back to the quiet life.

I just counted and over the past 40 days I spent 27 of them out of town. So it's no wonder that Elea is sick and I'm not feeling so hot either. Luckily, the majority of those days were at my parent's house and Jeff's parent's house so it's easier than if we had been at a hotel or something but it is still a break from our normal routine. In many ways I have realized that I am a routine junky. I like knowing how each day is going to go to an extent. Probably silly, but I feel like I am a better mom when Elea is on a schedule so that if she is fussy or something I have a better idea why.

Angie and her family surprised the in-laws and came a few days early. They stayed in St. George so that's why I was down there too. Ang and I haven't been able to hang out that much since last christmas so it was a lot of fun.

Jace's wedding was on the 20th so the whole famdamily was around for christmas this year. It was the best christmas I have had on the oliverson side since Jeff and I got married. I didn't even cry this year. :) (Ang & I asked kevin ahead of time if we could turn on christmas music and the fireplace because that's what makes it feel like "christmas" to me!) Jeff and I had made a deal that we would only buy things that would fit in our respective stockings. BUT THEN, he brought up that deal and threw in the phrase or touching our stockings so I knew the battle of the gift giving was on. The rest of the week I spent trying to milk angie for details but then resorted to just asking, "so am I winning? Or is he winning?" to which she would reply, "what he's getting you is cool, but you're winning." At one point I asked derek-- I told him what I had gotten and he said that he thought jeff was winning, but if I exchanged it for something a little better, then I would be winning. So ridiculous. But the gauntlet had been thrown, or whatever that cliche is, so I exchanged it. (and don't worry, Elea was taken care of in the meantime!) In the end, I just had all the gifts outside of his stocking be from Elea because he never said that wasn't an option. :) And I don't know who won in the end but I loved everything he got me.

It's been fun to think back to our first christmas together 4 years ago because we really didn't know each other very well at all. (Even though we were engaged and going to be married in less than 2 weeks). This year it felt like we were our own little real family and I liked it.

Tonight is New Year's Eve. I'm sitting here on my computer because I'm a lame-o and didn't feel good enough to go out in public and be in a cheery mood. AND even more than that, since Elea has been miserable, I didn't want to drag her anywhere late. But really, this is sort of my norm for New Year's Eve. Last year we were in San Diego and I fell asleep at 10:30-- blamed it on being in the 1st trimester still and the year before that I made sure that I worked. The past few years of my life have been pretty great, so it's not like I'm all sorts of anxious for one year to be over so that I can start over in the next or something. Who knows. Jeff's at a friend's house- probably worrying that I'm mad at him for going or something. 4 years ago I probably would have been, but this year it's all good.

He went grocery shopping with a list I made today. Some lady in the check out aisle gave him major props for being out grocery shopping for his wife when there were some good bowl games on. I guess he figured warding off starvation was a better alternative than watching football.

Our family is starting a biggest loser contest tomorrow. I am fighting the temptation to go finish off the bag of reese's peanut butter jingle bells sitting on the counter since tomorrow is the official starting weight weigh in.

I think I'll probably just go to bed instead.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Elea's 1st Christmas

Elea and Santa meet.

Last night was the Oliverson Family Christmas Party. Santa came to visit. By the time he left I had started to believe again after 19 years!

Elea's first visit with Santa.

She kept staring at him as he answered her cousins' questions about elves, reindeer, the North Pole, etc.

Formula. Glorious Formula.

It’s been about 2 and a half weeks now that we switched Elea over to formula. I was struggling big time with nursing—and so was she, actually. She hadn’t gained weight hardly at all for over a month and we were both getting really frustrated every time it came time to eat. At my parents house over Thanksgiving she was waking up multiple times a night to eat and was ornery a lot. So I was debating whether to start supplementing with formula but didn’t want to make the decision while we were out of town, etc. But we did start feeding her cereal to help her gain a little weight, etc. Then after about a week of cereal she had started to get constipated. So I fed her a bottle of warm water and she chugged it. I had never fed her a bottle before whenever I had pumped, Jeff was the one to feed her. So after watching her chug the bottle I was really considering supplementing with formula but while I was considering supplementing, she had decided she was over the nursing nonsense once she realized her mom could give her a bottle too. She wouldn’t nurse anymore so luckily I had samples from the hospital and was able to give her a bottle without any drama. I could tell a difference with her by that night. She is so much happier now it is ridiculous. I had planned on nursing her for a year but Elea and my body had other plans. It made me sad to realize that she was probably hungry a lot of the time the previous month or more. But it’s all good now and she has gained more than 2 lbs since we switched over so she is actually starting to grow out of her 3 months clothes. Finally.

And to be honest, I may be gaining weight at the same rate since now I can eat all the foods with garlic, onion, tomato, broccoli, and CHOCOLATE that I couldn’t before!

Jace & Nancy's Wedding

Jeff's younger brother Jace got married on the 20th.

Jace & Nancy's sealing was beautiful. The sealer had some really good things to say, at one point he said that they probably wouldn't remember anything that he said, but they could ask any of the rest of us later if they wanted to know. That is so true because I cannot remember any of the things the sealer said to me and Jeff. I just remember the look on Jeff's face and the one tear welling up in his eye that refused to actually fall down his cheek. After the sealing they had a wedding breakfast, which was actually more like a sit-down reception. It was really nice and set up beautifully. Nancy looked like tanned, brunette barbie doll. All the nieces (and 1 of the nephews, too) were constantly surrounding her and all wanted to help carry the train of her dress. They looked so happy together-- I love weddings for that reason. At my wedding people told me that I would love Jeff more in 10 years than I did in that moment and I didn't believe them. Now I know that I love him more now than I did then. But I think the glow on couples' faces on their wedding day is partly due to their intense belief that they love each other right then as much as humanly possible and their faith in their relationship.

So I cry at weddings. Sometimes bawl. Sometimes just tear up a little. But always, always cry.

I made them a slideshow with pictures from their childhoods, engagement, and bridal pictures with music from a mixed CD they had put together. It was fun to make, last Christmas Jeff had gotten me Sony Vegas, but I only had a reason to use it once before. If I can get my hands on a scanner I want to make one with pictures of Jeff and me and our wedding pictures since I couldn't justify the expense of having one made 4 years ago.

Elea 4 months old

Angie chastised me for mentioning taking Elea's picture the other day but not posting any of them. . . . So here are a few.

About 2 seconds after I took this picture she flopped herself over onto her back. That's only happened 3 times that I know about and the only time I have actually seen her do it.

She's already learning how to pose.

Tagged: 8 fun things

8 Shows I like to watch...

1. The Amazing Race
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Brothers & Sisters
4. Law & Order (Jeff's dad calls them my "shoot 'em up" shows)
5. Criminal Minds
6. Bones
7. Without a Trace
8. QVC & HSN (It's pathetic BUT it's nice to have adult voices talking at me in the house during the day. . . and no, I haven't ever bought anything. . . and no, I don't talk back either.)

8 Restaurants I Like...

1. Texas Roadhouse
2. Outback Steakhouse
3. Ruby River
4. Olive Garden (except while I'm nursing because EVERY single item but 1 on the menu has either onions, garlic, or tomatoes in it!)
5. IHOP (hey, I never claimed to be fancy)
6. The Garden House
7. Noodles & Company
8. Pizza Factory

8 Things that happened yesterday...

1. Parked in a parking spot perfectly straight and even (that never happens).
2. Bought Fenugreek to help my milk supply increase so that Elea can gain some weight.
3. Talked to my mom on the phone.
4. Talked to my sister on the phone.
5. Filled out job applications in Northern Utah for Jeff.
6. Paid a couple of bills on-line.
7. Took Elea's picture.
8. Read Wuthering Heights.

8 I things I'm looking forward to...

1. Flying to Kentucky on Saturday to visit Ma & Pa.
2. Ang, Derek, & kids coming to visit in December.
3. Twilight Movie on Friday night.
4. Friday Night Lights coming back on in January.
5. Finishing Wuthering Heights because I don't really like it and it's taking me forever to get through it.
6. Every weekday at 3:30 pm because that's when Jeff gets home now that football is over!
7. Jeff getting a teaching job.
8. Christmas Eve in our own house for the first time since we were married.

8 things on my wish list...

1. Jeff to have a teaching job.
2. Elea to gain weight and stop having a stuffy nose all the time.
3. The AZ house mess done and over with.
4. Every book I have marked on "Goodreads" that I haven't read yet.
5. To own a pair of jeans that fit me right now.
6. To be more patient with my sweet husband.
7. To have white socks that stay really white.
8. To have a car seat that weighs 2 lbs.

I tag. . .
1. Gwen
2. Angie
3. Becca
4. Mel
5. Amanda
6. Maddie
7. Tricia
8. Anyone else who wants to do this tag!

Not good. Not good at all.

I finally got around to calling a real estate agent on Tuesday (thanks Maddie!) and found out some bad news. I wasn't expecting good news- but it was worse than I thought. Houses in our neighborhood in AZ are selling for between $139,000- and $170,000. No, wait, I phrased that wrong, they are listing for that much and selling for even less.

So considering that we still owe a whopping $240,000 it's not looking so hot for us. Not at all. My first reaction was to think that we should just hang on to it until the market improves. But that could be YEARS and even with renters in it we are still paying out $900+ a month. So my second reaction was to just not think about it at all (which is kind of what I've been doing for the past few months). Jeff, on the other hand, called his dad for advice. He said that we should just let it go into foreclosure since the loan is only in my name (thank goodness!). His words were "quit feeding a dead horse." Initially I was really against the idea- I'm not a big fan of trashing my credit score. But being able to save that money every month would be fabulous and maybe it'll keep me and jeff from making some crazy quick decision to buy a house in the next little while because heaven knows we aren't great at holding off on things once we get the idea in our heads.

So who knows. Dumb house. BUT silver lining or whatever is that if we hadn't moved there we wouldn't have gone to the fertility doc and so we wouldn't have elea right now-- and she is definitely 100% no questions asked worth it.

Elea's 4 month check up

Yesterday afternoon was Elea's 4 month check up. She only weighed 12 lbs 8 oz and she is 23 1/2 inches tall. So she dropped down to the 25th percentile in weight and moved up to the 50th percentile in height.

She is still wearing the same clothes that she started wearing at 6 weeks old. It just hit me today that she is 4 months old wearing 3 month old clothes. I think this is a first in Oliverson family history.

** I just looked up her 2 month checkup and she hasn't even gained a full pound in 2 months. She's a happy baby and sleeping good so the doc wasn't worried but it's definitely not what I expected!

Smilestones

After reading Lori's blog a week or two ago I realized that I need to post about Elea's little things even if no one else gives a rip because otherwise I'm going to forget. (She's a lot better at recognizing the little developments because she's got a degree in early childhood development- but I'm doing my best!)

Elea has squealed a few times when she's gotten excited. Angie and Jeff have been able to get some good squeals from her.

Jeff has gotten her to giggle a few times too-- it's just as deep a sound as her cry/yell.

She has discovered her left foot. She likes to grab her left foot with her left hand and then can get ahold of her right knee or ankle but usually she just leaves that leg out swingin'. She can't quite get her toes into her mouth yet-- but she pulls her sock off a little and hangs onto it. It cracks me up when she loses her grip because every limb shoots out straight like a star and she looks half terrified and half surprised.

Lately Elea has been attempting to shove her entire fist in her mouth. She is constantly gagging herself but hasn't mastered getting just her thumb in her mouth.

She wants to be sitting up looking around all the time. The only time she will recline is if she is in her bouncer (and even then she tries to sit up) or getting tired/relaxed. She isn't able to hold herself up yet, but if she is reclined then she attempts to sit upright (and then tips over).

She rolled herself over from her tummy to her back in her crib today for the first time. Then later I was on the floor with her and she was laying on her tummy again. She pushed herself up and flopped over onto her back. I don't know if that counts because it was totally on accident-- but it was pretty fun to watch.

She is less cross-eyed now-- but if the camera flashes a bunch of times in a row she goes cross eyed.

Elea still loves her bath time. She can go from ornery to happy in about 2.5 seconds if we put her in the tub.

And last of all-- she smiles really easily now. It doesn't take much to get her to smile. My favorite is when she smiles really big and balls up her fists and starts squirming-- like if she tried to smile any harder she would burst. I can be having a rough day and then she does that and everything seems a lot better.

The past 2 weeks in pictures

My mom and I stopped at my Aunt Maxine's before we left the Uintah Basin on Sunday the 26th. Elea didn't find us nearly as funny as we found ourselves.

How we spent our Halloween: Elea loves to sit straight up so we got her this bumbo chair. She loves it. Especially now that she has figured out how to twist herself sideways so that she can gnaw on the sides of it.

I guess I lied when I said she wasn't cross eyed anymore.

With Grandpa Sullivan.

Check out Jeff's new pearly whites!

Elea's first attempt at cereal

In an effort to get Elea to sleep through the night we gave her cereal on Tuesday night. Talk about your all time back-fire-- instead she just got a really bad tummy ache. So we are waiting a few more weeks before we give it to her again and I am doing my best to fix the night time waking up situation other ways (see previous post). BUT she was cracking me up because she was so dang excited-- I think she was just humoring Jeff and me because we were getting such a kick out of the whole process.

17 day catch up

It seems like I am tempted to title every 3rd post "catch up" so this time I got creative and actually numbered the days I was "catching up" on. So thorough.

• My mom was in town from the 21st- 27th. It was awesome to have her here again.
• My Aunt Maxine went through the temple on the 25th so my Mom and I went to Roosevelt and Vernal for the weekend. It was really cool to be there with a lot of my mom's brothers and sisters.
• On the night of the 25th some of my cousins on my dad's side of the family got together at my Aunt LouAnn's house. It was a lot of fun to hang out and watch everyone be "moms & dads"!
• We stayed at my Grandpa's house for 2 nights. I hadn't seen him since my Grandma's funeral last August. I was glad that he was able to see Elea. It cracked me up because some of the phrases he used and his tone of voice sounded just like my dad.
• On Sunday, the 25th, we stayed the night at Tricia's house. Her little Keaton is a cute baby boy. She took some pictures of him and Elea together since they are just a couple of weeks apart. So cute.
• Monday after I dropped my mom off at the airport Elea and I went to Lori's to visit her and Gavin. I didn't have a lot of time but we were able to fit in the important conversation points with what time I had. ha. Gavin seemed HUGE to me compared to Elea and he is only 1 and a couple of months!
• That night we went to Thriller with Amanda & Tyler at Tuacahn. It was the first date-date that Jeff and I have had since Elea was born-- we went to lunch once when my mom was in town a few weeks after she was born. It was really good-- it's a dance show with different halloween themed skits. A couple of the dancers were from this last season of So You Think You Can Dance so that was pretty cool. I was stressing out the entire drive home from Salt Lake because I didn't have a ton of time to get home and feed Elea before we needed to head down to St. George. On the drive Friday she was really good and slept most of the time. On the way home she woke up after about 2 hours-ish and then would start crying. So while dislocating my shoulder to put her binky back in she would stop crying, but then she would start again. So I would take the next exit so that I could feed her and before I could get stopped and to the backseat to get her out, she would be asleep. This happened the rest of the way home. But I can't complain-- she did really well considering how many miles we covered in such a short time, plus she was in and out of her car seat all day every day that we were gone. (Now she just HATES her car seat).
  
• Wednesday the 29th was Jeff's work Halloween party. I went as someone from the 80's, Elea was a punk rocker (with much guidance from Auntie Gwen), and Jeff was one of the Beijing Olympic Swimming Relay Gold Medalists with 3 other guys from work. I have a picture of Jeff (which isn't really appropriate for mass distribution), but didn't manage to take one of myself or Elea-- I will get one of Elea easily enough since it just involves a onesie, pants, and 2 sweatbands on her wrists but my costume was disposed of within 24 hours.
• On Halloween Jeff had a football game and it was cold and/or windy outside so I didn't go. So Elea and I just hung out at home with the front porchlight off because I totally spaced buying candy for the trick or treaters. (That's one of those adult responsibilities I have yet to master).
• This week I went down to St. George a couple of times- jeff's parents gave their kids their christmas presents early this year-- they paid for us to load up on food for our food storage. Monday my two sis-in-laws and my mother-in-law went to Costco. We were pushing the big pallet type carts (like home depot's) and they were getting really full. So between the 4 of us there were three huge carts, one normal size cart completely full, and 4 kids 3 years old or younger (and shan's pregnant). Needless to say, we got some weird looks and one guy asked if we all lived in the same house. Another girl asked if we were planning on living underground. I'm crossing my fingers I will never have to be 100% dependent on what we've stocked up on, but it's good to know we could last a little while if absolutely necessary.
• Jeff caught a cold towards the end of last week, then Elea caught it, now I have it. I took Elea to the doc on Monday to make sure she didn't have an ear infection or anything and luckily she didn't-- she's just really congested. She only weighed 12 lbs 11 oz.! I knew she wasn't getting big quickly but I thought that she at least weighed 13 lbs. But it isn't a drastic drop percentile wise so her pediatrician isn't worried.
  
• The past week or so-- maybe shorter maybe longer-- Elea has been waking up two or more times a night. I haven't been sure if she was hungry or just waking up for the fun of it or what, but by Thursday morning I had had enough. So I pulled out the Baby Whisperer book again (which I failed miserably on my first attempt when she was a few weeks old). So yesterday was the first day of her napping in her crib and it went a lot better than I expected. It's called the Pick Up/Put Down method-- you don't rock your baby to sleep, but you don't leave them alone to cry it out either. When she cries hard I pick her up, then once she's stopped crying I immediately lay her back down. Over and over and over again. Her first nap yesterday I did that for over an hour. (Thank goodness I only have 1 child!) But then by today her first 2 naps I didn't have to pick her up and lay her down more than once. This afternoon was a little more rough but at least she is sleeping in her crib while it's daylight! BUT the best news of all is that after doing that yesterday she slept through the night last night!! I didn't wake up once. 8 blissful hours with no stupid nightmares about spiders and demons, no Jeff snoring, no baby crying . . . it was fabulous!
• Cedar played Park City tonight and they were ahead until the last 3 minutes of the game. They lost 11-8 so Jeff is officially done coaching until February. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't excited that he's finished. It will be nice to have him just working a normal 40 hour work week without school, coaching, etc.
  

I love UEA

UEA was this past weekend. I don't know what it stands for exactly-- Utah Educators or Education A_____?? Mostly I think it is just an excuse for kids to get out of school for "the hunt." Anyway, I think it is pretty fabulous because the football game was moved to Thursday and Jeff was home Friday-day because he worked grave that night instead. AND he switched his shift for today to one this weekend when I'll be out of town so it's been pretty dang FABULOUS having him home for 4 days.

It's amazing how much better it is to have not only him, but a 2nd pair of hands- for example:
1. I showered everyday AND shaved 2 days in a row.
2. Finally got some pictures hung on the wall. (When I was starting to go into labor I hung a bunch of frames up-- with no pictures in them-- just to keep me up and moving).
3. Started laundry this morning before 10 a.m.
4. The Halloween pumpkin thing I bought 3 weeks ago to hang on the front door is finally hanging.
5. Took Elea's 3 month old pictures.
6. I've left the house everyday since last Wednesday.
7. Finished the book I was reading.
8. And lots of other things I am not going to divulge because it will show my immense need for improvement in the domestic realm!!!

. . . Everyday I am gaining a greater appreciation for women who stay home and take care of more than one child at a time. And cook sometimes. And keep the house standing. Hopefully I'll be able to pull it off sometime. In the meantime I am grateful to have a husband who likes to get things done when he is home AND enjoys hanging out with our daughter-- which makes it possible for me get things done as well.

Yay for UEA.

break for me

Saturday I went to the "First Annual Southern Utah Crop till You Drop" with my sis-in-law Shanna. It was a lot of fun. I was looking forward to it for about a month leading up to it but then the "week of" came and I started to stress out about it. I haven't been away from Elea for longer than 2-3 hours at a time since she was born. And that's only happened twice that I remember. Jeff took her to the priesthood session last week and she started freaking out an hour before I was able to get home so that didn't make me feel too calm about being gone for so long on Saturday. If I hadn't already paid for my spot I would have chickened out-- but I am glad that I went.

It was in St. George so Jeff dropped me off and then had a bottle that I'd pumped earlier that day (he hung out at his parents house). Then he came and got me during the dinner break and I ate dinner then nursed Elea. Then I went back and she lasted a few more hours-- then Jeff brought her to me and I fed her really quick in the car. Then I was able to stay for the rest of it. It was a lot of fun and it lasted 10 hours-- it didn't feel like it was that long though!

I love being home all day with Elea, but I would be lying if I said that the break wasn't needed or appreciated. I'm so lucky to have a husband who loves spending time with his little girl and let's me do the things that make me happy. :) After this little adventure I think I am converting to digital scrapbooking completely-- I'll probably sell most of my regular scrapbooking supplies-- but I haven't decided how yet.

I made this page before I went to the scrapbook thing-- I finally gave in and bought a kit from Scrap Orchard and it was worth it-- makes it so much easier.

Scrapbook page

Naps have consistently been a struggle for Elea. It takes about 20-30 minutes for her to fall asleep and then she sleeps for 44 minutes and almost to the second, 45 minutes hits and she is awake. Most times I can move her or put the binkie back in and get another 20-30 minutes. HOWEVER, miracle of miracles, this morning she slept for over 2 hours, almost 3 total!

I was able to make this page on my computer AND eat breakfast while she slept. Pretty fantastic morning if you ask me.

Catching up: Omaha Trip

I flew to Omaha on Sept. 18th with Elea. I was stressing out about the whole airport situation because I didn't know how I would manage to get through security while holding her. Something as simple as putting on and taking off a pair of shoes becomes a task worthy of some long nights awake stressing out. (I'm not the seasoned mommy yet who can solve world hunger, vacuum, do the dishes, and fold laundry all while carrying a baby in one arm and dealing with a toddler hanging on to her pant leg).

So yes, I was stressed about getting through security because I didn't take her stroller or her car seat because I just borrowed one of angie's friend's car seat once we got there. But then the wonderful lady behind the counter asked if Jeff would like a companion pass to go through security and wait with us at the gate. HALLELUJAH! I was so relieved. AND I didn't have to worry about not needing to use the restroom until getting to Ang's house. (If I thought security was gonna be difficult-- using the bathroom would have been IMPOSSIBLE).

I didn't even know that they were allowed to do that-- it was great because Jeff was able to go with us to the gate and he waited with us for awhile but then decided to head back to Cedar cause he was tired and it was getting late. Elea was a sweet little angel until about 20 minutes before the plane boarded. Which is when all the seats in the waiting area are full so there are all the people who will be riding the plane with you-- all the people who have zero qualms about staring at the crying baby and the mother trying to calm her down. But I figured that if nothing else, it will make them hesitant to sit by me on the plane, which it did, so I had a whole row to myself which was pretty fantastic. She'd stopped fussing before we boarded and didn't fuss again until we were in Omaha.

When I was boarding the plane, the flight attendant stopped me and started rubbing elea's head. He was an older guy and asked her name, and how old she was, and if she'd had a hair cut yet. I answered all 3 questions and as I was heading down the aisle I hear over the speaker "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Elea, she is 10 weeks old and mom's not cutting her hair yet." Okay, AWKWARD. Random people asking and making comments is one thing-- but having it announced while trying to maneuver down the aisle with a huge diaper bag and a baby wasn't cool because every seated pair of eyes looked up and stared.

So enough about just getting to Omaha.

It was really good to be with my mom & sister. But it was even better to get to see angie's new baby girl Alexis. She's a sweet little thing. Growing up, every time my family was around my cousin Teresa's family, we were always lined up back to back to see who was taller, who was skinnier, who had longer hair, etc. etc. etc. There was never any judgment attached-- no "winner" was ever declared, but it always bugged me anyway. Well, it took about 2 seconds of having Elea and Alex together before we started doing the same thing.

Case in point:

Elea's legs are the shorter ones with multiple rolls. Alex has been bless with long leg and long fingers. She's like Derek, with a feminine flair.

Anyway, the first week I was there things were pretty hectic and crazy because they were moving from one townhome to the other. Traveling without Jeff was a lot more difficult than I expected. I have gotten spoiled by him bathing Elea every night because that is a guaranteed 45 minutes I have to do whatever I want. (Or at least it's 45 minutes that she's happy and occupied). She ended up sleeping on an air mattress with me because she WILL NOT sleep in a playpen. How the heck she knows the difference, I do not know. She got a stuffy nose a day or two after we got there so she woke me and my mom up a lot with her snoring and grunting. I don't know how parents do the "co-sleeping" thing-- I was so nervous about her being on the bed in the first place, plus her noises, it made sleeping difficult. But she did sleep in until 9 or 10 every morning because the basement was pretty dark-- so that was sweet.

My mom, Ang, and I were able to get away one afternoon for a couple of hours to go to lunch with just the 2 babies. It was good to spend time just the 3 of us because that hardly ever happens.

Jeff was supposed to come on Saturday morning (9 days after me) but Thursday night he called and it was all noisy. Earlier he had called angie and by the tone of her voice and her going outside to talk to him, I knew something was up. But he texted me and said that he'd gone gambling in Mesquite with his friend. So I asked why he called angie first and he said to find out if I was in a good mood or not so that he could decide whether to tell me that night or wait till he was home. He kept asking if I was mad that he went. I wasn't mad but I started getting riled up that he would act like I was his mom and going to ground him or something. Also, all day angie's laptop was missing and Derek kept saying he'd taken it to school. I felt like he was lying but couldn't figure out why he would lie about that. So then I was annoyed because I wanted to be able to check our account to make sure Jeff wasn't spending too much money gambling or to find out what else he'd been up to because angie was acting sketchy (he hasn't gone to a casino and gambled since we've been married, which should have been my first clue).

So finally I went to bed. My mom and I were staying at their old townhouse across the street. At about 1 or 2 in the morning I woke up to really loud footstomps across the floor upstairs. I was pretty freaking terrified because my mom wasn't back yet from Angie's house so I was alone downstairs with Elea. There wasn't a "fight or flight" response kicking in . . . mostly I just laid there and played dead, except my eyes were WIDE open. Then I see someone at the top of the stairs and hear Jeff say my name. Derek, the jerk, had walked over with Jeff and stomped across the floor on purpose to scare me. I was so relieved that it was Jeff surprising me and not some bad guy that I couldn't really FEEL surprised. If that makes any sense. But it was great to see him and I was pretty proud of him for pulling one over on me. Angie and I have this sick sub-concious determination not to ever let ourselves be surprised, we tend to ruin every potential surprise, almost by accident.

So that was why the lap-top had disappeared all day, Jeff knew I would check out what he was up to so he had them hide it. I thought for sure he would never miss a football game (which was why he wasn't coming until Saturday in the first place) . . . but he did so that was pretty cool. AND I was pretty pleased with myself for not getting upset with him about the faked late night gambling excursion.

Sunday was Alex's baby blessing. Her blessing was really sweet. It was fun for me to hang out with all the family. I don't think Elea was put down once the entire day so I am sure she loved it too. We flew home on Tuesday morning. This probably sounds random, but my favorite part of visiting angie this time was that we were both nursing. The babies were on similiar schedules so it was good for me that angie was forced to sit down and talk for 20 minutes (or more) multiple times throughout the day.

Halloween costume dilemma.

I haven't dressed up for halloween for A LONG TIME. To be honest, I don't remember the last time I dressed up for Halloween. This year, Jeff's work is having a Halloween party AND if I'm gonna dress Elea up and possibly use her child status to get some candy, we should probably dress up to.

BUT

I have zero ideas. Jeff mentioned a smurf costume for him which would involve blue body paint and white spandex. . . hence this desperate cry for help.

I was thinking of a fairy costume for Elea but Jeff wasn't a big fan of the idea. Our brother-in-law justin suggested dressing up elea as an 80's aerobice instructor with the sweatband and poofy hair. If I could get my hands on a pair of white princess high top reeboks and spandexshorts with a thong leotard to go over them for her-- it might be a possibility. But then again-- wouldn't a bunny or some other cuddly animal be a lot sweeter?

hey look what I can do.

No, this isn't just a bad hair day.

Omaha visit pics

Jeff & Alexis

Katie Kate. (Annie took this picture-- it's cute & at Kate's eye level!)

Me & Miss Annie. If there is a mini-me (personality wise) in the world. . . it's her.

Sam I Am.

Elea & Alexis giving each other rocks.

It's an almost guaranteed smile if you lift Elea up above eye level. Angie was able to get her to laugh/squeak a couple of times.

Me & Angie's sweet baby girl Alex.

Elea & Angie are buddies.

My mom & dad with Alex & Elea.

Jeff's Grandma Helen. I am so grateful that Elea has gotten to spend time with her Great-Grandma, even though she won't remember it. Helen makes a lot of effort to be at all her grand-kids special events and we love her a lot.

** I'd write more but just getting these pictures posted has been an all day project because Elea is not a happy girl today. At all. **

Superpower?

I am not a huge fan of Spider-man, Superman, etc. because they have some awesome ability(s) but they're the only ones and so they're expected to save the world all the time.

But, I do like the X-men or Fantastic Four or Heroes (and now the Twilight Series Vampires' abilities) because it's normal people who can do some crazy awesome things or have some very useful, but not obvious, abilities.

If you aren't familiar with their powers, some examples are:

Flying, reading minds, influencing moods, starting fire, able to heal from injury & not able to die, power over elements, stretchy, go invisible, see the future, incredible strength, time travel, etc.

If I could choose one ability, it would be to read people's minds. It would be great for car rides with Jeff when he is staring out at the road and I ask what he is thinking about and he says, "nothing." Maybe that is true, but I don't know how he does it, cause I am unable to turn my thoughts off. Ever. Actually, on second thought, maybe the ability to turn your thoughts off and not think about anything would be pretty sweet instead.

But I think I'll stick with reading people's thoughts. Flying does come in a close 2nd though.

It's one of my new favorite questions: What would your superpower be?

Twilight Series Confession

About a month ago I was at Costco and saw the book Twilight on CD. At that point I felt like my brain was going to ooze out of my head because I'd been watching so much TV. I figured it would last me awhile, and that I would just listen to it while nursing Elea.

It didn't quite work out that way.

I put the first CD in on my way back to Cedar City. Then I came inside and put it in the CD player at home and continued to listen to it every possible moment that Jeff was sleeping or not home. Needless to say, it was a lot better than I expected and definitely more suspenseful than The Awakening by Kate Chopin, which is what I had been reading.

I ended up buying the second book, New Moon, 2 days later and finished it 2 days later. Then I bought the next 2, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn and finished both of them within 4 days. It was a fantastic discovery to realize that I could hold Elea and/or nurse Elea while reading. Duh. Sometimes I am kind of slow grasping the obvious.

But then I finished the books and wasn't too thrilled with the ending. Sort of a let down. But besides that I really liked them. A lot more than I expected too. And I really wouldn't mind being Stephenie Meyer's version of a vampire.

While I was visiting Angie in Omaha we looked up the Twilight movie that is coming out November 21st. I got all goofy excited and I am not one of those people who goes to a movie the day it comes out. But this one-- definitely gonna be there and I just hope it doesn't break my heart by not being fantastic.

Very excited.

So I checked the mail today and this is what I found:


Season 1 box set! This is one of those randomly wonderful shows that I have come across in the middle of the night while nursing Elea. Gwen is pretty amazing at picking out gifts and ordered it for me for my birthday.

What's even more exciting is that when I looked up the picture I saw that there are 5 seasons! I had no idea. Very thrilled.

Thanks Gwen!

Random pictures.

I keep forgetting to post/take pictures of Elea when her hair is wet and not poofed all crazy. We have about 15 seconds before it dries all crazy.

I don't know why I am surprised, but Jeff can get her smiling better than anyone.

Thomas used to always wear his hair like this for his Volleyball games. This was our first trip to the grocery store with Elea (mid august)-- I came out to the living room and Jeff had her all strapped in and ready to go-- headband and everything. I busted up laughing-- she looks like a tennis player from the 80's with her sweatband, I mean headband, like that.

how to pronounce her name . . .

I've been meaning to post about this since before Elea was born. But then I didn't really think it was necessary-- but I guess it is. As a mom, any version of her name is okay, I will leave it up to her to like or dislike different nicknames or pronunciations.

SO:
eh-lee-uh.

or.

uh-lee-uh.

Either one works. Or just call her L, or L-E, or leah. We aren't picky.

2 month check up

Elea had her 2 month check up on Monday. The doc said everything looked good. We're still keeping an eye on her cross eyed tendencies. . . She has 4 months to grow out of it before I get to be worried! She weighed 11 lbs 11 oz. so her weight gain has slowed down a bit, believe it or not. She measured 21.75 inches long, so she has grown 2 inches in 2 months, that is insane to me. Even though she is growing in length, her percentiles don't show it.

Height- 25th percentile
Weight-75th percentile
Head Circumference- 45th percentile

So she doesn't have a big ol' head like we originally thought she might-- even though her 2 inch fro may make it look otherwise! We've come to the conclusion that she is built like her dad-- long body, short legs. As ang put it, "built like Jeff with a feminine flair." Let's hope there's a lot of feminine flair kickin' in- I don't think there is a big & tall store for toddlers!

Also, she got her first round of immunizations. Since she doesn't have any other siblings, Elea isn't used to anyone manhandling her at all. Actually, besides family and friends, no one ever touches her-- I have people stopping me all the time at the store, commenting about her, but no one reaches out to pinch her cheeks or grab her feet or anything like that (thank goodness because I don't know that I would react too kindly . . .). So anyway, when the nurse pinched her thigh to give her the first shot she start to scream/cry. It was her ticked off cry more than her pain cry-- and she kept crying for about 30 more seconds for the other 2 shots. After the nurse was finished it only took about 10 seconds for her to stop crying. I felt so bad. Part of me worries about the whole Autism-immunizations link and wonders if it's worth it. . . but if she did get sick and it could have been prevented I would feel horrible.

The rest of the day Monday she did pretty good-- she slept a lot and was sort of ornery, and if you accidentally touched her leg where the shots were she would get pretty mad. Tuesday she did pretty good too-- I was holding her most of the day while I finished the Twilight series-- but that's a post for another time.

Happy Birthday to Us

Today was Jeff & my birthday. He turned 27 and I turned 25.

There are some great things about having the same birthday-- if you forget it's their birthday then you get off the hook really easily because that means you've forgotten it's your birthday too. I baked him a German chocolate cake last night and felt pretty dang proud of myself and pathetic at the same time because it is the first birthday cake I've baked for him since we've been married. Having the EXACT same birthday causes this weird canceling out phenomenon. We don't really celebrate either of our birthdays. Or maybe it's just that we're getting old(er) and growing out of the thrill of the "birthday."

Last year I was in Arizona and he was in Utah on our birthday so I worked and he went to school to celebrate our birthdays. This year he had an away game in American Fork (they won 56-8 or something ridiculous like that) so he was gone all day. However, Elea was a little darling today and slept pretty good and I hung out with Gwen in St. George for a few hours. That combined with listening to the book Twilight by Stephanie Meyer on CD pretty much made my day.

Anyway, yay for being 25. And 27.

my favorite part of the day

In the mornings when Elea wakes up she is happy. Obviously, she takes after her father because he wakes up happy every day too. This morning I was finally able to get my camera in time to catch some of her smiles because she quickly loses patience and wants to eat. NOW.

It looks really dark but that's just my camera. . . she's been sleeping in until 8 am and it is pretty fantastic. :)

success!

I have been trying to get Elea to sleep in her crib during the day for naps. I think I have mentioned this once or twice before. Still struggling. Anyway, today I finally started to have the guts to just let her cry it out-- for a few minutes at least.

Just barely, I laid her down in her crib under her mobile. Lori got her one of those half-stuffed-animal-half-blankie things and we've been using it to help keep her binkie in & she likes the soft feeling of it too. So after I laid her down I started to clean up the havoc I had managed to wreak on the entire house today.

And it was quiet.

And then it was still quiet.

So I went to check on her and this is what I found:


She was asleep. Still sucking on her binkie though-- I could hear it. Just so you don't think I am a horrible parent, I did move the blanket part off her face.

And she woke up about 30 seconds later.

Football game #1

I don't remember if I've mentioned that Jeff is helping coach football at Cedar High this year. Tonight was the first game of the season. Cedar won 32-6 so that is good. My mom and I took Elea and were able to stay for about an hour-- not too bad I thought. She totally slept through the band and the cheering and everything for about a half hour but then she woke up and was hungry and the wind was blowing, etc.

I've decided to keep track of the number of hours I spend sitting on bleachers over the next 25 years. I am really horrible at actually watching what is happening on the field-- I spend most of my time people watching but as long as I'm there, I get wifey points for being supportive.

stupid stupid reflux

The past 2 weeks I/we've been struggling to get Elea on some sort of eating-sleeping schedule so that she will be used to falling asleep in her crib. I realized last week that if I didn't get her in the habit NOW then I would be in a world of hurt when my mom has to leave on the 25th.

We knew that she had gas/tummy issues but since she'd been held upright almost all day every day we didn't realize how bad. It's tricky because she doesn't spit up-- I can count the number of times she has spit up on one hand (of course my cousin Melanie stopped by and about 2 seconds after I told her not to worry about Elea spitting up-- she did).

I was trying everything-- I stacked about 30 books under one side of her mattress so that it is at a 45 degree angle, we finally bought a mobile, and I (we) spent hours by the side of her crib because she would just barely drift off and then she'd have a gas bubble trying to come up or her tummy would hurt and she would wake up with the super sad pain cry. So then we'd start all over and this pattern continues until by the time she FINALLY worked all that out and fell asleep for about 10 minutes, she'd wake up hungry because it was time to eat again. Anyway, after a week of feeling really sorry for the poor baby and feeling more and more exhausted, I made an appt. at the doctor this Tuesday.

Luckily, her pediatrician took my word for it about her reflux issues and gave us a prescription for baby Zantac. So far, so good. Last night I was up twice with her to nurse but was back in bed within an hour instead of 2. It was pretty fantastic. She is sleeping so much better-- it's great. The best part about sticking with the schedule last week is that now that she has the medicine she is falling asleep in her crib like a pro. :)

However, as far as reflux issues go, we are pretty lucky because she is still gaining weight. At a rapid pace. She weighed 10 lbs. 14 oz. and is already too big for most of her 0-3 months clothes. At this rate she's gonna be in 2T by her first birthday!

Elea's newborn photos (12 days old)

The little diva yelled/screamed her way through the entire photo session (until she was put on a padded fur rug).

Our little girl has 9 toes and 10 toenails . . . look at her 4th & pinky toe on her left foot.