FHE and 28 Weeks Pregnant!

L. Tom Perry said this of Family Home Evening:

"The Church has established two special times for families to be together. The 1st is centered around the proper observance of the Sabbath day. The 2nd time is Monday night. We are to teach our children in a well-organized, regular FHE. No other activities should involve our family members on Monday night. This designated time is to be with our families."

I'm trying so hard to make sure that we have FHE consistantly this year. It's always been a struggle for us to have an organized, consistant FHE but I know that if we do this, we will be blessed as a family. It was one of my New Year's Resolution's to do this EVERY week and I've stunk at it...until a few weeks ago. I found the talk above by L. Tom Perry a few weeks ago and it woke me up big time and made me realize how important it actually is to have FHE weekly. We've been doing pretty good and we also went on our first outing to the Rec Center to go swimming. Lydia has been begging me to go swimming for weeks and I finally gave in. I mean, swimming when I'm 30 pounds heavier than normal is not exactly my idea of a good time but it was worth it seeing Lydia so happy for a couple of hours!!! So after our lesson, off to the Rec Center we went.

The funny thing is, is that Lydia was too scared to go beyond the kiddie area so she basicallly just waded until I talked her into going down the 3 foot slide in that same kiddie area. My sweet, reserved, VERY cautious Lydia! She's definitely a follower so if she doesn't have a friend there to push her to try new things, she usually won't! I guess I'm ok with that. She'll grow in her own time :)

L. Tom Perry said this about Family Home Evening in his closing remarks (I used this in our first FHE lesson this year):

"May it be our resolve this year to build a gospel-centered home, a safe harbor from the storms of our adversary...May this be our year for enjoying the light and truth of the gospel in our homes. May our homes truly become places of refuge from the world is my humble prayer."

I could not agree more with that statement. I always want Lydia to feel the spirit in our home and to feel like home is a place to feel safety and comfort. I just love my little family so much and I'm so proud of the progress we've made this year. We have quite a ways to go but I know the Lord is pleased with our progress thus far! We just need to keep it up!

Well, here I am in all my glory at 28 weeks pregnant. The time has actually gone by so fast, I can't believe it! Even though I was sick for 14 of those 28 weeks, it still has flown by. I've gained 33 pounds thus far but I'm finally feeling good.

I got to have one last Ultra Sound. At the last u/s they found a little cyst on his head so they wanted another one to make sure that it was gone, and it was! It was pretty fun to see him again, although because of how big he was, it was hard to see much. I had been telling Lydia all day that we were going to see a picture of baby brother and when she saw it, of course she kept asking, "Where is he?" The u/s was just a bit too confusing for her.

His heartbeat was 134 bpm and everything looked perfect. He's about 12 inches and weighs in at just under 3 pounds (so why in the heck have I gained 33. LOL). And of course he didn't lay still for one second. He's been moving non stop for weeks and what a blessing that is. After having a miscarriage, it changed me. I'm so paranoid about everything. Because he's so active, I get nervous if I don't feel him for a while. I was actually really nervous about this u/s. I was afraid something would be wrong. But look at that profile....I don't see anything wrong with that :)

I know I just need to let go and enjoy these last few weeks with my boy and that's what I plan on doing!!!!

Our Weekend!!!

On Friday, my friend thought it would be fun to have a craft day for the kids so we all got together and made little bunnies and chicks. So cute!

Then Friday night Lynette and I got to go to another one of our shows from our Capitol Theater season tickets. We went to the OG with our families then ditched them and headed across the street to see Legally Blonde. It was so cute; I loved it actually. They had two real dogs (bulldog and of course "Bruiser" the Chihuahua) and I loved them. They were so cute! Thanks for the fun day and evening. Lots of fun!
Then on Saturday we hit two Easter egg hunts. The first one was at Hatch Park and the weather was SO deceiving. It looked warm but the wind was freezing. But that didn't stop Lydia.

Checking out what they got after the hunt.

You can see how miserable Lydia is here.

Then in the afternoon we met up with the Newell's at This is the Place Park for yet another egg hunt. And yes, it was still very cold. This hunt was NUTS. WAAAY too many kids. The hunt seriously only lasted 30 seconds...it was an ambush. CRAZY! They had a lot of other free activities but we wanted to make a trip to visit my dad so we couldn't stay. But after our visit, we met back up with the Newell's for dinner then back to our house for basketball. Of course the girls' played perfectly, the guys had a great time watching the game and Anabel and I had fun just relaxing on the couch chatting. It was such a fun day...Lydia had a lot of fun with all of her friends.

Brielle and Lydia getting ready for the 2nd hunt.

And on Sunday, my sweet cousin Dianna invited us out to their house for dinner and to give me some baby clothes. Lydia had so much fun playing with her second cousins Emily and Easton. They got along so well for the whole two hours. It took her FOREVER to warm up, but she got there eventually! Thanks for the invite Wiley's. We love you guys!

In between all of these activities we went to visit my dad at the hospital. Yep, he's back at Huntsman...again. He was there for a couple of weeks after his tongue surgery, then got moved to Woodland Park Care Center for transitional care but he got so sick that they re-admitted him back to Huntsman a few days ago.

I tell you, my dad just can't catch a break. He has officially been diagnosed with pneumonia and C-diff (definition: a bacterium that can cause symptoms ranging to diarrhea to life threatening colon inflammation. Illness from C-diff most commonly affects older adults in hospitals or long term care facilities and typically occurs after use of antibiotic medications). But the doctors are hopeful that he'll recover from these setbacks. Well, that definition of C-Diff described my dad's situation to a T!

Dad also has horrible acid reflux and has been throwing up every time he gets his tube feedings so they had to do a pretty extensive surgery on him to place a new feeding tube in his stomach instead of his nose.

But despite all of that, dad is still in good spirits. It's like nothing is keeping him down. He's going to fight this until the end and I admire him so much for that. He's lost 40 pounds since this whole thing began only a few short weeks ago. He wrote me and said that these past four days have been the hardest of his entire life and I can see why!

But on a more spiritual note, I've been trying to think of different ways to bring comfort to my dad. It just seemed like praying, going to the temple, placing his name on the prayer rolls and happy thoughts just weren't enough. So, duh, I thought of something I hadn't before...a family fast. So I emailed all 6 of my siblings and some other family members and organized a 24 hour family fast for dad. And let me tell you...what a great experience that was. Although I couldn't participate 100% in the fast, I prayed a lot and refrained from eating as much as I could without depriving the babe in my belly! I snacked but didn't eat any meals. And the Lord really blessed me because if I don't eat I get really sick, but even though I didn't eat much, I really felt good. My faith in the Lord sustained me and I'm so grateful to have a husband that was willing and wanting to participate. Not eating for 24 hours after running 9 miles that morning is quite the sacrifice so thank you honey so much for all you do for my family!

I told dad about this plan and of course he just started crying. He's an emotional guy (that's where I get it!) and I love that about him. He was so grateful that all of his kids would come together for him. Hopefully through this fast, the Lord will bring more comfort to him during this difficult time. And whatever the Lord's will is for my dad, I know that through all of these spiritual experiences, we will accept whatever the Lord wants for my dad. He really does have a sweet heart and I'm so grateful for the past couple of years we've been able to have together!!!

My advice to everyone....Love your family as much as you can, while you can. Because you never know what trials lie ahead. If I hadn't reunited with my father before all of this happened, I don't think I could ever forgive myself. Life is too short to not love and be with your family whenever you can.

I love you dad!

Jungle Jim's

I had never heard of Jungle Jim's until just a few weeks ago.

I've been trying to get Lydia out a lot before the baby comes so we invited Lydia's best friend's along to join in the fun! We got there about noon and we were pretty much the only one's there so it actually worked out really nicely! We also had buy one get one free coupons so each kid was only $4! That price is definitely worth 3 hours of kid fun! They loved all the rides. Jungle Jim's is like a VERY miniature Lagoon (the kid section of course)!

Here's the whole gang!
Lyd's, Lizzy and Will on their favorite ride!

Lydia loved the bumper cars. She just minded her own business and was a very serious driver trying to avoid everyone.

Then she took a ride with Willy and he was crashing into everyone. I thought it would scare her but she loved it and laughed the whole time.

Willy, Lyd's and Matthew. I just can't get enough of that gorgeous smile. Oh how I love that girl.

We had a great time. Glad we could hang out all day!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Being from Irish decent, I thought I'd do a post of its own on this fine day! I love looking in my closet trying to find something green to wear...but since I'm a huge whale, I found nothing that fit accept for a lovely green scarf that I LOOVE!

Lyd's got a cute shirt and a bunch of cute hair ties to celebrate this wonderful day :) I just can't get over her cute face. I just love it and I love all the pictures we take together, just the two of us, before the little guy comes!

She even got some silly green hair to celebrate the day! Love this girl and her crazy faces!

Brian Regan!

Last Thursday, we went and saw Brian Regan at Abravanel Hall downtown. This is Jake and I's second time seeing him live and he just gets better and better. It's not just the way he delivers the joke, it's also those hilarious facial expressions. Good stuff! Right before he came out, it was weird I got all excited and couldn't stop screaming and clapping for him when he walked out on stage. He just has this good, clean, funny energy about him and I definately consider him one of my top favorite comedians. You must google him and listen to some of his work...it's hilarious. We bought our tickets over 7 months ago to be sure that we got good seats. We went with Duck and Bird and had so much fun on our date night out. Thanks for coming...we had a great time hanging out with you guys!

Preschool with Mama...

Preschool is actually going very well for Lyd's and I. Because of all the stuff going on with my dad, we took a break from school for a couple weeks but now we're back on track! This week we learned about letters and the sounds they make. We did a 1/3 of the alphabet each day and I think some of it stuck. Who knows....at least I'm trying. All I know is that every day when I ask Lydia what she wants to do, she always says, "Umm, eat breakfast, watch a show and have school." Well, I guess she's enjoying it...she's smiling a lot :) At the end of each lesson, we make a craft. We choose an animal that starts with any letter of the alphabet that we learned that day and make that animal. I just love the faces she's been making lately! SO SILLY! Love this girl so much and I'm really enjoying the one on one time we have left for the next three months before her little brother joins our family!