Photoshop and the second half of November

I know that you have been in such suspense waiting for me to finally post again and this is your lucky day! JK! This is going to be a long post with a lot of pictures since I haven't posted for so long.


I have been telling Nate for a little while now that I really wanted to get photoshop because there are so many fun things that you can use it for to edit pictures and I want to start doing digital scrapbooking. Nate was in his Microeconomics class one day and got so excited about a new computer that one of his friends in the class had and came home and told me all about. It's a little Acer, Aspire One laptop that has like an 8 in. screen. He got online and started looking at them as soon as he got home to learn more about it and find out where he could get it for the best price. He kept telling me how perfect it would be for school because it's so small and convenient and it has a 7 hour battery, yada yada yada. And then he pulled the old trick where they act like it's best for you as well and said that I really needed a laptop at home, so he could leave his home for me and take this little one to school with him. He wanted to buy it right away but didn't want to be an impulsive buyer, so we decided to wait for a few days and see how he felt about it. After about 3 days he wanted it even more and as we talked about it he told me that since he was getting a little "toy", then I could go and buy photoshop. I was more than okay with that and told him to go right ahead and buy the computer. :) I'm no dummy! Anyway, needless to say, I got my photoshop and am so excited about it. I really need to take a class because there are still soo many things that I don't know how to do. I have been playing around with it though and have figured out how to do a few things. It is kind of addicting, so I try to not use it very often. I put just two pictures that I played with to show those of you who don't have it how cool it is!

Before

After

(Isn't it cool how you can keep the color of something and make the rest black and white? Kelly taught me how to do that.)

Before

(This was taken during one of our photoshoots. Kayley loves them! Actually, she probably gets sick of them, I know Nate does, but she sure looks happy in this picture.)

After

After #2

(She's so sweet!)

The rest of these pictures were taken during the second half of November. It has been a fun month! Last Sunday I got to talk to the Beehives about how I feel about being a mother and the value of my daughter. As each day passes, I love being a mom more and more. Don't get me wrong, there are definite times of frustration and exhaustion, but it is such a blessing to have one of Heavenly Father's most precious daughters in our home. There have been so many times when I am nursing Kayley or just holding her or playing with her, that I look at her and am just overwhelmed with how much I love her and how precious she is to me.

Kayley loves her Daddy. Nate can always get her to smile.

These next two pictures were taken on Thanksgiving at Nate's parents house. It was the off year for everyone except us (we went to Tulsa last Thanksgiving), so it was going to be just Nate and me and his parents. Nate's parents were sweet enough to let my 4 brothers, Robb, Jonathan, Trevor and Colby join us at their house. It was really fun to have them with us and to add four more people to our numbers. We had a wonderful time and ate lots of tasty food. Nate's sister Kristel and her husband Dustin came over later on in the day. It was nice to be with family!

Uncle Trevor with Kayley

Kayley and Uncle Robb

We finally got to meet the sweet little twins Payton and Paige the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It was so fun to see the three little ones together and so nice to see Amanda, Cody and Ava too. I am so excited for when they are older. I'm sure they'll be really good friends. Kayley and Payton are about the same size and Paige is still quite a bit smaller. They are all so cute! It was funny because the twins are used to cuddling up to each other and being close to another baby, but Kayley is not used to that so at first she wasn't quite sure how to react when Payton cuddled up next to her as you can see in this picture. Kayley has those exact same pajamas and I wish that we would have taken them over there because these pictures would have been so cute if they were all wearing the same thing.

I love babies' hands! Kayley and Payton kind of linked arms for a little while as we were taking pictures.

Ava and the babies

Mark and Shannon had been in Arizona for one of Mark's rotations and Mark got the weekend off, so they decided to drive up for Thanksgiving to be with family. So the same day we met the twins, Kayley finally got to meet the Calders. We wish that they lived closer so that we could see them more.

Her beautiful Aunt Shannon is pregnant and due in January and you can't even tell. She's tiny!

Grant and me: Isn't he such a cute kid? I love the Calder kids!

Two cute little cousins

The oldest and youngest grandkids together. As you can see, Carston has started losing his teeth. It's so cute. I can't believe how fast he's growing up.

Mark and Shannon

This was at the twin's blessing.

Amanda and Cody with their 3 little girls. So cute!

Nate got to bless Paige. He did a wonderful job. The twins are so sweet!

Ava with her sisters

They looked so beautiful!

The Ultimate Blowout

How could something so cute and sweet...

do something so disgusting???

Gross, huh?! While I was nursing Kayley yesterday morning she pooped and I figured that I'd just finish nursing her and then change her diaper. But when my arm suddenly felt damp, I knew there was trouble and decided that it couldn't wait. As I was taking off her pajamas she had poop on her arm and I thought, "How in the world did she get poop on her arm?" And then I turned her over and saw this. She had pooped all the way up her back and out of her onesie on to her arm. I'm sure that you are disgusted by now but just be glad that you weren't the one that had to change her, let alone scrub her clothes afterwards. Oh, the joys of motherhood!! :)

After I changed her and got her dressed I decided to take a few pictures. This is my attempt to use Picasa to make a collage. It cut out some of the letters and I couldn't figure out how to fix it but I just thought that it was so funny because I took these four pictures in order and she'd make a funny face at me and then smile guiltily and then do it again. I love you my sweet little gir!!

Kayley's Blessing

Kayley's blessing day, November 2nd, turned out to be a wonderful day and we were so grateful for all of the support and help we received from family and friends. Thank you all so much for everything! We had so many people there to support us. It really meant so much to us!

Kayley started getting sick on the Wednesday before the blessing and then Thursday was the worst. She was really congested and kept coughing and sneezing. Every time that she sneezed tons of snot would come out, so I was constantly wiping her nose. I felt so bad for the poor little thing. She definitely wasn't her self. She would let out these sad little pathetic whimpers every now and then to let me know that she wasn't feeling good. It is no fun when babies are sick. The only thing that I like about it is that she wants to cuddle all the time, which I love. My first thought was that maybe it wasn't a good idea to still bless her that weekend and that we should wait for next month. But then I started thinking about all of the time my mom spent making her beautiful dress and paying the money to overnight it to us so that it would be here in time, and all of the people that were planning on coming and all those who had so willingly volunteered to help with the breakfast that we were going to have afterwards and I decided that we would just have to pray really hard that she would be able to get better by that weekend. Nate gave her a blessing on Thursday night and I know that that helped her a lot. I'm so grateful for the priesthood and especially to have such a wonderful, worthy husband in our home who can give my daughter and me blessings whenever we need them! She still isn't completely better but Heavenly Father blessed her the day of the blessing so that she didn't have a runny nose and she wasn't congested at all. It was such a blessing!!

She did so well during the actual blessing as well. It was during her nap time and she hadn't been able to fall asleep yet and so I was worried that she was going to be fussy, but she was a perfect little angel. She didn't even make a peep. For record keeping purposes, since I don't keep a journal, those that were in the circle were: Nathan, Michael, Erich, Robb, Jonathan, Trevor, Grandpa Hall, Dustin, Tyler, Uncle Ed Isaacson, Uncle Tom Dixon, Bishop Wayne Shelley, Derek Borsky and Ty Black. Nathan gave Kayley a beautiful blessing. He blessed her that she would have a keen desire to study the scriptures and share them with others. Also, that she would get sealed in the temple and if it was her desire, that she would serve a mission and spread the gospel to Heavenly Father's children. He blessed her that she would be an example to others and especially to her younger siblings. He also blessed her with health and strength throughout her life and that she will continue to develop and grow properly. Lastly, he blessed her to be a mother like the one she has, full of charity and love for others. (I told him that if he said that then I would give him a nice, long massage! JK!:) No, but in all seriousness, hearing him say that really made me want to be that kind of a mother and person and try to show more love and patience for those around me. I have soo much to learn and change, but one step at a time, right?! I'm sure that there were a few more things said, but that was all that I had time to write down during the blessing. Nathan and I also got the opportunity to share our testimonies that day. I wish that I could be like Nate and not get nervous and be able to express myself eloquently and say the things that I planned on saying before I went up to the stand, but that never happens. Even though I always get so nervous to share my testimony, I am so grateful after I am done because I truly believe that our testimony is strengthened when we share it. I am so grateful for the gospel and I know that it is true with all of my heart. I don't know how I could ever get through with being a mom without it.

We had a tasty breakfast at Robb's house after the blessing, muffins, biscuits, coffee cake, breakfast pizza, fruit and fruit dip, juice and milk. Thank you so much Robb for letting us use your house. And thank you all for helping with the breakfast. Here are a few pictures of Kayley's blessing day.

Kayley with her Uncle Johnny- Jonathan seems to have a knack for getting little babies to go to sleep. Kayley hadn't had a good nap all morning and she fell fast asleep on her Uncle Jonathan's shoulder. As you can see, she isn't wearing her blessing dress in this picture. Due to past experience, we decided that it would be best to change her so that her dress can be worn again by her sister. (No, I'm not pregnant, but I'm just assuming that hopefully, at some point, we will have another girl. :)
This was after our little photo shoot when we were changing her clothes. I love her big, blue eyes!

Kayley's sweet Grandma Hall bought her these cute little socks and booties and a beautiful white blanket. Thank you so much!! She always does so much for us.

My wonderful mother, Grandma Seal, made Kayley's blessing dress. It was beautiful!! These pictures don't do it justice. Her life is so busy with all of her responsibilities and so it made that much more to us that she would take time out of her crazy schedule to do this for us. Thank you Mom! We love you!

None of these pictures turned out as well as I would have liked, especially the ones that we took with all three of us. Either Nate and I look good and Kayley doesn't or vice versa. After a long morning, Kayley doesn't look super happy, but she looked beautiful. I wish that we would have been smart and taken them before we even went to church. Another lesson learned for next time!

BYU Football

Here are just a few pictures from the last two BYU Football home games. Kayley has been perfect at every single game and basically slept through the whole thing. It's amazing to me that babies are able to block out all that noise and sleep peacefully! :)

Unprepared (Kayley's 2 month appt.)

(I'll just warn you before you start reading that this is a really long post. I really won't be offended if you choose not to read it. It's more for journaling purposes than anything else.)

When thinking about Kayley's appointment today, for some strange reason, the thought never crossed my mind that she would be getting her shots. Not that you can really prepare for things like that, but I was extremely unprepared in every way and it was not a fun experience. Her appointment was at 10:30 and we got out of there by 11:00. I think that was a record for being in Dr. Savage's office. It's usually more like we wait for half an hour before we even get taken back to a room and then sometimes another half an hour before we see the doctor. So 30 minutes in and out was a nice change. That was the positive note of the morning!
Kayley fell asleep on the way to the appointment, which was a good thing because it was her nap time, but she wasn't very happy when I had to wake her up and strip her down to her diaper to be weighed and measured. I don't know how good of a prediction a 2 month old baby's measurements are for how they will be when they are older, but at least for the time being, we have a pretty long baby on our hands. She weighs 10 lbs. 3 oz. (30%). Her length is 23 1/2 in. (90%) and her head circumference is 38 cm. (30%). After the nurse was done with her measurements, I wrapped her up in her blanket and cuddled with her and she fell right asleep. She was really good for Dr. Savage but she did not like those mean nurses who gave her 3 shots!! :) They pulled her down to the end of the bed with her legs, from the knee down, hanging over the bed, and held her tight so she wouldn't move. She was not happy about that and started screaming. Then they both grabbed the needles, counted to three, and stuck them into her thigh. She let out the saddest cry I ever heard and I said something like, "Oh sweetheart, please don't cry like that. I don't know if mommy can handle that." The nurse looked at me and said in an annoyed tone, "She will be just fine." I knew that she would be just fine but I just hated seeing her in so much pain and so unhappy. My sweet little girl! To make matters worse, she is sick with a cold so I'm sure that didn't help things. The doctor told me that I could give her some tylenol every 4-6 hours for the next day or so if I wanted, but I figured that she would be just fine. Boy was I wrong! When she woke up at about 3:30 to eat, I tried to get her to eat, but she wouldn't stop crying long enough to even try to latch on. Being the rookie that I am, it took me a while before I realized that she was crying because of pain from her shots and that it hurt so badly that she wasn't interested in eating. She finally ate for like 5 minutes altogether. I just sat there in the glider holding her for like 3 hours. It was so sad because as I was holding her, she would be asleep and then move her legs a little bit, which would make her cry because it hurt and then what made matters even worse was that when she started crying she would bring her legs in towards her chest and then she would wail like she was going to die. Then I would calm her down and within 30 seconds she would do the same thing all over again. It was so awful to watch and I felt so helpless. I tried to hold her legs down so that she couldn't move them, but that didn't seem to work too well. So finally after an hour of this, I called my mom and Shannon to ask what to do and then called my sweet brother Robb and asked him if he could go and pick up some Tylenol for me. Within about 30 minutes of taking the Tylenol, she started to do a lot better. I wish that I wouldn't have been so stupid and would have just given her the tylenol right after we left the doctors office. Well, I guess some of us have to learn things the hard way! To end this on a positive note, she slept for a 7 hour stretch last night! She has done that a few other times but I hope that it starts becoming the norm!

These are a few of my favorite things....

Our sweet Kayley Mei is two months old today. It is so fun to see her grow and learn new things. She brings such a wonderful spirit into our home and has both of us wrapped around her little finger. I'm stealing this cute idea from my friend Sara who listed her favorite things about her little daughter Annabelle when she turned 2 months old. I loved reading it and decided that I wanted to do one for Kayley.

You might want to click on this collage so that you can see the pictures better. I'm new to this whole thing and I couldn't figure out how to change the size of the pictures. The ones on the far right are especially small.

"These are a few of my favorite things"

*More than anything, I love when I am holding you and you look up at me and smile. It just melts my heart and makes everything that I do as your mommy so worth it.
*How precious and peaceful you look when you sleep. I could just stare at you all the time and never get bored.
*How you always manage to get your hands free when we swaddle you so we don't even try to put them in anymore.
*Your big, dark blue eyes
*How you look when you are wrapped up in your towel right after a bath
*You love taking baths and are always so good as soon as we put you in the water.
*You love your daddy and always calm down to his voice and look straight up in his eyes.
*You sleep with your arms up over your head.
*How strong your neck is and the times that you hold your head up the longest is when you are fussy. It's almost as if you want to show us how frustrated you are.
*After you've held your head up for a while and then get tired, your head starts bopping up and down like you are dancing to the beat of music.
*When you yawn- it's so cute!
*Your long eyelashes
*When you calm down to my voice.
*You have long, skinny fingers just like me.
*Your feet look just like mine too. (That's not necessarily a good thing for either of us but it makes me happy to know you got a few things from me since you looked like a clone of your daddy when you were born. I am the one who did all the hard work to get you here! You have to get something from me:)
*How you grunt and stretch your arms and legs when you are waking up.
*How you pucker your lips after you are done nursing on one side
*How for the first month and a half of your life you seriously pooped more than is humanly possible. There was one day that you had 3 blowouts! At least we know that you are getting enough to eat. :)
*How you make me want to be a better mom every day
*How I feel so bad for you when you get the hiccups even after I've burped you and it doesn't seem to bother you at all.
*You love music and it always seems to calm you down and help you to fall asleep. I especially love when you calm down to my singing. It makes me feel like I must not sound that bad!
*When you wrap your fingers around mine when I am nursing you. I can't wait until you can hold my hand!
*When you smile in your sleep. I hope you are having sweet dreams!
*When you are exhausted and your eyes are so heavy but you keep fighting it because you don't want to miss anything that's going on around you. You try so hard not to let your eyes close.
*You make all sorts of grunts and noises and sometimes even cry in your sleep amd when I go in to check on you thinking you might be waking up, you are fast asleep.
*You love being outside.
*When you cuddle with me or daddy when you aren't tired.
*When you wake up from your nap and are crying because you are hungry and then as soon as I get you in the position to eat, you make this little excited cry/pant before you latch on to let me know that you are so glad that I finally got the point and you can't wait to fill that empty tummy of yours! It's so funny!

I love you so much Kayley and I love being your mommy! You have taught me so much and helped me to become so much closer to our Heavenly Father. We are so glad to have you in our family. I love you with all my heart my sweet little princess!

Our sweet little pumpkin

I have never been a big fan of Halloween in the past, but I was so excited for this year to have a little one to dress up and celebrate with and I decided that I want to try hard to make my kids like Halloween. I have been inspired by Shannon and all of the way cute things that she has done with her children this month to celebrate Halloween and I want to steal some of her ideas to do with my children in the future. I told Nate several weeks ago that I wanted to get Kayley a costume and that Cammie had told me that they had some cheap, cute ones at Walmart. He didn't seem to understand the necessity of a baby having a costume when they don't even know the difference. After explaining to him that I wanted to be able to take pictures and show the grandparents, etc. he shared what he thought was a wonderful idea with me. He suggested that we just go to Walmart, put a costume on her, take a picture, and then go home. Great idea, huh!? :) Anyway, I wasn't a huge fan of his idea and so I went on a search, the Friday before Halloween, for a costume. After going to Target, Walmart, and this Halloween USA store up the street from us, I started to realize that everything was pretty much picked over. The only 0-3 month costume that I found was an ugly monkey costume at Walmart and it was 0-9 months, so it was huge. (If your child was a monkey for Halloween and you liked that costume, then I'm really sorry. I'm sure your child looked adorable in it!) Anyway, so then I remembered that I had noticed that Babies R Us had some costumes last time I was there and I figured that it would have to have a costume in her size since it is a baby store and all. After searching through all of their costumes, the only one that they had in a 0-3 months size was this little pumpkin costume that you see below. I couldn't decide if I should get it or not because it definitely wasn't my favorite but I didn't want to return home empty-handed when Nathan had so sweetly volunteered to stay home with Kayley so I could go and it was 40% off which is always a good thing! I asked a fellow shopper lady standing next to me what she thought about it and she said that she thought it was adorable. That's all I needed to hear and I walked over to stand in line to buy it. When I got home and pulled it out to show Nate, he just kind of stared at it for a bit and then asked me if I liked it. Haha! I have been married to him long enough to know what that means! :) I would have taken it back, but by that point, I didn't even care anymore. It's a good thing too because Kayley was sick on Halloween and so we didn't even go anywhere anyway. Although it wasn't my favorite costume in the world, she ended up being a pretty cute little pumpkin!