Summer in Spokane (so far)...

I've started and stopped this blog post way too many times! It seems just as I start to get on a roll a baby wants my attention or I get side tracked! (As a type this my laptop beeps at me to be plugged in, so I have to stop and find that cord, haha) Anyway, the summer is already half over, what the heck?! I mean it's the beginning of July so it's early summer but still, June is gone, holy moly.  So good news first, Brycen got an internship out at Lincoln Hospital at Davenport (which is about 45 minutes outside of Spokane), so here we are spending the lovely summer here. So far it has been great, even though Addlee and I never really see him, because he works at his internship during the day and works at his other billing job at night. Bless his soul for being an amazing husband and wanting to support his family. I know it's hard and it is a lot of driving, but we are making it work. I am grateful for his willingness to work so hard. I don't think we have ever prayed as hard as we have this summer. I know some day we will look back at this time in our life and see all the miracles and blessings that have been handed to us, it's just hard to see them all when you are in the thick of it. We are blessed to have an amazing support system, and of course the gospel. It seems when all hope is gone, something turns up and it works out for that week. So you just keep plugging along and thanking God for one more day!

We are blessed to have our baby Addlee. She is growing like a weed, and she has started to develop her little personality. She's started crawling, and pulling herself to stand. She's a really happy baby and loves to laugh. I'm excited to spend the summer in the water with her! She is at that stage where she doesn't like strangers, and she cries when Brycen leaves for work. It is sad but cute too. It really freaked me out when I went to get her from her nap and found this:

So cute though. In May my parents and baby sister Maddie came up to visit. It was a cold weekend, darnit, but we still had fun, we went to Coeur d'Alene to see the lake. We didn't spend much time there since it was freezing, but B and I have plans to go and swim this summer sometime! We also got to go to Parma for Memorial Day weekend and that was fun too as always, I'm so excited to see my new niece (who is due to arrive any day now), we got to see my Aunt Sabrina and Uncle Rick who I lived with in Orlando, and it was so good to see them! Brycen had never met them, so it was super fun. On the way home we decided to drive through Riggins and up Highway 95. It was a beautiful drive, I sure love Idaho! We even stopped in Pullman so we could look at WSU! Brycen felt his Cougar pride, haha!

A couple weeks ago our friends the Nielsen's were moving to Seattle area and needed some help, so we said we would help them move and go see my Uncle Matt. It was a great weekend, we helped them move in, spent time with our family, had some amazing food, were tourists for a day, and Brycen got to see his Red Sox play at Safeco Field. He was pretty excited to see them finally, one day we will see them at Fenway! On our way home we stopped to see Tajia and Parker. They are so big too, and loving summer. We got to spend a couple hours, and B played some baseball with them but we had to leave so B could get to work. We will have to go back soon! Now we have so many people to visit!

My little sister Mariah will be home off her mission in a month, a MONTH! I miss her so much, and I can't wait. We are all counting down the days until she's home, her mission I think has changed our entire family because she's been through a great deal while serving.

Another blessing is that we finally sold our Volvo! Wahoo!! It was sad to say goodbye but not really, I'm all for not having a car payment! Thanks to my amazing parents they are letting us borrow their truck until we can get something to replace it. Tender mercy for sure! Don't worry we still have Pearl and she's a champ!

Anyway, I cannot believe it is time for the 4th of July already, I love love love this holiday, and even though we are in a new city for it, I'm sure we can still find some good fun! You know my new motto, being grateful no matter what situation is, and you know what, it actually works!! Now for some pictures of our adventures, crazy how time is flying by!

We got Addlee her 6 month old pictures, haha this one just made me giggle!

We went to Wicked, just as amazing the 2nd time and B loved it too!

Look at those goof balls, here is my family on the tram overlooking the Spokane Falls

Goodbye Volvo!

Hyrum and Gracie, pretty much twins...

Go Cougs!

Enjoying the warm weather!

Crawling around at Matt and Mary's, so much more room than our tiny apartment!

Seeing Tajia and Parker! 

This is Addlee and she loves to climb, especially all over me!

Enjoying the fine things in life!

Go Red Sox

Safeco Field

First time at the Pool, she seriously loved it, already a little fish!

The Waiting Game

Well here we are, the school year is almost over and here we sit... waiting... Waiting to see where we will be in the summer because B doesn't have an internship yet. Can I just say I loathe the waiting game? Especially coming from someone who has to plan out the next 10 years of her life. It just never really works out that way all the time. My faith has been tested a LOT lately... I don't know how we are going to live this summer, where we are going to live even, so yeah you can say I'm just a little worried. Worry I also loathe that word. I read somewhere that Satan loves to make people worry, because then that takes the control away from God. Control, another awesome word... haha! My baby has taught me a lot about control. Right now she's totally in control of my life, she dictates when I sleep, eat, and even run errands. I love her though. Whoa I'm getting way off track, all my jumbled thoughts coming out of my head.
B started his new job a couple of weeks ago and we are so grateful that he has that at least. Even though it's a night job, and it makes me feel like I'm a single mom, we would be homeless without it. I told him that when Addlee is a teenager and complaining about how "hard" her life is, he can tell her what he had to go through while getting his Masters. B works so hard, so we are most grateful for those weekends!
Addlee is growing into a spunky precious little girl. At 6 months old she has 2 little teeth. She weighs 17 pounds and is in the 75th percentile for weight and 98 percentile for height. So she's tall and chunky haha! She rolls everywhere, and eats pretty good. She has a little voice that is so cute, and she's overall a happy baby. We just got her 6 month old pictures done and she's a cutie. I cannot wait for the summer, so we can play outside and in the water!
Easter was so fun, I made a ham for the first time and it turned out great! We went over to our friend's house for an Easter egg hunt, dinner, and a bonfire. Addlee hasn't been outside much since she's been born because it hasn't been exactly warm. So she wasn't exactly thrilled to be outside in the woods (who can blame her really), so she was content to sit on my lap the ENTIRE day.
Oh and my other big news, I just got called to be 1st counselor in the Young Women's, so maybe that's why we are supposed to stay here this summer? We only have 10 girls in our ward, so nothing like Parma. I am excited though, I love the youth!
OK now that this is officially a random post here are some updated pictures of our life!

So B and I got to go out on our first date post baby last weekend (I know crazy right?) We only have a short window since my baby refuses to drink out of a bottle, so we just had dinner...

At the restaurant where we ate you can write on the table, so my husband asked me to marry him again, haha! Then we wrote down all the significant dates of our lives together... Bless!

We bought this dress the day we found out we were having a girl. It finally fits our little girl! Spunky little thing!

I was painting my nails, and Addlee's toenails and apparently I still had wet nails because I got some on her nails!

Chillin'... these two are crazy!

I love how happy she is! Well unless she's tired!

Addlee's Easter Dress, I love having a little girl to dress up!

Doesn't quite know what to do around a campfire!

Our Easter crew!

Drinking out of a water bottle, sort of...

Life is all about Perspective (I Think?)...

I used to blog a lot, and I loved it a lot, it was my escape the outside world of work and single life. Two years later I sit at a table, filled with bills, a Bumbo, laundry needing to be done, baby sleeping (at least for these 15 minutes), and Law and Order SVU playing in the background. I used to define my life by the clothes I wore, the purse I carried, how my nails looked, and how many people I could chat or text to during a day. It's crazy to think that my life has done a complete 180. I only talk to my BFF once a week (my fault really it's hard when your lives are in different places and that's OK), I talk to my husband over the sounds of a growling baby, and the TV. Today in my quick shower before Addlee got fussy I laughed because I used to take an hour to get ready in the morning, and now it's a chore to even get ready. I read Jenn's blog about working, about how she wishes she didn't have to work, and now I'm on the other side of that. I don't work, I take care of the house, my husband, and my baby. It really is a different life, and everyday I marvel at my mother who took care of 3 under 3 (blows my mind actually). I also asked my mom this weekend, is it weird to think that you have 5 kids living here, ALL the time? My childhood home seems so big now, it is hard to imagine that we all fit there! We all ate there, and we all showered there, haha!
I realized that I sort of did life backwards, I went to college, I graduated, I worked, I played, spent WAY too much money (I mean seriously why didn't I save all that extra cash), then I fell in love and then became a mom. I see though that it's exactly what I was supposed to do, because I think for me, I would have always wondered how a single working life would be. Well now I know, HA! Anyway, I'm not complaining or anything just some thoughts I had today, how no matter what situation you're in, life is good but life is hard. Trials come no matter your walk of life, no matter if you're rich or poor, single or married, old or young. I realized I worried WAY too much when I was single about silly things, when you become a mom you WORRY all the time (or maybe that's just me haha). So in my little perspective of life here are some cute pictures of my little baby who is growing WAY too fast, I mean seriously didn't I just have her?!

Ready for some Football

Hanging out with the Cousins! I can't believe how big they all are!

Addlee has some crazy hair, seriously every day after every nap it's different!

Getting ready to head to Parma for Spring Break, she is in love with her giraffe. Now I know why it was the #1 selling toy last year!

Love these munchkins, Reece, Liam, Addlee, and Grace

I've saved the best for last, I love this picture. B loves Addlee and she loves him, they definitely love to play a lot!

Baby Addlee's Birth Story

So finally I have a little bit of time to write Addlee's birth story. Having a newborn is major work, especially one who wants to be held all the time, and only sleeps in your arms. We love her though, and I can't believe she's here and almost a month old. Anyway, just a forewarning there are some graphic pictures (nothing R rated don't worry) but thought I should just warn you ahead of time. Ok anyway here we go:

My due date was October 11th, so we went into the Doctor the day before for my weekly check. I was dilated to a 2 and 80% effaced so pretty much it was anytime. Those final last weeks of my pregnancy were so hard, honestly I was throwing up all the time, couldn't sleep or eat, and heartburn every two seconds. My parents were planning on coming up to Spokane that next week so we planned on being induced the next Tuesday. I was over 40 weeks and I was like lets do this. I really didn't want to be induced, I wanted her to come on her own, but oh well. Luckily for me my water broke the next morning at 5:00 am. It was pretty funny watching Brycen get everything together that was on my checklist. I was just worried I was going to have the baby at my house (yeah right), I wasn't having contractions really so we were OK. We got to the hospital and they informed us they had a busy night so we got checked in and hooked up to everything. I was still only dilated to a 2. So I got hooked up to pitocin. Then the pain started coming, so about noon I got my epidural. Heaven. It was scary getting it though, but it was nice afterwards. I was able to sleep. About 3:00 I was checked again and only at a 4. Ugh that's the frustrating part, waiting... Another 4 hours and I was checked again and it was only a 4 still, so the doctor just threw out the work C-section and I think she saw me hyperventilate a little. She was like oh that's last resort I'm confident you'll be fine. So around 10:00 the nurse checked me and I was at an 8 and she's like ok we are going to let you rest then we are going to get ready for active labor. So she came back an hour later and checked me again and was like oh oops you are only at a 6. WHAT?! By then I just knew I was going to have a C-section. The doctor came in and by then I was throwing up (don't worry I had already projectile vomited on Brycen), and she prepped me for the surgery and everything. It was surreal honestly. The baby was fine, but she hadn't dropped and she was wedged in my pelvis and not moving. Pretty much she liked it too much in there and was too big for me to deliver.

I am surprised I didn't have a nervous breakdown. B was so good though, he just said you're going to be fine, plenty of people have C-sections, and she'll be here before you know it. My doctor was amazing, she reassured me everything would be ok. So after getting numb from the chest down they wheeled me into the operating room. Mind you I've never even had a broken bone, so I just kept thinking I can't believe this is happening. I had horrible heartburn since I hadn't eaten anything for close to 15 hours, so that was honestly the worse. Barfing your guts out... I just kept thinking "hurry up and get my husband in here", finally they were ready for him and that helped calm me down. It was the weirdest thing ever being alert but not feeling anything, and that was the worst because when you can't feel yourself breathing it freaks you out.

Finally they announced that they pulled her out and I just kept thinking "why isn't she crying". B assured me she was fine and the Doctor announced she had a full head of hair and dark skin. Finally I hear her squeal a little and I will never forget that feeling. Honestly, the sound of her crying made my heart soar. I just kept wishing I could see her, that's the only sad part of a C-section, I was the last one to see her. But she was beautiful and I just cried because after 20 hours of labor she was finally here at 1:40 a.m. on October 12, 2013! All 9 lbs and 20 inches of her!

B went and cut the cord and helped bathe her while I had to be stitched up. Seriously I just wanted to hold my baby!  But when I did I couldn't believe it, I was like how am I mom? Crazy! The next couple of days we just chilled in the hospital, and it was painful, I didn't really sleep dangit, but my mom and dad arrived and they helped out a ton too. I didn't change my first diaper until I got home from the hospital.

We named her Addlee Jade Taylor. B's middle name is Lee so that's why we chose to spell it that way. We got the name when we were watching American Idol one night a long time ago and we've always loved it. So hey here we are parents. It still hasn't really sunk in quite yet!

Lets do this! 

After my epidural, hooray...

Sleeping, haha!

B getting ready to go back into surgery

Right before we became parents (like my fake smile, like I am enjoying this haha)!

There she is!

B cutting the cord

9 lbs 20 inches long... so chunky!

Seeing my baby for the first time

Getting her first bath

Finally I get to hold her! She's so precious!

1 day old, and chipmunk cheeks

Leaving the hospital, ready for the big world!

Why Hello!

I know I'm bad, my last post was February 5th! What?! But I need to make a confession, I got burned out. My life wasn't THAT exciting, and work started to get outta control crazy so you know when you sit at a computer all day long you don't exactly feel like sitting down and updating your blog. Feel me? But as of late, and my life is COMPLETELY different then it was oh 8 months or so ago, I just keep feeling this urge to update this little ol' blog. The best part about this blog, is that it detailed my courtship with B. Things I've completely forgotten, and for that, I'm so grateful I kept on it then. So instead of getting all overwhelmed with everything I've missed in the last couple of months I'll just start with my thoughts now. So here we go...

So in February we found out that we were going to have our first baby! Yes pregnant! Its a funny story because you know I had been told in the past that getting pregnant would be hard for me and so I was always just aware of that. Anyway, when I took the pregnancy test I was so scared. I even had to get encouragement from Jenn. HA! When I ran into the kitchen bawling to B he was quite taken aback... but then we were both so happy. It took some reality checks and adjustments at first, that we were going to be parents, but I can't believe I'm going to be a mother.

To hear the heartbeat for the first time is unreal!

To say that I love being pregnant is a lie. A horrible bold faced lie. I throw up a lot, all 9 months I've been sick and it has been awful. Working full time didn't really help the matter, but more on that later. Still though, we found out 20 or so weeks later that I was pregnant with a little girl! I knew it was a girl, I had seen her in dreams, I just knew it. I wasn't that emotional when finding out, but B was. It was actually pretty cute, because well it just makes it all the more real. Everyone was so excited for us, and lets face it, I love clothes as it is, so baby girl clothes... BRING IT ON!!

I am about 3 months pregnant here, I thought I was so huge, HAHA!

It's a girl!!!

Here I am at Jackson Hole, WY, about 28 weeks,

The summer was crazy for us, we were stressed about paying for the baby, B graduating from college, his career path, and just the future in general. It didn't help that I was already emotional so I cried a lot. I have such little faith. There were big changes at work happening, one of my closest co-workers was going to leave, leaving me in charge of everything and 8 months pregnant and I was freaking out. B had applied to grad school and we still hadn't heard anything. Plus it was so stinking hot. Our house doesn't have AC so I was tempted half the time to just pour water over my body. One thought I kept thinking was this is what God expects out of us, is to create children, and so we have to have faith it will all just work out.

My parents came up for B's graduation, and on July 23rd the day that B graduated from college we also found out that B got accepted in the HPA Program at Washington State University in Spokane, WA. We couldn't believe it, we only had 3 weeks to find a place to live, move, quit our jobs, and somehow find a way to pay for school and you know provide for a baby. I couldn't have been prouder of my B, not only had he got his degree, but now he was accepted to a grad program was beyond his wildest dreams. I knew if the situation was reversed he would have followed me anywhere, so I knew that we could do it. It felt right, and if it was right then God would help us in everything we were so worried about. So mom and dad packed up what they could, and then a week later we packed up everything we owned and said goodbye to the dear Rexburg we have loved for so long. So many memories in that town, and I had said goodbye before to it, but this time it was permanent. Saying goodbye to North Wind was harder than I would have thought too. That's been my place of employment for 4 years, and the people you work with become like your 2nd family. I grew up a lot while working there, and learned a lot about myself and what I am capable of. I had made a couple of close friends who I will cherish forever, and I know that I couldn't have survived that job without them. The funny thing is now none of us work there anymore!! It was liberating a little to just leave there, but I will say I will miss the paycheck.

B's graduation from BYU-Idaho

My parents and us

B and his family at graduation

Saying goodbye to my dear friends at North Wind, I miss them!

We had 3 weeks to get things figured out, so we spent time in Parma hanging out with my family and enjoying the hot hot days of summer. It was a great time to be home. We swam and played way too much, and we didn't have to worry about going back to work! Within a week we found a place to live (thanks to childhood friend who happens to be in the same program B was going in to), and got things rolling for B's school loan. During this time I just kept thinking about how pioneers just up and left everything they had ever known to go to a place they had never even seen, yes and some were even pregnant. Faith with every footstep right? My dad and Hyrum decided to help us move up to Spokane and bless their hearts. I do NOT recommend moving when you are 32 weeks pregnant. You feel so helpless, plus it was the middle of the summer. I will be forever grateful to those who helped us. Was I scared out of my mind to leave Idaho? Uh yes, it helps though when you are with your best friend, and you don't have to do it alone. I think more than anything I was nervous about bringing a baby into the world when I didn't even know how we were going to do it! I still continually felt peace about everything though, so that helped obviously.

Can I just say we couldn't have made this move to Spokane without my family. I'm the oldest and I seem to have taken care of everyone else, I had been graduated from college for 5 years, had a career, I love my family but I never really needed them like I did with this move. I depended heavily on my husband and my family to keep encouraging me on this endeavor. Sometimes it's hard for me to ask for help, or to show that I'm struggling, or I have fears, but this has certainly taught me it's OK to have emotions!! My parents and family most have all have been our biggest cheerleaders. We constantly feel their love and their prayers I know they are praying on our behalf. The countless tender mercies, or answer to prayers we receive is unreal, it's like modern day miracles! The other day when I was cleaning up the baby's room I just kept thinking, how did I get so blessed? Everything has worked out perfectly. Not that it was easy and still isn't, but I have learned so many lessons, about being humble, accepting help from others, having faith, and learning what it means to just trust what you know is right. I know one day when I'm teaching Young Women's I'll have a great story to tell, haha!

So here we are! Spokane, WA! So far it's been fun, we have a really amazing ward, they are so friendly. We have already made really great friends, and it's like a support system that both B and I need, especially because school is hard and I'm going to have this baby any day! The church just isn't about the spiritual stuff, it's also that commonality that makes it so great.

B and the rest of his cohort here at WSU

Thank you to everyone who has been there for us, from encouraging phone calls and texts, to gifts for our sweet baby. We have amazing friends and family who support us! Hopefully now I will keep up this blog so that I can document all the fun we are having (ok and the work B is doing). If you want to come visit please do, we sort of know our way around now!! Now that I am a stay at home wife and mother, I'm going to commit myself to keep up again with this blog, and hello I will have a new baby to blog about (if she would get here already)...

Now for a few more random pictures to catch up!

Maddie graduated High School! I can't believe she's that old!

36 Weeks pregnant!

38 weeks pregnant - taken on my Birthday, I also gave a talk this day!

At Grandma Blaylock's funeral, here are all of the Blaylock cousins minus Chris and Mariah. It was a really great celebration of her life, and seeing everyone.

Here we are with Maddie, her basketball team took 3rd in State, it was so fun to see her play one last time!

B and I on Easter Sunday!