Our miracle!!!

Here are just a few pictures of our little Saoirse (that's said "seer-shah," it's Gaelic and means "freedom") Lorelai from after she was born.  JUST ONE DAY OLD!  She's so little and cute I can hardly stand it.  And she used to LOVE sleeping on our chests whenever she possibly could.  Now she just likes being swaddled and staring at any light.  I guess that's not too terribly different than what she was like just a few weeks ago when she was born.  She's nearly 7 weeks old now.  I can't believe she's almost 2 months!  Sooo crazy.

I think this is one of my favorites.

She's a few days old in this one with my wonderful mother who came and spent a week with us, and Saoirse's face is hilarious.

We'll be leaving for Iowa City and Sioux Falls in a little under a week, and I'm SO excited!  I am excited for the family to enjoy little Saoirse and to be able to see them and hang out and laugh.. ah, I miss my family.  We will be getting Saoirse blessed while we're in Sioux Falls which I'm also excited about (a blessing is different than a baptism, we don't get baptized until we're at least 8 years old).  PLUS, she has a SUPER cute blessing dress with a bonnet.  I'll get some pictures up when the big day comes.  :)

My life has been a busy one.

It has been MONTHS since I've posted anything and it's been just over a month since my little baby Saoirse Lorelai has been born!  I still can't believe she's here and she's MINE.  And no matter how much poop there is on her or how much cheese she makes in her neck crevices she's still the cutest thing I've ever seen.  She gets a little less cute when she's crying for seemingly no reason in the middle of the night, but I still love seeing that toothless smile she gives occasionally and those chunky cheeks.  I think it's fair to say that you really can't fully understand love until you love a child.  They do nothing to deserve your love - they puke, poop, cry and occasionally sleep.  Being a parent to a puking, pooping and crying baby helps me to better understand the love Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father have for us.  It helps me better understand Christ's grace.  We do nothing to deserve His grace, but He gives us his love despite our imperfections.  I know that I would do anything for Saoirse but I know the best thing I can do for her is to be the best mother and wife I can be and to teach her the gospel of Jesus Christ so that she can know just how special she is and how lucky she is to be born into a family who has been sealed for time and all eternity in the Temple.

I love my little family.  I'm so blessed to be able to stay home and raise Saoirse (and any other children that come along).  I'm blessed to have such a wonderful and supportive husband who loves our family.

Coming up in three days is mine and Joseph's one year anniversary!  I'm so happy to be able to celebrate that with him.  I simply cannot believe how blessed I have been in the past two years since my baptism (which was two years ago on Monday), it has strengthened my testimony that if we follow the Lord's commandments then we will be truly blessed.  I know that I have been.

I love life!  I've never been happier, or more tired.  :)

Our December finale, sort of.

We FINALLY cleaned out what is to be the baby's room.  It's been "in the process" since we moved in.  It used to be filled with boxes with one little path that sort of led to the middle back of the room, then it was filled with Joseph's junk he got from Apple (thank you Apple for sending us so much paper), and now it is finally ready for a crib!!!  Just as soon as we get the crib of course all will be perfect.

Clearly the room is enormous.

As you can see, Joseph is working at the computer (at my sweet desk I got for $20 - WIN).  The crib will go where the TV and backpack are.  We will soon be getting rid of that TV because we got a new one and it's glorious - I love Best Buy.  Anyway, I LOVE nesting.  It feels so good to clean and get everything ready for little baby to enter into the world!  

I have been incredibly blessed by Heavenly Father with such a wonderful, helpful and thoughtful husband and to have this little baby on the way.  I can't even begin to describe my gratefulness to Him for such a blessed life.

I WOULD LIKE TO ANNOUNCE THAT PROVO HAS FINALLY SEEN THE BEAUTIFUL FACE OF FATHER WINTER.  Yes, it's happened.  It snowed.  And I was here.  (I'll have you take note that the last and first time it snowed, I was out of the state and it all melted before I got back).  All it took was one wonderfully fantastic night for there to be tons of snow.  I love snow.  It's so happy.  I'm so happy.  And I love wearing snow boots.  

Yay!

Our Sunday.

Ahh, yes.  Sundays are quite wonderful - especially in December.  We get to sing all the Christmas hymns at church ALL WE WANT and when we get home Joseph and I make our Sunday dinner.  Which is really more like linner - since we eat around 2.  These last couple of Sundays Joseph and I made the same thing that I have named "Slow-Cooked Steaks".  The originality of my title is unparalleled.  Because we literally slow-cook some steaks, but only after leaving some potatoes in the crock pot for 3 hours (while we're at church) to cook in some water.  When we get home we stick the steaks in for about 30 minutes (an hour if frozen) after smothering them in olive oil and massaging (yes) in salt and some delicious steak seasoning.  After that we grill them for about 5 minutes and make some gravy out of the watery goodness stewing in the crock pot.  AND VOILA!  A delicious meal of meat and potatoes completely smothered in the most delectable gravy.  Unfortunately I don't have any photographic evidence of such a meal because it gets eaten too quickly by my ravenous husband and myself BUT I do have a picture of Joseph cooking the steaks in a pan....

...... isn't he cute?!  

By the bye, that's the apron he got me for my birthday.  IT'S AMAZING.  

My project.

Saturday night Joseph and I went over to spend time with Robin and Neal and their two little kiddies (who were very shy upon our arrival).  Caius (the eldest), as soon as he would talk to me, would call me "Mommy, ... Grandpa,  ..." and then continue with whatever he wanted to show me.  It was really cute and made me laugh every time.  While we were there, the boys went off to play some computer game in the back room while Robin and I worked on some projects.  She made several Christmas stockings - which I now want to make for my growing family, and I started on some little tiny baby booties!  Once we left I had finished one booty which was so stinking small!  Over the next couple of days I worked on a matching hat and then the other booty (the second one didn't take me nearly as long to finish as the first).

I got sick of doing the hat about half way through.. so it's really small and *might* fit a premature baby.  Hopefully we won't have to use that one...  BUT..

BOOTIES!!  They're extra small and extra adorable.  One is also slightly smaller than the other, it's hard to make things the same size!!  When I finished the second one, I attached them together with a bit of yarn so I can hang them on the tree and they can be baby's ornament.  Then she can wear them when she's born (after detaching them of course)... then they'll go back up on the tree next christmas!!  Yay for completed projects!!!

Our three ornaments.

We put up our Christmas tree just before we left for Iowa for Thanksgiving.  I couldn't wait any longer.  Really, I wanted to put it up several weeks before Halloween... but Joseph didn't like that idea, not to mention the fact that having a Christmas tree up at a Halloween party looks weird.  So I waited as long as I could and thought that it would be nice to come back from Thanksgiving with our tree up and decorated!

Our little tree is only about 4 feet tall and made of various types of plastic.  I ordered it from the most wonderful place in the world, www.christmascentral.com.  I don't know why I didn't know about this treasure trove before but thank goodness I know now.  Our tree was $8!  Best, idea, ever.

We literally have 5 Christmas decorations, a tree, a string of lights, and 3 ornaments.  All of which can be seen in this picture.  Did I mention that I made our 3 ornaments?  (I also made that little baby hat on the shelf there, it's small and glorious, yay babies!!!)

I have started the nesting phase of my pregnancy, which is nice because I'm able to keep pretty busy all the time.  Besides constantly doing dishes and keeping the kitchen clean (which is where we spend most of our time) I've started cleaning and clearing out our office/second bedroom/junk room/food storage room.  There are a lot of things I want to give to DI that I have no use for but have held onto for some reason.  My mother was also kind enough to send in our POD along with all of my furniture a load of the toys and things I played with as a baby/child.  Which is great, I don't want to get rid of my Polly Pockets, but I don't want them in my house either.  I have a stinking box full of them!  Fortunately, we're having a girl (WOOT) so I can introduce her to the world of miniature and she will love it.  That equals less toys that I have to buy.  I got rid of a bunch of stuffed animals and some blankets as well - believe me, I have a lot of teddy bears that take up a lot of room, and parting with them is such sweet sorrow.  But don't get confused, I'm only getting rid of half of them.  AND since Joseph is finished with his Apple job for this year we had to send back all of the things they lent us (including the billion boxes we had to keep to send everything back in).  So there's that.  Oh and the forrest of trees Apple sent us in hand-out card type things that can be recycled or something.  Pretty much all I'm saying is that the room will look fantastic in no time at all.  

Ahh!!  My wonderful mother is getting us the crib of my d r e a m s.

It's a mini crib (for the mini space we have) that converts into a toddler bed.  It's so fantastic I could barf. I cannot wait to get it all set up in baby's room!!!

Our gift.

Today has been a day Joseph and I have been looking forward to for a long time.  Today was finally the day of my first ultrasound!  I was all excited and nervous walking into the office, hoping for the best and expecting the worst.  I probably shouldn't expect the worst but I seem to handle bad news better if I've prepared for it a bit.  Alas, my attempts to prepare for the worst news possible were in vain, because it was all wonderful.  Not only was the jelly warm that the nurse so abundantly sprayed all over my belly, but I got to see my beautiful little baby!  It was strange to think that the child on the screen I was looking at was mine and Joseph's, but it really hit me when I could feel the baby move or kick around and see it moving and kicking on the screen!  I suppose I'm having a hard time believing that there is another person inside of me.  And I can only imagine Joseph thinking, freaked out, to himself whenever I grab his hand and put it on my stomach for him to feel the baby "There is something inside of Abby that isn't Abby" but as soon as that baby flashed on the screen I could see on his face such happiness.  Happiness that came in the form of my favorite smile on Joseph's wonderful face.  Could I be so lucky that this man sitting next to me is my husband - my eternal companion and the father of the child I am growing??  I still can't believe how blessed I am.  

Back to our baby.. first of all, baby is very healthy.  Everything is growing the way it should grow and looks the way it should look.  We saw it's brain, face, arms, belly, legs, heart, kidneys, stomach and feet!!  Oh yes, we also got a good look between it's legs...  AND our little baby is a little girl!!  It's funny though, before I went in I was majorly concerned with finding out the gender, but as soon as we were actually looking at the baby it didn't really seem to matter that much.  All I really wanted was for the baby to be healthy.  I realized just how much could go wrong.  The nurse measured and checked all of these things to make sure the baby was growing properly.  I just can't grasp how blessed we are to have a perfectly healthy babe.  A babe that will make Joseph a father, and me a mother.

Her face.  You can see where her two little eye sockets and nose are.  Even though she's pretty much a skeleton and skin right now she's absolutely beautiful.

Her little feet!  One is just behind the other.  They look pretty big so I assume she's going to have awesome balance.  ...Or she'll trip over her huge feet all the time.

If I EVEN need to say it, this is a photo of her bum and legs.  The itty-bitty arrow is pointing at the "proof of gender," yep it looks like a girl to me.

Our Thanksgiving

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything on here.  That probably directly reflects how exciting my life is as a pregnant woman.  Really, the only thing I do these days is make sure I'm not hungry, plan meals throughout the day and occasionally do some laundry.  Did I mention I eat a lot?

Joseph and I decided to make the great trip to Iowa for Thanksgiving this year.  It was really fun and I got to see a lot of people I've missed - unfortunately not all of them.  Can I blame my forgetting to visit people on my pregnancy brain?  Well, I will whether or not that's kosher.  You see, I'm growing another person, so I figure that gives me some leeway or something.  

Dear little Vincent is H U G E.  He's got adorable curly red hair and the cutest little teeth.  I enjoyed watching him a lot while we were there and he's such a boy!  He laughed at everything especially when it involved someone looking like a fool.  It's amazing how much personality children have at this age.  By the bye, he looks EXACTLY like his mother, he's got her smile, eyes and dimples.  Very cute.

TWINS.

He has never learned to crawl but he has mastered the technique of scooting.  So he just sits on the ground and uses his legs in a window wiper motion to get himself where he needs to go (it also usually includes butt hopping as well).  When he gets really excited or just happy he starts spinning in circles which is probably one of the more hilarious things I've seen a kid do.  In this video, he was more than ready to eat some supper.

I was also able to hang out with my niece Scarlet, who has grown about a foot since I saw her last.  It was only six months ago that I saw her but she has learned so much in that time!  She can draw lots of things and knows what letters words start with by their sound - and she can even write some letters.  Her memory is crazy to me, she was telling me about all of the things we've ever done together.  It was so cool.  She's like a little adult, but only 4.  And WHAT a 4 year old!  She hops and jumps and spins around just to release her energy.  It's really cute but weird to think she's so old now.  But I've decided we're twins - she's my little mini-me.  Every time I would say something she would repeat it or she would try to move like me.  

Scarlet is too cute.  I don't think I can say that enough.  She would constantly put her hand on my belly, rub it and say hi to the baby.  

My mom and I.  I'm so glad Joseph and I got to stay for a whole week!

Heck yes.  Please ignore my partially closed eye.

While we were there, when Joseph didn't have anything to do he would play this video game called Red Dead Redemption.  It's all about cowboys and the wild west.  It's actually really entertaining to watch.  

I didn't get many pictures of the people we visited but I did get pictures of my adopted family GELDER.  It was so wonderful to see them and they certainly made an already exciting week fantastic.  

Now, I might have been the only one who noticed... but Lara is 8 months pregnant and I was only 20 weeks.  We looked pretty much the same.  That gives me so much hope for how giant I will become by the end of this pregnancy.  

All in all it was a great week we had.  Although I got to see so much of my family (including extended family in Burlington for actual Thanksgiving) I think the best part was being able to be with Joseph all the time!  No school or work to keep us apart for a few hours.  It was the greatest thing!  But, I can't wait to see all of them again soon.  However I think the next time I'll see most of them will be after I have my baby!  Eeek!!  

My memories.

Ah, tonight was a wonderful night!  Joseph and I watched the documentary on President Thomas S. Monson (President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) which was so inspiring!  It really makes me want to be more involved in doing service for others.  He's done so much to serve everyone around him and it makes me feel like I've done nothing!  Even when I know that's not true.  I think it's a very good goal to try to be more like him though.  Very selfless with all that he does.  After the video was over we were sort of just sitting around being bored when Joseph started talking to me a little bit about the fun things they would do on his mission, one of them being "a Tim-Tam Slam."  For those of you who are unfamiliar with a Tim-Tam Slam, I'll inform you, apparently it's the "best."  You make hot chocolate (why they even drank hot chocolate in the blistering heat of Taiwan is crazy to me, but whatever) and set the cup on the floor, they would then take a Tim-Tam (a little chocolate square with some nuget inside) bite off the two opposite corners and drink as quickly as they could the hot chocolate through the straw they made with the Tim-Tam.  All this while laying on your stomach on the floor.  I can only suppose they did that because you felt like barfing afterward and could easily lay down and die a little.  Once he told me this story it became perfectly clear what we needed to do next.  Go buy some Tim-Tams and slam them like they've never been slammed before.  Alas, we couldn't find them.  So we came home and had some hot chocolate anyway.

  

Now I could pretend this is a photograph of my own creation... actually, yes, that's what I'll do.  I MADE THIS.  Doesn't it look wonderful?  I love hot chocolate.  Tonight, while drinking the scalding hot liquid as fast as I could (as it is apparently tradition to burn every inch of my mouth when I have the opportunity) I was reminded of the wonderful days of my youth.  The days where I had no cares.  When I would go and sled outside for hours not realizing I was starving, dead tired and half frozen. I would stand on the porch while my mom (pretty violently) broomed me off to avoid getting snow in the house.  And I would sit in my clean dry clothes slowly defrosting and drink some hot chocolate, burning my tongue, but completely at peace.  

My thoughts. Yes I'm venting.

TOLERANCE.  I've found something interesting.  I always thought the word tolerance really coincided with the political team the Liberals (I'm talking about the tolerance Liberals preach for).  However, over the past few days I've gained a knowledge and an understanding that I hadn't before seen.

A definition of Tolerance : 2. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions and practices that differ from one's own.
But lets get a little more, a little deeper shall we?
Another definition of Tolerance : 1. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc.,differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry

It is not toleration to have (for example) 10 gay friends when you believe in gay marriage/gay rights.  It is not toleration to be pro-choice.  This is not toleration even if you aren't gay or would never get an abortion.  However, this is the kind of "toleration" that many preach for.   But it will never be toleration until you actually accept someone even when you don't agree with them.  Many people preach tolerance especially in the United States where you are free to be whoever you want to be.  People preach tolerance - but those same people are hypocrites.  They won't accept someone if they disagree with them.

Anyway, all this comes down to my discovery, as a fairly conservative person, I am more tolerant than the most "tolerant" Liberal.  Huh, weird.


This might not make sense or have come together in the most poetic way but venting feels soo good.