First Snow

Despite the nasty colds we both have, Autumn and I were able to go out and enjoy the first snow together today! Last year doesn't really count since she was only 2 months old and didn't understand a thing :-)

When Autumn woke up this morning, there was snow on the ground! I couldn't believe it! I was just telling my dad yesterday that it's not the same listening to Christmas music without snow. I do love snow, just not when I have to drive in it. And today, I didn't have to go anywhere. So I love snow today!!!

I brought Autumn to our slider door this morning and showed her the snow. She just stared and stared. Kept saying "pretty" and then "dada" and "bubba". Haha. Not sure why she was saying that. Maybe because they're out working and she's concerned about them coming home in the snow ;-) Right before lunch I brought her to the slider again and opened it for her to see the snow better. By then we already had 4 inches! She again, just stood there and stared. I tried to get her to touch it, but she wanted nothing to do with it. Just kept looking around.

After her nap, I bundled her up to go outside. I set her on the cement driveway at first and she just kept running around, wouldn't go near the snow. So I picked her up and set her in the snow. She didn't move an inch! Hahaha!!! Just stood there. She eventually did stick her glove and tried eating the snow. I think it was too cold for her. Then she started to whine and got close to crying. But quickly learned that she was capable of walking away and did just that. She wouldn't go near the snow again. But did enjoy walking around and laughing at Jade who was going insane in the snow. Jade absolutely loves the snow and I love playing with Jade in the snow. Jade is horrible at catching tennis balls. She lets them hit her in the face. But throw a snowball at Jade and she's golden. She'll catch them everytime!

I was finally able to upload some pics using my mom's camera. Mine is still broken, ugh. Eventually I'll get it fixed. I'm missing out on a lot. Enjoy :-)

Jade enjoying some time in the snow

Pondering going back in the snow.

What's all over me?

Starting to whine after I put her in the snow.

She wasn't too sure about the whole experience :-)

Stuffy at 3am

Autumn and I ended up with colds, again. Ugh! I feel so bad when she's stuffy. Not only is she grouchy and achy, but she doesn't really understand either. It's so difficult when she tries to nurse or even breath at night. She ended up waking up twice last night. 11:45 and then again at 3am. Part of our routine when she wakes up is to cuddle in the rocking chair a little bit. Then she'll push away from me and give me her "more" sign (to nurse). At 3am, she thought it was play time! I normally play music for her when she's nursing to help her relax and fall asleep. This time she was dancing to the music. Held her hands together and shaking them from side to side. Haha, it was really cute. Then she grabs my arms and tries to rock the rocking chair back and forth. I couldn't help but giggle and then she giggled herself! Ugh, I was not about to be awake at 3am!!! Especially since I was starting to feel the affects of my cold coming in. I finally got her to nurse (after using her boogie sucker) and she was asleep. Sigh. So nice. I didn't end up falling back asleep til after 5am. I hate having a cold. Not being able to breathe through my nose at night is one of the worst feeling. Sigh. Praying for a quick recovery, for both :-)

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know I did :-) Autumn did wonderful as well. Wednesday afternoon we went over to Jordan's parent's house to celebrate Thanksgiving with them. Autumn did great. Playing with all the toys, didn't eat very well, but that's ok. I don't like Thanksgiving meals either (hehe). Thanksgiving day we went over to my aunt's in Fremont. I wasn't sure how Autumn was going to do because dinner was right during her second nap. Not only did she eat great, but she had a blast with all my cousins. I think I should mention that I'm the oldest of 22 cousins, the youngest being 20 months :-) I absolutely love all my younger cousins. They're a blast! They love Autumn as well. Constantly asking me to hold her and following her around showing her new toys to play with. My aunt has a very huge and open floor plan in her basement. So Autumn had a blast almost running around the whole time. Little football in hand, showing everyone, then running away. Haha. It was awesome and it wore her out good. We left around 4:20 to go to my grandparent's and she fell asleep not even 5 minutes after getting in the car. Slept for a good half hour then played at my grandparents for a while. Got home and was passed out by 7pm! Sigh, it was a good day!

I am going to say this again and again, I absolutely LOVE My Baby Can Talk series. I'm sure I've mentioned it here before, it's a sign language series. Encourages babies to sign everyday things. Autumn has learned SO much from their books and dvd series. We have a routine in the morning. Autumn eats her breakfast in her bumbo while watching one of the dvds. It's great! She sits quiet and eats while learning at the same time. Everyday I feel like she shows me a new sign. Yesterday we had to stop at the gas station on my way to my aunt's house. We all got out of the car (to get some drinks) and when we sat back in to leave, Autumn starting signing. I couldn't figure out what it was at first, but then I realized it was the sign for Car!!! We all, of course, praised her like crazy and she loved it! We kept telling her that we were in the car and she would sign again. Amazing! She's so proud too when she knows that she did something new. I love watching her eyes light up as we praise her :-)

We're still teaching Autumn a lot of animal sounds and she's amazing at them. She already knows dog, cat, lion/bear, monkey, fish (they don't make noise, but she can do the fish face), sheep and we're working on chicken and pig. It's great watching her try to mimic what I'm doing. She's place her fingers on my lips and really watch how my mouth is moving when I make the noises. One of her favorite books is a mammal's book (I think I mentioned that earlier) and we read that a lot and make funny animal noises. Good thing nobody records me cuz I'd sound pretty silly ;-) Oh the things we do for our children.

I've also been teaching Autumn body parts (with the help of my mother). I'll ask her where her nose is and she'll touch it, then touch my nose as well. So far she knows her nose, piggys (toes) and almost her bellybutton. When she's in the bath and sits her foot up out of the water, we like to say "Piggys, piggys, piggys, piggys!" while trying to tickle her toes. She loves it! Now she'll come up to me, sit in my lap and play with her piggys. Hehe. I love my silly girl.

Autumn's starting to become a chatter box now. Usually when she wakes up from her first nap is when she's the most talkative. She likes to squat and yell at the floor. Haha. It's like she talks all her energy to push out phrase or something. What a goof! Or when someone comes home (especially daddy). She'll yell at the across the room. And then if they leave her (to go to the bathroom or wash their hands), she gets upset. How dare they walk away from her! :-)

Again, I'm still having problems with my camera and computer. I'm bummed that I'm missing out on a lot of pictures, however, Autumn won't sit still long enough to take any pictures. Haha! I usually get an arm or a blurry Autumn now. Maybe I should invest in a camera with a faster shutter speed. Or a video camera. That's been on my wish list for a while. We'll see how Christmas turns out this year. Blessings to all!!!

Short, but sweet.

I find it's a little more sad to update my blog since I can't get pictures on my computer right now :-( I am working on it and I will get them back on, eventually!

Autumn is currently taking the longest nap she has ever taken! I put her down around 1:30ish today (after an exciting Ming Ten lunch with my dad and grandpa) and she's still sleeping. Should I mention that the time is currently 5:05pm? :-) Definitely got a lot of stuff done. I'm debating waking her up, but yesterday she took a long nap as well and ended up sleeping even better at night. So, I'm letting her sleep. I think I'll wake her up at 5:30, if she's not up by then.

Autumn has gotten to the stage where she loves to imitate people. She's getting better at all of her animal sounds and is learning more and more every day! I mentioned before that she loves books. One of her favorite is a Mammals book that more of a 3rd grader level, however, they do have pictures of animals and we go through and talk about each of them and the sounds they make. Even if a chimpanzee, gorilla and spider monkey make all the same noise, she doesn't care :-)

The other day my brother was opening one of Autumn's sign language books to the page with the slide on it and she immediately did the sign! I couldn't believe it! She's never even been on a slide!! I also was going through the book with her and got to the "please and thank you" pages and not only did she sign please, but she said it as well!!! Now she does it whenever we ask her to. It's amazing!

This has to be a short post because Autumn just woke up :-) I'll update more soon!

Animal Sounds

Autumn is learning animal sounds. At dinner we asked her different animal sounds and she we able to do them all! Not to mention her version of what grandpa sounds like. See if you can guess what the sound is supposed to be ;-)

(PS ~ Pardon the rice pieces on Autumn's head... hehehe)

Frustration and Halloween

Ugh... When it rains... It pours! Not only is my camera broken, but now my computer won't cooperate. I can't get my computer to recognize my sim cards to upload pictures... Really? Now my dad's computer (that I was using for a while) isn't working either. So now I can't skype with Jordan (who's in Georgia right now). I don't have a webcam on my computer. Neither does my mom. Since when do laptops not have webcams? LOL. Maybe ancient ones. My cell phone's starting to go down the drain too, but at least I'm getting a new one this weekend!!!

What can I say about Autumn? Besides the fact that she's all over the place? ;-) She's getting really good at walking now. Doesn't really need to balance herself anymore. She especially likes to walk around outside now. Check out new things. Getting away from mommy (hehe). Her sleep schedule hasn't improved much. She still wakes up at least once in the middle of the night. Usually an hour after I fall asleep. The funny thing is that I was out with friends the other night and Autumn woke up. My mom tried to feed her a bottle (cuz I usually nurse her) and Autumn wouldn't take it. So my mom just gave her a pacifier and she went right back to sleep for another 6 hours!!! Really?!?!?! Is that all it takes? Too bad that doesn't work for me. She sees me and it's "I WANT BOOBIE!!!" :-)

Autumn's found a new love for books. I'm reading to her all the time and I love it! I'm so glad she's interested in books :-) She'll bring them to me, usually the same books, and sit on my lap while I read to her. She really likes the "My Baby Can Talk", sign language, series. She's learned a lot of new signs just from me reading and showing her them. My favorite sign is "more". She uses it all the time. I think she really uses it more as "I want" instead of more. The past few days she'll nurse on one side, and then when I'm getting her ready for the next side, she'll sign "more". Hehe. It's so cute! I'm currently working on teaching her "please" and "thank you". She's a quick learner, so I'm sure she'll catch on in no time ;-)

I'm not a huge fan of Halloween. Celebrating demons and devils and witches is not how I was raised. But how can you resist getting free candy from neighbors? So we decided that we're gonna allow Autumn (and our kids) to dress up in appropriate costumes and keep them within the neighborhood and grandparents for trick-or-treating. That's what we were allowed as a kid and I didn't complain. So I dressed Autumn up as a pumpkin fairy this year and took her to a few of the neighbors. She had a couple bites of candy. Mommy helped her with the rest ;-) I wish I could show you some pictures, but obviously that's not happening right now.

Quick update about myself... I'm doing well. My days are getting better and better. I do find that I'm still super emotional about things in general. I'm starting to think that won't ever go away :-) A lot of my friend's are getting pregnant now. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm happy for them, I really am. I will admit that at times I'm a little jealous. Probably more so as I see their bellies grow and hear about their doctor's appointments and stuff. I know that everything's in God's timing and He knows the ultimate plan for our family. I'm starting to become a little more open about my miscarriage too. I find that sometimes I can't stop talking about it, to people who haven't heard the story in particular. I feel bad that I might be talking their ear off, especially to those who have already heard it time and time again. I dunno if this is normal or not. Hmmm... I'm just thankful that I'm finally starting to feel at peace.

My crazy life :-P

Ok, I need to update. I'm getting behind, on everything. I feel like I'm so disorganized. A lot of you have been sending me nice messages on facebook/email saying that you're thinking about me and praying for me. I grately appreciate it!!! It really makes me feel much better getting all the love and support from you guys. I'm trying really hard to respond to each of you. So I'm sorry if I don't get back to you right away. Like I said, I'm super disorganized right now :-( I can't wait for my life to get back into order again!

These past few days have been hard. It's been a month since our miscarriage. I thought it would have hit me harder than it has. I just went back to the numb stage again... I spent the whole day of my anniversary (with Jordan) running around and keeping myself busy. I wasn't sure why until I sat down and thought about it. I believe I was avoiding thinking about it. Then Jordan and I had a nice little fight and I way over reacted! I burst into tears and couldn't stop sobbing. I was holding it in for too long and finally broke down. I actually thought about watching a video of soldiers coming home to their families so that I could finally cry and let it out ;-)

A lot of my friends have reached out and said that they would be there if I ever needed to talk. But I don't even know where to start or what to say. I really need to talk and let it out. I notice that I'm starting to bottle things up right now. I think I'm just afraid that no one will understand what I say because I barely understand what's going on inside my head... Sigh

On a lighter note... Autumn is a WALKING MACHINE!!! She's absolutely everywhere! Her balanced has improved tremendously! She barely needs her arms up in the air. She loves running away from me and giggling. It's our new game. I love letting her run around. It's really nice. She's still finding things on the ground that our vacuum cleaner missed, can't wait for that stage to be over. I noticed yesterday that Autumn's 2 bottom side teeth are coming in. They both broke through the skin. No wonder she's been so fussy lately!! Its gonna be weird with her having more teeth. I love the 6 that she has right now :-) She's really getting used to the routine of having daddy home now! After her morning nap, we go into our room and wake daddy up. She loves it!!! It's gonna be weird when Jordan goes back to work. This morning we let Jordan sleep in a little bit and she said "da-da" all morning until he woke up.

Speaking of Jordan, he has his 6 week check-up on Wednesday. I really hope he gets the ok to go back to work, for both our sakes. Hehe. Don't get me wrong, I love having him home, but I definitely loved having my old routine and Jordan's bored out of his mind! He needs to be doing something again. He's been walking on his foot for the past week without crutches (with his boot on, of course). Although, he has walked on his foot without a boot a couple of times. It's improved so much since I brought him home from the hospital. I'm hoping he doesn't need a lot of physical therapy. We'll see I guess.

My parents have been gone for the past week in Montana. They took a 2 week vacation to go out there and visit relatives. Along with some site seeing there and back. It's been weird, having them gone. Jordan and I like it though. Kind of like having our own home. Hehe. I've been doing cleaning everyday and cooking meals everyday. I love it!!! I actually feel like a mother/house wife instead of some bum living off her parents. We're so close to getting our own home :-D I don't want to jinx myself, but I notice that so far a lot of our hospital bills are being covered by insurance. I've been praying that God will help us through this because with Jordan not working, we have no income. God has always taken care of us through the hard times and I'm starting to accept His long term plan for us instead of making my own.

Well, I would love to say that I have pictures to add on here, but my camera's broken right now. I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with it. I'm sure I'll have to bring it in. I'm missing out on a lot of picture opportunities. I'm sure as soon as I get it fixed, my blog will be swimming with pictures!