sand hollow reservoir

For Memorial Day weekend we went to St. George with Paul's folks and stayed at their condo. The weather was so nice and warm, and it was nice to get out of town for a few days.

We went to Sand Hollow Reservoir for a few hours and it was so beautiful! I love all that turquoise and orange. Penny didn't want to go in the water at first, but ended up splashing around and loving it as long as Dad was with her.

I only took pics at the reservoir, but we also had a fun little date while Debbie and Glade watched Penny. We saw The Avengers (loved it) and went out to lunch afterwards. We did have to take Violet to the movie since she's still nursing every 2 or 3 hours, but I thought it would be okay to take her to an action movie because it would be really loud and you wouldn't hear her fussing as much. And it worked out great except the theater was super crowded and I ended up having to nurse Violet halfway through the movie (with my nursing cover, don't worry, ha) and it was a little awkward with a 12-year old boy on my right. Especially when I was wrapping Violet back up in her blanket and she let out some explosive business in her diaper. I swear, he jumped a foot in the air and I just laughed and said "Sorry!" Oh, newborns.

It was a lovely weekend and Penny loved the undivided attention from both grandparents for 3 days straight. I even enjoyed the 4-hour drive there and back, strangely enough. Penny rode with Paul's parents and Violet slept the whole time in our car, so Paul and I just chatted, listened to music, and watched the scenery go by. Isn't there something great about being out on the open road?

Thanks for a fun weekend Debbie and Glade!

city creek + temple square

Last Saturday was one of those perfect days when you have nothing planned, but you head out anyway and end up having one of the most pleasant days ever. The weather was perfect, seventy degrees, and all of us were in a good mood so we decided to go to the new City Creek mall in Salt Lake. We had some tastey Greek food for lunch, and then just wandered around enjoying the weather and doing a bit of shopping.

Since City Creek is right across from the temple, Paul suggested we walk around temple square and suddenly that sounded like the best idea ever. I'd been to the temple for a few weddings, but hadn't just walked around and enjoyed the grounds for maybe 5 or 6 years. It was so pleasant! It was a Saturday so there was a couple wedding parties taking pictures of course, and it just made me smile walking around with my hubby and two girlies and seeing these cute, happy brides.

Penny wanted to take a picture next to the "castle" and below is one of my favorite pics of Paul and Penny ever. I adore this picture!

Then we wandered into the Visitor's Center where they have the beautiful Christus statue on display and we sat and listened to the recording that comes on every 15 minutes. So peaceful.

Kissy face!

Downstairs we saw a display that has a Book of Mormon in every language! Neat!

And we got to check out the miniature scale replica of the Salt Lake temple, which I had never seen before. It was amazing! So detailed and tiny!


It was such a nice day. Everything just went so smoothly. Penny loved being out and about, and Violet was asleep the whole time except for when she woke up once to nurse. Paul's work had given us this uh-mazing double stroller as a baby gift, so it was easy to push both the girls around in. And Violet had given me a 6-hour stretch of sleep the night before so I felt more energized than usual. It was just nice to spend time together as a family doing something enjoyable. Here's to more family outings this summer!

april/may instagrams

Holding hands with big sister (1 week) + Tummy time (1 week)

Wearing her first headband (1 week) + Lookin' pretty (4 weeks)

Sleepy Sleep (3 weeks)

Penny taking a nap on the floor (haha) + Playtime

Rocking an awesome unicorn bath towel (Thanks Ashlee!) + Swaddled up like baby sister, per her request

Life has been pretty busy lately (believe it or not...ha), and these past 6 weeks since Violet was born have flown by. Penny has adjusted pretty well to baby sister, she's always giving her sweet little pats on the head or kisses on her hands. But I think she's definitely feeling the pinch of me not having as much time for her, which makes me sad, but I do try to have one-on-one time with her as often as possible to make up for it. Mainly, reading books together (current favorite: Pinkalicious) or playing with her princess toys (current favorite: Ariel).

Violet's been great, but man, oh man, I am missing my sleep. I'd forgotten how hard it was to wake up every 2-3 hours at night, but I try to nap during the day so that I'm not a complete zombie. But she sure is cute and still has that amazing newborn smell so I guess that makes up for it. :) Love my girls!

1 month!

I can't believe my baby girl is one month old! She is so sweet and I feel so lucky to be her mama.

Some things I want to remember about 1-month Violet...

- She's 70th percentile in weight and height.
- Such a good nurser, she doesn't take forever and nurses like clockwork every 3 hours.
- Like every newborn, she loves to be wrapped up tight and rocked to sleep.
- Just yesterday she started smiling! I know it's not a fluke because she'll be looking straight into my eyes, and then I start cooing and talking to her and she totally smiles at me. She's done it like 5 or 6 times already! Love it!
- And my favorite, that newborn thing when they're asleep and suddenly their little lips look like they're nursing...you know what I mean, moms.

I'm so happy to have this little girl in our lives!

first bath

 
*2 1/2 weeks old

baby girl's had a few sponge baths of course, but this was her first REAL bath since her lil' umbilical cord finally came off a couple days ago. she was pulling some bewildered faces during her bath, but i think she liked it all warm and cozy.

she's been such a good baby. don't get me wrong, i'm exhausted from the nighttime routine, but her good health and cute newborn-ness make me a happy mom. and i'm definitely happy to be able to reuse penny's pink bathtub, ha!

Happy Easter!

Since Violet was only a few days old, we had a nice little Easter at home. The only plans I had made were an Easter basket for Penny and a little Easter egg hunt in our backyard. It was perfect!

"Mama! The Easter bunny came!" (Isn't that bedhead amazing? Ha.)


Penny loved her Easter basket, especially her new little Rapunzel and Ariel dolls.


LOVE this!

The Easter bunny brought baskets for Mom and Dad too...

Lovin' on baby sister.






Hope you all had a lovely Easter!

Violet's Birth Story

*Minutes old

*Hearing her heartbeat

*First diaper courtesy of Dad

*First time seeing my little girl

*My mom with Violet

*Penny meeting her little sister with Paul's parents

*Comparing feetsies

*Holding both of my girls for the first time

*Our first family picture! Not the best obviously, haha.

*Snuggling baby girl + All dressed to come home

*Getting a sun bath at home for a touch of jaundice + Wearing her chickadee onesie on Easter

A quick note on her name...Violet was on my girl's name list going back to when Penny was born and we still loved it when we found out the gender last October. It's also the name of Paul's grandmother so we thought it was a perfect fit. Her middle name Gayle is my middle name and Violet Gayle seemed to flow together well so...there's her name.

First of all, I'm so relieved and happy that everything went so well and that she's in good health. Such a different experience than the NICU issues with Penny's birth! Violet is nursing like a champ and at her first check up today, her pediatrician said she's already back up to her birth weight (since they always lose a few ounces in the hospital). We feel so blessed to have this little girl in our lives!

Here's what happened...

I had an induction scheduled on Thursday April 5th as a last resort, but baby girl decided she didn't want to wait that long. I had one last appointment with my OB on Wednesday April 4th at 11 am, and when she checked my progress I was at 4 cm. Which was great, but I still assumed I had more time.

Paul and my mom were both there on Wednesday and that was so fortunate. Paul had started his paternity leave on Wednesday to help me out the day before the induction, and my mom had scheduled a flight for that morning and got to our house around noon and I was sure glad she did. We had lunch, I took a nap, and woke up around 4 pm with really painful contractions. Turns out my water had broken while I was asleep and contractions were coming every 2-3 minutes. I realized that this was it and hollered for Paul to get our hospital bags. We were out the door by 4:30 pm and were so grateful that my mom was there in time to take care of Penny. I had a little sad moment as I kissed Penny good-bye that this was the last time she was going to be my only little girl, but also so excited that we were going to be giving her a little sister.

We made it to the hospital by 5 pm and after being admitted were shocked to learn I was already 8 cm! The contractions were intense but I was able to breathe through them as they contacted the anesthesiologist for an epidural. Now that was a little tricky. She kept hitting all kinds of nerves and these little shockwaves would go through my legs and it was kind of hard to keep still. But finally it was in, and I felt that blissful numbing relief.

After a few hours a nurse checked my progress and found I was at 10 cm and ready to push. I was so nervous and excited when I heard that - our little girl was almost here! My OB rushed in the room and I was prepared to push for a while, like I had with Penny. But - no joke - I only had to push 5 or 6 times and FOUR minutes later she was here! It was laughable compared to the 2 hours of pushing it took for Penny's birth. I literally couldn't believe how easy my labor and delivery had been.

They wrapped her in a blanket, and placed her on my chest and I just feel this huge overwhelming bubble of happiness in my chest as I looked at her beautiful little face. She was perfect - pink and chubby and healthy and she was all ours. A second daughter! It was so amazing and Paul and I just couldn't stop grinning. They took her to get weighed and cleaned up and I couldn't take my eyes off of her. I was so happy.

And now we're home and Paul has the rest of the week off work and it'll be so nice to have his help and to just enjoy our time together as a new family of four. We had a fun little Easter - I had bought stuff for Penny's basket a couple weeks ago - and even though I'm pretty tired, I'm just so happy that little Violet is finally here. She's such a sweet little baby and we love her so much!