End of June catch up.

Alexandria is officially done with her harness! We went to the doctor on Thursday and he told us to throw it away and come back for a check up in 6 weeks! It has been so fun to be able to dress Alex up in clothes she hasn't been able to wear yet, and not have to strap her up before bed time. It's like having a whole new baby! The whole experience has sure made me grateful for a lot of things, I have really come to appreciate all the small stuff.

A few weeks ago Kara (Tyler's little sister) got married. It was beautiful and fun and Alex looked so cute in her dress. The day after the wedding Tyler let me give him a mohawk, the next step to him going completly bald and shaving it all off for heat control at work. Not the greatest picture but you get the idea.

Tyler has been in California fighting fires for the last 2 weeks. He left right after Kara's wedding and is coming back today! He will finally get his 2 completely free days off and then leave on Wednesday to go right back to California. Alex and I will leave on that same day and go to Logan where we will pick up Gwen and drive to Montana! I was pretty nervous to travel the whole way by myself and Gwen was so sweet and offered to come along and then fly back home! That is great in itself, but she just got married like a month ago. What a great friend!

Alex is such a tough little kid. Her cute cousins just love her to death and want to play with her all the time, sometimes it gets a little rough, but through it all she hasn't cried a single time.

Kate and I have been hanging out a lot lately and decided to try and make care bears for our kids. I got some pink fur and have been sewing the last few days trying to get it done. I think inhaling all the air born fur clogged my nasal passages and gave me a sinus infection! I'm pretty miserable right now, but darn proud of that bear. The first time I sewed the head on it ended up being almost backwards so i had to undo all my work and redo it only to find out the head is still off center. I am beyond caring at this point. The thing will be lucky to get eyes and a nose.

Alexandria with her cousins

Nicholas and Christian love Alexandria to pieces! Every chance they get they they give her tons of kisses!

Hates pacifier's, loves fingers. and daddy.

Naked babies are the cutest

We took Alexandria to get her pictures taken at kiddie kandids yesterday. She was very cute and making all sorts of adorable faces for half the time. The other half of the time was relentless screaming. Unfortunatly we could only pick one picture, so this is what the Grandma's are getting for Mother's Day!

Tyler came hom for 24 hours on Tuesday afternoon and we had such a great time. The crew then left for New Mexico and upon arrival got shipped off to Arizona. Right now Tyler is sitting 12 miles from the Mexican border. His discription so far is that it is about 4 degrees cooler than the surface of the sun.

A little bit of everything

So it has been quite some time since I posted. Here is a brief catch up of everything that has gone on in the last 6 weeks......

March 17th- Alexandria Kara Brady was born via c-section in Provo Utah
March 18th- Kristen Nicole Brady's birthday
March 20th- leave hospital and immediately miss the remote control bed and limitless supply of cranberry juice. Not to mention the nurses that do just about everything for you. Also my mom came into town this day, just as good if not better than the nurses.
March 20th- 27th- Mom Asay cooks cleans and takes the baby at night while Tyler does school and work, and I try to fend off the feelings of panic and depression that no one bothered to tell me might accompany the dramatic hormonal changes that come with the birth of a baby.
March 30th- Tyler Jacob Brady's birthday
March 31st- Baby's 2 week check up. Everything looks great!
April 7th- precautionary ultrasound on Alexandria's hips- both dislocated
April 8thish- We unofficially move into the Brady's basement where Mom and Dad Brady help out with the baby and take her until 2:30 am the first adjusting days.
April 14th- Tyler starts training for Lone Peak hotshots as a wildland firefighter while trying to study for finals and finish the semester of school. Kristen tries to cope with never sleeping.
April 10th- Alexandria goes to primary children's hospital and gets fitted with her Pavlik Harness.
April 17th- We get accepted as patients at Shriners Hospital in SLC and get an ultrasound there that lets us know Alexandria's hips are in the sockets while she wears the harness and that it is the socket that is underdeveloped, not the leg.
April 26th- We officially move out of our apartment and into the Brady's basement, kicking Kara out of her room and taking over the entire house with baby things.
April 27th- Alexandria Kara Brady's baby blessing- lots of great friends and family come. Baby starts smiling and chattering.
May 1st- Tyler gets shipped off to Southern California to fight the Apache fire. I get my 6 week check up and get the ok to be a normal person again.
May 3rd- Alexandria and I accompany the Brady's to Kara's graduation. Alexandria somehow pees out the side of her diaper and makes a puddle on the bleacher in front of us while we are standing for the National Anthem.
May 4th- Alexandria is crying a lot more but smiling a lot too. She is best friends with the bears on her mobile and smiles and talks to them in the morning and at night.
May 5th- Kara and Devin leave for Bear lake. Tyler still in California. I go to dentist and find out that i actually do have wisdom teeth (i was told as a teenager i did not), 3 of them that need to come out as well as 3 cavities and 3 baby teeth.

So here we are. I was very hesitant to move because I was afraid that living at the Brady's would really make me feel like a knocked up teenager who has to return home and live in the parents basement. But it has been great here! The Brady's have been so nice to me and have really helped out so much with the baby. I am slowly getting used to this huge change and learning a lot! I still haven't gotten the courage to leave her alone while I shower, and if it were not for Susan and Loren I might be a lot smellier than I probably already am.

All in all I've decided that it is better to be a kid in the basement than a hermit in an apartment with cabin fever.

My little Alexandria

Bad hips and sleepless nights not withstanding, I wish to detail the awesomeness of my, excuse me, our baby. Now, however, may not be the best time as she just started screaming. She seems to have more fun doing so each time. I know that I am already facing a group of unconquerable critics because everyone has their own baby or niece or nephew that is “simply the cutest this world has ever seen.” I will nonetheless endeavor to expound my daughter’s virtues.

When she sleeps, she makes the most adorable noises. She whimpers and grunts and matches these sounds with facial expressions that have melted this man’s heart. Correction, she melted what was left of a heart already melted by her mother. When she graces us with consciousness, as newborn babies sleep about 16 hours a day, she looks around at everything she can see with the most amazing, quiet, contentedness. Every once in a while, she cracks a wide, toothless, and squinty eyed grin. But, best of all is when she is just starting to wake up. This is when she takes upon her charming little face the most bizarre and funny facial expressions known to man. Words simply cannot describe the seemingly endless supply of these expressions. I will leave you to your imaginations to experience them for your self; unless of course you want to visit us and see them for yourself.

Firefighting

I suppose I should explain my actions so that there will be no misunderstandings. I love my family very much! I am not trying to escape from them in any way, shape or form. The truth of the matter is I love fire. Wildland firefighting is filled with pros and cons. The most significant con is the entire state of Nevada. Who cares anyway? Nothing is worse than running all over a miserable dessert trying to save juniper trees and sage brush. It’s just not worth it. Among the pros are clear skied Idaho nights, lying under the stars after a hard days work. The work itself is rather hard and unglamorous. We work 16 hour shifts digging fire lines as far as the eye can see. In wildfire there is just no way to bring enough water to the fire to extinguish it in such a way. Instead we remove the forest from the fire. We cut down trees and dig up grasses and roots until there is a swath of mineral soil surrounding the fire. When it burns to the cleared line the fire dies down and goes out. At least that is the theory, though it gets much more complicated than that. So essentially, my job is to swing a tool for 16 hours a day with 40 to 50 pounds on my back. It does not sound that fun, believe me I know, but there is a strange appeal to such work. It brings satisfaction, not to mention a good paycheck. Besides, who doesnt think that camping for 6 months in some of the most beatiful vistas eye has ever seen is the greatest blessing on earth?