Emma's 2nd & 3rd Week

Writing about these first few weeks are not going to be completely accurate because, well, I'm writing about them when Emma is already almost 7 weeks old! However, some things that have changed from then til now are her eating habits. Emma used to often fall asleep while she was eating. She would be nursing and all of a sudden, dead asleep. She would throw her head back, arms would become limp, and then give a sweet smile with milk dripping down her cheeks and into the crevices of her neck. So adorable. I'm not sure when her first "actual" smiles came. Dallas says reflex smiles don't count. However, I believe Emma was giving off real smiles already by this time - you will notice as you look through some of these pictures.

Day 8, Mon, Jan 19: MLK Day! No school! Emma snoozed, I cuddled her, and Dallas went on a bike ride!

Day 9, Tues, Jan 20: Dallas took some adorable pics of Emma showing off her tongue, her yawn, and a sweet smile. Emma visited the pediatrician for her 2nd time today. It was an impromptu visit - to get her belly button checked. Turns out everything was fine. And! She was 7 lbs, 6 oz! The doctor was very impressed. Apparently you don't have to get back to birth weight for at least two weeks and she had already surpassed her weight in one week! Dallas and I left the pediatrician's, confident that our baby girl was a champion eater. :)

Day 10, Weds, Jan 21: My half b-day! I try to take pics while holding her, but my angle just isn't that great. She likes to sleep with her mouth open, just like her mommy :)

Day 11, Thurs, Jan 22: Emma's second visit to Better Birth. She only goes out of the house for appointments. Other than those days, she and I chill at home all day til Dallas comes home from school. Then she gets to play with him. We had them check her weight...who knows, maybe the pediatrician had make a mistake, but nope! She was still 7 lbs, 6 oz! Way to go, Emma!

Day 12, Fri, Jan 23: Moose's half b-day! Emma celebrated by sleeping in with her daddy. They are so cute when they get to cuddle in the mornings. It's also super helpful for me - I will get up and get ready for the day and maybe clean the kitchen and/or anything else before Dallas has to go. Emma loves cuddling with her daddy. Sometimes she just lays there and looks around and coos while Dallas snoozes. She is always very calm and happy with him in the mornings.  I also LOOOOVE when Emma puts her two little hands under her chin (bottom right). SO CUTE! Although I always put her on her back, Emma promptly goes to her side, arches her back, and puts her two little hands under her chin. Adorable. Emma also got her newborn photos take on this day. I will probably make a separate post for them.

Day 13, Sat, Jan 24: Pioneer's half b-day! We celebrated by going to my parent's house. Just kidding - that's not why we went. We went because we love them and they are super fun to visit!



After getting held by Grandpa, Grandma decided it was time for a photo shoot with Emma in a basket!


Day 14, Sun, Jan 25: Emma's first time going to church! Dallas' parents were coming to visit so we went to a different ward so that we didn't come home so late. We also only stayed for sacrament meeting. Emma liked the organ. :) We had lots of fun with Dallas' parents - they brought all sorts of fun gifts from them and Dallas' siblings and Grandma Belknap. They also brought Emma a very special bassinet that ALL the Smith kids slept in as babies. AND they brought us a ping-pong table! Dallas was especially happy about this because he had just lost to my mom the night before, so now he will have lots of opportunities to practice. :) Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures while they were here! I guess with all the excitement I forgot. Next time I'll do better!

Day 15, Mon, Jan 26: We got more presents! My aunt Julie mailed us some cute outfits, socks, and bows for Emma! Dallas and I had great fun opening the packages.



Day 16, Tues, Jan 27: Dallas doesn't have class on Tuesdays, but he still treats it like a normal business/school day and is usually up on campus from about 9-5. However, sometimes he sleeps in a bit with Emma (you'll notice they've moved from the bed to the couch). This often happens when I wake Dallas up - I think he's awake and then I find he's just transferred himself and Emma to another sleeping location! It's okay though - Emma loves it when she gets more cuddle time with daddy. :) Later on that day Emma and I walked up to campus and visited Dallas while he studied in the library.

Same day - but later that evening. This was one of the first times Emma seemed to really react to Dallas' smiles. By the time I got the camera she was almost done, but I still got a few! I love how she is looking at Dallas.

Day 17, Weds, Jan 28: Emma's first walk! I didn't get out of the house much for the first two weeks, but all of a sudden we were blessed with exceptionally great weather (and it ended up being that way for ALL of February), so! Emma and I went on a walk to the temple! She slept most of the way, but I think she really enjoyed it. :)



Day 18, Thurs, Jan 29: Dallas also doesn't have class on Thursday! So, since he doesn't have to leave in a mad dash at 7:30 a.m., he and Emma are chillin' and chattin' at the kitchen table. Dallas probably told her a joke and then gave her a math problem to think about. That's why she looks so pensive in the second picture. :) After Dallas left, I put Emma on the bed to do her exercises. Check out those abs and leg muscles! Way to go, Emma!



Day 19, Fri, Jan 30: Caught Dallas snoozing with Emma again! Later that day, Emma exploded one/several of her outfits. I don't remember if it was urine, poo, or spit up. Probably all of the above at different times. What I DO remember about this day is that it is the first time I let her sleep naked - with just her diaper and her towel. I had changed her clothes so many times I decided, what the heck - who needs clothes? Emma enjoyed her freedom. :)



Day 21, Sun, Feb 1: Emma's first FULL day at church and in the correct ward! She loved it! Well...actually she snoozed through the whole thing - like a brick! We dressed ourselves to match Emma so that we could take some super cute family pics, but then we got home and realized we never took them because she snoozed the whole time! You can see she was not very happy about us waking her up to take pictures...

Same day, just a few more pics: A close up of Emma's cute little outfit. It is the ONLY newborn dress we have. She has since grown out of it, but she enjoyed it while it lasted. It was a gift from Dallas' friend Ken that he tutors. And, in case you were wondering where Emma gets her diaper changed, I threw in a picture of that too :)


Well! That's the end of Emma's third week! You'll have to move on to the next posts to read about weeks 4, 5, 6 and all her new tricks!

Emma's First Week

One of Emma's first pictures - I love her bright eyes.
Everybody commented on them from the moment she was born
and still does! She has been interested and alert from the start. 

I was going to make this post "Emma's first month", but there were too many pictures I wanted to share...I felt 50 pictures on one post might be too much. So, I am going to split the posts up into weeks. I know, this is a dangerous habit to get into....taking too many pictures and then feeling so behind that I don't do anything. Dallas asked me if our posts from now on were just going to be about Emma. No...not exactly. But she is currently the most exciting and adorable part of our lives. :) I will only do this for Emma's first two months, which we have already almost reached. Which, unfortunately, means I am writing this mega late! There is already so much I have already forgotten. So! Let's get started before I forget anymore! Emma Mae was born January 12, 2015 at 5:11 p.m, weighing a petite 7 pounds and measuring 19 inches. She spent the first two hours of her life cuddling with her mommy and daddy, intermixed with getting cleaned up, measured, weighed, and meeting some of her extended family. She also got her cord cut by her daddy.

My parents arrived just as Emma's head crowned. About an hour after her birth,
Emily and Renae brought some of Emma's cousins to meet her.

Emma didn't get a full bath for a while, just cleaned up with a washcloth. She also didn't 

wear a diaper for the first two hours (to make things easier with newborn check, weighing, etc). 

To keep her warm, my mom wrapped her up in a towel. These are some of Emma's first faces :)

By 7:30 p.m. the midwives had done all they were supposed to do with me and Emma...so, they left! We knew that would happen, we also knew that once they left, we had four hours to stay at the birth center. My mom stayed with us a bit longer to make sure all was well and then she and my dad also left. Now it was just me, Dallas, and our sweet baby. We mostly just held baby and shared our thoughts from the birth. A bit before 11:00 p.m. Dallas packed things up and we drove home. When we got there, we were unsure what to do. We put Emma in her bassinet and she just laid there, wide awake, happily looking around. We weren't sure if we should go to sleep yet...she wasn't asleep. I don't remember much about her first night except for that I was super worried she was okay and breathing. So worried that I kept setting alarms to wake me up every ten minutes so I could check on her. Don't worry, I don't do that anymore. :)

I don't have any pictures of day 2. Dallas didn't have any classes that day, so the two of us just stayed home and spent time with each other and Emma - we'd decided on her name by then. But not yet her middle name. No worries though. We came up with that during our 5 minute drive to the birth center that evening. I wasn't super excited about bundling Emma up and leaving our house in the cold...but we had to go back to make sure all was well and also to take the clip off her belly button cord. The only other specific thing I remember about that day is that Dallas' grandma brought us some yummy food and a beautiful flower for Emma.

Day 3, Wednesday, Jan 14: Emma loves her bouncer, especially with the vibrator!

The third day, Dallas had to leave for school. My mom had offered to help if I needed it. Since that second day had seemed such a breeze, I figured I'd be okay. I didn't realize how much I'd relied on Dallas till he wasn't there though. He'd left at 7:30 a.m. and I probably called my mom around 9:00 a.m. I needed to go to the bathroom and didn't know what to do with Emma. It had not yet occurred to me that I could set her down. My mom couldn't come til the afternoon. Don't worry - I eventually remembered I'd bought her a bouncer and that I could set her down. :)

Day 4, Thursday, Jan 15: Dallas got to be home with us! Not all day, but more than day 3. 

Day 5, Friday, Jan 16: Emma's first visit to the pediatrician. We didn't want her to freeze in our non-heated car.

Day 5, Friday, Jan 16: Games with Stratty and Lynnsi. We play games with these two all the time- super fun!

Day 6, Saturday, Jan 17: When Emma has her mouth open like this, Dallas jokes he's going to give her a "tongue-rub"

Day 6, Saturday, Jan 17: After doing loads of Math, Dallas is taking a break with Emma

Day 7, Sunday, Jan 18: Zentz came to visit! They brought us dinner and enjoyed holding Emma - super fun!

Day 7, Sunday, Jan 18: Dallas is super tired after a busy first week. I caught him by surprise.

FHE 3 and 4

For our third FHE we decided to finish learning the basics about taking care of baby. We also decided it was probably time to figure out how to bathe our sweet little girl. Dallas and I read two different websites. One was extremely basic and the other had about three detailed pages describing what to do, including the need to have a different wash cloth for every one of baby's appendages. We decided to try and do something in the middle. That day Emma had begun to emit an unpleasant smell and we thought a bath would take care of it. However, as we took off her onesie, we realized the smell came from her belly button, which was also oozing a yellow goop.

We were a bit concerned so I decided to check google and find out what this could possibly mean. The sites I read caused Dallas and I to become alarmed. They said that if the belly button smelled and oozed a yellow color, it could be infected and it could be extremely dangerous. To be safe, we then called the hotline for our pediatrician (by then it was 9:00 p.m.). After listening to our situation, the nurse suggested we take Emma to the ER. Now we were really worried. Throughout this whole ordeal, Emma was smiling and looking around and seeming like all was well. Because of that, I felt kind of silly taking her to the ER. Also, I didn't feel like the ER was the place I wanted to take a week old baby. We decided to call Jason. After describing the situation and sending Jason some pictures we decided all would be well for the night and we would take Emma to our pediatrician first thing in the morning. By then...FHE was over. That belly button ordeal sucked up anything else we were going to do for the night.

The next morning Dallas and I hustled to the pediatrician. Emma still seemed happy and calm, but her belly button still smelled pretty bad. When we arrived, the nurse directed us to undress Emma so that she was just wearing her diaper. We took off her onesie and voila! The dried up part of her belly button had fallen off! The doctor came in and said she looked great and all was well. He also explained that there are times when the smell and ooze can mean the button has gotten infected and that can be super dangerous. However, if that were so, we would have seen red lines and other stuff around her belly button. I tell you this story partly so that a) if this ever happens to one of your kids, you realize it could be just fine and b) you realize that Dallas and I are very new at this parent thing and might occasionally overreact. But, hey, we figure it's always better to super safe and cautious.

For our fourth FHE we wrote in baby's book and also worked on our family contract. It used to be our marriage contract, but now that we have little Emma, it was time for it to become a family contract. Dallas and I first worked on this before we were married and included things such as maintaining a plentiful chocolate milk supply, practicing safety when running or driving, and not buying food in the airpot. We have decided that we will revisit these contracts every year and update them as we have more kiddos. There were some things that we changed from our marriage contract to our family. For example, since I have done so well with making food other than apples and carrots, we felt we could take that off the list. And since now we have Emma, Dallas had to add to his contract that he would teach her as much math as she could stomach, and other such things. You can read the updated family contract here.

Well, that finishes up our FHEs for the month of January. It was fun getting to focus on baby. I had wanted one of our FHEs to include getting CPR certified and other helpful things like that. We will hopefully still do that. If you can think of anything else we should be doing to help us be good parents to baby Emma, we are open for suggestions :)

Baby Came! (FHE 2)

Baby finally came! And yes, she made her appearance on our second FHE of 2015. Actually, she was the main event of the FHE, which was just as we'd hoped (if you remember our theme for January FHE activities was "baby").

Baby Smith was due on January 3...but that day came and went without a baby. I was excited to see her but also didn't feel any super rush. However, many others tried to help hasten her arrival. For example, Dallas kept offering to spike my orange juice with castor oil while family and friends suggested using certain foods, oils, or massages to kickstart the process. Saturday evening, January 10th, Dallas and I were sitting at the couch. I believe Dallas was working on math and I was just thinking. I realized that in some ways I hadn't felt ready for baby to come. I felt like I needed to say a prayer and share that I was now ready for her to come, if the time was right. I quietly went to the bedroom and said a prayer, sharing my feelings and that if baby girl was ready, I was now ready and excited for her to come. I felt peaceful and calm and believed that baby girl would at least start coming within the next day.

Dallas and I have church from 1:30-4:30 p.m. During the last part of church, while in Relief Society, I began to feel back pains. I mentioned this to Dallas as we left church. He grinned and said, "You know what that means?" I laughed because he had said this about everything I had said during the last few weeks. For example, if I told him I felt like my nails were growing super fast he would respond with that same question and grin. For Dallas, anything I said or did, meant baby was coming. But this time, I really did think baby was coming and told him so. I could tell he was excited but I think he was also guarded...he didn't want to get his hopes up too high.

That evening we were planning to go to my parents. My sister Renae would be there and she had a bassinet that we would need for baby. This was something I had been worried about, so knowing that we would be getting one that day also made me feel more ready for having baby girl. For a moment I considered not going to my parents, in case this really was labor. I soon bagged that idea because I figured it would be good to keep myself occupied and besides, it's always fun to see family. I was also pretty certain that this was probably just the beginning of labor and from what I'd heard, labor could last a reeeeeally long time. So I might as well keep myself busy.

We got to my parents around 5:30 and began eating dinner around 6:30. The back pains had continued and whenever they came I would walk into my dad's office and continue pacing until they went away. Initially, nobody noticed. There was enough going on that me walking toward the office didn't catch anyone's attention. However, by the time we sat down for dinner and I would get up and leave the table, people began to notice. Well, at least my parents and Renae. They turned to Dallas and said, "You might be getting a baby tonight." "What?" asked Dallas. He hadn't noticed. They pointed out that I was getting up from the table quite frequently and holding my back and that these were most likely contractions. As soon Dallas heard that, he snapped into future-daddy mode. He got a yellow pad of paper and began timing my contractions and how much time lapsed between each one.  He did such a great job following me around the house and making sure I was doing okay. To make things easier, Dallas found an app on his phone and started to use that to record my contractions.

By 9:00 p.m. the contractions were 5 minutes apart and each lasting at least a minute. We decided we'd better head home. Renae offered to come with us, but I thought we would be okay for then. I wanted to go home and try to relax and do at least some of the things we had practiced with hypnobirthing. However, it was reassuring to know that she was ready and willing to come help whenever we were ready. I sat in the back seat so that I could move and stretch out more during the contractions. Dallas thought maybe he should drop me off at the birth center and then he would go get our birth bag (which he had had me pack about two weeks prior - Dallas is always prepared :). I told him no way. Number one, I did not want to be left alone. Number two, the birth center isn't open 24/7. And number three, I figured I still probably had a while till baby girl was coming.

When we got home, Dallas called the birth center. We had been told to call once the contractions were at least a minute long and 5 minutes apart and this had been going on for at least an hour. All of those things were true. However, I soon realized they were not enough. The midwife asked, "Can you walk or talk through contractions?" Of course I could! I didn't want to talk through contractions, but I could if I had to. And I walked through contractions because that hurt less than sitting or lying down. She responded, "Ah. Well, don't worry. Eventually you won't be able to. That is when you should come in." "What?!?" I thought things were already getting tough but apparently they weren't tough enough.

By 11:30 p.m. we called Renae and told her she could head over because I did not think I could hold on much longer and was pretty sure we would be leaving for the birth center soon. I was wrong. We ended up calling the birth center at least two more times before they finally gave the okay for us to come in. Our final phone call was at about 2:20 a.m. and they said to be there in half an hour. By then, I really was lying down during contractions.

Notice the red book...that's one of Dallas' math books. You know this
was a big night because rather than read it, he is focused on his phone
which was keeping record of the contractions - good husband :)

It's been a long night - this is probably sometime between midnight and 2 a.m.

I felt relief when we arrived at the birth center. I was excited for them to check me and tell me I was right to come in. I don't remember what all they checked, but for some reason they decided it was okay for me to stay. That was even greater relief to hear. While the midwives set up the birthing suite, Renae and Dallas stayed with me. The next few hours are hazy. My contractions had sped up to every three minutes before we got to the birth center and once we got there, I felt like they were coming even more frequently. The midwives would come in and check on me every once in a while, but mostly it was just me, Renae, Dallas, and baby girl. Renae and Dallas would switch off giving me counter pressure and pouring water on me when I was in the tub.

Getting my blood pressure checked

Dallas keeping record of the contractions

Feeling for baby's position

Dallas giving me counter pressure to help ease the pain

The midwives often directed me to squat - this would
hopefully give my body the needed pressure to open up

Dallas trying to rest while I laid in the tub

A bit before 7:00 a.m. I threw up everything. That was a real bummer. I knew that I would need lots of energy for labor so I had made sure to eat well during dinner. It seemed to do no good though because I threw up everything. At that point, the contractions slowed a ton and I felt exhausted. The midwives helped me and Dallas to the bed and we both tried to rest. The next thing I remember was the midwives waking me up and asking if I wanted a vaginal exam. I figured that was a good idea. After the quick exam they asked if I wanted to know how much I was dilated and effaced. I knew that in some ways, I shouldn't find out because it can be depressing to hear if one is not very far along. But, on the other hand, I didn't want to think I was further along than I really might be. I asked to know. She told me I was 3 cm dilated and effaced something like 30 percent. That is not very much.

I thought I had been working very hard...but these numbers did not sound so good. The midwife then suggested I go home and get some rest because I was still in early labor and already very tired (had been laboring for almost ten hours, practically no sleep, and now that I had thrown up - no food for energy). She was concerned I would not have the strength needed for active labor and pushing. She also said I could choose to stay at the birth center and they would give me some tylenol to help me sleep so I could rest and have greater energy. She left me so that I could think about it. I didn't need much time to think it out - I knew I did not want to go home. I felt like that would kill me mentally. I came here to have a baby and I didn't want to leave without it.

When the midwife returned, I told her that I would take her up on her offer for tylenol and to sleep at the birth center. She looked at me for a bit and then responded, "Actually, if you want to stay here, we are going to help you get into active labor." Before having me do some exercises, she first put me on an IV. I had not realized how totally dead I was until after I sucked up everything in that IV. That made a huge difference and gave me some fuel that I desperately needed. The next big help was the doula that arrived. I think Renae, Dallas, and I were all dead and I was definitely losing hope. The doula was a fresh face with fresh ideas for positions and ways to help this baby come. I think we all appreciated her being there.

One the doula's suggestions was to lean against
a chair; Dallas is giving me counter pressure.

By noon I had thrown up again. I don't know where my body found materials to throw up...but it somehow did. Once again, the contractions slowed considerably and I felt extremely tired. I rested for a while and the next thing I knew, the midwives were asking if they could do another exam. I said sure and hoped that this time there would be big improvement. They asked if I wanted to know and, of course, I did. I could tell from the way she asked that I wasn't super close to having the baby. I was dilated 5 cm and I don't remember how much effaced. Again, they got me up and tried to get me back into active labor. About that point I inwardly fell apart. I honestly did not know if I could go any longer. I burst into tears and cried on Renae's shoulder for a while. She cried too and I think it helped to know she understood or at least that she cried with me. I later found out that Dallas also broke down soon after that. I don't think either of us realized how hard this was going to be.

At some point the midwives also told me the baby was posterior. I think that might have been after that second vaginal exam. I felt super confused because she had been in the correct position for the last two weeks - how did she suddenly flip? The midwives explained that she had been on a different side (right or left, I don't remember) and that as she moved, she turned posterior. They suggested that could be why I was hurting so badly. To help baby get in the right position they had me do some more exercises. The first (and probably most difficult) was doing lunges during contractions. I would put my foot on the base of the bed and lean in with a lunge movement during the contractions, switching legs with each contraction. I did that exercise for about 45 minutes. It became extremely difficult - by the end I felt like there was no break between contractions.

After that I really wanted to get back in the tub. I remembered Rachel saying that helped ease her contractions. I asked if I could. The midwives first checked the baby's position. Even I could tell she had moved - when they listened to her heartbeat, they now held the doppler in a different place. But she hadn't moved enough. Therefore, no bathtub. Not yet. The midwives then had me sit on the toilet backwards. They put a pillow on the tank so that I could lean there. This was supposed to help me stay in the squat position without having to use as much muscle. It would hopefully help gravity open me up more as baby pressed against me. Although this was not as painful as doing the lunges, I still wanted to get in the tub. I asked the midwife if I could. She responded that I had made good progress but to keep it up I needed to do this position for at least 45 minutes. We then had a little compromising. I asked to do it for 15-20 and we settled on 30 and that she would begin filling the tub at that moment.

I think near the end of that exercise I lost track of time. Initially it seemed the 30 minutes would take forever but before I knew it, I got to get into the tub! I felt extremely excited. I had high hopes that the pain would greatly subside, so much so that I wouldn't want to get out. I asked the midwives if I would be able to just stay in the tub and have the baby there. They responded with "Of course - if that is what you want." I thought for sure I would want that. I got in and within about a minute the contractions started up again...and they were just as bad! I couldn't believe it and was so disappointed! Dallas got in with me and tried to help by massaging and pressing against my back. That helped a bit, but it still hurt.

The rest of the time I feel like I was getting in and out of the tub, sitting on the chair, leaning or lunging against the bed, wrapping my arms around Dallas, Renae, Emily, the doula, or anyone else who was around me, and squatting on the birthing stool. I kept switching positions hoping one of them would be the magic spot. I don't know if any one of the positions actually felt better but I think at least the variety and hope of things feeling better was helpful. I remember the midwives doing another exam - I faintly remember one of them saying I was dilated to 9, maybe 9.5 centimeters and I think she might have said 100 percent effaced. But at that point, I wasn't counting on anything, I figured I could be here for days. I had gotten to the point that I really didn't know if the baby was ever going to come.

I kept wanting to go to the bathroom and would leave the birth stool to go to the bathroom, but I couldn't go. While on the birth stool and again complaining that I wanted to go to the bathroom, the midwives and Renae all told me to push when I felt the need. I responded that I didn't want to push, I was afraid to tear. I remembered the hypnobirthing class emphasizing that we should be able to just breath the baby out - to be patient and not push too hard. Otherwise we most likely would tear. I really did not want that to happen. Renae and the midwives said, "Don't worry about it - just do what you feel." I began to push. I don't know how many times I pushed, but I don't feel it was very long. I think Renae said it was about half an hour.

This was the most encouraging time of the whole labor process. I began to realize that I must really be close. I'd seen the midwives bring in a cart with what looked like post-labor materials. And the most encouraging part were people's words. I was going to say faces but I'm pretty sure my eyes were mostly closed at this point. I could just see people's faces in my mind. As I pushed I heard, "She's coming...We can feel the head...Do you want to feel it.." I didn't want to feel the head - I just wanted to focus and help our sweet baby come out. The next thing I knew - the head had come and with it, the whole body! What a sweet moment! The midwives immediately placed her on my chest. Her little body was initially all curled up and she was crying nice and strong. Dallas was behind me and had been for a long time. I leaned up against him each time I pushed and a contraction came. I was so grateful he was there with me for the whole thing. He held me tight as I held Emma. It really was a sweet moment.

Renae took some videos of the pushing and the first five or ten minutes of Emma's life. As I watch those, I realize I hardly spoke for those first minutes. Neither did Dallas. We just held Emma. I think I was overwhelmed, but in a good way. According to the videos, Emma continued to cry for much longer than I remembered. She was so sweet - and still is. :) I loved the birth experience. During labor, I definitely did not think I would every say that. But looking back, I am so grateful for the experience and for all that were there to help me and most especially that Dallas was with me the whole time and that now we have our beautiful baby girl Emma. :)

Still Waiting for Baby

As many of you already know, baby didn't come before Christmas and not even before the New Year. After the new year passed, I figured baby could take her time...which she did. :) While waiting for her, Dallas and I tried to keep ourselves busy doing fun and/or useful things. A previous post mentions our first FHE - practicing for baby. That was one of our useful things. The fun was going for frozen yogurt the Friday before Emma came (Jan 9) and going to a basketball game on Saturday (Jan 10). Those were our official last two dates before becoming parents. Since we never take pictures, we decided to make up for it by taking a ba-jillion at the yogurt place. Dallas requested that we do something other than normal smiles. :)

This was the 1st BYU basketball game Dallas had attended.
It was pretty great - and we got to go for free.

Christmas Day 2014

A box of goodies that someone left at our doorstep

After a delicious Christmas Eve dinner with my parents and Stratty and Lynnsi, Dallas and I headed home for a nice, quiet evening with just ourselves. Within a few minutes of being home, somewhere around 11:30, our doorbell rang. We were both surprised and just kind of looked at each other for a minute. Dallas finally went to check the door. I don't think either of us expected anything special...but when Dallas opened the door, there was a HUGE box full of yummy treats! Wow! It quadrupled (at least!) whatever food and treats we already had. We were super excited! I remember someone leaving my family gifts when I was little and I loved it! Back then, I could see somebody giving us gifts - we were a big family without a lot of money. But now, I would have never imagined someone would do this for us. It was super sweet. I was touched that somebody was so thoughtful and it again reminded me that I want to be that kind of person. We don't know who it was...we have our guesses...but whoever it was, we are super grateful. :) 

Me with all the goodies plus some from our stockings

The next morning Dallas and I got to take our time waking up. Of course, I had snuck out of bed super early (about 5:00) and taken care of the rest of the "Santa" things. This was my first time that Santa was completely up to me and Dallas. I've always been with family and although I've helped out as an "elf", I've never been in charge of making sure things happen. Dallas and I had both gotten gifts for each other and I told Dallas I would be in charge of stockings. After filling them up, I took some pictures as you will see. It was fun sneaking out of bed and filling stockings and coming back, knowing that when we woke up, there would be a wonderland of yummy treats and special gifts. 

A close-up of the stockings and other Santa stuff

In case you didn't notice, baby also got a stocking :)

Dallas was as enthusiastic and adorable as a little boy on Christmas morning. When we finally decided to wake up, Dallas looked at me and asked, "Do you think Santa came?!" We then hustled out of our bedroom and Dallas was super impressed. I love that he gets excited about little things. I almost forgot! Not only did we wake up and see Santa had come, but also a full sheet of snow! It was a real, true White Christmas. There had not been a lick of snow the day before but now everything was covered in white and it was still coming down! We had planned to visit family during the day, but because of the snow we spent most of the day with just each other. We opened gifts, called family, Dallas played his violin (after he called his family - I think calling home always reminds him he should be practicing his violin :), I gave Dallas a super short haircut while he watched Star Wars, we played some of our new games and ate some of our delicious treats, and...I don't remember what else, but it was a wonderful day. Ah! We also learned that both our moms know us very well. I had been looking for headphones for Dallas but hadn't found any, so he got an "IOU" gift from me. Before he opened my "IOU" gift, he opened a present from his mom and it had headphones - exactly what he'd been wanting! As for me, Dallas had been looking all over for a soft, fluffy, and super warm robe, but no luck. Later on, we went to my mom's house and voila! She had exactly the robe I had been wanting - red, fluffy, and super warm. So, our moms saved us both.

Dallas drinking chocolate milk that was in our doorstep box :)

Dallas with some of baby's most important, or at least biggest, gifts

Dallas with an adorable hedgehog piggybank from his sister Chelsy to baby

Dallas with his new headphones

Dallas playing his violin with his super short haircut

Later that evening we visited Stratty and Lynnsi and played some games and afterward we enjoyed a yummy dinner with Becky and her family and my parents. As I think about it...I realize we had a very easy, low-key, enjoyable Christmas. I really loved it...but I don't expect future Christmas' to be this calm...especially since we are going to have a ba-jillion kids. :)