Ok, so I know it's been a while!

Well, for those of you who haven't heard, Corey and I are in California for a while. We moved in with our grandparents to help them stay in their home and hopefully not have to move into a nursing home. It's been an incredibly hard transition and we are still adjusting to our new life and living out of boxes again! Yuck. At least we are beginning to explore our new, beautiful surroundings and figure out how to get around this area. Corey hasn't found a job yet but Kim might have landed a job and the local vegan restaurant, yeah!

I added some pics here and on facebook for those of you who miss my Lydia. Corey and I have been enjoying the extra time we get to spend with her. It almost seems like we are more busy than before, though, when we were both working full-time! Everything is so expensive here and I am the sole provider for a family of 6 now but we are trying to make things work! Hopefully this experience will be good for us and my grandparents. We'll see.
If anyone knows any 25-30 somethings with little kids who like yoga (optional) and eat vegetarian (optional) let me know! I left all of my friends in Utah and I would like to spend some good quality time with some people other than my immediate family. Same for Corey.
We miss all of you. Keep in touch!

Lydia wanted to be shipped back to Grandma and Grandpa in Utah!

Little poser!



Ahh, the beach!

My Baby Girl is 1!

My little girl is all grown up, she turned 1 today! She loves getting into everything and we call her The Little Destroyer! She will eat almost anything and loves to feed the dogs too during meal times. She loves her dog Chewy so much that we ended up adopting another dog from a shelter so that she would always have someone to play with, his name is Meathead and she loves him, too.

I can't believe how much has changed in just a year, I swear I just had her! She is starting to point at everything and trying to talk. She can say Dadda very well and Momma on occasion. She loves playing, reading, being tossed in the air, and being tickled.

She is going to have her first taste of cake on Wednesday and she'll get to open presents. I can't wait to see how she does with all the attention on her for a night! Happy Birthday my Little Sweetie, I love you with all my heart!

New Endeavor

I will be starting a new job August 1st to hone in on my nursing skills more. I also can't stand working for my manager, she is impossible. It used to be so good at my job but lately nothing has been going right and I have been having issues with anxiety and never knowing when I have to work. It used to be great when we would all call each other and work out the cases, now, we have to work out scheduled shift only and no one will help anyone out anymore, and when I call the lunch person, they don't come in so that I can pump while I'm still breastfeeding. This way Corey and I also won't need a baby sitter and I'll always know when I am supposed to work and I'll get potty and lunch and pump breaks. We'll see how it goes, I am PRN at my old job so as to not loose my seniority if this new job doesn't work out and I decide to go back. I just need to see if this is what I need right now in my life to make me happy because I haven't been for quite a while now except when I look at my daughter and that is why I'm trying this. I love everyone at St. Mark's (for the most part) and I hope they understand. Wish me luck!

Cute Pics!

It's overwhelming sometimes to think that I am responsible to teach Lydia everything she will know and learn for the first years of her life and I hope that I can do a good job so she will know she is loved and cared for deeply. I can't stand to be apart too long from 'the Sweetie' and I can't believe Corey and I could make such a beautiful baby with the absolute cutest personality! Everyone should try parenthood, it's a blast!

Working Mommies

Why is it that we have to work? I wish we could all just live together and work off the land...but that's so not practical, especially when I have an addiction to ridiculously cute baby clothes that my daughter so doesn't need. Maybe I just need a new job that isn't so stressful or demanding so that I could spend more time at home with Lydia. You would think with my RN, BSN, CST, FA-C credentials I should be able to do that. I really like my job most days, but after spending an entire week with one particular Dr. I don't know if it's worth it anymore. I'm going to move to a farm. And wear bonnets and aprons, and drink milk straight from the cow. You know, the simple life!

Green acres is the place for me!

Farm livin' is the life for me!



Land spreadin' out so far and wide,



Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside!

New Cousins!

Lydia has two new cousins, Layla and Makayla! She thinks that they are just something else to stick in her mouth, in fact, she ate Layla's foot the first time she met her. She also gets really excited to see her older cousins Max and Alina and Tateleigh. She giggles and screams to get their attention. I can't wait until they are old enough to get in to trouble together, 7 months is not that far apart after they all start walking and talking!

Notice foot in mouth.

Also, notice foot in mouth.



Three Little Trouble Makers



Cheese!

6 Months Has Come and Gone!

I can't believe Lydia is 6 months old already! That means just one more month until she gets to meet her new girl cousins, Layla and Mikayla!

Here are some of the things we've been up to; Lydia loves to sleep in our bed (a bad habit we are trying to break), she can sit up unassisted for a short while, she laughs when you change her poopy diapers, she sticks anything and everything in her mouth, she has tried several types of fruits and veggies and likes them all, she has had her first cold/fever, she took her first vacation to Phoenix, she can roll over both ways, she smiles when we get out the camera, and when we come home from work she is happy to see us! Time flies when you're having fun!

A must have for Phoenix sun!



Hiking in the 'mountains' in Phoenix



'Auntie Nicole'

Lydia and Ben

Hangin' out

Ben came to visit Lydia yesterday while his Mommy Amy went to work for the first time! They are only two weeks apart but Ben has outgrown her by far! It was very interesting for me to try and figure out how to feed two babies at the same time and what to do when they both wanted to be held, and of course, it would be silly for either of them to want to take a nap during that time. I also thought that it would be a brilliant idea to get both babies naked since they both love it so much, I didn't realize that boys don't just pee on themselves but they pee all over that whole room, Ben wore a loin cloth after that. I don't know how people with twins do it, I was pretty worn out after only 4 hours!

Naked Tummy Time!



Cuties!



Ben's Loin Cloth



Little Nakeds!



Entertaining two Babies!



How to Hold 2 Babies!

5 Months Already!

Well, my beautiful little girl is growing up way too quickly. She weighs 14 lbs now. She is grabbing everything and putting it in her mouth and it becoming quite the character. We are practicing crawling and sitting up but really she just prefers to be snuggling in Mom's arms. She loves her dog Chewy, her kitties, the fish, hangin' out in the hottub, being naked, being outside for any reason, and grandma and grandpa.

Lydia is 4 Months Old!

Time flies and Lydia is growing up way too quickly! I love that she changes every day and gets cuter and cuter! She rolled over for the first time from her tummy, she tried her first rice cereal, and she never stops smiling and giggling. Her Daddy can't get enough of her and has a hard time dropping her off at our baby sitter's house in the morning. I am back at work and I hate leaving her but I know that she is well taken care of thanks to my Dad and Corey's Mom and Aunt Stephi.

Lydia was also able to meet my Dad's side of the family from California, what a treat! I didn't get to hold her all night and every time I looked up someone new was playing with her. She sometimes has stranger anxiety, in fact, she just started liking her Daddy and not crying all the time when he holds her. So she must have felt right at home visiting with the relatives because she was an angel the whole time.

Yes, most of it ends up on my face.

New Year's Party

Lydia is always ready to rock

So apparently we suck and no one bothered to tell us. By 11:30, out of all the people who said they were coming, the only people who had showed up to our party were our best and closest friends and family; Steph and Joe, Linzey and Jake, and Jessie and Kellen. We were about to call it quits when our friends Lindsay and Bob showed up with 6 other people and the party finally started. We were able to get rid of most of the champagne and watch the ball drop together at least. Next year, I'm sleeping through New Year's, it's overrated and lame.

Lydia's First Christmas

Lydia had her first Christmas this year! Santa didn't bring her any presents at home but her stocking had socks and a rattle in it. And from everyone else, thankfully, all she got was a couple of cute outfits and some books and toys. That's all little babies really 'need' although Lydia always 'needs' new outfits! My Dad thought that he should have gotten me more dolls when I was younger so that I don't feel the need to dress my little daughter up in ridiculous outfits all the time, but it's just in my nature and we both have fun trying on new things!

We were able to visit my parents and Corey's parents and eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Mmmm... Oh, and I got a new salt water fish tank! I am so excited and can't wait to put fish and coral in it. And Corey got a snow blower, a blu ray player, a TV, a fridge, a new air conditioner, and some slippers.

Now on to New Year's...we are hosting a party at our house, so I'll let y'all know how that goes. Happy Holidays!

And her favorite toy of all, a gloworm..

What? I still spit up on Christmas.



My Grandpa

Lydia is 3 Months Old!

Lydia's Fish Face

Lydia turned 3 months today, whoa, does time go fast. She smiles all the time now, she is such a flirt. She even laughs and giggles a lot, too. She is constantly talking and making new sounds, I can't wait to see what she's like when we can understand her. I wonder what she is going to do next...
She also sleeps 'like a baby' through the night for 8-10 hours, it's amazing. She won't nap really at all during the day, though, and she likes to eat every two hours so our days are busy finding things to do that she likes. We love her so much and she is such a good baby. What did I do to deserve this? I hope I don't get it later...

Santa Baby!

Lydia went to a lot of Christmas parties this year! One new tradition that we started this year was an Angel Tree competition with my Aunt Julie and Uncle Doug. We split up into 3 teams and tried to get the most and best gifts for less fortunate people for Christmas. It was so much fun being able to get stuff for people who really deserve it! And believe it or not the boys won! We will definitely be doing it again next year!

Lydia will be 3 months old on the 21st of December, it's amazing how fast they grow up. I will be going back to work on the 29th and I am not looking forward to it at all. Thankfully, I have Corey's Mom and my sister Steph and my Dad to help watch her so I know she will be well taken care of, I just don't want to miss out on anything!

It's been snowing here and I was trying to figure out how to hold a baby and shovel so I bundled her up and strapped her in to her Snuggli and went outside and she would laugh hysterically every time I would scrape the shovel on the ground. I guess she thought that it was just as funny to watch her Mommy shovel, thank goodness Daddy got home and saved us.

Here's just a few pics of the cute Christmas outfits that she wore this year!

Naked Santa Baby!

Cute Reindeer Outfit





Outfit from Julie & Doug





Half of a Santa outfit when Daddy gets her dressed!

So true...





Christmas outfits with Daddy!





Mommy, Daddy, Lydia, and Santa!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Thanksgiving!

This post is for Thanksgiving a while ago but I am just getting around to it now...This Thanksgiving was just okay. We went to Tuscany with my Dad's family and we sat at a long table so we couldn't converse with most of the family and the service wasn't the best. Next year we will have Thanksgiving at our house so that we can spend more quality time with our family.
We also went to Corey's family's house which was nice and quaint. Needless to say we were very full by the end of the day and it was very nice to go home and veg the rest of the night with my cute baby and husband! Lydia looked especially good in her Thanksgiving outfit, pilgrim hat and all! She was so tired that she fell asleep on the dining table, she almost got eaten with the meal!