Dinner out!

On Saturday night, we met up with our Friends from Vegas...Renee and her two kids, Carter and Camden and her cousin Shanda for dinner. Renee's husband had to stay home and work...Jeff we missed you! We had such a good time seeing the kids, and Renee finally got to see Kalia!

Cuttie little Camden! This is the first time we have gotten to see Camden since he was born!
Dan feeding Kalia! Today we finally found a bottle she liked! We were so excited! Dan finally can help out with feeding!
Camden staring down Kalia! He was so interested in her!

Group picture!

Renee gets to hold Kalia...finally!
First we got a picture of Carter without his gelato...as you can see though, he was just staring at the dish...must have been the cool spoons! Carter was so shy around me...the only way I could get a picture was to promise him I would put it on the computer for his Daddy!
I just thought Carter looked so cute eating gelato! He took it so seriously-maybe because it was so good! He did share it with his mom and brother though! He is such a good boy!

Beautiful Song!

One of my old student's parent sent me this song by Martina McBride! It is so pretty and the song is true..Kalia is our gift sent from above!



IN MY DAUGHTER’S EYES by Martina McBride
In my daughter’s eyes
I am a hero
I am strong and wise
and I know no fear
but the truth is plain to see
she was sent to rescue me
I see who I wanna be
In my daughter’s eyes

In my daughter’s eyes
everyone is equal
darkness turns to light and the world is at peace
this miracle god gave to me
gives me strength when I am weak
I find reason to believe
In my daughter’s eyes

And When she wraps her hand around my finger
how it puts a smile in my heart
everything becomes a little clearer
I realize what life is all about
IT’S hanging on when your heart has had enough
IT’S giving more when you feel like giving up
i’ve seen the light
It's In my daughter’s eyes

In my daughter’s eyes
I can see the future
a reflection of who I am and what will be
and though she’ll grow and someday leave
maybe raise a family
when I’m gone i hope you see
How happy she made me FOR
i’ll be there
In my daughters eyes

A Day at Grandma and Grandpa Radcliffe's Pool

Kalia and I get bored sitting at home all day. Everyday we do the same thing...up by 7am, watch Good Morning America, Regis and Kelly, and finally The View. Sometime during The View we watch TLC's A Baby Story or Jon and Kate Plus 8. We then eat breakfast, and at about 11am we do something, either chores or we go out somewhere. So on Thursday, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's pool to visit. THere we saw cousin Decker and Makila, Great Auntie Robin, Auntie April, and of course Grandma and Grandpa. Although Kalia and I haven't gotten our clearances to swim yet, we just hung out by the pool. Did you see Kalia's new sunglasses! We had her wear them because she hates the sun in her eyes!

Happy 1 Month Birthday Kalia!!

Okay-so I realize we are a few days late posting Kalia's 1 month pictures, however, since Dan has gone back to work, the Blog is up to me again! I took some pictures the day Kalia turned 1 month with our brand new camera that finally came the night before. Kalia has gotten a lot bigger. She now lets us sleep longer then 3 hour spurts every night and she is growing out of her clothes...in fact, she is has grown so much in length, she didn't get to wear all of her new clothes because they don't fit! She loves to watch and look at Dan and I when we talk to her...and absolutely LOVES her new aquarium swing (thanks for the positive feedback Renee)! She loves to listen to the music, watch the lights, and watch the fish go around and around! She is growing up to be such a big girl...we think she has even smiled when it wasn't gas! She is very strong and even holds up her head at times! Every day we have grown to love the little things about her even more. Including those times she constantly spits up and lets out a little toot! Check out some pictures that were taken of her!

Three Weeks!

Happy Three Week Birthday Kalia!

We were able to take some still pictures from our video camera, so there you go! We got some good shots while she was awake...and one with Jaggy in the background sleeping. As you can see, the kitties don't seem to be bothered by her, which is awesome! So, here is a recap of the last week:

On Saturday, Grandma Jane came over and helped us give Kalia a bath. K seemed to enjoy it and had a great time - we feel more comfortable doing it by ourselves now. Thanks Grandma Jane!

After she left, we went out on our first grocery shopping trip up to Fred Meyers. Guess what? That's right! She slept the entire time :)

On Sunday, Michelle got Kalia ready for church and drove her there all by herself. I had to be there at 8:00am, so rather than go to rehearsal with me, the girls slept in and came by themselves. Great job Mommy on getting there on time and in one piece! Sunday afternoon, Melissa and Chris came over and we went to the Mill Creek Festival - of course, Kalia slept the entire time...surrounded by noise...in the 85-degree heat. Not sure how she does it.

We ate dinner at Palino's - but before Michelle could eat, Kalia decided to get hungry, so Michelle took her into the Women's room and changed her (K decided to poop and pee AGAIN...WHILE Michelle was changing her...). After that, Michelle brought her back outside and fed her on the the sidewalk right in the middle of the Mill Creek Towncenter. It was awesome :) Sorry, no pictures of it...even if we had a camera...

On Monday, while I was at my Church Board meeting and softball game, Auntie Jennifer came over and helped Michelle by watching Kalia for a few hours. Of course, she slept most of the time :) - thanks Auntie Jen for taking time out of our day to help out!

Tuesday - Michelle had a Dr's appointment in the morning, so we all went there. Then went to the mall for a couple minutes. Ashley Strickler came over in the afternoon to watch over Kalia and play with her for a few hours. Ashley is an awesome babysitter as well and is hired :) - thanks to you too, Ashley, for taking time out of your day off during the week to help out - you're an angel!

And then there's today! At 12:58pm, Kalia will be 3-weeks old! Time is flying by and she's growing a little more every day. She's more awake during the day and is sleeping really well at night. Only concerns at the moment are that she's spitting up a little more than what we think is normal, so we're going to keep an eye on it and make sure she's digesting okay. Making sure we're feeding her right and burping her on time is key, so we're working hard to make sure we're doing everything we can to help. We're getting pretty good sleep most nights...we usually get a good 2-3 hour sleep from 10pm - 1pm, then up for an hour, then usually a little less than two hours at a time until morning. We're very happy with that :) A couple of nights ago, she slept from 10pm - 3am which was SWEET.

We're also having a good time trying to play the game of: "When We Bring You Into the Room to Change You, Let's See How Quick We Can Finish Before You Poop and Pee All Over Mommy and Daddy". She seems to enjoy the sensation of the baby wipes on her bottom...so when we get to that point, her bowels seem to wake up :)

On Sunday, right as Michelle was getting her new diaper on, Kalia decided to pass gas and out shot a stream of both poo (gross) and pee...right on Michelle! It was awesome. Chris and Melissa were there to witness it. Again, sorry, no pictures. We went through 4 diapers in about 3 minutes. It's a fun game though...she wins most of the time, but when I win...I celebrate by running around the room cheering. By the time I get back to her to rub it in her face...she usually has already soiled her diapers again so we start the game all over. I'll take small victories though...

That's about it! As usual...we'll keep everyone posted.

- Dan, Michelle and our little Angel

Happy 2-Week Birthday!

Can't believe that time has flown by so quickly!

We don't have any pictures to put up this time around - sorry! Our digital camera decided to die on us last week, so we have a new one on order that should be here next week. She hasn't changed much, so no biggie.

Today, we went to a Doctor's appointment for Michelle to check her stiches from the C-section she had two weeks ago. All is well! The nurse said that Michelle has healed quicker than most women do at this point - so that was great news. She also lost almost 35-pounds, which is awesome too! She's able to drive now and only has 4-weeks left before she can lift over 20-pounds.

At 2:15pm, we took Kalia to her 2-week check up with the Doctor. She now weighs 8lbs 9oz, is 20 1/2 inches long. Both are well-within the normal range for a two-week old. She also had her heart, lungs, ears and nose checked and the Doctor said they were perfect! He was happy to see that her weight has increased like it has. He told us that we should continue to feed her regularly during the day - but if at night, she wants to sleep 5-6-7-8 hours straight without feeding, that it would be okay. I'm sure it won't happen, but it was good to hear :)

Everything is great! We're still working on some burping/gas problems that she's having, but we found some medicine that has made a big difference. We'll take that problem over other ones any day!

In the last week, Kalia made her first church visit (slept through the Worship songs...not sure how...Daddy was playing his guitar as loud as possible), her 2nd Target shopping adventure, went to see her Great-Grandma and Grandpa, and a few other trips. She has her moments in the car, but overall is a little champ when it comes time to travel. We're going to take her to a Festival in Mill Creek this weekend, so we'll see how that goes. We'll take pictures and post them next week.

As usual, we'll keep everyone posted! Give us a call or shoot an email if you want to know more that I wasn't able to post on here.

Things are Going Better!

So the "close and secure sleeper" that Dan and I purchased to go in between us during the night didn't work so well.....in fact it ended up just being too loose and not stiff enough. So I ripped the top of the bassinet off last night, put it on the floor between the two couches, and Dan and I each slept on a couch with her in between. My anxiety went away. She slept for 4 hours initially, woke up, changed her diapers, fed her again, and she slept for another 3 hours. I had Dan change the diapers, and I fed her so that we both could work together to try to get some sleep. I guess we are lucky she isn't up every two hours. It did take a every two hour marathon feeding to get her to go to sleep, but once there, she was out for a while. I know this sounds strange, but I want Kalia just to be a month old because these times are just so scary. She is so little and everything is still developing that I worry so much about her. However, after talking will people and reading blogs, this is all normal and will pass. The consensus seems to be that at about 2 month things will get better!

Daddy has shared some things that he loves about Kalia, now it is my turn!
*I love the way that you hum to me while you are feeding....it is the same "scale" every time and it makes me feel happy to know that you are happy.
*I love the way you look at me when I am talking to you. You look so interested and seem to love hearing my voice.
*Although you will never be this little again, mommy is glad that you are growing because you are getting a little easier to take care of each day.
*I love the way you smile at me when you are sleeping...some people say it is gas, I know that you are happy you are out of my tummy and are smiling because you love your mom and dad!
*Daddy and mommy love the way you make a "puppy dog bark" when you are sleeping.

Happy 1 Week Old Birthday Kalia!

Kalia is officially 1 week old today and we got a head start on the celebration with her first visit to the emergency room last night! At about 12:45am on Tuesday night we awoke to Kalia with spit up all over her face (Now I understand why the inclines are so important). When we went to wipe it off, we realized that she had inhaled some of the spit up in through her nose. Since Dan sleeps next to her bassinet, he was the first one to find her, and when he picked her up, she was as stiff as a board. When I looked at her , I thought she was crying because she needed to be fed-no laughing I am still getting use to this whole parenting thing. Then Dan got the bulb syringe and started sucking the stuff out of her nose and mouth, she was sweating, crying uncontrollably, and bright red. I took over and Dan called the hospital Nurse-line. We were doing the right thing...and any parent out there knows that crying means they are breathing!! However, the nurse said we still needed to go to the emergency room to get her lungs checked out to ensure she didn't suck anything into them. With Kalia still crying and bright red, Dan and I drove frantically to the hospital at 1:00am, running red lights, and speeding....along the way, we realized that when she was checked into the emergency room, it was 1:23am, the same time I was at the hospital a week earlier as well! By the time that the doctor saw Kalia, she had her x-rays done of her lungs, and they found that she was ok, just a little nasally, and we were ready to go home, we realized that it was about 4am, the same time just a week earlier that I finally got my epidural and was relaxing somewhat from the contractions.

Dan spent all night sleeping on the couch with Kalia to make sure she stayed upright so that she could breath alright. At 9:45am she went to see her pediatrician. He checked her lungs and ears and said she looked great. She does have to have some saline in an inebulizer (sp?) for a couple days to flush everything out of her nasal passage. With all things said and done, to reassure me, Kalia is moving out of her bassinet into one of those beds you put in between you in bed, a slight incline will be put in her bed, and hopefully we will have a break from some scary incidents for awhile.

By the way, after this incident, I realized how much I love her car seat. She sits upright, she loves it, and I don't have to worry about breathing her spit up through her nose. With that said, check out her 1 week old pictures.