Life as we knew it

Oakley was three weeks old on Thursday. I can't believe it's already been three weeks. We are starting to settle into a bit of a schedule...as much as possible with a newborn. Our day usually goes as follows...6 am - up for the morning. I always try and get her to go back to sleep, but there is too much going on.
8 am- Oakley gets to play with grandma and grandpa for a bit while I take a morning nap. The whole sleep when the baby sleeps only works if the baby sleeps.
11 am- Pick Oakley up from the grandparents. We play all afternoon (I try and keep her awake as much as possible)
10 pm - bedtime
2 am- the peanut is usually hungry
6 am- this is when Jon leaves for work, so Oakley thinks we should all be up
Life as we knew it is totally gone and replaced with sleepless nights, poopy diapers, and playing peek-a-boo. Instead of skiing magazines, our coffee table is littered with American Baby and Parenting magazines.

It is no longer just Jon and I. Going anywhere is no easy task. We have to make sure the baby is fed and that we have diapers, wipes, a change of clothes, the stroller, oh ya, and the baby. My biggest fear is that one day we will forget her at home. It hasn't happened yet, thank goodness.

We are getting a hang of being parents of a newborn. I no longer take 30 minutes to get her dressed and don't freak out every time she makes a new noise. Poop and spit up are no longer gross, but instead a part of every day life. Baby acne and dry skin no longer scare me...she will grow out of it soon, I hope.

Even though life is totally different and I am convinced I will never sleep again, this little squirt is AMAZING! I love waking up and cuddling with her every morning. It is amazing how much she changes from day to day.

One Week Pictures

Last week we did newborn pictures with this awesome local photographer. Oakley did not like being posed and naked so we din't get a whole lot, but the ones we did get turned out so cute! Thanks Heidi!

Tornado Season

The little peanut is two weeks old today. I can't believe it's been that long already! On Tuesday we took her for her 10 day checkup and she was already 2 oz past her birth weight. She keeps getting bigger and cuter every day. My mom and I took her to the mall and grocery store after her appointment and she was so good! She LOVES her carseat and stroller! It was a really nice day, so we even took her to Uncle Rudy's tennis game and she sat quietly the whole time.
Evey day she sleeps less and is awake and alert more. But she hardly ever cries, and when she does, she is usually just hungry. Last night she slept for four hours at one time! It was amazing!
I love just watching her all day long. I honestly can sit on the couch with her for hours and just watch her sleep.
Meanwhile, my house looks like a tornado hit, the dog has been totally neglected, and I am running on NO sleep. Everyone says to sleep when the baby sleeps, but that's hard to do with something so cute so close.

Life with a newborn

Oakley Bea Van Wagoner was born Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 4:26 am. She weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces and was 20 inches long. She had a full head of black curly hair and was the most beautiful baby Jon or I had ever seen.
We had to stay in the hospital for two nights. The first night Jon slept at home because he had to work early the next morning. I was exhausted and hadn't slept since the baby was born so I had the nurses take her to the nursery for the night. The next morning one of the nurses came in and told me that they hadn't taken her to the nursery, but kept her at the nurses station and played with her all night. Everyone thought she was the most beautiful baby they had ever seen.
We brought her home on Saturday. It has been a big adjustment. No more uninterrupted nights of sleep. I spend every waking moment just starring at her, trying to comprehend the fact that we are parents.
It is so strange to think that I am a mother. I took her to the doctor the other day for her 5 day checkup and had to sign the consent form for treatment for her. I am now the one that people hand her off to when she is crying. And strangely enough most of the time I can calm her down.
My life is now full of and poopy diapers and sleepless nights, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

The adventure doesn't start until something goes wrong

And everything went wrong. We drove the Jeep with our garage sale trailer to Cascade, Idaho for the Bowman family annual unofficial Fourth of July family reunion. We put our bikes and gear on the trailer and took off. It only took us about five hours to make the three and a half hour trip. As we got to my uncle’s house we noticed that the wheel of the trailer was a little crooked. My dad and Jon lifted the trailer up and the wheel just popped off. Lucky for us it wasn’t while we were driving.

That night we went to watch the fireworks and they were so far away we couldn’t even hear them. It was cold and we were getting eaten by mosquitoes, but we got to enjoy them with my grandparents. Sunday was pretty uneventful. We went to the hot pots and enjoyed the company of some strange people from Boise. On the way home we got to see tons of fireworks being shot off over the lake.

Monday was Jon’s birthday and we went biking at Brundage. My cousin Katie came with us. She had not done much mountain biking and went over the handle bars a few times. By the end of the day she was covered in mud and had a tire track across the front of her shirt. The Brundage photo people even took a picture of her and gave her a free day pass.

With the exception of the trailer tire, everything was pretty tame until Tuesday. Jon and I were planning on leaving around two but we wanted to go explore the mountains by Grandma and Grandpa’s cabin first. We took some dirt road and went way far into the mountains. I wish you could bottle that smell and bring it home. There were a ton of roads going everywhere. As we were driving we found this kid who had run out of gas on his four wheeler. He didn’t know where he was, his parents didn’t know where he was, and his buddy was somewhere behind him broken down as well. We found his buddy who had walked about a mile and was sobbing. After some intense persuasion we towed the kids to where they thought their camp was. After about six hours we finally found their parents. Oh, I almost forgot. As we were towing the kids, we drove through a road where cows were openly grazing. Katie looked at me as said, "I just got hit with something at it's not mud" She smelled her hand and it was cow poop. All of a sudden poop starts flying everywhere. We had the top off the jeep so it was hitting us in the head. One hit my head and I later found it in the hood of my sweatshirt. GROSS!!!

We didn’t end up leaving Cascade until around nine. On the way home the lights on the jeep went out and as we were stopped Jon discovered that he had forgotten to put the oil cap on. Lucky for us it was wedged in a crack. We didn’t get home until 2:45 and Jon had to work at six and me at 7:30.

Even with all of the craziness that went on, it was a really fun weekend. We got to hang out with my awesome cousin who we never see and my grandpa who is sick. It probably wouldn’t have been so much fun if everything had gone perfectly. “The adventure doesn’t start until something goes wrong”.

In a Hicktown

Ok, there is this song by Jason Aldean called Hicktown. I found it the summer after my freshman year of college. We would blast it from the boat every time we went wakeboarding. Growing up in Idaho, I became accustom to certain things. For example, all summer long there will be large trucks of cows, potatoes, and sugar beets driving really slow on the roads. There will also be tractors and combines blocking both lanes of traffic.

Jon and I are living in Kimberly, Idaho for the summer. It's a small town about five miles from Twin. Pretty sure that Jason wrote Hicktown after visiting Kimberly. The population is 3,000 and there is only one grocery store, which by the way is so claustraphobic that I drive to Twin to shop. The elementary school, middle school and high school are all on the same road. You can drive down one road and see all the businesses the town has to offer. I love it! Provo was so big. Everyone was always in a hurry and I always felt rushed.

Here, there is lots of open farm land and everything is much more laid back. Even in Twin, there is never any traffic. No more University Avenue ruining my life.

Last night we were on a bike ride and there was a group of people having a bbq on their pontoon boat in the drive way. They all had beers in their hands and were having a great time. We asked them where the water was and they said they were doing a test run for when they had water. Secretly I think they just leave it in the driveway and host parties.

Graduated at last

Well, I finally did it! After six long years, many different majors, and a few semesters off, I finally graduated from college. I know many of you were starting to wonder if it would really happen, myself included. I now have a Bachelors of Science in Exercise and Wellness. I'm not quite sure what I am going to do with it, but that's not really that important, is it?

Looking back at my college experience, it's amazing that I did as well as I did. Freshman year was full of fun and new experiences. For the first time I was away from home with no one to check into at night. We stayed out until three or four every morning and I had classes at eight in the morning. That was also the year that I took snowboarding and ice skating in the same semester.

My college experience was full of fun and goofing off right up until the semester that I graduated. Jon and I would often go skiing or mountain biking while I should have been at my internship. But I made it!! The grades are all in and my diploma is in the mail. Halleluah!