We're awful excited around here...

because we are having a LITTLE SISTER!!

We had our ultrasound two weeks ago and all is well!  

The baby looked great, although she was a bit stubborn for pictures. :)

We are so grateful to find a healthy, growing baby. Heavenly Father has truly blessed us!

Even the doctor gave his stamp of approval...he said we are like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way.  That is good to hear after how we started out!

And since 3/4 of our family thought this baby was a boy, we were a bit surprised when the ultrasound tech said Grace was the only one that guessed right! Nice job Grace! The tech even pointed out that usually the moms guess correctly...but not this time.  Haha! I don't mind being wrong.

Bryan was the most surprised because he was the most convinced it was a boy, but he quickly overcame the shock and is quite thrilled at having another little girl around.

He has all the little girl outfits we bought hanging in his closet and he gets so excited every time he sees them...it's really quite cute.

The first question he asked me after we left the office was if I was ready for more drama. :)

Yeah, we are so ready for it!!

Is it November yet?

Still in search of the Fourth

The Fourth of July is an interesting holiday around here.

I'll admit,

this year it was a bit of a mopey holiday.

It is funny to me that of all the holidays, 

the Fourth of July is one of the hardest to be away from the 

family traditions I grew up with.

I probably just need an attitude adjustment. :)

I'll work on that.

We did enjoy a ward flag raising, bike parade and breakfast in the morning, which was  a lot of fun.

The Primary Presidency was in charge of the activity, and thanks to the help of our pancake chefs it went quite well. We had a really good turn out and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, so that was great.  I always enjoy the opportunity to visit with people since Sunday's get crazy in Primary and I don't often get to visit with people at church. We are lucky to have so many good people in our ward here.

The kids always love getting their bikes or scooters 

all fancied up for the bike parade. 

I think they...umm, I...did a good job this year.  :)

Then the afternoon hit and we ran into a bit of a lag.  

We were missing the Hyrum parade, Uncle Corey's hot dogs, and of course, all the family!

Bryan and I did a little research and came up with some games to play, which was fun and kept us entertained for a while.  We played a History of America card game that we have, then tried a few new games. The kids were a little uncertain of Bryan's "Freckle Frenzy" game :). I should have posted pictures of that one, Bryan and I looked pretty stylin' with all the paper freckles stuck to our faces!  

Then we did some water balloon pinatas, which the kids loved.

That evening we went to the fireworks.  It was nice to have a firework show since last year it was canceled due to the drought.  We ran into a couple from our ward at the park, and the kids had a great time playing until the show started.  

They love watching the fireworks through the sunroof or the Sequoia.

Cute, aren't they?!

And there you have it.

We went to bed planning what to do next year to make our Fourth of July less sad. :)

I think we have some good ideas...

next year is going to be awesome!

miracles

Hello there.
I've been working on this post for weeks, and it is taking me forever to get it right.
That is mostly due to the fact that every time I think about what I want to say I just sit here and bawl. :) But...this is just too exciting to put off any longer, so I'll grab my tissues and let the waterworks begin!


We are having a baby!!! 

Can you believe it?! It still seems like a dream to me most of the time. It is funny how you can want something for three and a half years, and yet when it finally happens it still seems so unreal!

We are very humbled by and grateful for the miracles we have seen in our lives over the last three years, and particularly over the last three months.  We know these miracles are largely due to the faith and prayers of many family and friends on our behalf...thank you, thank you, thank you!

When we first discovered I was pregnant, I laughed hysterically for a few moments, then I just started to cry.     What a great blessing; we were very much in awe of this miracle.

All the blood tests and doctors visits started right away.  Because of the infertility treatments we had been doing, they wanted to test my progesterone levels immediately to make sure they were sufficiently high and that I would be able to carry the baby. The first test was a little low, but not too worrisome.  We decided to test it again a few days later, just to make sure, and it had dropped quite a bit. They put me on some progesterone supplements and tested a few days later to make sure they were working and bringing my levels up. Unfortunately my levels had dropped again, in spite of the supplements.  They upped the dose, but at this point my nurse practitioner, Stephanie, kindly warned me that usually when this happens, when the body doesn't react to the supplements, it is because the pregnancy is non-viable.  Needless to say, I was crushed.

Thankfully those devastated feelings didn't last long.  I was reminded of what we had learned the last three years: the Lord knows us, He loves us, and He has a plan specifically for us and our family.  I didn't know what that plan was at this point, but I knew it was best and that we would be blessed with the strength to live this plan, no matter what it was.  At this point I wasn't convinced my baby was going to live, but I knew that I would be okay...we could handle this.

The next blood tests revealed that my levels had gone up a little bit, but not nearly enough, so they upped my progesterone dose to the highest they could give me.  The interesting thing, though, was that my blood pregnancy numbers (HCG, I think?) were high enough for a normal pregnancy.  Dr. E ordered a sonogram to check the viability of the baby and to see what was going on.  I was a bit of a wreck as I began the hour drive to the doctors office. I had no idea what we would find. Thankfully during that hour I was again reminded that we were not alone, and because of that, we could handle this!

Bryan met me at the doctor's office and thankfully they got us right in.  The sonogram technicians at our office are so wonderful. I have met them several times, but never under the normal happy circumstances of being pregnant, and I am so grateful for their cheerful, comforting ways!  Our technician got right to business and we quickly found a baby with a heartbeat, already wiggling away in there.  I was amazed.  Our baby didn't even have full arms or legs yet, but we could see it's heart, and it's brain, all developing just like normal. She said that this baby didn't seem one bit bothered by my low progesterone levels, and everything looked great! We were so relieved, and so grateful.

I didn't hear anything else from the doctor after that.  I had an appointment in a couple of weeks, and while I was a bit nervous that we hadn't heard anything official from the doctor after the sonogram, I assumed that no new was good news. I felt very pregnant and plenty sick, so I felt like all was well.  We even told the kids and our families our exciting news, and told the kids they could come to the appointment to hear the baby's heart beat...or "heart beep" as Grace calls it. :) They were SO excited!

We went to that first appointment, all four of us.  I got kind of a weird look from the nurses as we all walked in, which I thought was strange.  It was a bad day at the office, really busy and a delivery that hadn't gone well I guess, and we had to wait forever.  Finally Dr. E came in to do the exam and to listen for the heartbeat.  He pulled the curtain around where the kids were sitting and asked if I wanted them in the room for this.  I told him that they just wanted to hear the baby's heartbeat and then they could go out in the hall. He looked at me for a minute then he said "I don't think we are going to find a heartbeat." What?! I looked at Bryan like 'what is this guy talking about?!'  If they were still worried about problems, why hadn't they told us? I was really confused so I just laid down and told him to do whatever he needed to do.  He started to listen for the heartbeat, but with a stethoscope, so no one else could hear anything. It took a few minutes, but suddenly he handed me the stethoscope and told me to listen.  There was that miraculous little heartbeat, humming away just like normal.  After everyone got to hear it, Dr. E said I must be living a charmed life because situations like ours do not usually turn out like this.  I was too much in shock to say anything, but later, when it all sank in, I wished I could have that moment again.  I would share with him the belief I have in a loving Father in Heaven who is truly a god of miracles!  It was such a strange feeling to realize that all these medical professionals thought I was coming in to find devastating news, but we knew, through the impressions we had received through the spirit, that they would find that heartbeat in there. How grateful I am for the comforting personal revelation we can receive from our Father in Heaven.


And now I am almost halfway through this pregnancy.  I am very anxious for the sonogram we have scheduled next month, to see the baby again and to make sure that all is well.  I am even more anxious for November when we will meet this little miracle face to face. What a day that will be!

Awesome Mom

The kiddos were just out in the sandbox, so I was going to take a quick minute and post these pictures.  

The title of my original post was "Mean Mom". :) 

You know, it's one of those days where I won't let them play video games and watch TV all day...what a mean mom!

There has been much moping and moaning and out right fit throwing going on, mostly just on the part of the kids, and it is barely lunch time. :)

Off to a good start.

I told them I had to blow dry my hair, and since they both still don't like the sound of the blow dryer it was a surefire way to get a few minutes alone. Tricky.

I did really dry my hair, but then I thought I would sneak in a quick blog post for this neglected blog.

 Just as I was about to start my post the kids came back in and Joshua read the title.

"You can't call it that!! You aren't a mean mom! You should call it Awesome Mom!"

Hahaha.  

I love how a few minutes in the sandbox can change their tune so quickly!

I sure love these kids...even when we have days of moping and moaning and mean mom-ing.

After all, 

I am an awesome mom! :)

Random thoughts

I couldn't decide what I wanted to post here on the old blog today, so this is a post made up of my random thoughts. :) Enjoy!

Numero Uno:

I have discovered {for the millionth time, I think} that I don't handle life well when my kids are sick. I get pretty stressed out, which leads to orneriness (on my part...the kids are actually quite sweet and polite when they are sick). So anyway, Joshua was throwing up for about 24 hours straight, and I was a bit of a basket case. He didn't have a fever or any other symptoms, but he was throwing up a lot and his stomach ache seemed to be getting worse. He had done nothing but lay on the couch (or in bed) and moan a lot. I was almost certain I would be taking him to the doctor today to see if he had an appendicitis. Even this morning he was still in a lot of pain so I called and made him an appointment for this afternoon. About an hour after I called the doctor, he all the sudden gets up and starts walking around, then we wants to sit up and color, then he wants to eat lunch, and pretty soon he's telling me that I better call and cancel his doctor's appointment because he feels just like normal. I have no idea what happened, but today I am really grateful for his sudden return to health. Maybe it was just time for his body to be better, maybe he had flushed out what ever was bothering him...I don't know what happened, but I am certainly counting it as a small miracle in my book!

Numero Dos:

We have been having some really nice days around here....as long as you don't mind crazy wind, of course. :) The temperatures have been in the 70's a lot, so we are trying to take advantage of that. Last week we drew this awesome racetrack on the driveway, and the kids played out there for hours, racing their cars around.

Numero Tres:

I just wanted to post a couple of my recent projects. My time on the design team at My Scraps and More is drawing to a close...by my choice. I have discovered over the last few months that while I do enjoy my hobby very much, it is not really high on my list of things that I want to spend my time doing everyday. Kind of a "good, better, best" choice. It is a good thing to use my talents, and I enjoy it, but I just really feel that, for me, it is not the best use of my time or talents. There are too many other priorities, so this added responsibility was just taking up space on a plate that is already pretty full. So at the end of the month I will be done, and honestly, I feel quite "free" at the thought. Considering how I always wanted to try being on a design team, it's kind of funny, huh? :)

Yep, I think that is all the randomness for today...off to make dinner!

Have a good one!

Another {belated} birthday post :)

So it appears I am a little slow when it comes to blogging this year. :)

Since I heard there were people out there wondering if Grace even had a birthday (because they hadn't seen any pictures yet) I thought I better post a few. :)

Grace did have a birthday, and it was quite a fun one at that!

As she put it, she had a real birthday (on her actual birthday, which was a Sunday) and a fake birthday (a party with friends the Saturday before her birthday). Yeah, she's cute...and I love the way her mind works!

Anyway, we celebrated her actual birthday with a nice Sunday at home as a family. She opened presents, we had cupcakes and ice cream, and ate pretty much only Grace approved foods, which means we ate breakfast foods all day. :) It was a really nice day. I just love how excited kids get about birthdays, even when they are so simple. Grace was just thrilled to be turning five, and she was super happy with simple celebrations. I love that!

Here are some pictures of her big day:

On Saturday, the day before her birthday, we had a little party with friends. It was a lot of fun, not because I planned some huge, fantastic party, but because Grace was just SO excited! It was her first party with friends and she had been planning for months. She knew who she wanted to invite, what theme she wanted, and what she wanted to do at the party. Pretty much it was the same as Joshua's, just with a Fancy Nancy theme instead of a football theme. I love how she likes to do everything just like him, except with a girly flair, of course! :)

So we played Pin the Bow on Fancy Nancy and butterfly cake walk, took fancy pictures, and made necklaces. It was so fun...a fabulous fancy time was had by all!

We sure are glad to have this cute, spunky girl in our family! Sometimes I tell people I wish I could keep her small forever, but I really wouldn't want to. I love seeing her grow and learn new things. I love the joy that she has for life and the laughter she brings into our lives! We love you Grace!

PS-can I brag for a minute? I drew the Fancy Nancy poster! I have to brag because I really doubted that it would actually end up looking like FN, but it did! Bryan was sitting on the couch while I was working on it at the table, and he was really good to put up with all my excited exclamations about how it was actually turning out!! Okay, I'm done now. :)

Joyfulsad

No, that wasn't a typo.

It is a new word I made up today. :)

I think it is the perfect description of some moments.

Like moments when you see your grandpa for the first time after he has been through several rounds of chemotherapy and three weeks in the hospital.

Joyful because he is still there to go see, and because he looks better than you expected, but sad because it is still so evident how hard the road has been.

Like moments when you have a great phone conversation with your mom (or dad, or mother-in-law, or grandma...). Joyful because you are left feeling so happy and grateful she is your mom, but sad because you couldn't have the conversation in person.

Like moments when your baby is just about to turn five. Joyful because she is SOO excited for the parties and presents and you love celebrating the wonderful little person that she is becoming. Sad because...hello! She's FIVE?!?

How on earth did that happen!?

Yeah, I think joyfulsad is a pretty valid word.

Let's add it to the dictionary, shall we? :)