11 months

Can you believe this we have an 11 month old... I feel like I was just holding her in my arms and snuggling with her.  Now if I try to snuggle with her it has to be right when she wakes up and it lasts for thirty seconds before she wants down so she can go find her toys.  This little stinker is able to take up to 5 steps before she decides to sit down and it only happens about once or twice a day.  Crawling is still faster than walking and that is for sure.  Zoey loves loves animals we have two cats one of the cats is her best friend while the other one is still terrified of her.  She loves watching them and playing with them.  Zoey now has 6 teeth the two on the bottom and the fourth teeth on top.  So it hurts now when she bites down watch out for your fingers and toes because she likes to bite down on them.  Also she is an amazing vacuum after you vacuum she finds the little things that the vacuum didn't pick up for you.  Zoey loves to dance she steps side to side and points her toes.  Zoey also knows how to say a couple of words like mom, dad, hi, yeah, and her favorite is eh (like the Canadians) this is how we find her when has crawled away from us we say eh and she responds.  It is such a joy to have this little girl in our lives and we can't believe that in less than a month she will be a year old.

Hopefully we will be able to get her to sleep throughout the night in the next year.

An Amazing Teenager

I have been an aunt since I was 10 years old.  I love all my nieces and nephews.  I can't even count how many I have now because to me it really doesn't matter how many nieces and nephews I have my heart will always be growing to love more.

I remember when I was 11 a beautiful little girl came into this world and I was lucky enough to be her aunt.  I remember playing peek a boo with her when she was about 10 months old and how much she would giggle when you uncovered her face.  I remember babysitting her and she came out of her room when she was 4 telling me that she had got the fluids (or flu).  I remember watching her grow up and being able to be the fun aunt who got to take her to do things once I started driving.  Well this girl has turned into a beautiful teenager.  Beautiful doesn't truly describe her she is an amazing big sister to her two little sisters.  She is a wonderful cousin to my little girl.  I was at work today when I got some pictures of her and my daughter and it cheered me up.  I just want my niece Samantha bug to know that I love her so much and she is the best little sister/niece ever!!! This week I got a hug from her while we were waiting to play BUNCO she didn't know it but I really needed that hug when she had given it to me.  I'm just glad to be her aunt and to be one lucky person to have such a beautiful teenager in my life.

Love you Sam Bug even if I was the first Bug in the family I like sharing the nickname with you.

changes

The new year has come and with it we are going through a change...

 Brandon no longer works nights yay!!! That is so nice to be sleeping next to my husband more than two nights a week even if he is a cover hog some nights... don't worry i'm developing some major skills on how to get them back.  Brandon just started student teaching on Monday he wakes up at 6 in the morning and is at the school at 7 until 3:30 and than he comes home to play and take care of miss Zoey while I'm at work.  I now come home to my hubby and cute little baby sleeping.  It is kind of hard because I use to put her to bed and now I just get to check on her no more two minutes of cuddling before putting her to bed.  But I'm so happy to be able to finally hopefully getting her more on a regular sleep schedule.  But for me I get less hours of sleep just because she goes to bed while I'm still at work and I don't get home until she has been asleep for almost two hours.  Making my mornings a different routine.  I didn't get on here to rant or rave just a new schedule and I kind of miss my family in the evenings more now than when I did when I went back to work. Just because I don't get to see my happy baby until the morning and I say goodbye to her at 1 in the afternoon.  Anyways...

Were in for a big change this is Brandon's last semester at BYU he will be graduating in April.  That is going to be so nice.  Than he will start looking for jobs as a special ed teacher hopefully we will find one locally.  But once he graduates he is going to go back up to USDC and work the morning shift while he finds a job.  So that is one happy good change this year.

Zoey is going to be 1 I can't believe it she still is my little tiny girl.  I took her to the doctor yesterday and guess how much she weighs 14 pounds 12 ounces and that was with her clothes on.  She loves to eat when her throat isn't killing her.  If you are about to put something in your mouth to eat it and she wants it she yells for you to stop so that you give her a bite and she happily chews it.  Her little throat is sore and she still wants to eat everything but she doesn't swallow so she starts to look like a chipmunk with her cheeks storing food.  It is quite funny until I do the finger sweep and she bites down with all 6 teeth to stop me.  You wouldn't know she was sick because she is still so happy and energetic playing with everything and anything.  the only thing that is different is she doesn't talk quite as much and the volume of her voice is not as loud.  Zoey also loves to dance she loves to sway from right to left when your holding her hands to stand but the best part is she picks up her foot and points it and than puts it down and repeats with the other one.  I just love this little girl oh so much!

is it really 2013???

!!!HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

guess what all my new year resolutions i made last year they didn't really pan out.  i was planning on blogging or writing in my journal more.  well i didn't do both instead i cuddled, played, and loved on my little girl.  but i figure i better do a year in review so i will remember what happened this year in a couple of years right?

JANUARY- i turned 25 holy cow a quarter of a century that is crazy.  we bought our first home in the middle of the month and moved in two days after getting the keys.  we got to listen to our little girls heartbeat weekly.  it was so comforting being hooked up for an hour listening to her little heartbeat.

FEBRUARY- this is the month i had anticipated for over 8 months it was becoming time to bring our little girl into the world.  but before she came we had some bumps in our path.  my mom took me to a non-stress test one day because Brandon couldn't be there. on  that nst test her little heartbeat had dropped a couple of times so they wanted me admitted to Labor and Delivery to monitor for 24 hours and debate about her coming a week earlier than planned.  I remember the ultrasound they did on her and she only weighed 4 pounds I was praying that she could stay with me a little longer to get a little bigger.  Well they let me go home.  We went to my parents for a week because we had a doctors appointment every day either in AF or Provo.  On February 18 we were told that we would be induced on the 20th.  Zoey Margaret was born on Presidents Day 2/20/12 at 2:09pm weighing 5 pounds 3 ounces. That is definitely one of my favorite days ever!!!

MARCH- just a couple weeks later my sister Laura had a little girl Declyn she was born with a head full of hair making it a wonderful month for the chick and the duck to cuddle.

APRIL- Zoey was blessed on April 8 on a beautiful Easter Sunday her blessing was short and sweet.  this month was full of unpacking and organizing our house.  But the best part of this month was being able to stay home and cuddle my little z bug all day even if she still did wake up 3 to 4 times a night it was wonderful.

MAY-  I went back to work and it was kind of hard leaving my sweet baby.  but this month was a big month for us we had OUR 4 YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!!! we went out on a date while our friend cory watched zoey for us it was nice to be able to go out on a date and come home to our beautiful daughter.  We also bought a brand new car after the dodge had died on us :(

JUNE- we had another niece born this month Savannah banana or that is what i call her.  Zoey went to 7 peaks and lounged in the water for about 20 minutes and than decided she was hungry.

JULY- I started a family water fight on the fourth of July it was super fun and enjoyed running around.

AUGUST- Our angel turned 2 on the 23 and I had a 5 day weekend that week.  we celebrated her birthday and than i went to my first scrapbooking all day party thing it was lots of fun.  I really enjoyed being able to get my creative juices flowing.

SEPTEMBER- we went to the Zoo as a family for the first time we loved being able to show zoey all the animals and i look forward doing this again with her this next year.

OCTOBER- we dressed up for Halloween as a whole family zoey was a cute elephant, i was a dark angel, a pixie or whatever else (i guess), and hubby dressed up as the phantom from phantom of the opera.  we went trick or treating with our friends Adam, Becca, and Wellington.

NOVEMBER- Brandon turned 26 becoming an old man we went to Tucano's and a BYU basketball game for his birthday.  I got Thanksgiving off for the first time and it was wonderful not worrying about having to go into work.  I went Black Friday shopping on Thursday night and got all the stuff we really wanted for Zoey.  I went out on Black Friday morning and i guess the stores i went to were just really dead it was weird.

DECEMBER- we went up to temple square, had a wonderful first Christmas with zoey and no the end of the world did not happen :(... also Brandon and I had a hard time buying presents for us this year because really our present is a beautiful happy healthy baby girl who has both of us wrapped around her little fingers.  oh yeah Brandon is quitting up at USDC this month which is very exciting because one more semester of school and than he will be gradumacated from the Y.

so this upcoming year i hope i blog more but no promises... because I'm going to be chasing and playing with a cute little girl everyday