Bring on the sunshine!

I will start off by saying I'm very thankful for the rain we have been getting lately. I know the gardens are being planted and rain is needed to help get them up and going. However, I'm ready for some

SUNSHINE!

It rained everyday last week except Friday and we've got rain today through Wednesday this week! I need some vitamin D. I think Taylor is tired of being cooped up as well. She dislikes the rain very much. 

Lydia is growing too fast! She is currently sitting in my lap being entertained by the keyboard sounds and the bookshelf that is full of interesting things. 

She is smiling more everyday and likes to "ooh" and "Ahh". She is finally growing out of her newborn clothes. But some of her 0-3m are still too big. 

She's quite the character. Some days she sleeps all the time, others (like today) she is too busy exploring. This morning I turned Pandora radio on our TV, brought up the 60's music station and we danced in the living room to Sugar Sugar and Little Bitty Pretty One. Some days you have to make your own sunshine!

Mother's Day was a good one. I got flowers from Russell. 

We had a great church service. We didn't go out to eat because we knew there would be crowds everywhere. We will do that some other day. 

She loves hats! And now recognizes my phone when I start taking pictures. 

I found some pictures of Kimber Mae that I took while we were home last month. I had forgotten about them last time.

She is growing way too fast as well!

 Loves to slide and walk in the grass barefooted. Which is how I hope she stays. I can't remember many days where we wore shoes outside. 

She still says "Ohhhhh" when she sees Lydia's pictures. 

This was took the other day, we were being silly. 

And this one

I can't decide which is funnier. I love our precious girl!

Not much going on around here other than cleaning, laundry, and keeping this baby girl smiling. I did finish making Russ' Father's Day gifts. Now I just have to wait till it gets here! 

I love you all and hope you get plenty of rain and sunshine!

Back again!

Sorry for the lack of posting once again!

We have had a busy past couple of weeks and I'm rarely sitting down at our computer for more than 2 minutes anymore! 

We spent the past 2 weeks at home in KY! It was a much needed break for us all. Usually we only get to stay for 1 week, so we end up feeling rushed and don't get to relax. But 2 weeks did the trick. Everyone loved seeing Lydia and were suprised at how big she is already. Everyone says she looks like a good blend of both Russell and I. Which is good considering she is our child! =)

Enjoying being in KY. 

She actually slept for 7-8 hrs each night we were there! Now she is back to 5-6, which I'm still very thankful for! I'm not sure I could do the whole being sleep deprived thing for long. Russ and I remind each other daily how blessed we are to have a good baby. She only cries when she's hungry, wet, or tired.

Russ went Turkey hunting while we were home. He got a nice bird during the first week. Which was good because I think waking up at 4:30 in the mornings on his vacation was getting to him. 

Kimber had a great time visiting with "Lydi". She loved on her every chance she could.

Its hard getting a good picture with 2 wiggle worms lol.

Yesterday was Lydia's 2 month checkup. She will be 10 wks old tomorrow, so we were a little behind on this appointment due to traveling. She is 10.5 lbs and 23 inches long. Her pediatrician said her slow weight gain was probably due to us both being slimmer sized people. 

Her before her Appt.

As most of you know, babies get shots at their 2 mo. appointments. 

It was TERRIBLE! 

Russ and I both had tears in our eyes hearing and watching her scream. I held her the entire time and feeling her flench and scream each time broke my heart. She stopped crying after 2 or 3 minutes then feel asleep as soon as we got back in the car. She was pretty fussy all evening after that. And Had a temp of 100 all night. But she seems to be in good spirits today. She has done lots of smiling. 

Showing off her Snoopy bandaid. We already ditched the other 2 band aids. This one seems to be putting up a fight. And I'm not about to rip it off and make her cry again lol. 

Things are slowly getting back into a routine. Taylor got to play with her best doggie friend Duncan yesterday. It was 85 degrees out, so she didn't make it long. We take her collar off while she is inside now, because the jingling of her tags wakes Lydia up. Now Taylor is so quiet and sneaky! We lose track of her some times. I had to hunt her down this morning. 

The pool opens up in 3 weeks! Seems like it was still winter just last week! Time is flying by. 

What's new...

Nothing much! Our beautiful baby girl is still growing, she is officially one month old now.

The weather last week was pretty amazing, high 70s and low 80s. I wish I could say the same about this week, we're under a frost advisory for tonight! But at least it's sunny.

I've been busy making a tricycle diaper cake for a friend at church who is expecting. The how to is at the end of this post, so keep reading! :)

It's missing some things right now, so don't judge it just yet.

I also made a "my first Easter" onesie for Lydia today. Could have bought one, but why would we do that?! Lol. 

She is still wearing newborn size clothes, which we didn't receive many of, but we're making due. She weighed 9 lbs last time I weighed her, she is just long and skinny except for those chubby cheeks (which I can't stop kissing!) she has been more vocal lately, in a good way. Lots of cooing and talking to Mr. duck that sits in her playpen.

Russ and I are still learning a lot about being parents, but I'm pretty sure that's an ongoing thing for the next 20 or more years. Russ is enjoying being in the kitchen more ( I think lol). I'm teaching him how to cook more. Last night we had homemade hamburger steaks with mashed potatoes, green beans and brown gravy. It was all very yummy and simple. Which is how most of our meals are. He has even started planning out our meals for the week, so we don't get stuck trying to figure out what we are having.

Ok, now for the how to on the diaper tricycle.

You'll need:

50 diapers ( I used newborn size)

Rubber bands

2 receiving blankets

1 burp cloth

1 bottle

1 pair of baby socks

yarn

ribbon (in a matching color scheme as your blankets and burp cloth. )

Also, something round to assemble the diapers in. I used a spring form pan for the bigger "tire" and a smaller  baking dish for the back tires.

First, take 20 diapers and lay them in an overlapping fashion inside the bigger pan. 

Then take a rubber band or 2 and wrap it around the outside of the diapers. ( You have to kind of poke it down inside the pan.)

Repeat using the smaller pan/dish and only use 15 diapers for both the smaller ones. 

Then you cant carefully slide that tire out.

Then take one of the receiving blankets and fold it almost in half. Then place a piece of yarn or string on top. Then roll the blanket up starting from the end with your yarn. 

Good thing my toes were painted lol

Once its rolled up, thread it through both smaller tires and crisscross the string through the bigger tire. 

Pull the string and tie it inside or on top of the big tire. 

 Should look like this. 

Now is a good time to cover the rubber bands on the tires with your ribbon. I don't have ribbon at the moment so I don't have a picture of that step. 

Then take a burp cloth and drape it over the front tire like so. This will be the fender over the front tire and seat on the tricycle.

Now roll up the other receiving blanket (no yarn needed this time). Thread it through the big front tire. You may have to hold the diapers or rearrange them, they will start moving around. Get the blanket even on both sides of the tire and bring them up on top of the tire and place a rubber band over them. 

 This is what you will have so far. (plus your ribbon).

take the pair of socks and place one sock over the end of each handle bar. This makes hand grips. 

Stick the bottle underneath the rubber band on the handle bars (on top of the burp cloth). This makes the headlight. 

 Lastly, take a piece of ribbon and make a bow to cover the rubber band above the bottle. This will give it a finished look. You can add a stuffed animal to "ride" the tricycle, add curly ribbon to the handle grips, or dress it up however you want. you should put the tricycle on something sturdy to move it from place to place, since it is not sturdy on its own when you pick it up.

Hope you enjoyed that and make one for your next baby shower! Feel free to ask questions. 

 Have a great day!!!!

 (I know, she's so darn cute!) 

Oh baby!

Baby Dykman is finally here!!!

(Ok, so I'm a little behind on posting but I just had a baby, you'll learn to forgive me)

Lydia A. Dykman

February 23, 2012

8 lbs 0 oz.

21 inches

Perfect as can be! =)

Labor started on Tuesday the 21st, I had a doctor's appointment that day, but wasn't "checked". I had been having contractions pretty regular all day and on into Wednesday. I was hesitant to go to the hospital ( I didn't want to go too early and have to lay in bed all day and possibly night waiting for things to progress.)

Thursday morning about 3 am I woke up having more painful contractions. They were lasting about a minute and coming every 5 minutes. They weren't terrible pains (I've had stomach pains from drinking milk that were worse than these), but I knew if they were that close we had to be getting somewhere. So we left here at 4 A.M. and headed to the hospital. They hooked me up and checked my cervix to find that I was 3 cm. So the doctor told us to go walk around for a couple hours.

Haha! We went home, slept for a couple hours, then went for a walk. Of course when we went back to the hospital they told us not to leave, but go walk around for an hour, eat lunch and then come back and I would be admitted. So that's what we did. 

The doctor started me on a very low dose of pitocin, just to help regulate my contractions. I couldn't even tell I was getting any. Finally around 5 pm I was checked again and was 6 cm dilated. By this point I was ready for an epidural. I was breathing through the contractions fine, but I figured why suffer anymore than I have to, right? 

(Oh, when the anesthesiologist tells you not to move, don't move lol. I didn't just move, I jumped. But it all turned out fine).

By 8 pm I was fully dilated but baby was still sitting up high. So we had to wait some more.

At 10pm, they decided to do a test push "to see how good of a pusher I was" (their words, not mine).
Apparently I'm a good pusher! 5 contractions and 15-16 pushes later we had a baby! She was born at 10:13 pm.

Russell did such  great job encouraging me while I was pushing. I'm so thankful that he was with me and got to experience it all.

We have been busy staring at all her many expressions, taking tons of pictures, and kissing those sweet chubby cheeks.

Mom came and stayed with us for 2 weeks, which we are more than grateful for!

She even finished the camo bag I started to make. I love it!!

Lydia has already had her 2 week check up and is growing just fine! She gained a 1/2 a pound, which is good. Her cord fell off after about a week.

I hope everyone is doing great and getting the same kind of weather we are (high 70's today!). I will hopefully be back to posting more regularly, depending on how much spare time I get (haha).

I'll leave you with these...

God bless!!

Still waiting!

No baby yet! 

But I'm enjoying these last days of being pregnant as much as possible. I mean, it gives me an excuse to eat more than one red velvet cream cheese swirl brownie (which are delicious and I recommend you make them ASAP).  Recipe here.

Our wonderful church ladies had a baby shower for us on the 4th. We got so much stuff! Lots more clothes, blankets, diapers, and all kinds of goodies. 

Here is the top part of the cake that was made. They sent it home with us. So stinkin' cute! It was delicious too! There are some talented ladies at church. 

This is a blanket and cap crocheted by another lady. They're so soft! I know baby D will love being bundled up in them. 

Navy/sailor inspired clothes, very cute!

This bear plays lullabies, heart beat sounds, and nature sounds. So it may end up helping me get a few more minutes of shut eye. 

I love this especially since I saw a baby chewing on the metal of a shopping cart just the other day. I cringed at the sight. 

A memory book, which I've already started filling out. 

Taylor claimed one of the baby's stuffed rabbits. It's ok, I doubt she will miss it when she has so many other things to play with. 

Good stuff! My car was packed afterward and everyone kept saying how great of a shower it was. So we all had fun. And its nice to hear stories and good advice from experienced people. 

Tomorrow is Russell and my 3rd Anniversary! We were talking the other day about how it feels like we've been together so much longer. Then we remembered that its been 6 1/2 years since we met. Oh how time flies! Since it's hard having an anniversary on Valentine's Day and all the stores are filled with corny hearts, chocolates, and over priced flowers I thought I'd do things a little different. I've attempted to do "14 day's of Valentine's". So every day (well almost) I've given Russell something. This way I wasn't forced to stick with all V-day themed gifts. 

Day one

A Colorado Avalanche (hockey) t-shirt. With a nice poem written by yours truly. (You have to remember where I'm from, because my poems can be quite hilarious when written on short notice).

Other days he received candy, Scrabble, a UK t shirt, some coozies, and what ever else I could find.

 A chocolate covered marshmallow

I taped this on a small container of mint chocolate chip ice cream. 

You just gotta get creative! His Anniversary gift wont be here until Wednesday because I waited too long to order it. Oh well. 

Russell's birthday is also next week! So if I'm not busy pushing out a baby, I gotta plan for that too. 

Not much else going on lately. Bonefish Grill was wonderful! I got the grilled salmon in some kind of butter sauce with asparagus and rice. Russell and I shared a brownie for dessert. 

I have an appointment tomorrow. Hopefully progress is being made "down there" so we can get with it and book my wonderful mother's plane ticket. I am getting excited to see her! Visits with family is something you should never take for granted, even if you see them everyday. Russell is looking forward to someone else cooking ( I'm not sure if he's tired of my cooking or he's just really missing some good KY cooking). Either way we're both excited. I know mom is too! 

I've had sinus issues this past week and am slowly getting better. I've had the humidifier going at night which seems to help. 

I hope you all are doing great and enjoying this Monday! February is almost half way over, which is hard to believe! Spring is on it's way despite what that pesky groundhog had to say about it. 

Love you all and stay tuned!