G is for Girl!

Guess what, we are having a girl!

Upon request from one of my readers, I am doing a post about said little girl, I realize I rarely ever blog about her, and maybe I need to start doing so.

So I am starting to get into the girl groove around here. I know this seems easier to everyone else, but for me it has been kinda overwhelming. I think mostly because with Axel I just had to look to Kory for style and inspiration. It just came easy, or maybe it just seems that way now looking back. But I admit even Axel has a complete style of his own, that has evolved as we have gotten to know him. Aka basketball jammies, who would have thought?

I have found myself browsing girl clothes only to end up in the boy section. I know once I have her I will get more into her style and her groove, and I am sure I will be able to "picture" her in something I find.

So about Baby Girl:

I get asked a lot if we have a name picked out for her.

Yes we do, it's Danielle, "Dani" for short, and probably what I will call her always. Kory and I both really love Boy names for Girl names or that can also be shortened to boy names. Like Samantha/Sam, And of course my alter ego "Dylan" (Michelle: remember that spring break where I convinced those boys that was my name the whole time and then one of them saw my credit card and was like "Who is Amy?" haha)

Anyway, Kory and I, never really like the same ones. But Danielle/Dani was the first one we both really loved. We have had this name picked out for our first daughter before we even were pregnant with Axel. It's not a common or popular one right now, so that is a plus :) But I don't think I have ever met a Danielle that I didn't think was pleasant. (IF you know one, don't share) But there is always a chance that she will come out and be one of the other girl names I have in my name bank. (like Dylan haha) We're not 100 percent sure if it is her name. But this is what we call her for now, and it probably will be her name.

About this pregnancy:
You all know about all my complaints this time around, I have to admit I am having a hard time with all the pains and ailments with this pregnancy. But one thing about this girl is she is strong and a mover. And although she is probably not literally dancing around it my belly, I like to think so.

I mean I thought Axel was strong but she seems to be way stronger. When she moves Kory and I both can see my stomach just go crazy. She also seems more reactant to the world around her. When I read to Axel, she will wiggle and kick and move around as if she is trying to hear our voices. She seems very aware of Axel's and Kory's voice.

One of my favorite things is to poke or wiggle my belly to see her move, and almost always she reacts right away, and it is something you can see outside. Kory gets mad at me for bugging her, but I feel like this my way of connecting with her.

We pray for her every night that she will continue to be that strong healthy girl, and that my body will be able to keep her healthy and happy. When we almost lost her at the beginning, and Kory and his dad gave me the first real healing blessing I think I have ever had where their were two priesthood holders there. But I could just feel the difference, and I knew she would be OK, I know my body is having a hard time with this pregnancy, it has been very vocal about it, but I also know that our little girl is a fighter and will hold on and stay strong. Despite my body wanting to kick her out.

Baby girls are SO in right now... :)
In our neighborhood there are two other ladies that are pregnant, one is a day before me, the other is 3 days behind me. And guess what, we are ALL having girls. It will be interesting to see when we all actually have them. Because one of the ladies had her last boy early too. But it has been fun to compare pregnancy stories and ailments with them along the way. In our neighborhood you don't know how long people will stay but I hope our girls will get to play a little bit together before one of us moves.

Also, my very best friend and niece Ashley is pregnant too, and only a week behind me. She is having a boy, but it has been sooo much fun having her around to compare stories and shop and chat babies with. Plus, our little guys (Axel and Ashdon) really do get a long so well, and they just entertain each other constantly. Before we met Kory and Nick (Brandon) we used to joke about finding brothers to marry so we could be sisters. We found an uncle/nephew combination instead, but still it worked out pretty great, p.s when does that EVER happen? I am glad to be on this pregnancy journey with her, and so close together. We have big plans for the summer full of walks up the canyon and trips to the pool. Life could be worse huh? If only we could speed through these next couple of months! I say that now, but I think I forget how much of an adjustment newborns are. But I can dream right?


Some works in progress:
This weekend I have been sewing up a storm for Baby Girl. (or should I call her Dani?) Anyway, my mom brought me a couple patterns she has, one for a blessing dress, which I haven't done yet, and another one for summer clothes.

I did this one on Saturday, from a piece I bought on clearance! So it really was super cheap to make. It's a modification from a jumper pattern that had shorts instead. I still need to make button wholes and hem up the bottom. We tried it on my newborn nephew and it was huge on him.
I added the knot ties to it instead of sewing them together. I really like how they turned out. But i think it made it extra big for a newborn. I am still trying to decide if I want to take it in our have her wear it later like next year. I would love her to wear it this summer though.I also did this one a few weeks ago, it was cinch as well. I am not done with it yet either, I need to add one more thing, so you will have to wait...

I am really into making these flowers right now. They are so simple to make but look so elegant and add so much texture to things. The beads sewn in the middle were from a bunch of tiny beads I got from Kory's grandmother. You will probably be seeing these flowers on a lot of the things I make because I can't get enough of them.

I also wanted to add to these fun summer dresses, this darling little jumper, no I did not make it, my sister in-law Kelli did, I am pretty excited to have this. I don't even know if she realizes how much this gesture meant to me. But I will try to explain it but I don't know if I can do it justice.

You see this picture here:
That baby is me, that is my mom and that lady in the background is my aunt.

Anyway, this picture is one of the very few, if only pictures I have of myself as a baby/newborn.
And one of the only ones I have with my mom. I love this picture, I love my moms face, and now that I am a mother I can feel what she is feeling as she holds up her baby girl. We were very very poor when I was born, and pictures weren't "free" like they are now a days. I have pictures as I get older, but times were hard for my parents when I decided to join the family.

That outfit is one of the only things I have from my babyhood, and I have held on to it all these years, and had it tucked away in my cedar chest. My aunt Janet (not that one in the picture) made it for me to wear, and I can't wait to have my own daughter wear it. Just thinking about it now, brings tears to my eyes.

I am grateful that she took the time and energy to make me this gift, as I am a person of sentiment, and I know this will be something I will cherish, and put in Baby Girl's keepsake pile for her, a long with my dress, to save for her own daughter one day. SO thanks Kelli, you really did make my day.

F.H.E

For Family Home Evening this week, we decided to make a trip to the Bean Museum.

I went a couple years ago with my YW group and loved it, so I was happy that they mixed things up again and it was still interesting this time too. Maybe it was the fact that I was experiencing it with my little family for the first time.

Axel of course had the time of his life.

He ran around the entire place pointing to all the animals, making their sounds and naming a few we had no idea he would recognize. (Hippo for example)

We rushed to get there in the snow to see their reptile show. I was kinda bummed at how lame it was. Axel was with me on that, he only cared about the giant elephant standing behind the lady with the mic.

And when she did finally pull out something from her bucket, (like this snake)

Kory and I had to pull out all the bells and whistles to get him to stop looking at the giant elephant and look at the lame lizard instead.

*side note, Kory was fascinated, and was bugged at me for my "bad attitude" I admit I was totally disappointed in the show, BUT in the end Axel got to pet the snake and lizard and he seemed to think that was cool...we think.

But after that we just let him roam the place, and roam and run he did. He was sooo excited!

Whenever we do things like this, I am also always impressed with how much Kory knows about animals. I would say, "look Axel it's a dear" and Kory would be like, "that's not a dear, that is (insert an animal I have never even heard of)." Or we would pass an animal and he would tell me one of the many many many facts he knows about that animal. I am just amazed he has the ability to retain all that information. I am just glad Axel obviously shares this same interest.

By the end of it I ended up having to sit down on a bench, next to another pregnant lady, while Kory and Axel finished up. While I was waiting a group of BYU students came in for "Family Night" and they were not only obnoxious, but when I we tried to get a picture of Axel in front of a display this obnoxious girl would not move. She just stood there chatting her head off to her other Zoobie friends. Mind you we were their first BEFORE they came over, and she just crowded her way through. We finally gave up and walked away, and guess what they did? They took a group picture in front of it! Where we wanted to. GRRRRR I was so bothered. Really kids, you can't get out of the way for like two seconds? SO rude.

I had to fight every fiber in my body not to say something snotty, because that is what I do when I am pregnant. I swear when I am pregnant, I have no patience for inconsiderate people, and I have no problem telling them so. You know how when someone says something rude to you, and you walk away and think about all the ways you could have "shown them", but didn't? I am like that most of the time, except when I am pregnant. So in a way I am proud of myself for not being rude to that girl, but I still think she was inconsiderate.

I think Kory appreciated that I didn't make a scene either. :)

Bean Bag project gone amuck...

I wish I could blame this mess on Axel...

Tonight I attempted to to fill a bean bag chair I made a few weeks ago for Axel's room, and boy did I fail miserably. It is a lot harder than one would think.

At first Axel helped me pick up every dropped piece. So how did we get to this point? I really don't even know, I guess after a small accident (see the tube coming out of the bag? Just imagine one of those confetti blowing things and it was something like that) I decided I was done trying, and just wanted to see what would happen if we did it again and again. Maybe I went a little bit crazy tonight...But it felt good to let out some of the tension I was feeling after trying to fill the stupid thing.

Even though we made a horrendous mess, we sure did have a lot of fun rolling around and playing with these oh so static charged little foam beans.

Snow angels anyone?

They stuck to Axel like crazy, and as a result we had them all over the kitchen and his bedroom as well.
He tried really hard to help me clean them up, but would just get frustrated that they were sticking to his hand, eventually this led to a melt down and him needing us to put him to bed, right then, he was very emotional about it. He doesn't do too well in chaos for very long.

He liked to break the beans in half and hear them pop! My attempt to get a good smile out of him, oh well....

Even though I made quite the mess, this little venture sure did brighten up my drab Friday night. Thanks little dude for making a mess with me. :)

18 months old: What a fun stage!

Today Axel is 18 months old! What a big boy he is turning into and we LOVE IT. His 18 month check up isn't for a couple more weeks, so we'll see where he is at growth wise then.

We absolutely adore this stage that he is in. Sure he has his moments, but most of the time, he is pretty fun and such a joy to be around. I couldn't ask for a better kid. In fact we are pretty terrified for baby number 2 because he has been so great, we are worried we are going to be in for a huge shock when we get a kid that is not so easy.

He is just so curious about the world around him, and he has this disposition about him to do what he is supposed to do, he is all about learning the rules of the world around him.

He is great at following directions and doing what we ask him to do, with a few exceptions of course i.e diaper changes and getting dressed, still haven't quite mastered that yet with him. Although, when you change his diaper he will lift his bum up when you say "bum up" and my favorite is he'll say "AH SICK" when you wipe. He also says that when you wipe his nose. This was after I got tired of fighting him or him treating me like I am just horrible, so one day I showed him what was in his tissue, and since then he is much more cooperative.

Clean Boy

But he is great at picking up his toys, and putting things back after he plays with them. Last night he brought out a horse, then ran back to his room and put it in his drawer I was very impressed, then he pulled out a fire truck and brought it to us and played with it for a while then went back to his room, and started to play with something else, so I looked to see where the truck went and sure enough he had put it in his drawer where he got it. He is one organized and clean tot. A lot of people blame me for this, they think I am constantly picking up after him, but in truth we clean up together every day, and I just try to show him how things go, and let him do it, and because he likes to obey and do what is right, he puts things away where they go. I think it's just in his personality, he likes to do what we do, granted if I were not the kind of mom to sit down and teach him how to clean up I don't think he would learn that, at least not this early. We have two clean up rules at our house, all the toys get cleaned up before nap time and at bed time.

If he spills something on the floor he'll grab a towel from our drawer and say "Oh a mess" and then clean it up.

He also has taken it upon himself to feed our dogs now. (with a little help from us of course) But all we have to say is Axel lets feed the dogs, and he will run to their cupboard and get the scoop and put a scoop for Big dog in her bowl and then one for Zoe and then put the scoop back. So smart he even knows Zoe gets a little scoop.
Our Little Chef
He also loves helping me cook, his favorite of course is cracking eggs, but he also loves adding the ingredients to the bowl, but is absolutely terrified of the hand mixer. We enjoy cooking together, sometimes it's more work for me, but a lot of times it helps him stay in a happy mood, instead of begging and crying for food while I cook. I think its also a good opportunity to teach him something new. I am amazed how much they can take on at such a young age.

He also does a great job getting dad for mom when it's time to eat. He'll put up his hand to his ear and yell "DAD" "DAD" at the top of our stairs.

This blog sounds like I work my kid to death, make him clean, give him chores and even have him cook dinner every night...I promise we do other fun things to...Blocks
We build towers from blocks, which he is a pro at, he as been known to build a 9+ block tower. It is really funny to see him put blocks on top of each other because he places it on very delicately, and then quickly pulls his hand away like he knows it will fall if he lingers too long.Shapes
He also has a shape toy that you put shapes in, and he will take the shape and say "no, no, no, no and yeah!" When he gets it in, or when he gets it in the spot he wants it to go in. He can recognize and say "Star", but that's it. He can also say "Shapes".

SportsBoy does this kid love sports! Poor kid needs a basketball hoop, we found him making one out of a fold up chair the other night. We think it was because it looks like a back board. He just kept throwing his basket ball at it and then saying "YEAH" But also he has found a new sport to love , baseball. His Grandma Julie gave him a baseball tee and bat for his birthday, and he could play that for an hour at least. He has got a pretty good arm too. He also loves soccer. And can say "Soccer ball". Remember how I said he would probably grow out of the balloon thing? Nope, still hasn't still loves balloons, and we found that ones filled with just air are even more fun than the helium ones. The other day after he tripped on his balloon ball I said "Oh fumble!" He jumped up and yelled "Fumble!". Where did this kid come from? ha ha

Skateboard
He finally has been using his skateboard we got him for Christmas. I can't wait for it to get warmer outside and for him to be a little better balanced, and he and Kory can go outside and skate. He can say "Skateboard" and can balance on the skateboard all by himself, but needs help going on it.

Working with Grandpa and papa
He loves when grandpa comes to our house to help Kory, he always runs to the door and knocks and says "Grandpa!" and "Hey! Hey! Hey!" then he'll grab his "mammer" and run to the back door to meet grandpa at the back door. He also loves going downstairs to help dad in the basement, he always parks himself next to Kory and tries to help him with whatever it is he is working on.

Reading
We also read A LOT of books around here. What he has been doing over the past few months is reciting the books to us, it's great. He'll finish a page for us! Our favorite is "Hop on Pop" he loves telling "Pat" to not sit on the cactus, and to get mad at the kids for hopping on pop. He takes that book very seriously. Another recent favorite is from Grandma Julie, a book that is about things that GO, and he will say the end for us. It's really adorable, I want to get it on video one of these days.

Talking, talking and more talking
His language skills have exploded recently, I mean the kid has always been a head of the game when it comes to speaking, I like to think it's his thing, you know some kids walk or crawl early, for Axel it was communication. When he was 6 months old he said "Ba" for ball, and hasn't stopped since. Some new words are: Shovel, flower, nana (banana), mammer (hammer), tractor, shark, bubble, mouth, ear, nose, eyes, no, Grandma, who who (whistle), tory (story) Book, train, choo choo, chocolate, cookie, and my personal favorite "dumb dog" (Not that I don't love my dogs, but after one certain dog ran away and I had to go get her for the millionth time, I said "dumb dog!" and since then whenever said dog is in trouble we hear a little voice say "dumb dog")
He has started to put words together to form sentences like "I got it!" , "There he is", "here you go" he'll ask for things too, like "mama, cookie" or "Mama, bottle" we are still working on the whole please thing. He thinks when he yells my name "mama" that is asking. I kinda think he got that from the kids we watch all the time because he used to say it like "AMMMY", Kory and I have been working on correcting that. The other day we were at Macey's and we saw a lady with an Ice Cream cone, and he goes "MMMMM Ice cream YUM YUM!" It was pretty adorable.

There is soo much more too, I just can never think of it all, I wish I had a bank in my brain that whenever he did something new it would catalog it and then I could just download it here. I hope to get better at the whole documenting his life and the life of our new baby, but as you can see I kinda just get worse and worse as time goes on.

Sweet sweet swimming

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who "lent me a shoulder to cry on" from my last post.
I felt a lot better after I wrote that, and then cried to Kory. I am doing much better, I am still trying to adjust to "taking it easy" but I am feeling more in control of it now. If that makes any sense. Kory suggested I call my Dr and have them define and give me a list of things I should and shouldn't do so I don't drive myself crazy wondering if I am pushing myself too hard. I really liked that idea, but forgot to do that today. SO tomorrow I will call. I think it will put a lot of people around me at ease as well.

The GOOD News is my car is FIXED! well sort of, we still have to fix the oil leak. But the clutch is fixed. yeah! And, before anyone goes and judges me for wearing down my clutch, I just want to mention that I have NEVER had to replace the clutch on that car since I purchased it back in 2003. I had over 130,000 miles on that baby before it went out. So yeah it was time, but for the record I am a pro.

So, one of the things that had been getting me down about the whole "taking it easy thing" was that recently I have been going to an aerobics class once a week at our ward building. My friend Charity (remember her from my dance group way back in the day?) is the instructor and put together an amazing routine which I only did a moderate version of it, but it still kicked my butt. Mostly because Axel started to hate going because there was an older kid that kept taking his basketball, and if you know my kid, THAT IS NOT OK. So most of the time I spent picking him up and giving him hugs or holding him sometimes.

It was also on the same day I babysat Story, and she LOVED it. Actually, that is an understatement, she just had the time of her life there. She even participated in the routine from time to time, during her favorite songs :) Which were the cowgirl one and the 1920's style (I am thinking Backyardigans had A LOT to do with that).

Because I can't do the class, I felt like I needed to replace it with some other form of exercise. My Dr suggested swimming. He said that was something I CAN do.

I have been wanting to start swimming regularly for a while now, it helped me so much with Axel, so I wanted to do the same with her. Easier said then done because 1) it was my job at the time. 2) I had access to a free pool 3) I didn't have a toddler to chase around. 4) it was summer, I was tan, and pools were a dime a dozen.

So I looked up our City's pool and you know what? The hours totally blow for that pool. Unless I got up and went at like 6 am, noon, or after dinner, all of which are terrible times for us, I didn't see it happening.

So I started looking up other pool hours. Ashley agreed to come with me, which made it much much more doable because its always more fun when you have a friend. So I looked up all the different pools in the valley, and decided the Legacy Pool in Lehi would be our best choice. My mom and sister go all the time, but I never wanted to go with them because I never had a toddler to entertain...until now.

So yesterday, I dropped Kory off at work, (my car wasn't fixed yet) I picked up Ash and Ashdon, and we headed over to the pool bright and early 8:00am in fact. We had so much fun because we were the ONLY ones there. We went right at opening because I had to make the drive anyway to take Kory to work. The boys LOVED it, and so did our big pregnant bellies. We will be going again for sure.

And here are some GREAT pictures from the trip. Have I mentioned how much I love my underwater camera? I can't wait until Axel is a little bit older and we can shoot him UNDER the water!

Both boys were a little uncertain at first.

The pool had this amazing kid area that was the perfect depth for these little dudes. They loved the water fountains

It also had these bouncy seat things

They of course had to practice blowing bubbles :)

And went crazy splashing around and playing together.You know that REALLY funny movie that came out in the 90's featuring Kristi Alley, and Jon Travolta with all those really funny babies? No? it wasn't funny? well despite the cheesiness of said monologue babies, I couldn't help but put a story to these pictures when I went through the photos. So ENJOY, because you know you will :)

"Hey Ashdon, Look at this Killer slide! I dare you to go down it?"

"Wow.... "

"...you are on!"
"Oh man! I can't believe you are doing this!""Rock and Roll!"

"Man! he is sooo cool!"
"sweet...."
The real story was, we put him down the slide, and it was sooo crazy steep the minute ash let go he went right under the water, and it was really scary. But he was super brave about it after as seen in the picture above, and being the cute boy he is, he of course gave a big smile for my camera. We opted not to put Axel down, maybe when they get older, but I don't think the slide is for toddlers.

After we went swimming I went to the grocery store and some strange vendor lady there came up to me and just gave me a $5 gift card! At first I thought she was trying to sell me something and I was kinda bugged, but I am so glad I put on my polite face. :)

Then I went and picked up Kory for lunch and he came out to the car and handed me a little gift bag that had all sorts of goodies in it. Nothing too fancy but there was a $5 gift certificate for Starbucks, (don't worry no coffee for this mama, but I am ALL about hot chocolate and steamers)

So despite my bad week, even the universe seemed to understand that I needed a break and for things to go well that day, and they sure did :)

Thanks again everyone for your kind words, and I know a lot of people are praying for us, which I know sounds strange but I can tell the difference, so thanks I appreciate it.

PS I also posted a tutorial for some frames I worked on below. Check them out if you want to!