cute! One day they will be best friends and play barbies together once they learn how to share.

I'm so happy to have such a beautiful and adorable niece. It was fun to be around another little girl. She looks a lot like her brothers but a much prettier version of course. She has her daddy's ears and mommy's toes. She also has the cutest smile and was ready for a picture whenever I pulled out my camera. A future model maybe?

Jessalyn has been quite entertaining as usual. Unfortunately she came home with a little cold but she has been her same goofy self as usual. Just with a runny nose. She has learned her fourth word. When she sees one of her baby dolls she will grab it and say "bebe!" Thanks to daddy she learned what kisses means. When we says "kisses" she leans toward us with her mouth wide open ready for a kiss. Even though she wasn't good with sharing with her cousins, she has been good at sharing with us. She likes to hand things to us like her soggy snacks, or the tv remote or one of her toys. I hand it back and then she gives it back to me. She thinks it's pretty fun and it can go on for a while. Oh the things that entertain babies.

Like Father, Like Daughter!

2011-08-29T15:41:00.002-07:00

I took this picture of Jessalyn a few weeks ago and laughed at it everytime I would look at it. Then I realized it reminded me of a funny picture I took of Jordan about 4 years ago. I came across it and if they didn't already look like twins...now they definitely do! Facial expressions and all. I can't help but laugh whenever I look at this. HAHA!

Deanna Rose Farmstead

2011-08-18T07:31:00.004-07:00

Since it didn't feel like a sauna outside on Tuesday we decided to take Jessalyn to the Deanna Rose Farmstead. I'm sure she will appreciate it more when she is older but she still had fun looking at most of the animals.

I'm pretty sure she thought these baby goats were puppies! haha. When she is older she can feed these little babies with a bottle.

(Click on this one to make it bigger)

This little baby cow is named Annabelle. I thought it was so cute because our little niece has the same name.

There was also a buffalo, an eagle, and some more baby goats. There was a big goat that stuck it's head out of the fence and we scooted her stroller a little closer. She was not a fan of that. She started crying and got really scared of it.

I think she is going through a scared phase. She was scared of a lot of random things. Like this saddle that daddy tried to sit her on.

She wasn't scared of this but I was when we went inside of it. I'm scared of weird things. haha. Maybe Jessalyn will take after me when it comes to that.

I absolutely love all the greenery! It's so pretty out there.

I'm sure we will be going back a lot more as she gets older. It's very close to where we live and free on the weekdays!

10 Months!

2011-08-09T21:38:00.003-07:00

Well, here we are. 10 months later. I know everyone says it all the time and it's so cliche...but where did the time go?! I knew it was going to go by fast but I think it should slow down just a little. At the same time I love watching Jessalyn grow and learn new things and I can't wait to see the next stages in life she has coming up.
This has definitely been a crazy month. Jessalyn did lose her Poppa this month but she will have pictures to always remember him. He absolutely loved his grand baby girl.

She has turned into a super fast crawler. Especially when she has something she's not supposed to. Or when I say, "I'm going to get you." When she crawls super fast she does it with her head down. She once crawled right into a bench. She also does her super fast crawl when she hears an awesome song come on the tv. She crawls as fast as she can into the living room so she can jam to the song.

This little baby has turned into such a character this month. She has such a goofy personality. She has learned how to wave and will sometimes wave at strangers. Only the ones she feels like waving at. I've said it before but she LOVES music. I think she is starting to love it more and more. She even started dancing to it now. The other day a Maroon 5 song came on the tv. She crawled right up to the coffee table and started moving her little butt to this song. I never even heard the song until then but she loved it and had to move to it. She had Jordan and me cracking up!

She learned to say "puppy"! I guess you can say it's her third word since "Momma" and "dada" were her first two. She calls Penny "Puppy" all the time. I noticed that I when I talk about Penny to her I call her puppy instead of Penny so I'm sure that's why she started saying it. She says it when she sees other dogs too and other animals. I guess she thinks all animals are puppies. It's funny the way she says it. She kind of whispers it. I'm not sure why but it's pretty darn cute.

She learned to shake her head "no' whenever she hears the word or whenever I say "no, no, no". I kind of sing it when I say it so she knows when I do then she shakes her head. Sometimes I do it just to see her shake her head. Haha. She will also do it when she sees someone else shaking their head.

Just this past week she started doing this really weird screeching laugh. I think that's my fault too because I noticed I make a weird noise when I play with her that kind of sounds like that. It took her a really long time to laugh and it took a lot to get her to laugh. Now she is finding everything funny. And when she gets REALLY excited her laugh turns into a scream.

Penny and Jessalyn are best buddies. Penny loved hanging around her because she knows she will get some food. Jessalyn likes to share her goldfish with Penny. I think she thinks Jessalyn is super cute because she likes to be close to her and lick her face even though sometimes Jess will pull her ears or grab her too tight. Penny actually tolerates a lot and never really gets mad. I have to say "Be nice to Puppy. Nice puppy. Nice puppy," as I'm helping her pet Penny nice and gentle. I don't think she quite understands but she thinks it's pretty hilarious and laughs as I do it.

She has her right top tooth to add to her two little bottom teeth and three more top teeth to add to the collection. Yes I am still nursing. She doesn't do it very often but sometimes she will bite down and I have to kind of yell "NO!" or tap her head. Sometimes she'll stop and sometimes she'll think it's a game and smile and try to do it again. But there isn't any trouble there at all. We are still going strong in that department with no intention of ending anytime soon.

She is VERY attached to me but she adores her daddy. I love how excited she gets when he comes home from school or wakes up in the morning. She wants him to hold her when he gets home and cries if he puts her down too soon.

Our baby girl is the greatest joy in our lives. With everything that has gone on this month all we have to do is see our little baby's face and everything seems right in the world again. She can turn any crappy moment into a good one. Even when she is whining just because she is tired and wants to be held. Haha. I can't wait to see what's in store for this next month.

The Temple

2011-08-04T14:50:00.005-07:00

The day I found out about my dad I didn't want to go home. I was out when I got the call so we decided to take a drive.

What a great place to drive to. The future Kansas City Temple. It looks like it's pretty close to being done.

It's about a 30 minute drive from where we live. We talked about the Temple on the drive there and one of the main uses for it. It brought me a lot of comfort knowing that I'm going to see my Pop again.

Just being there close to the Temple brought me some joy and hope and the spirit was strong. I can't wait for the Temple to be done and I can't wait even more for us to be able to go to the Temple as a family and receive all the many blessings that it will bring.

Favorite time of the day

2011-08-03T10:53:00.002-07:00

Our favorite time of day is after dinner and after bath time when all four of us (Me, Jordan, Jessalyn and Penny) all lay in our kind size bed to watch our tv shows. After a long stressful day it feels great just to relax with the ones you love in our nice comfy bed.
Last night Jessalyn had this sweet hair do after her bath. It kinda reminds me of her daddy's high school hair style. haha!

She has a little box of toys that she plays with while we watch tv. She crawls around the bed and all over us. Especially if we have a snack. Lately it has been way too hot so she has been sleeping only in her diaper. We love our silly little diaper baby!

Dear Pop

2011-07-18T10:58:00.003-07:00

Dear Pop-

It has only been two days and I'm missing you more today. I've been going over and over in my head what I'm going to write to you. Even though you were sick for a while and had a kidney transplant in your 40's, you are still the strongest man I have ever known. For all the circumstances you have been through, you were always so happy and healthy for so long. It was only the past two years that life started getting a little rough. But you always hung in there. Your spirits were always high no matter how you were feeling or what you were going through.

I remember when I was a little girl I was so in love with you. I was definitely a daddy's girl. I knew I wanted to marry a man just like you when I grew up. And guess what... I did. I am definitely my father's daughter. I'm so much like you. I get my calm nature from you. I don't let things get to me and I'm always so laid back. I get that from you. You were always so artistic and creative. You were so good at drawing. You drew me some great pictures like all the characters from The Wizard of Oz. You even built me that two story doll house made out of cardboard. You decorated it with wall paper and even made cardboard furniture. I loved that thing and played with it for hours. You even built us that red tree house in the back yard. We had so many memories there. I have always been creative just like you. I'm not quite as good at drawing but I have other artistic abilities and a creative mind.

One of the funniest memories I have is when you farted then jumped and said "Where's the mouse!" I cracked up for hours it seemed like. Another funny memory is when I was sitting on your lap and you were singing the Mickey Mouse song, "M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E. Mickey Mouse!" I thought it was such a silly song and wanted you to keep singing it over and over. I loved going to the library with you and picking out books and having you read to me right before bedtime.

You also had a love for music just like me. Some nights you would bring home some stuff from work and play music while you worked on it. We were jamming to The Four Seasons "Oh what a night" and I was pretending I was on a stage while dancing around. I loved that song from Electric Light Orchestra where it sounded like there was an alien robot in the beginning. I always asked you to play it for me so I could listen to it on your head phones.

I always say things like you to be funny. Like the way you used to say K-mart. "KEEYYY-MART!" Or when you find something instead of "There it is" you would say "There-a-lar!" And "chachage" instead of sausage. There are so many more.

I love when you used to bring me something to drink in my room just because. And sometimes you would bring me little snacks. You liked to let you cereal sit in the milk for a little while to get soggy before you ate it. I think I like soggy things because of you now.

You loved your grand babies so much. Baby Ryan loves his "poppa" and would get so excited when he would go to see you. I remember how excited you got when I told you Jordan and I were having a girl.

When we danced together at my wedding to Tim Mcgraw's "My little girl", you told me "You're not a little girl anymore." I love how you always called me baby since I was a little girl.

You were always such a kind hearted, sweet person. You liked to make conversation with strangers and touched every ones lives that you came across. I was so lucky to have such a loving father who was always there for me and supported in everything I did. You were always the best husband to my mom that any could ever ask for. We were all so lucky to have you in our lives for as long as we did.

I'm going to get Jessalyn a little Dallas Cowboys cheerleading uniform just for you. She is going to look so cute. I'm so happy you got to meet her and you got to be in her life for a little while.

I'm so glad that you went so peacefully. My mom told me that when she found you that you looked so peaceful and happy. That makes it just a little bit easier for me. I know you were tired and you were ready to go. We weren't ready to let you go yet. But we were never going to be ready. But I know you are happy and you aren't in any pain. You are peaceful. I wonder what your last thoughts were. The last time I saw you was a month ago in Denver when you were in the hospital. I know nobody really ever gets to say goodbye and I doubt it would have made it easier. But I'm sad that I didn't get to say good bye and tell you how much I love you and how much I'm going to miss you and that I can't wait to see you again. I'm sure you already know all that but I still wish I could have told you and hugged you and kissed you one last time. I wish I could take away my moms pain from losing you. I can only imagine what she is going through but she is happy your last day was a happy day and that you went peacefully. I will think about you ever day like I always have. You would be so happy to know how much you are going to be missed by so many people. There is so much more I would like to say but I can't see much with all these tears.

Well Pop, I love you so much and I will see you soon. Then we can jam to some music and eat soggy cereal and lemon eegee's together.

Love,

Your Daughter

Tradition

2011-07-14T09:56:00.003-07:00

My dad grew up in the tiny town called Manassa. It's in the southern part of Colorado. The population is about 1,042 and is exactly one square mile in size. Every summer in July, a celebration is held on the main street called the Pioneer Days. The 131st annual celebration was held last year. It is held closest to July 24th and the celebration is in honor of Brigham Young and fellow members of the LDS church in Salt Lake.

When my parents were little they went with their parents and family every year. And for as long as I can remember we went every year until I was about 18. I joke around and say I'm related to half the town. But the funny thing is it might be true in some way or another.

Now that my family moved back a year ago we decided that we want to try to keep up with this tradition with our kids. My parents now live literally across the street from the LDS church and right on main street. So Jessalyn and I are making a trip out there next week for her first Pioneer Days celebration! Unfortunately Jordan wont be able to make it this year due to school. But we have many more years ahead of us.

The celebration is usually on a Friday and Saturday. There is a parade with a bunch of floats. The whole town gathers on the streets to watch the parade. After the parade we usually go over to the hamburger stand and eat some lunch in the park. Later on in the evening is when we get to go to the carnival and ride some rides. We won't be doing much carnival riding until Jess is bigger but it's still going to be lots of fun.
The funny thing about this whole celebration is that I never actually knew what the Pioneer Days were as a kid. I just thought it was a fun parade and carnival and time to spend with my cousins. But now actually knowing the meaning of the celebration makes it much more special and exciting. I've been surrounded by the church my whole life with out really knowing it. It just goes to show how everything happens for a reason.

A look back...

2011-07-11T11:27:00.003-07:00

This is a random post but I was looking through some old pictures and came across these. Some of them are fun memories to look back on.

Apparently I like to do this pose. Haha. The first picture was when I was about twenty. Before I was married and living in my tiny studio apartment by myself. My BFF came to visit me for a quick trip and of course we had to have a little photo shoot. If you ask Sarah I'm sure she would know the exact date this was. The second picture was right after Jordan and I got married. Maybe just a few weeks. I decided to slowly start chopping off my hair right after we got married.

This was in December 2006. Just a month before we got married at my cousin's wedding. Jordan just turned 22 and I was 21.
We went to Portland, Oregon with Jordan's parents around spring or summer of 2007 for his Grandpa's wedding. I loved it there. It was so beautiful and we even thought about moving there. The number one thing I wanted to do while we were there was go to Roloff farm from the TLC show "Little People Big World". We only got to go as far as this sign because the farm was closed. But I was still excited.

We took a little weekend trip out to Sedona and the Grand Canyon a few months after we got married. I think this was around Fall time in Arizona because I was dressed in a sweater. That was such a fun little spur of the moment trip.

And this was the super bowl last year. We had a super bowl party with Jordan's family. James and Heather and the boys came to visit too so it was a nice to have his family all together. Little did anyone know that baby Jessalyn was in my tummy at this time. I took the pregnancy test that Friday two days before the super bowl. It was a fun little secret that the two of us had. I was about five or six weeks. We told only close family a few days later after we had our first dr. appointment.

So there was a fun little look back with pictures!

9 Months Old!

2011-07-09T15:32:00.004-07:00

Jessalyn turned 9 months old today!
She has the cutest personality ever. She likes to shake her head no. I don't think she knows what it means but she does it to be funny. I think she learned it from me because I would shake my head and say no when I didn't want her doing something. All she does is laugh at me.

She is a girl of a million faces. She gets that from her daddy for sure.

We decided to go out into the sticky, humid heat to have our monthly photo shoot. Then we went to the pool to cool off. She learned how to 'jump' in from sitting on the ledge into daddy's arms. She got pretty excited about it and kept doing it.

She loves music so much. She is our future musician. She even started dancing to it. She does a little booty shake. Haha. We have a little bit on our YouTube video.

Her favorite snack right now is goldfish. She gets so excited as soon as her take out the bag. Usually if she is a little fussy sometimes a goldfish can calm her down right away.

She has become very attached to me. I'm home with her all day so she us so used to having me around all the time. She cries for me even when I leave her with daddy just to go to the bathroom. The other day I left her with daddy while I took a quick shower and she came crawling into the room looking for me. She's gotten very good at saying "Mama" and says it whenever she wants me. It's so cute. It melts my heart each time.I love my baby girl more than anything and love watching her grow. It's so exciting seeing all the new discoveries she finds each day. I also know we are going to have our hands full when she starts walking. She is pulled up on everything and anything she can and has started getting into drawers. uh oh...haha.

Who needs toys?

2011-07-08T18:03:00.004-07:00

This is Jessalyn's latest favorite place to hang out. These little plastic drawers are filled with a bunch of random stuff. She loves taking everything out and of course putting everything in her mouth.
I put everything away that could possibly be a choking hazard and I let her go at it.

And of course she has to use her new found freedom of pulling up on anything and everything.

Ooooh and doors that open! Soon we'll have to baby proofing all of our doors and drawers.

But until then I will be cleaning up all the little messes she leaves behind. Cuz who needs toys when you have a bathroom filled with boxes of band aids and tubes of toothpaste?! Haha. The things that keep her entertained...

Mall Fun

2011-07-07T10:16:00.003-07:00

On Jordan's day off from school we wanted to get out and do something and get out of the heat. We decided to do our usual and walk around the mall.

Jessalyn was pretty excited because she got to get on the little rides.

And we found her some new awesome kicks! Aren't they adorbs. She thinks so.

And she made some friends at the little play area. This little girl wanted to tell everyone who she was and who she was with.

Daddy helped her go down the slide.

She was having a blast pulling up on everything and crawling all over the place.

And she took a ride in this pretty sweet car just her size!

She found another car she might like better. I think she is following in her mommy's footsteps and is going for the bigger vehicles.

This little girls name is Aspen and she gave Jessalyn a bunch of kisses. I think they became best friends. She was a wild little girl. Jessalyn mostly just stared at her craziness.

We had a great day at the mall!

The 4th!

2011-07-06T11:03:00.008-07:00

We got to spend our 4th of July at the amusement park we have here called Worlds of Fun. We started out the day at the water park Oceans of fun. It felt so good being in the water because it was so hot and humid outside.

Jessalyn was very patriotic in her little red, white and blue outfit. We got to ride on the carousel with her and she loved it! Jordan got to the park earlier than us so he rode a bunch of the roller coasters earlier that day.

It was so hot and muggy out that day that my body just couldn't handle it. After a long day out in the humidity I think I got heat exhaustion because I'm not used to it yet. Jordan had to end up taking us girls home so we missed the fireworks that night. I was really sad about it and wanted to stay but I think I would have passed out if I stayed any longer.

So we got home and cooled off and took some pictures together with our matching bows. We had a great time even though it ended kind of short and Jessalyn didn't get a chance to see any fireworks.

Bird Watching

2011-06-26T14:44:00.004-07:00

I have become quite a nerdy bird watcher. Shortly after we moved in we noticed a nest had been built right above our door. One day when we got home I looked up and saw little tiny baby bird beaks crying for mama. It was so cute I made Jordan take a picture for me.

Everyday I would check on the birds. I can't believe how fast they grow and change.

It was only a matter of days they started looking like actual birds and started growing feathers.

During the day the birds were left alone but during the night mommy and daddy bird came to watch over their babies. Here is the mommy bird above our door next to her babies.

And this is the daddy bird just across the way above our neighbors door.

Just a few weeks later they changed even more.

And this was just last week. I can't believe how adorable they have gotten and how fast it happened. I was so curious to find out what kind of birds they were so I googled it but there were too many to look through. So the geek that I am I joined a wild bird forum and posted the pictures asking people for help to identify our baby birds. It turns out they are called barn swallows. I googled the name and found out all about our little friends living above our door.

Aren't they cute!

Yesterday was their first day out of the nest. They were flying all around then coming back. I got kinda sad and told Jordan I want them to stay forever.
And just now this is where they were hanging out.The rail right outside our door. Just hanging out. They don't quite fit in their nest anymore. Our baby birdies have grown up so fast. I'm not ready for them to leave the nest yet :( haha!

Curious Jessalyn

2011-06-23T18:15:00.003-07:00

Jessalyn has become very curious and nosey lately. She loves looking out the window and hitting it with her little hands as she yells. She can find the tiniest possible thing on the floor even after I vacuumed.
She loves going to this drawer opens and closes it then takes out all of her bibs.

Looks like we'll have to be baby proofing all the doors and drawers! As I'm typing this she is in the laundry room right next to me playing with the dryer door. Haha.

She likes to hang out in the kitchen with us when we're cooking dinner. Today she wanted to help me do the dishes. I guess she REALLY wanted to help because she pulled herself up for the FIRST TIME!!! I got so excited and told Jordan to run and get the camera. She has been attempting for a little while but would only get on her knees.

She stood there for quite some time and was very excited about it. I really hope this isn't any indication that she will be walking any time soon. I want her to hold off on that for as long as possible. Crawling is enough for right now. haha.

Cousins

2011-06-16T09:13:00.002-07:00

At least once a week we go over to James and Heather's for dinner or for the daddies to play some video games. Jessalyn likes to go to play with her cousins. She is a little more fun now that she can crawl around. She absolutely loves Logan. And he is so good with her. He thinks she is the cutest thing.
Roman is not quite sure of her yet but he is pretty sweet to her. One day when she was crying he found her binky and brought it over to her. Heather and I thought it was pretty funny because he was probably thinking "Here...this calms me down!" lol. Too bad she only uses a binky to play with and not to suck on.

We were having fun taking pictures and he wanted to see them right after we took it.

They were both fighting for my lap so I had them both on my lap together. Aren't they cute!

And here's all the cousins with Uncle James in the background.

This is her favorite thing to play with at their house!

8 Months Old!

2011-06-15T08:14:00.004-07:00

Jessalyn turned 8 months on the 9th and I'm finally getting a chance to blog about it. We did a little mini photo shoot so here are a few of the pictures I took of her on that day.

* She has been crawling for about a month now.

*She says "Mama" and "dada" all the time. I don't think she quite knows who is who yet but we keep trying to tell her.

*She wants to eat everything we are eating. She screams and yells until we give her some. And if she isn't in her chair she will climb up on us so we will give her some.

*She is attempting to pull up on stuff. She will get up on her knees but gets a little scared and won't go any farther.

* She loves playing with Penny. I keep trying to teach her to be gentle because she loves to grab onto to Penny's fur and ears and kicks her in the face sometimes. But Penny is so good and just lets her do it.
*She is in size 9 months clothes. Sometimes 12 months depending on the brand.
*She loves music. Whenever she hears it she looks around to see where it's coming from. If it's on TV she will stare at it until it's over. She's our little future musician.

*She sleeps good at night and takes about 3-4 naps a day. Her naps don't last very long but she's a good sleeper at night so that's okay with me.

*And she is the cutest baby ever! She literally gets cuter every day. She keeps us entertained with her silly personality.

A Favorite Past Time

2011-06-07T12:43:00.003-07:00

One of Penny's favorite things to do is to look out the window. She's a pretty nosey pup.

She's been doing this since we lived at our last place over a year ago. And she still does it now at our new place.

But this time she has a partner in crime! Isn't this the cutest thing ever! I can tell already that these two are going to be best friends.

Jessalyn learned from the best window watcher. She is just as nosey if not more.

Daddy got these pictures of her looking out the window at him.

Penny and I had to take a look to see what she was looking at too!

Jessalyn's fave things of the moment!

2011-06-04T17:48:00.003-07:00

Okay snuggling with daddy is always her favorite thing but this picture was just too cute not to put on here.

A few weeks ago I let her play with my straw from my Frappuchino and she somehow learned how to get some out. She had a weird look on her face and I noticed she had a tiny bit of my drink in her mouth. Oops! No more of that. So we decided to get her own cup with a straw and she is super excited to use it. She still gets surprised at first when cold water comes out of the straw. Haha.

We finally tried out this little mesh feeder. She went to town with an apple. She thought this was pretty awesome and it kept her pretty occupied for a few minutes.

Just like mommy, she's already getting into makeup. I sat down on the floor to put on my makeup while she played. She ditched all of her toys and went straight for my makeup. It was pretty amusing and tasty.

We got her a little chair to put at the dinner table with us. She's pretty excited to have her own chair. She got to try one out when she borrowed her cousin Romans so we decided she needed one of her own. Yum! She's really loving those sweet potatoes. Her favorite foods so far are Applesauce, Pears, Squash and Apple blueberry. It took her a while to get used to bananas and sweet potatoes but now she loves them. We're still working on peas and green beans.

A tooth!

2011-06-03T09:26:00.002-07:00

This is the only picture I got of her tiny tooth. If you click on the picture you can get a closer view. Her tooth finally popped out last week after quite some time of teething. Teething has not been fun at all. Thank goodness for baby Tylenol, baby orajel and teething rings! The tooth right next to it is about to come out any day now. Sometimes she'll get the urge to bite down while she is nursing and that tiny little tooth is like a needle! haha. It hurts but it's so stinkin cute. I'm not going to quit nursing because of it but she better learn not to be biting down with these new little sharp tiny teeth.

Here is a little video of her little baby tooth!

2011-05-31T13:24:00.000-07:00

It's starting to feel like summer time!

2011-05-31T09:17:00.004-07:00

it's starting to warm up here in Kansas. This week it's supposed to be in the 80's. And it's BBQ weather. Yesterday it felt great outside. There was a little bit of an overcast and a nice breeze. We had a BBQ at James and Heather's house.

Jessalyn had her first taste of watermelon. She loved it so much! She wanted to keep sucking all the juice out and it was dripping all over her mouth. Haha. Maybe it tastes familiar because it's what I lived on when I was pregnant with her.

We laid out on a blanket in the grass while we watched the boys run around in the sprinklers and the daddies making their ribs on the BBQ.

She loves being outside. She had a great time but was so tired by the time we go home. She passed out right after her bath.

What she really wanted to be doing was running around in the sprinklers with her cousins!

She also had fun hanging out with Roman and Uncle James. As long as I was close by of course!

What a special day!

2011-05-29T15:42:00.004-07:00

After many prayers, I was given some answers to make my family feel whole. It's crazy how powerful just one little spirit can be like Jessalyn's. She got me questioning my faith and this is where it led me. I'm so grateful to be able to share this with my husband and to have our daughter growing up having a knowledge of the church.

Here we are just before Jordan baptized me. These are the missionaries that I was meeting with and helped me to get to this point. Elder Lynch and Elder Brower.

And here we are after the baptism. Words can't describe how great that moment was. Especially having my husband being the one to do it.

I guess I could say that this decision has been about 6 years in the making. I have always been surrounded by the church and members from the church ever since I can remember. It's hard changing what you believed to be true most of your life to something that you know is true. My mind was conflicted for a very long time. But I finally got my answers. This has been such a life changing decision for the better. I can't wait to see what blessings are ahead for our family.

We can't wait for a year from now. We will be able to go to the temple as a family and be sealed for all time and eternity. I never understood how special this opportunity is until now.

We had such a great day all day yesterday. It pretty much rained all day but it didn't ruin anything. I think we had smiles on our faces the whole day. After the baptism we got together and had a potluck with all the friends I have made so far being here in Kansas and in the ward.

Then as usual we had a little family photo shoot. haha. look at that silly little face! I love

my little family. Penny was around there somewhere but Jessalyn must have been pulling her ears or something. lol.

Crawling!

2011-05-24T10:43:00.003-07:00

She's crawling!

She's been working on it for a while. She would be able to get on her hands and knees but didn't want to move anywhere. Yesterday daddy was cleaning things off of the computer desk and a gold golf ball on the floor. She must have thought it was pretty awesome because she found a way to get to it.

She's moving pretty slow but she is moving. She hasn't quite totally mastered what to do with her hands yet but she's getting there.

Uh oh! This is only the beginning. This little girl is very nosey so I can only imagine the trouble she is going to be getting into.

Time to pick up everything off the floor! She's already learninghow to throw a tantrum when we take something away or she doesn't get what she wants. Oh boy! We're in for it. But she is just too darn cute so she is going to get away with everything.

Here is a little video of her giving it a try for the first time.

Catching Up...

2011-05-19T14:02:00.004-07:00

So it's been about a month since I've updated. We didn't have the Internet for a while so I wasn't able to get on here and post anything. And we have also moved into our new place so that has been a fun task unpacking and putting every away. Excuses, excuses...I know. So here is what has been going on the past month.

Jessalyn has turned 7 months old and she is as fun as ever. We got her her first sippy cup and she is doing very good with it. We got a surprise visit from Jordan's mom and dad on Easter weekend. It was a great surprise and we had extra help moving. That was the same weekend we moved as well. We are loving our new place so much more! We love the extra room and closet space we have. We are pretty much all the way settled in. We just have all those last little things where you aren't quite sure where to put them.

Jessalyn is as goofy as ever. This is one of her many silly facial expressions she does. She loves to give this one to daddy a lot and you know she likes you when she gives you her squishy face. She started saying "mama ma" a lot. Mostly when she is crying. Haha. I'm sure she doesn't actually know what she is saying. And in the past few days she has been going crazy saying "da da da". Jordan is making sure she knows that's who he is. He will say "that's me!" When she starts saying it. She talked herself to sleep saying "da da" last night.
Her favorite things at the moment are cell phones, tv remotes, cardboard that belongs to packaging of some sort and any tag that is attached to blankets or her toys. Haha. Whenever we go grocery shopping we'll hand her something to keep her occupied. Most of the time it has cardboard packaging on it and we'll have to take it away before she sucks on it till it's soggy. And that is always followed by screams and we realize we shouldn't have given it to her in the first place. But it keeps her so happy for about ten minutes. lol! As far as tags go she spots it out on her toys and blankets and immediately grabs for it and sucks on it until it is completely soaked with her slobber. It's pretty random but oh so funny and cute!

We had a few hot days the beginning of the month. James and Heather had a BBQ at their house on one of the nice days. We enjoyed sitting outside in the grass watching all the other kids and the dogs play. She was grabbing the grass wondering what it was. Growing up in Arizona I had no idea what grass was. Haha. She'll be surrounded by it. The past few weeks have been a little chilly. We went from 80's to the low 60's over night. It has been chilly enough a few days to wear a jacket. I'm actually enjoying it. Usually I'm sweating my butt off in May so this 60 and 70 degree weather is a great change. It definitely doesn't feel like May to me so I'm kind of confused what time of year it is.

We had James and Heather and the boys over at our house for dinner. She just loves Logan and he is always so good with her. Her talks to her and plays peek a boo with her. He always says how cute she is and always tries to narrate what is going on through her mind. Too cute! Roman was being a nice loving cousin and we didn't have to ask him twice to give her a kiss. They are all so cute together!

We discovered that she loves wearing hats. She doesn't try to take them off when we put them on. She just keeps it on and smiles. And look at that face. It's such a perfect face for little baby hats! We got her a couple hats for the pool and we came across this hat at Old Navy. I totally would have bought it if it wasn't so expensive.

She is right on the verge of two things right now. her little bottom teeth are right about to cut through. I keep checking everyday and they keep getting closer and closer. It hasn't been a whole lot of fun though. She definitely has her fussy teething moments. And the other thing she is on the verge on is crawling. She can get on all fours and rock back and forth but she just wont move forward. She is very good at scooting backward and to the side though. I think she knows how to do it. She is just being stubborn. I keep putting everything she could really want in front of her but just out of her reach. But I guess it's just not enough incentive yet. She'll eventually get frustrated and start crying until I pick her up.

And she is really loving her toes right now. They are so delicious I could imagine. Look at all those rolls! It's not the easiest thing getting that little foot up there. Haha.

At the moment, Jessalyn and I are starting to get over a cold. We both have runny noses and little coughs. She seems to be doing better than me now. She is just a little fussy and wants to snuggle with mommy or daddy more than usual. But that's fine with us!

That's it for now. I have a few more things but I have pictures that are currently in my cell phone that I want to post. So I will just wait until the next post.

I reached my first goal!

2011-04-13T09:11:00.008-07:00

I always had a plan that I wanted to breastfeed. There was never really any question about it. My main reasons for wanting to do it was because of the benefits, the bonding experience, knowing that I can provide for my baby and help her grow all from me, and because I'm lazy I liked the idea of not having to wash any bottles. Haha.

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against formula at all. If she had to have some I would have no problem with it at all. She had a little bit when she was a few days old in the hospital and when I had my surgery. But I set this goal for myself and felt really strong about reaching it.

I tried to prepare myself while I was pregnant. I read up on breastfeeding. Scared myself with the stories I've heard and read about the difficulties of breastfeeding. I told myself no matter how difficult it was going to be at first I was going to push through it and do it. I made my first goal which was 6 months. My next goal is one year and then after that is all up to Jessalyn.

About a half an hour or so after Jessalyn was born and they cleaned her off and checked her, they brought her to me to try her first feeding. I was ready for anything. I got lucky and Jess latched on right away like she had been doing it forever. She was a pro. She knew exactly what she was doing and all the nurses were so impressed. She was even the talk labor and delivery. I was so excited that it was so easy for us! I've never even had any issues with nursing in public either. It was came so natural to me. Even with a small battle with mastitis we're still going strong. We decided not to feed her any solids since nursing was just enough for her. And it's pretty obvious that my milk is good enough for her because of all her rolls. lol. All 18 pounds of my 6 month old baby girl.

It's funny because I have had to change my wardrobe to nursing accessible. I need to make sure I wear something out that is easy to pull down to feed Jessalyn in public. I've kinda gotten used to waking up smelling like spoiled milk. When I sleep I need to wear tank tops that I can easily pull one side off to feed her while we're both half asleep in bed. And that brings us to one of the main reasons why we co-sleep. Honestly co-sleeping never even crossed my mind until she was born. I was so sure she was going to be sleeping in her nice comfy crib with her cute butterfly bedding by the time she was a few months old. That all changed when she was a few weeks old. I was so sleep deprived from her not sleeping any longer than 20 minutes in her bassinet. I was so tired in middle of the night holding her and feeding her I would be falling asleep. I learned to lay down and nurse her so I would be able to sleep in the process. She would end up falling asleep in the bed with me so Jordan would be up and move her back to her bassinet. Not too long later she would be crying so I would move her back in the bed with me. I realized she slept better next to me and slept a lot longer too. Which meant more sleep for me. So I gave in and she started sleeping in the bed with us full time. Here we are 6 months later with a baby in our bed. She sleeps from about 9pm-9am and slightly wakes up to nurse about two times during the night. I'm not sure how long we will be co-sleeping but at the moment it's working for us. It just goes to show that you can plan on doing things before the baby comes but sometimes things don't work out the way you thought or something ends up working out better.

As far as breastfeeding goes, I couldn't be happier the way things have turned out so far. I absolutely love it and have no complaints at all. I love the bonding I have had with my daughter and love the fact that if nothing can calm her down I know I can. So here's to another 6 months!!

6 Months Old!!!

2011-04-11T11:56:00.004-07:00

Oh goodness! I know this is such a typical thing to say but...where has the time gone?! I cannot believe that is has been half a year since our baby girl has entered into this world.

On Thursday we had her 6 month check up. She now weighs 18 pounds and is 24 inches long. I've got one big chunker! And all that chunk is from breast milk. Haha.

She did pretty good at the Dr. but she is going through this stranger phase where she doesn't like strangers to talk to her or even look at her. So she cried the whole time the nurse and Dr. checked her. As soon as she was back with me she was fine.

She is a very curious and determined baby. She is sitting up completely unassisted now and when she is sitting up she wants to grab anything and everything that's close enough to her. She tries very hard and reaches for it with her little fingers then grabs on pretty hard. So everything must be moved away if we don't want her to have it. She already knows how to throw a fit to get what she wants. Oh man are we in for it when she gets older. If we take something away she will scream and cry until she gets it back and will be completely happy. It's pretty funny right now but I'm sure won't be for long.

And now that she is 6 months old she got her first food!
She has only had tiny little tastes of of little things from our finger tips. So we gave her some sweet potatoes for her first food and she loved it.

At first she made the funniest face but then she realized how delicious it was. She got very excited and started waving her little hands around and started grabbing for more.

With as much as she loves breast milk I guess it's no surprise how much she would like food. Next we are going to try some bananas. Mine and Jordan's favorite.

I love little messy baby faces! So here's a few pictures of Jessalyn's messy, excited sweet potato face.

The Many Faces of Jessalyn

2011-04-06T12:31:00.002-07:00

Her newest thing are these silly little facial expressions. The second face is a face she makes right before or when she's yelling.

One day she just started scrunching her little nose and puckering her lips and breathing really hard through her nose.

This is definitely something she got from her daddy. He's got some pretty sweet facial expressions as well!

HaHaHa!! How can you not laugh at these silly faces!

Moving!

2011-03-25T10:44:00.005-07:00

We aren't moving very far. Just down the road a little but we are excited for many reasons. One of the biggest reasons....CLOSET SPACE! I was used to having walk in closets when we lived in a house. I had all the room I wanted for all my many shoes and all of my clothes. Moving into this tiny apartment most of mine and Jordan's closet space was taken up by our washer and dryer.

Yes...our washer and dryer. I don't know whose brilliant idea it was to put the washer and dryer hookups in the master bedrooms closet. This is our tiny little closet hallway in our bedroom going into our bathroom.

Look at all that wasted space that could be used for clothes! Not only does it take so much space but during the summer our bedroom turns into a sauna when the dryer is running. The mirror in the bathroom fogs up. That's how bad it gets. We can't even sit in the room because it gets so hot.

I also came to realize that I can't leave anything in this washer and dryer closet that I don't want to be extremely dusty. The lint from the dryer builds up on everything in there so everything eventually gets a layer of dust on it.

Okay...seriously...How do you expect me to fit ALL of my clothes and shoes in this dinky little thing!? Yes this is my closet. Yes that really is how tiny it is. And no those aren't all of my clothes. Notice I have those little hanger things where you can hang five hangers on one hook. That helps a little bit. But everything is so extremely squished in there it's so hard to find something and I absolutely hate hanging up my clothes because it takes work trying to squeeze it in there. Those are my winter clothes. All my summer clothes are packed up under my bed. And my winter shoes are the only shoes in there right now. My other shoes are packed under my bed as well. These are only my clothes. Jordan has the closet in Jessalyn's room and it's the same size.

That's not the only reason why we are moving but it's a big reason. We haven't had too many problems living here. Just a few but we don't think it's worth staying here. Even though we are in a nice neighborhood our complex isn't the greatest. It consists of either college students or very low income families. We fell in love with the new place we are moving to as soon as we walked in. The one thing that sold me on it is it has a utility room for our washer and dryer! Wow...who would have thought. Haha. Yes a separate room. Amazing. The floor plan is ten times better and there's a little more space. Which will be good since we will be having an active crawling baby pretty soon. We are moving in about a month from now. I hate moving! I wish I could just snap my fingers and everything will move from here to there. haha. But We are very excited to be living somewhere new.

Riding in Cars with Boys...

2011-03-19T14:20:00.006-07:00

We got a chance to go to a big car show in downtown KC with James and Heather and the boys. All the boys were in Heaven! I was too when I got to sit in my dream truck. A Tundra! But it must be in black. Can't you totally see me driving around in that! It was beautiful and perfect....one day when my husband is a Chiropractor :)

Jessalyn said she wants this car above but in PINK....of course. Haha.

Jordan was so happy sitting in this car but I'm not sure what it was or what's so special about it. It must be really fast or something. These boys were having so much fun because they were able to sit in all of the cars. Logan and I would take turns sitting in the drivers seat in each car.

And the other day we found the perfect car for Jessalyn! It's her color, her style and her size. She thought she looked pretty awesome in it too. Look at her waving in her sweet new ride.

New Freedom

2011-03-19T14:03:00.004-07:00

Jessalyn and I have found a whole new freedom! We finally purchased her a Bumbo and let's just say I think we are just as excited as she is about it.

We figured we needed one because she always likes to be where all the action is. When we are in the kitchen I usually sit her on the counter (holding on to her of course) while she watches daddy. We first gave it a try when we saw one out of the box as walmart. We put her in it and she was smiling and throwing her hands up and down like she does when she is really happy. The worker lady thought she was so cute and stopped what she was doing to watch her and talk to her. I was actually able to make some pancakes this morning with out holding her! I just sat her on the floor in the kitchen while she played with magnets on the fridge and watched me.

Another fun new toy that has given us some freedom is this cute little jumper thing we forgot we had hiding in James and Heathers basement.

We brought it out and dusted it off and it kept her busy for quite a while until she realized she was hungry. She mostly tried to eat everything that she could reach on it.

Her cousins were even intrigued by this and Roman even tried to climb on it and sit in there with her. So here's to some new found freedom for a few minutes longer! haha.

Purple People Eater

2011-03-16T13:34:00.004-07:00

Or Purple anything-I-can-get-my-hands-on Eater! Haha.

She's big enough now to wear her cute flower shoe socks and purple headband she got from my old friend Rebecca! She loved playing with the flowers on her feet.

Here's my little drool monkey trying to take a bite out of her book.

Yay she was finally able to sink her gums into her book!

Yesterday I was watching videos from her birth and the first few weeks of her life and it's ridiculously crazy how much she has changed. It has only been five months and she looks so different and has learned so many new things. It's crazy how much happens in the first year of their lives. I'm definitely cherishing every moment of it and I'm so lucky I'm able to stay home with her everyday and watch her change.

5 months old!

2011-03-10T19:45:00.002-07:00

...yesterday.

I didn't get around to blogging about it yesterday because I got a lovely infection from breastfeeding. Oh joy! I woke up at 5 am feeling extremely nauseous and dizzy and I was shaking really bad. I couldn't figure out what it was until my sister in law said my symptoms sound like I have mastitis. And sure enough when I called my dr. and told the nurse my symptoms that's what it was. I started some antibiotics so I should be better soon. Luckily it hasn't effected Jessalyn at all. I'm still able to nurse as usual and she is still eating as usual. So we both spent the day in bed yesterday. Jordan went to his class then took care of us the rest of the day. We are so lucky to have him!

That's how we spent Jessalyn turning five months. Not very exciting. And the only picture I got of her was right before we were going to bed (above) She was cranky and ready to go to sleep. Daddy got a smile at of her for a moment then she went back to being cranky right after.

I can't believe it has been five months already!!! She just keeps turning into the cutest little baby ever everyday. The other night we were trying to go to sleep but instead she wanted to stay awake and 'talk'. So we thought maybe if we ignore her she will eventually fall asleep. Well she spent about ten minutes talking to herself making the funniest noises we have ever heard from her. It was very hard to ignore her and not crack up. We were trying to laugh as quietly as possible. Eventually she 'talked' herself to sleep. let's see what five months will bring us. At the rate she is going, maybe crawling? We'll see.

This picture was taken today. These two are best friends in the making. Jessalyn gets so excited when she sees her puppy and Penny thinks she is the cutest thing ever.

She's sitting up!

2011-03-08T14:48:00.003-07:00

(Click on the pictures to make them bigger.)

My little ducky is sitting up! Such a big girl. She's going to be five months tomorrow! When she gets really excited then she shoots backwards and falls over but she has pretty good balance for the most part.
The picture to the right she was reaching over to get my makeup. She is going to be a little beauty girl like mommy. Haha.

And she looks extra adorable in her ducky outfit from her auntie Sarah. This was actually the first gift I ever received when I was about 3 months pregnant. Isn't it so cute! Look at her little ducky feet.

Weekly Videos

2011-03-06T11:30:00.003-07:00

I have been making videos of Jessalyn every week. I think it will be great to look back on one day when she is older and to see how much she changes each week. It's also for friends and family who aren't able to see her regularly so it's a good way to see her in action and see all of her changes. I added a link on the right side of the blog. So have fun watching and check back often because I try to update every week.

Goofy Bouncer Face

2011-03-04T15:17:00.003-07:00

(Click on the picture to see a bigger version)

Sometimes when Jessalyn doesn't feel like sitting in her bouncer she makes this silly face. I can't help but laugh every time she does it and I call her a goofball. She even scoots herself down now so I have to strap her in if I'm not going to be close.

Sometimes when she feels like only being held, the second I set her down in her bouncer she automatically makes a little squishy face with a little whiny cry. It's actually pretty funny. Sometimes I test it out and see how fast she will do it. Sometimes she will start before I even set her down. This little girl is so entertaining and has be cracking up all day!

New Discoveries

2011-03-03T12:07:00.003-07:00

Jessalyn loves hanging out on her tummy now. I really have to be careful where I leave her. No more days of just laying her on the couch while I do something really quick. She rolls over so quickly now I have to constantly be near.
This is a silly face she likes to make now. I'm not exactly sure why but it cracks me up every time. I like to do it back at her.

I know her rolling over is only the beginning. She tries really hard to move once she is on her tummy. She can get her legs going but hasn't quite figured out what to do with her arms yet. She is a very determined little baby. She tries as hard as she can until she gets too frustrated and starts crying. I know I'm going to have my hands full. As exciting as it is, I'm not ready for her to be crawling around yet.

That's another one of her silly faces that she does and it usually goes along with a silly Jessalyn noise. I love listening to all the noises that she makes. Sometimes they are just so funny we end up cracking up at her and she looks at us like 'what are you laughing at?'

Other than her new found love of rolling over and being on her tummy, she has also been getting a lot more use out of her hands. She grabs onto anything she can get her hands on now. of course it always goes straight in her mouth. Or tries to anyway. And she also loves touching our faces and grabbing them. Her tiny little fingers sometimes feel like little needles digging into you when she squeezes hard enough.

The next thing on her list she has been trying hard to master lately is sitting up. She has gotten pretty good about getting up but it's the whole having enough balance to actually sit up on her own. Most of the time she hates laying on her back. She either tries to do sit ups or gets mad because she would rather be sitting up. I think very soon she will be doing it all on her own.

She's growing up so fast!

2011-03-02T08:37:00.002-07:00

She's already driving!

She wanted to take a little cruise in daddy's car. Now she wants her own pink convertable.
What's next? Slow down little girl!

Rolling Over!

2011-02-28T14:31:00.002-07:00

Today Jessalyn officially rolled over from her back to her tummy! She has been wanting to for quite some time now. She was playing with her little gym while I stepped away for a sec and came back there she was on her tummy. I was so excited! She I flipped her over to see if she would do it again and she did. I think she was pretty proud of herself too. My baby is growing too fast but I love watching all these fun new milestones.

Baby for Sale!

2011-02-22T13:16:00.003-07:00

Jordan and I went shopping at target yesterday and came across this beautiful baby for sale in a stroller.
We wanted to buy her but there was no price....because she is priceless! So we just took her home with us anyway. HAHA!

Happy 4 year Anniversary!

2011-01-20T11:17:00.005-07:00

Our anniversary was on Friday the 14th. I can't believe we have already been married for four years! We have been together a total of six years and what a wonderful six years it has been. This was Jordan's facebook status on our anniversary and I absolutely loved it.

'‎6 years ago today I asked her to be "exclusive." Lol. 5 years ago today I stood on one knee in front of hundreds at a Jim Brickman concert and asked her to marry me. 4 years ago today we said "I do." And finally 1 year ago this week we conceived our little angel Jessalyn. All planned that way except the last one. But it was meant to be! Life is good! :)'

There we were four years ago and here we are four years later. And now our family has grown. We are now a family of four (we can't forget about our first baby Penny)
This anniversary was a lot different then the past three. Our first anniversary we spent it at the resort where we got married. Our second anniversary was at in the white mountains in a nice little cottage and last year was in the happiest place on earth. Disneyland! This year we spent it at a best western in town thanks to my mommy who paid for it. This year was so different obviously because Jessalyn spent our anniversary with us.

All three of us went to dinner at the Elephant Bar then went to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the night. Of course Jessalyn and I had to have a photo shoot as usual.

And she got to enjoy a nice bath in the sink. She loved it. It was like being a tiny baby sized hot tub!

And as we do every year, we gave each other gifts. This year wasn't quite as extravagant as usual. Being a stay at home mom and a student didn't allow that this year but being able to relax and spend time with each other is the best gift ever. I always have to color coordinate the gifts. I got a little creative this year with paper bags and scrabooking paper and stickers!

Jordan's new obsession is Tron so now he can jam to the soundtrack in his car and pretend he is in the movie.

We took Jessalyn swimming for the first time in the heated indoor pool at the hotel. When she first got in she wasn't quite sure but then you could tell she loved it. Even when she accidentally got a little water up her nose she was totally fine. She coughed a little but didn't cry at all.

She looks pretty funny in this one. It makes me laugh. Haha.

This was a great anniversary. They get better every year. This year we celebrated the blessing of our daughter. Having her has definitely brought us closer together. Seeing that we created this beautiful human being together is the best thing we have ever done. And he is the best daddy. I knew he was going to be a great daddy but he is even better than I thought. Seeing him with her is one of my favorite things in the whole world. We have been through a lot this year. Good and bad. I'm so lucky to have him by my side through it all. Here's to many more years ahead of us.

Happy Anniversary My sweet Hubby!

I love you!

3 Months Old

2011-01-10T19:49:00.007-07:00

Here she is at about 2 weeks old wearing that same top. It fits a lot better now.

Time, Please slow down! My little chunky monkey has been in this world exactly three months yesterday. I can't believe how much she has changed in three months.
We had her well baby checkup on Thursday and she now weighs almost 14 pounds and is 23 inches long! She is perfectly healthy and growing. She has just grown out of her newborn clothes. She can still slightly fit into a few things but it's a tight fit. Her looks have changed so much. She still looks a lot like her daddy but with more of my features.

She is showing us her little personality already and boy are we in trouble. She already has us wrapped around her finger. I'm sure it will only get worse. All she is going to have to do is give us her sad little look with her pouty lip and she can have whatever she wants. lol. She is so silly too. She loves to laugh at everything we do. Well at least the only way she knows how to laugh at the moment. She still hasn't quite pushed out that giggle yet but it's right on the verge.

She just started noticing her hands and I will catch her staring at them then she will put them in her mouth. And she is realized she can grab things with them. She is starting to grab onto things a little bit. She is not coordinated enough yet but it's definitely a start. Sometimes she sits on our lap while we eat and now she is able to grab our plate so we have to make sure to keep it farther away. And now she is grabbing onto the hanging toys on her bouncer. She just started doing that in the past few days. She gets really excited when she gets a hold of something and gets a little frustrated when she just can't get it. I'm excited to see what else we have in store with our silly little one.

Snow Day!

2011-01-10T18:30:00.006-07:00

Today we got out first big winter snow since being here. It snowed pretty much all day and Jordan's classes got canceled due to the snow. We took advantage of it and went sledding with James and Heather and the boys.
Penny surprisingly likes the snow. I was worried what she would do but she ran around in it and started eating it. lol. It was pretty funny. Her legs are pretty short so she sunk into the snow a little bit.

We got some pretty sweet snow gear that we would never have any use for in Tucson. I was nice and warm and dry the whole time!

We went sledding across the street from us at Jordan's school. They have pretty nice hills to go down and it was packed. Everyone was out of school so they all had the same idea. The boys got pretty daring and did way better than I did. I pretty much screamed every time I went down. Caleb my five year old nephew told me that I screamed like a baby when we went down in the sled together. Haha. Silly boy.

And here is little Roman. He's almost two and he slowly warmed up to the idea of sledding. He watched everyone else a few times then wanted to try it. He loved it! He giggled the whole way down and eventually went down the sled by himself. Brave little boys. Jessalyn is going to have a lot of fun with her cousins when she is old enough.

Luckily we had Jessalyn's aunt Heather to hold her and keep her warm while mommy got to have some fun on the sled.

She was nice and cozy and bundled up thanks to Aunt Heather. It's so funny to think Jessalyn is going to grow up knowing snow and not knowing anything about living in the desert like I did.

Jordan got pretty daring too. He tried to go as fast as he possibly could. It was a nice work out and he was pretty tired after our snow day festivities.

I needed to take a little nursing break in the car with Jessalyn and decided to make it a photo op. Haha.

And she got pretty tired too.

Jessalyn at 12 Weeks

2011-01-01T11:35:00.005-07:00

Jessalyn and I had a little mini photo shoot last night while daddy was at the movies with Uncle James and her cousins. Today she is 12 weeks old. I have no idea where the time is going. We keep telling her to slow down! I feel like every day she changes. She gets more and more beautiful each day. (Click on the pictures to see a larger view)
She smiles so much more now. My favorite is when she wakes up in the morning. I say "Good morning! I love you!" And she looks at me with this wide smile and tilts her head and moves her little arms so cute. It melts my heart every time. She still hasn't pushed out a giggle yet. She's trying so hard. It comes out more like a cough. I can't wait to hear her little baby giggles. She has been doing lots of baby talk. We have little conversations and she can get pretty vocal.

I knew I was going to be a protective mommy and not want anything to hurt my precious little baby. It's the worst feeling trying to comfort your baby from hurting when you're the one who hurt her. I was trying to cut her tiny little nails and when she moved her little finger really fast I cut a piece of skin. She immediately started screaming as her finger was bleeding. I can't even explain how bad I felt about it. I ran to the sink and rinsed her finger off then ran into the bedroom where Jordan was sleeping. I woke him up in tears telling him I cut her finger. He was half asleep and told me to get a band aid. I was freaking out and told him to look at it. I was thinking it was worse than it was. I was sure we needed to go to the ER for this tiny little cut. He tried to calm me down and took her from my arms and put a huge band aid on her tiny finger. There I am crying telling her I'm so sorry and she sitting on daddy's lap laughing at me. lol. She was totally fine. I was the one crying and she was the one smiling. I felt like the worst mother all day long. Her finger is just fine now with a tiny scab on the tip. I apologized to her about a billion times that day. Haha.
We were so blessed in 2010. It was such an eventful year. From getting pregnant in January and moving to Kansas in April then the birth of our daughter in October. It has been the most exciting and life changing year in our lives together so far. We are so anxious to see what challenges and excitement 2011 has to bring!

Matching Jammies

2010-12-25T12:06:00.007-07:00

Aunt Heather made some matching PJ's for her boys and Jessalyn. And Uncle James wanted some pants too. So now they area all matching in their cozy monster jammies.
Here's silly cousin Roman. He wanted my camera so he could take pictures himself.

Jessalyn's jammies were so cute and tiny compared to everyone elses. And Heather put some flowers on them for a girly touch.
They are so warm and cozy. She loved them so much she passed on daddy's lap.

Thank you Aunt Heather!

10 Weeks Old

2010-12-17T16:37:00.005-07:00

Jessalyn is going to be 10 weeks tomorrow. I can't believe it. Jordan and I told her to slow down and stop growing for a little while. We wish she could stay a baby for two years and then start getting bigger. Haha. She is so alert and loves to watch us. She started smiling a lot more this week. She wakes up with a huge smile on her face and sometimes when you talk she thinks it's pretty funny and smiles. It looks like she is trying very hard to laugh. I'm sure little baby giggles are coming up soon.
Another thing she has been doing a lot this week is sucking on her hands. I try to give her a binky but she prefers her hands more. They must taste pretty yummy. I tried to see if she could suck her thumb but not quite. With all this hand sucking maybe she might turn into a thumb sucker.

And as you can see as a lady said out at a restaurant the other day, "She doesn't miss a meal!" lol. Look at those cute arm rolls, and chubby cheeks and double chin. I love chubby babies! I was a pretty chunky baby so she's following in mommy's footsteps.

She is doing great sleeping at night. She doesn't completely sleep through the night yet but she does normally sleep about ten or more hours which is great for me! She wakes up to eat about two or three times at night. She doesn't completely wake up. She starts squirming and makes little noises and that's how I know she is hungry so she eats a little then falls right back to sleep. We have a routine that we started at about four weeks. She gets a bath every night at around 8 or 9 then she gets her sleepy time lotion and into her jammies. We get into bed with her blankey she usually nurses until she falls asleep. We haven't skipped a day since we started and it's working great for us. I think it's her favorite part of the day. She is so much fun. I love just hanging out and having little baby conversations with her.

Oh the drama!

2010-12-15T12:37:00.007-07:00

I've been debating whether or not I wanted to blog about this but I decided that it's part my whole journey into motherhood. Now that I am feeling so much better I thought I would finally make a post about it. Just a warning- it is a little TMI.

At about three weeks post partum I was sitting and nursing Jessalyn when I felt something leaking down my leg. I thought I peed my pants or something so I got up quickly, put Jessalyn in her bouncer and ran to the bathroom. I didn't pee myself thank goodness but blood was dripping down my leg like crazy. I know you are supposed to bleed after you have a baby but with the amount of blood that was still coming out it was not normal. I yelled for Jordan and told him what was going on. He immediately called my Dr. but I knew it was bad so I told him we might as well go to the hospital.

We got to the ER and got an ultrasound and they checked me to see what was going on. They noticed in the ultrasound that there was possibly still a little bit of placenta that was leftover. I was instructed to make an appointment with my midwife in the morning to see what she says to do.

That following day I went in to my midwife and she prescribed me some medicine to take for a few days that was supposed to help flush everything out. She wanted to avoid any kind of surgery and said this was probably going to work.

Fast forward to about a week later, I woke up to go to the bathroom and noticed I was laying in a puddle of something. I ran to the bathroom really fast and was leaking blood everywhere. There was a huge trail of blood from the bed to the bathroom and all over the bathroom floor. I yelled for Jordan and he woke up fast and in a panic. We were both shocked that this was happening again and it seemed a bit worse than last time. Jordan said the bathroom looked like a crime scene. I started getting really nervous so I rushed him out of the house with a towel wrapped around me and rushed to the hospital. We ran red lights and everything. It was about 1 am so luckily there wasn't any traffic. I rushed into the ER and was immediately seen because of how bad I was bleeding. I got yet another ultrasound and was checked again. They decided that I should stay in the hospital over night so that I could get a D&C in the morning. Jordan and Jessalyn stayed over night with me until he had to go to his paper route in the morning. That morning the Dr. came in and informed me that he looked at my ultrasound and didn't think it was big enough or worth having the surgery to take it out. He said that was probably the end of it and it could have been the pills I was given that was making me bleed again. I went to a follow up about a week later and the same Dr. told me that he read it wrong but nothing was in there anymore. I was really relieved everything was better and I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

I was so wrong. About another week later I was sitting on the couch with Jessalyn and Jordan enjoying a nice Saturday morning. I got up to go to the bathroom and I instantly felt blood gushing and running down my leg. I hurried to the bathroom and hoped it would stop. But it literally kept pouring out. I changed my blood soaked pants and hoped maybe the blood would slow down...but it soaked through what I was wearing again. I went in and told Jordan we needed to make yet another trip to the ER. So frustrated we both started packing Jessalyn up to go again. But this time it was worse. The blood wouldn't stop and I started feeling really light headed. Jordan told me to hurry and go down to the car but I knew I wouldn't make it so I laid down in middle of our dining room hoping I wouldn't pass out. I started freaking out so Jordan decided to call 911. Luckily the ambulance came fast. They took my blood pressure and it was pretty low when I sat up. So they strapped me in and rolled me outside which was pretty embarrassing. Some of our neighbors were out and were watching them take me into the ambulance for the second time since we have lived there. They were probably wondering what's wrong with this poor girl. lol.

When I arrived at the ER the Dr. decided that getting the D&C was going to be the best option at this point. What's so frustrating about it is I should have had the surgery the first time around instead of going through all of this three times. I was prepped for surgery and rolled up to the OR. I have never had any type of surgery before so this was very scary for me no matter how small or fast the procedure was. At the same time I was happy to finally get it over and done with. All I really remember after being rolled into the OR was having the oxygen over my face and trying to breath as I passed out quickly from the anesthesia. The next thing I knew I was laying in the recovery room in a haze and the only thing I could say was "My feet are cold." haha. It took me forever to wake up. I heard everything going on around me but couldn't seem to wake up. When I finally woke up I felt so drunk and delirious. I was luckily allowed to go home right after. Everything was pretty much a blur from that point until the next morning.

I'm so happy the surgery finally took care of the problem. For the week after I was living in fear that I would wake up in a pool of blood again. But time has passed and everything is so much better. We were really being tested with all of this. But now we are back on our feet and I've been getting out of the house and enjoying things again. We are having tons of fun with our smiley baby and so happy all of that is behind us now.

Congrats James!

2010-12-11T17:37:00.008-07:00

Jordan's brother James just graduated from Cleveland Chiropractic College. We couldn't be more excited for him and his family. It was a long road for them but they finally made it.

Being at his graduation made us so excited for us to be in the same position in about 5 years from now. Looking at them really gave us hope that it is going to happen and will be worth it :)

Mom and dad are very proud!

Jessalyn was good through the whole graduation but fell asleep at the end. But she still had to get a picture with her uncle James! Haha.

I stole these pictures from Heather.

We are so happy for this beautiful family. They deserve all the best that is in store for them.

Congrats again Dr. James Sheffer III!

6 Weeks Old!

2010-11-21T12:53:00.004-07:00

Jessalyn turned 6 weeks yesterday and she has already changed so much. I feel like I woke up one day and she looked different. She has definitely gotten a little chunkier. She loves to eat! I love chunky babies. The rolls look so cute on them. She just started smiling too. It was the cutest thing the first time I saw it. I was talking to her and she must have thought what I was saying was funny because she smiled really big almost like she was going to laugh. Then she gave daddy a smile when he came home. She also things her Uncle James is pretty hilarious because she gave him a bunch of smiles too.
Penny loves Jessalyn so much. She is always trying to lick her face but we stop her before she does it. I joke around and say that Penny thinks she is so little and cute and looks like a mini version of her dad so that's why she loves her so much.

Jamie*Jordan*Jessalyn