Where has the time gone?

I'm alive. I swear. It just may not seem like it. I cannot believe it is almost Thanksgiving. Time flies when you're running out with your head cut off. :) As much as I like to complain about how busy I've been and how much I miss Jayde...I really have been thoroughly enjoying my student teaching. I'm continuously reminded (because I forget) how much I enjoy teaching something I love and how cool it is when someone learns because of you. I love theatre and I'm starting to remember that I loved high school, even this second time around. I'm so grateful for this experience and for the fact that I'm going to have a college degree! I'm a big person! Really! I'm so glad I had the courage and determination to finish my degree after Jayde was born. I know I won't regret it.

Speaking of Jayde, she's pretty fantastic.She's 6 months old! She just has the sweetest temperment and is just a good baby all the time! When she gets fussy it's because something is usually very wrong...which is a good indicator for me. She loves playing and can sit up mostly by herself but still topples a little when things are too exciting.

I just wanted to give a brief update, make sure no one thought I was dead. :) If anyone even reads this....lol

Some New Things

This month Jayde had a few new experiences. :)She's 4 months old now so we're introducing solid foods. We tried cereal with a spoon for the first time...and she wasn't a huge fan of the spoon. But she doesn't mind it at all when we mix it with her formula in a bottle.

Jayde also got some new clothes and just loved wearing them, as you can see from her big smile!

We started reading to Jayde at night before she goes to bed. She absolutely loves all the colors on the books and is riveted by them.

And then Jayde got a new cousin! Kipton was born Sept 17 and is so tiny! I can't believe Jayde was ever that small...she looks huge compared to him now!


We also got to go see one of my best friends, Heather, play the part of Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray! It was absolutely fantastic and Jayde loved watching all the colors on stage.

On top of all these fun experiences Jayde got sick for the first time :( She had Roseola. She'd had a stuffy nose for a little while and I thought it was because I'd had a cold. Then she had a fever for about a day and then a rash showed up all over her body! Apparently that's exactly what roseola is, just a sequence of events. I didn't even get a picture of the rash before it went away. But it didn't look fun. She's was such a trooper though, hardly fussy at all even when she had a fever. She's such a sweet baby. We just love her so much!

Animals!

We went to see the farm animals at Thanksgiving point and then to the Zoo all in the same week! I think once Jayde is old enough to really look at the animals, she'll love them!

School is Cool

So....I've officially become a teacher...kind of. Haha, I know it's confusing. This is my last semester for my undergrad in Theatre Arts Education and so I'm student teaching! I was assigned to Springville High School and will be teaching 4 classes as well as helping direct the musical. I was absolutely terrified to start. I just kept thinking it was going to be too hard and the kids wouldn't like me. I was scared they would just take advantage of me and not listen to me.
Luckily, my fears were mostly for naught. My first two days at school have been so fun. The kids in the classes are mostly there because they genuinely want to learn about theatre. Notice I said mostly. :) There will always be the kids who are just there because they assume it's an easy A. But...I can live with those. I will convert them to theatre!
After going to school these past couple days and having auditions for our musical (My Favorite Year) I've realized and remembered again why I love theatre so much and why I want to teach theatre to kids. I've remembered why I loved it in high school, why I loved 2 of the drama teachers I had (that's another story) and why I chose to do this major in the first place! Wooot! I think it's going to be a pretty awesome semester. I'll be sure to update again when I'm exhausted and don't like it anymore. :)

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Jayde can roll over. I think it's so funny that something so small...to us anyway...is such a huge accomplishment for a baby! It takes Jayde a little while to actually get over that arm...but she does it! That's why I didn't take a video...it would be a really long video. haha. But here are some progression pictures!

Jayde's a Giggler!

So...in the past couple weeks Jayde has started to laugh. It's probably the cutest noise I've ever heard and so we try to get her to do it whenever possible. For a while, she would only laugh at Chris. Who wouldn't, right? :) But then Papa Shan (my step-dad) came to visit and got her laughin up a storm! So we caught it on video! It's adorable....sorry for me laughing in the background, it's contagious!

Broken Things = New Things

The title is obviously indicative to the subject of this post. I'm not sure if it was just my terrible luck or if there was some kind of unseen force that I emanate that broke everything. Either way, it all broke at the same time. My ipod, my SD card for my camera, my Laptop and our car. Completely shot. Not good.

So, there was some obvious need for new things. Which is always good, right? Even if it's only because it's something you need and your old one stinks. So...new stuff for us!

My mom was nice enough to buy me a new SD card just this past week, so my camera is up and running. Because of my lack of SD card for my camera and a laptop...I've not been able to update much on pictures of Jayde. We're still working on getting them off of my laptop. We didn't get a new baby...but we will get some new pictures! Finally! Jayde is growing up so fast. Some NEW things that she's done are: giggle, roll over! and she's starting to be a lot more vocal! She smiles all the time now and just loves being with people. Such a social butterfly. This picture is of her with her Grandma Chipman. We absolutely love watching her develop and grow. She's just so darn cute! I'll be sure to do another post with more pictures and videos of Jayde.

Last week we bought a new car! Wooooo! Let me tell you a little about car shopping...not as fun as it would seem. If you spend over a certain amount of time at a dealership or thinking about a certain car you start getting pressured by the car salesman. And then if you leave and decide to think about it, they call you asking what you decided. So much pressure! Way too much to think about. But we did finally decide on a Nissan Rogue. It's a smaller SUV and we love it. Really. We finally have a car that is reliable and we don't have to worry about fixing every couple months. And it's PREEEEETTTTY. :)

Along with a new car, we moved! Our old apartment wasn't broken, but we decided it was time for a change. We used to live in an apartment that was a little newer and had a teeny tiny living room...just wide enough to fit our couch. And now, we've moved to a bigger apartment with an open living room, dining room and kitchen and it's cheaper! We love our new place. And so far we love our new ward. New things are good for you...they make you feel like a new person.

Visiting Grandma

After having a c-section, and then getting my gall bladder out only 3 weeks later, I had had quite the difficult summer. So, after Jayde's blessing, Jayde and I decided to go stay for the week with Grandma Judy and Papa Shan in St. George. We got to just relax and spend time with Grandma while Papa worked. My mom was nice enough to take Jayde when she woke up in the morning so I could sleep a little longer after being awake with her during the night. Jayde got some new clothes, of course, and a new mobile and binkies for 2 month olds! :) We loved getting spoiled a just taking a break from being in our little apartment for a while. Chris came and stayed the weekend after and then we came home. It was hard being away from Chris for 5 days...for the whole time we'd been married and we hadn't ever spent a night apart. I don't think I like it very much. Haha, but it was nice to have my mom there with me all the time and be able to take a break when I needed one. Maybe Grandma would like to come live closer so we could do that more often?


Jayde absolutely LOVES the mobile and Papa Shan INSISTED that she needed. Haha. All we have to do when she's crying or fussy is lay her in her crib, crank the mobile and as soon as she hears the music she's happy. She'll lay there just kicking and smiling watching the animals go round and round. It's so cute! She's getting close to rolling over now...so we'll have to watch where we put her.

She's also starting to smile a ton more now so we got a little video of it. :) Sorry there's no sound.

Musicals and Fun for Jayde!

As most of you know, I'm quite the theatre fanatic and therefore quite the theatre goer. That also means I have quite a few friends also involved in theatre and I get to go and see the productions they are a part of! This summer we've already been to quite a few musicals! :) Which makes me very happy. Jayde got to go to 2 of those musicals with us!

First we saw "Funny Girl" at the Scera outdoor theatre in Orem. It was quite the long musical...and it got a little chilly outside and Jayde was snuggled down tight in blankets but it was still fun to go see! I love the music from this musical...classic. It was also really fun to see two of my friends from school perform. Camee and Heather were both awesome! So fun!

Then we got the awesome chance (in the same week) to go see Chris's brothers Dustin and Bryson in the musical "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." I'd never seen this show, and I'll admit I was a little leary about it but I really liked it! I heard somewhere that when this musical was on Broadway it didn't do so hot...and I'm not really sure why. The production was really well done; costumes, set and dancing were fabulous! And Dustin and Bryson were pretty good too. :)

Along with the musicals this summer I have been able to see Audra McDonald perform in "110 in the Shade" and then go see "The Wedding Singer" and the West Valley Hale. Audra McDonald is a 4 time Tony Award winner and was only here in town for a 2 week period performing her original role for a fund raiser. It was absolutely amazing. And "The Wedding Singer" was so hilarious! The music is so fun and the show itself was just so well done. It's been quite the musical filled summer so far and I love it! I think Jayde likes the music too. Maybe we've got a dramatic one on our hands? :)

Jayde's Blessing Day/Weekend

We were lucky enough that my Dad and his wife Marsha were able to make it to Utah for Jayde's Blessing! It worked out that it was also on Father's day, June 20, 2010, so it was quite the eventful weekend. We went to Temple Square and saw the beautiful flowers as well as did some Geocaching around Temple Square. Then we went to the Strawberry Days Rodeo in Sprinville and then had Jayde's blessing on that Sunday. Christopher gave Jayde a beautiful blessing and we had lots of family come for the occasion. After the blessing in Chris's parents ward in West Jordan, we went back to his parents house for a little brunch.We felt so loved to have so many people come for Jayde. What an awesome thing!






That same weekend we were also able to go see Chris's best friend Kyle get married in the Logan Temple!We stayed at Chris's cousin's house and got to attend Kyle and Chelsea's sealing. They're an awesome couple and we loved getting to be with them on their special day. Such an eventful weekend means we obviously took lots of pictures! Sorry it took a little while to get these posted.

More Newborn Pictures

We were able to find a photographer for Jayde's newborn pictures through a friend. We went on a wednseday afternoon and spent about 3 hours trying to get some good pictures. Jayde didn't like laying on her tummy. And she was awake, unless we were cuddling her. Plus, the photographer loved having it be like 60 degrees in her studio, so Jayde was freezing! But after a little while, we figured out that if Chris layed underneath the black backdrop, and Jayde could lay on top of him, then she was ok! haha. Whatever works, right!? Either way, we got some really pretty pictures.

Newborn Pictures

Birth Announcement

Jayde Ann Chipman

Ok, I'm finally doing it. Believe me...its been quite the hectic month. Oh my, Jayde is almost a month old! CRAZY! From recovering from a c-section to then having to have my gall bladder taken out, I really haven't had the energy to update the blog. But now I'm finally doing it! So, here's the birth story.


I started having contractions on Mother's Day May 9th, about 6:15AM and just kinda waited in bed for a couple hours, expecting them to go away. I was still a week away from my due date, so I was thinking they were just preliminary contractions that could last a week or so. They were about 8-10 min apart, lasting about 1 min each. So, about 8AM I decided to wake Chris and let him know what was going on, just so he wasn't totally surprised if I told him we needed to go to the hospital. Nothing too exciting happened for a few hours...the contractions stayed pretty consistent. I tried to sleep, ate some toast, but mostly just stayed in bed until about 4 o'clock when my Dad finally convinced me to just go into the hospital to get checked. If nothing else, they'd give me a morphine shot and I could get some sleep. (my dad is a gynocologist, so I trusted him)

So, we got to the hospital about 4:30. Chris brought all of our stuff, just in case, but I wasn't expecting to be staying at all. We went in and the nurse checked me and I was already dialated to 5 cm! So, we were going to be staying and having a baby! I was totally shocked, and then completely scared, not knowing what to expect. We immediately called my mom so she could be there for the birth. They hooked me up to the IV, which was not fun at all. The nurse apparently wasn't very good at it and stuck me twice, which hurt SO BAD, before she let the anestisiologist do it. And then they put my epidural in. I wasn't sure about getting it right away, but the nurse said that if I wanted it, might as well do it now before I progressed too far and they wouldn't be able to do it at all. So by about 5:30 I was all hooked up and waiting to progress further. Ryan and Tara came to sit and wait with us for a while and Ryan helped Chris give me a blessing. The series of finale of The Amazing Race was on, so I of course had to watch that! Somehow I knew I'd be in labor for that finale, but I'm glad we didn't miss it! haha. Marissa and Taylor, as well as Chris's parents stopped by to keep us company. Chris's mom made these awesome chocolate covered pretzles and wrapped them up so we could hand them out to all our nurses and friends who came to help welcome our little girl. They were awesome!

The nurses kept coming in to check on me about every hour. The doctor broke my water at about 6:30 hoping to get me progressing a little faster, but that wasn't working too well. So at about 8 or so they started me on a little bit of pitocin. My mom got there at about 9:30 and we hadn't gotten too much further into labor. The pitocin was giving me too many contractions without being fully dialated so they eventually took me off of it. Finally, at about 2:00AM I was at a 10. Chris and my mom were both exausted, as was I, not having slept at all. We started pushing, but we had to stop after just a few because baby wasn't handling the pushing too well. Every time I would push her heartrate would drop, so we had to wait until it came back up. Then, after pushing a little while longer, my epidural wore off and I could feel all of my contractions again. NO FUN! So, we had to wait until the epidural kicked in again, after another dose. The anestisiologist had to give me atleast 3 more doses. It kept wearing off! So, after repeating that a couple times, the doctor came in and explained that the baby wasn't handling pushing too well. She also wasn't descending very much and my pelvic opening was rather small, making it a really tight fit for the baby. They decided the safest option would be to do a C-section. So they prepped me and Chris for the c-section at about 4:30. Chris got to come in and be with me, wearing an awesome jumpsuit and Jayde was born at 5:12AM on May 10!

Chris says that Jayde didn't cry when she came out, not until they were giving her a bath and stuff. Chris held her up for me to see and I gave her a kiss. They'd put some goopy stuff on her eyes to fight infection or something and I got some of that on my lips...didn't taste good.
lol. After that, Chris went off with her for her bath and everything while I got to stay on the table and get stitched up.

I went to sleep and woke up about an hour later when they were taking me to recovery. We got transfered down to Mother/baby at about 7AM and I finally got to meet Jayde! At that point we hadn't actually named her....Chris and I both thought her name would be Gwen up until we met her. Just looking at her, and my mom agreed, her name was Jayde! haha, so surprise to everyone we told her name was going to be Gwen! Its not! haha






Jayde Ann Chipman
May 10, 2010 5:12 AM
7 lbs 7.7oz 19.5 in
Lots of dark curly hair!


We stayed in the hospital for 3 days while I recovered from the c-section. I was continually amazed at how many things you use your stomach muscles for! Really, I had no idea! The nurses at the hospital were absolutely amazing. They were really helpful and nice and great with Jayde (I guess they have to be, it's their job). Also, the hospital had these awesome oreo shakes! SOOOOO good. Niki, Chris's sister, works for the room service in mother/baby so she got to deliver my food to me every day. It was really nice. ;) I loved being in the hospital, enough that I didn't want to come home! We had lots of visitors over those few days, and my mom, Tara, Hayden, Marissa and Taylor were there every day for atleast a little while to keep me company when chris went to work. We came home on thursday may 13th. My mom was still here and stayed with us until sunday.




Those first few days of having Jayde at home were....interesting. The first night Jayde slept really well...but I didn't sleep at all because I kept getting up to check and make sure she was breathing. We got out of the house the next day, went to the mall and walked around. We had to get some clothes that would fit Jayde, all the 0-3 month clothes were too big! And then that next saturday we went to her Uncle Ryan's soccer game! Less than a week old and she'd already gone to a soccer game. haha.

I'm so grateful for my mom being able to help us out those first few days. And for Marissa and Tara coming to help out afterwards while I was still recovering. Chris is awesome with Jayde, its cool to see how naturally taking care of her comes to him. We absolutely love having Jayde and we can't wait to see her grow!