Man of the hour

Since birthing Marlee most of my (sparse) updates have been about her, so I figured it was time to write a little about what my baby daddy has been up to. School got out for Jamie in the middle of May, so that meant it was time to kick back, relax, and enjoy summer right!? Not so much for this boy! After medical students complete their first 2 years of school they get the pleasure of putting their classroom knowledge to the test by taking the first step of boards. Jamie signed up to take the COMLEX (DO boards) June 27th and the USMLE (MD boards) June 30th. Needless to say, he spent about a month and a half holed up in the library intensely studying, some days from sun-up to sun-down. I'm not gonna lie, those were some rough days for both of us. Good thing we had some great friends in Des Moines to keep me busy and Jamie sane! Thankfully, our prayers were answered and Jamie was blessed for his hard work and was able to meet his goals on both sets of boards. Right after taking the USMLE (a draining 8-hour test) Jamie had to race home to help load all of our belongings into the back of a UHAUL truck because we were moving to Nebraska the next day. June was certainly a BUSY month! The month of July provided a much needed break from studies, and now Jamie is on to the (....fun?) part of med school: clinical rotations. His first rotation is with a family practice physician, so he is looking forward to putting his knowledge to use and I'm looking forward to having him around a little more. The past two years have probably been some of the most challenging of our life. Whoever said medical school is not for the faint of heart was right! However, if there's anyone that can face a good challenge, it's Jamie. Because underneath that white jacket is my knight in shining armor-corny, yes....but the truth don't lie so deal with it:)

Looking like a 'stunna on his first day of rotations!
 (for those that don't know what a stunna is, Urban Dictionary defines it as:
Someone that is smooth, and that got game.)

Caught in the act

I can't believe our little Marlee is 4 months old already! Our little princess is learning to do so many new things each day. We happened to have the camera close by the other night and captured one of her first "chuckles" Sorry the video is sideways...anyone know how to flip it?

Call Me a Tiger Mom

Minus the whole Asian part..... Ok, so a few days ago I saw a video of one of my facebook "friend's" child who was born a little before Marlee. Their 3-month old baby rolled from their stomach to their back with ease. Now, I'll admit, I've not been the best at giving Marlee tummy time. It's usually the longest 2 minutes of my life as I listen to Marlee protest laying on her tum tum and I eventually give in and flip her over. But of course, the competitive, Tiger Mom side of me thought, "Well, if their baby can roll over, so can Marlee. Infact, she is going to kick butt at rolling over." So like the good little mother I am, I placed Marlee on her tummy and waited for her to shine. The result: Marlee put her face down on the floor and cried for 30 seconds. I tried to upload a video of it, but for some reason the video disapeered after I spent 5 mins waiting for it to upload, and blogger won't let me upload any pics either. Oh well, use your imagination. Who cares about rolling over anyway? I've decided I'm going to teach Marlee a much more useful skill, like how to change her own diaper. So look for us on "America's Got Talent" in the next 3 months. We'll be the headliner.

The best 4 years

Yesterday Jamie and I celebrated our 4-year anniversary. It's kinda crazy to think we've been married that long already. Boy, time flies when you're having fun! It seems like not long ago we were poor newlyweds in Provo eating Betos (now Rancheritos) on a weekly basis, going to midnight dollar movies, and living in a tiny basement apartment. It's amazing how far we've come since those days. We now have a little one, a big fancy house....err I mean an 880 sq. foot "garden level" apartment,  lots of money (owed, not earned),  and a late night to us is staying up past 10:30. I'm so lucky to be married to my BFF. We both feel as though the other person got the raw end of the deal:)

Lovers

We had a pretty low-key night since Jamie's busy studying for boards and we generally fail to plan things for "big" occasions. We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant, did a little browsing at Old Navy (I got a $0.77 sweater-score!), picked up some Edy's strawberry fruit bars for dessert (yummy), watched a little "Everybody Loves Raymond",  and called it a night. Pretty exciting, I know, but I just enjoyed spending a little time with my boyfriend.

Morning Shenanigans

Catching up

Ok, I know I have not been diligent on posting. The little miss is quite distracting (as evidenced by her cuteness and my constant desire to shower her in kisses and/or eat her cheeks). I had good intentions to blog more because I think it's a fun family record, but my good intentions have obviously fallen by the wayside.
So here's a little bit about our sweetums...
She has a rather large head-which is normal for babies, I know, but her's is quite impressively round. It must be jam packed with brains. For the first month of her life she had an almost unhealthy obsession with her pacifier (yes, I went against the advice of all the breast-feeding czars and gave her a binkie in the hospital, shame on me). As soon as that thing hits her mouth she does this lazy eye-roll thing and is instantly content. However, I swear some of my days have been spent playing fetch with a pacifier. She's a good little eater and is growing much too fast! She starting sleeping 6-7 hour stretches at night before waking up for a feeding when she was 5 weeks old. I must admit I was incredibly paranoid the first time she slept 7 hours straight as most of the parenting/development books I read told me she was too little to sleep that long, I'd lose my milk supply, she'd starve to death, etc.... but I've learned that as long as she's developing well and gaining weight, to just thank my lucky stars. Now at 7 weeks old she's starting to sleep even longer. Last night I put her to bed at 10 and finally I woke her up at 6:30 for a feeding because of my paranoia. When she wakes in the morning she's just the smiliest thing ever (is that even a word?) Marlee really is such a good baby and brings us so much joy. Jamie and I love her to pieces! Here are some obligatory photos of course...

A few pics

Just because I'm currently awake I thought I'd post a few pictures. Sometime I'll write our birth story, but that's waaay too much effort for this sleepy mommy now.

Marlee Jo Olsen

One of the few times she's slept:)

My little cutie