Lately...

William was blessed on February 3rd. We had it at my parents' house and lots of family and friends came. It was a beautiful blessing and made me realize even more what a responsibility and blessing it is to have this little guy in our lives. 

With his Anderson grandparents and cousins

William is just 3 weeks younger than Jake

The one decent family picture from the day. Still not my favorite though. Should have taken more. Oh well.

Sleeping on Grandma Andelin's lap

Grandma Andelin got him to crack a smile.

A few weeks later we said goodbye to Rebekah as she headed off on her mission to Long Beach, CA. I will definitely miss talking and having fun with her, but she will be a great missionary. 

William also got to meet his great grandparents on my dad's side.
Cousin Jonathan was there too.

We got to go to Karen, Kathy, and Jennis' last basketball game for the tournament championship. They had a slow first half, but ran away with it in the second half. Jason had fun taking action shots with our camera. 

William hung out with Aunt Anna 

He was a little upset about all the loud clapping and cheering.

Jason has been busy with school and work, so William and I hang out here at home or go visit my family during the days. I've also started tutoring a student from Korea, so that has been nice to give me something to do and also earn a few dollars a week. William definitely keeps me busy though. It's so fun to see him grow and learn new things. A few milestones...

He smiled and laughed in his sleep since he was a few days old, but around 4 weeks he started smiling back and at 2 months he started laughing when we would laugh. It's so fun to talk to him and see his face just light up with a cute little smile. He also babbles a lot now, so that is fun to hear all the sounds he makes. 

We're always being surprised with how strong he is. He's been holding his head up while we hold him since he was about 1 month and he can also support his own weight on his legs. He has rolled over from his tummy to his back twice and when I lay him down he will squirm and rotate himself around a bit just by kicking his legs back and forth.

He is still learning to control his muscles and sometimes moves his arms up and down in these jerky movements that actually become quite violent when he accidentally hits himself in the face. I have to be careful to keep his hands in mittens and keep his nails trimmed or else he scratches himself. He got quite a rude awakening last night when he scratched his face while sleeping. 

For a week or two he was completely fascinated with his left hand. He would hold it out in front of him and just stare and stare at it. 

He is getting better at entertaining himself, so that has been nice not to have to hold him all day. He will lay on the floor and kick his legs, rock a little, try to stuff both hands in his mouth, and make some noises. He does seem to be very attracted to the TV though. When it is on he will just stare at it. It sort of worries me that he likes it so much, but hopefully it is just the colors and lights that fascinate him. :) 

Anyway, that's us for now!

Baby William is here!

Now that William is 6 weeks old it's probably about time to update the blog and tell the birth story. So, we had a nice Christmas. It felt like our first Christmas together since we actually had time to celebrate Christmas this year as opposed to last year with all the wedding plans and festivities. The day after Christmas  was my due date and I had a doctor's appointment. At the appointment I was dilated to almost a 3 and was told that I would be induced the next week if I hadn't had the baby by then. We spent the rest of the day running errands and then headed home.

Around 6:30 PM I started having contractions. They quickly got more frequent and stronger while we made pizza to keep my mind off them. It didn't really work. :) I ate some pizza since I knew they wouldn't let me eat once I got to the hospital. I guess Jason thought that my contractions weren't that serious because he invited his friend over. Gritting my teeth with every contraction in an attempt to hide the fact that I was in painful labor, I made it through the visit. After watching a few episodes of NCIS we went to the hospital and got checked in around 10:30.

Last belly pic right before leaving to the hospital. Talk about looking ready to pop!

 After we checked in, the nurse told us that I was dilated to 5 cm. The anesthesiologist gave me the epidural at 11:30 and at that point I was dilated to an 8. The nurse left and we were able to rest a bit (and finally decide on a name) before she came back around 1 AM. Around 1:15 the nurse told me to start pushing, the doctor came a few minutes later and William was born at 1:46 AM on December 27, 2012. The doctor did give me an episiotomy, but other than that, the labor went well. I was surprised by how fast it all went since I had heard that first time moms often have long labors.

First Family Picture--We're obviously tired. Even William is yawning.

Family pic the next morning--We still look sleepy

First Visitors

8 day old pictures. A woman in our ward  needed a newborn boy model. She did a great job.  Check out her page.

Right after William was born it seemed pretty unreal that I had a baby, but it has been so natural to take care of him and we've been having a lot of fun getting to know him. It's so cute to see Jason interacting with William. He's such a good dad. We sure love this little boy!

Christmas

I just wanted to post a few pictures from Christmas time. 

We went up to Temple Square with Jason's siblings and had fun with that. Jason was learning how to manipulate our new camera and had fun playing with the lighting. 

The City Creek Center lights were very pretty. 

Temple Square is always gorgeous

Jason got artistic

We spent Christmas Eve with my family and did the usual enactment of the Nativity dressed up in Middle East costumes. 

I played the part of a Mary great with child. :)

Two days before the due date!

End of Summer Update

We have completely slacked off on the blog updating this summer. Anyway, a quick update of what is going on in our lives...

We are expecting a baby boy due on December 26th! I luckily did not get the awful morning sickness that my mom and sister both get (throwing up several times a day up through month 4). I did feel queasy and didn't feel like eating much, but I only threw up once after Jason made me a smoothie. The smoothie wasn't bad or anything, but it is fun to tease him about it anyway. :) I am feeling good these days (I'm currently in week 24). Just a little tired. Anyway, we are pretty excited trying to prepare to become parents and think of a name and all that fun stuff. 

I was never very good at deciphering ultrasound pics, but this one is pretty clear

Jason worked hard this summer working for catering and also being a TA for a psychology class. He also studied hard and took the MCAT in August. We are now trying to figure out if we should wait a year to apply since it is so late or go for it this cycle still. Jason also just started Fall Semester at BYU and is taking some exciting and difficult classes. One of his classes is Anatomy--hence the fake bones that are sitting next to me on the couch that he brought home to review. I think one of them is the Coccyx. This week he gets to start working with the actual cadavers, so he is excited for that.

Studying the body can have the effect of making you contemplate life or pretend to

I graduated in August and am now teaching at a private ESL (English as a Second Language) school in Provo. Things are going great so far. I am learning a lot and am having fun teaching English to students (ages 14-60+) from all over the world. It's very exciting to see them progress. 

Here are some pictures of the fun things we've done the last few weeks. 

Sanpete County Fair in Manti at the Andelin Family Reunion. Do you see the temple in the background?

First football game of the season against Washington State.

For Labor Day we went up to my uncle's ranch with a bunch of family members and rode horses & 4-wheelers, hiked, and had a great time. I think it was Jason's 3rd or 4th time riding horses. He did a good job. This is him on Dixie.

Me on Lily.
Jason took this picture while on his horse. I think that's why my head is slightly cut off. :)

Disneyland!!!

So, for Memorial Day Weekend we flew to California. Jason's dad got called as bishop in the Singles Ward in their stake, so we wanted to be there for his setting apart. We also got to spend some time at Disneyland for my first time and have lots of fun just relaxing and spending time with family.

We woke up at 4 A.M. MDT on Friday morning to get to the airport in time to fly to CA. We got to CA pretty early as well then headed straight to Disneyland. Jason's mom dropped us off and we spent the morning going on rides and having fun. Star Tours was my very first ride and it did not disappoint. It was a lot of fun. Some of my other favorites were Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain. Jason's mom joined us after lunch and we did the required Tea Cups ride which actually turned out to be a lot of fun. I think we were spinning it by hand the entire time which made us stumble off the ride very dizzy at the end. We met up with Jason's dad shortly thereafter and headed to California Adventure.

First picture at Disneyland!

Jason loved these robots in Star Tours

Jason told me "This is the closest you'll ever get to having a CA driver's license"

Autopia!!!

Self portrait

Fantasy Land

Jungle Cruise

Splash Mountain

Pirates!

Trying on Captain Sparrow's hat. It looks better on him. :)

French quarter. New Orleans.

Trying to pull the sword from the stone.

Tea cups!

So excited for California Screamin'!

At California Adventure we walked around for a bit looking at the different sites and then Jason's parents stood in line at the Toy Story Midway Mania ride while Jason and I went to ride California Screamin'. The line was long, but the ride was worth the wait. I haven't been on a roller coaster that intense for a loooong time. You know the kind where you get that tingly feeling in your stomach because you are going so fast and so high? It was awesome. We joined Jason's parents in line for the Toy Story ride and it was lots of fun. I even beat Jason in points on one of the games. For dinner we ate at Ariel's Grotto. Very good food. They had this delicious cheese that made me miss France. We then went to save our spots for the World of Color show that started at 9. Jason's dad insisted on being in the very front, right against the railing, and a few feet from the water. They were great front-row seats and it was a beautiful show, but we were all pretty wet and cold by the end. The show was definitely worth it though. Jason took a couple videos of it, hopefully they turned out okay because I'm posting some of them on here for your viewing pleasure. We went on one last ride, Soarin' over California, before splitting up. Jason's parents headed home and we headed back to Disneyland for one more ride, Buzz Lightyear. It was fun, but we were pretty worn out and cold after that so we headed home and went straight to bed.

Toy Story Midway Mania. Sweet 3D glasses huh?

We didn't get to ride on the Mickey Ferris Wheel, but we
watched the lights on it for an hour while waiting for World of Color.

This was the dessert bar at Ariel's Grotto. Delicious.

Pretty lights.

Kate in a coin ride car. Sadly it didn't work.

Saturday, we gladly slept in until 8ish trying to recover from our 20-hour day the day before. We went to the cemetery where Jason's grandparents and other relatives are buried. It was neat to see the volunteers putting all the flags and crosses up. Jason's sister and brother-in-law joined us after that and us girls went to a bridal shower (a cousin's fiancée who is getting married in July). It was enjoyable and I got to be swathed in toilet paper in the attempt to create some form of wedding dress. It was pretty funny. We met up with everyone else at "The Block" afterwards for a delicious sea food dinner.

Jane's ride worked. Too bad I can't figure out how to rotate this picture though.

Sunday was a nice relaxing day. We went to Jason's parents' ward in the morning and then after a quick lunch at home we headed back to the church for the Singles' Ward where Jason's dad was sustained as bishop and gave a very nice testimony. We also attended the setting apart just after Sacrament Meeting. It was all very nice. We had family dinner afterwards and had fun visiting with everyone.

In line for the Peter Pan ride

On Monday, we woke up early and headed off to Disneyland to go on the rides we missed on Friday. We went on the Peter Pan ride, Snow White, Pinocchio, It's a Small World, etc. Then we went to California Adventure and got our fast passes for Tower of Terror before we walked around and went on Mickey's Silly Symphony (the swings ride). Our time eventually came for Tower of Terror and when we finally got loaded into our seats in the elevator shaft, our elevator conductor guy told us that there was a malfunction with that shaft so we had to eventually be loaded into the other elevator. While he was figuring things out for us, he put Jason in charge. One guy complained that he hadn't voted for Jason and we all had a good laugh when Jason reported him to the elevator conductor. :) We eventually did get to go on the ride and it was lots of fun. The best part is that you don't know when you are going to drop; the anticipation definitely adds to the excitement. We only stayed until about 2 PM because it was just getting crazy busy.

Had to go on Space Mountain one more time.  

Class of 2012! (I graduate in August)

This is us with the optical illusion street behind us that you can't see very well.

Tower of Terror! 

After we got back to the house, we all collapsed onto couches and took a nap. That evening we dropped by the Singles' Ward FHE just to see some of Jason's friends and see how his parents were enjoying their first Singles FHE. After that we were able to go to the Williamsons' house and spend some time with Jason's good friend, Ryan and his wife D.J. We also met their little boy, Owen. While we were there, we caught the end of the Dodger's game and it was fun to see how much they enjoy baseball. I didn't grow up watching or playing baseball or softball, so it's been something fun for me to see. We also watched the Bachelorette episode and had fun making fun of the funny things that always happen on that show.

Well, school and work awaited us, so we had to fly home Tuesday morning and return to real life. It was a very enjoyable and relaxing vacation and we're so grateful to Jason's parents for letting us stay with them and showing us such a good time and to other family and friends we were able to spend time with.

P.S. 3 years ago today I entered the MTC. So did Jason's brother, Brian, but I obviously didn't know him back then. :) Crazy how fast time goes by.