Sleep Sheep

We are so thankful that Liv is such a good sleeper.

I truly feel like one of the reasons she is such a good sleeping baby is because she listens to white noise every time she naps or goes to sleep.

See that sweet little lamb in the corner. That's Livy's sleep sheep.

I highly recommend it to anyone who is having trouble getting their baby to sleep.

"Thank you Aunt Linda for my sleep sheep! I love to listen to the rain when I fall asleep."

-Olivia

Thank you Aunt Linda! I love how sweet and soft that little sheep is, and I love having a good sleeping girl!

Christmas baby

Remember how I said I wasn't going to get this done in a timely manner? Well, looks like I was right, but I didn't want to stop posting and miss all of the things that are happening right now===== So I will just do a Christmas post here and there when I have time, rather than trying to get it all out in order before posting anything current.

This is just a bunch of random pics of Liv over the Christmas Break.

What a stretchy girl! She stretches ALL the time, I LOVE it because its adorable.

What cute face she has, but please don't think we're crazy because she has socks on her hands and she's still in her jammies.

She has a bib on because she spits up/drools all over the place.

Socks on her hands because she scratches her face left and right.

And she's still in her jammies because I'm lazy and its Christmas Break. There.

She fits perfectly in the babydoll strollers

I loved her 'what santa doesn't bring me grandma will' onesie

Change of outfits (due to spit up)

Christmas Eve!

Accomplished

I saw my first 'real' patient today!

You know those days when you feel like your on top of the world? Well today is one of mine.

I had butterflies in my stomach before starting. Now that it's over, I feel like I've really accomplished something here. I try to look at work/school/life in a series of goals- meaning I have a few really big 'end goals' that I want to reach one day, and a lot of smaller goals to reach in the meantime.

This was one of my smaller goals. I saw a patient. I found 2 suspicious areas, and (for the most part) got the correct readings for pocket depths and calculus. I found interesting things for intra and extra-oral exams (including a lateral deviation to the right upon opening) and I made it through the entire assessment portion of the appointment, and I did a good job.

Finally, I'm able to put all the information and facts that I've learned to real use. I can see the meaning of reading countless pages and memorizing information, and now it doesn't seem quite as hard to remember, because I've actually SEEN it and DONE it.

It doesn't mean I don't have lots of room for improvement, but it does mean that I get to celebrate, because I did accomplish something! I've come a long way from that picture above, when I was only working on models.

I love having lots of goals. It means I get to celebrate lots more times. And it makes life lots more exciting!

Happy days

Olivia loves her new activity gym.

Not only does she love the stuffed animals that hang from above, she also LOVES the patterns!

She loves those patterns so much that she doesn't even care about the cell phone in front of her.

Believe me, its a big deal.

this is why i hate you winter...

this has been a rough week.

i woke up SUNDAY with some kind of stomach flu, missed church and had to cancel a vt appt i had set up. Still felt nauseous MONDAY, worried that i was pregnant (no studying). went back to school TUES, still felt like my head was being stepped on (no studying). felt a little better on WED, except then i had terrible cramps {oh good i'm not pregnant} felt sick to my stomach with nervousness b/c i had to see my first patient, school went half an hour longer than scheduled, made brady almost an hour late to his class, packed olivia up and went to an appt, afterwards dropped her back home with brady, went to vt appt, went to bed (no studying). THURS, i finally feel back to normal...

...brady woke up with a stomach bug...i had to leave him all day while at school til 5....olivia threw up ALL of her bottle...please please please don't let her catch it too.

4 months

One year ago this month was when we found out that we were pregnant!

And 4 months ago today, Livy was born.

Oh how time flies....

Happy 4 months little one.

This month:

-you found your hands

-learned to grab onto toys

-love to bite on your Sophie

-can hold your foot

-still like to fall asleep to a hair dryer

-love to be sung to

-learned to scream

-sleep 10 hrs at night!

with the ocasional wake up at 12am and need to be comforted.

Arboretum

I couldn't believe the beautiful weather! We didn't even need coats, it was absolutely perfect.

As we were heading out, Brady decided to take a few pics...and Uncle Brett jumped in too

We played in the car for a second while we waited for everyone

The DeGolyer house had an extensive collection of nativities from all over the world. It was the perfect way to feel the Spirit of Christmas, and to remember the birth of our Savior. The house was built in 1938 so, naturally, I loved looking at the architecture. I really loved this window.

Love Addie's smile

This would have been a decent picture, except there were some drops of water blurring the lens from the spitting frogs.

There were some fun nursery rhyme houses and Santa's Workshop

Again, would have been a decent picture, but Brady decided to wear his guns and roses t shirt.

Olivia got a little fussy because of the wind so we tried to soothe her:

Can you tell she's my mom?

We found the coy pond

and I tried again to soothe the little one

This time it worked!

and then we went home

awakening

Last night the news was on and my heart was breaking as I heard about the major earthquake in Haiti that has left possibly half a million people dead. Sometimes I can't watch the news because it hurts me. I feel like I can't handle hearing about so many awful things happening in the world.

Tragic. My mind immediately went to thoughts of those precious people I met in the Dominican Republic, some of them Haitian Dominicans. Haiti and the DR share the island Hispanola, and so I wondered how such a huge earthquake could be so detrimental to Haiti and not have effected the DR.

Today at school my regular Clinic Instructor was sick and unable to be there, and so we had another CI come to fill his spot. She happened to be the CI at our school that is from the DR. I finished early (which never happens) and I started chatting with her. She is the sweetest woman. I asked if she had heard about the earthquake, and she said she was up all night watching and trying to get in touch with her family, because (like me) she wondered if it had effected the DR. I told her I was also curious to hear about the DR because of the time I spent there, and then we began talking about the DREAM project and what it was all about.

She told me she was overjoyed to hear about the volunteers offering their time and help to the Dominican children. She began to sob softly and just looked at me and said thank you, thank you.

She didn't know how much that meant to me. I'm surprised I didn't start crying.

Instead I just said that I love those children and all the people there and that I hope to go back to offer more help after I graduate.

Sometimes I need to watch the news. I need to be reminded that there is so much more to do, because I have so much more love to give.

*I have heard that the Dominican felt the quake but there was no reported damage*

Lately I've been feeling a little blue.

Sometimes I feel like I never get to see my little baby O. (not enough at least)

I worry that she'll forget about me while I'm gone during the day.

What if when I get home she doesn't even recognize me.

What if she doesn't know I love her.

Today, when I came home just after 5, and Brady and I said our hello's while he was pulling out and I was pulling in (I call him when I'm in the parking lot so no time is wasted and we can quickly 'exchange' the baby). Livy woke up shortly after i got home. She was laying on her back, a little fussy, so I started singing to her and dancing a little. She immediately smiled. She has always loved when anyone sings to her, so during the day I always make up songs about what we're doing to keep her smiling (because I can never get enough of those smiles).

For the next hour I held her and we looked right into eachother's eyes. I turned on some of my favorite songs and I sang to her. I wanted her to just look at me. Study my face and hear my voice. We smiled at eachother, and she just stared and listened so contently.

I felt loved. I hope she did too.

And I hope everyday I can have singing, staring, smiling time with my baby.

2009: in review

2009 will forever be a favorite of mine. So many BIG things happened for us this year and it was delightful to remember all the things that made 2009 historic.

*We brought in the new year on our own, just the two of us! It was the first and last time we will get that opportunity to celebrate in such a quaint way.

It was forseen from the fortune cookie gods that 'everything' would soon 'come my way'. I wasn't aware of how true that would be for this year.

We went on some fun outings including Spark, Body Worlds 3 (and realized the beauty of the human body and what a blessing it is to have one), Happy Sumo, Sundance film festival, Melting Pot, 40's party, freedom festival, hot air balloons, 4th in evanston, and the lindon aquatics park

I ran 5 miles and got a bloody foot to show for it.

Enjoyed quality time with nieces and nephs

Celebrated my 24th while being sick to my stomach and secretly 7 weeks pregnant

found the prettiest things antiquing like this and this

Spent Valentine's Day playing in the snow

Brady got to spend some time in DC

Announced that we were pregnant

Had some beautiful days and spent lots of quality time together before becoming a family of 3

-march walks, april temple, june rainbow, eating lunch in the park on the 24th, august flowers

and some bad days

-feb tire, april tire, august tire

discovered the beehive bazaar

experienced the joy and pains of pregnancy

Had entirely too much fun being home. If you don't believe me,

see here here here here here here and here

Brady took the MCAT and did great!

Enjoyed the beauty of the earth

and getting ready for our baby love

quit work and started my first semester in DH school

and brought our sweet baby into the world

and since then we can't seem to talk about much else.