Pictures and such

Apparently Kalena has been reading this blog, because she decided to bump up her wake up time by about an hour. That's been fun, especially since she also wants bedtime to be about 2 hours later than normal. Hopefully things will get back to normal once we're back in Grand Junction. Anyway, I never posted my 20 week picture, so here it is:


And since I hit 21 weeks yesterday, here's that picture:


(Apparently the lighting in Kari's dining room is really yellow.)

Miss Amelia is already into making fashion statements.


And Kalena is obviously thrilled to have a girl cousin.

It's too bad I'm a morning person

These past couple days while I've been in Pueblo I've enjoyed a privilege that I haven't had since before Kalena was born. No morning obligations. Every morning since Kalena was born I've had to get up, either for work, or for church, or for her. Even the days that Brian was sweet enough to get up with her and tell me to go back to sleep, I knew they were just waiting on me to get up.

Before we came to help out Kari, we (my mom and I) decided we'd probably be the most helpful if we weren't also having to run around after a 1 year old. My sister Kirsta graciously offered to keep Kalena for a couple days so we could do that. So while Kalena enjoys playing with her cousin Patrick (you can read about the fun time they're having over here) I get to spend my day just being an aunt. I get to hold the sweet baby, but pass her off when she cries. I get to watch her cute little facial expressions while she sleeps, and then enjoy my own night of sleep uninterrupted. And, of course, I get to sleep as late as I want in the morning. Turns out that the latest I want to sleep is 6:45 am. Yep, with no alarm, no sun shining in the window (it's a basement bedroom), nobody getting me up, and no baby monitor with Kalena on the other end, I still don't even sleep in until 7. That means without Kalena here I sleep roughly 20 minutes longer than I would otherwise. *SIGH* I guess that means I should stop complaining that she gets up early, because apparently even if she didn't, I would.

Introducing

My niece, miss Amelia Phelps. She is adorable, and I know you can't tell this from the picture, but her hair has little highlights in it. It looks like she spent her first day of life at the salon:) She is Kari's daughter for SURE.

More of the cuteness.


I love her scrawny little newborn limbs! And my phone is in that picture on purpose so you can get a sense of how small she is.


Baby girl with mama.


The little sweetheart with her daddy.

I have a niece!

Kari had her baby! She was born at 3:21 pm, weighs 6 lbs 3 oz, and is 19 inches long. I hear she's a cutie, but unfortunately I don't get to find out just yet. Soon though!

19 weeks

Yeah, I'm a little behind here since I'll be 20 weeks on Thursday. Whoops. It's just so easy to take the pictures Sunday morning before church because I know I'll always look nice then. Or presentable at least. I'm still working on finding a doctor, but I have a consultation set up for Monday at one practice so hopefully that goes well. Anyway, here is the belly as of yesterday morning.


Yes I did get a haircut, how nice of you to notice. Last Wednesday my mom and I went and got pedicures and haircuts and left Kalena with a babysitter. An actual teenage girl babysitter, not a friend with kids. That was a first and it went well; the sitter said Kalena had a good time. (Is anyone who's ever met Kalena surprised about that? Me neither.) Here's a picture of the hair from the front.


It's a tiny bit shorter than I was planning on, but my hair grows fast so that's alright. I felt a little guilty when I went to get it cut and realized the last time I cut it was a year ago. Not a trim or anything since then. That is why I don't color my hair. I'm too lazy to go get anything done to it so I'd just end up with roots like halfway down my head. Also, it's a good thing straight and one length works with my hair because, again, too lazy to do anything else. I suppose that's all for now, my life is pretty boring these days.

18 weeks

I'm 18 weeks (ish) and since that's when I started taking pictures when I was pregnant with Kalena, I thought I should probably strive for some consistency. Now, the dress I'm wearing in the picture definitely accentuates my belly, and I did that for a reason. It's our first Sunday back here and I didn't want people wondering or guessing about it so I figured I might as well make it as obvious as possible. Actually, when I came downstairs after getting dressed Brian looked at me and said, "Hey, when did you get pregnant?" He says life has been so crazy that even though he is aware that I am pregnant he keeps forgetting just how far along I am. Which is, by the way, ALMOST HALFWAY. GAH.


I was SUPPOSED to be having the big-- check on all the organs and growth and make sure nothing is wrong-- ultrasound tomorrow. We were also planning on finding out the sex of the baby. BUT, here I am in a new state with NO DOCTOR. Makes it hard to have an ultrasound. I really should start looking for a doctor I guess.

Talk about kicking you when you're down

When I got laid off I got a severance package. The company bases the amount you'll get on years worked. You get one week's worth of pay for each year worked. I worked there for 3 and a half years so I got 3 and a half weeks' pay. Only the state of Texas taxes that severance pay the same way the tax BONUS checks. It's like they're saying, "oh hey, you lost your job? Well then you know what we'll do for you? We'll take MORE of your money!" Isn't that nice of them? Yeah, I thought so too.

For those of you who are already missing Kalena

Just some quick pictures of Kalena.

Bored of being in the pool.



Loving a diet pepsi. I'm pretty sure that can is empty, but I didn't take the picture so I couldn't tell you for sure.


Having fun at the splash park. Because I'm pregnant and therefore required to forget at least one thing every day, we made it all the way there before I realized her swimsuit was still at home. Swim diapers? Yes. Sunscreen? Of course. Snacks? Plenty. Swimsuit? Hanging on the laundry room door where I saw it before we left and thought, I should probably put that in my bag so I don't forget it. Not so much with the follow through.


Looking for some trouble to get into.


When my parents came down for her birthday in May we went furniture shopping one day and one of the stores had these adorable child sized leather chairs. SO CUTE.

Want to buy a house?

No? Well, go check out ours anyway at the virtual tour.

We're back in the home state and after the craziness of moving is over I'll have more time to update.

For now, just go see what a cute belly my sister has! Kari would like to have this little girl any day now, but I'm not expecting her to make her arrival for another 3 or 4 weeks. (She's actually due on August 8th.)

Because apparently my life is now a country song

For those of you who don't already know, I am expecting again. I'm almost 16 weeks along and I'm due in December. I'm due on Christmas Day actually, but I'm pretty much in denial about the possibility of a Christmas baby. Now, normally a pregnancy announcement would warrant it's own post right? Right. BUT, just when I was getting ready to write that post I got laid off. That wasn't lots of fun. There have been more than 3,000 employees laid off since the beginning of the year though, so I suppose I'm in good company.

Since the plan had been for me to work until Brian finishes school and he still has another two years (ish), me being without a job sort of put a kink in things. We decided our best course of action is to sell the house and move home to Colorado. (I'm sure I'll be doing a whole post on this later.) Before we could start moving in that direction though, my whole family came to visit. The trip had been planned for awhile and no sense canceling especially since now I didn't have to worry about work at all. (HA.) So for the last two weeks I've been processing the fact that I am now pregnant and without income.

And then yesterday? The dogs got out. The door got left open and they decided to go for a run. Brian and I weren't home when it happened and even though my mom and sisters went looking for them they were nowhere to be found. Brian went out after we got back and after much walking around and calling and whistling to them Onyx managed to follow him home. But not Brenna. We went out a few more times with no luck. This morning we called animal control thinking maybe they picked her up and that's why she didn't make it home. They did pick her up. She died shortly after they made it to the shelter. More than likely she got hit by a car and died of some sort of internal injuries. Brenna and Onyx are the first dogs I've ever had. This has been hard.

So: pregnant, laid off, selling the house, moving back to Colorado, and losing one of our sweet girls. It's been an emotionally exhausting two weeks.


Brenna letting Patrick give her some love.