Cosette's First Christmas

We had a really nice Christmas this year. Cosette didn't really understand what was going on, but she still had a good time.
We went down to my parent's home in Springville on Christmas Eve. Cosette played the part of Mary in our Nativity, and her 1 1/2 year old cousin Darren played Joseph. It was pretty cute (Suzanne or Mom and Dad, do you have any pictures of that? We got video, but no pictures).
Then we spent a quiet Christmas day at home, minus the hour we went to church.
Here's our Christmas tree in the living room.
Here's Cosette enjoying one of her presents - a princess magnet from my parents. Not quite how it's meant to be used...
Cosette is playing with a Ty Beanie Ball from her Gigi and Popper (my dad's parents). Right now her favorite part of stuffed animals is their tags.
Cosette also got this adorable fancy coat from Gigi and Popper. It is now her special Sunday coat. Doesn't it make her look like a princess?
Here's her cute Christmas outfit, courtesy of Kelli Hansen (thanks Kelli!). I LOVE it!
Overall we had a very nice Christmas. Next year I'm guessing that Cosette will understand a little more of what's going on, and she might pay more attention to the gifts than to the boxes and bags they come in. :)
We hope everyone also had a good Christmas. Thank you for the wonderful gifts and well-wishes!

A Memorable Thanksgiving Weekend

Well, I must say - our first Thanksgiving with Cosette didn't turn out quite like we were planning.
On Wednesday afternoon, Cosette had a fever over 101. She wasn't too fussy - just a little clingy. So I gave her some medicine and an extra feeding before bed, hoping it would blow over.
She woke up at 3 in the morning with her fever down a bit - in the 100's now. I gave her some more medicine, fed her, and put her back down.
When she woke up later that morning, she was really congested, but her fever was down to around 99.
Jeff and I were going back and forth, trying to decide whether to still join my family for Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's house in Springville. Cosette was happy and babbling, and I thought the worst might be over. So we called my parents and told them to still plan on us coming. After talking to them, I started preparing the sweet potato dish that I was bringing for the meal. But soon after that, Cosette's fever went back into the 100's and she was wheezing more when she breathed.
So we called my parents back and let them know we would not be coming after all. (Unfortunately, I had already mashed up 3 cups of sweet potatoes, so I was committed to making the 9x13 dish for just Jeff and I.) With the combination of fever and labored breathing symptoms, we decided that we wanted a doctor to see her and rule out anything more serious (like rsv, croup, or pneumonia).
We went online to find out which places were open on Thanksgiving, and found out that there were 2 Insta Care centers open in our area - one just 10 minutes away. But when I called to ask if they had a pediatrician on staff, they informed me that they were very busy and it would likely be an hour and a half wait. What?!? I don't want my sick child waiting in a room full of sick people for that long! Fortunately, we discovered that a Kids Care center was also open. They were 20 minutes away, but they were able to schedule an appointment for us to be seen as soon as we could get there. Much better (I'm glad it wasn't Jeff or I who were sick...).
After listening to her breathe, the doctor thought that she might have croup, so she gave her some medicine to help her throat from closing up too much. We continued to monitor her for the rest of the day, checking her temperature (it stayed in the 99's) and giving her extra fluids.
Jeff and I were a little sad about missing Thanksgiving dinner, but we knew that Cosette's health and well-being was more important. I didn't want to cook dinner, so we ordered some take-out from Mimi's.
Sadly, Cosette woke up Thursday night around the time that the medicine from the doctor wore off, and she was MISERABLE. The only time she wasn't crying was when she was eating or sucking her thumb, so I'm guessing that her throat was bothering her. Jeff and I were at our wits end, not sure what to do for her. I HATED holding a crying baby and not being able to soothe her. She finally fell asleep with me in the Lay-Z-Boy, and we slept fitfully together (I thought it would be a good idea for her to stay upright so she could breathe easier). After a few hours I put her back in her crib and went back to bed.
Over the next few days, Cosette's temperature held in the low to mid 99's, she's congested, and her coughing has gotten worse, but she has continued to be happy and sweet. Fortunately, we only had the one bad night. And her congestion never got to the point where she had to struggle to breathe, thank goodness. Maybe getting the medicine from the doctor so early helped, or maybe it was never a bad case to begin with. Either way, I'm grateful that she's had a pretty mild case of croup.
Jeff and I had our Thanksgiving meal on Saturday. Jeff's work gave him a turkey, and I was planning on making a smaller second Thanksgiving dinner for us on Saturday anyway. I'm proud to say that I have now cooked a turkey. Thank you, Jeff, for all of your help. I feel like I've reached a milestone of becoming an adult. In addition to the turkey, we also had sweet potatoes (of course), mashed potatoes, gravy made from scratch (another first that I'm very proud of!), and store-bought rolls.
So, while it wasn't the Thanksgiving weekend that I was expecting to have, it was certainly one to remember. I'm grateful that Jeff got a turkey from work so that we were able to have a Thanksgiving meal at home. I'm grateful for the medical advice I've gotten from family. I'm grateful that Cosette stayed happy throughout her illness and never got super sick. I'm grateful that we only had the one bad night. And I'm grateful for the time we were able to spend together as a family this weekend.

Our Cute Pumpkin

Thanks for lending us the pumpkin costume, Suzanne!
Cosette was being such a cutie and posing for these pictures. I'm hoping she'll be this good on Saturday when we're getting our family pictures taken.
We didn't go around trick-0r-treating this year, but we did dress her up for the ward Halloween party on Saturday night.




p.s.- for those of you who didn't know, we got a new La-Z-Boy recliner for the nursery (this is what Cosette is sitting on in the pictures). I love it! It was nice having the glider rocker for the first few months, but Cosette got too big and kept banging her head on the wooden bars. So we gave it away on craigslist and got the recliner. This new chair makes both mother and baby happy. :)

Updates on Cosette's Cuteness

I thought I would share some cute Cosette pictures and stories.
Here's Cosette sitting in her toy box.
I like to give Cosette regular objects to play with. One of her favorites is my brush. Here you can see her waving it around, and then offering to share it with me.
I thought this was a cute picture of Jeff with Cosette. She sure loves her daddy.
Cosette has definitely gotten more wiggly on the changing table. She likes to turn over onto her stomach and look over the edge. And she also enjoys sucking on the edge of the changing mat, as you can see in the second picture.
As Cosette has gotten more mobile, I have found her in some pretty funny positions in her crib when I get her up from a nap. This one cracked me up.
Cosette really enjoys her cereal. She often opens her mouth really wide, flaps her arms, and leans forward towards the spoon.
I thought this shot was just adorable and very typical of Cosette.
Lately she's been flashing this cute toothy grin at everyone. It's a little hard to see, but she has two teeth on the bottom. And I'm not sure why, but she loves moving her chin to one side when she smiles, so it looks like her teeth are off-center (but they're not).
Cosette loves waving her arm around in the air. Sometimes people think that she's waving to them, but I think she just enjoys the movement. We thought it would be fun to make it look like she was giving Jeff high-fives (or I guess they're actually low-fives).

Another cute quirk she's been doing lately is this funny head bobbing. She's doing it on purpose - it's not because she doesn't have the strength to hold her head up. And the timing of her head bobs can be really funny, like agreeing with us when we tell her how cute she is or nodding her head during general conference.

Jeff and I thank God every day for our precious little girl. We are truly blessed.

Cute laughter

I have always loved making Cosette laugh. She can laugh until she can hardly breathe. She has a growing variety of laughs too. So I am sharing a short video I captured of her laughing. I have played this video many times just to put a smile on my face. Enjoy.

Trip to Colorado

Cosette and I took a trip to Colorado last month to go to the wedding of my former college roommate and very good friend, Karen Palmer (now Karen Schmidt).
Here are Karen and Martin coming out of the temple. Aren't they just glowing?
Here are a few pictures on the temple grounds.
Here are the newlyweds with Karen's sister Ruth and her family. They actually drove out from Utah with their newest edition to the family - he was only 1 1/2 weeks old at the time. I'm very impressed they made it.
What a good big brother!
Here's the cute outfit that Cosette wore for the wedding. (I'm not sure why the website turned the picture sideways...)
Cosette fell asleep on the car ride from the temple to the luncheon at Olive Garden.
She woke up before the luncheon was over, however. Here's Karen's grandma holding Cosette while I got ready to feed her.
They let Cosette play with Karen's train. I thought it made a really cute picture.
Let me just share a few more tidbits. Karen's family arranged for me to stay at the home of someone in their ward. This couple was actually on vacation, so they left a key with the Palmers. The first night I was there it was just me and Cosette. When we got to the house that night it was really hot because the air was off. I turned the air on, but it was taking a while to cool things down. Since there was no one else in the house and it was really stuffy, I was just wearing my garments as I got ready for bed.
Well, someone rang the bell to the front door. I had no intention of answering it because I wasn't clothed, and I didn't live there. The bell only rang once, so I ignored it. Well, a few minutes later I thought I could hear someone moving around downstairs. Needless to say, I was a little creeped out. So I crept out to the landing and looked down the stairs, but all of the lights were still off down there and I couldn't see anything. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep until I checked, so I called out "Is anyone there?" and turned on the lights on the stairs.
Well, a man came walking around the corner to the bottom of the stairs and I yelled and darted back to the bedroom (mind you, I was still only wearing my garments). He yelled too and ran back out of sight. My heart was pumping pretty fast, let me tell you.
Fortunately, he called an apology up the stairs for scaring me and explained that he was their son-in-law. He was there to drop off a car that he was borrowing. He had been told that there would be someone staying there and rang the bell to let me know he was coming in, but I hadn't answered the door.
Whew! I was both relieved and a bit embarrassed. But it sure makes a good story!
The other two nights were much less eventful. And I was joined by Janene, another former roommate. It was fun having some girl talks late at night. I'm also grateful that Janene took a lot of pictures - most of them on this post are from her camera.
Overall it was a good trip and I'm really glad we went.

Life is Good

What a cutie! Cosette still can't quite sit up on her own yet, so I like to prop her up on the couch in between the cushions.
Below is a more serious face. I'm always trying to catch her smiling, but I like this shot, too.
I just had to share a bathtub hair picture. Cosette LOVES her bath time. She usually cries when I take her out. And don't you love her beautiful red eyes? She definitely gets that from her momma. Can you see why I like to take pictures without flash whenever possible?
Cosette has had a few firsts recently. Last week she rolled over from back to front for the first time (but there have been no repeat performances).
This week she got her first tooth. It's barely poking through and is quite sharp to the touch (she really loves sucking on my fingers).
I've actually been dreading the "teething stage," but she's done just fine so far. If anything, she's actually been happier the past couple of days.
Here's a video I think you'll enjoy. I love her laugh! And she's laughing a lot easier these days, which is a lot of fun for Jeff and I.

Well, overall life is good. I really love being a stay-at-home mom.
Lately I've been working on organizing and cleaning. I made a list of things I want to do on a weekly basis, and another list of things I want done on a monthly basis. I then sit down and plan out each week (I used to have set days to do things, but I found that too rigid and difficult on weeks when I needed to run errands or go to the doctor). I use a weekly organizer that goes on my fridge to keep track of my to do lists. I usually end up with 3-4 tasks for each day, a mixture of weekly and monthly tasks.
I've felt a real sense of accomplishment being able to cross things off my list throughout the day. I also enjoy having a cleaner home. I used to be terrible about cleaning my bathrooms on a regular basis. Now I do it weekly, like I know I should have been doing all along, and it's so much better! I also really enjoy finding odd jobs to do that don't usually get done. For example, I washed my front door. Man, was it dirty! But it was such a satisfying job seeing all that dirt come off.
So yeah, life is good. I have a cute daughter, a wonderful home, and an amazing husband. My days are happy, full, and fulfilling. I feel truly blessed!

Trip to Tracy Aviary

Yesterday afternoon we went to the Tracy Aviary with Jeff's sister Rachel and her 4 kids. Jeff took the last few hours off of work so he could join us. We called it a "daycation."
We were hoping to do the Amazon Adventure that Jeff and I did a few years ago, where you go inside an enclosure and get to feed parrots. Unfortunately, all of the tickets were sold out. But we still had a fun time.
I loved walking around and looking at the different kinds of birds. Birds are some of my favorite animals, because I had a pet bird when I was growing up.
We also attended a show about bird eggs. Audrey was selected to help feed an emu, which was pretty cool. Then they did a demonstration where they smashed a chicken egg. It took almost 50 pounds to do it! When we talked to the worker at the end of the show, we found out that this batch of eggs is weak - she said that it usually takes about 95 pounds to smash it. My favorite part of the show was at the end when they had a bird (I can't remember if it was a falcon or a hawk) swooping back and forth over our heads. It flew right by my cheek!
A few minutes after the show ended it started raining, along with thunder and lightning. We stayed indoors at an exhibit next to the amphitheater. While we were there, Cosette started getting a little restless. Here's a picture of Jeff entertaining her:
The rest of us started getting restless being cooped up inside, so we went outside to an area covered by a tent. It was still raining, though, so we waited a few more minutes before walking around to see the other exhibits. While we were waiting for the rain to clear up, we made a few videos with Cosette for entertainment.
Audrey is the one playing peek-a-boo. Madeline is just out of sight to the right, and I think the big smile on Cosette's face was for her. At the end of the clip Jonathan pokes his head around to say hello.

It was a fun dacation. Oh, and one more thing: I learned that Pixar probably used the cry of a peacock for Kevin the bird in the movie Up, because they sounded just like him!

Reading with daddy

For a while, Cosette didn't enjoy her tummy time. I know that it's important for her, so she can exercise her muscles and become more mobile, so I looked for ideas online to help make it more enjoyable for her. One website suggested putting a book in front of them, and it's worked great!

Here are a few things I love about this video clip:

• You get a great view of the bald spot on the back of her head


• I think her interest in the book is really cute, like she's actually reading it


• It's adorable when her neck gets too tired to hold her head up and she rubs her face in the blanket

Who does Cosette look like?

A lot of people love to tell us how much Cosette looks like her daddy, or how much she looks like her mommy. Some say that she got her eyes from me, some say from Christine.
Well, we don't know which features she gets from whom, but one thing is for sure: We think Cosette got my mouth. Here is the evidence.

What do you think?

To daddy, love Cosette

Dear Daddy,
Happy Father's Day! I wanted to let you know what a special and wonderful daddy you are to me.
I loved you from the very first time I lay eyes on you, and I knew you loved me too.
Thank you for all of the wonderful things you do for me. Thank you for letting me sleep in your room for the first 6 weeks of my life and interrupt your sleep. I know it was hard for you to get up and change my diapers when you were so tired, but I was so grateful to be near you!
Thank you for continuing to wake me up in the morning while mommy gets ready to feed me. It's one of my favorite times of the day, just like it is for you! I get so excited when I hear your voice and see your face peek over the edge of the crib. I just can't contain my joy, and I have to kick and wave my arms to show you how much I love you!
Thank you for being a worthy priesthood holder. I'm grateful that you were able to give me a name and a blessing.
I miss you when you're gone during the day, but I'm so grateful that you work hard and provide for us so that mommy can stay home with me all day.
Thank you for playing with me, talking to me in silly voices, and making me smile and laugh. Thinking about you just makes me so happy!
I love going on walks with you. I always feel safe and secure in your arms.
I love when you read stories to me. I love cuddling in your arms.
I love you so much. Thank you for being such a great daddy to me.
Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Love,
Cosette

Special Mother's Day Gift

Because this was my first Mother's Day as a mother, Jeff wanted to get me a special gift. Isn't he sweet? He had the idea to get a piece of jewelry where you add things to it for each kid.
We found these lockets online. You can put a small birthstone (I don't think they're real, but I don't care - they look nice) inside the locket for each kid. They have two sizes: the small can hold up to 4 gems, and the large can hold up to 15. I decided to get the small, because I like smaller jewelry and I thought the big one would look funny with only one stone rattling around in it.

Thank you, Jeff, for the thoughtful gift.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day like I did!

Trip to Ohio

Jeff, Cosette and I flew out to Ohio last week, from Wednesday to Monday, for the wedding of Jeff's sister Kate to Steve Schwope.
Cosette was a really good traveler. Fortunately, the changes in pressure during take off and landing didn't bother her. I was so grateful, because I'd heard horror stories of screaming babies. She did cry some on the plane, but that was due to the fact that we were traveling during her bedtime. On Wednesday we flew with Jeff and Rachel, and they were kind enough to help hold and soothe her, which was wonderful.
On Thursday we went to the zoo. Cosette was in the carrier with Jeff for part of the time.
Thursday night we went to a restaurant called Marcellas. It was really good food, but it was also REALLY loud. I couldn't believe that Cosette slept through all of the noise. I took a short video to show how loud it was.

Here's a picture of our table.
Here's Kate holding Cosette. She was so excited to meet her!
On Friday Jeff drove me around the neighborhood where he grew up. Here's a picture of the house he grew up in.
Friday night we had an after rehearsal picnic at Steve's parents' house (sorry, I forgot to take pictures).
Saturday was Kate and Steve's wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and a wonderful day. And instead of doing cake for dessert, they had Belgian waffles with whipped cream, strawberries, and chocolate syrup. Fun and delicious!
On Sunday we went to stake conference with Dad, Rita and Jamie. Then we met up with everyone else at a Chinese restaurant for lunch. For dinner, Jeff and I had leftovers from earlier meals in the week. I had ordered my favorite Bob Evans meal, meatloaf with home fries, to go when we went there on Saturday for lunch. I couldn't leave Ohio without stopping by Bob Evans, because it is my all time favorite restaurant. I am SO sad they don't have any in Utah.
We also couldn't leave Ohio without getting Graeters icecream. The only time we could fit it in was on Monday afternoon before our flight. Not the healthiest lunch, but it sure was delicious!
It was a great trip, full of family, fun and good food.

Random pictures and stories

I thought I would post a few pictures and random stories about Cosette.

She took a bottle from Jeff the first time he tried.

Here she fell asleep in Jeff's arms while we were watching TV.

These stuffed giraffes attach to her pack and play.
I thought this picture of her staring at one was really cute.

I love that she sucks her thumb. I think it is adorable.
I was an avid thumb sucker myself.
I know this is a habit we'll have to break eventually,
but today is not that day.

These last two pictures show how she loves to sleep.
We used to put her down to sleep in the middle of the crib,
but we kept finding her scooted all the way to the side.

She loves sleeping next to her comforter and often rests her hand on it.