Decisions suck . . .

  Well the time has come for me to reluctantly head back to work. I think I had myself talked into this day never coming. I was WRONG!!!!  So now the big decision on who to watch our most precious possession. I can't believe how incredibly hard it is to think of someone we can trust enough to put our baby's life in their hands. Fortunately she only needs to be watched 3 days a month max. But it still doesn't make it any easier. My mom said she would watch Austyn during January so I didn't have to worry about leaving her and going to a brand new job. Which would be super sucky. Hopefully things will work out for the best, like they usually do. I just don't think I've ever had  to make such a hard decision. Jordan has been pretty good through all of this. He just says to do whatever makes me most comfortable and happy (besides not going back to work). It's like he was reading my mind or something. Ha Ha.

  Jordan gets to be off work for 2 weeks over Christmas. Austyn and I are so excited to have him home. Jordan's recent adventure was trading (FYI: trading in boy language doesn't mean straight across. It means getting rid of something you don't like and paying whatever the difference is for something you do) our Honda Accord for a Toyota pick-up. He is so much happier driving a truck instead of a car. Whatever makes him happy right? :)

  Austyn is doing amazing. It seems like everyday she is growing, conquering another skill, and getting easier by the minute. She just had her shots and did great with them. It was so sad when she got them, but all babies need their vaccinations. She just slept for the two days afterwards. She weighs 12 pounds 12.5 ounces right now. Quite a little chunk. She is sleeping anywhere from 7-11 hours. Can't complain about that one bit. I've been trying to make it my goal to keep up on the pictures. And I've been doing fair. Time is just a slipper thing. Can't believe we're working on 4 months already.

  I have taken a position at a plastic surgery center (I wonder about employee discounts, baby's seem to make everything droopy). It's most Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Which I'm trying to talk myself into will be a nice break from Austyn. I'm not sure how convincing I'm being, but we'll roll with it for now. I think I will be starting in the next few weeks. Believe it or not I'm kind of excited about it. Or maybe that's anxiety that I'm not recognizing. Who knows. I had an MRI and found that I had a herniated disc. So I am getting a steroid injection and doing physical therapy. I'm suppose to see if that will fix it, and if not I will have surgery. Only time will tell. And as for my heart defect. I have to go up to OHSU to see a specialist and go from there. My doctor here wasn't comfortable enough and didn't know enough about it to treat me. He thinks I'll most likely have to get the hole patched up. We'll see on the 28th. I'll be happy when all this crap gets fixed and over with. What a drag.

  Gosh, hope this blog doesn't bum anyone out. I just read over it and there's a lot of complaining in there. Sorry. Maybe I should have written this on a different day! On a positive note, KODA is doing great after her third surgery to get the stick out of her throat. It was successful. They got a piece of stick the size of the end of my thumb. It was narly looking. She feels so much better and is doing great. And best of all, NO CHARGE!!!! A little persuading on my part and no bill. It would have been $650.00. So if anyone needs a vet, Veneta Vet is your place.

  I've been enjoying the holiday season so far. Can't wait for Christmas! Hope everyone is enjoying it as well. And have a wonderful Christmas and New Years!! P.S. still looking for hand me downs if anyone know of anyone. Thanks.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree . . .

  The lights are up, the stockings are hung, and the tree is decorated. It's officially Christmas season at the Petersen's. I love doing everything Christmas on my Birthday weekend. It always puts me in the holiday mood. This year the whole family went to get a tree together, Chad and Kati, Mom and Dad, and Jordan, Austyn and I. It was great. We should have taken more pictures (like always). We had a Christmas Party on Friday and it was super fun. It's a little different now that I have to be able to function the next day to take care of Austyn. But it was still a lot fun. And then Monday we went to the mall to get all of our pictures taken with Santa. I'd say it was a great Birthday weekend, like always.  

  Not much is happening besides that. Austyn is doing great. She is really getting consistent with her sleeping habits. She usually sleeps from 7 to 9 hours a night. Woo Hoo!! Happy parents :) She's changing so much. She is now giggling once and a while. Which is the cutest thing I've ever seen. She is holding her head up so good. We barely need to support it anymore. And it seems like we can practically watch her grow. Seems weird to think she's almost 3 months old. Time sure does fly. If anyone knows anybody getting rid of baby girl cloths please let me know. We would love to fall in line behind someone for hand-me-downs.

I think he got tired after decorating the tree!

Chad, Kati, Peter, and Riley

Mom and Dad and Jazmine

Our two precious girls

The whole Fam!

  Well that's it for now. Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Years!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow . . .

  I can't believe it!!!! Snow in November!!!! Maybe we'll have a white Christmas. I can't remember the last time it snowed in November. We couldn't wait to get all bundled up and go out and make the first tracks this morning. We also took advantage of the beautiful backdrop for our family Christmas card. And I thought we'd have to go out looking for snow. Who knew I'd wake up one morning and find it in the back yard. I went out before the rest of the fam to scout out good photo spots before we brought Austyn out. I had the tripod and camera all set up and all we had to do was snap the shot. I figured we had to draw the line somewhere with a 2 month old baby. So we've been enjoying the white stuff from the window. I need to get some warm one piece suites for her, so if we do want to go out. I'll feel a little more comfortable with her being warm enough.

I told her to keep her tongue in her mouth

or it was going to freeze off. But she didn't listen.



Just a skiff, but it was enough to get excited about.

  All is well with Austyn. Hope everyone had a wonderful Turkey Day!! We did!!

Elk Hunting Success . . .

  Jordan made it home on Wednesday from Elk hunting. He got a 4x5!! That's huge. He was and still is super excited. His first big animal kill. He said he got it on opening day about an hour into the hunt. It ended up taking them 6 hours to pack it out. He said it dressed out at 368 pounds so even heavier when they were packing it. My dad also got one, his is a spike, but still pretty big at 270 pounds dressed out. Way to go guys!! Jordan and TJ came home early, but the rest of the guys stayed to try and get some more. Jordan is super pumped about mounting it and eating it. Elk steaks all around!!

  I'm so glad Jordan is home. It was fun going out to dinner and shopping with my mom the whole time he was gone, but I was ready for him to be home. I was excited to see if he thought Austyn had grown since he'd left last Wednesday. And he was amazed at how she had changed. It will be nice to get into some kind of daily routine now that the corn maze is over and he's home from hunting. It seems like since Austyn's been born we have literally been on the go the entire time. I can honestly say we haven't stayed home one whole day, besides the first few days after coming home from the hospital.

  Austyn is doing great still. She has begun to sleep for 7 hours at night. Sometimes she'll even sleep for 8 hours. Makes for a happy mommy. She still loves her baths. And loves to be on the go. Good thing because I don't think she has much choice in the matter. Everyday seems to get a little easier than the last. I don't get so anxious at night anymore or when we go to a restaurant or store (I still do a little bit). Life is good!! Couldn't ask for anything better. She had her 2 month check up on Thursday and weighed 11 lbs. 5 oz., was 23 1/2 in., and her head was 15 in. She is in the 80% for her height, 65% for her weight, and 70% for her head. The doctor said she is going to tower over me. Everything else was great. They had ran out of shots so we have to go back in a month for those : ( It is so much fun watching her grow and change everyday. She has started talking so much. It entertains me for hours.

  Everything else is going great. Can't wait for Turkey Day!!

Baby update . . .

 October finally came and went for the Petersen family. Jordan worked at Lone Pine Farms helping my parents out every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from about noon to midnight. It was a long month. Austyn and I would go over everyday to try and spend time with the whole family. Since that was the only way would were able to see them. Boy am I thankful for such a little trooper. She is still a great and easy baby. She is growing like a weed. It's almost seems like I can watch her grow. We weighed her a few weeks ago and she weighed over 10 pounds so we're guessing maybe 12 pounds at her next check-up on the 18th. I'm excited to see where she's at with the percentiles. She has begun to smile so much more now. And they're real smiles now, not just the ones from gas. She also has found her mouth with her fist. It's amazing how these things just happen one moment and then she continues to get better and better. She has also been eating like she has a hollow leg lately. Almost up to 6 ounces per feeding. I think she's going through another growth spurt. We had to put her on all formula now, due to the fact that I wasn't able to produce enough for her. I tried pumping for a while and I just kept getting less and less. So I finally had to call it quits. She is doing great on it. Just a little constipated, but that's getting better as time goes on. And best of all she slept for 8 hours the other night. She has been doing like 6 or 7 hours most of the time, but she slept for a whole 8 hours!!! I was a happy mama. I hope she keeps it up. Everything else is getting easier as time goes by. Taking showers, eating, laundry, etc. has gotten back to normal now. It didn't take long, we just had to get into the swing of things.

Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen

Before Austyn was born I would always ask Jordan

what he was most excited for. And he would say:

"letting her fall asleep on my chest".

This was one of the many days at Lone Pine Farms

Here was her second Halloween costume. Her

first was a Lady Bug, but she pooped through it.

Good thing for back-ups!!

  Jordan's gone Elk hunting for a week and a half right now. So my mom and I have been bacheloretteing it. Since Austyn was born my mom had been working so much she barely got to spend any time with her. So while the boys were gone my mom has been able to spend all the time she wants with Austyn, it been great. I'm not sure when Jordan will be coming home, but it will be interesting to see if he can tell she's grown. We sure do miss him!! I hope they come home soon, and with an Elk.

  Another adventure in our lives was KODA getting cut in the mouth with a stick. The stick got thrown for her and she jabbed in the back of her throat causing a huge cut. I thought she was going to be fine but ended up having to take her to emergency vet ($$$$$) early one morning. So on top of Jordan being gone all weekend and having Austyn, KODA was needing to be spoon feed her meals : ( So of course, I loaded her up too and took her along with Austyn and myself to Lone Pine during the days. We can't stay home ya know : ) I wish I would have taken a picture of her because her right eye was swollen and draining fluids and she was drooling blood. She looked like she was a nasty junk yard dog with rabies, like Cujo or something. It was pretty sad. But she is all better now, it's just always something with that dog. Jordan and I decided for our next dog, two words: PET INSURANCE!!!!!
 
  Things we're looking forward to are the holidays and snow. It will be so much fun this year with Austyn. And even more fun next year.

  Things we're not looking forward to, you guessed it, work. I think I'll be going back after the first of the year. I don't think I'm going back to work at the hospital. I was offered a job at a private surgery center for a plastic surgeon. It's more money and a better work environment. And it's only two days a week at the most. So it won't be too bad. And I'm not looking forward to Jordan going back to his normal schedule. Although he was at Lone Pine all the time, he was home at some point every night and every morning. Too bad everyone has to work. Life would be so much fun if everyone had no jobs.

  Sorry there's not a lot of pictures, I need to be better about taking them. Hope all is well with everyone.

Life with baby . . .

  It's been three weeks now with our new bundle of joy. Everything has been so much better than I had ever expected. We have adjusted fairly well to our new routine. It was a little rough learning how to do things on someone else's schedule and with one hand. But we've managed to catch on. I find that if I get through the shower before noon, it's a good and productive day! I think all of our friends and family have seen me in my robe with a good case of bed head and second day make-up going on. Oh well, that's just how it goes I guess. Jordan has been working his tail off at Lone Pine helping my parents. He loves the work, but the hours are long. So we go over every weekend day to spend time with him and my family. We all do so much better out of the house. We definitely have an outside baby. Which is great because Jordan and I are on the go most of the time. We found ourselves the first few days getting so stir crazy that we could barely stand each other. But as soon as we got out of the house we felt so much better :)
  Austyn had her first doctors appointment last Wednesday and everything was perfect. Her weight hadn't got back to her birth weight, but I'm sure by now it has. Our next appointment is in two months. She is still a really good baby, as long as she is  fed, changed, and bounced. I have just started pumping and we introduced the bottle to her the other day. I wasn't sure what to expect, but she didn't even bat an eye at it. She sucked it down in no time flat. We were amazed. Jordan loves feeding her. He said it makes him feel like she needs him :) I love it when he's home from work. It is so nice how much he helps and does with her. It gives me a little break mentally and physically too.
  Not too much has been going on other than baby stuff. I can't believe it's already been three weeks. Man time sure does fly by. Kind of scary. Here are a few recent pictures of Austyn. Enjoy!!

Going for a walk at Lone Pine

My Aunt Debi got her this outfit and I thought it

would be cute to take her picture in the pumkins

Proud Uncle Chad bouncing her to sleep

It worked!!