Grandma Morgan

My cute Grandma passed away on October 22, 2011. I will miss her dearly. My sister Liz is always better with words. To know what a special and amazing lady she was please read here. I echo each word written.

(Grandma Morgan, me, Grandma Bradshaw June 19, 2009)

(Grandma, Grandpa, Bailey and me May 2011)

(Dave, me, Bailey, Grandpa and Grandma Oct. 8, 2011)

This picture will always be special to me. Grandma and Bailey just stared at each other while Bailey stroked Grandma's face... it was heartening and heart wrenching at the same time to see the interaction between this wonderful woman, who was about to end her mortal life, and this little baby who is just starting hers.

(Bailey and Grandma Oct. 8, 2011)

I love you Grandma... Til we meet again.

6 Months

Bailey turned 6 months on the 18th. It's hard believe my little munchkin is already 6 months old! We had her check up yesterday and she is super, super little. Here are her stats:

Head: 2 percentile (15.1 in)
Height: 23 percentile (25 in)
Weight: 1 percentile (11.9 lbs)

We need to go back in December to make sure that she is still growing but I don't know what else to do to make my baby gain weight! Does anyone know of any tricks? I'm getting a little concerned. She loves to eat but she's also super active. Her legs are constantly moving so she's probably burning as many calories as she's taking in... lucky.

Anyway, my sister just gave me some pictures of Bailey that were taken at our family reunion in July. Thanks Liz and thanks Lindsey for taking them! Maybe one day I will not be so lazy and download my pictures from my camera. Enjoy!

Our Big Weekend

This past weekend Dave and I moved into our new home. We are so excited to be homeowners but nervous at the same time. I'm excited to have a nice open kitchen (with a dishwasher) and Dave is excited to work in the yard and one day finish the basement. The only thing we are not so excited about is the 20 minutes we just tacked on to our commute.

Dave's teacher's quorum came over early Saturday morning and spent 2 hours loading the truck. It was nice to have all of those extra hands. Our new Elders Quorum came over and met the truck when it arrived and spent a good 20 minutes unloading it. We are so thankful to have been in such a great ward and we look forward to starting our new ward.

We had so much help putting things away that our house is mostly unpacked. Dave's parents spent the whole time putting our kitchen away, which was a big job, and for that we are extremely grateful. My poor dad uloaded the truck and made about 50 trips up and down the stairs to the basement. Sue, Tyler (who drove in from Cali that morning) and my friend Jessica spent a good amount of time putting things away in the bedrooms and set Bailey's room up completely while my mom watched, fed and entertained Bailey. Everyone was such a great help and we appreciate everything they did!

And to top off the weekend... we found out our baby girl is getting her first tooth! She's only 5 months. Is she old enough for that? We had no idea since she hasn't cried once about it! She's such a good baby!

***pictures of the house to come***

Hawaii

Dave and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary on June 19th. I can't believe that is has already been 2 years! We decided to use the Delta benefits and take a little weekend trip to Hawaii.

When we picked up our rental car they upgraded us to a Mustang convertible. Pretty snazzy eh?



We thought we were pretty awesome cruising around in this until we got to our hotel. We walked in to see this... no bed. What good is a hotel if there is no bed? There has to be one somewhere...



Now a bed takes up a decent amount of space in a room so you think it would be simple to find... still couldn't find the bed.



So we decided to open the "wardrobe" to see if maybe there was a bed in there and to our surprise... there was!



It just needed to fold out!



I was honestly laughing too hard to think clearly but Dave was super skeptical. I wish I would have gotten a picture of his face, he was so disgusted. He was gathering our bags when we came across this sign in the kitchenette. Who knows what else they don't wash themselves...



We grabbed our bags and headed out in search of a new hotel. The place we ended up staying wasn't the nicest by any means but it was the Taj Mahal compared to the last place. (Ah, the joys of traveling on a budget).

Of all the things there is to do in Hawaii the number 1 thing on our list is always Cheeseburger in Paradise. I don't know what it is about this place but we LOVE it! It is nothing but naughty food and we saved our calories for the whole week just to eat here.



The onion rings are heavenly



And the cheeseburgers are to die for.
(In our humble opinion)



We drove out to the North Shore and saw the Temple in Laie.



I turned around for seriously 2 seconds and Dave was in the tree... what a funny guy!



Dave has a friend at the airport who's mom works at the Polynesian Cultural Center. She hooked us up with free tickets to everything (the center, the buffet and the night show). Thanks Vili's mom!





We went out to Pearl Harbor and saw a few things too.



The USS Arizona.



We went out to the flea market and saw this.



Dave and I didn't say a word to each other. We just stood there and watched it pass...

Until next time Hawaii! We will miss you...

Thanks to Julie, Brett, Nancy and Steve for taking care of our little Bailey so we could go. We really appreciate you guys!

Baths, Pigtails and Father's Day

I finally downloaded some pictures from our camera so I thought I'd put up some cute pics of Bailey. She gets more and more personality everyday and it's so funny how much she loves her baths! She gets so excited and kicks her legs the whole time.





We tried some pigtails one day and they were cute. She reminded us of Boo from Monster's Inc.


This year Dave got to celebrate his first Father's Day. Our ward had the Primary kids decorate some material in the shape of ties. They passed them out before Sacrament Meeting and all the father's wore them throughout church. It was really cute.

Farewell Old Friend!

Yesterday we said goodbye to an old friend. After 9 years, 191,538 miles, a thousand trips to Zion's and a lifetime of memories, Dave sold his baby the Mazda. It was a little sad for him, especially since this was his first car but he took it like a champ. I think that's because he's already bought a new car (which he occasionally let's me drive ;) ) that we love just as much.

Goodbye Mazda! We will miss you!!!

San Francisco; Dave's Birthday

Dave turned 30 this year so we decided to celebrate in San Francisco. We only had about a day in the city so Dave did a lot of research so we could see everything we wanted to. Since we are both children of the 80's we loved Full House. We thought it would be fun to try and find the house featured in the opening credits of the show. With a little research and a lot of Youtube we think we found it (although now the front door is a different color).



The lady that lives here came home while I was on the front steps... kind of embarrassing.


The Painted Ladies.


Chinatown


The Golden Gate Bridge


Alcatraz


Dave in a cell at Alcatraz.


We had a great time but we sure missed this little face the whole time we were gone.


Thanks for watching Bailey for us Steve and Nancy!
Dave had a fun birthday but it wouldn't be the same without his favorite dessert. When we came home I made Dave his favorite cake, a boxed yellow cake with canned chocolate frosting. Happy Birthday Dave! I love you!

Sleep Deprived?

If only she would do this during the night...

Our New Addition...

Bailey Jean Carlson

Born Friday, March 18, 2011

7 lbs. 20 Inches long

Bailey was born at 5:48 pm Friday evening.  She was due March 13th and we were told to anticipate an early arrival.  Well, after days of walking around Wal-Mart, Target, Costco and the Rec Center she still wouldn't come.  We had a false alarm early in the morning March 17th but after no progression we were sent home to wait.  We went to a doctor appointment that day and he was stumped as to why she still hadn't come.  The next morning our doctor sent us up to the hospital to do a non stress test to make sure that everything was alright. Everything was fine but since I was dialated to a 4 and scheduled to be induced on Sunday they admitted me that day.  I was admitted at 12:30, after 20 minutes of contractions got my epidural at 2:30 and she was born at 5:48.  It all went really fast, especially since Dave and I just watched Modern Family the whole time.  This whole experience was so awesome and my cute hubby had an "allergy attack" while she was born and had to go wipe his eyes... the doctor said that lots of men get "allergy attacks" in the delivery room.  Since it was such an easy delivery our doctor said he would deliver 10 more kids for me... yikes!  Maybe if we can get Bailey to sleep through the night we'll think about how many more we want.   

First Family Photo

Moving from Delivery to Recovery

First Bath

After her bath

Our Awesome Doc. Doctor Kasteler!

A Proud Dad

Leaving the Hospital

39 Days and Counting...

We are down to the last 39 days, 5 1/2 weeks to be exact, and we are really starting to get more and more excited for this little girl to arrive. For Christmas, Dave was so thoughtful and bought me a pregnancy massage. I used it over the weekend and it was amazing! Thanks Dave!

For Christmas he also bought me an arm grabber. I guess he got tired of politely asking me to refrain from getting on step stools. I guess it all started when I stood on one to get something out of the closet, it wobbled, Dave had a minor heart attack and next thing I know, this little jewel is wrapped and under the tree. Isn't he the cutest?

It's been so fun to go through this whole pregnancy process with Dave. He hasn't missed one doctor's appointment and he always has such good questions to ask. My favorite question that he asks me quite frequently is "Are we done nesting yet?" He is going to be a great Dad!

BTW, we are terrible at taking pictures. Hopefully next time I can post some of our own.