Happenings

I thought I'd better post a little update. I don't know where the time has gone but summer is over and my little baby is already 7 months! All those sleepless nights at the beginning I never thought we'd ever get here but we finally did! I am happy to report that Shaylee is sleeping about 11-12 hours at night! YEA!!! It is so nice to be able to get a full nights sleep uninterrupted. Our little girl is just growing up so fast. At her 6 month check up last month she weighed 13 lbs 8 oz. (10th percentile) and was 25 inches tall (13th percentile) and her head measured in at 17.1 inches (82nd percentile). She is moving all over the place! She is scooting all over the place. She will occasionally crawl on all 4s on the carpet but she mainly just does it in the kitchen. I don't know if she doesn't like the feel of the carpet when she crawls on all on 4s but I would think that would be better than dragging your legs across it. We have to make sure she has pants on so that she doesn't get carpet burn! She is pulling herself to stand. She uses everything! She is such a strong little girl. Her new favorite thing to do is to pull her up using the TV entertainment center and play with the TV. We have to keep a very close on her and get after her for that. We don't want to become a habit but it is hard keeping her away. She still enjoys all of her food except for carrots. We introduced avocado and she did not like it at first but now she really likes it. I also started making my own baby food and I love it! Shem thinks I am a nerd because of how excited I was when I started. It is so easy and so much cheaper. I got a Baby Bullet from a baby shower and I have definitely put it to good use.

We are still on the job hunt for Shem. We are praying that something will come soon. He keeps looking and applying to jobs daily and we keep praying that something will come soon. We have been blessed to have kept Shem's job from when he was going to school as a research assistant. His boss was generous enough to keep on us and with a pay raise. That will be ending this week though. But we are so thankful for the blessing of employment for this long. As for me I am loving being at home with Shaylee. Shem and I were talking last night and we just couldn't imagine our lives without her. I officially felt like a parent after we had that conversation! We love listening to her little noises and seeing her silly faces! When Shem does get a job it will be very hard for him to be away from her all day. But he will just have to adjust! I am very blessed to be home with her and to watch her learn and development. She is a very lovable little girl and we are blessed to be her parents.

We were able to go on a little family trip this summer. My parents went up to Sun Valley for a couple days to their time-share and invited us along. It was fun to be able to go on a little trip and get away. This was Shaylee's first trip away and she did awesome. She slept great in the pack-n-play and slept for most of the way up and back home. She does not enjoy being her carseat for extended amounts of time but she did pretty good.

We had family pictures done on both sides this summer so I added pictures of both. The Purnell reunion that we were in charge of went off pretty well I think. I am just thankful it is over and that we are not in-charge again until 2020! It was hard having a little baby and being in charge. Especially since Shem's sister that was in charge with us also had a little baby. Shaylee didn't get to see her parents much but she sure had a lot of Aunts/Uncles/cousins and a Grandma and Grandpa who got to spoil her lots. It will be nice to not have any little babies next time we will be in-charge. Because we definitely will be done having kids by then! Here are some pictures from the summer. Sorry there are a lot. It is just so hard to only pick a couple!

Our little family

The Wagoner Family

The Purnell Family

Her cool new toy!

She loves standing up!

7 months old!

Walking around Sun Valley

Look how tiny she looks in the giant chair!

All of us in the giant chair

Sitting on the tractor waiting to go have breakfast

The giant moose with roller blades

Getting ready to watch the first BSU game

BFF's Shaylee and Katlyn

She is just like her daddy.

Look what I can do mom!

First time eating in a high chair. She is wearing the bib her mommy wore when she was a baby.

She fell asleep like this! Using her bumper pad as a pillow!

4 Months!

Shaylee had her 4 month check up last week and I am happy to report that she is a healthy happy baby girl! She now weighs 11 lbs. 9 oz. (4th percentile), is 23 5/8" tall (14th percentile) and her head is measuring in at 16.5" (83rd percentile). She is a skinny little thing and is just starting to nicely fit her 0-3 month clothes! Although they are starting to get a little short on her. She got more shots and this time Shem was with us at her appointment so he got to have the fun of seeing her get her shots. She did better this time then she did last time. Didn't cry as long and was acting almost like herself by mid afternoon. Last time it took a couple of days. We also got the ok to start her on solids. She will be open to letting us put the spoon in her mouth but as soon as she tastes it she spits it out. So it is a work in progress. We hope by next month that she will be use to it and eating a little more. With her weight so low so hope that she can get a little more to eat with some solids. She rolled over for the first time on June 10th! Shem was at a church meeting unfortunately. She is really getting the hang of it now! We are still working on rolling from her belly to her back. She has always hated tummy time so she starts to cry and we think that she forgets that she can roll back over. Now that she is rolling over we are not swaddling her. I was not looking forward to this day. Every time we tried to put her down for her nap not swaddled she would not fall asleep. Luckily it is going pretty well! She is still adjusting but I think she really enjoys the freedom of being able to move all around her crib. Some of the positions we find her in makes us laugh! And she is starting to sleep longer at night. We put her to bed about 10 and then up again around 4:30. She does wake up a few times in there but we either just let her cry it out or give her back her pacifier and she'll go back to sleep for a little while. Cutting out one of those middle of the night feedings has definitely been nice for me. She loves to talk and is starting to laugh more. Her smile brightens up our day and we love her so much! We are getting ready for her first swimming experience in a couple of weeks. My Uncle is coming over with his boat next weekend and we are going boating! Well Shem is and Shaylee will just play in the water with him. We got her a swimming suit and are excited to see what she thinks of the water.

We are still searching for a job for Shem. He has had a couple of interviews and we hope and pray that we will soon be offered a position. We are blessed that he still has his research position that he had when he was a student but that job will end on July 31st. So his days are spent working and searching for work. Nothing new really with me. We are in charge of Shem's family reunion this year along with his sister and so when Shaylee is sleeping I take advantage and try to get things planned for that. I love being home with Shaylee. It is so fun to be able to spend time with her and to help her learn new things and develop. Babies are such miracles and we are so thankful for our little miracle. We feel very blessed to have her and that she is healthy and learning and growing. Here are some pictures of our growing little girl. Enjoy!

4 Months old!

 Daddy helping me to eat my toes!

Ready to go swimming!

She loves this new toy Aunt Lyndsay is letting her borrow!

Grandpa Purnell came for a visit!

Sitting up so well in her Bumbo.

1st nap not being swaddled...finally fell asleep!

1st bite of rice cereal.

What are you feeding me?!

Swinging with mommy.

Really enjoying her freedom!

Happy Canada Day!

Our little half Canadian!

2 months old

Nothing really new and exciting going on in our lives. Shem is in his last week of school before finals start next week and then it is graduation on the 12th!! We are super excited. Well I am super excited. Shem says he has too much to do to think about graduation. I am so very proud of him for the wonderful accomplishment in his life. He has worked very hard and has had many sleepless nights and it has all paid off! Now to just find a job...

Shaylee is growing so fast! Hard to believe that she is 10 weeks old. She had her 2 month check up last week and that was a hard one! It is so hard to watch when they shots but she was very brave and only screamed for a few minutes. She now weighs 9 lbs 12 oz and is 22.5 inches (although I measured 23 inches the day before). We had our first experience of "oh what a cute boy" a few weeks ago when we went out to dinner and her daddy was not very happy with our waitress! I don't know how you can call a baby in all pink a boy but oh well. My mom and I made her some bows to stick in her hair to help distinguish the fact that she is a girl. She is starting to grab things and is putting her hand in her mouth if her pacifier is not currently in there. She does loves her pacifier! She thinks she needs it to go to sleep and when it comes out she is not happy. We are trying to help her learn that she can fall asleep on her own so it makes for a lot of crying at nap time. Unfortunately she has inherited my stubborn determined-ness and after 15 minutes of crying she is still at it. We hope that we can make that adjustment soon as she is going to her crib in 2 weeks and mommy and daddy will not be right there to hear her cry and put the pacifier back in her mouth as quickly as she'd like! She is also have trouble with her naps during the day. She will sleep anywhere from 30 - 60 minutes and be in a deep sleep but just wake up and start crying. This has been going on for a while now. Does anyone have any suggestions on that?? Here are some pictures of Shaylee's blessing day and her 1st Easter and some other random pictures. Enjoy!!

The beautiful blessing dress my mom made for Shaylee.

Family picture

Look at that hair! Elvis has not left the building!

2 months old already?!

Introducing...

Shaylee Purnell

Monday, February 20, 2012

7 lbs. 3 oz. 21 inches 5:20 a.m.

I know that I never posted on our blog that we were pregnant but I am pretty sure that those who actually visit our blog knew we were. Plus I was so sick for the first half of the pregnancy that the only thing I could do after work is just hang out in the bathroom and then I was so exhausted the second half of the pregnancy that I just never got around to updating our blog. So if you didn't know...SURPRISE! :)

Shem and I are both so happy that she is here. From the moment she came out and the doctor said: "It's a girl" Shaylee has had her daddy wrapped around her finger. Shem is an awesome daddy. He loves her so much. If he is home and I am not on him about getting his homework done, she is in his arms having daddy time. I am very blessed to be married to a man who is not only an amazing husband but also an amazing daddy.

Adjusting to parenthood has definitely had it's ups and downs and I know that we are just starting on our journey! We both feel the great responsibility of raising this little girl and feel very blessed to be trusted to raise her. We love you Shaylee!

It's been a while...I know. But there hasn't been too much going on with us. Our lives are pretty boring during a school semester. We wake up. I go to work, Shem going to school and work and then 11 hours later we are back home where we eat dinner and Shem goes off to do school work and I watch a few episodes of Cheers or The Cosby Show on Netflix. It is quite the excited life. But now the semester is over!!! So instead of going to school Shem goes to work all day just like me. And instead of coming home and doing school work we have committed ourselves to going to the gym every day after work. We started last week and we made it every day. Now we just have to keep that tradition going...Speaking of school, Shem got his grades all back. This was another semester of him saying that he wasn't going to pass his classes and that he would have to re-take some of his classes. But I had faith in him. Not only did he pass all of his classes but he also raised his overall GPA again and made the Deans List with honors again! I am so proud of him. All of his hard work and late nights paid off yet again. I am still planning on him graduating next May but he tells me that since he had to change his catalog year that graduation may be pushed back another year because of 2 classes, I believe, that he has to take. So I strongly encouraged him to email his advise and see if they can't work something out. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary this month. I cannot believe how fast time flies. It seems like the other day we were counting down to our wedding day and here we are 2 years later. We both took the day off of work and it was so nice to have a 4 day weekend! We went and got new cell phones, went and show the movie Thor and then had an excellent meal at Lock Stock and Barrel. Very yummy. Shem got prime rib and I got filet minon. I would highly recommend that place. So a few months ago we were very seriously thinking about going on a cruise for our anniversary weekend to the western Caribbean. Well after we researched everything and added the cost up for everything we decided that it was probably best we didn't spend a lot of money that we didn't have and put what we make this summer in our savings account instead of the credit card bill! It was a tough decision but we are both so happy that we made that choice. So instead of a week long tropical paradise anniversary, we had a nights stay at the Anniversary Inn in the South Pacific room! We had our own little tropical paradise island all to ourselves. We didn't get our cruise this year but it will defiantly come some year!

This summer we are also trying to grow a little garden. It is hard when you are renting and do not have a lot space but I think that we have come up with a pretty good plan; let's just hope it works! I was at Michael's the other day and they had those plastic sand buckets for $1. Well I bought 5 of them and had Shem drill holes in the bottom. We bought some top soil from Costco and some plants and planted a little garden. We have a red and green bell pepper, a jalapeno, rosemary and basil. We have 2 little flower beds and in one of them we did carrots and onions and in the other we are trying for tomatoes and cucumber. I hope they turn out. I am so excited about what we were able to plant with how little space we have.

Well that is about it for us. I have attached some pictures for your enjoyment. Part of my family did the Race for the Cure at the beginning of this month in honor of my Aunt Collette who was diagnosed with breast cancer last fall. It was a lot of fun and now I have a picture of Shem with a pink shirt on! :)

My niece Mackenzie posing for the camera.

The whole group, minus my dad.

Lily and Brycen ready for the 1 mile walk.

Our beach bucket garden! Rosemary, Red Pepper, Green Pepper, Jalapeno, Basil.

We have carrots planted on the side that looks empty and onions are the little green bushes.

Our tomato plant and cucumber.

December Happenings

Well we hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas! I am a little behind on posting updates with our family but what else is new! We had another great Christmas season. Santa found us and spoiled both us very much. I got Shem a new watch (trying to break his habit of always checking his cell phone for the time before he graduates and has to get a "real" job) which is a little too big for him since he has small wrists. So we are now trying to find a jeweler who can re-size it for us so he can actually wear it. I also got him a pair of jeans and the dvd Kicking and Screaming. Santa brought Shem some Marie Sharps hot sauce all the way from Belize. It is his favorite hot sauce from his mission. He brought 2 levels of hot, No Wimps Allowed and Beware. I tried the No Wimps Allowed (the lesser of 2 evils) and I about died! Shem was very surprised by his gift from Santa and so it was fun to watch him open those.

Both Santa and Shem were very good to me this year. Santa brought me a foam Bronco head. Last October we went to the Anniversary Inn and stayed in the Bronco Nights room. It was so much fun! They used the foam head as the cover for the shower head/rod and cut the nose out of the head and had the shower head coming out of there. Well anyways, it was just so funny that Santa brought me that to remind me our night there and Shem is really excited to use it as our shower head cover. Unfortunately we can't use it right now because our shower head is removable and it won't work. But Shem is excited about being able to use it at our next house! I was very spoiled by my dear husband this year. For those who do not know, I had a miscarriage at 7 weeks on November 15th. When we found out we were pregnant one of the first things I absolutely knew that I wanted was a rocker/glider. And I didn't want a cheap one. So I went to Craigslist and thought I would start looking since we had a few months to prepare. Well I think it only took a day for me to find one and so I sent the link to Shem and told him this is what I want for Christmas. It was within our budget we set for ourselves for Christmas and it was exactly what I wanted. Well I didn't know if he had actually gotten it for me until Christmas morning. With the miscarriage I wasn't sure if he felt he should or not but he did. And I am so happy he did! I love my chair! I have some pictures below of it. You'll have to excuse my red puffy eyes. I started crying when I opened it. It was difficult as Christmas was when we were going to tell our families we were expecting and all those emotions came flooding back. We know that we will get plenty of use out of it whenever we are blessed to have children.

My parents spoiled us yet again this year. We asked for Wii and we got one! We also got a canner as our Christmas Eve present. I am so excited! I canned apple pie filling and homemade spaghetti sauce with my mom this fall and it was really fun and really easy. So now I am already to do more canning this fall! We are having lots of fun playing the Wii together and watching movies on our tv with our Netflicks. A lot easier then watching on our lap top!

Shem and I were able to celebrate our first New Years Eve together without me being sick! That was a miracle. 2 years ago when we were dating we had just gotten back from Canada and I have a very very very bad cold and sore throat and so we stayed at my house and had a very low key ringing in of 2009. Last year I got strep throat on the 30th and so yet again we stayed home and I slept and had Shem wake me up right before midnight so he could give me a kiss on the check and I could attempt to try to toast in 2010 with some sparkling cider. I told myself that I was going to do whatever it took to be healthy to ring in 2011! We took a chance and booked a suite at the Anniversary Inn because they had this amazing offer going on and crossed our fingers. And luckily I did not get sick. I was even able to stay up until midnight, with a little help from the fizziness of a Root Beer! But sure enough I went right to sleep right after. My night owl of a husband was up until 4:44 and that is only because I woke up and saw that he was still awake and told him to go to bed. We are total opposites when it comes to that! I can hardly stay awake and night and he loves to stay up way late.

We still do not have a definite answer on whether or not Joe (our horse) is pregnant. We could spend the money to have someone come and and preg check her but what is the point? They don't breed in the winter and so even if she isn't, it's not like we can take her back to her "boyfriends" and try again! Shem and I both think that she is getting bigger but Shem assures me that in a few months we will definitely be able to tell. We are both trying to be patient but are just excited to know if we will have a colt at the end of the summer! I took a picture of them today. Now that Shem is on break from school he has some extra time to spend with her and went for a ride around the pasture today.

Enjoy the pictures!
 

1st wedding picture on the wall!

Well we have only been married for 17 months and we finally got our 1st wedding picture framed and up on our wall! I am very excited. My mom came over this afternoon and helped me put it up and it looks great! We did a 16x20 canvas print (40% off canvas prints right now at www.winkflash.com) and I got an amazing deal on a nice sturdy frame at Michaels ($50 frame for $15!). I am so excited! And we got our photo book that I made (also from winkflash, those are 60% off right now...) in the mail today and it looks awesome! When my mom left my house this afternoon I made the comment that it was just like Shem and I were newly weds again since we are just getting our wedding pictures ordered! My goal is to have them all ordered, framed and up on the walls before the end of the year.

I cannot believe that it is already October. Time is just flying by so fast. It seems like it was just the other day when we were planning for our big trip to California and now it has been 4 months since we were there. I decorated for Halloween the other day and before you know it, we'll be decorating for Christmas! I do love Christmas but I hate winter. I am not looking forward to the cold and the snow and the bad roads. Luckily Shem and I drive in together so I won't have to drive too much on them.

Shem is extremely busy with school and work these days. The closer we get to his graduation the harder his classes get. Luckily he will be done and graduating in May 2012! So just a few more semesters. He is really excited about the possibility of his horse having a colt here in about 11 months. We took her to a "friend" about a month ago to try to bred her and Shem went and picked her up last week. We figure we won't be able to tell if she is pregnant until Christmas, hopefully. If by spring time we can tell that she is not pregnant we will take her back out to the stallion and try again. I guess it is hard for horses to get pregnant in the winter months. Don't ask me, I am not an animal person! I am just trying to survive work. Every day I have the battle of not wanting to go but at the end of every week they give me a paycheck and so I have a hard time justifying not going but I still try to! But the good news is that I have not gotten sick yet this fall! Last fall/winter I was getting a sinus infection every other month and was miserable. I deal with a lot of dust and paper particles and with my sensitive sinuses it isn't a very good combination. I started wearing a mask (like what doctors/nurses wear) and that has helped a lot! But this past August I noticed something strange going on with my throat. It felt like there was something stuck in there, like a pill or something. So it never went away and last month we went to an Ear Nose and Throat doctor and it appears that I do have something in my throat. I apparently produce a lot of snot and it is constantly dripping down my throat and has not made a nice "scab" kind of thing down there. So he put me on 2 different types of nasal sprays plus I have to do a sinus rinse every day. The doctor told me it would take about a month before I would feel better and I am starting to not feel my "scab" so much whenever I swallow. Hopefully it will all be gone soon and I can cut back to only 1 nasal spray and the sinus rinse! Crazy huh?! I had never even hear of such a thing. But we got the nice doctor bill for that outpatient surgery. He had to stick a scope down through my nose and into my throat so he could check things out. Now that was a weird experience!