Dental School

I thought I'd give a little update on dental school since I haven't talked about mine or Nicholas' lives recently, mostly just about baby Katelyn.

Nicholas started his 2nd year of dental school August 17th. It was hard to start up again, especially with such a nice long summer break, but we're just glad we're back going at it and into our usual routine.

He seems to be extra busy this year. Classes seem to go later into the night than the semesters before. He usually get's home around 6:30, sometimes later, and every once in awhile earlier. I've had many people ask me if it's hard being a stay at home mom with a husband in dental school, or I've had people say, "Oh I remember being in that situation, it was tough". I have to say that I do miss him, but he really does a lot to make things better for me.

I have heard a lot of people say that their husbands leave the books at school and when they come home they are home to be with their family, not study. Nick also does this and he does it well.

He has been very good at this and he tries to come home and not have to study at home. He studies very hard and I know that when he's home it's for him to spend time with me and Katelyn. On occasion of course when there is a big test coming up he will study at night at home, but he is very good at balancing school life and family life.

It's really cute. When he comes home we can usually hear the garage door open, if not that the alarm beeps when the door to the garage opens. Katelyn will drop everything, flip around to face the door, and I'll usually say "Ooooh, dadda's home!" and she'll just get this huge smile on her face and run (crawl) really fast over to the door. As soon as Nick get's home he's down on the floor tickling, chasing, and playing with her. I love it. He's such a great dad.

All the time when I was pregnant and home alone I knew he would try to come home as soon as he could after school to be with me. I kind of felt bad about it, but I knew he did it because he cared about me. He would take me out at night and show me around town. Or he would just sit and talk about my day when he got home. He really did a lot to not make me feel so lonely. I'm so grateful for all he does and that he cares about our family. He is such a great guy and I don't know what I'd do with out him!

I think I can.. I think I can...

I'm just going to cut to the chase here.. my sister LU is crazy. No just kidding, she's really great and actually, I really admire what she has accomplished lately! She has exercised, has been eating healthier, and has lost A LOT of weight. Now why can't I do that? I want to. So.. I often ask her what I need to do and today I told her I just didn't really have any motivation to run, so... she is motivating me.. :) read here.

That's why I love having her as a sister. She has always been an example and someone I can ask for advice or look up to.

Now for the running part. I can't really go running outside because it's WAY too hot. It has been cooling down though, so maybe at night I can go. I don't have a gym pass and Nick is way too busy with school for  me to have to depend on him watching Katelyn whenever I go.  So I thought a treadmill would be nice to have. What do you think? I just need to find a way to save up for one. OH, and why running? Well, I've tried the work out videos and other things, but talking to Lu, we both agree that running just makes you feel the best, like you've really worked out, and you're sweating off all the fat. So that's why I'm going to try and start it up. So any hints to get started and to keep going at it would be great :)

Anyways, hopefully I can start this up! If not.. I just won't tell you :)

Thanks again Lu!!! We can do it!

Thinking..

I haven't had a computer lately... If you haven't noticed my blog posts have become fewer and fewer. For awhile there i loved not having a computer. My house was clean, dishes stayed clean, and i planned and did more activities with Katelyn. But.... After a few weeks i think i miss my computer (it's hard typing on an ipod).

I wonder to myself though do i really need it? I'm a lot more productive during my day now? I.... Do miss skyping my little brother though. I guess i'm just rambling on wondering if i should try to convince nick to buy a new computer.

Anyways other news.. I've had so much time i've been going crazy thinking of new things to put in our home, rearrange couches, hang decorations, etc. Anyone have an idea of how to decorate a large blank wall? I have pictures on it right now but im looking for something new... That is if i get any good ideas or see anything online.

Alright, well recently katelyn has stood up without holding onto anything for about five seconds! Its exciting, but makes me nervous too. Her being able to move makes me have to have a close eye on her. We actually had a bad incident today.. I was eating breakfast she was crawling around the kitchen and i turned to eat a couple bites. Next thing i know she had opened our bottom cupboards pulled our blender off the shelf and it fell and broke on the tile! :( please say something like this has happened to any of you other moms so i don't feel like a completely horrible mom who wasn't watching her kid!


Enough of that. Im excited for halloween! I can't believe the end of the year is coming so soon. Katelyn is getting closer to a year and i really can't believe it! I love the holidays :)

Hope everyone is doing well!

3 YEARS AGO

September 1st 2007

I can't believe that 3 years ago today Nick and I were married. Three years has brought so much happiness and many blessings. I love having Nicholas in my life and he is such a wonderful husband and father. I can't wait for the years ahead of us and to keep making wonderful memories with him!

First Christmas

Honeymoon to Disney World

 California Vacation

First New Years 2007

Christmas

 First broken finger/surgery in the family (Nick's hand)

BYU football game

Vacationing

 Saying goodbye to Nick's old home

 Date Night @ BYU

Graduation

 Katelyn

8 months

Katelyn turned 8 months old yesterday! She is growing so fast and learning so much every day.

Here are a few things she likes to do at this age:

- a lot of babbling, giggling, and squealing
- eat bananas and sweet potatoes
- can give high fives! :)
- hold on and walk around different things
- crawl really fast
- eat every 3-4 hours
- go to bed at 7:30 or 8:00 p.m.

This past month I gave myself a challenge: To help Katelyn be able to fall asleep on her own. This may not be a challenge for some parents, but in my case it was.

Katelyn only fell asleep if she drank a bottle, that was her routine. I wanted her to be able to fall asleep on her own though (for various reasons). I knew it would require a lot of patience especially if I did not want to just let her cry herself to sleep (which I definitely did not want her to do). So I took on the challenge. I set up a routine for her every night as well as lengthened the time in between each feeding session during the day, and moving her bed time up earlier. She was eating every two hours and a friend recommended I try every 3-4 hrs. so I did. I also read somewhere to try moving the bed time up.

She struggled the first night w/o a bottle and with me just helping her in her crib fall asleep. It took about an hour and a half or wanting to come out of her crib, tossing, turning, rubbing her back, scratching her back, until she finally fell asleep on her own. This went on for about four days, and finally she slowly got the hang of it. Each nap time she did better and better. Each bed time she did better and better. And now she does great at both! She knows the routine and will usually just lay down turn for a minute or two and fall right asleep. It's so nice not to have to hear her cry and feel bad, and not to have to depend on a bottle to put her to sleep. I'm so proud of her.

I feel like this has helped both of us so much. She doesn't wake up at 2 or 4 a.m. to eat anymore.  I think because the longer stretches she has between feedings now. And also because if she does wake up in the middle of the night she can put herself back to sleep. It's really nice to be able to sleep straight through the night :)

She is getting so big and I can't believe she has really been with us for 8 months now. We enjoy her every minute of every day!

Can you find me....

Now that Katelyn is mobile she will go ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE. We've tried putting up a few barriers.. like this:

but she's just so sneaky!

I was watching her this morning (ok I guess I got a little distracted obviously, but you can't say you haven't either!) And I looked up and she wasn't next to me, but I could hear her... can you see her in the picture?

here I am momma!

She had squeezed her little body through behind our big chair. Haha. And then she tried getting out and got a little mad because she couldn't... I think she probably thought "I got into this place, so I know I can get out!"

This next picture is just a funny picture I had to put up because she does it all the time. She puts her binky in upside down and I think it's the cutest thing ever. The other day she had it in and kept taking it out while trying to fall asleep to nap. She kept fussing and then she finally took it out put it back in upside down and immediately fell asleep. It was so funny, but maybe she likes it better that way :)

We were eating dinner last night while she was in the living room playing and she kept coming to join us.. just underneath us.

She loves to stand up on everything. She crawls, but I think she stands up and walks along things more than crawling. I think she'll be walking reaaaally soon!

she loves her little cart.

There she is standing up again on anything she can.

She's so silly. Here she is hanging on the couch!

And again, getting into everything. This is okay though because that's her toy box :)

One last thing. Katelyn has accomplished something i've been working on since... basically Day 1. She says momma! I mean, you can tell me it's just her and I had nothing to do with it. But I think it was me. I took her to the mirror every morning, pointed to myself, said momma, then pointed to her and said Katelyn. I would say it really slow and move my lips and she would just stare. I did it ALL the time. And that's all she'll say :) You can probably tell I'm proud of myself, and I am cause I worked with her a lot. So the next word I'm teaching her is.... DADDA!

7 months!

I really can't believe Katelyn is seven months old now. It seems like the year is flying by so fast. She is growing up so fast and I feel like sometimes I can't keep up.

I went through all of her pictures a couple of months ago to pick my favorites for her baby book. I told Nick I would only pick the very best ones and my absolute favorites. Then that way there wouldn't be too many to print out and I wouldn't end up with a bunch extra because there wouldn't be enough room in her book. I picked out 220 pictures. The whole condensing process didn't really work for me.

Every day she does something new and every day she makes so many memories for us to remember. She is such a sweetie.

Katelyn sits up really well now. Almost never falls back anymore.

She tries to stand up on everything. And just last night we were over at a friends house and they had this little cart/lawn mower looking type thing and she was able to push it around the room and walk with it.

She's getting a lot faster at crawling, but she always pushes herself up on her legs.. I think she's trying to stand.

She smiles and laughs so much now that she can move and get into whatever she wants. We've had to watch out what we leave around now because she'll get into anything and everything. We always have to shut our bedroom door because she goes after the little door stopper and pulls it off the wall. Whenever we open the door she cruises over and tries to get in, then we shut it and she gets mad.

I was trying to find an outfit for her to wear for her seventh month pictures and I pulled out one of her very first newborn Sunday dresses. This was the first one she wore to church and she can still wear it. It makes me happy because I still feel like she is my tiny little newborn. She is such a happy baby and always smiling. We sure do love her!

Katelyn 7 Months