My Baby is 1!

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I can't believe it, but my sweet little Autumn has turned one! Her age is not the only thing that has changed. Her sweet personality has turned a little more feisty to match her red hair. At the doctor's office for her one year check up he asked how her social skills are and I had to laugh and admit that she is kind of a bully. She already tries to beat up on Peyton. I feel so blessed to have her as a part of our family.

Fairy Tea Party

The ballet performance.






Peyton posing with the fairy princess.


Once a year the Provo library holds a Fairy Tea Party for little girls and their moms to attend. It's quite a popular event and sold out within a day or two of the tickets going on sale. I got there just in time and bought 4 tickets on their last table of 8 available so Peyton and I could go with her friend Ayda and her Mom. It was a fun event. The ballroom in the old BYU academy was decorated beautifully. There was a fairy procession which led the fairy king into the ballroom, followed by a ballet performance. Then all the little girls got to promenade and curtsy in front of the fairy king. The evening was topped off by a fairy feast. The girls had a lot of fun and Maria (Ayda's mom) and I thought it might be fun to dress up ourselves next year. It is definitely something I will keep on my calendar. Can you tell I'm having fun with my new camera?

Newest Member of the Family

This is Rosie, the newest addition to our family. To make a long story short, I have wanted a Yorkie for many years now and I found some very cute ones on KSL classifieds. I asked Cory for probably the millionth time if I could have one. He just laughed because we rent right now and our landlords said no pets. I guess I must have given him a very sad look because he sighed and said, "If you can get our landlords to say yes, then you can get a puppy." The next morning I made the phone call and to my astonishment our landlady (who by the way is probably the nicest landlady I've had) was all aboard as long as it was a small dog. Cory couldn't believe I had gotten permission, but a deal's a deal. I took the girls out to see these adorable puppies that very morning and Peyton was terrified of the puppies, even though she loves my parent's golden retrievers. I figured with a little time she would warm up to her, and I was right. Now I can't keep her away from the puppy.
Thus far, Rosie has been a great. She doesn't shed, but does need her hair cut every so often. She will be around 7 lbs. Even Cory likes her, which is quite amazing because in the beginning his tune was, "she's your dog, your responsibility." I guess her adorable face and sweet personality won him over pretty quickly. He has said that she is a lot better than he thought she would be. All in all, we are very pleased with her.

Leaf Hopping

Febrile Seizures

Friday was the scariest day of my life thus far. Peyton had a seizure while we were out running errands. As luck would have it, I couldn't find Cory's cell phone this morning so I had to run into The Quilted Bear and have them call 911. Luck wasn't completely against me though, because there was a PA in the store and she was able to make sure Peyton was ok because I had no idea what to do. I wasn't even sure if it was a seizure because I have never seen one before. She was convulsing, foaming at the mouth, turning blue and completely incoherent. After an ambulance ride over to the hospital and hours at the ER, this is what I found out. She had something called a febrile seizure. These happen in young children when a fever comes on very suddenly. Apparently they are common in young children, and since most people I know either have children or are around them, I thought it would be useful to give everyone a crash course on this kind of seizure so you never have to feel as completely useless as I did because knowledge is power.
A febrile seizure happens when a child gets a temperature too quickly. According to my pediatrician, motrin and tylenol will help bring the fever down, but they don't normally stop the seizure from happening because they don't work fast enough. Febrile seizures don't cause brain damage and usually only last a few minutes. If they last more than 5 minutes or are accompanied by a stiff neck, vomiting or breathing problems you should call 911. The best thing to do is to put your child on their side so they don't choke on their saliva or vomit, move everything out of the way so they don't hurt themselves (don't try to restrain their movement) and check the clock to see how long the seizure lasts because a few minutes can seem like an eternity when your child is turning blue and convulsing. Take them to the ER or your doctor after it is over so they can find the source of the fever. 30% of children who have a febrile seizure are likely to have more until the age of 6.
There is a crash course on febrile seizures that I hope no one has to use.

Another Princess Moment

Here is yet another princess moment from my darling Peyton. I am sure there will be many more to come. Enjoy!

Autumn Update

I just noticed most of my posts are about Peyton and I should probably add a few pictures of Autumn. She is growing up so fast. On the 11th she will be 4 months old. Yesterday she started laughing for us. No matter how hard Cory and I tickle her or try to get her to laugh for us, she saves all her good laughs for Peyton. I am pretty sure the two of them were good friends in the life before. Autumn continues to get taller instead of chunky. There are a few little rolls on her legs, but they're nothing compared to what most babies get. All her hair fell out on top, but it is coming back in red. Looking at Peyton's baby pictures I am surprised at how much they look alike.

The Princesses

While watching Peyton play with her cousins princess figurines one day, I decided it was high time she had some of her own. So, we went to the mall and I bought her some (not a bad deal, I got 8 for $12 at the Disney store) and she could not stop smiling after I handed them to her. They have been her constant companion the past week and every day she finds new activities to do with them. Some of them are so cute that I had to catch them on video. In one of the videos she is telling her dolls not to scare her, and in the other she expresses her deep feelings for them.

A Whole New World

It is not unusual for Peyton to pull herself away from all her cousins, throw her arms up in the air and break into song. I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up on Broadway someday, just because she loves to sing and dance and she definitely has enough drama to fill a stage. One of her favorite songs is "A Whole New World" from Aladdin and tonight she was in a good enough mood to sing it for the camera, so here are a few videos to enjoy.

Motherhood

Even though this picture is far from flattering and Cory took it as a joke, I decided to post it because it wraps up the past 6 weeks of my life pretty well. I am dressed in my oh-so-attractive pink lounge pants (it's hard to find me dressed in normal clothes these days). I am rubbing my eyes that hurt because a good night's sleep is non-existent right now. I am trying to calm the baby down and Peyton is whining at my knee because she wants to be held. That basically sums up most days :) Motherhood is definitely not easy, and don't believe anyone who says differently, but it is worth it, and don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise.

More of Autumn

Mariah and Brad not only brought us dinner and good company one night, Mariah also snapped a few pictures of Autumn. She is truly talented when it comes to taking pictures. These are a few of my favorites.

Autumn has come...

I am so happy to announce that our little girl finally got here. I guess I shouldn't complain because she was 8 days early, but those last few weeks seemed to take forever. She arrived on March 11th at 11am after being in labor for 8 hours weighing in at 7lbs 13 oz and 20 inches long. All in all it was a great experience and she has been a wonderful baby.

When she came out and I got a good look at her hair I realized we had another red head. Honestly, what are the odds? Pretty much all the names I had visualized went down the toilet because I pictured them on a blonde or brunette. The one left standing was Autumn. It's kind of funny because a few months after I had Peyton and realized she was a red head I kind of kicked myself for not naming her Autumn because I thought it was the cutest name for a little red-headed girl. So, it was a name that has been on the back burner because I honestly didn't think I would have any more red-heads. Cory is thrilled, because he loves the name and really didn't like any of the other ones I had chosen. Peyton can now say her name pretty well, but in the beginning she put a "b" on the front of it, resulting in "Bottom". What made it worse is that she would walk around saying, "My Bottom!" I almost changed the name on the birth certificate right then and there, but then after working with Peyton for a little bit, we got her to drop the "b". Thank heavens!

Look Who's Two!

As you can see my dad was the life of the party!

Peyton getting ready to blow out her candles.

Peyton loves the Quiet Books for church Steph made her. Thanks!

Isn't it funny how at little kid's parties there are always 5 sets of hands helping to open up the presents?

Like I said, never leave everything until the last minute or you will end up looking like this.

Peyton playing with her puppet.

The kids making their puppets.

Peyton's Ariel cake.

Peyton's party was a lot of work, but a lot of fun too. I think I have learned my lesson and am not going to leave everything until the last minute again. She had a lot of her cousins over and a friend or two. It was crazy to look around at the chaos that was all the cousins running around and think they all came from one family, and there are four new babies on the way this year. I looked at my mom and said, "I guess this is what happens when you have seven kids." Now my baby is two and already is starting to become a sassy little girl. She has started bossing me around and telling me no. I think I am in for a rough ride this year with my two year old. As you can see my dad was the life of the party!