Life keeps on going

After a lot of thought, I've decided that I'm just going to give a brief play-by-play of the last several months...

Summer Activities (July - September)

Family Family Family

• Ryan's family in town - Mom and Cory came while Cory went to EFY then came back again to take Adam to BYU and for Jason's Wedding. It was great to be able to spend so much time with them.
• Erin's family in town - Lani's family stopped on their way up to Washington for the summer and now the college kids are back in town (Dana, Logan in Provo and Michelle in Idaho)

• Washington road trip - For mom's birthday, we drove up to Washington. We left Saturday around noon, knocked on Robin & Fred's door around 11pm which was also a surprise, then drove the last 3 hours to Seattle Sunday morning and sat down next to mom at church...pretty much the best surprise ever. We spent the week there...Ryan studying, Erin working and family playing with Kherington. We also go to see Min, one of my best friends from High School.

• Moved to Lehi - we've moved in with my dad who is in Utah during the week for work. We appreciate him having us until our next move. It's nice to be able to see him so much and I think Kherington adores him...he can also get her to laugh!

• Jason's wedding - Jason and Tiffany got married in the Salt Lake City temple. They are such a cute couple. We are very excited to have a sister-in-law.

• Denver road trip - we went out to Denver to visit with some of Ryan's family friends from when he lived in Indiana and to go to Jason & Tiffany's reception. Everything went really well AND we stopped in Rawlins not once but twice and didn't lock ourselves out of the car either time...very successful.

Erin

• Back to work - I'm back working at my job. It definitely has it's ups and down. For the most part I enjoy what I do and the people I work with so that's always a good thing.
• Birthday - went and look at king size beds...so comfy
• Company getting bought out - my company announced about a week ago that Adobe will be acquiring it...as of now it sounds like not much will actually change, but I should be able to get some Adobe products for pretty inexpensive.

Ryan

• Took and PASSED all 4 of the CPA exams - he's done! Lots of studying, but he passed them all on the first time around which is very nice both from a studying and pocket book perspective
• De-junking - gone though box after box of our stuff and throws stuff away...very much needed
• Watching Kherington - she adores him...if he is ever in the room she turns until she has him in her sight.
• College Basketball - as a reward for passing all the CPA, he bought 2 college basketball magazines
• Birthday - bought our king size bed...it is amazing! We went with the Denver mattress pillow-top and bought the display model which saved us a good 200 bucks.

Kherington

• Sleep - decided sleeping through the night is overrated...Ryan is an angel and gets up with her...I've gotten to the point that unless i am specifically trying to listen to her while I sleep I don't hear her at all.
• Clothes - has a few 'cold weather' clothes but definitely needs more especially if we keep taking her on walks. She's almost grown out of the her 3-6 month clothes so she's actually growing at the average rate.
• Solids - It's started...she doesn't love them, but she sure loves to help...she is however interested in anything we are eating or drinking.
• Formula - moved from Similac Soy to the Kirkland brand (none soy)...way less expensive and she does well with it now (no more constipation like before)
• Movement - is really good at rolling from her back to her stomach, but not so good going stomach to back
• Curiosity - love watching other kids and trying to grab them
• Voice - makes a lot of noise (no more need for the baby monitor b/c she has great lungs). When she gets tired she makes an ah ah ah ah ah ah ah noise then finally conks. She has a real laugh now.
• Loves - outside, love her walks and playing in the grass...she stick her cute pointy tongue out and catches the wind, sucking on anything (including toes), dropping stuff on the ground

It's a ...iMAC!!!!

Thanks to some generous graduation gifts, we are now the proud owners of an iMAC! This is our first family desktop and so far we love it. We've enjoyed the easy setup, the wireless printer/copier/scanner that it came with, the compactness (no tower and just 3 cords: power, keyboard, mouse...they have wireless keyboard & mouse, but with a little one, we didn't want those to go walking off), editing pictures, and best of all video chats with family which I'm sure will get more fun as Kherington gets older, I'm hoping to start some digital scrapbooking and eventually learn more about iMovie. Pretty exciting!

So now that we have a family computer I guess that means we should be more consistent with blogging...no promises here, but we'll see if we can make something happen.

3 months and counting

I went on to post and found that I had written this draft (on July 26th), but didn't post b/c I wanted to include pictures...

This last weeks Kherington reached her 3 month mark. She has started to develop quite the personality. To celebrate, the atnea people came and finally took the machine away for good (she's had to wear a monitor around her chest for the last 3 months...minus the 2 weeks they took it and weren't supposed to...it was just a precaution and never actually went off except when she was crying really hard).

Kherington tidbits:
She still sleeps through the night (10pm - 6am usually)Not a huge fan of naps...she does more of the 10-15 minute cat nap
She is a stomach sleeper...just like her mom
Her favorite place in the house in the kitchen floor
She doesn't HATE the car seat anymore
If she cries in the car, the best way to sooth her is to play all your cell phone ring tones
She got her first email accounts today
She likes having people visit (somehow she knows and is usually on her best behavior)
She likes swinging the bird in the bouncer to make the music play
She is getting quite a gut

She has been helping Ryan study for the CPA tests this summer. They have gotten through 3 of them, now just one left. We won't find out if he's past the last 3 until early September.

Vacation Recap

So we spent the last two weeks in Myrtle Beach with Ryan's family and had a blast! Some of the highlights:

Handing Kherington off to Grandma & Grandpa in the morning and going back to sleep for 3 hours. She loved laying on their bed and watching the ceiling fan go round and round.

Beach time - Kherington's first dip into the Atlantic Ocean. We only took her to the beach in the evening because it was so hot and a burned baby is NOT a happy baby from what I hear.

Golf - Adam hooked the brothers up with some free golf at the golf course

Games - Found two new good ones: Bananagrams (it's kinda like individual scrabble) and Monopoly the card game (only takes like 15 minutes to play)

Singing time - Ryan's family has some amazing musical talent. Kherington loved listening to Cory on Piano and Adam on Guitar with everyone singing along!

Prison Break - we watched the first series of prison break. It was really slow in comparison to 24...we all thought it would have made a better movie.

Baby Blessing - We blessed Kherington while we were there. She had been VERY gassy and right as Ryan started the blessing she let a very fragrant smell out of the rear. haha...like daughter like father.

Family - the whole family was there including Jason's fiance Tiffany. They are getting married August 31st. We are so excited for them!



We took some family pictures at the beach. Here are two of my favorites:

In the two weeks we were there, Kherington grew so much! She was a little angel on the plane ride out, but had about an hour of crying on the way back...she just didn't want to go to sleep. It is amazing how much more personality she has now. She has her different cries...some of them are pretty funny. She now loves her bouncer, swing and flying bears in her crib. Speaking of crib...Kherington now usually sleeps through the night (10:30pm - 6:30am)...at 8 weeks she slept exclusively in the crib and at 2 months, we moved the crib to another room.

Well, we got back on a Tuesday and I went back to work on Wednesday. After two months off that was kinda a shocker, but I like what I do and it is perfect for us right now.

Our Little Honey

We do have the cutest girl ever (she talks at the end of the clip...kinda):


Her dad and two of the uncles were nice enough to sing her to sleep...it's way large, but hopefully I'll be able to get it up eventually.

Exciting News

Ryan has started studying for the CPA exam. Here is a shot of his typical studying:
Yep, Kherington is just that interested in Tax Accounting. Well, he took the first of 4 exams during the last week of May and found out this morning that he PASSED (with flying colors I might add...and he thought he did bad). One down, 3 to go!

Favorite Baby Items

Here are a few of my favorite baby items:

Sleeper Sacs - Kherington has pretty much lived in these and onsies. The sleeper sacs are especially nice at night because she kicks off all the covers but still has something over her AND it we have easy access to her diaper to change her.

Sponge Pad (for Bath) - this was just 5 bucks at babies r us. We just stick it in the tub, soak it with warm water and fill the tub up a little (so it is still lower than the sponge but we have water to wash her with). She loves her baths. It keeps her warm on the back side, then we cover her stomach with a warm wash cloth on the front side. (Thanks to the Nelsons for both the object and technique) It takes up next to no room (I would guess the bulk baths are a pain to store) and it so cheap that I don't have a problem tossing it out and getting another one for the next kid.

Huggies Newborn Diapers - they have a line that turns blue when the baby pees. Now Kherington doesn't care if she is sitting in pee, but the first 3 weeks of life, if we could tell that she peed and she was unhappy, we'd change her and then she'd be happy again.

Gripe Water - We originally only gave this to Kherington when she was crying for a long time, but in the last couple days she has developed some bad gas and is not happy as she tried to get it out of her. We found if we give her the recommended amount 3 times a day, she is happier and poos more consistently. (Also thanks to the Nelsons)

Disposable Changing Pads - Yes, every couch cushion has been soiled (we spot clean them), but the changing pads are nice to have. First, when we open her up she often pees again; the pad cuts down on the number of locations that get soiled. Second when she goes poo it is nice to just move to a new section of the pad instead of dirtying another diaper.

Breast Pump - I had planned on pumping when I go back to work, but I've used it a ton just being home. Kherington like to fall asleep when she is breastfeeding which makes it take FOREVER. Generally when she takes the bottle, she eat a lot faster, doesn't fall asleep as much and we can tell how much she is actually eating. Pumping is way faster and then it doesn't always have to be me that feeds her. So depending on what I'm trying to get done for the day that is definitely a nice option (aside from only during formula which I would image would get pretty expensive).