Instagram picture overload.

It's super nice to have an Iphone.

I know I've said that before but I love it.

One of the things I love about it is instagram.

So here are some pictures I've posted on instagram over the weeks.

And since I'm too lazy to write a post for each one I'll compile them all in to one post.

Enjoy!

Little Olivia scared because there is a tiny spider on the floor.

I know I'm a mean mommy taking her picture before I help her!

Waiting at Les Schwab for our car early one morning.

Lucky girl got to have a little bit of Mountain Dew in her bottle.

You can imagine how quickly she woke up after drinking it:)

Made 10 burp cloths for baby Clara. 

I do most of the cooking around here but I'm not going to lie, Michael makes a to die for turkey sandwich. 

Cereal for dinner?

Yes this totally has been happening around here lately.

Maybe a bit too much.

At least our cereal choice is healthy right?:) Ha!

Playing with her new ball and having a little snack outside in the sunshine!

Playing at the park with dad!

Me and my cute girl.

I love her face in this picture.

I have been craving banana cream pie but have had a hard time finding a place to get a slice.

Michael surprised me one night with this goodness.

Sadly, he ended up eating most of it because it was not up to par.

So if anyone knows of where I can get a decent slice of banana cream pie let me know.

The craving is still going strong!

Running sprints one morning with daddy.

Happy hour at Taco Bell!

We love their baja blast and lemonade slushies.

Olivia got out of bed one night and we just couldn't resist letting her stay up to watch a movie and eat ice cream with us!

It was a hot day. So hot that she decided to read her books right in front of the fan!

Mailing packages of yummy brownies and cookies to my cute missionary brothers!

Packing my hospital bag.

You never know right?!

Olivia's hospital stay round 2.

This all started April 27th.

On Saturday night, Olivia started coughing and acting like she might be getting a cold so when Sunday morning rolled around we decided not to take her to church. Michael stayed home with her while I went. 

Well, while I was gone I got a text from him saying that she seemed to be having a hard time breathing. (She was starting to act like she did last time she got sick and was hospitalized.) She was also coughing very hard and it was kind of a weird cough because it sounded a lot like a seal barking. So I came home and we decided to call the doctor. 

After a couple of hours of her worsening (her chest and tummy were seriously moving up and down so hard and you could tell she was really struggling to breathe)  the doctor told us to take her to the emergency room. 

Luckily we didn’t really have to wait because our doctor had called in. Apparently some people had been waiting for over 3 hours! Well the doctor there looked at her and said that she for sure had Croup. He said all we had to do was give her a breathing treatment and a shot of medicine and that she should be fine. So, finally 4 hours later we were able to go home! Olivia seemed to be doing much better. 

However, that night things started up again. Not so much the cough but the retractions (that’s what they call it when the skin up by your collar bone and by your rib cage is sucking in really hard when you breathe). So, Monday morning I called the doctor again and we took her in. They gave her another breathing treatment (it’s a nebulizer with medicine that we hold by her nose and she just breathes it in for 15 minutes or so). He told us to take her home and come back if it got worse. Well it did. So we took her back and that is when they decided that we needed to take her back to the hospital. This time we would be staying at least the night. 

Just like last time they were all ready for us. But unlike last time we were told that she would need an IV.  It was so horrible to watch and actually have to hold her down. We did this in a room way across the hall and Michael could hear her screaming from all the way in her room. Which of course made him come running. We were both literally in tears. It’s so hard to watch your child in pain, I seriously wish more than anything that I could have taken her place. She also had to be tested  for RSV which was done by shoving a long cotton swab like thing up her nose. This was just as horrible to watch. It definitely a rough couple hours getting checked in and situated.

Well, to make a potentially very long story shorter we were in the hospital from Monday to Thursday morning. Olivia received constant medication through the IV and breathing treatments every 2 hours even through the night. A couple of the nights we had to hook her up to oxygen because her oxygen levels would drop so low.  In fact, being the smart mommy that I am I (Just kidding) came up with an easy way of giving Olivia oxygen without having to put those little tubes up her nose which she obviously hated. I would tighten the tubes and hook them right on her binky so that they were leaning right up against the top of it without going up her nose, giving her enough oxygen to keep her levels where they should've been. When the morning nurses came in to check on us they told me that every one was talking about it and they had never had anyone do that. They said it was a pretty good idea. I know, I'm bragging a little bit, but it made me feel good. After all it has always been my dream to be a nurse:) 

Olivia was definitely a favorite among the nurses. She was very cooperative and the second one would come in she would immediately lift up her gown so that they could listen to her heart. She had a couple visitors and even was given a stuffed animal dog and giraffe as well as two new puzzles. Lucky girl!

She was a sick baby but finally started getting better Wednesday however, they still though it would be best to keep her one more night just to watch her because at nights is when she would struggle the most. So on Thursday morning we were finally able to take her home! It was a long 4 days. Michael and I both spent every night with her. I slept in a bed with Olivia and Michael slept on a little bench thing. Neither of us really left the hospital unless it was for my doctor’s appointments or for Michael to pick up some food. We both struggled sleeping, especially me because the nurses would wake me up every two hours when they did the breathing treatments or checked her vitals. 

The doctors have diagnosed Olivia with Asthma. And so we now have our very own nebulizer in which we have to do 2 breathing treatments a day with. Each treatment she gets 2 medications.  One that helps with the asthma and one that will hopefully prevent further attacks. We have to do the breathing treatments twice a day for at least 4 weeks and then we will move down to just 1 treatment a day for another couple months. After that we will just do the treatments as needed. Like if it is allergy season or flue season or we are taking her to a place where there is a lot of dust, ect. We still don't know what triggers it which is why we have to take a lot precautions. We do have our suspicions about the Ag festival and being around all those animals and hays. Hopefully we'll eventually figure it out. We also will always have a little inhaler for her if she needs it. So that being said, she is doing sooo much better but definitely has asthma. 

Here are a few pictures from our stay. 

So tired and really not feeling good. 

She treated her little hand with the IV in it like a sore. Which it really was but she always kept it tucked up against her and wouldn't let anyone near it. 

Poor little thing.

Sleeping with my sick baby.

Isn't she precious?

One of her favorite things about staying at the hospital was the endless popsicles that she got! Every time a nurse came in she would ask them for an "osticle." It's so cute how she says it. She would even sometimes press the call button so that she could tell them she wanted one. I'm sure they felt so good on her little throat.

On the way back to the hospital from one of my appointments I stopped at the gift shop to get Olivia a balloon. And I just couldn't resist this little elephant balloon. Seriously cutest thing ever. It pretty much just hops right a long next to her when she walks. I think I may have loved it just as much as she did:)

Going for a little walk around the halls.

Michael apparently didn't know he was going to be in the picture:)

Isn't she too tiny to be hooked up to an IV and wearing a gown and such?

I think so.

We are so grateful for all the prayers on her behalf. We could definitely feel them.  It was a really rough 5 days for our family but we got through it and are definitely stronger because of it.

I just hope that was our last hospital stay for a while. 

Oh wait, I'm having a baby in a few weeks!

Ha but after that I swear we are done for a very long time!

AG Festival.

While at a doctors appointment my nurse told me about a fun festival that was going on.

It's called the AG festival. (Apparently people here really like it.)

When we looked it up and saw that there was a petting zoo we knew Olivia would love it!

When we got there we had a quick lunch of hot dogs and then headed straight to the animals.

Olivia was a bit freaked out at first and would not touch them.

She was very interested in just looking at them from a distance:)

After seeing her dad pet all the animals she decided that she might just be brave enough to touch a few!

We of course spent most of our time here because she was really loving it.

I was really impressed with how many different animals they had and how interactive they let you be with them.

A cute baby cow.

A baby goat.

Looking at all the chickens.

Some were so funny looking with their little puffler heads ha.

The big cow.

I love her little squat.

She loved petting the two baby bunnies.

They had a place where you could ride ponies but the line was forever long and Olivia is so funny about horses because she'll only ride the big ones (Riverbellsissy) and she'll only do it if Aunti Phoph and the twins are with her. So I guess she'll have to wait until July to ride!

Then, Olivia and dad got to go look at a giant bees nest.

We of course couldn't resist taking this picture!

Since it was so hot outside we decided to get a big snow cone and ice cream bar to share.

(Excuse my extreme whiteness. Oh my gosh I've got to start using my Jergens tanning lotion:))

Going home.

I tried to get her to look at me but apparently it was a little too bright outside!

It was a super fun day.

And we're just loving soaking up every second we have left together as a family of 3!

Good things to come.

Things have been so crazy around here that there hasn't been time for blogging.

Between a 4 day hospital stay, 4 appointments a week for baby Clara, trying to prepare for baby Clara, lots of nausea and exhaustion and just so much more going on in our little family Michael and I are both  completely worn out.
A while back Winston sent me a link to this video. And I'm so glad he did because we have found a lot of comfort in this message from Elder Holland.

It was just what we needed to hear.

I hope you enjoy it just as much as we did.

I watch it at least once a day.

Oh and I will get to updating the blog...very soon I hope.

For now I'm going to go make 4 batches of snickerdoodles and 2 batches of homemade brownies for my cute missionary brothers!

Baby Clara update.

Our sweet girl at 34 weeks.

So in my last post regarding baby Clara I talked about how she had been measuring small for a couple of ultrasounds and that my doctor was referring me to a specialist.

Well, yesterday was the big day. I had about an 1 hour ultrasound and then met with my specialist for half an hour and then headed over to my OB for another appointment. 

Crazy day, but we have a plan so that's good.

Right now our baby is in the 11th percentile. Which means she has dropped 3 percentages since my last ultrasound 4 weeks ago. Her tummy is measuring even smaller.

Her current weight is 3 lbs 11 ounces. 

All of her anatomy looks great, she just appears to be very tiny.

The perinatologist said that it is hard to determine why she is so small and what exactly the problem is. He says because I don't smoke, have high blood sugar, drink, ect and because all of her anatomy is normal that he would guess that for some reason my placenta is just not providing quite enough nutrients for the demands of a growing baby.
We talked for a while and then he told me that from here on out he was just going to continue to do a lot of tests throughout the coming weeks until she is born.
When I got to my OB's office. He said he talked quite a while with the perinatologist and that they had come up with weekly schedules based on what they feel would be best for the baby.
He said he was not at all worried and that she most likely is just a tiny little one but that they wanted to watch her and everything else in there closely to make sure she is never under any stress.
If at any time during my ultrasounds/non stress test there are signs of stress, for example the umbilical cord is becoming restricted, her heart rate decreases/increases or any other stress that they would take the baby. And then in 2 weeks I will have another big ultrasound where they measure every part of her and if she hasn't grown enough or has lost weight they will take her.
My doctor is so sweet and really took the time to make sure I understood everything and was always asking if I was handling this okay emotionally.
I told him I was fine, especially since I had been through something similar with Olivia.
(Not quite to this extent though.)
I just told him I really didn't want to carry her to 40 weeks and that if I could skip out on the last couple weeks and have a completely happy baby I would be thrilled. Mostly because I have just been so so sick and am just ready to be done. He just laughed and said, "Ya you won't be making it that far."

So just in case you are curious here is my schedule for next week:
Monday: Ultrasound at 9:15 am
Tuesday: Non Stress test with my OB at 3:00pm
Friday: Non stress test with my OB at 10:45 am and then an ultrasound at 2:00 pm.
It will be a busy week but I feel so blessed to have such good doctors that are really making sure me and the baby receive the best care possible. I'm grateful that Michael just took his last final yesterday so he has officially completed his first year of Law school! And I'm grateful that his internship/classes don't start until June so that he will be here 100% of the time to help. We are praying that she can stay in there just a little longer (preferably 3 more weeks) so that she can come out as healthy as possible. But we know that everything is going to work out fine. And are getting so excited to meet her!

I think it is time to enter my final nesting phase:)
If I could just get myself off the couch!

Just one of those really good days.

 First we got ice cream cones at McDonald's.

It was Olivia's first one.

(She's had more ice cream than I care say but not on a cone for her to eat all by herself!)

She loved it and did amazingly well mess wise:)

 Then we went to feed the ducks.

Olivia loves this.

She especially loves shoving half the bread in her mouth first before throwing the rest to the ducks!

 Her cheeks are a little puffy in this picture.

That's because they are full of bread!

 Belly picture at 33.5 weeks.

 I love these pictures.

The first one is so sweet of Michael tucking her hair behind her ears.

And the second one is just as precious as Olivia is telling him what she wants to do.

 After feeding the ducks we went back to the park by our house.

Michael was trying to teach Olivia how to blow those little dandelion flowers.

She struggled a bit with this and ended up with a mouthful!

  Then they ran up and down the hill a few times:)

 When we got home, we checked the mail and sure enough there was a package just for Olivia.

She was thrilled!

Right when she opened the package she screamed, "oh my gosh my ya po"

I am so mad I didn't get it on video.

But here's just a little taste:)

After dinner and a bath our cute girl sat down to watch "my ya po" with her new soft "my ya po!"

Thank you Mickelsons she loves her new "my ya pos"!

I'm grateful for warm sunny days with my cute husband and baby.

Pregnancy brain post #2.

Remember these stories?

Well I have more.

A few weeks ago when my mom was visiting I decided to make those one brownies that are the best ever!!

I was so excited for my mom and siblings to try them.

After I frosted them I set them on the back burner of the stove to sit until after dinner.

(We don't have a lot of counter space.)

In the meantime, Michael and I got to work on making some yummy pasta.

I turned on the burner to start heating up the water for the noodles and then turned around to start cutting tomatoes. Michael was next to me cutting mushrooms.

(Both our backs were facing the stove.)

When suddenly there was an explosion.

Seriously it sounded like a bomb went off.

Michael and I of course turned around only to see that the glass pan of brownies had completely exploded.

There were brownie chunks and literally a billion pieces of glass everywhere.

And the stove was on fire.

It took me a minute or so to respond because I seriously could not believe what had happened.

But we put out the fire and spent the next half hour cleaning up the brownies.

I almost cried because I was so sad about the brownies. I tried to save a few chunks until I realized that they were covered in glass and smelt like a burning fire.

Luckily no one else was in the kitchen, and neither Michael or I were hurt.

But seriously how in the heck did I turn on the wrong burner?

I honestly remember looking and really trying to focus on turning only the front one on.

That just goes to show you what happens when I focus ha!

So it's a funny story now, especially since I quickly made another batch of brownies:)

(If you ask people that know they won't be surprised at all by this story. I mean I've blown up microwaves and caught so many things on fire it's embarrassing. I'm just thankful that for this particular mishap I can blame it on the pregnancy!)

Ready for #2?!

So one night I sat down to a few cookies and a nice glass of milk.

Michael was in our bedroom studying.

He came out about a half hour later and went to open our pantry.

He found the gallon of milk I had used right on the top shelf.

He of coursed asked why it was there and not in the fridge.

And I honestly had and still have no idea how it got there.

Well I know it was me, I just don't know why I put it there and not in the fridge.

Oh and one more for ya.

Tonight I asked Michael what 150 divided by 3 was.

Thinking that it was going to be a tough one.

When he looked at me and responded with an " uh 3" in like .1 seconds.

I realized what I had just asked.

Just 7 weeks to go and that's saying I carry her to 40 weeks!

My baby loves French!

So obviously Olivia loves the song "Can you feel the love tonight" from Lion King.

She always wants to listen to it and sing it.

One day, Michael thought it would be fun to have her listen to it in a different language.

Spanish to be more specific. He was pretty sure she would like it since she has heard him speak Spanish to her so much.

Well the second they started singing she just looks up at him with this disgusted look on her face and says, "turn off." ha! So Michael tries to talk to her and get her interested but she just keeps telling him to turn it off.

He was a bit disappointed but decided to try it in French. Olivia immediately fell in love. Seriously!

She just sat and listened and now will ONLY listen to the song in French. When we try to turn it on in English she will just say, "no ahtch fratch tan feel ov night" (no watch French can you feel the love tonight.)

So it looks like she will be learning French!

Her great pa would be so proud.

Maybe for her highschool senior trip she can go to France just like her mommy:)

32 weeks.

So, I had a doctor's appointment last Thursday.

I've been going in every 2 weeks now.

My doctor went over the ultrasound results and measured me.

I  guess she has dropped down in size from the 25th percentile to the 15th percentile.

They like to see babies growing at a steady rate even if it is just at the 15th percentile.

So for instance, when she was in the 25th percentile which is borderline small for her age they wanted the next ultrasound to show her in at least the 25th percentile.

Since she has dropped it is a bit concerning just because it means she may not be getting enough nutrients from my placenta to grow.

This can be caused by a number a reasons.

Because I have gained the recommended weight and such it won't really make a difference whether or not I eat 10 extra donuts every day:)

Apparently I just have a not so good placenta.

As with Olivia.

So he referred me to a high risk specialist who I should be meeting with this week.

I will get a high tech ultrasound and then we'll go from there.

My doctor said that if she doesn't start showing some growth they will have to take her.

Which is a little scary now.

Of course with our wonderful medical technology she would be just fine if born now, she would just have to be in the hospital for a few weeks.

My twin sisters were born at 34 weeks and were in the hospital for 10 days.

My goal is to make it to 37 weeks.

That's the week Olivia was born and she was perfectly healthy and was able to stay with me the whole time.

I'm not too worried since I experienced this with Olivia but it will be nice to meet with a specialist that knows exactly what to do.

It's crazy how fast time has gone with this pregnancy.

We are so close to meeting our baby Clara and couldn't be more excited!

I am so ready for her to be here.

I don't want to complain but at the same time I want to remember everything that I've experienced this pregnancy.

Since about 29 weeks things have just gone quickly downhill.

I am more tired that I have honestly ever been in my life.

Every morning I  wake up feeling as if I seriously didn't sleep the night before.

Which is partially true since I wake up about every 2 hours during the night and remain awake for at least 30 minutes before falling back asleep.

I have really bad sciatica pain in my legs and my whole body just aches. Especially now that the baby's head is down putting immense pressure on my pelvic bones.

(Sorry for the graphic details.)

I still wake up every morning and either barf or dry heave. Depending.

Luckily my Zofran relieves most of my nausea unlike during my first 18 weeks.

I really believe I will get more sleep waking up with a newborn every 2-3 hours than I do now.

Just because I will get better sleep.

I'm so thankful for Michael who has been so good to me and so supportive. He is always giving me rubs and getting up with Olivia in the mornings bright and early to feed her breakfast and such before heading to school. He's so helpful with all the daily chores and is always more than willing to play with Olivia. Even though he himself is under immense pressure finishing up his first year of law school and all.

I think we will all be relieved as a family when our sweet girl is born:)

It's definitely been an interesting 7 months.

That being said, I am so grateful for the blessing I have to be pregnant. And for the sweet blessing of our baby Clara.

Even though this pregnancy has been hell (literally) I would go through it all over again if I had to.

So here's to the coming weeks!

Please go by fast!

Waving ba bye ya to dad.

One of the first things Olivia does in the morning is pretend to go to school ("schlool") as she says.

Just like daddy.

She puts on her cute backpack and follows him around until he is ready to go.

He likes to go down and start the car and then come back up to give "last kisses" to us girls.

Olivia is usually waiting for him at the door with her arms wide open and her wet lips right ready to give him at least three smooches.

Olivia always makes sure I get a kiss and hug as well.

 And if Michael pretends to leave without giving me one she gets really mad and says, "da mommy tiss hug" (dad give mommy a kiss and a hug).

She always has this little smile on her face as we do.

Sometimes after Michael leaves she will even call down to him and ask for "a more tiss" (one more kiss). He of course will come right back up.

She then stands at the door waving her little arms while yelling "ba bye ya da" at the top of her lungs as he drives away.

It's really the cutest thing ever.

My Petunia.

My mom found this beauty on sale and was nice enough to get it for me.

I couldn't be more excited!

It's seriously the best diaper bag ever.

I think I'll be able to tackle any adventure with my two girls as long as I have my Petunia!

A special kind of cheese toast.

Sometimes Olivia is a fickle eater.

Well, actually a lot of times.

So we are pretty much willing to do whatever it takes to get her to eat dinner.

Even if that means putting a dollop of whipped cream on her cheese toast.

Disgusting right? 

But she loves it!

Another thing we often have to do is to tell her how all her favorite characters/people love to eat what she is eating.

For example: Santa Clause, Little Mr. Roo and Lumpy from the Heffalump movie, her aunts and uncles and so on.
We will say, "Santa Clause loves (whatever we are eating) so much, do you want to take a big bite like Santa Clause?!" She will get so excited and open her mouth nice and wide and take a bite.

This definitely proves to be effective most of the time!

 Oh the joys of feeding a toddler right?!

Easter.

Happy Easter. 

(Or late Easter.)

We had a very relaxing day, just the three of us.

Of course we had church bright and early. (8:30 am)

But that was just what we needed to help start our day by remembering the true reason we celebrate Easter.

Our beautiful little Olivia.

Of course she wanted to do a silly face picture:)

Oh gosh on me. But as always Olivia is as cute as can be!

Only family shot ha.

As you can tell we struggled.

But here we are!

When we got home Olivia immediately started fussing and throwing fits.

She was very tired.

So Michael and I sort of let her do her thing while we quickly changed out of our Sunday clothes so that we could do her Easter basket.

Well, she of course followed us bawling but stopped right in front of the laundry closet.

Neither of us were paying much attention until she let out a little shriek followed by uncontrollable laughter.

She had found her Easter basket and was so very excited!

Nothing like a basket full of goodies to turn the mood of a toddler around:)

Her favorite thing in her Easter basket was probably the gum.

The cheapest thing in there:)

Although she did love her "my ya po stuff" ha.

That seemed to be the theme of her Easter basket.

Thanks to my mom!

See video below for a glimpse of her going through her Easter basket!

She was very excited about her lollipops.

Don't think I'm a mean mom for not letting her open them right away.

She definitely ate more than enough treats throughout the day:)

I was obviously dead serious about getting her to open her presents on video!

The end is my favorite part.

On her Easter egg hunt.

It was fun this year because she actually seemed to get it.

She was pretty good about finding the eggs all by herself!

I love her hair!

She was so excited to find all the eggs!

Now its time for the fun part.

Emptying out all the yummy treats from the eggs!

It was so fun this year celebrating with just our family.

We are so grateful for our Savior and His sacrifice.

Because of Him we get to be a family forever.

And it definitely can not get better than that!