Holy Schnikes, We're Back!

Well, we are FINALLY into our new house and FINALLY have access to Internet again. Woot!

My computer, however, is still out of commission so I won't be able to post any pictures until Mikey gets 'er fixed up. That's probably a good thing seeing as the house is covered in boxes and miscellaneous things. 

Sky's room is all set up, so she feels fine about the mess. She wanted me to share that with you all.

It's a Boy!!

Whoa! Calm down! I'm not pregnant. Honestly, people; I don't have a death wish. I like having just one baby for the time being.  :)

But Leisa is pregnant and she's having a BOY!!! Kadie and Laney will have a little brother and Nick and Josh will finally get to see what a nephew looks like!

Congrats, Leisa! I am so excited!!!!!!!! 

Looks like I have some nephew shopping to do...

Skylar's Blessing

We had the opportunity to bless Skylar at my parents' house this Thanksgiving. 

It was great to have an intimate mostly-family setting to bless her in. Mikey did a great job and Sky looked so adorable in her little blessing dress! What a great experience for our little family.  :)

Family Photos

Thanksgiving was fun this year! We visited the Bay Area and kept ourselves pretty busy hanging out with family and visiting friends. The usual.

Mike's family joined mine for Thanksgiving dinner, as did Morgan's BF Cade, my cousin Jared, his wife Liz and their new baby Jonas (so cute). There were 20 people, if I'm counting correctly (too tired to care about recounting right now).

As has become tradition, we took our family Christmas card photo--we always take a smiling one and a normal Laney version. I'm pretty sure Gabrielle thought I was going to chuck Sky into the pool, but I would never do that. Not until she can swim...

And here is a shot of the Comfoltey clan. Just a tad smaller than my side of the family.

To top it off, here's a cute shot of Skylar, taken by Leisa:

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater

Apparently if you change your blog template the way it is intended to be changed by Blogger, all your lovely gadgets disappear into oblivion. What madness is this?!

Not cool. It would take me an unreasonable amount of time and effort to add all my friends'/family members' blog links again. (Well, it wouldn't take that long, but I still don't want to do it!)

Thanks to Leisa, I have discovered thecutestblogontheblock.com and now I can give my blog a cheater facelift. Yay! Thanks, Leisa!

There must be a way to do this without deleting my gadets. I'll have Mike look into it. If it can be done, he'll figure it out.

Yep.

Monday, Cyber Monday...

I totally ignored Black Friday, but baby--I love Cyber Monday!!

That's right. I pretty much made out like a bandit. And I helped my dear ol' mom get some great deals as well! Most of my Christmas shopping is now complete. Woot! Too bad I wasn't organized enough to get it ALL done. Now that would have been fab.

Mike and I nearly purchased appliances for our new house today, but seeing as that particular Black Friday sale is extended until tomorrow we decided to come home and be sure we really wanted those appliances so we can go back and get them tomorrow. Also, we found better deals so we can get a price match.

Speaking of the house, we popped in today and were pleasantly surprised to find completed tile work and plumbing (including newly installed water heater)! Soon we'll have carpet and the house will be almost complete! It's almost like a really great Christmas present.

Oh wait...it is!

Nothing

I've been watching a lot of Seinfeld lately. I just love that show. I especially love George; he's a lunatic and I can't get enough of his crazy antics!

So anyway, recently TBS has been airing episodes from the 8th and 9th seasons of the show. During this time, Jerry and George and proposing a sitcom idea to NBC called Jerry. It's the exact same show as Seinfeld, but it's called Jerry. It's a show about nothing. 

This post is also about nothing. I just wasted 2 minutes of your life.

Strollin' Along

Well, I finally did it. I bought a stroller!

First let me note that I have taken Skylar on walks--kids like the outdoors! She just hasn't gone on walks in a stroller. After going on another little walk today, I decided she is getting heavier and my back would really prefer a stroller.

I don't know what took so long. I've wanted one, but I was having a hard time deciding on which stroller to buy. We already have an infant car seat and the majority of strollers in the price range I was looking at come as travel systems (meaning stroller + infant car seat). Then when I decided on one I liked, it was out of stock everywhere (even online). Then...

Long story short, I found a stroller I like and I ordered it. I even got free shipping!

Gmail Themes

I really love Google. I do.

I've had a Gmail account since I started up at BYU (or maybe I was a sophomore by then...possibly a junior, even, but that's not important). Every once in a while Gmail will surprise me with a new little setting, like "chat" or "superstars" or some miscellaneous Gmail Labs project. Today, just now actually, I was pleasantly surprised with the new option for a Gmail layout theme!

These themes are pretty funkalicious. "Terminal" freaks me out.

I chose "beach." No wait, I just changed it to "desk."

Oh Look -- A House!

Mike and I are thrilled to have received a signed contract for our house today. Yep, we sold our house in Utah and have found a newby here in Reno! The house is slated for completion in about a month's time and we will move in just before Christmas.

We stopped by to check on the progress a few days ago and found that the front yard had been landscaped over the weekend. Surprise! Here's a picture (albeit, not a very good one...I was in a hurry when I shot it. Yeah, this picture is crap):

We're pretty excited about our Christmas present this year. And Sky will have her own room--yay! Ours is getting pretty crouded these days...

Emily in Forks!

I've already blogged about Twilight, and I'm totally excited to go see the movie with my fam over Thanksgiving. Yay! Girl's night out!

Seriously. The plan is to leave all the kids home with Mike and Big Josh. Good luck, men. Godspeed.

So after I sang myself praises via blog post for completing the saga, I received an email link to a newsclip featuring Mike's cousin Emily who was interviewed while visiting Forks, WA with some friends. (For all you non-Twilight-reading peeps, Forks is the city in which the story takes place.) Emily is a mega-fan of the Twilight series and skipped on over to Forks with some friends to see the sights where Bella and Edward became the new...Romeo and Juliet for today's teen crowd (and maybe some older readers as well?). 

Anyhoo, here's a link to that newsclip! Emily is wearing a blue beanie. Congrats on your TV debut, Emily!

Enjoy!  :)

Vampire tales a boon for rainy Forks

Photo Shoot

(Side note: I have figured out that if I put the swing on the highest setting, Skylar loves it! Now I have time to post new pictures! I love that swing...)

While we were visiting family a couple of weeks ago, my fabulously talented sister Leisa decided to do a little photo shoot of Sky!

Leisa took some gorgeous shots of Skylar. She also took our new favorite family picture! Here is a little taste of what we got:

Witchling

Sky was a little witch this year for Halloween. Heather tells me she should have been a bunny or princess or something sweet. Well, the witch costume was so cute and happened to be on sale, so it won out!

Here are a few little pictures to commemorate Sky's first Halloween!

Another Saga Read

While I was pregnant with Sky, I got a little bored. This caused me to pick up a hobby I never thought I would enjoy: reading.

Turns out I love reading! Love it. A lot.

During my pregnancy I read the entire Harry Potter series as well as some miscellaneous novels here and there. I read pretty much every book we own, though we don't own many. 

Just after Skylar was born my mom came to stay with us for a week. That was really great (thanks, Mom!). Not only did she stay with us, she also came bearing gifts! Of course, she brought gifts for the baby--that's what grandma's do. But she (along with Morgan) also loaned me the whole Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer.

I started reading the books when Sky was about 2 weeks old. She is now 5 weeks old, as of yesterday (yay!), and I have now finished all four books. This is a true feat to be recognized by all who know me. I mean, these books are around 700 pages each!

So how did I do it? How can I be so freaking awesome? It was easy. The books are so great I was having a hard time putting them down! I even lost much-needed sleep due to this can't-put-it-downness. And that is a true sacrifice to someone with a new baby.

Yep, I definitely recommend these books to anyone and everyone. Unless you have a lame imagination or an unwarranted fear of vampires.

Can't wait to see the upcoming film at Thanksgiving!

Halloween Fun :)

(NOTE: MORE PICTURES COMING SOON!)

This past weekend we visited the families for some Halloween fun! Well, to be honest we didn't really do much in the way of Halloween, but we did get to see Nick, Josh and Kadie in their costumes!

Nick and Josh made their own costumes this year, which doesn't surprise any of us who know them and their creative tendencies. Nick made a Koopa Troopa costume (ignore any incorrect spelling) and Josh was, very fittingly, a Pepsi can.

Kadie was Tinkerbell, and a very pretty Tinkerbell at that!

Laney chose not to dress up this year. She did not, however, ignore the fact that chocolate was everywhere. I wish I had a picture to prove that...

Skylar was a little Hermione this year. I found a tiny witch/wizard costume at Old Navy; unfortunately it wasn't tiny enough! Poor Sky drowns in it, but it's still pretty freaking cute.

I've decided to end here and post the rest of what I want to post separately. Check back soon for some marvelous pictures taken by the lovely and talented Leisa Waldron!

I Believe in Miracles

Last night we experienced a miracle here in the Comfoltey home. A true miracle.

Skylar slept for 7 hours.

Today she learned how to smile! She's just smiling away, without the influence of gas! I'm so proud. 

I love this little baby :)

The Past 3 Weeks...

Tomorrow, Skylar will turn 3 weeks old! Crazy!

That means a lot of things, but to all of you it means a huge lack of pictures documenting said past 3 weeks. I'd say it's time I whip my tush into gear and post some dang pictures.

Here are some of our favorite shots so far. Enjoy!

Yay! A Belly Button!

Skylar has hit a little milestone today: her umbilical cord finally came off and revealed a cute little belly button underneath!

Yay!

I'm debating whether or not to post a picture of said belly button. I don't think I will, but with enough requests I could be swayed to change my mind. 

Still, I think some kind of picture is due at this point. Here is a cute one I took of Sky and Mikey with my trusty cell phone last week, pumpkin hat courtesy of Grammy (aka: my mom):

A Lame Blogger

I know, I know. I have been the laziest excuse for a blogger these past 2.5 weeks. Pretty lame.

In my defense, I hardly got online the first week after Skylar was born--my momma was in town and she and the baby kept me plenty entertained. Then my dad and brothers came to visit that weekend. Oh yeah, and I was tired and drugged up; who knows what I would have typed?!

When Sky turned 10 days old I started a post. I had the best intentions of posting some cute pictures, but Mike's laptop has no space left on the harddrive. In other words, though I wanted to post some pictures I couldn't use the convenient laptop to do such and couldn't drag myself into the office to get 'er done. This proves my sheer laziness, but happens to be the real reason for my lack of blogging. I may as well tell the truth, right?

Then I started to read. Yep. After I finished the Harry Potter series I searched around the house and read everything I could find. I never used to read, so the selection was pretty sparse and I quickly ran out of books to read. That was before I had the baby and I'm sure I posted an extreme number of posts during that month. 

When my mom came to stay with us a couple of weeks ago, she brought me the entire Twilight series (4 books). I started it last Wednesday or Thursday and I am already on book 3. I know! Believe me, I had my doubts about reading a series about vampires. I never got into Buffy and certainly didn't follow along with the break off series Angel. But as it happens, I really like these books. A lot.

At this rate, I'll be done reading the series very soon. I can't promise anything, but I'm guessing I'll be back on the blog train when that happens. I'll at least make more of an effort to go into the office on occasion...

It's A Girl!!!

We are so very excited to present:

Skylar McCall Comfoltey

She was born this morning at 2:55 AM (10/5/08)

Weight: 8 lbs. 2 ozs.

Length: 22 inches

Eyes: They look blue right now, but I think most newborns have blue eyes originally...

Hair: Brown, and lots of it!

Well she's finally here!  We're so excited to have her!  She is definitely the cutest baby I've ever seen.

We were originally scheduled to come in at 10:00AM.  However, we received a call from the hospital shortly before 8AM and they informed us that the hospital had no beds available.  So we waited around at home for until 3PM at which time the hospital said that we could come in!  Kylie was admitted at 3:30PM and had stable contractions about 2 minutes apart all the way through.  She was amazing!  Kylie delivered Skylar a 2:55AM after about 2 hours of pushing.

The nurses were excellent and they really helped us feel as comfortable as possible with what was going on.  The supervisor, Kimbra, gave Skylar a perfect APGAR rating of 10!  Skylar's skin was almost immediately pink over her entire body.  She was strong and very active.  Kimbra told us it was the only 10 she's given all year.  Skylar is a very healthy baby.

So it's been about 12 hours since little Skylar joined us.  The first hour she stayed with us in the delivery room.  Then she spent 3 or so hours in the nursery.  They got her all clean and tested her for all sorts of baby things.  After that she came to stay with us.  She slept for about 5 hours straight, even when we tried to wake her up to feed her, she would fall fast asleep.  She is definitely an easy baby right now.  She has only cried a few times since she was born and she only cries for about 10-30 seconds at a time.  It's amazing!  Even when the nurses were poking her and turning her all over to clean and test her, she just went along with it.  She's just such a good little girl :)  

(On a side note, the poor kid next door has been crying for the last few hours and was crying for at least 4 hours earlier this morning too.  We can't hear it too well from our room, but that's what the nurses are saying)

Here is a picture of Kylie holding Skylar and Sky holding Ky's pinky (fierce grip on this kid!)

This is my current view of Skylar (taken while sitting in a chair with a laptop on my lap).

Love,

Mike

PS: If anything doesn't make sense in this post, it's because we have not really slept in a while :)

PPS: I started this post about an hour ago so Skylar is sleeping on Kylie right now.  Occasionally she'll make a cute little noise.  They're both so beautiful.

HOURS?!

With only HOURS to go until D-Day (delivery day, of course), I'm a little freaked out. Let's be honest. I'm about to have a kid. That's pretty weird.

Mike and I are so freaking excited!

Kylie: 39.5 Weeks Huge

Here's one for all you peeps out there!

After receiving multiple threats and "requests" for one last picture of Pregnant Kylie, I had Mikey take a quick shot last night. So here you go! This is me at 39.5 weeks (out of 40). I won't be sad to say goodbye to this look:

For comparison's sake, here's a little reminder of how I looked at 27 weeks.

The Plan

Whoa!  A post from Mike!

Now that we're less than a week from the due date, we've been bombarded by phone calls.  Just about everyone we know has called us to ask how Kylie is doing.  This is apparently code for, "Has the baby come yet?"  Invariably my answer has been, "nope, not yet."

I just found out everyone has been calling because no one knows our "plan."  The plan for when we are going to call people to tell them the baby is here!  Are we going to call on our way to the hospital, while we are waiting for the baby to come, or after the baby is born?

So here's the plan:

We are going to call people after the baby has been born!  My phone will probably be off during Kylie's labor and when we're heading to the hospital there's no way I'll be on the phone.

So once the baby has arrived and we have a free moment, we'll call our immediate family and friends.  Our families (that would be you parents) will then call the rest of our family that is out of state, otherwise it'll take me forever to call everyone.

And don't worry, I'll take plenty of pictures and post them as soon as I can find some internet access.

Single Digits!

9 Days. Yep, we're in the single digits of the baby countdown!

Not much more to say about it, but I thought it was worthy of a quick post. Come on, baby! Time to be born!

Hey, Fall!

I really love fall. I love it a lot. It is by far my favorite season.

Mike and I have been going on walks every evening for the past few days (just trying to encourage this baby to be born--personally, I think the first day of fall would be a great birthday. Come on, baby!) and the weather has been fabulous. Well...Mike has been a little cold I think, but I'm a fan of the cool air!

As happy as we are to be living here in Reno, we will miss seeing the leaves change color on the mountains this year; I am a huge fan of Utah canyons in the fall. Maybe Tahoe looks pretty in autumn? I think we'll have to check that out.

Welcome to 2008, Fall. I'm glad you made it.  :)

Two Calls; That's All!

With my due date only two weeks away, Mike is on call.

Two calls. That's all.

Mikey gets busy at work and often misses calls or ignores his phone if it rings while he's typing away or in a meeting. Because he is concerned that he would miss my "it's hospital time" phone call, he has developed what he calls the "Two Calls; That's All" philosophy.

If his phone is called two times in a row, Mike will answer it. No matter what. Even if he is meeting with the CEO. Yep, he's pretty serious about it.

Of course, this only applies to calls coming from my cell or our home phone and it is his backup plan in case he misses my first call. The chances of him missing any phone call from me at this point are pretty low--in fact, he has picked up the habit of calling me during the day just to check up on me.

Mikey...I promise I'm not going to pull a fast one on you! I will call you should I find myself in labor. You have the car, remember? As long as you don't leave the car at home I really have no choice but to call you up! Plus I need you to carry bags to the car.

The Right to Waddle

I love Mike. Everyone needs a Mike; Myriah would agree with this statement.

Moving on to the point of this post: Mike has just informed me that I have earned the right to waddle.

I don't know exactly what that means, but I've earned it baby!

Until now, Mike has been proud of my ability to not waddle in my current pregnant state. I know this because he's mentioned it quite a few times. I had come to assume he was anti-waddle, but this recent statement from him tells me he has either changed his anti-waddle attitude or is simply trying to woo me in his own Mike way.

Mike and I aren't anti-waddle. For some reason I just haven't picked up the waddle and I guess that makes Mike happy. I think maybe it's the way I carry--basically straight out from the belly. As my momma says, "You look like one of those TV people who are pretending to be pregnant. Faker."

I really am pregnant, though! Believe me...it's all too clear.

Impatiently Waiting

Anxious isn't a word I use often because I think it implies that I'm nervous. I'm not nervous, I'm anxious, and Merriam-Webster's third definition of anxious states: "ardently or earnestly wishing." Maybe a better word to use altogether is anticipating? I'm feeling rather anticipitous? I made that one up.

On Monday Mike and I hopped on over to the OB's for a checkup. The doc told me I was 2cm dilated and 50% effaced. Mike got pretty excited and was ready to drive over to the hospital until we (the doctor and I) burst his happy bubble by telling him it could still be weeks before the baby decides she's ready to come. Poor Mikey.

I realize now that it has only been 2 days since Monday, but I feel like it has been at least 3. The days are going very slowly and the contractions are sneaky. Sometimes they're happening, making us think we will have a baby soon; then nothing. Like last night. And this morning.

For me this is a little annoying. I'm ready for the baby. Her clothes are washed, her blankets are washed, her carseat is all washed and prepped; I even cleaned all the pump parts even though I won't need it right away. Mike put together an overnight bag last night because he was convinced we would be heading to the hospital soon. I hope he's right. We are way too excited to wait another 3 weeks!

Maybe I'll go for a walk...

Finally Finished!

I've done it. I've finished reading the Harry Potter series. On top of that, I really did enjoy it! Great reads, those books. Feels like quite the achievement for someone who's never been much into reading!

Now it's time to move onto something else. I think I'll get myself a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard...then I can move on past J.K. Rowling. Maybe I'll tackle the Bourne trilogy next. Suggestions, anyone?

Google Chrome

When I took biology in high school and in college, I used to shorten long words to enable myself to take more notes while the teacher/professor was instructing us. One of those words I liked to shorten was "chromosomes." I used to write "chromies."

That doesn't really have anything to do with Google Chrome, but it's the first thing I thought of when I saw the word "chrome" so I thought I'd share that little tidbit of miscellaneous Kylie trivia with you all. See how much better you know me?

So anyway, Mike came home from work Wednesday all excited about Google's new browser: Google Chrome. I downloaded it yesterday and I gotta say: it's pretty great. It has a cool feature where you can browse incognito. This is great for checking bank accounts and such. 

And good news, tab lovers! When you decide to open a PDF file and it inevitably crashes your browser window (as PDF files so often do), it will only close that one tab instead of the many tabs you have open at the time because each tab is it's own process. Nice thinking, Google.

Oh, and it has this great little built-in home page with links to your most visited sites, recently visted sites and several search engine search windows so you can search to your heart's desire.

It does have one major flaw, however, and I can only hope they'll get their act together and fix it seeing as Chrome is still in BETA version. The problem? My widget doesn't show up! Hello, Google...there are only so many days left of my widget's life! Sigh.

Anyway, check it out! I love Google.  :)

SOLD!

Woohoo!!

Sale Pending!

Good news! Our lovely little house in Utah is FINALLY under contract! Mike and I can't be more pleased. We are hoping for our realtor to send us a picture of the house with a "SOLD" sign in front sometime soon. Otherwise I'll just have to doctor up an old photo of the house with my own version of a "SOLD" sign.

Mike and I are on the hunt for a house in Reno now. We (mostly I) have spent numerous hours scouring homes online and we have been out to see about 8 homes so far. Once our sale is final we will be taking this purchasing business very seriously. We are so happy the house will be sold before the baby comes! Whether or not we actually get into a house before then is another story, but whatev! We are just entirely pleased to have someone buying the house we put so much work into!

I'll keep ya updated, peeps.

3 - 2...and the desserts win!

For our anniversary, Mike and I went out for filet mignon as has become a tradition for our anniversaries thus far. I'm a fan of it.

Unfortunately there is no Ruth's Chris in Reno, which happens to be our very favorite steak joint. We tried out a steak house recommended by some of Mike's coworkers who claimed it was better than Ruth's Chris. Well, it wasn't. But it was still pretty great!

The best part was dessert. Something possessed us to order a chocolate souffle at the beginning of the meal (to give them sufficient time to create said souffle). Although we knew this was coming, we decided to also order a creme brulee because...why not?

When the waiter turned up with our desserts, he came with not two but THREE desserts. Yes, that means we were outnumbered by our desserts (the baby doesn't count yet). The little dears had prepared a lovely slice of extremely rich chocolate cake "on the house" as an anniversary gift. We decided it was worth documenting.

Behold:

Happy Anniversary: #3!!

Today Mike and I are celebrating our 3rd anniversary! Hard to believe it's already been three years. Here's a little overview of our favorite years together (just the good parts):

Year 1: Got married! Bought a house, got a kitten and I graduated from BYU. It was a pretty great year!Year 2: AKA: Year of the Cats. Kitten turned into a cat and had 3 kittens of her own, one of which we kept. I took a job as a marketing consultant, then as a "pro" blogger. Mike switched majors from mechanical engineering to computer science--definitely a great decision. Cat had 7 more kittens before she met up with the vet. Good thing we love kittens!

Year 3: Got pregnant! Mikey graduated from BYU and took a job in Houston, which he then turned down after accepting a better job in Reno. We finished our basement and put the house up for sale, moved to Reno and Mikey started his job (which he loves). House is still waiting for the right buyer to come along, dangit.

As we enter year 4 we have plenty to be excited about and grateful for. Our little girl is due in 52 days and we can't wait! We hope for our house to sell soon so we can jump on the homeowner train in Reno. We are excited for another year together and can't wait to see what it brings!