The Apron

My mom sent me this apron:

Though I usually cook up a homemade meal about four times a week for dinner, this apron has given me enhanced abilities in the cooking and baking realm. The apron coaxed me to splurge and buy some peppers to make some delish fajitas:

The apron also gave me the super powers necessary to whip up these little babies:
(And this IS a big deal for me. I may be a bread-baking fool, but rolls are not usually my forte.)
So thanks, Mom! My stomach is grateful, as is Garrett's.
So what are Garrett and Kenadie up to while I cook up a storm?
Kenadie is practicing the art of sitting up while Garrett studies:

And when Garrett takes a break from studying for finals (blah!), he serenades Kenadie in her bumbo.

Precious.
And then we pose for a family picture (which I don't think we've had since Kenadie was, oh, about three weeks old!):

The end.

She represents the Lollipop Guild

And in the name of the Lollipop Guild,
she'd like to welcome you to Munchkin Land.

Kenners

My little lady is five months old! Despite the first few months of what seemed like eternal screaming and basically zero sleep, in some ways, time has REALLY flown by!!
Sometimes I still have to remind myself that I'm a mom! Um, weird! Do I really have a baby? Is this chubby little thing that rolls around the floor all day long mine!?
Crazy!
How did her hair go from black to strawberry-blonde so fast!?
When did she outgrow her 3 month old clothes!?
And most of all, how did we get so blessed to have her in our lives!?
She is probably the coolest, most fun little girl alive! I can't imagine life without her.....
She still has issues when the sun goes down, but Garrett says that if she was a good sleeper, she'd probably be too perfect to be on this earth or at least with our family.
He's probably right.
She's pretty amazing and perfect in every other way.
So I'll take the sleep deprivation if it means getting to keep this little toot!

This picture was actually taken a month ago; the first professional photo we have of her (she was SO fussy the first few months of life that I didn't want to waste my time and money having a photographer getting a shot of her screaming).
When we got to the studios, the photographer put her in this pose first, took two pictures, and then with ninja lightning speed, Kenadie rolled herself off the little platform and clonked her head on the hard floor.
She screamed the rest of her photo shoot.
So the picture above--the very first one that the photographer took of her--is the only decent shot of her we were able to get.
Better luck next time....
I still think she looks like a doll!

PS: I hope these ginormous cheeks of hers stay for a L O N G time. I greatly enjoy devouring them day after day. They're the dessert that's always there and never makes you fat!
Yes, I know: lucky mom. :)

The anatomy of our weekend

- Wake up from calorie induced comas on Friday morning

- Eat pumpkin pie for breakfast

- Eat another feast of left overs for lunch and vow to never eat again because we're so full!

- Eat again in a few hours anyway

- Garrett spends all day Friday and Saturday fixing his truck. I think our family has more car trouble than sharks have teeth.

- While Garrett worked on the truck, I spent time with this little toot:

- Garrett thinks he's fixed the truck and on Saturday night drives to Auto Zone for a few small things

- Truck breaks down on way to Auto Zone

- truck still not working for this week

- Garrett and I accept a request/invitation to be Joseph and Emma Smith for our church's Christmas party program. It's like a full on play that we have to put on in, oh, two weeks! And we have to turn the cultural hall into Nauvoo. What are we getting ourselves into!? Where the heck will I find a dark brown, Emma-esque wig, not to mention a pioneer dress?

- Daddy/Daughter play time on Friday night:

(Recently, Kenadie has pretty much only been smiling like this:
Now whenever we call her name or smile at her, she just gives us the big, wide open grin!)

- attempted to be crafty and get some Christmas gifts made on Saturday

- ruined my attempt! :( (will try again this week. I am no Martha Stewart, apparently.)

- Had "Sense and Sensibility" playing on the TV while attempting craftiness. Kenadie was enthralled:
(Is she still in her jammies at 2pm!? Yes, yes she is.)

- Checked on Kenadie during her Saturday afternoon nap. This is what I discovered (and what she has been doing a lot lately while she sleeps):

- slept Friday and Saturday night (Garrett took Kenadie duty) Hooray! Did you know what a DIFFERENCE sleep can make on one's mood, energy, and outlook on life!? I'm a new woman!

- Kenadie only woke up twice Saturday night!

- Put Kenadie in a very cute, pink winter dress on Sunday morning given to us by our friend Annie. She looks SO cute in her new dress.

- Kenadie pukes fountains in her car seat right as we're heading out the door to church.

- Quickly bathe Kenadie, wipe out car seat, and change her into a much less cute dress :(

- Late for church

- See an albino squirrel on our way into the church building

- Garrett insists on taking pictures of albino squirrel with phone camera. (I'll have to upload them sometime. It was cool/freaky-looking.)

- Now we're really late for church.

- Still enjoy church immensely.

- Make some yummy pasta salad for dinner.

-Read the Ensign

- Garrett finally allows me to put on some Christmas music! I dance around the apartment with Kenadie.

- Read to Kenadie right before bedtime.

(What a sweet little girl. I can't get enough of her!)

- Kenadie gets the croup, has a high fever all night long, wakes up every 1/2 hour:
A not-so-perfect end to the not-so-perfect-but-somehow-STILL-perfect weekend. :)

America's Next Top Model

She's tall (off the charts in her age group for height).

She poses for the camera.

She has the whining, crying DIVA thing down pat at nearly five months old.

She already knows how to "smile with her eyes".

She's well on her way, folks.

Thank you!

(Now a post of some heartfelt gratitude!)

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for blessing me to live in the greatest country in the world where the gospel of Jesus Christ could be restored to earth.

Thank you, Kelila, for having the missionary discussions in our home. I have felt greater light and happiness in my life lately and you truly are an amazing person.

Thank you, Garrett, for loving me despite my imperfections and moodiness (especially in the mornings after long nights).

Thank you again, Garrett, for working so hard in school so that you can someday provide for our family so that someday I can buy couches and delicious steaks (instead of always having ground turkey).

Thank you, Dr. Skaufel and Dr. Burns-Ryan (chiropractors), for adjusting Kenadie. You are the nicest chiropractors and the greatest with little kids.

Thank you, Kenadie, for only waking up TWICE last night!!! I AM IN HEAVEN!

Thank you, Kenadie, for having the largest cheeks I've seen on a child, for babbling all day long, for having strawberry-blonde hair, and for your overall cuteness.

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for having us this year for Christmas. We can't wait!!

Thank you, Mom and Dad Christensen, for allowing us to see you four times in the past year! We're going through withdrawals because we're REALLY missing you both. Why can't there be a chiropractic school in San Diego?

Thank you, friends and family for making our lives so rich and happy.
Happy Thanksgiving!

PS: Thank you, delicious food, for existing for my pure gluttony today. I'm so glad that I'm not puking pregnant this year and can actually GORGE myself. Happiness!

Um......thank you?

As a new mom, I admit that there's about 640,723 things that I need to learn about parenthood. I'm learning more and more every day and I appreciate the examples, suggestions, and encouragement I receive that have helped me be a better person and mom. Sometimes, the well-meaning advice and counsel from others has left me feeling like I must be an idiot or something.
Here are some of the comments/advice/counsel/wisdom that have been imparted to me recently and which have made me feel particularly awesome:

*My "bad diet" during pregnancy is to blame for Kenadie's colic and reflux (who cares if Cheerios was all I could keep down during the pregnancy and that eating anything else would lead me on a fast track to the hospital; I should have eliminated carbs and dairy from my diet, because they're like poison to your baby or something. I should have sucked it up and eaten my fruits, leafy green veggies, and legumes!)
*Despite months of preparation, reading through three natural childbirth books, and giving my best efforts to fulfill a longtime goal of delivering a baby without the use of drugs, I must not have prepared or tried hard enough because I ended up getting an epidural. Anyone can labor and deliver relatively quickly without an epidural.
*If your labor is long and hard, then you're doing something wrong: if you only let gravity "work for you"(i.e. squat down), active labor should only last about three hours and no more than seven. (ha!)
*If you have an epidural and don't deliver in the squatting position, you baby's delivery will likely be traumatic and traumatic deliveries are the cause of many neck and spine issues, colic, and reflux in babies (which Kenadie has).
*It is because of a bad diet that I got a yeast infection in my breasts and had to stop breastfeeding. Breastfeeding moms should be cutting out carbs to prevent yeast infections and their devastating consequence of having to formula-feed baby.
*A healthy, breastfed baby should never throw up. If a breastfed baby IS throwing up, then mom needs to eliminate all dairy and wheat from her diet.
*Feeding Kenadie formula is only furthering her colic/reflux/issues. Kenadie needs breast milk.
*Though I read several books and listened to counsel/advice/opinions/seminars of those both for and against vaccines, I have made a terrible mistake, must not be well-educated enough, and have been brainwashed because I still opted to have Kenadie receive a few of the basic vaccines.
*On the other side, I have made a terrible mistake because I chose not to give Kenadie the Hepatitis B vaccine, the rotavirus vaccine, and the flu shot. Babies need ALL of these shots.
*Letting Kenadie cry for half the night in her crib is cruel and neglectful.
*On the other side, I really should be letting Kenadie cry for as long as it takes for her to learn to stay asleep without waking up and crying all night long.
*I should not be putting Kenadie to sleep on her stomach (SIDS risk).
*Nor should I try putting Kenadie to sleep on her back (risk of puking and the choking on it).
*I should always put my baby to sleep on her side.
*Getting Kenadie adjusted regularly by a chiropractor will resolve all her issues. If it doesn't, then the finger of blame gets pointed back to the epidural and formula that Kenadie is getting.
*I should not have put Kenadie on an antacid to try and resolve her reflux.
*I should never have taken Kenadie off the antacid even though it wasn't working.
*A happy, healthy, well-rested child is the direct result of educated and wise parenting.

Huh. Um......thank you? Well, now that I feel like a complete failure as a woman and mother, I'm going to go do something that I know I always rock at: baking homemade bread! Mmm, mmm!!!