And then there were four!!!!

Quick update and some cute kitties

2010-07-19T06:20:00.000-07:00

I'm an awful blogger I know...I'm so sorry for not writing sooner and more frequently. I feel like I hardly have time to breath some days lol. But life is going really well!!! I have had some experiences that I consider Heavenly Fathers tender mercy's for me. One of them being my calling as a primary teacher for the 9 year olds. It's been one of the most trying callings I've ever had, but these kids are amazing and are teaching me every week. He knew where I needed to be and that I needed a calling that gave me time for my family. It looks like we're going to start looking to buy a house too. I don't know how, but I found a program that will help us get a house. it's like heavenly father just put the web site infront of me and said look into this!!! I feel very blessed.

Now onto the important stuff...Sydney did her first day of nursery yesterday!!!! I think she did pretty well...no one brought her out to us so at least she wasn't freaking out. lol. I can't believe that she's 18 months!!! She's finally getting some more teeth too haha she has 4 front teeth on top and her molars are starting to come through (big gap between front teeth and molars) and 3 teeth in the front bottom and her bottom molars are just starting to barely cut through. so she kinda has 11 teeth alaura had 16 teeth at 12 months!!! She still has trouble chewing hard foods. She's starting to talk alot too!!! She's acting like a big girl!

Alaura is obsessed with being a ballerina. She wants to take ballet classes because it the pretty kind of dancing and the other kind of dancing isn't her thing LOL Looks like I'll be teaching preschool to her on my own this year, because we're trying to find ways to cut back on our budget to help with a house payment. I'm ok with it though because this is the last year before she starts school 5 days a week so I'll enjoy her while i can.

I got a gym membership too!!! I started at Body exchange but moved over to In Shape City. I LOVE it. I went through withdrawls this weekend when I couldn't make it :) The girls do the child care while I work out. Alaura LOVES it but Syd is less convinced of the awesomeness!!! We'll get there though. Also looks like we wont be making it to Utah for the Twede reunion this summer :( But we're hoping to make it there later this year. I'm really bummed but there are just too many things keeping us from going. We've prayed about it and feel ok about the decision. I'm very sad but it's ok.

I'm going to try taking pics of the girls again soon to post till then here a a couple silly ones of the girls and Leyna being kitties :)

Meow!!!

I like hoding my shoes not wearing them!!!

Syd has to be front and center!!! :)

Alaura dressed herself...tights in 100 degree weather!!!!!

I'm not sure what they're looking at, but it's not me!!!

Alauraisms

2010-06-05T16:45:00.000-07:00

Alaura- Brrr mom I'm cold!
Me- You're cold? Go get a blankie.
Alaura- I need to go swimming, the water should be warm by now.

Alaura in the car- brr mom I'm so cold...I'm as cold as a chicken.
Me- As cold as a chicken huh?
Alaura- Ya chickens are always cold.

Alaura- You put on a dress and a crown walk on the flowers and say words then you're married after you dance. The Anniversary is where you eat after.

Alaura- This is the side of the bed for girls and that side is for the boys.
Syd lays on the "boy side"
Alaura- I guess she just wants boy germs. The middle is the kid spot so I'll stay here.

My parents drove in to town from Utah, all morning alaura kept bugging me about how much longer it was going to be.
Alaura- When are they going to be here?
Me- soon
Alaura- But when? Are they done driving in the Utah mountains?
Me- Ya, I think they're in the California mountains now.
Alaura-OK good at least they're in California finally
A while later
Alaura-How much longer now?
Me- I don't know why don't you call them and find out
She calls. after hanging up:
Alaura- 10 min. Set the timer for 10 min and when it goes off they better be here!!!

She's so spunky!!!

A terrible horrible no good very bad birthday!!!

2010-03-14T12:04:00.000-07:00

Alaura's 4th Birthday was Thursday!!! Unluckily she had the stomach flu. It all started Tuesday when I picked her up from preschool, her teacher told me that she had been acting under the weather all day. We got home and she slept most of the afternoon while I tried to get ready for Camie's Baby shower at my house that evening. Sydney had a bad cold and was being very clingy, and I was wondering how in the world I was going to get everything ready!!! About an hour before the shower started Alaura started complaining that her tummy hurt, then threw up all over the couch and rug in the living room...where we were having the shower in an hour!!!!! Poor baby was laying on her back when she threw up and it was in her eyes up her nose and all through her hair. Eric grabbed her and tried to keep as much as possible off the couch. After giving her a bath and back into pajamas he took her out to get some saltine crackers and things to settle her tummy while also keeping her away from the guests at the shower. We warned all of them and they chose to stay...I sure hope no one gets sick.

That night she threw up a few more times. Wednesday we kept her on clear fluids and she seemed to be getting over it. But that night she woke up throwing up again. By morning she was dry heaving and throwing up bile. Unluckily this was her birthday and it just got worse. She hadn't actually eaten anything since Monday evening and starting to get really weak. She kept crying and telling me that her whole body was so thirsty. I tried to get her to sip water a teaspoon at a time but she kept throwing it back up. by 3:00 I was really getting scared. She kept falling asleep and I couldn't get her to wake up very well. So, I called the Dr and they had us come in at 6:30, I had a feeling they would need to do an IV to get some fluids in her but figured that it wouldn't be more than a couple hours so I told Eric to come and just bring Sydney with us.

We got there and got in pretty quick. When the nurse weighed alaura she had lost a little over 4 lbs!!! That's 10 % of her body weight and she was looking thinner and soooooo pale. The dr saw us and agreed that she needed and IV. Alaura was not happy at all about having to be poked!!! She kept holding her arm and saying "ow ow oooowww!!! I don't want a shot!!! Owwwey!!" Keep in mind that they hadn't even touched her yet. So around 7:30 the nurses were ready to start the IV.

I layed down in the bed with her and wrapped my my legs around her and held her down in a way that seemed like we were cuddling. It took them a while to find the vein they wanted to use. Poor baby was really worked up and crying and trying to flail around. Unluckily they couldn't get it in and when they finally did it busted and they had to start over. :( She got braver the second time. They moved to the other arm on her hand. Eric and Sydney were standing next to us and Eric had Alaura squeeze his finger with her free hand as hard as she could...this seemed to distract her a little while they moved the needle around trying to get it in...unluckily she has my veins which means that they roll, disappear and break like crazy. I never leave without bruises all over me either. So they had to start for a third time, She was getting angry by this point and telling the nurses to stop poking her. They tried the arm of the hand they had just tried. She squeezed my hand and talked to me while they worked on her, unluckily the third time was not a charm. SO they gave up and gave her a shot. 20 minutes later they gave her a pedi-pop and then the lab came in to poke her again to get blood to see how dehydrated she was.

This picture is of alaura getting her blood drawn...she was much happier with the popcicle LOL

After getting the butterfly needle in, the original nurse decided that they would run the IV fluids through the butterfly needle. They stabilized her arm and taped it straight so the needle wouldn't poke back through. She had to keep her arm straight like that for a few hours.

Syd got a pedi pop too!!! She would not fall asleep...it was midnight before we left and she fell asleep. ( she still woke up at 6:00 the next morning too)
Once the Dr got the lab results back from the blood and urine tests she wanted to have her transported to a hospital to get fluids through the night, unluckily the needle in her arm was not something she could be transported with, they would have to remove it then redo it again at the hospital...I don't think she would have handled that very well so we asked to keep her hooked up as long as possible and have her re evaluated at midnight before making the final decision.
By this point Alaura was very tired and grumpy. She kept getting woken up and they made her move to the adult holding area which she didn't like. She got pretty mad at the nurses. She told one to "just get out of here and leave me alone!!!" She kept saying " This is the worst check up ever" and "This is the worst Dr ever" among other things.

We had a different dr check us out and she felt that alaura was fine to go home and return first thing the following morning. They sent us home with a prescription for some anti nausea medication that we picked up at midnight on our way home. Needless to say it was a horrible birthday. The next morning she ate a little bit, kept down water and Gatorade and got thumbs up from the dr. She kept saying "please don't poke me again, no more shots." When we left she said "mom this was a good check up!!! No shots!!!"

First Birthday Pictures...

2010-02-13T21:27:00.000-08:00

I finally got Sydney's first birthday pics done!!! These are unedited, but I think they're still cute!!! I'll edit them and repost them later.

Sisters

2010-02-11T20:15:00.000-08:00

It was a beautiful sunny day today. After being sick for a week it was great to go outside and play!!! Here are some pictures of my beautiful girls. They love eachother so much!!!!

Sweet Sydney!!!

Look at that big girl standing!!!

Beautiful Alaura!!

Sydney Brooke Olsen (this post isn't finished lol)

2010-02-11T15:24:00.000-08:00

My baby is one!!!! I can't believe it!!! We celebrated her birthday at home with 40 of our closest friends and family! LOL It was a blast!

Let me tell you about my little monkey!!!
She is 21lbs and 29 inches (both are in the 50th percentile)
Syd doesn't like to talk if you ask her to or if she knows people are listening lol But i'm always listening. Here's a list of what I've heard her say when she didn't know...

Mamma
Dadda
Alaura (Awa)
Baby (baba)
Bath (ba)
Ball (ba)
Bye bye
Eye
Ear
Nose
Diaper
Milk
No
More
Goat (most animals are goat)
Dog

Ooooo (not really a word I know but she says it all the time lol)

She also knows:
eye
ear
nose
mouth
hair
hand
foot
fingers

She comprehends pretty much anything we say to her and answers yes and no questions. She is a girl of few words yet comunicates very well LOL Its funny to see.

As of her first birthday she isn't walking yet but we know she's very close to doing it. The moment she decides she's ready she'll do it. Syd know's what she wants and when she wants it! And she is not afraid to let you know!!! I love her so much. Her and Alaura have so much fun together. I don't think there is anything as amazing as watch my girls play together (except maybe watching them try to wrestle Daddy) they love eachother so much!! They fight like cats and Dogs but they are also best friends!! I can't imagine our lives without Sydney!!! It feels like she's always been a part of it!

Happy New Years!!!!

2010-02-11T15:20:00.000-08:00

We have such an amazing group of friends!!! It was so fun having everyone over here for new Years Eve! We ate lots of good food, laughed lots lit fire works and I backed into our friends car!!! What a way to end one of the toughest years of our lives!!! 2010 is going to be so much better I KNOW IT!!!!

Pictures to come soon

December 2009

2010-02-11T15:19:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas...2 months ago...also coming soon...man I'm gonna be busy

November

2010-02-11T15:18:00.002-08:00

You guessed it, comming soon...

October

2010-02-11T15:18:00.001-08:00

Also Coming soon...

September

2010-02-11T15:17:00.001-08:00

...Coming soon...

Where has all the time gone!!!

2009-12-08T20:44:00.000-08:00

Wow!!! I can't believe how long its been since the last time I did a post! I'm so sorry! We've been very busy!!! Syd is already 10 1/2 months old!!!! She's been crawling for 3 months! She army crawled for the longest time!!! Silly girl. Now she pulls herself up to stand on everything!!! She'll walk any day. Alaura is LOVING school! She's growing so fast! They both had Dr apts recently, Alaura is 41 inches and 40 lbs Syd is 28 1/2 inches and 19 lbs!!! I can't believe how big they are. We just moved this past weekend so life is very crazy. But I promise to post pics later this week!!!

Denise's Wedding

2009-08-19T09:32:00.000-07:00

July 18 2009

My Best Friend Denise got married in Paso Robles. I was her Matron of honor. It was so exciting to be there for her!!! Alaura still talks about her pretty dress and the wedding. I tried to snap a few pictures here and there, but its hard to get really good pictures when you aren't the photographer...they never look at you. lol!!!

Happy fourth of July!!!

2009-08-19T09:01:00.001-07:00

We went to Shafter to watch the fireworks on July 3rd. We brought doughnuts and layed out our blanket and just hung out til they started. It was really relaxing!!! The firework show was pretty good too. Both girls were overwhelmed by the noise at first but they got used to it after a while and loved them!!!

We ate breakfast at the church in the morning. The High priests were in charge of it this year...Pancakes Bacon and Tang! lol. We went across the street and did fireworks with some neighbors that night. Alaura LOVED the sparklers and Syd slept through all of it! Unluckily I didn't take any pictures that day. I also never got pictures of the girls in the adorable bows Aunt Camie made for them. Thank you Camie.

Fathers Day Pictures!

2009-08-19T08:07:00.000-07:00

These are the pictures that I took of the girls for all of the wonderful Fathers in our lives.

Catching up

2009-08-18T15:06:00.000-07:00

I was going through pics on my hard drive and found these pics I never posted.

The girls in their Easter dresses

Leyna's one year pictures

My friend Amanda's little girl Taylor.

cell phone pictures.

2009-07-20T20:32:00.000-07:00

I thought that it might be about time I unload the pictures from my phone!

Look how cute these girls are!! They love each other so much!!!

Alaura at the park before syd was born. We love the park!!!

My Girls!!! Look how tiny syd is!!!

We got rear ended a couple months ago.

Look at those chubby cheeks!!!

I love her smile!!!

Holding herself up so well!

3 months old. So beautiful!

This is my Alaura. She's such a character!

She was not a fan of the peas!

A beanie during the summer!!!

First time on a swing!

Love that face!!!

2009-07-09T14:20:00.001-07:00

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Talented little girls

2009-06-23T15:49:00.000-07:00

June 1st

This is a showcase of the many talents of my silly girls

First....Drum roll please!!!!! Sydney rolled over!!!!!

I layed her down when we had some friends over for dinner and she rolled over! It was pretty exciting! I've known for a while that she could, she just wouldn't. That same night she slept 6 hrs through the night!!!

This is from my cell phone so the quality is bad. Syd laughed at 4 months old and I finally got a video of It. Alaura makes her laugh soo hard!!!!

Eric gets a kick out of balancing sydney...she's pretty good at it too!!!

Her smile is beautiful!!!

Alaura can do it too...LOL

Some pictures my talented 3 year old took!!!

Look at that big girl drinking out of a sippy cup!!!

Sisters

2009-06-23T11:25:00.000-07:00

May 28th-29th

Alaura got ahold of a marker and colored all over her arms...she walked up very proud of herself "I made my arms beautiful!!!"

Sydney LOVES Being naked. I walked in the living room the other day and saw Alaura helping Sydney out of her clothes...LOL

Blowing raspberries on her belly!!!!

Happy little girl!!!

Alaura LOVES making tents and clubhouses in the living room...as a result this is what my living room looks like alot!!!

Hanging out!!!

Happy Birthday Leyna!!!

2009-05-28T16:31:00.001-07:00

May 21st 2009

Leyna's Birthday Party was Thursday. It was at Chuck E Cheese!!! We had fun eating Pizza, catching up with friends playing games and watching Leyna blow out her candles and open presants. I can't Believe that it was a year ago that she came into our lives!!! We love her so much!!! She's such a sweetie!!!!

What a cute family...I don't know about you but I think they need to add another kiddo to the mix!!!!!! :0)

Blowing out the candle

Presents from Mamma, Baba, Jami, Lyndsey, Courtney, Caiden and Us!!! Alaura and I did lots of wrapping!!!

The dress, eye spy bag and Bow holder I made for her

The hats Alaura made for them!! I hear Leyna woke up this morning and pointed to it wanting to wear it!!! Good present Alaura!

Stroller from Jami, Lyndsey and Courtney (She LOVES baby dolls)

Bubbles from Caiden

Mamma and Baba's present

Happy Birthday Leyna!!!!

Camping and my eye!!!!

2009-05-28T16:06:00.000-07:00

May 16th-21st 2009

Eric took time off from work because my eye got horribly infected and I was in a lot of pain. While he was home he and Alaura went camping in the back yard!!

He called in sick and stayed home to help out with the girls and spend some time with me!!!

Isn't that eye hot!!!

It got worse!!! In fact at the worst point I couldn't open my eye!!! It was dark purple and pussing all over my Eye!!! Yucky!!! It hurt really really really bad!!! There were two puss pockets!!!! I went into the Dr finally and got an antibiotic.

Anyone hungry?!?

John's Incredible Pizza

2009-05-28T15:55:00.000-07:00

May 13th 2009

We went to John's Incredible Pizza to celebrate Mothers Day and Eric's Birthday...Eric and Alaura have Fun cards there, and you get in for free on your birthday month and Alaura got a pass in the mail to bring her mommy for free! We paid for Alaura to eat ($4) and we all got to have dinner and play for a little while! Of course it wouldn't be the same if Camie Juan and Leyna weren't there!!!! We all had fun!!!

I didn't get a picture of it, but Alaura burned her arm there with steam reaching for a cookie!!! I think it's going to scar. I never did talk to someone about it though...

Happy Mothers Day!!!!

2009-05-28T15:47:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful Mothers Day!!! Alaura gave me a hand print she made at school and the cutest book. She made it at school too. It was all about me...apparently my favorite food is cereal, and I like it when Alaura picks flowers and I'm special because I go to church among other things. Eric let me sleep in, he woke up and got Syd for me at night, let me soak in the tub, made me french toast ( I love his french toast!!!) and let me relax all day after church!!! Then we went to Mom and Dad Olsen's for dinner and had tri tip...it was an honest effort ;0) thank you for a wonderful mothers day honey!!!

Me and my Girls!!!

Even though it's late I want to wish a Happy Mothers Day to our Moms. We love you both!!! Happy Mother's day to Grandmas too!! We Love all of you!!!!! And a special First Happy Mothers Day to Camie!!!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!! Disneyland

2009-05-28T14:47:00.000-07:00

May 5th and 6th 2009

We went to Disneyland for Erics Birthday!!! It was probably more for me and the girls...OK it was definitely more for us, but he had fun too!!!!

Happy Birthday Honey!!!

We got to our hotel at midnight and this is what our girls looked like when we got there...They wanted to go to Disneyland!!!!!!

In front of the pretty flowers

Us girls with Goofy

Alaura and Minnie Mouse

Alaura had fun playing the water in the bugs life section of California adventure.

Camie and Juan and Mom and Dad Olsen and Brittany were all there too!! We ran into mom and dad and they took the girls to Playhouse Disney so Eric and I could go on The Tower of Terror...So Fun!!!!! Thanks Mom and Dad!!! We watched the Pixare parade with Leyna while Camie and Juan went on a couple of rides. The parade was pretty cool!

We ended our day with Dinner in Disneyland...Clam chowder Baby!!!!

Day 2

The first ride we went on was Space mountain...and Eric took Alaura on it!!!! She was such a big girl!!! It scared her pretty good though. Eric told her that they were going to go on a fun rocket ride where you look at the stars and lift up your arms and say "wee this is fun". So they got on and up they went. Alaura was holding on to the lap bar and every now and them she would lift her hands up ad say "wee this is fun" then grab the bar again. But, by the second turn she turned to Eric and said "K, I'm all done now" and repeated it while she held on for dear life. The rest of the day any time we asked her if she wanted to go on a ride she would immediately ask "is it a roller coaster? I don't want to go on a roller coaster" Poor Baby!!!

Alaura loved these Mickey benches!!!

I Even went on the Tea cups with Alaura!!!!

Syd wasn't very excited to ride the carousel

Alaura liked it so much she decided to kiss it!!!!

Alaura really liked petting the goats and sheep and Big Thunder Ranch or whatever it was called.(At least she didn't kiss them!!!)

Chip n Dale

Aladdin and Jasmin

Daddy and Sissy ( Have I mentioned that he's an amazing Daddy!?!)

Family Picture before heading home

Tricks, school and toys

2009-05-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

May 1st 2009

This is Sydney and Daddy's new trick. She thinks it pretty great!! My little Buddha baby!!!

This week for school they're working on the letter "U" They had a homework assignment to make a box of the things "Under my Bed" Here's how Alaura's turned out:

"Princess Alaura's Bed"

We found all kinds of things under all the beds in our house and she cut out pictures from magazines and we made little things too...

This was Alaura's favorite toy when she was Sydney's age too...Sydney LOVES it!!!!!!

Big Sister and Sissy

2009-05-28T11:59:00.000-07:00

The end of April

Alaura took to calling Sydney "Sissy" a while ago and we now refer to her as Sissy at least as much as Sydney. She was also very adamant that she be called big sister, So here are pictures of two of the loves of my life, Big Sister and Sissy

Sissy LOVES sucking her thumb. She took to it and puts her self to sleep with it all the time. We LOVE it almost as much as she does...I am aware that it'll probably be a fight later, but right now it's a lifesaver!!!! And it's just so stinkin' cute!!!!

Her roots are coming in soooooo Blonde just like her Big Sister

What goof balls they are. Sissy thinks her big sister is the funniest person ever!!!

What a great Big Sister!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Camie!!!!

2009-05-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

April 13

Camie's Birthday was on Monday following Easter. We all went to Chili's to celebrate...We LOVE Chili's

And Leyna loves bones!!!! Ribs that is!!!

Wink wink!!

What a good Daddy!!!!Cute smile Juan!!!

Leyna and Camie blowing out the candle

Happy Birthday Camie!!!!

It's so nice having them here to hang out with!!! We love you guys!!!

Easter!!!

2009-05-11T08:11:00.000-07:00

April 9, 2009

We had Camie Juan and Leyna over on the Thursday before easter and had a yummy ham and "funeral potatoes" dinner. Then we did an easter egg hunt.

Alaura and Leyna getting ready to find those eggs!!!

Sydney wants to get in on the action too!!!
Alaura practically climed into the bushes to get the eggs
Not the best picture, but here are Sydney and me.
Leyna took a break from the egg hunt to slide!

Leyna got the hang of it really quick!!!

Alaura was finding eggs all over the place!!!

She was really serious about getting those eggs!!!!

Here are a couple family pictures.

April 12, 2009

On Easter mornig while Sydney was sleeping Alaura woke up and looked High and low for her easter basket...

But eventually she found it!!!

Here's Sydney with her easter stuff ( I can't get the computer to turn it the right way)

Pinewood Derby race!!!

2009-05-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

March 27, 2009

Eric's Dad is a counselor the Singles Branch presidency at church. And they had a pinewood derby recently. Well one of the perks of Dad being in the presidency is that Eric and Alaura got to race cars too!!!

Eric didn't have much time to work on the cars, but he did a great job and Alaura had a great time helping him!!!

I love their faces in this picture!!!

Here are most of the cars that raced I think 2 or 3 more showed up later. Dad's is the orange one, Alaura's is the yellow one with a heart and Eric's is the black and blue one...oh yeah and Brittany and Lynette raced two of Eric's cars from a past race...the yellow and red ones on the bottom left corner.

Here's Alaura's beautiful car!!!

Getting ready to race!!!

Alaura's car beat Papa's, But Daddy's car beat them all!!!

Here are Dad and Alaura shocked that Eric one! LOL

Thanks for inviting us Mom and Dad!!!

Happy Birthday Alaura!!!!!

2009-04-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

march 11, 2009

Alaura's 3!!!

I can't believe that my baby girl is already three!!!!!!!!! She's gonna be a teenager before I know it. Let me tell you about her.

She LOVES preschool, friends, family (especially her sister) and anything SWEET!!! In preschool Alaura's learning everything she can. She loves writing, painting and coloring. She loves learning new songs and sings all the time. She can count to 50 and recognizes numbers up to 20 and all of her ABC's.

As a two year old she was sooooo picky about what she ate...as a three year old she's less picky, but I think this may be the year of tantrums! LOL. She just really knows what she wants. It's so fun to watch her personality develop.

She's already asking me when we're going to have another baby!!! She loves Sydney so much she's ready to add in another little sister (or brother) I told her that as soon as Daddy's ready we'll have another one ;)

Her hair is sooooo long and beautiful. When it's down it comes to her waist band of her pants!!! Although her friend Chloe cut her hair recently so now Alaura wants to cut her hair...I don't want her to, but we'll see what happens. She's in love with anything princess or girly. She LOVES playing dress up and putting on makeup!!!

For her birthday she had a little party at preschool with ice cream and sprinkles!!!
That night we went to John's Incredible pizza with her buddy Landon and Camie and Leyna even came to party with us! They had a lot of fun, but Camie has all of the pictures because I left my camera in the car. I'll have to get them from her. All in all I think Alaura had a great birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRINCESS ALAURA!!!!

Shots n stuff

2009-04-30T10:28:00.000-07:00

On March 11th (Alaura's Birthday) I took the girls in for there 2 month and three year checkups. I don't think I'll be doing that again. Alaura was a little behind on her shots so she had to get two of the three she needed (I know, shot's on her Birthday ...Good one Mom!!!!) and they wanted to give Sydney three too, but I told them they could give her one shot and the oral one. Unluckily Alaura always got REALLY sick when she got her shots so I've decided that with Sydney I'm limiting it one in each leg every other month till she's done. Unluckily Sydney got pretty sick and didn't keep much down for a few days. But Alaura seemed to do ok.

The Dr said that both of them are doing fantastic for their age groups.

Here are their stats

Alaura

38 1/2 inches

34 1/2 lbs

Both placing her in the 50th percentile for her age (I'm not sure if that's accurate or not but that's what she said

Sydney

23 1/2 inches

11.13 lbs

her head is 15 inches

All placing her in the 90th percentile for her age

Here are some pictures of them the following morning.

Alaura got a kids camera for Christmas...yet I still find TONS of pictures like this on my camera

She also discovered the art of self portraits (thanks Aunt Camie)

A very busy week!!!!!

2009-04-28T09:30:00.000-07:00

We wrapped up February with the arrival of My family on Friday night the 27th and Alaura's Birthday party on the Saturday, followed by Sydney's blessing on Sunday, my stent removal on Monday and Disneyland on Tuesday and Wednesday...So here are pictures from all of that...

Alaura wanted a princess party and this is what it looked like

We had it at a park and did hot dogs, pasta salad and fruit for lunch

Doesn't that hot dog look tasty!!!

Making "princess play dough" (mixing glitter into playdough)

Alaura and I made crowns for all of the kiddos

Leyna in her crown

Decorating cupcakes

and EATING them ofcourse

Sydney and my Dad chillin'

Opening presents

I forgot to take a picture before, but this is where we had the party...didn't Eric do a great job with the streamers!?!?!

I don't know if you can tell, but the sign said

"PRINCESS P N R T Y" LOL

Happy Birthday Alaura!!!!

Sydney's blessing was on Sunday here's our families afterward

As you can see she was not happy outside. It was windy and cold and she hates both!!!

So here are some pictures I took of her when she was inside and a little bit happier... I need to edit some later, but for now here are some pics of her in the dress that I bought in Utah and embellished with old wedding veils and satin ribbon.

After Sydney's blessing we went home, got changed and took a new family picture since The kiddos are growing so fast and Sydney's here now.

We ran home right after taking the pictures and cooked Alaura's birthday dinner...Pancakes, eggs, hashed browns and OJ. We had 16 people over to eat. Eric was awesome with all the pancakes he made!!!!

Then we sang to Alaura again and she opened presents from the family and ate her princess castle cake.

Monday morning my Mom came with me to the urologist to have my stent removed...I was so scared about how badly it would hurt and If I would be ok to go Disneyland the next day...It hurt pretty bad when he put the scope in, but it was soooo worth it. By the next morning I had passed the rest of the stone fragments and I felt sooo much better than I had in 3 months.

Everyone, but my Mom, left Monday afternoon.

Jami with the girls since this will probably be the last time she'll see the girls before she leaves on her mission to San Jose. We're sooo excited for her to go on her mission but we'll miss her...although she wont be all that far from us...

Lyndsey and Caiden

Tuesday morning we woke up, loaded up the car and headed to Disneyland

Both of the girls did really well in the car too!!!

"A" for Alaura

"O" for Olsen

Alaura Jasmine and Aladin

Here's all of us in front of the castle

On the carousel

Everyone tried to pull the sword out if the stone...

But no luck...maybe next time

Alaura wouldn't let us leave with out going on her favorite ride

Eric had to go home that night to get ready for his three days of training. So we all stayed the night with Camie and Juan. They were so awesome and got a separate hotel room for Sydney and I because she was waking up every hour or so to eat...but that night she was great and only woke every two hours. We ate breakfast at the hotel the next morning, and while we were eating it started raining!!! So, we went to California Adventure in the rain...we had a good time, but unluckily we didn't take any pictures. I'm going to do another post about a scary experience we had there, but for now let's just say that we had a great time!!! The drive home was long and it was late since we waited until the girls all fell asleep before we left.

It was great having mom here with us for the week, but it was over very quickly and it was time for her to go home

We love you!!

And so ends our very busy week...

Catching up...

2009-03-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

We've been awful at taking pictures. But here are some of what we have taken.

Here's Sydney in the bathtub. Usually I just take her in the shower with me, so she's a month old in this picture and I think she's only taken a bath once since then. She loves the shower and baths because she loves warm water!!!

Here she is at one month old!!! What a beauty!!!

We had a hail storm in Early February. Alaura had so much fun running around and picking up the pieces of ice.

Here's Sydney at 6 weeks old at Alaura's Birthday party. (I'm going to do a separate post for that though)

7 weeks old This is Sydney's second favorite place to sleep second to someones arms :)

(Her swing)

The pics are a little blurry but here she is hanging out in her favorite place again...

and smiling!!!!

I just crack up at the face she's doing in this one. Don't you love those cheeks!!!! The girls love taking baths together

Alaura's first night gown...she loves it!!! Oh yeah, She has bangs again!!!!

Sydney's Birth Announcement

2009-03-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

Now that she's 2 months old...here's her birth announcement. I'm trying to mail them out ASAP...

Post's I'm working on

2009-03-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

Sydney's one month
My family visiting
Alaura's Birthday party
Sydney's blessing
Stent removal
Disneyland
Alaura's birthday
Dr visits
Pictures pictures pictures

My delivery story...finally

2009-02-23T19:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I figure that now that Sydney's 5 weeks old I should write my delivery story...the truth is i couldn't bring myself to relive it in detail until now because it was such a nightmare. I honestly remember the whole thing in slow motion and in a dark room...it wasn't until after I got home and talked with Eric about it that i realized that the whole thing happened very quickly and in a very well lit room.

I'll go ahead and start with Thursday morning at my Dr appointment. I made Eric come with me because I was afraid that my Dr wouldn't agree to induce me, and I wanted Eric there to "set him straight" luckily that wasn't necessary. My Dr already had me scheduled to go in around 5:00 to be induced that night. The plan was to start me on cervadil around 8:00 and hope that I progressed to at least a 2 preferably a 3 by 8:00 the next morning so he could break my water and hopefully deliver me a few hours later with an epidural (this was the main reason for induction as braxton hicks hurt my kidney horribley and contractions would be horrible with out an epidural)...sounds like a great plan right? Well here's how it happened...

We went in at 5:00 as planned and the on call Dr inserted the cervidel at 7:00 when she checked me prior to the cervidel I was dilated to a 2 1/2. (I was a 1 that morning) We didn't think much of it, I just thought that it was the difference in Dr's opinions. Looking back now, I should have for seen what happened. I'd been having really hard contractions for a few weeks, I just wasn't progressing. The cervidel is supposed to help your cervix soften so the contractions help you progress.

After she inserted it i had to lay flat for an hour which was extremely painful on my kidney not to mention I felt like I couldn't breath. But the hour finally ended. So, we settled in for the night, Eric had rented Get Smart, and we started watching it. My contractions started getting pretty hard, and I honestly don't remember the movie because I was just trying to stay very relaxed so I wouldn't hurt any more than necessary. After the movie (about 10:00) my nurse came in and gave me a shot of pain killer and 2 ambiens so I could sleep. Well, I felt great right after she gave me the pain medicine but within 15 minutes it started wearing off and my contractions were really hurting. The sleeping pills made me feel really loopy, but I couldn't fall asleep. They came in around 1:00 and my kidney and the contractions were really hurting bad. She checked me and I was only a 3 so she went and talked to the Dr and they decided that given my special circumstances they would give me the epidural then. So they got the fluids going and an hour later the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural. I remember being afraid that I wouldn't be able to hold still during it because I was hurting soooo bad. When he put the needle in I felt the most horrible grating feeling it was like feeling the way nails on a chalkboard sound. When he put the medicine in it hurt really really bad and sent this horrible pain down into my right leg ( It still hurts). I told him and he said that it was fine, turned on the drip, and left. They put in the catheter and that was a whole different experience with the epidural not working. after 30 minutes I still wasn't getting any pain relief, and my contractions and everything were getting really painful. Then they noticed that Sydney heart rate wasn't doing what it should be, so they put me on oxygen and told me I had to lay on my left side to help her heart rate. Now remember that my left side is the side that had the stone and stent, It was horrible!!!! I felt like I couldn't breath either. I kept taking the oxygen mask off and the nurse had to keep coming in to put it back on.

After another hour my pain still wasn't being relieved, so they called for the anesthesiologist again. He came in around 4 or 5 and gave me another shot of pain killer into my back and turned up the drip in the epidural. It made my right leg go numb from my thigh down, but nothing else. Once again they told me I had to lay on my left side. The nurse checked me and I was a 5. We called camie to let her know that I was a 5 and to plan on coming for the delivery around 8:00. They decided to go ahead and break my water in hopes that I would be ready to deliver when my Dr got in at 8:00. So at 6:00 or so the on call Dr came in and removed the cervidel which was almost unbearable, "Owwww" I said that alot. Then she broke my water and checked me again. "oh, you're a 7 now, you'll be ready to deliver as soon as your Dr gets here." The pain was horrible I was crying and trying with everything in me not lose it. I felt like I was being torn in half, the pain in my back was unbelievable. The dr turned to the nurse "She shouldn't be in this much pain with an epidural, somethings not right we need to get him in here to redo it!!" They both left to find him. With in a few minutes them leaving The pain hit me like running into a brick wall. I started yelling "somethings wrong I need someone in here!!!!" Then came the worst pain I've ever felt in life!!!! "I need to push!!!! Oh my gosh somethings wrong where's the Dr??????" Poor Eric was trying so hard to calm me down but my contractions were on top of each other and I really felt like I must have looked like one of those movies where someones possessed and they arch their backs in the most horrible looking ways. I felt like I was being folded into a pretzel and ripped apart. Finally my nurse came in and she saw me and ran and got the Dr. They didn't have any of the instruments set up or anything.

Like I said earlier I remember all of this in slow motion and as if I were in a very dimly lit room, and I felt like everyone was really far away. I remember hearing Eric's voice but it felt like he was soooo far away. They had me start pushing, I remember the nurse saying that she couldn't get my catheter out, so she had to pull on it really hard. I pushed a few times and after what felt like an eternity(it was only a minute) her head came out. She had me stop pushing for a sec because the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. After taking care of that I pushed once more and she was born at 6:41 am. They layed her on me for a second and I looked at her and then at Eric who was pale and looked like he was going cry (Which is huge because he never ever cries) Eric cut the cord (which I missed because I was trying to calm down.) Then they rushed her over to the little area to clean her up. Unluckily my pain didn't stop yet. I remember asking them over and over if she was ok and crying because I was still hurting and I was so traumatized and relieved at the same time. The Dr showed us her umbilical cord which had a knot in it. She said that sydney must have swam through it and tied it off at some point. But it didn't cut off her supply or anything. She had to stitch me up because I had torn pretty good, and I could feel each stitch!!! It was not enjoyable. They wrapped her up and gave her to me after a few minutes and we finally got some pictures of her. She was so perfect. But she wouldn't stop crying. In fact they couldn't get her body temperature up. so after trying skin to skin contact (which didn't help) they put her under the heat lamp. She stopped crying as soon as her body temperature went up. Poor little girl cried for the first hour of her life.

Camie was the first to come and see her. Needless to say everything happened so fast she missed the delivery =( then came Alaura with Amanda and Landen. Eric's parents came around 8:00. I was still kind of out of it, and exhausted. But glad that it was over.

That darn kidney stone

2009-02-23T19:12:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm finally almost done with the whole kidney stone nightmare!!! Next Monday The urologist is going to remove the stent and I will officially be done with this whole nightmare!!! Monday will be three months to the day since I had the stent placed. I haven't been blogging much lately because I didn't want to be negative, but after thinking about it I really want to be able to look back and remember this because hopefully I'll be able to look at it and realize that I'm strong and I can make it through some pretty tough things.

First I need to say that the stent and stone are soooooo painful. (Especialy when i was pregnant) Sydney was always kicking me in the kidney and settling onto my bladder which would send both into spasms...very painful spasms that would send me to my knees many times. Looking back now it all seems like a nightmare that was never going to end. I'm amazed sometimes that I didn't fall into a major depression since I've been unable to do much of anything for almost three months.

I think that poor Alaura suffered so much through all of this too. Poor baby went from having Mommy all to herself to having a mommy who couldn't pick her up, play with her or hardly even get off of the couch. Now, I tried many times to get out and be involved with her, but anytime I did I payed for it for a couple days after with HORRIBLE pain and ALOT of bleeding. I don't think I slept more than 3 or 4 hours a night before Sydney was born. I'd get up and pace the living room trying not to cry out of pain and frustration and sheer exhaustion. It was so hard to have to lean on others to help me. Thank goodness for my amazing ward. They set up play dates for Alaura and brought us meals a few nights each week for over 2 months.

I can't even begin to explain the pain that I was in constantly...First I feel like I had a horrible bladder infection for the entire 3 months, and my back feels sooo bruised. If I have to go to the rest room (about every hour or two) first I start to feel a sharp pain in my kidney that gets harder and harder, then my bladder starts spasming in time with my kidney and if i don't get to the rest room immediately I'll pee my pants because of the pain and the force of the spasms. Honestly there were a few times the pain was so bad I'd fall to the ground...needless to say I wouldn't make it to the rest room.

I don't know if anyone's had blood in their urine before, but it's kinda nerve racking to me. Now you have to understand, my pee isn't pink or even just red, it's the darkest red you can imagine without being black. It reminds me of a really dark fruit punch almost. I've scared many nurses when they ask for urine samples...LOL.

After Sydney was born the pain lessened some because she wasn't kicking me and everything wasn't being stretched so much anymore. Seriously, I could feel the stent pulling on my kidney the larger she got. Then they blasted the stones on the 17th. Sydney was one month old and one day. Eric had to leave town for some training for a couple days and poor Camie had to come and help out with Sydney. Thankfully Amanda was able to take Alaura for the night so I didn't have to worry about her. Brenda Miller a lady from our ward took me to the Hostpital. I brought Sydney with me because I wanted to be able to nurse her as long as possible (I wasn't supposed to nurse to for a little while after the anesthesia wore off and I was in the hostpital for 8 hours, and I hadn't been able to pump very much milk in the 3 days I had notice prior to the blasting) When I got there they had me sign in and go get blood work done, and some x rays, then I got dressed into the wonderful hostpital gown and nursed Sydney. Camie cam at 2:00 to relieve Brenda and to keep me company until 4:00 when I was supposed to get the lithotripsy (blasting) As she came in the nurses had me moved to the prep room because they were closing the wing of the hostpital I was in.So we were crammed into a little space behind some curtains.

I once again nursed sydney while they started hooking me up to the IV. The Anaesthesiologist came in and talked to me about the drugs they were going to give me (and what they weren't going to give me since I was nursing. Let suffice it to say that I was in more pain so I wouldn't be loading Sydney up with a bunch of drugs she didn't need) then he gave a shot of something...my head started feeling really weird, and I felt dizzy, so Camie took Sydney. "So we're blasting a stone on your right side and placing 2 stents" I almost went in to a panic "No, you're blasting two stones one of each side and REMOVING a stent" I thought I was gonna be sick. Suddenly the nurses came in and started prepping me, and the urologist came in to talk to me about what was going to be done. And he said the same thing!!!!! I wanted to cry!!!! They were talking about puting in two HORRIBLE stents!!!! Then he looked at the xray "oh, you're right two stones and a stent removal. That's why we have xrays!!!" Before I had a chance to catch my breath they were wheeling me away and I left Camie there with both babies. It took everything in me not to cry. When I got into the OR they had me move from the bed to the machine they were going to be using. It's kinda scary looking. The part that you lay on is kinda like a thin water bed. Because they have to send the ultrasound waves through water. The anesthesiologist put the drugs into my IV and I was out. I woke up an hour later in recovery by my self feeling really groggy and the urologist was there. "Everthing went well, but the large stone didn't break up as small as i hoped so I didn't take out the stent. But we blasted both stones so that's a fair trade." He said goodbye and left. It was a while before I was able to talk to a nurse (my throught was soooo dry ans sore from the tube they had to put down it) she had me sip some water and after about a hour had me try to use the rest room. So they helped me sit up and I got soo dizzy I almost passed and I it took everything in me not to start throwing up. I finally got up and sat on the little potty they brought by my bedside. I went pee and I don't think there was anything in there but blood!! It was horrible!!! And my back felt like someone took a bat to it. I was bruised and cold and tired and alone. I wanted to cry, but I was afraid if i did I wouldn't be able to stop. After 10 min someone finally walked into my cubicle and helped me back into bed. I was really hurting but they couldn't give me anything very strong for the pain, so I toughed most of it out. around 5:00 or so they told me to start getting dressed because my Mother in law was going to be there soon to get me and take me home. So I got dressed and sat on the hard commode seat and waited. Unluckily poor Lynette got lost, and didn't know where to come get me. So I sat there alone and hurting wishing someone would come help me into the bed for 30 min or so. Then they brought me a wheel chair right as Lynette came in. They wheeled me out to her car and she drove me home. I got in the house and sat down on the couch. She hung out for a few minutes holding Sydney, then headed home. Camie was there and told me that Leyna had gotten a hold of Sydneys poopy diaper and got it all over her hands..."but other than that we were ok" she said. Poor thing. Thank you thank you thank you Camie for helping out with that and everything else!!!

Camie stayed the night that night. Sydney and I were in my room Leyna was in Sydneys and Camie slept in Alaura's bed. Sydney had a really bad cold that night and I was up trying to hold her the whole night. It was an awful night and I did cry...alot. around 6:00 in the morning I got up and took Sydney to Camie and (woke her up) and asked her to please take her so I could get some sleep. Camie stayed and helped out for a while longer and Took off an hour before Eric got home. Luckily Alaura and Sydney were both pretty good.

It took about three days before I could walk upright and not hurt really bad. But I'm on my way to recovery now. My family's coming on Friday night and we have Alaura's birthday party saturday and I get me stent out on Monday and we're going to Disneyland Tuesday and Wednessday. I'll let you know how it all goes....

My family

2009-02-06T09:58:00.000-08:00

Get your own Family Sticker Maker & MySpace Layouts.

Update...

2009-02-05T08:18:00.000-08:00

Well, Sydney's going to be three weeks old tomorrow...I can't believe it!!!! It's been amazing watching Alaura and Sydney. She loves her soooo much. You've never seen a prouder big sister! She's a big helper too. She'll get me diapers and wipes whenever I need them, she helps me get clothes and just generally loves her to pieces!!! Here are a few pictures of the two of them. I'll have to include a picture of myself in my next blog so you can see the "before and after" since I got pretty huge in the end. I'll also do the labor story soon.

Eric trying out the pump i had to get because I couldn't nurse Sydney after I got my CT Scan.

Sydney sleeping in her bed for the first time

Here are the pictures we took of the girls last week

Alaura hanging out in her panties and boots

Here's the junk mail that I gave to Alaura last week...she calls it her food magazine and wants to read it every night for her bedtime story :)

Alaura trying to ride Leyna

Today I ventured out to the grocery store with both of the girls and Camie and Leyna. I was nervous that it was going to be a horrible trip...and it was...LOL. I've been trying to figure out how I'm going to go shopping with both of them as far as the sitting arrangements go. I don't want Alaura down because she tends to run around alot and I didn't want to have to Chase her, so the solution I came up with was to put Alaura in the cart and Sydney in a sling. This seemed to be working until my back started to REALLY hurt from wearing the sling. Then I had to take Alaura to the bathroom, so I had to help her go then go myself all while wearing Sydney in a sling with my back on fire! Yay for potty trips!! Then we tried to hurry as fast as we could to get the shopping done and then Sydney woke up...Now there's something you have to understand about Sydney, She's a very happy easy going girl...unless she's hungry. You do not mess with her when she's ready to nurse!!! And she was ready to nurse!!!! So Camie took her for a little while in hopes that she wouldn't be as upset, and it worked for a little while. Camie jumped in line and I ran to get a couple last things, then i heard both Sydney and Leyna start screaming, so I ran across the store to relieve poor Camie who was getting some very interesting looks from people. Then Sydney really lost it, so I'm trying to unload my cart with a screaming child, waiting for the cashier to ring everything up, then I pay and the cashier helps me load up my cart mean while both Sydney and Alaura are completely melting down (Alaura wanted to help load the groceries because she always does and she didn't get to this time, plus it's way past nap time) so once the carts loaded I try to push the cart out to the car as fast as I can but, it's pouring outside, so i have to put Alaura's jacket on one handed and stick a hysterical Sydney back in the sling to keep her dry. I run outside pull Alaura out of the cart and stick her in the car, start throwing all of the groceries into the trunk as fast as I can and jump into the front seat to start feeding my poor baby. While nursing Sydney Alaura asked if she could eat one of the special yogurts. So she dives over the seat into the trunk to grab one and then while eating it she squirts it all over her hair and shirt!!! luckily Camie had something to wipe her up. We all hung out in the car for a while and Camie dumped a bag of pretzels on the ground (thanks Camie...LOL) So, after 2 hours I finally made it home!!!!

One week old!!!!

2009-01-21T15:53:00.000-08:00

Sydney's one week old today (Friday) and such a cutie!!! Alaura LOVES her soooo much. Sometimes a little too much :) We made our first trip out of the house with all four of us on Monday for Sydney's first check up. When we left the hospital the pediatrician was afraid that Sydney looked like she had Jaundice. But we were able to leave the apt with a clean bill of health. She lost 8 ounces, just like Alaura, but I'm not worried...She LOVES to nurse!!!! So I'm sure she'll put the weight on pretty quickly. Speaking of nursing...my milk came in on Monday (day 3) and I was sooooo engorged. Any one know how to deal with that? I don't remember it being as much of a problem with Alaura.

Today Sydney went with me to get some blood work done. I'm hoping to finally get this Kidney stone taken care of. It's been horrible and I'm so ready to be done. Monday I'm getting a CT scan to see where the stone is and stuff. I have an apt with the urologist on Feb. 12. It's nice to see the end of all of this though.

I'll do another post with my labor and delivery story. It'll be a while before I can refer to it a a "funny story" as Camie called it, but I'm very happy that it's over and Sydney's healthy.

For now I'll try and catch up on the last week.

HOSPITAL

Day 1

Sydney the ghost. This is the first picture we got of her :( After you read the delivery story you'll know why, but we don't have the first few moments of her life, laying on me or getting the cord cut...but that's ok

When she was born the cord wrapped loosely around her neck and this knot was in the cord. Apparently she swam through it and it got tied into a knot. Luckily it didn't cause any harm.

8 Pounds 8 ounces!!!!

Mommy and Sydney

Alaura seeing Sydney for the first time

Mimi and Papa

The baby doll Sydney gave Alaura (she takes it everywhere and even nurses her)

Landon and Amanda. Alaura had a sleepover with them when we checked into the hospital.

Our first family picture

Daddy and Sydney

Aunt Camie and Sydney
Pretty in Pink

Leyna checking out Sydney

Here she is with the bunny that Alaura got for her, and the hat Grammy made for her.
COMING HOME
Day 2
Getting ready to come home!!!

The beautiful flowers Eric gave me!!!

HOME
Day 3

Alaura likes to help out...look at the toys she's helping Sydney play with!!!!

Sydney's first bath

She really liked it.

Alaura helping

Day4

Sydney loves her hands out of her blanket (just like Alaura)

Day 5

Getting ready for bed

Day 6

Alaura's Olympics stuff from Pre school.

Day 7

Hanging out at Mimi and Papa's Can you tell how much Alaura loves her baby sister?

Day 8

My little bunny after her bath
Aren't they too cute!!!!

Sydney LOVES to lay in front of the fire place naked or at least with her diaper off

Look who's one week old!!!!

Sydney's Here!!!

2009-01-17T15:14:00.000-08:00

Here's a video of Sydney about an hour or so after she was born

Sydney was born yesterday!!! This is Brooke's sister, Camie. I know everyone is anxious to see pics so wanted to post some since Brooke probably isn't feeling up to doing that right now. Sydney was born at 6:12 AM Friday January 16, 2009. She came a lot sooner than everyone had anticipated, even the doctor...funny story, but I will let Brooke tell you all about it when she is doing better. Sydney weighed 8lbs. 8oz. and is 21in. She has round chubby cheeks and a head full of hair. She just keeps getting cuter and cuter by the minute. I don't have a lot of pics cus I was taking most of the pictures on their cameras. Here's what I have though...

Alaura loves her so much and was ready to start playing with her. =0)
What a proud Daddy!

Alaura and Leyna can't wait till Sydney gets to join in the fun and play with them.

Leyna was pretty interested in Sydney. They are gonna be such good friends when they get older. Only 7 1/2 months between the two.

Auntie Camie

Proud Mommy and Daddy. Happy their little miracle baby is finally here.

We all couldn't get enough of her. She is so precious. Here's a cute little video of her.

Big news!!!!

2009-01-15T16:53:00.000-08:00

I'm being induced tonight!!!! Hopefully by this time tomorrow Sydney Brooke should be here!!! They're going to start me on Cervidel tonight at 8:00 and tomorrow morning at 8:00 mt Dr is going to come in and break my water and hopefully everything will move pretty quickly from there!!! Wish me luck!!!!

Maternity Pictures

2009-01-15T16:42:00.000-08:00

Camie came over and snapped a few pics for us. She did a pretty good job!!!! Thanks Camie!!!

2009-01-15T15:52:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve

Some one's at the door!!!!

It's Santa!!!!

Sydney's first picture with Santa!!!

Eating rice pudding

Christmas Morning

Alaura with her presents...Santa gave her make up which was one of her favorites!!! She also got a T ball set, a little medical kit, and Mommy and Daddy gave her a camera!!!

Alaura gave Daddy a Mickey Mouse tie!

Mom and Dad Olsen gave me a gift certificate to get a massage hair cut and color!!!!

Mimi and Papa gave her a new bike which she had to ride...even if it was raining.

2009-01-15T08:54:00.001-08:00

UTAH

We did a Thanksgiving dinner with my Mom's side of the Family on Sunday before Thanksgiving!!! Yummy!!!!

The pictures from Thanksgiving day with my Dad's side of the family, were taken on another camera...but here are a couple of Alaura that we took after Thanksgiving dinner...

We all went to Layton Park to check out the Christmas lights...it was cold!!!!

Alaura being a dinosaur

On Saturday we went to Wellsville to celebrate Grandpa Leishman's 100th Birthday!!! Eric really got a kick out of the fact that he ate his Birthday cake at 100 years old. We're so glad that we went, because he passed away two weeks later.

Isn't this picture awesome!!! It's a five generation pic!!!!

I'm trying to find the pictures from our trip home, and other's that I took on our point and shoot...

The updating begins...

2009-01-15T07:47:00.000-08:00

Halloween

I have to get the trick or treating pictures from camie...

Here are a couple pictures from the Petersons Halloween Party the Monday after Halloween

A Letter to my Princess

2009-01-14T11:45:00.001-08:00

Dear Alaura,

It's occurred to me recently that you will always be my only first child. I think that there is a special connection between us that is due to this fact. You're the only child who for three whole years didn't have to share mommy and Daddy with anyone. You have been our whole world for those three years, and now our little world gets to expand in a wonderful way. I watch you everyday as you talk to Sydney in my tummy and tell her about the world around her and how much you love her and I'm amazed. You have a sweet pure love that can only be found in a child who hasn't seen the hurts of the world.

Sometimes I'm scared that when Sydney comes I wont know how to give both of you everything that you need. I hope that you never doubt or wonder how much I love you. Growing up I never wanted anything more than to be a wife and a Mom. And now that I'm living that dream it's amazing. I've experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows over the past five and a half years. But the truth is I wouldn't change any of it, because with out those occasional lows I wouldn't be able to revel in the amazing highs!

I'm so excited to watch you grow and learn new things and to continue teaching you new things. I love the way that you love to do everything that I'm doing. (sometimes it's a little hard, but I do love it) I'm so excited to teach you the things that my Mom taught me and the things that your Daddy has taught me. I also love watching you and Daddy play...he loves having girls even though he swore he would have all boys...He's an amazing Daddy. You've always been a free spirit and have done things your own way, and while sometimes it scares me to death, I really and truly love that about you.

I can't wait for the day to come that you are married and have little babies of your own who you love with all of your heart and cry for live for and would die for. I love you so much baby girl. (I know that I'm not allowed to call you that anymore, but you'll always be my Baby girl)

Love
Mommy

Silly Alaura

2009-01-14T09:56:00.000-08:00

I haven't been updating about the funny things Alaura's been doing lately, and i know if I don't write them down I'll forget them. So here are two conversations I had with Alaura this week

While getting ready for a quick trip to the park with Camie and Leyna.

A: "Is Camie picking me up to go to the park?"

B: " Nope I'm going with you this time, so I'm going to drive."

A: "No Mommy you're sick, only me and Camie and Leyna can go."

B: "Don't you want me to go with you?"

A: "It's a weird park Mom, you wont like it"

B: "I wont like it?"

A: "Nope, It's weird for you. Only me and Camie and Leyna will like it...If you come the gates will close and they wont let you in!!!"

I guess she's gotten used to going places without me :( I did go, and it wasn't weird and the gates didn't lock me out either :) Although I was REALLY sore afterwards.

This is the second one I'm going to post about right now. I believe that this was in the car on our way home from the park that same day.

B:"Did you have fun at the park?"

A:"Yep, now I want to go to five stores!!!"

B:"Five stores? I think it's time to go home and take a nap, it's getting really late."

A:"I have to take a nap? But I'm not tired (said while yawning). Then I have a quest for you to do while I take my nap."

B:" A quest for me?"

A:"Yep, You must get three things for me. First you must get ketchup. Then you must get Milk. Then you must get Popcorn from Target for me."

B:"Popcorn milk and ketchup? I think we have those at home"

A:"No, you have to get them from the store while I'm sleeping."

B:"But I can't leave you alone at home while you're sleeping."

A:"It's OK Mom, I will let you!!!"

She's so funny. We have some of the best conversations!!! I'll try and remember to put them in as they happen.

I'm also going to try and do one more update with a few pictures today...Just in case by some miracle I get to have Sydney tomorrow. That way I can be caught up. I'll try to do it very slowly throughout the day. But for now i need to go.

2009-01-12T18:03:00.000-08:00

I know you've all been wondering what's going on with us here...No, I haven't had her yet, I'm 38 weeks, huge and very sore!!! I went in on last Tuesday and I was 80% effaced,she's dropped to a 0 and I'm dilated to a 2....But my Dr still doesn't want to induce me :( I've been in ALOT of pain and I really think that she's huge. I have a Dr apt on Thursday and I'm hoping that He'll induce me then. But I'm not counting on it because I got in touch with my urologist...finally. (after 6 weeks of trying) He wont see me until FEBRUARY 24!!!!!!!! Which means that I have to be in this pain until at least the end of February. I really hope that it gets better, but I'm really really scared.

We're doing well otherwise. I keep waning to update with pictures, but I have a hard time sitting for very long. I'll try and do it soon though.

Third time's a charm...

2008-12-27T10:49:00.000-08:00

Or something like that. Well, I haven't posted much lately because I had another kidney stone!!!! That's right. three in two months! I went in to the Dr because I was pretty sure that I had another one, they told me to take pain killers and try and see if I could pass it on my own at home instead of checking into the hospital again...so after a horrible painful night I believe that I passed my second stone!

On the brighter side though the Dr said that I'm dilated close to a 2!!! So at least I'm progressing finally! I have an appointment on Tuesday to see how I'm progressing, hopefully it wont be too much longer. She's growing so fast! I'm nervous she's going to be huge! All I know is she's in my kidneys more and more every day!!!

I'll do a Christmas post soon. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!

Quick question

2008-12-12T10:45:00.000-08:00

I have a quick question for those of you who've had a C-section. My Dr mentioned doing a c-section and i kinda freaked out and told him that I wanted to just be induced. But the more I think about it I'm nervous about the amount of pain that I'll be in due to the large Kidney stone residing in my left kidney. Even braxton hicks send my body into so much pain...So my question it this...What's the recovery like after a C-section? How would you compare it to a vaginal delivery? Would it be worth knowing that I'll be able to have her three weeks early vs two vaginally? I'm not sure what to do. Sometimes I feel like it's going to be fine, but others I'm not so sure. When I'm in a lot of pain i wonder about weather or not I'll be able to do this.

Soooooo much to catch up on...

2008-12-10T07:44:00.000-08:00

Here are the highlights of the last 3 weeks of my life: (I'm working on a post with pictures, but it may take a while...you'll see why)

First I have to state that on Saturday November 14th we bought a 2004 Honda Pilot!!! We love it!!!
On Sunday we had Dinner with Eric's family. It was the first time in almost a year that the entire family was together scine Amberly john and Daphne were in town for a little while
Thursday I finished the Craft Night and it went well. I think everyone enjoyed it and I'm soooo glad that it's over.
We packed up and drove to Utah the day after the activity...we stopped in Las Vegas and played at the Balagio then ate at Denny's with Camie and Juan
Alaura was wonderful on the trip!!!! (And the entire vacation)
Saturday, We saw my parents new house it's cute and when they make the changes they want to it I think they're really going to enjoy it!!!
We had pizza at my Aunt Vickie and Uncle Mikes beautiful home on Saturday night, which happens to be the same day we came into town ( I had the most delicious vegetarian pizza I've ever had in my life!!!!)
Sunday we went to church with my parents and had Thanksgiving Dinner with my Mom's side of the family in My Aunt Sandy's newly renovated beautiful Kitchen
Monday we hung out around town Eric and Alaura decorated Grammy's tree while I slept off what I thought was a bug. We had Family home Evening at Grandma and Grandpa Matthews house...we had a really good time playing wii. I really want to get one of those!!!
Tuesday we all went to Salt lake to hang out. We hung out at the gateway mall and Temple square
Wednesday we played around town again as I wasn't feeling very well and was starting have a lot of contractions and back pain. Eric and Alaura decorated Grammy's Christmas tree's. Camie, Juan, Leyna and us went out to Chili's with my cousin Ashleigh and had the worst service I've ever had!!!
Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving with my Dad's side of the Family. It was great to see everyone!!! Then we played at the park until 5 and saw Bolt at the movie theatre with my family. It was pretty funny.
Friday I took my sisters and Mom shopping for a blessing dress for Sydney. I found a very simple one that I'm going to try and alter...I hope it goes well. Then we all went out to Chili's again (My whole family...16 of us)
Saturday we went to Wellsville for Eric's Great Grandpa Lieshman's 100th Birthday!!! It was amazing to see him eating cake at 100 years old. We went fishing for a little while, but I still wasn't feeling good at all so we went back to his Grandma's house to relax until dinner. Then we all went out to Chili's (again) It was fun to spend time with his side of the family as we don't get to see them as often at I'd like.
Sunday morning we decided to stay home from church because I was feeling really achy and tired and nauseous...Then my back started hurting horribly!!!!! Eric rushed me to the hospital...

Here's what happened over the course of three days that I was in the hospital (It's going to have a lot of details and way to much information)

Sunday

10:00 We get to the hospital and I'm rushed into Labor and delivery pretty sure that I had Kidney stones again
11:00 they give me a shot of Demerol in my Butt (It hurt really bad and I'm still having problems with it hurting)
11:15 they rush me in for x rays to see why I'm in soooooo much more pain this time. They told me that the pain killer should be working by now but it's not, I'm hurting worse and worse and the room feels like it's moving and I'm starting to hyperventilate. Then the throwing up begins. I'm heaving so hard that my back is cramping and it sends sooooo much pain into my kidney and through my entire body. They inject contrast into my IV so they can see in the xrays what my Kidney's doing.
12:00 After 3 xrays and 45 minutes the pain is almost too much to bear. They wheel me back into labor and delivery and the nurse wants to give me another shot of Demerol. Of course I tell her no because I'm having some kind of a reaction to it. So they gave me a shot of percoset (I think) and start a Morphine drip. I've never had one of these before, but with out it I don't think I would have made it. It never took the pain all the way but I wasn't in horrible pain anymore
1:00 The OB comes in to tell me that I have a 1 cm stone blocking fluid from draining from my kidney. It's too big to pass on my own. They're going to have to use ultrasound waves to break it up so I can pass it...BUT they can't do it while I'm pregnant!!!!! So they schedule me for a stint placement on Monday at 3:00 to allow the fluid to drain from my Kidney to my bladder. It'll keep my ureter open.
2:00 My contractions are less than 5 min apart so they gave me a few shots to calm them down.
3:00 they tell me to get comfortable because I'm not going anywhere for the night, so the only thing they can do is try and keep my pain under control.
6:00 Alaura and my family come to visit.
7:30 I get food finally
8:30 Eric takes Alaura home to sleep and I try to sleep with all the machines beeping, monitors strapped everywhere, the contractions and the blood pressure cuff going off every 15 min.

Monday

My machines kept going off all night, Sydney would move and they'd lose her heartbeat and the machine would start beeping so they'd have to come in and adjust it. I was calling nurses in all night because of one thing or another not working right.
5:00 wake up and can't fall back asleep because I'm hurting and I'm getting hungry but I have to fast because I'm going to be put under soon.
10:00 Eric and Alaura came to see me in the hospital and we decide that Eric needs to drive home because he's out of vacation time. So he heads to Grammy's house to start packing
1:45 they show up over an hour early to take me in for my procedure (and no one's there to talk to the dr after I wake up very druged)
3:00 I wake up in recovery in a lot of pain. The Urologist tells me that I need to follow up with a urologist at home.

Here's an illustration of the Stent placement

They insert it through the urethra into the bladder through the ureter and into the kidney. And it hurts really bad!!!!!!

4:00 They take me back to my room with instructions to wait for the anesthesia to wear off then I can go home. I keep telling them that I'm in horrible pain and they wont listen to me. When I get into Labor and Delivery I'm having horrible contractions and my kidney and bladder are spasming. They start pumping me full of pain killers and giving me shots to stop my contractions...I seriously thought that I was going into labor and felt like I was being ripped in half. I'VE NEVER IN MY LIFE FELT PAIN LIKE THAT!!!!!!!
My sweet wonderful husband brought me flowers and a card. All of the nurses loved the smell of the flowers.
They finally got my pain and contractions under control and Eric had to leave with Juan so they could get home in time for Eric to start work the next morning.
It was so hard to let him leave because i was in so much more pain than I thought I would be in.
It hurt sooooooo bad to go to the bathroom too!!! And my pee looked like fruit punch from all the blood in it. Infact it still does..

Tuesday

After a very long painful night and a long painful day I was finally released at 6:00 on Tuesday evening. My parents took me back to my Grammy's house to recover and they kept Alaura.
It was so hard not seeing Alaura regularly. I'd already been apart from her for 3 days and it would be another 3 before I was with her again

Wednesday

Lots of pain and relaxing

Thursday

Still lots of pain, but I decided that I needed to get out of the house so I went with Camie, Leyna and Alaura out to lunch in Salt lake with our cousins Liz and Ash. It was fun to see them but I was hurting a lot

Friday

Packed up and left at 4:00 to drive home with Camie Leyna and Alaura. I'll do a separate post about the trip later because i really need to go lay down, But it took 15 hours and was painful but it felt great to be home and see Eric.

I'm still trying to recover and hurt ALOT but Sydney's great and I think my Dr is going to induce me in 3 or 4 weeks. I'll post pics soon

30 Weeks, Pictures, and Life

2008-11-19T07:36:00.000-08:00

As you probably guessed I am officially 30 weeks pregnant!!! Which means I have about 2 months left till my due date!!! I'm doing really well. I'm retaining more water this pregnancy, and my legs have been cramping...and I'm gaining alot of weight :( But I'm enjoying this pregnancy alot! Alaura is really excited about her new baby sister. She hugs kisses and talks to my belly all the time!! Everyday she tells me "I can't wait for Sydney to come out so I can play with her." And, "I'm gonna be the best Big sister ever, huh?" I'll try and get Eric to take a picture of me tonight when he gets home.

I've been staying busy with taking pictures and I LOVE it!!! I've got a few lined up right after we get home. I'm going to take pics until I can't anymore. I'm probably going to stop the 2nd or 3rd week of January...a week or two before my due date. Here's a couple of pics from each of the two sittings I did this week. I'm going to post some on my other blog ASAP. Click here to see the rest.

She is such a cutie I loved taking her pictures!!!

What a blast this family was to work with!!! And talk about photogenic!!!

As for life...I have been really busy!!! My ward is having there Super Saturday activity this Thursday so we're calling it Thrilling Thursday! We have so many crafts going on. I'm the enrichment coordinator which means that along with the second councilor we plan everything. Well, I'm in charge of 4 different projects.

Glass block lights with the Nativity scene on them.

Christmas Themed Glass Blocks

Glass Block piggy Banks.

Initial Bow holders.

Eye spy bags.

Lets suffice it to say that everything that could go wrong, went wrong. I'm so ready for it to be over. Thank goodness I had Eric though. He's been doing so much running around and fighting with people to get the things they had committed to sell us for the projects. He also Drilled holes into like 50 or more glass blocks. I wouldn't have survived this month without him. And I had a few sisters in the ward who saved me when my sewing machine broke and I couldn't sew the Eye spy bags.

I just have to say that I love my ward. And more importantly I LOVE MY HUSBAND!!! He's amazing!!!

In other more exciting news...We're leaving for Utah Friday Morning!!! I'm sooo excited to see everyone! We're going to be leaving early December 1st. Eric has to be back to work on Tuesday. Then it's back to real life. I'm having a baby shower on Dec 13th, thrown by my good friend Amanda and my sister Camie! I'm excited for that. And I have to get Sydney's room emptied out so we can turn it into the nursery it's supposed to be... Well, that's my life right now. I'll probably update again after our trip.

PICTURES!!!

2008-11-11T08:22:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!! Just a quick reminder that Christmas is just around the corner and it's almost time to start sending out Christmas cards!!! We're working really hard to get people in here for Christmas pictures. For those of you in Utah, we'll be there from the 22nd through the 30th. If you are interested or know someone who is please let us know. We love doing this and between you and me, we have some hospital bills I'd like to try paying off before Sydney is born. If you would like a mini sitting (30 min with just family pics) we can do that for $30 and include a disk with all your pics and full rights to print them. Our current special is 1 hour for $50 this includes family, individual, just the kids, pretty much any pictures you want done. And of course a disk with all pictures... Just something to think about...

Quick question

2008-11-11T08:09:00.001-08:00

So, I have a question for those of you out in blog country. A good friend of mine offered to through me a baby shower next month, and after some persuading I agreed to it. Don't get me wrong I would LOVE to have one, I just worry about what other people are going to think with this being girl #2.

Before you start thinking about what a horrible person i am I have to explain a few things...When we had Alaura we were dirt poor. In fact we could barley pay our bills let alone buy stuff for our new little girl. So we borrowed almost everything. We were fortunate enough to have my in laws help out with a stroller and car seat, and a friend gave us her crib, and my parents got us a glider...anything else we borrowed. Plus Alaura was born as the weather was warming up and Sydney is due during the dead of winter, so I'm trying to buy winter clothes for both girls. We've been very fortunate to have Eric's job, and normally I think we'd be ok to buy the things we absolutely need, but my trip to the hospital has really put us behind.

I'm not expecting a huge shower, or tons of stuff, I'd love the fellowship and support of my new ward and friends, and of course anything would help.

Now, here's my question...If you received an invitation to to my shower (or another person in a similar situation) would you be offended or upset?

I never asked for a shower, nor was I expecting one, but now that she's offered I'd like to do it. But I'm petrified of offending people. What do you think? And please remember that I'm a pregnant very emotional person right now.

2008-11-10T16:34:00.000-08:00

For anyone interested, Eric started a blog recently. It's mainly about politics and stuff, but he'd love any ones input. His link is on the right side of my blog.

2008-11-05T16:52:00.000-08:00

2008-10-31T12:56:00.001-07:00

"Trunk or Treat"

2008-10-26T19:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to our ward Trunk or treat.

Here's Alaura in her Halloween Costume

Look how cute we are!!!!

Trick or treat!!!!

"I love Ice cream!!!"

Here's the set up in Eric's truck...He scared some kids with his spider

Scary!!!

Aren't we cute?

Here are all of us!!!

Meow!!

Alaura loves her Sydney!!!!

She loves her Mommy too!!!

What a way to kick off my third trimester!!!!

2008-10-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

Kidney Stones!!!!!!

Seriously, on Tuesday night I had the worst night of my life! Now this might be a little too much information for some of you out there, so stop reading if you don't like hearing about puking...and needles.

OK, like I said Tuesday was by far the worst night of my life. We went to Eric's parents house for a couple of hours to hang out while Eric and his "Exclusive archery club" shot at targets in their backyard. That wasn't the bad part :)

(Here's some pics of the trophy that he made for the weekly winner to take home.)

I started feeling pretty cruddy while we were there and drug Eric home at 8:00. While he was putting Alaura to bed I fell asleep on the couch. He woke me up at 9:30 and I stumbled into bed, but I started to realize that what I thought was a UTI was starting to hurt pretty bad and I was starting to get a pain in the right side of my back. I thought that it might be gas or constipation or something like that. But gradually it got worse and worse! I couldn't sit still because it was starting to hurt so bad. I was spending a ton of time on the toilet because I felt like I needed to pee all the time, then I got horrible diarrhea (Too much info I Know) Then at 3:00 am I rushed to the sink to throw up...I was heaving so hard!!! It was painful. On top of all that I was getting so bloated my stomach was huge!!!

I woke Eric up at 4:00 and had him give me a blessing (which I could hardly sit still for) and sent him to Walgreen's to get some gas x. I still thought that I had food poisoning or something. I took the gas x and about 5 min later threw it up. Needless to say I had nothing in my stomach by now. I couldn't keep anything down I was dry heaving and spent my time on the toilet with a bowl. By 7:00 I was in tears because the pain was getting so bad and I was getting scared that something was really wrong.

My OB's office opened at 8:00, Eric called and got me an apt for 8:50. We dropped Alaura off at my friend Heather's house (Alaura's preschool teacher) and headed off to the Dr office. Unluckily my Dr was out of the office that day and I had to see the nurse practitioner...She checked Sydney out and after she was convinced she was OK moved on to my pain. She asked me where the pain was, so I showed her...and she hit it!!!! Yeah, that's right she bopped me right on the back and almost sent me to the ground in tears. She told us that everything looked good with Sydney so they were going to send me to Urgent care to see if they could get my blood and urine work done quickly.

We made our way across the building to the urgent care and waited for an hour to be seen. While we were talking in admitting I had to run to the bathroom and go pee, now this was the most painful thing I'd done the whole 12 hours I'd been in pain. When they had me in triage (like 2 min after I went to the restroom) My pain was starting to subside. Instead of it being a 10 out of 10 it was like 8. They got me into a wheelchair and wheeled me into a room, I got changed into a hospital gown and hooked up to an IV. (the first one broke the vein while he was drawing blood, so he redid it in my other arm) They got fluids into me really quick because I'd been throwing up...and I hadn't had anything to drink in 14 hours.

The Dr came into see me and told me that once I went to the restroom to give a urine sample they'd give me something for the pain...After I gave them their sample they gave me drugs through my IV. I fell asleep for a couple hours. When I woke up it was 3:00, the Dr came in and told us that we'd be going to get an ultrasound to see if there was anything wrong with my kidneys or gallbladder...because my blood and urine tests came back great and they didn't know what was wrong with me. Eric ran out to take Alaura to his parents house and about 10 minutes after he left they took me over to get my ultrasound. They found out that my kidney and the tube from kidney to bladder were enlarged, but they couldn't find any kidney stones so they thought that maybe I had a kidney infection.

Then they admitted me into labor and delivery for the night so I could be observed and given antibiotics and to control my pain. They admitted me around 6:00 and got me started on antibiotics through my IV. They monitored my contractions and Sydney's Heartbeat to make sure I wasn't going into labor. Eric left around 9:00 to get Alaura and I finally got something to eat at 9:30!!! At 10 the nurse gave me some pain medicine...It knocked me out!!!! But it was great not to have any pain. After that my pain was manageable with out much pain medicine. I still hurt a bit but compared to the night before it was nothing.

Eric took Alaura to preschool the next morning then came to see how I was doing. No one seemed to know what I was being treated for so we were still unsure how much longer I'd be there. Eric brought Alaura to see me around 1:30. Here are some pictures of us trying to kill some time until my Dr came into see me and let me know what was going on.

Here I am showing off the second of three IV's!!!! That bed was so uncomfortable!!! I was so glad when I was finally able to get out of it. For 36 hours I didn't get any further from that bed than the bathroom!!!!

Look at those Sausages!!! Seriously my fingers were so swollen from all the fluids they were pumping into me.

Mmmm food!!! After 26 hours of no food while being pregnant...food is great!!!

Trying to kill time while waiting for them to release me.
Here's alaura with her friend Balloon Man...

Do you see the resemblance?

She's got a new bad habit of biting our clothes!!!

My IV started to really hurt and the area around it was getting swollen so I asked them to replace it because something was wrong. BIG MISTAKE!!! The new one hurt and bled sooooooo BAD!!!!

Finally my OB showed up at 4:00 and after going over everything I'd experienced in the past 48 hours he was very upset when he found out I hadn't been treated for kidney stones from the beginning. I guess I should have had a catheter to watch for any stones. ( I'm glad I didn't though, I hate those!!! So after talking to him (He'd been out of the office until this point) he told me that I'd had blood in my urine and that he was pretty sure that I had already passed the stones. That was what was killing me Tuesday night!!!! He gave me a prescription for antibiotics and pain killer and I finally got to go home!

I'm still a little sore, but I'm definitely doing better. I hope that I NEVER have to go through that again!!!! IT WAS HORRIBLE!!!!!

Lots of writing

2008-10-20T13:32:00.000-07:00

So, I went to the Dr today and everything is still looking good. Sydney kicks like crazy, in fact she's been kicking me in the ribs for a while now. At our last appt 4 weeks ago she was 22 weeks and measured a little under that around her head (Yay) and 23 1/2 weeks in length on her limbs (she's long and already running out of room in there) Overall, I'm really enjoying this pregnancy, the main complaints I have are my sore tailbone (Ouch!!!) and being tired...but I think a lot of that has to do with my sweet little Alaura not sleeping very well.

It all started a few months ago when Jami was living us, Alaura decided that 6:00 was the best time to wake up because that's when Aunt Jami did (and Alaura didn't want to miss out on anything while Jami was here) Then, about a month after that she decided that she also didn't want to go to sleep when we put her in bed...then naps became a pain too!!! So, Alaura goes to bed around 8:30 but falls asleep around 9:30 or 10:00 and wakes up at 6:00! so, that's like 81/2 hours of sleep...then she may or may not take a nap...Now if she was enjoyable I'd say "I guess she doesn't need the recommended 12 hours of sleep, but that is so not the story!!!!! Then, to make it that much better, about a month ago she started waking up during the night and wondering into my room stating "I took a good nap! I want to watch TV!!!" At 2:30 in the morning. So I walk her into her room kiss her good night and walk out. On a good night she'll go back to sleep, but on the other nights she'll repeat this 3 or 4 more times! Needless to say, I'm exhausted the next day and so is she!!!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it, but she's taking a nap right now and she slept for 9 1/2 hours last night, so Maybe my life will get a little bit more normal. Other than that we're staying busy with preschool ( alaura) work (eric) and photography (me).

Alaura LOVES preschool! She asks me all the time if it's Tuesday or Thursday yet so she can go to preschool. We're doing class pictures next Tuesday, which is going to be so fun and cute! I don't have time to post a bunch of pics right now, but I'll try and catch up with some of the things we've been up to.

I'm so excited for this time of year!!! We're going to our ward Trunk or treat party on Saturday and Trick or treating on Halloween and a party or two somewhere in there! Then, I get to start getting ready for our big craft night at church, Amberly, John and Daphne are coming into town in mid November and right after that we're going to Utah for Thanksgiving!!!! Then Christmas and then a baby!!! Life's so busy and great!

Sneak Peek

2008-10-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

Eric and I shot a wedding last night...here are a few pics of the bride

Sneak peak

2008-10-09T07:47:00.000-07:00

I realized that with all the pictures I've been taking lately I've neglected to take pictures of Alaura recently so here a couple pictures from her recent photo shoot. I'll post more soon. As you can see, the camera LOVES her!!!

"A-L-A-U-R-A"

2008-10-08T16:20:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of Alaura doing her homework on Tuesday before preschool...She can trace her name pretty well as you can see from the pictures below. Not half bad for a two year old huh? (Proud mom moment...hehe)

She can also spell her name out loud if you ask her too. The best one though is when we're in the car and she sees a stop sign. "S-T-O-P Stop...no cars...G-O Go!!!!" She's so funny. She can recognize every letter in the alphabet too! When she spell things she'll say "Big M, little o, little m, little m, little y" another one she does that cracks me up is if she's spelling a word with two of the same letters in a row she says "T-H-R-E's...Three" it cracks me up when she says stuff like that.
If we could just solve her not sleeping in issues we'd be great!!!

In other news Eric and I are taking pictures at a reception on Saturday, we went and scouted out the area on Tuesday and it's going to be really pretty!!! I'm so excited!

2008-09-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

Click on the link on the right side that says

"This Moment Photography"

to see the pictures we've been taking!!!!!

Playing Catch up...again

2008-09-25T13:38:00.000-07:00

Well, here's a quick overview of what's been going on with us...Alaura's been doing really well in Preschool! She's tracing her name and letters REALLY well. She knows all of the ABC's and can count to 20. (She knew this before preschool, but she's getting better and better) I'll post a video soon of her spelling some words and stuff. She's getting very creative and loves to play house and have tea parties!!!

Pinkies up!!!

She collects things..."Human stuff, just like Ariel!"

She's developing an interest in photography !!!

(these are original Alaura pieces)

She LOVES swimming!!!

Is working on her "good manners"

She loves music

and she turns anything she can into a bed!!! Pillows, blankets, even paper!!!!

This is a picture of her and Blackie (the class "pet") eating lunch when Alaura got to bring him home.

Eric's been busy helping Mom and Dad Olsen Move into their new gorgeous home! Working his his buns off at work, putting up with his pregnant wife and when ever the weather allows...He is the "Grill Master"
YES, he even grilled the pizza's!!!!!

I've been busy with my church calling, photography, cleaning the house (though it never looks like it) and my two favorite things in the world...being a wife and Mommy!!!!

Here's the princess blankie I made for alaura during her nap a few weeks ago

And of course her princess hair (it's a flower!!!)

Camie and I took the girls to the fair yesterday, it was preschool day!!! We got in for free and had a good time!

Leyna and Alaura really liked the goats

So did Camie!!!! Here's a new calf a few minutes old, we saw the beginning of the birth but left for a little while because it was sooooo hot.

Princess Alaura on her royal throne...moments before it fell apart
Look Mommy big bubbles!!!! Thanks Camie! I have a hard time lifting her up now that my belly's getting in the way

2008-09-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

Today Alaura and I went out together to run some errands...she helped me put all of the food into bags and then into the cart. Afterward I told her, "Thank you for helping me, what would I do with out you?" She looked at me and said "Mommy, you'd die." I just about died laughing!!!!!

quick update

2008-09-18T08:13:00.000-07:00

It just occurred to me that I haven't been doing very well at updating my blog or reading other peoples blogs... Eric and I took pictures at a reception almost two weeks ago as well as a portrait sitting, so I was editing and getting that put together last week (I'm posting them on another blog, I'll put a link on here soon) and tonight I have enrichment for my ward. I cooked 20 pounds of meat yesterday and cooked 4 pounds of beans from scratch, not to mention all the shopping and stuff. So needless to say I've been busy, and yet I'm not sure if there's going to be enough food...We're having Chipotle style tacos. I'm making the rice today!

Anyway, I've been really bad at taking pictures (of my family) lately, I'll do better though. Here are a couple that I did take.

Alaura's decided that she wants "princess hair" now which involves lots of rubber bands and hairspray ;) Here's a picture of one of the styles I did

It's not the best picture of me, but this is the first picture of taken of myself so far. So, here's my 21 week belly. Just a quick update on the pregnancy, I started feeling Sydney moving at 17 weeks and really kicking at 19 (this was two weeks later than with alaura) Alaura felt her kick a week ago and her reaction was great!!! She was so excited that she felt Sydney kick her. Eric finally felt her last night!!! She stops as soon as he tries to feel her. I have an appointment next Tuesday to get an ultrasound and to see my Dr. So as long as she's still a girl I'm going to buy her bed set soon and then I wont have to worry anymore about buying anything. I'm not sleeping very well at night due to a really sore back and hips...my arms fall asleep all night too, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I LOVE BEING PREGNANT!!!!! :) Honestly I'm enjoying it so much more this time, I was so scared of gaining weight last time that i didn't enjoy my growing and changing body, this time I'm still aware of what I'm eating and stuff, but I'm enjoying it a lot more. I'll probably be bigger this time and I'll cry about it after I have her, but as for here and now I'm Happy!!!
I also realized that I never put a picture of Alaura's new bangs!! I took the scissors to them month ago and she panicked "Put it back!!!!!" But she loves them now!!! She has side bangs!!!

Because it's funny!

2008-09-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

I saw this on Lisa's blog and thought it was pretty funny!

THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES
Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks.Each kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes.There is no fast food.Each man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean, correct all homework, and complete science projects, cook, do laundry, and pay a list of 'pretend' bills with not enough money.In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week.Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives, and send cards out on time--no emailing.Each man must also take each child to a doctor's appointment, a dentist appointment and a haircut appointment.He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the Urgent Care.He must also make cookies or cupcakes for a social function.Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times.The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done. The men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, adorn himself with jewelry, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep fingernails polished and eyebrows groomed.During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or slow down from other duties.They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting.They will need to read a book to the kids each night and in the morning, feed them, dress them, brush their teeth and comb their hair by 7:00 am.A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information: each child's birthday, height, weight, shoe size, clothes size and doctor's name. Also the child's weight at birth, length, time of birth, and length of labor, each child's favorite color, middle name, favorite snack, favorite song, favorite drink, favorite toy, biggest fear and what they want to be when they grow up.The kids vote them off the island based on performance. The last man wins only if...he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment's notice. If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 years eventually earning the right To be called Mother!

Randomness

2008-09-03T07:39:00.000-07:00

Alaura LOVES to color...here are some of her works of art on the back patio with chalk...

A sun

A boy
This is how she makes her letters
Numbers

I forgot we had these pictures...

Eric found Alaura sitting in the hall eating her pretzels...

She LOVES her olives!!!!!

Erics Hunting Trip (Beware Bambi lovers)

2008-09-02T10:04:00.000-07:00

Eric went on a hunting trip August 14th-19th in Utah. He had a really good time...and got his first deer!!! He got it on opening day!!! He spent the rest of the time pushing deer to the other 3 guys. Against all odds all 4 guys went home with a deer! Eric came home with some jerky and sausage...I have to admit that it's pretty darn good! Well, here are a few pics from his trip...there's a pic of his deer that he got, so if you don't like hunting (like me), don't look past the first three! ;)

2008-08-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

Yes on Prop 8
Six Consequences If Proposition 8 Fails

1. Children in public schools will be taught that both traditional marriage and same-sex marriage are okay.The California Education Code already requires that health education classes instruct children about marriage. (§51890)Therefore, if the definition of marriage is changed, children will be taught that marriage is a relation between any two adults. There will be serious clashes between the secular school system and the right of parents to teach their children their own values and beliefs.

2. Churches will be sued if they refuse to allow same-sex marriage ceremonies in their religious buildings that are open to the public. Ask whether your pastor, priest, minister, bishop, or rabbi is ready to perform such marriages in your chapels and sanctuaries.

3. Religious adoption agencies will be challenged by government agencies to give up their long-held right to place children only in homes with both a mother and a father. Catholic Charities in Boston has already closed its doors because of the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.

4. Religions that sponsor private schools and which provide housing for married students will be required to provide housing for same-sex couples, even if it runs counter to church doctrine, or lose tax exemptions and benefits.

5. Ministers who preach against same-sex marriages will be sued for hate speech and could be fined by the government. It has already happened in Canada, one of six countries that have legalized gay marriage.

6. It will cost you money. A change in the definition of marriage will bring a cascade of lawsuits. Even if courts eventually find in favor of a defender of traditional marriage (highly improbable given today’s activist judges), think of the money – your money, your church contributions – that will have to be spent on legal fees.And think of all the unintended consequences that we cannot even foresee at this time.

Where will it end?It’s your children, your grandchildren, your money, and your liberties.Lets work together to protect them.

I believe this was written by Elder Larry Lawrence. Please help get the word out. Copy and paste this info and post it on your blog and/or email it to your contacts.

Alaura's first day of Preschool!

2008-08-19T10:00:00.000-07:00

Today is Alaura's first day of Preschool! Here she is right before we left! She even has a backpack!!!

Here's her homework folder that she made on Friday at the open house

Here she is walking up to the door !

My friend Heather used to teach before she had kids, well, her youngest is starting kindergarten this year so she thought that it would be a good time to start a preschool. It's state licenced and it sounds like it's going to be really good. Alaura's been talking about it all month! I'll let you know what she thought of her first day when she gets home in a couple hours!

Beach Bums!!!!

2008-08-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

On Friday morning Jami and I were talking about what we wanted to do over the weekend...so i called Camie (my sister)who was staying at a hotel not to far from Santa Monica for Juans job. Saturday morning we packed up the car and headed out for the beach. It was Alaura's first time, so i wasn't sure what she'd think of it...

Here's her first time playing om the beach

This is the closest Alaura got to the water...when she realized that it moved...she stayed in the sand!

The Santa Monica Pier in front of Alaura

Look Mommy I made a fish!!!!!

Camie, Jami and Leyna up on the towels

This is about as close as Alaura would go to the water with out me holding her!

Jami and Leyna

Me and Alaura

Camie and Leyna

Here's one of the beach bums we saw walking around...Jami grabbed my camera and took a picture!

his bottoms said "Aussie Bum"!!!!! It was pretty funny!
Here is our pathetic attempt at a sand castle...they're really hard!!!!!

We let Alaura "help out" after we took a quick picture

look what great job she's doing

She had a good time demolishing it!!

Look Mom I'm a mermaid!!!

We ate clam chowder on the pier and after alaura finished her mac and cheese she thought it would be fun to get in the way of all the waiters!!!

Here we are just outside of the pier!

Here's Alaura all bundled up in Leyna's stroller...she fell asleep shortly after and slept for a couple hours while we walked around the outdoor shopping.

After looking around for a couple hours and eating some hot fudge sundaes we headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest!

This is how Camie and Juan found Alaura at 3:00!!!! Doesn't that look comfy? ( In case you can't tell, her head is on the floor while the bottom half of her is on the bed)

Here are Alaura and Leyna in the morning...aren't they cute!?!?

That was our trip in a nutshell! Thanks Camie and Juan for letting us stay with you guys! It was great getting out of town and spending time together.