Silly Noa and recent projects

 Noa loves to help me with EVERYTHING! He gets super jealous when I clean the kitchen and wear my yellow gloves, the other day I walk in the family room and there he was with my gloves trying to figure out how to get them on.

He got them on and then didn't like it as much as he thought he would, then he had a little cry. When he forces or fakes crying he dramatically puts his hand in front of his face...he is just so sad. Am I a mean mom because I think his crying face is adorable? I think not.

It's just so sad.

So we were in SG last weekend and while at Alli's soccer game Noa wanted to wear my sun hat, I think he was channeling his Mexican heritage....I especially like the fact that his paci is sideways.

Here are some of the projects I've done in the last week:

Cookie sheet menu board 

Flower bottom onesie for our niece Summer Sovereign

 I love making baskets, it's so fun to wrap gifts.

It's been 8 months since my last post....wow, not as good at posting as I thought I was.

So it has been FOREVER since my last post, I had no idea how exhausting motherhood can be and how little time it leaves for writing about my life. So much has happened in the last 8 + months. Noa is one, we celebrated his first birthday on January 30, he can walk and loves it. He thinks he is so big :) he thinks he can talk, ask him...he'll tell you ;) he walks around saying, "ssssgauw ssssgaauw sssgauw" or "duhga, duhga, duhga" and my favorite "meeeeeeee, meeeee....." the cutest is when he walks up to little kids and just starts talking, they just look at him like what is this baby saying...but he doesn't care, he knows he's a big deal.

I don't mean to brag, but Noa is quite the ladies man. I mean baby girls just take one look at those big brown eyes and they melt. It is hilarious, he is like the only boy that is around his age....so he is surrounded by baby girls. But it is so cute, especially two little girls in particular they are both a couple months younger than him but when he comes around they just crawl or walk over and gives him kisses or hugs. It is so cute :)

Oh Happy Day!

I am happy to report that Noa is doing a lot better. After all the wonderful advice I decided I needed to bit the bullet and undo the bad habit I had created with Noa and his napping. For those of you that don't know, Noa usually only naps in my arms. Let me start by explaining that this was not the kind of parent I planned on being, it just happened. Chris and I figured out it all started when I was nursing exclusively, Noa was so fussy, so we assumed he had colic and I cut things out of my diet and I started rocking him to sleep and pretty much doing anything to get him to fall asleep. After his one month doctors appointment, we learned that Noa wasn't getting enough to eat, at all. He had gained only a single once in almost 4 weeks! He was supposed to gain that in a day. Stressed and feeling like a horrible mom I started pumping to ensure he got enough milk as well as continuing to let him nap in my arms. Well as you can imagine this has gotten really old, after five months of almost being glued to the house I decided that's it somethings got to give. So over the weekend I started working on his sleep problems one at a time, first the napping I started laying him in his crib after I rocked him and you wont believe that he has been sleeping in his crib for an hour now and he's still asleep. I orignally tried letting him cry himself to sleep but he didn't fall asleep and I couldn't do it. I remembered a book that Meesa swears by "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer" I had read it when I was pregnant and tried it when Noa was a few weeks old but that's when he wasn't eating enough so it didn't work and I forgot about it. I picked up the book yesterday and it actually had a whole chapter on Noa's problems it was like a God send. Thanks Meesa! So the plan is to get him to feel comfortable in his room and his crib so eventually he will drift off to dreamland on his own. I just can't believe it's working, I would recommend this book to anyone. I just wanted to say thanks for all of the great advice, it really gave me the motivation to do something different. Hopefully in a week or so Noa will be sleeping like a pro.

7am

So after I wake up my lovely sleep with Noa, you know, the kind where he just lies next to you without a stir and then just smiles at you when he wakes up..at 7am. Carree is asleep on the couch and is desperately tired. Not only that but she plans on going back to sleep for at least another 30 minutes before I have to get ready to go to work. Sounds like a solid plan, right? Well, our apartment complex found it a wise idea to do some renovations to our pool, generally not a bad idea. However, when they decided they needed to do the renovation at 7am with the use of a jackhammer then they ensue the wrath of a sleepless mother. And this leaves Carree awake again.

Ramblings of a Sleepless Mother

It's 2:30 in the morning and I am up yet again, I can't fall asleep after feeding Noa and putting him back down. He's 5 months old and at 4 months he slept from 7:30 to anywhere between 4 and 5 in the morning with a midnight dream feed, which was pretty good if you ask me and he had been sleeping like that from about 2 and 1/2 to 3 months, but I have no clue what his deal is now. For the last two weeks he's been getting up every two hours and eating anywhere from 4- 6 ounces each time and I am so utterly exhausted. I tank him up before bed and it's no help, he's even started to eat rice cereal but the boy still gets up every 2 hours for more. I am so tired right now that I can't sleep, I know it sounds crazy but I just lay in bed getting more and more frustrated at the fact that I can't drift back into sleep. So here I am writing to get my frustrations off my chest in the hope that I will be able to sleep for at least an hour before I am awaken again by Noa at 4 ....most likely. I have not had more than two hours of consecutive sleep for way too long and I have never been the best sleeper and the more tired I get the harder it is for me to sleep. I am surprised I am even functioning, will this ever end? I am sure you all are thinking well he needs to nap more, but honestly his napping is alright... besides the fact that he refuses to sleep longer than an hour in the daytime out of my arms. So as long as I hold him he takes some pretty good naps. I just wish I could figure out the magic way to get him to sleep better, so that I can sleep better. I get mad that Chris can drift into sleep so effortlessly and I can't. Noa even sleeps well, he just gets up to feed and then goes right back down....but not me. I can't wait until he this growth spurt from hell ends and I get my Noa back. I just hope that ends really soon, because I am just so exhausted. I think the lack of sleep is starting to really get to me.

Life

Life has been very busy lately, Noa is growing so fast, he is sitting up with support, he laughs a lot and his smile melts my heart. We are just loving our little Noa, once I figure out how to get the sound to work on my videos I make on my phone I will post a video so you all can hear his infectious laugh. We really do love every minute with him...sigh :)

Well here's what's new with us:

Chris has been training for races he plans to do at the end of the summer and into the fall and the one I am most excited for is AZurbanAtholon it's going to be way fun. I can't wait to see him scale walls and jump over cars, he'll be like an action hero :) When I asked him, how he was going to train for all of the obstacles in this race he said he would train at park and on play grounds... I can't wait to see that when it starts to get cool enough for him to train outside. hahaha. As for me I have never been so committed to going to the gym daily, I guess being a mom helps with the desire for a little break every day. I have been going to Zumba as well as weightlifting and although I am not a dancer by any stretch of the imagination I do have fun. I feel like the less I care about what I look like and just dance my heart out the more calories I burn. I just pray that one day I will be better at it because I really do love to dance. Other than that nothing new is really going on, being parents is fun and we are still adjusting to our new lives with Noa. Sorry I don't really have any funny stories, I will try and post next time something good happens, if I can remember.

Pictures of Noa

This is a picture of Noa with a bunny that Tia Maggie sent for Easter, he loves it :) it's the perfect size for him to snuggle.

I get bored most days so other day I decided to dress Noa up in one of his adorable outfits that is too hot for Arizona and did a little photo shoot. He looks so cute in his little airplane outfit :)

Noa Cerny is here!!!!!

Noa was born on January 30th at 4:55 AM, his birth weight was 7 lbs 7 oz and he was 20 inches long. He is such a good baby, our lives have changed so much and we love it. I can't believe this little baby is all ours. I love being a mommy and Chris is loving being a dad, we are so happy with our little Noa.

The Waiting Game

Well, I have 10 more days until the baby's due. I have been having contractions since about week 37 off and on but the baby hasn't come. We had an ultrasound at 37 and a half weeks and he is looking great. He's in the 12% for size and I just can't wait to meet him all ready. The last few days my feet and hands have been swelling like crazy...it's so cute, I'm sure you're all very jealous. When I go out people stare at me, no longer do I get those oh look at the cute prego women look, but just blank stares, the worst part was it was mostly women staring, you'd think they would understand and not stare so shamelessly. I've decided people can be rude, I mean, honestly, have they never seen a pregnant woman before? Oh well, at least I'll have this baby, I really just want to meet him already. I can't believe in a few days I will be a mom and my life as I know it, will change forever.... so crazy and exciting. Now it's just a matter of when we're going to meet the little guy.

Finally finished with finals!!!!!

I just finished my finals!!!!! I am so excited!!!! Now I am just procrastinating cleaning my house, I really have put that on the back burner over the last few days. I thought I would post pictures of parts of my final projects.

These are called flats, they are technical drawings of my designs, they are show all of the details in the garments. This is my final line up of my collection, it's for fall/winter, my inspiration was Arizona sunsets. I am so excited to be done.

Now I can start on all of my organizing projects, since we moved I haven't had the chance to really get things set into place. I also get to play with the sewing machine my mom just gave me. She upgraded to a amazing machine, a Bernina 830Lucky me, I got her Pfaff Creative 2144I can't wait to play with it!!! I was using it as motivation to finish my finals early. I am so glad my mom gave it to me! Thanks Mom!

It's Chris's Birthday!

It's Chris's birthday! Yay! Hooray! Yippee! I got up super early this morning so that he would wake up to a birthday breakfast, the menu: German pancakes with homemade butter syrup. Well the pancakes were great but the butter syrup...not so much, it tasted exactly like sweetened condensed milk, needless to say we didn't eat the syrup. Then Chris left for work, after I cleaned the kitchen I was super sleepy, if you think I feel asleep for like two hours you'd be right. Now I've got to the store and get everything to make Chris's birthday pie, anyone who knows Chris well, know that fruit pies are his favorite dessert, especially cherry pie. The challenge for me each year is to master a cherry pie recipe. This year I am debating on whether I should do a cherry cheese pie, decisions, decisions. Since Chris and I are working on finals what better way to spend your birthday than eating pie and studying. I just keep reassuring him that in 2012 he wont have finals on his birthday.

Update on the pregnancy, everything is going well, the baby is growing and moving like crazy, it's a lot of fun. In a week and a half we'll have another ultra sound so we'll post pictures. I can't believe how fast the pregnancy is going, I here that the last month is the longest. I have a little over a month to get myself organized and ready for him. I just hope I don't sleep through the nesting period, hahaha, I can't believe how sleepy I am. My morning sickness is back and for some reason it makes me even more tired. Only 46 more days. Yay!!!!

White trash or Brilliant?

Well we no longer have Direct TV and unfortunately we gave away our antenna when we got our new TV thinking that it had a antenna built in...silly us. So when on Monday we realized our mistake, Chris being the resourceful man he is, got a paper clip with it we had like 5 or 6 stations with just a paper clip Since we're not moving until the 27th and we didn't want to buy an antenna that we would only use for less than a month, Chris, made this beauty...

yep, that's a soda can cut in half, attached to a coax cable, taped to the window, and hooked up to the TV. We get like 26 channels, most in HD....don't be jealous. The true question is are we white trash? Or just super smart? I like to think super smart, I say we because I was smart enough to marry Chris :)

Pictures

Here are some of my ultra sound pictures....

Foot at the 19 week and 1 day ultra sound
Face at 19 weeks and 1 day, you can actually see his eyes, it's a little weird but cool
Face again at 19 weeks and 1 day, we decided in this one he looks like Jack the Pumpkin King.
14 weeks Profile sucking his thumb.
14 weeks face.
The quilt I sewed last week.

We're having a.....

....Okay so those of you who have talked to me in the last few months know that I really struggled with deciding whether or not we were going to find out the gender of our baby. Man was it hard for me to decide. Chris was indifferent and that honestly made it worse for me, so at one point I decided I was absolutely not finding out, then I made the mistake of talking to my sister Shannon and she has this strange power over me.... she can change my mind on anything, she's just so darn persuasive. Here's an example: my car, I decided to buy a car when I was 20 and my dad, sister and I went car shopping, I loved the Oldsmobile Allero but the dealership only had a black one and in the heat that's not the best color, so I test drove a white grand am and I wasn't really feeling the car. Shannon on the other hand LOVED it, so she started telling me all the wonderful features, etc. and by the end of the day I bought the grand am. My car's okay but I don't love it, but at least Shannon does :) hahaha.

That story aside, after talking to Shan, I started to think I would find out on my first child. so on Tuesday afternoon we found out we're having a ...drum roll...baby boy!!! I would post images from the ultra sound but she really only got pictures of his wee wee, I thought it was comical that I got like 4 pictures of his thingy and then 2 of his foot and that was about it :) don't be jealous ;)

Now Chris and I are trying to agree on names and packing up our apartment for our big move at the end of the month. I get exhausted just thinking about moving. We both started our fall semesters this week so we've got a lot going on.

I am also proud to say that I finish a quilt last week while I was in St. George, yay!!!

Summer fun!

Well, it has been way too long since I have written a post, life has been crazy these past few months. We kicked off our summer in style this year with an awesome trip to CO, the plan originally was too do a few hikes and spend most of our time outside in the beautiful CO weather. But a few weeks before we left I started to get sooo tired and I was feeling nauseated so of course when I realized that it wasn't just exhaustion from finals and all the YW stuff I had going on, I naturally took a pregnancy test and found we were expecting! Yay! When we went on our trip I was 7 weeks along and morning sickness started to rear it's ugly head. So with all the joys of early pregnancy we ended up chillaxin' a lot of the time there, was fine with me. But we had such a blast, it was like my last hoorah before I really started to feel sick. What did we do a lot of why we were there? We ate, it was great because when we got back I couldn't eat anything, so it was like my farewell to good food for awhile. For the next several weeks I formed a close relationship with the toilet and my bed. I had no idea how sick one gets being pregnant, I thought it would be uncomfortable but nothing like having the flu, boy was I ever wrong. I felt like I had the flu for a couple months straight. I could never find anything appetizing to eat. I have just started to be able to eat good food, yay for the second trimester!!! I felt so bad for Chris the poor guy had to prepare or buy any food that we ate because I couldn't do it without getting sick. The worst was that I would think something sounded edible, he would go and buy it and I couldn't eat it :( am I grateful we timed this pregnancy like we did, I wasn't in school during all of this so my grades didn't suffer. That's really why I didn't post anything because I wasn't prepared to post the I am preggers and the fact that I didn't have much to write.

So now that I have more energy and am a lot less sick, I have been a busy bee. Last week I spent a day picking out a baby quilt that I had messed up on and the next day I re-pieced the quilt and quilted all in two days! I am seriously proud of myself. Now I just have to figure out what I will do for the binding.

The last couple days I have been working on a choir dress for a girl in my ward, she's so tiny that in the first fitting I had to pretty much take the whole dress apart and remake it but we had a fitting last night and it fit perfectly so now I can finish it and I am super excited. I'll post a picture when I am finished. It's going to be so cute.

Chris and I will be moving to North Phoenix on October 1st, normally I would have most of our apartment packed by now, but because we have lived here for over two years I have a lot of stuff to go through and a lot donations to make to DI. We have way too much stuff and I have been going through what seems like never-ending storage, we already took a car load over to DI. The one upside to moving is that you are a lot more able to purge your life of all the unnecessary stuff.

Duke is one lucky school :)

Chris has been accepted into the Master of Engineering Management program at Duke, yay!!!! I guess being a sun devil just wasn't enough for him, he has to be a blue one too! We wont be moving to North Carolina, they actually offer an away study program where we can still stay here and he just goes to campus a week out of the semester and then studies online for the rest of the semester. We are so excited for this new adventure!
I am super duper proud of my hubbykins :)
Yeah that's right, he's smart and he can fish like a pro, don't be jealous ladies.....hahahaha... ;)

My mom and sister have started blogging Yay!!

My mom's blog address is: http://sandbabystitchin.blogspot.com/

and Kristen's is http://kristenthornesblog.blogspot.com/

You should check them out :)

Man I am really slacking on my blog posts

Well a lot has happened the last few months:

December 18, 2009 - Chris graduated from ASUDecember 21, 2009 - Chris started full time as an engineer at Performance Software. He's officially a big deal.December 24-27, 2009 - Celebrated Christmas in Colorado with Meesa & Trev and their family
Highlights: Snow.... we had a white Christmas...jealous? You should be it was awesome. Playing with Avry and Carter, holding Keely and of course chillaxin' with Meesa and Trev. Meesa is below trying on a lovely gift that we re-gifted to her from the family Christmas Eve white elephant, the model on the box looked just like she does and it had on the box in big letters "Make you beauty healthy, trust it" notice how beauty healthy she is...how can you not trust it.
December 29, 2009 - My new hair cut!!!! That night I went to Katheryn Reed's baby shower!!!!
January 4, 2009 - Shannon gave birth to Layla, my newest niece!!!!
January 6-10, 2009 - Went to St. George to meet Layla and help out. Chris surprised me by arriving 7 hours early and he and my mom planned to have Chris hide and jump out to surprise me and it was a success, I was shocked. We went to Darcy's Cheer competition, she did great! I also did a lot of late night sewing with my mom. So all and all it was a great weekend.To date, we're just getting into the groove of day to day life. My semester starts on February 1st and I have been crazy busy getting prepared. Chris is settling in nicely to full time work. In a nutshell that's what's new with us.

Go Chris!

Disclaimer: If you're not in the mood for some serious bragging, don't read on.

But, you're most likely wondering right now if Chris is a big deal? Well, He is....and if you're thinking, "Carree, why is he such a big deal?" Well, I can tell you...first because people know him and secondly, he not only graduates in a little over two months, he has a job as soon as he graduates!!! Phew, what a relief, but when you're married to a man with the mad skills like his, need I expect any less?
No, but seriously we're super excited! Not to get too corny but I am really proud of him. The forms are all signed and on Dec. 21st Chris starts at Performance Software as a real grown up, okay, so "Real Grown Up" wont be his job title, but you have to admit it would be pretty funny if it was. Wow I think I'm funny, don't worry I am fully aware that I am a dork :) ...don't be jealous. Chris, just think only a few more weeks and you're done. Yay!!!

Assumptions

Wow, it has been forever since my last post. I have been so busy, Chris and I got new callings and have been super busy. The best part about getting our called was that Chris had heard days earlier from a little bird, Jeremy, that it was very likely I was going to be called as Young Women President. So when the executive secretary called him and asked if the bishop could meet with us on Sunday, naturally, Chris assumed it was because I was going to be called. Well when we met with the bishop, Chris was on fire, cool and confident, telling jokes right and left about how awesome and perfect he was and how much I need to learn from him. In the midst of Chris's bantering the bishop says, "Well it's so great that you are so perfect, because we would like to call you to be the ward mission leader." His expression went from absolute certainty to complete bewilderment with in a matter of seconds. One of those moments you wish cameras were appropriate, and that you actually carried a camera in your purse, but alas there is no photographic evidence of this Kodak moment....just take my word for it, it was very funny. Of course after that I assumed I no longer had to worry, but boy was I wrong, the next week I was called to be Young Women President. The moral of this story is never make assumptions, because, it is very likely that you are wrong.