New Blog Address

My blog has moved! You should be automatically redirected in 6 seconds. If not, visit http://crabtreezy.wordpress.com and update your bookmarks.

2 months old ALREADY?!

Seriously, where does the time go? I cannot believe Margot is already 2 months old! She is getting so big! She is cooing all the time, smiling, laughing, and the other day she held her rattle! I cannot believe how fast she is growing up. She had her check up yesterday and all is well. She is 11lbs 13 oz and 23.5 inches long--75th percentile! She received all of her vaccines, which was no bueno for lil'Margot or mama for that matter. Why can't vaccinations be given via sunshine and lollipops?! My poor little girl didn't even see it coming, but I told her that this unpleasant experience was all worth it in order to forgo diseases like Polio...she agreed. On top of that, she has had a little cold for the last week which has made sleeping almost impossible. She seems to be getting over the cold though, just a stuffy nose for now. Needless to say these last few days have been quite eventful. Our mission for her right now, besides to get over the cold, is to get her to take a bottle. I swear there are more than enough brands of bottles out there for all kinds of babies, I just want one to work for her. We have tried 2 types and have bought a new one today, which I think looks the most promising (cross your fingers). It's not that I do not want to breastfeed, I would just like the option to drop her off at grandma's for a couple of hours to go to a movie or something without worrying if she is hungry. Hopefully we will find something that works for the little girl, she just loves her mama..who can blame her?!


Other than that, things are going great! We are planning our family trip to D.C. in November and I cannot express how excited I am about visiting our nations Capitol! The best part of this trip is that we will be sharing it with Joe's mom, sister, bro-in-law, and nephews. Joe's brother-in-law is graduating from the FBI, which is the primary reason for the trip. We just found out that they will be relocating to Philadelphia, which is sad because we will miss them so much, but good because it is a great opportunity for their family (and a cool place for us to come and visit). This trip will be so much fun, we will spend Thanksgiving there, as well as celebrate Joe's 27th b-day! It will definitely be an eventful trip, so many things to see and do! I have already had to narrow down our itinerary!

In the meantime, I am anticipating watching Charlie next month (Mon.-Thurs.) and fitting in time to remain active. The YMCA will watch Margot while I work out when she is 3 months old, so I am getting excited to join soon! Exercising has always been a good time for me to reflect and decompress so I cannot wait to get back to it. I also cannot wait for AZ weather to get cooler! I am excited to take Margot on new outings like to the zoo or the park--which will be fun to do with Charlie too! Only a few more weeks!

Hiking in Flagstaff

Hello Loyal Readers! I know, I know, it has been a while since my last entry. As some of you may have read, last weekend Joe and I tried to have a grown ups outing in Flagstaff with our dear friend Casey and Joe's friend from work Jeff. We had it all planned out, Casey and I would hike Fat Man's Loop (a steep, but short 2 mile loop) and Joe and Jeff would do a much harder and longer hike. We left our house at 5am and headed to grandma's. We said good-bye to Margot and we were on the road to Flagstaff by 6am. The drive up was wonderful! It was so great to have some quality time with my husband and bestie! Unfortunately, Margot did not feel the same way. Leave it to me to have a picky child :P As it turns out my beautiful daughter is a Diva! She would not take the multitude of bottles offered to her. This required Casey and I to call off our hike (we were about half way up the trail) and head home. One would think this trip turned into a wash...but one would be wrong. It was great just to spend some girl time. It didn't matter whether we were hiking or driving, Casey and I had a great time catching up, talking about life, and singing our hearts out to the "Dixie Chicks". We got to Shari's house to pick up Margot around 2pm. I fed my little bugger butt and we headed to my house. The rest of the day was absolutely peaceful. Casey stayed (yes!) and we watched movies and ordered pizza! Perfect end to a perfect day!

1 Month and 2 Days...

Margot is now 1 month and 2 days old! I can't believe how fast time has gone by! She had her one month check up at the doctors office yesterday and she is a healthy girl-weighing 9lbs 3oz and measuring 22 inches. She is in the 50th percentile for height and weight which is normal. She got her first immunization during that doctors visit too...it was the saddest thing I have ever seen, but she made it through :)

All in all things have been going great. I am feeling more and more comfortable with her "schedule" and taking her places on my own. I think once I realized that crying wasn't the end of the world and that I was capable of taking her places with out damaging her things became a lot easier. It can still be a bit overwhelming sometimes, especially on the days when she is gassy or going through a growth spurt, but all I have to do is cuddle her and I feel instantly better. I have learned a great deal this past month about myself, motherhood, friendships, and marriage. I never realized how much this would be a learning process for me! But I am getting the hang of it...however I am starting to realize that there is a continuum in this learning process.

Things have definitely changed... All of my teacher friends are getting ready to go back to school next week. It feels really bizarre not to be going back myself. I have been toying with the idea of maybe subbing once a week or getting involved in tutoring or something...but I am not sure. Margot is definitely a full time job and I am planning to provide day care for my friend Krystal. Her son Charlie will be a little over a year old when I start watching him in Sept. I hope I can handle 2 kiddos! We'll see, we have planned a trial period and she has a back up, so that takes some of the pressure off :)

So, what's next for me?Well my goal is to get to the gym and get healthier! Baby weight is cute when you are preggo but not so much afterwords. I pretty much just want to wear my button up pants and toss these maternity clothes in a box for later! I want to get in shape for a 5k...there is one in Bisbee in Oct. I can do it--Watch out YMCA here I come!

PS.
If anyone can tell me how to post a photo album/slide show I would appreciate it :P

Job Title: Mommy!

Margot Lynn Crabtree was born on June 18th at 11:47am. She was 7lbs 13 oz 21in long.

I went into labor on Thursday, June 17th in the late afternoon (around 2pm). Earlier that day I had gone to the city dump with Denise, Kyle, Brady, and Shari. Brady, my 2yr old nephew, is really into garbage trucks, so Kyle set up a tour for all of us, it was pretty cool! Then, after the excitement at the dump, Denise, Shari, and I went searching for treasures at Deseret Industries. After hours of shopping and exploring, we went home and I finally decided to start timing the contractions I had been having throughout the day. At 2pm the contractions were 8 minutes apart and from then on, they kept progressing. Finally, on June 18th at 1:11am my water broke and Joe and I headed to the hospital. On our way to the hospital I swiftly made all the essential calls to Casey, Shari (Joe's mom), and my mom (Gloria). It was such as crazy experience; I was feeling excited, frantic, anxious, and happiness all at the same time.


Once we got to the hospital, reality started to sink in--she was coming! Casey, my mom, and Shari stayed at the hospital anticipating Margot's arrival for 10 hours! Talk about love and dedication! Finally, at 11am I was ready to get her out and into the world! Denise came to the hospital too and took some wonderful pictures of the event! I have to say, giving life to this precious little girl is the most amazing thing I have ever done! I am so glad that I got to share it with my closest friend and family members. An added benefit to this sepcial day was that she was born on Joe's great grandmother Juanita's birthday.

Margot is now 5 days old, and let me tell you, it has been a whirlwind! The first night home was tough, but it has been getting better each day we get to know her. I love her so much it is overwhelming sometimes. I am so excited to get to know her more and more, I can't wait to have mommy daughter days like my mom and I did. I know we will have so much fun together as a family. Joe and I are excited to watcher her grow and learn and become her own person. She will have a wonderful life, with amazing people apart of it. She already loves her family and her adoptive auntie Casey! I am so thankful for everything and everyone apart of this experience.

How many movies can one person watch?

Okay, I will admit it...I am a movie addict. For the last week, I have been watching movies galore! I think I have watched all of my movies as well as every single Netflix Watch It Now movie available online :) Ah, what a wonderful life I lead.

And what do I do when I am not watching movies? Nap. I have had some of the best naps this week! I forgot how refreshing they can be, especially since I have not been sleeping through the night. In fact, I just woke up from my morning nap, and I gotta tell you, I am feeling mighty spry. If you have the opportunity, I suggest you try it :)

In other news, Joe and I have been setting up the house for Margot's arrival. We had some little projects we wanted to get done before the lil'girl arrives. One such project was to convert one of the 3 closets in our room (yes, 3) into an alcove for our armoire to free up some space. Joe moved it last weekend, and man oh man does it look good. Casey, who has know of these plans since their conception, came to see it (she loved it) and suggested to add trim around the converted closet to give the new space a defined purpose-and so it doesn't look like we converted a closet into an alcove. We loved the idea and are going to install it soon.

The other important projects we wanted to get done were the two bathrooms upstairs.The demolition on our bathrooms upstairs is set to start Saturday. I am so excited to finally have fresh and clean bathrooms upstairs. I don't think any updates have been made to these bathrooms since they were built in the 1970s, so this will be a good refresher for them. We are essentially replacing everything like the vanity, mirrors, toilets, and shower door; and adding tile, fresh paint, and new towel bars etc. We also decided to refinish the tubs-which will be awesome since it would be quite costly to completely take them out and replace them- plus, I am not sure if we could do that anyways without permission from the HOA. This project will be done next week, I am so looking forward to it :) This is the last "demolition" project we have to do on the house and I am so excited that this place is feeling more and more like our home. I will post pictures of the finished bathrooms next week!

Productivity Level: High!

I have been way more productive this weekend than I thought possible! So far, I have crafted with Casey, had an influx of contractions, and improved my evaluating time for my online job! All in all, I am feeling pretty good about life, which is a relief because lately I have been finding myself becoming restless.

Crafting with Casey yesterday was awesome, as usual. I used ModPodge, blue/white scrapbook paper, and yellow paint to reface the jewelry box my grandma gave me when I was 8 and Casey refinished a "t" she inherited from the old "information desk" sign at ASU. I think we did a pretty good job!( I don't have a picture of Casey's "t" but it was pretty cool.) The next at home ModPodge project I have planned is for the necklace tree Casey gave me. I am super excited about it! I will post pictures when I finish :)