a little bit of everything

Christmas was a busy this year for Jordan and I. We hosted our first set of guests - ALL of Jordan's family!

Jordan's parents were the first to get here on the 16th. That Saturday they helped us get things situated before his younger sister and her husband flew in later that night. Our day was filled with getting groceries and bed shopping. We went to almost every mattress store in Orlando looking for a good deal. We finally decided on a futon from IKEA. I fell in love with the idea of having a couch in the spare bedroom (my office/craft room) that could also turn into a bed for company. Our spare bedroom isn't very big so it saves a lot of space.

Monday was spent Christmas shopping and trying to find gators. Apparently there are alligators everywhere here, but I have yet to see one in the area (which I'm grateful for). I took them to a trail by a river near by and we walked trying to look for gators.

 We didn't have any luck, but we did see a lot of ducks, diving birds, cranes, and vulchers. At one point during our walk, we went under some trees trying to get a better look at the vulchers across the river and I ended up getting pooped on by a bird. Good thing it was just on my arm, but it was definitely a first for me. 

Late Monday night Jordan's older sister, husband, and little girl, drove in. It was fun waking up Wednesday to  the energy of a 1 1/2 year old. We played all morning till Jordan came home for lunch from the academy. 

She was excited to see him and the same went for Jordan.

I was sad that Jordan had to work his normal hours and couldn't spend very much time with everyone during the week, but he was a good sport about it.

Tuesday we headed over to Downtown Disney and walked around all of the cool shops and got ice cream at Ghirardelli - SOOOO INCREDIBLY YUMMY.

Wednesday we spent all day at Disney World. It was fun for me because it was only my second time ever going and since we had a baby with us, I got to experience different rides than I had before. My all time absolute favorite part of the day was watching Cinderella's castle light up at night. WOW a million times over!!!! My jaw dropped when it happened and in that moment I so wished I was Cinderella living in that castle ;) It was beautiful. It looked like snow sparkling all over.

The beautifully lit castle

Eating the oh so wonderful Mickey Ears! 

Also notice the shorts and T-shirt. It was 80 degrees the whole week!

"It's a small world after all. It's a small world after all"

I was Brae's chosen one for this ride.

Thankfully Thursday we just chilled at home because walking around Disney for 9+ hours wore me out.

Friday we spent the day at Sea World. I was most excited about this day. I had never been to Sea World and I was going to get to ride some big roller coasters. We all got wristbands that allowed us to go to the front of every roller coaster without waiting which was awesome! I love roller coasters. 

First Timer

We also saw the dolphins, shamu, and sea lions shows. One thing I am proud of was actually touching and feeding a sting ray. I was so scared. Over all it was quite fun and thanks to Jordan's parents for Christmas we got season passes to Sea World. So now we can go back any day any time. Date nights here we come!

The dolphin show

Saturday and Sunday were spent at cocoa beach. We were able to stay at a friend's beach house for the weekend and had fun Kayaking and playing at the beach. One morning Jordan went Kayaking with his brother-in-law and saw a mother and baby dolphin hunting...I was so jealous. Every time Jordan and I went out on the Banana River it was quiet as could be. Maybe when we go again I'll get an opportunity to see wild dolphins up close.

At the beach we did a lot of boogie boarding, skim boarding, sand castle building, and just soaking up some warm Florida sun. One day we rented surf boards to try surfing and Jordan actually got up twice. I tried a couple of times, but just ended up nose diving. Whenever we go to the beach now, we are for sure going to be renting surf boards. Maybe we'll be pros in a year or two. You never know?

Jordan building a sand castle for Brae

Trying to catch some waves...really just trying to get out there.

I got picked to be buried. Some how my hands ended up being out.

Brae's trying to dig me out...nice try baby.

The whole week was busy with lots of activities, but it was so much fun to be around everyone and enjoying the holidays.

Chritmas

The holidays have come and gone and I didn't blog a thing. Jordan and I went to Colorado Springs for 2 weeks to celebrate the holidays with his family. It was nice to relax and enjoying doing NOTHING! I did do a few things like shop, shop, shop, and shop. I think I literally went shopping everyday. I was in this mood where I wanted to go to every store and see what they had. I blame my mother-in-law Heidi. I did not use to be this way, but shopping with her over the years I too have become addicted. What can I say, it's fun!

I didn't take any pictures over the break and the ones that I got from his parents were mostly of me. In the next couple of weeks though, Jordan and I are going to have a mini photo shoot with his mom because we don't have any pictures of us since our wedding. But here are some of the pictures that show a sample of our Christmas vacation.

Christmas Eve....opening our PJs. Oh yeah, if you didn't notice, I died my hair.

Me, Baby Braelyn, Jodi and Riley looking happy in our pajamas.

Christmas morning....you have to crawl through the fort to get to the presents :)

Jordan opening is awesome new running jacket with reflectors and all.

We went to the zoo to see if Braelyn would like the animals. As long as she didn't get too close she was fine. The zoo had all the giraffes inside where we could feed and pet them.

I fed one giraffes 2 crackers then the one next to him was trying desperately to get his tongue through the bars so he could get some. I laughed and gave him my last cracker.

The tongues on these things are freakin' long. 

I was telling him that the crackers were all gone. I then tried to pet him, but he turned his head and walked away.  The love you get in return for feeding animals. While another kid was feeding him, I quickly put my hand up, sneaky, I know.

A few of us rode the carasel. I tried to get Jordan to come with me, but as you can see, I'm by myself :(

I wish there were more pictures of Jordan and I, but at least we have some documentation of what we did for Christmas.

Colorado Springs

Last Friday Jordan and I drove down to Colorado Springs. Jordan's parents live in Colorado and his grandparents were going to be there for the week so we decided to drive down.

Saturday I finished up a scrapbook for my mother-in-law Heidi. She wanted a little scrapbook of her new grandchild and I offered to make her one if she bought all the supplies. Here is a few samples of the many pages.







Monday morning at 4am Jordan and I woke up to go hiking with his sister and brother-in-law. We drove for 30 minutes to start hiking Pikes Peak which is about 14,100ft. We started hiking the "Incline" at 5am. The incline is basically old railroad which look like steps going straight up the mountain. It was a mile of pretty much walking up stairs.



After the incline we headed towards Pike's Peak with about 10.5 miles left. It was a long hike. With about 3 miles to go Jordan got altitude sickness. So the last 2 miles we took a lot of breaks and made it to the top around 1pm.



Overall the hike was just long (13 miles), however, it was really cool at parts.



Wednesday Jordan and I went to the park with his dad and sister. Jordan started teaching me how to play tennis then he played a soccer game with his sister Riley while I practiced with his dad.





After playing tennis the whole family went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse to celebrate Jordan's Birthday. His birthday is the 10th but we decided to celebrate it on Wednesday. I made sure to tell his dad Randy to tell the waiter that it's Jordan's birthday because they bring out a saddle and make you sit on it. We got a picture, but I currently don't have a copy. Later that evening we ate the cake I made for Jordan. I bought a few of the cake supplies that I have been wanting and decided to use them to bake Jordan's cake. I didn't have any of my other decorating tools with me so I did my best with a ziplock bag.



We had originally planned to drive back Thursday, but we decided to stay a few extra days. Thursday I spent a lot of time learning how to sew. Heidi had cut out squares of Jordan's old t-shirts and blankets from when he was a child all the way up to college. I then took the t-shirt squares and sewed them together and made my first sewing project...a t-shirt quilt. I learned how to straight stitch, back stitch, and aplicae (spelling?) items onto other materials. After all the squares were sewn together, Heidi taught me how to put badding and the back of the quilt on. It was a great teaching project.



Today I spent most of the day on another project. Riley asked if I could make a shadow box of a picture of Braeyln and her. Again she bought the paper and I did the project. I think it turned out great, but the picture doesn't show the depth. There are a lot of things popping out.



Later in the afternoon we all went rock climbing at The Garden of the Gods. We were only able to do two routes until it started raining. The picture of Jordan below is from a few days earlier and we had it blown up and framed. We are going to climb again tomorrow and hopefully I can get a similar picture of myself to frame along side his.

The New Baby

I had a track meet Wednesday. I was at Weber College in freezing cold weather with a full blown head wind. I lost circulation in my fingers to the point where they turned white and the trainer was checking my capillary refill. Needless to say I didn't jump well, but oh well you have those days. It was 7:00 when the team loaded the bus. I called Jordan and he informed me Jodi (his sister) had been having contractions. According to Jodi they felt like really bad period cramps.

After the team went out for dinner I called back to find out that her contractions went from 10 minutes apart to a range from 1 to 6 minutes apart. I got back to campus at 11pm and Jordan was there to pick me up. We drove home and as soon as we pulled up Drew sprinted out the door with a towel in hand running to the car. He said, "Jodi's water just broke!" We get out of car and I go to the steps and find Jodi crying trying to put on her shoes. She waddles down the stairs and all I could say is good luck. I ran up the stairs to stop Caesar (their dog) from sprinting after her. About 20 minutes later we get a phone call saying that's she's dilated to a 3 and is getting an epidural.

An hour later Jordan and I drive to the hospital and she is dilated to a 5. Within the hour she gets checked again and is at a 10 and is ready to push. I fell asleep in a chair during the hour she pushed because it was 3:00am. When the time came I stood off to the side and got pictures of the baby when she came out. All of this was really good for me because I kind of know what to expect when having a baby.

They named the baby girl Braelyn Olivia. 7 lbs 2 oz, 19.5 in long. Jordan and I finally left to go home at 5:30. We were pretty exhausted and slept till 2 the next morning.