Memorial Day Weekend 2015

This weekend we went down to St. George with Robert's family for the family's annual family trip.  We found a nice vacation rental house from Airbnb and stayed there over the weekend.  We also took a 15-passenger van (we named it Peni--story about it down below) down, so that we could fit everyone when we went places, instead of having to take a bunch of different cars.  The weekend was filled with a trip to Zion's, swimming, sports, games, delicious meals and good company.

Peni helped us arrive safely in St. George.

On the way to Zion's in Peni.

In front of Peni just after a night out at Gun Barrel.

Okay, here is how the name Peni came to be: We knew we were renting a 15-passenger van, but it wasn't that funny until we saw it parked in front of the house as we were loading up to get ready to leave.  Poor Peni was the brunt of many jokes.  Everyone made fun of her non-tinted windows and how everyone driving by could see us, the unfortunate passengers, in the big white bus.  And we saw a few big white vans just like ours, but they all had tinted windows.  Robert said, let's just stick a sign on the van that says "Utah State Penitentiary" because Peni (short for Penitentiary) looked like a transport vehicle.  So we joked that we could all wear orange jumpsuits/shirts so people could see us in the not-even-tinted windows and think we were all inmates.  Maybe it's one of those you-had-to-be-there stories, but it was pretty funny.

Myla riding the carousel with daddy.

Myla playing with a rugby ball in her white pioneer hat haha.

She was out cold after a day of being outside.

#tbt 3

Wow... it has been a long while since I've blogged.  I just haven't thought of anything to blog about because my days pretty much consist of the same things... taking care of Myla haha.  I figured I might as well write something, so here's a little Throwback Thursday for ya (and for some reason there is a huge gap between this paragraph and the first photo, and it won't let me backspace to get rid of it... oh well).

Back when Myla had a small head and big body.

Back when perms were cool... (eh...)

Old family photo when Karson was just a baby.

That one time Kelcie and I did one continuous braid from one head to the next.

Back when we pretended to be cats.

This was us seeing Myla's small body next to Kajsia's.

Back when Myla was just a little bump and I was just barely starting to show.

Back when Robert and I mashed our faces together.  Oh boy.

That one time Robert sat in on one of my classes.  As you can tell, it was exciting.

Back when Robert and I could go watch movies whenever we wanted to hahaha.

And that one time Tanaya and I mashed our faces together.

The one time Myla sucked her thumb and fell asleep.

Goodbye, 2014

2014 has been a good year, but mainly because our family of two became a family of three!  That was for sure the biggest thing to happen this year, but of course there have been other things too!  These are just some of the things I can remember off the top of my head... I am terrible with remembering things that have happened throughout the year haha.

Robert

• Finally declared his major as Economics.
• Went on another trip to New York with the Finance Club at BYU and is still convinced we need to move to New York...

 Brandi

• Graduated from BYU in Family Studies!  I am so done with school!  Haha.  Now what do I do with my life?!
• Learned how to drive a stick shift.  I have definitely not mastered it yet, but I am slowly getting there... especially since I have only driven a total of 3 times in 2014 haha.

Myla

• Was born!
• Learned how to roll over from her tummy to back at 2 months old.
• Started being able to sit up a little bit on her own in December.
• Rolled over twice from her back to tummy on New Year's Eve!

Along with all of those individual updates, Robert and I celebrated 3 years of marriage at the end of the year.  It has been a good 3 years, and so much has happened within that short amount of time.  It's crazy!  I can't wait to see what 2015 brings us!

Things That Make Babies Cute, But Not Adults

Okay, I know my last few posts have been nothing but about babies, but it's kind of hard to find things to write about when your life pretty much just consists of taking care of a baby.  So here is yet again another post about babies haha.  These are just some things that make babies cute, but don't make adults cute.

1. A toothless grin.  Babies are just cute without teeth.  But, if a full grown adult smiled at you and didn't have teeth, I think you'd be freaked out a little and you would probably wonder about their hygiene.
2. Farting out loud.  Okay, it's not necessarily cute, but it's funny.  Myla will just rip a loud one (sometimes with some bubbly poop along with it) out in public and there is no shame.  This happens a lot in Relief Society, and the ladies in there just turn to look at her and laugh.  If I, however, ripped one, I don't think the ladies would give me the same reaction.
3. Frowning and crying.  Let's be honest, that little frown babies give before they cry is adorable.  On adults, eh, not so much.  Babies just don't have an ugly face when they cry.  I, on the other hand, have an ugly face when I cry.  As one of my friends and I used to joke around, we have "an ugly cry".
4. Drooling.  I don't think drool is "cute", but it's at least acceptable for babies to drool.  I don't think I'd be so attractive with dribbles going down my chin and onto my shirt.
5. Fat rolls.  Don't you just want to squeeze those chubby cheeks?  Don't you just want to chew on those chubby arms? I was talking about that guy over there.  Oh, now you don't want to squeeze those chubby cheeks and chew on those chubby arms?

Yes, babies are just cute no matter what.  Unless they had baby dentures.

Things They Don't Teach You in Motherhood 101

As a new mom, I have discovered a bunch of things that no one ever tells you before you become one:

• You can feel babies' lymph nodes behind their ears.  When I first kept feeling them, I thought Myla had enlarged veins or had some type of worm living in her head.  The lymph nodes are squishy and they move when you touch them.  Yeah, I was freaking out a little bit.  Thank you Google for putting my mind at ease.  Well, actually my mom said something about them but I couldn't understand what she was saying haha.
• How you don't have to check to see if your baby is still alive and breathing.  Okay, I've heard of moms constantly checking to see if their baby is still breathing, especially with their first babies, but I didn't think I would be one of them.  I read in the handbook the hospital sent me home with to only be worried if the baby's lips are blue, but for some reason I still have to stick my pointer finger under her nose to feel if there is actually air going in and out of there.
• Myla is still healthy and not brain damaged after connecting her soft spot to my chin.  This actually happened just last night.  I was trying to burp her but she was being wiggly.  It's happened before but not hard enough like last night where it sort of left a little dent (don't worry, the dent is gone!).  And yes, I was freaking out.  Robert assured me that she was fine, especially since she wasn't crying or acting like it hurt.  Of course I then had to pull up Google to see what other moms have said to make me feel better.
• Said soft spot pulses. It kinda creeps me out, but I learned it pulses to the beat of the baby's heart. 
• Newborns can shoot poop out their butts like water guns shoot out water.  And I'm not talking about the dinky little Dollar Store guns that shoot out pin sized streams of water.  I learned this when Myla was only a couple of weeks old while I was changing her.  She decided she wanted to go poop in the middle of me switching out the old diaper for a new one, and I was shot.  Want to know what else I learned from this experience?  I was not as disgusted by having poop splattered all over my shirt as I thought I would be.
• Along with the above point, newborns like to poop and/or pee right after you put a new diaper on them.  And sometimes they do this 3+ consecutive times in a row.  I'm pretty sure Myla thinks, "Thanks mom, I wanted to go more in a new diaper instead of this old one!  But let me go pee in this one first, then I want you to change me into a new one before I go poop.  But I'll only poop some of it out because I want to poop the other half in another clean diaper."
• Babies have to learn how to burp.  I thought this came to them naturally, with the help of a few pats on the back, of course.  False.  I'm pretty sure I spend more time trying to burp Myla than feeding her.  She has gotten better as she has gotten older, but I didn't know that burping was hard for her.  I mean, when I feel a gas bubble and just let it out.  For her she grunts and groans like she has to poop, but then only a burp comes out.
• Babies have to get used to eating.  And what I mean by that is that when babies are drinking milk as fresh newborns, they are still trying to figure out how much is enough to satisfy them.  I learned this when Myla was like a week old and she decided to projectile vomit her meal because she drank too much.  Yes, that freaked me out.  Thank you again, Google.  You really do have the answers don't you?
• How scary and sad it is to see your baby sick.  This week Myla experienced (and is still experiencing) her first cold.  I understand how scary it would be if something serious is going on, but I didn't think it'd be so hard seeing Myla with a simple cold.  I've experienced many colds in my lifetime to know that usually they're not a big deal, but for some reason it still scares me seeing this tiny baby go through one.
• Babies have unusually large pot bellies.  I was beginning to wonder if Myla was being malnourished because she seriously has a belly like those African children who don't get enough nutrients.  My dad said my siblings and I all had bellies like that and that it's normal.
• Some newborns don't take pacifiers.  I assumed all babies liked sucking on pacifiers to soothe themselves, but not Myla.  She either gags or cries more when I try to give her a pacifier.  She's beginning to do alright with the pacifier the hospital sends home with you, but she still won't really take one.  So for now I have learned other ways to soothe her.  Mostly letting her listen to really loud white noise seems to do the trick.
• Check your baby's hands often.  For some reason, gunk magically gets in between her fingers, even when she is swaddled like a burrito with her hands strapped down.  Mostly this gunk consists of sweat and fabric fibers, but it still boggles my mind how they (the fabric fibers) get there.
• Have a fully charged phone or a long book to read when breastfeeding (I don't know how it is with bottle feeding) because some feeding sessions can take forever!
• They tell you to take naps when your baby does, but what they don't tell you is that your baby has a 6th sense.  At least I'm pretty sure they do.  They can somehow sense when your head hits the pillow and they decide that they actually want to be awake.  Maybe Myla just wants a zombie for a mom?
• You look like a hobo 24/7.  Make-up?  What's that?  And I'm pretty sure I've stayed in my pajamas all week long... for a few weeks...

Of course all babies are different and each mothering experience is different, but these are just some of the things I have learned in the past 2 months, and I'm sure I will continue to learn a bunch of new things that no one ever tells you, or that you just don't think of until you actually experience them.

Also, I know that Google isn't always the best source for information, but it sure has helped on occasion :)

My Little Grunter

When I imagined my baby, I imagined cute little cooing noises coming out of her mouth like most babies.  Instead, she likes to make this sound:

I have mixed feelings about this.
1) Sometimes it makes me laugh.  It is actually pretty entertaining and funny to hear this noise coming out of a cute little baby girl.
2) Sometimes it makes me embarrassed.  Especially at church during the sacrament and it's silent.  It makes me wonder if people question whether there really is a baby girl hiding beneath the car seat cover instead of some animal.
3) Sometimes it makes me crazy.  This is usually when it's 4 in the morning and I am trying to sleep. Seriously?

FYI: This noise is not always because she is straining to go to the bathroom. 95% of the time it's just the noise she makes.

20th Family Reunion

This weekend was the annual Anderson family reunion in Beaver, and it was Myla's first time "camping"!  Okay, this year Robert and I decided not to stay in a tent because we didn't know how Myla would do in a tent being 3 weeks old, and I wasn't sure how comfortable I'd be as I'm still recovering from giving birth.  So technically we didn't camp, but we went up on the mountain both Friday and Saturday.

On the way up the mountain we were stopped by some cows.  They sure took their time getting out of the road...

Every year we have a theme to our reunions.  For example, in the past we've had themes such as Harry Potter, Willy Wonka, Clue, Dr. Seuss, Survivor, etc.  This year was the 20th family reunion, so the theme this year was a celebration of 20 years, and we looked back at past reunions and played games from past reunions and looked at videos/slideshows of past reunions.  It was a nice weekend to just spend with family and take a break from... well, I guess I don't have anything to take a break from really, since I don't work anymore.  I guess I got little breaks from being a mom while family members held Myla haha.

Taking family pictures.  We put on mustaches as a joke... 

Yes, even Myla got a mustache.  More like little pieces of mustache, since they were too big on her tiny face.

I wish I took more pictures, but every time there was a picture to take, I left my phone in the car haha.  Oh well.