Eliza is one month

Can you believe it??

This month has been a blur! We are getting a routine down and life is great! She eats every 3 hours almost on the dot with an occasional 4 hour stretch...we love when those are at night:) We learned that nighttime goes so much better when we keep her up for 2-3 hours right before her last feeding before we go to sleep around 11:30pm, then she will eat and go right back to sleep, which helps me out a lot. Tyler helps on the weekends, putting her back to sleep during the night so I only have to keep my eyes open long enough to make sure she latches correctly. No matter how well she does during the night though I am still exhausted it seems. I understand now why parents are so much tired because I never get any stretch of sleep longer than 3 hours ever! I know that this won't last forever, but for now it's the most difficult thing I've done.
We go on walks together and my little girl LOVES her stroller

it was kind of chilly today when we went out but she stayed asleep the whole walk from our house to the library and then to Smiths and back home again. (round trip 4 miles! I am trying to work back up to running, but walking is tiring for now)
So far Eliza has gone with us to Guru's, Five Guys, La Jolla Groves, Golden Corral and Taco Bell. Other than that we basically stay at home.
She weighs upwards of 7lbs and is pushing 21" and has such a cute double chin. Her baby acne is almost gone and her hair is growing so fast.
Well there is a little update on our adorable piece of heaven!

Who likes Fantasy?

That would definitely be me. I think it has to do with the awesome good versus evil struggles and maybe a little bit to do with the fact that I dream a lot about getting in fights...I just finished Terry Goodkind's The Sword of Truth series and found it to be totally engrossing. I would disappear in my own little world of the main characters. Interestingly enough, his books focus more on philosophical discussions amongst the fighting than on anything else. The main thought in these books is that you decide how you live and anyone who gives up that choice is living like a slave. If you don't fight for life you are embracing death and if you don't fight evil you are embracing evil. From Wikipedia: "Goodkind believes that using the fantasy genre allows him to better tell his stories and better convey the human themes and emotions that he desires to share with the reader. Regardless of the genre of his novels, Goodkind states his main goal in writing is to inspire." I was definitely inspired by his books, all 12 of them.

Wizard's First Rule (1994)
Stone of Tears (1995)
Blood of the Fold (1996)
Temple of the Winds (1997)
Soul of the Fire (1999)
Faith of the Fallen (2000)
Debt of Bones (2001)
The Pillars of Creation (2002)
Naked Empire (2003)
Chainfire (2005)
Phantom (2006)
Confessor (2007) 

Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover

Even though we aren't in debt, Tyler and I read this book and thought it was AWESOME. I don't know if any of you listen to the Dave Ramsey Show on talk radio or whatever, but we really like his approach. We got a great plan of what we want to do with our money for the next couple years--his mantra is if you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else! how true is that!
He takes people through 7 Baby Steps:
1. Save $1000 cash as a starter emergency fund
2. Debt snowball
3. Finish emergency fund ($5000-10,000)
4. Invest 15 percent of your income in retirement
5. Save for college
6.Pay off your home mortgage
7. Build wealth

The part that we took away was on investing in retirement. He gave a really easy breakdown of how to easily invest for retirement:
"Invest 15 percent of before-tax gross income annually toward retirement...when calculating your 15 percent, don't include company matching...invest 25% in growth and income funds, 25% in growth funds, 25% in International funds, 25% Aggressive growth funds."
"Always start where you have a match. When your company will give you free money, take it...you should next fund Roth IRAs."

I also really loved that he says giving is the biggest reward! I totally agree. Tyler and I always find that we have more when we give more. His three purposes for building wealth are to have fun, invest and give.

If you haven't read this book yet GO READ IT! it is totally worth the couple of weeks waiting on the library hold list...even if you and your spouse don't have any money problems it is a great read.

Go check him out at daverasmey.com to get additional details!

Eliza's Newborn Photos as promised

preview of Eliza's newborn pics

so our good friend Meredith took pics of Eliza when she was a week old. Here are some of the ones she posted on her blog....

Don't I have such an adorable baby??

Eliza over the past 3 weeks

Eliza at 1 week

5lbs 8 oz 18.5"

2 weeks

6lbs 2 oz 19.75"

yes, I look tired:)

watching football with daddy

who can resist that face??

3 weeks

Isn't she just adorable? yes, we think so. She is still too small for her newborn sized clothes but is growing well!

Not a baby post!!

As much as I adore little Eliza and as much as I know you all do too...this is going to be a post about me. Tyler and I make it a habit to set a bunch of goals each year on our anniversary--relationship, physical, spiritual, academic, etc. This year, since I knew I'd have more at home time on my hands with no work or school, I made the goal to read all the classic books that I hadn't read already.
The hardest part about this goal is that there are multiple opinions about which books make the "classics" list. I decided to go with the one from the Provo Library since that is where I will get most of the books:) I was surprised that I hadn't read more of them, partly I guess because I'm not counting it read if I only read portions of it in school or if I can't remember it well enough. I decided I would return and report somewhere about my readings, and maybe encourage others of you to do the same because there is so much to learn from these books about society and history and the nature of people.
Without further ado, here are the few ones I have read from the list:

The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer--detested
Macbeth William Shakespeare--liked
Little Women Louisa May Alcott--didn't like
Emma Jane Austen  --LOVED of course...this is one of my all time faves
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen--Loved also of course
Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte--loved
Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte--loved
The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas--Loved
The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald--hated
The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne--loved
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee--okay
The Scarlet Pimpernel Baroness E Orczy--LOVED, another of my all time faves
Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe--Hated

Books on my list to read next:
Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
The Invisible Man  H.G. Wells
Lord of the Flies William Golding
Les Miserables Victor Hugo

Have any of you read those books? What other books for pleasure do you read? I'm almost finished with a fantastic fantasy series I will report on soon:)

Thank Heaven for Little Girls

10 things I miss about being pregnant.....HA
1. not being able to bend over
2. weighing 160lbs
3. peeing my pants when I sneeze or cough or laugh a little too hard
4. being sooo hot no matter what temperature
5. getting winded after going up a flight of stairs
6. waddling
7. not wearing my wedding ring
8. not fitting into any of my clothes
9. contractions
10. heartburn

10 things I didn't expect from giving birth
1. contractions before labor
2. contractions during labor
3. contractions after labor
4. no exercising for 6 weeks
5. seeing my little girl smile
6. being excessively exhausted but not caring because she is so worth it
7. engorgement
8. not wearing my pre-pregnancy shirts :(
9. a mini-me
10. the immediate bond I felt with this angel child

I had to include those last two photos of me as a little baby so you can see how she takes after her mommy:)