June 2012

Well June FLEW by! I can't believe all that has been going on. It's good to be busy though. Keeps the calories off. ; )
Dani has really grown to love her new little sister. It is absolutely adorable. She does have her moments of frustration when I can't respond right away and I think those are likely to last for the next little while. But if we are able to circumvent the tantrum then she calms down pretty quick and is a REALLY sweet little girl.
Charleene got a couple more visits from family this month. Sarah and Donovan stopped by on their way to Vegas and my dad came to see her and visited for a couple hours before returning home. (We got a really cute picture with him and Dani and Charleene but for the life of me I cannot figure out which SD card it's on... sad. I'll post it when I find it.)

Travis got a new 4WD remote control truck. Dani loves to help him wear down the battery when it starts to get low. She just drives it back and forth till it dies and loves every minute of hanging out with Daddy!
KayDee had a birthday this month and Mandy, Dani, Charleene and I went to the movies and then to the park/pool for cupcakes. It was Dani's first time going to the movies and she actually did fairly well. She didn't like the dark and is a little too small to keep the seat from folding her in half.. But a sandwich, apple, M&M's and popcorn helped. : )

When we got to the park Dani and Derrick played on the bar that separates the parking lot from the lawn. Dani had a good time playing with her cousins and it was fun to be able to celebrate with KayDee on her birthday. We went home before everyone went swimming cause Dani was ready for a nap.
Dani did get really sick this last month and had her first trip to the emergency room. She couldn't keep anything down and had a really high fever. We couldn't even keep Tylenol in her system long enough to help her fever. Poor girl, all she wanted was water. She kept asking and signing water and please. It was breaking our heart. She knew that we could get it and couldn't understand why we wouldn't. Luckily we got her in the ER before she was dehydrated and they were able to get her fever to break and she was really excited to eat all the ice chips she could get her hands on. She had all the nurses and the doctor wrapped around her finger in seconds with her blue eyes, please and thank yous. She was so sweet even feeling crummy.
Hooray it only lasted a day and she was much better! And thank goodness Charleene didn't get any of it!

I'm loving Charleene's alert times. She is such a good baby. The majority of the time she is really happy and is sleeping like an angel! She is sleeping from 1130 to 6 or 7 every other night or two. It's AMAZING!!!

I'm still working on getting the house back to normal after my last few months of lazyness when pregnancy just made me cringe at the idea of a sponge! ; ) Dani has really enjoyed helping with all of the dusting and straightening. It is really nice to have our toxin free cleaning products cause she can help and I don't have to worry about them getting on her skin. Hopefully she'll always enjoy helping with chores. : )

She likes to entertain herself in the sink while I work in the kitchen. This is her right before she started wiping everything down for me. She is so cute.

Hooray for warmer weather! We've been able to get out and go for walks and Dani loves to play out back with her cousins. She has grown really attached to her baby doll. She takes her everywhere Mommy takes sister. : ) Dani loves to go for walks and go see the "horsies." She counts them and says hi and good bye. I can't wait to see how she teaches Charleene all the stuff that she knows!

June marks the beginning of our first hay crop. For the most part things went well. Hopefully all of the kinks are worked out and second crop will go smoother. With all the fires raging all over Utah I guess we didn't want to be left out because one of the cuber heads caught fire. It was a little scary but luckily they were able to get it put out fairly quickly. Travis has been very busy though with crop, loading trucks and young men's activities. Luckily he still finds time to cuddle his new little girl and read Dani her bedtime story most nights. : )
I got a clean bill of health from my doctor so I'm back to myfitnesspal and Zumba when I can swing it. I love the feeling of exercising. Hopefully I'll be able to get into a routine and get more consistent with it soon.

Travis and I spoke in our ward on Temples this month. It was a busy Sunday cause I had the lesson in Relif Society too! Thank goodness for Kevin and Sara. Dani sat with them and their kids almost all the way through the meeting. I had to leave the stand just at the end of Travis's talk to sit with her.
Just one last cute picture. Dani tries to put her baby wherever I put sister. She likes to buckle her in and push her back and forth.

Well that's a wrap for us for now! : )

May 2012

The rest of the month of June was busy too. We had a lot of fun with our downstairs neighbors this month. Dani loves, loves, loves having her cousins so close! One day when I was still trying to be on my feet and keep contractions going I took Dani, Samantha, Derrick and KayDee to the park in Paragonah. Dani absolutely loves being outside and playing and having big kids to play with took some of the stress off me which made it EVEN BETTER! : )

For Mother's Day Travis and I were invited by Mandy to go with her and Travis' parents to go to dinner and then to see The Avengers. Sara volunteered to watch Dani so that we could. It was a lot of fun. Travis' brother, Milt, and his wife, Roni, were there as well. It was the last date that Travis and I got before Charleene was born and the first time we had gone to a movie since we were married! It was REALLY good to get out!

We had a lot of visitors after Charleene was born. It was a lot of fun to see so much family and have good company around.

Sara took Dani to the pool with her kids. It was the first time that Dani had gone swimming in a big pool. Sara has been really good with helping her learn how to handle herself with so much water all around her. She has a great time! I'm excited to be able to go with her hopefully very soon!

May was also the first month that Dani started sleeping in her "big girl bed" and her new room. She loved it from day one! She hasn't fallen out, been too scared to sleep in there by herself. She always wants to play in her room and on her bed. I can't believe how big she is getting! She has started putting together small sentences and is so full of energy. She's a busy, busy bee learning all that she can. Just the other day we went through her numbers (1-10 - all scrambled up) and she knew all of them by sight except for 8! She had trouble with 6 but all the others she knew.

We are so so blessed to have two adorable little ones in our little family. I can't wait to see how they change as they continue to grow! : )

Charleene Ruth

 

She's here! Our beautiful daughter has finally arrived! Charleene Ruth was born May 17, 2012 at 9:27 AM. She was 7 lbs 6 oz, 20 in long. Charleene is a name that Travis and I both really love and it just fits her so well. Ruth is for my sweet paternal grandmother and is a part of Travis' mother's first name. After we had decided that Ruth was to be her middle name we found out that Ruth is also the middle name of Travis' paternal grandmother.

We did end up having to have her turned and 37 weeks. But she stayed head down. I can't believe that we waited around for so many weeks, wondering if the contractions were going to keep up and stick around this time. :-) Every time I went in for a check up I would be one more cm dilated and one step closer to preeclampsia. At 39 weeks my doctor recommended that I get induced to avoid my worsening condition. I was mostly concerned about going into labor and having the baby on the freeway. (At my last appointment I was measuring a 5). We set the date for the 17th at 7am. When we got there I measured at a 6! Thank goodness we went in because they started the pitocin at 7:45 and she was here not even 2 hrs later! 

Thank goodness for my sister-in-law Sara and Travis' mother for helping with Dani that day while we were in the hospital.

Travis went home the night after Charleene was born and brought Dani down with him the next day when he came to pick me and Charleene up and take us home. Dani was fascinated with Charleene from the first moment she saw her. I have been so nervous about how she would react and treat her new sister but she has been great! She asks to hold her and gives her kisses. She gets very concerned when Charleene starts to cry and the other morning she took of running for Travis' and my bedroom and came tearing back down the hallway with a binki in hand to give to her sister cause "she's sad, Mommy! She's sad!" Haha it was so so very sweet.

The first morning that we woke up and Charleene was here Dani came into our bedroom and looked in the bassinet and saw her there and was so excited that she was still here that she shouted, "It's a baby!" Travis and I quickly quieted her down and told her yes, yes the baby's still here and you have to be quiet because she is still sleeping. Dani responded by pointing her finger down into the bassinet and mouthing (very excitedly), "It's a baby!" I think we almost woke her up because WE were laughing too loud. It is very very sweet how much Dani pays attention to her.

Mostly we have been trying to adjust to a new schedule. Charleene has been a wonderful baby so far. By the time she was 5 days old she was down to only one feeding between 11pm and 7am. Getting sleep makes a big difference!! She is very calm, not very loud. During her awake hours she looks around and smiles. She almost always grins the second that Dani is holding her. She recognizes Mommy and Daddy's voices and looks around when she hears us and someone else is holding her. Her jaundice level was EXCEPTIONALLY low and everything else has been going well since we got home.

We are so grateful to all those in our ward and family that provided us with meals and other services during that first week that we were home. We hope you know how much we appreciated all of the phone calls, visits, food and laundry being taken out of my hands. ;-) Thank you, thank you so very much!