The Galvins

Cole lately...

2012-02-07T06:09:00.000-08:00

I want to remember about Cole:

He loves boxing his dad late at night. The other day he came down with mittens on his hands and no shirt. It was adorable.

He takes off his shirt every night so he can feel the warmth of his heat pad on his back.

He talks to Caleb in a baby voice, and I'm sure he doesn't know why.

He woke up in my bed yesterday. The first thing he said to me was, "Mom, I can treat you like a princess!" (I'm sure thanks to Jared)

We played preschool/dentist for at least half an hour without breaking character. He loves to play pretend lately. The dentist visited his preschool the other day. Now he's convinced candy will kill you.

Last night he identified 22 of the 26 letters in the alphabet. His dad comes home and tries to teach him how to read.

Cole refused to eat the birthday cupcakes his friend brought to preschool because they had pink frosting. Pink is for girls.

His favorite color

is green. He will choose it every single time, whether it's crayons or candy or clothes.

Last week Cole had a cold. I had just bought a new bottle of Triaminic (night time) last Saturday. I gave him a dose just before he took his nap. He doesn't sleep well when he's congested so I was hoping this would help him catch up on some sleep. Really, it didn't help him sleep any longer than usual. He came downstairs and went straight into the bathroom. I thought to myself, 'Oh good, he's taking off his pull-up and going to the bathroom.' A few minutes went by and still no toilet flush so I went to check on him. He had found the bottle (with a childproof cap), opened it, and drank most of it. There was 2 teaspoons left in the bottle. Granted, I left the bottle of medicine in the "buck of stuff" to be taken upstairs. Forgive my laziness.

My initial thought was to try to make him throw up. That didn't go over well. He bit me.

I gave him a big cup of water and called poison control. The man was very kind and helpful. He said it was possible he took enough to be considered an overdose, but it was hard to tell because some had spilled. He said to watch him and he would call back. The main ingredient in this medicine was actually benadryl, which in overdose, does the opposite effect. It will make someone very agitated, almost manic. By the time the man called back, Cole was playing computer games. He had not become drowsy, but he also wasn't crazy. The man said he was probably fine. About an hour later Cole started to act just the way he described, agitated and irritable. I couldn't get him distracted or comforted at all. So we decided to take him to the ER. Well, Jared did. I stayed home with CJ. They were gone for about an hour and a half. They just monitored Cole, took his vital signs and made sure he was still cognizant. When they got home Cole was saying his tummy hurt and then the fun began. Vomiting and diarrhea for the next two hours. (This was 6 hours after he had taken the medicine) All I could do was hold him and try to keep him hydrated. He does a really good job when he's sick. He doesn't get upset or cry. He is a tough little kid.

He slept pretty good that night :) And woke up just the same kid as before. No harm done. :)

Oh how I love him.

Caleb's Arrival

2012-01-31T12:19:00.000-08:00

The last pic I took of the belly. 39 weeks on January 11, 2012

Let me start by saying this pregnancy was nothing to complain about. Yes, it gets hard towards the end because you're hormonal and huge and some people aren't afraid to point it out. But I wasin good health and energized the majority of the time. Counting my blessings!

I had been steadily progressing over the last few weeks of my pregnancy. I was so comforted that my body knew what it was doing. I definitely did not want to be induced again. I went to the doctor on Wednesday morning (1/18), the day before my due date. I was 4 cm dilated and 80 % effaced. The doctor said she wouldn't be surprised if I went into labor that day! I was so happy the end was finally in sight!

It wasn't until dinner time that I started noticing contractions consistently-about every 10 minutes. But they weren't painful and eventually trickled off. We went to bed around 10 and were just laying there talking. It felt like Jared JUST realized we were going to have a baby. He kept asking if I had packed everything and if we had everything here at the house that we needed. What did he think I'd been doing this whole time? :) It was cute.

I started timing mild contractions during that time. This went on for about an hour. They were between 2-5 minutes apart but still not painful at all. I called my mom because I really wasn't sure if we should go to the hospital yet because I wasn't in any pain. She said to go ahead because there was no telling how fast my labor would progress. So I called my dear friend Kelsey and she came and picked up Cole at about midnight.

We got to the hospital at about 12:30. We got all settled in and hooked up to the monitors. You could definitely see the contractions coming consistently. The nurse checked me at about 1:30 and said I was still only a 4. Boo! She had us get up and walk around the floor for about an hour. I was doing lunges and squats to help push things along a little faster :) Jared was looking at me pretty funny... But it worked! I started to feel the contractions lasting longer and coming harder.

When they checked me again at 3:30 I was at 5 cm and feeling uncomfortable. They said the anesthesiologist was coming in and had to do another epidural before he could do mine. He didn't show up until almost 6! I have no idea what took so long but that was really lame.

Last time I had my epidural it didn't bother me when the doctor put it in. This time he kept hitting nerves and making me twitch and have tingles and shooting pain all over my body. This was the only time during my labor that I had tears streaming down my face. Gratefully, the tingling and pain didn't last forever and soon I was numb.

The doctor checked me at 7 and I was 7 cm. I slept until 8 and they checked me again-8cm. At this rate I figured I'd deliver around 10.

I started to feel that lovely "pressure" you always hear about. The one that shoots straight down your butt and you can't help but push right along with it. I told the nurse I was starting to feel it but no one checked me for almost another half an hour. About 8:30 I was at 10 cm and all the busy buzzing began. Lots of nurses and the doctor and even some nursing students came in. At the last minute the nurse had to redraw some blood and get my finger prints for the birth certificate. I was definitely not paying her any mind... The doctor came in and I pushed along with the contractions for probably 5 minutes. Then he was here! Born the morning of his due date. :) Right on time...

Caleb James Galvin

born at 8:56 am

weighing 7 lbs 11 oz

20 1/2 inches long

I felt so bad for the skinny little 18 year old boy that had to watch my delivery. He ended up in the daddy chair, pale-faced, drinking orange juice. After Caleb was born he had to be wheeled out of the room. Funny.

Jared was able to cut the cord this time. He was pretty happy about that. (He didn't with Cole)

We noticed his juicy lips and chubby cheeks right away. :) He DOES have dimples just like his brother.

Our first picture as a family of FOUR!

Cole loved him instantly. He was kind of nervous and hesitant at first. His favorite part of my room was the foaming hand sanitizer. :) There is a reason why Heavenly Father makes newborns so easy to love! For mommies who lose their minds over lack of sleep and for big brothers who need to learn that there is a world outside of themselves. :) Like I said, Cole loves his brother already.

The remainder of our hospital stay was pretty uneventful. Lack of sleep, lots of testing and monitoring. We were grateful everything went so smoothly and Caleb passed all his tests.

It snowed our first real snow of this winter on Friday night. We were able to trek through the snow and leave the hospital Saturday afternoon.

We absolutely love our new little addition. He has been such a blessing already. He has inspired Cole to be more independent and helpful. I am so grateful for that! He has a mild temperament so far, except when he's hungry. Then he screams! Not for a long time but definitely loud enough to hear anywhere in the house. The nurses commented at the hospital that he has no warm up. He goes from perfectly content to loud! Pretty funny! I just try to keep him happy for the most part. Caleb hasn't learned how to take a binky yet, so needless to say we are breast-feeding a lot... He would rather be held and use me as a pacifier than any binky. Seriously, we've tried 3 different kinds. He'll have to learn eventually! He is starting to wake up more, especially in the morning and late at night before we go to bed. I feel bad like I need to be doing something with him, but this stage doesn't last long so I'm definitely enjoying this time. Before we know it, he'll be running around like crazy Cole. :)

Thank you for all the well-wishes. We are doing great! Next post-the week my parent's were here to visit!

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Utah Christmas (LONG one!) and after

2012-01-08T12:51:00.000-08:00

Our trip to Utah was a wonderful break from the norm. We were so grateful to spend time with our family over the holidays. We actually haven't been to Utah in 2 years. So it was a much needed visit!

Cole and I arrived a week before Jared. He had to finish up finals and preferred to have us out of the house for some peace and quiet. :) For that week, I mostly played tagalong with my mom and Mikenzie. We pretty much planned all of her wedding in that week. Surprisingly, it was easy! By that time, Kenzie had decided what she wanted (a miracle on it's own) and it was easy to tell all the ladies what to do. Timing worked out just so that Kenzie and mom could attend the sealing of one of our Alabama friends in the Manti Temple. It was nice for Kenz to see a sealing before her own but that meant Cole and I were in the waiting area. The night before, don't ask me how, but I got super sick. So I was not in the best shape to be left alone with my whiny 3 year old. He was so upset because he couldn't go into the temple. Tell you the truth, so was I. We hadn't been able to go to the temple since we've moved- almost 6 months. Entirely too long. But! Life went on, as it always does. And the day finished out with a bridal shower for Mikenzie. We got to see all our close cousins and eat good food. :)

The day Jared flew in, we went up to Brigham City. We saw the TEMPLE and Jared's mom, brother and Abuelita (His mom's mom).

We stayed with Derrick and Kelsey in Logan. Kelsey is the most fun little hostess! She had something fun planned for us (well, Cole) every day. It really helps that she's about to get her degree in elementary education. So she's got some awesome resources! We made a wreath out of Cole's handprints and made gingerbread houses.

The first day we stayed with them, Derrick had to work. Kelsey volunteered to watch Cole so we could go to the temple. I was SO grateful! I can't even say how happy I was to be there. Here in PA it's almost impossible for us to go, and it will be even harder after the baby is born. So with the Logan temple 5 minutes away, we went and did a session. I can't express how much I love the temple. It was such a blessing to be there. But on our way there!!!! (Sorry I have to mention) Jared got in his first car accident...in Kelsey's car. It wasn't really an accident, more like a bump. But it was enough to stress him out! He didn't want to go to the temple after it happened but I was determined! And I'm so grateful we did!

We also went to a USU basketball game, ate at Cafe Rio and Chuckarama, played and dominated the Logan Fun Park, visited hardware ranch and two of my close friends Jocelyn and Stacie.

Thursday night we headed up to SLC for Jared and Kenzie's "rehearsal dinner". Jared's parents reserved Bocca di Beppo for our families to visit and get to know each other. By this time Jesse and my mom's side of the family had flown into town. The food was awesome and the company was great! :) Afterword, my immediate family and my grandparents went to temple square to see the lights. I absolutely LOVE temple square, not only because it's "our temple" but it's just a wonderful way to focus on the true meaning of Christmas.

With such a large group of people (15), it was hard to coordinate parking and navigate the crowds on the square (on the 22nd of December). So we were waiting for a long time to meet up with everyone, then tried to explain everything to my mom's side of the family who aren't members. We tried see everything in about an hour. I felt really rushed. It wasn't my usual experience. So of course, in my present 'state', I got all emotional. My wonderful parents sensed this and decided to break off from the big group so the 5 of us could go around and actually enjoy the 15 minutes we had left on the square before it closed. Oh how I love my mom and dad.

The next day was Mikenzie and Jared's sealing in the Mt Timpanogas Temple. Kenzie was the most beautiful bride. The sealer said some very insightful things. The reception was gorgeous! The food was awesome (chicken cordon bleu and prime rib, chocolate peanut butter cake). Cole did a great job as the ring bearer for their ring ceremony, and I didn't faint while standing at the front during the ceremony! I was pretty proud.

By the time the day was over, we were worn out. They drove away for their mini-honeymoon in a red corvette. :)

Christmas eve was spent preparing dinner (our FAVORITE tradition)- Chicken cacciatore, fettucini alfredo and caesar salad. If you don't like garlic, you can't be in our family!We also had to say goodbye to family. Jesse and my mom's parents and cousin all left that day.

Christmas morning brought no snow! (Fine by me!) This was a very small Christmas for us. But it was still enjoyable, and Cole was happy. Even though in the picture below he looks ornery. He's not! He was asking a question. He was very happy, I promise! Santa brought him a Thomas Train, which is what he'd been asking for since he'd moved on from a dog. (SO grateful for that one!) Santa actually told him it was too Cold for puppies on his sleigh, so he didn't bring them. He left it up to moms and dads to give them. I thought, 'What a smart Santa!!' and 'THANK YOU!' ha!

Later that day we went up to Brigham City to see Jared's mom and his side of our family. We ate dinner and played games. Then drove up to Logan. Derrick and Kelsey had gifts for us but by the time we got there, Cole had fallen asleep. So he opened up his present the next morning. It was a sleeping bag! Derrick is an outdoorsmen, so maybe he's trying to inspire us to go camping more. :) Needless to say, Cole is a pretty cute caterpillar. :)

Our travels home went pretty smoothly. Our car and home were still in one piece when we got back. So I counted those blessings! Cole and I went to Disney on Ice with his best girl friend Mya. The main feature was Tangled, so I knew he'd love it. It was actually a pretty fun show to watch. We also stopped at this local Ice cream shop called Zwahlen's. It's run by a Swedish family of members. Apparently, it's super popular. They make their own ice cream and fine candies. Just one more thing we can say we've experienced in the area!

Since then I have been nesting like crazy. :) This pregnancy has been so different from Cole because with Cole we were just sitting around and waiting for him to come. With this baby, it's like I haven't had time to really think about him coming. First we moved and then I made Kenzie's quilt and had to prepare for the holidays and our travels. And now that we're home, it's baby time!! So for the last week I've been doing laundry, organizing, and getting last minute things at the store. Last time I was checked was Wednesday the 4th and I was 3 cm then. Hopefully not too much longer!!

(This pic was Jan 5th, 38 weeks) I am starting to feel 'ready'. Before our trip I just wouldn't allow myself to feel big. I know I haven't grown that much in 4 weeks, but I sure feel bigger. This baby is fully cooked and I'm ready for him to be here! I'm trying to enjoy the last moment of just us 3, but it's hard not to look forward to having another little guy around. We've waited for him for a while and I'm looking forward to meeting him!

I'm sure someday...

2011-12-07T10:48:00.000-08:00

I'm sure someday I'll look back on this week and laugh.

But today is not that day.

In the last week:

-Our new washing machine had the seal tear leading it to leak

-That leak is supposed to be drained through a wash pan, which wasn't properly installed since the previous owner.

-This left us with a very wet living room ceiling that is now exposed.

-Took my car in for a recall repair. They found my battery was cracked and leaking.

-A mouse died in our outside freezer and made the entire garage and house smell like death and broccoli.

On the positive side:

-Cole had his first dance recital.

(This picture makes me laugh)

-We finished quilting Mikenzie's wedding quilt.

-I got the "OK'' to travel to Utah.

Sometimes a cure for a bad day is to start a new one...

Here's to a vacation with great timing!

Thanksgiving and such

2011-12-01T04:35:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving shared with a few new friends. We ate at the Roundy's for dinner (which really was around 1 pm) and then when to the Kurhe's for dessert and games. We had a blast. Considering this was our first ever holiday away from both our families, I think it went well! Unfortunately Cole missed his nap so he fell asleep as we were driving to the Kurhe's for dessert. I am so grateful he falls asleep so easily! I loved splitting up the dinner tasks between the four families that ate dinner. I made rolls, crock pot green bean casserole (YUM), sweet potatoes (double YUM), my mom's whipped raspberry Jello, and a pecan, apple and cherry pie. Everything turned out so good-I was proud :) The pecan pie didn't set like I would have liked it to, but I guess you can't win 'em all. It still tasted good :)

The week of Thanksgiving was my first ever PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCE. Man, that makes me feel old! Cole has had some difficulties throughout the year, and the teacher and I have been talking consistently about his progress. He has a hard time sharing, and using the right words. She said he has made definite progress there.

Academically he is fine, right on track. I have no worries about his intelligence. It's the social environment that he needs. That's why I wanted to put him in school as soon as possible. He doesn't have any siblings yet, so I know he's not learning as much as he could be. Things like sharing everything and being more self-reliant. Most kids, by the time they're 3 1/2, can dress themselves, put on their own shoes and socks, feed themselves and even want more independence.

Cole, I feel, does not.

SO! This is why he is in preschool, not necessarily to get a head start on his academic future. His teacher said he is a great participator and is always the first one to join her in singing. But we still have some things to work on. She has definitely seen how Cole really is. He hasn't held anything back!

She mentioned that some days are great- he's helpful, kind and obedient.

And others are just hard. Sometimes he is flat out defiant.

Hmm... knew that!

She also mentioned some other things like he has trouble walking in a line, and sitting at the table/focusing...but what three year old doesn't? Those things don't worry me so much.

I just need to figure out how to teach him obedience.

The problem is, he's smart. He's got me figured out and he knows how to work me over. I should be better about standing my ground and being consistent. But sometimes it's less trouble to give in than to fight him.

So yeah, Mom has some work to do.

We've started a reward system, since punishment obviously isn't working. Cole can earn snowflakes by obeying. When he has 3, he can play computer games or have a piece of candy. It's been going well so far. And hopefully he can fully understand what we expect of him by the time the baby gets here!

I don't mean to make Cole sound like a problem child, because he's not. For the most part, he is happy and loving. I just want to make him that awesome kid 100% of the time. I guess that's why we have 18 years to raise them, right? :)

On another note, baby CJ is growing steadily. I definitely don't feel ready. But I am starting to look ready. People ask me all the time when I'm due, like they're expecting it to be any day now. But I have confidence we will make it to Utah for Christmas and be back in plenty of time for this little guy to come. Soon things are going to be very different! For what seems like forever, it's been just the 3 of us. We had Cole 10 months after being married, and he'll be 4 in April. And to be honest, I don't remember much before Cole. Except just waiting for him to get here!

But We are so so happy to be adding another little guy to our family.

33 Weeks today!

Yesterday, we had a little water start dripping out of our ceiling fan...that is never a good thing.

Turns out, our washer was leaking. But it was sitting on a wash pan, so really, there shouldn't have been a problem. Except that in the last couple of days the weather has changed drastically-from high 60s to low 40s. So we think that caused the PVC drain underneath the wash pan to shrink and crack, letting all the water from the leaking washer drip down to the sheetrock ceiling beneath it.

We had to move the couch and christmas tree in order to take the wet panel of sheetrock down, so now the guts of the house are all exposed. What a mess! Hopefully we can get everything taken care of before Cole and I leave for Utah.

Oh the joys! We have had more house trouble in our 4 months living here than we had our entire time in AL. It would have been nice to get some of this life experience out of the way, while my handy father was close!! :) We are learning a lot, and have some great guys in the ward who are willing to help with anything. I am very grateful. We seriously had minimal tools, no ladders or anything like that when we moved. I guess I should pick up a new hobby and start collecting these things! Seems like we're gonna need it...

I can't wait to see our dear friends and family in Utah in just a matter of DAYS! I am so excited! I'm still working steadily to get Mikenzie's quilt done though. Gotta get it done before we go!

I sent out our Christmas cards the other day. If you didn't get one, I'm sincerely sorry. I did my best. If you really want, you could always print it for yourself at home. :)

Things I want to remember about right now

2011-11-06T18:39:00.000-08:00

A friend just did this on her blog, and I love the idea. Hopefully she doesn't mind if I copy her!

Things I want to remember about right now:

-The church is true. It is organized perfectly. Christ is it's perfect head. The people in it, however, are not perfect. Myself included.

-I am making an effort to sincerely thank my Heavenly Father everyday for the blessings I take for granted. I have SO SO SO much to be grateful for.

-I love feeling this baby inside me move and grow. We are excited to have baby CJ as part of our eternal family. (He is doing great! This US was on Halloween and he weighed 2 lb 12 oz at the time. He is measuring right on schedule and appears to be as healthy as possible!)

We visited Alabama. A week wasn't nearly long enough. I love my family dearly. I'm so grateful for the friendships I cherish. These girls are my best friends! I'm so grateful our relationship is eternal.
Things I want to remember about this guy:

-He was the cutest Flynn Rider you've ever seen this Halloween. He asks to go trick or treating every time he notices it's dark outside.

-He makes me laugh every single day.

-He loves music and dancing. And he's not afraid to sing along.

-He is learning to be more self sufficient. Putting on his own shoes, feeding himself. Hopefully we'll have this mastered by January.

-He will tell you 5 different ways to spell his name (but he really knows the right way) On a lucky day, he'll even write it for you! He is identifying numbers and letters and finding such joy in learning.

-He can list of 7 different super heroes and he is making progress saying each one of their names correctly- with both consonant sounds at the beginning (SP-ider man, GReen lantern, etc.)

-Still loves to cuddle with mom, even though baby CJ is in the middle.

We are starting to look forward to our trip to Utah for Mikenzie's wedding/Christmas. I decorated the house this weekend, thinking I might as well get some use out of these decorations since we're leaving December 11. We are excited to see friends and family we haven't visited in two years. It'll be good to be at one of our homes for the holidays :)

General Conference Oct 2011

2011-10-10T07:51:00.001-07:00

I was pretty proud of myself. I stayed awake through every minute of all 4 sessions of conference. :) I tried to take brief notes, but still there are a few talks that I want to go back and listen to again.

On Sunday, Jared's friend from school and his wife and daughter spent the day with us. It was fun to entertain and eat tons and tons of food!

Here are a couple of my favorite notes from these two days:

Pres. Uchtdorf's 5 Forget Me Nots-

1.Forget not to be patient with yourself

2. Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish one

3.Forget not to be happy now

4. Forget not the 'why' of the gospel

5. Forget not that the Lord loves you

:) Good one

I'm so excited for the Provo tabernacle to be rebuilt into a temple! What a special building :)

Another great thought from Pres. Uchtdorf-

"Even though man is nothing, it fills me with wonder and awe to think that 'the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.'"

"The Lord uses a scale very different from the world's to weigh the worth of a soul."

Carl B Cook- It is better to look up!

D Todd Christofferson-

-The invitation to repent is an expression of love.

-Repentance means striving to change.

-Repentance means not only abandoning sin but also committing to obedience.

-Repentance requires a seriousness of purpose and a willingness to persevere, even through pain.

-Whatever the cost of repentance, it is swallowed up in the JOY of forgiveness.

I Loved Tad R Callister's talk on the Book of Mormon. Either it's from God, or it's not. Like how Jesus was the Christ, the son of God, or else a madman or something worse... And let me add my witness to his. They both are divine. The divine law of witnesses is a 'second opinion' for things of an eternal nature. I loved his illustration. How many lines can one draw through the center of a circle? The answer is infinite. Add a second circle, representing the book of mormon, and one can only draw one straight line between the two circles. "Again and again, the Book of Mormon acts as a confirming, clarifying, unifying witness of the doctrines taught in the Bible so that there is only 'one Lord, one faith, one baptism.'"

Elaine S Dalton (another awesome one)- The most important thing a father can do for his daughter is to love her mother. Fathers are the guardians of virtue.

M Russell Ballard- The importance of the name of the church. I wish his entire talk could circulate through mass media. It would eliminate so much confusion. He talked about polygamy and those fundamentalist churches who also claim to be 'mormon'.

Pres Monson- IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT WE REJECT ANYTHING THAT DOES NOT CONFORM TO OUR STANDARDS

J Devn Cornish- Much like medicine, prayer only works when we use it as directed. -Pray then go to work. Live your prayers.

As expected, this conference was another great one. I'm so grateful for the knowledge I have of living prophets. My family is so blessed to have their guidance and I consider it a privilege to follow their council. I hope you all felt the spirit while watching, or reading my simple notes.

If you missed the conference or want to go check it out, you can read, watch or listen to every talk at lds.org

Hmm...

2011-09-29T10:28:00.000-07:00

I just realized we have had some pretty crazy things happen in the last 6 weeks....

A hurricane

An Earthquake

A Flood

And now...Our car was broken into and our brand new GPS was stolen.

...among other things, it's been a pretty eventful few weeks!

24 weeks today!

We are here! We are here! We are here!

2011-09-27T13:07:00.000-07:00

(From Horton Hears a Who)

It seems many of us bloggers are getting too busy to keep up with current posts. I'm always backtracking, trying to think what we've missed because life is rushing by. But don't worry, we're enjoying ourselves :)

Jared is still loving school. I love that he always tries to do his best. Yes, it does take away from our few moments of family time. But I wouldn't want it any other way. He still wants to specialize and he is applying for a scholarship through the Air Force. They would pay for all his schooling and we would pay them back a year for a year. There's nothing about it we don't like, we just hope he can get it!

Cole started preschool a couple weeks ago. He absolutely loves it. He goes to a local church 3x a week --all by himself. The worst part is that he never cried. Not even a whimper. And now he doesn't even look back at me. He just bolts for the door. (sigh)

He is big enough to play computer games.

First day! Just outside the school. It wasn't cold at all but he sure loved that hat! He did finally take it off halfway through the day.

This was the artwork they did on the first day of school. They focus mostly on social skills for this first year. And in this activity they had to paint with a friend--share the easel and paints and everything. He loves to be around other kids so this has been perfect for him. I am so grateful!

I have kept busy sewing and cleaning and what-not. We keep busy around here and that's the best kind of day. It's when Cole and I are both at our happiest. Preschool 3x a week, Dance class at the church on Tuesdays and Playgroup on Thursdays. There's also a scrapbooking group every other Tuesday for the ladies at the church. We have been so blessed and taken care of.

The 'new baby' as we've come to call it, is growing and growing. Cole notices almost daily and says, "You have a new baby in your tummy, Mom?" He wonders if it's a boy or a girl and he always asks me what the baby's name is. He comes up with some pretty cute name like 'Lights'. :)

I'm doing my best not to call it an 'it'. Ha! Because by now it really is not an 'it'. I'll be able to go to the doctor soon... There's a waiting period for insurance to kick in. Lame. I'll do my best to be patient. But for now I have the comfort of feeling the baby move all the time. :) I am not sick anymore, just hungry! And I'm enjoying watching my belly move. I have been having a lot of ligament pain, though. I had very minimal pain with Cole. I didn't start hurting until he was almost here. But with this pregnancy, it's been since the start. I guess I have been straining myself a little more than last time--with my job, and moving to PA and what-not. I can always tell if I have been doing too much because I can barely walk. :)

I am so grateful to be able to spend this time at home and with Cole. We have been SO blessed, as always. I can't even start to count all the ways.

We are looking forward to general conference this weekend! It is my favorite time of year!!

We miss you all in AL and UT. We will be visiting AL Oct 19-26 and UT over Christmas. I look forward to seeing many of you again soon!

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And So It Begins...

2011-08-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

After a mildly rough (for Cole) two-day/16 hour drive, we made it to our new home in Pottstown, PA. I am in LOVE with all the green and rolling hills. Everywhere you look is absolutely gorgeous. We arrived around noon on a Friday. Thanks to my hard working mom and husband, and a couple of guys from our new Elders Quorum, the moving truck was completely unloaded in about 2 1/2 hours. For now, we are mostly 'set up'. There were a few pieces of furniture that didn't quite make it through the move, and some other pieces are just too plain junky to keep. So we are slightly empty until I can fill the space. But we are happy and safe and in a comfortable home.

Church has been great. There are lots of young families in our ward. We know the Roundy's already, who helped us find our place. They have a 3 year old little girl and two older boys. We enjoyed meeting all the people there and are grateful to already have established friendships. We have already spoken (on my birthday) even though our records aren't even here yet. You'd never know we weren't 'officially' a part of the ward with how well they have taken care of us. More on that later.

Our first Sunday night we drove about 1/2 hour to Valley Forge. It is yet another gorgeous area with rolling hills and tons of trees and greenery. Lots of monuments and space to run for Cole!

My mom was such an amazing help. She drove in the car with Cole and I. Honestly, I don't think we would have made it in only 2 days if it wasn't for her. She's experienced and patient and always willing to help. I am so grateful to her. If I didn't say it enough while you were here, THANK YOU MOM. This would have been a very different experience if it weren't for you.
The last day she was here, we went to the zoo! There was lots of fun animals to see and Cole is the perfect age for it. Old enough to enjoy it, but not old enough to get bored of it after 3 hours!

In the time between my mom left and school started, we did a lot of family things. I am so grateful we had this time. I don't know how intense the next four years will be, but I do know Jared. And he will put his whole heart into school. So we took advantage of our free time. We've spent plenty of time at the Roundy's and playing at the parks. I've already found my favorite mall. Don't worry, it didn't take long. They actually have a playground there, so I think it's Cole's favorite too.For my birthday, Jared took me to the Cheesecake Factory :) We walked around the gigantic King of Prussia Mall while we were waiting. I still haven't been through it all and we've been there twice. It's pretty overwhelming. Jared told me it's the 2nd biggest mall in America. And it has EVERYTHING. Apple store- check. Pottery Barn- check. Disney store- check. Cold Stone- check. Anyway. For my birthday gift, Jared went to this tent sale for this local furniture store and picked out somethings all by himself. It was cute and I'm pretty proud. This was actually the first time we had bought furniture first hand from a store. Funny, but true. He got 2 nightstands, a coffee table and a desk. I'm pretty happy! (Don't mind the paint in the background. We're working on that)
Like I said, we had to speak in church on my birthday but that night we went to the Roundy's and they made me the best birthday cake ever. Look at this thing!!

We went to the "Please Touch" Museum in Philadelphia last week. We just let Cole run and play and explore for like 5 hours. No really, it was 5 hours. He saw a puppet show, went grocery shopping, dressed up like an astronaut and shot rockets, planted potatoes, fixed cars, drove a bus and a backhoe and rode on a carousel. Pretty much a three year old's dream land. It was a good 'last hurrah' family day.
Jared started school last Thursday (8/25). It was a two day orientation and they actually started classes Monday. They got all their tools and supplies last week and Jared said it was like Christmas for dentists. I asked him to take pictures but he didn't. I'm sure he'll do it some time. He is also in the process of applying for the Air Force. We have been discussing this possibility over the last year or so. We met with a recruiter and honestly, there's not a thing about it I don't like. It is ideal. Hopefully he will be able to receive this scholarship, it would be such a blessing.

I'm sure many of you heard about the Hurricane that passed over the east coast. The news had been warning us a few days before it actually happened that Irene could directly hit us. So we started gathering supplies, freezing water and so on. It traveled really slowly, only about 10-15 mph, but the wind speeds were upwards of 100 mph. We were expecting power outages. They warned us of flooding because we have been getting so much rain lately. I don't know why, but Jared and I didn't think we would flood. I guess we just rationalized it. We are up on a hill, we have a sump pump, whatever. But We slept pretty sound Saturday night while Irene passed over the area. Sunday morning Jared went to the basement to find about 2 inches down there. The sad thing is, the owners had JUST finished it. I could still smell the new carpet. Anyway, we borrowed a shop vac and started the work of loading all the wet boxes and furniture up to the garage. I shouldn't have been lifting as much as I did, but I was kind of frantic. My box with all my school papers, birthday cards and journals was soaked.
Before we knew it there were 5 guys from the ward here with fans and tools, tearing up the carpets, dumping the mats and propping up the carpet in hopes that it would dry and we could save it. Later the Bishop stopped by and later the Elders Quorum President. I am so grateful there were people here willing to help because we had no idea what to do. We didn't have any of the tools to do it with. We were very well taken care of.
By the time I took pictures, the sump pump had caught up to the water flow and sucked most of it out. Here is the water line on the cinder blocks.
This was my craft room. You can see the puddle of water underneath the carpet mat they're bagging up. Sad. This was not how I imagined sharing pictures of our new place. Oh well.
Hopefully it wont be too much trouble to get the basement all put back together. We really enjoy that space.
Well! To sum it all up, we are doing well. Cole has friends already, which was my main concern in moving. He will be starting preschool 3 days a week in September and he is so excited. He asks to go all the time. I also plan on getting him in gymnastics. For now he is enjoying 'Super Readers' on PBS and playing with Roundys 2x a week. We also go on drives and try to find parks for him to play.
Also, I should probably mention- I'm pregnant :) (This ultrasound was at 8 weeks)
Jared felt the baby move yesterday so I figured it might be time to start telling people. I told myself I was going to wait until we found out the gender to post it on the blog. But with waiting for insurance and finding a doctor, it doesn't seem to be happening any time soon. So yeah! I'm 20 weeks and super excited. The due date is Jan 19. Hopefully I can hold up and still be in good shape for Kenzie's wedding in Utah on Dec. 23. We are planning on being there!
Love and miss you all :)

Thoughts on Today, Moving Day

2011-08-03T05:30:00.000-07:00

Alright. I'm officially scared. We are packing the truck today and moving to Pottstown, PA first thing in the morning. Jared, as expected, can't be more excited. This summer was the first break from school that he has taken since moving to Alabama. I don't think he liked it much. Let's hope the last 3 months have rejuvinated him enough for the next 4-10 years. Honestly, I'm grateful for the chance he had to spend so much time with Cole this summer. The boys have definitely bonded. Considering what the next years look like, I'm glad they made the connection now.

I am so grateful for all the friends we've made here. It truly has become our home. We have memories and relationships here that we won't be forgetting. I would love to stop by each one of your homes and give you a big squeeze to say thank you for what you have done for my little family. We have been so blessed to spend the last 3 1/2 years here. If dental school goes by as fast as time did while we were here in AL, we'll be back before you know it! Jared and I have talked substantially about where we want to "end up" after school. We both think the Madison area is just about as perfect as it gets. Hopefully we will be able to come back here some day. I really don't know what else to say but thank you.

Once again, in our move, we have been so blessed.

We are moving into a townhouse in a small-ish city about an hour outside of Philidelphia called Pottstown...I'd never heard of it either. We (really meaning my mom) kept in contact with a family (she did daycare for) from Brigham City that had moved to Philly through Christmas cards. The mom works as an exective for a store called Zumiez and the dad was my high school spanish teacher and a coach for Jared's football team senior year and they have the cutest kids you've ever seen. Anyway, my mom wrote in her "New Year's Newsletter" that Jared had been accepted to dental school at Temple University. And the Roundy's soon after contacted her saying how excited they were for us to be so close. They said they could show us around if/when we come visit to look for a place. She later contacted us saying they knew a dental school family that owned this townhouse. They were graduating and obviously moving and looking for a member family to rent it out to. She sent us the link to the real estate website and the contact information for this family. Honestly, the house is too nice for students. At first I was thinking definitely no. But as we looked around, I couldn't find anything that fit all my "must haves"- nice neighborhood, good schools, good ward, space for a 3 year old tornado, a craftaholic and a bookworm... This 4 bedroom townhouse was bigger, newer and less expensive than a 3 bedroom closer to the city. The money we save on rent would go towards Jared's car for gas. And really, that was the end of our search. I mean how easy was that? How blessed are we?

After we signed the lease, we found out that our good friends, the Smith's, were also accepted to temple! Jared and Matt did many of their prerequisites together, studied for the DAT together and consult each other on anything and everything to do with dental school. We always felt like we would be going to school together. At one point it didn't look to be the case. But once again, we are so blessed to have them join us in PA! Having the Smiths along for the ride makes this whole idea of leaving a little more comprehendable.

All I can say is we are so blessed. And we are so grateful. We are excited to start on this new journey and really see what we're made of! :)

See you on the other side!

Destin Beach, May 2011

2011-07-29T15:45:00.000-07:00

We were able to go to the beach one last time before we move to PA. We went with our good friends the Smiths who will also be moving to go to dental school at Temple! Cole fits right in the middle of their two boys and he loves both of them to pieces. We had such a great time. The weather was perfect and breezy, the food was awesome and we loved spending almost a week straight with our good friends! :)

This was our first time going to Destin, we usually have gone to Gulf Shores and you can definitely tell the difference between the two. Destin is a lot more populated and packed in tight together. Some sections of the beaches are privately reserved for the hotels and there are only a few entrances onto the actual beach. Even though we were just across the street from the shore, we drove to the entrance because the boys are still little and we had a lot of loot.

My cute boys enjoying view from the balcony. The beach was just across the street from the parking lot.
This was the first time we went to the beach. Cole was jumping the waves for the longest time.

Jared found this random buoy floating into the shore. From the looks of it, it's been hanging around awhile.

Once Cole got over feeling dirty because of sand everywhere, he really started to enjoy playing in it.
We ate at this great seafood place the first night, I can't even remember what it was called. But there is such a difference when the food is fresh and people know how to cook it! I had the best shrimp of my life at that little place. It was right on the beach so we had an amazing view of the harbor at sunset. It was right along this kind of boardwalk place with shopping and other fun stuff. Cole just HAD to ride this human bubble thing. They let the kids inside this huge bubble and inflate it so it will float on water. When it was Cole's turn he lay in the bottom of the dang thing until his time was up. He would NOT move! I was so mad I paid for that stupid thing. But I guess he had fun...

My favorite time to be at the beach is from about 5 pm on. It is more quiet and peaceful and cool!
Cole seemed to like it too...

The last day all of my pictures turned out overexposed. It was too bright outside to see when I was taking them but obviously my settings were off. This one I kind of liked though...

We most definitely enjoyed our last trip to the beach (at least for awhile). The company was great, the food was awesome and we loved having a little celebration for the dads getting into school. This was a trip to remember!

Easter 2011

2011-07-25T10:59:00.001-07:00

I realize this is too late to care about, but I want us to be able to see this in our blog book later. Easter was one of the last days we were still in our own house. Right after that, the tornadoes hit and then we moved back in with my family. We had our own little Easter egg hunt in the back yard and later had one at my parent's house as well. He's getting old enough to enjoy the challenge as well as the candy!

As is tradition, we took family pictures that day as well.
I'm working on a ginormous post about our fun trip to the beach. It'll be up soon!

April 27, 2011 Tornados

2011-05-14T13:23:00.000-07:00

We were aware of the storms possibly being able to cause some severe weather and tornadoes but none of us expected it to be as devastating as it was. Latest count of tornadoes hitting Alabama alone was 23. My family was watching out the window as we saw the F1 tornado hit our city of Madison. We were some of the lucky ones. My parents only had a window broken and we had a couple of huge pine trees fall in our back yard, but none of them hit a house. We have some friends in our area though who lost fences, roofs and had severe water damage to their homes. Tuscaloosa has had major damage, some small towns up in our area have been completely destroyed. Witnesses say it appears as if a bomb went off. And some are still without homes. Even though it has been a couple of weeks, there are still trees down all over the place and people needing every meal provided for them.

I had to go to work that night, with no power, on our natural disaster protocol. It was craziness. There were ambulance sirens going all night and we had to start sending family members and other visitors away because there wasn't enough room for our patients.

We (and 500,000 other people) were without power for about 5 days (but my parents had a generator so we really didn't miss out on much). Cell phone coverage was spotty at best and you would have thought it was the end of the world. We were lucky enough to maintain fresh running water. But there were lines out the door at the few open supermarkets and gas stations. No one was prepared for the devastation we found the next day.

The death toll continuously climbed over the next few days (now it's over 200) and as I am writing this there are still quite a few people unaccounted for. It has been said over 150 tornadoes hit the south that day. Just in Madison alone 337 homes were affected, 239 were destroyed.

Possibly the most surprising result of the tornadoes was the curfew that was put into place from dusk until dawn. People would go to the homes that were destroyed and "loot". I can't imagine what they were thinking. How devastating to have your home destroyed and then have someone come steal anything that is left of it. It breaks my heart. We were informed that police would take this very seriously- and they did. We heard of arrests up into the 20's, and even someone who was killed because he was looting.

This experience wasn't as difficult for us as it was for others, but it really put some things into perspective. My little family needs to get more prepared. I am SO grateful that my big family WAS prepared with a generator, gas stove and enough food to last us for months if it needed to. I am SO grateful for the Church and it's teachings about preparedness. People out here think it's kind of funny that we mormons gather all this food and supplies. But now they understand it a little more I guess! All I have to say is- The Church is true!!! I am so so grateful and happy to be a part of it!

They say these tornadoes are the worst that have ever hit the south. We will definitely remember these experiences for years to come.

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Atlanta Temple Trip

2011-05-14T12:52:00.000-07:00

April 23, 2010

My little family was able to go tour the Atlanta LDS temple before it was rededicated. I know Cole probably won't remember a lot about it, but I hope he can remember the spirit that is felt there. It is gorgeously renovated and a lot bigger than our Birmingham Temple! I enjoyed the opportunity for Jared, Cole and I to be in the temple all together.

The night before Cole and Dad enjoyed some pool time at our hotel. Oh! How Cole loves the water!

After we went through the temple, we decided to go to the Coke Factory there in Atlanta. There was so much to look at and play with.

There was the Coca-Cola Classic polar bear, which of course, Cole Loved!

This one was "toy story" so Cole wanted it :)A 4-D movie with moving seats and squirting water!

And a tasting room where you could taste all the different sodas that Coke distributes throughout the World! (Obviously, our favorite!)

This was our very first little family vacation (when we weren't visiting family). It was just over night but it was so much fun! We are looking forward to many more adventures!

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Motherhood

2011-05-08T20:26:00.000-07:00

Let me start out by saying I have the best mom ever. Other people think they have the best mom, but really- I do. She is loving and humble and willing to give everyone a fair chance. She will sacrifice anything for her family (and already has, at times). She has a wonderful testimony and will share it readily. She lives her life guided by the spirit and is a wonderful example to me of what a mother and a Latter-day Saint woman should be. I could not be more grateful for her. She has helped my little family in ways than no one else could. I will be forever indebted to her for so many reasons.
Thank you mom! Love you forever!

Being a mom is something I have always dreamed about. I wanted to be losing my mind because I have too many kids running around. Crazy, I know. Instead, the Lord has given me the opposite challenge. I am going crazy because I can't have all those kids running around right now.
A year ago, Jared and I decided to try have another baby. A lot of crazy things have happened that I have described in previous posts, but needless to say, we still don't have a baby.

I know this was a challenge that the Lord intended me to grow from but I lost horribly. I was so utterly sad and often times bitter and angry at the situation, which also made the rest of my life feel the same way. It is so easy to be that way. To let go and become completely focused inward. I completely lost this battle. I'll admit it. Often times I woke up hating everything about myself. I wanted to start over and change everything. The only thing that kept me grounded was the fact that I had Cole.
I can't exactly tell you what inspired a change. Maybe it was Cole's 3rd birthday, or General Conference, or the fact that my mom told me I should get on some kind of anti-depressant because I wasn't tolerable any longer (of course she said it in a more loving way). But I didn't want to be that person anymore. I wanted to be happy with what I had. I wanted to be myself again- optomistic and full of hope.

I know everyone who reads this blog knows how much I adore my little boy. He is the light in my eyes, and literally the reason why I keep trying. I know that motherhood is a divine calling. I have been blessed to feel that infinite love for one little child. I can only imagine how wonderful it would be to have 6 or 10 or 12. I know that eventually, we will be blessed with more children. But I haven't always. And it was so hard for me to think that way. My little hope balloon had been severly deflated. But I feel a little better each day. Jared and I had to experience these trials for some reason. And I hope that we can walk a way stronger as a couple as well as stronger members of the church.

So now, I am doing my best to stay outside of my self. It helps me to think that my service to the Lord for now, is mainly focused in my job. Those people need me more than Jared or Cole (because my boys have my family to take care of them too). Then, when we move, I can be 100% devoted to being a mother. I am trying to do the little things that have been so difficult for me to do like reading scriptures and saying prayers. I am taking the initiative instead of waiting for Jared to come to me about it. And I'm trying to be less stubborn... :)

A blog that I follow posted this quote the other day-

"We must learn to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." -Joseph Campbell

That's become my little theme lately. And I'm doing my best.

I found this little snipit on lds.org and I hope it touches some of you like it did me.

"May I say to mothers collectively, in the name of the Lord, you are magnificent. You are doing terrifically well. The very fact that you have been given such a responsibility is everlasting evidence of the trust your Father in Heaven has in you. He is blessing you and He will bless you, even—no, especially—when your days and your nights may be the most challenging. Rely on Him. Rely on Him heavily. Rely on Him forever. And “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope.” -Elder Jeffery R. Holland

So Happy Mother's Day!!

Here's to hoping.

Happy Birthday Cole!!

2011-05-07T15:17:00.000-07:00

I can barely remember anything before this little man was born. Everything changed when he finally arrived. I cannot express the love I feel for him-nothing else makes me happier. His personality is so strong already. He is slow to warm up but when he is comfortable he is the life of the party. He is always pulling jokes and trying to make us laugh. He is very active and especially love to rough around with Papa and Dad. He is still willing to snuggle with mom though, especially after a nap. He is pretty well potty trained! This is definitely and accomplishment. It only took us two tries and about 6 months but he pretty much figured it out! I know it was a long process because it was me pushing him and not his idea. But! It is over! He loves to be social. He loves going to the mall to say "Hi" to everyone. He loves his friends. He loves everything to do with water. He'll stay in the pool for two hours even if he is convulsing because of his shivers. He loves music and making up his own songs. He sings along to the radio and will change the words to his favorite songs to fit his mood. :)

Some of Cole's latest sayings...

"How 'bout this style?!"

Anything about poop or farting....

"Will you play with me mom?"

"Does that make you happy?"

"It's just a joke, mom."

Cole just born! April 21, 2008

First Birthday- 2009

Two years old- 2010

Big 3! 2011

This was Jared's 3rd birthday. His mom posted some of these pictures to facebook. It was fun to see him at this age and compare him to Cole. I think he takes a little more after me :)
Cole- it is an absolute joy to be your mom everyday. I am so grateful for the miracle of YOU!

Family Visit

2011-05-06T14:25:00.000-07:00

We were so glad to have some family to come visit us recently! My dad's mom and sister (along with her husband and two daughters) came at the end of March. We loved having them here and made a few fun memories too!

We went to the temple for Jake's endowment. It was so nice to have all the family there. Jake really did well, I don't think he was nearly as nervous as I was (and still am!) I was so happy to see him all in white and he, of course had a huge grin constantly. It was a very special day!

Just after that, Shelby had her prom. She had an old friend fly in from Atlanta and they had a blast together. She looked just like Belle in her gorgeous yellow dress! I was so proud of her that she chose to add those sleeves to the dress. Absolutely perfect! And of course, my Aunt Julie made her flowers. She always does a wonderful job :)

We loved having them here! I am so looking forward to our trip to Utah this summer to see ALL of my family and our old friends! Thanks Gma Larsen and Cole's for coming to visit!! We miss you already

And Here We Are…

2011-02-28T07:36:00.001-08:00

We are officially going to be moving to Philadelphia! It’s very exciting and scary. I am trying to wrap my head around being so far away from this place we call home. I am going to be brave.

Jared is really excited to start dental school and finish his undergrad this semester. He is such a good example to me of hard work and dedication. I am so grateful for him. He is such a strength to me.

Cole is becoming more fun than ever. We have already started enjoying this (almost) “3-year old” stage. He loves to be around people and tell jokes and have fun—sounds a lot like his dad :) He is doing well with potty training but still needs to wear a pull-up when he sleeps. I am so grateful that it finally clicked! This is our second go around, and it took a good month before he realized he was supposed to pee in the toilet ALL THE TIME. But he’s getting the hang of it now, and even prefers standing up :) He loves to sing songs and he is getting more comfortable dancing. The funny thing is he is starting to become shy! I have no idea where this came from! But he is just being bashful lately, especially to younger kids. It’s so funny! He will turn away with this embarrassed look on his face. I don’t know how we’re going to get him out of this stage, but we will definitely try! He enjoys being around people enough that I’m sure this won’t last long.

As for me.

Work is good. I prefer being at home with Cole and Jare. I cry every Monday night when I leave work for three days straight. I try to stay involved with Cole when I’m awake later in the daytime but it’s hard because in those few hours there is a lot to get done, so the time we spend together isn’t the fun/teaching time I would prefer. But we know this is only temporary and after we move to dental school I will be a SAHM for the rest of forever. So it’s ok.

We are still trying to figure out what’s wrong with me-baby wise. A couple of weeks ago I was starting to “feel” prego. Achy, emotional, blah blah. My family even noticed and started asking about it. So the day I was supposed to start I took a test- negative. I was fine, told every one it was a no and started to wait for my period to come. Another couple days past and still I hadn’t started. So I took another pregnancy test. This time it was positive and I was freaking out and ecstatic. I was so confident it was going to work out this time. I told Jared on our Valentines day date and he was so happy too. We figured out the due date, picked out some names and started following the pregnancy on our phones with those fun little apps. A couple days later I was at work and started bleeding. I was completely devastated. I was in the bathroom bawling for about 2 hours (luckily my patients were all stable that night). I made it through the night and was to have my first prenatal appointment in the morning. I got to the doctor (after getting a ticket) and they drew some blood and did an ultrasound. He didn’t see anything. A couple more days of lab work determined that I never was pregnant. My period started late and who knows why I got 2 positive pregnancy tests. So they’re going to do more labs in a little while and see if we can’t figure it out.

In the mean time I’m getting a puppy.

Farm!

2011-01-27T14:19:00.001-08:00

Here are the pictures from when we went to Rick & Debrah’s Farm. Believe it or not they were both professional ballet dancers! Now he is a hardcore Harley dude and she works with my dad as an engineer. We love going out to visit them, they always have new little additions to their animals.

There’s always something interesting to photograph

Claire LOVED this big guy. Kind of surprising right? She would smile and laugh every time Chief reached out to her. He loved to be the center of attention! We got a kick out of him.

Some Holiday Pics

2011-01-27T13:27:00.001-08:00

I hate how it always posts pictures in reverse order... I'll use Live Writer from now on. But here are a couple from our little family Christmas. We opened our gifts on Christmas eve morning and then spent the rest of that evening and Christmas day with the rest of my family. As expected, Cole got way too much loot. This is one of my favorite things he got. It's a book called HEADS. Really really cute.
He actually understood the whole 'opening presents' bit this year. The only problem was he would try to open every present he saw, some of which were for Jared or myself and some were just for decoration..."just a box" he would say. :)

This is one of the sole pictures I took from the cookie exchange I hosted. I wish I had remebered to take one when everyone was there! But it was a lot of fun and definitely worth it. I WILL do one again next year. Hopefully I'll have made some friends, wherever we are.

Oh I miss this veiw already. I love love love our tree-classic red and gold. And the mantle just completes the picture. I made the garland and the wreath that was on our front door, as well as a few too many other decorations. The house felt empty for a while after Christmas, but I've added a couple things to make it feel more like home again.

Quick Update

2011-01-15T15:19:00.000-08:00

I haven't been a good blogger lately. As a matter of fact, I haven't done a lot of things I've been meaning to do. Life gets in the way of living sometimes :) I wanted to quickly brush over our holidays so we can get caught up to what we are doing now...which is nothing! Now that we are in January, there's really nothing to look forward to until we go to Utah this summer, then to Philadelphia for dental school in July.
Hmm...where to begin...I'll just spout out the random thoughts that pop into my head of the things that I've been meaning to write about.
I had another miscarriage that was finally resolved in November. I got pregnant immediately after my first miscarriage and things went downhill from there. It took two months to get it resolved. Two normal cycles later I'm getting brave enough to start trying again. It's crazy to think we've been hoping for a baby for almost a year now. I wonder why it was so easy the first time...
Jared got accepted to dental school!!!!!!!! Temple University is in Philidelphia. My cousin went to dental school there and they absolutely loved it. I'm getting used to the idea of living 8 hrs away. I'm still hoping to get a positive from UAB in Birmingham so we can be a little closer to my family and Madison which we consider home.
I still absolutely love my job. It is so great to finally be here. I'm a wife and a mother and a nurse. All my dreams have come true!!! I love the patients, my co-workers and they TYPE of care that we provide. It's very specialized and CHALLENGING, which is essential for me. I have a hard time leaving Cole and Jared on Monday night, but by Wednesday it's not so bad and then I have my 4 day weekend to recover, become diurnal again and just enjoy my boys and the rest of my fam.
OK. Onto the Holidays. I don't have the guts to try to attach pictures right now, so narration only.
ALL of my family was here! And it was wonderful! Cole and Abby got along wonderfully, Claire is an angel. We did all sorts of fun things like going to the jump zone and having nerf wars, going to the farm, enjoying the 6 inches of snow on Christmas day. We will miss the 'Seattle Larsens', and Mikenzie (until she comes home-soon!) and Jake when he leaves on his mission. This was our one last hoorah before we really 'grow up' and be out on our own.
Derrick & Kelsey game out just a couple days after Christmas and we went to Nashville and Opryland. We also went to Sci-Quest, a local science museum in Huntsville that Cole really enjoyed. Our other spare time was spent eating and watching movies and playing with my parent's new kinect. Cole just adores them. I think they liked Cole a little bit too. We already miss them. We're looking forward to our summer trip to Utah!
I'll post pictures a little bit later and I promise I will blog again soon!

The Divine Gift of Gratitude.

2010-12-09T20:41:00.000-08:00

I have a new goal for myself. I am going to write a review of a talk from General Conference every month. I knew I wanted to do this when we had a Relief Society lesson on this very talk. This the talk that I felt applied to me the most. We have been so unbelievably blessed in the past year. I cannot begin to say how grateful I am for all we've been given. Every time I hear or read this talk, it re-inspires me. President Monson is The Lord's Prophet on the earth today. And this message is truly from our Heavenly Father.

"Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, but it also unlocks the doors of heaven and helps us feel God's love." - I love this! When I recognize how blessed I am and where those blessings come from, I can truly feel God's love for me. He cares about my tinniest worries and gives me just what I need.

He went on to speak of the 10 lepers that were healed. Only the one gave thanks. How often have we hear this story and yet it is brought back to life through the prophet's words. In a way, we are all being healed by Christ. I don't want to be like the 9.

President Monson also retold the story of Christ feeding 4,000. The apostles came to him, only seeing what was lacking. Jesus asked how much food they had, then asked the crowd to sit. He blessed the food and gave thanks for that they had--then the miracle followed. I wonder how often we would witness miracles in our own lives if we could only give thanks for what we already have.

"We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues. Someone has said that 'gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others." I experience the extremes of both sides regularly. There are those who are constantly negative and bring others down. Then there are those who choose to see what is good and right in the world and in their lives. What a difference between the two!

Life Goes On…

2010-11-14T11:14:00.001-08:00

…Like a SPEEDING TRAIN! I CANNOT believe we are in mid-November already!! Time has just really started to fly these last couple of months. We are all doing well though. My family went to Virginia to visit Jake at SVU where he is playing football. This is a picture from the game :)

Jared is doing great in school and has taken the DAT again (without any computer malfunction this time). He has an interview at UAB November 17 and one at Temple University on Nov 23!! We are so excited! He also celebrated his 25th birthday! Man we are growing up…craziness. We went to Tate Farms with our friends and went to Casa Blanca. We had a lot of fun playing in this gorgeous weather at Tate Farms. We got to pick our very own pumpkins right out of the orchard. I think Cole chose 7…

Cole is doing well and growing up fast! He was a sheriff for Halloween this year and the cutest darn thing you’ve ever seen. Our city decided to celebrate Halloween on Sunday this year. So we just went to a few houses of church members on Saturday. It was a different experience than usual, having to get in the car and drive to every house (which is probably why we didn’t last long), but it was delightful.

Cole is quite the jokester (which he has learned from his papa). He is always changes the words to songs to inclue “pee” or “poo”. Once he said “High five!” So I went to give him one and… “Too slow..” The kid actually got me! He was too fast and I had no clue. I totally missed his hand. I was pranked by my two year old.

The other day we were talking about Santa and how he brings presents and he lives in the North Pole. I asked Cole what present he wanted Santa to bring him for christmas and he said, “Umm…’Nother foot.” DEAD SERIOUS. I busted up laughing. I said “Cole, you want to have three feet?” He said “Yep, two feet and one feet.”

I have no idea where this kid came from. But we love him to death.

Kim took our family pictures a couple weeks ago, and as always they turned out amazing! I loved the location and the colors. It was just gorgeous! I think wherever we move for dental school, we’ll have to come back to Madison just to have our pictures taken by her!

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As for me, I am still loving my job and this house and I am so grateful for all I have been blessed with. I truly am.

I am still dealing with the after effects of my miscarriage in August, so no baby news yet. All that has happened is kind of extensive but the majority of it is we can’t get the bleeding stopped. He did an ultrasound a week ago but I haven’t heard anything, which I assume is a good thing. I have been on hormones for a few weeks in hopes that the medicine would make it stop but it hasn’t, not even a little. It has gotten harder and harder to keep faith that we made the right decision in trying to expand our family. If we were given this answer, why isn’t it working out? I have no idea but we keep pressing on.

I am SO excited for Christmas. I can’t wait to get our tree and put all the presents (Iwrapped them yesterday) under the tree. The majority of my shopping is done. I have the Christmas cards ordered and now we’re just waiting for all our family to get here!! Jesse and all his girls are coming, Mikenzie and Jake too! We’ll all be together for Christmas! Jared’s brother Derrick and his wife Kelsey are coming just a couple days after Christmas. We are so excited! I can’t wait to play hostess. :)

Well anyway, We are so happy and excited for this time in our life. We are so grateful for all we have been blessed with. Thanks for your continued prayers and support!

New house!

2010-09-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

I promised pictures to some of you a little while ago. So here you go!

This is our new house! We'll be renting for the next year. WE LOVE IT. I feel very spoiled... For coming with no furniture to begin with, we have filled up the four bedrooms pretty quickly!
I found this HUGE sectional at the thrift store. It's broken up into pieces and we aren't even using all of them!!I think it was a good find!

I also found the kitchen table at the thrift store. It has two extension leaves and his made of solid oak- $50! Don't mind the boxes

Cole's toy room which is the formal dining room behind the kitchen.
Bedroom #1, my crafting room :)
Bedroom #2, Jared's study.
Bedroom #3 is Coles! His room is right next to the master.
Cole loves his fishy bathroom which is directly across the hall from his room.
This is the master bath. It's bigger than our entire room in the other house.... LOL

Our bedroom, with a king size bed! (Jared's buy) I am currently refinishing the dresser I bought at the thrift store. It is beautiful and only $25!
This is our closet. It's just about big enough to hold our clothes, but not quite big enough for my shoes...I am completely in love with the bedding :) I love to walk into the room and see it every day

I'm sorry it's been awhile. We've been just a little busy :) Besides moving into the new house, Jared started his fall classes, quit his job and also took his DAT! He did well and got an 18, but the computer actually froze in the middle of his test-but the time was still running, so he lost about 15 minutes on a section and wasn't able to finish answering all the questions which did affect his final score. We've had to communicate with the dental school association and we are still waiting to hear how we will resolve this problem. In less exciting news, I had a miscarriage about a month ago. I went in to the Doctor at 8 weeks and there was no heartbeat. Surprisingly, I didn't feel much of anything. The initial shock was hard, but since then we've been fine. I went to the hospital and had a D&C the day after we found out. I am physically and emotionally fine. But I thought some of you would like to know :)

Other than that we're just trucking along! Hope all is well with you!

Blessings! (uber long post)

2010-06-27T19:08:00.001-07:00

There are no words that could express how blessed we have been lately. For starters, my sister Mikenzie, and my niece Abby both ended up in the hospital in the last couple weeks because of some crazy accidents.

Mikenze was thrown off a four-wheeler and gashed her forehead open as well as sustained major road rash all over her body, and a contusion on her brain (NO HELMET!). They kept her in the hospital for 5 days and even questioned giving her a skin graft. She is now home, has had 70 mini-stitches removed from her forehead, and still has substantial swelling all over her body.

My brother and his family moved to Washington state for the summer for an internship Jesse has with Microsoft. They live in a 3rd story apartment with no air conditioning. Abby, being her adventurous self, pushed a chair over to a window and leaned against the screen just enough for it to give, and Abby fall 3 stories to the bushes/grass below. My poor sister-in-law saw the whole thing happen, but wasn’t fast enough to catch her. I can only imagine the trauma that must have caused her. Abby stayed almost 3 days in the pediatric ICU because she fractured her skull, and had some bleeding in her brain as well as her spleen (which is an organ of the immune system, it breaks down red blood cells and helps produce white blood cells. It’s highly vascular and not necessary. But if it is removed, can cause some suppression of the immune system.) They moved her to the step down unit yesterday and she was discharged today. There is no long term damage. In fact, Lauren wrote a cute story on her blog that emphasizes how much of Abby’s personality is still in play:

“Abigail is in pain and is incredibly sore, but if you know Abigail, you know that she's still trying to smile and still being a goofball. We laughed through Bambi tonight at the silly old owl and Thumper's nose as he says "bird." And with wide eyes and a goofy grin she announced to me every time she got a blueberry in her blueberry yogurt. Except the last one. It was only part of a blueberry. She still says, "Oh, Claire, you're so beautiful" every time she sees her baby sister.”

We are grateful and very blessed that they are home safe and healing quickly.

On top of all that! Jared and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary on June 16. We celebrated with various “3” things: 3 musketeers, 3 cheers (sparkling cider), 3 wishes, 3’s a crowd (a date without Cole). We chose to spend our date at the temple. How much better can you get? And to tie it all in, the temple played along with our “3” theme: 3 kingdoms :) LOL We really enjoyed our time there. I have never been to the temple with a specific purpose in mind, but I knew I would ask this time around for a special blessing for me- I took my boards that Tuesday, and I prayed with all the faith in me that I would pass, and that I could find a job, and a place for my family to live while we’re still here in Huntsville (I was kind of needy, huh?). I felt the spirit strengthen me. I learned a few extra things that day, too. We went to dinner at Outback in Birmingham and the power went out! We were stuck for an extra 45 minutes! Not that we really minded. :)

I have been studying my little heart out since I finished school. I have a new best friend, Marlene Hurst, founder of the Hurst Review for nurses. :) We spent a few hours every night together. We had some fun times! She really is hilarious. The review truly helped connect a ton of different disease processes together and helped it all make sense. Finally on Monday, the day before my test, I felt like I was ready.

I took Cole to the pool early that morning. He is quite the swimmer! About an hour into our swim lesson, Shelby shows up holding my phone. “Trudy called, she got you a job interview!” Trudy is Audrey’s (Jake’s ex-girlfriend) mom. She is a wonderful friend of mine. I about collapsed out of excitement. Finally, someone has enough interest in me to want to MEET me! I almost started crying right there at the pool.

So Monday turned out to be a huge day of anticipation. The next day I had my first job interview at 8:00 am and my NCLEX exam at 1:00 pm.

As I was driving to my interview in the morning, I was seriously pursed-lip breathing, trying to control my heart rate. I met Trudy in the lobby and she brought me up to the 6th floor to meet her good friend of almost 20 years. Julie and I talked for a few minutes and she mentioned that they might have a space for me in July, but they have someone who works at the hospital already who was going to interview for the job as well. Well great, they won’t want to hire someone they know nothing about over someone who they know already. I tried to emphasize what I felt like were my strengths, and why she would want me on her floor. She then sent me out with a nurse to show me around the floor. I asked this nurse a few questions and talked to her about the patients. Julie then sent me to the ICU unit she is also the manager for. I talked to a nurse there for a little while and learned more about the specific care they provide for these patients. When I got back to Julie’s office she said “Well, what do you think?” I said I love anything cardiac related. I was sure I could learn a lot on either end of the floor. I said as a new nurse, it would probably benefit me more to be on the floor rather than the ICU. They provide a wider spectrum of care, rather in the ICU, it is very specific. She said I was wise to consider that and pretty much offered me the job right there…yeah. Crazy.

I got home just in time to eat some lunch and head out for my test. The NCLEX is an interesting kind of test because is changes depending on your answers. It asks different levels of questions. If you get the lower level question right, it will move you up a level and so on. The minimum amount of questions you can get is 75, and that was what I was aiming for :) It’s typically a good sign. It was weird though, while I was taking the test I didn’t really feel like I was answering many questions right. I had an educated guess about most of them but nothing really for sure. I did get cut of at 75 and walked out of there feeling confident.

I had to go to the hospital the next day and filled out my tax paperwork and drug screen done. I start orientation tomorrow. I will work full-time (which is 3-days a week) night shift. I will recover in the morning and be able to be here with Cole the rest of the time. Wonderful!

When I got home, I went onto the Alabama Board of Nursing Website to check the status of my RN license. Still Temporary RN permit.

Later that day I was in the middle of cooking dinner, talking to Jared on the phone and I decided to check the website again. I typed in my name. NAME NOT FOUND. I capitalized the first letter of each name and submitted it again. NAME NOT FOUND. I just stared at the screen. What does this mean…that can’t be right. I was still on the phone and I started to freak out to Jared. SERIOUSLY, freak out. I had a melt down, thinking that I failed my test, and my temporary license was now void, meaning that I no longer had a job. Shelby and John ran into the kitchen to see what was going on. I was hysterically bawling in the corner. This went on and on for about 15 minutes. Finally I came to my senses and decided to check the computer again. I was hoping for some kind of miracle, something that must have gone wrong. When I checked the screen I realized I had typed my first name in where the last name goes, and the last name where the first name goes. I promise that’s what really happened. Crazy huh?

The next day I checked the status of my license again, and it said ACTIVE RN. :) I passed.

On top of THAT…Our good friends the Stapletons, moved to California for a temporary job relocation. They still have their house here and have been renting it since they left. Scott called Jared today and asked if we were still looking for a place. He said the people who are renting it now are less than ideal and they were willing to go leaps and bounds to get someone in their house that they trusted. The house is in the ward, in our budget, and beautiful. We really couldn’t ask for anything better.

We will be moving in at the beginning of August.

Well, if you’ve made it this far, I know you truly care about me :) Thanks for reading.

Yes, We’re alive!

2010-06-13T21:50:00.001-07:00

It feels like a little while since I’ve posted last. We survived the beach- Cole really loved it. I had a hard time without Jared there. Cole decided to morph into this terrible two year old, tantrums and all. It was quite the adventure.

The first time we made it to the beach, Cole started running straight for the water and a wave crashed right on top of him. He got sand and sea shells in his hair but that didn’t stop him. He threw some toys into the water and chased after them as the waves pushed them down the shore. The fun didn’t stop there.

Cole pent most of his time in the sand. He would mostly shovel it and throw it. But he also liked to be buried :)

We only really had waves on the first two days of our trip. The other three days were really calm. Calm enough in fact that I could just take Cole out in his floaty thing. We just hung out and he kicked around, having a blast.Cole is definitely a water baby! This life jacket is his best friend. It was at the beach house that Cole remembered how much he likes the pool :) It was the first time we’d been in since last summer. By the end of the week, he wouldn’t let me hold onto him anymore. He was kicking around (no arms moving yet) going where ever he pleased. He is still a very heavy mouth breather, so that was a challenge. I was constantly saying “Close you mouth, Cole!” I think it’s starting to do some good, now he swims with pursed lips :)

Cole is doing really well with his potty training. He’s wearing REAL big boy underwear now during the daytime (sleep time is another story…) He is more and more active every day. He LOVES to pool. He is obsessed with brushing his teeth. Seriously, he has 10 tooth brushes. He sings along to his favorite songs on the radio including “Alright” by Darius Rucker and “The Two of Us Together” by Dave Matthews. So stinkin cute. He is talking really well, saying all kinds of phrases. He says “Cole” in front of everything. “Cole chocolate milk”, “Cole jump a tramp”. He is also rhyming a lot lately-on purpose: “Shoo-bee-do”, “Johnny-bo-bonnie”, “Poo poo potty karate”. I don’t know where he gets this stuff. He is attached to Papa at the hip. They do everything together. Cole can’t do anything in his day without consulting Grandpa. Their newest trick is blowing snot bubbles. Literally. Cole’s runny allergy nose is constantly bubbling now, thanks to Papa. We love him anyway.

Jared is super busy working full time, going to school full time, finishing his dental school application, studying for the DAT this summer and now has a new calling-executive secretary in our ward. It requires a lot of time, which I’m scared about, but I’m excited for him to get his first leadership calling in the bishopric. I’m certain this is the first of many wonderful callings for him. This weekend he is in Utah visiting his family. His brother Jeremy is going on his mission to El Salvador, which is where Jared’s mom is from. I’m sure that it’s a nice break from the craziness known as his daily life.

I’m rolling easy compared to Jared these days! I am STILL looking for a job, which becomes more and more frustrating with every application that I turn in. Especially when I hear back the same day, a firm “no”. I am super frustrated because our life is pretty much on hold until I can find a job. Please pray for me.

I am crafting up a storm, and finished a quilt this weekend (except the binding). LOVE the way it turned out. This was my first run at machine quilting. It’s definitely not perfect, but it’s acceptable. I like the way it turned out. I followed along with this “First Quilt Ever” quilt along. If you’ve ever wanted to try making a quilt, but have no experience, I would definitely recommend this site. She explains everything very well. And the pictures and videos sure help too! I thought this would be bigger but oh well. It’s sure pretty :)

Front:

Back:

Jake’s All Grown UP :)

2010-05-21T07:41:00.001-07:00

We went to Jacobs graduation ceremony last night. I think there were around 690 graduating seniors there! We were expecting 3.5 hours but it was only about 3. What a fun time of year for us! I can’t believe Jake has GRADUATED and is off to COLLEGE in July! Craziness.

After the ceremony we waited for 1/2 hour to take pictures while Jake was LOST…Jake would get lost! :) It had been raining but stopped in time for our pictures.

Congrats Jake!!

ps this is the other dress I made. It came together in a single day. I think I’m getting ahold of this dress making thing :)

Off to the BEACH on Tuesday!

It’s Finally Over!!

2010-05-18T08:22:00.001-07:00

Candlelighting/Graduation was last Friday, May 14. It’s official! I’m finally a NURSE. This is a dream of mine that I never really thought would come true. Now if only graduating came along with a job…

This is the dress I made for graduation. Let’s just say I learned a lot… It turned out funky in a few places, but overall acceptable. :)

I just want to say how grateful I am to all of you who have helped me throughout this amazing journey! I could not have done it without you. It sounds cliché but it’s true! I have wonderful family and very selfless friends. The Lord has blessed me greatly.

Thank you!!!

Potty Training: Day 1

2010-05-11T18:43:00.001-07:00

I told myself that I would start potty training Cole once I was finally finished with school. And guess what? That day has come! He has occasionally peed in the potty since he was about 18 months. He is definitely ready, I just have to be!

We started this morning kind of rough. He sat on the couch to watch his morning cartoon with his chocolate milk and had a little accident. But I was prepared with a towel under his little bum so we were okay. I was working on the computer a couple of hours later and he came up to me and said “Mommy Cole Poop!” I was so excited because he was telling me he had to use the bathroom. When we got to the potty, I saw his business on the floor next to the potty. Close but no cigar.

Throughout the day he got the idea a little more. No more accidents after his nap. So we got some big boy undies and he’s been safe ever since. Wonderful wonderful day!

We’ll see how we do tonight and tomorrow at preschool!

My dear friend Trudy gave me a gift for graduation the other day that brought me to tears. It was an entire box of fabric that she had collected over the years and specially chose to give to me. It was so generous of her! I couldn’t be more grateful for such wonderful friends. This was my first project that came from that fabric. I’m going to give Trudy this table runner as a ‘Thank You’.

This is just a few pictures of the badge reels I made for my nursing friends for graduation. Now that we’ll have badges as real nurses :) Super cute, cheap and fast to make!

I love any reason I get to spoil myself, if you don’t know that already…So for Mother’s day I told Jared I’d be happy with some fabric. I picked these ones out. I think I’ll make a couple maxi dresses for the beach in a couple of weeks :)

Oh yeah…and Jared got me the CRICUT for graduation!!!!!!!! I have already used it tons and tons. I’m trying to figure out the best logistics to cut fabric. We’re almost there. I’m so excited to start scrapbooking tons more and hopefully I’ll be able to applique with it too.

Grandparents will be here tomorrow night. Graduation is on Friday. Then Jake’s graduation is the next Friday. Then ff to the BEACH.

Hopefully by the time we get back I’ll have a job. Let me know if you know of any!!! :) Seriously, I’m desperate.

Prospectives…

2010-05-03T12:35:00.001-07:00

I have recently been thinking about what I could possibly want for Mother’s Day/Graduation presents. Not that Jared reads this very often, but if he did, he’d have all he needed!

Super cute fabric. Since I’m pretty much obsessed with sewing these days…

Cricut Expression. I promise I would use this every day if I had one. It can cut fabric and vinyl too!

Littman Stethoscope. Pretty much the best things ever made. Much nicer than the P.O.S. that I have right now: it’s pink and warped and hurts my ears.

The Hurst Review. They boast a 98% pass rate for the NCLEX. Super expensive though. Not sure if I need it, but better safe than sorry!

A home to call our own (for the next year). More specifically this one. It would keep us in the ward and give us a spare bedroom for all my crafting supplies!

What do you think?

My last final is Friday, and obviously I’m procrastinating.

Lauren (my sis-in-law) is being induced on Wednesday! We can’t wait to meet Claire!

Crafting…

2010-05-03T12:32:00.001-07:00

I just thought I’d post a few pictures of the things I’ve been up to lately since you always hear about it and rarely see them :)

This one is for Claire :) Abby has one that matches too!

My dear friend Sydney is having a baby boy in just a few more weeks! These are for him.

I’ve made 2 million of these wipes cases. If you want one let me know!

This fabric was left over from the quilt I made for Claire. So I made Abby a couple skirts. She loves them :) And so do I!

I have to show these off because they are so precious. My mom made bracelets for Claire, Abby and Lauren. They are just slightly different from eachother. This is my latest venture. I’m making a dress for graduation! Thanks to this wonderful blog. I followed along with her newest idea “frock by friday”. I added sleeves and a little length, so it’s taken me a little longer than I expected. But I LOVE it. I can’t wait to wear it at graduation!

I took Cole out a few days ago to FINALLY get some birthday pictures. It’s a lot harder when there’s only the two of you. We didn’t spend much time, but we did get a couple keepers!

This Week I...

2010-04-23T18:49:00.000-07:00

Rocked my exit exam- 91%!!!

Had a REALLY fun celebration date with all my nursing buddies.

Finished precepting at CCU 1 (completely bittersweet).

Got in another car accident (Jared's car this time)...awesome.

It’s hard to believe…

2010-04-21T11:07:00.001-07:00

That Cole is 2 today!!

He is such a wonderful boy and a joy to be around. I will write an update on all his progress the past year…later. I have my exit exam for nursing school tomorrow, which is comprehensive over the past 2 years.

The past few days have been better. I am controlling what I can, and praying about what I can’t. Anyway,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLE!! We love you more than words can say.

Thinking

2010-04-19T20:18:00.001-07:00

If any of you know me, you know I am not a pessimistic person. I generally have a bright outlook on life and I am not one to point out the hardships. But lately, I am not that person. Every time I turn around, something else is testing my patience, or my dedication to family, or my motivation for school. And honestly, it’s hard to keep it all balanced while holding a steady smile on my face.

Today Cole decided to fight me for two straight hours instead of taking his afternoon nap. He finally fell asleep at 2:30 and woke up an hour later. Amidst this ordeal, I was trying to complete one of the few assignments I have left for school. I had to complete 200 NCLEX practice questions with 80% or better. I have done this every week this semester, but this time around, the subject material was really difficult- Pediatrics. It took me 320 questions to finally get the average I needed. It took me 5 hours (while dealing with Cole). Thankfully, after Cole woke up after only an hour, my wonderful dad took him and laid back down with him until he fell back asleep. He slept for three hours in his Papa’s bed.

I did get all my practice questions done, but that took a lot longer than I initially expected. I wasn’t able to study for my upcoming exit exam (Thursday)Right at the time I was finishing these questions Cole woke up. I tried to feed the kid and got nothing down him. He hasn’t eaten since his rash showed up last week. Only chocolate milk will do. So today, I said no more chocolate milk, you have to EAT something. And he still hasn’t.

Now it is 10:08 pm and Cole is still awake. I don’t know how I’m supposed to study now that Cole has finally gone to bed and it’s now MY bedtime.

I’m worried about failing out of nursing school. What else is new? I’ve always felt like becoming a nurse was just a dream of mine that I would never really achieve. Now here it is! 25 days away! And it is still a huge question mark in my head, whether or not I will make it. Hopefully I do, because I’ve just received my printed graduation announcements…

I’m worried about finding a decent house for us to move into. I’ve found a few but nothing too promising. I would love to stay in the ward but it doesn’t seem likely. We need to be able to get all of our things from storage in Utah to be able to live in our own house. Now how are we going to do that?!

I’m worried about finding a job. Yes, my preceptor gave me an awesome recommendation, and I have a family friend who knows the nurse manager really well. But that doesn’t help me if they AREN’T hiring. I need to start working so we can have enough money to move out. I need to work for my own sanity.

I’m worried about when to have another baby. With no home of our own and no real prospect of a job for me, it doesn’t sound like the right time. But Cole is getting older and he NEEDS sibling. And it’s something that has been on my mind nonstop lately.

Once again, I’m sorry to be such a downer. I think it’s mildly therapeutic for me to write down all my thoughts instead of having them bounce around in my head.

Soon-to-be-committed,

Day

2010-04-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

What a couple of weeks! We have been super busy (what else is new?) With a few more exciting things than normal mixed on in. For one thing- Cole had his first ear infection, his first prescriptions for antibiotics, and his first allergic reaction all in the same week (penicillin)! And now, to top it all off, his sickness has come back. His temp was up to 103.8 degrees today. Let me tell you how much fun this is to deal with amidst all my finals. :)

Wanna hear about the best day ever?? (sarcasm)
Last Monday Cole started to get a rash on his face and by Tuesday it had spread all over his body. I called the doctor and talked to our neighbor who is a nurse and resolved it was a reaction to his antibiotic. So I started dosing him with benadryl and planned call the Doctor again in the morning to schedule an appointment. So I called first thing and the nurse told me our Doctor would call in a prescription for Cole's reaction. I started to get Cole breakfast and right when I turned away he pushed our candy stand off the counter and broke all of the bowls which had all our Easter candy in them. Shattered glass and candy were everywhere. Needless to say, my mom was pretty mad.

We went to preschool and the rash got even worse the when we spent time in the sun (which is pretty much all the day now that the weather is wonderful) so I decided to swing him by the pediatricians so she could actually SEE the rash. I was really concerned because it hadn't gone down or away since we began giving him the benadryl. If anything, it had gotten worse. So I got to the office at 11:45. The nurse told me I'd have to come BACK at 2:30 because they were breaking for lunch. How long would it have taken for her to see the rash that was covering Cole?

Anyway, I took Cole home t0 lay him down for his nap. We came home to find a lovely list of all the things Cole had broken/damaged since we've been here (written by my mom). When I saw it, I was just so angry that she didn't talk to me about it. She just wrote a list and left it on the counter. I just went straight upstairs and laid Cole down. I had to stay there for a few minutes because I was fuming. When I finally came downstairs and talked to my mom about that dang list, she said it was never meant for me to see. She just likes to write things down that she's feeling, and that is typical. She said she meant to throw it away before I came home. But by that time it had already made me realize I had a few things I needed to replace. (Maybe it's naive of me, but it never crossed my mind). And I didn't want it hanging over my head anymore.

I had to wake Cole up from his nap (which was only one hour) so we could be on time to the doctor. She got us in and out really fast and by 2:30 we were already done, confirmed diagnosis of penicillin allergy. So we go out to the car and I'm looking for my keys to unlock the car and guess where they are?? Next to Cole's car seat INSIDE the car. (FYI I have never locked my keys in the car before). But don't worry, the windows were cracked just enough for the locksmith to be really quick at unlocking the door. It only cost $40 for that stupid metal bar to pull the lock open.

Next we went to Walmart to replace a few of the things on my moms list of things broken by Cole. They only had one of the things on my list, the glass bowls from the candy stand. Come on, this is WALMART! Aren't they supposed to have EVERYTHING? NOPE! So I take my few things and checkout. Oh! Wait! I don't check out! Because I left my wallet in the car! I had to cancel my list, go to the car, get my wallet, wait in line, and re-check out at Walmart.

We went to Target after that because I knew they had a couple more things on my "To be replaced" list. Once we got home I'm sure that I stubbed my toe and spilled some milk but I can't exactly remember. I do know, however, that I kept thinking, This is the worst day I can remember.

I had a test the next day that went surprisingly well, considering I was running around like a chicken without a head the day before. Only 3 more tests to go and I am done with school! Can't wait!!

and PS: don't worry about my day. I cope with crafts. Lauren will be so happy with this HUGE package of girly things I'm about to sent to her. Hopefully my next child will be a girl so I can actually keep some of the cute things I make :)

Just a Few..

2010-03-25T06:49:00.000-07:00

I have no idea why this paragraph is underlined. I'm clueless! Sorry...

Here are a few pics from our adventures lately! This is what happens when Jared and Cole are together for too long... The kids had spring break last week so we decided to go on an overnight camping trip. We took the dogs and were going to go to Ditto Landing but when we got there it was completely soggy from the rain the past week. So then we decided we'd go up to Monte Sano. It took us a whopping TWO HOURS to get there because of many different reasons...(Monte Sano is 25 minutes from our house). We finally got to camp at 1:30 and set up and ate lunch. Cole was having a blast chasing the dogs around and picking up sticks. We saw a couple millipedes too. He would watch them on the ground and step two feet away if they ever got close enough :) Cole fell asleep around the campfire. All the kids slept in the same tent and mom and dad had their own and the dogs had their own. So when Cole woke up in the morning he had the biggest grin because all the people he wants to be with were right there! He went down the row "Hi Nini! Hi Shoo! Hi Mommy! Hi Dad! Hi Jake! Hi Unca John!" He liked the fire and roasting donuts over it :)
See how happy he was? He just loves being outside.

He also loves his PapaAnd his Papas Mountain Dew (I promise it was empty)
A few weeks ago...OOBLECK mess. Nasty. They had lots of fun though :) This is what happens when I have a test to study for and Jared has to watch Cole for a little too long.Cole has officially reached the terrible twos. In the matter of 2 days he: got into my make-up and learned how to use mascara, broke a vase, drew on my parents bedroom wall with a marker, sliced his hand on my rotary cutter, smacked me straight across the face, said "no mommy!" more times than I can count and still wakes up and asks to sleep in "mommy bed". Sheesh. This kid wears me out. I cannot imagine having a newborn along with this stage.
We went to the farm as a family about a month ago. Dad has a friend at work that we go visit every so often. We always have so much fun and this time C was super interested in BUDDY the goat :)
(Another camping pic just out of order)
Jared and I are mostly just trying to keep up with life. Last week I was in a car accident and am still waiting to hear back if my car (yes, our new one) is totaled. It wasn't anything major. A lady cut me off and I couldn't slow down fast enough so the entire front end of my car is smashed in, along with that, the doors on one side won't open. So, like I said, we're still waiting to hear back! I have a rental car, finally & thankfully. I am almost hoping the car is totaled so we can look into getting a bigger one. Anyway! Jared's work is really slow right now, he's kind of frustrated because he does nothing while he's there. He is very productive and has a whole list of things he needs to be doing for school and his application for dental school. So sitting around at work is not ideal. Plus, he refuses to do any school work while he's there. So he's stuck in a hard place. He's doing awesome in school. *Bragging Moment* Jared has made over 100% on all of his tests this semester except one. (Which didn't have any extra points and he got 98%). I am very proud of him. He is such a hard worker and very determined to be an awesome student, father and husband. I'm very grateful!!

Hope all is well with everyone!

Lately...

2010-02-28T18:00:00.000-08:00

Pictures are being lame!! Here are a couple of C-Man lately. He's getting a lot of hair. I don't know what to do with it!! I don't want to cut it off because he FINALLY has some. But he looks a little bit homeless.

Here is my quilt from earlier. I took the ribbon off because it was bunchy and I didn't like the way it looked. I made some fabric rick rack from some left over fabric I had. LOVE the way it turned out.

This quilt is for my neice-to-be Claire. Can't wait to get it finished!!

As always, we have been busy! Jared is rarely home, and this semester, I'm gone almost as often.

For those of you who didn't hear, there was a shooting at Jared's school just two weeks ago. Those who were killed/injured were all involved in Jared's dental school application process. He was speaking with Dr. Johnson just before he left for the meeting in which he was killed. Jared was pretty shaken up for a little while. He expressed some concern about being able to concentrate. All he could think about was the shooting, can you blame him? He wondered why this happened the exact year that he was applying for school, why his dental school advisor was one to lose his life. To be honest, we still don't have many answers. But he is very good in times of trial. He is always strong, and determined to be his best. He has a good friend who is in the same position. They help each other get through their trials, both in coping with this tragedy, as well as with school. We are very grateful for him :)

Jared is shadowing a dentist every Monday and really enjoys the atmosphere. He calls me after each experience and tells me all about it. He is going to make a wonderful dentist.

Cole and Jared have become a lot closer lately too. I precept on the weekends, so while I'm gone, Jared and Cole spend all their time together. They have games and stories that they share just between the two of them. And it's fun for me to watch :) Karate is the newest thing. Cole has been to a few of John's karate classes and has actually picked up quite a bit! (Especially the sound effects...Shh! Shh!)

Cole loves to sing songs. He is such a music kid! He has started to be more helpful, when I ask him to do something, most of the time, he will do it. He is still working on using his words instead of screaming, but it has definitely gotten better. He is picking up new words every day and has FINALLY differentiated between my sisters Mikenzie (Nini) and Shelby (used to be Nini too, but now is Shoo). Shelby's pretty excited about it. Cole loves preschool. I've been taking him to a mommy-run preschool for a few months now, and he always looks forward to it. We sings songs, and learn new letters and shapes and get to play with lots of other friends. It's Cole's favorite time of the week!

We love having him in our home. He is such a joy, he brings us so much happiness!

I have been busy as ever, as I've mentioned. I precept twice a week (usually weekends) have class, as well as clinicals. So I hardly spend time blogging, obviously. But I love the time I do spend at home. Cole is generally always in a good mood when I am home now. I definitely enjoy that! SinceI have been so busy lately, my grades haven't been wonderful. I've been passing all my tests but not excelling. I need to step up my game or I will find myself repeating this semester a year from now, and that is definitely not ideal...So pray for me! On the upside, my precepting is going REALLY well. I have been 4 times and love it :) It's in a critical care unit at Huntsville Hospital. I couldn't ask for a better location or teacher. She is wonderful. And I think she kind of likes me to :) She actually referred me for a job already. I was really surprised but I'm really grateful. I definitely need a job asap.

In my spare time I have been doing a lot of crafts, funny huh? I love these blogs I follow! I know, I should be studying. But making fabric flower earrings is so much more fun! I will do my best to stay on task this week.

I hope all is well for you all!

Valentines Day :)

2010-02-11T10:00:00.000-08:00

I love this holiday! It is wonderful to spend time doing things for those you love. I have found myself looking at Jared in a different way. I have been trying to find things I love about him, and to be honest, it's been pretty easy. It's funny to think that sometimes I have a hard time recognizing how wonderful he is. I think this is what happens a lot of times when marriages get rocky. We forget what we love about our spouse. And THIS is why I love Valentines Day! It gives us a chance to reflect, and sometimes, fall in love all over again.

This has definitely been happening for me this year. I see Jared all of 2 hours a day, but I LOVE those 2 hours. He makes me laugh like no one else can. He is such a hard worker and makes me want to work hard as well. He is a wonderful father, and even when he gets home at 9 pm he makes time to spend with Cole. He is so dedicated to me, to our family and to his goals.

I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband :)

Major Progress!

2010-02-06T20:18:00.000-08:00

I have been studying for a test for a full 2 weeks. I finally took it on Friday and now I have a little room to breathe :) I started on my quilt FINALLY! I actually spent most of my free time yesterday and today working on it. Today I COMPLETED the front of it! Woo-hoo! Now for the long part, quilting...Not sure if I'll send it off and have that done by machine. It would kind of defeat the whole purpose of doing it, which was to use the quilt racks I got for Christmas. But I don't have that much spare time, like I said. And I still need to do 1 more by May...so! It is yet to be decided. Here are some pics! :)

It looks a lot smaller than it really is. And the lighting is poor. SO sorry!
The ribbon was actually supposed to be jumbo sized ric rac but I couldn't find the right color green in stores or online. I found pictures of it though! Doesn't do me much good now.
So I improvised! We have simple green ribbon. Definitely not as fun or cute as ric rac, but this is what we've got. So deal with it, right?
Ah, well. What can ya do?

Disappointed...

2010-01-25T19:30:00.000-08:00

Ugh.

Isn't that a nice way to start out a post? I'm frustrated and overwhelmed and life just doesn't seem to be going my way.

The new (and last) semester of nursing school has begun. It involves a lot of time and studying, which consists of two full days at the hospital and a full day of lecture. Plus paperwork and Cole and helping Jared with dental school application and so on.

So let me explain something to you about nursing school. The last semester is something that most students look forward to because they get to pick an area in which to do an internship, what we call "precepting". An individual student is assigned to and individual nurse to follow around for the entire semester. I didn't really have a strong preference, I would love to just get a job and start working. I took the advice of a well-intentioned bystander and requested cardiovascular intensive care unit for my 120 hours of required precepting this semester.

As the time got closer and closer for each student to receive their assignment, I was almost dreading receiving mine. I was hoping all the while that for some reason I wouldn't get what I had requested. Which, to me, is really quite sad. I feel like I'm missing out on some of the fun of being in my last semester.

So I got my assignment of CVICU, weekend shifts, 7am-7pm. I was fine with this, especially because it was on the weekend and I could have a little help from Jared while I was away. As part of the process, each student has to call and meet with their precepting nurse to get all of the information specific to their floor/shift/etc. I tried multiple times to contact my nurse, but after almost a week, I finally received word that she quit. I immediately called my instructor at school and notified her. She assigned me a new nurse in the CVICU but this time it was for weekday night shifts (7pm-7am). I accepted what she gave me and hung up the phone and called my new nurse. She wasn't working so I left my information with her so that she could call me back and we could set up a time to meet.

It's 4 days later and I haven't heard from her. I have been trying to figure out when I could work this out, working night shifts is really hard!! Especially during the week. I have clinicals on Tuesday (so Monday and Tuesday nights are out), class on Thursday (Wednesday and Thursday nights are out) and every other Friday. So honestly, I don't know when I'm supposed to do this.

I called my instructor at school again today and let her know that I will need to be assigned to a different shift. I hate to be THAT student. You know, the one that has to ask the instructor about EVERYTHING, or is super-dooper difficult. I promise, that's not usually me. I am the one that sits on the side of the room and doesn't say a peep the entire semester. Most of my instructors have no idea who I am.

I'm frustrated and overwhelmed. Some of the students began precepting TODAY. And I still have to get an assignment. I guess this is my own fault. I should have taken this more seriously when I requested a floor to work on. Plus, we just took our first test and I BARELY passed, which is definitely not encouraging. And Cole has been super sick and mean lately so I haven't been my nicest self either. And I never see my husband. And I'm tired all the time. And I don't know if I will pass this semester.

And that scares me.

Sorry to complain. It's not usually the case. I was hoping this would make me feel better, but it really hasn't. I am out of control in this situation and I DON'T like it.

Feel free to give me some advice here buddies, or tell me to suck it up. I need the push.

Pics post :)

2010-01-17T19:40:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in my last post that my parent's got me a quilt rack for Christmas. I haven't opened it yet because it's in storage. But my mom tells me it's huge. So I decided I had to make a quilt! Here is my latest adventure...

(The white polka-dots will go between the two borders as well. And there will be two giant applique daisies. And some jumbo sized rick-rack too!)

Here are some the pictures I should have posted with my last update.

Cole's first time sledding! I know this is over exposed but it's the only one my camera would take! So this is what we get!

Cole's Abuelita gave him this school bus for Christmas and he REFUSED to stop playing with it. So we let him go until he finally fell asleep on the floor. :)

I dare someone to tell me that he doesn't have the cutest profile ever!

Cole and Abby playing at Grandma Larsen's house.
The stockings getting put to good use!
This is Jared's puzzle I had made for him. He took this picture when he went to the TN v. FL game with my dad for his birthday last year. I think this was his favorite present :) Uncle Derrick & Aunt Kelsey with Coley. One of their many visits when they spent most of the time playing with Cole!

Today was our second week in nursery. We absolutely love spending time with the other little munchkins in the ward, and especially with our own. Right in the last three minutes before church let out, we had a little fiasco. One of our little ones ran over to Jared while we were blowing bubbles (which was odd because this one is pretty independent). And right as Jared picked him up, he blew chunks all over Jared, his new suit, the little girl sitting next to them, the floor on the way to the bathroom, the floor in the bathroom, and somewhat the toilet. I had to take as much of the puke-soaked clothing off of the little girl just in time for her parents to come get her. Our other nursery leader found the "child with the upset stomach" 's parent and he proceeded to undress his child and sent him to the car with some helpers.

We had lots of help cleaning up and distributing the kids because everyone was out, on their way home. But it was kind of crazy for a few minutes. Jared would say it was crazy for a lot more than a few minutes because he had to stand there in his soggy suit for about half an hour (dry heaving the whole time) until all of the room was cleaned up (By this time the next nursery class had already began).

Probably not many of you know this, but Jared hates throw up more than anything! It's probably the hardest thing for him to handle in the world. For me, not so much. So when I saw him in the bathroom, eyes teary, face red, gagging, I told him to suck it up. Probably not the most sympathetic thing to do, but Cole saw him too! Cole knew something was up and thought Jared was in trouble and started getting upset. All the other kids were wondering what the heck was going on, and were also, obviously, worried. So, really? Can you blame me? As soon as I saw one of my family, I passed Cole off to them so I could be more help with the clean up. I would hate to have had him in that room with us the whole time we were panicking and trying to get organized and clean.

So we bagged up all the pukey clothes, Jared rode home in his G's with the air blasting to get rid of the smell. The entire trip I was laughing hysterically. Seriously?? TWO minutes of nursery left. PUKE on JARED... of all of the nursery leaders... so funny. Needless to say, we had a lot to talk about once we got home.

Here we go again... (super long post. no pics, sorry!)

2010-01-12T19:03:00.000-08:00

The best things in life are unseen. That's why we close our eyes when we kiss, laugh and dream.

Do what makes you happy. Be with who makes you smile. Laugh as much as you breathe. Love as long as you live.

The new semester has begun! We have never stopped GOING since last semester ended. Cole and I flew out the 17th of Dec. We left in the late afternoon so I knew Cole would fall asleep on our second leg, but the first leg was a challenge. I cam prepared with a huge baby bag full of activities. Yep, you guessed it, the entertainment lasted about 1/2 hour. I was only saved by the flight attendant who kept refilling a cup of ice for him. We made it to Chicago after about 2 hours and got some dinner. Our flight to SLC was 3 1/2 hours and we got to sit next to a Sister missionary! She was coming home from England. She had been flying for a full 24 hours when we met up with her so she wasn't too chatty. :) But she grew up in Paradise (I think that's what she said). Cole fell asleep after about an hour and I could finally breathe! Haha! Jared picked us up at the airport and we stayed at my grandmas house for the wedding the next day!

Derrick and Kelsey Galvin were married in the Salt Lake Temple on the 18th. I was nervous at first because I had to leave Cole with his Uncle Jeremy. I was hoping the resemblance between Jared and Jeremy would help Cole feel comfortable. Turns out, I really had nothing to fuss about. Cole LOVES his uncle Jeremy. And I think Jeremy feels the same ;) The ceremony in the temple was beautiful. What a blessing it is to have eternal families! It was fun to be back in the temple where Jared and I were married. We haven't been back there since that day! We really enjoyed our time there, even though it was CROWDED. The sealing was at 11:30 am and by the time we were leaving the temple, one of the workers mentioned that they had already had 70 weddings that day. NUTS!! The reception was in a garden center, which was a nice change from the winter of Utah! We had so much fun and were definitely worn out by the end of the day. We did find out at the wedding that Cole has an OBSESSION with Santa. The Jolly Fellow stopped by the wedding for a few minutes. Cole recognized him right away and almost demanded to see him. And since then all he thought about was SANTA.

We spent the next week recovering from our travels and the wedding, shopping for Christmas, and bouncing back and forth between Jared's moms house in Brigham City and my grandma's house in Centerville.

This was my first Christmas away from my family, so it was odd. We had the majority of our Christmas in Alabama which was wonderful. My parent's spoiled Cole as always. He got way too many presents, including a new tricycle! They got me a new SLR camera and some quilting racks :) (I am actually about to begin a new quilt!) Jared got a Ruger pistol, a huge tool box and a Tennessee puzzle!! We were all very spoiled and grateful for both of our families. SO Christmas in Utah!! Jared was the first up (as always) at about 5. I fought with him until 8 when we woke Jeremy, Derrick and Kelsey up. Cole's favorite toy from his Abuelita was a school bus! He played and played with it until he fell asleep on the floor!

We went sledding a couple days later with a lot of our old friends from high school. It's fun to get together with all of them, just like old times (plus our little munchkin)! Derrick & Kelsey, Amber, Jason Jeppson, Andy Wood, Brad were all at Jason's property in the mountains of Utah. They pulled us up the hills on the mountain and we would ride a big old sled down the hill. And again, and again, and again! We were unprepared for all the snow, so we were just well layered. Jared & I were worried about Cole being cold so we put on a ski mask that covered his whole face, except his eyes. It was pretty funny because he would hardly move, and all you could see was his eyes. I think he liked it though :) We got cold enough to head home after about an hour.

My BFF Jocelyn and I decided to head to Provo to see a couple of our Besties. Right as we got into SLC area it started to snow!! This was the first time it had snowed since we were there, almost a week and a half. We ate lunch with Michelle in Provo and visited with Katie in Springville with her brand new baby Spencer! I love those newbies :) We knew it would be pretty slow coming home because of the snow.

IT TOOK 4 HOURS.

AWFUL.

Joce is about 20 weeks into her pregnancy so we had to stop multiple times for her itsy bitsy bladder. She and I swore we would never go to Provo again.

After that we spent some time with my extended family. We love playing games and talking with them, they are just a hoot. My GMA Larsen just loved Cole, well, everyone just loved Cole. Everyone that is, except my beautiful little niece Abby. She can't stand him. He is always trying to love and be close to her and she is just little miss independent and can't stand him. We try :) Anyway, my roomie from BYU Chelsey and her daughter Caelyn came to visit us at my grandmas house. How fun it is to see old friends :) Caelyn is 5 months older than Cole so it was fun to let them play. He loved her ringlets and couldn't seem to keep his hands off them! Once again, we try :)

The last night we were there we visited my ONLY biological uncle Mike in Taylorsville. :) We had tried to see him (and other people) a few times but the weather did NOT permit! Anyway, Coley was a little confused at first but then Mike showed him his two britney spaniels (just like the ones we have at home). Cole was then convinced that Mike was his Papa. He was calling to him and climbing on him like he had known him his whole life. He does look a lot like my dad :) It was fun to see my uncle Mike melt around Cole. He usually puts up this really rough/tough front, but he can't hold it up around Cole. It was a different side of my uncle that I really liked to see.

After we visited Mike we started driving home. We left at 9 pm and drove through the night. We took the southern route as to avoid any snow storms but it adds an extra couple hours. We made it to Albuquerque at about 7 am. We stopped at McDonalds and let Cole play on the play place for a little while and then continued our journey. Jared had driven most of the night, so I took over in the day. Cole was AMAZINGLY content in the car. It was so packed with stuff that I couldn't get into the back seat if I wanted to. He just watched his videos, read his books and ate his fruit snacks until it was time for lunch. We stopped at 3 different McD's looking for a play place, but not one of them had one!! So we ate at subway. He was perfectly content until dinner, where we DID find a McDonald's with a GREAT play place. We played for about an hour in Oklahoma City and got on our way again at about 6:30 pm. Cole was still doing really great UNTIL he spilled his sippy cup of water all over his seat. He was soaking wet, his clothes were packed away in the trunk, and we were on the freeway in the middle of nowhere. So we improvised. I took out one of my cotton dresses and set it underneath him to absorb the water and turned up the heat so he wouldn't get cold. He wailed for a little while longer but then fell asleep. This time, driving through the night was HARD. We were both exhausted, going off only cat naps for sleep. It took a few extra energy drinks to get us home but we finally arrived at 5 am on Tuesday morning. Exhausted but alive!

We spend the next couple days recovering our sleep and catching up on what we missed while we were in Utah (my family went to Nauvoo for Christmas! Totally jealous). The weather here has been cold enough that we've had snow scares, so work and schools were cancelled for Thursday and Friday of last week. We had an extra little Christmas vacation! We got two new kittens on Thursday! A brother and sister, Samson and Jolie. We love them to pieces. Cole is so funny around them. "Hi! Meow! Hi! Meow!'' He's always looking for them. But he's very gentle and loving, as always.

Well, I'm all typed out. Thanks for reading this far, if any of you did. I am so sorry I didn't get to see all of you, particularly Stac and Sydney :( We will be going back in May/June for Jeremy's mission farewell and I PROMISE we will see you both then, as well as the ones we already saw, and anyone else who wants to see us!!!

My last semester of nursing school is going to be flipping tough. I put the 'flipping' in there on purpose because there is no other word that is appropriate to explain. I am scared and overwhelmed already. Practice NCLEX exams, 5 test, a comprehensive Review Test, Precepting, and Clinicals=Craziness. I will take my licensure exam in June and hopefully be working by then as well. Jared is taking 17 credits, studying for the DAT, and working full time. He will apply for dental school this June, and take the DAT in August.

That is it for now! Sorry if I left anything out. I hope all is well with you!

DONE!

2009-12-12T08:49:00.001-08:00

No not with school.
I'm finally done with my Christmas sewing projects! 9 stockings and a wall hanging for my family-in-law. :) Gotta love the Christmas time! I finish school on Thursday and Cole and I will fly out to Utah that evening (Jared will start driving on Monday) and hopefully be ready for Derrick & Kelsey's wedding the next day. Whew! We're super excited to see all our friends and family back in Utah. Can't wait!
Love to all!
(notice the little orange "Power T"? Jared HAD to have it there somewhere :) )

I think Cole's is my favorite

This one is mine, Kelsey Galvin #1

This is for soon-to-be Kelsey Galvin #2 :) LOL

Cole Experiences Snow

2009-12-05T09:08:00.001-08:00

The weather has SUDDENLY changed to winter! The week before Thanksgiving we were still wearing flip-flops around. Now we woke up this morning to find THIS.

As many of you know, Alabama doesn't like snow :) Everyone is scared of it or something! I think Cole really liked it though. This pic is of his first snowball. It didn't last long.
His cute snowy shoes.

We are finishing up finals week(s) and then off to Utah for Derrick's wedding and Christmas! Can't wait!

It's That Time of Year!

2009-11-27T18:20:00.000-08:00

Kim took our family pictures again a few days before Thanksgiving. Check them out HERE
We LOOOOOVE them :)

October

2009-11-08T11:57:00.000-08:00

Sorry this is so late everyone! I have just taken a test that I have been studying for for an entire month. It was devastatingly hard, but I passed. I am giving all the credit to my Heavenly Father on this one. Anyway! We went to Tate Farms on October 10th to get our pumpkins :) It was so much fun, I definitely want this to become a family tradition!
This was my favorite spot-the pumpkin house! The entire outside was lined with pumpkins. There were scarecrows on the front porch, and bales of hay all around. Very cute.
There's something about mums that I just love. MMMM Fall!

My little punkin' sitting on a pumpkin :) We had quite the adventure looking for the perfect pumpkin for Cole.

John and Cole are best buddies! John's keeping Cole warm on the Hay ride. At this point it was starting to rain and it got really cold!

They had bunnies at Tate Farms! I really liked them but I don't think Cole was too impressed.

Playing in the corn boxes. It's like a sand box, except with dried corn! I was surprised that Cole was mostly PLAYING in it, not EATING it :)

At the Front Gate of Tate Farms. This was a perfect place for a picture! Cole is trying to eat the pumpkin...

These are our pumpkins for the year. Mine is a Tigger, Cole is Mickey Mouse, and Jared had to carve the power T in his pumpkin. :) I was proud, he came up with the design all on his own!

We always take entirely too long carving our pumpkins, but it sure is fun :)

Jared's birthday was the 17th of October. All he asked for was that his car would be cleaned. So when we went out to dinner for his birthday, Mikenzie took his car keys and made me a copy. I went to his work and stole it for about an hour to wash it and vacuum it, even a new air freshener. Then I messed it up again with lots of yummy candy :) I should have taken a picture, but I was in a hurry because I didn't want him to know it was gone! He was so surprised because he ALWAYS locks his car, and to his knowledge, he had the only key. I felt super sneaky and was totally proud of myself.

Even though he only asked for his car to be cleaned, I got him some gifts. He has a watch from Fossil that the battery ran out, so I went to get a new one put in and bought him a second one from Fossil. It is really cool and self-winding and stuff. :) I showed him his old watch and he went to put it on and it still wasn't working! So i brought it back to the store and they're going to fix it. But the tricky part is when I put the new watch into the box of the old watch, so on his birthday when he unwrapped the present, he recognized the box and thought I got his old watch fixed and wrapped up. But it really was the new one! I was super proud of myself. Sorry if that story didn't make any sense.

The next couple weeks are going to go by so slow! I can't wait til the other half of our fam in Utah is here for Thanksgiving! We haven't seen them in ages! I am going to get back to the books. Much love ya'll!

17 months and counting!

2009-09-29T17:31:00.000-07:00

At 17 months old, I can't believe my little baby has turned into such a big guy. He is still very much a mamma's boy though. Maybe eventually he will learn to be by himself for a full two minutes... :)

For this month's update I thought I'd include a few of Cole's favorite things.

Favorite #1: BINKY

Obviously, he loves his binky. We have limited them to naptime ever since he started showing the addiction... :) But still, every time he sees one he has to go and swipe it. Even if it's pink with flowers, or in some other baby's mouth. He WILL try to get it. Most of the time he's too fast for me, so he probably will get close. Favorite #2: Lemon Slushes

As most of you know, I am a big fan of Sonic. I worked there for a couple of years during high school, and it has been my favorite "drink stop" ever since. Cole has earned my trust just enough for him to hold his own drink in the back seat, so lately I've just been handing them on back! Now pretty much everytime we get in the car he asks for a "deee!" (drink). I know exactly what THAT means...

Favorite #3: "Teeth!!"
As of right now, Cole only has 8 teeth, four on top, four on bottom. His molars are so close on all four sides. Anyway, he absolutely LOVES to brush his teeth. I realized it helps his molars feel better :) Everytime he sees a toothbrush it's guaranteed he'll say "teeeeeth!!" until someone hands him a toothbrush. He has 4. He opened one in the middle of Target, so I had to pay for another one just the other day. Maybe he'll want to be a dentist too!

Favorite #4: Music
If he is in a bad mood, refusing to eat, or sitting in the car seat, all I have to do is sing a song and his mood will completely change. He will sing right along with the Hymns in church and everytime Mickey Mouse Clubhouse plays the "Hot Dog" song. He would have headphones on all day if he could...Here he is listening to Taylor Swift :) He just bops along with the music...that is, until he finds a toothbrush.

Last Saturday (Sept 26) was "National Museum Day" So Jared, Cole and I went with our new friends the Smith family to a children's museum called "The Little Works Museum". We were lucky to get in free because of the holiday! The boys (little and big) had so much fun! We spend a good hour and a half fishing, tumbling, riding cows, collecting eggs, picking vegetables and whatever else they could get their hands on :)

I guess it was silly of me to have Cole wear long sleeves. He was soaking wet by the day's end.

This was by far Cole's favorite corner. They could climb and tumble all they wanted without anyone telling them NO! :) We were there for a good 20 minutes, which is really saying a lot considering how much was going on.

Riding the cow named Lily. I'm pretty sure the kids were supposed to try to milk her...LOL

Happy day! All done! Jare and I don't really have anything fun to share right now. I am on a neuro floor for clinicals every Friday. It's really enjoyable and challenging. I'm learning so much. I will finally graduate in the spring. I can't wait.

We went to the most exciting football game of my life yesterday. Believe it or not, it was Jake's high school football game. The teams were very well matched and played their hearts out. We actually saw 2 kids puke on the field. I know, totally gross. But it showed us how hard they were working! Jake's team, Bob Jones was undefeated and down by like 10 points (?) with 2 minutes left. We thought the game was over but then Bob Jones scored a touchdown off a 70 yard run and retrieved their on-side kick and got another touchdown!!! They were then up 4 points and only had to hold off the other team for 25 seconds. Homewood drove down to the end zone and scored. Bob Jones lost by 2. I have never screamed so much in a game in my life. And if you've ever been to a football game with me, you know I'm a screamer. I probably embarrass myself more than I help the team with my cheers. :) But it's enjoyable for me, so I do it.

Anyway, that's all for now
oh yeah, Jake's in the Homecoming Court :) We're all excited to see if he wins tonight!

Blue & White...and Red

2009-09-21T07:08:00.000-07:00

I cleverly came up with the title of this post before the BYU game on Saturday. I was planning on bragging about the team, telling everyone how excited I am to see them play in the National Championship this year.
We couldn't actually watch the game because DirecTV dropped the VS channel the previous Monday, without any sort of notification. Needless to say, we were all a little perturbed. Then we had to have to follow the defeat of my dear Cougars on the internet, reading the play by play. It was just awful. I am utterly disappointed.
On another note, I dyed my hair red. I mean really really red. It was kind of on a whim, but I don't regret it. It'll definitely take some getting used to! Everyone can tell me and Mikenzie apart now!
Pictures to come :)

August Haps

2009-08-30T18:16:00.001-07:00

These pictures are completely out of order and it's really not liking me to try and rearrange them, so this is what you get.

This pic was from Fridays football game. We had these shirts made, Shelby has one too. We thought they were a good way to show our support for Jake-o! :)

This is lunch with my buddies from nursing school for my birthday. They are such wonderful girls :) I don't think I could do it without them.
Jared did an awesome job for my birthday :) He got me THE BEST BIRTHDAY CAKE EVER! It was chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. Man it was good!! He also got me an new phone... an iphone :) I feel totally spoiled and I love it!

This is at the football game the night of my birthday. I don't know if y'all remember but Cole is a HUGE sports fan. Seriously, it must run in his veins. See him cheering?

Family! :)

My mommy had this shirt made for me because she knows that I like to have a big deal on my birthday. Very thoughtful, and cute! I wore it all day out and about and not one person told me happy birthday! Maybe they thought I was kidding... Jared has been on this kick lately...he calls the radio EVERY TIME there is a giveaway. He has actually won quite a few times: free lunch at Burger King, a couple of CDs, concert tickets to some country singer, and tickets to Nickelback. We just went to the Nickelback concert the week of my birthday and it was totally fun! It was raining cats and dogs and I brought an umbrella but they took it at the door. Jared gave me his coat and he was soaking wet the whole time. Lovely hubby :) Once again, these pics are backwards so bear with me.

This is after we were completely wet, and really having fun.

Before we decided to go out in the rain. We were hiding under this pavilion for like an hour.

Sad cuz it's raining, happy cuz we're having fun! :)

Fall semester has begun and so has the chaos! Jared is working on the dental school application process (which takes just about 2 years!), and I am trying to keep up with yet another semester of Nursing school...9 more months, only 9 more months. Cole is wonderful and energetic. He's talking up a storm, even putting words together like "mama no no!" or "more drink please". He will show you his ears, eyes, mouth, nose, teeth, hair, belly button, toes and bum-bum :). He still loves wheels on the bus and is singing along to every song he hears (on the radio or TV or where ever). Every stuffed animal he sees is "Elmo" and his favorite show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (come inside it's fun inside!). He knows all the music to that one too! Cole always wants to get his "oosh" (shoes) and go "buh-bye". He is such an adventurer! He knows all the farm animals sounds and will lead you around all day by your pinky finger. He has everyone in the house whipped. He is such a flirt and waves at everyone he sees. We love him to pieces and can't wait until we can have more little Coley's running around (don't be getting any ideas, still a long time before we're even considering it. But I do think about it all the time! :) ) Hope all is well in your neck of the woods. We miss you and love you all!!

My Summer Vacation So Far...

2009-08-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

I'm sure ya'll were expecting me to talk about how wonderful my break has been, right? Well, sorry to disappoint!!! I am complaining this post. Since being off school we haven't done anything really fun worth mentioning. We've watched movies and hung out. I do however, have a few woe-is-me things to say. You have to understand that my wonderful husband Jared is not exactly what I would call sympathetic to the following situations. So I want to come out and say it, without having him try to solve/fix all these problems.

Right after we got married I had a filling come out, I have been meaning to go to the dentist but with no dental insurance, moving to Alabama, having a baby, and starting nursing school, going to the dentist has been a lesser priority. So I finally went on the day I took my last summer final. I had a root canal that day that cost me $1800 and still have another $2500 of work to do. I came home bawling, so upset at the cost. I knew it had to be done, but seriously?! That much?!

Fall semester tuition is due. Jared just happens to be going to one of the most expensive universities in the state, so we get to pay for half of his tuition because his pell grant can't cover it all. Luckily I have a scholarship at Calhoun, so that helps a little. Books are always crazy expensive, $500 between the two of us this semester. I can't even consider what our expenses will be next spring, when I graduate and take the NCLEX and Jared takes the DAT...ugh!

I bought a new phone a few months ago, after much dispute with Jared. I convinced him that this phone was worth the price, that I would be oober careful with it, and it would definitely last me more than the two years I would have to wait for another upgrade. Yesterday it broke. The screen cracked, who knows how. I took it to the AT&T store assuming it was covered under warranty, since I had just bought it. But because there was a "pressure point" on the screen where the crack began, they said it wasn't covered under warranty. I threw the phone out the window. Okay, not really, but I did throw it. Stupid phone. I can't believe I've gone through 3 phones in one year. None of which broke because of me!!! Well, maybe this was my fault, but it was completely an accident.

This always seems to happen right around my birthday (which, by the way, is Friday). Things happen in such sequence that by the time it's actually the day to celebrate, we've ran out of money. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that we are college students, but all the same. It seems as if this will a hard couple of weeks til school is back in session.

Phew...

2009-08-10T07:12:00.000-07:00

Summer semester is officially over!! I am excited to enjoy my 2 1/2 weeks of summer :) I don't really have much to update...Let's see here....We had an air soft gun tournament a couple of weekends ago (in the back yard). The story began when we were searching for a birthday present for Jared's brother Derrick. We bought him an air soft gun and in return Jared got one for free. That started an excessive frenzy between my dad and Jared. Every day they were buying new guns, better guns, supplies and so on. So one Saturday while we were all working in the yard, dad decided to set up the canopy and make an obstacle course for us to practice our shootin'. It was so much fun! I'm a pretty good shot, if I do say so myself. Cole really enjoyed spending the day outside as well.

During my finals week, my family was in Utah so Jared stayed home from work for a couple days to be with Cole while I was at school. One day they went to Target and got some bath toys. Cole loves bubbles! It was only necessary that they came out of that store with a bubble blowing Elmo! Now every time he walks into our bathroom he yells "Elmo! Elmo!"
This picture really doesn't show how much he loves this toy...promise :)

Like 15 minutes away from our house is Bridge Street, it's just like the Gateway in SLC for you Utahan's :) The mall has the water fountains the little kids play, now obviously we weren't planning on Cole going in the water, but he started playing in the water and I couldn't get him to stop. He was soaking wet for the remainder of the trip, but happy :)

Don't cha love that face? :)

Happy remainder-of-summer!

This Month in Pictures...

2009-08-02T18:43:00.000-07:00

Finals are next week, and I am procrastinating. So here is this month in pictures. Forgive the lack of details. :) I'll get to it in my three weeks off.
This is Jared and his brother Derrick. We visited Knoxville a couple of weeks ago. We went to the Dollyworld water park and of course I forgot my camera. So we have a real one with film and everything! Just have to get it developed... I'll get to it.
This is Cole playing with shaving cream. He loves bubbles! In fact, jared just bought him a bubble blowing Elmo for bath time. Now everytime he walks into the bathrooom he says "Elmo! Elmo! Please!!"

The King and his throne!! Cole is loving Baby Einsteins lately so I've bought him this little chair because I was afraid he was going to strain his little neck trying to watch the TV up so high :) It's way cute and he loves it. The only problem is that he wants to watch his movies all the time!

CURLS!! Yes, Cole has CURLS!! I'm not cutting his hair in hopes that more will develop. Wish me luck!

Hope all is well. Much love yall!!

I know, I know.

2009-07-07T18:37:00.001-07:00

I am sooo behind on blogging. In fact, I'm behind on a lot of things. Summer school, clinical, Cole, family and parties have kept be busy from dawn til dusk. The only reason I'm writing right now is because I'm procrastinating studying for my microbiology test tomorrow. Give me a break, I was at the hospital all day. I'm exhausted.
Ok so last time I actually wrote was before our anniversary so how about I just start there? Jared and I tried to think of all these things we could do: go on a cruise, go to Navoo, etc. But because of my awesome school schedule we really couldn't leave town. We ended up giving each other gifts and then going out to eat at the Bonefish restaurant. Jared had been asking for p90X (which is rare because he doesn't usually want things). So I gave him the typical answer, "We really can't afford something like that right now, Jare." :) After about a week of him begging to get it, he said he would just copy it from a friend. I finally had to tell him I already got it. I mean, there's no use in breaking the law, right? So I gave it to him early and he has been obsessed with it ever since. He and my dad get up every morning and do these videos. It's worked out pretty well. They're both looking great! So Jared got me a new softball mitt (my old one was from a garage sale when I was like 10, so it's really small), and a planner (very thoughtful). We went out to eat, it was good. I didn't like my main dish, so the chef came out. That was weird cuz I was in the bathroom and Jared had to handle it all. We went to cold stone after that, mmmm my favorite!
The next couple of weeks were fairly uneventful. I've gotten really into scrap booking. I printed all the pictures from Cole's first year and will hopefully have them done before I run out of steam. :)

We had a little party for the 4th of July, which was really fun. I love that Jared likes to have get togethers just as much as I do. We invited quite a few families on fairly short notice. Not too many came, but I'm not sure we could have handled more. Jared and I experienced our first time fireworks shopping together. There is a lot more selection out here than in Utah. We can have the big ones out here! But I never realized how expensive they are! Dad has always put on a good show, but not I appreciate it a little more :) Anyway, we had good food and lots of fun. Can't get much better than that!

The 4th was a day to remember because it was the first time Cole took off his diaper all by himself. That was so cute! I joked that it was time to start potty training :)Sweet Pea is growing like a weed. He is a very picky eater, and extremely loud. He is learning new words every day. His favorite book is The Wheels On The Bus. He loves the song and he loves dancing. :)
He is such a momma's boy and I love it! I love it until it comes 3 in the a.m. and the only one he wants to cuddle with is me. We have had to resort to moving to the couch in the TV room so that Cole can learn to go back to sleep without me having to hold him the entire time.

Sorry for the view :)

He always wants to drink our soda. Don't worry, this can isn't open

Pre-dark Sparklers :) Cole's shirt says "proud to be loud"!

Alright. Back to studying.

Letter to Lauren

2009-06-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

I wrote this to my lovely sister'nlaw the other day. I figure it's a pretty good update on us right now so I'll just post it and take the easy way out of a new post :) I'll find time to put up new pics of Coley this week.

Much Love

Yes, I am STILL in school. It's honestly been going by really fast, and it keeps me completely booked, which I love. I know I mention/complain about it a lot but I truely do enjoy what I'm doing.School is going really well. It's amazing how easy it is to learn something when you actually want to learn it. I am getting pretty good grades (I don't think ya'll knew, but I got a scholarship! I know, I was surprised too!) and I love clinicals (my days spent in the hospital). Last semester we had our OB rotation and that is definitely my passion, but honestly I can see myself working anywhere. This semester we have a Psych rotation--my least favorite so far. But we're chuggin' along, slowly but surely.

Whenever people ask me how Cole is doing, all I ever think to say is that he's nuts. Completely buckets full of crazy. He is such a boy, I can't even describe it to you. He's always running into, or jumping off of, or tackling SOMETHING. He's very loud, probably got that from me. But he is such a joy. He is grandpa's little buddy. Whenever Dad need's to be cheered up, he just grabs Cole from me and everything is better :) Grandma and Cole are pretty tight too! Well, I guess everyone gets to spend a fair amount of time with him this summer because of my school schedule. They all tell me they enjoy it, so hopefully they really do!

Jared is out of school for the summer. He is doing P90X with my dad daily. He plays on a softball team for the city league this summer. He's working during the day, and best buds with Cole at night (while I'm in class). He's happy with that for now!

Living with parents...now there's something I could talk about all day. We are very lucky, in that Jared blends in with the family like he's always been here. He just adds to the dynamic, especially when he and my dad get together. They are like the same person, I swear! But anyway, living with the fam is hard sometimes, but coming out of debt is harder! I figure, we have to learn how to funciton like the family in "The Work and The Glory", All providing what we can for the good of the family. Luckily, my parents have that same point of view. I'm glad your fam was willing to help too. You'll adjust over time, and then re-adjust when you move back to Provo :)

Not too much...

2009-06-01T08:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a few weeks so I decided to just put up a few pics even though nothing interesting is really going on with us lately. I've just started my summer semester of nursing school. Only 2 more left!! Jared isn't going to school this summer so hopefully we'll be able to see him more often than in the fall and spring. :)

Jared's brother has moved to Knoxville for the summer for a job. We will be making a trip there in the next couple of weeks! Jared has actually only seen Derrick once in the past 5 years because they both served missions back-to-back and then we moved to AL before he came home. We made the trip back to Utah in July of last year when Derrick got home, and that was the last we've seen of him! So we are excited to go visit.

Lately we've been having lots of little duck families come into our yard. We always take Cole out to feed them. I took a few pics the other day. He tried to grab them every once in awhile and he has actually gotten nibbled on a few times!

Cole gets what he wants. I know I'm awful. But when he says "eeeesh! eeesh!!" (please), I just can't resist. This was one of those times. He has an Oreo in one hand and a pirouette in the other. He says cheese for the camera :)

Mother's Day

2009-05-15T12:40:00.000-07:00

Jared always does a wonderful job with holidays. He knows I like to be spoiled and this mother's day was no exception. He took me on saturday to this fabulous spa called "The Heavenly Spa" (at the westin hotel at bridge street). It was wonderful and truly heavenly!! We both got massages and they had chocolate-covered strawberries and sparkling grape juice waiting for us afterword. It was amazing! Then we went to one of our favorite restaurants- DOLCE. We went there last year for mother's day too, so I guess it's become a tradition! Thanks Jare for making it such a fun day!

Kenzie is now home from Utah. She and my mom drove her car back to AL in 24 hours. They drove straight through! It's so nice to have her back, we almost feel complete again!

Jesse, my older brother in Utah, just heard that he will start an internship for DISNEY this summer! We are all so ecstatic for him! He is such a talented artist and he totally deserves it. If you want to check out some of his art, just click THIS

BEACH!

2009-05-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

Jake had state track scheduled to be at Gulf shores the first weekend in May. Mom decided it would be the perfect opportunity to take a trip as a family to the beach! None of us kids have ever been, but mom and dad grew up in California. Mom was at the beach all the time. Anyway, the swine flu tried to interfere with our trip, they cancelled state track. We decided to go anyway. It probably worked out better this way because Jake could actually be with us, instead of being with the Track team the whole time!

I had clinical all day on Thursday and as soon as I got home, we jumped into the car. We decided that would be best so that Cole could sleep most of the way down. It worked out well, but it took a reeeeeaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllllllllllly long time for Cole to fall asleep. He has these things he does to try to stay awake, as do all of us. The one he chose for the car ride was what I affectionately call "squawking". This is the one that drives me nuts. I can't handle screaming. And Cole was continuously YELLING for an hour before he finally fell asleep. I thought I was going to throw something out the window. After he fell asleep everything was fine. The drive went faster than expected, we arrived about midnight.

Jared, Jake and I went to the beach to look for little crabs with out flashlights. It was kind of scary for me. I've never been to the beach and I didn't know what to expect...especially in the dark. I didn't like not being able to see the waves coming at me (Like I said, it would have been different had I actually SEEN a beach before). I was afraid of a typhoon or something! Anyway, we found some baby crabs. They were teeny tiny white things. They were quick little buggers too! Shzoooom!

Cole woke up at his regular time of 5:30 am. Yummy. We went out back to the pool and then walked over to the beach. Cole was pretty nervous because the waves were pretty loud and well, he's never seen anything like that before. We tried to get him to get his feet wet but he really wasn't into it. We had a very pretty view of the sunrise, thanks to Cole's internal rooster.

We spent the next two days lazing on the beach. Cole got used to the noise and ate enough sand and sea shells for a life time. (I promise I was watching, he's just really sneaky about it). We all got a nice sunburn (except Cole) and were definitely worn out by Sunday.

Jared, Jake and Shelby spent plenty of time boogie boarding. It was funny to watch them wipe out, or get pelted by the waves. Shelby was the least fortunate, she had a few wipe outs that resulted in a bloody nose and shells in her hair. Jake got totally sunburned, but lucky for him, he has mom's skin. And Jared found out he had shingles! Yay!! (Cole JUST got vaccinated, he's yet to show any sign).

I am not sure that I could love this little boy more.

So pretty!!! I hope we can go back again sometime this summer :)

Jared & I made it through another semester. Hopefully I won't ever have to take 20 credits in one semester ever again. I didn't get all A's like I was hoping for, but I did get a scholarship! Luckily for me, Jared got shingles at the perfect time. He got to stay home all week with Cole! My parents were both gone in Utah that week and John was home from school for the swine flu scare. It was such a blessing, in a kind of random way. It made me aware that my Heavenly Father is constantly aware of my needs :)

Finals went well and I'm looking forward to my 2 week break before the summer semester! Jared is taking this summer off of school, but is working full time. He is excited to take a break for a little bit, since he will be in school for infinity more years.

This & That

2009-05-09T08:27:00.000-07:00

Cole loves hats. As you all should know by now. He will wear them all day long. This is one Sunday after church and we were all just hangin' out. Cole was wearing Jared's BYU beanie and for some reason decided to attack the garbage sack. I thought the pictures were cute. There is no specific reason why I decided to post them.

Little man has always loved his baths. He loves being outside, too. So why not combine the two? Papa (my dad) brought Cole outside and turned on the hose for him to play in. It took a few times of him getting sprayed in the face for him to learn how to control where the water was flowing. He got the hang of it and was having a blast. We WILL be taking him to the pool daily this summer, once it finally opens back up!!

Birthday!

2009-05-08T17:03:00.000-07:00

On Cole's birthday he finally got into his big-boy car seat. And believe me, he was so ready for it!! We decided to test it out and went to Babies R Us to get Cole a new toy!

I hate that these pictures always load backwards!

We made a rocketship, tunnel and slide out of the car seat box :)

Testing out the new carseat with the birthday cake hat!

Cheesy!!

New Car seat! Yay!!!

This is Cole's Birthday party, the sunday after his birthday. G&G Botto came to visit so we decided to wait for them to have his celebration! Our best buddies Scott & Kelli came too! What fun we had! We ate some really good food (Jared always does a good job with that!) and wore birthday hats! For those who don't know, Cole absolutely LOVES hats. One of his first words was 'hat'. He loves wearing them, he takes them from anyone who has one on their head, and he even calls sunglasses and headbands 'hat'. So cute.

These are my grandparents on my moms side. This is their first time meeting Cole!

This is Cole's Cake. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to but it's still cute. Cole enjoyed it.

Presents! Way too many, of course. Thanks to everyone, Cole is having such a fun time!

Scott and Kelli. They're awesome :)

It was a very fun day for all of us. Cole didn't enjoy his birthday cake like I thought he would. He basically massaged it between his fingers. He didn't eat any of it. That's quite strange because he puts everything in his mouth, just not his cake. He was kind of fussy and we couldn't figure out why. BUt then the next day his top tooth cut through so we figured he was teething. It was wondeful and fun and I hope Cole will remember it! Thank you to everyone who helped us make Cole's day special!

Birthday Pictures

2009-05-08T16:43:00.000-07:00

WONDERFUL. They are all my favorite! We have recieved so many compliments on them already. The location was absolutely gorgeous and Kim was wonderful. We are so grateful to know such a talented photographer! She is fabulous. Amazing job Kim! I wish I had time to post all of these pics!

Zoo Day/Easter!

2009-05-08T16:16:00.000-07:00

We took Cole to the Nashville zoo, after many-a-days of rescheduling due to weather. Seriously!! We tried at least 5 different days, but we ended up not going because it was rainy. So we finally headed up to Nashville, even though it was actually supposed to be overcast. It turned out to be a perfect day. Cole always really enjoys being outside and he was able to see tons of different animals. It was wonderful!

He loved the Bamboo Trail. He tried to climb up the 'shoots'.

ANT EATERS ARE HUGE!! Seriously, bigger than my dogs!

Those are the elephants waaaaaay back there

Jared and Cole watching the monkeys :)

Easter was a fun Sunday. Cole really liked the candy the Easter Bunny brought him :) We always take family pictures after church but it was super windy so we had to come inside to get one that actually looked decent. There are some pretty funny ones outside though :)

This is Cole's Loot. He's so spoiled :)

Pictures!

2009-04-18T13:04:00.001-07:00

Cole had his birthday pictures yesterday. She has posted a few on her blog. Go check them out here!!

Update on Us!

2009-04-11T06:48:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been pretty busy for all of us! School is coming to an end for the semester and we are both so ready!!

Last weekend we went to a hockey game with Cole and Scott and Kelli! I was really worried that Cole would have a hard time with all the noise, and it just so happened that we sat next to the horn section. I thought he would get bored or overwhelmed and start fuss and it would be hard to have him there. But really, it was totally the opposite. He was so happy and loved watching the game. He would yell along with the others and wiggle with the music. He watched the skaters intently and stayed awake until 10:30! Needless to say, Cole slept very well that night :)

Cole is progressing so much lately!! He is walking almost exclusively these days. He is playing pat-a-cake with open handed claps (sometimes he'll just start clapping just to hear the noise he makes). He loves to eat big-people food. This picture has a stream of chocolate slobber running down his chin. He's playing pat-a-cake again.

Cole loves to play outside. I think he would stay out there all day if he could. Jared and Cole are playing catch with his favorite ball. He's a natural soccer player! He kicks the ball everywhere he goes :) (saying as he toddles along "kickit! kickit!")

These are my pretty flowers Jared bought me. I love gerber daisies. They always make me smile!This is a picture of Cole's battle-wounds with our front porch steps. I don't know what exactly happened. Mom was walking out the door and John had Cole on the porch feeding the ducks, I was in the kitchen. Somehow Cole fell all the way down the four front porch steps. He has scratches all over his face and a bruise, square on his forehead, from landing on a piece of gravel at the bottom of the steps. He was very tough about it. He cried for a few minutes and I felt so bad! He has healed pretty well in the last week, hopefully there won't be any evidence left for his birthday.Cole has become obsessed with phones. Anytime he sees one he says "Hi! Hi! Hi!" until you give the phone to him and he can put it up to his ear. It's the first thing he says in the morning, and won't stop until he gets a phone in his hands. He now has two of our old cell phones to play with all the time. They don't light up or make noise though, so they are definitely not as entertaining. He still seeks out the ones we use.

Today we are hoping to finally make it up to the Nashville Zoo. We were going to go yesterday but the weather was awful and we had some tornado warnings. That seems to happen every time we try to go to the zoo! We'll see if it works out :)

Tennessee Weekend

2009-03-20T18:40:00.000-07:00

Jared, Cole and I went to Tennessee last weekend to visit some of Jared's old friends from his mission. Believe it or not, we hardly make the trip. But it was a really fun change of pace and great to connect names from Jared's stories to their faces :)

Andy and Angie were newly married when Jared met them at the beginning of his mission. Angie had just been baptized so Jared taught her the new member lessons. They've been close ever since! They have a 16-month old girl named Tylee, and due any day now with their second little girl. Tylee is just a little smaller than Cole, and so cute! So! We met up at the Opry Mills mall and walked around and ate some lunch. Then we went to the hotel and let Cole watch all the water fountains, which he LOVED. They played music along with the squirting fountains and I think he could have watched them all day. He tried to walk in the middle of the show a couple of times :) So fun.

Then we went back to their house and let the little ones play. Cole loved all of Tylee's toys. Jared wasn't so comfortable with the baby doll and the play kitchen and the barbie ride-on car, but Cole was very entertained. He liked having another little one around. He was happy to have another little person around, but he was really rough with her! Probably because he wrestles with the big guys almost every night :)

Once we put the kiddies to bed we played a few games: pirates dice, and the flour game. Andy, Angie, and Jared played this game years and years ago when Jared was serving his mission. It was funny to see Jared try to cut into the cup of flour without making it crumble. I never knew he had such shaky hands! (He lost both times we played)

That's a dime on top of the flour. When it falls you have to dig it out with your nose! :)The next day Cole discovered their cat Arwin. Luckily for us, Tylee had already broken the cat in, so she was very patient with Cole. He loves animals and spent a lot of time talking and playing with her :)This picture was taken today. He turns 11 months old tomorrow. I can't believe this past year has gone by so fast. Hopefully the next one will too! I'm ready to be done with school. :) He is still not walking on his own completely, but we'll get him there. I think the weekend with Tylee was inspiring :)

Wonderful

2009-03-17T16:34:00.000-07:00

Love this message and the blessings I and my family have received from the temple.

Nothing interesting...

2009-03-13T18:50:00.001-07:00

Jared and I are on spring break starting Monday. Tomorrow we are headed up to Tennessee to see some old friends from Jared's missionary days. The big family is still trying to decide what we should do over the break. We wanted to go to six flags but it's only open on weekends and none of us are ready to brave the crowds. If any of y'all Alabamians have suggestions, let me know. I really don't want to be sitting around the house all week!

Cole is growing and learning so fast! He is saying quite a few words: mama, dada, dog, hat, duck, ah-dah (all done), Hi, & hello (heh-oh). Of course, he only talks when he wants to, we can't quite coerce him into saying anything quite yet. He is signing 'all done,' 'more', 'eat' and 'drink'. And again, none of these are consistent. He will just whip 'em out when he feels like it :)

I don't know where this bubble picture came from. I know that's Shelby there holding Cole, so maybe we should ask her...

This is Cole's first time seeing the quilt I made for him before he was born. It's so close to being finished! My goal is to give it to him for his 1st birthday :)

This is Cole just being cute. We had to get this shirt for him because it says "slow poke" on it. Sorry, the words are cut off. If you didn't know already, his nick-name is "pokey" (lately I have been finding myself calling him 'pokey-bear'. I know, it's weird how nicknames morph themselves isn't it?)You can't see but he is cheezing it behind this sippy. He loves drinking out of these things. I'm sure it's because he feels he is so big. He really loves to feed himself. Lately we've been giving him goldfish crackers and he eats 1 or 2 at a time really well. But he really likes to shove handfuls in at a time until he coughs and I have to do the finger-sweep maneuver :) No, it really hasn't gotten that bad, but he does cram as many crackers in his mouth as he can.This is a good picture of his 4 teeth, all in a row on the bottom.
Doesn't that smile just warm your heart?! :D
Ok now this is pictures of Cole's birthday outfit. We're going to have his pictures taken and put all over for his crazy-hat themed birthday. Ever since he was teeny-little he has loved hats, so that's what we'll do for his birthday! I just love him to wear them too. You can ask him where his hat is and he'll reach his hands up to his head. :) (The same thing happens when you ask where the dog's are, he'll reach his arm toward the porch window!) Such a smart boy. I can't imagine loving him more!

umm...excuse me?

2009-03-01T15:53:00.000-08:00

It snowed today. I'm kind of confused. It's not supposed to snow in Alabama. I must admit there was a kind of child-like joy when I woke up this morning. But that lasted only a few minutes. I remembered all the years of trudging through the snow on my way to school in Utah, from elementary through college. I must admit that one of the pluses of moving here was that we wouldn't have to deal with that white mess. It never had any use to me. I never went snowboarding, and only occasionally went sledding. So I really haven't missed it. I didn't have time to take pictures this morning and it was gone by the time we got home from church. I really can't complain. It only stayed a few hours, and I didn't have to walk in it much. So I guess it was kind of a refreshing site, as brief as it was. :) Sorry to those who live in Utah and have to deal with it every day. I feel bad for you. :)

He Walks!

2009-02-22T19:01:00.000-08:00

V-day & More!

2009-02-22T11:25:00.001-08:00

So I know it's been more than a week since Valentines day but I need to update-so here it goes!

These are roses from my daddy. Pretty!

Jared did such a good job, it was so much fun. He started the day with flowers and a balloon (from Cole) and handed me a little slip of paper with a clue on it. When I figured it out I ended it up with a bag of kisses and had to search for my next clue. It was a tiny piece hidden in one of the wrappers. That clue led me to what I thought was my present-dinner at Carrabba's. It's my favorite place to eat & I always get the same thing. So before we left I gave Jared my present. I made him a candy note with a bunch of cheesy sentences about how he is the best (which is true, I just chose to do it in a silly way). I bought him a UTennessee hat and licence plate.
So then we went to dinner. We brought Cole with us which is becoming increasingly difficult. After dinner Jared said we can't go out with Cole anymore because he's too wild. :) But the food was awesome and we got to go in fast because Jared called a few days before, we got to skip the 1 1/2-2 hours waiting time. While we were eating, he gave me another slip of paper and all that was on it was a bunch of z's. Eighty to be exact. The only thing I could think of was sleep. I was puzzled until we got home.

Jared bought me new bedding! I always complained about how much I didn't like the one we had, but he went all out and spoiled me. I LOVE it and I am happy every time I walk into our room now! :)

Cole turned 10 months old yesterday. He is faster than ever and cuter than ever. He has four teeth all in a row on bottom. He is taking steps on his own since Feb 19th. He's getting a little better each day. We got it on video last night and I'm going to try to upload it on here. He always thinks he's going to make it and just dives for whatever he's going for. It's funny, it's a good thing he's tough :) Cole always has something in his mouth- the binky, his fingers, a screwdriver, a pen. Seriously, anything that will fit in there. He loves being tossed in the air by dad. Jared gets a little crazy with Cole sometimes so I make sure to supervise.

The funniest thing happened the other day. John is currently in his first year of wrestling. He and Jake were on the floor practicing some moves and Cole just dove right in. He climbed on top of the two, squealing and laughing. He is such a boy!

This Month At A Glance

2009-02-10T13:09:00.000-08:00

Cole loves shoulder rides from grandpa,

Stealing his hats,

Eating Pineapple CoresTearing the keys off my old laptop,

Wearing sunglasses,

And eating refried beans

Elder Hollingsworth left our area last week after six months. It was nice to have him here with us. It almost felt like we were at home in Utah! For those of you who don't know, Elder Hollingsworth is from our hometown of Brigham City. In fact he grew up about a block away from our house! We've known him since he was in diapers :) Hopefully we'll see him again before he's done!

7th of 7.

2009-02-04T10:39:00.000-08:00

I saw this on a friends blog and though it was fun. So I did it. The idea is to go to your 7th photo file, pull the 7th photo, then tag 7 others.

This is Cole just seconds after he was born. He's much cuter now isn't he? :) I miss having one that little. It's hard to believe my little pokie-bear is almost 10 months-old! Oh how time flies. It took so long for him to get here and now I can't imagine life without him.

I tag LAUREN, ASHLEY, STACIE, ROBYN, JOCELYN & MICHELLE

TADA!

2009-01-24T10:42:00.000-08:00

This hoodie reminded me of Mikenzie. And I miss her, so I bought it. :) Isn't it cute?

See his tooth?

He stands!

It looks like I'm holding him but I'm really not, I promise!

Cheezer!

Look at him go! He'll be walking before we know it!

My little man is 9 months!

2009-01-23T12:20:00.000-08:00

I can't believe my boy is so big. He can't walk yet but I am already having a hard time keeping up with him. He is SO fast with his army crawl, and has always had quick hands. I'm surprised he hasn't gotten himself seriously injured yet. Yes, he has had his fair share of flops and bumps, but he really is a tough kid. He had his 9 month check-up a couple days ago and they pricked his finger to get a blood sample. He didn't even flinch! Then it occurred to me that banging your head on a drawer/wall/stair/floor probably hurts worse than a pin prick. He weighs 20.5 lbs and is 29 inches long. He is getting really attached to his binky and fuzzy star blanky. He won't go to sleep without them. He is actually doing fairly well at night. He is just such an early riser! He goes to sleep at 7 and get's up at around 4. Sometimes I have to bring him into the bed with us and just go back to sleep if he wants to stay up. He's good about it though, he'll just lay there til he goes back to sleep...if I'm holding him.

We got him a little shopping cart/walker for Christmas and he is readily using it! When he's not pushing it along, he is into a cupboard, drawer or garbage can, or trying to climb up the stair railing. He often times will let stand for a few seconds and try to take a step! He is improving a ton! He thinks he is so big already! He loves his grandpa's shoulder rides. He is at his best when he is surrounded by people. He LOVES attention, especially from girls! He is still entranced by little Grace every time we see her at church :) His newest "trick" is giving high-fives! We're still working on pat-a-cake, but he does randomly clap at times.

He is asleep right now so this is the picture you get until I can get a cute one :)

As for me! I am in my second semester of nursing school and LOVING it! We are doing maternity/pediatrics this semester as well as surgery. Which are my two favorite fields of nursing. What the hay, it's all my favorite :) I'm so excited because I get to do my clinicals at Huntsville Hospital again this semester. They have an amazing pediatrics unit. I get to stand in on surgeries and work in the recovery room too! The only down side is that it's all day- 7-5. I'm sure I'll get used to it.

As many of you know, since we moved to Alabama my car has been acting up. We actually haven't been able to use it for more than a month total, since moving here 13 months ago. So we FINALLY got a new car!! After many, many months of research, preparation, and just pure hope, we decided to go for it. We bought the car last Thursday. It's a beautiful Toyota Corolla (anything is beautiful compared to our two other cars). It's a red 2005, 45k miles on it. I really am so happy to have the car drama all over with. And it's a Toyota so hopefully we won't have to go through it again anytime soon (it's one of the main reasons we decided to go with that one). Who knows though, I have the worst luck with cars! Seriously, just ask me and I'll tell you my crazy stories. Yet, none of them have been wrecks, just faulty engines. Weird.

I've named her Scarlet. Isn't she pretty?

Well that's all for now, thanks for reading!

OH! Congratulations to my friend/sister-from-another-mother MICHELLE LARSEN! She's finally engaged to her boy of 2 1/2 years. He proposed while they were in HAWAII! :)

Today

2009-01-11T15:59:00.000-08:00

Cole kills me. He is such a lover and a flirt! He finally cut his first tooth on Dec 30 and has yet to cut the second. He can crawl up off his tummy, when he feels like it. He is starting to let go of the couch or his cart to practice his balance. Since everyone has left Cole has been desperately lonely. He refuses to sleep in the day time, just in case some one comes home to play with him. So for the past week we have had two 1/2 hour naps and a very whiny baby. I've done my best to keep him entertained but let's face it, I'm not that exciting. Here are the pictures from this afternoon. Lately his two favorite things are grampas shoulder rides and the wipes box. He'll play with it like a jack-in-the-box or roll it around or bang it like a drum. He loves it!

At the start of a new year I find my self reflecting on the journey we've had since moving to Alabama. We definitely have grown so much and I love that our journey is just beginning. I've made my new years goals and am determined to meet them. I'm starting school tomorrow- this is my 20 credits semester so I'm pretty nervous. It should be really fun though because this is our Obstetrics & Pediatrics semester--which is where I want to be. So hopefully my excitement will give me motivation. :) Wish me luck!

New Haircut For The New Year

2009-01-06T18:36:00.000-08:00

A little bit different but still the same...