Family Reunion 2015

So July 11, we packed up the car and Brandon dropped Cora and I off at the airport. We were taking a flight by ourselves to Utah for the Myres family reunion. I was so nervous!

(Cora was NOT thrilled about being up this early in the morning. She also just wanted to look at the planes. She cracks me up.)

Luckily, she was amazing. This was her whole flight Fort Lauderdale to Denver:

And then this was her the whole flight from Denver to Salt Lake:

 She didn't want to sleep, but she barely fussed.

I was so relieved. It was stressful flying across the country by myself on her first flight, so she made it as easy as it could have been.

I gate checked the stroller so that I could either carry the bags and put Cora in the stroller, or I could carry Cora and put the bag in the stroller. She liked being able to look out at everything.

My mom, dad and Bethany came to pick us up, it was a great time having her meet them!

I swear she recognized my mom's voice, because she gave her a HUGE smile when my mom started talking.

She liked Bethany too.

We were super excited to get down to Aspen Grove, especially since Cora was STARVING (as per usual) by the time we got there.

The next day we went to Madsen Murphy's mission homecoming. I'm so mad I didn't get any pictures!

After that was Graham's baby blessing. And I DID get some pictures on my phone... but not of Graham. First off, this was my biggest complaint about Aspen Grove. This is their "Mother's Lounge"... I'm appalled.

This is a family bathroom outside the men's room with a wooden rocking chair... I mean really. It's a BYU run camp, you don't think you have nursing mothers there? I counted at least 5.

But I digress. It was so fun to see Jake, Kayleen and Katie there!

I didn't even get pictures with Graham that day... oh well. He had a bunch of other followers that wanted pictures with him.
The rest of the week was a blur. Turns out it's way different to have a baby at Aspen Grove, and even more different when you are the only parent there. So I didn't even get to spend a lot of time with people! But here are some of the things we did-

Representing her Myres Reunion onesie!

 It was SO cold the first few nights there, poor baby wasn't used to wearing a sweatshirt!

 She really liked Uncle Nathan... she just sat like this for a long time in his lap.

 Cousin time! Graham is much longer and more lean than Cora,.. we just said she was "fluffy".

The death stare when she woke up.

 I took some pictures to make Brandon nervous... this was me throwing a tomahawk during the pioneer games. They wouldn't let me actually do it until I handed her off.

Grandparents in grandparent heaven! Cora's wondering what that other little person has in his mouth...

 One afternoon I drove to West Jordan to see the Call family (Brandon's aunt and uncle and cousins). She was NOT happy about being woken up from a nap to get in her torture chamber (she hates being strapped into her carseat)...

 But she thought uncle Steve was hilarious! She got cranky soon after so I had to cut my trip a little short, I'm glad she smiled a little bit at least!

 Another picture for Brandon's benefit... Cora climbing the ropes course hahaha.

 All tuckered out from the excitement of new things to look at and people to talk to!

The last night of the reunion, Cosmo came up from BYU to see everyone! This wasn't planned by Aspen Grove, but was planned by Cosmo himself... who may or may not be a cousin..

 Cora was so tired.

 The last day we played a Ping Pong tournament. The only two teams were Alyse and I, and Bethany and my mom. Alyse and I won! Here we are celebrating.

 And our family FINALLY won the 5 on 5 tournament. Brandon was super jealous that he couldn't have been there.

It was Grandpa Murphy's 80th birthday party the day the reunion ended, so we had a big party at the Myres' house. Jolysa and Shalese brought their musical talent, and it was so hilarious to watch Ava (who didn't really want to have much to do with anyone) come up and start singing along.
We left the party a little early (sorry guys!) so we could pick up Dallin who was GETTING HOME!

This is on the way to pick up Dallin from the airport! Cora was crying, then she heard Graham crying so she stopped to listen.

To be continued...

4th of July 2015

We had a pretty low key 4th after a busy few days taking time to check out Miami (more on that when I upload the pictures from our camera).

I bought this outfit before she was even born, just for 4th of July. It didn't disappoint. The bow was courtesy of a sale at Claire's. It accented her red hair very well!

I ran my first 5k post birth! I haven't run much since she was born, but needed a motivation to get going again. Brandon pushed her along as I ran verrry slowly. I blame it on the 90 degree weather which made me want to die. But I was pleasantly surprised with my time- 39:25.
That night we went out to watch fireworks... mainly because a little someone was crabby and she likes the night air. She LOVED watching the fireworks go off over the ocean. We left before it got too loud.
We are serious party animals now with a baby. We love her!

Out with the old, in with the new.

So, we had been talking about getting a new car for a while. At first it was going to be a second car, so that we could both have one while I have Cora at home and Brandon is gone during rotations. But after that whole "incident" with the car, we knew we just had to replace our good old Pathfinder.

We spent a lot of time researching online, and Brandon called around to a few places to see who could finance us so that we could get a decent car that will last us a while, and yesterday we went to Carmax and got a new car!

 Don't mind the naked baby in the blanket... we learned the valuable lesson of why you should have more than  one emergency onesie on hand.

 I was sad as we drove away from our Pathfinder. It got me to Idaho, California, Idaho, and then all the way to Florida. We drove it on our honeymoon, and have plenty of fond memories of it. It was just getting too unreliable, and we didn't feel safe driving it on the freeway anymore. And if you make me feel unsafe with my baby in the backseat you are GONE.

Ta-Da! We got a 2010 Honda Accord. Gunmetal gray, which makes it sound tough. It feels SO much better than the Pathfinder. We are going to drive it around, because we have 5 days to bring it back for a full refund and we PLAN on testing it out until those 5 days are up.

I will tell the funny stories of what happened in that car dealership when I talk about the time we've had with Brandon, but for now we love our new car! And not so much the payments... But that is a small price to pay for peace of mind.

Morning person

So we have already established that Cora has a hilarious scowl readily available.

But just a few weeks ago, I noticed something even better.

Cora smiles the most in the mornings!

 Usually it's before we even get ready for the day, but sometimes we get lucky.

 This was as I was changing her diaper in the back of the car at WalMart. She even made a noise like she was laughing!! I loved it so much.

 This one is probably my favorite. Those chins!

Just from yesterday.

I've never liked mornings, but knowing she will be at her happiest makes it a whole lot better.

The Grief of Growing up.

Cora slept through the night last night.

I'm not even kidding. 10-6... I woke up at 4:30 imagining that she was being smothered by our blankets and pillows, then checked on her and she was just snoozing away in her crib. When she woke up and we realized it was 6 AM we were amazed! Then she ate and went back down until 10 AM.

She is also getting the hang of napping in her crib. Mostly. (As I'm writing this she is wriggling around and grunting... she'll probably be up soon.)

(Her pediatrician told us she needs to nap on her tummy, then sleep at night on her back. She moves a TON at night... takes after both of us!)

So why do I feel so sad at the same time? I just keep thinking of all the times we have spent up, where the only thing that will get her back to sleep is being held. This is still the case usually (we can hear her at night trying to get herself back to sleep), but she is sleeping more and waking up less. She can also lay by herself longer and doesn't need us as constantly.

I read this article that sums up my feelings exactly:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/catherine-naja/the-grief-in-growing-up_b_7206488.html

Every new thing she learns is both a time of excitement and sadness. I miss the teeny tiny baby we brought home from the hospital, but love this cute bigger baby we have now.

Ode to a New Dad.

I forgot to write a birthday post to Brandon. Whoops. So this does double duty!

One of my favorite memories of the whole 2 months of Brandon being a dad is probably the first one I have. Cora was all of 3 minutes old and being weighed on the table. It was cold and bright for her, and she was crying. I was being, ahem, attended to, so I wasn't able to go over and comfort her. Brandon walked over, blocked the light from her eyes, and said, "Hi Cora." And what do you know, she stopped crying, opened her eyes, and looked right at him. It was a very sweet moment. And she has had him wrapped around her finger ever since.

Brandon has been hands on since that first moment. I knew he would be a good dad, but I wondered how long it would take him to embrace the role. NOT LONG AT ALL. He loves it. That first night we didn't know what to do with her, since she wouldn't fall asleep in her bassinet and we were new and exhausted. So we took turns sleeping on the couch with her. We had a whole system so that she couldn't roll away from us and stay up. Plus I don't think either of us slept very well holding her. So this is how I found them at 6 AM on Brandon's birthday.

How cute is that.

I bought him some frozen deep dish pizza from Chicago for his birthday, and they came while we were in the hospital. Seeing this tiny baby now cracks me up, because we thought she was going to be tiny forever. Sad.

Brandon has jumped on this parenting wagon. He has no qualms about talking in weird voices, or reading books to a newborn, or singing songs to her to get her to sleep. His favorite is "Tinies need to go night-night". Sometimes we get the Spanish rendition.

 She LOVES watching him. Always.

 He is the much better swaddler. He actually took the time to Google how to do it and taught me.

 If she isn't swaddled in she loves to fall asleep with her arms under her head.

Brandon is so much more creative with ways to calm Cora down than I am. I'm hoping it's because he sleeps more at night (not his fault, there's only one of us who can feed her), so he has more functioning brain power. But at the end of every day, even if he has been in class for 9 hours, he comes home, puts his backpack down, and picks her up. (Usually from my half asleep half dressed arms.) That is how we discovered she loves being outside at night.

She loves napping with him.

He makes sure to get a lot of face time with her, and talk to her. Melt.

He also wants to make sure her "firsts" are super positive. Like getting in the ocean.

 This one kills me. She's so tiny!

We made him a footprint plate for Father's Day... it was like herding cats getting those tiny feet on the plate. 

But her best present was sleeping 6 1/2 hours straight! Then she got up, ate, and went back to sleep. When she got up again we took a picture to document.

Even a smile!

Happy first Father's Day, Brandon. I knew from the moment the tech said "It's a girl" that you would be a fantastic dad to her. I don't always feel like I deserve a husband as nice as you, but I know Cora deserves the best dad ever. And it seems like she has it.