Our Baby Pictures

Looking through some pictures wanting to compare our baby pictures to Adalyn's.  This was all I could find for now... one of Andy and two of me.  I'm still curious to see one of Andy at Adalyn's age.

Visiting Friends in Washington

In the end of January Adalyn (2 months old)  and I went to Washington to visit some friends.  Our first stop was in Everett where we met Jackson (7 months old).  Isn't he handsome! :) He is my friend Katie's son.  Katie and I were mission companions together in Balneario Camboriu, Brazil.  We were companions when I had been out in the field for 6 weeks and she had been out for 3 months.  I'm proud of how we were committed to only speaking Portuguese together, although it would have been easier for us to speak english I know we were blessed for our efforts in learning the language.  I can still remember one of our last p-days together when we had our first conversation in english... :) our conversation lasted for quite some time, and we enjoyed seeing more of each other's personalities.

The adorable owl hats that Katie made

So cute! I loved taking pictures of him going after her bow.  Katie actually showed me how to make bows and made this bow for Adalyn. She has a box full of ribbons and flowers that she had in preparation for her little girl to be born... after finding out from the ultrasound that they were expecting a girl her and her husband were surprised on the baby's birthday with a beautiful baby boy.

Katie and I

Our sleeping babes

Next Adalyn and I went to Bellingham to visit Laura and her family.  Laura and I went to High School together and then I convinced her to move from BYU Idaho to Salt Lake City to attend the University of Utah.  We were roommates the year before I left for Brazil.  

Adalyn and I with Mason and Spencer

Laura and her boys

I had a great time getting to know her cute boys and I enjoyed watching my friend's children interact with Adalyn.  Mason was even sweet enough to share his string cheese with Adalyn. :) I'm glad she didn't try to swallow it.

Thank you Katie & Brett and Laura & David for letting me come visit!

Baby on the Way! :) (Last year)

It was this time last year (March 8th 2010), that we found out we were expecting. I can still remember the smile that beamed from ear to ear when I saw the positive sign. I couldn't have been more excited. My brother Garrett's wedding was a few days later, it was so hard to be around my family and not just shout out the secret that I was so excited about. Before getting pregnant I always thought that I had wanted to wait until I was four months along or showing until I told anyone, but once I found out I didn't know how long I was going to be able to keep it in. At our 8 week appointment I got to see the little peanut inside of me and was able to see it's heartbeat. At 12 weeks Andy was able to come to the appointment and we were able to see and hear the baby's heartbeat. Hearing her heartbeat for the first time was such an emotional experience for me, I loved it! So at 12 weeks I figured it was fairly safe to tell my family. After leaving the 12 week appointment I called my parents to see if they wanted to go out for chinese food. I figured we could put some sort of fortune in the cookie letting them know we were expecting. My mom was already making dinner so instead she invited us over. I told her that Andy was working near Dick's bakery so I would have him pick up a burnt almond cake (the cake they are famous for). When Andy brought in the cake I went over and took off the tape and peeked in and said, "that looks good". My dad then went over and peeked in and got all emotional like he does and then he called my mom over to look at it. The writing on the cake said, "Congratulations, baby on the way". For a second my dad thought that maybe we had picked up someone else's cake by accident. Needless to say they were excited to find out that a grand baby was on it's way.

One of the best reactions we got that night was from my teenage cousin, Kyle. When we told him that we were going to have a "mini armstrong" he quickly responded, "you guys are going to get a mini!" He had been wanting a mini cooper for quite sometime so when he heard mini his mind went straight to cars. We laughed pretty hard.

A few of my favorites from Adalyn's Newborn Photo Shoot

My Little Angel

Here is my sweet little angel (a week and a half old). Stephanie Cole Rich came over and did a photo shoot for us. She did a great job, I was really happy with how the pictures turned out.

I'm so frustrated with trying to Blog... I remember it being so user friendly, but lately every time I go to make a posting it takes me 45 min to an hour to finally get it to let me upload pictures! It just keeps telling me that I need to fill in my blog ID. Eventually I'll get this figured out so that it can be quick and enjoyable rather than end up being 11:30 pm on a work night with only one picture uploaded, and a grumpy me. :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Yay! It took me 45 minutes to finally figure out how to fill in my blogger id so I could post a picture! :) So here it is... One of Adalyn's first pictures on Thanksgiving Day 2010! :) I can't believe how quickly she is growing! Here's a picture of her today, Happy Valentine's Day!

The two of us have a had a great week filled with lots of walks and jogs, tummy time, mom and baby yoga, a valentines day party, and meeting her new friend Gracelyn!

Adalyn and I just started going to a mom and baby yoga class last week. We walked into a small room filled with moms and babies from 6 weeks to 6 months of age. There were approximately 25 moms there, my first thoughts were: how is this going to work? It turned out to be a great experience, the babies love the class and it is so fun to look around and see all their smiles and hear their sweet noises. They were all so surprisingly good, if you were standing outside the door you wouldn't have known there was a single baby in the room. We went back for our second class today and she giggled for the first time! :) I loved it and can't wait to hear more of her sweet giggles.

On Sunday we got to meet sweet little Gracelyn Rose who was just two days old at the time. She is so tiny and precious. It was fun to meet and hold her. Her mom, Julie, and I have been walking together throughout our pregnancies. Adalyn is just 11 weeks older than Gracelyn, it was crazy to see how much Adalyn has grown since her birth, although she was never that small to begin with.

dumping out my thoughts

Happy Wednesday!

I am in great mood today for so many reasons...

1) Adalyn and I are a little sick but we both had a great nights sleep last night
2) The sun is shinning
3) The laundry is done, the dishes are done, and my closet is organized
4) Adalyn has full tummy, a clean diaper, and is sleeping soundly
5) I am accomplishing the 5 goals that I set for myself for the next twelve weeks (they were just put into action yesterday :) )
6) I may have found a sitter for Adalyn! :)
7) It's 2 o'clock and I'm still in my pj's (but hey, they are comfy, cute and free of spit up)
8) When Adalyn wakes up I am going to put her in the stroller and go for a jog for the first time (I haven't run since April or May of 2010!)
9) There are still many hours left in the day and we are going to go visit my grandparents later today.

This is a little strange, I journal, and whoever wants to read it can. I need to start posting pictures so people can just scroll through and look at pictures if they want to. But they are all on Andy's computer.

On Monday it hit me that I was going to go back to work in two weeks! I talked to my boss, and when he and I were going over my schedule Adalyn started screaming. I apologized for her screaming in his ear and his response was, "she must know what we're talking about". I am super sad to leave her and I hope I don't cry all day long my first day back, I know it's going to be harder on me than her. I am going to be working on Tuesdays, Fridays and every other Saturday. On Monday I was really sad when I thought about leaving her (especially because I still had no idea who I was going to find to watch her) I cried for a good portion of the day. I kept having to remind myself that everything would work out okay and that I didn't need to worry about it because worrying wouldn't get me anywhere. In my mind I knew I needed to stop stressing over it so that I could enjoy the next two weeks. I interviewed a great girl this morning and I think it is going to work out. Is it possible that I could find the right fit after just interviewing one girl?! I didn't think it was going to be that easy, but I'll take it! I was a nanny during highschool and college... it is so strange to now be on the other end.