Everly's Baptism

Yesterday we had a meeting with the director at our parish regarding Everly's baptism. Although Justin is not Catholic, I was raised Catholic, and we were married in the Catholic Church, and therefore, Everly will be baptised Catholic. Next month we will be taking a class to prepare for the baptism and the actual baptism will take place the last Sunday in October during mass at our parish, St. Paul's Catholic Church.



Everly will only be a few weeks old. The plan is for her to wear the Norris family baptism outfit. The outfit is about 90 years old and was originally worn by my mother's uncle, Father John. After him, my grandfather Nick Norris wore it. Then, all 6 of his children wore it, including my mother. Myself, and my 3 sisters also wore the same outfit. My mother's uncle, who originally wore the outfit, was a Catholic Priest and actually baptised my mother and all of her siblings as well as myself and all of my siblings. Although he has passed away, it will be very special to have Everly wear his outfit. 

Everly will have 3 godparents. One will be announced later, because we haven't formally asked that person yet! The other two will be my sister-in-law Carly Dinslage and her husband Mark. We are very close to them and are so happy they accepted our request to be her godparents.

There are a lot of different feelings I have gone through while being pregnant but I have really not felt much of that pressure/nervousness that we are actually going to be parents! That is until now. Planning Everly's baptism really makes me feel like a parent and I hope I end up being a good one!

3D Ultrasound

Yesterday we had a 3D Ultrasound of baby Everly. This was the last time we will get to see pictures of her until she is born. We are trying to be patient, but it is hard. We want her here already! She was moving a lot during the ultrasound and was making lots of little faces and smiles. She also had her feet up by her face for a while. It was funny.

A cute little profile...

Her feet by her face...

A little smile...



We also got some video of her moving around. This one is pretty cute because you can see her moving her mouth. In the beginning the placenta is in the way and it is blurry but it clears up...




Just over 3 more months until we get to meet our little girl!

Bark Busters: Week 1

The Larkins family had a pretty busy Sunday.  We signed up for Bark Busters home dog training, and the pups had their first lesson.  We think our dogs are great but they do have some behaviours that get us a little worried for when Everly comes.  Since it was the first week, it was a three hour session where we pretty much just talked to the trainer for most of it before we got a little hands on.

The first thing we worked on was the doorbell. These guys will go crazy if they hear the doorbell, even on TV.  So we had a little pouch with a chain in it and we would throw it on the floor and give them a growl when they would run up to the door.  It took only about three times before they would stay back and let us open the door freely.  For those who have met our dogs, you know that they will do ANYTHING for food, but with this training we were able to put a piece of cheese on the edge of the couch and they would just stare at it.  We were also able to get them to walk beside us instead of tugging us when we walk them.  They still have a lot of work to do but we have already seen a big difference in them.

After the session, the trainer said that with all that they learned today they will probably be a little tried from using their brains so much.  He couldn't have been more right, here are a couple of pics of them shortly after the trainer left:

We're hoping that by the time we get to bring Everly home, they will be great pups and we won't have to worry about jumping or anything like that.  I'm pretty confident they are on the right track. Bark Busters is a pretty good service, it's a one time fee and it covers all of their training aids, and it is a lifetime guarantee, so if they develop some kind of problem we can't handle in the future they will come back out and help us with it. Even if we move across the country, we can get a local trainer to come to our house and help us!

25 weeks pregnant!

I am now 25 weeks pregnant and Everly is supposedly the size of an eggplant. We have a 3d ultrasound coming up next week so I should have video to post of her inside of me. I am also excited because I was instructed to drink caffeine before the ultrasound so she is moving around a lot. Yay for caffeine! This past week I have really felt more pregnant. I feel like I am really carrying more now and I feel like I waddle like a pregnant woman. Here I am at 25 weeks on a hike with the puppies...

One of the other ways we are preparing for Everly's arrival is by doing some dog training. Right now, the puppies have bad habits that we want to break before she comes home. My sister's dog Barkleigh has done awesome with my nephew Cameron and I want the same thing for my family too. My dogs are super sweet but it is hard to correct bad behaviors when you have two dogs. We are doing some in home dog training tomorrow and I can't wait to see how it goes! 

Updates on baby Cameron

My little nephew Cameron is doing great. He went home Monday night and turned one week old on Thursday. He is an incredibly good baby. He is so sweet and calm. He still has the cutest little chubby cheeks I have ever seen. I can't help but just stare at how perfect he is. Here is Aunt Katy holding him in the hospital

And Uncle Justin...

 Mommy with Grandma kissing him...

and his favorite aunt Kayleigh...

Seeing Cameron makes me even more anxious about the arrival of Everly! I just hope I can remember that not all babies are as easy as Cameron seems to be. Here he is in his sling with mommy...

So cute!

Cameron Rohr: 7.139 lbs/20.5 in.

Today was the day we finally got to meet our newest nephew, Cameron Rohr. He was born at 9:24 this morning after my sister Kim had an emergency c-section. He is so cute. He has dark hair and chubby little cheeks.

Everything seemed to be going well and little Cameron was being so sweet and squirming around. He even ate a little. They were running some tests on him and decided they wanted to do more tests in the NICU. They determined that he was not getting quite enough oxygen on his own and they wanted to monitor him and do some more tests on him so they are keeping him in there for 48 hours. My sister Kim is recovering well from her surgery and we can't wait until Cameron is out and home. His puppy Barkleigh is waiting to meet him! Here is a picture of me holding him and I am sure I will be posting lots more pictures soon!

Also, here is a video of the little squirmer in action...so cute! 

23 Weeks and kicking

23 weeks pregnant and definitely looking it. The big news this week came today while I was sitting on the couch watching TV. I could feel Everly moving inside me and I was staring at my stomach to see if I could see it too. All of the sudden I saw a little bump in my stomach and I told Justin I could see it. He came over and sat by me on the couch and put his hand on my stomach and a few seconds later he felt her too. Finally, Justin got to feel Everly kick! For a couple of weeks I have been feeling her but it hasn't been strong enough for him to feel from the outside so today was an exciting day.

In sad news, I am not a new Aunt yet. We are still waiting on the arrival of little Cameron. I am trying to be patient but I really want to hold that little guy and I feel like we have been waiting forever!

22 Weeks

So far I have been feeling pretty good throughout this whole pregnancy. A couple of weeks ago at my regular OB appointment they reviewed my last ultrasound and thought that the bowels looked brighter than they should. The referred me to a specialist to question the possibility of Everly having Echogenic bowels. Apparently this means that on the ultrasound, the bowels appear very bright and are even brighter than the bones. Echogenic bowels can be a sign of several other abnormalities. We met with the specialist last Friday and they did a very thorough ultrasound and were convinced by the end of it that Everly does not have echogenic bowels. Justin and I were definitely relieved. We were also excited because we got another ultrasound and got to see Everly again. This is a cute shot of her. I think she has Justin's nose!

We added a few items to Everly's nursery this weekend. We installed a stainless steel shelf over the changing table...

We also got a new rug for her room. Oscar loves the rug! 

We also bought some shelving for inside her closet and will hopefully be organizing that next week. I can't wait until we start hanging art, too! Hopefully my next post will be all about the arrival of Everly's cousin Cameron! 

Hiking with the Puppies

Wow! Today was probably the most eventful hiking trip we have ever had. Justin and I invited my mom to go hiking with us this morning. I assumed that my 39 week pregnant sister would not be joining, but I was wrong. I was definitely surprised to see her there. The hike started off good. The pups loved it and even cooperated for this photo at the top. 

It was on the way back down that things got crazy. My mother, sister and brother-in-law have hiked this area before and take a slightly different route on the way down. For maybe 500 yards they go off trail so I am just following along. I walked past a little cactus making sure that my dog didn't eat it and then I hear my mom yell because she walked right through it. I looked back and she had a big piece of cactus stuck in her leg. It looked nasty. At this time, all eyes are on her. Her golden retriever Alix, who was off of her leash at the time, then walked right through the rest of the cactus. So now my little sister Katy is slightly freaking out because her dog has cactus stuck in her. So Katy works on helping Alix and my brother-in-law works on helping my mom. In the meantime Kim and I walk a head a few yards to keep our dogs from getting into anything. Then all of the sudden Kim starts feeling dizzy and is leaning on me and wants to sit down. So she sits down right in the middle of the dirt. Eventually, Doug gets all of the cactus out of my mom's leg and Katy helps Alix. Kim was not feeling well for probably a few reasons. One, it was hot! Two, she ate 2 doughnuts before the hike. Three, she is 39 weeks pregnant! You will not see me hiking at 39 weeks pregnant. Kim ended up just needing a few minutes and she was okay, but let's hope nothing like that ever happens again. So here are the things we learned from our hike today:

1. Do not hike at 39 weeks pregnant.
2. Do not go off trail.
3. Do not eat doughnuts before a hike in 100+ degree weather.
4. Do not let your dog off of their leash.

Good news, our puppies were exhausted after their hike. Mission accomplished!

It's June!

Normally I am not so excited about June. In AZ it just means that things are going to start melting if you leave them in your car. But this year, June is special. This month I will get to meet my nephew Cameron. The official due date is June 12th. Cameron will be the first grandchild for both the Rohr's and the Yancone's. I know both families are anxiously awaiting his arrival. Due to Cameron's arrival this month we also get another treat in June...a visit from one of my other sisters, Krystyn. Krystyn will be coming from Nebraska to visit Cameron and help Kim out with the little guy for a few days. Here are a few of Kim's Maternity pictures shot by the talented Jamie from Making Memories, LLC.

Hurry up Cameron!