Luke

Luke Jeremy Wells 

Born December 28, 2013 at 9:41pm

9lbs 0oz 20 3/4 inches long

If you can't tell, we're just a little bit smitten with him.

Merry Christmas 2013

Even if there were supposed to be two kids in the traditional Christmas jammie photos this year (ahem baby boy...) it was still a pretty great Christmas. 

jer & sah-yah

Madeline has recently come to the realization that Jeremy and I don't call each other mom/mommy & dad/daddy. So she's felt she has the liberty to call us Jer and Sah-yah the past couple days. Trust us, we've been making an effort to correct her newly developing habit, but it is pretty entertaining, and we have a hard time not smiling or even laughing when it happens. Had you been at our house yesterday you might have overheard a couple such conversations. I suppose there's often a conversation going on that could make anyone laugh, but these two in particular felt worthy of recording. 

First was when I was in the bathroom getting ready for church. Madeline was in her highchair eating breakfast and Jeremy was doing something in the kitchen. All of a sudden Madeline started yelling, "Where did Sah-yah go?! Sah-yah go?? Where's sah-yah!?" Finally Jeremy had to answer, "Mommy is in the bathroom, Madeline."

And then on the way home from church Madeline asked, "Jer, what time is it?" I could not hold in my laughter. First because she has no concept of time or what the answer would mean and second because she had so casually asked it. Jeremy just answered her, "It's 1:11 Madeline." And she simply responded with, "Oh, wow." 

How we love this little girl of ours! Madeline I can't believe I ever wanted you to stay a baby forever because life just keeps getting better the older you get. We love you!

Love,

Jer & Sah-yah

hey december, we like you.

^^Madeline wanted you to know she took this picture of her beloved snow all by herself ;)

We're pretty into taking pictures these days.

Despite the stress the holidays seem to bring and on top of that a busy husband who's trying hard to be prepared for finals week while constantly checking his phone for any sign his wife might be going into labor, it's been a good month so far. We were spoiled with almost a week of beautiful weather in which we didn't have to turn on the heat!!! Quite exciting for poor students :) And then the cold and snow came, but we don't mind too much because it's pretty magical the way Madeline can sit curled up on the window sill, quietly watching the snow fall. 

And of course who doesn't love extra excuses to be baking all the time. I know I'm loving it. Even if it's nearly impossible for me to have a picture with my daughter where we both look good... She's such a ham. 

Thank you December for truly being the "most wonderful time of the year". It's been a great couple of weeks so far and we're really looking forward to what else you have in store :) 39 weeks! Baby boy when are you going to get here?!?!

let it snow!

We were hit with the most unexpected little snowstorm yesterday (I wrote this Monday... oops). Unexpected for me, I should say. It was forecast, I just kind of ignored it/didn't take it seriously. When we got to church Sunday morning there wasn't a flake in the air and after there was a good three inches on the ground. Madeline was pretty uneasy about it driving home from church, but after her nap she wouldn't stop begging to go play in the snow! So her wonderful daddy took her out just before it was completely dark so she could experience the snow. She was so cold but didn't care. The only thing that got her inside was the bribe of a nice cup of hot chocolate.  Just look at those rosy cheeks! It was time to come in :) 

After Madeline went to bed we got to enjoy the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, one of my favorite December traditions. And even though it was a lot different than I was expecting, it was still good and I loved snuggling up with Jeremy and this bump of mine with the glow of the Christmas tree off in the corner. 

Such a wonderful evening. Such a wonderful time of the year.

Madeline's hat is from sprouttops.com. We absolutely love it, and the people who just recently started the company. You should check out their site. My niece is the adorable little girl on the home page.

Also, I have instagram... have I ever mentioned that? I need to get some sort of link or slideshow on the sidebar of the blog, but until then, feel free to follow along! There's a couple pictures of our snow day yesterday plus it'll probably be the first way we let the world know when our little Mr. gets here :) Any day now!

some thoughts on this pregnancy as it draws to a close...

I realize it could be another week or three before we're holding baby boy in our arms for the first time, but I've been thinking a lot about this pregnancy. Well obviously. It's hard not to think about pregnancy when your belly gets in the way of just about everything and you're in the bathroom every fifteen minutes because your bladder is officially the size of a marble... But aside from all that homestretch stuff, I've been thinking about how this pregnancy has been so much better than with Madeline's pregnancy. And that has nothing to do with her, I've been better this time around and it's made a huge difference! 

When I started my pregnancy with Madeline my mindset was totally off. I treated those nine months as a chance to put my feet up, eat whatever sounded good and twice what a normal person would eat because I was, "eating for two". Somewhere I heard early on that too much cardio was dangerous for the baby, (what the???) so I avoided exercise like the plague. Where do all these myths come from? I was an idiot to believe them. All of them. Poor Jeremy was my slave for those nine months because, "I was pregnant and he should have to do everything for me." Gah it makes me so angry thinking about it. Pregnancy isn't a disease. It isn't a time to have an excuse for everything. Definitely it's a time to be very aware of your body and it's limitations, and not a time to start pushing yourself further than you have before, but it's completely natural. Our bodies are made to do this. 

Needless to say I've been much better this time around. Sure I could have eaten better and exercise more often, but I've been so much better than before. It probably helps that I have another child I've been chasing around every day, but it's been more than that. My mindset has been different. I've been different. I've been happier and healthier. I haven't loathed every day of my third trimester, in fact I've really enjoyed it. At this point (38 weeks) with Madeline I was already trying everything I could to get labor going. I ate two pineapples at 37 weeks... I was miserable and ready to be done. But now I'm fine. I'm great! I actually have a ton of energy, I'm loving life, and sure I don't want to be pregnant forever, but I'm not counting down the days. 

Life is so much better when you're embracing life and living in the moment instead of looking ahead to what comes next. I'm happier when I'm busy and making healthy choices. How I hope I can remember these feelings with my next pregnancy... 

And if all that talk isn't enough to convince myself next time, these pictures ought to do the trick. Twenty pounds lighter this time around, from the same starting point. All the pictures were taken at 36 weeks. Pregnant with baby boy on the left and with Madeline on the right.