Salt Lake Temple

Travis Call, one of Nathan's best friends from growing up in Las Vegas was married at the end of October.  We were invited to the sealing ceremony which took place in the Salt Lake LDS Temple.  Nathan had never been to that temple before so we were very excited to go up there and be a part of it.  Travis and Kathryn had served in the same mission and when they returned home they got in touch with each other again and it was just right.  We are happy for them...we're happy for every one of our friends that get married...we know how amazing, fun, exciting, comforting, building, strengthening it is!  It has been the best thing in our lives and we love when others get to have that too.

The Salt Lake temple is stunning and thinking that it was all done by hand is astounding!  The sealing was sweet.  A thought that I really loved that was shared by the temple sealer was when he asked why the Savior loves us.  It's not because we're beautiful, nice, or even obedient to the commandments that day.  

He loves us because He chooses to.  

Love is a choice! 

a choice that we make every day

I'm choosing to love you today and I'm showing that by...

Its profound and so true

it's gonna be a ....

Watching the Ultrasound images was incredible!  It is a miracle that with modern technology sound waves can be put through your belly and send back a picture of your baby, allowing you to see it's structure, measure its bones, organs, heart, brain...checking for abnormalities and making sure everything is a-okay.  Nathan said "You know maybe it sounds dumb but the feelings I'm getting, I am so happy when I see that it has two legs and two arms...Like an excited relief that it's all there".  I felt the same way.  We peppered the technician with questions and she was so wonderful to answer all of them.  She even took this picture for us before we started. 

The Baby measured right up on the due date Feb. 27th, 2012.  It looks healthy and everything is in the correct place.  We are thrilled!!  By the way...

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!

Thanks to our little guy and the technician this view came out crystal clear.  I have always been at a loss when people show me their unltrasound pictures and the arrow is pointing to some ambiguous blur and telling you the gender...cause I just don't see it.  But here the technician asked us if we wanted to know the gender, we said we did, and then she moved down and didn't need to say a single thing...Hello!  We all knew right away that we were having our own "little buddy"

"Little buddy" comes from Nathan.  That's what he was to his Daddy.  He remembers Dad Andersen (soon to be 1st time Grandpa Andersen) getting home from work and calling out "Hey little Buddy!!" and Nathan would come running down the hall and into his Dad's arms - it was PlayTime for the two of them!  He loves  his Dad so much and is excited to be the Dad of his own "little buddy"!  He couldn't be more excited! 

B.....O......Y 

 Our pictures!  It's so fun to have all these pictures and to know that I have a real, live baby, who's moving and wiggling around in me...who will someday be all grown up and date, serve a mission, and get married!  Ahhh, too fast!  We're just happy to have our little one growing so nicely and come February hold him in our arms 

 I'm so glad that Nathan was there with me!  It was a super special visit and all the more special because we got to be there together!  Its the best to be in it together!  I am glad we have each other!

So no boys names yet...we had a few girl names picked out and even one we were kinda set on but we really hadn't thought of boy names a whole lot so we're getting started...no rush, we still have 4 months to figure this out...even though it seems like boys names are harder to come up with and like than girls names...don't know why that is

*i'll try to get to the other ultrasound pictures cut and scanned soon so you can see them too

BOY or GIRL?

Today at 4 o'clock Nathan and I are heading over to Valley OB/GYN for our ultrasound!!  I am 21 weeks and 6 days along, the baby's moving all the time but still pretty softly.  My tummy's getting bigger...even if just a little bit and I'm still able to jog.  I feel that I am in really good health and the baby seems well too so hopefully today will be a Great Day of Exciting and Happy news!!  Of course we want to hear that the baby is the correct size, nice, healthy, and strong.  We are also looking forward to hearing the news about if I'm carrying around a little pink bundle of joy or a blue ball of laughter...At my elementary school (Westside ES) I put a list outside of my classroom so the kids could put down their guessing on what I was having.  Surprise, surprise the girls guesses I was having a girl and the boys put their vote in for a little male child :)...so if all goes well and the baby is not shy then we'll be hearing the news on GIRL or BOY!!!!

This last weekend when Whitney was here visiting she told me that with Nathan and I as this baby's parents there's no way it will be shy, it will be out there for the world to know :)

I think we're having a little girl but every time I talk about the baby moving I use "him"...wonder if that's just habit...Nathan would love a little boy but also thinks we are having a little girl.  Either way we are both thrilled and excited to have our family grow.  I am excited to have a little buddy to keep me company since Nathan studies quite a bit.  We're both giddy with the idea of having our very own baby that we'll get to take around with us everywhere we go!  Let the Family Fun start!

As time passes and my belly gets bigger its becoming more real to Nathan.  As the Mom you experience those changes right from the beginning but even then you have moments where it just doesn't seem real or you think "Na, I'm really not pregnant"...then the baby starts moving and you know that you don't have that much gas or indigestion and that something is absolutely, most definitely going on in there :)  As the Dad, you don't really get that.  You're at work and school, you hear about changes but don't see most of them...then your wife's abdomen starts to really expand and it stops looking like weight gain and gets this more prego-like shape...anyways, that's where Nathan is and he's getting all the more excited the more real it becomes for him.  (*Emily told me that it really becomes real for Stewart when "out comes the baby!" haha)  I sure it will really hit both of us at that point!

 Yup, I had to take them myself cause my hubby's at school this morning...it's hard to take full body, kinda good angled pictures of yourself...

???BOY or GIRL???

So one of my fears is to have a baby that cries all the time...so I've started researching a bit to see what I can do now to get myself ready with a wealth of knowledge and 'tools in my bag' if you will.  My sister-in-law Emily was the one who first introduced me to this method and she swears by it.  It does seem to be backed up by personal experiences...this will definitely go into my bag of tricks!

I got this info by googling 5 S's...you can find anything by googling it, seriously!

  

The Five Techniques to Calm a Crying Baby

Dr. Harvey Karp is a board-certified pediatrician, associate professor of pediatrics at UCLA School of Medicine and the author of the book and video, The Happiest Baby on the Block. He dispels a series of myths about newborn babies and shares the five techniques to calm a crying baby:

Myth: The baby is ready to be born after nine months. 

Babies are born too soon. Sure, every mother is ready to have her baby after nine months, but babies are not like horses. A horse is ready to run the first day of life. Our babies are fetuses the first few months. They are not ready for the world until three months when they are smiling, cooing and ready to interact. Of course, they have to be born, it's not an option. But what a parent has to understand is that for the first few months the babies are like a walking uterus. They still need an environment that simulates what they experienced in the womb. Ever notice how a crying baby can sometimes be soothed when you drive them around in your vehicle? The vehicle is like an imitation of the uterus. There is a rhythmic calming sensation that turns on their calming reflex. Other ways to imitate the uterus: holding, dancing, rocking, swinging, white noise or singing. 

Myth: Parents know what to do from the beginning.

It's intuitive to want to calm your baby, it's not intuitive to know how. That's a skill. It's not a hard skill, but it's something that requires skill. Babies have a calming reflex, like an "off" switch for crying, and it can be triggered by doing the five "S's." (Read on.) 

Myth: Babies cry because they have gas. 

Babies don't cry because of gas. Sometimes a little gas will trigger the crying, but they don't go on and on and on because of it. And you know it couldn't be gas if taking them for a car ride makes them quiet. Pain wouldn't come and go like that. Pain wouldn't go away if you turn on a hair dryer, and yet, that noise can calm them. 

This is the good part here below 


The 5 "S's": How to Turn on Your Baby's Calming Reflex

1. Swaddling: Wrapping makes your baby feel magically returned to the womb and it will keep your baby from flailing his/her arms. If not done correctly, the baby may cry even harder. Remember to swaddle snuggly. Loose blankets may be a choking risk. Also, don't overheat your baby. (Babies should never be sweaty and flushed.)

2. Side/Stomach: Newborns are easier to calm when they're lying on their side or stomach. This triggers the calming reflex by imitating your baby's position in the uterus. Lying a baby on his/her back can sometimes trigger a falling reflex and make your baby feel insecure. Keep in mind the side/stomach position is great for calming crying, but babies should only sleep on their backs.

3. Shhhh: "Shhhh"ing your baby imitates the sound he/she heard in your uterus, which was as loud as a vacuum cleaner. Place your mouth two to four inches from your baby's ear and make the "shhhh" sound. It must be loud enough to match the sound of your baby's crying, or he/she won't hear it. 

4. Swinging: Rhythmic moving imitates the jiggling your baby felt inside the uterus and activates the calming reflex. Ways to use motion are: baby slings and carriers, dancing, infant swings, rocking, car rides, bouncy seats.

5. Sucking: Putting a pacifier, finger or breast into a baby's mouth satisfies hunger and turns on the calming reflex. 

For more information about Dr. Karp and his techniques for calming crying babies, go to www.thehappiestbaby.com.

If other people have suggestions, ideas, hints, thoughts, and insights I gladly accept them!  I want to hear what works for you...so far Prayers are what work for me...maybe if I pray hard enough the Lord will (out of sympathy) send me wonderful babies...Why does the thought of newborns crying scare me the most?!  Shouldn't it be 'what will I do when they are teenagers?' nope nope, it's that my child will cry and cry and cry I I won't know what to do...Who has ever been in full complete charge of a baby before it was yours...close to none probably... 

Scared as I am I AM ABSOLUTELY THRILLED  that I'm starting down the road to being a Mommy and I really know, deep down in my heart and soul that it will all be totally fine!  Crying baby or not I will love this little one with all my heart!!  And our family will rock it!!

20 Weeks

Already half way there!  I feel great being pregnant...wishing I showed a little more like a cute pregnant lady but I guess I'm starting to...I feel like the baby is growing up into my abdomen more than growing out...the only way to explain it is it feels like I'm filling up.  I feel like all my stuff is getting squished up into my ribs (I esp. feel this at the end of a long day and I haven't had the best posture that day.  The bottom of my rib cage feels sore) and everything is expanding.  My slimmer waist is filling out like a block, haha, oh well.   Like I said I feel great, not too sick as long as I eat every few hours.  Nathan cheers me on and tells me that I should have a dozen kids cause I carry so well and so far its been pretty smooth sailing.  I still jog fairly often...most days I walk/jog to try and keep my heart rate around 150...not easy when jogging..that's why I have to walk, to bring it back down again even though I'm feeling good.  Nathan has wanted me to wear a heart rate monitor...I did once then told him it was impossible for me to jog and keep it below 140 and 150 is not easy either.  I was having to jog so slow....so now I just try to pace myself and be smart   (Don't worry Mom, I can feel it when I'm starting to push my body too hard and I tone it down)  Jogging still feels so good for me though and its a wonderful way for me to let my pregnancy emotions out.  I totally miss jogging when I don't do it so I hope I can keep it up!  ..I've also thought about joining a gym to take a pregnancy yoga or such class...any advice or personal experience on that?

I felt the baby move for the first time Wed. September 28th.  I don't take the time I probably should to sit and be still, waiting to feel the movements but that evening I decided to go to the Provo temple to do some work.  While I was sitting waiting I felt a little something...so slight, like a little gas bubble...I got this huge smile on my face but still wasn't for sure that that's what it was.  I felt a few of these while I sat there that night.  When I picked up Nathan from school I told him that I either had some funny little gas bubbles in there or I had just felt the baby move for the first time that night! :) We both just couldn't suppress our smiles and giggles!  Oh Fun is this!!  Well by the next night (of course I'm paying lots better attention to what my body's doing now) and I felt those same little movements :) That's the baby alright!! :)  What an incredibly neat feeling!!!  It will be fun when Nathan will get to feel them too!  ...as for now I'll just soak up this special connection that only the two of us have with each other.

*something that I didn't know is that I'm most likely not feeling my baby kick me because it's still so small but that I am feeling the baby do somersaults.  It's kicking, obviously, but those movements are so faint that I can't feel them.  But when the baby completely turns over, now those are big enough to catch some attention...cool fun fact huh?! 

I bought my first maternity clothes (mostly pants since my pants were starting to...umm just not quite work) and I just have to say that they are AWESOME!!  I got the kind that have the smaller elastic band right right below the belly.  As soon as I put them on I wanted to start singing!  Heck, I would highly consider wearing these type of pants forever, no joke!  They fit nice and snug but have the give and stretch for my growing tummy...I am pretty thrilled about them :) But honestly the best part is really that I just feel kinda cute again instead of fat and frumpy...like I said i'm not totally showing yet but feel like I'm thickening up and that's kinda hard to feel.  So call me a dumb girl but some new cute pants are making a big difference for this new little mamma-to-be!
(*I'm also grateful for a husband who understands and supports me in these purchases, heck, is even excited for them! Thanks Honey!)

We go to the doctor again on October 19th (unless we need to reschedule it).  This will be our Ultrasound visit!  We are looking forward to it and finding out what we are having.  I think we are having a little girl.  Nathan would like a little boy but also thinks we are having a little girl...so we'll see how that goes!  of course either way we are completely thrilled!  We are going to clean out the study (with help from the family) and transform it into the baby's room!  With some new paint possibly, curtains, rugs and all the cute stuff I can think of  :) HEHE!  I am excited to do that!  (want to find out what we're having before I go and do all that)

Yay!!  20 weeks and as excited as ever!

Hiking the Y

Saturday Oct 1, the morning of General Conference, Nathan woke me up to take me out to do something I have wanted to do since we've moved to Provo...hiking up to the big, white Y on our mountain!  It was so fun to go up there and check out the whole city.  (We haven't had time to do it because he has been so busy with school.)  It's a steep incline so we went fairly slow and stopped at switchbacks where Nathan wanted to check my bpm and insisted, in his teasing way, that I was going to kill the baby if I kept walking fast and passing him as he was trying to hold me back to a slow, baby sensible speed. :) 

General Conference was wonderful!  The talks were so applicable to our lives and gave wise counsel.  It was also a breath of fresh air in a world that is so negative and scary.  There are good, great, and beautiful thinkgs in this world! all around us!  With hope and faith we can find, obtain, and treasure them!  The importance of families and that we can be with them forever was taught.  Testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ and how he wants to help us in our every day lives gave me strength.  Counsel given to parents reassured me that Nathan and I are not alone as we start down this road to parenthood.  THe Lord will help us and we have one another.  We enjoyed watching conference and relaxing a little at home.  We liked having our friends Matt and Amber Schooff and her sister Brooke over for Sat afternoon session and a yummy butternut squash pasta for dinner.   Then it was off to BYU to study.  Not knowing how long it'd be and wanting to spend some time with Nathan, even if it was just sitting beside him as he studied we decided I'd go be with him on campus...
Well, we were completely exhausted Sunday from staying up until 3:40 in the CAEDM lab that Sat. night while Nathan finished his homework so then we decided to have another 'at home' day instead of joining some family up in Salt Lake.  We missed them but you just gotta roll with the punches.  It felt kinda good to not have to get ourselves up and ready to go anywhere but just to sit and listen right there at home.  I'm proud of all the hard work Nathan puts into his school work and that he's finally found a major that he LOVEs!  Manufacturing Engineering!  I'll be his cheerleader any day!  He's my hero and my happy thought!

Westside ES

I am a fully certified music teacher who has found herself working part time at an elementary school in Springville for not nearly the wages she should but who Absolutely Loves her job!  I love being one of the "favorite teachers" of the entire school, having students going out of their way to come into my room to simply say hi and give me a hug, seeing the thrill on their faces and hearing them excitedly jabber when I give them something challenging and fun and then having them totally excel in it!  I get to laugh at their funny personalities that make each of them so special and wonderful!


I love that I get the chance to point out great things about them not only to them but their classmates and brothers and sisters.  I know and can imagine (sadly) how much crud there is in this world


Story: in my classroom I have a rule to keep your hands clean. I say that if I see you put fingers in your nose or mouth you don't get to play instruments that day! (fair enough, of course) Yesterday one of my cute 1st grd then followed my expl. with "and we can't do this..." & proceeded to pretend to put his finger up his nose & then into his mouth Hahaha! my thoughts: 'well yes Hon, that would definitely be included in no fingers in your mouth and/or nose!' I love teaching these little guys!?!


I get to teach 3 of my nieces and nephews (Brayden 5th grade, Adelyn 3rd grade, and Sophie 1st grade).  They come to my classroom after school to see me, tell me that my "tummy's getting  huge-er" -Sophie, and tell me about their day.  I sure love those kids!


I love the principal, Sarah Matis, who knows nearly all the students names in the entire school!  She is the most finominal principal I have ever worked with.  She supports and cares for teachers as well as students.  She lays down the law and loves so freely.  The teachers I work with are just as wonderful!  I feel their support and love!  They care for their students, laugh easily, and we all relate because we're open with each other.  No one is above another and everyone's willing to help.  I feel so lucky to work where I do!  I am so grateful that I am getting this chance to teach what I love to those kiddos I love so much. 


I'm grateful to Allison Stewart, my cooperating teacher at Piggott ES down in Las Vegas, who showed me how it's all done, who pushed me to work hard and give it my best.  She's the one who helped me realize my love for the little ones because before being with her I wanted to stay secondary.  Those Piggott Panthers stole my heart and these Westside Wildcats have done the same thing!

25th Birthday

Today was my first day of teaching music at Westside ES in 2011 and afterwards I came home to a surprise.  Nathan was home during a small break from classes and the Laings and Paul were all over for a quick birthday get-together.  Nice to celebrate the fact that you're getting old with family that you love so much.

Also a nice finish to a day that had been somewhat stressful...I had taught one of my classes and in it there was a student named Dante.  I had never met him before but he was out to test me.  I had heard about him and knew he was a student that needed extra love.  I was teaching and he was very loud, wouldn't sit in his spot then decided to get up and walk around my room in a big circle, which included the front of the room where I was teaching.  I asked him to sit down, nope.  It was a mess and he totally won...I have no idea what to do with him!  The class seemed to sympathize with me...hopefully this will be a good year

Me....trying to be all crafty and homemakey...

 So I try out new things...a lot! and they don't always turn out successfully but I still try and expand my little house-wife skills...My husband brought me home this sign that now hangs in the kitchen

and he says I kiss well...I don't know if its true but I do try to both kiss and cook my best so... ;)  

I have made so many loafs of bread, many which have flopped on me...for some reason I just have a heck of a time with bread...I'll get better though.  I've learned how to make hair flowers, bows, and cheering-leading pony-o's.  Made season/holiday blocks, learned how to use Mog Podge and a Cricut machine (thanks to Courtney for letting me borrow it).  Have made from scratch cinnamon rolls, banana and zucchini/yellow squash bread, home cleaners, Italian sauces, and grew my own garden...I feel proud of myself and hope to get much better because, frankly, there's a lot of room for growth but I'm excited for it!

 Huge zucchini from my garden whose insides turned out to be hard with large seeds, just like a pumpkin...weird!!  I'm asking why it happened to this one and not all my others...maybe because it got to big... 

Its fun to try new things!!  Hooray for crafts and cooking!!

All should read this book I found in my Grandma's house "The Art of Homemaking" (*NOT written by a man, my bad, thanks Cami for correcting me!) from the 50's or 60's.  Hilarious, sexist, and outdated but also filled with great advice and mindsets! ...Try to find...

HEART BEAT!

We went in for our 2nd appointment Thursday (8/25) morning and we heard a sound that makes everything a little more real for me and a sound that brought tears to my eyes.  

Our Little Baby's Heart Beating!!

It was fast, about 170 bpm.  Heidi Mcsweeney, the NP, told us that by the time our baby's born the heart rate will have slowed down to 130 bpm.  Its amazing how fast it is and that it really does have a heart and that a little person is growing inside of me!!  

So last Sunday we were at 13 weeks. This is the last week of my first trimester! :) YAY!!  (not that I have been very sick at all, I feel so lucky and blessed with that!)  On our ipod we had a pregnancy mapper and it updates us on changes and the growth of our little one.  Nathan and I had gone home to Las Vegas to visit our families one last time for the summer before school started up for both of us again.  It was so great to be with family, talk and squeeze on them!  Oh, We love them so muchly!!  Well at our family lunch on Sunday Nathan pulled it out and started reading.  'This week our baby's fingerprints are fully developed.  He/she is the size of a medium shrimp now and responds to light and has reflexes', so if i were to poke my stomach the baby would react to it...I just can't feel it do that yet because its still too small.  The private parts of there, fully developed but still to small to see.  If its a little girl all her eggs are fully formed and in place in her ovaries.  So                     we were joking about it and said that if its is girl then I'm carrying not only my baby but my

 future grandbabies! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

We are so excited to be having our little baby!  Its real! Con you believe it?!