My Little Lowrys

At Home

2009-02-08T13:28:00.004-07:00

I think if I went back and counted, about 75% of my blog posts beginning with some kind of explanation or apology for not updating more frequently. So here's another one...

I know that there are a lot of you who I talk to IRL or know my family and friends that get frequent verbal updates as to how we're doing, but that there are also some of you who keep checking my blog waiting for updates and have no idea how things are going for us- and to you I apologize!

Taylor was released from the hospital way sooner than we had anticipated on Thursday the 29th. The Dr's and nurses were all very pleased with how her body is handling her condition and felt comfortable letting us go home and continuing our waiting game of monitoring her condition as her little body further develops. We feel especially blessed with how well she's doing due to the fact that it is very rare that a baby with Ebstein's be released from the hospital w/o having had open heart surgery!

We're not out of the woods on her not having to have surgery yet though. She has appointments with her cardiologist, Dr. Stephen Pophal, every 2 weeks for at least the next few months. We went to our first appt. last Thursday (the 5th) and he's very pleased with how she's doing still. I walked away still wishing that I had more specifics about what to expect in the future- but I also can accept the fact that there's not really an answer to my questions b/c so much depends on so many other things that none of us can control.

Some of the thing that they're monitoring with her are: her blood oxygen saturation levels (that they're high enough) and then how those change as her heart and lungs develop over the next few months, her weight gain to ensure that her body is taking in enough calories and that he organs are functioning well and getting the blood flow that they need, and then still watching for the development of an arrhythmia. There are plenty of other things too, but those are the biggies.

So how is her condition effecting her and our day to day lives? She came home from the hospital with a Pulse Oximeter monitor that tells us her Blood Oxygen saturation and her heart rate at any given moment. They have the range of levels that they want her to be within programmed into the machine and an obnoxious beeping alarm goes off if she's outside of those ranges. Currently this is the source of many negative feelings within me! See, it isn't a life or death matter if she goes outside of a range- it's just something we needing to be watching for and ensure she's not consistently outside the normal ranges, or being there for more than a couple minutes (which still is not urgent, just a red flag to be looked into more). We she jumps outside of those ranges for a few seconds all of the time! Particularly in the middle of the night when she's sleeping and extra relaxed- which means in the middle of the night I have a loud beeping alarm going off regularly that makes me get up and check on her only to discover that she's fine and her levels have usually already returned to where they should. Luckily she's gone from having to be hooked up to it 24:7 to now just having it on when she's sleeping and we're no right there watching her. In a few months she may not have to have it at all. I'll be doing a happy dance that day!

So back to our day to day. She's only on one medication- Sildenafil, more commonly known as Viagra! I actually knew prior to her needing it, that viagra's original usage was to assist with increased blood flow in babies and then they discovered an interesting side effect in adult males and you all know the rest of the story.. The funny thing though is that she has to take it orally 3x a day, which means a decent sized liquid bottle of it every month. I guess that this is so much more of a prescription sized than it's common usage that pharmacies can't or won't fill it w/o all kinds of special authorization from the Dr. and insurance companies. I guess they don't want some poor guy overdosing!

Because of the need to monitor her calorie & food intake, she has to have all but one or two feedings a day via a bottle so that we know exactly how much she's taking in. No big deal if you just formula feed, but since I like to try to breastfeed for as long as I can keep it up (only 4 months with Hailey and 6 with Katelyn) this means that I have to pump and then feed her. This takes more than twice as long as just nursing! I can nurse her a couple times a day, but she's become a little lazy about it since the bottle is so much easier, so I still end up pumping. The couple pros I've found (in making an intentional effort to find a bright side) is that there so much less discomfort when my milk came in b/c of having to pump so regularly and not waiting on her to be hungry and then I can also hand over a bottle to anyone who wants to feed her.

Other than those things and the fact that we are way bigger germ-a-phobes with her than we were with the other girls, things feel very normal around her. Well, at least what I would expect as normal for having a new baby and 2 other young kids. Which actually means that our house is very chaotic!! But I love it and the girls absolutely lover her. I was hoping the the novelty of having a new baby in the house would have worn off so that I wouldn't have to keep them from constantly touching and kissing her, but I love seeing how much they love her and I'm looking forward to seeing them play together as they get older!

Scrapbook Supplies Needed!

2009-01-28T16:26:00.004-07:00

Hey scrapbookers! I just found out about a need that I know that all of you can help with! The Child Life offices here at St. Joe's does activities for the families of pediatric patients at the hospital- they do tours for siblings and patients to teach them about the hospital in kid's terminology, do craft activities for kids and are working on having some activities to help parents pass the time as well.

My mom and I just talked to the director on our floor and she was telling us about a mom teaching how her how to to crochet and then maybe she could teach other people. Taylor is currently wearing a crocheted round-loom baby beanie that my SIL Toni made for her. My mom was telling her about how those would be easy for moms here to learn and then they could make them for other babies or to donate to the pediatric units here. So my mom is going to come teach her how to do it.

So then scrapbooking came up and they are wanting to have scrapbook days/nights here for the parents, but they haven't started it yet because they don't have any scrapbook paper! I told her how I have so much paper that I know that I will never use and that I have a lot of friends who scrapbook that I'm sure have gobs of unused paper as well and that I would try to gather some up for her.

SO- for all of you Phoenix readers, if you would like to help me gather together a decent size donation of scrapbook paper and supplies to donate to the Child Life Center here- please let me know ASAP!

The director was thrilled about the idea of having these things donated and the help that my mom was going to offer on the beanies- so that leads me to wonder what else all of us crafty/scrappy people could do to volunteer here!

Taylor Alysse Lowry

2009-01-27T13:22:00.005-07:00

Taylor was born on Friday Jan 23rd at 12:08am. She weighed 7lbs 6oz and was 19.75 inches long. She's adorable, which I know I'm very biased- but she's also won over every nurse and hospital personnel that have met her.

She's had a rough little life so far though. About 10 hours after she was born she was AirEvac'd down to St. Joseph's in Phoenix via leer jet (she already likes to ride in style!). I got to ride with her (yes meaning I was discharged from the hospital about 9hrs after delivery) and then Ryan had to drive down and met us.

Once here she was diagnosed with a rare Congenial Heart Disorder called Ebstein's Anomaly. Which the short and sweet is that her tricuspid valve is malformed which causes leakage between the upper and lower chambers and unoxygenated blood to be distributed to her body- which could cause her to cyanotic (or turn blue) and make her organs not function. Also, because of the cross flow of blood in her heart, her right atrium is very enlarged which could cause a heart arrhythmia.

With all that said about her actual heart condition, she's doing great. When any baby is born, there is a duct that closes that basically forces the heart to use all 4 chambers, something that isn't necessary during utero. At this point we're just waiting for that to close to then see how her body reacts when that happens.

She has a private room at St. Joe's in the CardioThorasic Intensive Care Unit- or CtICU. Today she was able to downsize the amount of equipment hooked up to her because she is eating on her own and doesn't need all of the IV nourishment, she doesn't need oxygen because her blood oxygen levels are going great on room air. She also was able to have a line removed from her belly button which will allow her to be picked up and fed a lot easier (some nurses have let us and others haven't because of it).

Overall, everything we hear from the staff hear sounds like they're all very hopeful about how she's doing and (fingers crossed) that she won't need to have surgery. But once again, that all depends on what happens when we know that the duct has closed.

Either way, we've learned and read enough that this is a condition that she'll be dealing with her whole life. We'll probably go home with monitors and oxygen and mommy and daddy needing to be very informed of what to watch for and do in the event that her condition worsens.

We've had so much support from friends and family and have been truly blessed. I can't say that the last 4 days have been easy for us, but the burden has definitely been lifted by everyone who has helped us with Hailey & Katelyn, provided us with things to make our stay more comfortable, put her name on temple prayer rolls in multiple states, had gifts sent to the room, or just sent well wishes and offers to help in any way we need. Although being away from home has made day to day logistics a little difficult, being in Phoenix where we're surrounded by friends and family has been so helpful!

I'll do my best to keep my blog updated as we actually have updates to share. As I said- we're playing a waiting game right now. But with as well as she's doing, the wait hasn't been so bad.

Thank you again for everyone out there praying for our family!

She's on her way!

2009-01-22T03:59:00.003-07:00

I hadn't gotten to post this sooner, but I thought you all would like to know that at I've been scheduled for an induction at 5:30 this morning! I'll be sure share info and pics of my little angel ASAP!

Quick baby update

2009-01-04T21:59:00.002-07:00

I wanted to post more tonight, but have to get to bed. But one quick update on baby. My Dr.'s office shared with me two weeks ago that they've been considering my due date Jan 24th rather than the 17th this whole time- yet they never mentioned it to me! Can you believe it?! You just don't tell a woman who is 9 months pregnant that she has a whole extra week!! After more discussion last week though, my technical due date could be sometime between the two dates (all based on the fact that I don't have a regular 28 day menstrual cycle in case you're wondering). So I only have 13-20 days left! Maybe less is I go early. And boy am I ready!

Hailey's 4th Birthday

2009-01-04T21:28:00.006-07:00

I wasn't planning on really doing anything formal for Hailey's birthday this year- I know, bad mom. But as she knew about her birthday coming up she kept talking about her party and her cousins and friends being there, etc etc. A lot of expectations. I knew that only my parents and Ryan's parents would be in town and then Kevin and Hilary were coming- which meant no kids or cousins. So very last minute I called up 2 of her friends from church who were actually in town the Saturday before Christmas and had them come over to join in the party. We let the girls make their own personal pizzas and my dad did pizza for everyone else (thanks dad!) and the girls got to decorate foam tiaras, wore dress up jewelry and Hil and I painted the girls fingernails. For being low budget and last minute- it went well and the girls had a blast and Hailey thought it was amazing, which is all that really matters to me!

Hailey is the best gift receiver ever, everything was exactly 'what she's always wanted' and 'what she'd been dreaming of' etc etc. I don't know where she gets these things, but she's hilarious and always makes us smile! She got a lot of great gifts, but the funny thing is that I would have to say that her favorite gift of the day was a Hallmark music card that played Cinderella music and the girls danced and danced to it. Hailey and Katelyn still fight over opening it and occasionally I hear it open late at night whil Hailey's supposed to be sleeping. I can't get mad though- it's kind of cute!

Something for me

2009-01-04T20:26:00.005-07:00

So I can honestly say that in the 7 years that we've been married, we've lived in Prescott, I've working full time for WF, and now with 2 almost 3 kids- I've done little to nothing for myself. Hobbies, education, just recreation in general have all kind of fallen by the wayside. I've known it's important for personal balance and enjoying life and having a creative outlet, etc etc. But I know that all of you can understand the list of excuses that can get in the way- being busy, tired, wanting to spend more time with family, needing to spend the time cleaning, catching up on laundry, etc etc etc.

Ryan has always encouraged me to pursue hobbies/passions- especially photography which is what I was going to school for and really enjoyed when we were first married. But I get frustrated with how much my skills and knowledge have regressed and it's just not as enjoyable anymore- basically because I feel like I should be better than I am.

In the last year though I've had a different interest, but done nothing about it. It's something that I have no prior experience with and no pre-existing skills with- but would love to master. My wonderful husband has been pushing me to go for it, I've put it off due to list of above excuses. But finally at the beginning of December (pretty much the worst time due to the above list) I took a Wilton Level 1 cake decorating class at JoAnns. It was 4 classes in 2 weeks- Tuesday and Friday nights from 6-8.

Ryan was super supportive and even a little pushy about me taking this class and even helped me with the "homework." The homework involved baking 2 different 2-tiered 9 inch round cakes and a batch of cupcakes. I also had to make 2 different kinds of buttercream frosting- going through about 9 pounds of powered sugar in 2 weeks- yuck! I'm not even a fan of frosting, it's just too much sugar for me!

As insanely tiring as it was to do this while 8.5 months pregnant, right before Christmas, and 2 nights a week after a full day of work- I LOVED it, as much as I thought I would. I can't wait to take the next level classes, but am going to wait a couple of months with the new babino coming very soon.

Here are some pictures of what I was doing:

There's a reason that this is such a tight shot- I have a VERY funny story about this first cake, but I'll have to save it for another time!

This was my 2nd cake (I don't have pictures of my cupcakes)..

Then Hailey's birthday was 2 weeks later...

The perfectionist in me has to say that I did this cake really late at night and then RIGHT before her party was about to start- so there's a lot that I would try to do better if I had more time.

While I was doing this class, I've been borrowing all of my mom's cake decorating supplies. She used to do cake decorating as well when I was really little and even did a few wedding cakes for people at church. So she had most everything that I needed. For Christmas though, my husband decided to continue being supportive of this interest of mine and bought me a 101 Piece Wilton Cake Decorating caddy and toolkit that has everything I need! The kit also has a decorating how-to and idea book and I've already used more powdered sugar to whip up some frosting and tried teaching myself more techniques.

I really need some reasons to decorate a cake and someone to give it too! I just can't eat anymore cake for a long time after having so much cake around in the last month- so if you have need for a cake, let me know, I'd love to have the opportunity to practice!

Our Thanksgiving

2009-01-04T20:24:00.001-07:00

Thanksgiving for us was very very quiet. Ryan had to work Thanksgiving day until 2:30, all of our family (on both sides) were doing dinner in Phoenix and I had to work the next day, so all in all- it was going to be a really rushed trip if we went down. So we opted to make Thanksgiving dinner on our own for the first year ever. We looked around for anyone in our ward that didn't have plans either, but in the end it was just us. It was our first turkey and Ryan was all excited to try brining (sp?) it with a method he saw on Rachel Ray. I did a ton of cooking while Ryan was at work, he got home at 3:10ish and we ate this by 3:30....

I mention the time because I was really proud of being able to pull this off by myself with both girls because I wear out VERY easily being on my feet. But everything turned out great- especially the turkey. We were really proud of it for our first try! We had way too much food for our little family, but it was nice to have left overs!

Motherhood right of passage

2009-01-04T19:46:00.004-07:00

Mid-November we had my first princess and the pea experience. No mattresses were invloved though. There was just a little princess Katelyn and multiple peas, up her nose. I retrieved 3, yes 3 peas relatively easily, but there was one more that I could see, but not get out. Sometimes it would get close to coming out and she'd sniff and it would go right back up- taunting me! I tried a lot of very creative tacticts- but nothing worked. Ryan came home from school that night and woke her up to try to get it out also. I don't think we were her favorite people that night! Eventually we gave up. Luckily it fell out of her nose during the night or else we would have had to take her to the Dr. the next day, and I'm sure she wouldn't have liked that at all! Needless to say, we began watching her eating/hiding of food much closer after that!

On a roll!

2008-11-12T22:05:00.005-07:00

Ryan got home with his laptop and I decided to go ahead and least post a couple of our Halloween pictures so that I can say that I did!

Katelyn was Tinkerbell. I wasn't planning on the white shirt underneath, but it ended up itching her back and luckily Renae had something we could throw on her and off we went!

Hailey made a wonderful Cinderella. Any chance to be a princess, she's there! I'll have to get another picture up of her silver glittler shoes that were her "glass slippers."

Aren't these girls the cutest?! I hope they stay friends forever! The theme was obviously Disney! Renae with her amazing bargain shopping got these costumes really cheap and even picked up accessories for us- it was pretty hassle free on my part! Thanks again Renae! Who knows what my kids may have ended up dressed as if you hadn't have taken care of all of this!

As to avoid a riot...

2008-11-12T20:14:00.002-07:00

(Quick disclosure- this ended up being REALLY long and I didn't go back and proof read it- sorry ahead of time!)

So I get crap on a VERY regular basis about my lack of posting. Depending on the day that I've had (and how hormonal I'm feeling that day) I have very different reactions to requests/demands that I update my blog. These reactions range anywhere from "ok well if you want me to take the time to do that, you're welcome to come to my house and take care of the girls and make dinner and do my dishes and sweep the floor and do my laundry and all the other many things that I do on a near daily basis AFTER I get home from an 8+ hour day at work." Or when I'm not crazy exhausted when someone has requested an update (which has only happened like twice in the past year) then I actually feel really guilty about not having posted and like the fact that I actually have people following my blog who care what's going on in our lives. But then I think about the fact that if I'm going to actually sit and post then I have to give ALL of the updates that I've neglected to post- and when it's been months- do you realize how long that post would need to be? Then, I'm back to being exhausted by the very thought of it. Do you feel bad for me yet and want to forgive me for not updating more frequently?

I've actually gone to sit and write a post multiple times and gotten pulled away from doing it. Or I realize that I don't have pictures to attach to the updates. Tonight, in fact, I almost didn't sit to write anything because Ryan took his laptop to school with him, and that's where all of our recent pictures are loaded to! But I was actually motivated to it, so nothing will stop me!

I'm not going to let myself be overwhelmed or feel guilty about all the things I should go back and update you all on, I'll do it little by little as I can. (FYI- I'm saying this more as a commitment to myself than for your benefit.) But here are a few little things going on with each of us...

Me- I've been back to work full time since the last week of September. Other than just being insanely exhausted 24:7, I've been feeling SO much better than I had been several months ago. I'd heard in passing that your body tends to get a little more tired with each pregnancy- but holy cow! I'm sure it doesn't help that I didn't have Katelyn all that long ago, but I'm so ready to not be pregnant anymore! Everyone asks if we're going to have more to shoot for a boy and the answer is- we don't know! We kind of feel like maybe we're done- but neither of us feel strongly about that. What we do know is that it will be quite some time before we even entertain the idea of a #4. The idea of #3 is still a little (or a lot if I'm being honest!) overwhelming to me.

Other things going on with me- I'm working on planning our Relief Society Enrichment Christmas Dinner, and then trying to come up with a good idea for our March Relief Society Birthday activity. I know that's a very far ways away, but I want to at least have a plan floating around in my head so that I'm not trying to plan something RIGHT after having #3. So I'd welcome any ideas of what your ward may have done in the past!

I'm also trying to get my house organized and the "office" cleaned out and distributed throughout the rest of our tiny house so we can have a nursery. The computer is now in our bedroom ::grumble grumble:: but there is no where else for it!And much to Ryan's disappointment the TV will probablly have to return to the family room. Once all this is done, I plan to decorate the nursery in pink and brown (trendy, I know, but I love it!). I'm on a VERY tight budget for decorating (like $5 tops :-) ) But my inspiration room comes from the Restoration Hardward Baby & Kids catalog and I have lots of creative ideas as to how to many the room cute with craft projects. Now I just need to some time (and some husband man power!).

Ryan- Other than being my honey-do handyman, Ryan has been very busy with the class he is taking this semester at Yavapai College. It's a website design class and he's absolutely loving it. The class is only once a week (tonight)but there's quite a bit of homework involved. I'm not really sure though if he's always doing just the homework or if he's playing, since he really does enjoy it. He was working on a scouting resource website (since he's a scoutmaster). But he didn't feel like it was creatively challenging enough so now he's working on a family website that I've already let him know that I am not committing to updating at all :-)

He's also reading Twilight which makes me smile. He already knows all about it from every woman in his life having read it and discussed it, but he wanted something to read and it was there so he's going for it. I totally forewarned him about the annoying teenage girl narrative and he has had to laugh at it a few times, but he does agree that the writing sucks you into the story line regardless of "how beautiful Edward is."

Hailey- She's grown up so fast! She'll only be 4 next month, but her vocabulary and her mannerisms can be so mature sometimes that I feel like I have a little teenager. I also feel like I have a teenager due to her attitude and talking back- but we'll stick with the positives for now :-) Tonight after we got Katelyn to bed, we made chocolate chip cookies (remind me that even though it only takes 5 minutes, the little pouch mixes you can buy at the store for a $1 jsut aren't the same as real cookies). While the cookies were baking we played Yahtzee together and she made sure that we both won and told me what a great job I was doing. I love her! She is so encouraging of everyone.

She isn't doing piano right now due to having to tighten up our expenses, but she is still practicing with daddy and enjoys the time spent with him more than learning piano itself. We hope to get her back into lessons though- or find another teacher who will take kids her age that isn't so far away and so darned expensive!

She is still doing gymnastics though and graduated up to the Tot 3 class with the "big girls". Her coached has discovered that she needs to work on her upper body strength though. (She must get that weakness from her momma- I always sucked at pull ups in P.E.!) So now she does push ups with daddy everyday which is a hilarious sight to see. I'm interested in seeing if other 3 years olds can do proper push ups? Let me know if yours can. I'm not trying to compare kids- but maybe you'll get the same laugh out of it that I do!

Katelyn- She's now 15.5 months and still only has 4 1/2 teeth! She's been 'teething' for SO long now and there are multiple teeth trying to break through. The poor girl has been miserable. But to make up for being miserable with pain she has found many other distractions. Such as: climbing on EVERYTHING including my kitchen chairs which then make her tall enough to climb onto the table, having splashing contests with her sister in the bath tub, changing the channel or volume on the TV if Hailey is watching a movie, pulling out her pony tails,and my least favorite of all...going to Hailey's clothes drawer and pulling out her underwear and carrying them around the house with her no matter what she's doing. I'm constantly picking up little girl underwear! At least they are clean!

She hasn't descided to be much of a talker- which a one word exception. Everything is "dadda." That girl loves her dadda. She can definitely say other words and has been able to for many many months, but I don't think she really feels the need to talk. She manages to get everything she wants without the effort- so why bother really?

If you ask her where's mommy's baby, she lifts up the bottom of my shirt and points to my belly button (which is now sticking out) and gets really happy. I know she doesn't actually understand what it means that I have a baby in my tummy, but sometimes I wonder if their little minds do understand because she'll lay her head down all soft on my tummy and give me a sweet smile like she knows what's in there.

#3- You may have noticed that I've referred to our baby as #3 a few times. This was my friend Hilary's idea. We have yet to make a final decision on a name- so for convenience sake she needed to be referred to as something- so #3 just worked :-) She's fairly close to having a name- we have a couple ideas that are pretty solid we just don't have that definite confirmation that THAT'S the name, like we did with Hailey. But that feeling never really came with Katelyn, so who knows if we'll get it this time around. I'll be sure to post if we actually decide before she's born.

I get to have 3-D ultrasound the day before Thanksgiving. I'm pretty sure they put it on a CD so hopefully I'll be able to post a picture of her soon! Otherwise, only 65 days left to go and we'll get real pictures! She's doing great though, strong healthy heartbeat, VERY active, etc etc.

I'm feeling a little bad for her being the third child in such poor economic times. We all know that youngest children tend to get a raw deal on stuff anyway, but with our budget as tight as it is the poor thing just doesn't stand a chance! Of course she won't know any better, but she's getting pretty much all hand-me-downs from sisters #1 & 2. I'm definitely thankful though that I am having another girl and don't have to worry about getting new stuff- but I'll admit that I've had a little bit of a hard time coming to terms with what are "wants" and what are "needs" when planning for a new baby. Especially because one of my BFFs, Hilary, is expecting her first at the beginning of April and they just found out it's a boy so they're in that fun 'go out and buy everything and start decorating' mode (and they have the $$ to spend since they don't already have 2 at home!) but I, of course, would LOVE to everyday get to be in 'go out and buy everything and start decorating mode'. I know that she'll be just fine though! And don't worry, there's nothing that we NEED that we don't have!

Well those are our "quick" updates. For anyone still reading, thank you for actually caring about us enough to endure all of my randomness- you're a wonderful friend! Leave a comment and let me know that I still have some loyal readers and it might inspire me to keep posting! Next time with pictures!

Sad News

2008-11-02T17:32:00.004-07:00

This isn't what I wanted to blog about after not blogging for so long- but this was the best way to share the news without having to call and tell all of our family the story over and over.

Late Thursday night we went to Phoenix with our dogs and stayed the night at my parents house. Sometime in the wee early morning hours of the 31st they escaped the backyard and around 6 a.m. I learned that they were missing. We immediately went into action mode placing calls with the different city/county departments etc, going online to post missing dog alerts, Ryan and my dad started driving the neighborhood, I made flyers before I went to work that morning, etc etc. Friday and Sturday we posted flyers and did everything we could, then we had to come home.

Today my dad got a couple of phone calls from our flyers and we ultimately learned that they had both been hit by cars within a mile from my parents house at a busy intersection fairly early in the Friday morning rush hour traffic. They'd been seen by the two people who called laying on a blanket next to eachother on the sidewalk. I'm not sure why we haven't gotten a call from animal control letting us know, because they are microchipped with our information.

I didn't think this news would be so upsetting to me since they really did drive me nuts on a daily basis- but it has really upset us. Hailey of course cried and keeps saying that she misses her dogs, but we had a good talk about how now they get to play with Heavenly Father in heaven and he'll take care of them for us until we can be together again. I also reminded her that Jake, my childhood dog who died last year, is probablly really excited to get to play with them also. I know she's going to remember them and miss them for a long time, but I'm glad that she's young enough that she'll recover easily.

Ryan and I, on the other hand, won't move on so easily. And after having to give up our dog Charlie a few years ago and then wanting to have dogs again for so long, finally getting them and then only having them for 7 months and losing them this way has just been too much of a roller coaster and I don't want a pet again for a long time. I don't think. Time will tell. But for now it's weird to look at the bag of dog food by the back door and the various dog stuff lying around and decide what to do with it.

To be this sad over dogs that drove me crazy and I didn't always like, makes me feel very blessed that I've never lost a human someone who I have been close to. And while I was tellng Hailey, I was glad that it was just our dogs and not a family member. Tonight's family prayers will definitely include prayers of thanks for all of our friends and family who are in good health (and maybe an apology about how much my dogs bark and that we didn't train them better before they went to live in Heaven).

Tagged

2008-08-22T10:31:00.004-07:00

I got tagged by Natalie, and am kind of interested in thinking about/reminiscing over this one, so here goes...

10 Years Ago
- I was just starting my junior year of HS at Moon Valley in Phoenix
- I was 16 years and one day old
- I was allowed to 'legally' date my boyfriend Eric
- I hadn't entered the work force yet! Ahhh good times!

5 Years Ago
- Ryan and I had been married almost 2 years and had no kiddies
- I was living in Prescott
- I was just promoted to a Service Manager at Wells Fargo
- I believe I was still driving my little red Mazda Miata convertible
- We were starting the processing of getting qualified to buy our first place- a condo (which we still miss although it would be way too small for our family now!)

5 Months Ago
- I had 2 kids with none on the way
- I was 2nd Counselor in YW
- I was still trying to get rid of my tummy after having Katelyn
- Hailey was starting piano & gymnastics
- We replaced the TV in the family room with a piano (I can't believe it's been that long!)

5 Things to do Today
- Watch the Young and the Restless
- Harass my eye Dr. to see if my contacts came in (they were supposed to be in Tues!)
- Organize my office to get ready to paint next weekend
- Bake the cookie dough in my fridge
- Hopefully do something fun with my honey!

5 Bad Habits
- Watching the Young and the Restless whenever I can (I blame this on my grandpa!)
- Over thinking EVERYTHING
- Being too practical and not spontaneous enough
- Procrastinating
- Not unplugging or turning off the iron (I blame this the auto shut off feature! But it drives Ryan nuts- apparently I'm going to burn our house down or something)

5 Places I've Lived
- Glendale/ Phoenix
- Prescott (at 3 different addresses)
- Yuma
- Chino Valley
- Surprise

I now tag...Dawn, Mindy, Nicole and Zach

I'm crazy, I know!

2008-08-20T09:28:00.003-07:00

So for those of you who have been in my house, you know that it's colorful. Too colorful. Every room is painted a different color, or multiple different colors (except for mine which is STILL white and undecorated). Not only do I pick lots of colors, I pick the wrong colors or at least the wrong shades of that color! So I never end up being satisfied with what I've done.

Well good news, for those of you who have been overwhelmed by my kiwi green guest bathroom- the green is gone! Monday Ryan was lazy and didn't want to get up and go to work at 3:30am (I can't say I blame him, but I still give him crap for it) so he used a vacation day, slept in, we dropped off the kids at the babysitter, went to home depot, got our supplies and came home and HE went to work redoing the bathroom. I did help him tape off a lot of the bathroom but that was about the extent that I could help due to the fumes.

The green changed to a very light yellow- much more neutral. Again, I don't feel like I picked quite the right color, but it's a very big improvement. The only problem now is that the bathroom feels very BLAH to me- remember I like color! Everything is either light yellow or white and then there's the maple cabinets. So I've got to go shopping for some new decor to spice things up a bit.

We also bought crown molding for the bathroom and got that up- thanks to the help of a friend in our ward that does carpentry who did the whole bathroom in like 5 minutes! The great news is that he's willing to help with the rest of the house if and when we have the money to do it. We'll probablly just do bedrooms first one by one, then tackle the big expense of the main family area.

I'll get a picture of the bathroom posted once we caulk and paint the crown molding and I get some other color in there.

So now for the rest of the house...

I've extended an invite to my family and a couple of friends to come over Labor Day weekend and just help me repaint or paint several rooms and just get 'er done! I'm going to buy the eco-friendly, low fume paint so that I can be in the house and we can just knock it out! I want to get rid of the yellow in my family room, paint the baby's room (we'll know tomorrow a definite of which color scheme to do!)and I can finally get rid of the 'golden wheat' color my sister had put in here (right now it's the office). Then I want to paint my hallway which has never been painted and maybe, just maybe finally paint my bedroom!!

I realize it's A LOT of work and if it can't all happen, it's all good and we'll just get done what we can. But I thought I would throw the invitation out to anyone else who just loves painting and would like to come help! I am offering free food (BBQ, baked goods etc) to any of my helpers! Also, if you live in the Prescott area and don't want to paint but wouldn't mind watching my kids for part of a day- that would be awesome too! I have some people I may ask, but if anyone wants to volunteer- that would be even better!

I'll make sure to take before and afters of anything that we do!

Some things worth mentioning...

2008-08-17T14:37:00.003-07:00

So you all know that I've been really bad at blogging lately, but that doesn't mean that we haven't had anything worth while happen over the last couple of months! So here some things that stand out and are worth making note of...

- Katelyn had her 1st birthday Aug. 3rd. She's walking around the edges of everything now and she'll venture one step away before she dramatically goes down to a crawl with a little squeal. As of this weekend she is also bringing herself up to a standing position without holding on to anything. She finally has two bottom teeth and the top two are coming in along with a side molar (according to her Dr.)and she's been pretty cranky about it so I'm sure the doc is right!

- My brother David's farewell was last Sunday and he reported to the MTC on Weds (the 13th). When he was leaving their house to be set apart and we were leaving to drive back to Prescott- Katelyn said bye and waved to him. This was the first time I'd ever seen/heard her do this and it was priceless timing!

- I've been feeling much better since my week at the hospital. I still haven't lost my cookies a single time! I'm still having issues with insane fatigue (which I do know is just part of being pregnant (and having two kids) but I'm also not really gaining much weight still- despite eating big meals and snacking constantly. I have to write down every single thing I eat and I've been counting calories to make sure that I am eating enough and then turn those into the Dr. until I make some good progress that she's comfortable with. (I'm still not up to my pre-pregnancy weight and at this point in my pregnancy I should have already gained at least 5 pounds minumum.)

-The calorie counting has been very eye opening, I've always been vaguely aware of how many calories are in some prepackaged foods (I like to read lables out of boredom while I'm eating), but writing it all down as shown me just how bad a lot of what we eat is- and not just for me but for Ryan. So once I'm not supposed to be getting all of the calories I can, our eating habits will definitely be changing!

-Having been sick, I've gotten to have a nice break from work. Before I went to the hospital, I had been put on a 4hr/day work schedule by my Dr. but then I went to the hosital 3 days later. Then I was off work the week I was in the hospital and got the next two weeks off as well (last week and this upcoming week). I go into the Dr. again Thursday to check things out (and weigh in) and we'll go from there. Luckily, I have great benefits at my job and all this time off is being paid 100% in addition to really low co-pays for the hospital visits. This has also allowed me to still take the kids to their babysitter so that I can rest without it being a financial strain. We're definitely blessed.

- I also get my ultrasound Thursday to determine our baby's sex. We're pretty sure we know what it is based on the ultrasounds I had while in the hospital, but they wouldn't tell us officially since I was only 16 weeks and they don't normally like that determination until later. I'm sure if it were my Dr. she would have just told me...but it was just the ultrasound techs and they were silly about it.

- I chopped my hair off to chin length in the middle of July and love it. I have been sick of my long hair for a good year now, but like most guys- Ryan liked it long, so I kept it long until I just couldnt take it anymore. No regrets about chopping it at all. P.S. My husband still loves me.

- Ryan got his new work schedule- which goes into effect toward the beginning of Sept. Just as we were dreading, he's working Sundays. He'll have Friday and Saturday off though and be off by 2:30 everyday. If it weren't for the Sundays, it would be a pretty good schedule. Luckily, the shifts will be shuffled in January and we'll pray for Sundays off then.

-We've had a great monsoon season this year. In fact, it's probablly going to rain within the hour. I love rainy Sundays! As wonderful as this has been, it has been one more thing keeping Ryan from being able to work on the backyard since it's always a big muddy mess. The sloping of our yard is off and we end up with a big lake in the yard instead of it draining out. It stays muddy for days after a good rain. This in turn means that the dogs are always a mess and I don't really like them coming into the house.

-The dogs are huge and really good looking labs. But, they drive me nuts. I have too many other concerns with life right now than to have to deal with them as well. Not to mention the barking at 6:30 every morning until I go feed them and refill the water (which no matter what kind of container we put it in, they dump it over within a very short while!) Ryan loves his dogs and him and Hailey take them to the dog park or Watson Lake in Prescott as often as possible- which isn't near as often as Ryan or Hailey would like!

That's all I've got for now. Sorry about the lack of pictures again! We're having massive issues with our desktop PC (which I prefer to use) and Ryan is researching food storage and emergency preparedness on his laptop- so I can't upload the hundreds of pictures on my camera from the last few months. So maybe this week I'll get some uploaded and posted.

My Week

2008-08-08T20:47:00.002-07:00

So I had a super boring yet fairly eventful week. I have been at Yavapai Regional Medical Center since Monday around 1pm and just came home at 6:30 tonight. I have/had hyperemisis- which short and sweet means extreme nausea and vomiting, basically resulting in malnutrition and weight loss. Obviously not a good thing for anyone- let alone someone of my size. So after several visits to my doctor and her threatening to hospitalize me multiple times, I took a visit to my OB/GYN Monday morning, I got sent to the hospital.

I had a very small breakfast (which didn't stay down) that morning and no lunch before I went. Then I got put on NPO- which is a legal form of torture where you can't eat or drink and you're surviving off of IVs only. Due to the fact that I was still vomiting despite not eating or drinking, I wasn't allowed to go on liquids until Weds morning. But once again, I got sick and went back NPO until Thursday morning. I then got to have liquids again. It's really sad how excited you can get about drinking broth! Then because I held it down, around 2:30 Thursday I got to have a turkey sandwich. It was amazing! (Actually I don't recommend YRMCs food at all, but when you haven't eaten in days, you think anything tastes amazing!) I've held down food since and was able to come home tonight.

Thank goodness for my AMAZING husband who took care of everything at home without a complaint. He even had the house clean for me when I got home. A thank you to my family and friends (who knew where I was) that called with their well wishes, words of encouragement, empathy, and prayers. And thank you to Ryan's parents who have the girls today and overnight so that I could rest up a little more at home.

I could obviously go into a ton more detail about it all, but I won't. I'm tired. It was a horrible week and I just want to go sleep in my own bed.

Wish me luck that my pregnancy goes better from here out! I could very easily end up going back to the hospital if I get sick again or my weight doesn't pick up at a good rate of speed. Sigh.

80 Things About Us... For Now

2008-07-13T15:05:00.005-07:00

Rather than post about myself, I thought should include the whole gang...

1. I am 13 weeks pregnant- due on my BFF Renae's birthday and my Grandpa Alan's birthday- Jan. 17th!

2. This was not planned and took me a little while to build up enthusiasm about- but I'm there and we're very much happy about our new addition!

3. I get really sick when I'm pregnant.

4. Case in point- I took my first ambulance ride (a whole 3/4 mile trip) to a hospital a few weeks ago after a humiliating incident nearly blacking out at Subway on my lunch break. Don't worry, I was release a few hours later after a few bags of fluid.

5. I take antinausia medication to hold down my cookies (and water for that matter) but it doesn't always work.

6. It's really hard to work full time and be absolutely nausious and try to take care of 2 kids- one of which doesn't even walk yet.

7. We don't have a preference as to whether we have a boy or girl next - there would be pros and cons to both.

8. Ryan says he wouldn't mind having another girl, but I know that he secretly would love a little football player.

9. I would like of love to continue on with the girls- I don't think I would know what to do with a boy!

10. And I'd have to buy all new stuff if we had a boy!

11. I also have a girl name already picked out, but no real ideas for boy names yet.

12. We'll definitely find out what we're having as soon as I can.

13. I just got released from the YW presidency today.

14. I got called to be the Home, Family & Personal Enrichment Leader.

15. This will make 3 of my last 4 callings Enrichment Leader, but we've moved the other 2 times and I haven't spent more 6 months in either calling previously. I think Heavenly Father feels like I need to spend a little more time here!

16. I am excited about it. I do enjoy this, but am a little worried because when I had this calling I was also at the end of my pregnancy and trying to plan one of our quarterly activities and it was a lot going on! I was worried I was going to have Katelyn before our activity and not be able to be there!

17. I made it to our quarterly activity, went home at 9:30ish that night and started on my way to the hospital at 12:00am, and delivered Katelyn at 8:30am the following morning.

18. I had a similar timing experience with having Haiely. I think that my body and my mind communicate with eachother and when my mind says that it's ok for my body to go ahead and let go- then I pop out the babies!

19. I am hoping to not plan anything important on or in the week before Jan 17th!

20. Ryan is almost done with all of his training at Lockheed Martin and will soon be on his own and not working with a trainer any longer.

21. This is going to result in a schedule change- I'm praying that he won't have to work Sundays again- but it's pretty likely that he will :-(

22. He is selling security systems on the side now for Secure Home Solutions. He's done this previously and been very successful- so hopefully it can mean big $$ and maybe me not having to work full time. Cross your fingers, and buy a security system!

23. We just got our system installed Friday night.

24. I survived a week of Ryan being gone at Scout Camp in June- but I'm glad it won't happen again until next year!

25. Ryan is also learning about web design and wanting to design a Scouting website.

26. I asked Ryan what else he wanted me to say about him and he said something really inappropriate. So that's all the updates you get about him.

27. Hailey finished her June swim class and we decided to take a break for July and start again in August.

28. On her last day of swim, she got to go down the YMCAs really big twisty slide a few times and thought it was AWESOME! (She was on the lap of her coach)

29. She's still doing gymnastics and on Saturday just did her first flips on the uneven bars (with her coaches help of course). I was so sad that I didn't have my camera! I'll try to catch it next week.

30. She's still taking piano lessons once a week. She can play the first few measures of Mary had a Little Lamb, Beethoven's 5th, and Fur Elise (sp? I've next seen it written).

31. Hailey has decided to throw massive temper tantrums lately. Wen I say massive- I'm not exagerating.

32. We found that the best punishment is to take away her current favorite movie- which is normally which ever Netflix she has at the time.

33. We discovered how well this works on the 4th of July when Ryan walked Barbie Fairytopia: Magic of the Rainbow out to the mailbox and Hailey cried for an additional hour about it.

34. I told her if we could be REALLY good for 3 days, then Barbie Fairytopia: Mermaidia would come. It didn't, Peter Pan came instead. She was mad, but got over it. Now I've still been able to hold Mermaidia over her as incentive to be good. I know, I'm cruel.

35. She got a haircut about a month ago. Actually two. Don't ever just show up at a cheap chain haircut place for a kid haircut unless you know that the stylist is capable. Her hair was still wet and curly when we left- she went to her grandma's house right after and I didn't REALLY look at the cut until late Saturday night. It was the worst haircut I'd ever seen. Super uneven. I took her back on Monday and had it redone. So it was shorter then than I wanted, but looks really cute on her.

36. Hailey is overjoyed that we're having another baby and tells everyone. She is so cute about worrying about me and the baby when I'm sick.

37. She's really excited for when she can feel it kicking.

38. Katelyn got her first tooth- FINALLY. You still can't really see it, but we can feel it.

39. She is no longer the least bit interested in someone else feeding her and only wants to eat things that she can plop in her mouth herself.

40. We don't eat as healthy as we should- especially when I'm sick and exhausted and don't feel like cooking.

41. Katelyn eating what we're eating has made me a lot more conscience of eating well rounded meals and I'll admit- we're not doing so well!

42. She has also finally decided in the last couple of weeks to get up off her tummy and actually crawl.

43. She's been able to crawl for a long time, but hasn't felt the need since she's so efficient at army crawling.

44. She's also pulling herself up and walking around the edges of everything. She's pretty confident up on her feet and I don't anticipate that it will be a super long time until she walks.

45. Her birthday is in less than a month (Aug 3) and I can't believe it's already been a year!

46. She makes me laugh all the time- she has the funniest faces that she'll make at you and I think she actually tries to be funny. I love it!

47. Hailey and her play really well together.

48. Hailey actually really enjoys when Katelyn wakes her up in the morning by crawling on top of her and giving her "kisses". It's one of the best ways to wake Hailey up when she doesn't want to, without her getting grumpy.

49. Another great way to wake Hailey up is to already have cinnamon rolls ready for her.

50. Hailey REALLY wants to be a mommy when she grows up. She talks about it constantly- well getting married in the temple to her prince charming and being a mommy.

51. Right now she calls herself a "little mommy" anytime she helps take care of Katelyn, cook dinner, clean, etc.

52. She became a little less eager to become a "big mommy" when I told her that includes changing diapers.

53. Playing dress up is still one of her favorite things.

54. Another one of her favorite things is having Grandma Barbara come over to play.

55. Grandma Barbara starts working in Phoenix today and will be moving soon.

56. We've tried explaining to Hailey about her moving, but I don't think she really gets it. Nor will she until she keeps asking for Grandma to come over and grandma can't.

57. Hailey already says 'I miss grandma' when it's been like a day since she's seen her- thank goodness for telephones!

58. Ryan and I are REALLY going to miss having Ryan's parents here in town.

59. It's going to be weird being up here by ourselves- they moved up here at the exact same time we did 6.5 years ago.

60. I can keep going about how sad this will all be if it would keep Grandma and Grandpa in Prescott- Barbara just let me know :-)

61. My brother went to the temple for the first time yesterday.

62. It was really awesome being there with my little brother. (He stands almost a foot taller than me.)

63. I really want my sister to be there with us someday.

64. The temple was PACKED yesterday. Every session was running behind the whole day. As much as this delayed the evening and did cause scheduling issues for some people- it was awesome to see.

65. I'm overjoyed that we'll have more temples in AZ soon enough. (Anyone know an actualy timeframe on any of the temples being built?)

66. I love monsoon season!

67. It's been fairly cool here with great afternoon thunderstorms every single day!

68. I'm very senstive to temperature changes (no one is allowed to post a comment about me having no meat on my bones for insulation). Anywho- I dislike being too hot but hate how cold it is in every air conditioned building and feel like I should be taking sweaters with me when I go out in the summer time.

69. Speaking of hating heat- I'm overjoyed to not be in Phoenix this summer with this pregnancy.

70. Although, this one will be due only 2 1/2 weeks after Hailey was due- and I remember feeling so frumpy trying to look cute in layers of winter clothes whilst 9 mo preggo!

71. I'm really racking my brain now on what to write about. I wish someone could offer up some ideas.

72. Hailey is a big fan of the band Weezer- just like her momma and dadda (I converted Ryan after we were married).

73. This happened after Ryan would drive around listening to the blue self titled CD (incase anyone else is a fan) VERY loudly play and singing along to My Name is Jonas and Undone- The Sweater Song.

74. She now knows the majority of the words to My Name is Jonas. It's pretty cute.

75. Hey There Delilah by the Plain White Ts is another favorite of hers.

76. Other than Weezer, Ryan really didn't get into any of my other favorite music from before we got together- of except for Wyclef (edited of course).

77. He was a country boy that went swing dancing on the weekends and I was a punk rock/ska girl that went to "shows" at least a few times a month and 'skanked' (not the meaning you would think) and danced my little heart out in a crowded sweaty loud smokey club.

78. I tried going to an all day Edgefest about 3 or 4 years ago with a friend and realized that I'd just really outgrown that scene in SO many ways.

79. I have great memories of that time in my life, I really did have fun- but I can't say I have any desire to go back and go it again. I do with that I could get some of my hearing back though!

80. I'm glad that I had the gospel and although was in an environment that I probablly shouldn't have been in- that never lead me to make any wrong choices because I knew who I was and what I was doing and had great friendly who supported me in that!

I'm needing to go, for now! I can't take any more time on this for now, but want to finish up later. Post some comments or questions that I can answer with my next 20 random things!!

Hypocrite

2008-06-17T20:57:00.002-07:00

So I know that I haven't posted in an extremely long time and as I look back over the last several posts, there have been no pictures of the girls in months and you all are very deserving of the opportunity to see my beautiful children. However, I've been in a blogging funk if you will and have lacked the motivation to write a post that has some cute story, attach cute pictures, etc etc. Yet, I read other people's blogs still and get annoyed when they go a couple days without posting something. I know, I know. I identified myself in the title.

But here's the thing, Ryan has my camera at Camp Geronimo this week. And if I'm going to blog a worthwhile post, then it would require updated pictures of the girls- henceforth, I'm off the hook until this weekend. But it's going to be a really busy week- celebrating Ryan's 31st birthday (tomorrow), Super Saturday which I am teaching a craft at and still have to prepare everything for, potentially a trip to Phoenix to see My Fair Lady at Gammage (if I feel like it by the time Saturday night rolls around), etc etc. So we'll see. No promises.

In the meantime, know that we are all alive and well and we haven't dropped off the face of the earth. Thanks for still dropping by and checking in on us and we'll update soon. Maybe.

My Other Soul Mate

2008-05-18T07:07:00.000-07:00

I think this is great news! We'd get along just fine...

Take the Quiz

Tag!

2008-05-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

So here's another tag where I get to try to come up with things that you'll find interesting about me, and then hope that at the end you don't think...wow, thats the best she could come up with? So, I'm just going to write random thought. Here goes...

This tag is just 8 random things about myself. First the rules,

The Rules: 1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves. 2. People that are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules. 3. At the end of your post tag 8 people and include their names. Don't forget to leave them a comment on their blog to tell them they've been tagged, and to comment back and read your blog for the whole story.

1. I got a new EnV cell phone, kind of for mother's day, last Thursday. I really like it, but can't figure out how to make it compatible with Rhapsody (where I download my music from) and it's making me very frustrated and I feel very technology illiterate!

2. Our family recently decided to remove our entertainment unit/TV out of the family room (and into our really small office)and cancel cable. We only have one main family area and the TV was just controlling too much of our family's time and there was always NOISE! We also thought that if we can keep it from being a major part of our kids's lives now it won't be a problem when they're older. Instead of all of the electronic media, we really want to focus on the extra curricular activities, playing outdoors, and family time, etc etc. We already feel a better spirit in our home!

2. I have a very passionate dislike of doing dishes in a soapy sink. I will load and unload the dishwasher a billion times if I can avoid doing dishes in the sink. I've always had dry hands, and washing dishes makes them so much worse that I avoid it at all costs :-) Unfortunately, I just did a big sinkful of dishes...

3. I shave my arms and legs every single day. I started shaving my arms in High School because I get cold easily and I had A LOT of long (for arm hair) blonde hair that would stand straight up everytime I was cold and I was always really embarassed. As much as it's a pain to maintain, I don't regret it in the least. But I can not stand to not shave every day and start getting prickly....yuck!

4. Ryan and I have moved 9 times in the past 7 years (including moving into our first apartment together). I pretty much consider myself a pro at it at this point. However, I do NOT want to do it again soon unless I am able to upgrade into a significantly bigger house- in which case I would move in a heartbeat!

5. Taking my kids to childcare and having to find good childcare on what feels like a very regular basis is a massive stressor for me. And just to set the record straight for the fairly frequent misjudgements that seem to occur...if I could be at home with my kids and not working 40 hours a week, I would be all over it. At this point, it's not an option so I make the best of working and have been decently successful in my career with my employer.

6. I'm totally ok about going to the one grocery store in my little town even when I'm looking pretty tired/lazy/homely. Anywhere else, I like to be wearing something somewhat cute, my hair and makeup would need to be looking alright, etc. But here...eh...it's just such a different laid back environment and I just allowed myself to conform right to it! If I drive into Prescott though, that's a whole other story...

7. I just finished The Host by Stephenie Meyer today. If you're at all curious, it started out really weird and was hard for me to get my brain around and get into (but I kind of expected that when I initally heard what it was about). But I got pretty into it and it was an ok book. She's just a good author so it doesn't really matter what she writes about (vampires, aliens, etc.) her stories suck you in and despite my ridiculously busy schedule the last two weeks, I finished the 600+ page book in 11 days. It was a lot longer of a read than the Twilight series books, and I was really wanting to get it finished so I could get my life back. But now that it's over, I'm kind of sad and want more.

8. I wanted Amanda, not Parvarti, to win Survivor! And I'm totally rooting for Amanda and Ozzie! I was kind of hoping for a Rob and Amber type proposal at the finale episode! I'm just a hopeless romantic I guess....

Now I tag Dawn, Shiela & Mindy.

Called to Serve Him

2008-05-16T06:25:00.000-07:00

I am beaming with pride as a big sister! My little brother (who is actually much bigger than me) received his mission call last night!

New York, New York South Mission- Spanish Speaking !

For anyone who knows my little bro, you know that when he was younger he was a royal pain in the rear- even moreso than other little boys are to their 2 older sisters! But I've been so impressed with him as he's grown up into a man...which is really weird for me to say!

He has really made the decision to serve a mission all on his own and not been pushed into it or "expected" to go. When I think about the other youth from my home ward, even over the years since I was still at home, very few have served missions and a lot are inactive. But David and his friends all decided a couple years ago about the path they wanted to take and they're all going to be leaving on missions around the same time. In fact his best friend got his mission call yesterday too (to Eugene, OR) and reports to the MTC a week after David! It hasn't been the easist road for him to take and he's had challenges to overcome and the criticism of those who don't understand why he would PAY money to go give up two years of his life, but he's held his head high and worked through those things and stuck to his commitment to himself.

I remember a day when I stopped by my parents house on a weekday around 4:00 in the afternoon after school got out and no one else was home except my brother and one of his friends who were sitting in the living room reading the Book of Mormon together until they had to leave to go to work. I was quite taken back and really impressed to see two teenage boys spending the afternoon studying the gospel.

David has worked hard the last few years at QT (the convenience store) and has saved enough to pay for his whole mission on his own and even some extra to buy some of the things he'll need to go out. No offense to my little bro, but 5 years ago I would have bet you money that he would never hold a job- let alone be Employee of the Month and get recognized for going above and beyond on a regular basis.

I know he's going to be an awesome missionary because he has a strong testimony that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is true and wants to share that knowledge with others so that it can bless them in their lives.

I know that you don't hear me say it enough, but I really do love you Dave!

Twilight

2008-05-04T21:03:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't already know this about me (in case there are any of you out there...), I am a very big fan of the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. Now I'm not a hardcore Twilight fan, but a fan nonetheless. At least fan enough to be reading the books for a second time in anticipation of book four- Breaking Dawn, which comes out in August (and, yes, mine has been pre-ordered). And at least a big enough fan to have checked www.stepheniemeyer.com on a very regular basis to watch for updates. And at least a big enough fan to have seen all of the mtv.com videos about the movie Twilight coming out in December.

But in my Twilight wonderings online, I have run into some Twilight fans that are FAR beyond the norm. I recently saw an "official" Bella braclet that had a crystal heart and a wolf head that cost $90. Really? Are you kidding? And would anyone really wear that? The T-shirts and baby bibs and all that are one thing...but $90 for a bracelt with a wolf head? Anyone who hadn't read the books would think you were insane- although even if you had read the books and wore that I would think that you were insane. Maybe it's just because I'm not a Jacob fan...

Anywho, for the benefit of anyone who hasn't already seen these videos, or at least for my mom's sake (I finally got her to read the books!), here is a video from the MTV.com Twilight video site. This isn't my favorite of the videos, but it's the only one that would load directly to this post. Go to http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1585900&vid=226476 (sorry it wouldn't create the hyperlink for me) to see all of the videos. The first one "we killin some people today" is the best and my most recommended if you're only going to watch one.

I will admit that because I am such a fan of these books, I'm really concerned that the movie will suck, that's what everyone who hasn't read the books will see and the whole series will be put to shame by this one movie. So I really hope that instead, this movie is really well made and creates quite the buzz and they continue to make movies for each book. Although I hate that I would have to wait that long

Thank you AGAIN Uncle Sam!!

2008-05-02T05:45:00.000-07:00

So I'm super duper stoked to wake up this morning, check my online banking and BAM! a triple payday plus! I got paid, Ryan got paid and we got our economic stimulous check- or whatever it's called! Too bad this doesn't happen every week! :-)

Tomorrow we're going to go order our block to make a retaining wall across our backyard, which will take up pretty much all of our IRS check ::sigh:: but then we can have our back yard leveled out, then Ryan can do our sprinklers, then within a month or so I should have GRASS!!! Wahoo!!

We have a 10x10 dog run that the puppies live in for the most part, but the rest of our backyard is just dirt, dusty dry dirt. And between the dogs coming inside the house and us going in and out of the backyard taking care of the dogs, my house is now dry dusty dirt and I'm pretty over it! I want my grass! :-)

I would post pictures of the mess our backyard is currently, but it's pretty ghetto- so I'll wait until we have "after" pictures too! We had to rip apart the siding on our hot tub to fix a leak and put new siding on that we still haven't painted, We have piles of landscape materials all over, we have many many of those blue water storage containers in our side yard, our flagstone patio to the hot tub is only 1/3 of the way done. The list goes on and on!

I feel blessed on a regular basis to have a husband who is so amazingly handy at so many different things. In this case his landscaping skills are going to pay off for us HUGE! He's done our front yard landscaping (including the drip/water systems) and his parent's front yard in Surprise- and now he gets to do our backyard! The money that we're saving on having the know how and ability to do it ourselves is awesome! I guess the year and a half of landscaping for a living has paid off (even though it didn't really at the time)!!

Speaking of, Ryan is really wanting to get a side business of landscaping going to bring in some extra dough. If anyone in the Prescott Tri-Cities needs ANY kind of work done...give us a buzz! Or please if you hear of anyone needing work done- give them our info! I promise that he knows his stuff!

Meet Lexi and Beamer

2008-04-19T22:55:00.000-07:00

More pics to come...they're a little hard to get to sit still at this point. Hopefully the excitement of being at our house will wear off and then I can get more shots! :-)

They're both awesome, but Beamer is beautiful! He's going to be a BIG dog!

Personality Test Results

2008-04-19T15:50:00.000-07:00

My Personality


Neuroticism	39
Extraversion	36
Openness to Experience	1
Agreeableness	63
Conscientiousness	73

You do not experience strong, irresistible cravings and consequently do not find yourself tempted to overindulge, however you are sensitive about what others think of you. Your concern about rejection and ridicule cause you to feel shy and uncomfortable around others. You are easily embarrassed and often feel ashamed. Your fears that others will criticize or make fun of you are exaggerated and unrealistic, but your awkwardness and discomfort may make these fears a self-fulfilling prophecy. You are not prone to spells of energetic high spirits. You prefer facts over fantasy and are more interested in what is happening in the real word. You dislike confrontations and are perfectly willing to compromise or to deny your own needs in order to get along with others, however you are willing to take credit for good things that you do but you don't often talk yourself up much. You take your time when making decisions and will deliberate on all the possible consequences and alternatives.

Personality Test now or view the full Personality Report.

The best Buying Pet Gifts.

SSSHHHH!!! It's a Secret!!

2008-04-18T08:13:00.000-07:00

So tomorrow evening I'll have the happiest 3 year old in the whole wide world!! We're finally getting the puppies that we've been wanting for the past 6 months (actually since we had to give away our dog Charlie 3 years ago). Hailey has known that we've been on the prowl for puppies for quite some time and is VERY eager to have her very own dog. She'll carry around a little pillow she has and pretend that it's a puppy because she wants one SO bad...it's really sad!

But tomorrow that will all change! We will be getting not one, but TWO lab puppies! (Yes, I do know that we're insane having an 8 mo old that's just learning to crawl and just started sleeping through the night, and now we're getting 2- 10 week old puppies!) We have a white male and a chocolate female on their way from breeders in Missouri. My grandpa in Missouri transports puppies from breeders to pet stores across the country. So he's hooking us up with two papered labs from different breeders that we can breed...eventually. And I won't mention the cost, but it is a truly amazing deal!

Ryan also has plans for these to be the best trained bird/hunting dogs ever. Ryan LOVED training Charlie who was also a chocolate lab and was super smart and learned so easily. Ryan took him to the lake near our house on a nearly daily basis and reminded me of a little boy with his dog. They had so much fun together. We've missed him sooo much- but last I heard he was living with a good family on several acres and runs around with a race horse...so I'm sure that he's happy!

We've joked (or half-joked) that we would name our next chocolate male Charlie as well...just because it's so natural for us to want to call a dog Charlie. However, we're now getting a white male and a chocolate female....so it's just not the same. So we're trying to come up with names now. I've got a couple of names floating around in my head (such as Lexi and Dax)...but nothing decided.

I'd love to hear your suggestions!! I was thinking it would be cute to have them named after a famous couple or something to do with the white and brown, etc etc. (Just for the record Twilight fans, Ryan has nixed Edward and Bella :-) I was thinking Jasper might work though....)

Let me know your ideas and if I choose names you suggest, there may be prizes involved!!

I l-o-v-e IKEA!

2008-03-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

So I'm in Phoenix this weekend and today took a little trip to IKEA- one of my very favorite places. I got to go roam around for a couple of hours with actual money to spend! (Thank you Uncle Sam for giving me my $$ back and making this trip possible!)

My goal over the next month is to get my bedroom decorated into the romantic get-a-way I've been wanting since we bought the house 2 years ago! I've run into several road blocks on getting this done sooner: lack of funds, spending $$ in the more visible rooms of the house, TIME, and then just not knowing exactlly what I've wanted to do (Ryan doesn't really care what I do. He trusts me with whatever I do, isn't that great?!)

I'm now at a place where I've worked many of these things out...I've got a little bit of cash (although I'm still super budget conscience), I've made my room my biggest decorating priority, I've got my friend Hilary on the project of helping me plan things out (she's even going to bed at night thinking about ideas- she's so committed!) and I'm just going to make the time- no matter what!!

So getting back to today, I bought a really cool canvas photograph from IKEA that perfectly matches my bedding. It's 3ft x 4ft and will look great over my bed. I also got a nice mirror and floating shelves that I can now buy accessories for. And Hilary is on the hunt to help me find the curtains I want. Once we find the right color of curtains- I can get the right paint colors and get some color on the wall! My room is seriously a big ugly white blank canvas with zero decor- so I'm really excited about this- if you can't tell!

(It's more blue than grey in real life.)

I'll post pictures of our projects and progress as we go!

Our Weekend Accomplishment

2008-03-23T20:48:00.000-07:00

The following post is really for the benefit of those who have seen the state of chaos that our garage has been in since we moved into our house two years ago. Even when we had moved to Surprise we had left the garage here in Chino as is. We've been frustrated with it for a very long time, but this weekend we had had enough. We spent at least 8hours (well Ryan spent 8 hours, I probablly spent 2) cleaning up and organizing and throwing out junk, etc etc. We also bought more shelving which really helped!

Look mom and dad- both cars are in our garage!!

It's kind of fitting for a Easter weekend project- we gave our garage new life!

MUST See Movie: August Rush

2008-03-22T16:25:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard of it. watch the trailor here:

http://www.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK//video/trailer/me60688448/

Pictures That Make Me Happy

2008-03-20T20:30:00.000-07:00

Since I haven't posted much (or at all) over the last few months, there are too many things that have taken place for me to go back and tell of the stories. So instead, as I was looking through my pictures trying to decide what I really wanted to share- I decided just to post all of the pictures that show you what makes me happy to be a mom and a wife and a daughter...

This is my mom & my mom's mom with Katelyn.

This picture of the girls makes me smile because it's such an everyday thing for Hailey to be laying on the floor with Katelyn.

Hailey LOVES to help me cook. Here we are making chocolate chip cookies- a favorite weekend thing for us.

The picture with Hailey in front of the pink quilt is special because my mom made this quilt for Hailey and gave it to her for her third birthday. She spent SOOO much time on this quilt! I wish you could see the star quilting on each of the squares and in the borders.

Even though it was obviously a cold wet gray day, I love this picture because of what it represents to me. This is the spot in front of the Salt Lake Temple where Ryan proprosed to me! At the time I couldn't have pictured where we would be in our lives together 6 years and two kids later! Unfortunately there was no one around to take the picture so that I could be in it as well.

I also like this one from our visit to Temple Square. I'm holding my little girl and it looks like Christ is ready to pull us into an embrace as well.

The is the girls with my grandpa- their great grandpa in Salt Lake.

And finally, here's my beautiful happy baby!

New Addition to Our Family

2008-03-20T20:06:00.000-07:00

So a week ago today we bought a piano. No one in our family currently plays the piano, but Hailey is learning and because Ryan gets to take her to her lessons, he is learning in the process. I'm totally jealous! I can't say that I've always wanted to learn, but now that I have a piano I REALLY want to learn! Ryan wants real lessons as well, but unfortunately we can't afford for all of us to be taking lessons at the same time. So we bought a teach yourself book and we'll see how that goes.

I'm a visual learner and do so much better with someone showing me how to do it. Example: I have had a sewing machine for 2 years that has only been used once- when Ryan's mom borrowed it. I have no idea how to use a sewing machine. I would love to use it, but I absolutely hate the idea of having to get the book out and teach myself. I want someone to show me how to do it and then I know that I'll do great with it.

So if someone is looking for a service project- teach me how to use my sewing machine! And if someone wants a really big service project- teach me how to play the piano!! :-)

Isn't she cute?

Long Awaited Updates

2008-03-17T14:51:00.001-07:00

Hailey is a very busy girl lately. Ryan has Thursday and Friday off every week, so Hailey is now taking piano lessons and gymnastics once a week and in April she'll be taking swim lessons as well. She loves having so many fun things to do! Her favorite thing to do right now though is to make her Grandma Barbara play puppets for hours on end!

Katelyn is such a happy baby! She is 7 1/2 months on now and weighs 17 1/2 lbs and is 27" tall. She drools like you've never seen, but there's still no sign of teeth yet! She is rolling all over the place and has just started scooting herself forward in the last couple of days, I'm still working on getting good video of it!

Ryan just got called as our ward's Scout Master and he's excited but overwhelmed by the challenge. He has big shoes to fill of our previous scout master who was in that position for about 5 years. Luckily scouting runs in the Lowry blood and he'll have lots of help from his dad!

I have to run, but will try to post more soon- thanks for everyone who keeps coming back waiting for more!

A little about me...

2008-03-15T05:02:00.001-07:00

1. What is your occupation? mom, wife, Staffing Consultant/Recruiter for a bank

2. What color are your socks right now? no socks- just painted my toe nails

3. What are you listening to right now? I'm watching Divine Design

4. What was the last thing you ate? a Milky Way

5. Can you drive a stick shift? No. In theory I know how to, but I doubt I could do it very well.

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Macaroni and Cheese

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? A piano tuning guy

8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? yeah- I wish we had become better friends while we lived near each other though!

9. How old are you today? 25

10. Favorite drink? Tropical Punch Koolaid

11. What is your favorite sport to watch? I don't really watch any- but I enjoy going to baseball games

12. Have you ever dyed your hair? numerous times

13. Pets? we're working on getting puppies

14. Soap or shower gel? neither, creamy body wash

15. What was the last movie you watched? I went to Horton Hears A Who on Saturday (loved it!) but I also watched Oceans Thirteen for the first time last night

16. What was the last book you read? Dan Brown's Deception Point

17. What do you do to vent anger? clean my house

18. What was your favorite toy as a child? I don't remember a particular favorite, but I liked Rainbow Bright

19. What is your favorite season? Spring

20. Hugs or kisses? hugs

21. Cherries, Blueberries or Strawberries? Strawberries

22. Do you want your friends to play along? I don't really understand this and the next 2 questions- play what?

23. Who is most likely to play?

24. Who is least likely to play?

25. Living arrangements? 3 bed house, Hailey and Katelyn have their own rooms- but Katelyn has to share her space with our computer and office stuff

26. When was the last time you cried? I don't remember crying since the week after I had Katelyn and my hormones were a mess! I'm sure that I've cried watching a movie though since then

27. What is on the floor of your closet? shoes that overflow from my shoe shelves and boxes of clothes

28.Who is the friend you have known the longest? Renae- since 1st grade in Mrs. Grant's class

29. What did you do last night? As previously mentioned, I watched Ocean's Thirteen with Ryan- I had both girls asleep by 7:45- yay!

30. What is your favorite number? 21

31. What or who inspires you? A lot of different people inspire me in a lot of different ways- too many to mention here

32. What are you afraid of? Driving in snowy/ice conditions! Also, having a tire blow out when I'm traveling (which I do a lot of for work)

33. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? cheese

34. Favorite dog breed? Chocolate labs

35. What is on your key ring? too many keys and a Shea Homes key chain

36. Favorite day of the week? I guess Saturday and Sunday because I don't work, but Ryan does- so they're not as great as they used to be.

37. How many states have you lived in? 3- born in UT, moved to CA, but I've been in AZ since I was 6.

39. Favorite holiday(s)? Christmas

40. Ever driven a Motorcycle or heavy machinery? Nope- no desire to either

Now a little about Ryan....

What’s His Name? Gabriel Ryan

How Long have you been together? Our total time together is 7 years- married 6 1/2

How long did you date? From the time we initially met til the time we were engaged was about 5 months

How old is he? 30

Who eats more? For the most part he does- but I can put away twice as much french toast as he can!

Who said I love you first? This is really bad of me, but I don't really remember this moment- I'm sure it was him though. I was waiting on him for everything- saying I love you, kissing me, etc. He had fun torturing me because he already knew how I felt!

Who is taller? He's 5'11, I'm only 5'2

Who can sing better? Yikes, let's just say neither of us would ever dare auditioning for American Idol for fear that our auditions would be the one laughed at for the next year.

Who is Smarter? We're both smart in different ways, but he's the one with the college degree (In Aeronautical Science with a minor in Meteorology)

Who does the laundry? I do.

Who pays the bills? I do. When we got married Ryan was definitely the more financial savvy one and paid all of the bills, but for the past 6 years that I've worked at a bank he's let me handle it all.

Who mows the lawn? We don't have a lawn but we're working on getting one in the backyard right now.

Who makes dinner? I used to do almost all of the cooking, but he's off work earlier than me now and really does quite a bit of the cooking.

Who sleeps on the right side? Facing, the bed, I’m on the right side.

Who is more stubborn? Definitely me.

Who asked who out first? We hung at at Singles Ward activities (and after the activities talking in the parking lot) A LOT after we met- I think the "first date" just kind of happened naturally.

Who proposed? Ryan did- I was on vacation in UT with my family and he missed me. So in a matter of 24 hours he bought a ring and a plane ticket and flew up there to surprise me and took me to temple square to proprose! It was awesome! Then he had to fly home to be back at work the next day. I found a wedding dress the very next day!

Who has more friends? Me. But Ryan always gets a long great with all of my friends and their husbands.

Who has more siblings? He does, I have 2 and he has 4- kind of (I think of you as family Jon!)

Who is more sensitive? He would probablly argue this- but Ryan!

Who wears the pants? We've very good about making decisions together.

TAGS: Dawn & Shiela

All Aboard the Polar Express!

2007-12-23T09:23:00.000-07:00

In addition to having Hailey's birthday party on the 21st, we also took a trip to Williams, AZ to board the Polar Express, where we continued on to the North Pole to visit Santa Clause!
When I say "we" I mean: Me, Ryan, Hailey, Katelyn, Tony, Barbara, Eric, Cynthia, Tyler, Danielle, Sara, Brent, Toni, Karli, Nathan, Noah (all Ryan's family), Kevin & Hilary (my friends here in Prescott), Dave, Heather, Jacob, Rachel, Rebecca, Leah & Lizzie (friend's from our ward in Surprise). So many people! But so much fun to get to enjoy the train ride with all of them!

The night wasn't without a few glitches (not enough seats, there was a problem with the train that caused delays, cold "hot" chocolate, Ryan nearly being thrown up on (it would have made a better story if he had actually been thrown up on!), etc), but all and all it was great- and Hailey had a blast again this year which always makes anything worthwhile!

I'll post more pictures when I get more from the other people that were with us.

Happy 3rd Birthday Hailey!

2007-12-23T09:01:00.001-07:00

On Friday the 21st, Hailey turned 3! We had a pink princess birthday- of course! These are just a few of my favorite shots. Check out my photo album for more pics.

I had to throw this picture in from her 2nd birthday just because she has grown up SO much over the last year! I hardly feel like she's my little girl anymore!

Our November

2007-12-01T11:10:00.000-07:00

I've come to the realization that I just can't manage to keep this thing updated as events happen in our lives, so instead I'll have to just write REALLY LONG posts with all of our updates.

So here was our November...

The Mangum Family says "Goodbye" to the Pulsar- FINALLY!

Nov 2nd

November 3rd my brother David got in a three car pile-up in front of Glendale Community College and totalled the car that my parents bought when I was only three years old. I just happened to be in town and was able to get there shortly after it happened to experience it first hand! My brother is fine- there was a minor scratch on his thumb at the time, and a little whiplash following, but no one involved suffered any major injuries. A word of advice though- don't get into an accident in Glendale- it took SOOO long for the police to get there and file their reports, etc etc. It was quite ridiculous! He actually ended up getting a decent amount of money from the other guys insurance and got a better car, so sometimes blessings come in odd ways!

Good Bye Jeep Grand Cherokee- Hello Honda Pilot!

Yes, another posting about vehicles!
November 10th

After spending thousands over the years on fixing one thing or another on our '98 Jeep Grand Cherokee, we have been less than impressed with that vehicle. So this time when it started spewing oil out the back, we said- that's it, we're through with this thing!

Then there was the internal struggle of whether we wanted the burden of a car payment (both of our vehicles have been paid off for almost a year now and it's been so nice!). Ultimately though, we bit the bullet and started the search for another vehicle.

After looking at many different small and mid-sized SUVs, we discovered the Pilot (I think Ryan just wanted it for the name), but we love it! It is everything that I wanted: foreign built, gets decent gas mileage, has a third row, I don't feel like I'm driving a tank, leather seats, a DVD player- which is so nice for Hailey! We've used a portable DVD in the past, but having a built-in with the loader and all the controls in the dash and no cords to deal with is SO much better!

Hailey's favorite part of the car buying experience was the bounce house they had set up (it was a big tent event sale). There were no other kids around (smart parents!) so she got to bounce her little heart out. Seriously though, if you're ever buying a car, no matter what- FIND A BABYSITTER!

Ryan and I still fight over who gets to drive it primarily. Because we equally drop off and pick up the kids from the babysitter- neither one of us has a better business case. One of his arguements is that the Accord still has my personlized plate- so that's "my car". Everyone (but Ryan) knows eventually I'll win though :-)

Ryan Graduates from Training at Lockheed Martin

November 14th

Doesn't he look excited about this? I asked him if he wanted me to take pictures and he said, "Not really." But I said- "How about just one for the blog?"

Actually he is really excited to have made it throguh the 10 week training. It was really just like being in college all over again. There were difficult exams and everything. He quickly discovered that trying to study for a test with two young children is A LOT more difficult then when he was in college and it was just the two of us.

He still has several more months of training time where he will be working with a trainer before he will be out on his own, but the hardest part has passed, and for that we are very glad! He has had an awesome schedule during training- 7am-3:30pm M-F, but this coming week we will get his schedule for the next few months. We're praying that it's a decent schedule. Because Lockheed Martin is the Flight Service Center for all private pilots, it's a 24/7 facility. He could end up with anything, including Sundays :( I'll keep you posted once we find out what he gets....

Lowry Family Thanksgiving

Nov 17th

It has become tradition to have Thanksgiving dinner with Ryan's family the weekend before Thanksgiving so that everyone can get together, and then be able to see their in-laws on Thanksgiving Day. We had everyone there (which means 13 grandkids!) and it was a lot of fun!

This is Ryan and his brother Daniel- can you see the family resemblence?

Thanksgiving Day

Nov 22

We spent Thanksgiving Day with my family in Phoenix. I was actually going to be brave and make dinner for everyone myself, but schedules changed and we went down there instead and I got to spend at least one more year of just kicking back and enjoying my mom's cooking expertise.

Hailey's favorite part of the day was getting to play with Tatum for about a couple of hours.

Our Halloween

2007-11-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it has been 2 weeks since Halloween and I am just now finding a moment to get our pictures posted!

Halloween night Hailey, Katelyn, Hilary, Barbara and I went to a tri-ward YM/YW Halloween carnival for all of the kids (while Ryan studied for a test). My Young Women did a cupcake walk that was a huge hit with the little ones, especially with Hailey. How easily entertained young children are with walking in circles to music and then stopping really fast when the music stops :-) Maybe I should try it at home....

Then we all went back to my house to have the chili and cornbread that I had prepared earlier and a few friends stopped by to trick-or-treat and visit. Hailey loved handing out candy as much as she liked asking for it! It was too cute how excited she got when the doorbell rang. Then we were all out to the door to trick-or-treat with Ryan and Hailey leading the way and the rest of us following behind.

While we were out trick-or-treating, I felt very grateful for the neighborhood we live in. There were so many kids and families out having fun. Because Ryan had worked in our neighborhood when he was with Shea homes, I felt like I was married to a celebrity! Everyone knew him and was excited to see us back in the neighborhood and loved meeting the new addition to the family. Once again, I was really overcome with the feeling that we're where we are supposed to be. It's a good feeling.

However, one thing that I do miss about living in Phoenix are the fairly warm Halloween nights. It was COLD here in Chino and that really affects the kind of costumes that you can choose for your kids. I got both of the girls' costumes at Old Navy 50% off, so I can't complain, but I'd really love to let Hailey be a princess or fairy without having to find a way to make it really warm at the same time. Oh well, the ladybug and pumpkin worked for this year...

Halloween Preparations Begin

2007-10-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

We LOVE carving pumpkins in our family! Ok really, I love it the most and Ryan humors me and Hailey just thinks they look cool but doesn't want to actually touch the pumpkin guts. It took a lot just to get her to barely touch our big pile of guts to pick seeds out.

This year we decided we needed three pumpkins. The one that we got from Windmill Farms for Hailey and then Ryan and I each picked one out at the grocery store. Ryan did most of the "gutting" of the pumpkins and then I did the carving. I got a little possesive actually. He might have enjoyed carving a pumpkin himself, but I sent him off with the kids so that I could get to work!

Then we realized that Katelyn didn't have a pumpkin, so we decided she should BE a pumpkin. Ryan's idea, not mine! But it is kind of cute :-)

After three hours, (yes, I spent three hours and wish that I could have spent more to get them just the way I wanted them!) this was our finished product. The perfectionist in me isn't really satisfied, but at some point you have to just call it a night and get some sleep!

Attention Friends & Fam!

2007-10-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

I've created a new link to the left called "More Photos" where I've posted more photos of our family for your viewing pleasure!

I will be adding more photos all the time, so keep coming back!

Our BUSY Last 3 Months

2007-10-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

(I apologize ahead of time for the length of this post, but I have to play catch up of journaling the time since Katelyn was born!)

Our lives have been crazy, but so much fun the last few months! Katelyn has been a very busy, well traveled baby. When she was only 1.5 weeks we drove up to Prescott from Surprise for Ryan's job interview with Lockheed Martin.

A week later, at 2.5 weeks, she took a trip to Salt Lake to meet her great-grandparents and great-great grandma with me, while Hailey and her Grandma Barbara went on to Idaho. Although it sounds like too much to take a 12 hour roadtrip right after having a baby, it so relaxing! Katelyn slept the whole way and Hailey watched DVDs. Of course I was exhausted from getting about 2hrs of sleep the night before. But once we got there, all was well. I love being at my grandparents home and being with all of my extended family. (This picture would have been a 5 generation shot if my dad had been there with us.) During this time Ryan also got the call that he got the job with Lockheed and the moving preparations began.

The weekend of Katelyn's 1 month birthday we moved back to our home in Chino Valley, which was such a blessing, but so much work! Especially when you're not supposed to lift anything! Thank you to everyone who helped ease that burden!

The following weekend we drove back down to Phx, then on to San Juan Capistrano, CA to go to one of my best friend's wedding where Hailey got to be the cutest flower girl ever! Not the best behaved mind you, but definitely the hit of the party! You have to understand that Hilary (the beautiful bride) is also one of Hailey's best friends. So Hailey, knowing that we were there for Hilary, felt like the whole day was about the two of them. So when the time came for Hailey to walk down the REALLY long isle, Hilary pointed to where Hailey had to walk to with the ring bearer and she told her that she would be following right behind her. So Hailey did great walking down the isle, but when she got close to the "end" she started running (on a downhill sidewalk mind you, we all thought she was going to trip and land on her face) and when she reached the point she was supposed to get to, she yelled- "I WON!" Then turned around to tell Hilary, who of course hadn't started down the isle yet. So my adorable little daughter started running back up the isle shouting Hilary's name. I was mortified and frozen not knowing what to do! Luckily Hilary's aunt was standing halfway up the isle and football grabbed her, and the ceremony went on. But Hailey wanted to talk the whole time, and finally Ryan took her to go play. Luckily, Katelyn was great and slept the whole time.

Although I was SO embarassed that my daughter had "ruined" Hilary's moment of walking down the isle- everyone else loved it- including Kevin and Hilary and all of their family- who just thought Hailey was the cutest thing ever. Without a care in the world, Hailey continued to think the day and night were all about her and Hil and they danced the night away. I knew Hilary was a great person, but for a bride on her wedding day to be that loving and patient with a 2 year old and give her all the attention that she wanted, really showed how awesome she really is.

The following day we all rolled out of bed at around 9:45 and walked across the street from our hotel to the beach. This was Hailey's (and obviously Katelyn's) 1st trip to the beach and it was a blast. Hailey has been asking to go back ever since, but really just to play in the sand- the water scared her, unless daddy was holding her up so that the water couldn't get her.

A few weeks later we had Katelyn's blessing and had all of Ryan's family and my dad and brother over for lunch first. I was definitely pleased to realize that my little house was able to accomodate everyone. Then we all went to the church, where our huge family nearly doubled the Sacrament Meeting attendance (our ward is very small!). Then after all the pictures were taken, we went to Ryan's parents house to hang out with everyone before they had to drive back to the valley.

The week after that, Ryan took Hailey to Prescott's Octoberwest Air Show. She has a natural love of airplanes, just like her daddy. And although she got to sit in several airplanes, everyday we drive past the airport and she sees several planes in the traffic pattern, she reminds me that she didn't get to FLY in an airplane!

Last weekend we took the girls and Ryan's parents to Windmill Farms for their Pumpkin Festival, similar to what Young's Farm used to do. Katelyn was her usual sleepy and hungry self, but Hailey was all over the place having a great time. Not only did she pick out a pumpkin, but she also went to the petting zoo, rode a pony, jumped in a bounce house and rode a little "train ride". The only downfall to the day was the Chino Valley wind and sun, and guess who didn't remember hats or sunscreen? Bad mommy!

In the last two weeks Katelyn has really started smiling, especially when she sees her momma (I love it!) She really is a happy baby.

That brings us pretty well up to date on the major going-ons in our lives. Ryan and I are both working full time, but have a great balance of dropping off and picking up the girls from my great babysitters. I do a lot of day trips all over Northern AZ and down to Phx for my job, and Ryan has been great at cooking dinners and taking care of the girls when I have to be home late. And as always, it's a blessing to have Ryan's parents nearby again to save the day when we need help!

It's been a great few months with our family of 4 and we're excited for the future- especially for the upcoming holidays- our favorite time of year!

No Longer A "Blog Stalker"

2007-10-20T14:02:00.000-07:00

The time has come for me to actually participate in blogging, rather than just reading about everyone else's lives during the midnight hours. Wow! that really does sound stalkerish doesn't it?! Really it is just something I do to pass the time when I'm up with Katelyn, really!

When I asked Ryan to help me come up with a web address for my blog, his response was "What?! You're making a blog?! You are so trendy!"

The real reason I decided to join the blogging world (other than wanting to be like everyone else) is that this past week I decided to be a good daughter and send pictures of the girls to my parents. This took me a fair amount of time because I've apparently become inept at technical things. But they enjoyed the pictures and I felt good about sending them. Then the next day my mom calls and asks me to send the pictures to her work email so that she could show off her grandbabies to her coworkers. Then later that day my sister calls all upset that I sent the parents pictures, but not her. So then I had to send them to her. Then I thought about all of my extended family that I am horrible in keeping in touch with, but that I'm sure would LOVE to see the girls.

And so I made up my mind- and here's my family website!