2013

First of all we moved this year! This is the view from my kitchen window. Granted this was taken at the beginning of last year, but it still is just as beautiful. Eventually they will put houses there and it will become a booming metropolis, but we are enjoying the view while we can. It may only be for a few more months. 

Kyle started working at the University of Utah Hospital. He likes the environment there ions better than his last job! He is still working crazy long hours, but hoping to improve that. The chief of cardiothoracic surgery has even taken scheduling advice from me! And that schedule is hopefully going into effect in the next few months.

       

 Bailey started dance and loves it! She had her first recital in May and was in the Nutcracker in December. She has really loved being in dance and really gotten good and coordinated.

She started preschool and has learned so much! She's learned how to write and is even writing words like mom and dad. She will write longer words if I tell her how to spell them. 

She turned 4 this year and got her first bike! Her favorite person recently is tinkerbell and loves anything so hence the cake and Disney Fairies bike. 

Hattie has gotten so big! She is constantly growing, getting into things, and on the move. She loves her big sister and puppies. We have a blast with her and she is so funny. Her sense of humor is so developed that it amazes me everyday.

She had her first birthday and loved every minute of it. She is just a happy baby.

As for me, I pretty much did everything that the kids and Kyle did. I did however complete my first triathlon and am signed up for another in May. I definitely know to be more prepared this time. 

We got our patio done this summer and are hoping to get our sprinklers, grass and trees in before this next summer! That will be so nice to get more space for the kids to play. We really love living close to our family and spending more time together. Here's to another great year!

Potty Trained!

Ok this has been like a year and a half in the making. Bailey was so stubborn when it came to pooping in the toilet. I tried bribing and everything, nothing seemed to work, so when we had Hattie I just couldn't do it anymore and we put her back in diapers. A few months ago I found a strategy in a book that worked!

The Poopy Place!

I printed off a sheet with "Poopy Place" written on it. So the goal was for her to just poop in the bathroom in her diaper. Give her candy and viola! she did it! Afterall it's not that different than what she was doing. Needless to say it was in the bathroom behind the door so she could "hide" from me.

After she got this down, I put her in panties and she had to tell me when she needed to go poop so I could put her in a diaper. This was easy for us because I spent 11 months last year pee-training her. It was just the pooping she couldn't do.

So after about a week of doing that we moved it closer to the toilet - not much different but the heat went up a little.

Then she had to be standing on her stool next to the toilet that she used to get on it. She was fine with that.

Then she needed to poop sitting on the toilet fully clothed. Well I found out the problem! She didn't know how to poop sitting down. OK she just didn't want to. But after she did it once and realized that the poop wouldn't stick to her bum, she was all for it. So the next time she said she needed to go poop, I just put her straight on the toilet. She started to go and realized - Oh I need a diaper! I said, "No you don't you can't hear the splash if it goes in the diaper!" And that was that. She has been potty trained ever since.

For her, I didn't need to show her every time that the poop goes into the toilet. She knew that. I didn't need to watch Elmo's potty time a million times for her to get it. She just needed to know that the poop wouldn't stick on her butt after she did sitting down. Afterall, who wants to sit in their own poop?

And now, I get to treat myself to putting her in preschool! 5 hours a week break and my reward!
Eating ice cream after pooping for the first time in the toilet!

The body of Motherhood

This is to all my sisters in motherhood. I wrote this in my journal a few days ago and wanted to share it with you.

As I was getting ready for bed one day, I caught a glimpse in the mirror of a true mother. Understand, I did say true and not perfect. I am far from the perfect mother. My patience has its limits. My temper occasionally rises. My three year old isn't potty-trained yet. My house is messy, and I hardly do crafts with my preschooler. But my body reflects what is on my soul. My hair is cut short so it won't be pulled. I don't wear earrings in fear of them getting ripped out. My eyes have bags from late night feedings and too-early mornings. My face and arms are sunburned from taking the kids to the park. My stomach is marbled with stretch marks from my oldest baby, and painted purple from the love my youngest wanted to leave on me. I have a fine line at my bikini line where my two gorgeous girls came into this world. I have saggy milky boobs that keep my baby alive. I have a deflated stomach that housed my babies for nine months. I have scratch marks from temper tantrums and broken nails from car seats  Needless to say I am no swimsuit model. But my body is a tapestry of motherhood that I want to keep and remember. These are scars I want to keep for the eternities. I'm sure when I get older, the smile lines will stick. The worry wrinkles will make their debut, and the crows feet will appear. I will gladly take those on knowing that the smile lines came from every hug my kids gave me. The worry wrinkles will come from every sleepless night worrying how to better raise my kids  and the crows feet will come from every, "I love you mom" that brightens my day. When the kids have grown and gone, to some I may look old. But to me, I will look like a mother.

So when we are looking in the mirror, let's realize how beautiful our bodies are. They show where we've been and remind us of who we are.

Last few months...

So I don't know where the time has gone! Is Hattie really almost 4 months old? Have we really lived in Utah for 2 months? Seriously time flies. So just an update. We moved to Utah the end of January and bought a house!
 
We love it and it has been a good addition to our family. Not too big to clean but perfect size for our family to grow. Our neighborhood is seriously booming. We have 10 houses around us going up so hopefully kids Bailey's age will move in. Not like we don't have enough in our ward, we seriously have like 700 people in our ward! Anyways we love our neighborhood and the friendliness of everyone here. This is the view from my kitchen window. They will eventually build houses here, but at least for now it's a great view!

Kyle's been working crazy hours at work so me and the girls have been trying to keep busy. We started Bailey in dance class, and if she learns to listen to her teacher, she will be able to keep going :).

 Hattie's getting to be so big! I can't believe how fast her little life is going!

 3 month picture.

 She's always so happy!

We celebrated my 24th birthday this year by spending time as a family ending the night with me and Bailey getting the stomach flu ugggh!

But all in all it was a great day and Kyle and Hattie didn't get sick!!!! We have just been trying to slow down a little but being parents of two and homeownership is seriously so busy! At least we're enjoying the ride!

2012

This year has been fun, challenging, and adventurous! Kyle has been diligently working at Mercy General Hospital. The surgeons there haven't made it easy on him and he's been a trooper getting the experience he needs to get a new job at a better place. And he finally has! He accepted a job at the University of Utah Hospital in November and we are going to be moving at the end of January. He is hoping to do more hunting, camping, fishing, and snowboarding in Utah than is possible to do here in California. We are also thrilled to be near family so our kids can know their cousins more than once or twice a year.

Bailey has been busier than ever, playing, singing, dancing, and learning to talk back (uh-oh!). She is still such a sweetie and says the funniest things! She thinks she is pretty grown up. She started potty training at the beginning of February and we are still waiting for that. We have successes here and there but she will come around soon. We got season passes to Six Flags here and she loves going there. They have dolphin and whale shows and she can go on and on about those and how much she loves them. I started to teach her preschool this fall and she loves her 'school'. We've had fun and hopefully will get back into it in February when things aren't so crazy. Most of all loves her baby sister. There isn't a day that goes by that she isn't begging to hold her, smother her, or kiss her. She has adjusted well and we are so excited!

Hattie is the best baby ever! As long as I don't eat chocolate, she is so calm and relaxed. She only wakes up twice a night and I am so grateful for that! She is starting to coo and babble a little bit and I love hearing babies voices for the first time. I love all her hair and can't wait to put clips in it in the next few months. She loves Bailey and Bailey entertains her for hours. She just likes to watch Bailey so I occasionally lay Hattie close to where Bailey is playing so she can watch her and it's pretty cute!

This has been a great year for us and hope it was for all of you too. Happy New Year!

Hattie's Blessing

 Today we blessed baby Hattie! We were going to wait until the first of January but Kyle's parents were in town so we decided to do it today. Good thing she's a big baby so that her blessing dress didn't drown her :)

 And of course we had to do a photo shoot because she is so stinkin cute!

 Our pretty baby!

Hattie Rae Gubler

We have a new addition to our family! Hattie joined us Nov 21 at about 9 am. She is seriously a perfect fit to our family and a pretty good baby!

The Before/After pictures 

On Tuesday I woke up to some pretty bad contractions and a small water break. I waited about 10 hours for the contractions to get regular, and then called Kyle. We got to the hospital about 3 pm and I was only about a 1-2 but since it was a trial of labor after c-section (tolac) they wanted to keep me and monitor me. Anyways once I got there the contractions started to become irregular again. Anyways after a while Hattie was having trouble getting enough oxygen due to how I was laying so they put me on oxygen and kept turning me. After about 12 hours at the hospital, and an epidural (thank heavens for anesthesiologists right?) The baby wasn't descending and my contractions weren't strong enough to get her to come down or for me to fully dilate. So they started to talk about a c-section again. After TONS of praying we felt like a c-section would be best, and of course the Lord was looking out for us! Just before 9am Hattie was born, 9lbs 3oz! Her head was turned sideways so she was having a hard time descending. And who knows if I could push out that big of baby! Although it wasn't the birth I wanted, I still got what I wanted out of it - a beautiful baby girl and we are both healthy and doing fine.

Of course Bailey is thrilled to have her. She loves to hold her and cries every time she leaves the hospital. It has been a huge blessing that my mom flew in on Monday morning to help when we have her. Hopefully we'll be discharged Friday or Saturday so that we can go home and eat all the food we bought for Thanksgiving!