Sunday, December 9, 2012

Camping

Dan and I both love to be outside in nature, so we decided to get Hailey out into nature early. She got to experience her first time camping at 5 weeks old and did a GREAT job. We went camping up at Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona. We were up there earlier this year and love it because it's so close. We headed up one afternoon and set up camp. Hailey just chilled in her car seat while mom and dad set up the tent.
After we got camp all set up we went for a little walk to do some exploring. We were camped right next to the creek. It was absolutely beautiful. One of the things that we really like about Oak Creek is that we don't have to go very far from home, but that it is wonderful and green, something we don't see a lot of in Phoenix.
We hadn't gotten very far on our walk before Hailey was out. She just feel alseep in her daddy's arms.
  
She is such a wonderful little girl. She was so content while we cooked dinner, roasted marshmallows and played some games around the fire. She is just so happy to hang out with mom and dad.
 
The best part was that she slept like a dream. I only had to wake up once during the night to feed her, which is her typical routine. She stayed nice a warm and slept in the tent with mom and dad like the little angel she is. The next morning was a little chilly, but she stayed bundled up in her car seat.
After breakfast and clearing up camp we headed into Sedona to do a little exploring. This time we headed up to some trails that were supposedly "handicap" accessible (stroller accessible), but I'm not sure what kind of wheelchairs/strollers would have been able to access the trails that we were directed to. Not wanting to miss a wonderful view or an opportunity to hike mom and dad improvised.
Yes take a closer look.
Since we didn't have a proper baby carrying backpack, Dan used his backpack. We unzipped it all the way, added a blanket for cushion and another blanket for sun protection. She slept the entire time we were out on the trail. Needless to say that we did get a few strange looks. But like a have said before she is a wonderful little girl. And let me tell you the views were definitely worth it.
So glad we were able to enjoy our first of many camping trips together as a family.

Hailey looks like... continued

So I finally got around to digging up (and scanning) some baby pictures of Dan and I. Now you can decide for yourself who you think she looks more like.
Hailey
 Dan
 Shelly
 Shelly (this one is when I was about 5 months old)

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

General Conference Treat

So typically for general conference I make cinnamon rolls, but this year I decided to make something a little easier. I found a recipe for cinnamon pull apart bread on pinterest (the recipe is actually from foodsnots.com) and decided that it would be a good replacement for this year. It was really easy to make and super delicious.

Cinnamon and Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

Dough
     2 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
     1/4 cup sugar
     2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (1 packet)
     1/2 tsp. salt
     4 Tbsp. butter
     1/3 cup whole milk
     1/4 cup water
     2 eggs (at room temperature)
     1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Filling
     1 cup sugar
     2 tsp. cinnamon
     1/4 tsp. nutmeg
     4 Tbsp. butter, melted

In a large mixing bowl, mix 2 cups of flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Set aside.

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter and milk. Once the butter is completely melted take off the burner and add the water and vanilla. Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes.

Pour the milk mixture into the large bowl with the dry ingredients and mix well. Whisk together the eggs and add to the batter. Keep mixing. Add 3/4 cup of flour and mix well. The mixture will be very sticky which means it's perfect. Place the dough in a medium greased bowl. Cover with wrap and let it sit in a warm place to rise for about 30-45 minutes. Once the dough has doubled its size, knead in 2 tablespoons of flour. Cover the dough again for 5-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, start on the filling. In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small bowl. Set aside.

Once the dough is ready, roll it out on a floured surface. Brush the melted butter on the dough and add the sugar mixture. Make sure everything is covered. Using a shape knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into equal sized strips (about 2 to 2 1/2 inches wide). Then cut the strips into equal sized squares. Stack the squares on top of each other and place them in a bread pan. Cover the dough for another 10-15 minutes to rise.

While dough is rising, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Place a cookie sheet under bread pan and bake for 30-35 minutes until outside of bread is golden brown.

1 month old

Obviously this post is a little late, but I still wanted to get this information down.

It's amazing how fast time goes, it's also amazing how much our little girl is changing these days. We absolutely love her. We had a doctors appointment last week and here are her stats:
  • Weight: 9 lbs 6 oz (80%)
  • Height: 22 1/4 inch (95%)
So as far as I'm concerned our little girl is an absolute angel.
  • She absolutely loves to take a bath.
  • She has been sleeping probably 5 to 6 hours straight at night. That also means that I'm sleeping 5 to 6 hours straight at night.
  • She is an excellent little eater.
Like I said we absolutely love her, because she acts like a little angel, but she is also so cute!
 

Baby Room

So we were so lucky to have one of Hailey's aunts stay with us for a few days after her baby blessing. While she was here we were able to finish up the last project for Hailey's room. Grandma had finished the chair the week earlier, so I just finished the things that I was going to put on her wall. This was actually an idea that I saw on pinterest and I'm happy with how it turned out. I used a few different sizes of embroidery loops and painted them white. Than I used the same fabric that I used for her baby quilt to fill them. I round wooden letters for her name (yes I'm a sucker for words on the walls of my house just ask my sister). We painted them to match her room. Hailey even took a nap while we were hanging it all on the wall. I think it looks great.
 

Saturday, November 10, 2012

We are in trouble

All I know is that it's going to be hard to say "no" to this cute little face.

Hailey's Baby Blessing

One of the wonderful blessings of being a member of the church is the opportunity to give our sweet little girl a name and a blessing. For Hailey this happened when she was just two weeks old. She is given a blessing by those holding the Melchizedek Priesthood. In this blessing her name is stated and than she receives a blessing from her Heavenly Father. It was a wonderful blessing that Dan was able to pronounce upon her. I'm so grateful for a husband who is worthy and willing to hold the Priesthood in our family. Since the act of naming a giving a blessing is considered an ordinance in the church Hailey wore white. Actually she wore the same dress that me and my sisters received our blessings in. I thought that was really cool. Some of my family was actually able to come out for the weekend. (We missed those who couldn't make it).    
Hailey in the same blessing dress I wore
 Our cute little family
 The proud grandparents
Three generations

Sunday, November 4, 2012

While I update my blog...

...this is what Hailey does. Love her so much!


Hailey looks like...

So the question that ALWAYS come up after you have a child is "Who does she look like?" I will work on getting a baby picture of Dan and I so that you can decide for yourself, but until than I'll tell you what we've decided. One thing is for sure Hailey DEFINITELY has Dan's feet.

They look exactly like his only much smaller and a little more feminine. It's amazing though how much they look like his.

She even has the amazing ability to spread her toes out super far, which is one of the things she loves to do. I'm sure that will some in handy to pick things up later in her life.

She also has her dad's flexable ears. This means that she can fold them forward. Mine don't fold at all, so that's how we know they are her dad's.
To be honest I'm not sure where her hair color comes from. Dan and I were both towheads when we were little and both have brown hair now. She has brown hair, but it almost has a red tint to it. Most likely it will go blond, but we will see. She has beautiful blue eyes, which comes from both Dan and I. She definitely has my eyes, nose, mouth and chin.
It's kind of crazy to see a little mini me. Actually, I would say it's crazy to see how much she looks like both of us. I'll work on getting those baby pictures for that you can decide for yourself.

The first week

So looking back at these pictures makes me realize how much my little girl has grown in the last few weeks. It's crazy to think she was any smaller, because she still just feels so small to me. So when we came home from the hospital Hailey was just so cozy in her car seat. She actually fell asleep before we made it out of the hospital.

The first week we didn't do much of anything. She was a little jaundice when we left the hospital so the doctor proscribed a little sun bathing each day. Well her in Arizona that's one thing we definitely have plenty of. So each morning she would spend a little time sitting in her snuggle bunny chair soaking up the rays.

When she wasn't soaking up the rays from the sun she was doing one of three things... sleeping, eating or pooping. Or just being so darn cute.   
 
 
It says HUG ME and believe me that's all I wanted to do

Grandma is Amazing!

So first let me just say that I am so grateful for my mother. She was able to come out and stay with us for the first week I was home. It was so wonderful to have someone around to help out. She helped cook and clean up, I was able to get a couple naps in while she would watch Hailey and in general it was just nice to have someone here who has been through it all before.

She is definitely a proud grandma. I think during the last couple weeks of my pregnancy every time I would call my mom she would ask if our little girl had come yet. Hailey is her first grand baby, so understandably she is very excited. I think the first thing she did when she got out here to Phoenix was hold Hailey. So proud.

Now if having grandma here wasn't enough, I learned that my mother is a VERY talented seamstress. I've experienced her talent in the past when she has made dresses for me, but this is super impressive. Some of you might remember when we got this chair with our crib.
The frame was in wonderful condition, but the cushions had definitely seen their fair share of use. I even mentioned that I might try my hand at reupholstering the chair. Since I was so busy with everything before the baby came I never really got around to doing that (which to be honest is probably a good thing, since it would have been a very difficult project). So in an attempt to clean up the cushions we tried to run them through the wash. Now you will note that I say TRY, because they weren't really cushions when they came out of the wash and the wash didn't really do much to help them out. So while my mom was in town she did an amazing thing... she took the chair above (which actually looked worse after the washing machine) and turned it into a BEAUTIFUL chair.
Like I mentioned before I knew my mom was talented, but maybe being a grandma makes her AMAZING! Thanks again for such a wonderful chair mom. It's made those night feedings so much more comfortable.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Baby Hailey

So after making us wait an extra week, our beautiful baby girl decided to grace us with her presence. She was just very comfortable where she was. I actually went into labor Thursday evening, so Dan and I headed to the hospital.We got checked in and settled and than spent the night waiting. We were only there a couple of hours before I got the epidural, which I was so grateful for, because I was actually able to get a little sleep during the night. Friday morning as my labor progressed I was doing well, but our little girl was still in no rush to come into this world. Around 10:00 in the morning I was dilated to a 10, but Hailey still hadn't moved. Around noon the doctor decided to give me some pitocin to try to increase the contractions so that it would push the baby down. Eventually it did work and after 18 hours of labor (like I said thank goodness for the epidural) and about an hour and a half of pushing, she came screaming into this world. She weighed 8 pounds and 3 ounces and was 21 inches long. She even had a little strawberry blond hair, so it will be interesting to see if it stays that color or if she ends up towhead like her parents were. I realize that I am her mother, but she is the most beautiful baby I've ever seen.



(proud and loving papa)

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Baby Update

So as of Friday I was officially at 40 weeks and our little girl decided that she still wasn't ready to come. She is just making me wait to see her beautiful face. To be honest other than feeling really large I still feel really good, so I can't complain much. Still getting around a ton, trying to walk every day. Sleeping through the nights, except for the one or two times I have to wake up to use the restroom. Really I'm just excited to finally meet the little girl that's been inside of me for 9 months. Can't wait to see her, plus I know a few other people who are excited too. I can't call my mom any more without her thinking that I'm going into labor. She is just so excited to be a grandma. 

Since she isn't here yet, I've been keeping myself busy with work and projects around the house. It took a while for me to decide the fabric that I wanted to use for her baby quilt, but a few weeks ago I finally found it and this last week I finished the quilt. I LOVE how it turned out. I was super excited about all the bright colors.

I ended up getting my inspiration from a pattern that I posted to my Pinterest a while back. It really is a cute pattern and not too complicated. (Click here for link to pattern). Actually sewing the quilt top was relatively quick, what took most of the time was the hand quilting and the binding (also done by hand). But like I said, I LOVE how it turned out and I can't wait to wrap my little girl up in it.
 
 

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Baby Update

So it's kind of crazy, but there is only a month left until our little girl is suppose to come. All I have to say is the that I can definitely tell that I'm 35 weeks pregnant. My belly button has all but disappeared, it's no longer an innie, but it's not really an outie yet either. Our little girls weighs approximately 5 1/4 lbs and is 18 inches long. I can definitely tell you that she is getting bigger, because I have less and less space in my stomach. I think that she might be a gymnast when she grows up, while I sit and watch the Olympics she tries to move as much as they do. It's crazy to see my stomach move around that much.    

Dan and I continue to collect things as we get ready for our little girl. When we were up in Utah a couple weeks ago visiting Dan's family they had an informal baby shower for me. We got some clothes, blankets and we also got a bouncy chair and a chair seat. I thinking that getting the car seat finished off the last of the things that we "needed" before our little girl comes.
So excited as we continue to get everything together. Can't believe that we are as close as we are. Just a few more weeks and we will finally get to welcome our little girl to the world. So excited!