5.5 Hours of Sleep!

Yes, it's true. Miles slept from 10:15 last night to 3:45 this morning. That's 5.5 hours, count em! Then after a late night meal, he went back to sleep until 8 am. It was glorious. I'm hoping this is the beginning of him learning to sleep through the night. I have been reading the first Babywise book about how to get your baby on a schedule and sleeping through the night. I think some of the things I have been trying are working!! Although letting him cry and teaching him to fall asleep on his own isn't always fun.

(Sorry about the poor quality. Something happened when I tried to upload it..and other pictures. This is the one that turned out the best! This is him right after his favorite thing...bathtime! He loves getting a bath and then laying out in front of the heater:)

Another high note of yesterday was that Miles actually let us go walking at the college! BYU-I has a community walk time every day from 1130 to 1230 where anyone can come walk on the indoor track. Since it's still in the 30's here in Rexburg, things to do for me to get back in shape are limited. Every time i try to get Miles ready to go walking, he is instantly not happy and hungry, so we haven't gone yet. But yesterday, he was fed and happy by 11:15 and we went walking!! Wahoo! Now, I know I just had him about 5 weeks ago so I still can't work out very strenuously, but I feel great and need to do something active, so I thought walking would be perfect. As it turns out, my body and my mind have 2 very different ideas about what I should be doing. They got in a fight yesterday while walking. It went something like this:

Body: Ouch! Ouch! Stop walking.
Mind: Oh c'mon you wuss, you've only walked around the track like 5 times
Body: Hey I had a baby pretty recently, take it easy!
Mind: Oh yeah? See that girl in your ward over there? I happen to know she had a baby about 7 weeks ago, and she's jogging! You've still got about 15 unwanted pounds at least to get rid of. Get movin!
Body: You think I didn't notice? I'm the one that still can't fit into pre-pregnancy clothes! Ouch! Ouch!

Eventually the mind succumbed and let my body stop walking after about 45 minutes. Mind:0 Body:1

We have also started taking Miles to church with us, which is so nice to be able to go to the full block with both Richie and Miles. We are also now taking Miles dancing. Actually, we took him dancing the entire 9 months including two times the week he was born! My water even broke while listening to swing records! But, he's pretty good when we take him dancing, and it's nice to dance with Richie again and not get so dizzy and worn out. Although I have a lot of catching up to do with swing!

One Month!

I can't believe it! We've had Miles here for a whole month! He's already changed so much, we just hope he doesn't grow up too fast. He finally passed up his birth weight and as of last Friday was 9 pounds and 1 ounce. I can't wait till he gets some serious chubby rolls. :) His eyes are open a ton more now which is so fun and I think he's getting more hair. He is such a good baby. As long as he has a clean diaper and a full tummy and he's being held he's pretty content. He's such a cuddle bug!
I'm getting used to being a mom and I'm having so much fun adapting, although it is so much more work that I ever thought it would be. Last month's visiting teaching message was so poignant for me. Sister Beck said that in the pre-existence, we (women) fought for this privelege; the privelege of being a woman and a nurturer and I can definitely see why. It's such a blessing.

Smiles!

If I"m only got one picture to load, I'm glad it was this one! He smiles fairly frequently, although I doubt he knows it. They are quick, so you're lucky to catch them, but man are they worth all the sleepiness. He even has a visible dimple from his daddy! YES!! Well, my mom has gone and Richie's mom has gone. It's just us now....uh-oh!!

More pics! Well, one more.

I don't know what the deal is with the picture situation, I really am trying to put more on. But I guess we'll take what we can get right? So for now, here's the one picture I got to load. Richie is one proud daddy! He is already better at being a dad than I imagined, and I imagined him to be pretty good. I'm so lucky I married such a patient man who can keep a sense of humor especially when it comes to dealing with a crying baby and an emotional wife :) Love you babe!

Welcome Miles Thomas!

We finally have our baby here and life is good! This post won't be long, but I know everyone is waiting for pictures and I don't blame you, he's dang cute. But I guess we're kind of biased. More pictures are coming, but the computer is giving us problems. Sorry!
The stats:
8 pounds 7 ounces
20.5 inches long
He was born right before midnight on the 30th, so now he'll share his birthday with his Uncle Jeffrey from Richie's side and his Uncle Ben from my side. Must be a good day! Labor and delivery couldn't have gone better. It was fairly short and there were no complications. We feel so blessed, for lack of a better word, although we feel so much more than just blessed. We can't believe it. I'm finally understanding a little bit of how much our earthly and Heavenly Parents love us and it's incredible. My mom is here for a while to help out which is so nice and we have a lot of support from the ward. I'm feeling pretty good, Richie is the best dad already and elated beyond reason, and Miles is healthy and happy. Life can't get much better.

Book reviewS and Recipe!

Well, I've had adequate time to read these days, although I still feel guilty just sitting and reading too much. However, I managed to finish "The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis, "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, and "Yellow Star" by Jennifer Roy.
Yellow Star
This is a young adult book about a Jewish girl named Syvia who is one of 12 children to survive the Lodz Ghetto in Poland during WW2. It's a true story about the author's aunt. What's really interesting is that the entire book is written in poetry form! I was a little turned off by this at first thinking it would be harder to get through, but the poetry is just more a matter of format and it reads just like normal text from the perspective of a young girl. It also has a historical timeline in the back of the book that goes through all the major events in world war 2. You can tell the author has been a teacher:) I think it would be fabulous for a classroom, but it's a really great, short and powerful read for anyone!
A Christmas Carol
Classic, obviously. Richie and I started reading it together in December, but never finished it and then he suggested that I had better finish it on my own. :) He loves the story, but getting through all the 'wordiness' is not his thing. Everyone seems to know this story about change and becoming a better person, but actually reading through the text was so insightful The 'wordiness' brings description and humor to the story that is totally lost in the retelling or video reproduction. I highly recommend reading through it. It's a short book. After coming to know Scrooge and his visit from Jacob Marley: "You are fetered," said Scrooge rembling. "Tell me why?" " I wear the chain I forged in life," replied he Ghost. "I made it link by link, yard by yard; I girded it on my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it." - you are so relieved to watch him change. "I am not the man I was."
The Chronicles of Narnia
Man, C.S. Lewis knows what he's talking about. I know everyone talks about how these books are symbolic, but I had no idea how symbolic they really are until I read through them. I never read them when I was younger, so maybe I appreciate them more now. There are 7 books in all, and I read them in sequence which I would definitely recommend. In the first book it explains how Narnia was created and why all the animals talk. It makes the rest of the series make so much more sense. The books take you through the adventures of the Pevensie children, their cousin Eustace, his friend Jill and finally the last king of Narnia in "The Last Battle". Definitely worth reading and rereading if you haven't done so in a few years. Not only was is so entertaining I wanted more at the end, but it made me think deeply and it strengthened my testimony.
Recipe!
Ok, this gal in my ward gave me this recipe and it is to die for! Just a warning, you don't want to make this unless you have people around to help you eat it. Otherwise you will eat the entire pan and gain 15 pounds.
Cookie Bars!
1 C Butter
2 Eggs
2 1/2 C flour
2 t soda
2 C brown sugar
2 t vanilla
1 t salt
3 C oatmeal
Chocolate filling
1 Can Sweetened condensed milk
1 pkg milk chocolate chips
2 t vanilla
(Melt the choc chips and milk together, then add the vanilla)
*Layer a little more than half of the cookie mixture in a greased 9 by 13 pan. Then put chocolate filling on top of the flattened cookie mixture. Let cool for a minute. Then flatten the rest of the cookie mixture on top of the chocolate layer. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until cookie mixture is a light, golden brown.

On Holiday

I'm not sure why I'm not being allowed to post pictures lately, but I'm sick of not posting. So pictures or no pictures, here's the rundown of our Christmas vacation!
Richie and I got to take a good chunk of time to see both of our families this holiday season. It was so fantastic!! We loved being with everyone and there being lots of food around all the time. :)
Here are some highlights:
Going through the temple with Richie's brother Ross

(I guess this picture is special, cause it's the only one that turned out! :)
Spending my first Christmas with the Garners and waking up before 9 to open presents!
Getting to see Sam, Denise, Marci, Ang & TJ at the fine establishment of IHOP- come hungry leave happy.
Having a baby shower with all the girls! It was such a blast!! (Especially that game Ilah and Zadi!)
Going out to lunch with some of the exec sisters
Hanging out and playing games
Watching Richie teach my nieces and nephews how to swing dance and then dancing at first night. Awesome band. What can I say, Richie is just awesome. He was the 'go-to-guy' for fun and had many a wrestling match, dance lesson, frisbee golf game and a bazillion other things.
Having another shower in Bluffdale! We are pretty much ready for baby now! Bring it on!
Mostly we just loved being around our family. I can't believe how much everyone grows up in such a short amount of time. It's crazy to me. I miss everyone already. Although it's nice to get back into a routine and be in your own space, it was such a blast and I wouldn't mind doing it all over again tomorrow.

Baby Update

I have been trying for a few days now to make the post about our fantastic Christmas vacation, but for some reason, I'm having real difficulty getting any pictures on. I know, I know, the suspense is killing you, but you'll have to wait for that post for another day. In the mean time, let this tide you over. I actually do have a picture of my gigantic swollen feet that I could post with this, but darnit, the whole picture thing just isn't working like I explained earlier.
I had a doctor's appointment on Monday and everything is still lookin good! Less than 4 weeks! Can you believe it!? I told the doctor that we have rather large babies in my family, so he said that in 2 weeks at my next appointment (assuming I haven't had the baby by then) then we'd look into inducing maybe after an ultrasound to see how big he really is. Those of you who have seen me recently would probably not doubt the possibility of there being a 15 pound child inside of me. If he's going to be that big, we expect him to come out walking, talking and fully potty trained.
Since we've had 2 showers now, I feel like we have most of what we need. Now it's just kind of a waiting game. I had the baby room all organized and cute once upon a time, but it's once again turned into somewhat of a storage room. So, I would rather baby hold off for at least another week. Richie and I are going to a class this weekend that is going to teach us how to be good parents for a "small" fee. And next weekend my friend in the ward here wants to do another baby shower get together/diaper drop. Wahoo!! Only one small worry now, excited as I am.... Can I really handle this??

An Early Christmas!

Richie and I have been planning on having a VERY low key Christmas this year. But the other day, to our surprise, we found a lovely check from my Grandma Crosby in the mail. Hallelujah! So, we decided it was a perfect excuse to go buy some necessities. Richie has really been needing some new work boots and we needed a space heater for when the baby comes. Thank you Grandma!!!

Other than that, life is goin good. I'm loving just being able to chill and get things done around the house, and today is Richie's official last day of school this semester! WAHOO!! He's more than ready for this semester to be over, so I'm glad that he'll get a nice break before one last semester. I'm so proud of him for getting school done. What a stud.
We are so excited to see our family for Christmas! Congrats to my sister-in-law and her husband who are moving to NYC on the 27th! And congrats to my bro-in-law who just got his mission call to Armenia! Go Ross!
Love you all!

The End

Yesterday was my official last day student teaching!! Wahoo!! I called Richie when I was driving home and he asked how I felt. I'll tell ya, it was kind of anti-climatic. I was expecting to be.... I don't know crying, yelling, grinning ear to ear. But instead it just felt good. :) It was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done, but one of the most worth-while. That's usually how it seems to go right? I may go back every once in a while to help with centers or to show off our baby though. We'll see. On Monday night after dinner, I wanted to eat something sweet (as usual) so I decided to make a cake, but not just any cake. A "Congratulations to me!" cake. I figured since that was the first time in ages I actually had time to do something like that, it was kind of a celebration. :) A really yummy celebration!

I thought I would post a picture of my unit that I did for student teaching. We were required to teach a unit and document it like crazy. I chose to do mine on the seasons since it went along so well with the reading program that theme. After analyzing the pre and post tests, I found that 50% of my students scored a 90% or higher on the test. The rest were not too far behind! So that's good. Each lesson was on a different season and I usually incorporated some type of writing project and some type of art project. Each art project went outside in the hallway on a gigantic tree I made with 4 branches, each dedicated to a season. So for spring we made flowers out of tissue paper, summer we learned different ways to color and made green leaves, fall we did leaf rubbings, and winter we made snowflakes. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. The kids sure seemed to enjoy it.
I'm really going to miss those kids and that age and their conversations.
"Do you know what it means to french kiss?",
"Let's pretend like I'm the teacher."
"Ok, and lets pretend like I'm the smartest kid in class"
"I love you 200 times"

Ultimate!

I know, I know...two posts in one day? Is she crazy??? It just so happens, I have the day off school today and am loving it. So, I get to blog a bit. For the past 3 or 4 years, Richie has played on an Ulimate frisbee team here at school every fall semester and loved it! He is really very good at it. I'm always impressed that I'm married to such a stud. Anyway, this semester was his last since he graduates in April! He's been on the Bruins every year and this year they made it to the playoffs! It was actually his cousin's team that they played. We lost, but it was a VERY close and intense game. And props to all the wives and I who stayed the entire game in 30 degree weather! Anyway, here's a picture to commemorate Ultimate frisbee. Richie's the one on the right doing the sexy bay-watch run. :)