State Fair

While I was still in the hospital with Grace, Grandma Ruth & Papa Jerry decided to take Marley to the State Fair to give Marley a little one-on-one time! It was nice that Marley got to get out of the hospital & break away for a bit! She was so excited that she got to ride the train & see all of the animals...she was a little disappointed that she didn't get to see the chickens & chicks!

Big Girl Bed

We finally let Marley graduate to her big girl bed (that we've been storing in the garage for the past several months now!) since we finished Grace's room & moved Marley's old crib to the new nursery. Marley is absolutely thrilled to have her new bed & loves to show it to everyone that comes over!!

Helping out in the nursery

Kevin had to do some finishing touches on Grace's room & Marley decided to be a great big sister & help out! Pictures of the finished product to come!

Grace at Home

I had to take some pictures of Grace shortly after we got home as I think she's so darn adorable & her newborn-ness will not last for long! She's such a joy! So calm & sweet! So far, she's not a big crier of which I'm grateful for! I love this little girl! I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to love her as much as Marley because how is that possible? But I've found that my heart was built to love more than one child! As soon as Grace was born, all my worries went away & I found I love her as much as Marley! It's so remarkable!

Welcome, our lovely Grace

Around 3 am or so, Sunday, Sept 12th, 2010, I began to feel contractions that were 5 minutes apart. I didn't want to go to the hospital so early, knowing that I could have those contractions for long while before anything would happen. Around 7:30, I woke Kevin up & he called his lovely mother, Ruth, to come watch Marley (as she was still asleep) while we made the trip to the hospsital.


We arrived at the hospital around 8:30 & did the usual check-in thing between contractions. These were uncomfortable, but tolerable. After the triage nurse finished her assessment, she told me I was dialted to a 6! Yay! That means the baby will be coming soon, right? The triage nurse thought so. I wanted to attempt this delivery without any medication. I received an epidrual with Marley & was so numb that I couldn't feel when I should push with Marley. I pushed for an excruciating two hours straight with her! I finally gave up & thought, there is no way I can continue to do this...they've got to get this kid out of me doing something else (fortunately, she came about 10 minutes later!) I did NOT want to go through that again! I figured no medication would make pushing this baby out much easier.


We got set up in the room & I thought, I can do this without meds! The physcian on-call came in & said that she would be in with a C-Section & that I would probably deliver before she got done, but she would alert one of her collegues about my status! She also instructed the nurse to set up the delivery tray so it'd be ready since the baby would definately come soon. Wonderful, I thought! The sooner the baby could be delivered the better...well, such was not the case! The physcian finished her C-Section & nothing had progressed with me. She checked me around 1:30 pm and I was dialated to (drum rolls please...) a 7! A 7! Was she kidding me or pulling my leg? Four hours of laboring in the hospital & I had only progressed to a stinking 7?!



When the nurse asked me if there was anything she could do for me, I ask if she could get this baby delivered ASAP! She said that she'd get the MD & break my water & that should get it started. I mean since she'd seen second deliveries deliver within 20 minutes to an hours after breaking the bag of waters, I thought, alright I'm in the clear. I can still do this without medication!



So my water was broken & the contractions definetly became more intense but still, I thought, I can do it! I just need to breathe through them! Then 3:30pm rolls around, with intense contractions & the MD checked me & I was only "just over a 7"! For real?! I mean seriously, what's my problem? Everyone was so dead set that I would deliver this little girl HOURS ago...maybe that's what jinxed it.



Finally, I'm like enough is enough! I just did not want to continue to labor for hours & hours with no progression without medication! So I gave in & had an epideral. That must have been the magic trick because I literally was able to push our second daughter out in a few pushes 20 minutes later! The physcian said that maybe the epideral made me relax enough for her to come out! Hallelujah!!! Our sweet baby girl was born at 4:35 pm! She was 6 pounds & 15 ounces & 20 inches long!



It was wonderful she was her...but what were we going to name her? We really hadn't settled on any name, even after long discussions with family members, friends, while reviewing name book after name book. Why was this child so hard to name? The hospital staff members a Nazi Name Police as every single person asked us what this child's name would & threatened that we better have the yellow name form filled out before we left! FINALLY, during the last day of our hospital stay, the pressure was on & we named her: Grace Clara Cooke. I still wasn't totally sold on the name & for days after, had a hard time calling her Grace. But what else was I going to call her? I certainly wasn't going to go down to the Social Security office to change her name & as if I had a name to change it too! So Grace it is!!



I forgot how little babies are! Our second daughter was 5 ounces bigger than Marley & she still seemed so tiny! Even though I haven't gotten much sleep, it is so fun to have a brand-new baby in the house!



Marley is taking her big sister role very seriously! She's so into helping out by changing her diaper or giving her her binkie. We love our newest addition!




I love the baby's face after just being born! With their cute cries & round mouths!





Aunt Alece, Aunt Tina, and Grandma Orimi were all there to greet baby Grace!

This is Marley's first look at Grace...at first she wasn't so sure, but quickly was so happy to be a big sister.

Marley (with band aids on her face, surprise, surprise!) with Grandma Ruth & baby Grace.

I love this picture of Marley kissing Grace.

For the love of bandaids

Marley, like so many other kids, has a love for band aids that goes a little over board. She is constantly wanted to get new band aids out on put them on non-existent "ouwies". She puts them on her belly, her arms, her legs, and yes, on her face! We have to do a LOT of convincing to get her to take them off but some battles are better left alone & so we just let her wear them around!

A thing with hats

Marley has this thing with hats! She loves to put them on & wear them around the house! She even will try to wear ones that are much too small for her. She pulled this one out her Grandma Ruth gave her and started posing, so of course we had to pull out the camera. She's such a goofy gal & we love her so much!!

Say Cheese, Marley

Being so neglectful at getting GOOD pictures of Marley taken, I thought I better get some done before our second baby arrives! Let me just say that it is SO much easier to have someone else take photos of your child than doing it yourself! I had my friend from high school, Amber, take the pictures & Marley cooperated with her like a dream (if it were me attempting to take photos, Marley would have unleashed her unruliness!) These were taken in Memory Grove Park & I was afraid we wouldn't be able to because there was thunder & lightening...fortunately it cleared up shortly after we arrived! Marley's Grandma Ruth got her this adorable little dress from a street fair in Park City! So adorable!! I think these pictures turned out so well! I love how they look!!

Real vs Red Bulls

We scored some awesome seats to the Real soccer game (which Real won 1-0) through Kevin's work & got Seth & his lovely gal pal, Shanae to come along with us! It was an awesome game...Real is fantastic!! Great seats, good company, & free concessions...does it get any better than that?


Aren't Seth & Shanae just the most adorable little couple? So much more cute than the old boring lame couple (ie Kevin & I!) Seth & Shanae totally out romanced us!


I tried to get a good picture of the starters, but as you can see, they didn't turn out too well! You know you're ballin' when the name of the company is on the seats that you sit on! Ye-ah!

And then there's this...this that I couldn't resist taking a picture of. Ummm, sir, I think you're clinging to scraps there....

See...Seth & Shanae the most romantic couple ever!

Lion King

For my birthday last year, Jerry & Ruth were kind enough to give me Lion King tickets for my birthday. I had seen this play in New York on Broadway nearly 7 years ago & I loved it! I wanted to see how the traveling play compared to the one I saw on Broadway, and so I took my sister-in-law, Tina. We loved it! We were so impressed with the costumes, puppets, & actors/actresses! I'm so glad that I went!

Mini's Baby Shower

My wonderful mother-in-law, Ruth, was so thoughtful & threw me a surprise baby shower. She set it up so my sister, Alece, asked me to lunch at Mini's one Saturday. I was kind of surprised that Kevin didn't want to go to lunch with us, but he has been working on the new baby's nursery so I thought he just wanted to catch up on that while we were at lunch. Alece & I had a hard time finding it & I almost gave up & told Alece that we should just go have lunch somewhere else. We finally made it (30 minutes late, unbeknownst to me) & as I walked in I thought, "that totally looks like the back of my sister-in-law (Kevin's sister), Kristen...what a coincidence that she's here as well", then I was my sister-in-law, Tina, & my friend Mandi & Kellie & I thought "this is so bizzare". It seriously took me a minute to realize that everyone was there for a surprise shower!! It was so fun! It was laid back & the lunch & the cupcakes (especially the cupcakes!) were delicious!

Top Left: Kellie's daughter, Taylor, Kellie, & I. Top middle: Me & Miranda. Top Right: Tina, me, & Alece. Bottom left: my niece Isabelle, sister-in-law, Trina, & my niece, Emorie. Bottom Middle: my niece, Alyssa.

Flaming Gorge

I have gone to Flaming Gorge many times over the course of the last several years & have never gone down the river in a raft for fun (unless it was with a fishing guide, fishing in a fishing boat). Since it was a really nice day, we decided to rent a raft & navigate the "wild" waters of the Green River. The portion of the river we floated down was nice & easy (I mean we were able to take Marley down it with no problems) & it only took a few hours to start at the dam & end at the get-out point, Little Hole. Even though we had a few issues with paddling & bickering about who wasn't pulling their weight, we had a great time!

Seth's gal pal, Shanae, Seth, Marley, Tina, & Jono

Jasmine's First Birthday

Brandon & Rachel were kind enough to include us in their celebration of their beautiful daughter's 1st birthday. I must say Rachel went all out & did a FANTASTIC job with EVERYTHING! Since it was luau themed, everyone turned out in their best Hawaiian attire. Everything was so adorable...the decorations, the party favors, the quilts, the food, & they even had a live band! I sadly didn't get a picture of Jasmine & wished I would have as she was wearing a custom made Hawaiian dress that match a quilt Rachel made for her! How adorable!

Marley didn't quite understand what a pinata was or really what to do with it without a little help!

Marley was really excited about the pinata once she realized what it contained!

I absolutely LOVED this idea! So simple but so cute!!

ALO, G-Love & Jack Johnson

Kevin & I got tickets to see Jack Johnson! We own all of his albums & have listened to them numerous times & so I was so excited to actually be able to see him in concert at USANA amphitheater. The amphitheater was packed, but were lucky enough to get pretty decent seats. The concert was absolutely wonderful & was totally worth waiting an hour to get out of the parking lot after the concert was over!!! Sadly, I forgot my camera & these are the best pictures I could get !!

Randy Travis, Deer Valley

Kevin fondly remembers listening to Randy Travis A-Tracks with his grandpa when he was younger, which made him a huge Randy Travis fan. Kevin has a list of people he wants to see in concert, & Randy Travis was on that list. When we found out he was coming, we promptly bought tickets! I had never been to Deer Valley for a concert, but I must say I was impressed! It's a wonderful place to see an artist perform!