Halloween 2014

Fall is one of my favorite times of year here in Cheyenne. The changing leaves and the weather are gorgeous.  There was surprisingly a lot to do in Cheyenne during Halloween time: pumpkin patches, fall carnivals, and parties on base.  I'm awful at taking pictures on a regular basis, but at least I got a few!

Hyrum was batman...

...and Lydia was Little Red Riding Hood

Lydia Turns 2!

I can't believe it has been two very short years since this beautiful little girl came into our lives.  She is a constant light, and I can't wait to see how she grows and develops these next few years.

Over the last year she has:

-Started saying lots and lots of words.  Most of them are based on food or family (she takes after her parents).  She'll surprise me every day by what she is able to say and understand.  She is a real chatterbox, but only about 1/4 of all her sentences are understandable.  She will talk to you all day. Heaven help us when she is a teenager!

-She is incredibly active and coordinated.  I'm glad she got Joseph's genes in that area.  She will climb up anything such as shelves, ladders, tables, cupboards, slides, everything at the park, whatever is within her reach.  We joke that she will be an excellent gymnast only because she knows how to fall so well!  I wish I had that natural ability, haha.  The only downside is we don't get to cuddle often.

-She loves music.  She will sing, dance, "play" the piano, and will only sit down to watch movies with lots and lots of music in it.  I'll find her singing to Hyrum while he's in bed, and it's the cutest thing!

-She is definitely a daddy's girl.  Every alert it's "Where Daddy?" over and over again.  And when dad is home, he is quite the favorite.  I'm glad she loves him so much.

-Lydia is the cutest big sister!  She feeds Hyrum his bottle and whatever food is on her tray, she will sing to him, dance with him, laugh with him, and they'll have screaming contests together to see who can yell louder or longer (which mom loves, haha).  She's quick to help him when he falls, and will even read him books in bed.  I wish all my kids were as close as they two are!

-Ever since we taught her animal sounds, she makes them all day.  It helps that on base we are surrounded by wildlife.  She's got them down pretty well, except for the antelope which still says "ruff ruff", but what sound does an antelope make really?  That's a tough one even for mom.

-Lydia's favorite foods are bananas, cheese, "fishies" (goldfish), cheese, any fruit, cheese, cereal, milk, and cheese.

-She has started throwing the occasional tantrum.  She'll "go boneless" as well call it, where she will throw herself on the floor and go totally limp where we are unable to pick her up.  Heaven forbid mom not let her play in the toilet or eat the detergent.  I really am a meanie.

We love you Lydia, and are so blessed to have you in our family!

Adoption in Wyoming is Different

            So we are on our way with the adoption process.  Adoption with LDS Family Services here in Wyoming is different though.  It turns out they don’t actually approve adoption in Wyoming since there wasn’t enough of a demand to warrant the licensing. (Only five couples in the last seven years have adopted from Wyoming.)  So we actually have to go through a different Catholic agency here in Cheyenne to get approved. Once we are, LDSFS will put our profile up on the LDSFS website, and we’ll also be on the Catholic agency website here in Cheyenne.  The good news is that we’ll have more exposure to potential birth parents since we’ll be on two websites, but unfortunately our adoption just got a whole lot more expensive.  Sigh But we felt again that this is what we are supposed to do, so we’re jus trying to save money in any way we can.  (It’s a good thing we bought our cruise and plane tickets for our vacation next month a long time ago.  It will be our last for a while, haha).  It’s also good because the Catholic agency doesn’t have an age limit on the children, so we are able to be approved as soon as we finish the paper work!  We don’t have to wait until Hyrum is one.  It’s a bit stressful, but exciting.  We are putting all our trust in the Lord!

            I want to get in the habit of updating more since potential birthparents will be hopefully checking out our blog.  I feel like I’m dating again.  We want our family to appear real, but show our best selves.  We want people to really get to know us so they can tell if we are a good fit or not.  It’s kind of a pressure situation being judged on our appearance, parenting skills, values, etc…  Someone out there has to like us!  If anyone has any suggestions for the blog, I’d love to hear it!  I’m planning on redoing the layout, etc… in the near future, but for now I will just keep posting about our family, even the mundane things.  Sometimes the littlest events are the most important. 

 In the meantime enjoy some pictures from my phone.

I heard Lydia crying in the other room when she was supposed to be taking a nap.  I go in to check on her and she had gotten her leg stuck in the bed.  Of course I take a picture before I save her!

Our chunky monkey turns 6 months this week!

They are big enough to both sit in the cart.  Stop growing so fast!

Lydia: 18 Months

I feel bad that it's been so long since I've updated on my children.  Life has been busy and full of good things, but eighteen months seemed like enough of a milestone that I should write about it.

Lydia is so sweet.  She loves to play, cuddle, run, laugh, talk, jump, throw, sing, pound on the piano, pretty much anything that doesn't involved sitting down.  She's still quite small (about 20 pounds) but what she lacks in size she makes up in personality.  She absolutely loves Hyrum and will hug (squish) him any chance she gets.  She laughs and runs up to him whenever he wakes up from a nap.  It's so cute!  I hope because they are so close together, they will be best friends.

Joseph and I counted the other day and she can say around 30-40 words.  Her vocabulary has boomed this past month!  Some of her favorites include:

• Hi/Bye
• Thank You/Please
• All Done
• Who is it?
• What is it?
• Where is it? (luckily she has not learned how to say "Why" yet, or we wouldn't end with the questions)
• Mommy/Daddy/Baby (she still has trouble with "Hyrum")
• One, Two, Three
• Ball
• Cheese
• Bread
• Let's Go! (She gets impatient sometime)
• Hot!
• Uh-Oh (She says this A Lot)
• I love you
• Prayer (She'll fold her arms and announce "Prayer!" usually when she's hungry)
• Here you go
• Let it go (usually in a sing-songy voice.  We can tell she's trying to sing the song from "Frozen", haha)
• Grandma/Grandpa
• Yay!

I can't wait to see what this little darling does with her life.  She brings Joseph and I so much joy, and I simply could not imagine our life without her.

Don't take any more pictures mom!

(This is often her response when I pull out the camera)

Make believe at the Wyoming State Museum

I love my brother!

Lydia's birthday and a pregnancy update

I’m blogging from my phone again, so all the pictures are at the bottom of the post.  Sorry!   

Lydia’s first birthday was pretty laid back.  With me on bed rest and Joseph in intense training, we didn’t have a huge party.  We mostly made the day all about Lydia: we opened presents (all clothes), went out to lunch at McDonalds, and then had a few friends over while Lydia dug into her birthday cake.  It was just a simple family day.  

Now for a pregnancy update:  We’ve made it to 32 weeks!  A month ago when I was first put on bed rest, I never thought I would make it this far, but here we are!  Every time I go to my doctor, she’s amazed I’ve made it this far too.  She thinks I’m just lucky, but we all know better.  It’s all the prayers and fasting on Hyrum and my’s behalf.  The doctor’s decided that the latest they will let me carry Hyrum is 37 weeks.  At that point she feels it is safer and healthier to have him out of me rather than in me because of the strain I’m putting on his development.  October 11th is our scheduled C-section.  

 I really wanted to go VBAC, but the nearest hospital with the required capabilities is over an hour away and it would put a lot of unnecessary health risks on Hyrum right now, so we opted for a repeat C-section.  I love the fact that I can plan and prepare for his arrival, but I really am not looking forward to all the pain.  My OB assures me that a scheduled C-section is a different experience entirely than the emergency C-section after 24 hours of labor I had with Lydia.  Is anyone else able to vouch for her claims?  I’ll just have to see for myself.  
I’m still on bed rest for now, because apparently it’s working.  My doctor still thinks I won’t make it until October, but that’s our goal for now.  That does mean another five weeks on bed rest (no fun!), but it means no NICU for Hyrum!  I’ll take that over being lonely and bored at home any day.  

If anyone in California is ever wanting to, feel free to come and visit us!  We don’t get out often and I would love to have some adult interaction (as much as I love talking to Lydia all day).  Thanks again to everyone’s faith, prayers, and service on our behalf.  We know that is why Hyrum and doing so well, and we couldn’t be more appreciative!

Lydia is turning one!

I can’t believe our little girl turns one tomorrow!  (I’m writing this today since tomorrow Joseph is off work and we will be partying!).  It was exactly a year ago today that I got a call from my doctor that the labs they had run at my 36 week appointment came back looking dangerous.  An hour later I was in labor and delivery getting induced.  24 hours and a c-section later we had a beautiful daughter!  My life has forever been changed.

A year ago I never thought I would make it today because making it a year means I somehow made it through two semesters of school (which seemed impossible at the time), graduated, and we were officially in the Air Force!  Little did we know we would be just weeks away from having our second child.  It certainly hasn’t been an easy year, but it has been so fulfilling!

Lydia brings us more joy than anything I could try describing with mere words.  She is the light in our lives.  Seeing her grow, learn, and develop has been so incredible.  

A little bit about Lydia:  She weighs about 18 pounds (I’ll know precisely at our appointment next week, then I’ll update with her measurements).  Her favorite thing in the world is her daddy.  She will wait at the door for him to come home, give him the biggest smile in the world, and then not let him put her down until it’s time for bed.  It’s so cute!  

Her favorite foods are goldfishies and cheese sticks.  She’s walking a bit (just a few steps at a time).  Her record right now is seven steps in a row, so it can’t be long until she gets it down.  She normally has a very relaxed and sweet disposition.  She will sit calmly in my lap for the entire duration of a movie together.  

Her favorite thing to sleep with is her stuffed broccoli (Thanks Laura!)  It’s actually pretty funny because the thing is bigger than she is.  She loves to talk, and she’s very good at mimicking the sounds we make.  Many people will think she’s actually talking because she’s so good at copying, but we’re pretty sure she has no idea what she’s saying.  Today we are officially moving her into her “big girl” bed in preparation for Hyrum’s arrival.  We’ll see how it goes…

We love you Lydia and can’t wait for the year ahead!

Update On Our Life

 We made it to 29 weeks!  Every week that passes by I count as a solid victory.  Luckily this week was uneventful.  Besides the routine OB visits, I just stayed at home on bed rest.  There were no blood pressure scares and my protein levels haven’t gone up.  All the prayers and fasting must be working.  I’m trying really hard to be a good little bed rest mama so I don’t cause something to go wrong.  I couldn’t live with myself knowing I did something deliberate to hurt my child.    

I feel like Lydia is handling things well.  She mostly plays with her toys all day, and we watch veggietales together.  I’m hoping these few months of little outside interaction won’t permanently harm her development.  My mom has assured me I’m just being paranoid.  

Random story (Please don’t judge!).  I’m not sure whether I should laugh or be mortified.  Right now it’s towards the latter.  I’m sure I’ll laugh at it one day.  We were at an Air Force function.  Joseph and I were talking with some couples and letting Lydia crawl around with the other babies.  Before we know it, she’s climbed up to the table, and is reaching for someone’s cup.  Before we can stop her she takes a drink, spilling some on her.  It turns out the cup was full of beer!  I felt AWFUL and TERRIBLE and like the WORST mother ever.  Truthfully it will take me a while to get over the fact that I let my daughter have beer.  Everyone else just laughed.  I will too…someday.  

Thanks everyone for all your prayers on our behalf. We have felt their power and know that the Lord is helping us so much right now.  Here is a big thank you to our ward too for bringing us meals every day this week!  You guys are amazing!

Time for an Update

 It’s about time I updated the blog.  It’s going to be long; I apologize.  You don’t have to read all of it.  I won’t be offended, really. Also I am doing this from my phone so that explains the bad pictures.  Sorry!
     We are currently here in Lompoc, California doing missile training at Vandenberg, AFB.  For those of you who don’t know where that is, look at a map, find Santa Barbra, go up half an inch in the middle of nowhere and that’s us.  Luckily we have Santa Maria 30 minutes to the north so I can still get my Target and Costco fix in.    

     I have a confession to make; I was really nervous about going into the “actual” Air Force as compared to ROTC.  I liked ROTC a lot, but was unsure about what real life would be like. (I had a lot of prejudices against the military)  Turns out I love the Air Force. (If only the me from two years ago could hear that.  I’d probably faint).  It turns out I’m just a worrier, and then none of my worries actually play out. I have already met so many incredible people, I really like the military culture, the pay is great (for officers at least), and so far the training and hours have been quite manageable.  Before, Joseph was doing work and school, so now that it is just work I get to see him a lot more often.  We are seriously considering making this a career, but we’ll see what the next 5 years brings.
     The ward here is FANTASTIC.  I have never felt so welcome to a ward in my life.  The people are great, but most of all we love our callings.  Joseph is a Sunday School teacher (a religious teacher of the 12 to 14 year olds), and Young Men’s President!  I have never seen him take to a calling quite like he has recently.  It’s all he talks about: the activities he wants to do and he tells me all about the young men and how he wants to help them.  Seriously, this man was born to raise teenagers (which is great news for our kids in about 12 years.  Watch out).   I am primary chorister, which I also have really taken to.  I’ve never been that great at teaching, but teaching music is an entirely different story.  The kids are so much fun to work with.  I have never been more grateful to live in a day and age of Pinterest.
     Lydia is growing up so cute.  She turns one next month!  She is normal height (40th percentile), but coming in small on the weight size at a whole 16.5 pounds (7th percentile).  We have a tall skinny baby here.  It’s actually been a bit of a problem when it comes to pants because they’re all either too wide or too short, so we stick to dresses and shorts.  She’s had an issue with solids, meaning when we moved she stopped eating them all together, but after a rough few weeks I think we’re finally back where she should be.  Oh parenting problems.          Hyrum is growing nice and strong too.  He is set to arrive is just over 3 months!  I really can’t wait to meet him, and I am just as excited for this baby as I was with Lydia.  Because they’re so close together, I don’t actually have to get much anything ready.  The crib is up, the nursery is already done, and we have all the baby essentials.  The only things we need are clothes (as in he doesn’t have any yet). So if there’s anyone in CA or UT (I’ll be there in August) who has any extra baby boy clothes, we will gladly take them off your hands.
    This pregnancy has been almost night and day different from Lydia.  I haven’t been sick, I haven’t gained as much weight, I hold the weight differently, my skin hasn’t gone off the deep end, and things just are better overall.  Plus the weather here in California is perfect for anyone who is pregnant.  It is between 55-75 degrees literally all of the time.  If I could have every pregnancy here I would.
    That pretty much sums up our lives right now.  The overall theme is we are extremely blessed and happy to be where we are right now.  The days haven’t been without their hard times and new trials, but really things are going well.  We can’t wait to see what the future brings!  

Our Little Lydibug

So while we were doing that whole "school" thing, our beautiful Lydia continued growing up!  And while I was terrible at blogging (it was a really busy semester), my mom was still faithful at taking her monthly pictures.  Thank you mom!

She turned 4 months 

...and 5 months

And continued growing...

and rolling and eating solids and doing all that fun stuff that babies do.

And now we have an amazing, healthy, beautiful 8 month old who has brought nothing but absolute joy into our lives.  We are so grateful for this opportunity to be parents, and have certainly learned a lot from the experience thus far.

Right now Lydia is so, so, so, so close to crawling!  She moves her legs up and down and can do a bear crawl, but her little arms keep on getting in the way.  We predict she'll have it down in the next 1-2 weeks. She is starting to be able to say Mama and Dada as well as use a few signs to alert us to her hunger.   Her favorite foods are bananas, pickles, and blueberry puffs.  She rarely cries and loves to laugh and smile.  We couldn't have asked for a better baby!  We know she will be an amazing big sister.

We love you Lydia!

Lydia Three Months

I can't believe we have a three month old!  It feels like she was just born and has always been a part of our lives at the same time.

Lydia is becoming much more interactive and fun (not that she wasn't fun before).  She weighs maybe 10.5 lbs (she was 9 lbs 8 oz two weeks ago).  She still fits into her newborn clothes.  Lydia is such a joy in our lives, and we love her to pieces.

Lydia gave us quite a scare by having not one, but two heart murmurs at her two month appointment.  Luckily after getting an EKG and an echo, it looks like they should heal up on they're own.  

Lydia's favorites (for posterity) are:

• sucking on her blanket, or her shirt, or anything cloth near her face.  She'll soak herself with drool (looks like someone is starting to teeth).
• She loves her crib (yay!) and it sleeping 6-9 hours at night!
• Lydia loves the veggie-tales.  She'll sit and watch the show for hours if I let her.  It helps me get in a shower.
• Her daddy has the magic touch when it comes to getting Lydia to sleep.  She responds almost instantly to him.   
• we have a great routine down, and as long as it doesn't get messed up, she's happy (and her mom is too).  The entire day is she wakes up, I feed her, wait 15 minutes, she cries, I change her, wait 1 hour, she cries I put her down for a nap, repeat 45 minutes later.  She goes to sleep at 8 and wakes up at 7 like clockwork (with two feedings in between)
• she smiles all the time
• Lydia only cries for five reasons: hungry, poopy, cold, tired, hurt.  I feel very blessed that Lydia's not the cry for no reason sort of baby.  It makes getting school work done a lot easier.

Joseph and I are doing well.  Finals begin Friday, so we're stressing out a little bit, but I am so excited to be done!  We only have one more semester to go before graduation! (Woot! Woot!)  We can survive two more weeks.

Our little girl is two months old!

I can't believe we have a two month old!  It seems like we've had her years and a day at the same time.  Time goes by so quickly (probably because all my days run together because they are so busy).  Everything looked pretty good at her two month appointment.  She's small, but growing well.  They found a small heart murmur, but they think it's benign.  We go in next week just to make sure.

Here are her two month stats:

Height: 20.5 in (4%)

Weight: 8lb 12oz (12%)

Head: 36.5 cm (8%)

She still weighs a good pound less then Joseph did when he was born.  She is finally starting to smile all the time.  I love it!  She also makes adorable cooing noises, and it sounds just like she is talking to us.  She still eats every 3 hours during the day, but it's four hour shifts at night (which is a much-welcomed adjustment after eating every 2 hours during the first month).  She's a pretty good baby and doesn't fuss much during the day.  She does have a fussy period about an hour before bedtime, but she usually goes to sleep pretty easily, so it hasn't been a big deal. She loves to stretch and does a 5 minute stretching routine every time she wakes up.  Her favorite spot to be is on her daddy's chest.  He has a way with her, and can make her go to sleep almost instantly.  She absolutely detests tummy time, so we only can do it for a few minutes at a time.  

We absolutely love being parents.  It's of course been hard, but it is worth it in every way.  Lydia brings  us so much joy.  My favorite thing is to hold her while she's smiling and awake, or sing her to sleep.  I love watching her sleep with her completely content look on her face.  She's especially comforting in times of emotional distress.  Joseph's favorite thing is to put her to sleep on his chest. I can't wait until she grows more interactive.  

The Neary household has been a busy one.  We are both full-time students, Joseph works two jobs, and we have a newborn.  Our life is scheduled down to the minute is seems, but we're still thriving.  The Lord has blessed me so much.  I really only had bad hormones, etc... for the first two weeks, then they left and I've felt pretty normal emotionally.  Having classes online has really helped.  Luckily, too, Lydia is a good baby, so we have been blessed in that way.  Family support has been amazing.  Both of our families live close, and they have come out and helped.  Kathryn will usually babysit for us too (if we bribe her with cookies or taking her to Walmart).  Also, I've start exercising again (which is very difficult after bed rest and a c-section let me tell you) but it has relieved so much stress.  I didn't realize how much I loved getting sweaty, breathing hard, and having sore muscles.  We are both training for a half-marathon in April.  Life is good.

Lydia's First Bath

I know I've been blogging a ton lately, but I also know as soon as I fall behind I will probably never catch up.  I also have realized that Lydia will carry with her the same blessing/curse that seems to be carried with all oldest children.  She will have about 5.7 bajillion pictures of her, and those pictures will slowly dwindle with each successive kid.  I'm fairly certain I have more pictures of me than the rest of my six other siblings mixed together.

Being a mom has been so much fun.  Yeah there's the severe lack of sleep, poppy diapers galore, extra laundry, and everything that came with the c-section and the hospital, but it all pales in comparison of what I get in return.  Lydia is beautiful, healthy, and honestly a very, very good baby.  One thing I have really enjoyed is finally getting to do all those things with my child that I've seen every other mother in the world do, like give her her first bath.


(On a side note I am a raging ball of hormones.  I was typing how much I loved Lydia and just started bawling uncontrollably.  Joseph and I had a good laugh over that.)

Lydia did not like being cold, but was happy as soon as we got her wrapped in her towel.

Happy tired daddy :)

Such a cute face!

Fun in the Hospital

 We are finally home!  After almost a week's stay in the hospital, we were ready to be out of there.  I just wanted to post pictures of our stay in the hospital, just to document it all.

Lydia unfortunately had some jaundice going on, so she had to be under the bili-lights all day (except for eating) for about three days.  I hated not being able to hold her or comfort her (she really didn't like being under there). Joseph, however, enjoyed being able to calm and comfort her while she was in there. It made him feel very fatherly seeing Lydia respond to his voice and touch. Luckily we had her tested again today, and everything looks great!

I may be biased, but I think we have the most adorable child on the entire planet.  I could just look at her all day.

 Proud parents looking tired and a bit frazzled, but happy.

A proud grandma Crandall  

This picture of Rhett was just too cute to not put up.  He's quite the adoring uncle already.

 

 Proud grandpas :)

And here we are finally going home!  

So far home has been great.  We both sleep deprived (which is obviously to be expected), but hopefully she gets on a more regular sleep schedule in the coming weeks.