Christmas Adventures

So I have to say for the most part we had a wonderful holiday season. It was so fun getting ready for Christmas with Mia. We spent time with family and of course everyone spoiled Mia. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, you name it. She also got some of the sweetest gifts from her birth mom and a fun toy from her birth grandparents.

About mid December we went to Temple Square to see the lights. It has been awhile since I'd been there so Mia and I took the train to Salt Lake and met Monty one day after work. I just put her in her carrier and zipped her into my coat and she stayed toasty warm. She slept through most of it but when she was awake she actually seemed to enjoy seeing the lights.

We took some cute pictures of Mia with her stocking. Sadly we waited too long so she no longer fit in her stocking but we made it look that way. She is growing like crazy and weighs 13 1/2 pounds already. She may have started out small but it taking no time catching up.

Mia in her Christmas dress. She wasn't exactly thrilled about getting up for church that morning so she was kinda a grumpus but she still looks cute even with the pouty face.

We took Mia to see Santa (mostly because I insisted). I wanted to make sure we had a picture of her with Santa for her first Christmas. She slept through it which worked out well for taking pictures.

For Christmas Eve Mia had her cute Christmas jammie's. They say Santa's favorite. Monty actually picked these out last year when they were on clearance just to have for our future child. We had no idea at the time that we would have a baby by Christmas and that the jammie's would fit perfectly. Mia slept through most of opening presents. Maybe next year she'll be a little more excited.Christmas morning started out wonderful with a big family breakfast and lots of cheer to go around. After Christmas naps is when our Christmas adventures turned sour. Mia woke up with a fever and you could tell she was just miserable. I called the on call pediatrician just for peace of mind since it was her first real fever and was told that due to her age and how high her temp was, we needed to take her in to be seen and it needed to be today. Due to the fact that today was Christmas there was no where open but the ER. We packed her up and spent Christmas evening in the ER where she was poked at, prodded at, and then sent home. At midnight that night the hospital called and said they had some test results back and that she had RSV. My heart sank. All I wanted to do was to get through the winter without her getting RSV and we didn't make it very far into winter and she was sick. Luckily she did very well with it and other than some difficulty eating, being very sleepy, and lots of boogers we didn't have to much problem. By 6 days later she was doing much better but that only lasted about 36 hours and then she started spiking temps again. This time higher than before. So Monday we were back at the Dr for more poking and prodding. Now she has a UTI (urinary tract infection). Normally at her age they like to admit them to the hospital for treatment. The Dr decided while we were waiting on blood work to just give her a shot of antibiotics and let us go home and come back the next day. So Tuesday we were back at the Dr for more blood work and another shot of antibiotics and a follow up appointment for the next day again. Wednesday we were back for more blood work but this time they couldn't get any blood so they ended up sending us to the hospital to have blood drawn then and yet another shot of antibiotics. Her blood work is finally looking better so no more daily trips to the Dr and she managed to stay out of the hospital but the poor girl is miserable. In 3 days she's been poked 9 times for blood, had 3 shots, and had a catheter. The good news is she has a week off now. The bad news is next week we have to go in for more tests. Because of her age they want to make sure there isn't anything wrong with her kidneys or bladder that caused the infection. We are praying that it was just bad luck and that everything will be normal next week but I guess we'll have to wait and see. I've learned that sick kids are definitely no fun. The poor girl has had a rough 2 weeks. I guess the good news is she won't remember any of it.

So much to be Thankful for

So we had a wonderful Thanksgiving...Twice. The weekend before Thanksgiving we went to Idaho and had Thanksgiving with the whole Cobbley family. It was so nice to have everyone together, to spend time just relazing, and catching up. My dad had to work Thanksgiving and the 2 days after and Steve and Shawn had to work the days around Thanksgiving so it just worked out better to do it the weekend before. The day before Thanksgiving Mia got to spend the day with Nana and her cousin Lucy who at the age of 4 was excited to be able to have someone littler than her to look after. I definitely need to get pictures of Mia and her cousins because they are so cute together. Wednesday night Mia and Dad had pie night with the Borrowman clan while I worked. I was kinda sad I missed that but not much I could do. Thanksgiving day, Grandma came down from Idaho and uncle Shawn came over and we had Thanksgiving dinner again. I just sat there thinking how much I have to be thankful for. I have a wonderful family, wonderful in-laws, and now we have a wonderful little family of our own. Little Mia is just amazing and I can't believe how blessed we are to have her in our family. Mia was very tired on Thanksgiving so Monty and Shawn spent about 15 minutes trying to time it just right to get a picture of her yawning.

Mia's enjoying 2 new toys, her little gym and her swing. She hasn't quite gotten the hang of reaching up for the toys hanging down but she enjoys looking at them.

She loves her swing and often takes her afternoon nap there. When she's fussy she calms right down in the swing (well most the time).

Hanging with dad with a full tummy face.

She's starting to smile more and more and while we were in Idaho she started cooing. It's the sweetest sound to hear. She's not doing it a ton but usually at least once a day we can get her talking to us. (She's a little behind what most babies would be doing at 2 1/2 months cuz she was a little early).

Happy Halloween

OK, I'll confess I've been terrible at keeping up with our blog. I have heard a lot from family and friends who want to see pictures of Mia. Who ever knew one little girl could take up so much time. I'm busy all day but seem to get nothing done. It's a very odd feeling to me, but I'm loving being a mom. Things are about to get a lot more interesting though. I go back to work this weekend so Mia will get a lot more daddy time and I was just put in as first counselor in our ward relief society. Everything always seems to happen at once but I think it will all be good in the end. One advantage to going back to work (I'm searching for advantages to make it easier) is that working mostly nights I should have more time to keep up with the blog.

Mia is growing so fast. She started out small but is catching up quick. At 6 weeks old she weighed just shy of 10 lbs and has jumped from the 3rd percentile in weight to the 51st. She definitely has no problems eating anymore. She is still a mellow baby but definitely developing more of an opinion and personality and when she doesn't like something she lets you know. She is now sleeping 6 hours at once after going down to bed and I am so grateful for the longer periods of sleep. I feel like I function like a normal person again. She is just so much fun and we are so grateful to have her in our home.

For Halloween she was a lady bug and a very cute one at that. Friday we took her to the ward Trunk or Treat and then dressed her up again on Saturday. We were going to take her trick or treating to a few friends houses but the rain kept us in. She just went to the door with us to pass out candy to those who were brave enough to face the rain.

Her cousins like to make sure she sleeps with her animals and doll.

She has started smiling quite a bit but seems to know when the camera comes out and then won't smile. This half smile is the best I've been able to catch on camera so far.

When she is laying down to take a nap she likes to sleep with her hands behind her head. She's not doing it as much as she used to but I think it's funny whenever I find her like that.

This was her first Sunday she went to church so it's a bit older. I started taking her to sacrament meeting at about 5 weeks but we avoided the rest of church because Monty and I were both in Primary. Guess I can't use that excuse anymore.

I promise to do better at keeping up, at least with pictures. Just for you grandma :)

Meet Mia Kay!!

Mia Kay Borrowman born September 15, 2010 at 9:03 pm

Weighed 5 lbs 10 oz, 20 inches long

So now the truth can come out about what most of our summer entailed. The end of July we started meeting with Mia's wonderful birth mom. After 5 weeks she told us that she had made the decision to place her precious daughter in our home. At that point we thought we had 5 weeks before she would be here, but she fooled us all and came 2 weeks and 2 days early.Friday September 17 we got to bring Mia home to be part of our family. She has been an absolute joy to have in our home. She is such a good and happy baby. She already has so much personality. She loves holding her hands together like in the picture below. She is a great little sleeper and other than a little bit of a high bilirubin level she is perfectly healthy. To help lower her bilirubin her doctor told me to let her sleep in the sun in front of windows as naked as she could be and still stay warm. Seeing as she's a little on the small side (she weighed 5 lbs 5 oz when she came home), we can't make her completely naked, but she doesn't seem to mind sleeping in the sun.This was the first time we put Mia in her car seat when we were bringing her home from LDS Family Services.

Mia all ready for bed her first night homeWe have pictures from the hospital when we first got to meet Mia but for whatever reason I can't find them on the computer. We got a new camera just for this and I still haven't quite figured out how to download pictures and save them where they need to be to use them so I will post more pictures later when Monty is around and can help me.We can't believe we are really a family of three now. There are no words to describe how it feels to be a mom. We couldn't be more happy and content right now. Life is truly complete. Our lives were made complete only by Mia's wonderful birth mom. She is an amazing, strong, and fun loving young woman. Somehow she found the courage to place her daughter into our family and we will be eternally grateful. She also has a wonderful, kind, and supportive family. We got the opportunity to meet Mia's birth grandparents and 2 of her birth aunts while she was in the hospital. They are truly an amazing family and we can't wait to tell Mia about them. The pictures we got of Mia with them will be life long treasures of ours.

Update

So Monty informed me the other day that it had been a while since we had updated the blog. I looked at him and said you know, you're right, maybe you should do something about that. He then said, "Well when I said we I really meant you." Guess the idea of getting Monty to do a post went out the window. It has been a little while since I've posted. Life has been busy and crazy but hey, that's life isn't it? The only big thing we have done lately is put up Monty's flag pole. I don't know if it's a problem with the pictures or with blogger but I have tried a couple times to up load the pictures and it won't work so sadly no pictures. He worked really hard on it though and it turned out really good. The flower bed around it is all done and we have the light put in, now all it's missing is the flowers. That will have to wait until fall when I can do some moving around in the flower beds.

Not much else to report right now. We did just get a new camera so hopefully we will put it to good use. Monty starts school next week. He's getting his MBA and will have class Tuesday and Thursday nights for the next 2 years. I admire him, I definitely don't have the ambition to go back to school. Hope all goes well for him!!

Camping adventures

So I finally had a whole weekend off of work that we didn't have something going on so we decided to go camping. Granted it was only the middle of June but it was still June so it couldn't be that bad right...WRONG. We went camping up Ogden canyon near Huntsville. It was a nice little campground and we found a nice spot right down by the river. It was nice, warm, and sunny. We set up camp and just hung out relaxing.I have to say I am very proud of this fire. It was a one match fire and looks like it could be a piece of art. We used coals from the fire to cook dutch oven dinner. Apparently our coals were a little warm because our dinner that was supposed to take about an hour too cook was done in 12 minutes. Surprisingly very little of it was burnt so we enjoyed our chicken, bacon and potatoes. By the time we put the peach cobbler on the coals were a little cool so after about half an hour we had to build a fire around the dutch oven to get more coals. The sides ended up a little burnt but other than that it was delicious.

Monty decided to dip his feet in the river but the water was way too cold for me. I found a make shift fishing pole and tried my luck at fishing. Apparently fish don't like leaves and I couldn't get the dinner roll to stay on the hook. I also tried fishing with Frito's but by the time they were soggy enough to put on the hook without breaking they didn't last long before they too floated away. Oh well though, if I'd caught a fish I wouldn't have known what to do with it.

By dinner time the camera died so I don't have any more pictures. It was a rather enjoyable evening. Once night fell we had a raccoon come to our camp looking for food. Monty scared him off though. Then, the trouble set in. We realized we'd forgotten the extra blanket but figured being in our sleeping bags we should be OK. Also, we realized that left over construction wood burns rather quickly so we weren't going to have wood for a fire in the morning. No big deal, we brought doughnuts for breakfast so we wouldn't need to cook them. I don't know how cold it got that night but I froze all night long. Monty got up at 6:30 but I couldn't bring myself to crawl out of my sleeping bag because I knew it'd be even colder outside of it. About a half hour later he came in and told me if I got up we could break down camp and go sleep in a warm bed. It was so cold that when I put my glasses on they fogged up just from the heat of my face. It was SO cold and to top it all off everything was wet. It didn't rain but there was more than a little dew. We ended up just throwing everything in the car and heading home at 7:15 in the morning. When we got home we had to set the tent up in the yard and lay everything out to get it to dry. Quite the experience.

So I have to show off my garden cuz I'm rather proud of it. It's my first experience with my own garden and it's actually growing.

If you look really close you can see two tiny peppers

The radishes are already popping out of the ground. These are the first harvest from my garden. They have been a nice touch to my salads.

Celebrating 3 years in St George

Way back when we found out Monty had to have surgery, I decided we needed to plan a vacation. We decided we'd celebrate our 3rd anniversary by spending a week in St. George. I had never been down there and so I figured it would be a nice get away. It was amazing. We stayed at a great resort and and a very enjoyable and relaxing week. We spent 3 days hiking, I lounged by the pool, Monty did some golfing, we had dinner with family and friends, and enjoyed the sun and warm weather.
This is the view from our deck down at one of the pools. We had a BBQ out on the deck one night and grilled chicken. One of the resort hosts suggested we check out Snow Canyon and do some hiking there. It wasn't a very exciting place. There were a couple decent views but mostly just a lot of sand and a few mucky dried up ponds.

Trekking along the river bed.

Stopping to rest in the shade.

While we were in Southern Utah we went to Bryce Canyon. It was absolutely AMAZING!!! We could have spent an entire week hiking through various parts of the canyon. Because Monty is still trying to recover his endurance we stuck to easy to moderate hikes. The canyon is full of Hoodoos which are rock pillars formed mostly by water melting into the cracks of rocks and freezing, thawing, and freezing all over again. There were rows and rows of symmetrical hoodoos that extended for miles. We hiked down through the canyon and up the other side and then hiked the rim up to several lookout points. We realized after the fact that we did it backwards. We should have taken the shuttle up to the highest point and hiked back down instead of hiking up. All the uphill made for a challenge for Monty but he did great.
Me with a view of some of the Hoodoos.

There were several caves carved out along the canyon walls as well. This was just a little one I hid out in.

Us down in the canyon.

Monty with the Hoodoos as we hiked back up.

Hoodoos hoodoos everywhere (I like the word hoodoo in case you couldn't tell)

Us at one of the look out points along the rim. Yes we are dressed a like and no it was not intentional. Monty noticed before we left the resort that morning but didn't bother to mention it. No we are not one of "those" couples.

We also went to Zion's Canyon and spent a day hiking there. It's also a place we could have spent much more time enjoying. All throughout the canyon there are places where water seeps out of the rocks. Some of it is 4,000 years old. You can see marks all along the canyon walls where water has seeped out. There are a few places where the water continually seeps out. One of these is known as Weeping Rock, where Monty is getting his second shower of the day.

We hiked up through the Emerald Pools. There's a lower, 2 middle, and an upper pool all fed by waterfalls coming from the rocks. Apparently there is an algae that grows and makes the pools appear green but they weren't so green when we were there.

Us at the Upper Emerald Pool

Monty on a bridge over the Virgin River which has carved Zion's Canyon.

It was an amazing trip. We had so much fun and it was very hard to come home. Now it's back to reality. The good news is our house looks so much better from the outside now. Our yard is completely in and our new sod is growing like crazy. We planted our garden before we left for St George and it's starting to pop up already. I'll have to post some pictures of that later. It's a new adventure for me testing out my green thumb. I just hope I don't kill it.