rushley & crew

I always assumed that Russ would be a good dad. In fact, one of the very first things that really attracted me to him was when he told me he'd decided against being a pilot because he wanted to be home with his wife and kids -- he really values family. But I never imagined he'd be THIS good a dad. I just love to see the way he adores Ada and the way he takes care of her. He doesn't shy away from changing her diaper, feeding her, or putting her down for naps. In fact, while she was in the NICU, he changed way more of her diapers and did almost all of her bottle feeding (I was still breastfeeding at that point, so that's the feeding I did :) ). I felt really insecure about my mothering skills in the beginning (due in large part to all those hormones ), but he always seemed so confident with her. I thought he was so much better at parenting than I was (in the beginning; now I just feel like we're both the best parents we know ho...

Russ and I figured it all out before Ada was born -- He would take his one-week paternity leave immediately following her birth and we would have meals from the ward delivered that week. If we got overwhelmed, we could call on my family since they live close, but we mostly just wanted to have some nice time as a new family of 3. The second week, my mom would help out, and the third week, Russ's mom would help out. But when Ada had to stay in the NICU, we reconsidered our plans. I told Russ he could wait to take his leave until she could come home so that he could have more time with her, but he countered that his paternity leave wasn't just about taking care of Ada -- it was about taking care of his family, and that included me. He ultimately decided to stick to his original plan of taking his leave immediately following her birth. It made me feel so loved and special that he thought taking care of me was enough of a reason to use his leave. And truly, I ended up being so g...

Some Background Info Throughout my pregnancy, friends and family would often ask me about my birth plan. The truth was, I didn't really have one, and I definitely didn't put a ton of thought into the one I did have. Mostly, I just figured I wanted a vaginal delivery if possible, and though I was open to trying without an epidural, I figured I would end up getting one. But like I said, this plan wasn't super concrete. This is because I'm diabetic (always, not just when pregnant), and I knew that there was a high likelihood that my plans would be forced to change when delivery time came. I didn't want to get my heart set on any certain way, since there were definitely no guarantees that I'd get that. When I was around 30-35 weeks, I started asking my doctors what they thought my delivery would look like. They kept stalling and saying we'd wait to find out X information at Y appointment before we could make a more concrete plan. At one point, my OB said we w...

Recently (and by recently, I think I actually mean about a year ago) I looked around the apartment and saw only engagement and wedding pictures. It was time for some new pics of our tiny family! But somehow, we didn't actually get any taken until last week. Guess it took a while for our photographer to be available . . . My brother is really a videographer, but he's got some photography skills, too. Plus, he's free since I sometimes babysit Miss Hadley. So here they are, some summer pics of me and my handsome man :) LOOK AT HIS FACE! I die. I seriously think he looks sooo handsome in this pic :) favorite :) and even a few bloopers for ya . . . my cheeks were tired from smiling! and Russ wanted to do his crazy-person smile :) I love this man of mine :) 

Today is a happy day indeed because it's our anniversary! This kid and I have been married for two whole years!  I remember the days when I never thought I'd turn 16 or get married (because those days just seemed so far away), and now I've been married for two years. Time really does fly when you're having fun :) When it's with the right person in the right place , marriage really is the best thing ever. I definitely recommend it ;) There are a few difficult things about marriage, but mostly just good things :) One of my best friends recently asked me what the best and hardest parts of marriage have been thus far . . . so today I will share what I said to her :) I think the hardest part about marriage is learning how to become one.  You spend your whole life up to that point finding out who you are--the way you like things, and the ways you don't. By the time you get married, you pretty much have those things figured out for yourself. But ...

I love this quote because I whole-heartedly agree with it.  In honor of Valentine's Day, I decided to share some of the weird and quirky things unique to my own relationship with R.  We randomly lick each other. Nothing romantic or sexual about it, it's more like what you do with your brother when you're both kids. Like, obnoxious almost! If we're cuddling or close, one of us will just randomly lick a cheek or a nose or, if we're being especially obnoxious, maybe an ear. But those ones are always annoying so we don't do that one much anymore. Today he licked my arm . . . too bad for him I had just worked out, so it was a little salty! Haha :) We sing out things that we're doing--in bad tunes and nonsensical melodies. Like "And now I'm going to microwave the oatmeal!" But in song. Normal words, abnormal expression :) Whenever one (or both) of us is looking for something and then finds it, we both claim to have found it. For instance, i...

Russ and I recently made some new years resolutions, one of which was to really get back to dating each other. Throughout our marriage, we've done a lot of hanging out, but not so much dating . Who knew the hanging out vs. dating problem still existed after marriage! Since we're both so busy now, the time we get together is really important, so we want to spend that time dating as much as we can :) We're going to switch off planning our dates, so Russ was up first. On Wednesday, he took me to a restaurant neither of us had ever been to because he found a groupon for it. It was such a cool place! It's called Dave and Cranky's, with a live violinist and a hipster atmosphere. Hipster isn't really our style, but I liked it anyway. It's a small restaurant, and you can see the kitchen from your seat. It's kind of expensive, and the food takes a long time to get to you. BUT. The food is great. I felt like Queen Latifa in Last Holiday when she goes to th...

Russ and I have officially been married for 5 months now :) It's crazy how the time passes, and even crazier how incredibly happy I am to be married to this wonderful man :) Here are a few things that I have learned about him in the past 5 months. He makes crazy noises when he stretches . . .  . . . but his noises always make me laugh. He has really bad morning breath . . . . . . but I'd still kiss him anytime. He likes to pop out and scare the heck out of me . . .  . . . but he always holds me close afterward. He steals all the covers . . . . . . but that just means I get to snuggle closer to him. He eats all the food in the fridge . . .  . . . but he also makes almost all the food in the fridge. He is really opinionated when it comes to politics . . .  . . . but I like to hear him get fired up about stuff. He likes to tickle me mercilessly . . .  . . . but it's actually kinda fun. He always distracts me when I'm trying to ...

For the month leading up to Halloween, Russ and I talked about dressing up as Captain America and Peggy Carter (the girl from Captain America). We figured we could find cheap blue&red stuff for him, and a military looking jacket for me all at DI.  false. Stuff at DI isn't as cheap as you would think. We toyed with other ideas (Sherlock Holmes and Watson, Tetris pieces) but never did anything to make any of the above ideas happen. Then, twas the night before Halloween we still had no clue, and Halloween Day was going to be a busy one.  Luckily, I saw a pic of my friend's Halloween costume  on Facebook , and BAM we made a decision.  Meet Wenda and Waldo! :D I think our costumes turned out pretty great! We didn't have time to do hats, but everyone still knew who we were :) People at our ward party kept coming up to us saying "found ya!" And my amazing husband made the chili  (which is actually taco soup and is delicious)...

Since we're newlyweds, Russ and I are trying to use our money wisely. One of the things that we've done to save money is buy some secondhand furniture from Craigslist and KSL with the intention of turning the furniture into fun projects to do together. what have i learned? . . . projects aren't that fun. I don't really recommend going that route . . .  Okay so they're not too bad, but it's hard to finish projects with school AND work AND all the busy-ness going on! So our projects have just been sitting in my parents' garage for the past couple weeks with no progress. Not only have the projects been sitting there, but so has a mountain of sawdust since we sanded through the finish of the kitchen table so that we can stain it black.  My parents have been asking us to finish up, but we just haven't had the time . . . therefore, the dust and projects have just sat there.  Yesterday I went to my parents' house after work to grab a couple of th...

Life is pretty crazy when it goes from a blissful work- and school-free summer to a work- and school-filled fall semester. I don't get to spend nearly enough time with my favorite person ever! We make what time we can to see each other, and we spend a lot of time studying together, but I sure do wish we had more time to do FUN things together. So since we hardly have time to see each other, do you think we have any time to clean the apartment?? Of course not! Which is why yesterday, when I came home from work to a sparkling clean bathroom, a newly picked up and vacuumed living room, the dish strainer full of clean dishes, AND dinner on the stove . . . I had to hug and kiss my husband a lot because, well, he's the absolute best :) Not a day goes by when I don't remember that I'm the luckiest girl in the world to be married to such a wonderful man :) **ashleynicole