I think I'm ready to start really keeping up on this blog. In february we invested in a much nicer camera and I need a place to show off my pictures!

So much has happened in the past year, I'll just give a little overview:

Chris received a promotion in february, which has been a tremendous blessing to us. He has been working very hard on his schooling and is doing so well! He was formally accepted into the business school and will start his upper division classes in the fall.

I'm still getting used to the stay at home mom life, but I love it for the most part. It is difficult to not let my days get away from me without the structure that I used to have with school and work, but we're getting better. Erika and I have fun together, especially now that she is learning words. I try to read to her as much as I can and she is picking up new things quickly. I am have two callings in my ward that keep me busy as well; activity days and relief society enrichment night committee.

Erika loves all things dogs and My Little Pony. She is exploding with energy and happiness while Chris and I do our best to keep up. Her vocabulary is ever-expanding, as well as her memory for people, games and objects. She says Mommy very distinctly, but hasn't quite mastered Daddy. She can point to her eyes, ears, mouth and belly button. She is getting better at answering yes and no questions and is very particular about everything she does. All in all, she has embraced toddlerhood with overwhelming independence. She and I took swim lessons in June and she has become quite the fish.

The two biggest items in our life recently are the acquisition of a new minivan (finally a second car!) and a zoo membership! We've been to the zoo with a lot of friends and family!

Have some zoo pictures!

Our first zoo trip! The Aunts and Uncle loved taking their favorite (and only) niece.

A very friendly sea lion

She is definitely a grandpa's girl!

Look! A baby gorilla!

Erika with one of her best friends

On the train with Davis cousins!

Erika's closest cousin in age

Don't let her face fool you, she loves the zoo!

More cousins!

Birthday and Baby Blessing

Last week was so busy! I turned 22, but, side note, my 22 looks nothing like Taylor Swift's. I have a beautiful baby, an adoring husband and a cute house. Taylor should be jealous! We blessed our baby on Sunday and it just turned out to be a wonderful day. Everything was perfect and I could not be happier about all of it, but getting ready was sure stressful. Amid all the stress though, we did have some fun! My front door got a much needed make over! I really should have taken a before picture because it is amazing how under an hour of effort and 20 bucks made such a huge difference! I have always wanted a red door since I was a little girl. My mother painted her door red on the house where I grew up and I always loved it. Now I am the mother and I have a house of my own and I get to have the red door! I'm so giddy about it. I love it so much.

Before the red it was a very worn wood door with hardly any finish and a strange design. You can still see the design, but it is much more subtle. I was going to do two coats of paint, but the wood soaked up the first coat so beautifully. It looks like a distressed red stain. I love the combination of the red door and white shutters. I love our house. I love my life! You can also see the bench Chris got me for my birthday! It was a total surprise. I have been saying I want a bench since before we even closed on the house. Baby girl and I have loved sitting on it in the afternoons when the porch is shady. It is a wonderful spot. All in all it was a great birthday and blessing day. I have the best family! I am so glad to be blessed with so much love and happiness.

This is my favorite picture from the blessing. And it's in front of my red door!

Seems like always...

This post is late. But happy one month to Erika! She is starting to put on a little chub as you can see. Aren't those cheeks just so pinchable?

Baby Girl is one month old already!

It seems as though she has always been part of our lives. We love her so much! Not only has she worked her way into our hearts, buy she has worked her way into our house! 

This is what my house looked like on Friday

We had an exciting time at the Norseth house! It was early Christmas! I received a few gift cards to Babies 'R Us and I finally got around to using them. I've been watching and waiting for a good sale and 15% off and free shipping isn't too bad! Especially for a specialty store. I do a lot of research into items before I buy. I like to get the most bang for my buck. It was difficult to decide what I needed the most because we really have everything essential. I considered using all the money for diapers, but BRU is very expensive and I love my Walmart brand. Plus, what fun is that? I considered getting a baby swing, but they did not have the one I liked and again, that store is so expensive! A lot of their items I could get on Amazon or at Walmart at a much better price. We ended up deciding that we needed a high chair eventually and we would also need some place to keep the baby on our camping trip next month since we are staying my parents' trailer. With that in mind I went looking. I delved into reviews and price comparisons. Here is what we ended up with:

Safety First Prelude Sport Playard - Citrus

After much research I have come to the conclusion that pretty much all playpens are created equal. They go up and down the same way, they are all roughly the same size, and they are all very heavy. So the only differences are the accessories that come with the playpen and the color. This one is orange and has a bassinet, a changer, and storage. I will admit, I have been pretty bummed about not getting cute girly baby gear, because I wanted to use it again with any children I have later on. I splurged a bit. I got a fairly girly pattern. I know, I'll probably have little boys someday. But I really love this design. It did look much more orange and red than it did pink online, but I knew that from all the review reading I did. I love how summery it looks. It isn't extremely pink, but it is extremely adorable.

Erika is very happy with the bassinet feature 

Mom really likes the changing station

This was my present, a new diaper bag! I already had one that I loved, but I found out pretty quick that when you go out for an extended period you need a lot of stuff. This one is quite a bit bigger, not massive like some of them out there, but it is bigger. But that means heavier too, so I think now with one small and one big bag I have covered my bases. Little bag for quick trips, big bag for days out. I do love that this bag has lots of pockets for organization and the pattern is cute!

Cute pattern, bro.

Lastly, our portable high chair. I ended up loving this way more than I thought I would. At first I wasn't too keen on the tiny strap-on chairs, but they really make a lot of sense, especially at this point. Maybe when we have a bigger family I'll want something else, but our little threesome only needs this. Best part? It will have multiple functionality. It tilts for younger babies and the back comes off to use as a booster seat for older kids. And now Erika can sit at the table with us, which she loves! At breakfast the next day she smiled and cooed at us. Much better than her seat on the floor!

This baby is so spoiled!

So that's all my new gear! I'm glad we got some stuff that we needed and I had a lot of fun picking it all out.

Mom's Nightmare

Right now I'm in a daze. We're in the car driving to Primary Children's hospital and it is 12:01 am. As a first time mom I am sure I am oversensitive to everything my little one goes through, but I will be glad to find out I'm just being oversensitive in this case. My baby is bright red. From head to toe. Literally. And it has happened in a matter of hours. What I first thought was baby acne now is making me think measles, rubella and scarlet fever. Little girl is only 22 days old, just barely 3 weeks. I feel much better being safe rather than sorry. She started out the day her pretty pink self. We all watched conference together and I had an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction. I had my daughter and my husband sitting with me in our wonderful house listening to inspired words. We visited family, had cake and ice cream for my mom's birthday. But as the day went on Erika just got redder and bumpier. Her face, her legs, her tummy; everything! And she would hardly eat. By the time we got home I was very worried. I called the doctor's office to ask what I should do. I thought it might be an allergic reaction. They told me to bring her in and we were there in minutes. The PA on duty was puzzled. She was perfect except for this rash. He said he was sorry but with her being so small we needed to go to Primary Children's. And here we are just pulling in.

Update
We spent 3 hours in the emergency room only to find out no one could tell us anything. 2 doctors and a nurse practitioner were stumped. We took our baby home and got some sleep. Now we are waiting to go back to see a dermatologist. But fortunately she is totally perfect except for the rash. No fever or vomiting. And it doesn't seem to bother her. It just scares me a lot. Chris gave her a blessing last night and the rash seems to be slowly getting better.

Our newest addition

I deliberately stopped writing on this blog when I found out I was pregnant, solely because we weren't ready to spread the news and I didn't have any thing else that seemed even remotely exciting in my life in comparison. Then school started again and took up all my time. But now we have a daughter and funny and special moments are happening everyday and I have a feeling that my Facebook friends are getting tired of the baby posts. So I am going to switch my sights to blogger. I need a place to share all my happy experiences as a wife, mother, and homemaker. And maybe share some of the struggles as well. This is not intended to reach a wide audience, but just another outlet for a journal addict (I have three hardcopy journals that I regularly write in already).

Erika Jean Norseth 

3/16/13

A lot of you know the struggle I am having in my recovery from the emergency c-section, but that is a story for another post. This is about our baby. Erika is a healthy and beautiful girl. We took her to her first appointment with the pediatrician when she was 6 days old. Funny though, at the hospital they measured her at 18 inches, but after triple checking she was 20 inches! I doubt Erika is growing that fast, so I think the hospital was mistaken. At that appointment she was up to 7 lbs 7 oz which was more than her birth weight. What a nice feeling it is to know that my baby is growing and that I can feed her. Then her two week appointment was on Monday. She was just barely under 8 lbs! The doctor says she looks fantastic. And she is! What a wonderful baby I have been blessed with. Although she is starting into a bit of a fussy period it usually doesn't last for very long. Last night she slept for over 5 hours at night! I'm afraid I'm going to get spoiled with such a good baby. Everything I've had to go through has been worth it to know that my baby is healthy and strong. She might not have even made it if not for the c-section.

We've already done so much with her! We took her to the park for a picnic with some of my family. We have taken her to a restaurant where she was absolutely amazing. She didn't make a peep the whole time we were there! I even took her shopping with my mom and me.

At the park

But my favorite thing to do with my baby is cuddle. I could just sit and stare at her for hours. Chris and I love her much! We wonder how we ever lived without so much cuteness in our lives.

Princess Peach Cobbler

Ok... ok. The Princess Peach Cobbler was actually a Princess making a Peach Cobbler. Not Princess Peach mending shoes. Sorry Mario fans. But you'll see what I mean at the end.

I wanted to make a Peach Cobbler because Chris' mom gave us a bunch of canned goods including peaches! I love peaches, but it is not quite yet peach season so some tasty canned peaches sounded so delicious!

Here is the stuff to make the yummy filling. I used the whole can of peaches, although the recipe I used called for 8 sliced and poached peaches. This was just as tasty and much easier.

Here it is all blended together and delicious looking...

Here's the stuff for the cobbler

I forgot to take a picture of the pre-blended ingredients in the bowl, but i figured that you all have seen a bowl of flour before. When you blend the butter make sure that it has softened enough or it will be much more difficult.

The buttermilk and egg whisked together.

Add the liquid and work the dough

Peaches in the bowl (I drained off most of the juice to use for Peach Lemonade later)

Drop the dough in

Sprinkle with brown sugar and bake!

And here is my new Sleeping Beauty apron!

Peach Cobbler

Filling:

1/4 c sugar

8 ripe peaches; peeled, stoned and quartered

1tsp cornstarch

lemon juice to taste

Cobbler:

1 1/2 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

cinnamon to taste

5 tbsp unsalted butter

1/3 c sugar

1 large egg

1/2 c buttermilk

1tbsp light brown sugar

1 - Preheat oven to 375 F. Heat the sugar and 3-4 tbsp water together in a large, heavy-based saucepan. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the peaches and cook over medium heat, covered, for 2-3 minutes. Mix the cornstarch with the lemon juice to make a paste, then add it to the peaches. Continue to cook, uncovered, over low heat until the liquid thickens around the peaches. Put the peaches in the dish.

2 - Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon into a bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar. Whisk together the egg and the buttermilk. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and bring it together to form a soft, stick dough. 

3 - Drop heaped tablespoonfuls of the dough over the surface of the fruit, leaving a little space between them. Sprinkle with the brown sugar. Bake at the top of the over for 25-30 minutes, or until golden and bubbling. The cobbler is ready when a skewer inserted into the center of the topping comes out clean. Leave to cool for at least 5 minutes before serving with ice cream, custard, or cream. 

Birthday Festivities!

The big 21! It was a blast.
The day before my birthday, Chris and I went out to eat (Delicious Red Lobster!) and shop and then I came home to a surprise!

Chris and my cousin and her husband had been scheming behind my back! Before we left for dinner Chris sneakily left the door unlocked so they could rampage about decorating and leaving treats, including:

Awesome coloring books and a mix CD of a Korean Pop band called 2NE1,

A flippin' sweet reusable grocery bag with flamingos,

Some adorable Tootsie Pop dishware,

Bath time fun supplies,

And all my dishes cleaned!!! What a nice thing to magically come home to. Because no one should have to do dishes on their birthday :D

There were lots of balloons and party blowers and even a pin the frosting on the cupcake game! So we invited them and some friends for birthday cupcakes and yummy pizza and Kool-Aid.

Here is my present from Mr. Christopher. It gets to go on my shelf next to my other princess things. I love it!

On my actual birthday I went to Lagoon with my some of my family and Chris. We had lots of fun! Hit all the roller coasters and some old favorites. All in all it was a great birthday and one I'll always remember.