Cora's Story (2 Years Late.)

Cora turned 2 yesterday and it was such a fun day. Pictures will be coming soon but for this post I want to journal her original birthday.
Pete and I always knew we wanted to be surprised with the sex of our babies. So Cora's birth was so exciting. I had always felt it was going to be a boy, no reason just felt I would have a lot of boys. That was most people's guess as well. However there was one night I had a very vivid dream of holding a baby girl in the hospital. So when we had Cora that dream all made perfect sense.
My original due date was March 30, 2007. When I had my ultra-sound the doctor moved the date up to the 25th. However he never changed it in my records so they based everything off the original date of the 30th. This made me very anxious and as it got closer to the 25th I would keep reminding the Doc that he moved up the date. But he was still set on the 30th.
On Saturday March 25th I woke up at around 9:30 am and started doing some yard work. I set out to spray weeds and just as I got started my water broke. I wasn't really sure what was going on so I just went inside and took a shower. When Pete came in to see what I was doing I asked him what he thought. He was pretty sure it was my water so he had my call the hospital. The Hospital told me to come in and get checked and see where I was at. I finished getting ready and packed up a few things and we headed to the hospital.
When we got there they took us into a room where I waited for nurse to check me. She asked if I really thought my water broke because I wasn't even dilated. I told her it better have broke or I am embarrassed. Right then it completely broke and they admitted me. That was around 12:30 pm. For the next few hours Pete and I just hung out at the hospital. And lucky for me I wasn't feeling any pain. Pete left at around 4:30 to grab some lunch and I took that opportunity to get my epidural. He hates needles and I figured it would be best to get it while he was gone. I wasn't in any pain at the moment but I knew it was going to be a long day cause I wasn't moving along very fast.
The next few hours were very un-eventful and the day moved very slow. They started me on pitocin to speed things up a little bit but all that did was freak the baby out. The heartbeat dropped dramatically and then there was flurry of activity. I had no idea what was going on but I later learned they had to clip a monitor on the baby's head. They slowed the pitocin and let my body figure things out on it's own. Eventually things started to happen.
At around 11:00 pm I started to push and at 12:37 Cora was born. I had never been so exhausted in my life. At one point I asked the nurse and Pete to leave my alone and let me sleep for awhile. I was tired and hadn't eaten in almost 30 hours. I thought for sure I wouldn't be able to do it. But I did and Cora came weighing in at 8 lb. 4 oz. and was perfectly healthy.

Cora's Vocabulary

Me "Cora you are some kind of stinky. Did you go poo poo?'
Cora "No not yet. I not poopy yet."

From the back room I hear, "Eww poo poo." Me, "Cora did you poop?" Cora, "Not yet. Later"

Me "Cora what do you want for breakfast?"
Cora "Uh, hmmm peaches, and cheese. Hmmm Kix kix kix. Hmmm Applesauce."
I will give her all of that and she will eat all of it.

If Cora doesn't want something and says NO! we ask her Cora, "what do you say?" And this is what she says, "No tank you thank you tank you."

Cora comes running from the other room, "I wanna dance." And busts out her awesome moves.

Cora says paper as if she was French, "papiere."

Her favorite songs to sing are;

"Water" = Give Said the Little Stream
"Pop" = Tiny Tim The Turtle (bubble, bubble, pop.)
"God" = I am a Child of God
"Fox" = Old McDonald Had a Fox (our own little rendition)
"Beam" = Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam
"This one" = Do As I'm Doing (She asks for this as she's patting her knees.)

Every time I put a dress on her she asks, "Church, nursery?" And the proceeds to ask about, "John, Vicki, Tirtin, Tarly, and Papa John." All her friends she sees at church.

She spends her days, "cooking", "making tooties", and "doing colors."

Her automatic response when ever we are in the car and Pete honks the horn, "Gosh, Go!" very loud.

Hawaii

This post is LONG over-due but still needed to be done. I have a great boss who rewards his employees greatly. His family owns a house in Hawaii and let's me use it. This was our second time using the house and it was great. We figured with Cora coming up on the age of 2 that we wouldn't be able to afford a trip like this for awhile. So we packed up for a 12 day trip to Oahu and were off for sun, beach, and relaxation.
The first few days we were at the house with just us three. It was so nice to relax and not have any "plans." Pete didn't have too much computer work to do so most of the time was spent lounging and watching TV together. Oahu was experiencing a ton of rain so there wasn't much beach going, but rain is Hawaii was better then the Blizzard going on at home.
A few days later our friends from Ohio; Cortney, Amy, and Will James, joined us. From then on it was a fun filled vacation. We visited lots of places, spent ample time on the beach, and ate great food. We were so lucky to be able to do it. We even took time to scout out some of the LOST filming locations. Too bad we didn't get to see Kate, Jack, Sawyer, or Hurley....

Last Meal

I am copying Cat since I love food probably more then her.
If I was on death row and had to pick one last meal I wouldn't have to think twice about it. I would have 2 entrees;
Bajio Chicken Green Chile Quesadilla with extra meat. By far my favorite meal. The extra meat is key as it adds more of the delicious onions and sweet sauce. Black beans with sweet rice, and mango salsa.
Second entree would be the Filet Steak that Pete had last week at Carraba's. It was divine. Along with a baked sweet potato.
For dessert I would ask for the Macaroni Grill Lemon cake. That thing is absolutely amazing. And the sauce it's covered in couldn't be any better.

Oldie But A Goodie

This picture was taken quite awhile ago but it's pretty funny and I totally forgot about it. Pete was asked to take pictures at the Primary Activity of the little kids as missionaries. A lady in the ward brought cardboard cut-outs of her kids on missions and the kids stuck their heads in them. They were hilarious pictures.

Stop Feeling Sorry For Me

You can all stop feeling sorry for me because I look fat in all these recent posts. Yes I do have a baby bump. Now all the rumors can stop.
(Pete just informed me that no one feels sorry for me and there are probably no rumors. For a second I thought I would be featured on the cover of US.)

Family Pictures

With Pete being a photographer family pictures are near impossible. Not only cause we are busy taking other people's pictures but Pete hates being in pictures. I convinced him that this was the year we would do family pictures and send out Christmas cards. We asked one of our favorite friends if he wouldn't mind taking a few quick shots before we went out of town. By the time Pete got home from work and we made it back to Orem it was too dark to do anything outside. So we headed to a festive holiday display at Target, yes Target.


We tried to be all sneaky and act like we were admiring the decorated trees as we arranged them to our liking. We even took a ladder from another section to boost Cora up. We got a few weird looks and security walked by extra slow but we were able to get a few shots in.


This is Pete trying to be out-of focus and therefore out of the shot. He thought it was a good idea until he realized he looked like a creepy stalker in the background. And not part of the family.