Simply Jaimie

I can not believe how quickly these past five years have gone.  Our original plan was to make the Marine Corps Aaron career, but, I'm sure everyone knows, things rarely go to plan.  I was shocked when we received the news that Aaron was not accepted for reenlistment. We knew there was only three spots and eleven people all trying to get one of those spots.  At first, I did not take the news well; however, over time, I have come to realize that Heavenly Father has a different plan for our family.  I have loved being apart of the Marine Corps family, and could not be prouder of Aaron and everything he has achieved.  Here are some highlights from the last five years . . . Aaron finished boot camp and we were married a week later. He then left three days later for combat training. It sucked being a newlywed and not having your husband around. (It was good practice for when he would be gone a lot more later) A month later, he graduated and w...

With Aaron getting out of the Marine Corps, we knew this was the last time we could use our free passes. Seaworld is very pro military and do a wonderful thing by letting service men and women in once a year for free! Last time we took advantage of this offer, it was Hannah's second birthday.  She loved looking at all the animals and especially the pet show.  I was eager to see if she would be more excited now that she is older. We arrived at Seaworld just after it opened. The weather had been pretty gloomy the pass couple days so luckily it was still nice and cool. It took a while for the sun to break through the clouds which made watching the shows a lot more bearable, especially with a one month old. I loved watching Hannah's face as we saw the different animals and watched the shows. She truly is an animal lover : ) Hannah loves the Killer Whales. She kept cheering and telling me those were her whales : ) Hannah loves turtles!  (don't worr...

It is hard to believe my Lilly Belle is already one month old. It seemed that those nine months were never going to end, and now I get to cuddle her everyday!  Lilly is such a good sleeper. I do a late night feeding around ten or eleven and then an early morning feeding around four or five. She eats and then heads back to sleep rather quickly.  Lilly also loves her food. When we left the hospital she weighed seven pounds fourteen ounces, at her two day appointment she weighed eight pounds four ounces! She has continued to put on weight and is now eating around four to five ounces every feeding. I swear Lilly is either eating or sleeping : )  Lilly is my blue eyed, blonde hair baby (although sometimes I swear it looks red.) She is such a sweet calm baby and the perfect edition to our little family. We all love her so much!

On Wednesday May 6th, I went to my 39 week appointment. I was one centimeter dilated, so the doctor decided to strip my membranes. I thought for sure I was going to go into labor that day. . . . . . but nothing happened. In fact, it seemed like Lilly was even more comfortable right where she was. Thursday was pretty much the same. I had none of the symptoms that were common with having your membranes stripped.  Friday, I went about my day as normal.  We ran some errands, Erin, Hannah and I went on a walk, and I ate a delicious cheeseburger for dinner. At 6pm, I was sitting on my bed when I had this sudden urge to go to the restroom. I made it to the bathroom just as I felt a huge gush of water. I was pretty convinced that my water had just broken but was still a little unsure. I decided to wait to see if I was still leaking before calling the labor and delivery ward. At seven thirty I finally called them and was told to continue to monitor the leaking and then call back a...

At Hannah's baby shower, my sister made her a beautiful rag quilt. Hannah loves it and uses it all the time.  ( This is where I would insert a picture of Hannah and her rag quilt; however, I can not find one picture of Hannah and her rag quilt anywhere! You will just have to trust me when I tell you she loves it.)   I wanted to make one for Lilly because these really are the cutest quilts EVER! It's not perfect but I am extremely happy with how it turned out. Here is how I did it :  #1. Pick your fabric. I went with flannel because it is really soft. My quilt is five squares by five squares so I pick five different, half a yard, fabric patterns.  . #2. Cut fabric into eight by eight inch squares. I ended up cutting 50 eight by eight inch squares . . . . this was by far the most time consuming part.   #3. Place the fabric ugly sides together. This will give you twenty five squares. #4. Sew around all twenty fi...