Photoshoot

This was supposed to be a baby only photo shoot. Wouldn't ya know they just took some of all of us for fun. At least we sort of matched and at least I'm wearing real clothes instead of the usual pjs. So what if my hair isn't done and i don't have on any make-up they are only babies for a short time. PS i dont knwo why all this I'm writin gis underlined and I'm just happy I foudn some time to post something.

Boo to you!

I have a favorite childhood picture of me inside a pumpkin at Grammy and Gramps'. We tried to recreate it for Garrett but our pumpkin was just a little bit too small and Garrett didn't want to bend his knees. Maybe he thought it felt too slimy.


Thanks for the cool hat and socks, Fran, in honor of my first halloween.

I was a lamb for Halloween. thanks Uncle Buckand Aunt Niki for my very soft and cuddly costume.



here we are as Woody, Bo Peep, and our little sheep.

Post gradmaraatzi

now that we are in charge of picture taking we struggle to post enough for the grandmaraatzi and all of garrett's adoring fans. here's to you!
ill figure out how to rotate these soon...
a very awake midnight burper

worlds cutest baby (thanks Jasmine)

fussy time turned cuddly time with dad

Clemmie the tiger is Garrett's swinging buddy

bundled up for a chilly walk

The cutest outfit! We were going to try to walk over to check out the homecoming parade but turned back because of the weather.

Baby Blessing

It's been a while since we have written anything. This past couple of days seem to have flown by. I guess they do when you have a new baby. We had all the family here this weekend and we were lucky enough to have a great Bishop who came to church on conference weekend to have the blessing. For those of you who don't know conference weekend is usually the 1st week of October and April where the leaders of our church including the prophet speak to us. This conference is broadcast throughout the world to all the members of the church and there are 5 meetings, 3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. During this week we don't go to our regular meetings that is why we are so glad our bishop was willing to come to the church to do the blessing. A baby blessing in our church is a little different then what most church's do. It is not a baptism, it is a blessing that is given by worthy male members who have received authority from Jesus Christ. Blessings are promises given by our Heavenly Father to those who have faith and live worthily. We had a great time having the fam all over and visiting with everyone. It has been such a long time since we have seen everyone together. The blessing went off smoothly and I think the pictures speak for themselves.
getting dressed in white:

adoring our little sweet boy

papi watching him getting ready to go

The Tingey Family

The Bagwell Family

Pardon me, I hope this entry makes sense. I am a weird mix of emotions: tired, grateful, overwhelmed, amazed, cooped-up, humbled.

geoff and I are adjusting to parenthood. Wow! Im already crying! It's amazing how something so small can change your life in such a monumental way. We are so proud of Garrett and how well he is adjusting to his new home with us. I am so humbled to have such a sweet, innocent, son of Heavenly Father to cuddle everyday. We pray everyday to be the parents Heavenly Father trusts us to be for Garrett. We can only hope to be half-as-good as our parents are for us.

Speaking of good parents...
Thank you Camille and Mom for being on the front-lines with us the first two nights (Camille) and these first 3+ weeks (Mom) Geoff and I are starting to understand Garrett's cues and falling into a schedule. I guess when you dont get much sleep and dont have any other choice the learning curve is way steep!

Garrett is remarkably patient with us. Ops. he beckons! write more and post pics a little later.

Garrett's latest

lounging in his swing

playin with daddy

after his second bath

sucking his thumb for the first time

his famous "im taking a shower" stretch

Our Little Bean

Finally, we met our little bean! If you're a little shocked by the news that Garrett has already arrived... we were shocked too. Garrett was born 2 weeks early. The experience was much less intemidating than i thought it would be. We were grateful to have the company of Buck and Niki as we waited for the doctor at the hospital. Also, despite his surprise arrival Camille and my mom and dad all flew in within 24 hours to meet their new grandson. Geoff and I truly appreciate our family and friends that have helped us welcome baby Garrett whether you were able to visit with us in person or send your love from far away. Garrett can't wait to meet yall as we have told him all about his family over the past sleepless nights. In all honesty, I believe we have it very easy. garrett is so patient with us as we learn our parenting roles. Ahbi (my mom's grandma name) keeps saying he doesn't cry unless there is something wrong. He is a sweet heart and I have the biggest crush on him (sorry Geoff :) )
Let the picture fest begin:

Pregnancy Pictures

Geoff has finally Finished his summer semester and so he got a little treat.



I'm getting bigger and even more uncomfortable.

Hooray for Geoff!

Geoff got an internship this week! The internship is part-time so he will be able to take classes at the same time as gaining the real work experience. We feel so blessed because he will get international experience to earn his global business certificate, be able to graduate in april as oppossed to august (if he would have gotten a full-time internship graduation would have been psotponed at least a semster), and make money! The internship is doing credit analysis work at Novell. Geoff's got 2 more weeks of class until finals and then he can finally have somewhat of a summer the last 2 weeks in august before classes start for fall semester. He really deserves some grand cruise or expensive resort but we're saving for little Garrett and my will-be 8 month pregnant belly limits our travel options.


I started my new job doing customer service for QuickBase which is a product from Intuit which also makes turbotax and Quickbooks. Last week was a nightmare as i came home and cried 3 out of 5 days because i felt like i was learning too slowly, etc. I actually talked on the phone to customers today and felt more validated and time went by so much faster. Im really struggling with 8 hour work days while being pregnant. I am exhausted and my back kills me! Im hoping the positive trend continues throughtout this week. It reallly has made a huge difference being able to be busy on the phone with customers.

Baby Horror Movies

This past week has been a doosy. This is Geoff writing by the way. You should notice a difference in grammatical errors and it probably isn't as interesting as my wife's writing. Anyway, so this weekend we were all excited about going to our Prenatal Birthing Class. I had to look up what prenatal meant. It is the part before the baby comes out in all its glory. We were excited to take a tour of the hospital, learn the signs of labor, and participate in the stress releasing fun that comes with breathing techniques. My favorite was the part were I get to shout out how many hee, hees are left, before you hoo. Betsey felt really prepared, because she loved her Child Development class at BYU, including the birthing part. I on the other hand thought that I was along just for the ride. Although I had no idea that I was going to be called a "coach." I never thought this labor thing was a game.

So we showed up and things were going well for the first part, we got all our introductions out. They asked what is your favorite thing about being pregnant. Most people said they loved it when the baby kicked or moved. I thought that was the weirdest answer ever!! You like to see your belly roll around? That just freaks me out. Don't get me wrong, I love knowing the baby is alive and well, I just don't need to see weird belly contortions. So once the pleasantries were over and done with we spoke about the wonderful discomforts that come with pregnancy. I already know them too well.... Waking up in the middle of the night, craving, back pain, emotional distress, etc. etc. After that lovely conversation we went on to talk about birthing vocabulary. Have you ever heard of a Fundus? Sounds to me like some kind of mushroom. I still don't know what it is, so if anyone knows let me know.

Breathing was next, this was the fun part! We turned of the lights and learned some relaxation techniques, and how to breath in your nose and out your mouth, you know the same things you see on t.v. shows. We had lunch and came back to the best part of the day. The birthing video. This is the Horror part of the day. I had a Double Cheeseburger for lunch and I felt like I was going to lose it in that video. The Video was basically 4 women and their birthing experiences. One experience was a women that was going natural, until she got into active labor and they gave her an epideral and started sticking her with tubes and everything. Then they showed us the episiodomy, I'm lucky I never have to be pregnant. I looked over at Betsey she looked white. I don't know if it was the chili dog or something else, but she looked like she was going to puke. I think that this video is probably the best way to keep teenagers abstenant. Then the next lady was a c-section, Yea they showed us the whole surgery! Hey I don't need to see that! And then the commentator on the movie said something about the process being so beautiful. Right, all I remember was some man sticking his hand into this womans belly and pulling out an alien of gross goop. So the third women was a little asian girl, who was struggling for her life and couldn't get the baby out after 2 hours of pushing. So the Doctor decided to use Forceps! I never knew those things would fit in there, that was nasty. And the last lady had the baby natural and the baby came out like a daisy. I think it lasted an hour, it looked like the baby just crawled out there. I knew that wasn't realistic. Anyway, after that whole process I looked at Betsey and thought to myself, "well I'm looking at the ceiling the whole time during our birthing process, and I am definatly going to need oxygen. Betsey reminded me that I was going to have to hold her leg. I told her i was going to faint, and she said that if I faint she'll kick me out of the room. I'm trying to find out if they still sell some of that fake throw up candy stuff, maybe I can pull it off. We came out of that class more overwhelmed the anything else. All in all the class was an eye opener. I am glad I'm a man!

ultrasounds

The Fourth of July and one big week!

I feel like I have a ton to share! This is why I hesitated starting a blog in the first place because (like my adventures in scrapbooking) the posts are either going to be really boring or so chopped full of stuff that its hard to concentrate on making it any good. My goal for this post is to get out all of the exciting things we've done this week and not bore you by making it super long.

1. Babies-r-us called and our stroller [ehh, ehh, ehum] excuse me "Travel System" came in! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Tingey baby Garrett has a car seat and stroller waiting on him. Here are some pics of us (ok really Geoff) assembling the Chicco Cortina Travel System.

"It smells like a new car." -Geoff



2. Geoff worked during the daya on the 4th but I went with Buck and Niki (my brother and sister-in-law) to watch Provo's Parade and walk through the vendors at Provo's Freedom Festival. Now, if you've never spent a fourth of july in provo then you don tknwo how special it is to have curb-side seats to watch some of Utah's most well-known faces flaunt down University Avenue. (I'm being sarcastic of course but people stake out their spot on lawns of businesses, apartment complexes, and homes at least 24 hours in advance.) Here's a picture of my favorite float. The ant on the straw in the milshake squirted out water! So cute!


Like I said ( oh dear I dont know why this is all underlined- i need some serious blogging help from anyone willing to give it to me ! hahahaha) So like i said, after the parade Buck and Niki were kind enough to walk all over Provo with my big ol' pregnant and very slow self. I have the best siblings in the world. Thanks to them I enjoyed a delicious funnel cake on Center Street to make my day everything I wanted. Geoff came home from work and we (with friends the Switzers and Buck and Niki) were invited to a pool party and bbq at cousin Kirsten and Mike's place. Sorry no pics! :( We capped off our celebration by watching Stadium of Fire fireworks from afar.

3. (yay I got the underline to go away!) Thanks to a nice old lady at JcPenney catalog department we found our favorite crib and were exempt from shipping charges! Horray for nice JcPenney grandma and saving $50. We went ahead and sealed the deal because we were afraid another sales associate would have made us pay shipping if we had waited even though we knew Ahbi (Grandma Bagwell) really wanted to be here to get the crib with us. Thanks Ahbi and Papi for Garrett's crib- it was even easy to put together! Geoff was certain this crib assembling process would end in divorce but really i think we're pretty good at assembling stuff. After only an hour or so we had a beautiful crib all set up. The last pictures show the bedding tha Ahbi made for Garrett.