When October Goes...

It is crazy to me how quickly time is passing, and yet it seems to stand still at 3:00 in the morning when the baby is sad... But I have so many friends who are having babies and I watch them go through their pregnancies, and it is SO amazing how much quicker time moves when you AREN'T pregnant. Ha ha.

Here I am, in Rexburg, Idaho. I never thought I'd live in Idaho. Not that I ever had anything against it, but growing up I never really pictured myself living here. I love it! I have been loving the mercifully beautiful weather we've had this week. I took Audrey out in her stroller the first time this week! She loved it. I think she really liked the bumping of the asphalt which isn't perfectly paved... because Rexburg doesn't take care of their roads like Mesa does... and she also really liked the sound of the crunching of the leaves. Another thing Mesa doesn't have- FALL! I really wish I'd taken pictures of the gorgeous colors that we've gotten over the past few weeks. It has truly amazed me. I've never experienced colors like that before! I'm excited/nervous for winter to come. I'm not sure how I will deal with the snow. But I'm nervously excited for it.

I'm completely in love with being a Mom. Ever since we've been up here I've felt so much more like a wife and mother. I LOVE having my own house to take care of. I LOVE being home all day with Audrey. It really truly is exactly what I want to be doing. I've also learned that I need a variety of things to occupy my time. If I spend all my time taking care of Audrey and trying to clean etc, and I never do anything for myself, I go nuts. I have to do something for myself every day, even if it's just a nice, hot shower. I've found that helps me stay that much more sane as I cope with less sleep and the resulting mounting stress. I also have found that I need to get out of the house at least once a day. I need to remember the rest of the world is still there and beautiful. I've loved going on walks with Audrey this week. This will be tricky once winter hits. But being on campus a few days a week has helped too. I've really enjoyed having new music to practice and work on. LOVE it. I'm also excited to get back into Mary Kay, since I've kind of had to take a break from it when I had Audrey and the whole adjustment process. I need to add friends of my list of things to do.

Life is wonderful! Totally loving it!

I do find myself missing all of those wonderful people back in Mesa... but we are WAY excited to come visit for Christmas! We will be flying down on the 19th of December late- and then we are driving back up to Rexburg probably the Tuesday after Christmas. We want to see all your smiling faces! I'm sure Thomas the social mastermind will have tons of fun things planned that he wants to do. But PLEASE tell us if you're doing something fun and want to see our gorgeous baby...

Demons in the Night: The end of all foods Mexican (for Mom at least)

I am taking advantage of the time I have now while the baby decided to nap. I've been so productive! I cleaned the kitchen, ate breakfast with TWO hands, and cleaned up the house. And now I'm here!

We had an exciting... hmm, no. We had an... interesting... I suppose that word will do... adventure... last night/this morning. We puzzled. We cried. We thought. We learned something. No more Mexican food for me. Let me tell you how much I love Mexican food. I LOVE Mexican food. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. That was one of the only things that consistently sounded good throughout my 9-month bought with morning sickness. So I had a burrito for lunch yesterday about... oh 1:30pm. It was pretty amazing. Spicy refried beans, beef, cheese, sour cream... all the good stuff. Oh it was tasty. However... as a result... poor Audrey fussed... hmm, no. Poor Audrey screamed... hmm. I'm trying to find the proper word to put here. She was inconsolable until around 6:00 this morning, sleeping only when crying wore her to exhaustion and then only until she had gained enough strength to resume crying (usually about 10-15 minutes or so). But after 6-ish then she settled down and finally slept. Poor baby. And she has slept very well since then. Poor tired baby, she wore herself out!

I have taken a vow of non-Mexican food eating. Thomas has been instructed to pick up some Mylicon drops on his way home from work. Audrey continues to sleep...

At long last... update!

Ok so I'm horrible at updating lately... for some reason whenever I happen to have two hands to type with they need to be doing something else... like sleeping... or eating... But our family is doing well! I think we are coping with the lack of sleep ok- it's definitely stressful but it's completely worth it. She is so beautiful. We absolutely are loving having her in our home.

Audrey seems to be growing right before our eyes. It simultaneously brings me unparalleled joy and makes me incredibly sad to see her getting bigger. She's so amazing. She is driving us nuts currently because she's changed her once-wonderful ways of sleeping for a few hours at a time at night, and now she doesn't like sleeping more than two at a time. But we love her just the same- if not more. However that works.

Thomas had some exciting news happen to him! He is in the process of closing a deal with Missionary Clothing Company to sell them LOTS of shoes! He is way excited about it- it will really help grow the company a LOT. I don't know all the nitty-gritty details, you'd have to ask him for all those. Hurray for Thomas and his shoes! Oh- and he got his car all vinyled and logo-ed... pictures to come... as soon as I empty the memory card that I filled up with pictures of Audrey!

I have been picking up various and sundry accompanying jobs on campus this semester, which has been really awesome for us. Not only does it help a busy husband and father feel a little less stressed financially, but it gives me a chance to 1) do something other than eat, not sleep, and feed the baby, and 2) be back in the musical world! I'm LOVING being on campus for lessons a couple times a week- it really makes me miss school! There's just a feel about being on campus that I didn't realize that I had missed... so I'm having a lot of fun with that. I have a couple pieces that are gonna be crazy hard- it will give me something to work on instead of playing the same "26 Italian Songs and Arias You Love To Sing" songs.

Exciting news for Miss Audrey- she got her very own swing! She had been borrowing Ender's until hers got here. She loves it! Right now she is sleeping in it. So cute! It's amazing how much she loves to sleep... during the day...

I have resolved to be better at putting pictures on here. I normally hate it because Blogger seems to hate my computer and/or really slow internet connection and it takes forever just for one picture. If anyone has any tips- hook me up. So, without further ado, here are a few pictures I have collected... again- much more on my facebook page.

Daddy and Baby taking a nap! Well, at least one of them is!

Hellooo Blog readers...

Comfy in our swing... actually this is Ender's swing...

Mama and Baby!

Well, it appears my time limit is up... aka the baby is awake and ready to be fed! I sometimes wish I had telepathy like she does...

My beautiful baby girl...

Ok, crisis averted. We found the camera- hooray! So I put a bunch of pictures up on my facebook page, because facebook is easier to upload things than on blogger. But I will put one of my faborite (faborite? wow.) favorites up here...


I swear she gets more beautiful every day. *sigh*

Comings and Goings

I would love to say that I am posting so I can put more pictures of my adorable baby girl up here. However- we can't find our camera just at the moment! I have some on there I'd love to put up but we just can't seem to find it. I'm sure it is here in the house somewhere in some pile underneath a bunch of papers or something, but it's missing. So- apologies to those hoping for more adorable pictures. :( But rest assured that she is truly more adorable than she was ever before. :)

My mom left this morning- she had been staying with us to help out with Audrey. We are SO glad she was able to come do that for us! It has been such an amazing help to us to have her here. It's been great to get a little more sleep than otherwise would have been possible! But really- she's been quite amazing and we've loved having her here. We will miss her!

Thomas' mom and sister are coming up to visit us tomorrow! Audrey gets to go from one grandma to the next! She's got a few of those to go around- and I can tell she is way excited to be spoiled by 3 grandmas. We are excited to get to see family- I know Thomas especially is really excited to get to see his family. My family has already been up here to visit- see pictures of that adventure on my sister's facebook.

I am feeling SO skinny! As much as I enjoyed being pregnant... *cough*... No really, pregnancy had it's perks and there are a few things I do miss, but mostly I'm way excited right now to have my body back! It looks different than I remember it. Which- I know- was to be expected, but I am glad to be able to do things like... sit close to my plate at the dinner table, and be able to see my toes again... and step on the scale and see a weight almost equal to that before I was pregnant! I went through the boxes of clothes I had to put away because they didn't fit me anymore- and they all fit me again! Well all the shirts do anyway. It was like going shopping in my own closet! I forgot I had a bunch of them- it was WAY exciting. I am reluctant to say that I still don't fit into my old jeans. I have hips now- weird. I mean, I had them before, but they're just... wider. But I'm ok with that, I think. For now anyway. And... *whispered: I have BOOBS now!* ;)

Audrey is doing great- she will be 17 days old today. Part of me is wondering when I will stop counting in days. She sleeps during the day and gets fussy at night- which I pretty much expected. She is still SO adorable, as I know I've said a million times before. She is getting better at tolerating diaper changes (because usually that precedes her getting food, and I think she's figured that one out already), however she still pees on me every time I give her a bath. She has learned that every time Mom is holding her, she requires feeding and so she is magically hungry if Mom happens to be holding her. She finally has a real belly button! It is so cute! The umbilical cord stump finally came off and she is a real belly-button girl! Question for the day: so is the umbilical cord made up of my DNA or her DNA? Or both? I'm not really sure- let me know what you all think.