Giggles

The video quality from my camera is horrible, but at least you can hear my little girl's laugh. I've been trying to get it on camera forever, but usually when she sees me recording she stops. Nobody can make her laugh like aunt Hannah though, and she barely noticed I was there.

Makes my heart happy.

We Call Him "The Crusher"

Tonight something happened that could have easily turned tragic, yet fortunately ended up humorous. Let me set the scene: we just got home from picking up Jacob at the Trax station, we dump the diaper bag, the laptop bag, the carseat and the groceries in their respective homes. Some of the groceries didn't fit on the table, so we put them on the floor until we had time to put them away. We're laughing and talking about our days, Eisley's squeaking happily as daddy gets her out of her carseat, and all is well.

Then, my ever-graceful husband, tries to stand up and walk from the couch to the dining room table. Big mistake. He does not notice his laptop bag propped carelessly against the foot of the couch, with its dangerous strap creeping into his path like a snake ready to pounce. It catches his foot in its grasp, and he starts to wobble. I see panic on his face as he tries to steady himself and keep from falling. Then I see defeat in his eyes as he trips and, holding as tightly as he can to our baby, he falls forward, straight onto the bags of groceries. The canned goods, to be precise. I was forced to watch and in those seconds wonder what I'd do if Eisley's head struck the corner of the table that was only inches from her as she fell with her dad.

Oddly enough, I didn't have to do anything. Somehow, Jacob kept her upright in his arm and caught himself on his elbow, keeping her safe from harm. The same can not be said for the chili can he landed on. See what I mean?

Eisley didn't seem to notice that she was in perilous danger. She didn't so much as breathe in sharply, so after making sure Jacob was okay (he has a slight cut on his knee, but we couldn't get a good picture of it) I held her close and rocked her in case she was scared, but not showing it.

Then I smelled something that affirmed to me, she had, in fact been scared. The fall had quite literally (and pardon the expression) scared the poop out of her. I should've made dad change the diaper that was a direct result of his clumsiness, but it wasn't his fault and no one was hurt, so instead we laughed and thanked our lucky stars nothing worse had happened. Just another night at the Kinney household. At least he didn't fall down the stairs...again.

Here are more shots of the damage:

The World is Safe Yet Again, Thanks to...

SUPER GIRL!

I have to admit, I hadn't been this excited for Halloween since I was little. The past couple years, it's kind of turned into an overlooked holiday for us. But this year, I found this costume for Eisley and I was stoked. Plus we had reasons to dress up. First was Danielle and Devanie's trailer trash party (different costumes than I have pictured, but it was fun), then we had our ward party, then Beckie hosted a big family Halloween Blowout all day Saturday. So We had Eisley all ready and I kept looking for superman and super woman costumes, but they were all expensive (yet looked really cheap) and I didn't like them.

So in a stroke of genius I thought "Lois and Clark!" Okay maybe not GENIUS, but I thought it was a pretty good idea. All we had to do was iron a big superman "S" onto one of Jacob's T-shirts and put it under a work outfit. For me, I just made a Press Pass to go around my neck and, again, wore a work outfit. It was really fun. I know Eisley probably didn't appreciate it as much as I did, but she will once she looks back.

Anyway, here are some pictures of us as a super family (even more so than usual. ;) )

Cutest Baby? Duh.

Okay so last weekend there was a Baby Expo that I went to with my sister Beckie and my boss / bff Bri (since she's expecting and Beckie and I both have kids). Well it was pretty cute. There were lots of headbands with HUGE flowers (not a fan. I think our kids are going to look back at pictures of themselves with flowers as big as their heads and say "what were you THINKING?") , lots of nursery stuff, and some photographers. Well one studio was having a cute baby contest with all these prizes for different age groups. You pay 10 bucks and you get a mini photo session, as well as entry into the contest. So we don't know the winners yet, but I wanted to share the link to Eisley's pictures. I think I want to order prints, but I'm not sure of which ones. Input would be appreciated!
To me, she's already won. But I'm sure every mom thinks that.
So here's the link:
http://studiocloud.org/1?a=14202&e=1255096800000
The gallery's only up for 2 weeks, so I need input quickly.
And as a sidenote, they did not pose her hands. That's just how she has them a lot of the time.
Thanks!

Dinner Conversation

Here's another video. Nevermind the dinner table in the background; we were just finishing dinner and Eisley had just finished her bottle and was talking so sweet to her aunt Rachael, that I had to record it. Wait till you hear her lungs at the end!

Oh Blessed Day

Last Sunday was nuts. But in the best way possible. It was a double blessing day in my family. My brother and sister-in-law blessed their newest baby Ryan (he was born in April, don't ask me what took so long) and we blessed little Eisley. So we went to Nate's ward at 12:45 for Ryan's blessing, got done at 2, and drove like demons back to my ward to bless Eisley at 2:45.

It was fun too, because the Olson's (our besties from Bozeman) drove all the way down here so Dave could be a part of the blessing circle. That was really special. Jacob was in Scarlett's blessing circle 2 years ago, so it was nice that he was able to join us for Eisley's. Also my cousin Alecia drove all the way down from Boise just to meet our little girl.

It was a nice day, and a nice blessing. My sister kept notes for me and wrote a letter to Eisley detailing what was said. It was so nice of her to do that, because it's hard to remember after the fact, and now every time I read it I cry. Here are some of my favorite, most comforting statements he made to Eisley:

-You will have the strength to go through life and be happy
-You will will be provided with opportunities to show your faithfulness, and know when it will be your turn to shine.
-You will have the ability to know the past and understand your family, and to grow from it.

It was a really special day and I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful husband who lives his life worthy of being able to bless our little girl, and for such an amazing supportive family who help me every day.

Here are some pictures of our little girl on her special day.

One Month Progress Report

Holy crap it's been a month since Eisley was born. Why does it feel like forever?
I've decided to not write the birth story on my blog. It's too graphic and too painful to relive. Everyone who told me childbirth was a breeze: you are now on my list. :) Okay not really, but it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. And don't get me started on the recovery!

Basically, this whole month has been a lot harder than I thought it would be. I didn't think I'd get the baby blues. I did. Hard. I had to hand her to Jacob several times and just walk away because I couldn't take it anymore. I didn't think I'd be hormonal. I was. I cried every day for the first week for no particular reason. Just cried. I thought I'd breastfeed for longer than a week. I didn't. I physically couldn't. Formula has saved my sanity and keeps my baby fed, and I won't feel bad about that. So this month has been full of surprises.

But I think the biggest surprise is how much I love this girl. I mean, I look at her face and my heart melts. It wasn't like that at first, I won't lie. But now, at a month old, I can't be anything but happy when I see my little girl. And she's really the BEST baby. She already smiles at me and her dad. She has an internal timeclock like I've never seen and knows when it's time to eat, time to play, and time to sleep. Thankfully, she's already skipping her first middle of the night feeding, so we can sleep from 9 or 10 to about 3 or 4 most nights. Hallelujah for that. Sleep = Sanity. And she's just an all around chilled out, calm, happy baby. One thing I will mention from her birthday is that right after she was born, they put her on my chest, and I kept asking what was wrong with her because she wasn't crying. She was just lying there, looking up at me, not making a sound. I thought for sure something was wrong with her lungs. Turns out, she's just calm. She was just soaking up life.

So a month later I'm feeling pretty good. I still worry about the little things. Why are her eyes goopy? Why hasn't she pooped? What did that squawk mean? But mostly, I'm enjoying her. And I took this video of our morning talk to show people how cute she is. This is our daily routine. I lie her down and put my head next to hers and she tells me about her day. I love it. I love her. And I'm learning to love this new thing called motherhood. Give me a break, it's only been a month! :)