Leah @ 1 Month & Heber Valley Girls Camp

My how time flies! Leah turned one month old last Friday. Here are a couple of pictures I took of her that day. Here she is with the blanket I made for her and her first Elmo doll that her Grandpa Tucker gave her. Despite what it may seem from these pictures, she is actually getting to be more alert now. Although people don't believe us because she usually just sleeps when we take her places. Just come to our house anywhere from about 9 to 11 in the evening (or later) and you'll see a very alert baby! Here I've caught her in the middle of a yawn. I tried to take more pictures after this one, but she woke up and was too fussy for more. That same day we had been invited to go with the Turner family to the Heber Valley Girls Camp. This is a very nice camping facility that the LDS Church uses for girls camp during the week and lets families or other groups use on Fridays and Saturdays. Since Leah is still so young, we only went up for the day. But we still had a good time.

They had several Challenge Courses that groups could complete. In this challenge, the group had to get from the "boat" to the "island" using a rope to cross the "shark infested waters." The rope was hanging from two trees above the water. So first you had to figure out how to safely get the rope and then everyone had to swing across.

This picture is kind of funny because if you look closely you can see that they have a hold on Ross's feet and his arms and head are hovering over the "shark area."

Here is Ross swinging to safety.

They also had a zip line challenge. We ran out of time, so Ross didn't get to do this one. But I thought it looked like fun. Here I am all geared up to go.

To get to the zip line, you had to climb a cargo net and then walk across a rope bridge with the boards being about 12-18 inches apart. It was about 30 feet in the air, but the height didn't really bother me because they had you harnessed to a rope that was hooked to a cable. I didn't get nervous until it was time to step off the platform to go down the zip line. Suddenly it seemed a lot higher than I really was. But I jumped off anyway and zipped down the cable. It was a lot of fun.

Here I am on the platform getting ready to jump.

And here I am zipping down the line.

It was a beautiful day to be up in the mountains and we were really glad that the Turners invited us to spend that time with them. Thank you Turners!

That night when we got home wasn't as fun. Leah had been wrapped up and held most of the day to protect her from the sun and wind. Consequently, she slept most of the day. So when we got home she was wide awake and didn't want to go to sleep. When we finally got her to sleep, she got fussy whenever we put her down. I think she got too much air from the wind. So it was a rather rough night with a lot of interrupted sleep. But she is so sweet and cute that we won't hold it against her.

Three Weeks with a Baby

Our sweet little Leah is 3 weeks old now. The past three weeks have gone by so fast that it's hard to believe. Leah is such a good and content baby and we love her so much. Here are just some of the highlights from the past three weeks...

She is only a few days old in this picture. When we first brought her home, it seemed like all she did all day was sleep. She would wake up to eat and then just sleep again. She now has times when she is awake longer, but sleeping is still what she does the most. Ross thought it was so funny when I would burp her when she was this little. She would lay so limp over my hand that he thought she looked like a little Muppet with her arms and legs just dangling. Now she moves her arms and legs around a lot when I burp her and she's even starting to hold up her head more. This picture is from when she was one week old...sleeping as usual.
We've started teaching her early...She doesn't know it yet, but she's going to be a BYU fan. Although she probably won't ever truly appreciate the BYU / Utah rivalry now that Utah will be changing conferences. This is one of our first "family photos." I didn't ever think to have someone take a picture of the three of us together at the hospital. Oh well.

We took Leah to my grandparents' house to meet her Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Putnam. It didn't take long for her to win their hearts. She's such a sweetheart!

This is a picture from her first bath. She loves her baths. She lays there so content while Ross and I awkwardly try to bathe her. (We are getting better at it though.) She only cries when we take her out of the water. Probably because she gets pretty cold by the time we get her dressed again.

Here's some more pictures of her adoring fans. Morgan and Madison could not get enough of Leah when we went to their house for Madison's birthday.

We've started putting her in her swing more. Overall, she seems to like it and will usually fall asleep in it.

Here's one of her most recent pictures. She's a little over three weeks old here. This was during one of her really alert times. When she's awake, she's pretty chilled like she looks in this picture. At her two week appointment she was 7 lbs 13 oz and just over 20 inches long. I'm pretty sure she's well over 8 lbs by now. In the past week or so, we've noticed a lot of growth in her.

It seems like Leah is growing so fast right before our eyes. And Ross and I are getting better at this parenting thing as the days go on. She sleeps pretty well during the night. She does wake up a couple of times to eat, but will usually go back to sleep pretty quickly. We love to see all the funny faces she makes. She often makes a face where she kind of grimaces and closes one eye. We call it her pirate face. Ross likes it when she makes a face where her eyes are open really wide and she rounds her little lips into an O shape. She has a really cute smile, but her smiles still only come randomly rather than in response to us. We are so glad to have her as part of our little family. We love her dearly!

Two Wonderful Years

Sunday, June 6th, Ross and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary. With an infant only a week and a half old, our celebration this year was pretty low key, but still good. Saturday we took Leah to her Grandma Leslie's house to get baby sat for a few hours while Ross and I went out to lunch. We decided to go to Texas Roadhouse - after all, you can't go wrong with a steak house! Then we went to a nearby park and just talked while we enjoyed the beautiful weather. Leah was very good while we were gone and it was so nice to just have some time for the two of us.

Sunday, our actual anniversary, was very low key. Lesley, Brian and Hannah came over and brought us a very yummy dinner and we enjoyed spending some time with them.

Our lives have changed a lot in the past two years - definitely good changes, especially with the addition of our precious daughter, Leah. It has been an incredible journey so far and we look forward to many more years and even an eternity together. I love you, Ross! Happy 2nd anniversary!