What I Have Been Busy With

 

So my sister Emily kept bugging me to write on my blog but I was busy and here are the pictures to prove it. I made, all by myself may I add, 8 baby quilts. I even made up one of the patterns just from seeing some pictures online of quilts like it. The reason why I had to make so many was I am on a committee for Festival of Trees and I had to make 8 item to be sold at the shop there. So here are the quilts I made.

 

 

 

So there they are. The zig zag quilt is the one that I made up. I want to do a tutorial for on my blog but I am working on decorating my house for Christmas and getting presents wrapped and finished so when I finally get a second I will work on finishing the tutorial. It was very therapeutic to sew and I have always liked sewing. I don't think that sewing is cheaper than therapy but I do have something to show for all the money spent.

Thanksgiving was good this year. First we went to Cody's parents house at one. After dinner Cody's parents had to fly to San Diego so we went to our house for my families Thanksgiving. We ended up having it here at our house because my parents have downgraded their house because only Amelia is home now. Speaking on Millie she turned 18 this last week! I feel soooo old! So back to Thanksgiving we had it here and it was a packed house! At one time all of my family was here. 7 kids, 6 spouses, 1 Perrie, 2 parents, 4 grandkids, and a partridge in a pear tree (well in a Christmas tree which has been up since the second week of December). This year Cody wanted a 9 foot Christmas tree but I don't have enough ornaments for the whole tree so I put them on the front where you see them.

So this is why I have been busy.

Halloween

 

Here is Tatum and his cousin on Halloween at my parent’s house. This year I decided I wanted to sew Tatum’s costume so in August I bought all of the fabric and pattern and knew that I had 3 months to sew it but of course I procrastinated but luckily I cut it out (which took all day). So the week on Halloween I knew I better start so I asked my mom, who has sewn all her life, it took both of us sewing all day 2 days to sew his costume. Lesson learned. Yes it is way cute and I can say that I have sewn a costume but I will never do it again. That costume was a monster but so cute! So for Halloween we went to my parents to see Collin and Emily and we got some really cute pictures of the 2 of them together. Afterwards we went to Cody’s parents to hang out. So that was our Halloween. I will post later on why it has taken me so long to post.

Babys Grow Fast

Tatum is growing sooo fast. He has been crawling like crazy. So today I was helping my friend Abby move and Tatum was playing with her phone and chewing on it. I took it away and gave it to her and she set it on a box beside her. Tatum was crawling all over her floor and saw a box (which he loves to play with) and crawled up to it and pulled himself up onto his knees. Tatum has never pulled himself up onto his knees so I was so excited. He kept reaching for the phone, (he loves playing with phones, remotes, or controllers he's his father's son) which he really wanted, and pushed it into the box so he decided that he wanted it even more so he pulled himself onto his FEET! I couldn't believe it! He is growing way too fast. Nothing much more exciting but I just thought that I would share Tatum's comings and growings.

LIfe Goes On

Wow it has been forever since I have written. I have a lot of excuses. 1) My laptop sucked 2) I forgot my password and the email address that I had used 3) Children suck all your time, yeah they are freakin cute but dang I miss Heather time 4) Any other thing I can think of to keep me away from the computer and typing. I am a very slow typer. I'm not even kidding. In Jr High I took typing and it was on typewriters and also in college my little sister would type my papers for me. I would write them down and then she would type them for me. I think that is one of the reason I fell in love with Cody cause he was a computer guy and he could do all the computer stuff for me and I would never have to worry about it. So one reason I am actually writting on my blog is because we finally have a computer in a central part of the house and I have no more excuses.
Life has been going so fast. Tatum is 7 months old and is crawling like crazy. I will put him in the living room on the floor and I turn around and he is gone. He likes the kitchen floor which forces me to clean it more often than once a quarter. (I'm not exaggerating). I always said that I was never going to get married but I was going to adopt 20 kids, then it changed to getting married and having 6 to 8, and now I would like to change that to maybe 4. Dang children are a lot harder than I thought. I can see now why children think that their moms are a little crazy cause we drove them there and left them without keys to return home. I mean I love being a mom and it is the best job ever and I have a VERY WELL behaved child (Heavenly Father knows I couldn't handle a naughty baby right now or you would find me in fetal position crying) I have come to a greater understanding of my mother and all the mothers around me and I really look up to them. I am going to be brutally honest right here: Hormones are a bitch. That is all that I have to say on that.
I've decided that I am going to use this blog to vent and clear my head, a kind of free therapy, and I am going to be honest and some may not like what I have to say but there are things that I have to say that if I don't then I just might explode. With that I am putting out there something that not many people know. After I had Tatum I was suffering from postpartum depression. It took me a while to figure out what was wrong with me and when I finally did I didn't want to tell my husband. I felt that I was less of a women for feeling the way I did. Now I never wanted to throw my child out the window.... well sometimes and I have to argue that I think he would like it. I also felt like I should be happy and have no clouds above me because I had such a well behaved baby and also seeing those close to me suffer with babies that weren't healthy or my own sister having lost her 2 precious babies I felt I should be happy and just get over it. But I couldn't no matter how hard i tried. Any small thing would set me off into depression and tears. I am so grateful for Cody and him always being there for me holding me when I needed to be held and holding me even when I wanted to push him away. I always thought that depression was in your head and that you can get over it, and well it is in your head, but chemically and nothing you can control. It was hard to except this fact but I feel that embracing it is actually a step out of the "clouds" you feel trapped in. SO when I finally told Cody when I would have my "episodes" we knew what the deep problem was. If I would start to crying then it was very hard to stop. I would have about an "episode" every other day and we weren't sure what to do about it. So I tried working out and that helped a little but one bad day and everything was shot to Hell. There was one time while I was being good and working out and I had a bad day and fell into a bag of Reese peanut butter cups and from that almost entire bag I gained all that I had worked so hard to lose. I tried everything I could think of and yes a lot of things helped for a second and then something else would set me off. Finally Cody and I decided that I needed to see a doctor so a little over 3 months ago I finally went to my OB and we talked and she asked me what I had done to try to ward off depression. She was so understanding that I didn't feel broken or ashamed. So she put me on a medicine called Wellbutrin. It took 2 weeks to finally start working and slowly the "episodes" came less and less. Now I only have an "episode" about once a month or maybe 2 but I think all girls understand what one of those "episodes" really is (PMS). I went to see my doctor last week and I asked her how long people are usually on meds for postpartum depression and she said at least 6 months and then they try weaning you off slowly. I have to say that I was embarrassed but I know it WAS NOT in my control. I am finally feeling in control. I will never think of depression in the same way again. I asked Cody if I was back to the Old Heather yet and he said just about but I think that I am (at least on medicine) I mean children change your life completely and so the Old Heather didn't have many cares whereas now I worry all the time about my baby, the economy, dinner, and everything else that is thrown my way day to day when it used to be just me and Cody to worry about. I feel I have truly grown from this experience and I will be a better wife and mother as time passes.
Wow I didn't think that I would ever admit all that. Still as I write this I am thinking of pushing the delete button or hoping that the power goes out and having not saved all this writing I will have an excuse for not writing it again. Well none of that happened so I guess I am going to push publish and hope that this doesn't come back to bite me or that I will regret this but why should I care what others think about me. I know what the people I love think about me and they love me for I am. CRAZY! So here goes cause now I am just stalling.....

Wisdom Teeth

Ok so I finally have something to write about. I had my wisdom teeth out on Thursday. My dentist gives you 3 sleeping pills and an anti nausea pill. I took these pills 45 mins before my appointment so when I showed up they get you all comfy so you can fall asleep. So they put the gas on me and started to numb me up and I started watching Grounded for Life. The dentist kept coming in and checking on me but I still wasn't asleep nor was a tired. I was very very very comfy with the laughing gas but not tired. Finally they gave me another pill (which he says he has never given a patient more than 3) and turned out the lights so I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. It never came so they started pulling out my 4 wisdom teeth. So I was able to watch my entire movie and have all 4 teeth extracted (only one was impacted) and I was awake the entire time (which my dentist says has never happened with one of his patients before). I feel like a medical mystery. I have been really good though. I mean I have been soar and a little swollen but I think that I have fared well.
In other news Tatum is growing like a weed. He is now wearing 3 to 6 months clothes and just turned 3 months today. He is so much fun. He has turned into a thumb sucker. He wakes up in the middle of the night and noisily tries to get his thumb in his mouth but manages to turn himself sideways. It is so nice to have family around who is willing to watch him and even some take him over night for me and Cody's sanity. He slept over at my parents on Friday night and they said that he was really good.. which is nice cause I told Tatum to not burn any bridges so others wouldn't not want to take him for the night.
I already got my mothers day present. I had decided a while ago that I wanted a VitMix blender that they demo at Costco. So we were at Costco yesterday and they said this was the last time they were here until September so I "talked" (Cody is a sucker to me) into getting me the blender now. We have already used it once and am going shopping tomorrow to make a bunch of stuff. We also got the attachment that grinds wheat. This blender does everything! It makes juices, smoothies, and even soups because the blades go so fast. I am way excited to try a bunch of things out and maybe even get my daily veggies eaten. Tatum also got his Easter gift early. We were at Cody's parents last Sunday and our sister-in-law brought over an exersaucer for Tucker to play in. We put Tatum in it as well to see how he would do and he seemed to like it. So we bought one on sale at Target and it is cute and all but I guess the one our sister-in-law- has is a little older and therefore in his exersaucer he is a few inches too small so his feet just hang there. It is really cute but I think he will have fun as he gets older.

Life Goes On

I know that I haven’t written in a long time. I guess that I have been busy and yet I feel like I have nothing much to write about. Tatum had his baby blessing the first of this month so afterwards we had a lot of people of here to celebrate. It was a lot of fun but very busy and I have to say that I am still recovering.
We had a great weekend. Cody was off work Friday thru Monday so it was a nice and long weekend. On Friday we went with Cody’s family to lunch and then we went to the Draper temple. It was beautiful! It was so awesome to get to go into the celestial room with me, Cody, and Tatum. He slept through the whole thing but I wish he could have been awake because he would have loved the chandelier. He loves to look at lights and Emily’s living room ceiling light is his best friend. He loves to look at it and smile and try to laugh. He is getting more and more fun. He likes to sit in his bouncer and try to figure out his hands to try to get to the toys. He is very awake in the morning (much to my and Cody’s dismay) and is all smiles when he first wakes up. He wakes up at 7 to 8 but with the time change he wakes up between 7 and 8. You would think that he would change to 8 to 9 but no he has already figured out the time change. We got him a bumbo and he likes to sit in it. I will have to get a picture of him sitting in it. He doesn’t sit in it for long periods of time. He is getting a lot stronger too and a lot of work. I have finally been figuring Tatum out. He goes to sleep really good at night but during the day he has to fall asleep with me holding him then I can put him down and get things done. He was getting up 2 times a night and then I read What to Expect the First Year and it said that by 3 months he should be only waking up 1 time a night. The book suggests letting you baby cry for up to 30 min and then try to comfort without feeding and it that doesn’t work feed but smaller amounts. So the first night we tried this he cried for 10 min and then went back to sleep and from then on he has only been waking up 1 time a night. It has been really nice plus with Cody’s help there are nights when I don’t have to get up at all except in the morning cause Cody does not get up well in the morning.
Well Tatum is wake again and so he thinks he is hungry so I must go!

Romantic Evening

I am so so so so thankful to Megan and Jim for watching Tatum last night! It was so nice to have a night off and get a full 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. So yesterday I knew Valentines Day was next week and I wanted to do something romantic for Cody and figured that it would be more of a surprise if it was this week and not next so I dropped Cody off at work in the morning and ran a bunch of errands to get ready for the evening. I even went to Costco and bought roses to put on the floor leading to the bedroom.I kinda felt like isn’t the boy supposed to do this but to be honest I didn’t see Cody buying flowers and destroying them but instead giving them to me so I could appreciate them more. It felt so romantic. After we dropped Tatum off to Megan’s we went out for dinner and then when we got home I told Cody that he couldn’t come in until I came to get him. Before I had left I put the rose petals on the ground so when I came inside I just had to light the candles and bring in the sparkling cider and chocolate covered strawberries (which I made myself earlier that day thanks to the night before want of chocolate covered pretzels) and then I brought him in. He was totally surprised and we had a wonderful evening. First thing he did was get out the camera and take pictures of the candles everywhere and the rose petals and the food. We even had time to watch a movie (Hoosiers and I hated it!) and we went to bed by 11. I was so tired that I thought that I was going to pass out but we had a lot of fun being with each other.
With Weight Watchers I figured that I would post online how I am doing week to week. I started on Monday and I was 240 (even since I had Tatum I have been around 233 to 238 but since I was having my monthly visitor I was a little heavier). I never thought I would let myself get this big especially since I was down to 160 over a year ago but I did. So I have my weigh in days set for Saturday and this morning I weighed 234. So I am down 6 pounds this week (granted my weight fluctuates about 3 to 5 pounds during the day) but I am proud of myself. I think it will be more real to me when I get out of the 230s where I have been since after Tatum was born.

Literaly 3 am Feeding

Well if you couldn't tell by the title what I am doing by the title of my post I will describe what I am looking at: a milk induced cute coma boy who has a little milk mustache and a half smile going at the wonderful thoughts of milk fairies dancing in his head. Life is so hard for little boys! I would like to go to sleep and dream of food. I had a little break down yesterday. I joined Weight Watchers (for a third time in my life) on Monday. I figured I was going to have to join and seeing as to how I gained 50 pounds during my pregnancy. I blame it on it also being my first year of marriage as well. I have lost 20 pounds since Tatum was born but I guess I have to work off the other 30 plus the other weight I gained before I got pregnant bring the grand total to lose to get down to premarriage weight: 70 pounds! Wow! But hey I dug my hole for myself so I will have to dig my way back pound by pound. I have done Weight Watchers 3 times in my life. The first time I lost 40 pounds and kept it off for 5 months until I was put on birth control before I got married. The second time I did Weight Watchers I prepaid for 3 months and ended up pregnant after 3 or 4 weeks. So I hope to have better results this time around like I had the first. I think the thing that helps the most is having support to lose weight. My support this time around has been my sister Emily. She really and truly is inspiring me. She has already lost 15 or so pounds exercising and watching what she eats and you can tell by looking at her. I have to say that what is helping is jealousy. To be honest the only reason I joined and had such great success the first time was my best friends were doing Weight Watchers and losing weight and getting all sexy and I was getting fatter and more jealous. I have been really good this week except last night I would have killed for some chips and salsa (not store bought) and/or chocolate. I have to admit that I even swore because I wanted it so bad. So Cody, after giving me a Heather Anne for swearing (is he my mother?), helped me dip chocolate covered pretzels to eat. I wasn’t terrible because I didn’t eat tons of dipped pretzels (just a ton of chocolate during the process) but afterwards all I could think about was why didn’t I just go do something to distract myself? Oh well I am still within my weekly points but I guess Friday night date night I will have to be good when we go out to eat cause I am about out of my extra weekly points. I think that I will continue to write about my weight (whether it be gainage is losage (I love making words up!)) because it is vary therapeutic to vent my food frustrations. This is why I would like to join Tatum in his food dreams but I would like to invite the fresh made chips and salsa dipped in chocolate fairies…. So back to bed with the both of us and I wish my 3 followers (including Cody who is already dreaming of food while I feed but hey I will cut him a break cause he was on the phone until midnight with people from India for work while I slept and drooled) happy food dreams!

Finally a Blog

Ok I finally gave in and started a blog. I am not every computery at all so it will take me a while to get a hang of this. I told by my sister that I should start a blog but I would wait until I had my baby thus something interesting to write about. Tatum is now 6 weeks old and a lot of fun but a lot of work. I have always heard that things you work the hardest for worth more to you and that is totally true with children. Tatum was born December 22 and we go to bring home our baby boy on Christmas Eve. What a present he was. I was due January 4 but I had preeclampsia so my doctor induced me 2 weeks early. It is 11:30 right now and my son's fever is finally breaking and I am very sleepy so I am going to head to bed but I will continue to set up my blog. So happy blogging!