D-Day (delivery day)

At 5:07 A.M. I got a call from the hospital.  "Can you be here in an hour?" The nurse asked. "Sure thing," I said.  So, I woke Bill up, then went to tell my parents who were both snoring very loudly in the guest bedroom.  Bill then called his parents to tell them D-Day has begun!  So we started to get ready for the hospital.  Before we left the house, my dad had his photo shoot.  He took a million of the same picture/pose, "just for safety".  Then Bill had to go up to the clubhouse to grab something.  I dropped him off at the front door where he began searching for an open door.  He ended up going around to the back of the building.  He was gone for a long time!  Probably about 15 minutes.  I had started to get worried about him because it was really dark and he wasn't answering his phone.  I almost drove home to pick my dad up so he could go search for Bill; I was afraid he fell and sprained his ankle or something.  Suddenly, Bill appeared.  It was 6:36 A.M.  So much for being there in an hour!
We arrived at Labor and Delivery at 7:05 A.M.  After drawing labs and starting the IV, the nurse started the pitocin at 7:40 A.M.  Every half an hour the nurse came in and turned up the pitocin drip.  Each time the contractions got a little more intense, but weren't really very painful.  We were all trying to catch a nap because exhaustion was in the forecast.  Brett, Reid, Dave and Lynne showed up around 10:30 A.M.  The boys decided to make a video of the "delivery" and post it on YouTube.  I tried to stop it, but finally succumbed   Here is the final cut of the video.

Around noon, Dr. Chalmers showed up and checked my progress.  I was fully effaced and dilated only to a 2.  So, he broke my water and said, "Welp, get comfortable.  See you around midnight. Good luck!"  As soon as he left, OH MY FREAKING HECK!  The contractions went from a 3 to a 27 on a scale from 0-10 just like that!  I told the nurse, "Um, ya, pretty sure I'm ready for the epidural NOW!"  Apparently, my blood was too thin and nobody made note of it prior to the water breaking.  The anesthesiologist said, "Sorry, we can't do an epidural."  "EXCUSE ME! CAN YOU REPEAT THAT PLEASE!? I DON'T THINK I HEARD YOU CORRECTLY!"
I suppose I don't need to tell you that the next few hours were pretty freaking painful! It was a team effort to get this unprepared mama to the point of delivery.  I had not taken any birthing classes or anything--I planned on an epidural and "coasting" through delivery!  I don't believe in giving birth naturally!  That's what drugs were invented for!  Thanks to Bill, my mom, dad, and Lynne for all of your efforts to ease my pain during delivery.  I really appreciate you guys!  I'm sorry you had to see me like that!  In my eyes I was screaming bloody murder!
The nurse told me that when I felt like pushing to let her know.  Around 2:45 P.M., I felt like pushing so I sent my dad out for the nurse.  Nobody seemed to really sense the urgency I was feeling!  This baby was coming out!  Before I knew it I had like 5 nurses barking orders at me, but I was so delirious from the pain, I was very terrible at doing what they were telling me to do--put your leg here, stop pushing, breath...blah blah blah--HOLY SHIT did you just tell me to quit pushing!?  I don't think that is humanly possible! Then, Dr. Chalmers walked in, put on his gown, got down in the baby exiting area, a couple of pushes, and out came Baby Girl Wilkey at 3:01 P.M.  What a relief!  Now everyone was crowding around the baby while the doctor was stitching me up.  By the way, placenta is really gross, just saying.
It took me a few minutes to gain my composure, which was perfectly fine because everyone was fussing with the baby.  To be honest, I didn't really feel very exhausted, just relieved to be done!  What a cute baby girl! 6 lbs 15 oz. and 19.5 inches long.  She looked just like Bill!

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

I came across two different recipes for Loaded Baked Potato Soup as of late and I combined the two for a super tasty, nutritious, low-fat recipe. It was really easy and delish! Try it out!

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

2 Russett Potatoes, poke holes with fork, microwave for 5 mins, flip over then microwave 5 more mins, cool, peel
1 small head of cauliflower, steamed
1 & 1/2 C chicken broth
1 & 1/2 C skim or 1% milk
4 oz cream cheese
1/4 C Fat-Free or low fat sour cream
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1 TBSP(ish) chives
sharp cheddar cheese, grated
bacon bits
green onions, chopped OR chives

Steam cauliflower with water while potatoes are microwaving. Drain and set aside. Add chicken broth, milk, cream cheese, sour cream, salt, pepper, chives to pot. Add peeled "baked" potatoes. Mash so that the potatoes are still chunky. Add steamed cauliflower. Bring to boil.
To serve, add a scoop of soup to bowl, top with grated sharp cheddar cheese, bacon bits and a few green onions OR chives.

European Adventure 2011

    Bill and I had the opportunity last month to go on a trip where we went to London, then on tour of Italy... talk about dream come true! London was just how I had always imagined; Italy was even more beautiful than I ever dreamed.  Each day we had different experiences which made it seem like they were all different vacations all wrapped up into one.
    My favorite part of the experience was being the foreigner.  I was shopping in a mall in Venice where nobody knew English.   When I asked where the fitting room was, they looked at me like I was speaking parsel-tongue or something! I was totally amused!
  Uncle Rex let me borrow his old camera and tried to teach me how to use it (student error).  Anyhow, I took tons of pictures!  Take a look at them and see just what I mean about how beautiful the sites and scenery are.

Click here to see the European Adventure Album

Halloween!

We had fun for Halloween this year, unlike last year....
We had a spooky dinner for the nieces and nephews on Sunday, then we dressed up and went to the ward Trunk or Treat on Monday.  Take a look... :)

Body Part Jell-o

Uncle Bill and Mae Bromley

Cooper the Skeleton

Dirt Pudding

Graveyard Bean-Dip

Lu and Drew

Mimi and Mia

Mummy Dogs

Spider Ordurves

Ella's Cauldrons

New York, New York!

My mother had never been to New York, and she'd always talk about how she really wanted to go there.  She wanted to see shows on Broadway, see the Statue of Liberty, etc., etc... So, I decided to take her there, being the New York connoseour that I am (haha!)  
I invited my mother-in-law Lynne, and we had a "mothers and daughter" trip.  It was really so fun!  I'm pretty sure I wore them out though.  Our motto was, "hurry, come on, we'll sleep when we're dead" (or something to that effect.  
Although Lynne had been to New York several time, she was very gracious in putting up with our sight seeing.  I tried to lead us to the biggest tourist sites.  We even got to see Wicked and Mary Poppins on Broadway.  Check out the pictures...

Central Park

Subway

Wicked

Ellis Island

Pre-show dinner

My special Mom

Bottom's up Lynne!

I don't know what I was posing like

Carnegie Deli!

Benash Cheesecake!

Central Park

The biggest Forever 21 I've ever seen! on 5th Avenue

Wax Museum

Lynne is scared of the Soup Nazi

Lynne's Huge Carnegie Sandwhich

I Believe in the Magic!

Mom, or Mary?

Miss New York!

Mmm... Soup!

Mom's Carnegie

No Soup for You!

It took us HOURS to find this Pizza place in Little Italy!

Let's start this blog 7 months ago...

Bill and I were married July 10, 2010 in the St. George temple... 7 months ago.  It was a beautiful, hot summer day.  Let's actually go back 5 years and 7 months ago in 2005 when I first moved to St. George and the only friend I had in town was Kimmie Smedley whom I had gone to school with since the 7th grade.  Kimmie was living with her uncle Dave Wilkey and loved spending time with her family. So often times I would go over to the Wilkey estate and hang out with the family.  All of her cousins, especially Bill and I had been friends ever since then.  We loved to have Scrubs marathons, where we would watch the TV series for hours.  Years into our friendship, Bill and I went on our first date in July of 2009 when Bill made me late for the premier of Harry Potter.  We really enjoyed each other's company so much that we repeated the date the next week-yes, we saw Harry Potter again so we could see the beginning which we missed.  But of course, you guessed it, we missed more the second time than we did the first time. Naturally, I wrote him off; I can't date someone who doesn't appreciate Harry Potter as much as I do!

 We started dating again in November 2009.  We got unofficially engaged sometime in May 2010.  We began announcing our wedding before Bill had asked my father's permission, and before he gave me the ring.  We travelled up to SLC for me to get endowed with my brother Jordan who would soon be leaving on his mission to Taiwan. The night before I went through the temple, my dad gave Bill his permission to marry me. While at the temple Bill cornered me, whispered in my ear "Will you marry me?" and I said "yes."  Haha!  A little late for that!  in just 6 short weeks after that, we were married. 

Seven months later, we look back on it, and I can't say that we have enjoyed every minute of it, but I dare say pretty darn close to it!  We love being married and learning how to do life together as a team.

This is totally new to me....

Last night as I was looking at some friends posts on facebook I was linked to one friend's blog.  As I was reading through her blog and looking at all the pictures, I noticed the list of followers of her blog and realized I have a ton of friends doing this blogging thing!  I started browsing through all of their blogs and somehow got sent to the link that signed me up for a blog.  Naturally I started experimenting and before you knew it, I had not only created a blog, but I was having so much fun trying to figure it out.  I remember when Myspace was popular and I had so much fun changing my background and stuff...this takes me back.  I don't know anything about blogging, but I am determined to figure it out.  Bare with me.