Visit with Kaden

Amelia and I went to visit Kaden, who was in the NICU with Amelia. Kaden is a few weeks older than Amelia and was released from the NICU the day after Amelia. He was a pound bigger than Amelia when he was born but now, they are about the same size! He is an adorable little boy and his mom, Malissa, and I will be friends forever! He is such a good little guy and we are better for knowing Malissa and her sweet angel! Thanks Malissa for being so great! I was trying to hold both of them upright for the photos...it turned out to be quite funny! They both were looking at their own mom...so they are never really looking the same way.

Amelia's First Valentine's Day

I am really big into holidays! I think that it is important to enjoy them all as they come. Rob and I over the years don't really celebrate Valentine's Day by buying gifts. Typically we just go out to dinner and spend time together. This has proven to be a great way for us to show our love for each other and we always have a great time! This year was no different, my sister Kelly and her husband Jason, watched Amelia while we went out to dinner the Friday before Valentines (to beat the crowds). The day before Valentines Day I was given a sweet surprise! Rob sent Amelia and I roses! They were beautiful. Unfortunately I did not think to take photos of the actual flowers, but I did take some photos of Amelia with her rose from her daddy. She is not even 6 months old yet and already has the flowers coming! We spent a quiet night at home, just the three of us. It is wonderful to have a great family to spend time with and appreciate all year long, but also on holidays such as Valentine's Day!

Visits with Great Grandmothers

Amelia has now visited her two great grandmothers! Rob's Grandma Allen is still living and Amelia and I went down to Orem to visit her. It was a great visit and Grandma Allen showed that she still has the touch to put babies to sleep! It was wonderful! This weekend we met up with my grandma while she is on a trip here and Amelia just stared and Grammy and Chris. It was fun to visit with them and for Amelia to meet these legendary women in her family. Amelia is named after my grandmother's mother, so it was a sweet treat for Grammy to see her mother's namesake. Here are a few photos.

Hinckley Challenge

As the previous entry mentioned, our beloved prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley passed away this past week. I felt it fitting to include a challenge that has been sent throughout the world to honor President Hinckley. It has been entitled Hinckley Challenge and it is one to read the Book of Mormon in 97 days to honor the 97 years President Hinckley was on the earth.

Almost two years ago, President Hinckley issued the following promise and challenge, "We studied the Book of Mormon in Sunday School this past year. Nonetheless I offer a challenge to members of the Church throughout the world and to our friends everywhere to read or reread the Book of Mormon. If you will read a bit more than one and one-half chapters a day, you will be able to finish the book before the end of this year. Very near the end of its 239 chapters, you will find a challenge issued by the prophet Moroni as he completed his record nearly 16 centuries ago. Said he: "And I exhort you to remember these things; for the time speedily cometh that ye shall know that I lie not, for ye shall see me at the bar of God; and the Lord God will say unto you: Did I not declare my words unto you, which were written by this man, like as one crying from the dead, yea, even as one speaking out of the dust?...And God shall show unto you, that that which I have written is true" (Moroni 10:27,29).
Without reservation I promise you that if each of you will observe this simple program, regardless of how many times you previously may have read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God."

I know that these things that we were promised will still come to pass. All good things come from reading the Book of Mormon. If you want to be part of the challenge, follow the link and sign up (it's free). The challenge begins Monday February 4, 2008. http://www.hinckleychallenge.com/index.php

I know that ours is the true church on the face of the earth. The Lord has prophets in our day to guide us to Him. I am truly blessed to have lived in such a great time to hear the words of President Hinckley. He is loved and missed.

Amelia's Smile

Amelia began smiling this month and also started to coo! This has been very exciting and entertaining! We attempted to get it on video and I think that Rob and I smiled more than she did in the attempts! Here are a few of our clips that we took trying to get Amelia to smile...and just so you know...we were successful!!!

First Visit with Kate

Amelia is suppose to be secluded from all children until May 2008. This poses problems since our family has so many kids. Amelia was the third grandchild of four that was born this year and I've wanted so badly to have pictures taken with her other girl cousins. So, last night, Rob wanted to go watch the national championship game at his brothers house but didn't want to leave Amelia and I home alone...so we all went. It was a lot of fun to see my sister-in-law Sheena and spend time. So although we weren't suppose to have the girls together, we did for a brief moment so that we could snap a few photos.

Kate is a month and a half older than Amelia, but since Amelia was so early she should be 4 1/2 months older...so take that into consideration when looking at these darling photos. Kate was intrigued by Amelia. She would start to cry, then look at Amelia and smile then remember that she was upset and start to cry again. Sheena and I had a good chuckle over it!

Family Photos

We had family photos taken so that we had photos of the three of us while Amelia is still small. Enjoy them!!

Christmas Day

Amelia was bright eyed during opening of presents on Christmas morning! It was a joy to watch her as she stared at Rob while he opened her presents! She is getting so big now! She is starting to move out of the preemie clothes and is wearing newborn clothes! We took Amelia over to her grandma's house and secluded her in the back bedroom so that Rob and I could spend time with family. Rob's Aunt Katie got to see Amelia for the first time! It was an overall enjoyable day! Here are some photos of Amelia on Christmas!













One of the greatest gifts given to Amelia was a cradle that my dad had built for me when I was a newborn, he had it refinished and it was delivered to me on Saturday. It is beautiful! I'm including some photos of that as well!

Christmas

We want to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season! We have been truly blessed this year with both work and family. The biggest miracle and blessing of all was having Amelia join our family and everything that has come with that. We are blessed that she has had no problems up to this point and she is growing and coming into her own. She has a lot of personality! I am excited to see her grow and do all that she is to accomplish here on earth! We are so blessed to have wonderful family and friends that supported us during the hospital stay! Thank you for the phone calls, e-mails and prayers on our behalf. Through all of our faith we have overcome. We love you all!



I took some fun photos of Amelia for our Christmas card! It is amazing how big she is getting! She weighed in at 6 lbs. 6 oz. this week and next week she will be 4 months old! Time flies so quickly!

Visit With Nana!

My mom came to visit for a few days this week and since I got caught up in taking photos with her camera I did snag a few with mine. We spent most of the time staying warm inside while the snow fell all around us! We did get a few hours of Christmas shopping in. Amelia will have to wait for Christmas to see what she got! Amelia loved having her Nana here! Thanks for coming mom! We love you!

Getting Bigger!

Amelia weighed in at 5 lbs. 12 oz. this week! We are so excited for her to be getting bigger! She is 3 1/2 weeks corrected age (since her due date). She is starting to stay awake a little longer and eating a bit more. She is so precious! So I took some photos of her today with her hat that our good friend Tami Hewlett made for her! She will hopefully grow into it much better soon!



I also just took some candid photos of she and I. They aren't great of me, but it is her we love to see!

Visits from Family

We have had a few visitors in the last few weeks. The week of Thanksgiving my sister Kelly & her husband Jason came to visit us. This was a lot of fun! Kelly & Jason assigned Amelia her first nickname, "Milly".



While they were here we played Apples to Apples (a really fun game, and if you haven't played I suggest you go buy it and play!!) Amelia was getting a bit jealous of us not paying attention to her, so we let her play too! Thanks for coming to visit Aunt Kelly & Uncle Jason! It was so fun!


My dad came to visit the first two weeks of December. This is the first time he had seen Amelia since she was born. It was very fun to see and spend time with him.

Tummy Time!

Amelia is getting good at tummy time! She is lifting and turning her head! She is currently at newborn status as my due date was this last Tuesday! They don't really start watching her development until now. Although that is the case, she is doing a lot of the things listed that she will begin to do. She is sleeping about 4-5 hours at a time and sometimes up to 6 hours. It is definitely nice to get some sleep sometimes. It has been a pure joy having her home!!!

HOME!!!

Our baby girl has finally come home! She has graduated!!
Not that I didn't enjoy our 68 day stay in the NICU, but man, I'm so glad we can stay home at night again! Amelia has been home now for 5 days and it has been quite an adjustment. I definitely thought I was more prepared than I really am.

Preparation to Come Home

In order to come home Amelia had to have her eye exam, which is not a fun procedure. She also had to have her car seat test, this is where she has to sit in her car seat for 2 hours and keep her saturations. Well, we didn't get that far...she was too little for her car seat!


So, she is in a car bed. Unfortunately, I was too busy trying to get her ready to come home, that I didn't take a picture of her in this car bed. I will have to do that before she grows out of it and add it to this post.
On the day she came home, we had to wait many hours for her to get her RSV shot, so Rob and I went to his brothers and watched the BYU football game. Before we left to watch the game, we took our family BYU photo!!! Even Amelia is a cougar fan!!!

FIRST HALLOWEEN & BATH!!

Amelia had her first bath on Halloween and I would have had this on here much sooner, but I wanted to get the video from her bath uploaded...it still hasn't happened. Once I get the video on my computer I will upload it onto this post!
Because Amelia is still so small, I had limited options for a Halloween costume, and went with the basic pumpkin! She was adorable! I later found out that Build A Bear sells outfits that actually fit some preemies! Go figure!!! Needless to say, she was adorable in her pumpkin garb!

Amelia enjoyed her first bath! She had a few moments of where she wasn't sure what was going on, but overall, no screaming...which I take to be a good sign! I learned how to do a swaddle bath, which I was told helps the baby get used to the water without it being terrifying. It seemed to work since she didn't freak out! Video to follow...

Mommy & Daddy Time!

Amelia loves "mommy time"! She has gotten to the point where she is taking everything by mouth and starting to put on the weight! She weighed in at 3 lbs. 5 1/2 oz. last night!!! We are so excited that she is growing so well and that there has been no complications. I spend a lot of time with Amelia feeding and holding her. Although it isn't as often as I'd like, it is what it is. If I could hold her and look at her all day I probably would, but I don't think she would like that too much. She knows when I'm suppose to be there and is ready to eat when I am there. It is fun to see her little personality shine through!!





Rob gave her a bottle the other night. We want him to get used to feeding her too and her used to him. She drank like a pro! We are so excited to get her home! It is still a while before she will come home, but her eating from a bottle is a huge step in the right direction! She isn't allowed to go home unless she has everything orally! We are loving it!