March 1, 2012

Bless Her!

I don't believe babies come much more angelic than this little girl! Here she is all dressed in white on her blessing day. I think she looks absolutely gorgeous in white, but she looked especially darling in her blessing dress. I had a vision of what I wanted her dress to be like, so I told my mom what I wanted and she was able to make it for her! I love simplicity, and everything in the stores was much too frilly for my liking. The dress turned out completely perfect! My mom was even able to find a little white sweater for her too.
Isn't she perfect? I also love the fact that the blanket she's laying on was made by my grandma especially for her blessing day!

Radio From Hell

So...Gary loves Radio From Hell in the morning. Kerry, Bill, and Gina. He listens to it every morning while he gets ready for work, and on the way to work, and then he podcasts whatever he's missed. Only a couple of months after Dori was born he was invited to sit in the studio with them and watch while they did their show. I'm an okay fan of theirs, but Gary is a die-hard fan. He probably knows more about them than he knows about me.


Anyway, he asked me to go with him to the studio, which meant waking up at 4:30 in the morning. It was a pure act of love because I would have much rather slept. When we got there, Gina told us "we love you, but we're going to ignore you because we have a show to do." She was right. They ignored us. But we did get free breakfast so it sort of evened out.

Gary had such a good time and he was a little star struck and needed a picture with them. I didn't need a picture. I sort of thought they were jerks.

Gene Simmons Would Be Envious

And Now For Her Next Trick!

The Circle of Life

The four breathtaking chicks you see surrounding Dori are my sister Stacey's girls. I was 12 when the oldest was born and I saw her almost every day for the first few years of her life, so she was practically my little sister. I remember when they were all born, I remember babysitting them, and I remember how each of them would get into my room and take my stuff.... or eat my school projects (Amy). I didn't always love babysitting them, but my mom always said that by the time I have a baby, they will be old enough to babysit for me. And they are!!
If you look closely you can see Dori has a hold of Mellie's hair. She loves her cousins and they love her lots too!


February 25, 2012

We Ski!

Oh how I love to ski! Don't I look happy in this picture? I am! I'm so excited to get on the slopes and ski my day away! Before this, I had only been skiing one time and I had so much fun...even though I had to figure it out by myself. I never had lessons, no one told me that I could zig-zag down the mountain instead of going straight on. I actually picked that up from a 5 year old that zoomed past me while I was scooting down the mountain on my butt. But once I picked it up, I fell in love with it!


Fast forward 10 years to my second experience on the slopes. I seriously was so giddy I'm sure I was annoying as heck on the car ride. We made it to the beginner slope so I could get used to skiing again. I did great! I went down a couple times and didn't fall once. My confidence level was phenomenal! So we went to the next hardest slope.

I knew to be a little more careful and not get carried away, so I did my best to zig-zag a little more and to ease myself into the harder stuff. About half way down the mountain, I hit a rough patch of snow and caught the edge of my ski. My first fall of the day, and boy was it a good one! I went flying forward face first into the snow, and somehow one of my skis came off and hit me in the back of the head. It was then I understood why people wear helmets. I also had banged my right knee up pretty good. Once I stopped seeing stars I got up and kept going. My confidence had slightly fallen but I kept on. Then I fell again. And again. And again. One of the times that Gary was helping me up, one of our poles smacked me in the mouth. Ugh.

Not to be defeated to easily, I made it down the mountain and we rode the lift up to try it again. I made it a fair way down before I fell, and banged my right knee again! By this time, my confidence had plummeted, but not only that, my knee was in so much pain that I couldn't turn on my skis anymore. I had to literally slide down the mountain sideways, and if I tried to turn at all, I would keep falling and falling and falling. So sad.

Well, by that time it was lunch time and I thought I was done for the day. We went back to the car to eat, and I thought I would stay there the rest of the day to recover. But, after an hour of rest or so, I thought I would try again, but only do the beginner slope the rest of the day. So I did. I was able to go gently enough down the hill a few times and my knee was feeling better.

I realized I was done though when I fell on about the 5th run down and I couldn't get up at all! My strength was not only gone, it was in the negative. My brother in law pretty much had to pick me up.

The next day, Gary and I tried to count the bruises on my body, but stopped after about 20 or so. Every muscle in my body was in pure agony too! It will probably be a little while before I try to ski again, and when that day comes, I'm staying on the bunny hill. I would LOVE to see my baby grow into adulthood is all.

February 3, 2012

The Other Trimester

I have a stinky 3 month old! What a trip. I'm still waking up a couple times a night to feed this tiny little girl but I love those snuggle times with her! She's so much fun even though she is by far my toughest boss for the hardest job I have ever had!

I love this sneaky little face and those crazy hairs!!
Things that Dori enjoys:

*Baby Einstein. She can only handle about 20 minutes at a time before it gets too stimulating.
*When I sing to her. She loves 5 Little Monkey's and most Beatles songs.
*Hanging out in the swing. I didn't think she'd be much of a swing baby but she likes to sit in it while Gary and I are in the kitchen so she can see us.
*Talking. I'll tell her to say "a-goo's" and she usually will get really excited and try to talk to me.
*I just found out her little toes are ticklish! Mostly her left foot
*She likes to be social. She doesn't like to be home all the time. She needs to be around people and chaos sometimes...but then loves the peace an quiet after a while.
*She loves to hold her hands while she sleeps. If she can't fall asleep holding her hands she gets mad.

She's such a happy little girl and so snuggly and fun. She makes life really easy on me most of the time except when she gets too tired. I love this baby!

January 5, 2012

I'm a Mom

I didn't feel like a mom the day that Dori was born, and I didn't feel like a mom after 1 or 2 or 3 weeks. And 2 months later, I still don't think I know exactly what it means to be a mom. I'm learning though!
I love this little baby to pieces, so when I'm already exhausted and she needs my attention anyway, I give it to her and tell her I love her. When I have a bad night's sleep and I just want to keep us both in our jammies all day, I smile at her and get her in the tub anyway and tell her how pretty she is. When I wake up grumpy, I think to myself "your baby wants a happy mom, so smile at her when she wakes up." Its a hard thing to do, but she makes me so happy! I love her cuddles and her wiggles, and I love when she stops drinking her bottle half way through to smile at me for no reason! I hate that I have been sick with a nasty cough for the past 5 weeks, but I'm thrilled that it was me and not her!


So bit by bit....I'm learning. And I'm loving it!

November 29, 2011

One Month

This last month has been quite the rollercoaster ride! Nobody could have ever prepared me enough for what comes after having a baby. Unless you've experienced it yourself, I don't think anyone can truly know what giving birth does to a person physically and emotionally. Luckily, I have the best family and friends that have really helped me out with the challenges I was faced with when I brought Dori home from the hospital. I can't thank everyone enough for helping me get through this last month and for helping me out with this gorgeous little stinker! She truly is a little angel!She'll only sleep for about 4 hours at a time but since we're only feeding her formula, Gary has really been helping me out in the sleep department! My house is more cluttered than I'm used to and there is constantly a pile of laundry to be done, but I'm learning to get used to the fact that sometimes a shower and sleep is more important than a perfectly clean house. It's amazing the kind of mess one little baby girl can create! It's a good thing I love her so much!

November 4, 2011

Welcome Baby Girl!

Dori Olive Fifield
Born October 28th, 2011
12:15 AM
6 lbs 10 oz
19" long