Our baby is the cutest baby ever.

That kid just loves her daddy.  And she expresses that love with the best little giggles in the whole universe.

That is all.

Our unicorn farts.

After watching Tron with our neighbors, the Thompsons, two nights ago we ended up talking about cake.  I'm not sure why.  Cake is good?  And not knowing the name of that one delicious cake with the sprinkles inside (later discovered to be "funfetti" cake) we began to call it "That Unicorn Fart Cake" because obviously, unicorns fart rainbows.  Then last night Kendra and I decided to make everyone's dreams come true and while the husbands were at their meeting we decided to make a Unicorn Fart Cake.  It was pretty glorious.

 We made our own delicious frosting so that we could have as much as we wanted as well as make all the colors and happiness we wanted.  I think it turned out really well.

We based our farting unicorn knowledge off of Adam's shirt.

Such a FUN night!  Happy friends, happy food, happy happy happy.  Saoirse even enjoyed some of the frosting and promptly fell asleep.

My delight.

If you can ignore my fat arm for a minute, I finally got  a video of Saoirse giggling a little!  Long hard work to get this video.  I didn't think I was going to get it as you can see in the beginning.. but good thing I'm persistant. 

Her teeth make my life sort of miserable.

Bobee has *probably* started her teething faze of life.  Yikes.  This means crying for seemingly no reason and lots of whining and eating stuff.  Unfortunately she's not super coordinated yet with her hands so it's pretty much me putting stuff in her mouth to chew on.  The poor little dear.

I gave her a cold wet wash cloth to chew on which was cute because she'd make a weird face when it was in her mouth but she'd chew ravenously.  But again, she doesn't really have enough coordination to put it in her mouth on her own... so I think I might have to stick with her binky for chewing on.

Her cloth diapers and my next project.

Okay, so I LOVE my cloth diapers.  I ordered them off of this website www.theluvyourbaby.com because they were cute and WAY less expensive than EVERY OTHER BRAND I looked at.  Literally, every cloth diaper I saw was around $20 a diaper.  And that was JUST THE COVER.  The inserts for each diaper (inserts are to soak up anything needing to be soaked up) cost their own pretty penny.  But this site is linked to a small company based in Canada and each diaper comes with two inserts and costs $7 each.  And when you spend more than $70 you get free shipping.  Well, just to get started we bought 12 diapers (really the bare minimum if you want to do laundry everyday) which was a little over $80.  That's about how much 1 month of disposable diapers cost.  I LOVE CLOTH DIAPERS!!!  They're also super easy to clean - it's not a hassle at all.  And the best part is that we're saving loads of money every week we use those little things.  However, I've just been using regular old wipes you buy from the store.  They really don't cost much, especially because I don't wipe her every single time she has a pee filled diaper.  But I'm kind of getting tired of going to the store to buy them (lazy or a wonderful opportunity?).  Plus, I don't like wasting money on something that will be garbage.  SO my next project will be to make my own cloth wipes!  I found this awesome blog post that tells you just how to make them here http://www.myhappycrazylife.com/make-your-own-cloth-wipes/.  And the solution you use is super easy - just get a mixture of water and some of your favorite baby shampoo.  Badda-bing badda-boom.

I'm really excited to try this out.  I love the idea of saving money where I can.  Particularly when it's so dang easy to AND I can let my hippy side shine and save the rain forest (or whatever).  But really.  I feel good not filling up our beautiful gift of a planet with "disposable" (non-biodegradable) diapers.  I'd rather be a little more self-sufficient and love Heavenly Father's creation without filling it with crap (literally).

Our bobee.

Being a mommy is pretty much the best thing ever.  And being a mommy watching daddy play with the baby is even better!!  I love watching Joseph play with Saoirse and I love seeing her excited to see him when he comes home from work.  

She's so cute!

Okay, so there are two reasons why I love this picture.  Number one, pictures of daddies with their babies are the best pictures ever.  Number two, she is really rocking that cow print cloth diaper.

Holy cow she's so dang cute I could die.  She LOVES bath time!!  Besides the occasional splashing water with her feet, her favorite thing to do is to pee in the bathtub.  

Oh my little bobe is getting so big!!  I seriously can't believe it.  She giggled for the first time a few days ago.  We're patiently waiting for her to repeat the cuteness.

Anyway, she's getting pretty good at holding her ginormous head up.

My advice

Since our friends will be getting married this Saturday in the B.E.A.utiful Timpanogos Temple, I've been thinking about advice I would have for them to create a stronger and more gospel centered marriage.  Getting married in the temple is a good start.  But it takes so much work to keep your marriage strong.  I've only been married for a little over a year, so I don't have a ton of experience in this field, but in the time we have been married we've had to adjust to living with each other and learning how to make our home a place where the Holy Spirit can be.  So, my advice to newly married couples everywhere(!) is that in order to build a stronger love between you two, you should always find time to serve each other.  I can't even describe the joy that fills me when I catch a sneaky Joseph trying to do the dishes before I get home or clean the apartment or whatever.  And honestly, the reason I do anything around the house is so Joseph can come home to a cleaner home than what he left from.  It's then important to notice/compliment/thank each other for all that they've done.  Not only is it important to serve each other but also to let the other person serve you - it's about finding the perfect give and take balance in your relationship.  

I love serving Joseph and keeping him a happy husband which then in turn, makes me a happy wife.  I plan on being with him for eternity and that eternity started the moment we became husband and wife in the Nauvoo Temple on May 7, 2010.  So it's essential to work on continually being in more love than we were the day before so that our eternity can be a pleasant one.  

Her second day.

My baby bump/birth story.

I realized after looking through some of my old posts (I swear I'm not narcissistic) that I NEVER posted any pictures of my wonderful baby belly!!  It was the coolest thing ever.  SO.  Here is the last picture taken of me before I went to the hospital to have my babe.  I'm *pretty* sure this was taken at 36 weeks - she was born at 37 weeks thanks to my wonderful doctor for breaking my water FOR me (please note my sarcasm, she was almost a preme, I can only thank Heavenly Father that I make babies quickly - I'm pretty sure she would have come on her own at 38 weeks)  Ugh, I would have to SO ticked off if she had to be in the hospital for any amount of time longer than I needed to.  BUT, I don't like to think about that because it just makes me mad.  Next time I'd r e a l l y like to have a home birth and just skip over doctors and have a midwife for attempt number 2 at having a natural birth.

Okay, this is just turning into my birth story, I can feel it.  Well here is what I looked like BEFORE my dreams of having a natural childbirth were shattered.

36 weeks.

SO, my birth story goes a little like this.

On the afternoon of the 22nd of March I went in for my weekly doctors appointment.  It was the second time that the doctor was going to "check" me - like, my dilation and stuff because I was 37 weeks along.  4 days before this appointment I was at 1 cm and at this appointment I was 3 cm and *probably* would have had the baby at 38 weeks IF the doctor didn't accidentally strip my membranes (aka break my stinking water).  So we went home a little frazzled calling our parents to let them know I was going to have the baby sooner than we all expected.  (Slash give our moms time to fly out here to help us out for a couple of weeks).  Six hours and one tasty Mexican meal later we arrive at the American Fork hospital to have our natural hypnobirthing childbirth.  But I was having some high blood pressure, and that was just the beginning of our misfortune.  Because of my blood pressure they wanted me to stay laying down in my bed hooked up to this machine constantly.  And to make things better I was told that if my blood pressure got any higher that they'd have to put me on some "nasty" medication to keep me from having seizures.  Boy, that totally just helped my blood pressure stay exactly where it was, high.  So in an attempt to lower my blood pressure, Joseph and I did a hypnosis (I DO NOT RECOMMEND DOING A HYPNOSIS TO LOWER YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE, YOU WILL JUST STOP YOUR CONTRACTIONS COMPLETELY), while my blood pressure remained at "high" levels my contractions stopped all together!  That's not really something you want to happen when you're trying to have a baby.  So 3 hours later I was induced with Pitocin - a horrible drug.  Did I mention that it's horrible?  6 hours after that I'm having my drug induced contractions that feel about as natural as eating pennies for nourishment.  Aaand I get an epidural - because Pitocin is evil.  3 hours after some glorious drugged sleep plus 1 more hour then I feel pressure, down there.  And I just can't help but push.  And when the serious pushing comes, it only lasts for about 10 minutes and there's the baby!  Oh and who was it that delivered my baby?  I can't remember his name because it WASN'T my doctor - he had to go home after being at the hospital all night.  When it comes down to it, the only thing that was actually successfully followed on my birth preferences list was the "please do not cut the cord immediately, once it begins to kink then it can be cut" part.  Other than that, I did not receive an episiotomy (like my birth preferences requested) but I DID tear in 4 places.  If I actually had my doctor deliver my baby like he said he was going to, then he would have given me an episiotomy, like he said he would if I was going to tear in several places.  

*ugh*

My suggestion for a happy, comfortable, ENJOYABLE birthing experience?  Have your baby AT HOME using the Hypnobirthing method with a midwife who will not touch you.  Hospitals are whack - and I didn't get anything I wanted all because my doctor stripped my membranes.  

I guess I should clarify that my experience was not the worst thing ever, I did come out of there with a 7 lb 7 oz baby who was healthy.  But next time, I plan on having a birthing experience that is natural and normal and what a birthing experience should actually be like.