A Summer Full of Firsts!

This summer seems to be flying by...I guess that is a good thing because that means we are keeping busy. This summer has brought us so many wonderful things and so many firsts for all of us. It is definitely a summer I will never forget.

After a nice long week off Brad started his new job and he likes it! Thank God :) However, he still has to journey out the the lake every day in his truck that has no air. I know...I know we are going to buy him a new one this weekend. His very first brand new truck!

I will be finishing my summer school class on Thursday!!! yay! It has been a hard 5 weeks of work but its finally over and I can relax without having to worry about any papers to write. I still have about 5 more classes to go. They start back up in August and if i stick to the plan I will graduate next summer. The first person in my family to go to college and get a masters!

Mayley is growing like a weed. She is over 20lbs. and is 30 inches long! She is so tall. Her latest firsts are saying as well as singing "ugh oh" and she says mama, dada, num num, baba, and various other noises. She loves to cruz around the house and stand up everywhere. She finally stood up a few weeks ago all by herself but does not do it very often. Everyone keeps saying she will walk soon...now I say "ugh oh!" She enjoys eating baby food and real food and loves even more to spit out and smile. She has been throughing her peas off the side and then clapping. LOL

But I can handle it becasue I am nice and rested now. My little angel is sleeping through the night, from about 8 to 4, bottle, then again until 7 or 8. Lately she has been sleeping all the way through from 8-7 but I know that won't last. LOL She even takes two to three naps a day. We have a great routine going and we stick to it. It makes life much better.

She can also clap her hands, wave, and give kisses if you ask. It is the cutest thing in the world! Her favorite game is when Brad or I says, "I'm gunna get you!" and she takes off crawling and screaming as fast as she can while we chase after her groaning in pain from crawling on our knees. Ouch! Another favorite of hers is swimming. She is such a water bug. She loves to splash! She even tries to swim in the bathtub. I think she could spend all day swimming if we let her.

Another first for Mayley will be going on her very first road trip to California. We will be going to My best friends wedding in the middle of July. I can't wait to take her to the beach! She will also be going on her very first plain ride in August to see her great grandma (my gramma Lou) and all her great uncles and aunts and cousins. When we get back to Vegas she gets to meet Brad's bother and family for the very first time. It will be so neat for her to meet her three first cousins...they all look alike and are all little so they will have so much together. Then after all that Mayley will be celebrating her first birthday on August 21st! Talk about a busy first year of life!

Like I said before, this summer is packed full of firsts and we are keeping busy. For some reason a lot more work comes with firsts...I wonder what it will be like when number two comes along? Hmmmm.

Moving on up!

For those of you who don't already know, Brad has been interviewing with an engineering company called EMA for the last month. Yes, the whole month. It started with an informal lunch interview, then he had to fly out to Arizona where he he interviewed with four diffeent poeple for the whole day, then he had a 20 minute phone interview with the VP and finally he had to write a essay. I guess they want to know if he can write. Geez what a process! But it was worth it. Brad was officially hired as the project engineer for that company and starts in June. This company was looking for young new talent to eventually take over the old guys at this company. It is a possibility that Brad will move up vrey far in this company one day! Yay Brad, finally a job he might not be bored with...might.

March Madness and More

March was such a busy month for us. Mayley started crawling....and everywhere! In the same week she figured out how to pull herself up in her crib and now she loves to stand in front of the window and be the neighborhood watch. Every morning when she wakes up, she is standing in her crib with a huge smile on her face just waiting for me to come and get her. Makes my day every day. :) Mayley also got her first two teeth on the bottom. Teething was a nightmare!!! We only got a two week break and then she started teething again. It looks like the ones on top might be coming in soon. In April, we got to visit the Easter bunny. She tried to pull of his neck tie and eat it...I think she liked him. On Easter she received three stuffed bunnies from us, Uncle Drew, Great Grandma and Grampa, and a huge Easter basket from grams and grams...she's not spoiled. She also started eating like a monster this month. She can put back two step two packages of Gerber baby food and then have a bottle! She loves peas still..well she loves everything.I even started giving her those little puffs and she loves those things too. She also holding her own bottle. She can hold it, but then gives up...too much work I guess. This month Mayley also started to take baths in the big tub...she likes that too. She loves to splash! Speaking of splashing. The other day the weather was so nice we all went to the pool and Mayley got her first taste of pool water..no really she drank the water. But overall she loved being in the pool and was splashing away! And lastly I have been trying to be brave and when Mayley wakes up at her usual 2 AM time I have been letting her cry it out. She only cried for about ten minutes and then went back to sleep. I am finally after 8 months getting her to sleep from 8-4:45. She gets her bottle then and goes back to sleep until 6:30-7. I feel so much better! So worth it. So let me take a breath now....it has been a crazy two months and I'm sure it will get even crazier.

Brian Head

Our trip to Brian Head was soooooooooo much fun! Of course I called my mom only 15 min. after dropping her off...give me a break, I couldn't help it. :) Our friends Dom and Juisele came with us and we got to stay in one of his clients cabin. This was not just any cabin, it was a three level fully furnished cabin with a bar, 3 bed, 3 bath, four wheelers, big screens...the works. AMAZING! Anyway, We basically went to celebrate Brad's 28th b-day, yes 28! OLD MAN hahahahah. The weather was absolutely perfect, I even got burnt! We had a great time carving the mountain, riding in the park and well just letting loose...except Brad and I kept wondering about Mayley. Once a parent always a parent, even on vacation. Below are some silly pics I took and an even sillier video of me trying to jump and then crashing.


Brad and I

Me riding over a car

The four of us

Hanging right outside our cabin

I took all these grat pics and then realized later I had my camera in black and white mode :( I was so mad!

ALright ALright!!!

I keep getting yelled at to update my blog so I am :) Between Myspace and Facebook and this I have a lot of updating to do! I hate technology...jk. Well sometimes. Anyway, Mayley is doing so good. She almost crawling...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! She is able to get up on her knees and rock and she has taken a crawl step but then she falls on her face :( but she tries so hard. As much as I try she does not want to sit up. I guess on her own terms she will. She is also now eating stage 2 food she loves peas, sweet potatos, and the mix of apples and blueberries. She hates carrots now!

Brad and I and some friends are going to Brian Head this weekend for his birthday (March 14) and this will be the first time we are leaving Mayley. We are so excited to go but a little nervous to leave our little peanut. I know she will be in good hands with grandma Jill and grandpa Cary but we will miss her. It will be three whole days. I swear we have packed everything she owns to take over there...you can never be to prepared right? I can see it now, me on the chair lift, phone in hand calling my mom to see how Mayley is. hahahahah My friends keep telling me the more kids you have the less worried you become about them. I guess they tend to get a little more neglected than the first child...hahahahah

Brad is still searching every day for a new job. He is so bored at his job and would love to find something new, exciting, and challenging. He is so desperate to do something hands on that his sister-in-law Kelly sent him a b-day card that when you open it it sings. Well it was broken from traveling all the way from the Netherlands, that he got out his fancy engineering tools and rewired the darn thing to work...and it did! LOL Poor guy. So pray he finds something good, he deserves it.

I just met with my advisor and we mapped out the rest of my masters program and if I stick to the plan I will graduate with my MS as a Reading Specialist next Summer!!!! Yay!

6 Month Update

Mayley had her 6 month check-up and is weighing in at 16.9 lbs. and 27 in. Her last check-up she weighd 15lbs. and was 25 in. so she is growing nice and healthy! The Dr. said it is time to baby proof the house because pretty soon she will be crawling...we think she will run before she crawls by the way she moves in her walker. She also gets to start eating more baby food, so far she really likes peas, carrots and sweet potatos. She always makes makes a sour face at the fruit but she keeps on opening her mouth for more so I guess she likes it all so far. The only things she does not like are squah and pears, those made her tummy hurt. Other than that she is SUFFERING or I guess we are LOL from teething! She hasn't gotten any yet but boy does she chew on everything and anything...always accompanied by screaming and crying. Oh the joys of pareting! She hasn't sat up yet but she is working on it.



Mayley and I have been going to Gymboree on Wednesdays to the level 1 class. It is so much and she gets to interact with two other little babies, both boys who are only weeks old. I will be moving her up to level 2 pretty soon...she's over level 1, she is ready to learn harder stuff. I think I enjoy the class more than her right now. I get to get out of the house and talk to other moms which is nice. Also my mom finally finished her conferenced so she is is excited to spend more time with her grand daughter...and so am I LOL Her other Grandma Ellen has been coming over on Fridays to babysit while Brad and I play soccer.



As for Brad, he is loving every moment of being a dad. I always new he would be good at it but watching him is amazing. He loves her so much and loves to see her grow and learn. He thinks she is already good at math! hahahahah go figure engineer. I don't know about that but I do know that she loves to chew on his nose...I'm just saying.



Below are some pictures I just took of her

Its Getting Hot in Here!

As cold as it is outside, things were heating up in our house. Mayley had her first fever :( She woke up one morning with a temperature of 100.5 and she was not a happy camper all day. So naturally we gave her Tylenol every four hours and were hopeful that it would go away. After a long night of holding her and comforting her she finally fell asleep and so did we. The next morning she woke up with that pesky fever again. Since I'm a first time mommy I freaked out and took her to the Dr. I had an appointment at 10:30 and had to sit on the sick side with all these coughing, snotty nosed, fever, fluish kids. Oh joy! I finally got in an hour later. The Doc checked her out and said she was super healthy and just had a little fever bug and to continue doing what I was already doing. Of course the fever went away later that day. Yeah! no more worrying...except now Brad and I are sick thanks to me going to the docters office to get Mayley better. Hahahaha Oh well what can you do? Cough cough, sneeze, blowing nose...excuse me. Instead of leaving you mith my cold bug, I'll leave you with a Mayley bug.