All About Allie

At two months old, we are still every bit in love with Allie. She is such a sweet baby and we are all a little obsessed with her. She loves to lie on the ground and look at the ceiling fan or any lights. Allie feels left out if we leave her in her swing or in the other room, especially when we're eating. She will start shrieking until we go back to get her. Allie likes to sleep in until 9 or so, but when she wakes up, she is the happiest little lady. She smiles at everyone and loves it when we talk to her. Dancing makes her smile as big as she can. No surprise there that we have another crazy one! She eats like a champ and is really starting to close in on some good fat rolls. She sneezes incessantly and it cracks me up. I say "Bless you!" to her 20 times a day. She doesn't like to be swaddled, but hits herself in the face over and over if she isn't. Allie is a big fan of her "poppy," but isn't great at keeping it in her mouth. We're working on it. Her play gym is becoming more interesting to her and she enjoys looking at herself in the mirror. Sleeping through the night is getting better and better. We usually get at least a four hour stretch at some point. Her breathing is ragged and noisy, especially at night, but she does better when she is sleeping next to me in my bed. This girl is a baby that loves to be held. There is nothing she wants more than a good snuggle. I can't imagine our family without this sweet girl!

Allie's Blessing Day

Allie was blessed on Sunday, March 5th by her dad in the Deer Mountain Ward in Bluffdale, UT. It was a beautiful blessing.

People in attendance:
-Randy Wall and Verna Sargent (Grayson's Popo and his new wife)
-Scott and Christi Groharing
-Emilee, Haylie, and Hunter Gourley along with Greyson Bogden (Emi's boyfriend) and Bridger Jessop (Haylie's boyfriend)
-Ashley, Trevor, and Mason Mendenhall
-Cheryl Peterson and Doug Lee
-Katie Groharing
-Brady and Michaela Groharing
-Connie Davis
-Maurine Peterson
-Tracy McCurdy
-Melissa, Steve, and Oliver Koplin

The men invited into the circle were Brady, my dad, Popo, and Bishop Carter.

 My favorite parts were when Grayson blessed her to notice the good in others. I always say that I don't care if my kids aren't the smartest kids in class, but I want them to be the nicest. I really do hope that both of our girls grow up with a strong love for others and that they seek out the good in them.
Allie was awesome during the blessing and didn't cry at all. I was worried she might scream the whole time. I stepped out to change her and feed her at the beginning of the meeting and got back into the chapel in the nick of time.

She wore a sweater crocheted by Grandma Bingo for me when I was a baby, a dress crocheted by Connie for me, shoes given to me by Cindi for Zoey's blessing, a bracelet given to Allie by my mom, and a headband made by me for the occasion.

We went back to our house after the meeting for a little bit to give Connie an opportunity to hold Allie for a while and to spend a little more time with Popo and Verna before they headed back to Arizona. After the get together here, we headed over to Dad and Christi's house for a brunch that she made. It was a really nice little party and I was very thankful to Christi for putting it together. She always makes the best food! It was a nice day. (But very long!)

We are so thankful for our sweet little Allie and I was so glad we could spend the day with surrounded by our family. She is one loved little girl, that's for sure!

It has been years since I have used this blog, but I am going to try to get going on it again as a form of journaling. I feel like a terrible mom because I don't record my girls' lives as much as I wish I did. 

To start off, I am need to tell Allie's birth story since it's the beginning of our year.

Allie was born on January 13 (a Friday!) at 1:09 PM. She weighed 6 lbs 6 ounces and was 19" long. My pregnancy with Allie was pretty easy. I didn't have much morning sickness in the beginning, so everyone thought she was going to be a boy except for me. The whole time I figured she was a girl, but she was trying to be tricky and make us all think she was a boy. During the gender ultrasound, the tech told us we were having a girl and Grayson was pretty shocked. She asked Grayson if we at least had a boy dog. We told her yes and she asked what breed. When we answered she said, "I'm not sure if that counts..." Haha! She's probably right about that. Grayson is destined to live a life surrounded by women. Poor guy. (But also lucky guy!)

I felt pretty good during the majority of my pregnancy. Allie would wake up around 10:00 every night and keep me awake until 11:30. It was fun to sit and watch her wiggle around in my belly in the evenings. 

I was scheduled to be induced, so we were able to make a set plan for Zoey. We dropped her off at my dad's house on Thursday evening for a sleepover. She was nervous for a few weeks before the big sleepover. We packed a little bag for her and she would move it around and check it several times a day as a way of coping with her anxiety. She's not my kid at all...HA. When we walked into my dad's, I thought for sure she would cry or hang onto me and ask us to stay. Not the case! She waltzed right in, grabbed my dad's hand and called "Bye Mommy!" She wouldn't even come back to give me a hug. It was a  relief that she was so happy to be spending the night with Papa and Gigi. Grayson and I went out for dinner before heading home. We ate at the Olive Garden and had a fun time talking to each other. I'm glad we got to have some alone time before Allie got here because that won't be happening again for a while. Gray offered to take me to see "La La Land" at the movie theater, but I declined because I had wayyy too much nervous energy to sit through a movie. We ended up going home and watching an episode of a TV show about a scary prison in Colombia. That's a normal thing to do the night before you give birth, right?

The next morning, we woke up at 6:00 to call into the hospital to find out what our check in time would be. They gave us a 7:15 check in, so we got up and got going pretty quickly. The hospital is only five minutes away, which was very convenient. We showed up and the nurses showed me to my delivery room. I changed out of my normal clothes into the hospital gown and got ready for the nurse to come in and get me all set up. She couldn't get my IV in properly and it was the worst part of the whole labor/delivery. My vein kept rolling when she tried to get the needle in and it was making blood pool under my skin. The first time the blood was only the size of a marble, but the second time she let it go until it was a golf ball. They were super painful! My arm was so achy afterward. Grayson asked if she could get a different nurse to come do it because I was about to lose it. I was nice to the nurse, but he knew that I was dying! Another nurse came in and she popped it in first try. After that they started me on pitocin.

Dr. Merrill came in to say hello, and tell me about my options as far as getting an epidural. He suggested that I do it before 10 AM. I was pretty nervous about getting an epidural since I couldn't remember much about it from Zoey's birth. It was about 9:30 at that point and I had figured I had three or four hours before I was going to need an epidural, so it caught me off guard. We decided to go ahead and get it at that point since the anesthesiologist had to do epidurals for scheduled C-sections from 10-1 and I didn't want to risk giving birth without it. The anesthesiologist was so funny and made me feel at ease. The worst part was the numbing shots, which did hurt more than I thought it would. Right after that, I couldn't feel any of it and it wasn't so bad. When he was feeding the tube in, I felt a zing in my left hip that surprised me, but it was over really quickly and then I started feeling reaaaally good. I laid in bed for a bit while Grayson watched a movie. After a while I decided to take a little nap. It lasted for about an hour and when I woke up, the nurse came to check me and gave me the head's up that I was going to be ready to start pushing in about half an hour. She told me to push the call button if I felt pressure before then. Five minutes later I thought I might be feeling the  pressure she was talking about, but I wasn't sure. Grayson told me to go ahead and push it just to be safe. The nurse came back in and checked me and sure enough, it was time. She made me cross my legs so the baby couldn't move down while she ran to get my OB. He came in and I pushed through two contractions and there she was! Her cord was wrapped around her pretty tight, so he had to untangle her before she could come all the way out. Allie came out screaming like a banshee and didn't stop for the first 20 minutes of her life. Her Apgar score was a 3, so the NICU nurse had to come into check on her and make sure she was looking okay. We got the thumbs up even though she had swallowed a bunch of fluid on her way out. 

Holding her the first time felt so good! It was surreal, almost like a dream. I couldn't believe it was over. I expected both my labor and delivery to last much longer than it did. I didn't even have time to process what was going on. After getting me all unhooked from the machines and getting Allie all set they moved me into my recovery room. We got there and opened the door and my mom was already there waiting for us. Katie showed up soon after. They sat and talked to us for a bit and then my dad brought Zoey over. We had a whole plan for how to introduce her to the baby and it didn't happen, so when she was suddenly walking into the room we were nervous. We had read a bunch of stuff about how it's better for the kid to come in and just see the mom first before seeing the baby, but I was holding Allie when she walked in. Oops! Zoey ran over to the bed, climbed up, asked to see her and immediately said, "Yup. I wanna hold her." I handed the baby over and Zoey snuggled her for a minute before asking if we could "keep her forever." Our hearts totally melted.

The hospital stay went well. We got to go home on Saturday afternoon. It was so good to go home! We had a couple days to hang out before Grayson had to go back to work and it was like a mini vacation to have him home for so long. It flew by and I was nervous to have two girls by myself all day, but we've done just fine so far. 

Allie was not a great sleeper at first, but she's figured it out now and sleeps for about four hours, wakes up to eat, and then sleeps another two hours. It's been hard getting acclimated to sleep deprivation, but we're surviving. Allie is the most snuggly little girl and sleeps much better in my arms than she does in a bed. We are letting her co-sleep with us even though it wasn't the original plan. Oops!

Zoey has struggled a little with having to share attention with Allie and it's made her behavior a little unpredictable and naughty. We are working through it with her and I'm hoping to have her back to normal soon. :) She's such a smart and sweet girl and I am so glad she's going to be Allie's big sister forever.

Our family wasn't complete without Allie. She's such a sweet little baby and I am pretty much obsessed with her. Her little face KILLS ME. KILLS ME!!! We are so lucky to have two little ladies. They are the best girls!

Those Teeth!

Zoey has been teething pretty badly for the past few days and it is the worst. Poor kid. Before that new tooth pops through, I really wanted to do a little tribute to her two little teeth that she currently sports. I have to tell you, guys. Those little bunny teeth melt my heart. I'm going to be pretty sad when those teeth get their new neighbor.

I love that cheesy little two-toothed grin. Just stop growing up, baby girl. Just stop.

Summertime with the Adams

It has been a long while since I updated our blog and I figured that it's high time to share what's been going on here with us.
We have had such a wonderful (and busy!) summer. In early June, Zoey and I went out to Utah to visit family. It was a week and a half of non-stop fun while we partied with family. I was so excited to take Zoey to the Hogle Zoo. She mostly didn't care, but in her heart of hearts, I know that she was having the time of her life. Or something like that. We also took Zoey to the park, which is one of her favorite things to do. That girl could swing until the cows come home. Zoey also took her first real swim while we were there. She wasn't too sure about it the first time, but when we went back, she had a ball. It was especially fun while our cousins splashed her. It was so fun to see her around all my little cousins. They were so sweet with her. It made me miss them extra.

Grayson, Zoey, and I also got to go with my Dad's family to Maui. We had such a great time. Seriously, guys. It was the best. Grayson and I are still talking about how much we miss it there.  If there was a way for us to be able to live there and not be homeless, we'd do it in a heartbeat. Hawaii is like Heaven on Earth. I'm getting sad sitting here thinking about how wonderful it is. Oh Maui, please take me back!

Grayson spent a lot of his summer busy with Scouts. Hours and hours and hours of Boy Scouts. I'm certainly glad that's over. I missed him a lot while he was gone. And so did Zoey. But none of us missed him more than Rascal did.
My mom and Grandma were able to come out to be with us for a week during August. All of us ladies had a fantastic time together. It took Zoey and me a week to recuperate from all the fun! We shopped, shopped, shopped, did all the church sites, did some hiking, and went to Niagara Falls. That was especially fun since I had never been before. We got adventurous and took Zoey on the Maid of the Mist. It was WILD. I probably wouldn't recommend this for people who have babies that aren't wild and crazy like mine.



We are so excited for fall and all the fun this season brings. Hopefully it will be just as wonderful as our summer. With our cute Zoey Bear, I'm sure it will be!

Anniversary in Review

Anniversaries before kids:
Relaxed dinner, enjoying each other's company, leisurely eating your food, rushing home to bed to celebrate another year of marriage.

Anniversaries after kids:
Restaurant is too crowded to be in with baby, wait for what seems like an eternity because baby is heavy in your arms, worry about noise level in restaurant and hope it doesn't disturb baby, take baby to the bathroom to change wet diaper and there is nowhere to do it, end up changing her in her car seat because there is not another option in sight, get seated but table is too small to sit at with a car seat so you get put back on the waiting list, get seated a second time and sit down, realize baby is only wearing one shoe, search high and low for it all over crowded restaurant with no luck, baby starts crying so you check her diaper and discover that it needs to be changed again, undo diaper tabs and begin to change her again but WAIT! it's a blowout diaper, frantically look for a place to change her while diaper continues to spread up her back, spot a bench in the back you can use as a changing table, realize you have poop all over your sleeve, run to bathroom to wash it off while panicking because EW, roll up wet sleeve, spend several stinky minutes up to your elbows in baby poop while you clean her up, change her clothes, wash your hands, wash baby's hands, clean up mess from diaper, take shirt off and put on jacket, go to table and order food, find baby's shoe wrapped up in her blanket, play with baby to keep her entertained while you wait, get her to fall asleep, eat dinner, rush home to bed because you're exhausted.

True story.

As we were leaving the restaurant, Grayson turned to me and said, "I'm going to take the blame for this one. It was a bad choice of restaurant. Who knew the motorcycle crowd wouldn't be family friendly?" I died laughing.
Happy Anniversary, Grayson. Here's to 50 more.

Our Little Love Bug

It has been a very long time since I last posted anything on here. I'm sure there is someone, somewhere out there wondering what it is that we are doing these days.

Zoey is such a sweet little girl. She is the best baby, for real. She hardly ever cries. A wet diaper or a very hungry belly are the only two things that really ever upset her. I have a hard time figuring out when she is ready to eat sometimes because she's too busy smiling and playing to be able to give me cues that I pick up on. (We're working on that!) Zoey is very close to sitting up by herself and can roll from her back to her sides very well, especially to her left side. She holds her head up like a champ; we are definitely out of the bobble head stage. One of her favorite things to do is to scream, which is both alarming and funny. Sometimes she startles me with one of her shrill eeeeEEEeeeEEEEEeees. She sleeps great during the day and at night, eats just like she's supposed to, is gaining weight at exactly the right pace...there's not much that isn't going fantastic with this little lady! I'm already starting to mentally prepare myself for the next one because I KNOW that we aren't going to get this lucky more than once.

This girl loves to hang out in the nude. It's hilarious. She gets so excited when we take her clothes off. We will stick her on a puppy potty pad and just let her relax for a while and air out her little leg rolls. :) She is the cutest little naked baby. (I am smiling to myself right now thinking about how much that last sentence will horrify her when she's a teenager.)

 After Zoey gets out of the bath, she is all about getting in some good snuggles. She loves taking baths and showering. It is probably her favorite part of the day, other than the first hour after she wakes up in the morning. She is definitely a water baby. We can't wait for summer time so that we can take her to the pool. I have a feeling that she's going to love it.

The other day Grayson and I taught her to make a noise with her lips. She watched us do it a few times and then would try it herself. She doesn't have it down perfect, but it is so funny to watch her do it over and over again so that we will both say "Hooray Zoey! Good girl!" to her. We were showing off her new trick to my mom and sister via Skype and Zoey would do it, let Grayson and I tell her how smart she is, then look to the computer screen like "Aren't you two going to tell me that I'm awesome?" Funny girl.

 On the 18th, she did her first real laugh. We were eating in a super noisy restaurant, so I couldn't really get it on video. BUMMER. She started doing this funny giggly laugh every time I would put her pacifier on her lips. She got herself laughing so hard she snorted. A LOUD, manly snort. I was cracking up. I think the noise even surprised her a little. It was the day before our anniversary, so it was a very sweet gift from her to me. :)

For our anniversary, we went to Syracuse to hang out at their AMAZING mall. It is the biggest mall I have ever seen and has so many cool things to do. We had a really good time walking around together. We ended the night at the super noisy restaurant I mentioned before. It was so much fun to spend a day together as a family. Grayson has been saving the money his parents gave him for his birthday. He spent it that day on a fancy new juicer. We tried some juice the other night and I have to say, it was not delicious. I guess I am too used to overly sugary drinks because it was not my favorite thing I've ever had.

The winter storm Nemo came blowing through here a few weeks ago. It was crazy! We got a ton of snow. Our door was frozen shut when I tried to let Rascal out that morning. I had to go wake Grayson up and get him to pry it open. The snow was taller than Rascal, which he was not fond of. Surprisingly, our little wussy dog doesn't like the cold snow. Go figure.

These are Zoey's 2 and 3 month pictures. The little stinker was not having it when we were taking the 2 month photo. She had enough that day, I guess. She is usually so smiley and happy. I love the 3 month photo of her because that's exactly what she looks like most of the day. So happy! She will be 4 months on the 9th of March. She looks so chunky in these pictures, but she can still wear most of her 0-3 month clothes. The sleeves on some of her long-sleeved onesies are a little short and some of the pants are like high waters, but she's a pretty petite little chunker, if I do say so myself. She is definitely starting to teethe. She is slobbering like a fiend and tries to bite everything. I'm surprised how much it hurts if she gets my finger! For having no teeth, the girl has got a mean bite!



Other than that, we have been keeping it very low key here. There's not much excitement, but I like it that way. We are just chugging along, living our simple lives and enjoying every second of it.