A Day in the Life of Kaylee

Mommy doesn't know why I'm always crabby when I wake up in the morning. Well, this is what I see when I wake up, plus I'm covered in drool, my diaper is wet, and I'm STARVING. After all, I did just sleep for 9 hours straight. You'd be hungry too.

Mommy feeds me with a bottle now. She tried to get me to nurse for about 9 weeks, but I just didn't like it and told her by being as much of a pain as possible. It was awful! I never got enough, or I got too much, or Mommy would yell "ouch!!" and I didn't know why...it scared me.

Mommy says it's playtime now. In other words, it's "Mommy is going to leave you here while she goes and does something else." time. I don't understand this at ALL. Why wouldn't she want to play WITH me??

I just don't know what to do with all these funny looking toys. Sometimes they make funny noises, but I haven't quite figured out what makes them do that. I do like to hit them, and it happens a lot then.

 And now Mommy is attached to this weird machine again. She does this so much, and I can't figure out what it's for. She started it when she decided to stop trying to get me to nurse so much.

I hate it when she uses that machine. I usually cry. She came to get me so I could be right next to her, but it didn't help...I still cried.

Well, I guess it's not all THAT bad. At least she can talk to me and play with me.

 It's kind of fun. I guess.

Now it's tummy time! I like tummy time, I'm getting strong. I didn't like it as much when I was little, my neck got so tired.

I'm getting kind of tired though. Mommy says it's about time for a nap.

Note for all babies: Don't go to sleep too easily for naps. If you do, your mommy will try to put you down while you're sleeping. NEVER LET THAT HAPPEN!!! She'll never rock you to sleep again.

I finally succumbed. It took a while though.

Augh! I knew it. Mommy tried to put me down even though I fought sleep for a LONG time. She just won't learn!! You have to train those mommies. Fight harder, and then when you do fall asleep, they're so scared to move that they won't put you down.

And I'm back in Mommy's arms. She says maybe we'll try again tomorrow. DON'T GIVE IN!!! Mommies are very capable of learning.

 

Mommy decided to do a photo shoot with me today. She took way too many pictures. I didn't cry, but there was no way I would smile. That only leads to more pictures.

I'm helping Mommy cook dinner now. It smells funny.

While we wait for dinner to cook, Mommy plays the piano. I'm helping.

Then it's my turn.

Daddy's home!!! I usually cry at dinner time so someone holds me.

After dinner, it's time for a bath. I like baths. I get to splash Mommy and Daddy. I do hate getting OUT of the bath though.

 When my bath is done, I cuddle with Mommy and get a bottle. Then she tries to put me down for the night. I'm having trouble going to sleep tonight.

 It's going to be a long night for Mommy and Daddy. I'm starting some vigorous sleep training with them. My plan is to be very difficult to get to sleep, then as soon as they put me down, cry. Repeat until they bring me into their bed. It's going to be a long, hard process, but they'll learn eventually.

So much!!

Well it has definitely been long enough since I've updated this! But I have good reason to be such a slacker - with the new baby, things had been a little crazy. To put it short, Kaylee has given me so many difficult things to deal with I didn't even know what to do. She didn't eat well, she was very fussy, she couldn't keep my milk supply up, etc., I got sick about 5 times in the first 7 weeks of having her, AND I got my wisdom teeth out the 7th week. The one thing she has done well is sleep, for the most part. When she was first born, she would usually sleep 4-5 hour stretches at night (yeah, amazing!), and now it's up to 6-8 hours, sometimes even 10. The hours aren't the best, she likes to go to sleep at around 8 and wake up for the day at 4, but hey...we're getting there. She just started playing with toys a little bit today, and she "talks" a lot. So cute! It's a good thing.

Everything else is going pretty well for us too. School and work are both going well for Will. he only has the rest of this semester and next semester, and he'll be ready to teach. As for me, I'm just trying to keep the house clean, the baby happy (that's the hardest one) and myself from going completely insane (I'm only a little bit insane right now).

 So in our new ward, I didn't have a calling till last week. I knew they were looking for a choir pianist and director, so I thought maybe I would be the pianist. Last Sunday the bishopric called me in to talk to me, and Will told me that I would for SURE be the choir director. I said "No, I don't even know how to lead music! And I told them I play the piano. I'm sure I'll be the pianist." Well, things were mixed up that day and the person that was supposed to talk to me wasn't there, so they had to ask someone that wasn't in charge of that area to talk to me. They called me in, and asked me...to be the director. I was more than a little surprised and VERY nervous, but of course I said I would do it. Will said "Nah, it's a mistake. You're not the director, I bet when they sustain you next Sunday they'll say pianist." And I replied "Of course not, they wouldn't make a mistake on that. I'm the director. They wouldn't call a pianist before a director anyway, that wouldn't make sense." All week I stressed out, chose songs and practiced and practiced conducting different hymns. On Sunday as they were announcing the new callings, they said my name and...choir pianist. I was a little confused - so what WAS my calling? Was the original call a mistake? Or was the sustaining a mistake? I asked the bishopric afterward, and sure enough...with the confusion last Sunday, the bishopric member thought I was going to be the director. Whoops!!

Campout

Our ward had a campout last weekend, which I wanted to go to but I thought we might be moved out by then (hah!), so I wasn't planning on going - plus I wasn't sure if I'd be up to it anyway. But the week of the camp out came and I was feeling great, and we were still in the ward...so we borrowed a tent and air mattress from Will's parents and went. A few people thought I was insane to go camping, but it wasn't that far from home and only for one night, so I wasn't too worried about it.

This is Will during the relay races - they had three teams of one adult and three kids, and they had to do a backpack race first and then set up a tent. Will's team won, of course.
The campout was a lot of fun. We all brought our own dinners, but they made cobbler for dessert and even had ice cream to go with it. Then for breakfast they made fry bread, which was surprising to me...seems like a lot of work to me, to get that much oil heated up and have the dough ready and everything, but it was good.

Baby!!!

That's all I can think about lately. No surprise there really though, right? Only a few more weeks to go. I'm still feeling just fine...very tired though. I was so proud of myself because I got up at 9 yesterday, but then by 1 I was so exhausted I had to take a 2 1/2 hour nap. I doubt much will change when baby is born!! I'll be tired, but probably on a lot less sleep. Normally 7 hours is perfect for me, right now I swear I need like 10 to have any energy. Other than being tired though, I'm doing really well!! Will and I take walks every evening and I think that helps a lot, just the feeling good in general. My midwife says I'm a "model first-time mom", so that's good. I try to eat really well, but it's hard with a husband that keeps trying to spoil me by buying chocolate and ice cream for me...then doesn't understand how I can get mad at him. Poor Will. Pregnant women are just impossible.

I was so sad last Thanksgiving, someone stepped on my tripod (folded up in a bag) when family came over for dinner and broke it. It was still usable, kind of. If you balanced it just right. And the ground was perfectly flat. And someone was holding it up (just kidding). Anyway, it was a pain. So Will surprised me and bought me a new one a couple of weeks ago! We went to Bridal Veil Falls and took a couple of pictures, just for the fun of it. This picture is my favorite. We'd always pass that bench when we took walks there and wonder just exactly how that happened...

So we're officially moving! We don't have a date, because the housing place needed to get it cleaned first and they didn't know when that would be - they said around the first of July. So it should be any day now. I want to move SO bad. Not so much because I don't like it here, but because I really want to start getting things ready for the baby...and I can't really do anything right now. Not that there's much to do, I think we have everything we need now, we just need to get it cleaned and set up. But still...in two weeks I'll be full-term and this baby could come any time. I'm not really expecting it till after my due date or I'll probably just go crazy, but you never know. Anyway, we've started packing some things up and planning how we're going to move all of our large furniture - two couches, two dressers, a queen-size bed, a piano, an entertainment center, two desks, a kitchen table and a recliner. The funny thing in my opinion is how many large items we have and the only things we actually paid for were the kitchen table and the recliner. Will is an expert at getting free things. It's nice sometimes, but really...? I always blame him for keeping everything, but then say things like "Well no I want to keep THAT because I wanted to use it for ______" so I should probably stop saying it's his fault we have so much stuff.
Our ward is very sad that we're leaving. There is another couple leaving this month, and with us combined, the ward is losing the organist, the choir pianist, the only two tenors in choir, a primary teacher, the Young Women's president, a Sunday school teacher and part of the Sunday school presidency. Ridiculous, yeah?

Pinewood Derby

Our ward had a Pinewood Derby on Thursday - for everyone. Will, of course, was very excited to build a car, even though he was swamped with school - he had 4 finals the day before and is still working. But that did not discourage him. We went to his parents house and borrowed their tools because we don't have much in the way of anything to build cars. Then we went to Wal-Mart and got some fishing weights, which Will hammered down flat and put in the bottom of our hollowed out car...he attempted to paint it and then gave up and told me to do it. So I made it purple and sparkley. We tried to measure the weight before we went, but had no accurate way of doing it, so when we got there and realized it was .7 ounces over the limit, we had to try and dig out one of the weights - which we did, and after we pulled it out it was perfect, thank goodness. The equipment they had there was kind of ridiculous. No worrying about ties with that stuff...the first two cars were two thousandths of a second apart. 2.8775 and 2.8777 seconds.

We ended up in third place out of 26 so I guess we did pretty good! The first and second places were both cub scouts...go figure.

Anxious Kitty

 She must be excited for her vet visit tomorrow...she won't stay out of her carrier. Last time we took her to the vet (3 weeks ago) for some shots, I thought she would never go in there again on her own free will. But no, she still loves it. Guess she doesn't know what wonderful surgery she is getting tomorrow. She's in heat AGAIN (for the millionth time) and I'm VERY excited for tomorrow!!


UPDATE: 3 days after her spaying, she still likes to go into her carrier.

Couches and Gelato

Today Will and I decided to go to a park and take a few pictures. I always mean to take pictures...but usually forget, which is why we had no recent pictures of both of us. It also doesn't help that my tripod is broken, so getting it to work is kind of a pain.

 After we did that, we went to Tiffany and Brad's to pick up their old couches. We've been wanting a full size couch for a while, but not enough to actually go buy one, so we were glad to get it. I wanted a slipcover for it, so after that we went to Target, but everything there was either REALLY expensive, or we just didn't like them. Wal-Mart didn't have anything either, but I found one online that will do just fine and is much cheaper. After Target we went to Terra Mia with part of Will's family. Terra Mia is an Italian restaurant in Orem that isn't very well known, and not doing very well. The food is great, but the set-up is kind of confusing. Think a cross between a nice sit-down restaurant, a sports grill and fast food. Yes, recipe for confusion right there. Will's dad is working with the owner to improve it and try to bring business back up. I think the main thing they need to do is make the whole thing more clear. As we were eating, we watched people walk in and immediately look completely lost, so that is probably one of the problems. Out of curiosity, I texted Andy to see if he had ever heard of it or been there. It made me laugh because he said "Yeah, they have good gelato but not very good service." Both very true. I'd never had gelato before, and...it was amazing. :) Hopefully Will's dad can help out and fix it up, because it does have potential to be a great place.

May 24th

Our exciting life!!!

Okay, so maybe it's not that exciting, but I like to pretend it is. I'm actually bored now because Will is working on a paper and is kind of "gone" (if you know Will you know what I'm talking about). He said he's never done homework on Sundays before, but he has so much homework that he can't possibly get it all done during the week, he's loaded down pretty heavy right now. Especially when you throw in a moody pregnant wife and a job. It just doesn't happen.

Church was good today...the Primary kids in my class were unusually quiet and I actually got some lesson in. Some days it's difficult. They love to go on tangents, and I think I need to improve my interruption skills. There is one little boy that sits in the back corner, and every question I ask about the story we're talking about (Old Testament this year) he practically jumps out of his seat waving his hand and refuses to sit down again till I call on him and he tells the WHOLE story. If I just ignore him he starts bouncing and making squeaking noises. At least he's enthusiastic, right?

As soon as I finished my quilt, I decided I should make another one, for Will's sister Alyssa. She's having a baby in September, about 8 weeks after me. She and her husband are very much into video games, so I thought it would be fun to make some sort of video game character quilt, but I really wasn't sure what. I considered a few ideas, and then told Will what I was thinking and he told me that I should do something from Zelda, their favorite game (good thing he helped me...I had no clue). So we came up with a cool pattern for a Link blanket, and because the fabric I needed for it was 50% off at Joann's, we went and got it right away so I had something to keep me occupied during all those long hours home alone. I started it on Wednesday the 12th, and just had a little bit done by Saturday (took a long time to cut all the pieces out...). Will's mom called on Saturday and told us about Alyssa's birthday party, which was probably going to be the following Tuesday. I hadn't even thought of her birthday till then, and Will asked if I could get the quilt done by then. I said no, but that I would try anyway. 450 2-inch blocks is not a quick thing to sew together. But I got the whole top done by Sunday night, not completely sewed together but all the small pieces were together. On Monday I literally spent all day long getting it together, and started quilting it. Tuesday I finished quilting it, put on the binding, started hiding all the ends of the thread, and almost had it done by 7. Then Will's mom called...yeah, the party wasn't going to be till the next day at noon, which Will couldn't go to, and we couldn't give her the quilt without him there. The next plan was to give it to her on Sunday, and I was like "Seriously? I spent the last 3 days nearly killing myself to get it done...for no reason!" Of course, no one was at fault, it was just the way things worked. Luckily, on Wednesday, we ended up going to give it to her after Will got home anyway, so I'm glad I had it done. And that way, I even had time to wash it and double check for loose threads. So it all turned out fine, and everyone loved it. Even those in the family who are not video game fans (that would include me as well, to be honest!) thought it was really cool. It was a lot of fun! Who knows what we'll come up with next... :)

Quilt

Here it is!! Far from perfect, but it's alright. And even somewhat gender neutral...definitely looks more boyish, but that's better than more girlish for a boy!

Mother's Day

So I don't know that I'm officially a mother yet, but I decided I was close enough, and Will agreed. He bought me a sewing machine for my Mother's Day gift. It's been a lot of fun so far!! I decided my first sewing project, though maybe a little bit ambitious because I haven't sewn in at least a couple of years, would be a baby quilt. I've never made a quilt before, and I really had no idea how, but I think I've figured it out after hours of trying to make sense of online tutorials. The blocks are just a little off in a few places, thanks to 1. my impatience (I was pretty proud of myself, for the most part I took extra time to make sure I was doing it right and even washed all my fabric before I started!) and 2. my dull scissors - they make it very difficult to cut straight and evenly. To give you an idea of how bad they really are, they worked better after I cut through sandpaper a few times. I might have to buy a rotary cutter if I decide that I like quilting enough...we'll see though. I might do it like everything else, love it for a week and then find some other thing to try. So for now I'll make do. I don't have any pictures of it yet but I'll post some when it's finished.

Silly Mother's Day picture!!

Baby!

We're slowly getting baby things ready...only three more months left, give or take a week or two. We have a few clothes, a dresser and a car seat. Andy and Steph had a dresser they didn't want or need, so when they moved they gave it to us, it'll be perfect for baby stuff. And Tiffany (Will's sister) was generous enough to give us the car seat that Bennett used. Supposedly, it works for a year or so, but he's a big boy and grew out of it in 4 months, so it's hardly used. I just finished crocheting a blanket...I haven't crocheted in a very long time, and with all my oodles of time here doing nothing, it kept me entertained for a little while. My mom taught me how years ago, and I looked up some fun patterns online and did the shell-stitch. It's not quite perfect, but not bad. The crib I want is here. It looks like it'll work well for us, the only problem will be getting something else in a few months because he'll outgrow it. No big deal though. People are still freaking out at me a little bit for not finding out the gender, but I'm still wondering what the big deal is about - sure, it would be nice to know sometimes but I don't think it's worth ruining the surprise. Not to mention more hand-me-downs if we have a different gender next time. Even if I wanted to know, I'd have to keep it a secret from the hubby. He is dead-set against finding out, it's kind of funny.
I do believe this baby is trying to teach me to have better posture. Every time I slouch too much I get a foot stuck in my ribs and have to stretch out or it gets uncomfortable! He's very hyper. Luckily it seems he's turned and is now kicking my ribs instead of jumping on my bladder, that got old fast. I do prefer the ribs, I must admit. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, he's not even big yet. Probably about 1 1/2 - 2 pounds and about 14 inches long. So a funny coincidence - my first day in my third trimester will be on Mother's Day. An appropriate gift, I suppose. :)

Flower Gardens and other things...

The weather has been so nice the past couple of weeks here...Will and I decided to start a little flower garden. Unfortunately it's going to get cold again (no way) this week, but I think it'll be okay - I guess we'll find out how cold-hardy Dianthus, Snapdragons and Violas really are. The Marigolds will have to wait. I thought it wouldn't be a big deal if we had a couple of frosts, easy enough to cover a few plants, but not if it's going to or below freezing for 5 nights in a row!! And who knows how many more now, the forecast keeps getting worse. But it's almost May, so I'll bet after this it'll be better. I do hope so, anyway. We shall see.

I don't know if I'm the only one having issues, but I can never seem to get pictures to work here without a lot of time and pain. They take FOREVER if they even upload, and I don't understand why. Ever since blogspot changed their picture thing, it hasn't been working for me. Before that it was fine and I never had a problem. This time I don't think I'm going to get it to work. :( Sorry, no pictures of our garden quite yet.

Anyway, enough of the whiny stuff - there is good news too!! Will started school today, he's so excited. He also got a great job on campus, programming for the campus police, or...something along those lines. I have the hardest time remembering what he does exactly, or maybe just understanding in the first place. :P It pays well, and so far he really seems to like it. I guess his two bosses were shocked yesterday because he did so well programming something for the police and they absolutely loved it, apparently no one had been able to do it the way they wanted. He wasn't sure why it was such a big deal, but hey, I'll take it. That's always good, because I guess pay raises are not uncommon if they like what you're doing, and it's already better than I expected. So that's probably the best thing that's happened to us money-wise since we got married! Yay!!

Happy Birthday, Paul!!!

Andy kindly reminded me of Paul's birthday a few days ago, and we decided we should do something for him. We all pretended we forgot about it, but Andy invited him over for dinner on Monday, the day before his birthday because he has class literally almost all day on Tuesdays. Will and I made a cake, and I have to say it was pretty cool. I wanted to just do something simple for it, and write "23" on it in something square, to look like pixels. I thought we'd probably just use Starbursts. Amazingly enough, Will found some little colored square candies, I'd never heard of them or seen them before but they were PERFECT. We had different computer game scenes and random pixel scenes on the sides. We are definitely not pixel artists, but hey...for using little Chinese candies on a cake, I think we did pretty darn good. They tasted kind of nasty, but Paul enjoyed them immensely, so it worked out.

I looked out the window and what did I see?

Snow is falling down on Utah County.

Spring has brought me such a sad surprise,

Snow is falling right before my eyes.

I could take an armful and make a ball,

To throw at the weatherman and make him fall.

It wasn't really so, but it seemed to me...

Winter is coming back to Utah County.

Done with school!!

I'm finally finished...my last day was Friday, for about three hours. Aveda Institute doesn't even have a real sign yet. It's weird to be done and not have immediate plans for more school or a job. It's nice, but at the same time I haven't had this feeling since I was 16, so it'll take some getting used to. I would like a part-time job here at Target or something, but I doubt I'll be able to get anything. I applied at a few places, but jobs like that in Provo get filled up so fast that I don't think I have a chance. I thought maybe I'd have more luck with access to a car, but no luck whatsoever so far. Oh well. I'll just have to open a salon in my house sometime or something, that would be fun...not that I'll need a lot to keep me occupied in a few months!

Will starts school again on April 27th, and he is VERY excited. He's one of those people that is probably going to go to school forever simply because he loves it so much. Which is probably why he wants to be a teacher, which is what he's going back to do - get a teaching certification in Physics teaching. He'll be done next year at about this time. Because he has so many classes in a similar field (Engineering), he'll be able to finish it quickly. Good thing, because with a baby on the way we need to get things figured out pretty quick here! If only jobs weren't so hard to come by nowadays. Apparently, there are a ton of teachers being laid off - but not science teachers, which are in very high demand right now. Hopefully they will still be in high demand next year.

It's probably about time...

I've been putting off making this public for quite a while now, and it's about time to at least put it on my blog. I suppose most people who read my blog already know, so it doesn't really matter anyway! I am 19 weeks pregnant! (For anyone who is wondering...I have been married for approximately 2 1/2 weeks longer than that.) We weren't originally planning on having kids right away, but after we got married we thought about it and prayed about it and decided that we shouldn't wait. So many people say they don't want kids because they want to just enjoy being married for a few years, but the way I look at it...you can still enjoy being married just as much, you simply have to severely rearrange some things and habits. And if you can't be happy with your marriage along with some kids, then you have a problem and it's not the kids. So why make it harder and get into couple habits, then have your life turn upside down when you're comfortable with it? We'll have couple time when we're old and decrepit. :) Anyway, we are VERY excited and happy, and just a little bit nervous.

I always thought in the past that I would go with a traditional hospital birth, and please...give me all the drugs possible. And then I got pregnant and said "Wait..." and did some research. I very quickly realized that I wanted to follow my mom's footsteps and have a natural home birth instead. There is actually a birth center here in Provo, very close by, that is basically a home birth away from home. Now I will just hope and pray that everything will go smoothly and that I won't have very large babies. ;) So far it's been very nice, no morning sickness to speak of, a little nausea if I didn't eat enough but that was about it. And that's me anyway, so no surprise there. I just barely started showing a couple of weeks ago, and now I'm feeling like every day my pants are tighter. Maternity clothes, here I come...

We had an ultrasound yesterday, which I had a hard time deciding if I really wanted or not, but it did put my mind at ease to know that everything is good and the baby is healthy. We decided not to find out the gender, and though most everyone thinks we're completely insane and out of our minds, and how can we not, and how will we EVER prepare and be ready, I think it'll be fun. Will is sure it's a girl, and I know it's a boy. During the ultrasound the sonographer told us to close our eyes so he could look at the lower parts of the body, and when he was done he said "Are you sure you don't want to know? Because I know." I guess that's how you find out if someone is really sure about their decision. But yeah, everything's going very well, and me and the baby are healthy and strong. And getting bigger.

Valentine's Day

Yeah, so maybe it was over a week ago, but that's okay. I can't keep up with my blog at all. But only 20 more days of school and I'll be done!!! At least that is the plan. Then I'll have so much time on my hands I won't know what to do with it! For another 4 months anyway... :)

For Valentine's Day we had to do something cheap, but at least do something because this was our first Valentine's ever together, so we made a very nice dinner with some $5 steaks (heck yes!!), asparagus, roasted potatoes and honey-wheat rolls. Because Will has been cooking for me nearly every day for the last couple of months, I cooked it for him. I wasn't sure about making steaks, because Will cooks ALL the meat here. Whether it's raw chicken, cooked chicken, hamburger meat, he always does it. Not because I don't want to or can't or don't know how, but that's just the way it is. But I just got on google, asked Will for a little advice and made it. So maybe they weren't perfectly medium-rare, but they turned out well. Next time I'll maybe get thicker ones or cook them a little less...

After dinner we took a walk around where he proposed and down the bike path where we walked nearly every day when we were dating. Overall it was a simple but very good day.

Black, black, or black?

Goodbye Dallas Roberts!!

 

Aveda is making a big mess. Things are very different now. The post title is my choice of color for clothing from now on, which I think looks good as a whole, but...I really hate wearing all black every day. Oh well, at least I only have a few weeks left!! I don't know what I'm going to do when my friend Kim is done in 2 weeks, because she drives me to school every day. :S I never minded walking, till she started driving me. Now I'm spoiled and really don't want to walk. I'm really not sure what I think of Aveda yet. I love their products for sure, but they are a little strange. Funny though! The first day, the teacher was introducing us to Aveda, and said "Now, everyone close your eyes. Feel Aveda come into your toes, and up to your heart. Welcome it into your body...now put your hand on your heart. No, I'm just kidding girls, you can open your eyes." I was really not taking it seriously, but thinking it was serious, if that makes sense. Anyway, if anyone wants a haircut, neck/shoulder massage, hand massage along with a 'sensory journey', come to Aveda Institute Provo!!

Drastic changes...

I decided to color my hair dark...I'd been thinking about it for a while. My friend really want to do it for me that day, before Aveda took over. So we got all the color in, and I hadn't told Will anything about it at all. I'd left my phone at home by accident that morning, so I emailed him and told him if he found it to let me know. Unfortunately, he didn't get my email in time, but instead found my phone and brought it to me at school. It took him a few minutes to find me, and when he did and I saw him, I stared at him for a second, said "uh-oh" and then started laughing. The girls all around me recognized him and knew that I hadn't said anything, so they all freaked out a little bit. But yeah, it was fine! He likes it a lot. I'll go blond again no doubt, it's a nice change for a while but I don't think I'd like to keep it forever.