The 'Suite Life'..... week 3

This week was full of events…. Most good and one NOT so good. Tuesday night we got to go to a Marlins game with some of the players and one of the guys’ agents. He was friends with Dan Uggla, the 2nd basemen so we met him after the game and he’s a way nice guy. Jonnie was SO good! She slept for almost the whole thing and then woke up for the last hour or so and loved being outside. She takes in everything no matter where we go and it is so cute to watch. Friday, JD had off so we spent a couple hours at the pool and then did a little shopping…. They have tons of neat stores out here and a sweet outlet mall just a few minutes away… lots of fun! That night we went out to dinner with Orion, another inside linebacker, and his wife. Saturday JD got to go deep sea fishing with some of the other players and a bunch of rich guys for a fund raiser. He loved it and they caught about 50 fish…. Some king fish, dolphin, and another kind I can’t remember. That night there was a sort of banquet/dinner/fundraiser down on South Beach where there were tons of huge dolphins fans getting autographs and bidding on a bunch of Dolphins stuff in a silent auction. The food was really good… steak, chicken, wings.. MMM… Once again, Jonnie was a doll. It was weird to see JD signing autographs… kinda nuts. All the big wigs were there…. Joey Porter, Ronnie Brown, there were some big dudes! I can see now why JD says he feels so small out there! Sunday after church we had a picnic with some of our friends at a park. Yummy food and great weather! We are so grateful for such good friends out here! Mallory is pregnant so it’s fun to see the whole process from an outside perspective. It’ll be fun when Jonnie can have a little friend to play with! Now for the not so good event… some jerko tried to break into our truck! SCARY! It was parked right outside the hotel and he still tried doin it. He cut through the handle and messed up the lock so now we can’t manually unlock it anymore… we just have to use the keyless remote. The cop said that from what they saw they thought they were trying to steal our truck.. not just some stuff in it. They didn’t take anything, but JD thinks they got in and might have tried to hot wire it because one of the front panels was kinda popped out. I can’t believe people! Why can’t everyone just be nice and honest?! Gol… we’re just glad they didn’t succeed! Overall, a great week though! We are liking it more and more each week out here. I’m still not hating the hotel life… but it will be SO nice when we have our own place and we can actually COOK! Woo!

Our Little Swimmer

Another week flew by in Plantation, Florida and it was so much fun! It started off at the pool on Memorial Day and ended up at our new friends’ house for a BBQ and games! All I can say is THANK HEAVENS for the church! It is the neatest thing how you can feel so out of place one minute… then go to church where everything is so familiar and everyone there is so kind and welcoming. We have met so many fun new friends and they have taken us in already. Most are either out here for law, medical, dental, or optometry school so lots of them are from our neck of the woods… Utah. That means even when all of our adventures are done out here in Florida, we can STILL hang out and stay in touch. Lucky us! We love our ward and our new friends!

As for JD, things with football are going well. He’s still just taking in all the new stuff and trying to catch up on learning the defense and just the whole new scheme. He has positive things to say each day when he gets home though so that’s always good!

Jonnie girl is getting bigger and cuter by the minute. We usually head to the pool right when we wake up since it’s the rainy season and rains most afternoons. She loves kickin around in the water until she wears herself out for her morning nap on the lawn chair… under the umbrella of course.

Once we get back from the pool after about an hour or so, its bath time and then food network time! I never was that interested in cooking… but now I can’t wait to get out of this hotel and into a kitchen! All in all… we are loving our adventure out here and can’t wait to see what all’s in store for us! Miss you all back home!!

Mi to the Ami

We made it!! We actually aren't staying IN Miami... We're staying about 10 minutes or so away from Ft. Lauderdale in a place called Plantation. We really like it! JD actually has a lot more free time than we thought he would so it has been so nice to see so much of him! It has been storming here so Jonnie and I have only gone to the pool once and we haven't even made it to the beach yet. But we are having fun hanging out together!

JD is liking football pretty well... I guess all the vets are kinda punks but he likes the rookies a lot. Pretty much it's just like being a freshman all over again. Things are going well though! He gets this weekend AND Memorial Day off so we are gonna hopefully do some fun things... OUTDOORS if the storms go away. It's still warm here when it rains though so it's kinda fun... I'd go puddle jumping if Jonnie wasn't always in my arms!

Speaking of the little munchkin, I can't believe how big she is getting... seriously. She is all smiles and even giggles at least 3 or 4 times a day. Yesterday was her big TWO MONTH bday. JD loves standing her up on his tummy when he's laying down and watching her walk up his chest... it's adorable. They are so cute together! Well things are going well and we are having fun with our little family out here! I have to come down to the lobby to get free internet in this fancy hotel so my blogging will still be few and far between. I'll try to update at least once a week though! Here are some pictures of the latest... I don't have any of the journey out here cause we had our video camera out so we got all the action on there:]

View from the hotel window.

Jonnie super excited to hang out poolside.

She rules this King size bed! haha... she looks so miniature.

She sure misses being thrown over Uncle Dutcher's shoulder like a sack of potatoes!... no but she REALLY does... He could always stop her crying.

Jonnie in her blessing dress the morning of. This is the dress I was blessed in as well:]

Just hangin out in the room with Momma. Doin what we do best! R.E.L.A.X.I.N.

Journey Cross Country

I am a S.L.A.C.K.E.R.! I will post pictures once we get to Miami and I have a little more time... but just a quick update:

-My first Mother's Day was amazing! Spent it with both of our families since we had Jonnie's blessing that day... which was precious... JD is the BEST Daddy!

-I'm officially a COLLEGE GRAD! WOO!

-We bought a new truck! Much needed to drive across country in a reliable vehicle that had lots of room for all our STUFF that I packed for our first 2 month stay in Miami.

-Speaking of... we are currently in the process of driving across country... yesterday we took off from Centerville and ended up in Kearney Nebraska. Today we left from there and ended up in St. Louis Missouri.

--We traveled almost the entire day in a SEVERE STORM and once we got out it followed us to St. Louis and we are now in the middle of the same storm PLUS have a TORNADO watch. SCARY!

-We would have just made things easy and flown to Miami but since Jonnie and I will be hanging out while JD's at practice and workouts all day, I figured I NEEDED a vehicle out there or I would have gone stir crazy!

-Surprisingly, I'm loving the drive out here! It has been so fun to see how different all the states are.... Missouri is SO GREEN and PRETTY! Besides it being so scary with all the rain and hail, I loved the drive today!

-Tomorrow we are leaving St. Louis and ending up in Atlanta. I'm excited to see all the fun new stuff tomorrow!

-This adventure is so much fun already... I love my husband so much and my baby girl as well. She has been the best little traveler and she is growing up by the minute! I know our families are missing her like crazy already... and believe me.. she is missing YOU GUYS as well!! I cried my little eyes out when we left my parents' house on Thursday... I've never been so far away and gone for so long. But it also makes me really sad that our families have to miss these couple months of Jonnie growing up. Thank heavens for the Web Cam my Dad got me for Mother's Day!!

-Well.. there is an update as for now... NOTE TO OUR FAMILIES:
WE MISS YOU.... COME VISIT SUNNY MIAMI:]

JD's a Miami Dolphin

Pretty NUTS! Saturday and Sunday were crazy to say the least.... lots of phone calls from NFL scouts and linebacker coaches, JD's agent, and finally excited family and friends:] JD was drafted the 5th pick of the 7th round... so #214 of the 256 drafted....to go play Linebacker for the Miami Dolphins! We are so excited and kinda scared... well I am at least... all at the same time! He leaves this Thursday for the first mini-camp and will be back Sunday. The OTA's are sometime in the middle of May for a couple weeks and then Training camp starts towards the end of July. We won't move out there til August once all the camps are over and it's more set in stone that we'll be staying there. Until then, we'll just be back and forth all summer! As for Vet School, he'll get a deferment for a year and then if he keeps playing longer than that, he'll just have to reapply once he's done if he still wants to go to vet school afterwards. I am so proud of JD and all his hard work!! No one is more deserving of this opportunity! We are surely in for an adventure!JD was still on the phone with the GM so he was trying to hear but we were all so excited!!

We're so proud of you Sweetie!

One Month & Lots of Updates

I can't believe Jonnie is over a month old already! She is growing up so fast... it is so much fun but actually really quite sad for me. It seems like she changes and is doing new things every single day! A lot has been going on lately and I am going to jam it all into THIS post since I don't know when I'll get around to doing another one! I couldn't sleep this morning so I woke up at 6 and decided to get some things done before Jonnie woke up and wanted to eat again:) Updating our blog has been on my to-do list... just kind of towards the bottom so it gets shoved aside! ANYWAYS.... On with the updates:

**Jonnie is now ONE MONTH and two days and growing by the minute.hahaha... I love it when she yawns.. it cracks me up the faces she pulls already.
Speaking of faces.... I can't get enough of this one! haha... She had just woken up.. probably after a night full of one or two hour increments of sleep... we gotta work on that!

**Yesterday was the first time she smiled while she was awake.. and she did it when JD was playing with her. I think she has a crush:]They have the cutest little relationship already:]

**Our insurance is trying to make us pay for all the NICU bills... what the heck was the $5000 copay and then they covered 100% after that bull crap all about then?! UGH.. I hate insurance. Hopefully we can get this figured out soon.

**Easter was great! We spent it at my parents' house and had some fun Easter egg hunts... Jonnie had a cute little Easter dress and looked adorable!She was getting sick of pictures already!

**JD got a call and letter from Washington State telling him he's been ACCEPTED! So the day after we sent off our $500 NON-refundable check to Oklahoma State to hold his spot... we are now shifting gears and heading to Washington State if the football thing doesn't work out.

**THREE more days til the draft... and also when JD will get the big call from a team if they want him as a Free Agent. The whole process is nuts... but so far he's been talking to Indianapolis, Miami, Dallas, and Kansas City. So we'll see what happens!

**ONE final stands between me and graduation! WOO! I think I'm gonna take it on Monday.

**We got a storage unit for the summer.. thanks Brye and Michelle for finding it!... and started moving our stuff in yesterday. No matter if we end up doing the football thing or Vet School, we're doing the storage unit thing til we find a place in August wherever we end up... TALK ABOUT FLYING BY THE SEAT OF YOUR PANTS!

**Weber had their football banquet last Thursday and JD got Defensive MVP for the 2nd year in a row... WOO go babe! (I'm still trying to figure out how to balance Wife and Mom... clearly I stink at the wife part lately cause I didn't get ANY pictures of him at the banquet. Cosy did though so I will need to steal those from her.)

**I LOVE being a Mom and just adore Jonnie. I'm sure she didn't know what she was getting herself into when she became part of our family.. but boy is it an adventure!What I do 99% of the time I'm with her...

I think that touches on just about everything. We are doing great and just trying to get by each day. We love the hot weather and taking walks whenever we can! I can't wait til JD is done with this semester!!

3 Weeks:]

I know I have been a MAJOR slacker with the blogging lately but I have been wiped OUT! Of course Jonnie sleeps a ton these days, but lately I have been taking full advantage of her naps and sleeping right along with her. I'm definitely still getting used to the whole night time thing. She just doesn't sleep nearly as well when she's not being held so it has been kinda hard. We're working on it though and she's getting better! We are learning new things every day and having a heck of a time while doing so. Jonnie is such a little ball of fire and I love her so so much! We had her 2 week appt last Monday and she looks great.... she was weighing 9 pounds 1 ounce so all her eating is paying off. I was surprised she was gaining any with the heavy loads she drops in her pants a million times a day:] She's definitely MASTERED eating AND pooping. It's been lovely.
Helping Daddy with homework late at night while I was getting some sleep:] JD is the best.
She SOMETIMES likes her binky, and it is sure nice when she does!
One of my favorites so far... ahh I can't get enough of this girl!

The Real World

It felt SO good walking out of the hospital yesterday and showing Jonnie a little more than just the NICU walls. We were so excited to finally get to dress her up in her own little outfits... She's such a doll. Here are some happier pictures of our precious little one, even some of her first bath at home. Good thing Daddy was here because he is way better at this bath stuff than me! Ahh.. I just can't get enough of those two together. They have the cutest little bond already and I'm sure will be best buds forever. I can't tell you how much I love having her home... She brings the sweetest spirit into our home and I can't imagine our lives without her.

Daddy just lovin on his little girl.

Her first taste of freezing after bath time fun.

I LOVE this face! She was cold and obviously mad about it!

She was just hanging out as I unpacked all our hospital stuff. Too cute!

Goodness gracious, I sure do love this precious little girl!

So good to be HOME

Just letting you all know we are HOME at last! She was discharged yesterday at 4:30 pm and we couldn't be happier! She is doing so good and the chance of infection should be long gone! We've just been playing all day and I can't get enough of her. New pictures will be coming soon... IV-less and dressed to impress! Just wanted to give you a happy update:]

Our Precious Jonnie Belle

She is finally here!! She made her big debut on Saturday morning, March 21, at 1:03 am. I should have known she would be ready to come out then... she was always such a night owl in my tummy! It has been quite the adventure to say the least, but it has been an amazing experience! I have probably felt just about every emotion possible in the past 4 days but it has all been so worth it! I'll do a long, specific post about my labor another time... right now I just want to focus on our little super star:]

Her Name:
We decided to name her Jonnie after J.D. (John David) and both of our cute Dads, (Jon & John). Her middle name is Belle and that's not after anyone, we just really loved it and thought it went well with Jonnie. I can't picture her being called any other name.. it just fits her to a T.


Stats:
Jonnie weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs. 9 oz.!! ouch! Her head made it out great cause it was so cone shaped from being down so low... but she must have her Daddy's broad shoulders cause they definitely weren't making it through without a nice little tear for Mommy. She was 21 1/2 inches long... this girl is all legs! From inside my tummy, our doctor always said she was gonna have some pretty long legs and she surely does.


Update on what's going on:
She was born healthy and happy and everything was great! She latched on right away and hasn't quit eating since! She's such a good little breastfeeder... or breast eater, whichever is the right term. Everything was going well.. we finally get to my room and tried to sleep around 4:30 am, and then around 6:00 she started to be a little fussy and seemed like she was having to work a little too hard to breathe. My nurse cleaned out her mouth cause she was still kinda liquidy, and took her to the nursery to run some tests and figure out what was going on. Turns out, she had some fluid in her lungs, and they wanted to make sure to get everything cleared up so they ran a blood culture and put her on antibiotics. Turns out she had a high CRP count, which means that her little body was trying to fight off the start of some sort of infection. Her glucose levels were also a little low and since she was having a hard time breathing, they put her on some oxygen too. This was when things got hard... and I couldn't stop crying! My sweet little angel was taken to the NICU so they could monitor her more closely and make sure everything got cleared up. When she first went in there, she was hooked up to the oxygen thing, had an IV full of some sort of glucose fluid, had an IV in her head and her hand for the antibiotics, and had to be in the little incubator. It was the hardest thing to see and it makes me cry just thinking back to it. Most of those didn't last long though because she started making progress so fast! She is such a little trooper. They took her off the oxygen after the first day and the glucose IV on the 2nd day when her tests were coming back better and better each time. In order to get them up without the IV, we had to have her breastfeed and then also have her take some formula as well until my milk came in. It helps that she is such a good eater! The real stuff came in in no time:) Thank heavens for that. She still has an IV in her head, actually this is her second now because the antibiotics are really tough on her little veins and they only last so long. She's also now in an open crib so it's way nicer. This all sounds really serious and scary... that's what I thought when they initially told me about it, but she really is doing SO well! She is still in the NICU and I feed her every couple hours and we're with her as much as we possibly can! Since I am a breastfeeding mom, they have me just boarding in my same postpartum room til she gets released to go home. I probably am with her about 14 hours out of the day so it hasn't been too bad. I just can't wait to be able to take her home with us. It has been the hardest thing seeing them poke her with needles and having to leave her each time.


I don't know what I would do without my sweet husband and wonderful Mom. JD has been amazing throughout this whole thing and is the cutest Daddy in the world. Jonnie already has him wrapped around her little finger. JD gets up in the middle of the night with me at 3:30 am to go feed her even though he has school and so much going on outside of our little family. He just can't get enough of her. I thought I was gonna die when Monday came and JD had to go back to school and everything, but my Mom has been coming up from about 9 to 2 so I'm only alone for a couple hours. I don't think I could walk away from Jonnie's side if I didn't have someone with me. They would have to just let me camp out there! I am so grateful for our wonderful families and all the love they have for us and our sweet Jonnie already. I don't know what we'd do without them.

Jonnie's now on her 4th day of antibiotics and they like them to be on them from 7-10 days so hopefully we can be outta here by this weekend! Keep her in your prayers, maybe we can get out of here a little sooner! I love love LOVE being a Mom and am amazed at the love I have for this little girl! My mom always said I would never understand it until I had my own... and this is DEFINITELY true!



Four Days old and cute as can be!