2010 so far...

These past couple of months have been a roller coaster ride for me. It's been especially hard to watch Katie be so sick, I just feel like she hasn't even had a chance to live because the whole time she's been throwing up and struggling to eat. But now that she's better things are a little more "normal" again. Hopefully soon she'll learn to sleep through the night too and then I can feel human once more!

But I have to say, I LOVE my family and I LOVE my little babies!! They have got to be the two cutest kids in the entire universe! Ben is so active and so much fun to be around. I mean, who wouldn't want to watch kids movies, color, build blocks, throw balls, sing, and run around in circles all day? I love interacting with him. Ben has become such a little chatterbox too. He repeats almost everything I say, which isn't always a good thing :) and now he tells me "stories" during the day. Since he can't put together sentences yet it's usually just one word at a time of whatever he sees around him: "Clock" "Lightning" (from Cars) "Cat" "Choo-choo" etc. And the funny thing is that he will keep saying the word until I say it back to him, which means that sometimes it takes a while for me to figure out what he is saying. I do love that I get to have these "conversations" though.

Ben may love his little sister, but he is certainly obsessed with our new addition, Arthas. Jordan got me a cat for Christmas and Ben chases him all over the house, carries him around, throws him off the couch, and tries to sit on him. He loves to tell Arthas "no" which is what we are constantly telling the cat too :) And even though Ben may think that Arthas is his best friend, I'm pretty sure Arthas feels completely different about the situation.

Katie is much more active now. When she's awake she is WIDE awake. She loves to have people talk to her and smiles the biggest smiles I have ever seen on a baby. Of course, she still refuses to do this for the camera so I don't have anything to show for it. The other day she started laughing at things and cooing a little. I love seeing her so alive! It's a big change from crying, sleeping, or just blankly staring when she was sick. She's still so small though! She doesn't even fit into 0-3 month clothes yet, but one day. She is mostly fascinated by Ben and whenever he stays still for more than 2 seconds will just stare at him and watch everything he does.

I just have the cutest children in the whole wide world!!

I think it's so sweet how much Ben loves his sister. He always wants to giver a bottle, or put her bink in her mouth, or give her a blanket. He gets so worried when she cries too.

Even though she loves to smile now, she is still so serious a lot of the time. And with those big eyes it's a little intimidating.

A Katie burrito! (we were inspired by Stephanie and Patrick)

We almost caught a smile, if only I had taken the picture 1/2 second later.

All dressed up and ready for church

Such a sweet little face

Okay, so this picture takes a little explaining! Jordan and I are both on a diet (which we've both lost about 25 lbs now!). Sadly, for me, that means that Jordan can now fit into some of my old clothes. So here he is dressed up like me. He likes to call this picture "A Typical Twilight Team Jacob Fan"! I think it's hilarious, especially the chest hair sticking out the top!

Jordan thinks it's funny to swaddle the kitty up like a baby

And Jordan says that he doesn't like cats, yeah right! By the way, Arthas is the name of a character off of one of our video games. He was a good prince who eventually turns into an evil Lich King trying to destroy all life. Jordan says it's appropriate because I think of kitties as good and sweet and he thinks of them as evil. :)

Ben loves his Uncle Ster-Ster and both of them fell asleep together while watching Cars. Ben won't even fall asleep with me!

This is Ben's usual post when we are down at Nana and Paco's and watching football. Hmm...I think he looks just like his daddy!!

How sweet is my little boy? He just wants to make sure that Katie has everything she needs. You can't see it on the video, but at one point he starts patting her back while he's holding her, it's really cute!

Family Pictures

These are some of our professional pictures that we had taken. I'm not usually one for posed photos with fake backgrounds, but they turned out pretty cute. However, I still wish I knew someone down here who did candid photos like we had from our friend Brinn in Virginia.

Christmas in Idaho

This year we went up to my Mom's house in Idaho for Christmas. We were expecting to have a "real" Christmas with lots of snow, however, that didn't happen. It was a bit sad since we had spent the last 2 years in Virginia with hardly any snow. The irony of it all is that this year Virginia got hit with that huge snowstorm - and it snowed in Cedar City while we were gone! Then just to add insult to injury, Idaho got hit with a huge snowstorm the day after we left. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

Even though Ben had seen snow before, this was really his first time getting to go out and play in it. Grandma had gotten him a cute snowsuit but since the boots are still just a little too big he had a hard time getting around. It was sure cute to watch him though.

Jordan and I spent a lot of time doing work for Share the Secret. I went around to different schools to do sales pitches. It was kind of scary but I eventually started to feel a little more comfortable doing it. We also both worked on getting new images and templates for our second edition (which will be coming out very soon we hope!) We are actually pretty darn excited about them! If you want to look at our first edition books to see what I'm talking about then go to www.wesharethesecret.com

Walking out in the snow with Daddy

Whenever he would fall down he would stick his arms out because he didn't want to touch the snow. We tried to put gloves on him but he just kept pulling them off.

While Daddy and Benjamin were playing, Katie and I had some tummy time

Ben got to spend some time with his cousins (Cindy's kids). He was so excited! He hardly ever gets to hand out with other kids so he had a blast following them around and mimicking them. He especially loved it when they sang Jingle Bells. Even now I still wake up to the sound of him singing Jingle Bells in his crib while jumping up and down :)

She may be a good snuggler, but you can see that she is also big slobberer on Jordan's shirt

Christmas morning, jingle-belling around the house

Ben was still pretty out of it, but I don't think we could have gotten Keith to wait any more to open presents!

Merry 1st Christmas Katie!

Ben's favorite song and dance for the holidays, or any day for that matter!

Random Updates

It's been a very long time since I had any updates, so I'm going to attempt to do some catch-up posts. Mostly there will be lots of pictures, and hopefully I'll get some videos in. It's kind of fun to see all these pictures at once and watch as Katie grows! She's had a hard time of it (almost 2 straight months with thrush, throwing everything up, got dehydrated and had to go to the hospital, and has struggled with gaining weight), but my little 9lb, 3 1/2 month-old is beautiful and growing, even if it is slow!

Ben loves Katie, when he decides to pay attention to her, and is always trying to help me take care of her. He is now one of the most active little boys that I know. He has yet to sit still during a church meeting, LOVES going to nursery, has to watch a Pixar movie every day (preferably Cars or Ratatouille) and is always on the run. I love every second of it and have so much fun with him every day!

Nana Coons at the hospital with Katie

The bow is a little big but she's still cute!

This is right before we got to take her home from the hospital. I thought Jordan would be happy with the outfit I picked out. I'm glad to say that she has actually grown out of this one.

Paco came to see Katie home from the hospital

Ben's first time meeting Katie. He was pretty excited about her oxygen tank, but not too sure about her. His interest would only last about 30 seconds and then he moved on to better toys.

We finally got to be together as a family! She may have still been hooked up to a monitor and O2 tank, but at least we were home.

Katie finally got to meet her namesake. Grandma Bergstrom was so excited to come down and it certainly helped having her around for a little while!

Jordan has got to be the best dad and husband in the entire world!! He helps out with everything, all the time. He's always able to get Katie to calm down and helps me when I am overwhelmed with trying to keep both kiddos happy at the same time (no small feat I assure you).

Apparently Ben felt that his toy box was a great place to sit down and read a book :) He dragged the box out of his closet, into the front room, and put it down right in front of the TV. For a while he watched his movie in it, and then he went and grabbed a book to "read". Sometimes I wonder how he comes up with things!

Katie usually screams and screams during her baths, but we caught her at a rare moment when she was calm.

Katie's blessing day! We had her blessed at home because the doctor was still a little worried about her being out in public during the cold-season.

I just love that she has such beautiful, big blue eyes!

My sweet little girl!

Now time for some good ol' family videos :)

As you can see, bath time at the Coons' house is a family event!

This is a game that Ben has invented. He runs up against the couch and then bounces himself off. From what I can tell, the goal is to fall over.

Katie Mae

Well here are some pictures of our sweet little girl! This past week has been pretty difficult for me and I'm starting to feel very worn out. Poor Ben was just having a melt-down every time he saw me leave, so I decided that as long as he was awake I needed to be home with him. Then, when he goes down for a nap or goes to bed I go and see Katherine. What it really means is that I don't ever get a nap! But it's okay because I'm just happy that I get to spend time with both of my babies. Jordan has to spend most of the week up in Cedar City and so I only get to see him on the weekends. It's nice when he is here though because I know Ben really misses his daddy.

Katherine is doing great! I just realize that I have to be very patient because it is going to be a slow process teaching her how to eat. The nurses keep telling me that it's normal for babies to take two to three weeks from this point, but I am very anxious to get her home. I do love the time that I get to spend with her each day though. She is so beautiful and usually is pretty alert when I'm there. She looks around with her big eyes at everything she can. It's always sad for me when I have to go home without her but hopefully soon she'll be on her way. She is gaining weight now and has actually been doing pretty good with nursing, we just need her to be consistent now!

My first time getting to hold her

Not too long after she was born

Almost a family picture...just missing our little Benjamin

Getting a tan under the bili-lights

I was very happy when that IV came out

Contemplating life...oh dear

She's just so darn cute!

Quality bonding time with Daddy

Sometimes she can just be so prissy!

A little bundle of joy

This is by far my favorite picture of her yet!

Snuggling with Mommy

I love holding my sweet girl

Katherine Young Coons

Our little Katie Mae has arrived and we are ecstatic! (even if she was 7 weeks early) She weighed in at 5 lbs 12 oz and was 18 inches long. Right now she is in the NICU but has been doing amazingly well!! She is now off oxygen and just got off her antibiotics, IV fluids, and bili-lights. Last night she even nursed for about 5 minutes :) For only being four days old she has certainly come a long way. We're trying to be very patient but it's hard not to be able to bring our little girl home right now - as some of you already know. I'm excited for the time when Ben can finally see her too because I think he is going to love her, in fact, he may love her just a little too much at first. More updates, pictures, and videos are soon to follow but right now I'm out the door to go see her!

Driving Along in Our Automobile

Virginia to West Virginia to Kentucky to Indiana to Illinois to Missouri to Kansas to Colorado to Utah = 2100 miles! Whew! 9 states in 4 days definitely takes a toll on you, especially when it's only two days after graduating! It was a lot to do but luckily we were able to send Benjamin ahead of us to stay with his Grandma Coons in St. George until we got there. I can't imagine how we would have done it with a cranky baby. 

Unfortunately we had to leave some stuff in our house in Virginia because we couldn't fit any more in our Budget truck. I was a little sad but it was all stuff that we could get in Utah. The only real problem we had on the road was that one of the tires on our trailer blew out in Kansas. We ended up waiting 4 hours on the side of the hot Kansas highway which did not make me very happy because pregnant women do not like to wait that long to go to the bathroom! In the end though, we made it, even if we were a little tired and cranky. The upside was that we got to see Brian and Marilee, Christina and Nate, and Lysa and Dave along the way.

Our beautiful home in Virginia

Moving truck sans trailer and car

Yep...I drove the WHOLE way (except for the first 6 hours)

I want to live in Santa Claus!

We traveled the same road as these guys for 4 states and somehow managed to pull off at the same exits the whole way!

Jordan hates to travel and so he played his games the whole way

Stupid tire

Yeah, that sucked to drive

Jordan's favorite

So sad that they couldn't even give the place a name

Graduation

Okay, so here I go on some major catch-up! I figured I'd start from where I left off...Graduation! Jordan and I both graduated in May. He got a degree in business and I got mine in english. It was a little rough once Ben was born, but we pushed through and are very glad to be done. We loved that Jordan's parents and my mom and Keith were able to come out, especially since we needed help with all of the packing, cleaning, test-taking, and paper writing. All I know is that we never could have done it without all the help we received, especially from the Lord. We miss Virginia and SVU but we definitely know that it was time for us to move on and do other things with our life. 

The night before the graduation we had an awards banquet. Jordan prepared a short video of the graduating class and we got to eat a nice dinner with our families. However, one of the most exciting things is that Jordan graduated Magna Cum Laude (high honors)! I'm so proud of everything that he has accomplished and I know that he will definitely succeed in his MBA program at Southern Utah University. We had a lot of different choices when it came to graduate school but we really feel that this is where the Lord told us to go. It was one of the few programs that allowed him to start without 5 years work experience and he will be finished in 1 year instead of 2 (so lots of hard work).

Ben and Holly Burningham

Patrick and Stephanie Carlson - our fellow bishopric family and some of the best friends in the world!

My mom was one of my greatest supports along the way

Never could have done it without Jordan's parents

Our happy and growing family!

We got to graduate in front of our beautiful Main Hall

After the banquet

Our Life Lately

So it's been a very long time since I've had any update on here. Basically Jordan and I have been swamped with finishing school, keeping track of Ben, work, church callings....the list would never stop. Overall we're feeling overwhelmed. We both graduate in May (hopefully) and will be moving straight to Utah (yay!).

Ben is doing absolutely amazing! The kid is just all over the place now. He opens up all of our cupboards and drawers and pulls everything out that he can. He is constantly eating whatever he can find, from toys to shoes to cookie crumbs. But we love him and he makes our life joyful. 

These are just a few random pictures from the past few months. We don't have many because, frankly, we haven't been taking our camera out much. However, the video is well worth watching! Ben usually sits and plays "catch" with us and we just throw/roll the ball back and forth to each other. We normally use a soccer ball but we thought one of the big bouncy balls might be fun for him...unfortunately it seems just a little too big. He still loves it though.

Jordan and I finally got to go to the temple for the first time in months! 4 hour drive one-way makes it kind of difficult with a baby.

Look Mom - I finally hung those little animals!

Ben loves these stacking balls

Going as fast as he can to create even more mischief

Again, everything goes in his mouth!

Family - Professional Photos

And here are pictures of all of us together!