Introducing...

Parker William Pratt

Born August 21st, 2013 at 2:55 pm

9 lbs 7 oz

21 inches

We have survived our second night home from the hospital and have been pleasantly surprised by how rested we feel!  More details to come about this perfect little boy and his birth!

It's been a while...

Man, it has been a long time since I have written a post on here.  With some exciting changes in our lives, I guess it's time to update this good ol' blog.  Here is a quick update on what we've been up to.

In December, we found out we were expecting baby #2!!  We were so excited and couldn't wait to add another member to our family.

Also in December, Alec found out about a job opportunity at a school district near our hometown in Southern California.  We made the big move down to California in February!

We spent 3 months being neighbors to Alec's wonderful grandparents.  We had so much fun there and Lily loved being close to great-grandma and great-grandpa.  We lived in "the little house" as it is lovingly nick-named.  It is a little one bedroom house on their property.  It was a bit crowded with a toddler sleeping in our room (and inevitably in our bed), but we truly enjoyed our time there.

The job didn't work out quite like we had hoped, and due to issues with getting some official paperwork from BYU in time, he didn't get the job right away.  

In March, we found out that we were having a baby boy!  I thought Alec was going to cry during the ultrasound. Haha!  We were both so excited!  They also changed my due date from September 6th to August 27th based on the ultrasound.

In March, I started singing with Tamara Cox in her band, Under Construction.  I had forgotten how much I missed performing!  I sang with them right up to my 9th month of pregnancy which was, needless to say, difficult, but still so much fun!

In May, we found out about a couple in the Oak Hills area who were leaving on a mission and were looking for someone to living in their house while they were gone for 18 months.  After looking at the house, we decided to go for it!  It was perfect timing with a baby on the way!

In July, Alec found out that the same school district that he had applied to earlier was opening a few more positions and he was hired at the beginning of August!  After months of worrying and stressing and job searching and praying, Alec finally had a job!  He is now working as a district language specialist (I don't know the official title) for Hesperia School District.  He will be able to work there while he gets his master's degree in Speech-Language Pathology. 

On August 10th, Lily turned 2!!  I still can't believe that she is already 2!  Alec and I talk about how lucky we are to be parents to such an amazing little girl.  I know it sounds cheesy, but she really is amazing.  I know she will be a great big sister.  She seems genuinely excited to meet her baby brother and hold him and kiss him. :) 

Early on in my pregnancy, my doctor and nurse practitioner expressed concern that this baby was going to be as big, if not bigger than Lily (9 lbs. 10 oz. born at 39 weeks).  The nurse couldn't contain her laughter when I started to measure one, two, and eventually three weeks bigger than average.  She promised me that they would not let me go past 39 weeks.  I started having consistent contractions at 37 weeks.  We packed for the hospital and had my mom on standby to watch Lily as we waited for the contractions to get a little closer together.  For about 20 hours, I had contractions that were 7 - 10 minutes apart and then they stopped...  I was slightly relieved, but extremely uncomfortable.

At my last appointment, they scheduled me for an induction for tonight (39 weeks exactly)!  I'll go into the hospital at 6pm to start the induction.  I have no idea how long it will take, but we should be having this baby some time tonight or tomorrow!  

I guess that's all for now.  I'll leave you with an adorable picture of Lily on her birthday!

Those Blue Eyes...

I can't get enough of Lily's bright blue eyes.  

We just got these pictures back from the Raps family photos we took with Blue Lily Photography a few weeks ago.  I love them!!  She did such a good job and she was so good with Ava and the babies!  Here are some of my favorites.

She's a cutie and she's almost a year old!!  I can't believe how fast she is growing up!

Running

I am not a runner...

I am not good at it.  I don't enjoy it.

Sometimes I long to feel that runner's high the woman in the picture above must feel when she runs, but then I remember that I don't like running.

I was a pretty good runner in middle school and I even had a brief stint in cross country in high school, but I only ever ran because it conditioned me for volleyball and basketball.  Since then, I have not enjoyed running at all.

So, I started training for a 5k. 

Why would I do such a thing you ask?  Part of me wants to do it for the exercise.  Part of me wants to do it because I truly do love how I feel after I run.  Part of me wants to do it because I want to see if I could ever truly enjoy running.  And part of me wants to do it just to prove to myself that I can.

Anyway, today I did my first run of the training program and it went really well!  Lily didn't mind being pushed around in her stroller either.  We'll see how the rest of the week goes!

Sacramento Trip

This is going to be a long post!

Two weekends ago, we drove to Sacramento to see my wonderful friend, Katie get married!  We've been planning on going to the wedding ever since we found out they were getting married.  First of all, I've known Katie for four years (we both got into Noteworthy as baby freshman together) and we have been through a lot, and I wouldn't want to miss her wedding for the world.  Second, Alec had never been to Northern California, and we thought it would be fun to do all the touristy things since I hadn't been since I was 9 or 10 years old.

We drove the second most boring drive of our lives on Wednesday, July 4th(the most boring drive was the drive back to Provo...), yes we had a fun 4th of July! haha.  We left at 7 am and Lily did surprisingly well in the car as you can see from the pictures below!

Happy girl!!

She is super flexible and loves to hold her foot when she's in her car seat.

Poor tired girl.  She only got fussy right before she fell asleep for each of her two naps.

Lily was so happy to be out of the car!  She was crawling around and squealing when we put her down once we got in the hotel room.

Thursday morning, we went to the Jelly Belly factory which was awesome!  They offer free tours of the factory so we jumped on that!  

Free=awesome

We couldn't take any pictures during the tour, but we did snap a quick picture of Lily in her cute hat before we entered the no picture zone.

 After a break at the hotel for Lily's morning nap, we went over to the California Railroad Museum.  I came to the museum with my family when I was 9 or 10.  My parents have a picture of us kids sitting in front of one of the trains with our blue and white conductor hats on.  It was fun to learn about all of the history now that I find it interesting. :)

Here we are in front of one of the many trains in the museum.  They have lots of different models from different time periods.

Please note Lily's foot... That is her favorite way to sit in her stroller.

Lily!!

Lily got pretty tired by the end of the outing.

 Holding her foot again...

That night I went to a rehearsal dinner.  Did I take any pictures?  No...  Then us bridesmaids went out to a dessert diner for a bachelorette party.  Did I take any pictures?  No...  I'm terrible at remembering to take pictures.  I will improve though!

Friday was the wedding day!!  I was able to be in the temple for Katie and Tom's sealing.  It was beautiful and I may have had to use a tissue or two...

After pictures, we went back to the hotel for nap time.  Yes, Lily was not the only one who napped...  The reception that night was beautiful!  Did I take any pictures?  No... but they did have a little photo booth which was awesome!

It was a very long day, but we had a great time!  I feel so blessed that I was able to be a part of Katie's wedding.  She looked so beautiful and I could just tell how extremely happy she was.  We love you Katie!

On Saturday, we went to Old town Sacramento and walked down the old streets and looked around in some of the old stores.

For lunch we went to Squeeze Inn per Glen's suggestion.  It was featured on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives.  It was soooo good and I don't even want to know how many calories were in that burger.

Yes that is a ring of fried cheese... Alec and I split the burger and I was still completely stuffed.

Lily enjoyed eating her yogurt bites and bits of bun and french fries that we gave her.

"It's hot in here!" 

After lunch we headed over to the Capitol and walked around grounds and the museum.

Go San Bernardino County!!

Lily LOVED riding the bear!

 View from the museum balcony.

Alec has politician blood!  His ancestor, John Bigler, was the third governor of California. 

When we got back to the hotel, we just relaxed and had a lazy night in.

Lily quickly made our hotel room like home and spread her toys, our shoes, our clothes, and even her box of diapers all over.

This was her favorite thing to play with.

Cutie!

We left early Sunday morning and headed back to Provo.  We had an awesome trip.  I love spending time with our little family.

It's been a while...

I have been absent from the blog for a while now!!  We have been really busy lately, and on our less busy days, Lily keeps be busy chasing her around as she gets into everything. :)  

Alec finished spring term with awesome grades and is not a few weeks into summer term.  He works 25 - 30 hours per week on top of that and watches Lily while I'm at work.  I only work 6 - 10 hours each week.  It's not much, but it's a little bit of extra income.  We recently baby-proofed/redecorated the living room which took over our lives and our apartment for a couple of weeks, but it is done now and I love it (more info and pics to come)!  

Lily is now 11 months old!!  Here's a list of what she's been up to:

She quit the army crawl a while ago and now crawls super fast.

She can walk as long as at least one of her hands is holding onto someone/something.

She can stand on her own but only when she's not aware that she's doing it.

She loves to give kisses (which are more like full on attacks).

She loves playing peek-a-boo.

She loves talking on the phone and gets excited when she sees us talking on one.

She LOVES string cheese and otter pops.

Her hair is so long that it almost looks like she has a bob haircut.

She figured out how to take the baby-proof outlet covers out of the outlets...

She loves to slide on the kitchen floor when she's in her jammies.

She loves to show me things she finds on the floor...

She loves it when Daddy comes home.

She loves to smile and laugh.

She is just so wonderful and she is more and more fun every day!  Here's a picture to leave you with from our trip to Sacramento for Katie's wedding (more on that later) !

When Dad feeds Lily...

Lily ends up looking like this...

Lily likes to move around A LOT and sometimes that results in her running into the spoon with her forehead.  Mommy has mastered the art of dodging Lily's flailing hands and head, but Daddy hasn't had as much practice.

Really Dad??...

She's cute even when she's covered in food.