First Haircut and Six Month Stats

Anyone who has seen Marshall can see that see that he's large for a six month old.  Everyone who asks how old he is usually has a comment about how large he is, or how much hair he has.  I'm sure most people that see him expect me to set him down and have him walking, thankfully he isn't because our house is not child proofed!  I have been waiting to do most stuff until we can see when we are moving.  Our house right now has two sets of stairs and some ridiculous metal railings that have the perfect spacing to get a head stuck between.  Anyway....

Marshall had his six month appointment on Friday, his doctor walked in and said "Would ya feed the kid, it looks like he's starving!"  I love that he has a sense of humor about Marshall being the size of an average one year old!  He weighed in at 21 lbs 12 oz that puts him in the 94th percentile for weight and 28 inches long, the 92nd percentile for height.  He is head is 17 3/4 inches, somewhere around the 82nd percentile.  Needless to say he BIG!  He following a consistent pattern of being big, so no worries there.  He is ahead developmentally and they are surprised he is as mobile as he is because of his size.  He rolls and wiggles all around the living room floor, he gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth.  He is also super close to sitting up unsupported, he leans on his hands right now and can sit up for a minute or two but when he reaches for something he almost always falls over.  And he loves his sippy cup!  He still isn't sleeping through the night and I am torn on whether or not to try sleeping training or see how he does on his own for the next few months.  When he gets up he eats, and not just snacking but takes a full bottle.  And his eating habits haven't been consistent during the day; one days he will down at least 32 oz of formula and the next I can't get him to take 20 oz.  So I feel like some nights he might really be hungry and not just waking up out of habit.  I'm open for suggestions!

We finally gave in and got Marshall's hair trimmed.  Where most kids rub a bald spot on the back of their head, Marshall has just broken off his and made the hair that is left frizzy.  The sides were long and the front was starting to hang in his eyes. So before his doctor appointment I took him to his Aunt Kacie.  He did great, a little wiggly to start out with but once he figured out he could put the cape in his mouth he was good to go!  He looks so much older now.  Here are some before and after pictures!

 BEFORE:

AFTER:

Happy Six Month Birthday!

Today is Marshall's half birthday, it has gone by so quick!  Justin and I were looking at some pictures from when we brought him home, he was so skinny and long!  Now he is a little chunk, he's maxed out on the 9 month sleepers he is in; time to break out the next size.  We have gotten a lot of hand me downs, it's been great since he has grown out of everything so fast.

Tuesday Marshall went to daycare for the first time. Our friend Jami had been watching him since I went back to work so we could try and avoid the majority of cold and flu season.  We really appreciate her!  It made the transition for me going back to work much easier.  But now she is preparing to have a baby of her own so I found an in home daycare.  Marshall seems to really enjoy it, he is super happy when I pick him up and he smiles at Maria the owner whenever she talks to him.

We had put an offer in on a house a couple of weeks ago, it's a short sale so we expected to wait, and wait and wait.....and today we got a counter offer!  They didn't come down as much as we need them too.  It's still overpriced, but we plan on countering back and hopefully they will come down more.  Fingers crossed!

 

Happy Half Birthday Marshall! We love you!

Busy Days

I really am trying to keep up with my blog.  And the next time I see someone that can give me a crash course on backgrounds and whatnot I am going to sit on them and make them teach me!  Between traveling, working and taking classes online I am in need of a relaxing vacation.  I would even be willing to take just a weekend away with Justin.....

Marshall and I flew to see my family in Louisiana on February 16th.  Besides my Mom and brother no one else in my family had met Marshall yet so everyone was super excited we were coming to visit.  Marshall did great on the plane ride, I was really nervous about flying with him alone but he napped on and off and the people sitting behind us asked if I would trade him for their two older kids.  So I'm going to take that as a sign that he was pretty well behaved.  It was great to see my family and get pictures of Marshall with his Great Grandpa!  We are planning on going down again for Thanksgiving and Justin will come too.


We had been casually looking at houses for about the past month.  We have been working with a lender to try and qualify for a zero down and no PMI insurance loan.  Our credit scores just need to go up a couple of points to qualify but we were having to wait until March 1st to get a pre-approval letter.  So while we have been waiting we have been working with our Realtor to get an idea of prices and view some houses.  We patiently waited and now we have been rewarded.  Yesterday our lender called and we have a pre-approval!  We are going this evening to look at a new listing and look again at a house we really liked the first time we looked at it.  Unfortunately most of the houses up here are bank owned these days so the process will most likely be a slow one.  We will most likely put an offer in on one of the two this week!  We are so excited at the prospect of being homeowners and having a place of our own to raise Marshall. 

Marshall Harvey Kite

Okay so this is about 4 months late....BUT on September 24, 2009 at 9:34 pm Marshall Harvey Kite entered the world. At 7 lbs 12.5 oz and 21 inches long and a full head of dark brown hair! He stole our hearts with a sweet little cry and big dark eyes. He has grown so fast! At 2 months he was 14 lbs! And at 4 months we are estimating he is about 20 now! He has a doctor's appointment tomorrow, so we will have an official weigh in!

The holidays were great, my brother Chris flew up for Thanksgiving and to meet Marshall. He makes great cornbread stuffing! Marshall slept through Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. Next year I think he will enjoy it more!

The last few months have been a daze, besides the sleep depervation; I dealt with kidney stones and had two surgeries in December to take care of them. We spent my birthday weekend in Layton with Danny and Tasha. I am back at work 4 days a week and started school again a couple of weeks ago. Justin is staying home on Mondays with Marshall this winter; it's great for them to get to spend time together!

We had our first family photos done last weekend. Marshall did great for the first half and then he was tired of it. The photographer tried to use a squeaky toy to get his attention, that just made him cry. We got some cute pictures of him and a couple of goodfamily pictures too.

Rain and Parts!

It's raining.....still. It has rained everyday for a least the last 3 weeks! Justin says if it keeps up he is going to grow gills! The yard is out of control, but it's too soggy to do anything with it. I know I shouldn't be complaining that it's not warm out. Soone enough it will be HOT outside and I will be miserable I'm sure. But the weather makes it hard for it to sink in that we are about half way through June, and that makes me think October is further away than it really is!


A couple of weeks ago we had the "BIG" ultrasound, I went back and forth whether we are having a boy or a girl. From the very beginning I have thought boy, but my Mom kept saying girl; and the only dream I have had of a baby was of a girl. In all honestly Justin and I were really hoping just to be told that everything looked good. We opted out of the screenings prior to the ultrasound. The tech asked if we wanted to know the gender when we were getting all set up, we said "yes please!" As he was transitioning from measuring the placenta to the legs, he said are you sure you want to know? It was very obviously a BOY! Well obvious to me and the tech (I had been looking at pics online so I could figure out what they look for). I tired to get Justin to look for the "turtle head" but he isn't so sure and still says he will believe it when he sees it in the flesh. Everything looks great and we are really starting to get excited! Although I am tired of the belly comments......seriously 15 more weeks of them, I make no promises that I might take someone out! (24 week belly)
Yesterday we went to Justin's 10 year reunion. It funny to see all the guys Justin hung out with, chasing and toting kids around! I'm sure it wouldn't be nearly as entertaining if I hadn't gone to school with them too.

I am adding a picture of Cleatus. He sits on the front porch and watches for Justin down the road, almost everyday after work (as long as it's not raining too hard). It's adorable and I had to share!

THE Wedding

Okay, for some reason my formatting is messed up.....so you get to see the pictures first....backwards. Enjoy!

On Saturday April 11th, 2009 just prior to sunset in the Valley of Fire Justin and I tied the knot! We were surrounded by our friends and family (barely, more on that later). To be honest I was a little nervous, we had no idea of what to expect. We booked the wedding online, putting our trust in two people we had never met. BUT it turned out better than we could have expected. The photographer and limo driver were great! Not to mention the Reverend that married us; I expected something Justice of the Peace style. Instead he offered great insight to the beautiful land around us, and incorporated Easter and the two of us starting a new life together. I cried of course and Justin managed to hold back his tears.

Of course like any other wedding, not everything can be perfect. I figured that if anyone would be late to the wedding it would be a a group of my friends (only because we've been late to other weddings). Needless to say I became extremely frusterated when MY FAMILY took the wrong road and ended up on the otherside of Lake Mead of where we were getting married. The photographer and Reverend were great and we ended up doing all of the photos we could and literally waited until the last minute to start the ceremony. My family still was not there, but because the sun was setting and we didn't have much of a choice but to start. One of the worst feelings in the world....thinking you are about to get married without your family being there. So the ceremony started and we were a min or two into and I hear someone say "They're Here!" cars doors slam and feet shuffling. I about lost it right then just out of relief, instead I waited until we did our vows. I am so glad they made it!

We went with our new blended family to Joe's Crab Shack. I know, I know, all the places to eat in Vegas and we decide to eat at Joe's. But we didn't want it to cost a fortune and we wanted a relaxed place where we didn't have to worry about the kids (or the adults) getting loud.

Minus my family barely making it, and me getting sick in the parking lot at Joe's (so car sick from the limo ride). It really was as close to perfect as you can get :) Here are some pictures that friends and family have taken and a I also included the link to the wedding video (I have yet to watch the video).

Thanks to everyone that could make it we really appreciate your support!!

Video Link: http://www.vegasweddings4u.com/april/kite.html

I've been slacking!

It's been forever since I have update my blog. And sadly this is only my 3rd post, not starting out very well! But I finally uploaded pictures to post! So I'll give you a little run down on what's been going on since my last post!

For New Year's Eve this year Justin and I decided to stay home and watch movies. There isn't much to do in Driggs for "night life" and neither of us felt like driving somewhere to hang out and then have to drive back in the early morning hours. I can honestly say I really love just staying at home with Justin. We had a good time, but we didn't make it to midnight!

We picked a wedding date! We opted not to do the big wedding. Neither of us wanted to put up the money (we are paying for everything) and we both really wanted something small. So we decided on Vegas! I know totally not traditional, but it fit what we wanted to accomplish and our families get to take a little vacation too! So April 11, 2009 at the Valley of Fire (about 50 miles outside of Vegas). Justin picked the date, he didn't want to wait until next winter, since we can't do a Spring or Summer wedding due to the long hours he works during this time!

My birthay is just a week after New Year's day (and two week after Xmas) and it fell in the middle of the week. I really didn't feel much like celebrating this year, I'm on the downward slide to 30 now! But Justin took me to dinner at one of our fav places here in town and then we ventured over to Jared and Jami's house to watch the College National Championship game. I always love going to the Searle's everytime we go to watch a movie, sporting event or whatever I think we spend more time talking than actually watching!

We moved! We had been renting a tiny studio apartment right in Driggs. It's where Justin lived before I moved up here and we decided instead of jumping into a bigger payment every month we would keep our eyes open for a good deal. Well we found one! We are renting a 5 year old house that is 3300 sq fet (including the partially finished basement) for less than our stuido rent! I know it's crazy and we totally got lucky, it requires caretaking responsiblities but nothing big, just the regular stuff you would do if it was our home! We have room for people to visit now!

Fast foward to the last week in January, I felt horrible on a Tuesday night I was up pretty much the whole night and barely slept. So I called in sick to work and spent the day laying on the couch trying to recoup. I managed to go to work on Thursday...only until lunch though I had barely eaten anything in the last 36 hours (minus crackers!) so I came home early and went to bed hoping that catching up on my sleep would help. Friday I still don't feel very well....and realize that I have yet to have a monthly visitor show. Uh oh! I picked up a test from the store at lunch on Friday, thinking nothing of it really. I had a similar thing happen last fall and it was due to cysts and although ended up being painful easily taken care of. Friday afternoon at work I hear that 100 (out of 300) kids are out of school in the Valley with stomach issues. At this point I think, yep that's what I've got. I still decide I will take the test I bought on Satruday morning just to make sure, before I start a new month of the pill. Well needless to say it took about 15 seconds for a second pink line to show up! Gulp! Needless to say while we weren't planning, but we are exicited! My estimated due date is October 2nd; we've had our first ultrasound February 13th and we could see the little heartbeat flickering away!

We also have been debating a puppy for awhile now. It's not something we couldn't consider until we got a bigger place and somewhere with a yard. Justin recently fell in love with an Old English Bulldog at a Christmas party we went to. The week of Valentine's Day my boss gave me some info on a dog that was going to be at the Bingham County Humane Society (coming from a breeder that was getting rid of a dog). So after speaking with some people at the Humane Society Justin and I headed to Idaho Falls on Valentine's Day and picked up CLEATUS! He's 2 years old and housebroken. He's super chill, very loving and very timid. I think the original breeder than had him most likely abused him. He adores Justin, he whines when he leaves for work or even when he is just in the shower.

And just yesterday....we bought a new SUV! We had been talking about this for about 3 months. My car was great, almost paid for, good on gas but still had some pick up and go. BUT not so good with a lot of snow and I had issues getting in and out of driveway with snow due to how low it sat. We looked online and priced stuff, found a price range we were comfortable with and decided we would start looking but if we didn't find something right away it was ok. But that we had to have something before October. We found a 2008 Chevy Equinox at a great price and wheeled and dealed with the salesman. I really like it, it drives smooth and it's not as bumpy as a lot of SUV's. It's AWD but will get about 25 to the gallon (just a little less than my car) now I can get in and out of the driveway and we can put Cleatus in the back and the baby in the backseat!

Lastly, (see I should be better at this so the posts aren't so long!) I start a new job on Tuesday! I have been working at a law office here. And while the people I was working for are great, it's not something I really enjoyed doing. So I got a job offered to me at MD Nursery and Landscaping (same place Justin works, but I won't ever see him) I'll be handling all of the stuff to do with the trucks and trucking and admin work to start and then will pick up the accounts payables when I am ready. I'm excited to work there, I know from Justin's experience that they take good care of their employees and I will be learning skills that are more universally marketable than being a legal secretary!