Mini Photo Shoot...

On Tuesday I was at my neighbor Brooke's getting my hair done. Her husband Rick has been playing around with a photo editing program and doing some photography work. During my appointment he came down and asked if he could take some pictures of Maddy and I (Avery was napping) when my appointment was over. I think he got some great shots and did a great job editing them...

Thanks Rick for the pictures. Thanks Brooke-I love my hair.

Music Monday: Clementine...

I came across this song a while back and really loved it. It's really catchy and I love it more and more each time I listen to it. It's different then what you hear everyday, it's like a breath of fresh air.

Sarah Jaffe: Clementine...

Here are a couple more of her songs that I really like (she has a full length album coming out this spring)...

Two Intangibles Can't Be Had

Even Born Again

Easter Egg Hunt/Picnic...

On Saturday our ward had a Easter egg hunt/picnic for the Primary kids. We brought sack lunches and then the kids could decorate bags for the Easter egg hunt. My kids decided they didn't want to decorate their bags because they wanted to keep playing on the playground. Then it was time for the Easter egg hunt. Maddy knew exactly what to do and took off and I stayed with Avery. They had a fun time and were too busy checking out their candy to look at the camera.

Krispy Kreme Donuts...

On Wednesday my sisters and I took the kids to Krispy Kreme Donuts. They loved watching how the donuts are made and then of course loved eating some.

Avery is very messy and this picture was taken after I had mostly cleaned her up... thank goodness for wipes!

Maddy and his cousin Claire hanging out for a minute (they were mostly running around.)

Thanks Stacy and Jamie for another fun outing.

Whatever Wednesday: Are you a Gleek?

I am and I can't wait!

Body Building Competition...

Saturday our really good friend Justin was competing in the NPC Body Building Competition in Salt Lake. We have seen him compete on several other occasions over the years (Steve hasn't missed a show yet) and so of course we were excited to go. Steve usually misses most of the show because he is backstage helping him get ready. He also helped Justin's wife Heather and his friend Scott. They all did such an awesome job. Seriously... I can't believe the human body is capable of looking like that. They each won first place in their class-Justin in the Mens Heavy, Heather in the Women's Figure Medium and Scott in the Mens Super Heavy. Heather and Scott also took the show and won the overall categories. It was a great show and I have such admiration for the hard work, dieting and dedication that goes into competing in these shows. While Steve was backstage during the show I hung out with four of our friends-Brad, Jamie, Brooke and Aaron.

Justin (Mens Heavy Champion), Steve & Heather (Women's Figure Medium Champion and all around champion.)

Scott (Mens Super Heavy Champion and all around champion) and Steve.

Topform Nutrition Supplements sponsored the show-they also sponsored Justin, Heather & Scott. You can see Steve in the back row, in the middle behind the winners.

Already?

Yesterday Maddy was getting dressed so he could go play at his friend Ava's house. He had put on his long sleeve red and gray shirt and black jeans. He then proceeded to try and put his short sleeved green shirt over his long sleeved red shirt...

Maddy: Mom, I want to wear this green shirt over my red shirt so I look super cute when I go to Ava's house. *with a shy smile and blushing a little* I want to look really cute so she can say "wow" and "cool."

Me: Well that shirt doesn't match what you are wearing.

Maddy: But it will match because I'm going to wear my green shoes with it.

I talked him out of wearing it but I can't believe he is already wanting to look "super cute" for girls...

3/22/10

Pirate Pizza...

My sisters and I are finally back to getting together during the week. Jamie had a gift certificate to Pirate Pizza she needed to use so she treated us all to lunch on Friday. None of us were fans of the pizza when we went last time so we tried the burgers this time. They were just OK. Of course the kids had fun playing as usual.

AAARRH!

They must've wore themselves out because they both fell asleep on Steve when they got home. One of them may or may not have peed on Steve... good times!

Thanks Jamie for lunch. I'm glad we are hanging out again and I can't wait for warmer weather!

Music Monday: Do You Remember...

Really loving this song! It makes me happy.

Jay Sean: Do You Remember...

St. Patrick's Day...

This is the first year I was actually kind of excited for St. Patrick's Day. Mainly because I told Maddy about it and he was SO excited because it was all about green-which is his favorite color. He was so excited that he would ask me everyday if it was St. Patrick's Day today. It was also funny because he asked me if it is a special day for Sponge Bob's friend Patrick. I couldn't help but laugh.

Steve was home when Maddy woke up and went in and started playfully pinching him. As soon as we told him it was St. Patrick's Day he got up and started getting dressed in all his green clothes. He had already decided he was wearing his favorite green shirt and green shoes and decided to add his plaid green shorts to it. It was totally mismatched but I thought it was cute and he was so proud. Steve wanted pancakes and eggs so of course I let Maddy put green food coloring in the pancakes.

My two cuties all decked out in green. Don't you love Maddy's bubble wand "Lightsaver!" He has lots of fun pretending and insisted on having it in the pictures. They totally held hands on their own (like they do in the car), isn't it so cute!

Don't you love the pose!

Later in the afternoon the kids and I went to my sister Jamie's house for a St. Patrick's Day party. She is so creative and had it decorated all cute. It was lots of fun. Maddy had really been looking forward to it and helped me pick out green jello and green kool-aid at the store earlier in the week. Stacy (and her cute belly) is behind the camera and missing from the picture.

My sisters and their kids and my niece Carlee who is visiting from Texas.

The kids got lucky because a Leprechaun left a bunch of chocolate gold coins for them to find.

The kids enjoying some food.

All the food was either green or rainbow. We had rainbow cupcakes, Fruit Loops, green Kool-Aid, green jello, broccoli, green dressing and edamame beans.

Thanks Jamie for another fun party! It's so nice to be finally hanging out again!

Spring Fever...

The weather has been so nice the last few days. I've got some major spring fever! It's been so fun seeing so many neighborhood kids out playing and having fun. My kids have been loving it! Steve also started doing some yard work. He reminded me that it's almost time for me to start mowing the lawn again. I'm actually looking forward to it. I really hope this weather sticks around without very many winter-like interruptions. Avery was napping on this particular day so that is why I didn't get any pictures of her.

Maddy and a couple of his friends went up and down the sidewalk for hours-literally! He especially loved driving his friends Jeeps.

Loss...

Warning: This post contains matter dealing with loss of pregnancy and has lots of boring details (for my record.)

This past week I had my 4th pregnancy loss. That brings my record to 2/6. Not too good. I am so grateful for the two children that I have. Going through these trials makes me realize that they truly are miracles and I have been so blessed to have them in my life. The kids didn't know I was pregnant. I didn't think they would be able to understand how long it would take to actually have the baby if things worked out, and I didn't want to try explaining to them what happened if things didn't work out. Maddy drew the picture above on his "Doodle Pro" a few weeks ago before the more serious complications started. I was a bit taken back when he showed it to me because it was the first time I had seen him draw people (stick figures) at all and he drew our whole family. He pointed out to me that he drew Daddy, Me, Him and Avery and excitedly said "Look Mom we are all holding hands!" It was really special to me and I will never forget it-of course I had to take a picture before it was cleared.

My experience this time around was very similar to the one I had on August 18 of last year. However this pregnancy started out better than any of my prior pregnancies and I just had very minimal spotting until 8+ weeks. Of course I had the usual nausea and fatigue and lost some weight. I began to get my hopes up and think I might have a somewhat normal pregnancy. I even thought it might be the first time I made it to my first regularly scheduled appointment (2/18/10) before having to be seen for complications. Well I almost made it... missed it by one day. On 2/16/10 (8 weeks 4 days) I began bleeding heavier. It started within an hour of having this conversation with Maddy. It was a bitter/sweet evening. I called the Dr. the next morning (2/17/10) and went in for an ultrasound at 8 weeks 5 days.

The bleeding had mostly stopped and everything looked perfect on the ultrasound. The baby was measuring within a couple days of my due date and had a very strong heartbeat of 185 beats per minute (in early pregnancy 170-180 is normal.) Everything went smoothly for the next two weeks. Then on 3/3/10 (10 weeks 5 days) with no warning my water broke (it was small but still very clear to me what had happened.) For a couple hours after I was bleeding quite a bit. At this point I was pretty sure this pregnancy wasn't going to continue. The next day on 3/4/10 (10 weeks 6 days) I went in for my second ultrasound and they confirmed the pregnancy was no longer viable. However the pregnancy was still visible on the ultrasound so I had not passed all the tissue. I spoke to the Dr. about my options. He told me I could wait for my body to pass the tissue on it's own (which is very unpredictable-can take days or weeks), take some medication (Misoprostol) which causes the cervix to dilate and the uterine lining to shed or have a D & C. I decided to wait a week to see if my body would pass the tissue on it's own. It was a miserable week because I still felt pregnant (nausea and very tired) and was just waiting for it to be over with. Nothing happened so on 3/12/10 (12 weeks) I started taking the medication. I was really nervous to take the medicine knowing I was going to be in a lot of pain. As expected I had lots of cramping and spent lots of time in the bathroom. My digestive system was also a mess, which is one of the side effects. I ended up having to take 3 of the 4 doses (every 12 hours) so it made for a long two days (and nights.) My kids were also sick on those days. Avery had a bad cough, fever and runny nose and Maddy started coughing and had some kind of eye infection. I ended up coming down with the head cold stuff myself as well. I guess when it rains it pours.

Those of you that know Avery know that it is nearly impossible for her to hold still so there is no denying she wasn't feeling well. She also wants to eat anything in sight but didn't have an appetite at all.

Maddy wanted his picture taken as well with his Lego creation. Love these two so much!

Thanks Mom and Dad for the beautiful flowers, salsa and dinner money. Thanks Stacy for the yummy salsa and cookies. Thanks to all the many friends and family members who offered words of encouragement, put our names on prayer rolls at the temple and all the many prayers on our behalf.

Music Monday: Satisfy...

I saw this band perform this song on Ellen last week and instantly loved it. I really like the video too. Check it out!

Vedera: Satisfy...

Daydreaming & Reminiscing...

... Of days and places like these.

Yesterday Maddy and I were talking about a lot of the fun things we did last year during the warm months. He was so excited and could remember so much. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming seasons! I can't wait to have warm weather and work, play and relax outside from sun up to sun down. I'm looking forward to spending time with my family, friends and neighbors. Here are ten of our favorite memories from the warmer months of last year...

one

two

three

four

five

six

seven

eight

nine

ten

March 5th?

I guess I shouldn't complain too much... it happened April 16 last year.

Airplane...

My Mom gave this table set to Maddy for Christmas. He loves it and on this particular day decided to make it into his own airplane. As you can see he is still in his hoarding stage and has a bunch of his favorite things with him. He and Avery spent the majority of the day playing in it and he even ended up falling asleep in it later that evening. Steve thought it was so cute and grabbed the camera and took a picture before putting him in his bed.

Patriotic Program...

On Tues March 2nd we went to Maddy's "Patriotic Program" at his preschool. They always have such cute programs and I love watching all the kids. Maddy is still pretty shy when it comes to singing but we always get lots of smiles.

Maddy is on the top row second from the end in the red shirt... smiling away.

Before we left he wanted me to take a picture of him inside the big tree they have.

Here are a couple videos of some of the songs they sang. In the first one Maddy was being pretty shy and not really singing. He spotted us about half way through and couldn't stop smiling. It was so cute (he's on the top row with the red shirt on)...

This next one he sang a little more and gave us some smiles and a wave...


LOVE this boy and can't believe how much he is learning and how fast he is growing up!

Bedroom Screamer...

She sure does look sweet but when she's in timeout or bed she does all her venting and yells all the things she's not suppose to say... sometimes I can't help but laugh.

Happy Birthday Steve!

My man turns 37 today. Isn't he aging gracefully! I have a feeling I'm going to be in trouble for posting this picture. We celebrated Saturday night by going out to eat at Rodizio Grill (a favorite of his) with some friends. Of course our friends surprised him by having some of the staff sing to him (even after he warned them he would walk out if they did anything of the sort.) He took it pretty well and got some yummy dessert out of it. Happy birthday Steve-the kids and I love you oh so much!

Music Monday: Need You Now...

I'm really loving this song lately. I love how music has a way of expressing universal feelings and emotions that words alone can't.

Lady Antebellum: Need You Now...