Celebrate me home

Since my family came to Utah for Thanksgiving, it was our year to spend Christmas with Jon's family. We decided to make the holiday more "vacation-like" and stayed at his parents' house. It was a lot of fun spending the days in our sweats. It was Jonah's first Christmas where he actually somewhat grasped the ideas of opening presents, Santa, etc. It was so much fun to watch him! He had such a great time playing with all of his cousins.


Here is Jonah with Mamou.

One of Jonah's most favorite things is bikes. He LOVES bikes! We made sure Santa knew this and Jonah loves him for it.

Baby Sophie has had a nice streak of blowouts and happened to have one at Mamou and Grandpa's house so I took advantage of their perfect-sized sink and bathed her in it. She enjoyed it quite a bit. And NO, I didn't use Windex on her...even though I've heard it has some amazing cleansing properties when used in unusual situations.

This is also Jonah's first winter playing in the snow. We went out and got him some proper snow pants and boots and he just loves it!



Jonah also loves to play the piano. He pulls the chair over and climbs up and turns on the keyboard. He thinks its so neat! Unfortunately, he also knows how to turn on the songs and even more unfortunately, A Whole New World happens to be the first song to come on. Jon and I have had it stuck in our heads for the last week now....uhhgg.

We love the Christmas season and are so grateful for our Savior and all He has done for us. What a wonderful time to reflect on the birth and life of Jesus Christ. We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and we wish you all a Happy New Year!

This lotion feels slimy...

Sophie loves the bath...as long as she doesn't get cold. After her bath the other day, I was putting her lotion on and decided to rub the excess into my own hands. Without looking at my hands, I realized the lotion felt a little slimier than usual. When I looked down, I realized that Sophie had deposited a nice little surprise on my hands and I was rubbing it all over! Hahaha...sneaky girl!

Here is a picture of us before church last week. Look at my cute argyle kiddies! Thank you, Mimi, for Jonah's handsome sweater!

This was taken during tummy time today. Sophie didn't last long but Jonah sure had fun spreading the blankets out and lying down with Baby Sister!

And finally, today was our 4 year anniversary! It's fun to see how much our little family has grown in that time. Here are a few pictures of our wedding day!

Santa's Little Helper

Jonah has been quite the little helper lately. Among some of his favorite things (fans, Christmas ornaments, cameras ("Smile", he says), vacuums ("bantums")) are also brooms. He often pulls the broom out and sweeps, not only the hardwood floor, but also the carpets.

He's doing better with Sophie around. He knows her name and for the most part keeps to himself but sometimes tries to share his toys, binkies, etc. He enjoys lounging in the bouncy seat when it isn't occupied by his sister.


Sophie is a wonderful baby. She mostly cries when hungry or tired...typical baby behavior. We sure love her! She's filling out quite nicely (as you can see by the cheeks!).

A Very Green Thanksgiving

This year was our year to be with my family for Thanksgiving and since I was due to have a baby so close to the holiday, my family decided to rent a condo at Thanksgiving Point (how appropriate!) for the week so we could all be together. It was so nice to have everyone here for the weekend! The condo was huge and well furnished so there was plenty of room for everyone. Jon and I stayed at home since we need to have all the baby supplies handy but hung out at the condo with everyone during the days.

Jeff and Audra brought Guitar Hero over and there was a pool table at the house so those activities occupied most of the boys' time while the girls made various shopping trips.

We took family pictures (long overdue) which turned out sooo cute!

I am so grateful for my awesome family! How wonderful it is to have such neat people for brothers, sisters, and parents. I can't say thank you enough to my parents for everything they've done for us this week. They have taken such good care of me during this transition period!

Here are some pictures of our holiday!






You can see that I'm already enjoying the dressing part of having a baby girl! I made these leg warmers out of socks. Cute huh?

A New Bush in the Yard

On Tuesday, November 18th at 6:52am, Sophie Suzanne Bush joined our little family! She came about 2.5 weeks early so we were surely surprised! She weighed 7lbs, 9oz and was 20in long. She is healthy and strong and beautiful! We're so excited to have her here.

For those of you that want the whole labor story, here it is. If you don't really care, you have my permission to just scroll on down and see the pictures!

At midnight on Monday night my water broke. I wasn't sure if it was indeed my "water" breaking so we decided that we'd go to bed and wait to see what happened since I wasn't having any contractions and it wasn't quite as obvious as when my water broke with Jonah. So about an hour and a half after going to bed, I woke up and it was clearly my water that had broken. I still wasn't having contractions but we decided that we'd better get to the hospital since I needed to have antibiotics in my system for 4 hours before she arrived (Group B Strep).

We got the hospital at about 3am and they said they'd let my labor progress on its own for a while to see if it would pick up. By that time I was having contractions about 7 minutes apart. The doctor came in about an hour later and said it was looking good and he'd let me keep going to see if it would continue to get stronger. About 5 minutes after that, he sent a nurse in with pitocin...I guess he really wanted the baby to be born before his shift was up. We were pretty mad that he didn't give us a chance to continue on our own but we went ahead with their plan.

My contractions immediately got stronger and faster and within about an hour (around 5:30am) I was 5 and 1/2cm dilated (from a 3 when we got there). At around 6:30 my contractions were almost unbearable and at one point I told Jon that I needed to push during the contraction. He called the nurse in to check me and I was at an 8. She started setting the room up for the baby's arrival as I feverishly worked through each contraction. Jon helped me breathe and the nurse helped apply counter pressure (which helped and killed at the same time). After about 15 more minutes I was at a 10 (and screaming during contractions...hehehe) and they said I could go ahead and push. After 1 and ONLY 1 push, our little girl arrived!

I successfully delivered her naturally and feel that the recovery was different (easier) from with Jonah's birth. People have asked me to give a comparison of the two births and for now, suffice it to say THEY WERE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. I can't say which I'd prefer at this point.....give me a few months to forget how much it hurt!

My mom has been here the last few days to help out and it has been wonderful. She's such an amazing mom!!! Jon has also been absolutely wonderful and has been my rock and support through the transition. Jonah is fairing well and has only bonked Sophie once so far. I'm going to start keeping her high and away from him so as to completely eliminate temptation. He knows her name and sometimes tries to share toys with her so I'm sure he'll come around eventually.

Here are the promised pictures! We'll be taking lots more in the next few days so I promise to keep posting them. We also have some video I'll be posting in a few days.

Here I am, braving the hospital food. If you can't tell, this is meatloaf...mmmmm!

Sophie had jaundice and we ended up having her under some "bili-lights" for two nights to lower her biliruben levels. Good news, though! Today after having her foot pricked, yet again, her levels were such that we no longer have to have her under the lights and we no longer have to take her to get tested! We didn't get her picture under the lights but just so you can all see what they're like, I've included a picture of Jonah when he was under them. The contraption is a suitcase with UV lights in it. It really is the most annoying thing because you have to cover their eyes and try to get them to calm down without being bundled up or covered with anything but a diaper.





You can see the two different methods for covering their eyes...neither is really that effective. Quite a pain in the butt, actually.

Baby Shower Fun

My dear sister, Laura, threw the most splendid baby shower for me last weekend. She held it at the boutique she works at called Dear Lizzie. It is the cutest place ever and the atmosphere was perfect for a baby shower. Dear Lizzie has a little bistro in the back where we sat and talked and ate!

When we planned the date, I didn't think anyone from my side of the family would be able to attend because its so close to Thanksgiving when everyone will be coming out here anyway. But I was very, very pleasantly surprised when I walked out of the bathroom and found my mom and Annie sitting there at the table. I doubled over and just bawled my eyes out---I'm sure the pregnancy hormones had everything to do with it!

Here are a few pictures of the festivities! You can see my belly...it is just so huge. I think it looks like I've stuffed a basketball in there. My next doctors appointment is tomorrow and we'll find out how close I am to being ready to deliver. I'm hoping she'll be early (safely early) and really think she won't be able to wait until the 5th of December.

Thank you to all my dear friends and family!!!

I'm taking guesses on when she'll arrive. Leave your guess in the comments!!!

At Exactly Midnight

Well, I'm happy to report that Jonah is doing much better. It has been quite the fight each day to give him his medicine but we've gotten it down and it is indeed working!

I, on the other hand, am not feeling fantastic tonight...or this morning. You'll notice the time of this post. Well, I'm having issues sleeping. It's amazing how during the day I can lie down and be asleep in a matter of seconds but at night, it's a different story. I've been lying in bed for 2 hours now with no sign of sleep. Grrrrr. It doesn't make it any easier when Jon gets into bed and immediately starts snoring (not his fault, but I'm a light sleeper and hate earplugs). So tonight I decided to hit the couch--or the computer, until the couch sounds appealing.

So what I really meant to post about was the fact that at exactly midnight (we know because we checked) our radio stations began playing Christmas music. Can you believe it?! We knew it was coming but when we actually heard it...weird! We decided we might have to boycott those stations for just a bit longer since they refuse to play more than 10 Christmas songs over and over.

Halloween was fun! Jonah strolled around Jon's work and immediately grasped the idea of taking candy from strangers and putting it in his bag. He dressed as a giraffe this year and was adorable! My favorite part of the costume was the butt because it was huge and just swayed back and forth when he walked. We went down to Springville to trick-or-treat with Jon's sister and our nieces and Jonah had a blast. We weren't sure he'd get it but soon enough he was mimicking his cousins and saying "tick-a-t" or something to that effect. I forgot my camera so I'll have to post pictures tomorrow. For tonight I'll show you the best Halloween costume I saw today...it just made me laugh!!!!

The best part for me was the red frosting on his eyebrows. Ahhh...I'm still giggling!

I guess I'll try to get some shut-eye now. Nighty-night!

Poor Jonah Boy

The last couple of days have been pretty miserable for the boy. He was really cranky all day Saturday and woke up around 2am with a fever of 101. We gave him some Motrin and put him back to bed. He woke up Sunday morning acting pretty cheerful but after a couple of hours his fever had returned. All day Sunday we kept dishing out the Motrin hoping that whatever was causing his fever would reveal itself or his fever would finally subside. By 4pm he was at 103 and we decided to give Motrin one more try and then go to the doctor if it didn't go away. We ended up taking him to after hours care at our pediatrician's office at 9:30pm. It was the saddest thing I've ever seen. He was zombie-like with bloodshot, watery eyes that were closed half way and he was absolutely burning up. I hate seeing my baby so sick!!!

When the doctor saw us she said that she'd already had several fevers that night and that half were showing up as strep throat and the other half viral. Sure enough, little Jonah's came back positive for Strep. The doc prescribed antibiotic syrup and I asked if they could do a penicillin shot instead and she said yes but that the dose was huge and was the same for all kids under 75 lbs. At that point I didn't want to see my little boy in any more pain or discomfort so I opted for the syrup instead. By the time we got home and administered the drops (both antibiotic and Tylenol for the fever) it was already 11:30pm so you can imagine Jonah's exhausted and sickly state. He took the Tylenol just fine but when it came time for the antibiotics, we had to hold him down, only for him to throw everything back up all over himself, us, and the couch. Poor kid. After a quick back and a book to calm him down, we managed to get one dose of the antibiotics down and put him to bed. Then I gave him one dose of Tylenol after he'd been in bed for an hour since his fever hadn't broke and he was unable to sleep.

This morning my boy woke up feeling a little better and without fever. I'm considering going back to get the penicillin shot instead of forcing the drops down his throat twice a day for 10 days...what a process!!!

Anyway, we're hoping he feels better soon and we have our normally happy and content boy back!

Another Weekend in Colorado

A week ago we drove to Colorado for one of Jon's best friend's weddings. We took the opportunity to see the beautiful fall foliage and drove along the I-70 route. Veil was absolutely breathtaking. Fall is by far my most favorite season!

Here are a few pictures of the wedding. It was neat to see Jon with his buddies from high school. They haven't been in too close of contact with each other so it was a sweet reunion for them! The wedding was up Boulder Canyon outside of a nice restaurant. It was beautiful!

On another note, the belly is huge! I'm feeling pretty good but can tell that the time is drawing near. I'm almost 33 weeks along and my sister-in-law, Natalie, commented last night that I look like I'm 9 months plus one week! I have a feeling this little girl is not going to be so little! Jonah was 8lb 12oz so we'll see what happens with this one!

I'll post some pictures later today.

Let's Groove Tonight!

Today Jonah and I got back from a short trip to Colorado. We flew out there to have another "girl-get-together" with my sister's-in-law, Laura, and Mom. On Tuesday night we went to the Earth Wind and Fire concert at Red Rocks! It was fantastic (except for the extremely strong smell of fajitas cooking, the occasional and inevitable pot smoke wafting our direction, and the couple who thought it was OK to pretend they were in their own bedroom while listening to the music...if you catch my drift). The cool part is that Michael McDonald opened for them...and I'm sure that 99% of you will have to look up who the heck that is so I've provided a link for you. He is the former lead singer of the Doobie Brothers...and I've provided a link for them as well since most of you probably won't know their stuff. Sheesh, people, get with it! We all had a great time dancing and laughing at each other's dance moves (and the drunk people who thought they were dancing).

Jonah decided that he'd wake up at 3am today so you can imagine the horrific plane ride home with him. The worst part was when the guy next to me gave me the look of death when Jonah tossed his sippy cup onto the guy's khaki pants. I think he thought it was going to spill all over him. The glare along with the extreme exhaustion and frustration of dealing with Jonah's antics nearly caused me to burst into tears. But I held it together and we made it home to my sweet Jonathan, whom I missed horribly.

Here are some pictures of the concert for your enjoyment! Oh, and do yourselves a favor and go to iTunes to check out some of the artists' music I've mentioned today...make me proud!

We raided my mom's closet and all wore tie-dye.

Here I am at 29 weeks and Lindsey's at 21 or so. SWEET!

From left to right: Linds, Audra, Laura, Me

Michael McDonald...awesome deep voice.