The Big Move

last Monday Kyla turned 3 months old and she moved over to her Crib this past tuesday or wednesday. Everyone I talked to said that when they moved their baby it was great, and they got more sleep... that was not the case with us. Once she moved to her room she was getting up every couple hours, I felt like I had a two week old new born on my hands. We thought she was getting too cold so we stuck a heater in the room with her, and voila she sleeps great! Tonight she was fussy around 7:30 so we thought she would take an hour nap (that seems to be her lengths of her naps) and here it is 11:15 and she is still sleeping... I am nervous what this night has instore.

Kyla's Blessing

I realized I haven't written about Kyla's Blessing. She was blessed October 12th in Kennesaw ward. We would have done it in our own ward (Kennesaw Mountain) but they were having Stake Conference that weeknd, and it was important to have her blessed on the 12th because my mom was in town and I wanted her to be there to see her blessed.

Seth blessed her along with Grandpa McLeod, Corey McLeod, Jeff James, Jon Thayer, Dan Scherer, Stephen Futral, Jake Stewart. Ethan was part of it by hold the mike for Seth to speak into.

Seth asked for many blessings for her in her life, but the own that stuck out to me the most was the blessing of service. In today's world, people (in general, not all) expect some kind of reward for giving service, instead of just giving to give. I thought for Seth to ask for her to give service was amazing, and I hope that as her parents we can teach her to give service without wanting anything in return.

When she recieved the blessing she was quiet not a peep. Her dress was beautiful my mother-in-law made it for her, and she looked beautiful!

After the blessing and sacrament Seth Kyla, Grandma Butler, and I went home, to get everything ready for the luncheon.

We had a luncheon for family and friends that helped with Blessing Kyla. That day was a beautiful day and I am so grateful for the church that we were able to bless her and that she is known.

**on a side note** We are so blessed for the family and friends we have here in our area. I am so happy that I have friends with babies, so I am not home all day by myself but have girls to have play dates with. I am so grateful for the examples that my friends are to me, and how talented they all are, with the various skills they have. I am grateful for Seth's family being so close and how wonderful they are to me and my family.

The Butler Family has come and gone

Over the past two months, my mom, my dad and his girlfriend, and my sister have all come to visit to see the new addition to the family. My mom loves her so much she decided to get up and move to Georgia. She will be moving here around March. My dad and his girlfriend came down for a weekend, and I think it finally set in that my dad is a grandpa. And then my sister was here for ten days she spend thanksgiving with me and my mcleod side of the family in florida. She left today (I am trying to talk her into moving to Georgia. She was wonderful with her, and I can see she will be a great mom in the future!

Family is such a great blessing! I remember being in high school and just counting down to moving out, but now I look back and I wish I had used my time with my family better, and that my sister and I could have hung out more when we lived together. That is something i want to instill into my children is the want and love of family. I am so grateful for my husband and his hard work. Kyla and I are so blessing to have a husband and father that is so giving and loving. I hope that when our children are older, they want to spend time as a family and look forward to being with their family. I know that is a silly dream because everyone wants that, but some dreams are silly :)

I'm bored


8 is great.

8 TV shows I watch:
-Chuck
-Heroes
-Desperate Housewives
-The Hills
-The Office
-My Name is Earl
-Eureka
-Paris Hilton; My new BFF

8 favorite restaurants:
-Ippolitos
-The Cheesecake Factory
-El Encanto (though it sold out recently)
-Pappasitos
-PF Chang's
-Marketstreet Grill
-Panda Express
-Sapporos

8 things that happened yesterday:
- Kyla Spit up on my bed
- Had a baby I am watching come over
- The house phone rang nonstop
- Took a shower
- Did some laundry (not enough though)
- Surfed Craigslist ( I am addicted)
- looked at houses on the internet (the one I want is still available)
- watched aladin

8 things I'm looking forward to:
- Selling our house
- Having my sister visit (Friday she flies in)
- Going to Flordia (we leave on monday!)
- Kyla's dr appt i want to know how much she weighs
- buying our new house
- christmas music
- shopping with my sister
- for jill not to be sick and to find out what she is having!

8 things on my wish list:
- to get the house we want
- for this house to sell
- for my baby to grow up healthy and happy
- to be more organized
- to visit my sister more often
- become better in fashion and decorating
- for my family to be happy
- to teach my baby all I can

8 things I love:
- Seth
- Kyla
- Hero (our dog)
- organized people
- planning the new house
- looking at houses
- the caribbean
- spending time with my family

8 things I can't stand:
- fake people
- the cluter that doesn't seem to go away
- my impatience (I am not very patient with adult and need to get better)
- SPIDERS (will have to agree with Jill)
- stains
- anything on my fingers (salt, oil, cooking stuff, anything)
- that I didn't get my degree yet (it will happen eventually, I am so close)
- being in a dark house

I tag Kimberly, Amber, Pomai, and Ashley

Kyla's First Photo Shoot!

So we took Kyla to her first photo shoot at Portrait Innovations yesterday. We thought it was going to be a little difficult because she was a little fussy but she did great! Here are some of the pictures.

Little bit of an update!

So I have a few minutes to spare while Kyla sleeps. Her sleeping pattern is not the normal newborn sleeping pattern, she is awake for most of the day and sleeps at night. This sounds great but I can't get much done during the day because she is awake and wants to be held. I am enjoying just holding her though because soon enough she will be crawling and will want to be on the move. Also from the second day home she has been a great sleeper at night. We will put her to bed at 10:30ish and I won't have to get up until 3:30ish and then again at 7:30ish... but then she is up for a while. On Saturday night she went to bed at 10:00 in her carseat (and her halloween costume) we thought we will let her sleep and in a couple hours she will wake up and we will take her out, we went to bed and she started stirring around 4:30!!! She slept all buckled up in her carseat for 6 and a half hours.

Also another exciting thing that happened this past weekend is that she rolled over! I was home with her while Seth was at school and I was giving her some tummy time on the guest bed while I was on the computer. I then noticed she was trying to flip to her back, next thing I know she is on her back! I thought it was a fluke so I put her back on her tummy and she rolled to her back. I went a got the camera and video taped it, I would put it up here but have no idea how.

Also I wanted to talk about this in my last post but didn't have time. Looking at my last post I posted a picture of Kyla with a Doll. This Doll is a big deal! Her name is Cindy and Grandma Butler got Cindy for Kyla. I truely hope this doll is important to Kyla like my doll was so special to me. I have a doll named Jane and she was given to my mom for my baby shower. This doll went with me everywhere, friends houses, girls camp, college, she even took a trip with me to New York. My doll was my little buddy and now she sits in Kyla's room. So when I knew we were having a girl I was on search for the perfect doll, then my mom, kyla and I were at a cute little tea cottage down in acworth and found Cindy. The other doll in the picture is the cute doll that Jill made for her that matches a quilt she made for her. I am still trying to come up with a name for her.

The Past Month

So I haven't updated for a while but this past month has been busy but so much fun! Kyla has grown so much, she was 8.4 and 20 inches at birth and at her one month she was 9.10 and 21.25 inches... my little baby is growing up! My mom came to visit for a week and is planning to come back in January to look for a place... she is planning to move out here in March... CRAZY! Well here are some pictures of our little girl!





I will post more stories and details later!

Baby Kyla is here!

So we finally have our little girl that we had been waiting forever to be born (yes it was only 4 days past her due date but we were so eager four days seemed so long!) She was born on 9/15/2008 at 7:30 on the dot. She weighed 8.4 and was 20 inches long.

A long story made short about the labor and delivery. Sunday night my water broke at 11:45, we went into the hospital, we checked in at 1ish and sat in triage for 3 hours. They checked me and I hadn't even started contractions, I was only 1 cm. Once we were placed in a labor and delivery room they started the pitocin. I eventually started getting contractions but they didn't seem bad. By 6 am I was not very comfortable and the pitocin was making me not feel so good. I debated the thought of an epidural but I didn't want one if I was close to 10cm, I felt one more contraction and decided I didn't want to feel the next. I had the epidural put in and they checked to see how far along I was, I was only 2.5 almost 3 cm. I am greatful I got the epidural. Well the next day we just hung out and let to pitocin do its job... although we didn't do much for the day I wasn't bored, I think seth was though. For one reason or another I just wanted the room to be quiet, which is not a common thing for me. I had to have oxygen for part of the day, so it made it hard to talk. By 5:30 pm it was time to push... and there I was with Seth to my left and Marla to my right. I pushed and between each push I slept. I have 30 second power naps. Then at 7:30 she was born sunny side up with a cone shaped head.
She was 8 lbs 4 oz and 20 inches long.

We were suppose to leave the hospital on Wednesday after her cultures came back (I has group b strep and they did not get enough antibiotics into my system before she was born, so she had an IV in the whole time we were in the hospital which was hard to see on my baby). After her tests came back and she was good, they discharged her. Then they took my vitals one more time and were going to discharge me... BUT my blood pressure jumped so they didn't feel comfortable me leaving, so we stayed another night. It was nice that my baby and hubby could be with me.

The next day (Thursday) we got the okay to go at 10 but the doctor wanted to see us, so we had to wait for her to come to the room... 4 hours later she finally came and stayed for 2 minutes just to tell me to make an appt on monday and that we could go home.

Now that we are home we have been having lots of fun! We love our little girl we are so happy she is home with us. The first night it still seemed alittle different and not like reality but she is doing great!

Here we are September 12th and still no baby

So yesterday was September 11th which was my due date and Baby McLeod was going to be here... we actually hoped she would be here earlier than that day but the 11th would have been fine... now here it is the 12th and I am still carrying this bowling ball (okay it is as big as a watermelon) on my tummy. She seems content just hanging out right where she is. I personally think she has over stayed her welcome and needs to come already and I think Seth feels the same way. 9 months of pregnancy has taken its toll on me and Seth, he misses being able to hug me and the Worm pillow in bed has taken over the whole bed.

Playing the Waiting Game!

Now that I have hit 37 weeks I am just waiting for her to come! I stay up thinking about what it will feel like to go into labor, and if I will know if I am in labor. I am also starting to dream about the actual labor experience, last night I dreamt that it was easy and fast, it was so fast that I couldn't remember the details... my husband's response this morning was wouldn't it be nice to have it that easy. Her room is almost finished, and we have packed for her, now we just need to pack for ourselves. Everyone is telling me to enjoy the time she is in my tummy that I will get more sleep with her there, but if that is the case I will no longer need a bed in my house because I am already up every hour it feels like then I lay there for a couple hours trying to fall back to sleep.

Also the family that I helped out for a couple months with their little boy (who is now two!) just had a little girl four weeks ago and she is adorable, so it makes me want ours all the faster to hold and see.

I am so excited to see what she is going to look like!

Funny

So Seth was showing me these funny signs, and I thought this one was hilarious, it might not be very appropriate but it is definately funny!


see more pwn and owned pictures

We now can get her home!

So even though I have a little less than a month, my dad gave us her carseat and stroller! We are so excited, it is the Graco Rittenhouse pattern that is adorable! We wanted this carseat because it holds a heavier baby than some of them, and being that Seth and I were both big babies we assume ours will be also! Along with that we got the matching stroller I was going to get the lighter of the two but ended up liking the heavier one!

So I am really excited, when I hit 37 weeks (next thursday) I am going to put the car base in the car!

The pack n' play showed up today also, from my extended family! I am so excited, now I just have to talk Seth into setting it up for in our room, even though she won't be here for a while, just so we feel ready!

She should be coming so SOON! I am getting really excited, all the worries of school and not finishing right now are behind me. I have decided that Heavenly Father knows what is best for me and I am going to trust him. I am so excited to be a mommy, and have our little bundle of joy. Plus seeing Seth with babies makes my heart melt, and I have no doubt that he will be an awesome Dad! I love my husband so much!

(Soon to be) Mama at 35 Weeks!

So I have just hit my 35th week, two more to go until full term! I am so excited. Being pregnant in the summer is not all that bad, many people in the stores will comment on how I must be so uncomfortable because of the heat, and yes I am uncomfortable but not because of the heat. I actually like being pregnant in the summer and wouldn't mind doing it again. I love that I don't have to bend over to put on socks, and I don't have to put layer upon layer. Another positive is the seasons that I get to work on getting my prepregnant body back are going to be cold so I can wear a little baggier of clothes and get ready for swimsuit season again!

I never realized it before but I am going to make sure I don't take advantage of ever again. I miss sleeping on my stomach, I was telling Seth after I give birth I am sleeping on my tummy. Also just bending over to pick something up. Sometimes when I am home and drop something I think "Do I need that item right now, if not, I will get it later" So if you come over and find random things on our floor you now know why. (But I am getting really good at picking things up with my foot!) Also I will not miss the heart burn, I probably wake up twice every night with this heart burn and it is not fun. The chalky candies are my food a preference, and milk is my best friend.

So here is an up-to-date picture that Seth took last night.

Good Bye Logan

So a couple weeks ago Seth's brother, Logan (Now Elder McLeod) left on his mission for two years. We are very excited for him, and wish him much success out there! He is a great example to us and those in Georgia, I am sure he is going to touch many lives in Brazil.

Mom and Dad McLeod with Logan

Ethan and Makayla with Logan

Corey and Leah with LoganSeth and I with Logan

The Decision of Cloth Diapers

Now that it is coming down to the end of my pregnancy (YAY) Seth and I have to start deciding how we are going to handle different items of baby life. We have decided on using cloth diapers. I know what everyone is thinking, we must be crazy, but it is something I am so excited about.

I have a few reasoning behind my madness

1) It is a heck of a lot cheaper than disposals

2) It causes less diaper rash

3) It can help potty train the child quicker

4) And the best reason... (I have talked to 8 women who have confirmed this) they have never had a blowout with a cloth.

We have decided to only do cloth at home, and we don't expect people other than Seth and I (and anyone else who would like to experience it) to work with these diapers. So we will be using disposals out of the house, and probably at night (until I figure out which cloth ones can make it through the night)

I am bummed that there is no place in GA that sales cloth, but when I was in AZ I picked up a couple brands and kinds and then I got some off line.

The pastel are Kissaluvs (they are for newborns up to 15 or 16 lbs)

The pink one is a bum genius (it is an all on one (which means you don't need a cover) and it fits a baby from 7lbs to 35 lbs)

White is the Happy Heiny (One size, so it is suppose to fit 7 lbs to 35 lbs)

The purple is a Thirsties (which

fits newborn to 15 or 16 lbs)

Then I got a couple diaper covers. I have one more diaper in the mail called Tallulah baby, it is a little company in Utah and the grandma makes them.

I am really excited about the Tallulah Baby one, it is an All in One but it is made for the size of the baby because the one size fits all doesn't always work. Plus they are so cute! I ordered one in a melon orange color.

And last but not least I ordered a Wet Bag... This allows me to put the diaper that is dirty in the bag and it will not smell or leak. Its print is of Monkeys in Yoga Positions! It is adorable. I will use this when we are in Flordia for Thanksgiving, (there is a washing machine there) and I am thinking I might not need a diaper pail I will just use it around the house. We will see though.

When Baby McLeod arrives and we actually get to try my cloth diapering experience I will definately post what I think.

Oh and we aren't going to the extreme of reuseable wipes, huggies another type of wipe is fine with us!