100,000 miles old and more

Our car turned 100,000 miles old today. We've had it for a little more than 5 years, and this year has been a rough one for it.

Our laptop took a nasty spill thanks to a certain toddler. It won't boot up anymore, so Jeff and I can only check email while at work. So it'll be a little while until we can fix it.

I am down in the dumps today with a Kidney Infection! Go figure. It's pretty nasty so far, and little Maci must think it funny when she kicks my kidneys! She's been at it all afternoon, and she usually isn't a huge kicker! So hopefully we can nick it in the bum before it gets out of hand, which is a huge fear of mine!

Tomorrow is Ash's Birthday! We have plans to eat his favorite food for dinner (Chicken nuggets and fries) and then we're taking him to Temple Square to see the lights. We're having his birthday party on Saturday afternoon.

Friday is our 6th anniversary! No big plans there. We're going to make jambalaya and have some Martinelli's. We have a fun weekend planned. Hope all goes well (mainly on my account).

Happy Christmas Eve in one week. :-)

The Christmas Spirit

So this week has continued to be, well frustrating in some ways. Our car was broken into Tuesday night (humm, last time our car was broken into was December 2005 . . . .). Thankfully, it wasn't 'broken' into. We did some major grocery shopping, and Jeff made about 5 trips. And the last one, we think he may have forgotten to lock the car. So, our car was all shuffled through when we discovered it the next morning. Cd cases all over, the glove box contents on the floor, and even Ash's diaper bag was sifted through. Our car documents were all still there, and we've found what they stole, my Christmas CD's! Of all things, break in to someone's car during the holidays to take their Christmas CD collection! Well, I have all but 2 or 3 of them on my itunes, so not too bad.

My cool Hubby

So Jeff and I saw Twilight together on Sat, the 22nd. He was reluctant to go at first, and was happier with the original idea that I was going to go with my mom and sister. After that didn't work out, I was determined to see it opening weekend. So he went with me.

This Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to see another movie. We had some money left on a gift card and what a perfect weekend, and who knows when we'd get another chance. We picked out to see either Quantom of Solice, Australia, or Twilight. I wanted to see them all, so let Jeff choose. He chose Twilight! He really liked it and wanted to see it again! So We saw it twice in a week! How cool is he? He asked for a run down of all the books last night. Of course it was hard because so many things intertwine with another. But he really enjoys the concept of all the vampires and werewolves. I'm so lucky!

Sciatic Dysfunction

I have sciatic dysfunction, so an explanation for all my back pain. I now wear one of those pregnancy belts. And all I can do is wear it and ice my back. My doctor won't give me any narcotics, which I came close to begging for. But further down the road he might. My pain has been so bad this week, I am running on no sleep. Monday night, I didn't fall asleep until 8:30 am. I've been miserable. And of course, it's only going to get worse according to my physical therapist. So we're trying to calm down the inflamed muscles, and do exercises to make me more comfortable. And that's all I have to say.

Finally some pictures!

We have been piggy-backing on the internet, and that's why I don't upload pictures to the blog. It takes way too long. So, I'm at my parents with the comp, and can finally post some pics!
We also haven't taken many pics lately, our camera when missing and we only found it the other day inside the sofa.

Our little sleeping monkey with his little monkey.

Ash goofing around and doing what Laura calls his 'evil look'

Coloring

And so on

Unfortunately, the only thing I have to blog about today is how miserable I am. I've been sick all week. I am sick to my stomach, I can't eat, (except a little in the evening). I can't drink in the mornings or I throw up. My aches and pains continue, but the good news there is I do have a physical therapy appointment next Tuesday, so hopefully we'll relieve some of the misery. I am an emotional wreck. I cry at stupid things again (I haven't cried from watching the price is right yet). Last thursday after getting the house really clean, Jeff aggreed to make Jamabalaya. ( I constantly crave tacos and jamabalaya). We were getting groceries at the store including some ingredients like bell peppers, and Jeff said well I'm make some tomorrow instead. I hit the box he had in his hand, and started crying. I was so upset. On top of my emotions that are hard to manage, I continue to have a menacing toddler who hid my keys today, and it took me more than 3 hours to find them. He likes throwing canned foods, putting things in the trash and taking them out (puts in things like toys, and takes out actual trash), emptying mom's purse and hiding the contents and so on. One word describes all, aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Just think, this weekend you can start your new book, see Twilight, and maybe stamp.... hum. We'll see how it really turns out.

10 years ago . . .

On November 15th 1998, I had my very first date as a sixteen year old. It was a fun first date. My date came and picked me up and took me to see my High School's fall musical, "Pippin" It was a basic date, he picked me up, we went to the show, then sat in the car in front of my house afterwards for about 45 minutes talking. Now the best part of this first date, was that it was with Jeff!!! I know alot of you know that, but for those that don't, there you go. Jeff was in college, and working to save for his mission when I met him. I met him working at Macey's grocery store on 1300 east and 7800 south in Sandy. Ten years ago we first me and were interested in each other. I think if you told me I was going to marry him then, I would have laughed.

A week later we had our second date. I'm lucky Jeff wasn't scared away forever from that. Jeff came up to the door to get me, and my dad answered holding his (unloaded) shotgun. We doubled and they were in the car waiting for me and Jeff, and they were thinking that my dad was physco. Jeff didn't know what to think. I had a good laugh with my family.

We didn't have another date after that until 3 years later when I was home for Christmas break from BYU Idaho, and he was home from serving his mission in Baton Rouge, LA, and going to the UofU. And we've been together since. It is so fun to recall our story. Meeting 10 years ago, and one month away from out 6th wedding anniversary! And of course our first child was born the day before out 4th anniversary. I love this time of year, not just for the wonderful holidays and family time, but to remember the wonderful times I've had and get to have with my own little family.

Ashton and my mission

Ashton continues to LOVE the alphabet, he points out letters every where we go, he trys to draw them, and loves to hear us spell words. I love it, it's so cute.
He says more words everyday, and for some reason, if dad teaches him the word, he is more likely to learn it and remember it. When he gets home for work, it's all about dad, he wants to be where he is, he wants to play with him, everything. His world still revolves around Elmo, Cookie, Nemo and Pooh Bear. He is great at learning animal sounds, and knows the following:
Cow, Horse, Kitty, Dog, Sheep, Snake, Bee, Lion, Duck, Bird, and more I just can't think of them. He is still in his terrible stages with almost a tantrum a day, and he colored with pencil this time all over the front desk at work. Dave (my co worker and the store manager) is so good to help me clean. I didn't even know he made the mess until Dave said it happened but he already cleaned it. We got to go to Disney on Ice last night. It was fun, Ash's eyes were about as wide as they can get, he loved looking at the skaters and the lights and the music. He only lost his attention about 5 minutes before the show ended.

Now, my mission. Since we won't let Ash color with crayons anymore, I'm trying to find Paint with Water books. I can't find them anywhere! (I've only looked at barnes and noble, target and walmart). I'd like that, but maybe for Christmas/birthday we'll get him that new paint with light thing. I saw it today and it was only 24.99 and probably worth the investment.

Sorry about no pics again. HOpefully I get some up tomorrow.

Scarecrow Festival

We went the Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving point back on October 18 with our Friend Sally and her sons Tyler and Cameron. We had a blast. We have over 50 pictures of the event, but I can't seem to find them all....
Anyway, there were little games of throwing the spider on a board to get it to stick in the cobwebs, there were ringing tosses, many giant blown up slides, and bouncers and even a toddler area with toys galore. Ash went to the fishing pond, we ate some lunch and just had a fun time.

Lately

Ash has definitely entered the terrible two's. He is in everything. I have to keep both eyes on him at all times. He has learned that when mom goes to the bathroom it is time to strike. Crayons have been banned for a while. However yesterday while at work, he was being very good. So I gave him one, and watched him color while I worked. Then he got up and left. And within a minute I heard the sound of the crayon banging on something. I got up and ran and he had already drawn all over the front desk at work. So 30 minutes later it was cleaned. No crayons, whether he is being good or not. He frequently hides the phone and keys. He tosses them in his toy box, behind the TV, the bathtub or in his bedroom. So we do have places we check routinely when things go missing. He carries around his Elmo trick or treat bucket everywhere. And if he doesn't have that he has his Elmo/cookie/zoie sippy cup, his Sesame Street coloring book or pooh bear everywhere he goes. And life gets bad when we can't go to bed with the sippy cup if that's the item of the hour. He is getting very good about going to bed, and tells us nigh-nigh and bye several times when we lay him down. Our internet connection is really slow, and I don't have patience to upload pictures, but I'll get some up soon. He played in the snow the other day, and didn't want to stop. He loved throwing it up in the air. He laughed hysterically when Jeff threw snowballs at him.

Other things going on, I'm doing well with the pregnancy just sore with all the muscles and stretching and moving bones. But it's nothing out of the ordinary. Sleep is still hard, but I'm managing. Jeff is working hard on a commission painting right now, and it's nearly finished. And he has a few other paintings in the works now as well. So he's keeping busy. I'm getting back into my stamping and having fun with that (and a few of my new sets too!).

Last night on the way to Provo to play games with Laura, Rob and Jill, we were in a wreck on 1-215. We're all okay, no one was hurt, airbags didn't deploy. The car in front of us slammed on his breaks to avoid suddenly slowing cars, and we did too, but we still hit them. No tickets issued, so that was a relief. It happened at 6:30 so there was a lot of traffic. Our car is driveable, but only just. The whole driver side fender and light is gone with a crumpled hood. Tire isn't bent so that's good. But the driver door won't open. So I had to climb out of the passenger seat (yes pregnant and already sore). The hood won't open either, but they're pretty sure the radiator is smashed up. We got our estimates, and the car is at the collision center. We'll have them start Monday after my mom makes her phone calls, and we hear what the insurance company says. There is a chance it may be totaled. So, who knows what will happen. And being that Laura was in a wreck last Friday, it totaled her car (she was in a head-on with the airbags going off, she got pretty bruised up, but that was it), we had to return the spare family car we were borrowing for Jeff. So we have no car, and repairs will take at least 2 weeks. Anyone have a spare car??? So everything is up in the air and we feel trapped here at home today. We are in walking distance to church, and have to figure out bus routes for Jeff to get to work.

So there is a bit about all the aspects of us right now. I'm sorry about the lack of pictures. But can I also say I'm in a serious holiday mood? I've been making Christmas cards like crazy trying to decide what to demo and have for my upcoming Stamp a Stack, and I've been listening to Christmas music too, it's inspirational while working on the cards. I desperately wanted to buy a turkey the other day and make a Thanksgiving meal. I've never been so Holiday Happy so early. I've got Holiday Fever I guess. Well, take care, hope you are all well!

That's Not Okay

That is our current phrase for Ash misbehaving as opposed to NO or Stop. When those are said he will just say No no no no over and over and go and do it again in defiance.

This week's adventure has been the ash discovered that you can color just about anything with crayons and not just his coloring books. Random things found colored: Jeff's tub of Gesso, DVD case, dust buster, story books, office door at work, desk at work, Winnie the Pooh car. So we're banning crayons for a while, and that it is favorite thing to do at work. SO we'll see how that goes!

Annual Halloween Party from HALE

We are just days away! I'm so excited! I hope you have your costume figured out! We hope to see you Saturday! If you can only drop in, we'd love to have you. You're welcome to bring a friend or date!

Annual Halloween Party from "HALE"
Saturday, October 25th 7pm

Cottonwood Hills Condominium Clubhouse
8200 S. 1250 E. Sandy, UT

Please bring a treat or a snack to share.

Be sure to dress up because this year's contest will be bigger and better than ever!

Another ice cream picture!

Yummy Ice cream!

Icecream!

Where's your tummy?

Hello.

So I am feeling better again, and back up running around.

Ashton is still improving his vocabulary. Instead of ta-ta for turtle, it is now tortle, and he loves carrying around the stuffed animal Crush (from Finding Nemo). We bought a couple of little pumpkins, and he will say goco, coco, and for some reason those mean pumpkin. He learned Apple this week too. It sounds like awpple. My internet connection is super slow at home, so that is why the lack of pictures. I don't have the patience.

Hope you are enjoying Conference weekend! I loved Neil Anderson's talk. About how feeling inadequate, but what we know for missionary work, for teaching, is enough, and God Love's us. It was very powerful to me. This first session was all about missionary work to me. Hum, I guess there are people around me needing to hear the gospel. I better get to work.

Notice the poll on the side of the blog. :-)

Of Course....

I've been feeling great for more than a week and a half now. Not even a headache. It's been great. I even got a start on making the Halloween Party invitations. Well, naturally my body went, hey wait, almost two weeks of feeling good, I don't think so! So Sunday, I came down with the Flu. I had a migraine upon waking up. And by evening time, It all came and hit me hard. Here I am, 24 hours later, just as miserable, and back to my days of throwing up that I was so ready to forget and be done with. Jeff changed his schedule so he could stay home today, and let me rest and take care of Ashton. So hopefully, I'll kick this by tomorrow morning, otherwise it will be a long hard day. My regular Dr appt is on Weds, so I've got that to look forward to, but otherwise, my parents are out of town again partying in Lake Powell (they were in Hawaii for a week, and came back Thurs, and left Sunday to LP, those party animals). And sorry we didn't come by last night Laura, but if you read this, you'll understand, and sorry to the Hales for the failed dinner and sorry if I get you sick. I'm praying Jeff and Ashton will be okay. I'm hoping that I was vulnerable to the illness because I've been on antibiotics and have a weakened body right now.

Ashton

Here are some of Ashton's newest words:
cookie, melmo (elmo), memo (nemo), Ba (ball, block), Cany (candy), chis (cheese)

We bought some candy corn, and that is Ashton's official favorite all around. We have to hide them when he is not looking so he'll forget about them, but it doesn't always work. He loves them. He is burned out on bananas. He loved them for so long, and now, usually won't eat more than half. He'll eat a can of mandarin oranges at each meal, he loves chicken, he loves jamabalaya, loves cheese.
Everytime we open up our lap top, he says cookie cookie in a sing songy way. We showed him "C is for Cookie" on You Tube, and now he wants to watch it everytime. And we oblige him. It's too cute to see him getting so excited. He points out vowels. He sees O and E and points them out, and he'll be caught saying E A I O. His favorite videos right now are Finding Nemo (he will sit still and watch the entire thing), and TMBG Here Comes the ABC's. He loves the alphabet right now. He throws a fit when Jeff or I get into the shower, because he wants a bath too. So, we've been showering at night. He may have had a bath earlier in the day, but wants another if you go to get in the shower.

Update on Katie--read b/c there is a Surprise Ending

I am feeling soooo much better. I finally saw my doctor yesterday as a follow up to my ER visits. He said I didn't have a kidney infection. It was/is and infection, but we don't know what/where. I'm taking antibiotics, so it will take care of the problem anyway. I haven't been in pain since the trip to the ER with the exception of some cramping due to a growing baby. I haven't thrown up since Monday. :-) I'm thrilled about that! I still have an aversion to Propel though.
Tuesday, after being free of Ashton all day to rest and work, our car broke down! So, we were stuck at my Grandma's/Holman's all evening. We tried several things to get it working to no avail. It was finally towed at 10pm. We were able to borrow Will's car for Wednesday (again thank you sooooo much). So we found that the Fuel Pump broke! An unfortunately expensive part. Yes, that's what we need on an already tight budget is an unexpected problem. It ended up costing us 650, but only thanks to the fact that my mother is employed by LHM, otherwise it would have been 1000$! So we're lucky we could save even that much! So they got the car done quite quickly. I worked again on Weds, went to the doctor to try to figure out all the problems. They did ultrasounds again to check the kidneys, pancreas, bladder, and see how the baby is doing. We were able to actually see what it is!!!! We got a good view, and I'm only 16 weeks, and they're sure it is what they said it is. So drum roll. .......................................

IT'S A GIRL!!!!

We're so excited. We'll have one of each. We still don't have a name, but we have a list of what we like.

So all in all, I've been so happy. I feel great, I can do what I need to, we're having a girl, the car is fixed hooray! I promise I'll put some pics of Ashton up soon!

Surprise, surprise . . .

Naturally, I don't have any cute pictures of Ashton, I don't have any good news. I went to the ER last night! I was stupid enough to wait to go until my pain had me in tears, which was at 11 pm. I wish I had gone earlier. I had severe pain, in oh guess where, my kidneys!
I had gone in earlier in the day to get my 'lab' done because pain was no stranger over the weekend. Didn't get the results back by the time the dr's office closed. And the instructions were, if the pain is bad, move around, try new positions, and try a warm bath, if that doesn't work, go to the ER. So I spent all evening doing just that, thinking that it would be best if the goal was to simply not go. After laying in bed for over an hour, and it hurting so badly, I got up to use the bathroom, and that was it, it hurt to even walk now. So Jeff and Ash stayed home (I wasn't about to drag them along--it's no fun and boring).
I got home just after 3am. So Yes, I'm sooo tired. I figured whether I went or not, I wasn't going to get any sleep. So the dreaded words, I have a Kidney Infection. I had crystals so they said looks like the start of a stone. They gave me morphine and zofran, and lots of IV fluids, and I felt sooo much better. Today, I'm just tired, and have a headache thanks to being so tired. But I'm not in any pain, I'm not nauseated either, so we're doing all right. I'm on antibiotics, and am drinking as much as my stomach can handle. And we now just hope I can kick it in the butt. The baby is fine.
I think I'm going to go for the 3 magic letters after giving birth, can anyone say IUD? This is too early for this infection. Last time it didn't get this way until about 24 weeks, I'm only 16! Aaggh! But also, que sera. I am just going to continue doing what I've had to do, tough it out and endure. Thanks again to everyone for the prayers, love, help and concern.

Trip # 2

Unsurprisingly, it has been another rough week. Monday I was at my doctor's to get the painful shot for nausea. It stings like no other, and makes your legs ache. I was throwing up alot, and couldn't keep food down. Tuesday was better. I was actually able to eat all meals. Wednesday, was the really bad day. I couldn't keep anything down, after only being awake 2 hours, I had thrown up 3 tims. One time Ash came in and started laughing (he thinks it's the funniest thing to see me leaning over the toilet throwing up). He then left, and came back a minute later and patted me on the back. It was so cute. So my father kindly picked Jeff up from work, and brought him home. As soon as he got there, I left for the ER. My nurse told me to go ahead an go in to get fluids and more nausea medicine, and to also check my kidneys. Yes, they were hurting. I was there for over 4 hours. It was probably the worst ER experience ever. They put me in an OB room, and so there was the OB table, no bed, the table. And it was hard, there was no chair in the room, just a stool. So with all the sitting, my back was aching so horribly. They did an ultrasound on my kidneys, my gal bladder, my bladder, my appendix and then the baby. They wanted to be sure the pain was from dehydration and not from something else (given my Kidney history). It was great to see the baby. This time you could see the little hands and feet. And the face, the baby was moving its head back and forth like crazy (reminicsent of Ashton saying 'no'). It was the little light that made the day a little better. I had some bacteria, but not enough to call it an infection, so we're just 'watching.' The IV took a while. Then the eventful part (Laura would have had fun I think), some of the tubing came disconnected. I didn't realize it for a while b/c my eyes were closed. Then I heard lots of dripping only to find saline dripping all over, and my blood dripping too. It was a huge mess! It was kind of funny, nothing really to panic about b/c the blood was 'watered down.' And the nurse came in quite quickly to take care of it. My hands were covered in blood, the blankets and sheets, my gown and mostly the floor. So much fun. It's sad that that was so eventful. Thursday I was doing well, eating alot and drinking alot, with the exception of a migraine type headache. I was miserable. And today is probably the best day. Little pain, little headaches, good.

Life or something like it

I was tagged in this take a photo of certain areas of your house. (the fridge, the sink, the pantry, the bathroom, laundry room, closet.) I love doing tags, but I'm going to be a total party pooper and not do it. Since I feel miserable all day everyday, cleaning is the last thing on my mind. Even though my home is dirty and cluttered. It's too hard right now. (I can't even stand for 10 minutes to take my shower). So many when I start feeling better, which will be any time now . . .

My daily routine is wearing on me big time. I get up, get Ash and change him, get him his breakfast. Than I go throw up. I then go eat breakfast for myself. Clean up Ash, get him dressed, read and play, then I throw up my breakfast. Then we nap. I wake up first because my back hurts. I go throw up. I then tidy the front room and get Ash's lunch ready. I get Ash ,change the diaper, give him lunch. Then i eat lunch. We then get Jeff or finally make it into work, depending on the time. I get to work, and throw up. Or I pick up Jeff, bring him to work with me for an hour or two. We run a couple errands, go home, and I throw up. Then I'm too tired, my stomach hurts I just sprawl on the sofa and watch tv or watch Ash. Jeff makes dinner (and he's good he's been making all the dinners with little or no help, and whatever it is I happen to request). I eat a huge hefty dinner because I'm starving. Ash goes to bed. Jeff and I stay up, watch a little tv, play monopoly or whatever. Then go to bed. Then each day starts all over again. This has been the pattern for a little over a week now (with the exceptions of Sunday, and the holiday). I'm beat.

The other pregnancy stuff. Well, I'm super emotional all the time. I wasn't like this last time. So far everything is different. I cry easily and at a lot of things. I pulled over while driving the other day because a firetruck and ambulence came rushing by. I burst in to tears. The other day while getting ready, a gal on the Price is Right won a car (not even the showcase or anything) and I got all choked up, and was leaking. Last night, we watched Are you Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (we don't usually watch it, there was nothing else on.) They had the first million dollar winner. I cried when she won. Before that we watched the College Championship of Jeopardy. I choked up for the winner. My husband thinks I'm so pathetic. But I truly can't help it. He told me to just detach myself. Well, even doing that I still get choked up. Jeff Foxworthy started to cry w/ the million dollar winner, then Jeff said it was okay that I cried. So, I guess I'm blogging about it for sympathy from my fellow mothers, or just to give you a good laugh.

Sorry I don't have any pics of Ash to share. I haven't been taking any. The only exciting thing we did this week was play with chalk outside for a while. He's been a bit cooped up.

Sorry for the ramblings.

you have to be KIDDING ME!

Announced Today, Sarah Palin's 17 year old daughter is 5 months pregnant! And we want her in the white house? Yah right! Mr. McCain did you do any research on her before you chose her??????

Caron did this on her blog. It looked fun!


20 years ago
I was 6 years old, my family was moving to Utah from Washington State. I was in Kindergarten, I was at Norman Rockwell Elementary School in Redmond WA for about a month before we moved. We moved into my grandmother's house in Provo, while the house was being built in Sandy. My mom drove my brother and I to school in Sandy everyday. We moved into our house December 23rd, 1988. My parents even found a cheap little Christmas tree.

10 years ago
I was 16. I was driving, I got to drive my own car, Kenny was on his mission. I was a Sophomore at Brighton High School. And October 1998, I started a job at Macey's grocery store. And soon after that, I went on my first date was a cute 18 year old I met at work (who had already graduated from HS) named Jeff Hale.

5 years ago
I was 21. I had been married for almost a year. It was 2003, and i was working as a Physical Therapy aid. I was a bit too scared still to try to go back to school. So I worked, and Jeff worked. We just bought our first car, our still current Chevy Malibu.

3 years ago
I was 23. We were trying to get pregnant. I was going to a Fertility Specialist at the Uof U, taking clomid, and experiencing lotsw of problems with Polycystic Ovary Disease. The Clomid was causing frequent cysts to come and burst. Ouch. I was working at the best job I had ever had at Select Health.

1 year ago
I was 25, and raising an adorable 9 month old baby boy. I was working for my dad at Mattress Warehouse.

so far this year
A lot of the same as one year, except my adorable boy is now 20 months old. I'm now 26, and I'm expecting baby no.2 in March. I still work at Mattress Warehouse. I attempted to go back to school, but found out I was pregnant, and knew that wasn't going to happen.

so far today
I slept in. Jeff got up with Ashton. I showered, threw up. And now I'm blogging.


plans for the rest of the year
To start feeling better soon. To celebrate all the Holidays with my family, and have a great time.

Nice Birthday

Thanks to everyone for the Birthday greetings, and gifts. I got tons of emails, phone calls from my siblings and people wishing me a happy day on Facebook, so thank you! I had a nice birthday. It was a rough day, I didn't feel well, and was throwing up all day. But by evening time, I started feeling great, I ate my GF pizza and cake (and kept it down!! sorry if that's tmi). We had a little party with the Hale Family, played croquet (I even won!), and simply enjoyed good company. Jeff and I came home, and watched half a movie, and it was nice. Sorry no pics, I'm too old for that now. :-)

Penelope

I have been dying to see Penelope for over a year now. It was originally going to be release last August to the theatres, then was pushed to February 2008. Well, with a child, we don't ever make it to the movies, but we rent a lot. It came out on DVD July 15, and we've been trying to rent it at our Blockbuster ever since. I swear our store only had 2 copies! Or, it's just that so many people liked it, they held on to it, and turned it in late. Any who, we rented it a few days ago, and it is a fabulous movie! It is rated PG and its clean. (the only thing is that she had never had a beer, and went to a bar for one, but compared to all the sex splattered all over TV and film, it didn't bother me to much)I loved it! It was a little predictable, but so entertaining and happy and with a moral to it. I recommend everyone to see this film!

Baby Lucy

Meet Lucy Grace Holman, my cousin's new little baby girl. We had the pleasure of being involved in the pregnancy, mainly being around. And we were able to watch Megan while they were off at the hospital. Lucy was born Friday, August 22nd, 2008 in Salt Lake City at 9:30 pm, weighing 9pounds and 4 ounces. (I didn't get the length from Will, he didn't know it).

Her Lucy is cringing a little bit from the camera flashes!

Megan seeing Lucy for the first time.

Megan and Lucy.

The Holman girls.

Liz and baby are going well. When we visited Liz looked great. They're coming home Sunday afternoon. Grandma Mardi flew in from Little Rock Saturday afternoon, and Will's sister drove in Saturday afternoon, and the fun will continue when Grace arrives on Monday!

Today's Special-Mashed Potatoes!

For dinner the other night we had chicken and mashed potatoes. Someone decided, that the potatoes should go up their nose. And naturally, we laughed at him, so he grabbed more and slapped them on his face. He had potatoes running out of his nose the rest of the evening.

Changes

I have started to feel the changing of my body as I am going into the next trimester of pregnancy. I still am suffering from frequent nausea, but now starting to feel the muscle aches and stretching and changing. I've had to take Loratab the last few nights because it was feeling so miserable. All I could do was moan and rub my stomach. My back is starting to ache too. I am so anxious to feel better. And I feel guilty that I'm already tired of being pregnant. I've got a long way to go!

SPAGHETTI!!!!!!!!!

Jeff's family brought over left over spaghetti. It was a tasty dinner with great turkey and sausage meatballs. Jeff decided Ashton could feed himself. Bad idea!!! Jeff didn't argue that he should clean him up! I don't think Ashton ate any. And we were laughing so hard at the site of him, he thought it was funny, and started chucking the food in the air. Now we have to clean it off the blinds and the fridge. . . .

Dancing and jumping with the Olympics

Paper Towels

Ashton had fun with our paper towels. He was lining them up and stacking them. It was pretty cute.

Olympics

We're having so much fun watching the Olympics. Even Ashton. He is mesmerized watching the gymnastics, and then he started jumping up and down and spinning. It was so cute, I tried to get it on video, but by the time I got the camera cued up, the swimming was on and he wasn't dancing around as much! It is so much fun to see all these world records broken! I love it, it is so invigorating! Our TV is on all afternoon and evening watching!

Baby Update

of blood drawn, have yet to hear the results of those tests, but I'm not expecting anything to be out of the ordinary. I recently switched doctors, they are in the same practice, but my reg OB is in our ward here in Murray, and I wasn't comfortable about it. My new doc is great. He actually was the on call doc when I was hospitalized while pregnant with Ash, and was there checking up on me, and was I had my ten week doctor appointment this week. All is looking good. The ultrasound was good, still a very strong heartbeat, and this time you could see the head and torso! I had about 6 vilessooo informative. I didn't even have questions for him this time. He had already reviewed my chart quite extensively that he will do a urine culture at every visit so they can monitor bacteria build up to help prevent and keep and eye on my kidneys this time! I didn't even mention my concern and he had a plan of action already. How great is that? I haven't been too good this week either. Just sick all day everyday, but I haven't thrown up for a couple of days, but I think I have the science down as to the triggers. (like i eat two small dinners). Hopefully this will all be down with in two weeks!

Day 5

Friday, Aug 1st, was a nice quiet day. It was the first day all week I went to work. And I was worn out. The week was big and exhausting, so it was nice to do nothing. We went about as a normal day, and then joined my family for dinner, then swimming. Ken's family along with my parents made a trip to temple square while I worked. After dinner, we went swimming again. It was nice and was in the evening, so not terribly crowded other than the mass of people we were. Ash is a water baby. He had so much fun, but got cold and that made it okay with him to get out too. Also, a side note about the week, Jeff was around in the evenings, but had to work the days, so didn't go to the zoo, farm, aquarium or even boating. He came to the pool, but didn't go swimming.


Ashton waving hi to his daddy.


Ken and Ella, me and Ash.

Boating

Day four of the adventures we went boating to Utah Lake. We were going to go to East Lake up East canyon, but time became and issue. So we went for the closer option.

Ash had a fun time playing on the beach and lake, he did a few face plants in the water where we had to run after him! It scared us, but he didn't seem to mind, he didn't cry. He just kept enjoying splashing.

The first run out on the boat was my Dad, Ken, Rob, Jill and Wyatt. Rob had a class to get to. While they were out I took Reese and Ash to the waterfront for some play. Reese is great in the water, quite experienced.

Ash and Reese.

I didn't get pictures while on the boat. Ash had a nice ride. He feel asleep, how perfect. I love boating just to feel the sun on your skin and the water splashing you and the wind to cool you down. It is so relaxing. I can see why Ash fell asleep so easily. When I went out (with Ash) we had a full boat, It was me, Ash, my mom and dad, Laura, Natalie and Reese. Laura went tubing, and then Reese went with Laura (Reese is very adventurous, not afraid of anything it seems!) She only went for a short while, and nice and slow. I decided to go for a run too. It was very relaxing and felt nice, it's been so long since I've gone, and I was hesitant b/c of being pregnant. And all was well until my dad decided to go over his own wake, it scared me a bit, but all is well.

Trip to the Park

Day 3 continued, and we decided the kids needing some more wearing out, so we took them to the park, which only proved we were the worn out ones. :-)

Ashton's favorite part as usual was to throw the wood chips. Then he got the idea to throw them at me! It was quite frustrating because they kept going down my shirt. So I went and sat under the pavilion, so Ash decided to grab the chips and bring them to me to throw at me.

Reesey Piecey Pudding Pie

Wyatt was pushing Reese on the swing. So cute.


My mom doing her grandmother duties.

The Living Planet Aquarium

Day 3 of our adventures (July 30th) we went to the Living Planet Aquarium. It is very small, it is in an old Mac's Craft store. But, they are raising funds to build a large state-of-the-art Aquarium. They had blueprints and sketches on display. It will be neat once done, and will be great to have such a big addition to our area. I love the Seattle Aquarium, I've been there many times, and go almost every time I go to Seattle. So I'm excited for a big one here.

My dad with Ashton. Ash had been quite fussy all week, and didn't want anyone but mom. Which made it hard because I was still feeling sick. My dad took him around for the first half, and then I did the second, I was feeling better than I had all week, and was up for carrying and chasing him.

My mom, Natalie and Ella looking at June Suckers, they only live in Utah Lake.

Flash photography wasn't allowed in the main part of the aquarium, but this pic turned out pretty fun. This is Ashton looking at a little eel. His favorite was probably the sharks. They had a big tank with many smaller sharks, they had Tiger, Leopard, White Tip Reef Sharks, and a few other varieties. I had to point them out when they were on their way on swimming right in front of us, otherwise it startled Ash to where he would jump back a little bit. He didn't like the octopus they had. It wasn't doing anything other than blinking, not even swimming around, it was sitting at the bottom of his tank, but Ash was very scared of it. They also had a few things you could touch, Sting rays, Star Fish, coral and other things, but that wasn't ideal for a 19month old. The water was deep, and they had to do two fingers.

Thanksgiving Point Farms

Day two, July 29th, we went to Thanksgiving Point to the farms. Ken's family went earlier with my mom and sister to the Dinosaur Museum. I didn't think it was age appropriate for Ash, and I was right. It had a few interactive things, but not for 19month olds. So we met them up a little later to go to the farms. Ash didn't like it as much as the zoo.

He liked the giant plastic cow.

Laura, Reese and Ken petting the horse.


Ash didn't like the real cow. It was right in his face at one point, and ash pushed his nose (pretty hard) away.

Reese loves horses. She grew up loving them like her mom. Natalie told us she will say at bedtime, "good night mom, I love horses." or "I love you mom, I love horses." She rode three different horses, each time by herself (she will be three in mid September). Ash rode a horse too while I walked beside, he wasn't thrilled, and even upset first, but then by the time we finished the first circle, he was okay with it. Then the horse in front of us went to the bathroom, I wasn't about to walk through it, so I grabbed Ash and we were down. To visit the farms it's only 3.50, and two and under is free. So well worth the time. We haven't taken Ash to Wheeler farm yet, but since we did the farm thing, I think we'll wait until next summer.

Outing to the Zoo

Ella and Ashton

Looking at the Zebras, it was one of Ashton's favorite.

Ashton stretching out of his stroller to get a better look at the Zebras.

Reese and Ashton

Reese and Wyatt on the train.

Our trip was on 7/28. my brother Ken's family came out from Texas for a week. They only make it out once a year, so we made each day an event! Ashton really liked the zoo. He liked the Zebras, Meerkats, Giraffes the most. I didn't let him run around as much as either of us would like, I've been too nauseated to chase after him. I will publish posts for the rest of our days. Tuesday we went to Thanksgiving Point to the farms, Wednesday to the Aquarium, Thursday we went boating. It was a crazy week!

Tallies for this Pregnancy . . .

Trips to the ER, one and hopefully no more to go! Monday night was the last time I was able to hold food down until yesterday at about 9pm. I was so sick. Then, starting yesterday morning, I couldn't even hold down water. I was throwing up every 15 to 30 minutes. I got too dyhrated that I continued throwing up even though I had nothing left in my system. I went to my doctors at 11 am (thanks to my VT comp Julie to watch Ash for an hour and my grandma who took me to the doctor) had a shot to help with the nausea. Well it was too late. It knocked me out for a few hours and then I was throwing up again. My dr then said I needed to get IV fluids and anti-nausea stuff. But the Outpatient IV therapy was booked the rest of the day and wouldn't squeeze me in, so the Dr said go to the ER b/c they can do the same for me. So after Jeff got home from work (thanks to my dad who picked him up) Jeff and Ash dropped me off, where I spent the next 3 hours in boredom. They were pretty busy. Today I am still feeling weak, but SOO much better. I haven't even thrown up today. I can't eat alot though, so I've had a lot of mini meals. So hopefully this will last through the entire time Ken's fam is in town, b/c I really don't want to be sick while they're here and miss out on all the fun! TTFN

TP

Ashton brought out a roll of TP from the bathroom, and decided to decorate our family room and himself. It was too cute even though he wasted almost a whole roll!