Tiny Blessings

December...so far

2011-12-10T21:27:00.005-07:00

My cute girls helped me decorate a sparkly pink Christmas tree in their bedroom. Katie loves the lights and makes the cutest little contented sigh every time we plug the tree in.

Elli loves, loves, LOVES, her pink tree!

She had just figured out how to climb onto Elli's bed all by herself. You can see the pride all over her face. She is a sweetie!!

Elli had her first hair cut, and it turned out adorable!! I was nervous about it, but I love it!!! Now we will just have to see how much I love blow drying it all the time. That part I am still a bit nervous about, but she is soooo cute!!!

More December to come soon......

November

2011-12-10T21:25:00.014-07:00

There is clearly some learning that needs to happen here. These photos were taken on Wayne's phone and I thought they'd show up big like all my others, so I have done something wrong somewhere.

Anyway, these photos are in Kanab Canyon. We were down there for a retreat with Wayne's work. We actually stayed at Zion's Ponderosa. The cabins were beautiful, and I really enjoy spending time with Wayne's fellow employees and their spouses. After the meetings ended there were several activities to choose from, but we had Katie with us so we just decided to drive and see the sights. I had never been to Kanab, so we headed that direction. It was a beautiful drive!

Okay, this was crazy and a little creepy. It seemed like something from a movie. As we continued up Kanab Canyon we came to a pet cemetery. Can you see all those stones? That is maybe a 1/4 of them, probably less. This thing went on and on. There were wind chimes all over the place and some of the graved even had engraved granite head stones. CRAZY!
This is at the coral sand dunes. Another place I'd never seen. It was cold and windy, but it was still beautiful, and there were still lots of people out riding on the dunes.
It snowed the morning we left, just a skiff, but it made for a nice drive home--pretty anyway. We stayed in a cabin similar to what you see in this photo.

This was taken at a ranch near the one we stayed at. The turkeys crossing the street with the sun in the background was a fun shot.

We drove back to Wayne's parents to pick up Bradley and met Wayne's brother, Alan, at a baptism of a niece. Alan and Crystal watched Elli for us. It's so nice to have family around that will help out with babysitting.

All the way back to Wayne's parents I listened to Christmas music. I told Wayne that I can't drive in the snow and not listen to Christmas music. It's good I did. I think that really the only snow we've had this holiday.

Our little Katie is now a very busy 1 year old. She only weighs 17 lbs., so we are waiting a bit longer to switch to a forward facing car seat. She is healthy and had a very happy disposition. You can't help but smile when she is around.

We had a combined party at my mom's with Clara who turned 4 and Aaron who turned 15. I made Katie's cake out of cupcakes. I think it is my new favorite way to do birthday cakes. As you can see it is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. She wasn't sure what to do about the candle, so Elli was more than happy to help her blow it out.

She may have been confused about the candle, but had no problems devouring her cupcake. She began to wash her hair with frosting and was quite a mess when she was finished. I have to give her a quick bath before we could do presents.

She is such a blessing to our family! We love our little Katie!!!

This is my addition the the Thanksgiving decor this year. I loved it so much that I made some for Christmas too. I post photos of those later. I was so pleased with the way it turned out, and I would have to stop every time I walked by and smile.

This year we had Thanksgiving with my family. We also had my cousin Abbey and her family over with us. They are such great people, and we love it when they can join us. Dinner, as always was delicious and abundant, but not as abundant as the pie. (which is my favorite part of Thanksgiving) We had enough pie that we could have easily eaten a half of a pie each. We had everything from pecan to pumpkin chiffon, to my sour cream apple below. They were all amazing!

We spent the next 2 days with Wayne's family. We had another delicious Thanksgiving-ish meal. Everything but the turkey, we cooked a couple of beef roasts instead. Bradley was happy about it because he isn't a huge turkey fan. This time I made a blueberry pie, and it wasn't runny. In fact it tasted as good as it looked. I wish I would have taken a picture, but I forgot. I LOVE making pies!

Katie started walking at my mom's on Thanksgiving day, and almost had it mastered by the time we left Marysvale. It's quite the change from how things were with Elli. Now she is really getting into EVERYthing! Elli also started walking around Thanksgiving, but the difference there was that Elli was 2 years and 2 months old. Because she was so much older I could reason with her better and there was no need to child proof my house. Not so with our adventurous Katie.

We were able to go on our annual tree cutting excursion and found the best trees. My sister Kim is going to be thrilled with the one we found her. We've been cutting trees for us and Kim for 12 years now, and I think that these 2 trees are the best ones ever!

October

2011-12-07T11:07:00.008-07:00

Now that Katie is a little older I'm finding more time to be crafty again. For Halloween this year I found a fun idea for a necklace that I changed into a garland for my mantle. I took Elmer's glue and made the outline of a bunch of little ghosts on parchment paper. The ghosts were all about 3 1/2 to 4 inches tall. After drying for about 5 minutes, I filled in the whole thing with glue. I let them dry for a couple of days. Then I peeled them off the parchment and drew on 2 little eyes with a sharpie. I used a tiny hole punch in the top and stung them on jute. I think it looks darling if I do say so myself.

Bradley had his birthday this month. It's hard to believe that he is really 11 years old. He is officially taller than me now. I am 5' 2", and I think Bradley is almost 5' 3". I knew it would happen, but I didn't really expect it to happen before he became a teenager.

He earned his Webelo, his Arrow of Light, his World Conservation badge, and a handful of the Webelo requirements badges. You can see the stack in his hands, and Sister Christiansen wasn't done handing them out yet. He did most of them on his own too. What a good kid!!

Bradley showing off his Indian paint (tube frosting) after his Arrow of Light ceremony.

Bradley had his pumpkin patch in the backyard again this year. Every pumpkin you see in the photo was grown by him. What you can't see is that there are 20 + more lining the sidewalk. It was a great crop, and there were several large ones perfect for carving. Bradley and I each carved 3 pumpkins this year.

For Halloween the girls were both little strawberries, and Bradley was a Barbhurst protection squad soldier guy. What is that you ask? Well, you can ask him if you want the real explanation, all I know is it is something he and his cousins made up in Marysvale.

September

2011-12-07T11:05:00.008-07:00

We had our family photo shoot this month. Jody did a great job, as always! I love how they turned out, especially the kids!

Can you see why she can sweet talk her dad so well? He is such a pushover for those eyes.

This is the best picture Bradley has had for a long time. He has been stuck in the "I can't remember how to smile" phase for way too long. But this one worked, what a handsome boy he is growing up to be.

Our silly little Katie loves her tongue. She sticks it out all the time, but especially when she is happy. What a doll!

Thanks again Jody, they turned out great! http://jodyhancockphotography.blogspot.com/

I made a huge batch of salsa this month. I actually don't care for bottled salsa myself, but I think it is so pretty in the pot. Bradley is the one who eats it like crazy, it is his favorite after school snack.

I ended up watching the Relief Society General Meeting on the Internet that evening because I hadn't quite finished processing the salsa in time. I was sad about that, but happy to put a couple dozen bottles of salsa on the shelf.

August

2011-12-07T10:58:00.008-07:00

This was our busiest month of the summer by far. It started with Wayne taking Bradley on the boy scout trip to the High Unitahs. They had such a great time, and Bradley even went on the long, hard hike. I'm very proud of him!

As soon as Bradley came home from his trip to the Unitahs, he jumped in the car with Grandma and Grandpa who were up for a wedding and went down to Marysvale with them for a few days. We went down and picked him up, and the next day as soon as church was over left for Island Park

My family had planned a trip to Yellowstone this year, and we were staying in a nice cabin in Island Park. We spent the first day in Yellowstone, the next day everyone except me went river rafting in Island Park. We spent the next day in Yellowstone again, and the last day we took our time driving home by way of Teton, Jackson, and stopping in Bear Lake lake for raspberry shakes. It was a wonderful trip. We saw a lot of elk, 2 bears (one black and one grizzly), antelope, a bald eagle, and of course hundreds of buffalo. This was Wayne's first trip to Yellowstone, kind of. He went with his family when he was 2, so he doesn't remember anything from that trip. He loved it, as did Bradley. Elli did for the most part, and they were all really good in the car! We would take turns with having one cousin ride in the car with us which made all the driving more bearable for the kids.

Yellowstone Falls

Sitting on the stairs at Yellowstone falls. We had Isaac (in red) and Noah (in white) with us that day.

Old Faithful

I really wanted to make it up to Mammoth. It was fascinating! I'm so glad we decided to head out that way. The scenery after that in the Lamar Valley was lovely, and that's where we saw the grizzly just being lazy on the side of the road in the grass.

This was taken at the cabin just before we left. I'm glad we went, however, I think I will stay closer to West Yellowstone next time.

We got home from Yellowstone late on Thursday, and Friday was Father's and Son's, so Wayne and Bradley were gone again. We had Sunday to breath a little and then school started on Monday morning.

Elli's birthday was also the first day of school. Since Marnie's family was still here from Oregon we decided to go up to mom's for a party. Wayne took this sweet shot of Elli walking over the the sand box.

We thought we'd better take advantage of having all the family together and take a cousin photo. Even little Franklin who had been born 8 weeks early was there. It was his debut. Katie was so funny, she kept trying to stick her toe in Ian's ear.

Bottom row from left to right: Taylor, Clara, Paige, Noah, Ian, Elise holding Katie, and Elli

Standing: Josh holding Franklin, Kristen, Ben, Isaac, and Aaron and Bradley in the back

Elli wanted to purple crocodile cake, and I think it turned out cute. I love this picture because Ian is so excited about her blowing out her candles. What you can't see is that she didn't blow them out at all. Clara was sitting next to me, facing Elli and she is the one that blew them out. She just couldn't resist. It's hard to believe that Elli is 4 years old. Our sweet little miracle girl!

July

2011-12-07T10:51:00.006-07:00

The weather finally improved enough to do swim lessons. Actually Bradley braved the cooler June and did a session then, his second & final session was in July. He does love to swim, and if he really wanted to be he could be a strong competitor. That's just not how he is though. He just likes to do things for fun, and that's okay

We signed Elli up for her first round of lessons. I had her in a pre-school group and it didn't go very well, so we switched over to a mom and me class.She still didn't love doing the things that she needs to do in order to pass off a class, like putting your face in the water, dunking your head, etc.... I'm not sure what to do next summer. She is going to want another mom and me class, but she will be too big.

We had a great 4th of July weekend. On the Fourth we drove down to Delta for the parade and had a barbecue with Wayne's Aunt who still lives there. Wayne's dad grew up in Delta, so it's kind of the family reunion for his side of the family. It was a cooler day, overcast, but not very rainy. After the barbecue all of Wayne's siblings who had were there and his parents all decided to head over to the sand dunes just off the side of the road in Holden. It was the best idea! It had sprinkled just a little right before we got there, and was still overcast, so it wasn't too hat and the sand wasn't blowing everywhere in the wind. The kids had such a great time!!

Elli and Megan were inseparable, they had so much fun!

Bradley and the Bringhurst boys were all over the place, jumping and diving down the dunes. If we could be guaranteed this kind of weather I think we would all make the dunes a tradition!

For my side of the family we all decided to go over to Grandpa's house to watch the Riverton parade. Grandpa's house is right on the parade route, and it has been a gathering place for my family to watch the parade for at least my whole life, but I would guess longer than that. I haven't been to the parade in several years. Since Grandpa's house is up for sell, we decided that we needed to have at least one last family party for the parade. We had dinner while we watched. It was fun to be with so many of my cousins again. I wish more could have come. Bradley, Elli and Katie are sitting on Grandpa's porch for this picture.

For pioneer day we were in Marysvale again. We had a weenie roast down at the pond and roasted marshmallows. Bradley was in heaven, of course, and Elli had a terrific time with Brennan. They have become the cutest little buddies.

Katie got the most attention. This is a shot with Grandpa. What a sweet girl!

June

2011-12-07T10:48:00.002-07:00

We didn't do a lot during the month of June because it was so wet and cool. You would have thought we were living in the North West or something. We did get some visitors though. One night after the kids had gone to bed Wayne and I heard something just outside the front door. He had heard it getting out of his car after meetings, and when we heard it a second time we decided we should check it out. Well, it was a couple of young raccoons taking shelter from the rain under our porch. It's too bad they are such pests, because they really are cute little guys.

April & May

2011-12-07T10:45:00.017-07:00

These are some of the photos from my photo shoot that I won. It was part of the "My Beauty Campaign", and it was truly a wonderful experience for me. It helped me to like who I am right now and not worry about all the little imperfections that I am overly critical of. It wasn't an easy thing for me to do, but I am very grateful that I did it. And I think the pictures turned out great!

Bradley is growing up. We were able to work on his final pinewood derby car this month. (Much to Wayne's bitter disappointment....not.) Bradley had a great time helping me with the paint. His car wasn't the fastest car, but he didn't care. That's one thing I love about Bradley, he just has a good time and doesn't get bent out of shape with the whole competition thing.

We had a long tax season this year. I wasn't quite prepared for how Wayne being Bishop would impact tax season. We really didn't see a lot of him, especially the last month and a half of tax season. So we decided that even though Bradley's spring break was during the last week of tax season, we needed a vacation. We went down to Moab and Goblin Valley ending up at Wayne's parents for Easter. It was a great vacation, with only one little car sickness hick-up the 2nd day, and cooler than normal temperatures (but that was actually really nice).

I have always wanted to see Dead Horse Point. It really is as spectacular as I thought it would be.

You'd think having Easter at the end of April would mean a really warm, sunny day.......not this year. It was chilly, but that didn't stop the fun at Easter rock.

The next day, Easter Sunday, we spent the afternoon with my family. It was even colder than the day before, but the kids still enjoyed their Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Elli and Katie looked SO cute in their Easter dresses.

Grandpa Svedin was with us for dinner. He held Katie for a few minutes, she's getting a little squirmy for him to last longer than that. Katie looks more uncomfortable than she really was. She was actually very content in his arms, as always.

May

I wish I had some photos of our Mother's Day Weekend. We went down to St. George with the rest of my family to support and cheer on my brother Patrick who was in the Iron Man. He was amazing!! I was a nervous wreck waiting for him to come in though. I don't do well with waiting. I am not a very patient person, just ask Wayne. I have an irrational imagination that takes over when I waiting for someone. But everything was fine. He had terrible blisters on his feet and he felt very nauseous, but he did it, and the really crazy thing is he plans on doing it again someday. I may sit the next one out though. I don't think I want to go through that waiting again. I know that makes me a huge wimp compared to what he did, but that's okay with me.

The rest of the month was pretty quiet. Bradley had his first oral report. He was assigned to give his report of Cache County. He did a really great job with his display. He is a great student, and the teachers and kids all love him. (notice little Elli hiding under the desk, silly girl)

This is Bradley's best friends Jacob. We sure do like him! He comes from a great family, and we are so glad that he and Bradley get along so well. The sad thing is that the school district has changed the school boundaries and Jacob will be attending another elementary. We have decided that we will do whatever we can to help those boys stay friends. It's just so important for you kids to have good friends and when you find them you don't want to loose them. (Yes, Bradley is tall for his age.)

March

2011-12-07T10:40:00.006-07:00

We had a stretch of unseasonably warm weather in March. Elli loved being able to get out and wear her new flip flops, as she called them. I loved watching the flowers come up.

Sadly the warm weather was short lived and we had a huge snow storm a week or so after we took these pictures. Then it stayed cold up until the 4th of July.

February

2011-12-07T10:22:00.003-07:00

Katie is growing too fast for me. It makes me sad, I wish I could freeze her at this age for just a little longer.

For Valentines day we tried a new dessert. I baked brownies in my heart pans, then put a layer of starlight mint ice cream between the 2 brownie layers. I spread cool whip over the who thing, it was pretty good if I say so myself.

January

2011-12-06T20:12:00.009-07:00

We started off the year with Katie's baby blessing. It was a lovely day. Isn't she beautiful!?! My family was all there, and as usual we had more food than we could possibly eat.

Katie was so good all day, but that is nothing new. She has the sweetest disposition! She doesn't fuss about anything....ever! She even smiled for the first time-a real smile- when I was changing her diaper after church. She seems to be the happiest when she is getting her diaper changed. (We do that a lot around here...seriously....around 10-12 diapers a day.)

Wayne did have several interviews after church, so it took a while for him to join us. He is enjoying his calling very much though, and our ward members love him!! He is a really bishop.

I took this picture at the end of January. I wanted a few more in her blessing dress. I almost waited too long, the dress barely fit, and look at that bracelet.....She was a chunky little babe!

We did take a pre-tax season trip to St. George to visit Wayne's sister Kristi. We love going down and spending time with them! And it's always nice to get some good family time in before tax season starts.

Another bit of big news was that Wayne was invited to be a partner at work. I am so proud of him!!!

The Christmas that I almost forgot....

2011-12-05T21:28:00.011-07:00

Christmas 2010

It is no secret that I have had a very bad blogging year. I want to amend that right now by catching up on all wonderful moments I've missed sharing. Above is our precious little Christmas bundle. Katie has been such a joy!

Bradley and Elli in their Christmas outfits for church. I had fun making up a pattern for Elli's skirt below. Luckily I made it big enough that it still fits her this year.

We had a couple of really good snow storms just before Christmas, so we took advantage of the hill on the side of our house whenever we could.

As part of our Christmas Eve party with my family we all went over to the rest home where Grandpa Svedin was spending his holiday. We sang to him and all the kids played their Christmas piano songs for him. Several of the other residents came out to enjoy the program. My favorite part was watching him hold Katie and having the magic affect on her that he always does with babies.

Kim and Marianne.

Dad was reading his Christmas message while we gathered in close to listen.

Beautiful Kristen sang like and angel. She is exceptionally talented!!

Christmas morning. We started with our traditional breakfast of sausage egg casserole, muffins and juice. Bradley was insisted on bringing Katie down for her first Christmas morning. And I think it was the first year Elli walked down the stairs completely by herself. She is doing so well!

Elli wanted Santa to bring her a Jesse doll. She was very happy, but turned to me and said, "what about Bullseye?" I guess Santa will have to do better with the mind reading next year.

Santa had some success on the classifieds this year. Bradley was especially impressed!

Katie was content to snuggle with daddy for the majority of the morning.

The Saturday after Christmas is when Wayne's family gets together. Part of the annual celebration is the kids acting out this little puppet play as we all sing "The Friendly Beasts". The kids are always excited to find out which one they get to be.

We had a wonderful Christmas season. I'm always sad when it's over. It usually takes me until Valentines day to get everything completely cleaned up. I just love how the holidays leave a peace in our house that is unique to this time of year. The best way I have found to describe it is the hush of Christmas. That's what I feel when I have all the lights out except for the tree, and soft music is playing....I hate to let that go, and it's the main thing I look forward to as we wait for the next Christmas.

my photo shoot

2011-05-03T12:23:00.002-06:00

Well, here is the link for anyone who'd like to see how my pictures turned out. It was a fun day. My sister Kim came down and in between my hair and make-up appointments we went out to lunch. We had Chinese which is another one of those going out of my comfort zone things. For some reason Chinese food scares me a little. But Kim loves it and helped me order something really yummy. After you click on the link below, choose the 2011 Worldwide Charity Event & then click on my photo. Let me know what you think.

http://nuttallphotography.mybeautycampaign.com/#/clients-3/

going outside my comfort zone

2011-03-31T09:03:00.002-06:00

A couple of months ago I read an article in the newspaper about a local photographer's campaign to help women find joy in who they are right now. It is called My Beauty Campaign, you can read more about it right here: http://www.mybeautycampaign.com/. To help promote the campaign, she was going to give away 20 free mini shoots at her World wide Charity Event to women who wrote in with their stories. I have been wanting to improve my self image for, well, to be completely honest, ever since I can remember. I have always struggled with self esteem, and my difficulties with infertility only exaggerated the problem. As far as my self image goes, I seem to have gotten lost over time. So I entered the contest in the hopes of finding myself and being able to love who I am today. Not the "I want to be a few pounds lighter" me, or the straighter teeth me, or the "I'm so sick of having acne at 37" me, but me right here right now.

Well, just a few days ago I found out she has chosen me to be one of her lucky 20 women. I'm really excited, but I am also really nervous. This is soooo outside of my norm, but that is one of the reasons why I wanted to do it. I am going to be able to get my hair done, and she will have someone there to do my makeup, which I have never done before. I'm going to go find me a new outfit, which is always fun!

But before she takes any pictures at all I have some homework to do. She sends out paperwork filled with self improvement focused questions to anyone who signs up for a beauty session, and it is HARD! The first question was easy: List some of the things you don't like about your physical appearance. I had a pretty good list. Second question: List those things about yourself that you think are absolutely beautiful. Huh? I'm blank. I can list things I think are okay and kind of pretty, things that are nice about my personality, but absolutely beautiful? Not as easy. Then the next part is to list 5 statements starting with, "I am beautiful because:" Can you say it with me, "HARD"!

I have been thinking about these questions for the last few days, and a new perspective of myself is emerging. This is going to sound so corny, but I feel like a flower that has been waiting all winter to find it's way out of the ground and show it's unique splendor to the world. It's like the poem in the Dr. Seuss Birthday book:

Today you are you! That is truer than true!

There is no one alive that is you-er than you!

Shout loud, "I am glad to be what I am!

Thank goodness I'm not just a clam or a ham

Or a dusty old jar of sour gooseberry jam!

I am what I am! That's a great thing to be!

If I say so myself, HAPPY (EVERYDAY) TO ME!"

So my mini photo shoot is next Saturday, the 9th, and it's going to be fun?! No it really will be!! The best part is a good friend on mine was chosen to participate as well, so I will have here there to help me be brave.

Read more about Mandi and the big event at the Riverwoods next week on her blog:http://blog.nuttallphotography.com/.

out of the mouths, or pens, of babes...

2011-03-28T23:24:00.004-06:00

This is a drawing that we had Bradley do when he was about 4 years old. We were in the process of trying to adopt and thought it would be fun to have him draw a picture of our family to include in our profile. As he drew the family he just kept adding people. First a sister and then a baby. I think he knew something about our family that we didn't. It took us a long time to get here, but this is our family.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-13T15:17:00.009-07:00

It's not as easy to get things done around here as it used to be, but we are thrilled with the reason why. I usually decorate a lot more for the holidays, but alas, a baby makes everything like that a touch harder. We certainly don't mind though. Katie is the sweetest and best reason for not being as productive as I used to be.

These next 2 pictures were taken the night Wayne and the kids decorated our tree downstairs. Bradley is such a caring big brother to both of his sisters. Don't get me wrong, they have their moments, but overall they adore one another.

I have my few things that I bring out every year. I don't change them because I love them and it's become tradition to have them this way....at least for me. I'm not sure it means as much to Wayne and the kids, but this is what helps our home feel like Christmas to me.

I made these ornaments for our first Christmas. I picked up the pre-cut wood shapes, sanded, painted and stained them. They were really fun to make, and I think they turned out cute too. I have little ginger bread men, Santas, hearts, stars, and little Christmas trees. But I think my favorite thing on these trees are the berries. I really love these trees. In fact right now when I get up to feed Katie during the night I sit under them and use them as my light source.

The glitter pine cones in the basket were made last year with my mom and sisters. My mom gathered pine cones from one of their trees and we made several with glitter, we did some with cinnamon oil to smell delicious, and others we used to make garlands. We were going to do another project with them this year, but ran out of time. We will have to do more next year.

I love a beautifully illustrated book, and at Christmas my favorites are The Night Before Christmas stories. I have several of them and I love getting them out each year and looking through them. These are just a couple of my favorites.

Wayne's sister Kristi gave me the tiny one. She collects miniatures, so this was perfect gift from her. It reflects both of us, I love that!

This is my new book that Wayne added to the collection this year. It's a fun one with moving holograms in it. The kids really like this one.

We also love this book. It has a theme for every day of December up until Christmas day. We love taking time each night to read from this book. It has fun old fashioned art work, and wonderful stories and quotes. It has become a favorite tradition for all of us.

Wayne did it again! He found us a beautiful tree over Thanksgiving. For the first time ever, I watched Wayne help the kids decorate and didn't do a thing. I was sitting on the couch feeding Katie. (I did give a little advice here and there about where to hang the ornaments, but they did all the work.) They did a pretty good job! I did put the lights on the tree though. There are 1100 lights on this tree. It looks so pretty when we turn off the downstairs lights and just use the tree for light.

I think my favorite ornament for our family tree are these tin ice cycles. They were a gift from my brother Patrick. He bought them from tin smith on his mission in Canada. They are very delicate, and I think they add the perfect finishing touch to the tree.

I always look forward to getting out my nativity each year. I think it brings a sweet spirit with it, which is why I put it on the mantel. It's the first thing you see when you walk into our home, and we get to walk past it every time we need to head down our hallway. It really is a lovely nativity.

Katie is the reason we needed to add another stocking to our mantel this year. What a wonderful surprise she has been! We are so grateful for all the prayers that were offered this year in her behalf. We know that it is because of so many of our wonderful family and friends that she is here at home with us rather than the NICU. I love all the staff there, but I was so glad that I didn't need to spend time with them this time around. Merry Christmas everyone!

Time is flying

2010-12-07T08:05:00.003-07:00

Where does the time go? I can't believe that our little Katie is already one month old. Can anyone slow things down a little for me?

We are enjoying her so much though. She is such a sweet little girl. She hardly fusses at all, and loves to be held by anyone who is willing, and it's not hard to find someone who is willing. We are usually in line taking turns. I'm having double the fun with making bracelets and hair bows. Soon I will start making matching skirts for Elli and Katie. Girls are soooo much fun!

Welcome Katie Lynn

2010-11-15T22:37:00.010-07:00

She is here! Little Katie Lynn was born Tuesday, November 9th at about 3:30 pm. She weighed 5 pounds 11 ounces and is 18" long. I think what surprised me most was her fuzzy dark brown hair. I wasn't expecting that, and it was a very happy surprise. She has a sweet and very calm temperament. She hardly makes a fuss, and loves to cuddle.

Here I am just before we got in the car to head to the hospital. I was scheduled for a c-section mid morning, but there were 3 other emergencies that pushed us back into the afternoon. I was okay with that because I knew that with both Bradley and Elli I probably bumped ladies who had a scheduled c-section. It was only fair for it to happen to me. (When I saw this picture I realized that I really didn't look that big, but boy did I feel big.)

I can't say enough about the huge difference there is between having an emergency c-section, and one that is scheduled. With Bradley I had gone through 28 hours of labor and because his heart rate was fluctuating too much they had to deliver him c-section. With Elli I was so sick with pneumonia and her being so early, c-section was the safest for a good outcome. I was so exhausted after both that it was very hard to recover. This time was vastly different. By evening, so just a few hours, I was able to have my soft food dinner. I got up during the night and walked a bit, and was well enough by morning to have a real breakfast. Boy did it taste good too! But I think that anything would have tasted exceptional after fasting for a little more than 24 hours, then only being able to have broth and Jello. I had french toast, a banana, hot chocolate and a cinnamon roll. Yum! I walked a bit more on Wednesday and was able to get in and out of the bed with more ease than I have with my other 2. It was a very happy ending!

I LOVE this picture! Elli's shirt says Big Sister, and Katie's says Little Sister. Elli couldn't wait for Katie to come home. She is already planning on how she can help me. She is going to "rock her and share her toys, and Katie will sleep in my room" she says. I am so happy for Elli to have someone close in age and a sister at that! I think they are going to be great friends!

Bradley is a very proud big brother. He said something funny on Tuesday night though. I think the reality of the situation didn't hit him until he saw and held her. My nurse asked Bradley if he was excited to take her home, and he responded with, "no, I don't think I'm ready to have her at our house." So when Wayne brought the kids back on Thursday night I asked Bradley if he was ready yet, and he said that he was ready now. What a funny boy! He is very protective and sweet with her. I am grateful to have him to help me out, it's just nice to have one of your kids be old enough to understand what is going on and that they need to step up and help. I am really proud of him!

This is her cozy outfit that we bought her home in. I made the cutest little brown and blue flower to put on a head band to go with the outfit, but she was too small. The head band wouldn't stay on her itty bitty head. I'll have to take it in a bit so that she can wear it.

Another problem with being so small is that it is very hard to adjust the car seat straps to fit her snugly like they are suppose to. Her poor little double chin rubbed against the buckles all the way home. I now know to put a little bit of her blanket between her chin and buckle so that it doesn't irritate her.

Wayne just took this picture yesterday. I think it is proof that she is happy to be home with us too. She really is delightful and we are so thrilled to have her in our family. Thanks to everyone who has helped us out during my pregnancy and who has prayed for us. We have been blessed and we know you all played a big roll in that.

Today's the day!!!

2010-11-09T07:52:00.001-07:00

We are heading in this morning....more to come later!! HOORAY!!!!

The latest

2010-10-21T20:34:00.002-06:00

Well, I am now 34 1/2 weeks along. Isn't that just amazing!?! I always hoped to get this far, but have to admit that I had my doubts. I saw my doctor this weeks and the plan is that on November 8th I will go in for an amniocentesis to check the maturity of her lungs. (I will be 37 weeks by then, and 80% of babies have mature lungs at that point.) If they are mature, then I will have the c-section the next day. If they aren't mature, they should be able to tell from the amniocentesis roughly how much longer she will need and we will schedule the c-section according to that.

I have to admit that I am really hoping thing work out for the 8th & 9th. I am ready to bring her home. My bags have been packed for a couple of weeks now, and I have finished all my sewing projects. She has a new soft blanket, a car seat tent, and a wrap blanket that goes inside the car seat. I do have lots of fabric to make her skirts to match Elli, but those will come later. All we really have left to do right now is figure out what her name is going to be.

So lets hope that she is among the 80%, I really like the sound of November 9th for a birthday.

this and that....it's catch up time again!

2010-09-19T21:21:00.016-06:00

So here is the most amazing picture I have to share with everyone. I am still amazed that they can actually do this. We went in for our 28 weeks ultrasound (I was having them done every 2 weeks up to this point), and I asked the tech to try to get me a good profile shot because I didn't have one yet. After she had taken a couple of cute little profiles, she looked and the clock and said, "we had some extra time before you see the doctor, let's try this." It isn't something they normally do at my office, you have to schedule a 3D ultrasound appointment separate from anything else. But the tech said that she was glad to have a chance to practice for a minute. Well, I was too. Not only are we past the really scary point in this pregnancy and things are still going well, but now we know what our little girl looks like. AWESOME!!

Bradley was really excited to go back to school this year. He has a great teacher too, she loves science just like Bradley, and she even loves reptiles just like him. I think it's going to be a fun year! He has already been on 2 field trips, one to the state fair, and the other to the symphony, and he still has a long list of more trips throughout the rest of the year. He is going to give the school choir a try too. He wanted to run for school treasurer or historian, but that didn't work out because we have to be out of town the day he would give his speech, so I think he will wait and do that next year. He is growing up so fast. We are so proud of him!

Bradley worked hard in the garden this summer and was over 2 of the 8 grow boxes we have, plus the pumpkin patch. He also grew this cabbage that he was sent home with at the end of 3rd grade. His veggies all did really well as you can see. The carrots are really tasty. I can eat the beets because I know they are so good for you, but they aren't my favorite. Bradley does like them though.

It's hard to believe that it has been 3 years, but Elli just had her 3rd birthday. I had some generous neighbors pass on this fun kitchen, and she was so excited when Wayne and Bradley came around the corner of the house with it in hand. She had a pile of presents in front of her, but we had a hard time getting her away from the kitchen to open them. Actually, the kitchen was a hit for all the cousins we had over that night as well. Elli got some toy food, pots and pans, and dishes. She also got a Strawberry Shortcake video from Sadie and Sawyer, and a Cinderella doll from Noah and Clara. It was a fun night.

Surprise, surprise, Elli wanted a pink birthday party. For those of you who don't know, Elli is rather obsessed with pink. I wasn't sure if I'd be up to decorating a pink princess cake, so Crystal was kind enough to do it for us. She had a Barbie cake pan and worked really hard on it only to have her sweet little Sawyer lick the bottom of the skirt. Needless to say, he ate that piece at the party. The cake was really cute, even with the lick marks. Thanks Crystal for jumping in and helping me out! You are awesome!!!

Okay, so last spring I blogged about all the cute skirts and things I wanted to make for Elli. I had said that I would put pictures on here of the things I did, well, I'm finally getting around to it.

First up is this fun summer skirt. I love the colors, and I was so excited when I realized I had this cute pink shirt that matched perfectly. It was a happy coincidence. It's hard to see, but I made her a super cute pink and green bracelet to match.

Next up is this strip quilt for Elli's toddler bed. I didn't do this alone. I had the help of Wayne's very capable and talented cousin Kara. I'm not sure if I would have dared to try this without her help. The back side is a super soft swirly pink fuzzy fabric. I don't even know what it's called, but it really cute.

For the 4th of July I thought it would be fun to make a denim skirt. Elli had some jeans that had a hole in the knee, so I cut the legs off and added this fabric. It was a learning experience, I know better now what to do the next time. I think it still turned out okay though.

This is the skirt that got the ball rolling. My sister Marianne made this for Elli and made a matching one for Clara. It is so cute! I think Marianne and I have new obsession with fabric now. It is so much fun to go find coordinating fabrics for skirts. I have to ground myself from fabric stores so that I don't go overboard. A little girl can only have so many skirts, and we are probably already past that point as it is.

Crystal made this darling bubble skirt for Elli. She had made one for Sadie and used the left over fabric for Elli. Elli loves matching her cousins!

This last one is the fabric I picked out for Elli's Halloween costume. I got the idea from a friend to make a strip skirt with fun Halloween fabrics and have Elli be a witch, so this is what it will look like. The skirt is all but finished, I just need to add the elastic in the waste. I found a cute black shirt with a cat face on it. I think it's going to be a really cute costume. And not scary at all, which I love too. I'm not really into the ghoulish, scary side of Halloween. I just like the cute, fun side of the the holiday.

Last, but not least, these are pictures of our one camping trip this summer. We weren't able to do as many things as we had hoped for this summer because of our surprise baby #3. But my family had a reunion that we didn't want to miss, and Wayne had some very generous clients who allowed us to stay at their cabin so that I could go. It was a bit of a drive from the cabin to where my family was camping. But the luxury of having a bathroom I could access during the night without needing to hike through the woods was worth every minute of the drive. Besides, as you can see from these photos, it was a lovely cabin. We were so grateful to stay there.

The flowers were so pretty on the way up to the campsite. This is one of my favorite places! If Wayne and I could build our own cabin here we would love it!

Here is our sweet little Elli on the bridge with her daddy. She is a daddy's girl, just like I was. She and Wayne had been throwing rocks into the river.

24 and counting....

2010-08-13T15:23:00.004-06:00

I have some great friends and neighbors who are just as excited about each week that passes by as we are. Each Sunday when I see them at church they all cheer and say one more week!!! They have been planning an ice cream party to celebrate reaching 24 weeks, which is 5 days past how far along I was when Elli was born.

Here is Elli sitting with Kandi on the left, Sheree in the middle with 2 of her kids, and Allison on the right. They had star light mint ice cream which I had been craving and almost bought the night before. So apparently they we in tune with my cravings. AWESOME!!

How do you like Elli in her shades? She wears them everywhere outside, and on her head when she is inside, which she learned from me. Like mother, like daughter I guess.

This is Erika, and there were several other friends there that I don't have pictures of. Thank you Heather, Heidi, Sarah, Candace and Mandi. It's so nice to be surrounded by girls like all of you who take such a keen interest in others. I really appreciate all you do for me and my family.

Let's do it again at 28 weeks, and the next milestone after that is 32 weeks. We're going to make it this time!!!!

Grandpa

2010-08-02T16:14:00.003-06:00

Last night at 2:35 my Grandpa passed away. He was 99 1/2 years old. It is amazing to think of all he saw and did during his lifetime. Grandpa was a sheep herder, a fireman, a mechanic and many other things. He saw everything from the beginning of cars to the development of the Internet. He saw the valley go from mostly farming to shopping centers on every corner. My parents home is just minutes from his home, so we were able to see him a lot. We had many Sunday dinners together, played a lot of baseball in his backyard, watched the 4th of July parade in his front yard, went on early morning fishing trips in the summers, had our annual camp out, and heard story after story of his life. Grandpa we love you and will miss you, but we are so grateful for the life you lived. We are so glad that we know about the plan of salvation, we know you are happy and at peace now. What a fantastic reunion you must be having right now. We won't forget you Grandpa!

I'm still here...

2010-07-14T13:40:00.002-06:00

I have been a bit of a nervous wreck lately as I'm am approaching the 20 - 23 week mark in this pregnancy. With Elli I had an ultrasound the day I was 20 weeks, and that was the moment when we found out that she was going to be early. I was put flat on my back right there at the doctors office (I even rode home in the back of the car lying down), just hoping to buy as much time as possible. It would have been wonderful to get more than 3 weeks and 2 days, but she is healthy and well now, so we are happy. All the struggle and stress has been worth it.

However, I just don't want to do that whole thing again, so I've been anxious as I have approached these dates. Yesterday I reached the 20 week mark. I had an ultrasound last week, and so far there is no change, which is exactly what we want to hear. I go in again next Thursday, and will continue to see the doctor every other weeks unless there are changes. Changes could mean weekly doctor visits, bed rest at home, or even bed rest in the hospital, so I continue to hope for no change. I am getting a great collections of cute little pictures of our little girl though.

We are tossing name ideas around right now. I think we have narrowed it down to two. The problem is that Bradley is dead set on one, and Wayne likes the other name better. Let me know what you think of our two choices: Katie Lynn, or Emily (we still don't have a middle name for Emily). I won't say who likes which one best, I'll just wait for your comments.

She is a busy little thing inside me. It feels like she is in a constant cartwheel state. I am relishing every movement she makes though because I lost out on so many of those with Elli coming so early, and I never know how much longer I will have with this one. We do feel pretty good about things working out this time though. At the very least I am hoping to be able to watch October General Conference at home. I will be 32 weeks the Tuesday following conference, and that is pretty much in the clear when it comes to complications with preemies. We would have a NICU stay, but it wouldn't be near as long as we had with little Elli. It would be weeks rather than months. I could manage that, but let's hope I won't have to.

drum roll please......

2010-06-14T08:23:00.005-06:00

So....I had an ultrasound appointment last Thursday. I was a bit skeptical that we could really find out what we are having because I was only 15 weeks, but we wanted to know if we could. Everything looks good and we were able to get a great look, this little one was not very modest. Since this is my last time going through all of this, I wanted to have some fun with the announcement. I got this idea from the show 19 kids and counting. The plan was to have the cake inside indicate the gender. Pink cherry chip cake for a girl, and blue rainbow chip for a boy. (Thanks Crystal for the cake pan and decorating stuff. It was fun making this cake.)

The lighting wasn't that great, but I think you can tell that it isn't a blue rainbow chip cake. It's a GIRL!!! I was so shocked! Happy, but very surprised. I really thought this one was a boy. So much for intuition. We are thrilled, and so excited for Bradley & Elli to have a baby sister. It is going to be fun for all of us, but especially for Elli. Bradley was a little disappointed, but he is really happy about it now. I will likely have another ultrasound in a week or so, and I will make sure to confirm the gender then. The ultrasound tech did say she was 95% sure, but another confirmation doesn't hurt anything. Another girl, I can't believe. Yay!!!

It's A.......

2010-06-07T12:04:00.005-06:00

We just want to make the news official: We are expecting another baby! For those of you who are as shocked by this news as my family, it was a surprise to us too, but we will gladly take it!

I am 15 weeks along, and things are going well. I have been on moderate bed rest from the time I found out, so my house is looking lovely, LOL! Wayne is actually doing a pretty good job of keeping up with the inside and the outside chores, especially considering the fact that he hates doing inside work. He would always disappear when his mom was dividing out the chores. They would find him outside chopping wood or doing some other outside work. He is a real trooper, and I am so grateful for to have his complete support. Bradley is 9 now, and he is also a huge help.

I have had 3 ultrasounds already and am scheduled for another this week. I was fortunate that my doctor agreed to let me have my cerclage done a little earlier than he normally would. Usually they wait to put the stitches in after week 13, but I was able to get it done at 11 weeks. That was a huge relief to us!

We are very excited about this wonderful surprise. We are of course nervous because of my history, but we will do our best to have faith that all will work out for the best. Our favorite way to put it is that we are cautiously optimistic about things working out.

We don't know what we are having yet, and we can honestly say we will be thrilled either way. I'll keep everyone up to date on any news we have. Just pray that we don't have a repeat of last time. We don't really want another 23 week preemie.

40 years old

2010-03-26T10:48:00.008-06:00

For a few years now I have wanted to throw Wayne a surprise party for his 40th birthday. I wasn't sure if I would ever be able to pull it off. It took me a while to come up with a good cover story, but I finally thought of one that would give me a pretty good shot of pulling this off. I called our good friend Scott, who is now the Bishop of our previous ward. I had him ask Wayne to come do a tax planning and help meeting. Wayne's birthday is in the middle of tax season, so it wasn't a weird request. I was a little worried that he would just tell Scott that he wouldn't have the time because of tax season, but he said yes. So I began the preparations.

I wrote to all our family members and as many friends as I could and asked them to send me some fun memories of Wayne. I took those letters along with some favorite photos and made a scrapbook for Wayne. I really had fun reading through all the letters that came in, it brought back a lot of memories, or enlightened me on a few things I hadn't ever heard before. If you are reading this and forgot to send in a letter, I can always add to the book and would be happy to do so.

I sent out invitations to the surprise party to family and friends. I asked them all to arrive no later than 6:15. Wayne's "meeting" would begin at 6:30. It seemed like everything was going perfectly until a few days before. I asked Wayne what he'd like to do for his birthday and he said, "let's go out to dinner on Saturday". I panicked inside a little and suggested breakfast instead. He thought that would be okay. At first when he suggested that we go out to dinner Saturday night, I thought he was trying to get me to spill the beans because he suspected something. I'm not a good lier, and he knows it. The next morning I called Scott to see if Wayne was still planning on the "meeting". He said he'd talk to him. That night Wayne came home and told me that he had forgotten all about his "tax meeting" with our old ward and began asking me what I thought he should present. I helped him a little with his presentation, and was soooo relieved that he wasn't suspecting anything.

Saturday morning I sent him off to work with a lunch so that he wouldn't have to leave the office for any reason. He had told me that he was planning on going back to work after his "meeting", but I said I would really appreciate it if he worked straight through the day so that he could come home after his "meeting". He said that he would come home as soon as he was done.

When he left, I began making a birthday banner, finishing up the book, and making relish trays, and cookies. Everything was going perfectly until just after lunch when the phone rang. It was Scott. He said, "guess who I just ran into at Costco?" I asked him who, and he said, "Wayne, and while we were talking, guess who we saw?" My heart started sinking.... "who did you see Scott?" I asked. "Your niece and nephew." "Who, which ones?" I asked. Sharmi and Brian had come up early to run errands before the party and their oldest and youngest were wandering around. When Wayne asked them what they were doing in town (they live about 2 hours away) Kristen said, "We're here for uncle Steve's surprise party". Steve is Wayne's brother just older than him, and just happens to be in the ward that is hosting the fake meeting. The problem is that Steve's birthday is in August, and Wayne knows that. Scott just stood there like he had no clue about what was happening. (He is much cooler under pressure than I am, thank goodness!) I just knew that Wayne was going to put 2 and 2 together. Scott said that maybe Wayne would be thinking that the surprise party was after the "meeting" and that's the reason why I wanted him to come home as soon as he finished. I was feeling rather deflated, but hopeful that Scott was right. Dang him! Why did he have to go to Costco just hours before the party?! Even with the possibility of the surprise being spoiled, we still had to get everything done as just in case. :Please don't let him figure it out", was all I could think about.

We stopped and picked up balloons and headed to the church to set up. There was a luncheon there just before us, so we were lucky and didn't even have to set up tables and chairs. We put up the sign, arranged balloons, and set out the food. We had tons of delicious food! Thanks everyone for bringing something to share. I was also grateful for my family and a few of Wayne's family who came to help me set up. I couldn't have done it all without you! THANKS!!!!

It got really exciting for me when people started showing up. This building was perfect to pull off the surprise. The primary room is where we were having the party, and it is connected to the kitchen. The primary room and kitchen are also connected to the relief society room. So we had our friends from our last ward wait in the relief society room, while the rest of us waited in the primary room. Scott was the look out and was going to call me on the cell phone when he arrived. They even had prelude music so make it feel even more legitimate.

We were all waiting as quietly as possible after we got the signal over my phone. Scott began the "meeting" then paused to ask Wayne if he could pull him aside for a minute before they got started. He took Wayne to the door in the back of the relief society room which leads right into the primary room. Wayne followed him and we all yelled "SURPRISE!". It worked! He didn't suspect a thing, and he had a pile of handouts in his arms to prove it. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!

As soon as we all yelled surprise, the rest of our friends followed Wayne into the primary room. I was sad that they didn't get to see the look on Wayne's face, but grateful for their help in being the decoy.

Elli loved seeing almost every single cousin in one room. She actually knows most of them by name. We keep Christmas photos on the fridge all year long so she can look at them and name who they are. Bradley wasn't disappointed to see everyone either. Most of the boys disappeared into the gym to play basketball all evening. (Which was fine by me, the adults were able to visit longer that way.)

It really turned out to be a great evening. Thank you so much to everyone who came, especially those who traveled. And thanks to Wayne's family who stuck around to not just help finish the food, but clean up. I would have been there a lot longer without your help! And thank you to Scott for being my partner in crime! I had a wonderful time, and I know Wayne did too. It meant a lot to him having all the people he cares so much about in one room.

I love you Wayne, and I'm so glad that I got to do this for you!!!!

fun projects for Elli

2010-02-17T05:35:00.003-07:00

It is so much fun to have a little girl to make things for!

I made this job chart for Bradley a couple of years ago, and so I decided it was time to make one for Elli.

Her only job right now is to fall asleep without throwing up all over the place and to sleep through the night. So far she isn't doing very well, in fact she is doing miserably. But she watches Bradley place magnets on his board, and knows it is a good thing. So my hope is that is will turn out to be a positive motivator for her in the end.

This is the one of the next projects I'd like to tackle. Wayne's cousin Kara is super creative and talented, and she is going to help me transform a pair of Elli's old jeans into a skirt like this. As soon as we finish I will post some photos.

Isn't it the cutest thing! I hope mine turns out this cute!

Happy Holidays!!

2009-12-30T08:58:00.018-07:00

It's hard to believe that the holidays are almost over already. I am once again behind in blogging about everything, so you all get to have a long entry to look at today. We enjoy Christmas trees at our house, in fact we have a total of 5 decorated trees. I love the way Christmas trees lit up at night make the home feel so warm and cozy! These 2 trees are in the upstairs family room near the fireplace. This is the room I spend the most time in because it's next to the kitchen. I have had Christmas music on all month and have loved every minute I spend in this room, with the exception of when I'm folding the laundry. (particularly the socks)

These next couple of pics are one one of the additions to my Christmas decor collection. My mom and dad had tons of pine cones fall from their trees this year. My mom gathered them and we had an all day pine cone craft day at her house. We made these cute jute and pine cone garlands, as well as the glitter and scented pine cones in the little basket under the tree in the photo above. The above photo doesn't do them justice, you can't see how sparkly they really are. They catch the light from the Christmas tree and look sooo pretty!!

This was the other addition to my decor this year. I got the idea from my little Sister Marianne. There are 24 bags to represent the 12 days of Christmas for Bradley and Elli. It was fun for them to wake up each day and see what their surprise was. The main thing I gave them was a 10 piece nativity. By Christmas Eve they had every piece set out on a little table downstairs. The others were little treats and a couple of puzzles. It was a lot of fun, and I think it is something we will do every year.

This is our 13' tree in the living room. It's the only room on the house where the tree fits (other than the storage room). It's a good thing we have one room that is has such high ceilings.

Wayne went out the weekend before Thanksgiving and cut down a beautiful tree for us. We had it decorated for Thanksgiving, so we've been able to enjoy it for a month now. We had this one downstairs, and this is the tree Santa left everything under.

My sister Marnie and her family came down for Christmas. We hadn't finished decorating the castle yet, so we took it up to my mom's and had the cousins help finish it. They all had a great time, and they all ended on sugar highs from all the candy they ate while they decorated. From left to right is Elise, Elli, Paige, Ian, Bradley and Isaac.

On Christmas Eve we had lunch at my mom's. She decided on lunch this year so that we could all be home to do our own thing on Christmas Eve. We had 4 different soups to choose from: chicken and wild rice, hamburger, clam chowder, and homemade tomato. They were all delicious! We also had our traditional Swedish rice pudding, and a plethora of other desserts and snack foods. After we ate, we had a Christmas recital. All of Kim's kids, Marnie's 2 oldest and Bradley played songs on the piano. They all did a great job. The really nice thing about these recitals is that it builds their confidence a lot! Bradley was really proud of himself, and so was I!! (in the photo above is Marianne, Noah, and Joel)

Here is Ian, Elise, Eric, Paige and Marnie. I am so glad we get to have them for a week and a half. Ian and Elli have really bonded. All the kids get along really well.

Grandpa Stocking. As he left he was sure to tell me that he's planning on sticking around for another Christmas. I said I was going to hold him to it!

This is Josh. He is Kim's oldest, and the oldest cousin. He is really talented, and if you can't find him in with everyone, it's because he snuck away to play the piano. I think it's awesome that he loves it as much as he does! He's only 15, but has been called as their ward organist.

This was Noah's performance. He was singing a song with his mom, but he didn't want us to see him doing it, so he covered his eyes. What a cutie!

My cousin Abbey was able to join us. He husband is doing his residency, and had to work. Abbey's mom (my aunt Joan) is my mom's twin sister, and they live out of state. So we love being able to fill in the family gap when we can. Abbey's son Ben recited a Robert Frost poem for us. He is 5 years old, and impressed us all with his poem. Her 2nd son, sitting on her lap, is sweet little Max. We love that they live so close now!!

Silly Noah! After the program we all passed out gifts from Grandma and Grandpa, as well as the family gifts. Mom gave all the kids new pajamas, and even though it was the middle of the afternoon, most of the kids ran to the bathroom or bedrooms to change into them. Bradley put his on and they didn't come off until December 26th in the morning when I made him finally get dressed. I put together a book on my publisher for my brother. He is an excellent photographer, so I thought it would be fun to take some of his best photos and put them in a book for him. He loved it! Marianne gave us a movie. It's from the Book, The Christmas Miracle of Jonathon Toomey. It was really well done, and is mow a Holiday favorite of mine.

Christmas morning for us starts a little later than many households. Bradley thought he would wake up early, so he took our little DVD player into his room in case he would need something to keep his mind off of what Santa left downstairs for him. You see, we can't look at the tree until after we have eaten our traditional breakfast. I got up at 6 to put it in the oven. We have a yummy sausage breakfast casserole with some of breakfast bread. Bradley woke up at about 7:20, so we ate around 7:30 and then woke Elli up. She normally sleeps until 9, but Bradley would have died if we would have made him wait that long. He was so anxious to see if Santa brought what he wanted him to.

Santa brought Elli the stuffed pig from If You Give A Pic A Pancake, and the mouse from If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.

Santa brought Bradley a new BB/pellet gun, 2 Wii games, a new backpack and a few backpack supplies. The family did get what Bradley had been longing for, it is in the next photo.

This is what Bradley wanted more than anything else. He has been having so much fun playing games with Wayne and his cousins. He has been pretty good to get all his chores done first too. I think it will be something that we will all be able to enjoy.

Here they all coming down to see what Santa brought.......

Bradley dove to the ground too fast for me to capture on film when he saw the Wii. He was smiling from ear to ear though.

This is how the morning was for little Elli. She was pretty tired since we woke her up, so it took her a good 20 minutes to get into the whole Christmas morning experience.

They were reading the specs on the gun.

She started to get into a little here.

For a few weeks now Elli has been able to tell people that Santa brings toys. But on Christmas Eve someone asked her what toys she wanted Santa to give her and she kept saying ducks. Well Santa wasn't prepared for that little surprise, but thanks to Alan and Crystal, he pulled it off anyway. She got her little duck. I have no idea where the duck idea originated.

Dad got a couple of candles for his office. (he keeps a candle warmer in his office) Elli loves to smell them, and bring them over to us often to open them up for her.

Elli gave Bradley a Snakes Eyes GI Joe action figure.

Bradley gave Elli one of the strawberry shortcake dolls to use in her dollhouse that I did for her. This is the lemon doll. She now has Strawberry, Lemon and Plum.

Bradley got a signed copy of Rupunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale. It's a really fun adventure book. He has almost finished it.

Wayne got a massage chair to sit in after his long tax season days. We have all been enjoying it!

Elli got a few more strawberry shortcake dolls and accessories to play with in her doll house.

Here she is giving Strawberry Shortcake a kiss.

After we opened all the gifts, we watched UP. Elli had to have her new friends right next to her for the movie.

Sunday afternoon we drove down to Wayne's parents for our Christmas party with them. Elli slept the whole way down. She was pretty tired because we woke her up to go to 9:00 church where Wayne was speaking. It was a good practice run, because we will be switching next Sunday to 9:00 church- HOORAY!!!

After a yummy lunch, we all gathered to exchange gifts. It takes about 2 hours to do this because there are so many people, and Wayne's mom does it one at a time to make sure that everyone sees what everyone gets. Even though it takes a long time, I like it this way. It's fun to watch the kids open their presents and hold them up with huge grins on their faces for all to see. It's always a fun time!

Here is Grandma handing out one of the gifts.

Here is Elli playing with Amberli. All the little girls loved Elli. This is Elli's first time being able to come down with this side of the family. Her first Chritmas was in the hospital, and last Christmas we were still too worried about her little immune system to have her around this many people, so everyone was excited to have Elli there! Especiallly us!!

Here is Elli playing with the oldest granddaughters, Heidi on the left, and Loni in the middle.

Braldey got a box of life cereal, just kidding, he got another GI Joe character and a brand new homemade pillowcase from his Aunt Crystal. Thanks Crytal!!

Here you can see 18 or so of the 52 people we had together in this room. Now you know why it takes 2 hours to pass out and open the gifts. :)

Look at those sweet eyes, isn't she just soooo cute!!

Bradley had so much fun with his cousins. He spent the night at Grandma's house while Wayne, Elli and I went back to Sharmi's for the night. We went back down on Monday and all the cousins went sledding, even though it was only about 7 degrees outside. They had such a great time. They always do! I am always amazed how even the older cousins will get down and play with the little cousins. They all make sure they everyone is involved and having a good time. They are great kids!!

Our family had Heidi's name this year, and this is what I madeher. It can be used on this side for the holidays, and she can turn the blocks to the other side for the rest of the year. It was a fun project to make.

This is how we all felt on Monday afternoon after days of playing with family. We have had a marvelous Christmas break so far!

We are grateful for the reason behind the Christmas season. Just as the angel pronounced to the shepherds to fear not, we too have no need to fear. We know what the good tiding of great joy are! We know the plan of salvation, we know that Christ is our Savior, and we are happy and have hope in the future because we know these things!

Merry Chritmas and Happy New Year!

it's time to catch up!

2009-12-11T09:23:00.006-07:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I've updated my blog. Time has gone too quickly these past couple of months. Because I missed out on blogging several things, this is going to be a potpourri of pics. Enjoy!

Wayne did a lovely job with our garden this year. He even got onions to grow larger than a golf ball. (We have never been able to get good sized onions before.) This was the largest one, it is 7" across. Wayne was so excited. We also grew wonderful potatoes, carrots, lemon cucumber, tons of beets, deliciously sweet corn, peas, and voluntary cilantro from last year. Of course we had more tomatoes than we knew what to do with. Bradley grew a very successful pumpkin patch for us. We had pumpkins lining half the side walk up to our door. It was great!

This was our other terrific success this year. We had the most beautiful raspberries and blackberries this year! It made a lot of wonderful jam, and other desserts. I did get tired of picking the berries though.

This beautiful dress was given to Elli by her Aunt Kerly and Uncle Steve for her birthday. She looks so fancy and likes to dress up in it for church. Thanks Kerly!!

Bradley enjoyed carving several of the pumpkins he grew. We did have our annual pumpkin carving party at my sisters house, we even made home-made donuts this year. They were awesome!

Halloween dinner consisted of mummy hot dogs, and the witches brew drink you see below.

Bradley was Snake Eyes, a GI Joe good guy. He ran around doing all kinds of ninja moves all evening.

Elli was our sweet little strawberry, which was perfect since she spent a good majority of the summer out in the strawberry patch eating anything that was ripe enough.

Elli has the cutest way of saying pumpkin, she says "monkinee". I think it's my favorite word!

Family Photo Shoot

These were all taken by Christy Hair of Cheapshots, my brother took the next few for us.

Kindermusik

On the last day of class, miss Cammy brought everyone antlers and dotted their noses like Rudolph. I can't say enough about kindermusik, Elli looked forward to every class. We aren't going this next semester because of RSV and flu season, and it makes me really sad. Elli is going to miss it terribly! She talks about Cammy at least once a day, usually several times a day. It has been a major contributor in her large motor and social development. I think we owe a lot of the progress she has made these past couple (ie: WALKING!!!!) to her involvement in kindermusik. I look forward to getting her back into it next fall.

Story time: that cute little boy in the orange check shirt is the sweetest little guy. He loved Elli and always wanted to hold her hand during circle times. He would sneak in as many hugs and kisses as he could too. So cute!!

Bradley was with us the day of her last class, so he did the rocking song with Elli. I think they both loved it!

Saying goodbye to her little friend. We will miss seeing him every week.

Miss Cammy, we love you!!

So, Bradley was having a ginger bread house contest for den meeting last week, and he begged me to help him do a castle. I wasn't sure how to pull it off, and was about ready to just do the regular house, but then I saw a box in our storage room that helped me visualize how I could make it work. (yes, I ended up doing to castle while Bradley was at school) We didn't get all the candy done, it will be a good weekend project!

This is one of the most exciting things for me. I haven't painted since my senior year in high school, nearly 20 years ago now. I finally got the nerve to take a painting class. This was the painting that I came home with. I still need to do a few touch ups, but I was really proud of myself. It was enormously fun to get back into painting!!!

One major event that I sadly didn't take any pictures of was Thanksgiving. We hosted the dinner in our almost finished basement. It was so much fun to have everyone down for the day. We almost had enough pies for each of us to eat our own, but they were absolutely delicious! Especially Marianne's key lime, WOW! Marianne also made darling place setting with tiny white pumpkins my dad grew. She painted names on them so we all knew where we were sitting. Wayne had cut our Christmas tree the weekend before, so I was able to get it up and decorated. The atmosphere was lovely, the food was amazing, and of course the company was perfect!

I will get some Christmas photos taken around the house and give our annual Christmas update soon. Thanks for your patience in letting me catch up on the last 2 months!

Happy Birthday Bradley

2009-10-20T08:44:00.014-06:00

Bradley's is 9, I can hardly believe it! Wayne was right at the end of his deadline on Bradley's actual birthday, so I took Bradley and Elli up to the dinosaur museum with Crystal and her kids. It was fun because they had some Halloween activities going on as well. Afterwards we came home and had Oreo ice cream and opened presents. We celebrated with Wayne a couple a days later, which worked out to be fall break. We took a trip to one of Bradley's favorite places....the zoo. The temperature was perfect and we saw a lot of animals that you don't see in the summer because they are too hot to be out.

Elli really enjoyed this trip too. We took her last year, but she didn't really get into the animals like she did this time. It was fun to watch her reactions.

This was one of Bradley's favorites, it's a fossa from Madagascar. It wasn't what I expected at all. I thought they were like hyenas, but they are much more cat like.

I think this was Elli's favorite. She loved watching baby Zuri run around and play. She really is cute!

Here is mom eating her dinner. Elli got a kick out of this too. Now whenever someone says elephant to her she will try and imitate an elephant reaching up to get food.

This is Bradley's favorite cat. We were really glad to cougars were so visible.

The bears were easy to find too. They kept yawning and licking their mouths, so what do you think Elli was doing as she watched them?

The zebras are one of my favorites! It seems like they are always turned with their back sides facing the crowd, so I was pleased to get a photo of their faces!

Reading about the red panda. Bradley loves animal facts, and it amazes me how much he knows about all kinds of animals. He tells me all the time that he wants to have his own zoo someday.

These are my other favorites at the zoo. I think they are adorable! It was hard to get a photo with all of the giraffes, but this is the baby, and I think both parents.

The hard to find cheetah was out today, AWESOME!

Here are 2 of the 3 tiger cubs. They were having a great wrestle over a bone. We really enjoyed the tiger area because the dad was on the other side talking to the cubs. He would go the edge of his enclosure and the cubs would come over the the edge of theirs. It was really loud, and not something you hear very often at the zoo. Pretty cool!

Hiding behind the tree is the snow leopard cub. Also usually really hard to find, but not this time. The mother and the cub were running all over the place playing together.

This is by far Bradley's favorite place in the zoo, it's the reptile house. He is looking for the iguana, but we never found him. He was hidden really well.

Rocky Mountain Rattle Snake.

This a one of Bradley's favorites, it's a Gila monster.

This is a rubber boa. We found one once hiking in Provo Canyon, so Bradley always likes to find this one to remember when he caught one in "the wild".

Bradley measures up to the adult female. I like the new sign!

By the way, Bradley doesn't usually wear shirts that are so big on him. He is wearing a Los Hermanos shirt because that's where we took him for his birthday lunch before the zoo. He ordered a Diablo Verde for free because he had on the shirt. We also asked them to sing Happy Birthday to him. He was a little embarrassed, but he liked the fried ice cream. And the salsa that day was absolutely perfect. Not too hot, just a hint of heat....mmmmm, delicious!!

On Saturday we threw Bradley a birthday party. Bradley has some great friends!

They really liked this game. They had to be in teams of 2, one would wrap the other with toilet paper like a mummy, and then the mummy had to hop to the finish line. Michelle and Amara did the best job on wrapping.

Braydon and Jex won the relay.

By the time Bradley crossed the finish line he wasn't wrapped anymore. He just kept his legs together to keep it fair. Good job Bradley and Ben!

How do you like the birthday cake? Bradley loves doughnuts, so this I thought he'd like a giant one for his cake. I also got glazed doughnuts and made homemade Reese's ice cream. Yummy!!

Elli was such a good sport. I was constantly busy doing games or getting lunch ready. Because of that, she was in her pajamas until after her nap. She stayed in her stroller most of the time watching the kids. Here she is enjoying her hot dog dipped in ketchup and chips dipped in ranch. At one point she picked up her plate and started licking the ranch dip. Lots of good fat in that for her! Maybe that's what I need to give her everyday to help her grow!

Thank you to all of Bradley's great friends! We even had 3 friends from our old neighborhood come down. It was so great to see them again!!!

Ben (Bradley's cousin) had spent the night with us, and he was at our house for most of Saturday. They had a great time together, especially putting together all the Bionicles and Lego's from the birthday party. It was a really fun day!

Happy Birthday Bradley! You are such a smart and good boy! We love you!!!!

It's Autumn Time

2009-10-15T12:25:00.009-06:00

I really love this time of year! We thought it would be a fun FHE to take a picnic up to the mountains and go for a hike. It really is the best way to enjoy all the fantastic fall colors.

There wasn't anyone else up there, which was perfect! And the temperature was in the mid 70's which was even more perfect!!

This really is a beautiful trail, and not very hard. We didn't take it all the way though. It's the Mt. Loafer trail up Payson canyon. It was a very kid friendly hike, AWESOME!!

It started to get dark, so I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get very many good pics. But I did get a few good ones, if I do say so myself.

It's too bad fall doesn't last longer. It really is my favorite time of the year!

Elli's baby

2009-09-09T06:43:00.006-06:00

Elli loves her new baby doll. She feeds her several times a day. She doesn't carry her around yet, but I think once Elli learns to walk that will change. It's hard to bring something with you when you need your hands to crawl around.

Giving baby kisses. So sweet!

Here is another compare and contrast photo of Elli. This is her tiny Clifford dog that we used in the hospital so show her size. Below is the first photo we took with Clifford when Elli was just over a week old. Pretty amazing! Elli now weighs 18 lbs. 1 oz., and she is 32 1/2" long.

She is 10" long and weighs 1 lb. 2 oz. in this photo.

Here is our little smarty! She can go up and down the stairs with ease now. (For my own nerves, I did duct tape a blanket around the post at the bottom of the stairs.) I never had to teach her to turn around at the top of the stairs so that she was going down backwards. She just did it all on her own. She really has terrific problem solving skills. It was the same getting down off the couch, she just automatically turned over onto her tummy to slide off feet first.

I realized another bonus the other day. By the time she learns to walk there won't be as many bumps and bruises on her head (I hope anyway). The reason being, she is already too tall to stand under the table, which means that she never learned to walk under it in the first place. Hopefully that will save us a few tears, although I'm sure there are other things that will bring on the tears. Wayne had to get her off Bradley's bunk bed ladder the other day, and put it up so that she wouldn't try climbing it again. I'm afraid that we do have a little monkey on our hands, which is totally new for us. Bradley didn't climb anything, I never had to worry about that at all with him. We are certainly in for it with this little sassy girl! But that's okay, I think we're ready?!?

Happy Birthday Elli

2009-08-23T09:53:00.023-06:00

It's hard to believe that Elli is 2 years old. We are thrilled with the progress she continues to make. She has hit all the normal developmental mile stones so far except for walking, and that isn't too far off at this point. She learned to crawl over the 4th of July while we were in Oregon, and she has gotten really fast. She is also pulling herself up to anything and everything and walking along furniture. She can go up and down the stairs, which is nerve racking to me, but I'm glad she can do it. She is saying 50+ words, and her verbal comprehension is even better. We are just so grateful that she hasn't had any side affects from being born so early. She is such a testament that miracles do happen.
Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!!

I hope you will indulge me a stroll down memory lane. It's good for me to look back and see how far we've come, and how blessed we are to have such a healthy and vibrant little girl. (warning: this blog entry is long)

Here is Elli about 9 days old. She was 10 inches long and weighed 1 lb. 2 oz. Her eyes were still fused shut at this point, and we couldn't wait for them to open. It was just a few days after this photo that she was taken by ambulance to another hospital for her PDA surgery, after which she contracted pneumonia for the first time. She was so beautiful, it broke our hearts that we couldn't pick her up and cuddle her.

This is Elli when she turned 1 month old. We celebrated her birthday each month while in the hospital. She was a little bigger at the point, but still so tiny as you can see by the 5 dollar bill next to her. She had finally gotten over her pneumonia, but we had a bit of a scare when her doctor wanted to test her for meningitis which would have likely been fatal in her case. The test was negative, and I can't tell you how relieved we were. She was having a little trouble with her tummy. It is hard for these little ones to digest their food because their bodies just aren't ready for that yet. It wasn't long after this that we were finally able to hold her for the first time.

Here is our sleepy little 2 month old. She was starting to digest much better at the point, which helped her to grow. You can see it in the clothes she's wearing. (This green onesie is the same size as the one it the previous photo.) They aren't quite as big on her. They still didn't fit, but they were getting closer to fitting. It was just a week after this that she was put on the C-PAP to transition her to a nasal cannula. It took her 3 tries to be able to stay on the C-PAP but before her 3 month birthday came around she was on the nasal cannula. She was the cutest little cheerleader for Halloween, I bought an outfit for the American Girl dolls for her costume. It was darling!

Here is our big 3 month old girl! She was doing well enough to start learning how to nurse. It was wonderful to snuggle her close. There was a lot more freedom in loving her once she was put on the nasal cannula, plus we were finally able to really see what she looked like. She is nice and plump in this photo from all the calories they were pumping in her, I loved all her rolls! We were transferred into nursery B which is where the babies go that are getting closer to going home. The end of the hospital was in sight now.

Elli is 4 months old and dressed in her pretty little Christmas dress. We had learned that she had a paralyzed vocal chord, a side affect from her PDA surgery, which made nursing nearly impossible for her. So I continued to pump and fed her by bottle. She was the delight of so many nurses. I loved that there were so many that wanted to care for her. We were finally able to bring her home right after the New Year.

Here is our sweet little One Year Old. She had really weak muscle tone still, but had made tremendous progress in so mant areas.

She wasn't doing well with solid foods yet, so we didn't even do a birthday cake for her. Her brother and cousins were all given a cup cake with one candle and they all blew them out after we sang to her. She did enjoy her birthday ice cream though.

She would have days where she didn't feel well about every 1 and 1/2 weeks, and sadly she was in that cycle over her birthday. We called it "crooked" because when she didn't feel well she couldn't support her torso and would lean over to the left.

Elli loves flowers (she inherited that from my dad), and flower was actually one of her first words. (She says "wowah".) So we decided to go with a flower theme for her birthday. We had napkins and cups with flowers and butterflies, and we had multi-colored balloons on the table. We had a flower garland hanging from the canopy, and the cake was covered in flowers of course.

I was really excited about how well her cake turned out. It was a yellow 9 X 13 cake with 5 regular size cup cakes and 4 mini cup cakes on top. I found the idea on familyfun.com, but I tweaked it a little. I used blue frosting instead of white, because I thought it would be fun to have sky color for the background. I also added the dirt, crushed Oreos. Instead of making flowers out of m&m's and other round candies, I warmed Starbursts in the microwave and rolled them out. Then I used scissors to cut out my flowers. The leaves are gum drop fruit slices that I sliced even thinner. It was a little more work than I anticipated, but I had a lot of fun making it.

For dinner we had hamburgers and hot dogs, and veggies from the garden. Yummy! Patrick is holding Clara, and Marianne is in the purple with Bradley and Wayne next to her. Crystal and Alan are next to Patrick. It was really nice to have the family over to help us celebrate.

Elli loved the hot dogs. It is so nice that she will actually eat some foods now. She is still rather picky, and her gag reflex is still obnoxiously sensitive, but it's getting better all the time.

One of Elli's favorite things right now is blowing bubbles, so we got bubbles for all the kids to blow for a while as adults finished eating their dinner.

Aunt Marianne blowing more bubbles.

We were also very glad to has Wayne's brother Steve (on the right) come down. My sister-in-law Kerly (2nd on the right) is from Ecuador, and these are her parents. Her dad has been working in New York for the last 8 years, and her mom finally got residency this year. They are both living here with Steve and Kerly while they look for work and a place to live. I am really happy for Kerly, she has wanted to have her family close to her for a long time. Congratulations!

When is came time to blow out the candles, Elli was feeling a little overwhelmed. She didn't know what to make of everyone gathering around her and singing. She really does know how to blow, but we couldn't get her to do it. So we counted to 3 and let Bradley and the cousins blow out the candles together. Maybe next year she will understand the procedure a little better.

Here is our feminine little eater. She wouldn't try to pick up the whole thing, she would just pick off tiny little pieces (crumbs really) and carefully put them in her mouth. I kind of knew before hand that we wouldn't get one of those cake all over your face pictures, it's just not Elli to eat like that.

Cute little Clara enjoying her ice cream cone. Mom made Butterfinger ice cream, and I made black berry. There is nothing quite like home-made ice cream in the summer!

Mom and dad enjoying their dessert.

Silly Noah eating his cake and ice cream.

Elli discovered that she could used a petal from the flower on her cake as a scooper for frosting. After that she pretty much only ate the frosting.

When it came time for gifts, Elli was a little confused at what she was suppose to do with all the pretty packages. Bradley was more than happy to help her open the gift he gave her. It was 3 coloring books: Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, and Winnie the Pooh, and a box of water colors. I think she'll have a lot of fun with it. Alan and Crystal's family gave her a Backyardigans book, my mom and dad gave her a cute little purple striped dress, and she got some bubble bath and fall clothes from Wayne and I.

This gift was from Steve and Kerly. It was hard to open, so Sadie and Sawyer stepped in to help. It was a beautiful off white dress with a pink sash and little pink embroidered flowers. Thanks Kerly! I'll post photos of Elli in the dress next week. She didn't wear it yesterday because of the temple dedication. So she'll wear it the church this coming Sunday.

This was the gift we had to save until the end because we knew if she opened it first she'd ignore all the rest. It's a doll that has a bottle and when you put the bottle to the mouth she will begin to suck. After a few minutes she will burp and fall asleep. She will also giggle if you tickle her tummy. She is a really cute baby doll, and Elli LOVES her!

She couldn't wait for Wayne to get her out of the box. She stood there on her tippy toes saying "BeeBee" over and over again. I don't know why I didn't take any pictures after it was opened, but I will get some pictures of her holding her baby real soon. Did I mention that Elli really really LOVES her baby!?! It was a fun day, and we are so happy to have our little 2 year old! She is a sweet and sassy bundle of joy. Happy Birthday Elliana!

Mirror Lake

2009-08-06T14:31:00.005-06:00

We took a trip the other day up to Mirror Lake. We had such a lovely day in the 70 degree weather. There were tons of wild flowers everywhere, we went up at the perfect time!

This was Elli's first time in the backpack, and she did quite well. She did eventually tire from riding on Wayne's back, but we've decided that we just need to go hiking once a week to help her get used to it. We didn't fish right on Mirror Lake, it's usually too crowded. We walked along the stream that comes off of the lake which is the north fork of the Duchesne. The fishing wasn't the best, (they did catch a few little brook trout and rainbows) but the hike along the trail is so pretty and very peaceful! We didn't see anybody else the whole time.

Bradley carried our water and snacks in for as long as he could. He was a trooper!

Elli and I just played along the way. We were going to wade in the little stream, but it was too cold for her, she didn't like it very much. But she was thrilled with all the flowers!

Wayne has seen moose in this little pond before. We didn't see any that day, although there was plenty of evidence that they had been there, but we did see a cow moose further down the canyon on our way up.

Flower heaven!

Bradley and I walked over to the Balm Mountain Overlook. It was gorgeous! I really love the Uintahs, I think it has to be one of the loveliest places in Utah!!

We haven't decided where we are going to hike to next. Sadly we only have a couple of weeks of summer left. The nice thing about Utah is that you have so many choices and they are all within pretty easy distances. We are lucky to live here!!

Pioneer Day Weekend

2009-08-03T11:33:00.014-06:00

We spent Pioneer day with Wayne's family this year. Everyone was there, which makes 22 adults and 28 1/2 grandkids. Thanks goodness that they built the cabin so that everyone has a place to stay.

This is the Sevier River. Some of the uncles and cousins discovered that jumping from the bridge into the river is a whole lot of fun, so here are a few shots of the brave ones jumping. I can't even jump from a low dive into a swimming pool without my heart thumping out of my chest a little, so I couldn't do this!!

Here is Bradley's cousin Braden going in feet first.

Trevor was the bravest of them all. He kept doing flips off the bridge. CRAZY!!!

Next it was Bradley's turn. He has just stepped up onto the edge of the bridge. He didn't like jumping off either, it was easier for him to have his uncles just push him in. Wayne was already in the water waiting to help him get to shore.

Unfortunately, I shot this picture a split second too soon. I chopped off Bradley's head. What I missed was a lovely belly flop at the bottom. He was a little sore for a few minutes afterward.

Swimming back to shore. Wayne only jumped once. He said that was enough for him. He was surprised how warm the water was though. It was a nice break from the heat.

Just before the boys went swimming, I had gone on a little shopping trip down to the local antique shop called the Wooden Nickle. They had a lot of really cute things, but I found the cutest wooden doll house that I'm going to fix up for Elli for Christmas. I got it for $19, what a steal! I think I'm going to have to go back there next time we go down to visit Wayne's parents.

Some of us decided that a weenie roast up in the mountains would be fun, so we headed up on the afternoon of Pioneer Day. Elli really enjoyed the mountains, I love the sweet grin on her face.

Some road up in vehicles, while others road 4 wheelers. I am glad we were in the trooper because we got a pretty good rain while up there, and those who road the 4 wheelers were soaked through by the time they reached us at the lake. The rain did let up long enough to let us build our fire and have some dinner, but it sadly ended out fun early. We all went back down to grandma's house to get warm again. Wayne and I had actually reached that lake before the rain and got a few pictures of the kids throwing rocks into the water.

Kristen and Lindsey

Katelyn

Sadie (she road up with us while her mom and dad got soaked on their 4 wheeler)

Here they are seeing who can throw the farthest. I think they were letting Sadie win every time, and she loved it!

Here are some of the cousins lined up to watch the parade. They had 2 sides of the street covered to make sure they brought home as much candy as possible. This photo had Jade holding Brennan, Taysen, Landon, Katelyn, Sarah, Kaycia, and part of Bradley.

Here is grandma on the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers float. She gets roped into doing this float every year, but I do think she enjoys it. In this photo she is just about to throw a handful of candy which ended up hitting Elli right in the face. I didn't see it happening because I was taking the picture. Needless to say, Elli wasn't very happy about the whole thing. Not too long after this a float with some boys and squirt guns came by, and for some reason they aimed directly at Elli's face again. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get her to go to another parade this year. Maybe by next year she will have forgotten and like parades again.

more cousins, here we have Breanna, Amberli, Sarah, and Dawson.

Here we have Sawyer in the red and white shirt, Sadie in blue, Rachel has the pretty brown hair with the red bow, Aaron is the little guy with curls in the red shirt and closet to the camera is Alton.

The night before we had been down to the park for the annual scout dinner. They serve dutch oven potatoes, and pot roast (which is absolutely amazing!!). They also auction off pies there. I told Wayne that I want to enter a pie next year and see how much it will go for. Some of the pies were being sold for $30. Later, after the dinner we all gathered to watch the fireworks. I was really impressed with their fireworks, they had a great show for such a small town.

It was a really nice weekend. Hopefully we can get back down there really soon!!

Depot Bay

2009-07-31T10:24:00.018-06:00

This summer we took a family trip to Oregon. We came up for 2 reason: Isaac's baptism and our trip to the coast. We look forward to our trip to the coast with my family every few years. This year we had a little cooler weather than our last trip, but it didn't stop the fun!

Wayne took Elli for a walk on the beach Monday afternoon before the storm cleared. Early that morning Wayne, my dad, my brother and brothers in law all went fishing for sea bass. Most of them got sea sick from the stormy sea, but they still caught their limit of 34 or 35 sea bass total. (I have pictures a little further down of the cooked fish).

Joel on the left was the most sea sick, you can see that he is still a little green in this picture. The man with the yellow overalls was their captain.

This is Drift Creek Falls. It was a beautiful hike with a really neat suspension bridge you had to cross to get down to the bottom of the falls. The kids were a little afraid of crossing the bridge, but they all did it. They were proud of themselves for being so brave.

This is one the the things Wayne was looking forward to the most. He has just casted out a crab trap into the ocean. The only thing he didn't anticipate was the horrible sun burn he got on the back of his legs. He remembered sun screen everywhere but there. He was pretty miserable the next few days.

While the boys all went crab fishing I headed down to the outlets to go shopping with my sisters. I found some great deals on some really cute things. That is one of the things I looked forward too! :)

Here is Patrick after he just pulled in the trap. You can see that there are several crabs dangling in there. They caught a lot of crabs, but only 2 were big enough to keep.

Elli enjoyed the Oregon dandelions, or at least that is what they reminded me of. They grew all over the place like dandelions do here at home.

This is one of the many tide pools that was a short 5 minute walk from our beach house. We went down at low tide nearly every morning and evening. (I doctored this picture a little to make it look like an illustration. I like how it brought out the colors a little more.)

This is a cute little crab near the tide pools, but don't be fooled by it's tiny size (only about 1 1/2") These little guys will draw blood when they pinch.

Another fun tide pool. There were star fish everywhere, and even more anemones and barnacles.

There were also hermit crabs, but they were hard to get pictures of because they would hide behind the anemones.

Here is one of the fish dishes, it was some kind of herb and butter fish. Some was baked, and some was grilled. Joel and Patrick made the fish for us.

I think this was my favorite fish, it was a Parmesan cheese crusted fish. YUMMY!!!

This was another great meal. Patrick made ribs, and Marnie made flank steak. We ate really well on this vacation, and we never went out to eat either! With cooks like Marnie, Patrick and Joel, who needs restaurants?!

We stopped at the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River on our way in to Portland. The kids were tired of the car and it was a great stopping place. In the pic they are watching the enormous rainbow trout.

We all enjoyed walking along the beach looking for sea shells. Noah found this huge muscle shell, it was a great find!

My mom and dad brought their kites. Oregon beaches are great for kite flying!

This was the beginning of Bradley's treasure collection. Only a few things made it home though, none of which were crab claws. (too stinky)

The is our beach house named Sheltering Pines. This is taken from the beach. The wooden stairs are just feet from the deck and take you straight down onto the beach. It was such a perfect location, and the beach house was really quite lovely! It has 3 bedrooms with king size beds, and 2 of those rooms had their own bathrooms. There were 2 more common bathrooms. The 4th bedroom had a bunk bed with another pullout, which was enough room for all but 1 of the older grand kids. The rest of the family used the 3 couches in the family room at night. It worked out really well! Next time we do this we are thinking of renting the house right next door so that there will be room for my my sister who couldn't join us this year.

This is the view from the deck of the house, and yes I doctored this photo too. I am enjoying learning how to edit my photos.

One of my favorite things to do on our trips to Oregon is go to the local blueberry farms to pick fresh berries. In total we picked close to 50 lbs of berries. It's hard to pass up when they are only $1 a pound. We took just under half of them to the beach house to nibble on and make blueberry sauce for ice cream, and the rest were frozen to bring home. Can you believe the size of this blueberry? It was super delicious too, I ate it right after I took the picture!

This is the fish hatchery again, it's one of the 9 foot or so sturgeons they have on display.

Thank goodness for the invention of portable DVD players. Bradley and Elli enjoyed their time in the car (around 13 hours) much more than they would have without them. We also bought us a new van which helped tremendously because Elli still needs her infant car seat when she is drinking her bottle. I was able to switch her over to the infant seat so she could have her milk and take a naps, rather than needing to stop every time she wanted her milk.

This was taken at my sisters house. The first van was Marnie's brother in laws rental (who came up for Isaac's baptism), the next is Marnie's van, then my mom and dad's and then ours. I guess white is the family color. We all bought them within a month of each other too.

This is Noah, Isaac and Bradley. We can't wait to come back again in a few years!

Wayne

2009-07-17T15:43:00.003-06:00

I think this picture speaks volumes, it has to be one of my all time favorites! He was still feeling cold after his early morning fishing trip off the coast of Oregon, so he was snuggling close to Elli out on the beach.

I often find him cuddling with her like this. I think it is sooo sweet!

happiness is....

2009-06-16T10:44:00.010-06:00

Happiness is getting rewarded for all your hard work.

Bradley received certificates of excellence in reading, science and spelling. He was also awarded a trophy because of the minutes he read during the year. He always exceeded the minutes required by his teacher each month.

Happiness is going out for shakes at the end of the school year. This has become a fun tradition.

Happiness is trying something new.

On Memorial Day we took Bradley down to our friends farm and rode horses. Bradley has never been on a horse that wasn't hooked up to the thing that only allows them to go in a circle. (Like they always have at the fair.)

Happiness??? He really did like it, and so did his friend Landon, but they sure don't look happy do they? I had to use this photo because it made me laugh.

Happiness is finding your first water snake of the year.

Happiness is a peaceful walk through the gardens at Thanksgiving Point.

Happiness is someone treating you to lunch. (Bradley enjoyed feeding them too.)

Happiness is relaxing in the pool.

This is happiness! Being with the ones I love enjoying something so beautiful.

Happiness is hearing your baby talk.

Baby animals make everyone happy, don't they?!

Is milking a cow happiness? Wayne would say no after working on a dairy during his teen years.

This little pout face makes me happy. It's just the cutest little pout that comes on slowly, like she is melting or something. for some reason she wasn't very fond of the plastic cow that Bradley was milking. Elli knows how to "milk" the sympathy. ha ha!

Happiness is having this sweet little girl in our family. I often think about how the odds were so against her, and how hard she had to fight to live. She is an inspiration, and a joy!!!

For her, happiness is blowing dandelion seeds into the wind.

Happiness comes from the simple pleasures each day, and being with the people that we love. I am trying to focus more on those little magic moments that come and go so quickly. So let's enjoy the time we have with our loved ones, no matter what we are doing.

Parenting.....AHHHH!!!

2009-06-08T12:00:00.002-06:00

Does anyone have any suggestions how to overcome an 8 1/2 year old thinking he knows more than everyone else, particularly his mom? It doesn't matter what I say ALL day long, it will always be contested by a much wiser Bradley. He will argue and contest everything I say, and I mean everything, literally!!

Here is an example from our walk this morning: We noticed a little boy running through a sprinkler and drinking the water. Bradley said, "he shouldn't drink that water." To which I replied, "you're right, that's irrigation water." Then he continued, "besides he can't run through those sprinklers anyway, it's too cold today, and that's not his property." I told him that it was up to his mom whether or not it was too cold, and that he could run through those sprinklers because they were in the park. It didn't matter what I said, he wouldn't believe that they were in the park. He absolutely knew that the little boy was trespassing in someone elses backyard. I have learned to just stop talking.

He is a smart kid, I know that, but how did I create this know-it-all monster? And now that I have, how do I fix it?

I am at the end of my rope with this and need some advice. I don't think he and I will survive the summer the way it is now.

instant yard

2009-05-30T12:29:00.005-06:00

We have confused the poor robins who have frequented our back yard this spring. They have thoroughly enjoyed all the worms and bugs they could feast on in our dirt, now they have to look a little harder in our grass. Sorry robins, but Hooray for us!!! I am so thrilled to have grass in our backyard!!

It has been a long road and a ton of work, mostly for Wayne, but it is so worth it to see that lovely green carpet in the backyard. Even staying up most of the night waiting for the delivery was worth it. The sod company had one truck break down which put them way behind in their schedule. Then another truck blew a tire which pushed them further behind. Long story short, our sod was delivered at 4 am this morning. But like I said, having grass to enjoy all summer made all the work and lack of sleep worth it. It is going to be awesome this summer!!

This is about the 1/2 way point. We started laying the sod at about 6:15 am with the help of our home teacher. Other friends and family joined us as the morning progressed. My dad is raking out the dirt just a bit more to even out the bumps. My dad also brought us 3 trees and 2 bushes to plant as well, he's so great!!

Because of the hill on the side of the house, we decided that a 4-wheeler with a trailer would be the best option for transporting the sod from the driveway to the back. A few men did use wheel barrows, and I laughed every time I saw them running down the hill with a full load of grass. Impressively though, none of them ever lost their load.

These are our uninvited guests. They came with the grass. Only a thousand or so, mostly babies about 1/4" long. I told Wayne that it is too bad that Lizzie isn't around anymore. We would have had food for months with these little guys.

Bradley and his friend Braydon had the job of catching as many as they could and they will take them to the pond later to feed the fish. I asked Bradley at one point how many he had in his jar, "oh, 200 I think" was his reply. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he was right. There really were hundreds of them hopping all over our front yard.

This is the last stretch on the hill. Wayne was finishing this up on his own because we weren't quite ready this morning to do this spot. He still had lots to rake up, holes to fill in, and bumps to level off. We ordered almost exactly enough sod. We ordered 5500 square feet of sod, and were only short at the top of the hill by about 5 feet deep and 15' wide, which isn't too bad. And since it is at the top of the hill, we will just prepare that spot for seed this fall.

It's a bit of a patchwork quilt right now, but in a few weeks it's going to be a lovely soft green carpet. We have flower beds and stone paths to finish, but the most important part of the backyard is now complete. Thanks Wayne, and everyone else who came to help us this morning.

Elli is really going to love the yard, or is it me who is going to love being able to have another place to escape with her?

(She is riding her new Clifford bike that her therapist brought over on Thursday. It is to help her start using her legs more, and she caught on immediately. She only goes for short rides, but she does it herself. I think down on the patio she will go even farther.)

Capitol Reef

2009-05-22T15:19:00.009-06:00

We spent an afternoon in Capital Reef a couple of weeks ago, and had such a great time. The weather was great, not too hot or too cold. Wayne's parents and youngest brother joined us. Even though it was a quick trip, we really had a wonderful time!

This is a view of the Goosenecks. I have to admit that I was a nervous mother. I made Bradley hold Wayne's hand while walking along all the edges. I'm just a bit over protective I think.

This is the look out at the Goosenecks. These are Wayne's parents Keith and Mikki, and his little brother Rhett.

This pioneer home belonged to the Behunin family. They had 8 children. The parents and their 2 small children lived in the cabin. Up the hill behind the cabin was a cave that they dug out for the boys to live in, and the girls made a bed in their box wagon. Quite humbling isn't it?

This photo shows the river cutting fairly deep into the sandstone. We are looking south in this photo.

This was taken from the same spot as the previous photo, I just turned so we are looking north. This is just before the waterfall.

We didn't realize that you could swim here. There were about 4 families enjoying the sun and the water here. I think it would have still been a little cold for me though.

Elli and her daddy watching the waterfall.

Bradley found the stinkiest mud and began a rescue project for the water skeeters. Leave it to him to do the dirtiest thing around. He had fun though, and that's what counts!

What a cute kid!

Elli and her Grandma. We haven't been able to go down and visit Wayne's parents since last year because of RSV season, so I was a little worried about Elli warming up to them. I should have known better. She is our little socialite. She took her normal 5 to 10 minutes to warm up, after that she couldn't get enough of them, or them of her.

This is Sunset Point. It was out last hike together. The day was just a little too short. We really wish we could have done more. It was a good test for Elli though. It gave us a good idea of what she can handle. I think we are going to be able to do some fun things this summer.

all about Bradley

2009-05-11T22:35:00.004-06:00

This whole blog is dedicated to my sweet Bradley. He has been having a lot of fun lately.

We will begin with the pinewood derby. Bradley chose his design from Star Wars IV. His car is suppose to be like Luke Skywalker's speeder. We had my dad help with the cutting, Wayne helped with the sanding, and I helped with the painting. He had so much fun, he is already planning what his car will look like next year.

That's Bradley's car on the 2nd track. He came in last or 2nd to last on every race, but he didn't care. He had a really good attitude and just enjoyed himself.

On this race he did take 2nd place. That's his friend Tommy from kindergarten. (We combined our pinewood derby with a neighboring ward.) Tommy was a great cheerleader, oh, I mean yell leader. I guess you don't use the name cheerleader for boys.

This is Bradley on the left and his friend Braydon with the dark hair. By this time the boys were just having fun while awards were being prepared.

Bradley and Braydon

Bradley was really excited about his award. He thought it was perfect for his design. (He got a little carried away with the graphite. He ended up with graphite on his face, clothes and his car of course. But it did help the car go faster, so I guess it was worth the mess.)

In the photo we have Ben (my cousin Abbey's little boy), Bradley, Ben (Kim's), Noah (Marianne's), and Aaron (Kim's). They all worked very hard on creating the best sand castles at my parents on Mother's day. They really worked for hours on these things.

This kids are pointing to their own castles. Bradley's is the one you see below, but I didn't get this picture until it was dark, so it's hard to see.

BEHOLD, THE FISHERMAN!!!!

Tonight after working out in the back yard trying to level out the dirt for sod, the boys went fishing. Bradley was so excited to go, and he really wanted to be successful. He told me that he had said a prayer that he would be able to catch a fish, and well, you see the results.

He outdid his dad a little.

Bradley caught this fish all on his own. He was bursting with pride, and couldn't wait to get home to show me. I was at home trying to get a little laundry done, but now I see that I should have been there with the camera. I will have to go with them next time to get some action shots.

Bradley is such a sweet, imaginative, and adventurous boy. We have so much fun with him and are so glad he's a part of our family!!!

Ahhh, country life!

2009-05-07T13:24:00.004-06:00

Elli and I have a new daily ritual. We load up the stroller with water for me, snacks and milk for Elli and we explore all the little roads around our house. I know when it's time to leave because Elli will ask me for her hat. She would spend every waking minute outside if I let her.

I just can't get over the beauty of spring, so yesterday we took our camera on our walk. I hope you enjoy what we get to see everyday. It really is a lovely place to live.

These are the acres and acres of apple, cherry and peach trees. It's hard to see, but this row goes on for at least a mile. The blossoms smell yummy too.

This is one of the views as we walked. While Elli and I were out we had a few cars drive past us, 2 tractors, and 2 4-wheelers driven by sweet old farmers. Everyone waved to us as they drove by, and we only knew 2 of them. I think it's an unwritten rule that everybody waves to everybody in small towns.

Elli has discovered what fun dandelions are. Blowing is a new skill, and she could still use some practice. But she has the face down!

After trying to blow and having nothing happen, she resorted to tapping it against the stroller. She was very pleased with herself for finding a new way to get the seeds to fly off.

One more vista during our walk. Elli really loves going by the red barn. There are about 6 cows and just as many, if not more, horses.

I love spring! We have had a really lovely one this year too. It usually ends up that we have maybe a week of upper 60's and lower 70's, and then suddenly it's summer. It has actually been spring for a while now, and we have thoroughly enjoyed it at our house.

I took this picture of a field full of dandelions because I think they are so pretty when there are millions of them like this. I know they are weeds, and I don't love them on my lawn, but there is something about this many together that just makes me smile. Happy Spring everyone!

Easter Weekend

2009-04-13T08:47:00.010-06:00

What a wonderful weekend we had! We love this time of year for many reasons. The main reason is that we are so grateful for the sacrifice and resurrection of our Savior. It is a time for me to think about all the things I can improve on so that I (we) can be with my (our) little Matthew again.

The weekend began a bit early for Bradley who got to ride down to his grandma's on Thursday to be with his cousins who had spring break. Bradley missed a field trip and an Easter egg hunt at school, but he would take cousins over that stuff any day of the week, or the year for that matter.

He had tons of fun! On Saturday Wayne worked a few hours in the morning, then broke away for a few hours to head down to the annual Easter hunt at Easter rock. I didn't get any pictures this year for 2 reasons. 1. I wasn't there to take them. (Elli still can't be around that many people, although I was sorely tempted to jump in the car with Wayne.) We should be able to take her next year, I hope. 2. I forgot to send the camera down with Wayne, so he didn't take any either. Easter rock is a huge hill with pockets carved out in the sandstone where the Easter bunny hides treats. It really covers an entire hill. You can only get there by 4 wheel drive, or a 4 wheeler. It's as big an event as Christmas. It will be nice when we can finally take Elli down.

Wayne said that afterwards Bradley and his cousins all gathered together and lined up their candy on the ping pong table. They created a candy stock exchange to trade with each other. Bradley traded for Crunch bars, his favorite!! Aren't kids so clever!?!

Wayne and Bradley came home fairly early that evening because Wayne had to get back to work for a few more hours. Elli had missed Bradley so much the last couple of days, so he had story time with her.

I love that Bradley enjoys spending time with Elli. It is clear that she can't get enough of him, but the fact that he feels the same about her if a wonderful blessing.

The Easter Bunny hid Elli's basket on top of her favorite things--BOOKS. Bradley enjoyed helping Elli find it.

The first thing she noticed was the CHOCOLATE. We are raising an addict I'm afraid.

She was excited about her new crayons too. It will be fun to open them up and see how she does.

This is the elusive "scrunchy face". It even comes with sound effects. She breathes in and out of her nose really fast , making a sniffing noise. She will do it when we ask her, but whenever we try to capture it on camera, she won't oblige. I was lucky this time. Silly little girl.

We had to play "hot and cold" to help Bradley locate his Easter basket. His back was burning up in this shot.

The basket was carefully hidden behind all boxes of garbage from finishing the basement. All the empty boxes and paint cans made for a great hiding spot.

This face cracked me up! I can't remember this Star Wars characters name, but Bradley thinks she's great. He has made up a Star Wars game that he plays with all his cousins on both sides of the family, and in his game he is married to this character.

Once the baskets were found I went to the kitchen to make a yummy Easter breakfast. We had cinnamon french toast, sausage, and hash browns. Wayne mixed up a delicious juice out of oranges, kiwi, strawberries and bananas. I love breakfast!!!

Here is Elli ready for church. My sister Marianne found this dress last year, and I thought it would make a perfect Easter dress.

It has been several months since we've been to church because of RSV season. We thought that we'd take her to sacrament meeting today. We will officially take her back to church in May when RSV really over.

We spent the evening with my family enjoying a lovely dinner of ham and turkey sandwiches, veggies, salads, deviled eggs, chips, and desserts galore. The kids enjoyed an Easter egg hunt in the back yard and then we all came in for a FHE lesson on the Savior. It was a wonderful evening, but sadly I don't have any pictures to share because, yep, I forgot the camera. I didn't have a great weekend that way.

Now it's time for me to go to work. Monday's are always my weekend recovery day, but today it is a little worse than normal. Sadly, the clean up could linger into Tuesday or Wednesday.

Book Ideas

2009-04-03T17:18:00.002-06:00

BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS!

Elli LOVES books! She has learned how to say book (she doesn't know Mom yet though) and she knows the sign for book. She uses them both frequently all day, everyday. I would love it if you could all share your kid's favorites so that I can compile a list to take to the library now that RSV is almost over. (We haven't been for months because of RSV.) Elli is mainly into picture books right now, she gets a little impatient with me when I try to read the words. She just likes to point at all the fun things on each page.

I would love some ideas for Bradley too. His collection right now includes some chapter books, a a ridiculous amount of animal books, and several Star Wars books. Broadening his horizons would be a good thing. :) With summer break approaching faster than I'd like to admit, a list for him to take to the library would be a fun thing.

Thanks everyone!

2nd grade program

2009-03-28T10:42:00.003-06:00

Bradley's 2nd grade program was so much fun this year. They sang songs all about the weather and the seasons. They sand everything from Here Comes Suzy Snowflake for winter to Go You Chicken Fat Go for summer. There were kids wearing swimsuits, snowsuits, and everything in between.

Bradley had a part in the song Oh What Do You Do In The Summertime. He and the girls by him are fishing. Fishing was the fist thing they do in summer and then they had to freeze while the other kids did their actions. It was pretty funny to watch him choose a really cool freeze position. It was some weird, and very unnatural pose. He had a lot of fun.

The boy in the orange shirt and blue jacket is Bradley's good friend Jex. He lives just up the hill from us. They have a lot of fun together, which is why they are no longer sitting next to each othe in class. They tend to be a little chatty when they are together.

What a cute kid!!

Okay, this had nothing to do with Bradley's program, it was just really pretty so I had to share it. This was the dessert I made for Valentine's Day. It was a 2 layer chocolate cake with chocolate raspberry filling, and a raspberry sauce to drizzle over it when it was served. It was an experiment that turned out pretty darn good I think.

I finally got some batteries.....

2009-03-25T15:46:00.006-06:00

We will start with the downstairs bathroom. Yeah, I know the color is a crazy. The color didn't turn out the way I thought it would, but it is growing on me. Wayne would say, "yeah, growing on you like mold". Actually with the towels, shower curtain and a few decorations I have I think it will look great in the end. Crossing fingers....oh yeah, that doesn't work remember?! (see blog entry on January 28th.) I haven't touched up the paint since the shower installation either. I'll get to that when tax season is over.

Wayne's brother salvaged these cabinets from a house he had worked on at Richmond American. The cabinets were brand new, and they were just going to get rid of them. He asked us if we'd like them, and we said of course!!! (Duh, I am married to an accountant! Of course we'll take free stuff.) So he brought them to us. It saved us a bundle! Thanks Alan!! I haven't picked out a sink yet, so for now you have to wash your hands in the tub. But it is a functional bathroom and we love that! I plan on getting a sink as soon as tax season is over.

These are the shelves Alan built me for my paper in the closet of my craft room. Pretty cool huh!!! I still need to paint them, but painting also has to wait until the end of tax season because trying to tackle those kinds of projects with Elli hasn't worked out very well. It interferes with her book time, how rude of me. With Wayne home I will be able to finish up all the little things, while he plays with Elli. But for now I have a place for my solid paper, my printed papers and my themed papers. It's so lovely! (Incidentally this is the only place my house is organized, I'm hoping it will be contagious and spread everywhere else.)

I took this photo before Jeff (our cabinet guy) had finished installing the desk along the window. You can see it on the floor though. That will be a place for Bradley to do homework, color, and a great place for kids to eat when we have company over.

This is the main area. I will have a stove and microwave (eventually) in the space on the left. The sink (which hasn't been chosen) will be in the middle of the counter and the space you can see under the counter in the right corner will be for a small refrigerator. The counter you see on the bottom right is the counter/cabinet from the previous picture. Don't they look pretty? They will look even better with the appliances and the hardware. It will be so nice to have it done and cleaned up. We are planning on canning down here this fall, and we will also be hosting Thanksgiving with my side of they family. I also have my Great Grandmother's dining table and chairs that I'm hoping to have refinished by then. It is so exciting!!!!!

my basement

2009-03-20T11:12:00.002-06:00

I am so excited about our basement coming along! I have taken pictures, but my camera batteries died. I will post the photos as soon as I get some new batteries. The cabinets are so pretty!!! They are off white with bead board on the doors. All I have left to do on them is find knobs I like, and place the shelves where I want them. They look so great against the brown paint I have on my walls.

The closet shelves are built in my craft room too. I have 30 slots for organizing my 12 X 12 paper, and other shelves to store everything else. My brother in law built them for me & they look great. I can't wait to finish up the room so I can attempt to catch up on my scrapbooks. It sad, but true, I have only done 3 layouts since I brought Elli home last year. (And I just did those last month.) I have sooooo much to do.

The bathroom is just about done, and it is usable. You just have to wash you hands in the tub because we don't have a sink & faucet yet. We will soon though, that's a priority for me.

We are going to have to wait a bit for the appliances in the kitchen. (A stove so that I can do all my canning downstairs, and a small refrigerator that will fit under the counter.) When you're married to an accountant, there is always a plan for spending money wisely. Wayne's plan for the basement is the take our time, spreading out the expenses. I would have loved to get it done all at once, but I know that financially this is a better way to do it. We began the project early last year, and should be able to have a good chunk of the basement, and the backyard complete by the end of this year, if not all of it.

another sweet conversation with Bradley

2009-03-09T10:18:00.002-06:00

I have been enjoying Bradley's wisdom lately. It is amazing how grown up he is. We went to the Draper Temple open house a few weeks ago and he loved it! His favorite rooms were the baptistery and the celestial room. He said that he started to cry a little when we walked into the celestial room. (He has always been very sensitive like that.) He really did enjoy the experience and it has made him excited for when he turns 12 and can go to the temple to participate in baptisms.

On our way home I was explaining that we have been counseled to attend the temple often, and that his dad and I try really hard to go at least once a month. Then I told him that I haven't always been able to do that since we brought Elli home, but that I am I going to be better this year. He must have been able to sense my guilt, and turned to me and said, "but mom, Jesus understands why."

Oh how I love that little boy!!!!

update on Elli

2009-03-03T09:47:00.003-07:00

Elli just went through her 6 month review with Kids Who Count. They are coming out 5 times a month to our home with occupational therapy, physical therapy and weight/health checks. She is doing really well and met all the goals that were set 6 months ago. Here is a list of things she is doing now:

She finally began army crawling (she has been mobile for a long time by rolling everywhere, but it's nice to see her crawl)
She is saying Bradley, Dad, book, bear, baby and lots of others. We are working on identifying them all.
She can sign milk and more. She tries to sign book, but somehow she ends up signing Jesus instead. That's okay, it's a good sign to know too.
She weighs 15 lbs. 3 oz. and is 29 1/2" tall (she was up 9 oz. and 1/2" for the month which for her is tremendous, especially considering that she had stomach flu for 1 week)
She LOVES to read books
She can make the sounds of monkeys, dinosaurs and light sabers (Bradley thinks that is awesome!)

As they tested her at her review they found that she is at the 14-18 month level for her cognitive development as well as her fine motor skills. She is still behind in her large motor, but now that she has figured out how to army crawl she will strengthen her core and arms and it won't be long before she catches up on all of those things. She will begin play group in May or June (after RSV is over), and that will help her progress a lot! She is such a sweetie!

She is showing off her tongue. She loves to play with it and makes silly noises. She also thinks that to blow a kiss you have to have your tongue hanging out all the way. She is so cute and makes us all so happy!!!

crossing fingers never works

2009-01-28T22:39:00.002-07:00

Bradley was on a roll tonight with his deep thoughts. This is one of them:

While driving home from his 2nd grade weather program (songs all about seasons and weather) he mentioned that he almost missed the bus earlier that day. His rehearsal for the program lasted a little too long and he had to rush back to his room for his backpack and coat and then out to the bus. He was worried he'd miss it, so he said a little prayer on his way down the hall. He said that the bus came to pick up the kids a little bit late. This was the rest of our conversation:

Tami: "Bradley, want to know something that I know about you?"
Bradley: "What"?
Tami: "I know that you have a testimony of prayer."
Bradley: "Yeah, prayer always works."

We talked briefly about several of his experiences with answers he's received, and the conversation ended like this:

Bradley: "Yeah, prayer is the only thing that works."
Tami: smiling and laughing a little
Bradley: "I'm serious. Crossing fingers never works. Sometimes our teacher chooses 3 people to get prizes. One gets a brag note, and one gets a treat. (I can't remember what he said the 3rd gets.) I always cross my fingers and it never works!"

So there you have it folks. Don't bother with crossing your fingers anymore, prayer is the only thing that works.

On the serious side, I am so grateful that he has learned at such a young age that he can pray and be heard. I have learned a lot from his example of faith.

midnight adventure

2009-01-25T10:53:00.013-07:00

Last night at 2:20 we heard at knock at the door. Wayne wasn't dressed for the occasion, so I went to the door in my pajamas. (He didn't really want to "share the gospel" with the person at the door. :D)

I have learned from recent news stories that you don't open the door right away, so I turned on our bright porch light and looked through the curtains. I saw a man that I had never seen before, who quickly showed me his Questar badge. I was still a little hesitant, so I began to talk to him through the glass. After a minute or 2, I finally opened the door. He explained that there was a gas leak next door and we needed to leave our home while they fixed it. He thought it would only take about a half hour to air out our neighbors home and get us back into ours. So we woke up Bradley, who likes to sleep in his underwear too, and we got him dressed. Wayne put Elli in the car seat with all her fuzzy blankets, and I made her a bottle so she could go back to sleep. Bradley grabbed his Star Wars books to read, and we were off.

We parked our car down the street and watched all the emergency personnel show up to take care of business. After a about an hour and a half, we were told to go back to our homes and get whatever we needed, and to go stay at the nearby hotel at Questar's expense. The leak was underground and they would have to dig it up to repair the damage and find any remaining gas pockets underground. They thought it would take 2 to 4 hours.

This is how we found our home when we came back to grab a few extra supplies. I had to laugh a little when I thought of what our newspaper man was going to think when he pulled up to drop off our paper. This isn't something you see every day, that's for sure.

We drove down to the hotel in town to find out that it was filled to capacity. So we drove to the next town, not realizing that they don't have any hotels. At that point we couldn't decide if we should drive the 45 minutes to my parents house, or go back to Wayne's little brothers house.

Bradley and Elli were both sleeping comfortably in the car, so we decided to stay in the car and let them sleep. Elli would have been easy to move because of her car seat, but Bradley isn't that much smaller than me anymore, so the days of carrying him out of the car to help him stay asleep are long since past. I didn't want to wake him up again, so we parked outside my Alan and Crystal's house and tried to sleep in the car. Wayne, Bradley and Elli were all sleeping just fine, but I had a headache and couldn't go to sleep. Bradley and Wayne were both reclined in the front seats, and I was in the back with my legs pinned under Bradley with Elli right next to me. ( I was in the back because Elli doesn't always love the car, and if she wakes up in a dark car it's even worse. She will cry until she starts throwing up. It's such a lovely thing!) I couldn't take just sitting there listening to everyone else sleeping so peacefully, so I finally told Wayne to come sleep in the back while I just drove around.

First we drove up to the stake center and Wayne left a note telling the stake leaders that he would be missing the meetings that morning. Then I just headed north, thinking that maybe I would go to my mom's after all. We only made it to the Provo Town Center and I changed my mind about going to my moms. I thought, we would probably just arrive and then they will call to tell us our house has been cleared and we can come home. So I turned around and went back. It was about 6:45 at this point. We just went back to my brother-in-law's driveway and snoozed a little. At about 7:30 Wayne said it would be fine to knock on their door. (The reality is that it would have been fine to knock at 4:30 too, but I felt awful waking them up.) So at 7:30 we were finally indoors again.

Bradley and Wayne went to sleep on the extra bed. But Elli woke up and wanted to play, so I stayed with her. The reason for that was I would be able to take a long nap during Elli's nap because it was my turn to stay home with Elli during church today. Anyway, at about 8:00 we got a call from Questar to do a walk through our home to clear it, and relight all our pilot lights. Wayne ran over alone to do that and came back at around 8:30 to take us home. It was lovely to go home!!!

Bradley told me that he hopes it will happen again because he liked sleeping in the car. He was pretty comfortable with the seat reclined all the way back. As for me, I think I will be okay without anymore midnight knocks at the door.

Our Story

2009-01-20T23:02:00.013-07:00

I just stumbled on a song I haven't heard in a very long time, For The First Time by Kenny Loggins. It got me thinking back to how Wayne and I met, and how we got together. It's kind of a long story, so I'll be as short as I can:

We met back in the fall of 1991 at college. I was a freshman and he was a sophomore, just home from his mission. He and his roommate were my home teachers. Wayne assigned himself to my room (as the Elders Quorum Pres.) because he thought my roommate was cute and wanted to get to know her better. He did, and they dated the rest of the year. During the year he and I were in a production together at the institute. I sang a solo, and Wayne had a speaking part as Nephi. After the program my dad pulled me aside as said, pointing to Wayne, "I want you to marry someone just like him."

Wayne was called to be the institute president for the next year, so he stayed on for a 3rd year. We did a lot together that year, but only as friends. He was no longer dating my old roommate, but it still seemed a little weird to both of us because he had dated her so seriously. We did go to one dance together, and I can honestly say it was the funnest dance I've ever been too. You should have seen us doing all the country dancing stunts he had taught me. It was one of those times where everyone around you stops dancing just to watch you dance. We were pretty awesome! :D

At the end of the year I went home because my missionary was returning home. Yep, I had been waiting for a missionary my whole 2 years at college. He came home and very soon after that we were engaged. By the end of the summer I had called off my engagement, and was left without plans. It was a tough, emotionally draining time, and I needed to get away. So I decided to go back to the place I loved. I returned for a 3rd year at college. It was just what I needed, and it helped me get through everything.

At the end of that year I decided rather suddenly that I needed to go on a mission. So papers were submitted, and I was off on my mission all within 4 months. I got home July 1996, and began working full time.

In the meantime, Wayne was studying accounting and trying his hand at teaching seminary. He was doing really well in the teaching program and they really wanted to hire him, but the catch to that is that you need to be married. He dated a lot of girls, but still hadn't found the right one.

We got together once or twice after my mission, but just as friends. I think we always got together to go dancing. I love dancing with Wayne! He has his own style and technique, and I've never met anyone that dances like him. Since he is the one who taught me how to country swing, I have always danced best with him. But clueless as we were, neither one of us ever thought there would be anything between us.

So in the early summer of 1998 I went dancing with my sister when I ran into a friend of mine and Wayne's from college. He told me that Wayne had graduated any was living only 1/2 hour from my home. He thought we should all get together for dinner sometime. I thought it was a great idea, but didn't think anything else of it.

That very weekend, Wayne had gone through a bit of a personal crisis. He had been casually dating several girls, and knew he needed to narrow it down to just one or two, so he prayed for some guidance. Instead of being prompted on who he should focus on, he was told by every single one of them that they didn't think it was going to work out. He was left with no one. Then he received a call from our friend, who proceeds to tell Wayne that he really needed to call me and take me out. The next night he got a phone call from his Aunt (who used to work with my mom, so she knew who I was), and she told Wayne that he really ought to call me and take me out now that he lived so close. He was feeling a bit dumbfounded from his experience of being dumped several times in one week, and knew he needed a break from the dating scene. He thought it would be perfect to go out with me because there would be no pressure. After all, we were just friends, it wasn't going to go anywhere, right?

We went to the Manti Pageant, and had a great time as always. Since neither one of us had a significant other, we went out a few more times. Then he asked me to to go down to his parents home for the weekend to attend his high school reunion with him. While there, he introduced me as his girlfriend, which was news to me. When I got home from our weekend together I realized that I knew exactly where things were headed, so a couple of days later I told him. (Which by the way "scared the tar out of him". Those are his exact words.) I said, "I know where this is headed, so just let me know when you are ready." A little too bold I'm afraid. Luckily, I only scared him enough to slow him down, not scare him away. We were engaged in September 1998 and married January 8, 1999.

It only took us 7 years to realize how much we love and need each other. That's why the lyrics to the song are so perfect for us. If you want to listen, it's the last song on my playlist.

10 years ago....

2009-01-08T13:37:00.007-07:00

10 years ago today Wayne and I were married in the Jordan River Temple. We were sealed by my Grandpa, who shares our wedding anniversary. He counseled us to "Be One" as taught in the New Testament. We have tried very hard to do that. The last 10 years have been wonderful ones! We have had our bumps in the road that weren't easy to navigate at the time, but those moments have molded and shaped us into who we are today. And most importantly, they have left us with far richer blessings than we could have imagined ever receiving. Thanks Wayne for your love, your patience, your example, and for the way you can lift me with your smile. I love you Wayne!!

remembering a friend

2009-01-06T09:16:00.013-07:00

Lizzie Ting Ting: with us from December 2004 to January 2008.

One year ago today we had to say goodbye to a friend. We had only had Elli home for a couple of days when we noticed that Lizzie wasn't doing well, and she died shortly after that.

For those of you who haven't heard the story of Lizzie I will share it again. It is a very sweet story of love and faith. Bradley learned at a very young age that prayers are heard and answered, but he also knew that sometimes prayers take time. When he was barely able to talk he added one line to his prayer that he repeated every night. It was either, "we thank thee that we can have a baby come to our home", or the more specific version, "we thank thee that I can have a baby sister". What does that have to do with a Lizard you ask? Well, I think Bradley was getting lonely after praying for over a year for a sibling. He had also discovered his love for animals, particularly reptiles. He wanted a pet, so he came up with the idea to pray for one. Somewhere around October or November of 2004 he began adding this to his nightly prayers, "we thank thee that Santa will bring me a lizard for Christmas". (He continued to pray for a sister as well.) Every night he prayed with such faith. He always prays like he knows that it is going to happen, and he is just fine to let it be on Heavenly Father's time.

Well, Christmas arrived at our home, and Santa was very generous with Bradley. However, there was no lizard under the tree. Bradley was okay with that. He even said that maybe Santa would bring it next time. He was disappointed, but hadn't lost his faith.

A couple of days later we loaded up the car to head down to Wayne's parents house for their family Christmas gathering. As part of the family party, we all squeeze into the family room and open gifts from each other. The tree as always was a lovely, full pine tree they had cut down a week or two before. There was a fire going to warm us all up, and create that cozy Christmas feeling. (although over 40 people in one room is probably cozy enough) Grandma passes the gifts out one by one so that everyone can see and appreciate what has been given to them. About half way through she said something about seeing a lizard on top one of the gifts. (Grandma and Grandpa didn't know about Bradley pryaing for a lizard, we hadn't said anything to anyone about it.) All the little boys jumped up at once and started scrambling through the remaining gifts under the tree. Wayne was the lone adult looking for the lizard under the tree, and was the one who recovered her from amongst the presents. Bradley jumped right over to him and with pure joy he declared, "Santa didn't bring the lizard to my house, he brought it to Grandma's house." How could we not bring her home after that? My father in law had told me that he had seen the lizard days before by the fire. It had found a way to get inside the house and stayed near the fireplace to keep warm. So was this just a coincidence, or a tender mercy? I believe it was a tender mercy from a loving Father who knew a little boy was lonely at home.

Lizzie was a lot of fun to watch. She loved to chase down the tiny crickets we bought for her food. She also loved to bury herself in the sand we brought back from a sand dune outside of Delta. She loved her sandstone arch, and was often on top warming herself under the lamp above her little habitat.

She was a bit tricky too. She escaped a few times, and we aren't sure how it happened, but each time it proved to be a faith promoting experience for Bradley. He would kneel down and ask for help finding Lizzie. And each time he did. I am so thankful that Heavnely Father loves his children and listens to all their prayers.

There was one demonstration of his profound love for Bradley that I will never forget. I was on strict bed rest, and so my sister offered to have Bradley come stay with her for a couple of weeks to ease our situation. Wayne was tenderly caring for me, and didn't forget to go in and care for Lizzie either. But just a couple of days before Bradley came home he must have left the top off the cage after feeding her because the next day he discovered her missing. He looked all over and couldn't find her anywhere. We thought that maybe she fell into the vent of something. So the night before Bradley came home I called him on the phone to let him know that Lizzie was lost and I didn't think we'd be able to find her. He was upset of course, but understood that it was an accident.

The next day he came home and went straight to his room. He hadn't been in there for more than a couple of minutes before he starting screaming in delight. Wayne ran back to see what was going on. It was Lizzie. She was right in plain sight sunning herself on top of a pile of books near the window. Wayne had looked there several times, but had not found Lizzie.

Bradley came out and told me that he said 2 prayers the night before asking for help finding her, he said another one in the car on the way home, and another in his room just moments before finding her. I am grateful for his example of faith, and for a loving Father in Heaven who understands the needs of ALL his children.

This photo was taken the same day that Lizzie died. I am also grateful that Bradley never gave up on praying for a little sister. I really feel that Heavenly Father helped that tiny little desert lizard live long enough so that Bradley would no longer feel lonely at home. She was with us for just over 3 years, and we have no idea how old she was to begin with, or how long desert lizards live for that matter. She was a tender mercy in many many ways.

Christmas

2008-12-31T15:20:00.008-07:00

We were home for the first time on Christmas Eve. We decided it would be fun to have Wayne's brother and his family come over for dinner. I thought it was about time to use my nice dishes. They haven't been unpacked since our move 2 years ago. I really enjoyed being fancy for once.

We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade rolls (Crystal made them), stuffing, peas, and red Kool-Aid. Bradley picked out the Kool-Aid the night before at Macey's. For dessert we had Elli's unbirthday cake with ice cream. The night ended fairly early, as it was Christmas Eve and all. Alan and Crystal took Sadie and Sawyer home around 8:00 to get them to bed. We didn't want to do anything to discourage Santa from stopping by.

After Alan and Crystal left we turned on our CD of the other wise man. It is an old radio version of the story with music and sound effects. It was a tradition for Wayne's family to listen to it every Christmas Eve, so we have done the same ever since we were married. While we listened we all worked on a ginger bread house. Elli had already gone to bed for the night. A little early for her, but she must have sensed the importance of sleeping well on Christmas Eve.

Bradley (all on his own) wanted to make sure that Santa didn't forget what he had asked for. He placed his list right smack in the middle of the Christmas tree so that it couldn't be missed. Bradley believes with his WHOLE heart in Santa, and the magic of Christmas.

Christmas morning. What fun! Santa didn't forget to stop by, that is certain!!!

We told Bradley that we couldn't go downstairs until everyone was awake, including Elli. She usually sleeps until 7:30 or 8:00. So he requested that we bring our small TV with a VCR into his bedroom to help occupy his time in the morning. I could hear him in there watching How The Grinch Stole Christmas starting at around 7:00. I had already put breakfast in the oven, so we were ready to eat around 7:30. We had our traditional Christmas casserole. It's a yummy sausage, egg and potato casserole that we love! I prepare it on Christmas Eve, wake up early to put it in the oven, and then it's ready for us to eat before all the festivities begin. By time we were done eating we could hear Elli waking up. Bradley was dying at this point. He had only stolen a peak down the stairs, and he said he just couldn't wait any longer. The suspense was killing him!

Santa leaves a few items unwrapped. Bradley got his General Grievous and his star wars sticker book. (It's only been one week, but he had completed the sticker book already)

Santa brought Elli another baby. This one has eyes that open and close. She loves her new baby!

Santa tried really hard to find toys that would help Elli want to sit up more. The piano is already a favorite with her, and the busy ball popper in the background just fascinates her. Santa really know what he is doing!!

A couple of weeks before Christmas I went and bought the movie A Christmas Story. Bradley loved it and watched it once a day almost for the next 2 weeks. Well, this was the reason we bought the movie. Wayne thought it would be fun to be able to go shooting with Bradley when they go to his parents house, so Bradley got his very own Red Ryder BB Gun. I know, I know, he'll shoot his eye out. He took it down to Grandma's already and had a blast with it.

I didn't get to go down to Grandma and Grandpa's this year. We still have to keep Elli away from large crowds. But Wayne and Bradley had a wonderful time, as always! Staying up until 1:00 in the morning playing with cousins, sledding, watching movies, eating tons of great food, and of course debating every topic you can think of. This photo show just a handful of the family.

Every Christmas while presents are being passed out and opened, Grandpa sneaks in a little nap. Staying up late every night with passionate discussions wears anybody out!

Grandma always puts together a wonderful Christmas for everyone. We love and appreciate her and Grandpa!

Kristi had my name this year, and she knows me well. These are the cute holiday blocks she sent up to me. She also included a yummy smelling home spritzer from a store that I love called Krumpet's. Thanks Kristi, I really love it!!!!

Kristi's daughter Heidi had Elli's name, and since we weren't there for Christmas I thought I'd better take pictures of Elli sporting her new outfit.

Heidi also gave Elli a cute ginger bread story with a ginger bread cookie cutter and a ginger bread cookie mix. What a darling theme! Elli loves to read books. Thanks Heidi. Wish we could have been down there with everyone.

It has been a wonderful Christmas, and it is hard to see it come to an end. I am already looking forward to next Christmas. This is my favorite time of the year. I love all the emotions and feelings that Christmas brings with it. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well.

deck the halls

2008-12-20T21:01:00.003-07:00

This is one thing I really missed with our crazy back and forth from the hospital Christmas last year. I LOVE to decorate for Christmas and I just didn't have the time last year. It took me longer than I hoped this year, but I got it done. We have 5 artificial trees (all upstairs), and our beautiful real tree is downstairs. I really enjoy making a wreath out of the branches we trim from our tree. I missed it last year, and was very excited to get back to it again this year. I try to buy new ornaments for the wreath each year. This years additions were the red glitter stockings and the green glitter balls.

I also experimented with our light that is over our kitchen table. I think it turned out alright.

This is my favorite! We finally have 4 stockings hanging from our fireplace. Bradley worked it all out, the boys get the green trimmed stockings and the girls get the white ones.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-17T17:11:00.012-07:00

Merry Christmas everyone! It's is so hard to believe that another year has come and gone. I am so glad that it is this year though and not last. We have had a little LESS stress this year, which has been very, very nice.

I thought it would be fun to give you all a glimpse of our year through photos, so here we go:

January 3rd: the day Elli came home from the hospital. The next couple of months were mostly spent lying in the living room (the center of the house) because it was kind of a pain to move her oxygen tubing and apnea monitor from room to room. She was either in the living room during the day, or her bedroom at night.

Just a couple of days after Elli came home Bradley's pet lizard, Lizzie, died. She was Bradley's first answered prayer. He prayed for a couple of months to get a lizard for Christmas 4 years ago and when Santa didn't bring him a lizard he was a little disappointed. A couple of days later at his Grandpa's house he found Lizzie keeping warm among the presents. He said, "Santa didn't bring the lizard to my house, he brought it to Grandma's!!" It was hard for him to say good bye.

In February Elli was one of the featured babies at the Chocolate Extravaganza, which is a fundraiser for the NICU. This photo was made up into a poster about 6' tall. The hospital staff took a few photos of Elli and have used them for posters in several hospitals, as well as various mailers that have been sent out this last year. She's famous!

Bradley loves to sing. This is his school choir. I was at home with Elli, but Wayne said that Bradley was so into the music. He was rocking back and forth which made him stick out a little because the other kids stood very still. He loves music his music! (Sorry about the creepy eyes)

This was the last photo I took of Elli before she came off oxygen, right before Easter.

We were finally able to bless Elli in May (after RSV season was over). She was a little more spunky because of her age, but she behaved herself. It was a beautiful day, and it was the beginning of me getting my life back. It was wonderful to be able to get out of the house!!

At the end of May we held a birthday open house for my Grandpa who turned 90. We are so happy to have him in our lives, he is an incredible man!

Better than Disneyland!! This is the fort at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Bradley would happily live there if I would let him. He spends much of his time planning for things that would go great in the fort, what food he can put in his backpack to eat of the fort, and what things would make good toy weapons to use down there. All the cousins get together and play a game Bradley made up called the Western Game. They all have names to go with the game: Bradley is Feather Hike Climb. Don't ask me where that came from, I'm just glad he has such a terrific imagination.

In August we celebrated Elli's first birthday. She was a little confused about what we were all doing around her, and she couldn't eat solid food yet so she didn't even have any cake. We are going to be celebrating her adjusted one birthday this week because she can finally eat food. Hooray!!

Bradley was very excited to go to 2nd grade. I'm not sure if it was because he has a great teacher and lots of friends in his class, or that he now gets to be on the big kids playground. I suspect it is the play ground.

So far this is Bradley's favorite birthday cake ever. He is obsessed with 2 things: crocodiles, and Star Wars. I will have to think of some kind of star Wars cake next year I guess.

Bradley wanted to go to the zoo all summer, but I kept telling him we had to wait until it cooled down. That didn't happen until Oct. We were sad that we missed the white alligator, but we saw the wolf for the first time. Elli wasn't very impressed with the animals, she slept soundly in her stroller for most of the afternoon.

Costumes were easy this year. Bradley wanted to be a mountain man, and so we found things around the house: old camo pants, a rope for a belt, a canteen etc. We ordered the vest and hat. He was thrilled with his costume, and I was thrilled with the trick or treat weather. It was so warm we didn't need jackets.

Elli used a dress that Aunt Sharmi gave her. I made her the little princess hat to go with it. She looked so cute, but sadley got sick with a stomach bug and she didn't enjoy the day at all. Luckily it only lasted about 12 hours. She was back to normal the next day.

This was a big year for Bradley. He turned 8 in October, so in November he was baptized. He was so happy that day. He was also the most recent baptism to the primary sacrament program, so they asked him to give a little talk about his baptism. He did a great job! He is such a good boy!

This is the greatest place to be next to Grandma's house. This is the gully by Aunt Kristi's house.

This was actually Elli's very first vacation, and though I was nervous about the whole thing, she did really well. Bradley had so much fun with his cousins. They worked tirelessly on their fort in the gully. Bradley now makes plans for both forts in his spare time.

As part of our little vacation we spent an afternoon in Zion's. It was a lovely day. Wayne took Elli for a long walk in the stroller (she slept nearly the whole time) while I hiked with Bradley. We had a lot of fun.

This year hasn't been packed with trips and sports and all those things we would normally have done. We have had to adapt our life a little more to Elli's needs, but we wouldn't have changed a thing. We have spent some wonderful days at home as a family, and we couldn't get the same memories or feelings anywhere else. We are looking forward to what next holds in store for us.

We hope that you all know how much we love and appreciate you. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and the very best for this next year!!

Elli's update

2008-12-09T23:43:00.004-07:00

It's been a little while since I updated Elli's progress, so here's the scoop:
1. Weight: Elli now weighs roughly 13 lbs. 10 oz. (it's been a about a week since she was weighed).
2. Height: she is 28" long.
3. Hair: She has med. to light brown hair, and it is mostly on top of her head. It is the cutest little poof of hair that stands straight up if I don't put anything in it to help control it.
4. Mobility: She is rolling very proficiently now. She goes in the 4 wheel drive and rolls right over anything that gets in the way.
5. Sitting: She will sit at a toy for several minutes, and if she doesn't realize that she is sitting, she'll last even longer. She gets a little freaked out when she comes to the realization that she is sitting, and then she will quickly lay back down where she is comfortable.
6. Tummy Time: She is beginning to tolerate her tummy more too. She used to throw a fit almost immediately when she was placed on her tummy, now when she rolls around the room she will often stop on her tummy to play with something in front of her. Today during physical therapy she played on her tummy for almost 20 minutes. That was an amazing first for her!!
7. Communication: She is jabbering like crazy! She even has her own word for baby. She has also learned to wave hello and goodbye. I haven't had her vocal chord checked, but I'm pretty sure that it has healed because she has gotten really loud. It used to be hard to hear her, not so much anymore though.
8. Eating: We have put her on a medication that stimulates her appetite. It hasn't increased the amount she eats very much, but it has helped her tolerate pieces of food. She used to gag on everything we tried, even those little Gerber stars that dissolve almost instantly. The day we started this medication I gave her a cracker and she ate the whole thing without any problems. We have tried many other foods since then and she is doing really well. Now we just have to work on getting her to eat a little bit more so that she can grow.
9. Personality: She gets so excited about everything and claps with glee at the drop of a hat. She is especially fond of the Christmas tree, the fireplace, and music. She loves to tease Bradley by rolling right over anything he is doing on the floor. She will stop right next to him and start poking at him or kicking him. She loves to play with him, and he loves to play with her.
10. Follow up clinic: We went to follow up clinic last week and she had her eyes and ears examined. The results for both were completely normal, which proves once again that she is a miracle!

friends in heaven

2008-12-01T13:19:00.003-07:00

Bradley said the sweetest thing the other day. He had been playing and giggling with Elli and turned to me and said, "mom, I'm pretty sure that we were friends in heaven". Then he turned back to keep playing with Elli.

It was said so matter factly that I had to laugh a little, but I was deeply touched by his profound comment. As I blinked to clear my eyes, I told him that I'm sure they were. Nobody who has seen the way they interact with each other could question that. It was a precious moments that I will treasure. Oh how I love the innocent wisdom of children.

making changes

2008-11-12T15:55:00.004-07:00

Now that Elli is almost 15 months old, I think it is time to switch this blog over from being mainly about her to being about our family. That is why I changed the title from Little Miracle to Tiny Blessings. Elli certainly has been a miracle and a blessing, we just want to celebrate all the other blessings and miracles in our life too.

I know that I have already posted this photo once before, but I love it so much. It is just too cute! Besides, their clothes coordinate nicely with the Thanksgiving background.

When I get a few minutes I will post photos from the last month or so. We have had a few firsts for Elli: there was our trip to the zoo, walking along the Provo River trail to see Bridal Veil Falls, carving pumpkins, Halloween at home, and her first vacation. But this time we want to congratulate Bradley and his cousin Amberli on their baptisms. They were both baptized and confirmed November 1st. It was a special day for Bradley. When I asked him how he felt, "he said "I feel very, very, very happy!"

Bradley was baptized by Wayne, and Amberli was baptized by her big brother Jade.

Congratulations Bradley! We are very proud of you!!

Random stuff......

2008-10-27T07:22:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I'm going to play a little catch up on this blog entry today. So this is all really random.

Elli is little miss flexible. She loves to play with and suck on her toes. She is so funny about her feet, she almost acts like they are a second set of hands for her. When her physical or occupational therapists are here trying to get her to sit up and play with a toy, it works for a few minutes and then she lifts up her feet and starts using her feet to push buttons on whatever cool toy they brought with them. It's really cute, but frustrating at the same time because it throws her balance off and she falls backwards. It's kind of slowing down her progress toward sitting. Silly girl!!!

Elli still struggles with any food that is too chunky- she'll get it to the back of her throat too quickly and choke, gag, and throw up. These little mess bags are awesome! You put the food inside and they suck on it. No pieces to choke on. This was her first go at watermelon. She really liked it.

This is Elli's blessing dress. Simple and sweet, I really love this dress!

Here is Bradley on the first day of school 2008/2009. Last year I didn't get Bradley's picture on the first day of school because school started the 21st of August, and I was still in anti-partum (SP?) trying not to have Elli so early. She came the next day. So Bradley's picture was taken after I came home from the hospital, the 5th day of school 2007/2008.

There is a little story behind this darling dress. I bought it as a shower gift for someone else, and just fell in love with it. (This was about 4 or 5 years ago) I went out and got a different shower gift and hung this dress in my closet. It became a physical representation of my hope. I was so excited when Elli could finally wear it. Sadly, she has outgrown it now. It is put away with all her other little treasures I've been collecting.

This picture above and the 2 below are of the pond in my parents back yard. Their back yard is something like a sanctuary for me. It is absolutely beautiful. My dad is a very talented gardener, and there is such peace there. This summer when we could finally take Elli out, we spent many evenings just sitting and talking. It is pretty close to the top of my list of favorite places to go to.

Elli isn't always a good eater, sometimes I just give up by giving her the bowl and spoon to play with. I know it makes a big mess, but she has fun and she even ends up getting some of the food in her mouth. Whatever works - right?!

This is true to Elli's reaction to most food (ice cream not included). This was her first taste of oatmeal cereal. Not too impressed with it. Now I put fruit with it and some cinnamon and sugar, and she likes it. I add spices to most of her food because I have learned that she likes flavor. We also add olive oil to her food, and carnation instant breakfast to her formula to give her a little more fat in her diet. It seems to be working, her weight gain last month was better than it has been for a long time. She weighs 13 + now. (She hasn't been weighed since the beginning of this month.) I'll give an update when she is weighed in November.

My brother's birthday

2008-10-14T16:52:00.003-06:00

Bradley had a big birthday on Sunday! He turned 8 years old and will be baptized in November. We are so proud of him. He is such a good boy, and big brother. Elli absolutely adores him. If Bradley walks into the room when she is crying hard over something, she will stop instantly and smile at him. It is so much fun to watch them together. So far the age difference doesn't matter to either of them.

This is Bradley's favorite place. He and his cousins have built a fort in the sage brush by Grandma and Grandpa's house. I know he would be perfectly content to live there. They all play the western game together (something Bradley made up). They all have names for the game, Bradley's in Feather Hike. When we are down in Marysvale, the boys rarely come up to the house. They have so much fun roaming the acres of brush, fishing in the creek, and riding the dune buggy. He has been instructed numerous times on what to do when you spot a rattlesnake, believe me! That is my only worry down there. Other than that, I love that he loves his Grandma's house. In this picture Bradley is demonstrating his spear throwing skills.

This is the one and only picture I got of Bradley's birthday. My batteries died just after this photo. My sister-in-law took more, so I will post them when I get them from her. Anyone who knows Bradley, also knows that he has a bit of an obsession with crocodiles. I was so excited when I saw this cake on the Internet, it was perfect for him.

Elli and Bradley in their fall colors. Such sweet kids!

some perspective

2008-10-01T13:16:00.004-06:00

I am sorry that it has taken me forever to get these pictures on here. I thought it would be fun to take some pictures with the same props as we had in the hospital to show just how much Elli has grown. She is now 27 1/4" long and weighs just over 13 lbs. She is getting so close to being able to sit up on her own. She just panics and arches her back once she realizes that she is sitting, but she is so much stronger. She jabbers like crazy, and she is a smart little cookie! She will use her feet to bring toys up close to her hands, and she also teases us with gagging noises just to get some attention. She will stop and smile at us as soon as we tell her to stop gagging herself. What a silly goose she is!

This first picture was taken when she was about 2 weeks old. I just measured the Clifford Dog for some perspective, he is 4" long and 2 3/4" tall. If he were laying across her tummy, it would go from her chin down to almost the bottom of her diaper.

Here she is now holding her little Clifford in her crib. This looks so much better!

This is a photo taken for Elli's one month birthday. Her eyes had been open for a couple of weeks at this point, but she is asleep in this picture. The 10 key is in honor of her dad who is an accountant. The candy bar was for perspective. A 100 Grand candy bar isn't very long, and it goes from shoulder to knee.

Elli now was a little more interested in holding the candy bar, but I managed one photo with it next to her. This too looks so nice. It's hard to believe that she really was just a little longer than a candy bar one year ago.

This is what we spent most of the time doing when I was trying to take her picture. She just wanted to eat some chocolate, and who can blame her?!! 100 Grand are one of my favorites too.

This is what we did when she wasn't trying to get the candy bar. Instead, she was trying her darndest to eat the camera.

Get a look at those eyelashes. Every girls dream!!!!!

Daddy's football buddy

2008-09-19T11:33:00.004-06:00

Elli is ready for BYU football now. She likes to sit and watch the games with her daddy.

Thanks Keri for the darling BYU shirt. It is Wayne's favorite shirt now. I went out and picked up a blue headband and pink flower to go with it, and it is soooooo cute all together!!!!

For Kristy

2008-09-08T14:38:00.004-06:00

Aunt Kristy has been spoiling Elli with some darling clothes. So here she is showing off her cute things from Aunt Kristy. We don't get to see Kristy's family as often as we'd like because they live about 4 hours away, but we sure do love them! This dress is the sweetest little feminine thing! Elli has now outgrown it which is a good thing, but a sad thing too. (She is only longer and leaner. We keep waiting for the chubb to come back.)

I love this outfit! Elli can still wear this one because she has such a skinny waist. I love the pink and brown combo that is so popular right now. This outfit even has a pink coat with brown fur around the hood. Sooooo cute!!! (The hippo Elli is playing with is one of her favorite toys. It was given to her by the NICU staff the day we brought her home.)

This is such a fun shirt! It looks so cute with jeans. I had Elli wear to church once with a really cute denim skirt that was given to us by my sister. The only problem with the denim skirt was that it was hard to pin around her tiny waist, so it kept falling down around her ankles. Kind of a problem. As cute as it was, I had to put that one away. But we still love the shirt, and it works fine with some of the jeans I've found for skinny beans like Elli.I could take so many more pictures of the sweetest little outfits that Elli has been given by family and friends. Elli and I have both been spoiled! I could say that in almost every picture I take Elli is wearing something that was a gift from our loved ones. We do have so many wonderful friends and family that take good care of us!!! Thanks Aunt Kristy for these fun things!!!

more birthday pics

2008-09-04T16:48:00.010-06:00

Woo Hoo, I found my camera chord. So here are the rest of the birthday pictures. We are singing Happy Birthday in this one, you can tell that Ben (in yellow) and Bradley are saying, "you". Notice how safe we kept Elli from the candle flames. Yeah, she is about to grab Bradley's candle. Good job Tami!

They just finished singing and are about to blow out their candles.

Here is Wayne with his mission mom, Sister Margaret Costa. We were thrilled to have them join our party. They even read my mind with the gift they gave her. I had been looking for one of those pop up toys. You know, the ones that have 6 different nobs and then an animal will pop out. I couldn't find one, so I gave up. They saved the day for sure.
Here we have all the grandpas. My dad (Grandpa Svedin) is holding Elli in the middle. Sitting on the left is Great Grandpa Svedin, and then Great Grandpa Stocking on the right. I guess that I should have been in the picture instead of taking it so that we could have a 4 generation photo. I will have to get that next time.

She seemed a little puzzled at the whole thing. Still thinking.........Just taking it all in.
Here is Wayne with Both Elder and Sister Costa. This was the first time my family met the Costa's, and they fell in love with them. They really are some of the nicest people around. They had been living in Columbia for a while, so having them close again is truly a blessing. Here is Ian showing us that you really don't need to be fancy with babies. Just give them the wrapping paper or the box and they are happy. We really had a wonderful 1st birthday!!