Rachel's First Power Outage & Fire Alarm

Thursday night was quite an adventure. I love monsoon season down in Arizona. Once or twice a week, there is a huge rainstorm and it just pours! On Thursday night, the monsoon hit our neighborhood very hard and all sorts of things were flying against our windows and we thought that they would come crashing in (we later read in the newspaper that winds got up to 100 mph). Then the power went out around 10pm. The rain/wind finally calmed down and we went to bed. At 2:00am (power still out), the fire alarm started going off in the whole building. There were ear piercing alarms in our apartment and all down the hallway. I checked the hallway and none of our neighbors were leaving, so we went out to our patio. All of our neighbors were on their patios too and they assured us there was no fire. I guess this used to happen a few years ago when the condos were new. Anyway, the ear piercing alarm was somewhat muffled on our patio, so we took a seat to wait for the fire department to come turn off the alarm. They arrived and couldn't turn it off for some reason - the building manager would need to come and turn them off. So we waited and waited and waited. I fed Rachel and she thought this was awesome since mom and dad were both up in the middle of the night and she got to be outside - so exciting. Then we waited and waited and waited. Around 4am, Brandon was getting real frustrated, so he decided to try to cover up the alarms in our apartment. His solution was to tape pillows over the alarms. I had to take a picture. Once we got the alarms covered and started putting cotton in our ears, they finally turned off at 4:15am! The adventures didn't end, since the power was still off. That meant NO A/C and it started to get real warm. The next morning, we were able to stay in the apartment until 11am, and then we had to get out. Rachel and I went to Target and Costco and then spent the afternoon at Natalie's air conditioned apartment. The power finally came back on Friday afternoon.

p.s. We went to Cold Stone (yum!) the other night and Brandon totally choked and got Blueberry Muffin Batter Ice Cream with rainbow sprinkles. I've gotta give Cold Stone props for making it taste exactly like blueberry muffin batter, but that is just gross. And sprinkles! I think sprinkles in ice cream should be outlawed. Brandon ended up throwing away half of it.

Baby "Un"Wise but still loving every minute

This week I have been trying to figure out Rachel's sleep schedule. The doctor mentioned that she should be sleeping through the night very soon (since she is 13 pounds) and she should also get a very long afternoon nap. I have been keeping track of her sleeping for the last week and we are not quite where we need to be, but she is happy and we are still loving every minute. She still sleeps in between every feeding during the day, but will only sleep for 40 minutes - it's like clock work. Occasionally in the afternoon, I can put her back to sleep when she wakes up after the standard 40 minutes, but it's hard work. And I cannot complain, because she sleeps very good at night and only wakes up once to eat and can sleep up to 6-7 hours straight depending on the night. It just confuses me, especially when I read about what her schedule should be at two months from various sources. I have read both Baby Wise & Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and have tried to incorporate things I like from both. I also still swaddle her (a must) and have recently tried a noise maker. Any advice from the experts would be lovely!

We took her swimming last night after the sun went down and it was still 104 degrees. It didn't last all that long, but it was SO FUN!


We also went to the hospital to visit our new friend, Cole Perkinson, who is so precious and teeny (only 6 lb 6 oz). Congrats on the new beautiful baby, Kasey! Funny story - while we were at the hospital, I was feeding Rachel a bottle and she had a small explosion (nothing I can't handle these days) until I picked her up away from me to change her... and it was all over MY shirt.

Phoenix Fun

Rachel had her two month appointment this week and she has grown a lot! She is 13 pounds and 24 and 3/4 inches. She is in the 90th percentile for her weight and off the charts for her height. Her shots went fine (she got super mad for only a minute) and then was groggy the rest of the day, so we all took the opportunity to go shopping at a mall that evening - great fun since she slept the whole time. :) I included some of the latest pictures below.

Lots of smiles these days - so fun!

Funny face

Loves to cuddle with dad

Tummy time wears me out sometimes

I never posted pictures of our Phoenix apartment... The furnished one bedroom apartment has been just perfect and the amenities are fantastic (i.e., washer/dryer in unit). It has also been great to have it be close enough to Brandon's work that he walks everyday.

Rachel's Photo Shoot

I am so happy with Rachel's photos that my friend took while we were visiting in Utah. Rachel was 4 weeks old in these pictures. Now she is 7 weeks. This was a first for me too - I never realized how stressful "picture day" can be - I was completely exhausted afterwards. She is usually a peach, but did not like this photo shoot...Emily had her work cut out for her. She quickly put together an announcement for me too. I put a lot of my favorites in a slide show below. Thanks so much, Emily! She is located in Utah county and does such a great job. Check out Emily's website: www.imagesbyem.com

Lots of updates...

The summer is flying by and we are having such a great time! Rachel is the joy of our lives and the last 7 weeks have been incredible - I think we'll keep her!

We blessed her in Arizona today and everything went great - thanks to the family and friends who traveled to come share Rachel's big day. Her blessing dress is special because my mom and I were both blessed in this dress - it's so pretty and old fashioned. Here are some pictures of her big day (the third one of her smiling and playing with her dress is my favorite).




There's a first for everything and two weeks ago, Brandon and I got to go to the Diamondbacks v. Cubs game at Chase Field. We went with his firm and since they had box seats, we decided to bring Rachel - her first of many Cubs games! Go, cubs, go!

Rachel and I spent 3 days last week in Oceanside, California in a beach house with my parents and brother, Cade. It was so fun to play in the sun and Rachel absolutely loves being outside. Can you believe that she has already been on four plane rides? She loves airplanes too and has been an angel on every flight!


While Rachel and I were relaxing at the beach, Brandon was back in Phoenix working hard. And he turned 25! Happy Birthday, Brandon!

Brandon and I celebrated our 3rd Anniversary on July 22! The Saturday before, our beloved Ford Focus overheated and broke down and left us stranded at a Denny's for a few hours. Anyone ever nursed in a corner booth in the back of a Denny's? I have and would not recommend it. :) Luckily we have good friends that came to our rescue! The mechanic did not have good news - it needed more work than the car was worth, so we started looking for a new car. Here's the new addition to our family (a 2006 Nissan Altima):