The pictures in the slideshow were taken by my friend Helena Jole. She did a great job with these photos so I wanted to show them here. Thanks! However I can't get them to work quite how i want. Hopefully i can get it too look right soon. :-/

Little baby bear

So i have been a bit obsessed with keeping the baby warm lately.... seeing as how Washington has been freezing lately. I mean really! I was holding out for a few more sunny days, but i think fall has reared it's colorful head. Not that i mind fall, in fact i love it, but i wanted to spend more time with summer... a least feel like it actually came by to visit, but summer is having a love affair with some other place i guess and though my heart is breaking i must move on.... okay so that was a peak into the weirdness of my mind... he he! So back to the obsession with keeping Parley warm. I was trying to find as many warm outfits as i could, but have mostly summer clothes so i pulled out a few things that were a bit bigger and realized how long my little guy is these days.

Here he is debuting in 6month size pajamas. I think he may end up being a bit tall! ;-) He is a skinny little guy, but he sure is long! Thanks to Abby for this cute little outfit! :-)

Here is another of him awake and smiling. He really does have a beautiful smile... whenever he chooses to do so! He loves to smile at Daddy and he is really happy first thing in the morning!

Here he is in these funny wool longies that i love and just a nice bright outfit, perfect for Halloween... i swear he picked it out himself!

Hubby Tag..thanks Sarah

What is his name? Dean Paul Simmons
How long have you been married? 1yr 3months and still smiling!! :-))
How long did you date? about 7 months, give or take a few weeks
How old is he? 26
Who eats more sweets? Well, that is a close one, but probably him. We both have a sweet tooth though, i just like to think mine is more refined! hehe
Who said I love you first? I think Dean. We had a discussion about that because he never said that to anyone, not even his family. i told him that when he felt like he was ready, or when he knew it then he could go ahead and tell me. Now he says it all the time and me too!
Who is taller? Dean, by far. I am pretty sure he is at least 6ft, but i don't know exactly and i don't think he does either. hehe
Who can sing better? I would say we are both fair singers, not brilliant we can just keep pretty close to being on key. I think if Dean sang louder though he might just be better than me!
Who does the laundry? Both of us, mostly me, but he helps me a lot of the time too!
Who pays the bills? Dean. I think he enjoys it really. I don't mind it either, but he gets a thrill out of checking on all the accounts and bills every day or maybe it is just a habit for him.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Dean, he let me have the side closer to the bathroom for when i had to pee 500 times a night while i was pregnant... okay maybe 2 or 3 times! :-)
Who mows the lawn? Dean. I mowed it one time, the first time when we got a mower and he has done it ever since. I don't mind it, but he has always done it since then. Probably because i was pregnant and now have a baby so it isn't quite as easy for me.
Who cooks dinner? I do mostly, but Dean cooks too and has cooked some yummy meals for me, he was especially great when i was pregnant and for the first few weeks after i had the baby. He makes great scrambled eggs with cheese, my favorite breakfast!
Who drives? Dean mostly, but every once and a while i will. I just would rather he did, especially when we aren't sure where we are going. He navigates better and i am a good map, direction person.
Who is more stubborn? Me, i am pretty sure.
Who kissed who first? Dean kissed me first. We were watching a show where the guy said once a kissing moment happens, if you don't kiss her within 24 hours then she becomes a friend forever after. So that kinda happened for us that night and then he sent me a text later with and hour count down. So then the next night he asked me if he could give me a kiss good night and i said yes, although i was pretty nervous... i mean nothing like a count down to make you lose your nerve. ;-p
Who asked who out first? He asked me out... kinda. He took me bowling with some other girls that were his friends. He told me he was taking some other girls too and wanted to let me know so there wouldn't be any "cat fights". I had a good laugh about that and then he came over for dinner on Sunday and i asked him to go with me to a fireside.
Who proposed? Well, we talked about getting married and were planning on it and went and picked out the ring together, but then he surprised me once he got the ring. We went to the Temple and after the session he wanted to rush out and i wanted to stay there for a while. I was irritated he was rushing me, but left. Then he wanted to walk around the grounds, but it was cold out and a little rainy. I wasn't dressed very warm, silly me. Anyway, i started to figure something was up because when he held my hand as we walked it was all cold and clammy and he was acting pretty strange. Finally he tried to distract me and knelt down and pulled out the ring and asked me to marry him. It was sweet!
Who has more siblings? Me. I have 4 sisters and 6 brothers. Dean is the youngest of 5 boys. In case you were wondering Sarah is my sister and my sister-in-law too. I know your mind is shorting out right now trying to get that figured out. So we are sister and we married brothers. I have to give her credit to introducing me to the family! :-)
Who wears the pants? hmmmm, i think Dean lets me do what i want mostly, but sometimes not. I guess it just depends on the situation.

Parley's Blessing

Here are some pics from Parley's blessing. These are a little slow in coming since we blessed him on September 7th, but better late than never is often my theme! ;-) My parents and Dean's parents were there and some of our siblings. We just had a little gathering in the Relief Society Room and Dean gave him a very sweet and wonderful blessing!

Finn & Parley

Finn sure loves his little cousin Parley. One day I set Parley on the bed so that i could run to the restroom and i left the door open so i could keep my eye on him and Finn who was playing in my room. Parley started to cry and Finn was very concerned. He tried to give him his little cloth book to look at, but i told him he was too little to read. So then he ran around the bed and climbed up a chair to get on to the bed. Then he crawled over to Parley and was talking to him in baby talk and got his blanket to cover him up just as i was coming out of the restroom. He was being so sweet and gentle, it was very cute. When i came out he had this look of "he is crying, what do i do?" wanting me to take care of Parley and make him happy. It was super cute! Here is Finn holding Parley in my lap.

Over the hills and through the trees..

Dean and I actually both had a day off together that wasn't Sunday and we decided to take advantage of that opportunity to go for a little outing with Parley. It was wonderful and beautiful!

My Little Miracle

So I have been wanting to tell you all about the miracle of my little guy. It may not seem like much, but i know it was a miracle. I wanted to try and have a natural birth and have Parley at home with just me, my husband, my doula (Sarah my sister), and my midwife (Dawn). I feel like that is how Heavenly Father intended it to be and then we can go from there if we need help. Unless I felt the spirit telling me I needed to do something else, I was going to stay at home and it would be alright. So everything was going according to plans until his due date came and went and we hit week 42 weeks and counting. So my midwife works with doctors and they watch you and the baby once you get past week 42. We had several tests and ultrasounds and everything was looking great. During this time the main doctor that my midwife works with was out of town and this other doctor (Dr. Jung... a.k.a. Dr. Jerk) was on call. Also I had been trying everything that I could to naturally go into labor, such as black and blue cohosh, acupuncture, spicy food, castor oil, and lots of walking. I even walked the mile to church one morning. I am sure that was a site. However, nothing was working. So that kinda sets the scene for you, now for the miracles.... at least the ones that i noticed. I am sure there were more that i am not aware of as well.

1)I have the sweetest husband in the world who was by my side the whole time and was a quiet and enormous source of strength for me, even when he couldn't quite handle the needle they put in my back for the epidural. I love him very much and am so glad and blessed that he is my husband and Parley's Dad.

2)I had the most amazing midwife Dawn, equally amazing Doula (Sarah), and Dawn's assistant Michelle who were all very helpful, skilled, supportive, and just all around awesome for me, Dean and Parley!! I couldn't have done it without them all!

3)Parley came late or just at the right time, however you want to look at it, so i got the right Doctor who was willing to help me to have as natural a birth as possible. He also came once the right nurse was there as well. The one before her was horrible and rude, but in the morning when the new nurse came who was awesome, Parley was ready to come out.

4)I got a priesthood blessing after a jerky doctor gave me a lecture that the longer i waited for the baby to come naturally the more inevitable it would be that i would have a c-section. He scared me of course, but Sarah was there and was able to get me through that, i am so glad i was not alone and with somebody that knew a bit more than me with less hormones floating around in her system. I am so thankful for the priesthood too!! In the blessing i was told that i would have a natural birth. I kept thinking about that during the whole labor and when things looked like it was all going to go badly, i just tried to think about that and trust in that blessing and my Heavenly Father. At the same time, my sister called all my family and asked them to pray for me and several other people who were aware of the situation were praying for me too. Looking back on it, the Lord was taking care of me and the baby all along. How humbling and sweet it was for me to think that so many people were praying for me and I know those prayers were heard and answered!

5)Dr. "Bigdaddy" whose name has been changed to protect the innocent :-), was awesome!! He had a cute accent and he was an older man with shortly trimmed hair that was pretty white. He was friendly and jovial, but at the same time very kind and sweet. He worked very well with Dawn and he made me feel at ease when he walked in the room. I hadn't met him before and was a bit worried, but he was supportive of me having a natural birth and worked great with the nurses and was just kind. I really appreciated him!! He had to manually turn Parley's head because he wasn't in quite the right position. three other people i know, two of them who had the same midwife, but the other doctor had similar situations with the babies head not being in position and ended up with c-sections. I was truly blessed!!

6)Parley came into the world at 10:26 am on Saturday, August 2nd of 2008 after 42 hours of labor. He was beautiful and wow, what a blessing!! :-)

7)Then i went up to the recovery area and ran across another angelic nurse who was so kind and supportive and was trying to help me with nursing, which proved to be difficult. My milk didn't come in for 5 days, the normal range being 3-5 days. The lactation consultant wanted me to supplement with formula early on day 2???, but this nurse was kind and reassuring and supportive of me waiting longer. Late in the evening on day three we gave him a little formula which proved to be a big mistake because it upset his stomach and then he couldn't get it through his system. So then, because of my sweet friend Jessica i was able to give him some breast milk with colostrum which i felt so much better about and Parley too. Then my milk finally came in and it has been smooth sailing ever since... well not really but much better!

8)Each day since Parley came into my life i have felt more and more blessed in so many ways!! He is truly a miracle to me! :-)

Sorry for the length, but i wanted to write this down somewhere before i forgot and share it with my friends because it was amazing to me! :-)