the parrish people

New Christmas Traditions?

2011-12-27T21:39:00.001-07:00

We tried a few new fun things this year over the holidays. First we went up to Hardware Ranch. Luckily, it had snowed in a few days so the roads were mostly clear, but I was glad Nick was driving because the last 20 minutes was on a windy road with some ice. When we arrived, we looked around the visitor center where we ate lunch. Then, we went down to wait in line for the horse-pulled wagons. My girls were in heaven to watch the Clydesdale horses and we even had a moment to pet one. I cannot believe how huge they are! The wagon ride was about 20 minutes and our tour guide "Cheeseburger" told us all about the elk that come to Hardware Ranch. Despite the cold, my girls thought the trip was a lot of fun and want to go back next year. A new tradition maybe?
On Christmas Eve morning we got up and went out to Kneader's for breakfast. I heard that they had an all-you-can-eat French Toast breakfast that was only $4.99, so I had to try that! My girls split a giant cinnamon rolls and shared a bowl of fruit, Nick had an omelet, and I had the French Toast that was totally delicious! It was thick cinnamon burst bread with a caramel syrup and whip cream to top it off with. I'm sure the calories were shocking, but who cares...it was Christmas!
After breakfast, we went bowling. We had some free kids games which was nice because it always surprises me how much it costs for one game. Brielle had to be coaxed into playing, but once we got the ramp for her to push the ball down, she was happy. I played horribly and I think both girls beat me, but we did have fun doing something with just our family on Christmas Eve. The rest of the night we were at home relaxing, checking the Santa-tracker, and preparing for the busy day ahead.

Christmas Traditions

2011-12-17T13:55:00.002-07:00

I love the Christmas season for all the traditions that it brings. My goal every year is to get my Christmas shopping done by December 1st, so that the month of December I can spend as much time with my family as possible celebrating the true meaning of Christmas. This year we went down to Salt Lake to see the lights at Temple Square. We don't make it to Temple Square every year anymore but is so fun when we do get there. It was packed and cold but worth the trip! On the way home, we stopped at Texas Roadhouse for dinner and it was delicious! The girls couldn't stop talking about the steak bites they had, but it could have been that we were starving!
I learned at Brielle's preschool program that decorating the Christmas tree is her favorite tradition. She is loves it when we find "her" ornaments to put on the tree and she is very careful when she places the ornaments. Then, throughout the month, she takes some ornaments off and plays different imaginary games with them. She has to hunt for the "pickle" when she goes to my mom's house which is a tradition that they started a few years ago, too. It's funny what they look forward too! She also got to go to Christmas Village with her preschool class which was cold and quick, but fun to do with Nick.
We also have fun family parties to attend. At the Wilson party, my girls love to sit on Santa's lap and talk to him about what they want. With our immediate family, the girls love to exchange presents with their cousins especially when the cousin they get is their age. This year the cousins did a talent show where Emma played "The First Noel" on the piano and Brielle "read" the book "Firehouse" to us. It always makes me happy to see the girls take pride in something that they do well.
It was a great month that went by too fast as usual.

Nick's Birthday

2011-12-09T14:27:00.000-07:00

Nick had two themes for this year's birthday presents: Soda Stream (where you can make your own soda. The machine he actually got from the DI for $4 and my mom and I bought him everything else to go with it) and BBQ grill accessories (Weber's grilling cookbook, utensils kit, and some meat seasoning. I know his birthday is in December and grilling is for the summer, but I had no other ideas!) He did get a few movies and few gift cards, too. Anyway, we celebrated by going to Famous Dave's for dinner and then having our family over for pudding cake and ice cream. Happy Birthday to our favorite husband and father!

Preschool fun

2011-11-26T13:50:00.001-07:00

Thank goodness Nick remembered the camera when he went with Brielle to her Treehouse museum fieldtrip and her Thanksgiving feast; otherwise, I would have forgotten all about it! All I know is that everything at the Treehouse Museum is so fun the girls never want to leave. (And how awesome is Brielle's full name!) I also know that during the Thanksgiving feast, they perform a lot of cute Thankgiving songs, make fun crafts and probably don't eat much!

Happy Haunting

2011-11-10T13:21:00.001-07:00

Halloween is not my favorite holiday. Luckily, there are always fun things going on that we can participate in to make it fun for the girls. This year, Emma and her friend planned a Halloween party for a group of their friends. They played the spider web game (pictured above); Halloween charades, Halloween "capture the flag", and decorated sugar cookies. It was a perfect day to be outside, plus Emma's friends' yard provided plenty of room to fun around and get silly. She also had a Halloween costume parade at school with a grade party later that I got to help with. In between the parade and the party, we went to Brielle's preschool carnival where they sang songs, decorated cookies, and played some carnival games. My mom made Brielle's Indian costume and I thought she looked so adorable! Emma had a hard time choosing her costume (partly because I thought a lot of the costumes were immodest for her age), so she finally chose a leopard girl. On Halloween night the girls went around our neighborhood trick-or-treating with their friends and cousins. By the end of the night, their buckets were so heavy they could hardly carry them back to our house! A giant bucket of candy...what more could a kid ask for?

The Extras

2011-11-01T12:41:00.000-06:00

Here are a few pictures of what we do in our extra time. Brielle started dance this year. She loves it! They are learning a tap dance to the music "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast which is really cute and for their ballet dance they get to hold a Teddy Bear so that will be fun. Emma didn't want to do dance this year, so she started another year of soccer. She has improved so much from last year! I'm also glad that they play for two seasons because I think she has been able to keep up her skills between fall and spring. We also signed her up for basketball. She wasn't thrilled about it, but Nick was willing to coach and two of her friends wanted to play if they knew someone playing. Their team actually went undefeated! (They had some awesome 3rd graders on the team!) I think the girls were just excited to keep getting treats at the end of the games! Emma liked it, but maybe not as much as soccer, so we'll see what she decides to do next year.

State Fair 2011

2011-09-30T21:46:00.000-06:00

Our girls know that when it's my birthday, it also means it's time for the State Fair. They love this tradition! It is one of the rare times they get to ride a horse. Brielle had a rough experience getting on this year, so I got to follow her and her horse around, but they gave her an extra ride! We also did the giant yellow slide which is my favorite part of the fair! The girls also like the Little Hands on the Farm exhibit because they get a treat at the end. On our way out, they had Big and Rich doing a concert that sounded really fun so maybe we will have to try that out when the girls get older. Oh! And the best part was that Emma found a ticket on the ground on the way in, so she got free admission (plus we had a coupon)! I love saving money!

My Birthday + St George

2011-09-30T21:23:00.000-06:00

I love my birthday. LOVE IT.(Besides getting older). This summer I really wanted to go to Tuachan to see the Little Mermaid. But our summer was packed. So I proposed to Nick that we go down on my birthday. What we didn't know was that every Friday night was sold out through the rest of the season. So I became a KSL stalker looking for tickets. Finally, the day before my birthday weekend, someone listed one adult and one child ticket for Friday night. We jumped on it and headed down. Emma and I saw the show which was amazing! Emma was mesmerized through the whole thing. We bought Brielle the Little Mermaid on DVD since she didn't get to go, but they announced that night that they are doing Aladdin next summer so we will definitely all go see that show. It was a quick trip with a long ride (we realized that we have a impatient Dad and 7-yr-old when it comes to road trips), but we still had fun. We walked around the St George Temple and went through the Visitor Center, saw Smurfs, cooled down at a splash pad, and just relaxed. It was a great birthday trip!

Emma's First Day

2011-08-27T21:07:00.000-06:00

I will catch up. Really. Emma's first day as a 2nd grader was great. She has a lot of friends from her 1st grade class in her class again along with one of her BFF's who was in a different class last year. She has a really fun teacher who is having her first baby in the next few weeks, but she will be back after Spring Break so we are happy about that. She chases boys at recess and is getting perfect grades. The first few weeks were tough to get back into a routine and during one meltdown she cried out "2nd grade is a lot harder than 1st grade!" How rough it is to progress to the next grade! She's so funny.

Brielle's First Day

2011-08-25T15:00:00.000-06:00

The first day of school came so quick this year! Brielle started the day before Emma this year and she was pretty excited. She's attending the same preschool she did last year except this year she is going 3 times a week instead of two. The drop-off was also a lot easier this year because Brielle's two cousins, Ike and Isabelle, are going to be in her class again! I can't believe only one more year until Kindergarten!

Our Dash of Summer

2011-08-17T14:41:00.000-06:00

Brielle's two sleeping pictures just make me laugh. She looks completely comfortable and exhausted. That was what our summer felt like. We worked so hard in our yard, but we played hard as well. When we had a free night we went to Lagoon with our season passes (even though I didn't bring my camera when we went there) or we went to the Treehouse museum, or went swimming, or painted our toenails, or went to a kids' movie, or had friends/cousins come over, or had a BBQ, or go to the fireworks, etc. Each night Nick and I would collapse into bed completely wiped out from the day. There were so many times we complained about how tired we were, but we also realized that we were having so much fun with our kids and hopefully creating a lot of good memories as a family.
We also participated in the "YES! Utah Dash for Donation". It is a walk/run at Weber State University that promotes organ donation. I ran the 5K with my brother-in-law two years ago, and I wanted to do it again to see if I could beat my time. I persuaded my friend Melanie to run with me and warned her that it was a tough one. We put a team together called the "Liver Lovers" and Nick, our girls, his mom, our brother-in-law, Melanie's husband's and toddler did the 2k walk while Melanie and I did the 5K run. It was much more fun with a big group of people. Unfortunately, we didn't win any raffle prizes, but I did beat my time by about 2 minutes! After the race, they had some fruit and pastries to snack on and then went to Great Harvest for our "real" breakfast. Nick was excited to be able to participate this time, so I think it will become a yearly tradition.

Just Keep Swimming

2011-08-10T22:02:00.000-06:00

Right after our get-a-way, the girls started swimming lessons for two weeks straight. It was amazing to see the progress that they made during this period. For instance, before swimming lessons, Emma would scream/cry/freak out if she got water in her eyes during bath time! But on the first day of swimming, Emma's class had to bob up and down under the water! I don't know if she felt some peer pressure because everyone else was doing it, but we were amazed! By mid-week, Emma's class had jumped off the deep end which stressed me out because I was sure that Emma was under the water too long. Emma also was incredible with the back-float and eventually held her breath under water as long as the other kids. Brielle's class was at the same time and it was so cute to see these tiny kids learning how to swim. There were a few boys in Brielle's class that were fearless and were constantly jumping off the edge even though their teacher told them not to. It drove me crazy because I didn't want them to knock Brielle off the edge, too. Am I over-protective or what? Anyway, Brielle learned how to blow bubbles in the water, how to jump off the edge (holding her teacher's hand), back-float and front-float. By the end of the two weeks, my girls thought they were pretty hot stuff! Luckily, Nick's aunt Margo has a pool so we got to go swimming there and practice their skills a few more times before the summer ended!

The Homestead

2011-07-26T21:30:00.000-06:00

So our family needed a little get-a-way around the middle of summer, so we went a spent a night at the Homestead in Midway. We only went up for one night, but we packed a bunch of things in. Since it was Pioneer weekend, we arrived just in time to make homemade ice cream the "pioneer" way which meant tossing a bag containing ice, salt, and ice cream flavoring back and forth to each other to churn it up. The girls had a fun time tossing it around and the ice cream tasted delicious (it was tricky to eat it out of the bag though). After that we found our room, went for a ride on a carousel, played a game of mini-golf, snuck up on a deer, got a free pizza dinner (because the service was horrible), went swimming, and finally crashed into bed. We got up the next morning and ate pastries for breakfast on our deck, checked out the gift shop, found the horses, and played on the pioneer scenery! It was fast trip that was a lot of fun!

Summer S'mores!

2011-07-03T14:32:00.000-06:00

In June, we spent all of our spare time prepping our yard for sod. We pulled weeds, raked dirt, hauled rocks, raked dirt, planted trees, raked dirt, put in curbing, raked dirt....you get the idea. I'm probably exaggerating the raking dirt part, especially since my father-in-law did most of it because none of the rest of us had the patience to do it! Finally, at the end of June we were able to lay sod down. Also part of our landscaping idea was to put in a gas fire pit. So before we even started raking dirt, we had a gas line run out to the corner of our property where they built a nice rock fire pit. The great thing about gas is that we just have to flip a switch to turn it off and on, plus there is no smoke blowing in your face. I love it! (It was also my idea, so I take credit for that too!) We had a lot of fun inviting our family and friends over for BBQ's followed by some s'more making. Hopefully, we'll be able to keep roasting through October. Don't they look delicious?

Mother's Day/Father's Day

2011-06-28T18:53:00.000-06:00

It just so happened this year, that I was in charge of sharing time for both Mother’s day and Father’s day. It’s nice that I can use the same ideas again since I am in a new Primary with new children. So we made lollipop flowers for the mothers and candy bar bow ties for the fathers. And my favorite part of it all is having the children fill out a questionnaire about their moms and dads. Here is what my girls said about us! It is so funny!

EMMA

My mother likes to: have fun
The most fun or funniest thing I ever saw my mom do was: Burn two pancakes (I think I even blogged about this one!)
I like it when my mom: helps me
My mom’s favorite food is: Spaghetti
If I could give my mom anything, I’d give her: a ring
I think my mom would like to go: to a movie
The thing I hear my mom saw the most is: no! J
When my mom wakes up, she: helps make breakfast
I wish my mom wouldn’t: say clean up time
I love my mom because: she loves me

My father likes to: have fun
The most fun or funniest thing I ever saw my dad do was: sleep
I like it when my dad: tickles me
My dad’s favorite food is: anything
If I could give my dad anything, I’d give him: T.V. (we currently have no television)
I think my dad would like to go: to Disneyland
The thing I hear my dad say most is: yes (funny, how that is opposite of my answer)
When my dad wakes up, he: makes breakfast
I wish my dad wouldn’t: go to work
I love my dad because: he loves me

BRIELLE

My mother likes to: watch movies with us
The most fun or funniest thing I ever saw my mom do was: do funny faces on a picture
I like it when my mom: colors with me
My mom’s favorite food is: turkey steak, ramen noodles (?)
If I could give my mom anything, I’d give her: purple flower
I think my mom would like to go: get cookies
The thing I hear my mom say the most is: I Love You!
When my mom wakes up, she: goes in the kitchen and makes breakfast
I wish my mom wouldn’t: ever be mad at me or Emma no matter what we do!
I love my mom because: she loves me

My father likes to: play with us
The most fun or funniest thing I ever saw my dad do was: do a craft
I like it when my dad: makes breakfast
My dad’s favorite food is: eggs
If I could give my dad anything, I’d give him: an animal puppy dog
I think my dad would like to go: to Fat Cats
The thing I hear my dad say the most is: go get ready for bed
When my dad wakes up, he: goes to eat breakfast
I wish my dad wouldn’t: yell at me
I love my dad because: he is nice

Backtrack to May

2011-05-26T20:36:00.000-06:00

All I remember from the month of May was that it rained (a lot). I'm sure for those of you that had grass it was great! But for those of us waiting to put our yard in, it just became a giant mud hole that I thought would never dry! It wasn't until I looked at our camera that I discovered we had a lot of things going on in May. And we squeezed a lot more things into the summer which is why my blog has been neglected (but more on the summer later). Here are some of the things that kept us busy in May.

We celebrated Nick's TWO yr transplant-iversary. We invited our immediate family over for a 6 ft sub and Elmo cake (which we bought at the scout auction the night before). I thought it was fitting that for a two-year old liver, we had a two-year old cake! It is crazy that Nick's transplant was two years ago! Sometimes, it seems like a dream that it happened at all because he is doing so well!

The only colorful thing that happened at our mud hole this spring was the appearance of some beautiful tulips. I think tulips really teach us patience. You plant them at least 6 months before you even see them get above the ground and when you realize it's not another weed growing in your yard, you watch.....and you wait for the bright colors to appear. Then they bloom and it feels like spring! You'll notice Brielle added the sprinkler flags to the mix of tulips for additonal color. And it looks like it was actually a sunny day! Imagine that!

Brielle went to Jerry's nursery for a field trip. She brought home two tomato plants and one of them actually lived to produce tomatoes! She was very excited. She will be my gardener. She loves to help me water the flowers and she loves to help me weed, too!

Emma had her dance recital in May. She danced to "Do You Believe in Magic" (which they had little top hats for) and to "It's On" from Camp Rock 2. She looked very cute in her costume and I think her class did the best compared to the other first grade classes. Emma wants to play soccer again this upcoming year, so she's won't be doing dance, but luckily I have Brielle who is dying to start dance!

Poor little Brielle didn't realize the ground was still very muddy as she was playing on the sidewalk. I had to laugh because I had to dig through the mud to find her shoes. The other funny thing was that it didn't just happen once...it happened to her 3 times. Thank goodness we have grass now.

I cut Emma's hair! She picked the length she wanted it and I had a magazine page that showed me how to do it! We did it the last week of school and she loves it. It makes her look so much older!

Brielle had her end-of-the-year Preschool party at Classic Fun Center. She had a lot of fun. For some reason, I hate bounce-houses. I swear someone is going to break their neck if they land wrong and Brielle seems so petite to me that I'm afraid the bounce houses will just suck her in and hurt her. I know that is weird, but it stresses me out to take her to places like this! Luckily, she played on the playground and rode her scooter on the rink for most of the time.

Brielle's Preschool Program

2011-05-24T14:13:00.000-06:00

I finally got her to smile at me!

the rainbow of colors and alphabet sign language

receiving her portfolio

with Tristan ("her boyfriend") and her teacher Miss Cindy

Yes, I'm still trying to catch up and I can't skip over Brielle's Preschool Program! It was really cute. They did the alphabet in sign language, sang about the rainbow of color (plus other songs), and got their portfolio's with pictures of everything they had done throughout the year. Brielle took her portfolio everywhere with her for a week--she was so excited to finally have one of her own!

Easter 2011--The Dresses

2011-04-14T15:41:00.000-06:00

All the cousins--don't they look beautiful/handsome?

Aww--they do hug each other!

Emma looks a little too grownup for me

Brielle's smiles are never the same!

My girls are so lucky that their Grandma Becky buys them beautiful Easter and Christmas dresses every year. And every year as we find socks, shoes, bows and get them dressed up, I wonder where the last year has gone and why they look so darn grown-up! And I may be prejudice, but they are the most gorgeous girls! The funny thing is that they look nothing alike! Amazing how different they can look coming from the same parents. Their personalities are very different too as you can see from the pictures. Emma likes to be the boss (I think it is the "oldest" personality); she loves to plan parties and she acts very grown-up. She works hard in school, loves to read, and rewarding her with money or presents or "pom-poms" in her jar works very well for her. Brielle on the other hand is a complete ham-- she loves to have fun at all times, does NOT like to clean up or work no matter what bribery is attached. If you catch her doing something good and praise her though she loves it! She knows how to push her sisters' buttons, but can also entertain herself for a long time playing horses or Polly's or house. She makes us laugh with all the things that come out of her mouth and she can remember movie lines after seeing it once! They are amazing girls and I am so thankful to be their mother!

Easter 2011--The Eggs!

2011-04-12T11:40:00.000-06:00

the eggs from home

our glitter eggs

Grandma's eggs had candy, money, and sweets!

This year we colored "glitter" eggs. They turned out really cute and they even came with sequins to glue on after they were dry. Perfect for my crafty children! The Easter Bunny also left us a note that said there were 60 eggs hidden, but somehow the girls could only find 57! Maybe the Easter Bunny was up too late to count correctly? :)

Easter 2011--The Baskets and Bunny

2011-04-11T15:09:00.000-06:00

The Easter bunny made an appearance at the city egg hunt, but Brielle would not get her picture taken with him. (She did this in Disneyland, too--avoided all of the characters except for Minnie Mouse). He also packed the girls' baskets with fun stuff like: bubble wands, sidewalk chalk, play dough, a movie, Peeps, and a chocolate bunny. The Easter grass at the bottom did not turn out to be the best idea though because my girls (the horse lovers that they are) pretended it was hay for horses and put piles of it everywhere! Then, once we asked them to pick it up, Brielle had a meltdown that continued all morning over everything else until we finally put her down for a nap and Nick and I took turns with Emma at church! So much for the relaxing morning!

Easter 2011--The Hunts!

2011-04-10T11:18:00.000-06:00

Brielle at her preschool egg hunt

Emma at the city egg hunt

the hunt at home

one last hunt at grandma's house

We had lots of "firsts" this year: Brielle's first egg hunt with her preschool class, Emma's first egg hunt at the city park (Emma even won an extra prize there), the first egg hunt in our new house, and the first time one of my girls has found the "golden egg" at Grandma Becky's house! And of course they got lots of candy!

Randomness...

2011-03-21T22:17:00.000-06:00

I was going through my camera and saw some pictures I had taken that had no relevance to each other, but I still wanted to post them (the truth being that I am putting off other things I should be doing instead of blogging.) The first was our family picture taken on Emma's birthday. I thought it turned out cute and in the chaos of a party I always forget to take a picture of our family so I am happy we got this one of us. The next picture is of Brielle painting her popsicle horse at Emma's friend party. She was so careful in painting her popsicle sticks that I think she did better than the 1st graders! And for days after, she kept asking me to finish it with her. (The finished horses still need a snapshot of them so I can throw them away.) The third picture is my first picture of Emma asleep with a book in her hand. I love these pictures. I'll be making a book out of all the book/sleeping pictures I have! The last two pictures show some new jobs that my kids have tried. One night, I was lecturing them on the fact that they only have their rooms to clean and Nick and I have the rest of the house to maintain. I also added that they could trade me laundry for cleaning their room. Brielle immediately liked that idea, so the next day she helped me with every step of washing the towels. The towel lineup was not what I had in mind but she was helping! Then, the girls jumped at the chance to help Nick with the dishes. It was cute watching them work together from behind them and they keep asking when they can help again! I just wish that they would get this excited for cleaning their rooms!

More Parties

2011-03-16T15:43:00.000-06:00

The same week as Emma's program and Emma's birthday, I had also volunteered to be in charge of the 1st grade Dr Seuss party. Originally, I thought it would be fun to do it the same week as Emma's birthday, but later realized that wasn't such a great idea. Plus, she wanted to have a friend party so we planned that for the same night! Nick was going crazy trying to keep all the parties straight! Luckily, 6 other moms had signed up to help with the Dr Seuss party so we got together to decide what activity each classroom would have and then all of the moms prepared their activities. In one room, the kids watched a short Dr Seuss movie with popcorn and goldfish snacks. Then, they made the classic red/white striped hat. The next room had "Pin the Green Eggs on the Ham platter" and rhyming Bingo. The next room had the story "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" read to them and then they got to play with and take home "oobleck" (it is like a green slime--very cool). The last room had two relay races: one where they pretended to be the Cat in the Hat that carries everything on his head and the other relay race was similar to the book "I wish I had Duck Feet" where the kids pretended to have duck feet, a lion's tail, a water spout, antlers, and an elephants trunk. The kids had a great time. We had a bunch of people volunteer so that helped, too. I'm so grateful that my schedule allows me to volunteer in Emma's class and help with parties--it is so fun to meet the kids in the first grade.

So, once the school party was over, we rushed home to get set-up for Emma's friend party. It was her first friend party and we let her invite 7 other friends (all girls). It was a horse-themed party (surprise). My friend helped me make some adorable invitations with horses on it. We ate chicken nuggets and fruit for dinner. Then, we had them paint some popsicle sticks for this horse craft I got out of a magazine. While the paint was drying, they played "Pin the pickax on the Gold Mine", busted open a pinata, and opened presents. Then, we went back to our crafts to glue everything together. I didn't take into consideration how much paint the girls would put on their horses so it was trickier to get everything to stick! They turned out cute though. While the girls were finishing, we cut the horse cake and served up some ice cream. For party favors, we had a wood horseshoe to paint, horse Silly Bandz, Baked Beans candy and mint tied up in a bandana for all of the girls. There was a lot of girly screams during the party and it was fun to listen to them tell jokes during dinner. Emma really has some cute, fun friends and we had an exhuasting but fabulous party day!

March Madness

2011-03-06T16:32:00.000-07:00

March started out like a lion for us. First, Emma had a patriotic program at Freemont High with the 1st-3rd graders from her school. They sang patriotic songs together and as individual grade levels. In between each song 2-3 kids per class got up to share a tidbit about the U.S. Presidents. Emma was chosen from her class to get up and say this line, "George W Bush headed the cheerleading team at his school." She was so excited to get a part and she did an awesome job at the program. She spoke in a nice, clear voice and didn't act nervous at all. We were so proud of her! (We were too far away to take pictures, so we just videotaped the 1st grade portion.) The most exciting thing from the program was that a girl from Emma's class fainted while waiting for their turn to sing and another 1st grade boy threw up on the stage. That was all the kids talked about for 3 days!

That same week was Emma's birthday. She got to be the helper at school and pick two prizes from the treasure box. We took Hannah Montana cupcakes to her class that afternoon (and dropped a bright pink frosted one on their carpet..oops!) After she got out of school, we went to pick up balloons for her party and then we ate at Chick-fil-a (her choice) for dinner. After that our families came over for cake and ice cream. Emma got a book light (since she tends to stay up reading with only a lamp on), Polly Pockets, a jewelry-making kit, clothes, books, movies, a blanket pet, a window art kit and as you can tell from the pictures....lots of horse stuff! I can't believe she's 7!

Valentines Day!

2011-02-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

I think one of my favorite holidays as a kid was Valentine's day. It seemed like there was always a party at school.....loads of candy around.....fun Valentine mailboxes to make.....and it was the one day you could secretly confess your love to the cutest boy in class (by that I mean, put some extra candy in his Valentine!) It was great! My girls had fun this year making Valentine's for their classes', too. Brielle worked so hard on her cards for her 12 preschool friends. I think she made it to about #8 before she got tired of writing her name. And Emma was very specific about choosing the card with the pictures that she thought her classmate would like. Unfortunately, Valentine's day fell on a Monday (which is the hardest day for our family to do anything fun) so our Valentine treat to the girls was a Happy Meal for dinner!

Discovery Gateway Fieldtrip

2011-01-30T15:23:00.000-07:00

In January, Brielle's preschool headed to the Discovery Gateway for a field trip. Nick had a quick appointment at the U, so he dropped Brielle and I off early to the Gateway to walk around and shop. Once the field trip started Nick was back, so we both got to follow Brielle around and watch her play. There was a ton of kids there, but Brielle still had a great time. Her favorite spot is riding the horse and she tried it several times. She also spent a lot of time putting together a alphabet floor puzzle. Later, we grabbed lunch at the food court and then headed home. It was fun way to spend a dreary January day!

Brielle's Birthday!

2011-01-26T17:55:00.000-07:00

Brielle is FOUR! Brielle's birthday was on a Sunday this year and for some reason, I felt very unprepared. Emma had been sick since Christmas and I felt like our house was just barely getting back to normal when we started the birthday celebrations. She took Fruity Pebbles rice krispies as her preschool treat right before her birthday and we went out to eat at Fat Cats for her birthday dinner the next night. On her birthday, we had family over for cake and ice cream (the giant Oreo cake was her pick because she LOVES Oreo's). She stayed in her church dress for her party as well because she loves to be in dresses! Unfortunately we forgot to charge our camera so we have only a few essential shots but she had a great birthday. She got the white kitty she wanted, a Fancy Nancy purse, books, play dough, Polly Pockets, and a Little Pet Shop mall. She is growing up so fast! I'm grateful she is still physically tiny because helps me think she is still my baby!!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-30T16:54:00.000-07:00

Before

Santa brought a Polly Pocket van and a Toy Story Barbie for Emma and a FurReal dog for Brielle

the girls ready to exchange the stocking's they got for each other

Brielle got Emma a Little Pet Shop for her stocking

Emma got Brielle a Christmas hat for her stocking

Happy with their movies: "Aladdin" for Brielle, "Spirit" for Emma

Their unicorn Pillow Pets were also a big hit this year

Brielle with her Polly Pocket and Emma with her dessert maker from Grandma Judy

Grandma Becky gave Brielle a ladybuy beanbag and Emma an "American Girl" doll

the best family picture we got that day

We had a great Christmas this year. The girls had fun opening their presents and playing with their toys. We were able to visit my family and Nick's family and eat all day long! The only downfall was when all the presents were dropped of at our house and the real work of putting everything away began. We are very fortunate to have generous families that give us and our kids so much! We are totally spoiled!

Like Father, Like Daughter

2010-12-21T15:26:00.000-07:00

Ha Ha Ha! These pictures make me laugh! They are real and not photographed "fake sleeping". Every time I took the picture they were totally asleep. You see, my kids like to read a book by themselves after we read a book to them. The rule is: you read one book (or one chapter in Emma's case) and then throw the book on the floor. So we hear "thuds" a few minutes after we put them to bed. One night I could not figure out why Brielle was still reading because she had been up for an extra half hour. Finally, after checking a couple times through the door crack, I walked into her room to find the "Frosty the Snowman" book propped up so I couldn't tell that she was totally asleep! It was so cute! The next week, I found Nick asleep with his book propped up, too! Then, Brielle wanted to sleep in the dollar hat that Emma gave her for Christmas so I saw another fun picture opportunity. And the most recent time we found Brielle asleep after reading, the book was completely resting on her face! I love sleeping pictures!

December Dash

2010-12-20T15:27:00.000-07:00

Nick had a birthday--shout Hooray! (sorry, hon, we forgot the candles)

the "angel" and "star" of Nick's sibling party/nativity

Brielle "checking" her nose during the nativity and then sitting with Santa at our extended family party. (Emma sat on Santa's lap the only time I stepped out of the room!)

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!

Brielle's preschool Christmas program; with her teacher Miss Cindy

Brielle bowling with her cousins at their field trip

decorating HOMEMADE gingerbread houses

their masterpiece!

helping me bake some Christmas treats--my favorite tradition!

checking out the lights at Christmas Village

December is crazy! This year especially because I had a brother get married and another brother leave on a mission the month of December as well! Nick got hit with a sinus infection/TMJ combo right after his birthday that kept him down for about 2 weeks. I also got called to be the Primary President the first week of December (when Nick was sick so it felt a little like deja vu). This month we also had 5 family birthdays, a school-sing-a-long and we did the 12 Days of Christmas for someone. It was insane but with some good memories!

December Extras

2010-12-20T15:05:00.000-07:00

Connor and his new wife Elizabeth

my family at the reception

Caleb and I the night he was set apart

Emma and Brielle with their uncle Caleb

In addition to the crazy month of December, we added a wedding and a mission farewell into the mix. Before Christmas, my middle brother (Connor) got married. It was a busy day with the sealing in Bountiful and the luncheon/reception in Brigham City. It was fun to have everyone together though. Then, the day after Christmas my youngest brother (Caleb) had his mission farewell. The following week he was set apart and off to the MTC. His mission call is for the Mexico City, Mexico mission, but Visa's are taking a little longer right now, so we will see how soon he gets there. My girls (and I) miss him so much. He is a great brother and an awesome uncle. But we know he will do a fabulous job on his mission as well.

Burnt Offerings

2010-12-15T22:10:00.000-07:00

My poor children. When Nick works at night (which is only once a week), my kids are used to less than gourmet cooking. For at least 6 weeks in a row we dined on chocolate chip pancakes (at least the pancakes were wheat, I tell myself) and then Emma burned out on that meal! (imagine that) Lately, we have switched it up a little by rotating between spaghetti, pizza, and grilled cheese sandwiches. Tonight it was grilled cheese sandwiches. It seemed to be taking awhile to heat up the griddle, so I ran to the bathroom for a minute. When I came back the tomato soup had boiled over and the girls' sandwiches were black! So, I got everything out again and started on round two. When I called the girls for dinner I presented them with the burnt ones first--just to test their reaction. Emma looked at them for a minute and then looked at me and said, "Mom, these are burnt." (uh, yeah) So I said, "I know....I'm sorry. They burned when I ran to the bathroom!" So, Emma took her plate to the table and as Brielle joined her she said, "Brielle, Mom burned the grilled cheese sandwiches when she went to the bathroom." I waited for more reaction.....I waited for the refusal to eat dinner (which happens when I don't burn dinner).....I waited for demands of a new dinner.......nothing! I was biting my cheek to hold back from laughing. Emma just started dipping her sandwich in her soup. Then she commented, "Brielle, it's pretty soft if you dip them in soup and you can't even tell it's burnt!" Brielle starts biting into hers and while I'm watching her she says, "I can't really taste the burnt....just a little bit." (really? because they're totally black!) So, being the mean mom I am, I watch them take another bite or two before I realize that they are going to eat their whole burnt offering unless I stop them! So, I grab the second-round sandwiches and tell them that I made them new ones when I burned the first ones. The charred sandwiches quickly end up in the garbage as we laugh about it. And then I start to wonder--- do I really have the best kids or is my cooking regularly this bad? Maybe it's a combo of both!

Dinosaur Park 2010

2010-12-15T21:40:00.000-07:00

Last month I got to go with Brielle on her preschool field trip to the Dinosaur Park. First they started off learning about dinosaurs in the education room and coloring their own stegosaurus (I think). Then, they could explore the rest of the park. It's funny how the kids mostly wanted to play on the playground toys, but eventually we got them to wander around and look at the dinosaurs! Right before we left we went inside the museum to explore the dinosaur bones and they were all mesmerized by the animated T-Rex who was roaring at the Mama Triceratops! You could see their imaginations running wild!

Happy Houses

2010-12-15T21:27:00.000-07:00

I'm so grateful for grandma's who have the patience and time to be creative! A couple weeks ago, my mom invited the girls over to decorate Haunted Houses (it didn't matter that it was 2 weeks past Halloween)! They made a huge mess of orange and black frosting, but they had a great time and snacked on their houses for the next few days. My mom also had some big boxes that they made into houses and decorated the outside and inside. They had brick, flowers, grass, clouds, and birds on their houses. They were so cute and the girls were very proud of the homes that they made. I love it when they are entertained with simple things!

Halloween

2010-11-10T21:37:00.000-07:00

This sorry post is the extent of my Halloween pictures. Let me explain....Halloween started on Thursday with Emma's school costume parade that was immediately followed by her class party which was at the exact same time that Brielle had her preschool carnival, so I took the camera and Nick took the video camera. (hence pictures of only one child). That night was at our ward's Trunk-or-Treat and since it was dark by the time we were outside, I didn't take any pictures then either. The next night Emma was invited to two birthday parties which overlapped a little so she gone for four hours that night doing Halloween stuff. On Saturday we planned to go to Nick's parents Trunk-or-Treat but by the time we got there it was raining and Brielle didn't want to get her Jasmine dress wet and Emma only walked around to 10 cars before people packed up and left. So, then I told myself to get a picture of them on Sunday sometime...yeah....never happened. Just picture Brielle in a cute purple princess dress with a crown and high heels and if you could see Emma's picture better you would notice her costume was Jasmine as well, but she looked more like a gypsy to me. Anyway, you can tell Halloween is not my favorite holiday. We just do the basics!

Preschool Pumpkin Patch

2010-11-10T21:14:00.000-07:00

It's finally Brielle's turn to have preschool field trips! Her first field trip was last month at the pumpkin patch where she got to pick out a pumpkin, play in the corn box and go down some fun slides. She had a great time and it was nice to spend some one-on-one time with her. Her perfect pumpkin was not even allowed on our porch until Halloween weekend because she wanted to keep it in her room!

Soccer

2010-11-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

Emma wanted to play soccer this year. I don't mind encouraging new things, but it was a lot of work to add one more activity to our week. It turned out that practices were on nights that Nick was at work and games were also while Nick was at work so it was up to me to get her everywhere. The bad thing was that I know nothing about soccer so I was a little lost. Luckily, Emma had fun. She was a little timid to play but she did a great job for having a clueless parent! Hopefully, we'll both feel more comfortable in the spring!

Disneyland Delights

2010-10-20T21:07:00.000-06:00

A few funny things the girls said while on our trip.

Upon walking in our hotel after it had been cleaned up by housekeeping. "Wow, the servants do a really good job at making beds!"

While watching the firework display where Dumbo and Tinkerbell fly toward the castle Brielle says to me, "Mom, it's Tinkerbell, it's Tinkerbell!! I just knew she was going to be here!"

When Nick and Emma were waiting in line for California Screamin', Emma got stung on the arm by a bee. Since I wasn't there she was telling me about it on the way out of the park that night. "Yeah, it hurt really bad. It hurt like a mother.....and a father!"

Our Last Day

2010-10-19T16:20:00.001-06:00

Note to self: Always do the family pictures before the last day since by then no one wants their picture taken anymore! On our final day, we had until 3:00pm to get it any last rides, so we let the girls choose their top 2 rides they wanted to do again. For Emma, it was Thunder Mountain and California Screamin'. For Brielle, it was Teacups and Spaceships. We also squeezed in a few more as we were walking around hitting the typical family picture spots. Then, we spent the last hour picking out souviners (it made the trip a lot easier because the girls knew we were not buying anything until the last day.) Emma picked out two stuffed animals and a robot dog. Brielle also got a robot dog, a Minnie Mouse polly and a Minnie Mouse snow globe. Then, it was off to the airport and home. We had such a fabulous time! I can't believe it was over a month ago! I wish we could freeze the excitement that our girls had for a couple more years because all too soon Disneyland probably won't be quite as exciting and magical!

Disney Day 5

2010-10-19T16:15:00.001-06:00

By this point of the trip we had seen or been on all of the big things. So we decided to explore places we have never had time to do before. Nick took Emma on Splash Mountain while Brielle and I went to see Winnie the Pooh and characters. We rode a raft to Tom Sawyer's Island and spent an hour or so exploring caves, climbing in tree houses, searching for buried treasure and pretending we were pirates. It was a lot of fun! Next, Nick and I went on Splash Mountain and got drenched!! The last time we were at Disneyland, Splash Mountain broke down while we were on it, so I never got to experience the dramatic drop. Lucky for me, I was the front of the log this time so I got the full view of the white wall of water. It was crazy!! It felt like someone poured a whole water cooler on my head (hence the lovely picture and frizzy hair the rest of the day!) So, to dry off we went to Mark Twain's ferry and lounged in the sun. Then, it was more rides and the "Celebration" parade down Main Street to end our last night.

Day 4 California Adventure

2010-10-19T16:10:00.001-06:00

On Monday we spent the day in California Adventure. I was really proud of Emma because she was tall enough for pretty much every ride, so she tried them at least once. She loved California Screamin' (she went on it about 6 times!) She also liked Tower of Terror (surprise!) but hated Soarin' over California (another surprise!) We ate lunch with the Princesses and pretty much saw all that we could by 5:00pm. The girls had fun playing in the water fountains in A Bug's Land, too. We waited around for the World of Color show but it wasn't worth the wait and I was disappointed. Our kids couldn't see since you stood to watch it and you had to arrive in your section 30 minutes before showtime which was a long time to stand at the end of the day. Otherwise it was a fun day where we had plenty of time to see everything we wanted.

Disney Day 3

2010-10-19T16:05:00.001-06:00

This day was big as you can see from all the pictures. We got pics with a few characters right when we walked in and then we took the train to Toon Town. However, we got sidetracked when we saw the short line to see the princesses. The girls met Tiana, Jasmine (their favorite), and Ariel. Then they stayed for the Fantasy Faire where they learned to dance like a princess. After the show, you could stay and meet the main princesses: Belle, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty. (Brielle brought her baby Belle she got for Christmas last year to show to the "real" Belle). Next, we played around in Toon Town and met Mickey in his house. We were melting in the heat so we took a nice, cool, long ride on Small World and got that song in our head for the rest of the day. On our way out of the park to grab lunch and a nap we finally got a picture with Minnie Mouse. (Nick named her the "DIVA" of Disneyland because we had tried to get in her line at least three times and were turned away due to her busy schedule). That night we came back for more rides and the Fantasmic show (which I thought was the best show after the fireworks)!

Disneyland! Day 1 & 2

2010-10-19T16:00:00.001-06:00

meeting Pluto (Brielle only wanted pictures with girls)

the first spin in the teacups

sharing a seat on Dumbo

meeting The Main Man--Mickey Mouse

waiting for the fireworks to start

snuggling with Nick in the teacups

a view out our hotel--we were so close!

We've been spoiled by Nick's parents this year. First they gave each of their children some money from Nick's dad's inheritance and then they offered to pay for Disneyland tickets this fall and our hotel while we were there! So, we left on my birthday (a Friday morning) and came home on Wednesday night. We had such a fabulous time--I think it was even better this time because our kids were two years older and hopefully will have more memories of this trip.
On the first day, by the time we checked into our hotel it was mid-afternoon so we just walked to Anaheim Garden which is like an outdoor mall. It has restaurants, shopping, movies, and bowling. We tried to see a movie but their were no kid shows so we opted for bowling! That was a lot of fun (except for the part where Emma had a higher score than me!) We haven't done that for a long time. Then, since it was my birthday we ate at The Cheesecake Factory! It was so delicious! I tried to eat my whole dinner because I didn't know we had a microwave back at our hotel, but it was worth the stomach-ache as we walked back! That night we crashed early until we heard fireworks outside. Emma and I were still awake so we went out on the balcony and watched them. It was great! You know Disney performances are always going to be awesome.
We decided that since we had a 5-day hopper pass we didn't need to kill ourselves on this trip so on the first two days this was our schedule: Pop-tarts in our hotel room, bought some breakfast items from McDonald's and headed to Disneyland. Then, we would eat our brunch around 11:00, stay for a few more hours, get lunch outside the park, have a 2-3 nap at the hotel, eat dinner, and then head back to Disneyland for the night. It work perfect for the weekend days we were there because we left during the hottest/busiest period of the day, didn't have to buy food in the park, our kids were rested so they could stay up late without meltdowns, and we weren't in a hurry. The fireworks that first night were even better in person and it was the best night show they did. The next night was their water show which was really good too, but both of the girls got scared because it had the mean witches in it.

The Lost Tooth Club

2010-09-30T22:03:00.001-06:00

Emma has been dying to lose her first tooth. Her cousin (who is the same age) has lost at least 5 teeth and every so often she will go through a phase where all of her teeth are loose and she shows us how loose (not) they are. Her first loose tooth started this summer which I was so grateful for--finally a tooth that is loose!! However, it felt like forever for them to fall out! Her "grown-up" tooth had started to grow up behind it and we thought it would be any day....but I think that was a month ago? This week it was on it's last gum because it had bled several times after eating/brushing. Luckily, we had our 6 month check-up with our dentist today! The assistant convinced Emma that their brush would pull it out, so she put a little numbing cream, gave it a little pull, and it was out! (Emma cried...though I don't think it was painful. I think she was more scared it was going to be). Yippee! She was excited! She got a cute little box where she is saving her tooth until all grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins see it. The dentist also recommended they pull out the other bottom three in about a month to make room for the other "grown-up" tooth. WHAT? What happened to the old-fashioned way of letting them come out when they're good and ready? It totally gives me the shivers....(I hate teeth issues--it grosses me out to look at people with bad teeth, gives me nightmares to think of working in field where you put your hand in people's mouths all day, and every time I had to "check" the looseness of Emma's tooth, I got the willies. It's just not my thing. I have a tooth-phobia, I guess.) So, I WILL NOT ever pull one of my children's teeth. Which means it's up to Nick or the dentist. We'll see how it goes with the dentist.

First Day of School 2010

2010-09-23T22:08:00.000-06:00

This year Brielle got to go to school first. She started on a Tuesday at her preschool and Emma started Wednesday. Brielle was a little hesitant to go in even though her cousins were there and she's known her teacher for a long time. It was so cute to watch her come out with her backpack and talk about everything they did. She gets pretty frustrated when she does a project there and then doesn't get to bring it right home to show me! Emma was pretty excited for first grade. Luckily, she met two girls from our ward that were going to first grade, too. One of them is in her class and the other one we carpool with. The first two weeks of school she had several play dates with them and I'm so happy. I worried about her starting a new school and learning where everything was and making new friends. Her teacher invited us over to the school the day before school started and took Emma on a tour so she would know where she was going on the first day. It was so great! We love her teacher. She has been so nice to Emma. The hardest part has been on me. Even though the first few days were "short days" (where they get out 2 hours early) it felt like Emma was gone FOREVER. I kept checking the clock....wondering what she was doing.....how things were going....who she was playing with at recess.....when I could go get her and hear all about it. It was the LONGEST 3 days! And then she started full days and it was even worse. But she seems to enjoy being so much older and Brielle and I keep busy while she is gone.....eating Mac n' cheese and playing Barbies! It's fun to spend time with Brielle. And when their both gone? I've got plenty of unpacking and organizing to do!

End of Summer

2010-09-23T15:05:00.000-06:00

Riding in Grandpa's tractor

Emma and Jill on Ladybug Bop

Riding in a real helicopter at the Discovery Gateway

My girls' and the Tesch boys at the Gateway

You know it's the end of the summer when you run around like crazy trying to do all the things you wanted to do all summer. We tried to fit it all in--more Lagoon, The Gateway, fireworks and BBQ's at Grandma and Grandpa's (plus move, start school, get family pictures, start dance, and get ready for Disneyland......more about all that later!) Here are the things I took pictures of!

14 Days and Counting....

2010-08-05T21:14:00.008-06:00

basement kitchenette with carpet

upstairs carpet next to tile and cabinets

one of the finished bathrooms

kitchen

counter tops

basement kitchenette

garage door and driveway

painted hallway/entryway

rear view with deck and patio

kitchen tile

finished brick and stucco

getting the brick started

our basement family room

the window we added to the kitchen nook

Brielle's room/closet

Emma's room/closet

We officially have a closing date on our house! August 19th! I'm so excited! I'm amazed how much easier this whole process has been. From the day they dug the hole to our closing date it has been 92 days! There have been only two set-backs during this whole time--we added a window, and they added a wall (that they shouldn't have)--so really it has gone smoothly. These last two weeks will probably be the longest since the house is pretty much ready to move in and we are ready to stop living out of boxes/containers. Here are the pictures of the inside stuff.

Bed and Breakfast Tour

2010-07-20T15:00:00.002-06:00

the lake and gazebo at Johnson's Mill

a view out our window

some waterfalls along the walkway

the waterfall next to the B & B

another view from our balcony

Johnson's Mill...both day and dusk

Jesse James Hideout

the secluded swing at Castle Creek Inn

So, for our 10th anniversary, Nick and I had about 3 days we could plan a trip. We debated going a few places, but finally deciding it would be fun to try some local bed and breakfasts. So, we headed first to Salt Lake and the Castle Creek Inn. They had a nice secluded path that led to a swing where we relaxed as we switched from parent mode to couple mode. The room was cute, but their breakfast was amazing! It had fruit, Belgium waffles, hash browns, sausage and pumpkin chocolate chip bread! Yum! From there we saw a movie, had lunch and drove the the outlets in Park City. The next B&B we stayed in was Johnson's Mill in Midway. It was gorgeous and absolutely my favorite! It was an old home that actually worked as a flour mill in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Their property included 25 acres of beautiful waterfalls, ponds, walkways, and wildlife (we saw a deer out our balcony when we first got there). It was beautiful and the room was very nice. We also ate a fabulous dinner at Bear Dance cafe in Midway. It was the best dinner we have ever had!! Nick had sirloin steak and I had salmon and I can't even describe how mouth-watering it was! Their breakfast the next morning was served out on the deck that faced their pond. It was a ham/Swiss homemade omelet, fruit, and biscuits served with marionberry jam. It was very good and the whole peacefulness there was incredible. (I'm already trying to think of a reason to go back there!) From Johnson's Mill we drove the scenic way to Logan and stayed our last night in the Anniversary Inn. We had a special voucher here that got us any room at a discount price so we picked the room that was the most expensive! Nick picked the Jesse James Hideout because it had a pool table. That was a lot of fun. We went out to eat in Logan and watched movies we brought. The next morning we had breakfast delivered to our room. It was a warm cream-cheese pastry drizzled with jam and a yogurt parfait. On our way home we stopped to see a friend in Tremonten and then checked on our house. (It's getting close!)

All in all it was a wonderful trip. Sigh. It was so good to talk without being interrupted and to not worry about bedtimes/nap times. I think it is the longest we have been away from our kids together! We had so much fun and are lucky to have fun grandma's for the kids to stay with. Bring on the next 10 years!

Tin....I Mean....Tenth Anniversary

2010-07-20T14:29:00.002-06:00

I've been reminiscing over the last few weeks over reaching our 10th Anniversary. That seems like a big milestone even though we will have many more years to come. I know that 50 years is Golden and 25 years is Silver so I'm thinking 10 years is at least Bronze, right? No, it's TIN!! Or in "modern" terms...Aluminium! Interesting! Who comes up with this stuff?
I've actually known Nick for over 14 years. We started working together at the movie theater when Nick was a senior. We became friends that year and I always liked working with him. When he left on his mission he asked for my address and we ended up writing to each other his entire mission. Nothing sappy or anything because we hadn't dated, but my letters filled him in on work and school and he filled me in on mission stories. I wanted to organize those letters so last week I got them out of a cardboard box and put them in sheet protectors so they would last longer. There were about 160+ letters! (I think I'm missing a few too!) I hope my kids will enjoy reading them later because Nick and I had a good time re-reading them.
Anyway, I'm so lucky to be married to such a wonderful guy. He's funny and has such a contagious laugh. He's good-looking, smart, and hard-working. He is an amazing dad and is always patient with our girls. He's very likable and he can get along with anyone. He also has a testimony in the gospel and honors his Priesthood. I can't believe it's been 10 years. Boy, how the time flies when you're having fun! Here's the breakdown of our past and present:

ONE.........new organ

TWO........children

THREE....jobs

FOUR......homes we've lived in (counting the one we're building)

FIVE.......Hospital stays (2 for me, 3 for Nick)

SIX..........pets (2 adopted horses, 4 dead fish)

SEVEN....cars (Prelude, Buick, Tercel, Gray Camry, Black Camry, Corolla, Odyssey)

EIGHT....callings (Nursery/Primary teachers, Ward Athletic director, Sunday School teachers, Primary pianist, finance clerk, YM 2nd counselor, Primary President/Presidency, 11-yr old scouts)

NINE.....vacations (Scottsdale AZ, Washington D.C./Virginia, Mexican cruise, Disneyland, Yuma AZ, Las Vegas/St George, Yellowstone, Lake Tahoe, Park City)

AND....

TEN YEARS OF MARRIAGE!

Piano Lessons

2010-06-23T15:04:00.005-06:00

One of the great things about living with my mom this summer is that Emma has started taking piano lessons from her. She fought me at first and I'm not sure why, but she loves it now. It is cute to watch her little fingers try to do the finger exercises. I think the only way she misses practicing is if we've had a busy day. Anyway, last night she was so excited to learn some new notes that she brought Brielle in after her lesson and "taught" her middle C and had her play one song! It was adorable to watch Brielle learn and want to be like her big sister!

Our New House

2010-06-17T15:53:00.008-06:00

The "hole"

Footings

Foundation walls

Basement exterior

Front foundation and framing

Front walls and garage

Basement family room and bathroom

Rear walls and windows

Almost a roof

Master suite framing

Almost a roof (back)

Bedrooms framed

Tubs in

So, it's been exactly a month since they started to "dig" on our house. It has been really fun to go and watch the progress each day (and I would check it every day during the school year!) Tomorrow, we have an inspection on it with the project manager to check plumbing, heating and electrical. From what we have seen everything is the way it should be. The shingles were almost done on Tuesday night when we were there and then work begins on the outside brick/stucco and the inside insulation and sheet rock. It's great that they can work simultaneously on the outside and inside now and we are still crossing our fingers to be in by the time school starts! We're grateful that the weather hasn't been too horrible for extended periods of time and it appears to be on schedule...but then what do I know? I'm just excited!

School Days

2010-06-09T16:07:00.005-06:00

Emma standing by her cubby

Emma and her friend Ethan, Brielle with her friend Logan

Emma and her teacher, Mrs. Harris

Emma and Jill after their Kindergarten program

Whoa! The school is year is over! I can't believe how fast it went! After Christmas flew by especially quick!
Emma loved being in kindergarten this year. We loved her teacher, Mrs. Harris. She always had a lot of fun activities for their class. The last month of school they grew their own bean plant and kept track of it's growth in their plant journal. (The plant is now in our garden so we will see what happens!) I was so excited to be in their class this year to volunteer. It worked out perfect that my friend, Jeannie and I both had kids in Mrs. Harris' class so we could watch each other's younger kids while the other volunteered. Brielle and Logan got to be good friends, too.

The last month of school was crazy as usual! There was always something going on. Field trips, eating school lunch, Hawk walk, touring the 1st grade classes, field day, and the finale--Emma's Kindergarten program. They sang songs to highlight all they had done this year. It was adorable! They also had a group speaking part. Emma practiced her line "We looked all over and they couldn't be found" all week! I'm still in shock that she will be going to school all day next year. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself! But I'll cry about that after the summer!

Who Ya Gonna Call?

2010-06-03T15:04:00.005-06:00

GHOSTBUSTERS! I love songs from the 80's....especially when my daughter gets to dance to them! (Emma's other song was "Holiday" by Madonna--only it wasn't her singing it). Another classic! In Ghostbusters, they plugged in the black lights so half of their dance was done in the dark with their arm fringe and socks glowing! It was so cool! Their Holiday dance was cute as well with big, pink, fluffy tutu's! Emma did great! She has enjoyed dance so much. I never have to drag her there. This year was extra special because Nick was able to come. And after both recital nights we went and got ice cream! YUM!

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

2010-05-22T17:09:00.006-06:00

this just makes me laugh....

cousins

can you tell their smiling because I want them to?

she loves to pose...

ALL the cousins...obviously we only tried this once!

It seems right now we don't get too many warm days to play outside yet, but luckily this week the day we planned to visit Temple Square was perfect. It has been a tradition in Nick's family to go to Temple Square each spring when the tulips are in bloom. So beautiful! I'm not sure the guys like this tradition, but we do eat at the Lion House while we are there (yummy chocolate cake!) and it gives the girls a chance to take some spring pictures of our children while they are running around with their cousins. Luckily, we did manage to get them to sit down for a few pictures!

SOLD!

2010-04-25T15:51:00.004-06:00

Yes, this is our house and yes, it is sold. It is a little bittersweet to make this post. I'm excited about moving to a newer and bigger home that hopefully will be our last home, but I'm also sad to say goodbye to my home of almost 9 years. This was our first home that we bought about a year after we were married. It was the biggest decision we had made so far as a married couple. I admit I wanted another home, but Nick was drawn to this home that had a bigger garage and basement for storage. I'll admit he was right.

2002-I remember working really hard to finish our yard and I was a little over-zealous when I put in all the flower beds!

2004-I remember bringing baby Emma home and then two days later having our basement flood so Nick was busy mopping everything up and putting in a sump pump.

2005-I remember painting my family room which only took 3 different shades of paint to find the one I wanted. Of coarse, Nick originally picked the color that I finally went with!

2007-I remember bringing home baby Brielle and staying up for the first week watching her sleep on our coffee table in a bilirubin suitcase. We also added purple bead board to Emma's bedroom so she could have a "new" room.

2008-I remember ripping up all of the linoleum to put tile in our bathrooms and entry way. We added laminate wood floors to our kitchen and pulled out our old "turf" carpet to get a thicker pad and better carpet. This was the best improvement we ever made.

2009-I remember watching my husband get deathly sick so I barely maintained the house while friends and family helped me maintain our yard.

2010-We decide to finish our basement so we could have a nice family room downstairs.

We started working on our basement in January when I got a postcard in the mail advertising for new homes. The prices were reasonable so I started checking into it. Nick thought I was joking when I asked him how much we owed on our house, etc. With interest rates lower now than when we bought we could get something bigger for about the same house payment. But I was unsure if I wanted to leave this house and essentially start over. We like our neighborhood, Emma's school, our ward. It would mean a lot of change and I'm not very good with change. After much contemplation and prayer we decided to put our home up for sale and leave it in the Lord's hand if this was the time for us to move. Well, 3 days later we had an offer on our house! We were in shock! So over the last month, we spent all of our extra time looking at houses. There were some Nick liked but I was leery about the location or price and other homes I liked but Nick had concerns about the renovations needed. I bet we looked at 30+ homes. The stress was building as we got closer to our closing date. Nick (who is usually pretty laid-back) flared up with painful shingles also! I knew we needed to make a decision.
I think what finally helped us in our decision was location. We knew how difficult last year was on our kids so we figured the least amount of change for them would be the best. So, we found a lot to build a home that is within 5 miles of our house now. The house plan is a rambler so in the long run it will be better for Nick not to have to climb a lot of stairs. We're also building with Nick's uncle so we know they do quality work. The downfall? I have NEVER wanted to build a house. It sounded too stressful to make all of the decisions and I'm not a good decision-maker. Thanks to their "design center" we made all of the decisions in one day (one long day)! We will be living with my mom over the next few months to save money so that might be weird, but at least it is summer and we can spend time playing around. We have one week left here, but we are excited to watch the progress of our home. They will probably be started on it in the next two weeks. It is just crazy where this year so far has taken us. We know there is a reason our house sold so quickly and we're hoping that this new area is where we need to be!

Easter 2010

2010-04-14T15:38:00.008-06:00

Fancy Easter dresses

You can never have enough eggs!

Brielle on the "hunt"

Emma with some books from her basket

A new trick I read about to color the eggs with less mess!

Easter seemed quite spread out this year. The week before Easter, Brielle came home with this adorable cut-out craft from nursery that had Christ appearing behind the tomb. She showed it off all day and even told us the resurrection story. On Easter weekend, we colored Easter eggs, enjoyed General Conference, and went on multiple Easter egg hunts. This last weekend, the girls got to wear their Easter dresses to church that Grandma Becky bought for them. They looked beautiful but in our rush to get to church I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted. I love spring!

Horse Lovers

2010-04-14T15:30:00.005-06:00

What do my children do at 7:30AM on a Saturday morning? Take a baggie of carrots out to our backyard horses and feed them some breakfast. Luckily we never quite make it through a whole bag of carrots, so there is always some extra for my little cowgirls! Emma even had time to find her cowgirl hat!

Super Six!

2010-03-11T14:17:00.005-07:00

our family

Jill, Emma and Brielle

The horse cake Emma picked out

blowing out her candles with Jill

we gave Emma a camera so she wouldn't steal ours anymore!

a stuffed horse named Starstruck from Grandma Judy

she loves horses!

how classic is the Etch-a-sketch

a cute horse jacket from Grandma Becky

she did receive other things besides horse stuff!

I can't believe Emma is 6 years old! I probably will be saying that phrase every year as my children get older, but it is always amazing to me how time flies. Emma has been counting down the weeks from Brielle's birthday to hers and she kept reminding Nick and I that she would be SIX! I think she had a fun birthday. It was a Tuesday so she went to school and took treats for her school class. Then, after school we went to pick up her cake and balloons. After her favorite dinner (Spaghetti) we had our family over for presents, cake and ice cream. She loves having parties at our house. You can also tell by her face that anything with a horse was a favorite gift. We found Target would make a cute horse cake and Emma picked out the red frosting (her favorite color) and the saying that went on the cake. It was a great party.

Emma is such a wonderful girl. She's smart, funny, and a great big sister. She loves to be creative as she draws, glues, and colors pictures for us. She works hard in school and I've noticed when I volunteer in her class that she is able to focus so well. She desperately wants to lose a tooth while in Kindergarten so I hope that happens pretty quick! I'm glad she is patient with me as I learn how to be a more relaxed mom. I am so glad she is in our family. I love her tremendously! Happy Birthday Emma!

Sisters

2010-02-28T22:02:00.004-07:00

my favorite girls

Emma's note to Brielle

the gingerbread house they worked on together

Sisters. A bond that I have never known. I'm so grateful that my daughters have each other. For the most part, they are wonderful to each other. It's funny because I don't think they physically look very much alike. But they are so beautiful. Brielle loves to play with Emma and will play whatever Emma wants to. Emma loves being the leader and the example. She will teach and help Brielle write letters or read or make art projects. She will include her in most things. I hope they will be close friends as they grow up. I hope they will continue to protect each other, help each other, love each other and appreciate this special bond.

100 Days

2010-02-28T21:50:00.002-07:00

Obviously I haven't been in school for awhile because I did not know how much celebrating goes on with the 100th day of school. I learned quickly that it is a big event after Emma and I taped 100 Q-tips in her 100th-day jar (Q-tips I figured were cheap and disposable). I guess it is for the children to learn counting and the parents to learn project creativity. I'm sure there will be more to come. We did have fun making her jar, though.

Brielle's Birthday

2010-02-02T14:39:00.005-07:00

the only picture of her looking at the camera!

a horse dress!

Princess and the Frog book

the "baby she always wanted"

a microphone perfect for singing and dancing!

a princess camera of her very own

meltdown moment when she got more clothes

Brielle with her Belle cake

I love this little girl!

Brielle in her new princess bed

My little girl is 3!! I can't believe it! Of course last year went by too fast, but what about the 2 years before that? Brielle is such a sweetheart. On her birthday, we were gone to my friends' wedding in the morning so she spent the day with Grandma Becky and Emma. They went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks and then a few days later we took her to see Planet 51. When we got home we straightened up the house for her party and Nick went out to buy her cake. (I felt so guilty about not making one this year....I always make my kids' cakes. But something just had to slide this time.) The party was a hit--plenty of toys and clothes--and only one meltdown. We also moved her into a "big girl bed" the following week! Boy, she has had a lot of changes over the last month! The binky is gone.....the crib is gone.....next up: potty training! Yikes! I'm hoping that all of these changes are the reason that she has had a lot of tantrums since her birthday. I'm hoping this is not an indication of what a 3 yr-old acts like. But Brielle has her own cute personality. Her sweet little voice still makes us laugh. She barely eats during dinner because she is too busy telling stories. She entertains us with her dancing and singing. She also can play by herself or look at books for a long time. She is happy playing whatever Emma wants her to play and can't wait to go to preschool next year. I'm so grateful for her in our family! She brings so much fun to our family! We love you, Brielle!

Congrats to Noni & Chris

2010-02-01T21:37:00.004-07:00

the happy couple

isn't she gorgeous

One of my closest friends got married a couple weeks ago in the Salt Lake Temple. We were excited to be invited to their delicious wedding breakfast and then (after shopping at IKEA for a bit) joined them for their sealing. It was a beautiful, fun day with my friends. We are so happy for you, Noni! Congrats to you both!

Christmas 2009

2010-01-23T15:36:00.011-07:00

Emma with cousin Ruby

Emma showing us her cute cowgirl figurine

Brielle with her horse, Flicka

Emma with her horse, Spirit!

Brielle looking at her Whoopsie Doo baby

Emma admiring her white horse, Rosie!

The girls posing with their gifts from Santa

Waiting to run downstairs on Christmas morning

Christmas was a mixed bag for me this year. Not only was I doing some last-minute shopping a couple days before Christmas (which I hate), I also hadn't wrapped a single present until 11:00pm on Christmas Eve. I hate being unprepared! To top things off, Nick wasn't feeling well on Christmas Eve or Christmas due a shot he needed to boost his white count. So, I thought the week after Christmas was better because we had time to relax, sleep in, go to movies, and play with our new toys. However, the girls had a great Christmas day. The big excitement came from receiving their very own horses to ride on from Grandma Judy! They could have "rode" them all day! Two of my favorite moments on Christmas were comments from the girls about their presents.

Brielle: This year we started talking to her about giving her binky to Santa so he could give it to a newborn baby and in trade he could bring her a Whoopsie Doo doll (which is what she had been asking for). Brielle was just using her binky in the car and to sleep, but I knew it was going to be a challenge so I thought this might work. We talked about it a lot in December. So, on Christmas Day it was gone and Whoopsie Doo had arrived in its place. The day went by with a little bit of whining but the funniest thing happened when we finally got home. Brielle asked me if Santa was going to come back. I assured her that he would be back next year. Her next question..."Will he take my blanket?" Awww... Now she thinks Santa takes things from children!! I felt really bad after that comment, but hopefully she won't remember it later.

Emma: The one thing she kept asking for from Santa was "the white horse with a pink saddle from Target." So, after Santa brought that to her she spent the day gushing about how she got what she had asked for, how beautiful it was, etc. Then, during one of these moments she exclaimed, "I'm so glad Santa brought me the horse that I wanted, since you and Dad couldn't afford it!" hee hee. I'm so glad Santa could "afford" it! :) You gotta love the magic of Santa!

December

2010-01-10T17:12:00.010-07:00

The girls' in their beautiful Christmas dresses

Eight kids on one couch? What cute cousins!

my girls' as angels in the Nativity

The one and only time they sat on Santa's lap

You can tell by their faces that they are goof balls!

They were so excited to decorate the tree

Nick's birthday

The dancing, jingling horse we saw at Christmas village

Bundled up for a night at Christmas village

Yes, December was a blur. I wish it were 2 weeks longer so I could cram more in! There are always things we miss out on, but here are the things that kept us busy this month!

November

2009-12-03T22:13:00.011-07:00

what a beautiful little face she has!

Brielle was so excited to stomp snow with her new boots

My family (minus Nick) at my grandma's funeral

In the first week of November we had Nick's PET scan and bone marrow biopsy appointments, our Primary program, and the funeral of my grandmother who had passed away over the weekend. What a way to start off the month!

First, Nick's appointments went great. On Monday he did the bone marrow biopsy and PET scan. On Thursday we went down for the results. Drum roll.......all of his tests came back CANCER-FREE!! (he even had a liver biopsy the week before that showed no signs of lymphoma.) I have never seen his oncologist so happy. I think his doctor was unsure of how Nick was going to respond to the treatment because of his suppressed immune system. I know she did extra tests and minimized the time between appointments just so she could keep close track of him. We are grateful that she did because besides the blood clot in his lung (oh, yeah, he was in the hospital for 3 days at the end of October) he was able to tolerate the chemotherapy treatment so well. So, now he has once a month appointments with his transplant doctor and every 6 weeks he sees his oncologist. Yippee!

In the midst of Nick's appointments I had my grandmother's funeral to attend and participate in. It wasn't a huge surprise when she passed. She had been going downhill for the last 5 years and even more so over the past few months. She lived across the street from us for most of my life and she was such an amazing example to me. My grandpa is also a wonderful person because he was able to take care of her at home until the last month or two when he had Hospice come into to give her added attention. Emma was especially fond of "old grandma" and would go over to her house and stroke her hair. This was Emma's first funeral and I was unsure how she would react. She asked a lot of questions but seemed to know more than I gave her credit for. My grandma's funeral also became a great way to spend some time with two of my brothers who I won't see again until Christmas.

The Primary program topped off our week and it went really well even though the practice the day before was a little hairy. I could hardly sing the first few songs because of the tears they brought to my eyes with their amazing voices! Kids always seem to shine when their parents are watching! It's also fun to look out at the congregation and see the obvious pride of their parents.

The rest of November was somewhat of a blur. Nick started back to work part-time. I started a few Christmas projects. I took Emma to see Disney On Ice--Princess Classics. It was so incredible! I've never been before and we had such a fun time together on our mother-daughter date! I also became an Ebay addict for a couple days when I found some good deals on Christmas presents. I watched my kids play in the snow. I enjoyed the peacefulness of Thanksgiving. I thought about my blog and wondered when I was going to catch up!

Bad Blogger

2009-12-03T15:15:00.004-07:00

Halloween was done the old fashioned way this year. Door-to-door trick-or-treating! We went around one block and got a whole bucket full of candy and spent the rest of the night eating homemade chili and donuts with Nick's family.

One Saturday in October we rounded up all the kids and went to Lagoon for the last time. The weather was perfect--low 70's. The kids trick-or-treated and rode all their favorite rides. Here is the best picture I could get among them making "scary faces"!

Oh! What a bad blogger I have been! Life has just been whisking away and as the last month of the year sstarts off, I wonder if anything from this year has actually been real. So, to catch up here is the rest of our October in a few quick pics.

Snowbasin

2009-10-14T14:56:00.003-06:00

our family riding the gondola up the mountain

Emma making her own trail

they were so excited to see snow!

Nick and the girls at the top of the mountain

With the weather suddenly turning cold we decided we better take a drive through the mountains to see the fall leaves. So after Conference on Saturday we grabbed lunch and headed up the canyon. Trapper's loop looked beautiful so we kept driving until we got to Snowbasin. My girls were having a great time tromping through the leaves and discovering snow. It was also the last day that you could ride the gondola up the mountain so we decided to try it. It was exciting even though all there was to do at the top was eat in the lodge or hike. (We weren't dressed for hiking around espeically when it felt like winter and we had already eaten.) Coming down was incredible because the sun had started to come out and you could see the whole valley! It was a fun fall day!

Update

2009-10-14T14:34:00.003-06:00

I thought I should do a Nick update since it has been awhile. Nick had his latest PET scan on September 22 after his 4th chemotherapy cycle. Things looked great. All of the lymphoma areas were better and the doctors were very pleased. He still had to complete 2 more cycles of chemotherapy and his last one was on October 8th. Yeah! We have been very blessed that he has done so well on chemotherapy. He has actually gained weight and his only complaint was some body soreness. Now we are waiting until November 2nd when they will do another PET scan and bone marrow biopsy to see how things are going with no chemo. If that looks clear Nick's next check-up will be 3 months from then. That will put it around 1 year from when all of this started. (sigh). Right now, Nick is stuck in limbo. He feels good enough to start working (at least a few hours each day) but his transplant doctor does not want him to start back yet. He feels like Nick is still too susceptible to everything and he can't get the flu or H1N1 vaccines until it is closer to his 6 month mark (around Nov 2). His next appointment with his transplant doctor is next week so we will see what he says. For now, we are enjoying the fact that he is home and able to do things with us or can watch the girls for short periods of time! Do I dare say things are slowing down?

In my spare time....

2009-10-06T16:20:00.008-06:00

the pillowcase dresses I made for the girls

my first 5K with my bro-in-law James

home-made salsa 2009

I decided to give myself an extension. I hate it when I don't get things done that are on my list, so it's bugging me that I still have items on my "30 list" and it is past my birthday. (My excuse is that I kind of had a crazy year!!) I'm still trying to work on the list and I am hoping I can get most of them done by the end of 2009, but we will see. So, here are a few things I've been working on.

Pillowcase dresses: they don't have anything to do with my list, but I was just so proud of myself for sewing them. I haven't sewn anything since my 7th grade windsock, so I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. I thought the girls looked cute in them.

5K: I ran my first 5K in August in the Dash for Donation. The course was at Weber State and it had two major hills to climb, but I did better than I thought. 8th place overall; 2nd in women ages 26-30. Official time: 37:35 which I know is not fast to those of you who run, but I was happy to be under 40 minutes since I hadn't run for 3 weeks prior to the race (Nick was in the hospital). I could barely walk down the stairs the next day, but it was such a great feeling of accomplishment! I liked it so much that I ran another 5K in September and I beat my time by 2 minutes! It's funny because I don't love to run, but the races make it worthwhile.

Salsa: I haven't made salsa in 5 years and Nick loves it, so I begged my mom to come help me one Friday night. We were up until 1 am, but we were able to can 7 quarts and 6 pints. It is the best salsa we have made so far. Let's hope it lasts until next year!

Surprise!

2009-10-06T15:12:00.004-06:00

Normally, I love my birthday. Not this year. I was not looking forward it. Turning thirty seemed like the icing on the cake (no pun intended) to an already tumultuous year. It also happened to fall on Nick's 3rd chemotherapy appointment which meant we couldn't do much of a celebration. So I went along with life trying to ignore the upcoming date....until I found a piece of paper in Nick's gym shorts. It had the names of my 3 best friends from high school and their phone numbers, and addresses to some of my friends in Roy. What in the world is this? Oh no! Nick was trying to throw me a surprise party for my 30th birthday-- just like I did when he turned 30. Revenge or Love? So, I tried to not snoop to find out when this was happening. It was later when Nick practically forced me to see a movie I didn't really want to see, and then took me shopping (which I'm sure Nick didn't want to do), did I realize that he was distracting me while things were set up. Eventually we made it home to a garage full of family, friends, and food. And we had fun! Nick had the idea in the works for several weeks and also had a lot of help from family members. The garage was decorated, dinner was served, and we had cake and ice cream to top it off! It was great to visit and relax with everyone! (FYI on my actual birthday, I ate a delicious lunch from Huntsman while spending some quality time with Nick and then later we went to Farr's ice cream with the girls.Yum)

More Museums...More Horses

2009-09-30T16:31:00.004-06:00

the new horses at the Treehouse Museum

the girls did play for a moment with the doctor/baby stuff

Yee-haw!

It seems collecting eggs is fun no matter what museum you're at

Emma trying the construction business

playing grocery store--a favorite in my memory of the old Children's Museum

surprise...surprise....the girls found the horse!

So as a child, I remember going to the Children's Museum in Salt Lake to dig dinosaur bones, play grocery store, write on giant checks, and check out the inside of an airplane. I thought it was the greatest place. Well, I guess that place is gone, and the new and improved museum is called Discovery Museum at the Gateway. With our free passes in hand we headed to Salt Lake the week before school started so we could check it out. It was a fun place for the girls to explore and we spent half of the day there. We also went to see the new "Wild West" exhibit at the Treehouse Museum in September before our membership ran out. And as you can see, the favorite place to play was with the horses!!

Utah State Fair

2009-09-29T21:39:00.004-06:00

Our family (plus one fun cousin)

What cute carrots!

Brielle pickin' apples on the farm

collecting her eggs

Isabelle and Brielle after a day on the farm

our favorite part of the fair....

riding a horse, of coarse!

my favorite part of the fair

petting the animals

I love September for so many reasons! The start of a new school year, my birthday (more on that later), garden tomatoes, crisp fall air, new school supplies, making salsa, wearing jackets, and the Utah State Fair! This year we attempted to attend the All-You-Can-Eat ice cream festival (part of my "30 list), but it started to rain so we only made it to Layton before we turned back for home. Luckily, there were 5 more days of the fair, so we went down later that week and had a great time! It's too bad the money disappears so fast...we could have played all night!

Kindergarten

2009-09-29T14:52:00.006-06:00

Emma's first day of school

posing on the playground

Emma found her seat at the red table

Lining up on the second day

Jill, Emma, Brielle, and Ike on the third day

building sandcastles before the bell rings

the exciting part for Brielle--the playground

I'm not sure how it happened.....but I now have a child in Kindergarten! We've talked about it since preschool ended and then in a blink of an eye, the day had come. I didn't cry as I sent her off that first day. I think I wiped the sweat off my forehead in my mad dash to get the whole family ready by 8:15am. That is why I took pictures of the whole first week....I felt rushed in all the "first day pictures". Emma has reported "Kindergarten is even better than preschool because every day is a surprise! " It has also been great to hear all of the quotes that are said during the first week of Kindergarten such as:

"A little glue will do"

"Don't be afraid of your pencil or use it as a weapon"

"Keep your hands inside your invisible bubble (personal space)"

"You get what you get and you don't get upset"

Haha. Kindergarten teachers have so much patience!

The Last Half of Summer

2009-08-20T16:03:00.012-06:00

Brielle on "Red"! She looks so tiny!

Emma learning how to "lead" Red

A friend of mine invited the girls over to ride her horse, Red. They got to brush, feed, and bathe him, too! They were in heaven!

The girls at the Davis County Fair's petting farm

Riding the ponies at the Davis County Fair. Worth the 45 min wait!

My pretty girls in front of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple

it was a little windy, but we still had fun

What else screams summer like Popsicles and Snowie's?

Lagoon! We truly enjoyed our season passes this year!

Emma favorite ride this year was "The Bat" so we took a picture in front of their cage! (You can see their red eyes when it's enlarged).

One thing I learned from Nick's last hospital stay was that my kids were totally thrown off with both of us gone. I know we tried to make the best of the situation and we were very blessed to have so many family members and friends willing to take care of them for about two weeks while Nick was so critical. But once I came home, it became harder to drop Brielle off in nursery or at her baby sitter's. She was very clingy for at least a month. Emma was busy finishing the year with preschool and dance, but I know she was worried that one day she would wake up and we would be gone again. She was very leery anytime Nick had a doctor's appointment or I was going to the hospital by myself.

So, with Nick's most recent stay in the hospital, I tried to be at home with the girls as much as possible. It helped that Nick was not as "critical" and his family was very willing to stay overnight with him. I'd like to think that the girls were less affected this time. We tried to keep doing the fun things that we already had planned even though Nick couldn't be there. Here are a few things we did that I actually had my camera for!

Detour

2009-08-18T16:35:00.004-06:00

So we were riding along on Nick's road of recovery last month (and we were bragging about how things were getting back to normal) when we hit a DETOUR!! I had spent the night in Park City with my girlfriends when I get a call early Saturday morning that Nick has a fever of 102*. We knew this could mean rejection or infection so we took him to the ER. The doctor's tested for things like blood clots, pneumonia, or blockages to his liver. Every thing came back negative. They drained a liter of fluid from his lungs. They placed a drain in his abdomen to drain off any residual fluid that might have gotten infected. They did another liver biopsy (#3). They did another bone marrow biopsy (#3)! Then, his transplant doctor's started telling us about a rare (2%) post-transplant disease that could affect his lymphatic system.

Post-Transplant Lymphoproliferative Disease (PTLD): a wide spread spectrum of viral disorders associated with the Epstein Barr Virus that may range from a self-limiting mononucleosis ("mono") to a type of lymphoma. PTLD is a complication of a suppressed immune system.

From the liver biopsy they could tell that Nick had PTLD. They moved him to Huntsman Cancer Institute for a PET scan of his whole body. Later that night, they came up and told Nick they had found lymphoma in four different places! We were shocked and devastated. How could this be when he was doing so well? He had almost gained back all of this weight and had talked about going back to work the next week. We were very discouraged. They started chemotherapy immediately. Even though they told us that lymphoma is a very curable cancer to treat, they admitted that they don't see a lot of transplant patients to compare him to. His treatment was going to be very individualized. Their plan was to administer chemotherapy every 2 weeks for a total of 6 treatments. After 4 treatments, they would do a CAT scan to see what progress had been made. So, Nick stayed at Huntsman for 5 days after his first round of chemo. He endured it really well. He has had no nausea or vomiting. Overall, he just feels very "worn out". He has had some muscle soreness, but that is a side effect from a shot thats given to build up his white count. He has yet to lose any hair (although it sounds like that will happen.) He had another round of chemo last week which went really well again. After his first round, the doctor's were "extremely happy" with how much improvement they saw on his blood work. They have been very encouraging and caring.

So, we are ending the summer with a *bang*...... just like we started summer with a *bang*! We are very thankful for the two months that Nick had to gain his strength back. I know that has helped him in going through this new trial. We are grateful for all of our family and friends that have been willing to help us with babysitting, doctor appointments, dinners, and their overall concern for Nick and our family. I still feel strongly that everything will work out and Nick will able to regain his health and overcome this new diagnosis. He is an amazing man! He is working hard to fight this and move on! His body has been through so much this year, but we have also been blessed in numerous ways. We will continue pressing on!

Horse and Hitch

2009-07-16T16:18:00.004-06:00

one of the decorated horse statues that are all over Ogden

Brielle wanted to ride on all the horses!

Emma and Isabelle waiting for more....

She never took her eyes off the parade!

In lieu of trying to catch up on the summer month we missed, we tried something on Monday that we have never done before: the Ogden Horse and Hitch parade. Now, if you know my girls, you know that they LOVE horses, especially Emma. She managed to put holes in at least 4 pair of pants this winter while she "galloped" around our house on her knees. She wants to buy a horse. She thinks that we will buy a farm for her when we are rich. She has her own stuffed animal horse named Spirit that she rides on. Anyway, we thought this would be a great outing for her. It wasn't as crowded as the Ogden Pioneer day parade and it was also cooler since it was at night. I think it will be a new family tradition (as long as the horse frenzy continues!)

Funnies

2009-07-16T16:14:00.003-06:00

Emma: Mom, I'm so glad we have the car that we do.
Me: Really, why?
Emma: Because some people have cars that don't even have roof's and then they get rained on!

Overheard while the girls were eating Popsicles on our deck
Emma: Brielle what to you want to be when you grow-up?
Brielle: Ummm......Strawberry Shortcake. What do you want to be, Emma?
Emma: A cow-girl!

Super Saturday

2009-07-16T15:20:00.008-06:00

the cute faces of my girls!

the metal slide--practically extinct!

chillin' in the shade

a little windy!

almost too big for the toddler swings!

running....running...always running

On Saturday, Nick wanted to get out of the house so we decided to pack a lunch and go play at the park. We went to Hooper Park because it is close by, totally in the shade, and has swings and a playground. It is fantastic! The girls had fun even though it was a little windy. After nap time, we went to the Ott Planetarium at Weber State where they were showing free star shows thanks to R.A.M.P. We watched two shows: one about a duck named Dudley who learns about the stars, and in the other Wilbear the teddy bear learns about flying. They were cute shows that kept the girls entertained for an hour and they also handed out glow-in-the-dark stars (which don't really work). Then we headed to Farr's ice cream shop to indulge in some delicious ice cream. Caramel Caribou: my new favorite! (I can't wait until their new store opens in Clinton!) It was a great way to end the day--sticky and tired!

Our July Vacation

2009-07-15T15:36:00.004-06:00

at the Gateway

Brielle didn't like the fountain surprise

Do we dare go in?

happily on "vacation"

Gracie, Brielle, Emma, and Ike after lunch

our hotel room--how quickly we can make it messy!

Emma enjoying the pool

Brielle NOT enjoying the pool!

Awww! Relaxing with Dad!

So another reason I like the 4th of July is that our anniversary is right after it! This year was our 9th anniversary! Wow! Almost into the double-digits! We decided to "treat" ourselves to a night away at the Little America (we couldn't go too far because Nick had to have labs drawn Monday morning!) It was wonderful! We got to relax, talk, reminisce about previous anniversaries, and reflect on the last few months. It was weird because it was also very quiet! Without the girls we could have a whole conversation without being interrupted! Who knew? On Monday, we did some shopping in Salt Lake, ate lunch at Cheesecake Factory (yum!), and saw a movie. Then, we went home, picked up the girls and brought them back to Salt Lake for mini family vacation. We took them swimming in the hotel's pool and let them stay up late eating chips in bed. On Tuesday, we went to the Gateway to see Ice Age 3. We met up with Nick's sister's family after that to have lunch at Applebee's and play in the fountains. We had worn Nick out by then, but it was a great getaway that our whole family needed!

The Start of Summer

2009-07-15T14:49:00.002-06:00

I love the 4th of July! The fireworks, BBQ's, the increase in American flags flying, patriotic songs, the heat, the parades, and the official start to our summer this year. June whisked by as our family tried to make it through each day. I went back to working which meant on Monday's and Fridays the girls went to their babysitters and Nick got a ride to the U for lab work and then had someone come over to "tend" him. Tuesdays meant visits from the physical therapist and home health nurse. Wednesday's were filled with lab work at the U in the morning and clinical appointments in the afternoon. Mingled in there were birthdays, Primary meetings, Father's Day, and rain (which ruined any backyard plans I tried to plan for the girls). Besides a few minor tweeks with Nick's recovery (he needed two IV infusions of magnesium because it got too low), June was awesome for him! He has gained about 5 pounds a week and is just a couple pounds shy of his normal weight! He walks without aid, gets up on his own, and is able to walk quite far. At the end of June his doctors decided that he only needed labs drawn twice a week and that it could be done at McKay Dee! Yeah! They also dropped the every week visits and now see him every other week. Yeah! Yeah! The first week of July we didn't know what to do with all the extra time! (actually we celebrated with some family fun!)
We went to the Hooper parade on the morning of the 4th (Nick usually hates parades, but this one was perfect for him!) Then, for lunch Nick wanted to go to Chili's and use a gift card he got for Christmas (he actually enjoys food now!) That night we went to Nick's aunt's house for a BBQ and to watch the Riverdale fireworks (her house is so close we watched it from the front yard.) It was a really fun day and we felt almost normal again! Since then we have been playing as hard as we can--trying to make up for the month of summer we missed! And I have a few pictures to prove it!

My 2009 Theme Song

2009-06-18T15:30:00.002-06:00

"THE CLIMB"
~by Miley Cyrus

I can almost see it
That dream I am dreaming
But there's a voice inside my head saying
"You'll never reach it"

Every step I'm taking
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking

But I gotta keep trying
Gotta keep my head held high

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb

The struggles I'm facing
The chances I'm taking
Sometimes might knock me down
But no, I'm not breaking

I may not know it
But these are the moments
I'm gonna remember most, yeah
Just gotta keep going

And I, got to be strong
Just keep pushing on

'Cause there's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb, yeah!

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb, yeah!

Keep on moving, keep climbing
Keep the faith, baby
It's all about, it's all about the climb
Keep the faith, keep your faith, whoa!

This song has become one of my favorites lately. Not only does it fit with my life the last few months, but I have heard it numerous times on the way to the hospital. I think the first time I heard it was the day Nick got a liver and I was driving down to sign the consent forms and be there for his surgery. I think this song will always remind me of that moment.

He's Home!

2009-06-09T14:24:00.004-06:00

Dr Hutson at Nick's 1 mo post-op appt!

Dr Sussman with Nick at his 1 mo post-op appt!

His twice-a-day medications!

Well, Nick was released from the hospital on May 29. It was 2 days shy of 4 weeks from his liver transplant. The girls have been thrilled to have him home and have been showing him their toothbrushes and pajamas....anything to sit by him on the couch. I think it overwhelmed him at first once he realized that a house with children isn't really quiet or boring for very long. Nick's biggest complaint right now is that he can't sleep through the night. He has tried two different medications, but nothing gets him a deep, full night. (He does have me bring him snacks in the middle of the night which is the good news.) He is eating or snacking all the time. In the 10 days he has been home, he has gained about 10 pounds! (Too bad I can't give my home-cooking the credit!) He is also getting stronger. He has mostly been using a walker to get around, but his physical therapist brought a crutch/cane today and walked down to the end of the street with him. Nick says it is much easier to maneuver than his walker, so things are getting better each day. We still take him down 3 times a week for lab work and on one of those days we get to hang out in Salt Lake for a couple hours until his clinic visit with all of his doctors (too bad he can't go to the movies--it would almost be like a date!) I love his doctors! Dr Sussman and Dr Hutson are his hepatologists. They evaluate how well his body is accepting his new liver. Dr Sussman is so funny! He makes jokes all the time and if you are not listening you miss it. Dr Hutson was the one that performed his liver biopsy and called me the morning they knew they had a liver for Nick. He has the biggest heart and truly cares about Nick's progress. We will continue to see them every week through June, I think, and then maybe every other week. Right now, we function day by day, focus on all of the progress Nick is making, and are grateful that he's home!

Emma's Month

2009-06-05T14:36:00.009-06:00

When did my daughter turn 15?

Her "special" night--she got 2 bouquets and a princess balloon!

showing off her costume

striking a pose on stage before the performance

Emma and I after the recital

She looked beautiful in yellow!

Ready to twirl for her Princess ballet dance

Emma waiting to tap dance to "Party at Mickey's house"

Emma with Miss Cindy!

Questions: Emma would buy a lot of horses if she had a million dollars--she wants to be a horse rider when she grows up--she would go to the zoo if she could go anywhere in the world!!

It's official! Emma has graduated preschool!

singing "Do Your Ears Hang Low"

Isabelle, Emma, Jill at Preschool graduation

Emma and Brielle's at Jerry's Nursery (last field trip)

The month of May brought more commitments for Emma as she finished up preschool and dance. Her two years in preschool has been a lot of fun and she has learned so much! Dance was a new experience for us this year, but she loved it. The night of her dance recital she kept saying, "I'm so lucky I got flowers! It is my special night!" She also got complimented at McDonald's by some older girls on how beautiful she looked! I am so proud of how hard she worked this year in preschool and dance! She has grown up a lot and I love seeing her accomplish new things!

One Month Ago....

2009-05-26T13:56:00.005-06:00

...today was the date that we took Nick into the hospital. Some of you may know the story, but for my journal/record keeping I wanted to write down what the last month has been like. However, I will be leaving out some very personal, difficult, spiritual, and emotional moments that are not appropriate for the blogging world but for my own journal. It has been one roller-coaster ride (that is still going)!

April 26 (Sat PM/Sun AM)
Nick had been on a feeding tube for two days. The first day he felt a little strengthened but by Sat. he was not doing much better. Thanks to a spiritual prompting by both our mom's that night they made us go to the ER at the University of Utah. In the ER his heart rate and temperature was high, and he had really low blood pressure. Since it was the middle of the night, they told him he was going to be admitted to figure out what was going on. Obviously, we knew something was going on with his liver, but we didn't know if he had a secondary infection on top of that or if his sudden decline was still associated with the liver. Once he was on another floor, they ran multiple tests: chest X-rays, CT (abdom), and tons of lab work.

April 27-28
It was brought up that he had been exposed to TB before his mission so they moved him into a private room where either he had to be masked if he had any visitors or visitors had to be masked. The nurses came in with full head-gear that made them sound like they were from Star Wars. Nick had more lab work, a MRI (abdom), CT (brain), bone marrow biopsy (#2), MRI (brain), blood transfusion, PIC line put in and the doctors still had no answers. Luckily, during this time Nick was really confused and doesn't remember anything. (Confusion is a sign of liver failure.) I repeated his health history so often I sounded like a broken record.

April 29 (Wed)
They determined Nick did not have TB so they released the masks. He had a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) in the morning and a liver biopsy (#2) in the afternoon. Around 5:00pm, he sat up to go to the bathroom and fainted. The doctors were right outside his door and determined that he was bleeding internally from the liver biopsy (when the liver is failing it is not capable of clotting blood). The doctor that did his liver biopsy has only had 2 patients bleed in 20 years (Nick was the second). They started pumping fluid into Nick and rushed him to the ICU. There they put in a central line, an arterial line and put him on a ventilator. I was able to see him for a moment before they got him on the ventilator and it was very shocking and scary. We had to wait several hours to see if the bleeding would stop. It didn't --so around midnight they took him to the OR to take out the blood collection. The doctor who performed the surgery thought things went well, but said the liver is like a sponge that can constantly ooze blood so it is hard to completely get the bleeding stopped.

April 30 (Thurs)
Several hours after Nick's surgery they let us into his room. The doctors were very somber. They told us his blood pressure was so low during the surgery that it was possible he could have brain damage. They said the next 6-12 hours would be crucial to know if he would even make it. He had been given 21 liters of fluid which made his body enormous. He was almost unrecognizable. The liver transplant team came to talk to me about getting everything ready to put him on the liver transplant list. Later that day, he started to respond to us by squeezing our hands and wiggling his toes. We were ecstatic!! This was the longest, hardest day of my life. There are not enough words to describe what emotions I went through that day. It is almost too difficult to write this much.

May 1 (Fri)
They took him back to the OR that morning for an abdominal wash-out (they had left his abdomen open but packed because he was so swollen. They told me this was routinely done to prevent infection, but I was very leery. Nothing to this point had been normal or routine. However, it went well.) We were still waiting for the liver biopsy results to come back to determine whether it was autoimmune hepatitis or lymphoma. Nick had been diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis back in March and had been put on steroids for 6 weeks which made his liver functions worse. Still, the doctors put him on high doses of steroids to see if it helped. The biopsy showed no lymphoma and the steroids made his liver worse, so they decided to put him on the liver transplant list.

FYI-- When you are put on a liver transplant list, most people receive a MELD score which prioritizes patients on the severity of their liver disease. However, in Nick's case he was categorized as a fulminant patient which means he was in acute liver failure and had less than 7 days to live. That put him as a "Status 1" patient which means he was at the top of the list in our region (UT, CA, NV, AZ, NM). They estimated they would have a liver for him within 72 hours. He was placed on the list at 6:00pm.

May 2 (Sat)
I received a call at 9:10am from Dr Hutson who told me they had a liver for Nick. It was coming from out of state and they would be ready for surgery by early evening. I felt excited, anxious, and scatter-brained....like my mind was going through all of this information as I was trying to get my stuff together for the hospital. His surgery would be anywhere from 6-12 hours. They started at 10:45 pm. I felt very calm and peaceful about everything at that point.

May 3 (Sun)
Dr Guyowski (one of his transplant surgeons) came in at 4:30am! Just under 6 hours!! I was amazed. The doctors were very optimistic because he was young, healthy, and his liver failure had been so quick that it had not affected his other organs! When I first saw him, he looked so good. Much better than after his emergency surgery. They started a constant dialysis to drain off the extra fluid.

May 4 (Mon)
He was doing great. He winked at me that day!! He gave a thumbs-up to the doctors. His liver functions were down, bleeding was down. He remained on dialysis.

May 6 (Wed)
They took him off the ventilator!! His throat was sore. He could barely whisper. More dialysis.

May 7 (Thur)
They stopped the continuous dialysis. They let Nick have small sips of water. They stopped his feeding tube because his pancreas was inflamed. Instead they gave him IV nutrition. I think at this point Nick realized that he had had a liver transplant. He was completely shocked. He told me, "I didn't realize I was that sick!"

May 9 (Sat)
He stood up with help from the physical therapist. They took his arterial line out. He had a reaction to one of the anti-rejection medications that made his heart rate, temperature, and respiration's go up. This gave me a good panic attack, but luckily it resolved an hour later.

May 11 (Mon)
Central line out. Dialysis is done. They moved him out of the ICU to the IMCU (Intermediate Care Unit) which was like moving from the Ritz-Carlton to Motel 6. We were so spoiled with incredibly smart, caring nurses in the ICU. Nick finally got to eat!! Jello, broth and ice cream!!

This is where I stopped my detailed note-taking. Over the first two weeks I had only been home twice. Once they moved him to the IMCU, I came home to be with my girls who had been well-taken care of by our family, but were tired of being shuffled around. Emma also had a lot of things going on with dance and preschool. Nick's dad stayed with him overnight for most nights. On weekends my mom has had the girls sleep over so I could go spend the nights at the hospital.

Nick spent a week in the IMCU. They had him doing physical therapy every day and were trying to get him to eat more solid foods. Last Monday (May 18) they moved him to the 6th floor which is like a short-term rehab unit. He has made steady progress each day with his appetite and physical strength. Unfortunately, Nick has suffered some of the side effects of all the medications he has been receiving like insomnia, nausea, and mood swings. All of those seem to be getting better. It has been hard mentally for him to comprehend all that he has been through. At first, he told me he didn't want to know all the details, but little by little, those details have been mentioned. He is overwhelmed with it all. However, he is thankful that his life was spared. We are both extremely grateful for all of the support we have received. What amazing, generous friends we have!!!! We appreciate everyone that has called, prayed, visited, fasted, put his name in the temple, donated blood or money, or donated their time helping with our girls, our yard, and our home. We hope we can eventually pass on all of the service that has been done for us. As we have looked back on this last month, we realize how many blessings from our Heavenly Father we have received. We know the last 5 months have happened according to His plan. It has been a trial of faith, patience and endurance but everything worked out perfectly.

Unfortunately, it is not the end of our story. They are talking about discharging Nick this Friday. I am scared to have him at home even though I have missed his companionship. He will be on a lot of timely medication. He will still be trying to get his strength and appetite back. I just don't want any complications to happen after he gets home. His recovery could take months. We will be going back to the hospital 3 times a week for lab work and follow-ups. I guess it will be a busy summer! But, we have made it this far! As for the next month, onward and upward!!

Our Week

2009-04-24T21:18:00.007-06:00

Our medical EOB's and bills! Thank goodness for insurance!!

Boy, I'm trying to keep up the best I can with Nick's sickness, but it has been a crazy week. On Tuesday we saw the liver specialist at the U. Nice guy, not at all what I pictured in looks or personality, but seemed very knowledgeable and honest. After listening to the last 4 months of Nick's health, he told us that he was leaning toward another diagnosis which is called PSC (Primary Sclerosing Cholangitits). It is very similar to the PBC, but is found more in men, especially those with IBS. HOWEVER, because the MRI showed no strictures in his biliary ducts (which is a big indicator of this disease) he was not 100% positive that is what he has!! He also said that PSC does not come on suddenly like it did with Nick. It is usually very slow in progressing. Dr. Box thought that Nick was very atypical! Great!!! So, he started Nick on an antibiotic (he was running a fever), did a chest X-Ray to check for pneumonia, and ordered some more blood tests. One blood test looks at a specific protein in the blood that might help us know a little bit more. So, not really encouraging. We came home pretty bummed.

The next day, Nick went downhill. He had not had much to eat or drink the day before, so he was very weak, dizzy, and fatigued. We called the Dr. and asked if he could get a feeding tube. They made us come into the office to check him out and then they set everything up for Thursday. He was not looking good.

On Thursday, he had to go 4-6 hours without food/water, so his last drink was at 8:30am. When we arrived at the hospital there was some confusion on who had authorized it and who was setting up the home health care nurse. By the time he was done it was around 3:30. Nick said putting the tube in was horrible (almost as bad as his bone marrow biopsy). The only thing that got him through it was that he knew he needed some nutrition. So we headed home and just as he was getting into the house, he passed out. I was trying to hold him up so he wouldn't hit the garage floor and yelling for my father-in-law to come help. It was a scary moment. For the rest of the night I was on the phone trying to get everything set up for his first "feeding". He can feel the tube in his throat and so he didn't want to eat much because it was bugging him. Finally, at 9:30pm a home health nurse arrived to teach us everything about the feeding tubes. He is supposed to spend 14 hours a day hooked up to the machine that pumps high-calorie nutrition into his system. Each feeding we increase the amount to help his body adjust to the solution and give him more and more substance. Today, he has already noticed a difference in his energy level and overall dizziness. I talked to both of his Dr's (Dr Box and Dr Poole) and gave them an update. They gave me some things to watch for so I will know if we need to take him to the hospital. A positive sign is that when the home health nurse drew his blood last night and Dr Box compared it to the labs he had done on Tuesday, Nick's liver enzymes we going down! They are still very, very high, but at least they are going in the right direction! I hope they continue that way. Hopefully, this medication that helps both PBC or PSC is starting to take effect.

So, an eventful week. I know all this information is very boring, but it makes it easier to explain what is going on rather than repeat it to everyone I talk to. (It also helps keep a good medical history for future reference.) I'm learning so many things about "life" through this experience and I hope that when things slow down I can write more about my thoughts during it all than about our everyday actions.

Easter 2009

2009-04-16T21:23:00.009-06:00

Dressed up for Easter Sunday
Easter egg hunt at Grandma's

Emma and Brielle busy egg-hunting

Their Easter baskets from the Easter bunny

The first egg of Easter!!

Fancy! Fancy!

Preschool Egg hunt with my antique basket!

This year, our Easter celebrations started with Emma's Preschool egg hunt at the park. I thought it was cute that she wanted to use the Easter basket I had when I was a child. Then, Emma went with her cousins to their Grandma Jane's for an egg hunt on Friday. She got three dollars! Easter morning started early with the girls looking for their baskets and eggs before church. Then, we got them dressed up in their fancy dresses from Grandma Becky. They looked so beautiful!! After church, we had an egg hunt with the cousins at Grandma Becky's before going to Grandma Judy's for another Easter surprise. I think Brielle might be our chocolate monster because every time I turned around she had another Reese's PB cup going in her mouth. Emma's favorite item was not the candy, but a baby horse (stuffed animal) to go along with her "mother" horse, Spirit! And I have stolen many Cadbury egg's from their baskets!! It was a fun weekend!

Appts.....Appts.....Appts

2009-04-16T15:05:00.010-06:00

So I thought I would write down what we have been doing this last week with Nick. Appointments!!! (4 in the last week!!) Once Nick started tapering off the steroids, he felt worse. He lost his appetite which was the best thing he had going, so we called the Dr's office to come up with some plan. They told us to see a hematologist for his low white count and they scheduled a MRCP for Friday (which is like an MRI of the abdomen).
Thursday we saw the hematologist (who I absolutely LOVE) and he was a little confused on why we were there. His white count had gone back up (3.0)! He explained that he is not surprised that all of Nick's blood cell counts are low because when the liver is inflamed all of the blood gets stuck there so blood that comes from the arm has generally lower results (makes sense to me). Then, he gave us two Dr's names at the University of Utah that specialize more in liver disease. We called. Next appt was May 29!
Friday was his MRCP--it was done in 35 minutes. The results came back normal (no blockage in his biliary ducts).
Tuesday we went into the original gastroenterologist who decided that he probably had Primary Biliary Cirrhosis (PBC). Nick's liver biopsy showed that he had biliary duct scarring, BUT his AMA (antibody) test was negative so it leaves a 10% chance that it could be something else!! UGH! So he wanted us to get a second opinion at the U (the Dr he mentioned was the same one we had an appt with but they thought they could get us in sooner). The gastroenterologist also gave Nick some different medication that should help his biliary duct process bile better. I don't know that this will make a huge difference.
On Wednesday, we had another appt with a Dr at St. Mark's Hospital who had been referred to us by one of Nick's coworkers (the coworkers mother had biliary duct cancer and she loved this Dr). So, we met with him, but he does more surgical work on the abdomen so since Nick doesn't have any growths or tumors, he really couldn't do much for us. But he did tell us that we should see this Dr at the U (yes, the same one that the other two Dr's referred us to). So, the next step? We have an appt on Tuesday with Dr Box (the gastroenterologist who specializes in liver disease). I am really looking forward to this appt, because he sounds like the best guy to go to in weird liver cases. I am also looking forward to not having a Dr appt for 5 days!! I hope all of this made sense. I was starting to confuse myself!!

General Conference

2009-04-07T15:14:00.008-06:00

On a happier note, I was able to get tickets to General Conference this year thanks to my wonderful friend Cindy. (She knew this would help towards my "30 List"!) The tickets were for Sunday afternoon and since Nick was not feeling up to it, I took my Mom. We had a fun time. We listened to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on the way down, the weather was beautiful, the traffic was minimal, and that session was great. The music was my favorite part!! It is so powerful when you are actually there. I can't wait to reread some of the talks from Conference since so many seemed to be directed at me. Elder Holland has been one of my favorite Apostles since I was in college and I especially loved his talk this year!!! I also used a some ideas from March's Ensign to keep the girls more involved which helped them have fun and gave me a better opportunity to listen. I love Conference weekend!