5 Years

Derek and I have been married for 5 years!  What?  Feels like forever and it feels like just yesterday.  A lot has happened in 5 years.  We've been in college, graduated, held jobs, moved 3 times, once internationally, bought a house, dealt with infertility, had a baby, travelled and travelled some more.

We celebrated this year by driving up to the mountains and staying in a beautiful lodge in Kananaskis.  Executive suite with a Jacuzzi, chocolates and (non-alcoholic) wine waiting for us!  Here's a few pictures:

We actually didn't drink the wine...it said 5% alcohol level.  We're not sure what to do with it, since no one we know would want it...but we got to keep the glasses and the chocolates were DIVINE!!

Samantha wanted to try some of the wine.  She got to celebrate our anniversary with us!

Today, we took a walk to a really pretty little lake.  It was nice and paved so we could take Sam in the stroller and didn't have to carry her (we were never good at putting her in a carrier when she was younger so she doesn't like it for that long!)

We ate lunch at a fantastic little Thai place in Canmore and then we drove home! Derek let me take a nap while Samantha slept and then I got to go for a run!  We're about to make dinner, put the munchkin to sleep, and watch some of our favorite shows together!

I can't wait to see what the next 5 years brings.  And, I'm pretty sure Derek will have to take me on a cruise or something for our ten year...maybe Mediterranean?

Anniversary

Tonight we are going to drive up to Kananaskis, eat a nice dinner and spend the night in a nice lodge.  Tomorrow, we are going to take leisurely walks throughout the small little town and maybe even rent some bikes.  All to celebrate our 5 year anniversary.  Next time, we won't bring our kid! There's just not much we can do about that this year.  It still should be fun!  I'm excited!

1 Year

A year ago TODAY, we moved to Calgary, Canada.  What a year it has been.

Since moving here, I have experienced PREGNANCY, living with in-laws, buying a house, furnishing a house with all its ups and downs, boredom, immigration, giving birth, making friends, starting a home business, traveling, figuring out life as (first) a stay-at-home childless woman to (now) stay-at-home mom, and everything else in between.

It's been quite a year.  Quite. A. Year.

I'm loving every minute of it so here's to year 2 in Calgary!

A Girl and Her Elephant--5 months

I really need to get back on track with this thing so I'm not always playing "catch-up."  But, here are baby Samantha's 5 month pictures.  She'll be 6 months in a little over 2 weeks.  Crazy talk!

I had my first "real" Mother's Day this year, although I was about 5 weeks pregnant with baby Samantha last year.  I must say, I kind of like Mother's Day.  For how hard it has been in the past, it was that much better this year.  And Derek sure made it special!  I really appreciated it.

I also felt for my friends who are still dealing with their infertility issues.  My heart goes out to them as I know how difficult it is.  I don't know why God makes some wait longer than others, but I do know that it changes the person you become.  It has definitely changed the mother that I am.  I am so much more grateful than I think I would have been.  And Mother's Day is so much more meaningful to me.  Here are a few pictures of Samantha and me on Mother's Day:

She looked so precious, don't you think?

Samantha finally got to meet her Auntie Carolyn, Uncle Jeff and cousin Elizabeth!  They came to visit us in Canada and we got to do some fun things!  We went to the park, the zoo, swimming, and then we finished off their trip by traveling to Kelowna, B.C. where we got to do more fun things (unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures because other people had cameras and got them all, but hopefully I can get my hands on them soon!)  Here's a few pictures from our swim trip to Southland Leisure Center (or Centre if you're Canadian ;)

Baby girl also got a cold for the first time this month.  It was sad, but it also wasn't that bad.  For the first day or so she had red, tired eyes and a runny nose.  She never got a fever, but that runny nose/stuffy nose lasted for about 1 1/2 weeks.  We got her some saline drops so she could still eat and we put the humidifier on in her room and she did really well.  She was a bit fussier that first day or so but that's to be expected.  It made me sad that she was so sick and I couldn't do much to help her.  Glad that's over!

We've still got the sweetest little baby alive!  She's been having a harder time sleeping (it's really been since we got back from Utah (2 months ago...) but recently it's gotten a bit better.  Hopefully soon she'll let us get some much-needed sleep!  

I'm going to try and post some videos (from the time she was born because I still haven't figured out how to upload them yet...not like I've tried that hard though) and some of the pictures from the photo shoot we just took yesterday!  Keep coming back for more!  I really should change the name of this blog to have something to do with Samantha because that's all I seem to talk about!  She must be pretty important! :)

A Girl and Her Elephant--4 Months

Yes, yes, I know.  Samantha is almost 5 months old now, but I took pictures with her and the elephant on her 4 month birthday, and I've been keeping a journal for her, so I think I can update her 4th month pretty easily.  And then we'll update it again in a week or so!

Baby girl is getting big.  At her 4 month appointment, she weighed in at 12 lbs 2 oz.  When the nurse told us the weight, we made her do it again because we couldn't believe it.  That was only 12 ounces bigger than last month and we thought she had grown SO BIG!!!  I thought for sure she was at least 13-14 pounds.  Nope, she's still a little thing, but healthy which is all I could ask for.  She's 25th percentile in weight and 75th in height.  Her weight/height ratio is still about 3rd percentile.  So, she's super tall and skinny.  Where did she get that?  Not from me, that's for sure! :) Must be Lee gene!

We took a trip to Utah and Las Vegas in April.  Judi was nice enough to drive down with me.  We blessed the baby in my mom's ward (blessing pictures are coming, I promise!) and we also went down to Las Vegas for an Arbonne conference.

I can't believe how well she did.  She rolled with the punches and it was amazing.  I mean, she slept during the night shows and concerts at the Arbonne conference.  What a good baby!  But, with all that traveling, her schedule did get a bit out of whack.  Sharing hotel rooms and living with my parents for a couple weeks meant that I fed her every time she made a peep during the night.  Which also meant that she got a little dependent on that.  So she was wanting to eat even when she wasn't hungry.  It made for some pretty sleepless nights for the both of us.

Another milestone: she learned how to roll to her stomach.  The day we got to Utah, Matt and I videotaped her for about 15 minutes wanting to capture her first rollover!  The second I put the camera away, she did it!  We got it on tape, I think on her 3rd go around and now she's a pro!  Unfortunately, she has since forgotten how to roll back so she'll often get very frustrated when she's been on her stomach for too long and can't roll back!

She also started loving toys way more.  She can now grab them, hold them, study them and put them in her mouth.  She loves it.

Love this girl!

We finally got a stretching picture! What a drama-queen!

Cutest outfit EVER!

She HATES sitting in her bumbo!

Getting ready for church with daddy!

A Girl and Her Elephant--3 Months!

Be prepared for a picture-filled blog post!  We've got lots!

She's getting so big!  I can't believe that she is already 3 months old.  It has gone by so fast, and I know it will just go faster and faster.  Why hasn't anyone found a way to slow down time?

At her 3 month check-up this morning, Sam weighed in at 11 lbs 6 oz. She wasn't measured, but by the way those pants are fitting in the pictures above, I'd say she's grown in both directions!

It's crazy how fast she is learning and growing.  I feel like every month I could write a novel.  That's why I've decided to start a journal for Samantha.  My goal is to write in it every day, or nearly every day because it seems so much can happen even in that short amount of time.  Plus, it gets really hard to remember everything when I come update this blog every month.  So far, I've been doing her journal for a week.  I am hopeful I can keep it up!  

1) Samantha is smiling and cooing more than ever now.  Often, she can be in any type of mood and I can usually get a smile out of her.  Love it!  In fact, one time she was crying because she was overly tired.  I looked down at her and smiled and she stopped crying to smile back.  It didn't last long, but I loved it!

2) We've also heard her giggle about 3 times now.  It's usually very surprising to all of us!  

3) She's doing so well with her sleeping.  For the last 4 nights, she has slept 8 hours!  And last night, I didn't even have to get up to give her the soother.  She really slept through the night!  She's always been a great sleeper and I don't know what I'll do if we ever have a baby that doesn't sleep well.  She's definitely spoiled us!

4) Since she was 2 months, she could roll over from her tummy to her back.  She can still do that, but recently, she started rolling onto her side from her back.  Yesterday, she was trying to reach her soother and ALMOST rolled over from her back to her stomach!  That dang arm of hers got in the way.  It could still be awhile before she does it, but I thought a close encounter required some reporting! :)

5) About the time she started rolling to her side, she discovered her feet.  She LOVES grabbing at them!  

6) She also loves studying her hands.  She'll put them in front of her face and go all cross-eyed looking at them.  

7) She's still the best baby in the world.  We were able to go see Hunger Games with her and she was an angel throughout.  It wasn't the most stress-free movie I've ever seen, but I enjoyed it and she was really good.  I might not do it for every movie I want to see, but this one seemed to be an exception.  

We love our baby!  Enjoy the pictures! 

Standing up!  She's so strong!

I looked away for a minute and when I looked back, she had this hoola-hooped this around her arm! Clever girl!

Smiley baby!

Typical

C'mon now.  Cutest baby EVER?  I think so!

With her 2nd cousin Ava who was born exactly 1 month after Sam.  So cute!

Rolling to her side. 

The Easter bunny brought her a basket.  He brought her an Easter dress and 2 stuffed animals!  Actually the Eeyore was from Grandma Lee but it got stuffed in there with everything else. 

Samantha in her Easter dress!  Isn't she adorable?

Full ensemble.  Tights and an Easter headband .

Sleepy girl!

Grandma Lee bought her this duck costume!  So cute!

Quack! Quack!

Love her to pieces!

Happy Easter (yesterday) everyone.  

Happy 3 month birthday to my baby girl!

Happy birthday to my sister-in-law Chelsea.

And...

Happy BIRTHday to my new nephew...no-named (yet) Farr born this morning.  Can't wait to meet you! 

Time

Even as I write this, I can't stop thinking to myself: Samantha's asleep, I could/should be doing this, this, this or this.  But, I'm writing a blog post.

Time has come to mean something very different to me since Sammie was born. In fact, the last year has been quite interesting when it comes to time.

When we moved to Canada, I was forbidden to work or go to school.  I had all of the time in the world, and nothing to do with it.  I tried to stay busy; I did a lot of my favorite hobbies, but I found that when all you do is your hobbies, they don't feel like hobbies anymore.  To be honest, I am not really sure how I spent my 6 months of complete and utter time.  I found that when I have so much time but nothing to do with it, it can be difficult to stay happy.  I think I did an okay job with it, but it was hard.

Now I have the opposite problem.  For a long time, Samantha would not be put down, even when she was asleep.  She would wake up the minute I put her down, and if she did sleep without being held, it was only for like 15-20 minutes.  She's better now; in fact, she can be put down before she's asleep and can fall asleep somewhat on her own.  She still only sleeps for 30 minutes to an hour at a time. (She's had a couple of days where her afternoon nap is like 2-3 hours which has been nice).  Anyway, what I'm saying is I don't have all that much time in the day! And when it's interrupted so very often, it makes it difficult to do anything at all.  (Sometimes, my shower/getting ready time is spanned over 2 naps, which is like a 2-3 hour period...)

I'm not going to lie, it does stress me out a bunch.  I've got a lot of things that HAVE to get done.  My immigration papers, Samantha's U.S. citizenship, her passport (which we did end up getting done, thank goodness), taxes, etc., etc.  These things can't get done in a 30 minute nap so often, it takes me all day to get just a little bit of one thing done.  I mean, I've been working on my immigration stuff since she was about 6 weeks old.  And, it's still not done.  It's certainly stressful.  And, it can be difficult to stay happy.

I just have to remember how precious she is to me.  I have to remember how much I yearned for her to be here in my life.  I have to remember that if you had asked me a year ago, I would have given anything to be exactly where I am right now.  I am lucky, I am blessed, I am extremely grateful.

Stressed? Yes! Not able to get much done in a day? Definitely Yes! But happy, blessed and humbled? A thousand times YES!!!

I wouldn't trade any of it for the world!