Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Homesick Part 2



All you have to do is take one look at these cutie kiddos and you can see why I miss my family in Wisconsin so badly!
Even when they're grumpy they're cute! :)

Monday, April 28, 2008

Way back when she was 1.... week:)

Well, I never posted photos from when she was 1 week old, so I guess today is the day! As you'll see, this was QUITE the day for photos in her life! It was the LAST time she had to sleep in that AWEFUL suitcase of blue lights that was much to little to fit ANY normal sized baby, it was when my mom was there to help me do a little baby photo shoot and it was her 1 week old birthday party!! Yes, we had a party... cake and all! Actually, it was Grandma Heaton's birthday too, and not just her one week birthday either :) Mostly, it was just a good reason to get together the family and eat some good food! Grandma Heaton had flown in the day before and this was her first meeting with Baby Loves :D

This was her last nap in the "suitcase":



Here comes Mommy with the camera!



And now it's time to Party!

Friday, April 25, 2008

AI car video for last week


LOL - I thought this one was kinda cool :) I guess I'm an especially big American Idol fan this week. So in case you missed it the other night... here you go :)

Homesick

Today, I'm very homesick for my family back in Wisconsin. I'm EXTREMELY tempted to just load up the van and go, but since Joe can't really take the time off and I probably shouldn't go alone... :( I want to be with my little bro who just had surgery, and I want my family to see my beautiful little girl before she's not a little BABY anymore! She has the most WONDERFUL smiles and flirty little eyes (which, of course, I never am able to really catch on video) and I just want to share it all with them SO BADLY.... So, I made a little video which isn't much, but it was what I could get when I had the minute to take it, so here it is!

PS - if you know anyone that wants to take a weekend drive to Milwaukee or Chicago....

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Feb 17th

I know, I know.... I just can't help but share more cutie photos! She's so much older now, but I love having an excuse to look at these photos!



PS I got a call on Saturday telling me my mom, Grandma Barb, would be coming on Sunday! Since I wasn't sure I'd have any of my side of the family other than my sister there, well, you can imagine I was a pretty happy camper.

10 weeks!

so, since i have yet to figure out how to upload stuff from my video camera, I shot this quick clip w my small digital camera... I know, it's pretty lame when it's easier to upload VIDEO from a regular camera or phone is easier than uploading it from an actual VIDEO camera!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

I Digress-thoghts on American Idol

Ok, so I actually have a really good reason for not updating this thing for about a week now. The thing is, I've actually been pretty dang sick and the thought of sitting here and typing was just horrifying... don't worry, we're better now, though baby Priya unfortunatly joined us on the family sick-o van for a few days.
Anyway, I would like to digress from family news to have a "water-cooler" discussion about AI. That's right, I'm talking about American Idol. Specifically, I'd like to discuss Carly being kicked off this week, when CLEARLY she had one of the most AMAZING performances of the season, much less the night. Why then, was she kicked off? Personally, I think it's because of the average American's lack of knowledge about the show Jesus Christ Superstar. For me, it was the very first "Broadway" show I had ever seen, having been introduced to it mostly because of my Uncle's absolute infatuation with the show. I was taught to see the show as a possible idea of what it might have been like to see inside Judas's head and better understand who he might have been. Now, I'm not saying that this show is a huge faith promoter or anything like that, but I have grown to really love the show and appreciate much of it's music.... however, I'm afraid that once you've gotten over the probable innitial shock of the show, one might forget what a shock it could be to other people. Anyway, that's what I think happened to Carly... I was SO moved and excited by her performance, and was SHOCKED that she was in the bottom 2... but then I wasn't as shocked. Not that she should have been there.... it IS supposed to be about talent and performance and not just the song isn't it.... But I digress...
Oh, and by the way, Google Reader is the BOMB!(Dawg!) What an awesome way to quickly know who's blogs etc have been updated so you don't have to waste time checking tons of blogs needlessly, or forget which ones you actually wanna check cuz there are just too many of them! Way to go, Google!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

2 Months and 3 Inches!

That's right - my little inchworm has grown 3! in the last 2 months! It was such a big leap that the nurse measured her again just to be sure! She also weighs 10 lbs 5 oz - not as much as her dad and I thought, but getting up there!
To celebrate her 2 month mark (and just because it's nice to have an excuse to get some family together :) we had a little party on Monday. It was an AMAZING day, especially earlier in the afternoon, and she had some fun sporting her new Sun Hat! :) Here are a few photos:



If you notice, most of the photos are NOT with her mom or dad, but with her UNCLE CRAIGY!!! She LOVES her uncle! It seems that no matter how grumply she is before hand, as soon as she SEES - not just hears, touches or is held by, but even just SEES her Uncle Craig, the smiles start flowing! LOL - I love it. I feel SO lucky that he and several of Priya's other Aunts and Uncles live close, because I think extended family is SO important! I just wish she had a few cousins close by... maybe soon!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Last Friday



Sorry Folks - Now that I actually picked up my camera again the other day and also now that it's getting nicer outside, I'm starting to get shutter-bug fever again! Plus hey! i've got a fairly willing subject around all the time now, so I figure, what the hay! LOL - feel free to comment :)

Hospital Day 3 - The "Blue Light Special"

Am I giving you all too many details? I'm sure it's just because she's my first, but I can't help it! I just can't help thinking everyone is as interested in my little cutie as much as I am! :)

Early in the morning of our 3rd day in the hospital... meaning like 3 or 4 am early! They told us our baby's billirubin levels were too high and would have to be put under lights in the nursery and I lost it. LOL - ok maybe it was just the exhaustion kicking in since I hadn't really slept yet that night and had just had a COMPLETE melt down over whether or not to give Priya pacifier! Turns out it was really good I'd consented cuz this little kiddo has an overactive desire to suck, plus once she was under the blue lights, there wasn't much else we could do to comfort her and they absolutely did NOT want us to take her out of her little blue bed more than once every 3 hours and that was just to feed her! Even though I started producing milk by either the 3rd or 4th day, they also had us feed her formula through a tiny tube with a syringe to help clear the extra billirubin out of her system. Not having her in our room nearly KILLED me... not that I was completely against the nursery taking her every once in a while, but to ALWAYS have her be in there... dang! I could barely WALK, much less stand by her bed in the nursery after I got there so though I went down there as often as I could for as long as I could.... let's just say I was going through mommy withdrawal! LOL in fact there were times we didn't call the nurses right away after she was finished feeding just so that we could HOLD her for a while!



Thankfully, after a day that seemed to last FOREVER, someone finally suggested that they might be able to move her bed into our room! We were so excited! Though that then meant that our room glowed a constant blue, it was worth it just to be able to see her whenever we wanted and go rub her little feeties when she needed comforting. In truth, she grew to like her little "de"tanning booth and hardly ever cried unless it was time to eat! And even better, she's about the same now - she only is fussy every once in a while and there always is something we can do to help her calm down again. PLUS! She sleeps 7-9 hours at night! Truly, she's an angel and we're so lucky to have such a wonderful and happy baby!

As you'll see, this is just the beginning of our battle with Jaundice... and though it seemed like a big deal to us at the time... we realize how amazingly blessed we are that her trials have been so minor so far in her amazing little life! Now if she could only learn how to change her own diaper... ;)

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Photos from TODAY! 4-10-08

I haven't taken new photos of our little cutie in DAYS so I figured it was time for an update! These are just from this evening - I know her little dress is pretty huge on her for now... but it's still cute!

Monday, April 07, 2008

Hospital Day 2 and How Priya Got Her Name

For those of you wondering how she got her name... here's the story:

For MONTHS we've been struggling to pick a name for our baby. We knew we probably wouldn't name her until we actually saw her, but STILL, we needed options and we were not coming up with very many! About 2 weeks before she was born I saw the photo of a beautiful little girl named Priya (Pree-ya) in an adoption magazine. I thought it sounded pretty, so I looked it up online and found it was an Indian name that means Sweetheart or Beloved. Joe, of course, was a little hesitant, but thought it sounded ok, so we added it to our not very extensive list. I loved it,... but to be honest, I never thought Joe would go for it :)

Well, after the c-section, Joe had about an hour and a half alone with our little princess. When we were finally together again he asked if any names had stuck out to me. Since I hadn't really seen her yet, I really didn't have much of a clue... though I thought for sure he'd want to name her Adara. Before, I had been pushing Brynnleigh Brook or Ella Jo (the 2nd after 2 of our grandmas) but I knew he wasn't a big fan of either. Anyway, to make a long story a little shorter, Joe was basically enchanted by her long beautifully curled eyelashes and decided she needed a more exotic/girly name and for him Priya fit the bill! Not that I was sad about that - I LOVE the name! So Priya it was!
Now, how she got her middle name is a completely different story! We'll have to save that for another time :)

Priya's BIRTHday!

These are photos from the day our Princess was born!! Unfortunatly, some of the very first and cutest were actually taken on Joe's phone, so we'll have to see what we can do about that :)

For those of you who don't know, ever since I found out I was due near Valentine's Day, I had HOPED for a Valentine's Day baby! In fact, though I was more exausted than I could have previously imagined, during the day on the 13th I did my best to vacumm out our van and even shot some hoops after Joe's basketball game that night! It must have done the trick since at about 1:30 am on February 14th, my contractions became QUITE frequent and fairly regular and by 4 am (in the middle of a snow storm I might add) we were at the hospital!

Good to see she started out fulfilling my wishes... some reason I don't think that'll be a pattern that will last very long :)

Sunday, April 06, 2008

When the adventure REALLY began!

So, now that I figured out how to do these slideshow, web album stuff, I've gotten excited to share some of the photos we've been shooting since our little Sweetheart's birth. So, what I'm gonna do is add at least a batch or two a day until I've caught up! Hopefully then I'll just keep things up to date, with more commentary and milestones instead of just photos... but for now we'll just do what we can! Plus, the slideshows are quick, so hopefully you won't get too sick of them! :)
I decided to start with the begining! The night before Priya was born Joe took a few photos of my "girth" just because he was messing around with the camera. I wasn't due for another week, so we really didn't think anything much would be happening any time soon! Little did we know, contractions would start about an hour after these photos were taken! MAN! Those suckers are definitly NOT pleasant! It was about 7 hours before I got an epidural and let me tell you, THAT was long enough for me! Later, after several more hours of contractions and over an hour of pushing, I ended up getting a c-section anyway, so the contractions were mostly in vain... but at least I can say I've been there!
Tomorrow I'll post photos from the first few hours of our cutie girl's life!
Enjoy!

Priya's Blessing

I just figured out how to create these web albums - Dang! This is for me! It's MUCH easier than uploading one at a time! Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!! These are more 1 month and blessing photos! I love it! :)

Priya was blessed last Sunday and was BEAUTIFUL! We were EXTREEMLY blessed to have Every Single Member of the immidate Heaton family there, as well as my Wonderful parents and amazing oldest brother! We were also blessed to have many fantastic friends and additional family members there.... it was MUCH more than we could have possible hoped for! Because of my little brother's recent battle with cancer, we weren't sure there would be many people to share this special time with, which we compleatly understood! However, the outpouring of love and support from our families and friends has been beyond anything we could have hoped for. Even those who haven't been able to physically be with us have given us SO much through their words, calls, gifts, drawings and prayers! They can't possibly know how much they have blessed our lives.

Joe was so nervous... understandably, it was daunting to give her such a special blessing for her special little life! However, it was wonderful, beautiful and inspiring! Now I just need to talk to her Auntie Emily to help remember all the wonderful things she has been blessed with :)

Thank you again... This little girl is a more amazing gift to our little family than we could have ever have imagined...

I Love Conference

I love conference... it's such a nice and peaceful time! As I was sitting here, enjoying the blessing of watching conference from my home, I found some photos from last December when Joe and I went to Temple Square with my sister and 2 of my brothers! Here's a few photos from that fun and beautiful night!

Wow! 4 years!





Wait, wrong kind of House....


Ok, So that's not really much better, but you get the idea.. we've owned our house for 4 years!!! YAH!! Though not our dream house, we sure have had a lot of fun fixing it up and learning how to do new projects! It's been a great blessing and we LOVE it! Happy Purchase Birthday, House!

Baby Announcement

I REALLY need to get better at updating this thing! HAHA - that sounds like what I write in my journal EVERY time I make a new entry! Anyway, I know it's a little late, but here's her birth announcement, designed by the AMAZING Adam Forbes, with photography by a world renouned photographer (aka Me :)