Bradley Update

Little Bradley is making progress, slowly but surely. On Thursday they took out the arterial line that was in his belly button, so that meant we could hold him. The doctors also started to take him off of the sedation medicine, so it has been so fun to go and hold him and just stare at him and his little newborn faces that he makes.
Today was a fun surprise when we walked in the NICU and he was moved from the back room where the more serious cases are. He is no longer needing oxygen support, also. And his doctor started prescribing small amounts of breast milk for him to consume from a bottle. He's doing really well with the bottle feedings and as long as he can keep his breathing under control, they will increase the amount he can have. They also told us today that we can help change his diaper and feed him his bottle. We brought the camera to take a picture, but he finished it so quickly and we were so excited by it all that we forgot to take a picture of him eating, but we'll get one sometime! It was so cute, the minute he got the bottle, he was so happy and pretty much immediately fell asleep, he was so content. He even gave us a little 'smile'. Here are a couple more pictures. This first one is from today. (They had to put a PICC line in his head.)

Our Little Buddy

Monday January 19th at 8:00 am we welcomed Bradley Douglas Lloyd into our family. Heidi is doing very well but Brad has had a few complications.

Miranda came to visit Mom and baby brother but she only got to see mom.

Brad is doing a lot better now and he should be coming home the first of next week. They took him off the ventilator last night and he continues to improve every time we see him.

We wanted to thank everyone who came by to show support and for everyone who kept us in their prayers as well. Brad is doing much better!

Not Nesting

Jeremy says I'm "nesting". I hate when he says that. I prefer the term "preparing". "Nesting" makes me think of our family dog, Tootsie, when she was pregnant, panting and scratching for hours at the blankets in her cardboard box to fluff them up. My sisters and I asked our mom what she was doing, and my mom said she was "nesting". That's what I think of when I hear that term.
So, anyway. We have been preparing for the baby, and we're mostly ready. I think it's like preparing for your wedding or even for Christmas, though, you could just keep adding projects and never be really be ready, no matter when the Big Day is--not to mention emotionally and mentally ready, too. Only five more days to go, ready or not!
Jeremy's way more excited and ready than me, but he's always been that way about kids. I love that he's such a natural at being a dad. He helps me feel more at peace about the new arrival and the changes our baby boy will bring.
I am excited about the projects we've done to get ready, too. Here are some details:

This is something I didn't have with Miranda, but I thought would be nice, especially for a winter baby. I don't know what this is called exactly, but I call it a car seat tent. It's made out of super soft white fleece with blue argyle straps on the handle. My mom sewed it for me and whipped it up in about 20 minutes. I think I'll really like it. Miranda has been playing with it, and putting her dollies in and out of it.


These are pictures of the nursery. I love how it turned out. It was a lot of planning and designing how to change it into a "boy theme" while working with the black furniture and the red rocker. And to keep it within budget. I shopped for the perfect fabric for a long time, and finally found the print with dots that had red in them. I wanted it to be modern but still juvenile, and I wanted to bring in other colors than just having red, black, and white. I like the dog theme, and I like that it's a subtle dog theme, too, not over-the-top. I painted the dog pictures and re-vamped Miranda's crib mobile with the puppies, but my mother-in-law Merilynn, sewed all the pieces--the diaper stacker, the crib bumper, the crib skirt, and the table linens. She did it in less than two days and didn't use any patterns or anything. She is so talented and it all turned out perfect.





On the diaper stacker, I used a drawing from one of my paintings to use as a pattern for embroidering the dog detail.

"Fried Green Tomatoes"

There is a little spot on the pond behind our house where the water doesn't freeze and the ducks all gather there. But on these cold, cold nights, I wake up and check to see if maybe the water has completely frozen overnight, and I think of the quote from Fried Green Tomotoes:


Ruth: I love your stories. Tell me a story, Idgie. Go on, you old bee charmer. Tell me a good tall tale. Tell me the one about the lake.

Idgie: What lake?

Ruth: The one that use to be here.

Idgie: Well, that was just a lie.

Ruth: I know that, fool. Tell me anyway. Tell me a story.

Idgie: Uh. One time... there was this lake... And it was right outside of town. We used to go fishing and swimming and canoeing in it. And, uh, see, one November, this big flock of ducks came in and landed on that lake. And then the temperature dropped so fast that the lake just froze right there. And they... er... the ducks... they... flew off, you see, and they took that lake right with them. Now they say that lake is somewhere over in Georgia. Can you imagine that?

Big Girl Bedroom

This is Miranda on Christmas morning when we showed her her new "Big Girl" bed and bedroom. She loves it. I cannot believe how easy the transition has been. I hope she adjusts this easily to a new brother in two weeks...

Daddy's Little Helper

2009 and Other Numbers

Here we are in 2009! Jeremy did this picture--he calls it "Year of the Oxbama".
Now that it's 1/2009, we've been thinking about some other numbers in our life right now. Here are some:
37 Weeks - Pregnant for Heidi
21 Months- Age of our Mandy Mae
2nd Year - Jeremy is Top Salesman at his work
19th - The day the baby is coming!
0 - Times Miranda has gotten out of her "big girl room" since switching her from the crib (yea!)
1 - Christmas present still to buy (Hey--take advantage of relatives being out of town for the holidays and shop when the stores aren't packed!)
22 - Babies born in our ward in 2008
$60/Month - Amount we're saving by switching to Geico last week (seriously!)

SKI BUNNY

Ok we aren't going to start ski lessons until next year but Miranda is getting the outfit thing going right now...

Snow Fun

Since we've gotten a lot of good snow lately, I thought it would be fun for Jeremy to take Miranda out and let her experience the joy of making snow men, snow angels, snow balls, etc. I don't enjoy the cold, wet stuff, so I let Jeremy have the fun of getting dressed warmly and taking Miranda out to play. I got a new snow suit for her in the summer for a super deal ($7) and she had some hand-me down boots from a cousin, so we were all set. Turns out she hated everything about the snowsuit to the cold. She cried and pouted the entire time. Jeremy even tried to get her to warm up to the idea of it all by making his own snow angel, but she didn't care. Turns out "Snow Fun" is "No Fun" this year. Maybe next year. Anyone need a cute snow suit--size 24-month?



Here are a couple other pics of some pre-holiday fun. This is watching "Nemo" at Grandpa and Mima Lloyds. Grandpa has a collection of all the toys from the old classic "Rudolph" show and Miranda adopted Clairese the reindeer while we were visiting.


For Family Home Evening we decorated a gingerbread house that Grandpa and Grandma Peterson gave us. We have never done it before, and it was so much fun, we want it to be an annual tradition!

My Netflix Promo

As many of you know, Jeremy and I used to love going out to movies. We used to go out to a movie, and then Jeremy would talk me into seeing another one, and maybe another one, usually two or three in a row--ahh, the life. Then we had Miranda. With the reality of parenthood on us, we tried renting movies from Hollywood Video, but that got pricey (especially with late fees). Then we discovered Redbox, and that was fun at first, but got so annoying to pack up Miranda and stand in line to return them and then drive to other locations when that one was 'full' or when the vending machine was broken. And then we tried beautiful, wonderful Netflix. It works so well for our family--thank you, Netflix, for facilitating the joy of movies.

Nemo, a Shark, and a Pear

I really don't like decorating for Christmas--or any other holiday for that matter. To tell the truth, I think it boils down to me being too lazy for all the short-lived effort. I thought I might get more into the spirit of decorating for holidays with kids around, but I haven't. Maybe as the kids get older... I love going to my sister Holli's house, she has so many fun decorations all over. We decided that next year, since she hates wrapping presents (which is something I do enjoy), that we'll trade services for each other. But for this year, we have our tree up, which is so much fun, and a table decoration. Aside from the wreath on the door, which I justify as 'Holiday Neutral' until Spring, that is it for decorations.
So, here are pictures of the tree, which Jeremy trekked up the Wyoming snow-covered mountains to cut down with his own bare hands. It smells wonderful and I have the lights on all the time.

Jeremy's mom, Merilynn, has a cute tradition of giving us an ornament every year for our tree. She does it at the beginning of December so we can enjoy it all month. The one I got this year was the pear, above, pictured with one of my favorites from previous years, a hummingbird. They are both Cloisonne, which is so pretty.

Miranda got an ornament this year, too, from Mima. She got a clown fish (like Nemo) that I don't have a picture of, and Jeremy got this shark (which I think was secretly for Miranda, too.) She is so obsessed with fish, she loves these ornaments!

10 things I Love About My Home

I was tagged by Holli (a little while ago) to post 10 things I love about my house, so here it is--a photo tour of our home:
1. The shutters. I wanted shutters so I didn't have to worry about curtains/blinds, etc. on all the windows and I love them. I wasn't sure how well they would keep out light, but they are great when they're all closed up. Another plus side is that they are safer then blinds for kids (because they don't have a cord) but the down side is that kids love playing with them...This is Miranda about a year ago.

2. The ponds. We have two ponds--sort of. One in our yard by the front door that Jeremy built. We have a bunch of koi and gold fish and plants in it. It's especially fun to feed the fish each day and in the spring, there were a lot of tiny babies! I don't have a good picture of that pond because they never turn out. But here is one with the pond in the bottom right corner, although you mostly see just rocks and water hyacinths.

This is one of the pond behind our house. It's hard to see the pond in this picture, too, sorry! The farmer there has 5 acres and a nice pond centered perfectly behind our house. We love watching the ducks, geese, and horses that he has, too.

3. I love the large bathtub in our master bath. I soak there many a frequent night.

4. Along with the master bath, I love our bedroom. The main reason I love it, though is because of the furniture we bought after we moved in. We had had our eye on this set for a while and snagged it when it went on sale. The side tables, though were $250 each, and I couldn't see paying $500 for side tables. I told Jeremy we could get some much, much cheaper. And we did. Jeremy surprised me with these that he found at Pier One for $50 each. He has such good style, lucky for me. They go perfectly with the bed and dresser, but they aren't 'matchy, matchy', which I like.

5. Lights. We upgraded most of the lights in the house when we built it, and I don't regret it at all. This is one of my favorites--a Tiffany chandalier that hangs in the entry.

6. Storage space! We moved from a house that didn't have a basement and the only closets were in the bedrooms, so I was dying for more storage. This is a picture of the pantry in the kitchen, along with the reason it doesn't stay organized for long...

7. While I'm on the subject, the kitchen was one of the main reasons we wanted to build this floor plan. It is huge, and Jeremy and I both to love to cook/entertain, so it was a big clincher for us. I love the big island and the desk we put next to the pantry.


8. I love our brick and the wood Mission Style door on the exterior. A lot of our neighbors have rock instead of brick, but we felt like brick is more of a classic look.

9. The living room. I love the living room because it is so open and Miranda can play there while I am in the kitchen or working at the desk. Usually, though, she's about right under my feet. :)

Like how Skip was posing here perfectly? He likes to lay on the cold tile.

10. We are finishing the basement, and I'm really excited about it. Jeremy has done 95% of it all by himself so far, and it is a lot of work! He is working on sheet rocking a few rooms right now. We decided to focus on a couple of rooms to finish first. This is a picture of the area underneath the stairs, which will be a playroom for kids. We built a loft in it with this porthole. The other rooms Jeremy is working on is one of the bedrooms and my craft/office/art room. I'm SO excited about that room. I'll have to post pictures as it develops!

So, there it is. I admit, this is a fun tag but with the craziness of the holidays upon us, I feel bad asking others to do it.

Making Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Portraits of Skip

I have NO good pictures of Skip. I want to enlarge one and frame it for the baby's room, but I cannot find a good one. Anyway, just thought you might not believe me, so here is what I have to work with:


I call this piece 'Dead Dog Blending into Tile'


This one is 'Wax Model of Ewok Dog'


And here, finally, we have 'Sir Pant-a-alot'

I think I'll have to use one of the two puppy pictures I have of him, since that was that was the last time he looked cute. :) Unfortunately, I don't have those on digital format, so I will have to do some work to get a print/enlargement.

P.S. I do admit that most of you are better photographers than I--Seriously, I've seen the pictures on YOUR blogs--so it's really not all Skip's fault...

See You at the Movies

We took Miranda to her first movie--Madagascar 2. I know many of you are much braver parents than we are and have braved this frontier sooner, but I have not been ready to risk the possible disappointment until now. However, she did so well and Jeremy and I are so excited because we love going to movies, and now we can go without rearranging other people's lives to babysit! Of course the shows will have to have cartoon animals in them, but what the heck?! Oh, yeah and a huge tub of popcorn is a must, also.

More Baby Details

So, here's the scoop. I'm due the end of January (27th) and will be having another C-section, although my doctor keeps slyly making comments to get me to consider VBAC. Anyway, with the C-section, it could be the middle of January, but I'd like to wait out the full 40 weeks, if possible. BTW, when I'm 9 months pregnant, please remind me that I said that...
And the big news is, it's a boy this time! We would have been happy with another girl, but it is nice to have one of each already and just call that good if we want to (much to the chagrin of grandparents). We've got the names narrowed down to two, but I don't think I'm ready to publish them. I like them both for different reasons and I can't decide which one I want to go with. The middle name will most likely be Douglas, after Jeremy's paternal grandpa.
I'm sure Miranda has no idea what's about to happen to her world, though. Jeremy asks, "Where's baby brother?" and she points to my belly (and then hers, and then dads, etc.) Obviously she doesn't really connect the idea that my big round belly is growing her sibling. But who can blame her? I can barely wrap my head around the idea sometimes.
Thankfully, everything is going well so far. We're excited and I know the little guy will be here before we know it, especially with the holidays between now and then!