Tyson 1 month!

Tyson turned one month a few days ago. And I'm a bit behind. WHOOPS! Hopefully not again, but let's be real...

Tyson is a beautiful little boy. I love kissing his cheeks and snuggling up with him. He is such a great snuggler!!! Some day, his wife will be thankful. 

The first week and a half Tyson didn't cry at all. I mean seriously. NEVER! And now it seems he is crying all the time. I think it has something to do with my milk supply, and that he loves being snuggled so much. And I can't possibly snuggle him all the time, though I would love to. The first week or so his cry sounded more like a T-Rex screeching. It made us all laugh. 

He doesn't much like a swing, or formula. He likes being held with his chest to ours. That is his favorite position right now, I'm sure. 

He may or may not cry when his big sister hits him, it just depends on if he has to stop eating so she can be put in time out. 

He likes milk, and being warm, and sleeping next to his momma. 

He doesn't so much like being awoken by everybody being loud. Shocker.

Tyson is a good boy, and we are so grateful to have him in our family. :)

I have to say though, the 2nd seems to fly by even faster than the first. Makes me so sad. 

Sleeping in his sister's warm blanket because his grandma hasn't finished his yet. 

Sleeping babies are so adorable. Plus that's pretty much all they do the first month. 

Cousins. 

Seriously, my lovable little snuggle buddy. 

Sleeping in the freshly warmed towels from the dryer.  

Sibling loves and snuggles. 

Helping me feed Tyson. Such a good helper that Kinley. 

I can't even stand his cuteness!!!! He's just adorable :)

I'm his mom, I'm allowed to gush over him. 

Tyson Jay's Arrival

As a mother of two, I'm not as quick about getting these posts out. Lots of catching up to do, as Tyson, is already 1 month old and I haven't even written his birth story yet.

Let's see, where to begin...

With Kinley I got a membrane sweep and went into labor a few hours later and had her the next day. So I was kind of anticipating similar results this time around. The problem was my OB appointment was on the 30th...which meant, if I followed a similar path this time around, Tyson would be born on Halloween. Neither of us were really too thrilled about that, so I called the Dr.'s office that week and asked to have my appointment switched to the 29th.

I go in, get the sweep. A few hours later, nothing. Nothing continued for a little while longer. Finally I was like, K I am going to bed. This is so lame! This was just a little after 9 pm. Then at 9:30 I started feeling something. But wasn't sure if it was going to keep going. I told Taylor, so he went to bed so he could get some sleep. Haha. My contractions started out about 5-6 minutes apart. The contractions definitely didn't hurt, but the anticipation of going into labor kept me from going to sleep. Plus I was worried that they would stop, and I didn't want that to happen. I was in and out of bed for the next hour making sure the contractions didn't stop, and talking to my sister because I was too excited to just be sitting by myself while Taylor slept. Haha. I took a warm bath as I LOVE baths, and it helps to pass the time.

I loved that my contractions started out so mild, I felt like it was more enjoyable to actually be in labor this time around because it wasn't as painful. With Kinley's labor my water broke immediately, and immediately I was in severe pain, so this was definitely the better route.

2 hours after contractions started (Now 11:30) my contractions were starting to pick up, but still not crazy. But they were about 3-5 minutes apart. So I had Taylor pack our stuff and get Kinley in the car. We had to get both cars to my parents house because my mom didn't have a car at the time, and it was just easier to leave her with the car that had the carseat in it already so she could drive Kinley if need be. Taylor was worried about me driving while in labor, but it was no problem at all. I had about 5 contractions on the way, but once we got there, I was more sure we should get to the hospital.

We got to the hospital about 1 a.m. and I had to wait to be checked to be admitted. About hour later I was admitted and dilated to a 5 and 90% effaced. When I got my epidural at 3:30 I was 6cm dilated. That was a crazy experience. The lady had a hard time getting my epidural in and poked me 3 times. By the time she got it in, my blood pressure dropped to 90/40. I got really dizzy and felt like I was going to faint, and I started throwing up and shaking. Everyone was kind of freaking out, but after a few minutes I was fine.

At 5:30 I could tell my epidural wasn't working very well. I could feel everything on my left side, so they tried rolling me on my side, increasing my dosage, but it didn't help. I could still feel it. At 6:30 I was an 8 and really feeling the need to push. They told me I couldn't push because I wasn't dilated enough. It was seriously a struggle not to push at that point. I can't remember if my water broke just before this or just after, but it was about that time.

I kept telling the nurses that they needed to call my doctor because I really needed to push but they said they needed to wait. At a 9 they called my doctor and he said they needed to call when I was at a 10. About 5 minutes later I was at a 10, they called him again, but at that point I had already needed to push for like the last 30 minutes at least.

At 6:20 the nurses came in and literally rolled me on my left side and shut my legs and kept them shut so I wouldn't push. 10 minutes later, I told them, I HAVE TO PUSH!!! Keep in mind my epidural was not working on the left side of my body. So for 10 excruciating minutes I laid with my legs tightly shut so Tyson wouldn't come out. They called in the on call doctor and she came in to prepare for the labor. Taylor told me later she was taking her sweet time trying to give my doctor more time to get there. LAME! Finally I just rolled over and said, "I'm pushing whether anyone catches him or not." That got everyone hustling. They pulled the stirrups out and tried to get my legs in, but honestly, they weren't really in there right so I'm pushing and screaming and nearly passing out (Taylor had to hold an oxygen mask over my face). His head pops out and immediately I felt better, but I had to catch my breath before I could push the rest of him out. The dr. said she had never seen someone sit there with the head out and just want to relax and wait to push. Haha. My dr. walked in when Tyson's head was hanging out, so he barely missed it. But he said he has never seen someone push themselves up the bed so high. I started at the bottom and by the end I was at the top of the bed. Haha.

Tyson was born at 7:31 a.m. on October 30, 2014. He weighed 7 lb 9 oz. and was 21 inches long.

Once Tyson was born they were trying to get me to hold him, but I was way too weak to be holding a precious little boy at that point. In the pictures you can see me with my hands up like I'm surrendering. I have never NEEDED water so badly in my life. But looking at Tyson I just felt the spirit so strong. It was AMAZING! He was such a cute little boy and barely cried at all. I just loved him and was happy he was out, it wasn't Halloween, and I didn't have to be tired and pregnant anymore, I could just be tired ;)

There's the story. We ALL love Tyson very very much. Overall the birth was a good experience besides the epidural not working. I would have preferred it to work. :)


And now for the post delivery story through pictures :)

Holding Tyson in. 

Grabbing Taylor's pants for pain relief. Lol. 

About to pass out. I have such a good helper! And he's fun to look at. 

My surrender. 

I just love Tay's smile in this one. 

Cute gooey baby. 

A wonderful and terrible picture all at the same time. Haha. 

Love this guy's snuggles. 

CUTE!

More cuteness. 

All about Kinley...

This post is long overdue. It has been on my to-do list since before Tyson was born, but the pure exhaustion of being pregnant (and in part my laziness) kept me from doing it. Oh well, there will just be more to add.

Kinley's favorites are:

Garbage trucks! Every time she sees a garbage truck she gets really excited and she is always waiving to the garbage men. They are so nice and always wave back. It is so cute. When we are at home she will either run to the window when she hears them or has me open the balcony door so she can go out and see them. lol.

Papa's Truck! She must have a thing for trucks or something? But she absolutely LOVES my dads truck. If she is in a bad mood, just put her in my dad's truck and she will light up. And then take her out of the truck and she will be sooo angry at you. But we try to give her opportunities to ride in his truck cuz she just gets so excited about it.

Halloween book. For Tyson's baby shower someone gave us a halloween book, and Kinley basically doesn't let it out of her sight. That thing has been torn to shreds because she loves it so much. We finally had to hide it. We are so mean.

Pumpkins! Ever since we took her to the pumpkin patch in October she loves pumpkins. Real or fake, blown up, in books. If something is orange and it looks like a pumpkin it is a pumpkin. I have a video of her screaming "PUMPKIN PUMPKIN" as we drove by the pumpkin patch. Even now that it's gone, she still says it as we drive by that spot in town.

Suckers. Ever since she went trick or treating, she is always begging for a sucker, or candy really, but mostly just suckers. It's so hard not to give her one when she asks.

Last, but definitely not least...TYSON. She LOOOOOVES him. It makes me so happy. Every morning she runs into our room and wants Tyson, no one else. She wants to give him a kiss. And she gives him hundreds of kisses throughout the day. She likes to hold him and help me feed him. I hope it lasts forever. Don't get me wrong, sometimes she is not nice. But I think it's more her not understanding how rough she's being. The other day I was doing dishes and I look over and she is smacking the crap out of his head. She went to time out for that and is slowly learning her boundaries. Haha.

These are from the beginning of the year...

Yesterday we were decorating the tree and Kinley would take one decoration out of the container and a time, close the lid, and then put the ornament on the tree, and then open the lid, and repeat. It was so funny that she always felt like she had to close the lid. Then when I was feeding Tyson, she started taking all the ornaments off the tree and putting them away. Lol. I guess only the top half of our tree will have ornaments this year.

Kinley is a little human.

Ok so Kinley is so grown up these days it is absolutely ridiculous. I LOVE IT! But at the same time, my heart can't stand it because she is totally not a baby anymore. I tell people all the time I definitely do NOT want Kinley to be a baby forever. I didn't have kids to breastfeed them and change their diapers for the rest of their life. It is SO MUCH FUN whenever Kinley learns something new or starts doing something she hasn't been able to before. But it is so weird when I realize how quickly she grows up. I'm like wait, you just started doing something hilarious yesterday and a couple days later she's mastered it and it's not quite as hilarious anymore. It's bittersweet. Because I seriously love to see how quickly she grasps new things.

Here are a few things I have been keeping a mental note of for a while that remind me Kinley is a little human trying to learn all this new stuff...

• In the shower she holds out her hand for me to put soap on her. Once I do she rubs it all over her belly and legs and sometimes her hair. It's adorable and I love that she caught on to this. Of course, she doesn't clean herself well enough so I still have to do it over again, but I just love it. When she first started doing it she would get the soap and immediately put it on her face and all in her eyes. She had me cracking up. 
• She also loves to brush her teeth. She doesn't like it when mom and dad try to do it, but if she gets to hold the toothbrush, she is a happy camper. She also does the same thing with a hairbrush.
• This is probably one of my favorites, but when it is time for dinner Taylor and I will get the utensils, cups, and plates out of the cupboard and hand them to her and she will bring them over to the table. SHE LOVES to help. I mean LOVES. She is just beaming the whole time she does it. I love having her help and making her feel like she is a big kid. 
• This morning at breakfast we didn't say a prayer and before she started eating she folded her arms and looked at us. Lol. 
• This summer we put arm floaties on her in the pool. And she does great and she loves it. I tell her to kick her legs and she does and she actually has really good ability to get around the pool and do what she wants for a kid her age. I mean seriously, she's just too grown up. She's not even one and a half yet.
• She blows people kisses. I love it! At first though we would ask her to blow kisses and she would just smack herself in the face. It was so funny! She's a crack up and she knows it, cuz she'll start laughing too. 
• When I tell her we need to put on shoes she brings me her shoes and then just stands there and lifts up one of her legs like she's going to be able to put a shoe on that way. Haha. 
• A lot of times she will demand to sit at the table, NOT in her booster seat. This one gets me cuz it's just not fun having a kid in a chair that they can't see the top of the table. 
• She saw my mom painting and had to join in so we gave her water and a brush and she just had at that wall. It was completely soaked by the time she was done. 
• We just started doing the elmo slide song and she is so fun to watch. She follows the directions elmo gives half the time, but the other half she is just too excited about the song to even keep herself standing. 

Basically Kinley is a little copycat a ton of the time. She sees what we are doing and has to join in. It is so much fun and I love to teach her new things but I honestly don't know how she catches on to some things so quickly. We love our little girl. 

Nothing to explain...

Titles are...lame. This is just a miscellaneous post with no purpose, really.

Kinley is cute, and I'm starting to get nervous about a 2nd kid. But not in the way you would think. I'm just nervous to not have me and Kinley time anymore. It's weird that I won't be able to just give her all my attention. Hopefully she loves her little brother so she doesn't mind. She met her newest cousin on the Ball side last week when we went to Newport and was IN LOVE with him. She wouldn't stop giving him kisses (Sorry Meg), and just wanted to be around him all the time. If that's how she reacts to her new brother I still may be in trouble because I won't be able to give him any distance from her....

and he will need his distance because...

Kinley likes to hit these days. A LOT! And it's really bugging me. Every time she hits I calmly tell her no we don't hit and say "We need to be soft" and show her how to be soft, I hold her hands down, and I have her give hugs before she's allowed to keep playing. It doesn't seem to be working, so I need a new plan. Yesterday morning before church, Taylor took something away from her and she got so upset with him. Threw a half second tantrum (Quite literally) and then CHASED him down. Seriously, ran after him to hit him. We were in shock and could NOT stop laughing. We just kept saying to each other, "Where the heck did that come from?" Then later at church she was hanging out by the nursery gate and her and another little boy kept poking each other in the face and laughing hysterically. But when another little boy came up she smacked him on the face and he started crying. I just took Kinley and ran (After apologizing). I almost started crying myself. I felt so bad. Ugh...kids are hard. So ya, hitting, we are having fun here ;)

Kinley loves to help out around the house still. She gets upset frequently when I am doing chores and not paying attention to her. But if I give her some way to help out, her demeanor and attitude quickly change. This morning I also noticed her grabbing hand towels out of the cupboard in the bathroom and scrubbing the floor. Haha. I must clean too much...or something.

We went to Newport 2 weeks ago and Kinley had lots of fun. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!!! She was hesitant of the sand and water at first, but learned to love it. As long as we held her hand in the ocean she was all giggles. She loved going for walks and holding our hands (And we loved it too). The weather was so nice, it was hard to come back to Vegas where you melt, or at least feel like you are melting, as soon as you walk out the door. 

Here is our beach video I put together from this year. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqkG7ED3P9k

And just for me because I love this kind of thing. 2010 (the year of our marriage) we didn't take pics at the beach for some reason?!?! Makes me mad! But here is our progression through the years. Haha.

2011. We still didn't take a picture together,
but we took a picture with Camden. Lol.
Pretending he was our child I guess? I may need to photoshop these.

2012- Just us. 

2013 Us plus Kinley

2014- Us, Kinley, and a baby bump to go with it. Next year there will be a boy in this picture too! AHHH.
(And excuse the black thing...It was the only place to put my lens cap). And I am normally not one to post pictures of me in swimsuits...but it just shows our growing family, so I had to!

 Less than 3 months now until this little boy is due. No name picked out yet. Curse the naming thing. We are excited though! It seems like such a crazy change for some reason. I feel like 2 kids is a bigger step than 1. I was trying to explain this to Taylor. It just feels like we are "advancing" somehow. Like right now with one kid we are just sorta at a stand still. I don't know. I'm never very good at explaining myself. That's all for now.

4th of July in pictures.

4th of July was spectacular! As always. I love it. And we had a storm even, which makes it that much better. Kinley loves swimming and I finally convinced Kinley to keep hats on her head. So I had to get one with it on first. In hopes of keeping this short and to the point I will save other updates for later...we are at my parents' house right now and Taylor wants to go home. Lol. 

Cute girl in a funny little hat. 

Ah I love her!

Seriously in awe of everyone jumping off the diving board. Love that little swimsuit too. 

We took these same "family" pictures last year, so, of course, I had to repeat them and make a tradition out of it. Click Here to see our much more unattractive pics from 2013. 

Annual 4th of July family picture in the pool :)

And then the kissing one!

Two cute cousins on the waterfall. 

Her favorite pool activity. 

Tay's smile. :)

Love.

 K this next sequence is my favorite. Jadyn is hilarious and then Meghan's face at the end :) 

It isn't the 4th without homemade ice cream. I want everyday to be the 4th of July just so I can eat it every day.

Cousins. 

They are seriously my favorite. 

I made Taylor take like 5 million pictures of me doing this. End result. Lol. Should've practiced more...

I REALLY LOVE this picture.

Cute cute. 

Kinley really loved the sparklers. I really love her. 

Just This Once...

99% of the time I am very lighthearted, easy going, and just plain silly. I like life better that way. However, this is the 1%. I feel so strongly about this discussion. I'm a little late to the table, but have a belief I feel I need to express.

For a long time, I have kept my mouth shut (except maybe to family and a few close friends) about how I felt about this "Women's Movement For Ordination." Or whatever it is called. As time has gone on I have found myself increasingly irritated by the misunderstanding by both members and nonmembers alike. Because of this I feel I need to stand for what I believe in and to stop hiding in my own mind. I see comments in almost every thread or article that discuss Kate Kelly similar to something like this;

"All Kate Kelly did was ask questions...and now she is being punished for that. What message does this send to other women in the church? That they can't ask questions. This, THIS is exactly why we need a women's movement." 

I think it is unfair and a very false statement and people need to be careful when arbitrarily throwing that out there. I'm trying to understand how people can't see beyond the fact that Kate Kelly didn't JUST innocently ask a question. Maybe it started out that way, but that wasn't what got her called in for a counsel. She asked the question first, and all was well. What then happened was after the Prophet, OUR Prophet, which we believe speaks and receives revelation from God himself, made it very clear that the men in the church are the only ones to hold the priesthood at this time, she went off and decided to form a group to petition that revelation. Basically what she was saying is, "I believe that your revelation was wrong Thomas S. Monson, and therefore I'm going to start rallying people around me to change yours AND God's mind." That's when her simple question turned into something far less than innocent.

Can people really say that women (or men, or anyone in the church for that matter) are not allowed to question things? And if they can then why whenever a new prophet is called do they direct the members to pray and ask God if they are the true and living prophet of Jesus Christ's true church? Why do they continually direct us to take our questions to the Lord? Why are we allowed to have open and honest discussions in church? 

I, for one, have never felt that because I am a woman that my opinion is any less valued because I don't hold the priesthood. There are times, watching general conference, that I almost feel more loved and respected and valued by the prophet and his apostles because I am a woman. 

But I can't disregard that some women have. And I understand that too. Are there MEN that happen to hold the priesthood that sometimes think they are better than women, or disregard their feelings, and opinions? You bet! But that's not coming from the Lord, and that's not because they have the priesthood. It is because they are men, human, and frankly, have little, to no, understanding of how God feels towards women. Women are not belittled by priesthood holders, nor by God, they are belittled by MEN who do not properly understand God's ways. 

I also have to ask the question, and I mean this sincerely. How does not having the priesthood make me less than a man? Is a father any less of a parent because he does not carry his child in his womb for 9 months? No. He is equally a father to that child as the woman is a mother. They have different responsibilities, different roles, different gifts, but they are both parents. Could you imagine for a second if you told your husband that he didn't get to make any decisions concerning your children because he didn't carry them for 9 months and didn't give birth to them? That's how ridiculous it would be for a man to say that a woman doesn't get to contribute or make decisions just because she doesn't hold the priesthood. And have you ever heard a prophet or one of his apostles say anything even remotely close that? What I hear is their love and gratefulness for all that we do. They praise us and pat our backs and tell us to keep pushing forward and doing good things. They tell us we all have different roles, that we all have different responsibilities, that we all have different ways to contribute. Why are we taking something so wonderful and that has been such a wonderful gift and blessing from God and making it into something that is creating a wedge in our church? Is it not enough to thank our Heavenly Father that we have the Priesthood at all? But now we have to come to him and say that it isn't enough that women don't have it too. 

Equality does NOT mean that we all possess the same things. It means that our VALUE is the same. I am just as valuable as a man, whether he or I hold the priesthood or not. Priesthood has nothing to do with equality. 

I am not less of a daughter of God because I do not hold the priesthood. Nor am I less of a member of the church. Nor am I less capable of making correct choices and leading and bringing others closer to God. I am valuable to my God...and so is my husband. 

The most fun!

I think I love Kinley at this age more than I have at any previous stage. She is so much fun, so interactive, and she's just soaking up information. Plus, she's got a million dollar personality to go along with it. I can't say or think it enough... she's just so much fun!!! I can't get enough of her. 

We will add please and baby to the list of things she is trying to say. I say trying because please comes out like more of a "MEEEEEESH!!!" At first we thought she was saying me, but realized there is no where she would have even learned to say that and I've been trying to teach her please. It's not a very friendly please though, it comes out more like a scream and a demand...haha. She's a work in progress (aren't we all?).

However, right now her favorite word is "No." Any question we ask her she says no and shakes her head. For now it's cute, we'll see how long it lasts. Haha.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE when she is tired at night and I go to put her in her crib and she just gives me a big snuggle hug for a while. I'm going to miss when she doesn't do that anymore. 

I also ask her where baby is and she points to my tummy and gives it a kiss. To die for. Then yesterday I was asking her and she pointed to her belly and tried giving it a kiss. Lol. So funny. Apparently it's not very clear yet that the baby only exists in my belly. 

Sometimes she takes things she's not supposed to and runs from us and thinks it's the funniest thing. So do I. 

She always puts on some sunglasses and just smiles like she thinks she's the coolest person in the world. She's the coolest person in my world at least. 

She loves, loves, loves swimming. Sometimes her cousins are swimming at grandma's and grandpa's house and we don't have a swimsuit for her and she just smooshes her face against the door window with the saddest little longing face anybody ever saw. In the pool she's just crazy and thinks she already knows how to swim. She climbs up and down the steps all day long and walks all along the steps until she falls off, goes under the water, and comes up with the happiest little grin. Haha. We love swimming with her. 

She's so happy and fun loving and loves giving kisses. When she gives kisses she puckers her lip like a duck face and it makes me laugh every time. Her little laugh is contagious and just makes me so super happy. 

A couple weeks ago Taylor was doing yard work at my grandmas. He would pull the weeds and put them in a bucket. Eventually Kinley caught on and started helping him pick the weeds and throw them in the bucket. It was the cutest dang thing to watch her help her daddy. 

She loves this little car at her cousins house. I'm going to have to get her one someday. Right now it's too hot.