Happy Heart

One of my goals this year is to master my camera better. I'm not very interested in the business side of photography, but I would like to be able to take my kids' pictures. Especially to beautify my home.

While I know I have so much to learn, these shots of my baby make me so happy. I love those subtle dimples when she bites her lip. And her long straight Asian eye lashes that remind me so much of my moms.

And I just can't imagine what I'd do without that pretty little face. 

This Annabelle girl makes my heart pretty happy :)

We love you, Elder Allred!

My heart was overcome with so much emotion as we waited our turn to enter MTC grounds. The place was swarming with sharp-looking young men and women, and a sudden feeling of love and appreciation started to fill me up. My little brother was about to dedicate two whole years of his life to the Lord, and that sacrifice suddenly started to make so much more sense as we drove in. I can't even begin to describe how proud I am of him.

We dropped him off at 12:30.

He was so excited.
Everywhere I looked there was a smile and I felt like we were in heaven. You could just feel everyone's love for the gospel.

And having that feeling made it a little easier to let him go.

Elder Allred, you are going to do great things. We love you so much!

The First Month

I'm obsessed.

He's awakened a whole new section of my heart that I didn't even know was there. I get butterflies every time I look at him. Smell him. Kiss him. Snuggle him.

He is so sweet.

And such a little Henry.

How has he already been with us for a month? 

I want to cry. 

He's my little boy and I want him to stay that way forever. 

He still sleeps a lot.

But Annabelle will play with him like he's wide awake.

Yesterday morning I walked in to find her setting up a tea party with him. Lucky boy even got two cups.

He's getting really chubby. And those dimples on his hands make me crazy about him. I love those little man-hands.

He's so very sweet, and a little bit stinky. 

I guess that's the boy in him ;) 

His chubby arms and little grunts remind me of a hibernating bear. If he's gonna get the hiccups it will happen around 7pm. He never sneezes just once, it always happens in twos and threes. He's a happy little boy and has loved to eat since the moment he was born. Sometimes he just needs his daddy to hold him, and all his squirming goes away. He's strong and can lift his head up to look around. 

He smiles a lot and every time he does my heart grows another size. 

He's my perfect little Henry.

And I love him.

Every little bit of him.

Christmas 2012

One of my favorite things about Christmas is the excitement of getting a new ornament. I remember my mom buying us kids new ornaments each year, and I've loved continuing the tradition with my own little family.  

And here's a list of more traditions I hope to hold on to:

* Get a real tree

* Watch Catherine Hardwicke's 

The Nativity Story on Christmas Eve 

* Make Jesus a birthday cake

* Do some sort of service for another family on either Christmas Eve or Christmas day. 

While I really enjoyed this Christmas, I felt it could have been a little more spiritual. So my goal for next year and the years to follow is to give Christ a gift: the gift of serving others. I'm not sure how we'll do it yet, but I think it'll be a good lesson to teach my babies. And so fitting at such a special time of year. 

This year Santa got Annabelle a one-of-a-kind wooden kitchen. He slaved away on it, and I'm quite impressed with how it turned out. Him and I have very similar taste. :)

And it was so fun to see her face Christmas morning. 

And this year Henry got a little toy. And that cute candy bar. I had never seen one of those before, and I have no idea if they're even good. But I'm pretty sure he's gonna get one in his stocking. For the rest of his life :)

I think Santa knew his kiddos really well this year, cause Annabelle hasn't stopped playing with her kitchen since Christmas morning . She loves bringing us a cup of hot chocolate and a fork to stir it. 

And just this morning I asked for a quesadilla and an apple, and she came back saying: "No more apple. Taco?"

Close enough :)

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas as well.

Now onto 2013. 

I have a feeling it's gonna be great :)

Sweet Henry

I was 39 weeks and 4 days pregnant, but I felt like I was 2 weeks past due. 

I got my membranes stripped twice that week in hopes that the nurse would accidentally pop my water. When that didn't happen, I finally set an induction date. 

I chose December 6th. An even number. 

Lauren arrived late Tuesday night, just in time to get ready for the big day. We made our grocery list for the week and headed to Target Wednesday morning. I got all my last minute essentials, like a plethora of snacks for Annabelle. And a jar of nutella. For me. :)

Then standing in line I suddenly felt my heart speed up. I knew it was happening, but kept telling myself it wasn't. My water was trickling. Ahh. Not here, not in public. This is supposed to happen in the middle of the night in the comfort of your home.

I kept bracing myself for the big gush. What would I do? It's just water, I could probably still check out. I mean, I needed these groceries. 

Luckily Lauren had checked out in another lane and was done, so I handed her my wad of cash and quickly waddled to the restroom.

Nothing. No gush. False alarm, I guess.

Then I started cramping.

And in my head I knew I was in labor, but I kept telling myself I wasn't.

(Which is crazy, cause an hour before I was praying to be in labor!)

I was scared.

I casually texted Jake:

"Hey, so I'm kind of leaking a watery substance. But no worries. It's probably nothing. Keep you posted."

He immediately called me insisting I call a nurse. Turns out it wasn't just "nothing"...

He raced home, threw our bags in the car, and we headed to the hospital.

I wasn't in any crazy pain, I was just really scared. And not scared to give birth. Or to get a giant needle shoved into my spine.

I was scared to have a son.

I felt so unprepared and inadequate.

Tears streamed down my face the whole way to the hospital and I just kept praying that I would be a good mom for my boy.

Once I was all situated in the hospital bed, the nurse checked my cervix. I was dilated to a 4. (Did you know that's the size of a Ritz cracker? You're welcome!) :)
Jake gave me a sweet blessing, most of which I've forgotten now. But what I do remember is him blessing me with the comfort and knowledge  that I would be an adequate mother for this boy.

Shortly after that I got the epidural, during which Jake almost passed out. Haha. All of a sudden he was leaning over my bed and the nurse was rushing him over to the couch. His face had gone completely white, and if she hadn't grabbed him some soda he probably would've been a goner. Haha.

Oh, but getting that big needle in my spine was no big deal. ;)

I actually almost passed out like 15 minutes later from all the medicine in my body and the lack of food. I kept begging my nurse to let me at least chew on flavored ice, but she was kind of a beast about it. Luckily there was a shift change and my new favoritest of all time nurse let me drink Sprite! :D

Her name was Terah. And I love her.

After a couple hours and only progressing to a 5 they started the pitocin. And 30 minutes later I was at an 8. And then 15 minutes later I was dilated to a 10. 

So I pushed through 2 contractions and he just slipped right out. And immediately peed on the doctor. (He had been holding it for a long time!) 

My Henry was here. 

8 lbs 1 oz. 20 inches long.

Born at 12:12 am. December 6th.

They immediately placed him on me and the very first thing I noticed were his adorable lips.

He was so perfect and finally in my arms. 

I just cried and cried while thanking my Heavenly Father for this precious baby. 

I have never felt so overwhelmed with gratitude. 

My perfectly healthy boy was here.

And he's mine forever :)

Cousin Loves

We just got home from our Seattle trip last night.

It was so fun!

The perfect mix of relaxing and accomplishing :)

We made a list of things to do and did every single thing:

Make bow-ties

Take pictures

Eat yummy food (i.e. nutella)

Go on 30 min walks every night

Have a girl's night

Start: Project-Flower-Shop-Beautification

(OK, so potty train the girls was on that list too, and well... 

it didn't quite happen!) ;)

But really, just having precious cousin time was enough for me.

We really love you, Washington cousins :)

Like really.

A lot.

Press Pause

My baby is getting really big and old and it makes me sad. :(

We're almost to her 2nd birthday (!!!) and I kind of just wanna skip over it. She can stay 23 months forever :)

I wish I could film every second of these toddler years and then show her later on how happy she made me every day. Where's my pause button? 

I catch myself watching her, thinking: She's really mine? I am so blessed.

She tiptoes. Everywhere.

She thinks my belly button is named Henry...

She can jump. Really high.

She just started potty training herself and says: "Mama, pot-tay"

And then she says: "Treep, mommy. Treep." (treat)

She could watch Finding Nemo all day, every day.

She says "Good job, mommy" when I wash my hands.

When we read books she points and asks "What's that?" to everything...

She refuses to say the number seven. Instead it is always "nemy". (idk??)

When daddy walks through the door she immediately says "Watch this, daddy!" and does a little hop and a skip. 

She would jump off the table if we'd let her.

She thinks the main purpose of our computer is to look at googled images of puppies.

She gives me this look out of the corner of her eye when she's doing something naughty. It's her "I'm- not-doing-anything-suspicious" face.

She loves "aipwanes & hewicoptoptuhs"

(yeah, that last one's "helicopters")

She says "yeah, sure" in a raspy voice to just about any question.

And I love her.

And she loves me too.