3 Months Old

Almost 11 pounds and 22.5 inches. My sweet little Serenity is as cute as ever. She loves to explore her world and test out her arms and legs. She loves to smile and I can get her to giggle when we do the "Superman". I'm so happy to be the Mom of this wonderful little girl.

Going Camping

2 years ago we took our favorite picture on the pier at Fairhaven. We used the sunset picture wearing matching green hoodies for our wedding announcement picture. Now Greg and I have a new addition to our family so we took another one. It's amazing how much we've changed.

The Many Faces of Serenity

I told myself I wasn't going to do this. And that I wouldn't succumb to first baby syndrome. But then she had to go and be all cute in her little dress and make those funny faces. So I tried to capture them all on camera and look at what I did:

Serenity 2 Months Old

This Week...

I've had my two best friends from Sicily come visit me. Today we visited the National Museum of Play. Emma and I went to the Butterfly Garden as part of the birthday present I promised her.



Beth and Krystal have been my friends through the toughest years of anyone's life, puberty. We went to middle school together in Sicily and we have been swapping stories and bringing up memories all week. It has been a blast. It's great to see the old "Sailor Scout Friends" again.

Looky At My Baby!!!

Last week, we went to Deborah Pulley's house to take some family pictures and to capture the beautiful faces of little Serenity. And here is the out come...
The Pulley Prinicple

3 Weeks Old

She's a little Princess and her daddy and grandparents makes sure she is treated like one. Cute little dresses and outfits, snuggles, hugs, loves, and kisses.
She is a healthy baby girl who loves to sleep, eat and watch her dad play video games in his lap. Couldn't ask for a happier baby.

Impatience

May 28th I went in for a regular check up and they sent me to triage for my high blood pressure, hours later I was admitted into the high risk antepartum floor and they said I may be there for the last month of my pregnancy. They wanted to watch for increasing symptoms of preeclampsia and by sunday they got what they wanted.
They sent me to the labor and delivery room, hours later they induced my labor with pitocin and the contractions started. In the morning my water broke, and before lunch I had my baby in my arms.
Pain killer free I pushed that baby out. Greg and Mom were the best support team. Hours later I was surrounded by family and my beautiful 6 pound 4 ounce baby was being passed around the room.
I was just to impatient and I wanted my baby NOW, so on June 1st 2009 I became a Mom a whole month early.

It Was An Amazing Baby Shower!

Thank you so much Aunt Heather for the wonderful baby shower you put together for me. One of my favorite parts was how we took little pieces of all my friends fabric and put it together for a baby blanket.
I can't wait for this little baby to be born.

32 Weeks

Ready to POP!

Small Apartment for Growing Family

SOLUTION: Utilize whatever space there is.

I made drawers using 100% scrapes.
Greg and I searched Craigslist for free wood on the curb and we gathered what we could. Looking at what supplies I had and the space I could fill, I made two drawers one to fit underneath the crib and another under our bed.
To make sliding easier I nailed bottle caps to the bottom.

Now I have places to put baby clothes and toys.

29 Weeks

About 10 more weeks to go. I can do this!

Emma's Turning 8

So once again I pulled out my cake pans and mixing bowls and made another Barbie cake. This time I made it for my one and only Emma-pickle. She wanted it to be pink and purple and have a modest dress. I'm definitely getting better at decorating and making frosting. It takes me a lot less time to put the cake together. But I still have problems with keeping the frosting from melting to much as I'm working (constant warm hands do that ya' know)

She had 5 friends over and as their activity they decorated Polly Pocket Cupcakes. (I forgot to get a picture of that, I was busy helping Andrew decorate his cupcake).

It was a Hannah Montanna Birthday event so we went to the theater to watch the movie and I enjoyed going with the girls. We all went in the big bus and they sang songs and just had a blast. It was a lot of fun.

Finally Together Forever

April 10, 2009
Greg and I left right after school to Palmyra. But after we were half way there we realized we forgot our temple recommends and had to drive all the way back. But we still got to Palmyra on time to visit the Sacred Grove and talk a little before meeting up with Mom for temple pictures.







After pictures we checked into the Palmyra inn where we spent the weekend. The inn is just around the corner from the temple so it made commuting so much easier. When we got in the room there was a present from Emma for us on the table.

Thank You Emma!

At 4:45 Greg and I entered the temple. It was so beautiful inside. It was just as I had imagined from the descriptions I've heard all my life. Everything was clean, neat, organized, and the people all looked like angels walking around. Everyone was so nice and helpful. Of course I was scared and nervous, even though everyone said I shouldn't be.
All I could focus on throughout the entire session was I hope my sweating hands don't stain my white dress or gross someone out. So of course all that was said to me didn't quite sink in. Everything flew by so fast and before I know it, Greg and I are being ushered into the sealing room.

We had Bro. Anderson do the sealing. He was our seminary teacher for a while and a long time family friend of the Rowe's. Once again I was nervous and scared but Greg sat next to me the entire time and he escorted me to the alter where we held hands and pronounced husband and wife for time and all eternity. And we shared a kiss across the alter. TADA!
The weirdest thing was after everything we had done in the past few hours and the past year the thing that made me the most nervous and shy was being back in the hotel room with Greg. I felt like it was our first day being married. I was too shy to look at him or do anything more than hold his hand. It was so weird. But it only lasted until the in-room jacuzzi tub was filled and the bubbles started. I bought little rubber duckies to have in the tub with us as a little anniversary gift. It was really fun.
We went again to the temple the next morning and a little more of the Endowment session sinked in. It was an amazing experience and our goal is to go once a month.

Looky Where I'm Going for the Weekend

26 Weeks

Nearing the end of my second trimester...

Barbie Cake Time!

Belle from:

Beauty and the Beast

Emma Helped!
She was my Creativity Supervisor
I even dipped Belle's arms in watered-down frosting to make it look like gloves.

All the little girls had to go home before our cake was up for auction, so there wasn't many bidders left. The cake still sold for $40 though. It was a lot better than last year when the cake melted in the summer heat.

We bought a cake. It was called "The Volcano"
It was a pile of chocolate cake, fudge, strawberries, and peanut butter chips, spewing licorice, and cinnamon candies. A very tasty treat that is still taking a while to eat.

Ultrasound #3

So on Thursday, Greg and I went to the hospital...again. We had a financial aid appointment first and it went well. We hope things work out this time. Then we had the ultrasound.I got to see her toes and counted all 10. And the bottom picture is her face. This picture does no justice to what I got to see on the screen. She has a cute round nose and chubby round cheeks. I think she looks like my mom. And the round thing by her face is her hand (not her ear, which is what I thought at first). After that we went to see the doctor and just before she listened to the heart beat, Greg noticed Serenity kicked the side of my stomach out. He was across the room when he saw it, so it must have been a pretty big kick. Everything is doing well.

We Made It!

1 Year! Well sorta. Close enough.
Greg took me to Olive Garden on the 28th and on the 1st we spent all day together eating our wedding cake. He bought me more charms for my necklace that he gave me for Christmas. It has been an amazing year and we are looking forward to April 10th when we get sealed in the temple.

Our First Car

I was trying to wait to write this post until after I had a picture of us and our new car, but I cant wait any longer.

It's a 98 Buick Regal, a very nice luxury car. We needed a newer car desperately because the Nissan we were borrowing may not have started if I went into labor and then where would we be? So we sold the Nissan real cheap at the corner of our house, and we used that money to help buy the new car from Greg's Dad. Greg also traded his services to his dad to pay for the car. They also worked on the car a lot to make sure we wouldn't have to touch it for a whole year.

Last Thursday Greg and I noticed funny noises and stuttering from the engine. We started to drive it to Fairport immediately. We only got half way when Greg felt he should pull over when the oil light came on and we used our AAA to tow it the rest of the way. Turns out the pistons were rubbing up against the bearings and metal had gotten into the oil. If we had kept driving it, very bad stuff would have happened. So Greg spent the weekend taking apart the dead engine and replacing parts on a used engine so that it would be in good working condition.

What a stressful weekend. Our new car that we just bought and fixed up broke! What next?

Facebook

So Greg made me a Facebook account so if you want to be my friend send a request...sigh
I was very happy with just using his, but no he wants me to have my own....

I Cut My Hair Too!

See! We are same same!

I was thinking about cutting it for some time now. My bleach started showing through from when I had my blue hair and I decided it was time to go back to 100% natural. It's not completely gone though. I only cut 2.5 inches off cause I wanted to still be able to pull it back.
I think it looks terrible. I hate it this length because it's too short to be long and too long to be short. But it helps to have a new straightener so I can play with it and make me think it looks cute.

Pictures coming soon...

Our Lifesaver

This is our new dishwasher. I bought it for Greg. It's to help him while he's in school. We load it once a day and now he only has to do hand-washing whenever I use a pot or something that doesn't fit in it. It uses less then 2 gallons of water a load and hooks right onto the sink. It's wonderful.

I Can See More Of A Bump Now

I Deserve a Gold Star

I did it! I did our taxes for the first time this year! I simply went to IRS.gov did some research and found I could get free tax help. They sent me to Turbo Tax Freedom Edition, I simply clicked a few buttons filled in a few boxes, next next next and then I was done with both federal and state taxes. We are getting a lot in tax returns, almost enough to say we barely spent anything this year. I am so happy. It was so easy I don't know why people sweat over this every year, (well maybe it's because we have such a simple life). But yay I did it!



P.S. Breaded chicken and dill pickle sandwhich is the greatest food in the whole world.

The Ultrasound

So on Feb 2 Greg and I ran around doing doctors appointments all day. It was crazy. We picked up my sister "Amy" and went to the doctors for a normal check up and then we took her to the ultrasound. (Let me tell you something, doc= "pee in cup", ultrasound= "hold it in" chugging water in less then an hour=not fun). Well we get all settled and puts the WARM goo on and we can see baby squirming all over the place, the doctor had to keep coming back to try to find all the parts. But as you can kinda see in the first photo, we saw the spine, we also saw the ribs, we could count the chambers of her heart as it was beating and we saw the sections of her brain. It was so neat. And in the middle photo there is an arrow that point to three dots that the doctor said makes it a girl. And she looks healthy, I'll get a more detailed report at the end of the month.

Get Out Your Pink, Bows, Fluffles, and Frills...

It's Going To Be A Girl!


Serenity Rowe
July 2009

My College Boy!

He Did It! He Finally Did It!
Greg is going to college at MCC.
We finally figured out FAFSA and they have paid for his books and in a few days we will know if they pay for all or most of tuition. So far all Greg has paid for is $60 for a parking permit.
He's taking English 101, Math 99/104, Psychology 101, and an Intro to College class. I'm so happy for him.

Let The Games Begin

It's time to start placing your bets...

Is it a Boy
or
Is it a Girl?

Results on may be posted on Feb 2!

Does this Baby Make Me Look Fat?

Making Room for Baby

So with the Christmas gift card from the Creedons I measured drew out and designed this intense shelving system. There's a long shelf on the top that allows my dresses to slide easily and a shorter shelf on the bottom that accommodates Gregs dress shirts and my skirts very nicely. I moved all of my shirts from one WHOLE wall to one part of a wall. We rotated the bed and squeezed in the crib.
MY WONDERFUL AUNT HEATHER, WHO IS VERY BUSY ENJOYING HER PHENOMENAL LIFE, GAVE US A BEAUTIFUL CRIB THAT IS GOOD AND STURDY. AND I AM VERY GRATEFUL TO HAVE SUCH A NICE FREE CRIB.
I finished up the room with the rocking chair leaving enough room and space for other baby accessories.
Now all I need is Baby.

Oops!

I havn't updated in a while. I guess I don't have a lot to say. Christmas was great I got a well needed heater from the Rowe's and the Lowes gift card I needed from the Creedon's. I'll update again when I've finished the Lowes project.
New Years was fun. We adopted Amy and took her party hopping. We saw the ball drop at the Bianchi's, then went to my parents house and had second new years on Arizona time and we celebrated "with jake" with popcorn and sparkling grape juice.
I had a Dr. Appointment yesterday. I lost a pound. My heart rate was lower this time, but still high. I'm healthy and my baby has the heart rate of 156 bpm (=good). I've set the ultrasound appointment. On Feb. 2 we find out if its a boy or girl. Oh I'm excited for that.
Honeymoon plans are made for Jan 9 we'll see if we actually get to go to Canada. I can plan a huge trip , but finding a hotel is the hardest for me so its up to Greg and he's taking his time. We'll see...