Cowabunga Bay...

My sisters and I scored some free tickets to Cowabunga Bay on Facebook last week. The kids have seen it while driving on the freeway and have wanted to go so we were finally able to go check it out. We all had such a great time and we are so excited for the upcoming Seven Peak's season! It is a small park but very nice and decorated so fun and beachy. Everything is really convenient and compact, making it easy to keep an eye on the kids. They have lots of chairs sitting out with shade, which is a plus. The water was so warm which was perfect since it's still not super warm yet. I picked the kids up after school and so we got there a little early (we couldn't go in until 4pm), so we were one of the firsts in  line and so the kids sat on their chairs and anxiously waited...

Maddy was all over the place having fun with his cousin Dallin and always loves slides. Avery is still pretty scared but I made her go down one with me (can you tell she was pretty scared?)...

Jamie's cute 27 week baby bump shadow.

Cute Stacy!

Jamie and kids.

Stacy and family.

Afterwords we went across the parking lot to Pizza Pie Cafe for some dinner. Thanks girls (and Justin) for a fun outing! Bring on summer!

Thursday 5/12/11

My Little Reader...

Maddy has been learning how to read in preschool. He caught on really quick and is doing awesome! I'm so proud of him! He finished all the Kindergarten Saxon books and is currently reading the first grade books. He is reading number eight in this short video...

Tuesday 5/10/11 

My Mother's Day...

I had a great Mother's Day this year. I woke up to really sweet cards from Steve and the kids and then Steve made yummy french toast. I was also able to get a nice nap in after church. Here is a snapshot of the treasures the kids made me at school, home and church (I just love this kind of stuff)...

The hand print mitt thing is Maddy's. Avery also made one but has since lost it.

Sunday 5/8/11

Post-NICU Follow Up Appointment...

On Friday Avery had another post-NICU follow up appointment. All of her results were awesome! They are always so amazed at how well she is doing. She saw a Speech Therapist (Ann Sumner) who evaluated her auditory comprehension and verbal ability. She did really well in both areas and is exactly where she should be. I'm always amazed at the cool ways they evaluate these kind of things. I was quite impressed, she understood a lot more than I thought she would. I have noticed a huge difference just since she started preschool this year. They still base her results off of her "adjusted age" of about 3 years, 10 months (actual age 4 years, 1 month.) Her score for her auditory comprehension was 4 years, 2 months, which is actually even a little ahead of her actual age. She was 2 years, 5 months almost exactly a year ago (5/14/10) so she has improved 1 year, 9 months this past year. Her verbal ability score is 3 years, 8 months compared to 2 years, 8 months a year ago. She got bored and lost focus towards the end and I think she would've scored a bit higher if she hadn't. The therapist said it's normal for the auditory comprehension score to be higher then the verbal ability score, even for adults. We usually always understand more than we can verbalize. For example you might read a word in a book and understand it but have a hard time explaining the meaning.

She also saw a Optometrist. Amazingly her eyes have continued to improve and they are now at a point where they don't recommend her wearing glasses at all... awesome! One of her eyes is just slightly nearsighted (like only -0.5) and the other one isn't at all (0.0). She still has a slight astigmatism but the Dr. said it doesn't need to be corrected and that the slight nearsightedness and slight astigmatism kind of cancel each other out. He said to have her not wear glasses this next year and then they will check her eyes again before she starts Kindergarten. She had her eyes dilated so they could check them so she got to come home with some of these awesome (at least the kids think so) glasses...

Of course Maddy had to try them on too and was upset that he didn't get his own pair...

I promised the kids we'd stop for lunch but it was still pretty early so we stopped and played at a park for awhile. It was such a beautiful day...

Friday 5/6/11

Operative Hysteroscopy/Septoplasty/Factor V Leiden (Heterozygous)...

Just a quick (OK, kind of long) update on my Fertility journey...

The day before my surgery was scheduled I got a call from my regular OB's office regarding my blood work results. About a month ago my Dr. had a bunch of "specialized fertility" blood work done before referring me to Dr. Foulk who is a Reproductive Endrocrinologist at the Utah Fertility Center. I've never had so much blood work done... they filled up 8 different tubes. One of the tests they did was for Factor V, which has to do with blood clotting. Mine came back as Factor V Leiden Heterozygous. Which basically means I'm resistant to the protein that tells your body to stop clotting. So I'm at a higher risk for things like strokes and heart attacks due to blood clots. About 5% of the Caucasian population have this and we are 5-8 times more likely to develop blood clots than the average person. Women with Factor V Leiden have a substantially increased risk of clotting in pregnancy (7 times more than when they're not pregnant) and are also at higher risk for things like preeclampsia, low birth weight babies, miscarriages and stillbirths due to placental, umbilical cord and fetal clotting. According to both of my Dr.'s this Factor V issue combined with my Septate uterus (and incompetent cervix) are huge factors in regards to my complications and miscarriages. If I become pregnant I will immediately be put on Heparin (which is an anticoagulant medication) in the form of shots twice a day for the gestation of the pregnancy... ugh! So I will probably look like a bruised drug addict :( And I thought Progesterone shots once a week was bad... I'm just glad it's something that can be treated! Anyway, on to my surgery...

This past Wednesday I had my surgery. Dr. Foulk performed an Operative Hysteroscopy/Septoplasty. He was able to remove the septate wall inside my uterus as well as a polyp I had on my cervix. He was very pleased with the outcome. My recovery was pretty quick and I didn't have much pain at all. I had to go back in the next morning (Thursday) to have the gauze (over five feet long) removed as well as the balloon. It was the weirdest feeling ever! They compared it to when a magician pulls a handkerchief out of their pocket and it just keeps coming and coming... and it did, so weird, I don't even know how it all fit in there! Then I went back in Monday morning to have the medal triangle stent removed (which didn't feel good at all.) It has a tube catheter thing attached to the end of it that they basically have to grab hold of and give it a good pull to pull it out through an (almost closed) cervix... yikes! Talk about intense instant cramping :( It was put in there to hold the shape of my uterus (while I start to heal) so that the raw part on the top, where they removed the wall wouldn't drop down and stick somewhere it shouldn't. I'm on an antibiotic and am also taking Estrace (basically Estrogen) and then Provera (basically Progesterone) once I complete the Estrace several times a day for the next month to help aid in the healing/regrowth stage of my uterine lining. I have some pictures of my surgery (warning-they are a bit graphic if you are sensitive to that kind of thing) attached. If you're curious (or really bored) there is a video that I came across when I was Googling all these medical terms of the same procedure that another Dr. performed (not mine of course) that I have also attached...

Wednesday 5/4/11

Tulip Festival...

Monday my sisters and I (and kids of course) went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. The weather was perfect and the gardens were absolutely beautiful... they have planted over 250,000 tulips. The kids had a blast running around and exploring and we had a great time enjoying our surroundings and chatting of course...

The kids love exploring by the water and we are always a bit nervous but so far we haven't had to make any rescues...

They love rolling down the hills and always come home with grass stains on their clothes.

I loved the color combinations they had this year!

We packed a picnic but all the food smelled so so good. Stacy was helping the kids all get some free mini doughnut samples.

The highlight for the kids is always feeding the fish...

Don't you love how I was taking a picture from behind and Stacy is taking one from the front :)

Picnic time-not the most glamorous picture... just keeping it real!

The kids were playing hide-n-seek and Maddy was hiding behind me... he peaked out from behind my back so I snapped this picture.

His turn to count.

The girls being silly...

Stacy and Jace... Cole has been sick so he stayed home with his grandma.

Jamie and clan.

Monday 5/2/11

Supercross...

It's become a tradition for the boys to go to Supercross every Spring when it comes to Utah. Steve has been going with some of his friends for several years and started taking Maddy last year. Every year the weather is miserable and they freeze but Maddy still loves it and looks forward to it. At least this year it didn't rain! They made a day out of it and left around three so they could hit the pits before the races. They also went out to dinner. They had a great time and once again I'm proud of Steve for taking a few pictures...

Maddy took advantage of Randy's binoculars and Steve said he spent a lot of time watching the races through them.

Avery and I decided to have our own little girls night out and went out to dinner at Zupas and then went shopping at Wal Mart (that was at the top of her "want" list... she's easy to please!)

*Steve had the camera so this picture was taken with my phone.*

Saturday 4/30/11

She Likes to Move It Move It...

Steve took this video of Avery on Friday while he was training me at the gym. The kids were supposed to be sitting on the couch watching the movie they brought on our laptop. It was pretty funny, she really got going to the beat of the music (and wasn't aware we were recording her.) 

Friday 4/29/11