Lagoon

Every June, the company Nate works for does a company party. This year it happened to be at Lagoon Amusement Park, and it also happened to be the week before Nate was quitting. Score for us! I used to go with my family and extended family when I was a kid, and I've gone a handful of times as an adult, but Nate hadn't been in a really, really long time.

Bridget was pretty excited because every time we've passed by it while driving on the freeway she's mentioned wanting to ride the Ferris wheel. We never did make it to the Ferris wheel because of all of the other rides, but we had a really good time. Here's Bridget enjoying some of the kiddie rides:
Nate and I were never able to go on any rides together because one of us was always with Felicity, but we were both impressed by how many rides there were that we could each go on with Bridget. And boy was she a brave girl! I hated roller coasters as a kid and didn't ever ride one until I was about 10 when my dad forced me to. Here we are enjoying some of the rides with her. Check us out in the third car back of that roller coaster. She really wasn't a fan of how fast it went, but she wasn't traumatized either.
One of the last rides Bridget and I went on that day was called Rattlesnake Rapids. I knew you got a little wet on this ride but didn't realize how wet until we were standing in line and watching people get off it. We managed to stay pretty dry until the very end with the unavoidable waterfall.
And here's how Felicity spent the afternoon and evening - chilling in her car seat attached to the stroller. She was such a good baby the whole time.

A Leap of Faith and a New Job

With the recent arrival of our little Felicity, Nate and I had some big decisions to make regarding employment and child care. These decisions weighed heavily on our minds throughout my pregnancy, and I hoped we would be able to make a decision regarding my returning to teaching or not next year by the time she arrived and my maternity leave started.

With the hope of me being able to quit my job and stay home full-time, Nate started seriously job hunting in January. He spent numerous hours searching for jobs, submitting applications, and had a few interviews but no job offers.

Felicity arrived, and I told my principal that I would let him know my decision as soon as I could, but without Nate getting a better paying job or at least better health insurance, I wasn't sure I could quit. In the meantime, we were starting to feel a time crunch as the school year came to an end. My principal was putting pressure on me to make a decision, and Nate still didn't have a job offer. Nate and I both wanted me to be able to quit and stay home with our girls, but it just didn't seem like it would be financially possible. I'm the one who carries our health insurance, and luckily our coverage lasts until the end of August so that bought us more time for him to continue job hunting.

So on the last day of school (May 27th), we took a leap of faith and I quit my job. I actually cried after I did it because I've loved teaching the past 9 years. We hoped and prayed that if we kept doing everything we should and Nate continued his search, that the Lord would bless us and everything would work out.

Within days of my officially quitting, Nate received a phone call for a 2nd interview for an operational analyst position with Zions Bancorporation (owners of Zions Bank and other regional banks throughout the western U.S.). He'd interviewed with them at the beginning of May and never heard anymore, so he figured they'd already filled the position. He passed the 2nd interview and a few days later had the final one. While he was waiting to hear from them he even had an interview lined up at another company, so things were definitely looking more optimistic. Last week, Zions called and offered him the job. What's even more amazing is there was never any discussion of salary during the interview process, yet when they offered him the job, the salary more than replaced the income we were losing from me quitting. And even more amazing, my health insurance coverage ends on August 31st, and he's eligible for benefits at his new job on September 1st. Another positive note is that Zions owns banks outside of Utah, so it may offer us a way to move out of Utah like we hope.

The only downside to the new job is the commute. Nate's current commute is about 6-7 miles and takes about 15 minutes. His new commute will be over 30 miles (one way) and probably take 30-45 minutes. I realize many people commute that far or longer for work, but for us it's a big change.

Nate's last day at his current job is July 1st, and he'll be starting at Zions on July 5th. We couldn't be happier that we took that leap of faith and just hope that Nate enjoys his new job, new coworkers, etc.

2 Months Old

This picture was actually taken about a week before she was 2 months old, but it's one of my favorites because it shows off her beautiful smile. That's been one of the things we've enjoyed the most from her the last few weeks. She started smiling (the real reactionary kind) at just over 5 weeks, and continues to be full of smiles, laughs, and coos.

Felicity continues to be a very mellow, easy baby. She started sleeping through the night (as in a 7-8 hour stretch) just like I hoped she would. At first it wasn't consistent, but now it is - much to my delight. And she's already established a bit of a routine for herself. She generally goes to sleep around 10 pm, wakes to eat somewhere between 5:30-6:30am, goes right back to sleep until 9-10am, and them wakes to eat and play for about an hour before going down for a morning nap. The rest of the day can vary slightly depending on how much she wants to sleep or be awake, but she tends to eat around the same times everyday because she's so consistent during the night and morning.

The only bad phase she went through started at around 6.5 weeks when she decided to start having nightly screaming fests starting around 9 pm. The first time it lasted for about an hour and nothing would calm her down except a bath. Some nights her screaming would only last 5-10 minutes and sometimes it would be 30 minutes. Thankfully, this phase seems to have recently ended.

I wasn't able to get her into her pediatrician until she was a week past her two month mark, but here's her stats from that appointment:

Weight: 13 lbs. 14 oz. (96th percentile)
Height: 23.25 in. (76th percentile)
Head Circumference: 15.5 in. (58th percentile)

Felicity's Blessing Day

Perfect day

Beautiful girl

Wonderful blessing

Deciding when to bless Felicity proved to be a little more difficult than I thought it would be, but we finally decided on June 5th - just one day shy of her being 2 months old. Several of my family members were in town over Memorial Weekend (see previous post), but that weekend didn't work for Nate's parents. We decided it was important for Grandma and Grandpa to be here for it, and we also hoped it might be better weather since we were planning to do a luncheon in our backyard afterward. It was a good thing we went with the day we did because the weather was perfect (about 80 degrees) and the weekend before was chilly and rainy.

My only fear in waiting as long as we did was that she might not fit into the blessing dress I made. It's the same dress Bridget wore, and it was huge on her because I didn't plan on blessing her at 5 days old when I made it. Bridget grew very quickly both in length and chubbiness, so I anticipated the same with Felicity. Luckily, the dress fit Felicity perfectly.

Lots of good food and great family