The Latest

Oh how much I love this girl.  The other night I rocked her in my arms and just squeezed her.  I am sad that she is growing so fast.  My little baby is not always going to be so little and that is a sad thing.  So that night I just took it all in and loved every minute of it.  Of course, growing does have some positives I hear, like growing out of colic.  That's a plus, for sure.  But the little sweetness, there's just nothing like it.

She is a little over three months now.  Doing so great in a lot of ways!  A couple weeks ago she rolled over for the first time and has done it a few more times since.  In the same week she was trying to sit up.  She really wants to sit up and tries and tries, I've said before, she's determined!  She's smiley and giggly and I can't get enough.  She's still fussy britches quite often.  Demanding and needy.  Doesn't want to be put down and don't you dare leave the room.  She is sassy and difficult.  But she is sweet too and loving and funny and all around precious.  Lately I am especially enjoying the fact that she doesn't wake up screaming anymore.  Those were rough rough mornings!  Her colic isn't over but little by little she is growing out of certain colicky habits.  She's so fun and I just can't believe how much I enjoy her.  (Most days...most times). Ha. Come on, I'd be lying if I said she was heaven on earth all. the. time.

Just rolled over

Nap time.  Not sleeping.  She gets gassy when she's suppose to be sleeping, a lot.  Drives me nuts.  So I rubbed her belly a little bit and then snapped a couple cute pictures.  Awww, I just think she's cute.

Bath time- smiling at daddy

Dog wants Aleah to play with her.  I kind of think it's cute. I don't know what Aleah thinks.  Maybe she's just happy the dog knows which toys are hers and which are Aleahs.  Oh, wait, that's me.  Good dog.

She loves this bear.  Thank you teddy for being her little friend when she is sad and helping her to fall asleep when I can't.

Aleah's first high school basketball game.  With Grandma Vickie, Aunt Autumn, Uncle Cory and cousin Kallee. 

Going Strong.

Is it a little late to blog about New Years Resolutions?  Oh well..  I'm doing it anyways.  I love making goals for a new year!  A chance to start clean and go at another year with optimism and make goals to be better than you were the year before is refreshing and I love it.

Cade and I made a list of goals for ourselves and I'm so happy with how we have been doing!  Three weeks in, I can feel proud now, right?  January 2nd, I was feeling pretty awesome and then I remembered it was only day two.  So, three weeks in and now I can start to feel excited about some for the better changes we've made, I think.  Of course, I have a loooong ways to go with some of the goals, you know, the goals that are there every year... be more kind, less judgemental & better at serving...those and many more things I can always improve on.

But what I'm excited about is our 2013 "budget"!  Every night since the first I have written down exactly how much $$ we have brought in and how much we have spent.  I'm excited to take a look at the end of this month to see where our money has gone and how much we've kept.  It definitely has made me want to spend less money since keeping track and writing it all down.

The next big deal goal we set was to eat out less.  That was kind of what was breaking the bank last year, I'm sure of it, but I don't know just how much by because I never kept track last year, and to be honest, I don't think I want to know.  We made a goal that we wouldn't eat out until our Valentines date.  Only a month and a half, but that really is huge for us because we eat out a lot.  Probably at least once a week (some weeks more than that) from quick drive thru's to sit down restaurants.  That's right folks, I have made dinner just about every night for the past three weeks (besides Hansen Fam dinner).  Ok, some of those dinners have been super lame and nasty frozen food items but whatever, some have been pretty good, I'd say ;)  I'm really glad we made this goal, it's making me so excited for our V day date.  It kind of makes eating out for a date more special when you don't do it every week.  We also decided to throw no pop in there too.  The next time we drink pop will be on our date too.  Just because, we drink a lot of pop and it seems like a good idea to cut back.

A few other things we've been doing pretty good at but I think I'll just leave it at those few.  2013 is off to a good start!
 

A Good Night

Last night, was a good night.  No, it wasn't.  But, it kind of was.  Aleah is doing soo much better lately.  But we aren't out of the woods and every time that we think we are, we are shown otherwise.  Her colic is getting better though and it can only go up from here...I think.  Some nights, most nights she has a hard time sleeping.  Last night was one of them.  I put her down usually around 7-8, whenever she's feeling it.  Last night it was seven.  It was another wake up every hour (until 11 or midnight) and cry and cry kind of night.  Yesterday was just a bad day for me, not really because of Aleah, just a down in the dumps day.  So, Aleah crying was just the cherry on top.  I knew how it would go if I took her out of her cradle... She would stop crying start to fall asleep or fall into a good deep sleep and when I would put her down she would wake right up and continue to cry.  So I just tried to rock her in the cradle and stroke her hair.  Sometimes she just needs you for a bit and then will fall back asleep until the next hour, this time the crying went on for more than an hour.  I just didn't know what to do, like I usually don't.  Cade was going to leave to play basketball but then he debated going, I felt fine enough to send him on his way though.  I'm glad he left. :)  It gave me a good opportunity to learn a few things.  Ever since being married I kind of have struggled to find good alone time.  Alone time to just cry and read helpful things or reflect on scriptures or pray..  Moments I always, though didn't want to have from trials during teen years, but moments I felt my Saviors love the most.  Special kind of moments through trials.  So last night after Cade left, twenty minutes later and she's still crying...  "Pick her up?  Don't pick her up?  She's still going to cry either way..."  Finally I just sat back, feeling pretty helpless and frustrated. Then I looked over and saw my scriptures.  Scriptures have always been my answer to prayers, questions or concerns.  Heavenly Father really does know me and I know this by how he comforts me and sends what I need to me, that often being through the scriptures.  I flipped them open pretty randomly and the first highlighted scripture caught my eye... Alma 26:27.
   "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to ^aturn back, behold, the Lord ^bcomforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with ^cpatience thine ^dafflictions, and I will give unto you success."
 I don't remember highlighting that scripture, or what it meant to me before...but this time it spoke to me in the way that I really needed it.  To someone else it might not mean what it did to me but I could relate to it in a special way and I don't doubt that it was meant to speak to me that way.
I sat up, stroked her head a few more times and within minutes she was asleep.
Did she sleep a full 8 hours after that?  No.  She woke up probably twenty minutes later crying.  But this time I picked her up and snuggled her a little bit.  I thought about how I had to put her back down, she has a lot of learning to do too and I can't hold her in my arms all the time and make life super easy for her.  Right then though, she probably needed a little hug.  I realized while snuggling her that in a way that was kind of what Heavenly Father did for me.  I needed a little comfort, a little hug.  He gave me a little tender mercy by sending me that message through the scriptures and helping me with Aleah, but there is still so much for me to learn and growth still needed and he can't take away all of my trials, but he can give me a little "hug" sometimes when I need it.  (Sorry for the run on sentence all you English majors).  So grateful for last nights trial and lesson.  So grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows what I need and for my friend, Jesus Christ who I always know feels the pain I am feeling and is there to hear me and help me too.  Blessed with so much.  

Christmas and the latest!

Our month of December looked like this...

 Pinterest Find.  

Pretty.  

Rainbow cake in a jar...  

Pinterest Fail. 

Mushy cake in a jar.  

 

Such a bummer.  I tried TWICE!  And failed TWICE!  

First attempt was to make sure I didn't do a silly thing like, fill six jars of colored cake batter just to have them turn out uncooked.  Oops, did it anyways.  First time it wasn't cooked all the way but I was more concerned about how the purple took over.  Second time, I cooked for fifteen minutes longer, checked one, thought it was cooked fine, returned awhile later to find that all six were very much still in need of baking.  Boo.  

My homemaking skills still need a lot of work.

Christmas Eve Pajamas!  Looking for a Christmas Present for Cade, I found these sweet PJ's.  I asked Cade to let me buy Aleah's pajamas alone this year so that I could do this!  Matching Kansas City Chief's Pajamas!  Total daddy's girl, it was only appropriate. :) 

Cade did a nice job on mine as well!  He always does!

Wake up sleepy head!  It's Christmas!

So happy!

Christmas Day 2012

Playing with Christmas Present from Grandma and Grandpa Koyle

And everything else I have to share....

Just cute.

One of those fussy days she just had to be held. Looked down to see this. I didn't dare move it and risk waking the beast. :)

Griping things a little bit!

Sleeping in her crib!  Finally!  But not 100% of the time...

Just hangin' out

 Aleah is eleven weeks old!  Two and half months.  

Since 8 weeks she has been making serious improvements.  

Like, nursing... 

She wouldn't.  We tried.  If she wasn't in a good mood she wouldn't latch and after day two, she wouldn't latch, period.  Stressful.  Bought a pump instead, supplemented with formula too.  Got jury duty summons, found out if I was exclusively breastfeeding I could get out of it. :)  And was told cutting dairy out of my diet would help her colic.  Reasons to try breastfeeding again.  She latched.  Made it look like we never had a problem.  The girl is determined.  Picking up breastfeeding at eight weeks old?  So proud of her.  No more bottles for awhile for this girl. 

Sleeping in her crib..

Right around that same time she also let me put her down in her crib.  Up until then it was...at night, either sleeping in my arms (I know, some people would advise against that, but don't judge, I needed SOME sleep) or in her swing.  Now she'll sleep in her cradle in our room most of the night, but often she does get restless and won't sleep well (which means I don't sleep at all) unless I put her in bed with me. 

She smiles a lot more.  Will talk your ear off.  And is just plain CUTE and so much fun.

Her colic though?  Still here...  Christmas was great, but it also shared five nights in a row of a colicky little girl.  Kind of rough.  I gave up dairy for about three weeks.  Nothing.  Even though giving up dairy was hard, I would have really liked a break from colic.  Her pediatrician said that she'll probably continue to sleep...(what's the word he used?  I'll use awful..) until her colic is over.  The past two nights, she's been up just about every hour.  About a week ago I did get my first almost six hour stretch though, that was nice.  I'm soo hopeful there will be more of those, soon! 

So, I'm tired.  And hungry.  I don't ususally shower until Cade comes home from work.  Some days I feel my sanity slipping with every tear drop she sheds.  I don't remember the last time I had energy.  And all I feel like cooking with my energy level, are microwavable banquet meals.  Mmm, I actually kind of love that cheap watery mac and cheese.  Some days I don't remember why I was ever baby hungry, or I tell her over and over again her siblings can blame her for not ever coming down to earth. :)  I find it seriously unfair that she is a Daddy's girl when I am the one who stays home with her all day trying to make her happy and the one getting up every hour at night.  But, the truth is, I just really love her.  Some nights, I don't want to put her down in her cradle, I just want to sit and hold her.  And my husband, he's the raddest.  I couldn't do this at all without him.  I couldn't have picked a better husband and father of our kids. :)  He does way more than he will ever  get credit for.  He deserves one heck of a Father's Day present this year.  I feel lucky to have this cute little family.  And I'm going to go hug that good little napper right now!