Chloe

I wanted to share some of the joys of being a pet owner with you. This past week our cat Chloe’s face started swelling up and was bleeding. Disgusting, I know. We had no choice, but to take him to the vet (yes, it’s a “him” named “Chloe”, which is a story for another day). As a pet owner you know that anytime you have to take your animal to the vet it is costly. It costs $45 just to walk in the door and have the cat looked at so I was not happy that I had to do this, but I knew that I had to have Chloe looked at. I took him in and found out that his face had abscessed. They said that they would have to sedate him and cut his face open so that all of the infection could drain out. Yuck! However, all I could think about was how much is this going to cost?!? I know, I'm an awful pet owner. Luckily, the cost wasn't too bad ($160). I discovered this week that as much as we pretend to not be "animal" people or care that much about our cat...we really, really do! I should say, that "I" really do. Tim wanted to have the cat put "down." I've had to take Chloe back into the vet to get the wound reopened. I've also had to give him antibiotics twice a day and hot pack his face twice a day. Although having Chloe can be a big pain it really is worth it. I do love my cat no matter what terms I use to describe him (dumb, stupid, worthless, pain, etc.) I'm grateful to have Chloe around and happy that he is feeling better!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Wednesday, November 21st

We started celebrating the long weekend as soon as Payton got done with school on Wednesday. We met Tim for lunch at Cafe Rio and started stuffing ourselves in anticipation for the big day. Then we went over to Tim's parents house to see Andi, Jdub, Ashton & Brice who came in town for the long weekend. The boys were sooo excited to see their ONLY cousins, Ashton & Brice. It was so fun to see how much they have both changed since the last time we saw them. The kids had so much fun playing together all afternoon. After everybody else got done with work (with the exception of Ann & Kent who were still in Cancun), we went over to Eric & Jenny's new house. Andi & Jdub hadn't seen their new house and the rest of us had not seen their new dogs. We got Morellia's for dinner (since it is just seconds away from their house) and watched the kids (including Eric & Jenny's new children) goof off. The boys had fun with the boxing gloves, but as my Dad always says, "What starts in fun, ends in tears."





THANKSGIVING DAY (Thursday, November 22nd)

We all woke up bright & early. Tim went and played in a Turkey Bowl with family and friends while I stayed home and started baking. One of my favorite things to do during the holidays is cooking and baking. I think I'm also making up for lost time since I was sick for so long and HATED being in my kitchen. I was supposed to bring sweet potatoes & rolls to our Thanksgiving dinner. I decided to do 2 different kinds of sweet potatoes, rolls & 2 pumpkin pies. I had more fun preparing for Thanksgiving dinner than I did eating it. I'm so glad to be back in my kitchen again (and so is my family)! We had lunch at Tim's parents house at noon. I was so impressed with his Mom. His parents got off a plane from Cancun at midnight on Wednesday night and she had all the dinner ready to go just 12 hours later. That's impressive (or crazy)!! We had delicious food and a fun time hanging out with family. After we relaxed for a while, we did another one of our favorite Thanksgiving traditions. Tim's family and my family for the past 4 or 5 years have gone to see a movie every Thanksgiving. This year we saw, "Enchanted." It was a darling movie. We all enjoyed it! After the movie, we said goodbye to Tim's family and my family came over to our house to play "Rock Band" (thanks Clint!!) We ate more food and played "Rock Band" all night. It was so much fun! Becca is an amazing drummer, Clint is an "Expert" on the guitars, Tim & My Dad did pretty well on the guitars also. I was horrible at EVERYTHING, but had fun trying. I think I had the most fun singing! It was a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. I have so much to be thankful for and family is at the top of that list. I'm grateful that we got to spend the day with our family!








Friday, November 23rd

We got up and got our tree set up. This is typically the day that we put up all of our decorations, but since we have family in town we decided that we would rather spend the time with them. Payton & Parker woke up early asking to play with Ashton so we left the house early and went over to Tim's parent's house to hang out. We all went to Leatherby's for lunch and had yummy ice cream for dessert. I think I was more full today than I was on Thanksgiving!! We went back to Jones's and just let the boys play all afternoon. Tim and I snuck away for a little bit and did some shopping. We ate dinner with Tim's family and then headed home after a long day of hanging out! I finished decorating the tree while Tim & Payton watched "Meet the Robinson's" and Parker slept.




GAME DAY (Saturday, November 24th)

We gave Tim's family a break and went over to my brother's house to watch the Utah/BYU game. Go UTES!!! We had fun eating lots of food, watching the game and playing "Rock Band" at half time. The day was going great until Utah lost it at the very end. Bummer!! Oh well, we played so more "Rock Band" to relieve our frustrations. We left and came back home. All of Tim's family came out to our house to hang out. We talked Clint & Becca into coming over also and bringing, "Rock Band" so that Tim's family could join in the fun! The rest is history...we played "Rock Band" until our fingers were numb and we couldn't see anymore. It was a lot of fun!!







Sunday, November 25th

We were so exhausted today!! We have been staying up too late at night and still getting up early. It's exhausting just hanging out all weekend. We loved seeing Andi, Jdub, Ashton & Brice, but wish that we could see them more often so that we didn't have to cram it all into one weekend. The boys love playing with Ashton! We all slept in a little this morning and then after church, we went over to Jones's for lunch with the Wrights before they headed back to lovely Bullhead, AZ!! We hung out at Jones's for awhile after we said our goodbye's. Then we came home and put up some more Christmas decorations. What a weekend!!

13 reasons I love November 13th!!

I just have to report that I am having an amazing week. I haven't felt this way in awhile so I thought that it was newsworthy. I am feeling so much like myself again. I haven't felt sick since last friday...wow!! (I know that this is soooo cheesy, but I'm so excited to be feeling this great!!!!!)

Here are 13 reasons that I am SOO happy today, November 13th:

1. My house is clean and has stayed clean for 4 whole days now!

2. I got to go out on a date with Tim this past weekend. We went to dinner and the Jazz Game with friends...it was so much fun to get out of the house and actually enjoy myself the whole time (instead of feeling sick and wanting to go home).

3. Sunday morning we made it to church on time for the first time since we switched to 8:00 am church.

4. Instead of feeling sick all day on Sunday...I felt the spirit!!

5. I made homemade rolls to take to dinner at my Grandparent's. While in the kitchen baking the rolls and listening to the "Wicked" soundtrack, I got to watch my boys (Tim, Payton & Parker) play soccer in the family room.

6. I got to have a wonderful dinner at my Grandparent's house and enjoy time with my family this past weekend.

7. Yesterday morning I woke up early and actually got myself ready for the day before 10:00 a.m.

8. I got soooo many things accomplished yesterday (helped with Parker's play school, finished all of my laundry, grocery shopping, balanced the checkbook, made dinner, prepared family home evening, got Payton's haircut, delivered some things for Primary, etc., etc.) Lately, I haven't accomplished that much in a whole week.

9. I enjoyed a (somewhat) wonderful family home evening with my family last night. (If Parker wasn't there it would have been perfect. He has reverence issues.)

10. I actually stayed up with Tim last night and watched some tv shows (instead of falling asleep before 10:00).

11. Today I got to volunteer in Payton's class at school, which he LOVES and so do I.

12. Tim & I got to go to the Temple this afternoon!!

13. I've got dinner baking in the oven and I'm ready to enjoy a fun night with my family.

Here are a couple pictures that we just took with my awesome photo booth program (per Payton's request). See how happy we are!!!

Samantha's Baby Blessing

This past Sunday, Brett & Camille blessed their new baby, Samantha. The blessing was wonderful! They are the nicest friends. They asked their Bishop if they could bless their baby last (there were 2 other baby's being blessed) because I was doing sharing time and we were worried we wouldn't make it right on time. Luckily, we made it before their church even started. I just thought it was sweet to care that much if we were there. Thanks guys!! After the blessing we went back to their house for a yummy lunch. It's always fun to visit with Brett & Camille's families. After everyone left, we were trying to take some pictures of Brett, Camille, Makenna & Samantha. However, Makenna didn't want to be in the pictures with her family, but Parker did. Makenna wanted to take a picture with just her baby sister and Payton. It was pretty funny! We had a good time watching the kids play together. I also had to post a picture of some of Camille's cute decorations. She did brown tablecloths, with pink roses in vases and pine cones for decoration. It was darling!

Blessings

November is the month that we celebrate our blessings and everything we are thankful for. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to truly be grateful for so many things. I realized how blessed I am and how much I often take for granted.

I am now 14 weeks pregnant (15 weeks tomorrow). The past 10 weeks have been a challenge for me. I have been extremely sick. On Sunday evening we got home from Tim's parents house and (without going into too much detail) I went to the bathroom and noticed I was bleeding. I knew that this was not normal for the second trimester. However, it was after hours and I couldn't call my doctor's office until the morning so I had a very, very long night of worrying, praying, pleading, hoping and being grateful for what I already had in my life. When morning FINALLY came, I called the doctor's office (as I was still bleeding) and they immediately scheduled an ultrasound for me....that's when I lost it...I knew this was serious. I was trying to be prepared for the worst (knowing that I would not be able to handle it) and at the same time I was pleading with my Heavenly Father for the best outcome. There were so many emotions running through my head as I drove to my appointment. I went into the ultrasound appointment, laid down on the table, and the woman started the exam. The first words she said were, "There's the heartbeat." I couldn't believe it! I've never been so grateful to see a little tiny heart beating. I was so overwhelmed with gratitude. I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers.

I'm sure that Heavenly Father has given me difficult pregnancies so that I can learn to rely on him. I've never prayed so much and had so much faith in my life than when I am pregnant. My first true testimony of prayer came when I was pregnant with Payton and having many complications. Since then I have relied on prayer through Parker's pregnancy and now through this pregnancy. I know that if we have faith and rely on our Heavenly Father that we will be blessed. I realized yesterday that I am grateful for difficult pregnancies. It truly helps me be grateful for the many blessings that I have. I'm grateful to already have 2 healthy, beautiful boys. I'm grateful to have an amazing and supportive husband. I'm grateful for my testimony of prayer. I'm grateful that I can rely on my Heavenly Father to get me through hard times. I'm grateful for the priesthood. I'm grateful that I can call upon the power of the priesthood to receive blessings of healing and comfort. I'm grateful to be surrounded by many worthy priesthood holders that can exercise that power. I'm also grateful for the overwhelming support that I receive from family and friends. I have soo many blessings and soo many things to be thankful for during this month of Thanksgiving.

Oh yes, one more thing...I'm thankful to be having another BOY!! The minute I saw the ultrasound picture (below) my heart skipped a beat. I knew it was another boy. The ultrasound technician said that she wasn't ready to tell me for sure because it's still early, but she would bet her paycheck that when we come back for our next appointment it will be a boy. Looking at the picture, and having two other boys, I'd have to say it definitely looks like a boy to me. In the picture you can see the stomach, the legs crossed and the little "turtle" in between the legs. I am so grateful and happy to be having another boy! The other ultrasound picture is a profile of the baby's head, stomach and you can see his little leg tucked underneath him. Isn't life beautiful?!

Profile...

It's a boy...

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was wonderful this year! We started out the day with a party at Payton's school. I got to be in charge of the Halloween party that his class had. It was fun to plan, but I didn't do much else. All of the parents helped with the activities and they did such an awesome job!

They decorated sugar cookies...

Listened to one of the Mom's tell stories...

Waited in line for the bean bag toss...

They had to search for prizes in this guy's stomach...yuck!



After the all the fun activities in the classroom we got to watch the kids walk around in the traditional parade. They did one just for the AM Kindergarten kids. Pretty exciting!

This is Parker & Kyle waiting for the parade to start...

This is our Stake President (or is it Yoda?)...


After we got done with the school activities we went home and took a little break. I let the kids watch a scary halloween movie, "Monsters, Inc." while I made cheese soup and rolls. Then we had to go over to my Grandparents house to trick-or-treat.

Trick-or-Treat...

Payton as Boba Fett & Parker as Yoda


We came back home and headed out trick-or-treating with some of our neighbor friends. Tim took the kids out while I stayed home to hand out candy and feed our family. Tim's family & my family came out to enjoy soup and bring the kids some extra special treats (I didn't think that you gave gifts on Halloween?!?) What a great day!!

Happy Birthday, Jenny!

We've had a fun week of celebrating birthday's. This past tuesday was my sister-in-law, Jenny's birthday. We went out to eat at Tepenyaki to celebrate. Payton & Parker loved it!! It is the greatest place to take kids. If it wasn't so expensive we would do it more often. They loved the big fire. Payton thought it burned his eyebrows off. Parker was mesmerized the whole time. At one point, the guy pretended to throw mustard on Payton (it was just a string that came out of the bottle). Payton was pretty disgusted, but later he said that was his favorite part. We had a really fun night out with the Jones's and the Taylor's. We love Jenny and are glad that she keeps Eric in line. Happy Birthday!

Halloween Party

On Monday we had a Halloween Party for Parker's play school. Payton was out of school for UEA so he got to come to the party also. My friend that hosted the party did an amazing job. There were so many cute activities for the kids to enjoy. Payton & Parker loved it!

Happy Birthday, Becca!

We had all of my family over to our house on Sunday to celebrate my sister-in-law, Becca's, Birthday! It's been awhile since we had everyone over. It was great to finally feel well enough to be a hostess again...that's how I know I'm starting to feel more like myself. I love my sister-in-law, Becca. She fits into our family so well. Thanks for being a great sis...Happy Birthday!

Cottonwood Football Statisticians

I have to blog about my husband's second "job." Tim & my brother, Clint, do stats for Cottonwod High School's football team. Although I went to CHS (and my husband did not) he would definitely be considered a Cottonwood Colt more than I would. He does stats for the basketball team and the football team. He tries to act like it's a "job," but really it's a hobby. He LOVES it! I try to go to a couple games and support the Colts (and the stats guys). We went to the playoff game this past Saturday and I got some pictures of Tim & Clint in action. They look so important down there on the field. They've made some great friends, the booster club president, the writer for the SL Tribune, and a few other groupies that love to talk about stats. Go Colts!!

My Mom (she teaches at CHS & is the biggest fan), my sister Erika & Payton

Tim & Clint are the two guys on the right side of the picture

Check out all the action on the field

The statisticians & their fans!