Birthdays and company

First I will start by wishing my Dad, sister Kelly and brother Fred all a Happy Birthday!
This weekend was so much fun, even though I can't kick whatever flu or virus has a hold on me. Saturday Jacob worked and when he got home Peter, Marcia, Brianna, Joey, Ashlyn and Steve came over. We spent the afternoon visiting and grabbed something for dinner. We came home and all spent the night playing Guitar Hero. It was so funny because we wanted the Guitar Hero band set over the Rock Band but we were so anxious we decided to buy whichever one we could get. Well at the exact same time I bought Guitar Hero and Jacob bought Rock Band LOL. So we will be returning the Rock Band. Anyway, we all had a lot of fun. I just love to play the drums and so does Jacob so that is our biggest problem.
Sunday we met up with all the Rock's for breakfast at The Good Egg. After breakfast the boys went off to watch football while the rest of us went to look at a few houses in Scottsdale. We were all in love with the first house that we saw. It was AMAZING! In between we stopped at The Golden Spoon and then met up with the guys. We went to Oreganos for lunch and it was wonderful as always. I wasn't feeling very well though, so I didn't eat very much. We all went back to the Rock's place to watch the Broncos game. I was trying to stick it out, but I was just feeling more and more sick, so Nadia and I went home. Jacob came home when the game was over to find me in bed miserable. I was in bed all day today afraid to even move. It is so hard to take care of a 3 month old when you are so sick you can't move. I begged Jacob to stay home from work, but I knew he couldn't. We made it through the day and Nadia was such a good girl. I just hope I feel better for work tomorrow.

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Last night we were at my parents house to celebrate Christmas Eve as usual. We ate, made our hot spiced wine (Feuerzangenbowle) and ate cookies. I made homemade Lebkuchen this year for the first time and I was very happy with the results. Every year I can't wait for Christmas because I just LOVE those cookies, now I can make them! After we all had our wine we let Nadia open her gifts from Julia and Rick, Frank and Maureen, and David and Matthew. Afterwards everyone started heading home and so did we. We both exchanged gifts last night. We were only supposed to do 1 each, but we did 2, and one of Nadia's gifts. This morning we woke up and opened the last of our gifts. I got everything I wanted! I was especially excited about my new robe and coffee maker. I had to make coffee right away. Its a new type where it has no carafe, it has a little button you push to dispense the coffee. It is supposed to keep it fresh. I had one of those senseo machines where you only brew a cup at a time, so I am very excited! Jacobs favorite gift he got was a new electric razor. I was surprised at how expensive they can be, but I wanted him to have a good one. I bought him the Braun 360 complete 8995.
Nadia got lots of toys. She also got a cute pair of slippers and a stuffed animal from Jacobs cousin Jeremy and his wife Jessi. Her Oma and Opa gave her a savings bond and money. She got a pair of Nike shoes from her Daddy. They are the cutest little things you have ever seen! I got her a mobile for her crib, for when she starts to sleep in it. She has only laid in her crib once!

Here are some pictures from last night and this morning.

Three months old

Have a Holly, Jolly, Christmas....

This is apparently the only Christmas song I know, and only 2 lines of it, but I love to sing it. I'm sure I drive Jacob crazy, but Nadia likes the signing :) I am so excited for Christmas. I get excited about the gifts I give, it is almost unbearable for me to wait until Christmas to give them. Nadia and I started making cookies yesterday, then I moved on to the deviled eggs and pickle wraps. They are such simple things to make, but Jacob LOVES them. Today I am going to my parents early to help cook. Everyone should be over around 4. I am excited for Nadia to have her first Christmas. Jacob should be home soon and I need to get us ready! I just noticed that the video didn't post, so I am going to try it again.

Ahh, the holidays

Here are a few photos from a couple weeks ago. And a video from this week.
I can't believe how long it has been since I have last blogged. Things have just been so hectic lately. Our little Nadia Grace is just growing up so quickly. It is amazing how a little baby can show you a love you have never known. She is starting to really recognize people and loves to talk, smile and giggle. Her only problem is that she gets so excited that no noise comes out. It is just so cute hearing her little voice. Yesterday we went up to Jacobs work for his year review, they always love to see Nadia. So the baby and I had fun with the girls at his work while he was in with the owner of the company. We were excited that he got a raise and a bonus! Jacob works so hard, I am happy that he is being rewarded. I had a hair appointment at 11 in Scottsdale so Jacob dropped Nadia and I off while he went shopping. I had her cut off 5 inches and give me bangs. I feel so much better, I was in desperate need for a change. When we came home Jacob sent us to the bedroom while he wrapped our presents. We each bought Nadia something that the other doesn't know about. We thought it would be a nice surpise for eachother since she is so little. Christmas Eve we will be going over to my parents house to celebrate as usual. I always opened up all my gifts Christmas Eve, but I really feel like I missed out. We decided that with Nadia she can open gifts from my family Christmas Eve and one from us, but the rest will be Christmas morning. Christmas Day we are invited over to my brothers, in-laws place. I can't believe how fast time is going, our anniversary is in a week and a half and we haven't even planned anything! Well, I have a few ideas, but I have to see if I can pull it off or not.

Wonderful Weekend

Little Nadia looks so much like her Daddy! She loves to snuggle now.


Early Friday morning I woke up so sick. I was up and down for hours. I finally managed to get back to sleep only to be woken up an hour later by my alarm. I got up and got ready for work, but it was not a great day. I was off by 2 and went home with the baby to relax. She was not in the mood to relax though. That is the one thing that both Jacob and I agree we miss. There are times that you are just exhausted, or sick, but above all you are a parent. So you suck it up no matter how you feel and do your best. I think the first time we have a baby sitter over night we will spend it not going out, but sleeping in LOL. Friday night our friends Lisa and Justin wanted to hang out but we were both just too tired.

Saturday morning we woke up, got ourselves some coffee and went to a couple garage sales. I wanted to get Nadia a Bumbo seat, but I didn't want to pay $40 for one. I know she won't use it much and you have to be very careful with them. She is just too cute sitting in it though!


Afterwards we went to look at houses in Queen Creek. We looked at about 8 houses and were impressed by most of them. All the houses we looked at had pools and all of them were at or under $150K. A few of them were just too big to be honest. We don't need 3000 sqft nor do we want to pay utilities on that much space. We really enjoy going out and looking to see what is out there and it gives us a chance to see which areas we like. On our way back into town we stopped to pick up a gift for the White Elephant gift exchange at my office Christmas party next week. I also had to stop and order California Rolls from Kona Grill. I had been craving them ever since I had them when Peter and Marcia were out. We stopped by the house and stocked up Nadias diaper bag and headed over to Justins house. They were decorating the house and drinking egg nog and rum. We both had a drink, played Mario Cart and visited for a while. We were home by nine and exhausted. I noticed that I had missed a call. It was my parents cell phone and my Dad left a page to call it back. I knew this wasn't good. They don't use their cell phone often. I tried calling a few times and no one answered. I tried their home, no answer. So I called my brother, he didn't know anything. I finally got a hold of my Dad and they were at the hospital. My Mom had gone in at about 5 with chest pains. It is basically the same issues as the last time she was in. They are running tests on her and keeping her a few days. They did get 4 liters of fluid out of her and she was stabilized that night, so she is feeling better.

Today we laid in bed and watched football. When Nadia napped we napped. It was a nice relaxing day. I thought about going to visit my Mom at the hospital but we didn't think it would be a good idea to bring Nadia to the hospital. My Mom was pretty knocked out by all the Morphine they had given her anyway. We did finally venture out around 5 to pick up formula and diapers. We came home and cleaned the house for about an hour before we settled down to watch the Amazing Race and Desperate Housewives. All in all we had a great weekend together minus my Mom going into the hospital.

Brainstorming

Now that Nadia is finally sleeping a little longer I am finding myself not being able to sleep well. I keep having crazy dreams, not nightmares necessarily but pretty close. Once I am awake I find myself doing our budget in my head, thinking of what I can make for dinner the next night, trying to remember if I have to work the next day. I am usually pretty good at calming my mind but there is a whole new world of things that you wonder/worry about once you are a mother. I had myself so worked up that I just had to have a talk with my boss today. We make decent money, but as I have said before our health insurance is a huge drain on us. Add to that the 20% we owe for our hospital stay. I told her that I was ready to take on more hours if they were available. We also talked about life issues and afterwards I felt much better. She told me there is plenty of work for me so I can get as many hours as I need. We again talked about me activating my license, but I think I will hold off a little while for various reasons. As long as I am making decent money I am happy. I love the fact that they are so easy going and flexible. Most importantly, they are good hearted and fair. I am checking into different health care for us in hopes that I can find something that is reasonable. I found a few options today that look promising.

In other news.... Jacob told me he had been thinking about Brick possibly coming out here to stay a couple/few months. We talked about it and we think it might be fun for him to get away for a little while. We spoke about it prior to him even bringing it up to Brick so he was very excited to call him today. Brick liked the idea, so we will talk after Christmas about how and when he will come down. I had to assure my parents that they would not miss out on any babysitting time. LOL We are not bringing Brick out here to be a babysitter! Crazy parents, they love their little Nadia. I felt so bad for Nadia today. I got her after work and had to do some grocery shopping. Lets just say that's not easy to do in heels lugging a baby carrier. When we got home she just started screaming bloody murder. This just isn't like her, I have never heard her cry so hard. I felt so bad for her. This continued on and off for quite a few hours. I cried with her because I felt so helpless. She was looking at me with those sad eyes all welled up in tears. I was afraid she was starting to get constipated, and had picked up a few items from the store to help, but it was too late. Poor girl was in so much pain all because she couldn't poo. Finally she was able to and she has been the happy baby we are used to. I am going to do everything I can to keep that from happening again, it was horrible!

Running

Yesterday I felt great, wasn't even sore, so I was a little disappointed in myself. I didn't want to push it too much on my first run and I may have slacked off too much. I ran again today and it seemed harder than the first time! I kept the same pace as last time, so we will see how I feel. I stretched a lot better this time, so my legs weren't as tense but my asthma was kicking in slightly and my heart was pounding! I figure at least maybe I will get my hips, butt and legs back to a normal size by working my muscles. I am going to have Jacob measure me tonight. I am more worried about inches than I am weight. If my clothes fit, I'm happy! I was talking to a friend today that suggested the "lemonade cleanse diet" There is no way that I have enough willpower to do that and I'm just not sure how healthy that can really be for you. She lost 10 pounds in 10 days each time she has done it. The "safe" weight to lose a week is 2-3. So we will just eat healthier and get our butts moving. Jacob also has been running, but of course he is a little better at it than I am. I did remember though while running Monday I must look like a fool! LOL This is why I don't run! Good thing no one can see me and I am the only one seeing things jiggle that just aren't pretty! Oh man.....

An attempt to run

LOL, Well I am soooo out of shape. I started week 1 of the podcast today. After I fed Nadia I decided I had the urge to go run.I set her swing up in the room and got the podcast all ready. I knew I was in for it when my legs were tired just from walking fast. I know that I need to start somewhere though and I may just have to repeat this week for a while before I can move up. I do feel really good and I know I will be sore, but I feel like I acomplished something, so I am happy.

Here are a few pictures of Nadia over the weekend. We let he try out her new swing and excersaucer. She was adorable!

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nadia has been sleeping so good at night, I have been afraid to say anything because I didn't want to jinx us! Generally she falls asleep between 9-11 and has been sleeping until about 5-6 in the morning. It is really wonderful to be able to get a good chunk of sleep in. This morning she did wake up at 4, but she had fallen asleep early. She went right back to sleep though and let us sleep in until about 8. Despite her swing pooping out on us. We will have to replace that ASAP because it is her most favorite thing in the world right now. Not to mention where she sleeps at night. I know, I know, I hate to admit that is where she sleeps, but it makes us both sleep better knowing she is not laying flat and won't choke on her spit up. We do need to start getting her used to her crib and we do have a sleep positioner for her. All in time I guess.....

Jacob ran to the store this morning to pick up the toothpicks I had forgotten to buy last night. When he got home we made the appetizers that we were bringing over to Nancy and Lukes house. We were really excited that we were doing Thanksgiving as a large group this year. Both Jacob and I are used to large celebrations. Last year it was just us and my parents. It just doesn't feel the same when there isn't a big group! We watched Tropic Thunder before we headed over to celebrate. We got there at about 2 and got to visit with everyone before we ate at 4. Of course Nadia was the center of attention. Nancy and her parents had not seen Nadia yet so they were very excited and she got cute little gifts from them. She was a very good girl today only crying once just before we were leaving. I was afraid that she would be fussy from her shots yesterday but she let everyone hold her and even gave them smiles. We came home at about 7, just in time for Jacob to watch the Nuggets. Both of us have to work tomorrow and Jacob on Saturday. It was nice to have the holiday off together, but it would've been even better if it could've been an extra long weekend!

Nadia and her Opa


Julia just loves Nadia

9 Weeks

I took Nadia in to the Dr's this morning. I was really dreading having her get her shots. Poor little girl. When the Dr. walked in she said "Oh, I had a feeling I would see this today." Referring to my delayed shot schedule that I had brought in. She was less than enthused. She continued to say, "I have a problem with this because of..... oh wait, this is different than the others I have seen." I told her it was an updated version. She looked it over and explained the different vaccinations to me, which I had already researched on my own. I decided that we would go ahead and to the Hep B since she was already given one at birth. She also got DTaP and Rotovirus. So she ended up getting two shots and one orally. I felt much better about that then 6 shots at once. She screamed and cried and turned bright red when they gave her the shots and I felt so bad for her. She seemed to be fine as soon as they were over and I gave her extra cuddles. She has been sleeping more today, but that is not unusual I guess. She is in the 50-75% for weight at 11 pounds. Her length is now 22 inches, 1 inch more than last time. She is getting to be such a big girl!

Here are some pictures from last night and today. Little stinker, every time she see's the light on the camera she stops smiling! I will post more pictures of Thanksgiving tomorrow. We will be going over to my brothers sister-in-laws house. Everyone is very excited to see Nadia again.

Shower time

Nadia loves to take showers. The faces she makes are just the cutest. She really likes it when her face gets wet. I was especially surprised by that! She goes in tomorrow for her 2 month appointment. I am not looking forward to them giving her shots but I have chose a delayed vaccination schedule, so it won't be as bad as it could be. Poor girl just can't kick her thrush either so I am going to ask for a prescription to help clear it up. I will update tomorrow with her new weight and height. I feel like she has grown a TON! Here are a few pictures from tonight.

Just before her shower.

So fresh and clean!

8 weeks and Christmas photos

Nadia turned 8 weeks old this week. She will go in for her 2 month Drs apt soon. There are a series of 5 shots that they will want to give her. I have been researching a delayed shot schedule and I will be talking with the Dr about it when we go in. She becomes so much more alert everyday, she can definitely see us now.

I had to take Nadia down to my parents house a few days last week for them to watch her. It is easier for them to be at their house because of my Moms oxygen. It is very stressful for me to get us both ready, drive all the way to my parents house and then all the way back to work. Their house is 40 mins away and my work is only 10 mins from our house. So when I have to take her down there I have to leave 1 1/2 early because of the drive. I decided that it would be much easier if we just got my parents a car seat base for our car seat and ask my Dad to meet me at my work in the morning to pick her up. We tried it for the first time Friday and I think it will work out well for both of us. He doesn't have to drag my Moms oxygen with him up to our house and I only have to pick her up from their house which will make my driving time go from almost 3hrs to 1. Traffic is not nearly as bad on my way home since I leave work around 3.

Jacob had this weekend off, we woke up and watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall . It was actually a pretty good movie, we laughed a LOT. Then we got ready to run a few errands. Kohls, Walmart, Blockbuster, then back home. I started dinner and we watched Hell Boy 2. I started putting up the Christmas tree, stopped to eat dinner and then finished it up. I wanted to get it up so we could take Christmas pictures to put on our Christmas cards. Which leads us to today LOL. We got ourselves all ready and attempted to take pictures. I need to get on the treadmill badly! I was unhappy with pretty much every picture we took. Hopefully one of these days Jacob will get down to my parents to pick it up. I want to try the podcast that Brianna and Katy were doing. If that doesn't work for me then I will check out some other podcasts. I've been looking at them and it seems like the one they did is the most popular. I have never ran in my life unless I was forced to in P.E. but I am DETERMINED to lose some weight! Maybe if I stopped making so many cookies that would help LOL.

Sunday Funday

Jacob had to go to the last series of his tankless water heater certification class on Saturday. He had to be there at 7 which meant waking up really early to make the drive up there. He got out a little early and then had one call to go to. He took a little nap when he came home and we went out to do some shopping. I wanted to get Nadia a cute Christmas dress for our pictures. I didn't anticipate how hard it would be to find one that 1) I liked and 2) Was her size. We ended up going to a few stores only to leave with a shirt for me, jacket for Jacob and a few cute onesies for her. We also bought her a Christmas stocking but couldn't find a "My first Christmas" ornament. So the shopping trip didn't turn out exactly how we wanted. We came home and watched Untraceable. It was pretty good and surprisingly, I did not have nightmares.
This morning Peter and Marcia came to our house and we went to breakfast at The Good Egg. The breakfast there is always wonderful and we got in just before the rush. After breakfast we took a drive to my work to pick up the addresses of a few properties we wanted to look at. First we drove to Queen Creek and looked at a couple houses. Jacob and I had seen the first house last weekend and we knew it was pretty nice, the second house wasn't but it also was about 100K less than the first. Next we drove to Gold Canyon. I had never been there, but we had a couple listings there that we wanted to see. They were high end homes, and the area that they were in was gorgeous. They ranged in prices from 400-600K. Keep in mind that is the bank price, they would normally sell above 1M. You could tell that they had been sitting empty for quite a while and after we left the last one we noticed a huge bee hive. We are so lucky we didn't get stung. We decided to head for a late lunch at Kona Grill. The food there was wonderful! Marcia and I both had Mango Mojitos and Macadamia nut crusted chicken with white cheddar mashed potatoes. I also had to try the California rolls, they were so good! They have a full sushi bar, but I am not brave enough to try anything else. They wanted to take us to Babies R Us next to buy Nadia some gifts. They completely spoiled her! We are lucky to have such wonderful people in our life. They treat us very well, not to mention that we always have a great time with them. Its so nice to spend time with family from back home. It does make us miss everyone even more, but we will just have to convince everyone to come visit more often :)

Sleep deprived

I don't care what anyone says, you don't know what being sleep deprived is until you have a baby! I am definitely hitting a place where I am completely worn down. Even though our little one is starting to sleep longer stretches at night it is wearing me out. I have been trying to be a good Mom and wife. Jacobs job is much harder than mine and he works 6 days a week most weeks, but I need a night that I can just sleep until morning. I am finding myself so irritable towards him and I couldn't figure out why. It seems I am fine all day and then bed time hits and I get crabby. He is such a good Dad and husband, he does everything he can for us. Then it occurred to me, I am SO jealous that he gets to sleep. The Dr. told me that with the hormone roller coaster I am on feeling this way is not abnormal. I just want it to go away. I HATE feeling resentful towards him, and I have been trying to snap myself out of it, but obviously I am not doing a good job at it. I'm not trying to complain by any means, I love Nadia and Jacob with all my heart. Of course no matter how tired I am I look at her sweet face and it melts my heart, but I still look at Jacob sleeping and feel a twinge of anger LOL. I know that every parent goes through this, they all survived, so will I..... Can the relief come sooner than later though!

Even better

I love how alert Nadia is becoming. This morning we got some very cute pictures and videos.



Laying on her favorite blanket.

Enjoying her new toy.

Laughing girl

The quality isn't great, but I was finally able to catch a little laugh. Now if I could just get a picture of her smiling!

7 Week Pictures

Here are a few pictures.... Nadia loves it when you turn music on and dance with her, sometimes its the only way to calm her down. So here is Jacob dancing and singing with Nadia, too cute!


I don't know why her hair looks so red in these pictures, it must be the pink blanket I always use.

7 Weeks

I really don't know where my days go. It doesn't seem like I am doing much, but they just seem to fly by. I took Nadia with me to work on Friday and everyone was so excited to see her. I had to go to Coolidge to check out a house and she really enjoyed the ride. It was an hour each way, but she was a very good girl. I haven't tried to put her on a schedule but she seems to have fallen into one, which is nice. She has been sleeping in longer stretches at night, which I'm sure is due to having formula before bed. I know that sticks with them longer than breast milk. She slept from 9 last night to 5:45 this morning. I couldn't believe it! I have been trying everything I can to up my supply, so on Saturday we went out and bought a few items at the health food store. One of the supplements I got makes me smell like maple syrup, good thing I like that smell! We also went and bought her a new toy. She is more alert now and really likes lights and music. We bought her a Baby Einstein floor toy. She loves it! It is so fun to see her grow and start taking an interest in things, even if it is only a few minutes at a time. Sunday I had to go look at another house for work so we took a drive to Queen Creek, its only about 25 minutes from our house, but we had a few stops we wanted to make there. The house I had to check out for work was AWESOME. We have started looking at houses, we will probably try to buy something this summer. We are starting to think that Queen Creek might be where we end up. You can get so much for your money out there, the market is definitely in our favor all around, but we will see what happens when the time comes. This weekend Marcia and Peter will be here. We are so excited to see them and for them to meet Nadia!

6 Weeks

I had my six week check up today and everything looks good. Nadia is on her 3rd day of treatment and it is clearing up, but not gone yet. Yesterday I wanted to get some things done around the house so I strapped her in her snugli and wore her around the house. I really want a Moby wrap, but we just don't have the extra money right now to buy one. The past few days Nadia has been full of smiles. Real smiles not gas smiles! She especially likes to smile and laugh at her Dad, it is the cutest thing. Of course it just melts Jacobs heart every time she does it. Tonight they are watching the Broncos game together, she will definitely be a Daddy's girl!

Poor Baby

I had been wondering the past week if Nadia might have thrush. I have been pumping and mixing my milk with formula the past few weeks because my milk supply had dropped ever since I started working. Thankfully that means that I have no symptoms and didn't get it, but poor Nadia did. At first it was only her tongue that was white but then I noticed that the top of her mouth and the inside of her cheeks were getting white spots. I called the Dr and was told to call a different office to speak with the nurse, well 6 phone calls later I finally reached someone who would take a message for me. While I waited for her to call me back I researched treatments myself and decided that I would try an over the counter treatment that I could find at the pharmacy. Of course as I was pulling into the garage the nurse called me back and actually suggested the very thing I had just bought. The down side to it is that it is messy and it turns whatever it touches purple. I am thankful that she is not in any pain because thrush can be very painful, I think I caught it before it got too bad. We are supposed to treat her once a day for 3 days. I already noticed a difference today after her first treatment last night. I hope that this works for our poor little girl!

Happy Halloween

We got to enjoy our first Halloween with Nadia and it was just too cute! We ended up getting her a penguin costume, it was still a little big, but cute. Jacob and I went out for a drink after work and then I came home to relive my parents. Jacob actually ended up having to go on another call, his work was very apologetic, but the guy that was supposed to do it said he was sick. We thought that was really convenient considering he was going to meet us for a drink too. He ended up calling Jacob saying he was too sick then called him about an hour later and sounded just fine. People are weird, he practically begged us to go out for a drink, oh well. It was fun for us to go out although all we did was think about Nadia. I got home at about 5 and got the candy all ready to hand out. I put Nadia in her little outfit and we handed out candy. I wish Jacob would've been able to be home. It is so cool because since it is so warm here people just set up their fire pits in the driveway and sit outside to hand out candy. Jacob got home at about 8 and was able to hand out a little candy. He is working today and we don't have anything special planned for the weekend.