A Happy Happy 1st Birthday

My baby turned ONE this last Friday! 

Where did this baby girl go!?!?!

This is a bittersweet moment for me. I spent a good part of the weekend reminiscing over all that has happened over the last year of having Mia, especially when she was a newborn. I remember thinking how fragile she seeming coming home from the hospital with her and all those days when I would just want to sit there and hold her as she slept. Some days we would hardly move from her rocking chair after she would eat in the mornings then she would fall asleep so I would just hold her, rock and read and enjoy the peacefulness with my precious baby. Every month brought something new and exciting with Mia as well as somethings that I didn't care for so much...one being the phase when every time she pooed is would be a blow out. I would be washing out poopy clothes multiple times a day!

As long as I'm reminiscing, here are some of my favorite memories of her throughout the year...

1. Seeing my beautiful, healthy girl being held up by the doctor for me to see when she was delivered.

2. When Eric would leave for work in the morning and I would bring Mia back to bed with me and we would sleep in till 10 in the morning! Sometimes I would just lay there and watch her sleep all balled up next to me in her little footie pajamas.

3. This is still a favorite, but walking into her room in the mornings and seeing her standing up waiting for me with a big smile and crazy hair froed out in the back and then snuggling with me for awhile until she's ready to get down and play.

4. Smiling at me for the first time after a long and crazy day. It melted my heart! 

5. Mia looking just like her daddy so I have a piece of him with me everyday, especially now that he will be traveling more for work. :)

If you haven't gotten the picture yet, Eric and I absolutely have loved having this little girl in our lives over the past year and are excited for the years to come! Now to the actual birthday celebration! We didn't celebrated her birthday until Saturday because we were down in Provo for Collin's graduation on Friday. It was great to be there to celebrate Collin's big accomplishment and support family. Plus, how could I pass up a chance to see and hold that cute little baby of their's!

Because of Collin's graduation all of my family was in town so they stayed for Mia's party the next day. We also had some close friends come as well. I didn't really go all out for this party because my family didn't grow up having huge birthday parties with friends, but rather a family dinner with the menu of our choice and presents. Not to mention Mia is only 1 and would never remember it no matter how extravagant it was. I did however still choose a theme to direct some of the party since Mia couldn't really come out and say what she really wanted. Anyway, the theme was Cat in the Hat because she LOVES watching that show on PBS. Then I had my dad make his homemade spaghetti for dinner because that seems to be Mia's favorite dinner food  (ok...including mine so maybe a little biased). Annelise was gracious enough to make these cute Thing 1 & 2 cupcakes from Cat in the Hat since I refused when Eric and I got married I would not be making cakes or anything of the sort for our kids birthdays! Call me a lame mother, but I my cakes NEVER turn out and to be honest I really don't enjoy making things that don't look or taste all that great. So because of my pride I was ready shell out $50 for cupcakes when Annelise saved my craziness. A BIG thanks!

The party was a success as we ate a fabulous meal, the kids played and watched episodes of The Cat in the Hat, and the rest of us visited and enjoyed ourselves.

 As far a presents I ordered a Rody...this kind of weird looking bouncy horse but accidentally had it sent to Ely. The base for the Rody came in time for my dad to bring it in so that's what Mia has to open. Come to find out that was plenty enough to entertainer her...who needs the Rody! lol.

We did get Mia some Sandra Boynton books for her to open and ran last minute to Walmart and got her a Disney Princess adventure hut for her so she would have something on her birthday. It's funny that she would  never really know or care if she got any presents at all let alone on her birthday...it's just a mental thing as parents we felt like we had to do lol.

Grandma and Grandpa reading Mia her new books. They are the best!

A Life Changing Week

I never imagined so many things could happen in just one week and all having an effect on our lives for good and bad. As I've mentioned in previous posts I use this blog as a journal for our family so I tend to be tell it how it is and sometimes can get a little personal. Note: this is one of those posts!

Last week started with a midnight trip to the ER to find out that I was going to loss twins that I was 3 months pregnant with. Eric and I had been keeping this pregnancy a secret until Sara had her baby just because it was our second pregnancy and I really wanted her not to have to share the spotlight for her first. Of course I was devastated that I would loss both of my babies as was Eric in that he always wanted twins. I still find it  hard to write about now. It was hard to have been excited about having another baby and planning on one (which was apparently two) and then all of the sudden coming up empty handed. It was even harder that Mia had left to stay with Eric's grandparents that day so I couldn't come home and hold her. I called my mom right after we found out and she was gracious enough to come right into Provo and made it in time for me to miscarry them at home Sunday night. I could have never done it without my mother's love and support as well as Eric's. He probably even saved my life as I was loosing a lot of blood and forced me to get in the car and took me to the ER again since I can be pretty stubborn when it comes to going to the hospital. My blood pressure was extremely low and after a blood transfusion and staying in the hospital over night my blood pressure was coming  back up, but I was still bleeding pretty heavily so I had an emergency D and C surgery to clean out my cervix. I was released from the hospital Monday night hurting physically and emotionally, but grateful for a little privacy again.

The Lord must have known how much my arms ached to hold my babies, because that night Sara was admitted to the hospital to have her baby. Mom and I went Tuesday morning to help her deliver. It seems such a miracle to me witnessing the birth of a healthy baby, especially after realizing how easily they can be lost and all the compilations that can arise. It made me remember how blessed I am to have a beautiful, healthy girl of my own. Baby Addilyn is such a sweet spirit and I loved getting to hold her! Anyway, we spent most of that day at the hospital and then Wednesday and Thursday were spent finishing finals, packing, cleaning and taking some loads to our new apartment, which of course I again could not have done without much help from family and friends as my mom didn't let me help with anything besides sitting in a chair and saying what was trash and to pack. Eric was also a big help (especially emotionally) through all of this while still trying to take finals and finish everything he had before graduation. My baby also came home Wednesday night and boy was I happy to see her!!! I kept making her snuggle with me and holding really seemed to cheer me up.

The cutie pie herself, snuggling with Grandma. I just can't get enough of baby Addi!!

Friday was Eric's graduation! I was a very proud wife sitting in the audience as I watched Eric walk in with all the graduates. It made me think of everything we had been through together and all that Eric had to sacrifice to get here and also how good BYU has been to us. We met at BYU, we got married while going to school at BYU, started a family, had good jobs at BYU, enjoyed going to the football and basketball games, and living up the college life! Even though I'm not quite done with school, I'm finishing up online so our time at BYU is pretty much over and I think we will both really miss it, but we are excited for a new chapter.

Eric walking in! He is the one with the orange lei.

 Considering how long graduation was Mia did quite well until they started handing out the diplomas and it lasted for over an hour. And of course Eric insisted she wear her BYU cheerleading outfit.

If you're still reading, we are finally to Saturday which was the big moving day. We again were blessed to have family and friends help us move and made it so much easier!!! Eric and I love being in our new, clean apartment and even though I take a while to get use to changes I think I'm really going to like it here. Pictures to come....sometime when I get around to unpacking everything!!!

So finally this bittersweet week is over and I couldn't have started this new week out on a better foot then going to sacrament meeting in our new ward and listening to talks about overcoming trials and hardships. I am grateful for those couple of months I had to carry those precious twin babies and know that I will get the chance to raise them whether in this life or the next. To close this post, I would like to something that really comforted me through this last week. It's from Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin's conference talk "Come what May and Love It"

"The Lord compensates the faithful for every loss. That which is taken away from those who love the Lord will be added unto them in His own way. While it may not come at the time we desire, the faithful will know that every tear today will eventually be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude."

 For sticking through this very long post here are some pictures of Miss Mia. She is becoming quite the big girl eating mostly whatever we give her and loving to eat with her fork!

I found Mia one day crammed into this little suitcase, playing with my necklaces. She is so funny always climbing and getting herself into the most random places and spaces. Our little explorer!

Dancing

Mia spent her morning busting out her dance moves! This is something I never intentionally taught her, but I am always listening to music as I work around the house and sometime, I embarrassingly admit, will dance around. Now every time Mia hears music she dances.

Easter Weekend

We've seemed to make it a tradition to go to Vernal on Easter weekend, which I love because Eric's family has got all the fun traditions that we enjoy being a part of and of course being with family! Not to mention Mia seems to do so much better in other places...maybe it's all the spoiling she gets from her grandparents or just a new place to explore.

We went out to Vernal on Friday night and got there in time to say hi and all go to bed. Saturday we dyed Easter eggs and went and played some golf, which was my first time! I only played one hole, but didn't do too bad...I'm calling it beginners luck because normally I could't hit anything using my hands if my life depended on it (hence the reason I prefer soccer). Mia enjoyed the outing and riding around in the golf carts. We wore her right out and ended up taking one of the longest naps she's had in a very long time. Why can't she take long naps when we are at home? We finished the day by watching "We bought a Zoo" which is a really cute movie and got the tears flowing. After being pregnant with Mia it doesn't take much to make me tear up, especially when it involves children! I teared up at a commercial about the NICU the other day! A sad confession, but true.

Sunday we were all racing to get ready and to church by 9 in the morning. We really struggle when church is that time! Mia did the cutest thing doing Sacrament Meeting. When they were passing the sacrament to the congregation one of the boys passing the sacrament was standing by us waiting to get the sacrament tray once in finished our row. Mia reached out and grabbed his finger and held it till he had to move to the next row. Then she watched him until he came back the second time and reached out to hold his finger again. The boy was really sweet letting her hold his finger and I have to laugh with how social Mia can be sometimes. She loves going to strangers, especially the ladies. She takes a little longer to warm up to men but any younger kids she instantly drawn to. Sunday afternoon we continued with tradition and went up to a specific rocky place in the mountains where Eric's family always does their Easter egg hunt.

Yay Mia found an egg! Ok so we kind of found them for her and just set her down by it to pick it up which then sent the egg rolling down the mountain, but hey we found some eggs!

The weekend was a lot of fun and relaxing before we had to come home and get ready to finish out the semester, have Eric's graduation and move! I try to pack some boxes everyday to make the actual moving day a little less stressful however I've packed at least 15 boxes now and feel like I haven't even made a dent!!

Anyway some updates on Mia...she is now officially off formula!! I had to stop nursing Mia at 6 months when I had pneumonia and she's been on formula ever since which is really expensive! I figured since Mia is not a picky eater and is almost 1 I'd rather transition to a $3 gallon of milk rather then a $15 can of formula that lasts her a week. Anyway she transitioned nicely and is now also eating regular meals and loves mostly anything we give her. Mia also has taken 5 consecutive steps all by herself! She doesn't do it a lot because she still finds crawling to be less scary but will stand by herself a lot and getting braver and braver everyday. She could start walking any day which I find to be thrilling and also sad! My baby is growing up way to fast!!!

I realized that most pictures I've taken of her recently she is wearing this outfit. I promise she doesn't wear this everyday, but she does look like a cutie pie everyday! :)

This is Mia's progress so far as hair growth. We call it her mullet hairstyle because all that grows is her hair in  back and sometime it can be a party in back!