Master Chief

Eagle Mountain had a city fair so even though we knew we wouldn't be riding any rides, unless we went alone, we still went to enjoy the fair, walk around and see all the booths. While we were enjoying ourselves Cory noticed this guy fully decked out in army gear. Turns out he was dressed up as a character out of Halo. Cory was super excited and had to get a picture with the guy.  

Cory and Rowynne trying not to stare at Master Chief!

Cory's Idol..... JK

The weird things you see at the fairs in Utah County!

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day we went with Cory's Family to the Lehi and American Fork Cemeteries.  Both sides of his family have a lot of history in this area of Utah so they have many ancestors buried in both Cemeteries. In fact Cory's parents always say that whoever goes first will be the one who picks where they are buried Lehi, or American Fork.  His Mom hopes for Lehi and his Dad is holding out for American Fork.  Maybe someday they will come to an agreement.

While at the Lehi Cemetery, Cory's mom had made a scavenger hunt for Regan and Chersty. They had printed out a family pedigree and Lynette had hi-lighted the family members that were buried in that particular cemetery; which is actually quite a lot.  Her family has many ancestors that founded the city of Lehi.  Needless to say we were all over that place looking for headstones, some of which were very old.

It's nice to be able to honor those who came before us!  

The Bumbo

So this is the "BUMBO" it is the first and only seat designed for babies that are not able to hold themselves up yet. It's very cool and since I had seen it back when we registered for our baby showers, I knew that when Rowynne was big enough I would get one.  SO we haven't actually purchased one yet, but The Dustins have one for there youngest Allen.  When we went to their house, we just had to try it out and see if Rowynne is ready for her own.  

The Answer is..... NO! 

First off I don't think she loved it that much, plus she doesn't have the head control yet that she would need to keep her head balanced.  She just kept toppling over, it was funny and yet sad. 

Angry Rowynne being put in the Bumbo

She almost has it

Head is still a little too heavy......

I still want one, but I guess we should probably wait another month, 2 months is still a little small.  

Sleeping Beauty

I love watching Rowynne sleep.... she just looks so peaceful. Plus I love it when she smiles in her sleep, I hope she is having good dreams.  She is just the most beautiful baby I have ever seen! 

Daddy Daughter Love

Aren't they cute..... My two loves! 

The Daddy/Daughter connection is so special, 

I know that Rowynne will always have her Daddy to love and protect her. 

Little Feet and Hands

Rowynne has been such a blessing in our lives. At first it was weird having another person in the house. But now I couldn't imagine our home without her here. I am so grateful to know that she belongs to me... forever. I love Rowynne more than words can describe.  And I love all her little hands and feet, they are so tiny and precious, they remind me of how fragile this little spirit is. I love being Rowynne's mother, there is nothing else that I would rather do. I know that I still have far to go and much to learn but I'm so glad that Heavenly Father has given me this little spirit to do it with. I love everything that comes with being Rowynne's mother and can't wait for more little ones to join her. Well.... maybe I can wait a little while! LOL!

Little Feet

And Hands

Late Nights

When Rowynne was born Cory got to stay home for a week and it was so nice to have him home for a little while, but soon after he had to go back to work. And since Cory was still working the 5:30 AM shift I was trying to let Daddy have as much sleep as he could get. Which meant that me and Rowynne would get up and go to the living room any time she woke up in the night to feed. Needless to say we had alot of late night parties in the living room... about every 2 hours. Sometimes when we woke up to feed Rowynne wouldn't go back to sleep right away so we would hang out till she went back to bed. Rowynne and I had alot of one on one time because of this. Most of the time she would just stare and look around but it was still fun. The joys of Motherhood! 

GOOD NIGHT ROWYNNE

Mad Face or Little Rhino Girl

So when Rowynne was born she had this strange dot between her eyes that would get red and flare up whenever she cried. In the hospital I remember asking my doctor about it and he said not to worry it probably would go away within a few weeks.

Well its been 2 months and our little Rhino is still around. I lovingly call it her third eye! It's so funny when she gets mad and starts wailing sure enough it pops right up. We still hope at some point it will fade and go away, but then maybe if she still has it when she is older she will never get mad or cry because she wouldn't want anyone to see "the Rhino". HaHa! 

The "Rhino" 

Photo Shoot with Rowynne

So since Cory is an amazing photographer we decided to do our own photo shoot when Rowynne was only a few weeks old. Well I have to give props to all those people out there who take photos of babys as a profession because it is not easy! Talk about the most tempermental subject. 

Rowynne would totally freak out any time we tried to lay her down and then she would be screaming for most of the shots. Then finally she would settle down and we would get a couple and then comes the...... POOP! I think this little one knew the second we took of her diaper because we only got a few pictures when all the sudden FFFFPPPPPTTTTTT......... a strange noise was coming from Rowynnes bottom and then well the photo shoot was abruptly ended because Rowynne had pooped all over the blanket and herself.  Needless to say it was hard getting some good pictures of her but we got a few. Not sure if I want to try again very soon though! :)

She looks so peaceful right before...... THE POOP! 

And not every picture came out so cute.... this was one of those MAD pictures! 

Our Blessing

We never thought little Rowynne (Carl as Kyle has so lovingly deemed her) would make us as happy as we are now.  This little package full of love has become number one in our hearts.  Every morning when I wake up, I am blessed with the vision of my girls resting in each other's arms, mother and daughter.  I've never seen anything more beautiful than the two of them facing one another at the side of the bed, dreaming sweet things.  Meygen and I are blessed.  In the two months our baby has been home our lives have improved one hundred fold.  Life may not be easy but having Rowynne with us, it's wonderful!

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If the video doesn't work for some reason (I'm trying to fix it), here's the link:

Blessed

Enjoy!

Cory

Mothers Day

My first Mother's Day.... It was the best day I was able to celebrate with Cory and Rowynne and even my own mother. It was the cool to have my mother around to celebrate with us, it had been awhile since we had spent mothers day together. Rowynne was only 5 days old but it felt like I had been a mother for years, the nurturing aspect comes so easily at times its hard to imagine life before Rowynne.

It was also a bitter sweet Mothers Day, since we had to drop my Mom off at the Airport later that afternoon. Her short visit was coming to an end, it was hard to see her go.

Rowynne and Nana

After having a nice Mother's Day breakfast at home and then going to the hopsital yet again to check Rowynne's bili levels (Jaundice)..... we had dinner with Cory's whole family. It was a wonderful meal, Derek made ribs and boy were they tasty. It was fun to visit with the whole family since some of them had not even seen Rowynne yet. It was fun to show her off a little.

Great Grandpa Ivins and Rowynne

Cory, Meygen, Nana and Rowynne

Robyn and Derek

Uncle Kyle.... Still calls Rowynne Carl!

Cory and Meygen

Yummy Cake.....

New Mommy Meygen, Nana and Rowynne..... She was still wearing her lights to get rid of the Jaundice, hence the long tail coming out of her clothing!

Kylie, Nana, and Rowynne..... Kylie loves to help out with the baby!

Greatest Mothers Day Present EVER......... Rowynne!

Glad she made it in time, I am so grateful that I get to experience being a mother. I never realized how sweet it would be. I love being Rowynnes mother and I hope to have many more wonderful mothers days to come!

Happy Mother's Day!

Her First Smile!

So last night after my run, we were taking turns holding our little lady and she smiled! Not a "It's just gas" smile, but a "Hey there, I can see you, and you're my Mommy and Daddy, and I love you!" It was super exciting! Now we just have to wait until she gets some shiny whites to fill that smile in.

P.S. Do you think there's a way to get one of those dog collars from Disney's "UP", so we can translate her little squeaks and whimpers?

Cory

Jaundice..... Our Glow Worm

So lucky us Rowynne had jaundice when she was born. When we left the hospital her levels where at a 10 which is above average but nothing to worry about yet. We were told upon leaving the hospital that we would have to get her levels checked the next day to see if she was rising or leveling off.

We went to American Fork hospital the next day and the lab was supposed to call us with her levels. Since if they were high we had been told to go to the doctor. However American Fork Hospital dropped the ball and never called, we called the next day to figure out what had happened and well her levels had jumped to a very high 17.3. If these numbers don't mean anything to you, anything above a 20 and the baby would need to be hospitalized, jaundice unchecked can do damage to the brain. So we had a scary weekend and ended up in the ER because she was so high, they tested her again and she was still a 17.3, so we left the ER with lights to help with her jaundice.

This was Rowynnes light set. We called it her tail because it was dangling out of everything that she wore. And she had to wear it 24/7, as often as possible.

This is Rowynne wearing the light. It had the piece of paper that slipped onto the light which then wrapped around her body so that it would stay put.

Wearing her light.... with her tail! It was super annoying trying to carry her with that things dragging along. But from what people have told me, Jaundice lights could have been much worse. At least she wasn't in a suitcase.... like Regan was when he was born and had jaundice.

She looked like a hunch back with the light in her shirt. Sometimes it would ride up when she was sleeping.

Our little one was soon off the light and her levels back to normal. We are very glad that she is better now, it was a little bit of a scare and super stressful dealing with it all.

Dustin Girls Visit

The Dustin clan visited Rowynne a few days after we got home from the hospital. It was fun to see the girls play with my little girl. I hope that one day Autumn will be baby-sitting Rowynne. How crazy would that be.

Rowynne staring into the Abyss.....

Rowynne and Allen..... Love Birds! I love this pic they are holding hands. I think we are going to bring back the arranged marriage. This will be how we get ourselves into the Dustin Family. We love them soo much!

The Girls and Rowynne:

Getting Dressed....

This video is of me getting Rowynne dressed for the first time. Getting all pretty to come home!

Going Home

Thursday we got to go home with baby Rowynne. My mom was with us so it wasn't as scary as it might have been if it had just been me and Cory. It was funny because everyone expected me to have a much larger baby than Rowynne had actually been that her coming home outfit was HUGE on her. She looked like she was swimming in her clothes. Our baby wasn't as large as we might have expected!

Mommy getting Rowynne all dressed up for the ride home. First time for everything!

Little Rowynne in her chair all buckled for the ride home. Rowynne actually was very good for the ride home, but by the time we made it to the Condo she was screaming to be fed.

She is seriously the cutest baby I have ever seen! I could just pinch her cheeks all day!

This was Rowynne all swaddled in her porta-crib in our bedroom.

Ready for the first night at home!

Hospital Fun

We spent two days with the wonderful people at the Women's Center at Alta View Hospital. All of my nurses were so nice and everyone treated us so great. I don't think I had one bad thing to say about the experience. My favorite nurse Cathy even brought me a Coke after the delivery. It was my one request.... after not being able to eat or drink anything for over 15 hours I needed one badly.

The hospital we delivered at does a special dinner for the mom and spouse the last night you are in the hospital. They brought in this cute little table and we got to eat steak and have chocolate cheese cake it was all so good. Way better than the stuff that I had been getting from the cafeteria the other day.

Our last meal in the hospital!

Because Cory is the best husband ever, he brought be an edible bouquet. It was all chocolate dipped strawberries. So yummy and the best treat after you just had a baby!

This was Cory's bed for two days. He toughed it out in the crappy fold out chair/bed. In fact the second night Cory squeezed into my hospital bed. In fact at one point Cory was in bed and I was sitting in the chair when the Nurse came in and she asked "whose blood pressure she was taking" Cory had no become the patient instead of me. It was fun!

Our beautiful baby girl