Where'd the time go?

It has been so long since I have posted so be prepared for picture overload! Claire has gotten so big and she is so much fun! She is now six months old! I can't believe it has been six months since this beautiful little girl came into our lives! At her six month check up, she weighed 16 lbs 2 oz, 26.25 in long. She is very tall for her age, but skinny for her height. If you've seen her thighs, you wouldn't believe that she is skinny, but the doctor even said that she is skinny. She is sitting up on her own. She'll sit forever, she has such a strong core. She'll even stand if you hold her hands and I'm just waiting for the day she'll just start running. She does a funny little crawl where she uses her head on the ground to push her body where she wants it to go, but she gets to where she needs to. She is a chatterbox (just like her mama!). Claire loves food. Her favorites are pears, bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, squash, oatmeal, peas, strawberry yogurt. Her dislikes are the baby meats. Let's be honest, they look nasty, they smell nasty. How can we even make her eat them! Her face is so funny when she eats. She is starting to have so much personality. Claire still wants to be held all the time. It makes it quite hard in the mornings when Joe is already at work and I'm getting ready for work. Claire comes with me to work every day which is such a blessing. I'm so glad I get to spend all day every day with her. I put her in the snugli and away we go. She will be a professional trophy builder by the time she's 1! Luckily, I have lots of family there to help me with her. She even gets to a ride in the snugli by her aunt Jenna sometimes. Anyway... Bring on the pics!

4 months old....

On the Heber Creeper in September

Cute
5 months old....

Gardner Village Witches


With the Cousins at Gardner Village

So pretty!

This is the face she pulls when she is playing with her toys! I LOVE it!


The cutest elephant I've ever seen. She doesn't look too thrilled, but she loved it.

Cold & Rainy Halloween

Six Months...

Sitting up on her own! She's a cheeser!

Big Girl!

So cute!

How can you not LOVE this face!!! Just melts my heart!

Newest Little Ute Fan!

We took C to her first Utah game on the 2nd. It was the PITT game so it was extremely loud and we didn't bring ear plugs. She was not a happy camper. We finally got some from Guest Services, but they were adult size. Even after ripping them in half they still didn't fit. She wasn't too thrilled with the game and we spent a little time walking around outside of the game to calm her down.

I love her little pose in this picture!

We took her to her second game on the 11th. This time we were prepared with earplugs, but not with sunscreen. She got her little face and head a little burned, but not too bad. She liked this game a lot more! She was such a good girl! She watched the game, and even cheered a little. This time we had her all decked out in her Utah Cheerleader get-up. However, we forgot her bow, and people kept calling her a boy! lol Even though she was in a dress, she still got called a boy. Oh well... Next time, we won't forget the bow! The cute outfit was given by some family! THANKS GUYS!!! She looks so cute in it!

And of course the UTES won both games!!! GO UTES!!!

50 YEARS

My Grandparents just celebrated their 5oth Wedding Anniversary! Wow... So amazing! My grandma wanted to get family pictures as part of their celebration, (the rest of the celebration included a suite at the bees game & fireworks). So we all went and had a family photo shoot and they all turned out really well! Claire did great. She wouldn't do any pictures of just her, but in the family pics she was smiling! Here are a few...

I love Claire's face in this one...

The Fam..

Grandma & Grandpa

After 50 years they have...
3 kids

5 Grandkids, 1 Grandson-in-law, & 1 great-granddaughter

The Barton Fam!

Congrats Grandma & Grandpa! Happy Anniversary! Thanks for all you do! We love you!!!

Blessing

We were finally able to bless Claire on September 5th. It was such a great day! We had lots of family and friends come. It was so fun to see everyone. The blessing went great. Joe did a great job. Claire did cry a little bit, but it was because she wanted to sit up. She looked so dang cute in her white dress. We barely escaped a blowout. Right after her blessing in the middle of the sacrament she decided to toot and poop very loudly in a very quiet room. Funny, yet scary. Joe quickly went and changed her before it made too big of a mess. Thank heavens that dresses come with diaper covers!!!

Taking a nap before the blessing.

With Daddy after the blessing.

4 Generations


With Mom and Dad


Showing off her pretty new dress.


Claire with her boyfriend Maddux.
(She needed a nap)

The day was a great success and a lot of fun! Thank you to everyone for coming and for all of the help!

Growing Girl

I can't believe how fast time flies! Claire is getting so big and so much fun. We tried to put her in a walker because she loves to stand and she is such a strong baby, but I'm thinking it is a little too soon for the walker. Her feet don't touch the ground so she sways back and forth. She tried to eat all the toys and lasted about long enough to for us to take a few pics. We'll wait just a little bit longer and I bet she'll love it!


She has also started rolling over now. She loves this little flower play mat but rolls over and gets stuck. She loves the cute toys that hang. She loves to grab them and can now pull one of the flowers and it plays music.

She is such a cutie! She is now making these little grunting noises when she's falling asleep. It is so funny because her eyes are closed, but she still makes the noises. She is talking like crazy! It is so dang cute! She's growing so fast which is definitely a bitter sweet feeling.

3 Months!!!

Today Claire is 3 months old! Wow... time flies!!! I have been horrible about taking time to journal or blog about the last 3 months so I'm going to do one big long post! Yay, you get to read it! :-)

• Claire is such a good little baby. I don't have to hold her when she sleeps anymore, well not all of the time anyway... I'll admit, I love to just sit and hold her when she sleeps, but it makes it hard for me to get things done. She is still sleeping in a bassinet. She's getting too big for it, but we like her to sleep in it because things in our lives are a little hectic right now. We're staying at my parents house and Joe's parents' house, so with the bassinet we can take it with us and she can at least have that consistency. She sleeps through the night occasionally, but will sometimes wake up once or twice a night. Depends on what time she finally gets to bed.
  
• She spits like crazy. She's always drooling, spitting, and blowing bubbles.
  
• She is starting to be more interactive. She is grabbing my hair, and tries to grab the logos on Joe's shirts.
  
• She has giggled a few times but is always smiling.
• She is talking more and more every day.
• Claire has the cutest pouty face. Her bottom lip sticks out so far and you just have to laugh.
• Claire has seven extremely long hairs on her head that blow in the wind.
• She loves to sit up and has been holding her head up very well for quite a while now. She's extremely strong and great at pulling herself up.
• Claire is starting to like baths more.
• She wears 1-2 diapers.
• She's rolled over twice. ( She was just super hungry and arching her back so much she just happened to roll over.)
• She loves to sleep on her tummy, which is a little nerve racking for mom.
• Claire loves when Joe squeezes her cheeks and says in a deep voice, "These are my chubby cheeks," 3x.
• She loves her soothie binky. We have tried to switch to a cuter binky and she just isn't having it.
• She fights like crazy when she's exhausted but doesn't want to go to sleep.
• She loves to suck on her hand, all the time! Hopefully it doesn't turn into thumb sucking.
• She has one cry that is just a whine. It's pretty cute.
• Her right kidney isn't functioning but the left is doing the work it needs to. He left kidney has a little bit of reflux which should clear itself eventually. She is on an antibiotic to prevent UTIs. She absolutely hates it so we have to mix it with a little bit of milk to get her to keep it down. This is how she has learned to spit. Between her antibiotic and medicine for acid reflux, she can spit out her medicine as soon as you put it in her mouth.
• She loves to rub blankets or burp cloths.

Watching T.V. with Daddy, in Cedar.
6/15/10 - one month



June 15, 2010 - In Cedar
one month

Watching the 4th of July Parade
Almost 2 months

Playing with Daddy!


Hangin with Mama!


Cute Smiles! - 3 months

The Delivery

So I can finally take some time to sit down and write about the whole labor experience. It happened like this... Saturday May 8th we went to the hospital to get an ultrasound to check the fluid level and for a NST. While doing the NST the nurse pointed out that I was contracting but they weren't bad enough to keep me there. I was scheduled to go in on Monday May 10th at 1:00 A.M. to be induced and she told us to just stick with that. Well Joe went to work and I was contracting all day. They were pretty painful but not bad enough or close enough together. I just dealt with it all day. When Joe got home my contractions were getting worse but not close enough together so I just tried to tough it out. Then finally at 1:00 May 9th, I couldn't take it anymore and we went to the hospital. I wasn't sure if my water had broken, and I guess my contractions still weren't close enough, and I was only dilated to a 3 and 70% effaced which I had been for about 2 weeks. So the nurse wanted to send me home, but my doctor told me to stay. The nurse did a couple of test and come to find out... my water had broken and I didn't even know. I was expecting a big gush but that just didn't happen.

I was dilating pretty quickly but the nurse made me wait til I was a five to get an epidural. She gave me a sedative that was super weird. I could still feel the pain but my body was so relaxed that I just didn't care. The weirdest feeling in the world! Finally at 4:30 A.M. I got an epidural. It was like a little piece of heaven.

The nurse told me to get a little rest, but that is pretty hard to do when they are checking your cervix so often and your blood pressure every 15 mins. The nurses had shift change and we got the best nurse ever. Her name was Megan. She also told us to relax and rest.

At 7:30 A.M. she said I was fully dilated and needed to start pushing. Joe and I freaked out! Weren't we supposed to rest first? We were so excited to meet our little one! On the first push she could see Claire's head and said I need to call the doctor. She called the doctor and I pushed a few more times while we were waiting. She finally told me not to push anymore because the doctor wasn't there yet and Claire was ready to come. He finally got there at 8:15 A.M. and with one push Claire was out. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. She looked exactly like Joe. Holding her was the most amazing feeling. It was super weird to know I was the one to comfort her. I usually give crying babies back to their mom, but this time I was the mom.

The labor was suprisingly easy. The pregnancy was hard so it was only fair I had an easy labor. :-)

Claire is such an amazing baby. We love her so much!

Claire

Claire is such a blessing in our lives. She is a beautiful, healthy, baby girl. We love her more and more everyday!
So I have finally been able to upload pictures of Claire. However, these were just taken the other day so she was one month old. I will put up the first pictures of her later. I will also share the story of the night/day she was born later. We are right in the middle of moving up to Salt Lake so things are super crazy right now.

Mother on Mother's Day!!!

Karli and I just wanted to get a little somethin somthin on the blog about our beautiful daughter Claire as there was much concern with possible scenarios due to Claire's polysystic kidney. I will keep it simple so that Karli can have the experience of sharing the details. Things ended up going a little differently than planned and Claire showed she was just as impatient/excited to come out as her parents were for her to arrive. The plan was for Karli to be induced on Monday May 10th at 1:00 a.m. to get the ball rolling. However, we ended up at the hospital late Saturday night and Claire was born at 8:15 a.m. on mother's day. She was 19 1/2 inches and weighed 7 lbs and 14 oz. It was truly one of the most remarkable and powerful experiences of our lives. Karli was amazing in labor and is doing great. Claire is a beautiful little girl, a cuddler and snuggler, that is already blessing our home and family. She actually had quite a bit of hair when she was born, which is a dark red with some blonde in it. In regards to the birth and process after it couldn't have gone any smoother. Claire was "going number 1 and 2" providing a lot of relief as this was the sign to show kidney function (whether it be one of both) is still good. So at this point there are no immediate concerns with Claire's kidney. We have already gone in for the ultrasound and will get the results by tomorrow. With that we will head up to Primary Children's in a month for further testing. All is all both Karli and Claire are going great and our beautiful little family couldn't be any happier (lack of sleep and all). We appreciate everyone's support, prayers and concern and are very grateful for our wonderful families and friends. Pics and additional information with be posted soon.

COLLEGE GRADS!!!!

Joe and I finally became college grads! Joe graduated with his B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Family Services, and I graduated with my B.S. in Elementary Education and a minor in Reading. It feels so good to be done with school! (Joe still has grad school though :-D ) We have both worked so hard and it feels great! However, there is a small sadness that comes with it. School has been such a huge part of our lives from the very beginning of our relationship. Joe and I have some great memories that have come from being students. We met at Snow College where we dated for a year and he eventually proposed at Palisades. We had lots of late nights hanging out and doing homework.We moved to Cedar after getting married to go to SUU, and we started a whole new step of our lives (being married and students). At the end of each semester we would get huge pepsi's and snacks to stay up all night with Joe while he writes a paper the night before it is due (he'd finish at 7 am the morning of). Plus, late nights in the ELC computer lab doing homework because we didn't have the internet at our house. We have many more memories but I won't bore you with them.
We are now entering the next step in our lives, finding real jobs, and most importantly, expanding our family with our baby girl. We are so grateful for the experiences we have had and the experiences to come. I am so proud of Joe for graduating. He was always working full time and going to school full time, and still found time to entertain me. Thank you to all of our family. We couldn't have made this long journey without you all. It was so fun to see all of you who could make it to Cedar to share this special day with us. It meant a lot. For those of you who couldn't come, we still felt you there with us! We love you all! P.S. No baby yet! :-(