Sweet Sadie

For those of you that don't know, we had our little girl last week. She was born Monday, May 4th at 4:20 pm. Long story short, my blood pressure spiked. We went to our appointment and were sent immediately to the hospital to be induced. I was 38 weeks along, so we were confident that things would be fine. We checked in at noon (dilated to a three), water was broke at 12:30, at 1:30 pitocin was started, at 2:30 I was dilated to a five (at that point epidural was started), at 3:30 I was dilated to an eight, then at 4:20 our sweetheart was born. The labor was super fast and easy. I only pushed for ten minutes y fue muy facil. (Kurt wrote that- it was easy- thanks Kurt). We named her Sadie Rose after my grandma. She is the sweetest thing ever. She nursed immediately and is much better at it than I am. We are in awe of the difference that a smooth delivery and a healthy baby can make. We feel so blessed to have her here and healthy.

Surprisingly, Mason, already loves and cares for his little sister. The first thing that he asks for every morning is to see the baby, followed by Curious George (Hey, he's pretty cool too). Whenever she cries, he gets a concerned look on his face and must find her to offer support. However, this may make you think that he is an angel, do not be deceived! We have had several occasions, when naughty Mason attacks Sadie. Scratches, fastballs, head palming, crib shaking, eye poking, blanket stealing, etc. are all among his favorite ways to bond with his sister.

Here are a few pics from Sadie's first week.

Is it lame to post about Christmas a month late?

This is old news, but I still wanted to post about our Christmas in Manti...

Christmas Eve included good food, bad/fun karaoke, and bad Christmas outfits from Kurt, Bud, and Brody (thanks Jimmy Shaha for loaning Kurt his Christmas attire; we still need to get that back to you!)

Christmas morning Mason went straight to Elmo even though he had a room full of fun things. The next thing he noticed was the grill on his new kitchen, which he repeatedly told us was hot.

We also got to go sledding and bowling in Manti. Both were a first for Mason. He didn't like sledding, but he liked the snow and he loved the bowling lane, but hated that he couldn't run down it. We spent the entire night battling with him. Good times!




Thanks Keisel family for a great Christmas holiday!

5 years ago today...

Five years ago today I married my best friend. It was a fabulous event in my opinion; one that I look back on with so much happiness and joy. The day was great, but what I think has been even better has been the time Kurt and I have spent with each other the last five years. Here are my top five favorite moments from our marriage so far (in no particular order):

1. Two days after we were married, we were scheduled to fly to Cancun for our honeymoon. We had a 6:00 am flight that Kurt worked really hard to get. As soon as we got to the airport I realized that I didn't not bring my birth certificate or my driver's license. There was no way I was getting on a plane to Cancun without those two things. I immediately burst into tears... I am talking sobs. I felt so bad! So I just cried and cried some more. As we gathered our luggage and waited for another shuttle to take us back to Diamond parking I looked over to see Kurt crying too. Not because I had ruined one whole day in Cancun, but because he felt so bad for me. He was crying too! I knew at that moment that I had married a very sweet guy who wasn't embarrassed to cry in public, but also was concerned about my feelings.

2. On a weekend getaway to Manti, Kurt and I decided to go four wheeling up the canyon. We were riding along on this trail when all of a sudden a HUGE bird was in front of us. Kurt swerved and I ducked and luckily the bird wasn't hit. We laughed as we continued on, contemplating how funny it would have been if we had hit a bird. The next thing we knew the bird was chasing after us. I was yelling at Kurt to go faster as the bird gained on us. I started screaming, "It hit me! It hit me!" when I felt feathers on my head. The chase/attack was about 30 seconds long; all the while I was screaming "It hit me!" When the bird was finally gone and we stopped the four wheeler on safe ground, Kurt touched his head only to find that he was bleeding profusely. Apparently when I had felt the bird's feathers on my head it was digging it's talons into Kurt's head, yet I was the one screaming that it had hit me. Kurt's head healed, we stopped laughing, and were eventually informed by the forest ranger that we had been attacked by a Goshawk. Here is a blurb from the encyclopedia on Goshawks "Adults defend their territories fiercely from everything, including passing humans." I would definitely agree with the phrase "fiercely"!

3. Last year when Kurt and I went on the Western Caribbean cruise with his family, Kurt had a surprise for everyone on formal night. He had gone to the DI and bought the ugliest and tightest suit I had ever seen. Then, he wore it proudly among everybody else's evening gowns and tuxedos. But, wearing it was just not enough for Kurt. He attracted all kinds of attention by posing for pictures with statues, singing, and of course dancing. He danced all by himself in the middle of the disco for a good 10 minutes while we all died laughing watching him and listening to everybody else comment on how drunk that guy must be. Even though he looked ridiculous, I loved every minute of it and him.

4. Last year when I was pregnant with Mason Kurt and I decided that we would go to Carmax and see what they would give us for my car so that we could get a newer, safer one for the baby. I don't know if any of you have ever been to Carmax, but if you haven't let me just explain how it works. They take you back to this cubicle while they send someone out to assess how much your car is worth. When they were done, two men came back to the cubicle to go over everything with us. They started playing this power point on the computer that basically told us how great our tires looked, and how clean the car was etc. After going through every detail of my car they asked us if we were ready to find out how much my car was worth. The anticipation was killing us! Then they clicked to the next slide to tell us that my car was worth a whopping $250. We immediately DIED laughing. We just couldn't stop! The two men sat there straight faced as we struggled to get composure. After like 5 minutes of us laughing, finally the two men left to let us talk over our decision to sell or not. As soon as they left, I turned to Kurt to break him in on the news that I had just peed my pants! Yes I did! I peed my pants in Carmax. Kurt just died laughing again then worked quickly to clean off the chair with Kleenex. I made it out of there without anybody knowing, but to this day Kurt and I can't get over that experience.

5. I don't have a specific event in mind, but one of my favorite experiences in our marriage includes Mason. The very best thing is just hanging out in my family room with Kurt while we watch Mason be silly. Kurt and I just laugh and laugh at Mason. He is probably the only other person that I can do this with - that doesn't get bored watching how cute my son is.

It has been a great five years. I look forward to many more. I love you Kurt!

P.S. If you made it through this long post I thought that I would reward you with the news that we are having a little girl!

It has been a long time, but I am coming back strong

Well, it would be ridiculous to recount everything that I have failed to post these last few months so I will just tell you the big things.

Mason turned 1 in September. We had a football themed party. I would post cute pictures of it except we lost our camera. I don't want to talk about it.

Since Mason was little we have been trying to teach him the baby sign language. In September he just took off with it. Here is a list of all the things he signs (a majority of them he actually says when he signs them)

1. more
2. all done
3. water
4. juice
5. eat/food
6. dog
7. banana
8. cracker
9. hot
10. milk
11. grandma/grandpa
12. hurt

We are loving that he communicates with us. It makes things so much easier and there is a lot less tears. The funniest part about it though, is getting a glimpse into his mind. For example, he is a big fan of the "all done" sign. As soon as I put him in the bath, the car seat, etc. he politely informs me that he is all done. The other day we just sat down in Sacrament and he repeatedly told me that he was all done. We now know to expect that about three to four times a week Mason will wake up in the middle of the night and as we are struggling to put him back to sleep he will let us know he is all done sleeping. It could be 3:00 am and Mason is telling me in a nutshell, "yeah, I'm all done sleeping for the night, so don't waste your time trying to rock me back to sleep." It is more humorous in the morning than at 3:00 am.

In August Kurt and I went to Maui to celebrate our five year anniversary. Really our anniversary isn't until December, but that is a hard time to travel so we went in August. Mason stayed with my mom and had a great time without us. A second honeymoon to Hawaii = a second baby. Baby #2 will be coming to a hospital near you this May. I am about 16 weeks along. We checked for gender but the baby was in a bad position, so we will wait until December for that bit of news. We were not planning on it, but we are thrilled!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Yeah, I know... I am a crappy blogger lately. Things have just been so crazy. Kurt and I both got new callings in a new ward that have pretty much consumed all of our free time for the past month. Not that I am complaining. I love serving in the Primary and I feel so satisfied working with these young kids. It has just been a lot of work setting up a brand new Primary and nursery from scratch. I am sure it will calm down soon enough.

Mason is just so dang cute! I can't believe how old he acts. He plays with cars like he is a four-year-old. He pushes them around, lays on his tummy to examine the wheels, and makes a loud humming noise whenever we see or pass a truck on the road. We love watching him make those kind of connections.

Some new things with Mason are:
1. We now brush his two teeth. He just loves it! We go through the entire act of spitting, rinsing the mouth with water etc. He thinks he is so big.

2. We switched him to a front-facing car seat. It makes life so much easier and it is a lot of fun being able to show him things out the window.

3. His favorite thing to do right now is push rubber balls down our stairs. We bought a bag of 100 balls and one by one Mason pushes them down the stairs. He lays there with his butt in the air and watches them plop down each step. Then he claps with delight. It is a huge mess! There are balls all over my house, but I love it.

4. We have conquered all of our sleep woes. I now feed him a bottle, lay him in his bed, and simply walk away - ahhh! It is so great! Sleep at our house could not get any better. To all of you out there who are dealing with sleep woes, hang in there!

Now on to other matters of business. I know that there is a new Twilight book out, I think it is called Breaking Dawn. Even though I am not a huge fan, I read the other books and now need to complete the series to find out if he bites already. To be honest I am rooting for Jacob. I feel like that romance is a little more believable. My whole point in telling you this, is that I am looking to borrow the book from anyone who has it and is done reading it. I would purchase it myself, but I don't love it, so I don't know that I really want to own it. So if anybody in the neighborhood has a copy for me to borrow, let me know. Then I can write a negative post about the book that will get me kicked out of the "Universal Book Club" yet again.

I'm not sure when I'll post again...

We're back

We have been to the pool, to Lagoon, to Lake Powell, to Manti, and back to the pool. Here is what you missed...

Mason at the Manti pool with his Keisel cousins. Notice the Manti temple in the background.

"Mister Lake Powell" catching some rays.

Mason loves wheels, so he was thrilled to see this big round thing on the top of the boat.

Bath time with cousin Caleb.

A Weekend of Firsts

The fourth of July weekend was all about "firsts" for Mason (we are still keeping in line with The Summer of Mason). For the first time...

1. Mason was extremely pleasant with my family all day long. Apparently he has a lot of respect for our country's independence. He was outside all day and missed a nap, but still showed great personality and enthusiasm for the days activities. Our temperamental child surprised us all by being so pleasant.

2. Mason rode a horse. During the day we went downtown to Heritage Park. They had a ton of activities to do including a pony ride. Mason was not quite sure about the big horse at first, but by the end I think he really enjoyed himself.

3. Mason went to a petting zoo. He absolutely loved the animals and would squeal with delight whenever they got close to him. I did feel bad for the animals though because Mason was extremely rough with them. Often hitting them and pulling their hair.

4. Mason discovered a glow stick. It entertained him for hours while we waited for the fireworks to start. It was such a great babysitter, we even took it to church with us yesterday.

5. Mason went boating. He absolutely hated wearing his life jacket, but he loved the lulling bounces of the boat that eventually put him to sleep. His favorite part however, was when we were loading the boat. He would stand on the bow and yell as if he were the captain.

What a great weekend! I am excited for many more like it the rest of the summer.