Thursday, July 17, 2014

Introducing...

Delilah Jane Shipp
Born June 10, 2014
at 4:37am
7lbs 10oz
19 inches

Meeting her for the first time:
Life has, of course, been crazy with two little ones. I am loving it, though. Recovery and expectations are all so much better than last time. And she's the sweetest baby in the world. We are in love.

The Waiting Continues in June

Well, June arrived and still, no baby! Her due date was June 8th, but in my mind I was hopeful that she'd come a week early or so. No such luck. I tried to plan fun activities with Charlie so we wouldn't both go crazy just sitting around the house waiting for life to change.

One afternoon, when Trevor wasn't working, we all decided to have a picnic on the back lawn. And yes, Charlie is still in his PJs. Best Mom Ever award goes to me. It was a sunny, warm day and we thoroughly enjoyed the change of scenery. I also took Charlie to the pool again. This time I had a new flotation device for him called a Puddle Jumper. This thing is absolutely amazing! It keeps his head above the water no matter which way he tips, and he can actually swim by himself in the deep pool! Love love love it! It just means I can relax a little more when I'm at the pool with him.
Pony Express Days is a fun Eagle Mountain community event that happens for a week every year. This year, it was during the first week of June and I took Charlie to a free family event on Wednesday evening at Nolan Park. They had bounce houses, face painting, food, and even balloon animals! We met up with our friends the Schramers. Charlie just loves his little friend Aunika... and even though we waited in line for at least half an hour, they were thrilled to get their balloon creations. Charlie got a sword and Aunika got a giraffe. Look at those smiling faces!
On June 6th, my Mom came into town. Much to her delight, I was still pregnant. She wanted to be here when I had the baby. But then, I started getting stressed about whether or not I should get induced earlier (I don't really like the idea of being induced unless it's at 41 weeks and I don't have another choice). She was only going to be in town for 10 or 11 days, and I didn't want to have the baby a week late and then have her leave a couple days later. So, I scheduled a tentative induction date for the 9th of June.

When my due date came and I wasn't in labor yet, I was getting more and more impatient. I didn't want to be induced and I wanted this little girl to be here already! It was a Sunday, and after church, I went for a walk with my Mom and Charlie around the neighborhood. We even stopped for a second and I jumped on the neighbor's trampoline (with their permission haha) to try to induce labor. I was so big and was feeling so much low pressure that I didn't really get any air when I jumped, but I hoped the motion of just going up and down would help. It didn't... it just made me tired. But I was determined and we kept walking around the neighborhood. We probably walked a little over a half mile, stopping along the way to look inside some of the houses that were being built. Here's a picture of Charlie looking like a total "mini-man" with his sunglasses and cool guy strut. :)
I didn't go into labor that night, and the waiting game continued a little longer. Stay tuned for the next post. ;)

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

May Days

Here's a look at what we did during the month of May! We started off the month with our 6th wedding anniversary! We celebrated by going on a date to Temple Square in Salt Lake City where we ate dinner outside at Blue Lemon and then went to see the Joseph Smith movie. It was fun to get to spend time with my sweetheart, and we owe it all to Jill and Russ for babysitting Charlie that night!
May is all about blooming trees and blue skies. I really do love spring! I also started doing a little sprucing up in the nursery with this cute new crib sheet! I've been trying to find an appropriate place for chevron in my house, and I think I've found it!
Excitingly, almost 3 months after it was started, the fireplace was FINISHED! I took a while deciding on which stone I wanted, but I finally made a decision and I'm extremely happy with it! We are truly enjoying the look of our fireplace, and eventually the function of it when it starts to get cold again, haha!
I took this cute picture of my sweet 2 and 1/2 year old boy's profile, so I can always remember. Even though he is getting ready to be a big brother, he's still my sweet baby. :) Also, for Mother's Day, my boys treated me to a massage at Sage Leaf Spa at Thanksgiving Point. It was truly wonderful, as I was about 35 weeks pregnant and feeling sore, tired, heavy, and stiff. 
Happy Mother's Day to me! I had to take a picture with the sweet, crazy boy who made me a mom. And then here's the official 36 week pregnancy picture. Getting close!
Houses have been going up like crazy on the street behind my house. It's really fun to watch the progress out my back windows. I think at the time I took this picture, there were at least 11 under construction on that street, and a couple more in other areas of the neighborhood!
We watched our neighbor's little boy Kellen, who is Charlie's age, for a couple hours one day. They had so much fun playing together! They played cars and trains and pretended to talk on the phone and made a general mess of Charlie's room. It was fun to sit there and watch. :) And, here's about how I looked at the time... 37.5 weeks pregnant! Whew! Full term!
Near the middle of the month, Trevor started getting on one of his healthy-eating-and-exercising kicks. He's an all-in or all-out kind of guy, so when he wants to eat healthily, he really means it. I benefited from this health kick, too, because he started cooking a lot! One night he made me this delicious salmon dinner complete with spinach, tomato, and cucumber salad. It was delicious. I kept joking with him that I wanted to eat at "Cafe Trevor" every night! But I'm not really joking... he definitely can cook when he wants to!
We also spent a few days of May at the pool, because I figured out that I had a swimsuit that could stretch over my pregnant belly! It was a nice break from the monotonous waiting and waiting I was doing for our baby girl to come. Charlie rather enjoyed it as well. He progressed from not really liking the water and sitting on the first step to wanting to jump off the first step toward me in the water and kicking and swimming around the pool with my help. We're still working on blowing bubbles in the water, but at least he's not swallowing mouthfuls of pool water every time his mouth submerges below water. Haha.
I also took an opportunity toward the end of May to go out shopping for a couple hours. It was really tiring with how huge I was getting, but it was also fun because I knew that it would be hard to go shopping once the baby came. I found a couple new shirts for both Charlie and Trevor. No shopping for myself, though, because who wants to try on clothes when you're the size of a whale? Not me. 
Our friends Cole and Meghan Ballard have lived in Texas for the last 4 years and just recently moved back to Utah, so we had them over to see our house and to catch up! It was a lot of fun to see them and the boys thoroughly enjoyed playing ping pong on the table we got in February. 
I was also busy with meetings and activities for my new church calling during May. In late April, I got a call from a member of the Stake asking to meet with me. I was a little surprised because I couldn't think of why they'd want to meet other than to extend a calling... and that seemed odd since I was 8 weeks away from having a baby! But, I met with Brother Maxwell in our kitchen while the living room was being painted (we were all crammed around the table with all our stuff sitting on it, too, haha). He asked me if I would accept the calling of 2nd Counselor in the Stake Young Women's Presidency. I was still really surprised and definitely nervous, but when it comes to receiving church callings, I have faith that the calling came from the Lord, and that He knows I am capable of such a task, even at this time. Even though I was hesitant, I prayed and told the Lord that I was trusting Him, and that I would need His help and support to be successful at accomplishing this calling. So far, things have been busy, but great, and the other women in the presidency are very understanding of my limitations. 

Finally, here's a fun little comparison photo I did on Instagram. There's Trevor as a toddler and Charlie. It seems they look more alike than everyone seems to think! Charlie, of course, still has my eyes, but he definitely looks like his Daddy, too!