Keira's second day and coming home

My sister, Amy, totally surprised me and flew in from Indiana just to see the baby. I was SO excited.

Aunt Katie

Just loungin' on my bed

This is the cutest hospital picture I have ever taken of any of my kids - I couldn't believe how alert she was

Ready to leave the hospital

First picture at home

Keira Kauai Barker

Many of you already know, but we had our baby on October 7th and named her Keira Kauai Barker. She was born at 7:18 a.m. and weighed 7 lbs. 14 oz. She was 21 inches long. I was induced at 5:30 a.m., so she came pretty quick. Everything with the Labor and Delivery went great and I did not feel much pain at all. Keira's little foot was bent backwards inside the womb, but will eventually straighten out; other than that, she is perfect! We are so grateful to have her in our home!

Here are some pictures of the happy day!

This was taken at 4:15 a.m., just before we left to the hospital

My final picture pregnant

The Labor and Delivery Room

This was minutes after Keira was born

Jason's Mom

My mom

Happy Grandmas!

Keira's first bath. It was done in my maternity room, so I got to watch - we loved this nurse!!

Uncle Ben

Grandma Hall - It was her birthday, so that is why we picked that day to be induced.

Kelsea

Corbyn

The whole fam' (except for me of course - there was no way I was going to be in that picture in my hospital gown - eek.)

Amber

Landon wasn't too sure about what was going on - he wasn't happy in the hospital at all.

Brianna

The beautiful quilt Jason's mom made for Keira

Aunt Mariah

Jason's Dad

My mom

Beautiful Keira!

Desk and Chair

Our Elementary School did a Fall Auction to raise money for PTA and I was asked to decorate an old desk and chair to be auctioned off. It took FOREVER to finish because of all the coats of paint that had to be used to cover the old finish. I was hoping to win it in the auction, but was outbid at the last minute. Oh well. (If you can't tell, the colors are purple and turquoise.)

Goals

Yesterday was Stake Conference and our Stake President challenged each of us to read from the scriptures, 5 days a week for 30 minutes each day. The other 2 days he challenged us to read messages from the Brethren (conference talks) for 30 minutes a day. I have not been as diligent with my scripture study as in years past and am totally up for the challenge. I came home and committed myself to completing this challenge and I am actually going to use this challenge as my Faith Value Project for Young Womens (I earned my Medallion as a 17 year old, but as a leader, I want to complete the Young Womanhood Recognition for the new program). I'm really excited for this new goal in my life! I know that it will help me in MANY ways and will be very enriching!

Good-bye to "The Office"

So this will seem like a really silly post, but it's of great importance to me so here goes . . .

As many of you know, Jason and I are very particular about the types of things that we allow into our home. We quit watching PG-13 movies 11 years ago and we have never been fans of primetime TV sitcoms. There have been many times that we have been told to watch a certain show because of how funny it is, etc. etc. and each time we have realized that we did not want those types of shows in our home . . . until we saw The Office. For some reason, we just loved the ridiculous humor and dynamic of all the office workers. We got sucked in and even though I felt like we shouldn't be watching the show every time we watched it, I continued anyway. If you have seen the show or have heard about it, you know there is a lot of inappropriate material in it. We would always DVR it and then fast forward any parts that were bad. There have been many times that I have thought to myself, "you should quit watching this show," but I just couldn't do it, because I was so sucked in to the silliness of the show. I remember hearing from a friend that she "couldn't believe Jason and I watch that show" because she knows how strict we are about media influences.

Well, I am pleased to say the during the summer, I had a VERY strong feeling after one of the Sunday YW lessons we taught the girls that I MUST stop watching the show. I went home and erased it from the DVR schedule right away and I cannot tell you how wonderful the actual peace I felt was. I am not saying that everyone should stop watching "The Office" or whatever else is their guilty pleasure, but for me, I had to follow the Spirit on this one!!! Tonight is the season opener of "The Office" and I am happy to say that I'm not going to miss it one bit. It feels good to not let the influences of that show in my home. If I can't watch it in front of my kids, then I shouldn't watch it myself!

Nachoooooooooooooo!

I just have to say, I have been listening to the Nacho Libre soundtrack all day and I can't get over how funny it is. I love all the quotes and just the pure silliness of it all. When I turned on one of the songs, I looked in the back seat of the car and Landon was totally jammin' to it. I wish so bad I had had a video camera - too funny for words. Nacho Libre may be a really dumb movie (that I happen to like), but you must admit it is extremely quotable!

"When I was in the wilderness, I wrote a song for Incarnacion . . . in my mind. Want me to sing it for you?"

It's time again . . .

It's time again for me to go off of sugar, fruit, and yeast products until I have my baby next month. For those of you who don't know, I suffered from Post-partum Depression and Anxiety after my first two children and it was the most AWFUL experience of my life. After a lot of searching and figuring out ways to take care of the problem, I found that I have Estrogen Dominance and when I deliver my babies and lose all the Progesterone so quickly, it sends my body/mind into a panic. I discovered that if I get all of the sugar and yeast out of my body before delivery, my Estrogen levels go down and therefore, when I deliver, my body does not experience such an imbalance of hormones as it should. I have gone off of sugar/yeast a month previous to my last three pregnancies and have had NO problems with depression or anxiety whatsoever! Yeah. So here I go again, except that this time, I am not really going to miss it that much. I have not really eaten very many sugary things this pregnancy and I haven't craved yeast products like I normally do. I am so excited to have my baby and I think this last month is going to fly by!!!