Checked Off the Bucket List

My life is now officially complete. After marrying the man of my dreams, giving birth to the sweetest baby ever born, I have now finally achieved my ultimate goal. I saw someone changing out a billboard.

I took this picture on my phone while we were stopped at a light by our apartment. Don't worry, Rodney knows I love him more than the billboard man, but seriously I've waited my whole life for this! I have a whole list of silly simple things I want to see or do in this life, and the billboard was tied (with about 10 others) for first. (I know you're shaking your head, but have you ever seen anyone switching out the ads on a billboard?) Now on to sleeping upside down on the bed, seeing the freeway lights get changed, showering while fully clothed, participating in a paint fight and all the other simple pleasures life has to offer! : )

Lessons Learned

It takes becoming a mom to truely appreciate your own.

When you need a burp cloth a blanket will be the only thing around. And vice versa.

A smile is worth a thousand words.

There are never 24 hours in a day, sometimes there are 36 and others only 3.

"Mom" is not a title, a job, or a name. It's a way of life.

Elizabeth Taylor can keep her diamonds, it's the macaroni necklaces I'm looking forward too.

Laundry is never "done".

Money and happiness are completely unrelated.

Baby kisses are worth more than all the money in the world.

"Shopping" is a chore, not a recreational activity.

Babies don't care what size your pants are, just how big your smile can get.

"Cleanliness is next to Godliness" is bolony. Parenthood is much closer, and a parent's house is never entirely clean.

No matter how long you wait, the dish fairy will never come. The stench however, always will.

Teenage boys are scary. I've changed my opinion on owning a shotgun.

No one will ever see the state of your bathroom cupboards. If the nail polish is in with the tampons it'll be ok.

God knew what He was doing when He created families, Grandmas are indispensible.

Advice is not law, everyone has thier own opinion. And when you have a newborn you get more advice than you ever thought possible.

A crying child is not a dying child, sometimes they're learning to sing.

Hormones hurt.

The best moments in life are not spent on beaches in Maui at sunset. They are snuggled up in bed with baby and daddy on a sleepy saturday morning listening to the rain.

Showering at 9:00 pm still counts as getting a shower that day.

You'll never know how strong you are until you're pushed past where you thought your limits where.

It's only been two months but already I have learned more and grown more than I expected. I love being a mom more and more each day and I can't wait for each new day and each new mess, smile, headache and giggle and laugh.


(ok, I lied a little about the headaches. I can wait.)

Our Sweetheart

She's here! As I'm sure you've heard by now our little Kaylee Rayne was born at 1:02 in the morning and she's just perfect! Sorry it's taken me so long to update and get pictures up, I've been busy feeding, rocking, dressing or bathing my little munchkin- and when I'm not doing that I'm busy staring at her!

The story- real quick before getting to the pictures (which is the best part!) here's her "birthday story". Wednesday morning I woke up with contractions... finally! At a week overdue this baby was finally thinking about coming! Unfortunately they were not close enough together to "count" in the medical world so the hospital told me to stay at home, walk around and wait a few hours. Which I did very impatiently. Thankfully Eliza was there to keep me company and motive me to get up from my fetal position on the couch and keep moving! She thinks she was a slave driver, I say more of a Godsend!

Well 7:30 rolled around and we headed off to the hospital for a "Cytotec" (spelling?) induction. I'd never heard of such a thing before so for those who are also not up on the latest in medicine it is a series of pills you take overnight at the hospital to "ripen the cervix" and then they induce you with pitocin the next morning. A very long way of getting a baby here if you ask me. Thankfully, she wasn't so mean to her mom. They gave me the first pill at about 11 Wednesday night and a few minutes after 1 in the morning Thursday I was holding my little princess! In fact, she came so fast that the on call doctor didn't even make it to deliver her and they didn't even bother calling my doctor. He actually showed up the next morning to break my water, thinking I was still in delivery and couldn't find me! A resident who happened to be in the area walked in just in time to catch her and 3 more doctors showed up a few minutes after. They must have paged anyone and everyone they could to try to get someone there in time!

Now she's here, safe and sound with ten fingers ten toes and a whole head of dark brown hair!




Meeting her dad a few minutes after she was born.



With a curl in her hair, no thanks to her mom!

How could you not want to kiss those cheeks and little nose?

Carseats will wear you right out! This was right after we got home from the hospital.



Love love love!

Almost....there....

Nearly done....

And still in love!

4 weeks and counting...

I've got a minute or two so I thought I'd post a little baby update!

Yesterday we went in for another ultrasound because my doctor was worried my tummy was to small (I kinda thought he was joking at first, small is not the word that comes to mind when I look in the mirror!) and there may be a problem with having enough fluid for her to swim around in. Good news! There's plenty, go body! The ultrasound lady said everything looks good and healthy, she's just a teeny tiny baby but not teeny tiny enough to merit hitting the panic button. Phew!

Once we knew nothing was wrong it was really fun to get to see her on the ultrasound again! The best discovery? She has hair! Lots of hair that showed up on the pictures even, I didn't know that could happen! From the pictures it looks like she'll come out tall and skinny with lots of hair... hmm who does that remind me of?? : )

As for me I'm still feeling pretty good! So long as I don't venture more than five minutes away from a bathroom or try to sit, stand, lay down, or walk for more than 15 minutes at at time. : )

VEGAS BABY!

This weekend my sister-in-laws Eliza and Sariah and I went down to St. George to do some sun bathing.... haha I'm soo funny! They did some sun bathing and got all brown and gorgeous while I did some reading and remembered why I love Jane Austin. : )

The view from the house we were staying at was awesome! These pictures don't really do it justice, but it was so wonderful to open up all the blinds and doors and have the sunshine and fresh air all weekend long. Ahh... someday I'll live in a place like that! (Right after I find the cure for cancer, release a platinum album and find the winning lottery ticket on the side of the road)


Friday was spent laying around watching TLC and learning "What Not To Wear", wrestling with the satilite system, rescuing frogs from swimming pools, painting nails, and cooking the most kick-butt bar-b-que dinner EVER! Seriously, check it out! We made steak with grilled veggies and pineapple, and I must say felt very domestic about it!



Amanda, my roommate from freshman year, also came to visit! I was so excited to see her! And she's as cute as ever! Well, as much of her as you can see behind my big belly...


Saturday was the big Vegas day. I would suggest always bringing a pregnant belly to Veags, you wouldn't believe how many of the nasty old men leave you alone and keep thier "calling cards" to themselves when you're walking around looking matronly! (Matronly... is that the right word? I forget. Blame it on the baby) Anyway, we got down there and picked up our tickets to "Le Reve" and then came up with the brilliant idea to walk down to The Bellagio to eat at thier buffet. Who actually decided walking was a good idea I forget, but by the time we got there we were all staggering and hobbling along from massive blisters. (But everyone else was staggering from the booze so we fit right in) This picture was taken before we started walking and were still optimistic about the idea... (I apologize about the Alphalpha-do. Although I must say I do wear it well! teehee!) (Oh, and check out Eliza, isn't she gorgeous!? If I didn't love her, I'd have to hate her. So if you know any single eligible and relatively disease free hott men in thier mid-twenties let me know and I'll introduce them to the girl of thier dreams! Assuming she hasn't killed me for posting this first...)



The buffet was deliciouso!! And I am ever so proud of myself, I didn't eat so much that I thought I'd die! They had the biggest selection of different kinds of food I've ever seen, including about 25 different kinds of dessert. Can we say heaven??






After dinner we walked back to The Wynn to see "Le Reve" and it was AMAZING! (said with a little sing-song in the voice) It is all over a big pool of water with synchronized swimming and acrobatics and incredible displays of strenght and all that jazz. But what was even better (to me) was the music and story itself. So powerful. So colorful. So beautiful. "Le Reve" is an interpretation of a painting by Picasso and the story is all about men and women and love in all it's forms. It's about woman's need for man and vice versa throughout all different time periods and it was phenominal! Just about made me cry! (but that may also have something to do with hormones and missing my other half) I definately recommend it!


These are pictures I took before the show started of the stage area. You really can't get the full effect though, so google "Le Reve" and watch the Youtube video that comes up.

April Showers

Ok well just the one shower, but "April Shower" didn't flow nearly as well! First off, thank you thank you thank you to Eliza and Diane! They threw me a wonderful family shower a few weeks ago and it was perfect! We played the "name that poop" game, price is right, memory and a bunch of other really cute ones!



I remember baby-sitting these two when they were just babies!


Lookey! Dana came all the way from Boston just for me! (and maybe a little bit Colin)
I'm sure that there are many more pictures floating around out there of the event, but I was busy ohh-ing and ahh-ing over pink polka dots and frilly bows that I spaced the camera. So if you have some please email them to me!