Move (the sequel)

We moved! We are back in Idaho. Matt got a job in Chubbuck near where we grew up at Streamline Chiropractic so we moved back and are living with family for now. We are happy that we made this decision to come back to Idaho. Washington was a great place to live, and we will miss the friends we made there, but it feels good to be back near family again.

On another note Peter is starting to get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth so we are thinking we better get ready for him to start crawling. 

I love to see the temple and fall colors

We have always tried to make time to attend the temple. Now that Peter is here we make it an all day trip. We take turns in the temple so that one of us is out with Peter playing and keeping him company.

We love the fall colors that are out at this time of the year so we could not help ourselves. We had to go out and enjoy one of the dry and sunny days we had this week.

Temperate Rainforest

In October, when we had a sunny Saturday, we drove to the Hoh Rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula. It was an awesome spectacle of huge, ancient trees, young trees growing on old fallen trees, and the moss that almost looks like leaves. Peter enjoyed it too as you can tell from the pictures.

Sweet Laughter

A few weeks ago, Grandma Nielson expressed her deep desire to hear a good belly laugh from Peter. I hope this captures the joy we have when he laughs. We find it funny that we can make him laugh at something silly and then when we try to make him laugh again, he doesn't find it funny. Luckily he was laughing for a long time so that we could get this video. 

I also want to let all our readers know that a few weeks ago I published a post about a particularly hard day we had. Since then things have gone back to normal and we are having fun again. He is not the easiest baby, but he is a good baby and we love him and love having him in our family. As you can see in the video. 

And the Little One Said "Roll Over"

Ok, ok, I know he did not roll all the way over, but he is getting the idea. I was so excited when he kept rolling to his side, I had to record it and share it with all of you. I hope you enjoyed the video!

Play Time

Peter is learning many new things. Particularly, he is grabbing things and putting them in his mouth a lot. He is drooling a lot these days so everything is covered in slobber. He can roll from his tummy to his back and he sometimes rolls from his back to his side. He loves to stand with help and really loves to be lifted high in the air above our heads. Here is a video of him playing on his play mat with the octopus. One funny quark about him is that he kicks his left leg a lot when he is getting excited or worked up, and you can see a little of that in this video. 

Oh Baby!

Yesterday was one of the hardest days we've had for a few months. I keep hearing that after babies turn 3 months things get so much better. Well my baby is just shy of 3 months old and yesterday made me wonder if things are getting worse instead of better. Despite the long and difficult day, (I decided that God wanted to make it up to me) he slept for 9 hours straight. Unfortunately I kept waking to check on him because it is so uncharacteristic, but quickly fell back asleep after seeing that he was fine. (Checking on him is so easy because I have a video monitor thanks to my husband's family). Today has been a bit better but still a little difficult. I'm sure it will pass and he will be happy again someday. Hopefully we don't have to wait too long.

Road Trip from Idaho

We had a great time in Idaho in August. It was fun to introduce the baby to all of our family. We had a good drive back to Washington where we stopped to look at the beautiful Multnomah Falls. We also stopped for a little break at The Dalles Oregon. There was a nice little park on the beach of the Columbia River there so we took a walk along the bank and stretched our legs.

Crash! Resolved

When we would tell others that the driver that collided with Matt had Allstate insurance, most of them would give their regrets and tell us that we were going to be taken advantage of. Fortunately we were blessed to have a pretty good experience. Matt met with the claims adjuster, once the car had been estimated to be a total loss, and convinced them that the car was in great condition and that we had just had a new paint job and that it was worth much more than they were originally going to pay for it. They gave us a pretty good settlement.

In addition, we began car shopping and found this beauty for a decent price. The seller met our baby and (being a grandpa himself) gave us an even better deal than we were hoping.

In the end we felt very blessed and full of gratitude for people who are honest, trusting, and giving. We also are very happy to have our "new" Subaru Legacy that is running well.

Crash!

Our little Toyota has met its destiny. Matt was driving when someone pulled out in front of him and they collided. Matt walked away with a scraped shin and sore shoulder and the other person seemed unharmed. Our car (as you can see) was not so lucky. We are hoping to be able to purchase a new vehicle soon after insurance comes through. Hopefully it will all work out. For now we are driving her around town hoping she doesn't explode.

Life Changes

We are so happy to announce the arrival of our son in late June. Life has been one challenge after another but we are finding opportunities to be happy and recognize the joys that God has given us.

When we first moved to the Pacific Northwest we were very hopeful. I was still pregnant and Matt was starting a new job. It took us about a month to find and move into an apartment that we could both afford and enjoy.

Within the first week at our new place we realized that we had a problem . . . FLEAS. It was very difficult at first because we had boxes lying around everywhere and we were going in and out of all the rooms unpacking so we ended up with an entire apartment infestation. I learned that vacuuming is a major tool to get rid of them, so in addition to 1 fog treatment, 2 cans of spray, a million loads of laundry (when we would see them on our sheets we would wash all the bedding to make sure there were no residual eggs waiting to hatch), we vacuuming the apartment every day. Or should I say that Matt vacuumed the apartment every day.

It took about a month for all the fleas to disappear. It was very disappointing when we arrived home from the hospital to find that we were still infested. However they are gone now and we are loving it.

Our little one was born on Matt's birthday and we were happy to only have to go through about 5 hours of labor. He was 7 lbs 11 oz. and 19.5 inches long. We came home after a couple of days in the hospital and were happy to have my mother and sister come to town a few days later. We are learning how to be a family of 3. Matt keeps telling me that 3 is a magic number. Our little one is growing well and developing well and happy (most of the time). At his last weigh in he weighed 12 lbs 3 oz and everyone keeps telling us that he seems so tall! He'll be tall like his dad.

Not long after we were home from the hospital we realized that something was wrong with the way that the baby was feeding and acting and having no bowel movements. He and I went to see a lactation specialist. From that meeting we learned that I have low milk supply. This has been very discouraging and disappointing because I had been planning on nursing for an entire year. So we began supplementing in addition to nursing and he seemed to perk up and be a happier more content baby. I began an intense pumping regimen in hopes to increase my supply and hopefully have enough for him that we would not have to supplement. However, it is 2 months later and I we still need to supplement. I have faith that I can still increase my supply but It is easy to get discouraged.

Matt is experiencing some of his own ups and downs with work. It took about 2 months to get licensed here and now he is waiting to be approved by the insurance companies as a provider. He has been marketing, and has 2 patients.

We are learning every day to rely on God. We press forward with faith that Matt will have success in his efforts to bring in patients, and that I will produce more milk. We can't help but be grateful for all the support that we receive and love from our family and friends.

We hope to be posting more often again now that we are getting used to life with a baby.

Kim

Idaho Fun

While in Idaho visiting family, Matt's parents took us to the Idaho Falls temple. We love visiting the temple and we took advantage of the nice weather to stop at the falls and take a photo.


Kim enjoyed hanging out with her sisters. Kristen made and decorated 3 cakes in one weekend and Kim got to help.

The day after we arrived, Matt's sister Michelle talked him into running into a 5k fun run. The next weekend they were joined by Curtis and Lucy for a 10k run. This is a photo of Matt just about to cross the finish line at the 10k.


At the end of the visit Emilee (Kim's sister), and Kim's mom hosted a baby shower for the soon to arrive little one. It was so fun for Kim to see old friends who came from near and far to celebrate. A fabulous time!

Over the River and Through the Woods Across the Country we Go

On our way back to the west we stayed at a hotel in Coralville Iowa. We had stayed at this particular Best Western Canterbury Inn the first time we drove across the country to move to Chicago. We thought it only fitting to stay there again on our move back to the west. We particularly enjoyed the decor and the fantastic complimentary hot breakfast.

Matt was king for a moment while he sat on this throne in the lobby.

The next stop on our journey was in Colorado Springs, CO. We visited Matt's sister Tina's family at their beautiful home and this picture was taken at the top of a hike we took on a beautiful and windy day.
We arrived in Idaho the next day and spent a week with family there then our journey moved us on to Olympia Washington. Those pictures to come!

Graduation and moving

Matt's graduation from chiropractic school April 21. This involved a class graduation party at Navy Pier, making a cake for a party with family with a part that looks like a spine, and packing up our stuff to move.

Disc Golf

Disc Golf!!!
One of our favorite activities! We are fortunate enough to live within 10 minutes of 3 great courses. If only those couple days of warm weather would have lasted...

The Saturday before St Patrick's Day Chicago has a parade and turns the Chicago River green. We missed the parade but got to see the river green, plus drunk people staggering in the sidewalks.

Seattle Fun

We had a hotel in downtown Seattle just a few blocks from the space needle, we went to the top of the needle. Afterward we went to the waterfront. It was a little cold and dark. Kim did not like the layout of Seattle and vows that she will never live there.

Interviews

Our trip to Washington and Oregon was an adventure!
Matt had 3 interviews, one in Oregon, and 2 in Washington. We did a lot of driving through some beautiful areas. As you can see the evergreens and the waterfront make a beautiful scene. One of Matt's interviews was in Olympia (the capitol of Washington) so we took some time looking through the capitol building.