Monday, December 26, 2011

3 MONTHS



On the 23rd Lincoln turned 3 months old. Let me tell you a little more about him: He is a "good baby". As you might know people ask about that all the time. "Is he a good baby?" or they will say "He seems like a good baby." It's funny because sometimes I think "What's a bad baby like?" but overall I say he is a GREAT baby! He hardly ever cries and when he does he makes these little moaning sounds like he's just sad or tired or frusterated. Rarely do we ever hear him cry so hard it seems like he's not breathing. That's only happened a few times namely when we got his shots. He's not dramatic at all.

He probably weighs about 14 pounds now. He has grown out of most of his 3 month clothes and I've started putting him in 6 month things. He has started doing a lot better sleeping at night. Once he falls asleep, which is usually about 8 give or take, he will sleep for about 5 hours. After that he will wake up every 3 hours to eat just a little bit. He's always super drowsy though and he isn't even awake when it's time to be burped. This is leaps and bounds above what it was like when he was tiny. I'm surviving very well. Once he wakes up he is all smiles. He loves us to hold him so he can stand up on our laps. He'll smile, squeal and do this little stomp with his left foot that's kinda funny.

He loves ceiling fans. It's funny. He loves to stare at our fan in the kitchen. On Christmas Eve I was changing him into his jammies on Sean's parents bed and they have a dark wood fan on the ceiling in the room. It was turning slowly and he was going crazy kicking all over. He is completely enamored by them. Also, when something catches his attention you can never steal it. You can be holding him up in front of you making all sorts of noise and he will just keep looking around at whats interesting. It always makes me laugh.

He is also quite a cuddle bug. We have a California king size bed that all three of us sleep in. Sean and I sleep on either size with regular size pillows and he sleeps right in the middle all sprawled out. Luckily neither Sean and I really move much in our sleep so it works out for us. Usually in the early mornings when I go to work Sean snuggles up with him and he loves it. He goes right back to sleep when he gets startled as soon as he feels us pull him in close. Sometimes when he's tired or not feeling as energetic he'll just let me cradle him even when he's awake and he'll just look around behind me or wherever.

It's so amazing to be a parent for the following reason: here we have this little tiny human that can't even talk let alone pick up an object that's been handed to him and I feel like I know him so well. I can tell whats bothering him. Different cries mean different things. We know what makes him happy and sad. And thats all he really needs right now is parents to take care of him and love him. We love it. It's an incredible blessing in our lives right now.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Not All Fun and Games

The truth is. . . sometimes being new parents is really hard. So far there are two main reasons why: the first one is no surprise and can basically be summed up by saying that you get a severe case of sleep deprivation and there is no turning back. There are a lot of ways life can be crazy when you're sleep deprived. The second is more complicated, but can also be summed up in a few short words: Sean and I have not been on a date since Lincoln was about 2 weeks old. Did I think this would happen? No. I actually thought that I would be more dedicated to us trying to find more time to spend together, but I haven't had time. :) Since we both work and no one else is ever home with Lincoln we spend roughly 50 to 60 hours a week apart from eachother. Add the time Sean goes to school. Then add the fact that the majority of the time when we are in the house at the same time is when we're both asleep. That makes for very little leftover time. The past several weeks we've initiated "Family Night". . . sort of FHE, but it mostly just means that we decide to spend the evening together doing whatever we want. Half of these nights we've ended up falling asleep watching TV together. So its basically family nap night. :)

But, all of this is about to change next week when we are hoping to get a night out for Christmastime! I'm very much looking forward to it! Could I be more proactive about making this happen more often? Of course . . . I know I have several people who would love to babysit! It just takes energy to make it happen. As much as I'm looking forward to going out this next week, I keep wondering what the heck I'm gonna wear! In case anyone wants to know: my normal clothes still don't fit! :( Just ignore the fact that I'm still wearing my maternity jeans and trying to pretend that I'm not. Maybe exercising will be the next thing I'll try to add to my life! :)

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

O COME ALL YE FAITHFUL


I'm not a 16 year old love-struck fan, but David Archuleta sure does make me love this Christmas song! :)

Monday, December 12, 2011

Lincoln's First Bad Day

Today was a hard day for our little Mr. Lincoln. He went to his two month check-up and you guessed it: he got shots! The pain of the shot suprised him and hurt him so much that when he screamed he started to shake a bit and no sound came out of his mouth. It broke my heart when for the first time in his whole life I saw his eyes fill up with tears. He did fine for a few hours, but then late this afternoon he started to get a fever. He was miserable, burning up and not feeling well. He never cries for no reason, but he was really upset this afternoon. Finally we got some Tylonol to help with that and he is sound asleep and much cooler.

Good news though: He weighs a few ounces short of 13 pounds! and he's grown almost 4 inches in the last 2 months!

Thanksgiving!





We spent Thanksgiving in Richfield this year at my grandparents house with some of my extended family. We had a great time eating and hanging out. We went bowling, shooting, black friday shopping, and cruising around. I bought a Christmas tree, which made my day! We also got new pots and pans thanks to my wonderful dad who loves to spoil us! And Lincoln got a new fun toy that he will get to play with when he's a little bigger called the Wonderbug! :) It was a great weekend! I hadn't been down to Richfield since right after Sean and I got engaged, so it felt great to be down there again and reminisce. We also took several photos!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

aLL SMILES!



These past few days Lincoln just seems older. I took him to be weighed this morning and he's hit 11 lbs 2oz. He's started smiling the last few days, and Sean and I have hit a new level of crazy as we do anything to get a little grin out of him. Its amazing that even though he can't talk he's still able to communicate himself. We know when he's hungry and when he wants to look around at stuff or when he's sick of that and ready for a nap. I'm so glad he's started sleeping more at night as well. The light at the end of the tunnel is finally here! He likes to sleep in the crib best. I think he likes it because it's the most firm. Whenever we put him in the pack and play he gets restless...I have a hunch it's because the bassinet part feels less sturdy than the crib mattress. He still really likes the bath, too. All in all, we just love having him around.
Random sidenote: It may seem too soon, but it's hard for me to not start thinking of other children we hope to have. I've loved every minute of it so far... pregnancy, giving birth, having a newborn etc... that I'm actually excited to do it all again! haha... And we're looking forward to Lincoln having a brother or sister. I was reading the other day on a forum where someone posted about how many kids people were having etc and a lot of moms wrote that they only wanted one child and that one was plenty. Women with a few children pointed out the valuable relationships between siblings as young children and also for people later in life. I love my siblings and so I guess I look forward to seeing my kids love eachother. This is just a moment where I am grateful for family. <3

Friday, November 18, 2011

Lincoln's Second Month

This is Lincoln about 7 weeks old. It's fun to finally dress him in clothes other than PJ's. He looks so handsome. He's finally started sleeping a lot better at night. This past week he slept for 6 hours straight on night and 5 hours straight the next night. He is also definitely awake during the day and knows that night is for sleeping... generally! He's better at going right back to sleep after he wakes up to eat as well. I'm getting used to having less sleep, so I'm happier as well! :)

He's checkin out the pictures on the wall behind them. He loves to let us know when we haven't positioned him in a way where he can see everything in the room.

This past week we went up to Temple Square for my cousin Cody's wedding. It was a really nice day, so we took some pics outside with little Link.


Sean whipped out the Bumbo for Lincoln this week. He seems to think it's fun to sit in! We think he looks adorable in it! This morning was a big day--we got a few smiles out of him! Real smiles, not accidental smiles. I'm so excited to keep making him smile and laugh over the next few months. It makes my day!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

bAbY'S 1ST HaLlOwEeN





I know we're lame, but all we did on Halloween was answer the door twice to hand out candy and then we dressed Linky in his costume and took some pics! haha... and then I probably went to bed. I can't quite remember right now! :)

I LOVED being pregnant!

The longer I'm not pregnant, the more I realized that I really enjoyed it! My reasoning might be a little influenced by other circumstances that I'll explain later, but first I just wanna say that it was just a really great time. I  miss feeling little Lincoln kick around in my belly--even when he kicked me in the bladder. That was one of the coolest things I've ever experienced, and I look forward to it again someday. I miss seeing my huge belly in the mirror. And I sort of miss the weird cravings and the fact that I had to go to the bathroom every second all because I had this little human in me. It was fun to talk about. Fun to be excited for the arrival of the baby. It was the ultimate time of daydreaming! A teacher in high school used to say "Anticipation is greater than the event itself." In this case, I think the waiting isn't greater, but its just as exciting and new. That's what makes it fun. My other reason is completely different. Since I was little I have had Juvenielle Arthritis. For the past 15 years or so I took a medication for it called Methotrexate. It worked super well, and I was virtually arthritis free. But, the drawback to the medication was that it obviously couldn't be taken during pregnancy, but I also had to be completely free of it for at least 3 months before being able to get pregnant.  So, before I got pregnant I hadn't taken my medicine for about 5 months. My joints were really swollen, and it sucked! But almost as soon as I got pregnant I was symptom free. Awesome fact of the day: pregancy makes your arthritis go away!!
When I was like 16 I found out that this medicine I took would not be able to be long term considering I couldn't take it at all before or during pregnancy, and while breastfeeding. So, I hoped that somehow I would be able to find an alternative to keeping my arthritis symptoms minimal. I hoped that not eating gluten would be some kind of magic cure that would allow me to not take meds, but it's not working as well as I hoped.
So now, 6 weeks after pregnancy, my joints are super swollen and the only safe and stronger-than-ibuprofen anti-inflammatory is prednezone. And it makes you gain weight!! Dang it! I still got 20 pounds to lose, so the last thing I wanna do is put myself in a situation where I could gain more weight. Today however, I got a prescription for Aleve . . . and I'm realy hoping that works!! This is beside my point. What I've decided is that pregnancy is the best drug to cure arthritis! ;) I wish pregnancy could last like 2 1/2 years so that I could just be constantly pregnant and my kids would still be enough apart that I wouldn't lose my mind. I remember when I was pregnant and my arthritis went away I told Sean how awesome it was, and joked "Maybe I should just be pregnant all the time!" He didn't think it was very funny. All I know is that for as long as I'm in my 'baby-makin' years I will greatly look forward to those very precious 9 months when I am symptom free! I guess it's God's gift to women with arthritis! If they are going to be uncomfortable while they are pregnant, He might as well relieve some joint pain! :)

Sunday, October 23, 2011

One Month Old




Today Lincoln is one month old! Today was also the first time we made it to church with him! Yay! We just went to Sacrament Meeting, but it was still an accomplishment--our church is at 9. :) He did pretty well. He slept most of the time, and then when he woke up he was showing hunger signs so I got to make my first trip to the mothers louge. Not as bad as I thought it would me. I think I might go in there with him just to take naps! :) haha. Anyways, above his him on our bed before church: so cute and cuddly. Then I got him dressed in this little outfit that's a handmedown from my cousin Jonathan--Allyson's son. Such a cute little outfit! Too bad baby clothes only ever get worn for a few months and then they're too small. He looks like such a handsome lil' fella!
Weight Update: 8lbs 2 oz

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

He's grown!


Lincoln has definitely grown! He's 3 and a half weeks old. When he was born he was just so small he seemed to be weightless or something. The last day or two I feel like I'm actually carrying a real baby. I can tell that the next few months will be a lot of fun as we watch him turn into his own little person.

As he gets bigger, Sean and I are just getting progressively more exhausted. The first two weeks Lincoln slept like 3 or 4 hours at a time, so it seemed like we were in baby heaven. Over time he has slowly moved into his current pattern where he sleeps 2 hour straight. So he'll wake up, I'll feed him which might last 45 min or so, then he may be awake for another hour depending on the time of day, and then he'll go back to sleep. This makes for sleep depriving nights because unless I get to sleep like 2 second after him I will barely get 2 hours straight--and that's no way to stay rested! Needless to say I'm getting a little nervous about starting work next week under these conditions. Luckily I'll only be working on Wednesday, so that gives us one more week to hope that Lincoln will sleep longer at night! haha... seems like a long shot, but I'll take anything I can get!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Taking Care of Babies

Lincoln will be 3 weeks old tomorrow! He finally peed on me while I was changing his diaper this morning! I say finally because everytime I've changed his diaper I've braced myself for him to just let loose at any moment. Then in a moment I wasn't looking all of a sudden I see this stream of water out of the corner of my eye. I was all over the sheets on our bed, all over my lap, and then all over his back--which he wasn't too happy about the second it made him feel cold. It was pretty funny. It's only what's to be expected from a baby boy, and I knew this day would eventually come. :)

These past 10 days or so Lincoln and I have also gotten a lot better at nursing. This might be a bit TMI--or just into the nitty gritty-- but after quite a miserable few days of having extremely painful nursing sessions and even a nipple that bled, I decided I needed to go see the lactation consultants to get some serious help. And to sum it up--we're doing a lot better! But let me tell you: breastfeeding is a serious committment! Holy cow! I don't think I realized the implications of what it really meant to have to feed a baby every 3 hours or so. It takes about an hour to fill his tummy, which means I have a lot of time to just sit and think or watch something on Hulu. It's also not exactly glamorous to smell like sour milk all the time because it ended up being just a little too long between feedings. But, it is all very worth it knowing that this is the best nourishment he could recieve and it's also true that it provides a bond between mother and baby that I think nature sort of intended. I know that for some women breastfeeding doesn't work out for many reasons. I am very grateful that for me it has worked, especially after having a rough start.

Taking care of this brand new baby has also been interesting because it's sort of made me think about where I learned how to do all of this. How to burp, how to change a diaper with legs kicking all over, how to know if he's hungry, how to bathe him, and dress him, and suck the boogers out of his nose etc... It's all because of watching my mom. Since I was the oldest child I watched her take care of 3 little babies. Granted, I was very young when Melissa and Nate were born, but when McKayla was born I was 11 and during these last 3 weeks I have had tons of flashbacks to watching my mom with McKayla as a tiny baby. (I do have a few memories with Nate too--including one where he peed on himself on the changing table). It seems like everything I do is second nature, but as soon as I do it my mind's eye comes up with this memory of watching my mom. My brain has sort of tapped into this vault of memories that I haven't really thought too much about for 13 years. I don't have specific memories of her showing me, but I've realized that she taught me by example how to take care of babies--the one thing she didn't teach me was how to nurse (for obvious reasons), which sort of explains why I needed extra help. In a way, it makes me feel closer to her even though she is gone.  And for that, I am grateful. Writing it all down makes it feel even more special.

And now, moving on to some photos we've taken over the last few days...

He seems to like water so far.


This poor little guy just got woken up...


Friday, September 30, 2011

Baby Book Entry

This morning I was thinking about how I needed to be good at recording milestones of my baby's life. Having a baby book that I write in all the time seemed a little too ambitious for me considering that everything is either online or digital--and I'm no scrapbooker! Putting it on the blog seemed like it would work. Let's just hope the internet is still around years from now! ;) So, my posts about Lincoln might not be terribly interesting anyone that reads this, but that's not the only reason to blog, right?



Anyways, Lincoln has been here for 1 week. It has been wonderful! So far he is extremely content. It is very easy to make him happy. He eats very well. He usually nurses for a while and then decides he's done. But 20 minutes later he decides he's still hungry and wants to eat again. After that he's officially done. This is probably the only thing I can complain about because when he started doing this in the middle of the night I would have already laid back down, and then he'd decide he was hungry again so I'd have to get back up and get all ready to feed him. Now I've learned my lesson to just hold him and pat his back for those 20 minutes til he's ready again. He loves to be burped. He must know when he's gassy because even if he hasn't just barely eaten he still calms down when we pat his back. So far he's not too fond of lying flat on his back on either the bed, his pack and play, or in the crib. He likes a little cushion. He seems more content at a slight angle in his swing. And his most favorite is on mine or Sean's chests. Makes sense since I know I'm especially cushy right now! He's also been very good about letting us get decent sleep through the night. Last night Sean fed him around 2 and then he didn't wake up again to eat til almost 7. I have been very impressed. I gave him his first bath yesterday--meaning that I filled up the little pink bin thing the hospital gave me with water and sat his bum in it. He actually liked it.

He seems really happy to be here. Maybe his little spirit was just so anxious to be here finally that's why he decided to come early--but not too early to make sure he would be healthy enough. This could also explain why I got pregnant 2 weeks after stopping birth control pills. Little Lincoln was ready to go! We are so happy he's here! Our home feels even more like heaven now that he is with us.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

BABY LINCOLN

LINCOLN HAWKE MCWHORTER was born Friday, September 23rd 2011 at 6:24pm. He came two weeks early! Surprise! He weighed 6lbs 3oz and was 18 inches long. He has light brown hair and dark blue/gray eyes for now.





I wrote the following to my sister Melissa, who is in the MTC. It's my story of going into labor and giving birth. I thought I would just copy it because re-writing it seemed like a hassle. :)

Thursday all day I was totally miserable. I woke up and my lower abdomen was in a ton of pain. I could hardly lift my legs to even walk, let along get in and out of bed. I slept for a few hours and then got up and Sean and I went to the post office to mail you that little package and we went to Target and then ate at Texas Roadhouse. Luckily Sean wasn't working that night so we just came home and relaxed and then I went to bed. Of course I woke up like every 2 hours to pee during the night, and when I got up around 7am I realized that I was having contractions. It was fairly subtle though because they actually just feel like menstrual cramps that come and go in little waves. It would just get real painful for like 15 seconds, and then taper off. Then 5 min later it started again. They were already 5 minutes apart when I had a chance to start timing them. I told Sean and we just layed there and waited to see how long they would last. I went for about an ho
 ur, no change. I got up, changed positions, no change. I already had an appointment with the Dr scheduled that afternoon, so I called them to see if there was a way I could come in the morning so they could check me and see what they thought was going on. We packed our bags for the hospital, got all the baby stuff, showered, and then headed to AF. I was still having contractions the whole time and they were only getting stronger. We got there and when the Dr examined me he realized I was almost 5cm dilated. You push at 10cm. So i was half way there! He decided to send me to the hospital! I was havin the baby!! It was kinda surreal when we got there cuz I was surprised to be going into labor 2 weeks early... but I knew that I couldn't be in pain like i was the day before for 2 weeks either so having the baby seemed like the better option! 

We got to the room and they got me all hooked up to the IV etc by about 11am. I waited and labored without pain meds til 2pm when they gave me the epidural. That was amazing! It made me feel like I was more relaxed than I've ever been in my life. All the while my contractions were getting stronger---I just couldn't feel it. At 3 they broke my water, and then the contractions were even stronger. I was dilated to a 6 and they had me roll over on my side. Within 1 hour i was dilated to a 10. The nurse checked and said, "You're a 10! Do you want to push now, or wait a little bit?" haha... I was surprised, so I decided to wait about 30 minutes to mentally prepare myself to push this little guy out. I knew I could potentially be in the pushing stage for a few hours, so I was actually pretty nervous. She came back and I just decided to give it a go. So just with the nurse and Sean we waited for a contraction, they held my legs up and then I pushed with all my might 3 times each contraction. Surprisingly I was making progress really fast! The Dr came in and realized that his head was really close. I only pushed for about 45 minutes and then all of a sudden he popped right out! haha. I don't know exactly what happened... I mean I pushed real hard, but his head just came out like very suddenly. Sean and the Dr were both pretty surprised! haha. It was crazy to see him and realize that he was in my tummy. Of course he was covered in gunk... but having him out and finishing the labor process was really awesome! I felt a lot of love and just excitement/happiness to be able to see him finally. 
They cleaned him up and then let me hold him. Sean got to hold him too obviously. Dad and Nate and McKayla and Sean's parents were all waiting outside. They left to grab food like right before I found out I had dilated to a 10 and by the time they came back he was born like 15 minutes later! It seemed real quick! 
Sean went to the nursery with him and they got him all cleaned up and examined while the Dr's and nurses cleaned me up in the delivery room. Then everyone got to come in and meet him. McKayla was very excited obviously! Nate was funny cuz he wasn't sure he wanted to hold him, but I made him do it! :) 
The first night he slept quite a bit. I was a little out of it from being tired and also being really sore, so I didn't end up sleeping too much. he had a hard time nursing at first too. Especially cuz there's not really much to get out anyways, so each day he's been getting better at eating as my milk is coming in. Sean had to finger feed him a lot the first 24 hours or so just with a little seringe. Saturday was a great day! We had visitors and just spent time with our little guy. The next day he already looked older! We just started to fall in love with him. We love his cute little cry and laugh at him cuz he's just so droopy and tired all the time! 
We left the hospital Sunday late morning. We got home, got cleaned up, and then just rested for a bit until about 4 when we went back up to Highland to see the families. Last night he did pretty good. Slept quite a bit, but also got a little gassy and was awake and crying. But he's a good boy. He doesn't cry unless he's hungry, gassy, or getting his diaper changed. So far it's easy to make him happy. 
Today was good too. I got about 4 hours of sleep straight from 5-9am while he slept and Sean stayed in his room with him. Sean's mom came over today to help clean up, do the laundry, and make us lunch. That was a lifesaver because I had obviously missed doing all the laundry over the weekend, and the downstairs was a little messy. She also watched him for a little over an hour while we took another nap--just prepping for tonight and getting less sleep possibly...
I'm loving it though! He is such a little sweetie. I think he kinda looks like us 4 as babies, but we'll see. I'll have to give him a couple months to decide who we think he's gonna look like. We're still not sure what color of eye's he will have--right now they are super dark grey/blue and apparently that color at birth can change to either brown or green or grey... or blue, but its less likely. I'm excited to see! 
Anyways, that was a long story! :) Thanks for listening! :)

Sunday, September 18, 2011

37 weeks



I went to the doctor on Friday. We discovered that I am already 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced. This all happened without contractions--unless they are extremely mild, cuz I haven't felt anything significant. I was completely shocked. The doctor said he would see me next week--if I'm still pregnant! I don't want to get to psyhed out though... I hear about women walking around for weeks 3 cm dilated, so I'm not gonna get too anxious yet. So far it's working... but Sean isn't helping. He wants to get the baby out as soon as possible! So we'll see! I didn't even consider the option of him being born even a day early, so now it seems like this game has sped up significantly! Wish me luck!

Monday, August 8, 2011

A Promotion

It's funny how when we have these mass forms of communication we become sort of caught up in small details as we intend to sort of pose for our cyber audiance. I was just thinking about this as I posted my pic below of my belly. Sure, I want to document my pregnancy. I want to remember how big my belly was so that I will be grateful for my (hopefully) much smaller one after this experience is over. But, when I think of how it's become sort of a fad to post pregnant pictures, or other pictures of the like, I thought of how much it downplays the meaning of these events. My special experiences seem to be accomplished for the sake of following trends or even the crowd.
In reality, there is a little baby in my tummy. And as crazy/amazing as it is for me to say, he is my son. I am his mommy. And as soon as I think of how great my new responsibility will be, I am just so grateful that it's happening. I know that it will change my life forever in one of the greatest ways possible. A few weeks ago I asked Sean what it meant to him to be becoming a father. I felt like the male perspective was probably different than mine . . . He said that he felt like it was a promotion, like at a job, but in a spiritual sense. It was God giving him a promotion to become a father to one of His spirit children. What a great responsibility. We will gladly take it.

30 weeks!




Saturday, July 23, 2011

Nesting Instinct

I've read a little bit about this pregnancy symptom, so to speak, called the 'nesting instinct'. Basically its the need to prepare your home for your baby in every way possible. I don't know if this is what I have, or if my need to home-make is more based upon my realization that we will probably live here longer than I originally planned. Either way, I have been going crazy trying to re-organize, decorate, clean, and beautify our little home. Sean and I were extremely blessed when we got hooked up with our little townhouse. His Uncle's sister, who used to live here, passed away a little over a year ago. She was in her late 50's and single so her brothers and sisters were kind of responsible for her belongings, etc. Probably the day after her funeral, Sean's aunt called to ask him if we had found a place to live. We hadn't and were a little desperate for guidance. We came to see it, told them how much we had been looking to pay for rent, and they accepted. We have seriously been so fortunate. We have two bedrooms, a garage, and a little backyard. They also didn't have a place for her furniture so they left us a couch, la-z-boy, a beautiful kitchen table, and two king size beds with dressers and nightstands. Our bed has a solid wood log-style frame and matching furniture. It's beautiful--and way out of our budget! All this furniture was a life-saver considering we only had Sean's desk to claim as our own. Now we have Sean's desk and a TV/entertainment center! Making progress. Anyways, when we first moved in I didn't really do much to decorate probably just because we had no money and I also didn't really feel like we would be here long. But now, we're planning to be here til Sean graduates from UVU. We still don't have a lot of money to spend on decorations, but that 'nesting instinct' has kicked in and I've been getting really creative as to how to add some simple things to turn our townhouse into our HOME.






This is what the outside looks like from the front. And then below is a picture of our backyard. Sean's uncle's other brother is a landscape architect, so he did all of this for his sister before she passed away. It's beautiful!





I made pillows for the couch downstairs as well as bought these frames to put wedding pics in. This couch isn't exactly my ideal piece of furniture . . . but it is about $1000 cheaper than a new couch. Also, it has two recliners as well as the middle coushion folds down and becomes cup holders and a little table. Sean only discovered that about 3 weeks ago--it was a big deal! So all in all, we like this couch, and I like it a lot more with the blanket, pillows and photos above it. It's a keeper!

I also improvised with all of these black frames I already had, but never put up. I got the Family Proclamation for free at the bookstore, and then I cut up chunks of these photos of flowers I had from last year's calendar. The temple photo is actually a card someone gave to us when we got married. Haha. And then I spent a total of $1.50 on the 8x10 photo. Not too shabby.

Other things I've used to decorate have been stuff I've snagged from my old room in my parents house or from old decorations my mom had kept. Nobody has noticed . . . hehe. And my next project for a wall in the kitchen involves another 'borrowing' from there as well! :)



I'm super excited to keep going especially when we get a little further on setting up the baby's room. We have a crib, a dresser, a rocking chair, and a full bed that will all be in there. So far I've made his blanket for the crib and a cover for the rocking chair. Pillows are on my to-do list still. And we'll see how creative I'll be able to get when it comes to hanging things on the walls . . . But this is a pic of his blanket and the monkey I had that someone gave to me when I was a teenager. His room will be jungle themed and mainly yellow, blue, and green. I've been sooo lucky to get furniture from our parents. This pic is my fav! I love the jungle fabric! So fun!




Yogurtland






About a month ago I took Sean to one of the popular frozen yogurt places that seem to be popping up all over the valley. This brilliant idea I had is costing me big time. HE LOVED IT! And now we might as well as sign our date night budget money over the franchise every month. I've never been much of a frozen yogurt lover--ice cream is where it's at. Part of my true Forsey blood I guess. But, I love that I get to put whichever toppings and as much of those toppings as a want on my frozen yogurt. So I guess it's a good trade off. Sean is there for the frozen yogurt as much as he's there for the fresh fruit which he heavily dumps onto his dark chocolate cake batter yogurt. We've decided that Yogurtland, over across from the University Mall, is our favorite one. Maybe you'll see us there!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

My Main Squeeze :)




It's July

I love July! It's my birthday in July! The 4th of July is in July! This is the first year my anniversary will be in July! The likelyhood of it snowing in Utah is basically zero (can't always count on that in June), and the heat actually feels good (unlike August when you get slightly more tired of it).


The past week for us was really fun! On the 4th we went to the parade in Provo, which was really awesome! I think we might make that a tradition! Sadly, my camera battery was dead, so I didn't get pictures of us sitting in our little chairs along the curb, but it was a great time!



Thursday was my birthday! Neither Sean nor I had to go to work so we just had fun all day. After we got up we got ready and went up to my parents house to have Cafe Rio for lunch as well as to celebrate with cake and ice cream! Afterwards I went to the salon with Melissa and McKayla and got a pedicure! Then Sean and I came home and relaxed for a while before we planned to go out to eat at PF Changs! I had honey crusted shrimp--very tasty!


I definitely felt like I was spoiled because the day was wonderful! A few days before my present came in the mail--a sewing machine! I have been so excited about it! It is a basic machine--just what I need! Cuz at this point I still don't know how to work the button hole feature . . . but I've been able to sew a cover for a rocking chair we were blessed to have given to us that will be in the baby's room. My other projects include his blanky for the crib, pillows for his room, and also pillows for our couch downstairs! I'm having a blast with it so far!



This here is the current size of my belly . . . and it's only going to get bigger! Here's to surviving August and September in the heat! :) By then I doubt I'll ever want to have another baby in October! ;)


Saturday, June 11, 2011

I Can Relate to This



This totally cracks me up . . . because it's sooo true! One time I peed like 4 times in two hours . . . so weird.

I wanna talk about Math...




So, Math. I've always loved Math. It was probably my best subject growing up. I took Calculus my senior year, but didn't pass the AP test due to a severe case of senioritis. So then, at BYU I took Math 119 to earn the college credit. And that was it. My math days were over. I do remember though that there were a lot of returned missionaries in my class. All of them were trying to get into the business school. I was 18 years old, and cruising in this class since I had learned everything in high school. Then I would watch my fellow classmates struggle and look to me for answers, which I thought was strange because they were a lot older than me. But, they had also not looked at a single math problem for potentialy 4 to 5 years depending on their situation. So this brings me to my point: Sean is one of those guys. 5 years later, he's taking a math class, but it's not just a review of stuff he learned in high school, he's expected to remember everything from high school and then build upon it. The difficulty of taking math in high school and spending an entire school year on 12 chapters pales in comparison to trying to do it in 6 weeks or even an entire semester. To make it worse, I'm not very useful. I took calculus and did great in the class, but now I look at a slightly more complicated algebra problem and stare at it blankly with no ideas as to how to solve it. The last two weeks I've tried to help him more to help him feel like he's not totally on his own in this battle, and my skills have gotten better, but I'm still running into problems that go something like this in my head, " Wait, do I add or multiply these exponents? How exactly do I get rid of this square root? and Is this allowed? or did I just make that rule up?" I've also realized that Sean and I also have different ways of making sense of the problems we solve. So he'll try to explain things to me, and I to him, and both of us feel like the other just said something in a different language. But in the end, we'll often come up with the same answer to a problem. haha.


I remember at BYU that the general education requirement titled "Languages of Learning" had two options for fulfillment. #1: take Calc or Stats or #2 take a 205 level of a foriegn language. I was always so lost as to why math and languages would fulfill the same requirement. What the heck do they have to do with eachother? Now, I've made the connection . . . Once you've stopped studying them they basically leave your brain as quick as they arrived. I would know, I've studied quite a bit of both and I'm pretty sure my ability to remember Spanish is about as good as my ability to remember math. Or maybe I should say that my ability to remember Spanish is about as bad as my ability to remember math. Either way, they're both deep down in there somehwere. :)

Thursday, June 9, 2011

TGIF

This has been quite a strange week. It all started Sunday with an odd occurance involving our swamp cooler. We tried to start running it to cool things off, but it was blowing out hot air instead. Sean asked a neighbor if he knew much about them, and we realized that there was a cover over the swamp cooler on the roof that Sean would have to take off. In the process of getting on the roof Sean burned his hand on the tar/shingles, it blistered immediately, and then tore off all the skin. The burn is on his right hand and covers about three inches of his palm. It's nasty. After realizing we were not capable of handling this type of injury we went to the Urgent Care where they numbed it, cleaned it, and cut off all the skin. So that whole chunk of his hand is just open flesh that even still, 4 days later, has blood on the surface. Not good. So he's been unable to work--since working at Texas Roadhouse requires a more dependable use of his hands than most jobs. But luckily, tonight was his first night working with his bandaged hand. After we got back from the Urgent Care we realized that as the swamp cooler had been running, it had started to leak. There were drips of water coming from the ceiling in our bedroom. We shut everything off and didn't really have time to worry too much about it because we were on our way to my parents house to stay for the week because Melissa is in California and my dad had to go out of town. The next morning when we got back down to Orem, Sean got a hold of our landlord, who had someone come inspect everything. The verdict: water damage. They took out the whole ceiling in our bedroom, and will now be replacing it because it was drenched with water. Lovely. I was just kind of ignoring the whole situation because I was at work and worried about taking care of everyone at my parents house, but also of Sean considering he was taking pain killer for his hand. And I don't even want to talk about what the upstairs looks like right now. Everything in our bedroom is basically strewn between one side of our room, the bathroom, the hallway and the guest bedroom. It's psycho. If I thought our stuff was getting disorganized before, now I really have my work cut out for my once this ceiling gets fixed.
Anyways, so then Tuesday my mom had to be admitted to the hospital because she had a fever that they realized was also being caused by an infection. She had not been doing very well Monday, and Tuesday and Wednesday were also rough days, but finally today after some antibiotics and good rest she has perked up even just slightly and seems to be feeling a little bit better. Chemotheraphy seems to take quite a toll on her body. Watching her deal with cancer and also watching doctors try to treat it makes me realize how much information about the human body and diseases is unknown. I wish there was just a quick fix to everything. Some kind of miracle vitamin or something. But I guess there's not. It's a lot more complicated than that.
We're trying to keep our heads above water over here. I'm just glad it's finally the end of the week so I can get everything cleaned up and feel more prepared for a week of work next week. Yay us! :)

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Sunbeams





Sean and I have taught the Sunbeam class at church since the beginning of this year. Let me tell you, it is crazy! :) We have five kids on our roster, but usually only have about 3 or 4 in class every week. We have Maggie, Makayla, Gavin, Isaac, and Martin.We also used to have a little girl named Kate, but they recently switched our classes and she is in the other sunbeam class. I was sad about that, because she is my favorite! Maggie is full of energy, always happy, and LOVES Sean. Makayla is shy, but goofy at the same time. Gavin is smart, artistic and totally a pretender. A few weeks ago he pretended to be a cat the ENTIRE time! He tried to crawl down the hall to the primary room, wouldn't talk to us, and definitely gave us a run for our money! Isaac is . . . a troublemaker! He's dramatic and kind of defiant. He doesn't like me anymore because I was kinda mean to him one Sunday when he was misbehaving and Sean wasn't there with me that week because of work. Not to mention there happened to be all five kids there that week. Anyways, today he was totally on one! I just let Sean deal with it because he's a lot more patient than I am with this kid. The thought of having a 3-year-old boy just like him terrifies me!



Our classtime is sort of hilarious. Recently our lesson titles have been things like "I am thankful for my eyes" or ears, or hands or next week is for our nose. We love these cuz they are just funny first of all, but it also makes classtime really simple and straightforward. Last week we went outside and played sound hide-and-seek. Two would hide together and make noises to help the others find them. This was a way to have fun and to be thankful for our ears/hearing. Ahh . . . the joys of primary! Fruit snacks, tissues and hand sanitizer are also a must.



My favorite time is music time. It's just fun! And usually the kids do and say funny things to keep us entertained. It's fun to be with these hilarious kids, and also to teach them and play with them along with Sean and his crazy tricks to keep them laughing and entertained. He's for sure the favorite. All the kids knew him by "Sean" and had called him that for a few weeks. They hadn't really called me anything, actually. But then one week Gavin looks at me to get my attention and says "Teacher?" Yeah, that was a blow to my ego! :) Luckily, now a few months later they know my name is Megan. All in all, this is my favorite calling so far. Even though I don't really have much of a track record, I still love it!

Friday, May 27, 2011

Just Reflecting

This past weekend Melissa went through the temple for the first time. It was a special experience to be there with her, my parents, and also my husband--all at once. It reminded me of my mission preparation and tons of memories flooded of going shopping for my missionary clothes, getting shots, and then those final days of packing and experiencing a mild anxiety attack for the first time. (Yeah, I was nervous!) How did I actually leave for 18 months. It almost seemed like such a short experience in whole, but then really long at the same time. It seems really long when I think about how much my family members changed while I was gone. It's also boggling to realize that a tumor was growing inside my mom's brain while I was away--and no one ever knew. So much can happen so fast.
Upon approaching a year being home back in February I remember thinking a lot about how that past year had been probably the most eventful year of my entire life. I got engaged, married, and found out I was pregnant. I graduated from college. I worked 3 different jobs. Sean worked 2. My mom was diagnosed with brain cancer. If that's not eventful, then I don't want to know what is! :) Granted, most of these changes were eagarly welcomed, but there is still an adjustment period that comes afterwards!
All in all, what I know is that life somtimes comes at you really fast. And sometimes it also comes at you really slow. We're often learning how to adjust to rapid changes or possibly how to have patience for the right timing. I will admit that I'm looking forward to hopefully having some consistancy for a while, which is what I feel like Sean and I have really been developing over the last few months as we've settled more into our place, made it our own, and gotten more aquainted with the people that live by us. We also both feel more settled in our jobs and Sean is feeling confidant in what his goals are for school. Having a place that really feels like home makes a big difference.
Anyways, these thoughts are a bit random, but I like being able to reflect a little bit and put them into actual words. I'm grateful for special experiences that sort of help you piece things together and help you to learn from your life's events. Even if they are only tiny pieces of understanding.

and P.S. I'm actually starting to feel the baby move and be able to recognize it! To be honest, it feels like gas, but when I'm not actually gassy I know that there's a little leg or arm in there tapping me to remind me he's in there! :)

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Tidbits

So I thought I would just post a few highlights of our life in the last few weeks:

1) I can't believe I haven't already talked about this, but my sister Melissa recieved her mission call to Warsaw, Poland! She reports September 7th! So exciting!

2) Two weekends ago my mom was admitted to the hospital for a few days with blood clots in her lungs. Very scary. She continues to have a glowing spirit about her and we can't help to love to make her laugh! Especially Sean.

3) Last weekend we took a little two-night trip to Las Vegas. We stayed with Sean's sister, Lisa, and had a blast with all his nieces and siblings down there. We saw Thor, ate at the Rainforest Cafe on the strip, and I 'donated' a dollar to the slot machines. :)

4) Sean started Summer term at UVU. He's got a full schedule. English is one of his classes right now . . . so I'm thinking we're both going to be working on some homework for the next few weeks. :)

5) Recently my tummy has definitely popped out! I bought my first pair of maternity pants two weeks ago thanks to my Aunt Angela who gave me a giftcard to the maternity store. Let me tell you, these things are God's gift to women! How come no one ever told me how amazingly comfortable they would be? Especially after I spent weeks trying to squeeze into my jeans using hair elastics to hold the button sort of together! Also, my Aunt Allyson sent me a bunch of maternity clothes that I am very excited to wear! Including the cutest maternity dress I have ever seen! And to top off #5, Thursday is the big day! Our first ultrasound! We will be finding out what we're having, so stay tuned for exciting news! :)

Saturday, April 23, 2011

BYU Graduation






Yesterday I WALKED!! Since I technically graduated in December, it was kinda nice to just casually pick up my cap and gown and show up to the Marriot Center without having a psycho week of finals. The ceremony was obviously very long, but afterwards, you're grateful you were a part of it! After I walked across the stage, Sean came down to the bottom where people were allowed to take pictures and I got to go over and give him a hug and take pictures with him. He also surprised me when he snuck up the back ramp out of the Marriot Center where all the graduates go. He got my attention by spanking my butt, which obviously totally freaked me out because I thought "Who the heck is behind me?" Much to my relief it was him! haha. Also, several family members were either able to come to the ceremony or to our house afterwards for dinner. Since my cousin Shayla and I both graduated there were more of us!











I am very grateful for my education. I'm also grateful that my parents made it all possible. BYU treated me well. And although graduation feels like a long time coming with my mission taking place after more than 3/4 of my education. I'm glad that I was finally able to celebrate that time in my life. And I also have to say that I never in a billion years thought that I would graduate from BYU married and pregnant! haha. I'm just glad I'm not 8 months pregnant cuz the graduation gown already made me look huge enough! :)





P.S. Something cute . . . on our drive home from my parents house Sean took a moment to tell me that he was proud of me and glad he married me and as I said "aww... thanks Seany" (or something like that), I leaned my head on his shoulder and he said "aww... are you gonna get all squishy on me." haha... Instead of mooshy! That's our newest inside joke! :)





Friday, April 15, 2011

15 WEEKS PREGNANT!


I am now 15 weeks pregnant, and according to the photo above, my baby looks like a real baby now! How awesome is that?!?

Today was actually a pretty exciting day for me in the world of pregnancy. We had my second real appointment and we finally got to hear the baby's heart beat! Last time I went to the Dr I was only 10 weeks and they looked for the heartbeat, but couldn't find it. The Dr wasn't worried though because it was so early and also because he realized that my uterus was a little farther back than most. Anyways, today the nurse found it within 30 seconds. 5 weeks can make a big difference. The baby's heart was beating at 156 beats per minute. It was pretty fast! It was so fun to finally hear it just because lately I've been feeling like I'm not really pregnant anymore since I'm not as nauseated in the morning. My belly is definitely bigger though! Although, I'm still in that awkward stage where onlookers would either think that I'm a little pregnant or my gut just sticks out farther in front than most. My natural 'pooch', as I like to call it, isn't helping any. This stage probably won't be over for at least another month though, so I guess I'll get used to it. All in all, today it was good to know that there's a little baby in there probably squirming all over the place even though I can't feel it yet!

I can't wait to have the 20 week ultrasound and find out the gender! Any guesses on what you think I'll be having?

Thursday, April 7, 2011

The Joke of the Day

I haven't really written on my blog lately because nothing overly exciting seems to be going on. I'm still working. I'm still pregnant. Sean is still working and still going to school. So yeah, not much has changed. So, I thought I would share something that have made me laugh. Today I had the pleasure of going to a Dr's appointment with my mom. Melissa was brining her, so they picked me up on their way to Utah Valley Medical Center. In the waiting room was a little bucket with candy. I picked out a Laffy Taffy for my mom and read the following joke:

"How do you make an orange laugh?"

"Tickle it's navel."
It was pretty fun to be in a waiting room laughing our heads off at Laffy Taffy jokes as silly as this one. And my mom sure got a kick out of that one!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Morning People

Can I just say that I am not a morning person!?! I don't like to wake up early, and probably never have minus a few special circumstances. The night before I have an early day I usually have trouble sleeping simply because of the anxiety tied to knowing that my alarm clock is going to go off at the crack of dawn. Often times I wake up with a stomach ache that is unlike any other normal ache. Not like cramps, not like I'm gonna barf... It just hurts for some weird reason. Even when I was in high school I remember starting the day with this weird tummy ache. I have no idea what causes it. And then of course lately when I wake up early I feel nauseated til about 1 o'clock. But if I don't wake up early---no nausea! See why mornings are no fun for me...In general, I usually feel like a zombie from 8am til about lunchtime when I get some more energy in my system.
The only times in my life that I can remember liking to wake up were when during the summer when I would wake up to go run outside. Those days weren't so bad, but they were also accompanied by a completey lazy afternoon with hardly any responsibilities.
Even on my mission I never got 'used' to waking up early. As soon as I got home I slept in til 10 or 11 like a pro... granted, I was insanely exhausted and needed like 2 months to recover.
But anyways, I guess I'm just one of those people that needs her sleep. I'm happier when I get about 9 hours of sleep every night. I don't like feeling stressed about how much sleep I won't be getting when I'm overly booked with responsibilities. I'm telling you... I freak out when I forsee sleepless nights in my future. It's not good.
A rested Megan is a happy Megan. :)

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

I Had A GREAT day!

Today was a great day! It's been a while that I've been able to say that on a work day. The last month I have been sooo exhausted. After I get home from work all I want to do is sit down and relax. Which explains why our house has gotten so messy. Chorse like vacuuming or mopping sound tortorous on my fatigued body, so they haven't been done. But tonight-- I vacuumed! and cleaned up our bedroom and bathroom to make it almost spotless! It's been awhile since its looked like this. That's one of the reasons why today was such a great day, because I did all of that cleaning after work, and after going grocery shopping. Finally I have more energy.
Another reason why today was a good day is because I realized that I actually really like my job. I'm getting to know the people I work with more and more. And we also enjoy eachother more and more. I'm getting my tasks down really well and have also seen a lot of success with what I've accomplished for the dental practice. The other reason why I like it is because of the kids. It's always a treat to get to help out the Dr in the back and assist him with the patients. Even though we're doing dental work--something most people don't find enjoyable--I like being able to take care of the kids and make them happy and comfortable. I'm glad its working out.
I'm also really excited to be a mommy. I can't wait to have an ultrasound and actually see him or her. And I can't wait to find out if it's a him or her! Sean and I are both so excited to be parents. It's been something that we've almost bonded over from the beginning because we were both eager to start a family.
And finally--I'm really happy its starting to feel like spring! The weather has been wonderful!

What a good day...

Saturday, March 12, 2011

We're Having a BABY!


I am pregnant!! YAY! Most of you who read this have probably heard this through the grapevine some way or another---and if you havent: Surprise! :)

I am currently 10 weeks along and my due date is October 8th! We are very excited! We took that photo of me on February 5th--the day we found out-- pregnancy test and all! Since then I'll admit that my waistline has thickened slightly, I have been nauseated and exhausted among other normal early pregnancy symptoms. I've been very lucky though. It's all been very manageable and I haven't missed any work, thankfully.

Storytime: My family has only known this news since last Sunday. I really wanted to announce my pregnancy to my family in a special way on my mom's birthday, March 5th. It didn't work out for me to be there that day though because I had to go to Florida for some work training. So the next day, March 6th, Sean and I went to my parent's house for dinner. Finally I got up the courage to give my mom her birthday present, enclosed with the surprise. I bought a little necklace shaped like a heart that said 'grandmother' on it. She began opening it, Nate was sitting next to her. She pulled it out, and the more priceless memory was Nate's face. He reads it, looks at me, reads it again with a confused look and says "Grandma?". Melissa instantly said "Are you pregnant?" I said "Yes, I am!" Everyone was pretty shocked to say the least! It was really awesome to see how surprised they were, but how excited they quickly became! It was a really fun birthday surprise!