Little Bean

This time last year was a very different view than today. Hard to image it was just Josh, Lucy and I as we were patiently waiting for Baby Dewey to arrive. I understood the concept that I was about to become a Mom but what all that entailed I had absolutely no clue. The way in which this little person has changed us is amazing.

My letter to my little Bean. [it is long, and may bring happy tears. you've been warned]

Little Bean,

How time flies. Everyone says that, and yes I understand how fast it really does go. But goodness, nearly a year ago you came into this world as a small little person not having any idea what anything is and now you sit on the floor crawling all over, pulling yourself up, point at things (mainly the fan or window or Lucy the cat) and talking letting us know just what is going on. Nearly a year ago your biggest concern was eating and filling your tummy so you could rest. Now, still eating is a big thing but you also are concerned with where mommy went or what noise daddy is making and where Lucy ran to. The amount of knowledge and learning you've done in 11 short months is amazing. Growing hair, teeth and in length have been some big accomplishments and though painful at times (the teeth mainly) you have gotten through it with flying colors, and lots of cuddles from mommy and daddy. 

20 years from now I will tell you the story of the day you were born. Gosh, this brings tears to my eyes now just writing this. Hang on for a second, it gets better. Your mom can be emotional at times, bare with me. I will tell you how your Uncle Jimmy and I played Wii bowling and ninja games all day which made you squirm lots in my belly. I'll tell you how your Memaw came out and we tried so hard to get you to come when she was here but you must have been shy. I'll tell you how a regular doctor's appointment turned into a trip to the hospital to be admitted and how you would make an appearance about 12 hours later. 

While you have so many characteristics of both your mommy and daddy, many of which we are still learning and pointing out, you have lots of little things about you that remind us of your Memaw, Grandpa, Grandma Kim, Grandpa Dan, your Aunt Steph and Uncle Jimmy and even things about you remind me of your great grandma and grandpa whom you've never met and your grandpa Moon whom you've not met either. You truly are a mix and a melting pot of a person. That makes you so unique! 

Continuously I sit and remember those first few weeks with you. Gosh how lost and helpless I felt. My instincts came into play as to what to do, but it sure took a while. There just is no training to do or learn with a newborn. I expected the sleepless nights, which were in play, and the long days. Looking back now, I feel kind of silly for the questions I had, but they were valid at the time. After all, this is my first time doing this as it was yours. We made it though. Nothing we couldn't handle. I laugh now, but I remember a number of nights where me or daddy would wake up to feed or change you and we would be searching through the blankets on our bed for you. You were safe in your crib next to our bed but we were so extremely tired we just thought you were right there next to us in bed, didn't help that we'd fallen asleep many times in our bed so this was a pretty valid thing. Sleep deprivation was well underway. 

Many more years ahead of us now. This first year has been filled with so many laughs, giggles, cuddles, bumps, scrapes, naps and food fights. I want to remember everything about this first year. My heart is so full of love for you little guy, you may never know that. Your daddy and I are so proud of you and so proud to be your parents. God knew what he was doing when he chose us to be your parents and you to be our son. Tears again. I love you Jackson, more than you'll ever know.

Love, Mommy

The Story of Birth: Jackson

I've finally got some time to sit down and write up Jackson's birth story. At least I can start it and finish it later, and finally publish it out! Amazing how fast a day goes by when you are watching the clock for the next feeding and timing things, or trying to. My whole world is soaked up into Jackson and his needs. I love that little guy! He is so fun and I love watching him try to learn things, even watching his eyes as they follow me from side to side and watching as his tongue learns to wiggle around in his mouth.

So here is the journey that led to his birth.

Starting with a regular doctor appointment on Wednesday showed I wasn't even dilated. And here I was 4 days overdue. After putting a balloon in place, I began to have contractions, BAD ones. We headed back home to have lunch and by the time we were finished we decided to grab the bags and head to the hospital. We had to wait for a triage room, this was the day everyone was having babies! After getting a room and being there about an hour the nurse admitted us, at 4:30pm, and then my water broke (just felt like I peed my pants). It was baby time for sure! The whole shock factor was really setting in. We were going to have a baby.

Just after being admitted I was checked and already at 5cm dilated. Pretty quick, seeing as how 4 1/2 hours ago I wasn't even dilated. Fast forward to about 2am. My brother and husband asleep on the floor and couch. I had a yoga ball between my knees all night long and kept having to be turned from side to side. Baby was face up and should be face down. The nurse came in at 3am and checked me. 10 cm, fully dilated and ready to go! Now we were just waiting on my doctor, who was next door delievering another baby. At 4:30am my doctor came in and decided we would start pushing. We pushed and she turned Baby's head so he was faced the right way. This hurt! We were ready to go. At first it was just Josh and a nurse. We pushed for a while and then my doctor and a whole bunch of other nurses came in and we were ready to really get going. Josh was SUCH A GREAT COACH!! After every push he would tell me how good I did and how I could do it.

Then it got to where I was just pushing on my own, not waiting for them to tell me I was having a contraction. I just felt the need to push. As he was coming out I swear there was no liquid left, he did not slide right out! When he came out he just kept coming, and coming.  He was long! They laid him on me and I was just in shock. I couldn't cry because I was just in awe that this little....or rather large, person just came out of me. We created this person and now here he was to come into this world. It was so beautiful. He was born at 5:59am on Thursday September 22.

He was so big! 9lbs 6.8oz and 22 inches long!! We were later told by EVERYONE that I should have had a C-section because he was so large. When I was told I would have a big baby the week before, I was thinking 7-7 1/2 lbs. I hadn't even envisioned 9 lbs. It was not even part of my vocabulary. Ugh. The recovery process is still going on, and I'm doing much better. What a toll it takes on your body to have a baby, but so worth it! He is changing and doing things each day that I couldn't have imagined I would be a part of.

Still getting used to being called Mommy, but I absolutely love it! He is amazing and I wouldn't change a thing about it. I'm thankful for a healthy and smooth pregnancy and a fairly quick and smooth delivery.

This little guy is loved by so many people. I think he really was brought into this world for a reason. There are people that he won't get to meet but I know they would be so proud and would love him to pieces. I'll have to love him extra good for them too :)

A year in photos

While I began this post nearly 3 days before the end of the year, work and loading all these pictures has taken its time and now we are almost a whole week into the new year. Wow, where did this whole year go? Time sure has flown by. This year definitely had it's work cut out for it, and a fine job I might say that it did. Sounds like I'm giving a report card to someone, right?! {Disclaimer: you may experience a lot of pictures ahead. You were warned.}

This year had many milestones and events that took place and that took Josh and I to a new place in our lives. We spent most of our whole first year of marriage in a new place with new people and new things and learned a lot! To start this year off, a lot happened in just the first two months! Even though our wedding was last September, our first anniversary was this September and it was a big milestone.

In the first two months of this year (Jan & Feb) I graduated (actually in Dec '09), got a job transfer/offer and had to move out of state for this. Woah, woah, woah, back the horse up. Out of state?! Josh and I both grew up in Colorado and have lived there our whole lives, college included. While we've visited other states, never have we lived anywhere else. And especially in a place where we knew NO ONE. What a better test of a newly wed couple for their 1st year of marriage then to pick them up and smack them down in a whole different state away from all of their friends and family?! It was and still has been quite the test. I must say we've had our tough times and our great times, and we've gotten through all of those together. It really strengthened our relationship with each other knowing that we only had each other and we had to rely solely on each other. We've dated and been together for 5 years and just 1 year of marriage. I'm so glad we were able to experience this together. Don't get me wrong, we both miss our families & friends back in CO INCREDIBLY, but we've started to call Arizona home.

Here are some photos from the year, some are out of order, but you get the idea.

Breakfast the morning before we left with some family

Some of our dear friends, who now have those beautiful baby boys, the day before we left

Last stop as we left Colorado

We visited my brother in Oceanside, CA for Easter in April

A trip to the Botanical Gardens in April

A trip to the Botanical Gardens in April

A trip to the butterfly pavillion in April

A trip to the Botanical Gardens in April

We moved in March

We moved in March

I made homemade ravioli's, one of my cooking adventures, May



Helped my brother move from California to Colorado in June, we're in Oceanside here



Our first canyoneering trip in Arizona in June

Yes, I jumped off that (this isn't me though) in Arizona in June

Our first canyoneering trip in Arizona in June

Our first canyoneering trip in Arizona in June

The boys camping  in Colorado in June

The "titanic" boat incident, camping in Colorado in June

Visiting family in Colorado in June

Visiting family in Colorado in June

Visiting family in Colorado in June



Camping trip in Colorado in June



Josh being goofy :)

Lucy turns 1 year old in July

Steph & Erin get hitched in August

Along those same lines of moving to another state, how about the weather?! That is what I do for a living, forecast the weather. I absolutely love it and wouldn't change it for the world! Though, one of the things I do love about weather is the ability it has to change each and every day. You never know what the next day will bring. However, in Arizona most of the time the weather is exactly the same. No change. Who would want to forecast "Hot today, Hotter tomorrow"? I suppose the weather geek in me was excited to experience 114 degrees, but I'll be honest, it was brutal. And Josh works outside doing landscaping and irrigation so he felt it worse than I did, since I sit in a nice office. He sure has put his brain to work learning all the new plants and vegetation and the way things work down in the desert. Our condo now has multiple kinds of plants & cactus all over the place! Nonetheless, we survived our first summer in the desert!



Some other exciting things that happened this year for us: we got a couch! Yeah, yeah, laugh it out. We thought it was kinda funny too. We didn't have much to sit on in our living area. When we first moved we went out and got 2 chairs that recline a bit but didn't need much else just being the two of us.

We also went on our first real hiking/canyoning trip in June with some friends we met here in Phoenix. We went cliff jumping and hiking through a canyon up near Payson, AZ. What a blast!

For our first year anniversary we went up near Prescott, AZ and hiked, camped and went kayaking on a lake. So nice to explore parts of Arizona. Some of these places make it feel a bit more like Colorado in the higher terrain.

We have hiked South Mountain many times which is in Tempe, AZ right next to where we live. This is a huge mountain park and we haven't been able to explore it all but it is a great little hike to get your heart pumping.

Almost forgot, cooking! For some reason I got the cooking bug shortly after we moved. I think it was party due to the fact I didn't have anything else to do in my free time. I'd just graduated from college in December of last year and the lack of having to do homework and spend all my time at school had caught up with me. Plus, I didn't have anyone I knew to hang out with here besides Josh. I didn't have my Stephy to hang out with. So I began taking up cooking. I love cooking! I've always loved to cook, but over the course of this year I have really taken off with it. I love reading magazines with recipes, cookbooks, making my own recipes up and the list of daily blogs I read for cooking ideas and meals (and for pure enjoyment!) is quite long. I hope that I've inspired some others to go out and cook. It's really not that hard and a lot of meals can be made quick. You'd be amazed how quick I throw stuff together when I get home from work. Though my dishes may not be "Iron Chef" appearance approved, they taste pretty darn good!

We've also been fortunate to have 2 visits each from both sets of parents, we must be missed! On one of the visits this little bugger (picture above) came along, our nephew Kayden. His first real plane ride. We had a great weekend and loved having our families come out to visit us. The Dewey Hotel is open and rent is free, so plan your trip now! {However, you can't stay forever!}

Well as this post is well overdue and pretty long, kudos if you're still reading, I suppose I better head out.

We're looking forward to another great year full of adventures and so many wonderful things to come. See you very soon!