Christmas and more!!

It's been so long since I've blogged! I'll try to backtrack a little bit :) We spent Thanksgiving in Seattle with Alax's parents and it was so fun!  We got to spend a week there and it was fun for Marlee to play with cousins, and for Luke to meet everyone! Alax and I got to go on a well overdue date night while his parents watched the kids too! We spent time doing some shopping, riding some ferry's, doing some touristy things and eating some yummy food. We can't wait to visit again, hopefully when it's a little warmer!
After our Thanksgiving trip, my parents came for a visit for a couple days! It was SO cold while they were here! We did some Christmas shopping, and we went to see Frozen. SUCH a cute movie!
We stayed home for Christmas this year and Alax's parents joined us! The kids have loved having so many people around lately!

Marlee and Luke got to see Santa while we were in Seattle!

Luke didn't care much for opening presents, but he sure loved chewing on anything he could get his hands on!

 Marlee got a new bike from Santa!

Marlee and Luke get along really well, and it's been fun watching them interact now that Luke can do more things.

Luke has pretty much mastered sitting up on his own! He falls over when he gets tired, but I can't believe ho fast he's growing up!

This Monday, Luke gets a helmet. I feel so bad that he has to have one! He has positional Plagiocephaly.  A fancy word for a flat head :) He favored a side when turning his head to sleep which caused his head to be bigger on one side. Most likely he'll wear it for 2-4 months and hopefully it will round it out a little bit. In more severe cases, it can actually cause a baby's face to become a little asymmetrical. Luckily that's not the case for Luke. 

Here he is getting measured for his helmet. They put this white sock on his head and used a laser to scan his head. It then put up a three dimensional picture of his head on the computer so they could get precise measurements. It was actually a really cool process! 

I keep trying to get a good picture of his head for a good before picture, but it's hard to get a good angle with a wiggly 6 month old :) The left side of his head is the part that is bigger. ,

 This is probably the best picture I have.

 Anyway, that is what's been going on in our world lately! Stay tuned for updates on Luke's noggin :)

Cloth Diapers

We are on week two of cloth diapering, and I am LOVING it!! I am so glad we decided to try it, because it has been so much better for us than disposables. We decided to use disposables for Luke the first couple of weeks until he got a little bigger, because the cloth diapers we use aren't really suitable for newborns, and we didn't feel like buying one's that were, because they are in them for such a short time. Luke must have really sensitive skin, because he pretty much had a constant red bum with the disposables, and sometimes it got so bad it would start to bleed in a little spot. I changed him constantly too, and made sure he had rash cream on all the time. The past two weeks we have used the cloth, he hasn't had one diaper rash! These things are amazing! I love that it pulls the moisture away from the skin and the only time he has ever leaked, was only because I had waited too long to change him. Another benefit, they are CUTE!! I can put him in a cute diaper and a shirt, and he looks so dang cute :) We decided to use Sunbaby Diapers because they are super inexpensive ($5 a diaper) and they have such cute prints! When we first started, I thought that washing them would be a pain, but it's so easy. Right now I only have 12 diapers so I do a load every day, but i pretty much do laundry every day anyway, so it doesn't seem like too much extra work :) I'm planning on buying 12 more soon, and they have new prints since I ordered last, so I'm excited :) Anyway, just an update on how it's going :) Hopefully it'll keep going as smooth as it is now!

 little camouflage bum :)

Luke's Blessing

We blessed Luke at home on Saturday, August 3rd because that's when all of
our family could get together. my parents and sister drove up from Utah, and it was Alax's parents last day with us after spending a week and half visiting. Alax gave such a sweet blessing, and Luke...well...

I seriously wish this boy would take a pacifier. I even made sure to feed him RIGHT before the blessing so he wouldn't scream the whole time, but he is a hungry boy! It was such a good day, spending time with our family and celebrating our sweet Luke. 

Everyone who was in the circle

I think this is our first family picture all together..

There really wasn't a good picture of my family. Someone was doing something funny in every single one, so this is probably the best one..Sorry dad..Sorry Marlee..

Thank you to everyone who came and drove so far to be with us!! 

Luke!!

Well, two weeks late, but better than never, right?? He's here! Luke Alax Grundy was born on July 1st at 3:17 am, weighing 7 lbs 9 oz and 20.5 in (they measured him at 21 inches but at his first Dr.s appointment, he was 20 and a half, so either he shrunk, or their measurement was a bit off)
The labor and delivery went really well too! I started having contractions Sunday morning early, like around 1 am, and I couldn't sleep through them, so I went to the living room for the night and had a Secret Circle marathon :) We decided to go to church even though the contractions were getting pretty bad, we thought we would at least go to sacrament meeting. My contractions were about every 5-6 min apart during the meeting, but I thought I could keep going. Even though every time I stood up I felt a little trickle of something (I guess when your water breaks, I expected a huge gush, and not a slow leak...whoops..) Well, I could hardly even stand to stay sitting during Sunday school because the contractions were getting so painful, so after it was over, we grabbed Marlee from nursery and headed home to call my midwife. She told me to wait to go to the hospital until my contractions were 4 minutes apart since we live so close. So I waited...at one point they were coming every 4 minutes at a minute long and they were that way for an hour, and we were just about to go and then they started coming at 6-7 minutes apart. SO frustrating. We waited a couple more hours and finally decided that we needed to have our friend come get Marlee for the night, because I didn't want to have to wake her  up in the middle of the night. By the time he came and got her, I was SO ready to make my way to the hospital. I seriously don't know how people do natural childbirth. My midwife text me to see how i was doing, and i told her I was going in :) On the way there I was so nervous that they were going to tell me that it was false labor and send me home, but when i got there i was 4-5 cm dilated and the test to see if my water had broken came back positive! I was so excited! I couldn't believe that we were going to be meeting our little boy soon! I then got an epidural at 6 cm and just like when I had Marlee, it only numbed me on my right side, so i got another one a little later and it did the trick! I was SO tired from not sleeping the night before, so i slept a lot after the epidural  started working all the way. at about 3 in the morning, I started feeling a lot of pressure, and i knew that it was time to push! The delivery was such a better experience this time around than Marlee's was. It was very calm. I didn't have my feet in stirrups. I just pushed lying there on the bed. For the most part, I could feel when I had to push, and I would just look at my midwife and she would kinda nod her head, and I would push. I was very much in control, and it was so nice. I pushed for about 25 minutes and he was here!! Another thing I liked was that they let him lie on my chest for a long time before they cut his umbilical cord, and before they took him to check him out. After a quick minute of making sure he was all healthy, they handed him back to us and everyone left the room. Alax and I got to love on our sweet boy, and I got to nurse him and it was so nice having just the two of us in the room. All in all, it was a really great experience, and we are so happy to have Luke join our little family :) He is such a sweet baby. He eats a LOT and is gaining weight like a champ. I have a feeling he's gonna be a little chunk! :) He wakes up 2-3 times in the night, and is just so sweet during the day :) He loves being in his car seat and having his hair washed. He smiles a lot in his sleep and he has dimples!! I am so excited to see them better as he gets older. At his 2 week appointment he weighed 8lbs 4oz!! He was discharged from the hospital weighing 7lbs 4oz...seriously, 1 pound in two weeks!! We are just loving him so much, and Marlee loves to help with everything. She's such a great big sister, even if it drives me crazy sometimes :) She gets so concerned every time he cries, and loves to help with diaper changes. I keep saying it, but it's hard to believe that I have two kids!!

brand new

 snuggling in the hospital. Trying to get a shot of his hair :)

 Coming home

Marlee meeting Luke for the first time

She loves him!

2 weeks old, and has the best smiles :)

Catch up time!!

I'm so behind!!! I can't believe my last post was about moving!! We have been having a great time here in Montana. Alax works long hours, which leaves a LOT of mommy and Marlee time :) the weather has been so weird here, but it is FINALLY warming up, and we are loving it!! We've been up to a lot since we moved, so I'll recap a little :)

Our friends from Utah came up to Montana to Visit family for Easter, so we drove up and met them and hung out for the day. It was SO fun to see familiar faces again and let Marlee be with her friends again! I think the move has been so hard on her and I feel so bad :( whenever she cries about something, she always says "I want Aubrey!" breaks my heart...

Marlee and Aubrey

we went on a little walk and got poured on! It was so fun though!!

Marlee, Ada and Aubrey

LOVE these girls!

on or walk to the dam

 Thanks Cameron and Lesley for showing us around, it was so fun! We miss you guys!!! (and I totally stole these pictures from your blog, hope you don't mind!)

The weekend after was Easter. Marlee had such a good time, and loved all her goodies that the Easter Bunny left for her.

egg hunt

All dressed up for Easter Sunday

Lately, now that it's getting warmer, we've spent a LOT of time playing outside. Its been so fun to spend some one on one time with Marlee before baby boy gets here! 

playing with bubbles

I've been so tired lately, and I like to lay down and rest for a minute when I can :) only 8 more weeks!!!

We made homemade chocolate ice cream one night, and Marlee was in Heaven!!

playing with chalk paint

 we've been loving walking to the park and having picnics!

Today it finally felt warm enough to get her little pool out, and she played for hours, while I got some seriously needed sun on my pasty skin :)

Hopefully I'll keep up with posts here and there so I won't have so much to cover! But, all in all, we're loving Montana, and loving the people here!

We made it!!

Well, we made it to Montana!! We're not all the way unpacked yet, but hopefully soon :) I was so worried about not having enough room for all of our stuff, but our new place has a surprising amount of space, so I've been happy :) We've been missing everyone from Utah, and Marlee has been missing her friends too. I can't wait to have this baby and give her a little playmate :)

Our Apartment all packed up. 

Driving away :(

 Finally in Montana. It is beautiful!!

It was a long drive, and we were all looking a little rough :) (yes those are curly fries in her lap..)

Maybe I was just tired, but the drive seemed to take FOREVVVVER!!! I finally had to block the clock because it would kill me when it felt like another 30 min had passed and i looked down and it was more like 5....

 Poor Marlee had nothing to do when we (Alax) were bringing boxes in. So we set up a show on Alax's phone.

Buuutt, she got bored really quickly until I made her her own little movie theater in one of the closets :)

trying to get settled...

Our kitchen

We got Marlee a new fish, for putting up with us the past week. Her name is snowflake.

I had to throw this one in here. Marlee saying goodbye to her friends right before we left. This was the hardest part :(