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!

While Daddy's Away...and 24 Weeks Pregnant!

This weekend Jake went on a Guys Golfing Trip with his brothers to St. George so Lydia and I decided to try and have some fun of our own. On Friday afternoon, I took her to Thanksgiving Point to the Dinosaur Museum since we haven't been in a really long time. I thought it would be fun for Lydia but as soon as we walked through the doors and into the darker areas of the museum Lydia immediately started crying and said she wanted to leave because it was too dark and scary.

Lately, she's been having issues with the dark...she wakes up in the middle of the night screaming because she's scared, she has to have a night light EVERY night, she must sleep with her door open and sometimes she won't go downstairs or up without me if it's nighttime. I hear it's normal but it just breaks my heart when she's clutching her bunny in the middle of the night screaming because she's scared of monsters in the dark. How in the heck did she even learn about monsters? Well, we'll work on it!!!

I tried to disctract Lydia at every dark spot in the museum (I really didn't realize how dark that place actually is in most spots)! So we walked REALLY fast through the dark spots and focused on the activites rather than the dinosaurs and all the scary dino noises she could hear! She drew herself a pretty picture then immediately said, "ok, let's go home now" when she was done! I talked her out of leaving and we moved on to the next activity.

She played in the sand and water and was obsessed with this headless dino she found. We spent most of our time there...very unscary part of the museum :)
Then we headed to the sand area to look for bones...gotta love the cute little crack!
She spent her whole time in here being the "brush monitor". She just walked around trying to find all the brushes she could to put them away. I thought it was cute since she's not tidy AT ALL at home. She just stood and would basically stalk people until they laid their brush down, then she would immediately take them and put them away. And it was heaven on earth when she would go into the other sand pit and find like 10 all at the same time to put away :)

We were at the museum for about 2 hours so I think it was a success. I need to help her fight this fear. I just hope it doesn't last very long. It's breaking my heart!
Then Friday night I thought it would be fun to have a sleepover in the livingroom. I love how just being with me is good enough...that she doesn't need friends yet to make her happy!

Here's the set up. I made a huge bed for us, we ate popcorn and watched "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs".
I was SUPER uncomfortable sleeping on the floor at 24 weeks pregnant but we ended up sleeping there the whole night (I was planning on taking her to her room after she fell asleep but I couldn't knowing how happy she was to have an all night sleepover with me)....so happy!!!!
Well, I've made it to 24 weeks. I had my 24 week appt with Dr Brown and everything is looking great! I've officially gained 30 pounds so far and I still have 16 weeks left. YIKES! It was the same way with Lydia as well. I gained 55 by the end so we shall see if this pregnancy weight surpasses the other.

This little guy is moving SOOOO much. He's already making me jump due to him kicking me so hard. I can already see my stomach move when he moves and that just didn't happen with Lyd's until I was in my 30's in weeks. The Dr said the placenta is behind him so he's literally right behind my skin and that's why I can feel him so well. But looking at the histories, she said the placenta with Lydia was behind as well. We may have a sports nut on our hands. Yes, I'm still huge and hoping I didn't gain 10 pounds this month like I did the last month.
I'm finally out of my sickness. Now I only get nauseated when I brush my teeth at night. I still get headache's a few times a week but they're managable. I'm loving this pregnancy (even though it's been awful) and I can't wait to meet this little fella. I've already gotten out the crib for Jake to put together. I just can't wait to have his room all done and have this little Ute in our lives!

Love you little guy!!!!

Blessings!

I normally don't post things that are too personal on this blog since I'm not private but I just wanted to write down this experience so I wouldn't forget, so just skip on over this post if you want...

Well, the world finally got too heavy for these old shoulders of mine. I thought I could handle all the stuff that I'm going through right now all on my own but boy was I dead wrong. I just hate burdening people with my problems so I try to deal with all of it on my own and that 's what I've been doing these past few weeks.

So since last Thursday, being pregnant and trying not to stress the baby, visiting my dad on a daily basis to support him through his cancer, taking care of and supporting my grandparents so they don't go completely crazy and now dealing with my own little cancer just got to be too much for me and I lost it...and of course who gets it? My husband!

But being the amazing man that he is, he immediately asked me if I wanted a blessing. Well, I never thought about that. Of course, that's exactly what I needed. I thought going to the temple was enough to keep me calm but it wasn't.

I know for a fact that that blessing was from the Lord and not just comforting words from Jake. In the blessing Jake said that I can't recieve help unless I go the Lord in prayer every day and ask. In the blessing, Jake mentioned this multiple times. And Jake had no way of knowing that I actually haven't been praying for help...not even once did I go the Lord in Prayer FOR ME! I was always too concerned about everyone else that I forgot about my own sanity.

There were a few other things that Jake said that hit home for me and I am so grateful for that blessing. I'm so glad that my husband knows me and knows exactly what I need, even when I don't. I'm grateful for a worthy husband, who was in tune with the spirit and able to give his wife the perfect blessing.

I know what I need to do now and even though it seems like such a simple solution, sometimes all we need is that one little reminder to tell us to get down on our knees and pray.

I'm a quote gal and this one is anonymous and simple, but its words are so true:

"It's hard to stumble when you're on your knees."

Valentine's Weekend!!!

We had a fun weekend. I was WAY too lazy to make Valentine's for all of Lydia's little friends like we normally do but we had to make something to keep our tradition going so we made Conversation Heart Valentine's Wreaths for her grandparent's. I told Lydia to smile for the picture and she just had to be silly!
For Valentine's Jake had the idea to go to a Utah basketball game...shocker, I know! But the real shocker is that I thought it would be a fun idea so we went to an early dinner at Happy Sumo (I've been craving some yummy sushi, the pregnancy friendly kind of course). Then we went on to the game, which was a really exciting one. It went into overtime, but we ended up losing.

So this year we decided not to get eachother anything. We thought just spending time together and going out as a family would be our gift to one another. Well, I kept my end of the deal...and of course, like always, Jake didn't. We had a knock on the door so I looked out the window and saw a Lowe's truck delivering something. Jake got me a brand new washer and dryer.

So pretty...but Jake HAD to get the red ones. They actually had glacier blue but Jake paid $60 extra to get the red ones. He's crazy. He just couldn't have blue in his house. He's a little on the extreme side if you ask me!

Every time we make this pact to not get each other anything he always ends up not paying attention that conversation. For our anniversary last year we decided that our BBQ of the Century would be our gift to eachother so what happened? Jake got me a brand new laptop and a really nice cannon camera. Oh and what did I get him, you ask? Utah Utes flip flops. Oh yeah, I'm awesome! So thank you honey for this awesome gift. You always surprise me and I love you for that! Even if it makes me look a fool! :)

So on a final note...some kinda bad news! I just found out I have SKIN CANCER!!! Ahhh!! I knew it was bound to happen at some point in my life, but not so early at age 30! I've decided 30 sucks and I want to be in my 20's again. Darn this red hair and fair skin!!!!

But knowledge is definitely power and luckily I worked for a Dermatologist for two years so I know all about skin cancer. I noticed this spot on my arm a few months ago and looking at it every day, I noticed it wasn't getting any better so I thought it might be a Basal Cell Carcinoma and today, the dr confirmed that I was right. BCC is the most common type of cancer in the world and my co workers would always tease me telling me that I would have hundreds of BCC's before I died. Well, let the counting begin :) Now I have a 40% chance of getting skin cancer again. I'm prepared for it!

A lot of people think to just look for moles but that's not always what skin cancer looks like. Mine looked like a healing scab that I had for about 3 months that just wouldn't go away. So if you've spent a lot of time in the sun or if you're fair skinned....then PLEASE see a dermatologist. Unfortunately I spend many hours in the tanning bed when I was younger and didn't know any better so I'm paying for it now.

People say that a little sun exposure is fine, which may be true but I think I'll get my Vitamin D from somewhere else, thank you! There's a reason that someone invtented spray tans. I love them and will continue spending my tanning hours there instead of killling myself in the sun and tanning beds. I was young and stupid and will never set foot in a tanning bed again!!!! Sunblock is our friend so please be careful!!!

A Family Reunion!!!

Last week (Feb 1st) my brother David flew in from Kansas City for some family time and we loved it. He only brought part of his family since it was kind of a short notice trip. The reason for this visit was because our father was having a pretty serious surgery and he wanted to be here for that. Its been almost 8 years since they've seen each other and dad has never met David's kids before so it was a great reunion. We decided to go down to Price to spend some one on one time with dad before his big day but on the way down I had an OB appt in Murray so David took the kids to the park while they waited. So this post is full of pictures that David took!
Cute Cousins!

Then we headed down to Price and thank goodness for the perfect weather. It was a beautiful drive through the canyon.

Then we got to dad's, hung out, ate dinner and just reconnected with one another at grandma Ada and Grandpa Bert's house. My dad LOVES fish and he has about 5 tanks in his house but this is by far the coolest one and the most popular!

Dad with two of his grandchildren.

Three cousins, Levi, Lydia and Kaleb.

So on Tuesday we drove back to SLC and hung out at my house for the afternoon and evening. But here's the cool part...my dad has 7 children and we have never all been in the same room together, ever! My dad's been married a few times so I have half siblings living in a few parts of the country and since dad was having such an important surgery, we all thought it imperative to come to SLC to be with him. So I invited everyone over to my house for the evening to spend time with our father. We all really had a good time together. We got along great and I loved reconnecting with all my brothers and sisters. There's a first time for everything so here's a picture of my dad with all 7 of his children.

(front) Tammie, Jenny, Me, Michele (back) David, Dad, Adam, Garry

As some of you know, just over 15 months ago my dad was diagnosed with tongue cancer, so he had surgery and thought that it was gone for good. He had half of his tongue removed and restructured from tissues of his arm. It took him months and months to learn how to eat and talk again and then last month we got horrible news...dad's cancer was back and worse this time. He could let it take him or go through the horrible surgery again and fight this thing. He decided to fight!

So last Thursday morning he went into his 14 hour surgery at Huntsman Cancer Institute and I've been in and out of the hospital visiting ever since.

Here's Grandma Great giving Levi some hugs while we waited...and waited.

Well, my dad made it through the surgery and is doing fairly well. He's had to have a few more surgeries/procedures since then due to some complications...he even had to have an emergency surgery because of a blood clot in the new artery they put in his tongue. It was so scary but the dr managed to fix the problem and his tongue is going to survive.

While waiting for dad to come out of surgery, Levi and Lydia played hide and seek with Kaleb...I don't know why they're hiding like this!

It's been stressful but dad has been so strong and positive throughout this whole thing. He hasn't complained once and I'm so happy with the decision he's made to have this horrible surgery again. He should be sent to transitional care sometime next week and hopefully back in his own home sometime mid/late March!

It's been a long road but I'm so happy that my old man is still around. He's told me many times how much it meant to him to have all of his children in the same room and that's what's been getting him through this hard time. I'm so glad he could have that moment and I hope that there will be many more in the years to come. Life is too short to not stay close to those that you love. Reuniting with my family has been one of the best experiences I've had...I'm just sad it's taken this long. But we look forward and create new memories from here :)

Love to you all!

20 Weeks and Girls' Night Out!

Wow, I can't believe I'm already halfway through this pregnancy. It has seriously gone by so fast. Even though I was nauseated and throwing up from 6 weeks to 18 weeks and I've now replaced that illness for daily headaches, it still has gone by very quickly. But you know what? It's all worth it. I've been feeling his little flutterings for the past few weeks and I finally felt him with my hands when he kicked just the other day. I love it. I love the comfort of knowing that he's alive and well when I feel his little body move around inside of me.

I went for my monthly check up yesterday and the doctor said everything was great. His HB is 150 bpm and he's quite the wiggly little fella. The coolest news I recieved was that in the past 4 weeks I've gained a whopping 10 pounds. How is that possible? I'm HUGE!!!!! But once again, so worth it. I've gained 25 pounds so far so I'm on the fast track to gaining 55 like I did with Lydia!! Here's my 20 week picture. See, I told you I was huge!!!
Last weekend while Jake went to the UTAH/BYU game with some of his buddies we decided to have a girls' night out and go get manicures. It's only $5 to get your nails painted. And the girls' even got flowers painted on for free. Here they are picking out their colors.

They held so still. We were so proud of them. Look how happy!

The next three pictures just make me smile every time I see them. Lydia is so thrilled to have her nails painted...and the pictures prove it! I love the funny faces she pulls.

Then after we met Anabel and her kids at the OG for dinner. It was so much fun hanging out and enjoying each other's company. Thanks for the fun day girls!!

All the cute kids together.