Thursday, March 19, 2009

St. George and a Wedding

(By Aubree)

Just so you all know, I posted 3 posts today, so if this one is too long for you to read and you want to skip it, the next 2 are mostly pictures!

This post is a little late, but we wanted to write about it. The first week in March we went down to St. George because Jeff went to a work-related water convention. He had to get a hotel anyway, so Clara and I decided to join him. We were there for 3 nights. On the way down, Clara slept most of the way until just before Cedar City. We had to stop to feed and change her and then she fussed for a little while, but finally slept again. She slept really well that night at the hotel. I think it was the first night that she slept for 7 hours straight, which was surprising for how much she slept during the day.

During the days, while Jeff was gone to the convention, Clara and I went shopping and took walks in the nice weather. It was nice and relaxing.

We didn't dare go out to eat with Clara--you just never know how she's going to act. So we ordered in every night. The first night we had some really good Mexican food, the second night we had some pretty good Chinese, and the last night we had hamburgers, fries, onion rings, and shakes.

The last full day we were there we decided to get Clara's pictures taken at Kiddie Kandids that was across the street from our hotel. Boy, was that an experience! We had made an appointment, and I had timed it just right. She had just woken up and I fed her so she was happy and smiling. But we got there, and waited and waited and waited. It was more than 1 hour and 15 minutes later when they took us back. By this time, Clara was hungry, tired, and fussy. Although Clara was unhappy, I thought we got some pretty good pictures. But I'm sure we could have got some great ones if we had been able to get in when we were supposed to. When it was time to choose the photo package, the girl rushed us and was acting all sorts of impatient. In retrospect, I would have totally redone some of the pictures we chose! Nevertheless, it's nice to now have some good-quality pictures of her.

That night we also went over to Jeff's old mission president's (President Larkin) house to visit with him and his cute wife. They are always so nice to visit with, and she has such good decorating skills. I love to look around to get ideas to decorate my own house.

We left St. George on Friday morning, and on the way we picked up Katelyn, Jeff's niece. We made it to Farmington, did some laundry, relaxed, and stretched our legs for a couple of hours, then it was off to Smithfield. Once again Clara did really well until the very end. So in one day we went from the very south of Utah to the very north. We spent the night at Jeff's parents because his brother's wedding was on Saturday morning and we thought it would be easier to get ready there. Clara had a really bad night, and I was beyond exhausted, so Jeff took her and put her to sleep (he even had to drive around with her for a while). I have the best husband. Altogether though, I think we each got about 5 hours of sleep.

On Saturday I got her ready and she was wearing her pretty new dress and guess what happened? Do you remember her blessing day? Yep, she blew out AGAIN, only this one was way worse. It was almost as if she weren't even wearing a diaper. Luckily I had brought another dress. My sister Amy sat with Clara in the waiting room during the sealing and I was nervous about her being a little pill, but she was so good for her!! Thanks Amy! The sealing was beautiful.


Jacob and Amy at Clara's blessing. (We don't have any pictures from the wedding because we forgot our camera for this whole event-filled week!)

One thing that's funny is Jeff's brother Jacob married a beautiful girl named Amy, and Jeff's other brother Ben also has a wife named Amy, and I have a sister named Amy, so we have to use all sorts of code names when talking about our many sisters named Amy!

Surprise!

(By Aubree)

On Monday, my friends threw Lyndzi a surprise party because she is moving far away and because she is having a baby in June. We had lunch and chatted, and it was so much fun to get together. Lyndzi, I'm going to miss you so much!


Top from left: Me, Amelia, Lena
Bottom from left: April, Lyndzi


I think they both look so cute!!


Clara slept so good for me. I think she like to sleep with noise, because she always sleeps better in public.


April's daughter, Carlie


Amelia's son, Grayson


Lyndzi's son Camden. The balloons were a hit with the kids!

Do I dare say we have a routine?

(By Aubree)

Knock on wood! This week has been pretty good and consistent. Four nights in a row, Clara slept for 6 hours, woke up for about 20 to 60 minutes, and went going back to sleep for another 2 hours. Last night wasn't quite as good, but she slept for 4 and 1/2 hours and then 3 hours. This makes her mommy very happy!

Daytime is pretty much the same old, but I am seeing small improvements. She has found her fist, which soothes her for a short time, so she will sit by herself for a little longer than usual. She still wakes up when I try to put her in her crib during the day, which I don't understand because the last 2 nights she didn't even flinch when I put her down. She must be super tired from not sleeping well during the day. Actually, right now she is asleep on the couch, but we'll see how long that lasts. She take about an hour nap in the stroller on our daily walk (Mommy's favorite time of the day!).

Here are some current pictures.


I thought this one was funny, and it also shows her putting her fist in her mouth.



Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Two Month Check-up

(By Aubree)

On Monday I took Clara to the doctor for her two month check up. Here are her stats:
24 1/2 inches - 97th percentile - 3 1/2 inch gain since birth
12 lbs 6 oz - 90-95th percentile - 4 lb gain since birth
head - average
I don't know how this works, but he said that she is still lean for her height. I still don't know how they factor that.

Clara has been a lot of fun lately, but at the same time more difficult than last month. She has the smiling and gibberish thing down pat. It's so much fun to be able to connect with her a lot more. She is using her legs to push herself up while I'm holding her and she will sit on my knee with very little help except for balance. She enjoys the bath a lot more, which is nice. When she has no clothes on we will stand her up and there's something about the width of her abdomen and the skinniness of her legs that reminds us of a frog. We laugh every time we do it!

The reason why she is more difficult is that she is just fussy all day long. She still sleeps fairly well at night. I even get an occasional 7 hours straight! But during the day, that's another story because she just does not sleep well. She doesn't want to do anything except eat. There are moments when she will be happy and talk and smile with me, but that usually doesn't last more than 10 minutes. When I try to put her down she will sit by herself for about the same amount of time before she wants me to pick her up, and usually the only thing that will make her happy after that is nursing her. Some days are better than others, but I just find it so hard to try and get anything done during the day. I try to watch what I eat most of the time, but I think she has a little bit of colic.

All in all though, she really is a joy to have around and I know it can only get better from here. She has already shown small improvements. We love our little Clara!!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Clara's Blessing

(by Jeff)

Today was Clara's blessing day. We got up early and gave her a bath, got her fed, and dressed her in her blessing dress. Everything was going great, until we were just heading out the door. Clara decided to have a "blowout." We had to scramble to change her diaper and clean off her slip and her dress. Luckily, her onesie took the brunt of the mess. Anyway, we were still able to make it to church a few minutes early. We were a little worried that she would cry during her blessing because she has been pretty fussy most mornings this week. However, as soon as we got to church, she went to sleep and stayed asleep the whole meeting. She was a perfect angel during the blessing!

After sacrament meeting, we had a lunch with family and friends who had traveled down for the blessing. It was fun to visit with everyone on such a special day!


Our family

On the car ride to church

All of the Gittins grandchildren (Kelsey, Wes, Katelyn, and Clara)

Clara with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Ashcroft

Aubree's friend Amelia and her family

This picture has nothing to do with Clara's blessing, but it's Aubree's new favorite picture of Clara, and she told me I had to include it.