It's going to be EPIC...hopefully!

As you all know Oliver and I pretty much watch Studio 5 every day.  Pretty sure my little man would recognize Brooke and Darin if we ever happened to see them in real life anywhere...that sounds a little sad :)  Anyways, the other day on there they had the fabulous Mandi from Vintage Revivals and she mentioned this EPIC room makeover that she will be doing.  So we hopped on over to her blog to see what it was all about, let me tell you, it's going to be awesome.  So that's where we get to the point we're at now.  I get to post embarrassing photos of my basement in hopes that it will soon be fabulous thanks to Mandi!  Here we go:

Welcome to our basement living room... dun dun dun!  Basically I tried to ignore it's existence after we moved in and let me tell you, I've done pretty good up to this point.  But now that Oliver is having separation anxiety every time I try to go put a load of laundry in it needs more help than just throwing a blanket down and hoping that somehow he won't move from that spot for long enough to get what I need done.  That's where this contest comes in.  Hopefully we will win and then the room will be so amazing that we will just spend all of our time in the basement :)

As you can see it's basically just a storage/whatever room at the moment.  That is our old furniture that we moved down there after getting new couches upstairs...and basically they are now just there so I can stack stuff on them.

And here is the totally awful, nasty stained carpet that was there when we moved in (now you know the need for a blanket when I bring Oliver down)

Yes, those are remnants of wallpaper that we found when I tore down tacky plastic fake paneling because I couldn't sleep one more night knowing that it was in my house!

As you can see, this room has the makings of a nice cozy place where I would love to let Oliver come play with me, but with zero budget money, we make it work as is.  Please Mandi come help me!

Summer Lovin'

So, this morning Oliver and I were watching Studio 5 on KSL and they were talking about their "summer fun" list.  It's more or less a bucket list for the summer.  The one they have has over 100 items to complete during the summer.  Well I thought it sounded like a blast so I decided we were going to do it!  This will be Oliver's first "real" summer and the first summer after having him that I actually feel like doing much of anything besides taking care of a newborn :)  Here is the link to the Studio 5 list so that you can check it out yourself.  I'm going to edit ours a bit so that it fits better with our family but they have some way fun ideas that we will be including as well.  I'll be sure to post our complete list when I get it finished but we will be starting today and going until September.  I'll do my best to keep you all up to date on our progress as we go and be sure to let me know if you decide to join in on the fun and do your own summer bucket list!  Woo Hoo!  I'm so excited and I'm sure Oliver is too but right now my measuring tape is much more interesting :)

7 months already!

Since when did my baby turn 7 months old... oh, yeah, yesterday.  That just doesn't seem possible!  We're on the down hill slide to his 1st birthday.  What happened to my little newborn?  Oliver is getting so big and is learning so much everyday.  It's amazing to watch him!  Since we're a few monthly pictures behind on the blog I'll update all of them for you.  This is his picture from when he was five months old.

 This one is his 6 month picture.  I could not get him to take that thumb out of his mouth for anything.  So I just took the picture with it :)

 And this is the most recent monthly photo.  7 months old!  My Mom and I made his this onesie yesterday just for his picture.  It turned out so cute!

Here are some fun facts about Oliver at 7 months old:

• He rolls over all the time and is starting to get into everything
• He is trying to learn to crawl.  He can get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth.
• He's doing better with solid foods, so far he likes sweet potatoes, avocado, banana's, mashed potatoes, and french fries :)
• He waves bye.  It's so adorable
• He loves watching scooby-doo with me
• He loves the dog (she tolerates him)
• He is such a technology baby.  He always wants your phone, or computer, he loves playing on grandma's iPad or my iPod.  

Well that's our update for now.  I'm loving being home with Oliver and I wouldn't trade it for anything!

The First Four Months

Oliver is now four and a half months old and I haven't done an update post yet! So I thought I would do an all in one type thing and then hope I do better for the rest of his monthly posts!  This picture with his tie onesie is his one month picture.  I can't believe how skinny his legs look!

 This next picture is his two month old picture.  It's amazing how fast they change!

 Brandon was able to bless him on September 25th and it was absolutely amazing he did such an awesome job!  I realized after we were all done and had changed him out of his little outfit that we forgot to get a picture of the three of us (talk about feeling like I had a little Mommy fail moment) but at least I remembered to get a picture of each of us with him!

 This is his three month old picture.  His little smile gets me every time!  He is such a little cutie!

This is his most recent picture at four months old.  I can't believe how big he is getting already!  At his four month old checkup he weighed in at 16 pounds 10 ounces and was 26 inches long!

A few little fun facts about Oliver right now

• He rolls over every time you lay him down on his back.  He used to roll from his tummy to his back but now that he has figured it out the other direction he can't quite remember how to get back to his tummy!
• He is still very serious about everything but has the most adorable giggle ever when you can get him to laugh!
• He is starting to figure out that if he can pick something up he can put it in his mouth and he sucks on just about everything!
• He's getting more cooperative about taking a binky but he still prefers his hand or his binky clip or the back of his binky or his blanket

Well there is a quick update on our little man (who's not so little anymore).  We love him so much!

Year #3

Can you all believe that we've been married for 3 years already? I know I can't. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting in the celestial room with Brandon holding hands while we were waiting to be sealed. It's gone by so fast and I wouldn't change a minute of it! This year has been a big year for us, we've had a lot of changes, all of them good! The biggest change that this year brought us was our little buddy, Oliver. Being parents changes your whole life but we love it. This little guy has become our whole world and I'm so glad he's part of our family. It's different being a family of 3 with a dog instead of just the two of us, but different is good! Another big change this year brought was sending both of our brothers on missions. I'm so proud of the two of them and the choices they are making. We still managed to make it to the state fair this month and had just as much fun as ever! We also took our first real vacation with just the two of us this year to Hawaii and we had so much fun that we can't wait to take Oliver back when he's a bit older :) I can't believe how fast this year went by, it's seems like every time I blink another month has gone by. I've loved our crazy, busy, changing year and hope that this next year brings just as many adventures! (With Oliver around I'm sure we'll have plenty of adventures in store for us) Happy Anniversary Brandon, you're just as awesome of a Dad as you are a husband! I love you!

Oliver Daniel Phillips

Introducing our little peanut Oliver! Oliver was born on July 21, 2011 at 12:54 p.m. He weighed 9 pound 9 ounces and was 21 inches long. He was exactly a week overdue and we had quite the adventure getting him here! Because I was a week overdue my doctor and I decided it was time to induce labor. We went in to the hospital on Wednesday (the 20th) at about 9:00 at night. We were prepared to be there for quite a while because that's what my doctor had said. She was hoping that by having me go in the night before then he would hopefully be here by dinner on Thursday. When we got to the hospital I was dilated to a fingertip (so basically nothing :) ) and at 9:30 they got me started on a medicine called Cytotec which helps prepare your body for labor and can also start labor more naturally as if you had just gone into labor yourself. The nurse had told me that they would keep me on this giving me a dose every 3 hours until morning and then they would start me on pitocin. So at 12:30 in the morning the nurse came in to check me and give me the next dose, well surprise I was already dilated to a 3, which is normally when they like to start pitocin and break your water. Everyone seemed really surprised because normally it takes people all night to get to that point. So I was really hopeful, especially because I hadn't been feeling any of the contractions that I had been having. So at 1:30 Thursday morning they broke my water and started pitocin. About an hour later my contractions were coming right on top of one another and were really painful so I decided to get an epidural. They checked me again after the epidural had set in and I was already dilated to a 5 and feeling much more comfortable :) At about 3 ish in the morning I was finally able to fall asleep until about 6 when Oliver scared us because his heart rate kept dropping during contractions and then wouldn't recover back up to where it's supposed to be. They put me on oxygen and we were finally able to get him stabilized again. When they checked me at 6 I was already dilated to an 8 so they decided to help him stay stable and since I was progressing so good they would take me off pitocin. The next time they came and checked me was at about 9 Thursday morning and I was dilated to a 10 and it was time to push! I couldn't believe it had gone that fast, since I had prepared myself to be in labor for almost 24 hours. At 9:30 we started pushing and kept pushing for 2 hours. At this point I was completely exhausted since I hadn't slept much the night before and hadn't eaten anything since dinner. When my doctor came and checked on us she was really concerned because Oliver hadn't made any progress in the birth canal since we started pushing. So at this point we decided it was time to head in for and emergency c-section. I was terrified, I had no idea what to expect and to be honest the thought of a c-section had never even crossed my mind. By this point though I just wanted him here safe. We started the prep for the surgery and headed in. Oliver was born at 12:54 and hearing him cry for the first time was the most amazing sound I have heard. Brandon of course was awesome through this whole process and was right there with Oliver from the second he was born and was able to sit there with me and hold him the rest of the time I was in surgery. Everything went well and we both are doing awesome. Recovery was hard at first because I couldn't even get out of bed for the first day, but I've been getting better every day and even though I'm still sore every once and a while I feel a hundred times better.

As for Oliver, he is absolutely wonderful! We couldn't be happier with him. He's absolutely adorable and is such a good baby. He makes the cutest little facial expressions and is already holding his head up. He is such a little cuddler and already is doing really good at sleeping through the night. Although I have to say that I can't think of anything that makes being up at 2:30 in the morning more worth it then looking down and seeing that little baby grin!

Well, here are some pictures for you all. I can't believe he is already 2 weeks old today, it's going by to fast already!Our first family picture.

This last picture is from today. He really is a little heart breaker!

Hello there due date!

Well, today is my due date...and still no baby! Oh, well. I guess he's just going to be stubborn like his Mom :) My doctor does say that everything is still looking really good and that we both seem to be doing just fine. Good news is that if he hasn't decided to make his appearance by next week I'm scheduled to be induced on the 21st so he'll for sure be here next Thursday! Woo Hoo! It's nice to finally have an actual real date to look forward to, it makes the "I'm going to be pregnant forever" feeling not quite so bad. I'm working on just staying positive and trying to get as much done as I possibly can before then and just enjoying being pregnant. I told Brandon that I'm surprisingly not that uncomfortable, and most days don't mind being nine months pregnant, but that the really hard part is just that I want him here so I can snuggle him and take care of him and get to know him. I want to see what he looks like, I feel like he has such a little personality already, and I know it will just become more pronounced once he's actually here. We have the nursery all put together and ready to go, I'm going to take pictures and get them posted in the coming week, it's one of the things on my list of activities to keep me occupied until Thursday :) I guess that's all for now, just figured I should update everyone! Hopefully my next post should be introducing our new little man!