Jayda is a Sunbeam and shines for us each day!!!

Our little Jayda Grace is no longer in nursery at church.
She has moved up to Primary and now goes to the Sunbeam class. This means that instead of playing with bubbles and running around with friends, she sits in a class, learns to act reverently, gets lessons about Jesus and Heavenly Father, and interacts with the older kids.

Sunbeams are supposed to be 3 by a certain date and Jayda missed that date by a few weeks so she technically should be in nursery for another year. However, Russ and I asked our bishop to let her advance so she could stay with her good friends and start to learn about the Gospel. Our wishes were granted and it was bittersweet. I was overcome with sadness thinking about my little one growing up so fast. I must admit that Russ and I dropped her off at her class on that first day as a Sunbeam and I cried for about an hour (granted I'm pregnant and hormonally overloaded). She however was thrilled! She loves her teacher, Sister Clark, and has already come home with stories about what shes learned (our body is a temple and Jesus loves her)! She is such a sweet, sweet little girl and Russ and I LOVE that she learns about the gospel and Jesus Christ from other adults while sitting with her peers. There is nothing more special than to hear her talking to her "friends" in her room (ie. Snow White, Peter Pan, and King Arthur) as she tells them about her Sunbeam class and sings "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam to Shine for Him Each Day!" She is such a gift from our Heavenly Father!!!

Here's Jayda telling her daddy all about her exciting first day as a sunbeam! They're such good buddies! She's one lucky little lady (we both are)!

Jayda's Doctors Visit

As noted in my previous entry, we took Jayda to the Orthopedic doctor for some more tests to see what is bothering her back. They took more x-rays and again found nothing. They ordered an MRI, but we can't get into the doctors until late February and she does have to be sedated for that one. She's pretty sick and tired of the doctors offices and tests...but she maintains her cute mood and silly disposition even when we're waiting in the boring room (it helps that her Daddy was there to let her dance on his feet)!

I did take her to a pediatric chiropractor/massage therapist/acupressure/holistic guy and I have seen a positive difference. She doesn't complain quite as much and she does use the bathroom much more regularly now (sorry if that's too much info), to see a difference in her little life just by using pressure points and improving her diet is quite impressive. We're going to continue to try to find out why her back is hurting her, but the more tests we do and doctors we see we are getting the impression it may be muscular or ligament issues. We are praying this is the case since its the least scary of possible problems. Anyway, Jayda is feeling pretty good these days and we want to thank you all for your prayers and well-wishes!

Easy Week - Nope; Easy Bake - Not as easy as you'd think!

So, this has been a hard week for our little Jayda Blue. She got a fever late Sunday evening and it was still there Tuesday afternoon. She didn't have any other symptoms, but I thought I should take her in anyway since she is prone to UTI's. Well, they said she had an ear ache and put her on some meds. Then, that night at about 10:30pm her fever spiked to 103 and we couldn't get it down. We ended up in the ER, but by the time the doctor saw her our efforts had paid off so the fever was at 100.3 What is it about walking through the doctors or ER room doors that take the symptoms away? Why can't the symptoms go away when we walk through doors in our house? That really would make things much simpler.

Anywhoo-they said to just watch her and see how she does. So, she does okay Wed. and Thurs., but still has a low grade fever and says she doesn't feel well. I call the doctors Friday morning and take her back in for a follow up. When we arrived her temp was 100.1. 45 minutes later it had jumped to 104.2. We had blood drawn, flu tests, and chest x-rays and she was diagnosed with two ear infections and pneumonia. They gave her a shot in each leg and sent us on our way. We went back this morning for another follow up only to have the poor little critter get two more shots of antibiotics. We will touch basis with the doctor again tomorrow and if she hasn't improved then we're off to the hospital for meds via IV. Ugh...this poor little girl. To top it off she cries all day and says her back hurts. They still don't know why she has this complaint, but we see the Pediatric Orthopedic Specialist this Friday so if ya-all could keep your fingers cross we find an answer it would be greatly appreciated.


After the long, hard week Jayda had, I thought I'd spend some time with her and let her use her new Easy Bake Oven she got for Christmas. We laid out all the parts and got all ready to bake. She was soooo excited as she doesn't normally cook with me because-well lets face it- I don't cook. I swear I can't even boil water. Well, we get started and everything seems to be going smoothly, until I realize I left the spatula inside of the Easy Bake Oven consequently melting the entire thing inside of the oven and ruining the darn toy on our first use. Luckily, the cake was done before I ruined the thing so she was able to frost it and take a big bite...before looking at me and saying "this is really really icky" and throwing the rest of it in the trash. To recap what I just wrote: I can't even cook using an Easy Bake Oven! Luckily Russ loves making cold cereal, cold sandwiches, and reservations!


Jayda is soo excited that she made this cake!!

Here she shows you the huge "kid proof" appliance I melted!


Here she actually tastes the cake & realizes it tastes like poop! I asked her if it was good and the above face is what I got in response! So...back to Hostess cupcakes and goodies made by friends!

Our Christmas Blessings!

Christmas was so much fun this year. Jayda was really into Santa for the first time and we loved seeing the magic in her eyes when she saw her cookies had been eaten and a stocking was left for her. She asked Santa for princess dolls and 5 books and that (plus some new dress up clothes) is exactly what she got. She thought that was simply the greatest thing ever!

We enjoyed being in VA this year and spending it as our own little family, but lets face it...we'd rather be with our extended families in CA!

The day after Christmas was a day filled with answered prayers. Jayda had to take some tests at The Children's Hospital in D.C. They needed to check for any kidney damage due to numerous UTI's. They told us they were going to inject her with some radioactive dye and then sedate her for the test. I was a nervous wreck! Changing my baby's vital signs to make her sleep is not high on my list of things I want her to do. Well, Russ and a friend gave Jayda a beautiful blessing the night before and wouldn't ya know it-our prayers were answered! Jayda was soooo good that day that they decided to just let us hold her down really still during the tests and they did NOT sedate her! She just laid down and watched a little movie (we brought our portable DVD player) and then about half way through the 45 minute test-she went to sleep! They doctors and nurses couldn't believe how calm and well-behaved she was. For those of you that really know Jayda you will be able to confirm that this is not Jayda's normal temperament and that the hand of the Lord clearly blessed us that day. The tests came back normal (so far so good) and show no damage to her Kidneys. We have to have some more tests done with an Orthopedic specialist soon to find out why she cries and says her back hurts all the time...but at least we know it's not kidney damage. What a blessing we received this Holiday season! Also, for any of you parents in the DC area that need doctors or health care providers for your little ones----the Childrens Hospital is sooooo worth the drive!

SHE SAID WHAT???

Since I will be publishing this blog in a book format to use as a little record of events for our family, I'm going to start sharing some of the "Jayda-isims" or funny things she says so I can remind myself later was a crackup this kid is!

The other day I took Jayda to Subway for some lunch. I was holding her in my arms as she was looking at what she wanted on her sandwich. When the lady picked up her bread to make the little turkey sandwich for Jayda she asked what we wanted on it. Here's how the conversation went down:

Subway Lady: "What would you like with your Turkey?"

Jayda: "a little not-spicy mustard, a little mayonnaise, and some cheese."

Subway Lady: "okay." The lady then puts the stuff on her sandwich and Jayda notices the cheese is white. Jayda's eyes get all huge and...

Jayda: "no white cheese, orange cheese...DUH!"

Cori: ---no comment at the time, but insert mortified face here!

She said "duh" to someone? My two year old acted as if someone else was dumb??? I was truly mortified. Yes, she is a mini version of her Father who teaches her these gems. Yes, he says it funny and cute and we laugh. Yes, looking back it was flippin hilarious that Jayda said it...but it did require a sit down talk about how we don't speak that way to anyone and that some people find it rude and hurtful. Jayda said "okay mom, but duh-who likes white cheese?" What am I going to do with this girl?

Then yesterday I asked Jayda what she wanted for Christmas. I've asked her a few times in the past and I always get the same answer "5 books and some princess dolls." Just to be sure I had everything she wanted, I asked again. This time she sat very quietly and really thought about it. Then, with her sweet blue eyes, she looked up at me and said very seriously and very honestly "I want a little black boy." She said what??? What the heck did that mean and where did she get that from?? I sat there a bit stunned not knowing where to take this conversation and so I said "What do you mean you want a little black boy?" and she said "I want the black boy from Hairspray!" One of Jayda's favorite movie in the entire world is Hairspray. She loves the character that plays Seaweed who is a young black man. She wants him for Christmas so she can sing and dance with him all day long! (I hope no one is offended by this little story. She meant it sweetly and innocently and she just wanted to sing and dance with her favorite friend!) Needless to say she will not be getting that request!

Thank Heaven for Little Girls!!!

Above you can see Five Little Toes on a Perfect Little Foot

Here you can see the feet over the head...looks comfy!

The Top Arrow is pointed at the nose.

The bottom arrow is pointed at the top lip.

Cutest little profile ever (since jayda)!

The bubble thing by the chin is the umbilical cord.

Oh My Word...2 little princesses running around the house! We found out today we are having another little girl. My first thought was-Oh my goodness, Jayda is going to have a sister (I never had one so I was really excited). My second thought was---Holy Crap, does this mean I may I have to go through pregnancy thing again?? Russ went to the appointment with me and the first thing out of his mouth upon hearing another little girl was on the way was, "oh man, I need to get a boy dog or something!" All joking aside--we are sooooo excited!

Jayda has been very specific in her demands for a baby sister. She flat out said she didn't want a baby boy and that if we had a baby boy she'd name it Laman (that's a bad guy from the Book of Mormon for those of you that don't recognize the name). Honestly, what 2 year old says something like that? She'll be thrilled to have a little sister!

On an even happier note, the doctor said everything looks perfect and that the baby is as healthy as can be. This was the best news I've had in 20 weeks! We got to hear the heart beat and see our little girl move around. We also got to see her suck her thumb while on camera AND we saw her have a little case of hiccups!

I have been having contractions since this past weekend. I had early labor with Jayda (at 25 weeks) so I'm considered high risk. They sent me to the high risk center today for this check up and said everything looks great. I can't lift anything, including my little Jayda Grace :( and I'm on a daily medicine from here on out that does tend to make me sick, but it's all worth it! I can't exercise or really do much, but at least I'm not on total bed rest (yet)! My doctor does not want me to try to deliver naturally and says she really wants me to have another c-section. I asked another doctor today for a second opinion and they said the same thing--so, it looks like another C-section will be scheduled for mid to late April. Do you think I could find a doctor that would throw a tummy tuck in that procedure at the same time...here's to dreaming!

Thank Heaven For Little Girls!

In an effort to let family and friends know what's been crackalakin...here it goes!

This last month has been filled with:

• Family funeral in California (my great uncle)
• Jayda sick not once, but twice (both required trips to doctors and sleepless nights.
• About 65 fun barfing experiences (still throwing up at least twice a day and I'm 20 weeks along...ugh)
• We (Jayda and I) missed our hubby/daddy while we were in CA and he stayed behind in VA.
• Some nightmare stuff at work I won't get into, blah, blah, blah...
  

BUT, we also got to:

• Spend time with our wonderful family in California. That nutty picture above is of me and my little brother Austin(whose also one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world). It's always great to spend time with my family, both my side and my husbands side...they're all soooo great!
• See some great friends in CA who moved from VA and we miss dearly.
• Eat CA food that we miss terribly (there's nothing compared to In & Out Burger regardless of what you Five Guys supporters try to say!)
• Wear flip flops and tank tops in November as we walk down the beach (love that CA weather)
• I went to see Twilight with my nieces and friend while in CA...is it wrong to be infatuated with a 17 year old Vampire???...whatever, if it's wrong I don't want to be right!
• I felt the baby move in my belly for the first time in November.
• Spent a great Thanksgiving holiday with some good friends and good food in VA
  

Overall, November was filled with a few ups and downs, but the positives by far outweigh the negatives. We are so thankful for our blessings! Hope you all had a great month with the small blessings covering up the small curses life can bring.