Trip to St. George

This past weekend we made a very quick trip to St. George to attend the baby blessing of our newest niece, Sophie. Somehow this was the first trip we'd made to St.George since Nate's sister blessed her last baby 2.5 years ago. We arrived Friday evening and spent a little time with Nate's family before we had to head over to Nate's Grandma's house to get our kids to bed.

On Saturday, we were a little slow to get going that morning due to a rough night with our kids, so it was late morning by the time we were ready to leave the house.

A view a St. George with the temple to the left. Bridget thought all the red dirt was pretty cool.

We didn't have time to do much, so we took the girls to the temple grounds including the Visitor's Center.

They enjoyed climbing the steps, although Felicity was a little confused about how to get in the doors at the top.

After the temple, we got some lunch and then headed back to the house so Felicity could take a much needed nap. This girl loves to sleep and normally sleeps for 11-12 hours at night and then takes a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. The problem is she doesn't sleep well anywhere except her crib. On the way down she took about a 30 minute nap in the car. Friday night, she didn't fall asleep until 11:00 at night and then was up by 7:30 Saturday morning. It took about 30 minutes to settle her down for an afternoon nap, and then she only napped for an hour or so. Saturday night, she didn't settle down until almost 10:00 and was up by 7:30 again the next morning. Luckily she did nap for about 1.5 hours in the car on the way home Sunday. Needless to say, she was quite the sleep-deprived child by the time we got home on Sunday, but she settled right back into her normal sleeping habits as soon as we were home. And this is why we rarely go on vacations. Her poor sleeping while we're away makes for poor sleep for Nate and me too which certainly makes a vacation less enjoyable. Maybe someday she'll stop being so terrible about sleeping away from home.

Finally getting a much needed nap, even if it didn't end up being as long as she needed.

Anyway, Saturday evening we spent having dinner with Nate's family. Then Sunday, we went to church and headed home right afterward. It was great to spend some time with Nate's family, and we especially enjoyed the 80 degree weather while we were there. Hopefully it won't be so long before our next trip south.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Bridget's preschool field trip this month was to the pumpkin patch. Apparently nearly every preschool and grade school in the area goes there because she went to the same one last year, and this place was so busy while we were there. Last year I opted to stay home with Felicity, but this year we decided to make it a family event. The girls definitely had a good time and didn't want to leave even though it was way past Felicity's nap time at that point. Here's a few pictures from our outing:

 



The 3 and 4-year-old preschool classes

Try as we might, we could not get Felicity to look at the camera because she was too interested in the ginormous pumpkins.

Bridget finally decides on a pumpkin

The tractor ride back from the pumpkin patch (and Felicity refusing to look at the camera again)

Felicity was quite interested in this goose because it was being so noisy.

The girls loved riding the train so much that we couldn't get them to get off after one ride, so they got to take two in a row.

Brigham City Temple Open House

Like many others in our area, we had the opportunity to take our girls to the open house for the Brigham City Utah LDS Temple. We took Bridget to a temple open house a couple of years ago, but she was too little to remember going, so it was fun to have her be a little bit older this time around. Hopefully she got a sense of how beautiful they are as well as a bit of an understanding of what goes on inside. She's seen pictures of the insides of various temples in a magazine we have at home, so she was quick to let me know that she already knew what to expect.

It was a beautiful, hot day, so we got in and out of the hot parking garage where are the pre and post-tour stuff happened. Felicity was super wiggley so trying to get good pictures on the temple grounds was no easy task. She did enjoy looking at all the pictures of Jesus in the temple and the animals in some of the scenic murals. When I asked Bridget what she liked best, she said everything was her favorite.

We are so fortunate to have yet another temple so close to us and to be able to share this experience with our children.

Bear World

With as many road trips as we've taken between Utah and West Yellowstone, it amazes me that we never stopped at Bear World near Rigby, Idaho...until now. On our way home this time, we planned to go because we'd heard such wonderful things about it from many different people and knew our girls would love it and the break it would give them from the car. It was well worth it. And as an added sidenote, you can save a dollar per person if you buy your tickets online. Here's a few pictures from the couple of hours we spent there.

The first part of the drive-through section is a bunch of deer and elk including this very rare white elk.

The second section is the bears. They have over 45 different bears including 3 grizzlies. Before the guy opened the gate to let us drive through that section, he warned us to keep our windows up at all times and not to stop for very long because the bears will climb on vehicles if you do, and they'd been doing it a lot that day. That's comforting. It was pretty cool though. My favorite were the 5 bears playing in the pond together.

Every time we go to West Yellowstone, Nate's always wanting to see a moose, and it's been a few years since I've seen one myself. Nate got his chance at Bear World. They have one moose named Rumplestiltzkin or "Stiltz" as they like to call him.

They also had a stream with fish and ducks to feed which we all enjoyed. The ducks were pretty quick and it was fun trying to see if the fish could beat the ducks to the food.

Both of the girls love animals, so the petting zoo was fun too. They had goats, deer, chickens, and a peacock.

Last was the "amusement park" rides. They only had a handful, and they're geared toward kids ages 3-10. Bridget loved them enough that she kept wanting just one more ride. It wasn't very busy while we were there, so she had plenty of rides and no waiting in line.

All in all, it was a pretty fun place, and something I'd definitely recommend to others. I'm just glad we finally took the time to check it out for ourselves.

Memorial Day Family Outing

It's been a couple of years since we've visited Temple Square, so we decided it was time to go again. Here's the girls in front of the Salt Lake Temple

The four of us in front of the reflection pool
In front of the Christus statue at the Visitors Center (I should mention this was Felicity's favorite part because she loves pictures and statues of Jesus. She kept running up to it and pointing and even tried to climb up a couple of times before we pulled her away).

We even went on a tour of the Conference Center

Overall we had perfect weather and a great time together as a family.

Baby Animal Days

Since both of our girls love animals (not sure where they got that from because Nate and I don't), we decided to go to a local event called Baby Animal Days. There were a ton of people there, so the lines were long and we didn't have a lot of time which means we didn't really get our money's worth. At least the girls enjoyed the little they did get get see and touch. Bridget's favorite was the ponies, and they even had a place for kids to ride horses and ponies. Sadly, that line was really long, and Bridget was disappointed that she didn't get to ride one. Here's a little of what we did see:

Felicity liked the chick and even tried to give it a kiss.

Bridget was a little afraid to hold the chick at first and gave it back pretty quickly.

Felicity loved the bunnies.

Easter

Trying to get a picture of the girls together in their Easter outfits was no easy task since Felicity is constantly on the move, so this was the best we got. With their size differences, I had a hard time finding matching dresses I liked, so I ended up making them matching skirts and buying shirts. They look pretty cute, if I say so myself.

 We did our usual thing for Easter this year - went to church and then to Nate's Aunt Linda's house for dinner and an Easter egg hunt. Bridget loved the hunt, but Felicity didn't quite catch on. She picked up a few, but was happy to just play with them. Bridget, Megan, and I also dyed eggs the day before, but I forgot to take any pictures. Bridget loves to dye eggs so it was a good thing I had to make a bunch of deviled eggs for Sunday dinner.

Happy Easter!

Nature Center Family Outing

Several months ago I purchased a Groupon for the local Nature Center knowing that we wouldn't get around to using it until the spring. Nate hadn't been there since he was a kid, and I'd never been there, so we weren't exactly sure what to expect but it turned out to be a fun family afternoon.

It was nice weather, but since it's still early in the spring we hardly saw another soul the whole time we were there. We started out at the visitors' center where Bridget saw her highlight of the trip - a tiny owl named Gidget. Not only was Gidget the cutest little owl, but Bridget took a special liking to her simply because their names rhyme.

The rest of our time was spent walking the trails. The only wildlife we saw were the several birds they have in a caged area (eagles, pelican, owls, etc.) and a couple of turkeys that roam the grounds. Felicity didn't seem to mind the bumpy stroller ride too much until the last few minutes which worked out well since Bridget decided she was too tired to walk anymore. So Bridget squeezed into the stroller while Felicity road back on Nate's shoulders. It was nice to get a little exercise, get out and enjoy the weather and nature, and do something memorable as a family.

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.

Felicity's Birth Story

Introducing the new addition to our family...

Felicity Anne
Born April 6th
Weight: 8 lbs. 1 oz.
Length: 21 in.

A lot of people have asked if she looks like Bridget. In my opinion, she does although she has more hair and it's a little longer than Bridget's was. You can make your own opinion if you'd like. In the pictures below, Bridget is in the two pictures on the left and Felicity is in the two on the right:
Although I didn't get pictures of everyone that came to visit, here's the few we did take: (Top left: Nate's mom; Top right: my sister Megan; Bottom left: Nate's Aunt Linda; Bottom right: my friend Emily)
If you are not interested in the actual birth story, you'll want to skip this part and just scroll down to the other pictures. I'm writing this down for my own personal record and want to do it before I forget details.

As mentioned in the previous post, Felicity decided to beat the induction deadline the doctor had set. Tuesday afternoon (the 5th), I was still contracting but they were now spaced out about 20-30 minutes apart. The major difference was that they were more painful than the ones I'd had that morning that were 4-5 minutes apart. By the time I went to bed that night they were about 10-15 minutes apart and still quite painful. I was able to get some sleep from about 11pm-1am. When I woke up at that point they were definitely painful and starting to get closer together. I stayed in bed timing them and trying to let Nate sleep as long as possible. By 3 am they were about 5 minutes apart and so painful I got out of bed. Nate got up shortly after that, and by 4 am we decided to call my Aunt Jennine to have her come stay at our house with Bridget while we headed to the hospital.

We checked into the hospital at 4:45 am, and once I finally got settled in my room and the nurse checked me, I was 4 cm and 95% effaced which was definitely progress from the day before. I could hardly wait to get my IV so that I could get my epidural. I was hoping that the epidural would allow me to get some sleep since I was anticipating a long day of labor. Since Bridget was born by planned c-section, my labor was considered to be the same as that of a first-time mom. I was also a VBAC (vaginal birth after Caesarian) which is higher risk and requires my doctor to be on the hospital campus the whole time I'm laboring there. Anyway, the epidural took almost 20 minutes and 3 tries to get working properly. My right leg was completely numb because it got a double dose and my left leg was numb with some feeling like it was supposed to be. I got the shakes really bad and almost constantly after that (a normal side-effect of labor I'm told), so I didn't get the sleep I was hoping for.

My doctor arrived around 7-7:30 am and broke my water. I was 5.5 cm at that point and she told the nurse to give me a tiny amount of pitocin (even less than they give most people to start with) just to help things along. At one point I was a little panicked because I could feel pain right by my scar on the left side. Luckily, it was just labor pain that went away when I pushed my epidural button. The next time the nurse checked me (I think around 9 am) I was already 9 cm! I was shocked and I think she was too. At that point they quickly started to get everything in the room ready. When she checked me about 20 minutes later I was completely dilated and ready to go.

With the risks of VBAC, they didn't want me to have to push for very long, so I just waited to push and gave the baby a chance to continue to come down until my doctor got there around 10 am. The hospital had several nursing students there, so they asked if it would be okay with me to allow some of them to watch and help with the delivery. I had a total of 5 nurses (3 of them students) and my doctor there. I started pushing at 10:10 am, and by 10:27 she was born! I couldn't believe how fast everything went and how amazing the whole experience was. It was a million times better than having a repeat c-section, and I loved feeling great enough to leave the hospital just 34 hours after checking in.

Many people have asked how Bridget is adjusting to having a sister, and I'm happy to say that she's loving it. No jealousy whatsoever...yet. She's been looking forward to this for months and loves to hold her, cuddle with her, give kisses to her, and help take care of her. Here's a picture of of them cuddling together at the hospital the 2nd day:
Our first day home together, I was getting ready for the day while Felicity was sleeping on our bed. Next thing I know, Bridget comes in with princess books and starts "reading" to Felicity.

Many times a day she asks to hold her sister.

I just love my two beautiful girls and feel like the luckiest mom in the world. (Don't mind the tired look on my face and the fact that Felicity looks cross-eyed - at least she was awake).

We tried to get a good family shot, but this was the best we could do.