E's Blessing Day and 2 Months!

We Blessed Evie on Sunday August 21st down here in St. George

Brandons little sister Aubrey made her blessing dress and I think it turned out BEAUTIFULLY!

Brandon did a great job on the blessing!

Included everything I hoped he would have :)

The only bummer about the whole day was that I had no brothers in the circle :(

Jared is only 11

Ryan is on his mission in Cambodia 

and Joe is in Missouri for Medical School

So to stand in for all my brothers I had my best friend Nate Nelson come down and be in the circle

It was really special to have him and all my family drive all the way down there just for us.

Well I lied...

I guess we had 2 bummers that day

Evie has only blown out ONE diaper her entire life and it was on the Mother-of-the-Groom at our cousin Kevins wedding...

About a half hour before we put Evie in her blessing dress she blew out ALL OVER my poor Grandma Vincent!

Who of course was wearing a white cream dress

... stinkin' baby....

She has the WORST timing!

(yeah Grandma she looks cute and innocent NOW!)

Sacrament meeting was stressful

I was worried the entire time she was going to blow out another diaper all over in her dress

I was worried she was gonna scream through the entire prayer

I was worried she was gonna spit up during the prayer and Brandon would have to hold her up covered in mucus 

Etc.

When it was time for the prayer Brandon got up
the circle of men closed
 and then REALLY loudly right into the mic.
Evie started crying! 

YOUR KIDDING ME!?!!

luckily for us she squeaked out about 2 little whimpers and then stopped!

.phew.

After the blessing I had to take her out to change her

"PLEASE don't be a blow out diaper!!"

I got to the "Mothers Lounge" and started searching for a diaper ...

apparently I thought Brandon packed her bag and he thought I packed her bag so this kid had NO diapers!
.yup.

Parents of the YEAR!

I felt so bad!

After church Brandon ran to our apartment and got some diapers and then met back at the Valantines for the big party

After being held by 20+ people Evie was exhausted and ready for a nap so we went home.

.................................................................................................

EVANGELINE IS 2 MONTHS OLD NOW!

WAY too fast

I seriously can't believe how big she's getting

how smart she is

how strong she is!

She already thinks things are funny

Her Dad and Uncle Jared just crack her up.

She can stand up on her legs by herself with out any help 

(well accept balancing)

She's got big blue eyes and loves to be social

She HATES being held like a "baby" and has to be held so she is sitting up and can see everyone.

She'll lay and just talk and talk to you for hours

She LOVES Curious George books!

She almost knows her hands belong to her so she's starting to suck on them.

The other day I laid her on the couch on her back then turned and dug for a diaper in her bag, when I turned back around she was on her tummy!

I don't know if SHE did that or if the slight slope in the sofa cushion was to blame but either way

SHE ROLLED OVER!

She loves sleeping in her little travel backpack

and is becoming QUIET the little "Dads Girl"

what a blast!

Can't wait for month 3!

San Clemente Trip

Every year my family and 4 of our best friends families go on a HUGE California beach trip to San Clemente! We go every August, stay at the same hotel, go to the same beaches, and play the same games and it's a party every time!! We average about 35 people in attendance and with marriages and babies being added it just keeps getting bigger!

Like every year Brandon came and spent 85% of the trip at the hotel studying for the MCAT

It's always a bummer that he has to do that but every year I keep myself entertained with boogie boarding and beach volleyball so it's usually fine. 

This year however was VERY different...

SATURDAY

We left St. George Saturday night at 9:30 pm and drove all through the night to avoid traffic

We got to our hotel in San Clemente around 4 am and found out we couldn't check in until 1 in the afternoon!! 

SUNDAY

We sat down and fell asleep in the foyer and around 6 am a very unhappy manager came and kicked us all out! 

*rude*

Then we decided to go hobo style and we went and slept in a very muggy, very dog populated park

after giving up on trying to sleep we went and waited again outside the hotel until they would allow us to check in and then we all fell asleep again, ate dinner, and went back to bed for the night.

MONDAY

We woke up

left my study zombie of a husband at the hotel and went shopping and out to lunch on Del Mar

While we were out shopping I couldn't keep warm! I was FREEZING for some reason?

We went to our favorite mexican place and by the time our food came I was nauseous, freezing and my chest was KILLING ME! It came on so fast!

We went back to the hotel after lunch and I collapsed on the bed and was shivering like crazy! 

My mom told me that she thought I had a fever and if I did she was taking me to the hospital..

We took my temp. and sure enough 104!

I was immediately wisked away to the instacare where we decided I had developed a mastitis.

yuck!

After a long Dr.s appointment they sent me to the Hospital for some infusions of antibiotics.

After all that I went home and slept

TUESDAY

Same deal.

woke up sick

went to the Dr.s

went in for my next infusions

(Jared cracks Evie up it is so funny!)

Me and Evie went to the beach for 2 hours but of course we both hid in the shade the whole time

FIRST TIME AT THE BEACH!

My mom flew Natalie in for the trip so we picked her up from the airport and got to spend the rest of the week with her! 

WEDNESDAY

Today was actually fun for us.

We peeled Brandon, Evie and I out of the dark hotel and went to Sea World!!

I went to Sea World when I was 4 last so I don't remember any of it so I was excited to go and I LOVED it!

Evie loved it too!

We had her in her little backpack all day so she slept like a rock and then when she was awake there was nothing but colors to look at and music to dance to!

She was so funny at the animals shows!

She would start dancing in her little backpack to the music and everyone around us just thought she was so cute!

(probably cause she is though... just sayin'...)

The Shamoo show at the end of the night was my favorite!

It's AMAZING how big and beautiful those animals are!!

Although Sea World was the fun I still spent the day

*EXPLODING* 

in fever blisters.

.yup.

I had well over 150 cold sores spring up all over my mouth, chin, cheeks and even up my nose!

I guess thats what happens when you run a fever for that long?

It was painful and itchy and terrible but I tried to suck it up and not let it ruin Sea World for me...
(disclaimer* Yes, I cheated. I photoshopped out ALL of my nasty blisters in the photos i'm posting on this blog. I know thats against the rules but i'm having serious self esteem issues about them so leave me alone ha ha ha)

THURSDAY

Wake up

Go to the Dr.s

Go get my LAST infusions (me and the infusions nurse are good buddies by now)

and then FINALLY made it to the beach feeling good!!

NOW its feeling like a vacation!

 Today I at least put my legs out in the sun but still had fever blisters taking up most of my face so I stayed in the shade most of the day again.

Evie had a BLAST playing with everyone who wanted to hold her and sticking her toes in the sand!

Every trip all the adults leave us kids home and go to a really nice restaurant called Fishermans

Usually the younger married couples will go out to dinner somewhere else and all the little kids will stay home and eat pizza and tear apart all the hotel rooms

This year was a little different

While the adults were out we got all the kids together and threw my parents a big 30th Wedding Anniversary party!

judging by the picture you can tell they were very surprised ha ha ha

(sorry for the gross color correcting on these photos, I just gave up on them)

We had cake and ice cream and my sister made a really fun trivia game about their wedding for us all to play!

Good work Nat :)

FRIDAY

Today is pedicure day!

Every year all the girls go and get pedicures at Mingees!

We go get smoothies and then go sit and relax in their big oversized massage chairs...

I took a before and after shot of my toes ha ha ha

See...

MUCH needed pedicure!

I think this might be my favorite pedicure i've ever gotten!

Unfortunately all the pedicure pictures are on my moms camera but Evie was a BIG hit in the salon!

all 12 of the little Vietnamese women LOVED her!

They all sat around my chair and made funny noises at her the entire time and she was just crackin' up!

It was so funny!

After that we headed to the beach again for a couple of hours

(still didn't get in the water)

BUT

we FINALLY got Brandon out of the hotel!!!

since we only went for 2 hours Brandon decided he could spare 2 hours and grace us with his presence ;)

Evie chewed on her arm most of the day (weird baby) and then passed out on the way home 

ha ha ha ha

SATURDAY

Today was a full beach day!

unfortunately is was a freezing cold beach day...

Evie didn't come out and play in the sun like usual 

she hid in her blanket and talked to Grandpa all afternoon

Natalie talked me into getting in the water today!

(My first time for the entire trip)

We grabbed some boogie boards,

ran out into the freezing cold waves,

got pounded 2 or 3 times,

felt like we had ear infections and came in 15 minutes later...

and that was it for me getting in the ocean this week...

...wow...

Aside from being sick the entire week,

being covered, almost entirely in fever blisters,

AND not having a very playful husband, 

I still had a blast with my family and crazy little girl :)

Can't wait for next year!

xo Meg

The One Month Arm Amputation

Miss Evangeline is one month old!

She already seems like a toddler to me. 

I look at the pictures from the hospital and she seems so small and breakable then!

Now I look at her and she seems so big!

I've threatened to stop feeding her so much so she'll stop growing!!

(I would never REALLY do that so don't call Child Protective Services on me please)

I decided I'm going to take each of her "month" pictures in her bumbo seat so we can see her growth so here is the first of 12 bumbo seat pictures!

She and I were missing Grandma Rainey and Grandpa so we took a trip up to SLC this weekend

(that will be in a later post because I forgot to grab the pics off my moms camera before I left) 

as usual she was a happy little stinker the entire trip

 Now some of you are wondering about Brandons arm...

Need I say more?....

I guess this is what happens when you almost lose your arm

Whats CRAZY is this isn't even as bad as it was!

I was looking at it yesterday and realized the coloring is going down so I wanted to grab a picture before it got any better looking!

It used to be SOLID purple. Now its kinda spotty purple and his skin color is coming through the bruise now.

He's being a terd and not wearing his sling at all

He does not asking for help on ANYTHING and it makes me bananas!

When he's holding Evie he'd rather take 50 seconds to lift his arm up and over to put her binkee back in rather than just ask me to put it back for him...

I married the worlds most stubborn man 

 Anyways there is ALWAYS silver lining

We're just grateful he didn't lose his entire arm, we got off easy on this one.

ALSO!

Brandon got a job yesterday!!!

YAHOOO!!

We've been searching and searching and praying and praying for a job and he got a GREAT one!

Since we're going to Medical School next year he wanted a job that sounded good to Medical Schools. 

When he goes to interviews and they ask "so what did you do with your year off?" you don't want to say "oh I wakeboarded until I almost lost my arm and then I got a job at Pizza Factory"

... Not very impressive...

Brandon got a job at Cinnamon Hills!

It's a home for troubled youth, he's worked with troubled youth for about a year and a half before but it was at an intense place that was out in the middle of the desert (Holes style). It was mostly kids with drug and alcohol abuse and behavioral problems so he had to be able to restrain kids if he needed to. This place is in town and it's for kids with behavioral, and mental problems (not so scary). 

It's GREAT pay, GREAT hours, and he gets lots of over time!

Time to build back up that savings!

Anyway, thats our update.

We're going to California next week on our annual Anderson, Fonda, Bennion, Harris, Kroll family beach trip! I LOVE this trip! Theres about 25 of us that go stay in a condo in San Clemente and hit the beach for 7 days! It's a blast! look for that post cause it's gonna be a good one! Lots of cute pictures i'm sure!

xo Meg

California and 1st Day of Church!

This weekend was a fun one! 

Brandon and I decided that the baby and I are doing well enough that we could make the trip to california for our cousin Kevins wedding!

We were a bit worried about the drive because Evie hasn't been in the car for more than 10 minutes yet and we weren't sure if it would be a nice ride or a nightmare.

To avoid any meltdowns and traffic we left St. George at 8 p.m (Evies Bedtime) and got to Cali around 3 a.m and that kid slept the WHOLE way!

These are the 3 cousins. Pat, Kevin, and Brandon. They were all born with in 10 days of each other and have been inseparable ever since! We have about 300,000 pictures JUST like this one 

They are such a fun group of boys

It was only a 2 day trip but it was SO nice to get out of the house! 

We left in the morning for St. George so we were sure this ride wasn't going to go as smoothly as the ride to Cali but once again she slept the ENTIRE WAY! We drove from L.A to St. George and then went straight to a movie and she even slept through the movie!!

I had to check her breathing every once in a while and make her wake up to at least eat!

That was great and all except for now the little stinker thinks that day is when we sleep and night is when we lay in our crib and talk to the baby monitor! I cannot for the life of me get her back on a good sleeping schedule! She was almost sleeping through the night and then that car ride messed her all up. 

Any suggestions on how to get a good sleep schedule going?

Any routines?

What works for you moms out there?

We saw Larry Crowne when we pulled into St. George that night

for those of you who have not seen this movie it is a MUST MUST MUST SEE!!

It is so funny!

The whole story line is darling AND there are NO sex scenes!

what more could you want in a movie!

(Tom Hanks totally reminded me of my dad in this movie for those of you who know him)

The next day I decided to brave the outside world and attend church with my very talkative

(sometimes very gassy)

little girl. 

and of course she did great!

I don't know why I doubt her?

She slept the whole block and was quiet a crowd drawer :)

I was kind of embarrassed though because I accidentally made us match ha ha ha

The 2 of us got tons of "oooh look at the cute mommy-daughter outfits!"

(The cardigan was the fastest thing I could find that would be tolerable in the ST.G heat and was lacking spit up and other bodily fluids...)

I'm learning that you basically have to give up on getting anywhere on time when you have yourself and a baby to get ready. I was only half way dressed when Brandon was yelling "GET IN THE CAR!" so I grabbed my yellow cardigan that I wore to the wedding off the top of my dirty hamper and ran out the door. 

--Monday--

Kevin and his new wife are going on their honeymoon in October so they were hanging around St. George Monday so Brandon and his dad took them out on the lake while I stayed home with Evie.

About 2 hours after they left I got a phone call from Brandon saying that he had broken his arm and he needed to go to the hospital...

knowing my husband like I do I asked him 5 times if he was joking and after getting a sincere "no" I threw the baby in the car and took off to the hospital.

We had the MEANEST Dr. ever!

All of his nurses kept telling us he was a jerk and to just ignore his terrible bedside manner!

When Brandon was in getting XRays the Dr. pulled me aside and told me that I needed to tell my husband "he needed to stop pulling such childish stunts and realize that he has a wife and baby that he needs to take care of!" He repeated this to me several times during the visit..

Thanks Doc I'll be sure to tell the 13 year old that I married to start acting his age?....

So heres what happened.

Brandon was doing a back roll on the wakeboard (he's landed this TONS of times)

Once again he landed it but then his toe edge caught and he fell forward and his arm went through the handle of the rope that is shaped like a triangle. The boat was still going about 21 MPH so the pull ripped the rope free from his arm sending it flying towards the boat (the rope, not his arm lol) 

So we came out with a broken hand and lots and lots of tissue and muscle damage from his elbow down.

What stinks is Brandon has been on the job hunt for over a month now and still hasn't been able to find anything. He FINALLY had a job interview that morning that went REALLY well but it's a job that might not be too excited about an arm in a sling...

When it rains it pours sometimes.

We're just grateful he didn't lose his arm, people have lost limbs in a lot less serious accidents than this one.

Anyways, that was our VERY eventful 24th of July weekend!

Hope yours was just as good!

xo Meg

3 weeks!

Well Evie is 3 weeks old now! 

Thats about 10 days longer than any of my gold fishes ever made it so thats good news!! 

*moment of silence for Frank the Fish*

........................

So far Evangeline has been the ideal baby

She sleeps through the night for the most part and only fusses when she needs to be fed or changed.

She gets the hiccups about 4 times a day (she got them a lot when she was in my tummy too so I was ready for that)

She makes all kinds of weird noises! 

She's already talking to herself and makes little kitty noises all day

Evie can already lift her head up too! 

She always wants to be facing forward so she can see whats going on in the room.

She LOVES snuggling up in her blanket on Dads chest

If she ever wakes up before us in the morning she'll just sit and talk to herself in her crib till we come get her.

She loves animated movies (anything with lots of colors)

and she is BLOWN AWAY by blinds for some reason? If she's ever fussy just crack open the blinds and she'll stop crying instantly

She can't QUEIT figure out how to keep the binkee in her mouth yet

We took her to her 2 week appointment

She's now 8 lbs 3 oz (so she's gaining weight really well)

She's in the 95 percentile for height 

and the 45 percentile for weight.

Sorry this post is kinda short but I wanted to write some of these things down before Evie woke up from her nap (which is right now) 

gotta go!

xo Meg

Evangelines baby photos!

as promised!

here are the baby photos for our baby girl!

It was SO FUN to do my OWN baby photos so beware, I took a MILLION and didn't do a very good job of narrowing them down :)

 She was WIDE awake for most of the shoot so it was fun to get her personality in a lot of the shots

 Brandons favorite :)

 she ALWAYS smooshes her cheeks together with her fists! It is the CUTEST thing about her!

Gotta love those "nakey pics" lol

 I feel like she looks like a TOTALLY different baby in these blue ones?!

I think her favorite part of the shoot was getting to eat all the different textures of pillows we had! 

so there you go! 

sorry for the watermark but I'm putting these of my photography blog as well and it was easier to just do one set of photos

--------------------------

So I have a computer/blogging question for those of you who are savvy...

every time I make a graphic with words on it it looks GREAT in photoshop but then when I upload it onto my blog it looks EXTREMELY low res.?

The graphic up top of these pictures is an example of that. 

why does it do this!?

I can't figure it out?

it's at the same res. as my photos?

I've even made it a larger file or tried other file types other than JPG. 

it should be nice and smooth right?

Our names at the top of the blog also do this and I can't figure out why? 

advice?