Brendon, Shay, and Hudson

Rollie Pollie

2011-02-22T21:46:00.002-07:00

Brendon here again. So Hudson is full of new tricks. He thinks he is so big, and he really is such a little man these days!

So his newest trick is rolling over. A few weeks ago he was trying to roll from his back to his stomach, and my mom said it's easier for them to go from their stomach to their backs. So I tried that, and within a minute or two, he rolled over. So that has been fun watching him do that lately.

But yesterday, he decided that he was start rolling over from his back to his stomach. It was like he just made the decision, and then did it. Its hilarious.

He is now to the point where when you lay him on his back, he will almost immediately roll to his stomach. Then he will roll to his back again. Its pretty funny and cute to watch. He seems to be proud of himself, and we definitely are proud of him.

Bouncy Bouncy

2011-02-22T20:06:00.003-07:00

This is Brendon, making my first post on the blog. This past Saturday, I was watching Hudson while Shay was at work. Towards the end of the day, we made a field trip.

Hudson is not a sitter, he only likes to stand. When he stands, he is always trying to jump. So, Hudson and I went on a mission to find a "Johhny Jump Up". We first went to Walmart, and they failed us! Then we went to Target, and we scored!

We got it home and waited for Shay to show up and try it out. When we put him in it, he was so happy, squealing with joy, and jumping and spinning himself around. Its his new favorite toy! Pretty dang cute!

I am a horrible blogger! Catch up time!!

2011-01-30T20:52:00.018-07:00

So I am officially the worst blogger! Last post was when Hudson was 3 weeks old and now he will be 4 months this week! Being a new mom keeps me so busy!! But I am loving every minute of it. My little sweetie is getting so big and such a personality! He is a very high maintenance baby and knows exactly what he wants and doesn't hesitate to let you know loud and clear! This post is going to start with pics from 1 month - present including our trip to Oregon to spend Hudson's first Christmas with Brendon's family in Salem. So sorry for the picture overload but I am trying to use this for a scrap book type of thing so I am adding a ton and this is not even half of what I have!!!

So since our last post we have been super busy. At the end of October we moved from my great grandmas house in Sugarhouse to Draper and we live in a great basement apartment! The landlords are my friend Parisa's husband Zac's grandparents and it is where they lived the first 3 years of their marriage and it ended up working out perfectly when they were moving we needed a place! We love it and it is actually quite big and nice for a basement. It is really nice to live so close to my family so we always have a lot of help from them with Hudson! I owe them big time they have been so great to us. But they are so obsessed with Hudson that they don't mind at all!!

The first week of December we blessed Hudson. Brendon did such a great job and gave him such an amazing blessing. I am so grateful for him that he holds and honors his priesthood. He has given many fathers blessings to our little guy and to myself to help us get through this new transition of parenthood and it has helped so much! Brendon's parents were able to come into town for the blessing and it was fun to have them visit with us and for Doug to meet Hudson for the first time!

After that December was super busy. We have my birthday, our anniversary, and Christmas so it's always going to be crazy for us! For our anniversary Brendon took me to stay at the Zermatt in Midway again. It was so much fun and so relaxing. I am not going to lie I had a super hard time leaving my baby for 2 nights (lets just say I cried a lot!) but it was so nice to spend some much needed time with Brendon and to be able to sleep through the night!! ha ha. We got back on Sunday from Midway and went and picked Hudson up at my parents (who were so sweet to watch our little monster for the weekend) and we spent our Christmas with them. They spoiled us big time and we are going on a cruise in May to the Western Caribbean with the family! We are super excited.

Monday morning we left for Oregon! Hudson was awesome on the plane! We were both so nervous that he was gonna freak out and he slept most of the way and stared at the people behind us the rest of the way!
Oregon was such a blast and so nice to get away for 2 whole weeks! We don't get to see Bren's family very often so it was great to soak up the time with them! We did a lot of relaxing which was so nice! We also spent a lot of time with Ryan and Lindsey's family playing with the kids! It will be so fun when Hudson is a little older so he can enjoy playing with his little cousin Brady who is about 6 months older!

Christmas was so much fun! We woke up bright and early because Sydney and Tyler could barely contain their excitement! I though Hudson would sleep but I think he realized Santa had come because he found his voice that morning and was squealing with delight at everything! It was so cute. Next year will be so fun when he is a year and understands the presents a little more! Doug and Gayle of course spoiled us this Christmas. I have never seem so many presents under one tree before! Hudson got so many cute toys and books that are gonna be so great! He already loves one toy his "Chicken Dinner" we like to call it cause he just eats it every time it's in his hands! Doug and Gayle gave us a great camera (along with a lot of other awesome gifts!) that I have been wanting so that we don't have to keep taking all of our pictures on our iphones!
New Years Even Hudson was ready to party! Grandma Trish sent him a cute Tux onesie that he partied the night away in! We mostly just relaxed and ate a lot of great food that Doug prepared for us!

The end of the trip came way too soon. We always hate saying goodbye. The Alexander's are so amazing and so generous. We had a blast and can't wait to be able to go back and spend more time with them! Thanks again Doug and Gayle for a great trip!
When we got back from Oregon Hudson got sick with a bad stomach virus! It messed his whole schedule up and was sick for almost a month! I had to start work the first of January and it was super hard (and still is) to leave my sweet little guy especially with him being sick! I have great friends and family though who are helping me out by watching him so I don't have to pay a nanny yet!

Finally Hudson is feeling better! We have started working on his sleeping so he can get his schedule back and he is being such a champ! He has grown up so much already! He weighs 13 lbs so he is skinny but he is super long! He squeals with delight and has the cutest gummy smile that makes up instantly for our sleepless nights and for when he screams out of naughtiness! We just love him so much! I am so blessed to have to great boys in my life! Brendon is such a great dad and Hudson just loves him. He will just smile from ear to ear whenever Brendon comes around. It really melts my heart. Hudson's favorite time is bath time! He absolutely loves it and it's so cute! He loves to help out by sticking his had back in the water to get it wet for us and he kicks and splashes and just loves being naked while doing it! Ha ha. If he is ever upset one of the first things we do is undress him and he usually calms right down! He loves being free! He loves sucking and chewing on his hands and now his feet this week and he is always drooling! We wonder if he may be teething early?? Yikes! And just a couple nights ago he rolled over from his tummy to his back!! He is so cute and is growing up way too fast! I don't know what to do with myself! I am so excited to see all of the new and exciting changes he will keep having!

Picture overload!
1-2 months:

2-3 months (oregon trip)

Hudson Brendon Alexander!!

2010-10-25T16:15:00.006-06:00

Wow I can't believe that my baby boy is 3 weeks old today!! Here I am sitting at the computer holding my sleeping baby and I keep thinking I can't believe time has flown so quickly!! I need it to just freeze!! I decided since Hudson is 3 weeks its probably about time that I update the blog on his birth story!!
So it all began on 10/3/10 which is Bren's b-day!! Haha the whole pregnancy we kept saying we didn't want him to be born on Brendon's birthday because we want them to have their own birthdays but at this point both Brendon and i were exhausted with this pregnancy! So it was conference Sunday and we went to my parents to watch conference and eat lots of food and I just hadn't felt good all day! I started out with a major headache that wouldn't go away and I just felt nauseous. I had my mom take my blood pressure cause it had been pretty high at the doctors a few days before and they said if I ever got a headache that wouldn't go away along with my high blood pressure I needed to call. My BP was still really high but i kinda just brushed it off for a bit and we finished conference and celebrated Brendon's big day! When we left to go home I was feeling super nauseous and just not myself but Brendon had been on a kick this week to make us go walking every night to hopefully put me into labor and he suggested we still take our walk and see if contractions would start and if they did we could call and see what the doc would have to say with the BP high and all. So we went walking.. And sure enough contractions began. To me they were uncomfortable but nothing like people described them so I just figured they were the Braxton Hicks contractions i had been having. Anyway they continued and I contiued to feel sick so I asked Bren if we could go back and just sit for a bit. We did and I called the doctor and told them my symptons and they asked us to come in because of the high BP and the combined headache. So at 10:30 pm we went in to the U of U hospital and they hooked me up to the monitors and sure enough they were real contractions and coming every 3-5 minutes! I was just super tough is all!! :) haha. So they kept an eye on me for a bit, did blood work and kept checking my BP which wouldn't go down and decided they were going to go ahead and admit me because I was 38.5 weeks pregnant and showing signs of preeclampsia. At this point I got so nervous! We were gonna have our baby!! The day we had been waiting for had finally come and I was kinda starting to freak out! I didn't know how to be a mom!! I didn't want to push a baby out of me!! Ahhh! What was I gonna do!? So they took me into the delivery room at 1:30 am and started me on pitocin to get my contractions going! Brendon gave me a sweet priesthood blessing to calm me down and then I asked for the epidural ASAP! haha I figured I hadn't felt horrible pain yet why feel it now! Well the epidural was amazing! It didn't hurt at all and it started taking effect quickly!! They told me to get some rest so me Bren and my mom (who had been working next door at primary Children's) took a little nap until the Doctor came in at 6:30 to break my water. Everything went quickly from there! Dr. Sharp my doctor got there about an hour later and checked me and I was already at a 9 and then an hour after that it was time to start pushing! At that point we asked my mom to leave so it would be just me and bren and the rest of the process was just amazing!! My doctor and everyone else in the room were so great and fun and Brendon was so sweet and helpful! I didn't feel a thing! Sure enough at 9:47 am on 10/4/10 our little Hudson Brendon Alexander made his entrance into the world weighing a whopping 8.2 lbs and was 20.5 inches! The look on Brendon's face when he saw him come out was amazing and I can seriously say I fell more in love with him at that moment then ever! They took Hudson over and weighed him and tested him and then Brendon brought him to me and placed him in my arms and at that moment life couldn't get any better, He was so beautiful with so much hair and cute chubby little cheeks and he just started talking away telling me all about his journey! And he hasn't stopped talking ever since! He is so noisy it is hilarious!!
The rest of the time at the hospital went great! We had a great staff who took good care of both me and Hudson. He had to be under the bililights the last day because of jaundice and has recovered great! We went to his 2 week check up last week and he is already 8.11 lbs and 22 inches! Such a big boy!!! And these last three weeks have been heaven. I am so in love with him its insane. I never knew I could love 2 people so much. Brendon is such an amazing dad and I absolutely love being a mom! Hudson is such a sweetie and has such a personality already! And I will brag... He is gorgeous!!! I know i am his mom and I have to say it but I really think he is the cutest baby ever he is such a looker!! Haha anyway enough enough!
Thank you to everyone who has made this new transition into parenting so much easier! My family has been great especially my mom coming at any moment i have needed her! And we were lucky to have Brendon's mom come and stay with us last week so she could meet Hudson and she was so amazing and helpful to us as well!!! We are getting ready to move this week and she helped us pack and also just played with Hudson so we could get things done! We love you guys!!!
Thank you Brendon for all you have done! for putting up with me being so crazy during that pregnancy and also a little crazy and obsessive with our little baby now too! You are amazing and such a great daddy it makes me cry just thinking about it!!! I love my boys!!!
Sorry for the picture overload but I have to show off my sweetie!!!

Lake Powell-Pregnancy update!

2010-09-28T23:04:00.012-06:00

Well a couple weeks ago we took a trip to Lake Powell with my family! Yes, I know super daring and kinda dumb/silly of me considering I was 36 weeks pregnant and could have gone into labor there.. Ya that would have been interesting! But here I am back and safe and now 38 weeks pregnant and still no baby..Haha can you tell I am defiantly ready to meet our little man?! I can't wait to hold him and cuddle him and let's be honest I just want to stop feeling pain!! haha. Anyway back to our trip! Well the doctor cleared me a couple days before to go so we decided lets do it and we will just play it by ear and see what happens and if that means we need to go home early we will. My parents made a plan to park the houseboat pretty close to the marina just in case anything did happen we could get back quickly and get help or get home! Also the short drive would save gas so that we could keep the generator on the whole time to give me and my huge belly lots of AC!! Well we got there and the AC was broken :( I was not too happy about it but luckily September is not the hottest time to be there so I think I did pretty good. I only had one big melt down on a really hot day and it was because i didn't keep hydrated as much as I should have and didn't get in the water as often to cool down. Before we went Bren went and bought us these awesome floaties so that I could relax in the water all day since I wasn't able to do much/any boat riding. That floaty was a life saver! It was so much fun and felt so nice to just relax in the water! My parents, Trev, Kenzie, Corinne and Bren did a lot of wake-boarding waterskiing and surfing and had a lot of fun! We took a few close adventure rides on the boat so that I could come and enjoy the lake a bit with them. All together the trip was so fun and It was so nice to get away and not have to stress about work for a week. It was also nice to come home and be out of the heat and stop stressing about going into labor in Page, Arizona! Haha. Thanks again mom and dad for such a fun trip!!! We love you guys!

As for a quick pregnancy update: I am 38 weeks now and as of last week I was dilated to a 2 and 85% effaced! I have been having a lot of back and leg pain and lately cramps and small contractions! Unfortunately they are not big enough or constant enough to go in and have our little guy but i hope it's progressing! I go into the doctor in a couple days to get checked again and either hopefully the baby comes before the doctors appointment or very very shortly after! I am defiantly tired of being pregnant! haha. Don't get me wrong.. I love feeling him move around and feeling a special bond with him but I am so ready to just meet him, cuddle, kiss, and just be with him! I also can't wait to see Brendon be a daddy! He is gonna do such a great job! He has been really anxious this week especially since the doc told us most likely the baby would be hear early! He has been egging me on to do anything and everything to get this little guy to grace us with his presence! We can't wait! I will try to be patient a little longer though!! Now here are some pics from our trip! I only have one of me on the float cause that's all you need to see!! hahaha

Me Bren and Rinne floating

Dad and Harley in the boat

My dad is such a great skier! So fun to watch!

Rinne Wake-boarding

Bren and Harley hanging out

Mom, Dad, Harley

This is our beautiful view every morning! It was always this glassy!

Trev and Kenzie

Bren Wake-boarding

Picture from top of sandune everyone climbed while I floated below!!

Trip to Oregon!

2010-09-06T11:48:00.011-06:00

A couple weeks ago Brendon and I took a last minute trip to Oregon to visit his family! It was one of the last times I could fly being pregnant and I have never been there in the summer so it worked out perfect.

We flew into Portland and ate a the yummiest seafood restaurant ever! I wish we lived by it my mouth waters just thinking about it! That night Bren and I slept over at his brother Ryan's house because Ryan was going to have a busy work week so he wasn't going to be able to come to Bend with us for the rest of the trip and we wanted to be able to spend some time with him! We surprised the kids that morning when they woke up for church and found us sleeping! It is so fun to be around those wild things! They are so cute and we wish we could see them more!

Next we drove out to Salem to Brendon's parents house and had a yummy lunch and then got ready to leave for Bend! Bend was so much fun and so beautiful! We spent the rest of the trip there swimming, eating, relaxing, doing crafts with the kids, practicing how to change a diaper and swaddle a baby with our new nephew Brady, and just a lot of playing with the kids! Sydney is such a girly girl and a little princess and Tyler is totally opposite he is such a boy! They are both so funny! Tyler gave Brendon the nickname "Monster Bren" he was "T-Rex Ty" and papa was "Pirate Papa" it was so funny.

To finish off our awesome trip Gayle and Doug surprised us with a trip up the mountain and let Brendon drive Doug's new Porche!! He was in heaven! It was such a beautiful drive and such a pretty view of the lake when we got to the restaurant! We didn't want to leave!

We just wanted to say thank you a million again to Gayle and Doug for the fun trip! They are so sweet and generous and we always have so much fun it is so hard to leave every time!! We can't wait til this Christmas when we get to bring our little guy out there for the first time!!

Pregnancy updates: I am now just about 35 weeks pregnant with just 5 weeks to go! Maybe sooner... But hopefully not too soon! We are so excited to meet our little guy but I am also nervous and need a little bit more time to prepare for him! I just had an awesome family shower and it helped me feel so much more prepared for him and I still have 3 more showers to go! I feel so spoiled! I am getting pretty uncomfortable and I have had a lot of sleepless nights! Brendon has been such a great support to help me get as comfortable as possible and cheers me up when I get to emotional!!! Thanks Bren! I owe you big time!!

Now here are a bunch of pics from our trip!!!

Bear Lake!

2010-08-08T20:58:00.006-06:00

This summer has been filled with a lot of work and we finally were able to take a vacation to Bear Lake with my family! It was so much fun!! Our good friends have a cabin there so we went and stayed there during Rasberry Days.

We did some boating in the mornings and the boys and Corinne had some great water to wakeboard and ski! I of course am not able to do any of that so I just curled up in the boat and relaxed! During the afternoons we had some rainy weather so we just played games and ate a lot of yummy food. Brendon dominated in 5 Crowns and Speed Uno and loved every minute of it :)

Since Rasberry Days was going on the town had a lot of activities going on. We went and looked at the booths had fresh rasberry shakes and also went to a rodeo. After the rodeo they put on a firework show and lets just say it was the worst show ever! Haha in lasted like five minutes and the finale had all of the little small fireworks nothing big at all it was kinda random but still fun!

As for me I hit my 30 week mark while we were there and I just can't believe I have 10 weeks left! It seems like I was just barely 10 weeks pregnant! I am getting pretty uncomfortable and I am definatly ready to be done with the pregnant part but I am also super nervous to have our little guy here too! It's going to be so fun but such a change and a learning experience for both me and Brendon. Bren has been super great and so patient with me and all of my aches and pains! He is very protective and always is checking on me to see how I am feeling and what he can do for me. I am so greatful for him he will be such a great daddy!

Anyway sorry this is so long I am not great about keeping up on this blogging thing so it's always overload! Here are a couple pictures from our trip!!

Brendon driving the boat:

Okay I am only putting this up because you can't see my face and so you can see how big my tummy is getting!

Nick Korbin and Vince Tubing

Rinne and Katie

My parents Kayaking

Great Grandma Rainey

2010-07-22T16:56:00.005-06:00

I just wanted to do a littl post in memory of my sweet Great Grandma Jeanne Rainey. She passed away this past sunday after a long fulfilled life of 92 years!

We have been living in her house since February when she went to live in an assisted living home and we have been so blessed to be here. It's such a great house with so many fun memories.

A couple weeks ago I went over to her assisted living home on my day off and gave her a facial and it was such a fun experience to visit with her and make her feel good in her last days. I am glad that I went and did it even though I had a busy schedule! Even with her old age she had such a good memory and told me all about the different births she had with her kids while she was hearing about our little guy on the way. She was such a sweet woman and will truly be missed by her big family! It is so reassuring to know that her husband my great grandpa Woody was there to meet her to start their eternity together!

Baby Boy!

2010-06-14T12:40:00.000-06:00

Well it's official, I am already a slacker with our blog! I will try to be better at the updates but life is busy!

A couple weeks ago now we went to our official ultra sound and found out it is defiantly a boy! No question about it! It was so fun to see him again in the ultra sound. This time he was fast asleep though and it took the tech a long time to get him to separate his legs and show us what we wanted to see! Already stubborn and a sleepy boy like his daddy!

Shortly after that I was able to finally feel him move! I was having a super long and tiring day at work and since I have been pregnant I have been really good about not drinking caffeine which Diet Coke was my favorite so it wasn't easy at first. Anyway the doctor told us recently it was okay in moderation so on my long day Brendon surprised me with one and it woke our little man up quickly!! It is such a neat experience to feel him squirm and roll around in my tummy.

We went to Lake Powell this last week with my family for a couple days and the boat rides defiantly woke him up and got him moving. So far it's been only me that can feel him. Nothing strong enough yet for Brendon to feel and I can't wait until he can experience the feeling with me.

As for the rest of life for us we are still just keeping busy! Our short trip to Lake Powell was so great to just get away from life and relax even though the weather didn't quite agree with us this time around! It was just us, my parents, Nick, Corinne, Harley and my Grandma/pa Crump. Sherm was a blast to be around and always kept us laughing at his little jokes. I wish we didn't have to come home but now it's back to real life tomorrow! My job is pretty tiring but we are so blessed to have it!!

Well to wrap it up today here are some pictures of our little "Chauncy" (This is the nickname we have given him until we decide on a name!) They are kind of hard to tell and a little blurry but so cute!

Here it goes!!!

2010-05-14T20:48:00.000-06:00

Here it is! My first blog post! You will have to bear with me because honestly I am not very good at this type of stuff!! We decided we wanted to start a blog because our lives just got exciting!! We are having a baby!!!!

I am a little over 18 weeks right now so almost halfway there and that makes me even more excited! And scared... haha. At 15 weeks we went in for a regular doctor appointment and found out they needed to get an ultrasound to check some stuff out so while they were at it of course I got super emotional because seeing your baby for the first time is just about the best thing ever! Anyway I asked the technician to tell us what we were having and even though it was kind of early she told us "Well it looks like your baby has a third leg.... haha" In other words: we are having a boy! We are so excited. We go back again next week for our 20 week ultrasound and we will do a double check to make sure it wasn't a mistake because it was so early but lets be honest how can you mess up saying it's a boy?!

Well besides our baby news we have been pretty busy! Since we got married we have been living in Provo, Utah while Brendon went to school at UVU majoring in Construction Management. While he was going to school he was also Interning for Okland Construction in SLC on the City Creek project. I have been working for American Laser Centers starting in Orem for almost two years now! When Bren graduated in December we decided it was about time to get out of Provo and we got the opportunity to move to SLC to live in and take care of my great grandmas house now that she is living in an assisted living home.

I was able to transfer to the SLC clinic and was made the assistant manager there which I love, and Brendon unfortunately got laid off at Okland due to some of the projects ending. He has been looking for something new and in the mean time has been such an awesome help around our house! He remodeled the bathroom and did an amazing job and he does such a great job at taking care of me and making sure I am comfortable at work and when I get home! I am so grateful for him and all he does!! Well I am sorry this first post had to be so long but now that we are up to date we should be good!!