Tofu and Vinegar

I'm back! It actually turns out we have had wireless internet access since we moved but I have been too busy moving in, taking care of Kellyn, and enjoying our new place to blog. So here's a quick update. We got moved in! Our families were so great to help. We bought a condo on the third floor so moving was even a bigger pain than it is normally. But we got it all in and we didn't even have enough stuff to fill up all the space! This condo is about five years old but the last owner was immaculate so it feels like it's brand new. It's so clean and nice and I am in HEAVEN. I have my own laundry room and a new washer and dryer, two bathrooms (as mentioned before), a walk in closet, my very own beautiful kitchen with a real-life pantry, full size functioning and clean appliances, and an amazing view. The list goes on of things I love about this place. I'll post some pictures soon.

Kellyn is growing like a weed. She is huge! She is now smiling like crazy, laughing, rolling over (and over and over and over...), almost sitting up by herself, and putting EVERYTHING in her mouth--much to the dismay of her germaphobic mother. She will be five months old in about a week. I can't believe how fast it's going. I also can't believe how much easier and more fun it's gotten. I didn't think I would make it at first. Motherhood was so much harder that I imagined it would be. But I feel more like a real person now and am loving staying home with Kellyn and watching her grow.

With our new house I am also becoming house-wife extraordinaire. Okay not really. Actually that just means I've started cooking dinner and cleaning on a regular basis. It's so much more fun to cook and clean in a nice home! I'm back to my vegetarian diet for the most part and am having tons of fun cooking new meals. Two new things I've discovered--Tofu and Vinegar. I love to eat tofu. Never liked it before but I guess you just have to have the right recipe. And I love cleaning with vinegar. I found a website that has like 1001 uses for vinegar. It's all natural, non-toxic, cheap, and you can use it for just about everything. Jared isn't really loving coming home on days I've been cleaning cause it smells like pickles. But he'll get used to it right? I've also started a new hobby--crocheting. It is so relaxing! I'm like an old woman--cleaning with vinegar and crocheting. The reason I started is I needed to do some community service and I decided that making scarves and hats for a homeless shelter is something I could feasibly do since whatever I did I would have to take Kellyn with me. More about the reason for community service later. (No I didn't commit a crime.)

Next on the update list: The Holidays. We had a nice Christmas in Nephi with my family. We were all spoiled to the maximum and ate ridiculous amounts of food. Thank heavens for breast-feeding or else who knows how much I would weigh. I swear my metabolism has become like a teenage boy. Better not get used to that unless I plan on following in Michelle Duggar's footsteps and nursing for the rest of my life. (A new weight loss program--have a baby every nine months!) On New Years Eve we went to bed at 9:30. I was so excited that Kellyn actually went to bed early for once and we didn't even realize what day it was. We were awakened at midnight by screaming and pot banging in the condo beneath us. We then realized our New Year's Eve memo must have gotten lost in the mail and we went back to sleep. New Year's Eve used to be a lot more exciting when I knew I could sleep in the next day.

Well I think that's all for now. Life is good. Here are some pictures to top it all off. And here's some advice: try tofu and vinegar. Seriously. They rock.

Aren't these the cutest hat and gloves ever?

Leaving Kellyn alone with Dad usually ends up in some interesting pictures on the camera. Take the white trash mullet photo for instance.Another alone with Dad picture. Apparently she decided the bumbo was as good a place as any to take a nap.

Her first smile for the camera!Gangsta KellynWouldn't it be nice to still look cute when your leg rolls are showing through your stretchy pants?Kellyn's Grandma made her a sock monkey that she loves to play with/slobber on.

The End

Plural Potties

We are moving into our first home TOMORROW. If everything goes according to plan that is. I feel like we are really moving up in the world. I mean we are going to have TWO bathrooms! I don't even know what to do with two whole bathrooms! Other luxuries include but are not limited to the following: control of our own temperature--no more layering on the winter clothes in my own house, hot water at any time of day, hot water lasting long enough for me to shave my legs (it's been a while...gross), no obnoxious landlords upstairs screaming at each other or doing various other noisy "activities" that we can hear but would rather not hear, no more living beneath ground level, and best of all--no more moving for a REALLY LONG TIME. Moving is a lot of work. We really appreciate all of our family for helping us move. We couldn't have done it without them! Since we won't have internet for a while I am going on a blogging break. So the next time you hear from me, I will be blogging and then deciding which potty I want to use cause starting tomorrow I will have a choice.

What kind of idiot puts liquid dish soap in the dishwasher?

This kind of idiot. (Note to self: read the labels carefully next time.)

Sweat Pants and Fuzzy Teeth

Do you ever get to the end of the day, run your tongue across your teeth, and realize you never got around to brushing them? When I "retired" and moved on to motherhood, I thought there would be nothing to it. I mean I had been taking care of 25 kids for the past two years so how hard could one little baby be? I was actually worried I would be bored. Now it is 11:00 at night and I have fuzzy teeth that, once again, I never got around to brushing. I took my shower for the day about two hours ago, and I am now wearing my bedtime sweat pants as opposed to my daytime sweat pants. I'm not sure what time or day it is (is it the end of the week or the beginning?), don't know for sure when I washed my hair last, and I'm positive I have lots of things to do but I seem to have lost a significant portion of my short-term memory. What has happened to me? Is this a motherhood phenomenon? Is it due to the exhaustion of sleepless nights? Constant breast-feeding? Never-ending diaper changes and poop leakage? Could it be the unaturally high tone of voice I seem to have developed? Or maybe it's the germaphobia that occupies every waking moment while I boil and sanitize in the fight against swine flu? Whatever the cause of this insanity, this face makes it all worthwhile don't you think? (The picture is dark because the flash freaks her out. If you can't tell in the picture, she has learned to blow spit bubbles. My child is a genius!)

Growing Up

It looks like everyone is growing up in our family. Kellyn has grown so much I can't believe she is the same baby I gave birth to 12 weeks ago. We also are growing up and attempting to buy our first home. Three days ago I said "please can we move?" and since then we found a great condo and are working on the loan. We possibly could close by the end of the month. That was fast huh? We are really excited and stressed. Buying a house is a BIG deal and a LOT of money and a lot of WORK. Growing up is hard. But I really think we will be happy there. So if anyone needs an apartment in Provo, we are selling our contract. We have a nice apartment that is very affordable and within walking distance of BYU. If we were still students I would love to stay here. But we aren't students and I'm staying home now so I need a place to feel more like home. And now I'm getting it! Jared is so good to me. So everyone keep your fingers crossed and send potential Provo renters our way. I'll post pictures of the new place if/when everything works out. And since there are no pictures yet, here are some Kellyn Halloween pictures. She's not really ready for trick-or-treating. But my mom had to buy her a costume, of course. Isn't this the cutest pumpkin ever?

Kellyn's Blessing

We finally found a day to get Kellyn blessed. Jared gave her a beautiful blessing. We had lots of friends and family come to support us which we really appreciated. Here are some pictures of the big day. There are also some random cute pictures from the last few days. She is almost ten weeks old and I can't believe how fast it is gone and how much she has changed and grown already. She'll be graduating from high school before we know it!

Six Weeks

I can't believe that my baby is six weeks old. I also can't believe how wonderful but HARD it is to be a mom. I think there must be a secret motherhood pact that says no mother tells any soon-to-be mother any details of exactly how hard it is to have a baby. And I don't mean just pushing the baby out. I mean having a baby that you are totally responsible for. I was debating whether to go into detail about the challenges of being a new mom. Just in case there is a secret pact that I wasn't informed about, I don't want to risk breaking it. Instead I will just leave you with this quote from a book that saved my sanity the first few weeks with a new baby. I would recommend this book to every new mom. I wish I had read it before I had Kellyn just so I was prepared. But you may want to wait until you are up three times in the middle of the night feeding a baby and just read it then. Reading can take the place of that thing you used to do called sleeping. It's called "The Girlfriends Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood" by Vicky Lovine. So here's a list from the beginning of her book. This kind of sums up my experience.

Top-Ten Biggest Shocks of Childbirth

10. How big you really got during pregnancy

9. How fat you still are when you leave the hospital

8. How messy childbirth and recovery are (she's not kidding...)

7. How frightened you are of ever having a bowel movement again in this lifetime

6. How fat your face looks in the delivery room videos and photos

5. How certain you are that you will never want sex again
4. How irresponsible the hospital was to have released this precious baby into your care, considering you'd never even changed a diaper until yesterday

3. How complicated nursing a baby really is

2. How overwhelming your devotion and enslavement to the baby are already

1. How nobody ever told you how much it really hurts to have a baby

Hopefully that doesn't scare any of you potential moms too badly. I think I know the real reason why mothers didn't tell me how hard it is. I think that you forget because it gets so good after the initial shock wears off. After six weeks I feel one million times better and I really love it. In fact, I think I'm even getting used to the idea of maybe having another child...someday...in the distant future. So here are some pictures of Kellyn from the past six weeks. She is growing so fast. And I am officially one of those people now who thinks everything their child does, whether it's smiling or blinking or moving her little finger, is the cutest thing in the world. My blog will now be filled with pictures that I think are adorable and everyone else thinks are pretty boring. But it's my blog so I can do whatever I want. Here she is!

Another newborn picture from the hospital

Wearing sunglasses at Aunt Jenny's wedding and not happy about it...hence the pouty lip.

Freezing after bath time
Hanging out in the swingKellyn and Uncle AndrewI finally caught her kind of smiling on camera. As soon as I get the camera out she quits doing whatever cute thing she was doing. She is wearing a dress her Great Grandma gave her. These are the kind of dresses my mother tortured me with as a child and now I'm doing it to Kellyn too. Poor child.
GO UTES! Unfortunately she may turn out to be a BYU fan. When I was first trying to take a picture of her in this outfit she was screaming. She wore herself out so I took this while she was sleeping. Maybe all the Happy Valley air is getting to her...



Kellyn and Dad