Surprise for the Stevens'!

Here is the story, I work with this lovely married couple at The Home Depot. Two of the best people you could ever know... Ashley and Scott Stevens. Well they just recently found out they were pregnant... GREAT news, right? It sure is, but very unexpected when they tell you on your first appointment that you are 6 months pregnant with a little boy. ha ha. 

With 3 months left to officially register that they were pregnant and little time to get everything needed for the baby, I decided they could use a bit of help. It was a golden opportunity and I took it. Without Scotty and Ashley knowing, I went around and asked all of our coworkers if they wanted to help pitch in some money to go in on a gift for them and their baby. I didn't know how much I could get from everyone since it was around the holidays, but I wanted to do my best at getting them as much as possible and I asked as many people as I could. 

I was absolutely AMAZED at how many people were so willing to give and how MUCH they were willing to give. Lets just say that I am now known as the "booky" at our store. lol. Once it all added up we got over $750 dollars for them. Can you believe it? I about died and they had no idea what was going on. 

 

During the asking and collecting time I kept talking with Scotty and Ashley about what their colors for the room were going to be and if they had a theme. These two are complete Disney fanatics and are CRAZY for mickey mouse. So it was no surprise they were going to do a Disney theme. I talked with them every day and got ideas on things they were wanting and needing (which was about everything) and they just thought it was small talk. Little did they know that I was plotting on getting them these items and more. 

On top of it, another friend and coworker, Sadie, had the idea that we should get them out of their house and decorate the room and get everything all set up for them. I loved the idea! The plan became even BETTER when a friend of mine, April, whose husband works with us decided to throw Ashley a baby shower. I decided that would be the perfect day to go in and "decorate." Once I got with April and told her the plans I asked her if she wanted any help with the baby shower. So we decided to do it together and we went with the theme of Mickey Mouse! I, also, got with Scottys parents and went over my plans with them because I would need their help getting Scotty and Ashley out of the house before the shower and I would need a way to get into their house to decorate. They loved the idea and were willing to help in whatever ways they could. They ended up buying the bedding because I couldn't get it to work in the budget... and that was the bedding that Scotty and Ashley absolutely wanted! And they gave us the space to hold their baby shower. 

Everything was turning out perfectly! I wrote a list of things that I was going to get them and planned out the money spending. After ordering everything, all I had to do was wait for the day to come, which was terrible because they were so stressed about how they were going to make it all work in so little time and I just wanted to be able to give them their stuff so they wouldn't have to worry anymore. 

Friday, I went in to decorate for the baby shower and then finally Saturday came. Gloria and I went in to decorate the baby room and get everything set up. We built the changing table and the glider, set up the bedding and laid everything out around the room for them to see. After decorating, we went to the baby shower and had a great time talking with everyone and watching them open presents. Finally, at the end, I told them that we had one more present waiting for them at home. We took them back and got it all on camera! What a great day! :D I was so happy that I could be a part of helping their dreams come true and making this journey an easier one to bare. 

Here are some of the mickey mouse decorations I made. 

Mickey mouse pom pom that I made. lol. People thought they were pinata's ha ha. They were big enough I guess they could have been. lol.

We put popcorn in these bags and gave them out as a little thank you gift. I got the idea from my cousins baby shower and thought it was awesome so we decided to do the same. 

This is the room all decorated. You can't really see the food, but it was DELICIOUS. April did an amazing job and even found some mickey mouse cut outs in cheese for the cheese and crackers. lol. It was AWESOME! Lots of people showed up too which made it so great because we wanted it to be so special for them. 

Beautiful Ashley and her cute baby belly. :)

Scotty joined the celebrations and watched Ashley open all the presents. So cute!

Can you tell he is so excited for this? ha ha. What a relieved look! lol. 

At their house... Scotty making funny faces before we let them see the room. 

All the stuff we got for them. Minus the crib, the mattress, the bedding, and the stroller system. 

 Had Michelle at our work make this sign for them, and then I wrote down the names of everyone who helped pitch in all over it. :)

Isn't this the cutest bedding?! I am SO glad Dr. Stevens and his wife decided to get this for them and we got to surprise them with it.

 These are some of the best faces to see when you give a surprise! :D ha ha. 

This is the look on their faces when I told them that we got over a total of $750 dollars to get them all these items. 

All in all we got them:

• Reclining Leather Glider
• Changing Table (given, but fixed up)
• Changing pad
• Video Monitor
• Play mat
• Two sets of bottles (one with binki's)
• Air Purifier
• Huge box of diapers
• 2 big boxes of wipes
• First Aid kit/ Groom kit
• Disney Pictures (given not bought)
• Muslin Swaddle blankets (best kind ever!)
• Bath tub (given, but never used)
• Baby Bath kit (wash, lotion, swabs, ointments)
• Mickey Mouse hooded towel
• Mickey mouse wash cloths
• Boppy Pillow
• Diaper bag
• Bouncer
• Breastmilk Storage Bags
• Breast pads
• Carseat cover (made)
• Breastfeeding cover (made)
• Mickey Mouse hat, diaper cover, and booties (for pictures)

Here is one of the videos. Blogger won't let me upload the one catching their reactions, but you can find it on my facebook. :)

1 amazing year, 1 beautiful daughter.

Brailey one year ago!

One year ago I gave birth to such a beautiful little girl. This wonderful baby who was so dependent on me for everything just grew up into this spunky little toddler. She has so much love and energy to give that it just astounds me. Its one of those bitter sweet feelings to know she is already a year old. I so very much miss those days when she was tiny and I could just fold her in my arms and she would fall asleep there. I miss feeding her and just being able to stare into her eyes. I miss how much she really needed me (she still does, but she is already so much more independent). But I love that her personality is growing and expanding, that I get to see her learn new things and say new words. I love that she has such a big heart already and that it can only grow more.

All I can say is that these days go by so fast! I can not even tell you where all that time went. For me, its hard because my brain doesn't retain memories very well anymore. This is why I blog as much as I can and take lots of pictures and videos. The only thing I will never forget is the moment I first saw Brailey and held her in my arms. Love at first sight. I know its real because I experienced it. I loved her when I first knew I was pregnant, but this love is so much stronger, so indescribable, and it only continues to grow.

We celebrated her birthday on Sunday the 20th for a few different reasons... one is that we wanted all our family and friends to be able to come and since most everyone has Sundays off it made it the obvious day to choose. It was also the only day that Jordan could go with his work schedule and school schedule since he has school during the week. Anyway, I made Brailey her own cake and then another one for everyone else. I did NOT have a fun experience making these cakes like I thought I would.

Here is the story, I wanted to make this round "polka-dot" cake that I saw on pinterest. (The polka dots are colored and on the inside not the outside). You basically just make cake balls (not the kind with frosting just already baked cake)...  and then you bake them in another set of cake batter. Sounds pretty simple right? WRONG! At least for me. I sprayed the pans with crisco, but the first set of cake balls broke in half when I took them out. Then the round pans I got weren't tall enough to cover the cake balls. And when one batch finally covered them enough the cake fell apart when I tried to get it out of the pan. I made a total of 4 cakes that all ended up in the trash because they all broke or got messed up. At that point I was so frustrated that I wanted to just go buy a cake, but they wanted $20 dollars for one at Sams Club. So Jordan just told me to make a few more. I decided I would still do the polka dot thing, but I didn't use the round  cake pans, I used normal 9x13 pans and then I used a smaller one for Brailey and just kept them that way. I didn't need another epic fail from this terrible baker.

Such a cute messy girl!

Well... after that everything went much better. We had the celebration at Jordans parents house so that we could fit everyone and so that it was close enough to where all our family and friends live. The theme was sorta supposed to be "flowers" so I blew up balloons and tied them together to make them look like flowers. Sorry, no pics! Only problem was that Brailey absolutely HATED the balloons. Whenever they are in the air at the stores she always points and laughs and wants to grab them so imagine my surprise when one starts floating towards her and she FREAKS out. She started crying and crawling really fast toward me and I was already blowing up another balloon so she gave me the most disgusted/scared look like "you're the one creating those monsters!" It took her quite a while that night to get over it and even then if one came by her without her approval she would start grabbing whoever was closest and hold on with a death grip and then proceed to cry if it still pursued her. lol. She is so funny. I sometimes can't figure her out.

Finally, everyone showed up and we sang happy birthday to her, watched her play in her cake, gave her a quick bath because of how messy she was, and then opened presents. It is crazy how spoiled she is. Its good to know everyone loves her so much and wanted to get her such awesome gifts! I have never seen so many gifts for such a little girl. I'm not sure she even knows what to do with all of them. ha ha. She has so much to distract her now.

Love these cute little hands digging in the cake. :)

It turned out to be a really great birthday celebration. I love my little turkey so much. She lights up the darkest rooms and is the rainbow to my rainy day. No experience beats being a wife and a mother.

So happy!

A $2 Dollar bill! I love these and I know Brailey will too! My great grandma gave me one when I was little and now Brailey has one from her great grandma. Eventually this will be framed! Wish they still existed in our money system. How cool would that be? I guess you can technically still use them, but I wish they still made them!

Braileys cousins wanted to help open presents with her since Brailey was getting so distracted. lol. 

Surrounded by all her toys!

Hugs goodbye to friend Liam! :) So glad that Brittany and Derick were able to make it! It was a great surprise.

 All her presents out of their boxes and at home! Goodness that took forever and now Brailey has a lot of stuff to play with. ha ha.











Now for the update on Brailey!

• She loves pointing at everything now. She is so curious.
• I started having her drink cows milk about 2 weeks before turning 1 and so far she LOVES it. The past couple months she would never finish her formula and I was so worried that she wasn't getting enough nourishment. She just refused to drink it... but as soon as I switched to milk she can't get enough of it. She actually cries at me when the bottle gets empty and that is after eating 4 oz of food and then 8 oz of milk. 
• She loves opening and closing things as well as turning things on and off. 
• She can say "hi" just doesn't know when. 
• She gives the best hugs! I feel like the most important person in the world when she wraps her arms around me. She holds me so tight and just lays her head on my shoulder. Best feeling EVER!
• She loves to stand up, but still refuses to walk on her own. She has gotten as far as holding only one of my hands and walking like that. 
• She goes down the stairs so GOOD. She learned so quickly! I was always so scared she would fall down the stairs because we decided not to use gates for the stairs and instead just make sure to teach her that its not okay to go up without me or dad behind her. She did really good at listening to us and now she is amazing at going down the stairs. I wanted her to learn not to go down face forward cause she could fall. So she basically crawls/slides down on her knees. 
• She has 6 teeth in all so far. 4 on top and 2 on bottom.
• She shakes her head "no" all the time. Right now its cute and funny to watch cause she moves her body with her head, but I know I am going to regret it later.
• She "dances" by shaking her entire body all around. Its similar to when she is saying no but its more side to side versus back and forth and she moves a lot more. 
• For some odd reason she loves to rub her head on the floor and finds it hilarious. 
• She loves her feet still and uses them to pick things up.
• When I am dressing her in the morning she knows I am about to put her pants on and sticks one leg out and then the other. Its so cute.
• She loves to bounce.
• She eats all her veggies really well now... including peas. (never thought it would happen, but she actually likes them now)
• She has so much fun with all her toys and stuffed animals and gives them hugs.
• She LOVES her daddy. She hardly gets to see him now with his school and work taking up most of his day. She usually only sees him while I take him to and from school and a few minutes in between. So days that he gets to play with her are her favorite. She absolutely adores her dad and always has the biggest smiles for him. 
• She loves watching her disney videos. 
• She tries to read her books. Of course she can't really read just yet, but its fun to watch her turn the pages and babble like she is reading out loud. 
• One of her new toys has a microphone on it to sing a long. She put it up to her ear and started talking into it like it was a phone. SO adorable. She is so smart. Guess she see's mama talking on the phone with dad quite a bit.
• We just had her appointment and she weighs 17lbs 12 oz, she is 28 and 1/4 inches tall and her head is 17.5 inches around. She hasn't gained much since her last appointment so she is in the 6th percentile for weight, but she is in the 24th percentile for height so that has gone up a little. And 33% for her head. Doc said that her weight will fluctuate a lot now that she is moving and learning to walk so she still looks good.
• I can start giving her table food like eggs, macaroni, peanut butter, etc. I am so excited for this! I have let her have little bits of egg and macaroni before, but now I can just let her eat these things for meals! And fruits and veggies are the snacks. :)  

Well I think that's it for a little while. I won't be updating every month like I used to, but I will still blog about other things as well every now and again. I will probably have another one on here sometime next week. lol.  Sorry for the long update. :) Hope you enjoyed.

Whirlwind of Holidays

Its been a crazy ride this past month. So many things going on, as is usual in December. This is going to be a very long post (mostly pictures) due to a compilation of all the events. ha ha. 

First, was my beautiful moms birthday. For her birthday and Christmas present I made a play date for us. We went and saw my cousins new baby, went to Gardner village and did some window shopping, ate some yummy food, went to City Creek for a few minutes, and then I took her to see "The Nutcracker" with Ballet West. It was a fun day and we loved the show. 

Me and my momma are SILLY! Love her!

This was supposed to be a smiley picture, but she pulled a funny face on me. ha ha .

Brailey has been growing up so much over this past month. Her personality is showing more and more and I love that she is so energetic. She was such a hoot over the holidays.

"Let me in Mama!"

Cutest little face ever!

Wearing daddy's hat. She even put it on by herself!

Watching "Santa Claus is coming to Town"

Brailey wouldn't take her eyes off the t.v. when we were watching all our Christmas shows. We watched Frosty the Snowman, The Grinch, Rudolph the Red nose Reindeer, Cricket on the Hearth, and White Christmas. (Not all in one day ha ha). She loved them all. She didn't even look up at my phone. It was fun to cuddle with her. 

We enjoyed our work Christmas party. We had an awesome dinner and had fun watching Brailey roam around the tables saying hi to everybody. All our coworkers loved watching her get excited about crawling everywhere. 

Then on Christmas Eve we had our annual "Wayment" party. We played games, ate a good meal, and opened presents. This year, instead of pajamas (because Brailey already has so many) we decided to have her open a book. We got her "The Night Before Christmas" and I plan to make it a tradition to read it every year on that night. We also did a family gift and we plan to do a disney movie each year. This year we got "Brave." This also happened to be the day that Brailey turned 11 months old! Only 1 month away and I will have a 1 year old. I can't believe its been that long already. 

Everyone at our family Party!

 

 We always play the "candy bar game" and just after I won a couple of candies Brailey jumped right on them. :) 

"All mine!"

"And this too!"

 CHRISTMAS MORNING! She went straight for the hippo! :)

"I want a hippopotamus for Christmas... only Hippopotamus will do..."

She loved the wrapping paper! And did great opening her presents that morning.

 After waking up and opening most of our presents at the Wayments, we got ready and went to the Pitchford home and finished opening the rest of our presents there (so both grandparents could see Brailey open up some presents). She got pretty bored there. She was more excited about the dogs toys then her own, so I had to help her open up her presents in the end. 

I got lots of cute new clothes! YAY! 

Love this smiley, blue eyed girl. Such a beauty.

 After eating breakfast and cleaning up our presents, we went to the Pitchford/Smith Christmas party. We ate some more delicious food, listened to some beautiful songs sung by our cousins and sisters and opened gifts and just relaxed. Brailey had fun playing and crawling and climbing and eating. 

So happy on Christmas!

Love this little munchkin of mine. She is so adorable.

The day after Christmas Jordan and I went snowboarding with Jamie and Amberly at Powder Mountain and it was SOO much fun. I want to go again now. We were super sore at the end of the day, but it was worth it. There was tons of fresh powder snow and not a ton of people due to the fact that it was snowing. The next day we went shopping with our Christmas money and later we went to see "Les Miserables". It was AMAZING! Very sad story, but such a good one. I loved it and want to see it again, that is how good it was. 

The day after that we went to IFLY and had a blast. Its a lot of fun and not as scary as I thought it would be. I figured it would give me that falling feeling, but I never got it and then we decided to go to TGIFridays for dinner and Jordans parents decided to join us. 

Brailey was so silly for our waitress. 

Brailey ended up having a fever of 102.8 for one of the days. All she did was want to cuddle.( I loved that part, but not the sick part... not even sure what she was sick with cause there were no other symptoms) Overall, it was an EXTREMELY great vacation and it was very much needed. I needed time with our families especially with my husband and I needed the break from everyday life.... no work... and lots of playtime. (Yes I consider shopping part of my playtime ha ha)

ABOUT BRAILEY:

Brailey is now 11 months old and is super crazy, but in a good way. 

• She climbs everything, wants to walk everywhere instead of crawl, but she still has to use my hands.
• She can stand up on her own without holding onto anything for periods at a time.
• She smiles a ton, but also cries alot. 
• She gets into everything still and finds the oddest things amusing. 
• She clicks her tongue and is fascinated with her tongue. She licks her lips and sticks it out and grabs it. Its so silly. 
• She likes to point at things. Usually when she does point she mumbles something... to me its sounds like she is saying "whats that?" And then I tell her what it is she is pointing at. 
• She is getting her "eye" teeth in and that has been a trial. The other teeth were hard on her, but not nearly this hard. She has had a difficult time cutting these ones. 
• Her hair is getting so long, but for some reason it grows mostly on the top and in the middle, so we do her hair in a fohawk a lot. 
• She still loves necklaces and most jewelry for that matter. She will put it in her mouth and keep it that way all day if I let her. 
• She loves trying our food and I usually give her little bites of whatever we are eating, but her favorite snack (which also happens to be my favorite) is Goldfish crackers. If she see's me eating some she will crawl really fast over to me and start reaching for them. If they are too far away to reach then she motions her hand in a "come" or "give me" sort of way. I think she learned that from when I would use my hands to motion her to come to me. ha ha. Smart girl. 
• She uses a straw cup now for her juice and loves that!
• She can crawl up stairs, but I am trying to teach her how to crawl down them. No success yet, but she mostly knows not to try and crawl up them without me or daddy behind her. 
• She jibberjabbers to herself all the time. Usually saying dada, papa, baba, mama, but occasionally she will mix her lettering around. I can't wait til she starts talking. 
• She loves leaning backwards and doing "flips" We might have a tumbling girl on our hands. 

She is such a cutie and we love her spunky personality. She is so full of life and love. I am so excited for her future. :)

Daddy went a bit crazy with pictures below, but these are the many faces of Brailey. :)

For New years, we visited some friends and then took Brailey home for bed. Even after having a late nap she still wanted to go to bed early. So by about 10 she was in bed. Jordan and I stayed up and played games and at about one minute from midnight we went outside, listened to the fireworks and rang in the new year with a kiss. :) Maybe next year we will be able to party, but I loved being able to just relax and enjoy the time. My biggest new years resolution is to keep striving to be a better mom and wife.

Love to all and hope all your holidays were as good and memorable as mine! :)