Sarah's Weekly

15 Weeks

14 Weeks

12 days of Christmas tag

"On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me..."

1 embarrassing moment: I get embarrassed pretty easily, because I do STUPID things all the time. There are some embarrassing moments I've had that I'm still embarrassed to share! Blah! I can't think of one... I'll come back to it.
2 best friends:Isaac and April
3 things you buy regularly: Milk, Bread, Cereal (boring!)
4 places you want to go (and might actually REALLY go): Hawaii, Oregon coast next summer, the mountains, lollipop land
5 goals for the upcoming year (that you might actually do): Keep my house cleaner, lose baby weight, be more service-oriented, be better at my callings, eat chocolate pie
6 things most people don't know about you: 1. I love a clean house, I just don't like to clean it 2. I went to Vet Tech school for a few months. 3. I graduated from SLCC, but would still like to get my bachelor's in either elemetary ed, or Family and Consumer science. 4. I love crafts 5. I am a big fan of tomatoes 6. My favorite recipes are really yummy, easy, inexpensive, and don't take a lot of time. I'm always looking for new recipes like that. (this is also a boring list, I had a hard time coming up with things.)
7 things you would never say: "You want to go to the zoo with me sweetie?, man that stinks, I wish you didn't want to go to the zoo with me." "I hate Christmas." "Please stop scratching my back." "You want to give me a million dollars Oprah? No thanks." "Nah, I don't want to go to Target." "Cafe Rio salads are so gross!" "My middle name is Lynn"
8 things you love about the Christmas season: Cutting down a real Christmas tree. The smell of real Christmas trees. Hot chocolate. Singing Christmas songs, and playing them on the piano too! Lights downtown. Family gatherings and parties. Gift giving and receiving. Yummy treats and food!
9 things you say to your kids:"good morning sweet heart" "Are you going to smile at me?" "cheek cheek, nose, nose, chin, forehead, nose." "Are you hungry?" "Are you a tired girl?" "Go see daddy." "I could eat you up like a big, huge candy!" "Let's go to Grandma and Grandpa's house!" "You're so cute!"
10 things you do a lot: Feed Sarah, change her diaper, Feed Floyd, kiss my husband, kiss Sarah, sleep, eat, go to the bathroom, walk, talk
11 things you would rather not live without: My husband, Sarah, the gospel, my families, cell phone, Christmas, disposable diapers, epidurals, cell phones, computers, ebay.
12 people to tag: April(Steph tagged you too, but you haven't seen it I guess.) Audra, Tori, Katy, Desiray, Sonja, Biph, Jenny, Tara, Sabrina, Angie, Abbey

Sarah's Weekly

13 Weeks

Sarah's Weekly

12 Weeks

Family pictures

We went to Murray park to get some family pictures! I think we got some good ones. Here are some of my favorites:
P.S. Isaac just got Christmas off, and a raise! Now I can REALLY get excited for Christmas! Life pretty much rocks right now!

Sarah's Weekly

11 Weeks

Sarah's Weekly

10 Weeks

Voting Day

First time voting today. Yep that's right. First time ever. You'd think I would have done so a couple of times already, but you'd be wrong. I'll admit that I'm a little embarrassed for not voting in prior elections (I was out of the country for one and not registered for the other.) and also for not really feeling like I knew everything about each candidate all the way down to the retaining judges. But that's OK. I said a little prayer and let the good times roll. It was quick, simple, painless, and when it was all over I felt great.

p.s. This is Isaac.
Some of you seem to be under the illusion that this blog is all done by Julia. tsk tsk

Sarah's Weekly

9 Weeks

Our Halloween

For Halloween Sarah went as a horsie, and Isaac and I were a cowboy and cowgirl. We had fun! We went trick-or treating to both grandparent's houses, and then we went to a friend's party. We had quite a few trick-or treaters this year! I was worried we'd run out of candy, but we had a whole 5 pieces left! Here are a few pictures:

Tagged by April

Thanks April for the tag!
The Rules for playing TAG:

*Link to the person who tagged you
*Post the rules on your blog
*Write six random things about yourself
*Tag six-ish people at the end of your post

1. Remember how in my quirks tag(which is basically the same as this tag) how I said grape skittles and grape chewy sweet tarts are my very favorite of the skittle and sweet tart respective families. Well, this is very interesting...grape blow pops are my least favorite of the bunch! I still like them, but I like the green apple, cherry, strawberry, and watermelon better. In fact, I would say those four are all on the same level, but grape blow pops are just slightly below that. When I pick out a bag of blow pops, I look through it to make sure and get the bag with the most watermelon and strawberry blow pops because for some reason, they seem to skimp on these flavors in EVERY bag. So I try to get an equal amount of flavors by looking for the ones with the most strawberry and watermelon flavors. Also, blow pops are cheap! Just a great candy I must say...

2. I am VERY competitive! I think it's become a problem. Because it's become so bad, that I don't even want to play games because I'm so afraid I'll lose! I used to not be so bad, but now it's truly a fear that I'll lose. Isn't that lame? I really need therapy for this problem.

3. I believe there is a huge difference between a good orange and a bad orange.

4. Once when I was little, I was almost kidnapped. I was traumatized by it for long time after that as a little child. I couldn't go anywhere without holding someone's hand. Don't worry, I am over it now! But I do like to hold Isaac's hand, not because I'm scared though, I promise.

5. I will use this random thing about me to explain organized bumps, since I've had a few questions about what that means. Organized bumps are bumps that are semi-evenly spaced apart. They don't have to be exactly spaced apart. I will try and find a picture. Here's one:
Gross gross gross gross gross! I think I saw bumps on the bottom of a pizza too, and that grossed me out!

6. hmm. I have never been to Africa. Sorry, I can't think right now.

I tag the first six people who read this. You know who you are... If you're not sure, just do the tag anyway.

Sarah's Weekly

8 Weeks Old

Pumpkin Patch! and Halloween Traditions

We went to a pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins this year! It was so much fun! It was in South Jordan, and we went with Isaac's family! Desiray does it every year with her kids, and I thought it was a great tradition that I would also like to do every year! We ate chili together before, and Afterwards, we went back to Brooke & Ralph's house to have Caramel apples. I burned the caramel, but it was still yummy! I'm sure Sarah will appreciate this tradition more in a year or two, since she slept the whole time on this outing, but still, I loved it!
There are a few other things I like to make sure and do every year for Halloween time. I have to make sure we carve pumpkins at least once, most the time I do it two times, but this year it will be three times! I just love carving pumpkins!
Also, roasting the pumpkin seeds with the Despain family recipe is an absolute MUST! I look forward to them all year long!Going to a corn maze or haunted house is also something I like to do every year, I don't know if it's going to happen this year, we'll see!

I went to Witches night out with my friend Jenica last year, and that is something I would like to make a tradition, but it's tonight, and Isaac is going to be with friends, so he can't watch Sarah, so that probably won't happen, but maybe next year!

I also have to make sure and watch Hocus Pocus every year! We did that Monday with some friends. I love that movie! It has such a great, fun, Halloween feeling to it!

I have to make sure and write down all the things I would like to do before the season is over, because if I don't, the holiday will be here before I know it, and I haven't done anything. I do this for Halloween and Christmas, because they are my favorite holidays! Anyway, have a good day, OK?
...coming up Sarah's blessing day pictures!

Sarah's Weekly

7 weeks old

Tagged by my friend Biph! Thanks Biph!

Here are 5 quirks that I have:
1. I hate organize bumps, they gross me out. If something has bumps on it, and they seem to be organized, I think it's gross! I think this all stems to some skin diseases that I learned about in high school.

2. I smell EVERYTHING! I use my sense of smell far more than a lot of people I think.

3. When I'm eating chewy sweet tarts or skittles or starbursts, I have to make sure I eat my very favorite one last, and before that my next to favorite one, and so on. My favorite chewy sweet tart is the grape one, my favorite skittle is the grape one, and my favorite starburst is the plum one in the california mix! Yummy! That would be the best present if someone gave me a whole bag of just those flavors!

4. I can't let a crunchy leaf go. What I mean is, if I see a really tempting, crunchy leaf, when I'm on a walk, I have to step on it. Even if it means going back a few steps to get it. That's why I hate it so much when April steals the crunchy ones, I just gotta get to them first!!!

5. I get pretty angry inside when someone passes gas. I hate that I have to sit there surrounded by a smell that came out of someone's bum. (I'm sure a lot of people relate to that one, but we'll have to compare our anger, because I get pretty annoyed!)

4 places I go over and over:
*Home
*Target
*My parent's house
*Costco

4 places I like to eat:
*Cafe Rio
*Asian Star
*Red Lobster
*Wingers

4 places I would like to be right now:
*The Beach
*In my bed sleeping
*In a situation where someone just gave me 2,000,000 dollars(or more)(or less, money is good no matter the amount if it's free!)
*in the shower

4 TV shows I like:
*The Office
*Lost
*Survivor
*The Simpsons

4 books I have enjoyed:
*Into Thin Air, John Krakauer
*Harry Potter
*The Gable faces East
*Goosebumps, (this was when I was about 8, but hey! I loved them!)

Sarah's Weekly

6 Weeks Old

Idaho Bird Observatory

Last week Sarah and I went to Idaho. We missed Isaac, but we went out because my sister won't be able to come see Sarah for a while. We did a lot of fun things. We carved pumpkins and we went to the Idaho bird observatory. They catch wild birds to determine migratory patterns, and the health of the birds. The kids got to release the birds, and my Dad got to release a hawk! It was a Cooper's hawk, and it had just eaten and I got to feel the huge bulge in it's neck. Fun huh?

Sarah's Weekly

5 Weeks Old

Sarah's Weekly

4 weeks old (I know, not the best picture with the diaper cream, she was either sleeping or crying in the time frame that I could take the picture. Oh well.)

Hair bows and such

So, I've been having a lot of fun making these hair bows for my little girl! I first saw them at the quilted bear. You can remove the bow/flower and switch it for another bow/flower. They are quite popular right now (I've seen them all over the place). Anyway, I decided I wanted to make some, but was unsure exactly how to do it. I knew you had to take out the middle of the flower and put a jewel of some sort in the middle ( at least that's what the ones I've see have). Anyway, I didn't know how to keep the flower together once I took the middle out. My friend, Lori Sheets enlightened me though and told me I needed a brad to keep them together! So here are what I've been working on. You've already seen some of them in Sarah's weekly pictures, but that's ok. Also, Some of them are a little larger. I'm not sure what I think. That is why I want to ask all y' alls opinion. I think Isaac thinks they are a little rediculous. Is this flower just too much? Please be honest, because I am totally on the fence on the huge ones. Here is Sarah with one of the huge ones on.

Sarah's Weekly

Three weeks old

Sleeping

Last night Sarah slept for a full 8 hours!!! Isn't that great? I checked her every hour from 5 hours on though, to make sure she was still breathing, I was just so surprised she kept sleeping! Let's see if she keeps it up! Also, we had her 2 week appointment yesterday, and she is now 8 lbs, 12 oz. She has grown an inch and is now 22" long. She is in the 52 percentile in weight, and the 97 percentile in height. It was fun to know her progress.

Sarah's Weekly

Two weeks today

Sarah's Weekly

I'll be taking a picture of her every Wednesday to keep a record and to compare how fast she grows week to week. I'm doing a little catch up here so I give you Sara at 0 days old and 1 week old.

Labor and Delivery

So... I wanted to post more about my labor and delivery, so I have a record of it. I always enjoyed other people's stories, but if this bores you. You don't have to read it ;) Anyway... I was slowly progressing over 3 weeks. The first time I went into the doctor I was 1 cm dilated and 70% effaced. The doctor told us that from what he could tell, I wouldn't have to be induced and I'd probably go before my due date. We were excited about that. Then, the next week I was at a 3 and the doctor stripped my membranes. It was painful but not too bad. He said, "We'll make an appointment for next week just in case, but I don't think it's long now. We got excited about that, but then, there I was at our next appointment. The doctor checked me again and I was at a 4. He said he would induce me on Friday if I don't go before then. Then he said, "If you feel any consistency in your contractions AT ALL, come in. So that night, we planned to walk around a lot to get things going. We went to Gardner Village with my parents and looked at all the shops and stuff. I paid a lot closer attention to my contractions, but they weren't painful at all! Well, they were still 3-5 minutes apart so Isaac and I were debating going in. We decided to go in and it was about 10:00 p.m., but I felt SO DUMB because I was NOT in pain. Anyway, when we got to the hospital, we had to talk to the nurse to get through the door and she said, "You're pregnant, you can't come in." Jokingly of course, but I guess they were really really busy that night. Anyway, we got into the room and the nurse checked me(her name was Sarah Nielson HA!!) and I was at a 4+. She told us to walk around the hospital for an hour to see if I progress at all. It was funny because we had to walk the halls, and I wanted to SPEED walk so we could get something going. We really walked as fast as we could. I'm sure it was funny for some of the doctors and nurses to see this lady who is supposed to be in labor, walking as fast as she can. Well, we went back to our room, and the doctor checked me. He said, "I could call you a 5, what do you say we break your water and keep you?" Of course that was good news! That's when it hit me though, and I was a little nervous. Just as soon as he stuck that plastic thing up me to break my water, the painful painful contractions started WHEW!!! That is when I really appreciated my mom for going through the whole labor without an epidural 7 times!, I just couldn't imagine! That would be SO HARD!!! Anyway, as I was trying to breath through them while saying, " help me". They called in the anesthesiologist. I was just praying that I didn't have another contraction while he stuck that needle in me, I did, but I got through it. It was a funny feeling when he stuck that needle in my spine, but the numbness almost came immediately. Then, after about an hour, the doctor checked me again and I was at an 8! After another hour, the nurse said I had probably progressed a lot, but they were just going to let me "progress and descend" is what they called it. After about another hour, they checked me again and I was fully dialated. At this point, the epidural started to wear off, and I forgot to press that button. I guess I was a little distracted. Anyway, I pushed for 2.5 hours, I guess her head was having a really hard time getting past my pubic bone. Honestly, I really felt like I was just wearing myself out, and she wasn't moving at all!!! At that point, the doctor came in and tried the vacuum. He also had to give me an episiotomy. He tried to do it without a local anesthetic at first, but I could feel the pinching. The nurse suggested that the anesthesiologist come back and give me another dose, but I didn't want that at that point, I didn't want to have to wait, I just wanted the baby out of me! Anyway, so I pushed another few rounds with the doctor using the vacuum, and she was finally able to make progress. Right at the end, I remember pushing the 3 good pushes, but her head wasn't quite out yet, but almost, so I had to push at least 3 more good pushes. I remember that being REALLY hard because I had no breath left, but I knew I had to do it, because I could feel her coming out. Then when she came out, I heard Isaac say, "She's here!" and they put her on my belly. That was such a wonderful wonderful feeling. It was amazing to see her after 9 months of wondering what she would look like. So, one thing that nobody told me about was the nurses have to push on your belly to get all the blood out. YUCK!! That hurt really bad! I guess they had a hard time getting the bleeding to stop with me, So they had to put some pills in my bum(not fun) and put a cathetor in. I don't really know why, but I guess that's what they do to try and stop it, but I was a little bit frustrated because I thought the poking and prodding was done, but it wasn't. Anyway, it wasn't too bad. We had a lot of visitors at the hospital, and a great outpouring of love and support. We felt so lucky! I posted just a few really cute pictures of her, because we can't stop with the pictures!

Sarah Katelyn Nielsen is here!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you know that the newest member of our family arrived on Sept. 3rd 2008 at 5:52 a.m. weighing 7 lbs 11 oz, and is 21 inches long. We just love her to death! I will post more about the whole labor and delivery etc. But until then, here are a few pictures:

40 weeks and 3 days.

Here I am at 40 weeks and 3 days. "Baby come out, you can blame it all on me, I was wrong, and I just can't live without you." Isaac and I always sing that song so the baby knows she can come out now. My last appointment was last Monday, and I was at 3 centimeters and almost all the way effaced. He stripped my membranes and he said, "You probably won't see me for our next appointment, but let's schedule one anyway." Well, my next appointment is tomorrow, so it looks like I will see him. Oh well. He said he would induce me a week after my due date, so that would be this Friday, but I'm hoping I'm far enough dilated tomorrow that he'll just keep me. I won't get my hopes up though. I have been having a lot of pains, and contractions, but they don't continue so I haven't gone in. Anyway, that is the update with me, hopefully this week we will have a baby! Weird, I'm going to be a mom, and I will have a baby, and my husband will be a dad, and have a baby. AHH!!!

Nursery is DONE!

We finally have everything done in the nursery. We got the changing table/dresser on Craigslist, but it was an oak color, so we painted it. I think it turned out well. We needed something on our wall, so I got the letters from hobby lobby, painted them brown, mod podged some cute paper to it that would match, and hung them on some ribbon. It cost me about $7.00 for the set, and some places were trying to sell similar letters for 20 bucks EACH!!! Anyway, I had fun with that.

Thoughts from Isaac

Hello blog readers. I figured that since this is the Nielsen Family blog that I would add my two cents and a little manliness here and there. These thoughts will be filled with things that I am currently doing or interested in at the moment.

This entry is going to be about fitness. Now I'll be the first to tell you that I'm not a very active, go out and exercise, run around, climb trees, eat healthy, drink 80 cups of water a day kind of guy. So getting any fitness tips from me is a special treat, like a carrot from the Easter bunny.

There are two programs that I am doing at the moment, the first of which is hundredpushups.com

The idea of this site is that if you follow this free program you will be able to do 100 consecutive push ups at the end of six weeks. I am on day 2 of week 3 right now and so far it is just barely starting to get challenging. Yesterday I had to really push to finish my last few for the day. This program is easy and scalable no matter what you current strength level is. I'll give you an update when I finish and if you decide to take the challenge let me know how it went as well.

The second program I'm doing can be found as a gadget for your personal igoogle page.

It's called My Walking Program

This is also free and done by the Cleveland Clinic. It is a 15 week walking program that you can keep track of your results. Now this one I just started this week so I can't tell you much about it other than the first week is comprised of walking three times for 2o minutes. I'm on day two of this program. For the first day I took Julia and Floyd and we just walked around the neighborhood. As the weeks progress I'll give you an update on how I feel about this one. Some of the comments from the gadget site report lose of data. =( I'm going to give it a try anyway.

Also, for fun musical entertainment watch Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog

Crib and 3 Month Supply

So this past day off (Mon), Isaac and I got quite a few things done. First of all, Isaac cleared out the baby's room of all of our storage, and put it in our new storage shed. Then he moved all of our food storage into our closet under the stairs. We also went to IKEA and bought some curtains for the baby's room, and also a food storage shelf for our 3 month supply of rotatable foods. We thought we were good on our food storage because we had our year supply of the basics(wheat, rice, beans etc.) But then, our church has said that we should also have a 3 month supply of foods we use every day, so it was back to getting more stuff. That is what I've been working on this past week. I made a list of all the things we eat every day, and all the things that are required to make those things. Then I made a list of all those things that can last at least 3 months in storage, either in the freezer, or at room temperature. Anyway, It was a process. I think I overdid it a little one day, because I did a lot of the shopping on one day, but everything is OK, they baby hasn't come yet ;) It just makes us feel a lot better to have these things! Here is a picture of our stocked to the brim storage shelf...

Isaac put the crib together earlier. but on Monday we actually put the all of the cute stuff on it! I made the quilt for it, and my mom got us to bumper, oh and April got us the sheets. We got the crib on KSL.com for 20 bucks! We like it! The baby's room still isn't finished, but it's getting there!!!

Retaining water

I'm retaining water, want to see my ankles? (I wanted to post this because that's my favorite thing to show people right now)

Baby Shower

I had a great time at my friend baby shower! It was a double baby shower with my friend Jenica, who is due 3 weeks after me. The people who came were Biph and April, Brandy, Melanie, Tara, Sonja, Launa, Lindsay, Ashley, Jacklynn, and Tara. They were all so nice and generous, they got me some really cute, and needed gifts! These pictures are from April's camera. I wish I had taken a few with mine so I could have some of my single's ward friends in them, but that is ok. It was really really nice of Brandy and Melanie to throw the shower for us! We had a fun time! First we played the game where you try and guess how big around we were. Everyone guessed way too big for me :( Oh well. April won that one, I knew you knew me well! Good job! Then we played a matching game that had to do with baby stuff. And then we had the diaper making contest. Jenica and I were the judges, so we came up with our own stipulations on the quality of the diaper. They had to first explain why their diaper was the best, and then we put two hersheys kisses down the back of the diaper, and made them walk to the fence and back to see whose stayed in. April's team won, because the hersheys stayed in and the diaper didn't fall apart. We then had dessert and opened presents. It was a lot of fun!!! Good times!! Thanks everyone!