becoming a momma

I have neglected my blogging since...well-I have never been diligent...but I thought my little babe would inspire me.  Sadly, with so many social media things-my blog took the back burner.  So here is my recap/journal entry of the birth and a photo recap of the last four weeks.  This may be lengthy.
Birth Story:
  On Thursday the doctor checked my progress and confirmed that I was 100% effaced and 1.5 cm. dilated.  But he said Corbin wasn't completely dropped and estimated that we still had a week at least.  I told Danno and we decided to go out on our last date as a family of two the next day.  Ian was working so we decided to go to Red Lobster, walk around H&M, then go to see "The Muppets." I finished Corbin's curtains and was having some contractions but wasn't worried because I had been having random strong contractions for about a week. We embarked on our little date excited to get out and spend some time together since school/work had been hectic that week.  During dinner I asked Danno to start timing my contractions because they were getting closer together.  This completely freaked Ian out but we assured him we weren't in labor-just timing them just in case.  Then it happened.  I was pretty sure I had just peed my pants a little...or something.  I told Danno and he and I brushed it off pretty non-nonchalantly after a quick trip to the restroom.  We finished dinner and were on our way to the mall but I told him I felt funny and we should just go home until the movie just to rule out any worries I had.  We got home and I paced back and forth trying to figure out what my lil' body was up to.  I looked up a bunch of pregnancy websites, read all my books and magazines, and finally decided to call the hospital.  They informed me that the only way to tell was to come in and check.  Danno was ready to go-but I didn't want to be that girl.  So I refused to go to the hospital until I was sure we were in labor.  Standing in my bedroom, my water broke.  Excitement and fear rushed through me as I screamed for Danno.  We scrambled around house grabbing our go-bag, getting Yuki settled, etc.  We got in the car and giggled like 5 year olds.  As soon as we got on the freeway I started screaming excited/nervously and Danno thought it was a pain scream.  Nope.

  We got settled in our room and hooked up to all the monitors and such.  By now it was 11ish at night.  I was progressing along great and painfully so I opted for the epidural.  Shortly after, my labor slowed way down.  They gave me pitocin but that made baby's heart rate drop into the scary zone so they took me off and waited until he was stable again.  A few hours later we tried pitocin again, but a lower dose.  Same results.  So we waited and waited...and waited until my body did its thing.  I got to a 10 at about noon the next day but Dr. Terry was at a funeral and our on call Dr had 3 other women all reach a 10 within an hour of one another.  Since I was the only first time momma-I was last in line.  The cute nurse had me do some practice pushes but I was really good at those and they made me stop because he was almost here.  I sat for about 2 hours just chillin. By the time Dr. Barton came in, I pushed for 5 minutes and my sweet little boy was here!  Danno and I just stared at him amazed at his realness.  We looked at each other and decided he was definitely a Corbin.  This was probably one of the funnest 15 hours we have ever spent.  Hands down.

Corbin Alan Champion

I'm in love with this little 5 lb. 13 oz., 18 in. long little boy.  Daniel and I have spent the last 6 days just in awe of this little one.  He is perfect and we are so grateful.  There is nothing more amazing than holding your child.  This is bliss.

Soon to be padres.

Wonderful Carla took these pictures.  Hooray for generous family members.  Only a truly talented person could make the dead gully look sunny and great.  These are just a few of my favorites.  Little man will be here in approximately 3.2 weeks.  We are sure ready to meet him!

Merry Christmas!

Baby It's Cold Outside

Merry Christmas to all!

Another 12 months has passed since our last 12 month recap and we cannot believe how many things can happen in one tiny year.  Daniel and I have been so blessed.  We love this time of year as we celebrate the birth and life of our Savior as we enjoy time with friends and family.

January was pretty much just there. We lived and loved, and most likely laughed.

February was fantastic as we discovered Matt and Carla were pregnant.  Danno got a raise at Moss and surprised me with a new purse for V-day since Yuki ate mine.

March was a sad month as Yuki had her everlasting accident.  We did finally get air conditioning for our upcoming summer.

April was a much better month than the latter as we met Brad and Tiana our new ward friends.  Evonne flew into SLC and ran a marathon and Danno started to become a regular at the Thorup boys' Man Night.

May was a big month for our friamily (friend family)!  Ian got a girlfriend.

June was a monumental month as Scott and RoquesAnn got married and we apparently got pregnant! Ian and Lindsay also decided they were getting married.

July is our favorite month since we found out on the 13th that we are expecting a lil' baby!  We also celebrated our 3 year anniversary.  My sister Julie had her sweet baby Andrew and Evonne and family made their yearly trek to Utah.

August brought wonderful friends and memories.  Danno turned the big TWO-FIVE and we had an awesome weekend when some converts from his mission surprised us.  We love the Cookes.  They are our heroes. We told our families we were pregnant and the Cookes were able to share that experience with us.  We also found out that Rand and Kim are expecting baby #4.  We also finally found Dr. Nebeker to fix Yuki. We also got to meet our baby doctor- Dr. Terry and were able to see baby and baby's heartbeat.  So sweet. Also, baby EZ was born-surprise!

September made us realize how old we are.  Danno had been home from his mission for four years, it was the 10 year anniversary of 9/11.

October was lovely as Ian and Lindsay got married.  I was a bridesmaid and barely fit my four-month belly into the bridesmaids dress. We also found out that baby is a BOY and we went to St. George with the Champs as our anniversary present.  We saw The Little Mermaid at Tuachaun and it was awesome!

November was humbling as we joined together as a family.  Jonelle found some lumps and causes for concern but thankfully we found out they are not cancerous.  Phew!

And now here we are in December, 28 weeks pregnant, Yuki's leg is finally healed, many friends married, many babies on the way in our family, we have our health, and we feel so grateful for the ways the Lord has blessed our little family.  Sending much love!

Love,

Daniel, Janelle, Yuki and baby boy

I'm coming clean.

Danno and I have kept this under wraps for nearly 5 months now. Baby Yuks has had a hard life. We have only told close family and friends of this sad, sad leg. Yuki was on the forbidden couch and had no plans to get down. We nudged her off like we usually do, but something terrible happened. Yuki broke her leg. We rushed her to emergency where they had to drug the poor bitty baby up. We took her to her doctor where they performed surgery. FAIL. Yup, they did it wrong. We didn't find this out for 6 weeks. Enter surgery #2. FAIL. Did it wrong again. Enter surgery #3....Hold the phone doc-you only get to slice open and ruin my dog twice. We then found our saving grace Dr. Nebeker. No surgery-just proper bandaging and experience. Bone fixed! However, we have found out that Yuki has weak bones-which explains the broken teeth and broken bone. Sadness. So here we are, nursing our little dog back to health, doing physical therapy on her, and hoping for four legs by Christmas. There. I said it.

Twelve months of granduer.

It is almost Christmas friends. I am always in awe of the blur that is a year these days. As a little one, Christmas seemed to literally take 365 days to arrive, but in my ripe age of 24 it seems to come quickly. We have so much to be grateful for. We are healthy, happy, and in much lovey-ness. 12 months have passed since our last Christmas post. Those were crazy cool months friends.

January: Out of curiosity we decided to see if we qualified for a home. We did. We were shocked.
February: Creepy guy "Carlos" wants to get to know me. I didn't feel the same. We were further motivated to move. Also, we celebrated one of my favorite holidays: President's day [not really, Valentine's Day].
March: We celebrated our 2 year anniversary of engagement by taking the day off and going to museums and eating fondue. Hear hear!
April: We found some sketchy homes and threw down some moolah offers. But we were denied the stained, musty, blegh homes. We are ever so thankful. The phrase "hootay" was coined by us via a texting accident. Hootay!!
May: We found a home, put an offer down that day, and were in contract within 48 hours. Whew! We closed on our home May 19th. We then got our furry, chewing, gas bag on May 27th. We named her Yuki.
June: Our home hit a high of 95 degrees! So we moved to our "studio apartment" in the basement.
July: 2 years of wedded bliss was celebrated in St. George. I love love love St. George. It was fantastic! We swam, ate steak, watched Tarzan at Tuachan, and 2 am Denny's dessert run. Nuttin' better. I say we make it a tradition. I'm hoping we can go to Little Mermaid next year.
August: Danno turned the ripe age of 24 and had a realization that he is mid way into his late-twenties. It was still scary hot in the casa, but oh so lovely.
September: Danno had his 3 year mark since his mission. Matt and Carla introduced us to Antoine Dodson. We haven't been the same since.
October: Danno got his big boy job! He saw a job posting for Moss Inc. and decided to give it a shot. We were both very excited when he was contacted the same day, within the hour, to come and interview. He went through a series of interviews, 2 rounds really, and then was offered a postition as a technical designer. Hootay!
November: Two words: Arrested Development. I'm in love. Thank you IFC for running re-runs. Happy Thanksgiving! Turkey, bingo, and Ian all amounted to a successful Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for.
December: Danno has been offered another responsibility at work and is now the new CAP specialist for the Salt Lake site. We found a great Christmas app for Auto-Tune Christmas songs which entertained us for a few hours. We are so very thankful for all of our friends and family who support us and make life that much richer. We are grateful for the birth and life of our Savior. We sincerely hope you have also had a lovely 12 months. We look forward to this next year and the changes and challenges it will hold. Loves, hugs, and high fives all around! Merry Christmas!

Catching up!

Baby Yuki tolerates my love

Baby Yuki loves Danno

The Champ Fam

Owee is allergic...but this was before we found out :(

The Domm Fam

The Kunz Fam

The Hilbigs @ our new house

Baby Yuki

Ok, here I am evading the heat of my casa and TADA! there is internet. So here is the picture portion of our life.

Merry Christmas!!

Hello family and friends!

This Christmas season has gotten here so quickly and I can hardly believe it! In true Christmas letter fashion I will update you on the Champion family!

Danno is now 23 years old and still trying to grow his mustache. He has survived his semester at the University of Utah but is now transferring to SLCC to work on a drafting program. Danno is also serving in the Young Mens program as the secretary. We are still so happy to be living here in Salt Lake and not Logan. He surprised me for my birthday and got us Iphones! We also bought a car this year. Danno is enjoying his Scion XB. One day as we were leaving for a date he said, "Hello beautiful." Thoughts of his sweetness and lovey-doveyish stuff filled my sentimental little mind! Then I realized he was talking to the car as he rubbed some dust off it.

I, Nellie, am also 23 years old and working on not growing a mustache (I'm pretty good at it!). I am surviving my first year of teaching and enjoying the post parent teacher bliss. I can't believe that I have been teaching third grade for 5 months! It has been a whirlwind, but very rewarding. I am enjoying serving in the Young Womens program. We truly love our ward.

We both hope you have a lovely holiday as we celebrate the birth of our Savior. We love you all!



In my off track time I found some scissors and cut my own bangs....again.
Here is the moment I opened my birthday Iphone!
This is Danno hugging his sister Amy at the cabin.

Happy Thanksgiving All!

Hello friends and family!

I hope you are all well and enjoying the beginnings of the holiday season. I have the Christmas fever trailing on my heels as Thanksgiving approaches. We are spending Thanksgiving with the Champion family in Heber this year. I'm sorry for the lack of posts but I'm sure you understand with your busy lives as well! Hopefully being off-track will improve our blogging life. We love you all!

We are alive. I promise.

My resolution while I was off-track was to rev up my blogging life. However, I spent much of my blogging time admiring my friends, their children, their adventures with husbands, and fellow teaching careers. Here I am now three weeks into school and just getting to our update.

Life is just wonderful! I am loving teaching third grade and find them pleasant and cute. I have had some pretty funny adventures with the children. They make me laugh and frequently cry...from stress. But things are going well and I would like to report that I have gone 4 weeks without crying on the way to work! Woot! So far, I have been kissed on my arm, bled on, cried on, picked up, called Mommy several times, and so many other silly things. My mom always said the kids made the job worth it. She was so right.

Danno is still the best husband in the world. He brought me lunch at work today. He is surviving school and spitting on peoples' Endless Shrimp at Red Lobster. He enjoyed Fall break with Shawn and played lots of video games, pumped iron, did homework, and is still the best housewife a girl could ask for. I love him.

Life is Busy.

Wow! School is going and I am in my fourth week of teaching. I have cute kids and some nuttty ones too but they are all very endearing. Teaching is HARD! However, it is getting easier and easier as I get the hang of it. I got so stuck in teaching that I didn't get to say goodbye to one of my best friends Holly when she left for the Peace Corps. This is a dark day. I need to remember the important things in my life and not lose my life in the educating of the children of Monte Vista. We have had a lot of family fun lately and herek are some pictures. I love my family. Here are some milestones we have achieved: Celebrated our one year anniversary, got an adult's paycheck, and decided in the next few months we are buying a car. Sorry Mommasita and Randizzle, babies are not part of our milestones yet...

Welcome back Kotter

After my wonderful week at home I returned to Virginia to my Danno and humid conditions. Three days later, we packed up our car and drove to Utah. Experiencing one week apart plus the feeling of job security, we decided living apart for 2 months wasn't worth the 15,000ish we would make for the summer. So here we are livin' it up in Murray again! Shout out David Archuletta!!! Unfortunately our Virginia trip has set us back a bit so we are holding off on getting internet. Consequently, no blogging unless I'm pilfering the luxury of my parents or in-laws.

Living La Vida Loca...Clearly

So here I am in our Virginia apartment as a cool breeze wafts through the house. Here are some of my favorite things about our new address as of late:

• Everyone has an accent and some can't understand my "Utah" talk.
• I was informed by my co-workers that the "mountain-folk," such as the kind you find on My Big Redneck Wedding, only come into "town" on the weekends and they deluge the mall. Apparently I have toothless, cheap, camouflage folks headed my way at the Valley View Mall. I'm STOKED. In case you aren't sure what these people may look like... I was also informed that the men sit outside of the store because we aren't a taxidermist/Gas Station/Walmart.
• I was informed by my boss that Southern Virginia is a large producers of Daddy's Moon Shine, or "magic water." This truly is a magical place.
• It is beautiful here. This is just outside of our apartment. We cannot believe how green it is!

From Graduating to Virginia!

Wow! It has been a long time since I last checked in via the blogging system. Our life has changed significantly since the last post. First, I finished my student teaching (thankfully) and graduated on May 2nd. It was surreal and magnificent all at the same time. I am looking for a job now because I'm a competent member of society with a degree! Woot!

On May 3rd we loaded up the Protege to the tippy-top and headed out east! Our friend BJ followed us too.


Our first stop was in Grand Island, Nebraska. It was flat and fairly boring along with an aroma of stank that left me dry heaving and Danno laughing at me. Unfortunately, no pictures were captured of sweet Nebraska

We then drove, drove, drove, and drove until we ended up in St. Louis. We walked around down town, past the Cardinals stadium, and to the arch. It was the highlight of our drive and Danno was particularly marveled with the grandeur of the arch. This jazzed him for his future career of

building/designing/civil engineering. There was a plaque that described how it was built by a civil engineering team. We also crossed the Mississippi and gave a hearty shout out to Huck Finn.

Four days later, after a slight tire complication and a few calls to AAA, we arrived in Roanoke! Sleepy and car-crammed legs led us up to our Pebble Creek apartment where we passed out!













Here we are playing "throw the rock in the beer can" as we wait for AAA to rescue us.

We have a new baby!

Hello friends and family! Well it has been a while since we, or I suppose I have posted anything. Danno is going to school and working at Red Lobster where he is making what he made in a week at Ruby Tuesday in a few days. We are loving our new apartment and pictures will follow! Now for the new family member.


This is 32LG10 Champion. He came into this apartment at 9:06 p.m.

He weighed 45 lbs and 4 oz.

He is 32 inches and his father couldn't be happier.









Danno has never been more proud of his shiny black son.





Our first family photo.


After months of pinching pennies, Danno got his baby. He expects a baby shower where speakers, Blue Ray business, and electronic cleaner is presented to him :)

I loves you Dove!