HOUSE OF HAM'S

Where did our little boy go?

2012-02-06T17:57:00.000-08:00

Today Owen had a dentist appointment.
I went to pick him up from school a few minutes early so we wouldn't be late. Good thing I did because he was in Gym class and bumped into another kid. Yep his teeth were the ones he hurt...nothing major thank goodness I was just grateful it happened on a day we were already going to the dentist.

The dentist is not Owens favorite place, he is usually OK until they ask him to get in the chair then it goes downhill but today....

We got there just on time and the girl decided they would take him back, do the xrays and then bring him to another chair a few minutes later to do the cleaning. I was just about to go back with him but he didn't even look back at me so i stepped back and he went on his own!

Its a really small office so I could hear everything and he did really well with the xrays but then
the Dentist was free and just came in and did his exam
still didn't ask for me.....

He came back out with a big grin on his face and said" I did it all by myself mom!"

I was so proud of him and gave him a giant hug, they came to get him for the cleaning and I was sure after all that he would say "come on mom "but no.....
Owen got in the chair did all the cleaning and even did the 1 minute fluoride treatment like a rockstar!!

I was tearing up and so proud of our little man!!

No cavities for him and some extra allowance makes for a good end to a Monday :)

Indoor soccer

2012-01-22T14:32:00.000-08:00

Owen got a new haircut from Aunt Tiff and he loves it!

Tiff said he was charming all the girls by showing off his spanish speaking skills....

yesssssssssssss spanish is taking over his brain!

We also started giving him allowance.

I was really nervous and thought it was too much too soon I didnt get allowance until perhaps jr high...

We got this cool chart from the Dave Ramsey Program just for kids

He has an opportunity to earn up to $5.00 per week I know shocking amount of money!!

He has to check off what he does every night and then we pay him.

Owen is also learning about Tithing and so far its been a little rough but we have a whole year to work on it before he will be 8.

He worked really hard for about 2 weeks. The first few days he lost money for not doing some things on the list or not listening to mom and dad.

The first goal he made for himself was some $7.00 toys. So when he reached that amount off to the store we went. I have never seen that boy so proud of himself!

These pirates are pretty special to this boy and he is really getting the value of a dollar!

Indoor soccer has taken over our free time and he is liking it pretty well. The "field" is way smaller and so far he has been injured:

Kicked in the head by ball x2

Kicked in the stomach/privates by ball 1

Jumped over the black edging to sit out and tripped landing really hard on both knees :(

after the knee think he said he only wanted to play outside soccer on the grass and I agree

This is what happens most of the time for practice. The rest of the team is listening to coach and Owen is running around like a nut!

He has got this funny little victory hand shake he does with his buddy when they make a goal. It includes a chest bump....who teaches this kid these things?? I will try to get it on video next two games then we are done for a month till Basketball starts.

Goodbye 2011 Hello 2012

2012-01-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

The tail end of 2011 was good to us!

We had a great Thanksgiving with lots of family and yummy food.

We played games, went shopping with the girls, watched movies and stayed up late.

We have these great Pass of all Passes that let us get into a bunch of great stuff around the state for free! This is our first family outing to Utah Grizzlies Hockey game. Owen thought it was pretty cool especially when they got a time out for fighting. The passes also get us into 7 Peaks for free and that is really what Owen wanted to do all summer long.

This is Owens very first Letter to Santa! I love his handwriting and how its all over the place. We took it to the post office together so I couldnt save it but this picture will be great to show him one day.

We saw Santa

We made it up to see the lights at Temple Square. The ride there was a little rough. This crazy guy cut us off and was yelling very bad words but luckily after that is was a great night. The lights were beautiful as always and the feeling at the Temple is better than Disneyland:) This is Owens cheese face he does it way too much in pictures and it drives me crazy but I love him still.

We had a ugly sweater party and this year we had so many new ideas and not enough sweaters to go around so we put on some ugly t shirts. Its always too hot with sweaters on anyway. This one is my new favorite from this year

Our family photo for the Christmas letter, including Dexter the wonder dog. We love him but man does he shed and all that hair is really taking a toll on our vacum :(

Christmas Morning Owen slept till about 7:45 and Jeremy and I enjoyed every minute of him sleeping in! He came downstairs to tons under the tree and then in his stocking there was a letter from Santa that there was one more present downstairs because there was no room left for it under the tree. Owen was stoked to find a electric drum set down there! Santa really understands a moms needs for quiet sometimes so a drum set with headphones so mom doesnt go crazy is a great gift for the whole family ;)

On New Years Eve Owen had a friend come to play and when he went to open the door the dumb rug slipped out from under him and he hit the table by the door. Result: his teeth went through his lip. I ran to him and all I saw was blood. I was so thankful there wasnt teeth missing but then I realized that there might be a need for stitches and I got sick to my stomach. Poor Owen always with the mouth accidents. We are gonna have to get this kid a mouth gaurd to wear everyday of his life. He looks really somber here i had given him some Ibuprofen before we left for the instacare, and after crying pretty hard and being worried about what the doctor would do Im pretty sure he was zoned out by this picture. :( See the two little marks on his chin that's where the teeth came out....

This is what the inside looked like and why we thought it might need a stitch or two. Poor kid:( Lucky for him and for us the nice Dr said it would heal on its own just fine and the mouth heals really quickly. So he sent us home with script for antibiotic just in case it got infected but it never did.

This was the next night it was looking pretty gross but healing pretty fast too. Owen was pretty pleased to get popsicles too.

This was day 3 and after that the bruising was basically gone and there are just two tiny marks on his chin that I have been putting Vit E on so hopefully they wont scar. We brought 2012 in with a bang so lets hope that's all for this kids mouth for the year.

Owen is still loving his spanish immersion class and after the long holiday vacation he is happy to be back at school with friends. Owen also started indoor soccer and he will be starting Jr Jazz in March. Fun things are in store for us this year, we cant wait !!

lets get caught up here people!

2011-10-12T11:21:00.000-07:00

Ok so I have been a major slacker. I have no excuse other than life happens.

Here is what you have missed in our life for the past 4 months:

*We spent 2 days a week at least at the pool this summer

*Owen really loves the wave pool but it still freaks me out

*We went to a few rodeos

* We went to the zoo while they had the dinosaur exhibit.....he thought it was scary. He was kinda in a bad mood all day there and whinning. When we got home we figured out he had a 101* fever. No bueno!

*Owen got stung 4 times at cascade springs

*Jeremy and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary

*I got a new calling as primary secretary in june and I am finally feeling like I can do it!

* We went camping down by Manti with some friends and it was awesome!

*Owen started 1st grade spanish dual immersion program

*Owen had a seriously hard time with his first 2 weeks of 1st grade

(they told us to expect tears but I was really thinking we made a bad choice in the spanish class)

* He finally figured out that its cool to go to first grade-(made better by the fact that i

bribed him everyday he didnt cry.)

*He is loving learning spanish and he knows how to :

-sing abc's

-tell you the days of the week & month

- colors

-count to 35

*everyday he tells me his favorite thing was recess

*Owen loves to read and he is getting SO good at it!

*Owen played soccer again this fall

* Owen went to see the pediatric eye Dr. who told us he doesnt need the glasses he was prescribed in april.

* He also told us that if his eye is still being lazy in a couple months he would need surgery again...UGH!

* I help in his english class every week and I love getting to be there with him but its like herding chickens!

*I realized I can never really tell what Owen is thinking.

example #1

Driving to school he asks me: Did great grandma eat great grandpa?

what? NO why do you say that?

Because she is a widow like the spider and they eat the spouse.....

We went to a baptism last weekend and he went up to watch up close what happens

He thought it was really cool and on the way back down the hall he said:

I didnt see the sins get washed away. where were they?

I said they just disappeared buddy, they just go too fast for us to see.

* our puggle Dexter is surviving being in our family.

* he shivers/whines when we put him out to go potty.....its gonna be a long winter people

This was moments before the bee stings :(

First day of 1st grade

Camping view in Manti

Updates galore

2011-06-06T19:17:00.000-07:00

I keep telling myself as soon as something fun happens I would do a new post.

Well in the past 3 weeks we had some super fun times and there are a lot of things to

catch up on so here we go!

We got a new member of the family!

* Dexter *

He is a puggle: 3parts pug 1 part beagle & 9 weeks old now

Owen calls him his brother and loves him a little too much sometimes

Owen graduated from Kindergarten (snif snif)

I started crying the minute he marched in with his class and didnt stop through the whole thing

We are so proud of him and all the things he learned over the year with his wonderful teacher

He sat up on the stage so proud and when they called his name I looked at Jeremy and he had tears too

We are SO excited for summer!

We are looking forward to: swimming, museums, zoo, slip and slides and sleeping in, bike rides and bbq's

Since we bought this house we have had a area in our backyard that was just sand. It has been the worst thing ever in our home. The previous owners had a pool there so it was mostly covered by that for them but when they moved they took it with them.

Since then it has been the neighborhood cat litter box....Yuck Yuck Yuck

My dad is a cement mason and we have wanted him to pour cement back there for a while but we kept going back and forth about grass or cement

So we finally buckled down and got it cleared out and ready for cement

We had a lot of help and my dad did a great job as always!

Soooooo lucky to have a dad with such great talent and skills to make something we can cherish forever

The sad thing is we wanted Owen to put his hand in it but the day we poured he had a horrible fever and pretty much slept the day away. I woke him up to watch for about an hour and take some more medicine but he was still feeling yucky and wanted nothing to do with putting his hand in there :(

My dad did put a cool stencil in it with some leaves from a tree in our backyard

We have been to two rodeos this summer already

The second one we went to had a sweet military chopper and Owen has in heaven

He got to watch them take off and then they flew over us during the national anthem VERY COOL!!

They also had a eagle that was injured and nursed back to health we all got to witness him fly off back to freedom, Owen thought that was awesome too and cant stop talking about it

We had a fun bbq with some friends and family this weekend

It was nice to have the extra space of our new cement patio and see good friends again

the weather has been nice finally and we are loving the sunshine

Here are the picture to go with all the updates sorry if they are not in order but hope you enjoy them

Spider-man Birthday!

2011-05-08T09:02:00.000-07:00

On Cinco De Mayo our little man turned 6! It is really crazy to me that so much time has gone by so fast! Here are some things about Owen's life right now:

-top two teeth that we lost tragically last year are finally coming in! yay!

- is really tall one more inch and he will be 4 feet!

- really sweet to me when we wake up in the morning! He sings to me" Good morning to you,good morning to you, to me!"

- really likes school and his teacher

- can makes friends with anyone anywhere we go

- very good at all sports. I think baseball is his favorite for now and he has a really good arm on him!

-loves candy that is sour but he calls it spicy

-hates pizza, i know strange huh!

-can count to ten in spanish

-loves to have me read stories at night before bed, and he can read to me now too which i love!!!

-loves the aquarium, the zoo, the dinosaur museum and trafalga

-would eat cereal and chicken nuggets for the rest of his life if I let him

-wears glasses most of the time without a fight now

-is a pro at his two wheeler bike and will wear his helmet without a fight!

-got his first sunburn ever this summer

-went to see ANNIE and loved it, he loves anything where he can clap ;)

-loves me but always asks "where is dad?"

-his new favorite thing is ganging up on me with Jeremy and tickling me till my cheeks hurt from laughing

I love this kid and I am so lucky to be his mom! He is the sweetest boy and really becoming a little man. He is thoughtful and asks a lot of questions about life and how people feel. I hope that he grows up to be a sweetheart softy just like his dad!

On his birthday we brought spiderman cupcakes to his class and then when he got home from school we surprised him with this new bike! Dont worry we took the training wheels off right after this picture.

His old one was worn out and the chain and pedal kept falling off no matter how many times we tightened them. This one makes a super cool sound when you crank the handle bar he loves it!

Monkey game from Rob, Cathy and Jenn. They came over for cake and Ice cream that night and we had a nice visit.

Owen had wanted a spiderman party for a long time and I really wanted to have spiderman come. Jeremy found out one of the trainers at his work had a bunch of costumes and dressed up for things like this so we got him to come and I think it was a big success! The only problem we have now is that we have to do something even better next year! I didnt quite know how I was going to do his cake but it turned out really great I think! He loved the little spider crawling up the candle too!

This was just one of the 10 targets we put around the yard for the kids to shoot with silly string. I took one of his coloring books and enlarged the bad guys. They turned out pretty cool and the kids said it was the best game of the night.

After everyone arrived which ended up to be 19 kids!!!! We let them eat and run around for a little while. Owen wasnt really interested in chatting like some of the other kids all he wanted was to play tag!

While we were waiting for spider-man to show up we played some impromptu games: Simon says

Simon says jump up and down! :)

We also had 3 more games that night.

*Spider toss: they had to toss it into a spider-man bucket

*Radio-active spider: we had them stand in a circle and they had to pass around the spider while music played and when the music stopped the one hold the spider was OUT.

*Guess how many: I put a bunch of small toy spiders in a jar and had them guess how many were in there. The guesses were hilarious!

After what seemed like forever it was finally time! Jeremy talked to all the kids and told them that Spider-man was Owens favorite good guy and that maybe just maybe if we said MY SPIDEY SENSES ARE TINGLING 3 times he would come for his birthday. The kids yelled it and he jumped into our backyard! I think all the kids were not really sure what was going on at first then they all thought it was so cool! Jeremy said does anyone want to come give him 5 but everyone ran over and gave him hugs! It was super cute!

Everyone got a can of silly string and then they ran around shooting the bad guys with them. I think our backyard will have silly string on everything till next year!

Spider-man lifted Owen up for the pictures and everyone had a really hard time looking at the camera for the picture but I thought it was really cute that they couldnt take their eyes off him.

Just a couple pics of Owen alone

After that we let anyone who wanted to get their picture taken with spider-man. I got quite a few pictures to print out for parents.

Everyone sang a great happy birthday song and at the end after" to you" they all yelled really loud... BYU! Funny I guess thats what they do in Owens class when its someones birthday.

All the girls got little tiaras to wear and the boys got spider-man masks at the end of the party along with a little gift bag with- a spider, candy, a small baseball for the pool, and a spider-man silly band

After everyone left Jeremy, Owen and I had a little silly string fight of our own. That stuff really stinks but it was so fun to run around the backyard and get each other! Great memories were made that night for sure!

My boys! These two make me so happy!

2011-05-01T16:01:00.000-07:00

We went on a little weekend trip to St George for fishing and hanging out with my brother thats going to school down there. It was perfect weather and Owen LOVED fishing with my dad and brother! He loves anything that entails being one of the guys.

Owen looks so much like my brother and I am so happy Morgan could be there to show him some tips on catching the perfect fish!

This was the first one he caught himself and he wasnt too sure about it until Morgan told him it was awesome then he was super happy and couldnt wait to catch another. He is a master at catch and release now and I think fishing will be a big part of life for this kid.

This crazy guy was a the DI and we had to get a picture of his get up. He had on only 1 spur and there was a feather in his top hat. Wow!

After some afternoon swimming and taking a shower I put Owen in the bed so I could get ready for dinner and he fell asleep for about an hour, which would have been ok but then at about 10 when it was time for bed he was wired and running circles in the hotel room.

The last day we were there Morgan took us to a little fishing hole that Owen could see the fish come to the bait. He must have caught like 15 fish that way. It was really hot that day and he got his first sunburn on his legs. Thankfully though he will let me put all the sunscreen i want on him now so he doesnt get another sunburn.

Does that face just say it all or what!:? He loves being a fisherman and was even baiting his own hooks without poking his fingers :)

I cannot believe it but our Owen will be 6 this thursday! Cinco de Mayo time again. I am bringing cupcakes to his class at school. Im so excited for him my birthday is in the summertime and my mom never got to bring cupcakes to my class so I am stoked to bring them and have his class sing to him!
Owen wanted a spiderman party this year. I got this idea from a website and I hope the party goes smoothly for us! Jeremy has a friend at his work that is dressing up like spiderman and coming to the party for about 20 minutes! I cant wait to see the look on his face and see what his friends do when they see him come into the backyard at our house.

The website part was my favorite part of the invitation!

Show and Tell

2011-03-29T15:45:00.000-07:00

This is the newest member of the farm family at my grandma's house.

Isn't he the sweetest? His name is Norman, his momma died so we get to bottle feed him and take care of him till he gets a bit to big for the field.

Owen started his Gym class. Its 2 days a week and I was nervous he would think it was just for girls but he LOVES it! Mostly I think because 2 of the teachers are boys and they can do all these crazy flips and jumps. Owen is convinced they are ninjas!

Owen's teacher and I had been noticing some eye rubbing and holding his paper too close to his face. So we went back for another recheck of his eyes. This time he said Owen could use the help of some glasses. He picked these out all by himself. He thought the looked like the glasses you get at the 3D movies. Funny boy!
He tried for a day or two to say they were fuzzy and he didnt need them but today he wore them to school all day and came home with them still on and still smiling :) Thank goodness!
I asked him how the first day with glasses went, he told me a mean 4th grader told him he looked dumb with glasses but he didnt care because he knew he looked cool. Im so glad he was ok with the teasing but man if I had been there that 4th grader would have heard an ear full from this momma bear!

A lot to catch up on!

2011-03-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

So the first weekend in March we went on a little vacation to Las Vegas.

Jeremy's cousin Janell and her hubby were blessing their cute baby girl Madison. You will see a lot of her in this post!

We left Friday after Jeremy got done at work. It was pretty smooth sailing until Owen told us he had to go to the bathroom and we were about 10-15 min from the next turn off. I dont know how he made it honestly. I dont think Jeremy has ever driven so fast. You are probably wondering why we didnt just stop and let him pee in the bushes or something but it wasnt that kind of emergency :(

We made it to Vegas just after midnight and we were exhausted from the drive but it was all better when they upgraded our room to a jacuzzi sweet! We were super excited and Owen thought it was so cool to have the tub in our room like that.

The next morning we woke up and drove down the strip to show Owen some of the sights and get a feel for what he might want to see closer up. Our first stop was the aquarium at Mandalay Bay. He loved it of course! It made our sad aquarium in Sandy look like a backyard pool with shrimp in it. :)

The sharks were his favorite only after he was re-assured that they couldnt get through the glass and get us.
This is by far my favorite picture so cool! Owen thought this giant Komodo Dragon was super cool, wanted to take him home as a pet ha!

After the aquarium we had some time to kill before going to see the Madison. So we took Owen over to Cesar's for the statue show. We waited 45 min for it to start and then when it did Owen got this worried look on his face. Then he said I dont wanna watch anymore. Then the fire started. That was it. The deep voices and the statues moving plus fire put him over the edge. He started to cry and I picked him up and we walked out of there and down the hallway. I felt really bad.

When I picked him up I must have pulled something in my back but I didnt feel it until we got up the next morning. I bent down to get something out of my suitcase and couldnt stand back up. It was horribly painful rest of the day but Aunt Debbie was nice enough to let me use her ice pack and I took some ibuprofen. Then rest of the trip and for a couple days after we got home I walked like a 90 year old with a walker.....but there was no walker :(

This is the princess Madison Liberty!

Isnt she the cutest? I love her hair and how absolutely girly she is

Jeremy's cousin Ken and his son Ethan that also live in Vegas! So good to see them again. His sweet wife Alicia and their daughter Abby came later but I didnt get any pics of them.:(

All these pretty girls in one spot! I feel bad they are all looking different directions but its a great picture :)

See that rock bed behind the boy, he was convinced that these rocks in there were T-rex eggs!

Aunt Debbie with her sweet granddaughter, dont they both look beautiful!

This little family is one of our favorites! Janell and Ryan have stayed at Hotel Hamilton a few times and we hope it will continue now that little Maddy is here! These two are great parents and I know Maddy was meant for their eternal family!

The next few pics my favorite pics of Maddy girl from the trip. I had to restrain myself to not suck on those cheeks! She is perfect!

My favorite boys and the princess

Can we say Diva? She was out after the blessing.

Owen was in heaven with Aunt Debbie's little dog Molly.

My favorite boys back at the hotel after a long day. We asked Owen on the way home what his favorite part of the vacation was he said the hot tub! Crazy kid!

It was so so so nice in Vegas! 75 no wind just wonderfulness. We made it to St George and had lunch with my sweet friend Becky Matua and my brother Morgan who is going to school down there. The weather there was a little rainy but then the sun would come back out. No big deal. We got on the road because we heard the weather was supposed to get bad but we hadnt seen it yet. We even made it cedar city. filled up and stopped to eat. Nothing there either. Well about 10 min after we got back on the roads it started to get really cloudy and dark then 5 min after that it was this! Madness I tell you! There were people sliding off everywhere and you could hardly see in front of you. Lucky for us Owen was watching a movie on the dvd and had no clue just how scary it was. We really thought IF we made it to Beaver we would be spending the night there for sure. We got there and it was wet but no snow and the clouds were gone. Being so close to home and not wanting to pay for a night again we talked and made the decision to push forward. Lucky for us there were just wet roads the rest of the way no snow. We made it home safe and in one piece.

We had a little tree trimming day at GG's

This is a old picture from when we went to the dinosaur museum a while back. Just wanted to throw it in there

2011-02-14T19:12:00.000-08:00

Our Valentines Day was wonderful!

Jeremy took the day off so we planned a full day of great stuff.

We got our carpets cleaned first thing this morning, they needed them so bad and they package we got came with a voucher for a 3 night stay in a variety of hotels in Vegas and California!

After we got our carpets cleaned I went for a nice long morning walk with my friend from the ward :)

We picked up Owen together from Kindergarten

We surprised him with a trip to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point & Owen loved every minute!

Jeremy surprised me with some much needed and wanted new exercise shoes!

We got take out on our way home from our new favorite place Saigon Noodle House. It was a perfect day and Owen was such a good kid all day. He kept coming up to us all day long and saying Happy Valentines Day and hugging us it was really cute!

I am so glad I have such a wonderful husband who could take the day off to spend with us and spoil me!

*The Valentine Card is what Owen and I made together to send out to our families. I saw the idea in a magazine and had to copy it! Well they turned out cute and Owen writing his own name on the bottom was perfect. I was so proud of myself that they were done and ready to go in the mail just in time for the holiday. I put a forever stamp on them and sent them out.

Then I got a call from my sister in law that she had to pay $0.20 for it when it came in the mail.

What a wonderful way to show our family that we love them right???

I felt so dumb!

Who knew that straws and noodles would be so much wt that a forever stamp wouldn't cover the cost.....

beware people!

To the circus we will go!

2011-02-10T13:51:00.000-08:00

Jeremy and I took Owen to the circus last week! I didn't realize it at the time but Jeremy had NEVER been to the circus before. The things you learn after almost 9 years of marriage! We had a great time and Jeremy was really impressed with the show. Owen and I went alone last year because Jeremy had to work so being there together as a family was awesome!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am terrified of heights! This act was too much for me, but Owen and Jeremy loved it! Super inappropriate if you ask me, especially when one of the guys fell and caught himself on the wire......twice!

Where do they find these people... really??

Jeremy and Owen got to ride the elephant! Where else would my two favorite guys get to ride on an elephant? This is as close to an African safari as the Hamilton's will get! Owen was nervous to begin with but when the trainer put him on the very front he found out that elephants have super scratchy long whiskers on top of their heads. OUCH! There's a fun fact they don't tell you on the discovery channel.

My two favorite guys after they survived the ride

I remember when his legs barely went over the sides and now I think we are on the border of too big to ride the tiny pony's anymore.

Sad moment in the life of Owen.

We are sitting in sacrament meeting and Owen is coloring after they finished the bread and water.

Owen looks at me and Jeremy with a worried look on his face and tells us he had an accident!

After a brief moment of shock and panic

we booked it out of there and got him home and cleaned up.

No warning for a belly ache that day. We spent the rest of the day at home close to the bathroom. Poor kid.

I'm just glad it didn't happen at school!

Things we have learned in 2011 so far

2011-02-02T15:38:00.000-08:00

The new year has brought us a new sense of family and what is really important. There were some big decisions made, some new things realized & some great news too! Here they are in no particular order:

* After much deliberation and time in the temple we have decided not to move forward with our adoption plans.
There is a lot that went into that choice and the bottom line is that we are both at peace with the choice we made to stay a family of 3!
* Jeremy had perfect attendance for 2010 and will receive a good bonus for that in a few weeks!
* Verizon has now implemented a new system for 2011 if you have perfect attendance at the end of every month they will give you a $100 gift card to pretty much any place you want(shopping, restaurants, movies).....January perfect attendance so gift card here we come!
*Owen listens to us talk way more than I ever realized. The other night he was putting on his clothes after a shower and he was trying to put on his pjs still soaking wet when I asked him why? he told me,"Thats's how I roll."....I say that all the time!
*Owen and I both had dentist appointments this last month and Owen had no cavities, I had 1 and 1 silver filling that is giving me pain so it will be replaced. Guess I need to focus on my own brushing as much as I do Owen's.
* The dentist also told us that if Owen's 2 front teeth are not in by the time he is 7 they will probably have to make incisions in his gums for the teeth to come through.....please bless that doesn't happen.
* Family really is the most important they are my rock and my soft place to land when life gets hard.
*Owen brought home a paper from school that gives us the option to put him in a duel immersion class for spanish. It starts next year in first grade and will go through sixth grade! YIKES! Just the thought of that freaks me out. I know kids soak it in really great at this age and he will definitely use it to his advantage in this life but I barely made it through my hight school class how will I ever help with homework if its in spanish?
* We have a quote on our fridge that I look at everyday that helps me: Be strong, live honorably and with dignity. When you dont think you can, HOLD ON!
* We are so excited to be able to take a family vacation this year. We haven't had one since 2007! Thats a long time people!
* I love making new friends that surprise you at how alike you are & the more you talk to them you know that friendship will last forever!
* Jeremy and I have been going on more dates and its so nice to go out by ourselves!

Here are some pics of our year so far hope it continues to be great for our family!

Our big kid who sat in the chair and let them take xrays and clean without a fuss thank goodness!

He was so happy when they let him take home some gloves and a mask he checked all of his stuffed animals teeth when we got home!

New valentines decorations for our house, I love it when I get to be crafty!

New baby lambs at great grandma's house. This is one of the twins born just a week ago!

Our late post about Christmas fun

2011-01-11T15:43:00.000-08:00

This Christmas was wonderful!

Jeremy and I got a little surprise visit from his aunt Debbie a few days before Christmas when she was driving through with a friend and stayed over at our house for a night. It is always fun when Debbie is in town and we were happy to have them stay at Hotel Hamilton :)
Owen loved all his presents! I love the look on his face in these pictures, he really was excited and happy on Christmas! Christmas Day Jeremy and I woke up to Owen coming in our room at like 7:30 to ask us if Santa had come. It was really cute, and we were both surprised he didnt just run down the stairs to check for himself. We all went down and Jeremy got some great video's with our new camera. We were pretty lazy that morning. My grandma had our traditional breakfast for everyone and for once we were not the first ones there! After everyone had eaten and opened presents we had a gingerbread house contest. My aunt and uncle are both architects so really no one else had a chance, but it was fun! In the afternoon we went over to the Hamilton's house. It was pretty quiet because Jaymee had to go with her mom for the weekend. We gave her her presents the night before and I think she liked them, but who can really tell when you are 1 1/2 ya know?? We decided to pack up the ham they planned on cooking and go to our house instead. We cooked and played games and then watched a movie. It was a quiet end to a long wonderful day. I think we were all missing Jaymee girl too much, so we just kept it relaxed and easy.

I am not by any means a builder!

Our new years was a nice one too, games, good food and good company! Owen went to bed early that night so it was a early morning for us the next day but well worth it. Jeremy has been taking a A+ course through his work. They are paying for the course and when he passes it he will get a 5% raise! We are so lucky to have him to take care of us and work so hard. I really dont know you other people out there do work and school at the same time. It will be worth it when its over :)

Our pre and post Turkey Day festivities!

2010-12-04T13:27:00.000-08:00

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful!
We couldnt have the annual TURKEY 2K with my family because it was just too cold. We did have a great dinner together and my cousin was just back from his mission. We had so much fun playing games, watching football and the girls all got manicures. We went over to Jeremy's parents house in the afternoon. It was good to chat with them and play card games there, we just couldnt eat anymore food by then. We never remember to pace ourselves and end up stuffed.

My mom works with a girl that was cleaning out her garage and didnt want this train table! Owen was so excited to help put Jeremy put it together.

These are a few projects I have been needing to get finished for a while. I finally got them finished. It was a long night but I really like how they turned out. This was just a plain wooden board with Howdy cut out of it. I cut rope and hot glued it into place. A little staining and it was finished.

These pictures are part of a cute treasure map I bought for Owen's cowboy birthday. I cut it into pieces and glued it onto 3 blank canvas's I got from Roberts. I put some stain on those too so they would look older. The board I painted and roughed up a bit with a hammer and some nails. I think the neighbors thought I was crazy beating it the way I did.

This was the board before I painted and distressed it. It was only $2 at DI! Love it!

We saw this cute hat at the mall on our after Thanksgiving Shopping day. It was super cute and the boy does love GEORGE but it was $25. Is it just me or is that steep for a hat??

Jeremy got his ear biopsy done the day before Thanksgiving. It was perfect timing so he could give it a few days before having to go back to work and wear a headset all day.

It looked really gross the first day but then it has gotten better looking every day since.

The doctor called yesterday with the results and it came back benign. Thank goodness. They said it was a enlarged blood vessel. Strange but, as long as its harmless. It's not going away on its owen and took out a large chunk for the biopsy, now it looks worse. So we are waiting to hear back from the doctor if they want to just level it out so its even or remove the whole thing in a bigger surgery. Poor Jeremy.

Owens first time seeing Santa. He looks so little! Oh how the time has flown!

The Santa this year was super cute! He really looked the part and was so sweet to Owen. I thought it was cute how he is looking at him now just like he did back then! If you take your kids to go see santa make the trip to fashion place mall. Its worth it for a good santa!!

We also met with our new adoption caseworker with LDS this week.

We were hoping to finish our home study this month but it looks like that wont happen. We have individual interviews next week and then we will have the home study hopefully in the first few weeks of January. We are getting closer but it is still feels like a mirage right now. At least we can use these next few weeks to work on preparing for our home study.

There are too many updates for this title....

2010-11-03T21:13:00.000-07:00

Jeremy has this weird thing on his ear.

It started out as a red bump back in August. I actually thought it was a mosquito bite the first time I saw it. It has gotten bigger ever since. Its even going kinda numb at the biggest part. Now there is 2 well defined bumps there. We have been to the dermatologist to have it checked and we thought for sure they would do a biopsy. She wanted to wait and measure it for record. The doctor seems to think it is due to Jeremy's head set at work but we dont feel the same. We will give her the benefit of the doubt and try it. For those of you who dont know Jeremy had a tumor the size of a cat removed from his abdomen when he was 9. It was pretty scary! It was attached to his spinal cord and they were able to remove it all with no cells left. Our primary care thought this might just be a cyst and wouldnt be something to worry about. But when we reminded him of Jeremy's medical history he rethought that and told us to get it checked just to be safe. I guess we will see if it really does go away switching ears with the headset at work if not I guess there will be some slicing and dicing.

Our adoption work is finally moving forward! We finally got Jeremy's employment verified. It was quite the ordeal his work doesnt just fill out forms like a normal employer would. There is a whole website dedicated to it and it was a lengthy process. It's done now though thank goodness and we can move on towards our home-study! We are waiting for Jeremy's divorce decree to come in the mail and then we are basically ready for the home study. I have been cleaning like a mad woman! I guess all those years of spring cleaning with my mom should have rubbed off on me better I wouldnt be in the situation I'm in now. ha ha. I HATE TO CLEAN!

We went last weekend and took some family pictures we are hoping to use for our adoption profile. What do you think? What numbers do you vote for?

Keep in mind the adoption people said that bright colors stand out in photos and we want something to catch peoples eye as they are looking through profiles.

This is what we call an Owen sandwich, we do this kind of hug a lot at our house!

These will be on our profile too! I guess a lot of birth mom's out there like to see Halloween photos. I hope this one impresses someone out there! :) I love that Owen's mask gives him teeth again and I love Jeremy's bandanna it looked awesome!

Jeremy and I had a Halloween party with Owen and his little friends from the neighborhood. It was super fun and the kids had a blast! I love Halloween!

Super bad moment in parenthood: We are at dinner with Jeremy's parents and Owen takes a bite of something he doesnt like and he says: Son of a _____. NOT awesome! We told him that is not a word we ever want to hear again and that it was a very bad saying. He asked a few minutes later if he could say: "Goodnight nurse".......that one we will let slide!

WE HAVE BEEN BUSY

2010-10-05T18:11:00.000-07:00

A few things we have been doing lately:

Owen played his last soccer game of the season!

He made his first goal and ran around the field with his arms out like a REAL Salt Lake player :)

He finally got the rules of soccer: no pushing, tackling, or touching the ball.

Jeremy and I made it to the temple twice last month!

Jeremy started a new schedule and got a new supervisor at work. There is a gym at his work and his new schedule allows him to go before work starts. He is loving starting his day out with a workout!

We got new cell phones, which i don't think has happened for about 2 years. They are a bit high tech for me but we are loving all the things that are available on the phones. The touch screen is not something I thought I would ever like, but I DO!

Owen thankfully has not lost any teeth this week, that's huge for us!

Owen's teacher told me that he is a wonderful example to the class and a fabulous student...

I teared up. Nice things said about a son will always make this mom tear up.

We have homework every night. Something new to us. It is going really well and Owen is starting to read to me some words at night. AWESOME! I really hope he continues his love of books and becomes obsessed with them just like me!

and

there

this

little

thing

ADOPTION!!

We have been thinking about it for a long time. Ever since they told us we shouldn't have any more kids. I never felt like it was fair to bring another child into our lives when I wasn't sure I would be here for Owen. There were a couple times when I thought I was doing better and we asked if they would write a letter for us that my health was good enough to raise another child to adulthood. The answer was always no.

But when I got the biopsy good news in June we both looked at each other and just knew that was what we were supposed to do.

We looked around at a few agency's but they went from moderately expensive to down right robbery. I don't know how people do it without a rich relative or a money tree in the backyard.

Our first and obvious choice was LDS Services.

They are I think what every LDS couple wanting to adopt looks at first.

The waiting list is what made us go looking for other options, we had heard from many of our friends that it could/would take years for us to have a adoption through them.

The social workers are only part time which makes it tough to get things done, but we really couldn't afford the other agency's.

We also met all of the requirements at LDS but one.

When the doctors told me that having another child would not only endanger my health but the baby's as well, we were told children were not recommended and we should do everything in our power to make sure that didn't happen. Doctor terms for have your tubes tied or get a vasectomy.

We had to get a letter from the specialist who told us that statement.

ENTER PROBLEMS!

One doctor told us to get it from the current specialist since it was three years ago, and would have more Merritt coming from them. That doctor of course said it would have to be the other one and round and round we went for about 3 weeks. It seemed impossible. The doctors were out of town, said we will call you back and then wont, or said No your not on our insurance anymore. My current specialist wrote a letter but it didn't have the wording they needed it to have.

It all came down to that letter. Without the specialist writing it LDS had no choice but to see Jeremy getting the vasectomy as voluntary sterilization and that is not allowed. They could not accept us as clients.We were at a crossroads.

I told Jeremy I was done fighting with Doctors about who said what and when. That if LDS didn't want to see our situation for what it truly was then there was nothing we could do.

It was a daily struggle for us to know what to do.

Were we just not taking the hint from upstairs that this is not the path I want for you, or was it our test to see how much we really wanted it. Every single night we sat up and talked about how we had confirmation in the Temple that this was what we were supposed to do, but why all the struggle?

The only glimmer of hope was the first specialist I saw in 2007. He had been out of town during the bulk of the letter incidents. We were waiting to hear back from him. But honestly I didn't really have much faith.

Silly Me.

If you ever have a moment where it seems your faith is gone. PRAY. It works, I assure you!

The next day I got a call from the above specialist and his nurse read me the letter he had wrote over the phone. I started crying. It was word for word what LDS was needing it to say. That was another confirmation that we are on the right path!

Our prayers have been answered and we are officially signed up to go forward with adoption!

Ever since then it has been so fast! We got a caseworker. We had our initial interviews.

This weekend we are going to a mandatory class for adoptive parents. One more thing we must complete before a birth mom can chose us. I didnt think we would get in since it was just a week before the class that we got officially approved to begin. If we had not gotten into this class we would have had to wait until January for the next one.

Not so bad you say but nothing moves forward until you have completed this class. We have completed so many of the forms in our packet in the last week. We still have to go through the adoption committee and have them approve us after our background checks come back but I hope all the bumps in the road are behind us.

What seemed impossible is now a very real possibility for us. Yes there is a long way to go and of course a girl has to pick us out of a million families out there.

We are so excited to continue with this new adventure in our lives and hopefully welcome another member into our House of Hams

xoxox

Fall Family Fun!

2010-09-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

Our Owen has been in kindergarten for almost a month now and he is loving it!

He has a great teacher that is everything I could ask for, she is patient, speaks softly, and makes everything exciting. This was at lunch after his first day, I made the crown like 5 minutes before he got out :) Owen did have some mishaps in these first few weeks:

He cut his shirt with the scissors

He cut his finger on purpose the next day, there was blood and i hope he wont do it again!

He pushed someone and ended up in "think about it time"

He got his first kindergarten girlfriend :)

This is the must have shot of the first day of kindergarten. Owen is so tall! He has grown 1 1/2 inches since his birthday in May. I hope we can keep him in these levis until Christmas.

Jeremy's little sister went through the temple this weekend! Jenn and Shane have been married for 2 years and worked really hard to get to this day. It was wonderful. We had a lot of family in the area that could come to the session and sealing with us. Jenn and Shane stayed at our house and that meant Owen was in our bed, he loved that!

We did a session just a week ago with Jeremys parents and then got to go again with Jenn and Shane. It was really nice to go twice in one month. We will definitley try to get there more often!

The newly sealed couple!

After some much needed rest from our morning at the temple we had a wonderful family dinner at a local park. There was good food and family that showed up to hang out with. It was a little hot when we got there but then when the sun went down a little the playground was perfect. Owen got to play with his little cousin Jaymee. She is at such a fun age!

On Sunday Jenn and Shane came to our ward. We had great lessons and it was nice to be there with family. Owen was even good for his teacher...AMAZING!

After a quick lunch we went for a drive up to cascade springs. It has always been a special place for Jeremy and I. That is where he proposed to me. Owen had so much fun and the fall colors were so pretty!

This is the exact spot where Jeremy popped the question! I am such a lucky girl to have him as my husband!

This boy never stops running!

We are pretty stylin in our shades!

Jeremy and I have been working on something big these past few weeks. It has not been going well and its hard to know what to think about it. I will post more about that later.

We have a new favorite sport!

2010-08-26T12:04:00.000-07:00

Owen started soccer last week and he really loves it!

The coach is super nice too. She used to work with Jeremy at the Verizon store in Salt Lake.

Owen was very excited about his jersey it is #5! 5 has always been a special number in our house. Owen was born on 5/5/05 and just turned 5 and he lost 5 teeth this year so far.

Owen has always been a fast runner and he loves running up and down the field. Although the little league they are on the field is super short! It is cute and easy to watch all the action.

Owen feels pretty cool when he gets on his shin guards

This is Owen sitting out for a minute to let some of the other kids have a turn. As you can see his face is really red and his was a sweaty mess but he loved every minute of it! The best part for me is that practice is the first 20 minutes before each game so I don't have to run around more than I need to during the week. Yahoo!

School starts next Wednesday. I took him for the kindergarten aptitude tests today. He did really well on certain things. Letters, numbers, counting, sounds that letters make. He did wonderful on puzzles. The things I wasn't prepared for were things like him knowing the different coins. Maybe that is just my view as his mom I hope the teacher thinks he did great too!

What we did this summer!

2010-08-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

I took Owen to the circus for the first time! The elephants were a big hit! Notice our boys sweet smile.....that will drastically change by the end of this post :( I miss this smile!

We played Tball for the first time. It was so fun to watch him run after the ball, Owen has quite an arm on him. Owen is the one with the red/black transformer hat on in the back row.

Jaymee girl turned 1! Owen is lucky to have a cousin as cute as her!

We went 4 wheeling for Memorial Day and Owen shot a 22 for the first time. He was listening so carefully to my dads instructions.

We went to the Bean Museum with cousin Jaymee

we made sure to get good and dirty!

We lost our first tooth about 2 days before his 5th birthday. He was so excited and proud of himself for being brave! The tooth fairy was a fun new experience.

Then the one next to it about 2 weeks later. This one didnt come out so easy and he decided tooth loss was over rated. Although still excited about the tooth fairy.

Then the top 2 got yanked out at the Freedom festival in downtown Provo on July 3rd. As you can see the other 2 that came out are starting to come back in already. This was horribly traumatic for him and if you want to read the whole story you can check it out on the blog list.

This one on the far right is gone courtesy of a punch by Owens friend.

I didnt think a kid could lose so many teeth in such a short amount of time. One thing we do know is that the Hamilton family does nothing normal. At least he is in line with that. Owen will be starting school in just about 2 more weeks. I cant wait to take his picture for the first day of school!

2010-08-12T19:25:00.000-07:00

This is my cousin Molly and her bridesmaids at the wedding! Molly is always beautiful but that day she really looked amazing! I hope every bride looks and feels the way she did on her special day. I made the bracelets the girls are wearing too! I love them and wish I had thought to make one for myself :)

We have been trying to make the most of what is left of summer at our house. Lots of outside time, eating otter pops all day long, going to the pool and playing with friends. That last one is really driving me nuts though lately. It seems like Owens friends are here no more than 5 minutes and they are fighting. I hear tattling all day long! "You cant be on my team",......"then im not going to be your friend anymore",....."Owen is not sharing".....ugh! It just too much some days. I try really hard to let them work it out on their own but I find myself jumping in. I dont know how he is going to survive kindergarten. Owen does really great when he is playing with just one kid but add more into it and watch out. He grabs things without asking. Purposly knocks over things his friends are playing with. I suppose its what kids do but it really bothers me. I feel like that is more of a 2 year old thing instead of a 5 year old thing.

Plus this one family of kids on our street is super loud and they do not have good manners. The other day the one little boy came over and he smelled SO strongly of poop I sent him home the minute he walked in the door.

Lucky for us we have not had any teeth knocked out for a while and hopefully we can go a long time until the next one!

Owen is getting really excited for school and asks me everyday if its time for him to wear his new clothes yet! His backpack looks really giant on him too. I am pretty sure I will be crying on the first day of school. I have no shame in it. Although i do hope i make it to the car before it comes out. :)

Jeremy and I have our 8 year anniversary this weekend.It has gone by so fast! Who knew i would know this man most of my life and now be spending eternity together! Owen will be sleeping over at my parents so we can have a night to ourselves. It will be nice to spend time together and remember the day we got married! Jeremy has been working so much overtime to help us build up a savings. We have some wonderful things in mind for the future, more on that to come!

Funny things in our lives lately!

Owen: I asked him to go upstairs after we had finished breakfast and get dressed for the day. He had on long sleeve and long pant pjs on. He came back down with shorts and a short sleeve shirt on top of his pjs. I asked him why he did that? He said I want to be like you and wear my pjs all day.......yeah he meant my garments! Poor kid! I had a good laugh about it though!

Jeremy: I had this cute white shirt that had pink flowers on it in big print. Well I was blowdrying my hair getting ready for the day and Jeremy came around the corner and said you look like a GIANT rose. Yep i changed pretty quick after that. He apparently meant it as a compliment but i didnt really like being refered to as Giant anything!

Nicole: A couple nights ago i had a strange dream that a bad guy was after me and to get away i had to jump over a stream. I made it across but hurt my leg in the process. Well in the morning when i woke up my leg hurt but i didnt think much of it. When Jeremy called on his first break he said , can we talk.I said sure and he says to me why did you jump over me last night?! I laughed so hard i guess i was sleep jumping or something. I jumped almost clean over him from my side of them bed and kinda landed on his legs. He tried to ask me what was wrong but i didnt hear him because of my earplugs. I guess i stood by the bed for a minute went in the bathroom and then came back to bed. FREAKY!!

I guess i scraped my leg on our bedframe when i jumped. Poor jeremy i think it really freaked him out! Hopefully that was the end of that.

Today was rough

2010-08-02T19:34:00.000-07:00

So today was rough.

On Saturday Owen and I were at my grandma's house. He had been playing fetch with the dog and thrown it into the bushes/flowers at the corner of her yard. The dog went in to get it but didnt bring it back. So Owen went in to get it. He came out running and fell down on the ground crying. I knew something had bit him i just didnt know what. Turns out it was a bee sting. A really big one! Poor kid it was right and the ankle. My grandma and I got him settled down. He seemed pretty ok after a few minutes and went off playing with the dog again.

The next day when i checked it the area was a bit red and sorta puffy. I thought it was kinda strange but it had been so long since he had been stung i couldnt remember if he did that the last time too.

Last night about 2 am he woke me up and said his leg hurt and he couldnt sleep because of it. I got him back into bed and turned on the light to look at it. There was a red circle around the bite and it was warm and hard to the touch. I felt so bad for him! I got a pillow and propped up his leg so it wouldnt rest on the sheets and got a cold pack for it. I drew a line with a marker to see if it had gotten bigger in the morning and he seemed to go back to sleep pretty quickly.

This morning it wasnt as red more blotchy really but it was still warm and hard. So I called the doctor so he could check it out. He said it looks like the infx that had been starting was clearing its self up already. Just to watch it and let him know if it gets worse or doesnt resolve in a couple days. Good to know but still sad.

So after the doctor we came back home and he played with friends in the house for a while. Then i sent everyone home and told Owen we were going outside to run through the hose and he could invite one friend back to play. He chose his friend Kevin and we headed outside.

I put the sprinkler under the trampoline and went to get some sun on my lily white legs at the other end of the yard.

The boys played really well for about an hour. Then they started play fighting. I walked over and told them they had to stop or Kevin would have to go home. That someone was going to get hurt if they didnt stop. Well Owen was the one to get hurt. No sooner than I walked back to my towel and laid down did I hear Owen screaming. I turned to see what had happened and he bent down to pick something off the tramp and ran over to me screaming!

IT.... WAS..... A..... TOOTH!

Kill me now! Really???

Apparently Kevin had punched Owen in the mouth and knocked it out. That kid really IS toothless now. There are 3 missing on top and 2 missing on the bottom.

I called Kevin over to show him how sad Owen was and made him apologize. Then I sent him home. The whole time Owen is screaming. I finally got a chance to check out his mouth and made sure it had not done any more damage than the tooth. He was okay just bleeding pretty good. Make no mistake this tooth was NOT loose and in no way ready to come out. I got him cleaned up and gave him an otter pop. I figured that was the best way to make it feel better.

Owen ate it just fine considering the loss of another tooth and decided to go jump on the tramp again. I was just getting into my book and I hear screaming again.

This time a bee sting on the knuckle.

It was too much for this poor kid. He was screaming so loud and hyperventilating too. That was it for our outdoor fun for the day.

We went inside and since we were both sweaty and Owen still had blood on him and otter pop juice we jumped in the shower to rinse off.

As i was washing his hair and he has his eyes closed he reached for me and fell hard on the side of the tub. Like if I fell i would have broken a few ribs. MORE screaming.

At this point I am pretty sure the neighbors are gonna report me for child abuse.

I got him out of the tub and checked him over. Once again he seemed ok. Nothing broken or blood. Thank goodness.

It has been a very long day filled with bad accidents and I am so glad its over. Im sure Owen is too.

Lets hope tomorrow is a better day, lets face it though its gotta be better than this!

Toothless

2010-07-06T08:23:00.000-07:00

So this weekend started off great. We took Owen downtown to the Freedom Festival. He saw the bounce houses and wanted to get on! This one turned out to be really sad for us. See that net that is tied up with string? It wasn't that way before. Jeremy made them tie it up after Owen went down and caught his two front teeth in it. He got to the bottom and was crying so hard he couldn't talk. I walked over and lifted up his lip to see where the blood was coming from and his two front teeth were gone!!

It was really sad and bloody! He was crying really hard for about 15 min and then after he had some ice it got a little better. As you can see from this picture there were two giant holes and we both felt really bad for him. Both of his bottom teeth had fallen out recently and as you can tell they are starting to grow in already. We called the dentist and he told us the top ones usually dont start to fall out till you are at-least 7. So it will be a long 2 years without teeth! Poor Owen even has a lisp now and wants us to call him TOOTHLESS just like on the movie: how to train your dragon. He was super brave what a way to spend the weekend!

We did have some great bbq's with both of our families and lots of fireworks. It was not really that hot this weekend either and that made it so much more enjoyable! I love the 4th of July it one of my favorite holidays. My sister and I took Owen to the parade too. He thought the bands were really cool and the BYU cougar. Everything else was blah to him and he was bored.

I love watching the Vets roll by in old cars though. There was a car rolling by with a lot of Vets in it and this sweet old man in front of us with KOREA on the back of his hat stood up and saluted them. I totally teared up. I cant help being choked up at things like that. I am so grateful we live where we do and have all the freedom we have because of men and women just like that.

The path we travel

2010-06-16T19:59:00.000-07:00

The path we have been on for the last 3 years has not been as smooth as the above picture shows. There have been many ups and downs along the way. Moments we have been very grateful for and moments we wish we could forget.

They all have been leading us to the place we reached today!

I got my liver biopsy results back and they are so good!

The doctor called this afternoon herself to tell me the good news.

When I answered the phone I thought it would be the nurse like always and when I realized it was the doctor I got really nervous that it might be bad news. I asked her how she was doing today and she said,"almost as good as you!" It brought an immediate smile to my face! She told me that the biopsy showed NO evidence of cirrhosis. The only thing it showed was a small amount of scarring and a slight fatty liver. Both can be completely resolved with continued diet and exercise. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! It was so wonderful! I told the doctor thank you!!! She said it had made her day too and congratulations!

I will still go back in August for one more round of blood work and to discuss going off the short list of medications they have me on. But that is basically it!

We are so thrilled and look at the last 3 years with amazement.

To come from the dark places we have been to where we are now is such a big transition. Through all of it I feel like keeping a good attitude has helped so much. I don't know if I could get to where I am today without having a positive attitude about it all. Going to the temple and prayer have helped us so much. Keeping those eternal things in mind through all this did not make decisions easier but they did put a sense of comfort into it.

I am so glad that we went through the trials and came out with a good sense of faith and self reliance before I got the good news. It made it so much easier to deal with and know that come what may Heavenly Father has everything under control. My story is not in the very scary category's of cancer survivors and people that have had a child pass away but, I know how it feels to be told you will not recover from this and come out knowing no matter what I will. Some of you out there think wow she has a new lease on life now, how wonderful I wish I had that.

Truth is I knew it the moment they told me I would indefinitely need a transplant. I found my strength and faith before all this good news so it is just whip cream on top! Thanks to all of my great friends and family out there who have supported us and kept us in your prayers.

Miracles DO Happen!

x0x0x0

Summertime is awesome!

2010-06-08T14:31:00.000-07:00

We have been having so much fun in the sun! I got a cheap pool for the backyard and we have been in it everyday since! Owen has little friends knocking at the door at 8am....that part stinks but its great to have summer back! My flowers are all sprouting up and look so pretty in my front yard!

My niece Jaymee had her first birthday and it was so fun! We took her with us to the bean museum. She is at such a fun age!

Owen is still playing tball and getting much better at it. He is staying in his section and will stop at the base instead of running a homer every time he is up to bat. I think his favorite part is really the treats at the end of every game, boys they love the treats!

Jeremy is still working crazy hours he usually gets about 70 per week. But when he is off we play hard! For Memorial Day we went 4 wheeling with my family down by the sand dunes. We didnt brave those, we went a little more north of them where there is tree's and lots of sagebrush. It was a perfect day! We had so much fun on the 4 wheelers and Owen got to shoot a 22 for the first time. I think he thought he was pretty cool to shoot with the boys. Jeremy is looking forward to another trip with just the boys in july. I dont mind since that gives me a night with the girls!

We decided with all that has been happening with my liver it was time for another biopsy. The last one was 3 years ago and since it is really the only definitive way to tell if the cirrhosis is gone we decided to go ahead. That was before I learned they dont put you out. YIKES! The place they are sending me does conscience sedation......all i hear when they said that was still awake and able to hear them talk about " hand me the needle." I thought calling the place to ask some questions would help me reason what was going to happen. I told them I was coming for a Liver biopsy that i was nervous and had some questions. The lady said, " I DONT BLAME YOU." Do we say that to someone??? Needless to say it didnt help me feel better and I havent got much sleep since. I dont think I will until its over. Its Thursday morning so I dont have to wait much longer. It will be nice to have the results back and find out what really going on with my inside.

Life at our house has been crazy!

2010-05-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

So first of all Jeremy and I went back to the specialist to discuss what we would do next. Back in February we had a ct scan done and when they called back with the results all they said was everything looks good. The nurse gave no measurements of my spleen or my liver. So I decided to go down to the hospital and get a copy of the test results myself. It didnt have any measurements either. Just this strange unit they measure depth with "hounsfield unit" and I couldnt figure out the translation to what that meant. The last time we went to the doctor on our old insurance cigna all the tests said I had liver cirrhosis and my spleen was 15 cm. So to go to Ihc insurance now and have them tell us we were good was weird. We thought maybe the tests got switched or the wrong ct was performed on me. We thought we could ask for the next one to dictate to the cm how big things were. When we got into the office and asked her all these questions she said the hounsfield unit was the amount of radiation they use to determine the depth of the liver. Guess what my unit was normal! My spleen: normal. My liver: normal!

The doctor even called the radiologist and had him go through the ct again on the phone with her and he confirmed it! It was like that movie : Waiting to exhale. I did and it was Awesome!

Jeremy and I were totally crying and it was wonderful news to hear. Jeremy is still skeptical about the whole turn around thing after such a short time. They basically told us there was too much cirrhosis and it wouldnt be able to heal itself. Transplant was eminent. Showed them didnt I! We will be going back at the begining of august to run all the tests again to confirm which will probably include a .....BIOPSY....hate that word. But maybe i can talk them into doing another EGD down my throat to check for varices and while I am knocked out they can do it then. Sounds good in my head but im not sure my doctor will go for it.

We have felt so many things these past few weeks and we are excited at the possibility that we can now consider with this new found lease on life!

We have Heavenly Father to thank for our good fortune!

Owen has started his Tball and he loves it! The very first practice he put on his jersey and went over to his team( who is all boys) and he said" hey dudes what school do you go to?" I dont know what to think about this kid. He really is 5 going on 15. Scares me for whats to come.
Owen is a great hitter and really good at throwing the ball but our catching skill need some work.

Other fun stuff we have been doing is helping my cousin who is getting married in July. This is just one of the hundreds she took for her bridals. She is beautiful!!

5 years of our wonderful Owen!

2010-05-04T19:57:00.000-07:00

This is how our little man started out his life. On may 5th 2005 at 544am after a non awesome c-section he came into this world. Owen was not breathing well on his own and needed some help, which led to a hole in his lung. The doctors ended up transferring him to another hospital in SLC. Sad day for Jeremy and I but they took very good care of him.
This was his home sweet home for the first 17 days of his life. Owen did really well after only about 2 days he was off the ventilator. After that he ended up needing a feeding tube with 2 bouts of jaundice he got really tired and needed some help.

This was the first day I got to hold our baby bear. He was 4 days old by then and he was the cutest thing I had ever seen! It was also my first mothers day which made it all the more special to hold my baby for the first time. Leaving him there and making the trip home without him was also one of the hardest days of my life.
Right before his first birthday we made the decision to fix his lazy eyes. The doctors did a great job fixing them but Owen's eyes were so sad looking for a while during the healing process. This picture still makes my eyes water.....sorry if its too much for you all.

In 2006 we went to Sea World with Rob and Cathy. It was so much fun and even though Owen was pretty little still he did awesome on the drive there and was so excited about Shamu!
There is not much I can say about this photo except I LOVE THIS KID! It was taken in 2007
We went through a serious pirate phase in 2008. He is such a sweetheart and he looks just like his papa.
Owen on his birthday 2009 celebrating with the Hamilton family. He is getting so tall!
This is our little man today 5 years old and acting so grown up. Losing his first tooth and about to start kindergarten in the fall. I remember him being born like it was yesterday and now he is about to start another phase of his life. I cant wait to see what happens in the next 5 years!

A cowboy party and something to remember!

2010-05-01T14:20:00.000-07:00

Today was Owen's cowboy birthday party with friends! He had So much fun! Everyone got a cowboy hat and a few of them got mustaches too! We had shooting games, a pinata and chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. There were a lot of kids more than I thought would show up and it was super fun for him!

The weather was not good today so we had all of our fun in our basement. It was loud for sure but as you can tell from these pictures Owen had a lot of fun!
This is all the little friends that came today. Everybody liked the cowboy theme! Owen had friends from pre-school, the neighborhood and family too! Owen has such great friends. I am so glad Jeremy took the morning off to help me I would have drowned by myself!

While everyone was leaving Owen was helping himself to another cupcake at the bar. He had a bite of the candy on top that was supposed to be soft but was really pretty hard and it hurt his tooth on the bottom that was already loose. Well after that bite it was hanging by a little bit in the back so we pulled it out and Ta Da we have lost our first tooth! He was so excited about it and cant wait to see what the tooth-fairy will bring tonight.

I hope to continue with the fun birthdays with him and his friends although I'm not sure we will do it on such a grand scale next year. I cannot believe how big our boy has gotten and now that he is losing teeth it makes me sad how really old he is getting. I will write another post on his actual birthday May 5th.

Easter was a blast!

2010-04-08T09:51:00.001-07:00

This is a shirt I made for Owen. It is pretty rough but my friend had a super cute tie shirt on her little boy the other day and I thought I would give it a try. Plus Jeremy had given me a sewing machine like 2 years ago and I haven't really used it. It was a fun project and I recommend everyone try it! Or if you want to have a cute one that looks professional go to my friends blog: Polkadotsandpaisley.blogspot.com they have the most adorable things on there!

Easter was so much fun this year! It has taken me a few days to post about it because we had to get all the sugar out of our system first!
Owen got 2 egg hunts this year! The above picture is at my grandmas house. My cousins must have hid like 100 eggs and since Owen is the only grandchild on that side he reaped all the benefits. Although I think he is over it until next year since everyone kept telling him "come over here, there is more over there...ect" We had WAY too much food but it was fun to get together with my family! Plus my cousin Molly got engaged to her boyfriend Matt! Matt is a perfect fit for our family and I am so excited for her! The wedding will be sometime this summer!
Our friend Dave let his kids come over and play the Saturday before Easter so we had a egg hunt that day with the Hamilton's. It was so fun to watch the kids run around and steal eggs from each other! We had some delish deviled eggs that Cathy made and some cupcakes! It was Jaymee's first Easter and as you can tell by the look on her face she isn't sure about it yet. I'm sure next year she will love it! Notice how Owen is taking over the picture. He loves it when friends come to play and he can get crazy running around the back yard. Jeremy jumped them all on the trampoline till he was out of breath! It was a great day!

This video is from my grandma's backyard. Notice the stupid snow on the ground and Owen's winter coat! Stupid weather! It is finally starting to get warm now though!

Owen is all finished with swimming lessons and passed with flying colors. The teacher told him he could advance to the next level when he is 5. I cannot believe that is in just a month! I also got him set up for Kindergarten for this fall. Too scary for me to think about him at real school.

Owen will start T-ball really soon and our first game is the beginning of May. Hopefully that will be just as good for him as swimming was!

Things we must do

2010-03-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

Lately our lives have been filled with things we have to do.

Usually they are minor things that dont require too much thought or action. Taking vitamins every morning, bathing Owen every night. Reading him a nightly story no matter how long or how many times we have read said story. Continually reminding him of the rules.

Today it was given a violent shove of thought and action. Owen had to get his kindergarten shots. He had to get 4 of them. No combining any of them either. Four separate pokes!

I was going back-n-forth about telling him before and having to hear him try to talk me out of it for the next couple days or just let him go and not be prepared of what was coming his way. Jeremy and I decided to tell him about it yesterday after church. We told him it was what every kid does to be able to go to kindergarten. Of course and with a very nonchalant tone he told us," then i guess i dont want to go to kindergarten."

So we worked out a probable solution. He needed 5 more stickers to be done yet again with his chore chart and get a new game for his playstation. We told him that if he was good at the doctors and got all of his shots like a big boy he would get the rest of the stickers and get his game. That seemed to work until about 5 min before we got to the office. Owen started with the whining and telling me he didnt want to get shots. I comforted him as best I could putting on a brave face and reminding him of the game waiting at home for him.

He did really good until the nurse came in to give the shots. We laid him down on the table and there was immediate tears. I held his hands and told him to look at me. I tried to tell him to close his eyes and count to 5 and it would be over. None of these things helped. Poor kid screamed before the first shot even went in. Oh man when it went in he went ballistic. In the last 4 years of him having shots NEVER has it had an affect on me. When he was little it was just something that had to be done and I could comfort him and it was over. This time I almost sobbed right along with him. It took me a minute to get my emotions under control so I could be there for him but it was rough!! With each poke he just looked in my eyes and screamed like why dont you take me away from here. It broke my heart.

Even when it was all over he was sobbing with real tears streaming down his face. He even did that awful cough that sounds like they might barf all over the place a couple times. We pulled ourselves together and walked out of there. I told him he was so brave and I loved him. I hope he knows I do.

I got him in the car and we headed to get his favorite bug juice from the store. It wasnt more than a mile or two down the road to the store and when we got out he immediately said his legs hurt and there were more real tears. He was even walking really stiff like a penguin SO SAD!

We hurried home and he got his game, his bug juice and some Ibuprofen to help with the pain.

I am so glad I dont have to do that again till he is 12!!

Super fun weekend....still coughing

2010-03-17T07:03:00.000-07:00

Owen and I went down to St George with my family this past weekend. My brother made the high school baseball team and the pre-season tournament was down there. It was so nice to be with my family and do some shopping but Jeremy stayed home to take advantage of the last of the overtime at Verizon. Hopefully it will come back soon.

Owen had been coughing for about a week prior to going down and he never had a fever or runny nose so I thought the warm weather might help him get over it. Nope!

On the drive down his nose started to run and his eyes got all watery and he got a fever. I felt so sad for him all trip. He woke up every night coughing his lungs out and crying cause it hurt. Sharing a hotel room with my family was nice until we kept them up all night with our sickness.

The day we got there it was kinda warm but the wind blew. Second day it was nice in the morning and then a major rain storm in the afternoon. Of course the day we came home it was so nice and warm. I want to go back soon and soak up some sun!

Owen was so funny about our seat-belts too! Every time we got in the car he made us all put on our seat-belts before my dad could start it up. He was deemed the seat belt police! That's my safety kid!

Poor Owen all he wanted to do was swim. I told him it was way too cold and he was too sick to go out in the weather. There was a indoor hot tub but I guess everyone in the hotel had the same idea cause we got down there in our suits and all, there was about 15 people in that little tub. Crap! I couldnt break his heart and tell him we had to go back to the room so we got into the only square foot left. I put our towel and room key in the corner and when I wasnt looking some stupid teenagers grabbed my towel with theirs along with our room key! I went after them and explained to them soaking wet in the hall what had happened. You know what they said? " How do we know its your key? It doesnt have the room number on it!" I was so livid mad. We had to walk back to the room soaking wet and explain to my family what happened. Lucky for me the front desk didnt charge my parents for another key.

We made it home safe and Owen has been a little better since being back in his bed. He has slept through the night since without coughing. But any activity at all makes him start up again, and he still has a good runny nose. I hope he gets better soon. It would help if the weather would cooperate and give us some more sunshine!

Swimming 2010

2010-03-06T21:26:00.000-08:00

Our swimming lessons started today! It was a great class. I was a little nervous when we got there because all we have ever done is the mommy and me stuff but he did great! I think it was in a large part to a guy teacher. Anything to be with "the guys" Owen absolutely loves!
The last time we did lessons he would put his face in the water and blow bubbles but that was about it. This time the teacher Chris had him floating on his back! He held him like this and then let go and Owen did it himself! Awesome! I was so proud!
When it was over he said, " mom, can we come again tomorrow?" I guess he really liked it! It also made him super tired! Added bonus! I have signed him up for Tball that starts in May. Hopefully that will go just a great as this did!

Can someone please tell me whats going on here?

2010-03-02T12:33:00.000-08:00

Things have been going better here! Finally Owen is catching on to the fact that he is NOT in charge and that there are serious consequences to his actions. It has not been easy at this house the past few weeks but I think now we are back on track and things are much smoother.

Our fridge finally died this last week. It broke in December but we gave it a small tune-up and hoped it would last a few more months. We came home last week to water all over the kitchen floor and a fridge full of food that needed moving asap. We moved everything to our coolers in the garage and bought a new one. It took about 5 days for it to be delivered so it was like being on a really long camping trip. It was not fun for a few days but now we have our new fridge and its awesome!!

The weather here has been so nice the last couple days. We have been jumping on the trampoline again which Owen just loves! It is great exercise for me too! We have also signed him up for swim lessons. They are at our local rec center. They are on Saturday mornings and I am really excited for him! The only lessons Owen has had are the basic put your face in the water and blow bubbles so we are ready for him to move on to the next step. It will make the pool this summer so much fun!

Another fun thing for Owen is in the Daycare at the gym. They started doing little exercise classes for the kids while the moms work out too. This is so nice and it really wears him out so I can get some stuff done while he watches a movie when we get home! Perf!

I got my test results phone call from the doctor. She said everything was normal and that I should follow up in 3 months. I asked for the specifics like I always do: my spleen size, my blood flow in the portal vein, ect.

All they could tell me was it was normal. So today I went to the hospital to request my records and see for myself the actual measurements. Well guess what it said to my absolute surprise.

Spleen normal size with a normal splenic vein.

Liver has normal size and contour without evidence of mass.

Liver density is normal.

Portal and Hepatic veins appear normal.

Impression: The liver appears normal. There is no evidence of hepatic

steatosis(fatty liver) at this time.

Ya know what?? I just dont know what to think anymore? I thought when the nurse called me the doc had just written on it normal. When I got the report today it would tell me more. Normal is all I get??

Dont get me wrong I would LOVE to be NORMAL I just dont have much faith that it is true anymore. I feel like I am in a bad dream and cant wake up.Each person I ask tells me something different. So can someone please tell me whats going on here? Anyone?? Bueler??

Jeremy's hard work on overtime have been paying off! Here is a list of things we have been able to accomplish with his hard work!

*$1000 in savings-this is a big deal for us!

*paid off our bank overdraft

*paid off our loan on our new laptop

*paid cash for a new fridge when our old one broke

Jeremy was so proud of the last one!

Jeremy's birthday was last month and we had a wonderful day together. He had his free breakfast at Denny's. Renewed his drivers license. Finished some honey'dos around the house. Took us all out to dinner at Tucanos. Then we had yummy carrot cake at his parents house. It was a wonderful day together!

This is a really old video of Owen in San Diego. I saw it the other day and it made my smile...hope it does the same for you! I loved that age! So fun!

still waiting....

2010-02-18T12:14:00.000-08:00

I had my blood work and CT scan done almost 2 weeks ago and still waiting for the results. The only thing helping me not go crazy is : no news is good news!

If there was something really wrong I would get a phone call asap, so we wait. Not patiently just waiting.

I am having some trying parenting moments with Owen lately. He is really trying our patients and really pushing the limits to see what he can get away with. Just in the last week he has had a major melt down at MONSTER TRUCK RALLY. That one was with Jeremy. He has been working so much and took some time off to have a father son night. It did not end well. Jeremy of course feels like it only happens with him but I assured him that it happens with me too.

Church was more of the same. Not listening and stepping on another boys paper on purpose. Not following teachers directions. He lost his playstaytion privileges. Owen was really upset about it considering he loves his indiana jones lego game. We took it away and told him until he earned back all of his stickers on his chore chart he would not get it back. It usually takes him about a 3 weeks to a month to do that. Quite the punishment but it seemed to get through to him , or so i thought.

Yesterday we went to Kangaroo Zoo. A local play place with huge blow up slides and bouncer animals. I thought he was doing fine because he kept coming back every 5 minutes or so to check in. Then he came running over with a mom close behind him. Owen told me: that lady is after me! I turned to talk to her and she told me that Owen had been kicking, hitting and spitting on her daughter.

Oh the humiliation!

I apologized and put him in time out for 5 minutes. Then we had a serious talk about his actions and why he did them including lying about that mom being "after" him. His answer? He didn't know her!! What in the world? We walked over the that mom to apologize to the girl and she couldn't have been more than 1 1/2 years old. I was mortified. We came home to more stickers lost that we had been earning back and started over. These are the days I am grateful for only one child.

So today we braved the outside world again and went to the gym. Owen went to the daycare. The whole time on the treadmill I was so nervous. When I picked him up everything was fine and he said he had a good time. We followed that up with a trip to story-time at the library. Another success! Hopefully we will move past this little phase quickly.

I have got a plan in place for more of a structured day and a better routine for him so we are not so out of control.

Hope to have good updates for you soon!

CHECK THIS OUT!!

2010-02-13T21:17:00.000-08:00

My sweet friend Christy has just posted about a giveaway on her business blog:

POLKA DOTS AND PAISLEY

They have THE cutest things over there!

The contest only goes until the 28th of February so hurry up and check it out!

You wont be disappointed!

pdandpaisley.blogspot.com

More info there on the contest and view their A-dorable stuff!

To the circus we go!

2010-01-27T21:45:00.001-08:00

Today we went to the circus at the Mckay Events Center in Orem. Owen was hesitant at first. He thought the lions were going to roar at him. Funny boy. Right when we got there I took this of us. Nice cheeser huh!
This was Owen sitting by the GIANT bear. The lady had to scoot him down closer to him. He is really trying to be brave but he was really nervous.( He later told Jeremy the bear was bigger that you!) Owen also thought it was super cool that the trainers were feeding him cereal. Owen would eat cereal all 3 meals if I let him!
This is what Owen really wanted to do. Ride the elephants. I was really nervous about it and lucky for me the line was way too long for us to do it. Thus the above picture was taken instead. He does love them though! Poor kid.
He loved the bears the best he said. They had them come out and ride on a little tiny rocking horse. It was cute but i didnt get a good picture.
I guess after all that hesitation and worry Owen had fun and gave it 2 thumbs up! He said it was awesome and wants to go again tomorrow. He did love the tigers after all too! He got up in my lap though to watch and half way through the act i noticed that his hands were super sweaty. Guess he was really nervous.

Our funny boy!

2010-01-22T17:57:00.003-08:00

Owen has been so funny lately its like he just found his sense of humor or something.

Yesterday while Jeremy was at work we had a tickle fight. Owen was tickling me and I started to yell HELP, SOMEONE HELP ME! and he laughed so hard and told me ," No one is here to help you! " Then he laughed even harder. Do they have these things on cartoons now?

Then later on in the day he was downstairs playing and I was upstairs in our room folding laundry. I had the TV on in our bedroom and he snuck up the stairs so quiet on his hands and knee's and waited till just the right moment to jump out and yell. Oh man did I scream bloody murder! Owen thought he was so funny. He told me," I got you good mom!" That one he did get from me. I LOVE to scare people! I have hid upstairs for 5 min in the dark just to scare Jeremy when he came up for the night. It is awesome!

I did finally get my appointment with the new liver doctor. It will be the beginning of next month. I got my records from my old doctor up at U of U to take with me. In the notes of my last visit the doctor put that I have diabetes type 2 and refuse to take my blood sugar levels. Imagine my surprise.......maybe because I DON'T HAVE IT!????? What a weirdo. When I called up there to ask them what was going on and how it was going to be fixed. They said we cant change the record now it will just have to have notes the next time you are seen. Except I will not be seen again because of our insurance change. What a thing to have on my records. almost 3 years of going there and I end up with Diabetes on my chart. Idiots. Idiots i tell you!

Owen and I just had our 6 mo dental check ups. Owen did awesome. Let them do xrays, polish his teeth and everything. No cavities.

I have 6!

All you people out there that are thinking about writing on my post GUESS YOU SHOULD BRUSH YOUR TEETH. Don't worry my family has given my enough teasing for a lifetime. I don't like it. I asked them if they could just knock me out and do it all at once. Of course it will cost $700 but sure they can. They tried to tell me that most people do fine with the gas. Ha! The dentist gives me so much anxiety it would probably do the opposite and make me more anxious. Like when you give your child benedryl to get through a long plane ride and instead it makes them hyper. The other option is a form of Valium. They prescribe 2. 1 an hour before and 1 15 min before they start. I asked them if I could take a double dose and just fall asleep and they laughed. But I'm pretty serious. Just thinking about it gives me a stomach ache.

New Years forward

2010-01-13T16:18:00.000-08:00

So this year for my new years resolution I decided it was time to finally give up my pop addiction. It has been a rough couple of weeks but I am doing it. Its funny how many times I have thought now is a great time for a Diet coke or Pepsi but those times are getting farther and farther apart. Thank goodness! My caffeine headache seems to be gone as well!

We have been cooped up in the house a lot with all the cold weather. You can only go to Mcdonalds and Carls Jr so many times before it gets old. :)

Owen is not doing preschool this spring we are keeping him home until kindergarten starts this fall. That will be interesting to say the least! He went into a new class in primary and luckily still had the same teacher. He loves her and she makes it easy for him to go to class every Sunday.

Jeremy's cousin Jeffrey and his wife Kelli have been staying with us for the past week or so. It has been so nice to have someone around to talk to! Jeremy has been working crazy overtime hours (84 last week) so having them around to hang out with and play with Owen is awesome!

It is funny how it worked out actually. Jeremy and I let them put most of their stuff under our house until they came back for school. -they are the couple that had their sweet baby pass away from sids just in October.- We had been waiting for them to call and tell us they were back in town and wanted to pick up stuff but the first few days of school had already come and gone and we hadn't heard from them. Owen and I had just finished saying our prayers for the night and in it we said : let us be open to help those who are need of our service. Well about 5 minutes later they called and said they were in town but the apartment wouldn't be ready until the 19th. I didn't even hesitate or ask Jeremy I just said come stay here! Funny how those things work out!

An update to that is they are expecting a second child to come into their family about the end of July! How exciting and wonderful for them to have that blessing again! A baby heals the most broken of hearts. I was a little nervous to have them stay because all of you who know me well know that I don't have the gift of saying the right things all the time. I was constantly thinking about what I would say before they got here and how careful I would be about certain topics. But after about only 5 min with them I realized they were both well on the way to what they call: moving forward not moving on just forward. They are both so strong and I am so glad to have them as part of our family.

Owen has been having a blast having live-in guests again! Every night when Jeffrey gets home from school or work Owen runs up and gives him a giant hug on the legs and says"i missed you!"

He has been so funny lately too! We went to church this past week and Owen was facing me when the bishop was releasing someone and asking for the ward to raise their hand in recognition. I did raise my hand and since Owen didn't see what was going on he just saw my hand raised up he quickly stepped forward and gave me a very loud high 5! The whole row behind us was laughing so hard! That kid makes me so happy!

I have yet to make a new appointment with the new transplant doctor. I called earlier this week and the receptionist was NOT nice. In fact as a first impression that was about the worst I have had in a long time. I really hope it is not how they whole office is or I am in trouble. Hopefully it was just a bad day for that girl and they will call me soon for an appointment. The whole referral thing drives me crazy considering I used to do that at the office I worked for. Its not that hard people.!!!

Its the most wonderful time of the year!

2009-12-26T21:26:00.000-08:00

Our little family on Christmas Day!

Our family's contribution to the party! Owen was tropical santa and I made both mine and Jeremys.

My parents! Isnt my moms hair so Hairspray?!? Love it!
My sister went all out and and my mom did her hair! It was awesome!
The picture is blury but you get the gist!

This year has gone by so fast! It has been so fun this year with Owen! We had a FHE to learn the true meaning of Christmas and I think it sunk in but you never know with a 4 year old.

We put up our Decorations pretty early in the month so we have been pretty festive this year. I wrapped all got all the presents wrapped and under the tree in the first week too. I had to get them out of my closet so Owen wouldn't see! He can spell his name now and kept telling me this one is for me because it had his name on it even though it would say to Dad from Owen.

We went to see Santa and he was really good about it! There was no hesitation this year he just went up talked to him and I got a picture. No fuss. It was awesome!

The only problem was it was early in the month when we went to see him and then about a week before Christmas he decided he wanted something different and wondered how to relay that to Santa. Lucky for him my cousin Charlie pretended to call him on the phone and give him an updated list from Owen. It was so nice of him and it sure put Owens mind at ease I just didn't know how I was going to find it now!

Jeremy's uncle Bruce and his family had us over for dinner about a week ago. It was such a nice sit down dinner! Afterward they said, " should we open some presents?" I had no idea but i guess they had our whole family for Christmas this year. They gave Jeremy's parents and all five kids gifts! They gave Owen some sweet dragons which he LOVED, and for us a very cute wall sign with 4 posts that had the saying " THE STOCKINGS WERE HUNG". It was so so so nice!

Jeremy's sister Jennilee and her husband Shane came in from Washington for the holiday. They are staying with us at our house! They flew in on Christmas Eve and will be here until the Sunday after.

My family decided to get on board with the ugly sweater party train. For Christmas Eve dinner we all had the most awesome sweaters on! My mom, sister, grandma, and I spent 2 hours at DI getting all the stuff to put them together. Some were definitely more ugly than others and my sister even gave out prizes to the winners of most ugly. There was a baby Jesus on the front of my sweater and my sister went kinda crazy with her outfit. We did have a delish lasagna dinner that night and ate way too much!

Christmas morning was a little interesting this year. Since Jenn and Shane were in Owen's bed that made it a challenge to get out of bed and get downstairs to turn on the Christmas lights and get the camera ready. Plus he has been sick and had a horrible cough. So he coughed pretty much all night and none of us got much sleep at all. He woke up fine though and we made it downstairs before him to get a good video. Owen loved all his toys and was so excited about all the great toys! I was most excited about my KINDLE and Jeremy about the BORNE trilogy i bought him.We didn't get up until 7 which I guess is not so bad considering.

Then we headed to my Granny's for breakfast with all my side of the family. It was great except when I tried to help with the egg station and got a little too crazy and had to throw 2 away because of the egg shells. Everyone ate till they were stuffed. We had a round of BATTLE OF THE SEX'S and then it was time to go to the Hamilton's for lunch. I was in charge of the green bean casserole. I made it the usual way in the crock pot and then added some velveta with salsa and it turned out soooooo yummy i totally recommend it!

We had a wonderful lunch with the, although I don't know how we ate again after such a big breakfast. We played lots of games and laughed together. Jaymee and Owen enjoyed their toys and the adults talked.

Today my sister and mom cut and colored all the girls hair on my side this morning. I needed it! I am sorry to say I got A LOT of gray in my hair these days and my hair needed to be done bad!

We just got home from a wonderful family dinner with the Hamilton's at Los Hermanos. We waited forever to get in but it was worth it!

Tomorrow I have one of my best friends baby blessing in the morning and then my Granny's birthday party in the afternoon. Its been a crazy month and I look forward to getting back on schedule. Getting my house clean again and relaxing for the last little bit of time before I kick in my new years resolutions. More on those later.....

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and look forward to a wonderful New Year!

Turkey Day 2009

2009-11-28T07:22:00.000-08:00

This year Thanksgiving was WONDERFUL! We went down to my grandma's house and ate dinner. There was 21 of us there. This is the first family picture we have done for about 4 years. There are only 2 people missing. My uncle Paul (who had to work :( ), and my cousin Will that is on a mission. Having that many people in my grandma's house was a challenge but we did it! Owen even said the prayer with the help of Jeremy of course. It was so great to be with my whole family like that. There was way too much food, a lot of teasing and joking and lots of pictures.

My brother Morgan and my cousin Charlie made a trebuchet in metals. This year was the grand debut and they were so proud of themselves. If you don't know what a trebuchet is think MONTE PYTHON. It was pretty cool and we definitely got some great family jokes out of it!
This is the crew waiting in granny's backyard waiting for the flinging to start. It was such a nice day.
Owen took this picture of us trying to fit everyone in my granny's basement. We were squished but happy. He loves to take pictures and is getting pretty good at it!
He also took this picture. He loves to take pictures of himself!
This year we also had our first ever Turkey 2K. My granny lives on a giant block and ten of us decided to run around the block before our turkey dinner. It was only about an hour but man did it kick our butts. My cousin Charlie won! My mom made a t-shirt for the winner. It was fun to do some physical activity with my family and hopefully we will have many more years of the turkey 2K !

After we had stuffed our faces and taken family pictures we went over to the Hamilton's for pie and FHE. It was great to spend time with them. We played a bingo game Danielle got at the dollar store. It was so fun! She even got prizes for the winners. Then after pie we watched THE FORGOTTEN CAROLS. I had never seen it before and it was the perfect end to the perfect day. Thank you to both our families for making this year special.

Friday all the girls went shopping in SLC. Not the crazy wake up at 3am shopping but just as serious. We went to Gateway, 2 targets, Trolley Square and Old Navy. Today we will hit more stores and 2 more malls. I love shopping with the girls. There is just something about shopping with the girls from morning till night. Having lunch and laughing till it hurts.

You will all be happy to know that Gobble the family turkey lived to see another day. Granny decided she loved him too much for him to die and we feasted on another bird. Its probably a good thing cause Owen would have been traumatized for life. He is a pretty sweet turkey, I'm glad he will still be a part of our family.

I am so thankful for my health and my family and all my blessings I am granted with everyday.

A health update

2009-11-12T14:36:00.000-08:00

So I realize I have been too busy to blog about my latest appointment with the specialist's in SLC.I went up there with my sister this time since Jeremy had to work. My mom very graciously watched Owen for me while we were gone.

The ultrasound went well that is until the tech went out of the room to check with his supervisor before letting me go. She came back with him and continued on with the scan except she was NOT as gentle as the tech! My poor abdomen was red afterwards from all the pushing and probing. No fun.

In between the ultrasound and appointment time we had about 3 hours to kill so we headed over to Gateway for some lunch and a little retail therapy. We ate lunch at Mcgraths it was NOT good. The last time we ate there was so long ago I had forgot if I liked it or not. It was exceptionally sad considering I had to fast all morning for the test and that was the first thing I ate that day. Lesson learned.

We headed back for the appointment and I was pretty excited to see Dr. Hutson since he wasnt able to see me for our last appointment. (he was in a transplant) So it had been a full year and I had some questions for him about the H1N1 shot thing.

We waited forever in the small room and then this other dude comes in named Dr. Summsion.

I was less than thrilled, but you take what you get and he was another specialist none the less.

He said my ultrasound looked good. My spleen had shrunk 2 cm and there was again no fluid in my abdomen. All good news! He suggested very strongly that I do the SOUTHBEACH DIET. He said in his patients that had done that lifestyle change with it has amazing results. I told him I would give it a go! Why not right! I got 7 tubes of blood drawn for the usual levels and a few extra to make sure my Hep vaccines were still in my system.

All my blood work came back great! Better than 6 months ago actually and that is wonderful news!

Other great news is that Jeremy's company is changing their health care coverage with the new year. We will be on IHC and that means a whole new specialist and a second opinion. We have wanted one of those for a while now. Not that we dont believe the doctors just that it would be interesting to see what a new specialist would say.

The thing I am NOT excited for: another liver biopsy. The new specialist just might want one. We will see. I have a while before any of that happens. It would be nice to see if there was any improvement. That is really the only definitive test for cirrhosis.

On a side note Owen and I both got the swine flu shots. I did fine with mine but Owen has a fever now. It's been 2 days since his shot and the Dr said if his fever continues I have to bring him in tomorrow. Poor kid. Lets hope he gets better overnight and his body will fight hard to make antibodies fast!

Halloween & more!

2009-11-01T07:48:00.000-08:00

So after I posted those other pictures of Owen and Jaymee together I realized I better take some of just him! He is getting so tall everyday it seems he grows too much! Every time I buy him new pants they are too short within about 2-3 weeks!
He was so over pictures at this point but he was still a good sport and this one is my favorite !
You can sorta see the little tiny lady bug on his fingers, he was pretty proud of himself for catching it and keeping her for a minute.

This year Owen said he wanted to be a Dracula and so soon it became that every boy was going to be one and I had to be a zombie. This picture is great because they both have the RED EYE thing going for them and it looks pretty real!
Owen kept saying he wanted to suck my blood before Halloween but then when the time came and I had my zombie make-up on he wasn't so sure!

My hair was supposed to be a lot scarier but it just looked like i had my head out the car window or something dumb.

Earlier in the month Owen, my sister and I went to a place in PG for a pumpkin drop. There was a gigantic pumpkin they hoisted in the air and dropped with a crane it was pretty cool but dark by the time they got it done so Owen was kinda over it. This super cool carving he was not so thrilled about. It took him a while to realize it was fake and wouldn't eat him up.
Our boy had a pretty good Halloween this year! Next year will be fun too he is growing up too fast though. I cannot believe next year he will be 5! We sure do love our Owenator!

New fall pictures!

2009-10-21T17:41:00.000-07:00

There was a safety fair at the mall a few weeks ago and we heard there would be lots of firetrucks there!Our Owen is getting too big! What a good boy he is! Owen thought squirting with the giant hose was awesome!

We couldnt pass up a picture with Mcgruff the crime dog!

I got to watch Jaymee again recently and took an opportunity to snap some pictures. I dont think she was too happy about the ginormous flower on her head but man its cute!
Owen is so sweet to her and always makes her smile! They are going to be the best of friends!
I could just eat these too with a spoon!

Today.....

2009-10-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

Today was a big day.

There was a lot to do and not a lot of time.

After all is said and done I am left with a heavy heart and swollen eyes.

My first Super Saturday as Enrichment Leader was today. I only made it to the first part. It went pretty well considering the turnout. I was so impressed with my committee they really stepped up to their parts. Thanks girls. You are wonderful.

The reason I only made it to the first part is we had a funeral today at noon. Jeremy has a cousin on his moms side named Jeff. He and his wife Kelli have been married just over a year now and have a beautiful son named Riley. Sweet Riley passed away from SIDS this past Tuesday. We were all so sad to hear the news. He was only 4 months old and the sweetest thing. I held him just a few weeks ago at a family dinner. Riley smiled so sweet and looked right into your eyes like he could see into your soul. Now perhaps I think he could. I know that families can be together forever and there is a purpose for everything on the earth. However being there today at the viewing and seeing his little body in that impossibly small casket was so wrong. Jeff and Kelli cried with every person that came through the line. Just one look at little Riley and I knew his little spirit was gone up to heaven for sure. I don't know how they did it but they managed to make it through the viewing and family prayer. The both even had parts in the funeral service. Both were very touching and the spirit was so strong. The sounds of sniffles and crying was overwhelming. I havent cried that hard for a very long time. All I could think was what if that were me? Would I be that strong? Could I stand there for everyone to see and sing a song to my son that passed away? I honestly dont think I could. They were truly a example of how Heavenly Father brings strength to those who need it most in the hardest times.

I know I will never forget today and seeing all the things I saw and felt.

Later on tonight we had a wedding reception. I know, a wedding and a funeral in the same day. They say time doesnt stop for death but being there at that reception just felt sad to me. I hated going from one emotion to the next in such a short period of time. Jeff and Kelli dont have Riley anymore and as the day got longer I realized just how much it effected me. I will forever be grateful for my time with my family.

The one thing today that did lift my spirits was going out to dinner with my girlfriends. I waited all day for that happy time with them. They always know how to listen and understand. I am so grateful for them, my family and the knowledge that Jeff and Kelli will be with Riley again.

If any of you want to see a picture of sweet Riley and his wonderful loving parents follow the link below.

http://jeffandkelli.blogspot.com/

New adventures of the OWENATOR!

2009-10-03T15:30:00.000-07:00

Jaymee girl got to come hang out at our house again yesterday. Both of our families have been sick with runny noses for the past few days and this was the first time I had watched her for a while. Look how serious she is about those fruit snacks and Owen is ready to defend them. Soon enough she will be grabbing stuff away from him.
At Owen's preschool they gave out some homework so the kids would get a small feel for what was ahead next year at kindergarten. They had a full week to do it not just a night but that didnt matter to Owen. I showed him how to trace the first big A and watched him to the lower case A. I turned around to get his bagel ready and by the time I turned back around he was already on C. I hope he continues to love to learn. I know its a bit sappy to take a picture of homework but I really think he did a great job for his first time printing! He was the only kid in the class that did his homework too!
My sister Tiffany got Owen this sweet sweatshirt to wear for Octorber and beyond. This is most serious face.
This is the back and it glows in the dark! He wanted to sleep in it that first night!

This year our boy decided he wants to be Dracula for halloween. I got him this cape and my mom supplied the teeth. Every morning this is how we eat breakfast and the other day this is how he looked when we got home from a long day. The teeth are my favorite part.
If only the drool were fake blood we would be really scared! Still gotta love his enthusiasm!
My brother won his homecoming game this year! It was a great game and Owen loved coloring his hair bulldog green! I still cant believe how much he looks like my brother.
This is the real bulldog. Owen just loved her and wanted to pet her all night long!
Such school spirit. He would make a great bulldog!
Owen started a Karate class last month. He has been loving it and I'm really glad we put him in it. The class is not so much on karate as it is on listening, following directions and respect. Its been great for him and he thinks he's pretty awesome when we leave the class.
This is Owen and Great grandma Isom ( GG) at her house with her dog maggie. My mom bought her sweet saddle/rider. Owen thought is was awesome......maggie not so much.
My Uncle Dave brought down one of his turkeys to live at GG's. I was a little nervous at first to have Owen in the pen with him but he was super tame and talks back when you talk to him. His name is Gobble. I asked Owen if we should have him for Thanksgiving and he said,"No, we should have chicken nuggets."
His head is pretty gross looking though. Ive never seen a turkey that up close before......... not a pretty animal. Owen loves him though so I guess I better play along.
Funny quote of the post from the boy; it snowed a little in the mountains this week and when I asked Owen what he thought about that white stuff up there he said" we gotta go up there and shovel mom!"

Friday Night Lights & a Saturday Night Rodeo

2009-09-09T18:18:00.000-07:00

The first song on my playlist below is ironically played at both football games and rodeo's hope it brings you back!!

My Brother is on the Varsity Team for Provo this year! Man do I love a Friday night game! I love hearing the crowd go crazy when one of our players makes a touchdown. I love the music. The cheerleaders. I love the way Owen looks at the players like he is one of them too! I so loved being in high school and these moments. I can tell you when my parents told my sister and I we were getting another member of the family we were excited but to have a brother finally and be back at Provo High again cheering for him this time is a wonderful thing. I am sad for those of you out there who were not able to enjoy these parts of high school. They bring me back to a great time in my life! GO BULLDOGS!!

Saturday night we were on our way to the Bulls, broncs and barrel racing Rodeo in Santaquin. The rodeos there are the best. They don't have hard bleachers to sit on just a hill so everyone brings their blankets and its awesome!! Owen had a great time running around and there was not a lot of people there so he could run till he was sick. There was a candy race during the change ups and Owen got a hat full of candy. Jeremy said he could have gotten more but was being too careful picking it out of the arena dirt.
Our little cowboy isnt scared at all of this giants as long as there is a fence between them! This smile always warms my heart!

We watched both my cousins Wayne and Charlie ride. They both did aweome and Owen loves to watch an pretend its him up there!

A whole lotta 1st's

2009-08-24T18:08:00.000-07:00

This is the best picture I could get out of him this morning for our first day back to pre-school! He does look handsome on the lower half too, you just cant tell from this shot! Owen started back to school again today. He was lucky enough to have the same wonderful teacher as last year and there were quite a few return kids from last year so he had lots of friends! I was a little worried he wouldnt do so great on the first day. Lately he has been a little clingy and not wanting me to leave him anywhere...even grandma's house. Strange I know. I thought I would have to stay for a while this morning until he got used to it again. OH NO! All it took was one big bear hug from his old flame Shelby and I was forgotten. As I walked away feeling rather sad to know I was not needed as planed I realized how much harder it would be for me as the years go on and he needs me less and less. :(
This weekend there was no regular church meetings. We took advantage and made plans with Jeremy's dad to go hiking. Stuart Falls was the plan and we woke up early to get up there before all the rest of the city thought of it as well. I was a little nervous about it. I hadnt been since I was a mia maid. I know long time. I could remember bits and pieces but it wasnt like I remembered at all. Plus I was nervous that Owen would get too tired half way through and just start to fall apart. We went and he did really well until we were almost to the falls. Owen stopped and said his legs were tired. I was so worried poor Jeremy would have to pack him down the mountain and kill himself in the process. We had a small snack and lumbered on. He made it to the falls and loved it. Right as we got there it started to mist on us. Not just from the falls but from a serious looking cloud overhead. There was never thunder or lighting just mist. It felt pretty good actually being so hot from the hike.

There was a few spots I had apparently blocked out too that were extremely high and very close to the edge. I wanted to be Dorothy in those moments and just transport myself home!

At the falls we re-fueled and decided after a short rest to start the trip back.

About 10 minutes into that trip it started to mist harder, then rain sporadically, then big fat drops. Then we might as well have been under the shower head because it down pour'd so long and so steady the water was just cascading off us! I thought how did I get here? With only about 5 minutes left of hiking the rain stoped and the sun kinda peeked out. Well i looked like a drowned rat! All these family's were starting the hike and kept passing by looking at us like we were really out of shape(which i am!) and sweating mad crazy people!

It was awesome!

I thought for sure Owen would crash hard in the car but he got a second wind and starting playing a gameboy game we had in the car. What a kid! 4 miles is a long way for a 4 year old! Man were we proud!

After all that we were crazy enough to brave a walk around payson lake. It was much hotter up there and no rain, but man were we tuckered!(That is where the above pic was taken)
Just as we got to the bottom we saw these clouds roll in on the mountain. We were so glad to be down off of there and very sad for the families that had just started with little kids in tow. Guess you live and learn with mother nature!
Jeremy set up the camera on a rock and took this picture on the way up to Stuart Falls before all the rain and mud began. It was a nice before picture and I was pretty impressed with his set up skills even though he couldnt see where the lens was pointing!

Jackson, Owen and Jonas.

One week before school started we had a play date with Owen's friends. They always have fun together! Jonas went to kindergarten this year but Owen and Jackson will in the same class again! Owen is obsessed with the hulk right now!

Our little man finally learned to ride his bike! We have been working on him for months to pedal and he just couldnt get the concept. Then just the other day he just pulled out the bike and did it on his own. Kids!!! He was so proud of himself ! It was a great day!

We also took him recently to see G-Force. The guinea pig movie. He really liked it but it wasnt really my cup of tea. On the way home he told me we need to get one of those animals. I said what a gerbal? he said no mom a hampster pig! Funny boy!

Things to end Summer

2009-08-13T18:09:00.001-07:00

Jeremy's little brother got married on the 8th of this month! It was a wonderful day for our family and theirs! Danielle looked beautiful and Jaymee looked so cute in her dress! Andy looked pretty handsome too in his tux! It went by way too fast and then the night was over. Andy and Danielle let Jaymee come to our house for the night while they stayed at a local bed & breakfast. It was so much fun to have a baby in the house again! We are so happy for them and are so glad to have Danielle a part of our family officially now!

These are some of the pictures I took the other day when I got to tend Jaymee! It is so much fun to tend her! Owen loves having another little kid around. He is such a good helper and is sad when she is. Owen looks so much older next to her. It really makes me sad he is growing up so fast! I couldnt resist getting some cute pics of her in the cute outfit her mom put her in!

Danielle is so sweet to let me tend Jaymee. Its really fun having another girl around!

This is our very HAPPY boy smiling after the dentist. Owen had a checkup this month. We talked about it a lot before hand. Last time we were there it was mostly traumatic for the poor kid. He didnt like the xray, kept gagging on the films. Did not want to sit in the chair and have his teeth cleaned and worst of all did NOT want the dentist poking around in his mouth. So in an attempt to avoid that we practiced for about 3 days before. It mostly worked. He did great on his xrays 4 of them to be exact. Still didnt want to lay down in the chair but he let the girl clean them and floss. Owen did however comply with laying in the dentist lap so he could check his teeth. Verdict: NO CAVITIES!!! I was thrilled!

The bad news is the tooth in the front that was knocked pretty good a couple of times is still not firming up and there is absolutely no root up there anymore. The dentist gave me the advise to take family pictures because it could happen at anytime and he wont get his new one till he is 7 or 8! Sad!

Also if you will notice the mark on his chin. I was baking some cookies for a combined FHE. I had just pulled the cookies out and like always Owen came over to investigate what I was doing with the oven. I told him for like the 100th time : that's hot, back up! Well he thought he would be clever and just lean in to smell them. The very edge of the pan burned his little chin and he had a small line of a blister! It was so sad!! Hopefully next time he will listen to the mom.

Owen is getting ready to start his 2nd year of Pre-school! I cant believe he will be going to kindergarten next year. It makes me sad to think of him in real school everyday. He loves school though and that helps. I just want him to stay little forever. Our little baby is growing up. We are so proud of him for the new things he is learning and we know he will learn tons more in school this year too!

30.....REALLY?

2009-07-29T15:59:00.000-07:00

When you are young you think 30 is old and forever away. Not in the way you think about 16 and driving though. Thats exciting! Turning 30 to me has always been the day I knew I was an adult for sure. I would have my life figured out, know which path my life was taking me on. So in honor of that these are a few things I know and dont know to commemorate this good old birthday.

Tell me do you have these same things or is it just me?

I am more confident in my own skin.

I still sing in the shower...pretty loud.

I now like onions, garlic, and heaven help me but i love shrimp.

I am a mother to one sweet little boy but I will never again have another come from my body.

I never thought I would fight with my husband one day and love him the next.

I finally see why my parents were so strict with me growing up and respect them for it.

I dont know what I will do when my son goes to kindergarten next year.

I dont know if our home will ever again hear the sound of a babies cry or laughter.

I dont know if I will ever need a new liver...specialist's......you think they could say yes or no.

I still like to hang out with my friends but family is so much more important to me.

My birthday this year was great! Jeremy and I went and got breakfast. We took it to a park and watched Owen play before it got too hot. Then Jeremy and I went to the Provo Temple. Something we havent done together in quite a while im sad to say. It was wonderful to go back together and just what I needed on my birthday.

My sweet grandmother watched Owen for us while we went so after we picked him up we had some lunch and went to the mall. We dropped off my rings to be serviced and cleaned we did some window shopping. We got a orange julius which is the best present!

I also got some new shirts, pants, sunglasses, & some sweet earrings from forever 21.

My families spoil me! It was a great birthday even if I did have to be my 30th.

Trip to LA and of course GEORGE!!

2009-07-19T19:56:00.000-07:00

Oh, George How I Love You!

Oh my goodness my dreams came true and my family and I went to see the king of country: George Strait!!!! He came to the Usana Amphitheater. I have never been there and it was amazing!!! The sound quality was great too! I saw George like 15 years ago in Provo. He was great then too but I was so far away and this time I felt like he was singing right to me! It was better than I remembered! I love love love him!

Me, My brother Morgan, my cousin Molly and my sister Tiffany!
Me and my sweet husband waiting for George! He was such a good sport, he is not a super fan of George like I am but he came anyway pretending to have a good time. I love this man too!
Jeremy has been working really hard with PRIMERICA! We went down to a convention for that in LA this is the hotel we stayed in. It was not awesome. The trip down was really stressful for me too. Our car had been serviced like 2 days before we left and the mechanics didnt screw on the oil filter tight enough and it was spewing oil all over which caused HORRIBLE smoke! We made it to Nephi and then noticed the smoke. I was so freaked out. To me smoke=fire=explode in a car. So I was in a hurry to get out of there. We pulled off the freeway to a Big O. They realized the problem and fixed the tightening for us quick. We got back on the road within ten minutes but man, after that I did not want to be in that car. I kept asking Jeremy do you see smoke? Needless to say it was a long ride down to Mesquite. We spent the night there with his Uncle and Aunt. Thanks guys for letting us stay with you!
This is our Team for PRIMERICA! We all got so much out of the speakers and came home with a motivation to work even harder!
LA is not quite what it looked like on the Michael Jackson funeral footage. There were some pretty scary people being from little old Provo all my life. There was no where to park and everywhere we tried they said sure just leave the keys in it so we can move it if we need to! Yea right! I will not be visiting that part of California again for a long time. Sorry if you live there....give me Laguna or Huntington Beach any day LA not so much!:)

Long holiday weekend = awesome family moments!

2009-07-06T18:44:00.000-07:00

Jeremy was lucky enough to be in the circle & bless little Jaymee this weekend! We took the opportunity to snap a family pic too! Couldnt resist Owen looked too cute!
Proud parents of little Jaymee Lynn! Andy and Danielle made one sweet little girl! It was a great day for our family! The blessing was at Cathy & Robs house so it was really intimate and special.
Special blessing day dress and I made the bracelet
I tried to make a bow too but that didnt go over so well
She just couldnt be sweeter! I love this little girl!
We loved spending time David and Tammy! They are such a cute family! We wish they lived here instead of Texas so we could hang out more!
This is Owens relaxed position he goes into when he is feeling comfy on my lap,which is pretty often when I am not. Cute none the less!
My parents have a sweet pool in the backyard this year! Owen thought it was awesome and didnt want to get out for anything!
This is just some of the fireworks group at the Hamilton house in provo. Great grandma Hamilton was here too! We love it when she comes to visit. Its never long enough but we will take what we can get!
We had so much fun doing fireworks at Grandma & Grandpa Hamiltons house!
. Owen and sweet cousin Natalie at a family bbq. We havnt seen them since right after she got out of the hospital in 2007. Natalie and Owen had so much fun playing together! She is such a sweetheart! I could have just eaten her up! You would never know she just finished chemo in December! Natalie is such a trooper and so mature for her age!
This was the view Owen had from Jeremy's shoulders for the parade! It rained on us for about 10 minutes and then was BLOODY hot! Owen thought the fire trucks and police on motorcycles were awesome!
We made time to take Owen to the movies over the holiday weekend too! My sister came with us and it was a super cute movie. I totally recommend it!
Owen woke up at 6am and went to the balloons with Jeremy on the 3rd. He loved it and the father son time was good for them too!

The 4th has always been a good holiday in my mind. After we had Owen though it turned so much for fun! I love watching things through kids eyes! Owen is always so impressed and excited about everything!

Big month.....little time to blog

2009-06-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

This has been a busy month for us! Jeremy's calling is in the YM and we have started doing monthly partys. This time we invited over all the YM in the ward and watched a short video then they all went ouside and played with Owen on the tramp. You can see the seriousness of it on his face. These are so much fun for Owen to be around the older boys and pretend he is one too!
This picture is from a rodeo in Heber my cousin Charlie rode in. Doesnt Owen look the part?! Charlie had an awesome ride for the first 5 seconds the last three were not in his favor and he got bucked off. He is still 3rd in the state in high school rodeo for sadle bronc and will be going to finals in New Mexico next month. Owen loves it !

These pics are from the slip-n-slide party Owen had with some of his buddies from school. We had so much fun! There had been some major rain and wind storms so there are leaves all over the yard. It was finally a nice day and the kids all played great together.

Jeremy's aunt Debbie came to stay and play with us this past weekend! We love it when she comes to stay, and just wish her kids could have come too! She is always a good house guest and doesnt seem to mind Owen's constant questions. Debbie came down for a baby blessing and we were all supposed to meet at park for a pre-blessing party but of course there was a down pour again. So everyone came back to our house and we ate pizza and talked about politics. Not the best subject with that crowd. It got pretty interesting and LOUD! We also played our newest favorite card game:RAGE! Perfect game for that croud!:) Luckily everyone left with smiles and no hard feelings.

Fathers day this year was also a great one for our family! Everyone except Cathy who was so sick. We missed her at our parties! I got Jeremy a couple of new polos and his favorite chocolate a UTAH TRUFFLE. Owen was asked to give the scripture in Primary and he did really well! After we headed over to my dads for a BBQ. It was a good lunch and nice to spend time with my family. Then at 5 we headed back to our house for a b-day/fathers day party with the Hamiltons. After dinner we went out back to play and this time Owen and grandpa jumped. Im not sure it was the best thing for grandpa's back but it sure was fun for Owen.

Oh snap!

2009-06-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

Jaymee just gets cuter every time we see her! Even with her eyes closed she is a sweetheart!
This was Owen's first time holding baby Jaymee. He was being really sweet to her! What cute cousins the are!
So yesterday while walking to church I broke my little toe! I was walking on the sidewalk right next to Owen and Jeremy and Owen stopped without me knowing and I put my foot forward really hard into his church shoe! Ouch It killed!!! Jeremy didnt really think I hit it that hard till later last night when it started changing colors. Ha! It was so swollen my toe was numb so I went to the doctor today to make sure the blood flow was ok and it wouldnt turn black and fall off. It's ok but it was broken at the very tip.

Side note: Both the frogs we had died within days of each other. Owen is very sad about it. We had our first animal funeral. When it rains it pours.

On the road, new faces & a garden!

2009-05-29T14:43:00.001-07:00

These last few weeks have been super fun for our little family! Owen had his last week of Pre-school this is one of his friends; Jonas hates to be called Jonah! Jonas also has a sister named Hannah who hates Hannah Montana. Pretty funny!

This is the newest member of the Hamilton Family . Jaymee Lynn Hamilton born on Memorial Day! She is so stinking cute! I love that I finally have a niece to spoil and make bracelets for! Andy and Danielle are such proud parents too....I'm not sure that little sweetie will ever

learn to walk!!:)

Jeremy, Owen and Grandpa Hamilton all worked together to get his garden ready for the season. Jeremy was happy to finally have a reason to build sides onto the trailer and Owen always has fun when dirt is involved! It was quite the project with 3 loads of dirt and building the sides for the trailer but it turned out really nice! I think Rob and Cathy will have a great garden this year!!!

This is the only sad picture I took on our recent trip to St. George. Our family plus my parents and siblings went with us.We had too much fun to stop and take pictures. The weather was awesome and we played in the pool, caught lizards, and of course shopped at the Outlets. The whole family went to see NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM. The only thing missing was our friends the Matua's. They live in Santa Clara and were out of town for the holiday....good thing we will see them in June!:)

We saw a man walking his dog on our trip and I told him to check it out, that poor puppy was too hot to be out on a walk, he said "it is too hot, he must be a hotdog!" I laughed at him and told him he was silly but he didnt get the joke. Too bad it was awesome! My parents and sister got together and bought me an early birthday gift : GEORGE STRAIT tickets!!!!! My birthday isnt till July 28th so i was pretty surprised! I cant wait!!!!

This is our outing to Park City! Jeremy has been working so hard at PRIMERICA and earned us a night stay at one of the suites at the Canyons!

We had so much fun together. It was a little cold in the pool but the next day we found a park for the Owenator and we met up with Rob and Cathy for lunch in Provo Canyon. It was a great little "staycation". We have had so much fun these last few weeks it feels like we need a vacation from our vacations. Its great to be home again and we can go to the pool all the time now. Yea for summer!!!

The best Cinco De Mayo yet!!

2009-05-12T21:04:00.001-07:00

For those of you who dont know our Owen was born on 5/5/05! We love cinco de mayo at our house and this one was the best yet!

Owen got new cowboy boots that were really rain boots....which is ideal actually for any of you who have been to the rodeo you know what can end up on your boots. So to be able to just rinse them off at the end of the night without ruining them is great! My grandma lent him the chaps to wear to the rodeo and he loved them so much....as you can see by the video. I had to trick him into taking them off and leaving them at grandma's, it wasnt easy!

The cake was a work in progress I am pretty proud of myself actually and it didnt taste too bad either. On his birthday we took Owen out to Brick Oven and he loved it! The crown was made my his teacher at pre-school and Owen wouldnt take it off for 2 days! Then after lunch we went to Trafalga. I was worried about how he would do but it was so much fun! They even have a new simulator part with about 12 chairs. We chose the haunted mine ride. Owen loved it of course! As soon as we were done he said AGAIN!!!!

We managed to do the go karts and play a few games by the time the day was over he was exhausted and went to bed early. Music to parents ears! We were out of energy and money so we were thankful to be done and have a happy kid!

We had a 2 parties for Owen, one with Jeremy's family and one with mine since we have 5 birthdays on my side this month. We just combined all of them into one big bash! Our party with the Hamilton's was so much fun too! Owen jumped on the tramp with uncle Andy and was giggling the whole time...i was worried he would bite his tongue jumping and laughing so much. I am pretty sure Andy was not prepared for such a workout but the video shows him having just as much fun as Owen!

My test results came in as well. The CT scan showed no masses. WHAT????? My body is so messed up! Well they are doing a official tumor board meeting today and will put my Ultrasound and CT scan side by side to see why one shows it and the other one doesnt. I hope it is really not there but on the other side where did it go? Why is every test I take another mystery. I am not Nancy Drew, Mary Higgins Clark or even a seeker of danger so why does it follow me to every Dr appointment I go to? Anyone got the answer let me know!

I did go to the Optometrist today. My eyes unlike the rest of my body is improving itself. My eyesight is getting better and my Astigmatism is improving too! Strange right. I do love my Dr though he is the best I always like going to him. I know he is not going to tell me your liver is huge or your blood pressure is terrible. To me that's everything!

My grandma also has 2 new sets of twin baby sheep. There is one in particular that the mom rejected and she has to bottle feed. His name is tiny and he really is. He follows here everywhere and is a very good baby. Too bad the mom doesnt like him. She is only a year old and didnt really understand motherhood I guess. Good for my grandma, bad for the sheep.

BORING

2009-04-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

So I went up to the U for my triphasal ct scan. I had to drink not the usual 2 bottles of contrast but 3! It was more disgusting than I remember. I also have to have a IV medication during the last section of the exam. That, I dont think I will ever get used to. It is a horrible warm feeling you can feel run through your entire body and then ends up in your bladder all this happens within about 5 seconds so you feel like you are going to

pee right on the table. ( I didnt thank goodness, but its always a fear!)

The tech did 3 scans altogether and then went to check with the radiologist before she un-hooked my from all my tubes. She came back about 5 minutes later and says to me" I have seen some pretty strange and horrible livers in my time and yours is pretty boring."

BORING????!!!!!?????

Well I told her thank you thats the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me!

I said "so you didnt find any lesions?" She said" I cant say if i did or didnt you have to wait for you Dr but its pretty boring to me!"

I dont know what this medical community is trying to do to my stress levels but enough is enough people. Give me some kind of straight answer here. Either its bad and I need a new one or I am going to live to be 99 and happy.

Random Pics

2009-04-24T19:35:00.000-07:00

This Easter was a great one for our family! The only thing that wouldn't cooperate was the weather. We got Owen a new suit for Easter and he looked so handsome and grown up in it. He kept checking himself out in the mirror and dancing! So cute! Doesn't Owen look just like Jeremy in this picture? Cathy the purple is for you!!

Cathy had her niece in from out of the country and was kind enough to put on a egg hunt for all the kids. It was alot of chaos but the kids loved it and had so much fun playing together. You can tell Owen was proud of the loot he got from it! His t-shirt says" Hanging with my peeps" I couldn't resist it at the store.

My grandma had yet another lamby and this time Owen got to hold it! He named her Shelby after his sometimes girlfriend at school. I don't know if she approves of the gesture but I sure would if a boy named a sheep after me!

Jeremy and I also had our 4 year temple anniversary. We will have been married all together 7 years in August but we like to celebrate all applicable things at our house! I was in charge and got us tickets to Phantom at Hale Theatre in Slc. It was way cooler than the one in Orem. Jeremy had never seen it to my surprise, It was a wonderful night for us both!

I also went to the specialist on the 15th and had more testing done. Just got the results back today and all the blood came back normal except for the bilirubin level. It was elevated from .8 to 1.2 not a significant jump but still. The big concern if you can call it that was the ultrasound found 2 lesions on my liver. The tech said it didn't seem like a cancerous type but whenever that happens they automatically do a heavy duty CT scan to get a better look. So until I go for that I wont know anymore. I don't know what to make of this new result only that it must be a mistake?! Fat chance. Good luck only lasts so long. Lets just hope mine can hold out a few years longer!

Our little star

2009-04-04T20:27:00.000-07:00

Owen earned all his stickers yet again so we took him to the Living Planet Aquarium in Draper.

He took the picture of us above all by himself! Not to bad!
Owen loved the fish in this tank there was one that kept following his finger and he couldnt get enough!

Our little Owen is such a singer lately! Jeremy finally got the camera and had him sing for us. He just melts my heart when he sings so sweetly!

Well as for the Hives, we did make it to the doctor and of course the hives were gone. I did bring the camera and show him the pictures. He said It sounded and looked like something he ate rather than something he kept getting exposed to. The hard part was that he said it was something he would have had on Sunday. 24 hours before the first hives. Being that it was Wednesday.....that was very difficult to look back at. The doctor said we may never know and as long as they went away within 5 days we would be ok. If any longer we would have to do other testing. Thankfully they have stayed away and the only thing I can really remember that was out of the ordinary was some new tropical gum I bought just Saturday. So none of that for us just in case.

The picture below was from a play at our local theatre called "go dog go." Owen's pre-school was giving discounts AND it is one of Owens favorite books! His favorite dog was of course the green one and he really loved seeing them all play out the book he loves so much. Owen also loved the girl dressed up like the super fancy dog that keeps asking" do you like my hat?" I think they played that part the best! They even rode on scooters like in the book! It was $4 well spent!

"The Tickles"

2009-03-25T07:03:00.001-07:00

So our little man has got "the tickles."That's what he calls these welts that itch. Since Monday Owen has had a strange rash on and off on different parts of his body with no explanation.

His little ear gets really red when it happens. No white welts on the ear but it switches back and forth not just the same ear every time. It comes on really fast and leaves within about 30 minutes.

Owen hasn't had a fever or runny nose and no sore throat or ear pain that he can tell me.No diarrhea or fever. I even called the school to check if there was a new food he had tried, or a new paint....etc. NO LUCK!

It only seems to pop up when we are home which leads me to believe there is something in our home that is upsetting his little body.

The first time it happened was after school on Monday. His little ear was really red and he had the white welts on his face. I asked him if his ear hurt or itched and he said no. I told him not to itch his face and he did pretty good for a while but then the minute he touched his face more welts popped up. We washed his hands and face and gave him some benedryl. After a while he was fine. Then that night after his bath with the normal baby soap and super sensitive lotion I always use......more welts! This time in the crooks of his elbows and on top of his knees & the red ear was back!

Then yesterday we did fine all day....i think. He was wearing long pants so I didn't check his legs but no red ear all day and his arms looked fine. We got home and he played for a minute then we ate dinner. Nothing he hasn't had before. Red ear back and welts on his stomach and legs and back this time. I really don't know what it could be. I am waiting for the Doctor office to open for and appt but I don't know if they can help unless they see the rash and red ear. This morning like yesterday it is mysteriously gone.

Am i losing my mind? Did he find some poison oak in our living room I don't know about.?

Stress is Gone!

2009-03-13T14:51:00.000-07:00

This is the picture from the dance we went to on Valentines, dont we look sweet together?

So I had my first activity being the Enrichment Leader. It was the RS Birthday dinner and I think it went over pretty well! The committee I chose was really great with all the tasks I gave them, and it seemed like those who came had a great time.

Our theme was " come in out of the cold & warm your heart."

We had really D-lish soups and rolls, then for dessert we had a chocolate fountain.....of course that was awesome! We didnt have a really strong turnout but I hope it will get better as the year goes on.

The day was kinda stressful for me Jeremy was home to help watch Owen though and that made a big difference! Jeremy had a eye dr appt in the morning then at noon i went to set up at the church. At 2pm I had a appt with my liver dr and my dinner party started at 6pm. I am glad to have all that done and over with!

Jeremy had a great day with Owen and they really needed some Father Son time.

They went to the park to feed the ducks and found one duck that had a dart through his body! Super sad! The poor thing wasnt really fazed by it just kept swimming around. Jeremy called the animal control and they tried to catch it but it ended up flying away. Too bad hope it doesnt suffer too long. Owen has been very polite recently! I took him to CJ's for a after school treat. He had been running around with a couple other kids for about 1/2 hour so i told him it was time to go. He walked over to me very calmly and said" mom could i please play for just one more minute?" I couldnt say no ! I am sure there will be a day when he tries to be sweet to get what he wants that i dont want to give him but i took it this time! He is such a sweet boy!

Birthdays & School Projects

2009-02-26T15:31:00.000-08:00

Owen had his first project at school: to bring his pet and tell the class all about it. We have 2 dwarf frogs in our house and it is a pretty great pet to have. No touching, no noise and hardly any smell. If you need a pet at your house I highly recomend them.This is Owen telling the class about them.......doesnt his face tell a serious story!

When he first brought them in Owen wasnt so sure about talking in front of the class(which is so not the norm for him) but in just a few minutes he warmed up and was telling the class all about them.

Jeremy turned 30 on the 23 of this month! Can you believe it? I only have a few more months and it will be my turn. He took it all with a great attitude though and I think he had a pretty good day!I think he is looking more handsome than in his 20's ! We recently got a PS2 and the cords were driving him nuts so for his bday I got him wireless ones. So at any given moment when he is home you can find the 2 men in my life just like this playing the "four wheeler game".

Doesnt our little boy look so grown up here? I cannot stand how handsome he is becoming. He is growing up way too fast. Owen is such a good boy with such a kind sensitive heart just like his dad. I am so proud of the way he is learning and growing to be such a good helper to Jeremy and I. We love you "fweetheart".

This captures the madness that surrounds our home when Jeremy and Owen are together! HELP!

Owen's 2 Funny!

2009-02-17T15:59:00.000-08:00

There are just a few things Owen has been saying lately that are really funny. I wanted to write them down before I forget them.

Cupcakes: Pup-cakes

Rodeo: Radio

Indiana Jones: I G jones

Sweetheart: Freetheart

Love: wov

Ninja Turtles: Midget turtles

He also things everyday is HIS birthday! There are a lot of birthdays on both side in February so he thinks every party is for him! He also says after every holiday," Now its Halloween mom, right?" He is so in love with Halloween. I don't know how any other holiday can compete.

Whenever we are driving in the car he always asks," why is that car in front of us? Don't they know we are the leader?"

He also likes to tell me " we have never done this before." Even when we have a couple dozen.

Our Valentines Day was great. My parents let Owen have a sleepover! Jeremy and went to dinner, to a stake dance, and even a late show of Twilight at the dollar theatre. It was awesome! Every girls dream date come true! Dinner,dancing and a movie! What a great hubby I have. Jeremy even said he liked Twilight. I knew he would just had to get him there.

CHORE CHART

2009-02-10T11:06:00.000-08:00

I wanted to take a picture of the two of us before pre-school but as you can tell I was having a problem getting it to center and take it fast....im really not trying to phase him out. Owen's half of a face is still classic Owen anyway.

I got Owen a job chart at Deseret Book a few weeks ago. It was so cute and I thought it would help him learn to sleep in his own bed and pick up his toys if there was a reward system he could see. So we told him if he filled up the whole page with stickers of doing the things he should we would take him somewhere special. Well if I had known how well a $1.97 job chart would work I would have bought it a long time ago!

(This picture makes our kid look like an albino dont you think?)

This is the chart Owen filled up with his smiley stickers! He decided we should go to chuck-e-cheese, what a shock! That kid loves that place! So after school we took him and we had so much fun .We are so proud of him!

From all of our tickets at chuck-e-cheese, Owen picked out a orange lizzard. Its kinda squishy to the touch and about real size too. Its funny though because he named her" lizzie the lizzard". Owen cant say his L's properly so it sounds like Wizzy the Wizzard! I gotta get it on tape before he stops saying it that way. Too cute!

PS: the first song on my playlist below is my absolute favorite right now! I really want tickets to his concert this summer!

What a little helper!

2009-02-06T17:27:00.000-08:00

Owen learned how to cook "lizard tongue" with my mom this week. That's what we call lasagna in our family. People always ask its not really lizard tongue is it? Don't know how it got started but it has been around since I was little. Owen was a really great little helper and loved the little apron my mom had for him. Maybe he will grow up to be the next great chef. I wouldn't mind a son that could cook a great meal! I'm sure his wife would appreciate it in the future too! Owen is always wanting to help me cook and clean. Strange huh! He loves to help with laundry too, which I HATE! He tries to be such a big boy and helps me a lot.
You can tell by his eye's how much he liked what it tasted like later that night! He was really proud of himself! He has such great blue eyes. He is going to be a real heart breaker when the ladies find out about him!

My sweet grandmother that lives just a few blocks away from our house has sheep! In January this little baby showed up. It was freezing then but he has done ok and seems to be making it even with all this snow. Owen loves how he looks like an Oreo but insisted that he be named Noah. Probably because we have been reading about that in our nightly stories. Pretty cute! I guess some babies dont know they are supposed to wait til spring!

Tonight I finally tried a recipe on Meshelles blog! German pancakes! I remember my friend Samantha talking about them but it always sounded kinda gross. So for some reason I was in the mood to try something new and gave it a whirl. Owen helped in the kitchen again and it was fun and easy! They were delish! I had to call Sam and tell her I was thinkin about her and all the fun times we had! Meshelle if I had your number I would call you too and thank you for the yummy recipe!

Tomorrow Owen will go to his first friend birthday party! He has a little friend Jackson in his class and its his brothers party. Owen is very excited. His mom is nice too so I have found a new girl to go to lunch with!

After that when Jeremy gets home from work we will be going on a double date to Asuka. We love that place. It is like Tepanyaki but WAY better!

Also I got a new calling......I know they like to make be dance all over in our ward! I am the Enrichment Leader. I hope I can do a good job. The girl before me was amazing in this spot, so I have some really big shoes to fill. If any of you have ideas for the RS birthday next month let me know, I would love some ideas to toss around!

Painting on a Sunday

2009-01-18T10:39:00.000-08:00

Today Jeremy was working some more overtime, so

Owen and I decided to do some painting for the grandparents!

I had some left over door hangers and thought it would be fun to

do together. He had so much fun and he loved wearing Jeremys

shirt too! Thankfully we had just cleaned out our closets and

found some treasures that work perfect for painting!

Owen kept telling me how cool he thought it

was and how much grandma was going to like it!

He was very proud of himself when he was all done. I think I will start taking him to Roberts or Michaels and let him pick out something to paint for every holiday. He was so entertained! Owen is not big on coloring so I wasnt sure how this would go but it was a hit!

I also wanted to tell a little story about the other day when I went to walmart.

After dropping off Owen at preschool I went and did my shopping. I finished and was making my way out to my car. Well I got to where i had parked and I noticed this guy collecting carts. I didnt think much of it until i noticed he was waiting for my cart. He was 2 cars down from me at the place you leave your carts. He didnt offer to help me unload them or anything and when i took another glance at hime i noticed he was special needs. I remeber thinking to myself ok he is just going to wait and thats fine. So i hurried and unloaded my things. I finished and pushed the cart towards him saying" here you go, thank you." He said something to me but i thought it was just your welcome or something to that effect. I was walking to get in my car and heard him say something else. I turned and he had a recipt in his hands. I told him thats not my recipt and he said he needed my recipt! I told him " no i need it its mine" To which he said, " just hand it over"

Well then i was a little panicked and had he not been special I would have started screaming or something. I just told him againg firmly No i need it. So i get in my car thinking its over and he comes to my window and is tapping on the glass and trying to get in my door! I was in thing fight or flight mode and i didnt really know what was going on. I told him no throught the glass of my window again and backed up super slow with him holding onto my car handle the whole time!

I made sure he was behind me a few feet and then I was outta there! I was really shaken up by it. It after thought though I realize he may have just thought I had dropped something or stolen something I suppose. Had I been more brave I would have gotten out of my car and walked back in to tell someone in charge that he needed a little more supervision.

I dont know what to make of it know. Guess I will never know what he really was after.

So i ask all you girls out there what would you do?

Good News!

2009-01-10T11:08:00.000-08:00

So I finally got my results they were negative! Just some irritation and redness. The prevacid the AF doctor put me on seems to be helping the nausea that i feel after meals so I am grateful for that. Who knew a little pill could help so much. I never got acid reflux even when I was pregnant like so many of my friends did, but these pills are helping. Thank goodness. Thanks for all the well wishers out there!

The other night when Owen had been coughing so hard we took him outside to breath the cold air. Jeremy and I decided to have another prayer to help Owen sleep and in the middle of it, even being sick as a dog, Owen piped up "and bless Halloween." What a kid! He has been telling me the funniest things lately. This morning I seem to have caught his illness and even though i am not coughing have lost most of my voice. When we woke up from a nap he asked me why I was using my sad voice and told me" its OK we took a long nap so now you will start to feel better!" ( Same thing i told him not 3 days ago!)

Then last night Jeremy came home and he was really jazzed to be home with us finally after a long week and Owen told him " cool it, dad!"

Waiting game sickness

2009-01-07T17:15:00.000-08:00

Well Owen has caught an awesome cough to ring in the new year with. He woke me up at 5am so sad. It really broke my heart how pitiful he sounded and was a coughing mess. I took him to the pediatrician this morning but of course it is just viral & could last up to 3 weeks! However he said if he gets to coughing and cant catch air tonight I should take him to the instacare. Thanks for nothin doc! Good thing I get to take a nap with him in the afternoons or I would just wither away too! I don't know how those hard working moms out there go to a job all day after being up sick with a kid. Kudos to those who do!

Poor Owen had to miss school because of being sick and this week is the letter T. On wedsdays they are allowed to bring something that starts with that letter for show and tell. He was all ready to bring stuff about when he was transported to the hospital after being born. I hate it when you are all jazzed about something at it falls through.

I STILL have not heard back on my test results and its driving me batty! I called today and left a message. They said sometimes with the holidays it can take 3 weeks for lab stuff but we are pretty close to that mark anyway.....please please let it be tomorrow so I can stop worrying about it.

PS: Owen and I decorated the inside of our house for Valentines today! There are still Christmas lights outside so none of my neighbors know what a crazy I am. My front room just looked too bare with the Christmas stuff gone........I know but Feb is a short month right??

Christmas

2008-12-31T13:35:00.001-08:00

Our Christmas was great!

Owen is finally at that age that he gets Santa and actually wanted to sit on his lap this year. He had a great talk with him and thought it was super fun to tell him what he wanted for Christmas.

With so much snow at our house we shovel a lot and Owen loves to go out and help Jeremy. They are such boys sometimes they always end up in a snowball fight.

My mom always has dinner on Christmas eve at here house so Owen and I went over there for the night. Jeremy has a late schedule right now and didn't get off work until 11:30pm so we are thankful to have family close to spend our time with.

Also Jeremy's little sister Jennilee and her husband Shane traveled from Washington to be with the family. It was good to see them again and hang out all together. We did the usual breakfast at my grandma's house and then tracked over to The Hamilton's for a yummy ham lunch and more presents! I am pretty sure Owen was overwhelmed by all that he got. There was too much stuff for him to play with and by 3:30 we desperately needed a nap.

Also this year my family found these cool Rudolph noses that blink at Restoration Hardware. I think the picture is awesome! We found out Andy (Jeremy's brother) and Danielle's are having a baby girl this spring and we cant wait! Its the closest I will get to seeing what a daughter of our own might have looked like. We had a yummy dinner at their apartment before going to see the lights at Temple Square.Its a good thing the food was warm and Delicious cause it was bitter cold at the temple. The lights were beautiful and reflection pond was pretty with all the lights on it but man it was cold cold cold! Poor Owen had frozen everything by the time we got back to the car.

It was a very good Christmas for our family and its always good to be surrounded by the ones you love.

On a side note the scope I did back on the 19th went well. Although the day before I threw up again, that is the second time in 4 weeks I have puked for no reason. Not fun! I am not a puker, I would rather suffer in agony all night and day than throw up so 2 times is making me kinda worried. The doctor found some irregular redness in one part of my stomach and did a biopsy to see what was going on. I don't particularly like that word biopsy it hasn't been my friend in the past. The doctor seemed to think it might just be a bacterial infection and would need antibiotics.....we will see. I haven't gotten results back yet with all the holidays I doubt it will be before next week. I haven't been sick since that last time, and hope that will have been the last time.

Jeremy is working his late shift again tonight so I guess i will be ringing in the new year without a kiss. He does have tomorrow off though. Maybe I will get a date out of it!

Turkey Day!

2008-12-01T14:07:00.000-08:00

We took Owen bowling today! It was his first time and he loves doing things over and over so bowling is great! We had a great time and for sure want to do it again. Owen didn't get any strikes but there were a few spares in there so he was pretty proud of himself!

So my mom said all she wanted for Christmas this year was a picture of her kids. That's a mom thing I guess. So we took some pic's on turkey day at my parents house. My mom cooked a great dinner as usual. She makes the best stuffing ever and the turkey was awesome! I am so glad I mom that is a great cook so I don't have to cuz I'm pretty sure we would all get poisoned if I cooked the bird!

My mom thought we were goofing off too much, we kept doing these "blue steel" pictures from that movie Zoolander. She got real mad at us but as you can see we were having a great time!

We hadn't taken pictures of just us three since Morg was about 6 so it was time.

On black friday we did some serious shopping in SLC with my mom, sister, grandma, and my cousin. We spent 6 hours at Gateway. Hit trolley square and this little store on 9th and 9th called Hip and Humble. We got home after dark but it was a good day of shopping!Thats what happens when you take all those girls and put them in one mall. My dad took Owen all day so I didnt have to pack him in and out of stores, Im sure he was tired by the time we got home but It was really nice of him. Jeremy had to work Overtime(just couldnt pass up double time and a half)