Christmas 2015

We were super excited for Christmas this year. Pat got a whole week off of work yay! So we got to go down to Tooele/Stansbury and spend time with both of our families. Two days before we left I got a cold and so did Brylianna, it was so heartbreaking listening to her wheezy breathing and cough, poor baby, needless to say we did not get much sleep, but luckily she got over it pretty fast!
Parker and Michelle and little Zeke got to come visit from Texas on Christmas Eve and it was so fun to see them and let them meet Brylianna! We did miss Pat's sis Jen and her family though, but from the sounds of it, it was good they didn't come this year. Love you though!
Christmas Eve we spent with my parents, grandma, Paige, Nathan and Katie and did the usual (minus some good family friends) white elephant and read the Christmas story in Luke and sang some Christmas hymns. Christmas day we juggled our time between both families, which is always a little crazy but super fun and awesome and worth all the craziness! :) We are so lucky to live close and be able to visit. It is just fun to be around family during the holidays. We got tons of stuff and were super spoiled, little miss Brylianna was probably the most spoiled though :) She was such a good baby and was finally showing off her new tricks like rolling from her back to her tummy and sucking on her hands and of course giving the best heart warming smiles :) Christmas night Pat and I got horribly sick with something all of the sudden and were both puking all night. It was a rough rough night, it hit bad at about 1 am and lasted the whole night pretty much. We puked like every hour and it was funny cuz Pat would puke and then a couple minutes later I knew it would be my turn. At least we were taking turns ha ha. Brylianna was soooooo good though and it was such a blessing cuz she slept through everything and that was the only night while we were visiting that she slept from 11pm- about 8am. I was getting super dehydrated and drained though from puking and stuff so much that when I got up in the morning when Brylianna woke up, I went into the bathroom and then I passed out and hit my head on the tile. I knew it was coming, but I was to slow to do anything about it ( or too fast I guess ha ha ) Once I recovered from that I tried to down as much fluid as possible cuz I still needed Brylianna to be able to nurse. Talk about exhausting, but it worked out alright somehow and my mom and dad were able to watch her that whole day while Pat and I recovered, thank goodness again for little blessings that we were close to family and that someone was able to watch her or I don't know what we would have done! Also while I was puking that night, it was such a long night, I got to a point where I was really really exhausted and a saying that my Bishop's wife says all the time popped into my head, she points out that in the scriptures it says " And it came to pass." and it is good to know that most trials won't last forever and that hard things DO in fact come to pass. It gave me strength when I needed it so thank you for that :) Although I will say that is one method of losing all the weight I gained being pregnant. I do not suggest it though ha ha, but it brought me down to one pound below pre-pregnancy weight!
All in all it was an amazing Christmas though, but I am hoping for a more low key Christmas next year, last year our van broke down out of state two days before Christmas ha ha, so we will have to see what next year brings!
Pat got to go sledding with his family and we also got to go to the Planetarium in Salt Lake for a little bit and then Pat and his family went and walked around the lights at temple square, which I LOVE, but Brylianna needed me and it was super cold that night so I didn't go. 
We had a wonderful Christmas with family though and it made me just so so grateful for the things that matter most in this life, which are family! I love the gospel and the light it brings into my life and I am grateful for Christmas time to turn our thoughts to the Savior and reflect on everything that he has and does for us!

Brylianna got a present bigger than she is!

Merry Christmas! :) 

My whole world :)

My baby girl is getting so big!

My sweet little angel! 

Cliche selfie pic but I want to remember some of these sweet moments and cuddles! I will miss them! 

Thanks for the cute outfit Grandma :) 

Fitness Update

This is mostly for my own records so I can motivate myself and look at how far I have come etc. But feel free to follow along my journey of postpartum fitness and to motivate me to keep it up because some days we all need a little extra motivation! :) Brylianna is now a little over 3 months old. I am happy to say I pretty much feel, almost back to normal now. I am 3 pounds away from my pre pregnancy weight wahoo!! Although I can tell I lost a lot of muscle and strength. I can now only do about 12 pushups in a row, instead of the 30-40 I could do before baby. So I can't wait til I gain some strength back. I just try to do something every day even if it is only for 15 minutes during one of her naps. She actually doesn't nap for super long during the day so when she does, I have to decide if I want to A. Clean B. Shower. C. Take a nap myself. or D. workout ha ha Somedays it is hard to prioritize those! I have been trying to motivate myself to get back into shape, so I bought myself some new athletic shoes a couple months ago and made me wait until after Brylianna was born before I could use them. Also buying a couple new workout clothes can be motivating. And I know I will have more energy if I consistently work out even if I don't seem to have any energy before that. Although I will say that having a baby is a workout in and of itself, I carry my almost 14 pound sweetheart around a lot of the day and I can't tell you how many times I get down and up off the floor to play with her, set her down etc. So thanks for getting me back into shape. baby. My goal was to be back to prepregnancy weight/shape by 6-9 months because it took 9 months to gain so I was going to give it that long to lose it lol. I am hoping to be pretty close by 6 months postpartum though.Even if I don't get a workout in everyday, it is totally worth it when cute Brylianna looks at me and gives me one of her sweet ear to ear grins. Love you baby girl! Please feel free to comment and let me know your great ideas of getting back into shape after baby and what motivates you! :)

My new shoes to motivate me

I jogged this trail a couple times after Brylianna was born but before it snowed a lot

 And of course I love my stroller walks

3 months and a lot of change

I feel like so much has happened lately. Last week Pat got a new calling as 2nd counselor in our Bishopric, so proud of him, and this week I got released from being our wards Relief Society President. Bittersweet. I honestly loved it and all the sweet sisters in our ward. But I think it will be good, it is hard enough getting a baby ready for 8:30 am church as it is :)
Speaking of baby, sweet Brylianna is just so so so so super smiley, we love it! She is such a happy baby. She is rolling from her tummy to her back now, not all in one motion,she pushes up high with her hands and forearms and then just lets her head tip over and hit the ground and her body follows ha ha. And she can almost roll from her back to her tummy but doesn't know what to do with one arm. I am going to be in trouble soon! It is fun to watch her grown and learn. She is already in 3-6 month clothes and outgrown some 3 month clothes.  She usually sleeps pretty good at night, like amazing, but has kinda not been sleeping so good at night, but still great compared to most babies, just not as much as we have been used to. And she takes awhile to go down for her naps during the day. Sometimes I set her down to do dishes or whatever and then I will look back and she will just be staring at me with her big eyes like "Hey mom". It makes me smile. And lately she is becoming quite the conversationalist and if we put our face close to hers and go "OOoooooo." She will "Ooooooo" back and do that for like 5 minutes sometime, it is super adorable!!! Oh and she discovered her hands and loves to suck on them like all day now.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with both of our families and were so luck to stay in Tooele for a week and see them both and we of course ate two delicious Thanksgiving dinners. It was wonderful to see everyone. I am getting so excited for Christmas I just love this time of year!

Our little Christmas present

Brylianna our little bear

2 months

Oh my goodness time flies! Our little baby girl no longer looks like a newborn. She is just growing away.
Baby girl, you are so full of smiles it just melts my heart. Sometimes you love bath time sometimes you don't.Most the time you do though and your cute little eyes get really big.  This last week you slept for 7 hours straight for two nights in a row, which made mom super duper happy. Dad says you have adult farts now which is pretty hilarious. We can't wait til your eyes turn whatever color they are going to be, Mom says blue, but Dad says they look like they will be brown, we will see! I still think your little cry is pretty cute, but it can get heartbreakingly sad if we don't get to you fast enough. You always seem to cry right when I am in the shower shampooing my hair. Bad timing! But most the time you are pretty happy. You have a really good scowl that you like to do quite often though which cracks us up! I don't think I can eat chocolate anymore, I had brownies once and you were kinda upset the next day. I hope you don't have any allergies to anything, but time will tell.You are such a good little baby, we are so so blessed to have you in our home.Oh and  I can't stop taking pictures :)

 We went to the pumpkin walk

 Fall is here

 Paige moved to Logan!

Listening to the football game with Daddy :) 

Cute for Sunday 

Ohh I love it :) 

Baby had her first Halloween!