Family of Four

         
       My mom flew down 12/16 to get ready for baby. My dad came 12/18 to spend Christmas week with us. Now we just had to wait... wait wait wait for our sweet baby to come. I thought every day was "THE day". But alas, she just stayed inside my belly.  I also want to mention, in weeks prior to my due date a few of my midwives were a little concerned at how small I was and how small my belly was measuring. They even had me get an extra ultrasound to make sure all was well. Pretty soon it was 12/21 her due date, boy was I ready. I had an appointment with my midwife that morning and asked her to strip my membrane, hoping it was going to be the magical thing that gets baby here. My mom and I went walking around doing a little procrastinated Christmas shopping after the appointment. Nothing happened all day. It was soon time for bed, so off we went. PANG I woke right up. It was 10:40 this was different. I swear, I literally felt my cervix open, and I KNEW I was in transition and we better go to the hospital. Transition is interesting, with Lanni it made me throw up and shake. With this baby, I had to make a about 5 mad dashes to bathroom in the span of 10 minutes and had the shakes too. While I was making my last mad dash, Byron was finishing up grabbing our hospital bag, and my dad was trying to hurry us out the door so we wouldn't have a baby in the car. I was freaking awesome. Yes, I'm bragging about myself,  but I think childbirth allows that. I didn't make one peep the whole way there in the car. I owe this to HyonoBabies, which I borrowed from my sister. Amazing program. I was not as diligent as I could've been, but man, the difference it made in this birth is just incredible. The hospital is about 20 minutes from our house. Right before we got there I could feel pressure and knew I would be pushing soon. I knew she was coming . We went in the Emergency Room entrance. Of course, nothing is ever an emergency. There was a line, with 2 people ahead of us and 2 people behind the counter. No one was eager to help Byron, so I thought I would. Contraction 1, it had me moaning as I could feel her moving down. They then told Byron to grab a wheel chair for me. Contraction 2, I told them, "I am pushing"...they told me don't push... Do they know that that is impossible. Contraction 3, I told them I was pushing and I wasn't stopping. This got their attention. The man behind the desk flew to our aid and wheeled us up to Labor and Delivery as fast as he could. Contraction 4, I'm in triage telling them I have to push and that she's coming. My midwife comes in, who I love and also delivered Lanni,  checks me. She said, "yep, you're having a baby". She called about 7 nurses over to help. They got me in my room and on the hospital. I was comfortably in runner's lunge to push this baby out. Contraction 5, her head is coming out. I reached down to touch her. Wow. Amazing! She is still in the caul (water bag). My midwife tells Byron he better catch the baby. Contraction 6, out she comes, with her dad there to catch her. Healthy and perfect.That what is it. She's here. All that, from start to finish, was one hour. One hour, and she was born, in the caul, which broke when she was all the way out and Byron was holding her. I love being skin to skin with my babies when they are fresh from Heaven they smell so wonderful. It's humbling to know that this perfect baby is here, in MY arms, and I get to take care of her forever.
She is beautiful.  We could never decide on a name. One night I was just thinking to myself, going through a list of names trying to see if any "felt" right. Then, it just popped in my head, a name I have never heard. Kenzli. I loved it and Byron loved it! (yay) I like to think she whispered it to me. We named her Kenzli Anne Wahl. Born 12/21/15 weighing 7lbs 14oz 20 inches.

                Kenzli is such a gift! She is calm. She sleeps. She is perfect. Lanni loves her little sister, and is quite the big sister. Always willing to help anyway she can. I love my family. I thank my Heavenly Father daily for the sweet blessing of eternal families.

So Many Blessings

   With all the time that has passed since my last entry a lot has happened with our little family.

We are so blessed. I will just touch on the big events as of recently. 

    Byron has been working for our family and taking classes to get a job at SRP. It's what he has  always wanted to. Well, dreams come true! At the end of his last semester there were jobs coming available. He applied, got an interview, got the job! WOO HOO When he got the call back we were just walking in the front door, I was so excited (silently screaming and jumping up and down) that I just couldn't get us inside! So, he got the job and  was told the start date....in 4 weeks. Oh boy. Let's just those 4 weeks are filled with crazy.
    We celebrated our sweet Lanni Lanae turning 2. Oh how we love her. She is so bright, sweet, snuggly, happy, smart, beautiful, silly...the list goes on. She brings joy, laughter, and light into our lives and our home with her curly hair, big eyes and spirit full of energy. We took her to Build a Bear for her birthday. She picked out an elk ( really a reindeer), which made Byron so proud! She also got sticker books and clothes. The girl loves her stickers. Lanni also requested chicken and bean beans (green beans) for her birthday dinner. And for dessert....chocolate chocolate chip mint ice cream cake. Delish! We so look forward to this year and watching our sweet Lanni grow.

    We got to welcome baby #2 into our arms this year also! 

I found out we were pregnant the day before our 3 year anniversary. Surprise!! Baby #2 due 12/21/2015, which we thought was funny because Lanni was 12/12/13... people have made comments that we get lucky in March. It's true...March has been a pretty lucky month for us! Like my first pregnancy, this one was very easy. A few little bumps along the way included, a few UTI's (yuck) and 2 horribly painful gallbladder attacks. Other than that it was easy peasy. We took a trip to Utah in
 
June, which has almost become a little tradition. It was extra special this year because my grandma and grandpa Crockett were there staying at my parents'. They live in Missouri, so it's not very often we get to see them. I love them so much. I had been praying, trying to figure out how I could see them, and wouldn't you know, they planned a trip to Utah right when I was going to be there. It was a tender mercy. I know Heavenly Father answered my prayer to see my wonderful grandparents.
The beginning of August we found out our new addition was going to be another girl! WOO
HOO!













My mom then came for a visit in September while Byron was gone on unsuccessful elk hunt. If you know my dad you know he can't live without mom. So he surprised by driving down (12 hours) to 
 visit. It was so much fun!
Byron and I made a last minute decision to fly Lanni and me up to Utah for one last HOORAH before our new baby came. So we flew up there the end of October and stayed for 2 weeks so we could  
 celebrate my dad's birthday. Lanni LOVES temples. She even has cried when we drive past them because she "wants her temple". So we went to the Payson temple to take some pictures. She loves fishing with her papa, it's the cutest thing. She dressed up as a gum ball machine for halloween and loved walking with grammy to knock on doors in hopes of getting some treats. She also loved to watch ticket (Polar Express) with grammy in the bedroom. It was a great trip.
Time flies, Thanksgiving was over, we celebrated Lanni's second birthday. Now we just had to wait for baby.......

It's Been....8 Months

Well... it has been 8 months since my last post. I have good intentions. I always say " I need to update the blog"...for some reason I get distracted with Lanni or making some sugary sweet that I shouldn't be eating. Well where to start? I guess right where I left off.
February- The end of February Lanni got blessed. My mom made her blessing dress! Thanks mom! One of my favorite things about being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is baby blessings. I always loved those Sundays when a dad held his baby with a group of priesthood holding men and gave his baby a name and a blessing. I extra loved when I got to see Byron holding our sweet Lanni, with all of the men we love in our lives, and give her a name and a blessing. It was absolutely beautiful.  I actually just re-read it 3 days ago....It is just incredible.

March- Hmmmm hmmm I can't really think of anything... Oh ya! I got Lanni's newborn photo's back. I think she is just the most precious thing!!

April- This month is always fun! First, we celebrated Byron's 23rd birthday! Let me just clarify.... I FREAKING LOVE BIRTHDAYS, like, so much. (I especially love my own.) So, hopefully Byron enjoyed his! Lanni and I made him his favorite, tater-tot casserole and lemon cake with lemon glaze! Yum! Okay. Confession I actually baked 2 8x8 lemon cakes....and I ate one. All by myself! AHHH I know it's horrible, but it was really good and I just couldn't stop. I actually just came clean about this to Byron about 2 weeks ago. He just laughed at me and said, "BaaaAAAAbe!" Happy Birthday Byron! You are the best dad and husband in the world! Thanks for all you do. I love you so much!

The second great thing about April is our anniversary! This year April 21 marked 2 years! It honestly feels like so much longer in the best way possible. It is interesting to me how love truly grows as we do. Through all our successes, troubles, laughs love is growing. It makes me so grateful for temple marriage. What a blessing that I get to be with Byron, and now Lanni, forever.  It's great. Byron is great. He is perfectly my better half. I daily thank my Heavenly Father for Byron in my life! These 2 years have made me so excited about the years to come!

May- We went out to eat with Byron's brothers, and wouldn't you know. I have ANOTHER allergic reaction. If you don't remember the first one, here is the link. Just scroll down a little until you see horrific photos of me. This time around my body reacted, but in a different way. The first day it started with flu like symptoms. Along with that, I could not breathe. It was a horrible feeling. I had to take extremely shallow breaths or else I would go into a violent coughing frenzy. I later found out this  is what they call.... anaphylactic shock. Here is a bit of information about me- I will not go to the doctor unless absolutely necessary. Nothing against doctors, they are great...when I NEED them. I just thought this was going to "blow over". It didn't. It lasted 4 weeks.  Every week my body did something new to try to rid it's self of the toxins. The hard time breathing remained the same though throughout the 4 weeks. So the first week was flu like. The second week I broke out in hives ONLY on the underside of my arms. They itched and I hate them. Keep in mind this takes an extreme toll on my body. I have zero energy. I am out of breath just going to the bathroom, and I'm so exhausted I can't even eat. The third week the hives moved from my arms to my legs. They started on my shins and spread to the calf through out the week. They are huge, and itch. My mom came to visit/help around this time. The middle of the week to the end of this disaster I started to swell. Well just my legs did where they hives were. Oh it hurt. It hurt so much. The worst was having to stand up because the weight  of my body made my legs feel like they were going to burst. Okay, seriously, poor Lanni. I don't know how she survived. She was the best (thank you Heavenly Father). She just played on the floor the whole time, I fed her when she was hungry and we would nap together. My milk dried up a few days after I was better, which made me a little sad. I liked breast feeding. Oh well. Thank you Byron for taking such great care me. I owe you one! Anyways, I did end up going to a doctor. He told me I was allergic to :MSG (ya ya I know), GMO (which is everything it seems like) High Fructose Corn Syrup (aw man) and a few others. The Doc told me my body just can't handle processing this crap/poison (well it is). It tries so hard to process it, and eventually it just gets overloaded and implodes. I liked how he explained it in a way I could understand. Basically I need to be super careful. These past to two experiences have been SO bad, if it happened again who knows what could happen. Scary.  I eat pretty well in the first place. I always have, thanks to my awesome parents who instilled that in me. The first time this happened I drastically changed the way I ate, and after a while I just kind of .....fell back to my old ways, which aren't even that bad. So then this happened. I guess I HAVE to be more careful. It could literally be life or death. Thank you mom! I don't know how we would have gotten through this without all of your help! Love you! OH YA, we also celebrated my mom's birthday and Mother's Day!

June- MY BIRTHDAY!! WOO HOO! June 23 I turned 21! For my birthday Byron bought plane tickets to Utah to visit my parents during the 4th of July! AND he bought me a session of laser hair removal. Best thing ever. I will eventually get my whole dang body done...eventually.
                                         

July- So fun! Lanni and I flew to Utah, of course she had the biggest blow out of her life on the plane.  It was fun because Jess, Dave and Milana were visiting as well. So, we got to spend time with EVERYONE! I wished we could have seen Davi more, but alas, she's a workin' girl. Lanni got super duper sick. Poor thing was miserable. Had fevers, snotty nose, wouldn't eat. Tylenol and Motrin sure helped. In a few days she was back to her usual self. Byron flew out a few days later. We went swimming, to the temple and took some family pictures!

 Sick Lanni fell asleep trying to eat a puff with a yucky nose 

                                     
                                                                Cousins!

My dad has a friend who has cherry trees and we got to go pick lots! YUMMM

                                                           I just love this picture!

                                                            Just keep swimming

Yep, you read it right! Another cousin for Lanni. We just found out it is a ....GIRL! YAY a sister for Milana!

August- Uh nothing. But here's a couple pictures of Lanni.

September- My friend Marcie had a beautiful baby girl this month I was lucky enough to photograph her labor and delivery. The miracle of life is truly a miracle. Aaaand it's Hunting season. Byron didn't get a buck this year, darn it! On the plus side we got to enjoy some beautiful weather at his parents'. They now have a porch swing and of course Lanni loved it. We swung on it every morning. Ooo ooo it's peach season. Oh how I love peach season, apparently so does this sneaky girl. She snacked on this peach ALL day. It took me that long until I caught her in the act. Lanni is also getting her first tooth this month and started walking all over the place! I can't keep up!

 October (now)- My friend Hannah and I photographed our friend, Bryce's, wedding. It was so fun!
Lanni is now10 months and I can barely keep up with her. She is so full of energy and she just lights up the room. She loves to play, talk, snuggle, copy what we do. She loves the couch! She uses a pillow as a step stool and pulls her self up on the couch and just jumps around! One of my favorite things she is doing is clapping. It's so cute when she wakes up she is clapping when we go to get her! We love her.  We can't believe she will be 1 in a few weeks. Now we get to prepare for a 1st birthday and holiday fun that is just around the corner! I love my life!