Random pictures

Why am I so bad about updating this blog?? If you're wanting to look at completely random pictures, then this post is for you :)

We got a dog...Not my idea, but he's been a good friend for Marlee, and he's so great with the kids. His name is Arrow and he's a German Shepard/black lab mix. This is a picture of when he was a puppy. He's going to be a BIG dog and has changed so much already!

\

Arrow lets Luke pull his fur and stick his fingers in his mouth (yuck). He's really patient with him which I love.

 Did I mention that we moved into a house? We've been slowly making improvements, and Alax put updated doors in a month or so ago. It has changed the look of the house SO much!

 Marlee is constantly dressing up and wanting me to watch her "dance class" she has a little routine and bows at the end when I clap for her :) Sometimes she gets Luke involved too. She loves dancing so much that we decided to sign her up for a summer dance class. She starts on Tuesday. She is going to love it!

We had such a fun Easter!!

We planted Jelly Beans the night before Easter and woke up to suckers growing!! :)

Luke had fun too :)

too much candy!

 Love these kiddos!!

Luke got his first haircut!!! We were going to wait until he got his helmet off, but his hair was a little bit ridiculous. He looks so much older now, it makes me sad! And speaking of the helmet, he is still wearing it! He'll probably have it on til he is 1.  His head just hasn't grown much in the past 3 months, so there's still plenty of room for improvement. His head is looking SO much better though!!

"You be good, and I'll be bad"

The weather in Montana is finally getting warm!! We've been soaking up the sun as much as we can and I am loving having a backyard to let the kids play in. Luke is also up and walking!! So crazy!

 I donated 10" of my hair!

we even got to pull the pools out recently!

 Luke wasn't too sure about the cold water

  We have such great neighbors and we play with them pretty much every day. They have a little girl who is a year younger than Marlee and they act like siblings. They have such similar personalities and they play hard and fight hard :)

 I decided to do preschool at home with Marlee. She loves doing her workbooks and crafts! She is so smart. She can't wait til she's 5 and can go to school!

We got snow on Mother's Day.

I love this picture of Luke!! His hair was so crazy, and his favorite thing is being on a swing! He just smiles and laughs the whole time. 

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 :)