Sasha Kapri Starr

Sasha Kapri was born July 24th at 1:11 PM. She was 8 pounds even and 21 inches long! We just got home from the hospital today and are both doing really well! She is so beautiful and we are so thankful to have her in our home!

My little Sasha!

Here are just a few pictures of the newest member of our family! We had such a great hospital experience - everything went so well!! My water broke on Wednesday evening, I went to the hospital about 4 hours later - went immediatly to labor and delivery, labored for a few hours - pushed for less than an hour - and then she was here!!
We are both doing really well - so thank you for your comments, phone calls, and acts of service - we sure appreciate it!

Sasha has been such a great baby - she sleeps well, eats great, and loves just looking around and observing things - I can hardly wait for you all to meet her!

Water, water, water!

Well - water broke today - I am not really having any contractions since it happened - but I'll post pictures after she is born! WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!

Quick! Help!

Fellow mothers - Can you tell me what your favorite car seat/strollers are?? I have been looking at many - but thought this would be a great place to get advice on this! Let me know what you have found that you LOVE or HATE!

A few pictures

I have some great updates from the last 2 weeks- but not a ton of time right now - but here is a picture of our baby - I had to get an ultrasound today because I am measuring a little bit larger than normal. I love her little lips and cheeks!!

More to come as soon as I download the rest of my pictures!

Happy 4th of July!!!

I LOVE 4th of July! It is such a great holiday - and I think many people don't realize how great we have it. Growing up learning about how the cultures and countries are so different, (my parents lived in several different countries) it made me so grateful for our Independence, and it has always been a very special subject to me.

I hope you all have a great and safe holiday!!!

I am alive!!

Sorry I haven't updated in a while - I have received several emails asking how I am doing - so thank you so much for thinking about me! I am doing really well!! Here is a recap of things that have happened lately! :)

- My friend and old college roommate Shannon and her husband came to visit Father's Day weekend - which also happened to be the same weekend as my baby shower (which was WONDERFUL!!!!) I'll post pictures of the shower when I get them! After the shower we drove up into Phoenix and made a quick stop at the Arizona Science Center. I am an idiot and didn't realize that it closed at 5:00 and we got there about 4:45!!! :( We did get to take a few pictures though!!

Mark and I had a wonderful Father's day. I bought him some camping supplies and he was really excited about it. He keeps wanting to take me but it is just too hot!!! We are supposed to be going today after work, but I think he finally understands how much I love my AC!

We also found out that I might be going into preeclampsia. Don't worry - I don't have high blood pressure or anything, but I do have excessive swelling that (no matter how hard I try) I can't get it to go down...so if that is the case, our baby will be here very soon!! I don't really want to be induced, so hopefully I'll be able to wait it out. We may be able to compromise on going on bed rest until she comes. (I REALLY don't want to do that either!) So we'll see!! I have another appointment on Wednesday. I honestly still feel GREAT!! The swelling can be a little uncomfortable, but I anticipate the next few weeks being a breeze!


On July 1st two of my sisters are flying down for a friends wedding! Kourtney (left picture) and Kira (right picture). I am so excited I don't think I can even find words for it. Kira has to fly back really early on the 4th, but Kourtney will be staying until Sunday! The 4th of July is my favorite holiday and to spend it with family will be great!!!


I hope you all are doing well!! I'll try to keep this more updated - especially with our baby news!! My tummy is still getting bigger and she moves all the time!! We have 4 names that we really like - and hopefully will be able to decide on one after she is born. Stay tuned!! :)

Technical Difficulties

So I was messing around with my background tonight designing a new template and I accidentally deleted ALL of my links - so I am slowly trying to put them back on there - so if yours isn't on the side of my blog at the moment please forgive me....I am trying to figure it out!!!

Child-birth class #2

Wednesday's class was pretty eventful - I even won some free baby stuff because I was born in Michigan! Woo-hoo! The only funny thing to write about is this video we had to watch (no delivery videos yet..). This one was about people being in labor and dealing with contractions at the hospitals. It showed different positions that might help to alleviate pain, hydrotherapy, etc.

Well, they get to this section explaining how some woman are "vocal" about their pain. (i.e. moaning, groaning, screaming...) There were two woman on the movie that moaned SO loud, and Mark is just cracking up! I look at him and he stops...so 5 seconds later he starts giggling again - so I look over at him again...he leans over and says, "if you do that during labor, I am going to laugh at you!" I had to laugh too, it was pretty hilarious - however, I am sure neither one of us will think that when it actually happens, but it made the night a little more fun!

Doesn't it always happen that way?

Have you ever had the experience with something (a car, appliance, camera, etc.) that isn't working properly - so you take it in to get it fixed, and it doesn't do it anymore??

It is that law that if someone else is looking - it magically fixes itself??

Well, I sent my camera in to get fixed right after Memorial Day. It had been acting up for a few months, but it wasn't until my sister and her family were here that I finally had enough with it!! When you push the button to take a picture it only works about every FOUR pushes!! Then 50% of the pictures would be very pixalated after putting them on the computer. This can't be happening - especially with our little baby on the way! :( Luckily, my warranty is still good until June 19th. Well, they called me this week saying that they couldn't duplicate the problem!! WHAT?!?!?!?! Are you serious!! It even happened at Best Buy when we were standing in line to drop the camera off! She said she would continue to test it this week, but if she couldn't fine the problem, they would just send it back to me! Sad day.... I need my camera! I won't have it for my baby shower this weekend or for my friends Shannon and Brian being here this weekend! :(

I love this song!!

This is Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat singing "Lucky". I LOVE this song!!! The album cover is a little distracting - but great song! :)

Our first child-birth class!

Last night Mark and I went to our first child-birth class! I was a little nervous about what to expect, because lets face it - you always hear the craziest things about what happens while you are there.

But I have to say it exceeded my expectations. The lady who is teaching our class has been a labor and delivery nurse at my hospital for 27 years and she is hilarious! The other neat thing is that all the ladies in the class all go to the same OB team, and will all deliver at Banner Desert, so it was great that the doctors invested time and effort into having a specialist come to our doctors office to have these classes with us! I hope this lady is working when I go into labor!!

Who knows how the other 3 classes are going to be, but I can say the first one didn't scare me as badly as I thought it would!! What are some of the crazy things you have heard of or gone through during child-birth classes?

Memorial Day Weekend

My sister, Kira, and her husband and daughter came in town late Saturday night and were here until Thursday! It was such a blast!! I will post pictures soon.

My camera has been doing really weird things lately - so I took it in today and they are sending it off to have it looked at. I feel weird not having my camera - it is kind of like one of my companions - always there in case something fun or interesting happens. Hopefully I will have it back in two weeks!

Beware of nasty pictures

I really have had the easiest pregnancy and can't complain about anything that has happened so far - but I can tell you that since we had our wonderful 110 degree weather this last Monday and Tuesday, my left foot has swelled like a balloon and I can't seem to get it to go down! It doesn't really bother me at all, and Mark and I have found a lot of humor in how oompa-loompa-ish my foot/leg looks. I am retaining enough water that when you push on my shin the divits stay there a good 10-15 minutes before they start to diminish. And lets face it - I already have genetics working against how "sausage" like my toes are....so the water doesn't really help! Gross!! I've iced, I've elevated, and have eaten enough bland/less-salt food to kill me - if any of you have a magical answer - please let me know!

Cook wins American Idol

Wow, both of these guys have great voices - just totally different ends of the musical spectrum. I didn't get to watch last nights show...but I heard that David A. was AMAZING...It will be interesting to see what the two guys albums sound like!

Congrats David!!

Can-opener update

Mark officially gave up using the stupid can opener yesterday! I was sitting on the couch and he comes over with a can and hands me the opener and he says, "Let me show you how to do this..." I sit - watching to see if it works, and it DOESN'T!!! It's sad...and happy.... and a stupid thing to be happy about - but maybe he will buy me a new one now!!!

Reflections of Christ

I think this is such a captivating photograph - one of my favorites out of the Reflections of Christ collection. If you haven't seen the slide-show of these amazing pictures go here.

Who ever thought of these anyways??

I was thinking about all the random items I use on a regular basis - and honestly - who really had the time to invent these? How did they come up with them??? I don't know who you are but THANK YOU for making my life a lot easier!



1) The hair diffuser: look at this thing - it is like a dish with spikes, yet thousands of people use this contraption every day while hanging their head upside down amidst a cloud of hairspray and hair products - LOVE IT!







2) Pop-top cans: I don't really know what to say about these little guys other than I am glad we have them. Some of my friends know the story about my kitchen-aid can opener and how I really despise opening cans right now - I refuse until I get a new can opener, but mark insists that it is fine - so go on strong muscle man - you can open all the cans!!











3) Jolly Time Pop Corn "Mallow Magic": If you have not tried this - GO BUY SOME THIS WEEKEND!!! It is one of my favorite snacks - to the point I am only allowed to buy it for special occasions! It is Marshmallow popcorn - you pop the regular popcorn (it is a sweet tasting popcorn) and then you add a pouch of marshmallow topping to it and mix it all around! Who thought of that?? GENIUS!! It is delicious!





Can anyone think of a special occasion that I could use to convince Mark to let me buy some?!

Congrats!

Mark is officially done with his semester!! I am so excited for him - and SO proud of him!!! He is such a hard worker and takes such good care of me - I love you honey!!!!

What to say?

I feel like I need to blog about something, but I really don't have ANYTHING to talk about! My life is so boring right now!!! I guess I can tell you a couple of things that have been going on:

1) I felt the baby have hiccups for the first time on Friday while we were out to eat at Cantina Loredo.
2) Mark has finals this week!! One more week till I have him around again!
3) I bought some fabulous red vases/pottery at JoAnn's this week on clearance!! :)
4) I am hosting my first ever Arbonne open house in a few weeks - I am a little nervous, but very excited! (Please come - it will be a lot of fun!)
5) I have a doctors appointment on Friday. I am 28 weeks! :) (I was in the hospital last week for what they think is a blood clot? They are keeping an eye on my lung for now, but I am feeling fine - so hopefully it was nothing!)
6) Crib shopping is a lot harder than I thought it would be....
7) I volunteered at a golf tournament on Friday and got to drive a golf cart for a few hours - shuttling golfers to and from the rec. center!! I LOVE driving those things! Some day I might just buy one for the fun of it!

Okay - that is all for now! :) I'll take pictures of my radical vases!!! :)