Weekend trip to Zion and Vegas

Last weekend my sister, Zane, Nolan and Zane's parents were flying into Las Vegas for a vacation. We had planned before we moved to meet them there. I had my first day of training this Monday so we could only spend a day with them. It was SO great to see them and made me miss them VERY VERY much.
They were not getting into Vegas until late Saturday night so we decided to stop at Zion National Park on the way down. It was beautiful and we can't wait to go back and stay for a bit. We left a little later then we had planned on Saturday morning (we are never on time or leave when we are supposed to.....) and were only able to hike one trail. This year all the national parks are giving active duty military free passes! We got ours when we were in North Carolina last month and were able to get into the park for free. The outdoor rec center here is awesome. They have so much stuff to rent for cheap, our child carrier in the pictures was only $7.50 for the entire weekend. I think we will use outdoor rec a lot during our time in Utah.

Our hike was very nice. We even met some people from Ohio at the end of the hike. I forgot Quinn's hat and had to buy one from the gift shop... it's a little big but she rocked it.

Vegas was really fun but I don't have any pictures because I left my camera in the car. My sister needs to email me so and then I can upload them on here. We had breakfast and then my sister and I let the boys gamble and we went shopping. We also took the kids to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. It was very nice and the kids seemed to like it. We pushed their strollers up to the windows and they would sit and watch the fish. The trip was way too short but it was great to see them and to squeeze my chunky nephew! I can't wait to go home in October and celebrate his birthday.

Traveling is good, Life is good : )

We made it!

Hello all... we made it to Utah! My mom and dad drove with us from Ohio which was a HUGE help. I don't think we could have made it without them. The drive was long but it was very pretty... however I don't want to do it again any time soon! Quinn was SO SO good. She was such a trooper and we could not have asked for anything else from her.
When we got to Utah we dropped off our stuff that we brought with us and took the dogs to the kennel. Then we headed to Vegas for a few days. We stayed at Aria and it was such a nice hotel. Vegas with a 5 month old is a little different. Here are some pictures from our trip:

After Vegas we headed back to Utah for the movers to bring our stuff. It was crazy hectic with all the movers and bringing our stuff in. Luckily my mom and dad were here to help mark off items and tell the movers where things go. They only lost one item, Quinn's ottoman and broke our garage fridge. They will replace both of those so I can't complain about that. Moving is not my favorite and I hope we won't be doing this again for a couple of years. 

Dave's sister Julie came to help us unpack also and she was  HUGE help. We got so much done while she was here and the house is starting to come together. We ordered a new couch and it will be delivered in a few weeks. I am very excited to get the new couch and get the living room done. For now we just watch TV on the floor! Now that the "essentials" are unpacked and we can live in the house the motivation to keep unpacking is getting low. We will eventually get there. 

Last weekend we headed to Park City to an arts festival. It was very cool and Park City is beautiful. I think we are going to really like Utah. There is plenty of stuff for us to do and the mountains are beautiful. Here are some pictures from our trip to Park City. 

We are going to Zion National Park this weekend and to visit my sister and Zane (and Nolan) in Vegas this weekend!!!! I will post pictures when we get back : ) 

Life is good! 

Yummy in my tummy

Quinn is almost 5 months old (gasp!)!!! She will turn 5 months when we are at the beach next week. It will be her first beach trip and I am excited to see how she reacts to the sand. We are going to Nags Head with my sister and Zane and my mom. I am SO excited for a beach trip!!
At Quinn's 4 month appointment her doctor said we could start trying solids. At first she was not interested and kept her mouth closed. We didn't push it, so every couple of days I introduced it again and she just started really wanting it. Yesterday we gave her peaches and she loved them. Tonight we tried carrots and she liked them okay. My sister bought these rice cookie sticks for Nolan and we gave one to Quinn. I don't really know if she is supposed to have them yet but she goes nuts over them and gets so mad when I take them away from her. So she also gets those sometimes too : ) Here are some pictures of our bedtime routine tonight:

Stay tuned for pictures from the beach : ) 

Vacations are good, Life is good. 

I realize I have not posted in FOREVER!!! That will be changing because we are moving very shortly and my mom is going to need frequent updates on what is going on with us and of course Miss Quinn.
To wrap up the last couple of months....... We had a baby, lost a lot of sleep, put our house up for sale, went to Utah to look for a house/job for me, sold our house, I got a job, closed on the house, moved into my sister's house, found a place in live in Utah and enjoyed our little babe during all the chaos.

We were so lucky and sold our house in 11 days!! It made for some stress with making sure the movers were able to come and get our stuff in time but it is such a blessing to not have to worry about having a house in Ohio and living in Utah. It is such a small world... the people that bought our house are Air Force and coming to Wright Patt and the people we are renting from are Air Force and also moving to Wright Patt. I am really going to miss that house.

My sister and Zane have been awesome and are letting us live with them until we leave. It has been so fun living with them, I am going to miss it! The husbands get to do their P90X together and I get to spend every evening with my sister and nephew. The parents are taking care of our dogs for us, we will have to get them a REALLY good present for that. I really do have the most amazing family!!!
Speaking of family..... my little brother is moving to South Korea for 14 months!! We are not very happy about this..... we are being selfish. He is going there to teach English. It will be a great opportunity for him but it is going to be SO hard to not see him for that long. He leaves in 5 days and I am not emotionally ready for this. He is picking a bad time to leave... my poor mother. He is leaving for 14 months and 4 weeks later I am moving across the country.

We have about 4 weeks until we move.... ahhhhhhhhhh! I am NOT READY for this change. It is going to be super hard to be away from my family. I am however ready to have a routine again. The last couple of months have been so crazy with the move and everything that we have NO routine. About the only constant in our lives right now is that Dave works during the week and I work on Tuesdays. When we move I will be working 4 days a week at a school (that is going to be an adjustment from my current job) and am looking forward to the challenges that will bring. The people I have talked with so far from the school district have been great which makes me less nervous. I am looking forward to the hours and the summer off!! I am extremely nervous about sending Quinn to daycare and I start crying every time I think about it. Good thing the daycare is on base so Dave will have to be the one to drop her off.

Speaking of Quinn.... she is the most amazing little gal EVER. She is 4 months old already!!! I can't get over how fast time flies. She has rolled over twice and we have fed her rice cereal twice. She does not seem to like the cereal so I think I am going to give her something else today (haven't decided what yet). She is all smiles these days and started laughing yesterday as well. I think it was a great Father's Day present for Dave! She is making all kinds of sounds, which makes me happy of course! Here are some pictures of our little babe:

Have a great day...... more posts to come! : ) 

Mocha Chocolate Ice Box Cake

So on my maternity leave I watch a lot of Food Network and HGTV. The other day on one of the shows they made a mocha chocolate ice box cake and it looked really good so I decided to try and make it. I was surprised at how easy and good it was. Here is a link if you want to see the recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/mocha-chocolate-icebox-cake-recipe/index.html

You need:
Chocolate Chip Cookies, vanilla, Kahlua, Mascarpone cheese, coco, instant espresso, sugar, heavy cream (I think that is all, double check the recipe link). Then you mix them all up in a Kitchen Aid mixer (minus the cookies) until it becomes whipped. Dave and I were amazed at how it becomes just like whipped cream!

Then in an 8 inch spring form pan you layer chocolate chip cookies and the whipped mixture until you get 5 layers of each.

 Last you cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge over night.

This recipe will be getting added to our recipe book for sure!

And here are some new pictures of Quinn to leave you with:

Cooking shows are good... Life is good! 

Quinn is here!

The obvious update around the Jarnot house is that we have a baby!!! She is the most perfect and beautiful little gal in the whole world! I will give you a little description of how it all went down. Last Friday I woke up and wasn't feel well. I did not feel Quinn move for over an hour and we had done everything. Changed positions, drank water, ate, even played some music for my belly... nothing. I called the hospital and they had us come in to check and make sure everything was okay. It was pretty terrifying. We got there and everything was fine, they said she was just being lazy. They used this buzzer thing and put it on my belly and it felt like she literally jumped in my stomach. The rest of the day I slept... I mean slept ALL day. People say before you go into labor you will "nest" and have all this energy and clean the house, well I slept. I guess my body was getting me ready for no sleep! On Friday night around 10 I started having contractions and continued to have contractions until about 3:30 in the morning. Then I started to get sick and we figured we would go to the hospital. We got showers and started to get ready and my contractions completely stopped. It was so frustrating. We went back to bed around 4:30 and then at 6:30 my water broke. Then we really got ready to go to the hospital. Dave didn't have gas in the car so we had to stop and get gas on the way!
We got settled into our room at the hospital and I found out the doctor that was on call was one that I liked. There was one doctor I really didn't want so it was a relief to know I liked the doctor that was on call. We were so lucky the whole time we were there. We had the best nurses and techs and Dave was pretty amazing the whole time too! I ended up getting an epidural at around 1 pm and started pushing at 4:30. Quinn was born at 6:53 that evening. It was such a long day and I was so tired but it was all worth it! I was really nervous about the whole labor and delivery but it wasn't bad at all and I think that I can do it again : )
We had to stay in the hospital until Tuesday because I had a fever during labor and they wanted to give her antibiotics has a precaution. She had to have a little IV in her arm for the antibiotics and it made me so sad. She was a trooper and I don't think she even cared about it. I was so ready to leave the hospital by Tuesday. Needless to say the first night home was awful! She slept for all of about 1 hour and Dave and I thought we were going to die! I was so nervous that is how it was going to be all the time and I wasn't going to make it. But every day has gotten easier and she is sleeping for longer and longer stretches everyday. Dave is being awesome and I couldn't ask for anything more from him! He is a diaper changing champ and I think he has changed more than I have.
The dogs are adjusting. We left them at my parents for a week because we were not ready for them at the house. Charlie has been very calm since we brought her home and Sammy just seems depressed. It will be interesting to see how things go with them.
Here are some pictures of our little princess:

More posts to come on this new adventure of parenthood we are on! 

Babies are good, life is great : ) 

Big changes in the Jarnot house

So it has been FOREVER since I last posted.... sorry about that! With the new baby coming (hopefully very soon!!) I will be blogging more. We are pretty much ready for Quinn to get here, we have all the major stuff done. Here are a few pictures of her nursery... they aren't the final pictures but they are the only ones I have on my computer right now. I will plan to add more later.

When we were in Denver for Thanksgiving Dave's sisters had their friend do belly pictures for us. They turned out so great-thanks Julie and Jen!!! Here are a few of my favorite.

Now onto the latest change in the Jarnot house.... we are moving. BLAH. So we were supposed to be at Wright Patt until next summer (YAY) but the Air Force decided to ruin my life. When I got off work Wednesday Dave informed me that he was offered an assignment in Japan and one in Utah and that we needed to let them know by the next day!!! (Why hello stress..... did you mention to them that your wife is 38 weeks pregnant!?!?!) If you know me at all, you know that I HATE flying and living in Japan with a new baby that far away from my family is just NOT happening. So long story short, we are moving to Salt Lake City, Utah sometime this summer. It is a really good job opportunity for Dave so that is one of the positives about the whole situation. We will also only be about a 6 hour drive from his sisters and a 45 minute plane ride. Another positive is that Southwest just bought out a company at the Dayton airport so we can fly from Salt Lake to Dayton for a decent price. Looks like I will be getting a Southwest credit card and racking up some miles. It is going to be a crazy next couple of months with the new baby coming, putting our house up for sale, finding a new place to live, new job for me and then moving with a new baby across the country away from my family. Prayers would be much appreciated!!! 

That about catches you up with what is going on with us. Hopefully next time I post it will be with some pictures of our beautiful baby girl!!! 

Babies are good, life is good!!