Home with Hailey

Allison here. Usually Kenny updates the blog, but I wanted to give it a shot and talk about Hailey. Hailey is so much fun! I love not having to work and love staying home with Hailey. She keeps me busy, but I love being a new mom. I do get less sleep now then when I was working, but it is all worth it. We are having to change her outfit at least once a day because she loves to spit up on them(Or Us). Kenny is already trying to teach her to play on the x-box and she is only 3 weeks old. Kenny and I are still continuing with school. We both only have 1 year left. Thank goodness! Hailey has already become an Utah State Aggie fan, as shown in the picture. One of Kenny's professors (John Seiter) gave her this Aggie Cow. One of the reasons we love USU is because of professors like Seiter. I will have to go back to work at the beginning of January, but hey I get the holidays all off so I'm not complaining. We got our Christmas lights already up and a lot of our Christmas shopping done. We wanted to do it before Hailey came. Kenny and I are both looking forward for the Holidays, we can't wait.

Cow baby

Here's some photos of Halloween. Nancy helped us decorate this year, since Kenny is kind of a Scrooge when it comes to any holiday except Christmas and doesn't like to decorate. We also have a couple of pictures of Hailey dressed up like a cow. A very cute and cuddly cow (if that type of cow exists...)

Pictures

Pictures

Normally, nothing interesting happens to us in a span of a few weeks, much less a few hours. So, it feels good to be able to blog for TWO consecutive days! Yeah SUHWEET. Here are some pictures of Hailey and various family members.

6.13 Pounds, 19 Inches

Hailey is here! (And in this pic, she's nude.)

Nine months has gone by very quickly. It was just about 3 weeks ago that Allison and I were still refering to Hailey as BTBNL (Baby To Be Named Later) and now, Hailey is here. It has been a whirlwind for the past 36 hours. I was almost excited to come back to work tonight just to get back into some sort of routine.

We had decided a few weeks ago that we did want to put up Christmas lights this year but we did not want to do it after the baby had come. The ladder that we own is not very long, so we need Alli to steady the ladder while I climb up to put the lights on the house and we didn't want to tackle the job while Hailey was here. We kept procrastinating the lights, until Monday afternoon. We FINALLY did it, and its a good thing, because Allison went in to labor Tuesday morning at about 4 a.m. Alli was in labor until about 5 p.m. and did fantastic during the birth. Hailey had some problems- the umbilical (sp?) cord was wrapped around her neck, she wasn't able to hold a good body temperture, and she would not cry- which I have learned is the best way for babies to absorb the gunk in their lungs. So I went with Hailey to some special room to with equipment to measure her oxygenation and temperture while Alli rested. Both mama and baby are doing great now, and Allison will be home tomorrow afternoon.

We will put a TON of Hailey pics up tomorrow night. I have a few here now, along with some other pictures that I ahven't had the time/desire/need to post that the Boss (Alli) insists I share. So, for the 2 people who actually read our blog, here's some overdue goodies:

Here is Allison about 24 hours before she went into labor. Besides the Christmas lights, we were lucky enough to get one lil' glimpse at her belly before she lost it. It's amazing how small she looks already. She came over to me while I was watching TV and and handed me the camera. Now I am glad she did, because neither of us Hailey would come this early.

Here is Allison in the labor and delivery room. We were in her for what seemed like forever- I had stayed up until 3 am working on a paper for a commuications class on the Amish. I finally went to bed, only to be woke up about an hour later by Allison asking me to take her to the hospitol. Needless to say, it was awhile before I could actually sleep. I fianlly fell asleep at about 8 a.m and slept for about an hour, while Allison didn't sleep at all until she got her epideral around 2 p.m. I thought we would both crash after Hailey was born, but neithe rof us has slept much, instead, we have been at the hospital with baby.

Here we are after Hailey had been birthed and cleaned up. We had both been up for a long time and Allison was worn out for labor, but luckily, the nurses reminded us to take some pictures. I don't know that we would have remembered had she not reminded us. Off topic a bit- For the 2 people who read this blog- if at all possible, give birth in the women's center. The nurses were so cool and the faciliites were very nice. The room Allison is in now at the women's center is much nicer than our room in our house (maybe that's an exageration, but you get the point).

That's all I want to say tonight. Tomorrow we will put a blog of Hailey and it probably won't have our boring narratives. Just lotsa baby pics.

Weekly Update

First of all, Congrats to the wonderful MRS. Carrie Smith. She got married this Thursday to some dude. Allison made it to the sealing/reception and said Carrie looked extremely happy. Yeach Carrie, enjoy your honeymoon!

As for an update on Allison- She's still pregnant. We are only about 2-3 weeks away from having a kid! It's been a very fast 8 months, and as happy we are that Hailey is healthy and moving around, we are both ready for the pregnancy part of having a baby to be over. Alli has a couple online classes this semester and is finding it hard to stay awake as she watches the podcasts, because she is always tired. She had her latest doctor appointment today and the doctor told her everything looked perrfect, and she is dialated to 2.

Tonight, the Red Sox face the Rays in the ALCS. PLEASE, everyone who reads this, think good thoughts about the Red Sox. We need good vibes.

We have been working on the house, trying to get it ship-shape before winter comes. We just put the finishing touches on our new firplace mantle. I built the mantle using my bare hands. And, some hammers and nails and other stuff. We used a really neat marble for the surround and we feel it turned out pretty great. I will get some photos of it up as soon as posible. It seems like winter is around the corner- it's even supposed to snow this weekend. Last time it snowed, we forgot to let Guiseppi in. We even took a picture of him after the snow stopped.

Yeah USU!!!

Never, in this history of sports, have I ever been so satisfied with the team I am cheering for losing by 20 points. Utah State actually looked improved against #8-ranked BYU.

Some funny shirts I saw at the hotel tonight:

Win or lose, BYU fans still live in Provo!

BYU gave me Herpes!

And my personal favorite...

BYU- keeping ugly women out of Utah State since 1888

Although I am aboard the BSU bandwagon every year, it is nice to see BYU struggle against a WAC team.

It's been 8 months ALREADY!?!?

Amazing how time flies. In just a few weeks, HAILEY will be joining the world! In case you are one of the 2 readers of this blog who lives outside of Logan, BTBNL has been changed to Hailey. Naming a baby can be a challenge. Alli and I had a list of names we liked, and it seemed every name on her list was the same as one of the shady girls I knew from high school or one of my cousins, while every name on my list was just as distasteful to Alli. I even offered to name the baby Allison Jr. We decided to settle it by arm wrestling, and after a three hour long battle of forearm strength, Allison let me win. She got bored.

We are very excited for the baby. In the photo with this posting, my mom, sister, dad, and I are trying to figure out how to put together a baby swing that Allison got from her baby shower. We have all the baby furniture bought and all the unnecessary baby items (swing, bouncer, etc.) assembled. Thanks to everyone who has helped us out at baby showers or in other ways, it is a big change to have another member of the family and the help has been very appreciated. Condolences to all of you who voted on our blog survey thinking our baby was going to be a boy. Hopefully, your vote in the presidential election will reflect a better choice *cough (McCain) cough* than your choice in unborn babies' genders.

As the baby and the holidays draw near, Allison and I will try and be a bit more diligent in blogging. I was horrified to find that it had been almost 3 months since our last blog. If bloggin was as much fun as XBox, I would do it everyday. I will put a couple of photos we took this summer up in the next few days. In the one above, we are at Carla and Allen's house during August. We have since changed our optomologist. And yes, I am rockin a Halo 3 shirt.

Eating for Two...

So, as we mentioned during our last posting, we are expecting a girl on October 27th. We found out a couple of weeks ago (around father's day) but we have just been to lazy to blog it out. We are soooo excited...although this will have to change our list of baby names. I still think that Shaquille would be a good girl's name if it weren't for the 7 foot black dude that is currently holding the title. Allison disagrees, and I can see her point- I don't want my baby to be confused with a 325 pound NBA center.

As you can see, Alli is doing really well. She has gained about 15 pounds, although she's kinda small, so she's showing through already. She was kind enough to pause her Xbox session long enough for me to take a picture of her. Last Sunday, I was able to feel the baby kick for the first time. It was a very strange experience- it has really made the whole pregnancy feel closer to home, since that was the first time that I have had any interaction with BTBNL. In church last Sunday, Alli grabbed my arm suddenly and put it on her belly during sacrament meeting. BTBNL was kicking so ferociously that I thought her leg was going to poke through Alli's belly button.

Anyway, Alli had a doctor appointment today and everything continues to progress smoothly. As soon as something neat happens, we'll make sure to throw another post on here. And I was joking about Shaquille. :)

Finally finished!

I really have to commend the people that are able to update their blog daily. It feels like I updated our blog just a couple of days ago, but when I look at the date, I realize that it has been over 3 weeks.

We have been a little strapped for time during the month of June. Kenny has been doing summer school and Allison has been working a lot, and we have been working on the house like crazy. Very few improvements can be done during the winter here in Logan and even fewer will be done when we have the baby, so we are trying to get 6 months worth of improvements into a 3 month time frame. So far, so good- this last weekend, Curt, Terrilynne, and Corey came up and helped us paint our house. Prior to the new paint job, we had white siding with poorly maintained brown trim (although the previous owner did leave some of the gutter in a rainbow of colors, from brown to pink to unpainted galvanized steel). Since we have an older home, the siding is wood. Untreated wood can age really quick, so we were wanting to get a coat of anything on the sides to insure the wood wouldn't rot. We borrowed Blake's paint sprayer and went to town on the house, trim, and garage. We like the colors and how it all turned out, and we really like that we are pretty much done with home improvements for the year. Take a look...

Also, we are having a girl in October. We'll write more on that later on...

What we did with our summer vacation

Well, it has been a nice and relaxing week. We took the week off in anticipation of some relatives coming into town who weren't able to make it, so we had a week off and no plans. We made the best of it and it has turned out to be a neat week. We went to West Jordan to see Allison's family and enjoyed playing cards and went to Hogle Zoo in SLC. Allison also wanted me to mention that she did beat me at mini-golf. Next thurday is the day that we will find out what the gender of BTBNL is, wo we will keep everyone posted.

A little love to the Maxfield side

This last week we went camping with the Maxfields and an old family friend (who was also a mission buddy of mine), Chad Clemens. We went about 5 miles up Logan Canyon, and enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend outdoors. We had a great time, even though it was overcast and rainy almost the whole time. We were talking about the blog and decided that we should put some shots of the Maxfields on this site because they are a huge part of our lives. Thankfully, Terrilynne had some photos of a few of us during this last Christmas season. I was pleasantly surprised that she happened to find the pics of us wearing our Halo 3 t-shirts that we got for Christmas. In this picture, we have (from L to R) Terrilynne, Blake, Mare, Kenny, Allison, and Corey. I guess Curt was taking the picture...? Peter and Rachelle have defected to Georgia, but we look forward to seeing them this Christmas along with their kids, Madison and Bryson. Adam is serving a mission in NYC, currently in the Bronx. We also have a picture (below) of Elder Maxfield's most recent investigator, Snoop Dog (JK).

BTBNL snapshot

Oh, sorry Mom. I forgot to include an ultrasound shot of BTBNL. Here it is!

Down the home stretch

Well, our kitchen is finally looking like it will be finished before the end of the summer. As promised, we have a few pictures of the process we went through to get the kitchen from gross to gorgeous.

These photos show Alli in the kitchen the day that we started demolition. Notice the yellow-green cooktop and the white and gold formica, along with the cabinets that have been coated with terpentine so many times that they have turned yellow. We also have a wall oven that is so old that all of the settings are written in latin (jk, but it's old).

The next picture is after 4 hours of demolition. We never realized that the demolition would go so fast or so smooth, because we were always a little nervous about what we would find behind the cabinets. We had to disconnect the power and rip out the old cooktop, tear up some of the already laid tile, and disconnect all of the plumbing. There was also an old vent that came down above where the cooktop was that had to be disconnected from inside the attic, where we had never even seen before.

I wish that we would have taken ome photos of our handyman, David. He was a great guy who helped us a lot, especially with the electrical relocation that I was not brave enough to tackle. The fourth picture shows the near-finished product that we have right now. We were able to remove the island completely and install a much needed dishwasher (stainless steel!) as well as a new sink and faucet. Allison and I did all the finish work on the cabinets and the counter tops. We also re-tiled the floor where the island had been as well as tiled the whole backsplash and changed the outlets so that they were white instead of bisque. The final photo shows the new oven and microwave that are on the opposite wall of the sink and dishwasher. Having the microwave above the range freed up a tone of counter space and adding all those cabinets opposite the window gave Allison a lot more places to put her kitchen goodies. Hope you guys think it looks good!

Oooops...

I had all sorts of grand ideas about this blog when Allison and I decided to set it up in March, but I have been slackin, and all sorts of family and friends have reprimanded me for keeping them in the dark regarding Baby to be Named Later (BTBNL). So, to give a quick update, we have not chosen a name for the baby yet. I am convinced that we are having a girl because of how mild the pregnancy has been. Allison has not even been sick. As a matter of fact, I doubt people would even know she was pregnant if it wasn't for the volleyball-sized bump that once was her stomach. We have discussed the name Brinkley if it is a girl, and I am trying to convince Allison that Shaquielle, Griffey, Amare, and Kobe are good names for a middle class white boy in the event we have a son (if he has a good name, maybe he'll be a good athlete?). BTBNL seems to be doing fine health-wise, and after the next doctor appointment on May 27, we will give another BTBNL update.

As for Alli and me, we are doing fine. Thanks to the miracle of the internet and cable TV, I have been able to watch most of the Red Sox games this season. Allison has been trying to choose a breed of dog for us to adopt, as if we don't have enough animals running around our yard. Last week we decided to undertake a complete kitchen remodel. We bought our house last August, and we have been barely surviving without a dishwasher. You gotta love these older homes. So, we gutted the kitchen to the studs and started over, doing most of the work ourselves. We hired a handyman to re-route our plumbing to the dishwasher and to install a 220 volt outlet, and everything went smoothly, except our 220 outlet is only pushing 140 volts. 140 volts is not enough to power an oven or stove, so we are waiting for our contractor to get a sec to comeback and fix it. Thanks goodness for microwaves and Taco Time. But, the kitchen looks amazing now and we are very happy with the results. We also got news that Logan was the 8th highest metro area for home appreciation last year, so we're feeling good about the house. We'll put pics up soon....

First post

Welcome to Kenny and Allison's first BLOG!