California Christmas.

Instead of going to Colorado for Christmas like we were planning, we ended up going to California!  My mom made the drive with my step dad Ralph, Mitchell and Marissa.  Our plans changed a few times, but I ended up flying with Cora Sunday night and Chuck drive Tuesday morning.

Sunday morning I got to hang out with my best childhhood friend Haylan and she finally got to meet Cora!  It was so good to see her!  It was also able to go to sacrament meetin and see her family!

 Sunday night after we flew in (Cora was perfect on the plane, by the way!)  All of my mom's brother's and sister's (she is one of seven!) came to San Diego to spend some time together before Christmas!  I got to see some of my cousins that I haven't seen in forever!

On Monday we were to Coronado and spent the day there!  Since Cora was under a year old, the bike shop wouldn't let me get one with a seat for her, so she and I walked around by ourselves.

Cora in Coronado.

After the bike ride/walk we had lunch at a pizza place that served giant pizzas!  It was delicious!  After pizza we headed to Old Town San Diego. There are tons of fun little old-timey shops.  We got candy, and cream soda and my mom bought me one of those great Baja blankets.

The next day we headed to La Jolla so my family could go to the temple.  Cora and I went to a few stores across the street.  Once they were done we had lunch at Daphne's Greek Cafe.  We hung out at the hotel for a little while before heading to Oceanside harbor.

After the beach all the family that was still in town went to Olive Garden for dinner.  This is when Chuck finally got to town!  We missed him so much!

Christmas day we went to the San Diego Safari Park! This is the second time Cora has been to the zoo.  She loves riding in the stroller, even though she's not super into the animals yet.  

After the zoo we went to my grandparents house and Skyped with Maddy!  Can't wait for her to come home in May!  After we Skype we started our drive home.  Luckily it was late enough Cora slept the whole time.  Unitl next time California!

Cora - 21 weeks!

This last week for Cora has been a major developing stepping stone.  In two days she'll be 21 weeks old, and officially five months!  I can't believe have much she has changed and grown!  But we love her more and more every day.

About a week ago, Cora started rolling over from back to stomach!  It is so cute watching her bring her knees up and then just pushing herself over.  She is more smiley than ever.  Whenever someone greets her, she greets them back with the biggest smile!  She is so friendly!  Also, we saw a lady who's been taking lessons at the store for a while who was back in town for the winter, and when she started talking to Cora, she started laughing so hard!  Normally I can only get a little giggle out of her, but seriously it was the most adorable thing, but she hasn't done it since...  Cora has also started holding her bottle all by herself!  She can also put it back in if it falls out!  Okay, one last thing!  She can sit up all by herself!  (A little.)  She has to pretty far forward and she uses her hands to keep herself up, but she is balancing!  And!  She can finally reach her toes.  The best is when she has both feet in both hands.

Sorry, I just feel like I have to write this all down so I don't forget!

Other recent events though, our friends Caitlin and Tim and baby Olivia came down to Mesa to visit!  I wish we had been able to hang out with them more before they move to Idaho this week! :(  They stopped by our house for a little and then we headed down to the Mesa Temple to see the temple lights!  It seemed like they had way more than last year, it was amazing!  This is Chuck and my fifth December seeing the temple lights together!

Last night, we also got our first Christmas tree!  We've been married three and a half years and we've never had one before!  We got a 5" Noble Fir.  We love the spaced out branches.  It something totally different than the trees we both had growing up.  We've also never really had decorations before, so we (I) got to go to Target and get a few.  We both love how festive our house is now!  Clovis LOVES the tree.  Its fun watching him circle and smell it and try to rub his face against the branches.

I have been checking flights every other day, waiting for them to go down so we can try to go to Colorado for Christmas.  We've spent it with Chuck's family the last two years and I really wanted to try to fly there Christmas day since Chuck's family celebrates the 24th.  But, my mom said they might go to California this year!  So fingers crossed we get a Cali-Christmas with my family!

Cora - 20 Weeks Old!

Cora Goes To Colorado.

 Last week we were able to take a trip to Colorado to visit my family.  This would be our first trip with Cora and I have to admit I was pretty nervous about flying with her.  I know crying babies can make people uncomfortable..  But she did pretty well! She cried when we sat down, but stopped and fell asleep after I gave her a bottle and cried when we landed but we got her to settle down and she was totally fine.  After my mom, aunt Stephanie, and my sister Marissa picked us up from the airport we headed to to up our rental car, but appearently they had closed at noon (35 minutes earlier) and we couldn't get ahold of them.  So we headed back to my mom's house, picked up the rest of the family and headed to Estes Park, the headquartes to the Rocky Mountains National Park.  I love going here, so we try to go every tme we visit.

The girls.

Sister Sunday Selfie

Bottoms up.

Snarfburger - Frozen custard!

Beanie babez.

Family Pic.

It was an amazing trip!  Cora slept through most nights and loved spending time with Grandma.  I'm so glad we were able to see my family and be able to time it when my aunt would be there as well.  I'm a little worried to fly with Cora alone in a couple weeks, but hopefully it'll all be smooth.  The first Linton family trip of many!

July 2014

July has been such a crazy month!  Fourth of July was fun, but who knew five days later we'd have our baby girl??  A week early, Cora was born July 9th!  This brought my mom and Ralph to Arizona a week early.  I'm so thankful they were able to come and spend some extra time with us.  A couple days later my sister Marissa flew in, and the next Saturday my aunt Stephanie and her family drove in from Northern California.  Marissa went back to Colorado and my brother Mitchell was able to visit for a couple days.  It was so fun having my family here!  I wish we all lived closer together!  Here are the pictures from the last couple of weeks.  July has definitely been crazy, but one of the best months of the year so far!

First time in her crib.

Three generations!

Visiting daddy at work!

Riverview Park with Stephanie and her family, Marissa, my mom and Ralph!

Mesa Temple

Chase Field

D-backs game!

Chuck is pro at swaddling

Cora's baby blessing!

<3

Mitchell, my mom, and Stephanie

Grandpas and daddy!

Cora A Linton

It all started very early Tuesday morning.  I had started feeling some small contractions early in the morning and around seven I started timing them.  They weren't super painful but they were about five minutes apart and lasted about thirty seconds.  I waited as long as I could before waking Chuck up and telling him.  My mind was swirling with questions.  The biggest one being if I'd be able to meet my baby that day!

I tried to get ready for work, but I didn't think I'd be able to last very long with the contractions.  Chuck was getting ready as well, but in the end we both decided we should probably go to the hospital (Banner Gateway) instead just to make sure everything was okay.

When we got there, they had me change clothes and hooked me up to a machine to monitor my heartbeat, the baby's heartbeat and my contractions.  In the end, I was only dilated to about a 1.5/2 and since my contractions weren't very strong they sent me home.

We spent the day at home and I tried to take a nap.  My contractions didn't go anywhere but throughout the day they got a little further apart but started to become more painful.  It was around midnight I could barely stand the pain anymore and woke Chuck up.  We gathered our things and headed back to the hospital.  It was around 1AM that was got back to the hospital.  I think I was dilated to about a three or a four and they decided to admit me.

At 4:00AM I got my epidural and we waited.  (And by waited, I mean we both fell asleep.)  It was several hours later (I think about 9AM) that I was now dilated to a seven.  And then finally around noon I was dilated to a ten.  They had broken my water and given me pitocin and they were ready to have me push.  Since I couldn't feel anything from the waist down, pushing seemed impossible! I honestly don't know if I was even doing it right.  They had me push for about an hour until my back was in so much pain and I was so exhausted I needed a break.  Chuck and I took another nap and after about an hour they had me start again.  They were about to see her head, and told me about all her dark hair!  We were both so surprised!  I thought for sure she'd either be bald or blonde!

In the end, I had pushed about three and a half hours and nothing was changing.  They discovered that she was face-up and we were having no luck trying to turn her over.  They had my doctor (Eric Huish) come in and talk to me about my options.  He told me I could either keep pushing or I could have a c-section.  He also told me they were worried that if she ever did end up fitting her head through that her shoulders might get stuck and it could be hours before we even got that far.  At this point it was about 6PM.  I had been pushing for hours with no luck.  I was completely exhausted and my back was in so much pain.  They gave us a few minutes to be alone to talk about what we wanted to do.  I knew I couldn't keep this up anymore and so Chuck and I agreed that a c-section would be the best option.  We said a prayer and when my doctor came back in we told him about our decision.  He told me it was probably the best option and that it would only take about half an hour, we just needed to wait for the room to open up and to get the team together.

It was just after seven when they got me into the operating room.  It was time for my nurses to change shifts and I was sad to see them go.  They had been super sweet to me and had taken care of me all night.  When they got everything ready they told me I shouldn't be able to feel anything, but my back was still hurting, which had me worried.  They finally had everything ready and let Chuck come over to hold my hand.  I think at this point I was just so physically and mentally drained and was a little bit freaked out about having to have a c-section.  I could feel them tugging to pulling (which was supposed to be normal) but I felt it up near the right side of my belly button.  I have to admit I was freaking out and in a lot of pain.  They kept giving me different things.  They gave me something that was supposed to help relax me and told me I might not remember some things later.  I told him "No, that's okay." because I didn't want to forget anything, but I think he thought I meant it was okay to give it to me.  All of a sudden I felt this weight come off of my stomach and fall flat and I heard my baby girl crying.  They called Chuck over to take a look at her and they brought her over for me to see.  They kept telling me she had such long eye lashes and tons of hair!  I remember my first thought when they brought her around the curtain so I could see her being: she didn't look like either one of us.  (I think I was pretty out of it.)  They started to clean the baby off and asked Chuck if he wanted to cut the cord.  I think me freaking out had him a little bit shaken, so he didn't leave my side.  I asked him if he was sure and he said he was.  (I was secretly glad he didn't leave me, even though it would have only been for a second.)  They cleaned her off and brought her over to me which they stapled up my stomach.  The nurse asked us if we wanted a picture and took a couple for us.  Here are a few pictures.

We ended up staying in the hospital till Saturday.  We had lots of visitors and the hospital staff was all so nice and helpful.  I have to admit I was nervous to take the baby home and do everything alone! Haha.  But now she's almost three weeks old and we couldn't be more in love!

Cora Ann Linton - Born 7:08 PM July 9, 2014
8 pounds 5 ounces / 21 inches long

Fourth of July!

2011 - We'd only been married a little over three weeks and were living in Arizona.  We bought some sparklers and a box of fireworks and set them off in the backyard.  Then we went down to Main Street's celebration and watched the fireworks.  

2012 - We were living in Salt Lake City.  We'd been married a little over a year and we had our dog Peter since May.  We watched fireworks at Liberty Park with our friends Steve and Tiffany.
 

2013 - We were back in Arizona and had recently bought our condo.  Peter had passed away the month before.  We'd been married a little over two years.  We went to Chuck's brother's Jim's house for a BBQ and watched fireworks with the Linton family.

2014 - We've now been married a little over three years and I'm 38 weeks pregnant!  We still live in our condo in Mesa and can't wait for our little baby girl to be born!  We celebrated at his brother's Jim's house with the traditional BBQ and firework show!

Mini Anniversary Vacation!

Three years ago on June 11, 2011, Chuck and I were married in the San Diego temple! To celebrate our anniversary we decided to get out of town for a couple days.  We headed up north to Fossil Springs in Payson, Arizona.  We left Wednesday morning and for lunch we stopped in Pine at a cute little dinner and got some burgers and homemade pie. When we did reach Fossil Springs, of course it was closed! (High fire warnings) So we decided to back track a little bit and head to the Tonto Natural Bridge!  It's a pretty amazing thing to see! And somehow I managed to make it all the way to the bottom (being eight and a half months pregnant makes it a little difficult to do stuff like that). Plus I was in a dress and flats. Hahah. What was more amazing was that I was able to get back up to the top. But we had fun!

    

Some wild javelinas!

 After the bridge we made our way to Sedona. I had never been before so it was cool being able to see the red rocks! So pretty!  After we checked into our hotel, we took a dip in the pool.  The weather up there is way nicer than it is in Mesa, so after we swam we walked down the street to a little Mexican restaurant.  We walked around and went to some of the stores and got a treat and then went to the movies and saw Edge of Tomorrow.  It was pretty good! The next day we headed back to Mesa.  Even though it was a short get-away it was nice getting out of town in nicer weather and taking some time off work.  Especially with the baby coming soon!  HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Chuck! I love you so much and I'm excited to spend so many more years with you!