Kansas City here we come...

I was born just outside of Kansas City, MO and lived there until I was 5 so when Michael found out he had to go there for work I decided to tag along. It was the most fun I've had on a work trip with Michael because 1) we actually got to hang out, 2) we got to see some church history stuff, 3) I met a new friend and hung out with her and her twin girls while Michael was working, and 4) we hung out with some fun people.

So Tuesday was the most boring day of all. I literally hung out at the hotel all day. At night we went to Fiorella's Flap Jack BBQ with some of Michael's colleagues. Michael and I don't really eat meat so I got a spinach salad and he got veggie kabobs. They were both tasty. This is where I met Lacey, Sam's wife. They have twin girls who are a few months older than Lorelai.

Wednesday we all piled into cars and went to Adam-ondi-Ahman. This is the place where the prophet Joseph Smith said Adam and Eve were sent to when they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. That's pretty awesome! The area was enormous and beautiful! 

This was the overlook of the valley.

Same overlook.

This is called Tower Hill/Spring Hill. 

 Once we were done here, we went to Far West. The pioneers encountered so much persecution that they were not in Missouri for very long. They were going to build a temple here but only were able to lay 4 cornerstones and then had to leave Far West.

Inside the fence contains the 4 cornerstones, which would be the whole site of the temple.

This is one cornerstone.

This is a monument with information about the unfinished temple.

Here is another cornerstone (we only took pics of 2).

And here's a picture of how big the temple would have been. 

From here we headed to Liberty Jail where Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman White, Parley P. Pratt and George Robinson were imprisoned there for about 5 months. I honestly don't know how they survived that long. They were there during the coldest recorded winter of all time, they ate moldy food everyday, they were in a tiny basement, the ceiling was only 6 feet high so most of them could not stand upright, and they had a tiny window to look outside. 

 This is a great picture of the unescapable thick rock and wood walls. The only way into the jail basement was through a hole in the floor. An inmate and his family lived upstairs, unable to get out unless someone opened the front door for them.

This shows how small the 2 rooms were.

Lorelai did so well on the trip. It took us 111/2 hours to get there because we had to stop to feed her and change her, but only took 7 hours to get home. She was passed out! She is super excited to be home.

Or is she....?

She is!

Tippy stayed at a pet hotel and is so happy to be home! She thinks she gets a treat every 5 minutes, lol!

One month already

I always laugh when people say "I can't believe my baby is 1 year old already!" Well, I can't believe my baby is 1 month old already. Time really does fly!

I tried taking cute pictures of Lorelai myself only to have her crying. So I dressed her up in what I wanted her to have on and got her to fall asleep in the position I wanted her in, lol! It was a little hard so the pictures are not the best, but some of them are cute!

 I thought this was so cute! She wears cloth diapers and right now they are huge on her!

This is the sign Michael and I made for Lorelai.

She was not happy with me but I still think this picture is cute!

I think this is the perfect pose with this outfit!

What are your favorite ones??

Baby News

Many people are interested in my labor and delivery story because they know I have a high tolerance for pain. So here it is:

When I was 35 weeks I got my 1st pelvic exam and was told I was dilated to 1 1/2 cm and had lost my plug already. I don't think we asked any other questions because the doctor seemed so shocked that this was happening already.

At 36 weeks I was dilated to 3 cm and was 75% effaced. My doctor was out of town this week so we were seen by the nurse practitioner. She told me I was progressing evenly with my numbers and she thought I'd have a smooth delivery. Well that's good news!

At 37 weeks I was dilated to 4 cm, 80% effaced, and she dropped between a 0 and -1 station. My doctor finally realized at this appointment that I must have a high pain tolerance because when he did the exam I made no facial movements of it hurting. Also, I haven't really felt any pain the whole time I've been dilating. He told me I would probably have a pretty smooth and quick delivery. He said he hoped we'd get to the hospital before the head started coming out, lol! So now I'm a little nervous wondering if I'm even going to be able to tell I'm in labor or not. So I start tracking my contractions just in case, which is hard because most of the time I can't tell if I'm having one or not...

Week 38 I was the exact same. Boo! At this appointment my doctor said "How would you like to have a baby on Saturday?" To which we said "Ok." So it was set to have them break my water.

Saturday, June 30, 2012 we get to the hospital at 8 am. They show us to our room and have me get into a gown. Then we sit there for about an hour until the RN finally comes back. Then she tells me I was set to get plutosin and I said no! It's not my due date and I'd rather wait for her to come on her own than get that crappy medicine. I say crappy because I hate medicine :) So she calls the doctor and he says he's on his way to break my water. In the meantime we called our RN friend Allison and she came to the hospital to help Michael and I. 10:30 am rolls around and my water finally gets broken. Nothing happens...so we play Guillotine (thanks Allison)!

Finally Allison asks if I can walk around and the RN said for 20 minutes. So we start walking. About 2 minutes later I start getting contractions. Lucky me, I have back labor contractions. So every few minutes I get contractions, we stop in the hallway and my coaches help me breath. It still hurts. I feel like my contractions are every 3 or 4 minutes. I start second guessing myself thinking I'm not going to be able to do this naturally. What if I'm only at a 5 and my contractions are this close and painful? I won't have the energy to push her out! So I tell them I'm done walking because it wasn't helping my pain.

We go back to the room and I try the workout ball. That was a big fat no. That hurt worse. They check my progress and I'm at an 8! I get renewed energy thinking that I WILL be able to do this. Michael starts massaging my lower back through my contractions and yells in my face keeping me on track with breathing. If he didn't do this, I would have lost it!

I get through many more contractions and start feeling a very strange feeling. I realize this is probably a feeling of needing to push. I tell the nurse and she calls the doctor. She checked me in there somewhere and told me I was at 9 cm. Holy cow! The doctor comes in and tells me I can push when I feel the need. Thank goodness!! So I push and push for about 45 minutes. The actual pushing was not painful but the doctor's hands up my vagina the whole time was pretty uncomfortable. I did 3 or 4 pushes in a row for 10 seconds each. The 1st two pushes were the easiest and then the next ones were harder. I guess I was pushing with my face but I couldn't figure out how to ease that tension so now I have broken capillaries all over my face.

The doctor said she's having a hard time coming out and needs a little help. Do I want an episiotomy or the vacuum? Allison said I wanted the episiotomy so I said ok. 2 pushes later at 4:53 pm Lorelai May Oliver was born! She weighed 6 lbs 12 oz, was 20" long, and had a full head of hair!

Allison said she was sucking already so she wanted me to try breastfeeding. Lorelai hooked right on! How exciting! She is super strong already lifting her head and shoving her hands in her mouth so you have to pull hard to get them out. My mom said I was the same way.

Welcome to the world and our family Lorelai!!

Random Naturalistic Things

I've been thinking recently about all the random naturalistic things I've learned about and thought I'd share.

1. Vicks Vapor Rub (I don't know if this counts as naturalistic, but it's better than taking pills, right?): cures nail fungus. Apply at least every other night with a Q-tip onto base of nails until nails have grown out. Also for coughs, rub onto feet and wear socks.

2. Onions: cures ear infections (and helps drain when you have a cold, sinus infection, etc.). Take a white or yellow onion, cut in half, microwave in wet paper towels for approximately 1 min. Replace paper towels with new ones. Place each half of onion on an ear and wait about 5 minutes.

3. Garlic: cures athletes foot and helps prevent colds. To cure athletes foot: boil garlic in water for 2 minutes. Wait for water to cool then soak your foot in water for 5-10 minutes. Repeat as often as necessary.
                To prevent colds: microwave 2 cloves for up to 1 minute. Peel off skin and eat. This actually does not taste disgusting. It does make your breath smell like garlic though. You can do this every day. (garlic is an immune booster)

4. Vinegar: what doesn't it do? Use it in your dishwasher instead of detergent. It not only cleans your dishes but prevents your dishwasher from collecting calcium buildup.
                   Use it to clean any surface in your home: toilets, counters, etc.
                   Spray some onto your cutting board before cutting onions to help prevent you from crying.
                   Mix it with baking soda to make a stain remover for your clothes.

5. Baking Soda: is a deodorizer. Sprinkle onto your carpet, let sit a few minutes and then vacuum it up.
                           Mix with Hydrogen peroxide to create a stainless steel cleaner.
                           Use to brighten your teeth when brushing.
                           Sprinkle some onto your armpits to use as a deodorant.
                           Put 1/2 - 1 Cup into your laundry to freshen and deodorize your clothes.

6. Apple Cider Vinegar: cures heart burn and acts as a fruit fly repellent. Drink 1-2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar every day to cure heart burn.
                           Put vinegar in a container and wait for flies to collect around it.

I don't know if this next bit is "naturalistic" but these are random food things I've learned.

7. Beans: beans can actually replace oil or butter in baking recipes. Whole mashed beans replace butter and pureed beans replace oil. Use the same amount of beans as the recipe wants butter or oil.

8. Ground Flax Seed: Mix 1 tbsp flax seed with 3-4 tbsp water and wisk. This replaces eggs in baking recipes.

9. Blending frozen bananas turns it into an ice cream texture but is just banana! Blend with peanut butter or chocolate for a frozen treat!

That might be all I can think of for right now. Hope you find this information as exciting as I do :)




                   

Activity Days Recognition Night

Upon looking for an activity to do for activity days, I came across the part where twice a year they are supposed to have a recognition night. Seeing as I've been doing AD for over a year and have never done a recognition night, I thought, oops! So I started planning. Here's what I came up with!

Family Olympics

We had 4 olympic events: Javelin Throw
                                          Balloon Ring Toss
                                          Relay Race
                                          Long Jump

When people walked in they needed to "register" which just required taking a pre-made necklace that had 4 sections, one for each event. Once they completed an event, a number or a sticker would be put into a square.

Then each team took about 5-10 minutes to come up with a name and make a team banner. We taped these up onto the side of the stage.

The Javelin Throw was made with poster boards. I cut the shapes of a circle, square and triangle. The circle was worth 10 points, the square 5, and the triangle 15. The javelin was a pool noodle. They had to throw their javelin through one of the shapes to get points.

Balloon Ring Toss had 5 balloons filled with helium. Each balloon was worth a different amount of points. Their rings were small hula hoops. They had to throw the hula hoop and get it around one of the balloons. (I forgot to take a picture.)

The Relay Race was the easiest. Everyone on the team had to run a lap around the gym carrying a light-up stick then pass it to the next person on their team. When they were done they got a sticker. (I forgot to take a picture.)

The Long Jump was marked with tape. The jumping distance started at 3' and went up to 12' in 1/2' increments. (I forgot to take a picture.)

Once the olympians were done, we had our award ceremony. They stood on a step stool in front of the torch, got a gold medal, and were spotlighted for what they have accomplished.

Then we enjoyed some fruit, pretzels, and tootsie pops for our refreshments! This activity was a success and the whole family sure had fun!

Tippy & Kids

I've had many people ask me how I think Tippy will do with Lorelai. I always tell them the same thing: Tippy LOVES kids, adults, and other animals. I used to babysit different aged kids and she loved them all.

This is Libby. She was 3 or 4 when I babysat her. Her favorite thing to do with Tippy was to tell Tippy to stay and then take a handful of dog food and lay them in a row. Once Libby was finished lining them up, she would tell Tippy ok and Tippy would eat the food Libby had laid out for her.

Libby put lots of Tippy's toys on her. Tippy didn't care.

They were good friends.

Tippy likes to sneak in kisses :)

I babysat Jeremy who was just a couple months old. Every time he made any noise, Tippy was right next to him making sure he was ok. This did accompany sneaking in kisses too. This picture is Jeremy and Tippy taking a nap together. He wore her out. 

These ones are when she was younger. She's just so cute I couldn't resist!!

One thing about kids that Tippy doesn't like are things that roll: bikes, strollers, etc. SO it will be interesting to see how she reacts to Lorelai's stroller. I wonder if she'll get used to it?

Mexican Lasagna

SO I made Mexican Lasagna for dinner and it was A-mazing!! So I thought I'd share:

Sauce: 2 cloves garlic, minced
            1 onion, diced
            1 red bell pepper, diced
            -Simmer these in a sauce pan with a TBsp olive oil until soft
            Add 2 cans diced tomatoes
            1 can diced green chiles
            A handful of cilantro, chopped
            If you like meat you could add probably 1 lb of hamburger or ground turkey then I would add a   Tbsp ketchup

Layer: Black beans
            Corn
            Colby Jack cheese
            -I had these ready and added as much as I wanted. Michael and I love beans and corn so we did quite a bit of each and a thin layer of cheese.

I put a bit of sauce on the bottom, covered it with tortillas, more sauce on top, then black beans and corn and colby jack cheese and more sauce. Then cover with tortillas, more sauce, black beans, corn, and cheese. Then tortillas and sauce and I would recommend cheese on the very top if you like more cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes and enjoy!

PS The tortillas absorb some water and get sort of noodley soft. So if textures creep you out, use lasagna noodles instead :)