Nolan Video

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So I sat down to put this on the blog like 2 hours ago. It was inevitable that the second I sat down, the baby cried and then once i took care of that problem, Carter woke up. It just wouldn't have been right if I actually got like 10 minutes just to get it done. So, it's a little later than expected but nevertheless, here's a new posting.
I thought that everyone could get a better idea of what Nolan really looks like through a video. He is such an angel baby and we are just nuts about him. If all newborns were this great, there'd be a lot more kids in the world.
I will post some pics as well but right now its having trouble uploading them. Check the next post.

Baby Nolan Arrives

Our new baby, Nolan Mack Burk, arrived yesterday at 1:15pm. He was 8lbs 1oz and 20 inches long. So the run-down of the whole experience, in a nutshell, goes like this:
Monday at the Dr. I was dilated to a 3 or so and the Dr. stripped my membranes. She told me labor would probably start within 24 hours. By night, I was skeptical because I hadn't felt any contractions.
Went to bed at 11:30, woke up at 2 with contractions about every 10 minutes. By 4 in the morning they were bad enough to get me out of bed and in a hot shower. Spencer woke up around 6:30 and we were off to the hospital by 7:30.
8:35- got to the hospital. I was the only patient so I had nurses all over me, eager to help. It was great. I was happily resting with an epidural about an hour later.
The epidural made my contractions stop so I had to have pitocin. After that I progressed quickly and had the nurse check me. She said, "OH, he's like, RIGHT there." Within 5 minutes I was pushing and another couple minutes and the baby was born. It was awesome and so much better than the first time around.
So everything's going really well. We are all healthy and happy and I'm especially happy to be home. We got here around 2 this afternoon.
So here are some pictures. Spence is wearing a mask because he was a little sick the day before. Carter is SO excited about his "baby bwover" and loves to give him kissies on the cheeks. He's adjusting to sharing mommmy and daddy, I think. He was sucking his thumb while watching a movie today. He hasn't done that since he was a little guy.
Anyway, just wanted to post a few pics and an update. I'm off to bed as soon as I'm done here!

6 Things About Me

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

I was tagged by Gina 'Messick" (New Last Name).

6 Facts about me:
1. I have become an obsessive-compulsive house cleaner. I will figure out after pregnancy if this is just a temporary nesting thing but until then, I have to assume that I've become one of those annoyingly clean people. On a typical day when I get the cleaning "bug", I'll start outside with mowing the lawn, sweeping, weeding the garden and pruning the rose bushes, then I'll move inside and clean my entire house top-to-bottom, including doing laundry.
2. My favorite part of my day is in the morning, when I wake Carter up at about 7:30 and he says, "Hey, mom! I want apple-juice. I lay on the bed with mommy." Then we lay in my bed for 15-20 minutes and cuddle and talk. I ask him what he wants to do that day and he'll either say, "I go a-Diseyland!" or "Go Chuck-E-Cheese!"
3. I hate television. Like seriously despise it. There are very few shows which I enjoy watching and everything else seems so completely worthless that I feel dumber after watching them. We don't even have tv. We watch movies if we need entertaining or watch a tv show on the internet.
4. I love to exercise. I do work-out videos at home, walk, and lift weights. Last year I thought, "I think I'll train for a 1/2 marathon." I got serious about it for about a month and actually woke up early (!) to train and stuff. Then when I could go about 7 miles I started thinking to myself, "Wow, I'm only 1/2 way there and I'm spending a lot of time running. This stinks." So I stopped training. But I still love to exercise. Just not one of those with a lot of endurance.
5. I take a nap every day. Regardless of if I'm tired or not, I nap. I love it and I know it's coming to a close real quick.
6. My favorite movies are mini-series ones like Anne of Green Gables and Pride and Prejudice. Others include North and South (not the one with Patrick Swayze), Victoria and Albert, Wives and Daughters, Daniel Deronda, and The Forsyte Saga.

I don't have that many people's blogs so I tag Kate, Sheena, and Michelle.

A Couple Carter Stories

Yesterday was a day for stories, I guess. The first one happened when we were getting ready to go for a walk. Carter said that something was "Booful" (beautiful) and I asked what was beautiful. He said, "It's pretty, mom" and I said, "What's pretty, bud?" and he touched my hair and said, "This one hair". It was so cute. I was especially grateful because I had put extra time into my hair that day. Then today while he was saying a prayer on the food he mumbled something about "Daddy pretty hair. Mommy pretty hair." He notices the cutest things.
So story number two...I was digging through some old photos when I came across pictures of me and Spence in Palm Springs on a short gettaway when I was about 8 months pregnant with Carter. My face and everything was so fat so I went to go show Spence. I said, "It's that disgusting?!?" and Carter comes into the kitchen going, "I see as-gusting, mom?" so I showed him the pic. He goes, "WHOA, MOM. AS-GUSTING! Das HOWBOL!"
Thanks a lot, buddy.

We went to Oak Glen again last weekend as a family and had a good time going to the petting zoo and eating fresh apple donuts. Why is it impossible to get a good picture of my kid with an animal? I've tried it like 10 times and have maybe gotten one decent one. Actually, I'm pretty sure the problem lies with just my kid. He is in the "I'm not going to cooperate with you" phase that I love.
I had a Dr. appointment yesterday and tomorrow I'm 37 weeks along. She'll see me again in 2 weeks and said that if we want to at that time she can strip my membranes which will hopefully throw me into the horrible agony of labor within 24 hours or so. I think that's what we are going to do but I keep asking myself, "Why would I want to intentionally put myself into labor?" I guess that it is inevitable that it's going to happen sometime, so I might as well know when. It's just so freaky that it's so close. I've pretty much blocked my pregnancy from my mind this whole time just to make the time go faster. Well, it worked, and now I'm at the end and in a sortof panic that I let it creep up on me. We are really looking forward to seeing the new baby, though, and having a sweet little-little-one in the house again.
I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow. That is a nerve-racking experience. I'm still trying to grow it out (man, it is taking forever) so getting it cut seems like a bit of a step backwards. Plus, I'm seeing a new girl. That's the most scary part. You never know if she's just gonna go berzerk and whack off like 3 inches. I usually end up with lock-jaw for a couple hours after my appointment because I get so nervous in the chair. I'm just completely vulnerable and at her mercy. That she does a good job is my humble prayer.

Belly Update

Well I am in the middle of my 34th week of pregnancy and still feeling good. For those who can't remember or who simply don't want to have to do the math, that is in the middle of my 8th month. Everything is still going well with the pregnancy and I feel really good, except for not being able to bend like I would like. Other than that, really no complaints. Here's a pic so you can get a visual on how big the belly is getting.


Last week Carter and I went to Oak Glen with Clarice, home of the famous "Mile-High Apple Pie" that Justin got a couple years ago. It was a nice cold day (about 50 degrees) up in the mountains and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. We ate lunch, went to the petting zoo, and sampled apples and cider. It was really fun and Carter loved it. When it was time to go he kept saying, "No, mom. Not go home yet."


Saturday we actually got RAIN for the first time in a long time. It wasn't much but it was very well-received. It was quite blustery around here for a couple days; fall-like enough to make me whip out my fall decorations, lite and pumpkin candle, and make some delicious pumpkin bread. So on Saturday we let Carter play outside in the rain with the "Coombella". He was so excited about that.


Sunday was my last day as the Laurel advisor. I have a new calling as the Primary secretary. Though I will miss my girls, I was ready to move to something different and I am excited to be working with these new ladies. I haven't ever been in a presidency, so that's been new. This Sunday will be my first time doing all my new stuff alone. Luckily I have until then to figure out what all that entails.

New Shoes

So Carter really needed some new shoes so after stake conference last night, Spence and I went to Target to check them out. We picked out a pair of super-cute blue ones that look like skate shoes. Also this week, I had bought him a new pair of "church shoes" at Walmart- just basic brown ones to go with anything. Anyway, I thought he'd be totally pumped about his new shoes like he has in the past, so we got dressed for church and I said, "Okay, let's put on your new church shoes!" I whipped them out of the closet and we put some socks on then...oh man... For no apparent reason he was NOT happy about his new shoes. He started kicking and saying, "NO! I no like em! I take em off!"
So what do you do in that situation? I did what any kind and understanding mother would have done- I forced them on his little feet and made him walk around in them, crying for like 10 minutes. Spencer had gone to the stake center early for a meeting, so we called him and I let Carter tell him about his new shoes, thinking that maybe that would help...it didn't. Another 5 minutes later he was still unhappy about them. Finally I completely ignored him and then after that he was totally fine. He even said in the car, "I likey new shoes!"
So anyway, later on I wanted to try on the new blue ones previously mentioned and luckily he was distracted by a movie, so he didn't fight me. But once he ran around in them for like 5 minutes- same story- didn't like them. Sat down and wanted to take them off. This time daddy let him win. We put them back on when we went for a walk this evening and on our walk, there's a horse that Carter likes to look at. The owners of the horse were outside and we totally friendly and asked us if we wanted to come see the horse, so we did. They haven't put in any lawn yet so the whole place is just dirt and while we talked to the couple, Carter was having a great time running around. So anyway, his new blue shoes are completely filthy now. I guess they have to be broken in sometime or another but it just makes me so sad that they look like hand-me-down's when really, we bought them last night. So this has been our saga with the new shoes.