100 posts! And what we've been up to...

So, I've been blogging for approximately 4 years now, and I'm just now getting to my 100th post. That shows how much I update my blog. Oh well...I try. So, I know I said last month that I would update after Ariana's 4-month appointment. Well, that was about a month ago and I'm finally getting to it. Ariana did great at her doctors appointment. She weighed 17 1/2 pounds (97%) and honestly, I can't remember her height but I think it calculated to like the 95% or something like that. So, she's a pretty big. This is where the appointment go interesting. They looked at her growth for her head and it was off the charts big. I always knew she had a bigger head, but I guess I just didn't realize how big it was. The doctor got a little concerned about the size and wanted to schedule an appointment for an ultrasound on it at Primary Children's. They thought she was developing normally and stuff, so they weren't too concerned. There's just always concern about water on the brain with some bigger-headed babies. Anyways, our insurance has paid everything for the rest of the year, so I went ahead and went with it. I figure I'd rather be safe than sorry. So, the following week, I headed up to the hospital with baby girl in tow. Lance just HAD to get the stomach flu that morning, so I took my mother-in-law with me for support. Got up there, got checked in, got right back to the room and they looked everything over. Ariana was a real trooper and was happy for most of it. I think it got really hard for her to hold still and eventually got fussy. We got results the same day. Radiologist said everything looked on the high end of normal to her. There is some liquid in her soft spot area, but nothing to be concerned about. It should clear up by the time she turns 1. What a relief! Poor Ariana has the big-headed genes I guess. Our baby is happy and healthy and that's all that matters.

Ariana is now 5 months old and such a sweet and good baby. She's such a joy to have in our family. Jace loves her so much. I hear him every morning when they both wake up talking to her and assuring her she's okay and mommy will come and get her. He loves to rub his head into her and talk to her and it's funny how much she likes it. She just loves her big brother and loves to watch his every move. Some more things about Ariana just so I can remember them (I was never very good about documenting things about Jace and now regret it). She hasn't rolled over yet. I guess she's going to be really slow at it. She loves her mommy! She is really good when her daddy takes care of her, but will eventually get really fussy, but the second she sees her mommy, she just gets a big smile like she's so happy to see me. She is sooooo ticklish! I don't think I've ever seen a baby as ticklish as she is. She loves to stand. I think I remember Jace always sitting, but Ariana, all I have to do is grab both hands and she automatically goes to a standing position. We noticed today she's a little bit of a thumb sucker. She won't take a binky. We pushed it for a little while and she would eventually start sucking on it, but she was never very big on it. Sometimes I think she is teething because she's starting to suck on her fingers and everyone else's fingers and she drools like no other! Good thing she got lots of bibs for Christmas because I think she is going to require one. I started Ariana on baby food, but it has been so hard for her to pick up on how to eat thicker stuff. I've been trying for about a month to feed her rice cereal and even tried sweet potatoes once. It's almost like she just has a really hard time swallowing it. I push some into her mouth and she automatically sticks out her tongue and it all comes back out. I don't ever remember giving Jace baby food being this difficult. She's definitely big enough for it. I'm just continuing to work on it and hoping she will pick it up soon because it sure has been frustrating trying to get her to eat it everyday.

As a mom, I really worry about my kids. I know I'm not the only mother to say that. I just really watch my kids and see how they're developing compared to other kids. Sure every kid is different, but I just really watch and tend to notice things. I noticed a lot of things about Jace and then found out later I wasn't crazy and he has aspergers. I just look at Ariana and worry about her as well. It's a little worrisome that she hasn't rolled over yet. I think it's more worrisome that she doesn't really try to roll over. Whenever I lay her down on the ground on her tummy, she just lays there. I feel like she should be making attempts to roll over by now. I also worry a little bit that she doesn't try to grab at things yet. A lot of babies by this age are starting to touch things and hold onto them. I put a toy in front of Ariana and she just looks at it. I put something to her hand and she just drops it. Maybe my problem is I have 2 kids now and Ariana is very different from how her brother was. I'm not too worried about her yet because she is still young and she does do a lot of things like smile and laugh and react to things. It's just other things physically that she doesn't do. It's just really interesting to me to see the difference between babies.


I suppose I should post about Jace as well. I can't forget about that little guy. Jace is just a super fun little boy. We just celebrated Christmas yesterday and it was a blast with him this year. Lance and I decided to forgo doing gifts for each other this year and focus on Jace. I don't regret it one bit. Jace memorized about every Christmas song that came on the radio. I think he's going to be a little sad getting in the car finding that Christmas songs are now over. I think his favorite was Jingle Bell Rock. Jace was excited about gifts this year. He opened all of his presents and was even excited over all of Ariana's. He went around the room with my family and had to help all of them with opening their presents. We got home so late last night that we told Jace we didn't have time to get his toys out because it was bed time. This morning, I found him sitting with his toys around him just looking at all of them in their boxes waiting until Lance and I woke up to get them out for him. Jace still loves preschool. He has now learned all of the capital letters and most of his numbers as well. We are now trying to focus on helping him learn his lower case letters. He loves to see things written out and tell us what letters they are. He is finally really starting to get good about letting us take pictures of him. If you remember, Jace has always hated getting pictures taken. I'm excited because he's getting pictures tomorrow with his cousins and hopefully they should turn out really good. Getting pictures of Jace isn't such a traumatic thing anymore. And sadly, I don't have any new pictures of with me to post of him right now.

As for an update on me and Lance....I'm still working, but just PRN (as needed). I was worried about not having guaranteed hours, but it has been great so far. I've been picking up quite a few shifts, especially with it being the holidays. Lance picked up a temporary second job, just where he already works but taking phone calls. He's gone all the time, but it's been a blessing for our family his work letting him do that. He had interview with another company to work a second job, but I'd rather him keep doing what he is doing for as long as they'll let him. We'll see what happens with that.

Anyways...I think that's about our life right now. Things are going great with our little family. I'll write again next year!!!

Lots of Ariana

So, Ariana turned 4 months last week. She's already 1/3 of a year old...seriously!?! I plan on posting next week all about my baby girl as soon as she has her 4-month doctor appointment. But for now, I will just post pictures of our first 4 months with her (in no particular order).














We sure love having this little girl in our family!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACE!

I can't believe my little boy is already 4 years old! He's growing up way too fast. He was so fun to celebrate his Birthday with this year. All he ever asked for for his Birthday was Thomas the Train toothpaste. Then, he wanted to go to school on his Birthday and celebrate it with his school friends and have them all tell him "Happy Birthday Jace!" Lucky for him, his Birthday fell on a Wednesday this year, which happened to be a school day. We celebrated his Birthday this year by going to Jungle Jim's on Saturday with Lance and I's families. That way, I didn't have to do anything but make a cake. Jace was in HEAVEN when we got there. He was hugging every one's legs and just couldn't stop smiling. Even though there were a lot of kids and it was a little hectic, it was SOOOO worth it to see that smile on his face. Sadly, I don't have my camera with me to upload the pictures of his party. On Wednesday, he got "Mommy's donuts" (isn't it sad the local donut shop is mommy's donuts?) for breakfast and then he got his wish and got to go to school.
So, here are a few things I love about this kid:

*Even though sometimes he's a little rough with her, he loves his baby sister. He constantly has to hug and kiss her even if she is smothered by it. Yesterday, in fact, she was in her carseat on the floor and next thing I knew, he had her pulled out onto his lap so he could hold her.
*He keeps me on my toes. I'm constantly cleaning up after his messes, whether it be crayons on the wall or strawberry syrup painted on my kitchen floor. Not fun to clean up, but something has to get me up and going in the day!
*He gets excited over everything! And he'll always tell me "Oooh...I love that!"
*He is turning into my big helper. Not necessarily the best thing because things can turn a little messier than they already were, like when I ask for 1 diaper and he brings me a whole armful of them and drops them on the floor, or he unloads the dishwasher and sets the clean dishes with the dirty ones, so I never remember which ones I already washed and which ones still need to be washed.
*He is always so concerned about people. My in-laws all caught the flu on Monday and Jace kept asking me if we were going to go over there so he could take care of them. Unfortunately, I wouldn't let him. Then, my mom had surgery a couple days ago. When we went over there this morning, he asked her "Grandma, are you feeling better? I said a prayer for you that you would get better." Cutest thing in the world!
*He has the sweetest voice I've ever heard. It's hard to turn him down for things he wants because he's so sweet!
*The way he gets excited over a dollar and says "Look! I have 50 dollars!"
*The times I hear him reading to himself or singing a song I didn't realize he even knew.
*The way I find his toys under the covers taking a nap or with food on them because they had something to eat.
*How he predicts the weather forecast for the day. He's always been right telling me which days it's going to rain (when there's not a cloud in the sky) or it's not going to rain.
*He's my little shopping list. I'll take him to the store and he'll tell me which things I need to remember to buy. Leave it to him to remember things I probably would have forgotten.

There are so many more things I could say about this little boy. He's just such a blessing to me. He teaches me patience and a whole lot more. I honestly could not imagine not having him as part of our family.

Newborn Pictures

So, I finally got back all of my pictures of Ariana. I'm very happy with how they turned out. Just a warning....lots of pictures! But they're of a cute baby, so who can complain?













I just love this little girl! I can't get enough of her. She is such a good baby. She only cries if she's hungry. Yesterday, she was more fussy than usual because she had to get her 2-month immunizations. She is such a chunky baby. She's doubled in size since I had her. I took her to the doctor yesterday and here are her 2-month stats:
Height: 23.6 inches
Weight: 14.3 pounds
Yep, she is a big baby. The doctor pulled up her growth chart and she went from the 75% range for height and weight to 98% at 2 months. She sure is a joy to have in our home. Jace can be a little mean to her (if we're not watching him), but I think he loves her. She's starting to smile a little bit and sometimes I think she's cooing at me. It's hard to tell because she grunts so much. We're very happy to have this little girl in our home!

A little update

I finally was able to go to my parents' house and upload all of my pictures to her computer the other day, so I decided to update the blog. For some reason, my computer won't recognize our camera. I'm not sure why, but it's a pain not being able to put pictures on our computer straight from my camera. I guess that's my excuse for not blogging a whole lot....that and being busy with 2 kids and trying to sneak in sleep any chance I get. No, I can't complain. Ariana is a good baby and a pretty good sleeper. As long as she's changed and fed, she's pretty good about sleeping.

Last week, Jace was able to start up preschool again. We took him on Monday to a "back-to-school night" and once he got to go in his classroom and play a little, he was happy and excited for his first day. So on Wednesday, he was up bright and early and all ready for his first day. He takes the bus, so we went outside early to snap a couple pictures. He refused to let me do his hair. Oh well.


Isn't he so handsome? I was so happy he actually let me take his picture!

Then, on Sunday, we were able to bless Ariana in church. I went all out and got her a really fancy dress. I wasn't planning on it, but I loved the dress I found and it was the right price. I had been looking forward to her blessing day since I had her. I couldn't wait to dress her all up. As Jace put it, she was a princess.

Daddy and his little girl.




Lance gave a beautiful blessing. We had a get-together at the park after. The weather couldn't have been better. We're grateful for family and friends that were able to come.
Anyways, that's been our week. I started work again on Monday, but thankfully, I was able to come back to work PRN, which is basically oncall. No more 4 nights a week! Now I just work as needed. It's hard leaving both of my babies to come back to work, but I know they're in good hands. I miss them both like crazy. My first day back, I was nearly in tears I missed them so much. Today was the first day that Jace went back to grandma's to be babysat since both Lance and I had to work. He got there and automatically starting crying and went up to Lance's mom and said "Guess what grandma...mommy had to go back to work." It broke my heart knowing that he was crying that I had to leave him. Anyways, it's been a good week.

Soccer Mom

Lance and I have thought about putting Jace in soccer for awhile. We just thought it would be a fun activity for him to be part of where he can just run on the field back and forth and get to be with other kids as well. I found out from a friend that she signed her children up to play soccer, so I jumped and decided to sign Jace up as well. I told Jace about it and he wasn't very excited about it. I took him to his first practice and he started out okay running with the kids and enjoying it, but the second he got hot and tired, he was ready to quit (it was only a few minutes into practice). He wouldn't go back onto the field without mommy or daddy doing it with him. Let's say....I learned my lesson. Jace needs to have a nap and I need to learn to take a water bottle to practice for all of his "breaks."

Anyways, this past saturday was Jace's first game. We got there and the coach sent him in at the beginning of the game. He went out for about 5 seconds before he came back wandering to the sidelines saying he was tired. So, Lance and I pretty much had to go out on the field when they called Jace in and had to hold his hand. I haven't moved that fast in a LONG time (and I didn't even move that fast). Anyways, it turned out better than we thought it would. We were worried about Jace being the only one that didn't want to play or that would leave the field crying, but there were other kids that got knocked down and that refused to play. I mean, we were the only ones that had to hold our kids hand and run with him, but at least it got him to play. Here are some pictures courtesy of Lance's phone and his coach's wife.

Okay, not the best picture because you only see me and can't even see Jace.

Lance taking a turn running with him.

Here's a really good picture of him.

Jace's cheerleaders. My mom was nice enough to bring Brynn, Cambree, and Trevin to cheer Jace on.

I can definitely see soccer being in Trevin's future!

Lance took a video on his phone as well, but I need to figure out how to add it to the blog.

I need to apologize. I've taken so many pictures of Ariana, but my computer doesn't recognize our camera for some reason, so I need to put the pictures on someone else's computer and upload them to a cd so I can blog about her. But for now, here's a cute picture Lance took on his phone of her.

I can't believe my little baby is already a month old!!! She's growing so fast and starting to put on the pounds! I must feed her good. It's so fun to have a little girl to dress up and even paint her nails! She's still such a good baby. She wakes up in the night and goes right back to sleep after eating, but in the morning, she is starting to be wide awake and only want to be held....not good for days when mommy wants to go back to sleep until Jace wakes up. Anyways, she's a joy to have in the family. We are having fun with her!

Our baby girl

I know I'm overdue at posting this, but I'm happy to announce that our little baby girl has arrived! Yes, she was early, but she's as perfect as can be. Here's kind of how it happened. I started getting high blood pressure at the beginning of July. I began monitoring it and it wasn't really going down much. We went to Lava Hot Springs the second week of July and basically, I was just aiming to get through that vacation since it was planned way in advance. When I got home from vacation, my feet were like tripled in size and to the point I couldn't walk and my blood pressure was up. I went to the doctor on tuesday, July 19, and they sent me down to labor and delivery to be monitored. After lying down for awhile, my pressure went down, so they sent me home on bed rest. With Jace, I had a c-section, so with this second baby, I was really shooting for a VBAC. The doctor knew that and he kind of told me that they wouldn't induce me because if I didn't go on my own, then I probably wouldn't be successful in delivering the way I wanted. He also said that he did not want me to make it to 40 weeks because of Jace being so big and because of my blood pressure. Well, on Friday, I woke up and took my blood pressure and it was higher than it had ever been, so Lance drove me out to Salt Lake to the hospital to be monitored again. We dropped Jace off with an overnight bag at grandma's because I had pretty much decided at this point that I was just going to have another c-section. I pretty much knew things weren't going to work out the way I wanted them to and I wanted to be prepared for a c-section this time around (my c-section with Jace was miserable because I was so unprepared for it!). So, we went to the hospital and they monitored me and my blood pressure was not going down at all. So, when my doctor came in, I told him I was ready for a c-section and they had me in the operating room within a couple hours. It was a totally different experience from having Jace. I was able to have a spinal, which worked like a charm and I was able to be awake and aware of what was going on. It was a much better experience. So, our baby arrived on July 22, at 2:34 PM weighing 7 lbs. 11 oz. 21 inches long. I can't imagine how big she would have been if I would have gone the last 3 weeks! Jace was 9 lbs. 10 oz. I didn't want another 10 pounder! It took us a couple hours to settle on a name, but we finally decided on Ariana Aileen Rowley. Aileen comes from Lance's 90-year-old grandmother.

I love how clean babies come out when you have it by c-section!

Seeing my baby for the first time. It was sure nice being awake this time around! With Jace, I was knocked out, so I didn't see him until the next morning.

So happy to have my little girl here!

I wasn't sure how Jace was going to react to her, but he has loved her from the beginning! That first day, if anyone else held his baby sister, it was his turn. He wanted her all to himself. This was our "first family picture". I don't know why we didn't take one with everyone looking at the camera.

Getting ready to head home from the hospital.

When we got home, all Jace wanted was to lay on the bed with his baby sister. He's such a big brother!

Ariana is such a good baby so far. She's really loud and squeaky, but she rarely cried within the first 2 weeks of life. I've seriously never heard a baby grunt and make sounds as much as this little girl does.

When Ariana was 5 days old, I took her over to my sister-in-law's house to get some newborn pictures taken. With Jace, we never got newborn pictures, so I really wanted to get some this time around. Here is just a preview of them. I can't wait to get the rest!



Like I said, I seriously LOVE these pictures. Can't wait to see the rest! Hopefully with 2 kids now, I'll take more pictures and post more updates!