Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Utah/Idaho Trek

We flew back to Utah with my mom. Karlee is always excited to ride on an airplane! Or even just going to the airport makes her excited.

Colton's 1st airplane ride

We spent the majority of our time in Heber at my parents house. The weather was perfect and it was nice to have a fenced yard so Karlee could go out and play as much as she wanted.


My Aunt Judie passes away the day before Colton was born and we all inherited a few of her things. Karlee loved going through all the ornaments, dolls, bears, and other little things that my mom got from Judie. One day we went and visited my Aunt Gaylene and her family. Karlee loved the doll house my cousin Kristy got from Judie. It kept her entertained for a long time.

Karlee and Kristy playing with the doll house.


Colton and Melisa. They share a birthday!

My two burrito babies.

We went up to the Belcher cabin and had dinner and roasted marshmallows! YUM!







Eating and yummy s'more

We went and saw my uncle Dave's animals. Karlee loved the little dogs the best. She wasn't too impressed with the zebra, buffalo, or donkey.




We also spent a couple of days at Matt's brother Justin's house. Colton loved Kinley. She could get him to stop crying when no one else could.

Karlee and Crew

Kinley and Tanner with Colton. They both informed me that they wished they had one of these at their house ;)

Matt had a couple of interviews in Boise so we made a trek up to Idaho to Mountain Home to see my sister Lisa (forgot to take pictures) and then stayed a night in Meridian at Matt's brother Danny's.

Cute Ellie. I was trying to get Karlee to stand by her, but she wouldn't let me take her picture.

When we got back from Idaho my Grandma came to Utah so Colton got to meet his Great Grandma Ballard. It was so good to see her!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Grandma Belcher's visit

Wow...the last few weeks have been a whirlwind.  My mom came out to help with Colton and then we (as in me, Karlee, and Colton) ended up flying back to Utah with her for two weeks. Matt was busy with school, interviews, and other school activities and was going to be gone a lot. So I decided it would be nice to go so I wouldn't have to be alone and so I could have extra help with the kids. Plus Matt was going to go out for interviews so we could fly back to Virginia with him. Then two days after we got back from Utah Matt's parents came to Williamsburg to visit. It was nice having so much help for so long. It's also nice to be a family again...oh wait Matt's not here. He's in West Virginia interviewing. Someday I suppose we'll be able to get into some type of routine and have normalcy in our life.

Mom's visit

Studying with daddy


Helping give Colton his first bath

Helping Grandma make cookies

Who doesn't love cookie dough

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Karlee's 3

This sweet girl turned 3 yesterday! Happy Birthday Karlee!
 



Birthday Questionnaire
Favorite Color: pink and purple
Favorite food: chicken nuggets and mac and cheese
Favorite toy: princesses
Favorite thing to play: princesses
Favorite snack: fruit snacks
Favorite thing to do with mommy: go to library
Favorite thing to do with daddy: go to the doctor with him (I think she's been with him once to the doctor like 6 months ago)
Favorite thing to do with Colton: kiss him
Favorite movie: Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)
Favorite princess: Ariel, Aurora, and Jasmine

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The Big Sister

Karlee absolutely adores Colton. She is a very sweet and loving big sister. Phrases that she says multiple times a day everyday:
"Mommy I just love him so much"
"Don't cry baby brother"
"Him needs his binky"
"Please I kiss head?"
"When he wakes up can I touch his head?"
"After you feed him then I can hold him okay mommy?"
"Him wants him daddy that's why him's crying"
"Him can play with this princess, I share with him"
"He spit"
"Mommy get that spit"
"I will make him happy"






Sunday, September 4, 2011

The days leading up to D-Day

Wow! It has been a crazy week to say the least. It started off on Matt's birthday the 21st. Pipes in the kitchen got clogged and we had a small flood in our kitchen and laundry room. It was Sunday, Matt's birthday and he had a wife who was 39 weeks pregnant, who wasn't much help cleaning things up. Happy Birthday Matt. Monday we were told the plumber would be there. I sat around all day waiting and no plumber.
Tuesday waited all day for the plumber who was supposed to come in the morning. He finally came around 2. Minutes after he got there the house began to shake. He yelled at me from the kitchen..."um mam' your house is shaking, does it do that often?" I stood in the door way kind of confused. I could feel it shaking as well and was hoping that it wasn't just our house. I told him no our house never shakes and that I thought that maybe it was an earthquake. He didn't believe me. But the house was definitely swaying from side to side. Then I got a text from Matt asking if I just felt that? It was indeed an earthquake. A first for me! Anyway, the plumber couldn't get to the clog so that meant another day of waiting for the plumber for me the next day. I was thrilled. Oh and there was word that a hurricane was coming and we needed to get ready in case it hit Williamsburg.
Wednesday was spent getting food that wouldn't go bad that we could eat if we lost power and stocking up on water before the stores ran out. Oh and batteries and things like that. We kept hoping that the hurricane would take a different route because it was still too early to tell if we were really going to get hit.
Thursday I had my doctors appointment. Hoping that maybe they would induce me that day so I wouldn't go into labor during the hurricane. Well that hope was shot down. I hadn't progressed at all since my last appointment and the baby was still too high. I spent the rest of Thursday stressing out about what to do if I really do go into labor during the hurricane. Also got word that my aunt who has been sick was given 72 hours left to live. Which would possibly cancel my mom's plan for coming to help with the baby until after that happened.
Friday...more stressing. More shopping for food and water. Nervously checking weather.com praying that the hurricane track had shifted. It never seemed to shift in the right way. We knew there was nothing left we could do to prepare. We just had to wait for it to come.
Saturday we wake up to heavy rain and lots of wind. Our power was on when we got up and we were grateful. It stayed on until about 1:30 then it was gone. We figured that everyone probably lots power. So we all took naps to pass the time. When we got up Matt decided to see if there was anyone that did have power. Indeed there were lots of people that still had power. A little frustrating. Some friends asked if we wanted to come to their house, since they had power. The storm looked like it was safe to go out in and we decided that we would go. I brought my hospital bag just in case. We hung out with friends and played games until their power went out around 8:30. By this time the storm was picking up a ton. We didn't feel like it was safe to drive home in so we opted to put Karlee to bed and stay there the night. It was fun to spend the time with friends. It was a lot more entertaining than going home and sitting in the dark by ourselves. It got pretty scary that night for a little bit. Watching trees sway and looking like they could fall and any minute.
Sunday (due date) we woke up wondering and hoping that our house had no damage. We walked out of our friends house and could see many trees that had fallen.  



We drove home to see if there was any damage done to our house. We got lucky. Just a few branches in the yard. We actually were really worried about one tree in our yard. We thought for sure it would come down. But it didn't. It is just leaning lot more now than it was before. Church was canceled. So we went for a drive to see what other damage was done. We went to some other friends house to keep Karlee entertained as well as ourselves. We got word that some people in our ward got power. So we had much hope that ours would be back on. It wasn't :( I learned that you become the most popular person in town when you are due any day and a huge storm has just come through. I received many phone calls, texts and visits to make sure that we were okay and didn't need anything. We felt very loved and blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.
Monday school was canceled for Matt. We hung out. Went out to lunch to one of the few places that had their power back on. Then Monday afternoon we got a call from a friend in the ward whose due date was 2 weeks after mine saying that she was at the hospital and they were going to have to induce. She needed someone to watch her daughter so her husband could join her. I have to admit I was extremely jealous. I was supposed to be the next one to have a baby. Anyway, so we watched my friends little girl for a couple of hours while they found someone else to watch her just in case I went into labor. Another one of my friends called and said that she was going to bring me some caster oil (the thought of it makes me want to puke).  She brought me a little concoction to drink. I drank most of it but couldn't stomach the rest. That night we went to said friends house to enjoy their air conditioning and light because we were still without. While there I started having contractions but nothing regular or strong. We got home around 11 and laid in bed talking, by this time my contractions had picked up in frequency but no intensity. After timing them for an hour Matt was convinced we needed to go to the hospital. I was still a little hesitant but we called our neighbor to come over to be with Karlee and we headed out. Unfortunately for us the hospital was extremely full and they weren't about to admit me unless I was far along. I wasn't so they sent us home after about 3 hours of being there. We came home our neighbor went back home and an hour later my water broke. YAY! Best news ever!
Tuesday our sweet little boy was born! What a great relief. After all the stress it was so good to finally have him here. It was also nice to spend a few days in the hospital that had electricity while ours was still out.

Karlee telling us that Colton needed a bottle and a binky so he could be happy.


Colton brought Karlee a baby of her own.
Thursday we got to come home from the hospital with no power. Lucky for us we have such nice and thoughtful people in our ward who were willing to let us come stay at their house until our power did come back on.
This is how Colton felt about not having a house to go home to with power.

Friday night we got power back!! Best news ever.
Now we are just trying to adjust to having a new born. I forgot how much time they take. Karlee seems to be adjusting alright. I mean last night she slept in her bed for the first time in a week. So she's been a little on the emotional side. But she absolutely loves Colton and wants to do everything for him. She always wants to hold him and help. She is going to be a good (and bossy) big sister.

And here are some more pictures just in case you thought this post wasn't long enough.
My friend Ashlee and I ended up delivering on the same day.





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