Our Newest Addition (and all the other little things)

This may come as a shock to anyone that reads my blog.. 

But its been a while since I've updated this thing! 

Let me fill you in on our lives.

Lets break it down into a few subjects.

Scotty, Me, Hailey, Avery, and Moving.

Scotty:

Scotty is doing great!

In September 2014 he started his new job in Twin Falls.

He's still working as an Assistant Manager and most of the time loving it.

He started on nights in February and he is loving it! 

Its definitely not my favorite thing, but I do enjoy the fact that he loves working nights better than working on the day shift. 

I can't say that I blame him.

He told me that he just feels like he can get so much more accomplished and he doesn't have to worry about customers stopping him during the day while he's trying to get things done.

I miss my husband, but I love that he enjoys going to work.

Another huge thing in Scotty's life right now is his forge! 

We're living in an apartment right now so there's no space for him to setup a forge here, but we're very fortunate that my parents live so close and they are willing to let Scotty have one at their house instead.

One of my favorite things these last few month was to see the excitement that Scotty has towards being a blacksmith and making this a real hobby of his.

Not only that, but I love seeing the bond that was strengthened between him and my dad. 

My dad has been just as excited about it as Scotty and they've been working on ideas of how to get things going together! 

(Although I can't take credit away from my husband because this was 97% of his work and he only had a little bit of help from my dad.)

Finally Scotty got it set up and he's now ready to start making things.

This last time that we were able to go to visit my family he started making a sword! 

Hes been wanting to make one for a while so I'm hoping that he can get it done soon.

We just need to be able to make a few more trips to my parents house in the next few weeks.

Here are a few pictures of Scotty's workshop.

So this is a picture of the outside.

Scotty built all of this out of scrap wood.

He made the door, put in a removable window, a spot for the air to ventilate and he attached some tin roofing for the top.

I'm really proud of the work that he put into this! 

 Here's a good picture to show the forge itself.
Scotty and my dad worked on this a lot together and it was fun for my dad to be able to show him a few things and help bring it together.

Scotty also made that anvil stand and the little shelf to the left.

I know that he has more that he wants to add to it, but it really does look amazing so far and it will only keep getting better as time goes on.

I think those are the main points for Scotty.

His work, his family, and his forging are the most prominent things in his life right now.

Me:
I wish there was a lot that I could add to this section, but I think its going to be pretty short.

My daughters are the main thing in my life right now.

I love being able to stay at home with them and now that we've had Avery for a couple of months I'm starting to adjust and I'm finally getting a little bit of a schedule down.

One of the main things that I want to do is to work on structuring my day better.

I've had a hard time with this lately because of Scotty's weird work schedule, but I think that once I get it down everything will start to flow better.

I need to start by going to bed earlier.

I always wake up so tired and I don't feel as energetic throughout the day because I manage my sleep poorly.

Adding a newborn to that already flawed schedule didn't really help.

I think that when I get that figured out better then I will be able to put things into place after that.

With this structure and warm weather coming (hopefully very soon for both of them) I want to try to include a daily craft with Hailey and a plan to go do something outside every other day.

If you have any ideas for crafts that we can do, please post it in the comments below or on the link I posted to Facebook! 

I'm going to need all sorts of ideas.

Another thing that I'm going to try to do now is get better at my blogging. 

I want to update family more, but I also want to start adding my own tutorials.

I'm definitely not a professional seamstress, but I love that crafts that I do and I want to be able to show people how to do certain crafts even if they don't have amazing crafting skills either.

I also want to be able to get those tutorials out there for free!

I love finding new patterns online, but there are so many cute ones that you have to pay for and I'd just like to put some of my own out there so that people don't feel like they have to pay to be crafty.

Making kids clothes or re purposing your own to fit better shouldn't cost money (other than the purchased supplies) in my opinion. 

I want to be able to show that you can live thrifty, but still have nice things.

And I love the idea of making more of our own clothes!

Not only do I want to do clothes, but I have other projects that I work on such as headbands, wreaths, re purposing lamps, re purposing furniture, making pillows, blankets, baby burp rags, rugs, curtains, wood signs, painting projects, and the list goes on.

I just feel like I'm at a place in my life where I can start to take on more to feel like I'm spending my extra time wisely.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Netflix and Hulu shows, but I need to feel like I can do more.

I have the time for it, I just need the motivation.

Another big thing in my life is that I want to start exercising! 

By no means am I overweight, but I've had two kids and I know there is definitely some body fat to be shed after both of these pregnancies. 

We've started eating healthier (90% of the time) so I think that now its time to put the effort into the next step.

One thing that I love about where we're living is the fact that they have a gym! 

It brings convenience to my life knowing I can just leave the girls with Scotty while I go to work out for a short period of time.

We also live less than a mile from a canyon trail and only a short drive away from another canyon trail/waterfall so when it starts to warm up more I'll be able to make the majority of my workouts outside with Hailey and Avery. 

Anyway that's about it for me! 

I've got a lot that I want to work on and hopefully we'll be able to add all these new things into our somewhat busy schedule! 

Hailey:
My goodness I'm not sure what to say about Hailey.

 She is my crazy child.

She's a lot like me actually and I have to admit I love it.

Shes stubborn in just the way that a(n almost) 3 year old needs to be.

She is also the sweetest 3 year old around.

Hailey amazes me every day with the things that she learns and already knows.

I can't even count all the words and the sentences that she knows.

Her favorite thing to do is sing. 

A lot of times while she's playing she'll just start singing to herself. 

She sings while she's taking a bath.

She sings to her baby.

She sings to Avery.

She sings to mommy and daddy.

She sings to my parents.

She sings to her cousin Ray.

She sings while she's eating food.

She sings in the car.

She sings while we're grocery shopping.

She sings.

She most definitely sings.

And it is so amazing to see how many songs she knows! 

I sing two songs to Hailey every night before she goes to bed:

1. You Are My Sunshine

2. Happy by NeverShoutNever

I've sung both of those songs to her for quite a while and one night she sang along with me for the first time and knew all of the words.

No exaggerations, she knew every word in the right order.

Her favorite show to watch varies.

Right now it's the Power Puff Girls, but it was Daniel the Tiger for a long time and still occasionally is.

I love Daniel because they have SO many songs and Hailey knows every single one of them.

And she knows them for every mood she's in.

Daniel's songs have also been very influential.

When Hailey gets really upset or starts to throw a temper tantrum I'll sing this song:

Its okay to feel sad some times, little by little, you'll feel better again.

After I sing it Hailey stops crying or stops her temper tantrum and sings it back to me.

By the time she's done she's virtually forgotten the problem or has moved on.

It's crazy to see what good values they can learn from television shows even at this young of an age.

Hailey knows how to count to 20.

Sort of.

She says:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 8, 10.. and so on.

Its so funny, but she cant seem to get the 8, 9, 10 right. 

She also knows her ABC's because of a song.

Minus the L{MNO}P part.. haha. 

She doesn't do her colors quite as well, but she knows the basics.

She loves chicken nuggets and honey mustard.

She doesn't like eating anything without "sauce". 

She loves wearing boots. 

She loves playing outside.

She REALLY loves playing outside.

She loves to carry her baby doll around everywhere and if we leave the house without it she gets upset, but thank goodness she calms down when we tell her that baby stayed home to go night night.

She loves to color.

She has a pen and paper that she carries around everywhere because she just loves to scribble and draw circles.

For Christmas we got her a couple of dollar notebooks because she loves it so much!

She loves helping me cook.

We potty trained her in November 2014 and it was the best thing ever.

She loves to do the search and find books where she see's the item on the side of the page and has to find it in the picture somewhere.

She is amazing at puzzles. 

I had never done a puzzle with her, but I pulled one out (it was a 20 piece Disney puzzle) and she put it together without any help the first time!

She loves bath time.

She would live in the bath if she could.

But only if that bath was outside because she would also live outside if she could.

She loves dogs, but she's really scared of them too.

She's very polite.

She has a temper.

She is so shy around new people and whenever they talk to her default answer is always "yeah".

She is super helpful when she wants to be.

She loves saying: Oh. My. Goodness.

She wont take naps anymore in the afternoon when I tell her that its time for a nap, but when I tell her it's quiet time and I give her the opportunity to play and such she'll play for a while, but always go to sleep.

She loves mimicking any television show that she's currently obsessed with.

She loves to brush hair.

She loves it when Scotty or I hold her while she's falling asleep.

She loves giving hugs and kisses.

She loves (a little too obsessively) to say the prayer.

She loves her baby sister.

She's also almost 3 years old!

 She has such a huge personality and she's just like me.

She has a tender heart.

She wears her heart on her sleeves and emotions are the things that drive her.

She is so stubborn like her daddy and they butt heads quite a bit, but they also get along like two peas in a pod.

I get so frustrated with her all the time because of how much she clashes with me, but it never beats the overwhelming love that I have for her.

Avery:
The newest addition to our family arrived 12/12/2014!

I had a great pregnancy with Avery. 

I wasn't nearly as nauseous as I was with Hailey.

I gained less weight than my first pregnancy as well.

I felt like I had a lot more energy closer to the end.

Overall it was just a good pregnancy.

Avery was due on the 26th of December, but I always thought that she was due a week earlier because that's just what makes sense and we had an ultrasound at that beginning that gave us  different dates as well, but the doctor went with the later one just to be safe.

At 35 weeks I was dilated to a 2, 36 weeks I was at a 3, 37 almost a 4, and 38 weeks I went into labor dilated at a 4 or 5.

We had set the date to be induced on the 19th of December (a week early) so that I could make all the plans and arrangements for Hailey.

Plus we live in Twin Falls and my doctor was in Burley so I wanted to make sure that we would make it in time where my birth with Hailey was less than 2 hours start to finish.

On December 11th Scotty came home with flowers to celebrate our 4 years since he had proposed to me and I was sitting in our closet (also the shared space for my craft supplies since its a ridiculously big closet).

I had just started a fairly messy project thinking that I still had another week to wait so I just went to bed leaving the mess behind.

I woke up at 7 when Scotty got up for work, went to the bathroom then got back in bed.

 When I laid down I felt a warm and wet sensation and found blood so I went into the bathroom where Scotty was and realized that I had blood dripping down my legs.

I think that at that point I was in shock.

           The only thing I could tell Scotty was that I was bleeding.

I sat down and cleaned myself up and I just remember Scotty asking me what to do.

I really had no idea because I didn't know what was going on.

I knew that spotting was normal in a pregnancy, but this was a significant amount of blood and I was also passing blood clots.

Finally the bleeding stopped after a couple of minutes and I realized that I needed to just get up and get moving.

I told Scotty that I wasn't having any contractions and hadn't been at all that morning so I thought it would be safe to make the 45 minute drive to the hospital/doctors office in Burley.

I called my mom to let her know what was going on and I remember that was when my emotions hit me.

I told her that I had woke up bleeding so we were headed to the hospital.

When I said the words out loud I broke down crying.

Looking back and knowing the outcome now it seems like such a silly thing to do, but at that point I honestly was afraid that we were going to lose her.

We had our hospital bags packed for the most part, but there was still a few things we needed to grab and we were out of the house in a few minutes. 

I wasn't sure whether to go to the hospital right away or just schedule an appointment with my doctor, but ended up calling the hospital and they told me to come in to them just to be safe. 

The drive from our house to the hospital was one of the longest drives ever because I honestly didn't know what was going on and I was afraid that all of the blood meant there was some kind of a complication.

I hadn't felt her kick or move at all since I had woken up and she was usually very active in the mornings.

Feeling her kick for the first time on that drive literally made me cry. 

 I was so relieved. 

She only did it once or twice, but it was enough of a reassurance for the last few minutes of the drive.

 We met my parents at the hospital and they took Hailey and we headed inside.

I was so happy to see the nurse that was on staff, Mary!

She was my young womens leader at one point and she was also the nurse that was there to help deliver Hailey (we also had the same doctor in the same hospital) .

She got me hooked up to the monitors and we found out that Avery's heartbeat was strong.

 She checked me and found out that I was dilated to a 5 and 'my cervix was falling apart'.. haha.

So she got the doctor called and he gave the okay to keep me.

I was so happy knowing that we were gonna have our baby that day!

It was kind of a whirlwind after that.

I called my parents to let them know what was going on and that they would need to keep Hailey for the day.

We called both of Scotty's parents to tell that that she was going to be coming that day and I also called my sister because her and Jon were on their way to Canada.

The doctor came in to break my water a little bit later, but apparently he wasn't able to find it.

We were all a little confused about that because to my knowledge my water hadn't broken, I had already experienced it with Hailey so I knew what it felt like and I knew that it hadn't happened yet and I hadn't experienced any leaking.

Looking back at it now I think my water broke a little bit when I woke up that morning and that is why there was so much blood and why it was dripping down my legs.

I think that it didn't fully break though and it just slowly leaked out as I was going to the bathroom before the doctor got there to break it.

Labor was just about the same as Haileys, but I felt like I was able to breeze through this one a little easier. 

I was able to breath through the contractions and that helped a lot.

After an hour the contractions really picked up and I couldn't even stand up because of how intense the pain was.

I was slowly dilating, but I got stuck at an 8.

Avery wasn't turning the right way so the pressure wasn't being put in the right place to get me to fully dilate.

My body was ready though.

Thank goodness for Mary because she was the best nurse that I could have asked for.

I kept calling her back in to check to see if I was dilated, but I was still stuck at an 8.

At that point the pain was so severe because she was stuck so I got a dose of IV medicine to take off the edge.

I got to the point that the urge to push was so severe they told me just to go with that instinct.

So I did.

Pushing took longer and was much more painful than it was with Hailey because Avery was still turned the wrong way, but it only took about 30 mins and she was finally here! 

Scotty was amazing.

I honestly don't think I could have asked for a better husband.

He was very attentive and yet he knew when he needed to keep his distance and just ask what I needed.

He was also perfect because he didn't get offended when the pain was so intense that I just laid there without replying.

After I had her I started hemorrhaging.

Thank goodness it wasn't severe, but it did take him a few minutes to stop my bleeding.

Avery was born on 12/12/2014 at 12:50 pm.

She was 6 lbs 8 oz and 18 3/4 inches long.

I stayed in the hospital for one night and we were able to leave the next day.

I'm not going to get into all of the details because it was very frustrating and a process that lasted for the first 3 weeks of her life, but Avery had pretty bad jaundice.

She had to go back to the hospital and be readmitted the day after we left to stay under the bili lights.

 She had to get her foot pricked and her blood checked 4 times over the 26 hour period and finally her levels got low enough to send her home. 

We had to bring her back 2 days later to make sure it was still low.

After getting it checked we were sent to the doctors and he told us that it had shot up into the high risk zone and that we had to get her onto a bili blanket. 

She was checked every 2 days after that for the next 2 weeks.

I think we calculated it out to her having her foot pricked 14-16 times (a couple of those times being multiple pricks in one blood draw).

Needless to say it was very sad and frustrating.

Also needless to say, it was a beautiful day when she finally got into the low intermediate risk zone!

Avery has always been very clingy and she LOVES to be held! 

She co slept with me from day 1 and although I'm not against co sleeping.. I definitely didn't want to co sleep.

Every time I would lay her down on her own at night she would just scream and scream, but was always okay during the day.

So I gave in and co slept.

Her first night in her own bed was finally February 26th!

It was so exciting.

Scotty was already on nights though so it was also a little lonely knowing she was gonna be in her own bed.

Currently she's still in our room, but when we get a crib in the next few days we'll be putting her in Haileys room! 

It should be a fun new transition :)

So here's a little bit about Avery:

She brings such a light to our family.

The first smile I was able to catch on camera was January 9th and she started smiling just a few days (or maybe even only one day) before that so she was just under a month old.

At her 2 month appointment she weighed 12 lbs which puts her in the 90th percentile.

I love having a chubby baby because Hailey was always in the 5th percentile so its fun to have the opposite end of it now! 

And she's perfectly chubby, she doesn't look unhealthily chubby :) 

Avery loves to have conversations with me. 

She loves to coo.

She loves to open her mouth when she smiles.

She loves to occasionally stick her tongue out when she smiles.

She loves to look all over the place.

Its cute because I'll try to get her to focus on me, but every time I try to put myself in her line of sight she'll look away quickly.

She won't look at you unless she wants to..

But when she does, she just stares and it'll make you feel like you're the only person in her world!

She has been almost completely the opposite of her sister from day one.

She loves her big sister.

She absolutely LOVES bath time.

Sometimes when she gets upset Hailey will sing to her and she calms down pretty quickly.

She likes to bounce.

She likes to listen to music.

She loves it when I sing to her.

When I start to sing she loves to coo back at me.

She has a little bit of a dimple!

She has a double chin.. haha :)

Right now she is definitely a mama's girl.

She doesn't like tummy time.

She only sort of likes laying on her back on her play mat, but it really just depends on the day.

She likes sitting in her bumbo while I work on crafts or do things in the kitchen.

She's held her head up like a champ since she was 2 weeks and continues to do really well with holding herself up.

She loves to stand up and stretch out her legs.

Shes most active in the mornings and I love to lay in bed with her and Hailey while we wait for Scotty to get home.

She's also almost 3 months old!

She is amazing and I am so excited for the progress that she's making. 

The Move:

So another thing that happened in the last 6 months was us moving!

We moved out of our house in Rexburg on the last day of August and Hailey and I (with Avery in the womb) moved in with my parents.

Scotty had to work until the middle of September so he stayed with our amazing friends, the Nortons, while he finished out the last 3 weeks of work.

After those 3 weeks of a few trips halfway, Scotty driving to see us a few times, and us going to see him, he finally came came to live with us again :)

He had a few days off before starting work in Twin.

He drove a few times from Rupert to Twin, but decided the hour drive wasn't something that he wanted to do and even wasn't as safe because he kept getting tired on the drive so we made the decision to look for a place here.

We were able to find a couple that was selling their contract for their apartment.

It was a great apartment for a decent price and its only a mile from Scottys work so it was perfect! 

It's only 2 bedrooms so its kind of sad, but we love it and I definitely feel like I can call it home.

We moved in the middle of October.

We have our contract here for a few more months and then we have to make a decision on whether or not we want to stay or look at moving into something bigger/better price/or even maybe our own home.

But that is a conversation for another day because we have no idea what step we want to take next.

We've even considered transferring out of Twin Falls, but I still don't have the heart to move farther away from family.

We'll see where our journey takes us as we get closer to that point though.

Well if you've stuck with me this long, thanks! 

It's been 6 months (give or take) since my last post so there was a ton that I needed to catch everyone up on.

Long story short, we're all doing well and we have a happy and healthy family.

If I can stick with my goal then hopefully you'll be hearing from me next week.

Keep an eye out for my tutorials!