Standing Ovation

It's all Kyle's fault... that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!

Paisley has been sitting up for a little while now, but that just wasn't good enough for her! She will grab hands, or legs, or anything she can grasp and pull herself to her knees... and then her feet! But how could I ever be mad at that big, toothless smile and those chubby chubby legs?! She will be running around with Jaxton in no time!

2012 Freezin' For A Reason

You may recall last year Kyle jumping (more like running) in the frozen lake for a fundraiser for Special Olympics. This year, his work didn't participate but our friend, Helen asked us if we would be willing to jump in with her. Foolishly thinking the weather would be as fantastic as it was last year, we agreed... boy were we wrong!!! It was FREEZING this year... it was starting to rain/snow when we all headed outside, and it was like a madhouse! We didn't jump in the lake like last year, but the outdoor pool. The worst part for me was that the pool was 11 ft deep so my plan was to jump in, hit the bottom and push myself up as fast as possible. It never even occurred to me that I wouldn't touch the bottom, and when I realized that, I started kicking like crazy!! But, you're legs are in some sort of "cold shock" and they didn't want to move either! We all made it out ok and to be honest, I'm glad we did it. I don't have a "bucket list" but if I did, I would cross that off!

Fenogreek

I will get around to posting pictures of the house one day... but this move was extremely stressful for me. We were qualified for our home and were supposed to close the beginning of September, so Kyle and I spent the time and care to pack up a lot of our home in perfectly labelled boxes... then we waited... and waited... and waited! Nothing happened, so there we were with a living room FULL of boxes and nothing to cook with, maybe 2 towels and of course all of those boxes were at the bottom of a huge stack! September ended and October began, and we were still waiting. Our apartment landlord was fantastic and let us stay even though someone was waiting for our place, which just caused me more stress! Then the call came, we were ready to sign and move. We signed on a Friday at 1:00 pm and started moving into our house at 5. It was a two day process (it's amazing the crap you hold on to and accumulate over even just a year!) More stress! I don't handle stress well. I know a lot of people are stress eaters, but that's not me... I refer to myself as more of a stress starver. I had been doing so good since Paisley was born of eating (gorging myself) for every meal and she never went without milk. But the move and the stress kicked in my old bad habits and I was noticing less and less milk. I started to freak out (naturally). Jaxton was allergic to breast milk and I only got to nurse him for 6 months before they found out and he had to go on a special formula to give him nutrients and calories that he was missing. Paisley on the other hand has been thriving with breast milk. She is a little chunkers and it is adorable. Those little chunky legs, oh I could die for! So I was devastated. I started doing some research about how to get my milk back and I found a natural substance called Fenogreek. Kyle and I went to the health food store to pick some up. You take 2 pills 4 times a day, for up to 72 hours. This was the end of last month that I was doing this and I haven't had a problem with milk since. I am back to pumping a full bottle every morning, after she has eaten and is refusing to eat anymore! I am so happy I found this! We have a freezer FULL of milk and it is such an accomplishing feeling. My goal is to make it for a full year, I may not and I could accept that. But in the meantime, Fenogreek... you are my hero!

October

So here is a lot of October. I got a few pointers from my sister in law with regards to my scrapbooking, I'm still not great but the pointers helped! October was a fun month! We got our first snow storm. Jax wasn't too fond of the snow, but I pushed him out there to get pictures!

We went down to the Pumpkin Patch at Staheli Farms in St George with Rob, Jill and Ethan. Jax had a lot of fun!!! There were swings, a petting zoo, a corn maze, slides, and of course Pumpkins. Jaxton growls whenever there is something scary, so he went around growling at all of the decorations (and he would even do this to the decorations in our home)... while we were at the Pumpkin Patch it got a lot colder than I thought it would and I had left Jaxton's jacket in the car so I said "Jax, mommy's sorry she forgot your jacket in the car" and he growled at me. He is so funny!!!

We went out to Panaca for a day and spent time with some of the Avance family. I snuck in some pictures of the kids in their Halloween outfits. Jaxton had a blast out there! There was so much room to run and play! He cried the whole way home because he didn't want to leave. What kid wouldn't love swings, slides, trampolines, lots of grass, plenty of attention, candy and NO BEDTIME!!


Kyle's mom brought each of the kids costumes while we were in Panaca. Jaxton already had a Buzz Lightyear costume from my mom and we had bought Paisley a kitty cat costume. We had a few activities to go to during Halloween so we changed them in between. I wanted to get to use each costume because they were all so cute. Jaxton loved being the monkey. He loves saying "ah ah" like a monkey whenever he sees pictures of himself.

The best part of October was that we signed and moved into our first home!!! Is this our dream home? No. Is it huge with tons of storage and plenty of room for our family to grow? No. But it is just right for what we need now. Jaxton loves having a yard to play in and more room to run and play. Kyle loves having the garage and I love having more than 1 bathroom! And we love that it is ours! Kyle has pretty much decided on a career path, so we'll probably be leaving sooner than we thought but we are happy for the opportunity we had to make the investment. We love our home! It's great to be in it!

September

I have been SUCKING at blogging. I have began new projects (which I'm also not very good at) but luckily September was pretty uneventful for our family! I quit my job in September, so I am an official stay at home mom, which has been a difficult adjustment but I am happy with our decision! Kyle is working like crazy to make up for the lost income, but we are doing just fine and we are happy, which is the most important thing! I was really bad at taking pictures in September, so I'll post the few I can find


We blessed Paisley on September 24th. It was such a good day with our families who love and support Pais. We are so blessed to have such wonderful families. I can truly say I love them all!!

I have been learning how to do digital scrapbooking... I am in no way good at it, but I'm trying. So here are a few pages that I have done for September and a few random pictures I need to put into pages. I'll try to get October posted soon!

One Month

Paisley is already 1 month old. Adjusting to life with 2 kids has been difficult, but we're getting the hang of it! Jaxton absolutely loves her. He loves to hold her and kiss her. When she cries, he goes and finds a binky for her. Kyle and I are blessed to have 2 amazing kids!!

- can already hold her head up on her own

- sleeps most of the day

- has her days and nights mixed up

We absolutely love her!!! She is so precious and so beautiful! She is loving the attention she is getting (which is plenty)

Paisley BreeAnn Avance

I am almost a month behind... I am tired... 2 kids is literally killing me, but they are fantastic and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Our sweet little princess wasn't due until August 2, but in my 34th week, (June 27th to be exact) something didn't feel right. I was having awful pains and my contractions didn't feel like braxton hicks. Kyle was working concrete down in St George that day and I was at work, but I called Dr. Allen's office anyways because my heart kept telling me something was wrong. His nurse talked to me about how I was feeling, talked to Dr. Allen and told me I needed to go to the hospital right away. I immediately burst into tears. This has not been an easy pregnancy and I didn't want to go to the hospital alone. Kyle promised me he would get to me as soon as possible but I needed to go in now. So alone I went. I cried as I undressed and continued to cry as they hooked up the monitors. It was obvious as soon as they got the monitors on that I was having regular contractions. Dr. Allen said I needed to be monitored for awhile longer and he would head over. He instructed the nurse that they needed to stop my labor (what... I was in LABOR???) I was told that the best option was a series of 3 shots... can't remember what they are called but it would relax my uterus and my labor would stop at that point. I didn't get the opportunity to talk to my dr about it to see if I had any other options, so she began the shots. A side effect of the shots is a racing heart, for me and the baby. I got the first shot and the nurse stayed with me while both of our hearts calmed down. Shortly after, Kyle showed up and I couldn't be strong anymore. I tried to hide it from Kyle but he knows me better than that! He came over to just hold me. I couldn't help but think I had done something wrong, that our baby was in danger and it was all my fault. By then, Dr. Allen had showed up and reassured me that it wasn't anything I had any control over. By then, they knew that the first shot didn't work, and prepped me for shot #2. This shot sent our babies heart RACING! I wasn't even concerned about what mine was doing, I needed to know that she was ok. Dr Allen stayed there as well to make sure everything was fine. The second shot seemed to work and we were released soon after. Dr Allen ordered bed rest for me until I could safely deliver her.

At 39 weeks, I couldn't handle the pain anymore. I was having pain EVERYWHERE! I couldn't even sit still at work anymore. I called Dr. Allen's office and he wasn't in, but I could meet with another dr if I wanted. Fabulous... "Ummm, I haven't met you before, but feel free to do a pelvic exam and a good feel around"... but that's what we did. Dr. Gray was fantastic as well. He informed us that because 5 weeks previously they had to "aggressively stop my labor" there is a good chance that I won't deliver naturally... so I could wait a week just in case, or go ahead an be induced. I am not for being induced, I think babies come when they are supposed to come, but she might not come, so we chose to be induced.

We went to the hospital at 3 am on July 27, 2011. The started the pitocin at 3:30ish and then kinda left me to be. I was surprised at how calm I stayed. I was able to sleep for awhile, catch up on some reading, and watch some tv. At 7 am, I looked over at Kyle, who was passed out because I needed him. I knew he was so tired so I just sat there, in complete pains and couldn't help but cry. The nurse came in and I tried to hide it, but she asked "do you have a slight cold, I can hear you sniffling" she took one look at my face and said "oh, you're crying... do you want me to call for the epidural?" She ran and did what she needed to do, then came back and sat on the bed with me and tried to keep me calm until Kyle woke up. It wasn't much later that he did and he took over holding my hand and stroking my hair. The epidural finally got there at about 8:40 (the anesthegiologist had been in with a C-section and couldn't leave until she was returned to her room). They got me the epidural and then things went FAST!!! Dr Allen came in at 9:20 to break my water and it wasn't 10 minutes later I was at a 10 and fully effaced. We had to wait a little while for Dr. Allen to get back, he wasn't expecting it to go that fast. I did a practice push to move her down, didn't even get to the 10 second mark and the nurse told me to stop pushing, she was starting to crown and the dr wasn't here yet. I had Kyle call my mom so she could come. We live really close to the hospital so I was sure she would make it. Dr. Allen got there and got suited up, he told me to push once, hard. So I did and there she was... 9:56 am July 27, 2011. She weighed 7 lbs 6 ounces and was 19 inches long. She is beautiful! I honestly didn't know how I could love someone else as much as Jaxton, but when they laid her on my chest, I completely understood. She had no health issues and we were released from the hospital 24 hours later. We are so in love with this little girl. She has her daddy completely wrapped around her finger... we are smitten!! I can't help but be grateful for how lucky and blessed we have been.