Marc & Lindsay Duncan Family

my new life.

2012-01-24T08:42:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking today about all of our fun travels and last minute, spur of the moment adventures we used to have. It is what we lived for. To travel to somewhere so different we wouldn't be able to find one similarity to home. And we did it a couple times. We never got tired of it and the more we did it, the more we wanted. Then we had our darling little baby. Life put on the brakes and even the parking brake it seems like. Some times I get a little sad thinking about the days before. Sleeping in as long as we wanted. Come and go as we please. Everything was just about us. But it was empty. Looking back, I do feel something was missing. I would give up those days any day of the week for my little guy. We used to drop everything at a moments notice and leave the country and now I can go full days without leaving the house. Sometimes I feel like I am going to go a little cabin fever crazy, but it is exactly what I want and what I have always wanted. My little boy is my whole world. And as frustrating and difficult as being a mom can be, the joyous moments by far out weigh the bad. And I would give up sleeping in and traveling and movies and nights out for him any freakin day. I am so happy, my new life is teaching a person everything they know, showing them new things. I may never see all the things we wanted, but that is fine with me. But I am perfectly content showing Jude all the new things right in our backyard.

A glimpse at the old life. It wasn't easy to give up, but so so worth it. Jude is just that amazing. :) Even with ear aches and teething and sleepless nights. I could never go back.

http://worldabook.blogspot.com/

Me at my one year birthday, Jude looking like a Rugby player, and Marc as a sweet little boy. Who does Jude look like?? I think a pretty good mix.

Jude playin at Grandma's and how great are those suspenders??

Okay, I've always said this little boy is just too pretty to be a boy. :)This is my proof. He is very handsome.

Hit Park City

Playing in the snow. I thought he would love sledding cause he loves to slide. He just hung out like, "Whatever" He was much more into it playing in it on his own.

Jude jumping on the bed

2012-01-17T10:23:00.000-08:00

This is how Jude jumps on the the bed. He stands and falls. He was doing this forever yesterday.

There you are winter

2012-01-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

Winter feels like it has finally found us. I am so depressed and bored. Jude and I have examined every crevice in this place. We have been trying to find indoor fun to do. We have hit the aquarium twice in one week. I've been to H&M three times in one week. Grandparents house almost everyday. Now, we're getting low on ideas. :)
Jude's at a fun age. He's so playful and snugly.
I finally got tough and let him cry it out when he would wake up for a bottle. I can't believe I have put it off so long. I think the longest he ever cried was 15 minutes. Of coarse now that I've said that he'll cry for three hours tonight. :) c'est la vie.
He loves shoes a.k.a. sssoooee. I think he must know that means he's going outside. He has also started saying horse. Super cute. He also has been doing something silly for a long time that I keep forgetting to write down so I don't forget... He flaps his fingers right by his ears. He does it all the time. It's really goofy.
He's trying to figure out if he needs one nap or two a day. He flip flops a lot.
We also started a new little music class and he loves to just stare at himself in the mirror. He loves himself. Very good self esteem so far. :)

The other day I heard a big thud and I went to check it out and this is what I found. (the big thud was Jude throwing himself into the bath tub).

My lil Jude. This is him with shoes over his footie jammies. Whatever makes you happy Jude. And also He does this all day long. Looks at his reflection in the dishwasher.

This is also how Jude signs the word more. He also does please, eat and sometimes all done.

I only had my phone at the aquarium, but here are the cute kids, Jude keep getting called a girl. I don't know if it was his outfit or if he just needs a hair cut that I refuse to do yet.

2012

2012-01-09T15:07:00.000-08:00

Can't believe that it is 2012. It has been an amazing year. Jude has gone from a tiny helpless newborn on oxygen and monitors to a bouncing, busy toddler. I feel like it all happened overnight. All I can think about is how different he is going to be next year, and how fast a year goes. How do I slow it down and make sure I am fully appreciating this age. I don't mind moving fast over the teething days. I'd love a fast forward button for those nights. Skip chapter, mute.... something. :) As you can tell Jude is teething. Ha Ha. He has one and a half molar that have poked through in the last little bit. Jude really is at a fun stage though. He does such silly things. Like today he just ran passed the doorway in the hallway laughing at me each time he passed. What a goof. He also has this crazy obsession with the outdoors and could care less what the temperature is. But everything he does has to be just a little kooky. He loves to walk through the bushes, not where the bushes are, literally likes stepping right through the bushes. He takes my hands and has me walk him up the hill through all the bushes. He's really quite nuts. He also loves squishing his food. Always has. but lately when he has pees or corn, likes to single one out and puts his pointer finger on it and slowly applies pressure until.... POP! it explodes. He still love carrying things around. The duster seems to be most popular at the moment. He also has a favorite song. Pumped up kicks, by foster the people. He freezes when he hears it and waits for the chorus patiently, then shakes his little bum up and down. And he's very serious about it. No laughing and usually not smiling. A very very concentrated look on his face. Still really into animals. Loves the sounds they make. Overall, he is a busy and goofy little 15 months old. Also, he's trying to talk and some words he is attempting are dog, hot, shoe and ironically eat. For a kid that hates eating.
And here are his stats.

Height 31 inches 80th %
Weight 20 lbs 4 oz 13th%

So, still tall and skinny. And that is just who he is and I am so used to it now. I can't imagine him any other way. At least now he is eating a lot better and is still skinny where before he wasn't eating at all and was shrinking. I thought I was going to pass out.

We've been totally taking advantage of this fall like weather. We have spent so much time outside. Testing out the new bike seat, going for walks (usually through the bushes) and playing at the park.

Made a jungle gym out of the couch.

The messes this kid can make really crack me up. I love this one too. He's in the background like "who left this here, oh, looks like it was my friend the camel. That crazy camel, I'll give him a talkin to."

Just some fun videos I love

2011-12-28T20:55:00.000-08:00

Jude and Sundance!!

patty cake

2011-12-28T20:45:00.000-08:00

sooo big

2011-12-28T20:30:00.000-08:00

Jude and daddy

2011-12-28T19:26:00.000-08:00

Marc knows how to get Jude rolling. It is so cute!

Animal house

2011-12-28T19:23:00.000-08:00

Jude LOVES animals and has learned some of their sounds, like he does a dog, a cow, a monkey, horse feet, an elephant, and a bear/lion. (Same sound) We got him to do a couple of them on camera.

Christmas finally came and boy did it.

2011-12-26T12:47:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas. My two brothers that live on opposite coasts both came home for Christmas this year. It was so fun to have them here. We started off Christmas eve with the Duncan's. Marie made the yummiest crab cakes ever. Mmmmmm.......... where was I? Oh yeah, then we got right to the gift giving. Jude got the cutest little hat from Bella and a cool little toy taxi, so cute. Thanks Bella! Then Grandma hooked him up with new jammies! So cute. Marc and I both got cool new scarf and beanies and a gift card for a night out from Kristyn and Nick. Thanks guys. We love them. Marie also got us a super nice hand grill. It was really, really nice. Then we rushed over to my family for more gift giving. It is always Christmas Chaos at my mom's. The good kind. People everywhere, food everywhere, presents EVERYWHERE!! Jude got a cool talking soccer ball that he just loves to carry around with him from Becca and Chris. We also got gift cards and lovely smelly lotions and soaps from my siblings and my cute mom also hooked Jude up with some jammies and a cute new outfit that he has on right now. :) And he love his piano and guitar as well. What a fun night. Then we rushed home so Santa could come visit. Marc and I woke up around 5 am so we could give our gifts to each other without a little person climbing all over us. :) Then Jude O was up and he was all over this present thing. He quickly learned cool things were behind all that wrapping. He was very cute. Ken and Marie stopped by again to bring even more gifts. Jude got a very cool ball pen thing. It is so so cute and a new toy dragon and toy box. What a spoiled brat!! Marc also got me a cool baby seat for my bike and Jude just loves it. We've spent some fun time on it too. It has really been a great Christmas. :) Sorry for writing every detail. I just don't want to forget.

Bella and Jude

Jude gave to Nyla. I should preface that Jude wasn't 100% on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

Nyla and Jude kept very busy

Jude and Nyla... Do I even need to say anything

All the grandkids that were there. We are so missing the matt and bine clan! And did I mention Jude wasn't feeling well. Ha Ha!

Had to take a pic of this present Jude helped me write on the tag.

Santa came!

Sharing with Sundance

Christmas outfit and testing out the new bike seat!

Christmasing

2011-12-20T12:30:00.000-08:00

We've been real busy getting out and doing all we can handle with a toddler. We went to Thanksgiving point and did the lights and saw the reindeer and just roamed around. We also after two previous attempts finally made it to zoo lights. It was a ton of fun. We really enjoyed it. We weren't sure if we'd even see any animals but we got to see some monkeys and wolfs and tigers. Definitely not every animal, but more then we thought. Jude loved it. He totally checked out the animals and loved the lights. By the end we were pretty cold but warmed up in a hurry. Totally worth it.

Little bugger reached up and got this off the tree and obviously destroyed it. Then I was just glad he had something that was keeping him busy. Am I the only one that lets their kid play with something they would rather they didn't but they are being good and busy so you let them????

These little curls on the back of his hair kill me!

Jude and Daddy checkin out the reindeer

Zoo lights!!

Very tuckered out after zoo lights.

Baby it's cold outside.

2011-12-13T11:08:00.000-08:00

We've been having so much fun checkin out lights and carriage rides and all sorts of things. This weekend we hit the riverwoods with Ali and Marriott and family. It was freezing, but so much fun. They have done such a good job there. We stuck Jude on Santa's lap and giggled as he FREAKED out. I thought I could possibly distract him with something, but it wasn't happening. I just hope he's not ruined forever. We also went to Salt lake and watched the ice skaters. It was again freezing but a lot of fun. Our whole purpose of going up there was to do the zoo lights but it just didn't work out. We forgot everything we needed. Space Cadettes!! Anyways, here are the fun pics to prove what a good time we had. :)

~Riverwoods~

Warming up at Starbucks in SLC. Doesn't Nyla just kill you???

Real quick I just want to mention how much I love my little Linus. He drags his blanket around with him and it is just so cute!

Tis the season

2011-12-08T11:19:00.000-08:00

Jude just got over his first cough. I loved his froggy breathing though. So cute. We have been doing a ton of Christmas shopping and wrapping. Jude is loves being my little helper. He is getting a little too independent when we are out. He wants to be down and walk around on his own and touch things that I am sure people don't appreciate. Last weekend we went to the Christmas market in SLC. It was so cute. Jude did awesome. We just bundled him up and through him in the backpack and off we went. We went and saw the lights at the temple as well. Jude was diggin it. Then we ended it with some delicious Siegfried's. I am sure I spelled that wrong. :)

Aren't they the sweetest??? So much love for those two.

runnin around SLC

Finishing up the night with ole crazy hair over there!!

Jude has really clued into how great Sundance is. I'm not sure Sundance thinks Jude is as great as he thinks she is but they are cute together. Jude followers her around and jumps on her and gives her hugs. Just like Daddy!

Jude's Second First Birthday

2011-12-01T19:19:00.001-08:00

Well, Jude turned One year old... again, on November 30. I wanted to do something fun for him. So we just hit McDonald's and then shared a cupcake. It was cute. My boy is officially a year. He is doing awesome too. We met with the lady that works on his development. She said he is doing really well and we can probably have next months visit be the last unless something comes up before then. YEAH!! We had a great weekend last weekend and did lots of fun things. Went to Park city and Salt Lake, Cabella's, the mall.... We had a lot of fun. So much fun that Jude has picked up a little cough. I am thinking that is why he was up all night last night. UGH! Who needs sleep anyway. Christmas is in full swing at our house and we are loving it. Jude is really giddy over Santa. Just wait until he sees what he leaves under the tree. :)

"One year adjusted"

Happy birthday and Merry Christmas

Celebrating at Micky D's

Wait! We're sharing??? He was using the candle to scoop the frosting into his mouth and next thing I knew he had eaten literally half of the candle!!

I think this is a cute silly thing he does. Since it is against the rules for Jude to be fed with a spoon, he has learned to put his finger in the center of his fruit loops to pick them up. So stinking cute.

Hit the park for what I am afraid might be the last time for the year. TEAR!

Thanksgiving

2011-11-26T11:07:00.000-08:00

Of coarse we are so Thankful this time of year. It is so great that we have a day set apart from the rest to stop and remember our blessings. We have so much to be grateful for. We have two working cars a warm house food in the cupboards. Marc and I were just talking today about when we arrived in Mumbai, India and how we saw people raising families on the island in the middle of the road separating traffic. There was a long wire that ran across the length of the concrete island and people had thrown sheets over the wire in a tent like fashion to use as shelter. And it wasn't one or two people is was whole communities. It's amazing we can find things to complain about when there are people living like that. I wish I had a bigger back yard. More space, a nicer car.... At least we have a warm, soft bed to lay on at night, and we don't sleep on the hard cold concrete. I am so grateful for how hard Marc works everyday so that I can have the opportunity to stay home with our little Jude. He's amazing. Even though I have to remind myself that a lot. I find myself wanting to ship him off somewhere most days. :) He is a very loving little boy. He will grab you by your hair and pull your head down so he can rest his head on yours. It is painfully sweet. :) He also every morning takes my finger in his tiny hand and walks into our bathroom then tries to reach with all his might for our toothbrushes. He loves them. And will carry them around everywhere all day if we let him. Another funny thing he is up to lately is feeding Sundance her bones. He again takes my finger and walks over to the closet where her treats are and I get them down for him and he reaches in and then takes one to Sundance. He could do this all day long!!! They both love it!

Lovin our toothbrushes

Lovin our heads. :)

Feedin Sundance

I almost forgot to mention we went to the Gateway and watched the tree lighting ceremony. Jude loved the tree!! (sorry about the horrible phone pics)

Also We watched Santa come in on the helicopter at University Mall. Jude is very curious about this Santa character. :) (again sorry about the phone pics)

November... meh

2011-11-18T10:56:00.000-08:00

So November has been pretty boring. Which is okay. Usually when I am not bored it's cause something crazy or unwanted is going on. Jude and I have been milking ever bit of "nice" weather we can. Lots of long walks and playing in the grass. (sure hope the neighbor starts picking up their dogs poop soon.) Jude is 10x happier when he is running a muck outside. He loves it. It is going to be a long winter. Ever since we got back from Florida, he doesn't seem to have a consistent night time routine. Sometimes he wakes up around 3 am for a bottle sometimes 5 or 6 or my favorite not at all. I know I need to get tough and start cutting back on giving in to him. It's just so easy to take ten minutes and get back to sleep then to have him cry for an hour. UGH! Sleep training is the worst. Not looking forward to that. I have been trying to not give him his Binky (AKA Boo) as much. Sometimes at bed and the car. I did have a close call with Jury Duty this week too. SCARY!! Luckily I admitted I wouldn't be good for the case. I would be too sympathetic. The Judge got "stern" with me and I was let go. :) Anyway, this is the most boring blog post for one of our most boring weeks. I think there are plenty more of those to come with winter knockin at our door. Anyway, Thanks for checkin in.

He's so stinkin cute playing in his bed.

Playin

He loves his books. He'll flip through them forever!

I love his bed head. He gets it so bad!

He loves to get his hair done though. He just smiles at himself in the mirror. He's a little vain.

Finishing off my whipped milk from my chai.

Quick trip to SLC to help Dad set up his booth.

Our walks (and check out those wrinkles around my eyes. When did I get so old. TEAR.)

One year ago....

2011-11-08T09:52:00.000-08:00

One year ago today we were able to bring our little Jude-0 home, after 5 weeks and 3 days in the NICU. It was a cold rainy day. It felt like Jude had been in there forever, until I looked over my shoulder and the baby that had been there for six months who was born at 25 weeks. Then it didn't seem so bad. :) We are still so grateful to all the nurses and doctors that looked over Jude and were so patient with his clueless parents. I felt so ready to bring Jude home when the time finally came. I was excited to be the main caregiver. Funny how quickly that wore off. Ha ha. We learned so much about ourselves in that time and the following year. We just adore our little guy so much. We are so glad he has grown so much and is so healthy now. It's amazing how quickly we forgot about all the monitors and tubes and oxygen and alarms and beeps and shots and check ups and I could go on and on. He's doing so well today and you'd never know that he jumped the gun 9 weeks early.

Somehow we didn't take a single picture of bringing Jude home from the hospital. But these are from the night before that we had/got to sleep over with Jude in our own little room.

I managed to scrounge up a horrible phone pic of the day we brought him home. We lied to Grandma and told her we'd bring him home the next day and stopped by with him.

Jude today. One year later.

Some fun one's from the week.
Jude checkin out his goods the night after Halloween.

Family time

Such a big boy!!

He loves this dog. He always gives it hugs.

Our little ralphie modeling his snow outfit!

Real quick. We got our family pics done while getting Jude's one year pics. We love them!! Jessie did an awesome job for us and was so patient with us trying to get pics of a sick baby and a dog. Could we have made her job any more difficult. She only yelled at us twice!! Just kidding. She was great and didn't even seem bothered. She is Amazing!!

http://www.jessieonealphotography.com/

This is Halloween

2011-11-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

We had such a great Halloween. Much more eventful then last year sitting in the NICU. :) We started off the fun on Sunday with my family. We had a Halloween party at my mom's. She is so cute. she made cute scary treats for the kids. They decorated cookies and a Christmas ornament. It just wouldn't be my mom if she didn't through something Christmas in there. It was so fun to see all the kids cute costumes. Then we spent actual Halloween up at Kristyn and Nick's. Their neighborhood can't be beat. It is so darling and there are lots of other trick or treaters. We had a great time. We had some yummy Chili, Thanks Kristyn, then we headed out to Trick or treat. I was so curious if Jude would hate it. He was so funny. He can't take more then about 5-10 steps without falling so he'd hold our fingers and off he went. He grasped the idea of it after the first house. He would troop up the walkways and pull on kids clothes to move them out of the way so he could get to the goods. Then he'd stick his tiny hand in and pick out a prize. Sometimes it was a quick grab and sometimes he wanted to think long and hard about which candy was the right one for him. One time he grabbed two and stuck them in his bag and quickly grabbed for more. It was so fun and he lasted as long and Nixon and Milo who are 3 and 4 years old and Jack who is 8. He was a total trooper.

The Chaos at Grandma pats!!! I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Always in the kitchen. No breaks for this woman!!

Hangin out!

US!

The gang

The cow and the scare crow!

The yellow brick road to candy.

Towards the end he didn't want to put the candy in his bag. He wanted to hold it.

Checkin out the stash!

The new obsession

2011-10-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

One year's time

2011-10-28T12:34:00.000-07:00

I quickly have to post what changes a year can bring. WOW.

Flo rida!!

2011-10-28T11:33:00.000-07:00

Jude, my mom and I were able to go visit my brother and his cute family. We had so much fun. Jude was an absolute angel on the flights. I was shocked!! We got to do so many cool things. Daily walks on the beach, feed alligators, hit up Disney world, went shopping, made cards, played Tetrus, we pretty much did it all. We had such a good time and were well taken care of by our hosts. It was so hard to leave.

First thing. We hit the beach. Too windy for a swim. we just took a nice stroll.

One of the highlights for Jude was the stairs. He spent so much time playing on them. Such a goofy kid.

Getting so hugs from Ian!

The boys were so helpful with the stroller. I only got a shot of Ian pushing but Alex was a huge help too!

Attack of baby Jude. Stealing glasses and trying to stick his hand in Marty's mouth.

Tetrus!!!!!!!!!!!! It's so addicting you have to play it in the car!!

Don't mess!!

Alex huggin Jude!

Gators!!

Don't worry. This one is fake.

This one's real. But much smaller. Jude liked to squeeze his claw.

Playing at the gator farm park

Feeding the gators

We went to our favorite little place there and the food was delicious but, it was a little interesting. they didn't have any seating inside so we sat outside and it was freezing and Jude pulled a glass of ice water on himself. LOVELY!

Beach time!!

I Rescued a horseshoe crab. I think????

Disney!!

We have arrived!!

Jude's favorite ride. NEMO. No flash photos my eye!

Everyone at lunch and Jude couldn't wait so we gave him parmesan cheese to hold him off. I'm still waiting on my mother of the year award.

The Boys

Jude was also OBSESSED with the play area after the mars ride. Total highlight.

Goodnight disney

"Good baby Jude" (Marty's nickname for Jude.) He was so so good on the flight.
I snuck my phone on to take a pic. Shh...

3X the fun!!

2011-10-17T10:25:00.000-07:00

Jude last week was sooo fussy and he had a fever that would come and go so I knew he wasn't feeling good. I still thought it was going to kill me. Then one day, not one, not two, but THREE teeth popped up. I still haven't decided if it was a good thing or not. Might as well be miserable once instead of three times, but man oh man was he hurting!! We also got our family pictures taken this week. The same night I found jude's three teeth. So I am nervous how they turned out. Who gets pictures when thier kid is miserable?? I also celebrated my birthday on Friday. Marc was out of town but I have a lot of great family that made sure I wasn't alone and felt loved.

A hike with the miserable Jude-0. He was so nice to tolerate us taking him out when he felt so horrible.

Still trying to party! He loves this little bike. He can't make it go on it's own yet so we end up pushing him all around the house.

We went with my mom and sister to Gardner's village while Marc was gone and had so much fun checkin out the witches and funny things. We had fun putting hats on him and he had to fight Grandma for the Christmas goods.

We took the chair lift up Sundance! It was AMAZING!!

Playing at the mall

Sick Jude!!

Michevious Jude. I can always tell where he's been. He leaves a trail. I pulled these out of the vent. (We leave the cover off cause marc has a theory it makes it cooler) and I found this in Sundance's bowl.

10/12 month check up and a ranch visit.

2011-10-11T08:57:00.000-07:00

Jude got his one year shots. And a flu shot. So he ended up getting 5 shots and a poke on his finger. Poor kid. He was really good about it though. We are so excited that he can switch to whole milk and no more formula. We were a little worried we'd have to wait until he is technically a year. His percentiles are:

Height: 29" 62%
Weight: 18.63 13%
Head Circ.: 17 34-35%

And there isn't anything that he can't eat. I am so happy about it. He is also getting really curious about this whole walking thing. He's taken a few steps here and there and he loves to hold on to our fingers and walk. He is also pretty creative about pushing things around so he can use them to walk. Like the cooler as I was getting it ready for our ranch trip. He was cruising around like crazy with that!! His little personality is coming out too. He surprises us with what he thinks is funny. When we make a funny face and break a stick, grunt while climbing over a log, imitating his walk... He loves to have a good time. He is always anxious to get outside. If he doesn't get his morning walk with Sundance he gets pretty fussy.
He did pretty good at the ranch. Never sleeps too well outside of his bed. But we did get him on a horse and he seemed to like it. And he got to play with cousins. It was a lot of fun.

Harvesting the garden before it got way cold. Is it just me or did it go straight from summer to winter??

So curious about the stairs. Loves to go up but can't figure out how to get down.

Loves the broom and the vaccum. I can't clean with him around. He has to do it.

He gets the very corner of his blanket and rubs it on his cheek.

Playin in the lodge

Horsey!!

Brisk morning walk.

Another reason to love the ranch. NO CAR SEATS!!

We also celbrated my birthday. Thanks for everything guys!!

Playing with Vincent and Coral.

BIRTHDAY BOY!!

2011-10-02T09:54:00.000-07:00

Jude celebrated his first birthday yesterday. Marc and I just can't believe a whole year has gone by. Our morning started off very sweetly. Very early, but very sweet. Jude must have been ready to get the party started, just like he was a year ago, he woke up an hour early(6:00) and he played for about 20-30 mins in his crib, then I went in there and got him and we snuggled in the rocking chair for almost an hour. We sang songs and read his favorite book, The Foot Book a couple of times. He just rest his head on my chest and snuggled. It was amazing. Then after nap time we headed down to Grandma's to have a small family party at Park Lane Park, where I grew up. It was perfect weather and it just felt so nice. Shortly after getting set up my older sister Andrea scared us all. She suffers from Epilepsy. She had an unfortunate seizure. It was the first one she has had around my family. It was TERRIFYING!! We were so worried. We let her rest a while at my mom's then she was feeling like being at her own house. So we got her home and she got some good rest and is feeling much better. We love her and hope she has fewer and fewer seizures. After our nerves settled we sang Happy Birthday and Jude grabbed the flame on the candle and was very unhappy during the song. He snapped out of it when he tasted the frosting. I'm not sure he ate a whole lot of his cupcake. He is a big time squisher. He loves to squeeze his food and through it. He did manage to get it all over his face though so maybe some got in. The boys played a few games of speed then we played a little bit of ultimate Frisbee. Sooo fun. Marriott was a newbie on the team and he was showing everyone up with his superman saves and dives. We had a lot of fun. Soon the party was over and we cleaned up and went home. I think by this time Jude had finally hit overload. He was crazy by the time we got home. I had to take the little car away that we gave him cause he was so excited he couldn't handle it. He wanted on then off then on then off and screaming the whole time and slapping buttons. It was really weird. It took him a long time to unwind. He went nuts!! But all in all. I think he had a very happy first birthday.
I also almost forgot to mention. He did take a step on Wednesday. :)
And one more thing I almost forgot. He has ANOTHER ear infection. We caught it super early but it's there. UGH!!

Everyone gets to lick these clean on their birthday, right???

Still has tears in his eyes.

Feelin better

Poor Nixon learned never to have me help him with his Capri sun.

The boys playing speed. Love this shot of my cute little Indy!!

Gettin some love from G & G Duncan

The balloons were a big hit with the kiddos

Opening his present from us. The kids very quickly joined in to help show jude what it does. Poor Vincent probably dreamed about it that night. He was in LOVE!

Always has a special spot for Grandpa

Can you see the resemblance

Sundance was feeling a little left out and was trying to get in on the action and got as close as possible!

Jude was so funny playing on this chair from Grandma D. He was rolling and turning and climbing and rolling. He was a total goof.

Some silly ones from the week

Jude loves to snuggle his blanket. He'll rub it on his cheek and chew on it. And he'll roll it into a ball and lay on it.

Which equals I find him sleeping like this a lot!

Loves loves loves loves the car

Being silly in the sink

Hello Fall!!

2011-09-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

We are loving this perfect weather! I swear this is the nicest weather we have ever had. We are just loving it so far. Hope it lasts a little while. We finally got Jude blessed yesterday. He wasn't aloud to be around people until technically May. I did break that rule a little. Shhh... Then with trips and people out of town we were only just now able to gitter done! It was so much fun to get Jude all dressed up. He totally didn't mind. He knew something was up though. The morning of he was a mess. He wouldn't let me put him down for even a second. He was nuts. I've started letting him watch a little Baby Einstein's to see if that would help him eat. It worked great for two days. Ha Ha. He loves the movies though. He giggles with it and gets excited at things. It's really cute to watch. But I am nervous about letting him watch TV so young. I guess just a little can't hurt right?? I also want to note that it was Monday the 27th last year that my water broke and left work to run to the hospital saying "I'll be right back." Next thing I knew I was being whisked away in an ambulance. CRAZY!!!!

The Scotsman

Fell asleep on our walk today so he spent his nap in the backyard with Sundance. I thought his little legs with those boots sticking out were so cute!

I also love his hat hair. I find it so funny. It's so human. I can't grasp babies doing human things. Weird????

One more crazy hair shot!! What a goof!

saying goodbye to summer

2011-09-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

This has been the last official week of summer and you can feel fall creeping in. We've still been spending a lot of time outside. Trying to get it all in. We took Jude to Fashion place mall and he was OBSESSED with the cars that you put money in and ride. We were stuck there playing forever and when we left he threw a fit. He was in love with them. I think how fun to have him just love something, but I also think NEVER AGAIN cause I won't be able to leave without a fight. His little personality is totally coming out more and more every day. He is totally a party man. Loves to rough house with Dad. Still totally a Daddy's boy and I don't exist if Marc is around. We also went to Midway with Ali and Mar, Ken and Marie. We had a little campfire and it was so beautiful right now. The leaves are already changin. We could not keep Jude from eating the rocks and dirt. It was hopeless. We had a great time and Jude ate a WHOLE hot dog!! Atta boy! We also went to Oktoberfest at snowbird and rode the tram. It was so much fun! And freezing at the top of the tram!Well Thanks so much for checkin in on us.

Jude is a total snuggler. He was also trying to snuggle Nixon in the car down from midway. We couldn't get a pic. It was darling. Dang it! But here is one of him snuggling me in the early morning.

Playing in those cars/tractors

Our trip to snowbird

Thanks BYU, I don't think the UTES even broke a sweat!

He is super mobile and get on the funnest things.

A delicious breakfast at kneaders. YUM!!

I should also document. He is always good for us at restaurants. He's up to try new foods. And play in them.

Funny little Jude

2011-09-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

Jude seems to be feeling better now that he has tubes in his ears. He has been sleeping better and way giddy!! Yesterday was an exception I hope. But he has been a ton of fun. He loves to hold on to my fingers and practice walking. I'll sometimes slip my fingers out and he'll stand there on his own for like 5 seconds then he gets nervous and either sits down or lunges for me. Right now he is totally a Daddy's boy. If Marc is around he wants nothing to do with me and will scream if I take him from Marc. It's cute for Daddy to feel loved, but Mommy is feelin a little jipped!! I know it'll change all the time so I'm not too worried. And it's kinda nice sometimes to get a break when Daddy's home! :)

Bathing with cotton in the ears!!

Saturday we went to the farmer's market in SLC and then hit the state fair.
This is Jude after giving this performer some moolah!

He loved the animals at the fair.

Got to ride a cool little tractor

Listening to some Japanese drums

And this is just to show the funny things babies do. This looked so uncomfortable. I was dying!

It's done!

2011-09-08T12:34:00.000-07:00

We got tubes in this morning. It was scary to make Jude fast for so long. He already is such a fussy eater that its so hard not to give it to him when he's willing. I fed him as normal and put him down to bed at 8:00-8:30. Then we got up at 5:00 am and got ready and were loaded up in the car ready to go by 5:30. Jude looked like he was hoping we were headin somewhere fun. He was so confused. We got all checked in at the hospital and we were back in an open room with curtains and beds behind each one. We were the first ones there and it was very quiet. Jude had fun exploring all the new things in there. The nurse was very impressed how good he was for her while she examined him. Then soon enough the Doctors were there and a nurse had whisked Jude away and they were headed off. About 30 mins went by and this SCREAMING shell of a little boy came out. I'm not so sure Jude was in there. He didn't respond to anything we did. Just screamed and screamed. Wouldn't eat, wouldn't take his binkie, didn't care about his blankie that he loves, nothing. I totally lost it for a second. It was so hard not being able to comfort him. He stayed upset the whole time and much of the car ride home. Finally he fell asleep and when he woke up again he was back. He ate and played with Grandma. He's doing so much better. We have to put some drops in his ears that you can tell really bother him to do so. Can't wait to be done with that!! I am just so glad to have this behind us. Hopefully this is the end of our ear extravaganzas!! As always thanks for checkin in our lil guy. Your thoughts and prayers were felt! Thank you so much.

Just waiting for the docs in his cute lil surgical outfit and booties!

We're finally throwing in the towel

2011-09-06T09:32:00.000-07:00

We had another check up on Jude's ears on Friday and they are still red. So, it's time. We'll be getting tubes on Thursday. I'm nervous for Jude to be sedated, but I know this is what needs to happen. He has been on antibiotics for a month now and we are both so done with them. He's been pretty good though. Hasn't been too fussy. Or maybe I am just so used to fussy now that I don't know anything different. Ha Ha! Marc was also out of town again this week. It has been so nice to have him back. We missed him. He did time leaving perfectly, Jude had the worst nights he's ever had while Marc was gone. Two nights in a row he didn't sleep longer then an hour and a half. That was scary. We also had a very relaxing Labor Day. We didn't go anywhere and just enjoyed Utah. It was great.

He's starting to stand a little bit

Loves to watch the garbage man and the landscapers

Best friends!!

Jude's first 4 wheeler ride!! He loved it and screamed his brains out when we took him off it.

Don't think he could possibly get any cuter!! And just for the record, that is not Rod stewart on his shirt. :) he he!

Jude at 9/11 months

2011-09-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

Jude is such a fun little boy. We are totally enjoying him. Right now the things he is doing crawling (with his left foot walking), pulling himself to a standing position. Can crawl up several stairs. He's not a big eater still but he always loves Salt and vinegar chips that Daddy sneaks him. He gets so excited when he even just sees the bag. He loves the water and loves animals. If he's upset and we start talking about animal noises he calms right down. Changing diapers is a huge challenge. He always wants to be on the move. Takes two naps a day and gets up usually once a night.He has also refused to eat his rice cereal or oatmeal. Pretty much anything I have to feed him is out. He is all about feeding himself. He also loves being outside and love the dirt and rocks and leaves and whatever is out there. His list of nicknames are: Bubkis, fatty bub, Moo, Mr Moo, Mr, Googly, googly bear, googels, Guggenheim, Pude, Hude, Hudie, Hudie the hudo that hudes, Hudie the haole, Hudo Hernandez, hudilicious, licious, and of course Jude-O. I'm sure I've forgotten some, but I wanted to make a note of all the silly things we call him so I don't forget.

The crawl

My blue eyed blondie! (sometimes its a strawberry blonde, other times its totally white)

Always having a good time!! He's definately a party man.

still goin at it!

2011-08-28T06:41:00.000-07:00

We are still trying to clear up this ear infection. We went to the doctor on Thursday to see if it had cleared up. It hadn't. So we got to do the shots again. Which is one shot a day for three days. The last one was yesterday and the infection is still there so we are going to finish up this last prescription of antibiotics and we'll see from there. We check his ears again in a week. So again, we're just keeping our fingers crossed. Oh and he is teething again too. So needless to say, we've had some long nights. But we're surviving. :)

Marc and Marriott were out of town so Ali and I took the kids to play in the water at the riverwoods. So fun.

Headin out for a walk

SIKE!!!

2011-08-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

Well we went to the ENT and he wants to wait and see if Jude gets anymore ear infections. If he does, then we'll do tubes. So my fingers are crossed as tight as can be. We're still taking antibiotics to clear this beastly infection up. I think he is teething again too. This would be his 6th tooth. I can't believe it. I am so nervous for the biting to start. Jude has turned into a busy bee. This new world of crawling and pulling himself up on furniture has made him not stop for naps. He just plays non stop. I will finally put a stop to it and put him in bed but that is a whole new world waiting to be discovered. It's been tricky. He sure has been fun though. He just my little buddy.

Finally passed out after playing in his crib for almost an hour.

Tubes, here we come!!

2011-08-18T10:46:00.001-07:00

Well we went to our check up today to follow up on Jude's ear infection. I thought for sure we'd get good news. He's been doing a little better eating and sleeping great. I thought things were totally fine. But the infection is now in both ears. Which means we have been referred to an ENT who will put tubes in his ears. Jude has been doing pretty well considering. He's been pretty pleasant. Other then the whole eating thing. UGH! He's such a funny little guy. He has started crawling... kind of. He crawls with his arms and then scoots his legs up. But he's totally getting it. It's so funny to watch him figure things out. He acts as if he's been able to do it the whole time. I don't think he realizes he's doing something new. Such a funny kid. He is, however, sooo proud of himself when he pulls himself up on a piece of furniture. He'll just giggle and giggle. He also does what we call his crazy face. Where he holds his hands in fists near his chest and clenches his jaw and grunts. It is so dang funny. I make him do it all day long cause I think it is so funny. Well here are a few pics from the week.

Learning to share with Sundance. :)

Jude loves his Dr Suess books.

Jude's crazy face.

Really another one??

2011-08-10T12:52:00.000-07:00

Jude has really become quite the little scooter. He just woke one morning and started doing it. He also started pulling himself up on furniture. He gets so proud and just giggles when he does it. He also has been trying to use some funny things to pull himself up on. My favorite so far is the dog. Sundance is a real good sport about it too. The other day he had a hold of her eye lid trying to pull himself up. Ha Ha!! Also Jude has been a nightmare to feed the last little while. He screams and fights the second I put his bib on. It's been horrible for both of us. I've been trying every trick I can think of and nothing is working. UGH!! So today I called my doctors office to see if the had any suggestions. They said to bring him in to just check him over. I did. I felt it was going to be a huge waist of time. He just hates eating. Nothing is wrong. Well, I was wrong. Not only is he definitely teething they said, he also has an ear infection on the left ear. Poor kid. I thought we had moved passed those. NOPE! So we are doing some antibiotics and we'll reevaluate in a week. Well until then. Here are some pics.

This car is meant to be used in the pool, not as a pool. But who cares?

Post swimming crazy hair. He looks more like Einsteins kid then ours.

Jude's a little trooper. He totally hung out in this ice cold water forever!! He's nuts like his daddy.

One thing he'll always eat. PEACHES! He acts like a zoombie baby chewing on flesh!!

Pulling himself up on Sundance

CALIFORNICATION

2011-08-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

We took a wonderful vacation with Marc's sister, her husband and two kids. It was great. We also had my two nieces come along to help out with the kiddos. They were awesome. We left Friday July 22 and spent the night in Vegas. It was so fun there I couldn't figure out why we would leave. We should just spend the week there. :) But we made it to Huntington Beach, CA. It was totally worth the extra four hours from Vegas. It was amazing and the place we rented was so great and it was one block from the beach. We all just loved it. We hit up a local neighborhood donut shop every morning and went to the beach several times a day. Got to do some great shopping. Hit up H&M. It was great. Marc and Marriott I think got to surf every day. We also got to spend some time with my bros Troy and Paul. Thanks again for the BBQ!! Yum! We stayed until Saturday the 30th and got home crazy early on Sunday. Jude did well on the drive. We timed it during sleep times so I didn't have to do a circus act the whole time in the back. Jude also liked the water, which is surprising cause it is so dang cold. But what he was obsessed with was the sand. We could never get a really great pic of him on the beach cause we couldn't get him to stop staring at the sand. He liked to eat it as well and we couldn't keep him from sticking his face in the sand. Such a silly kid. Anyways, on to the pics. :)

Jude passed out at the beach. So he slept in his swimsuit and towel.

The girls and I enjoying our Pedro's tacos. This is San Clemente. We took two trips here. We just love it.

Jude didn't get any tacos. But he thought it was hilarious to feed me his crackers.

Jude LOVES riding on our shoulders. The only problem is he also LOVES to pull hair.

This is the sweet neighborhood we stayed in.

And our great place!

The BBQ. Everyone except Paul is in this pic

Fell asleep with his hand in his treat cup.

Amazing San Clemente

Jude and Nyla swingin their lil hearts out!

Jude wasn't done when we were.

Rodeo Drive BABY!!

Cute lil boy!

Awwwww! Seriously???

Mommy's much more cautious.

OBSESSION!!

The kiddos

Jude loves leaves and dirt and sand and whatever. When he's on a walk he'll reach out and grab leaves and eat them.

Cutest babies ever!

Jude loves watermelon

The sweet pool in Vegas! Told you. Why'd we leave??

Look how grown up he is!!!

He loves drinks and wanted my Dr Pepper so bad!! That should put him right to sleep for the drive, right?

9/7 month check up

2011-07-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

Jude is doing well. Still a little on the skinny side. But he's doing great otherwise. Not crawling yet, but you can tell he wants to really bad. Still a funny little eater. He's starting to babble a little too. lots of meh meh meh. And he's got this funny thing he does where he gasps. It kind of sounds like the noise from the movie The Grudge. It's cute when he does it though. He sometimes will sleep the entire night and sometimes wakes up around 4 or 5 for a bottle. Which I love. I want to fatten him up as much as possible. He did get two new front top teeth. It was not fun. He let us know every second that those teeth were on their way.

Here are his percentiles

Weight 16 lbs 11 oz 14%
Height 28" 75%
Head circ. ?(can't remember) 48%

So doing pretty well. At first the percentiles they gave me were like 2% and things, but then I realized they didn't change it make it for a 31 weeker. It made a big difference and I was able to put the brown paper bag away. :) Just kidding. I have really been good about just letting things be and not obsessing. I think. I have been trying at least. Anyway, here are some pics.

His first bonk that left a mark and I'm glad it wasn't any higher.

His favorite place in the house. He's always happy if he's in the sink. So much to explore.

It's nice he loves the sink cause he knows how to make a mess!!

We got to go visit my amazing aunt that works with babies with developmental needs including a lot of preemies. We got to explore her amazing toy room. It was so fun and Jude loved it as long as my aunt kept her distance. STRANGER DANGER!!

Still lovin the bath. Isn't he the cutest!

Sometimes when I put him down at night I just want to hold him like this all night.

Fourth of July and such

2011-07-06T11:43:00.000-07:00

We've just been totally enjoying the warm weather. We love to go to Grandma D's and swim in her little pool and play in the back yard. The long fourth of July weekend was a little draining but a lot of fun. We enjoyed the stadium of fire's fireworks from the lawn on BYU campus (go utes). Jude was in such a cute mood until he crashed in his stroller. We aren't sure what woke him up the loud fireworks or Daddy running into the stroller almost knocking it over. :) Then he just stared at the fireworks and seemed so curious. Then we enjoyed a nice Sunday dinner with the Duncan's to wish Matt and Bine farewell on their big move to England, then we jetted over to my mom's to say goodbye to Austin before he goes to Qatar. So many goodbyes. It's really sad. We love all of them and will miss them like crazy! Then Monday we went to the parade Thanks to Marc for camping out and not taking any bull from miss queen BYU minivan lady. Jude was really cute and watched the whole parade. And he was quite the scene on his little bike chillin with his shirt off after getting so hot. It was darling! Everyone we passed went crazy over him. My favorite stranger comment was some kid saying "What a stud" and he totally was. We also made time for our weekend hikes and outings. Here are all the pics to prove what a great big fat fun weekend we had. As always thanks for checkin in. Oh I almost forgot to mention that Jude is getting his top teeth in and it has almost caused me to lose my religion several times. Ha Ha!! He's been a little bit fussy to say the least. And I have started going back to work one day a week. I thought it was going to kill us both for me to leave Jude but we both survived and everything was just fine. Thanks for watching Cath and DeeWee!

Learning to bounce

Told you this kid is a stud!!

The weekend hikes. Jude loves playing in the dirt and the leaves.

The Fourth of July!!

Cute lil Jude O with our crazy hole in our house behind him.

Summer

2011-06-21T10:48:00.000-07:00

We are enjoying the warm weather so much. We went for a fun little family hike this weekend and hit up the pool earlier this week. We are just having a ball. Jude is struggling with sleep a little bit. He'll do good one night then not the next and it's been a total roller coaster. I'm just trying to survive it. He also goes in waves with his eating. He'll do great for a few days and start to put weight on then stop eating for a couple days and slims back down. The only thing consistent about this kid is being inconsistent. :) He is always in a pretty playful mood which helps us get through the hard nights. As always, thanks for checkin in.

Our weekend hike
He doesn't mind getting a little dirty.

The whole fam, Sundance is somewhere near by.

Takin in the view

Becoming one with nature. You are what you eat. :)

Chillin in the backyard

The pool

I think he looks like my nephew Indy here. Mom what do you think??

Jude went crazy for this bike. I think he let us push him around in for about an hour.

Jammin

Every morning after our jog we enjoy a spinach smoothie

Just go with it!

2011-06-16T10:16:00.000-07:00

So I am trying to not obsess about what Jude is eating. He didn't gain much weight (about 4 oz) after switching to formula. Which was discouraging. My Dr says he is just tall and thin and that's who he is. So I am just rolling with the punches. If he won't eat lunch one day I am trying to just not freak out and move on. It's hard cause I want to see him bring his weight up. He is looking a little more solid to me so I am excited to have him checked on the 1st. His two bottom teeth are now in. They are so cute too. They give so much personality. I just love it. We are so happy summer is finally here. We have been going for wonderful morning jogs and it is such a nice way to pass the time in the morning. So far Jude is pretty good to just hang out in the stroller. I know that won't last so I am going to milk it. :) Things are going well and I am just enjoying my little guy. Thanks for checkin in.

Toy central

Jude looks so cute in one of Mikey's shirts.

When Jude woke up from his nap the other day this is how I found him.

Two teeth

Jude Chillin on our jog. (we're in the weeds here cuz Sundance was takin a swim in the pond)

Relaxing in the sun after our jog

Jude and Nyla hangin in the hammock

Hittin up smith's with my grown up little boy.

And last but not least. Snoozing! Nothing better then puttin a baby down for the night. I love that!! See ya in the morning Jude!!

weight checks, and teething, and crying. Oh My!

2011-06-05T10:53:00.000-07:00

Well, things have been going okay. Jude's weight is still a struggle. A week and a half ago he was wieighed by the Welcome Baby lady that comes to our house and he had jumped a whole pound. I was so thrilled. He had been eating good that week too, then the next week rolled around and he wouldn't touch a thing. Just screamed and screamed. Then on Memorial day a tooth showed it's ugly pearly head. I hope that's why he's not eating well and will return back to normal. When I took him in the last week he has almost lost that pound that he gained. So either the scale was wrong or he lost it all. The Doctor's office now suggest that I give up nursing cause he's obviously not getting enough and switch to formula to help get his weight up. They gave me some samples of formula and ran some tests on Jude to make sure he is hydrated. Which he was. But that poor kid had to get his blood drawn again. I felt so badly for him. Switching to formula has been a little bit of a challenge. Jude doesn't like the taste of it so we've been mixing it with some breast milk to help with the taste and slowly taking it out. It seems to be working. And we're trying all sorts of solids to try to help get his weight up and that has been a struggle. He won't touch them. Maybe when this tooth is all the way through he'll do better. We'll see. I am just trying to stay positive and not get too frustrated. Which is really hard. I just want to see him pig out. :) Anyway, thanks for checkin in.

Waiting for his bath.

His cool new chair from Grandma D.

Hiking up Bridal Viel

Enjoying a sucker with Grandma Pat

Hiking in the High Uintas

Memorial Day

Slim Jim

2011-05-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official. I'm not crazy. I took Jude to the Doctor to be weighed by one of the nurses and was hoping I would be told I need to relax and he's fine. Instead we found he weighs one less ounce then he did a month ago and had the doctor come in and talk with me. He said this has bumped Jude down to the 23%. But he's not worried cause Jude does look really good. He just doesn't want to eat. He gave me a couple of suggestions to try and sent us on our way. The first day we switched from Rice cereal to oatmeal and Jude seemed to love it. The next day he already hated it. Sigh... What am I going to do??? I'll just keep working on it. He'll drink the pedisure drinks so that should help. I'll load him up on those.

We also got to go to the NICU reunion this weekend. We saw two of our three most memorable nurses. It was great to see them and remember those crazy days. It was sad to see the children that still were battling their issues. Makes me so grateful to battle just a stubborn eater. It was fun to see a thousand twin and even a set of triplets. Poor Momma! It was a great week overall. We'll just look forward to fattening Jude up!

Team Grandpa. Jude LOVES his grandpa and has from day one. It drives grandma crazy!!

He's been sucking his toes lately. So cute! There is something he'll eat!

He got a hold of the bowl and was practically swimming in his oatmeal. Good thing Sundance was on clean up duty.

Someone's not a big eater!

2011-05-16T18:48:00.000-07:00

I always thought Jude would be the best eater. He always seemed so curious about what we were eating and would try to take bites. So I thought naturally when we can feed him he'll love it. Not so much. He screams and screams. Sundance will come running for him when she hears it cause she likes to eat what he spits out. Some days he shocks me and won't fight and eats a lot and I think we have turned a corner. Then next time we eat it's a big fight again. I know the worst thing I can do is try to force it but I can't help it. I pump to make the cereal so then if he doesn't eat it I feel like he's not going to get enough nursing. People do comment on his skinny thighs too, which makes me feel a little more insecure about his eating habits. For now I guess I will try to continue to balance what I pump and what I leave for him to nurse. Sigh... I have worried about how much milk I have after that depo shot I was given as it is, so even without pumping I feel insecure about it. Oh well. We'll just hang in there and until the doctor tells me there is an issue with his weight I will try not to obsess. Easier said then done I'm sure.

Best friends

Even though he fights me he still looks like an angel when were done all covered in goo.

New summer cut offs.

Excited about his new toy.

Our weekend getaway to SLC

Jude finally met "The Bry Guy" Bryan has been a close family friend for as long as I can remember. He's the greatest!

SPRING

2011-05-07T19:16:00.000-07:00

This has been a pretty average week. Except Marc is still trying to get feeling better. He was diagnosed with Mono then after a more extensive blood testing they found nothing. We don't know if that is good or bad. It'd be nice to know what's going on, but we're glad it's nothing serious. His batteries are constantly on low.
He has no energy, which anyone who knows Marc can't imagine. Jude is good. He is totally sitting now. Some days he likes to eat and some days he won't touch his food. We are on a little bit of a roller coaster. But he is healthy again and doing well so I am happy. Marc and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary on Friday. We were able to go out too. We got Jude all settled into bed then my cute niece Seattle and her friend came and hung out here so Marc and I could have a night out. It was amazing!! Oh and Jude had his first fall this week. I had him on the couch in our room and his feet were towards the edge and all it took was one big kick that catapulted him right onto his stomach on the ground. Once again I felt like mother of the year!!

Jude is at the age where he expects to be entertained all the time. Luckily this box did a good job for about 20 mins.

Jude and Sundance loving this long awaited spring weather!

Playing King Kong in his city bed!

Our nice spring walk up the canyon. Marc found some energy to come along.

Love Jude grabbin his foot. He did that the whole time or tried to sit up. Is it time to lose the car seat carrier?

The whole fam!

The Easter bunny and a bug

2011-04-29T15:31:00.000-07:00

Well this week we celebrated Easter. That was fun. Jude got food and clothes. Next year I am sure will be a little more exciting. Also this week Marc and Jude both have a little bug. The only symptom/sign is a fever and just feeling yucky. Jude will just lay on my shoulder and moan and grunt. I feel so bad for him. We took him to the doctor to make sure it wasn't his ears causing it, which it thankfully wasn't. So we just have to keep him hydrated. Which is very difficult. He doesn't want to eat at all. I keep trying and trying with no luck. The doctors office said I could try to force it in a syringe but he need 24-32 oz of fluid a day. I don't know if that is possible but I will try my best. Meanwhile we have called it a pajama day and I am trying to make sure Jude gets lost of rest. Which has meant sleeping on me a lot, which also means I get nothing done. But that's okay, just want my lil' guy feelin better. As always, Thanks for checkin in.

Easter basket time!!

Swinging at Grandma's. He swung until he fell asleep.

His Easter outfit!

Then the sad part. Jude fighting his bug! I think Real losing made this little guy physically sick.

Playing around town

2011-04-22T12:10:00.000-07:00

We are slowly able to venture around town. I'm not sure if I am taking it as slowly as I should though. I have been dying to get out and I've kinda lost my head. But we can be around more and more people. Just not huge crowds until May. We've had a good week. Marc and I took Jude to one of our favorite places. The Red Iguana, yummy, over the weekend then to another one of our favorites on Thurday. Stoneground. We also spent a little time at both Grandma's. We also got to test out the new playground at Grandma D's. He's stopped the waking up and midnight thing and traded it for three am but now is just getting up once around 5:30. I think my body is not used to all this sleep. I have been more tired then before. Go figure. :)He also has started sitting a little bit. Still not rolling over again but has moved on to sitting. What a funny little turkey. Anyways here are some pics of our week. And as always, Thanks for checkin in on us. Love you all!

One of my favorite ways to snuggle Jude. We used to sleep like this for an hour or two in the mornings. He'll still snuggle when he's up for it.

One of our favorite faces Jude does.

My boys headin to church.

Jude is a snuggly baby. When he's in the mood for it. He snuggled with Dad for about 20 minutes when he got home from work. Melts your little heart!

Stoneground

Dad and Jude watchin soccer

Red Iguana

Veggin in his swing. He doesn't do this too often so it's worth documenting!

Cousin Nyla is going to out weigh him soon! What a little chunk. Can't get enough of her!!

Swingin at Gramma D's.

Learning to sit

Just chillin :)

Just glad to have my lil guy!

2011-04-15T15:08:00.000-07:00

Jude and I are havin a great time together. I find myself really grateful to have not only my healthy lil guy, but just to have him. He brings so much joy to our lives. Even when he's bawling at 3:00 am for no reason. He's just ours and we'll love him forever. I am forever in debt to our heavenly father for blessing us. He is just amazing.

We finally went back to church! First time since he was born. YIKES!

Hangin with the cousins

snuggles!!

Nyla and Jude are pulling the same face!! So cute!

Anna and Jude

Jude's namesake shirt! Ha Ha.

So that's why there is a seatbelt on this. He bounced himself almost right on to the ground. Me being mother of the year just took a few pics before helping.

4/6 month well check

2011-04-07T12:30:00.000-07:00

Jude is doing great. He still hasn't started rolling over again. But he bats at his toys and grabs them and they go straight to his mouth. He's grabbing his feet and rolls onto his side from his back. He likes the sound of his little voice. He sounds so pleased to hear himself talk. He's getting more and more personality everyday and we are just enjoying getting to know him. Of coarse there is the hard stuff too. He has started waking up every night around 12:30 totally delirious and just cries for about 15 mins to an hour. I'm hoping this passes soon. YUCK! He also has discovered it's really nice to be held and is the most content happy lil guy as long as he's in Mommy or Daddy's arms. We also got the go ahead to give him solids. I am totally excited for this but I have mixed feelings about him nursing less. I have fought so hard for my milk to just let it dwindle. Feels really strange. He seems to love the rice cereal so far and is doing really well. The biggest problem is I can't shovel it as fast as he wants it. I have also noticed I have to act out opening my mouth with him. I can't help it!! Ha Ha!

Jude's percentiles are:
Height: 26" 89%
weight: 13lbs 14oz 35%
Head circum: 16.5 45%

I guess 25% to 75% is considered right dab in the middle. So he's just really average and a little tall. Finally some normality for this guy! Ha Ha. The percentiles have of coarse been adjusted for a six month old born at 31 weeks. So it's fair. :) Well here are some pics of the weeks events. Thanks for checkin in on us. Love you all!

Gimme Gimme Gimme!

So excited!

AWWW! It's beautiful!

Finally a bite!

Lets get messy!

Still loving his backpack and thanks for the cute hat Kristyn.

Still lovin the forgotten Sundance!

It's a big deal for me

2011-04-03T14:02:00.000-07:00

Jude's latest is he has started grabbing his feet. Why is this a big deal? Well anyone who had a preemie 34 weeks or earlier gets it. They miss time in the fetal position in the womb building certain muscles from kicking and pushing against the womb. One of the struggles they have learned caused from this is that they can't reach their feet. We did stretches several times a day and tried to keep him swaddled in the fetal position. Well, I guess it has paid off. Cause a light bulb has turned on and he loves his little feet. They are the latest and greatest entertainment in his world right now. We're still trying to get him to roll over... again. He was a rolling maniac for awhile but stopped after his last ear infection. We have his six/four month check up tomorrow and I am hoping they will let us start him on solids. I feel like he is so ready to chow down. Thanks again for checkin in on us. So proud!! I think I took 50 pictures of this!!

More medical endeavors!

2011-03-31T10:24:00.000-07:00

Well, Jude has had diarrhea for months now and we all just blew it off cause he has been on antibiotics for months. Well, He has now been off them for about a month and still no relief. So... We did a series of tests. All Normal. Then we tested for Celiacs disease. Luckily that was negative. His blood tests came back normal, and we are waiting for the results of one other test. Then they may get an x-ray to determine that anatomically everything is correct. If we are still stumped then we get to see a G.I. Specialist. Poor little Jude. He doesn't seem to mind though. Except when they drew his blood with the biggest needle ever and the tourniquet left a bruise. He's been really tough! They also mentioned once that it may just be what is normal for him. So I hope that is all it is. But for now... More tests and more tests!! I just want him to be as healthy as possible. I do feel like he is losing a little weight and I just want to keep him my fat lil bubkis! Anyways, thanks for checkin in on us. Maybe someday we'll go longer then three weeks without a dr's visit. I'm just grateful it's never been anything really serious!

Our little snuggler!

Getting out and about

2011-03-24T15:38:00.000-07:00

We were able to get out yesterday while the weather was nice and test out our little
backpack with Jude. He was such a good sport about the whole thing. I think he has a little cabin fever too. He seemed to really enjoy the fresh air. I do wonder if I have let my gaurd down a little too early though. He has had a little runny nose. I am crossing my fingers that it stays only that. I would hate to have made it this far and then get sick after being so careful. Well here are some pics of our big adventure.

Thanks for checkin in. :)

The story

2011-03-15T15:25:00.000-07:00

It just hit me that I never told the story about Jude coming so early. Well, It was September 26th and I was 30 weeks pregnant when Marc, Sundance and I decided to take a small walk/hike up in midway. This of coarse has been approved by my doctor for me to do so.

We had all sorts of signs telling us something was going to happen. One, Sundance had been super clingy to me. I now know she knew the baby was coming. Two, we had been released from our church calling much earlier than we planned. Three, That same day in church I read my patriachal blessing that there would be a time in our life where there would be emotional and physical problems. I just thought to myself, hope that's far in the future. Ha Ha. Four, We buckled down and bought a second car the week before and we hadn't planned to do that until later. Five, I woke up that night in the middle of the night and had a feeling that I should wake Marc up for a blessing. I just rolled over and went back to sleep. Six, We were going to take a last trip the week all this started and we just never felt right about it. I've now learned to PAY ATTENTION! Maybe God is trying to tell you something. Anyway, those are just to name a few. So that morning I woke up, Monday,September 27 and I noticed a little bit of leaking. GROSS, I know. Anyway, I just did what my mom would do and went into work.
When it was late enough I called my Doctors office and they sounded like they thought I was a confused first timer (and I was) and said better be safe and have it checked. So I tell the girls at work, "I'll be right back" and almost drive past Utah Valley hospital to go to American Fork hospital where my doctor is and I head up to Labor and Delivery and they take me back into a small room and hook monitors on and test the fluid.
The test was instant and She said "Yep, That's amniotic fluid" and walked out of the room. I was sitting there in that hospital bed thinking.... okay, so lets plug it up. She comes back in just after a few minutes and in one breath says "Well...." Big deep breath "You get to take a ride in an ambulance to Utah Valley cause we don't take anything under 34 weeks and you're not leaving the hospital until you have a baby." Then she was gone.
I just sat there a minute like, surely I heard that wrong. I'm not going to freak out just yet. Then the on call Doctor comes in and says "So your water broke!"
I said "My water's broken???"
Then he realized he was dealing with a clueless first timer. He let me know that they were going to give me certain medicines and let me know why they had to transfer me and No, I can't drive myself. After he was done explaining I asked "Should I be freaking out?"
He replied "Yeah, Kinda." Thanks for the honesty Doc.
I had been texting Marc the entire time and he was on his way. So I did what any girl would do. I called Mom. I very calmly explained to her what was going on. Then she started to cry and I thought, if she's crying this is a big deal. Now Marc has shown up and that's when I just lost it. But he's no tuffy. He was bawling too. We just waited a few moments for the ambulance to show up. And they strapped me in and loaded me up, they sent Marc on his own and away we went. It is such a weird feeling to be treated like such a huge medical emergency when you feel perfectly fine.
We finally arrived at Utah Valley and they cruised me up to their Labor and Delivery unit and got me all settled. Marc showed up seconds later.
Next we met with Doctor after Doctor. And did an ultrasound to check how much fluid was still around the baby. It looked really good. The Doctors also explain that they can only give me drugs to stop contractions for two days due to the risk of infection. The two day window they wanted was to get a steriod in me for the baby's lungs. Then after those two days, if I made it, I was on my own. If I made it to 34 weeks the risk of leaving Jude in the womb is greater then the benefit. The risk of infection is too high and at the point, I would be induced. So I had convinced myself that mind of matter was the way to go. So I Settled in for what I thought was going to be a long stay. The girls I work with even had my baby shower there in the hospital.

They are so great!
Anyway, things were going well, I am now 31 weeks pregnant and on Thursay, September 30, After a big fat salad from Cafe Rio (Thanks Vicki and Kehley, Love you) Contractions started at about 10:00 at night. Unlike the earlier ones, these HURT!! I just kept saying F - F - F - F, Don't worry kids, not the word, just the letter. Ha Ha. They gave me something for the pain though my IV since the anesthesiologist was not available. The nursed checked me and I was a 6.5. I knew it was a big deal that she even checked me cause that was not something they would do since the risk of infection was so high. Soon the anesthesiologist showed up and I was a 9.5, Marc was in a white space suite and I was being wheeled into the O.R. since it is hooked on to the NICU. After just a few pushes Jude made his arrival. 3:49 am October 1st, 4 lbs 1 oz 16 inches long. They rushed him off and Marc followed like a sick puppy. Soon they came back since he was doing so well and I got to see him.

So amazing. And everyone was so great to us. Anyway, the next few weeks were spent sitting quietly by Jude's side waiting for him to finish growing. 5 weeks 3 days later we brought him home and now we are starting to forget the whole thing even happened. AMAZING!! And here we are today! And if you made it this far reading this post. YOU ARE AMAZING! Thanks.

Meeting lil' miss Nyla!

2011-03-08T13:03:00.000-08:00

Jude and Nyla finally got to meet each other. It was so cute! And it is so fun that Jude is finally the big man in town. I still can't believe he was even smaller then Nyla. So funny how you just don't remember those things at all!!

Jude looks like he's telling Nyla a secret and Nyla is paying very close attention. "Nyla, it's not what we thought and there is no way outta here!"

The very sophisticated MISTER! Or as I say and annoy myself "Miter" in a baby voice!
Relaxed and slouched!

Serious!

Still a party man!

He always sucks his hands now and when he is in the tub covered in bubbles is no exception!

And just some classic Jude! These are faces he always does so I just took some pics of him being him.
Sucking those fingers! I think his big goal is to get both fists in together. :)

Zoning off

And of coarse a gentle smile. Aw! What a sweetie!

Bubkis

2011-02-28T11:11:00.000-08:00

We are having so much fun with our little Jude-O! We're still working on the sleep thing. Some days are better then others. He'll get it. We are so in love with our little guy.

Big smiles!

Marc was gone for a few days and my mom was so great to come out and help me. She is amazing. Love you Momma!

Could these eyes be anymore blue. They have got to go brown sometime....

Why isn't Jude sleeping tonight???

We can't go anywhere there are people. So we try to do one walk a day so that Mommy doesn't go nuts!

I had such mixed emotions about this. The breastmilk from when Jude was in the Nicu has finally gone bad and we got rid of it. This is maybe 1/4 of the milk supply too. YIKES! But it was really hard to part with. That was a lot of work.

So cute and sweet when he wakes up in the morning.

Our lil' lumber jack and lil' squirt! Love these outfits!

Sleeep!!

2011-02-17T14:09:00.000-08:00

I have been obsessing with trying to make sure Jude gets all the sleep he possibly can and it's creating problems that now I am trying to fix. Sigh.. There is always something. It has got me thinking though. I really am so lucky to have my little boy home from the long hospital stay and off oxygen and monitors and he is growing and developing more to his chronological birthday and not his due date. I think it may also be the birth of Jude's tiny lil cousin that has got me reminiscent of when he first came to us. How tiny he was and how scared and excited we were. He just meant so much to us and we would do anything to get him home. Now all that is gone and I barely remember it and I start to take things for granted and just wish he would sleep every little second possible. I am so lucky that these are now my worries. How gracious God has truly been to us and there were so many times through all this that I thought he might have turned his back on us and left us in his shadows. Now I know we are directly in his light and are truly blessed. I hope I can always remember that through the hard times to come.

Remembering how tiny he was. When I saw Nyla I couldn't believe Jude was ever that tiny. Yep, he was.

I remember when he was still in the nicu walking in through the huge double doors protecting these little babies from the crazy world outside. I'd walk through get a splat of hand sanitizer "hanitizer" and drop my bag down next to his bed and just stand there and watch him as I rub my hands together hoping to kill anything that might be harmful to my little guy. I would stand so carefully over his little bed and hoover my face over. Just watching so close for any sign that he knows Momma is there. I never got it, but I KNOW he knew when I was there which made it so hard to ever leave cause that of coarse means he knew when I wasn't. This picture sums up a lot of standing and staring time that was done by myself and Marc. We were so worried as any new parents would be, but we would just stand so close and watch. I don't even think we knew what we were watching for. Just felt good to be near.

Now I've got him home with me and I get to worry about things like sleep schedules. I am so truly blessed. Thank you God.

Getting so big!

2011-02-10T14:16:00.000-08:00

Jude is just growing like crazy. He has been rolling over for a couple of weeks now. Even though he did stop while he had those darn infections but he's back to it and he is also starting to laugh. Especially when I sing to him. I guess my singing could make anyone laugh. Here I come American Idol. Well not much to report on other then just growing and learning. We are anxiously awaiting our baby cousins arrival who wants to come late. She may be Jude's complete opposite. :)
Bonding with Sundance The fam Loves his Dr Seuss books

Learning, sick, learning

2011-02-04T09:59:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to teach Jude how to sleep on his own. Up until last week. He has been sleeping on me. I love to snuggle him. But I know it's not very practical. So it was time for me to be strong and let him sleep on his own. He does really good sometimes and others... not so much. The hardest part for me is being able to tell if he is ready. We also had a Doctor appointment yesterday and he still has a little red ear, but it is getting better. He also got three shots, a poke on his finger and to top it all off. I smashed his finger in the buckle on the car seat. It was a rough day. I'm glad it is behind me. We will just keep truckin along and these ear infection days will so be behind us.

All alone in his crib. Such a big boy!

Cute lil' bugger! Such a little boy.

Jinx!

2011-01-27T15:37:00.000-08:00

So I will just keep my big fat mouth shut. I thought we could go a week without Jude-0 being in pain. WRONG!! Daddy noticed he was really fussy and then I thought, ya know.... This is how he acts when his ears are buggin him. So I called and went in this morning and sure enough. He has two little red ears. Shesh! So they will see if his little body can get rid of this one and if not we get to have tubes put in his ears which I would welcome if it meant no more ear infections. Next week we get to do his 4/2 month check up and shots so hopefully that won't be too rough for him. I think he could use a break. Anyway here is a cute pic of him all ready for his doctors appt. Thanks again for checkin in on us. :)

Finally!!

2011-01-25T13:56:00.000-08:00

As of this week no ear infections or shots. Next week he gets shots so I know it won't last. His last ear infection was a nightmare. The typical antibiotics wouldn't help. So they tried a different antibiotic. Still no relief. Finally he had to come in three days in a row and get a shot everyday. It was horrible. I felt so bad and judging by Jude's screaming, he was didn't feel great either. I am crossing my fingers we can go a little while without another one. I am really hoping to not get tubes in his ears if we can avoid it. Sigh....
On a lighter note. We have had a great week. The Doctor said we are fine to bundle and go out in the cold just stay away from people. So we got all bundled up and went and walked around Park City. It was so sunny and nice. We had such a good time. Then yesterday the nurse who checks up on Jude's development came over and she said he is doing amazing! So I am loving it. Oh and he's learning how to roll over and it is so cute! I just love it! Also learning to bat a his toys in his little gym, and lots and lots of baby talk. It's amazing to watch him grow and learn. He already is looking so old to me. CRAZY!! Anyways, here are the pics. Thanks for checkin up on us.

SO HANDSOME!!

Smiling all the time now!

Kisses for everyone

Bonding

Getting ready for our Park City walk

FUN!!

Tummy time

There are no strings to hold me down.

2011-01-12T14:13:00.000-08:00

My Goodness! So much has happened since I last posted anything. There was our first Christmas with our lil' man. That was wonderful and he scored a lot of really great gifts. Mostly Thanks to his Grandmas...Santa gave out B+ gifts this year for Jude. :) The most exciting thing is we got a call on the 7Th and found out we can take him off his oxygen. I am so thrilled to not have anything following us around. Then we got a call yesterday that he doesn't need his monitor either. I have been singing that Pinocchio song, that I don't know the words to, ever since. Somethin about no strings!! I feel your pain Pinocchio!! And the very latest, I found out just today that Jude has ear infections in both ears again!! You might be shaking your head in disgust thinking what the HECK! Is this mother bathing him in dirt. First I assure you that I am not. Second it could be a huge long list of things like, His shot he gets monthly has ear infections as a side effect, could be genetic, thanks Grandma D. :) or I had a little bit of a sniffle this week that also could have caused it. Really, no one knows. One of the many medical unknowns in our life. We just say, "well Darn it. That sucks." And move right a long with the fakest smile we can strain across our faces. :) Now for the good stuff a few pics. Not many today. Sorry!

Did I mention he's a heafty 10lbs now!

Told ya it was a good Christmas!

He gets his vitamins and iron all over! I finally learned it was a good idea to give them before his bath. Do you think he is trying to tell me something by spitting them all over the place.... NAH!

Oxygen or No oxygen... That is the question.

2010-12-21T15:30:00.000-08:00

Well last week was an emotional one for us. More then normal. :) As most everyone knows Jude is on oxygen and has been on oxygen since he came home from the hospital. We did a test last week as well proving that yes, he still needs it. Well, come to find out, he had a faulty gauge and hasn't been receiving oxygen the whole time he has been home. Of coarse I FREAKED out thinking all the worse case things I could, like what kind of damage has this done to his little developing brain. I called my Doctor and he quickly calmed all my fears and assured me, the only reason Jude needs the oxygen is due to the fact that his hemoglobin in low and worse case he would not have grown. Which he has very well. He grew about a pound in three weeks and with the oxygen he grew almost a pound in one week. So... he is doing very well. Learning how to smile more and more and I am just loving it. Learning to arch his neck, which he does all the time and I just learned yesterday is a bad thing. So we are working on him not doing that which makes him cranky. He loves it. He now weighs 9lbs 2 oz and growing and eating all the time. :) And as always, some pics to document it all...

Any time he is awake we are doing some type of exercise... TUMMY TIME!

Finally got to meet Gramma Great

As Usual, loves his bath. Even though he has earned the Indian name "Poops in Water" In this pic he pooped and we cleaned it all out and got him back in and pooped again. He gets a little too relaxed in his baths.

His cheeks are unreal!

He was so good to let us take him out this week. And he sure looked cute all bundled!

Admiring his room

Trying to catch a smile on camera, got the end of one.

POOR JUDE-O

2010-12-03T15:48:00.000-08:00

Well, just in case it wasn't hard enough having a preemie with tubes everywhere, we thought it may be fun to add on an ear infection in both ears. And since we're already having so much fun with that, lets also get some shots and battle a fever and sore little legs for a few days. :) Needless to say, there has been a lot of crying going on at our house the last few days. We're doin all we can to make him feel as good as possible. He loves to lay by the heater. It really calms him. So I got the heater out, wrapped his arms up and put warm wash cloths on his legs, as of the ears, we're just suffering. Jude is doing really well for how badly I am sure he is feeling. Anyway, we're just adding this to our list of can't wait for it to be behind us!!!

Happy Due Date!

2010-11-30T12:35:00.001-08:00

After all this time, Jude is finally zero and we are so excited to start counting forward!! He has now been home from the hospital three weeks. He's still figuring out his own lil' schedule. We are just loving having him home. We are still battling all the wires and tubes and alarms but we are just glad to have him home. Hopefully he is growing and getting big and strong and we hope to lose all the monitors and things very soon!! Things are going very well and we are so lucky to have a happy, healthy lil' guy and we are so so grateful.

Gettin ready to go out!

Such a cute lil' sleeper!

He sure is working me over, and this pic is proof! But he's so stinkin cute I don't even mind. I've learned if I pull him into bed with me like this I can milk another hour out of him.

look ma' no oxygen!! Love when he pulls both of his stickers off and we can see what he looks like without stuff all over his face. And he sure is handsome!!

Welcome home Jude-0

2010-11-10T16:46:00.000-08:00

After 5 weeks and 3 days in the Newborn intensive care unit, we got to bring our little boy home. It was such a great day. I finally feel like a mom. I get to get up in the night with my little boy. It is finally me that gets to take care of his needs. Change that stinky butt, get peed on, puked on ect.. and I know the feeling won't last long, but as of right now... I am just loving it. There is the sweetest little being inside that tiny lil' guy. Marc and I are just head over heals for him. My mom has been so great to take some much needed time off work and instead of tending to her needs she is spending it with us. Helping me fingure out what the heck I am doing. She has been great! Thanks Momma!

We weren't the only ones happy to bath him at home in his own bath.

Today he pulled off his dots that hold his oxygen on and I had to get some pics, I have never seen him without something in his nose. It was a big moment. :)

Grandma just couldn't take it and had to get in on the action.

TAA DAA!

Nurse Linda got her hands on Jude for one last photo shoot. Unfortunately this didn't help Utah play TCU!

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T21:39:00.000-07:00

I think if Jude-O knew what a lame party we were going to have on Halloween, he may have stayed put a little longer. He is growing like crazy and doing really well. Still needing his oxygen and we have come to accept the fact that he will probably come home on oxygen. We just can't believe someday he will come home. Yikes! :) He now weighs 6 lbs 5 oz and is 19 inches long!! He's doing great. Just learning how to eat, which is really hard work for such a little guy! Marc and I are just so in love with him and can't wait for him to come home and rock our world.

As you can see we ran over to build a bear and bought Jude his first Halloween costume. They work great for preemies! Wish I could take credit for the idea. Thanks to Jude's former next door crib mate! :) Anyway, We took probably close to a thousand pics of this great first Halloween. Feast your eyes upon these! What a stinkin cutey!

Lil' Jude-O

2010-10-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

Man Oh Man!! We just can't get enough of this kid. Tomorrow will be four weeks since he came into our world. We cannot even imagine that someday we will take him home with us. I'm sure we will freak out when that day comes. He's still doing very well and we feel really lucky. We know there must be a lot of people out there praying for us all and we appreciate that SOOO much. Keep 'em comin! :) Jude-O, as he's come to be known as, has just got Marc and I both wrapped around his tiny lil' finger. I can literally feel my insides turn to liquid gewy mush when I look at him. And he's got this roll of fat under his chin that is the perfect spot for kisses!! Ahhhh, seriously can't get enough. Anyways, I'll let some pics do the rest of the talking for me. Enjoy. :)

The nurses must have had a pretty slow night the other night. One of his favorite nurses Linda worked her way over to him and dressed him up for a little photo shoot. Ha Ha! We were quite surprised when we checked out her pics.

Who is more fascinated with who???

This represents a lot of how Marc and I see Jude. We peek on the side to see if his eyes are open or not. I got a pic cause I am sure someday I will forget a lot of
this.

He's gained about 2 lbs now and I think 1 lb has all gone to his checks!!

I think there is about two weeks difference in these pics!! AMAZING!!

He's getting so big!! Our lil' man soon won't be so little!

Da boiz!! Love 'em! I'd be so lost without them!! Love love love love!!

"Jude the Dude"

2010-10-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

Well, our little guy is doing really well. They had to put him on oxygen this week but we are still feeling really positive that things are going well. He also has a new spot in the NICU. He is now in nursery B. I had to do some "annoying the staff" to get him there and now that he is, I see why I had to fight a little. It is so quiet and peaceful over there. We are so thrilled that he can get some real deep sleep. He now weighs in at a whopping 4 lbs 15 oz!! So he is growing well and we just can't get enough of him. We are trying to not poke at him a whole lot so he can get the appropriate amount of sleep he needs to develop properly and it is so hard. He's just so cute! Anyhoo... Here are some new pics of our little guy.

GO UTES!!

His first bath in the big boy tub!!

His first outfit!

A little to the left!!

Such hard work getting a bath!!

Baby Jude

2010-10-05T06:58:00.000-07:00

He just couldn't wait to come out and party. He just didn't know he wasn't invited yet!! Lil' Stinker!!

Well, Jude came painfully into this world, with his momma kickin and screamin some swears the whole way, on Friday morning, October 1st, at 3:49 am. Weighing in at 4lbs 1 oz and 16 inches long. And he is just AMAZING!!!

Hard to be mad at him for coming so earlier when he is just so dang cute!!!

He sure is tiny. It is comforting to see he is definitely not the smallest guy in there too. They refer to him as one of the "bigger babies!" It is so amazing what God has blessed us with in the advancements of medicines. We feel so fortunate to be where we are and where Jude is getting the best care possible. He is so tinsy tiny but carries such a HUGE spirit with him. It warms your soul to be near him. Which I am sure is due to the fact that such a short time ago he was in our saviors arms. Hopefully promising he'll be with him again some day. He is truly an amazing person already. You can just feel it when you're near him. Which makes it sooo hard to leave him there. You want to be near him at all times so your heart can just feel at peace. awww.... I just love him.

Now for some awww momemts that we have captured on camera....

And just incase those were not enough to just knock you over... This one should do the trick!

Don't say I didn't warn you!! SERIOUSLY though!! How do you catch a negative two month old crackin a smile. He's just laughin cause he knows he is going to work us over some day!!

India & Nepal...Wow

2009-06-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

For the first few weeks of May Lindsay and I traveled to India and Nepal. We spent about 2 weeks backpacking around and taking in as many sights as possible. In total we took 9 flights, 4 trains and countless taxis. We started the trek in Mumbai, India. This was recently made famous by the "Slumdog Millionaire" movie and is an absolutely amazing city. to get a really good sense for what Mumbai is like please read Lonely Planets introduction. I have heard countless times that Mumbai is best described as "London on acid" and after bieng there I can see why. After Mumbai we took a night train to the capital city of Delhi. This city is made up of two parts; organized/cosmopolitan New Delhi and medieval/chaotic Old Delhi. From there we took a flight up to Kathmandu, Nepal and spent 4 days taking in that amazing country. After Nepal we made our way down (via train/plane) to one of the most unique places on earth: Varanasi, India. This city is were Hindus come at least once in their life to wash in the holy Ganges river. Furthermore, it is one of the highest aspirations of all Hindus to die and be cremated on the banks of the river in Varanasi. As a result of this you have an old medieval city on the banks of the Ganges that has a constant stream of bathing pilgrims, burning bodies, touts looking for tourists, etc. Needless to say it is truly amazing! India is the ultimate traveler destination. I have always heard that but I never quite knew why they said it. Furthermore, I would always hear people describe India as just: "incredible, unbelievable and exhausting." I now know why they say it....the minute you step off the plane you are bombarded with the sights, sounds and smells of India. After that moment, you realize how indescribable it is! Every moment you are in that country you are confronted with shocking poverty, cows roaming free, grinding traffic, kind people, dangerous taxi rides, architecture, religion, etc, etc, etc. Nepal is not that much different then India although it has much more of a mountain/tourist feel as a result of all the trekking tourist. Kathmandu however is just an amazing city! Here are just a few of the highlights from the trip: 1. Getting in 2 accidents while riding taxis in Mumbai 2. Mountain flight over Mt. Everest and the rest of the Himalayas 3. Cycle rickshaw rides through snarling traffic in Delhi. 4. The incredible and breathtaking Taj Mahal 5. Early morning boat ride along the Ganges to watch people bath 6. Chillin near Chowpatty beach in Mumbai people watching 7. Eating dinner and chillin with our buddies from Kathmandu (we meet on the street). 8. Eating lunch over looking the Kathmandu Valley at Steve's house (we meet Steve on a trek in Nepal. 9. Walking through an Indian train station...the experience is so chaotic it is unreal. 10. Getting an afternoon layover in Amsterdam! All in all we had an amazing trip...my only complaint is that we had WAY to little time! We tried to do the sub-continent (India/Nepal) in 2 weeks when it could easily take 2 years to really get a feel for it!

Lazy Weekends

2009-03-09T21:39:00.000-07:00

I wish there was something really exciting for me and Lindsay to report but there isnt. We have just been doing a lot of chillin lately, in fact, this video of our dog Sundance pretty much sums up how active we have been :) We can't wait for spring so we can head outside and enjoy the mountains!

P.S. Sorry about the "doggy voice" in the video!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-12T18:34:00.000-08:00

Marc and I made some freakin yummy cookies for Valentine's Day that we can't leave alone!! Mmmmmm......

Back to Chicago!!

2009-02-09T21:18:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Lindsay and I went back to Chicago to see "Wicked" and to do some shopping. We had a great little hotel right off the magnificant mile and just hung out, shopped and took in all the great architectire! Although it was FREEZING (6 degrees) we had a blast.

We saw the last showing of Wicked in Chicago so they put on a great show. We also took in some of the major architectural sites like The John Hancock Building, Tribune Tower, Wrigley building, etc, etc. We both agree that we think Chicago is one of the coolest cities in the country...un-intimidating, beautiful and exciting.