Recent Pictures, because I just can't get enough!

Levy is starting to laugh and it is my absolute favorite!!!

She is so drooly right now! Bibs are our best friend.

I made lots of baby leggings that fit her now and I think they are awesome!

Levy at 3 months old

Little miss independent thinks she can sit up, stand up, and walk on her own- yikes!

She just crashed while playing... I love when this happens, it's so cute!

A Wonderful World

My baby girl is already three and a half months old and I can hardly believe it!  Time is such a crazy and precious thing.  Levia is growing so fast, I can’t keep up with her!  I already look at pictures from the day she was born and cannot believe the transformation! She has been such a good baby, there have been many days when I just feel so grateful for how easy she is and how smoothly the transition into parenthood has been. 

The best part about having Levia is just the small moments we share that just bring such joy and love into our home and family.  Her smiles and little personality is just so adorable and I just love being with her.  She loves her daddy and it just melts my heart to see them together!

We have been so blessed to have family come visit us and meet Levia.  My parents have been out, my sister Becca, and Rod’s parents and sister Jessica were all able to come out.  One of the hardest things for me is that not everyone has gotten to see her, and having our family so far away, no one gets to see her often.  I wish my family could come out once a week and see her grow and see all the new things she does, but thank heavens for Skype!

One of my favorite days so far was Levia’s blessing day.  She wore a beautiful dress made by Rod’s mom.  My parents were here that day and Uncle Jim came down for the blessing.  Rod gave a beautiful blessing and I was just overwhelmed with love from my Heavenly Father that day.  I am so grateful for a husband who uses his priesthood- it blesses our family so much!  We had a barbecue that afternoon and all of our friends came.  I felt so blessed to have people who love us and support us.  It was a beautiful day- one that I don’t think I will forget!

This summer has been a whirlwind of busy days and lots of things going on, visitors, and people to see as well as quite a few relaxing days as well.  I will admit that some days I like just being at home with my family and relaxing together.

Levia May

I won't bore you with every gory detail, but I do want to share Levia's birth story.  I feel so fortunate in the care I got and the way we decided to go about having our beautiful girl.

We decided to have her at Mountain Midwifery (a birth center) instead of going the traditional hospital route.  I was seen by midwives throughout the pregnancy, we took classes which were very helpful, and I felt like the midwives knew me and took time to answer all of my questions or concerns.  I have never liked doctors but I never felt scared or nervous about visiting my midwives.  One of the biggest comforts going into birth was that throughout our classes the midwives were honest about the pain of birth but made me feel so comfortable and not scared for the actual labor.

On Friday night at about 8:30 I started having small contractions (far apart and not very consistent) so I thought they would just go away.  I went to bed that night just fine but woke up a few times with contractions.  At 1:00am I woke up with stronger contractions and they were consistently 5 minutes apart.  I was throwing up a ton and lost everything in me by that point.  I was nervous about the throwing up so we called the midwives a little earlier than we planned- at about 5:00am when contractions were 4 minutes apart.  They told me to come in by 6:00.  By the time we got there my contractions were really close together.  Because I had lost all my food and water, they gave me a bag of fluid through an IV to help give me some energy.  At about 7:45 or so I got into the birthing tub.  I decided I love birthing tubs! Just about after that point I could hardly tell what was a contraction anymore.  --lots of pain and pushing part--  and Levia was born at 8:28am.  After she came out of the water it took her a minute to breathe which scared me but the midwives helped right away.  The midwives and the nurse there were awesome and talked me through some of the hard parts.

Although it was obviously not fun, I had an amazing birth experience.  It was so surreal and just indescribable the spirit that was there and the overwhelming love that I felt as my husband and I looked at out little girl for the first time.  I know everyone says it about their own child, but to me she was just the most beautiful thing I had ever seen- and still is!

Almost There!

We are in our 39th week of pregnancy now! Hopefully we will get to meet our little one before too long.  We have been trying to enjoy these last few weeks, but we have also been pretty busy!  Rod is studying for the GMAT on top of working and we moved down the road to a townhouse which I LOVE because it has so much more space than I am used to!

Recent pictures!

Practicing baby wearing...love it.

The crib we painted! I am pretty proud!

Our new home!

36 Weeks

34 weeks(ish?)

Counting Down...

I decided that once we hit 31 weeks, we could start counting down instead of counting up.  So, 9 more weeks!!! It's hard to believe we are down to our last 2 months! HOORAY! I am getting a little anxious to move into our new place so I can get things set up, but I have started a good collection of items which are filling up our storage closet, and our bedroom... 

Other than my back, I feel great.  There have been a few theories on what's going on with my back- a rotated pelvis, crooked tail bone, and the most likely, a herniated disc.  I am now going to a physical therapist and doing lots of exercise!  Out of all the things that I have tried throughout my pregnancy, the one thing I would suggest is prenatal yoga.  I have never done yoga, but I absolutely love doing my yoga DVD's and they help a ton with strengthening and positioning and it really is calming.  

Little girl is growing and everyone can tell--my growing belly is starting to get in the way a bit.

Most of the time I am at home in my sweats, but here is me trying to stay stylish while pregnant... 

A Little Drama Queen

We try to keep thing interesting in our house, but this little drama I think I could have done without.

At our 18 week ultrasound our doctor told us he would do a follow up ultrasound just to make sure everything is still normal and to confirm the gender since our ultrasound was a little earlier in the pregnancy than we thought.  So last week (at 28 weeks) we went in and did the ultrasound and we heard the doctor say, "it looks like it's a boy!"  ...wait, what??  He even went as far as putting "boy parts" on the ultrasound photo and giving it to us.  As he continued, he said some things to the effect of "I think it's a boy but I can't really tell."  As we were getting up to leave he ended with "Well, to answer your question, I really don't know what it is."

At first I thought it was funny, but after that wore off, I was feeling pretty frustrated.  Rod was at least as frustrated as I was.   We went a week and a half without knowing what it was, which in pregnancy time feels like a long time! So we decided to go to one of those ultrasound places, you know, like the ones you can find at the mall (yes, they exist, who knew?).  It was definitely fancier than anything I wanted  or needed, but they had awesome technology.  They told us right away that it was most definitely a girl!  I made him show us a couple times, just to be sure!  The 3D imaging ended up being pretty cool too.

We decided we already have a little drama queen on our hands, causing us grief already.  So, bring on the drama little one!  We are ready for you... well almost...

Feeling bigger by the day!

She's So Fancy...It's a Girl!

We could not be more excited to find out we are having a little GIRL!!!!!!!  It is so crazy and knowing it's a girl makes everything more real and so much more exciting!  I cannot wait to shop for and spoil her!

A little surprise... We thought we were getting our ultrasound at 20 weeks, but Doc said the baby was only at 18 weeks SO... we had to push back our due date by two weeks.  I thought I was halfway there but I guess not! Our new due date is probably going to be May 8th, we still have to get everything approved with our midwives.  Either way, we are so excited!  I am a little obsessed...