Terry Family

Ragnar Revisited

2011-07-28T20:49:00.000-06:00

It's taken me a while to get a hold of the pictures from the Ragnar, so I didn't want to update about it because, honestly, what's a blog post without pictures?

Jonny and his team finished the 192 mile race with a total time of 34:10:07.1. That's 34 hours, 10 minutes, 7.1 seconds. What an exhilarating experience! Jonny's three legs were 6.7 miles, 3.0 miles, and 3.6 miles. He said, by far, his hardest leg was the last because of how exhausted he was by the end. He had a great time, and they're already signed up to run next year!

Some pictures for your viewing pleasure. There are a couple with some people in costumes. That's not his team, but some teams dress up in all kinds of costumes...you can't NOT take a picture with/of them!

Ragnar

2011-06-08T12:41:00.000-06:00

Jonny is running the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay next week! It's about a 24 hour relay race where 12 runners run 3 legs each. It sounds a little crazy but...a fun kind of crazy!

I'm so excited for him to participate in this, as he's running for the American Cancer Society in honor of his sister who died of cancer in 2009. He'll be gone for my birthday and Father's Day (boo!), as the race is in Utah, but he'll have a great time and reach this goal that he's made.

And this really wasn't a ploy...but Jonny still needs more donations to reach his goal for the race. Thank you to everyone who's donated so far, we really appreciate it! If you are willing to donate or know anyone who might be, head on over here: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/JonathanTerry Every little bit counts!

Taking the plunge

2011-04-24T00:32:00.000-06:00

I suppose it's not a "plunge," per se, but I've decided to make our blog private. I haven't been wanting to do it because I know there are a lot of people out there who like to blog-surf (me, included). I hate stumbling upon blogs of people I know, but I can't read them because they're private, and then there's no way to contact them to get invited to their blog (I wish blogger would fix that, by the way!). However, I've noticed a lot of odd traffic to my site and with three young girls and a lot of sick people in this world, I can't put my family at risk. So please please PLEASE send me your email if you want me to send you an invite to read my blog...even if you barely know me or don't want to admit that you read it. :) Facebook works, or you can email me at lornadoone617 at yahoo dot com.

Computers. Who knew?

2011-04-18T10:08:00.001-06:00

I've been telling Jonny for the past 3 years that I wish he were a nerd because then he could be a computer programmer or engineer and make a lot of money. Well, at least more than we have been making. But that's not really his forte. He can navigate computers quite well and do technical stuff, but when it comes to the science part...that's definitely not what his brain was made for. So when he got a new job at a company called PC Care Support, I thought "right. Jonny doing IT? Not gonna happen." Turns out he doesn't do much with the computers - he mainly just sells the product, which is computer support for small businesses (mostly). The company is fairly new but they're doing quite well. Jonny is their sole closer - well actually he was until just this week when they hired another closer. Anyway, they're doing well enough where they're ready to expand to other states! And since Jonny is pretty much one of the best employees a company could ask for, they're sending him to open up a new area! So what does that mean for us? You got it: we're moving! And where, might you ask? Fort Worth, Texas!

We are very excited! We've both said that we don't want to raise our kids in Utah. Sounds weird coming from an LDS family, right? Well Utah isn't bad...it's a very nice place, it's just not for us. So to Texas we go! The plan is to be there long enough to start up the area, hire a team, then move on to a new place in about a year - hopefully the place where we want to settle, especially since Lily will be starting Kindergarten next September.

I've been itching to move out of Utah, but the weird thing is: now that I have the opportunity to go, I'm quite sad about it! And I think a lot of it has to do with being comfortable. I'm comfortable here. I know the area, I know the people, we have great friends, our ward is awesome. A new place comes with a lot of challenges that I haven't faced in a while. Stepping out of my comfort zone is very hard for me. Being social and making new friends is extremely hard. But I know I'll have to do it sometime!

The other part that makes me sad is that we will be farther away from both our parents. Jonny's parents live 10 minutes away and we see them often. They have an amazing relationship with our girls and it is very hard to know that it just won't be the same when we go. And what's even harder is that the girls won't remember much of our time here. Lily - very little. Hannah - even less, if any. And Kate, none at all. I get very emotional at the thought of that because that was one of the main reasons why we moved back to Utah in the first place - so our kids could have a good relationship with their grandparents. My mom also visits frequently. It's about a 9 hour drive for her, and she doesn't mind doing it often for whatever crazy reason. :) We've seen her a lot in the past 3 years. But with the area having 2 major airports, I hope it won't be too much for her to jump on a plane and visit.

Sorry I'm rambling. There's just a lot of my mind. So...moving. We're excited to move on with our lives and get where we need to go. It will be a great adventure. Oh, and we're doing it in 10 days.

Potty Training

2010-12-01T22:51:00.000-07:00

I've been procrastinating potty training Hannah since June or July. I wasn't ready and I figured she would regress once Kate was born. And then I had a newborn...there was always something I could blame. :) But I finally just sucked it up and started on Monday. She's been running around with only a shirt on and maybe panties, and she's only had 3 accidents: 1 was my fault for not taking her when I should have, 1 was a poop, and 1 was a teeny tiny bit. She runs to the potty when she has to go and gets so excited when she pees. She wipes herself and loves flushing the potty. I haven't got her to poop yet...but from what I remember, it took Lily a few days as well. We'll get there, I'm sure.

And the best part today was that we went to the grocery store today for about 45 minutes to an hour and she didn't have an accident! We were almost done and she started doing "the dance," so I took her to the bathroom and she went...a lot! Very exciting!

It's funny how us parents get so excited about something like this. :)

Lily is...

2010-11-18T23:17:00.000-07:00

Stubborn.
Strong-willed.
Independent.
Three.
Learning.
Incredibly smart for her own good.
Curious.
Stealthy like a ninja.
Mischievous.

This causes mommy to be:

Extremely frustrated.
Crazy.
Stumped.

Tonight, as it goes most nights, Jonny put Lily to bed. She came out of her room, as normal, and Jonny put her back. We didn't hear anything for a while so we assumed she was asleep. Until we heard Hannah crying...and it wasn't on the monitor. She was standing on the stairs. Lily had decided that it would be a good idea to go into hannah's and Kate's room, wake Hannah up, and get her out of bed. Why? No reason. Just because. The more I try to bring order and discipline to our lives, the more she retaliates. I give her positive attention - nothing. I limit the choices she gets to make - she fights back and does whatever she wants anyway. I give her time outs and nose to the wall - worse. I ignore the "bad" things she does - even worse!

It. Just. Doesn't. Work.

Some kids are just more prone to be the trouble-makers. In our family, this is Lily. I hope she's not worse in 10 years.

Family Pictures!

2010-11-10T00:56:00.000-07:00

After 6 years and 3 kids, we FINALLY took family pictures! My cousin (Hands Full Photos) did an amazing job with everything - especially wrangling the girls. We got few pictures of Lily's genuine smile and Kate was quite the crabby baby instead of her smiley self...but Hannah smiled wonderfully on cue, as usual! Here are my favorites:

I love my husband and our 3 beautiful girls! Thanks Christina!!!

I should have seen it coming

2010-11-08T23:03:00.000-07:00

Friday was an awesome day! All 3 girls were amazing. Kate was perfectly on schedule. I was actually getting back into a routine with keeping the house clean. We were finally getting on top of things. Jonny's job was going absolutely wonderfully. And then he came home from work. His company was closing their office, which obviously meant that everyone was out of a job. Yep. Wonderful. Now he's unemployed - again.

There are some possibilities in the works, but nothing definite, and nothing immediate. Hopefully things pan out quickly.

2 months!

2010-11-04T17:00:00.000-06:00

I took Kate in for her 2 month appointment today. Can you believe it's already been 2 whole months?! She's growing so well - she weighs 11 lbs and is 23" long! She weighs the most out of our three girls at this age and is in the middle for length.

She started smiling when she was 4 weeks old, and she is quite the happy baby! She sleeps pretty well during the day and does wonderfully at night - normally waking up around 5am or sleeps until 7-8am...it goes back and forth. Her sisters love her and are very helpful and understanding when I need to take care of her.

Kate had shots today (something I was debating not doing, but decided to go ahead with them) and she was fine this afternoon but when I fed her at 4 she was just crying nonstop. I touched her thighs where her shots were and she freaked out. So they're obviously hurting her. I gave her some Tylenol and she fell asleep in my arms. Every time I move a lot she cries in pain. :( so here's a picture of her sleeping. I'll get one later when she's awake!

And her name is...

2010-09-04T14:51:00.000-06:00

Kathryn Grace Terry!

After 41 weeks, 5 days, and about 8 hours of labor, she FINALLY graced (no pun intended) us with her presence at 2:46am on September 3, 2010! She was 7 lbs, 8 oz and 19.5" long. She looks like Lily and has Hannah's long fingers and toes. We are so glad to finally meet her, and Lily and Hannah absolutely adore her! Both Lorna and Kathryn are doing wonderfully.

Just in case you were wondering...

2010-09-02T15:48:00.000-06:00

Yes, I'm still pregnant. I am currently 41 weeks 4 days - 11 days past my "due date." I never expected to be pregnant this long, but I guess this little one just needs to bake a little longer. I had an appointment today - blood pressure was great (135/77) and baby sounds good. We talked about how things would go on Sunday if I didn't deliver by then. Jessica (who is on call on Sunday), is very pro non-intervention and she hates using Pitocin if she can avoid it. She said that she thinks I'm a good candidate to break my water and see if that starts labor (which she thinks it would), instead of jumping straight to Pitocin. And then, if we need to use Pitocin, we can do a low-dose and then gradually turn it down and off once my body kicks in. I can also refuse induction and go into labor on my own after that. I know, that presents other risks...but so does induction. I'm just hoping I don't have to make that decision.

She stripped my membranes today (which didn't hurt one bit, by the way - and she looked like she was being extremely rough). Hopefully that will kick start something later today or tomorrow! Keep your fingers crossed!

47 days!

2010-07-06T14:55:00.000-06:00

The "official" count to the "official" due date is 47 days. Yikes! I'll probably go longer than that, but...still...yikes! For some reason, 7 weeks sounds a lot longer than 47 days. I have so much to do! Luckily, we already have everything (unless the baby comes out a boy!), so it's not a matter of getting stuff, but there are just a lot of things I have to do. The Hypnobabies class that I'm observing starts tonight and lasts 6 weeks, plus I have to finish a breastfeeding class (for my doula certification). Then on top of that we have to move Hannah into Lily's room (and all the craziness that goes with that), clean and organize the house, and...oh, there's just a lot...trust me. :)

So anyway, the next two months will be crazy, but it'll all be worth it in the end!

I wouldn't be surprised

2010-06-15T19:18:00.000-06:00

I wouldn't be one bit surprised if this baby turned out to be a boy. Seriously. This pregnancy has been so incredibly different than with Lily and Hannah, that I was expecting them to tell us at the ultrasound that it was a boy. I even told Jonny that I would be shocked if it was a girl.

Things that are different:

I was WAY more sick at the beginning this time. Normally I'm just a little nauseous and throw up once (I know, I have it pretty easy), and it goes away by 12 weeks. This time, it seemed like every single day I felt like throwing up, and usually ended up doing just that a little bit. That lasted until about 15 weeks.
I noticed last week that my leg hair hasn't been growing very quickly. I know, it's an old wives' tale that leg hair growth changes (actually the myth is that it speeds up if you're having a boy), but in any case, it's different.
Usually my allergies slow down or stop altogether, and this time they're out of control. I've also gotten two sinus infections in the past 2 or 3 months (I'm getting over one right now and I can't remember exactly when the last one was). I have never got a sinus infection EVER in my life!
My migraines stopped completely when I was pregnant with Lily, and I had one with Hannah a little less than a month before she was born. I have had more migraines this pregnancy than I've had in the past 5 years!

So a lot of these are usually attributed to increased hormones, so it would be logical to say that I'm having a girl. But the fact is, is that they're different symptoms...and honestly, it kinda freaks me out a little. I would seriously go get another ultrasound if I could afford it! Our ultrasound tech was pretty positive it was a girl. I still need to upload those pictures.....

28 Week Appt

2010-06-08T10:58:00.000-06:00

I had my 28 week appointment last week...the oh-so-fun glucose test! It went well...besides the fact that I gagged down the glucose drink (fruit punch instead of orange this time!), did my best to keep from throwing it up, then went way too long without anything but an absurd amount of sugar in my body. I haven't received a call back, so I'm assuming that I passed...thank goodness!

However, I did get a letter from my midwives in the mail telling me my hematocrit levels were a little low, which makes me slightly anemic. To be honest, I haven't been as good with my prenatals as I should, which, when combined with the increased about of blood produced, naturally makes my iron levels lower. So, I need to increase my iron by actually taking prenatals and eating food with iron. Yippee!

Other than that, things are great! Baby's heart sounded great, she was head down (though I'm not sure she still is), and I'm measuring right on (yay!!). Next appointment is 6/22.

Hannah's new smile

2010-05-28T14:24:00.001-06:00

Hannah loves to smile!

Hannah is 15 months!

2010-05-11T21:40:00.000-06:00

Hannah's 15 month appointment was this month. She gained a whole 7 ounces in 3 months, bringing her total weight to 16 lbs 8 oz! She's in the "less than the 3rd percentile," but the pediatrician wasn't worried one single bit because she jumped from the 25th %ile for her height to the 45th %ile! (30.5") So she's just skinny!

Everything else was quite uneventful. I was hesitant to get the chicken pox and MMR vaccinations because of things I've heard, but we decided to do it for a couple different reasons. So that didn't make her a very happy camper.

She's also started to talk a LOT more. It's been a huge struggle to get her to even say "mama" or "dada" so any other words are pretty much out of the question! She does say "up" every now and then, and she signs a lot. But not much babbling. For almost a week she said "mamamamama"....then, nothing! But NOW! Now she said "hi dada" (usually when she has a phone on her ear), "uncle" "ha chhh" (hi Charlotte)" "I did it" "thank you" "boo!" - of course, most of those are all things that you wouldn't understand unless you've been around her for a while, but she repeats them over and over the exact same way...she's totally saying them. She also tells us what the doggy says, and is learning body parts (she knows what a nose and belly button is). She enjoys playing with Lily, even though Lily can be mean to her! But they're pretty good buddies. I can't believe how quickly they grow up!

It's a...

2010-05-11T21:39:00.001-06:00

...little late of a post, but it's a GIRL! We had our ultrasound on March 29, and after a few quick pokes around, the ultrasound tech got an unmistakable view that it's a girl! (Baby conveniently had her legs crossed, too!) Everything else looked great - she has 10 fingers, 10 toes, all the parts that make her a human! She was measuring about a week behind, but no one seemed worried about it and they're not changing my due date. She's just little! :)

My most recent appointment was April 26 (I was 23 weeks). Everything still looks great! Pretty uneventful.

I've got a couple of pictures that I need to scan in...I'll do that when I can :)

Next appointment is June 1, at 28 weeks...Glucose test...yippee! *gag*

Becoming a DouLorna

2010-05-11T21:39:00.000-06:00

For a while I've thought about getting my birth doula certification, and I recently decided to do it! But instead of taking up space and your time on our family blog, I've decided to start my own blog that will follow my process and will be a place for me to post thoughts and opinions. Feel free to head on over there, and check in from time to time! I'm just getting started, but hopefully it will be a place that I remember to visit often!

http://doulorna.blogspot.com/

By the way, a doula is someone who provides support to a woman before, during and after childbirth. So doula + Lorna = douLorna :D

Lily's First Haircut

2010-03-21T13:20:00.001-06:00

I finally did it. I cut Lily's hair! It has been pretty scraggly for a loooooong time, but I just couldn't bring myself to cut it. But I decided to do it and just did it. I didn't take a before picture with my phone so we just have the after pics.

It was pretty long! Lily had a minor breakdown before I cut it - she wanted her hair long. Haha, like mother like daughter. :)

Another ultrasound

2010-03-11T09:21:00.002-07:00

I had another appointment at the end of last month. They were running WAY behind so the new midwife started to see patients. She was pretty cool. But when she went to find the heartbeat with the Doppler, she couldn't find it. She was looking too high on my belly, but I was too chicken to tell her that. Anyway, they ended up bringing in the ultrasound machine and we got a little glimpse at the baby! They took a picture, but it wasn't that great because that wasn't their purpose.

The head is on the right and the abdomen is on the left. Its hand is up by its head. See it? eh, that's ok - most people can't!

Things are going well! I scheduled our 'big' ultrasound for March 29. I can't wait!

A Beatiful Flicker

2010-01-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

Jonny and I went to the midwife's office yesterday and she showed us that THIS is growing in my belly! hehe! We saw the beautiful flicker of the heartbeat - the abdomen is on the left, the head is on the right, and the little circles in between are the arms.

Have questions?

Here are your answers: EDD 8/22/2010! Baby is measuring exactly on schedule - I'm just over 10 weeks along.

I feel fine, mainly tired. I don't enjoy eating, but I get nauseous if I don't eat. The girls usually keep my mind off of being pregnant.

Yes, we will find out the sex - probably the first week of April. I don't have any inclination as to a boy or a girl. I hope it's a girl, but Jonny would like a boy.

And no, we don't have any names yet...we won't do that until after the ultrasound...and none of you will find out the name until the baby is born! haha! We've just decided to keep our thoughts to ourselves this time.

I'm still in my normal clothes - not bloated or growing or anything. It's nice that way!

Hannah and this baby will be close to 19 months apart. We'll have 3 kids, 3 and under!

I think that about answers the normal questions. Let me know if I missed any! Oh, and we are very excited!! :D

How do you do it?!

2009-10-15T23:32:00.000-06:00

Seriously - all you moms and wives out there: HOW DO YOU DO IT?! I have become suddenly overwhelmed with all of the things I want to do - the mom I want to be. I read other people's blogs and see them doing crafty stuff, cleaning their house, taking their kids all these places...blogging!...I'm lucky if I get Lily and myself dressed for the day! I have fallen into this really bad routine. And now that summer is over, winter is coming...which means cold and snow and only the necessary outings. What do I do inside?

There are so many things I want to get done, but I never have the motivation to start or finish it! For example, around the time when Lily turned 2 (May), I decided that I wanted to make a picture book for her of the important people in her life. My plan was (is) to use it as a church book to keep her occupied and quiet, as well as get to know her family and friends that don't live nearby. So I sent out an email for people to send me pictures...well, I got, like, 2 back. The project just kinda slipped off my radar and has been in the back of my mind ever since...but I can never find the time or motivation to put it together. I know exactly what I have to do - I have it envisioned in my head...it's just doing it. I'm horrible at starting projects and never finishing them...unfortunately, that's a trait I inherited from my mother (sorry mom!). I have papers piled up around our computer desk, waiting to be filed...it's just always a bigger job than I think it'll be. And I'm not the kind of person to do little bits at a time. Just get it done!

So, to all you reading this out there, how do you do it? Also, how do you do crafts and things with your kids on a budget? I just can't take my kids to the zoo, or to the movies or something...at least not all the time, or as often as some.

Any hints/tips would be great...anything to help me feel less overwhelmed!

Sounds of the Lily

2009-09-10T11:02:00.004-06:00

Lily Singing

Lily sings the ABC's, a never-ending Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Ring Around the Rosie, and It's A Small World After All. Enjoy!

People think I'm crazy...

2009-08-28T10:25:00.007-06:00

(Warning: minor soapbox)

Heck, 6 months ago, I would have thought I'm crazy! So why am I crazy? Well, because I now use cloth diapers. Yep. We're "CDing" it up. My sister, Rachel, started with full on cloth when her son was born in May. We had talked about it when she was pregnant, and I wasn't really keen on the idea of cloth. More laundry, cleaning poop off, and disposables are so much easier and convenient. Well, after a couple of months, Rachel wasn't have much success with cloth. So she decided to try gDiapers. They were initially made as a cloth/disposable hybrid diaper. You have a reusable cloth cover with a removable, reusable liner inside, then you have a flushable insert that you put in the liner. That's the part that's like the disposable - the part that they pee on. When you change the diaper, you put it in the toilet and flush it! That's it! Well, while those are convenient and easy, they're also quite pricey. So recently, gDiapers came out with a gCloth option. You use the same cover and liner, but instead of the flushable, you put in the cloth. Super easy!

Rachel loved them so much that she convinced me to try them. And I love them! Today, I had my first poopy cloth diaper, and it was so easy to deal with. We also have some flushable liners that we haven't tried - but we're keeping them for when we go out. And we still use a disposable on Hannah at night - she sleeps for 12 hours straight, and the cloth just isn't absorbent enough to last that long.

So what about my earlier concerns? More laundry: ok, yes, but a load of laundry every 3 days is a lot cheaper and easier than buying more diapers. Not as easy or convenient? gDiapers are super easy! And they're practically as convenient as disposables. The only thing is that you have to make sure to carry around a bag for them if you're out and about. No big deal - I'm carrying a diaper bag anyway!

Cleaning poop off? Not a big deal! I'm not the kind of person to get squeamish over stuff like that, though. I'd much rather clean off a cloth diaper with Hannah-poop instead of deal with Lily's "big kid" poop! :) AND! (this is the part that gets me) I had absolutely no idea - along with probably most of you reading this - that you're supposed to shake, wipe, etc the poop from the disposable diaper into the toilet before you put the diaper in the trash can! WHAT?! I've never heard that before! Seriously - it's on the Pampers website (along with all the others, I'm sure) says "As the Pampers bag recommends, you'll want to dump bowel movements in the toilet. Then just roll the diaper into its backsheet, using the tape or fasteners to keep it closed, and dispose of it in the trash." This site also talks about putting it in the toilet and the safety reasons behind it (i.e. contaminating underground water supplies). So if I'm going to be cleaning it off of disposables, I might as well be cleaning it off of cloth!

And, all in all, cloth is cheaper than disposables. With gDiapers, it'll probably cost around $150 for 5 covers, 20 flushable inserts, and 18 cloth inserts. That's until they're about 14 lbs. Then medium and large have different covers, but use the same size cloth insert. For disposables, I figure it'll cost at least $175 for the first 4 months (until the average baby gets to 14 lbs). Ok, so just $25 for convenience - sure, I'd pay that. But what about your next babies - assuming you have more than one. That's another $175 at least for each baby's first 4 months. But with cloth, you don't have to buy anything else. And, the bigger the diaper size, the less you get in the package...which means more $$.

Anyway, obviously, I'm converted. But I know they're not for everyone. I just wanted to share what has worked for me - I didn't think there was another option to disposables. Well, I guess it's more like I didn't realize that cloth could be so convenient - and CUTE! Here's a picture of Hannah wearing her pink ruffle butt gPants:

/soapbox :)

A Picture is Worth 1000 Words...

2009-08-21T19:11:00.010-06:00

So, to catch up with the past couple months, here are 27,000 words for you (plus some)!

Jonny got to shoot a .50 caliber rifle...

I didn't go...and I'm extremely bitter about it. I'm surprised I'm even blogging about it.

We went to Strawberry Days in Pleasant Grove. Lily rode the extremely shady "merry go merry go." But she still had fun!

My cousin Jesse had his Master's recital at the end of June. He did an AWESOME job!

We saw a double rainbow one day.

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We celebrated July 4th with some of Jonny's family. Here's Lily eating some blueberries.

Kylee meticulously glazing the strawberries.

Yummy tart cake thing...

Victoria and Lily ready for the fireworks. (Lily's cousins told her to plug her ears......)

Some pretty awesome firework shots, if I may say so myself.

Lily, Christian and Victoria

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Hannah is now almost 7 months old!! WOW how time flies! She started sitting up around the middle of July...

She had her first solid food on July 19. She wasn't sure about it at first

But she took to it amazingly well! Now she LOVES it and she is so impatient while we get it ready...

And anticipates the spoon coming toward her:

Here she is in her gDiapers! (www.gdiapers.com) We use gCloth. Thanks Rachel!

Aren't they so cute?!

We went to her 6 month doctor's appointment at the beginning of August. She weighed 13 lbs (3-5%ile) and was 25 1/4" (~25%ile) long. Teeny tiny. But I'm not worried - she's just our petite girl. I'm sure with the solids she'll start to put on a little more weight. She can sit up by herself, and just in the past couple days she's really started to roll from her back to front. I think she's realized that there's something more to just laying there, as she was all over the place yesterday. She now sleeps 12 hours straight at night! She also is a mommy's girl, which I'm not used to because Lily was much more independent and loves her daddy. She cut her first top tooth on August 11, and her second top one on August 21. So she now has FOUR teeth! OUCH!

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Lily is growing up so fast. There's nothing she can't say now. Her newest things are "stop it," "my body hurts," and "don't talk to me." Yep - she's 2. She is amazing at singing songs. I'll sing a line of a song but leave off the last word and she'll fill it in - a lot of times on key! She is just about fully potty-trained now! We still put a diaper on her at night, but for the past week it has been dry when she wakes up! Yee haw! She's quite stubborn and has selective hearing, but she can be very loving and so sweet. And she's a wonderful big sister!!

She did this all by herself.

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Sisters.

One day I put her down for her nap in a normal outfit. When I went to get her afterward, she was wearing this. I think she was a little embarrassed, so she wouldn't let me take a picture of her!

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We went up Provo Canyon with Jonny's former co-worker (Joe) and his family. Us as Bridal Veil Falls.

Joe splashed Jonny with a HUGE rock. Poor guy. At least it was hot!

Lily had tons of fun playing with her friends. And she got ridiculously dirty...

And that just about sums up the past 3 months! I've got one more post I need to do, but I have to upload those pics first. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Terrys: 0, Mother Nature: 2

2009-07-07T09:51:00.002-06:00

I didn't blog about our camping trip last year, but long story short: It was the beginning of June, we planned to go 2 nights and ended up leaving VERY early in the morning after the first night. This is why:

That's right. It snowed. It was freezing. So we left for the comfort of our warm home. We might have stayed for the next night if Lily wasn't with us, but she was so little and so cold! So Mother Nature won.

We decided to give camping a try again this year. We went up Spanish Fork Canyon with Andrew & Brittney and Chad & Clair for Memorial Day weekend. Leading up to it, the forecast looked awesome. No chance of rain whatsoever. And then Thursday came and everything changed. It rained practically all weekend. The rain was so bad on Saturday night that it started leaking through our tent. We didn't have any extra tarps (we had used them all up for shelter over the tables), so Jonny and I chose to drive the girls home. We bought a tarp for our tent the next day and didn't have any more problems. We had a ton of fun though! I'd call this one leaning slightly more toward the 'Mother Nature' winning side.

I'm so glad Jonny thinks he's cool. :)

Chad caught a rattlesnake and skinned it...

Then cooked it, and we ate some of it! It was chewy...

What a proud man.

Jonny & Hannah

Lily would do this every time she walked by the fire.

"Here's a pretty flower I picked just for you, Mommy!"

No comment.

Andrew & Brittney

Clair "cheesing"

Wow, it must have been early.
This is one of the only pictures of me. I love being the one behind the camera!

Something I've been wanting to write about

2009-06-08T20:05:00.002-06:00

So I've been thinking about writing this post for a long time, but was unsure if I wanted to do it or not. I wasn't sure how it would be received, and thought that most people probably wouldn't care what I had to say. But something has been pushing me to post it lately, so I figured I would just go ahead and do it!

Be warned that if you are male, you probably won't be interested in what I have to say! But show your wives/girlfriends...haha.

I love to solve puzzles, and when I hear about another woman having issues with something, I'm always secretly (or not so secretly) determined to figure out why that certain thing is happening to them. Because of that - and my own journey to have children - I have, over the course of about 3 years, learned a lot about the female body...our cycles, conception, pregnancy and childbirth. The more I learn, the more the subject intrigues me, and I wonder why no one ever taught me any this stuff sooner! It seems like I've had many conversations on these subjects lately that I thought maybe there are others out there who I can share my knowledge with. So I thought I'd share some books and links that have been amazingly helpful and interesting to me.

1. First off: Taking Charge of Your Fertility, by Toni Weschler. I have decided that my daughters will be required to read the appropriate chapters of this book when we feel it is appropriate for them to read. It basically teaches FAM (Fertility Awareness Method) that you can use for birth control or tying to conceive. I hated the artificial hormones of hormonal birth control (I was on the NuvaRing and Yaz), and I have serious migraines that are worsened by hormonal birth control. This is a highly effective method that doesn't come with any risks like those of using hormones. I think that all women should read it to understand the female cycle and to know why your body does what it does. It's especially helpful if you're trying to get pregnant, or thinking about doing so.

2. FertilityFriend.com Used for charting your temperatures, as explained in TCOYF (Taking Charge of Your Fertility). TCOYF comes with a CD with charting software...but I personally like the FREE web-based software that ff.com offers.

3. The Business of Being Born (DVD) by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein. From the website: "The film interlaces intimate birth stories with surprising historical, political and scientific insights and shocking statistics about the current maternity care system. When director Epstein discovers she is pregnant during the making of the film, the journey becomes even more personal. Should most births be viewed as a natural life process, or should every delivery be treated as a potentially catastrophic medical emergency?" This DVD is absolutely amazing. I think everyone should watch it! (Note: Since it is a documentary and not rated, there are a few swear words and they do show the labor and delivery of babies, with little censoring.) If you have Netflix, it's available online to watch. A couple comments I have about the movie: epidurals don't always end up in c-sections, but they do raise the risk of it, and hospitals aren't horrible. Lily's birth was pretty good - the only things I felt like I was forced into was having an IV and continuous monitoring. With Hannah, the midwife let me do pretty much whatever I wanted. I feel like nurses are a main cause of intervention. At both hospitals, the nurses were the ones that were wanting the continous monitoring, even though my midwife said it wasn't necessary.

4. Your Best Birth (Book), by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein. This book just came out last month so I haven't had a chance to read it, but it sounds great! It "is an empowering childbirth guide packed with crucial advice from medical professionals, delivered in a down-to-earth, engaging, and honest voice. Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein reevaluate the pregnancy process, renew expectant mothers’ confidence, and place the control back where it belongs: with parents-to-be." I can't wait to read it!

5. On Becoming Babywise, by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam. I absolutely LOVE this book. There is a lot of controversy with it, because people think that it's starving the child if you're not attached to them every 5 minutes, or that it's bad for the child to cry. So many people think it's impossible to put your baby on a schedule, when, in fact, it is very very easy. And you also can teach the baby to put themselves to sleep (yes, some crying is involved, but you don't let your baby cry themselves to sleep or cry for a ridiculous amount of time), so that naptime is a lot easier than having to rock your baby to sleep, lay them down, they wake up, then it starts all over. You can also have your children sleeping through the night after a few months. The book says that at 8 weeks they can go 9-10 hours, but it took both my girls about 12 weeks until they were sleeping that amount straight. Why wouldn't you want that for your child and your own sanity?

6. Chronicles of a Babywise Mom. Recently, while I was in search of other Babywise moms, I found a blog created by this woman who uses Babywise with her own children. She has posted so much great information on the blog, and she still updates it. If you decide that Babywise is the best for you, it's a great place to go for any questions you may have. She also talks about some other books, like Happiest Baby on the Block.

7. Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood, by Jim Fay and Charles Fay. There are a few different Love and Logic books, this is just the one I have. My sister gave it to me for Christmas, and my sister-in-law uses the method on her children. I haven't had the chance to use it to its full extent since Lily is too young, but I have used parts of it and I can tell that it works. Basically, it explains how to teach your children to use logic to think for themselves. Why wouldn't you want to give your kids those tools?

8. Midwives. My passion for this really all started when my sister, Brie, was pregnant with her second child. She decided to use a midwife during her pregnancy and deliver naturally. She was successful and went on to deliver the rest of her children without pain medication. That made such an impact on me that when I moved to Virginia, I chose to find a midwife as my "girly doctor." (Side note: When I tell people that I don't see an OB/GYN they are so surprised! Not many people know that a midwife can do *almost* everything an OB can. And having a midwife does not mean homebirth or waterbirth or "weird" stuff. They simply are an alternate, non-medical approach to well-women and prenatal care.) I am SO glad that I did. I feel like a midwife actually cares about me and the questions I have. Rarely did I find them asking me if I had any questions while their hand was on the door handle, ready to open it and leave...which made me feel like I was just another patient. I was always treated with respect and like I was the most important person in the world at that moment...which is how it should be. They never forced me into anything I didn't want to do - which is how medical stuff should be, since it's your body. Anyway, when I was pregnant with Lily, I decided that I wasn't going to have an epidural, and because I wanted to have a natural birth, I decided that a midwife would be best for me. I found an awesome practice in Virginia, and when we moved to Utah, I found an equally great midwife "team" that allowed me to have a wonderful birth experience.

Obviously I am a natural childbirth advocate. Women have been giving birth medication- and intervention-free for thousands of years. Why should that change now? Yes, labor hurts! There's a reason it's called labor. But I know that if someone puts their mind to it and prepares well enough, its entirely possible. And let me tell you - it is SO empowering. Lily's and Hannah's births were a little different, I was more aware with Hannah, which allowed me to know everything that was going on. The feeling of Hannah being born was absolutely amazing. I couldn't imagine NOT feeling that, like if I had had an epidural or a c-section. I honestly feel like women have been cheated in the childbirth process. I also feel like women have been led to believe that the pain of labor is so intense that it's unbearable, so they go throughout their lives and pregnancy thinking that they can't do it, and an epidural is the only way to manage the pain. It's very sad to me. Educate yourself before you make decisions! How can you make an informed decision of what's best for you and your baby if you don't know all of the options and risks?

I am a firm believer in all of these resources. I do know, however, that there are some situations when intervention is necessary. Parents-to-be should educate themselves as much as possible on this subject! Unfortunately, a general childbirth education class is not going to explain these things to you. How much research do you do when you buy a car? or a house? a digital camera?! Childbirth should be researched more than this - it's your body and your baby!

Anyway, I didn't mean for this to be a novel...this is just something I am extremely passionate about and feel like education in these topics is almost looked down upon for fear that we'll all start making better decisions and cause the OB/GYNs to lose their patients to midwives. Well I hope that happens!

I hope that no one gets offended by this. I do know that these things are definitely a personal decision for everyone.

If you have any questions, please ask! You can comment, send me a message on Facebook, or send me an email (lornadoone617@yahoo.com).

Ricki Lake will be on Chelsea Lately tonight (Monday, 6/8) on E! talking about her book (Your Best Birth).

4 months

2009-06-04T22:24:00.001-06:00

Hannah is 4 months! I can NOT believe how quickly time flies. The past 4 months almost seem like a blur...but a good blur. Not one of those "baby-daze" blurs.

Anyway, we went to the Pediatrician on Monday and her stats are:

Length: 24 3/4" (75th %ile)
Weight: 11 lbs 15 oz (25th %ile)
Head Circ: 41 cm (50th %ile)

Lily was exactly the same length, and she weighed 12 lbs 6 oz. So Hannah's just right on track.

On May 20, I went in to get her from her nap and she had rolled over onto her stomach! She's done that one other time since. And on the 26th she rolled over from her stomach to her back - that one I saw. She also cut her second tooth around then, as well. Hannah does well during the day. Lately she's been waking up from her naps earlier than I had hoped...I think she's just going through a growth spurt. But she sleeps wonderfully at night. She goes from about 8pm to 7:30am with a feeding at 10:30pm. She started sleeping through the night at the end of April and has been perfect ever since.

Hannah is such a chill baby. She is so content wherever we put her...and even deals well with Lily's...um..."loves." Lily loves Hannah, but she doesn't quite understand that she can't sit on her and poke her....haha. But she's a great help and really cares about her sister.

The teeth:

She found her feet!

Believe it or not...

2009-05-18T08:53:00.002-06:00

We're not playing tricks on you - that is what you think it is: Hannah's first tooth! (Sorry the picture it a little crazy...it's not an easy shot to get!) I noticed it on Friday...it seriously just came out of nowhere. Thinking that it would probably sit right underneath the gums for a while, you can imagine our surprise when it cut through the next day! So Hannah, who is just 3 1/2 months old, has a tooth. I'm pretty sure I can see the one right next to it slowly working its way through the gums.

So, our baby has a tooth. It's very exciting! ...yet...I'm a little scared of the biting. :)

Lily's almost 2!

2009-05-15T10:24:00.004-06:00

Before her birthday, I wanted to get some pictures up of Lily being silly. I can't believe she's almost 2!

I suppose we should get her a bigger car seat...this one's a little small on her! Naw, she decided she wanted to sit in Hannah's seat.

As she was eating chicken nuggets and ketchup, she says "cute!" I looked over and saw she had put ketchup on each finger...

The same day, she climbed into the trash can. It's a perfect fit!

As is this diaper box...

Notice that none of these things are really toys, yet they keep her just as busy as some $20 gift I could have bought. Kids are funny.

I can't believe she's almost 2!!! They really do grow too quickly.

Lily's "Chocolate"

2009-05-15T10:19:00.002-06:00

Last week I was holding Lily when she looked at my neck and said "chocolate!" Then she looked at Jonny's face and said "Daddy chocolate face." We couldn't figure out what she was talking about until she pointed at the mole on my neck and said "Mommy chocolate!" And Jonny's face is covered in freckles, so that was his "chocolate." Very cute. A couple of days later, I was looking at her face and saw that she has her first very own "chocolate." It's extremely small, but it's there!

What's crazy is that I when I was looking at it, she said "Lily chocolate" even though I didn't tell her what it was! Weird....

Mother's Day

2009-05-15T09:46:00.005-06:00

Mother's Day this year was great! Lily had been sick, so we only went to Sacrament Meeting at church, and when we got home Jonny gave me my presents from him and the girls. The girls got me (more like Jonny got it for me and put their name on the card) the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. And Jonny got me an apple peeler/corer/slicer! I've been wanting those for a really long time! Maybe it's also Jonny's hints that I should spend more time in the kitchen...? ;)

In the girls' card were 2 stickers. One was for Lily and it said "Mommy's Little Princess," and the other one was for me:

I got to wear it all day - it was very cute. I also did nothing all day. Well, besides take care of the girls. But I didn't have to help with dinner or clean up or anything, it was wonderful.

I'm very glad to be a mom. It's the best feeling in the world when Lily comes up to me, gives me a hug and says "I love you, Mommy." Or when I get Hannah up from her nap and she just looks and me and gives me the biggest smile. These girls just make my heart melt! I wouldn't trade being a mom for ANYTHING.

3 months!

2009-05-14T19:06:00.002-06:00

Hannah is already 3 months old! Time has flown by extremely quickly. She now sleeps through the night, takes pretty good naps during the day, and is generally a very happy baby. Like Lily is and was, Hannah is more interested in the things around her than what she should be doing (like eating or sleeping), but I just figure that it makes for a smart child. :) She's getting really good at holding her head up, which makes for a longer and much more fun tummy time.

I've started to put her in the Bumbo, and she really enjoys being able to see things right-side up.

She's also decided that her thumb is her best friend when she's tired. She took a binky only for about a month, then just outright refused it. Lily was completely addicted to it at this age, so it's a good change for me. Now I just have to worry about weaning her from thumb-sucking later on in life! Ah, well...it's cute for right now...

At this age, Lily was already rolling over. I know that's pretty early, but I half expect Hannah to follow the same path, but I guess when there's another one around where you have to worry about them poking and prodding her, the babies just don't get as much floor time. I can't wait for her to grow up and start doing things! I want to see what kind of a kid she turns out to be!

Disneyland and Emily's Wedding!

2009-05-01T19:04:00.007-06:00

(Warning!!! This post is pretty long! Don't say I didn't warn you!)

Jonny and I decided to take a trip to Disneyland two weeks ago. His cousin was getting married on April 25, and we really wanted to go, so we made a week long vacation out of it!

(I apologize in advance for the really detailed blog. Normally I don't like to explain day by day, but there were just so many things that happened that I need written down! Hopefully the pictures will make up for it.) We left on Sunday and went straight to the park to catch the fireworks show (they only do it on the weekends when it's not busy). We actually made it there with time to spare, so Jonny & Lily went on Buzz Lightyear - she was so scared that she curled up on the seat, and I took Lily on the Astro Orbitors - she was a little scared on that one too...it goes a lot faster than you think! Lily wasn't sure what to do during the fireworks show. She thought it was cool, but lost interest toward the end. When everyone got excited as Tinkerbell flew around the castle, she started to say "hi Tinkerbell!" and wave furiously. The funny thing is, is that we have never mentioned Tinkerbell to her, so she had absolutely no idea who she was!

We spent the next 3 days at the park. On Monday, Lily was exhausted from the drive to CA, she was overwhelmed with so many new things, and it was ridiculously hot (98 degrees!), so it wasn't the greatest day. After she woke up from her nap, we decided to go on the Finding Nemo Submarines. While in line, Hannah spit up on me and I left the burp cloth in the diaper bag. As we're going down into the sub, Lily starts freaking out (as she did on just about every ride). We sit her in between us, but she won't calm down. Jonny was holding Hannah, and she kept spitting up on him throughout the entire ride (I think she was too hot). So the ride starts and Lily says "pee pee." Oh great. She has been doing that lately because she's learned that whenever she says it, we rush her to the bathroom. So does she really have to go, or is she just saying that to get out of riding the ride? Well, either way, we're stuck here for 15 minutes. She doesn't really calm down, and I'm sure everyone is thinking, Poor child...her parents are torturing her by making her go on this ride! Oh well! So I sat her on my lap, and that made her a little calm. Then suddenly, I feel this splashing on my feet. For a split second, I thought they had an interactive ride...kinda like the Bug's Life show. Then I realized...Lily peed. On me. Greeeeat. The ride finally ended and we were the last ones out (thankfully we were sitting at the end). The Cast Members were pretty cool about it - I'm sure they have to deal with that a lot. I just hated being the parent whose child caused the delay in the ride! Anyway, we got off the ride and, boy, were we a sight to see! I kinda wish we had a picture of it. Lily was wearing a jean skirt, so you could obviously tell she had peed her pants (or skirt...), I had pee pretty much all over the front of my jean shorts, so it looked like I had peed MY pants, Jonny had spit up all over his shirt, and Hannah was just as content as could be. Needless to say, we were done for the day. I looked over at Jonny and said "We're going home." We packed up and headed back to our friend's house (Jeff and Susannah - our friends from Virginia who now live in LA).

Lily riding the "cows" on the carousel

Lorna and Lily in the line for Casey Jr.

On Tuesday, Jeff, Susannah and their daughter Kate (who is 7 months older than Lily) went with us to the park. Thankfully, it wasn't as hot that day...it was somewhere in the 80s. We met Jasmine, Ariel and Cinderella (Lily didn't really care), watched Playhouse Disney (which she LOVED), watched a parade at California Adventure, I beat Jonny at Toy Story Mania (my score: 159,100 with 34% accuracy; Jonny's score: 110,600 with 29% accuracy), and met Mickey and Goofy. The Celebrate parade at Disneyland was going on, so we thought we'd catch a little bit of it. We were standing in front of the castle and I put Lily on my shoulders so she could see over all of the people standing up. After shaking her booty for a little bit, she wanted to get down. When I let her down, she walked over and stood on the curb. Then she started dancing. Stomping her feet, clapping her hands, shaking her booty...and a lot of things I've never seen her do! I wish I would have had the video camera handy, but it was too far away for me to get while Lily was doing her thing, and I didn't want to take her away for fear of her not starting up again. Oh, and while she was dancing, most of the people around were watching her, not the parade! It was awesome.

Lily and Kate in line for the princesses

Lily and Kate with Jasmine

Lily and Kate with Ariel

Kate and Lily with Cinderella

The family with Goofy

The family with Mickey

Lily on a chair in Beast's Library

Jonny and Lily on Dumbo

Lily's "stage" during the parade

Lorna and Lily on the teacups (another of her favorite rides)

So on Wednesday, we went back to the park by ourselves. Lily had a couple of days to warm up to rides and understand what we do at Disneyland, so we were hoping it would be a really good day. Plus, the weather was in the 70s, so it was perfect! Lily was really good, and enjoyed most of the rides! We decided to watch the whole parade again, and she danced practically the whole time. It wasn't as cute as Tuesday's dancing, though. So it was a good day - our best day at the park.

The family with Pooh

The family with Tigger

Lorna, Lily and Hannah at Tom Sawyer's Island

Hannah was just a happy baby for the majority of the time!

Family castle picture

Cute!

Thursday morning, we went back to the park to take a family picture in front of the castle and to do my "Lorna" in the big California letters. Jonny took Lily on Pirates - one of her favorite rides. We then headed up to Modesto, stopping in Fresno and visited Scott & Terry Olsen (long-time family friends of Jonny). The wedding was on Saturday in Oakland, and it was beautiful. It went pretty smoothly, and Emily and Bobby (the bride and groom) were very happy. The reception was that night in Modesto, and even though there were a few snags getting everything set up, it ended up absolutely beautiful!

This one is probably my favorite picture of them

We drove home on Sunday...and it was a looooooooong day. We were all tired of being in the car, especially the girls, so we stopped more than usual, which made the trip even longer. We left Modesto around 9am and got home around 10:30pm. Too long of a drive after a long week. But it was a fun week! We had a blast, and would definitely do it again! We love Disneyland!

Here are some videos of Lily. This one is of her dancing at the parade (sorry it's kinda long...I know most people don't care about watching some other kid dancing...):

Lily at the parade from Jonny & Lorna on Vimeo.

And this one is Jonny talking to Lily about our Disneyland trip. It's almost 10 minutes long...so don't say you weren't warned! I won't be offended if you don't watch it...I just thought I'd put it up for those who are interested.

Lily talks about Disneyland from Jonny & Lorna on Vimeo.

Lily loves flying! :) And that about sums it up! If you've stuck with me this far, I hope you enjoyed it and didn't get bored!

Lots of posts!

2009-04-03T11:50:00.001-06:00

If you haven't noticed already, I have a BUNCH of posts. So scroll down and enjoy!

Hannah is 2 months old!

2009-04-03T10:00:00.008-06:00

WOW! How quickly time flies! Hannah is already 2 months old! I took her in for her appointment on Wednesday. Everything looked great! Her stats:

Weight: 10 lbs 7 oz (50th %ile)
Height: 22 3/4 in (75th %ile)
Head Circumference: 39 cm (50th %ile)

To compare to Lily - at Lily's 2 month visit she was 10 lbs 12 oz and 23.5 in long. So they've grown at about the same rate, which is very comforting.

I also asked the pediatrician about two things I've noticed with Hannah. One is this thing near her right eye's tear duct - looks like a blackhead. (I want to pick it every time I see it!) He said it's a "pit." Basically, during development the duct that went from her eye to her nose didn't close up all the way. The pit doesn't go all the way to the duct - it closed up enough to not be a problem, but it's just a little indent that looks like a blackhead! He said "it's a wonderful identifying mark!" I'm thinking she won't be too fond of it when she's 13 years old... The other thing is a smallish bump on her head. It feels like part of her skull, so I just figured it was. He said it was some kind of cyst - I think he said a dermoid cyst...? It wasn't there when she was born, but as her skull was fusing together, the tissues around the area made this cyst. He said it shouldn't hurt her or cause problems, but it can be removed if it every does, or the hair doesn't grow there. He also said if she were to get hit hard enough in that spot, it would just shatter it and it would go away. Let's hope she never gets hit hard enough in the head for that to happen!

In addition to ALLL that, she's doing great! She has the cutest smiles and has started to talk back a little bit. She eats and sleeps just wonderfully. Even though she's only waking up once at night, I hope that she drops that soon! What I wouldn't give for more than a 5 hour stretch!

I only have a few new pictures - I really need to be taking more of Hannah. But here are some...

Do they look alike?

Lily

Hannah

In this one, you can see the little "pit" near her eye. (You can see it better in the bigger version if you click on it.) Kinda funky.

Potty Training Success!

2009-04-02T08:54:00.002-06:00

Mentally, I have been preparing Lily (and myself) for potty training since November. We actually tried starting back then, and she peed twice on her pink potty from Ikea...then she got sick the week after and suddenly developed this fear of the potty! Then it was Thanksgiving, and Christmas...and then I was 9 months pregnant...then Hannah was born, and my sister visited, and my mom was here...and now we finally had the time to just do it. So last Wednesday I decided to start. I would sit Lily on her potty every now and then (I think I either let her run around half naked or put panties on her), and she would never do anything...just sit there. But while I was cooking dinner, I think she said she needed to pee, or I had just sat her there. And she was just sitting, doing nothing, and I told her that she could have a lollipop if she peed. So she did!! The next morning was similar: she sat on the potty and did nothing, then I had to put Hannah down for a nap, so I walked upstairs. As I was coming downstairs I hear "Wet!" Well, Lily had peed in her potty and decided to pour it into the toilet. (I taught her that a couple months ago.) Great idea, but only when the toilet seat is up! So she poured it on the closed toilet and got it everywhere! Good thing pee is sterile!

Since then, she's only had a couple of accidents. She refused to go "number 2" in the potty. I mean, it's pretty scary if you think about it! We knew she had to go since she hadn't in a while, but she still wouldn't do anything on the potty. Then on Tuesday she was in the family room and said "poo poo" and ran to the bathroom. I didn't have to coax her at all - she just went! Yay Lily!

Oh, and the BEST part! Thursday morning at about 6:30am, she woke up calling for us. That is very unusual - she normally sleeps until about 8 or 8:30 these days. So Jonny went in to her room and she says "potty!" So he took her potty, and she went a lot! (I'm sure you all really care about this - but it's exciting for us!) But even better than that was that her diaper was completely dry! She had held it allllll night! And she did the same thing last night, except she woke up at 7:15 instead of 6:30 - which is fine with me!

So yay for Lily! I didn't expect potty training to go this well! It really gives me confidence as a parent. I can overcome diapers! haha. Now...if Hannah could just be potty trained already.....

This was from November, but here is Lily on her potty:

Four Weddings and a Funeral...minus the four weddings

2009-03-31T17:36:00.004-06:00

We took a trip to Burley, Idaho a couple weekends ago for Jonny's grandma's funeral. While it was sad to see her go, it was definitely nice to know that she won't be suffering anymore. She was 88 and had a pretty serious case of Alzheimer's. It was also really great to spend some time with Jonny's extended family. We played games and hung out talking. We also got to meet Jonny's cousin's fiancee. Emily, his cousin, is pretty awesome, so we were a little hesitant about this Bobby kid, but he proved his "worthiness" to join the family right away. I'm sure he was pretty intimidated by meeting the family all at once, but he did well. He will forever be known as the arm wrestling champion of the family. :) Oh, how I wish I had a picture of that!

Anyway, the funeral itself was ok...a little too long, in my opinion. After the service, we drove about 30 minutes to Oakley, ID where Grandma Paloma was to be buried. It was very cold and very windy, so I wasn't able to get as many pictures there as I would've liked.

Grandma Paloma's casket with Grandpa Bill in the background. I couldn't imagine being without my spouse...

Andrew, Michael, Jonny and Christian at their brother, Dan's, grave. He was stillborn in 1975.

Lily fell asleep on the way to the cemetery...

Everyone in this picture is a descendant or spouse of a descendant of Bill and Paloma. Wow. That's a lot of people!

Good ole Eric. He's a funny guy.

Emily and me after a loooong night of fun and games.

And that pretty much sums it up! What a fun family!

Photo Shoot

2009-03-31T15:07:00.007-06:00

My sister-in-law, Sara, has started up her own photography business, and to add to her portfolio and as a baby gift to us, she took some pictures of the girls. Lily was being a snot that day, but we bribed her with candy...haha. We ended up with some really great pictures of both of the girls...I can't wait to get them printed (it's on my list!). Here are my favorites:

You can see the rest of the pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lornadoone617/sets/72157615884588377/

And here is Sara's blog: http://saraterryphotography.blogspot.com/

Thanks, Sara! We really appreciate what you do!

Hannah's Baby Blessing

2009-03-31T10:39:00.006-06:00

On March 8, 2009, when she was 5 weeks old, we blessed Hannah at our house. For those of you who aren't LDS, when our babies are young, we bless them with the name that they will be known on the church records and give them a blessing for their future. We had family and friends join us and after the blessing we had some really yummy food and had a great time just hanging out.

While my mom was here, we made Hannah's blessing dress. Well, actually my mom made it - I just watched... It turned out great! I hope that Hannah will have it to bless her own children in. Here's mom making it:
Our growing little family:

Our precious baby girl, Hannah Rose:

The girlies:

Hannah and Gemma (almost a month apart):

The Priesthood holders who blessed Hannah (plus Lily - who wouldn't let go of Papa):

I Love My Mommy!

2009-03-25T22:52:00.002-06:00

My mom came to visit from 3/1-3/12. It was sooooo great to have her here! She cooked me food, did my laundry, fed Lily, and watched the girls while I got to sleep! She also helped me with some projects that I had been needing to get done, which was really nice. We were able to bless Hannah while she was here, too, which made her 6 for 6 on her grandkids' baby blessings! (That will be a separate post...) We didn't take many pictures, but here are a few:

We found that Lily is extremely good at stacking blocks. This picture is kinda fuzzy, but you can see how tall she made her tower!

We were out and about one day doing errands, and it was time for Hannah to eat. So we stopped at a park and mom took Lily to the playground while I fed Hannah. For 15-20 minutes, all Lily wanted to do was swing...and of course, she freaked out when it was time to leave. As much as I love the snow, I can't wait for it to be warm again so we can go to a park.

My mom called Hannah "The Pink Burrito." Kinda sounds like her superhero name.

I had a great time visiting with my mom, and I can't wait for her to come again!

A Visit With Rachel

2009-03-06T20:42:00.005-07:00

My sister, Rachel, came to visit from 2/19-23. I hadn't seen her since her wedding in August 2007, and it was great to spend some time with her! She's having her first baby in May so I got to see her cute little belly. We mainly just hung out and enjoyed the kids. She had recently bought a Sony Alpha 350 DSLR...wonderful camera! We took a LOT of test pictures...here are some good ones...

We went on a walk on Sunday. It was really cold! But Lily loves to be in her stroller!
The family....
One of my favorite pictures ever!

Us in front of our house.

Just a closer shot...

Hannah in the bouncy seat.

Hannah looking slightly suspicious of the big black thing in her face.

And, once again, Hannah.

It was a great visit! We also got to see Rachel's husband, Phill, who visits Utah quite a bit for work. Thanks for visiting, Rachel! I hope we get to see you again soon!

Recent 'Going-ons'

2009-02-21T22:19:00.002-07:00

I thought I'd write a little update on how the past 3 weeks have been going. I'd forgotten how sleep-deprived you get with a newborn! ...and how you learn to function when you're waking up every 3-4 hours in the night. Lily is a great helper. She just wants to love on her sister, but she's still learning how to be soft - like not to cover her face up with a blanket... And Lily can act up a lot and get into things she knows she's not supposed to - especially when I can't do anything about it at the time! But she's learning and getting better. Hannah is a really good baby. She rarely cries for no reason, she eats well (and very quickly - more on that later), she's learning how to put herself to sleep, and she sleeps at night! Of course, she wakes up to eat at night, but she goes right back to sleep. Not everything is always perfect - we definitely have our bad nights, but in general, things are good!

Christian, Jonny's brother, and his family came to visit this past weekend from New Mexico. They have 3 kids - the youngest is just 15 months older than Lily. We all had a great time hanging out, and Lily loved playing with the kids. I took a few action shots of Jonny, Bella & Victoria jumping onto the love sac:

Bella

Victoria

Doesn't it look like Lily is levitating?!

Jonny being silly...

Lily dancing to Guitar Hero. She puts her hands in the air and shakes her bootie. It's really cute!

Lily and Christian kissing

Hannah also had her 2 weeks appointment on Monday. I was really worried about her gaining weight because she would only eat for 5-10 minutes. The doctor said that at the 2 week appointment they look for them to gain back to their birth weight. Hannah was discharged from the hospital at 6 lbs 15 oz, so she should've gained back to at least 7 lbs 4 oz. Well, she weighed 8 lbs 2 oz! And she had already grown an inch! Her weight, height and head circumference were all around the 50th %ile. So she's just an average-sized baby! The doctor said not to worry about her eating - obviously she's just efficient, as she's gaining the weight that she needs to!

Hannah smiles a LOT in her sleep!!

Introducing...

2009-02-04T16:10:00.000-07:00

Hannah Rose! She arrived on Sunday morning at 8:00am. She weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and was 19.5 in long. No one can agree on who she looks more like, so you'll have to decide that for yourself. She has the same nose as Lily (which may be a mix of Jonny's and mine), I think she has Jonny's eyes, Jonny's bootie (Lily has mine), and we can't figure out who she inherited her fingers and toes from. They are so long and skinny! And her fingernails are so girly! Here are a few pictures:

(You can see some more pictures if you click on the Flickr photos on the left.) So far, she's been great! She sleeps a lot, as most newborns do...she actually sleeps so much that it has been very difficult to wake her up to eat. But she's getting better. She's also had her days and nights mixed up, but last night was pretty good! Hopefully it will just get better!

I am so glad that things were able to go as I had planned and hoped! I had been really nervous for labor & delivery again, since Lily's was so long and...unpleasant, to say the least. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it unmedicated again. So here's a little how it went: I woke up on Sunday around 2:45am with contractions, and at 4:45 I decided that they were strong enough to wake Jonny up. We called the midwife - who was Abby that morning, and she said that we could labor at home as long as we wanted and just to come in to the hospital (she was already there). So Andrew & Brittney were here by 5:15. We talked with them for about almost and hour when I decided it was time to go to the hospital. We got there, and in triage the nurse told me I was a 6 almost 7! We hurried over to the L&D room in between contractions (which were quite strong at this point). Abby showed up shortly after and told me there was a CNM student who she had working with her. So Honey came in and basically took over. But she was amazing! She's been a homebirth midwife for 10 years so she has had a lot of experience. Anyway, that was around 6:30, and at around 7:45 they said I could start pushing! And at 8:00am, Hannah was born! They brought her up on my chest (in all her gooeyness), and Jonny cut the cord a couple minutes later. It was short and a LOT more manageable than I had ever hoped! Everything went perfectly. Our stay in the hospital was only a little more than 24 hours - we were quite anxious to get home.

I am recovering so well...at least compared to my recovery with Lily. I can get up and down by myself, carry Hannah around, pick Lily up, pretty much do everything on my own. It's wonderful! Thanks for all of your prayers when things weren't looking good, and all of your congratulations. We love you all!

2 Days Overdue...

2009-01-27T14:55:00.002-07:00

Can I have a hormonal over-due pregnant woman vent please?

Yes, I'm still pregnant - QUIT BUGGING US! :)

I'm slightly kidding, but seriously, it's really annoying. The baby will come when the baby will come, and you all will know as soon as we can tell you. If we haven't called you or posted her pictures and stats, it's because the baby hasn't made her grand arrival.

Ok, vent over. Now onto the good stuff. I spent all Thursday, Friday, the weekend and yesterday waiting for a call from the doctor's office with the test results. I expected it to come - that's just how my luck goes. (They say they only call when the results are positive.) But nothing ever came. So I decided to call this morning. I had to ease my own nerves and know for sure what the results were. Well, the nurse said that all of the tests came back normal! I've read online that in order to be officially diagnosed with preeclampsia, you have to have high blood pressure (at least 140/90 OR a rise of 30/15 mm Hg from your normal blood pressure) AND the presence of 300 mg or more in a 24-hour urine collection. Well I definitely had the high blood pressure, but the nurse told me that my protein levels were at 115 mg. That's WAY lower than the 300! So yay!

Something else that's weird is that I've had Jonny's brother take my blood pressure for the past 3 days. On Saturday it was 130/85. Sunday it was around 120/75, and yesterday it was around 112/75. I haven't done anything different since last week to make it go down. Very very odd, but very very good. Now they have no reason to force an induction!

I have an appointment tomorrow morning. Hopefully they'll tell me I'm in labor and I don't know it. haha, I wish. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!

Post-appointment Update

2009-01-21T09:19:00.003-07:00

At my appointment today my blood pressure was slightly higher and they found a little protein in my urine again. My midwife didn't seem too worried about it, thankfully. I told her that I would prefer to not be induced as long as I can help it. She ordered a 24 hour urine collection (fun fun!). I started that this morning and I'll turn it in tomorrow and get some blood work done to check how my kidneys and liver are doing, as well as a complete blood count. Once we get the results back from those (I'm thinking maybe Friday at the earliest), they'll decide if we can wait on inducing or if we need to right away. Since I'm full-term already (40 weeks this weekend), I'm hoping that my body will go into labor on its own before we get the results back and make any kind of decisions, and we won't have to worry about any of this anymore!

Thanks for all your concerns and well wishes. We'd still appreciate your thoughts and prayers in hopes that we have a natural, safe delivery. I'll post another update when we know what's going on! Hopefully it will be a birth announcement!

Pregnancy Update - Week 39

2009-01-18T21:36:00.004-07:00

I had my 38 week (39 according to me!) appointment on Friday. I've been going weekly now, and they're always the same thing: check in, pee in a cup, wait until I'm called back, weight, blood pressure, wait for the midwife, any questions answered, things look good, see you next week! Well, when I was meeting with the midwife, she told me that my blood pressure was on the higher side (130/85) and they found protein in my pee. Those are 2 of the 3 signs of preeclampsia (aka Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension or Toxemia). I don't have any swelling - though, with Lily, my ankles were like an elephant's, and my blood pressure was also quite higher towards the end with Lily, but nothing they were too concerned about. Well, now I have the protein...which is scary. The midwife wanted to see me back on Tuesday to recheck things, so hopefully things will have changed by then.

For those of you who are wondering, "preeclampsia causes the blood vessels to constrict, resulting in high blood pressure and a reduced blood flow that can affect organs throughout the body, including the liver, kidneys, and brain.

When less blood is being delivered to your uterus, it can mean problems for your baby, such as poor growth, too little amniotic fluid, and placental abruption (when the placenta separates from the uterine wall before delivery)."

With this showing up so close to my due date, I wouldn't imagine that poor growth would be that big of a problem. The amount of amniotic fluid and placental abruption worry me, though. I'm not sure what they'll do on Tuesday if they have the same findings...I've read that they'll go straight to induction, or do some tests first. Hopefully with my midwives, they'll do tests first and decide if things are ok. If they are, I'm just hoping that I'll be put under a more strict watch and not induced. I've heard that pitocin makes your contractions much harder...and I don't know how I would deal with that without an epidural. I would really, REALLY love to have an unmedicated birth again, but I'm just not sure if that's going to be possible this time if I'm induced.

I found a great site that said that preeclampsia is caused from low blood volume, caused by poor nutrition. If you eat more calories and increase your protein and salt intake, you can increase your blood amount, thus causing your blood pressure to lower. So I'm eating all of the protein and salt I can...yay. I hate being forced to eat, and I HATE salting my food. Weird, I know. It may not change anything in a couple of days, but what's the worst that can happen? I gain 10 lbs in 5 days? haha. Hopefully I'll go into labor before Tuesday and we won't have to worry about it!

So we'd really love all of your prayers. I'll update after my appointment on Tuesday. :)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

2009-01-18T21:22:00.002-07:00

On Friday night, Jonny and I left Lily with the in-laws and went on a LOOOOOOOOONG needed date. We went to Jordan Commons and had fish & chips for dinner and talked for a while until the movie started. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button wasn't our first choice - we actually wanted to see Bedtime Stories, but it was sold out. I was a little bummed out, because I didn't really want to see the movie, but figured that maybe I'd like it more since I didn't expect much. Turns out I didn't like it. I loved it! It was done so well...with the Forrest Gump kind of feel and a LOT of comedy in it - which made it less of a drama to me. I'd only had one really emotional pregnant moment so far this pregnancy, but I definitely had another moment during the movie. It really made me cry. Not just "oh, there's a tear or two" cry, but a serious "I can't stop myself from crying" cry. I'm sure the girl next to me thought I was crazy. Anyway, I highly recommend it! It's definitely one of the best I've seen in a while (not to mention that I haven't seen a movie in the theaters since Iron Man...).

Better late than never!

2008-12-16T14:18:00.005-07:00

The story of my blogging life, I suppose! Halloween was really fun this year. It was pretty cold, and ended up raining on us so we didn't dress up. But Lily was a trooper and stuck with it! The first couple houses she wasn't sure what to do, but once she saw the candy in the bag she was very excited to keep going! She said trick or treat (there's a clip of that below) and thank you at almost every house. When we got back to Grammy & Papa's house, she enjoyed passing out candy to all of the kids.

This is the only full shot we got of her....she didn't stay in her stroller the whole time, if anyone's wondering.

Lily's "on cue" smile:Lily's real smile:

Here's a video of Lily trick or treating at Grammy & Papa's house, passing out candy, and saying "trick or treat."

Halloween 2008 from Jonny & Lorna on Vimeo.

Belly pics!

2008-12-11T21:07:00.002-07:00

Ok, so Jonny and I haven't been very diligent at taking belly pictures this time around. With Lily we took one every week until 36 weeks or something...until I felt too big to have it captured on film! Anyway, this pregnancy, we've taken a whole THREE pictures. Poor kid - she's going to think I hate her! Well, because we haven't taken a whole bunch of pictures, I think Jonny forget how to do it. This picture doesn't give you a good comparison to the last pregnancy...but it's not bad, I guess. I don't think I'm any bigger this time than last - maybe a tad bit. But I do have more stretch marks sooner (as you can see), and my stupid belly button is popping out. Oh well. That's life! So here you go:

32 1/2 weeks

Last pregnancy...
32 weeks:

33 weeks:

8 weeks...EIGHT WEEKS!!!!

2008-12-02T23:22:00.002-07:00

Holy crap. I am SOOO not ready for this baby! Only 8 more weeks! This pregnancy has seriously just flown by. AND, it's almost Christmas, and then I'll just have 4 weeks! YIKES!

Anyway, I haven't had any problems with this baby. She moves just about as much as Lily did (which is a LOT), and has hiccups every single day at least once, just like her sister did, and I think she has the same Dries booty that Lily does, because I can totally feel it pushing outwards...which is not comfortable. She enjoys getting her limbs right underneath my ribs (specifically my right one), so that's always a battle between us to see which one of us can win. But even though this pregnancy is almost identical to the first, my weight gain is significantly different. I've only gained 7-8 lbs so far. Compare that to last time where I had gained 13 lbs by 30 weeks (I'm 32 weeks now). I think it's all the stress since July, because it's not like I'm starving myself! Though one of my midwives told me to eat more. Ha, if I could, I would...

Last time I mentioned that Lily was saying many many words - and thanks, Katie, for thinking so highly of our daughter! Well, I completely forgot to go to her appointment in October and I couldn't get another one scheduled until last week, so here are her stats:

Length: 33.25" - 90th %ile
Weight: 22 lbs 1 oz - 10th %ile
Head Circumference: 45.4 cm - 10th %ile

So she's still long and skinny! She didn't enjoy the doctor's visit very much, though. She saw the dum dums on the way in and wasn't happy until she got something. And then she hated being locked in the room with me because she wanted to go say hi to everyone! I'm not sure where she gets her socialness from, because it's definitely not me! Anyway, when we counted in October, she could say 80 words on her own! Crazy!!! Now, I know she says easily over 100, and she's started to say sentences! She said her first sentence on November 14th - she said "Mama, more juice." Jonny and I were both totally speechless! It was great! But, even though she's a little social butterfly and chatterbox, she's learned how to answer "no" to everything. "Lily, will you pick up your toys?" "No!" "Lily, say doggy." "mmm mmm" (with a head shake). So that's really fun to deal with.... I'm trying to get her potty trained before this baby is born, but she's been sick on and off for a month, and now is afraid of sitting on her potty for some reason...so I'm not sure what to do. I really don't want to have 2 in diapers! or have to potty train Lily with a newborn - because we all know that that won't happen. But, she IS in her toddler bed! Yay! I wasn't sure how she was going to do, but we just laid her down in it one night about a month ago, and she slept all night! She did fall off once, though. Oh, actually she has slept on the floor right in front of the door for the past several nights (and naps). Any advice on how to change that? She won't sleep in her bed anymore at all. I've just been letting her sleep there, and sometimes I'll go in and move her onto her bed. But as soon as I close the door she starts crying and walks right back to the door. Hopefully she doesn't make a habit out of it...

So I've been crazy busy with things lately. I always take on too many projects at once, and I don't realize it until I've already invested too much time to turn back! My main priority right now is making my mom's home videos into DVDs for a family Christmas present. It's slightly time consuming, but the geek in me absolutely LOVES it. Plus, I enjoy watching the old videos. Though, I think I've seen every tape at least 3 times so I probably won't ever have to watch them again! Anyway, I was able to find this absolutely amazing software that allows me to do everything I need (editing-wise) and create a menu for the DVDs. It's awesome! I also started to crochet a blanket for the new baby, but by the time I sit down at night, I'm too exhausted to even think about crocheting. So we'll see if that even gets finished by the end of January. And then, we happened to buy a new Wii game, and that's addicting, too!! It's called Harvest Moon, if you're wondering. Seems silly, but it's super addicting! So add all that onto my mommy duties, growing belly, new home...eek! So I apologize for never updating this. It's just not in the front of my mind these days.

But I did upload some new pictures - you can see them on the left. I have some videos I need to upload, too. And I'm going to have Jonny take another belly picture tonight. I'll upload that when I can. So, sorry there are no new pictures, but I hope you enjoyed the update!

Oh, and by the way: the new baby does not have a name...and she won't until she's born - so don't ask!! ;)

Life works out after all!

2008-10-16T12:22:00.002-06:00

Well, I'm late on the news, but Jonny finally got a job!!! He heard back last week from an interview with Canyon Stone in Salt Lake. The want him to start on the 20th, so he did a small temp job that he absolutely hated. It was basically assembly line work, but he did it because we needed it. I'm so proud of him. So the job is for a sales/estimator position, which is a mix of what he was doing here and in Virginia. The company does exterior stone and stucco for commercial and residential properties. He's been doing flooring for the past 3 years, so it'll be a little different, but I'm sure he'll pick up on it quickly and do amazing!

But, since the job's base pay isn't high enough, we don't qualify for our townhome. :( But we found this great townhouse in Pleasant Grove that's similar to the townhouse in Lehi. 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, 2 car garage. It's almost perfect for us! It doesn't have a backyard or a basement for all of our crap, but that's ok. It does have a common grass area in the back, so that'll work. We'll be just fine! So we signed the papers last night and we'll be in on Saturday!! Woo hoo!! I will try my best to get pictures up ASAP (along with another belly pic that I know is long overdue).

Lily is growing SO much! I take her in tomorrow for a checkup, which she hasn't has since she was 9 months! But last week, Jonny and I wrote out a list of words that she can say. Not ones that she copies, like "Lily, say microwave" or something, but ones that she actually knows and comes up with on her own. Any guesses as to how many words she can say???

I'll leave you in suspense and post the list when I update after her appointment. It may or may not be tomorrow... :)

The inevitable...

2008-10-03T14:22:00.003-06:00

Well, the inevitable finally happened: we lost our house. I was just waiting for it to happen, so I've come to terms with it. It really really REALLY sucks, but maybe something better will come along for us. As for Jonny...well, I think he's in denial. He doesn't like to admit or talk about things like this, so I think he's just trying to forget about it. Poor guy.

It's going to be extremely sad to see this house go, especially after the months we spent watching it being built. I'm not sure we'll get into another house by the end of the year...or by the time the baby's born, but someday I suppose. I'm still waiting for my long lost rich uncle to die and leave me as his sole heir! Ha, I wish!!

Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. We really do appreciate them! And we know that Heavenly Father has *something* in store for us...even if it's not what we thought it was!

So anyway, sorry for such a downer post! I'll try and work on a happier one this weekend!

There's really a baby in there!

2008-09-05T11:36:00.003-06:00

I know it seems silly to second guess it - especially after positive pregnancy tests, multiple doctor's appointments where we heard the heartbeat, and feeling the baby move inside me, but it still just doesn't seem real! But there's really a baby in there and I've got the pictures and video to prove it!

And finally...the moment we've all been waiting for...
It's a girl!!! We are very excited to add another girl to the family, especially since Lily and this baby will be so close in age (about 20 months). Plus, I don't have to buy any baby clothes! :) However...we have ZERO girl names picked out, so we get to have the fun of doing that! Cross your fingers that we'll be able to agree on at least one!

And here is the video of the ultrasound. I tried to make it interesting for those of you who watch it. I made sure to explain what was going on so you wouldn't get bored...or clueless. There's two videos, and they're both the same, except they have different music. So choose your mood: Video A has slower (not boring) music and Video B is more upbeat. Enjoy!

Video A:

Ultrasound Video A from Jonny & Lorna on Vimeo.

Video B:

Ultrasound Video B from Jonny & Lorna on Vimeo.

Girl or Boy??

2008-09-02T22:05:00.005-06:00

Actually, we don't know yet! :) But we'd like to hear YOUR guesses!! So, if you haven't already, head on over here (click on it) and enter a guess! Our ultrasound is actually tomorrow morning (Wednesday, 9/3), so maybe you can get your guess in before I post the news, which will probably be in the afternoon sometime when Lily is napping.

All in all, I'm doing well - pregnancy-wise, at least. I'm quite tired, but that's a given. And I'm pretty satisfied with how I'm growing thus far. Not too much different than when I was pregnant with Lily!

And for those of you who are interested, Jonny is still jobless...which means we're still houseless. But he interviewed for an estimating job with a tile company last week and we're waiting to hear back from them. There's huge potential that this job will actually go through and that the salary will work for our house loan! If this job goes through, we could potentially be in our house by next Saturday! So PLEASE keep us in your prayers.

Well that's it for today! I'll be sure to get something up tomorrow about how the ultrasound went!

I love my Lily!

2008-08-04T22:49:00.003-06:00

First off: thanks for all the congrats, everyone! I love to know that people actually read our blog and that I'm not just doing it for my own enjoyment... We are very VERY excited for our new addition! I am just over 15 weeks along and I'm feeling great. I've been a little nauseous at times and EXTREMELY tired, but that's all over with (for now, at least). We've heard the heartbeat twice. It was in the 160s last week...and old wives' tales say that means girl. They were true with Lily! I'm due...well, this is a bit of a debating point for me and I like to be precise, so I say January 24 but the doctors say January 29. Not that much of a difference, but enough for me - if you are REALLY interested in the reason for the discrepancy I'd be happy to explain! :D

Anyway, I also wanted to share how cute and incredibly smart Lily is! Lately I've been reading at every chance I get (first Eragon, now Eldest...which is taking forever, by the way). I usually sit and read in one of the two blue recliners that my in-laws have. Well today, Lily was wanting to get up on the other blue recliner, so Jonny sat her up on it. Then she says "buh." Book. Not only was that her very first time saying that word, but when Jonny gave her her book, she started reading it on the chair just like Mommy! Isn't that the cutest thing?! Oh she is just so precious!

I know it's been a while, but........

2008-07-21T12:44:00.001-06:00

Baby Ticker Countdown-Fetal Monitor-Pregnancy Cam!great free widgetsWidgetbox

It's THIS easy?!

2008-04-24T16:01:00.002-06:00

For months I've been trying to find an easy way to edit my videos and put them into the right format (with a reasonable size) so I can upload them. It seems like YouTube takes forever to put a 1 minute video online. Don't get me wrong, I love YouTube...it's just frustrating when you don't have hours to spend doing this kind of stuff. So 2 days ago, I was looking at a friend's blog and saw that her videos were posted to her blog through Vimeo. I had heard of it before, but was loyal to YouTube. But it seemed so easy, so I thought I'd give it a try. They had a tutorial on how to edit your videos...and, guess what?! They use Windows Movie Maker! Holy cow. I can't believe how simple it is! I had the software all along, because it comes with PCs, but I must've had a bad experience with it or something because I never did anything with it. So, I've uploaded quite a few videos of Lily in the past couple days. Take a look: My Vimeo Videos

You can also send me suggestions on what you want to see videos of. Please send me some and I'll do my best to get them up!

Goodness...who knew it would be this easy?!

Surprise!!!

2008-04-18T12:12:00.002-06:00

For all those who don't know - we've moved to Utah! Surprise!! Crazy, huh? It all happened so fast that I never got around to announcing it. And now I don't have my laptop, so I have to make time to sit down at my desktop computer...and with an 11-month-old that gets into EVERYTHING that she's not supposed to...it's a little difficult at times.

We left Virginia on March 22 and drove to Richmond to spend Easter with my sister, Brie, and her family, and my sister Liz and her boyfriend John. It was a great weekend, but really sad to leave them. We started off on Monday (after stopping by Costco and getting a new toy - a GPS!), and drove to Kentucky to stay with our friends John and Erin. After a wonderful dinner and playing some Wii/DS, we went to bed. Tuesday morning we packed up and drove until Kearney, NE! Our goal was to make it to Kansas City, MO that day, but we made it there at dinnertime (and ate at a great BBQ place, Arthur Bryant). And since Lily was being absolutely wonderful in the car, we decided to just keep on going! Wednesday morning we headed out first thing in the morning, and drove all the way to Cedar Hills, UT! 3 full days of driving, but it was definitely worth it.

We're temporarily living with Jonny's parents in Cedar Hills while we look for a house (or, a place to live). I don't mind living with them, but I really want to have a place of my own, so we're trying to find something soon! :)

Well that's it in a nutshell!

(Oh my goodness...I'm such a goober! I wrote this on Friday morning - April 18, and I never published it. Now it's Saturday night...dork.)

I've been tagged!

2008-04-06T15:17:00.002-06:00

I was reading my friend Reiko's blog today and saw that she tagged me almost a month ago! Sorry Reiko - I've been a little busy! haha...so anyway, here I go...

How long have you been married?
3 years 9 months

Who eats more sweets?
hmm, probably Jonny

Who said I love you first?
Jonny

How old is he?
26

Who is taller?
Jonny...he's 5'10" and I'm 5'4"

Who is smarter?
That totally depends on the subject. Math and science are my strong points, and history is his (neither of us enjoy English). Usually I'm the more logical one, but he surprises me with his realism a lot of the time!

Who can sing better?
I think that both of us can sing equally well. I just get asked to sing more and I'm not afraid to, so people don't know that he sings. Does that make sense?

Who does the laundry?
I do...all the time...

Who pays the bills?
That would be me!

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
The right side when you're looking at it or when you're laying down? Looking at the bed, I sleep on the left. So I guess the answer is Jonny!

Who mows the lawn?
We don't have a lawn...because we don't have a house. Hopefully that will change soon and Jonny will mow the lawn! :)

Who cooks dinner?
Jonny, mainly.

Who drives?
Jonny always drives when we're together - unless it's more convenient for me to drive.

Who is more stubborn?
That would be me...

Who kissed who first?
Jonny

Who asked who out?
umm...I don't really know. I don't think there was really any asking involved.

Who is more sensitive?
Jonny, I think...shh!

Who has more siblings?
We're equal! I have 5 sisters and he has 4 brothers and 1 sister!

Who wears the pants?
I like to think that we're equal, but in reality, I think I tend to do more of the 'pants wearing.'

And that's it! Hope you enjoyed it! I really don't know of anyone who reads this...but if you're Marie, Alyssa or Beth - TAG, you're it! :D

Annoyed with the layout...

2008-02-28T12:02:00.004-07:00

I hate this layout! Well, scratch that. I'm annoyed with the layout - I love the red! I just can't seem to get things how I want them! I know just enough HTML to be able to make sense of the code so that I can change things, but even then it's just not right...AND the code isn't even HTML - just related. Things are too narrow - I liked when I had the 3 columns. So, I apologize if you happen to be reading my blog and things are changed every day. I'm just going to play around with a few things and see what works.

On a happier note - it seems as Lily has gotten over the flu! She still has that darn runny nose, but she'll cut her tooth and be done with it. She's taking many more steps these days (only when coaxed) and it becoming much more of a "dare devil" where she'll stand alone for much longer or build up her courage to take a step from the couch to the ottoman. It almost looks like a little jump without both of her feet leaving the ground. It's cute. :)

Flu season :(

2008-02-21T21:21:00.003-07:00

Lily has the flu :( We found out on Wednesday at her 9 month appointment. I knew she had a fever and a runny nose, but the flu never even crossed my mind! Well, I suppose she has to get sick some time - she's had a great first 9 months! Her fever has pretty much diminished, and she's clingy and cranky most of the time...and not eating very well...but she's sleeping great at night and napping fairly well during the day. It's not our normal routine, but I'll take it. Oh, I think she's cutting another tooth as well...oy! Hopefully she gets better soon!!

The doctor (who I absolutely love, by the way) said she was very healthy, other than her having the flu. She's growing well and right on target (a smidge advanced, if I can brag a little) with her development. She weighs 17 lbs 11 oz - 25th percentile, and she's 29 inches long - 95th percentile!!! Time for a new carseat! Oh, and her head circumference is the 25th percentile, as well - 17 in. So she's just a tall, skinny baby! (It's a bit frustrating to put pants on her, though. She fits 6-12m in the waist, but the length is too short...and 12-18m is too big in the waist but perfect in the length!) Neither the doctor nor I were worried about her weight, as she is constantly on the go. Crazy girl.

We had a great President's Day weekend! Lily and I drove down to Richmond and spent a couple days with my oldest sister and her family. It was great to spend time with them. She motivated me to get started on my digital scrapbooking, too! I finished 3 pages! That's huge for me...I am NOT a crafty, creative person. I also was able to find a pair of jeans that fit me! I've been looking for months! All of them are just toooo long on me or don't fit my hips correctly now that I've had a baby. :( So I'm excited!! As for Jonny, he spent the weekend in Utah with his family. He had a great time, as well!

Until next time!

More milestones!

2008-02-14T12:03:00.006-07:00

Well, the family was right. At Christmastime, they told us that Lily would be walking in 2 months. And not even 2 months later and she's already taking her first steps! Monday when Jonny came home from work, she decided she was just going to do it! I just don't believe it!! I got it on video - but now it's just the task of figuring out how to get the video from the camcorder to YouTube! But I did half of it last night, so I'll figure out the rest tonight or this weekend (hopefully). She looks like a little walking stick because she's so darn tiny!

Other than that, nothing else interesting going on - well, nothing I can publicly announce yet, anyway. ;) And no - I'm not pregnant. In time, I'll tell you all...but not yet. Gosh, our lives are so boring! Hopefully in the next few months they'll get a bit more exciting.

I feel like I need to add a picture. I love the Disney Dream Portrait Series they have with the famous people...here's one of the new ones, in light of our upcoming adventure:

It's a bit pixelated, but it's still a great picture. JLo and Marc Anthony pose as Jasmine and Aladdin. Ah, I love fairy tales...

Oh yeah, and Happy Valentine's Day.

Happy 8 months, Lily!

2008-01-24T12:47:00.001-07:00

Lily is getting to be such a big girl!! Within the past 2 months (actually less!) she's gone from army crawling to pulling herself to standing position to crawling on all fours, and just last week she started standing on her own!! I can't believe that she's already (and only) 8 months old! She definitely is the center of our world these days. Even though she gets into everything now and still pretends to not know what the word "no" means, she can brighten our day with just one smile.

She can feed herself food and give us kisses. Daddy likes it when she calms down for just 2 seconds and sits with him or lays her head on his shoulder without fussing. She loves being mobile and doesn't want to slow down even the slightest bit - especially when it comes to changing her diaper. That is a challenge in itself.

Lily's personality has really started to blossom in the past couple weeks. We finally know what we need to do to make her belly giggle - scare her, actually! And she gets a kick out of chasing Mommy around the laundry basket.

What a fun little baby she is! We are extremely blessed to have her in our lives!!

Some serious slacking!

2008-01-08T12:30:00.001-07:00

I think about updating this every now and then, but we've recently rearranged our apartment so that our Christmas tree would have a home, so our computer desk is back in our room. So I don't get back there much! Anyway, I have a ton of new pictures and videos that I need to upload...so know that they're coming! And I really need to update regularly....

In the meantime, I'll let you all know that things are going well! Not much has changed with Jonathan and me. Lily is a completely different baby that she was 3 months ago, though! She's started cruising along the couch, she's proficient at pulling herself to a standing position on ANYTHING she can reach, is working on mastering feeding herself finger foods, and does new tricks like "sniff" and "dance." We had a great Christmas in Richmond - which was spent with my side of the family.

Hope everyone is doing well and keep looking for my update!

Portraits: Take 1

2007-11-21T13:09:00.000-07:00

I took Lily to get her pictures taken at Kiddie Kandids today for her 6 month "birthday." To say the least, it was a disaster. Lily's nose was running out of control, slobber was coming out of her mouth like a freaking waterfall, she kept sticking her tongue out (cute, yes, but doesn't make for good smiles), and the photographer was practically crazy. I understand making noises to make the babies smile, but if you do too much, the baby gets waaay overwhelmed. So, we didn't buy anything. One good picture and over an hour later, we left. Maybe I'll take my own baby pictures.

Hopefully next time will go better...if I ever get up the courage to go again! This morning was exhausting and a bit traumatic (for me, not her, I'm sure).

Halloween...in November

2007-11-08T17:48:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of our Halloween adventures!

We went to a Halloween party on the 27th. Jonny dressed up as Obi-Wan Kenobi (with a hand made costume, I might add!) and his super cool spring action lightsaber - even blue, like Obi-Wan's. I was "Arena Padme" from Episode 2. The party was so fun! The pictures below are pretty self-explanatory, except for one. A friend dressed up as Smurfette, and that's right after the pie eating contest.

The night before Halloween, Jonny and I decided to go get pumpkins! We stopped at a local pumpkin patch (because I have something against buying them at a grocery store...) and picked some up. Lily decided she would much rather sleep than pick out pumpkins.

Here are some pics of Lily and her cousin Christian in their matching cowboy outfits! So cute!

On November 5, we finally got around to carving our pumpkins! Sad, I know. But that's life. So we carved them while Lily slept and we watching Heroes and Journeyman. Here they are! For you Homestar Runner fans out there, you should know what these are! We drew a H*R and Homestar running on Lily's little pumpkin. For those of you who don't know what Homestar Runner is, you should! ...so go here.

Here we go!

2007-10-02T19:09:00.000-06:00

Hi! I've (Lorna) decided to start a blog for our family. I don't make the time to sit down with my pen and paper and write down things that we do or milestones that Lily's reached...and all of our pictures are digital these days. Plus, I'm at a computer practically all day, so I might as well make something good of it!

A little background info on us: Jonathan & I were married on July 17, 2004 in the LDS Salt Lake temple. We lived in Utah for a year after that, when we moved to Lansdowne, VA (in July 2005). Jonathan has worked at Flooring Solutions (a commercial flooring company) since August 2005. He recently got promoted to Lead Estimator! I've worked at AOL since August 2005, starting as a temp ordering food for the employees that work late (Baja Fresh & PF Changs, to name a few - YUM!), and at the beginning of this year I started as an Administrative Assistant to a VP of the company. We found out we were pregnant on Labor Day 2006, found out we were having a girl on December 8. I was due on May 16, 2007...but Lillian May didn't come until May 20. She was 7 lbs 10 oz and 20.5 in. long. That is a story in itself, but I can say that she was definitely worth everything. She's such a great baby - and so much fun! Anyway, Jonathan and I are still working - I work most of the time from home, but I go into work twice a week for 3 hours. And Jonathan is still working on school.

Hopefully I'll be able to keep this up to date with fun pictures! Most of them will likely be of Lily, but I'm sure no one will mind! Until next time!