Baby blessing and more...

I'll apologize in advance for the length and randomness that this post could become. I guess that's what happens when I procrastinate doing a new blog post for so long.
We blessed beautiful Palmer on August 28th. It almost didn't happen as our bishop forgot it was supposed to be on the program that day. But thanks to a brave nephew running up on the stand to remind him, we were able to get it done. Taylor's parents and his sister Brook and her family came down for the blessing. Noelle was also here, as were Kacey, Joe, Nicole and Osiris. It was so nice of them to be here and we love them all! Palmer looked absolutely beautiful in her blessing attire; Taylor's mom made the amazing dress, Brook made the cute cute headband, Kacey gave us the sweet little bracelet and Noelle took the awesome pictures. Palmer is so lucky to have so many people who love her so much already. Taylor did a great job with the blessing and Palmer could not have looked more beautiful! Our bishop commented to us after the blessing that he had never seen a baby so peaceful during a blessing. That's our girl!
Palmer was two months old a couple weeks ago on 9/11. Where has the time gone?!?! I'm already freaking out that she's growing up too fast. But at the same time it is so much fun to see her grow and learn new things. She is such a fun and sweet little girl. Everyone always comments at how mellow she is and it's true - she's just way laid back...most of the time! Every once in a while she gets upset for reasons that I am not sure of and she proves that she does actually have some strong lungs. During these little freakouts she will cry for up to a couple of hours and it just breaks my heart. It doesn't seem like she is in pain. Sometimes I think she must be hungry, but she gets so upset that she won't let herself calm down to eat. Maybe she's just tired and needs to let it out...who knows really? She gets over it as quickly as she starts usually and then she'll seem just fine. Hopefully I'm not jinxing it but she seems to be going longer between these little freakouts as time goes on. She does a great job of sleeping at nights. She still isn't giving me a full night of sleep, but that's ok. She usually sleeps five to six hours for her first stint, sometimes a little longer, sometimes less. She's very quick about getting through her midnight snack and then she does a great job of going back to sleep. From there she usually goes about three hours and then eats and goes right back to sleep again for three more hours. She usually seems to want to be up for the day between 8:00 and 8:30 and I hope she sticks with that schedule. She is still really sporadic with napping during the days. Some days she sleeps more than she's awake and some days she barely sleeps at all. When she's awake she's very alert and very curious, looking around at anything and everything. She has the cutest smile in the world, but is a little stingy with them. She is usually very happy in the mornings right after getting up. I LOVE this time with her! She smiles at the ceiling, lights, fans etc. just as much as she smiles at people. She tells cute little stories and I would so love to know what she thinks she is telling us :) She has recently discovered the joy of sucking on her hands. She tries out different combinations of fingers or sometimes it's the whole fist. Every once in a while she sucks on just her thumb, but more often than not she puts multiple fingers in. I don't necessarily want her to be a thumb sucker but it is the cutest thing I have ever seen when she gets so happy to suck on her fingers. She weighed 9 lbs 8 oz at her two month check-up and was 21 1/2 inches long. She's just a little petite thing and we love her so much. I want to cuddle with her all day long! She got her first cold last week and is still trying to get over it. She hasn't acted like it's bothered her much. She's been congested, sneezing lots and coughing a little and she had a little fever for the first day or so. Like I said, she doesn't seem too bothered by it but I hate it! She also had to get shots at her appointment last week. She cried for a few minutes, but overall she was really tough. We love our sweet little girl!
We had our annual Lyman Labor Day weekend extravaganza at the Colorado cabin a couple of weeks ago. As usual it was AWESOME and crowded and dirty and fun! We ate tons of good food and relaxed and just enjoyed each others' company. The men got some good projects done; the kids played tons and we all watched BYU squeak past Ole Miss. Some of us went bear-watching with Justin and we even saw a bear! We almost missed it and by the time we saw him he was about to walk away and he was pretty far, but at least we saw him. All in all, a fabulous time!
We had a really sad occurrence in our family last week. Deco and Kera were expecting a baby in a month and they found out on the 19th that he had died. I can't imagine the heartbreak they felt. We all had a really hard time understanding why this had to happen to them. It made me hold and cherish Palmer even more than before. Deco and Kera handled the whole thing better than I could ever hope to do. They were so strong and you could just see in them that they had a very strong knowledge that they will see him again one day and be able to raise their perfect little boy. Eli Fred Lyman was born asleep on the 20th and he was absolutely beautiful and perfect. They had a graveside service for him in Blanding on the 22nd and it was a really really nice tribute to a perfect little spirit. We all can't wait to meet Eli one day.
For my birthday a couple of weeks ago Taylor gave me a girls weekend with my sisters and mom. He had reserved a hotel room in Grand Junction and talked to the girls beforehand to make sure it would work. So this past weekend we loaded up and headed to GJ. Unfortunately Marilyn and Kera were not able to come, but we had my mom, me, Palmer, Noelle, Denver, Heather, Livvy, Kristi and Camryn so it was lots of fun! We ate some delicious food while we were there. We went to a pottery painting place and got in touch with our artistic sides. Our painted pieces had to stay there to be cooked so I can't show any pictures of our beautiful finished products but it was really fun. Then we did some shopping and went back to the hotel for some relaxing while Cam and Livvy swam. We were tired and lazy so we went to bed nice and early. We went to breakfast, then Barnes & Noble and headed home the next morning. We had heard about a fall festival that was happening in Fruita so we stopped there on our way home. It was a fun little fair/carnival thing. It was a quick weekend, but really fun for me.
Please forgive me for the amount of pictures in this post. It is really hard for me to narrow down what pictures of Palmer I want to use because I love every picture ever taken of her. Also, please forgive the randomness of the order; it is just too much of a pain to go through and get them all in the right place I would like them to be.

Coy is loving his chocolate pudding at the Colorado cabin! Love this boy!

Addison and Livvy love their new baby cousins :)

Palmer and Denver took turns sleeping in the swing at the cabin. Palmer's BYU jersey was way too big on her, but it seemed like the right thing to do to bust it out for the season opener.

The men did lots of projects while we were at the cabin. They worked hard and the ladies kept them well fed so that they could keep up their strength.

Palmer's all ready to watch her first BYU football game.

Elmer loves Colorado. The dogs run all around and get all kinds of dirty.

Scouty was very interested in her movie.

Jeremy J and Jeff made lots of cool paper airplanes for the kids.

One of the best parts of Colorado is the 4-wheelers and my dad's new side-by-side.

This was one of the few minutes that my mom actually sat down. The weekend doesn't end up being very relaxing for her, as she runs around helping everyone with everything. I sure do love my sweet mom.

McKenzie (Nicole & Osiris' little girl) and Palmer can still be best buds even though they cheer for different teams.

This was just a random day when Camryn, Scout and Palmer all happened to be wearing pink and grey striped shirts. Cute cute cousins!

This isn't the best picture but this was taken on Palmer's two month birthday. Such a big girl! (Her jammies are too big cause she grew out of the smaller size recently)

Also a two month old pic with a cute funny face.

Asleep in her carseat on her two month birthday. I love watching this girl sleep - so cute and peaceful!

Ready for another BYU game!

Just a cute picture. Palmer sure loves her daddy and I think he likes her too :)

So. Dang. Cute.

This isn't the best pic, but it shows the full beauty of her blessing day.

Pottery painting - fun for all ages.

This is what Palmer did most of the time we painted our pottery.

What a Week...

So first off, Little Miss Palmer is one month old today!!! How is that even possible? Every single day I ask her to stop growing and stay exactly how she is right now but she just keeps on getting bigger. Truthfully I'm excited to experience all of her milestones but I know I am going to miss this newborn phase so much. She also keeps getting cuter, which I'm not even sure is possible. She is so sweet and so much fun; I can't hardly remember or imagine life without her. So far she has been the easiest baby imaginable (knock on wood). If she stays as mellow and sweet as she is now I am sure I'm going to be in for it with my next baby. She eats well, quickly and easily. She sleeps great. She seems to be figuring out days and nights already. She has times during the day where she will be very awake and alert for two to three hours at a time. During the night she just wakes, eats, gets a diaper change and goes right back to sleep. Generally she goes around three hours between feedings but at night she usually has one longer stretch that lasts anywhere from four to five hours. Last night she had a five hour stretch of sleep followed by a four hour stretch. Amazing! I weighed her on Monday, which was her four week anniversary of life, and she was eight pounds even. She is a little grunter - I absolutely love the noises she makes. She loves attention when she is awake and she loves to be held all cuddly snuggly close. I literally can't get enough of her. I know I'm biased but I think she is the cutest little thing that ever existed!






Taylor got a promotion at work the same day that Palmer was born (woohoo!) With the promotion came the requirement of a lot of training in SLC. He's had to be in SLC every week for the last three weeks and he'll come again next week and in three weeks. Palmer and I came with him last week and this week. She is a GREAT traveler! I was honestly pretty worried about how she would deal with all the driving and hotel life and such. She sleeps fabulously in the car and she seems to love her car seat. She has made it really easy to tag along with Daddy, which is good because we missed him a lot the first week when we didn't go with him. We have been staying at the Sheraton Hotel and it's been a very nice home away from home. I really really like staying in hotels. I think it's a combination of the fact that I associate hotels with vacations and that I don't have to do any cleaning at a hotel! Luckily I am able to take my work with me anywhere that has internet. Palmer and I spend our days coding in the hotel room and then visiting family and friends and running errands. I don't miss living in SLC for the most part, but I do miss the family and friends that live in Utah and Salt Lake Counties and I miss shopping! On that note though, since I have lived in Blanding my love of online shopping continues to increase exponentially. I am positive that I spend more money online shopping than I ever spent at stores when I lived in Salt Lake. By the end of the month I am sure we're going to be very happy to stay in Blanding with no more trips for a very long time.
Noelley Belly had her sweet baby boy yesterday! Little Denver middle-name-to-be-decided DeGroot was in a hurry to get here and his mommy had a very quick and exciting labor and delivery. He is so dang cute and I am super excited to see him and Palmer grow up as best cousin buddies.
Now onto the last item of business for today's post - I was rear-ended on the freeway on Tuesday and now our car is totaled. BOO! That was my first car accident and it was just as awful as I would have expected. The positive side is that neither I nor Palmer was hurt. Taylor wasn't with us; we were on our way to pick him up actually. It was rush hour and the traffic in front of me had stopped due to an accident so I stopped. Apparently the guy behind me wasn't paying attention because he bashed into the back of us after we'd been stopped for a couple of seconds. I don't think he even slowed down much. He was in a big Excursion so it could have been a lot worse than it was. Our back window shattered but luckily Palmer's car seat cover was draped over her car seat and zero glass got on her. She continued sleeping peacefully after it happened while I cried and shakingly checked on her. The EMTs and highway patrolman were very nice and made the situation less awful. The guy in the other vehicle was nice and apologetic. Palmer doesn't seem to have any effects from the wreck and I have been only minimally stiff in my neck, shoulders and upper back. I feel really lucky. I am SO sick of dealing with insurance companies but I must say that both my insurance and the other dude's insurance have been really good and easy to deal with (so far). It took longer than I would have liked to get into a rental car but now that we have it things are good. I guess it's time to start car shopping.

Taylor's golf clubs did not fare as well as Palmer and me.


All in all a busy and crazy week, but mostly good and fun. Life is good.

Palmer Tay Harrison

We are so happy to welcome beautiful Palmer Tay Harrison into our family. She was born on Monday, July 11, 2011 at 5:55 p.m. She was 6 pounds 10 ounces and 20 inches long. She was and is absolutely perfect!
July 11 was my due date and I had an appointment with Dr. Black that morning. We knew there was a possibility I could be induced that day, but didn't want to get our hopes up too much in case it didn't end up happening. I'd been having contractions for a couple of weeks, but they were irregular and varied in strength. I'd begun dilating a couple of weeks prior also, so we knew my body was getting good and ready to bring her into the world finally. We were so ready to have our baby and had tried all kinds of methods to try to get her here for the week before my due date. It wasn't meant to be I guess.
Dr. Black checked me and I was almost four centimeters dilated and 90% effaced. I'd had contractions all during the night but they hadn't become regular. He asked what we wanted to happen and I told him we would like to have a baby that day if he felt ok with it. He said he felt great about it because my body had progressed as far as it had at that point. Yeah yeah yeah!
So they got me all settled into my room and got me hooked up to the Pitocin. They started at a low dose and my contractions became regular and stronger almost immediately. Around that time it started to become a little more real that we were actually going to have our baby in a few hours. We could not have been more excited!
The next time they checked me I had only progressed to 4.5 centimeters dilated, but at least it was progress.
Taylor's parents had hopped in their car and headed down from Salt Lake as soon as Taylor called to tell them she was coming that day. It was so nice of them and we were glad they were able to be there when the baby was born. They stayed for a couple of days and were super sad to say goodbye to little Palmer when it was time for them to go home.
A few hours later the anesthesiologist came in to get my epidural going. At that point my contractions weren't too bad yet, but they like to get the epidural in early so they don't miss the window if things start progressing too quickly. The anesthesiologist was awesome! He explained every single thing he was doing and made sure I was comfortable and relaxed. It was not even close to the nightmare that I was fearing; it was painless and quick. My right side went numb immediately and he said to kind of tilt my body so that the medicine would flow to my left side hopefully. As the time passed I continued to be able to feel my left side. The contractions got stronger and stronger and way close together. I could feel them really well on my left side. After a couple of hours of that the anesthesiologist came back and explained that he would try to re-adjust the catheter to see if we could get my left side numb. He did warn me that sometimes there will be a nerve block around a nerve or group of nerves that just keeps the medicine out. I was praying that would not be the case for me. He jimmied it around in my back and then had me lay on my left side again. Pretty quickly I started to feel my left side go numb and I was so very happy about that. As soon as the anesthesiologist was content that all was well with the epidural the nurse wanted to check my progress. She checked and was surprised to find that it was time to start pushing! Right then Dr. Black came in to see how things were going so he checked and confirmed that it was time to get the party started. He left to change into scrubs and the nurses busily got everything in place for the delivery. I just couldn't believe that I was so close to finally meeting my little girl. I was a little nervous because I had no idea how long I would have to push, but mostly I was just so excited and ready! My mom and Taylor were in the delivery room and after pushing through eight-ish contractions little Palmer made her debut! Before I was able to see her I heard her little cough and then the cutest cry in the world. I was already in love. They cleaned her off a bit and Taylor handed her to me. I have never seen anything so perfect in my life! I can't put into words the way I felt at that moment, but any parent can understand exactly how Taylor and I were feeling.
We were able to bring Palmer home on Tuesday evening. Her aunts, grandparents and cousins absolutely love her (I'm sure her uncles do too, but they just don't show it in the same way). My mom has been SO helpful. She is amazing and Palmer, Taylor and I will be forever grateful for her help this week. Palmer has been a GREAT baby! She sleeps well (so far), she nurses great and she is just so sweet! I can't get enough of her and I am just so grateful that she gets to be a part of our family. I'm not sure why Heavenly Father would trust us with this perfect little soul but I have a new resolve to be a better person and to teach little Palmer all of the things she'll need to know to live a great life. Somehow my love for her grows every day, which I wouldn't have thought possible when I first held her in my arms.
I had the best doctor and nurses and wouldn't have changed a thing about Palmer's arrival. My recovery has been awesome and I have felt great since we left the hospital. This experience has been amazing and I am so excited to introduce Palmer to the world and the world to Palmer.

40 weeks! This picture was taken Sunday evening, the day before Palmer was born.


First family picture...don't mind my hair.


First of many naps the two of us will take together. This was a couple of hours after Palmer was born. She is so sweet!



Car ride home - how exciting!

What's been going down...

So I've been a serious blog slacker the last couple of months. It's not because of nothing to blog about, but rather because we've been so busy that I'm just now making myself sit down and get it all onto the blog.

I mentioned in my last post that we were moving into my grandma's cute little house. We've been here for a couple of months now and it's been great. The space is nice and while it was kind of weird to be living here for the first little while, now we're used to it and I kinda just love that I get this time in the house where my grandma lived for so long. I have planted a garden that doesn't come close to rivaling her gardens but I feel proud that my plants are growing and not dying...yet. I should have taken a picture for this post. I'll include a picture when it gets a little closer to producing all the yummy veggies we're expecting to get this summer. On the note of my grandma, she would have been 95 years old two days ago; I thought of her a lot that day and am just so grateful that I got to learn from her great example as long as I did. Hopefully she left some of her essence in this house so it will help me to learn to be the kind of mom and person that she was. I haven't yet taken a picture of the cute little house, but maybe I'll get around to that by my next post (probably not).

While I was in SLC for one of my baby showers (which I will talk about in a minute) there was an event called "Strut Your Mutt" happening. Kacey and Joe had participated in it last year with their dog Peter. It's basically just a fundraiser for homeless/neglected pets. You pay a registration fee and then show up at a park on the day of the event with your dog and you take a one-mile walk around the park with about ten million other dogs. Kacey, Joe, Elmer, Peter and I participated in the event this year. Elmer is such a little wimp - he was pretty scared of all the dogs, but he slowly calmed down and by the end I think he enjoyed our little adventure. Kacey had bought t-shirts for the dogs and they looked so dang cute in their shirts. Elmer needed a serious haircut so his shirt was nice and tight and he had what resembled a lion mane with all of his fur busting out of his neckline on the shirt. Seriously cute!


Seriously those are some cute dogs, even if they wouldn't look at the camera long enough to get a frontal shot.


Cute Caneparis


I know that I love this dog a little too much, but seriously he is the best dog ever!

A few years ago our current bishop and his wife opened up an ice cream shop in Blanding in a cute building that used the be a bank. It was called "Old Bank Creamery" and everyone in town loved it. They opened during the summer months and then closed down for the rest of the year. Well they haven't opened for the last few summers and somehow this year Taylor and Bishop Lyman got to talking about opening it up again. Bishop didn't necessarily want to deal with all the hassles of opening it and running it but he wanted it open and knew that the people of Blanding would love it. Taylor decided that it would be an ideal project for us to take on. I will be honest, I wasn't the biggest fan of the idea of running a business at this very busy time in our lives but I told him it was his call. Well he and Bishop talked a lot and decided to go ahead with opening it up. We opened the shop a little over a week ago and it has been going really well. I'm still not 100% excited about the timing, but I am glad that Taylor is getting some experience in the business world, which is what he wants to do in life. And I'm glad that the people of Blanding can get their ice cream fix for the next few months. It has been A LOT of work and sometimes I feel like I can only think/talk about the ice cream shop and all the little things we need to do to keep it running well. Taylor still works full-time at the bank so that leaves me to deal with the day-to-day issues...I'm not sure what is going to happen when the baby comes. I just really hope that by then our employees will be pretty self-sufficient. I will tell you this...the ice cream is GOOD! I have been eating a lot of ice cream every day and I think the baby likes it too :)


Here's the cute building where we run the ice cream shop. Seriously a way cool building.

Now onto baby updates! This pregnancy has FLOWN by and for the most part I have absolutely loved it! I feel really lucky to have had a breezy and fun pregnancy. I will be 38 weeks tomorrow! She could come any day now...or she could wait three more weeks. I am so dang excited to meet her. I just want her here. Now. I won't go into details about my measurements at my doctor's appointment a few days ago, but things are starting to happen and I really hope that she's getting very close to ready to come meet us. I know I should be more nervous than I am, but in my naivety I am really just excited! We have had three showers thrown for us and they have all been awesome! It started in May with an open house shower thrown by Taylor's mom and sisters. It was so much fun and so nice to see a lot of his family that we don't get to see often since we live far away. We got some awesome stuff and it was a great way to start out shower season. Next up was a shower thrown by Noelle and Kacey for all my up north family and friends. Noelle went all out and seriously put so much time and effort into personalizing everything and making the whole thing so super cute. Kacey hosted it at her house and also put a lot of effort into making it a perfect day for me. Marilyn and her girls helped too and I was glad she ended up being able to come at the last minute. I loved seeing so many people that I love and just like the first shower we got some cute and very useful stuff. Last but not least was a shower thrown by my mom, Kristi and Heather. Marilyn is in town so she was lucky enough to help with and attend yet another shower for me. She definitely gets extra points for that! This one took place yesterday and it was just as fun and awesome for me as the first two. Heather hosted at her house and she had everything looking so dang cute and girly and fun. The food was DELICIOUS and again we got some great presents. Let's just say this little girl is already very loved and very spoiled.


32 weeks pregnant.


36 weeks - not a big difference between 32 and 36 but I could feel and see a difference. Depending when this baby decides to come I may or may not get around to getting one last bump picture.


She's already hooked up very well with the clothes. She also has a dresser full of clothes. It's going to be like playing dress up with a little doll but even better! We have been given so many cute cute clothes from all our family and friends. Girls are so fun to shop for!


Here's the glider rocker chair thing with ottoman that Taylor and Jeremy assembled for me this week. It is very comfortable and hopefully it will make middle of the night feedings a little nicer. Oh and that's cute Taylor and Elmer taking a Sunday afternoon nap on the bed that's in the baby's room.


Here's her crib just waiting for her to do a LOT of sleeping through the night right from day one :)


Lots of awesome baby essentials!


Baby gear! I am so excited to use all this stuff! Thanks to everyone who gave us such great gifts and to those who helped us with the assembly of all the goods.



Cute books and more great baby essentials. Now all we need is the baby!

I have been feeling great. I have the usual discomforts of late pregnancy, but I think mine is not nearly as bad as lots of ladies have to deal with. The baby moves around a lot and it is my favorite thing in the world to feel her movements. I love watching my belly when she is really active. She does get up in my ribs sometimes and at times it feels like she is literally trying to tear my muscles/ligaments/tendons to shreds. That can get pretty painful, but aside from a few days in a row a couple of weeks ago she keeps it to a bearable minimum. I think she has just run out of space and doesn't know what to do with herself in her cramped little area right now. Hopefully she finds her way out very soon. It has started to get pretty hot outside but the hot temperatures really haven't bothered me too much and I feel really lucky and grateful for that. I don't sleep well at all because of discomfort and having to pee a million times a night, but somehow I continue to feel ok during the day and I'm able to get all the stuff done that I need to do each day. Ideally I would take afternoon naps, but that doesn't ever end up working its way into my day. I guess I'm just getting prepared for the sleepless nights/days that are coming my way. I'm assuming that my next post will come after little Palmer's birth so stay tuned for that! Yeah yeah yeah!

Have you ever seen a cuter little chair? Heather gave us this sweet little pink and white checkered chair with Palmer's name embroidered on it - I love it!