FINALLY!!! End to Beginning

January 18th, 2011:

I love this little girl! Amy is really great at giving me a reason to smile.

Amy said she was a "pioneer airplane driver." Do you see the little head cock?

I know, 3 of the same picture, but she's so dang cute!

Adelynne as Tinkerbell, and Eddie as a little wizard. He was going around casting spells on the girls.

We love Eddie! He is so fun to have around the house in the mornings. He is with us Monday through Friday in the mornings. He loves to join the girls in their play.

January 14th 2011:

Isn't she adorable?! She just melts my heart.

January 12th, 2011:

Happy Birthday to me! I had a great birthday with lots of friends over for dinner. It helped that my birthday fell on Wednesday night dinner. Christi made me a delicious dinner of pasta, and everyone enjoyed my delicious chocolate cake with homemade chocolate frosting. Joni made me this really cute headband that I proudly modeled.

Aurora wished me a Happy Birthday too.

During the party, Aurora showing off her ginormous flower:

January 3rd, 2011:

My parents, Dustin, me, Adelynne, and Amy went ice skating for the first time since we have lived here. We have a small outdoor ice rink. This was Dustin, Adelynne, and Amy's very first time ice skating. Dustin did very well only falling once. Adelynne and Amy fell quite a bit, but they were both good sports. By the end of our two hours Adelynne was out on her own and doing quite well. She had a great time, and I actually took her back the next Saturday, just me and her.

Big sister Amy. She sure loves being a big sister:

January 2nd, 2011:

Aurora is 4 months! She is grabbing her toes and it is so cute!

Oh I L.O.V.E. this baby!!!

Happy 4 months!

The girls in their Christmas dresses. Made by my fabulous mother! My mom is so amazingly talented. My sister and I had dresses like these when we were young that my mom also made. She used the same pattern for the girls' dresses:

My mom is so good at all the details. Thanks mom!

January 1st, 2011:

We invested in some real estate:

A house with a fireplace,

a birdbath in the front yard,

sliding glass doors on the side and shutters on the windows,

and a pond with a duck. Isn't it the cutest house ever?! Adelynne helped me put this beauty together. Legos is one of our new favorite family activities.

December 26th, 2010:

Christmas! Well, one day late. Amy opened up a new mermaid barbie, can you tell she was happy about it?

Aurora liked her new book that Grandpa and Grandma Belt sent:

Aurora was also happy to have Grandpa Biggs come for Christmas too!

We even had Princess Rapunzel come and visit us for Christmas!

Do you think she likes it?

Adelynne's hair was in curlers. We had our Christmas on Sunday because my parents came late on Christmas day and we wanted to do all the fun stuff with them. So I did Adelynne's hair in curlers to go to church, but she ended up throwing up all morning. She was still in remarkably good spirits for being so sick. Amy was fine all day, but when we put her to bed she ended up throwing up everywhere. So she was sick early in the evening.

Amy opening up her Rapunzel wig. Amy has always been obsessed with long hair, hopefully someday her own hair will be long, but for now she loves to wear pretend hair. Gramma and Grampa Biggs knew just what Amy would love!

She blinked. You can see that she is still dealing with a clogged tear duct. Always a goopy eye, poor baby.

Santa brought the girls flashlights!

Santa also brought Adelynne some pet shops:

December 25th, 2010:

So this was our Christmas Eve. Dustin and I told the girls that we had emailed Santa to come to our house on Christmas Day night, instead of on Christmas Eve. So, the girls took their reindeer food and sprinkled it on the ground. You can see they are in pjs and curlers.

The pure joy of believing:

December 24th, 2010:

Aurora had to go on a nebulizer because she had bronchiolitis. Say that one ten times fast! (So do you remember my old post about Aurora and her gagging issue? Turns out the gagging/coughing problem was leading up to this infection). We had to do her nebulizer treatments every four hours as needed. Plus she was on an antibiotic for an ear infection, and a steroid for the bronchiolitis. She did not enjoy all these medicines. But when Dustin would dance Aurora would not cry during her treatments. Daddy is wonderful entertainment.

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday. This was our very first time staying home for Christmas, and it really was wonderful. The worst part was not being with Grandma and Grandpa Belt and all our wonderful friends and family in Las Vegas. It really was a very hard decision to stay home and not be with the Belt Family for the holidays. We miss them so very much. But regardless, we had a great holiday, and it made all the difference having my parents come and celebrate with us. Every night we but two nights while my Dad was here, we played a game of chicken foot. My Dad never won once. We played with all our new Christmas toys, went ice skating, went to look at Christmas lights, and took a quick trip to Chicago. My parents watched the girls while Dustin and I attended the temple, and then my parents got to go as well. We ate at Giordano's and had famous Chicago style pizza. We went to downtown Chicago and walked around the "Magnificent Mile." Our favorite store was the Lego Store. Then we enjoyed dessert at the Rainforest Cafe. We really had a great time. My Dad went home and my mom stayed behind for an extra week and I enjoyed every moment having her here. One of my favorite times with my mom is playing Tuesday night volleyball with her. I have a blast with her. I also joined a co-ed city team with great friends, and my mom was able to come to my first game! Its wonderful to have the support of my mom. My girls love having Gramma here too. The girls and I drove my mom to the airport, and when my mom got out of the car, Amy looked horrified that we were leaving Gramma behind, and Adelynne just bawled..... for 20 minutes. I finally had to ask her to stop crying. We can't wait to have Gramma come again!

A Good Plan

My friend gave birth to a healthy baby boy yesterday. But he was at least 20 weeks too early to survive. He lived for three hours. This morning I opened up my email and read the words my friend wrote to share the news of her son's birth and passing. I cannot imagine what kind of pain she and her husband must be in. Yet her email message was so positive and uplifting because she knows that she will hold her son again, and be with him again. The end is not with this life, we are only at the start. I am grateful to know that God has a plan to allow families to be together forever. I am grateful to know that God is in control, and we can get through difficult times by relying on the Savior. I am deeply humbled by others tragedies and my own blessings.

Aurora-3 months

So in love with this baby!!

It is so funny to take her picture because I get her to smile and I snap the camera. The flash startles her and she kind of scowls at me. Then I have to get her to smile again for another picture and we do it all over again. She does not like the flash on the camera.


A little about Aurora at 3 months:
-She loves to smile at anyone who smiles at her. She has such a big happy smile and these chubby cheeks. When she smiles really big you can see the slightest indentation in her right cheek.
-She is cooing and babbling a lot.
-She sticks out her tongue quite a bit.
-She holds her hands together and sometimes when she smiles at you she pulls them up in front of her face like she is being bashful.
-She is starting to grab things.
-She has just started drooling and making bubbles.
-She will look at her Daddy and it seems as though she is studying his face.
-She has lots of stinky farts, and when she coughs she usually farts along simultaneously.
-She enjoys her swing but prefers to be held.
-She will lay on the floor for a good amount of time and kick her legs and swing her arms and "talk."
-She is loved by her big sisters... sometimes more than she would like.
-She has s fair amount of soft hair covering her head with these random long strands on the very top.
-She just lights up whenever she sees Mommy, and her eyes follow me whenever I move.
-She is wearing sizes 3-6 months clothes, has been for a month. She also fits into the 6 months size too.
-She is over 14lbs.
-She has lots of adorable baby rolls on her legs and I love them!

Adelynne's Thanksgiving Journal

Over Thanksgiving Adelynne needed to keep a journal. She had to write a sentence for each day and draw a picture to go along with her sentence. Here is the pages from her journal, (she only had help from Dustin on the first day, because he didn't know that he was not supposed to help Adelynne with spelling). The rest of the days she did completely on her own. I am pretty proud, but I love reading sentences by children when they are just learning to read and write, it is so cute! So, can you figure out what they say? The translation is below each page:

Thursday: Mommy cooked turkey.

Friday: I went to Chicago.

Saturday: We went to the temple.

Sunday: I went to church.

Monday: I am going to decorate for Christmas. (She actually wasn't supposed to do a page for Monday, but she was so excited about decorating our tree for Family Night, that she wrote this page to ensure that we would actually be doing it)!

These pictures are from Adelynne's Thanksgiving performance. I was only able to get a few before my camera died. But I love the expressions on her face in each one.

The nervous face. She was getting up to say her first line for the first time:

Nervously saying her line: "J is for Jones. When Spring came, Captain Jones, the captain of the Mayflower, sailed back to England. All of the pilgrims stayed in America. No one wanted to leave their new home."

Confidently saying her second line: "O is for One. One day Governor Bradford said, 'God has been good to us. We must thank him for all these things.'"

Getting ready to sing and giggling with her classmates:

Looking at Mom and Dad:

Singing!

The girl on Adelynne's right (your left) is one of her favorite friends to play with. The two of them were the loudest singers in the class. It was really cute.

Beanie baby

This was back on Nov. 18th. She fell asleep with her beanie over her eyes, normally she hates when that happens. I thought it was cute.

oh yeah...

I forgot to mention that on November 22nd, Aurora rolled from her tummy to her back. She does not like tummy time, and she proved it by rolling over. I didn't see her do it, but I put her down on her tummy and walked to the counter. When I looked back at her less than a minute later, she was on her back. Dustin and I tried to get her to do it again, but she wouldn't/couldn't do it. I've been trying to remember when Adelynne and Amy rolled over. I'm pretty sure Adelynne didn't roll over until after her first Christmas, so she was over 5 months old. I'm pretty sure Amy beat Adelynne and rolled over at around 4 months. So I guess Aurora is just trying to beat her sisters at this rolling over game. She will be 3 months on Thursday. Personally, I think she is much too young to be doing such things.

Some other things to document that I am concerned about with Aurora. During feedings, and waking up from naps she starts to gag and cough and cough until she is red in the face and nearly choking. I think she is gagging on mucus. Sometimes she is able to cough up a small spit ball. But I really am not sure what to do for her. I took her to the doctor on Friday thinking maybe she had a bad cough. The doctor said she was fine, no problems with her lungs or throat. She said I could give her a little water after I feed her to see if it will help clear her throat. I need to get on that.... isn't it bizarre? Has anyone else had this problem with their baby? Oh, and on Saturday, Aurora had about 2 and 1/2 oz of formula. About 3 hours later she was puking her guts out. She vomited over and over again until she was dry heaving. The poor baby was throwing up stomach bile, it was awful to watch her, I know she was hurting. Then she took a very long nap. When she woke up I nursed her. She was happy and smiley. But then while I was burping her, she threw up again. The rest of the day she threw up after I nursed her. I nursed her around 12:45am and then sat with her until 1:10am to make sure she didn't throw up. And she didn't. She hasn't thrown up since 12:15am on Sunday. It was a long night though because I was waking up all night long to make sure she didn't throw up and choke. But now she is all better from this and just does the gagging and coughing thing with her mucus. No more formula for Aurora. She did not have this problem when she had to go on formula when I was in the hospital for surgery. But, Amy had this same reaction to formula when she was about 3 months old. When I've asked my doctor about it, she just told me that Amy has a sensitive gag reflex (ha)! I did not agree with that diagnosis! Anyway, tell me what you thing about Aurora's problem with the gagging issue.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our family and friends! We are grateful for so many things, our hearts are full of gratitude as we reflect on the blessings that our Father in Heaven has blessed us with.

On Tuesday, Dustin and I attended Adelynne's Kindergarten class Thanksgiving Play. She did an excellent job saying her lines. Our video recorder is just my cell phone, so these videos aren't the best, but we thought we would share anyway.