Powerful: Derek + Laura

One night after waking up to feed Brooklyn I couldn't fall asleep so I started in on a lot of random thoughts. I just recently finished watching The Sound of Music and couldn't stop thinking about all of my favorite things. So I've decided to try and do a weekly segment about some of my favorite things. It'll help me remember all the things I love and am thankful for...especially during winter. I'll talk about not only my favorite things but our favorite things to do as a family. Since there is still snow on the ground outside I thought I would start with one of my favorite summer activities...Boating. We have been boating since our family lived in Texas. I used to be more fearless then and would try anything: knee boarding, skiing, tubing, cliff diving, etc. As I've gotten older I have become less adventurous in my boating adventures but my love for it has stayed the same. Now I love spending time with my family, soaking up the sunshine while ...

Movies. Most Americans spend lots of time and money on watching movies. I actually love going to the movies and am pretty open to watching almost anything and like most things I watch. I am not overly picky. However, there are three actors I can't stand. Honestly. I am not sure why people keep hiring them to act. Well there is one I understand why but the other two...it's a mystery to me. Keep in mind this is just my opinion but one that I needed to express. I just can't handle them. First is my hatred for Nicholas Cage. I mean what is his appeal? I don't find him pleasing to the eye and I find the characters he plays to be much of the same and quite boring. Most people argue with me based on the fact that he is in the National Treasure movies and apparently they are good. Never seen them and have no desire to because one of the main characters is good old Nicholas Cage. Anyways, I don't think acting in two movies that are good and tons of others aren't just...

Brooklyn received her first set of Valentines Day Flowers from her Grandpa Power this year. They are so pretty and she has been loving all the bright colors. We did our best to take a small photo shoot of her with the flowers. Disclaimer: We are not professional photographers and we did out very best. We think they turned out pretty good for amateurs. ha  Isn't she precious? We just love her so much. Can't believe she is already 6 weeks old today. Time flies and she is growing so much everyday. Thanks Grandpa Power for the flowers. Brooklyn wishes all of you a very special Valentines Day.

Our sweet girl turned 1 month on Sunday. Can't believe it. She's changed so much in such a short amount of time. She looks so different everyday...more and more like me I would have to say. Ha  Here's what we've been up to: Took her out to Zupas at 2 weeks old. She slept the whole time. Went from hating baths to really enjoying them...as long as the kitchen is warm enough Started smiling right before she cried to smiling when you talk to her, look at her, and play with her. Her smiles are the best. She smiles all the time in the morning at me. It just makes my heart burst. I feel like the luckiest mom in the world to have those smiles that are just for me. She's got a strong grip and we have a hard time prying open her fingers. So much for trying to cut her fingernails just yet. ha She has been babysat a couple times by Grandma and Grandpa Ellsworth and has done great.  In this first month she's had some digestive problems and it makes me so sad. I ha...

January 3, 2013: Afternoon: Checked in to the hospital and made the mistake of not eating anything. I was starving but due to the fact that I almost threw-up multiple times the night before I didn't want to put anything in my system. Let me tell you...it was a long 24 hours without food and without sleep. I was so tired and that just seemed to make everything worse. They take me to my hospital room and hook me up to monitor my contractions. As soon as that happened I was no longer in active labor. My contractions were every 6-9 minutes. They gave me an hour to see if active labor would start up again. Nope. They presented me with my options: go home or get induced. At this point I didn't want to do either. I was in so much pain. I had back labor like nobodies business. They gave me an hour to walk around to try and start labor on my own. So grateful I had a midwife who supported my choices to want to go as natural as possible. After that hour they checked me aga...

Since our little girl is almost 4 weeks old I decided it was time to write her birth story. I want to put down the details before I start to forget them. This is the first time I have had a chance to look at all the pictures from birth and I am reminded of all the emotions I experienced. I have feared child birth my whole entire life and it is so surreal to know that I actually did it, barely, but I did. Now before you continue I should warn you: There will be lots of photos and it will be lengthy in text in the two following blog posts.  Just needed to put that disclaimer out there in case you didn't want to read on. Since I some day hope to turn this blog in to a book I want to record as much as I can. December 30-31, 2012: I had started to feel light contractions during the day...maybe about every 1.5-2 hours. There weren't too bad but I was excited as I knew it was a sign of labor. I still had my doubts that we would progress at a quick rate since this was my first bir...

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I am starting to adjust more to motherhood and all the joy and challenges that come with it. My next post will contain her birth story and her hospital newborn photos. So excited to share them with all of you. She has already changed so much in just 3.5 weeks. We sure do love our sweet girl. I love snuggling with her. It is one of the many moments that brings me so much joy.