Special V-Day treat

Dar's parents gave us gift cards to Baskin Robins for Valentine's Day, so we took the opportunity to go treat ourselves to some ice cream on Monday as part of our FHE activity.  Thank you, Baskin Robins for having a couple of non-dairy ice cream options!  Our baby girl was in heaven being able to actually eat ice cream out of the cone, instead of just eating a plain old cone like she usually does.  And I especially appreciated that she didn't have to eat ice cream that tastes just like her soy milk.  Lemon is definitely better!!

Here's to many more dairy-free ice cream outings, hopefully :)

Nastassia.

I've been thinking about her a lot lately.  I'm sure it's only natural because we're getting very close to the one year mark of losing our tiny little angel.  Sometimes the emotions are overwhelming, just like they were at first, and I find myself shedding those big alligator tears as I think about her extremely short existence and long to have her in my life.  I'm not sorry for our experience with Nastassia.  Not one bit.  I'm so grateful for the growth I have experienced on my own as an individual, and also for the growth Darwin and I have made together as husband and wife.  We're a team, and he's the best teammate I ever could have asked for :)  I'm grateful for the tender mercies of a loving Heavenly Father who allowed us to experience this extremely difficult trial because he knew it would make us stronger--and it has!

On Valentine's day while Aurora was napping, I took the opportunity to read some of the February Ensign, and two of the articles I read that day were exactly what I needed.  The Refining Fire of Grief and Lifting the Hands Which Hang Down both touched my heart, even though their stories were very different from ours.  My tears were sad as I read the articles and I couldn't help but think about Nastassia and our very personal experience with grief, but I felt the reassurance of Heavenly Father reminding me that Nastassia fulfilled her mission by getting the body she needed.  I'm grateful that Darwin and I were privileged to provide that body for her.

As we come up on our one year mark we've been discussing ways we could give back to the IHC Angel Watch program, which gave us some very priceless keepsakes to always remind us of our tiny little angel.  An idea I had a while ago, but we hadn't pursued until recently, was to ask jewelery stores to donate small jewelery boxes to place the fragile molds of the baby's hands and feet in.  When we were given our keepsake box, Nastassia's molds were given to us in a tiny hospital medicine cup.  We thought it would be nice to donate the jewelery boxes to the Angel Watch program so that other parents experiencing very difficult loss like we did will have a place that's more special to hold onto those precious molds.  We've been pleased so far with the response we've received from some of the local jewelery stores, but we still have a lot of work to do.  We plan to donate the boxes we receive to the Angel Watch program for our one year mark.  We're so grateful for the amazing gift we received when we were given our keepsake box and hope to make a tiny difference for other families as well.

We also plan to participate in the Running with Angels 5k run/walk again this year (and every year) which is a fundraiser to also help families like ours during their difficult time of loss.  We'd love to have you participate with us.  We'll let you know when we get registered and start our team if you want to sign up with us.  It's something we're really looking forward to participating in again.

I'm grateful to have reminders each and every day of our precious Nastassia Grace.  I told Darwin the other night that I'm so glad we chose Grace as her middle name because I think of her every time I hear or read the name/word "grace".

I've been asked by several people if I think that Savannah, the baby we're currently expecting, is actually Nastassia coming down in a different body.  No.  They are two very different spirits, and I know Nastassia fulfilled her mission.  Things happened the way they were supposed to, and I'm okay with that.  We are expecting our third daughter, and we're so grateful for all three of them!

The holiday of L-O-V-E

Our Valentine's Day this year was pretty low-key, but it was definitely nice.  The day before V-day, Aurora and I had some friends over to decorate festive sugar cookies.  I'm pretty sure it was more fun for the moms than it was for the kids, but I'm perfectly fine with that.  Thanks, ladies, for coming and for your contributions!  We'll have to do it again sometime soon!

Aurora really loved it, but I made her stop helping me when I realized she was eating more of the candy than decorating with it :)

 We were all able to make a TON of cookies, but with my pregnancy-sugar-kick, they definitely didn't last long at our house!
 

On Valentine's Day, Darwin was able to come home from work a little earlier than usual to spend time with us, which we were all grateful for.  I was determined to be more gung-ho about our dinner this year and decided to make everything from scratch: spaghetti sauce, meatballs, breadsticks, chocolate cream pie, etc.  I was grateful to Darwin for playing with Aurora and keeping her occupied while I cooked, but I decided that we're going to order pizza next year so I don't have to spend so long cooking so I can spend more time just being with the people I love on the holiday of love.  Luckily it all tasted pretty good, but it didn't turn out as perfectly as I had pictured in my head.  Yeah, ordering pizza next year is definitely a better idea :)

We hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day too!

Hyrum Jarrett

We have a new nephew and Aurora has a new cousin: Hyrum Jarrett.  He was born January 14th, two weeks early, and he fits right in with all the many other January birthdays we have in our family!  We had planned a couple different times to go up to meet him after he was born, but first we had to get over being sick.  Then, this happened and the weather was awful and we just didn't make it up there.

On Wednesday, we were blessed to have my family come down here to visit us!  Not only did we get to meet new baby Hyrum (Aurora says his name very well!), but my mom got to come to my ultrasound with me since Darwin had to work.  It was a very nice visit all around :)

 I was happy as a clam to snuggle him.  I didn't want to let my sister take him home!  Good thing I'll have a tiny one of my own to snuggle next month!

Aurora was super excited to hold Baby Hyrum

She kept giving him hugs and she got in some good smooches too :)

 

 Cousin Koda loves to hold Hyrum too, but she gets to see him more than we do!

 And just for kicks, here's Koda holding Aurora practically 2 years ago to the day the picture of Koda holding Hyrum was taken.  Man, time flies and kids grow like weeds!

Welcome to the family, baby Hyrum!  And it was so great to see you all, family!  We love you!

Prego Update

I feel like I really haven't posted a whole lot about this pregnancy.  Things were really emotionally rocky for me until we were about half way through (plus we really didn't even tell anyone until 16 weeks), but I've been much better since then.  I still get nervous and anxious that something could happen to this baby (I did have a friend lose a baby at 8 months gestation due to a cord accident--these things happen unfortunately) and I think I'll be that way until I have this little munchkin snuggled in my arms.  But, overall, I feel really pretty good--emotionally, physically, mentally, etc.  I feel like this pregnancy has flown by compared to Aurora's!

I'm 33 weeks today but wanted to post because I had an ultrasound yesterday to check on this baby's growth.  Unfortunately we didn't get very good pictures, so I'm not going to post them.  The main reason I had the ultrasound was because Aurora measured small towards the end not because of what happened with Nastassia, and I was very happy to hear that Savannah still looks great!  It's also nice to have the reassurance (again) that we're still having a girl! :)  Savannah's actually measuring at 34 weeks but the doctor said it really just means she's measuring in the 56th percentile, not that she'll come a week early, and that's okay.  She's currently measuring at 4 lbs 14 oz, but I know it's just an estimate.  My guess is that she'll end up bigger than Aurora was when she was born.  And, believe it or not, the doctor could actually see some hair on the top of her head!  We're always excited to hear that our baby will have hair, even if she's going to lose it and that it will take forever to grow back in like mine when I was a baby, and obviously Aurora's hair too.  Either way, it's exciting that we're getting so close to the end!  It was also nice when the specialist doctor doing the ultrasound yesterday (and who was there to help with my amniocentesis with Nastassia the night I was induced last April) congratulated me on a pretty uneventful pregnancy this time.  Yes, for that I feel very grateful!

I am really glad I still feel pretty good.  I actually weigh about 15 lbs less at this point than I did with Aurora and I'm very pleased about that!  Hopefully I don't have too much more to gain.  I haven't felt much up to exercising since I got really sick over Christmas, and now I'm just plain tired.  I plan to pick up my good exercise routine again after this baby comes :)  I turned Aurora-bath-time-duty completely over to Darwin a few weeks ago, mostly because it's just getting super uncomfortable to be down on the floor.

Savannah is pretty much head down, which is good.  Her head is actually in my right hip and she kicks me in the ribs ALL THE TIME!  I love when she stretches and I can feel her little foot, and she has a funky foot twitch thing she does pretty frequently.  She's definitely running out of room though.  I think we'll both be glad when she has more space to stretch out in!

We almost have everything ready for her to come.  We have a couple more items to purchase, and I still need to wash all of her clothes but then we should be set.  I'm trying to not get too anxious because I know the longer she stays in the better for her growth.  Plus I'm not quite ready to be awake in the middle of the night for feedings again yet.  I'm trying to soak up as much sleep as I can muster in these last few weeks :)

Anyway, enough of my random babbling.  I figured that just for kicks I'd post a belly shot since I haven't posted any this pregnancy.  This is me at 32 weeks last week.  On top of feeling (and looking) huge, I'm mostly just feeling tired a lot, but still hanging in there and super excited to have this little baby!  Only a few weeks left to go!

Dear Oregon,

It's been almost 5 long years since we walked on your beaches.  We are so very excited to be coming back to your coast.  This time we'll have two additional tots in tow and we can't wait to share our love of your ocean with them.  August can't come soon enough!

Love,
Kiarwin

January Round-up

I don't know about you, but I'm officially ready for warmer weather!  I generally don't mind the snow but with having a toddler this winter I'm definitely ready to be able to go play outside again.  Thanks to the cold weather Aurora and I (and Daddy when he's home) have found different ways to entertain ourselves over this last month.  Enjoy our January round-up and a few of our indoor activities!

Aurora got Crayola Color Bath Drops in her Christmas stocking, and we've had LOTS of fun playing around with the color of her bath water.  She LOVES these things! Even more than bubble baths probably.

Our first attempt at purple came out more blue

Just ignore her serious face :)

Yellow is my favorite color, but I'm not so sure how I feel about yellow bath water :)

Through Aurora's eyes: 

She has been practicing her photo-taking skills

 

She's been helping us get some things ready for having another baby in our house

Totes for the baby clothes are definitely Aurora-approved :)

 She loved helping Daddy set up the bassinet and other baby items

I think she likes the baby swing more now than she did as a baby.  Unfortunately she's getting too big so I only let her sit in it this once.

 

Other Random Activities

 DVD Domino's

 

Playing with her birthday balloons - love the static-y hair :)

 

 Practicing the Alphabet

 Princess Parades

 

 Pretending to be Pirates (she's saying "Aarrr!" in the picture)

She loves to help Momma cook in the kitchen.  She's such a great helper!

 

And last but not least, Nerf shooting with Daddy is a new fav :)

 

 

 

It's been a fun January with lots of other activities too, these are just some of the ones I caught on camera.  Still, we're ready for warmer weather!!