October

Woohoo! Another month has flown by! Mr. Andrew is now 5 months old. Once again he is on the move and ready for bigger and better things. He does an army crawl type of movement and hasn't quite figured out to get his hands and legs moving at the same time. He loves walking around the house holding onto our fingers. He gets excited and starts jumping. We can't seem to keep him still; even when he's falling asleep he's one big ball of wiggles. He sits really well on his own now, and is starting to figure how to go from sitting to crawling and vice versa. He's eating solids twice a day, and is still breastfed of course. He's a fan of  his oatmeal and veggies. Well...most of them. Green Beans weren't a hit. We've started on fruits and so far he's had pears. I can't decide if he doesn't like the taste or texture. He's growing growing! Bath time and jumping in the johnny jump up are still his favorite pastimes.

We got our first big snow storms a couple weeks ago, or maybe it was last week. Either way it was great while it lasted, but now it has all melted away and warmed back up. I'm not sure if in a previous post I had mentioned that I am working in the office at the apartments we live in. If not, I am. It gives Andrew and I a reason to get out of the house and keeps my mind working. It also gives us a little extra income.

I have found another pastime that I thoroughly enjoy. One word. Shutterfly! It's amazing. I've had all these photos sitting on SD cards, CD's, or just on the computer. Now I have something to do with them all. I've made two photo books already. The third one is on it's way. I compiled a book of Andrew's newborn photos, my maternity photos, and finally (after almost 3 years) got our wedding photos put together. I can't wait to see it! I had never heard of shutterfly until I got pregnant and went to buy clothes at Motherhood Maternity. They gave me a whole packet of coupons, brochures, and samples. Shutterfly had a $20 off gift card, so I figured why not. It's easier than scrap-booking and I can still document all the wonderful memories that have been made over the years.

Andrew and I dropped by the public library the other day and got a library card in hopes of another reason to get out and do something once it gets colder. The library is actually bigger than it looks from the outside. I was impressed. The selection of children books is amazing. We enjoyed a little reading time last week and will certainly be going back soon. We went to Cabelas in Sidney, NE last weekend.

Halloween was great this year with a little one. We had a small Winnie the Pooh to show off. Daniels company had a trick or treating party the last hour of work. We took baby boy around showing him off and watching his intrigue as he ogled all the other costumed children wander around. After that we headed to the stake center for trunk-or-treat. We ran out of candy to hand out shortly after it began, but that seemed to be the case with most people. This is Daniel's Pumpkin....I haven't carved mine yet...oops! It turned out really good.

Daniel's work is going to be sending him to Kentucky for a few days and we might get to go! Hooray! It would be a blast if we could. November is looking to be a pretty packed month. Hopefully we can keep up :)


Until next time....

Andrew

Little A is four and a half months old! Wow....time really does fly! He's just as busy as ever and keeps us running. It seemed like once he turned 4 months he just wanted to start doing everything.

Sitting.

 Pushing himself up onto his hands and knees. 

Spitting. 

Being a pro at rolling over. 

Drooling. 

Chewing on his hands and anything he can get his hands on. 

Starting on solids. 

He's even starting to army crawl!

The list really goes on....

We just love him more and more every day. He's so fun to watch as he figures things out. It amazes me how smart he is! At his 4 month appointment he tipped the scales at 15lbs 4oz and measured 25 inches long. He's a growin' boy! His hair is starting to thicken and he still has a bald patch in the back of his head. Nights are still pretty rough with him waking up every 2-4 hours and we can't seem to break him of the habit. Some nights he'll take the pacifier and go back to sleep and others he demands to eat. Hopefully the solids will help keep it to 4 hours at a time :)

4 month picture

We don't get many pictures together....

Up on his hands and knees gettin' ready to crawl...Love this picture!

Mom...what are you feeding me?!?!

Nothing really new to report. Daniel's job is still going great and I'm still loving being at home with Andrew. We keep busy hanging out with friends and visiting family occasionally. I'm still loving my Primary kids and getting to help out with the Activity Day girls.

It's hunting season, so Daniel has been out a few times. No luck yet, but hopefully soon. He continues taking his actuary exams with no passing luck yet. He spends a lot of time studying and  here's to hoping it pays off soon :)

Until next time....

In more recent news....

A couple weeks before the fall semester was about to begin I got a lovely e-mail from the school telling me that I wasn't  going to be able to graduate in May 2013. I would need to go to school for another semester. Now this came as a shock because I had been told, advisor after advisor, for the past two years that I was on track to graduate in May. I would complete my student teaching this spring and then be done with school after what has felt like ages. I'm still not sure how that many advisors and I missed 5-6 credits....that's kind of a big deal! I haven't had the best luck with advisors since I started at the University of Wyoming. It really has taken me awhile to get this far, but I finally felt like I was on track and headed in the right direction. Well, that hasn't changed. I still want to teach. However, after much prayer and deliberation we made the decision to have me stay home with Andrew.


It took awhile to adjust to the fact that I wasn't going back to school this fall; along with the fact that I don't have a degree and am not sure when I'll get it completed. I am so happy to be able to spend my days with my sweet son watching him learn and grow. It's been quite a blessing. It's just reaffirmed to me that our Heavenly Father has a plan for us all no matter what we have planned for ourselves sometimes. I hadn't even given a thought to not finishing school until a few weeks  before the beginning of the school year and got me thinking. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Our Trip to Yellowstone

The second week of August we headed to Yellowstone with Daniel's family. We stayed in their condos in West Yellowstone and called that home for the week. We were spoiled getting to sleep in a King sized bed. When we came back home to our Queen sized bed, it seemed extremely small. Andrew was such a trooper on the drive up and just loved talking to Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen. He adjusted well to sleeping in a new place and living on a different schedule. He did really well in his pack n' play.

We went into  the park almost everyday. On Wednesday we spent the day walking around West Yellowstone window shopping, eating delicious food and treats, and seeing what the town had to offer. While in the park we saw lots of buffalo, waterfalls, and geysers. We also saw an owl, bull elk, and mountain sheep. Of course we saw Old Faithful go off and spent a good chunk of a day in that area visiting the surrounding geysers. With all the hiking around that we did Andrew got to spend time in a front pack. i was really surprised at how well he handled it. Only problem was that he didn't want to be facing mom or dad; he wanted to be facing out so that he could see everything that was going on. Then he was content. 

We visited Mammoth Hot Springs. We got to talk to one of the park rangers. He had lots of interesting info to share with us. Daniel's brother, Chris, and I went on a zip-line tour. It was a blast! Andrew stayed with Grandma and Daniel while Grandpa went fishing.  We got rained on and drenched at one point, but it was totally worth it. By the time we were done we had dried out. We had really fun guides and a great group of people to spend time with. 



There was a grizzly and wolf discovery center that we visited on one of the last days there because we didn't see any in the park. It was neat to see. All the animals had been rehabilitated at the center for various reasons.


It was a fun getaway with the family. We'll definitely be going again when Andrew gets older.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Mud Pots

The Family (minus Chris)

This big boy climbed up the hill on the side of the road and just kept on his way.

Grizzly at the Discovery Center

Waiting for the river geyser to go off.

The only picture we got of the three of us together.

 

Watching Old Faithful...Andrew sleeping and taking a break from the carrier.

Old Faithful

My favorite picture of this little boy on the trip :) Isn't he cute?!

Chris and I before the zip-line tour

Just me ready to zip-line

Andrew's Blessing

Andrew was blessed on July 15, 2012 by Daniel. The blessing was beautiful. Lots of family were present and baby boy got passed around a lot. I sadly didn't get many pictures of everyone in attendance. It was slightly chaotic after all was said and done. Here are just a few pictures to commemorate the wonderful day:

Blanket was made by his Great Grandma Johnson

With his cousins Wyatt and Gunnar

He is one happy baby! Both sets of grandparents, Great grandparents Johnsons and McGinnis', Uncle Zak, Nic, Chris, Shawn and Clint, Aunt Korrine and Emily, cousins Porter, Wyatt, Gunnar, Mitchell and Caleb were in attendance. A couple of our friends Tony Zimny and Jordan McCort were there too. We also had several friends in the ward that  were obviously present.

Afterward we went to the park and had a BBQ. We definitely didn't have room for everyone in our little apartment lol. We enjoyed the company and everyone went on their way. It was amazing to see everyone and to have them meet Andrew...some of them for the very first time.

Andrew

Now that I'm caught up in other areas of life we can get to the fun stuff! The birth of our little Andrew. We couldn't be more excited to have him here!!! I've been wanting to get this post typed up for a long time, but I just got so busy with him that I'm just finally getting around to it. My handsome little angel is asleep so I have a little time to myself :)

Overall I had a really easy pregnancy...like REALLY easy. No morning sickness. No heartburn. No swelling. No problems sleeping. I was pretty comfortable clear up until the last couple weeks when he was growing lots. The only issue that came up was that I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. The way I figured it was that everything was so easy I had to have at least something go wrong....haha. I had all the nurses and doctors confused with that diagnosis. I didn't fit any of the "normal" criteria for those diagnosed. Luckily, I didn't have to change much.Ii was already working out on a regular basis and for the most part was eating like they wanted me to. I did have to cut back in a few areas. I was able to control the diabetes with diet. My doctor was really impressed since I guess a lot of those diagnosed with it end up having to be regulated with the help of medication. Yay for me! I only hope it is a one time thing like the doctor is thinking it should be. If not...oh well. It kept life interesting. We had an extra ultrasound (to make sure he wasn't huge), a ton of NSTs (per doctors orders), and lots of extra appointments so they could keep track of how everything was progressing.  With all the time I spent at the doctors office it made the last couple months fly by. 

10 weeks

29 weeks

During Tuesday of week 38 they checked to see what my body was doing and if I was starting to progress towards labor. The doctor told me I was 3cm dilated and 80 percent effaced. All I could think was that this baby might be coming early. During the appt the doctor had us set an induction date because of the diabetes and they didn't want to go past 40 weeks. They worry about the baby getting too big at that point. Daniel chose May 25th (his birthday). They also planned to strip my membranes the next Tuesday to see if they could put me into labor. I called my mom to give her the update and she was convinced he would be coming early as well. She came down to stay with us on Friday since she wanted to be here when everything happened and she's 10 hours away. Lucky for us we had her around to help us with our move the next day (Saturday). I was so glad to have her around for the move. I was hoping all the activity would help put me into labor ;) I was so excited to meet our little man that I wanted him here ASAP, knowing that he would be healthy. 


Tuesday came, they stripped my membranes and told me that if anything was going to happen it would happen within the next 48 hours. Forty-eight hours came and went with no changes. Bummer! I guess we were gonna be induced on Friday (the 25th). 

Day of Induction 39 weeks

We showed up at 5:30 AM, like they told us, got checked in, and were showed to our room. A short while later a nurse came in and informed us that the doctor was performing an emergency c-section, on another patient, and that they couldn't do anything with me until they had finished. Bummer again! (More waiting) This made me even more anxious and nervous. I had come to the hospital ready to have a baby :) They told me to walk around and maybe this would help labor progress. I had to laugh because I was walking everyday and it hadn't sent me into labor so far, so why would it now? It didn't. 

Hour after hour went by. Finally, at about 10:30, the doctor came in and said we were ready to get things going. I was so unprepared, yet ready, for everything that was about to happen. They started me on Cytotec (sp?) and I went into labor. I went for quite a few hours without feeling any pain or discomfort. Around 4:30 PM I got an epidural after I had been in pain for about an hour. It wasn't bad at all. By the way other people talked about it I expected it to be lots worse. Little man's heart rate dropped after they did this so they had to lay me down. His heart rate jumped right back up. He had to give us a little scare. Once I got the epidural I was able to take a few naps between the nurses coming in, the doctor checking progress, and the machine taking my blood pressures.

Lots went on in the next 12 hours. Poor Daniel had stayed awake the whole time because he didn't want to miss anything. I kept telling him that he should sleep since I was. I was so relieved (and tired) by the time they told me it was time to have the baby. It was also at this point that the doctor discovered that Andrew was face up and this is why it had taken so long for everything to progress. After the first set of pushes little Andrew had to give us another scare with his dropping heart rate. The doctor informed us that we might have to use the forceps or do an emergency c-section. All it took was Dr. Bragg saying this out loud and his little heart rate jumped right back up to where it was supposed to be...little stinker! With this set of pushes they were able to get him turned over and facing down. After 15 minutes of pushing, Andrew James Sorensen entered the world at 4:31 AM on May 26th, two days before his due date.

The emotions surrounding his birth are indescribable. Waiting to hear his first little cry seemed to take ages, and a little cry it was. They set him up on my chest, and I'll never forget him lifting his little head and looking up at me with his wide eyes, little pouty lip, extremely long eyelashes, and full head of hair. Yes he LIFTED his head. I knew at that moment that I have a strong baby and that he  is going to be one BIG handful.

I wish I had been able to see Daniel's reactions to everything going on, but I was completely focused on everything that I was doing. It was amazing to see him hold Andrew for the first time. You could just see and feel the love that was shared. Grandma McGinnis, and Grandma & Grandpa Sorensen were very excited to hold him for the first time. From then until we left the hospital is kind of a blur. Andrew stayed with us in the room beside when they took him to do testing. I could have just sat there and stared at our little angel for hours and hours. He was such a good baby.

We were happy to get out of the hospital and back home. This is Andrew's birth story. Hopefully, for my own sake, I haven't forgotten anything too major. I just don't want to forget a thing about that amazing day that has changed my life forever...the day I became a mom! I couldn't be more blessed!!

School

School has been done and over with for about a month and a half. It was an interesting semester for me being pregnant and all. Pregnancy brain is REAL!! I had to study so much harder than usual only to achieve results that were slightly below what I normally achieved. I was oober forgetful and spent a lot of time at the library going over and over and over information for tests. In mind I kept thinking "this is easy and I should be able to remember this," only to forget it minutes later. I'm convinced that only with the help of my Heavenly Father was I able to pull out another 4.0 semester. I was getting pretty worried that it wasn't going to be possible and that I was going to end up with a B in one or two of my classes. Once grades were turned in I was very pleasantly surprised to see all four classes were A's. I was also able to receive my certificate of advanced achievement from Institute. I feel pretty accomplished.

Spring 2012 semester was Daniel's last. He was, and is, so very glad to be done with school. Graduation was great. Daniel's family came over from Lyman to watch him graduate. Commencement wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The worst part was waiting while all the graduates names were read. The speaker was entertaining and kept it fairly short and sweet. Daniel got a Bachelors Degree in Mathematics. He's one smart cookie :)

The internship that Daniel fell into in Fall 2011 turned into a full time job and career come January 2012. With that being said he was one busy man once again. Full-time student and full-time at the office. His job title is a data analyst. Now that he's graduated he has begun taking and studying for his actuary nine exams. Its recommended that before taking each exam you should study for 300 hours! Ridiculous....And he thought he was getting away from "school." Nope. More studying for him over the next several years. An actuary is basically an insurance mathematician. He'll be getting paid to tell Mountain West Farm Bureau what their rates should be. He's loving his job! Oh yeah and since this job opportunity has come along it looks like we will be living in Laramie for at least the next ten years. Never would I have thought this would be the case once we had both graduated.

A week or so after finals I was notified of where I would be doing my student teaching next spring. I'll be student teaching in Cheyenne at Central High School. i wasn't very excited at first because my first choice was to be placed here in Laramie since our son would only be seven months old. Commuting back and forth is going to be interesting depending on what winter is like this year. luckily we have several people in Cheyenne that have already offered to let me stay with them in case the roads over the summit close. I've e-mailed my mentor teacher and she seems very nice and likable. I hope that semester flies by so that I can get graduated and start being a stay at home mom for my little man.

This next school year is gonna be a rough one for me being away from our little one.