Thanksgiving

"To express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven."   -Thomas S. Monson

This year I am grateful for a little girl who came surprisingly early.

 Over the past two and a half weeks I have experienced intense fear,

 shed many tears and worried about the life of our sweet baby.

 It has been the most emotionally 

and physically draining two weeks of my life. 

However, I wouldn't change it for the world. 

We now have a beautiful daughter.

 Heavenly Father has trusted us with her care.

There was certainly a divine power that helped her come into

 this world so early and we are blessed to have her.

 Our testimonies have grown stronger, our marriage has grown stronger,

 and we have witnessed many miracles with her arrival. 

~~~

I am grateful for my strong, loving, supportive husband.

He has helped me in so many ways and has been incredibly selfless.

 He is a wonderful husband and is an amazing dad. I love him so much.

~~~

Most of all, I am grateful for a Heavenly Father

 who is aware of me and my family. 

Prayer is real. The Priesthood is real. 

The great love of my Heavenly Father and my 

brother Jesus Christ gives me the calm assurance

that all will be well and helps me to push through each day.

Every Single Day!

 We now get to hold her EVERY DAY!!

Sweet Little Amy

Amy is still doing great! Keep the prayers coming!

Here are a few of the thousands of pics we have taken :) 

As you can tell, she loves being on her tummy.

We get to hold her every other day. Hopefully soon,

 once her breathing is more stable and she has put on some weight,

 that will change to holding every day.

Look at all her hair!!

She was stretching and wiggling around like crazy yesterday.

She loves having her hands up by her face.

This one is for my mom. She loves little toe pictures.

She melts my heart when she smiles.

Milestones

We've had some awesome milestones over the past few days! 

We got to hold her for the first time yesterday, she has been taken

 off of her Cpap machine and graduated to a nasal air pump

 and no more bilirubin lights!! She is doing so great! 

First hold. She's so tiny!!

This is the Cpap machine that she used to have on. It fit right over her little nose.

Now that she doesn't have to wear the "goggles" to protect her eyes from the bilirubin lights and since she doesn't have a big Cpap strapped on her head, she can have cuter accessories! The nurses put a cute purple bow in her hair and also dressed her in her first outfit!! She looks more like a little baby girl.

She's learned how to pull out her oxygen tube. She's already so stubborn

Photo Shoot

She opened her eyes for us yesterday!
 Dad was right there with the camera to catch it all.
She is so beautiful. 

Jeff is so great with the camera. I am always so amazed with his creative shots (and I have to admit with my fragile, emotional, post-partum state-I am sometimes brought to tears when we flip through all the pics as soon as we get home from visiting her). :) Thanks Jeff for capturing her sweet spirit and love in these precious moments.

Amy Alice 11-5-10

First Family Photo

Our sweet Amy

I love this picture!

Although, she is very swollen in it. Her arms and legs are much thinner now.

She seems to have a slight smirk in this picture,
as if she knows something.

Her face is a little swollen still. Look how tiny she is compared to Jeff's strong, manly hands! I know those hands will be there to protect her from anything. He's such a good dad.

Daddy's Little Girl

They added a "bilirubin blanket" underneath her to help with her Jaundice.

One day soon all of these cords, IV's, lights, and
monitors will be gone and she'll be at home with us!