Christmas 2011

Clara's first Christmas was so much fun, despite feeling under the weather. We focused on the love of our family, it was so marvelous!! My family drove from Orlando all the way to our Fort. I cried when I saw them! Oh how I've missed them and I know Clara missed them as well.

We went to church early on Christmas morning and it was a nice service. My family even got recognized for having traveled all the way from Colombia :) After church my dad pulled his video camera (Ipad2) and began recording all of the beautiful rock formations we were surrounded by. He mentioning what a beautiful place I live in and he is so happy for me. That meant a lot to me!  When we got home we unwrapped presents while Skyping my sister and her growing family.  Clara was my baby doll cutie pie and I loved seeing the light in her eyes.

Jon decided to cook his famous brisket and because he wanted it to be extra special it took him 7 hours to cook!!! Sometimes he amazes me.  It was a delicious dinner and papa was telling us stories about Colombia which are always so enthralling.

We were also able to Skype with Jon's parents and they saw her opening the generous presents they sent us.

All in all it was a beautiful and sweet Christmas! I look forward to sharing many more Christmases with our baby girl!!

 Surrounded by gifts Clara is entertained by a scrap of wrapping paper!!

Marriage

The past two months have been difficult on my marriage.  We moved across country in a small window of time, I had 3 major health issues all in the same week, and as first time parents we were dealing with a brand new baby and all that comes with it. Lots of responsibility! 

I started noticing Jon being short with me.  His temper was flaring and the sweet calm and very patient disposition he usually carries was missing. I am very headstrong and believe Jon's world revolves around me! I refuse to walk away from a fight and demand that he sees things my way.  I have no shame in admitting this because I know they are my shortfalls but the good news is I have learned a lot about myself within these past two months.  

We finally reached a breaking point and really had it out. I was in constant tears and was so confused about everything.  Things were going so incredibly wrong...the bed I ordered on October 31st didn't arrive until December 20th, our washer was delayed in getting here, we had no internet for 6 weeks which caused Jon's second job to lose a lot of money, Clara had two major falls within 2 weeks, Clara's crib finally arrived but it was damaged and had to be returned, our reimbursement money for the move was delayed and a huge chunk was taken out for taxes (which didn't have to happen if Jon's recruiter had told him to submit moving receipts- ahh!!), our brand new washer broke, I could seriously go on and on about the horrible luck we have had since moving here! But during our streak of bad luck we kept having strong feelings in our heart that this is where we were supposed to be. We absolutely love it here! We were just so sick and tired of everything going against us.  

All of what I described above was hard on our marriage but especially hard on Jon.  I wasn't realizing the burden my husband was carrying as the sole provider of our household.  He has been (and is currently) working around 60 hours a week, (40 at the hospital plus 20 for his second job), and is training his replacement.  She is 8 months pregnant which means she will go on a maternity leave which boils down to Jon continuing to work until she comes back.  Last week we had our final argument and my world was crashing down on me.  I felt weaker as a mother because all of my energy was being directed to fixing my marriage.  Then one day Jon started talking to me about some personal issues he had been going through lately.  I had no idea that on top of everything else there was more!  I listened to him and didn't say a word. I looked into his eyes and saw love and sadness.  

The next morning I woke up and decided to catch up on some blogs to distract myself from the here.  I came across an amazing blog post that brought me to tears.  It described exactly what was going on in my marriage.  Jon's personal struggle and me taking it all so personal.  The writer then gave out some advice which I decided to try.  I do want to say before reading this post I had been searching the scriptures and reading General Conference talks hoping to get help.  I felt so calm and it helped me to invite the Spirit into my heart.  That's when I felt inspired to go to this website which I hadn't visited for a while.  I want to share this link with you hoping that if you are struggling in your marriage that you can receive comfort in the authors words: http://marriageconfessions.com/2011/12/12/when-your-marriage-is-not-about-you/#comment-105632

My Little Love

I had always heard it say that your heart lives outside you when you have a baby.  Oh boy is this statement incredibly true!!  Clara is the love of my life!  Her smile sends a warm glow into my heart.  85% of my brain capacity involves Clara, Clara, and more Clara.  The other 25% is spent on cooking, cleaning, and being a good wife.  I love being a wife and mother.  It's truly the calling I had so patiently waited for.  I still remember the aches I felt as I couldn't have a baby.  Those were some dark times.  But with extreme sadness comes supreme happiness and that is how I feel with my baby girl.  I mean, how can YOU not love this smile!!

I LOVE this picture!  This is Clara playing a little too hard :) 

Life So Far

It's been a little over a month since we have lived in our new beautiful home.  I can official say "Home Sweet Home".  I hung my big clock and Temple picture which makes it official!  I don't know how long we will be here but we plan to make the most of it.  I am looking forward to settling down some day but for the next several years we will be nomads as Jon fills his resume with lots of neat experiences.

We have made lots of new friends and this is the first time we have ever lived so close to members of our ward.  There are five families that live in the housing community which we reside in as well as work at the hospital.  I don't know if I mentioned this before but in order to live in our neighborhood you must be a hospital employee. It's such a neat experience when I socialize with people from my hood.  We have one large thing in common and I can't really put it into words but it feels nice to have that in common.  One thing I absolutely love is having Jon come home for lunch everyday for an hour.  He plays with Clara while I make us a nice lunch :) I have made lots of close friends and we go to Wal-Mart together (it's a 45 minute drive) and lunch, and every Thursday I go to playgroup with Clara and the parents are so nice.

For Christmas we got invited to a progressive dinner which is so funny cause I was planning on having one next year so this is so neat!! Perhaps I will throw a fondue dinner.  Yesterday we put up our very first Christmas tree! We actually have never purchased one because we have never been home for Christmas but this year (which is Clara's first Christmas!) we will be home so a tree now flaunts our living room :)  It's white and filled with Jon's vintage ornaments from his childhood.  It's so cute!

So hear we are living in the mountains making good friends and enjoying our amazingly beautiful surroundings! One day I will devote a post to the landscape that surrounds me.  Jon has once said he feels like time has stopped while living here.  We are so focused on each other and our little family which is so sweet.  Now don't get me wrong, I miss my big city living life but that can wait a few years while I enjoy my slow paced life.

Things to look forward to next year: Wedding, Clara's 1st birthday in Orlando, the birth of my second niece or nephew, Vegas baby, the Grand Canyon, General Conference, and lots of day trips to the mountains :)

Kevin & Clara 

Clara Update

It's about time I dedicate a post all about Clara.

Our little Clara is now 5 months old and a happy little baby.  She loves to roll all over the floor, however, I spend a good chunk of my time flipping her back because after 5 minutes she starts to complain! She is getting better at scooting back but hasn't figured out how to move forward.

I want to talk about her sleeping for a minute.  Clara has never slept in a crib (her crib just came yesterday!) and I don't know where she got this but this is how she loves to sleep:

This girl gets me so nervous that she can't breathe! When I realize she's scooted all the way to the corner of the bed, I pick her up and move her to the center of the bed. Then she realizes she's in the center of the bed so she whimpers and complains until she reaches that favorite corner of the bed! I am really hoping that once she has her palace (crib) that she won't squish her face to the corner of her bed.

So the above pictures took over an hour to upload :(  I don't like blogging without pictures so we will see how far my patience goes.

Baby is up from her nap, must attend to her :) We are so in love with our little bundle!!