She did it!

E just rolled over from back to front all by herself for the first time while I was chatting with daddy online. I barely caught it out of the corner of my eye as she got all the way over and got her arm out from under her. What a big girl!!! She is 7 months and a few days. I'm so proud! :-D

The count down begins...

I start work in exactly a week. Don't freak out. don't freak out. don't freak out. I am really excited to start this job and think that I will love it. But I love staying home with Emmie more.... Sigh.... Oh well. You gotta do what you gotta do.

In other news: Emmie is 7 MONTHS OLD! How did this happen? I swear she gets cuter every day. And I'm not just saying that, I have proof: 7 month photo shoot. She's a growing girl for sure. At 12 months I'll post a collage of her 1-12 months pictures so you can see how much she changes.

She was just over 6 months old here and had started sitting up on her own for more than a few seconds. Now the only time she tips over is if she's trying to reach something out of her grasp and even then she'll catch herself before the topples most of the time.


I found this adorable skirt at Target for $6 and just couldn't pass it up. It's not quite a tu-tu but it's close :) Every girl needs one.

She is still small for her age but growing at a steady rate none-the-less. She is in the 16th and 18th % for height and weight. My little peanut :)

Here is a picture from my Grandma Jessie's funeral last Monday. This is me and my 5 older siblings and my mom. This picture just brings so much love to my heart.

Geez, update time

Man, you would think I have so much time on my hands being home with E.... NOT the case. I bow to stay at home moms. There is ALWAYS cleaning, laundry, dishes, errands to do on top of wrangling the little wee ones.

Update: I do NOT have Celiac! yippeee! It was likely my ulcer and gluten was agitating it more than usual. This has happened in the past but did not make me as sick.

Emmie is now on Solid food and loving it. I am NOT, however, loving her new massive amounts of poop. Sigh....

Also, she is sitting up and playing much more independently! Can you say productive mommy in these times?!? This is such a great feeling! I have even started working out on the treadmill again right after her first feeding in the mornings. Starting out small and slow but it still feels good :)


My Grandma Jessie died this past week and I will be attending her funeral on Monday. She was 97 1/2 and sharp as a tack till her final hours. She is probably so glad to not have her ailing body holding her back anymore. She remembered each and every-one of her grand childrens names and birth dates including great grand babies. What an amazing woman.



My sister-in-law, Jen, is getting married tomorrow. I'll post pics when we get them :)

Also, I GOT THE JOB! I start on August 29th as a Guest Services Insurance Specialist (GSS) for DaVita Dialysis. I am soooo scared about leaving Emmie and going back to work, but....excited for such a great opportunity. Yikes.... Too many emotions.

Update on Celiac

So I have a date for the Endoscopy to determine if I have Celiac or not. Oddly enough, I have been almost symptom free since the day we set it up.....WTH?!

Here's part of why (I think): The medication they had me on for my "ulcer" was possibly what was causing all of the GI issues except for the actual stomach aches. I believe this because I stopped taking it when I scheduled the endoscopy because why take an Ulcer medication for Celiac? So Dr. said it was ok to stop if I felt it wasn't helping.

Well not only was it not helping but it seems it was magnifying!! On another strange note, they told me to stop the gluten free diet and eat normal until the test so that it didn't come back inconclusive... Ugh....right? WRONG. I have had two very minor stomach aches since I started eating normal again... Am I taking crazy pills? Gluten was making me so sick at one point!!! So my theory is that I DID indeed have a flare up of my ulcer and foods that had gluten in them were exacerbating the pain. (I have been told that in the past by a doctor. Gluten agitates ulcers so to get them to heal naturally you go on a GF and reduced dairy diet. I have done this in the past and healed the ulcer heal without meds. The symptoms were a bit different this time though.)

So, my hope is that I developed a short term gluten intolerance because of my ulcer but by cutting Gluten out of my diet for the time I did, I had given the ulcer time to heal itself. I don't think it's healed all the way but I am going to have the endoscopy anyway to rule out Celiac for good since this isn't the first time I've had problems with gluten (and I've met my Out of Pocket Max for the year thanks to miss E). Wish me luck. Eating GF SUCKS.

Test Results

So some of you know I have really been struggling with some pretty severe stomach aches and intestinal issues in the last month. At first I thought it was my ulcer back to haunt me but then it went from just stomach pain to stomach pain closely followed by the GI issues sometimes with every meal of the day. Well, through some elimination diet test runs, I figured out it was gluten that was causing the problem. So I emailed my Dr. and he had me get a blood test for Celiac Disease....

The test results came back and I got an email that they were in and so I went to KP.org to see the outcome. One of the results (IgA) was high or out of range and the other (IgG) was normal. Since it was after business hours, I haven't heard from the Dr. yet as to what that means... but I Googled the test name to read up on it more to try to prepare myself a little, and it seems as though a high IgA is indicative of Celiac.... Wow.... this is going to SUCK. We'll see what the doc says if it's official or not. :( (SUPER SAD FACE) This plus what's going on with my lady bits, I am really done feeling like crap all the time.

To understand what Celiac Disease is, read HERE.

Summer summer summer tiiime

I LOVE this weather. if it could be 75 every day of summer I would be a happy camper. But alas, it will get hotter... And lack of air conditioning = miserable mommy and baby. At least she can run around in just a diaper. That might be awkward if I did ;)

Here are some pics of swimming with the other playgroup buddies yesterday :)






In other news Emmie the cutest girl ever. Even though some days I am over how clingy she can be, my heart melted when I got home from my RS meeting last night and she lit up when she saw me. She wasn't feeling well and had been quite fussy for daddy. As soon as she got in my arms she nuzzled me and just snuggled. Sigh.... It was the BEST. I do love that girl.

Little Peanut

Haven't updated in a while I know... Instead of trying to catch up I'll just start from today. We had E's 4 month appointment yesterday and she's still a wee one. 24th percentile for weight and 26th for height. Oh how I love her :) As of late she is being such a good sleeper too. I have put her down while she is seemingly wide awake right after nursing her. But to my surprise, she squaks for maybe 2 minutes and then goes quietly to sleep. Yay :) As of this morning we just passed the 11 hour mark. Tiny one always sleeps longer after shots poor babe.

Here is my fav pic of her right now. Just cant get enough of those baby blues...

In other news, (if you are male and don't want to read something about me that's graphic, stop reading now!)

I have to have a Vaginoplasty. Yep, you heard me. The doctor that delivered E did not sew me back together correctly so I am almost 5 months out and still not completely healed and still having pain. Yah, not happy about it. Kaiser is so fired. I was really happy with my experience in terms of everything else but this....this just sucks. I'm looking at like 8 months from D day before I'll be able to be sexually active again?!?! Not cool. I finally burst in to tears yesterday after trying so hard to tough it out. I am so done with this and just want to be normal again.

Girl things

So Sharon made Emmie this cute little bow/flower holder and lets just say it's getting use! I'll admit I'm a little bow/flower/headband crazy. What can I say? Emmie's hair is still very short so she could be mistaken for a boy if I don't. Especially as she starts fitting some of her bigger clothes which aren't all pink :)


Here's another picture of her in my favorite outfit with the blanket that Great Grandma Graves made for her. Sooo sweet.
And here she is sleeping away this morning. We napped from 8 to 11! Win Win

Emmie is here!

Ok, so new mommyhood has made me a bit busy so here's a quick update on our news. Our little beautiful arrival came on January 20th. She was 6 lbs 12 oz and 18 inches of pure beauty! We named her Emmie Rebecca Graves after her Grandmas. Here are some pics.

Right Before being admitted

Emmie was about 1 minute old here:
All settled in to our room:
Mommy got a shower :)
Emmie at 1 day old ready to go home:

2 days old :

Daddy loves to hold her, even as he eats dinner:


Emmie 3 days old:

Nap time:

In my favorite outfit of hers a week old:

FLASH FORWARD to... 1 month old:
5 weeks old and getting cuter by the minute:

The countdown begins...

So, below are a few shots from my 35 week maternity shoot done by the wonderful Hilary Erickson. She's a gem that one. Quite the talented photographer. You can see her photography blog here. She is not currently "in business" due to other demands in life but you can get a little taste for her talent. She does the occasional shoot as a favor or trade. Did I mention I heart her? Cause I do.

The leaves with light behind shot is my favorite :)

People really like this loving motherly gaze shot.

And of course the ever popular heart hands shot. Really though, it is quite precious.

I think this one truly shows that we are excited for little Emmie's arrival. Any time between now and the next 4 weeks...

Had my shower this past Saturday. Waiting on the pics from that to post soon :)