2 months!

I can't believe my little girl is already 2 months old!
She had her 2 month appointment today and she weighs 9 lbs 13.5 oz (20th percentile), is 23 1/4 inches long (85th percentile!!), and her head is 37 cm (20th percentile). Her Dr. thinks she's taking after daddy... tall and skinny!
At 2 months Emberly smiles all the time! She loves sleeping on her belly and when she is lying on her back she likes to vigorously kick her legs while making cooing noises.
She still wakes up once or twice in the night/morning to eat. Typically around 4 and 7 am.
I've started a little walking group with some other new mommies in my ward. It's fun to get out with other mommies and chat :)
Here are some photos of Emberly that I took yesterday!

Yesterday was also Ian's birthday! Happy Birthday to my sexy man :) We went to the Training Table for dinner and saw Kung Fu Panda.. it was super cute. Love you Ian!

Pork Chops!

It's been a LONG while since I posted some recipes on here... mostly because Ian has been cooking. He's actually made some pretty creative stuff. It's a shame I didn't photograph them and share.
Anyway, we had some pork chops in the freezer so this is what I made!

Ingredients

• 1 cup crushed honey nut cheerios (asked for butter crackers, but all I had was cheerios. I read that ritz crackers work well too!)
  
• garlic salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 4 pork chops
• 1/2 cup butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. In a shallow bowl combine crushed crackers, garlic salt and pepper; mix well. In a separate bowl beat eggs.
3. Dip your pork chops in the egg batter and then in the cracker mixture. Place the pork chops in a casserole dish. Place chunks of the butter around the pork chops. Cover and bake for 45 minutes.

 

 I probably didn't season it enough, but it was really good! I thought I did a fabulous job considering it was my first time cooking pork chops!

Update!

I have been a horrible blogger! Life got really hectic all of a sudden with photo shoots and a baby to take care of. I honestly have no idea where to begin with what's been going on in our lives. Emberly is changing so much! We had a rough first few weeks with tummy aches and spit up.. so we just assumed she was colic. Come to find out my breast milk wasn't sitting well with her, so we switched to formula. Of course she still spits up and has tummy aches, but it's no where as bad as it has been. Emberly smiles all the time now.. I love it! She went from waking up every 2 hours at night to eat, to waking up 1 to 2 times during the night. It's be fabulous! I cherish the nights she sleeps until 5:30 am.
I just love being this little girls mommy! Here's some photos from the past few weeks.

 

Last week was her Blessing day. We bought this super cute dress and Ian's mom sewed some little cap sleeves on. She looked so beautiful!

 

 We also took some family portraits in my studio... tri pod and timer style ;)

 And since my parents were in town for Emberly's blessing we took Gailey family photos too!

 

This cute picture was taken yesterday..

 

And this one today! She's so precious :)

 I love my little girl xoxo

Emberly's newborn portraits

Here's a peek at Emberly's newborn portraits that I took! You can see more on my photo blog :)

The birth of Emberly

I've had many of you ask about Emberly's birth... it's taken me a week to recoup, but I think I'm officially ready to share my story.... if I haven't forgotten most of it!
It all started late Friday night, or I guess I should say early Saturday morning. Contractions came on and they came on strong! To be honest, I can't even remember what they felt like. I think my mind is trying to push the pain out of my memory. But I woke up to the contractions being 2.5 min apart around 1 am. So we waited it out a little bit until I couldn't stand the pain anymore. Then we headed to the hospital. They strapped a ton of wires and monitors to me and my belly and after an hour of monitoring my contractions, they sent me home dilated at a 3. I was so upset because of how much pain I was in. It was my back that hurt the most. So they gave me a shot and told me to come back once it wears off and the pain is back. Around 7 am I couldn't sleep anymore and started pacing the hallway. This is when my mom came up stairs and said, it's time to go! We were off once again to the hospital and were admitted right away. Once again I was strapped in to a bunch of machines and was told I was now dilated to a 6.5 and they broke my water. I had plans on delivering naturally, but my back was hurting me SO bad. This is when I found out that our little girl was posterior, which causes horrific back labor. The anesthesiologist came in to give me my epidural, except he said my back seemed to be a little different and he wasn't too happy with how it all turned out. We gave it a chance though. Random parts of my body went numb, but not the important areas. With an epidural you're legs should feel like jello. He asked if I could move my leg and in response I lifted up my legs and shook them around (not the answer he was hoping for).  After a while I started feeling horrible pains again, this is when the anesthesiologist decided he was going to give me the epidural AGAIN. The first time wasn't too bad, but I cried and cried while he put the second one it. After that my legs did start going numb and the pain subsided. This is where the fun began. It was time for active labor! By the time I was supposed to start pushing, the epidural wore off AGAIN. I could feel everything. Usually the nurses and Dr have to tell you when you have a contraction coming on so you can push. I was the one that said when one was coming and when I was ready to push. Although pushing was my least favorite part. I was exhausted and yelled random things like "I want grape juice" which you're not allowed to have. All you get is ice chips. So they gave me ice chips with grape flavoring, and I spit that out and told them to take it away. At one point I even yelled at the nurse to get out. My sister thought I was talking to her, but the nurse kept checking to see if the baby was crowning and I got so sick of her fingers being inside of me. I think I scared her a little bit.. she was hesitant to touch me again for a while.  To be quite frank, giving birth was the most painful experience I've ever dealt with. Obviously had my epidural worked, or if I didn't have back labor it would have been as lovely and beautiful as I hear it can be. After an hour of pushing, screaming and almost hyperventilating little Emberly entered into the world on March 26th at 1:36 pm weighing in at 7 lbs 15 oz and 20 in long. Her poor face was so swollen from being in posterior position, but she was beautiful. Perfect in every way.
After delivery they headed me to the recovery room where I was to stay for 2 nights. The first night wasn't bad at all. I had a wonderful nurse to help me out and show me the ropes. She would even take Emberly out of the room so I could sleep and bring her back when it was time to nurse. Ian was fabulous and stayed at the hospital with me. He changed all of her diapers since I was practically stuck in bed. No one told me how horrible your body is after labor. I wont go into details, but it's not pretty and it's very painful. Which I guess I should have known since I just delivered a child through my lovely lady parts. Anyway, moving on. The next night wasn't so fabulous. My nurse wasn't as amazing, Emberly decided she didn't want to breast feed anymore and the realization of everything that just happened hit me. I was so emotional and begged the nurse to take Emberly out of the room so we could sleep, but she insisted on me feeding her first, which was the issue to begin with. This is when we tried formula. BIG mistake. It just gave her an upset tummy and made my night even worse. By the time morning came we found out that she had jaundice and needed to be put under bili rubin lights. That was my braking point. I started crying hysterically, just in time for my Dr to come in and check up on us. He talked us through everything then child services came in. They had to talk with me about baby blues and postpartum depression. He was an awesome man and made me feel so much better. Finally after everyone in the world came in to check on us we were able to go home. It's been SO wonderful being home! Even if Emberly has needed to be on a bili pad for the past 5 days. Her levels have finally gone down so now we can start to feel somewhat normal not having to worry about her laying on this pad day and night. Now that my milk has finally come in, Emberly is nursing fabulously. The first few nights she's had screaming fits between 10 pm to 2 am, but last night she did wonderfully!
I'm sure at one point I had a lot more to say about the whole delivery process, but I think my mind has started to push it all out of my memory. Having a daughter is amazing.. I love her with all my heart! Plus she is absolutely beautiful :) I've had a friend ask me if I'd do it again... and my reply to that is YES. I would go through all the pain today so I could keep my little girl. I swore to myself that Emberly might just be an only child after everything I went through, but once you hold your very own child in your arms it's the most amazing feeling! I wouldn't change anything!
So that's that. That's the day our little girl was born. I hope I didn't leave out too many details. But for my friends reading this who are pregnant, I hope it doesn't terrify you. If you're getting an epidural, I pray that it actually works. If you do decide to go natural, I know how it feels and have empathy for you! hah

I took Emberly's newborn portraits and plan on posting those on here within the next couple of days. If you're friends with me on Facebook, then I'm sure you've already seen them. Emberly changes more and more each day and is getting more and more beautiful!! I love our little girl xoxo

39 weeks!

So tomorrow I'll be 39 weeks pregnant! It's crazy to think that sometime within the next couple of weeks we'll be holding our baby girl in our arms. Honestly, I'm terrified out of my mind. Our lives will change drastically and will never be the same again. . . although I welcome the change. Terrified, yet excited :)
Monday I took my maternity portraits. For some of the photos I just used my tripod and timer and then Ian helped out with the rest after I set up the camera and lighting. I think they turned out beautiful. Obviously if you're a friend of mine on facebook you've already seen these and then some, but here they are...

I'll keep you posting if anything exciting happens within this next week!

In Loving Memory Of Maggie May

Last night we headed to my sisters for a dessert night. We typically bring our puppy Maggie with us. She's usually VERY good about going out in their yard, playing around a little bit and coming right back to the door. They don't have a fenced in yard, so I've honestly been surprised that she actually comes back. I let her out a couple times, then she stood by the door once again so I let her out. 20 or so minutes later I noticed she wasn't back there anymore, but thought she'd eventually come back. The times she has run off for a few minutes, she's always come back to their front door. After an hour or so I started to worry, so Ian and I walked around the neighborhood. Eventually we got in the car and started to drive around. At this point it was dark out and raining. I knew with how old and tiny she was that she most likely wouldn't make it through the night in this cold weather. By the time everyone decided to head home, some of my family also drove around for a little while with no luck. So Ian and I headed home as well with plans of calling Animal Control in the morning and driving around some more. When we got home Ian said a little prayer asking for her safe arrival back at my sisters so we could hold her in our arms again. To my surprise Ian started crying... then we both started bawling. A few minutes later I got a call and this man asked if I had a dog named Maggie. I instantly got excited and asked if he had her! He then got quite and in a sad voice told me he found her in the middle of the road. He stopped, picked her up and put her in some shrubs on the side of the road. My heart broke. He gave me the address and we headed over to pick her up. There she was, my poor baby. I felt so horrible. Lately I had been thinking about how I didn't know if I could handle taking care of a cat, dog and a baby. Even though I felt this way, I wasn't expecting to lose either of my animals. So we wrapped Maggie up in a sheet and put her in a bag... she's laying on her favorite blanket in our backyard until Ian gets home from school and we can take her to the animal shelter. I've been so emotional about this and woke up with a pounding head ache after a horrible nights sleep. I look like a wreck. I'm still surprised at how emotional Ian is. His eyes were bloodshot this morning and was most likely crying in the bathroom while getting ready for school.
I love you Maggie May! You were the best birthday gift I've ever received! I made this little scrap book page back when I first got her. She sure was a cute puppy...

In loving memory of my baby Maggie xoxo You will be missed!!!
March 1996 - March 2011

35 weeks!

It's hard to believe I only have 5 weeks left in my pregnancy! Here are some photos to commemorate the moment :)

At this point in time it feels like the baby's foot is living in my right rib! Other than that I'm feeling pretty well, besides the acid reflux that I guess I'm getting used to and the multiple trips to the potty at night. I still get comments that I'm SOOO tiny. Guess that's a good thing ;) We'll see how things progress within the next 5 weeks!

Valentines Day

It's been a while since I've updated my blog, so now I'm back posting as if I've never missed a day! ;) Just so you know, it's actually March 7th!
Valentines Day actually turned out to be quite nuts this year. Ian was supposed to go into work from 2 - 11, so I ordered him an Edible Arrangement to be sent to his work! So yummy :)
As Ian leaves for work, I open Skype and wait for him to log in and tell me all about this beautiful fruit bouquet that he had on his desk. An hour later he never signs on. Then all of a sudden I hear the door open and he surprises me saying he asked for the day off back in November! I instantly freak out about HIS Valentine gift that he wont get. Then a few minutes later there's a knock on the door, it was a flower company delivering my flowers from him. He always orders me flowers on Valentines Day and I get so excited to open the box and read his sweet note. Ian misjudged the timing, thinking the flowers would be delivered before he came back home. Then we waited around until we got confirmation from Edible Arrangements saying his fruit bouquet had been delivered. I had tried calling them ALL day to cancel the delivery, but I could never get through. By the time it was delivered THEY called me to tell me that Ian wasn't at work so they just told his work to keep the arrangement because it wont last overnight without being in a fridge or freezer. So we freaked out! We couldn't get a hold of the front desk, so we raced to his work in hopes of the security guards not eating his Vday gift. We got to his work and they were just about to put it in a fridge. So glad we got there in time! Then Ian surprised me with dinner at our favorite special occasion restaurant.. Braza Grill. I ordered myself a strawberry limeade... oh so yummy!

For some reason we didn't take any pictures together... I've been horrible about that lately. But at Braza Grill I also got a beautiful long stem rose. Here are our gifts to each other... Ian got me a cute mini rose bush in hopes of it staying alive until spring so we could plant it outside. As of right now........ it may not last much longer :(

So needless to say, we were a little off for Valentines Day this year, but I'm glad it all worked out :) Love you hottie pants!

Home updates and decorating tips!

Sorry for bombarding my blog with posts the past couple of days. We've had so many projects and they all seemed to be finished around the same time! One thing that's been driving me nuts since we moved in was our GIANT living room wall. I never knew what to do with it. At one point it looked like this...

A tiny picture on a hugggge wall! Very sad and pathetic.Well now it looks like this!!..

I was freaking out about the lack of stuff on the wall and wanted it decorated before my baby shower. My sister Richelle is amazing with home decor, so she gave me a few pointers on where I should hang things. Here's a close up of some of the photos..

(Our adorable Trash The Dress photos! I'm so glad I finally have a place to hang them. And below, why yes, of course I took that picture of the Salt Lake Temple!)

Now for the tips! Ian and I are pretty horrible at hanging things on the wall. We tend to put a billion holes in the wall before we decide everything is straight and looks nice. So, I saw another photographer post on her blog about tracing what you want to hang up on news paper. Lucky for me I have huge backdrop paper and used some scraps to trace everything.

(Notice the different color of the shelf. Ian was so sweet to stain it a different color. I thought I'd never have a need for that ugly shelf!) After I traced everything, I cut out the shapes and hung them up where I thought they'd look good.  

Then we hammed in the nails right over the paper and pulled the paper out once we hung everything up. The only thing that needed to be nailed in a couple times was the temple picture since it hangs on a wire. Other than that, this paper trick was a life saver!

Ta da! LOVE IT!

Tie-Dye Cupcakes

Saturday was my baby shower! I got so many cute gifts and baby cloths. Sadly, we didn't take a SINGLE picture. For some reason it just didn't cross anyone's mind. Pretty bummed about that.
But, for my shower I decided I'd pitch in and do some of the work. One thing I decided I was going to do was make some Tie-Dye Cupcakes! This is what you need to make them..

1 White Cake Mix
Food Coloring
Cupcake Liners
Your favorite frosting

You make the cake batter as directed on on the box. Next, divide the batter into as many bowls as you'd like. I did three. Next, use your food coloring to dye each bowl of batter.

 Scoop a spoonful of each colored batter and put it in the cupcake liner. Don't stir the batters together, otherwise you wont achieve the tie-dye effect.

Bake cupcakes as directed on box. Once they have cooled, frost them with your favorite frosting. I did a Vanilla butter cream frosting and dyed it pink!

I didn't pick out the best cupcake to cut, there were some that looked super awesome inside. Too bad you can't tell until you bite into it!

But super cute eh?! I tired to make them baby colors.. pink yellow and green. I've seen some crazy colored ones! Go nuts! I have heard that purple ends up looking pretty ugly.. so I might keep that from you choice of colors.

Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting
about 24 servings
1/2 c butter
4 1/2 c powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
6 tablespoons 2 % milk

At first I thought the frosting was SUPER thick, so I added more milk. Then when I attempted to do the swirl with the frosting (I had a frosting bag with a tip, you can also use a zip lock bag and cut the tip off) the frosting looked like it melted all over the cup cake. so I had to scrape it off and start over!

The other thing I made for my shower was my invite! I got teased a little for this, but when invites are something you do for a living, you just can't help but design your own!

 

Thanks to all of you who attended my shower and made it so fabulous!! xoxo