My Girls

I decided I needed some 6 month pictures of Alaina, so I made her a new dress and just took a few. I just love this girl. Of course Kaiya wanted to get in on the action so I got a few of her too.

Valentine's Day in the Shurtleff Home

We have had so much fun with Valentine's day this year. First my friend Jenni had on her blog this awesome idea. Target had 1 dollar mailboxes. So we got one and decorated it. Then everyday in February Kaiya has received a letter in her mailbox. Both of her grandparents had sent her some, along with some cousins and an aunt and uncle. Mom and Dad also did a few. She has had so much fun asking us everyday if the mail man had come yet.



Brett has to work tonight so he and I went out last night. Brett gave me a GORGEOUS boutique of roses and Kaiya got her own rose that she has kept in her room since she got it. If she had it her way she would carry it around with her everywhere. Brett and I then got a baby sitter and had a Night out! It was awesome. I ran extra that morning (70min) so that I could afford the extra calories for dinner at on the boarder :D. Then we went and saw The Vow.




This morning Kaiya got red heart shaped pancakes before she was off to school for a Valentine party. I thought about adding red dye to Alaina's milk but decided against it. I made Brett sausage omelette, homemade hashbrowns and a red pancake. Then we went and bought us some weights as our valentine gift to ourselves :D. After school we picked up Kaiya and her friend Stella came over. The girls each got to decorate their own Heat Shaped cookie. While Mommy decorated a bunch to take to Daddy's work later tonight. We have had such a fun Valentines day! It's so fun to be able to show the people you love how much they mean to you. But shouldn't we do that everyday?

Advice from Kaiya

So I was just talking to Brett and how I was frustrated with not losing weight lately while I have been pushing so hard and dieting. I finally just said well I just hope this works. Well Kaiya turned and said "Mom, don't say hope it works, say it Will work. That's what you need to say". I love that at 3 she is so wise :D

6 Months

Well Alaina had her 6 month Check up. She weighed 13.8 pounds and was 24 inches long. They said her Height was in the 3rd percentile and her weight in the 10th. Looks like we are going to have another little girl. I love it, helps me to feel like they are babies just a little bit longer. I hate when they have to get shots though. Alaina did really good. But she had this cry like her feelings were really hurt. The poor nurse even got all teary eyed looking at her. Luckly she recovered quickly and took a good long nap when we got home.

Catching Up

Oh I feel like such an awful Mom. I feel like life took off there for awhile and left me in the dust always playing catch up. I feel awful that I haven't shared much about my sweet little Alaina and the joy that she has brought to our life. Where to even begin....

Well Alaina is 6 months now, wow that went fast. She has just the sweetest personality. She is such a HAPPY baby. If she isn't laughing, she is usually quiet. Except when she starts to get really tired, then she just babbles. We have started Alaina on solid foods, and man does she love them. It's so different from the constant fight I am use to to get Kaiya to eat. Alaina has been sleeping through the night now since about two months. Although she hasn't quiet gotten the memo that this family is not one of early risers.

Now for a quick update on Kaiya. OH MY GOODNESS!! this girl just keeps me on my feet. She is actually a really good girl. She just loves to reason with you for everything. The other night I put her to bed at 8am. She didn't go to sleep until after midnight. She had every excuse in the book for why she just couldn't sleep. Too much on her mind, she needed to watch 3 shows because she is 3. You name it. Man I love this girl! Kaiya does Joy school, a home preschool that me and some Mom's rotate teaching.

As for me I finally graduated from something. I got two associates, one in general education and the other in Pre Psychology. I am still sewing but other wise taking a break and trying to just be Mom, I love it. I have also started really focusing on my Health. After shedding all of the baby weight from Alaina I decided it was time to start working on the rest. Currently I am down 33 pounds from my pre Alaina weight and I have 41 to go to reach my goal. Along the way I have learned to LOVE to run. I try and get out about 3 times a week running any where from 3.4 to 5 miles. I have also found ways to eat healthy and enjoy it too. I am feel so much more energized and good about myself and I love it!

Brett has been working hard to help out our family. He is such an Awesome Father and Husband! He has applied to a few different Nursing Programs and we should be hearing back soon. School won't start until Next fall. We are actually getting ready to pack up all of our stuff put it in storage and head out on an adventure. We are going to Utah for 3 weeks to visit. then stay with Brett's parents for 2 before we head to Nashville TN for the summer. Brett is going to be selling Pest Control while me and the girls explore a new city, hang out at a pool and Miss Daddy a lot. Hopefully this will bring a lot of oppertunities to our family.

Well that is a quick update on life. I am going to try hard to be better and posting. I want my girls to have a record of our life and our little family.

Here are a few pictures..

Family Time


Kaiya and I



Alaina Loves her food

Sew Divine.. Giveaway

Check out the giveaway over at www.sewdivineboutique.blogspot.com

We ship to Canada too ;)

Alaina's First Photo Shoot

So a friend from Church asked if she could take some pictures of Alaina for her portfolio. So I said SURE. She did such a great job on them. Here are a few of my favorites

Bili Blanket

Poor Alaina was a little Jaundice and had to be put on a bili blanket for a whole week. It was really hard on us to not hold her, especially for that first week of her life. Kind of a funny story though. When we took Alaina for her first blood draw to test her levels, The tech poked the heel of her foot to collect the blood. Kaiya was with us and just got this sad look on her face. Then she turned to the lady and said " you just put a whole in my sister" She was so worried. We explained it was okay and Kaiya calmed down a bit about it. But after it was over they gave Kaiya a stuffed animal for being brave haha. Here is Alaina on her little tanning bed.

Kaiya meeting Alaina

Later in the day after we had Alaina, Brett's mom brought Kaiya to meet her sister. She was really excited to see her, but didn't really want to hold her. I think she was a bit taken back by how small she was. But she fell in love. She kept telling us how small she is and pretty. She would say " Mom she is just so beautiful" "Mom she is so tiny". I asked her if we could keep her and she said YES! But she didn't want to hold her. Well it took us almost a week to figure out why. She thought Alaina's umbilical cord was poop LOL. Once we explained it was not she wanted to hold her a lot more often.

Alaina Rose Shurtleff

Here is Alaina's really long Birth Story.... Finally



Well On Thursday July 28th Brett, Kaiya and I all went to the hospital around 8 am. We were going in for an Amnio test to check to see if Alaina’s longs were developed enough for us to induce her. An hour after being there and prepped Brett’s Mom came and picked up Kaiya to take her to the beach for the day with her cousins. SO for those of you who don’t know I have a major fear of needles. I just don’t like the idea of it being inside me. So an amnio was a very scary thought to me. But a little back ground on why it was needed….
I don’t do pregnancy well. Throughout Alaina’s pregnancy I was on bedrest since 18 weeks because they were concerned with her size. I kept trying to tell them “I make small babies” but they still wanted to watch it. From 25 weeks on I had to go in 2 times a week for NST testing (hear monitoring) and for Ultrasounds to check her fulids. I also had to go to a specialist every 3 weeks to check on her growth. Alaina always stayed in the 5th -7th percentile. To add to all of this, I get EXTREME itching when I am pregnant. I got it with Kaiya as well, it’s called Cholostasis. So we wanted to induce at 37 weeks, but we also wanted to make sure Alaina’s lungs were ready to enter the world.
So at 37 weeks 4 days Pregnant here we are ready to do our Amnio. I had the day before made 135 cookies for our Dr’s and nurses. I let the Dr know that he could only have cookies if the amnio came back positive for her lungs and we got to stay. Otherwise the cookies were going home with me! For my amnio I ended up with 2 nurses, 1 was new and asked if she could watch the procedure, so I said sure. Well then my Dr told me they had 3 new residence that wanted to watch an amnio and asked if it was okay if they came in as well. So I ended up with 2 Dr’s doing the procedure 3 watching, and 2 nurses. It was a small crowded room. With Brett smashed in the corner by my head. They had to numb two different spots because I got light headed and had to move to my side which made my fluid shift. I got really light headed for it, and had to have wet towels and ice chips to get me through it. I told you I am a needle wuss. But it didn’t really hurt. Just the needle that did the numbing. The Dr told me when he was done, after looking at my placenta he would bet me 6 cookies she would come back ready to go. Haha We waited around for about an hour for the results. One of the residence came in the results that her lungs were developed and asked where his cookie was .

On to the induction: Well they started my induction around 3pm that afternoon. They started out with some meds to try and get things going since I wasn’t close to being dilated or effaced. After 4 hours of that they checked me and no progress had been made. So at 7 they put in some more. Around 9:30 I asked if I could get up to walk around. We were making laps around the delivery floor and every time I passed this one nurses station I would have a contraction. YAY finally something was happening. At 11 I got back in bed and they checked me again, fully prepared to just insert another dose. Well to every ones surprise I was at a 3 YAY, now on to the potocin .

So we started potocin around 11:30. Because I tested positive for GBS I had to have 2 bags of antibiotics before I delivered. So they got those going. Around 12:30 I got my epidural, yup another needle. By this point my contractions were getting kind of strong. So when I was sitting up for the epidural I got a contraction and it was so hard to sit still for it. Also I was going faint from the needle in my back. Dang needle fears. They asked me to hold still just a bit longer and then moved me to my side. After a little bit it kicked in and was AMAZING. It worked so good through the rest of my labor. So much better then my last one, although it was pretty good too.
So not much happened between then and 5 am. Well except at some point, I don’t know the time, my blood pressure dropped. I started freaking out, saying I needed to throw up and couldn’t breathe. I kept coughing and she kept telling me to calm down. Which wasn’t happening. It didn’t last long and they got my blood pressure under control and I was back to sleep. I woke up around 4 am was joking around with my nurse again. She said that made her feel much better that I was back to normal haha. They came in at 5 and broke my water.
So throughout my whole labor process I had nurses checking out the clothes I had made for Alaina. So My nurse asked if she could see some of my other clothes I have done. So around 5:30am I pulled my lap top and we were looking through my stuff. At this point I could feel my contractions getting a little bit more intense but I could breathe through them. Around 6 I told my nurse I needed to put the lap top down cause I was feeling a ton of pressure. I said I even thought I needed to push. So Brett who had been sleeping on the couch came over to see what was going on. She checked me and said Alaina was right there and it was push time, she said try not to push while I get the dr. Yeah TRY not to haha. Well the Dr came in and it was the most interesting experience.
I felt so calm and totally in control. I could feel my contractions enough to know when to push and they left it all up to me. As contractions came I pushed about 3 times per contraction. After 3 contractions, our little Alaina was born at 6:22am, She was 5 pounds 11 ounces and 17 ½ inches long. Everyone in the room was saying how much she looked like Kaiya. But I could tell she was Alaina, her own special person.
With Kaiya I had, had a ton of post partum bleeding and rushed to the operating room. They were ready for it this time but it never happened. The Dr even complemented me on my great control while pushing. I told her I had been “pushing” since I was a baby. Lots of practice haha. I was lucky not to have any tares and by later that day I was already feeling really good.
We had a few scares in the hospital. They said they heard a heart murmur in Alaina’s heart and made us stay extra for her to have an Echo. They said if we didn’t get the results back by 6pm on Sunday we had to stay another night. Well at 5:45pm they came in and said she was clear to go. That her heart would be fine and everything should close up. After such a long pregnancy we are so happy to have our family of 4.

Kaiya's Easter Dress

So here is Kaiya in her Easter Dress. I had gotten a pattern but then didn't really like it so I decided to just wing this one. It' turned out longer then I wanted but I just loved the bring colors of this fabric.

Easter Egg Hunt

So we did our "commercial" Easter today. Brett has to work this weekend :( so we had to do it all this morning but it was so much fun. Kaiya was so excited when she heard she got a basket from the Easter Bunny. When she ran in to the kitchen and first saw her basket she said "Wow it's just beautiful" and kept saying that with everything she looked at. I guess we did good. Then Daddy hid the eggs in the yard and Kaiya got to go out and find them. It was so fun to see her actually hunting for her eggs on her own. She was so excited with each one she found. Oh and she had to wear her sunglasses for the hunt cause she said it was to sunny to see the eggs. Tomorrow We will celebrate the true meaning of Easter. Just wish Daddy didn't have to go to work and could spend it home with us :(




waiting to head into the kitchen to check out her Easter Basket.




Checking things out. When she saw her basket she said "wow it's just Beautiful"



I think I see one!


She needed her sunglasses cause she said it was to bright to see the eggs