Okay- so for some reason the video keeps going down and people have complained that they couldn't watch it....Let's try this again!

Senior-itis

In less that 15 hours I will be taking my 4th exam in the past 9 days...I'm sure you're asking yourselves why I'm blogging right now instead of studying. Well, this is my little break so I don't go insane. My senior year of high school I never really felt like my study habits took a hit, but in reality I didn't really have much for study habits. Well, I thought that my final semester wouldn't be affected either, but I was terribly wrong. The semester isn't even half over and I'm dying! Thank goodness we have Lyla to brighten up our lives and make me smile :-) Whenever I start losing focus I just pull up my favorite picture of her smiling in her blue and brown dress (Tiff posted this photo a few days ago on our blog). Even better still, now I'll have a video to watch! Don't laugh too much at my voice as I'm trying to get her to talk. She's so sweet! Trust me, it'll brighten your day too!!

Lyla's Blessing

Lyla was blessed on January 24th and it was such a special day!! We were a bit frantic trying to get to our 9:00 am meeting, but once we got there the day went well. She was pretty fussy all day but luckily didn't cry during her blessing (she did sneeze into the microphone which was cute.) We tried hard to get pictures of her but they didn't turn out too well since she was screaming in most of them. This is the best one we have just of her...I think we'll have to put her back in her dress soon to try one more time. She wore my blessing dress which meant a lot to me- she looked absolutely darling!!

Paul did a great job with the blessing.

We had so many friends and family members who supported us on the special day. My family helped a lot in putting on a meal for all of the family who came.

Paul's parents came all the way from Washington which was so sweet!! It was a lot of fun to spend the weekend with them.

The whole group

Some of our great friends came as well.

We did a four generation picture with my amazing mom and grandma. Do you love Lyla's screaming face? She was so worked up!!


Here are a few random pictures- I thought I should add a picture of Lyla sleeping peacefully after all of the crying shots above. She's such a little angel!

I know some people think it's ridiculous, but I love putting big bows on her!! She's just so adorable!

Her laughing/smiling face is my favorite!! Her happy time is usually in the morning, especially right after she eats. We love smiling at each other and cooing back and forth- having a fun conversation even though I can't understand what she says to me. :)

Valentine's Decor

Ok, this is my attempt to keep up with the amazing, talented, crafty people who are always making cute things and writing posts about them. Just kidding- I did feel pretty proud though to find time to do something other than feedings and diaper changes! I've been wanting to find some cute valentine's decorations without spending a ton of $$. I found these little glitter cut outs and with ideas from Paul and my mom, this is the end result. I love being festive for each holiday!

Here are more darling pictures of Lyla (unbiased opinion as always). I love her little smile!! And of course her pink and brown dress is one of my favorites...

Little sweetheart

She's found her hands and loves licking them when she's not sucking on her binky. Paul and I sit and laugh as she does it- so cute! Babies are great!! I guess I should hurry and get to bed though so I still feel that way when she's hungry in 2-3 hours... :)

My baby's growing up!!

Lyla is already 5 weeks old!! The time has gone so fast and she's already changing and growing way too fast!!! She's started smiling a lot and "talking" more often. Here are a few pictures of her in the last few weeks.

We had a great visit with Paul's family in Marysville, WA and it was hard to come back to reality. I enjoyed relaxing with his family and getting to know them better during the time we were there. They were so helpful with Lyla and even watched her a few times while Paul and I ran errands. We took her to the movie theater and amazingly she didn't cry until the last 30 seconds of the movie- hurray!!

Paul is the oldest of four boys- so there is a bit of competition between them all in everything that is done. I had one interesting thought as we were bowling one day. Coordination has never been one of my strengths which makes me slightly out of place with the talented Rumseys. I was struggling and in the first game got the low score of 46 (which pathetically isn't the lowest score I've ever gotten in bowling). They were upset if they knocked nine pins over and had 1 remaining, but I was excited each time I even knocked one pin over! I felt slightly dumb and not at all talented throughout the two games we played, but I tried to keep telling myself that I do have other strengths- just not anything that requires coordination! I've always struggled not to compare myself to others because it leaves me feeling discouraged and down, but it's hard to get out of that habit. My new goal is to learn to measure success against my own improvement instead of feeling like a failure if I can't do as well in something as someone else.

Christmas Pictures

Here are a few pictures of what we've been doing lately. It's been fun to hang out so much with Paul after his finals ended and with my family. We've done lots of fun Christmas things together. Cassidy and Lyla had their picture taken with Santa.

Kinda random, but I thought Lyla was so adorable wrapped up in her little towel after bathtime!

Lyla's a bit hungry- can you tell? :) She just makes me laugh when she is looking to eat because her mouth is open so wide and she moves her head all over like crazy trying to find some milk!!

Family picture- Lyla wasn't very happy at this point but she was wearing an adorable Christmas dress!

It's been 2 1/2 weeks since our precious girl joined our family and we're continuing to adjust to all of the changes that have taken place. The newest change is that my doctor told me yesterday that I need to change my diet because she thinks that something I'm eating is making Lyla really fussy. For two weeks I'm not allowed to eat dairy, citrus, chocolate, whole grains, eggs, corn, or tomatoes. Those of you who know me well know that this list pretty much covers my entire diet! And no chocolate over the holidays? How is that even possible?? I need some creative ideas on how to handle this- any good suggestions of yummy things I can still eat? At this point I'm planning on living on water and white bread- I guess it could be the perfect way to get back to my pre-pregnancy body...