Sutherland Easter

I thought I better add our Sutherland Easter on here too. You wouldn't think by my blog that we do much with them, but it's just that we see them so often that I never think to take my camera along to take pictures. Aunt Jessica (my sister-in-law) did an egg hunt for the kids & some of the eggs had puzzle pieces in them. Here they are putting the puzzle together. It was a picture of Christ & a kid on his lap. Vic & I both thought that it was a really cute idea we may take in the future :)

Afterwards, Vic did his own hunt with only a few eggs with a "grand prize" remote control robot thing or princess chess of bedroom decorations. Here is all of the kids lined up ready to go on the search.

It is always mass chaos with these kids so I just love pictures of them running all over the place. I also love that the 14-17 year olds ran around with just as much excitement & enthusiasm as the 5 year olds!

Here is a better picture of some of the younger ones:

Vic hid the egg that said grand prize a little too well so we had to give them a hint as to where it was so it was mass chaos of frantic looking in one spot at the end!

One look at these pictures & it gives you a good idea of the madness that always surrounds Sutherland get togethers... another reason I never get any pictures! He comes from a family of 8 kids that mostly live around here & my Whitney is the 26th grandkid... with plenty more still to come! (not from us, but other siblings :)

9 Months prego & swimming!

Here is a post I should have posted one month ago!:

I have been going a bit stir crazy lately & have been wanting to take Tommy swimming so we went up to 1000 springs. The drive was a bit long to the middle of nowhere, but it was really fun & we'll do it again :) Here is my friend Cara & our cute little swimmers:
I love this boys long lashes!

On the way home we stopped to see the alligators. They were very unimpressive lumps in the grass that you could barely see. Vic was quite dissapointed that he remembered it being so much cooler. It wasn't a complete waste of time though cuz I got this cute picture of him in this giant hand! (althought this is his cry/smile)

Normally I would get mad at Tommy for touching the computer as he is always trying to push buttons & be so helpful, but I don't even know how to open up this drawing program myself so I laughed when I came in the room to see this scene & had to run & get my camera before I pulled him away!

Baby Whitney is here!

Whitney Vanessa Sutherland

4.18.11

8lbs 6oz, 21in

Here we are right after she was born :)

Vic, of course, is once again the proudest, happiest daddy out there.

Tommy meeting Whitney. He was so funny- right when he crawled up into my lap he stuck his face across from hers with the biggest, silliest grin on his face.

Look at that proud brother!!

After looking, he thought he needed to give her a kiss & a hug. As you can see from the picture, he wasn't that worried about upsetting or smashing her :)

After all of his playfulness, he snuggled up next to her & decided he needed to study her face. It's hard to believe these two are siblings with their opposite hair colors!

Whitney & Grandma VanSickle (my mom)... luckily here for 3 days to help out with Tommy!

Whitney and Grandpa & Grandma Miller (my dad/stepmom)

Whitney, Uncle Darren, & Grandma & pa Sutherland (Vic's parents)

And now... THE LABOR STORY!

I'd have to say I was quite miserable going 5 days over, but it may have been very worth it as this labor was 100 times easier than the last! The last one was 23 hours, draining, & awful with an awful doctor I'd never met, & a grumpy nurse. This time...

Monday:

9:30am: I went in for doctor appt w/ my regular doctor & he said the hospital was open to induce me if I wanted to so of course I jumped all over that! Scrambled home to pack, get Tommy to a friend's, eat, & get back to the hospital by 12 to check in.

1:00pm: Doctor broke my water & told me that I was already at a 4 so I could get epidural right away. I was shocked cuz I remember how many hours of pain I had to go through last time before I could have the epidural. I was sorely tempted to do it right away, but I wanted to get this thing done with as soon as possible so I opted to walk until I felt I couldn't handle it any more.

4:00pm: I was doing just fine with only mild discomfort & suddenly within 5 minutes they got way harder & my eyes teared up on a contraction & just the memory of how painful it was last time made me panic & call for the epidural! Luckily, since it was during the day, the anesthesiologist was in house & came right up to give it to me. I was sitting pretty by 4:30. Prettyish I should say. Last time I had a spot it didn't work on the right side & this time both legs were totally numb, but right down the middle wasn't all the way numb! It made it much easier though & all I had to do was light breathing through each contraction.

6:00pm: My doctor had gotten off work & came to check on me before he went home & it was a good thing he did because I was already at a 9 1/2! He went & got dressed down, gathered up the needed staff, & by that time I was fully ready to push. I still pushed her out in 4 minutes just like last time, but this time I could feel it-- making it way harder to want to push! I hate that I could feel it, but glad to have the experience of knowing what it feels like to have a little HUMAN come out of me! Total time was just under 6 hours which was AMAZING. I can't believe how different having a baby can be! I can now understand why women can do it more than twice :) AND... even though epidurals never seem to work perfectly... thank goodness for that modern miracle!!

Naming this little girl was a challenge! Little Miss Whitney came out & I seriously would not believe she was mine if I hadn't seen her come out of me! When we went to the hospital we had the name Whitney Vanessa picked out because I thought this baby was going to look just like Tommy, but girly. So when I saw this little girl I had no idea what to call her! I kept going back & forth between names & really just felt weird naming a little girl that I was still having a hard time believing was mine! Finally I just decided that the name Whitney is cute & she is cute so they match :) I still am not sold on the name for her, but I'm sure it will grow on all of us. I picked out Whitney so Vic got to pick out Vanessa.

24 hours later & I'm really starting to feel the awful pain of healing and the rocky road to recovery, but it is all so worth it when I look at Whitney's sweet little face. She is so tiny and lovable & I can't wait to spend the next 6 weeks 100% at home with her :)

Here is one more shot of this little cutie with her sweet little feet poking out- you can't really see the blanket that well in this picture, but Vic's mom made her another one of her amazing blankets. We are so lucky she has such talent!

Tommy's Update

My little Whitney is refusing to come out (she is now 4 days late) & I haven't said much about Tommy lately so I thought I'd share this adorable kid of mine. He is now 16 months and constantly moving. I'm sure everyone thinks their kid has way too much energy, but Tommy really does! I have strangers constantly comment on how busy he is. Him always moving makes it easy for him to entertain himself while I get stuff done at least! My brother called him Tommy Tornado when we went to visit there & it has sort of stuck to him because we realized that is exactly what he is! If you see him coming, then watch out! It's not in a bad way, as he is the happiest, smiliest little guy... just a daredevil that is always testing his boundaries & getting bruises all over him :) He finally learned to dance & now does it all day long & loves it when I sing to him. (probably the only person that wants to hear that noise!) He is a 100% Daddy's boy. When Vic is around he doesn't want to go to anyone else. I love watching the two of them play together- it is nonstop giggles from Tommy which makes me laugh every time. He knows he can get what he wants without talking so he prefers to pull us to whatever he wants & point, but he signs & says "more" consistantly. Other words are: duck, bubbles, mama, dada, no, Carter, baa (for sheep), & grrr (for anything fuzzy), where'd it go, and Vic swears he said baseball today. I have a hard time believing that one! His favorite game is hide and seek whether it be him hiding behind the curtain, me sticking a blanket over my head, or hiding something & trying to find it. He is obsessed with any form of the game!

Summed up... a CUTE face that is impossible not to LOVE!!!

Where is baby?!

I am 40 weeks today!!! So why am I still posting? ...because I am one of those unlucky girls that get to go over EVERY time! I hate knowing people that had due dates after me & they are already holding their sweet little baby. It's so not fair!! I went to the doctor today & I've started to dilate, but doesn't want to induce me for another week. I can't imagine having to go an entire week longer. yuck. I am officially ready for the baby to come now! I finished my last day of work, did all of my errands, did all of the laundry, & cleaned the house. Now I have nothing to do, but sit & wait!! This is not the most flattering picture, but it is the only profile picture I took this pregnancy. It is a week ago at 39 weeks. I have been busy doing lots of little projects that always seem to take longer than they should! We loved this little moses basket for Tommy & used it a ton as a travel bed everywhere we went. I didn't want to spend another $50 so I decided to recover it to make it girly. Many times I thought it wasn't worth the money, but I'd already bought the fabric so I kept telling myself I had to finish! I'm happy with the results & can't wait to see a precious girl in it!

Then I figured I'd finally get around to finishing Tommy's letters. I painted these circles & put them up before he was born, but I never got around to ordering the vinyl lettering for it so here is the final project after a year!

...and now I can finally post a picture of his finished nursery. (Still no finished room for the little girl to come, maybe next year!)

I love when I see tiny little flowers on headbands for newborns so I decided to make a few of those too. Here is Tommy as my poor model :)

I made MORE bows! haha, I'm obsessed now. It is so much fun to make them! I thought these were fun because you can pick any outfit, go to the fabric store, find a bolt of fabric that matches, & only buy an inch or two for 30cents. Click HERE for the tutorial.

I was so in love with these bows that I made a bunch more & have been enjoying wearing them in my own hair!

Baby Girl on the Way!

I had a bow making party with a few of my closest friends to celebrate a baby girl on the way. I called it a "BLING OUT BABY" party & tried to have lots of bling around (besides all of the bows we made!) Here is a picture of our lunch table. It was fun to walk in the room & be blasted by pink. Can't wait to do that to a girl's room one day! Little closer view:

Yummy pink candies.. also did mini tissue poms. I was going to use them as napkin rings, but then I liked the flowers better.

Blinged out everything I could... vases, pots, placetags, & even the silverwear

I added some bling to her pacifiers. Hopefully it helps Tommy know it isn't his!

My gorgeous friends :) Shelly, Brittany, Wendy, Erin, me, Anna

And after lunch we made LOTS of bows! Check out all my new bows. I made them with baby in mind, but I'm sure I'll be wearing my fair share of them too!

My favorite were the most time consuming of course... check out the post below to see a tutorial on how to make those :)

Silk & tulle bow Tutorial

I just learned how to make this gorgeous hair bow & thought I'd share :) First cut 3 circles of silk each slightly bigger than the other. Then cut 6 slits almost to the center to create 6 petals. Then shape the petals by cutting the corners off each petal. It'll look kind of square & definitely doesn't need to be symmetric. Now cut 6 strips of tulle a bit longer than the length of the silk circles & tie 3 of them together like below: Then burn the edges of all of the silk flowers to look like this:

Now Layer them biggest silk, tulle, middle silk, tulle, & smallest silk. You can either hot glue or sew them into place. I just used hot glue. Then trim the tulle down to just longer than the silk & burn just the tips.

Add some pearls in the middle & you are done! I can't wait to make a bunch more colors! Here are the few I've done so far: (the purple one is just round circles layered on top of each other with tulle & silk)

St. Patrick's Day Treat

I was reading Holly's blog & saw THIS post and was inspired to make my own St. Patrick's Day treat for a few lucky friends & the girls I visit teach. (I changed the words a little for the girls I visit teach.) Below is a picture of my 'pot of gold' Hershey nuggets & Rolos bag & what I wrote on the inside. It's fun to make friends smile with little treats like this so by sharing I hope it inspires you to make a fun little treat for someone out there :)

Snow at Last!

I kept wanting to blog on here, but I was trying to wait until Tommy & I were both finally healthy. I can't believe how long it took, but I can now say that we've both been healthy for an entire TWO days! Life is so much more positive when you can see straight! The best part about it is that we finally got snow! We haven't seen snow since Thanksgiving so I was pretty excited. We went down by the canyon to tube on the hill & look how pretty the walls were:

It was the perfect sunny day to go sledding.

Tommy was pretty tickled pink. He was so happy to be outside & I think he really loved sliding down the hill. He usually cries when his feet touch the snow, but today he insisted walking up the hill by himself and stared down at his feet the whole way. It was pretty stinkin' cute to see him waddeling up the hill... we had him bundled up in 4 pairs of pants, new bulky big shoes, & 2 hats (since we lost his!)

Later we went miniature golfing with our friends, the Heiders. I couldn't believe it was the first time that they'd taken their kids age 2 1/2 & 5! They absolutely loved it & Dillon, their 2 1/2 year old cried when we left because he wanted to keep going. Tommy was happy just to carry the glow in the dark balls around. Hopefully he loves it when he gets older too.

My cute golfers.

I really meant to get my first profile prego picture today, but forgot as we seemed to have been rushed the entire day. I can't believe I'm 33 1/2 weeks along without a picture yet! As for an update: We still haven't agreed on a name yet. I have, however, bought her lots of hats & bows :) I have now surpassed how much I weighed when I went into labor with Tommy so that is pretty depressing, especially cuz it's already hard to bend over & get around. I feel like a "fat man in a little coat" waddling around everywhere I go! I have also found that this pregnancy is way more of an emotional roller coaster than the last. I get down so easy, I guess it is all that extra girl hormone inside me! 6 1/2 more weeks... I'm getting close to counting it on one hand, that is the good part :)

SICK of sick!

I know this isn't a very uplifting post, but seriously... do you ever just get so SICK of all of the bugs flying around during the winter! Tommy & I were sick for 3 weeks at the end of November/beginning of December & then we got home from vacation & got another cold for 2 weeks. Tommy is now over his cold & back to his happy self, although his sleeping schedule is very messed up.
AND why I'm writing this is because... I am STILL sick! Well, I'm no longer the contagious yucky cold sick, but I have my first sinus infection. It is awful. It is so weird to walk into a room & know I should be smelling dinner, but don't & I can't taste a thing. I am always having to check Tommy's bum just in case he pooped cuz I have no clue cuz I can't smell! ...can't hardly hear anyone or myself, I'm always popping the Tylenol to relieve the pressure in my head....AND as another bonus I can't sleep at night because when I lay flat the pressure builds in my head. I am wishing we had a recliner so I could sleep on that. Oh yes, and add to that the misery of being 7 months awkward pregnant too!
Haha! This is such a venting post :) I just have to say I am so tired of going through a kleenex box a day, hoping for Tommy to take an extra long nap, but most of all that I keep wishing for each day to pass quickly with hope for relief in the next day. BEING SICK IS NOT LIVING, it is SURVIVING! and therefore.... I am SICK of being SICK!
So, please thank the Lord for your health tonight & enjoy that workout, playing with your kids, finishing up your projects, cleaning, etc. because all those things mean that you are healthy & well & have the energy to get off the couch!