Baby Update

So, I realized I haven't posted anything about the baby that is on the way. I guess we've been really busy with other things, like holidays and Madison that this poor little one is kind of on the back burner. Sadly I don't even have any belly pics to go with this post. I keep telling Mahlon we need to take some and we will, some day when we have time (maybe on the way out the door to the hospital! j/k! Anyway, I figured I better write a little bit for journaling purposes and for those who are interested. I am now 33 weeks and 1 day along (I'm due January 11) So far everything had been great and routine, but the last two weeks we've had some events. Every time I go in for a check up they measure me and I measure small so the last visit I had my Dr. told me she wanted to do another ultrasound to check the babies growth (Picture is from ultrasound, her hands were covering her face). So we went in and although everything looked symmetrical, the baby was measuring round 29 weeks and I was 31 and in the lower 10th percentile of normal baby growth. When this happens they are concerned that perhaps the baby is not getting enough nutrients from the placenta or is under some other stress causing it not to grow. Or, it could be that mom is small. Which is obviously true. They are having me go in again for another ultrasound in a week or so to make sure that the baby is still growing at least at the same rate and hasn't dropped into a lower percentile range. Meanwhile, my doctor had me start doing Non-stress tests twice a week until I deliver. I have to get hooked to monitors and they monitor the babies movements for 20-30 min. They look for 4 accelerations, or movements in that time period and check the heart rate. If the baby is moving and the heart looks good then its a good sign that the baby is healthy. During this they also monitor contractions. In addition to this I have an ultrasound once a week to check on the amniotic fluid levels. So last week was my first one and I was thinking it was all unnecessary because everything was checking out great, baby's great, I'm great, fluid is great so I'm thinking "Why do you have me coming in all the time, if everything is great?" I was frustrated because it was more of nuance to go to the hospital take two hours (including travel and check in) of my day AFTER Mahlon was home from work so that he could stay with Madison when everything looks great. But then, I went last night for the second time and although baby looked great- after sitting there for 30 minutes the nurse comes in, looking very concerned, and says "I may have to send you to OB Triage, you're only 33 weeks and you're contracting every 3-4 minutes" I was a little surprised to hear this because I wasn't even aware I was having that many contractions. I got a little freaked out thinking "What if I'm in labor and don't even know it?-I can't have a baby yet!" (I had been joking about being done being pregnant, but obviously I was not serious!) So sure enough I kept having contractions so the nurse took me upstairs to OB Triage and I had to have an exam and a test done to check for an enzyme that your body creates in preparation for labor. A positive result would say "you will have a baby in the next two weeks" and a negative result will say "you won't have a baby yet, at least not in the next two weeks" Thankfully my cervix was very closed, meaning the contractions were not changing my cervix so I wasn't in pre-term labor, just having pre-term contractions, also, good news my test came back negative so Baby will not be coming in the next two weeks either. Unfortunately, in order for me to go home, they needed the contractions to stop so I had to get a shot of medication to relax my uterus. It worked right away and I didn't have one for about 20 minutes and then I had two more so I had to get a second shot and that time I didn't have any more so they sent me home. A 4:30 apt. that should have been 30minutes long ended up being 3 hours and I left about 7:30pm. What a scare! After last night (and talking to the nurse a little about why I was coming in all the time) made me understand a little bit better why my Dr. has me going in for these tests. I don't feel so frustrated about going, I only hope that I don't have to go through all that again and that I can go back to "everything looks great!" results until I'm a little further along. Other than having a pre-term labor scare everything has been fine and I feel great! And I'm a little more willing to stay pregnant for a little bit longer.

Happy Halloween!

Sorry this is so late!

We had such a great Halloween. I've been hiding Madison's costume for a month because she wanted to wear it all the time! She was so excited to finally be able to wear it. And she looked so cute, but I know my opinion i s a bit biased. We went to a party in Gilbert, the ward Trunk-or-treat and then of course Trick or treating with my sister. Madison got so much candy, we have to store it in two buckets! She LOVED trick-or-treating though, she kept saying "I said trick or treat and I got CANDY!" It was so funny! She also loved to tell everyone who she was dressed up as. "I Tinker Bell!" and it was so sweet of her to tell everyone "my mom made my shoes" after getting compliments on them.
Cute side note: When Grandma Newton brought over this costume and showed Madison she was so excited about the wings. She had been watching Peter Pan and Tinker Bell (as well as a fairy Barbie movie in which a fairy gets wings and can fly) and said she wanted to fly so Mahlon picked her up and "flew" her around the room. When he put her down she said "I fly by myself!" and stood there, waiting to take off. When I explained it was just pretend, that she couldn't fly by herself her little face dropped, she was so disappointed, I felt so bad! She has now accepted it and realizes that Daddy has to be home in order to fly! She also insists on putting on her wings and "flying" up to anything that is out of reach, rather than have me pick her up or get it for her. She's so funny!
Also note, now that Halloween is over Madison has put her costume on nearly every day since.

Posing, making a funny face!

All the loot!

The shoes I made to go with her costume!

Halloween Happenings!

We've started out Halloween celebrations early this year. I guess I'm just overly excited, but Madison and I have been filling our days with Halloween crafts and activities. I am really enjoying getting ready for Halloween this year, usually I'm not this excited until Christmas but Madison is so excited I think it's rubbing off on me. We've decorated the house (complete with lights and spider webs), made paper pumpkins, I bought some foam crafts- a ghost and a pumpkin at Micheal's that we made and today we built a Haunted Candy House. I have plans to make still Halloween cookies, paint faces on pumpkins and of course carve pumpkins. I've also started baking goodies early, which means I'll probably be as big as a whale by Christmas, but I can't stop myself! Anyway, here are the pictures of out Haunted House. I got the idea from a friend at church and since I love making gingerbread houses at Christmas I thought this was so cute I had to do it! I was probably more into it than Madison (she liked to eat the candy) but we still had a good time.

Starting with just a graham cracker house


"Tasting" the decorations


Adding the final touches. (Yes, she did change dresses, and yes that is her Halloween costume from last year, it's the only thing that keeps her from wearing this year's costume every day!)


The finished product



This past weekend we also went to Schnepf Farm with Mahlon's mom and sister. Its way over in Queen Creek but it was so fun! They had little carnival rides; Madison's favorite was the Carousel, she rode it about 5 times. They also had a train ride, a roller coaster, corn maze, petting zoo, pumpkin patch, marshmallow roasting over a fire, live music, go carts, a play ground, a dog show and lots of yummy food. It was so fun! It wasn't crowded, even on Saturday (perhaps because it was so early in the Halloween season) but we didn't have to wait in line for anything. We'll Definitely be going again next year!

Riding a pony all by myself!


The carousel with Daddy


Happy Halloween!


In the Pumpkin Patch!


Waiting for the Train ride to start.


Look at the enormous bag of Kettle Corn!


The Air Plane ride!


Petting the goats.

September Update

So I don't know what happened to September, but I honestly feel like it didn't happen. One day it's the first and before I knew it it's October! Actually, I do know what happened, it's just crazy how fast it flew by. My sister came to live with us with her two children to await the birth of her third. She lives is Prescott Valley and because she had a C-section for her first, she has come to Phoenix for her second and now third delivery in order to do a V-BAC (Vaginal birth after Cesarean) -they won't do that in Prescott. Also, her husband is serving in the military and is on his second tour over in Kuwait. He left in March and will be gone through Next April. SO...she didn't want to wait for labor to start to come down so she came early and stayed with us. It was a bit chaotic having three adults and (two pregnant women) and Three little ones ages four, two and 18mo. running around. It was pretty much damage control all day! I didn't get much of anything else done.

Tanner Brian Smith was born Saturday September 19. While Selina (mom) was in the hospital I had all the kids myself for two days. Whoa! I'd just like to say that its a good thing children come one at a time (usually)! Selina's husband was given 15 days leave to come home after the baby was born so since he was flying into Phoenix that coming Thursday Selina came home with baby to our house. It was fun to have a new born to cuddle and hold to remind me of why I'm pregnant. Unfortunately seeing the "after birth recovery" of my sister gave me lots of reasons to wonder why I got myself into this again! It was mostly good though.

Thursday everyone left, including us as we were off to Lake Powell for the weekend with Mahlon's family. It was such a great weekend get away, but too short. No one wanted to come home Sunday. The weather was great and we had a great time.





Now, we're back and it's October. I'm looking forward to the upcoming holidays!

And the girls have it!

That's right, not only did "girl" win by a vote of 5 to 3, but today's ultra sound showed girl too! We're very excited to do all things pink once again!

Boy or Girl?

I don't know how to do a cool vote box so I'm just doing it the old fashioned way. We're finding out what the sex of the baby is in one week. Any predictions? You have a 50/50 chance to be correct!

San Diego!

So I'm finally getting around to posting about our recent trip to San Diego. It was so great to get away for a few days, but it was definitely too short. We had so much we wanted to do and so little time, but we tried to get in as much as possible in the three days we were there.

We had a great hotel in Down Town San Diego which made it possible for us to walk around to shops and restaurants and we had a pretty cool view from our room of the Harbor.


Hanging out in the hotel



We spent a day at the beach. Madison didn't like the water at first and thought the sand was too hot. We finally got her playing in the sand by cooling it off with some water and Mahlon took her out in the waves and she loved it! She said she was "swimming like Ariel!"



By the end of the day we were all completely covered in sand, but we had had fun!



It was fun to have Kara and Hallie hang out with us on the beach and to see them while we were there, even if it was just a short visit.
Note: This was just before Kara and Hallie left , after Kara had cleaned and changed Hallie out of her swim suit and into a clean diaper, but this was the only time Hallie and Madison were close enough together to take a picture.

Mahlon and Madison flying a kite!


The next day we went up to LaJolla Cove and explored the tide pools which was cool!

Mahlon caught a little crab.




We then headed over to Birch's Aquarium to see some other sea life. Madison loved looking at all the tanks of fish. They had some tide pools with lots of cool things and Madison got to touch a real star fish!



We defiantly want to go again some time and see some of the attractions we missed this time but it was a great way to say good bye to summer!

Independence Day 2009!

Our Fourth was pretty uneventful-we spent it at home but we did go swimming and go out for dinner. The fireworks were being set off just across the street from our complex so we drove (which we later regretted doing because traffic was so bad coming home) in the Best Buy parking lot nearby and watched the fireworks from the sidewalk. It was nice because we didn't have to wait too long but as I said earlier we should have just walked there because traffic was a mess! It was Madison's first fireworks show and she kept talking about watching the fireworks, even though she had no idea what they were. She was totally in awe once the fireworks started, but after a couple went off she suddenly burst into tears saying she was scared and we almost had to go home! I got her settled down by pointing out the colors and shapes and she finished watching the show quietly while holding my hand. By the time they were ending she was getting into them and saying things like "whoa, big one!" Now when she see's fireworks on her movies (Aladdin) she gets very excited and has been coloring fireworks in her pictures ever since so I'm glad to say she's not totally traumatized. We were very glad, however that we opted out of waiting hours in the heat to see them from where they were shooting them off. Maybe we'll try that next year! Hope you all enjoyed your Fourth!

Passing the time playing with the camera.


Waiting with Daddy for fireworks to start


Happy: Pre Fireworks!


This was Madison's reaction to the fireworks, just before she started to cry! You can see the slight concern on her face.

More Excuses!

Ok, it's been quite awhile since I've posted all the reasons why I haven't posted in awhile so it's time to do it again! So here we go, these are the things that have been keeping me too busy to post and all the happenings since my last post (which has been about a month and a half, sorry)

1. Summer started, which was great because Mahlon was home from work but when he's home I don't seem to get as much stuff done.

2. Mahlon got very sick. Right after school got out he got sick, two Urgent Care visits and one visit to the ER we found out he had double viral pneumonia! That took a good two weeks to get over, luckily neither Madison nor I caught it.

3. I was called as the Girls Camp Director so I was busy planning camp activities, going to Young Woman's on a weekly basis doing certification, skit prep, doing crafty things, and gathering miscellaneous items for girls camp which was June 30-July 2 (I just finished which is why I now have time to post!)

4. We celebrated Madison's second birthday, which ended up being a combo party for my neice's baptism because they both had to be on the only open Saturday in June. We had 30+ people crammed in my little apartment. Good times.

5. We also had two weekend family reunions in which we camp out-this means packing bags, tents, blankets, food, etc. More good times.

6. Mahlon got over pneumonia and headed up to Flagstaff to work for his Dad for the summer, leaving me at home to prepare for the trips, camp, and take care of Madison, etc. all on my own.

7. Going to Girls camp. Leaving Madison with my sister. Staying up too late, waking up too early, running around singing camp songs for four days, in the rain and mud, sleeping in a crowded cabin with snoring campers, hiking, archery, crafts, certification, limited showers, etc.

8. And last, but definitely not least, being pregnant. Yep-that's right I did all the above mentioned activities while being in a constant state of nausea and sleepiness, which thankfully let up just before girls camp (not the sleepiness, but that's to be expected at camp) FYI: I'm due January 11 and tomorrow will be 13 weeks. So now that I have nothing to work on, I'm over the first trimester and feeling much better, great timing, huh?

Ha, Ha! Now that I look over it again it sounds pretty awful, but in actuality it wasn't. Yes, I felt very sick, but I only puked once (that's pretty good, I think!) and I had a lot of fun at Girls Camp but I am a little relieved that it's over. I'm definitely looking forward to some down time so that I can actually start thinking about baby #2. The poor thing has been on the back burner a little bit, but it will now be front and center for a while. I know I say this every time, but I'll try to be better about posting more regularly! Until Next time! : )

God works in mysterious ways!

So as many of you know, about three months ago the district that Mahlon works for informed him that they would be cutting hundreds of jobs, including his. In April he received his official letter informing him that he would not be offered a contract for next school year. We were very worried and sad because all across the state teachers were losing jobs and the likelihood of us finding a new job seemed very slim. He began applying to anything we could find, which wasn't much. Mahlon is certified to teach Art, but his real passion is photography. At his current job he was teaching one section of each Art, Ceramics, Media tech, and Photography, not the ideal job-but it was paying the bills. So, we were looking for anything, but really hoping for a full-time photography. We applied out of State to several districts and heard nothing back. Then about a month ago we heard Chandler School district was hiring a photography teacher and we thought "This is it. This has to be the job we get." Everything seemed to perfect: it was exactly what Mahlon wanted, full-time film photography, close to family, etc. We applied and he got an interview. We prayed and prayed that the Lord would bless us with this job. I felt that if he didn't get this job, our only other option would be to move out of State, and even that didn't seem promising. We both felt peaceful and hopeful, we were confident that he would get it. Well, he didn't get the job.
We were heart broken and I was ANGRY! I complained because I honestly believed what God has promised, that if I asked in Faith, God would bless me with whatever I desired. I refused to accept that what we had asked for was not right and that that was why we were not given it, I just felt that we were somehow cheated.
Not more than a week after hearing about not getting the job in Chandler Mahlon received a call from his current district saying that they had a full-time photography job available for him within the district, but at a different high school-there was just some paper work to do before they could get a contract to him. I have never felt so stupid- so humbled and so sorry for being angry at the Lord. We had thought that moving to Chandler was the best option for us but God knew better. He knew that it would be in our benefit to not have to move, again. He knew that it would be better for Mahlon to keep his seniority rather than start over at a new district. And He knew that this opportunity would be coming to us. I believe in miracles and I believe that Mahlon getting the job he wanted in a district that had previously cut him was nothing short of a miracle and I can only thank my Father in Heaven for being patient with me and answering our prayers, in a way we could not have imagined- but in a way that has our best interest in mind. So next time things don't go the way I think they should, I'm just going to step aside and let the Lord handle it, He's better at it than I am anyway!
So here's to being employed once again!